Richard (Microsoft to Cranium)

By Andrew Chen | Interviews

This interview is with Richard Tait, co-creator of the board game Cranium, which won the Toy Industry Association’s “Game of the Year” award five times in six years, and sold to Hasbro Toys in 2008. He is currently co-founder and CEO of Golazo energy drinks.  The interview was conducted by Andrew Chen and summarized by J. del Fierro.     Q. How has your career unfolded and taken you to your current role as co-founder of Golazo energy drinks? A. I’d love to tell you it was strategic, but that hasn’t been the way it unfolded for me. It’s often a door that closes that leads to [...]

Roger (college to tech entrepreneur)

By Andrew Chen | Interviews

It’s when you take that leave of absence or quit your job to focus on the startup full-time that it becomes real. – Roger Lee, president at PaperG

Adarsh (McKinsey to Rails developer)

By Andrew Chen | Interviews

“Part of job satisfaction is knowing that you’re doing a really good job.” – Adarsh Pandit, thoughtbot

Jason (sales to ridesharing startup)

By Andrew Chen | Interviews

Paul Graham was like, “This could be the Altair Basic.” – Jason Shen, Ridejoy

Yiaway (public finance to mayor)

By Andrew Chen | Interviews

“One of the important messages Harvard imparted on all of its graduates was that you should focus on tri-sector competence.” – Yiaway Yeh, Palo Alto mayor

Tarun (doctor to strategy consultant)

By Andrew Chen | Interviews

“Just listening and communicating, even if it takes some extra time out of your day, is extraordinarily important.” – Tarun Mahajan, doctor and BCG consultant

Kevin (consulting to food startup)

By Andrew Chen | Interviews

“In a startup, there are many situations where you just don’t know what you’re supposed to do because you’ve never seen it before. But it’s also really exciting because you get experience you may never get in a traditional job.” – Kevin Yang, EAT Club

Stephanie (nonprofit to marketing)

By Andrew Chen | Interviews

“You can re-invent yourself during a career transition. Don’t be confined to who you were or what others expect of you.” – Stephanie Lai, marketer at Smule

Linus (gaming to social entrepreneur)

By Andrew Chen | Interviews

“The idea wasn’t to start a company. The idea was to get this product out to everyone who needed it.” – Linus Liang, co-founder of Embrace

Gemmy (finance to product manager)

By Andrew Chen | Interviews

“One of the most helpful things in figuring out what you want to do is to actually just start the job search process.” – Gemmy Tsai, OpenTable