Mission Daily

“I grew up loving maps. They draw your eyes — you just want to go look at them and find a new place you’ve never been or look at the places you are familiar with.” — Karin Tuxen-Bettman Karin Tuxen-Bettman is a Program Manager at Google where she’s worked for more than a decade helping develop Google’s mapping projects. The field of GIS (Geographic Information Systems) married together all of her passions — economics, environmental science, and public policy. Now in the GEO division at Google, Karin’s job is to “help public benefit groups around the world use mapping tools to make the world a better place.” For the last five years or more, Karin has been focused on Project Air View, a partnership with the Environmental Defense Fund, creating air quality maps for every city and town in the world so that cities have the data they need to change behavior and therefore the health of its residents and surrounding areas. “90% of the world’s population lives in conditions that the World Health Organization says are below the livable air quality,” says Karin. A portion of Google’s street view cars are dedicated to collecting air quality and environmental data in order to power Project Air View. The data collected is then shared with research scientists to produce studies that inform actionable insights. On this episode, Stephanie and Karin sit down to discuss the various projects she has worked on while at Google, how she is using Google Maps to help nonprofits and public benefits around the world, and why mapping tools are a huge multiplier for these organizations to tell their story. — We have a new partnership with b8ta! B8ta.com gives you access to some of the most innovative and cutting edge consumer tech products. This week, we will be giving away a Withings Body+ Wi-Fi Smart Scale. Enter the giveaway for a chance to win or use discount code "MissionDaily20" to receive 20% off online at Withings.com! — Mission Daily and all of our podcasts are created with love by our team at Mission.org. We own and operate a network of podcasts, and brand story studio designed to accelerate learning. Our clients include companies like Salesforce, Twilio, and Katerra who work with us because we produce results. To learn more and get our case studies, check out Mission.org/Studios. If you’re tired of media and news that promotes fear, uncertainty, and doubt and want an antidote, you’ll want to subscribe to our daily newsletter at Mission.org. When you do, you’ll receive a mission-driven newsletter every morning that will help you start your day off right! Email us -> info@mission.orgWork with us -> https://www.missionsponsors.com/Follow Stephanie -> https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephaniepostles/

“Nothing is more powerful than the truth when you run a company.” — Emmanuel Schalit Emmanuel Schlit is CEO of Dashlane, the safe and simple way to store all of your passwords in one place. With over 12 million users and a recently finalized Series D round, Dashlane is growing faster than ever and well on the way to their next goal of 100 million users. (At which point, Emmanuel may or may not get a tattoo, a promise he made to the hardworking employees of Dashlane.) “The average citizen has about 200 different digital accounts because everything in our life has taken on a digital life of its own,” says Emmanuel and “almost everyone uses the same password everywhere, because that is simple and more convenient.” Emmanuel describes this password problem in three parts. The first is that almost everyone is using the same password everywhere. Second, the size of the problem is exploding because people are creating more and more accounts online. And thirdly, everyone has more devices per person today than ever before. “The problem is truly growing on the consumer side,” says Emmanuel, which is allowing bad actors to take advantage. Prior to joining Dashlane in 2011 as CEO, he held a range of roles, including CEO of Flipside.com, SVP at Vivendi Media, and CEO of CBS Outdoor. Throughout his experiences, he’s found that working for and scaling a smaller company is more fulfilling than joining a large ship already on a set course. “When you start a company from scratch, you have a unique opportunity to apply all the things you’ve learned before. So you get this unique opportunity to do things right in terms of culture. When starting Dashlane, we wanted to build a company of people that fundamentally have one thing in common: that care about solving this problem.” On this episode, Chad and Emmanuel discuss the importance of protecting your digital identity in today’s world, how Dashlane is doing this differently, and lessons learned from Emmanuel’s diverse and accomplished career. — We have a new partnership with b8ta! B8ta.com gives you access to some of the most innovative and cutting edge consumer tech products. This week, we will be giving away a Withings Body+ Wi-Fi Smart Scale. Enter the giveaway for a chance to win here or use discount code "MissionDaily20" to receive 20% off online at Withings.com! — Mission Daily and all of our podcasts are created with love by our team at Mission.org. We own and operate a network of podcasts, and brand story studio designed to accelerate learning. Our clients include companies like Salesforce, Twilio, and Katerra who work with us because we produce results. To learn more and get our case studies, check out Mission.org/Studios. If you’re tired of media and news that promotes fear, uncertainty, and doubt and want an antidote, you’ll want to subscribe to our daily newsletter at Mission.org. When you do, you’ll receive a mission-driven newsletter every morning that will help you start your day off right! Email us -> info@mission.orgWork with us -> https://www.missionsponsors.com/Follow Stephanie -> https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephaniepostles/

