Student Stories: Alec Willerman, Best Course Coordinator Award SCET Fall 2019

Episode #15 In this Foundercast episode a group of Berkeley students interviews Anna Lee, technical co-founder of Lioness. Her startup is a women-led sexual health startup. They are building the world's first and only smart vibrators that improve understanding of sexual pleasure and body through biofeedback data.  Intro Music: https://www.bensound.com

Episode #14 This episode features Michael Seibel from Y-Combinator (YC) sharing about Product Market Fit when he was on campus for the "Decode Silicon Valley Startup Success" DeCal class offered by the Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology (SCET) at UC Berkeley.

Episode #13 In this "Tech Uncovered" episode, take a journey with a group of current Berkeley students as they explore how they should be thinking about launching a startup based on their class project. They chat with a fellow student startup founder, a venture capitalist, and a congressional aid about their AI facial recognition project. 

Episode #11 Faculty Insight Interview with Ken Sandy. Ken is technology Product Management veteran. He's and SCET Industry Fellow and teaches the first Product Management course offered in Berkeley Engineering, with over 400 PM alumni. In the episode we learn about Ken's PM journey, teaching at Berkeley and his new book; “The Influential Product Manager – How to Lead and Launch Successful Technology Products.” It's a highly practical and approachable guide to becoming more effective and navigating the challenging collaborative aspects of the product manager’s role. 01:58 - Born in Australia 02:41 - Engineering 05:28 - San Francisco 06:16 - McKinsey & Co. 07:22 - Transition to Startup 17:41 - Empathy as a PM 21:44 - Being a Product Manager 24:14 - Teaching at Berkeley 31:26 - Book "The Influential Product Manager" 39:56 - Mindsets of a PM 45:16 - 5 Questions to Understanding Customers 52:35 - Steve Jobs the PM 56:13 - Engineering Collaboration 58:23 - Fun

Episode #12 Global Perspectives episode featuring a group of current BerkeleyGlobal entrepreneurship students chatting with Berkeley alumnae Rachel Williams. She is the head of Head of Equity, Inclusion & Diversity Talent Acquisition at X The Moonshot Factory at Google Alphabet.  Rachel shares with the group of students her unique perspective about inclusion, culture, and leadership... she even has some fun digging into real world situations so you hear how leaders on the front line of today’s firms think. 02:41 - Background 04:05 - About X 07:10 - On Diversity 08:25 - On Inclusion 10:20 - Employees being authentic selves 12:01 - Humility 12:58 - Hiring process 16:39 - Leading your first team 19:45 - Tricky situations 33:36 - Fast & Curious 37:40 - Character 40:51 - Academic background in hiring 42:49 - On culture 48:30 - In time of crisis - People first 50:49 - Who creates culture 53:57 - Culture insights 56:20 - Final thoughts and advice

Episode #10 Foundercast episode featuring Ofek Arush and George Passantino, cofounders of Quokka Brew. Hear how George and Ofek launched their startup, from coming up with the idea, naming, to launching the business.  00:19 - Introduction 01:45 - Childhood friends 02:15 - Their first business 02:43 - Entrepreneurial spirit 03:38 - The muffin men 06:07 - Berkeley 07:20 - How Quokka Brew was born 08:38 - Ready to drinks 11:44 - Research 14:11 - The breakthrough 18:34 - The Quokka name 21:17 - Traction 23:50 - Team of ambassadors  27:37 - Where to get Quokka Brew 32:45 - Fun  

Episode #9 This Student Stories episode features Alec Willerman, a BerkeleyHaas senior who was recently recognized as Best Course Coordinator in SCET classes during the Fall 2019. In the episode, Alec shares his journey, what he wants to do in the future, and his experience as a course coordinator.   00:36 - Introduction 01:37 - Winning the Best Course Coordinator Award 02:11 - Facilitation Skills 05:46 - Getting to Berkeley 06:34 - Education & Grading 08:09 - Facilitating learning 09:17 - Path to being a course coordinator 14:53 - A Curious Kid 15:20 - The troublemaker 17:29 - Business has a bad rap 20:15 - Transformational experiences on campus 23:31 - Fun

Episode #8 Foundercast Episode featuring Expensify Founder & CEO David Barrett. During his talk on campus at the Newton Lecture Series, Barrett shares his core philosophy of identifying the biggest problem you can, then go to work immediately to solve it. Take a listen! 00:56 - Introduction 03:56 - All the experts are wrong 05:47 - Don't trust me. Don't trust the VCs 06:39 - The CEOs are going to lie to you 07:56 - Everyone's going to fight for you 09:10 - Have you tried to change the world? 12:37 - Good ideas have to sound bad 16:02 - Traveling the world with a knapsack 19:50 - How Expensify started 23:57 - Q&A

Episode #7 This Newton Series Classic Episode features Marissa Mayer talking on campus when she was still VP of Search Products and User Experience at Google. She shares her journey to Google and some of the exciting things she was working on at the time. Mayer would go on to become CEO of Yahoo. 

Episode #6 In this Foundercast episode, DoorDash Co-Founder & CEO Tony Xu has a fireside chat with Vicky Howell during our SCET Newton Lecture series in the Fall of 2018. Tony shares his journey from student at Berkeley to starting DoorDash, along with thoughts on cofounder strengths, keys to validate his business, and more. DoorDash is the restaurant industry’s “last-mile” solution and has grown into a more than $4 billion leader in the on-demand space. Today, the company is also focusing efforts on an issue particularly important to Xu, using that same logistical expertise to reduce food waste with the recent launch of Project DASH. In just five years, DoorDash has become the industry standard for restaurant delivery, and recently expanded to grocery through its newest partnership with Walmart. 00:55 - Tony introduction 03:17 - Growing up in Illinois 05:49 - Family immigrant story 06:57 - Major at Berkeley 07:42 - On entrepreneurship 09:27 - Keeping sane in school 11:38 - Going to McKinsey 14:41 - Business School 18:42 - Soft skills 19:28 - What you can't fake 20:18 - DoorDash - what was not obvious 24:38 - Cofounders and backgrounds 21:23 - The first city 29:21 - Competition 31:22 - Stickler for detail 35:19 - Delivering good 39:10 - Q&A