This week on the room, we are thrilled to be sitting down with SJ, Sacchetti, CEO of Cleo , a working parent family benefits platform for employers. SJ didn’t always think she was going to become a CEO and chats with us about her career path, her learnings along the way, and what it's like coming into a company as CEO just months before COVID and work from home. SJ started her career in politics and policy, cutting her teeth in the world of political fundraising, which “set her clock” for the st...
May 11, 2021•42 min•Ep. 2
In The Room Podcast’s very special Season 3 opener, Claudia and Madison sit down with the one and only, Ciara. We all know her as the Grammy-award winning singer and songwriter behind hit classics like “1, 2 Step,” “Goodies,” and “Level Up,” but she is also a businesswoman and entrepreneur behind multiple businesses. Ciara is the CEO and Founder of music label Beauty Marks Entertainment , through which she produced her latest album, as well as Co-Founder of The House of LR&C , a fashion hous...
May 04, 2021•41 min•Ep. 1
We cannot believe that we have concluded season 2, but are even more excited for season 3, airing next week! Thank you so much to all of our listeners for joining us on The Room! We have big plans for Season 3, launching Tuesday, May 4th, featuring international pop star & entrepreneur.... *drumroll please*.... Ciara Wilson! But before we enter the room where it happened with a whole new slew of entrepreneurs, we take a look back on Season 2, its guests, our biggest takeaways, and share some...
Apr 29, 2021•34 min
Yesterday, Brex announced their Series D round, led by Tiger Global , which now valued them at $7.4 billion. Today, we share an episode of The Room Podcast that just couldn’t wait! Madison and Claudia sit down with Henrique Dubugras, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Brex in late March. For those who don’t know, Brex is the unicorn fintech startup that provides the all-in-one money and banking solution for startups. Both Brazilian natives, Henrique and his co-founder Pedro Franceschi founded Pagar.me bef...
Apr 27, 2021•37 min•Ep. 10
In the Season 2 finale of The Room, we sit down with Trae Vassallo, co-founder of early stage venture fund Defy.vc . Out of undergrad at Stanford, Trae worked for the iconic design and innovation firm IDEO , developing products for companies including the Palm Pilot and Dell. During her second year of business school at Stanford, Trae founded Good Technology, a mobile device company whose purpose was to connect islanded devices to the Internet. Good Technology sold to Motorola for $500 million ....
Apr 06, 2021•46 min•Ep. 9
In this week’s episode of The Room, we welcome Liz Meyerdirk, CEO of The Pill Club , a women’s telehealth platform that simplifies and personalizes the experience of prescribing and delivering birth control. Prior to joining The Pill Club Team, Liz was a founding member of the Uber Eats team, leading strategy and global business development for six years. As The Pill Club hit a $100 million run rate , Liz joined as chief executive officer, now leading the team into an exciting product line launc...
Mar 30, 2021•44 min•Ep. 8
This week on The Room, we sat down with Zubin Koticha, co-founder and CEO of Opyn . Opyn is a decentralized finance platform for ethereum options, which recently raised their series A, lead by Paradigm only months after their seed. Zubin graduated from Berkley in 2018 after a Manu-year love and obsession with the crypto space. Post-graduation Zubin worked at Thunder researching blockchain but soon started open with his two co-founders Alexis and Aparna in 2019. Zubin has worked in the crypto spa...
Mar 23, 2021•39 min•Ep. 7
In this week’s episode of The Room, we talk to Allison Barr Allen, Co-Founder and COO of Fast , a one-click, passwordless checkout platform. Allison started her career as tech consultant with PwC then joined Uber in its early days, eventually serving as Head of Global Product Operations on the Money Team. While launching Uber Money products including Instant Pay, Cash, and Wallets, Allison delved into the world of angel investing. In 2019, she met her Fast Co-Founder Domm Holland on Twitter, and...
Mar 16, 2021•36 min•Ep. 6
Claudia and Madison welcome Sridhar Ramaswamy, CEO and Co-Founder of Neeva , into The Room this week. Sridhar immigrated from India for his PhD in Data Science at Brown, back in 1989. Today, Sridhar is a Silicon Valley legend, first growing Google’s search ad program to a $115 million business as the Senior Vice President of Ads and Commerce. After 15 years with Google, he joined Greylock as a Partner, a position he still holds today. Now, he’s also onto his newest venture called Neeva, an ad-fr...
Mar 09, 2021•38 min•Ep. 5
In this week’s episode, we welcome Jesse Draper, Emmy-nominated television star turned venture capitalist who founded Halogen Ventures , an early-stage venture firm focused on investing in female entrepreneurs. You’ve seen her on TV in The Naked Brothers Band and as the host of The Valley Girl Show, interviewing tech and business entrepreneurs like Elon Musk and Mark Cuban. As a fourth-generation venture capitalist, Jesse moved away from entertainment to build her own venture firm, Halogen Ventu...
Mar 02, 2021•26 min•Ep. 4
This week on The Room, we sit down with Jane Metcalfe. Jane was the co-founder of the legendary Wired magazine and media company, TCHO chocolates, and now NEO.LIFE. In the early 1990s, Jane and her life partner and co-founder Louis Rossetto came to the Bay Area with the idea and passion to build a magazine and media company devoted to cutting-edge technology. This magazine is what we now know as the iconic Wired, home to some of the most futuristic, but also technology-defining stories. Jane and...
