Rachel Chalmers: "Three Horses"
This Week's Guest: Rachel Chalmers
ABOUT THIS EPISODE
This podcast primarily focuses on the history of tech and today’s guest brings us back to floppy discs, finding her first WIRED magazine, and working as one of the first tech analysts to write about companies like VMware and Cloudera. That would be Rachel Chalmers, a tech industry analyst, investor, and advisor for well over 25 years.
A native Australian who earned a master’s degree in Ireland before settling down in Silicon Valley for the past 25+ years, Rachel is the Head of Corporate Services at AlchemistX, which is the Corporate Services division of Alchemist Accelerator. She is also (fittingly) the host of the Corporate Innovation podcast over at AlchemsistX.
Hear about Rachel’s approach when enterprises ‘lose their curiosity” and become more risk-averse. For those going after an Innovation Initiative, she suggests a brilliant untapped resource within large companies that you won’t want to miss.
We also talk to Rachel about the need for what she describes as “human-centered innovation,” her strategy for fighting the inevitable feeling of burnout, what tech CEO she refers to as a “monster” (but in the most endearing way possible), and why life is often not about trying to fit in where you are, it’s more about finding others who are like you.
LINKS AND ARTICLES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE
Feminist Survival Project—hosted by Emily and Amelia Nagoski, authors of BURNOUT: the Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle.
Faces of COVID—NPR piece about the Twitter account that tells the stories of those who have died of COVID-19
Project Include—Non-profit devoted to giving everyone a fair chance to succeed in tech by using data and advocacy to accelerate diversity and inclusion solutions in the tech industry.
Usenet—A worldwide distributed discussion system used via dial-up modems in the 1980s
Osborne 1—Article on the history of the Osborne 1, the first commercially successful portable computer.
AWA Building—The famous Sydney building Rachel’s father worked in, now included in the New South Wales State Heritage Register
Keep Calm and Log On—Book by Gus Andrews
“She was demoted, doubted and rejected. Now, her work is the basis of the Covid-19 vaccine”—Leah Asmelash and AJ Willingham, CNN
AlchemistX: Innovators Inside—Rachel’s podcast featuring interviews with thought leaders and high achievers in Corporate Innovation.
More About Our Guest
Partner at Alchemist Accelerator, Investor, Analyst, and Advisor
Rachel comes to Alchemist from Autodesk, where she was Director, Transformation Growth Boards and Product Excellence. Prior to Autodesk, Rachel was a VC with Ignition Partners and Merian Ventures, leading investments in Docker, Wit.ai (acquired by Facebook), Unikernel (acquired by Docker), and Honeycomb.io. She began her career as employee number 10 with 451 Research (acquired by Standard & Poor), where she was the first analyst to cover VMware, Cloudera, and Splunk.
