The BreakLine Arena

Join us in The BreakLine Arena as we share inspiring stories from our community in celebration of this most recent Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage month. In this episode we hear from a beautiful couple, BreakLine alums Jason and Mirini Kim.In this conversation, Jason and Mirini share their humble beginnings, favorite family traditions, as well as the foundational lessons instilled in them by their parents on the road to success. Growing up in Korean American households, both their families navigated the challenges of embracing American culture while holding on to the richness of their Korean heritage.After achieving great success in the military and healthcare fields respectively, both Jason and Mirini leveraged BreakLine to pivot into rewarding careers in the tech industry.If you like what you've heard, please subscribe, follow, and rate our show! To learn more about BreakLine Education, check us out at breakline.org.

Calling all cybersecurity nerds! Join us in the BreakLine Arena for a conversation with Greg Murphy, during which he shares his invaluable perspectives on this constantly innovating space.Greg joined Ordr as CEO in December 2018. Previously, he was VP Business Operations for the HPE Aruba Group, the 4,000 person networking and IoT business unit of Hewlett Packard Enterprise. In that role, Greg was responsible for leading the business integration of Aruba and HP Networking following HP’s $3 billion acquisition of Aruba Networks in 2015. Greg held multiple prior senior executive positions within Aruba, including SVP Business Operations, GM of network management software, GM of outdoor and mesh products and VP of Marketing. Greg joined Aruba in 2008 through its acquisition of AirWave Wireless, a network management software provider that Greg founded and led. Greg received his M.A. from Stanford University and his B.A. from Amherst College.

Join us in The BreakLine Arena as we share engaging conversations from our BreakLine community in celebration of this most recent Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month.Rocky Takapu was raised by immigrants from Tonga (a subset of Polynesian islands in the South Pacific) looking for greater opportunities in America, Rocky was born in Oakland, California as a first generation Tongan-American. Growing up in a rough environment and then falling into the street life, Rocky’s family moved him to stay in Hawaii with his uncle for the latter part of his teenage years. He was able to acquire discipline and was shown the opportunities that were available through the United States Air Force. From there, he was able to leverage his G.I. Bill for his undergraduate studies in Electrical Engineering and later was awarded the Science Mathematics and Research Transformation (SMART) Fellowship through the DoD. He then went out to become a civilian research for DoD and civilian laboratories such as Naval Research Lab and Draper Labs. Looking for a change, Rocky was introduced to Breakline where he was able to break into tech with Facebook. Rocky is now an Infrastructure TPM at Stripe. Rocky is passionate about STEM and providing extra seats at the table for the AAPI community and other underrepresented minorities by advocating communities such as BreakLine, Club Lab Rascals, and PIEFEST. He has an amazing wife Tee and two rambunctious boys, Pulileka and Viliami.If you like what you've heard, please subscribe, follow, and rate our show! To learn more about BreakLine Education, check us out at breakline.org.

Join us in The BreakLine Arena for a truly inspiring conversation with Manny Medina, CEO and Co-Founder of Outreach.io. In this episode Manny shares how his journey as a first-generation immigrant instilled in him an unshakeable grit, and ultimately prepared him to lead a billion dollar AI-based sales engagement company. Manny co-founded Outreach in 2014 and now serves as CEO. Prior to Outreach, Manny was employee number three on Amazon’s AWS team, and led the Microsoft mobile division from launch to $50M in annual revenue. He holds an MBA from Harvard and a Masters in Computer Science from the University of Pennsylvania. Manny is a model of vulnerable and transparent leadership to his employees, from his heartfelt weekly email to his employees, to the traditional Friday get-together where the whole company shares their highs and lows of the week. He is a proponent of saving the planet by consuming less and purchasing second-hand whenever possible (he might be the only CEO to take the stage at industry events in shirts purchased from Goodwill). Manny grew up in Ecuador and now lives with his wife and three children in Seattle.If you liked what you've heard, please subscribe, follow, and rate our show! To learn more about BreakLine Education, check us out at breakline.org.

Join us in the BreakLine Arena for a vulnerable and encouraging episode celebrating Mental Health Awareness Month. We sat down with BreakLine teammates Bethany Coates and Lauren Faul to discuss their experiences with Imposter Syndrome, and how to conquer that voice in your head that tells you "you don't belong here." You do. And we'd love to remind you why.If you like what you've heard, please subscribe, follow, and rate our show! To learn more about BreakLine Education, check us out at breakline.org.

