Strategy

23andMe's Anne Wojcicki describes how partnering with retail chains like Walmart and Walgreen's - and not hospitals - is to be present in people's everyday ecosystem. Health is largely influenced by everyday decisions, and shopping is more common in daily life than a visit to your physician, according to Wojcicki. "The future of prevention is not with your doctor," she says. "The future of prevention is with Walmart."

Amy Chang, founder and CEO of Accompany, discusses how raising people's level of ambition pushes them beyond their comfort zone, makes teams to look past everyday hurdles and accelerates professional growth. In conversation with STVP Executive Director Matt Harvey, Chang says employees and entrepreneurs alike should spend most of their time challenging themselves, not on work they've already mastered.

Citing Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, Accompany Founder and CEO Amy Chang says a company's culture should be authentic and gritty enough to discourage the wrong type of people from applying and still attract the most desirable candidates. Being honest about what your company is and isn't means not sugarcoating its culture, according to Chang, whose startup has created a virtual chief-of-staff app.

Tech entrepreneur Amy Chang explains how much the peers in our professional network determine our careers. You want as many people as possible knowing what you do, appreciating your work, and ultimately, recommending you for bigger and better opportunities, Chang says. She stresses the importance of getting to know anyone who you admire or find interesting, and building your network.

Technology-design ethicist Tristan Harris explains how Facebook and other social-media platforms that use algorithms to keep users engaged endanger society by eroding our shared sense of reality and presenting people just what they want to see. "The thing that's best at capturing a human being's attention," Harris says, "is going to be to show them an individual reality that confirms their world view."

You can’t beat AI. Period. You need to refocus AI so that you work together. You need to reprogram AI with goals that replenish rather than extract.

Acknowledging the impracticality of telling tech companies to drop attention-grabbing features that their bottom lines depend on, design ethicist Tristan Harris recommends consumers turn to the makers of the devices and interfaces that set up the "choice architecture." Harris, the co-founder of Time Well Spent, gives several examples that limit the intrusiveness of today's technology.

Catherine Berman, co-founder of fintech startup CNote, explains how extreme volatility as an AmeriCorps volunteer helped her develop the resilience that she relies on today as a business leader. Drawn to social causes at an early age, Berman says the year she spent in Puerto Rico taught her about overcoming challenges and resolving personal conflicts with compassion.

CNote Co-Founder Catherine Berman discusses how listening carefully and understanding the needs of customers helped her redefine a service they didn't want into a one they desperately needed. While working to get homeless people jobs at large companies earlier in her career, Berman found greater success by telling employers she could help address their diversity issues.

FinTech is not prepared for the demographic shift to wealthy female investors. Their miss could be your gain.

Challenges can seem less intimidating when you see someone you can relate to take them on, explains Sandy Jen, co-founder of senior-care startup Honor. She recalls how witnessing her boyfriend in college embracing entrepreneurship wholeheartedly began to melt the fears and insecurities she grew up with - and emboldened her to become an "unlikely entrepreneur" herself.

When you doubt your abilities or expertise, remembering all the hard work you've done to date can be a source of confidence, says entrepreneur Sandy Jen. She describes how plagued with doubt she was while launching her first startup, and how she built up a reservoir of courage by taking stock of her accomplishments along the way, which helped her get through especially stressful times.

Sandy Jen, co-founder of senior-care startup Honor, talks about how young entrepreneurs often keep their ideas to themselves so others won't steal them. But, referencing the metaphor of projects as the "babies" we want to hold tight and protect, Jen notes that all infants love to run around naked. "Ideas don't grow in a vacuum," she says. "Ideas only improve if you get feedback."