In this episode, I’m speaking with Sarah Eckenhoff. Sarah is a creative director and aesthetic trend analyst with a background in both graphic design and product design. Quoting the tagline from her online bio "she's been making things thoughtfully pretty for over 20 years”.
Sarah has curated trends for thousands of seasonal Starbucks drinkware products, including collaborations with Disney, Universal, and Stanley, and has designed co-branded CPG gift packs sold on shelves of Fortune 500 clients including Target, Macy's, and Costco. If you've ever bought a Starbucks mug, chances are, that she helped bring it to life. In our conversation she explains what trend forecasting is and Sarah talks about her process.
In 2024 Sarah established her own trend consultancy called Docent. Docent helps retail brands transform aesthetic insights into standout, consumer-driven products.
Links to things we reference and talk about in the podcast
In this episode, I'm talking with Patricio "Pato" Echagüe, one of the founders of Split.io. Pato shares his path to starting a company in Silicon Valley, all the way from his roots growing up in a small town in Argentina and starting to code on an i386. He talks about how he kept his motivation over the 10-year existence of Split until it got acquired in 2024. We talk about how they started the company, how funding changed over time, and the importance of culture in a startup.
Katharina van Zeller was born in Vienna and grew up in both Vienna and Hamburg. She studied Social Anthropology and Sinology at the University of Vienna. She is a professional organizing coach and the founder of Ordnungskunst, a consulting practice that helps small businesses and private households create and maintain order. She also co-founded Dreikreis, an agency dedicated to placing agile IT freelancers with purpose-driven companies.
In our conversation we dive into why and how she started a recruiting agency, what business lessons she learned along the way and how she eventually sold the business successfully. We also talk about how Kathi helps people as a professional organizing coach and how well studying sinology and social anthropology complement each other.
Bonus: Kathi gets into Chinese characters, explaining the difference in meaning between 1 woman under a roof 安 and 2 women under a roof 奻.
In this episode of the Uncertain Value podcast, I’m talking with Mario Zechner again. He shares how he designed and built a portable, Gameboy-like audio player for his son — motivated by the shortcomings he saw in the Toniebox and Yoto Player, the two biggest products in the market. Issues like unintuitive controls, underpowered speakers, the potential fire hazards of lithium-ion batteries, content limitations, and privacy concerns about the mandatory internet connection sparked his desire for something better.
Although this was Mario’s first real adventure into electronics, how much can someone who usually writes game engines and compilers really be held back by designing circuit boards, soldering, and 3D printing? Listen and find out!
Anthony Parker lives in San Rafael, California, and created a successful online guitar school. The success of his business is deeply rooted in social media. He has a strong presence on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and Patreon. His business, called "Anthony Parker - Near Life Experience", is the go-to destination for aspiring guitarists. In our conversation, Anthony tells the story of how & why he founded his business, what didn't work, and how he made it successful using a lot of experiments.
Brandon grew up in Idaho and earned both a Master of Science and a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting from Boise State University. He is a Certified Public Accountant in the state of California. Most recently, he served as the Director of Accounting and Operations at Split Software in Redwood City, California. Prior to that, he was an Accounting Manager at Officengine in Oakland and an Audit Associate at PwC.
In our conversation, we focus on the three key financial statements: the balance sheet, income statement, and cash flow statement. We discuss their importance in assessing the financial health of a business. We delve into the details of the income statement, starting with an explanation of the difference between the top line and bottom line. Together with Brandon, we analyze Datadog's recent 10-K filing to better understand the company's financial health through mandatory SEC disclosures. We conclude with a list of finance and accounting questions that startup employees should ask during all-hands meetings to gain insights into their company’s financial well-being.
David Burrowes, who goes by “Deej” earned a bachelor’s degree in Cognitive Science from Brown University. He also studied Chinese at National Taiwan University and Tzu Chi University. He has held various engineering roles in Silicon Valley over the last 30+ years, including Senior UI Engineer at Sun Microsystems, Staff Engineer at Box, Principal Engineer at Split Software, and Engineering Architect at Harness.
The conversation with Deej begins in the small Ohio town where he grew up, reflecting on why it was, in hindsight, an ideal place. Deej shares his experiences at Brown University, where the freedom to design his own curriculum drew him in. This flexibility allowed him to take a class on Islam, which later helped him process the events of 9/11 and its aftermath. Deej also talks about his move to Silicon Valley in 1990 and how he was laid off six months into his first job. We discuss his time at Sun Microsystems and the final days of the once-great company. Deej explains what sparked his interest in learning Chinese and how he realized that immersing himself—studying the language in Taiwan for over a year—was the only way he could truly learn. We delve into company culture, its significance, and why Slack is a powerful but costly tool for fostering it.
Book recommendation: Slack: Getting Past Burnout, Busywork, and the Myth of Total Efficiency
Richard Koscher is an Artist and Creative Director. Originally from Austria, Richard has been residing in the San Francisco Bay Area since 1999. He has served as the Art Director for the George Lucas Educational Foundation and has contributed his expertise to technology companies such as NextRoll, Neo4J, Mesosphere and Matillion. In addition to his work in the tech industry, Richard actively produces his own art. He recently published a book titled “Reveal: The Empowerment of Appropriation Art”, where he explains the process of recreating masterpieces and demystifies artistic techniques.
Richard has been a guest on Uncertain Value before. He promised to come back to talk about Austrian painters with me. But we don’t want to talk about household names like Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, or Maria Lassnig. These artists are amazing and rightfully well-known internationally. In this episode we talk about great but lesser known Austrian artists. We talk about the works of
Richard shares the story of how he discovered a Max Oppenheimer etching in a small antique shop in Northern California.
