Beyond the Blue Badge

Dr, Kai-Fu Lee helped establish Microsoft China and Microsoft Research China before moving on to do the same for Google. He now is the CEO of Sinovation Ventures and he's invested in more than 350 different companies in China. He's literally written the book on AI and innovation. In this episode of Beyond the Blue Badge, he speaks with podcast host T.A. McCann about the differences between entrepr...

Orlando Ayala retired from Microsoft in 2016 after 25 years in a number of leadership roles, including overseeing 40,000 people in 115 subsidiaries around the world to working directly with Bill Gates on his senior leadership team as Worldwide Sales Marketing and Services Group's executive vice president. But retirement didn't mean slowing down. In this episode of Beyond the Blue Badge, Orlando ta...

Microsoft alum S. Revi Sterling heads the U.S. Agency for International Development Women's Global Development and Prosperity Initiative's WomenConnect Challenge. What that means is that she gets to put her passion for eliminating the digital gender divide to work every day in places around the world. In this episode of our Beyond the Blue Badge podcast, host Eddie Pate will talk with Revi about h...

When Jon Browning looks back at his 24-years at Microsoft, he thinks about the mentors who helped him along his career path from first installing telephones fresh out of college to eventually becoming a director at the tech giant. When he left the company, he knew that there are so many people who don't have anyone help them bridge between the academic world and the professional workforce. He foun...

Building and managing a fast-growing company with more than $1B valuation Outreach.io is one the rare "unicorn" startups with more than $1B in valuation, and Microsoft alum Manny Medina is at the helm. Manny talks with T.A. McCann about fundraising, how his Microsoft experience helps, and advice to fellow entrepreneurs in the second part of this two-part episode of our Beyond the Blue Badge podcas...

Outreach.io is one of the fastest-growing tech companies with a valuation of more than $1.33 billion. Microsoft alum Manny Medina is at the helm. Manny talks with T.A. McCann about managing, building the right team and board, fundraising, and rapid growth of this "unicorn" in the first part of this two-part episode of our Beyond the Blue Badge podcast.

Steve Ballmer has always been a numbers guy. When he left Microsoft, he started to dig into our nation's numbers to get a better picture of where his philanthropic dollars could do the most good and USAFacts was born. In this episode of Beyond the Blue Badge, host Rich Kaplan talks with Steve about USAFacts, big data around some of the nation's biggest issues from the economy to the elections, fro...

In this episode of Beyond the Blue Badge, host Eddie Pate talks with Sean Kelley, a veteran of the U.S. Navy and veterans' advocate while in his roles at Microsoft, Starbucks, and Amazon. On this Veterans Day episode, Eddie and Sean talk about hiring veterans in tech and beyond, why advocacy and inclusion of veterans for a diversified workforce is essential and smart business, and how alumni can f...

Beyond the Blue Badge host Paul Shoemaker speaks with fellow Microsoft alum Terri Cole on National Philanthropy Day about her work with Social Venture Partners and United Indians of All Tribes. They talk about listening and learning, being an advocate and ally, her work with United Indians, where she derived her passion for philanthropy, and more.

In this episode of Beyond the Blue Badge, host T.A. McCann talks with Kieran Snyder. Kieran was at Microsoft for more than nine years managing several UX groups. She got her start at Microsoft working on the core spelling and grammar infrastructure for all languages that weren't English. Today, she's co-founder and CEO of Textio, an augmented writing platform based in Seattle. She talks with T.A....

In this episode of Beyond the Blue Badge, host Rich Kaplan talks with JoAnne Kennedy. JoAnne was one of a handful of female engineers at Microsoft in the early days. When she left the company, she became a senior director of product development at MSNBC.com and then vice president of technology for the NBC News Division. Today, she's vice president of technology at Nordstrom. Rich and JoAnne discu...

In this episode of Beyond the Blue Badge, host Eddie Pate talks with Rodney Hines about his amazing career at Microsoft and Starbucks before taking a "coffee break" to start his own business, Metier Brewery. Metier is one of the few black-owned breweries in the nation. Eddie and Rodney discuss how inclusion is a main ingredient for Metier's success.

