
The BreakLine Arena
BreakLine provides education and coaching for job seekers interested in accelerating into the next phase of their careers. Join us in The BreakLine Arena as we hear inspiring stories of leaders, innovators, and trailblazers on the world stage and within our BreakLine alumni community.
Latest episodes

Feb 18, 2022 • 51min
Annette Reavis: Did I Change Someone's Life Today?
Join us in the BreakLine Arena for a conversation with Annette Reavis, the Chief People Officer at Envoy. She shares highlights from her prolific career. As an early employee at Facebook, she talked about helping to scale the company from 4,000 to 40,000 employees. Later, she joined Root Insurance, and worked with the team to take the company public. Today, she and the Envoy team are imagining the future of work and the places and spaces where we will do our best building and innovating. Join us to hear more!

Feb 4, 2022 • 46min
Sue Bostrom & Sue Barsamian: Self-Made Tech Mavens
Join us in the BreakLine Arena for an authentic conversation with Sue Bostrom and Sue Barsamian.Sue Bostrom is the former EVP and CMO at Cisco Systems. She also serves on the board of directors at ServiceNow, Nutanix, and Anaplan, Druva, GitLab, Outreach, and Samsara. Sue Barsamian served as Chief Sales and Marketing officer at HPE Software for 10 years, and now is a Board Director at Five9, Box, NortonLifelock, Gainsight, Xactly, Onfido and formerly Segment, and Auth0. Both their rich industry experience and senses of humor make for a compelling conversation that ranges from the keys to their successes, to their overcoming imposter syndrome. If you've liked what you've heard, please like, rate, or review our show! We'd love to hear your thoughts. If you're interested in joining our community, please visit breakline.org.

Jan 27, 2022 • 53min
Amit Bendov: Following Curiosity, Founding Gong.io
Join us in the BreakLine Arena for a conversation with Amit Bendov, CEO and Co-Founder of Gong.io. In this episode, Amit highlights the importance of starting companies with a solution to a tangible problem, discusses leading from a place of humility, and inspires with a candid discussion of how dreams evolve over a lifetime. Amit Bendov has been in leadership at hyper-growth enterprise software startups for 20 plus years. Before co-founding and leading at Gong.io, he was CEO at SiSense, and CMO at Panaya. If you've liked what you've heard, please like, rate, or review our show! We'd love to hear your thoughts. If you're interested in joining our community, please visit breakline.org.

Jan 20, 2022 • 1h 8min
Saeju Jeong: From No's to Noom
Join us in the BreakLine Arena for a stunning conversation with Saeju Jeong, co-founder and CEO of Noom.Saeju was named EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2020 and raised $540M in May 2021, but it wasn’t an easy path to success. This month, 17 years ago, he arrived in the United States with nothing but an intense desire to help people, after losing his father, a well-respected and well-loved doctor in South Korea. Saeju shares with us his journey as an entrepreneur: from college drop out, to rock music distributor, to new immigrant in the United States. He pitched his vision over 800 times to venture capitalists and investors over four years and received zero dollars. Saeju dives deep into the support he’s received from those who believed in him, love from his family, and building the necessary muscles to go from feeling unqualified to empowered. On the other end of this road was a revolutionary company dedicated to helping others build healthier lives.If you like what you've heard, please like, subscribe, or rate the BreakLine Arena! We would love to hear from you. Reach out to questions@break-line.com with thoughts, feedback, or recommendations. To learn more about joining our community at BreakLine, please visit us at breakline.org

Jan 14, 2022 • 56min
Nicole Camarillo: Defending Democracy
Join us in the BreakLine Arena for a compelling conversation with Nicole Camarillo. She is the Co-Founder, and Chief Talent and Operations Officer at Rebellion Defense. In this episode, she highlights the pressing need for engineers of diverse backgrounds to join her at the nexus of technology and defense.Nicole Camarillo is a licensed attorney and accomplished strategist who has led several cultural and management reforms across the private, public, and nonprofit sectors. She has spent her career at the nexus of national security and technology, where she has honed her skill for hacking through bureaucratic legal and policy obstacles to drive progressive initiatives. Most recently, Nicole served as the chief strategist for U.S. Army Cyber Command, where she drove major reform to empower technical talent and rapidly deliver critical technology within the military. Nicole has a BA from Stanford University and a JD from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law.If you like what you've heard please like, subscribe, or rate The BreakLine Arena! We would love to hear from you! Reach out to questions@break-line.com with thoughts, feedback, or recommendations. To learn more about joining our community at BreakLine, please visit us at breakline.org.