“I enjoy looking at companies, their futures, their strategies and how their financials work. It’s something I’ve always had a passion for.” — Jennifer Ceran How do companies make money? When do they choose to invest or pass? At what point in a company’s timeline should they IPO? What are the reasons to accept an acquisition? These are all questions many, even the business owners among us, don’t know the answers to. But they are all questions Jennifer Ceran has been obsessed with answering since she was in college. Jennifer, the CFO of Smartsheet, started her investing career while still in college and sold her first stocks to fund her trip to France to study abroad. “I was really curious about how the market worked,” says Jennifer, and that experience was just the start of what would become a lifetime interest. After completing her undergraduate and before attending business school at the University of Chicago, Jennifer went to work for Merrill Lynch as a Financial Analyst on Wall Street where she learned how Wall Street evaluates companies for investment. Following her time on Wall Street, Jennifer wanted to understand corporate finance and went to work for the Sara Lee Corporation and then Cisco. But in 2003, Jennifer got the call she was looking for — she was asked to join eBay as their Treasurer. With over 1 billion in revenue, Jennifer couldn’t turn down the offer. It was a chance at her dream job and a place where she could learn about technology’s impact on investing and the finance world at large. Jennifer served as Treasurer of eBay and Paypal for over 7 years. When she saw the impact of the financial crisis, she decided to transition into investor relations at eBay, doubling the company's stock in the two years she was in this role. But Jennifer wasn’t stopping there, she had her eye set on the CFO role and it wasn’t long before she found it at Box, a work collaboration platform where she led the company into a successful IPO. Now CFO at Smartsheet, Jennifer is helping companies and teams work more efficiently with Smartsheet’s collaboration software. “About 60% of your work is unstructured, it’s ever-changing. Smartsheeet helps you to manage that better. The platform can work with your marketing department and your finance department to give you real-time updates on work projects.” On this episode, Chad and Jennifer talk about the differences between Wall Street and Silicon Valley and how both places look at investing in companies. They also discuss her extensive career and where she sees innovation in financial management heading in the future. — We have a new partnership with b8ta! B8ta.com gives you access to some of the most innovative and cutting edge consumer tech products. This week, we will be giving away a Withings Body+ Wi-Fi Smart Scale. Enter the giveaway for a chance to win here or use discount code "MissionDaily20" to receive 20% off online at Withings.com! — Mission Daily and all of our podcasts are created with love by our team at Mission.org. We own and operate a network of podcasts, and brand story studio designed to accelerate learning. Our clients include companies like Salesforce, Twilio, and Katerra who work with us because we produce results. To learn more and get our case studies, check out Mission.org/Studios. If you’re tired of media and news that promotes fear, uncertainty, and doubt and want an antidote, you’ll want to subscribe to our daily newsletter at Mission.org. When you do, you’ll receive a mission-driven newsletter every morning that will help you start your day off right! Email us -> info@mission.orgWork with us -> https://www.missionsponsors.com/Follow Stephanie -> https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephaniepostles/

