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Your Company Needs “Boring AI” to Avoid Becoming Obsolete, says Databricks Chief Ali Ghodsi Sep 12, 2019

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Many technology CEOs come from the nation’s top business schools, or emerge from Silicon Valley garages. Others come by way of Iran, Sweden and the University of California at Berkeley’s computer-science department. That’s Ali Ghodsi’s story, at least. Ghodsi is a PhD computer scientist who, with several others, is the original creator of Apache Spark open-source, unified analytics engine project. He and his co-founders later leveraged that project to create the data and analytics company Databricks, which now has more than 900 employees and $100 million in annual revenue. In this episode of Powered by Battery, Ghodsi talks about Databricks’ early days as well as the challenges that he, as an ex-academic, faced building up core corporate functions like sales, marketing, finance and HR. Have a listen.

It’s All About the Content: Marketing Tactics for “Category Creation” in Tech from Anthony Kennada Aug 16, 2019

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Do you run a technology company that doesn’t fit neatly into an existing tech category—say, CRM software, data analytics or collaboration tools? One that doesn’t get much analyst coverage (because analysts don’t know how to classify you) or attention from the press? Then congratulations: You might be creating a new category. In this episode of Powered by Battery, Anthony Kennada, currently a Battery executive in residence and the former CMO of software company Gainsight*, walks marketers through the best practices for creating a brand-new tech category. It’s what he did at Gainsight, which pioneered the category of “customer success” software to help businesses hang onto—and upsell—customers paying through a recurring subscription model.

The Doctor Is In: WebPT’s Nancy Ham Talks Healthcare-IT, Opioids and Diversity Aug 05, 2019

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Did you know that only ten percent of Americans who need physical therapy are actually getting it? Nancy Ham, the CEO of rehab-software company WebPT, knows it—and is busy scaling a large technology business to make sure more people get the care they need, efficiently and seamlessly. In this episode of Powered by Battery, we chat with Ham, a longtime healthcare-IT executive who joined WebPT in 2016. Ham reflects on why so few people are now getting the PT they need, and how more streamlined access to physical therapy could actually put a dent in the nation’s devastating opiod crisis. She also offers tips for other executives on how to manage M&A at the corporate level; how to build a unique and cohesive culture; and how having a more diverse management team and board can pay dividends, or at least change the tone in the boardroom. Have a listen.

Talking Tech Regulation, Privacy and Free Speech with “The Decider”, Nicole Wong Jul 26, 2019

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Big tech is under scrutiny like never before today, with government regulators grilling—and fining—large tech companies for not adequately protecting consumers’ privacy online. Nicole Wong, a former deputy general counsel at Google who later served as deputy CTO of the United States in the Obama administration, is uniquely positioned to weigh in on the topic. On this episode of Powered by Battery, we chat with Wong, whose team at Google dubbed her “The Decider” for her role evaluating controversial online content and making critical decisions about free expression on the Internet around the world, including on Google’s YouTube site. These days, Wong is consulting with other companies on issues such as privacy, security and big data. In our conversation here, she discusses topics including the impact of GDPR on tech companies in the U.S.; the ethical implications of facial-recognition technology; and Google’s reasons for deciding to do business in China, and later to pull out of the country.

Tales from Former Enterprise-Tech CEO, Max Schireson Jul 15, 2019

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On this episode of Powered by Battery, we chat with Max Schireson, a Battery executive-in-residence who previously served as the CEO of open-source database company MongoDB. After growing up in a tent in Canada (his parents were hippies), Max followed a fairly non-traditional path to the CEO suite. He also has some interesting stories to tell about working with Oracle founder Larry Ellison—including searching for the Oracle chief’s glasses in the Pacific Ocean. Max also discusses managing work-family balance, the future of artificial intelligence and the potential antitrust implications of some recent industry moves in cloud computing.

How Do You Solve a Problem Like the Calendar? Lessons in Office Productivity From Tim Campos Jun 27, 2019

Show notes

Tim Campos, the current CEO of intelligent-calendaring company Woven, has some big ideas about how to shake up the online calendar and bring it into the modern age. In this inaugural episode of Powered by Battery, Campos—the former CIO of Facebook—discusses how his experience at Facebook informed his decision to start Woven, one of many companies (like Slack and Airtable) trying to optimize specific elements of larger office-productivity suites. Current online-calendaring systems need a reboot because they are too dependent on email and aren’t “smart”, meaning they can’t learn from a users’ past meetings and other work habits, he argues. In this interview, Campos breaks down how artificial intelligence can make calendars better—but also talks about Facebook’s culture, the future of work and even some great office-themed movies from the 1980s, such as “Nine to Five” and “Working Girl”.

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