Bootstrapping Your Dreams Show

Christa joined Corel as the CEO and sits on the company’s board of directors. Corel builds software solutions that simplify the task journey for knowledge workers. Corel is a KKR portfolio software company - KKR is one of the most prestigious private equity giants with assets of more than 470B under management. 

Christa is an accomplished executive with more than two decades of experience leading businesses and initiating financial and operational initiatives.

Currently, she sits as a board member of Affirm, Inc, and Kimberly-Clark. Prior to Corel, Ms. Quarles served as CEO of OpenTable and had previously held executive roles at NextDoor, Inc. and The Walt Disney Company. 

While working at OpenTable, she led the company through a period of transformational change, successfully transitioning to cloud-based, small business solutions, and driving meaningful bottom- and top-line growth across its global operations.

As Senior Vice President, Interactive Games at The Walt Disney Company, she oversaw Disney Interactive's profitability and helped the company rank second in the global mobile games publishing space.

Prior to OpenTable, she worked as the Chief Business Officer of Nextdoor, a marketplace that connects local communities with small businesses. 

Christa studied Economics at Vienna University of Economics and Business and graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with a BS in Economics and German. She also received an MBA from Harvard Business School. 

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Don’t use very technical language and don’t attempt to be smart. Instead, treat everybody like they are in seventh grade and use simple language so that most people can understand what you're trying to say. 

The second thing is — to try to use different mediums — if you’re a good writer, write; If you’re good at video, shoot a video with the same content and then create audio out of that and distribute it on different platforms, because some people will like to read, some watch the video and some listen to the audio. 

This way you can make sure your message reaches far and wide.

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I have a brilliant idea for my business. And I have approached so many investors but I'm just not getting any positive response. 

A lot of entrepreneurs make the mistake of approaching investors and just talking about themselves. But you need to focus on the priorities for those investors — what do you bring to the table? How are you going to make their money? 

How fast are you going to bring that return? When are they going to see an exit? All these are very important to investors. So start telling the story from their point of view, and they'll show more interest.

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I spent the weekend in the jungle on a meditation retreat, and I met a lot of beautiful people there. One question I get asked very frequently when I tell them that I work with artificial intelligence is whether it is harmful to humans — will it take over? 

And I firmly believe that this is a fear of the unknown, even though people like Elon Musk are warning us about it — I don't believe in that. Because the technology that is built by humans is actually part of our evolution. 

So it can’t be treated as some other entity that is going to be harmful. And the example I use is the discovery of fire and wheel. All these technologies have become part of us. 

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I know we shouldn't talk about money but I'm curious. 

How often do you check your finances? Daily, weekly, monthly, or never? I'm asking because I've noticed with our most successful clients — have a certain financial habit. 

They keep track of their finances. They look at their personal savings account, business accounts, and retirement accounts — and they know exactly where the money is coming from and where it’s going. So how do you manage your money?

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When I asked some of my current and past clients to describe my services and my frameworks — in one word, these are some of the typical words I get — amazing, mind-blowing, unbelievable, and so on. 

If these are the kinds of attributes you are looking for in your business partner or growth accelerator, then we may be a good fit for each other. 

Drop me a message and let's get on a call. 

Profile link- https://www.linkedin.com/in/manujaggarwal/ 

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A lot of people think the relationship with your customer starts when you make the sale. But that's a misconception. 

The customer relationship starts when they first notice you and become aware of your brand. Now, as they become aware — they show some interest, they will start to stalk you and will consume everything that you're putting out. 

This is the journey — they are developing their own relationship with you. And when they actually give you their money and become a real customer as far as you are concerned. 

That is the culmination of that relationship.

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Well speaking about me in primary school — I was terrible. I was always in the lower 50th percentile. But something happened in seventh grade, I had a serious illness. And I just bought out of taking any examination for that year. But there was one particular teacher who encouraged me to study hard and just go for it. She said, even if you fail, it doesn't matter because we all understand. You were sick, and you were out in the hospital for weeks. So on her encouragement, I actually wrote the exam. And to my surprise, I got first place. At that time, I realized, that if I really push myself and really apply myself, I can do anything that I want. And after that, I was always in the upper 10th percentile throughout my educational journey. What have you learned in school or university that has helped you in your career?

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Why do you do what you do? As startup founders & business owners, we really need to figure out what is our ‘why’.  So how do you determine your ‘why’? 

Well, there is a simple exercise with seven levels of why — ask yourself, why are you doing this? 

The typical first-level answer is to make money. Then ask yourself again, why do you need to make money and probably you will say something like, I want to buy a bigger house, I want to go on vacation, I want to enjoy my life. 

And then you ask yourself again, why do you want a bigger house? And if you keep going deeper and deeper and deeper, ultimately you will arrive at your core ‘Why’? What drives you as a person — as a human being?  What is your purpose?

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Shownotes

(20:14) Manuj asks what is the value of a degree today… I think eventually it's the experience that counts. That's why I think the technology programs are more hands-on — it doesn't mean that you have to go in and do all the coding yourself. I mean, at Carnegie Mellon, I did some coding, but eventually, I was able to interest a very smart undergraduate student to implement most of my work. And I worked out much faster, and I had a much bigger thesis... So I think it depends on how it's done. But yeah, a good education can be extremely valuable. 

(29:39) Inderpal responds to AI taking over the human world… It's a tool to make things more accurate, faster, more efficient, etc. But it still has to provide even more powerful explanations and transparency than you would otherwise provide. In 2011, we had a program that won Jeopardy Watson — so from an algorithmic standpoint, we were at the top of the hill. But from an enterprise standpoint, what we realize is the algorithm isn't everything. AI programs can process all the unstructured data as well like video, audio, scene composition, etc. But now flip over to the people side, if there's somebody who’s a decision maker, they have to be comfortable dealing with such a program.

Inderpal is the Global Chief Data Officer at IBM and leads the company’s data strategy to ensure IBM remains the number one AI and hybrid cloud provider for the enterprise. His expertise is in transforming data into corporate value and better customer experiences through strategic & innovative capabilities that leverage analytic insights to support growth and productivity.

It’s interesting that he worked at IBM as a Research Staff Member till 1997 and rejoined IBM in 2015 — bringing more than 20 years of leadership experience at leading companies such as Cambia Health Solutions and Express Scripts/Medco Health Solutions. 

Inderpal also served as Cambia Health Solutions' Senior Vice President and Chief Data Officer, where he drove the development of the company's data strategy. Cambia Health Solutions is headquartered in Portland, Oregon, working to create a person-focused and economically sustainable health care system. Cambia employs more than 4000 employees and reaches more than 70 million Americans nationwide

Before that, Inderpal was Vice President of Knowledge Solutions and Chief Data Officer at Express Scripts/Medco Health Solutions. Express Scripts employs more than 13,000 people and works to help 100 million people get, and stay, healthy.

Inderpal’s goal is to turn challenges into opportunities by solving the most complex problems with data, AI, and technology, all while strengthening IBM's trusted, enterprise-wide data and AI backbone.

He was selected as the CDO Club's 2017 U.S. Chief Data Officer of the Year, and he has been quoted as an industry expert by the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, US News & World Report, CNN, and FOX.

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