The BreakLine Arena

Join us in the BreakLine Arena for a conversation with Alisha Thomas, the Global Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging Community Manager at Medallia. Alisha shares her path to becoming a DEI leader, the journey of finding spaces where your identity is accepted, and the importance of finding joy and impact in your work."We are opening doors and creating spaces for underrepresented groups and people who too many times have been put in a box, but are magic and deserve to shine."Please like, rate, subscribe, or review our show if you like 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 Adam Markowitz, co-founder and CEO of next-gen security compliance automation company Drata.To him, trust is one of the most powerful tools that an entrepreneur can have in their toolkit. Drata is on a mission to help businesses earn and keep the trust of their users, customers, partners, and prospects. Adam unpacks this belief for us and shares insights into Drata’s company culture, which he views as a core competitive advantage. We dive into the values that inform his commitment to people, culture, and feedback, and examine his relationship with failure and competition. Adam shares some valuable advice for entrepreneurs as they navigate sales, hiring, and fundraising. We also touch on resilience as a key attribute for startups, speed as the ultimate currency, and what fatherhood has taught Adam about being a better leader.Please like, rate, subscribe, or review our show if you like 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 Keenan Wyrobek, Founder, CTO and Product Architect of Zipline.Keenan shares his process of discovering the need for a more accessible supply chain for healthcare supplies in Africa, Zipline's role as the physical infrastructure for transformative and preventative healthcare, and empowering the teams who enable individuals to have total ownership of their outcomes.“When you build a culture where there's trust, and people learn how to handle responsibility, they can embrace their creativities to solve problems. It's just incredibly powerful.”If you like what you’ve heard, please like, rate, subscribe, or review our show! 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 Stephany Kirkpatrick, CEO and Founder of Orum.Stephanie shares her family's immigrant roots, her incredible career path, and her genuine passion for opening the aperture to financial access for all. She also presents the driving mission behind Orum, and how she and her team have built a company where folks from diverse backgrounds and perspectives are all invited to the table.“Our vision is to power a better financial system where everyone has the freedom to build to their potential. By giving people the confidence to instantly access their own money, we can bring financial opportunity to all. Bridging that financial gap helps us build a better, more ambitious future for America.”If you like what you’ve heard, please like, rate, subscribe, or review our show! 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 Mike DeCesare, CEO and President of Exabeam, a category-defining cybersecurity company.Mike shared epic stories, including his first sales calls with Larry Ellison and Steve Jobs, the importance of pursuing a mission you believe in, the trends he expects to see in cyber over the next 3-5 years, and the things he pursues for fun (he gives a killer cooking tip toward the end). Regarding the importance of diversity, Mike says: “I have to practice what I preach. I truly believe that a diverse environment is a better environment."If you like what you’ve heard, please like, rate, subscribe, or review our show! 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 to celebrate Black History Month with BreakLine alum, Dedric Landrum.Dedric recently joined Gusto as a Senior Manager Business Technology & Product Owner. He shares a powerful story coming from humble beginnings to this seat of influence at one of the fastest growing tech companies in the world. Following Dedric’s advice, we will continue to share stories from our Apex community all year because “our heritages, including the black community’s, is worth celebrating year round.” BreakLine Education would like to honor the contributions, visions, and leadership of our entire Black community (alumni, partners, and BreakLine team).So pop your airpods in, and join us in the BreakLine Arena for a little motivation and inspiration. Happy Black History Month to all!

In this engaging discussion, Othman Laraki, CEO and co-founder of Color, shares insights from his career journey, starting from his roots in Morocco to leading healthcare innovations. He emphasizes how diversity drives industry disruption and reflects on how his family's cancer history influenced Color's mission. Othman highlights the importance of making healthcare accessible, explaining Color's pandemic response efforts and future plans in population health. He encourages aspiring founders to embrace unfamiliar fields with curiosity and humility.

Join us in the BreakLine Arena for a conversation with Annette Reavis, the Chief People Officer at Envoy. She shares highlights from her prolific career. As an early employee at Facebook, she talked about helping to scale the company from 4,000 to 40,000 employees. Later, she joined Root Insurance, and worked with the team to take the company public. Today, she and the Envoy team are imagining the future of work and the places and spaces where we will do our best building and innovating. Join us to hear more!

Join us in the BreakLine Arena for an authentic conversation with Sue Bostrom and Sue Barsamian.Sue Bostrom is the former EVP and CMO at Cisco Systems. She also serves on the board of directors at ServiceNow, Nutanix, and Anaplan, Druva, GitLab, Outreach, and Samsara. Sue Barsamian served as Chief Sales and Marketing officer at HPE Software for 10 years, and now is a Board Director at Five9, Box, NortonLifelock, Gainsight, Xactly, Onfido and formerly Segment, and Auth0. Both their rich industry experience and senses of humor make for a compelling conversation that ranges from the keys to their successes, to their overcoming imposter syndrome. If you've liked what you've heard, please like, rate, or review our show! We'd love to hear your thoughts. If you're interested in joining our community, please visit breakline.org.

Join us in the BreakLine Arena for a conversation with Amit Bendov, CEO and Co-Founder of Gong.io. In this episode, Amit highlights the importance of starting companies with a solution to a tangible problem, discusses leading from a place of humility, and inspires with a candid discussion of how dreams evolve over a lifetime. Amit Bendov has been in leadership at hyper-growth enterprise software startups for 20 plus years. Before co-founding and leading at Gong.io, he was CEO at SiSense, and CMO at Panaya. If you've liked what you've heard, please like, rate, or review our show! We'd love to hear your thoughts. If you're interested in joining our community, please visit breakline.org.