117: Emily Harburg | CEO & Co-Founder, PairUp

03/19/24 • 45 min

My guest today is Emily Harburg. Emily is the Cofounder and CEO of PairUp, a B2B SaaS platform that boosts workplace knowledge-sharing, increases connectivity, and helps you solve problems more efficiently at work

Emily’s background spans industry, startups, and academia. She has worked at Walt Disney Imagineering where she designed technology for the Disney theme parks, at Facebook (Meta) where she worked as a UX researcher, and at EF Education First where she led the Emerging Tech and Innovation team designing tech to support millions of students around the world. In 2015, Emily co-founded Brave Initiatives, an organization dedicated to helping women build tech skills and confidence in coding for social impact.
Emily’s academic research lies at the intersection of technology and social behavior, and the role that technology can play in building self-efficacy and confidence. Her research has been published and shared in global conferences, academic journals, case studies, and news publications -- including the Harvard Business Review, TEDx, CNN, and more.

Emily graduated with a B.A. in Social Anthropology and Psychology from Harvard College, and with a Ph.D. in Technology and Social Behavior from Northwestern University.

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Past guests include Margaret Wishingrad, Kara Goldin, Brandi Chastain, Julie Foudy, Ann Miura Ko, Linda Avey, Sarah Leary, Becky Sauerbrunn, Miriam Haart and many more.

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Show Notes:

1. Welcome to She Leads
2. Emily's Childhood and Early Interests
3. Navigating College and her Career Path
4. Designing Technology for Walt Disney
5. Imposter Syndrome and Confidence
6. Pursuing a PhD
7. Taking Risks, Following Passion, Quieting the Inner Voices
8. Overcoming Self-Doubt and Taking the Founder Leap
9. Founding Story of PairUp
10. Fundraising and Hiring Challenges
11. Building a Supportive Founder Community
12. Lessons Learned and Advice for Founders
13. Defining and Evolving Company Culture
14. Importance of Mentors and Champions
15. Passions + Book Recs + Lifetime Craft
Emily's Rare Obsession? DJ-ing
Emily's Book Recommendation? Viktor Frankl's 'Man Search for Meaning'
Emily's life-time craft she is honing? Bravery
▶️ Video interview available on Youtube.
If you're enjoying the show, please share it with a friend and leave a review!

Emily graduated with a B.A. in Social Anthropology and Psychology from Harvard College, and with a Ph.D. in Technology and Social Behavior from Northwestern University.

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Past guests include Margaret Wishingrad, Kara Goldin, Brandi Chastain, Julie Foudy, Ann Miura Ko, Linda Avey, Sarah Leary, Becky Sauerbrunn, Miriam Haart and many more.

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Show Notes:

Previous Episode

116: Fiona Tan | Chief Technology Officer, Wayfair

Fiona is the Chief Technology Officer at Wayfair, an American e-commerce company that is the destination for all things home – a place to find the right furniture and home goods online. With 25+ years of experience leading technology teams, Fiona began her professional career working at top technical companies, including Oracle, TIBCO Software and Ariba. At TIBCO, she rose up to be the Vice President of Engineering in her 16-year tenure at this intelligence cloud data company.

Prior to Wayfair, Fiona served in executive leadership roles at Walmart – first as the Senior VP of Engineering for Customer Technology at WalmartLabs and then as the Senior Vice President of U.S. Technology at Walmart.
Fiona earned her bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Engineering from MIT and her masters in computer science from Stanford University.

In this episode, we cover the following topics:
1. Fiona's childhood and the emphasis on education
2. Studying Computer Science at MIT
3. Gender disparity in Computer Science
4. Transition from college into the professional workforce
5. Her long tenure at TIBCO software
6. Transition from Consumer to Enterprise Software companies
7. Impact and challenges working at Walmart
8. Hiring and building a team
9. Transitioning from coding into managerial role
10. CTO role
11. Balancing perfection from good enough
12. Reflecting and learning from previous mistakes
13. Women in STEM
Fiona's life-time craft she is honing? Cooking
▶️ Video interview available on Youtube.
If you're enjoying the show, please share it with a friend and leave a review!

Next Episode

118: Fran Maier | Co-Founder, Match.com & Founder/CEO, BabyQuip

Fran is a serial entrepreneur and Super Founder with over 25 years of experience pioneering category-disrupting B2C and B2B internet businesses. Fran is widely recognized for her leadership as Co-Founder and first General Manager of the online dating service Match.com, Founder of the privacy compliance tech company TRUSTe (now known as TrustArc), and Founder and CEO of her current venture, BabyQuip, the #1 global baby gear rental brand. BabyQuip currently serves over 2k markets and maintains a network of independent gig economy entrepreneurs in the thousands.

As an award-winning business icon, trailblazer for women in tech, and advocate for female entrepreneurship, Fran has been named to the “150 Most Influential Women in Bay Area Business” by the SF Business Times, “Top 25 Women in Tech to Watch in Silicon Valley” by AlwaysOn and she is the 2016 recipient of the prestigious Jerry I. Porras Latino Leadership Award from Stanford Graduate School of Business, where she earned her Bachelors and MBA. Fran was also a featured expert on entrepreneurship in the acclaimed documentary film “She Started It” and appeared on ABC’s Shark Tank.

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Past guests include Margaret Wishingrad, Kara Goldin, Brandi Chastain, Julie Foudy, Ann Miura Ko, Linda Avey, Sarah Leary, Becky Sauerbrunn, Miriam Haart and many more.

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Show Notes:

1. Welcome to She Leads
2. Tanya's Early Life + Entrepreneurial Spirit
3. Her First Yogurt Shop at Stanford
4. Transition Post-Stanford into Consulting and Clorox Co.
5. The Rise of the Internet
6. Founding Story of Match.com
7. Reflections + the Impact of Match.com
8. Lessons Learned + Advice for Female Founders
9. Living in the Future and Identifying Opportunities
10. Career Trajectory: Transition to Women.com and Founding TrustArc
11. Gaining Confidence in each Career Pivot
12. Founding BabyQuip
13. Navigating Challenges and Adapting to the Gig Economy
14. Recognizing true PMF
15. The Importance of Timing in Entrepreneurship
16. Working with Family in Business
17. Ever-Changing Perspectives on Success
18. Addressing Gender Biases and Stereotypes
19. Challenging Misrepresentation and Advocating for Women
20. Changing Perspectives on Marriage
21. Honing Patience and Being Present
Fran's changed perspective in the last decade? Marriage
Fran's life-time craft she is honing? Patience + Being Present
If you're enjoying the show, please share it with a friend and leave a review!