Anurag Agarwal, a leader in Google Workspace engineering with 18 years at Google, and Lizzie Matusov, co-founder of Quotient and a thought leader in engineering leadership, dive into AI's impact on collaboration and innovation. They discuss how AI is revolutionizing product development, enhancing user experiences, and reshaping team dynamics. Their insights on fostering autonomy and trust within teams, navigating ethical AI practices, and maintaining effective communication provide a compelling look at leading in a tech-driven landscape.

This is a special episode from our new show “Engineering Founders” - Lizzie Matusov, CEO & Co-Founder @ Quotient, shares her unique founder journey – from Harvard’s dual-degree grad program & Innovation Lab to founding Quotient! She also reveals strategies for fundraising, including utilizing your relationship pipeline, incorporating story arcs into your pitch, overcoming pattern-matching bias, and how fundraising today is different than it used to be. We also cover Quotient’s major pivots, tips for not becoming too attached to your first idea & making space for new ideas, defining idea-mazing & its impact on your product, and developing clarity as a founder. For more episodes of Engineering Founders, subscribe here: https://engineering-founders.simplecast.com/ABOUT LIZZIE MATUSOVLizzie Matusov (@lizziematusov) is the co-founder and CEO of Quotient - a toolkit to supercharge engineering teams. Today, their first tool is an onboarding platform that leverages behavioral research best practices to ramp up engineers more effectively. Quotient’s mission is to democratize access to the best engineering cultures.Previously, Lizzie built software to improve access to medical-grade genetic testing at Invitae. She was also a software engineering consultant at Red Hat, where she built software applications for companies across various industries, including fintech and biotech. She holds a bachelor of science from UCLA, and an MBA and Masters of Engineering Sciences from Harvard."Let's say in a four-month period, you check in with investors or founders that you're working with two or three times. Now what they have is not just one call to base their opinion on, but an entire story arc that they can use to say, 'All right, in August they were doing this and by October they already did this, and then by December they were here. I'm now seeing sort of a preview of what I'm backing.' I think that that really helps founders sort of help investors make decisions, right? You are de-risking for them, you are sharing more of the milestones as you're doing them.”- Lizzie Matusov   ABOUT QUOTIENTQuotient is a toolkit to supercharge engineering teams. Their mission is to democratize access to the best engineering cultures.Today, their first tool is an onboarding platform that leverages behavioral research best practices to ramp up engineers more effectively. With Quotient you can build and deliver a high-quality, research-backed onboarding experience, and get data-driven insights into how your team changes and grows together.Check out Quotient and join the waitlist HERE - https://www.getquotient.com/waitlistLooking for ways to support the show?Send a link to the show to your marketing team! https://sfelc.com/podcastsIf your company is looking to gain exposure to thousands of engineering leaders and key decision-makers, we have sponsorship opportunities available.To explore sponsor opportunities, email us at hello@sfelc.comCheck Out Engineering Founders!We cover the stories, pivotal moments and critical insights from former engineering leaders turned founders - that helped them take the earliest steps to launch!You can find it wherever you get your podcasts - Spotify / Apple / Google / WebSHOW NOTES:The backstory behind Quotient (3:01)Why the atomic unit is the team, not the individual & how that impacts Quotient (4:03)Lizzie’s leadership journey before Quotient (5:25)Why Lizzie chose Harvard’s dual-degree grad program as part of her founder’s journey (8:43)How Harvard’s program helped Lizzie accelerate founding Quotient (12:43)The community aspect of entrepreneurship & Harvard’s Innovation Lab (15:48)Lizzie’s favorite grad school hacks (17:58)Frameworks behind Quotient’s key pivots (20:12)How Quotient pivoted to better support companies & the onboarding process (23:02)Tips for making space for new ideas (25:59)Defining idea-mazing & how it impacts your product / solution (28:13)Where Quotient is in terms of fundraising (31:02)How assumptions & expectations around fundraising have changed (32:43)Collect data points that show your ability to execute, lead, & grow (34:06)Strategies to help overcome pattern matching bias (36:09)How Lizzie utilized story arcs while fundraising for Quotient (38:32)Why clarity as a founder is vital & frameworks for developing clarity (41:05)The renaming process & unveiling the new name “Quotient” (44:52)Rapid fire questions (46:38)LINKS AND RESOURCESShantaram - Gregory David Roberts’ novel following an escaped convict with a false passport who flees maximum security prison in Australia for the teeming streets of Bombay, where he can disappear. Accompanied by his guide and faithful friend, the two enter the city’s hidden society of beggars and gangsters, prostitutes and holy men, soldiers and actors, and Indians and exiles from other countries, who seek in this remarkable place what they cannot find elsewhere.The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine - Michael Lewis documents the real story of the crash that began in bizarre feeder markets where the sun doesn't shine and the SEC doesn't dare, or bother, to tread: the bond and real estate derivative markets where geeks invent impenetrable securities to profit from the misery of lower- and middle-class Americans who can't pay their debts. The smart people who understood what was or might be happening were paralyzed by hope and fear; in any case, they weren't talking.The Long Way To A Small, Angry Planet - Becky Chambers’ novel following a motley crew on an exciting journey through space—and one adventurous young explorer who discovers the meaning of family in the far reaches of the universe.This episode wouldn’t have been possible without the help of our incredible production team:Patrick Gallagher - Producer & Co-HostJerry Li - Co-HostNoah Olberding - Associate Producer, Audio & Video Editor https://www.linkedin.com/in/noah-olberding/Dan Overheim - Audio Engineer, Dan’s also an avid 3D printer - https://www.bnd3d.com/Ellie Coggins Angus - Copywriter, Check out her other work at https://elliecoggins.com/about/

This week, Natasha interviewed Lizzie Matusov, the co-founder and CEO of Quotient, which wants to fix the "leaky pipeline problem" in tech onboarding that doesn't set up engineers for success. Yes, that's right, this week we're talking about the work needs, habits and aspirations of developers.Here's a few topics we get into: The stereotype of a coder, and where collectivism contrasts with those characteristics. How Quotient is using research, not just aspiration, to fuel its onboarding process The status quo of tech jobs and if we're seeing employers question some of their pre-conceived notions Developer resistance to change and if engineers really do want to work together more For episode transcripts and more, head to Equity’s Simplecast website. As always, the full Equity crew will be back on Friday, but you can keep up with us in the meantime on Twitter @EquityPod.Equity drops every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 7:00 a.m. PT, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. TechCrunch also has a great show on crypto, a show that interviews founders, one that details how our stories come together and more! Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. Bryce Durbin is our Illustrator. We'd also like to thank the audience development team and Henry Pickavet, who manages TechCrunch audio products.