Sarah Joyce Franklin recently stepped into the role of CEO at Lattice. During her 16-year tenure at Salesforce, Sarah served as the President, CMO, and Chairwoman Advisory.

Sarah is also a runner, space enthusiast, snowboarder, and mom. Her professional success speaks for itself, but what stands out to me — and is not necessarily the norm for tech executives — Sarah has a lot of fun at her job.

During our podcast conversation, we talked about her journey from individual contributor to executive and the lessons she learned along the way.

She shares:

• How to make decisions from a place of confidence, not fear
• The story of her midnight memo to CEO Marc Benioff
• How she approaches motherhood with such a demanding job
• Her advice for aspiring leaders in tech

To see my four main takeaways from the conversation, check out the Seed Stage Stories blog!

Nikil is the Co-Founder and CEO of Alchemy. He graduated from Stanford with a BS and MS in Computer Science and built consumer apps after college. He launched Alchemy with Joe Lau in 2020, and it has since become the world’s leading blockchain and web3 development platform. Alchemy is hailed as the fastest-growing company in history, going from public launch to a $10 billion valuation in 18 months.

We chat about:

• The importance of speed and consistency over time in entrepreneurship
• The future of blockchain and blockchain vs. AI
• The best time to start a company
• Nikil's favorite memories at Stanford
• His advice for college students

Check out the medium article with key takeaways here!

Kristina Saffran is the Co-Founder and CEO of Equip. She has been recognized by Forbes, Business Insider, and Inc as a thought leader in healthcare, and Equip was named as one of 2023’s 100 most influential companies by Times. They raised $58M in Series B funding earlier this year from the Chernin Group, General Catalyst, Tiger Global, and Alex Morgan. 

We chatted about her path toward entrepreneurship, the industry inflections behind Equip, ethical considerations in venture-backed healthcare, and her advice for college students.

Check out the Seed Stage Stories medium page for an article with my key takeaways from this conversation.

1:00 - Kristina's personal experiences with Anorexia

3:00 - Industry inflection around the mental health parity act and private equity players entering the space

5:15 - Aligning incentives in healthcare

8:15 - The importance of bringing on healthcare investors

13:55 - Equip as a tech-enabled services company

19:55 - Grit as an entrepreneur

23:30 - Advice for college students

24:32 - Entrepreneurship vs. academia

27:50 - Navigating mental health in college

30:30 - Turning anxiety into adrenaline

34:20 - Kristina's closing advice for aspiring entrepreneurs