Breaking Into Startups
126 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 3 years ago - ★★★★★ - 262 ratingsThe Breaking Into Startups Podcast is a platform where we feature stories of people who broke into tech from non-traditional backgrounds. Curious about how startups work, how to get a job without a degree or what technical and non-technical careers are out there? We have news for you - tech fields are booming and you don’t need the best technical degree in information technology to break in and get a six figure job in technology.
Our podcast gives you an inside look at the most disruptive startups by sharing success stories of people from all walks of life, including college drop outs, professional and student athletes, army veterans, teen parents, corporate folks, investment bankers, consultants, venture capitalists who acquired new skills and found jobs in technology.
Our guests attended coding bootcamps and immersive programs like Hack Reactor, App Academy, General Assembly, Dev Bootcamp, Flatiron School, Iron Yard, Tradecraft and more. After graduating they found well paying jobs in big time startups focusing on education, medicine, financial services, healthcare, AI, machine learning, automation, sharing economy and more. If you listen to 500 Startups, Learn to Code With Me, Twenty Minute VC, This Week In Startups, Startup Radio, Startup Podcast, The Tim Ferris show, Startup School Radio, Course Report or other tech stuff news, then this podcast is for you my friend.
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Episodes
#26: Charles Pridgen - Account Executive at Loggly & Founder of BPN
February 17, 2017 00:00 - 36 minutes - 32.3 MBA Baltimore-native, Charles Pridgen majored in International Business and Finance, but realizing that he didn’t fit into the financial field he pursued a career in sales and eventually decided to break into startups. Charles previously worked at LivingSocial and Salesforce. He is currently working at a startup called Loggly, a cloud-based log management and search platform. Charles is also an organizer of the Black Professionals Network (BPN) where he seeks to build a community that foste...
#25: Ty Olatoye - How to Build Genuine Relationships & Land a Job
February 13, 2017 00:00 - 1 hour - 109 MBInfluenced by a strong Nigerian culture of excellence, education and faith, Ty moved from Arizona to San Francisco in search of that ONE opportunity that would push him every single day. Currently, Ty works on the Growth and Business Development team at Omni, an on-demand storage and delivery service. Often referred to by his friends as the 10X TY, Ty is a firm advocate of the Power of One where you should find that one thing & make damn sure you do it really, really well. Ty underlines the ...
#24: Divine - The journey from going in and out of prison to Breaking Into Tech
February 07, 2017 00:00 - 1 hour - 96.7 MBA Newport-native, Divine started dealing drugs at 13, got incarcerated at 18, and found himself not only locked up physically in federal prison, but also, in a psychological cycle of recidivism. Always knowing he was bound to be more than that, Divine tapped into his spirituality, fortitude, and his quick grasp of knowledge and turned his 7-year sentence into a self-development workshop. Along with some help from his mentor, Divine was finally able to break out of his destructive pattern go...
#22: Idalin Bobe - Community Organizer who broke into Tech and became a Tech Activist
February 05, 2017 00:00 - 1 hour - 99.5 MBGrowing up in one of the poorest zip codes in the U.S., Idalin wanted to bring change and put social justice in the forefront. From North Philly to Cali, Idalin wanted to break into tech so she could bring resources back to her neighborhood. Today, Idalin works as a Senior IT consultant at ThoughtWorks, which is known for having the toughest screening and interview process out of all tech companies. She is also part of ThoughtWork’s social justice team working as a tech activist where she i...
#23: Rita Henderson - Who broke into startups as a Teen Mom
February 05, 2017 00:00 - 55 minutes - 76.5 MBGrowing up in one of the poorest areas in Philadelphia, Rita Henderson broke a ton of barriers as a single mom proving to the society that she was more than just a statistic. Moving from North Philly to DC, Rita finally drove all the way to San Francisco in the hope of making things work for her family and carrying with her that burning passion of bringing change into the community. Rita is currently involved in the recruiting department at a startup company called Honor, an in-home senior ...
#21: Mo Woods - Ball is Life: Pro Basketball Player (6' 10" in) who became a Designer
January 31, 2017 00:00 - 1 hour - 58.4 MBMaurice is a 6'10" Richmond, California-native, legendary designer, and former professional basketball player who worked at several tech companies including Microsoft and Yahoo. He is the Founder of Inneract Project that helps youth and communities learn how to design. It was in getting involved with startup projects that really got him into the tech space because he was able to make mistakes, learn from them, correct them, and get even way better. (Shout out to Maurice’s mom for ushering h...
#20: Nick DeWilde - Program Director at Tradecraft which teaches Biz dev, Product Design and Growth
January 28, 2017 00:00 - 49 minutes - 41.9 MBA San Francisco-native, Nick deWilde was so certain he wanted to make movies but he ended up taking on a different path that impacts people’s lives. Nick is now the Program Director at Tradecraft, an immersive program that helps people break into tech into business development, designer, or growth roles. His journey wasn’t easy. He took the plunge, worked as a waiter, went back to live at his parents house, and did customer support at a bank until he finally found his voice in the tech spac...
