The Tech Talks Daily Podcast

Latest Episodes:

3077: Wells Fargo on the Future of Venture Capital Nov 04, 2024

Is the tech world on the verge of a new Supercycle driven by AI, or is this another phase of venture capital hype?

In this episode, we’re joined by Rahul Baig, Head of Venture Capital & Growth Equity Coverage at Wells Fargo’s Technology Banking Group, to break down the dynamics reshaping the current tech VC landscape. Rahul offers a unique perspective on what’s captivating venture capitalists today and why the focus is shifting sharply towards AI-driven innovations.

As Rahul explains, the landscape for tech companies is changing dramatically. Software growth has slowed, and non-AI companies are finding it tougher to secure investments and gain traction. At the same time, unicorns outside of AI are experiencing funding dry spells, underscoring a rising trend in public markets that demands growth, profitability, and fair valuations. With increased standards for IPOs and heightened investor scrutiny, the bar for tech companies to go public has never been higher.

Beyond the focus on AI, Rahul highlights broader market forces, such as low volatility and rising equity markets, which are reinvigorating capital markets, albeit against a backdrop of geopolitical tensions and economic uncertainty. In an era moving away from “growth at all costs,” capital efficiency, strong fundamentals, and sustainable growth are becoming essential for tech firms looking to survive and thrive. This shift marks a “survival of the fittest” phase, where companies with strong value propositions and resilient business models are positioned to succeed.

For founders and entrepreneurs, Rahul offers a roadmap to resilience in a crowded and challenging market. He stresses the need to build solutions that address real-world needs, maintain rigorous financial discipline, and focus on sustainable growth. In an environment where liquidity remains scarce and market competition is fierce, mental and physical stamina are essential for success.

What does the future hold for tech VC, and how can companies prepare for long-term growth? Tune in for Rahul’s insights and join the conversation—what do you see as the defining trends in venture capital today?

3076: Bridging Creativity and Technology: How Anomaly is Transforming Brand Strategies Nov 03, 2024

How are brands adapting to an ever-evolving landscape of emerging technology, and what does it take to make innovation truly impactful?

In this episode, I explore these questions with Christopher Neff, the Global Head of Emerging Experience & Technology at Anomaly, a leader in pushing the boundaries of brand engagement through technology.

Christopher has been instrumental in launching groundbreaking initiatives at Anomaly, such as the Classify tech incubator, designed to help brands navigate the complex domains of GenAI, Web3, and spatial computing. From guiding luxury giants like LVMH and Diageo to co-developing the Creator Cache Web3 program with Ally Financial, Christopher’s work is reshaping the way brands leverage emerging tech to stay connected and relevant.

Christopher shares his unique approach to fostering creativity and learning within tech, emphasizing hands-on experimentation as a key strategy for breaking through hype and understanding genuine capabilities. He highlights how AI, when applied thoughtfully, can enhance creativity and productivity, whether it's generating custom logos or crafting original music.

His insights into tools like Runway for AI-driven animation illustrate how technology can bring imaginative ideas to life while allowing brands to move at a pace previously unachievable. He also addresses the power of metaverse platforms and gaming engines like Roblox and Fortnite, noting how these digital worlds are not just cultural phenomena but are creating new, immersive spaces for younger generations.

We also delve into Christopher's advisory roles, such as his work with Million Marker, which focuses on biological testing to tackle issues like plastic contamination. This ties into his belief that sustainability and ethical considerations are paramount for brands exploring new technologies. By discussing the balancing act of innovation with environmental consciousness, Christopher provides valuable perspective on how tech can evolve responsibly.

What are the biggest challenges and opportunities for brands in this rapidly advancing tech era? And how can they maintain a human-centered approach as they embrace automation and AI?

Tune in for an insightful conversation that challenges conventional thinking on creativity, sustainability, and the future of brand experiences.

Share your thoughts with us—how do you see emerging technology shaping the brand experience in years to come?

3075: NetLync’s EaaS and the Shift to eSIM-Only Phones Nov 02, 2024

Are telecom operators prepared for a future where connectivity is as seamless as it is sophisticated? In this episode, we speak with Emir Aboulhosn, CEO of NetLync, who has been instrumental in transforming how operators deliver mobile services through NetLync's pioneering Entitlements-as-a-Service (EaaS) model.

Emir shares the story behind this innovative platform, which debuted earlier this year and has quickly attracted over 100 operators worldwide. This service enables mobile network operators (MNOs) and mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) of all sizes to launch essential mobile features within weeks, slashing deployment times from traditional timelines that stretched to a year or more.

The conversation explores how NetLync’s solution is democratizing access to advanced connectivity features, allowing even smaller operators to compete with larger players. Emir discusses how EaaS is breaking down barriers in an industry traditionally dominated by OEM agreements, making technologies like eSIM Quick Transfer, VoLTE, and WiFi Calling accessible to a wider range of operators.

We also look into the upcoming global adoption of eSIM-only smartphones and how NetLync is positioning itself to support this shift, ensuring that operators are prepared to provide the seamless connectivity experiences customers demand.

As we unpack the broader implications of EaaS, Emir dives into NetLync’s self-onboarding, developer-focused approach and how this method is simplifying integration while setting a new standard for customer experience. What does the future hold for telecom operators as eSIM technology becomes the norm and entitlements technology continues to expand?

Tune in as Emir provides insights into NetLync’s vision for connectivity’s next frontier and shares valuable takeaways for an industry poised for transformation. How do you see this impacting the telecom landscape, and are operators truly ready for what’s next? Let us know your thoughts.

3074: Netwrix - Hybrid Security Trends Report Nov 01, 2024

What does it take for organizations to stay one step ahead of cyber threats in an increasingly digital world? In this episode, I sit down with Dirk Schrader, Field CISO EMEA and VP of Security Research at Netwrix, to explore the state of cybersecurity and the findings from Netwrix’s latest annual security report.

The conversation reveals a stark reality: 79% of organizations experienced a cyberattack in the past year, a rise from 68% in 2023, with ransomware remaining one of the most significant threats.

Dirk offers insights into what these trends mean for organizations today, especially as cloud-based infrastructure attacks are now matching on-premise incidents. He highlights how identity compromise has become the primary attack vector, particularly for privileged identities, underscoring the importance of identity and privilege management.

Throughout the episode, Dirk shares the protective measures organizations can adopt, from fostering a positive security culture that encourages reporting and proactive engagement to utilizing just-in-time privilege approaches and identity threat detection systems.

We also discuss the challenges and opportunities brought by remote work and the increasing reliance on cloud services, which demand a shift in traditional security practices. Dirk advocates for a flexible but resilient approach to cyber risk management, where understanding sector-specific needs and balancing regulatory compliance play crucial roles.

Lastly, we touch on the role of AI in the evolving cybersecurity landscape—both as a defense mechanism and as a potential tool for adversaries, especially with threats like deepfake voice calls and scalable persuasive phishing on the horizon.

Tune in to understand how Netwrix’s research and Dirk’s expertise can help your organization anticipate risks, fortify defenses, and foster a robust security strategy in an era where cyber resilience is paramount. What cybersecurity challenges have you faced in your organization, and what steps are you taking to address them? Let us know your thoughts.

3073: Future-Proofing Talent With Kelly Science, Engineering, Technology & Telecom Oct 31, 2024

How are organizations rethinking workforce strategies to stay flexible and innovative in today’s rapidly changing landscape? This episode features a conversation with Hugo Malan, President of Kelly Science, Engineering, Technology & Telecom, where he shares insights on the shifts shaping workforce management and driving industries forward.

With a background in electronic engineering and extensive executive experience, Hugo has been instrumental in Kelly’s strategic acquisitions of Softworld and Motion Recruitment Partners. These significant moves have strengthened Kelly’s capabilities in areas like secure government talent and specialized tech staffing, introducing new thinking to their approach.

Hugo discusses mixed labor strategies, blending full-time staff with temporary and project-based roles to create adaptable teams ready for evolving demands. He explains the benefits, including access to niche skills for short-term projects and the ability to adjust workforces effectively across economic cycles. Hugo also examines a recent shift in the temporary labor market, offering perspective on why the industry has seen reduced demand for temporary roles despite economic growth and what this trend may reveal about current business sentiment.

For mid-career tech professionals, Hugo offers guidance on staying competitive, from upskilling to leveraging AI-driven tools that streamline workflows.

3072: A CISO’s Guide to Mobile Security: Key Strategies from Jamf Oct 30, 2024

In this episode, we tackle a fresh perspective on a common cybersecurity question: What keeps a CISO awake at night?

According to Michael Covington, VP of Strategy at Jamf, the real issue isn’t about external threats but rather a lack of robust security processes, especially in mobile device management. Covington shares insights on how a well-thought-out strategy can let CISOs rest easy, with their minds at ease knowing that key areas, from cyber hygiene to compliance, are under control.

Our conversation dives into three primary areas that Covington believes are essential for keeping mobile device vulnerabilities at bay and ensuring secure integration within enterprise ecosystems. First, he highlights the often-overlooked importance of cyber hygiene. He notes that nearly 40% of mobile users operate devices with known vulnerabilities, a staggering figure that reveals the challenges organizations face in keeping devices up-to-date and correctly configured. Covington argues that regular updates, vigilant configuration management, and consistent patching practices are not just best practices—they’re fundamental in building a secure foundation.

Second, we explore the complexities of compliance, particularly when it comes to mobile devices. Covington points out that many organizations struggle to balance security regulations with the diverse landscape of personal and work devices. He suggests that the right tools can streamline compliance, ensuring that mobile devices align with broader corporate standards without creating unnecessary friction.

Lastly, Covington addresses the evolving nature of BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) policies and the intricacies of managing shared devices. Despite their long-standing presence, these device policies often present challenges, with many organizations lacking effective management strategies. Covington emphasizes the need for layered solutions that integrate into existing security frameworks without overwhelming IT teams or sacrificing the user experience.

Join us as we unpack Jamf’s approach to these challenges and discuss the future of mobile security in industries from healthcare to aviation. How can organizations prepare for the next wave of AI-driven data on mobile devices? And what steps can they take now to ensure seamless, secure access for users? Listen in and share your thoughts on the balance between security, compliance, and user enablement in today’s mobile-driven world.

3071: Privacy, Security, and Scale: How Push Protocol is Shaping Web3 Communication Oct 29, 2024

What does a truly decentralized communication network look like in Web3? Today’s episode explores this question with Push Protocol, a company establishing itself as “The Communication Protocol of Web3.” With over 237,000 subscribers and more than 700 integrations, Push Protocol enables secure, encrypted messaging, notifications, and video for wallet addresses across an open network, powering well-known platforms like Uniswap, Polygon, Arbitrum, and Lens, alongside integrations with MetaMask.

Our conversation with Harsh Rajat Founder, Push Protocol will unpack how the platform has grown to send over 110 billion notifications for Web3 activities, like DeFi transactions and ENS domains. Harsh discusses Push V3, an upcoming launch featuring wallet-free sharing, cross-chain compatibility, and omni-chain capabilities, making it even more adaptable across multiple blockchains.

We’ll also dive into Push Nodes—a new Proof of Stake Network designed to establish a decentralized, scalable communication blockchain. Harsh shares insights into the network’s unique capability to handle high-volume, real-time communication while supporting both EVM and non-EVM transaction payloads.

As privacy and security remain at the forefront of Push Protocol’s mission, end-to-end encryption is key in ensuring sensitive communications are safeguarded. Push Protocol is setting its sights on becoming the foundational communication layer for successful Web3 applications, placing user privacy at the center of decentralized communication.

Are we approaching a future where blockchain-based communication can offer both security and decentralization? Join us to hear Push Protocol’s vision and consider how it might transform the decentralized communication landscape. What role do you see secure communication playing in the future of Web3? Share your thoughts!

3070: BR-DGE Payment Orchestration: From Legacy Systems to Modern Fintech Oct 28, 2024

In a world increasingly dominated by digital transactions, businesses face the ever-growing challenge of navigating complex payment ecosystems. How can enterprises streamline their payment processes to ensure both customer satisfaction and operational efficiency? Today, we're exploring these questions and more with Tom Voaden, VP of Commercial at BR-DGE, who will shed light on their innovative white-label payment orchestration solution.

BR-DGE, a cutting-edge payment orchestration provider, has made significant strides with its modular, white-label platform designed to seamlessly integrate various payment services under one roof. This solution not only addresses the inefficiencies of legacy systems but also combats market fragmentation, enabling businesses to improve authorization rates and optimize payment processing through dynamic routing and tokenization. Founded in Edinburgh in 2018 and having expanded its footprint globally, BR-DGE is now setting new standards in payment technology by empowering clients with customizable tech stacks that enhance their competitive edge.

The conversation will delve into the specifics of BR-DGE’s offerings, such as BR-DGE Connect, which aggregates payment providers, methods, and fraud management tools, and their tokenization service that enhances transaction security. We will discuss how these services bridge the gap between traditional systems and modern fintech solutions, allowing providers to offer state-of-the-art features without overhauling their existing infrastructure. Additionally, Tom will highlight how BR-DGE's solutions foster better customer relationships through their flexible and scalable technology, facilitating businesses to expand internationally and solidify their market positions.

As BR-DGE continues to grow, exploring data-driven offerings to enrich their value proposition and planning further expansion into markets like Australia, we'll examine the strategic moves that position them as a leader in the payment sector. Their commitment to easing compliance burdens and enhancing merchant retention through innovative services demonstrates a forward-thinking approach to the future of financial transactions.

As we uncover the layers of payment orchestration and its impact on the global market, what are your thoughts on the future of payment technologies? How do you see these innovations influencing your daily business operations or customer interactions? Join the conversation and share your insights.

3069: Checkatrade and the Tech Transforming the £59B Home Services Market Oct 27, 2024

Can finding a tradesperson be as effortless as ordering a pizza? Today, we explore this question with Jambu Palaniappan, CEO of Checkatrade and former Uber executive, as he leads the digital transformation of the £59 billion UK home services industry. In this episode, Jambu shares his vision for bringing trust and efficiency to a sector that, while essential, has largely remained offline.

Since its founding in 1998, Checkatrade has built a reputation as a trusted platform for connecting homeowners with vetted tradespeople, addressing a critical need that emerged after a natural disaster highlighted the risk of rogue traders. Now, Jambu is focused on evolving Checkatrade from a traditional lead-generation platform into a comprehensive, end-to-end marketplace that simplifies every step of the home services journey—from finding a qualified tradesperson to payment and review. Imagine a world where scheduling, cost estimation, and invoicing are all streamlined on one platform, giving users peace of mind and tradespeople a business management toolkit that’s intuitive and effective.

Checkatrade’s digital roadmap includes innovations like a new consumer app, launched to enhance accessibility and engagement, and business tools that make quoting and invoicing seamless. But with rapid innovation comes the challenge of balancing trust and quality. Checkatrade’s rigorous 12-step vetting process remains central to its mission, and the company continues to reject potential members who don’t meet its standards—because, as Jambu puts it, “no one checks trades like Checkatrade.” Alongside technological advancements, Checkatrade is also addressing a shortage in skilled trades by partnering with over 500 schools to promote careers in the industry, making this digital transformation as inclusive as it is innovative.

In our conversation, Jambu reflects on lessons from his career, including insights from Uber’s rapid growth and his gratitude toward mentors who saw his potential. With new features on the horizon and plans to transform the home services market, what does the future hold for Checkatrade’s digital journey? And will this blend of innovation and trust reshape how we navigate home improvement? Share your thoughts with us after tuning in!

3068: SHEQONOMI’s Vision to Empower 5 Billion Women Across the Globe Oct 26, 2024

Have you ever thought about how a simple device, something as modest as a “dumb phone,” could bring transformative change to billions? In today’s episode, we're diving into this fascinating intersection of technology, accessibility, and social impact with Anu Bhardwaj, the visionary founder of SHEQONOMI.

As the world’s first and only women-led podcast platform aimed at the "bottom five billion," SHEQONOMI is making digital content and economic empowerment accessible to underserved women across the globe. From low-cost phones to inclusive content in over 50 languages, Anu's mission is to bridge the gender gap and bring education, health, and financial knowledge to women who traditionally lack access.

SHEQONOMI isn’t your typical podcast platform. It’s specifically designed to work on low-cost mobile applications such as Jio, Cloud Phone, KaiOS, Android, and iOS. Anu’s pioneering approach allows the platform to reach communities often left out of the digital revolution. Imagine being able to connect and educate through over 5,000 women-centric podcasts in diverse languages—empowering voices that span topics from health to entrepreneurship, all while rewarding users for content creation and listening.

Anu also brings a profound personal story of resilience and commitment. Inspired by her daughter’s questions about educational inequalities, she built this platform from scratch, even securing a prestigious $150,000 grant from the Islamic Development Bank during the pandemic. Her achievements don’t stop there: from co-chairing the Blockchain for Impact Summit at the United Nations to being named one of Inc Magazine’s Global Top 100 Female Founders, Anu has made it her mission to use technology to uplift women and drive positive change.

So, what’s next for SHEQONOMI? Anu is setting her sights on developing a "super app" for marginalized populations, integrating generative AI, and expanding partnerships to bring more voices into the conversation. Could this pioneering platform redefine digital inclusion for billions around the world? And as Anu continues to break new ground, who would she love to have a conversation with from the worlds of tech, venture capital, or social impact?

Tune in to discover how SHEQONOMI is reshaping the digital landscape for underserved communities, one podcast at a time. Would you agree that technology’s real power lies in its ability to unite and uplift? Let us know your thoughts!

3067: Unlocking the Power of AI Computing for Business with Dell and Intel Oct 25, 2024

Are you ready to explore how AI is transforming personal computing? In this episode, I am joined by Louise Quennell from Dell Technologies and Matt Hains from Intel as we discuss the exciting world of AI-powered PCs. With AI increasingly becoming integral to our devices, we uncover how these innovations are boosting productivity, creativity, and collaboration in ways that were once unimaginable.

AI's impact on business tasks is undeniable, from automating everyday tasks like drafting emails and taking meeting minutes to enhancing video calls with real-time translations and background blur. But it's time to think bigger. As organizations strive to remain competitive, AI PCs are not just an incremental improvement but a pivotal shift in how tasks are automated, data is processed, and security is handled. From healthcare to research and development, these devices are speeding up workflows, improving decision-making, and even personalizing the computing experience by keeping critical data secure on the device itself.

Matt and Louise provide a fascinating glimpse into the hardware that makes this possible, including Intel's Core Ultra processors, which offer a powerful blend of CPU, GPU, and NPU to accelerate AI workloads. Whether improving battery life, boosting processing speed, or enabling new AI-driven experiences, AI PCs are poised to become essential tools for the modern business environment.

How can businesses effectively adopt this technology, and where do they start? Before scaling up, we'll discuss establishing business personas and testing AI PCs in small, targeted areas. Lou and Matt also dive into Dell's sustainability efforts, showing how their AI PCs are designed with eco-friendliness in mind, from using recycled materials to minimizing energy consumption.

As we continue to witness the shift towards AI-enhanced hardware, it's clear that businesses must think strategically about their digital transformation. How will AI PCs fit into your organization's roadmap? And how will they unlock new levels of innovation and efficiency?

Tune in to hear more, and let us know how you envision AI PCs shaping your business's future.

Learn how to make more innovative tech investments today! https://intel.ly/3SwQxkT

3066: How Endava is Driving the Future of Automotive Digital Transformation Oct 24, 2024

What does the future of the automotive industry look like, and how are automakers rethinking their approach to meet evolving consumer demands? In today’s episode, I sit down with Justin Marcucci, Chief Digital Officer at Endava, to explore how the automotive world is navigating a transformative shift.

From direct-to-consumer models and subscription-based sales to the rise of electric vehicles and high-tech in-cabin experiences, Justin shares his insights into how automakers are reimagining the entire customer journey.

As more OEMs move toward owning their customer relationships through direct sales, they face challenges ranging from dealer resistance to complex logistics and regulatory hurdles.

Justin highlights both the potential cost savings and the roadblocks that are slowing this transition. We also dive into the growing importance of subscription services and how automakers can unlock new revenue streams by offering digital services beyond traditional hardware sales.

Another key focus of our conversation is the evolving expectations of today’s drivers, particularly younger generations. With a reduced emphasis on car ownership and a stronger interest in sustainable transportation and shared mobility, automakers are under pressure to adapt. Justin outlines strategies for engaging this shifting market and overcoming barriers, such as the slower-than-expected adoption of electric vehicles in some regions. Finally, we turn to the in-cabin experience, which is becoming a crucial differentiator for automakers.

Justin explains how advancements in AI and connectivity are shaping the future of in-vehicle interactions, and why it’s critical for OEMs to develop proprietary software platforms to ensure seamless integration and capitalize on monetization opportunities. How are automakers leveraging technology to stay competitive in this rapidly changing landscape?

Tune in as we discuss these trends and explore Endava’s role in helping the automotive industry navigate its digital transformation. Are you ready to rethink how we experience driving in the future? Let us know your thoughts after the episode!

3065: Securing AI Governance With Optiv: Ensuring Fairness Across Algorithms Oct 23, 2024

Are we truly harnessing the full potential of AI, or are we missing critical elements that could set us back? Join me as I explore a topic often overlooked yet vital for the ethical advancement of technology: AI bias.

On this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I’m joined by Jennifer Mahoney, Demand Delivery Manager of Data Governance, Privacy, and Protection at Optiv Security, Inc., who brings a wealth of knowledge on this subject.

Jennifer shares insights into the origins, manifestations, and impacts of AI bias, alongside strategies to mitigate its effects. She explains how biases in AI stem from human cognitive processes and societal stereotypes, influencing everything from facial recognition technologies to targeted advertising. We delve into various types of bias such as stereotyping, confirmation bias, and representation bias, examining the real-world repercussions that often remain unnoticed.

Jennifer also discusses the necessity of secure AI governance and the challenges organizations face in operationalizing security programs that integrate AI responsibly. From the pressures of rapid deployment to the need for diverse perspectives and thorough testing, she outlines what effective governance looks like in practice. Additionally, our conversation covers the evolving landscape of AI regulation, including the impact of the EU AI Act and the emergence of industry-specific guidelines.

As we navigate these complex issues, how can organizations balance innovation with ethical considerations to harness the full power of AI without falling prey to its pitfalls? What are the next steps for leaders looking to implement robust AI governance frameworks in their operations?

Join us as we explore these pressing questions and more, offering insights on creating a more equitable technological future.

3064: Beyond Automation: AI's Role in Enhancing Sales Productivity Oct 22, 2024

Could artificial intelligence be the secret ingredient to transforming sales performance management? Today, we're joined by Arnab Mishra, CEO of Xactly, to explore this intriguing possibility. Under Arnab's leadership, Xactly has pioneered the integration of generative AI into the sales process, offering organizations remarkable productivity enhancements and more streamlined operations.

Arnab brings a rich background in software executive leadership and a deep understanding of SaaS product development, making him uniquely positioned to speak on the revolutionary impact of AI in sales. With his extensive experience, including roles at Xactly as SVP of Products and later COO, Arnab has been at the forefront of driving growth and innovation within the company.

In this episode, we delve into the practicalities and potential of AI in redefining sales jobs and boosting overall sales productivity. Arnab will share insights on Xactly’s AI Copilot, which utilizes the largest empirical sales performance dataset to enhance decision-making and productivity in sales organizations. We'll discuss the current barriers to AI adoption in sales, such as the steep learning curve and the rapid pace of sales cycles, which often hinder the effective implementation of new technologies.

Moreover, Arnab will outline Xactly’s strategies for overcoming these challenges, including micro-trainings embedded within products to ease the learning process and streamline adoption. We'll also touch on the broader implications of AI in sales, from automating routine tasks to transforming customer interactions through personalized experiences.

As AI continues to evolve, its role in sales goes beyond merely increasing efficiency; it's about enhancing the quality of decisions and interactions. Join us as we uncover how Xactly’s innovations are not just changing the game but also setting the stage for a future where AI and human ingenuity work hand in hand for superior sales performance.

What do you think the future holds for AI in sales? After listening, share your thoughts and join the conversation below.

3063: From AI to Data Marketplaces: Peko Wan on What’s Next for Pundi X Oct 21, 2024

Have you ever wondered how developing countries are adapting to the rise of cryptocurrency? Or how AI is transforming the way we experience crypto payments in physical retail outlets? In today's episode of the Tech Talks Daily Podcast, I enjoy a conversation with Peko Wan, co-CEO of Pundi X, to explore these very questions.

Pundi X, celebrating its 7th anniversary, has been at the forefront of the crypto revolution, playing a pivotal role in making cryptocurrency accessible to merchants and consumers alike. From deploying their innovative POS solutions to solidifying partnerships with governments and retailers, Pundi X has consistently pushed the boundaries of what's possible in fintech.

Peko brings over 15 years of IT industry experience and a wealth of knowledge from her time at companies like Opera Software and Ogilvy & Mather. Together, we discuss how crypto payment adoption has evolved since 2017, particularly in developing countries, where currency devaluation and inflation are driving a bottom-up approach to adoption.

Peko also dives into how Pundi X is leveraging AI to enhance crypto payments, from managing liquidity pools to AI-driven mechanisms for anti-money laundering (AML) compliance.

As we explore the challenges and opportunities in the world of crypto payments, Peko shares insights into Pundi X’s upcoming initiatives, including a data marketplace platform launching this November. This initiative will empower users to contribute, annotate, and sell data for AI model training, creating new opportunities for innovation in the space.

How do you see AI reshaping the future of crypto payments? And will developing countries lead the charge in crypto adoption? Tune in, and don’t forget to share your thoughts!

3062: A Story of AI, Entrepreneurship, and the Future of Business Success Oct 20, 2024

What does it take to turn a life from near rock-bottom to extraordinary success? In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I sit down with Jeff Lerner, founder of ENTRE Institute, who shares his inspiring story of transformation. In 2008, Jeff was a struggling jazz musician with mounting debt, facing personal and professional challenges. Yet, in just a decade, he reinvented himself—building multiple 8-figure businesses, transforming his personal life, and founding ENTRE Institute, a platform designed to help others achieve “whole life” success.

We dive into Jeff's life philosophy, shaped by his unique 3 Ps framework—Physical, Personal, and Professional—which emphasizes the balance needed to create lasting success. ENTRE Institute has already enrolled over 250,000 students, combining entrepreneurship training with personal development to address the often-overlooked gaps in traditional business education. But how does Jeff see the future of entrepreneurship evolving, particularly with the integration of AI? He offers insight into how AI can revolutionize the entrepreneurial world, while stressing the importance of maintaining authenticity and personal value in a rapidly digitizing landscape.

This episode isn’t just about business—it’s about optimizing all aspects of life. Jeff discusses the power of disciplined focus, proactive decision-making, and aligning your actions with a higher purpose, while sharing practical advice for anyone looking to harness the transformative potential of AI. Whether you're an entrepreneur, freelancer, or employee, Jeff’s story offers both motivation and actionable strategies for achieving success across life’s domains.

Are you ready to unlock your potential? Tune in to hear Jeff's incredible journey and learn how to bring balance, purpose, and innovation into your own life. As always, we’d love to hear your thoughts—how are you leveraging AI in your work, and what life transformations are you aiming for?

3061: AI for All: How Lenovo is Tackling Bias and Accessibility in Tech Oct 19, 2024

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I’m joined by Ada Lopez, Senior Manager of Lenovo’s Product Diversity Office, recorded live at Lenovo Tech World in Seattle. Ada is on a mission to make AI more inclusive, accessible, and free of bias, and her passion for driving change through technology is truly inspiring.

We dive into the critical issue of AI bias and explore how algorithms, often unintentionally, reinforce gender, racial, and social biases. Ada breaks down real-world examples, from AI systems used in criminal justice to everyday applications like Google searches and loan approvals, illustrating how bias can creep into these systems. She also shares how Lenovo is actively working to mitigate AI bias through its product diversity office, ensuring that inclusivity and accessibility are built into the design process from the start.

Ada also sheds light on how Lenovo’s AI initiatives are making a tangible difference, including their partnership with the Scott Morgan Foundation to help ALS patients preserve their voices, and the creation of tactile markings on ThinkPads to support users with visual impairments. We also discuss the excitement within Lenovo’s development teams about building ethical AI systems and fostering empathy in product design.

This conversation is a must-listen for anyone interested in the future of AI, the challenges of ensuring fairness and accessibility in technology, and how major tech companies like Lenovo are leading the charge for responsible innovation. Join us as we explore the impact of AI on our lives today—and what’s next for the technology of tomorrow.

3060: AI Solutions with Purpose: Linda Yao on Lenovo’s Latest Innovations Oct 18, 2024

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I’m live from Lenovo Tech World in Seattle with Linda Yao, where my guest shares exclusive insights into what’s next for AI and how it will impact businesses and individuals alike.

We also delve into the live demonstrations at the event, including Lenovo’s collaboration with the Scott Morgan Foundation to help ALS patients communicate using AI. This powerful display underscores Lenovo’s commitment to using AI for social good, and Linda explains why these initiatives are at the forefront of Lenovo’s mission to create smarter AI for all.

Additionally, Linda reveals the challenges businesses face when implementing AI, especially when it comes to demonstrating ROI. She introduces Lenovo’s “AI Fast Start” program, which is designed to accelerate results for enterprises. We also discuss Lenovo’s hybrid AI portfolio and how businesses across industries are leveraging AI templates to transform their operations.

Join us as we explore the future of AI and how Lenovo is pushing the boundaries of technology, not only to solve complex business problems but also to make a meaningful difference in people’s lives. Whether you're a tech enthusiast or a business leader navigating the AI landscape, this episode is packed with insights and inspiration.

3059: How Lenovo is Leading the Charge in Hybrid AI Oct 17, 2024

In this episode, I enjoy a discussion with Qianying (Jane) Wang, VP, Lenovo Technology Committee Secretary-General, General Manager of Research’s Technical Strategy & Innovation Platform.

Recorded live at Lenovo Tech World, Jane shares her journey with Lenovo over the past decade, highlighting the rapid evolution of technology and the company's commitment to innovation.

With a focus on the theme of augmented intelligence, Jane explains how Lenovo is redefining the role of AI in personal computing. She emphasizes that AI is not just about artificial intelligence; it's about enhancing human potential and improving user experience. As the largest PC maker in the world, Lenovo aims to integrate AI seamlessly into home and enterprise PCs, helping users navigate the complexities of technology.

