The Manila Folder

Sarah Hodges is a Partner for the early stage venture capital firm Pillar. If you sat down with Sarah two years ago and asked if she'd want to become a venture capitalist, she would have shaken her head and said, "Absolutely not!" But she changed her mind after having a heartfelt conversation about Pillar's mission and values with founder and VC veteran, Jamie Goldstein. In Today's Episode You'll Hear How Sarah made the transition from corporate, to founder to venture capitalist.How startup founders should prepare to have a conversation with a venture capitalist and what they can do to knock it out of the park.Why Pillar wants to be anything but a traditional VC firm by building a company that focuses on alignment, relationships and support for founders.How venture capital contributes to innovationWhy Sarah is going all-in on the Boston tech ecosystem and what they have that Silicon Valley does not. Full show notes at www.themanilafolder.net/pillar-venture-capital Follow us on Twitter | Facebook | Instagram

On this episode you'll hear from Stephan Schambach. Serial entrepreneur and eCommerce pioneer. You'll hear: - How Stephan developed the first standard software for online shopping - What he believes is the future of retail - About his new startup, NewStore, and how they are on the forefront of disrupting the retail industry Full show notes at http://themanilafolder.net/making-retail-great-again/ Don't forget to follow us on Twitter & Facebook

Inspired to create an organization that focuses on positive social change, Kimberly founded Black Girls CODE, a non-profit that teaches young girls from underrepresented communities computer programming. Her mission is to provide African-American youth with the skills to occupy some of the 1.4 million computing job openings expected to be available in the U.S. by 2020, and to train 1 million girls by 2040. So far, so good. Since 2011, Black Girls CODE, with the support of organizations...

Fair.com is disrupting the car buying experience and car ownership itself. I chat with co-founder and Executive Vice President of Brand, Jennifer Parke to understand how Fair is disrupting the automotive industry and how she approaches branding for an innovative tech company. On This Episode You'll Hear Jennifer and I talk about her experience in advertising working with some of the biggest names in retail, telecommunications and technology. You’ll hear how Fair works and why they’re...

Why is the standard work week 40 hours? How many hours per day are we truly productive at work? Stephan Aarstol, CEO of Tower Paddle Boards (A Mark Cuban Shark Tank investment) believes most people squander the 40 hours they have each week. So, he changed his company hours (and the schedule of all employees) to 8AM - 1PM. Hear his story of the 5 Hour Workday Full show notes on http://themanilafolder.net/the-5-hour-workday/ Listen to the full episode to hear: Stephan’s experience on...

The days of diversity being a checkbox or report that human resources sends to the Bureau of Labor Statistics is over. The risks are far too great for it to be an initiative that’s driven solely by one department. CEOs must take ownership of diversity and inclusion in the workplace and drive it throughout the organization. Or risk a Travis Kalanick. Everyone talks until they’re blue in the face on “why” it’s important. Let’s start talking about how you can actually make it work. On This...

Recruiters are idiots. So are hiring managers. As a former recruiter and hiring manger I resent those statements. But if you go to Google and type in “recruiters are” or “hiring managers are” you will see how the search engine feels about the two. OK, it’s not Google per se, rather people like you and me who are typing phrases into the search engine. Evidently, enough people are typing in statements versus questions. What do you think their intent is? On this episode you’ll hear from...

Chris Hallberg is a military veteran, entrepreneur and business coach nick named, The Business Sergeant. He draws on his experience in the U.S. National Guard and work as a correctional officer to give action packed advice on how to change your organization for the better. As you can imagine from someone named “The Business Sergeant”, Chris has a no nonsense approach to addressing the many issues plaguing businesses today. But, and he promises, his approach doesn’t include yelling or...

If any of this is important to you: A new job, a raise or a promotionStarting a businessBecoming a thought leader, board member or influencerGetting more clientsRecognition at work If any of this is important to you, you must build your personal brand. [Head to www.themanilafolder.net for full show notes] What Is A Personal Brand A personal brand aligns who you are, your values, your skills and your interests with your goals. It's your value proposition and how you market yourself. On...

