The BreakLine Arena

Join us in the BreakLine Arena for a conversation with Rahul Roy-Chowdhury, Global Head of Product at Grammarly, an AI-powered writing assistance tool used by millions to help people communicate with confidence and precision.Rahul joined Grammarly with 15 years of product management experience at Google. He believes that now, more than ever, effective communication is vital. In this episode, Rahul dives in on how to apply a human-centered approach to product management and problem-solving, as well as the core strength of empathy in leadership and team-building. Rooted in a mission-driven mindset, he emphasizes the value of building a high-quality decision-making culture through an inclusive process. He shares the message to all colleagues: “you belong.” Rahul closes with the advice to stay focused on the most important things, stay balanced, and savor the journey. “I care about the mission, and I care about the possibility that what I am working on can impact the world. Trying to bring about the world we believe in keeps me going.” – Rahul Roy-Chowdhury

Join us in the BreakLine Arena for a conversation with Larry Liu, Founder and CEO of Weee!, the Largest Asian and Hispanic Grocery Store in North America. The goal of Weee! is to empower customers to share their culture by making finding traditional ingredients easy and affordable. Food is fundamental to cultures across the globe, and many of us formed our most precious memories with family and friends at mealtimes. For immigrants, it can be a challenge to find traditional ingredients that allow them to share their heritage. In today’s episode, Larry discusses his experience as an immigrant, how he moved from a stable job in corporate finance to a full-time entrepreneur, and the challenges he faced along the way when building Weee! He describes the importance of the idea behind a company, and why even if he failed, he wouldn’t have regretted it. He shares more about how Weee! is helping support immigrant communities during the cultural upheaval caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and why food is so key in forming intercultural bonds.“Food is a mirror and a window. A mirror to reflect yourself, who you are, your heritage, but also a window into another culture. The more we share about food, the more we love each other.”Please like, rate, subscribe, or review our show if you’ve liked what you’ve heard! We’d love to hear your thoughts. If you’re interested in joining our community, please visit www.breakline.org.

Join us in the BreakLine Arena for a conversation with Damien Atkins, Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel at Aura, a mission-driven technology company dedicated to creating a safer internet. Damien, an award-winning business and legal executive, joins the BreakLine Arena to share insightful perspectives on life and business. He discussed how to expand your ‘surface area of luck,' shared frameworks for dealing with failure, uncertainty, and risk, and closed with communication pillars that are essential to good leadership. “Too often, people are too passive about creating their own opportunities. Luck is far too important to be left to chance” Please like, rate, subscribe, or review our show if you’ve liked what you’ve heard! We’d love to hear your thoughts. If you’re interested in joining our community, please visit www.breakline.org.

Join us in the BreakLine Arena for a conversation with Saydeah Howard, Chief Talent Officer at IVP, a premier venture capital and growth equity firm investing in rapidly-growing technology companies and partnering closely with exceptional management teams. In this episode, Saydeah discussed some of the common recruiting and leadership pitfalls for founding teams, how remote work has expanded access to talent, why people leaders need to prioritize the daily experience of their teams over social media posts, and how the power of practice will enhance your life. (She even wrote a book about it!)Saydeah also holds kindness and empathy as core tenets. You can sense it with her encouragement to stretch for what you really want. "Don't be scared of trying something new. You've done it before. You've had a first day at school or at work where you didn't know any of the acronyms or where the bathroom was. You learned it. You asked questions, you read, you studied, you did what it took to succeed."Please like, rate, subscribe, or review our show if you’ve liked what you’ve heard! We’d love to hear your thoughts. If you’re interested in joining our community, please visit www.breakline.org.

Join us in the BreakLine Arena for a conversation with Tammy Nam, COO at Picsart, the world’s largest creative platform of free-to-use content, powerful tools, and inspiration from other creators.Tammy believes that changing your perspective can change everything in your life. This outlook allowed her to pivot from journalism to tech early in her career. She also shared that if you have never grappled with imposter syndrome, you likely are not stretching yourself far enough. Tammy is an experienced mentor and reflected on the most common advice she gives, including navigating working relationships, and what happens in the absence of communication. “It only takes one person, one decision, or one move to set you on the right path."Please like, rate, subscribe, or review our show if you’ve liked what you’ve heard! We’d love to hear your thoughts. If you’re interested in joining our community, please visit www.breakline.org.