We also explore the concept of hybrid AI and its implications for user privacy, the cognitive overload many face in the digital age, and how AI can serve as a companion to manage information more efficiently. Jane delves into the exciting advancements in 3D experiences and how Lenovo’s innovations aim to bring these technologies closer to users.

Join us as we uncover the future of technology through Jane’s insights, and discover how Lenovo is poised to shape the landscape of AI and human interaction.

3058: The ROI of AI for the Enterprise: Insights from Lenovo Tech World Oct 16, 2024

In this episode, I explore the dynamic intersection of artificial intelligence and business strategy with Vlad Rozanovich, Senior Vice President of Lenovo's Infrastructure Solutions Group.

Recorded live at Lenovo Tech World, Vlad discusses Lenovo’s comprehensive AI-ready portfolio, designed to accelerate the adoption of hybrid AI solutions across enterprises.

He addresses a pressing concern for many organizations: the return on investment (ROI) of AI technologies. Vlad shares his experiences from engaging with over 110 CIOs and CTOs worldwide, shedding light on what businesses can expect when integrating AI into their operations.

We also discuss specific use cases, including customer service chatbots and code generation for IT, that showcase immediate benefits and efficiencies gained from AI applications.

This episode highlights Lenovo’s innovative approaches to data management and sustainability through advancements like liquid cooling technologies.

As the industry moves towards smarter, AI-driven solutions, this discussion serves as a crucial resource for business leaders aiming to navigate their AI journey effectively.

3057: Accenture: Reinventing With a Digital Core Oct 16, 2024

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I welcome back Andy Tay from Accenture to unpack insights from their latest report, "Reinventing with a Digital Core." As organizations strive to remain competitive in an increasingly digital landscape, Tay emphasizes the pivotal role of a robust digital core in driving sales and business performance. He outlines three fundamental tenets for companies aiming to build a strong, profitable, and innovative foundation: re-engineering systems for AI operations, tailoring digital advancements to specific needs, and balancing technical debt with future investments.

With the business world shifting towards AI readiness, Tay highlights how leading companies, which increase their strategic innovation investments by at least 6% annually, are positioned to redesign processes, launch new products, and expand into new markets. He explains that prioritizing digital core improvements can lead to automatic enhancements in other areas, simplifying the journey toward achieving a competitive edge in the market. Furthermore, Tay discusses the necessity of allocating approximately 15% of IT budgets to mitigate technical debt while ensuring that organizations maintain evergreen IT capabilities.

We discuss how a strong digital core can catalyze business reinvention, with top performers experiencing up to 20% higher revenue growth and 30% increased profitability. Tay also emphasizes the balanced approach needed for AI integration, urging companies to start small, scale rapidly, and prioritize responsible implementation.

Listeners will gain valuable insights into the integration of cloud infrastructure, data management, and cybersecurity as essential components of a modern digital core. Tay also touches on the future outlook for digital transformation, highlighting the importance of innovation culture, talent development, and ecosystem partnerships in driving continuous reinvention.

To explore more about these topics, you can access the full report here: Accenture's Reinventing with a Digital Core.

Join us for an enlightening discussion that not only provides a roadmap for digital transformation but also equips organizations with the strategies needed to thrive in a technology-driven world. What strategies do you believe are essential for businesses to achieve a successful digital core?

3056: Rethinking Tech Education in the AI Era with Pluralsight Oct 15, 2024

How can businesses bridge the growing tech skills gap and build a future-ready workforce? Today on Tech Talks Daily, I'm joined by Drew Firment, Cloud Strategist at Pluralsight, to explore how organizations can address this challenge head-on.

As technology evolves, the need for upskilling and continuous learning has never been more urgent. Drew shares insights from Pluralsight's 2024 Technical Research Report, revealing that while cloud computing and cybersecurity remain in high demand, many organizations are still struggling to provide the right skills to their teams.

Drew explains how Pluralsight’s platform is helping to close this gap through personalized learning paths, hands-on labs, and real-time feedback. With a focus on connecting individual skills to organizational outcomes, Drew highlights how companies can save up to £22,000 per employee by investing in upskilling rather than hiring new talent. We also discuss the shift in learning models, moving from knowledge retention to human intelligence skills like critical thinking and creative problem-solving—skills that will be crucial in an AI-driven world.

Additionally, Drew shares how organizations can create a culture of continuous learning, where employees are empowered to expand their skill sets, take non-linear career paths, and contribute to long-term digital transformation goals. From overcoming organizational inertia to fostering a sustainable learning culture, Drew provides practical advice for businesses looking to future-proof their workforce.

How can companies prioritize upskilling and create a more adaptable, innovative team? Join us for this insightful discussion, and let us know how you see the future of learning and development evolving.

3055: Exploring AI Innovation and Ethics at Adobe MAX Oct 14, 2024

What does it take to ensure that cutting-edge AI innovations are ethically sound? Today, live from Adobe MAX, I sit down with Grace Yee, Senior Director of Ethical Innovation at Adobe, to explore the intersection of ethics and AI in real-time.

As Adobe unveils its latest advancements at the event, Grace shares how the company's ethical AI program has evolved to meet the challenges posed by generative AI, including Adobe Firefly.

Grace has been spearheading Adobe's AI ethics program since its inception, and she offers exclusive insights into the global AI ethics governance structure she leads. This framework ensures that every AI feature Adobe develops—whether for creative tools or enterprise solutions—adheres to the company’s principles of accountability, responsibility, and transparency. She walks us through the ethics review process, explaining how Adobe evaluates AI products for risks like bias and stereotypes, and collaborates with product teams to ensure innovations align with ethical standards before launch.

Grace highlights the behind-the-scenes work her team does to support new products. From collaborating with native speakers on multilingual support for Adobe Firefly to running risk discovery exercises for high-risk features, her team ensures that innovation is always balanced with responsibility.

As AI becomes more integrated into everyday experiences, how can we continue to innovate while keeping ethics at the forefront? Grace’s perspective offers a window into how Adobe tackles this challenge head-on.

This week Adobe MAX will explore the future of AI, the role of ethics in tech innovation, and what it means for companies and creators alike. How do you think ethical frameworks will shape the next wave of AI development? Tune in and share your thoughts!

3054: Beyond Incentives: The Real Drivers of EV Adoption with EO Charging Oct 13, 2024

What connects a career rooted in the automotive world to leading research and development at one of the world’s fastest-growing EV charging companies? Today, Richard Earl, Director of R&D at EO Charging, reflects on his professional journey and discusses the challenges and opportunities within the rapidly evolving electric vehicle industry.

With a nod to Steve Jobs' famous words, "You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward," Richard takes us through how his experiences shaped his vision for the future of energy autonomy, where smart energy technologies are at the forefront of the EV revolution.

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, we’ll explore the world of electric vehicle charging from the perspective of a company that’s making waves on a global scale. Founded in 2014, EO Charging provides cutting-edge, end-to-end EV charging solutions to some of the world’s largest corporations, including Amazon, Tesco, and DHL. Richard shares insights into how EO is tackling the complexities of electrification, from managing corporate fleets to addressing emerging consumer concerns like "charge anxiety."

We’ll dive into the UK government’s 2035 zero-emission mandate and the significant hurdles still faced, such as the lack of incentives and clarity that could hamper mass EV adoption. Richard emphasizes that while government policies may be inconsistent, businesses are moving forward with electrification due to its clear financial and environmental benefits. He also highlights the role of new technologies, such as the ISO 15118 protocol and smart charging innovations, that are set to transform not just EV performance but also the charging experience itself.

How does a company like EO Charging help organizations achieve their net-zero targets? And what is needed from governments to align policy with the ambitions of a greener future? Join us as Richard Earl explains how EO Charging is creating a new ecosystem of energy autonomy and what lies ahead for the EV industry.

As we connect the dots between the present and the future of EVs, what role do you think governments should play in supporting the transition? Let us know your thoughts!

3053: The Future of Electronics Supply Chains: Challenges and Innovations Oct 12, 2024

In this episode, I sit down with Richard Barnett, Chief Marketing Officer at Supplyframe, a leader in Design-to-Source Intelligence for the global electronics value chain. Richard brings decades of expertise in semiconductor supply chains and shares insights on the challenges and strategies the industry needs to adopt to build greater resilience. The global semiconductor shortage has had a massive impact across industries, with losses estimated in the hundreds of billions of dollars.

Richard discusses the root causes behind these shortages, the complexities of multi-tier supply chains, and how product complexity, especially in sectors like automotive, exacerbates the issue.

We also delve into Supplyframe’s latest innovation—its Electronics Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) offering. This resource is the first of its kind, giving global manufacturers access to carbon footprint data for over 300 million electronic parts. Richard explains how this tool is designed to help companies meet evolving regulatory requirements and improve sustainability in product design and sourcing decisions. As the electronics industry grapples with the challenges of integrating sustainability into supply chains, this new capability is set to play a key role in aligning efficiency, cost optimization, and environmental responsibility.

Throughout our conversation, Richard touches on broader industry trends, including the growing role of AI in supply chain management. He emphasizes that AI is already transforming supply chain optimization by providing real-time insights, but the industry still needs to focus on practical outcomes rather than just hype. Finally, we explore what the future holds for global supply chains as new pressures, both geopolitical and financial, create a more uncertain landscape.

How can companies future-proof their operations and drive real change in their supply chain strategies? Tune in to find out!

3052: How Hedy is Transforming How Kids Learn to Code Oct 11, 2024

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I explore how Felienne Hermans, creator of the Hedy platform, is reshaping programming education for the next generation. Hedy is an open-source, free platform designed to help children aged 10 and above learn textual programming across multiple languages. With an impressive 500,000 monthly users and translations into 49 languages—including Chinese, Arabic, and Spanish—Hedy is not only accessible but also adaptable to diverse learning environments.

Felienne, a professor of computer science education at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and a high-school teacher in the Codasium program, brings a unique perspective on how we need to radically rethink programming education. She shares the inspiration behind Hedy’s development, highlighting how the platform breaks away from traditional teaching models by offering step-by-step, relatable exercises that engage students in a meaningful way. From stories and drawings to music, Hedy’s approach goes far beyond the typical abstract exercises found in traditional programming lessons.

Felienne also dives into the important role that native languages and culture play in fostering stronger connections between young learners and programming. By allowing students to code in their native languages, Hedy is promoting inclusivity and engagement, making technology feel more relevant and attainable. In this conversation, we explore why it's crucial for parents and educators to introduce children to coding early, and how tools like Hedy can help them do so in a way that's both enjoyable and effective.

Felienne also shares her top tips for teaching children to code, offering insights from her own journey as both an educator and a developer. We discuss how to cultivate curiosity in young learners, why programming skills are essential for the future workforce, and how platforms like Hedy are preparing students for the future of technology.

What do you think the future holds for programming education? Could tools like Hedy spark a global movement in coding literacy? Listen in and share your thoughts!

3051: Data-Driven Innovation: Cloudera on AI and Leadership in Modern Tech Oct 10, 2024

What does it take to lead Data and AI initiatives in today’s fast-paced tech landscape while balancing entrepreneurial ventures? In this episode of the Tech Talks Daily Podcast, I am joined by Suri Nuthalapati, Technical Leader at Cloudera Inc and a member of both the Forbes Technology Council and Entrepreneur Leadership Network.

Suri shares his fascinating career journey, from moving to the United States from India for his Master’s in Computer Science to founding startups and leading transformative projects at major corporations. With a rich background that spans positions at FedEx and Charter Communications, and now as a driving force at Cloudera, Suri brings a unique perspective on the intersection of technology, innovation, and entrepreneurship. He discusses how his ventures — such as Farmioc, an agriculture data platform aimed at empowering the Indian agriculture sector, and Trida Labs, a cloud-native SQL editor for data teams — have shaped his approach to leadership, adaptability, and fostering innovation.

In his current role at Cloudera, Suri leads the Data and AI practice in the Americas, where he helps enterprises fast-track their adoption of data-driven solutions. We explore key trends such as hybrid and multi-cloud architectures, Generative AI, and modern data architectures like Data Lakehouse, Data Mesh, and Data Fabric.

Through Suri’s guidance, organizations are navigating these advancements to accelerate their digital transformations. Tune in as we dive deep into how Suri has successfully balanced corporate roles with his entrepreneurial ambitions and the lessons he’s learned along the way.

How are Data and AI reshaping industries, and what strategies should enterprises adopt to stay ahead? Have you witnessed Data and AI shaping your industry? How do you see future developments influencing business transformations? Share your thoughts!

3050: Kong - Harnessing the Power of APIs in a Data-Centric World Oct 09, 2024

In today's episode, we're joined by Marco Palladino, CTO and co-founder of Kong, Inc., a company that’s at the forefront of revolutionizing how businesses interact with data and services through APIs.

With a staggering annual recurring revenue surpassing $100 million, Kong provides essential API technologies to Fortune 500 companies and millions of programmers globally. Their groundbreaking AI Gateway is enabling organizations to harness a wide range of AI services that are becoming crucial for modern operations.

At just 19, Marco and CEO Augusto Marietti started Kong with backing from tech luminaries like Jeff Bezos, Eric Schmidt, and venture firm Andreessen Horowitz. They convinced Bezos of the potential of APIs, influencing Amazon's pivotal shift towards cloud-based microservices, setting a course for the company to become a dominant force in the cloud services sector.

In our conversation, we delve into the origin story of Kong and explore the evolution and significant impact of APIs in today's digital ecosystem. APIs are not just technical tools; they are the lifelines that connect us to the digital world—from AI to cryptocurrency and beyond.

We'll discuss the critical role APIs play in our increasingly data-centric environment and how they are poised to shape the future as we steer towards more AI-driven processes.

Listeners, you’re invited to join the discussion and learn more about how APIs are not merely facilitating digital transformation but are essential building blocks for the technology of tomorrow. For those eager to dive deeper into Marco’s insights or learn more about Kong, Inc.'s innovations, visit Kong's website and follow their journey towards making API technology more accessible and impactful for businesses around the globe.

What are your thoughts on the future of APIs in our tech-driven world? How do you see APIs evolving with the advancements in AI? Share your views with us!

3049: Strengthening Cyber Defenses: Delinea’s New Chapter in Identity Management Oct 08, 2024

How do businesses protect themselves in an increasingly digital world where cyber threats evolve as quickly as the technologies designed to combat them? In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, we welcome Art Gilliland, CEO of Delinea, a leader in Privileged Access Management (PAM).

Art joins us to discuss Delinea's strategic moves in the fast-paced cybersecurity landscape, including their recent acquisitions of Fastpath and Authomize, and the broader trend of market consolidation amid economic pressures.

Under Art's leadership, Delinea has enhanced its capabilities in cloud and SaaS identity management, reflecting a commitment to addressing sophisticated cyber threats and improving organizational cyber defenses.

Art will share insights on the necessity of identity security as the cornerstone of cyber defense strategies, especially critical as businesses increasingly adopt cloud technologies and face AI-powered threats.

This conversation will also delve into the human aspect of M&A in the tech sector—how Delinea manages to integrate new acquisitions successfully within a matter of months and the role of executive leadership in these processes.

Art's perspective on the ongoing consolidation in the cybersecurity industry highlights the push towards creating more comprehensive, efficient security platforms that reduce both complexity and costs for organizations.

Art outlines the future of identity security, focusing on enhancing authorization capabilities and leveraging AI to automate threat response and decision-making. This discussion is not only about the technology but also about the strategic and human considerations that ensure these tools effectively secure and support the enterprises they are designed to protect.

What challenges and opportunities do you see in the integration of new technologies and companies in the cybersecurity sector? Join the conversation and share your thoughts on how businesses can navigate these complex but essential advancements.

3048: The AI PC Revolution: Intel's Vision for Smarter Workplaces Oct 07, 2024

Are you curious about how the latest AI advancements are redefining business technology? Bradley Jenkins, Intel's EMEA lead for AI PC and ISV strategies, joins me in discussing the rise of AI PCs, a game-changing technology revolutionizing the workplace with enhanced computing power designed specifically for AI workloads.

Intel's AI PCs aren't your typical machines; they come equipped with three AI compute engines: the CPU, GPU, and NPU, each optimized to handle different types of AI tasks. This architecture allows businesses to benefit from improved productivity and enhanced security for longer device lifespans.

Bradley sheds light on how Intel's AI PC, powered by the Intel Core Ultra processor, enables modern businesses to handle AI-enhanced applications seamlessly, transforming how tasks like content creation, voice-to-text, and security analytics are managed. We also touch on Intel's vPro platform, a curated suite of essential technologies built for the unique needs of business IT, offering solutions across performance, security, manageability, and stability.

Bradley also explains how Intel's software ecosystem, developer support, and AI PC Acceleration Program are vital differentiators, empowering businesses to leverage AI more effectively. We'll explore real-world applications of AI PCs, including the innovative use of Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) to retain institutional knowledge and how these PCs can supercharge multitasking during collaboration calls without missing a beat.

Whether you're an IT professional or a business leader seeking to understand how AI PCs can reshape your organization, this episode thoroughly examines the practical benefits and future potential of Intel's AI-powered computing.

So, how will AI PCs change the way we work? Tune in to find out, and share your thoughts after listening!

🔗 Listen to the full interview to learn more about Intel's AI PCs and what makes them stand out from other devices.

Are you ready to boost your productivity? Learn more about how Intel's AI PCs with Intel vPro are built for business https://intel.ly/3SwQxkT

3047: The Future of Healthcare IT: Humanizing Data with AI at Notable Systems Oct 06, 2024

What if AI could transform the way healthcare documents are processed, reducing manual effort and increasing efficiency? In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I’m joined by Steve Johnson, CEO of Notable Systems, to discuss how his company is harnessing the power of AI to revolutionize healthcare IT. We dive into how Notable Systems' AI-based platform is reshaping the way health data is input, accessed, and processed, helping to humanize and simplify healthcare workflows.

Steve explains how Notable Systems was founded with the goal of liberating human potential through automated document processing, taking tedious tasks like data entry out of the equation.

With AI-driven solutions, the platform is designed to enhance accuracy, reduce the time spent on documentation, and ultimately lead to happier patients and more efficient healthcare providers. By integrating machine learning, natural language processing, and custom algorithms, Notable Systems is tackling some of the most pressing challenges in healthcare administration.

The company recently secured $8.8 million in Series A funding, which will help them expand their team and further develop their capabilities to meet the growing demand for their services. Steve shares the journey behind Notable’s growth, the lessons learned from working with their early anchor customers, and their ambitious plans for the future.

From speeding up patient orders to reducing insurance claim denials, Notable Systems is at the forefront of changing how healthcare organizations operate.

We also explore the balance between AI and human oversight, as Steve reveals how Notable’s technology provides AI confidence levels to guide human review, ensuring accuracy while maintaining speed and efficiency.

Where do you think AI will have the biggest impact in healthcare over the next few years? Could automated systems like Notable’s reshape the patient experience for the better? Share your thoughts, and let’s continue the conversation.

3046: Redefining Risk Management in the Age of AI and Finance Oct 05, 2024

In this episode of the Tech Talks Daily Podcast, we are joined by Sean Adler, CEO of SWN, to dive into the intriguing world of quantitative finance and alternative financial data. SWN, formerly on the market for $13M before its latest product release, has reshaped the landscape of quant investment by rescaling a quant fund into a highly accessible streamable and downloadable product.

Sean unpacks complex topics like smart beta, factor investing, and quantitative finance, making these sophisticated strategies relatable for listeners. He explains the practical applications of these financial tools, emphasizing the importance of not relying solely on backtesting and how a balanced approach with AI in the financial markets can offer both significant opportunities and challenges. From risk management to derivatives and staying ahead in a competitive landscape, Sean shares his deep insights from years of experience.

We also touch on the secondary market, drawing from Sean's article on Forbes, where he explains the nuances of private equity valuations, alternative trading systems, and the often-overlooked dynamics of secondary liquidity in late-seed startups. The conversation is peppered with his unique perspective, blending elements of corporate strategy with real-world advice for founders navigating the evolving fintech space.

If you're curious about the mechanics of financial markets, the role of alternative data, and the future of fintech, this episode offers a rare behind-the-scenes look into a rapidly changing industry. Plus, with Sean’s storytelling flair and a nod to his love for Guy Ritchie films, there’s no shortage of engaging analogies and thought-provoking insights.

3045: EtherMail and the Web3 Revolution: Anonymous, Encrypted, and Decentralized Oct 04, 2024

How will the rise of Web3 reshape the way we communicate? In today's episode, I’m joined by Shant Kevonian, co-founder of EtherMail, to explore the fascinating intersection of blockchain technology and email communication.

EtherMail, founded in late 2021, has quickly emerged as a leading player in this space, providing anonymous and encrypted wallet-to-wallet communication. Imagine the power of Gmail, MailChimp, and Metamask all combined into a secure, decentralized platform—that’s EtherMail.

Shant shares the origin story of EtherMail and the vision behind creating the first Web 3.0 email solution. We discuss the significant milestones the company has achieved, including raising $3 million in a seed round led by top Web3 investors like Fabric Ventures and Greenfield One.

I learn more about EtherMail’s mission as Shant offers insights on how the platform is creating a new framework for email economics and consensual marketing, helping Web3 companies deliver blockchain-synced, relevant content to their asset holders.

We also explore the recent launch of EtherMail’s native utility token, EMT, and its critical role in their Advertising Platform. Shant explains how EtherMail's Email-as-a-Wallet (EaaW) solution is bridging the gap between Web2 and Web3, allowing users to create non-custodial wallets via Gmail or Apple accounts in under a minute.

Throughout the conversation, Shant shares valuable advice for aspiring Web3 entrepreneurs and the importance of strategic partnerships, including EtherMail’s backing from investors like Tim Draper. Tune in to learn more about how EtherMail is shaping the future of decentralized communication and what’s next for this innovative platform.

3044: AI in Boardroom Conversations and IT Strategies For 2025 Oct 03, 2024

In today's fast-paced tech world, how can businesses stay ahead while overcoming the challenges of digital transformation? In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I speak with Dave Donatelli from Riverbed, a technology leader with deep industry expertise. We discuss the importance of attracting top talent to the C-suite, the AI conversations happening in boardrooms, and the critical priorities that CIOs need to address in 2024.

Dave also shares insights on Riverbed's newest platform and solutions, which harness AI automation and full-fidelity data to reveal hidden gaps in visibility and enhance digital experiences. We'll explore how Unified Observability helps IT teams overcome pressing challenges, particularly with public clouds, remote work, and enterprise mobile devices. Dave explains the value of open platforms and how organizations can implement scalable AI solutions to improve performance.

Curious about how Unified Observability and AI are reshaping IT strategies? Tune in to discover how Riverbed empowers organizations to elevate their digital experiences. What are your thoughts on these emerging trends? Join the conversation and share your insights.

3043: Transforming Biotech R&D with AI and Cloud: Benchling’s Mission to Accelerate Discovery Oct 02, 2024

In this episode of The Tech Talks Daily Podcast, we explore the intersection of AI and cloud technology in the biotech industry with Stephen Deasy, CTO of Benchling.

Benchling is empowering scientists across the globe with a unified platform that supports faster, more efficient research and development, aiming to unlock the full potential of biotechnology.

Stephen discusses how AI is transforming drug discovery through specialized models like AlphaFold and BioNemo, while also warning that without updates to development, testing, and manufacturing, we may face challenges in keeping pace with AI-driven breakthroughs. He emphasizes that modern science needs modern technology to fully capitalize on these innovations.

We also examine how cloud technology is revolutionizing R&D in biotech, allowing companies to innovate rapidly, scale effectively, and focus on core research without getting bogged down in infrastructure management. Stephen shares how Benchling has helped organizations like Sanofi streamline their operations by consolidating legacy systems and creating high-quality, accessible data structures that maximize the impact of AI.

Stephen also highlights ongoing challenges, such as data quality and accessibility, and offers insights into how organizations can successfully integrate AI into their research. He provides valuable advice on fostering cross-functional collaboration, improving onboarding, and ensuring data readiness as key steps to maximizing the potential of AI in biotech.

How can the biotech industry ensure that the speed and scale of AI-driven drug discovery translate into real-world success? Join the discussion, and let us know your thoughts.

3042: AI Governance and Risk Management Insights from Securiti AI Oct 01, 2024

In this episode of the Tech Talks Daily Podcast, we're exploring the complex, high-stakes world of AI governance, risk management, and data security with Jack Berkowitz, Chief Data Officer at Securiti AI. Jack brings over 30 years of experience in the data field, having worked with top Fortune 500 companies like ADP and Oracle. Today, he’s leading innovation at Securiti AI, a company that has become synonymous with secure data and AI systems, and is recognized for its Data+AI Command Center.

The conversation begins with the critical challenges facing today's C-Suite. Executives are tasked with navigating the risks and opportunities presented by artificial intelligence while ensuring robust security frameworks are in place. Jack will discuss how CISOs and other executives can strike the right balance between leveraging AI for innovation and safeguarding against ever-evolving cyber threats like data poisoning and model theft. He will explain the steps that companies should take to secure their AI and data ecosystems, focusing on a framework that’s not just reactive but proactive in identifying risks before they become costly problems.

Listeners will learn about proven strategies for implementing AI governance, as Jack shares real-world examples from his discussions with clients. He’ll also provide insights into how Securiti AI’s platform is giving companies visibility into their data flows and equipping security teams with tools to manage compliance, privacy, and security across systems like SharePoint and Office 365.

Are traditional security frameworks adequate in this fast-paced AI era? What can CISOs do to ensure their AI systems remain transparent, trusted, and secure, all while complying with an increasingly complex web of regulations? Join us as Jack Berkowitz answers these questions.

3041: The Human Element: SHL's Take on AI in Recruitment Sep 30, 2024

In the latest episode of Tech Talks Daily, I bring you an insightful conversation with Andy Bradshaw, CEO of SHL, the global leader in HR technology and psychometric science.

As AI continues to reshape the workforce in 2024, Andy's expertise couldn't be more timely or relevant. With over 25 years of experience in technology and service businesses, including renowned companies like Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, and Sophos, Andy brings a unique perspective to the table. His passion for leveraging human insights to enhance business and individual performance shines through in this engaging discussion.

The episode kicks off with Andy explaining SHL's remarkable transformation into a talent intelligence powerhouse. He reveals how the company now leverages an astounding 45 billion data points across 150 countries to provide unparalleled workforce insights.

As the conversation unfolds, Andy delves into the critical importance of early career recruitment in today's global talent shortage. He offers valuable strategies for tackling this challenge, emphasizing the need for organizations to recognize recruitment as a two-way process and focus on potential and motivation rather than just specific job skills.

One of the most fascinating segments of the interview explores the power of internal mobility in solving critical talent problems. Andy shares eye-opening statistics on the increased filling of internal roles post-pandemic and discusses the numerous benefits this approach brings to both employers and employees.

The discussion then shifts to a fresh perspective on hiring tech talent, with Andy advocating for looking beyond skills to focus on durable "soft" or "human" skills. He introduces SHL's identification of 11 key human skills for early career success, explaining how this approach allows for future job flexibility and can help reduce salary inflation for niche skills.

Andy talks about how organizations are moving from talk to action, setting concrete targets, and using independent data sources to reduce bias in hiring and talent management processes.

The conversation concludes with an exploration of AI's role in recruitment. Andy outlines how SHL integrates AI into assessment products, candidate experience, and big data interpretation while emphasizing the importance of transparent and ethical AI use.

3040: From Weeks to Hours: How Zest Security is Redefining Cloud Security Sep 29, 2024

Have you ever wondered what it takes to transform cloud security? In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, we explore the intricacies of cloud security with Snir Ben Shimol, the CEO and co-founder of Zest Security.

Snir’s journey is nothing short of extraordinary—an Israeli intelligence alumnus with over 15 years of experience in security research and product management, he’s deeply familiar with the challenges of cybersecurity. Having already built a successful company that was acquired by Palo Alto Networks, Snir couldn’t stay away from the field for long. His latest venture, Zest Security, is designed to address the most pressing cloud security challenges businesses face today.

Zest Security was born out of Snir’s and his co-founder Uri Aronovici’s firsthand frustrations with cloud risk remediation processes. Both ex-Israeli Intelligence officers, Snir and Uri have a combined experience of over 25 years in cloud, product, and application security. Their deep understanding of security issues has fueled their mission to drastically reduce the time it takes to remediate cloud security vulnerabilities—from weeks to mere hours.

What sets Zest apart is its seamless integration with existing tools and DevOps workflows, automating and simplifying the remediation process.

During our conversation, Snir shares how Zest Security’s platform is redefining how organizations tackle cloud security vulnerabilities. We explore how their solution connects with cloud environments and security products to offer both immediate mitigation and long-term remediation.

We also discuss the current challenges in cloud security, including the startling statistic that only about 50% of identified security issues get fixed due to various constraints. Snir’s vision is to make resolution platforms a standard component of cloud security, sitting alongside tools like CSPM and EDR.

This episode is packed with insights into the future of cloud security, the role of AI and automation in vulnerability management, and how customer feedback is shaping the evolution of Zest Security’s platform. As businesses increasingly rely on cloud services, Snir’s expertise offers a valuable perspective on how to stay ahead of the ever-evolving threats in cybersecurity.

How can organizations better protect themselves in this digital age, and what role will platforms like Zest play in this journey? Tune in to find out, and don’t forget to share your thoughts on this transformative approach to cloud security.

3039: Unlocking Ocean Secrets: How Geo-Data is Shaping Climate Solution Sep 28, 2024

How can geo-data become a game-changer in our fight against climate change? In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I speak with Robert Hoddenbach, Global Director for Climate and Nature at Fugro, the world’s leading geo-data specialist.

With over 20 years of experience in geospatial and marine environments, Robert offers a deep dive into the critical role geo-data plays in understanding and mitigating the impacts of climate change, particularly in our oceans.

Despite covering 70% of the Earth's surface, only 25% of the ocean has been mapped, leaving a vast knowledge gap in one of the planet's most crucial ecosystems. Robert explains how Fugro is at the forefront of addressing this challenge, using advanced technologies such as AI and machine learning to collect and analyze oceanic data. This data is not just vital for scientific research but also has practical applications, from laying underwater cables to understanding the ecosystem impacts on climate.

We also explore how public-private partnerships and the sharing of ocean science data are essential for tackling global environmental challenges. Robert shares insights from Fugro’s involvement in initiatives like Seabed 2030 and UNESCO’s Ocean Decade for Ocean Science, highlighting the importance of collaboration in driving large-scale impact.

But it's not just about data collection; it's about creating shared value. Robert discusses how Fugro balances commercial objectives with environmental preservation, emphasizing the need for long-term engagement with stakeholders to redefine value beyond shareholder returns.