“I think that done properly, collaboration will come to be understood not just as an application or an app that you boot up for those five minutes when you need to use it, but a fundamental property of computation itself.” — John Underkoffler John Underkoffler, CEO of Oblong Industries, has developed a new way to share ideas online with the Mezzanine platform, Oblong’s flagship product suite that is effectively the world’s first multi-user computer. Mezzanine allows for multi-content, multi-stream, and multi-user experiences, or as John likes to describe it, “getting visual ideas out of people’s individual devices and onto a screen where everyone can see them.” Currently, Mezzanine is built for enterprise-level companies, but Oblong is not stopping there. They’ve developed a virtual version of Mezzanine called Rumpus built specifically for remote teams all over the world to collaborate on work projects more effectively. Communication is no longer an issue with Mezzanine and Rumpus, where your ideas are easily shared visually and not limited to the written word. “Cognitive empathy is what Mezzanine and Rumpus is really trying to get at,” says John.   As Chad points out in the episode, “how many relationships have we lost because of flawed communication?” Language has its limitations. Mezzanine and Rumpus are making it easy to visually share ideas in real-time with multiple users. What could be possible for humanity if we all understood each other better? Many of John’s ideas were brought to life in the film, Minority Report, where he helped craft a vision for what technology would look like in 2054. The movie showed “how powerful UI itself can be,” says John. “UI as an extension of human cognition and human teamwork.” On this episode, Chad and John discuss his upbringing from learning to code to his experience in K-12 education, what cultural and economic factors are affecting innovation today, and John’s thoughts on how technology can propel humanity forward. — Mission Daily and all of our podcasts are created with love by our team at Mission.org. We own and operate a network of podcasts, and brand story studio designed to accelerate learning. Our clients include companies like Salesforce, Twilio, and Katerra who work with us because we produce results. To learn more and get our case studies, check out Mission.org/Studios. If you’re tired of media and news that promotes fear, uncertainty, and doubt and want an antidote, you’ll want to subscribe to our daily newsletter at Mission.org. When you do, you’ll receive a mission-driven newsletter every morning that will help you start your day off right!  Email us -> info@mission.orgWork with us -> https://www.missionsponsors.com/Follow Stephanie -> https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephaniepostles/

Bill Goldstein has always been attracted to a challenge. From his days in high school striving to understand theoretical physics problems, to his current work as the director of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, (LLNL), Bill is a magnet for tough problems. But the problems that he faces at LLNL today aren’t just theoretical. They are very real and account for the safety of the nation and of the world. See, LLNL isn’t just any old testing lab; LLNL is responsible for securing and maintaining the U.S.’s nuclear arsenal. The most pressing challenge Bill and LLNL face today is maintaining the safety and utility of the nuclear stockpile. But there’s a catch. They can’t ever actually touch or test the weapons. “These are tremendously complicated devices. They are evolving continually over time. They have radioactive materials in them. They have chemically active materials in them. They are changing every day. They've been aging since 1992. And the challenge of being able to ensure that they remain safe and reliable is what drives a great deal of the science at the laboratory, including our need for ever-increasing power of computing without being able to do the tests in real life. It's essential that we need to be able to simulate the behavior of nuclear weapons with the highest possible fidelity and the most accurate possible physics and chemistry. And we need bigger computers than we have today in order to do that.” So how do you determine if something is safe and secure without tests? You collect data and use computer simulations to predict the state of the devices. Not exactly the most foolproof plan back in the 90s, but as technology has advanced, so have Bill and LLNL’s simulations. With the stockpile secure, LLNL’s mission has become much broader: to apply cutting edge science and technology to enhance national and international security. On this episode, Chad and Bill discuss some of these other areas of focus at the lab, and dive deep into how data and computer modeling is helping solve some of the massive challenges facing humanity today. — Mission Daily and all of our podcasts are created with love by our team at Mission.org. We own and operate a network of podcasts, and brand story studio designed to accelerate learning. Our clients include companies like Salesforce, Twilio, and Katerra who work with us because we produce results. To learn more and get our case studies, check out Mission.org/Studios. If you’re tired of media and news that promotes fear, uncertainty, and doubt and want an antidote, you’ll want to subscribe to our daily newsletter at Mission.org. When you do, you’ll receive a mission-driven newsletter every morning that will help you start your day off right! Email us -> info@mission.orgWork with us -> https://www.missionsponsors.com/Follow Stephanie -> https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephaniepostles/

