Im an engineer. And thats fine because its true. So at this point in our interview we do The Lightning Round and this is where Artur, Ruben, and I will ask you a series of questions and try to provide short answers but include tactics, strategies, any resources that you use to get to the point where you are today. Focusing on getting the universal skills right has helped me get exponentially better at identifying good junior hires versus bad ones. Theyve been able to maintain the quality pretty high and I love their attitude of always asking for feedback and always improving. Can you share one or a few online resources that people can go to or books that people can read if they were going to start from scratch to get up to at least the bootcamp level? Did you practice algorithms? consist of me explaining things from the perspective of a beginner. Youre dropped into a new city where you didnt know anyone and you only had $100 and you were trying to start all over again. And when I first started it, it was magical. She started out in investment banking right out of school and then she joined Andreessen Horowitz which is at the top of the VC firms out here and you may have heard about her from her blog post called Why I Left the Best Job in the World, which talks about why she left VC to join Hack Reactor and learn how to code. Preethi: Their interview process you mean? What did you do in the meantime before the bootcamp actually started? Chris Dixon, I was pretty close with Chris Dixon. Preethi: I would say if anything, I am more happy that I chose Looking back now, a year ago, I cant imagine going the rest of my career which is well like 40 years, without this skill set. Clearly, in the intro, Artur was talking about how you went from engineering. Once youre done with that, once youve got some juice flowing then go to Treehouse. Because the blockchain technology on which crypto runs involves no third parties such as banks, two people can transact with each other directly 24-7, without having to deal with transfer fees, taxes, and a clearance process that can take a day or two. Whether its math, physics, coding, crypto, or dance ;) But one problem I see in the world is the dearth of great teachers. They actually make you recruit the last week that youre there. She invests in startups across industries, with a focus on blockchain and crypto. You can do this with three months of coding? What did you learn? Its a 6-week training thing and so Goldman takes the training very seriously. **Case in point: **I joined Andreessen Horowitz as a Partner on the deal team when I was only 23 years old One could say I was junior AS FUCK! Instead, it uses "validators," which are people who stake ETH to gain the right to validate and append new blocks to the blockchain. They invest in tech companies primarily anywhere from C to series D stage. Ruben: It says a lot about your work ethic. and it helped me tremendously. Something went wrong while submitting the form. Of course, this becomes obvious in retrospect. Can you talk a little bit about your process of discovering coding and then how did you figure out what to do next? Say probably $50 for food and then the other $50 Id spend on getting any kind of access to a computer, sort of finding my first job whether at a coffee shop or anything and then build myself up from there. Trust Revisited: The Evolving Stories Of Web3 Infrastructure, These 50 founders and VCs suggest 2018 may be a tipping point for women in tech: Part 2. I feel like Im spending time on something, Im learning stuff that Im not really going to use that much because its not what I want to do. We build a platform to buy and sell bitcoin and ethereum, so digital currencies and we have a wallet where you can buy and store and sell and trade, send and request bitcoin and ethereum. Theyll give you some guidelines in an email saying this is what you should know. Timur: So at this point, you got the offer from Andreessen Horowitz, what was your role there and when you started there, did that meet your expectations? Something went wrong while submitting the form. And another thing was like going and do my own thing right away without the technical skills but I was really hesitant to do that because I knew that if I came to A16Z for an investment or even me, when I analyze companies, if the founder wasnt technical, it was hard for me to. But its important to remember youre hiring them for their potential, not their experience. Ruben: How was the investment banking interview process? But thats not why a startup called, is pivoting away from its original goal. And I wanted to go back to my engineering roots. Im a creator. Preethi Kasireddy 1:41 . Well, you dropped a lot of gems during this interview. My mom thinks Im absolutely nuts. The things that you look for, number one are people. But Im not entirely sure when that will be. authenticate users, apply security measures, and prevent spam and abuse, and, display personalised ads and content based on interest profiles, measure the effectiveness of personalised ads and content, and, develop and improve our products and services. And so I felt like unmotivated when I saw some of the because in engineering, you kind of like, Oh Ill get a job. And maybe