How We Hatched: Emilie Schario, Co-Founder & CEO of Turbine

Tim Winkler: 00:00:05

Welcome to The Pair Program from hatchpad, the podcast that gives you a front row seat to candid conversations with tech leaders from the startup world. I'm your host, Tim Winkler, the creator of hatchpad. And I'm your other host, Mike Gruen. Join us each episode as we bring together two guests to dissect topics at the intersection of technology, startups, and career growth. Emily, thanks for joining us on The Pair Program. Uh, this is a, another bonus episode of a mini series that we call how we hatched. Uh, and so today we've got Emily Schario, uh, she's spending time with us and was the founder and visionary behind Turbine, um, a startup that's bridging the gap in supply chain visibility for consumer brands. She's also a military spouse, uh, and a parent of two toddlers and a dog. Um, all while juggling this task of building an early stage startup, which. I just can't wait to, to dig into on how you find balance in your life. Um, but, uh, Emily, I'm excited to have you with us today. Thank you for joining us on the podcast. Thanks for having me. Cool. Cool. All right, let's jump in. Um, you know, I always like to start every one of these episodes with like a real thought provoking question. So. What did Emily Schario have for breakfast this morning?

Emilie Schario: 00:01:30

So I start every day with two cups of coffee. Uh, I usually have two cups of coffee, um, before 7 a. m. and then no more coffee for the rest of the day.

Tim Winkler: 00:01:41

Wow. Cream and sugar? What do you, what, oat milk? What

Emilie Schario: 00:01:44

do you No sugar. Um Usually black, sometimes special treat of condensed milk, but only if I'm at home, if I go out and I'm having a cup of coffee, it's black, like myself, I was

Tim Winkler: 00:02:00

gonna say, you really learn a lot about somebody's coffee order. It's like, oh,

Emilie Schario: 00:02:05

nice. A lot of people out there drink creamer with a splash of coffee. And that is my judgmental take on, on morning

Tim Winkler: 00:02:14

coffee. I've always had, um, this will be really embarrassing, uh, for everybody that's listening, but I've always had like some, you know, some issues with dairy and, um, it doesn't do the best with my stomach. And so I felt like it was, my wife's like a dietician and she's like, why don't you just try like oat milk for just once? And I was like, yeah, that sounds like it's going to be terrible. And I love it. I think it actually adds a pretty interesting flavor to it.

Emilie Schario: 00:02:39

I did not drink coffee at all until after I had my first kid. Yeah. I, I like to say I grew up inside of a Dunkin Donuts. My mom started working at Dunkin Donuts in 1999 and still works at Dunkin Donuts till this day. So growing up, I, I learned everything inside of a Dunkin Donuts, how to do, how to make change. I learned from working the cash registers with my mom, um, how to show up to work on time. I learned as a 14 year old. Uh, when I was working my, um, weekly shifts, you know, I really learned a lot inside that Dunkin Donuts. And one thing that I would see is you'd have these regular people who came every day, two or three times a day, spending 20, 30 on coffee every day. And that puts such a sour taste in my mouth of like, Wow. This is a real drug that people need. Um, you know, you'd see people, people love to joke, like, don't talk to me before my morning cup of coffee, but I have seen what people are like before their morning cup of coffee. Uh, and so I took that experience to really be adamant. I wasn't going to do coffee. I wasn't going to do caffeine. I don't drink soda. Did the whole college experience with like maybe the occasional Red Bull, but not really. Um, And it wasn't until I had my first kid where I was like, I just am not making it anymore. And so started drinking, uh, my husband is an avid coffee drinker, enjoys it, loves it. Probably his blood is half coffee. And, uh, I did not start drinking coffee until after I had my first kid. And now I find joy in the ritual of just starting my day. With two cups of coffee before my kids are awake before anyone needs anything from me, it's like my chance to take a couple moments to start the day, right?

Tim Winkler: 00:04:39

Yeah, I've got so many questions right now. Like the torture of growing up and a Dunkin Donuts and never drinking coffee. Um, your mom, I mean, it's just constantly surrounded by, it just seems like now knowing how much you like, love coffee, I guess you're right. It's kind of like the routine of it, but I'd love to have your mom on this podcast and just kind of hear the the Dunkin Donuts story as well. That's impressive. Yeah, seriously. And don't get me wrong. Like I had Dunkin Donuts flagged in my notes. I saw I appreciate that. It's still on your LinkedIn profile. And I was like, I'm totally gonna bring up Dunkin Donuts and see how that experience was. So thank you for checking that box off of my, my notes here. Um, cool. Well, let's, um Let's get into the thick of it, right? Um, I always like to roll back the clock a little bit and, uh, hear a little bit more about you and, and, and your journey and where you, where you grew up and what kind of led you down this path and attack. Well, obviously. Get into turbine and the problems that you're solving. But, uh, let's start from the roots. What, you know, where'd you grow up and, and, uh, tell us a little bit about