Join us as we uncover the future of ocean health, the technological innovations shaping the field, and the critical need for comprehensive geo-data to ensure a sustainable future for our planet. Could geo-data be the key to unlocking the mysteries of our oceans and safeguarding our environment? Tune in to find out, and share your thoughts on how technology can help us navigate these uncharted waters.

3038: The Role of AI and Cybersecurity in Tekion’s Automotive Innovations Sep 27, 2024

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I have a conversation with Jay Vijayan, the founder and CEO of Tekion, to explore how his company is transforming the automotive retail industry through its cloud-native platform. Jay, who has an extensive background in technology and served as CIO at Tesla, shares his insights into how Tekion is unifying the automotive retail ecosystem by integrating everything from inventory management to customer service on a single platform.

Jay discusses the impact of Tekion's platform on customer experiences, highlighting how it enables seamless digital and hybrid transactions, enhances transparency, and significantly improves efficiency for dealerships. We also dive into the role of AI within Tekion’s platform, where automated personalized responses are driving time savings and increasing conversion rates.

Additionally, Jay explains how Tekion is helping dealerships and consumers transition to electric vehicles and the crucial role of cybersecurity in protecting connected automotive systems. This episode is packed with insights into the future of automotive retail and the technology driving this transformation.

3037: How IDA Ireland is Supporting the Growth of Offshore Wind and Green Technologies Sep 26, 2024

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I speak with Shauna Higgins and Tristan McCallum from IDA Ireland about the country’s ambitious offshore wind energy goals and its growing green economy initiatives.

Ireland is quickly positioning itself as a leader in renewable energy, with a target of achieving 5GW of offshore wind capacity by 2030, and scaling up to 20GW by 2040. With an eye toward creating 37GW by 2050, Ireland is on a clear path to not only meet its own energy needs but to generate surplus capacity, opening up exciting investment opportunities and fostering innovation in sectors like energy storage, AI, and digital technologies.

Shauna and Tristan walk us through the current state of Ireland’s offshore wind ecosystem, which is driven by strategic policy frameworks like the Future Framework and the €5 billion grid infrastructure plan known as Shaping Our Electricity Future. These initiatives are laying the groundwork for Ireland’s sustainable development, attracting international players and fostering a strong business environment for renewable energy companies.

With over 300 wind farms already generating 4.8GW of power, Ireland ranks third globally for installed wind power per capita, and the momentum is growing as the country hosts its first offshore wind auction, granting 3GW of projects.

We also discuss how IDA Ireland is helping companies embrace the twin transition of digital and green technologies, supporting industries that are eager to tap into Ireland’s emerging renewable energy surplus. From energy storage innovations to the growing potential of hydrogen for industrial use, Ireland’s offshore wind strategy is opening doors for tech-driven advancements in sectors such as AI, quantum computing, and semiconductor manufacturing.

Shauna and Tristan provide insights into how Ireland is leveraging its natural resources, talent pool, and pro-business policies to create a robust ecosystem for offshore wind energy. With top-tier training centers like the National Maritime College and a highly skilled workforce, Ireland is not just building a sustainable future but leading the way for other countries to follow.

Tune in to discover how Ireland’s offshore wind initiatives are driving new opportunities for businesses and helping to shape the future of renewable energy. Could Ireland’s investment in offshore wind become a global model for sustainable growth? Shauna and Tristan share their thoughts on the exciting potential ahead.

3036: Xero - The Future of Small Business Accounting: AI, JAX, and Mobile Innovation Sep 25, 2024

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I explore how AI is transforming the way small businesses operate with Akankshu Dhawan, SVP of Small Business & Growth at Xero. With a growing focus on productivity in the wake of a significant decline for small businesses, Akankshu shares how Xero is reimagining accounting through the integration of AI and mobile technologies.

Xero’s latest innovation, Just Ask Xero (JAX), is an AI-powered business companion that helps small businesses manage finances and make smarter decisions on the go. Whether it’s generating invoices, predicting cash flow, or providing real-time business insights, JAX is designed to offer proactive support across commonly used platforms like WhatsApp, email, and SMS.

We discuss how small business productivity in the UK has dropped by 7% in the past year, leaving many owners struggling to keep up. Akankshu explains how AI can be the game changer for these businesses, automating repetitive tasks like bank reconciliation and invoicing, while also delivering critical insights to help owners focus on what they do best. As Xero continues to integrate AI into its platform, the combination of mobile tech and generative AI is making accounting more accessible, allowing business owners to take control of their finances from anywhere.

Akankshu highlights the practical ways in which AI is reshaping the future of small business management. He explains how tools like JAX provide not just faster processes but also deeper insights, helping businesses make informed decisions. The enhanced Xero mobile app is a key part of this strategy, offering new features like predictive cash flow forecasting, mobile bank reconciliation, and the ability to manage invoices on the go.

This episode offers valuable insights into how Xero is bridging the gap between small businesses and the promise of AI-driven productivity. Could tools like JAX finally bring AI’s benefits to small businesses? Tune in to hear Akankshu’s thoughts on the future of financial management and how AI is helping small businesses thrive.

3035: Overcoming AI Fatigue: WalkMe’s Solution to Productivity Challenges Sep 24, 2024

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I speak with Liya Spiegel, Senior Director of Product at WalkMe, about how their latest launch, WalkMeX, is transforming the future of business productivity.

While the market is flooded with AI assistants and tools, many are falling short of their promise to enhance productivity. Liya offers a fresh perspective on how WalkMe is creating a new category of AI that not only meets employees where they are but also delivers real, tangible benefits by working seamlessly across any application.

WalkMeX, the first AI copilot with the context to guide users through any workflow, is changing how businesses and employees interact with AI. Rather than adding to the noise of countless apps, WalkMeX integrates into existing workflows, providing proactive and contextual advice that helps users focus on their work, not on managing technology. Liya shares insights into how WalkMeX flies side by side with users, allowing organizations of all sizes to deploy AI to boost productivity in a meaningful way.

We also explore the challenges businesses face as AI tools flood the market. Many employees are expected to adapt quickly to new copilots without fully understanding their purpose or benefits, leaving them overwhelmed. A recent survey of 1,000 office workers revealed that over half use AI at work, yet almost half see no improvement in their productivity. Liya explains why so many AI tools fail and how WalkMe’s approach is different, offering a unified experience that removes the friction from adopting new technology.

Liya discusses the broader implications of AI for the future of work, including how WalkMe’s advancements will help organizations use AI safely and effectively. With WalkMeX, businesses are finally able to unlock the true potential of AI, enabling employees to focus on what truly matters.

3034: How Avanade is Leveraging AI for Workplace Efficiency and Wellness Sep 23, 2024

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I speak with Eric Miquelon, President of Avanade’s North American business, about how AI is transforming the workplace, particularly in the areas of mental well-being, work-life balance, and leadership fatigue. As AI continues to reshape industries, its role in supporting employee wellness and enhancing productivity is becoming more critical. Eric shares insights into how AI tools are being used to monitor and improve mental health in the workplace, offering innovative support as organizations navigate the challenges of modern work environments.

We explore how AI is streamlining tasks, enabling employees to focus on more meaningful work while reducing the pressure of constant productivity demands. Eric provides examples of how AI tools, like M365 Copilot, are freeing up time by automating routine tasks, which helps improve work-life balance—especially in remote and hybrid work models. The discussion highlights how these tools are helping not only individual contributors but also new workforce entrants, equipping them with the knowledge and support to be more productive from day one.

Eric also tackles the issue of leadership burnout, explaining how AI assists leaders in managing their responsibilities more efficiently. By automating routine activities such as email summarization or presentation creation, AI allows leaders to focus on higher-impact tasks that align with their strengths, helping to prevent burnout and maintain team morale. This approach fosters smarter work allocation, ensuring that global teams can operate effectively across time zones while maintaining a human-centric approach to leadership.

We also discuss Avanade's strategic partnerships with Microsoft and Accenture, giving them early access to AI innovations that enable them to lead the market in advising clients on AI strategies. Eric emphasizes the importance of balancing AI-driven efficiency with a focus on employee well-being and the need for careful governance, training, and change management as AI continues to evolve.

3033: ACI Worldwide: Battling Fraud in the Era of Instant Payments Sep 22, 2024

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I have a conversation with Cleber Martins, Head of Payments Intelligence & Risk Solutions at ACI Worldwide, about the increasing challenges of fraud prevention as real-time payments become more widespread. With payments now happening instantly, the window for detecting fraud is shrinking, and financial institutions need new methods to stay ahead. Cleber explains how fraudsters are using advanced AI techniques to exploit these fast transactions, employing everything from voice mimicry to sophisticated social engineering attacks that trick consumers into initiating transactions.

Cleber also highlights how financial institutions are using AI to fight back. From tracking behavioral biometrics to analyzing patterns in real time, banks are employing cutting-edge AI tools to detect fraud at the very moment it occurs. However, this shift isn't without its challenges.

Cleber discusses the difficulties financial institutions face, such as the high costs of implementing AI systems and the need for domain-specific expertise to ensure the technology is applied effectively.

We explore how AI is becoming a crucial tool for not only fraud prevention but also improving the services and products banks offer. By sharing AI-generated insights between institutions, Cleber believes real-time payments could become one of the safest payment methods available. He also touches on how AI will transform the workforce, enhancing human skills rather than replacing them, and encouraging a focus on solving business problems rather than mastering specific technologies.

3032: From Ukraine to the UK: Yehor Dremliuha on the Tech Scene and Startup Success Sep 21, 2024

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I explore the fascinating journey of Yehor Dremliuha, a software engineer from Ukraine who made the move to the UK just two years ago. Yehor shares his story of navigating the UK tech scene, comparing it with his experience in Ukraine and offering insights into how each country approaches technology. We delve into his startup, Swetrix, a privacy-first, open-source web analytics platform that tackles the challenges many face with Google Analytics, such as data privacy and user tracking.

Yehor explains how Swetrix stands apart with its cookie-free, GDPR-compliant approach, giving businesses an alternative that fosters transparency. He also discusses the transformative role of AI in software development, detailing how it powers Swetrix’s ability to predict website traffic and helps streamline other aspects of development. While some in the industry remain skeptical of AI's potential, Yehor believes it has the power to drive the next wave of innovation, citing personal experiences where AI tools have drastically reduced time spent on complex tasks.

The conversation also covers open-source development, where Yehor highlights the importance of community collaboration and building trust through transparency. Additionally, he offers a glimpse into the trends shaping backend development, from serverless architecture and microservices to Kubernetes and the rising importance of AI and prompt engineering skills.

This episode is packed with valuable insights into the tech industry, the power of open-source software, and Yehor’s inspiring personal journey from Ukraine to launching a successful startup in the UK. How is AI impacting the future of software development? Tune in to hear Yehor’s perspective on what lies ahead.

3031: How Xsolla is Revolutionizing Game Development and Monetization Sep 20, 2024

In this episode of The Tech Talks Daily Podcast, I sit down with Christopher Meredith, Senior VP of Business Development at Xsolla for EMEA, to explore the latest trends and developments shaping the video game industry. Xsolla, a global leader in video game commerce, plays a vital role in helping developers and publishers fund, market, and monetize their games worldwide. With Chris's extensive background, including roles at Sony PlayStation and Warner Bros, he shares his valuable insights on how the gaming landscape is evolving and how Xsolla is supporting the entire lifecycle of game development.

We begin by discussing Xsolla’s unique approach to supporting developers, from securing funding and monetization strategies to providing ongoing assistance through product suites and integration roadmaps. Chris explains how Xsolla sponsors industry events and conferences to connect developers with investors and offers expertise in navigating the complex world of game publishing. As the gaming industry becomes more diverse and dynamic, Xsolla adapts to meet the evolving needs of developers, helping them maximize revenue and grow their businesses.

A key focus of our conversation is the impact of the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) on game developers and publishers. Chris highlights how the DMA is set to level the playing field by increasing transparency, reducing gatekeeping, and allowing smaller developers more direct access to consumers. He discusses how this regulation could lead to lower commission rates, greater interoperability between platforms, and improved search and discovery algorithms that benefit indie developers. Chris also touches on the DMA’s potential to reduce platform lock-in effects through data portability provisions, empowering developers to have more control over their products.

We also explore the trends Chris has observed at recent industry events like Gamescom and Devcom. Mobile gaming continues to surge, supported by the rise in cashless transactions and digital wallets. Indie game development is capturing an ever-growing share of the market, thanks to innovations in cloud gaming and influencer marketing. Chris shares insights into how the industry is evolving and what Xsolla is doing to help developers and publishers adapt to these changes, including expanding their presence in key territories and developing new tools to meet the bespoke needs of their partners.

3030: Inside Dexory and The AI-Powered Robots Transforming Global Supply Chains Sep 19, 2024

In this episode of The Tech Talks Daily Podcast, I sit down with Andrei Danescu, CEO and Co-founder of Dexory, to explore how AI and robotics are revolutionizing the world of supply chains and warehouse logistics. With global supply chains facing unprecedented challenges due to the pandemic and ongoing geopolitical tensions, companies like Dexory are at the forefront of transforming the industry by enhancing efficiency, resilience, and adaptability.

Andrei walks us through Dexory’s cutting-edge solutions, starting with their 12-meter-tall autonomous robot, designed to dramatically improve warehouse efficiency. Equipped with cameras and 3D depth perception sensors, this robot can scan over 10,000 pallets per hour, covering large warehouse spaces in less than a day.

By providing real-time visibility and eliminating the gaps in warehouse operations, Dexory’s technology helps businesses save valuable time and improve overall productivity. Andrei also introduces Dexory’s digital twin platform, which creates a virtual model of warehouse environments, giving operators instant access to critical data for optimizing storage and operations.

Our conversation touches on the broader impact of the pandemic on logistics and how it accelerated technological adoption in the supply chain industry. As companies were forced to move operations online, the need for more resilient and efficient systems became clear. Andrei explains how AI and robotics have become essential tools for navigating this new landscape, offering actionable insights and streamlining processes that used to require significant human intervention.

Looking ahead, Andrei shares his vision for the future of supply chains, where AI plays a practical role in day-to-day operations, uncovering hidden efficiencies and enhancing human capabilities. He emphasizes the importance of symbiosis between humans and technology, with AI and robotics augmenting human decision-making to create smarter, faster, and more efficient operations.

Finally, we delve into Dexory’s rapid growth, from its launch in 2022 to its expansion across the UK, Europe, the US, and the Middle East within just 18 months. Andrei shares some of the key milestones that have shaped Dexory’s journey, including the company’s continuous innovation in robotics and AI, and the challenges they face as they strive to meet the ever-evolving needs of their customers.

3029 Fortra on Phishing, AI, and LOTS Tactics: Protecting Against Trusted Service Abuse Sep 18, 2024

In this episode of The Tech Talks Daily Podcast, I speak with Michael Tyler from Fortra to uncover the details behind a phishing campaign that exploited USign’s e-signature platform. Fortra recently discovered how cybercriminals leveraged USign’s trusted domain to bypass email security gateways, highlighting the growing challenges related to the "living off trusted services" (LOTS) tactic used by attackers. This phishing campaign exposed vulnerabilities within platforms often regarded as safe by email filters, demonstrating how easily attackers can exploit trusted services.

Cybercriminals disguised fake USign documents as HR notifications, tricking victims into entering passwords instead of signatures. By using USign’s strong sender reputation, these malicious emails were able to bypass traditional email security measures, making them harder to detect. The attack even showed signs of being generated with AI language models, adding another layer of sophistication.

We dive deeper into the LOTS tactic, where attackers take advantage of legitimate services—such as e-signature platforms, file hosting sites, and social media platforms—to execute their malicious activities. This strategy not only reduces the setup effort for attackers but also enables them to hide behind the reputation of trusted service providers, making it increasingly difficult for security systems to flag these threats.

Michael discusses the broader implications for cybersecurity and the need for multi-layered defenses. Organizations must not only invest in user education to help employees recognize phishing attempts but also implement deeper email inspection and rapid response capabilities to quickly mitigate risks. For service providers like USign, enhancing security protocols, such as limiting bulk registrations and monitoring for abnormal activity, is crucial in preventing future exploitation.

The conversation also explores how Fortra is working with organizations to bolster their defenses against such attacks. Michael shares practical recommendations, from improving detection of social engineering attempts to collaborating with trusted service providers to combat platform abuse. As the world of cybersecurity continues to evolve, this episode provides valuable insights into staying one step ahead of increasingly sophisticated phishing tactics.

3028: How Genasys Connect is Enhancing Emergency Response Sep 17, 2024

In this episode of The Tech Talks Daily Podcast, I speak with Jeff Halstead about the groundbreaking platform, Genasys Connect, and its transformative impact on law enforcement and emergency responders. As part of Genasys, GenasysConnect was designed to address one of the most critical challenges facing public safety today: slow and inefficient communication during high-stakes situations. Jeff dives deep into how this secure, real-time intelligence sharing platform is helping agencies share sensitive information instantly, filling critical gaps in communication across multiple organizations.

We explore the origins of Genasys Connect, which was developed in 2017 as a response to outdated and slow methods of sharing intelligence within law enforcement. By providing an agency-controlled, cloud-based system that allows real-time sharing of critical information, Genasys Connect enhances collaboration and decision-making during emergencies. The platform is not only secure but flexible, giving agencies full control over data ownership and access while using multi-layered verification to prevent unauthorized entry.

Jeff also shares real-world applications of Genasys Connect, including its role during the 2020 George Floyd protests, where it helped prevent property damage and looting through instant multi-agency coordination. The platform was also key in the quick capture of a mass shooting suspect near Houston. These examples highlight how Genasys Connect’s seamless integration with other Genasys technologies, such as mass notifications and evacuation support, creates a comprehensive public safety solution.

As we discuss the future of GenasysConnect, Jeff offers insight into upcoming features like large-scale mass notifications and resource deployment, all part of Genasys’ broader "Protect" platform. We also touch on the challenges of adoption in law enforcement, particularly the resistance to new technology, and how Genasys builds trust through experience, with an impressive 98.6% customer retention rate.

3027: Globalization Partners on the Future of Work: AI’s Role in Global Business Sep 16, 2024

In this episode of The Tech Talks Daily Podcast, I explore the rapidly evolving role of AI in global employment with Nat Natarajan, Chief Product and Strategy Officer at G-P. With G-P operating in over 180 countries, Nat shares his perspective on how AI is reshaping the workforce and the future of global business. Through G-P AI tool ‘GIA,’ the company is revolutionizing HR and compliance tasks, enhancing productivity while complementing human expertise.

Nat emphasizes that AI will augment, not replace, human work, using the mantra “Humans are wise, AI is intelligent” to explain the partnership between technology and human insight. He discusses how G-Pleverages AI to manage the complexities of international employment and compliance laws, significantly improving efficiency across their operations. In just six months, G-P’s 'GIA' has answered over 30,000 questions with 95% accuracy, becoming a vital resource for the sales team in addressing intricate compliance questions instantly.

We also dive into broader AI adoption trends, particularly how younger generations, like Nat’s son, are naturally integrating AI into their work processes. AI is no longer confined to technical roles; it’s being adopted across sales, operations, and marketing. Nat shares his view on how businesses must embrace AI to stay relevant, warning that future companies will either be "out of business or AI-enabled."

The conversation also highlights the importance of continuous learning and adapting to an AI-driven world. Nat explains how businesses need to evaluate which tasks can be enhanced by AI, while emphasizing the need for critical thinking and data preparation. He shares his personal approach to learning from young professionals, believing in the power of cross-generational knowledge and continuous self-improvement.

Tune in to learn how AI is shaping global employment, the essential role of continuous learning, and why being "better today than yesterday, better tomorrow than today" is key to thriving in the future workforce.

3026: Boosting Conversion Rates with Predictive Delivery Promises Sep 15, 2024

In this episode of The Tech Talks Daily Podcast, I talk with Chap Achen, VP of Product Strategy and Operations at Nextuple, about the transformative impact of AI-driven order management in the retail sector. With a career spanning 25 years in OMNI fulfillment, Chap shares his insights into how retailers can harness cutting-edge AI and machine learning tools to improve operations, enhance customer satisfaction, and stay ahead in a competitive landscape.

We begin by exploring the concept of Predictive Promising, a tool that analyzes historical shipment data to predict delivery dates with greater accuracy. Chap explains how this feature not only boosts customer confidence but also increases conversion rates by ensuring delivery promises are reliable. This solution simplifies both outbound promises to customers and inbound promises from suppliers, making it easier for retailers to manage expectations.

The conversation then shifts to Nextuple’s AI-powered Order Management Studio, which helps businesses optimize inventory management and delivery estimates. With features like dynamic inventory services and predictive analytics, retailers can fine-tune their operations, reduce manual configuration tasks, and improve overall efficiency. Chap also touches on the exciting role of generative AI, which is being used to discover issues within inventory data faster and could pave the way for proactive problem-solving in the future.

Finally, we address one of the key challenges in transitioning to AI-driven systems: explainability. Chap explains how Nextuple ensures transparency in AI decision-making, giving retailers the confidence they need to adopt these advanced technologies. Tune in to learn how AI is not only improving current order management processes but also shaping the future of retail.

3025: Unlocking the Future of Legal Tech with AI-Driven Document Management Sep 14, 2024

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I sit down with Lisen Kaci, co-founder of Discrepancy AI, a company that's pushing the boundaries of AI-powered document analysis. Lisen shares how Discrepancy AI transforms the way businesses handle unstructured documents like PDFs, invoices, financial records, and even heavily photocopied images. Through advanced AI, Discrepancy AI converts these into structured, searchable data, unlocking insights and improving workflows for legal firms, financial institutions, and beyond.

We explore the fascinating origins of Discrepancy AI and how it addresses the limitations of traditional Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology, which hasn’t evolved much since 1974. Lisen details how their AI goes beyond simple text extraction, working with complex formats like charts, graphs, and tables, and even analyzing pixel-level data to detect signs of document tampering or fraud. This capability is transforming the way industries approach document integrity and security.

Lisen also dives into the specific challenges legal firms face when processing massive volumes of documents, from contracts to tax filings. He discusses how AI can automate much of the tedious work, freeing up legal professionals to focus on higher-level tasks. With law firms increasingly interested in becoming AI-powered, Lisen shares his thoughts on how the industry is evolving toward more technology-driven practices.

We also touch on privacy concerns and how Discrepancy AI ensures that data is handled securely, without training on customer information. Looking ahead, Lisen predicts a future where law firms will fully integrate AI solutions, allowing them to offer faster, more accurate services to their clients.

Could AI truly revolutionize the legal industry, making processes more efficient and secure? Join us as we dive deep into the future of AI in legal tech with Lisen Kaci.

3024: Unleashing the Power of AI in Banking: DBS Bank’s Strategy for Success Sep 13, 2024

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I speak with Nimish Panchmatia, Chief Transformation Officer and Chief Data Officer at DBS Bank, about the revolutionary impact of generative AI on the financial industry.

With the potential to save billions annually through cost efficiencies, AI is transforming how banks operate, engage with customers, and support employees. Nimish provides a detailed look at how DBS Bank is harnessing generative AI to enhance productivity, streamline operations, and improve customer experiences.

We explore the myths around AI's full automation and the importance of maintaining a balance between technology and human oversight. Nimish discusses how data stewards play a critical role in ensuring the accuracy, security, and ethical application of AI, helping the bank navigate the challenges of responsible AI use. He also highlights the robust governance framework DBS has established to ensure AI solutions meet stringent risk, compliance, and ethical standards.

Generative AI isn’t just reshaping DBS Bank’s internal processes; it’s freeing up employees from routine tasks, allowing them to focus on more strategic, high-value work. This conversation uncovers how DBS is leveraging AI to create synergy between people, processes, and technology, ensuring that the benefits of AI go hand-in-hand with reskilling employees for the future.

We also discuss how AI is enabling productivity gains across various roles, from customer service to operations, and what this means for the future of banking.

How is generative AI redefining financial services, and what are the ethical considerations that come with it? Tune in to hear how DBS Bank is leading the charge in integrating AI while keeping human oversight at the core of its transformation.

3023: How Bolt Is Building Seamless, Humanlike Shopping Experiences with AI Sep 12, 2024

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I speak with Justin Grooms, the visionary behind Bolt, a company that has redefined ecommerce since its inception in a Stanford dorm room. Bolt’s composable commerce solution is transforming how retailers interact with customers by integrating AI-driven conversational experiences into shopping platforms.

Justin shares the company's journey and how they are using generative AI voice assistants and messaging platforms to create more seamless, human-like shopping experiences across platforms like Instagram.

We dive into the challenges retailers face when scaling these conversational journeys and how Bolt is addressing them by streamlining interactions and removing friction. Justin also explains why non-vertically integrated merchants, such as JCPenney and Nordstrom, might see their ecommerce sales decline if they don't evolve, underscoring the importance of providing a differentiated shopper experience.

Another key discussion revolves around Bolt’s innovative approach to the checkout process, transforming it into a personalized "check-in" experience that adapts to each shopper's unique preferences. With over 80 million global shoppers in Bolt's universal account network, the company is helping retailers personalize everything from product recommendations to the entire checkout process.

Justin also offers a glimpse into Bolt's future as it continues to scale its technology and make a broader impact on the e-commerce landscape. Tune in to learn more about the shifts happening in conversational commerce and how Bolt is positioning itself at the forefront of these changes.

3022: AI and Loyalty Innovation: Inside Emirates National Oil Company Group’s (ENOC) Yes Rewards Sep 11, 2024

In this episode, I’m joined by Suryaveer Singh, Head of Loyalty at Emirates National Oil Company (ENOC), where he leads the groundbreaking Yes Rewards program in the UAE. This initiative, the first of its kind in the region’s fuel sector, has already earned recognition for its role in improving customer happiness, winning the Best Rewards Programme in the Government sector at the CX & Loyalty Awards MENA.

During our conversation, Suryaveer dives into the evolution of loyalty programs and how technology is driving their future. He explains the role of AI and data-driven automation in creating personalized customer experiences and how this technology is enhancing real-time rewards across ENOC’s brands. We explore how Yes Rewards goes beyond fuel to integrate services like convenience stores and automotive care, all while focusing on a simple, user-friendly experience for a diverse customer base of over 19 nationalities.

Suryaveer shares insights into the challenges of launching Yes Rewards amid the COVID-19 pandemic and how his team leveraged the delays to fine-tune their technology for a successful launch. We also discuss the importance of partnerships and collaborations, particularly in the loyalty space, as ENOC expands into sectors like travel, lifestyle, and leisure. Suryaveer provides a forward-looking perspective on how blockchain and AI will transform loyalty programs by offering hyper-personalized offers and faster, more efficient partner integrations.

Tune in to learn how the Yes Rewards program is reshaping customer loyalty in the UAE and discover the future innovations set to redefine customer engagement in the region. How can your business apply these strategies to enhance customer loyalty? Find out in today’s episode.

3021: Global CX Trends with Contentsquare: Personalization, Privacy, and Omnichannel Sep 10, 2024

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I sit down with Jean-Christophe Pitié, the Chief Marketing Officer of Contentsquare, to explore the evolving world of digital customer experience (CX). As businesses continue their digital transformation journeys, the spotlight has firmly shifted toward customer experience, where data-driven insights and personalization play critical roles.

Jean-Christophe, leading the marketing strategy for one of the world’s foremost digital experience analytics platforms, shares his insights on the latest CX trends, the growing impact of AI, and the human challenges organizations face when putting the customer at the heart of their strategy.

We begin by discussing the pressing issue of friction in the digital landscape, with 41% of website visits still being affected despite years of innovation. Jean-Christophe outlines the key factors driving these challenges and how businesses can overcome them by leveraging data and AI to improve user experiences. He also dives into the striking difference between paid search and paid social in terms of conversions, providing valuable insights for marketers seeking to maximize ROI.

AI's role in shaping modern customer experiences is another key point of our conversation. From sentiment analysis to virtual assistants and the dynamic generation of personalized content, Jean-Christophe explains how AI is helping brands reduce friction and create more tailored interactions with their users. However, balancing personalization with privacy remains a challenge across different regions, with Europe emphasizing sustainability and privacy, China excelling in social commerce, and the US focused on speed and convenience.

Jean-Christophe also highlights how building a customer-centric culture, integrating omnichannel experiences, and embracing mobile-first strategies can position companies for long-term success. We wrap up by discussing practical steps brands can take to optimize their CX, balancing quantitative data with qualitative insights to create more engaging and effective user experiences.

So, how can AI help transform your customer experience, and what are the emerging global trends in this space? Tune in to find out!

3020: Parity Technologies: Web3 Regulation, Diversity in Tech, and the Legal Impact of Blockchain Sep 09, 2024

In today’s episode, I’m joined by Chrissy Hill, the Chief Legal Officer and Interim COO at Parity Technologies, a company driving innovation in Web3 and blockchain technology. We delve into the fractured state of Web3 regulation and explore how this uncertainty is affecting creativity and innovation in the space. Chrissy shares insights into how Parity is working with global regulators to bring about the clarity needed for developers to thrive and for Web3 technologies to reach their full potential.

We also discuss the importance of diversity in the Web3 ecosystem. As a pioneering female leader in a male-dominated field, Chrissy offers a unique perspective on why diverse leadership is critical for the future of decentralized technologies. She highlights the value of having a wide range of voices at the table, particularly as Web3 continues to shape the digital landscape.

The conversation then shifts to how disruptive technologies like blockchain and AI are transforming legal practices. Chrissy explains how these advancements have the potential to reshape the legal profession for lawyers, judges, and even juries, by providing tools that enhance transparency, streamline processes, and deliver more efficient outcomes.

Tune in to hear Chrissy’s thoughts on what lies ahead for Web3 regulation, the role of diversity in tech, and how emerging technologies are influencing the future of law. Will regulation help or hinder innovation, and what role does diversity play in the success of decentralized networks?

3019: Navigating Cyber Risk: Insights from Barracuda Networks' CIO Sep 09, 2024

In this episode, I talk with Siroui Mushegian, Chief Information Officer at Barracuda Networks, to explore the current state of cybersecurity and its growing importance for businesses. With over 20 years of leadership experience spanning organizations like Ralph Lauren, the NBA, and PBS, Siroui shares her valuable perspective on how companies can navigate the complexities of IT security across various industries.

