Episode 13: Reena Gupta, Entrepreneur, Founder

Reena is an Entrepreneur with five tech companies under belt.  Her latest venture is called MomRelaunch and is focused on helping stay at home mothers re-enter the workforce in technical and HR fields.

She is focused on her companies’ culture which is very simple = results.  As long as you have results, that is what matters.  And as we know, moms can be the most productive and efficient employees out there.  They don’t have time to mess around and wander the halls holding coffee cups and chatting.

Everything is measurable. And gender doesn’t have to be a factor as long as you are able to communicate confidently.

Episode 8: Laurie Luh, HR Consultant

Laurie is an HR consultant – Executive in Residence. She helped build Participant Media for nearly a decade and went out on her own as a consultant a few years ago. Far beyond handbooks and compensation packages, Laurie now advises CEO’s of tech companies and startups on strategy and building sustainable and fulfilling culture.  We had a juicy conversation on what employees really care about – and it’s more about engagement and purpose than it is meditation pods and shuttle pickups.  Although those things are cool too.

And for the entrepreneur in all of us, it is vitally important to dare greatly.

Episode 7: Carmen Palafox, Partner/Investor/Community Builder

Carmen is a Partner at Make in LA, a hardware startup accelerator and venture capital firm that aims to make hardware less hard.  She started her career working in finance at Dimensional Fund Advisors and holds several degrees, including one in Sports Management.  She is an avid runner, a fearless entrepreneur and we share the unfulfilled dream of being a professional singer.  It’s probably not going to happen for either of us.

It’s important to find the intersection between passion, interest and ability. 

And “raspberry pie” is apparently a tech term – not necessarily dessert – but it does have something to do with a napkin.  I like how tech has so much to do with food.

Episode 6: Sean Hughes, Customer Experience Leader, Writer, Founder

Sean works at a big consumer software company in California, as the Head of the emerging services group, surrounded by women. Prior to that, he was a naval officer who completed multiple deployments with the SEAL teams of the Naval Special Warfare community, where he was surrounded by men. 

In addition, he writes and runs the politics and society blog Chartwell West. If you want a break from the current hysteria that is our national discourse, Sean is your guy. 

And if all that weren't enough, he and his wife Annette founded a non-profit organization called Care for Us, which provides outreach and support for special needs families, such as theirs.

We talked all things equality and workplace culture. And as for families and work – don’t ever make them choose.

Episode 1: Rebecca Sadwick, Director of Marketing

Rebecca is the Director of Marketing at GoGuardian, an educational tech company.  Before joining GoGuardian, she worked on research at UCLA that opened her eyes wide open about gender issues in tech industries.  Despite seeing all the data, she plunged in anyway, and is fully invested in consciously creating inclusive and diverse corporate cultures that move toward gender parity.

I learned a tremendous amount during this interview.  Rebecca is a rising star and is poised to be a leader in her industry.

And, she explained “brogrammer” culture.  That’s a real thing.