EP11 Matt Wallaert On Failure, Technology, Gender Equality, Self Awareness & Work Worth doing!

Hey Empowerment Family!

This is episode #11 of the Youth Empowerment Podcast with Director of Microsoft Ventures Matt Wallaert!

Who is Matt?

"I tend to be working at the intersection of behavior change and business. Originally an academic (social psychologist), I started translating what we know about the psychology of human behavior into creating products that change those behaviors.

• Co-founded GetRaised.com, a side project that we continue to run as a free service to help close the gender wage gap. It has helped tens of thousands of women earn billions of dollars over the past two years; 70% of women who submit a raise request get a raise, and the average raise is around $7K.
• Created the Bing in the Classroom program at Microsoft, which encourages digital literacy by helping put hardware in the hands of students, creating teaching guides that help them use it productively, and creating a safe/ad-free/private environment to search in. The result is a 40% increase in student searches at school and a 15% increase at home.
• After exiting two startups (Thrive and Churnless), I actively advise and invest in a number of startups and hold open office hours wherever I am to encourage entrepreneurship and behavioral design".

What did we talk about (Value Topics)

• Failure

• Technology

• Gender Equality

• Self Awareness

• Work Worth doing

Some Questions I ask

• How does work play into our lives and well being?
• You talk to a lot of undergraduates in your speeches, what are the two-three big lessons you would want to teach youth, undergraduates and graduates?
• I know you are married with a kid and I asked you this question when we first met and I’m going to ask it again because you response was so powerful, after everything you’ve said about gender equity, work worth doing what are 3 lessons you hope to teach your son?

Action Points:
Check out his personal website: www.mattwallaert.com

??Connect with Matt
www.dhirubhai.net/in/mattwallaert
Twitter: @mattwallaert

Make sure you head to www.danielbielak.com to check out everything that's happening!

?Small minds discuss people; Average minds discuss events; Great minds discuss idea.