#19: Matthew Dean Brooks - An Artist who became a Software Engineer
January 25, 2017 00:00 - 31 minutes - 29.3 MBTransitioning from arts to engineering was not a smooth ride for Matt Brooks, but he never allowed obstacles to get in the way because he was willing to embrace failures. Matt started out as a fine arts major and was doing woodwork until one day, something grabbed his attention to engineering and gave it a try. He started to learn coding, initially gave up, went back to try it another time, and got rejected at the bootcamp the first time. His job search experience wasn’t an easy one eithe...
#18: Preethi Kasireddy - How Investment Banker & a VC quit her job to became a Software Engineer
January 23, 2017 00:00 - 43 minutes - 39.4 MBAfter excelling at Goldman Sachs and top venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, Preethi Kasireddy decided she wanted to leave “the best job in the world” to become a software engineer. In her blog post called Why I Left the Best Job in the World, she talks about why she left VC to join Hack Reactor in order to learn how to code. In this episode Preethi shares what motivated her to leave finance for tech, her incredible work ethic, her 5 am workout schedule, and the lessons she learned on...
#17: Ina Herlihy - How a young journalist hustled her way into Growth Marketing
January 18, 2017 00:00 - 31 minutes - 43.2 MBIna Herlihy is a San Francisco local who knows what’s it like to hustle your way to get the thing that you want right at a very early age. She is passionate about journalism and was an editor-in-chief of her high school newspaper. She got to cover the 2008 Presidential Campaign and was the only high school student in the country to get a press pass for President Obama’s Inauguration. Leaving a would-be promising career in finance to break into tech, Herlihy attended Tradecraft and soon land...
#16: Edgar Pabon - Army Captain who became an Engineer at Amazon Music
January 16, 2017 00:00 - 38 minutes - 52.4 MBEdgar Pabon is a New York-native who, prior to his current position as a software engineer at Amazon Music, was a rapper, a communications degree graduate, and an active duty military. He knew that being a software engineer is what he has always wanted to be doing that even during his military years he never stopped learning about the tech industry. Edgar’s journey was not an easy one, having experienced police brutality, undergoing rigorous military training, dealing with the impostor synd...
#15: Kush Patel - Founder of App Academy
January 11, 2017 00:00 - 45 minutes - 63 MBKush Patel is the Founder of App Academy, which is considered to be the MIT of coding bootcamps. Prior to breaking into startup, Kush previously worked at hedge funds until he finally decided to pursue his passion for learning how to code through and joined the first coding class of Dev Bootcamp. Seeing the huge gap between the amount of software engineers produced each year and the amount of software engineers needed in Silicon Valley and through the US, Kush, alongside co-founder Ned Rugg...
#14: Chia Lin - From a Pastry Chef at a Michelin Star Restaurant to a Product Designer at a Startup
January 09, 2017 00:00 - 43 minutes - 59.3 MBBorn and raised in Taiwan, Chia Lin has traveled far and wide. She came to Tennessee when she was 11, moved to California in high school and college, and lived in Tokyo for a year. Her love of food and travel has landed her a job as a flight attendant and a chef at a Michelin star kitchen, until she finally discovered her true passion for design. She believes that knowing who you are and being able to tell your story well will get you places. In fact, Chia wrote a blog post called 5 Things ...
#12: Shawn Drost - Founder of Hack Reactor
January 03, 2017 00:00 - 48 minutes - 65.9 MBShawn Drost is the Co-Founder of Hack Reactor, a coding bootcamp founded in 2012 along with his college friends Tony Phillips, Marcus Phillips, and Douglas Calhoun with the primary motive to set people up for success as software engineers. They envision themselves transforming higher education to be more transparent, accessible and outcomes-driven. Hack Reactor’s community involvement is remarkable as they continue to offer curriculum, volunteer support and training to their nonprofit par...
#13: Elaina Koros - Content Strategist who hustled her way into Facebook
January 03, 2017 00:00 - 37 minutes - 51.2 MBWith a huge appreciation for writing and journalism, Elaina Koros majored in Government and English Studies while attending Georgetown University. Today, Elaina works as a Content Strategist at Facebook. During this chat, Elaina discusses the importance of building relationships and having mentors which helped her tremendously in getting an internship that eventually led to a full-time offer.
#11: Richard Purcell - Sales Director who worked his way up from an entry level role
January 01, 2017 21:57 - 43 minutes - 59.6 MBAn East Coast native, Richard Purcell travelled cross country and courageously took the risk of taking an entry level job even though he was overqualified because it meant a chance to break into tech. Through persistence and overcoming objections, he landed his first tech sales job in Palo Alto at Medallia Inc. Currently, he serves as the Sales Director at Performance Horizon. Having a multi ethnic background gives Richard an interesting perspective on race and privilege. He firmly believes...
#10: Melanie Araujo - Designer and Founder of Front & Center that helps people break into tech
December 28, 2016 00:00 - 1 hour - 87.9 MBA Boston-native and freelance designer, Melanie Araujo is the Founder of Front & Center, a company that helps underprivileged people break into tech through design. Prior to design, Melanie has a professional background in neuroscience, which she leveraged to position herself as a unique designer. Investing a few thousands to learn design at General Assembly, what she got in return was 10x as she is now making six figures. Melanie believes that if you have your heart and mind set on something...
