Stay ConnectedNon-obvious ideas that move the world. Auren Hoffman hosts leaders across tech, business, markets, and government.
Summation is the permanent home for the relentlessly curious.
Auren is CEO of NQB8, GP at Flex Capital, Chairman of Dialog; former CEO of SafeGraph and LiveRamp (NYSE: RAMP).
Copyright: © 2024 "World of DaaS"
Baroness Dido Harding has held high-level leadership roles in the UK’s National Health Service and in the private sector, at companies like TalkTalk, Tesco, and Thomas Cook. She was executive chair of the NHS’s COVID-19 Test and Trace effort.
Dido and Auren break down what we’ve learned about data and public health during the pandemic. Dido explains how publicly accessible data helped leaders and the general public make decisions, and outlines what we should be doing to prepare for the next pandemic.
Auren and Dido also talk about running large organizations, staying productive, and what the public and private sectors have in common.
World of DaaS is brought to you by SafeGraph. For more episodes, visit safegraph.com/podcasts.
You can find Auren Hoffman on Twitter at @auren and Dido Harding on Twitter at @didoharding.
Oren Etzioni was the founding CEO of the Allen Institute for AI, or AI2. He’s founded multiple companies that had successful exits, and he’s a professor emeritus at the University of Washington.
Oren Etzioni and host Auren Hoffman discuss Oren’s criteria for artificial general intelligence and what signs he’s looking for to indicate that AGI is about to emerge. They talk about major issues in AI research right now, including the cost of compute, accessing data, and adversarial versus collaborative AI training methods.
Oren shares how AI2 has been able to spin out so many successful companies and how he's found the balance between running a research organization and a business.
World of DaaS is brought to you by SafeGraph. For more episodes, visit safegraph.com/podcasts.
You can find Auren Hoffman on Twitter at @auren and Oren Etzioni on Twitter at @etzioni
Vivek Ramaswamy is an entrepreneur, investor and author. He founded Roivant Sciences in 2014 and Strive Asset Management in 2021. He’s also the author of the bestselling books Woke Inc. and Nation of Victims.
Auren and Vivek discuss how CEOs and leaders should think about ideology in the workplace— both their own and their employees’. Vivek breaks down the history of the ESG movement and pulls back the veil on two companies that have massive, little-understood power over the public markets— proxy advisory services ISS and Glass Lewis.
Vivek also talks about what drives the pharmaceutical industry and what’s holding it back from greater innovation.
World of DaaS is brought to you by SafeGraph. For more episodes, visit safegraph.com/podcasts.
You can find Auren Hoffman on Twitter at @auren and Vivek Ramaswamy on Twitter at @VivekGRamaswamy
David is a co-founder and partner at Craft Ventures, one of the foremost SaaS VCs. He was the former COO at Paypal and he’s invested in over 20 unicorns, including AirBnB, Facebook, Palantir, Uber, and SpaceX.
David and Auren discuss the state of SaaS in 2023 and consider how layoffs, seat contraction, and the broader macro environment could affect the ecosystem this year. David shares some advice on how companies should be positioning themselves to weather the downturn. They also talk about bubbles and cycles in tech, how to spot stand-out founders early, and which analysts have the best record on foreign policy.
World of DaaS is brought to you by SafeGraph. For more episodes, visit safegraph.com/podcasts.
You can find Auren Hoffman on Twitter at @auren and David Sacks on Twitter at @DavidSacks
Bret Stephens is a foreign affairs columnist at the New York Times and author of America in Retreat: The New Isolationism and the Coming Global Disorder.
Auren and Bret discuss major takeaways from the war in Ukraine, and the US's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Bret offers predictions about the future of warfare and weaponry, and explains what the US will have to do to remain the preeminent global power through the next decade. They also discuss cancel culture, decadence, and environmentalism.
World of DaaS is brought to you by SafeGraph. For more episodes, visit safegraph.com/podcasts.
You can find Auren Hoffman on Twitter at @auren and Bret Stephens at the New York Times Opinion section. nytimes.com/column/bret-stephens
Thani Shamsi is the co-founder and CEO of Datarade, a Berlin-based data commerce platform.
Auren and Thani dive deep into the data market and discuss how it’s developed in comparison to SaaS. Thani shares his insights on how the most successful data companies drive sales and how expects the data space to evolve.
World of DaaS is brought to you by SafeGraph. For more episodes, visit safegraph.com/podcasts.
You can find Auren Hoffman on Twitter at @auren and Thani Shamsi on Twitter @ThaniShamsi.
Amit Bendov is a serial founder who’s scaled three unicorn software companies to massive exits. He’s currently the co-founder and CEO of Gong, an AI sales intelligence platform.
Auren and Amit discuss the best practices for B2B sales, based on data Gong has collected from over a billion sales conversations. Amit breaks down how winning strategies have changed in the challenging macro environment.
Auren and Amit also discuss the generational difference in startup founders and what’s made Israel the most startup-dense place on Earth.
World of DaaS is brought to you by SafeGraph. For more episodes, visit safegraph.com/podcasts.
You can find Auren Hoffman on Twitter at @auren and Amit Bendov on LinkedIn.
Eric Frank is the founder and CEO of LightBox, a GIS real estate data company. He’s also the creator of ADR.com and former president of the Investment & Advisory division at Thomson Reuters.
Eric brings his perspective from financial services to analyze data adoption in the commercial real estate space. He outlines some non-obvious effects of COVID on the market and breaks down where real estate tech is headed.
Eric and Auren also discuss building a business through acquisitions, and how Eric managed to integrate the different technology companies that make up LightBox today.
World of DaaS is brought to you by SafeGraph. For more episodes, visit safegraph.com/podcasts.
You can find Auren Hoffman on Twitter at @auren and Eric Frank on Twitter at @ericfrank.
Bryan Mistele is the founder and CEO of INRIX, a leading provider of traffic data and analytics.
Auren and Bryan discuss how vehicle technology is changing and when we can expect to see mass adoption of driverless cars in the US and around the world. Bryan breaks down which industries he expects will go autonomous first and how self-driving will affect total vehicle sales.
Auren and Bryan also discuss the intricacies of operating a global data company and what better safety data could do for transportation.
World of DaaS is brought to you by SafeGraph. For more episodes, visit safegraph.com/podcasts.
You can find Auren Hoffman on Twitter at @auren and Bryan on Twitter at @BryanMi.
Sarah Bond is Corporate Vice President of Xbox’s Game Creator Experience & Ecosystem at Microsoft.
Auren and Sarah discuss the future of gaming across platforms and where Sarah expects to see the most growth in the next few years. They break down the democratization of game development and what the growth of the creator economy could mean for the industry.
Sarah also shares insights on how Microsoft transformed its culture to become a hyper successful acquirer and how she helped lead T-Mobile through its historic turnaround.
World of DaaS is brought to you by SafeGraph. For more episodes, visit safegraph.com/podcasts.
You can find Auren Hoffman on Twitter at @auren and Sarah on Twitter at @BondSarah_Bond.
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