A eulogy for Mary — What a woman. In the second half of my life, that’s how I saw her: as a Woman. And not just any woman. A strong one. At first, that strength frightened me a bit. As a young child, I was afraid to cross her. Being the only grandchild didn’t mean…

“We were learning through paper cut.” — Three years into the company, their VCs came knocking. Enough of this heads-down coding, they said. It’s time to get serious and build a business. In other words, grow up. Armon Dadgar was 24 years old. His co-founder Mitchell Hashimoto was 26. That’s when they realized they needed help. The…

California loved her. — Today is International Women’s Day, so let’s celebrate the life and accomplishments of a remarkable California woman. March Fong Eu started her career as a dental hygienists after achieving 3 advanced degrees from Berkeley, Stanford, and Mills College. …

Honoring the courage and legacy of Fred Korematsu In 1942, then 23-year-old Fred Korematsu (bottom center) refused to obey the federal government’s order to imprison Japanese-Americans. He was promptly arrested and convicted of defying the government. The ACLU appealed Korematsu’s case all the way to the Supreme Court where judges ruled…

Why linking your work to your interests can do more harm than good — You hear it everywhere. It’s on graduation cards, in motivational speeches, and practically wallpapers the halls of Silicon Valley: “Find your passion.” As if each of us was born with one ideal pursuit that will fulfill us until our final day on Earth. …

She launched an interior design service, but she hadn’t accounted for treadmills. Or dog beds. Another customer wanted their design to incorporate a cat jungle gym. “People are very, very unique,” says Shanna Tellerman, CEO of Modsy, a design service that renders a photorealistic digital model of your home and stocks…

How to navigate a workplace environment that doesn’t click with your personality — and how to know when to leave — The problem with company culture is that one employee’s ideal situation can be another’s personal hell. Maybe you thrive in efficient, no-nonsense environments and prefer to keep your work and personal lives separate, but your colleagues turn every meeting into a chatty catch-up and always invite the office staff to…

Not sugar coating it helps. How Justin Zhen’s attitude propels Thinknum forward. — Justin Zhen makes being a founder sound like a lonely sort of business. He insists that only a few people are “wired” for the entrepreneur life. And when they finally manage to build something from scratch, founders have to fight like hell to keep it alive. Often, that means “sugar-coating” the…

From a quiet start to rapid international expansion, Lucidchart’s CEO continues to lead with humility and a relentless focus on team. — Self-deprecating. Humble. These aren’t typical adjectives to describe CEOs. But in the case of Karl Sun, they’re apt. As co-founder and CEO of Lucidchart, a collaborative web app for creating elegant diagrams, Sun helped build a team of nearly 400 people, after opening Google’s first patent department and completing a…