OneHaas

Our celebration of AAPI month continues with a conversation with Celeste Fa’ai’uaso. Celeste is a senior program manager at Google and has a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from MIT. She attributes her academic drive to her parents’ passion for education. 

Celeste’s father grew up in American Samoa before moving to the mainland for college, and her mother, who is Mexican American, was raised by a single mom in Compton, CA. Her parents and older brother were instrumental in shaping her into the determined individual she is today.

She and host Sean Li discuss her upbringing, her father’s Samoan roots, how Pacific Islanders are a separate demographic group than Asian, and how companies can do better to support their AAPI employees. 

*OneHaas Alumni Podcast is a production of Haas School of Business and is produced by University FM.*

How she discovered her passion for mechanical engineering

My dad had a lot of tools and I found out how to use a screwdriver maybe when I was like six or something. And once I found that out, I was really curious on how things worked. And so I started to take things apart in my house.

I’d get a phone and take it apart or get a radio and take it apart. And I think at first it was cute, but then my mom was like, if you're gonna take something apart, put it back together.

Why she chose Berkeley over other schools

Haas is the perfect school for me because of the community. It's such a small group and such amazing, caring people … You are with people who believe in you. They're not sizing you up. They're actually interested in who you are as a person and what are your goals, and they want you to achieve your goals.

On the Pacific Islander erasure that can happen during AAPI month

Oftentimes when I see commercials or initiatives, I don't see Pacific Islanders, and that really makes me sad, makes me angry because I'm thinking this month is supposed to highlight us and even in this month, I don't see me or my people, and I just don't want people to forget the PI whenever they say AAPI or Asian and Pacific Islander.

A piece of Pacific Islander history she’s especially proud of 

My Polynesian ancestors were the best mariners in the world, in human history of sailing the Pacific Islands way before Europe or Vikings were doing what they were doing. Like I've heard the distance they've sailed is equivalent to traveling from south of Mexico to Alaska. They traveled  by using the stars, the currents, looking where birds were landing, and they were covering the Pacific Ocean way before people from Europe and covering a lot more space in the ocean than Vikings. 

• LinkedIn Profile
• Polynesian Wayfinders And The Cosmos
• Polynesian Culture Center in Oahu, Hawaii 
• Map of Pacific Islands: Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia

As part of AAPI Celebration Month, we welcome Eurie Kim to the show. Eurie is a venture capital investor, serving as Managing Partner at Forerunner. As a former entrepreneur, Eurie has deep personal appreciation for the emotional commitment and relentless passion required of a founder, allowing her to be radically empathetic to the entrepreneurs she works with while being realistic and honest in the advice she offers. 

Her point of view reflects her practical nature and her penchant for seeing the big picture through the mess of fighting fires day to day. Inspired by identifying evolving consumer needs, Eurie seeks opportunities to leverage technology to optimize and innovate every aspect of life and to find the right entrepreneur with the vision to take on the challenge.  

Listen as Eurie and host Sean Li discuss her South Korean roots, growing up in white spaces, pivoting from consultant to venture capital, and staying cool, calm, and motivated.

*OneHaas Alumni Podcast is a production of Haas School of Business and is produced by University FM.*

On why she had not been vocal about her Asian roots and AAPI-related topics

My answer, very authentically, is that I don't spend all my time thinking about it. I'm just really busy living life, doing work, trying my best, and moving forward. I didn't feel like I had discrimination overtly, either for being Asian, Korean, or female, to be honest. I know it was there, but I just didn't bother with it. I just kept moving on and ignored it and considered it the exception, not the rule.

Now, with so much conversation that has happened over the years with all the AAPI hate, I felt very personally afflicted. And it's always sad that you can't really feel it until it gets that close. And I hadn't felt it until those few years. And now, it's more on my mind. And I say, representation does matter.

On the path to becoming a good venture capitalist

If you do not have an appetite for risk, you will never be a venture capitalist. Well, you'll never be a good venture capitalist.

So, for all of those listening who want to get into venture, ask yourself really, do you have the risk appetite? If you picked your next job as though that was your venture investment and your dollars was your own labor, what company would you pick? That mentality will help you get your head in the right place to speak the language.

