Ep. 65: Accelerating Scientist-Led Entrepreneurship, Navigating TTOs, & Charting the First Wave of Enterprise AI with Devika Thapar, Co-Founder at Wilbe

In our latest episode, we sit down with Mare Ahmed, the Operations Director at Bluebonnet Data, a non-profit focused on leveraging data and technology to support progressive political campaigns and organizations. Mare discusses her initial exposure to and fascination with political science and her previous experience as the Special Projects Director at the New Hampshire Democratic Party. We then highlight the origins of Bluebonnet Data as a student-led mission and how the Bluebonnet Fellowship bridges the gap between young-tech driven people with the desire to make a meaningful impact and the need for data support on campaigns. Mare dives into how during the 12 week fellowship, fellows are matched with projects which address pain points on political campaigns such as voter targeting, district analysis, donor research and field tool set-up by developing projects such as Generating Voter Turnout Scores from Scratch and Calculating a Win Number after Redistricting. We discuss how the Bluebonnet Fellowship builds a diverse talent pipeline in progressive politics and how Bluebonnet Data showcases its fellows’ career journeys into the political tech space through its newsletter series, Bluebonnets in the (Progressive) Field. We close the episode by discussing the economic impact of Bluebonnet Data’s support in the political landscape along with the case study of Ohio Voice's campaign to protect reproductive rights. Learn More: https://www.bluebonnetdata.org/ https://www.bluebonnetdata.org/blog

In this episode, Manasi and Sualeha sit down with Elizabeth Bridges, a designer currently leading Brand and Creative Strategy at Brimstone, a startup creating carbon-negative cement for cities, and a visiting professor at the Pratt Institute School of Design, where she has developed and adapted courses focused on impact and sustainability. Most recently, Elizabeth has served as the Co-Founder of OurCarbon, the Director of Design at the Bioforcetech Corporation, and the Co-Founder & Creative Director of Sum Studio.We open the episode by discussing Elizabeth’s graduate research at the Pratt Institute, focused on the psychological significance of the built environment for the survivors of the Siege of Sarajevo during the Bosnian War in the 1990s, where she expands on the relationship between intergenerational trauma, social conflict, and the role of symbolic spaces. We then dive deeper into Elizabeth’s work as a 3D designer at Ralph Appelbaum Associates—one of the most prominent museum exhibition design firms in the world—and the value of experiential design as a form of education.We then transition to Elizabeth’s shift to working on climate-centric projects, driven by prior experiential design projects and a visit to NASA headquarters, where she shares more about materials science and design in exhibitions, such as “Food and Water”, as well as in a materials science in a climate context. Elizabeth shares more about her work at Bioforcetech, a machine development company that turns the billions of food and yard waste managed annually into physically sequestered carbon without external energy.  We also discuss Elizabeth’s work at OurCarbon, a carbon-negative material brand working to replace fossil-derived substances, with a focus on a carbon-negative concrete additive and black pigment.We wrap up the episode by discussing Elizabeth’s experience developing courses at the Pratt Institute and her current work at Brimstone—which recently received a $189 million federal investment from the DOE—where she expands on concrete as a high-stakes industry; how the target audience of a cement company remains investors, policymakers, and taxpayers; and how Brimstone is designing an easily deployable process to be integrated with a wide range of energy sources globally.Elizabeth’s Website: https://www.elizabethcbridges.com/

Welcome back to the Boss Ladies Podcast! In this week’s episode, Manasi and Sualeha sit down with Devika Thapar. Devika is the co-founder of Wilbe, the first full-stack venture firm where scientists can access entrepreneurship & career resources, advocacy, venture funding, and lab space all in one place. Devika has been commercializing frontier innovations for the past decade across India, the UK, and the US. We kick off the episode by discussing the start of Devika’s career in strategy management at Accenture India, and her eventual transition to CitizenM, a Dutch hotel startup, where she developed their North American market entry. Devika then shares more about her eventual transition to IBM following her MBA at Yale, where she initially spent two years as IBM Watson’s Business Development and Sales Lead in Europe, then transitioned to Chief of Staff of IBM Watson Financial Services and Senior Product Manager & Program Director of IBM Watson. We then transition to Willbe, where Devika speaks more about how Wilbe began as a movement to put scientists in control of their careers and centers scientist-led entrepreneurship. Devika shares more about its work not only with scientists, but also with university Tech Transfer Offices in better supporting scientist founders. Devika then shares more about companies in which she serves as both a founding team member and investor through Wilbe; the scope of companies that Wilbe works with, from companies building sensory computers to redefining the status quo of protein expression; and helping different scientific leaders work to de-risk their innovations. Learn More About Wilbe: https://www.wilbe.com/