We dive into Barracuda's CIO report, "Leading Your Business Through Cyber Risk," which reveals concerning statistics: over half of companies struggle to implement consistent security policies, and only 43% are confident in managing cyber risks effectively. Siroui provides insight into the governance challenges that often hinder organizations, including better policy enforcement, securing third-party access, and addressing vulnerabilities in supply chains.

Siroui outlines practical steps businesses can take to better prepare for, respond to, and recover from cyber incidents. From building stronger governance structures to ensuring executive buy-in for security initiatives, she offers actionable strategies to enhance cyber resilience.

3018: Tesco and the Future of Retail Security Sep 08, 2024

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I explore the evolving landscape of cybersecurity in retail with Veroniki Stamati, Director of Security Engineering and Operations at Tesco. Veroniki's experience spans a variety of industries, including online platforms like PokerStars and Skyscanner, giving her a unique perspective on how technology can drive innovation while ensuring security.

Veroniki shares her transition from the travel and entertainment industries to the retail sector, offering insights into how Tesco harnesses technology to protect its vast customer base. She delves into her current role, where she leads a team focused on building secure products, while balancing the need for innovation and security. We discuss Tesco's forward-thinking approach to security, which includes principles like "everything as code" and integrating security within product development and platform delivery.

Throughout the conversation, Veroniki sheds light on the most pressing security threats facing the retail industry today, such as data theft, customer-targeted scams, and the impact of regulatory changes. We also touch on the exciting role that generative AI is playing in shaping the future of security operations, especially in data management.

Diversity in tech is another key focus. Veroniki highlights Tesco's efforts to increase female representation and foster diversity of thought within security roles. Programs like "train, deploy, hire," along with partnerships with STEM programs and tech colleges, are creating new opportunities for a diverse talent pool to enter the security space.

3017: The Intersection of Tech, Data and Diamonds at Signet Jewelers Sep 07, 2024

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I enjoy a conversation with Rebecca Wooters, the Chief Digital Officer at Signet Jewelers, the world’s largest diamond retailer.

With renowned brands like Kay, Zales, Jared, and James Allen under its umbrella, Signet is revolutionizing the jewelry industry through digital innovation.

Rebecca leads the company’s efforts to create a seamless connected commerce experience, enabling customers to shop effortlessly across multiple channels, whether in-store, online, or through advanced virtual platforms.

Rebecca explains how Signet has leveraged data to become the most data-driven jewelry retailer in the market, sharing how this data-driven approach sets them apart from competitors. We also dive into their cutting-edge advancements in virtual shopping, such as custom jewelry design, virtual try-ons, and their social selling platform that introduces virtual storefronts.

Rebecca offers a glimpse into the future of retail, discussing how connected commerce is shaping consumer experiences and driving company growth.

Tune in to hear how a traditional industry is embracing digital transformation and learn about the innovations that are redefining how consumers engage with jewelry today.

Whether you're interested in retail trends or fascinated by the power of digital transformation, this episode offers valuable insights from a leader at the forefront of change.

3016: How Creyon Bio is Using AI to Transform Drug Development Sep 06, 2024

In this episode, I have an insightful conversation with Chris Hart, the CEO of Creyon Bio, to dive into how artificial intelligence is reshaping drug development.

Creyon Bio is pioneering the use of AI to engineer Oligonucleotide-Based Medicines (OBMs), prioritizing safety in their approach to creating effective treatments. By applying cutting-edge technology, the company is able to streamline the identification of safe medicines, offering a more efficient path to drug discovery.

One of the most compelling examples of their work is the recent treatment of a baby boy diagnosed with an ultra-rare disease caused by a mutation in the TNPO2 gene. In just 13 months, Creyon Bio developed a tailored treatment that marked a major milestone in the world of personalized medicine.

Chris shares the story of this breakthrough, highlighting the role AI played in rapidly creating and testing a selective lock nucleic acid (LNA) antisense oligo, which led to significant improvements in the child's health.

We also explore how Creyon Bio’s AI-driven platform addresses common challenges in drug development, from enhancing safety to optimizing delivery. Chris delves into how AI helps analyze complex data sets, enabling the rapid progression from identifying a target to developing a lead compound. This innovation is not only revolutionizing timelines but also increasing the probability of success in the often unpredictable world of biotech.

Tune in to hear Chris’s valuable insights on the future of AI in medicine, the challenges the industry faces, and how Creyon Bio is pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in drug engineering. Could AI be the key to accelerating life-saving treatments for rare diseases?

3015: Real-World AI Solutions: Appian’s Path to Enterprise Innovation Sep 05, 2024

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, Adam Glaser from Appian shares how generative AI is transforming enterprise technology and redefining how businesses operate. As the global appetite for AI grows, Appian’s low-code platform stands out by making AI more accessible, allowing enterprises to build and deploy AI-powered applications without requiring extensive data science resources. Adam dives deep into how generative AI serves as a force multiplier across the board—from developers building and testing applications faster to end users interacting directly with AI-driven chat interfaces.

A key focus of the conversation is Appian’s patented data fabric, a virtualized data layer that addresses fragmented enterprise data. This architecture provides the foundation for AI to operate efficiently, pulling together disparate data sources into a unified system. Adam explains how this approach enables businesses to unlock the full potential of AI, helping enterprises tackle complex tasks such as document extraction, PII detection, and real-time data analysis.

Throughout the episode, Adam presents several real-world examples where Appian’s AI-enhanced solutions have delivered measurable results. From automating the accounts payable process for a U.S. fire protection company to improving student advising through AI chatbots at a large university, these stories reveal how businesses are achieving significant productivity gains and cost savings. In particular, the episode highlights how AI has revolutionized document processing, customer service, and data management, reducing errors and improving accuracy across industries.

Adam also addresses the barriers to AI adoption, including common concerns around data privacy, job displacement, and unrealistic expectations. He offers practical advice for business leaders looking to integrate AI effectively, urging them to focus on tangible business outcomes and view AI as a tool to augment human capabilities, not replace them.

3014 Beyond Code with GitHub: The AI Revolution in Software Development Sep 04, 2024

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I sit down with Chris Reddington, Senior Product Manager of Strategy for Developer Relations at GitHub, to explore the transformative role of AI in software development.

As AI continues to reshape the way businesses innovate, the conversation shifts beyond the mere integration of new technology. Chris emphasizes that adopting AI-powered software development is a significant cultural shift, requiring more than just technical tools. It demands a top-down approach, where leadership support and change management are critical to fostering a progressive culture within development teams.

Throughout our discussion, Chris unpacks why the impact of AI tools like GitHub Copilot should not be narrowly measured by the volume of code produced. Instead, he argues that the true value lies in how these tools free developers to focus on more complex, meaningful work.

By automating repetitive tasks, AI helps developers maintain their creative flow, reducing context switching and allowing them to concentrate on higher-level challenges like architecture, system design, and testing.

Chris also touches on the broader implications of AI adoption, highlighting the need for a clear vision and strategy that goes beyond just using new tools. Organizations must be willing to embrace change, experiment with new processes, and provide continuous learning opportunities for their teams. He points out that AI coding has the potential to enhance developers' skills by providing contextual assistance, especially for junior developers, and by offering insights that can improve security and code quality.

Learn more about GitHub

GitHub blog: https://github.blog/
GitHub Universe: https://githubuniverse.com/
Chris' Profile - linkedin.com/in/chrisreddington

3013: Bridging Online and Offline: Salsita’s Conversational AI in eCommerce Sep 03, 2024

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I sit down with Matt Gertner, the CEO of Salsita, a forward-thinking startup based in Prague, to explore how conversational AI is set to transform the future of eCommerce.

Salsita has made waves by introducing a groundbreaking 3D product configurator equipped with an AI-powered conversational interface. This innovation allows customers to design and customize complex products—ranging from kitchen ranges to holiday decor—through simple, natural language conversations, making the online shopping experience more intuitive and personalized than ever before.

Matt shares insights into the development of this technology, which leverages OpenAI's advanced language models to provide real-time, expert guidance as customers navigate through the configuration process. This AI-driven approach mimics the in-store experience, where shoppers typically rely on the expertise of sales reps to help them make decisions.

By embedding this configurator directly into retailers' websites, Salsita has created a seamless and engaging user experience that not only enhances customer satisfaction but also drives higher conversion rates.

We discuss the broader implications of conversational AI for eCommerce, including its potential to bridge the gap between online and offline shopping. Matt explains how this technology could revolutionize the way we interact with software, with applications extending beyond eCommerce into other areas of digital interaction. He also touches on the challenges and risks associated with AI, such as the need for accurate information and the potential for misinformation, while sharing how Salsita is addressing these concerns.

Throughout our conversation, Matt's passion for making technology more human-centric shines through. He envisions a future where conversational AI becomes the norm, simplifying complex tasks and making technology more accessible to everyone. This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in the cutting edge of eCommerce, AI, and the future of human-computer interaction.

3012: The Power of AI in Casinos: Enhancing Experiences and Upholding Ethics With Light & Wonder Sep 02, 2024

In today's episode of Tech Talks Daily, I sit down with Jon Wolfe, President of Global Systems and Services at Light & Wonder, a leader in the casino technology space. With the casino industry being a $300 billion giant, it's no surprise that it's eager to embrace cutting-edge technologies, particularly artificial intelligence. Jon brings deep insights into how AI is poised to transform casino floors, enhance player experiences, and tackle some of the industry's most pressing ethical challenges.

Jon discusses how AI is reshaping the traditional casino environment by creating more personalized and engaging experiences for players. From generating real-time rewards based on player behavior to detecting when a player is likely to end their gaming session, AI is making it possible for casinos to respond instantly and keep players engaged.

However, with great power comes great responsibility. Jon delves into the importance of ethical AI use, transparency in AI-driven decisions, and the measures Light & Wonder takes to protect player data and privacy. This commitment not only builds trust but also ensures that AI is used to foster responsible gaming practices, detect risky behavior, and maintain the integrity of the gaming experience.

As we explore the future of AI in the casino industry, Jon shares his vision for 2025, where AI will collaborate more closely with casino operators, automate routine tasks, and continuously improve customer experiences in real-time. He also reflects on his career journey, particularly the impact of his early mentor, Jack Binion, who taught him the value of putting the customer first. These lessons remain at the core of his approach as he leverages AI to anticipate and meet the evolving needs of casino patrons.

Join us for a fascinating conversation about the intersection of AI, ethics, and the future of gaming. What does the future hold for AI in casinos, and how will it continue to reshape the industry? Tune in to find out!

3011: AI, Data Privacy, and the Future of Marketing: Insights from Constellation's CTO Sep 01, 2024

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I sit down with Nauman Hafiz, Chief Technical Officer at Constellation, to explore the cutting-edge intersection of AI, data security, and marketing innovation. With over a decade of experience leading technology teams at R/GA, Nauman now spearheads Constellation’s efforts to revolutionize how Fortune 100 companies approach social listening and data protection.

One of the key topics we delve into is Constellation’s proprietary technology, Aurora. Nauman explains how Aurora harnesses the power of AI to perform contextual social listening, enabling companies to refine their marketing strategies and drive significant revenue growth. This AI-driven approach not only offers deeper insights into consumer behavior but also helps brands stay ahead in a highly competitive marketplace.

As we navigate through the conversation, Nauman shares his perspective on the rapid advancements in AI by tech giants like Google, Microsoft, and Apple. He offers his predictions on how other companies might follow suit, emphasizing the transformative potential of AI across various industries. His insights provide a glimpse into the future of AI, highlighting the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead.

Data security is another critical area we discuss, especially in the context of AI’s growing influence. Nauman offers valuable advice on how companies can safeguard their data while leveraging AI technologies. With increasing concerns around data privacy and regulatory compliance, his expertise sheds light on practical strategies to maintain robust security measures without stifling innovation.

3010: The Intersection of AI and Ethics in Accounting Aug 31, 2024

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I sit down with Dr. Mfon Akpan, an expert in accounting and finance from Methodist University, to explore the rapidly evolving role of artificial intelligence in the accounting profession.

As AI technologies continue to advance, they are increasingly outperforming humans in various domains, including those within the accounting sector. Dr. Akpan shares insights on how AI is reshaping workflows, boosting productivity, and introducing a new paradigm where AI-generated drafts are refined by human professionals—a process that is not only enhancing efficiency but also challenging traditional approaches.

A significant focus of our discussion centers on the ethical considerations that accompany AI's integration into accounting. Dr. Akpan raises critical concerns about privacy, the need for transparency in disclosing AI usage to clients, and the potential for a digital divide created by unequal access to AI tools.

As major accounting firms invest heavily in AI, the question of how to implement these technologies responsibly becomes ever more pressing. Dr. Akpan also delves into the impact of AI on education, emphasizing the importance of exposing students to these tools to ensure they are workforce-ready while also teaching them to navigate the ethical complexities that arise.

Dr. Akpan's work, including his recent publication on aligning AI with ethical accountancy, introduces frameworks designed to ensure that AI adoption in the accounting profession remains aligned with the core values of trust and integrity.

As we explore these themes, Dr. Akpan also reflects on the challenges facing educators, policymakers, and practitioners as they collaborate to keep pace with the rapid advancements in AI and ensure that ethical standards are upheld.

Join us as we discuss the transformative potential of AI in accounting, the ethical challenges it presents, and the crucial role of lifelong learning in preparing the next generation of professionals for a future where AI plays an integral role in their work.

3009: AI and Business Strategy: How Hyland Solutions is Shaping Tomorrow’s Enterprises Aug 30, 2024

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I sit down with Tiago Cardoso, Group Product Manager at Hyland Solutions, a company known for its industry-leading intelligent content solutions. With a solid background in Computer Science and AI, Tiago brings over a decade of experience in developing cutting-edge interfaces across web, mobile, and 3D applications.

Our conversation delves into the transformative power of AI in enterprise content management, particularly in sectors like healthcare, insurance, and banking. We explore how AI is revolutionizing these industries by streamlining processes, enhancing decision-making, and ultimately improving customer experiences.

Tiago also shares insights on how AI is reshaping higher education, specifically within computer science programs. He discusses the growing importance of integrating AI into the curriculum, preparing the next generation of tech professionals to meet the demands of an AI-driven world. This naturally leads us into a discussion about AI implementation readiness in the workforce. As AI continues to advance, its impact on jobs and the skills required to thrive in a tech-oriented workplace is a topic of critical importance.

Tiago offers his perspective on how organizations can better prepare their employees for the changes AI will bring, emphasizing the need for continuous learning and adaptation.

Throughout our conversation, Tiago emphasizes the need for a thoughtful and strategic approach to AI adoption, one that balances innovation with ethical considerations and a focus on the human element.

Whether you’re curious about the future of AI in enterprise settings or interested in how AI is influencing education and the job market, this episode offers a comprehensive look at the evolving landscape of AI and its far-reaching implications.

How will AI reshape the industries that matter most to you? What steps should organizations take to ensure they are ready for the AI-driven future? Don’t miss this engaging discussion that could help shape your perspective on the opportunities and challenges ahead.

3008: Digital Transformation at Mutual of Omaha: A Century-Old Legacy Meets Modern Tech Aug 29, 2024

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I sit down with Niki Manby, Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer at Mutual of Omaha, a company with over a century of experience in providing insurance and financial solutions.

Niki, an expert in consumer financial services, shares insights into how Mutual of Omaha, a Fortune 300 company, is evolving to meet the changing needs of its nearly 24 million customers while maintaining its core mission of helping people protect what they care about.

We explore how Mutual of Omaha is embracing digital transformation within the insurance industry. As customer expectations shift, driven by tech giants like Meta, Amazon, and TikTok, even traditionally tech-averse demographics, such as seniors, are becoming more digitally savvy.

Niki discusses the company’s approach to integrating self-service options and digital learning journeys, all while balancing innovation with the privacy concerns that come with health information.

Niki also dives into the emerging trends within the insurance industry, such as micro-insurance, on-demand insurance, and embedded insurance models. We discuss how these new models are reshaping the industry and the role insurtechs play in supporting carriers rather than competing directly with them.

Throughout our conversation, we look at the challenges and opportunities that come with integrating new technologies into long-standing insurance products, the importance of maintaining a customer-centric approach, and how Mutual of Omaha is positioning itself for future growth.

Niki offers a forward-looking perspective on how the company plans to expand its scope beyond traditional insurance to include broader financial and wellness solutions, ensuring it remains at the forefront of industry innovation.

Tune in to discover how a century-old company like Mutual of Omaha is not just adapting but leading in the rapidly changing landscape of insurance and financial services.

3007: The Tech Behind Eden Green's Innovative Approach to Vertical Farming Aug 28, 2024

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I enjoy a conversation with Eddy Badrina, CEO of Eden Green, a company on a mission to reshape agriculture through cutting-edge vertical indoor greenhouse technology. With a focus on sustainability, Eddy shares how Eden Green is pioneering new methods to grow fresh produce more efficiently, using less water, energy, and reducing carbon emissions.

We discuss Eden Green's innovative approach, where their patented microclimate technology creates optimal growing conditions for each plant. This precise control over water, light, and nutrients not only enhances the growth process but also significantly reduces resource consumption. The result is fresher, safer produce that reaches grocery shelves within 48 hours, addressing the long-standing issue of food miles and waste in the supply chain.

Eddy also introduces us to their groundbreaking herb program, which stands as a first in the industry. Unlike the traditional model that relies on fragmented, global supply chains, Eden Green's approach allows for the growth, packaging, and distribution of over ten herb varieties from a single location. This innovation reduces the complexity and environmental impact associated with herb distribution, offering retailers a more sustainable and efficient solution.

Throughout our discussion, Eddy provides a forward-looking perspective on the future of agriculture. He outlines Eden Green's ambitious plans to expand across the U.S., with the goal of establishing 20 production facilities within the next five years. This expansion is not just about scaling their operations but also about setting a new standard for how fresh produce can be grown and distributed sustainably.

3006: IBM Qiskit and the Road to Quantum Advantage Aug 27, 2024

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I sit down with Blake Johnson, Quantum Engine Lead at IBM Quantum, to explore the recent expansion of Qiskit, the world’s most popular quantum software platform.

IBM’s Qiskit has evolved from an experimental tool into a highly stable and reliable platform capable of running complex quantum circuits on processors with over 100 qubits. This conversation dives into how Qiskit is now purpose-built to extract the best performance from real quantum hardware as industries around the world search for quantum advantage—the point where a quantum computer offers the most effective solution to a problem over any classical method.

Blake shares insights into how IBM’s collaboration with its global quantum ecosystem of over 600,000 users has driven the development of Qiskit’s new performance capabilities. These include AI-powered tools that help organizations map their problems to quantum circuits, features that simplify interfacing with quantum systems, and new abilities that efficiently merge the strengths of classical and quantum resources.

We discuss the significance of Qiskit moving to version 1.0, which brings 16x faster performance and new tools like Qiskit Runtime, the Transpiler service, Code Assistant, and Serverless capabilities. These advancements are essential as IBM continues its journey toward achieving quantum advantage and, ultimately, fault-tolerant quantum computing by 2029.

Tune in to learn more about IBM’s vision for quantum software, the growing role of Qiskit users, and how the quantum ecosystem is steadily advancing toward practical quantum computing. This episode provides a deeper understanding of the hybrid quantum-classical approach that is paving the way for future breakthroughs in this cutting-edge field.

Whether you’re new to quantum computing or a seasoned expert, Blake’s insights will shed light on the future of this transformative technology.

3005: Navigating AI in the Workplace: Strategies from Augury Aug 26, 2024

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I sit down with Artem Kroupenev, VP of Strategy at Augury, to explore the transformative role of AI in today's workforce. Artem brings a fresh perspective on AI literacy, arguing that it is no longer a niche skill but a fundamental competency akin to reading and writing. As AI continues to evolve from behind-the-scenes technology to a consumer-facing tool, the ability to integrate AI into daily workflows is becoming crucial for professionals across all industries.

We dive into how AI is reshaping entry-level roles, focusing on the shift from traditional skills and knowledge to real-world task performance and outcomes. Artem explains that AI won't replace jobs entirely but will augment workers' capabilities, enabling them to concentrate on higher-order decision-making and strategic thinking. This shift necessitates a new approach to hiring, where employers will increasingly value the ability to leverage AI tools effectively.

Artem also shares his insights on how organizations can successfully integrate AI literacy into their workforce. He advocates for a balanced approach that combines top-down and bottom-up strategies, empowering early adopters to pioneer use cases while fostering continuous feedback loops between users and developers. This approach not only enhances productivity but also encourages cross-functional collaboration, breaking down silos and creating unified insights across teams.

The conversation addresses common misconceptions about AI, particularly the fear that AI will replace human workers. Artem emphasizes that AI is a tool designed to enhance productivity and should be seen as a co-pilot rather than a threat. He underscores the importance of developing AI literacy across all levels of the workforce, ensuring that employees are equipped to harness AI's potential to drive innovation and growth.

Whether you're an employer looking to integrate AI into your operations or a professional aiming to stay ahead in a rapidly evolving job market, this episode offers valuable takeaways on how to navigate the AI-driven landscape.

3004: The Intersection of AI, Analytics, and Content at WordPress VIP Aug 25, 2024

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I sit down with Nick Gernert, CEO of WordPress VIP, a platform that powers the web for some of the world’s most prominent brands, including CNN, Capgemini, and even The White House. Our conversation dives into how WordPress VIP is leveraging AI to reshape content creation and the broader impact this is having on the web content we interact with daily.

We explore the transformative role AI plays in enhancing the content creation process. Nick shares how AI tools developed by WordPress VIP are streamlining tasks like tagging, linking, and categorization, significantly increasing the efficiency of content creators. Yet, as advanced as these tools are, Nick emphasizes that AI is there to complement, not replace, human creativity. The goal is to offload mundane tasks to AI, allowing creators to focus on more value-added activities, ensuring the human touch remains at the heart of editorial judgment.

The conversation also touches on the importance of data in guiding content strategies. Nick introduces us to their Parsley content analytics solution, which brings data-driven insights directly into the content creation process. By making analytics more accessible, WordPress VIP enables content creators to make informed decisions that drive better engagement and ROI. We then turn our attention to the future of search and content consumption.

With AI increasingly influencing search algorithms, Nick discusses the potential disruptions to traditional SEO practices and the importance of adaptability. He underscores the resilience of open web standards and the need for businesses to continually evolve their digital strategies to meet changing user behavior.

Finally, we address the critical issue of web security in an era where data breaches are becoming more frequent. Drawing insights from the recent Netflix documentary on the Ashley Madison breach, Nick explains how WordPress VIP is helping clients safeguard their content and ensure that such breaches don’t happen on their watch.

Join me for a thought-provoking discussion on how AI is shaping the future of content creation, the delicate balance between automation and human oversight, and the evolving landscape of web security. How are you preparing for the future of content?

3003: REMspace and the Next Revolution in Brain Health and Lucid Dreaming Aug 24, 2024

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I have a conversation with Michael Raduga, the innovative CEO of REMspace, who is pushing the boundaries of brain science and consciousness.

Michael's journey from Siberia to Silicon Valley is nothing short of extraordinary. After experiencing lucid dreams and sleep paralysis as a teenager, he became fascinated with the dream world and its potential. This fascination led him to perform a self-implantation of a neural chip, a bold experiment aimed at exploring the power of REM sleep.

We explore how REMspace is at the forefront of developing groundbreaking technologies designed to harness lucid dreaming, with implications that could transform mental health, education, and entertainment. Michael explains how his personal experiences shaped his vision and how his self-experimentation might pave the way for future innovations in neuroscience.

We also discuss the ethical challenges that come with such advancements, including the risks of dream "hacking" and the importance of developing these technologies responsibly. Michael shares his hopes for a future where lucid dreaming becomes a widely accessible tool, offering experiences that go beyond the limitations of physical reality.

Join us as we explore the fascinating possibilities of merging dream and reality with Michael Raduga on Tech Talks Daily. Could this be the next step in unlocking the full potential of the human mind?

3002: EY’s Take on AI and the Evolution of Global Tax Regulations Aug 23, 2024

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I sit down with Marna Ricker, EY's Global Vice Chair of Tax, to explore the intersection of emerging technologies, diversity, and the evolving landscape of global tax regulation. With over 28 years at EY, Marna is a transformational leader whose passion for authentic leadership and inclusive empowerment has not only shaped her career but also the future of the tax profession.

We begin our conversation by diving into the impact of AI and generative AI on the tax industry. Marna shares insights on how these technologies are revolutionizing the way tax professionals manage and analyze vast amounts of data, automating processes that once required hours of manual effort.

However, with innovation comes risk, and Marna highlights the common pitfalls that tax departments face when adopting new technologies without a clear strategy. From getting lost in the allure of shiny new tools to the importance of starting simple and focusing on data standardization, Marna offers a balanced perspective on how to navigate the tech landscape effectively.

But the future of tax isn't just about technology. As global regulations evolve to create a fairer and greener world, tax professionals must adapt not only to new rules but also to changing workforce dynamics.

Marna discusses the trends shaping the future of tax, including the influence of sustainability initiatives, and how companies can leverage tax policies to drive ESG goals. She also delves into the human side of this transformation, emphasizing the need for inclusive leadership and a human-centered approach to change management.

Marna's leadership at EY is a testament to the power of diversity, equity, and inclusion in building high-performing teams. She shares the initiatives that EY has implemented, from inclusive leadership training to neurodiversity hiring programs, and how these efforts are making a meaningful impact across the organization.

Tune in to hear Marna's unique perspective on the future of tax, the role of technology in driving innovation, and the importance of fostering an inclusive culture in today's rapidly changing world. What steps can you take to future-proof your tax function and ensure you're not falling into the technology trap?

3001: Faculty Why Every Business Must Become AI-Driven Aug 22, 2024

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I'm joined by Dr. Marc Warner, the visionary founder of Faculty, a company dedicated to deploying safe AI systems that merge human expertise with artificial intelligence to deliver exceptional performance. With a rich background that spans over a decade of working with government agencies and leading brands, Marc is at the forefront of helping organizations harness the power of AI to make better decisions. Before founding Faculty, Marc was a Marie Curie Research Fellow in Physics at Harvard University, and his academic work has been featured in prestigious journals like Nature. Recently, he was one of the few London business leaders selected to attend the AI Safety Summit at Bletchley Park.

In our conversation, Marc makes a grounded and pragmatic case for the regulation of AI, emphasizing the importance of what he terms “mundane” or sensible AI regulation. He argues that while AI is often overhyped in the short term, it represents the most significant technological transformation of our time. Over the next decade, Marc believes that every business will need to evolve into a tech-driven AI business to survive and thrive. Those who lead in AI safety, he suggests, will not only protect their organizations but also set the standard for the industry, while those who remain on the sidelines risk falling behind.

Marc also shares insights into Faculty’s innovative AI solutions, which have had a profound impact on various sectors. From enabling large-scale terrorist content moderation, demanded by the UK Prime Minister, to powering NHS pandemic forecasting and optimizing millions of call center interactions, Faculty's AI applications demonstrate the tangible benefits of integrating AI into business strategies. Marc stresses that AI should not be siloed but instead woven into the fabric of an organization, enabling better human decisions and driving measurable business outcomes.

Throughout our discussion, Marc underscores the need for humility in engaging AI experts and the boldness required to overcome organizational barriers. He advocates for aligning AI initiatives with core business strategies rather than pursuing disconnected AI strategies, which often lead to wasted resources and missed opportunities.

Join us as we explore the future of AI with Dr. Marc Warner and discuss how businesses can effectively integrate AI to not only stay competitive but also lead in this new era of technological advancement. How will your business adapt to the AI-driven future, and what steps can you take today to ensure you’re on the right path? Tune in to discover Marc’s expert perspective on navigating these challenges.

3000: Vanta - The AI Advantage in Security and Compliance Aug 21, 2024

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I'm joined by Jeremy Epling, the Chief Product Officer at Vanta, a leading trust management platform that has been recognized as the #1 Most Innovative Security Company of 2024 by Fast Company. Jeremy brings a wealth of experience to the conversation, with an impressive career that includes over 16 years at Microsoft and 4 years at GitHub, where he played pivotal roles in product development and innovation. Now at Vanta, Jeremy is driving the company’s AI strategy to strengthen cybersecurity and compliance for organizations of all sizes.

During our discussion, Jeremy provides an insightful overview of his journey from major tech giants to his current role at Vanta. He shares how his deep-rooted passion for programming and product development led him to Vanta, where he is now focused on leveraging AI to revolutionize the way businesses approach security and compliance. With AI’s ability to analyze vast amounts of data quickly and accurately, Vanta’s solutions are helping companies streamline their compliance processes, saving them significant time while ensuring greater accuracy and trustworthiness.

Jeremy also delves into Vanta’s innovative use of AI in their product offerings, such as automated security questionnaires and trust centers, which are designed to bring tangible value directly to customers. He discusses how Vanta prioritizes transparency in their AI practices, ensuring that customers retain control over their data and processes. As the conversation progresses, we explore the findings from Vanta’s State of Trust report, revealing critical insights into how AI is shaping the future of cybersecurity. From the limited allocation of IT budgets to security to the growing comfort with AI regulations among UK leaders, Jeremy offers a comprehensive view of the current landscape and the role Vanta plays in navigating these challenges.

Join us as we uncover the potential of AI to fortify cybersecurity defenses, enhance compliance, and build trust in an increasingly complex digital world. Where do you see the future of AI in cybersecurity heading, and how can businesses stay ahead in this rapidly evolving field? Tune in to hear Jeremy Epling’s expert perspective and discover how Vanta is leading the charge in trust management.

2999: adMarketplace and the AI Revolution Aug 20, 2024

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I’m joined by Steven Read, an industry veteran who plays a pivotal role at adMarketplace, a company at the forefront of search advertising innovation. With over two decades of experience, adMarketplace has been instrumental in connecting high-purchase intent consumers with leading global brands like Home Depot, Wayfair, Best Buy, and Samsung through strategic, data-driven advertising. Steven brings a wealth of knowledge on how the rapidly evolving landscape of search advertising is being shaped by emerging technologies like conversational AI, large knowledge models (LKMs), and AI-driven automation.

During our conversation, Steven dives into the significant challenges of integrating search ads with conversational agents, a frontier that is both promising and complex. We explore the intricate process of aligning ads with these new AI-driven interfaces, focusing on user experience, alignment, and the critical role of incrementality in measuring success. Steven shares his insights into how these technologies are transforming search into a more engaging and conversational experience, and what that means for the future of digital advertising.

Another key topic we tackle is the decentralization of data. Steven provides a nuanced perspective on whether this trend is beneficial or detrimental to companies striving to optimize user experiences. We discuss how decentralizing data can empower better-informed decisions, yet also introduce challenges in measurement and consistency across different channels.

