The Early Team

Hosted by Shawhin

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Episodes

Latest episode

Jan 2024

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EN-US

About the show

Conversations with early employees at startups, and how they figured it out.

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44 recent

January 7, 20241 hr 9 min

Episode 044 - Vishak Visvanathan, Early Engineer

Vishak was one of the first engineering hires at Postscript. He is a coding bootcamp graduate with a background in mechanical engineering, and has worked at early stage SaaS startups since 2015.Vishak is currently a Staff Engineer at Postscript, where he leads product strategy and architecture, drives solutions and tech partnerships, and helps hire and onboard high-performing engineering teams.In this conversation, we talk about:The benefits and challenges associated with going the coding bootcamp routeThe importance of tailoring communication that resonates and is easy to digest by non-technical colleaguesAnd the impact triaging customer support tickets, while radically prioritizing them, can have on your progression at an early stage startup

December 17, 20231 hr 6 min

Episode 043 - Taylor Udell, Early Heap & Champify

Taylor is Head of Growth at Champify, which monitors job changes to help go-to-market teams turn existing relationships into new business opportunities that actually close. She began her career as a classroom teacher through Teach for America, before transitioning into tech as an early employee at Heap.In this conversation, we talk about:The overlaps between teaching and working as an early stage startup employeeHow working at Twilio helped her sharpen her product marketing craft, within a large organization And why staying hyper-focus on a particular persona is even more critical during the current market conditions

November 13, 20231 hr 6 min

Episode 042 - Jessie Gold Koester, VP of Operations

Jessie was the fourth employee at Collectly, starting as Head of Customer Success. Her background is in Customer Success and Account Management at start-ups, specifically focusing on developing relationships and growth within existing accounts. She is currently the Vice President of Operations where she focuses on overseeing multiple internal teams, building the strategy and plans for the company, hiring new employees, and more. In this conversation, we talk about:Lessons learned from managing up in roles that face high management attritionHer approach to building trust with clients in order to achieve win-win scenariosAnd her recommendation for advocating for yourself and getting a seat a the table

October 23, 20231 hr 7 min

Episode 041 - Alessandro Chesser, 1st Sales Hire at Carta

Alessandro was the 1st sales hire at Carta. During his 8 year tenure, he played a major role in helping Carta find product market fit, managed hundreds of people, and took Carta from 0 to 300m+ ARR. Now, Alessandro is taking his learnings from Carta and transferring them to his new company GetDynasty.com where he is democratizing access to the most powerful wealth creation tool available to Americans - the living trust.In this conversation, we talk about:His approach to building deep and long term trust with his clientsHow he established the sales function at Carta and built out the team over timeAnd the signals to look out for that indicate both success and that it’s time to move on from your current role and/or company

September 26, 20231 hr 12 min

Episode 040 - Kasra Khalili, Product Marketing Leader

Kasra's career is set at the intersection of product strategy and marketing leadership — composed of his time building products as a founder (Mintor and IntroHero), driving community growth (Startup Grind, On Deck), and leading marketing initiatives (Coho). His career also includes studying for and working in occupational safety, running a restaurant, and even penning a book.In this conversation, we talk about:The parallels between working in safety (OSHA) and at startupsHow his background, both as a founder and as an immigrant, has contributed to his confidence of figuring it out, as an early stage employeeAnd the premise of his book, Who We Know, The Power of Physical and Digital Networks in Our Lives

September 11, 20231 hr 1 min

Episode 039 - Ashley Acosta, Early Brex & Pipe

Ashley is the CEO & Founder of Maca, building the first platform for iterative pricing. She went through hyper-growth as the 7th employee of Brex, the fastest company in B2B history to surpass $100M ARR in 18 months. She then joined Pipe’s founding team as VP of Revenue to stand up the operations and early go-to-market teams - they issued $1B+ in capital in 10 months and became the fastest fintech to reach a $2B valuation in history.In this conversation, we talk about:How “figuring it out” has been a pillar for her career, both in the medical & startup fieldsHow a culture of taking ownership and wearing many hats contributed to her and Brex’s successAnd what she looks for in both founders and potential direct reports, prior to deciding to work with them

August 21, 20231 hr 3 min

Episode 038 - Jackie Miller, Corporate Innovation Leader

Jackie Miller has had a dynamic career spanning NGOs (Amnesty International), social enterprise (Venture for America), major corporate brands (Chobani and Chanel), and venture backed startups (On Deck), with the red thread criss-crossing of accelerators, corporate venture, and strategic partnerships. She's exploring her next chapter and weighing the thrill of joining the early team of a dynamic, fast-paced growth company or the stability and ready resources of an established player. In this conversation, we talk about:How learning to be resourceful while working at a non-profit enabled her success working at startupsWhat it takes to launch innovation programs from scratch at major well known brandsAnd the common traits she has observed in early stage founders that set up their teams for success

July 10, 20231 hr 1 min

Episode 037 - Shweta Shrivastava, Founding Engineer

Shweta is a Founding Engineer at Leda Health. She has worked within core engineering teams at different B2B SaaS, EdTech, and now Health-Tech startups, building out the product vision and implementing best practices for engineering teams. She currently works on full-stack web development, cloud technologies, compliance, and security. She strives to work on projects big or small, that not only challenge her professional skills but also help her empower more women in tech. In this conversation, we talk about:How an internship during her masters program introduced her to the world of startupsThe lessons she learned from being a part of successful business that had to pivot due to COVIDAnd how she approaches building complex products from 0-1 in the healthcare space

June 5, 202351 min

Episode 036 - Kera DeMars, Head of Marketing

Kera is the head of marketing at Hustle Fund, where she oversees their content and events. Previously she was the first employee at The Hustle, a media company with 1m+ subscribers (acq by HubSpot), where she held a variety of roles including Director of Operations and Director of Events. In this conversation, we talk about:How her separate experiences in both the restaurant and events industries, paired with her major in English, set her up for success in wearing many hats in her first startup roleThe challenges of planning successful conferences and her advice for startups looking to do the sameAnd how she guides individuals on deciding whether to join a startup or a larger company

May 22, 202358 min

Episode 035 - Alex Valeyev, Mechanical Engineer

Alex is a mechanical engineer based out of the Bay Area working in the field of fluidics and water chemistry. At Sutro he has worked on developing low-cost, automated water monitoring technology with the mission of ensuring access to safe, clean water to all. In this conversation, we talk about:How his curiosity and the ability to figure things out led his role at TechShopThe challenges of being an early employee and what it took to get Sutro to its current stageAnd the critical role his advisors have played in his growth