Emilie Schario: 00:05:50

that story. So, I am originally from New Jersey, and we were talking about this earlier have slowly migrated further south. So, currently live in Columbus, Georgia. I've been running away from the snow for the past 25 years. Originally from New Jersey, uh, grew up in Newark, went to high school in Elizabeth for folks who are familiar and took what I would call a very conventional or safe path. I saw myself and still, in a lot of ways, do as pretty risk averse, pretty, uh, high achieving, um, ambitious person. Um, and so very focused on school, very focused on sports. Um. Was, you know, that 3 sport varsity athlete who did all the AP classes in high school, uh, was lucky enough to go to college for basically free and went to Princeton. That really opened a lot of doors for me. Um, I was the 1st person in my family to go and graduate from college and. Really, that transformed a lot of opportunities went on to take a post grad fellowship called venture for America venture for America takes recent college grads and puts them in startups. So, I moved to Baltimore where I worked for an amazing company called all of you for a, a. An incredible founder by the name of just Gartner and, um, the chief product officer, Jason Becker, and it was such an incredible learning experience, really fell in love with startups, really learn to code and become more technical in that role. Um, and then have taken on a couple of other roles since. Moving across verticals, but primarily thinking about how companies use data. So it was the 1st day to hire at smile direct club, the straight teeth company. I was the 1st data analyst at get lab had a bunch of roles there in the time. I was there and then, um, went on to be director of data at Netlify. Before eventually taking the path that led me to turbine. So, um, it's interesting because if you had asked me at any point in the previous 20 years, like, do you see yourself starting a company? I wouldn't have said yes. I think, like, when you grow up. Uh, in the environment I was in, so financial precarity and Children of immigrants, you're looking for the safest route all the time, right? Like, what, what is the most secure bet

undefined: 00:08:29

here

Tim Winkler: 00:08:29

stable, right? What's the

Emilie Schario: 00:08:30

stability and. Entrepreneurship doesn't fit that criteria. Yeah. And so, um, with I, I've always been focused 1st and foremost on, like, driving business impact and doing the thing that needs to be done. Um, and so it's, it's interesting how that despite. My background and, and being a little bit more risk averse, how I still ended up in this kind of entrepreneurial

Tim Winkler: 00:09:04

place. Yeah, it's an interesting, uh, journey. And I always, you know, I talked to a lot of entrepreneurs and one of the questions I usually will, will open with or, or, or, you know, pry into is, you know, where your parents entrepreneurs, you know, is that something that's just kind of deep root in the DNA, which is oftentimes a journey. I think for you, you know, it's, you're, you're kind of a product of your experiences and I, and I, I, I was studying your background, you know, you're straight out the off the break. That venture for America, I think is what an awesome experience, right? Because it kind of immediately kind of gave you some exposure into the startup ecosystem. Which most folks, you know, they are either, they either stumble into it or, you know, they. I don't know if it's always just like, I'm going to join a startup. Like, that's my thing. I think you just, everybody's got a different, unique pathway into how they get fall into the startup world. Um, so venture for America, I thought was like, you know, highlighted with, you know, a big, a big yellow pin here of like, okay, this is starting to add up paired with, you know, your experience in smaller companies, seeing them kind of grow that, that excitement. And then, um. Amplify partners, which we'll talk about as well. Um, you know, leading you to, you know, your, your own, uh, uh, business. But I do have a quick question. So what did you study, um, at Princeton? American

Emilie Schario: 00:10:30

politics, which is totally unrelated. So my, I, I graduated college for those who aren't looking that I graduated college in 2015. And as an American politics major, my like sketched out plan was that I was going to pick the right presidential campaign, ride that to the white house and work in the white house for eight years. Then go do whatever DC people do. That was like the, the tentative plan. Um, but you know, the thing about work and professional ambitions is that, um, they can't exist in a vacuum from our personal lifestyles. And so, um, I was lucky enough to meet my now husband back in college. So we started dating seriously. Um, junior year of college, and I wanted to figure out how to make my professional ambitions happen while also having, um, this relationship that I really valued and saw a future with, but didn't know what that would look like and wasn't willing to give up my professional ambitions to make that happen. And so part of the reroute into Venture for America was that, um. I didn't want to go be a cog in someone's big machine. Um, so I didn't want to go work for a big company. I wanted a job that was going to give me a remote flexibility or like a path to that in the future. This is 2015 where nobody hires recent college grads to work remotely. This isn't, you know, post COVID totally different world. Um, and so venture for America gave me the opportunity to both be impactful and have a path to. Flexible, remote future, um, in all of you. And so the way to connect the dots between what I studied in school and my professional career is that, um, within that politics major, I was very focused on quantitative analysis. So I focused on. Um, political methodologies, which some other schools would call political science. So, thinking of it as a true social science, how do you run experiments? How do you change behaviors? How do you quantify impact? Um, and so learned how to build some statistical forecasting and analysis in undergrad that I then went on to use in my professional work. Um, so the skills are there. It's just, instead of applying it to political domains, I'm applying it to conversion rates and, um, the others, the other domains that I interact with on a regular basis.

Tim Winkler: 00:13:12

Which I think is, you know, becoming more and more common. Um, you know, folks don't just, you know, it's not just computer science or math. It's, it's, you know, it's especially with AI, right? Like you're seeing, um, how AI is impacting and so many different. Verticals. And so, you know, this is actually a, an episode we ran not too long ago, which is, you know, going a depth of breath right within, within, you know, the, your tech, um, experience, especially for, you know, in, in school, like how much do you have to, do you really be like the algorithmic, you know, guru versus, you know, having enough of a skill set, if it's in healthcare, it's in politics, whatever it is, and then pairing that with, um, Data, uh, product, you know, uh, engineering.

Emilie Schario: 00:14:00

I think part of what we're seeing right now is this, um, society wide question around what is the role of college? What is the role of higher education in general? Like is college a different kind of technical training school where we're giving you these very specific hard skills around. That are that you're going to use in your next job, or is college some sort of different academic pursuit that you're going to spend time reading the great canon and classic literature. Like, I had a mentor in college who, um, where I, I did my undergrad, you had a language requirement. I think you had to take, like, 2 years of language. And, uh, he took that opportunity to take. Greek and Latin. I remember turning him like, Charlie, why? And he said to me, when else am I going to? Right? Like he looked at school as this academic pursuit opportunity. That's incredible. But that's really different from people who see it as like, this is the box that I need to check in order to get the job. Yeah. Yeah, I actually think we would probably be much better served as a society if we stopped thinking of, um, college as a prerequisite to most jobs, like some of the best engineers, data engineers, software engineers, data analysts that I've ever hired. Never went to school, uh, or never went to college, right? Like, I don't, I don't know the right answer, but I think that's part of the open conversation right now is like, what is the role of college in preparing people for work? Or do we actually need something else? Is there a boot camp or a technical training or something else that prepares those skills? I don't know. And I'm, I'm no expert, but I think that's an open question that we're going to see really change in the next decade.

