On Path | Kevin Chu: Products for the most sophisticated economic minds

Kevin is a Product Engineer at Bridgewater Associates, the world's largest hedge fund. We talk about his career and life path: serving as President of Columbia University's entrepreneurship student organization, co-founding a group to connect students of color with career-advancing opportunities, running 100+ hours of user interviews at a crypto startup, and how he landed his current position at Bridgewater.

Show Notes

Here are some relevant links from the conversation:

• Bridgewater Associates
• Ray Dalio
• Principles by Ray Dalio
• Young, Gifted, and Non-dominant
• CORE at Columbia
• ABRA, a cryptocurrency startup
• Richard Feynman
• Rachel Syme, a writer

Show notes:

• 1:29 100+ hours of user interviews
• 2:49 Interviewing a Bletchley park code breaker
• 4:11 How payments in the US differ from Europe
• 5:32 What is Bridgewater Associates?
• 7:09 The culture at Bridgewater
• 8:23 Discovering blind spots
• 14:42 Building product at Bridgewater
• 18:16 How Kevin landed his position
• 21:19 Growing up in Southern California
• 21:39 Kevin's love of reading
• 27:20 Kevin's first job working with city's Community and Parks Dept.
• 28:42 Co-founding Young, Gifted, and Non-Dominant
• 32:27 Serving as President of CORE at Columbia University
• 38:38 How Kevin plans to make future career decisions
• 40:25 "Seek out the counter-cultural. Live out your counter narrative. And dare to imagine better."
• 44:41 Kevin's perfect day

What is On Path ?

With the On Path podcast you'll hear the behind-the-scenes of what got professionals in the technology sector to where they are today. These are the career and life stories that aren't captured on a LinkedIn or web profile. The twists and turns. The inspirations and influences. Hosted by Vijay Viswanathan.