Tech Forward

Hello listeners, and welcome back to Tech Forward! My guest this week is Rima Reddy, a Principal at XRC Labs, an early stage accelerator dedicated to investing in the next wave of disruptors in the consumer and retail goods industries. At XRC, Rima leads the startup sourcing and diligence process, and participates on the Selection Committee. Prior to XRC, Rima focused on e-commerce and omni-channel initiatives at Ralph Lauren, and served as an Equity Research Analyst at Goldman Sachs. She was recognized by Business Insider as "22 Female Angel Investors Every Startup Founder Should Know," and speaks extensively on the topics of early-stage investing and women in entrepreneurship. Today on the show, we'll be talking about the support she provides to female founders, as well as her transition to becoming an investor herself.

Since the retail industry can be notoriously slow, XRC's main goal is to bridge the gap between larger, more traditional brands and promising tech startups in order to drive the entire ecosystem forward. Early stage founders complete a 14-week program where XRC helps with all aspects of the business, from messaging and business development to networking with potential clients and being placed on panels. XRC provides founders with a small amount of capital at the beginning, but also assists with the next round of fundraising at the end of the 14 week program, introducing them to angels and VC's who can take the business to the next level.

When selecting startups for their program, XRC looks for founders who are both extremely confident about their business and its mission, and open to criticism and advice. "It's really the founder that we're investing in… We watch them pivot, and see if they can take the feedback to make the right move." They also seek entrepreneurs who solve the problems that larger brands currently face. As of now 60% of the companies XRC works with have a woman on their founding team, and 45% have a female CEO. The XRC community stays actively involved in founders' journeys after graduation, providing support and hosting alumni events. Rima also supports early stage investors through her work with 37 Angels, one of the largest investing networks in New York. She was drawn to 37 Angels because of their great sense of community, which is very inclusive and woman focused.

This sense of ongoing community has played a critical role in Rima's own career journey. Considering that both of her large career transitions have been all about networking, she strongly recommends that women have as many conversations with other startups and angel investors as possible. Her other piece of advice: "Read a ton! There are so many great blogs about venture capital and angel investing."

Rima, thank you so much for coming on the show this week and sharing the work you're doing with both XRC Labs and 37 Angels. Thank you also to all of you out there listening, sharing the show, and reviewing. See you next week!

Connect with us

Website | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook

Welcome back to Tech Forward, listeners! On this week's episode, I spoke with Julie Pitt, director of Machine Learning Infrastructure at Netflix. Her team's goal is to scale Data Science while increasing innovation. Prior to that role, she built the streaming infrastructure behind the "play" button while Netflix was transitioning from domestic DVD-by-mail service to international streaming service. Julie also co-founded Order of Magnitude Labs, with a mission to build AI capable of doing things like exploration, communication, and accomplishing long-range goals — in other words, tasks that humans find easy, but today's machines find hard. Today, we'll talk about Netflix's unique culture and how Julie supports the other female engineers on her team.

Julie's work with machine learning at Netflix ties back to solving two problems: offering members the best choices, and ensuring they have as much control as possible over their personal experience. This requires answering a lot of questions, from where to find content creators, to predicting where that content will be popular, and even down to launch dates. Luckily, many of those questions can be answered through data science and machine learning. Software engineers have already experienced the progression from rigid to continuous deployment schedules, and witnessed firsthand the power of collaboration. That power, however, is not common in data science — which is where Julie's team comes in. They're building a workshop for data scientists that allows a higher degree of collaboration, more efficiency, and higher productivity. Netflix's data scientists have already used these workshops to solve a variety of problems, from determining the quality of the video streamed to the viewer, to optimizing a schedule for launching multiple titles in the same genre.

One unique aspect of Netflix's culture, according to Julie, is that "We're building a default platform, but not a mandated platform." This is a direct result of two main tenets of the Netflix culture: freedom and responsibility. While engineers have the freedom to make choices about the tech they use to solve problems, they're also expected to be aware of how those choices might affect other teams. Julie also champions the concept of leadership through context, not control. "As a leader, if someone on my team makes a poor decision, my first instinct is to determine what context they lacked. We can increase relevant context that enables better decisions."

When it comes to diversity initiatives at Netflix, Julie has personally focused on meetups for underrepresented groups, as well as rethinking the interview process from start to finish. She gives candidates a choice as to how they prefer to be interviewed: some people feel more comfortable with a technical whiteboard question, while others prefer to work independently on a project and discuss it afterwards. Once people are in the door, having a network is key — "I only ever had one job where I didn't already know someone. I cannot under-emphasize the importance of having a professional network." She also has some words of advice for anyone struggling with impostor syndrome: "Fundamentally, in tech, we operate in an environment of uncertainty because we're doing things that have never been done before. Everyone else is making it up as they go along, too. It's okay, and you're not alone."

