Episode 22: PhD and Entrepreneurship

Interview with: Two Young Entrepreneurs who got a PhD.  

Episode Guide

In this Episode: How do you discover that you are a good entrepreneur, or that you like it? Does a PhD make one a good entrepreneur? We talk to two young successful entrepreneurs – one in industry and one in academia. First is Soodeh Farokhi, entrepreneur and founder of successful startups in Iran and in Canada. She is currently VP at Nakisa. She grew up in Iran. Second is Fadel Adib who is a Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT. He grew up in Lebanon. This is a remix episode, featuring snippets of conversations from Season 1 of the podcast.

• mm.ss: Segment Info (Index)
• 00.48: Introduction to Episode
• Act 1: 01.48: The Entrepreneur Gene, and Discovering it
  • 01.58: Soodeh Farokhi, Entrepreneur in Iran and Canada
  • 08.37: Fadel Adib, Prof MIT
• Act 2: 09.57: What helps one be a good entrepreneur?
  • 09.57: Fadel Adib on: Should students doing research be entrepreneurial?
  • 17.48: Soodeh Farokhi on: Did a PhD help her be a more mature entrepreneur?

About the Narrators in this Episode

• Soodeh Farokhi (also, Episode 9)
• Fadel Adib (also, Episode 9)

Useful Links

• Britannica page on Middle East
• MENA (Middle East North Africa) Wikipedia Page
• World Atlas Page on Middle East
• Soodeh Farokhi’s Personal Blog

Season 2 Coming in February 2022!  
Stay tuned!

Previously on this Podcast

In case you missed it! Previously on the Immigrant Computer Scientists Podcast

• Several anonymous narrators, from across many continents. (Episode 15).
• Our interview with Danqi Chen, Gold Medal winner at IOI (Informatics Olympiad) in 2008 (only woman Gold medal winner), and student in famous Yao Class at Tsinghua University. (Episode 14).
• Our interview with Jelani Nelson, “immigrant” from US Virgin Islands and creator of AddisCoder program in Ethiopia (Episode 13), especially his last segment on IOI data inequity analysis.
• Our third segment (Episodes 9, 10, 11, 12) on Middle East, featuring entrepreneurs and a famous academic family from Iran, Lebanon, and Egypt , starting with the Middle East Entrepreneurs lead episode.
• Our second segment (Episodes 5, 6, 7, 8) featuring Computer Scientists from Brazil, all of whom spent careers in both academia and industry, going To and Fro between Brazil and US, and to and fro between academia and industry.
• Our first segment (Episodes 1, 2, 3, 4) featuring Computer Scientists from Yugoslavia, A Country That No Longer Exists?
• Check them out!

• Credits
  • Music Credits for Podcast
  • The caption picture at top of page is of two Purple Iris flowers in an Illinois home’s garden. Pic taken by Indy Gupta.

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