Donna Auguste: She Led The Newton Engineering Team Before Selling Her Startup for $147M

EPISODE OUT NOW

Today’s conversation is with Donna Auguste, PhD and I wanted to replay her episode from Series 2 because it’s actually Ada Lovelace Day today which is an international celebration of the achievements of women in STEM and Donna encompasses everything we are celebrating today. Listen here.

An incredible role model, Donna received a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Berkeley before becoming the first African-American (man or woman) to enter the PhD program at Carnegie Mellon where she researched Artificial Intelligence. 

She then went on to manage the Newton engineering team at Apple before building and selling her own software business for $147 million. This is incredible and all the more amazing when you learn the obstacles she had to overcome which we discuss today. Listen here.

But before we get into it, there is something I wanted to tell you about today’s sponsor. I am working with Ericsson to promote its Imagine Possible event next week in Santa Clara, which is in the centre of Silicon Valley. It takes place on Tuesday 18th and Wednesday 19th October and will be bringing together some extremely impressive innovators and thought leaders to discuss their vision for the future. From extended reality and the metaverse to the future of enterprise connectivity, Ericsson’s Imagine Possible event will showcase the power of this new world through lively conversations and real-world examples. Guest speakers will be from Microsoft, Nvidia, Niantic, Unity, Amazon, Google, the co-founder of Xbox and many more and, the best part? It’s completely free to attend. And if you can’t make it to California, you can view the best bits online which is what I will be doing. Register here.

Now, please join me in celebrating Ada Lovelace Day and enjoy my conversation with Donna Auguste. Listen here.

Headline photo by Doug Menuez in his book, Fearless Genius