There’s a thriving community of backpack lovers on Kickstarter. Early adopting, urban nomads who love travel, being prepared, and looking stylish while riding a rented city bike. Forever searching for the perfect accessory to load up their things and knickknacks too. In true entrepreneurial form, today’s guest, Jacob Durham, and his cousin Jon Richards, saw there was a massive thirst for the perfect backpack. So they made it. And in the process launched a campaign that would become the...

We all need a little inspiration sometimes. Motivation to be better tomorrow than we were today. Or simply motivation to keep moving forward. Today, I'm chatting with Robert Glazer, Founder of Acceleration Partners (one of the top affiliate marketing agencies). Each week, Robert sends his employees and 25,000 people on his list, an email called Friday Forward. His goal? To inspire people to become better versions of themselves. To live with no regret and to seize the day. Before you start...

Welcome to Season 2 of The Manila Folder Podcast. Today, I'm talking about brand loyalty and the future of advertising with Norty Cohen, CEO and founder of digital agency Moosylvania. Not only do they create amazing campaigns for some of the top companies in the world, but they also conduct an annual study on brand loyalty. On this episode: The Participation Game: How the Top 100 Brands Build Loyalty In A Skeptical World Checkout Norty's latest book The Participation Game: How the Top...

We all need a Yoda, Mr. Miyagi or Oprah Winfrey if we want to be successful, maintain our success or become the best version of ourselves. Mentors are the people who can get us there. They give “Been there. Done that” advice that truly counts, point out our weaknesses and guide us towards the right path. All so we can be better. Who doesn’t want that? On this episode, I sat down with Kyle Jacobsen, Director of Product for Teem. You'll hear: - Why mentors are important - Where you can...

On this episode I sat down with Larry Cornett, Ph.D. and we talked about his work journey. Larry started his career at IBM and then moved over to Apple, while finishing his dissertation for a Ph.D. in psychology from Rice University. He tells an epic story about Steve Jobs, who had just returned to the helm of the iconic brand. It’s pretty classic. He continues his career at other great companies in Silicon Valley, including eBay and Yahoo where he was promoted 7 times in 7 years, landing...

Robert "Bob" Bethel has rescued 77 businesses across a dozen industries, so has "been there, done that." Without fail, he has seen the same mistakes over and over again. Now, he's on a mission to help businesses get off to the right start and stay in business. Bob shares stories of businesses he has saved from the brink of total failure and tells his own story of failure and triumph. You'll learn: - Why businesses fail - How to learn from failure - What founders can do to set their...

On this episode you’ll meet Jacob Morgan, a futurist and best-selling author who is a world authority on the employee experience and future of work. He and I chat about the research he conducted for his latest book, The Employee Experience Advantage. In particular, we talk about the 3 major components of the employee experience: Physical SpaceTechnology ToolsCorporate Culture It was refreshing to hear insights directly from the person who studied some of the top organizations in the world,...

Jody Bailey is the Chief Technology Officer for tech unicorn PluralSight. Throughout his career he has built highly-engaged, award-winning dev organizations. In this episode, you'll learn why he coaches his team to manage 20 direct reports and how they do it successfully.

Christina Sass is the co-founder and President of Andela. A tech start-up, backed by Mark Zuckerberg, that's out to prove brilliance is evenly distributed. On this episode, we talk about why she decided to launch a tech start-up in Africa and how the Andela team is helping fill the tech skills gap with remote software engineers.

What Happens In Vegas, Stays in Vegas is one of the top slogans of all-time and today's guest was part of the team who helped promote the campaign. Miranda Barnard, Vice President of Content Development for Children's Miracle Network, talks about her journey from Vegas to becoming a young executive for one of the top non-profits and how to achieve career success.

For the past year or so bias has taken center stage on blogs, media sites and around conference tables at VC firms, technology companies and beyond. Earlier this year there was a maelstrom of anger around the anti-diversity memo penned by a now former Google employee. People were divided. Divided around the topic of diversity as well as freedom of speech in the workplace. On this episode, I interviewed author and leadership consultant, Gayle Van Gils. She is a certified instructor of...