Challenges of being a VC

I think one of the largest challenges of this job is that you don't know if you're good for over 10 years. It's not just one investment makes you a star. It's the continued ability to do this job on an ongoing basis and to have internal validation and motivation. So, it's a roller coaster industry. You need to have serious conviction in, not only the companies you invest in and the founders and the entrepreneurs you invest in, but also yourself. Because there's plenty of weeks where I'm like, I don't have a good idea. I'm not inspired. And then, there's other weeks where I can't stop myself from thinking things that are interesting. So, you have to think about it as like it's an ultramarathon, and you can't just get give yourself a pat on the back at 26.2 miles and be like, “I crushed it.” You've got 99 million miles to go.

How Eurie keeps the motivation up and going

If you can enjoy the wins of the building, when you launch a product, when you see that consumers are excited about something, when you work with a founder and you see her crush a pitch or raise that next round, those are absolutely worth celebrating, because those are the moments that I like to always say, my philosophy is all about the baby steps. The pyramids were built one brick at a time. You can't see it yet for so long, but you're building something amazing. And so, it does require you to be able to pan back.

And I don't want to say there's no validation, because there is. You have to celebrate those wins, because otherwise, I mean it's honestly too long, of a course. But the motivation comes from knowing that you took something that didn't exist and you gave it life, or you gave the founder of this idea the chance to bring it to life.

And that is amazing. That feels really, really special. 

• LinkedIn Profile
• Forerunner Ventures
• The Man’s Search For Meaning by Viktor Frankl
• Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear

Our conversations celebrating Earth Day continue with Adriana Penuela-Useche, a chemical engineer, startup consultant, and future investor who’s passionate about the intersection between entrepreneurship and VC  as a way to create Climate Action and protect the planet for future generations.

Adriana grew up literally hugging trees in Bogota, Colombia, and wanted to find a way to combine her love of nature with her passion for engineering. With her  11 years in the chemical engineering field, her passion to go beyond herself volunteering for  Engineers Without Borders and creating her new path supporting deeptech startups in the Climate tech sector.

In this episode, Adriana discusses how her family’s upbringing, immigration story, and experience at Haas shaped her, what she thinks are the biggest climate change challenges today, and the exciting technological innovations that could help with some of those challenges.

*OneHaas Alumni Podcast is a production of Haas School of Business and is produced by University FM.*

On how she has developed her love for nature and community

You can describe me as a tree hugger, backpacker, camper, because I love all of those. What I love the most is that my parents developed me in a sense of holistic sustainability viewing it as:”we don't have to only care about nature, but also care about the community that surrounds us.” And to explore that through economics. So with my dad being a mechanical engineer, tinkering of many things and my mom being an economist  drove those two components in our lives and created these building blocks that I have lived throughout my life, which are  “community, not competition and a continuous love for nature and those in need.”

On creating a better ecosystem for entrepreneurs 

There has to be a better way to create an economic system. And then from there, knowing that, for example, in Colombia or other places like what I saw in Ethiopia with Engineers Without Borders, there is so much innovation happening in the day to day that triggers and aligns with good capital to build astrong entrepreneurial ecosystem globally, like a real ecosystem of entrepreneurs, but also develop economies as a path.

• LinkedIn Profile
• Berkeley Haas Sustainability Alumni Group
• The Sustainable Development Goals Wedding Cake

In celebration of Earth Day, we invited Martin Szczepanik, NYC alumni chapter president, to talk about renewable energy and sustainability, topics that he is extremely passionate about. Martin currently works at PA Consulting as a Principal Consultant, where he supports their Clean & Smart Mobility offering, helping companies and cities transition to de-carbonized transportation. He also supports utilities and other entities with their purchase and acquisition of renewable energy. 

Martin is a first-generation American. His parents escaped communism in Poland in the 80s. He and his family faced adversity as they were assimilating in the United States. Martin faced some challenges that shaped where he is today. However, underneath all of it is his passion for clean energy. 

In this episode, Martin shares his early beginnings as a first-generation American, his career pivot and how his experience at Haas helped him with the transition, and what he does at PA Consulting as a Principal Consultant.

Martin also talks about the future of clean and renewable energy and the new technologies people should be excited about.

On choosing accounting and finance as his college degree

At the time, it was essentially a safety decision because I knew no matter what was going on with the economy, no matter what happens, you're going get paid in a career in accounting. Accountants are always needed, whether the economy's doing well or not. And I also thought about it as understanding the language of business, and it opens potential new opportunities for me in the future. 

