Ep. 610 - FAN FAVORITE | Scale AI General Manager Melisa Tokmak - I Don't Want a Ladder, I Want an Elevator - Second in Command: The Chief Behind the Chief with Cameron Herold

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Ep. 610 - FAN FAVORITE | Scale AI General Manager Melisa Tokmak - I Don't Want a Ladder, I Want an Elevator

6th October 2026 • Second in Command: The Chief Behind the Chief with Cameron Herold • Second in Command with Cameron Herold

What does it take to go from Chief of Staff to running your own business unit before turning 30?

In this Fan Favorite episode, Cameron Herold sits down with Melisa Tokmak, former General Manager of Document AI at Scale AI and now founder of Netic, to revisit one of the show's most insightful conversations on building teams and leading fast.

Melisa's path is rare: a tiny village in Turkey, Stanford, Facebook, then right hand to Scale's CEO. She breaks down what a chief of staff really does, how she wins over senior candidates when she is younger than most, and why doing everything yourself is the hardest habit to break.

Whether you are building a team or chasing a bigger role, this conversation is a masterclass in taking the elevator. Listen now.

About the Guest

Melisa Tokmak is the founder of Netic. At the time of this recording, she was General Manager of Document AI at Scale AI, where she led a team of engineers, machine learning scientists, and product, operations, sales, and marketing talent building fine-tuned models for logistics, financial services, healthcare, and government. She joined Scale two years out of college as Chief of Staff to CEO Alexandr Wang, then founded the company's government unit, whose customers included the U.S. Army, the Defense Innovation Unit, and the U.S. Air Force.