F'ing Up

Season 1, Episode 2 with Sharon Cao was originally released on February 1, 2023.


Sharon Cao is co-founder and COO of Happied. Though her company made the Techstars 2021 list, she was listed in Forbes’ Next 1000 list, and she wears a C-suite and founder title of a tech startup, Sharon acknowledges F’ing Up along her career journey. She shares experiences where struggled with self identity, not knowing how to do her job, and navigating personal relationships in the workplace. Sharon is not afraid to be raw and share that success is a journey not a check box.


About Sharon Cao:
Sharon Cao is Co-founder and COO of Happied. Sharon co-founded Happied, a company that powers events at the world’s best companies, following her journey in obtaining a degree in Systems Engineering at University of Virginia , working as a Business Analyst, and a 4-year stint at a DMV high-growth startup, Alarm.com. 

By nature, Sharon is a builder, explorer and connector who believes that meaningful experiences and strong communities are the keys to happiness. She draws from her experience in the tech world and strong execution skills to lead the Happied team to build their platform, which uses data to more efficiently and effectively curate exceptionally meaningful (and enjoyable) events. She is an expert at operations, getting sh*t done, and balancing work, life and 2 cats. 

She currently wears multiple hats and manages HR, Operations, Product, Fulfillment and Supply chain. The part she loves the most about startup life is fostering a healthy company culture within Happied and hiring amazing team members who are also energized by Happied's mission to better the future of work.

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Season 1, Episode 1 with Amy Wilkinson was originally released on January 24, 2023.

Some of us only dream of walking by individuals like Idris Elba, Kristen Bell, Kevin Bacon, Padma Lakshmi, and Selena Gomez. Amy Wilkinson sits down with celebrities like these regularly. 

Amy has built her career on interviewing some of the hottest names in Hollywood and sharing those experiences through major publications like MTV News, Entertainment Weekly, Women's Health, Vanity Fair, Cosmopolitan, Vulture, and Entrepreneur.

While Amy has this access and success, she’s experienced moments of F’ing Up through her career. Amy shares stories of financial instability and scarcity, being stuck at the grocery store where all cards were declined. Amy felt hardship, yet it was part of the journey that brought her to her success today.


About Amy Wilkinson:
Amy Wilkinson is a Brooklyn-based freelance editor and writer with more than 15 years of experience in the field. 

She predominantly covers entertainment—from TV and books to streaming and podcasts—and has had the opportunity to interview dozens of bold-faced names, including 

• Idris Elba, 
• Kristen Bell, 
• Kevin Bacon, 
• Padma Lakshmi, 
• Sutton Foster, 
• Selena Gomez, 
• and more. 

Over the years, Amy has held positions at MTV News and Entertainment Weekly, and her work has appeared in publications such as Women's Health, Vanity Fair, Cosmopolitan, Vulture, and Entrepreneur. 

Amy holds a master's of science degree in journalism (MSJ) from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, and she is also a comprehensively trained Pilates instructor.

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Chris Efthymiou is a successful business leader founding companies and rising up the way through insurance and tech. Despite the success, he fought uphill to find confidence in his career. Being introverted, nervous to speak in front of others and suffering from self-titled, RAPS (right arm perspiration syndrome) gave him plenty to overcome all while trying to take NYC by storm and encountering the effects of 9-11. 

About Chris Efthymiou

Chris Efthymiou has been a Founder, Co-Founder, and business leader over the past 27 years of various disruptive health insurance technology & brokerage companies. He was fortunate to have spent his early years at Oxford Health Plans in sales and account management and then served on the start-up teams at JPMorgan IBAS, HealthPlanOne, HealthInsuanceGeeks, and Navinsure. He’s served on the board of advisors and as an investor to disruptive technology companies including Maxwell Health, GoCo, Lively, Justworks, Foundershield, HireAthena, and Scalus. Chris has made and been a part of a few successful acquisitions and recapitalizations including HealthPlanOne’s many years ago, and most recently with the sale of Navinsure to Acrisure. Today Navinsure is a growth engine for Acrisure which is a top 6 Global Financial Servies & Technology company.

Chris is fortunate to have a wife of 27 years, Erika, and 4 kids ranging in ages from late teens to mid-twenties. When has spare time he spends it doing activities with his close knit family, including snowboarding, playing golf and tennis, and running around the beach.

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Sarah Moses rose to success quickly. She is in her dream job, at a dream company, working in partnership with an amazing CEO. However, Sarah nearly threw the opportunity in the garbage can when she first declined the opportunity. Listen to learn more about Sarah’s journey.