Tim Winkler: 00:16:06

Yeah. And I, you know, a couple of things on that note too, is like one, I think bootcamps are fantastic and I think they're becoming more and more popular. Um, you know, for folks that just kind of went through school, like most did and they're like, well, shit, what am I doing in this? Yeah, this degree. I don't, you know, and getting into tech right and using a boot camp. But the other piece of that conversation is the ridiculousness that is student debt and the cost of education. Because oftentimes to what that does is put this burden and this anxiety on students that graduate and they say. Well, I have to make X amount, right? So then they're pursuing something just for the money to pay off. You know, how am I going to pay off these student debts? I mean, med medical school too. I mean, that's ridiculous. Like we, we obviously need more of that talent yet. It costs an arm and a leg to pursue that path. And so. You know, it's just a, it's an interesting, uh, area at large, but all, all into, I would say that, you know, from a tech perspective, I do enjoy seeing that it's no longer, it's just not like computer science is the way, um, because that can be a deterrent. And a lot of folks, you know, aren't going to get into tech if that's all there is. Um, we're seeing a much more diverse like pathway to get into technology. I think roles of like product management are, are ones that are really opening up the, the doors for folks as well. And data, right. Data being so. Every so everywhere right now. Um, you know, it can be applied in so many different ways. Um, which is a good segue for you too. So, you know, you, you, you kind of gave a little bit of context into how, you know, your pol, your political cop PoliSci, um, uh, studies kind of led you down this path into data. So you, you, you jump into all of you. Um. And then, uh, through that you made, you know, you made the connections with Venture for America. How did you find out about Venture for America? How did you, who told you about them? Oh,

Emilie Schario: 00:18:08

you know what? I worked. I'm smiling because I haven't thought about this in a while, and I should probably send her a note, but Emily saying, uh, is someone I worked with in the dining hall on campus. She was in the year above me and she did venture for America. Oh, cool. And she posted something about it on LinkedIn. And I actually think, yeah, she like posted applications are due tomorrow or something. And I was like, well, I don't have a job. So this seems like a good thing to apply to you know, mostly on a whim. And now I'm thinking about it. I should probably reach out to her and tell her how much that mattered. But yeah, Emily sang posted about it on LinkedIn and I knew her because I worked with her in the dining hall in college.

Tim Winkler: 00:18:53

Wow. Yeah, that's fantastic. It's funny how those little Those little paths can, can create so, so much, uh, in your life. Um, so, so that was, uh, a good experience. And then obviously you, you, you begin getting some really, really interesting experience in the corporate space, working with some really heavy hitting, you know, names, uh, within the world of tech, um, talk to us a little bit about some of those, some of those, uh, experiences and. How they really kind of strengthen your exposure to the world of data and and how it kind of groomed you into, um, your, you know, your expertise at this point.

Emilie Schario: 00:19:32

Yeah, so 1 thing I really appreciated about my time at view, um, was just how impactful I could be. You know, I didn't think this at the time, but now I can look back and see that I was a young, dumb 22 year old with no experience. I didn't know anything, but I still had to say, like, when I said things, people listened in part because I was employee number nine, right? Still a single digit person in this organization where it made such a huge difference. Every voice mattered. Um, yeah. Until this day, like, I still consider the folks who hired me. They're people. I send my regular turbine updates to because I feel like they're part of my team. And I think what I've really come to appreciate as I, like, look back over the different roles that I've had is that I have always enjoyed being in places where I could feel like I was making a difference. And, um, like, I mentioned, I worked at GitLab. So I joined get lab as employee number 282 at that point. It was the biggest organization where I had ever worked. Um, and I remember being worried, like, oh, it's 282 big. Is this is this company a place that I'm going to thrive? Um, in the two and a half years that I was there, we grew all the way to over 1, 200 people. Um, GitLab was the largest all remote company in the world prior to the pandemic. And so the GitLab that I joined and the GitLab that I left were completely different GitLabs. Like, we added a thousand people in two and a half years. Wow. That is insane. But the moment that I was like, okay, I, I think I'm ready to move on now was, um, I was working as interim chief of staff to the CEO working on a pricing project. And, you know, related to some pricing changes we were exploring, we're going to have to send an email out sitting on this meeting. I'm laughing because it's sad to me, but I know that this is how companies operate. Um, I'm sitting on this meeting about sending this email. It's myself. It's, um. Someone who wrote the copy for the email. It's someone who's responsible to pull the list for the email. It's someone who's responsible for putting it into the system. It's someone who's responsible for signing off for it. There's like eight people in this meeting. It's a serious email. About sending one email. And I remember getting off this meeting and just saying like, okay, I'm done here.

Tim Winkler: 00:22:16

This is not what I The email audit team.

