Luminate with Lan Anh Vu Lan Anh Vu

Today’s guest is Larry Gadea, founder and CEO of Envoy. Envoy is a workplace platform that helps companies welcome visitors, keep employees safe, book desks and conference rooms, and manage deliveries in over 16,000 locations around the globe.
To date, Larry has raised over $170 million for Envoy from a16z, Menlo Ventures, Brookfield Growth, Marc Benioff, Elad Gil to name a few.
Prior to Envoy, Larry started his career as a software engineer at 17, having been recruited by Google out of high school. He later joined X (formerly Twitter) as one of the early people driving its ability to scale.
In today’s episode, we talk about Larry experiences at Google and Twitter and to better understand what pain points Envoy was trying to solve. We also talk about Larry on leadership lessons scaling Envoy to a billion-dollar company, what it takes to manage the board effectively, and so much more.

Today's guest is Daniel Goleman, one of the world’s leading experts on the science of emotion. Daniel is the author of Emotional Intelligence, a blockbuster book that sold more than 5 million copies in about 40 languages. 
Apart from his writing on emotional intelligence, Daniel has written books on topics including self-deception, creativity, transparency, meditation, social and emotional learning, eco-literacy and the ecological crisis. His latest book, Optimal, shows why emotional intelligence can help each of us have rewarding and productive days.
Ranked one of the 10 most influential business thinkers by the Wall Street Journal, Daniel’s articles in the Harvard Business Review are among the most frequently requested reprints. He has won many awards, including the HBR McKinsey Award for best article of the year. Harvard’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences awarded him its Centennial Medallion.
He started out by getting his PhD in clinical psychology at Harvard, and he then spent 12 years writing about brain research as a science reporter for the New York Times.
In this episode, Lan Anh talks to Daniel about why emotional intelligence matters, how science demonstrates that emotional intelligence matters far more than IQ, how we can enhance and manage our emotions to expand our brain capacity, and gives actionable tips about how we can learn emotional intelligence. 

Today’s guest is Liz Elting, cofounder and former CEO of TransPerfect, the world’s largest language solutions company, with over $1.1 billion in revenue and offices in more than 100 cities worldwide.
In 2018, Liz left TransPerfect after being there for 26 years and now she’s running Elizabeth Elting Foundation , which advances economic social and political equality for women and marginalized people. 
Liz received the 2019 Charles Waldo Haskins Award for business and public service from NYU’s Stern School of Business, the American Heart Association’s 2020 Health Equity Leadership Award, the Alliance of Women Entrepreneurs’ 2021 Vertex Award for changing the face and direction of women’s high-growth entrepreneurship, the American Heart Association’s 2022 Woman Changing the World Award, Trinity College’s 2022 Kathleen O’Connor Boelhouwer ’85 Alumni Initiative Award, and the Gabrielle’s Angel Foundation’s 2023 Angel of Hope Award.
Liz has been recognized as a NOW Woman of Power & Influence, American Express' and Entrepreneur magazine's Woman of the Year, and one of Forbes’ Richest Self-Made Women every year since the list’s inception. Liz is also the bestselling author of “Dream Big and Win: Translating Passion into Purpose and Creating a Billion-Dollar Business”.
In this episode, we discuss how Liz came up with the idea for TransPerfect, how she built and scaled a billion-dollar company without taking any outside funding. We also discuss the power of setting goals and taking action, and the role that partnerships play in your success. 

Today’s guest is Isabelle Freidheim, founder and managing partner of Athena Capital, a technology fund that focuses on bringing high-performing, mission-driven companies to the market. Isabelle is the youngest female chairman of a publicly traded company in the U.S. Under her leadership, Athena has raised more than $1.2 billion.
Before founding Athena Capital, Isabelle co-founded and acted as CEO of Magnifi, the AI and machine-learning fintech company. Isabelle led Magnifi's early growth as one of the few female CEOs in the AI industry.
Isabelle previously co-founded and managed The London Fund and was the first female venture partner at VC fund MissionOG.
During this interview, Isabelle shares her personal and career journey, from VC to entrepreneur. We then discuss SPACs in-depth, how they work, why some companies would prefer to IPO through a SPAC rather than the traditional IPO process, and much more.

Today’s guest is Doug Conant, an internationally respected business leader. Doug served as the President of Nabisco from 1999-2001, served a decade as President and CEO of The Campbell Soup Company and then spent three years as Chairman of Avon Products. In 2011 he founded ConantLeadership, a consulting company focused on championing leadership that works in the 21st century.
Doug is the only former Fortune 500 CEO who is a New York Times bestselling author, a Top 50 Leadership Innovator, a Top 100 Leadership Speaker, and one of the 100 Most Influential Authors in the World.
He’s also the author of The Blueprint: 6 Practical Steps to Lift Your Leadership to New Heights, and Touchpoints: Creating Powerful Leadership Connections in the Smallest of Moments.  
During this interview, Doug shares some of his personal story and leadership philosophy. He also talks about some of his first 100 days as CEO of Campbell Soup, how he saved Campbell’s Soup from freefall, the importance of focusing on the workplace before the marketplace and so much more. 
No matter where you may be positioned in your current work situation, the lessons Doug shares will bring your attention to how important a brilliant leader is for a business and how you can take concrete steps towards being one yourself.

Today’s guest is Hristo Borisov, cofounder and CEO at Payhawk, a financial system that combines credit cards, payments, expenses, and cash into one integrated experience.
Hristo has raised over $236 million with Payhawk from Lightspeed Ventures, Greenoaks, QED investors, and many more. Today, Payhawk is valued at US$1 billion, making it the first Bulgarian startup to achieve Unicorn status.
Prior to founding Payhawk, Hristo worked at Telerik as software engineer and a product manager.
In this episode, we talk about his founding of Payhawk, the challenges he encountered as an entrepreneur, lessons learned from scaling Payhawk into 32 countries, and much more.