Who Got Me Here

Connect The Dots
Who Got Me Here

We've all heard it a hundred times: Your network is your net worth. Who Got Me Here features leading executives looking back on the relationships that transformed their careers, unearthing lessons that anyone can use to build more meaningful connections and make the most of them.

  1. 11/29/2023

    Mark Anderson: Utilizing Sales Skills to Open Your Horizons

    Mark Anderson is the CEO at Alteryx. In a conversation with Annie, Mark talks about his humble beginnings in retail sales that helped him break into the tech world. He shares stories about working with Jeff Bezos and Amazon in the ‘90s, and how learning from John Chambers at Cisco informs his current leadership style. Prior to his role as CEO at Alteryx, Mark was President of Palo Alto Networks, where he and the team grew the company from pre-IPO in 2012 to become one of the largest security companies in the world. --- "I used to think that asking for help was a sign of weakness… And it wasn't until I noticed people that I respected asking for help and getting the sensation of joy when you provide help or guidance to others that I realized it was really a sign of strength, and that freed me up to be greedy when it came to asking for help.” - Mark Anderson --- Episode Timestamps: *(01:46) - Mark’s background and beginning in sales *(06:59) - Breaking into the world of tech *(09:31) - Key relationships from building connections *(12:22) - Working at Cisco at $600 BN valuation *(19:48) - Working with Jeff Bezos in the ‘90s *(23:32) - Leveraging relationships to overcome obstacles *(30:20) - Working at Alteryx *(35:01) - Final thoughts --- 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. --- Links: Connect with Mark AndersonConnect with Annie RileyLearn more about Connect The Dotswww.caspianstudios.com

    37 min
  2. 11/08/2023

    Jeff Epstein: The Trillion Dollar Connector

    Jeff Epstein is an Operating Partner at Bessemer Venture Partners, a global firm with $4 billion under management that invests in early-stage and hyper-growth startups, partnering closely with entrepreneurs to build durable businesses including innovative companies like Pinterest, Twilio, Box, LinkedIn, Shopify, Yelp, and Skype. Formerly, Jeff was the executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Oracle, one of the world’s largest and most profitable technology companies, with a market value of over $200 billion. Prior to joining Oracle, Jeff served as the CFO at several public and private companies, including DoubleClick (acquired by Google), King World Productions (acquired by CBS), and Nielsen’s Media Measurement and Information Group. Jeff co-teaches the Lean Launchpad class at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Engineering and the CFO Leadership class at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He holds an MBA from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar, and a BA from Yale College. In this conversation with Annie Riley, Jeff talks about how he was able to make over 10,000 introductions throughout his career, his experience co-teaching the Lean Launchpad at Stanford, and the path he took to become CFO, leaving us with advice for those aspiring to do the same. --- "The great thing about this whole idea of relationships and introductions is, it's not all or nothing, it's easy to start in a small way. No matter how much experience you have or whatever you're doing when you meet with someone, you say, just ask how can I be helpful? And if they say, 'gee, I would love to meet this person', or 'I'd love to look, do this, or learn about that', think about is there someone you know who would make an introduction, would be helpful, and then double opt-in. So, don't immediately introduce them, just email your friend and say, 'I've met person X, Y, Z, I think they're really interesting, here's why I think you might want to meet them'. Do that five or ten times, and see what happens. And if you end up with 10 no's then, you know, maybe you're not thinking about it right, or maybe you don't have the right relationships. But it wouldn't surprise me if you have five or six 'yeses' and one or two people say, 'wow, thank you so much for making that connection'." - Jeff Epstein --- Episode Timestamps: *(02:42) - Jeff’s expansive network of 10,000+ connections *(09:03) - Exploring his background in relationship building *(15:56) - Co-teaching Lean Launchpad at Stanford School of Engineering *(22:47) - The biggest networking mistakes to avoid *(27:58) - Jeff’s path to CFO and advice for those aspiring *(34:40) - Idols throughout his career *(39:12) - Final thoughts --- 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. --- Links: Connect with Jeff EpsteinConnect with Annie RileyLearn more about Connect The Dotswww.caspianstudios.com

