The Pair Program

Join us as our hosts, Tim and Mike, talk to Kerry Munz and Arun Nagarajan. With over 25 years as an engineer and engineering leader at startups, scale-ups, and giant tech companies, Kerry has deep experience in what it takes to build world class products, platforms, and teams. Today Kerry is CTO at Vendr, a fast growing tech unicorn. Arun is the Co-Founder & CTO at BigSpring, a startup on a mission to solve the skills gap. His prior experience includes being part of the founding team at Uber Eats and being a tech lead on Google’s Developer Platform team.

In this episode we explore workplace cultures based on the company stage.

You’ll learn:

• What are some of the differences in culture for smaller stage environments vs. larger companies?
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• How does the stage of a company impact the way they approach growth?
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• What are some of the different ways that teams collaborate in these different stage companies?
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And much more!

How We Hatched: Luca Antiga, CTO of Lightning AI | Ep03

Welcome to another episode of "How We Hatched" where we have candid conversations with tech founders and unveil their unique startup journeys.

In this episode, our host Tim Winkler speaks with Luca Antiga (CTO of Lightning AI and co-founder at both Orobix and Tensorwerk). Prior to his current role, Luca was an early contributor to PyTorch and co-author of Deep Learning with PyTorch at Manning.

During this episode Luca shares about his professional journey, from his initiation into the world of AI to becoming a startup founder and CTO.He shares about:

• How he established his career in AI and open source.
• The challenges he faced while learning how to apply Deep Learning in the real world.
• The team’s structure at Lightning AI and future growth plans.

And much more!

Join us as our hosts, Tim and Mike, talk to David Jorjani and Anand Safi. David leads product (and technology) at Sayge, a learning and development startup that aspires to empower millions of professionals to reach their full potential. David also teaches at the University of Toronto. Empowering people and teams has been a key thread in David's professional life. Anand is the Director of Engineering at Mark43 overseeing a Product Engineering Division. Anand has over a decade of experience in various technical roles and is a distinguished industry mentor, board member for two non-profits, and an avid believer in DEI and team culture.

In this episode we discuss how technical leaders can empower their teams, encourage autonomy, and build a culture of “managing up."

You’ll learn:

• What it means to be a leader who empowers their team
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• How to establish trust between employees and leadership
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• How to strike the balance between giving your team autonomy, while maintaining accountability
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• Tips on how to transition the responsibility of decision making to your employees
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Turn the Ship Around! | L. David Marquet: https://davidmarquet.com/turn-the-ship-around-book/

How We Hatched: Chris White, CTO of Prefect | Ep02

Welcome to the second episode of our series called "How We Hatched" where we have candid conversations with tech founders and unveil their unique startup journeys.

In this episode, our host Tim Winkler speaks with Chris White, the CTO of data startup, Prefect.

As the first hire at Prefect, Chris has had a front row seat as the company has grown to 80+ employees. He takes us along an inspiring account of Prefect’s founding, how he joined, and how they intentionally built a strong culture for future employees.

He shares about:

• The company’s vision for growth and how they scaled from the first 2 employees to the first 10 (and on)
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• The 4 standards that all Prefect engineers commit to
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• How Prefect built a culture where 90% of applicants accept their job offers 
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And much more!

Join us as our hosts, Tim and Mike, talk to Marina Simonian and Joshua Herzig-Marx. Marina is a product professional with almost 20 years of experience in designing and launching successful products, primarily in the healthcare systems and digital health industry. She has worked with teams of various configurations, locations, backgrounds and styles, and over the years has honed in on the fact that vision driven development is critical for delivering true value and aligning teams around a common goal. Joshua has been the first product leader at very early stage organizations for the past 15 years, running product at Gasbuddy, Catalina Digital, Alyce, and Brigit. He’s recently stepped back from salaried work to be primary parent and when not making lunches, scheduling doctor’s appointments, and helping with homework, he coaches founders and solo PMs in product management and general management. Learn more on his website: https://joshua.herzig-marx.com

In this episode we discuss how startup leaders can successfully communicate company vision to product and engineering.

You’ll learn:

• What is a company vision and why is it important to communicate it to the technical teams.
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• How to recognize when different teams are aligned on the company vision.
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• How to motivate employees at an early-stage company when the vision is still being formed.
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• When it’s time to adjust the company’s vision.
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• How to tell when a company’s vision is “working”
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Join us as our hosts, Tim and Mike, talk to Ben Edmunds and Adam Berman. Ben has over fifteen years of experience in the industry, working on everything from startups to enterprise software to robotics. He is currently a Senior Staff Engineer at Wayfair. Ben is the host of the PHP Town Hall and More Than Code podcasts, as well as the author of two books, Securing PHP Apps and Securing Node Apps. Adam is a staff software engineer at r2c. In this role, he focuses on developing new products to help security teams work hand-in-hand with developers and scale their security programs. Previous to r2c, Adam led the engineering team for Meraki Insight at Cisco Meraki. Adam holds an MS in Computer Science from the Georgia Institute of Technology and a BA in Philosophy from Dickinson College.