Jan 7, 2022 • 55min
Bruce Feiler: Navigating Life's Transitions
Join us in The BreakLine Arena for a conversation with Bruce Feiler, best-selling author and TED speaker. In this episode, Bruce dives into his fascinating life trajectory and story, and shares the inspiration he derives from studying how people navigate life's transitions. Bruce Feiler is the author of seven New York Times bestsellers; the presenter of two prime-time series on PBS; and the inspiration for the drama series COUNCIL OF DADS on NBC. Bruce’s two TED Talks have been viewed more than two million times. His new book, LIFE IS IN THE TRANSITIONS: Mastering Change At Any Age, describes his journey across America, collecting hundreds of life stories, exploring how we can navigate life's growing number of transitions to live with more meaning, purpose, and joy.If you like what you've heard, please like, subscribe, or rate the BreakLine Arena. We would also love to hear from you! Reach out to questions@break-line.com with thoughts, feedback, or recommendations. To learn more about joining our community at BreakLine, please visit us at breakline.org

Dec 16, 2021 • 1h 8min
George Mathew: Leading with Guts & Heart
Join us in The BreakLine Arena for a conversation with George Mathew, Managing Partner at Insight Partners.George Mathew joined Insight Partners and is focused on venture stage investments in AI, ML, Analytics, and Data companies as they are establishing product/market Fit.In this episode, George shares his advice on overcoming and ultimately growing from professional adversity as well as how his diverse set of experiences prepared him to serve as a Managing Director.He brings 20+ years of experience developing high-growth technology startups including most recently being CEO of Kespry. Prior to Kespry, George was President & COO of Alteryx where he scaled the company through it’s IPO (AYX). Previously he held senior leadership positions at SAP and salesforce.com. He has driven company strategy, led product management and development, and built sales and marketing teams. George holds a Bachelor of Science in Neurobiology from Cornell University and a Masters in Business Administration from Duke University, where he was a Fuqua Scholar.If you like what you've heard please like, subscribe, or rate The BreakLine Arena on your preferred streaming platform! We would also love to hear your thoughts, feedback, or recommendations on the content we are creating. Feel free to reach out to us at questions@break-line.com.To learn more about BreakLine Education visit us at breakline.org.

Dec 14, 2021 • 53min
Guy Gal: It's All Within Reach
Join us in The BreakLine Arena for an insightful conversation with Guy Guy, tech entrepreneur, innovator, and angel investor.Guy is the CEO and Co-Founder of Side, the only real estate brokerage that exclusively partners with top producing agents to create, grow, and power their businesses. Prior to Side, he founded 3 successful companies, including Kingmaker, Biz, and Kognitive. Guy is an advisor to companies like Vidyard, a YCombinator top 100 company. He also served as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Matrix Partners, one of the best venture capital tech funds in the world. Today, Guy is dedicated to transforming the best real estate agents into market-leading businesses. He believes that the future of real estate is local, boutique, specialized, and agent-owned.If you like what you've heard please like, subscribe, or rate The BreakLine Arena on your preferred streaming platform! We would also love to hear your thoughts, feedback, or recommendations on the content we are creating. Feel free to reach out to us at questions@break-line.com.To learn more about BreakLine Education visit us at breakline.org.

Dec 10, 2021 • 54min
Kenny Mendes: Evidence of Hustle or Drive
Join us in The BreakLine Arena for a fascinating conversation with Kenny Mendes, Head of Finance, People, & Operations at Coda.In this episode, Kenny shares an incredible journey that placed him front and center in some of Silicon Valley's most exciting and influential tech companies. When asked about career he states, "I’m obsessed with building exceptional startups and believe talent is one of the biggest success drivers."As one of Coda’s earliest employees, Kenny helped the company grow from a private beta to a product used by more than 25,000 teams globally. Kenny was the first recruiting hire at Box and led the recruiting team from 2009 to 2014. Under his leadership, the talented individuals that he hired and mentored at Box are now driving recruiting at top companies like Airtable, Notion, Databricks, Affirm, Miro, Asana, and Fastly.Kenny is also the founder of Startup Hiring, an intimate live course for founders, CEOs, and company builders to become amazing at hiring.If you like what you've heard please like, subscribe, or rate The BreakLine Arena on your preferred streaming platform! We would also love to hear your thoughts, feedback, or recommendations on the content we are creating. Feel free to reach out to us at questions@break-line.com.To learn more about BreakLine Education visit us at breakline.org.

Dec 7, 2021 • 52min
Marco Zappacosta: Building Thumbtack
Join us in The BreakLine Arena for a fascinating conversation with Marco Zappacosta, the co-founder and CEO of Thumbtack.Recognized on Forbes’ 2015 30 under 30 list, Marco and Thumbtack have been featured in media outlets including The New York Times, Fortune, The Wall Street Journal and CNBC and were recently acknowledged as one of GlassDoor's Best Places to Work and Highest Rated CEOs lists.Marco co-founded Thumbtack after graduating from Columbia University, where he majored in Political Science. He and his family live in San Francisco. His favorite personal Thumbtack project was hosting a Halloween party that included a Thumbtack bartender, magician, and photographer.If you like what you've heard please like, subscribe, or rate The BreakLine Arena on your preferred streaming platform! We would also love to hear your thoughts, feedback, or recommendations on the content we are creating. Feel free to reach out to us at questions@break-line.com.To learn more about BreakLine Education visit us at breakline.org.