#9: Ben Creasy - Alaskan Government Official turned Software Engineer
December 27, 2016 00:00 - 37 minutes - 50.8 MBAn Alaskan-native, Ben Creasy wanted to pursue engineering since a young age but due to health issues, he ended up getting a degree in Economics and Philosophy in Oregon. At 24, Ben held elected office in Alaska but his passion for coding never faltered so he ultimately joined Hack Reactor. Currently, he works as a Software Engineer at BrightIdea. Ben is also an editor at Wikipedia, something he has been doing for 9 years now. He has also co-created the Bay Area WikiSalon where Wiki enthusias...
#8: Neil Shah - Quit his Finance job to help Homeless folks get Jobs
December 21, 2016 00:00 - 56 minutes - 51.2 MBA South Californian native, Neil Shah would never have thought that a walking tour of Tenderloin with Del Seymour could practically change his life forever as well as the many lives of homeless people around the Tenderloin neighborhood. Neil basically never stopped hustling, jumping from med school to law school to business school, getting an MBA at UC Irvine, and getting locked up in prison for his third DUI. But it was his passion for helping people that got him volunteering at different no...
#7: Max Rencoret - Deep dive into Growth Marketing and building a product
December 15, 2016 00:00 - 57 minutes - 79.4 MBMax Rencoret grew up in Chile where he first got exposed to its education system, startup culture, economic climate, government and other things that led him to a career in Growth Marketing, where he felt like he could make the most impact in his life. One of Max's teachers explained the scale of technology, focusing on people, and led Max to start a company (similar to Snapchat) that he grew to 80,000 daily active users targeting Latin America. After Snapchat took over their market and reali...
#6: Nico Roberts - Consultant who became Head of Customer Success
December 14, 2016 00:00 - 46 minutes - 63.8 MBNico Roberts is the Head of Customer Success at OnboardIQ. Customer success is a highly important in any startup. It not only ensures client satisfaction and handling customer complaints, but it also bridges the gap between different teams in the organization, ensuring its able to achieve a unified goal. Prior to OnboardIQ, Nico served as a consultant at Deloitte. A native from South Africa, Nico hustled his way through the United States with the goal of living the American dream and becoming...
#5: Meghan Schofield - How she became a UX designer coming from a traditional background in art
December 11, 2016 00:00 - 50 minutes - 69.6 MBMeghan Schofield is an Ohio-native who has an impressive knack for creative problem solving. Prior to her current role as a UX/Product Designer at infrastructure startup, CoreOS, Meghan worked in the field of museum exhibit design for 15 years and she also ventured into project management at some point. Meghan is passionate about creating a positive impact in people’s lives and she firmly believes that you need to have a deep understanding of your medium to become great at whatever you do in...
#4: Haseeb Qureshi - Professional Poker Player turned Software Engineer
December 03, 2016 00:00 - 1 hour - 93.9 MBHaseeb Qureshi is a Texas-native who dominated the poker world and decided to pursue his dream of becoming a software engineer. He started playing poker at 16 years old and was able to turn $50 to $100,000. He eventually became one of the world’s best no-limit hold-em poker players at 19 but he was not fulfilled. So, Haseeb left the poker world and decided to start over from scratch by giving all of his money away. After hearing about coding bootcamps from a friend, he decided to break into t...
#3: Kevin Lee - Founder of Product Manager HQ where he teaches people how to become PMs.
December 02, 2016 00:00 - 43 minutes - 40.3 MBKevin Lee is dedicated to teaching people the fundamentals of product management through Product Manager HQ and also currently works in Venture Capital at FundersClub. Before becoming a Founder, he previously worked in Product at AltSchool and as a Senior Product Manager at Kabam, where he worked on products through all lifecycles in San Francisco, Vancouver, and Beijing to help grow one of the company’s products to become the third largest revenue generating products in the company portfolio...
#2: Emily Racioppi - Sales Account Executive compares sales in startups vs. corporate
November 28, 2016 00:00 - 49 minutes - 43.8 MBEmily Racioppi is an artist at heart. After talking to her dad, she realized that in order to be a successful artist you need to be your own brand so she followed his footsteps to become an Account Representative in the Sales Department at Cisco WebEx. Prior to that she was a representative at an infrastructure startup called Instart Logic. On this episode she talks about the different roles in sales, the interview process, salaries, the importance of on target earnings, metrics, and more! K...
#1: Albrey Brown - Self-taught Engineer who founded Telegraph Academy to teach people how to code.
November 27, 2016 00:00 - 41 minutes - 36 MBAlbrey Brown, is a Berkeley native who does not take ‘No’ for an answer. He was rejected on his first attempt to becoming a Hack Reactor graduate and went on to become a founder of Telegraph Academy. Most importantly, he found a love for teaching and is an educator that has completely changed the career trajectories for hundreds of students. Although he never graduated from college, he always knew that he was going to be a teacher. He grew up in a single family home where his mom raised him t...