Talent's own sari and Kurt Geiger shoes.

Privahini Bradoo’s startup, Blue Oak, is doing the U.S. a huge favor. With a refinery centered in Arkansas, the company is tackling the growing problem of electronic waste, harvesting the valuable precious metals out of our old smartphones and TVs so we don’t need to mine those resources from the earth. Bradoo is Blue Oak’s founder and CEO. Born in India, raised in Oman and New Zealand, and schooled in Boston, she pulls from a variety of diverse life experiences to lead her company and make a positive impact in the world.

Bradoo stresses that she is not a “female startup founder.” She’s a founder. And, she’s intelligent, capable, and (perhaps most importantly) deeply passionate about and dedicated to her company. “It’s not that we’re women or not, or colored or not. It’s remembering that we have the ability to be whoever we want to be,” Bradoo said over the phone the day after her photoshoot (she’s constantly jetting between San Francisco and Arkansas). Bradoo had lots of wisdom to share about her life in science and startups.

You have a fascinating background, including a PhD in Neuroscience. What got you started on that path?

“I’ve always been very inquisitive about the way the world works, fascinated by scientific discovery and progress. I think there’s no more interesting field to explore that than the field of neuroscience. Understanding how the brain works is, well, completely mind-boggling. Through the course of my PhD, I was fortunate to be working on a really exciting project: We discovered a gene for brain repair.”

And what made you decide to get an MBA?

“Along my PhD, I met a few people who’ve become very close mentors. We started an initiative with a focus on promoting entrepreneurship in New Zealand. It was basically a not-for-profit seed fund, a house within the business school at the University of Auckland. The goal was to turn the first-class science that happens in New Zealand into world-class enterprises. Through that process, I realized that while I really loved science, what I enjoyed even more was taking cutting-edge science and technology and making it into something that benefited the world.”

What was your most important takeaway from business school?

“I remember our professor of leadership had a great quote. He said that being a true leader is having a fully rational understanding of all the obstacles that lie ahead of you, and a completely irrational belief in your ability to overcome them. That stuck with me. It’s not just a foolhardy, Yeah, I can get whatever I want. It’s: Yes, it’s hard, but if you’re fierce and fearless, your confidence in your ability will overtake the hurdles life throws at you.”

What’s it like living in Silicon Valley compared to New Zealand?

“It’s a very unique part of the world. There’s a confluence of incredible people who believe in their ability to change the world, and an ecosystem that allows it. I don’t think it exists anywhere else the same way it exists in the Bay Area.

“There’s a great quote from Ernest Rutherford that represents the New Zealand mindset: ‘We haven’t got the money, so we’ve got to think!’ You have to be exceptionally creative when you don’t have capital or financing. Every company I’ve seen in New Zealand, they’re kind of hacking it. That’s a commonality: In Silicon Valley it’s the hacker mentality in solving problems, and Kiwis are good at that as well.”