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).
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Tim Urban is the creator of Wait But Why, a blog with over half a million monthly subscribers. He writes about productivity, science, politics and the future.
Tim and Auren discuss some of Tim’s biggest ideas around technology, including cryonics, life extension, and artificial superintelligence. They break down Tim’s framework for understanding political polarization and Tim shares his unique perspective on tackling some of life’s biggest challenges, from beating procrastination to marrying the right person.
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 Tim on Twitter @waitbutwhy or on his blog Wait But Why.
RJ Pittman is the CEO of Matterport, a $1.2 billion market cap spatial data and 3D capture company.
RJ and Auren discuss the mechanics of bringing real estate, an “offline” asset class, into the 21st century. RJ talks about the company’s decision to launch a smartphone capture app and adopt a freemium model. He also shares some insight on entering an organization as a non-founder CEO.
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 RJ Pittman on Twitter @rjpittman.
Mark Penn is the CEO of Stagwell and a longtime pollster and strategic advisor. He’s a former senior executive at Microsoft and has advised politicians including Bill Clinton and Tony Blair.
Mark and Auren discuss Mark’s books Microtrends and Microtrends Squared, in which Mark identified minor demographic trends and predicted their outsized impact on society and the economy. Mark gets into the mechanics of good opinion polling and breaks down the major differences between political and consumer polling, and how internet polling is affecting the industry. They also discuss Stagwell and Mark’s digital-first strategy for disrupting the old-school advertising holding companies.
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 Mark at @Mark_Penn.
Christopher Ahlberg is the founder and CEO of Recorded Future, a cyberintelligence firm that sold for $780 million in 2019. He formerly co-founded the business intelligence software company Spotfire.
Christopher and Auren discuss the global cybercrime landscape, from emerging threats and ransomware gangs to international conflicts and the geopolitics of taking down hackers. They dive into how the US can improve its cyber defenses, both in the public and private spheres, and talk about the sprawling US security apparatus. They also discuss cyber operations in Ukraine and what we can expect from future conflicts.
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 Christopher on Twitter @cahlberg.
Terry Kawaja is the founder and CEO of Luma Partners, a media and technology investment bank. Terry has advised on over $300 billion in transactions, including some of the biggest deals in media, tech and advertising.
Auren and Terry discuss the changes in the markets over the last few months and what they expect from the M&A landscape in the near term. Terry shares his thoughts on the long-term outlook for consolidation in the media and advertising space and where he thinks the next most innovative companies will appear in adtech.
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 Terry on Twitter @tkawaja.
Sheila Heen is the Deputy Director of the Harvard Negotiation Project and the bestselling author of Difficult Conversations. She’s an internationally recognized negotiation coach and trainer.
Sheila and Auren discuss how to approach your toughest conversations, including best practices for opening a negotiation, defusing conversations that feel adversarial and giving and receiving better feedback. They also talk about the surprising similarities in tough conversations at work and at home, and how you can use negotiation strategies to throw a better dinner party.
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.
Cindy Cohn is the executive director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the largest digital rights organization in the world.
In this wide ranging conversation, Cindy and Auren touch on a number of topics across the tech space, including privacy on the Blockchain, interoperability and the politics around regulating big tech. They discuss the unintended consequences of privacy protections and what smart regulation should seek to accomplish.
Cindy brings a unique perspective to the debate around open access to data and discusses how to think critically about the power that data can unlock.
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.
Neal Katyal is a professor of National Security Law at Georgetown University, a partner at Hogan Lovells law firm, and the former Acting Solicitor General. He has argued 45 cases before the Supreme Court.
Neal and Auren look back on the Supreme Court’s most recent term and Neal brings some historical context to the court’s major decisions. They discuss the court’s new balance of power and Neal explains how Supreme Court lawyers can make arguments on the most complex legal issues in under 30 minutes.
They also talk about productivity, balancing multiple roles, and how to get the best people on your team.
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 Neal Katyal at @neal_katyal
David Epstein is the author of the New York Times bestsellers “Range” and “The Sports Gene”.
Auren and David discuss David’s latest book Range and his counterintuitive ideas about specialization and why generalists are so powerful. They talk about why the 10,000 hours rule is overrated, how specialists get so many major predictions wrong, and how to think about talent and interest in your own career.
David also discusses some of the intricacies of genetics in medicine and gives some non-obvious advice for healthy living.
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 at @DavidEpstein. You can also find David’s newsletter at https://davidepstein.bulletin.com/.
Rob Buxton is a partner at AGC Partners where he specializes in the DaaS and SaaS capital markets. Rob has completed over 300 financings and M&A transactions in his career.
Rob and Auren dive into the recent trends in the data-as-a-service (DaaS) sector. They break down the insights from Rob’s recent DaaS sector report and dig into what makes the great data companies great and the broader DaaS M&A landscape. Rob walks through the different types of data companies out there, their respective competitive advantages and TAMs, and how the recent downturn has impacted the DaaS space.
They also discuss when external data can benefit a company, what data readiness looks like, and why DaaS companies are so profitable at scale.
Rob’s DaaS sector report can be found here: https://www.blackpeakcapital.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/AGC-DaaS-Mar-2022.pdf
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 Rob Buxton on LinkedIn.
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