In this episode of Beyond the Blue Badge, host Lora Poepping talks with Shannon Huffman Polson about her amazing journey that took, well… a lot of grit. She grew up in Alaska, became the youngest woman to climb Denali, became the first female attack helicopter pilot in the army, did a three-plus year tour at Microsoft, and went on to become an author and speaker to share her leadership lessons. He...

Microsoft alum Reggie Brown talks with Beyond the Blue Badge host Paul Shoemaker about his passion for education, and particularly about his involvement with two organizations – Rainier Scholars and Ashesi University. They also address education's role in eliminating systemic racism.

Kai Bond was a serial entrepreneur before he became a venture capitalist. Before that, he was a program manager working with the MSN Mobile team at Microsoft. Now the partner at New York-based Courtside Ventures sits down with Beyond the Blue Badge host T.A. McCann for a frank discussion about challenges of starting companies, the importance of diverse investment teams, and three things all early-...

Brad Silverberg was named P.C. Magazine's Person of the Year in 1995 for his leadership on Windows 95. In part two of this two-part episode of Beyond the Blue Badge, the former SVP of Windows shares his memories and behind-the-scenes stories of the shipping Windows 95, launch party and his life beyond with host Rich Kaplan. A Champagne party and printing the Golden Master Carnival on Campus: Launc...

Brad Silverberg was named P.C. Magazine's Person of the Year in 1995 for his leadership on Windows 95. In Part 1 of this two-part episode of Beyond the Blue Badge, the former SVP of Windows shares his memories and behind-the-scene stories of the making of Windows 95 with host Rich Kaplan.  

Beyond the Blue Badge podcast host Lora Poepping talks with fellow Microsoft alum and Glassdoor Chairman Robert Hohman about building companies on the foundation of transparency, how the innovative ideas that led to Glassdoor helped pull back the curtain on workplace culture and identify what REALLY matters to employees in today's workplace.

Beyond the Blue Badge podcast host Paul Shoemaker talks with fellow Microsoft alum Ravi Venkatesan. Ravi has spent three decades leading organizations in the private, public and social sectors, across three continents and multiple industries. He was the former chairman and CEO of Microsoft India and founder of Social Venture Partners India. Today he's UNICEF's Special Representative for Young Peop...

Beyond the Blue Badge podcast host T.A. McCann talks with fellow Microsoft alum and Silicon Valley Bank's Head of Startup Banking Claire Lee about fundraising during a pandemic. During this uncertain time, it they discuss what's happening in the market, what entrepreneurs asking for cash need to focus on now, and they even tackle failure and how to know when it's time to quit.

Brad Chase was part of the leadership team behind the Windows 95 launch, flipping Microsoft's marketing strategy on its head and helping create buzz and consumer demand for software that changed the computer industry. In this episode of Beyond the Blue Badge, podcast host Rich Kaplan talks with the former Microsoft senior vice president about the risky and bold moves that helped make Windows 95 a...

The job for life has disappeared. With the pace of technology and the pace of change, you'll have multiple career pivots throughout your life. In today's episode of Beyond the Blue Badge, host Lora Peopping sits down with Brett Alston to talk about making successful career pivots. Brett has made several career pivots since leaving Microsoft and, as managing partner of RedCloud Consulting, he helps...

In this Beyond the Blue Badge episode, host Paul Shoemaker speaks with fellow Microsoft alum Jabe Blumenthal. During his days at Microsoft, Jabe designed the first version of Excel and was the company's first program manager. Since leaving Microsoft, he's taken a "systems approach" to tackle big issues, including land conservation, climate change, clean energy. He's devoted much time to his work w...

In his first Beyond the Blue Badge episode, host and Pioneer Square Labs Managing Director T.A. McCann speaks with fellow Microsoft alum and Algorithmia co-founder and CEO Diego Oppenheimer. Diego started his company as a side project while still working at Microsoft. They discuss his ah-ha moment, when was the right time to go "all in," raising money, shifting a business model, decoding enterpris...

Host Rich Kaplan celebrate the 25th anniversary of the release of Windows 95 by talking with the men and women instrumental in shipping the software that changed the world. In Season 3, Episode 1, Rich talks with David Cole. David was the general manager for Windows 95. He and his team are responsible for inventing many of the software functions we take for granted today. Learn how a set of comman...