Ep1169: Lauren Freund: Engagement Over Reach

Steve joined Gilead Sciences, Inc. in 1989 when it was a 30 person antisense company, working over the years on projects which led to Tamiflu, Viread and other breakthrough therapies. Fast forward ~30 years, he earned an MBA and J.D. degrees and is now an Attorney and “Emotional Support Angel” in Silicon Valley. He advises and invests in diverse startups, and specializes in coaching early stage in IP and pitching while investing strategically.

31 Dec 202024min

Denise is the founder and CEO of Thought Leadership Lab where she works with executives and entrepreneurs to build their visibility and credibility. She co-founded Springboard Enterprises, the prestigious women’s start-up launch pad that has led to over $9B in funding for women entrepreneurs. She was recently a lecturer at Stanford Graduate School of Business (where she received her MBA) and is the author of Ready to Be a Thought Leader? In 2012 the White House honored her as a Champion of Change.

31 Dec 202021min

Russell Rothstein is the founder and CEO of IT Central Station, the leading review site for B2B enterprise technology products. The Wall Street Journal has called it the “Yelp for IT”. Russell began his career at Oracle and subsequently worked at startups in the US and Israel that have been acquired by SAP, CA Technologies, and Dell EMC. Russell holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Harvard, MIT, and MIT Sloan.

31 Dec 202023min

Kiran Chin is the Founder and CEO of MKA Insights, a management consulting firm that works with companies in the life science, medical device, cell/gene therapy, clinical diagnostics and healthcare market sectors.  Prior to starting MKA Insights, Kiran worked in various roles at large life science companies in M&A, organizational strategy, marketing strategies, business development and commercial market penetration strategies. She is driven by intellectual curiosity and problem solving. She has an MBA, a Masters in Finance and a Bachelors in Economics.

31 Dec 202019min

Nikos is the COO of MarineTraffic, a startup aimed at transforming shipping tech. Previously he founded SpaceNation and 1derground. He is a proud StartUp Grind Ambassador with a passion for politics (working with the Greens). A former journalist, Niko transitioned to a leadership role at a multinational pharmaceutical company before joining the startup community. He was Head of Sales & Innovation for Brand Collective in Australia and New Zealand. Find him somewhere between US + Europe + Australia, speaking at conferences and events.

31 Dec 202025min

Ayal is the CEO of Anjuna and has been building enterprise security products for over 20 years. He was previously VP of product management at SafeBreach–a Sequoia-backed enterprise security startup–and led the Umbrella product management team at OpenDNS (acquired by Cisco for $635M). Ayal held senior PM positions at Lookout and Imperva and was a part of Imperva’s IPO in 2011. He holds an MBA from UC Berkeley and a B.Sc in EE and CS from Tel Aviv University.

31 Dec 202024min

Ginny is currently a Director of Executive Recruiting at Google where she leads non-technical executive recruiting, as well as diversity for leadership hiring, and internal mobility for senior Googlers. Previously she was a Partner at Spencer Stuart and co-founded and led their global Diversity Practice for 12 years. She is the host of the Fifth Dimensional Leadership podcast and is the author of Career Mapping: Charting Your Course in the New World of Work.

31 Dec 202022min

Andy is the Senior Vice President of Sales at Bill.com (NYSE: BILL), which he helped scale to a successful IPO. Previously he founded and sold Caring.com, the nation’s leading online destination for those caring for aging loved ones. Andy grew the company to a profitable business with a team of 150 people. He held various sales and marketing leadership positions at SuccessFactors, Intuit, Instill, Peapod and SC Johnson Wax, and earned an MBA in marketing from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management.

31 Dec 202023min