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09/30/13 | Uncategorized

Up Next On Lightning Lessons: How to Build and Scale Great Teams

Former Google exec and serial entrepreneur Sukhinder Singh Cassidy: “It all works out as it’s meant to.”

By Lauren Kim (Events Coordinator, Women 2.0)

Few people can list as lofty a title as, “President of Latin America and Asia Pacific at Google,” on their resume. Our next Lightning Lessons speaker, Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, has not only been a top executive at household technology companies like Google, Amazon, and Polyvore, but also founded two companies, herself. Sukhinder’s most recent venture, JOYUS, seeks to “delight and transform your shopping experience” by offering curated, product-specific sales videos for the modern day, digitally-savvy woman shopper. Sukhinder draws from her extensive experience to share with Lightning Lessons viewers, “How to Build & Scale Great Teams.” Watch the video above and read on to learn more about Sukhinder!

What is the one thing you wish you knew at the start of your entrepreneurial journey?

When I first started Yodlee, I  wish I knew that it all works out as it’s meant to. That doesn’t mean it all works out – i.e your startup will always succeed –  but you will gain something immeasurable and priceless from the experience that will lay the groundwork for future success somehow and you need to just trust in that.

What do you love most about your job?

I love that the end customer is women just like us and every day we get to think about making women happy

What is your favorite or most inspiring book that you would recommend to founders and why?

“Good to Great” [by Jim Collins]. It’s just about the fundamentals about great leadership and remarkably simple, but the principles apply to startups as much as [they apply] to bigger companies, I think. I both read it and have the audiobook, which is so well narrated.

Where is the one place you go to relax and get away from the pressures of startup life?

[I go with] my family to Lake Tahoe to a house we renovated there that is so beautiful and different from everything here and a great place to escape.  And I go shopping – seriously – it relaxes me whether I buy anything or not 🙂

Who is your greatest role model and what would you ask them if you could meet her or him for coffee?

My greatest role model was my father, who passed 13 years ago. I was lucky to have him in my life for 30 years, but he passed just as my career in the Valley was taking off. If I could see him right now, I’d just take him home to meet my husband and children so they could feel his inspiration, wisdom and warmth first hand.

What do you envision the future will look like in the year 2020?

I think we will see SmartTVs at virtually 100% penetration and IPTV will be competing with cable and broadcast channels as a source of truly great content. We are just seeing the beginning of the next generation media companies in tech companies like YouTube, Amazon, Netflix, etc.

Watch the video above to see Sukhinder’s Lightning Lessons session, “How to Build & Scale Great Teams.”

What Is Lightning Lessons?

Lightning Lessons is a weekly live broadcast on Wednesday mornings where Women 2.0 sits down with a tech innovator to learn about the game-changing stories of their startup journey and the hard lessons they learned along the way. Take 10 minutes out of your day to learn from the mistakes and feats of your predecessors. Innovators jump in a Google Hangout On Air moderated by a Women 2.0 team member for a bit of story-time and the entire session is broadcast on Google+ for your viewing pleasure. See the full lineup of past and upcoming speakers, and catch up on last week’s session with Gretchen DeKnikker (Co-Founder & CMO, Social Pandas).

Read on to learn a little more about our next Lightning Lessons speaker.

Sukhinder Singh Cassidy (Founder & Chairman, JOYUS)

Sukhinder Singh Cassidy is founder and Chairman of JOYUS. Prior to founding JOYUS in January 2011, she spent 18 years as a leading consumer internet and media executive at global and early-stage companies including Google, Amazon, Polyvore, Yodlee and News Corporation. Most recently, she served as CEO and Chairman of the board at the leading social commerce site, Polyvore, and CEO-in-Residence with Accel Partners, a leading global consumer internet venture capital firm.

From 2003 to 2009, she was a senior executive at Google; as President of Asia Pacific and Latin America, she was responsible for all of Google’s commercial operations in both regions built the company’s physical presence from inception to a multi-billion dollar business across 40 domains and 103 different countries throughout APAC and Latin America. She currently serves on the boards of TripAdvisor (TRIP) and J. Hilburn, and on the Advisory Council for Princeton University’s Dept of Computer Science. She has also been an advisor to Twitter and board member of J. Crew Group and Formspring. Follow her on Twitter @SukhinderSingh.

Lauren Kim (@LaurenJisoo) currently serves as the events coordinator at Women 2.0.  Lauren holds a BA in Development Studies from U.C. Berkeley and graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy. She is passionate about social entrepreneurship and women’s issues. In her spare time, she competes in hackathons and snowboards.

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