The Rollercoaster Podcast with Nikunj Kothari

For today's episode, we chat with Wes Donohoe (@wesperience). Wes recently transitioned to working on special projects at One Medical after serving as their Vice President of Product for four years. Prior to this, he was the head of product at Shyp and previously head of product at Live Nation Labs.
In this episode, Wes talks about all his incredible ventures:

• Being scuba certified for free at age 12
• Starting his boat cleaning company in college
• Launching and failing to build three companies after the 2008 financial crisis
• Transitioning to product management with no prior experience at Live Nation Labs and then joining Shyp
• Building and scaling the One Medical product org
• Steering One Medical through IPO and COVID early this year

Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform.

Check us out on the web at http://rollercoaster.life/ or get in touch with us on Twitter @rollerpod or emailing me at [email protected]
Music: Nowhere land & Wholesome by Kevin MacLeod.
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Kevin is the founder of immi, a company that is making healthy nutritious instant ramen. Prior to this, Kevin was a venture capitalist at Pear and a product manager at AltSchool + Kabam. In this episode, Kevin talks about his journey to founding immi. Some highlights being:
- Gaming and learning how to meet strangers online
- Shifting his focus from investment banking and becoming a PM at Kabam
- Moving to the world of venture capital
- How he met his cofounder serendipitously at a noodle shop
- Building a CPG company with no experience during COVID and challenges along the way
Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform.

Check us out on the web at http://rollercoaster.life/ or get in touch with us on Twitter @rollerpod or emailing me at [email protected]
Music: Nowhere land & Wholesome by Kevin MacLeod.
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, Nikunj chats with Karan Talati. Karan is the CEO of First Resonance, a company that is developing the next-generation manufacturing software platform for modern manufacturers . Prior to this, Karan was the first engineer at Sense360 and before that an engineer at SpaceX. In this episode, Karan talks about his journey to founding First Resonance. Some highlights being:

• Being influenced by technology and globalization very early in life
• Shifting his focus from mechanical engineering to software in college
• Being an early engineer at SpaceX and Sense360
• How the rise in hardware startups led him to start First Resonance
• Surviving 2020 and sharing what the future holds

Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform.

Check us out on the web at http://rollercoaster.life/ or get in touch with us on Twitter @rollerpod or emailing me at [email protected]
Music: Nowhere land & Wholesome by Kevin MacLeod.
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For this episode, Nikunj chats with Cristina (@cjc). Cristina currently leads the platform and partnerships team at Notion. Prior to this, Cristina was at Stripe where she joined as the first business development hire and the 28th employee. Over her seven years there, she ended up growing her team, leading partnerships overall, and also leading efforts on new products like corporate card.
In this episode, Cristina talks about her journey in leading partnership teams at various organizations. Some highlights being:

• Growing up home alone from 7th grade to 9th grade
• Love for debate club growing up and joining Stanford aiming to be a lawyer
• Pivoting to tech by being an intern at Tapulous
• Leaving Google to join Pulse as their first employee
• Being the first business development hire at Stripe and her 7.5 year journey
• Joining Notion this year to lead Platform and Partnerships

Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform.

Check us out on the web at http://rollercoaster.life/ or get in touch with us on Twitter @rollerpod or emailing me at [email protected]
Music: Nowhere land & Wholesome by Kevin MacLeod.
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For this episode, Nikunj chats with Nish Bhat (@nterminus). Nish was most recently working at Color Genomics where he was one of four cofounders. Prior to that, Nish worked as a software engineer at Lookout.
In this episode, Nish talks about his journey to founding Color Genomics. Some highlights being:

• Love for entomology and biology growing up
• Wanting to become an academic biologist
• Transition to being a software engineer in his junior year
• Founding Color Genomics as he wanted to get back to his first love, biology
• Growth challenges at Color
• Leaving Color, and helping early stage founders with his expertise

Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform.

Check us out on the web at http://rollercoaster.life/ or get in touch with us on Twitter @rollerpod or emailing me at [email protected]
Music: Nowhere land & Wholesome by Kevin MacLeod.
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.