“Time is our most valuable asset and giving back time to consumers is transformative.” — Sergio Villasenor In 2017, Sergio Villasenor was a solo entrepreneur with a background as an engineer when he started Elliot, an early stage and venture-backed start-up based in NYC. Elliot is revolutionizing the online checkout process by enabling sellers with simple, one-tap checkouts across platforms. Sergio estimates that 80% of checkouts initiated online are abandoned in the checkout process. “Making checkout as easy as possible for consumers, shortening the path to purchase, making it simple for people to self-checkout in-store, and building great experiences on top of that” are all areas of focus for Sergio and his team. Sergio speaks to the challenges of being a solo founder, especially the challenges of being a first-time entrepreneur. Sergio believes it all comes down to surrounding yourself with the right team and part of that is knowing what you are good at and what you are not good at. On this episode, Chad and Sergio discuss how to overcome the challenge of being a solo founder looking for investment, why time is your most valuable asset, and how Elliot is giving this back to consumers in a simple way - at the checkout line. — Mission Daily and all of our podcasts are created with love by our team at Mission.org. We own and operate a network of podcasts, and brand story studio designed to accelerate learning. Our clients include companies like Salesforce, Twilio, and Katerra who work with us because we produce results. To learn more and get our case studies, check out Mission.org/Studios. If you’re tired of media and news that promotes fear, uncertainty, and doubt and want an antidote, you’ll want to subscribe to our daily newsletter at Mission.org. When you do, you’ll receive a mission-driven newsletter every morning that will help you start your day off right! Email us -> info@mission.orgWork with us -> https://www.missionsponsors.com/Follow Stephanie -> https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephaniepostles/

“If you make a podcast that succeeds, you’ve helped to define what podcasting is. And in ten years, I don’t think that's going to be true in the same way.” — Jacob Weisberg Jacob Weisberg, co-founder and CEO of Pushkin Industries, makes podcasts for a living alongside his co-founder, Malcolm Gladwell. Jacob and Malcolm have been friends for over 30 years, first meeting in college while Jacob was working at Panoply, a podcast network produced by Slate. Soon after, Jacob and Malcolm launched Revisionist History, which takes another look at a past historical event, person or idea. Jacob was one of the first employees at Slate where he was as a writer focused on U.S. politics. He worked his way through the ranks, becoming an editor, then a manager, and eventually sold the company to the Washington Post. Today, Jacob predicts that the media of the future will continue to become a more audio-focused experience and he sees podcasting playing a vital role in that future. But, that vision won’t happen on its own; it takes growing and experimenting with the current market to find what works. He understands that - as is true with any business - podcasting as a business will require multiple revenue streams and cannot just rely on advertising revenue. “If your listeners are paying for content, you have a much greater ability to say no to an advertiser that you’re not comfortable with or just an advertiser that wants you to do something or say something that you’d rather not,” says Jacob. In this episode, Stephanie and Jacob discuss the origin of podcasting as a business, the importance of being creative every day, and what’s in store for the future of the podcast industry. — Mission Daily and all of our podcasts are created with love by our team at Mission.org. We own and operate a network of podcasts, and brand story studio designed to accelerate learning. Our clients include companies like Salesforce, Twilio, and Katerra who work with us because we produce results. To learn more and get our case studies, check out Mission.org/studios. If you’re tired of media and news that promotes fear, uncertainty, and doubt and want an antidote, you’ll want to subscribe to our daily newsletter at Mission.org. When you do, you’ll receive a mission-driven newsletter every morning that will help you start your day off right! Email us -> info@mission.orgWork with us -> https://www.missionsponsors.com/Follow Stephanie -> https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephaniepostles/

Randi Zuckerberg is a true renaissance woman. Her long list of achievements includes working at Facebook in marketing for more than 6 years, producing shows on Broadway and founding Zuckerberg Media. She knows what it means to prioritize multiple projects at once and excel at each. Since leaving Facebook, Randi founded Zuckerberg Media, where her focus is bringing more young girls and women into the technology industry and STEM at large. “I knew once my work was complete with Facebook that the second chapter of my career would really be around getting more women in the room and changing what the upper executives of this company looks like,” Randi says. Her new book, Pick Three: You Can Have It All (Just Not Every Day), speaks to her personal life philosophy. “I’m really not a fan of the term ‘being well balanced,’” Randi says. “I don't think anyone has ever done anything they were proud on in life while being well balanced, so I give myself permission to be well lop-sided. Whatever I’m focusing on in the moment that I want to be great at, it's going to mean prioritizing that thing and saying no other things.” Ultimately, Randi summarizes, you can have it all but you have to prioritize and pick three things you want to focus on each day, whether it’s work, family, or your personal health. On this episode of Mission Daily, Chad and Randi sit down to discuss how she is managing her various projects, career mistakes and what she has learned from them along the way, and her personal mission to be ‘well-lopsided’ in life. — Mission Daily and all of our podcasts are created with love by our team at Mission.org. We own and operate a network of podcasts, and brand story studio designed to accelerate learning. Our clients include companies like Salesforce, Twilio, and Katerra who work with us because we produce results. To learn more and get our case studies, check out Mission.org/Studios. If you’re tired of media and news that promotes fear, uncertainty, and doubt and want an antidote, you’ll want to subscribe to our daily newsletter at Mission.org. When you do, you’ll receive a mission-driven newsletter every morning that will help you start your day off right! Email us -> info@mission.orgWork with us -> https://www.missionsponsors.com/Follow Stephanie -> https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephaniepostles/