In this episode, we sit down with Daniela de Paulis, an award-winning media artist and radio operator whose artistic practice is informed by space in its wildest meaning. We open the episode by discussing Daniela’s experience at the Dwingeloo radio telescope in the Netherlands and how she fostered interdisciplinary collaboration as the founder of Art Activities at Dwingeloo. We then dive further into Daniela’s work on OPTICKS, a project which sends visual data to the moon and back in the form of radio signals. For OPTICKS, Daniela explains how she developed an innovative application of Moonbounce technology called Visual Moonbounce, which allows for sending and receiving images as radio waves, using the Moon as a natural satellite.  We transition into Daniela’s projects focused on combining neuroscience and radio technologies, such as COGITO in Space which aims to create a connection between the mind of the viewer and their idea of universe and explores how knowledge acquired through remote observation of the universe influences our cognition. Daniela also discusses Mare Incognito, a project which consists of a live performance highlighting the gradual dissolution of consciousness and of the thinking process while falling asleep, alternatively shifting from the subjective to the cosmic perspective. She expands on how Mare Incognito explores and draws reflection upon both the process of dying as a daily experience in human life and the fascination of how the transitional stage of consciousness in deep sleep can serve as a vibrant array of possibilities.   Before closing out the episode, we touch on how Daniela founded A Sign in Space, a project which aims to involve the world-wide Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence community, professionals from different fields and the broader public, in the reception, decoding and interpretation of a simulated extraterrestrial message. She touches on how the project expands our view of how extraterrestrial intelligence may attempt to communicate with us and provides us with insight on our own ability to interpret and create new methods of communication. We wrap up the episode by highlighting how in November 2023, the International Astronomical Union named Asteroid 52959 Danieladepaulis in honor of Daniela and the significance of this exciting milestone in her long-standing career.   Learn more about Daniela: https://danieladepaulis.com/

In the latest episode of The Boss Ladies Podcast, Manasi and Sualeha sit down with Kim Ryu, a Product Designer at Microsoft AI, working on designing consumer-facing AI. Previously, Kim has served as a Product Designer at Inflection AI, acquired by Microsoft AI, Product Design Manager with a focus on Investing and Family verticals at CashApp, and senior product design roles at Intuit and Robinhood. Kim is also a painter, illustrator, and editorial artist who has worked with the NYT, The New Yorker, NPR, The Washington Post, NBC, and The Atlantic. We kick off the episode by discussing Kim’s identity growing up as a Korean-American and its influence on her personal artstyle—in which she frequently uses anthropomorphic figures that are in the process of discovery or survival in a foreign landscape—often breaking the rules of perspective and dripping with symbolism in a dream-like setting. Kim then dives deeper into her work at Intuit, Robinhood, and Cashapp in designing not only independent financial products but an ecosystem of personal finance. At Intuit, Kim helped design mobile experiences for an app simplifying financial management and tax preparation for the self-employed, an experience that translated to her work at Cash App Taxes, a website to make filing taxes 100% free, regardless of your tax situation. Kim also expands on her work at CashApp in expanding investing to the teenage bracket and increasing accessibility to wealth building for a younger and traditionally financially disadvantaged demographic. Kim also shares more about her transition to Robinhood, where she worked on projects including Robinhood’s Crypto Wallet and Crypto gifting feature, as well as the design for the Robinhood Cash Card. As we wrap up the episode, Kim shares more about her work at Inflection AI, the creator of pi.ai, a personal AI chatbot that acts as a friendly conversation partner by prioritizing both factual and empathetic support. Kim talks about knowledge gaps as a driving factor for her to try projects in unfamiliar domains, and her experience designing a truly empathetic AI tool. Kim’s Portfolio: https://www.kimryustudio.com/