    44 min
  3. 09/27/2023

    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. --- “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 --- 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 --- 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. --- Links: Connect with Magdalena YesilConnect with Annie RileyLearn more about Connect The Dotswww.caspianstudios.com

    47 min
  4. 04/26/2023

    Nick Mehta: The Best Time To Network Is Always

    Nick Mehta is the CEO at Gainsight, a company with 1,200+ global employees and 20k growing customers. Their mission is to be living proof that you can win in business while being human first. 99% of the reviewers on Glassdoor approve of their CEO. So what’s Nick’s secret to success? In a conversation with Annie, Nick talks about breaking into the customer success industry, standing out through the details, utilizing LinkedIn as a career-building strategy, and his most important advice for what NOT to do when networking. --- “Business is fundamentally about human beings first. It's about human beings in your company and human beings with your customer and not losing sight of the human side of it. And that's something we're really passionate about. Our purpose and our mission statement at Gainsight is to be living proof you can win in business while being human first. So that's actually more than just customer success; it's about this new way of thinking about business.” - Nick Mehta --- Episode Timestamps: *(01:42) - How to use LinkedIn as part of a career-building strategy *(09:51) - Celebrating 10 years of Gainsight and reminiscing back to it’s beginnings *(13:50) - Why customer success ignites passion inside Nick *(15:51) - Taking a ‘human-first’ approach in networking and relationship building *(22:24) - Advice for networking calls. Don’t be transactional! *(26:11) - How Nick broke into the customer success industry *(30:15) - Anecdotes of pivotal relationships that lead to Nick’s success *(37:41) - Looking back on his career and learning from mistakes --- 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. --- Links: Connect with Nick MehtaLearn more about GainsightConnect with Annie RileyLearn more about Connect The Dotswww.caspianstudios.com

    46 min
  5. 04/05/2023

    Job Searches: How To Uncover New Opportunities

    Kicking off a job search can feel overwhelming. It takes motivation to put yourself out there, and it’s emotionally draining when you don’t know where to go next. The good news is there are simple techniques to surface new opportunities and set yourself apart from all the other applicants. Who Got Me Here is a podcast about connections, career building, and relationships. In this episode, Annie and Jamie will share advice on tapping your network, making great asks, and acing the interview. If you know someone who has been laid off or is coming to you for career advice, share this link. The recommendation might prove immensely helpful in thinking about their next career move.   --- “Don't think about the job search as a one-time campaign. This is really about developing your career. So success in a job hunt and success in your career is about the number of good relationships that you can foster. These are the people that are going to be your advocates and sources of your next career opportunity. Reid Hoffman said this, “if you're looking for an opportunity, you're really looking for a person.” So you want to think about developing good relationships throughout your career and keeping track of those people. The second thing is really about the number of quality touches. It's about how many people you reach out to, how many conversations you're able to set up, and quality means that you're taking the time to craft good asks of different people. And then, finally, acing the interview. You want to make sure that, if it's a company that you love, you are the best candidate and you're going to land that job.” - Jamie Grenney --- Episode Timestamps: *(02:11) - Introducing Jamie Grenney, CMO and Head of Product at Connect The Dots *(02:47) - A story about Annie Riley, Host of Who Got Me Here *(05:12) - Advice for first steps and getting tactical with job searching *(14:54) - Building relationships and making good asks  *(19:02) - Relationship refreshes as a means of reconnecting the dots *(27:56) - Keeping conversations going by following up on initial connections *(31:02) - A multi-time CMO’s advice for acing the interview process *(37:48) - How to decide which company to accept an offer from *(40:14) - Final piece of advice - don’t think about the job hunt as a one-time campaign; think about relationship building as the key to career success --- 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. --- Links: Connect with Jamie GrenneyConnect with Annie RileyLearn more about Connect The Dotswww.caspianstudios.com

