In this episode, discover how Sarah Friar, CEO of NextDoor and former CFO of Square, leveraged her internship in Ghana to launch a billion-dollar tech career. Learn about unicorn startups, building global leadership through diverse experiences and the lasting impact of early internships in shaping industry leaders. Perfect for listeners interested in entrepreneurship, tech, and African success stories. Adrian explores inspiring career journeys and remarkable stories from Ghana and beyond in the PodBites series.
Key Topics:
- How Sarah Friar’s internship in Ghana shaped her tech leadership journey
- Nextdoor’s rise to unicorn status and its CEO’s background
- Benefits of internships in launching successful careers
- Ghana’s influence on global business leaders
- From Oxford and Cambridge to Silicon Valley: Sarah Friar’s story
- African entrepreneurship and tech industry insights
- Stories of tech executives who began their careers in Ghana
- Value of international work experience for C-level executives
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Timestamps
00:00 – Introduction to NextDoor and Its Unicorn Startup Status
00:35 – About NextDoor’s CEO Sarah Friar: From Ireland to Silicon Valley
01:12 – Sarah Friar’s Background: Roles at Salesforce, Square and Slack
01:21 – Sarah Friar’s Diverse Cultural Experience, including Ghana
01:45 – The Impact of Sarah Friar’s Internship in Ghana
02:33 – Working in Obuasi: Gold Mining and Problem-Solving
02:56 – The True Value of Internships in Building Successful Careers
03:14 – Call to Action: Share Stories of Leaders With Ghana Roots
Resources and Links
Nextdoor Official Website
Learn more about the neighborhood social platform led by CEO Sarah Friar.
Sarah Friar – LinkedIn Profile
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahfriar/
Career highlights, background and accomplishments of Sarah Friar.
Square (Block, Inc.) Official Website
Discover the fintech company where Sarah Friar served as CFO.
Salesforce Official Website
Explore the company where Sarah Friar held senior finance roles.
Slack Official Website
Find out more about Slack, where Sarah Friar sits on the board.
Meetup Podcast - "Keep Connected" Episode Featuring Sarah Friar
https://www.meetup.com/blog/podcast-ep-31-nextdoor-ceo-sarah-friar/
Hear directly from Sarah Friar about her career journey and her transformative Ghana internship.
Oxford University
Where Sarah Friar studied before her Ghana internship.
University of Cambridge
More about Sarah Friar’s prestigious academic background.
Obuasi Gold Mining in Ghana
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obuasi_Gold_Mine
Information about Obuasi, the region in Ghana where Sarah completed her internship.
The Sound of Accra Podcast – Official Website
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🎙 About the Podcast
The Sound of Accra Podcast was established six years ago by Adrian Daniels in January 2020, on the back of running networking events in Accra and launching a failed online platform for Ghanaian tourists, visitors and business people. The show spotlights Ghanaian Entrepreneurs, Founders and Creatives worldwide with the aim of leaving listeners with meaningful takeaways to apply to life, business and career. The mission is to showcase Global Ghanaian Excellence.
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The story behind Nextdoor. Now think of it
Speaker:as the local Facebook of neighborhoods for the Western world.
Speaker:It's quite a remarkable one, to say the least.
Speaker:Nextdoor is amongst the distinguished few to have attained
Speaker:unicorn status. Now these are privately held
Speaker:startup companies that have been valued at well over
Speaker:$1 billion without going public at all.
Speaker:Now, I've used the Nextdoor platform for so many weird and
Speaker:wonderful things, but what's even more remarkable is the
Speaker:CEO behind Nextdoor, which is Sarah
Speaker:Friar. Now, here's a little bit of a background to
Speaker:Sarah's life. She's a successful
Speaker:Irish businesswoman who's held some high-flying roles in the
Speaker:tech industry, including SVP at
Speaker:Salesforce finance department, CFO at
Speaker:Jack Dorsey's Square. In addition, she even serves on
Speaker:boards of other tech companies, including Slack.
Speaker:Be sure to check out some of our previous Podbite episodes
Speaker:spotlighting Mr. Dorsey.
Speaker:Now, by the time Sarah became the CEO of Nextdoor in
Speaker:2018, which is a Silicon Valley company in
Speaker:California, she had already been exposed to multiple
Speaker:cultures and countries, including the United
Speaker:States, England, Northern Ireland,
Speaker:South Africa, and you guessed it,
Speaker:Ghana. Yes, Ghana. On
Speaker:Keep Connected with Meetup, a podcast run by the CEO
Speaker:of the platform meetup.com,
Speaker:Sarah reveals that her first internship was in Ghana
Speaker:on the back of studying at Oxford and Cambridge
Speaker:University. On the podcast, she says, and I
Speaker:quote, it was my first internship. It wasn't
Speaker:my first job. I was a waitress. I
Speaker:technically worked on the farm, then I was a waitress, but
Speaker:it was my real first job. I was
Speaker:still at university. It was an internship, not a
Speaker:full-time job, but it was scary. I went off to
Speaker:Ghana in a place called Obuasi in the middle
Speaker:of nowhere. The cockroaches were the size of
Speaker:elephants as far as I was concerned. I did
Speaker:go down that mine many times,
Speaker:although most of my work was on the surface because I was
Speaker:figuring out a process with my tutor back at Oxford
Speaker:on how to extract gold out of sulfide ones.
Speaker:You know, it's so easy to write off internships as not adding
Speaker:any form of value in someone's early career,
Speaker:but it can actually bring so many benefits that can really help to launch
Speaker:someone into a successful career, such as the one
Speaker:of Sarah Fryer. Now, Do you know about
Speaker:any wildly successful founders, CEOs, or even
Speaker:C-level executives that began their early career in Ghana?
Speaker:I would love to hear from you. Hit us up
Speaker:info@thesoundofaccra.com via email
Speaker:or visit the website www.thesoundofaccra.com and smash that contact us page.
Speaker:If you're on social media, feel free to drop
Speaker:us a message on Instagram or LinkedIn. Just look first at
Speaker:the sound of accra. I'm Adrian Daniels, and
Speaker:I'll catch you in the next episode of Pod Bites. Thank you for listening.