The Early Team

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 duri...

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 intention...

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 ada...

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 lea...

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

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 evolved over time How her time at an early stage co...

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 five-year-segments of his career The 3-pillars of ris...

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 this conversation, we talk about: How worki...

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 law experience is empowering his success in his sale...

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 the long-game and filling in the skill gaps to get t...

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 this conversation, we talk about: How she transit...

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 as a new dad. In this conversation, we talk abo...

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 adapting to a new environment and using her journalis...

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 dog friendly trails around the Bay Area. During ou...

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 talk about: The concept of house of cards and wha...

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 illustrator and designer. She’s passionate about envir...

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 able to navigate across many industries, with...

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 navigated her interests, transitioning from the c...

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 it