ClassroomX speaker spotlight: Tracy Hinds, Head of Platform for Samsung NEXT
At Samsung NEXT’s inaugural ClassroomX sessions at Web Summit in Lisbon, Samsung NEXT Head of Platform Tracy Hinds will lead a workshop entitled, “ Dynamic startup challenges that enable success.”
Building off the premise that “startup conflict is inevitable but combat is optional,” Tracy will take a deep dive into the inherent difficulties that come with building a company, be it from mental, physical, or emotional stress.
Having had first-hand experience building companies, communities, and ecosystems, Tracy understands that “it takes a village to raise a founder, leader, and startup.” Furthermore, she believes that “conflict gets an unfair bad rap and that it isn’t inherently bad… These situations actually lead to the generation of new ideas and positive change.”
Having studied psychology during her undergrad college career, Tracy has always been interested in looking at the patterns of human behavior and using them to help manage and resolve broken collaboration and processes. She is a self-identified helper, stating, “I can’t help but help.”
Tracy began her career in mental health/addiction and healthcare administration during the time electronic medical records were taking off. While Tracy enjoyed her purpose-driven work, she found that more and more of her time was devoted to training skilled clinical workers on how to use poorly designed software.
Facing the harsh reality that there’s often a disconnect between people who build software and the end user, Tracy was inspired to quit her job and learn to code.
Coding was Tracy’s first step into the world of tech and startups. From there, she immersed herself into the community of Node.js — first becoming an organizer and later taking a role as Education Community Manager. Tracy has held engineering roles at both Airship and IBM Watson.
In 2015, Tracy co-founded the non-profit GatherScript, which focuses on supporting and growing inclusive communities at technology-focused events. GatherScript was built off the belief that meaningful, repeated interactions in trusted spaces for web technologies were lacking in many regions from a community-run and -funded mindset. The organization provides a financial umbrella, advisement, event management resources, and organizer recruiting for conferences to blossom and sustain.
Through all these experiences, Tracy realized that diplomatic outreach, conflict management, and a patient, teaching mindset were all vital components to succeeding.
Tracy joined the Samsung NEXT accelerator in January 2018, to help build a startup with Mikeal Rogers. This opportunity soon shifted to bringing Tracy into Samsung NEXT to build the NEXT Platform and support the 65 active portfolio companies we had invested in.
As Head of Platform, Tracy cultivates her prior work as a web engineer, ecosystem builder, OSS advocate, and strategist to build a service platform that provides portfolio companies with business development, value-added services, and tools that leverage the unique strengths of Samsung to help startups team succeed through unique connections and global reach.
She is enthralled by the inherent and limitless opportunity of entrepreneurship — which is why it’s her mission to equip founders with the tools, resources, and opportunities to help them grow and scale.
Come join Tracy on November 7 to learn how to derive value from conflict and dynamic startup challenges that enable success at Web Summit in Lisbon, Portugal. Tracy will lead us through the ups and downs of founding a company and provide us with small, tangible takeaways anyone can apply in conflict management and care practices to make an impact in your organization before it escalates.
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To learn more about ClassroomX at Web Summit, read our blog post introducing the series or visit classroomx.com/websummit/. Check out the full agenda here, and sign up today!
Originally published at https://samsungnext.com on October 10, 2019.
