Vishak was one of the first engineering hires at Postscript. He is a coding bootcamp graduate with a background in mechanical engineering, and has worked at early stage SaaS startups since 2015. Vishak is currently a Staff Engineer at Postscript, where he leads product strategy and architecture, drives solutions and tech partnerships, and helps hir…

Taylor is Head of Growth at Champify, which monitors job changes to help go-to-market teams turn existing relationships into new business opportunities that actually close. She began her career as a classroom teacher through Teach for America, before transitioning into tech as an early employee at Heap. In this conversation, we talk about: The over…

Jessie was the fourth employee at Collectly, starting as Head of Customer Success. Her background is in Customer Success and Account Management at start-ups, specifically focusing on developing relationships and growth within existing accounts. She is currently the Vice President of Operations where she focuses on overseeing multiple internal teams…

Alessandro was the 1st sales hire at Carta. During his 8 year tenure, he played a major role in helping Carta find product market fit, managed hundreds of people, and took Carta from 0 to 300m+ ARR. Now, Alessandro is taking his learnings from Carta and transferring them to his new company GetDynasty.com where he is democratizing access to the most…

Kasra's career is set at the intersection of product strategy and marketing leadership — composed of his time building products as a founder (Mintor and IntroHero), driving community growth (Startup Grind, On Deck), and leading marketing initiatives (Coho). His career also includes studying for and working in occupational safety, running a restaura…

Ashley is the CEO & Founder of Maca, building the first platform for iterative pricing. She went through hyper-growth as the 7th employee of Brex, the fastest company in B2B history to surpass $100M ARR in 18 months. She then joined Pipe’s founding team as VP of Revenue to stand up the operations and early go-to-market teams - they issued $1B+ in c…

Jackie Miller has had a dynamic career spanning NGOs (Amnesty International), social enterprise (Venture for America), major corporate brands (Chobani and Chanel), and venture backed startups (On Deck), with the red thread criss-crossing of accelerators, corporate venture, and strategic partnerships. She's exploring her next chapter and weighing th…

Shweta is a Founding Engineer at Leda Health. She has worked within core engineering teams at different B2B SaaS, EdTech, and now Health-Tech startups, building out the product vision and implementing best practices for engineering teams. She currently works on full-stack web development, cloud technologies, compliance, and security. She strives to…

Kera is the head of marketing at Hustle Fund, where she oversees their content and events. Previously she was the first employee at The Hustle, a media company with 1m+ subscribers (acq by HubSpot), where she held a variety of roles including Director of Operations and Director of Events. In this conversation, we talk about: How her separate experi…

Alex is a mechanical engineer based out of the Bay Area working in the field of fluidics and water chemistry. At Sutro he has worked on developing low-cost, automated water monitoring technology with the mission of ensuring access to safe, clean water to all. In this conversation, we talk about: How his curiosity and the ability to figure things ou…

Nate is a dad of 3 boys, bar licensed attorney, and early-stage generalist. He’s currently chief of staff at web3 design studio, Airfoil, and was previously employee #1 at Barracuda. When not working, he’s playing with his kids, drinking soda, or attending a concert. In this conversation, we talk about: How his law degree enables his success workin…

Anthony is the founder of NEXT, a community for entrepreneurial mid-career and exec-level job-seekers who want to be intentional about their next career chapters. He's helped hundreds and hundreds of job-seekers during his past 4 years in the career development space, which is his second act after spending a decade at Goldman Sachs. In this convers…

Ankit is a product & growth expert who has worked with multiple early stage startups, playing a crucial role in scaling them from pre-seed to Series B. In this conversation, we talk about: His experience at ELSA and how he was able to introduce and expand the product in the Indian market His insights into assessing major trends and whether to adopt…

Thalida is a Product Engineering Leader who loves a good spreadsheet. They've spent their entire career in Product Engineering and Engineering Management at companies like OkCupid, Etsy, and Webflow. Thalida is now the Co-Founder and CTO of Tourus, a prop-tech startup with a mission to improve the rental experience for everyone involved. Thalida is…

Taylor is on a mission to create the opposite of loneliness in the world. She’s Head of Community at Groove, which is an extraordinary, free app for solo workers from all over the world to instantly connect and conquer their to-dos alongside each other. Before joining Groove, Taylor designed online learning experiences with best-selling author, Set…

EJ is a Husband, Father, Entrepreneur, and a first-generation America raised by Nigerian parents. He is an experienced leader in launching new products in both startup and corporate environments, including CBS Interactive and Seed&Spark, and co-founded his own startup, Bosa, a life management platform for working moms. In this conversation, we talk…

Gabrielle is an HR Director, with extensive experience as a leader at both startups and large companies. She is passionate about empowering her team and enabling their growth, while cultivating a culture that focuses on belonging. In this conversation, we talk about: Her approach to setting up and scaling the HR function at early stage startups How…