Julie, thank you so much for coming onto the show and sharing your stories and insights this week. I'd also like to thank all of you out there listening, reviewing, and sharing the show. See you next week!

Connect with us

Website | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook

Hello listeners, and welcome back to Tech Forward! My guest this week is Angela Belt, Senior 3D Visual Stylist at Wayfair. Having graduated from Howard University with a degree in Fine Arts, Angela has over ten years of interior design experience including extensive experience styling for print, online publications, and video. With a keen eye for what is on trend and a passion for interior design, she has styled shoots for ElleDecor, HGTV, AphroChic, and Maison et Objet in Paris. We discussed her transition into the world of tech through her role at Wayfair, and the initiatives she has championed to support the company's diversity recruiting efforts.

Though she initially saw herself forging a career in politics, Angela took a hard pivot into the world of art and design during her sophomore year of college. After graduation, she took a position with the furniture company Room and Board, which essentially served as a ten-year crash course on not only floor planning and drafting, but also everything required in terms of building codes and permits, and how to design a room with an eye for profit margins. Angela also spent 8 of those 10 years freelancing at her sister's company, Aphrochic, where she became the creative director and interior stylist. During that time, she worked on REMIX: Decorating with Culture, Objects and Soul, released by Penguin Random House in 2013.

Voted a top tech company by the online community Built in Boston, Wayfair is, in Angela's words, "on the cutting edge of where things are going" in the world of interior design and home furnishings. Angela works with a team of 3D artists and stylists who use models and talented graphic designers to enhance the photo studio process. These models give the stylists much more creative freedom than a traditional 2D photoshoot, which can be expensive and time consuming. While Angela says entering the tech sector has required her to "learn an entirely new language… I have the background knowledge to know what makes sense in an image, aside from just looking good." There are cultural differences as well: interior design is a sphere that values the longevity of a career, and expects people to cultivate their skills over a longer time period, whereas tech jobs focus more on the skills people learn in school and apply right away.

Within 3 months of joining the company, Angela had the opportunity to champion diversity initiatives for Wayfair, when she was asked to recruit at her alma mater. "It was exciting to me to know that Wayfair wanted talent from a historically black college [...] It's part of a larger push, not just a one time thing." Internally, Angela is an active member of a group for African American employees to network and build a community. She stresses the importance of having members of underrepresented groups in leadership roles: "It meant a lot to me at Room and Board that I had an African American mentor, and two African American bosses. Seeing those people advance to leadership positions let me know I had a place in the company."

If you'd like to get in touch with Angela you can find her on Instagram, or see examples of her work on her website. Angela, thank you so much for coming onto the show and sharing your story. Thank you also to all of my listeners for tuning in, sharing the show, and leaving reviews. See you next week!

Connect with us

Website | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook

Hello listeners! Welcome back to another episode of Tech Forward. This week, I spoke with Chris Bennett, co-founder and CEO of Wonderschool. Combining high quality educational standards with the warmth of in-home programs, Wonderschool is a network of boutique early childhood education programs. With the Wonderschool platform, it's easy for teachers to start and operate these programs — and for families to find them. Chris and I discussed his journey as an entrepreneur, as well as his passion for providing families with more affordable, high-quality options for early childhood education.

Though some might hesitate to leave the stability of the financial sector for the unpredictable world of entrepreneurship, for Chris — who has many small business owners in his family — it was an easy decision. While attending the Wharton School of Business, he started his own business, but didn't entertain the notion of continuing past graduation. After 2 years at a real estate private equity firm in Chicago, he felt the urge to return to the entrepreneurial realm. He moved to San Francisco where he met his co-founder, Arrel Gray, and they have been working together since 2011.

The impetus for Wonderschool came from Arrel's difficulty finding high-quality childcare for his son. Chris and Arrel took inspiration from Orlando's Tangelo Park Program, which offered free in-home childcare options for low income communities. Access to high-quality early childhood education has dramatic positive results: not only did the crime rate in Tangelo Park decrease by half, but high school graduation rates increased by 75%. Despite all the research highlighting the benefits of early childhood education, however, options remain limited. "A lot of people don't start these out of their homes, and those who do tend to get overwhelmed quickly." By creating a platform that makes starting, operating, and locating these programs as simple and intuitive as Airbnb, Wonderschool addresses some of the barriers preventing ECE programs from flourishing.