His passion for clean energy

I don't really have one of those interesting origin stories, necessarily. I didn't see my house get swept away by a rainstorm. I didn't see, you know, anything crazy happen with being in a drought. But I do remember my junior year of high school, I was in an AP environmental science class, and at this point in time, it was pretty much peak emissions for the entire globe. And I think at the time, the United States was getting 70 to 80% of their power from coal, and the big Hummer came out. Everything was bragging about that, and I just had this feeling of desperation. What are we doing to our planet? Things are getting worse, and we were still burning so much coal and driving Hummers. There's not really a clear, viable path for us to get off of fossil fuels as a society.

• Martin Szczepanik on LinkedIn
• BHAN-NYC LinkedIn Group
• Berkeley Haas Alumni Network NYC

Our guest, Carmen Palafox, is a seasoned venture capitalist. She is a Founding Partner at 2045 Ventures in Los Angeles and Venture Partner at How Women Invest. She is also a Partner at MiLA Capital.

Carmen was awarded the Rising Star Award from the Los Angeles Latino Chamber of Commerce. She was spotlighted by the NVCA as a Rising Star in VC and featured by LA Magazine as 1 of 13 of LA’s Powerful Women. 

Coming out of USC, Carmen was fortunate to land her first job at Dimensional Fund Advisors, where she scaled operations into LATAM, Canada, and Europe, going from $75 Billion AUM to $300 Billion AUM.

In this episode, Carmen shared her journey into venture capital, launching a fund, the challenges of women and underrepresented founders in the VC world, and what people can expect in the coming years despite the uncertainties in the industry.

How Haas led her to venture capital

I went to Haas thinking that I'd get into social impact investing, and that was in 2011, when impact investing was a little earlier than it is today. At that time, there's a lot of talk around social impact bonds and pay for success, and that's where I was thinking my career would be headed. But, you know, one of the advantages of going to Haas was the career development group and just the support I got there and the freedom to really explore. And that exploration led me to venture.

The challenges that women and underrepresented founders face in the VC industry

As women, we don't want to think that our gender will hold us back. But there are systemic issues. There's bias that people may or may not be aware of. And I think one of the reasons women are successful when they do get funding is because they are capital constrained and do have to be more efficient. I mean, the same is true for underrepresented founders. You just don't know if there will be capital around the corner, so you are more judicious with what you have. And on the flip side, I think there need to be more capital allocators that are focused on outcomes, meaning, we want to see more women founders, we want to meet more women funders. And so, being focused on that as a primary driver to change the status quo. I think it's important to create more balance in an ecosystem. I think that should be our objective. It should be about balance. And I think we would solve a lot of these unintended consequences that we see as a result of the technology that's out there today if we were to bring more balance to the industry.

Opportunities for early-stage founders 

I think it's an epic time, both because of the reset but also the fact that we're coming out of Covid, and during Covid, people had a lot of time to evaluate how they were spending their time, where they were spending their time. And so, I think a lot of people, if they're able to, are prioritizing differently and potentially looking for areas where they can have the most impact in their careers, and where they can shift priorities to their families. I've seen or talked to a lot of startups that are able to attract talent because they have flexibility in how they're going to manage building their company. If you can offer someone with technical talent the ability to work off hours or work remotely from wherever they want, then I think you have an opportunity there as an early-stage founder.

• LinkedIn Profile
• 2045 Capital
• How Women Invest
• MiLA Capital (Make in LA)

We welcomed Jerilyn Castillo McAniff to the podcast to celebrate Women's History Month. She is the Managing Director and Head of Diversity & Inclusion at Oaktree Capital Management. In 2007, she co-authored a book with her husband titled, The Practitioner's Guide to Investment Banking, Mergers & Acquisitions, Corporate Finance.  

Jerilyn is originally from the Philippines. She immigrated to the Bay Area with her family in the seventies when things there were getting complicated. The Bay Area was a welcoming place for Filipino immigrants to come at the time. They had to start from the beginning, however, with the support of a large extended family, her parents and grandparents decided to stay and raise their family there.

In this episode, Jerilyn talked about going to Haas, her career in finance, how she got introduced to investment banking, and her transition to a career in alternative investments. She also shared the importance of mentorship.

Jerilyn is passionate about teaching new professionals and students interested in careers in finance. She is actively involved with AltFinance: Investing in Black Futures, Girls Who Invest, and the Blomberg Buyside Women's Network. 

Why she believes so much in the power of mentorship

I saw it transform me. If you have somebody in your life at a very early stage showing you how to do things, it helps bring so much confidence. And I know how transformative that can be for a person of color, a woman, or anyone when you didn't grow up in the same environment.