Steven also sheds light on the impact of large knowledge models (LKMs) and their potential to revolutionize the search ads industry. With LKMs reducing reliance on personal data and enhancing the ability to understand user intent, the landscape of search is poised for a transformation that could democratize access to advanced AI capabilities, enabling innovation beyond just the tech giants.

Finally, we delve into how adMarketplace is leveraging AI for automating processes like A/B testing and campaign optimization, allowing brands to gain deeper insights and accelerate development timelines. Steven emphasizes the importance of transparency, trust, and the evolving strategies required to connect with high-intent consumers in today’s fragmented search ecosystem.

Where do you see the future of search advertising heading, and how will AI continue to reshape this vital industry? Tune in to gain expert insights from Steven Read, and learn how adMarketplace is driving performance at scale in the ever-evolving world of search advertising.

2998: How Better.com is Transforming the Home Buying Experience With Tech Aug 19, 2024

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I'm joined by Vishal Garg, the dynamic CEO of Better.com, who is leading the charge to revolutionize the home buying experience. Vishal brings a wealth of knowledge about the mortgage industry and a forward-thinking perspective on how technology is reshaping the future of homeownership. Our conversation delves into his predictions for the housing market in 2024 and beyond, offering listeners an exclusive look at the trends that will define the real estate landscape in the coming years.

As we discuss the housing market's current state, Vishal shares his belief that 2024 will be a year of gradual recovery, with the market poised for a strong rebound in 2025. Despite the challenges of high-interest rates and limited inventory, recent improvements in market conditions and potential rate cuts hint at a promising outlook. Vishal contrasts his optimism with more conservative projections, highlighting how recent financial indicators and a potential economic soft landing could spur a quicker recovery than anticipated.

A key focus of our discussion is how Better.com is leveraging cutting-edge technology to streamline and digitize the mortgage process. Vishal explains how AI-driven innovations at Better.com are transforming the traditionally manual aspects of securing a mortgage, enabling customers to obtain pre-approvals in as little as three minutes and commitment letters within eight hours. He envisions a future where "buy it now" buttons on property websites will make purchasing a home as seamless as buying a product online, akin to the e-commerce revolution sparked by Amazon.

We also explore the broader challenges and opportunities within the mortgage industry, particularly the need to meet the evolving expectations of next-generation consumers who demand seamless digital experiences. Vishal discusses the competitive edge that Better.com has over traditional lenders, emphasizing the importance of adapting to the rapid pace of technology adoption to remain relevant in this ever-changing market.

Join us for this insightful conversation with Vishal Garg, where we uncover how Better.com is not just redefining the home buying process but also setting the stage for the future of digital homeownership. Where do you see the housing market heading in 2024, and how will technology continue to shape our experiences in real estate? Tune in to find out.

2997: Imperva’s Guide to PCI DSS 4.0 Compliance and Client-Side Protection Aug 18, 2024

How prepared is your organization to tackle the growing threat of client-side attacks? In this episode of the Tech Talks Daily Podcast, I sit down with Lynn Marks, Senior Product Director at Imperva, a Thales company, to discuss the rise of Magecart attacks and the implications of the newly updated PCI DSS 4.0 standards.

Client-side attacks, like Magecart, have been a looming threat since 2015, gaining significant traction as digital transformation accelerated during the global pandemic. As more businesses moved their operations online, the landscape for these attacks became increasingly fertile, putting sensitive customer data at risk. With the recent release of PCI DSS 4.0, the stakes have never been higher for organizations processing payments online. Lynn dives into the specifics of how these attacks operate, targeting vulnerable JavaScript to steal data directly from users, often without detection.

We explore the key updates in PCI DSS 4.0, particularly the new requirements that demand businesses inventory, authorize, and monitor client-side scripts more rigorously. Lynn shares practical insights on how companies can navigate these requirements, mitigate risks, and enhance cross-team communication to protect against these sophisticated threats.

What strategies should your business adopt to stay ahead of client-side attackers, and how can you ensure compliance with the evolving security standards? Tune in to this episode for an in-depth conversation on safeguarding your online transactions and staying resilient in the face of emerging cyber threats. After listening, I’d love to hear your thoughts—how is your organization adapting to the new PCI DSS 4.0 requirements?

2996: Human-Centric AI Innovation: Transforming the Modern Workforce Aug 17, 2024

What does it take to truly harness the power of AI in a way that augments rather than replaces human capabilities? In this episode of the Tech Talks Daily Podcast, I sit down with Ash Gawthorp, Chief Academy Officer at Ten10, to explore the critical intersection of AI and human-centric innovation. With a backdrop of PwC's 2024 Global CEO Survey revealing that 69% of CEOs anticipate the need for their workforce to develop new skills due to AI, Ash sheds light on how Ten10 is pioneering comprehensive training programs that equip employees with both technical expertise and essential soft skills.

Ash delves into how Ten10's training initiatives demystify AI, emphasizing its mathematical foundations rather than presenting it as a "magic" solution. By providing hands-on experiences that foster confidence and understanding, Ten10 empowers employees to evaluate, pilot, and implement AI tools securely and effectively. Ash also discusses the importance of holistic development, blending technical proficiency with communication, collaboration, and adaptability, ensuring that workers are prepared to navigate the evolving landscape of AI with confidence.

How can organizations foster a culture of continuous learning and ensure their teams are ready to drive meaningful innovation with AI? Join us as we explore these themes and more. Tune in, and don't forget to share your thoughts—how do you see AI shaping the future of work in your organization?

2995: The Power of Automation in Cloud Cost Management with Zesty Aug 16, 2024

How can businesses navigate the complexities of cloud costs while maximizing value across their operations? In this episode, we welcome Aviram Levy, Tech Evangelist at Zesty, to explore the current state of cloud usage and waste, and how companies can effectively manage and reduce these costs.

With nearly two decades of experience in IT and cloud technology, Aviram offers valuable insights into the challenges that businesses face when transitioning to the cloud’s on-demand model. He sheds light on the common pitfalls, such as the lack of visibility into cloud consumption, which often leads to unexpected and inflated bills.

Aviram discusses the critical role of FinOps in cloud cost optimization, explaining how dedicated teams and processes can bridge the gap between engineering and finance. He highlights best practices for implementing FinOps strategies, including the use of tools and automation to gain better visibility into cloud usage and to drive efficiency across cloud operations.

With economic volatility adding to the unpredictability of cloud costs, Aviram emphasizes the importance of proactive management and strategic planning.

At the heart of this discussion is Zesty’s innovative approach to cloud cost optimization. Aviram introduces Zesty’s solutions, which provide real-time visibility into cloud usage and offer automated recommendations to reduce waste and optimize resources.

He alsoexplains how Zesty’s automation engines can dynamically scale resources based on demand, ensuring that businesses only pay for what they truly need. Additionally, the newly launched platform, "Insights," is designed to help organizations prioritize and automate optimization opportunities, making cloud management more efficient and cost-effective.

Looking to the future, Aviram shares his vision for the next wave of cloud cost optimization, which will include deep tech solutions tailored to specific workloads like databases and containers. He also discusses the growing importance of multi-cloud support and the continuous advancements in automation that will further enhance cloud efficiency.

As businesses increasingly rely on cloud services, one pressing question remains: Are you doing enough to optimize your cloud costs and maximize the value of your cloud investments?

2994: Avalara on the Rise of E-Invoicing and What It Means for Businesses Aug 15, 2024

How is e-invoicing revolutionizing global trade, and why should businesses take notice? In this episode, we speak with Alex Baulf, VP of Global Tax at Avalara, to explore the rise of e-invoicing and its profound impact on commerce around the world.

As governments increasingly mandate e-invoicing across various geographies, businesses must adapt to this new digital era or risk falling behind. Alex, who serves on the European Commission's eInvoicing Technical Advisory Group and is a Board Member of the Digital Business Networks Alliance, offers a deep dive into e-invoicing, how it works, and why it's becoming a critical component of international trade.

E-invoicing, a digital document with structured, machine-readable data, is not just about compliance but transforming how businesses operate. Alex explains how e-invoicing streamlines processes, reduces costs, and enhances data quality, all while ensuring tax compliance in an increasingly regulated environment. He also discusses the role of tax authorities in driving this shift, particularly in the EU, where harmonization efforts are well underway, and in the US, where market-driven approaches are gaining traction.

The conversation delves into the regulatory landscape, highlighting how countries are mandating e-invoicing to close the "VAT gap" and increase tax revenue. By 2030, most countries are expected to have e-invoicing mandates, making it essential for businesses to prepare now. Alex shares practical advice on how companies can embrace e-invoicing strategically, from investing in scalable global solutions to focusing on data quality and integration. He emphasizes that e-invoicing should be seen as an opportunity for process automation and efficiency rather than just a compliance obligation.

Looking ahead, Alex touches on future trends in e-invoicing, including the growth of standardized formats like the PEPPOL network, the use of QR codes for public validation, and the expansion from e-invoicing to full e-document exchange. As businesses navigate this digital transformation, one question remains: Are you ready to harness the benefits of e-invoicing and stay ahead in the global marketplace?

2993: The Future of Cybersecurity Resiliency with Check Point Software Aug 14, 2024

What does it take for a business to survive and thrive in the face of cyber threats? In this episode, I sit down with Muhammad Yahya Patel from Check Point Software to explore the crucial concept of business resiliency in cybersecurity. As cyber attacks become more sophisticated and widespread, a business's ability to continue operating during and after an attack is more critical than ever.

Muhammad delves into the strategies that companies need to adopt to build a resilient cybersecurity framework, starting with identifying critical assets, ongoing risk assessments, and implementing multi-layered security measures.

We also discuss the significance of having a robust incident response plan and the importance of offsite backups and disaster recovery plans. In a world where email remains a primary attack vector—accounting for over 80% of initial cyber attacks in 2023—Muhammad emphasizes the need for advanced email security solutions. He shares insights on how AI and machine learning play a pivotal role in preventing email-based threats, from phishing to business email compromise.

The conversation then shifts to vulnerability management, which is essential to maintaining a solid security posture. Muhammad explains the importance of regularly patching vulnerabilities in software and hardware to prevent exploitation by attackers. He provides practical advice on how organizations can effectively identify, prioritize, and manage these vulnerabilities to reduce risks and maintain operational continuity.

Looking ahead, Muhammad is excited about quantum computing's potential to revolutionize data protection and enhance cybersecurity. He also highlights the ongoing advancements in AI and machine learning that push the boundaries of what’s possible in cybersecurity, ensuring that the field remains dynamic and ever-evolving.

As we conclude the episode, one question remains: Is your business truly prepared to withstand the inevitable challenges of the cybersecurity landscape? What immediate steps can you take today to ensure long-term resiliency? The time to act is now.

2992: How Typeform is Shaping Tech’s Future with Inclusive Leadership Aug 13, 2024

How can the tech industry foster a more inclusive environment, and what role does diversity play in driving innovation? In this episode, I sit with Aleks Bass, Chief Product Officer at Typeform, to explore these critical questions and more. Aleks shares her experiences with gender bias throughout her career, offering valuable advice for women navigating the challenges of the tech world. With a commitment to diversity, Aleks discusses why having more women in leadership roles is essential and how companies can support this journey.

At Typeform, diversity goes beyond gender; it creates a space where different perspectives and leadership styles thrive. Aleks reveals how Typeform, with a 50% female composition in its executive team, stays true to this commitment, ensuring that every voice is heard and valued. We also dive into Typeform's latest innovation, the Typeform for Growth suite, designed to help businesses capture, qualify, and convert leads more effectively. This new suite showcases how Typeform is leading the way in making data collection more engaging and intuitive, all while leveraging the power of AI to enhance customer acquisition.

Aleks also highlights the broader impact of these technologies on the industry. As businesses increasingly rely on personalized, data-driven interactions, tools like Typeform for Growth become essential in staying competitive. With features like interactive video forms, automated data enrichment, and AI-powered analysis, companies can create more profound, meaningful connections with their audiences.

As we wrap up the conversation, Aleks reflects on the future of tech and the importance of continuing to push for diversity and innovation. This episode sheds light on the challenges and opportunities within the tech industry. It leaves us with an important question: How can we all contribute to creating a more inclusive and innovative future in tech?

2991: Inside Vodafone’s Vision for 5G Standalone and UK Connectivity Aug 12, 2024

What does the future of connectivity in the UK look like, and how is Vodafone leading this transformation?

In this episode, I explore the world of 5G Standalone (SA) technology with Maria Grazia (MG) Pecorari, a leader at Vodafone driving innovation in telecommunications. MG introduces us to the concept of 5G SA, explaining how it differs from the current network infrastructure and what it means for Vodafone and the broader UK. As we investigate the technical advancements, MG sheds light on the most exciting capabilities that 5G SA will bring, from enhanced network slicing to dedicated, high-performance connections tailored for specific use cases.

We examine how this next-generation technology isn't just a step forward for connectivity but a leap that could revolutionize entire sectors. Imagine a future where the UK's public buildings—like schools, hospitals, and rail systems—are empowered by real-time, low-latency connectivity, enabling everything from immersive training for healthcare professionals to predictive maintenance for infrastructure. MG shares her vision for how 5G-powered technologies could provide critical support to the NHS, making hospitals more efficient and responsive to patient needs.

However with all this potential comes significant challenges. We consider the obstacles that stand in the way of widespread 5G adoption, including the need for increased investment to boost the UK's mobile network quality and 5G rollout. MG discusses Vodafone's commitment to overcoming these hurdles, highlighting their ambitious plans to invest £11 billion over the next decade to extend 5G SA coverage.

Throughout the conversation, MG provides fascinating insights into how 5G SA could transform beloved UK traditions, from how we experience sports and entertainment to how smarter, more connected environments could enhance our daily lives. The episode closes by reflecting on the broader implications of this technology, leaving us to ponder: How will 5G SA change how we live, work, and interact with the world around us?

2990: Securing the Future: Trend Micro’s Approach to AI PC Privacy Aug 11, 2024

How safe are we in the age of AI PCs? As AI technology becomes increasingly integrated into our everyday devices, the promise of faster, more personalized computing comes with a critical question: Are we truly prepared for the security and privacy challenges that follow?

In this episode, I sit down with Eric Shulze, VP of Product Management at Trend Micro, to explore the rapidly evolving landscape of AI PCs. With chip makers in a race to innovate, these new devices promise unparalleled speed and privacy by running generative AI locally on specialized neural processing units (NPUs). But as AI’s role expands, so do the concerns over data security and privacy.

Eric shares his insights on the potential risks associated with on-device AI, including the threat of compromised data and the spread of misinformation. We delve into the steps consumers can take to protect themselves, from choosing reputable vendors to implementing additional security layers. Eric also reveals how Trend Micro is stepping up to the challenge, with plans to roll out cutting-edge tools to safeguard AI PC users.

But it’s not all about the risks. We also explore the excitement surrounding AI innovation—how it’s transforming personalization and accessibility in tech, and why ethical considerations must be at the forefront of this revolution. Plus, Eric offers a unique glimpse into his own career journey, from studying zoology and working as a dolphin trainer to becoming a leader in the tech industry.

As AI PCs move from concept to mainstream reality, what do you need to know to stay safe and informed? Tune in to find out, and join the conversation on how we can balance innovation with privacy in the digital age. What are your thoughts on the future of AI PCs? Let us know!

2989: The Evolution of B2B Payments: Inside Quadient’s Innovative Approach Aug 10, 2024

Have you ever wondered how the business-to-business (B2B) payment landscape is evolving, and what the future might hold? In this episode, I sit down with Sarah-Jayne Martin, the Director of Financial Automation at Quadient Accounts Receivable, to explore how B2B payments are rapidly transforming to meet the demands of a more seamless, consumer-like experience.

As businesses strive to streamline payment processes, Sarah-Jayne offers invaluable insights into how B2B payment systems are currently lagging, with issues such as lengthy processing times and limited visibility. She explains how companies can learn from business-to-consumer (B2C) models, like text-to-pay, and discusses the pivotal role of AI and intelligent automation in driving this change.

Together, we delve into the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead as organizations navigate this transition, highlighting how the integration of digital finance functions can unlock greater efficiency and transparency in the B2B space.

How can businesses bridge the gap between B2B and B2C payment processes, and what does this mean for the future of financial transactions? Tune in to discover Sarah-Jayne's expert perspective, and join the conversation as we explore the next frontier in B2B payments.

2988: How Does Digital Transformation Foster Sustainability in Business? Aug 09, 2024

In a world where digital transformation is often seen as a pathway to efficiency and profitability, can it also pave the way for sustainability? This pivotal question forms the crux of our upcoming episode of Tech Talks Daily Podcast, where I sit down with Ricardo Lobo, CEO of Beontag. As a vanguard in the realm of RFID and IoT solutions, Beontag is at the forefront of a quiet revolution in the digital tagging industry, seamlessly blending innovation with ecological responsibility.

Ricardo Lobo brings his expertise from leading a company that believes every item has a digital voice. From their new state-of-the-art R&D Center in Tampere, Finland, to their forthcoming facility in Dayton, Ohio, Beontag is setting the benchmark for sustainable operations and smart technologies. With initiatives like the ECO Tag and investments aimed at amplifying production capacities while minimizing environmental impact, Beontag exemplifies how businesses can meet escalating sustainability and traceability requirements without sacrificing their bottom line.

Throughout our discussion, Ricardo will shed light on the unseen technologies that stitch together the processes of numerous industries, from luxury brands to smart cities. He will articulate how these innovations not only enhance operational efficiency and transparency but also empower companies to meet their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals.

In an era where businesses grapple with integrating climate-friendly practices with competitive, profitable operations, can the right digital tools offer a solution where sustainability and business success converge rather than conflict? Join us as Ricardo Lobo illustrates a reimagined business landscape where technology and sustainability are not at odds but are components of a unified strategy benefiting customers, companies, and the planet.

What are your thoughts on the intersection of technology and sustainability in business? Can digital innovations truly harmonize profitability with planetary health? Tune in and share your perspectives with us.

2987: Why Every Business Needs a Chief Data Citizen: Lessons from Collibra Aug 08, 2024

How can businesses effectively navigate the increasingly data-driven world we live in today? In this episode, we sit down with Felix Van de Maele, CEO of Collibra, to explore the pioneering role of the Chief Data Citizen and its vital importance in the modern business landscape.

Felix shares the journey and vision behind Collibra's decision to appoint the first ever Chief Data Citizen, a role that underscores the critical intersection of data governance and AI. As he explains, "You can’t have AI without data, and you can’t have an effective AI workforce without data citizens." We delve into the responsibilities and impact of this role, offering a comprehensive understanding of how it drives data-centric innovation and organizational success.

Discover why Collibra has always been ahead of the curve in recognizing the strategic value of data in shaping the future of work. Felix discusses the rationale behind this forward-thinking approach and why other companies should consider embracing similar roles to stay competitive in a rapidly evolving digital landscape.

Felix also sheds light on the rise of AI and the growing importance of data governance, providing insights into how businesses can leverage these trends to their advantage. Whether you're a tech enthusiast, business leader, or data professional, this conversation offers valuable perspectives on the role of data in driving meaningful change.

2986: How Automation Can Propel Finance Teams Towards IPO Success Aug 07, 2024

In this episode of the Tech Talks Daily Podcast, we sit down with Robert Israch, President of Tipalti, to explore the critical role finance automation plays in the growth and IPO readiness of tech companies. With the UK’s tech IPO market showing signs of revival, driven by potential listings like Raspberry Pi, the strategic insights and planning of finance teams are more crucial than ever. Rob shares his perspective on how excessive manual processes within finance departments can hinder growth and recovery, and how automation offers a path to efficiency and success.

Rob highlights the significant burden that manual processes place on finance teams. On average, processing a single supplier invoice can take 42 minutes, a time-consuming task that stifles growth and impedes strategic financial management. Efficient finance operations are essential for companies preparing for IPOs, and Rob discusses how automation can streamline these processes to provide the necessary financial visibility and control.

One of the main barriers to automation adoption is the skill gaps within finance teams, along with the challenge of selecting suitable tools and overcoming perceived complexities. Rob offers insights into how these barriers can be addressed and overcome, making the case for why finance leaders should prioritize automation.

Tipalti’s finance automation solutions are designed to help fast-growing tech companies streamline manual back-office processes such as accounts payable, expenses, and procurement. By automating these operations, companies can achieve a 50-80% reduction in workload, avoid the need for future hiring, improve controls and compliance, and gain better visibility into spending.

Rob shares compelling customer examples to illustrate the benefits of finance automation. For instance, Spitfire Audio was able to reduce its royalty payment process from six weeks to just 30 minutes, while Schoold avoided the need to hire an additional full-time finance employee. These examples underscore the transformative impact of automation on efficiency and strategic financial management.

For companies considering automation, Rob advises starting by researching options and working with vendors to evaluate fit through live demos. He emphasizes the importance of ease of implementation, user experience, and scalability in selecting the right tools.

Tipalti’s approach balances the breadth and depth of capabilities with simplicity, ensuring a positive customer experience and long-term fit. Built for fast-growth mid-market companies, Tipalti has a high customer retention rate, reflecting its ability to scale with its clients and support their evolving needs.

Join us for this insightful episode as Robert Israch discusses how finance automation can unlock new possibilities for growth and IPO readiness. How is your organization leveraging automation to enhance its financial operations? Share your thoughts and join the conversation!

2985: How SSDs Are Powering the Future of AI Aug 06, 2024

In this episode of the Tech Talks Daily Podcast, we are joined by Roger Corell, Senior Director of AI and Leadership Marketing at Solidigm. Roger brings his extensive expertise to discuss the transformative role of solid-state drives (SSDs) in enabling artificial intelligence (AI) and enterprise workloads. With a new product launch on the horizon, Roger provides an inside look at how Solidigm is pushing the boundaries of storage technology.

Solidigm, a leading provider of NAND flash memory solutions, offers one of the most comprehensive portfolios of enterprise SSDs. These solutions are designed to accelerate workloads, including AI, from the core to the edge, unlocking unprecedented performance while lowering costs and scaling efficiently. Solidigm's commitment to quality and reliability is evident through its rigorous testing and validation processes, ensuring their SSDs meet the highest industry standards.

Roger highlights the critical importance of storage for AI applications. As AI models and datasets grow exponentially, the need for fast, dense, and power-efficient storage solutions becomes paramount. SSDs offer significant advantages over traditional hard disk drives (HDDs), including vastly superior speed, density, and energy efficiency. Solidigm's SSDs, particularly the upcoming PCIe Gen 5 D7 series, are engineered to deliver industry-leading performance across all metrics, making them ideal for demanding AI workloads.

The conversation also delves into Solidigm's customer-centric approach. Roger explains how Solidigm collaborates closely with enterprise and cloud customers to optimize firmware and testing for real-world conditions. This collaborative effort not only accelerates time-to-market for their solutions but also ensures that the SSDs perform optimally in practical applications, beyond just peak specifications.

Roger shares compelling examples of the real-world impact of Solidigm’s SSDs. For instance, one hyperscaler was able to cut AI data preparation time by a factor of 50 by switching from HDDs to Solidigm SSDs. Similarly, OCIENT reported significant energy reductions in AI and HPC workloads using Solidigm’s QLCSSDs. These examples underscore the tangible benefits that advanced SSD technology can bring to AI and other high-performance computing environments.

Looking ahead, Solidigm is poised to sustain its leadership in high-capacity and high-performance SSDs, with plans to introduce next-generation drives exceeding 61TB. The company is also investing in edge data processing capabilities, recognizing the growing importance of data gravity in the AI landscape. By maintaining performance leadership, Solidigm aims to maximize the utilization of costly GPU servers, which are critical for AI training and inference.

Join us for this enlightening episode as Roger Corell provides a detailed overview of how SSDs are revolutionizing AI and enterprise workloads. How is your organization leveraging advanced storage solutions to enhance its AI capabilities? Share your thoughts and join the conversation!

2984: How Lenovo is Building Smarter AI for All Aug 05, 2024

In this episode of the Tech Talks Daily Podcast, we welcome Linda Yao, COO of Lenovo’s Solutions and Services Group. With her extensive experience overseeing Lenovo's AI services practice, Linda provides a deep dive into the current state of AI adoption and the strategic approaches businesses can take to bridge organizational gaps and scale AI effectively.

Linda leads Lenovo’s new AI Center of Excellence, which aims to establish internal AI standards and guide customers through their AI journeys. During our conversation, she shares insights from Lenovo’s recent CIO report, highlighting the pressing challenges and opportunities CIOs face in integrating AI into their operations.

One of the core themes Linda discusses is the pivotal role AI plays in driving digital transformation. Despite widespread interest in AI, many organizations struggle with implementing it effectively. Linda outlines the key obstacles, such as security concerns, data readiness, and change management, that companies must address to fully leverage AI's potential. She emphasizes Lenovo’s "security first, people-centric" approach, which ensures that AI implementations are secure, responsible, and tailored to the needs of the workforce.

The conversation also touches on the importance of data readiness. Linda explains how AI acts as a catalyst for improving data infrastructure and analytics maturity. She advises businesses to invest in robust data collection and management strategies to support AI initiatives, underscoring the need for a clear roadmap to balance speed and security.

Linda highlights the significant sustainability benefits AI can offer. She shares examples of how Lenovo has used AI to optimize processes and reduce resource usage, such as doubling the output of refurbished devices. These AI-driven efficiencies not only support sustainability goals but also enhance overall operational effectiveness.

For organizations looking to embark on or accelerate their AI journey, Linda provides practical advice on getting started. She stresses the importance of finding a trusted OT system integrator to navigate the complexities of AI technology and avoid common pitfalls. Linda also emphasizes the value of setting clear, measurable goals to guide AI investments and ensure they deliver tangible business outcomes.

Join us for this insightful episode as Linda Yao shares her expertise on how businesses can successfully adopt and scale AI. How is your organization approaching AI adoption and what challenges have you faced? Share your thoughts and join the discussion!

2983: RoviSys - How AI is Transforming Manufacturing Aug 04, 2024

In this episode of the Tech Talks Daily Podcast, we sit down with Bryan DeBois, the Director of Industrial AI at RoviSys, to explore the transformative potential of AI in the manufacturing sector. With a wealth of experience and insights, Bryan sheds light on how digital innovation is reshaping manufacturing processes and what industry leaders must do to stay ahead.

Bryan's role at RoviSys involves bringing cutting-edge AI solutions to manufacturing clients, driving improvements in processes that have long been considered optimized. He discusses the three primary categories of industrial AI: unsupervised learning for anomaly detection, supervised learning for predictive analytics, and autonomous systems for decision-making. Each category offers unique benefits, from monitoring and predicting equipment performance to making real-time decisions that enhance operational efficiency.

The conversation delves into the practical applications of AI in manufacturing. Bryan highlights how AI can tackle complex processes that traditional controls struggle to manage. Whether it's scheduling, production planning, or controlling unmeasurable system conditions, AI provides a sophisticated approach to overcoming these challenges.

A significant focus is placed on the sustainability benefits of AI. Bryan explains how AI projects can reduce energy waste and optimize processes, contributing to more sustainable manufacturing practices. This aspect is particularly relevant as manufacturers face increasing pressure to minimize their environmental impact.

Bryan emphasizes the importance of investing in data infrastructure and developing a robust operational technology (OT) data strategy. He advises companies to find a trusted OT system integrator to navigate the complexities of AI adoption, warning that those who delay risk falling behind their competitors.

For medium-to-large manufacturing companies embarking on a digital transformation journey, Bryan offers valuable guidance. He suggests starting with data readiness projects to prepare for AI implementation, noting that education on AI's current capabilities is crucial for overcoming resistance and fostering adoption.

Join us for this insightful episode as Bryan DeBois provides a clear vision for the future of manufacturing. How is your organization approaching digital innovation and AI? Share your thoughts and join the conversation!

2982: Com Laude - How Valuable is a Domain Name? Aug 03, 2024

In this episode of the Tech Talks Daily Podcast, we explore the fascinating world of domain names with Hayath Hussein, a seasoned expert currently with Com Laude. Hayath brings over 20 years of experience in the domain name industry, including a significant tenure as an in-house domain expert at a FTSE 100 company. Her insights cover the expansive growth and critical importance of domains in today’s digital environment.

Hayath's career journey is a testament to the dynamic nature of the domain industry. She has witnessed a remarkable evolution from an era with only a handful of domain extensions to today's vast landscape of over 2,000 options. This growth has significantly increased the complexity and importance of managing digital assets.

The importance of security and intellectual property protection has grown alongside the expansion of domain options. Hayath emphasizes the need for robust security measures to defend against threats such as DDoS attacks. She explains that brand owners today are much more educated and proactive about securing their digital presence.

A strong advocate for diversity in the workplace, Hayath believes in hiring based on potential. She shares inspiring stories of individuals from varied backgrounds thriving in the domain industry. This approach not only brings fresh perspectives but also enriches the talent pool, fostering innovation and growth.

Continuous learning and mentoring are cornerstones of Hayath's professional philosophy. She highlights the importance of providing ample training opportunities for employees at all levels. Whether through formal education, industry workshops, or self-directed learning, staying updated is vital in this fast-changing industry.

The intrinsic value of domain names extends beyond their role as digital addresses. Hayath discusses how premium domains can drive traffic, enhance brand awareness, and significantly contribute to business objectives. Securing relevant domains is crucial for protecting intellectual property and maintaining a competitive edge.

In tackling the persistent threat of DDoS attacks, Hayath advocates for a multidisciplinary approach to domain management. She offers practical advice on using technologies like anycast DNS and conducting regular audits to safeguard valuable digital assets.

Hayath's commitment to lifelong learning shines through as she shares her strategies for staying informed. From reading extensively to engaging with younger colleagues and clients, she continuously seeks to expand her knowledge and adapt to new challenges.

Join us for this insightful conversation that delves into the technical aspects of domain management while also highlighting the human element of building a successful career in this dynamic field. How has your experience with domain names evolved over the years? Share your thoughts and join the discussion!

2981: The Future of Secure AI Integration with Snyk Aug 02, 2024

How can organizations implement AI safely while reaping its benefits? In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, we sit down with Danny Allan, the Chief Technology Officer of Snyk, to discuss this crucial topic.

Recent findings from a Snyk survey reveal that a significant majority of IT managers are concerned about their teams' over-reliance on AI code completion tools, potentially bypassing essential security protocols. With developers facing high burnout rates, the pressure to adopt AI is intensifying. However, as Danny Allan emphasizes, the solution lies not in banning AI but in strategically integrating these tools within organizations.

