Episode 336 | Poornima Vijayashanker - Maker In Service

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Poornima Vijayashanker talks with Dave Rael about trust, business, relationships, being a maker, design, marketing, and public speaking

Poornima Vijayashanker is an entrepreneur, engineer, author, and speaker who has made her mark on the tech world. A graduate of Duke University, Poornima was the founding engineer at Mint where she helped build, launch, and scale the product until it was acquired by Intuit. Following the acquisition, Poornima went on to launch Femgineer, an education company for tech professionals and entrepreneurs who want to learn how to build software products and companies. Poornima speaks at industry events around the world and has authored the book, "How to Transform Your Ideas into Software Products", and "Present! A Techie’s Guide to Public Speaking" with Karen Catlin. Having served as the EIR at 500 Startups, Poornima has also lectured at her alma mater’s Pratt School of Engineering. She hosts a weekly web show called Build, sponsored by Pivotal Tracker.

Chapters: 2:19 - Dave introduces the show and Poornima Vijayashanker6:34 - Poornima's emphasis on focusing on both technical concerns and human interactoins8:45 - Poornima, the entrepreneur13:30 - Poornima's fascination with public speaking19:16 - Accessibility of talks and creating messages that can be received26:20 - Poornima, the author30:26 - The necessity of marketing32:45 - The story of Poornima's involvement with Mint44:19 - The importance of trust45:32 - Poornima's story of failure - financial crisis related to fraudulent use of her product54:07 - The origin story of Femgineer, inclusion, the meaning of the name, and what the business has to offer and to whom59:53 - Poornima's book recommendation64:29 - Poornima's top 3 tips for delivering more value67:04 - Keeping up with Poornima

Resources: Femgineer - Poornima's Site, Education Service, and Blog Present! A Techie's Guide to Public Speaking - Poornima Vijayashanker, Karen Katlin - Generously Shared With Developer On Fire Listeners Present! A Techie's Guide to Public Speaking - Poornima Vijayashanker - If You Want to Buy In a Different Form or to Support Poornima How to Transform Your Ideas Into Software Products: A step-by-step guide for validating your ideas and bringing them to life! - Poornima Vijayashanker Mint Build - Poornima's Web Video Show Karen Catlin Andrea Goulet on Developer On Fire Kent Beck on Developer On Fire

Poornima's book recommendation: Thanks for the Feedback: The Science and Art of Receiving Feedback Well - Douglas Stone

Poornima's top 3 tips for delivering more value: Put aside what you think you need to be doing - find the intersection of what you want and enjoy with fulfilling your needs and favor those over "should" Think about how you interact with other people, especially whether you enjoy broad interactions with multiple people or an intimate inner circle Only after taking care of yourself, turn your attention to deciding who you want to serve