With upwards of 500 programs at various stages from inception to operation currently on the Wonderschool platform, the team is constantly building more tools for parents to navigate their relationship with their director. Through regular surveys of both parents and teachers, the team collects a wealth of data that enable them to provide a good experience for everyone, from teachers and directors to students and their parents.

As for advice to aspiring entrepreneurs, Chris emphasizes the importance of building relationships. "A lot of critical information is locked in people's heads — not in books. I'm constantly learning from the community here. With constant learning over time, it becomes easier to know what it takes to be successful."

Chris, thank you so much for joining me on the show today. I can't wait to see what the future holds for Wonderschool. Thank you also to all of you out there listening, reviewing, and sharing the show. See you next week!

Connect with us

Website | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook

Welcome back to Tech Forward, listeners! On this week's episode, I spoke with Michelle Glauser, founder and CEO of Techtonica. Based in San Francisco, Techtonica is a nonprofit that offers free tech training, plus living and childcare stipends, to local women and non-binary adults with low incomes. Michelle is also a software engineer and the lead organizer for PyLadiesSF — the world's largest chapter of women who code in Python. In 2015, she spearheaded the #ILookLikeAnEngineer ad campaign. We discussed her motivation behind founding Techtonica, what makes it different from other boot camps, as well as her journey into tech and entrepreneurship.

Despite a lifelong interest in computers, Michelle found herself working full time at a startup doing everything except software engineering. Noticing the high demand for engineers, she signed up for a training program in 2012. While her experience was overwhelmingly positive — she had a new job within 2 weeks of graduation — she also witnessed, firsthand, the lack of diversity in the tech world. She attributes part of this to the high cost of tuition (which, on average, has since tripled). But that isn't the only barrier: many programs require participants to already have their own computer or tech network, or impose age limits. Through her crowdfunding work with the #ILookLikeAnEngineer ad campaign, Michelle had the revelation that would steer her towards entrepreneurship: "It was such a big challenge, but at the end of it I thought, I can do hard things! What other hard things can I do?" She turned her attention to socioeconomic diversity.

With the bootcamp model growing in popularity, Michelle didn't want to reinvent the wheel. By providing living and childcare stipends to participants, Techtonica supports locals in danger of displacement. "We want to train the people who are already here, alleviate the high and rising cost of living, and have the tech companies who are interested in building diversity support that training." Companies partner with Techtonica and sign up as sponsors for participants in the 6-month apprenticeship program. After 5 months, sponsors and apprentices interview each other in order to find the best match, and the apprentices have their final month to prepare for their new role within that company. The companies who partner with Techtonica also have diversity and inclusion training to ensure the apprentices enter a welcoming environment.

The curriculum at Techtonica is open sourced and created with input from the sponsor companies and industry professional volunteers. From their rigorous application process, to workshop activities designed to evaluate the characteristics of a successful engineer, Techtonica strives to ensure that every participant ends up in the best possible role. In fact, Techtonica has now graduated its first class of apprentices, and placed 100% of them with partner companies!

If you'd like to support Techtonica's mission, you can donate, volunteer, or sign up for their newsletter. Michelle, thank you so much for sharing your story this week, and for the work you're doing with Techtonica. Thank you also to all my listeners tuning in, leaving reviews, and sharing the show. See you next week!

Connect with us

Website | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook

Hello listeners, and welcome back to Tech Forward! With more people tuning in each week, I decided to reissue one of my earlier episodes that new listeners might have missed. Back on episode 6, I spoke with Janet Wu, co-founder and CEO of SilkRoll, about sustainability in the fashion industry as well as the importance of building diverse teams from day one. An avid traveler, Janet was born in China, grew up in the UK, and currently lives in the Bay Area. During her 10 years as an investment banker, she helped over 50 publicly listed companies raise over $30B in financing. She then went on to serve as the CFO of clean tech startup One Earth Designs before founding SilkRoll.

During a 2011 sabbatical, Janet connected with an issue that had long been important to her: sustainability. In traveling through South and Central America, she directly witnessed the environmental impact of modern industry on ecology, biodiversity, and indigenous culture of these regions. She found herself wondering, "How can I contribute my skills in business and finance to this area?"