Feb 23, 2021•29 min•Ep. 3
In this episode, co-hosts Madison and Claudia, interview Ajay Kori, co-founder and former CEO of UrbanStems. They find out more about his journey of founding and scaling this massively successful eCommerce flower delivery service business. He shares a few of his learnings about customer satisfaction and the best way to ensure the longevity of new customers. His inspiring story of failing during the initial phases of the business, but not letting that deter him or his team from making a huge succ...
Feb 16, 2021•40 min•Ep. 2
In this episode of The Room, Claudia and Madison kick off the new season with Amy Chang, Co-Founder of Accompany , an AI-driven relationship intelligence platform acquired by Cisco in 2018 for $270 million . we hear from a first-time founder and long term product guru on the ups and downs of transitioning from big tech to founding a company. Listen here to learn about the power of early career decisions, battling anxiety and uncertainty, and the right reasons to sell your company....
Feb 09, 2021•36 min•Ep. 1
And that’s a wrap on Season 1! Thank you so much to all of our listeners for joining us on The Room! We have big plans for Season 2, launching Tuesday, Feb.9, but before we enter the room where it happened with a whole new slew of entrepreneurs, we take a look back on Season 1, its guests, and our biggest takeaways.
Feb 02, 2021•31 min
Claudia and Madison close out The Room’s first season with guest Amit Sharma, CEO, and founder of Narvar . Madison first met Amit in Narvar’s offices back in 2019, as a customer at Gap Inc. If you’ve ever received an email about your tracking update or returned something online, odds are you’ve interacted with Narvar’s core products. Narvar is a post-purchase customer engagement platform helping over 650 retailers streamline their customer communication, returns, and exchanges. Founded in 2012, ...
Jan 05, 2021•36 min•Ep. 9
Alexa Buckley is the Co-Founder of Margaux - a direct-to-consumer (DTC) brand of insanely comfortable and beautiful shoes. If you pay attention to Instagram posts from influencers wearing handcrafted ballet flats in every color of the rainbow, then you’ve probably seen a Margaux shoe. Alexa started the shoe line during her senior year at Harvard. Alongside co-founder, Sarah Pierson, the two women realized the pervasive shoe shuffle, where working women would have to swap their walking shoes with...
Dec 29, 2020•32 min•Ep. 8
This week, we sat down with Amy Nelson, CEO and founder of The Riveter, a digital and physical community for women. Spending 10 plus years in corporate law, Amy never thought she'd be a founder. However, after the 2016 election, she took a closer look at what mattered most to her - The Riveter was born. While it's been a challenging year for physical spaces, Amy has gallantly persevered by building a growing digital space proving our belief that "the room" is more than four walls. In today's epi...
Dec 22, 2020•35 min•Ep. 7
This week on The Room, we interview Shishir Mehrotra, founder and CEO of Coda . Coda is a venture-backed workflow tool recently valued at over $600 million dollars. With Coda, docs are now as powerful as applications. Although Coda was started in 2014, Coda is more relevant now than ever as a key player in 2020’s “future of work.” Coda is redefining what it means to stay organized, engaged, and effective during COVID-19’s acceleration of a remote-first culture. In today’s episode, we explore Shi...
Dec 15, 2020•43 min•Ep. 6
This week on The Room, we interview Jessica Lessin, founder of The Information . In Silicon Valley, whenever there is a breaking story, The source that founders, funders, and technologists turn to to get the inside scoop is the subscription-based news-source that Jessica founded in 2013. Jessica has created a platform the tech world can’t get enough of in a world crowded by media coverage and ad-blockers. In today’s episode, we explore her path to disrupting journalism and how information is con...
Dec 08, 2020•34 min•Ep. 5
This week on The Room, we interview Hope Cochran, managing director at Madrona Venture Group. It's probably easier to ask, what hasn't Hope done? Music and economics at Stanford. Founder and CFO of SkillsVillage, bought by Peoplesoft in 2001. CFO of Clearwire and King Digital. Board member of three public companies, Hasboro, Mongo DB, and New Relic. Today we explore colorful stories of her time in C-suites and boardrooms discussing insights and themes such as advocating for yourself at work, wha...
Dec 01, 2020•38 min•Ep. 4
This week on The Room, we interview Coral Chung , the CEO, and co-founder of Senreve . Sitting down with Coral to hear about the start of her luxury D2C brand, we learned about the early days of founding an accessories brand in Silicon Valley, her global expansion plans, and a bit about juggling the hats of CEO and mother.
Nov 24, 2020•40 min•Ep. 3
In this episode of The Room podcast, Madison and Claudia spend some time diving into the history of Silicon Valley power couple; Matt Rogers and Swati Mylavarapu - founders of Venture Capital business - Incite. Previously to Incite, Matt Rogers was the co-founder of Nest. They go into detail about how they have been able to juggle the highs and lows of building a business together while pursuing their own individual passions - all while taking care of each other as a married couple and their gro...
Nov 17, 2020•46 min•Ep. 1