Emilie Schario: 00:22:19

Yeah, and, you know, there are very large companies out there where people get to drive incredible impact and make a difference and wonderful technologies coming out of there. And, and there is a time and place. But I think 1 thing that I've really come to appreciate about myself is that I don't want to work in a place where the feedback loops are that long. Sure. Where. You know, you're making a plan that you're not going to see the results of for 2 or 3 years. Like, I love when we get feedback from a customer in the morning. And by the afternoon, we have shipped a change to the app or, you know, something like that. Those are phenomenal experiences, and I don't think we, um, I don't think we get the opportunity. To do that in a lot of things. So I think part of, for me, the appeal of startups has been this opportunity to really feel that I could drive change in the business in different roles and see the results of that change, not just in a theoretical on paper. Here's how numbers should shift. But, uh, an actual, here's what we did to the business. I mean, that's part of why I enjoy experimentation. Um, is that experimentation is we're going to make this change and let's see what happens over the next 60, 90, 180

Tim Winkler: 00:23:40

days. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. You wonder if that. Reaction would have been the same had you not had that exposure at all of you in those early days, right? Where it's like you, you got to see what it was like firsthand and then to take that step in that other direction. Don't get me wrong, right? Because I did something similar in my career where it's like, you know, went, went in a big, a big organization, got pulled into a small organization, saw how quickly things were moving. It's almost like, you You can, you know, when you have first hand interactions with founders and the C, the C suite, it's like this, this level of power. It's like, wow, I can truly, truly see how this business is running and then go to start my own thing, fail in that, come back, work for a large organization. And I was just scratching at the walls to get out of there. It's like, I can't be in here. And it's like, if you don't get that experience or that visibility, Yeah. You know, you never kind of know what it's like on the other side. It's something that's immediately go into the big corporate, you know, big bigger companies and there's nothing wrong with it. But I will say too, it's like. That was also a strategic play. Um, just because, you know, there is a level of like, Hey, like, you know, you're building your resume to, to have that on your, your profile opens doors and gives you really like experience, uh, that led you down to your next path. Right? So it's like. And, and, and it sounds like this next role too, was like, this was like kind of more of like in a leadership role, like you were a director, um, is it Netlify, right? So what, what was, uh, what was your, your, your big kind of takeaways from that, that

Emilie Schario: 00:25:23

experience? It's funny as you're talking, because, um, the thought that popped into my head was like. Some people, their drug of choice is caffeine. Mine is driving business impact. Apparently,

Tim Winkler: 00:25:35

Hey, that's a healthy drug though.

Emilie Schario: 00:25:37

Absolutely. Um, yeah. So when I joined Netlify, I joined, um, to lead the data organization. So the company had made a couple of decisions around how they wanted to invest in data, how. Data was actually going to feed into the product that we were selling to customers, not just like a true analytics purpose, but things like our billing process that we build customers on our. Analytics product, like, how the data team was going to play very closely with all of that. Um, so it was a really compelling opportunity. I joined, um, got to, uh, the, the team had just done almost a completely, a complete turnover. So there was very little prior experience, came in with relatively clean slate, hired a bunch of people, and really, I think, changed the way a lot of people in the company had used or interacted with data. It was a really incredible, Yeah. Opportunity to change people's minds and drive impact. We brought in experimentation and a culture around that. Um, we brought, we added a company added value to the company, not only in typical analytics. What are our revenues, what are the levers, but also just a better understanding of what are the parts of the business that can be adjusted to drive change. Like, I think, um, something that I'll be saw asylum talks about a lot. That's 1 of my favorite frameworks around a business is that, like, when it comes to a company. Almost always the number 1 metric is revenue, right? There's or really profitability, especially in the current macro climate, right? For profitability, there's 2 levers you can pull. You can increase revenue. You can improve efficiency. And then, if you keep thinking about it that way, you can decompose it for new or for increasing revenue. You can bring on new revenue. You can expand existing revenue and you can continue to break it down and break it down and break it down. And what that metric tree approach does is it helps you understand how an organization, how a team in a company can drive an impact. Right? So if the, um, if you're rolling out an experiment around, let's say, conversion rates or around product activation, um. You're basically trying to say, we think this experiment is going to drive this lever, which should hopefully add to that revenue number. Right? But you can draw those dots. And, um, too many people, I think, especially. As orgs become bigger, if you're not intentional about it, people become so separated from the final goal and I see it a lot. Actually, um, in my work now is that I think a lot of people, whether or not they want to admit it, like, kind of poo poo sales. People think like sales is slimy. It gets this like used car salesman reputation. But the thing about sales, if you're doing it correctly, it's all about like, how do I create as much value as possible for my customer? And there's a lot of ways you can do that, but just kind of being really clear on what you're trying to move. Mm-Hmm. like what does value mean for you or what you're trying to, how you're trying to drive business impact. Whether that's through sales, whether that's through a new initiative, whether that's through an experiment completely depends on the context, but just like, what is the problem we're trying to solve here? Being really clear on that unlocks a lot for you. I think Netlify was the first time that I was in a leadership role where I didn't have, um, I was responsible for advocating that message. There wasn't, I wasn't an executive to be clear. I reported it into an executive, but I was in this leadership role where I had my department, I had my team, I had, you know, dozen, 8 percent of the company headcount reported into me and being able to say, These, these are the folks in here is how we make a difference to the company and being responsible for sharing that message. Um, really changed how I thought about communicating value in addition to just delivering value.

