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  Co-founder and CEO at Classana. Host at of10podcast What made you decide to work in tech?  My dad was really into computers when I was growing up. There were always computer parts spread throughout the basement: motherboards, monitors that no longer worked–all sorts of parts. I specifically remember him sitting in his office, which was next to my room in the basement and separated only by a very thin wall he and my uncle had put up, and he would talk from time to time with people on the phone and

Silly question to start off with, but what exactly is a data journalist and how does that differ from a normal journalist? I think that’s a really good question, as I hate it when people take things for granted. A data journalist is one who uses data as much as they possibly can in their work–which I know sounds really really silly, but it means I can write on any subject whatsoever; the only criterion is that data has to be available.Some of the pieces we write are about how

How did you become involved in tech? I got involved in technology accidentally. I was at Stanford studying philosophy and a friend of mine at the graduate school of business was working on an app. I was one of the people who was helping him out and over the course of the process I found myself enjoying the energy and dynamism of the work. I ultimately ended up leaving school to go work with him. How did you become a VC afterwards? I actually ended up doing a couple of

What made you decide to work in tech? I actually started off wanting to be a teacher but when I got into classrooms I realized that a lot of teachers’ hands were tied by the principals, and the principals’ hands were tied by the laws/government. Then I quickly found out that politicians were mostly influenced by money, business, and interest groups. I realized that the fastest way to affect change and make a lot of money was to persue the tech industry and figure out how to build products and

What made you decide to work in tech? The short answer is that it was a financial opportunity for me. When I first started, I really didn’t understand what a software engineer did or was. I was just happy to be graduating from college with a pretty decent salary offer. But tech/software development was a natural fit for my curious personality. The technical challenges of building software appealed to the problem solver in me. What was an obstacle you faced and how did you overcome that obstacle? As a software

What made you decide to work in tech? I got into tech somewhat accidentally. I loved biology and chemistry in high school and started college planning to complete a MD/PhD after graduating. After working in a lab doing breast cancer research, I decided that I still wanted something scientific but a pursuit that involved people. I ended up majoring in psychology and starting my career in public health. Over the course of my career, I shifted to global health, which necessarily involved technology given my interests in systems change and

What do you do in tech? I am currently the CEO and Founder of the marketing firm called MilliSense. My company focuses on helping startups’ reach product market fit and also getting initial users and traction to for mostly startups and tech-related companies. We help them grow regardless of whether they are at the initial stage or if they have been in business for 3-5 years. For me it’s about finding creative ways to not only grow my own company but to also grow and scale other companies. It’s kind of maddening if you think

What made you decide to work in tech? My mom was super controlling when it came to going on the internet. She used to set this AOL feature where it limited the time the child account was allowed to use the internet each day. My two other siblings and I had to share one hour of internet per day and it was horrible. My childhood consisted of modding the Sims, customizing my Myspace page, and figuring out how my older brother always bypassed the internet timer and parental controls. I played

What made you decide to work in tech? Coming into college, I didn’t have a clear idea of what I wanted to major in. I knew I wanted something that blended science and art, but I didn’t know what that something was. An advisor suggested CS, but it didn’t seem like anything I wanted to do. That summer I had an internship at Sandia National Labs, and I was exposed to web development. I took to it immediately, but the extent of what I could do was limited by the fact that I

This is a special episode of POCIT featuring former Twitter Engineer Leslie Miley. Please read his enlightening essay on Medium regarding Twitter’s lack of diversity, and how it informed his decision to leave a senior engineering position at the company. What made you decide to work in tech? I have what I call home field advantage. I was born and raised in Silicon Valley {laughs}. You couldn’t walk out the door without getting hit by a computer. It always fascinated me, I watched Steve Jobs as a kid, and witnessed

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