Nick Caldwell is passionate about inspiring people to get into technology. As chief product officer of Looker, he oversees the company’s product, engineering and design teams, and also serves as one of the public faces of the company. (And that face is all smiles — Looker was acquired in 2019 by Google for $2.6 billion!) What does life look like on the other side of such a big buy? Well you’ll just have to listen and find out!

Nick talked about how his dad’s Tandy 1000 sparked his love of programming, what it was like attending MIT and interning at NASA, and even went into his years at Microsoft and Reddit before joining Looker. From here, the conversation turned towards the state of the Valley, and how he sees opportunities out there from his point of view. Nick also shared what success looks like for him at this stage of his career, and talked about how he gives back to the next generation of Black technologists. It’s really an honor to share Nick’s story with you all!