10 Questions with Catherine Lu
Product Manager at DataVisor
Catherine Lu is the first product manager at DataVisor, a startup protecting the largest online services in the world from spam, fraud, and abuse. Prior to DataVisor, she led new product efforts for Palantir’s commercial business and co-founded the retail analytics company Fancy That (acquired by Palantir). Catherine graduated from Stanford University with a B.S. and M.S. in Computer Science, focusing on artificial intelligence.
- When did you know you wanted to be in tech?
When I entered Stanford, I was considering becoming a doctor or neuroscientist. I really enjoyed the sciences in high school, but had never written a line of code.
I took my first Computer Science course as a freshman without plans to pursue it further, but by the end of freshman year I wanted to major in it. I was less sure about a career in Computer Science though. I questioned if I would be good enough for the tech industry, or even like working in it.
My first software engineering internship at Google after sophomore year answered my doubts. Through technical challenges on the infrastructure team, I learned constantly. During my first week I wrote a multithreaded program with an LRU cache to analyze millions of log messages. Creating a program that completed in seconds what no human could do in years was thrilling.
By the end of the summer, I realized I enjoyed using technology to solve problems. I also learned Computer Science doesn’t restrict programmers to coding alone in a dark room. Computer Science is not a limitation — it’s a freedom.
“Computer Science is not a limitation — it is a freedom.”
2. Who’s been a role model you look up to?
It’s difficult to name just one. Palantir had a good way of putting it: exceptional people have “superpowers” or large spikes in ability, even if they may be weak in other aspects. I look up to different people for their unique superpowers.
For instance, I admire Oprah Winfrey for her unwillingness to settle until she found her calling. I’m blown away by Malala Yousafzai for her unshakeable courage and staunch beliefs in the face of death. From a young age, I’ve appreciated the value of hard work through my parents. My friends have taught me the immeasurable value of thoughtfulness and support. And every day, my coworkers impress me with their energy and brilliance.
3. What gets you out of bed in the morning?
For years, I’ve been excited about the widespread applications of artificial intelligence. That’s one reason I’m at DataVisor, whose unsupervised machine learning technology is a game changer for the fraud space. At Palantir, it was invigorating building products with AI components that revolutionized aspects of business for clients in media, insurance, and more.
Looking ahead, I’m excited to witness how AI will transform people’s lives. Like many, I’m eagerly awaiting self-driving cars to be commonplace. I’m also looking forward to when people will have AI assistants for their most mundane tasks. Ultimately, what’s most exciting to me is the fact that AI can be widely applied to solve important problems, from discovering new drugs to aiding disaster relief.
4. What’s a challenge you’ve faced in your career journey?
I feel that I’ve been blessed with a relatively comfortable life, which means that most of my challenges are self-constructed. My biggest challenges are how I create and respond to new opportunities to grow.
At Stanford, my challenge was to make the most of every day, even if I had self-doubt I could achieve my goals. This mindset led me to co-found my first company Scoryst. Though my co-founders and I went through an initial joyful period of finding product-market fit, we soon realized that we had no viable business model. While searching for one, a co-founder left. The remaining co-founder and I continued for many months, but after lots of scaling issues, late nights, long conversations, and pervasive uncertainty of how we were ever going to become profitable, we shut down. Though we didn’t succeed, I’ve felt that the lessons from pursuing high goals are worth the time and energy, regardless of the outcome. Scoryst was no exception. What I learned from Scoryst followed me to my next startup, Fancy That, and still shapes my perspective today.
“I’ve felt that the lessons from pursuing high goals are worth the time and energy, regardless of the outcome.”
5. Describe a time you were proud of yourself.
I was entering my junior year after my first internship at Google, and I no longer had any doubts I wanted to be in tech. However, the coursework I’d completed in Computer Science was the equivalent of a rising sophomore’s. I came to the “logical” conclusion I needed to take two years of typical Computer Science major coursework in one.
For the next two quarters, I took full course loads of only Computer Science classes. Though I didn’t sleep much, it was a blast. It was incredible taking Machine Learning with Andrew Ng and Operating Systems with John Ousterhout, who are essentially celebrities in their respective fields. Looking back on it now, I’m amazed and proud of what I accomplished that year. Naivety over the difficulty of the feat was clearly in my favor.
6. What’s something you want to get better at?
Striking up conversation with strangers.
7. Comfort food of choice?
Grandparents’ homemade dumplings.
8. Favorite book?
1984 by George Orwell.
9. If you could try any other job for the day, what would it be?
An actress starring in a movie with awesome CGI like Furiosa in Mad Max: Fury Road or Dr. Stone in Gravity.
10. If you could give your 18-year-old self a piece of advice, what would it be?
Don’t just aim to be in the tech industry. Aim to shape it.
Also, don’t try to bike without both your hands on the handlebars…
