Magdalena Yesil: Breaking In

Magdalena Yesil was the first investor and founding board member at Salesforce, a company that now has a $200 billion market cap. She is the Founder of Broadway Angles and serves on the SoFi, Smartsheet, and Zuora board. In a conversation with Annie, Magdalena shares her experience breaking into Silicon Valley, including stories about how Steve Jobs and Marc Benioff shaped her career. She describes how persistence and resilience let you take bold steps forward.

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“The piece that a lot of people miss is that if you are going to go get advocates and you are asking them to basically be putting their own necks on the line for you, then you need to think, ‘what will I do for them?’ Life is always a two-way street. ‘If you are advocating for me, how do I return the favor?’” - Magdalena Yesil

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Episode Timestamps:

*(01:19) - Magdalena’s career success with networking

*(13:58) - Attending Stanford and breaking into Silicon Valley

*(20:46) - Experience working with Apple’s Steve Jobs

*(26:57) - First investor and founding board member at Salesforce

*(33:29) - Magdalena’s approach to advocates and networking

*(37:48) - How to overcome obstacles and earn acceptance

*(44:58) - Final thoughts

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Sponsor:

Who Got Me Here is brought to you by Connect The Dots, mapping professional relationships so you can find the strongest connections to the people and companies you want to reach. Visit ctd.ai to learn more.

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Links:

• Connect with Magdalena Yesil
• Connect with Annie Riley
• Learn more about Connect The Dots
• www.caspianstudios.com