Phil is currently VP of Product & Engineering at Close.com, building a product people love and growing our SaaS business to be something great. Previously he spent two years leading the Engineering team at Quizlet, building study tools that millions of students relied upon. Phil has also interned at Google and Yahoo! as a software engineer, and did lots of freelance website design while at the University of Florida.
Co-founder of Brainhub, Matt describes himself as a “serial entrepreneur”. Throughout his career, Matt has developed several startups in Germany, wearing many hats- from a marketer to an IT Engineer and customer support specialist. As a host of the Better Tech Leadership podcast, Matt talks about growing successful businesses and the challenges of being a startup founder and investor.
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In this episode, Matt interviews Lydia Varmazis, Head of Venture Portfolio and previously Chief Product Officer for RBCx. Lydia shares insights on leveraging board members, the transition from product head to portfolio management, and scaling challenges.
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In this episode, Matt interviews Mark Swaine about his career journey from UX to product management. Mark shares insights on the challenges startups face, especially regarding tech stack inefficiencies and the lack of customer design programs. He also discusses the impact of AI on product development, emphasizing the need for strategic UX and the potential struggles with AI adoption in less tech-ready organizations.
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In this episode, Matt interviews Brooks Folk about his role as Global Engineering Leader at nCino and about the challenges of leading at scale. Brooks shares his experiences, lessons learned, and the importance of balancing autonomy with standardization in a large organization. He also discusses the concept of “elephant carpaccio” for iterative software development and the importance of adapting leadership styles to different team needs.
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In this epiode, Matt interviews Frank Schmid about modernizing workflows with low code, integrating AI, and applying economic principles to tech and business decisions. Frank shares his unique journey from economics to becoming a CTO, emphasizing the confluence of IT and quantification. He also discusses the challenges and opportunities in the insurance industry, offering valuable insights on AI adoption and economic outlook.
