tech – Page 2 – MENTOR dna

May 24, 2021January 14, 2022

Deanna Lyn – Head of Commercial Sales, Descartes Labs

Deanna Lyn and I spent our formative early 20s together learning the corporate ropes. I worked in the toy buying department for the Disney Stores and she worked for an author who wrote sales books.

During the summers, we’d call each other on our work lines to arrange arrival times at Santa Monica’s State Beach to play beach volleyball. Never afraid to try something new, Deanna moved to Santa Barbara, then to Colorado, and now lives with her husband in Mexico on a boat. Why not!??!

We share a lifetime of stories and I learned several important lessons about planning your next career move, what she expects candidates to ask in an interview, and how she mentored an employee on a PIP (performance improvement plan) to becoming one of the company’s top performers.

About Deanna Lyn

Deanna has spent most of her career working as a sales and marketing professional in software/technology. She currently serves as Head of Commercial Sales at Descartes Labs, a company sitting at the intersection of AI, geospatial intelligence and global markets.

Prior to Descartes, Deanna was Director of Strategic Accounts at Invoca. Her experience has spanned three decades of complex high-tech sales as a direct contributor, partner manager and sales leader. While continuously exceeding company goals, she remains passionate about building teams, mentoring for success and always serving in both her customers’ and company’s best interest.

May 16, 2021May 16, 2021

Plan the work, work the plan

As I was trying to help my parents with their vaccine registrations, I was shocked at how poorly the app was developed. Certainly the state of California had to know that millions of people would be simultaneously hitting the app for weeks on end!

This is a good lesson for any organization. Bring in experts if you’re in over your head. If you don’t have tech experts on your roster, bring one on. If you don’t have cybersecurity specialists, seek them out. Know what you don’t know and be ok with it. Barbara Jones and Fred Croshal both discuss in their episodes that no one knows everything, and if they say they do, they’re lying. Reminds me of a parenting quote: The younger you are, the more you know.

The first mistake was that the county likely didn’t know the right questions to ask as evidenced by the $1.2M contract languages. Zero mentions of uptime guarantees. Security language consists of about 3 sentences. One mention of HIPAA in the entire agreement. One!

By having an expert in your corner, you’d know that the app developer wasn’t sophisticated enough to leverage any of Akamai’s offerings. As an industry leader, Akamai has led with edge computing since 2001. What this means is that they truly are the last mile, getting data and content to users as fast as possible. They’re the spokes to a wheel if you need a super simple visual. Customers at the end of the spokes, the “internet” at the hub. Akamai also offers a powerful and robust waiting room technology that keeps your customers happy.

In those early vaccine registration weeks, California residents struggled with the app that immediately had prolonged outages. Sadly, it was the only vaccine registration app offered at the time before the hospitals and pharmacies realized they needed their own solutions.

In addition to outages, the app was riddled with typos and grammatical problems, which made me wonder how safe my parents’ info was in their database. If you’re leaving typos on your home screen for more than an hour, how’s that code looking? So let’s look past the typos…what about the ineffective notification system and sad inability to handle the traffic loads?

I immediately wondered why California didn’t leverage local teach giants Ticketmaster or Fandango, who both certainly had capacity since live music and movies had been shut down. These two tech companies are accustomed to handling massive traffic spikes and protecting customer data. The reservation systems and fast edge distribution infrastructures exist – why reinvent the wheel? Makes ya wonder how these fly-by-night app developers won the no-bid contracts!?

So the moral of the story is what my Dad has drilled into my head since childhood. Plan the work, and work the plan. Leverage your network. Know when you’re in over your head and ask for help!

Thanks Adel Zahiry for forwarding this article. Great read.

May 4, 2021May 11, 2021

Matt Laessig – Co-Founder & COO, data.world

Matt Laessig and I are like long lost 13 year old twin brothers. Yes, you read that right. As a boy mom, I’m increasingly more immature and crack up at seemingly innocuous jokes. Matt has 3 boys and loves Dungeons and Dragons. Together, we laugh at dumb stuff that only our middle school kids find funny….if that!

Matt was a big part of my life when I started snacki.com, a really early commerce venture in the late 90s. My friend Allison and I built the business as a creative venture during school, and I then took a big risk at taking the custom merchandise venture online in ’99. Matt was the Chief Marketing Officer and while we were selling $50k a month in custom t-shirts to organizations like the Leukemia & Lymphoma Association, UCLA and USC fraternities and sororities, we were likely a bit too early and green to raise the piddly amount of money needed to keep us going. Great lessons learned and I recall having to tell Matt after his wedding that we only had 4 weeks left and had to shut things down. It’s a bittersweet memory, but one that we reminisce in this episode.