In this episode we explore the role of Staff Engineer and break down why many technologists pursue this role.

You’ll learn:

• What is the role of Staff Engineer and how does it differ from other engineering positions?
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• The responsibilities and growth opportunities of those in a Staff Engineering position
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• How the role can differ in a startup environment vs a larger organization
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References:

• Staff Engineer: Leadership beyond the management track by Will Larson
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• StaffEng Blog by Will Lars on
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Join us as our hosts, Tim and Mike, talk to engineering leaders Nick Halm and Damien Stanton. 

Nick is the VP of Engineering at fintech startup, JustiFi. Nick is an experienced technology leader driving the creation and maintenance of complex software systems. He has progressed through leadership roles and intentionally mentors development teams through all stages of growth. Damien has worked in a variety of developer roles for over a decade and currently works at PwC Digital as a senior research software engineer. Damien joined PwC through an acquisition and has firsthand experience of the transition from small startup to global corporation. 

In this episode we discuss the direction your career can take, depending on your company’s stage, growth plans, and exit strategy. 

You’ll learn:

• The different environments that technologists experience, from startups to enterprise, and how they can influence your career.
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• The different types of growth for a company (gradual organic growth vs. rapid growth through an acquisition).
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• The challenges a technologist might face when going through an acquisition and the impact an acquisition can have on engineering teams.
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• Strategies to determine whether a company’s future aligns with your career goals.
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Join us for a discussion about startup equity – from the perspective of employees and founders.

In this episode, our hosts, Tim and Mike, talk to startup leaders Nate Jones and Ryan McQueeney. Nate Jones got his start in tech maintaining (and breaking) Oracle ecom databases. He went on from there to found his own company (coffee and coffee gear) before moving to Amazon and then Drift. Most recently, Nate has joined Palolo, where he stays busy building a bank that makes life easier for employees. Ryan McQueeney is a CFO with specific expertise in startup and venture-backed business. Currently, Ryan serves as the managing principal of MCQ Advisory, LLC, a management consulting firm focusing on finance and operations.

Nate and Ryan have each developed a deep understanding of startup equity (on both ends of the negotiating table) and are passionate about sharing what they’ve learned!

They discuss:

• What is startup equity?
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• Tips for job seekers: How to gauge a company’s health and better understand what to expect from your equity offerings.
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• Tips for startup leaders: How much equity should you give early-stage employees and how to leverage equity when building a dedicated team.
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Join us for a discussion about getting layered– when leadership adds a new role between you and your current boss and fills the role externally (instead of promoting from within).

In this episode, our hosts, Tim and Mike, talk to startup leaders Kim Merino and Sean McBride. Kim is a self-taught software engineering manager from Los Angeles, where she currently leads the Growth Front End team at Netlify. She thoroughly enjoys helping her team grow in their careers and mentoring women in tech. Sean heads up engineering at a healthcare startup, Wellty. Prior to this role, he worked for over 12 years in corporate and philanthropic backed startups. During this period he has been layered, brought in layers, and was recently brought in as a layer as a Director of Engineering.

They discuss:

• Tips for Individual Contributors (How to tactfully move forward after getting layered, transition to a new manager, and advocate for your own growth)
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• Best practices for technical leaders (How to get buy-in from the people who are getting layered & ensure your team feels confident about their future at the company)
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• Guidance for the new manager (How to respectfully step into your position and build trust with your new team)
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Join us as our hosts, Tim and Mike, talk to startup leaders Anne Neilsen and Rajesh Nerlikar. Anne is the Executive Director of Product Management at cybersecurity startup JupiterOne. Throughout her career, she has developed a specialty in the security space working in both product strategy and marketing at various companies (including Veracode, IANS, and Rapid7). Rajesh is a Co-Founder and Principal Product Advisor at Prodify and co-author of the bestselling product book, Build What Matters. Over the past 4 years, he’s advised and coached nearly 40 companies on product strategy and team development, from startup founders to growth stage product executives. 

In this episode we discuss how startups can successfully build their product teams through the various stages of a startup’s growth. 

You’ll learn:

• Advice on how a product team should change and mature over a startup’s lifetime.
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• When startup leadership should prioritize scaling the product department.
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• Tips for hiring a startup’s first product manager.
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• Advice for professionals who want to step into product management.
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