The BreakLine Arena

Join us in the BreakLine Arena for a conversation with Oleg Rogynskyy, Founder and CEO of People.ai. Oleg joins the Arena and shares about the personal impact that Russia's invasion of Ukraine has had on him as a Ukrainian native and some of the incredible initiatives he is working on to keep Ukrainians connected. In this episode, Oleg shares his take on the world’s first ‘Open Source War’, wh...

Join us in the BreakLine Arena for a conversation with Reena Ninan, an award-winning journalist, news anchor, podcast co-host, and founder of Good Trouble Productions.  Reena joins with an incredible breadth of experience. She reported on the aftermath of the September 11 attacks and worked as a correspondent on the ground during the war in Iraq. Listen for a deeper dive into how she got to where...

Join us in the BreakLine Arena for a conversation with Derek Lo, CEO of Medallion.  Derek joins us on the podcast to talk about his inspiring journey, and the important steps on this path, from founding Py, and then subsequently Medallion, to the people and ideas that have influenced him most deeply. Derek is an anomaly in the startup world, having experienced success at such a young age, and shar...

Join us at the BreakLine Arena for a conversation with Linda Shaffer, Chief People and Operations Officer at Checkr. Linda brings to light the unique combination of skills that have positioned her as a leader in her various roles. She shares her expertise on how fair chance hiring works, and how prioritizing inclusivity can help companies retain employees during the Great Resignation. Listen in to...

Join us at the BreakLine Arena for a conversation with Matt Abrahams, an educator and coach in the strategic communications field. He is currently a Lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Matt brings extensive expertise in how we can all optimize our communication practices to better collaborate, influence, and connect with others. He covers best practices in framing your experience...

Join us at the BreakLine Arena for a conversation with Spencer Kimball, CEO at Cockroach Labs, Inc. Spencer shares his insights on some of the key pillars that helped him build a successful business. He discusses the importance of strong early investors, establishing credibility in yourself and in your company, building company culture to strengthen cooperative resilience, and how to effectively c...

Join us in the BreakLine Arena for a conversation with Payton Iheme, Head of Americas, Public Policy at Bumble. Payton shares her lessons learned from an impressive career spanning from the US Army, Capitol Hill, Facebook and now Bumble.  She covers how her international service has lent her a keen perspective of the value of an engaged citizenry, how to exist as an ally that builds bridges to the...

Join us in the BreakLine Arena for a conversation with Allen Narcisse, Chief Operating Officer at Workrise. He shares his background and childhood that made him adept in learning and adapting quickly, his evolution towards de-compartmentalizing home and work life, and his evolution into a leader who sets up teams so that they have the frameworks to get to an answer that harkens back always to miss...

Join us in the BreakLine Arena for a conversation with Whitney Curry, CMO at Pacaso. She shares tips on how to take initiative to drive opportunities for yourself, how to find and maintain mentors, and how she balances family and work-life demands. In an authentic display of humility and grit, Whitney shares her story from starting off as Zillow's very first intern to earning the Director, Bra...

Join us in the BreakLine Arena for a conversation with Mike Micucci, COO of Automation Anywhere. He shares insights from a 30-year career of driving innovations in the tech industry, including how he balances his professional life with physical wellness, the value businesses derive from having conversations with their customers, and the importance of a team sharing the same values. "Be a story...

Join us in the BreakLine Arena for a conversation with Alisha Thomas, the Global Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging Community Manager at Medallia. Alisha shares her path to becoming a DEI leader, the journey of finding spaces where your identity is accepted, and the importance of finding joy and impact in your work. "We are opening doors and creating spaces for underrepresented groups and pe...

Join us in the BreakLine Arena for a conversation with Adam Markowitz, co-founder and CEO of next-gen security compliance automation company Drata. To him, trust is one of the most powerful tools that an entrepreneur can have in their toolkit. Drata is on a mission to help businesses earn and keep the trust of their users, customers, partners, and prospects. Adam unpacks this belief for us and sha...

Join us in the BreakLine Arena for a conversation with Keenan Wyrobek, Founder, CTO and Product Architect of Zipline. Keenan shares his process of discovering the need for a more accessible supply chain for healthcare supplies in Africa, Zipline's role as the physical infrastructure for transformative and preventative healthcare, and empowering the teams who enable individuals to have total ow...