you can come in and interview her. We kind of literally broke in because we just went up the elevator, went into the conference room in the back and if we step outside the room, theres people whiteboarding, talking about coding, theyre building apps, and were about to talk about how to break into startups. I did a bunch of other interviews at private equity and hedge funds. It was just automatically yes. Ill admit, I havent exactly perfected it myself just yet. Timur: What do you think drew you towards, Im assuming, because it sounds like youre very passionate about the sciences. Kasireddys success shows hard work, innovation, and entrepreneurship. What do I feel right now? And I had my boyfriend on the other hand, he was like, Dont do that. Soundcloud. So thats what started it. Instead, your role as a founder really boils down to two steps: So, while I still agree with my investors statement for the most part, Id argue there is one job a founder shouldnt fire themselves from: Hiring. We help companies around the world make full use of their capabilities in the areas of Microsoft Dynamics, Office 365, Power BI, and cloud-based solutions based on the Azure platform. If an argument is downvoted by a threshold of players, the user making it is downvoted, which helps prevent trolls from spamming the network. Im pretty routine like Im very strict about certain things but Hack Reactor was like wake up at this time, do this at this time, go to sleep at this time. I feel like Im spending time on something, Im learning stuff that Im not really going to use that much because its not what I want to do. By Preethi Kasireddy Dec 21, 2015. Blockchains dont scale. Youve probably heard this a million times. Youre not going to go to a bootcamp.. Everyone is or was at some point. Im making commitments. And it was nice to have him being someone I didnt know. I remember making every line change and refreshing the page, line change and refreshing the page and you set the background color, the color changes. Every single week, you documented. And so thats when I decided to leave Goldman and join. Was it everything that you expected? And boy is it hard! They simply dont have the experience. And we use Coinbase for that. Forbes and Fortune have honoured her for this work. The other thing that I did was dance, Indian dance. But building a business that stirs the pot of a fiercely tribal community is not without its hazards. She was an early engineer at Coinbase, later worked at a16z, and then quit one of the mo. Can you tell our listeners in a nutshell. Huk runs the CASHFLOW Stake Pool, which you can take part in as another way of making passive income from cryptocurrencies. So thats pretty impressive already. Preethi: In short, what they do is they use math, physics, science, and engineering to optimize people, systems, and processes. Generally speaking, Id classify the qualities we measure people by into two buckets: universal and role-specific. So at this point, you know that you already got accepted to Hack Reactor. You literally have to learn that stuff inside and out. by Preethi Kasireddy. One of the telltale signs of a lagging metabolism is "always feeling cold." Its not that hard. I knew I was smart. Rockers. And so you finished the bootcamp process, you go through all the hoops, you write about it. Having migrated to the U.S. during her teens, the now U.K.-based portrait artist (who's also completing her neuroscience degree) learned about NFTs through her accountant-husband. Something about it really sparked my interest then I kept going to them even though I was a junior and they werent really recruiting for juniors at that point. Some people form so-called mining pools, with members working together and sharing the rewards. I was just like this cant be the way that interviewing is done today but once I did a few interviews I was like wow this is all what interviews is. Youre not going to go to a bootcamp.. Proceeds from Women Rise go to a variety of pro-education and gender equality groups. Taking it at face value never satisfied me. You have this well-rounded background in the arts, in fighting people and things like that. What did you learn? Youll get a job. Shes now 29, with an enviable breadth of business and crypto development experience to her credit. Preethi: Yeah, you start the day way ahead of anyone else and youve already done so much by the time people are waking up. This in turn made me a really effective learner, writer, and teacher (all of which I believe are greatly intertwined). Something about it really sparked my interest then I kept going to them even though I was a junior and they werent really recruiting for juniors at that point. Yeah, I think Ive never been as routine as I was at Hack Reactor. As the token appreciates, the business plans to capture some of that value. She also promotes diversity and inclusion in the tech industry and has spoken out for women and other underrepresented groups. She has already been interviewed by various print and broadcast media such as Fox Business, New York Times, and USA Today. **The key to effective junior hires is REALLY knowing what universal skills are important for your company. Study how your chosen exchange operates and secures