Tim Winkler: 00:30:12

Yeah, it's a really fascinating way of explaining it too, cause it's like, it's almost like the light bulb goes off and it's like, Oh my gosh, I see the value here. It's like, now here, let me arm you sales team with how to go out and communicate this and really, and that's the difference between a good salesperson and a bad salesperson. It's like the people that get it and they're like, Oh yeah, I see it. Like they can, they can talk with passion and they can go on the front lines. That's why I think one of the most impactful roles or like Sales engineers like solutions architects, the folks that have the tech know how and can really talk to the pain points of a customer like that is one of the most valuable skill sets. And, um, because sometimes there is that lost that you lose that in translation of the technical teams communicating with the sales teams and like, you know, making sure that they get it. Um, but that's really interesting. Uh, the way that you explain that. And I just think that your mind is just like, it's constantly, it's like, uh, really fascinating what's going on in there. I was even doing some digging on your, on, on, on your, uh, blogs and, um, your swim class checklist. And, and just, just the, the, the fact of like, you know, yeah, obviously it's like, you know, automation, like, how can I make this more efficient here? Um, these are obviously all like little cogs that build up, you know, how you're becoming an entrepreneur and you wanting to build something that can help solve these problems. Um, but before we jump to turbine, uh, I I'm really, uh, really intrigued with the Amplify partners experience because what you are doing at Netlify, um, you know, for your customers. It sounds to me like Amplify is like, can you just do this for our portfolio too? You know, like really help our portfolio thrive as if each one of those were your customer. I just really think that that role and, and, um, expand on it for me, but was such a, uh, a really interesting experience for you. What was it like for you?

Emilie Schario: 00:32:16

Yeah, I, um, you nailed it. That is exactly what I did is the way to think about it. Um, it was, we've got a bunch of companies that need this kind of expertise, but they don't need it full time. And does it make sense to bring this into the build team? Um, so you can work with multiple companies across the portfolio. I think you see this a lot in, uh, Go to market and recruiting, like, oftentimes VC firms will have, um, a go to market resource, uh, that they can share across their portfolio. Usually some sort of sales coaching or sales leaders who can be available, um, or recruiting is another 1 where they'll have a team that supports that. I think I'm grateful to amplify for running this experiment around data with me, where I got to be that central resource for their portfolio. So I worked with companies across the portfolio on, you know, what is the right business metric? What are the right levers? What, you know, all these things that I did at Netlify, basically, um, working with them to understand their businesses and where it made sense and where it didn't. I think, um, 1 of the things that I saw working across many companies in the portfolio was just how companies are more similar than they are different. Like, there's a reason we talk about B2B business models as separate from B2C business models. That's because B2B business models. Relatively have a, a similar flow and the metrics you care about in those businesses are relatively the same, right? And there are these patterns in those businesses that we can lean into. Um, and so I worked and there's a couple of blog posts on the Amplify blog around this still, um, that, like, if you're a B2B SaaS company who is focused on this kind of go to market motion, like, here are the metrics you need to report in your board meeting. Um, and thinking about, like, you know, maybe every 1 of those does not apply to your specific business, but I hate staring at a blank screen. You know, that experience of like, I need to put a presentation together or I need to write a blog post or whatever. And you're staring at this blank screen and you're like, uh, I don't know where to start. My goal, I'm, I don't have all the answers. I'm not in your business every day in the way you are. You're the expert here, but my goal was to solve the blank screen problem and give you a starting place. Um, and I'm really glad I got to do that and I really enjoyed the experience. And I learned a ton from the founders I worked with. Like, it wasn't like I came in early,

Tim Winkler: 00:35:05

early stage startups, right. Just to paint the picture here. Like, are these like, see,

Emilie Schario: 00:35:10

yeah. So many, I worked with founders that were in the seed stage. I worked at founders that were post B. So kind of a wide gamut based on where the needs were in the company, in the port across the portfolio at that point in time. I want to say without like, looking it up, I probably worked with 10 companies across their portfolio over the course of the year. So really, like, the size of the engagement depended on what the business needed. Sometimes it was like, here's Let's hop on a call and just talk through this problem for an hour and other times it was, um, you know, um, uh, longer, many months of let's work together. So it really depended on the business and where they needed what problems they had where what internal structures they had already.

Tim Winkler: 00:35:58

I see. Yeah, um, something that I thought was interesting just doing some research was that, you know, you're you coming on kind of helped influence their investment hypothesis in a, in a way. Um, because I don't, you know, I, I think it's. It's something that, you know, within venture, um, everybody's got a different hypothesis and, um, you know, one of the things that we always kind of like come to market or, or, or come to try to be advocates for as a, as a recruiting slash kind of like community branding, marketing, you know, services, firm, wherever we partner is like, you know, whatever we can do to add value beyond the check that's being presented. Um, talent, right? Obviously is a, is a huge one, but every, you know, one of the things that it sounds like they really saw value in with bringing you on is how to, uh, more intentionally kind of study. Um, how startups within the portfolio use data to make like these strategic decisions. And, and that's something that I haven't really seen a ton of, or I haven't seen like, you know, too many VCs kind of like vocalize, like, Hey, this is what, what makes us unique. Um, and so I do, um, I do applaud, uh, Amplify. I think that's a really strategic hire. Uh, it sounds like a really cool exposure.

Emilie Schario: 00:37:18

I'll say 1 thing about the team there and Sarah in particular, uh, who's the GP Sarah cat and Sarah's the GP that I worked with the closest. 1 of the things about, um, their current team is that a lot of them have worked before. Like, when you look at VCs, a lot of times they'll be bankers who move into PE and then maybe into venture. Um. And I think one of the great things about that particular team is just the, the experience and how, um, how they have all worked before. Sarah was director of data at Mattermark. She worked at Palantir. Like, she had those really formative experiences in the data space and that you. I think she knew. And in fact, I still go to her like, Hey, Sarah, like how, how should I think about this problem? And she gets to pull on her, um, I don't know, decade of venture where she's been seeing across multiple companies and coach me, um, through our, our own struggles. So, um, I think it's, it's just a lot of stars aligned and their team is really incredible and phenomenal. And I'm glad to have them as our lead investor at

Tim Winkler: 00:38:31

turbine. Yeah, that's great. And yeah, like to add to your point, I mean, there's just a level of credibility that comes with somebody who's sat in the seat of that skill set where I'm going to buy a lot more into your advice and, and, and, you know, your, your mentorship here versus, you know, you came from finance and that's what you do and that's, you know, so it's a, it's a really cool, um, strategy. Um, sounds like a really interesting, Yeah. Experience for you. And then so when, when was it, you know, when, when did the, uh, that itch kind of hit you and you're like, you know what, you know, it's time to do my own thing. Um, talk me through that process.