Join us in The BreakLine Arena for an inspiring, and uplifting conversation with Kristin Groos Richmond, Co-Founder, CEO and Chairman of Revolution Foods. In this episode, Kristin shares the incredible mission-driven success created by her company, as well as the challenges of innovating through a global pandemic to serve communities across the country.Kristin founded Revolution Foods in 2005 with Kirsten Tobey to transform the way we feed our students. Kristin continues to lead the growth of the company which now serves over two million freshly prepared meals every week, across the country and recently, into grocery stores. Prior to founding Revolution Foods, Kristin’s career spanned from corporate finance to education reform including co-founding the Kenya Community Center for Learning and serving as Vice President at RISE. She began her career at Citi in Investment Banking. Kristin was a member of the White House Council for Community Solutions and is on the Dean’s Advisory Council at UC Berkeley. She is a Pahara-Aspen Fellow, an Ashoka Fellow and a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum. Kristin is on the Board of Directors for Generate Capital, a leading clean energy investment company and sustainable infrastructure operator. Most recently, Kristin was recognized as one of Inc.’s Top 100 Women Entrepreneurs of 2020.Kristin holds a B.S. in Finance and Accounting from Boston College and a M.B.A. from U.C. Berkeley. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and two sons.If you liked what you've heard, please subscribe, follow, and rate our show! To learn more about BreakLine Education, check us out at breakline.org.

Join us in the BreakLine Arena for the inside scoop on the BreakLine admissions process with our Director of Admissions, Sergio Padilla. Sergio drops some knowledge on how to stay open-minded during overwhelming times of transition, shares his fascinating life path, and invites folks to come claim their spot at the table within the tech industry.  Sergio is a United States Air Force veteran and BreakLine alum. He served as a Personnel Officer for 7 years, including tours to Afghanistan & Honduras. People Operations is his passion, and he has since led recruiting & HR teams in education, retail, and hospitality. He is excited to further BreakLine’s efforts in connecting high performing veterans, women, and people of color to meaningful careers in tech. Sergio was born and raised in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico and now lives in Alaska where he & his wife, Courtney, who is active duty in the Air Force, take full advantage of the great outdoors.If you like what you’ve heard, please subscribe, follow, and rate our show! To learn more BreakLine Education, check us out at breakline.org. 

Join us in The BreakLine Arena for an action-packed conversation with John Vrionis, Co-Founder and Partner at Unusual Ventures. In this episode, John shares valuable insights gained across the course of a tremendously successful career as a venture capitalist, as well as the epiphany which lead him to reimagine the industry and create Unusual Ventures. Originally from Georgia, John attended Harvard where he studied economics and played soccer. His drive to learn pushed him to earn his master’s degree in computer science from the University of Chicago, while helping with technical diligence and sourcing at a venture capital firm. Inspired by successful entrepreneurs, John arrived in Silicon Valley in 2002 and worked in product management and sales before completing his MBA at Stanford. In John’s words, “I believe that you learn by doing and the most by overcoming adversity. For me, whether it was sports, school, or in my personal and professional life, that’s been the truth. I gravitate to people who have an immense drive to overcome and the humility to keep learning.” Prior to founding Unusual Ventures, John was a General Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners. He’s been an early investor in several billion dollar plus companies, including: AppDynamics, Mulesoft, Nicira, Nimble Storage, Arctic Wolf Networks, Affirmed Networks, DataStax, Harness, and Heptio.If you like what you've heard, please subscribe, follow, and rate our show! To learn more about BreakLine Education, check us out at breakline.org.

Join us in the BreakLine Arena for an incredible conversation with Ahron Oddman. He shares how his immigrant roots raised him in a culture of generosity, how he uses those very principles to shape the organization he runs as well as the schools they serve, and how we can all better support the educational institutions that will create the next generation of leaders.Ahron is currently the CEO of PSS. PSS partners with educators to create meaningful and effective learning experiences. PSS provides curriculum centered content to our 2,000 school partners. Ahron was shaped by several influential educators at every stage of his life. He enjoys working closely with educators and students. Prior to PSS, Ahron helped scale the US sales organization at nCino ahead of a $7B IPO in 2020. nCino is a multinational fintech company based in Wilmington, NC. Before joining nCino, Ahron served nine years in the Marine Corps as an MV-22 Osprey Instructor Pilot, both in the US and overseas. In this role, he combined his love for country, aviation, and teaching. Ahron holds a BS in Aerospace Engineering from the US Naval Academy and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He’s an avid runner, reader and pilot. He most enjoys spending time with his wife and four kids, under the age of 8.

Join us in The BreakLine Arena for a thoughtful and compelling conversation with Hasani Caraway, General Counsel at Notion. In this episode, Hasani shares how receiving a childhood gift sparked an insatiable curiosity which inspired him to study Computer Science at Prairie View A&M University prior to entering the tech industry.Intrigued by various aspects of the industry, Hasani would later masterfully pivot, deciding to study law at KU Leuven in Belgium, ultimately earning his JD from NYU. His specialties are Venture Capital, Corporate Finance, Corporate Law & Governance, Mergers & Acquisitions.Before joining Notion, he served as an Associate for Wilson Sonsini Goodrich and Rosati as well as the General Counsel at Zendesk. In those respective roles he counseled senior management and boards of directors on fiduciary duties, corporate governance, risk management and employment matters.If you like what you've heard, please subscribe, follow, and rate our show! To learn more about BreakLine Education, check us out at breakline.org.