ExecuTalks

Matt grew up in the suburbs of Boston, in a poor neighborhood, with his mother and siblings.  He faced adversity from a young age; his parents were divorced, his father wasn't a good role model, and there was tension between his siblings.  Matt would wash cars, mow lawns, and even lie about his age to wash dishes for restaurants so he could make some money.  The real turning point for Matt however, was when he was in a meeting with his high school guidance counselor and his mother.  His counselor advised that Matt wouldn't ever amount to anything and that he should simply enlist in the army.

Matt would go on to start a career in sales and work for several companies throughout his career, committing himself to becoming the best sales person he could be.  He worked as an executive at T-Mobile, Gateway, Outreach, and even worked directly with Tony Robbins, as his VP of Sales.  

Matt's story will inspire you and serve as an example that no matter what your current situation is, it is completely independent of where you could be.

Daniela was born in Romania as an only child and had moved around to 17 different cities in the world before landing in the United States when she was 12-years-old, after her father had won the chance to go to America via a lottery system.  Since Daniela was an "outsider" everywhere she lived, she experienced bullying throughout her childhood.  

During her time in high school, she developed an alcohol and cocaine addiction, which led her down a dark path.  After years of addiction, she found herself in a jail cell in Burien after getting pulled over and being caught driving under the influence (DUI).  With support from one of her best friends, she sought out treatment and eventually completely withdrew from ever using substances again.  People have tried to advise her before, but she mentions that the way her friend approached her, and the care she gave her, empowered her to really completely withdraw.  She then found her calling: She would build a technology-powered treatment program that would help other people who are facing drug and alcohol addiction.  And the program would be deeply tied to how she personally recovered.  WEconnect Health Management was born in 2015, and would change many people's lives forever.

Today, WEconnect Health Management has raised about $30 million, and the company is on its way to rapid growth and expansion.

Naveen grew up in India where he and his family had to relocate every 6 months due to dealing with poverty.  Resources were so scarce that Naveen remembers school being outdoors and not having proper utensils and tools to write/learn.  As he talks about in the episode, the love and care he received from his family outweighed all the difficult times.

After college, Naveen came to the United States with just $5 in his pockets in search for a better future.  He worked at several Silicon Valley startups before joining Microsoft as a program manager.  After working for Microsoft for 7 years, he decided to quit and start an internet company called InfoSpace, which eventually led him to becoming a billionaire.

Since then, Naveen has started 7 other businesses including most recently Viome, where he currently serves as the CEO.  Viome was founded on the question: "What really causes diseases/illnesses, and why can't we make diseases/illnesses a matter of choice?"  He has also co-founded Moon Express, which was founded on the question: "Why can't humans travel and live on the moon?"

Today, Naveen is still one of just a few people on earth to own a private space company.

Glenn grew up in Bellevue, WA, in a middle-class family.  He was the son of an aeronautical engineer and had two brothers, one of which was a twin brother.  From a young age, Glenn felt like he didn't fit in with other kids at school because most of them were rich kids that showed off their wealth.  His older brother frequently made front-page news in Bellevue, which added to his feeling of difference growing up.

He would then attend the University of California-Berkeley and get his B.A. in English.  He made an attempt to write a novel, and after running out of money and hitting a low point in his life, he decided writing a novel wasn't meant for him.  He would then go on to meet some brilliant people whom he started a business with (Plumtree Software).  That business would eventually be purchased by a large company (BEA) in 2005 after going public and raising $40 million.

Shortly after, he joined Redfin as their CEO and has been there ever since.  Redfin is a publicly traded, technology-powered real-estate brokerage now valued at over $1.7 billion, and is revolutionizing the way people are buying and selling homes.

Manny grew up in Ecuador, where his father is originally from, and where his mother immigrated to from Russia.  From a young age, Manny has always had a desire to build something special that contributes to the society around him. After high school, he had interests in becoming an economist, but his father strongly recommended that he go to Eastern (communist) Germany to study engineering.  Manny would end up moving to New Jersey to get his bachelor's degree in computer engineering from the Stevens Institute of Technology. Soon after, he got his master’s in computer science from the University of Pennsylvania.

Manny would eventually join Amazon as just the 3rd employee on what is now known as the Amazon Web Services (AWS) team and created the compensation system for Amazon associates.  Two years later, he joined Microsoft as a business development manager and would work there for 6 years, eventually becoming the director of business development handling Canada and Latin America. 

Then, he realized he was into his forties, and decided it was time to begin building something special, something he had always had a desire to do since he was a just a kid. 

In 2011, Manny left his job at Microsoft without a plan, and just three years later in 2014...

Outreach, the #1 sales engagement platform, now valued at over $1 Billion, was born.

Rae Anne was born in Fairbanks, AK and grew up in a trailer park; she admits that she didn't have good parenting growing up and essentials like food were scarce at times. She would grow an affinity for elementary school because of the troublesome home she grew up in. In high school, she began feeling like she couldn't fit in and ended up dropping out of school, which would lead her to not having a real home and eventually getting pregnant while not being able to support herself. 