Emilie Schario: 00:39:12

So, in parallel to all the professional on goings that we're talking about, I also decided to go to grad school full time. So, um, in 2020, the world is shutting down. I find out I'm pregnant. With my first kid and I looked at my schedule and I said, life is never going to be. less hectic than it is right now. If I want to go to grad school, this is my chance. Uh, so applied to grad school started in October, went to, uh, I was getting an MBA from UNC Chapel Hill, Kenan Flagler Business School. Um, and I did that full time while working full time.

Tim Winkler: 00:40:00

Wow. You psycho.

Emilie Schario: 00:40:04

Well, a little bit, um, but you know, you alluded briefly to this blog post. That's one of my most popular online called the swim class checklist. And the general thesis of that blog post, um, for anyone who hasn't read it, is that like there are all these skills that we apply at work kind of unthinkingly. Building a checklist as you're running through a process so that someone else can do it more easily next time as a prime example, but we don't apply those same skills to our home life. So the example that I use in the blog post is, uh, taking my kids to swim class. We do this special kind of swim called infant swim rescue. It's, um, the way classes work, it's 10 minutes a day for five days a week for three to six weeks, depending on the cohort you're in. And then it's not again for, like, 3 or 4 months. And so that means it's very intense and then none at all. And, um, whether it's because you share that responsibility across multiple adults, or if it's because you don't want to have to reinvent the wheel 3 months later, when you're starting up the class again, my. What I did for my family, uh, was create that checklist and make it really easy the next time we go on. So I lean into a lot of these opportunities because I think that if we bring those same skills that we use to run an efficient workplace to the home, we can reduce the overall kind of emotional labor that takes is required in operating a household, especially a household with two professionally driven adults who don't want to spend all their time on home. Coordinating doctors and dentists appointments or or figuring out what to pack for swim class. Um, so when I, part of what I had to do in that time window of working full time, having a small baby, I had my son, um, four months into starting the program and, um, working full time, going to school full time and having a baby. I had to figure out what all of those efficiencies in where, where the opportunity for those. In my life

Tim Winkler: 00:42:18

where and everything was remote. Is that right? Where are you working remote? You're pursuing the NBA remotely.

Emilie Schario: 00:42:24

Exactly. Um, and that a huge part of that was just like the timing and the state of the world at the time. Um,

Tim Winkler: 00:42:31

and you had had some, some experience working remote, which I think is another piece of, of really important credibility to that. Yeah,

Emilie Schario: 00:42:38

I had five years of full time remote experience, so working remote was not the norm at that point, and I didn't have any new small Children at home. We had my son December 2020, and he started daycare by February 2021. So, um, we were really lucky here, uh, that daycares were open, um, from that window. You know, then soon after vaccines started coming around, I was there when the Civic Center did the drive thru, like, when it opened, got the shot. Like, you know, we were very enthusiastic about those sorts of Um, reopening opportunities, but 1 of the things that was a result of that time period was that everything was remote. And so I wasn't losing time to commute. Um, it was, we were also lucky that my husband was in a particularly flexible time in his career that I missed those days. Uh, and so, um, all these things happened at the same time. And it was actually in business school that I started having this inkling that there was a specific opportunity around supply chain, specifically this problem called three way match. So if you think about, like, a, a shoe manufacturer, they cut purchase orders to their suppliers. They receive shoes in their warehouse, and then they have to pay the invoice to their supplier. Um, this problem 3 way match is about reconciling the purchase order, the receipt and the invoice, making sure that what you ordered is what you get is what you pay for it. So I'm in business school. I get this, um, reading assignment. That's like, uh, an article on how. Blockchain is the only solution to the three way match problem, and I'm a bit of a, like, anti blockchain y person. Blockchain's just a distributed database. I consider myself a database person. So, um, I was like, no, this is a solution in search of a problem. I'm going to build a prototype using the database tools that we have. Um, and I did. And I was like, see, you don't need blockchain. You can solve this with a regular database, like this silly. Um, and so started spending more time with it. Did what all good founders or founders or people are considering opportunities do, which is that I went through every person in my network who could have an intelligent conversation on this topic. Like, have you seen it? What have you seen? How does this problem solve itself? Like, you know, the whole 9 yards. And, um, then I finished grad school in May 2022. Um, Pregnant with my second kid at this point and decided like, cool. I suddenly have more free time. Um, I had my son. I I'm thinking about it still working full time. I had my son in September. Was planning on, um, taking some time off just, you know, maternity leave and stuff and said, cool, I'm going to use my maternity leave to make this. To figure out if there's something here, and so I did exactly that. I left amplify started working on turbine full time in September 2022. Um, and then we ended up raising a precede round in December 2022, um, launched the product in spring 2023. And now we're working to drive business impact for folks in, uh. Across multiple verticals, and it's great. And, you know, I started obsessed with this 3 way match problem. What we found is like, that's a piece of the puzzle. That's not, that's not the whole puzzle. We actually help brands understand their supply chain costs and what that translates to and landed costs for their units. Um, we help them understand their profitability on a per order level. So lots of things that we help companies do and like 3 way match was my. Hook for spending more time, but the problem and the product has evolved as we've gotten feedback over time from customers from users from mentors. Um, and yeah, it's been a really interesting journey, but basically, I had to wait for things to free up. In order to take the plunge and now here we are.