In this episode, Manasi and Sualeha sit down with Jackie Snow, a freelance journalist with words, photos, and videos published by The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and National Geographic. Previously, Jackie has also served as an Associate Video Producer at Fast Company, an Associate Director of Artificial Intelligence at MIT Tech Review, and an AI Business Reporter at the Messenger. We kick off the episode by discussing Jackie’s overarching views on journalism through the vast multitude of styles and projects she’s worked on; diving into a deeper discussion of her early articles as an intern at the Atlantic, on topics like Apple’s patents in 2012 and Turkey’s startup ecosystem. We then shift to Jackie’s work in multimedia journalism and her projects at Fast Company, as well as the process of transitioning to MIT Tech Review where she began to focus more on AI-based pieces in 2017. Later on the episode, Jackie shares more about her experience joining The Messenger, a nonpartisan digital media startup with a $50 million initial funding round, and walks us through her experience with its abrupt shutdown 8 months in, navigating a very unexpected event in the journalism world, and her consequent decision to pursue freelance journalism. We then wrap up the episode by discussing Jackie’s current work, focused on AI journalism, and how she weaves in narrative components to tell more grounded technological stories. At the end of the episode, Jackie shares more about her experience as a prior DC Books to Prisons Board Member and the importance of bringing books to incarcerated people. Jackie’s Website: https://jackiesnow.co/

In the latest episode of The Boss Ladies Podcast, Manasi and Sualeha sit down with Eunice Jung, Head of Partnerships at Future. Future is a payment platform that pays you to go green—giving you 5% cash back or more and rewards on everyday green purchases through partnerships with brands that simplify a green lifestyle. At Future, Eunice developed a pipeline for Future’s ecosystem partners, from D2C brands to B2B relationships, & built the first sustainability-centered rewards marketplace from 0 to 100+ strong Future partners and 50,000+ low carbon, sustainable businesses across America in less than a year. We kick off the episode by discussing Eunice’s experience growing up across 3 different cities—in Oakland, California; Guadalajara, Mexico; and Seoul, South Korea—and how it shaped her perspective coming into Stanford, where she studied Anthropology and International Relations, eventually getting her Master’s in Sustainability Science and Practice. Eunice dives deep into the research behind her Honors Thesis, looking at the structures of desire shaping the decision-making process of girls when choosing to enter industries, such as the garment industry. Eunice then shares her insights on the norm of philanthropic efforts by the global north pouring money into various regions, particularly within the global south, bringing up the central question: how do we go about eliminating the traditional corporate model of evaluating girls education as a cost-benefit analysis of seeming the best while maintaining most corporate benefit? Eunice then discusses her transition from more research-oriented work at Stanford to working at a fintech startup, where she had the opportunity to design her own role. Eunice discusses both her role at Future in working with a wide range of partners and what evaluating effective climate-friendly investments looks like on the part of other companies. Eunice also shares her philosophies regarding B2B and B2C relationships, how financial movements serve as powerful action in shaping corporate change, and how Future shapes their strategic initiatives for growth to remind consumers that they have fiscal power through their spending habits and everyday financial decisions. Learn More: https://www.future.green/ https://gothammag.com/eunice-jung-futurecard-sustainable-shopping-rewards

In this episode, Manasi and Sualeha sit down with Andrea Vale, a scientific expedition videographer and photographer and current staff writer at Freethink. Andrea has served as an ocean exploration filmmaker for organizations like the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Oxford Anthroposea Expedition and has worked in remote, off-the-grid locations across the world. Previously, Andrea served on National Geographic’s Science and Exploration Team and as a Human Story Specialist on National Geographic’s Out of Eden Project—a 24,000-mile journalistic endeavor to create a global record of human life at the start of a new millennium as told by villagers, nomads, traders, farmers, soldiers, and artists who rarely make the news. We kick off the episode by diving into Andrea’s experience at Oxford’s Biodiversity Program and her work in quantifying non-human charisma in landscapes, as well as her thoughts on how corporeal charisma applies to ecological conservation. Andrea also dives into her experience taking part in the Madrasa Discourses Project, through which she engaged in dialogue with Indian and Pakistani Islamic scholars to discuss the intersection of traditional Islamic thought and contemporary scientific and philosophical worldviews. Andrea also elaborates on her work at the Out of Eden Project, and the role that slow journalism played in being able to dissect unknown stories, especially when working on-ground in a remote region of Punjab, India. Andrea also discusses her work managing the Out of Eden Walk Translation Community, and the impact that the linguistic nuance of culturally-dependent stories had on her understanding of translation and on the stories she was sharing. We wrap up this episode by discussing how Andrea approaches her current work as a cinematic storyteller when capturing aspects of nature and biodiversity—what is the line between cinema and reality, and how do storytellers balance it when seeking to highlight universal truths? Andrea’s Portfolio: https://www.andreavale.com/ Out of Eden Project (still ongoing!): https://outofedenwalk.nationalgeographic.org/