Tamara has been a career Software Engineer, working on complex systems. She is currently a Lead Engineer at Acre, a growing real-estate tech startup redefining how we buy and live in our homes, where she joined as employee #1. In this conversation, we talk about: Her experience working at larger companies, such as Raytheon and Red Hat, where she ga…

Jonatan is a founder, engineer, and product leader. He was an early employee at Spotify, where he began as the first web-developer on the team. Currently, he’s the CEO at Squadformers, working to build exceptional Squads that accelerate meaningful missions. In this conversation, we talk about: How at the age of 12, he started and grew a gaming comm…

Tyler is a successful founder, CEO, tech leader, investor, advisor, motorcycle enthusiast, dad and husband. As the founder and CEO of a VC backed automotive tech company Drivably, Tyler led the company through an acquisition in 2022. Prior to that was an early employee and executive at Domo and HireVue. He currently coaches, advises, and invests in…

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 st…

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 beco…

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 mo…

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 Executi…

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 initiativ…

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 …

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 o…

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 co…

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 conn…

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 transitio…

In this episode, I speak with Simran Handa. Simran is a Business Operations Manager at Sequin (YC S21), helping women get better access to credit. She was the second employee of the company and is passionate about feminism, financial freedom and fashion! In this conversation, we talk about: Her transition to a FinTech company and how her role has e…

In this episode, I speak with Pablo Pinto. Pablo is a talent-oriented founder and product manager with experience in startup recruiting, go-to-market strategy, and ops. Currently, he’s the Director at On Deck First 50, a program helping people get jobs at startups. In this conversation, we talk about: How he sets an over-arching theme for every fiv…

In this episode, I speak with Elizabeth Dlha. Elizabeth is the Head of Partnerships & Community at Deepnote, a company building a collaborative workspace for data teams. Before Deepnote, Elizabeth spent her career as an analyst and building analytics tooling, first as a consultant at McKinsey & Company, later as a Product manager at Periscope. In t…

In this episode, I speak with Sanjay Krishna. Sanjay leads growth at Quolum, an early stage startup backed by Sequoia. He started his journey in corporate law, and then ran his own Ed-tech venture for a soft exit to a unicorn. In this conversation, we talk about: His career and the force behind wanting to join a smaller company How his corporate la…

I speak with Rich Burke. Rich is Head of Growth at Parentaly, an employee benefit startup that helps improve the parental leave experience. Prior to that, he spent time at CEB, Manage by Q, and Vista Equity Partners. In this conversation, we talk about: Similarities, differences and lessons learned between corporate America and startups. Playing th…

In this episode, I speak with Mariah Sharp. One notion that I love about this conversation is the ability to feel how mission driven Mariah is, focusing her energy towards making an impact. She is a former 6th grade social studies teacher, turned People Ops lead at an Educational Tech company, to now one of the co-founders of Envision Inclusion. In…

Hey y’all and welcome to another episode of The Early Team. In this episode, I speak with Juraj Pal. Juraj was one of the first hires at Slido, the Q&A and polling platform where built out the partnerships function from scratch and led the product team. Juraj is based in Vancouver, BC and currently in-between things, spending time with his family a…

Hey y’all and welcome to another episode of The Early Team. I’m excited to introduce you to Melissa Henderson, Head of Community at ApeWorx and Founder of the Violet Summer Exchange. During our conversation, we talk about: How she made the transition from working at traditional large publications to a small, fully remote company Her approach to ada…

Hey y’all and welcome to another episode of The Early Team, where I speak with Jet Zhou. Jet is a software engineer with 10 years of industry experience. He has worked across different company sizes and different verticals, including Amazon, ClassDojo, an EdTech company, and Gem, which focuses on recruiting. Currently, he is aiming to hike all the …

Welcome to another conversation on The Early Team, where I speak with Harrison Johnson. Currently, Harrison is a co-founder at Driveway, a powerful tool that helps remote employees ramp up faster. However, the scope of our chat revolves around his time at Managed by Q, an office management platform, where he was employee #1. In our conversation, we…

Hey y’all, and welcome to another conversation on The Early Team, where I speak with Vic de Aranzeta. I’ve known Vic for a while now, and even then, her story had me at the edge of my seat. She is a 2x founding product designer at early stage startups, has a background in cultural anthropology and field archaeology, and began her journey as an illu…

In this episode, I speak with Neil Eads, a technical quality manager at Figma. Neil has spent roughly the last 15 years at tech startups, and with it, has an abundance of insight into what it’s like to be at various early stage companies. In our conversation, we talk about: What QA is and how it fits into the overall team & company How he has been …

In this episode, I speak with Nihana Porbanderwala, a member of an early stage company, called Drop Party, where she runs Creative Ops. Her background is in film and fashion - her love lies in culture and trend. The perfect party mix! She currently lives in Austin, TX and is originally from South Florida. In our conversation, we talk about: How she…

Welcome to the inaugural episode of The Early Team. In this short episode, I walk through: - Why this podcast has been created - What to expected from the upcoming conversations - Who it is geared for and will benefit from itBy Shawhin