Audrey Do grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and attended UC Santa Cruz, where she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Astrophysics. For the past three years, she has worked as a Data Analyst and, more recently, as a Product Manager at Split Software, which was acquired by Harness. In our conversation, we discuss how, as a child, learning about a comet that might destroy Earth inspired her to study astrophysics. Audrey explains how her knowledge of the cosmos helps her stay calm and put things into perspective when situations get intense. She also shares her experiences as a Data Analyst, explaining how she helped stakeholders ask better questions and achieve better results. We explore Audrey's recent transition to Product Management and what motivated the change. Finally, Audrey shares how she helped preserve and secure funding to keep the traditional Vietnamese zither alive in California.
Johannes Deubener grew up in Germany and is now based in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he leads AI partnerships at Deutsche Telekom. Johannes brings a wealth of experience in business development, product, and innovation, having worked in various strategic roles at Deutsche Telekom for over five years. Before his current position, he co-founded and managed 'As Good As Pros Sports,' a sports marketplace focused on on-demand training and team sports. In our conversation, we discuss the differences and similarities between German and Silicon Valley startup cultures. Johannes shares his experiences as a startup founder in Germany, how COVID disrupted their growth multiple times, how they persevered, and how they ultimately closed the business. He also offers insights into what he would do differently if starting the company again. Additionally, we talk about his role in GenAI at Deutsche Telekom and DT's plans to launch an AI-native phone.
Richard Koscher is an Artist and Creative Director. Originally from Austria, Richard has been residing in the San Francisco Bay Area since 1999. He has served as the Art Director for the George Lucas Educational Foundation and has contributed his expertise to technology companies such as NextRoll, Neo4J, Mesosphere and Matillion since 2007. In addition to his work in the tech industry, Richard actively produces his own art. He recently published a book titled “Reveal: The Empowerment of Appropriation Art”, where he explains the process of recreating masterpieces and demystifies artistic techniques.
Avash grew up in South Africa and currently lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. He earned a bachelor’s degree in Business Science from the University of KwaZulu-Natal and an Executive MBA from the Henley Business School. Avash currently is the Vice President of Corporate Finance at Meta Mind. He has an extensive background in Mergers & Acquisitions, working many years for CitiBank and Deutsche Telekom. Besides working in M&A, Avash helps as a Startup Mentor at the Plug & Play Tech Center in San Francisco, helping young companies get funding.
Charles was born in China and moved to the United States after finishing high school there. He attended Wabash College in Indiana, where he studied Psychology and German. After completing his undergraduate studies, he moved to Pennsylvania to become a PhD student in Cognitive Neuroscience at Carnegie Mellon University. He earned his doctoral degree in 2020. Since then, he has worked as a Data Scientist at various companies, including Spark Neuro and Split Software.
Karo was born in Austria, where she also grew up. She earned a master's degree in Architecture from the Technical University in Graz and an Associate of Arts degree from the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising in Los Angeles. Karo began her career as a Color, Material, and Finish (CMF) Designer at Tesla in California. Afterward, she spent 6 years as a CMF Designer in the UK, contributing to cars made by Jaguar Land Rover as well as Aston Martin Lagonda. Karo currently resides in the San Francisco Bay Area working as a CMF Designer for Zoox.
Mario Zechner, an independent software developer, coach, and angel investor based in Graz, Austria. His technical expertise spans applied machine learning, data science, compiler engineering, and computer graphics. He has authored several books and numerous scientific papers. He was also a key member of a successful startup named RoboVM. The birth of his son marked a pivotal moment in his life, inspiring him to contribute to the community and use his skills to address societal issues.
Heather was born in Scotland and spent much of her childhood moving across Europe. She currently resides in Manchester, where she lends her expertise to Split Software as an Experimentation Advisor. With a decade of experience in the field of experimentation, Heather has made significant contributions to prominent organizations such as the BBC, Optimizely, and SKY, as well as to renowned football clubs including Manchester United and Chelsea.
Hennie Farrow is a Designer and Design Leader. Hennie was born in Iran, grew up in Los Angeles and has been living and working in the San Francisco Bay Area since the early 90ies. Hennie has a degree in Fine Arts from the Academy of Art University. She worked as an Instructor at the Academy of Art University for over a decade. After that she held various Design Leadership positions in Silicon Valley: Hennie was a Design Lead at Adobe, Head of Design & UX at Zignal Labs, VP of Design & UX at Emtrain and Director of UX at ServiceNow.
Hennie and I discuss the relationship of Design and other stakeholders like Engineers or Product Managers. Hennie gives recommendations on how to make Designers lover working with you. Hennie talks about her creative process and her current passion project (livekeenly.com).
Inaki lives and works in Argentina. He studied Computer Science at the National University of Central Buenos Aires in the city of Tandil. After his studies he founded a startup that managed genetic information for cattle farms. He held various Software Engineering positions and has been a Product Manager at Split Software, a Silicon Valley tech startup, for a bit over a year now. Besides being a Product Manager, Inaki has been creating a cultural center and event space called Huarte over the last couple of years. In our conversation we talk briefly about his first year in Product before we focus on how he created Huarte over the last couple of years.
Christian Ross has been managing products for 13 years. His experience spans both consumer and B2B products. In his career he has managed products at WeightWatchers, American Express, Macy’s, Genesys, Sunbasket, and the PGA.
Christian got a degree in Computer Science from the University of Mississippi. He also started a Master of Arts in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages at Columbia University.
In our conversation we talk about Christian’s path to becoming a Product Manager, his thoughts on Product Strategy, and how the deliberate use of empathy helped him to have stronger relationships with executives and enabled him to delegate better.