On having a growth mindset

No matter your profession or how you were raised, or what kind of life you have, we all face challenges. Every day presents challenges. And so much of it is how you look upon your life. Are you a half-glass full or half-glass empty kind of person? And when there's a road bump or something really difficult, do you look at it and say, Okay, what can I learn? What am I getting out of this? How is this going to help me grow as a person? Having that attitude that every challenge is an opportunity to learn something new, meet new people, do something you've never done before—when you have that outlook, everything is an opportunity. And it's a really great way to look at life.

Why she and her husband wrote a book about investment banking

Peter and I wrote it with the goal of helping anyone interested in the business learn with a practical lens how to do the basic types of analysis that are expected on the job. That was really born out of this interest in trying to help people. It's an industry that can be very intimidating. And we wanted to eliminate that intimidation.

What gets her up in the morning?

I love helping others who are interested in learning about this (finance) business, this wonderful industry that has been so rewarding to me in many respects. Just being able to satisfy so much intellectual curiosity. I want as many people who have an interest in it to stay for the long term because it is so intimidating on the front end that people decide to leave and tap out. I want to teach and train them to stay engaged.

How can people support other people?

Whatever industry or career you're in, find out the mentorship and early education programs that feed into your business and see what you can do. Everybody can support someone new or younger than them in their own professional journey. So much of the opportunity that I've been given is because others made that investment in me. And to turn it around, pay it forward, and support the ones that come behind you, that's how we build stronger organizations. That's how we build better communities.

• LinkedIn Profile
• The Practitioner’s Guide to Investment Banking, Mergers & Acquisitions, Corporate Finance
• AltFinance
• Girls Who Invest
• Bloomberg Buyside Women’s Network

Today's guest is Dr. Jenny Woo, Founder and CEO of Mind Brain Emotion, a company that creates cleverly simple and immediately actionable skills-building games and tools to help people become happier, calmer, and wiser.

As a former president of the Women in Leadership Club at Haas, Jenny shares her journey from a little girl moving to the US to be reunited with her parents, to a female consultant working with global companies, to a mother entrepreneur-student juggling family, PhD, and startup.

Jenny is passionate about helping people reach their potential - from classrooms to boardrooms. She has worked as a human capital consultant at Deloitte, a Talent & Strategy Manager at Cisco, a Montessori school director, a cognitive science researcher, and a lecturer in Emotional Intelligence.

Having taught in grade schools and colleges, she saw a lack of resources and opportunities to help students develop what we call "soft skills" in the real world. This is how she started her company which was incubated out of Harvard Innovation Labs. She developed and launched the 52 Essential card series which is used in 50+ countries in homes, schools, and workplaces.

Advice for people who want to pursue an MBA

You have to be crystal clear in terms of what you want to get out of it and what are your purposes. What are your passions?

On why she decided to go into a Ph.D. program

Sometimes the more you know, the more you realize you don't know. And I wanted to really become an expert, in this case, in emotional intelligence, helping kids, and even adults, develop what we call soft skills in the real world. 

The biggest barrier she sees in undergraduate and graduate students and how to overcome it

I see this need to feel prepared and somehow never feeling quite prepared enough and needing to be doing other things in order to pursue what ultimately we are interested in. I think that also is related to the imposter syndrome, why should I do this? Who am I to do this? What would people say? And would I fail? Those little negative voices in our head. Honestly, just do it. Just start. We can start baby steps. You don't have to get it all right. But even one little habit you implement, one little hour you spend will make a difference.

In order to live your next thing or the thing that you've been putting off and on your wish list, is to not go into this all-or-nothing mentality. 

• LinkedIn Profile
• Mind Brain Emotion
• 52 Essential Life Skills
• 52 Essential Critical Thinking Skills
• 52 Essential Coping Skills

Today's guest is Juan Scarlett, a technology-focused venture capital, strategic finance, and equity research professional. He is the Co-Founder and Managing Director of OneValley Ventures, an early-stage investor in dynamic founders emerging from the OneValley ecosystem and its partners.

Juan talked about his practical upbringing that led him to follow the most practical path in his education and career and eventually to venture capital. He also shared his experiences at Haas, what made him interested in investing and venture capital and his work at OneValley Ventures.

We also discussed why investors should break the status quo and go outside their networks and invest in underrepresented and underserved founders.

