Office Hours: I'm the CEO & Co-Founder of Byteboard and previously a Google software engineer. I'm Sargun Kaur.Featured

sargun's profile thumbnailsargun·Mar 23, 2020·33 replies
Hey y’all! I’m the co-founder and CEO of Byteboard -- we’ve reinvented the engineering interview to more closely measure for on-the-job skills through an identity-blind, project-based assessment, currently used by Lyft, Robinhood, Betterment, Dropbox and many other teams! Byteboard is funded by Google’s internal incubator Area 120. My co-founder and I came up with the idea for Byteboard as we were venting about whiteboard interviews and how many of our brilliant friends, who come from underrepresented backgrounds in tech, would not pass or be hesitant of technical interviews (myself included). Prior to founding Byteboard, I was a software engineer on Google Photos Android and the Google Maps team. I studied Computer Science at UC Berkeley (not a pleasant memory) and dealt with huge amounts of imposter syndrome in tech. My co-founder and I were recently recognized in the Class of 2020 for Forbes 30 Under 30 for Enterprise Technology. As a first-time founder, going from being an IC engineer to a founder/manager/salesperson/all-the-hats has certainly not been easy, there are low lows and high highs, but the last two years have been some of the best and most rewarding times of my 27 years on this Earth so far! At Byteboard, we’ve built a really close-knit and diverse team (63% female, 50% POC) that I’m incredibly proud of. The last few weeks have certainly been really challenging as I think about being a startup founder in times of a looming recession and COVID. My incredible team keeps me in high spirits as we’ve implemented a number of changes to help with collaboration and productivity. We’ve also opened up access to Byteboard for free for the next three months to help out any companies who are moving to fully remote interviews (let me know if you want access!). I’m a Bay native who loves to travel, a chocolate chip cookie aficionado with no ability in a kitchen, a generalist who loves to dive deep, an introvert constantly craving community, or more simply put, a being of paradoxes still trying to figure out what life is all about. Ask me anything about building a B2B startup, Google’s incubator Area 120, adapting in the times of COVID, dealing with hard conversations, hiring and building a team, getting an exec coach and therapist, technical interviews, my favorite chocolate chip cookie spot in NYC, or anything else!
FAQ∙Terms∙Privacy∙© 2020 Elpha