assets. Can you tell our listeners about your routine because you told us your routine in the pre-interview and its pretty amazing. i did taekwondo from third grade until I graduated high school and I was first degree black belt. But were a part of something bigger. Its like 80 hours depending on how quick that you can finish it. And I was like, no, that cant be true. Preethi: I was one of those nerds who started going to career boots. Preethi: Those Underscore.js. Are you on any social media, email? And so thats what I did, I left and I started building a side project. Theres an engineer at this startup. And youre like, well these people are able to jobs and I found more than 20 that were able to do it. Over 300 firms are building on Lightning Lab's technology. You have this well-rounded background in the arts, in fighting people and things like that. Find places where you can find easy practice problems. I was doing it at nights. it was not a piece of cake and I knew that I had to work really hard to get through this. And I had my boyfriend on the other hand, he was like, Dont do that. Artur: Can you give our listeners maybe a little of example of what a practical problem is versus what an algorithm problem looks like? I remember making every line change and refreshing the page, line change and refreshing the page and you set the background color, the color changes. I was one of those young women who grew up with disordered eating habits from the age of 15 to 25. Now, the big question you've been waiting for: Are junior hires worth this initial cost? Any soft skills or hard skills that you learned at Goldman that helped you get into that position? How the Web Works: A Primer for Newcomers to Web Development (or anyone, really) By Preethi Kasireddy Dec 10, 2015. I just randomly reached out to them and then they all said, 100% totally worth it. Huk also actively tweets on cryptocurrency and finance decentralization issues. I literally went through it two or three times, and not like every problem but I went through them 31:05 and it helped me tremendously. With her investments and entrepreneurial ventures, Preethi Kasireddy is well on her way to becoming one of the biggest names in the tech industry. And so you made this decision to go full time and youre considering all these different options including graduate school but somebody told you not to go the academic route. Because its not going to help me in the process. What foods do you eat? Ive gotten this question many times from the women who follow me so I figured I would write a short post that explains what I eat and the context behind why I eat this way. Theyre always about helping an entrepreneur, helping a company or making connections. Theyre a venture capital based in Silicon Valley. And the thing about A16Z thats phenomenal is the network that they have. The true story is that its found a by-product thats far more interesting, as the companys founder and CEO, Preethi Kasireddy explained to Decrypt. Timur: And something else you did while you were doing the program was keep a blog and I remember even though Ive gone through Hack Reactor, you would post. Ruben: Right. Whereas the business people, theyre hunting for jobs like starting from freshman year because they said its very competitive and its the same roles for a lot of people and I fell into that competitive loop. In Hack Reactor, did anybody else adopt your philosophy? If you dont believe in the people that are building a company, youre not going to invest in the company. Should they jump into the job search right away or should they pick an open source project or find some interesting technical challenge to tackle? You cant do everything on your own. **. 10X. And then I decided, Im going to commit myself 100% to recruiting for banking for junior year and I ended up getting an offer at Goldman for summer internship junior year. Either way, bad look.https://t.co/Tbml8rtxLP pic.twitter.com/ZhJsm5dEqt, Matt Odell (@matt_odell) August 13, 2019. When I was a freshmen in college, I had my resume all sparked up like freshmen year and people were impressed that I was a freshman and doing all this. What are some of the companies that people may have heard about? Join my inner circle for women! Interesting. Even thanksgiving I was in the office. . Kasireddys dedication to tech innovation and diversity, inclusion, and equity sets her apart. In the end, when I started learning on my own, I was like, I dont think I need a PhD to do this. Ruben: Can you take part of your salary in bitcoin? Now, the big question youve been waiting for: Are junior hires worth this initial cost? Its about 8 pm on a Monday and were actually sitting in the back room on one of the floors of the Hack Reactor building. Jul 7 2021 1 hr 9 mins. She later made digital artwork, which she sold online as NFTs. Proceeds from Women Rise go to a variety of pro-education and gender equality groups. That just doesnt scale. I under-ate and over-exercised, which definitely took a hit on my metabolic health. And I felt like I wanted to do the slight risk and just do this on my own and not spend so much time going to school. Of course, there are some possible exceptions to this. We carry out innovative IT solutions paying