Jaishree Subramania

Jaishree Subramania is in Mobility Marketing at Cisco Systems and also the Program Chair at MIT/Stanford Venture Lab – VLAB. Jaishree spoke passionately about the importance of technology and networking and connecting in conversation to explore, communicate and articulate emerging technology and business trends. The hundreds of entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs and other technology professionals served each month benefit from the proactive management of passionate and dedicated volunteers leveraging crowdsourcing processes and inviting diversity and inclusion in the best way, while also focusing on the business angles around technology: from market opportunities and challenges to fundings and ROI and revenue models.

The heart of the VLAB mission is around actionable discovery, engagement of the best and brightest and most passionate, to create and facilitate market disruptions leveraging technology which drive continued innovation. Recent program topics attracting 350+ people include wearable devices, personal evolution through self-tracking, augmented reality, cyber security, as well as and upcoming topic will be around 3D printing.

As a mother, active community member, and hard-working employee at Cisco, Jaishree wanted to share the following thoughts on work-life balance:

• Choose work for which you feel passionate, not just a job that would pay the bills.
• Build your brand and reputation around being competent, passionate and effective.
• Build a network of support you can reach out to when work is most demanding, for when extensive traveling is involved, or just to be there and share stories, ideas and experiences.
• Accept that you will have to make tough decisions, but always know what is most important to you, and make decisions that respect your core values.
• Never sacrifice your health or happiness for your work.

In conclusion, Jaishree models for us that we can choose both life and work, and that we can make it work if we have the right mind-set, realistic expectations, clear goals and values, and a support network that can help us achieve whatever we set in front of us. Please join me in thanking Jaishree for sharing her time and wisdom with us!

For more information and to get involved, join a program pitch session held on the first Tuesdays at Wilson Sonsini, attend one of VLAB’s month events by registering through the web site, or visit http://www.vlab.org to find out more.