The answer came to her as she confronted the cost of moving from Hong Kong to San Francisco to work with One Earth Designs, and wondered "What am I going to do with all of my clothes?" There existed no good way to purge valuable items, much less to get them into the hands of someone who would appreciate their style and value. "How can I leverage technology and the quick uptick in the sharing economy to [...] create a sustainable way for women to exchange and trade fashion that they no longer need, and refresh their closets at fair value, and with minimal waste?"

And so SilkRoll was born. At SilkRoll, women can exchange high quality pieces — either unworn, or lightly worn — among a growing base of users, and keep their wardrobes fresh and fashionable without contributing to landfills. With such designers as Coach, Free People, and Prada on offer, the pieces on SilkRoll will ideally be traded as many as five times.

Comprised equally of men and women, the SilkRoll team are globally diverse. This was no accident! Though her team is presently still small, Janet made a point to hire people with different employment backgrounds and perspectives.

"Innovation is a product of differences in perspectives. There's no one way to see the world, there's no one way to solve a problem. Bringing diversity into the conversation allows us to solve problems creatively, and innovate our product faster, too."

Janet, thank you so much for joining me on the podcast this week. I can't wait to see what the future holds for SilkRoll. I'll be back next week with a brand new episode!

Hello listeners! Welcome to this month's bonus episode of Tech Forward. When it comes to startups, success is often measured by the amount of venture capital funding they're able to raise. But is this really an accurate barometer for a startup's success? Your host shares her thoughts on that subject in this mini episode.

You can also check out her blog post on this topic. Thanks for tuning in, and see you on Wednesday!

Connect with us

Website | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook

Hello and welcome back to Tech Forward! On this week's episode, I spoke with Jennifer Marsman, the Principal Software Engineer of Microsoft's "AI for Earth" group. Working with the group, she uses data science, machine learning, and artificial intelligence to aid with clean water, agriculture, biodiversity, and climate change. Jennifer has been recognized as one of the "top 100 most influential individuals in artificial intelligence and machine learning" by Onalytica, reaching the #2 slot in 2018. We discussed the work she has led with AI for Earth, the issue of bias, and her insights about building a welcoming culture in the tech sector.

By running a global grant program, developing their own APIs, and funding projects, AI for Earth is, in Jennifer's words, "a chance to use my passion for machine learning to make a difference." One such project is FarmBeats, which is interested in sustainable, long-term solutions to maximize yield and, ultimately, reduce world hunger. To do this, they synthesize IoT, drones, machine learning, and cutting edge networking research to create precision agricultural techniques. A combination of smart sensors and aerial imagery — from drones or large helium balloons — can create a moisture map of any given field, and enable precision irrigation. Similarly, precision pesticide application benefits the environment, the farmer's budget, and the consumer.

Another initiative, Project Premonition, puts mosquitoes to work in order to predict outbreaks of diseases. Mosquitoes collect a large distribution of blood samples, and by analyzing those samples within their genomics pipeline, Project Premonition can determine the animal the blood came from and any diseases it might be carrying to generate a real-time health map of an area. Under the current model, where doctors report local cases of disease to a larger agency such as the Centers for Disease Control, it can take weeks or even a month to identify an outbreak. Using machine learning every step of the way — from placement of the traps, to making sure mosquitoes are trapped with 90% accuracy, to analyzing the data of the blood samples — Project Premonition aims to streamline and accelerate that process.

While machine learning is obviously a powerful tool, there is always the danger of bias. "Any bias in the historical data that you use to make future predictions will be captured in your machine learning algorithm. You have to make sure that your users know how the data was collected. Your model is only as good as the data you train it with." Good intentions, such as trying to identify at-risk students and preemptively give them more support, can turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy. This is yet another strong argument in favor of diverse perspectives at all stages of product development.

When it comes to tech's diversity issues, Jennifer identified two distinct, but related issues: attracting a diverse workforce, and maintaining that diversity. She emphasized the importance of media representation — from computer games with playable female protagonists, to television shows with women in tech roles — to her own personal career journey as well as the journeys of young women today. From her internship days at Ford Motor Company, she has witnessed firsthand how crucial teamwork is: not only to coding, but also to creating a welcoming environment that everyone wants to be a part of.

Jennifer, thank you so much for bringing your passion and insights to the show today. Thank you also to everyone tuning in, leaving reviews, and sharing the show with your friends and colleagues. See you next week!