Danny shares Snyk’s innovative approach to AI adoption, which includes providing security guardrails and thorough analysis to ensure AI tools are utilized securely. He discusses how Snyk partners with customers to mitigate risks and enhance productivity without compromising security. By implementing a clear plan for AI integration and partnering with experienced vendors like Snyk, companies can balance the productivity gains of AI with robust security measures.

We also explore a real-world example where a team of 5000 developers successfully rolled out an AI coding assistant with Snyk's security analysis, achieving significant productivity gains. Danny delves into Snyk’s AI Intelligence Framework, which focuses on using AI internally, securing AI implementations, and enhancing products and services with AI capabilities.

Are you interested in learning more about how to securely implement AI in your organization? Tune in to hear Danny Allan's insights and discover how Snyk can help you navigate the complexities of AI adoption. As always, we invite you to share your thoughts and experiences on this topic. How is your organization approaching AI integration, and what challenges have you encountered?

2980: The Evolution of the CISO Role and NetSPI’s Impact on Cybersecurity Leadership Aug 01, 2024

In today's episode of Tech Talks Daily, I sit down with Nick Walker and Giles Inkson from NetSPI to explore how proactive approaches are reshaping cybersecurity. NetSPI recently rebranded and launched a unified security platform designed to help organizations take a more proactive stance against cyber threats. This platform combines Penetration Testing as a Service (PTaaS), Attack Surface Management (ASM), and Breach and Attack Simulation (BAS) to provide a comprehensive view of assets, risks, and security improvements.

We discuss the latest trends in cybersecurity, including the rapid adoption of generative AI and the complex risks it introduces. As cyber attacks grow more sophisticated, there's a significant shift towards holistic risk management beyond just vulnerability patching. This involves understanding critical assets and the pathways that could be exploited.

The role of the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) is evolving too, with an increasing focus on board-level communication and strategic risk management. CISOs are now essential in translating cyber risks to leadership and ensuring cost-effective security programs.

We also discuss the EU's Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA), set to take effect in January 2024. This regulation mandates practices like threat-led testing and intelligence sharing for financial institutions, aiming to enhance resilience through rigorous scenario-based tests and improved information sharing.

How do you see the role of proactive measures in cybersecurity evolving? We'd love to hear your thoughts. Connect with us online to continue the conversation and learn more about the topics we covered today.

2979: AI and the Future of Personalized Education with Memrise Jul 31, 2024

How is artificial intelligence transforming the way we learn? In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, we explore this question with Steve Toy, CEO of Memrise, an AI-powered language-learning app with over 70 million users. Recently recognized as the #2 EdTech company by TIME Magazine, Memrise leverages AI to create individualized learning experiences that are reshaping education.

Steve Toy shares insights into how Memrise uses AI to tailor language-learning content based on user interests and vocabulary levels. With Membot, their innovative AI tutor, users can practice language skills in real-time, judgment-free environments. This AI-driven approach not only enhances learning efficiency but also makes education more accessible and personalized.

We discuss the broader implications of AI in education, including how teachers can use AI to design customized lessons for each student. Steve envisions a future where struggling students receive affordable, personalized support through AI tutors, democratizing access to quality education.

Join us as we uncover the potential of AI to revolutionize education, making it more engaging and effective for everyone. What are your thoughts on the role of AI in learning? We'd love to hear from you. Connect with us online to continue the conversation and find out more about the topics we discussed today.

2978: CitiusTech - A Discussion About Generative AI's Role in Healthcare Jul 30, 2024

In an era where technology touches every aspect of our lives, how is it shaping the future of healthcare? Join us on today's episode of Tech Talks Daily as we engage in a fascinating discussion with Rajan Kohli, the CEO of CitiusTech, a pioneering digital tech services provider in healthcare. With over 28 years of experience in tech services and consulting, Rajan shares his insights on the transformative power of technology in the healthcare sector.

Despite significant investments in digital transformation, many organizations need a data-driven culture and process efficiencies to succeed. Rajan provides a roadmap for successfully implementing digital transformation strategies that can change this outlook, emphasizing the need for a shift in mindset and approach.

We also explore the exciting realm of generative AI and its potential to revolutionize healthcare. Rajan explains how this technology makes treatments more human-centric, automates mundane tasks, and paves the way for innovative healthcare solutions. He highlights the importance of trust in AI solutions, especially in healthcare, and introduces CitiusTech's Gen AI Quality & Trust solution to ensure safe and accurate care decisions.

Moreover, Rajan discusses the critical challenges and opportunities in healthcare technology, from improving interoperability and aligning incentives across the value chain to integrating social determinants of health data for more holistic care.

Tune in to learn how CitiusTech is spearheading these innovations and what the future holds for healthcare technology. What are your thoughts on the impact of technology in healthcare?

2977: AI-Driven Marketing and Personalization at Scale With OgilvyOne Jul 29, 2024

How is Generative AI reshaping personalized marketing? In this episode, we sit down with Ravi Pal, the Global CTO of Ogilvy One and Verticurl (a WPP Company), to delve into this pivotal question. Ravi, a seasoned technologist, has a wealth of experience in orchestrating enterprise solutions and fostering interactive experiences. His leadership has driven teams to create groundbreaking solutions that merge creativity, technology, and data.

Generative AI has become ubiquitous in the marketing industry, with nearly three-quarters of marketers incorporating it into their workflows. The technology promises to unite disparate data sets, unlocking the personalized marketing that brands desire and customers expect. But, while the potential rewards are substantial, the implementation of Gen AI in marketing is often more experimental than strategic.

In this engaging conversation, Ravi Pal discusses the challenges and opportunities of integrating Gen AI effectively to deliver personalized content that converts potential consumers into long-term customers. We explore key topics such as the importance of high-quality data, the benefits of custom AI models, and the need for balancing AI efficiency with brand uniqueness. Ravi also emphasizes the critical role of AI education across organizations and the importance of transparency and explainability in AI systems.

Join us as we navigate the complexities of Gen AI in marketing and consider whether it can truly fulfill the promise of personalized marketing at scale. Will brands be able to harness this technology to differentiate themselves and build genuine customer connections? Listen in to find out and share your thoughts on this evolving landscape.

2976: How Stenn is Transforming FinTech With its Data-Driven Approach Jul 28, 2024

How does a company achieve an 80% profit surge in just one year? In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I learn more about the remarkable journey of Stenn, a fintech powerhouse that has revolutionized financing for small and medium businesses globally. Join me as I sit down with Bilal Bajwa, Stenn’s Chief Product and Technology Officer, to uncover the data-driven strategies behind their record-breaking growth in 2023.

Bilal shares insights on the technological innovations and data-centric approaches that have propelled Stenn to the forefront of the fintech industry. We explore how Stenn's algorithms analyze credit, fraud, and compliance risks to deliver superior customer experiences and discuss the company's role in advancing the UK’s ambitions to become a global fintech leader.

Additionally, Bilal explains the strategic decision to open a second tech hub in Barcelona and how this expansion supports Stenn’s mission to provide fast, reliable financing to underserved businesses, particularly in emerging markets.

Discover the story behind Stenn's success and gain valuable insights into the future of digital financing. How is data transforming the fintech landscape, and what does it mean for businesses worldwide? Listen in and join the conversation.

What are your thoughts on Stenn's data-driven approach to transforming the fintech industry? Share your insights and join the conversation.

2975: AI in Cybersecurity: Balancing Innovation and Risk Jul 27, 2024

Are you prepared for the ever-evolving cybersecurity threats that challenge today's businesses? In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, we sit down with Dave Merkel, CEO of Expel, to delve into the dynamic world of cybersecurity. With threats becoming more sophisticated and frequent, organizations must stay ahead of the curve to protect their assets and data.

Dave Merkel brings a wealth of experience and insights into the conversation, discussing the latest trends in cybersecurity and offering practical advice on how both organizations and individuals can prevent and mitigate cyber attacks. We'll explore the role of AI in the security landscape, considering its potential as both a powerful tool for defense and a formidable weapon for attackers. How can AI support security professionals, and what are the risks involved?

Another critical topic we'll tackle is the preparedness of CEOs in understanding cybersecurity. Are business leaders equipped with the necessary skills to make informed security decisions, and how can this influence the overall security posture of their organizations?

Expel, as a leading managed detection and response provider, aims to minimize business risk and enhance security capabilities for organizations of all sizes. Join us as we unpack these pressing issues with Dave Merkel, gaining valuable perspectives on navigating the complex cybersecurity landscape.

Tune in to discover:

The latest cybersecurity trends and how to stay protected.
The dual role of AI in enhancing and challenging security efforts.
The importance of cybersecurity literacy among CEOs and its impact on business decisions.

Don't miss this enlightening conversation, and be sure to share your thoughts with us. How are you tackling cybersecurity challenges in your organization? Let's continue the discussion.

2974: Revolutionizing Software Development with API Mocking Techniques Jul 26, 2024

How do you transform a developer's toolkit to speed up innovation and cut down time-to-market? In our upcoming episode, we welcome Uri Maoz, Co-Founder and CEO of WireMock Cloud, to dive into the dynamic realm of API Mocking.

WireMock Cloud leverages the power of its widely recognized open-source API mocking framework, helping tens of thousands of developers at giants like IBM and PayPal enhance their productivity by creating more controlled, isolated development environments.

Uri brings a wealth of experience, not only in fostering a company's growth from the ground up but also in carving out a niche within the fiercely competitive tech space, managing to secure $6.5M in seed funding. His journey involves transitioning from CRO roles at various startups to leading WireMock in developing a sustainable monetization strategy atop their open-source software (OSS) framework—a feat many OSS companies find daunting.

Throughout the episode, Uri will share invaluable insights on:

The significant role of API Mocking in boosting developer productivity and its application across the API lifecycle.
The evolution of WireMock from its origins as an OSS project to a commercial platform powering developer efficiency.
Diverse go-to-market strategies around OSS and how Product-Led Growth (PLG) intertwines with traditional enterprise sales.

Join us as we uncover how strategic API mocking not only resolves dependency issues but also fosters an environment of innovation. How can your organization leverage these tools to enhance developer efficiency and reduce go-to-market timelines?

2973: Arun Gupta on Customizing CRM Software for Success at Sony Pictures and Beyond Jul 25, 2024

Could the rapid evolution of CRM systems be the hidden game changer in today's business environment? In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, we sit down with Arun Gupta, a seasoned Microsoft Dynamics 365 architect and CRM specialist who's reshaping client experiences at Sony Pictures Entertainment.

Arun unravels the story behind a transformative CRM implementation that not only streamlined operations but also enhanced business outcomes on a global scale. From the meticulous selection of the right CRM system to overcoming integration hurdles with existing technologies, Arun provides a masterclass on navigating complex CRM scenarios. He emphasizes the critical role of user adoption and the often underestimated challenge of maintaining high-quality data within these systems.

As we delve into the technical specifics, Arun explains the importance of integrating CRM with other business technologies like ERP and marketing automation to create a unified platform for customer management. This synergy, he argues, is essential for aligning sales, marketing, and operations, leading to improved customer relations and data-driven decision-making.

However, it's not without its pitfalls. Arun candidly discusses common missteps such as inadequate planning and insufficient training that can derail a CRM project. Looking ahead, he predicts the future of CRM will be heavily influenced by AI and machine learning, pointing to a trend towards omnichannel and cloud-based platforms that prioritize data privacy and security.

What insights can businesses draw from Arun's experiences to avoid these pitfalls and leverage CRM technologies effectively? After listening, join the conversation and share your thoughts on how CRM systems are revolutionizing customer engagement in your industry.

2972: Demystifying Wi-Fi 7 with NETGEAR Jul 24, 2024

Have you ever wondered how the latest advancements in Wi-Fi technology could revolutionize your connected home? In today's episode of Tech Talks Daily, I sit down with Gary Newson, EMEA Sales Director at NETGEAR, to demystify Wi-Fi 7 and explore its groundbreaking potential.

Wi-Fi 7 promises to elevate our connectivity experiences to new heights, offering increased capacity, faster speeds, and enhanced performance compared to its predecessors.

Gary Newson sheds light on how this new standard will support the growing number of smart home and IoT devices, ensuring seamless connectivity with reduced interference. We delve into the specifics of Wi-Fi 7, discussing its ability to handle up to 200 devices simultaneously and its impressive speeds of up to 5Gbps for clients.

In our conversation, Gary also explains how NETGEAR is preparing for this shift by developing innovative Wi-Fi 7 products like advanced mesh systems. These systems promise to extend coverage and provide robust connections throughout the home. We also touch on the enhanced security features of Wi-Fi 7, such as network segmentation and faster security patch rollouts, which are crucial for protecting smart and IoT devices.

Join us as we unpack the benefits of Wi-Fi 7 for consumers, its impact on smart homes and IoT, and how NETGEAR's upcoming products aim to future-proof our digital environments. Gary shares insights into how this technology will transform streaming, gaming, entertainment, and hybrid working experiences.

What excites you most about the potential of Wi-Fi 7?

2971: Bloomerang and Generative AI Pioneering Nonprofit Innovation Jul 23, 2024

How can small-to-medium nonprofits leverage the power of generative AI to enhance their operations and outreach? This is the question at the heart of our conversation today with Tammy Hammond, Chief Product Officer at Bloomerang, on The Tech Talks Daily Podcast.

In this episode, Tammy delves into the untapped potential of generative AI for nonprofits, highlighting its ability to save time and create compelling content. Unlike traditional AI, which relies on known data sets to find insights, generative AI is transformational in storytelling and message conveyance.

Tammy shares her optimism about this technology, especially for nonprofits with limited resources, explaining how it can significantly reduce the time required for tasks such as grant writing and content editing. She emphasizes the importance of introducing generative AI in an approachable way to alleviate apprehensions and maximize its benefits.

We explore the intersection of AI with donor and volunteer management, discussing how Bloomerang is embedding generative AI into their platform to simplify user experience and lower the learning curve. Tammy outlines key areas of focus, including email and content generation, personalized donor journeys, and video creation, combining generative AI with predictive AI to enable highly personalized donor experiences.

Tammy also addresses the challenges nonprofits face in adopting new technologies, particularly concerns about data privacy and ethics. She shares insights on how Bloomerang is working to embed AI into existing workflows to create an AI-empowered experience, with a focus on user-friendly design and structured prompts.

Tune in to learn more about the future opportunities for generative AI in the nonprofit sector, including content repurposing, personalized learning resources, and generating ideas for events and campaigns. As we look ahead to upcoming product launches and developments, Tammy provides a glimpse into how these innovations will continue to evolve and support the nonprofit community.

What do you think about the potential of generative AI in the nonprofit sector? Share your insights and join the conversation!

Learn more about the AI content assistant release

2970: How LeddarTech is Leading the Way in ADAS and Autonomous Driving Jul 22, 2024

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, we have the pleasure of speaking with Frantz Saintellemy, a key figure at LeddarTech, a company that is at the forefront of revolutionizing the automotive industry. LeddarTech’s software is making waves by helping auto manufacturers deliver safer vehicles through advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and autonomous driving (AD). By unifying all sensor data, LeddarTech’s solution provides a more accurate and actionable snapshot of a vehicle's environment, significantly enhancing safety and performance.

Frantz Saintellemy shares insights into how LeddarTech’s sensor fusion and perception software, which is both sensor and processor agnostic, is setting new standards in the industry. This innovative technology allows automakers the flexibility to choose their hardware, reduces costs, and delivers improved performance across a range of vehicle models from entry-level to premium. With over seven years of experience and a robust portfolio of 150 patents (80 granted), LeddarTech has a strong early mover advantage in this fast-growing market, expected to reach $42 billion by 2030.

Having recently gone public on NASDAQ, LeddarTech is poised for significant growth. Frantz discusses the company’s strategic priorities, including new software releases, expanding partnerships, and converting OEM projects into major design wins. Join us as we delve into the challenges and opportunities in the ADAS and AD market, and discover how LeddarTech is driving the future of safe and efficient driving.

2969: How Onapsis is Bridging the Gap Between AI Innovation and Cybersecurity Jul 21, 2024

The AI landscape is experiencing a remarkable surge in investments, especially following ChatGPT's one-year milestone, showcasing the transformative potential of these models.

However, this rapid progress has also highlighted a significant gap in cybersecurity readiness among organizations. According to McKinsey, while 40% of companies plan to increase their AI investments, only 38% are actively working to mitigate the associated cybersecurity risks. This discrepancy underscores the critical need for a balanced approach that leverages AI's benefits while ensuring robust cybersecurity measures.

In this episode of the Tech Talks Daily Podcast, we speak with JP Perez-Etchegoyen, CTO of Onapsis to delve into the critical aspects of AI and cybersecurity strategy from a CEO's perspective. Mariano brings a wealth of experience to the discussion, providing valuable insights into the leadership imperative in steering organizations toward responsible AI adoption.

JP emphasizes the pivotal role of CEOs in guiding their companies through the complex landscape of AI adoption. He discusses the importance of developing a nuanced strategy that harnesses the potential of generative AI while maintaining a strong focus on cybersecurity. This approach ensures that innovation and security go hand in hand, safeguarding the organization against emerging threats.

We explore the specific challenges that come with integrating AI into business operations, particularly the need to address vulnerabilities and mitigate risks. JP shares strategies that enable organizations to make the most of AI technologies without compromising their security posture. He highlights the importance of proactive measures, continuous monitoring, and the integration of AI with existing security frameworks to create a resilient and secure environment.

2968: ORCA Computing's Breakthrough in Photonic Quantum Computers Jul 20, 2024

In this episode of the Tech Talks Daily Podcast, we dive into the fascinating world of quantum computing with Richard Murray, CEO and co-founder of ORCA Computing. ORCA, a spin-out from Oxford University, is pioneering the development of photonic quantum computers that are robust, portable, and operable at room temperature. This innovative approach eliminates the need for the complicated and cumbersome cryogenics required by other quantum computing platforms.

We explore how ORCA Computing is making waves in the quantum computing industry, building and selling their cutting-edge technology from their headquarters in London, right beside Paddington Station. Notably, the UK government recently acquired its first quantum computer from ORCA for the Ministry of Defence, with ambitions for it to function under field conditions, even on the back of a Land Rover.

Richard shares insights on why ORCA has sold five quantum computers worldwide in the last two years and who their primary customers are. We discuss the factors driving the demand for these advanced systems and the competitive advantages of photonic quantum computing. Richard explains how photonics stands out against other quantum computing platforms and addresses common concerns about committing to a specific technology amid ongoing advancements.

We also delve into the technical challenges of quantum computing, such as error correction and fault tolerance. Richard provides an update on how ORCA is tackling these issues and gives his perspective on when quantum computers might outperform the best existing high-performance computers.

The conversation touches on the global quantum computing arms race, highlighting the unique position of a UK-based company like ORCA competing with industry giants such as IBM and Google. Richard discusses the recent acquisition of the Integrated Photonics Division of GXC in Austin, Texas, and how this strategic move enhances ORCA's capabilities and positions them at the forefront of quantum computing innovation.

2967: HED's Cutting-Edge Technologies for Greener Data Centers Jul 19, 2024

In this episode of the Tech Talks Daily Podcast, we speak with Sara Martin from HED about the evolving landscape of data center design. As data centers account for approximately 1% of global electricity usage, the push for sustainability and efficiency in their design has never been more urgent.

Sara shares insights into HED's innovative approach to creating energy-efficient and sustainable data centers. This includes the adoption of modular systems, liquid cooling technologies, and the integration of renewable power sources. She emphasizes the importance of designing with flexibility and scalability in mind to accommodate future growth in AI and other technologies. Proper planning and the use of scalable "blocks" can prevent the need for expensive relocations and ensure business continuity.

A significant portion of our conversation focuses on preventing power failures, a common cause of unplanned outages in data centers. Sara discusses the importance of investing in uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) and the role of proper operations, training, and preventative maintenance in avoiding such failures. She also highlights the benefits of using modular prototypes and maintaining consistent design across data halls to enhance efficiency and reliability.

Sara introduces us to emerging trends in data center design, such as liquid immersion cooling for high-density racks and the use of mass timber construction for sustainability. These innovations not only improve energy efficiency but also offer practical solutions to the growing power demands of data centers.

2966: How Pindrop is Pioneering Role in Combating Deepfake Technology Jul 18, 2024

In this episode of the Tech Talks Daily Podcast, we sit down with Vijay Balasubramaniyan, the CEO and Founder of Pindrop, to discuss the alarming surge in AI attacks and the emerging threats posed by deepfake technology. With a staggering 450% increase in AI attacks in just the first four months of this year, the urgency to understand and combat these threats has never been greater.

Vijay offers an in-depth analysis of the drivers behind this surge, including the rise of voice cloning tools and the innovative, yet dangerous, uses of synthetic media. We delve into the recent instances of deepfake technology being used in political campaigns and elections, such as the false audio tape of President Biden, and the potential impact these technologies could have on the upcoming elections.

As the founder of the industry's first deepfake detection engine, Vijay shares the challenges faced in developing this groundbreaking technology and how it effectively detects synthetic media. He also highlights the crucial role of state and federal officials in defending against these threats, emphasizing the need for coordinated efforts to ensure the safety and integrity of our digital landscape.

Vijay discusses the importance of concerted state-federal coordination in combating the spread of synthetic media. He provides insights into the legislative actions being considered for 2023 and beyond, aimed at addressing the challenges posed by deepfake technology.

2965: How Digital Realty is Driving AI Growth Through High-Performance Infrastructure Jul 17, 2024

In our latest Tech Talks Daily Podcast episode, I sit down with Seamus Dunne from Digital Realty to explore the accelerating demand for compute power driven by AI and generative AI technologies. As these innovations push the boundaries of what's possible, the infrastructure supporting them must evolve at a matching pace—or risk being left behind.

Seamus delves into the heart of the matter, explaining how Digital Realty responds to the rising demand for high-performance infrastructure like GPUs and AI chips. He shares insights on how AI drives the need for robust data storage and efficient data access solutions. The discussion touches on the strategic importance of local investment in infrastructure to maintain competitive advantage, especially in regions like the UK.

We also explore the types of AI workloads becoming prevalent across various sectors. Currently, a significant portion of these workloads is dedicated to training models. Still, Seamus anticipates a shift towards inferencing as AI models mature and become integral to advanced products and services. This shift necessitates a robust and adaptable IT infrastructure strategy to deploy AI models alongside cloud services effectively.

Seamus highlights how data centers are pivotal in our daily digital activities—from streaming Netflix and conducting Zoom calls to online shopping and planning holidays. Beyond everyday conveniences, data centers are the powerhouse behind generative AI and other innovations driving economic growth.

Seamus discusses the evolving needs of AI infrastructure, emphasizing the importance of proximity to data centers for low-latency performance, particularly for AI inferencing. He also touches on the geographical advantages and challenges, noting how regions like the UK are well-positioned for AI growth while others, like Dublin, may need more support due to regulatory constraints.

2964: Innovating with AI: Maintaining the Human Touch in Software Development Jul 16, 2024

Have you ever thought about how studying philosophy could make you a better coder? Goldman Sachs' CIO Marco Argenti recently suggested that AI engineers dive into philosophy alongside their technical studies to enhance the quality of their code. While this idea may seem unconventional, it underscores a vital truth in the age of AI: soft skills and a human touch are just as essential as technical expertise.

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I'm joined by Rob Whiteley, CEO of Coder, to discuss what qualities organizations should seek in a coder beyond deep technical knowledge. We'll explore the importance of critical thinking, creativity, and human understanding, and delve into what coders should be studying to become well-rounded and successful. As AI increasingly becomes a go-to tool for faster coding, how can we ensure it doesn’t compromise quality and effectiveness?

Rob will share insights on the value of a broad liberal arts education, the need for continuous learning, and the crucial role of soft skills in the coding profession. We'll also tackle the ethical and intellectual property concerns surrounding AI-assisted coding, and why the human element remains indispensable for innovation and quality assurance.

Join us for a thought-provoking conversation that challenges conventional wisdom and highlights the multifaceted nature of coding in today's AI-driven world. What are your thoughts on the balance between technical skills and soft skills in coding? How do you see the role of AI shaping the future of software development? I'd love to hear your insights.

2963: How is AI Transforming Retail and Loyalty Programs? Jul 15, 2024

Are you curious about how artificial intelligence is reshaping the retail industry and revolutionizing loyalty programs? Join us in this engaging episode of the Tech Talks Daily Podcast as we sit down with Len Covello, CTO and co-founder of Engage People Inc. Len brings his expertise to the forefront, sharing insights on how AI is enhancing the retail landscape and the innovative ways Engage People is driving loyalty through their unique technology.

In our conversation, Len explains how Engage People has built a robust network allowing loyalty program members to pay with points directly at checkout. This novel approach not only provides an additional currency option but also significantly increases average basket sizes and drives more transactions. We'll delve into how this technology works across various industries, adding value for consumers and building trust in loyalty programs.

We'll also explore the broader impact of AI in retail. Len emphasizes that while AI isn't revolutionizing retail, it serves as a powerful tool for making more accurate decisions based on data analysis. From personalizing offers to optimizing inventory and pricing strategies, AI enables retailers to leverage data more intelligently, effectively "punching above their weight."

Further, Len will discuss current trends aimed at enhancing customer experiences, such as the integration of payment with points, the advent of one-time payment tokens, and the increasing importance of providing a seamless omnichannel experience. We'll also touch on the challenges retailers face, like inflation and competition in the loyalty card space, and how innovative solutions can help overcome these hurdles.

Looking ahead, we'll consider the future of loyalty programs. Len envisions a world where inter-brand partnerships provide a unified customer experience and AI drives hyper-personalized offerings. The ultimate goal? A "nirvana" customer journey that seamlessly integrates financial and retail partners.

Tune in to discover how Engage People is at the forefront of this exciting evolution in retail and loyalty, and how AI is poised to create more efficient, personalized, and engaging shopping experiences. Share your thoughts with us after the episode – how do you see AI transforming your shopping habits?

2962: Insights from "MBA Disrupted": Navigating the New Age of Entrepreneurship Jul 14, 2024

What does it take to thrive in today's competitive and ever-evolving entrepreneurial landscape? In this episode, I'm joined by Mario Peshev, CEO of DevriX and author of the new book "MBA Disrupted." Mario will share practical insights from his extensive experience as an entrepreneur and the framework he has developed for digital entrepreneurship success. From navigating economic downturns to leveraging AI tools for business efficiency, Mario's advice is not just theoretical, but actionable for aspiring and seasoned entrepreneurs alike.

We'll begin by exploring the current landscape of entrepreneurship. Mario will discuss the increased opportunities and heightened competition in the market, emphasizing the importance of perseverance, hard work, and adopting a CEO mindset. He'll also highlight why second-time entrepreneurs often see more success and the critical role of thorough research and preparation in avoiding failure.

As we delve into the economic factors affecting businesses in 2024, Mario will provide a realistic view of entrepreneurs' challenges, such as stricter funding environments, longer sales cycles, and cost-cutting measures. He'll offer strategies to adjust expectations and capitalize on hiring opportunities arising from industry layoffs. Mario will stress the importance of understanding economic cycles, a key factor in successful business adaptation.

We'll then focus on how businesses can make the most of events like Prime Day and the upcoming holiday shopping season. Mario will explain why, despite the significant revenue generated, these events may have a small impact on some business models, especially in the B2B and B2C sectors.

2961: How AI Proves Humans Used Fire 800,000 Years Ago Jul 13, 2024

Today, I'm delving into this fascinating intersection of archaeology and artificial intelligence with Dr. Filipe Natalio and Dr. Ido Azuri. Their groundbreaking research has utilized AI and spectroscopy to detect traces of ancient fire use in archaeological contexts, pushing the boundaries of what we know about early human innovation.

One of the highlights will be their findings at Qesem Cave, where evidence of fire use around 1 million years ago challenges previous assumptions about human ancestors and their technological capabilities. We’ll discuss how their interdisciplinary team dynamics contributed to their success, including memorable moments that shaped their research journey.

We'll also examine the broader implications of their discoveries for understanding early human innovation and adaptation. Their use of AI to uncover patterns in large archaeological datasets offers new insights into ancient human behaviors and technological evolution. Additionally, we’ll explore the future potential of AI in archaeology, considering other ancient technologies and behaviors that could benefit from this innovative approach.

Our conversation will touch on the skepticism they initially faced from archaeologists and the surprising discoveries that validated their methods. Ensuring the reliability and accuracy of AI-driven results in such a complex and data-sensitive field will also be a key topic. As we wrap up, Dr. Natalio and Dr. Azuri will share their excitement about future projects at the intersection of AI and archaeology, offering a glimpse into the next frontier of uncovering our ancient past.

Dr. Filipe Natalio and Dr. Ido Azuri's work at Qesem Cave not only challenges our assumptions about early human fire use but also highlights the transformative potential of interdisciplinary collaboration. What other mysteries of our ancient past might be unlocked with these cutting-edge techniques? We'd love to hear your thoughts on the future of archaeology and AI. Join the conversation and share your insights.

2960: Navigating AI Ethics, Tech M&A and Innovation With Deloitte Jul 12, 2024

How can businesses adopt AI responsibly while maintaining ethical standards and transparency? Join us in this episode of the Tech Talks Daily Podcast I welcome Deborah Golden, a distinguished leader from Deloitte, who brings a wealth of knowledge and experience in navigating the complexities of today's tech landscape.

In our conversation with Deborah, we delve into the ethical considerations of AI adoption, exploring how companies can ensure transparency in their AI operations and invest in workforce training to stay ahead. Deborah shares her insights on the rapidly evolving tech M&A landscape, predicting increased activity as businesses strive to accelerate their digital transformation and expand their technological capabilities over the next three quarters of 2024.

We'll also address the pressing issue of cybersecurity, discussing the most significant threats facing businesses today and how they can enhance their defense mechanisms. Deborah’s expertise sheds light on the innovative strategies companies can adopt to protect themselves against cyberattacks.

Looking ahead, we explore the future of tech innovation and how these advancements could reshape industry standards and consumer expectations in the coming years. Deborah’s dynamic approach to leadership and her ability to blend technological mastery with diverse industry acumen provide a unique perspective on engineering solutions that redefine the marketplace.

Blending technological mastery with a diverse industry background, Deborah navigates today's challenges by engineering solutions that redefine tomorrow’s marketplace. She transforms vision into tangible outcomes, uncovering novel pathways to innovation and turning potential into impactful progress.