On growing up in a hardworking and practical family

We really worked hard to make sure that we had everything that we needed and, maybe, a few of the things that we wanted. And for those other things you wanted, it was very clear that, from a very early age, you have to go make your own money to do those things.

Why he left investment banking

It's great money. It's got to be a good experience. It'd look great on my resume. But I know I'm not going to enjoy it. I know I won't love it. And so, I just decided (to leave).

I already learned that doing something that you don't enjoy was not going to be fulfilling for you or for the company that you were doing it for.

On breaking the status quo to help minorities develop pathways into VC  

During 2022 and '21, during the racial justice movement, we started to see that people were much more willing to take that chance to invest in minority founders, ones that they didn't know or came outside of their networks. We started to take that chance. But there wasn't a follow-through, necessarily, in 2022.

And so, I think you still have to just continuously remind people that that issue is still there and that it does require a little bit more work to find interesting startup opportunities to invest in outside of your small-ish network, and really develop broader top of funnel with the mindset, "Well, if I want to find these minority-led startups where they are, I have to be there, too."

• LinkedIn

Lisa Morris Jones joins us in celebration of Black History Month. Lisa is an alumna of the undergraduate program here at Haas. She is a CFA Chartholder and a Master of Business Administration - MBA focused on Finance and Entrepreneurial Management from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Currently, she is the president of the LMJ Group, a real estate management and development of commercial and residential properties throughout California.

In this episode, Lisa shared a little about her origin story, her interest in finance and entrepreneurship, and her extensive career. She is a strong professional with a demonstrated history of working in real estate development and management, investment management, and community development finance. 

She also talked about what it was like being a Black female in finance back in the 80s when she started working and what inspired her to push forward even with some roadblocks. Currently, she is supporting the Haas MBA fellowships program for Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

Another passion for Lisa is helping underserved and distressed communities. She is working on how to provide the needed capital to be able to help these communities thrive.

How Haas helped her make her way through Wharton

So much of what I learned at Haas, especially in marketing, accounting, and finance, those fundamentals were just absolutely essential in helping me go to Wharton, to be able to do other things while I was there and to really enjoy that experience.

On her experience as a Black woman in finance in the 80s

There were definitely people that discouraged me and many, many roadblocks. Lots of people telling me, "Maybe, you should focus on another discipline. This would be too challenging, too hard." 

You can't really control how people think about you. It's what you think about yourself that's really important. You have ways to really reinforce who you are and build yourself up. I always said that if I'm prepared, I know the opportunities will come. And then, I can be able to walk through them. And I know that change in time is on your side. It may take a little time, but things are changing and moving in the right direction. And you have to keep that level of optimism because there's always going to be someone to tell you, you can't do it.

• LinkedIn

Our guest today is Orion Parrott, General Partner at the Orange Fund. He is an experienced leader in business and technology and uses his background to build, explore, and invest in crypto. 

In this episode, Orion talked a bit about his background, his experience going to Haas for the EMBA program, and his transition from being an entrepreneur to an advisor and eventually becoming a general partner.

Orion also shared about Orange Fund, the investment fund of Orange DAO that invests in crypto startups, some critical aspects of DAO, and what to expect in building, exploring, and investing in crypto.

On getting his MBA

I looked at the MBA as a way to really focus on this other set of skills, the people skills, but also some hard technical skills in terms of finance and accounting, and to be able to get a broad picture of what it would take to start a business. Some people will say you don't need an MBA to start a startup, but for someone like me, I prefer to go at it all at once. And it was such a whirlwind of productivity, growing a dollar, and seeing different perspectives. So many things that I had always wondered about the world made a lot more sense.

On how DAOs can impact the investment world

I am excited about participating in the evolution of DAO, doing the group decision-making, and keeping it really about the people so that we can support each other and really be a community. I'm excited to see how being a DAO can be an enabler of the community rather than something that detracts from it. Because, honestly, it's not necessarily a better world by being a DAO, right? You lose some of the legal definition of how things might be treated, and we believe we're paving the way to make it possible for more folks to create DAOs, which will create more opportunities for community capital and investment.

Words of wisdom for the Haas community

Being in Berkeley Haas opens many doors, and folks should feel bold about reaching out to whomever they want to connect with. I refer back to what Dean Lyons would say during our EMBA program: Berkeley Haas takes you from saying they do things to I do things, and I guess that's the encouragement. When you see people doing amazing things, you are the people who are going to do that—now and in the future.

• Orion's first OneHaas episode
• LinkedIn Profile
• Orange Fund