Tim Winkler: 00:46:58

Yeah, what a, what an interesting, uh, timing of everything, you know, it's just like, um, that MBA kind of like wrapping up, you know, the, um, going on maternity leave, you know, uh, providing the opportunity for you to spend a little time on this project, this. Your, your other baby, your, your, your, your business baby. And, and, uh, obviously your, your baby baby, but, um, what a, what a neat, um, uh, timing for all that to kind of come together and, you know, you, you know. Again, like doing my research on you, you, you're, you're ranking, you're ranking, uh, quite high, uh, from an SEO perspective on operational workflows, data, um, you know, through a match, you know, these things that you. Seem to be very passionate about and again, I think, but not losing sight of these other experiences to your journey about adding value, right? Like, how can I find this thing here to, you know, ensure that you're not spending X here? Or like, where can I find the value for you and your business? These are all the things that kind of come back to the root cause of what you're, what you're doing and why you're doing it. So I think that's all

Emilie Schario: 00:48:13

really neat. You know, One thing that comes up, um, kind of pretty often, I'll, I'll actually share a, uh, anonymous, but specific example is that, um, we were meeting with this Atlanta based brand, um, incredible team, wonderful product, and they came to us with, like, a very specific problem around forecasting. They, they didn't have all the other problems that we help with that are. Those things were fine for now. They'll have them as they grow and that's fine. But today they're just focused on this very specific forecasting problem. And I said, like, let's just schedule an hour long working session and I'll help you with your forecast and we can do this together and work through it and you'll come out of it with a better forecast. And I don't have anything to sell you because. I'm not here to just take money for you for the sake of growing our revenue number. Like I, you're not going to use our solution. I don't want your money. And right. And so I think so much of my job at this stage, um, especially on those early conversations that we have with brands is like, do you have a problem that I can help you solve? And then is turbine actually going to make a difference to your brand? Because if the answer is no, Then I want to help you, but like, I'm not going to sell you a turbine if we can't actually drive impact for you.

Tim Winkler: 00:49:33

Yeah. I love that perspective. And I, you know, I think it's just a really top class kind of like approach to sales. Like, you know, I there's nothing worse than the sales person. That's just really trying to, you know, sell you something that you don't need. Yeah. You can smell it. Right. And so like, you know, I, I have a similar approach in terms of sales words. Look, I don't even want to sell you something right now. I just want to like, see where I can see what your pain point is, see if I can, where, where we can add value. And then there's something beyond, you know, where I can add value now. We can have that conversation at a later time, but I don't want to, I'm not going to just spoon feed you like, Hey, this is what we do. This is what you're going to need, you know? So yeah, I think that's a, uh, a really, um, intentional and thoughtful approach to it. So just a couple of quick hits on turbine then, um, you know, what, um, you're a remote company, but you know, where, where are you headquartered? Um, what kind of head count are you at right now?

Emilie Schario: 00:50:35

Yeah. So all remote company, the team is myself and three software engineers full time. We have a team member in San Antonio, a team member in Charlotte, North Carolina, and a team member in Nairobi, Kenya. I'm lucky enough to have former colleagues who from Netlify who joined me to do this turbine thing, which is great. That's great. Um, and I'm based in Columbus, Georgia, two or three days a week. I work out of the startup Columbus office. So if anyone's passing through, let me know. I'm happy.

Tim Winkler: 00:51:11

Cool. Nice, nice shout out Columbus, Georgia. Um, and then you did mention, uh, you know, one of your investors, and we were actually introduced through, uh, Revolutions Rise of the Rest. Yeah. So are they also part of the, uh, investment team?

Emilie Schario: 00:51:26

Yes. Um, James at Revolutions Rise of the Rest, um, is my, or James is my investor over there, and they're great. And I'm so grateful to have them as a sounding board, as a connector, um, and I love their place based mandate. Like, as someone here in, Uh, in Columbus, I think there's so much opportunity and so many great things going on here and really excited, um, to have them on my team.

Tim Winkler: 00:51:51

Yeah, I love their I love their strategy that innovation can happen outside of just the coast coastal states, uh, coastal cities there. So. Um, uh, that's great. And then, um, I, I would just kind of ask, you know, in terms of your all's anticipated growth, you know, what are some things that I guess you're really looking forward to, or excited about turbine heading into 2024.

Emilie Schario: 00:52:19

Yeah, you know, Turbine, um, by nature of how we solve problems for our customers is a very wide product. We do a lot of things and the scale that I like to use when I talk about it is like there's minimum product. There's a workable product and then there's a lovable product and, um, we've spent time bringing like our order to cash reconciliation and our procurement process into lovable stages. But, um, some things are still minimum and I look forward to, like, our revenue recognition functionality. I would absolutely considered minimum. And so really thinking about how we can level that up and make that an even better experience for our existing users and our yet to come users. That's something I'm really looking forward to in the new year.