Square might have started as a simple point of sale app for business owners, but in recent years it has grown to be so much more. With an incredible range of products that offer business solutions of all kinds, Square has been infiltrating new markets every day. There are many reasons Square has been so successful, and one of them is excellent marketing. As the Global Head of Marketing for Square, Lauren Weinberg has had a lot to do with that. Most marketers will tell you that storytelling is one of, if not the most important aspects of a good marketing campaign. Lauren and Square take that belief to heart and insert meaningful and impactful stories into everything they do. And the goal is always the same: “Everyone's here to make tools and services to make it easier for small business owners to succeed,” Lauren says. “It just really is in the DNA of everything that we do.” On this episode of Mission Daily, Lauren explains that ethos to Chad and dives into the details of how her team injects storytelling into their marketing campaigns. On social, in editorial, and even through a new video series and a foray into podcasting, Lauren is leading an expansion of marketing at Square and she’s excited to share it all. — Mission Daily and all of our podcasts are created with love by our team at Mission.org. We own and operate a network of podcasts, and brand story studio designed to accelerate learning. Our clients include companies like Salesforce, Twilio, and Katerra who work with us because we produce results. To learn more and get our case studies, check out Mission.org/Studios. If you’re tired of media and news that promotes fear, uncertainty, and doubt and want an antidote, you’ll want to subscribe to our daily newsletter at Mission.org. When you do, you’ll receive a mission-driven newsletter every morning that will help you start your day off right! Email us -> info@mission.orgWork with us -> https://www.missionsponsors.com/Follow Stephanie -> https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephaniepostles/

Throughout the last few decades, the amount of data that has accumulated on the internet and in our systems has grown by orders of magnitude. Most believe that much of this data is useless. Logs, miscellaneous accounts and lines of code were just floating in the ether, and to many people, that was just fine. But Doug Merritt was not one of those people. Doug is the CEO of Splunk, which is helping people and companies turn “dark data” into usable, measurable analytical tools that can push a business forward. It’s not all business, though. For Doug, the story of data is more than just what Splunk is doing for businesses. In today’s society, the population is giving access to all kinds of data to various companies and third parties, which then go and sell our data to others for profit. Doug believes that we can democratize all of this data and create an economic good that will benefit all people. Plus, by analyzing big data and partnering with others doing the same, problems like human trafficking are being addressed in a way that’s never been done before. And it’s actually been successful. “Over a three-year time period, using Splunk and a host of other technologies, Global Emancipation Network has been able to make a significant dent in both identifying victims of human trafficking and the perpetrators. It is starting to actually turn the tide in a positive direction just by being curious enough to begin to ask questions of what would it take to solve a problem like this?” On this episode, Doug and Chad dive deeper into how that was possible, plus they discuss the ways data can be used to solve all manner of problems, and how we might prepare for a future where data is the key to everything. — Mission Daily and all of our podcasts are created with love by our team at Mission.org. We own and operate a network of podcasts, and brand story studio designed to accelerate learning. Our clients include companies like Salesforce, Twilio, and Katerra who work with us because we produce results. To learn more and get our case studies, check out Mission.org/Studios. If you’re tired of media and news that promotes fear, uncertainty, and doubt and want an antidote, you’ll want to subscribe to our daily newsletter at Mission.org. When you do, you’ll receive a mission-driven newsletter every morning that will help you start your day off right! Email us -> info@mission.orgWork with us -> https://www.missionsponsors.com/Follow Stephanie -> https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephaniepostles/