The Way Work Should Work, by Braintrust

Today’s guest is Shelley Osborne, Vice President of Learning at Udemy, an online learning and teaching marketplace with over 130,000 courses and 35 million students. Shelley leads the company’s learning strategy and continuous upskilling of employees globally. In her work, she often leverages innovative technologies and fresh approaches like virtual reality and gamification to drive lasting engagement. Before Udemy, Shelley was the Vice President of Learning & Development at Farside HR Solutions, where she advised early- and late-stage companies on learning and talent strategy, skill development and leadership programs. Before moving into the professional learning and development space, Shelley had a successful career as a classroom teacher in Canada for almost a decade.

Today’s guest is Suzanne Gibbs Howard, Partner at IDEO and the founder and Dean of IDEO U. IDEO U is a learning platform where anyone can learn to solve anything creatively. Suzanne’s work focuses on transforming individuals and organizations through teaching and sharing thought leadership. Obsessed with understanding culture and human motivation, Suzanne arrived at IDEO via a crooked path involving anthropology, teaching English, museum-exhibit design and working in tech start-ups. Suzanne has a bachelor’s degree from Northwestern University and a master’s from the University of Chicago. She is a passionate traveler, educator, research geek, climber, sailor, and mom.

Today’s guest is Chris Fussell, President of McChrystal Group, a consultancy that helps organizations tap into the potential of their people to better compete in a complex and interconnected business environment. Chris is the author of the 2015 New York Times bestseller, Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World as well as 2017 Wall Street Journal bestseller, One Mission: How Leaders Build a Team of Teams. He joined McChrystal Group as a Partner in 2012. Prior to that, Chris served 15 years in the Navy on US Navy SEAL Teams leading SEAL elements in combat zones around the globe. Chris lives with his family in the DC area - Welcome to the show Chris!

Today's guest is Lisa Kay Solomon. She's a designer in residence at Stanford's D school and Founding Chair of the Transformational Practices and Leadership at Singularity University. Lisa is a passionate speaker, author, and educator and thought leader focused on helping leaders learn how to be more creative, flexible, and resilient in the face of increasing complexity and change. Lisa's work focuses on developing teachers and amplifying skills, mindsets, and behaviors required to lead positive change. She's co-author of The Wall Street Journal bestseller, Moments of Impact, how design strategic conversations accelerate change, and most recently, design a better business: new tools, skills and mindset for strategy and innovation. Lisa lives with her family in Menlo Park, California.

Today's guest is Sheila Warren, Head of Blockchain and Data Policy, and member of the Executive Committee at the World Economic Forum. Sheila began her career as a Wall Street attorney before turning to philanthropy and nonprofit tech over a decade ago. Sheila designed and launched NGO Source, a service focused on international brand-making and most recently served as Vice President of Strategic Alliances and General Counsel for TechSoup, the global social enterprise that has connected civil society organizations around the world with over $9 billion in donated tech-based resources. 

Today’s guest is Chike Aguh, Head of Economic Mobility Pathways at the Education Design Lab. Chike leads the Community College Growth Engine Fund, an innovative, tri-sector and multimillion dollar effort turning community colleges into bridges to dignified work for every American learner and worker. Chike is also a Technology and Human Rights Fellow at the Harvard Carr Center for Human Rights Policy where he is writing a book on the future of work and racial equity, and a faculty member at Columbia University. Chike has spent his career working across sectors to create a future of work for all.

This marks the 11th episode of The Way Work Should Work, our new podcast, brought to you by Braintrust. A big thanks to all of you who've been listening every week and if this is your first episode, welcome. We're so glad you're here. On today's show we're gonna do something a little different, we're going to take a minute or maybe like 49 to 55 minutes as we usually do to reflect on our first 10 episodes, share some key learnings, takeaways insights we've collected so far.

Today’s guest is Vanessa Colella, Chief Innovation Officer of Citi. Vanessa is tasked with incubating and accelerating innovations that give Citi, a 200-year-old financial institution, a competitive edge. Before becoming Chief Innovation Officer, Vanessa led venture investing and previously ran marketing for Citi’s North American Consumer Bank. Prior to joining Citibank 10 years ago, Vanessa was an entrepreneur-in-residence at U.S. Venture Partners, SVP of insights at Yahoo!, and a Partner at McKinsey & Company.

On today's show, we are joined by Jesse Walden, Founder of Variant, an early-stage venture firm investing in crypto networks & platforms building the ownership economy. Prior to founding Variant, Jesse worked as an investor on a crypto education program at Andreessen Horowitz. Prior to that, Jesse co-founded an early blockchain startup called Mediachain Labs, which was acquired by Spotify.

Today’s guest is Scott Belsky, founder of the social media channel for creatives, Behance. In 2006, Behance was acquired by Adobe where Scott now serves as Chief Product Officer and Executive Vice President. Scott is also an active investor and advisor to companies like Pinterest, Uber, Sweetgreen, Carta, Cheddar, Flexport, Airtable, and Periscope, and many more. Scott is also an accomplished author, having written two international bestselling books Making Ideas Happen, and The Messy Middle.

Ryan Holmes, the Founder and CEO of the social media management platform HootSuite. Ryan has grown HootSuite from a lean startup to a global leader in social media with 5 million users, including 79 of the Fortune 100 companies. A college drop-out, he started a paintball company and pizza restaurant before founding Invoke Media, the company that developed HootSuite in 2009.

In this episode of The Way Work Should Work, we are joined by Ian Lee, Managing Director of IDEO CoLab Ventures. Ian invests in early-stage startups and entrepreneurs, working with them to build a more open, distributed internet—one that's better for humans all over the globe—using blockchains, crypto-networks, and other decentralizing technologies. Prior to joining IDEO, Ian was a Director at Citigroup's venture capital and venturing arm. And before that, Ian spent 8 years as a management consultant, co-founded two startups, and worked in investment banking and asset management. Ian is also an Adjunct Faculty Member in cryptocurrency courses at UC Berkeley, where he helped launch the college's cryptocurrency curriculum in 2016.

In today's brand new episode, we are joined by Hunter Walk, Founder & Partner at the Venture firm Homebrew, which has invested in a variety of successful companies including Chime, Plaid, Cruise, and Gusto. Prior to founding Homebrew, Hunter led consumer product management at YouTube and managed product and sales efforts for Google’s contextual advertising business. Hunter is a proud husband and father residing in San Francisco.

Today’s guest is the founding developer of WordPress, the open-source software used by over 35% of the web. Matt is also the CEO of Automattic, which is now the force behind WordPress.com, Jetpack, and many other products.

Matt has built a 1200-person company with no offices and with employees scattered across 68 countries. We’re really excited to talk to him today about the distributed teams, the future of work, and the opensource movement. 

We welcome Robert Leshner, Founder and CEO of Compound to the podcast. Compound is an algorithmic, autonomous interest rate protocol built for developers, to unlock a universe of open financial applications. Founded in 2017, Compound is the largest decentralized lender. Adam, Gabe, and Robert discuss the power of ownership and cryptonetworks, programmed incentives, tokenized networks, and how blockchain is the future of global business. We hope you enjoy the show and make sure to follow Braintrust on all social platforms for more awesome future of work content!

Today's guest is Stacy Brown-Philpot who currently serves as the CEO of TaskRabbit, a marketplace that matches freelance labor with local demand, allowing consumers to find immediate help with everyday tasks. In this in-depth discussion, we cover the future of marketplaces and the ethics of the gig economy. Stacy is also on the board of HP and Nordstrom, and most recently was announced as a founding member of Softbank’s $100M Opportunity Growth Fund dedicated to investing in black and minority-owned businesses. Prior to joining TaskRabbit in 2013, Stacy spent nearly 10 years at Google, and before that, PwC and Goldman Sachs. Enjoy the podcast, and make sure to follow Braintrust across all platforms!

As COVID is ravaging across the globe, companies in every industry are faced with shifting the way they build and deliver value. In our season premiere episode, we welcome Joseph Fuller, Professor of Management at Harvard Business School. During our discussion, we cover hot topics like which business trends have been accelerated by COVID, the attributes of companies that will be winners and losers in the future of work, and the emergence of marketplaces and platforms that match talent and clients.

Joseph is also the leader of the Harvard University’s Future of Work initiative and co-host of the podcast Managing the Future of Work. A 1981 graduate of HBS himself, he is currently researching the evolution of the role of the CEOs and the C-suite in public companies.