About Sarah Moses:

Sarah Moses is the Chief Operating Officer at Prefect, a global leader in Dataflow Automation. Sarah oversees finance, operations, legal, and HR functions. She is responsible for scaling the organization from 10 to 80+ employees, in addition to instilling the company’s remote-first culture. 

Prior to Prefect, Sarah worked at ICONIQ Capital, as a de facto Chief of Staff for tech’s most prominent founders. 

Sarah graduated in 2013 from Colgate University with a B.S. in Political Science. 

While not working, Sarah rock climbs across the country.

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Christy Johnson is an award winning educator and deeply experienced strategist, owning and operating her own firm. One interaction with her and you are immediately impressed by both her intellect and immense kindness. She is impossible not to like, her care for others speeps out and it’s no wonder she’s so accomplished. All that said, she’s had struggles and F’ing Up moments in her career. She doesn’t shy away from sharing about those experiences and knowing she’s come out better for them.


About Christy Johnson:

Christy Johnson is an entrepreneur, intrapreneur and educator. She is currently building her fourth start-up, Artemis Connection and facilitating courses at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. She also is adjunct faculty at the University of Washington where she teaches entrepreneurship and has built a women in entrepreneurial leadership program. Ultimately, she believes people are an organization’s most important asset and by having a diverse workforce, organizations will have the most innovative solutions and best strategies.  She has seven years of experience working in corporate strategy, including 3 ½ years at McKinsey & Co. Before this, Christy was an award-winning economics and mathematics teacher. In 2005, Junior Achievement recognized Christy as its National Teacher of the Year.  

Recently Christy successfully led the following efforts:

• Served on McKinsey’s “Women Matter” and “Centered Leadership” research team. Synthesized findings and led leadership teams for women in the United States and Europe
• Created a talent acquisition and development program for a $24B conglomerate that resulted in bringing in new, young leaders for a Silicon Valley company; resulted in strategic partnerships with top universities
• Was VP at Flextronics, a $24B manufacturing company where she led a corporate strategy team’s turn around in order to yield more innovative strategies and pilot new initiatives
• Held the VP role at a Warburg Pincus-backed company where she developed and piloted a sales strategy for a new segment and redesigned operations
• Recently, Business Insider recognized Christy as a power player in consulting. 

Christy holds an MBA from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business with a certificate in public management. She led the personal side of leadership club, was involved with the center for social innovation and co-led the student admissions committee. She also has a Master’s in Education from Stanford’s School of Education. Her undergraduate degree is in Economics from Western Washington University. Christy resides in Mukilteo, Washington with her husband, daughter and her twin boys. 

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Everette Fortner is a leader in the career management field, spending a bulk of his career at the University of Virginia both on the main and Darden campus. Prior to his career in the Education Sector he spent a great deal of his career in Consumer Packaged Goods, having a lot of fun including increasing Oreo brand presence in Asia and managing the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile program. Though his success is obvious, Everette faced many of the hurdles that we face in our careers: accepting jobs that weren’t the best fit, moving for opportunities while sacrificing family comforts, and ultimately, not being as strategic about career as one learns only later in life.


About Everette Fortner:

Everette Fortner is a leader in the career management field. Today he serves as a career coach for college students and young adults, specializing in helping young people discover their possibilities and pursue meaningful lives. 

Everette received a B.E. from Vanderbilt University School and a Masters in Business from Darden in. From there, Everette nearly two decades in consumer products marketing and general management with companies like Frito-Lay, Kraft, and Nabisco.

Following that period, Everette landed at the University of Virginia, more specifically the Darden school of business where he served Executive Director of the Career Development Center and Executive Director of External Relations. 

Evertte contributed 19 years, and counting, of his career to the University of Virginia. Most recently he served as the Associate Vice President of Career and Professional Development and still serves as adjunct faculty member at UVA Darden Graduate School of Business. 

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Emily Ellis has worked at many cool-kid tech companies such as Living Social, 2U, Social Code and Lyft. Despite the appeal of those popular names, Emily, like us all, experienced F’ing Up along the way. She shares many stories including being thrown into management, managing a team that needed more than she had by way of experience, and dealing with the emotional journey of infertility while aiming to build on her career success.

About Emily Ellis:

Emily Ellis is a People and Operations enthusiast, a Mom of two, and a resident of the DC-area, where she has lived and worked in various start-up settings for 10+ years. She is currently the Head of People at DriveWealth, an innovative FinTech firm - this position represents a major pivot in both role and industry, which Emily dove into after reflecting on previous experiences and passions.

