Women Lead Data

In this episode, Lindsay is joined by Jerrie Kumalah, Resident Data Architect at dbt Labs, to learn more about her career journey in the data industry. Jerrie’s career started in public health conducting research and analysis, where she eventually transitioned her focus into data science and then discovered the world of analytics engineering. Most recently she has moved into her current role as Resident Architect at dbt Labs (an exciting mix between working at a tech scale-up and serving as an internal consultant!). Jerrie shares her thoughts with us about why networking and community building can be such an important part of your career development (and how to do it properly). We also try to answer the question: Can women really “have it all” (an ambitious career and a fulfilling home life)?

dbt Labs is the creator of dbt (data build tool)–a data transformation software that allows you to build and test business logic, ensure data quality, and fix issues proactively before they impact your business.

Episode Links:

• dbt labs
• 10 Reasons Why Networking Is Essential For Your Career
• Chief Networking Study 2023
• Designing your Life

In this episode, Lindsay is joined by Celina Wong (CEO of Data Culture) to learn more about her leadership journey in the data industry. Celina shares her story about how she transitioned into the data industry after starting her career in finance and has progressed from data leadership roles into her current role as CEO. We spend some time digging into this topic of managing through pivotal moments in your career (some good, some bad), how to recognize when you’re in one of these moments, and how you can turn these into opportunities to propel your career forward.

Data Culture is a leading data strategy consulting firm based in Brooklyn, New York.

Episode Links:

• Data Culture
• 7 Positive Ways to Respond When Someone Steals Credit for Your Work
• Be the Senior you needed as a Junior

In this episode, Lindsay is joined by Stefania Ólafsdóttir (CEO and Co-founder of Avo) to learn more about her leadership journey in the data industry. Stef shares her career journey and how the common challenges of dealing with broken event tracking data led to the birth of her company, Avo. We dive deep into Icelandic culture to learn more about the 1975 Icelandic Women’s Strike, how it paved the way for the world’s first democratically elected female president, Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, and how this led to a generation of Icelanders who believed you had to be a woman to be president. Stef also shares some great insights about how she tackles goal setting as a CEO and how this helps her manage the different roles in her life. This is a juicy episode, you don’t want to miss!

In this episode, Lindsay sat down with Colleen Tartow (Field CTO and Head of Strategy at VAST Data) to learn more about her leadership journey in the data industry. Colleen has a breadth of experience, from leading data teams through hyperscaling, to moving into engineering leadership roles focused on building data products. She gives us the low-down on what a Field CTO does day-to-day and we spend some time talking about how to make big leaps forward in your career (hint: sometimes it just takes getting out of your own way!)

Episode Links:

• VAST Data
• Where Are All The Female CTOs?
• Chief Technology Officer Demographics and Statistics
• Why Women Don’t Apply for Jobs Unless They’re 100% Qualified
• Michelle Obama Tells a Secret: 'I Have Been at Every Powerful Table You Can Think of... They Are Not That Smart' 

In this episode, Lindsay is joined by Megan Lieu (Data Advocate at Deepnote) to learn more about her career in data and how she became a LinkedIn content creator. This is a great episode for any data people interested in creating content of their own (e.g. blog articles, social posts, or podcasts) or growing their LinkedIn network, but aren’t sure how to get started. Megan shares some of her insights about how she got into the data industry, became a data scientist, pivoted into being a data advocate, and how she has grown her LinkedIn follower base–which is 95K and growing at the time of writing this!

Deepnote is a notebook that brings teams together to explore, analyze and present data from start to finish.

Show links:

• Deepnote
• The #1 way people discover a new job is through a referral, so LinkedIn is critical
• How To Become A LinkedIn Influencer In 2023?

In our fourth episode, Lindsay is joined by Sarah Nagy (Co-founder and CEO of Seek AI) to learn more about their journey towards starting a company and becoming the CEO. Sarah shares more about how they got started in data science, the frustration of being asked the same repetitive and tedious questions as a data person that led to starting Seek AI, and their shift into becoming a CEO and co-founder. We talk about how to upskill yourself to take on the CEO role–and how that is an ever-growing journey. Sarah also shares tips on developing a thick skin to overcome self-doubt and rejection early in the founder journey.

Seek AI is a natural language interface for querying structured data. Ask questions in plain English and Seek will query data to give you the answers you are looking for. Seek does the mundane work so data teams can do meaningful work faster and more effectively. With a self-learning knowledge graph, and a user-friendly conversational interface that adapts to business users and the most technical data team members, Seek helps businesses get to answers, fast.

Episode Links:

• Check out Seek AI
• FounderCafe
• Y Combinator Library
• Meet 100 People - Pat Hedley - TEDxDartmouth

In the third episode of Women Lead Data, Lindsay chats with Nicole Janeway Bills (Founder & CEO of Data Strategy Professionals) to learn more about her journey to starting a company and becoming a CEO. Nicole shares her career story about breaking into the data industry and becoming a data scientist before starting her own company.

Data Strategy Professionals helps data practitioners ace data-related exams, such as the CDMP (Certified Data Management Professionals).

Show links:

• Data Strategy Professionals
• Certified Data Management Professional
• 1,000 True Fans
• The Manager’s Handbook
• Clear Thinking

In our second episode, Lindsay is joined by Jacqueline Cheong (Co-founder and CEO of Artie) to learn more about her journey in starting her own company, Artie, and becoming a CEO. Jacqueline's co-founder is her husband, so we dive into some of the pros and cons they faced getting VC funding as married co-founders.

Artie is a real-time database replication solution that leverages change data capture (CDC) and stream processing to sync databases and data warehouses in real-time, enabling sub-minute latency and reducing compute costs. 

Show Links:

• Artie
• Tackling investors' fear of backing married co-founders
• Are investors still skeptical of married co-founders
• Benn Stancil - Why are we still surprised that startups are hard

In the first episode of Women Lead Data, Lindsay sits down with Jenny Sui, Principal at Craft Ventures. Jenny shares her story of how she got into VC funding (also a very male-dominated industry), some harrowing stats about VC funding for female-led companies, and helpful advice to women in the data industry looking to start their own VC-backed company.

Links:

• Q3 2023 VC funding data for women is just more of the same
• Despite Blockbuster Venture Investment, Female Founders’ Share Of VC Funding Falls
• What is VC Pattern Matching?
• 5 Challenges Faced by Women Entrepreneurs