Underserved Andrew Gelina

Episode #121 of Underserved features Dmitry Grenader. Dmitry left the Soviet Union with his family and landed in Brooklyn. He worked his way up from odd jobs to a master's degree and became a software developer. A mentor saw promise in Dmitry's product management skills and encouraged him to lean in that direction. This has led Dmitry to a decades-long successful career in the Boston software industry. We discuss CES fame, writing a song to lobby for resources, and selling software to low-tech industries.
 
Links:
Boston University Late Entry Accelerated Program (LEAP) - https://www.bu.edu/eng/admissions/graduate/leap/
Lionbridge - https://www.lionbridge.com/
Sermo - https://www.sermo.com/
Vlingo, now part of Nuance - https://www.nuance.com/index.html
NetProspex, now part of Dun & Bradstreet - https://www.dnb.com/
Luminoso - https://luminoso.com/
Newmetrix, now part of Oracle - https://www.oracle.com/construction-engineering/construction-intelligence-cloud/#rc30p4
Marc Andressen "The only thing that matters" - https://pmarchive.com/guide_to_startups_part4.html
Rob Snyder coaches startup on product-market fit - https://www.linkedin.com/in/rsnyder1/
Amwell - https://business.amwell.com/

Episode 120 of Underserved is here! Our guest today is Christine Bird, a fellow UMass alum and veteran of the financial services industry. Christine started her career teaching some of the toughest students and learned to love it. Her foray into technology and QA taught her bug diplomacy, the SDLC, and how to make the skills vs. attitude decision. We discuss front-loading your tech learning, the AHA moment as a QA manager, and her love of being a city dweller.

 
LINKS
Glad.org
Sdlc-caat.com
Jobcorps.gov
https://www.linkedin.com/in/birdchristine/
 

In Episode 119 of Underserved, I interview Dustin Humphreys. From the level land in the Texas panhandle comes this pharmacist-turned-technologist. Dustin wore many hats to help bring drug stores online during the DotCom boom. He has since helped multiple drugstore chains advance their online presence and has branched out into other industries as well. We talk about feature obsession being overrated (now ADOPTION obsession - that is cool!) and the pachinko game of being a small company CEO.
 
LINKS
Dustin on LinkedIn
Rite Aid Bending the Adoption Curve
Dustin has some patents!

In Underserved #118 we interview Andrew Heffernan. Andrew grew up believing he wanted to be an engineer. After dabbling in civil and plastics, he found his way into the tech industry via customer support at Constant Contact. The company thrived and provided Andrew advancement into development, where he discovered that the hardest part of the job could be getting all the humans to work in concert. We discuss working with fellow Underserved guest Erik Dasque, what happens when you 10x your staff, and the double-edged sword of SalesForce.
 
Links:
Andrew on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-w-heffernan/
https://www.litify.com/ 
https://www.litify.com/careers
 

Episode #117 of Underserved features our guest Sree Kancharla. It looked like Sree was on track toward a math PhD and teaching, but a tech career blossomed instead. Sree was involved with many projects ahead of their time, including iterative deployment and Google Glass. We talk about innovating in the digital realm and product vs. service companies.
 
For more information: 
Sailpoint
Mandiant
Google
Sacred Heart – Volunteer Organization
T200  - Empowering Women in Technology
Irvine Tech - Mentoring in LA

Kurt Iverson is featured in Episode #116 of Underserved. Kurt offered to build a website for a budding comedian in exchange for free show tickets. While not a great monetary deal, the experience and connections ended up paying huge dividends. Kurt parlayed this into development gigs for interactive firms, The Federal Reserve, and Garmin. We talk deploying with Disney, user empathy, and George Brett.
 
Links:
www.survivormitzvah.org – dear Hollywood friends that are on a mission to help Holocaust survivors and all those suffering from the effects of war
www.billburr.com – one of my oldest friends in comedy and someone who kills it and inspires me everyday
https://omd.uk.com – The band that inspired me to get into music and is the soundtrack of my life and nights
https://open.spotify.com/album/2xt8Y4BXkEdVR975Squ2QI - Dink and I wrote a lot of music together and he was a genius with harmony and melody. I will forever miss our musical partnership and friendship.
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9dQZF1EIWwtuB34Fbe5- Check out my friend and Grammy nominee keyboardist for King Fisher, Watermelon Funk 
www.alteryx.com – I make data analytics magic happen here.  
https://www.discprofile.com/what-is-disc - Learn about yourself in a professional and deeply personal sense. Self awareness is key to growing. Whether it’s this program or something else entirely that gives you insight to yourself, do it!
www.nngroup.com – Looking to kickstart your career in UX? Get certified through this staple of UX guidance.
www.robertkellylive.com – One of my oldest friends in comedy and arguable the funniest!
www.stevebyrnelive.com – Another long-time friend from comedy who is killing it and producing his own shows with the likes of Vince Vaughn and Peter Billingsley. Don’t miss his new projects!
– Check out “That’s So Quantum” created by my dear friend, John Combs! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYtePy4SF1E