Deborah's approach boldly explores the unconventional, leading with insight and provocation. Her dynamic track record illustrates that innovation transcends technological advancement, reshaping what’s attainable through the power of personal experience and the courage to think—and act—differently. Amid the rapid evolution of AI and other groundbreaking technologies, Deborah’s leadership sets new benchmarks for the future, inspiring change that impacts industries and communities alike.

2959: PwC Explores the Future of AI and Customer-Centric Marketing Jul 11, 2024

How can organizations strike the right balance between personalization and privacy in their customer-centric strategies? In this episode of the Tech Talks Daily Podcast, I sit down with Brad Herndon from PwC to delve into this complex issue. Brad, with his extensive experience in AI and transformation practices, provides a deeper understanding of the critical role data quality and integration play in effective AI and analytics.

During our conversation, Brad highlights the importance of ensuring data quality and consistency across various customer touchpoints—a longstanding challenge for many organizations. He discusses how integrating disparate data sources is not only difficult but crucial for gaining a comprehensive understanding of customer behavior. Solutions like customer data platforms (CDPs) are pivotal in unifying customer data, providing a clearer context for customer interactions.

We also explore the delicate balance between personalization and privacy. Brad explains that while customers desire relevant experiences, they also value their privacy and trust. This has led to a shift from individualized personalization towards audience-based strategies, which mitigate the risk of crossing privacy boundaries. By leveraging consented data and focusing on audience segments, organizations can tailor their marketing efforts without feeling intrusive.

Brad sheds light on the practical adoption of AI, emphasizing that while AI has the potential to automate tasks and improve efficiency, its implementation will be gradual. He advises starting with small, manageable AI projects to enhance operations before expecting a widespread transformation.

In our discussion, Brad elaborates on the transition from people-based to audience-based marketing strategies. He notes that most organizations are closer to adopting audience-based personalization and that automating dynamic audience segmentation based on changing behaviors is key. Privacy-enhancing technologies like data clean rooms also play a vital role in this transition.

We wrap up by discussing the future of AI in marketing and operations, with Brad sharing his thoughts on how AI will progressively transform business practices. He also addresses common myths and highlights exciting developments in the field.

Join us in this episode as we navigate the intricacies of data management, personalization, and AI with insights from Brad Herndon of PwC. How do you see your organization balancing personalization with privacy? Share your thoughts and let’s continue the conversation.

2958: Inside Asana: The Role of AI in Modern Work Management Jul 10, 2024

Are IT leaders prepared to harness the full potential of AI in today’s fast-paced business environment? In this episode of the Tech Talks Daily Podcast, I sit down with Paige Costello from Asana to explore this intriguing question. Paige, who leads AI strategy at Asana, shares her insights on the evolving role of IT leaders and how Asana's new AI-powered product features are shaping the future of work.

As the enterprise work management platform of choice for many Fortune 100 companies, Asana is at the forefront of connecting strategy to execution for cross-functional team collaboration. Paige discusses the significant responsibilities IT leaders now bear, with 77% feeling personally accountable for driving IT transformation and 90% believing AI is crucial for overcoming future business challenges. Yet, a surprising 31% of executives and employees report a lack of a strategic plan for deploying AI within their organizations.

We delve into Asana’s innovative approach to AI with the introduction of "AI Teammates," a feature designed to seamlessly integrate AI into workflows. This development leverages Asana’s unique data model, providing contextual accuracy that enhances productivity and decision-making. Paige also shares the future roadmap for Asana, which includes AI-powered reporting, visibility, and goal tracking.

Our conversation also highlights the changing dynamics within IT leadership. As AI becomes more integral, IT leaders find themselves increasingly consulted on AI strategy, a shift that brings both opportunities and challenges, such as the need for careful budgeting and managing the pace of AI adoption. Despite the enthusiasm among employees for AI, there remains a disconnect with cautious executives, often due to low AI literacy and a lack of strategic vision.

Throughout the discussion, Paige emphasizes the concept of collective intelligence—blending human and AI expertise to achieve superior outcomes. She notes that individuals can be up to 33% more productive when collaborating with AI as a teammate, enabling teams to tackle more complex tasks effectively.

Join me in this insightful episode as we unpack the transformative power of AI in IT leadership and explore how tools like Asana are paving the way for smarter, more efficient workflows. How do you see AI reshaping the role of IT leaders in your organization? Share your thoughts and let's continue the conversation.

2957: Creatio’s Rise to Unicorn: Transforming No-Code Development Jul 09, 2024

Can we harness the power of Gen AI and no-code technologies without losing control? This is the pressing question we address in today’s episode of the Tech Talks Daily Podcast. I sit down with Andie Dovgan, the Chief Growth Officer at Creatio, a company that has recently achieved 'unicorn' status with a valuation of $1.2 billion.

Creatio, a global leader in no-code platforms for automating workflows and customer relationship management (CRM), emphasizes the importance of embedding governance and control in the development of no-code and AI applications. As we explore these technologies' potential to democratize digital transformation, Andie sheds light on how Creatio ensures security, compliance, and risk management while enabling rapid, scalable enterprise application development.

We delve into how no-code and AI reduce barriers for non-technical individuals, allowing a larger pool of knowledge workers to contribute to automation and digital transformation. This approach significantly accelerates the time-to-market for digital initiatives compared to traditional development methods. However, with this speed and accessibility comes the challenge of maintaining robust governance frameworks to mitigate risks.

Creatio’s composable architecture and methodology provide a balanced approach, combining flexibility with security and compliance. Andie shares compelling success stories, including how a $3 billion company deployed a 7,000-user CRM app in just three months—an endeavor that would traditionally take over a year.

This episode also highlights Creatio's recent $200 million funding round, which will fuel further research and development into AI and no-code innovation, as well as global expansion. As we navigate the complexities of these transformative technologies, the conversation underscores the critical need for governance applications and frameworks to enforce necessary controls.

As we wrap up, we reflect on the future of Gen AI and no-code technologies. Can these innovations truly be managed and regulated effectively? How can companies like Creatio continue to lead the charge in this space while ensuring security and compliance?

Tune in to this thought-provoking episode and share your thoughts on the future of no-code and Gen AI. How do you see these technologies evolving, and what measures do you believe are essential to keep them in check? Let's continue the conversation.

2956: Lloyd's Lab Accelerator and Firebreak Risk: A New Era in InsurTech Jul 08, 2024

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, we dive into the world of insurance innovation with two visionary leaders: Rosie Denee, Head of Lloyd's Lab Accelerator, and Kate Stillwell, Co-Founder of Firebreak Risk. What role can groundbreaking technology play in tackling one of the most devastating natural disasters of our time? Join us as we explore how Firebreak Risk and Lloyd's Lab are revolutionizing the insurance industry.

Firebreak Risk stands at the forefront of using AI to transform the way we assess and manage wildfire risk. Their technology allows homeowners to document their property conditions through an app, converting photos and videos into critical data for underwriting. This innovative approach not only provides mitigation advice but also connects these actions to insurance eligibility and pricing, making homes 40% more likely to survive wildfires.

Lloyd's Lab Accelerator, part of Lloyd's, plays a pivotal role in fostering such groundbreaking innovations. By connecting startups with insurance expertise, Lloyd's Lab creates a dynamic environment where new ideas can flourish. An impressive 85% of participating startups establish commercial relationships with Lloyd's market, underscoring the accelerator's success in driving industry transformation.

In our conversation, Rosie Denee and Kate Stillwell shed light on how Lloyd's Lab supports startups like Firebreak Risk, enabling them to address increasing climate risks with agility and expertise. We delve into the broader implications of these innovations, not just for wildfires but for other climate-related risks as well. How do startups bring fresh perspectives and leverage new technologies to help insurers adapt to a rapidly changing world?

Tune in to hear Rosie and Kate discuss the significant impact of their work, the challenges they face, and the opportunities that lie ahead. How can we better mitigate wildfire risk and support the insurance industry's agility in responding to such events? Share your thoughts and join the conversation on this crucial topic.

2955: Mendix and the Future of Low-Code Development Jul 07, 2024

How can enterprises effectively manage the rapid growth of low-code platforms while balancing innovation and governance? In this episode, we sit down with Nick Ford, Chief Growth Officer at Mendix, to delve into the transformative potential and challenges of low-code development in modern enterprises. As the global low-code platform market is projected to grow significantly, with developers outside formal IT departments becoming the majority, the conversation couldn't be more timely.

Nick shares his insights on how enterprises can leverage low-code platforms to accelerate digital transformation while maintaining the necessary oversight to prevent the pitfalls of unchecked development. With bottom-up development presenting risks like duplicated functions and inconsistent workflows, it's crucial to establish strong governance and policy alignment to ensure security and compliance.

Key discussion points include the four essential elements for a successful multi-platform strategy: oversight, curation, governance, and policy management. Nick emphasizes the importance of understanding the software's value to the business and its potential for reuse across departments. By investing in long-term governance and establishing robust workflows, enterprises can achieve a faster, more sustainable low-code adoption.

We also explore the role of fusion teams in the low-code ecosystem, combining the expertise of citizen developers, business technologists, and professional developers to create a collaborative environment that addresses specific needs while ensuring reusability and best practices.

2954: How Can AI and Digital Transformation Revolutionize Your Personal Brand? Jul 06, 2024

Have you ever wondered how artificial intelligence and digital transformation can elevate your personal brand to new heights? In this episode of the Tech Talks Daily Podcast, I sit down with Vladimer Botsvadze, a globally recognized figure in digital marketing and AI, to explore the secrets behind building a powerful personal brand in today's rapidly evolving landscape.

Vladimer, a top global marketing influencer and advisory board member at the United States Artificial Intelligence Institute, brings over 15 years of international experience to our discussion. He shares his journey from modest beginnings on social media to becoming a thought leader followed by over 130,000 people across various platforms. His story is one of passion, authenticity, and strategic thinking, offering invaluable insights for anyone looking to navigate the complex world of digital branding.

We delve into how AI is transforming industries, providing companies with a competitive edge, and revolutionizing personal branding efforts. Vladimer shares practical strategies for leveraging AI tools to enhance content creation, automate tasks, and build authentic connections with audiences. His experience as a mentor at prestigious institutions like UCLA and a judge for numerous marketing awards adds depth to his advice, making it actionable for both aspiring entrepreneurs and established brands.

In our conversation, Vladimer emphasizes the importance of long-term thinking, storytelling, and emotional connections in building a brand that resonates. He also discusses the future of AI in business, predicting significant impacts on efficiency, operational costs, and workforce dynamics. Whether you're a marketer, entrepreneur, or tech enthusiast, this episode is packed with valuable takeaways to help you thrive in the digital age.

Join us as we explore the intersection of AI, digital transformation, and personal branding. How can you leverage these advancements to stand out and make a lasting impact? Listen in and discover strategies that can propel your brand to new heights.

What are your thoughts on the role of AI in personal branding? Share your insights and join the conversation!

2953: AI-Powered DeFi: Insights from VirtuSwap’s Founder Jul 05, 2024

How is technology reshaping our relationship with finance? In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, we dive into the revolutionary world of decentralized finance with Evgeny Lyandres, Founder of VirtuSwap.

VirtuSwap, a decentralized exchange platform, is making waves by providing direct liquidity for smaller-cap assets, offering traders significant cost reductions and liquidity providers higher returns.

Evgeny, a seasoned professor and blockchain expert, brings a wealth of knowledge from his extensive academic and professional background. He currently serves as the Professor of Finance and Head of the Blockchain Research Institute at Tel Aviv University and has been featured in leading finance journals.

Join us as we explore the unique technology behind VirtuSwap and its potential to transform the DeFi landscape. Evgeny will share insights on how AI is being leveraged within VirtuSwap to optimize liquidity allocation and enhance trading efficiency. We'll discuss the future of DeFi in the advancing AI landscape and the exciting possibilities that lie ahead.

Could AI be the key to unlocking the full potential of DeFi? What challenges and opportunities does this convergence of technologies present? Tune in to hear Evgeny’s expert perspective and join the conversation. Share your thoughts and let's envision the future of finance together.

2952: How BT Group's Incubation Hub Etc. is Revolutionizing Small Business Payments Jul 04, 2024

In this episode, I sit down with John Gutch, the FinTech Product Director at Etc., the incubation arm of BT Group. Have you ever wondered how small businesses can streamline their payment processes without investing in additional hardware? This episode brings exciting news for entrepreneurs and small business owners looking to modernize their payment systems with minimal hassle.

BT Group, in collaboration with the financial technology platform Adyen, has introduced the BT Tap to Pay app. This innovative solution allows small businesses to accept contactless payments directly via their iPhone, eliminating the need for additional devices. Available now on the Apple App Store, BT Tap to Pay leverages the iPhone's robust security features and the reliable EE network, enabling businesses to process payments from virtually anywhere.

John Gutch delves into how this service offers a competitive 1.4% transaction fee and ensures funds are available within 48 hours. This move addresses a significant pain point for small businesses—handling payments on the go or remotely. With early positive feedback from diverse sectors like driving instructors and food trucks, the BT Tap to Pay app is proving to be a game-changer.

Join us as we explore how BT’s innovative approach through its Etc. incubation arm is not only simplifying payment processes but also pushing the boundaries of what’s possible with emerging technologies. From converting old broadband cabinets into EV charging stations to continuously learning and evolving, BT is at the forefront of tech innovation.

How do you think technology like BT Tap to Pay can impact small businesses? Share your thoughts and join the conversation.

2951: RWS Group: How AI and Human Synergy is Enhancing Creativity and Efficiency Jul 03, 2024

Are we truly on the brink of a digital revolution where AI replaces human creativity and intelligence? A year ago, headlines suggested that AI could soon take over jobs, creating poems, art, and essays, and leaving humans redundant. But as we delve deeper, the reality paints a different picture: AI, on its own, lacks the purpose, creativity, and discernment that only humans can provide.

In today's episode, we sit down with Maria Schnell from RWS to explore the evolving relationship between AI and human intelligence. Maria shares insights into how AI, far from being an independent worker, needs human input to be effective. We'll discuss why AI, despite its incredible capabilities, often falls short without human oversight, leading to errors, biases, and a lack of creative nuance.

We'll challenge the notion that AI is a threat to jobs in fields like journalism, copywriting, and digital art, and instead highlight the emerging reality: AI and humans working together can achieve more than either can alone. Maria explains how AI can boost efficiency and productivity, while humans provide the essential context, creativity, and quality control.

We'll also delve into specific examples like translation, where the human touch is irreplaceable for understanding cultural nuances and engaging content creation. This episode shifts the conversation from a fear of AI replacing humans to how AI and human intelligence can complement each other to create Genuine Intelligence.

Join us as we explore how the future workforce can leverage AI and how AI systems can harness the irreplaceable human traits that drive innovation and creativity. How do you see the role of AI in your industry? Share your thoughts with us!

Tune in for an insightful conversation on the symbiotic relationship between AI and humanity, and discover why AI content just isn’t the same without human input.

2950: Cytora - How AI is Transforming the Insurance Industry Jul 02, 2024

Have you ever wondered how artificial intelligence is revolutionizing the insurance industry? In today's episode, we sit down with Zaheer Hooda, Head of North America at Cytora, a leading provider of AI-powered solutions for the insurance sector. Zaheer brings his extensive experience from McKinsey and his current role at Cytora to shed light on how AI is reshaping the way insurers operate.

Zaheer delves into the practical applications of AI in improving transparency within the insurance industry. He explains how AI technologies can streamline underwriting processes, reduce manual labor, and enhance underwriter productivity by digitizing and evaluating risk data. Zaheer highlights real-world success stories, including how Markel has seen a 100% increase in underwriting productivity thanks to Cytora’s AI-driven solutions.

We explore the complex nature of commercial insurance, which often involves lengthy and manual processes. Zaheer discusses how AI can navigate these complexities and help insurers adapt to changing real estate valuations due to climate change. He also touches on the future of AI in insurance, predicting that in the next 3-5 years, underwriters will rely more on AI-powered insights, leading to quicker, more accurate decisions and more affordable insurance options.

Transitioning from his consultative role at McKinsey to a dynamic environment at Cytora, Zaheer shares his journey of integrating AI solutions in a practical, non-disruptive manner. He emphasizes the importance of aligning technology with business objectives and managing change effectively.

Join us as we explore the exciting intersection of AI and insurance, uncovering the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead. What does the future hold for AI in insurance, and how will it continue to evolve? Listen in to gain valuable insights and join the conversation.

2949: Coinbase - Navigating the Future of Crypto and Finance Jul 01, 2024

What does the future of finance look like, and how is cryptocurrency shaping this landscape? In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, we delve into these pressing questions with Tom Duff Gordon, the Vice President of International Policy at Coinbase. With a rich background in regulatory policy and government affairs from his tenure at Credit Suisse and active involvement with key policy groups, Tom brings a wealth of knowledge and insight into the global financial ecosystem.

Tom shares his experiences and perspectives on the transformative potential of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology. We discuss how these innovations are enabling faster, cheaper, and more programmable payments, and how stablecoins and tokenization are opening up new opportunities for investors. Tom elaborates on Coinbase's ambitious international expansion strategy, detailing their "Go Deep, Go Broad" approach to establish localized operations in key markets while offering tailored services in others.

We also address the regulatory landscape, examining the challenges and progress in achieving regulatory clarity and building trust. Tom highlights the importance of initiatives like MiCA in Europe and discusses Coinbase's commitment to security and privacy, utilizing advanced technologies to protect user assets and data.

Additionally, we explore global market trends, such as the increasing institutional adoption of crypto, the rise of on-chain activity, and the political progress towards regulatory frameworks. Tom also shares insights into upcoming initiatives from Coinbase, including the "Stand With Crypto" campaign and the scaling of their layer-2 blockchain "Base."

Join us for an enlightening conversation on the future of finance, the role of cryptocurrencies, and the challenges and opportunities ahead. What are your thoughts on the regulatory landscape for cryptocurrencies? Share your opinions with us, and let’s continue this important discussion.

2948: Lessons in Digital Transformation With Shawbrook Bank Jun 30, 2024

Join me, Neil, on this episode of Tech Talks Daily, where I sit down with Russ Thornton, Chief Technology Officer at Shawbrook Bank. Russ is at the forefront of Shawbrook Bank's ambitious digital transformation journey, leveraging AI-powered decisioning and workflow automation from Pegasystems to revolutionize their operations.

Under Russ's leadership, Shawbrook Bank has streamlined their loan processing time by an impressive 75%, while freeing up underwriters from 1,500 hours of manual work each month, all aimed at enhancing the customer experience. Recently, they've embarked on phase two of their transformation, deploying Pega Platform™ to overhaul their buy-to-let mortgage underwriting process, cutting processing times in half and tripling underwriter productivity.

In our conversation, Russ shares insights into his career journey and how it shapes his decisions as CTO. We explore the pivotal milestones Shawbrook Bank has achieved with these automation projects, and what lies ahead on their transformative roadmap. Russ also reflects on the lessons learned from these initiatives and provides a glimpse into future projects that will further elevate Shawbrook Bank's digital capabilities.

Tune in to learn how Shawbrook Bank is harnessing technology to drive efficiency, improve customer satisfaction, and pave the way for continued innovation in banking. What are your thoughts on the role of AI and automation in shaping the future of financial services? Share your thoughts with us after listening to this insightful episode.

2947: Tech-Driven Philanthropy: GreenLight Fund's Role in Social Innovation Jun 29, 2024

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, join me, Neil, as I sit down with John Simon, Co-founder and Board Chair at GreenLight Fund, and Managing Director at Sigma Prime Ventures. We delve into how GreenLight Fund is reshaping social innovation across America.

Founded on the principles of venture philanthropy, GreenLight Fund identifies and scales proven nonprofit solutions to tackle systemic challenges faced by communities nationwide. With operations spanning 13 cities and plans to expand to 16 soon, their unique model bridges the gap between local needs and impactful solutions.

John shares insights into GreenLight Fund’s journey over the past two decades, from their grassroots origins to becoming a catalyst for change in underserved communities. We explore their rigorous approach to selecting and implementing high-impact initiatives, driven by data and community collaboration.

Discover how GreenLight Fund leverages partnerships with local governments, schools, and nonprofits to ensure sustainable impact and measurable outcomes. John also discusses their ambitious vision for the next decade, aiming to reach millions of families across 25-30 cities with tech-enabled solutions.

Join us as we uncover the transformative power of social innovation and discuss the future of philanthropy in driving meaningful change. What are your thoughts on scaling social impact through venture philanthropy? Share your insights with us after listening to this episode.

2946: From Translation to Transformation: How DeepL is Leading the AI Charge Jun 28, 2024

How is artificial intelligence reshaping the landscape of language translation? Today on the Tech Talks Daily Podcast, we are thrilled to welcome Steve Rotter, Chief Marketing Officer at DeepL, a company that has been at the forefront of AI-powered translation since 2017. With a mission to help businesses and individuals thrive through superior translation tools, DeepL's journey is one of continuous innovation and unwavering commitment to quality.

In this episode, Steve shares insights into DeepL's specialized AI approach that sets it apart from general-purpose AI models. We dive into how their technology not only delivers high-quality translations but also ensures unparalleled security and data privacy, crucial for business-critical applications. With a portfolio boasting over 30 languages and various platforms, including web, mobile, desktop apps, and even an API, DeepL is revolutionizing the way we communicate across borders.

Steve highlights the incredible business value of machine translation, showcasing its ability to save 90% of the time compared to manual efforts, driving significant ROI and enabling global expansion. We also explore DeepL’s eco-friendly data center in Sweden and stringent data handling policies that underscore their commitment to security and compliance.

Looking ahead, DeepL is set to launch exciting new products, including an AI writing assistance tool and an enhanced enterprise offering. We discuss how these innovations will further empower businesses and individuals, all while maintaining their core focus on language quality.

Tune in to learn about the unique advantages DeepL brings to the AI translation space and gain a deeper understanding of the broader European tech and AI landscape. How are European companies leveraging their global mindset and expertise in language nuances to excel in specialized AI fields? And where do you see the future of AI-powered translation heading?

Join the conversation and let us know your thoughts on the evolution of AI in language translation. What opportunities and challenges do you foresee? Share your insights and continue the dialogue with us!

2945: Tom Conrad's Silicon Valley Story: From Pandora to Zero Longevity and a Lifelong Metabolic Wellbeing Jun 27, 2024

Hi, are we overlooking the monumental failures in our quest for innovation? Today on Tech Talks Daily, I'm joined by Tom Conrad, a Silicon Valley veteran with a rich history in shaping how we interact with technology, from Pandora to Snapchat and beyond. Currently leading Zero, Tom brings a unique perspective on the resilience required in tech, diving into the harrowing yet enlightening lessons from billion-dollar blunders like Quibi and Pets.com.

Tom will unravel the layers of success that extend beyond just a stellar product. He'll explain the importance of robust investment strategies, insightful leadership, and scalable operations that are vital to turning a great idea into a thriving enterprise. Furthermore, we delve into how Zero is transforming the healthcare landscape by democratizing health data, aiming to empower millions with accessible, understandable information to manage their health proactively.

This episode will not only explore Tom’s remarkable journey through tech’s highs and lows but also look ahead at the exciting intersection of AI and biodata that could redefine our health systems. How can past failures illuminate future strategies in business and personal health? After listening, share your thoughts on how we can better harness technology to turn setbacks into stepping stones for success.

2944: What is a Lakehouse, and Why is it the Next Big Thing in Data? Jun 26, 2024

Have you ever wondered what the future of data management looks like? In this episode, we dive into the world of data lakehouses with Ori Rafael, the CEO and co-founder of Upsolver. Ori shares his insights on why the lakehouse is poised to be the next big thing in data, and how Upsolver is at the forefront of this revolutionary architecture.

A data lakehouse is not just a buzzword; it's a transformative approach that decouples storage, metadata management, and compute. Ori explains how this separation allows for greater flexibility and significant cost savings compared to traditional data warehouses. By leveraging object storage like S3, open-source Iceberg for metadata, and various compute engines, lakehouses reduce vendor lock-in and provide the ability to use specialized engines for different workloads, such as AI.

We explore the key advantages of lakehouses, including cost reduction, flexibility, and avoiding vendor lock-in. However, transitioning to a lakehouse architecture is not without its challenges. Ensuring performance parity with data warehouses and managing data access controls are significant hurdles. Ori discusses how Upsolver is tackling these challenges head-on, providing ETL solutions and lake management capabilities that optimize data lakes for performance and interoperability.

The episode also delves into the trends shaping the future of data management. With the rapid adoption of open lakehouses and Iceberg emerging as the standard, enterprises are moving away from traditional data warehouses and legacy data lakes. Ori provides a glimpse into how open source catalogs with governance capabilities are evolving, paving the way for more robust and scalable data management solutions.

We wrap up the conversation by asking Ori a fun question: If he could have a private breakfast or lunch with anyone in the business, VC funding, or tech world, who would it be and why? You never know, the person he mentions might just be listening!

Join us for this insightful discussion on the future of data management and discover why the lakehouse is the next big thing in the industry. Be sure to find out more about Upsolver and their innovative solutions by visiting their website or connecting with their team online.

2943: LTIMindtree - How Is Digital Transformation Shaping Our Future? Jun 25, 2024

In this episode, I sit down with Sudhir Chaturvedi, President of LTIMindtree, to delve into the transformative power of digital technologies. From the increasing use of Generative AI and automation to the strategic investments necessary for business resilience and growth, Sudhir offers an in-depth look at the future of various industries.

We begin by discussing the critical considerations and challenges businesses face as they integrate Generative AI and automation into their operations. Sudhir highlights the complexities around trust, bias, explainability, security, regulation, and cost, shedding light on how these issues can be navigated to harness AI's full potential.

The conversation then moves to digital transformation and its profound impact on the workforce and industries such as retail and financial services. Sudhir explains how digital transformation is not just a buzzword but a crucial strategy for operational efficiency, customer experience enhancement, and the creation of new revenue streams.

Sudhir underscores the importance of investing in technology to build resilience and sustainability. He shares insights on how leveraging cloud, data, digital, and AI technologies can significantly reduce carbon footprints and drive sustainable growth.

We also explore the exciting future trends in technology, including advancements in AI, quantum computing, and robotics. Sudhir provides a glimpse into how these innovations will continue to shape industries and create new opportunities.

Join us for this enlightening discussion with Sudhir Chaturvedi, where we unpack the strategic importance of digital transformation and technology investment for a resilient and sustainable future. How do you see AI and digital transformation influencing your industry? Share your thoughts with us!

2942: Cisco - How Customer Experience Can Drive Business Innovation Jun 24, 2024

In this episode, we sit down with Harry Caldwell, the dynamic leader of the CX Americas organization at Cisco. Recorded live at Cisco Live, this conversation uncovers the human side of technology and explores how a focus on customer experience (CX) can drive innovation and business success.

Harry Caldwell shares his journey from his early days in North Carolina, through a 23-year tenure at Microsoft, to his current role at Cisco, where he leads a team of 4,400 professionals across the U.S., Canada, and Latin America. His passion for enabling people to do their best work shines through as he talks about his leadership philosophy and the importance of deep collaboration in achieving business outcomes.

We'll delve into the vibrant atmosphere of Cisco Live, where Harry describes the event as a melting pot of innovation, technology, and people from around the world. With 20,000 attendees, the diversity of voices and ideas is a highlight, providing a fertile ground for networking and learning best practices.

Harry emphasizes the critical role of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) within Cisco's culture. He discusses how the DEI council within the CX Americas organization ensures these values are integral to their operations, leading to a more inclusive and innovative work environment.

We also explore the significance of the Customer Hero Awards, which celebrate customers who are pushing the boundaries of their industries through innovative use of Cisco technologies. Harry shares inspiring stories from this year's winners, such as Lowe's, which transformed its customer service operations using AI and Cisco's Webex Contact Center, and Mass General Brigham, which leverages AI to advance healthcare research and patient care.

This episode underscores the powerful intersection of technology and humanity, demonstrating how Cisco's collaborative approach and cutting-edge solutions are helping customers achieve remarkable transformations. Harry's insights highlight the importance of aligning technology with human intelligence to drive real-world outcomes.

What role do you think customer experience plays in driving innovation in your industry? Share your thoughts with us!

2941: LunarCrush - Is Social Media Data the Key to Crypto Success? Jun 24, 2024

In this episode, we dive into the fascinating journey of Joe Vezzani, the visionary co-founder of LunarCrush, a leading social media analytics firm in the crypto space. From his background in finance and advertising to the inception of LunarCrush in 2017, Joe's story is one of innovation, resilience, and foresight.

We'll explore how LunarCrush aggregates social media data to offer investors valuable insights into crypto, stocks, NFTs, and other markets. Joe shares how the company weathered the 700+ day crypto bear market, pivoting to a subscription model and launching a groundbreaking platform that connects brands with creators.

Discover the core products of LunarCrush, including their latest innovation that pays creators based on engagement metrics. Joe also highlights the growing significance of social data for investors and how LunarCrush is democratizing access to this data for retail investors.

As we delve into the company culture, you'll hear about their focus on hiring passionate, curious individuals who are encouraged to tinker with new technologies like AI. Joe emphasizes the importance of a remote-first culture in fostering innovation and retaining top talent.

Looking ahead, Joe shares his vision for the future, where utility-focused Web3 apps are seamlessly adopted by users without them even realizing the underlying blockchain technology. We'll discuss how LunarCrush plans to integrate social and market data for diverse fields such as sports, betting, and NFTs, bringing users into the Web3 ecosystem with an exceptional user experience.

Join us as we uncover the dynamic world of LunarCrush and the exciting future trends in the crypto and Web3 landscape. What do you think is the future of social media data in investment strategies? Share your thoughts with us!

2940: Scaling Success: Strategies for CTOs and VPEs Jun 23, 2024

Have you ever wondered how to build a work culture that fosters high performance and innovation? In today's episode, we're joined by Francis Lacoste, an expert in engineering leadership coaching. Francis has dedicated his career to helping CTOs and VPs of Engineering at tech startups develop amazing work cultures and high-performing teams. Drawing on over 25 years of experience in the open-source and cloud developer tools industry, Francis shares his journey from being a Senior Director at Salesforce to becoming a sought-after coach for tech leaders.

We dive into the "inner game" of leadership, exploring how self-awareness, emotional mastery, and mindset shifts can transform the effectiveness of tech leaders. Francis emphasizes the importance of maintaining a strong company culture, especially during rapid scaling phases, and shares strategies to foster psychological safety and mutual accountability within teams.