    44 min
  6. 12/14/2022

    April Underwood: Company Networks Are The Foundation Of One’s Network

    April Underwood is the former Chief Product Officer at Slack. She was early at Twitter and made great friends at Google. As she describes in the podcast, the collection of people from companies A, B, and C is the foundation of one's network. April picked companies where she loved the product and knew these were people (Stewart Butterfield, Dick Costolo) she'd love building with. At this point in her career, April is an early-stage investor, co-founder of #ANGELS, and serves on the boards of Zillow and Eventbrite. In a fun conversation with Annie, hear April’s recommendations on building relationships, making good asks, and connecting friends.  --- “Networking and mentorship oftentimes sounds like something that you can just go do. I think that you have to, in my experience, foster those relationships.  You network and you cultivate mentors through both on the job experiences, but also like real personal connection. Those are where I think people can really show up for one another because they know, they know you and you know them.” - April Underwood --- Episode Timestamps: *(03:50) - How April’s begnings as an intern at Deloitte Consulting as an intern lead to connections *(05:31) - Why it’s important to foster work relationships outside of the workplace *(07:52) - How April cultivated a relationship with Dick Costolo, former CEO of Twitter *(09:29) - How April made smart choices throughout her career by joining, Google, Twitter, Slack *(12:33) - Let your gut be your guide  *(14:57) - Choose the path where you feel at ease and feel like your best self *(17:11) - How April created a relationship with Katie Jacobs Stanton *(23:39) - Why relationships don't get built in a single meeting, but in multiple interactions  *(29:27) - The importance of #ANGELS --- 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. --- Links: Connect with April UnderwoodLearn more about #ANGELSConnect with Annie RileyLearn more about Connect The Dotswww.caspianstudios.com

    37 min
  7. 11/30/2022

    Pejman Nozad: Use Your Differences

    Pejman is the co-founder and managing director of Pear VC, one of the most successful investment firms in Silicon Valley. Over the past two decades, he has been a seed investor in some of the most iconic tech companies including Doordash, Dropbox, Applovin, Gusto, and many more. An Iranian immigrant, Pejman took an unconventional career path, building up his network while working as a rug salesman in Palo Alto. Hear him share incredible stories—like the time he brought the entire partnership of Sequoia Capital into his rug gallery—and timeless lessons about the value of carefully building a network over time and the power of leaning in to what makes you unique.  --- “For me, I realized there is an opportunity. I think I was very lucky. I saw people around me and I wasn't really afraid. I wasn't afraid to jump into a community that I was not part of, ask a lot of questions, and I used my differences as my power.” - Pejman Nozad --- Episode Timestamps:  *(02:10) - Pejman's beginnings from Iran to Palo Alto *(04:32) - How working at a Rug Gallery gave Pejman access to tech and venture capita entrepreneurs  *(06:22) - Have a genuine interest in getting to know people *(07:23) - Using you differences as a power *(10:21) - Cultivating a relationship Lou Montulli founding member of Netscape, from customer to friend *(12:30) - How a relationship with Doug Leone changed the trajectory of Pejman's career *(14:07) - Getting Sequoia Capital to invest in Dropbox early on, with a ROI around $2 billion  *(17:38) - How Pear VC is partnering with founders to turn great ideas into category-defining companies. *(29:27) - Understanding the market and product when investing --- 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. --- Links: Connect with Pejman NozadLearn more about Pear VCConnect with Annie RileyLearn more about Connect The Dotswww.caspianstudios.com

    35 min
5
out of 5
24 Ratings

About

We've all heard it a hundred times: Your network is your net worth. Who Got Me Here features leading executives looking back on the relationships that transformed their careers, unearthing lessons that anyone can use to build more meaningful connections and make the most of them.

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