attention to quality, efficiency and sustainability. They were all like gung-ho about me doing this. Preethi: Its kind of like the investing theory at A16Z. Is Justin Sun, CEO of the Tron blockchain, the biggest con man in crypto? And so I felt like unmotivated when I saw some of the because in engineering, you kind of like, Oh Ill get a job. You guys should totally check it out. Before diving deep into coding, what were the alternatives that you were considering. It was very similar. You took your preparation very carefully. Thats a tough one because sometimes you dont have the money or you cant afford to do that and it really depends on your personality. Preethi: So I kind of loved all of the place when I was younger. Im really good at keeping a schedule. So I performed in New Jersey at a bunch of different places and played basketball in high school. And lets not forget all the conspiracy theorists lurking in the malodorous but well-populated corners of Twitter and Reddit who are all too willing to tell you just how wrong you really are. As one of the first partners in Poland we implemented VersaStack the worlds first integrated infrastructure based on IBM Storwize and Cisco UCS. I just need to drag you there because I need to bring at least 10 people. And so I went to my first one. Youre like what? Preethi: And I hope to continue actually and get back to it at some point. Yeah, and youre working three times or two times as much as your friends and so you get twice as much as experience in the same amount of time. Two was the caliber of the engineering team. Anyways, lets get back to the point. Every founder and company will have a different set of universal skills they care about. You took your preparation very carefully. Heres something most new Web 3.0 developers have trouble understanding: when you ship code, it cant be patched and updated later. But I highly recommend it because even gone being through that experience, just by following her experience, I was able to relive a lot of these moments and you pretty much covered data structures, D3, jQuery, all the frameworks. In addition to TruStory, Preethi Kasireddy is also a prolific writer and speaker. You literally have to learn that stuff inside and out. Yeah, and I was like, is this legit? And it was partially true. Preethi: Of course. And so I was like, let me look into PhD programs and I looked into a bunch of them. And I hope to continue actually and get back to it at some point. Im 25 or I was 25 and it felt like I have so much time go back to business. Artur: Yeah, and we also like to ask what is one thing that you fundamentally believed in going through this process that you changed your mind on now having finished it or at least being on the other side? In this episode Preethi shares what motivated her to leave finance for tech, her incredible work ethic, her 5 am workout schedule, and the lessons she learned on her journey to becoming a software engineer. I think Goldman, as I said the training was incredible. You can also opt for a cold wallet or physical storage device, like a USB drive, to keep your crypto keys offline. Ruben: And so you made this decision to go full time and youre considering all these different options including graduate school but somebody told you not to go the academic route. Thanks to that we guarantee high level of project management, consulting and services. The A16Z was incredible and I joined initially as a growth investor along with another person name. In May, 2018, Los Angeles-based TruStory raised $3 million in seed funding led by True Ventures with input from the likes of Panterra Capital and Coinbase Ventures. Preethi, whats the name of the blog? I did a bunch of other interviews at private equity and hedge funds. Should they jump into the job search right away or should they pick an open source project or find some interesting technical challenge to tackle? I dont think I had a solid idea at that point. I remember, it was after I got in. So thats pretty impressive already. I felt like being an entrepreneur. Any soft skills or hard skills that you learned at Goldman that helped you get into that position? Its as gimmicky as hell. That was surprising because she read all my blog posts that I wrote and I sent her the one on computers like how do computers work or how did the web work. You set the CSS. Preethi: Theyre a venture capital based in Silicon Valley. Knock on wood. Preethi: I dont know. Even though I have a really cool background, its not really what I would do day-to-day. What do you think drew you towards, Im assuming, because it sounds like youre very passionate about the sciences. Theres an engineer at Facebook. And, this June, she announced that the companys mission has changed: TLDR; @isTruStory is pivoting from truth to debate. Of course, it beat my expectations. Obviously, they have different teams and so I was like, maybe I can try being on another team like the market development team or executive talent or something. The identification requirements arent as stringent as those required during loan applications, which include income verification and a credit check. Ever since, Ethereum hasn't needed miners to execute Proof-of-Work and add new blocks to the blockchain.