#28: Rodney Urquhart - How a 16-year-old High School Dropout became a Software Engineer at Slack
Breaking Into Startups25 Helmi 2017

#28: Rodney Urquhart - How a 16-year-old High School Dropout became a Software Engineer at Slack

Rodney Urquhart grew up in a North Philly neighborhood ridden with gang violence and effects of the crack epidemic. After seeing people around him get involved with gangs and crime, he realized that staying in high school would result in getting arrested or shot. At 16, Rodney dropped out of high school and moved in with his grand mother. Being a high school dropout and having no college degree, Rodney had his fair share of companies casting doubt on his ability. But his willingness to learn and work well with others was what got him to create an impressive company portfolio including Comcast, Microsoft’s Yammer, and ThoughtWorks. He didn’t just want to survive, he wanted to thrive. Rodney currently heads the test infrastructure team at Slack. He is also part of a program called /dev/color, a non-profit organization that aims to maximize the impact of Black software engineers in the tech space.

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#110: Dan Rosensweig - CEO of Chegg, the Playbook for the Modern Day Student

#110: Dan Rosensweig - CEO of Chegg, the Playbook for the Modern Day Student

Dan Rosensweig is the CEO of Chegg, an American education company with the aim to provide education that is less expensive, more available, more affordable, and more relevant. On the podcast, Dan expl...

12 Helmi 201950min

#109: Cameron Yarbrough - CEO of Torch, on the Importance of Mental Health & Coaching

#109: Cameron Yarbrough - CEO of Torch, on the Importance of Mental Health & Coaching

Cameron Yarbrough is the CEO of Torch and one of the best leadership and executive coaches in the world. In this episode, Cameron talks about coaching for everyone! How Torch got its start and the p...

5 Helmi 201926min

#108: Dan Sommer, CEO & founder of Trilogy Education, workforce accelerator for leading universities

#108: Dan Sommer, CEO & founder of Trilogy Education, workforce accelerator for leading universities

Dan Sommer is the CEO and Co-Founder of Trilogy Education Services. Dan has launched partnerships with over 37 of the world's leading universities, providing alternative forms of education on their ca...

23 Joulu 201859min

#107: Rich Smith - How A College Dropout Became A Senior Engineer at Netflix

#107: Rich Smith - How A College Dropout Became A Senior Engineer at Netflix

Announcements: Watch the video recording of this episode on Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Rg8SHeq1Ns Rich Smith is a Senior UI engineer at Netflix but did you know this was his 17th job? ...

11 Joulu 20181h 7min

#106: Balaji Srinivasan - CTO of Coinbase, How Everyone Can be an Investor

#106: Balaji Srinivasan - CTO of Coinbase, How Everyone Can be an Investor

Balaji Srinivasan is the CTO of Coinbase. Prior to that, he was a co-founder of Counsyl, Earn, Teleport, and a General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz. Today, he talks about his insights into traditi...

29 Marras 20181h 10min

#105: Rick O'Donnell - CEO of Skills Fund, Providing Financing to Coding Bootcamp Students

#105: Rick O'Donnell - CEO of Skills Fund, Providing Financing to Coding Bootcamp Students

Rick O’Donnell is the Founder and CEO of Skills Fund, a place that provides people with an opportunity to acquire skills and they also provide financing for students as they're doing a career transiti...

19 Marras 201851min

#104: Leanne Pittsford - Founder of Lesbians Who Tech & Tech Jobs Tour

#104: Leanne Pittsford - Founder of Lesbians Who Tech & Tech Jobs Tour

There are half a million open tech jobs, and yet, diversity in tech continues to be a problem. The key is in building relationships and connecting people with the right companies that need their skill...

31 Loka 201849min

#103: Madelyn Tavarez - How a Part-time Bootcamp helped her Become an Android Engineer

#103: Madelyn Tavarez - How a Part-time Bootcamp helped her Become an Android Engineer

Our guest on the podcast has a remarkable story. Madelyn Tavarez did a part-time bootcamp, while holding a full-time job. She taught herself how to code. And became a software engineer at Pinter...

24 Loka 20181h 1min