Tim Winkler: 00:53:07

Yeah, we're excited to track it. And, um, obviously love, uh, loved hearing your story. Um, I've got a lot more questions, but I'm trying to keep this within a, within a reasonable timeframe. And I do want to, uh, jump into our, our final segment here as well, which is the five second scramble. And, uh, this is just kind of like a rapid fire Q and a, um, try to, try to keep the answers within five seconds. If not, you know, we won't air horn out or anything like that. A little mix of some business, a little mix of some fun personal stuff, and uh, you ready to jump into it? Let's do it. Okay, cool. Um. So this might be take you back to some of your VC pitches, uh, explain turbine to me as if I were a five year old

Emilie Schario: 00:53:58

in five seconds. Wow. That is like the hardest question you could ever come up with. Okay. We'll give you 10. Turbine is an operating platform for your. Brands multichannel workflows and now I just have all these questions in my head around if a five year old could ever understand what multichannel is, you know, what kids these days when they hold phones up to their ears, they. Don't do this. And for the, for the audio portion of this, they don't like put their pinky and thumbs out. They put their hands flat and they hold it to their ears. Uh, and I think about that a lot because kids have a totally under different understanding of technology than we

Tim Winkler: 00:54:41

do. Yeah, I mean, you know, Bluey can explain it to them. I'm

Emilie Schario: 00:54:45

sure. You know what? I'm looking forward to the day where Bluey makes an episode about Turbine.

Tim Winkler: 00:54:52

Bluey just pitch it, pit doing VC pitches. Yeah. Um, Awesome. What is the, your favorite part about your culture at Turbine?

Emilie Schario: 00:55:03

We have three values, uh, ROI, results, ownership, iteration. And I think, uh, the thing that I'm most proud of is how everyone works through that. Everyone shows. Ownership in their work, everyone knows that we're iterating on delivering value and the end result is that everyone produces results, really high performance.

Tim Winkler: 00:55:24

That gives ROI a whole nother meaning for me as an entrepreneur. Um, what type of technologist would you say thrives at Turbine?

Emilie Schario: 00:55:36

Someone who's not afraid of rolling their sleeves up and doing. The work, you know, sometimes what we're doing is solving a weird edge case for a customer with a cool technology problem. Sometimes what we're doing is going through a bad CSV download and finding all the rogue quotes in the middle of text. Uh, and so every day can be different, but it's got to be someone who cares more about the business impact than the technology.

Tim Winkler: 00:56:05

Um, as a, an entrepreneur, um, a mother spouse, you know, in your free time, what do you do to kind of relax or unwind?

Emilie Schario: 00:56:17

Uh, I love weightlifting. Um, so if I had to put it into three, one, I love Olympic weightlifting. It brings me so much joy. I'm lucky enough to have the space in my time to. To do it to, um, I really enjoy reading currently reading, um, Greg Blustein's book on the recent Georgia elections called flipped. And it's so much fun. And reading is like watching a movie in your head. And then three is just really hanging out with my family and they bring me so much joy, and I'm so grateful to have them.

Tim Winkler: 00:56:50

Awesome. Not in that order. Yeah, we can edit that to be the family preferred. Uh, what is a charity or corporate philanthropy that is near and dear to you?

Emilie Schario: 00:57:03

So, uh, St. Walburga Monastery in Elizabeth, New Jersey, um, I went to a high school that's since closed called Benedictine Academy. It was the sister school to St. Benedict's Prep, a well known all boys school in Newark, New Jersey. And I went to BA on a full scholarship, which is incredible because I could not have gone to BA, um, if it wasn't for that, my family was not in a position where we could afford private school. Um, and so St. Walburg Monastery, I often think about how that scholarship changed the whole trajectory of my life.

Tim Winkler: 00:57:36

Good shout out. Can you briefly describe your morning routine to me briefly?

Emilie Schario: 00:57:46

Wake up when my kids are howling. Uh, If, if I get to wake up before them, enjoy my two cups of coffee, maybe read a couple of pages until they wake up. And then I do the morning shift solo in my household. So I get my kids ready, uh, load them, feed them breakfast, load them into the car, get them to daycare, come home, uh, and work, or if it's a gym day, um, I might go right to the gym after daycare. Every day is different because toddlers are in charge. Yeah,

Tim Winkler: 00:58:19

well said. If you could live abroad for one season out of the year, where would you live and what season?

Emilie Schario: 00:58:29

Is pasta season in Italy an appropriate answer?

Tim Winkler: 00:58:34

Yeah, it's like rainy season or pasta season. I think it's pasta season. Pasta season. So, pasta season in Italy. That needs to be on a brochure somewhere. Um, what is the worst fashion trend that you've ever followed?

Emilie Schario: 00:58:51

Bootleg jeans and it's back now and that makes it that much worse.

Tim Winkler: 00:58:57

That's what fashion trends do though. They go out of style and they come back in style. What's something that you love to do, but you're really bad at

Emilie Schario: 00:59:11

a lot? Needlepoint, so I make one ornament per year for my family It's like our my Christmas thing is like a one needlepoint ornament and I am mediocre to pour at it But I make one ornament a year and that's all that matters I

Tim Winkler: 00:59:28

can't wait for this Etsy shop to open up.

Emilie Schario: 00:59:31

Oh my God. They take so long. There's a reason I only make one a year.

Tim Winkler: 00:59:36

The supply chain on the back orders would be horrendous. Um, what was your dream job as a kid aside from a barista at Duncan Dennis?

Emilie Schario: 00:59:47

A president of the United States.

Tim Winkler: 00:59:49

Cool. That's the first time I've ever heard that answer. That's, that's, that's great. And in closing, favorite Disney character?

Emilie Schario: 01:00:07

I don't know. Probably the whole Inside Out crew. They're pretty great.

Tim Winkler: 01:00:11

Yeah. Yeah. That's the first time I've heard that as well. So that's, that's a good answer as well. That is a wrap. So I just wanted to thank you for spending time with us. I'm excited for the future of what you all are building at Turbine. You are an awesome entrepreneur. Um, a good human. I'm, I'm confident you are going to continue to have success. So, I'll be rooting you all on from the sidelines and I want to thank you for hanging out with us on, on the

Emilie Schario: 01:00:42

pod. Yeah, thanks for having me and, uh, look forward to, uh, sharing what I know. So, much appreciated. Cool.