The Early Team

Valerie is a community manager, avid writer, and digital content creator with a Gen Z outlook on the world. She founded the popular Instagram entertainment community, Astrowonders (420k followers), where she has worked with big-name companies like Urban Outfitters, Estrid, and Parade. 

She’s currently leading & growing community at an early-stage startup Melon, a social platform for self-learning and upskilling. 

In this conversation, we talk about:

• How she managed to break into tech and how her freelance experience set her up for success
• What she has learned from imposter syndrome and how she has built up her confidence overtime
• And recommendations she’d pass on to new grands searching for their first employment in the current environment

Lucy is a product leader based in San Francisco, with 9 years of experience in early stage startups, across various industries. She lives with her fiancee, their husky, two cats, and a fan of natural wine.

In this conversation, we talk about:

• How raising her hand for a project that was outside her scope of responsibilities began her journey of becoming a product manager
• Lessons learned from building high quality products that were met with initial adoption friction
• And the art of knowing when to recreate the wheel to gain leverage

Nick is an early stage growth leader, most recently at Carrot (addtocarrot.com), a visual bookmarking app for shoppers. His experience working with over a dozen companies across varied industries has given him a unique perspective on the universal aspects of growth in any business, the technology sphere we live in, and the tradeoffs of different modes of working.

In this conversation, we talk about:

• The structural lessons he gained while working at large companies and how they enabled his success at smaller ones
• How his music background continues to show up in his individual and leadership roles
• And how he has been able to succeed by utilizing his breadth of working in various sectors and verticals

Janice is a Community Growth and Brand Marketing Specialist based in Vancouver, with a passion for early-stage mission-driven startups. She’s currently the Head of Community at Pineapple, the professional network for Gen-Z. 

In this conversation, we talk about:

• Her eagerness to take ownership of new initiatives, while in her first role as an Executive Assistant, becoming the brand manager at Blume
• How her experience building a DTC brand enabled her to build a community in the tech space
• And lessons learned from building an authentic community focused on Gen-Z

Amna is an early employee and Sr. Product Manager at Zus Health, empowering an entirely new wave of healthcare builders to create technologies and services without the usual blockers.

In this conversation, we talk about:

• Her transition from a software developer to a product manager
• Her experience at Zus and the efforts required for taking initiatives from 0-1, in the HealthTech space
• And the similarities between being a PM and writing RomCom scripts for movies 

Michelle is the Head of Community Growth at Scale, building the go-to platform and community that helps ambitious people supercharge their success at work with guided sprints & 1:1 guidance from experienced coaches. 

Prior to Scale, she co-founded FLIK and has been recognized as BC Business’ 30 Under 30. 

In this conversation, we talk about:

• How her entrepreneurship craft began developing during college that led to starting her own company
• How she transitioned from being a founder to an operator and the lessons learned along the way
• And how building a community begins by first creating immense value for your intended audience 

Katy is a Director of Customer Success at Dover, a recruiting orchestration platform built for hiring managers and talent leaders to hire faster and more seamlessly. Prior to that, she was a strategy consultant at Accenture, focused on growth and digital strategy in the retail space. 

In this conversation, we talk about:

• How she was able to say no opportunities that didn’t align with her intentions, during her startup search
• What consulting elements enabled her to succeed early on, while others she had to unlearn
• And how her curiosity and passion for shipping new projects is guiding her career

Hanna and Drew were respectively employees #1 and #6 at Fellow, a design driven coffee gear company. Hanna helped build the brand from the ground up. Drew developed a handful of Fellow's early products. Now as co-founders of NANU, they've shifted their focus from coffee to products that recalibrate our relationship with time and routine. 

In this conversation, we talk about:

• How they adapted to the startup environment, specifically building and marketing physical products
• How they adjusted to the company’s hyper-growth success, during the pandemic
• And how their experience is now enabling them launch their own company and products

Charles is Head of Business Operations at Zestworld, which enables creators to control and monetize their IP rights. Previously, he spent extensive time building and lead consulting teams. 

In this conversation, we talk about:

• His journey as a consultant and the transition to a startup
• How his passion for entertainment and using technology as a connector led him to Zestworld
• And what he had to learn and unlearn, in order to succeed in this new world

Zaz is a serial investor and employee #1 at VGS (Very Good Security). Currently, he’s part of the VGS Sales team and advises numerous startups.

In this conversation, we talk about:

• His initial approached to employment at VGS
• His process for engaging with the founders when he needed support
• And how being early at the company enabled him to transition into a sales role