Entrepreneurship is in Peter Wang’s bones. As a Chinese immigrant, he watched his mother make dumplings to sell on their dining room table. He understood at an early age that he would also have to be a tenacious entrepreneur. Peter went on to start what would become the world’s most popular data science platform, Anaconda.

“We're doing all sorts of entrepreneurial things because every dollar you can make is another dollar you got,” Peter says about growing up in an immigrant family. “There's not really a lot of fear of regressing back. There's something about that that bakes into the psychology. It’s like, ‘Well, look, I can go back to a point where I'm living in a little roach-infested apartment, and we just build up from there again.’ So I think there's something about that, that you just know how to go into that deeper, colder water. And so you're not afraid of it.”

Since Peter co-founded Anaconda (formerly Continuum Analytics) with Travis Oliphant in 2011, the platform has gained 20 million users. They are achieving their goal to give anyone with a laptop access to data literacy, so the user can better understand issues in their area and use data science to solve them.

In this episode of Forge Ahead, Peter discusses the importance of democratizing data, opening access to tools, and enabling collaboration.

Visit http://forgeaheadpodcast.com/ for the full Show Notes or to learn more about the show.

Regarding work, one thing matters most to Liam Martin: autonomy. He was passionate about remote work before working from home became common practice. When he co-founded productivity software Time Doctor in 2011, he wanted to allow people the same flexibility C-suite executives usually enjoyed. Since then, he has seen improved productivity, lower overhead, and greater satisfaction among his employees.

“Life's great when you can travel wherever you want,” Liam says. “You can work wherever you want, whenever you want, with whoever you want, for as long as you want. That really is, to me, actually, the promise of entrepreneurship. And for the first time in the history of civilization, we've actually been able to provide this to not only the business owner but also [to] the workers inside of those organizations, which I think is a very special time in history.”

Time Doctor grew 200% in 2020 alone with the mass increase in remote workers. Liam wrote about his experience leading remote teams in his upcoming book, “Running Remote.” The book is based on Liam’s observations about remote team management across nine different countries and his studies of billion-dollar-plus remote teams. “Running Remote” will be released in August 2022.

In this episode of Forge Ahead, Liam talks about operating asynchronously, freeing up employees to do the deep work, and speaking your client’s language.

Visit www.forgeaheadpodcast.com for the full Show Notes or to learn more about the show.

David Garcia’s success came from challenging experiences that taught him what not to do. He took the lessons he learned throughout his 25-year career and applied them to his company, ScoutLogic. David strives to create a “healthy family” atmosphere for ScoutLogic’s internal team, which leads to greater employee retention and customer satisfaction.

“I love my anti-mentors. I love them now because I learned so much from them. I had a few anti-mentors who loved cutting merit each year, loved cutting back on the 401k contribution, and loved increasing employee contributions on health to get a couple of percentage points in that bottom line. Who would treat a family member that way? Nobody. Nobody would treat a family member that way in a healthy family. So we took that lesson, and we applied it to our own business, and wow. It’s part of the reason why we have such great employee retention in ScoutLogic.”

ScoutLogic now has about 100 employees split between the U.S. and the Philippines. They serve approximately 300 organizations, including brands like Fairlife, FirstKey Homes, and Cheryl’s Cookies. ScoutLogic sets itself apart from its competitors by assigning a dedicated “scout” who will get to know their client. By developing that relationship between scout and client, ScoutLogic operates more responsively, more efficiently, and with greater client satisfaction. 

In this episode of Forge Ahead, David talks about the power of self-reflection, learning from your anti-mentors, and fostering a healthy company culture.

Visit www.forgeaheadpodcast.com for the full Show Notes or to learn more about the show.