In our latest episode, we sit down with Dr. Beth Darnall, Professor at Stanford University School of Medicine under the Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative, and Pain Medicine. We open the episode with how Dr. Darnall’s path through graduate school led to her focus on revolutionizing treatments for chronic pain. Dr. Darnall breaks down how pain is a consequence of a diseased state of the nervous system itself and how pain should be viewed as a biopsychosocial condition instead of a purely biomedical problem. She expands on how the current landscape of pain treatment utilizes opioids as a frontline treatment and how her work has focused on harnessing non-pharmaceutical treatments to optimize pain management. Dr. Darnall dives into her innovation through Empowered Relief, a 1-session intervention that rapidly equips individuals with pain relief skills for chronic pain, acute pain, and surgical recovery, and how this solution expands access to pain care by providing an alternative to traditional pain medications and 16 hours of cognitive behavioral therapy. She elaborates on her role as the Director of Stanford’s Pain Relief Innovations Lab where she leads NIH and PCORI-funded clinical trials through studies such as EMPOWER and PROGRESS which look at voluntary opioid reduction and pain relief for chronic pain. We close the episode by touching on Dr. Darnall’s role as Chief Science Advisor at AppliedVR and how virtual reality therapeutics enable patients to access an immersive, home-based pain treatment device. Learn More: https://profiles.stanford.edu/beth-darnall https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-04994-5https://www.appliedvr.io/

In this episode, Manasi and Sualeha sit down with Amanda Calabrese, Co-Founder and CMO at Sequel, which recently received FDA clearance for it’s re-engineered performance-oriented tampon. Sequel’s FDA clearance marks the first time the tampon has been majorly redesigned since it’s invention nearly a century ago. We kick off the episode by diving into Amanda’s journey through surfing, teaching surfing, and competing in the United States National Lifesaving Team in championships across the world. By starting up her own surf business, Amanda discusses how building a surfing business provided her with transferable skills that spun her towards the world of business and product design, which she pursued through her studies at Stanford. Throughout the episode, Amanda discusses the journey of building out Sequel through dorm room prototypes, eventually leading her and her co-founder to stumble upon the idea of Sequel’s spiral grooves that wrap diagonally around the tampon—rather than the linear channels of most other tampons on the market—allowing them to absorb more fluid. Amanda dives deeper into the history of tampon innovation, the difference between white label and private label manufacturing, and the vertical integration of tampon mass manufacturers across supply chain and distribution systems that place small companies looking to innovate at a disadvantage. Towards the end of the episode, Amanda also touches on Sequel’s patenting process, as Sequel has garnered 11 patents in the US and another 7 pending international patents. Through it’s novel manufacturing method, Amanda explains how Sequel can differentiate itself from traditional production and distribution networks and invest more into R&D. We wrap up the episode by discussing the urgency for “need based” innovation in the space of menstrual products rather than white label products which provide the illusion of choice with little differentiation. Sequel’s Website: https://www.trysequel.com/ Dr. Jen Gunter’s Review of Sequel (post-FDA clearance): https://vajenda.substack.com/p/new-tampon-cleared-by-the-fda Politico Article on Juliet Thomas & Plan A Health (mobile clinics providing free healthcare services to communities in the Mississippi Delta): https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/03/18/mississippi-delta-plan-a-mobile-health-clinic-00007251