Prior to DriveWealth and a focus of People and Talent, Emily worked primarily in Operations. She was most recently at Lyft, where she led Market Operations for the Mid-Atlanic and was the GM for Washington, DC. Prior to that she worked in AdTech, EdTech and in the then-boomed daily deal space. All of these roles and experiences - good and ‘bad’ -  led her to where she is today, and inform her decision making on a daily basis. 

In addition to ‘day jobs’, Emily co-founded an app, Posy Fertility, to support women and families navigating fertility struggles. Posy was created and designed to remove some of the stressors and complexities that often go hand-in-hand with fertility treatment. 

In addition to work, Emily loves to read, be outside, eat amazing meals and spend time with her adorable but crazy kids. She is passionate about advocating for causes she cares about, going out for overpriced coffees and cocktails, and making situationally-appropriate playlists. 

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From a sales associate at Ann Taylor to CEO of Reset Your Nest, Tori Horton shares her stories related to when we felt she was F’ing Up along her career journey. Tori opens up about experiences such as never successfully getting hired following submitting an application and how she got back on her feet while simultaneously ending a career and facing the end of a marriage.

About Tori Horton:

Tori Horton is a startup veteran with over 20 years of experience working to launch early-stage companies, some of which were funded by major venture capitalist firms, including Andreessen Horowitz, Northgate Capital, Lightspeed Venture, and more. 

In her early career, Tori was part of founding teams for the USC center on public diplomacy. Zest finance and ampersand. Where she focused on helping each program launch and find market fit by delivering positive brand experiences that improve customer engagement, whether it was for online gaming, FinTech or fandom communities. 

Tori went on to work at PayPal as a Senior Product Manager and was responsible for women's economic empowerment as a member of the Global Social Innovation team. 

Today, Tori is CEO of Reset Your Nest. In her role and through her outside passions, Tori focuses on revaluing the care economy, financially empowering women, and supporting families with limited time to become intentional about how they want to live.

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Matt Tucker, Senior Vice President of Squarespace and the Head of Tock, has ridden the technology wave. He’s had a lot of success riding in the Tube, but he’s also been in the Impact Zone more than anyone would care to experience. Matt shares stories of choosing between his career and being more available for his family, becoming experienced at conducting employee RIFs, and wondering how his transportation business would survive immediately following the impacts of September 11. It should come to no surprise that even someone as successful as Matt has experiences of F’ing Up.

About Matt Tucker

Matthew Tucker is a Senior Vice President of Squarespace and the Head of Tock, a leading provider of online reservations, table management, takeout, and events solutions to the hospitality industry. 

Prior to Squarespace, Matt was the President and Chief Operating Officer of Olo, a SaaS provider to the restaurant industry. During his almost nine years at Olo, he helped grow the company from 10 employees and approximately $2mm in revenue to a 700 person company doing nearly $200mm in revenue. In March 2021, Matt helped lead Olo's successful public offering on the New York Stock Exchange. 

Immediately prior to Olo, Matt was the Chief Operating Officer of Prove.com, the leading provider of identity tokenization and passive cryptographic authentication solutions. Prior to that, Matt was the Founder and CEO of Rely Software and on the founding team of LendingTree. 

He has a MBA from Georgetown University and a BA from the University of Michigan. Matt is on the Board of 7shifts and Vita Mojo.

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Mary Hendricks is a Stay At Home Mom (SAHM) and Social Media Influencer, A Very Mary Life, shares her career journey which right now means being a 24/7 in-home child caretaker and manager. Mary addresses the reality of being misunderstood and not taken seriously by some. She highlights that Imposter Syndrome doesn’t discriminate whether you have an in-office job or a job raising humans. She keeps things raw with the hope of creating community and rebuilding the village that society has lost.


About Mary Hendricks:

Mary Hendricks is Stay At Home Mom and Social Media Influencer, you may have seen her on Instagram as A Very Mary Life.

Mary always knew she wanted to be a mom, and likely in-home caring for them, as seen by the excellent example her mother provided. Until she had her own children, Mary worked hard to create a career she was passionate about.

She spent time in pharmaceutical marketing, the startup world, she refurbished and sold furniture, and went on to become a personal trainer. 

When Mary became a mom, the responsibility of having a career as a personal trainer as well as caring for children wasn’t something in which she found balance in and thus she chose the thing that gave her the ultimate career satisfaction - being a full time stay at home mom. 

After her second child was born, in 2020, Mary struggled with postpartum depression. Along with COVID, it was beyond overwhelming. She turned to Instagram to live her life out loud and find kinship in a community she knew would be supportive and likely had experienced similar circumstances.

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The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed are the speakers’ own and do not represent the

views, thoughts, and opinions of the companies or individuals referenced during this recording. The material and information presented is for general information purposes only.