Connect with us

Website | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook

Hello listeners, and welcome back to Tech Forward! This week, I'm excited to share my conversation with Paria Rajai, Founder and CEO of ModelExpand. Using the best practices that Paria and her team have observed over the years, ModelExpand partners with companies who want to attract and retain employees from diverse backgrounds. Paria began her work in diversity in 2008, designing global women in tech events with Yahoo's Business and Human Rights division. Since then, she has played an integral role leading the marketing team at Hackbright Academy, helped organize the inaugural Women of MENA in Tech Conference, and was profiled in Forbes for being a leader and advocate in the world of tech, marketing and diversity. We discussed her history of work around diversity and inclusion, as well as her recommendations to companies who know they want to change, but aren't quite sure where to start.

As the business world has struggled to match the growing diversity in the world at large, it's important to clarify the differences between diversity, inclusion, and belonging. At a diverse company, your employee base should be representative of your customer base. Taking it a step further, inclusion refers to whether or not employees have "a seat at the table" and ample opportunities for career advancement. In Paria's words, belonging means "you can take your mask off and be yourself, and be accepted and celebrated." For a deeper dive on these concepts, and how they benefit your business, I encourage my listeners to read her excellent blog post on the ModelExpand website.

The team at ModelExpand work with their clients to broaden their company's hiring pool, build relationships with nontraditional candidates, and share success stories from other organizations. This process has particularly promising applications for the tech sector, where concrete skills are often more important than a prestigious degree, but legacy hiring practices still shut out a massive talent pool.

While building a diverse and inclusive company might feel overwhelming, Paria emphasizes that even seemingly minor tweaks can have meaningful results. "It's about progress — not perfection." As for first steps, Paria recommends focusing on these 3 areas:

• Visual branding. When potential applicants see themselves reflected in your company's visual branding, they feel encouraged and welcomed to apply.
• Use of language. Changing even a single word in a job posting — for example, saying "develop" a team, rather than "manage" a team — will change who you attract. Paria recommends Textio, a data-driven writing tool that provides users with data on how to attract a broader audience.
• Community groups. Not only do community groups build relationships and trust, they're also a fantastic source of talent with long-lasting recruiting effects. "Getting to know your groups does great things for your pipeline."

Paria, thank you so much for coming onto the show and sharing your advice. Thank you as well to all of you out there listening, sharing, and reviewing the show. See you next week!

Connect with us

Website | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook

Welcome back to Tech Forward, listeners! This week, I spoke with Katie Macc, Chief Commercial Officer and Cofounder of Juntos Global. At a time when customers have low trust in their financial institutions, Juntos provides those institutions with a mobile-based conversation platform that increases consumer confidence. Prior to working at Juntos, Katie worked in microfinance, both in the Democratic Republic of Congo and, later, in the US. On today's episode, we discussed her journey as an entrepreneur, and how Juntos is breaking down barriers to financial inclusion for many people around the world.

As someone who has always relished the opportunity to build something, Katie's transition from established jobs to true entrepreneurship was a natural one. Katie wears many hats at Juntos, balancing client-facing teams such as sales client services along with finance and HR internally. Despite the fact that their foreign markets — including Egypt, Paraguay, and Uganda — can make funding a challenge, Katie contends that "great investors make for enjoyable fundraising." As Juntos continues to grow and enter new markets, they remain committed to diversity: "As a global company, it matters to us to have employees from all over the world." Katie and her two co-founders, Ben and Dante, recognize the potential for technology to transform customer interactions in the financial services industry. With its roots in a graduate school project at the Stanford d.school, Juntos — now in 15 countries spread across 4 continents — aims to do just that.

While the rapid digitization of most financial transactions has been incredibly convenient, it has also had the unintended consequence of fewer face-to-face conversations at the bank. These conversations have historically served dual purposes: both allowing the bank to learn more about the customer, and providing the customer with an opportunity to alert the bank to their issues. The loss of these interactions has played a significant role in the loss of consumer trust in financial institutions. Juntos provides a bridge between the banks and their customers which, while still entirely digital, emulates the conversations customers used to have with their tellers. Not only does this help banks uncover reasons why customers might not utilize certain services, it also measurably increases account usage.

The barriers that prevent people from opening bank accounts, and keeping those accounts active, usually fall into 3 categories of trust. Consumers need to first trust the institution itself, then trust that the product will behave as expected, and finally feel confident that they themselves are able to competently use the product. Juntos works with customers on all of these facets of trust, helping them to realize that financial institutions do want them to succeed, or identifying next steps to take when the product does not perform as needed. Through these conversations, they're uncovering a wealth of knowledge about user experience.

Katie, thank you so much for coming onto the show this week and sharing the story of Juntos, as well as all of your valuable advice. Thank you, as always, to my listeners for tuning in. See you next week!

Connect with us

Website | Twitter | Instagram