After getting pregnant, Rae Anne realized it was a wake-up call and began looking for ways to dig herself out of the financial hole she was in. The University of Washington offered her a scholarship because she was economically disadvantaged, and she would go on to earn her bachelor's in mechanical engineering while working multiple jobs at restaurants & bars. 

After graduating college, Rae Anne would receive multiple job offers from companies and she would take the lowest-paying offer (explained in the podcast). After 18 years, she found herself working at the largest mechanical construction company in Seattle, making a great living wage. Was this all she ever wanted? Would Rae Anne quit her job and risk it all to start her own engineering firm? And, why in the world would she do that?!

Today, Rushing designs engineering systems for commercial buildings in the pacific northwest, has over 300 employees, and is thriving beyond what Rae Anne ever could've imagined when she was in her twenties. 

Linh Ho grew up in the suburbs of Hull, Quebec; a province in Canada. She is the oldest of four siblings and growing up, both her mother and father worked as janitors until they saved up enough money to purchase a coin-operated laundry business. During her teenage years, she would help her father run the business and expand through landing meetings with executives in hotels and finding ways to partner. This experience would stick with her and she would ultimately realize that growing businesses was her passion.

After getting her bachelor's in international business management and management information systems from the University of Ottawa, Linh chose to direct her career in marketing.  She gained 12 years of marketing experience by working for several different companies before joining Concur in 2012. She would stay with Concur for 8 years and play a critical role in the expansion of the company from 2,500 employees to 9,000.  In 2014, Concur was acquired by SAP for $8.3 billion, and Linh would become the Chief of Staff of SAP Concur.

In 2018, she decided to leave her executive position at SAP Concur to start conDati with a friend she had met several years prior. Today, she is the Chief Marketing Officer and Co-Founder of conDati; an AI-driven marketing technology company that provides insight and visibility to marketing professionals so they can maximize their ROI. They have raised over $5 million and have acquired Amazon, Adobe, Linkedin, Facebook, Salesforce, and many more as customers.

Listen to the podcast to hear about Linh's untold childhood stories, why she moved across the country to join Concur initially, and the night at a bar when the idea of conDati came about.

Robbie was born & raised in Montreal, Canada and had an early fascination with the idea of being an open-heart surgeon.  His interests would then shift to computer programming after receiving a gift from "Uncle Ronnie." Robbie's father ran a family business, and throughout Robbie's childhood, he would listen to his father openly discuss business ordeals and ideas at the dinner table. 

Robbie would go on to attend Princeton University and get a degree in engineering & management systems before beginning his career at Microsoft. He would work for Microsoft for 12 years and in the podcast, he discusses his biggest career failure that resulted in humiliation followed by a strong bounce-back. 

After a 12-year-run with Microsoft, Robbie decided to make the leap and start his own business, something he always dreamed of doing. The sense of urgency was sprouted from the sickness and death of an old friend that he discusses in the podcast as well; A truly emotionally intense time for him.  

After starting Cozi Group, Inc. and selling it, he went on to start 98point6; a technology company that facilitates on-demand primary care through an application on a mobile phone. It's sort of like the "Uber" of doctors, so if you need a doctor, you just open the app! Today, 98point6 has raised almost $90M and is revolutionizing the way primary care is handled.

Kabir Shahani was raised in Kansas City, KS before moving to Seattle in 8th grade with his family.  Kabir was an only child and he witnessed just how diligently his parents worked, which would prove to have a lasting effect on him. A few decades ago, Kansas City wasn't very diverse and there were certainly times that Kabir talks about feeling different, which would also prove to be something that stuck with him.

After graduating at the University of Washington, Kabir would go on to work for Avanade, then Blue Dot, Inc., a startup where he would meet Derek Slager, his business partner for the next 15 years. After a little over 6 years of his first startup being alive, it was acquired by IMS Health, and Kabir went on to work for IMS Health as their VP of technology. After some time had passed, Kabir decided he would take some time off and explore what his true passions are.

In January of 2016, Amperity was born; an AI-driven technology company that helps people use data to better understand and serve their customers. At the time of this podcast Amperity has raised almost $90M and is expanding very rapidly with offices in Seattle, Denver, and New York.

Eugenio was born & raised in Argentina in the late 1970s; a time when there was extreme political chaos including the South Atlantic War between Argentina and the British.

He paints a picture of how life was like living amidst the political turmoil, life without the internet and telephones, and takes us through his earliest entrepreneurial endeavors.

Eugenio always had a curiosity for building systems and machines, so he went on to study electrical engineering at a University in Buenos Aires. After college, he started his first business with a friend, sold to one customer, then realized they both knew nothing about starting or running a business. He was then approached by a recruiter and went on to work for Microsoft for almost 13 years; first in Argentina before making his way to the corporate HQ in Redmond, WA.

As Eugenio describes, "When I turned 42-years-old, I realized it was time to start building the company I had always dreamed of building."

Auth0 was born. Today, Auth0 is valued at over $1 billion, they've acquired over 7,000 customers, and they are expanding very rapidly.