Join us in the BreakLine Arena for a conversation with Stephany Kirkpatrick, CEO and Founder of Orum. Stephanie shares her family's immigrant roots, her incredible career path, and her genuine passion for opening the aperture to financial access for all. She also presents the driving mission behind Orum, and how she and her team have built a company where folks from diverse backgrounds and per...

Join us in the BreakLine Arena for a conversation with Mike DeCesare, CEO and President of Exabeam, a category-defining cybersecurity company. Mike shared epic stories, including his first sales calls with Larry Ellison and Steve Jobs, the importance of pursuing a mission you believe in, the trends he expects to see in cyber over the next 3-5 years, and the things he pursues for fun (he gives a ki...

Join us in the BreakLine Arena to celebrate Black History Month with BreakLine alum, Dedric Landrum. Dedric recently joined Gusto as a Senior Manager Business Technology & Product Owner. He shares a powerful story coming from humble beginnings to this seat of influence at one of the fastest growing tech companies in the world. Following Dedric’s advice, we will continue to share stories from o...

Join us in the BreakLine Arena for a conversation with Othman Laraki, CEO and Co-Founder of Color. Othman and his team are building Color to support durable and equitable public health across entire populations. Color’s technology and clinical services are the backbone of large-scale population health programs for over 200 institutions worldwide, with data and services spanning hereditary cancers,...

Join us in the BreakLine Arena for a conversation with Annette Reavis, the Chief People Officer at Envoy. She shares highlights from her prolific career. As an early employee at Facebook, she talked about helping to scale the company from 4,000 to 40,000 employees. Later, she joined Root Insurance, and worked with the team to take the company public. Today, she and the Envoy team are imagining the...

Join us in the BreakLine Arena for an authentic conversation with Sue Bostrom and Sue Barsamian. Sue Bostrom is the former EVP and CMO at Cisco Systems. She also serves on the board of directors at ServiceNow, Nutanix, and Anaplan, Druva, GitLab, Outreach, and Samsara. Sue Barsamian served as C hief Sales and Marketing officer at HPE Software for 10 years, and now is a Board Director at Five9, Box...

Join us in the BreakLine Arena for a conversation with Amit Bendov, CEO and Co-Founder of Gong.io. In this episode, Amit highlights the importance of starting companies with a solution to a tangible problem, discusses leading from a place of humility, and inspires with a candid discussion of how dreams evolve over a lifetime. Amit Bendov has been in leadership at hyper-growth enterprise software s...

Join us in the BreakLine Arena for a stunning conversation with Saeju Jeong, co-founder and CEO of Noom. Saeju was named EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2020 and raised $540M in May 2021, but it wasn’t an easy path to success. This month, 17 years ago, he arrived in the United States with nothing but an intense desire to help people, after losing his father, a well-respected and well-loved doctor in S...

Join us in the BreakLine Arena for a compelling conversation with Nicole Camarillo. She is the Co-Founder, and Chief Talent and Operations Officer at Rebellion Defense. In this episode, she highlights the pressing need for engineers of diverse backgrounds to join her at the nexus of technology and defense. Nicole Camarillo is a licensed attorney and accomplished strategist who has led several cult...

Join us in The BreakLine Arena for a conversation with Bruce Feiler, best-selling author and TED speaker. In this episode, Bruce dives into his fascinating life trajectory and story, and shares the inspiration he derives from studying how people navigate life's transitions. Bruce Feiler is the author of seven New York Times bestsellers; the presenter of two prime-time series on PBS; and the in...

Join us in The BreakLine Arena for a conversation with George Mathew, Managing Partner at Insight Partners. George Mathew joined Insight Partners and is focused on venture stage investments in AI, ML, Analytics, and Data companies as they are establishing product/market Fit. In this episode, George shares his advice on overcoming and ultimately growing from professional adversity as well as how hi...

Join us in The BreakLine Arena for an insightful conversation with Guy Guy, tech entrepreneur, innovator, and angel investor. Guy is the CEO and Co-Founder of Side, the only real estate brokerage that exclusively partners with top producing agents to create, grow, and power their businesses. Prior to Side, he founded 3 successful companies, including Kingmaker, Biz, and Kognitive. Guy is an adviso...