Get World Savvy

Albert Qian is the founder of Albert's List, an online facebook community with over 43,000 job seekers, recruiters, supporters, and professionals in the Bay Area. It is one of the most active groups on Facebook and many job seekers have found overwhelmingly warm support and community through the group - including myself! 

Are you at a place where you feel like your professional growth is stalling, yet you’re ambitious, impact hungry, and just want MORE out of your career because you’re bursting with energy and inspiration but can’t quite find an outlet?

In this episode, I talk about two of the frameworks I use when I'm feeling stuck in my professional life. You'll learn the channels you have to choose from to grow in your career and how to use marketing concepts on yourself so that you become indispensable. 

Brandon Li is the General Manager at Setter, a concierge service for homeowners. In this episode, we talk about what other companies like TaskRabbit and Yelp may be getting wrong about the home improvement space, how to build out new markets from zero, and the concept of trust when it comes to tech.

I wanted to build a global network early so that it can pay back in multiples no matter where I decided to work or what I decided to do.

 In 2019, I traveled the world interviewing tech leaders and learning about emerging markets and emerging tech. I was in search for the best possible career opportunity which I share in Episode 4 of this podcast and I had the intention of expanding my global network. 

I spent the last year grabbing coffees and lunches with tech leaders in 16 different markets from the likes of Tencent in China, Jumia in Kenya, Softbank in Japan, Grab and Go-Jek in South East Asia, and many more.

In this episode, I talk about how I managed to get face time with all these successful and extremely busy people, how I built my open network, and how you can start building your network without traveling the world. 

Hugh Olliphant is the Senior Director of Analytics and Data Science at Bill.com, which recently IPO’d and now has a 3.55 Billion Dollar Market Cap. Hugh has been in fintech for over 20 years and has been a multi-time founder. His first startup, G-Money sold to Paypal in the early 2000s and Hugh went on to become a senior product leader at Paypal.

I met Hugh because he was my first boss in the Bay Area and has been a tremendous mentor to me since. In this episode, we talk briefly about Product and then deep dive into the scope of data science in tech companies today, how to ask the right strategic questions to use data effectively, and how the data team has evolved over the last two decades, and how it will change again over the next ten years as data tools begin to replace jobs. 

“Where someone sees a challenge, someone else will see an opportunity”

After checking out all the emerging markets, where do I think has the best opportunities?

 Turns out, there’s opportunity everywhere - if you are competent, hard working, and focused. 

There’s really about-to-emerge markets like Ethiopia, just starting to privatize telecom and opening up to private companies. Think China 30 years ago.

Then there’s Japan, who’s hey days were in the 80s. But those like Aditya Mhatre, Director of Product at Pay Pay and India’s Paytm, are seizing the opportunity to bring new tech from emerging markets to mature ones.

In Israel, Shahar Matorin at Startup Grind showed me a startup nation built on exporting tech and being the off-shore research center for the world.

If you’re lucky enough to have your pick in where to go pursue your career, the world is your oyster. 

Connie Chang has been a customer advocate for 12 years. She is currently the Director of Community Engagement at Wish, where she leads a team of global community managers who are building a trusted community of content creators to provide engaging experiences on Wish and collect valuable insights that help drive product decisions. She previously fostered vibrant communities at Facebook, Gogobot, and Yelp.

Community is just starting to become one of the hottest non-technical teams in tech. Community is the bridge to a company's customers.

In this episode, Connie and I discuss why a community is important for business, what are practical tips in growing an engaging community, and what growth is made possible only by teaming up with the amazing community of top shoppers on Wish.

Joyce is a Harvard, Princeton, and Stanford alum, multiple time founder, and has worked in Silicon Valley for several years. She is the CEO and Co-Founder of Alariss, a global talent marketplace that matches talent educated or working in developed countries with emerging marketplace opportunities.

In this episode, we discuss what anyone with Western experience can contribute to developing marketings.

Andre was one of the first 25 employees at Uber and Hired. He is also the founder of Maple VC, a firm that invests in Canadian startups. Andre chats about what to look for when picking a company to join or invest in.

"The homogeneity around the Latin American cultural experience helps to actually aspire to create regional platforms."

Felipe Echandi is the co-founder of Cuanto, a YCW19 startup based in Panama. Cuanto allows small merchants and independent Latin American entrepreneurs to create their mobile-first online store to sell over social-media. Think of Shopify for LatAm's social media-based e-commerce experience. Prior to Cuanto, Felipe has extensive experience in blockchain and Fintech.

In this episode, we discuss the state of the LATAM fintech and e-commerce ecosystem, where he draws inspiration as he builds his startup, and the future of mobile in emerging markets.

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You can connect with me on Instagram @getworldsavvypodcast or on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/xuivy/