Dan Brillman, Founder and CEO of Unite Us, a tech pioneer in coordinated care networks, shares insights from his journey as a military veteran to healthcare innovator. He discusses the critical role of social determinants in health, urging a shift to community-based services for vulnerable populations. Brillman emphasizes the importance of collaboration in improving healthcare access for veterans and the need for long-term goals to create generational change in the sector. His vision focuses on building inclusive, interconnected support systems to enhance person-centered care.

Join us in the BreakLine Arena for a conversation with David Lu, Co-founder and President at Expo, a software integration platform that centralizes and optimizes data and resources as well as Founder and Managing Partner at Hyphen Capital, a venture capital firm investing in the next generation of Asian American Entrepreneurs.  Dave, a seasoned technology industry thought leader, shares his journey from marketing at big companies like Yahoo! and Apple to becoming a serial entrepreneur. He is also a leading voice in the Asian American community. In this episode, he discusses the biases, norms, and points of friction commonly experienced by Asian Americans in tech. He specifically points to the bamboo ceiling, the impact inclusivity can have on a person or community, and his decision to take a stand and use his influence to promote equality and social justice. “One of the biggest problems we have in this country, the reason we are so divided, is because we don’t have enough empathy for other people.”

Join us in the BreakLine Arena for a conversation with Henry Schuck, CEO and Founder at ZoomInfo, a platform that empowers business-to-business sales, marketing, and recruiting professionals to hit their number by pairing best-in-class technology with unrivaled data coverage, accuracy, and depth of contacts. The company’s large and diversified customer base consists of over 20,000 customers from global enterprises, mid-market companies, and small businesses. On June 4, 2020, ZoomInfo became a publicly traded company, listing on Nasdaq as one of the largest technology initial public offerings of the past decade.Henry shared the formative experiences his mother imparted to him that ignited his relentless work ethic and the intuition to pivot from an early career in law to co-founding ZoomInfo. Henry's advice spanned funding, storytelling, the importance of surrounding yourself with people who believe in you, and the keys that allowed him to overcome imposter syndrome.Please like, rate, subscribe, or review our show if you’ve liked what you’ve heard! We’d love to hear your thoughts. If you’re interested in joining our community, please visit www.breakline.org.

Join us in the BreakLine Arena for a conversation with Steve Kalush and Javaria Braden, Solutions Engineers at Blend. Blend is a FinTech company that is re-architecting the banking sector by making essential banking services more secure and accessible.Steve and Javaria share insight about the impact of the customer-centric approach to the Blend business model, setting up a framework for diverse and holistic problem-solving solutions, and the benefits that a diverse team brings to a company. Additionally, hear about how the partnership between Blend and BreakLine helped to find and grow diverse talent and teams.“If you have everyone saying the same thing in the same way, you’re not growing and you’re not learning.”Please like, rate, subscribe, or review our show if you’ve liked what you’ve heard! We’d love to hear your thoughts. If you’re interested in joining our community, please visit www.breakline.org.

Join us in the BreakLine Arena for a conversation with Jennifer Tejada, CEO, and Joe Militello, CPO of PagerDuty, the Saas incident response platform.Both Jennifer and Joe walked unconventional paths toward Pagerduty. Jennifer, a woman of color and a member of a military family, grew up in CPG selling "peanut butter and diapers" before transitioning into the tech sector. Joe served in the Marine Corps infantry before jumping to a career in human resources. They drew from their personal and professional experiences to discuss the enormous advantage of a unique perspective and a beginner’s mind. Jen said, “By definition, the tech industry is not particularly diverse, and I think we have been successful because of the fact that we are intentional about inclusive leadership, because we bring people from different, racial, ethnic, gender, age, and vocational backgrounds, and it helps us understand problems through a variety of lenses.” Jen and Joe also share with the BreakLine Arena PagerDuty’s recent conversation about vision and mission, character, and the importance of committing to shared values.Please like, rate, subscribe, or review our show if you’ve liked what you’ve heard! We’d love to hear your thoughts. If you’re interested in joining our community, please visit www.breakline.org.