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Creator Lab - interviews with entrepreneurs and startup founders

Revealing conversations with the leading creators of our time. From proven entrepreneurs building the companies of the future, to non-profit founders creating change and the artists shaping our culture - we go beyond the surface to find the nuance in what it takes to turn your ideas, into action.
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Now displaying: October, 2016
Oct 26, 2016
Fereshteh Forough is the founder & CEO of Code to Inspire, an award winning organization that is empowering Afghan girls by teaching them how to code. Fereshteh was a TED speaker on digital literacy & communication without borders in 2013. Code To Inspire was awarded a Google Rise Award for their work & she was recently featured in a “change is made with code” campaign linked on the Google homepage in Sep 2016.
 
In this incredibly raw conversation, we discuss everything from growing up as a refugee in Iran, to her struggles overcoming gender bias in Afghanistan, to what it took to set up Code To Inspire. We discuss why she thinks girls aren’t encouraged to go into technical fields like coding & what we can do to change that. 
 
5 things to listen out for:
 
(1) Growing up - as a refugee in Iran & what it was like to return home to Afghanistan after the Taliban rule where female students made up 0% of the population. 
 
(2) Getting into computer science by accident - why she hated it at first and the story behind how she ended up becoming a computer science professor. 
 
(3) Unique challenges of setting up in Afghanistan - overcoming growing up with only 3hrs of electricity per day, dealing with gender bias & the cultural stigma attached to women in the work place.
 
(4) Embracing negativity to motivate yourself - how she uses negative comments to fuel her mission!
 
(5) Women in technology - why she thinks there are less females in technical fields & what we can do about it.
 
This conversation reminded me how much I take for granted & I hope it does for you too!
 
 
Time Stamps:
  • What does Fereshteh (her name) mean? [1m30s]
  • What problem are they trying to solve [2m]
  • Out of 900k students, zero were women during Taliban regime [2m26s]
  • Growing up as a refugee in Iran & returning to Afghanistan [3m40s] 
  • Not liking computer science and how she accidentally got into it [11m11s]
  • Challenges of being a girl learning in Afghanistan [14m25s]
  • Having 3hrs of electricity a day [14m46s]
  • Becoming a professor [16m48s]
  • Genesis & where she got the idea for code to inspire [21m15s]
  • Finding what you’re passionate about and dealing with a slump [22m41]
  • Supporting herself with little income [24m28s]
  • Process of fundraising [25m30s]
  • Challenges of shipping laptops to Afghanistan [29m12s]
  • Being awarded the Google Rise award and being featured on the homepage [29m47s]
  • Recommendations on fundraising for other people [31m15s]
  • What it takes to make a coding school [36m21s]
  • When do you know when to pay yourself a salary [38m35s]
  • Security & stigma attached to education for girls [40m36s]
  • Dealing with negative comments on social media [43m11s]
  • What does the future look like [47m25s]
  • Academic vs practical learning [48m47s]
  • Why are there fewer women in technical fields and can we do to impact this [52m12]
  • Remembering women in the history of computing like Ada Lovelace [59m]
  • What success means to her [1h]
  • Last time she felt lost and dealing with it [1h2m]
  • Books that have impacted her [1h2m50s]
  • What she wants people to think of Afghanistan [1h5m]
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Oct 12, 2016
Daire Hickey was named on the Forbes 30 under 30 list in 2016 for his incredible work in helping Web Summit grow from 200 attendees 6years ago, to 50,000 attendees in Lisbon this year. They are on course to achieve double digit millions in revenue ($XXm) and have had everyone from Elon Musk, Jack Dorsey, Chris Sacca & Eva Longoria attend their events. 
 
5 things to listen out for: 
 
(1) Starting up - how Paddy, Daire and Dave started Web Summit in Dublin, where they quickly established themselves as the hottest event in town. 
 
(2) Hanging Out With Al Pacino - how he tracked down famous celebrities like Al Pacino to get them to attend events at Trinity College. And later, using those same skills to convince the world’s press & top entrepreneurs including the founders of Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, Tesla and more to attend their events. 
 
(3) Reinventing The 'Tech Conference'- how they use technology to be smarter about marketing, logistics, attendee experience and more. 
 
(4) Growing into emerging markets - how they’ve grown into building events around the world in India, New Orleans, Madrid, Hong Kong and more. What were the mistakes made along the way and what he would do differently? 
 
(5) Getting Personal - What does success mean to him? Who does he look up to? What does his future look like? We even get to talk about his favorite 27 course restaurant in New York. And some taco recommendations to finish off!
 
 
Time Stamps:
  • Myspace pics [5m24s] 
  • What did he want to be when he grew up? [11m42s]
  • Hanging out with Al Pacino [14m59s]
  • Finding email addresses for publicists & getting in contact [21m19s]
  • Starting the Web Summit [22m13s]
  • Convincing the world’s press to attend their event [29m36s]
  • Events that went wrong [43m38s]
  • Fire in Paddy’s house! [44m10s]
  • Story of Drew Houston, the founder of Dropbox singing Oasis to a bar full of people in Dublin [46m30s]
  • Hiring good people & the future of Web Summit [47m]
  • What they have engineers working on [49m10s]
  • What makes a great story [52m35s]
  • What is he most excited about in the technology space [56m]
  • Emerging markets [58m52s]
  • Meeting Elon Musk [1hr1m]
  • The market is giving Twitter a rough time [1hr3m47s]
  • Story of Uber closing Series B round in Dublin [1hr7m44s]
  • What does success mean to him [1hr8m43s]
  • What are his future plans  [1hr17m12s]
  • Quick fire questions [1hr18m12s]
  • Favorite NYC restaurant & favorite taco place [1hr22m37s]
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