STRV Talks with Maria Zhang (Google, Meta, LinkedIn)

STRV Talks: Stories of Leading Tech Teams at Google & Meta vs. Startups

Founding an AI startup, taking on VP and senior tech leadership roles at Google, Meta, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Yahoo and Tinder — Maria Zhang knows how to build strong teams and kickstart ideas, both on her own and with a ton of stakeholders that need convincing.

Years in the making, Maria is finally coming to STRV Talks. With her “open book” mindset, we’ll be diving into actionable advice for both the entrepreneurs and executives among us.

Expect to hear unique pros and cons about leadership at the most recognizable companies, and whether those experiences help when building a startup — or if they’re two very different worlds.

SNEAK PEEK AT TOPICS

• Mistakes made when transitioning from engineer to leadership.
• Growing an A+ team (Yahoo) from 10 devs to 100 in one year.
• Recognizing an idea worth pursuing (gut feeling vs. data).
• Pushing companies set in their ways in a new direction.
• Ideas best suited for a startup instead of a corporation.
• Limitations that keep corporations from innovating.
• Comparing cultures at all these massive companies.
• Two Q&A sessions during the event

ABOUT MARIA

After studying computer science, Maria founded Alike (acquired by Yahoo). She then worked for Microsoft, Zillow, Yahoo, Tinder and LinkedIn, winning the Master Inventor Award in 2015. While at Tinder, the company’s ML-based system was named one of the Greatest Innovations of 2017.

Later on, Maria held the role of VP of Engineering at Instagram and Google — where she followed the belief that great software is a change agent, one that changes people’s lives.

“Everything we do, every line of code we write, needs to be instilled with purpose: every pixel should be perfect, and every byte of data needs a reason to exist.”

Now, she’s said goodbye to Google to dive back into the startup world. We’ll let her share more.

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Doors open at 5:30 p.m. Event starts at 6:00 p.m. Networking & drinks at our 7th-floor Scrollbar start at 7 p.m. and go until 10 p.m. (Event will be in English.)

Grab a ticket and come join!