About Matt Laessig

Matt Laessig is the co-founder and COO of data.world, the world’s largest open data community and a leading software platform helping companies catalog their data and analysis for easier discovery and collaboration. Previous to data.world, Matt held multiple leadership roles at HomeAway (now Vrbo), the world’s largest vacation rental marketplace, including as Vice President of Global Business Development and General Manager of BedandBreakfast.com. Prior to HomeAway, Matt served as Vice President of Business Development at Bazaarvoice, the global leader in social commerce solutions. Matt is a graduate of both the Wharton Business School and the Lauder Institute of International Studies and Management from the University of Pennsylvania. Matt is also an 9-time competitor on NBC’s American Ninja Warrior, the world’s toughest obstacle course competition.

April 27, 2021June 2, 2021

Dan Beldy, Venture Capitalist

There was much intrigue amongst my classmates about the veterans in our class. I mean, who didn’t want to be a Top Gun pilot?! And who was tougher, the Navy SEAL or the Army Ranger?

Dan, aka PT*, was one of those vets in my class. Just a normal guy getting an MBA while raising small children with his lovely and fun wife; all while many of us were over-served on Thursday nights at pub.

Dan and I have spent the past 20+ years touching base on investment and business ideas, potential new ventures and board roles, and so much more. His approach is one of wanting to help and serve. He’s always making introductions and using his network to help others. He’s a true leader and I’m thrilled to have him on as MENTOR dna guest!

* Dan’s flight school buddies named him PT after the character Perfect Tommy from the 80s sci-fi comedy classic “The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension”

Dan Beldy is a Partner at Canapi Ventures. Dan has spent the last 20 years in technology and finance as a venture capitalist. Previously, Dan was a managing director at Steamboat Ventures, the venture capital affiliate of The Walt Disney Company, where he led the U.S. venture team. Prior to that he was a partner at Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, the first venture firm to focus exclusively on software investments. Dan is also a founder of Airwing Ventures, and co-founder of PowerPlant Partners.

Dan has been involved with several successful companies as an investor and advisor including GoPro, Edgecast, acquired by Verizion, Vobile (HKEX:3738), Method, acquired by Ecover; upLynk, acquired by Verizon; Playdom, acquired by Disney; FreeWheel, acquired by Comcast; Greystripe, acquired by ValueClick; Employease, acquired by ADP; and Starmine, acquired by Thomson Reuters.

Earlier in his career Dan was an F/A-18 fighter pilot and instructor in the U.S. Navy, and served with the Brazilian Navy during an exchange program. Dan has a B.S. in Computer Science with distinction from the U.S. Naval Academy and an MBA from The Wharton School. He enjoys family and friends, golf, triathlons and is an avid Springsteen fan. Dan has completed 290+ carrier landings, delivered 25,000+ copies of the NY Daily News, and has completed a triathlon at Alcatraz and a marathon in Antarctica.

April 19, 2021April 19, 2021

Liz Leung

When I hung my own shingle as a strategy, marketing and tech consultant, Liz Leung was my first client. She’s a fellow Wharton alumna and we bonded immediately when she hired me to work on a new printer launch. Liz is a humble leader and never seeks the spotlight.

Epson is a Japanese company and Liz leveraged her Chinese background and understanding of Asian cultures to ingratiate the executives in Japan. She studied Japanese and approached the parent company’s executives with deep and authentic reverence. In 2011, Liz was asked if she would shift her attention to help turn around the Latin America consumer printing business. She’d repeatedly gained executive buy-in for strategic initiatives in a positive and constructive manner – all while maintaining a big picture approach. She immediately started learning Spanish and while keeping the entire Latin America product team intact, she led them to turn the Epson printing business around with the introduction of its big tank printer EcoTank. That technology transformed the Latin America consumer printing market and pushed Epson to teh number 1 market share position in the region.

Liz’s advice for her 30 year old self:

Find a mentor or mentors. People who act as your tour guide within an organization, but also act as your mirror to reflect immediate and direct feedback
Plan. Observe what it takes to achieve the success you want within your organization and formulate your plan. Share that plan with your mentors and have them hold you accountable.
Network. Within and outside your organization. Be authentic. Give back.

About Liz Leung

Liz has over 20 years of leadership experience in a wide range of corporate functions. Most recently, Liz has been a marketing executive at Epson America, a Japanese owned technology company based in Long Beach, California. During her tenure at Epson, Liz has been responsible for the go-to-market strategies and life cycle management of product lines accounting for up to $700M in revenues. She has also led various successful new product market entries in both North and Latin Americas, achieving top market share position within a few years after the product introduction. As general manager of her product lines, Liz has managed a large team of product managers in both Americas, and played a leadership role in many large-scale, organizational development initiatives. As a corporate leader, she has regularly partnered with various functional groups, including Finance, Operations, Legal and Sales, to achieve the organization’s objectives. Earlier in her career, Liz led the Corporate Strategy department at Epson, and worked as a management consultant at the Boston Consulting Group.

Liz studied at Cornell and Wharton at the University of Pennsylvania. Before entering Wharton, she was a wedding dress designer. Liz is an avid gardener, travels extensively, sings in a jazz ensemble, and enjoys podcasts. Her daughter, Tess, is a professional ballerina in the Smuin Contemporary Ballet in San Francisco, California.