In our conversation, Francis reveals his best tips for staying effective and making an impact at every stage of being a startup CTO or VPE. We discuss his insights on the critical role of culture, the challenges tech leaders face when scaling, and how to create an environment where innovation and collaboration can thrive organically.

Tune in to learn from Francis's extensive experience and discover how you can enhance your leadership skills to build teams that not only meet but exceed expectations. And as always, we'd love to hear your thoughts. What strategies have you found effective in nurturing a high-performance team? Share your experiences with us!

2939: Confidential Computing: Elevating AI and ML Security in the Cloud Jun 23, 2024

In a digital age where enterprises are tasked with protecting an extensive network of data, traditional methods of safeguarding sensitive information often fall short. Static, rules-based models for detecting data breaches rely heavily on the quality of training data, leaving gaps in security. How can organizations bolster their defenses against ever-evolving cyber threats?

In today's episode of the Tech Talks Daily Podcast, we are joined by Shamim Naqvi, CEO of SafeLiShare Inc., to explore the transformative potential of Secure Enclave technology in the cloud, also known as Confidential Computing. Shamim delves into how this cutting-edge technology can enhance data security, especially when leveraging third-party AI and ML models.

SafeLiShare’s ConfidentialAI platform brings unprecedented security to enterprise data pipelines through digital fingerprinting and a tamper-proof, immutable ledger. This ensures comprehensive monitoring of every user, service, account, and machine, employing a zero-trust approach during runtime interactions. By integrating Confidential Computing, organizations can secure their AI workflows, pipelines, and ML operations against unauthorized access and breaches.

SafeLiShare provides runtime security for AI and ML workloads through Confidential Computing, ensuring data is protected during processing. This technology secures data within isolated hardware enclaves, making it inaccessible to external threats and providing auditable logs for compliance. Achieving high levels of security with minimal performance overhead (3-5%) makes this approach feasible for extensive use.

Confidential Computing is set to become pervasive across cloud and on-premises environments, driven by the increasing need for data security and regulatory compliance. Traditional encryption methods differ from Confidential Computing in that the latter protects data during processing using secure enclaves. SafeLiShare’s ConfidentialAI enables the secure use of large language models by combining them with enterprise context data within secure enclaves. This addresses the main challenges in providing confidential context to public AI models while offloading key management to secure enclaves, resulting in significant security benefits.

Join us for an insightful discussion with Shamim Naqvi as we unravel the complexities of data security in the AI era. How can Confidential Computing reshape your approach to protecting sensitive enterprise data? Tune in to find out, and don't forget to share your thoughts on this evolving landscape.

2938: How Technology is Empowering the Visually Impaired With Employment Opportunities Jun 21, 2024

How does an organization transform the lives of individuals living with vision loss? In this episode, I sit down with Kyle Johnson, President & CEO of Lighthouse Central Florida, to uncover the remarkable story behind their mission to empower people who are blind or visually impaired.

Since 1976, Lighthouse Central Florida has provided comprehensive, vision-specific rehabilitation services, ensuring that thousands can live productive, independent lives.

One of the highlights of our conversation is the groundbreaking partnership between Lighthouse Works, the business processing outsource arm of Lighthouse Central Florida, and Genesys, a global leader in AI-powered experience orchestration. Together, they have launched EquiVista, a solution that enhances job opportunities for the visually impaired by creating accessible contact center environments.

We delve into the significance of this innovation against the backdrop of startling statistics: 2.2 billion people globally live with vision impairment, and nearly 70% of blind or visually impaired individuals in the U.S. are unemployed. The partnership aims to change these numbers, promoting a more inclusive workforce and demonstrating how technology can break down barriers.

Join us as we explore the powerful synergy between Lighthouse Works and Genesys, and discover how their collaborative efforts are driving change, fostering inclusivity, and creating life-changing opportunities for the blind and visually impaired.

What role do you think technology should play in creating an inclusive workforce? Share your thoughts and join the conversation.

2937: From Complexity to Clarity: Zscaler’s Guide to Navigating NIS2 Regulations Jun 20, 2024

What does true cyber resilience look like in the face of evolving regulations? In today's episode, we're joined by Marc Lueck, CISO EMEA at Zscaler, to unpack the complexities and nuances of cybersecurity in a regulatory landscape that continues to challenge organizations globally. As we edge closer to enforcing directives like NIS2 and DORA, understanding the intersection of technology, compliance, and strategic foresight has never been more imperative.

Marc will delve into Zscaler's upcoming regulations campaign and the insights from their comprehensive whitepaper, which will launch in April or May. The whitepaper focuses on the imperative need for organizations to simplify their technical frameworks and hardware to boost their cyber resilience and align seamlessly with stringent EU regulations.

Throughout the conversation, we will discuss the critical benchmarks set by the NIS2 directive to enhance security protocols across essential service providers in Europe. Marc will shed light on why, despite a high level of confidence among IT leaders in the UK regarding compliance readiness, there still needs to be a significant gap in actual understanding and preparedness across organizational teams.

Moreover, we will explore how adopting a zero-trust architecture serves as a cornerstone for organizations aiming to meet these regulatory demands effectively. By removing implicit trust and shifting towards context-based access control, Zscaler advocates for a security model that aligns closely with the NIS2's emphasis on rigorous risk assessment and management processes.

In discussing the broader impacts on critical infrastructure, particularly for smaller organizations, we'll assess the challenges and strategies necessary to navigate this complex regulatory environment. Marc's insights will guide listeners through the dichotomy between perceived preparedness and the operational realities many face under new compliance pressures.

As we conclude, consider this: Is your organization genuinely prepared for the sweeping changes brought about by these new regulations, or is there a disconnect between confidence and reality? We invite you to share your thoughts and experiences as we navigate these pivotal changes together. How does your organization measure up in its journey towards cyber resilience?

2936: Revolutionizing Mobile Security with Metalenz Jun 19, 2024

Today on Tech Talks Daily, we're diving into the world of cutting-edge technology with Rob Devlin, co-founder and CEO of Metalenz. This pioneering company, spun out of Harvard, is reshaping how we think about optics in technology with their groundbreaking meta-surface optics.

Metalenz has introduced a revolutionary flat lens technology that manipulates light much like traditional curved lenses but on a nanostructured surface. This innovation allows for multi-lens stacks to be collapsed into a single flat optic at a semiconductor scale, drastically reducing size and cost while enhancing the capabilities of sensing devices.

Rob discusses Metalenz's first-generation technology, which is already enhancing tens of millions of devices with advanced 3D sensing for mobile augmented reality and photography. Looking ahead, Metalenz is setting ambitious goals with their next-gen "PolarID," aimed at providing secure facial recognition for Android users. This new technology, developed in partnership with Samsung, promises to deliver secure face unlock solutions that are not only more compact but also three times cheaper than current technologies used by competitors like Apple.

The impact of Metalenz's innovations extends beyond just cost and size reduction. By enabling polarization imaging, Metalenz is poised to bring this sophisticated security feature to over a billion Android users worldwide who seek Apple-level security without the hefty price tag. This strategic move, enhanced by their collaboration with Samsung to co-optimize optics and image sensors, is set to redefine the standards of mobile security and performance.

Furthermore, Rob shares insights into the potential future applications of Metalenz technology, including biomarker detection and health monitoring through polarization imaging. These advancements are expected to enrich machine vision and autonomous systems with richer data inputs, paving the way for significant breakthroughs in various industries.

Join us as Rob Devlin explores the journey of Metalenz from its academic roots to becoming a key player in global technology markets, aiming to make enhanced security accessible to millions more consumers without compromising on cost or functionality. What are your thoughts on the integration of such advanced technologies in everyday devices? Let’s discuss how innovations like Metalenz are setting new paradigms in the tech world.

2935: How Ahead is Unleashing the Power of Enterprise Automation and AI Jun 18, 2024

Today's episode of Tech Talks Daily features Will Huber, Office of the CTO at Ahead.

.AHEAD specializes in several crucial areas such as Cloud Platforms, Digital Engineering, Data & Analytics, Next-Gen Data Center, Enterprise Automation, and Integrated Security, which are fundamental for organizations to excel in today's digital era.

Will, who has a rich background as the former CTO of CDI—a company recently integrated into AHEAD to bolster its market-leading capabilities—shares insights from his extensive experience in the technology consulting sphere. As he speaks to us while traveling from New York City to Chicago, Will sheds light on how AHEAD helps businesses navigate and succeed in their digital transformation journeys.

During our engaging conversation, Will discusses the importance of enterprise automation and how it's pivotal in enhancing productivity and operational efficiency across various aspects of enterprise IT. He emphasizes that by automating processes, companies can achieve quicker deployments and significant cost benefits while allowing staff to focus on higher-value work.

Security is another focal point of our discussion. Will explains why it's critical to integrate robust security measures throughout all layers of an organization, from infrastructure and applications to data and networks. By embedding security from the start and continuously training staff, companies can better manage their digital landscapes against evolving threats.

The rapid adoption of artificial intelligence and its governance are also explored. Will touches on the hype surrounding AI and the need for frameworks to deploy it responsibly. He highlights how AHEAD helps organizations set up these frameworks to ensure AI is used effectively and ethically across various sectors.

Will also delves into the transformative impact of AI in healthcare, noting how it revolutionizes administrative tasks, diagnostics, predictive analytics, and real-time monitoring. This transformation is crucial for improving patient care and outcomes.

Moreover, we discuss the challenges of managing cloud costs. As companies increasingly move to cloud-based solutions, understanding and controlling expenditures become paramount. Will explains how AHEAD addresses these challenges by implementing effective financial operations strategies that provide visibility into cloud utilization and spending.

As we conclude our conversation, Will reiterates AHEAD's mission to reduce complexity and deliver innovative software solutions that blend tools, processes, and continuous learning. This approach not only propels businesses forward but also ensures they are well-prepared to face the future of an increasingly digital world.

Join us as we dive deep into the dynamics of enterprise automation, AI, and the strategic integration of cutting-edge technologies that are shaping the future of digital business transformation. What are your thoughts on the role of AI and automation in your industry? Let's continue the conversation and explore how these technologies are reshaping the business landscape.

2934: Can Technology Revolutionize Traditional Laundry Services? Jun 17, 2024

In today’s episode, we delve into the innovative world of Rinse, a mobile-first solution transforming the traditional laundry and dry cleaning industry. We are joined by Ajay Prakash, CEO and Co-Founder of Rinse, to explore how their technology not only enhances customer convenience but also supports local laundromats and promotes fair employment practices.

Founded in 2013, Rinse was born out of a desire to remove the friction from a chore that everyone dreads—laundry. Ajay and his co-founder, James, began testing the concept with just 11 friends, quickly realizing the potential to make a significant impact. Rinse’s unique business model partners with local laundromats, equipping them with technology and training to handle increased volume and improve their service quality. This partnership has boosted partner revenue by an average of 20%.

One of the core beliefs at Rinse is the fair treatment of their workforce. Unlike many companies in the gig economy, Rinse’s drivers, known as Valet team members, are all W-2 employees, ensuring they receive the benefits and security they deserve.

Technology plays a pivotal role in Rinse’s operation, with sophisticated systems for route optimization, inventory tracking, and ensuring cleaning quality. This backend technology allows Rinse to manage the complexities of their operation while keeping the customer experience straightforward and effective.

Looking forward, Rinse aims to become a household name and a dominant player both nationally and internationally in the laundry and dry cleaning industry. With plans to expand further across the U.S. and eventually worldwide, Rinse is on a clear path to redefine how we think about managing our laundry needs.

As we unpack the journey of Rinse and its impacts on both customers and local businesses, we invite you to consider how traditional services can be transformed through technology. What are your thoughts on the integration of tech in traditional industries? Join the conversation and share your insights with us!

2933: Balancing Innovation and Cybersecurity at SoFi Stadium and Hollywood Park Jun 16, 2024

What steps are necessary to secure a state-of-the-art sports and entertainment venue like SoFi Stadium and Hollywood Park against ever-evolving cybersecurity threats? And how can such measures be balanced with providing a seamless experience for millions of visitors each year?

Joining me today to answer these questions is Dwayne Robinson, Head of Cybersecurity at SoFi Stadium and Hollywood Park.

I met Dwayne on the show floor at Cisco Live, and we quickly got into a fascinating discussion about the unique challenges and solutions involved in securing a high-profile venue. SoFi Stadium and Hollywood Park are not just home to NFL games and concerts but also set to host monumental events like the Super Bowl, the 2028 Olympics, and the FIFA World Cup.

In our conversation, Dwayne shares his insights into how they use cutting-edge technologies to bolster cybersecurity.

From AI-driven threat detection to coordinated efforts with federal and local government agencies, discover how the cybersecurity team navigates this complex digital landscape. We also explore how these measures are implemented without compromising the fan experience, ensuring that every visit to SoFi Stadium and Hollywood Park is memorable for all the right reasons.

How do you secure a 298-acre sports and entertainment district while maintaining a top-notch fan experience? What emerging threats keep cybersecurity experts up at night, and how can proactive measures make a difference? Tune in to find out, and share your thoughts on the balance between innovation and security in such dynamic environments. We'd love to hear your insights!

2932: Innovating for Tomorrow: How Outshift by Cisco Delivers Next-Gen Solutions Jun 15, 2024

How is artificial intelligence reshaping the landscape of technology, and what new developments can we expect from a leader in the industry? In today's episode of Tech Talks Daily, live from Cisco Live, I'm joined by Vijoy Pandey, Senior Vice President of Outshift by Cisco. Outshift is at the forefront of Cisco's innovation, especially in the realms of AI, cloud-native applications, and quantum technologies.

Vijoy shares his insights on the latest AI innovations that are not only advancing Cisco's product line but also setting new benchmarks for customer experience and technological responsibility. We discuss Outshift's mission to build what's next in emerging tech for Cisco and the challenges of turning ideas into action. Vijoy explains how Outshift operates like an internal startup accelerator, focusing on both product development and market readiness to address customer needs effectively.

Our conversation delves into the specifics of AI's role in enhancing existing products and driving new ones. Vijoy highlights how AI is being integrated into Cisco's products to improve their capabilities and address evolving customer needs. From AI-driven assistants to the cutting-edge developments in quantum networking and security, this episode offers a comprehensive look at the future of technology.

2931: Discussing AI and Automation in Networking With Cisco Jun 14, 2024

What's driving the evolution of networking today? How are industry leaders like Cisco shaping the future of data centers and connectivity?

In today's episode of Tech Talks Daily, live from Cisco Live, I'm joined by Kevin Wollenweber, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Cisco Networking – Data Center and Provider Connectivity.

Kevin, with decades of experience and a finger on the pulse of industry transformations, shares his insights into Cisco's latest innovations. We discuss how these advances address the complex challenges faced by the largest service providers and data centers around the world.

From new 400 and 800 gig routers and switches to AI-driven network management tools, Kevin reveals how Cisco is helping customers modernize and streamline their network infrastructures.

Throughout our conversation, Kevin delves into the merging of the data center and routing teams, enhancing Cisco's ability to deliver cutting-edge solutions. We also explore how Cisco leverages automation and AI to simplify network management and improve operational efficiency for service providers.

As we close this episode, I'd like to ask everyone listening: What future networking challenges do you think are most critical? How should companies like Cisco continue to innovate in response? Share your thoughts with me.

2930: Vodafone's Digital Transformation: Connecting the World Jun 13, 2024

In a world increasingly driven by digital transformation, the robustness of enterprise connectivity can often go unnoticed—until it doesn't. Today on Tech Talks Daily, we have the pleasure of hosting Mark Bennett, Head of Global Enterprise Networking Products at Vodafone Business, to discuss the pivotal role connectivity plays in modern business operations.

Vodafone Business, a primary growth engine within the global Vodafone Group, stands at the forefront of enterprise connectivity, boasting a revenue of approximately $8.7 billion. The company's commitment is not just about maintaining connections but enhancing business capabilities through digital transformation.

During this episode, Mark provides us with a deeper insight into the lesser-known yet critical side of Vodafone Business. He details their comprehensive portfolio, which spans IoT, cloud, security, analytics, unified communications, and more, catering from small enterprises to large multinational corporations.

With today's enterprise networks becoming increasingly complex, the convergence of software-defined wide-area networks with security at the forefront—driven by hybrid working and cloud adoption—is more crucial than ever. Mark discusses the strategic importance of SaaS (software as a service) and cloud integration, highlighting the significant role of Vodafone Business in supporting their customers through these transitions.

Moreover, Mark sheds light on the transformative impacts of network automation. Despite a large portion of the industry still managing networks manually, Vodafone Business is pushing the boundaries by implementing AI and automation to enhance operational productivity and end-user experience.

As Mark's first Cisco Live event in the U.S., he shares his excitement about exploring advancements in AI and automation, particularly how these technologies integrate into Vodafone's strategies to ensure optimal performance and agility for their customers globally.

Whether you are deeply embedded in the tech industry or just curious about the infrastructural backbone that supports digital business operations, this conversation offers valuable insights into the critical role of enterprise connectivity in today's business landscape.

What are your thoughts on the evolution of enterprise networking? How do you see AI and automation playing a role in your business or industry? Join the conversation and share your insights with us!

2929: How Cisco is Empowering One Billion Lives Through Technology and Social Innovation Jun 12, 2024

Why should companies invest in social impact programs? Today on Tech Talks Daily, we delve into this compelling question with Brian Tippens, SVP and Chief Social Impact Officer at Cisco. Together, we explore how integrating social impact strategies not only drives positive change but also propels business outcomes forward.

Cisco stands at the forefront of this movement, harnessing its vast technological resources and extensive ecosystem to champion an inclusive future for all. Our discussion will highlight Cisco's key initiatives that illustrate the profound intersection of social responsibility and business strategy. These efforts include climate sustainability, response to crises, advancement of social justice, skills development, community impact through employee engagement, economic empowerment, digital inclusion, and accessibility.

In a time when ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) can spark controversy, Brian will share why companies like Cisco continue to invest in social impact, viewing it as essential to their business ethos and crucial for addressing global challenges. We'll also shed light on Cisco’s "One Billion Lives Positively Impacted" initiative and their comprehensive actions for social justice.

Join us as we uncover the tangible benefits of these initiatives not just for society, but for the employees, customers, and partners of a global enterprise. How do you think embracing social impact can reshape the future of business? Share your thoughts and join the conversation.

Useful Links

“One Billion Lives Positively Impacted with BBC StoryWorks highlights” https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/about/csr/technology-for-good/one-billion.html “Cisco’s 12 Actions for Social Justice” https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/about/social-justice.html Cisco’s ESG Reporting Hub https://www.cisco.com/c/m/en_us/about/csr/esg-hub.html

2928: PwC's Insights on Digital Operations and AI Integration Jun 11, 2024

Are you ready to dive into the latest trends in digital operations? In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I'm excited to welcome Carla DeSantis, Partner in Operations Transformation at PwC, to discuss the findings from PwC's recent Trends in Digital Operations Survey.

Carla provides an in-depth look at the survey's key findings, highlighting that 69% of companies are not seeing returns on their technology investments in supply chain and operations. She explains the primary obstacles, including lack of user adoption, data quality issues, and the challenges of integrating new technology with legacy systems. Carla emphasizes the importance of a holistic approach to transformation, rather than a siloed focus on individual pain points.

One of the most intriguing aspects of our conversation is the discussion on AI integration. Despite nearly all respondents having some level of engagement with generative AI, only 20% report widespread use in operations and supply chain. Carla shares insights into what factors contribute to successful AI integration, stressing the need for clear use cases that augment human capabilities rather than replace them. She also addresses the common misconception of AI as a silver bullet or a tool for workforce reduction.

Carla underscores the critical role of upskilling in achieving digital transformation. She advocates for reimagining training as a continuous learning journey, involving both detractors and super-users early in the process to identify and overcome adoption barriers. Her advice on balancing encouragement with accountability for technology use is particularly valuable for business leaders aiming to foster a digitally adept workforce.

Looking ahead, Carla paints a picture of an evolving landscape where sustainability and regulatory considerations are becoming increasingly important. She encourages listeners to explore PwC's Digital Operations Report for industry-specific insights and practical recommendations.

How is your organization navigating the complexities of digital transformation? Tune in to this episode to gain valuable insights from Carla DeSantis and discover strategies to enhance your digital operations. After listening, I’d love to hear your thoughts on the key challenges and opportunities in your digital transformation journey.

2927: SAP's Data Sphere: Redefining AI and Data Management Jun 10, 2024

Are you ready to explore the future of data and AI? In our upcoming episode of Tech Talks Daily, I am thrilled to welcome Irfan Khan, Chief Product Officer at SAP, to discuss SAP's groundbreaking data and analytics portfolio, particularly the new SAP Data Sphere offering.

Irfan brings a wealth of experience and insights, starting from his early interest in technology inspired by his father to his formative computing experiences with the BBC Micro and Amstrad CPC 464. His journey from CTO at Sybase to various sales roles at SAP has given him a unique customer-centric perspective that fuels his innovative approach to data and AI.

Our conversation dives deep into the SAP Data Sphere, a revolutionary business virtual data fabric concept that allows for data federation without the need for physical data consolidation. This groundbreaking approach preserves data context and metadata, which are critical for training high-quality generative AI models. Irfan explains how Data Sphere leverages knowledge graphs and vector stores to enable contextual AI capabilities, allowing businesses to detect signals and patterns across disparate data sources for applications like supply chain optimization.

One of the standout aspects of our discussion is the emphasis on data quality, lineage, and ethical use, which are paramount for the responsible deployment of generative AI. Irfan shares SAP's commitment to ethical AI, including the formation of an ethical AI committee to vet models before production use, and discusses the measures taken to prevent hallucinations, cultural biases, and maintain data integrity.

Irfan also highlights real-world applications of SAP Data Sphere and generative AI, such as detecting early signals of supply chain disruptions and ethically screening candidates for recruitment. These examples showcase how generative AI is enhancing business applications across various industries, driving innovation, and supporting better decision-making.

Looking ahead, Irfan paints an exciting picture of the future of data and AI, with rapid innovation from big tech players like Google, Meta, and OpenAI. He underscores the importance of continuous learning through bite-sized content and networking to stay ahead in this dynamic field.

What steps can your business take to leverage the power of AI and contextual data? Tune in to this episode to gain valuable insights from Irfan Khan and discover how SAP's innovative solutions can transform your data management and AI strategies. After listening, I’d love to hear your thoughts on the role of generative AI in your business and how you plan to practice better data hygiene for responsible AI use.

2926: Sustainable Data Destruction: Keeping Devices Out of Landfills Jun 09, 2024

How secure is your data really? In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I sit down with Rocco D'Amico, founder of Brass Valley, to explore the hidden threats and innovations in data security and management. Brass Valley began with a focus on data security for data centers and has since evolved into a leader in search engine optimization and data destruction innovations.

Rocco sheds light on the often-overlooked danger of embedded data in off-network and end-of-life devices, explaining how even wiped devices can harbor hidden data that poses significant security risks. He discusses the importance of identifying gaps in your company's data protection and what a robust data risk management platform should accomplish. Rocco's insights into implementing high-reliability practices from industries like nuclear, healthcare, and aviation into IT asset disposition (ITAD) are invaluable, demonstrating how to minimize the risk of mega data breaches effectively.

One of the standout moments from our conversation is Rocco's account of assisting a major security company in closing 49 data centers across 22 countries within just 60 days. His story highlights the critical role of strong communication, cultural understanding, and experienced partners in achieving such a massive feat without compromising data security.

Rocco also emphasizes the importance of sustainability in data destruction, advocating for responsible methods that keep old devices out of landfills while ensuring complete data destruction. He offers a fascinating perspective on how the data management landscape has changed dramatically over the past few years and what these changes mean for the technology we use today.

For those interested in delving deeper into data security, Rocco provides practical advice on measuring processes, enabling open communication, and having a disaster recovery plan in place. His approach to empowering staff to voice concerns and preventing potential breaches showcases the importance of a proactive and vigilant mindset in data protection.

What steps are you taking to ensure your data is fully protected? Tune in to this episode to learn from Rocco D'Amico's expertise and discover how you can fortify your data security strategies. After listening, I’d love to hear your thoughts on the hidden threats within your data security practices and how you plan to address them.

2925 Unlocking Startup Potential: Driving Product Adoption and Retention Jun 09, 2024

Are you an aspiring entrepreneur looking for insights on how to navigate the tech startup world? In our latest episode of Tech Talks Daily, I had the pleasure of interviewing Luke Diaz, the founder of DBT Ventures, an angel investment fund dedicated to supporting underrepresented founders. Luke brings a wealth of experience leading customer success teams and has been instrumental in helping several startups scale from single-digit millions to over $100M in ARR.

In our conversation, Luke delves into the challenges and opportunities for startups seeking funding. He shares valuable strategies on how to quantify your startup's potential, attract investor interest, and practice conscious leadership. Luke's commitment to fostering diversity in tech is truly inspiring, as he highlights the importance of providing venture capital to founders from diverse backgrounds, ensuring that innovative ideas are not overlooked due to traditional biases in the investment landscape.

One of the standout moments from our discussion is Luke's emphasis on the critical role of customer success in driving product adoption and retention. He provides actionable advice on how to structure onboarding programs, understand and mitigate churn, and create a culture of transparency and continuous improvement within your company. Luke's approach to leadership is both practical and profound, advocating for conscious leadership practices that not only shape company culture but also drive measurable business impact.

Luke also shares his perspective on emerging tech trends, particularly the role of AI tools like ChatGPT in enhancing business efficiency and decision-making. He cautions against the hype and stresses the importance of linking AI applications to tangible business outcomes.

For those looking to expand their knowledge, Luke recommends "The 7 Powers" by Hamilton Helmer, a book that offers valuable business principles applicable to any entrepreneur. He also shares his commitment to continuous learning, allocating time each week to stay updated with new tools and trends, a habit that has undoubtedly contributed to his success.

What insights did you find most valuable from Luke's journey and expertise? Tune in to this episode to discover how you can apply these lessons to your own entrepreneurial endeavors. And after listening, I’d love to hear your thoughts on how conscious leadership and strategic customer success can transform your business.

2924: The Tech Tag Team: WWE and Cisco's Networking Power Play Jun 08, 2024

In today's digitized age, the spectacle of live entertainment isn't just about the Wrestlers, but equally about the seamless technological orchestration that happens behind the scenes.

On this episode of Tech Talks Daily, we meet Ralph Riley, Director of Broadcast IT Systems at WWE, a man whose career has seen him evolve from an IT intern to a key player managing the nerve center of WWE’s broadcasting operations.

Ralph's journey through the ranks of WWE offers a fascinating glimpse into how critical network management and cybersecurity are in ensuring that millions of viewers receive uninterrupted, high-quality broadcasts of their favorite wrestling events. With over 15 years in the field, Ralph has navigated the rapid evolution of technology and security, particularly in the demanding realm of media and entertainment.

In 2020, Ralph's contributions were recognized with WWE’s ‘Code of Champions’ award, an accolade that highlighted his significant role in advancing WWE’s technological capabilities. His hands-on experience spans from ensuring the robustness of the network during live broadcasts to integrating advanced solutions like Cisco's ThousandEyes, which offers real-time visibility into network performance, drastically reducing the mean time to resolution for network issues.

Beyond the technical, Ralph’s story is also one of personal passion and community service. His dedication extends into his personal life, where he volunteers at Operation Hope food pantry, demonstrating a commitment to addressing food insecurity. His multifaceted life—balancing high-stakes IT management, community service, and family—provides a rich narrative on the intersections between technology, personal growth, and community impact.

What does it take to maintain such a high-stakes technology environment without losing touch with community and family? Join us as Ralph shares his insights and experiences, and let us know how technology has impacted your enjoyment of live events. How does technology invisibly enhance your experience of the spectacle? Share your thoughts with us!

2923: Cisco Live: Webex's Vision for AI in Hybrid Work Jun 07, 2024

Are you and your business truly leveraging the power of AI in your workplace, or are we just scratching the surface amid the widespread hype? Today, I'm joined by Aruna Ravichandran, the dynamic Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing and Customer Officer at Webex by Cisco, who is making significant strides in technological and workforce transformations. Broadcasting from the vibrant Cisco Live event in Las Vegas, Aruna brings over two decades of experience from some of the most influential tech companies worldwide.

In today’s episode, Aruna will explore the evolving landscape of work and the transformative role of AI. With her robust background in engineering and marketing, she is ideally positioned to discuss the convergence of technology and customer engagement. Aruna is not just a leader in digital marketing strategies; she's also a staunch advocate for women in STEM and brings perspectives on the future of work that are both innovative and deeply inspiring.

So, hold on tight as we dive into a conversation that promises to expand your understanding of AI’s impact on professional environments. Aruna, a massive welcome to the show! Could you start by telling us a bit about your role and the exciting developments you’ve seen at Cisco Live?

Listeners, as we navigate through these insights, what are your thoughts on the role of AI in enhancing workplace efficiency and transforming business operations? How do you see these advancements influencing your industry or personal career trajectory? I invite you to share your views and join the conversation.

2922: Tech at 30000 Feet: How United Airlines is Transforming Passenger Experiences Jun 06, 2024

Have you ever wondered how one of the world's largest airlines ensures that every passenger interaction is seamless, both on the ground and in the air? Today, I'm joined by Dan Field, Director of Platform and Network Engineering at United Airlines. Dan brings a wealth of experience integrating cutting-edge technology to enhance customer experiences and operational efficiency at United. With tools like Cisco's AppDynamics and innovative solutions like Agent on Demand, Dan and his team are revolutionizing travel. Agent on Demand allows passengers to connect with agents via call, text, or even video chat. This service eliminates the need to physically wait in line, offering a more convenient option for travelers to manage their journey—everything from seat assignments to boarding times can be handled through a simple QR code scan. Today's discussion isn't just about the technology itself but about how United Airlines leverages these advancements to significantly improve organizational efficiency and customer satisfaction. Listeners, as we explore these technological innovations, what are your thoughts on how such technologies could further enhance your travel experiences? Have you encountered any tech-driven solutions during your flights that made a significant difference? Join the conversation and share your views.

2921: Innovative Defenses: Tom Gillis on Cisco's Latest Security Solutions Jun 05, 2024

Are you and your organization prepared for the future of cyber security? Today, I'm joined by Tom Gillis, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Cisco's Security Business Group on the Tech Talks Daily Podcast.

Broadcasting directly from the vibrant atmosphere of Cisco Live in Las Vegas, Tom joins us to unravel the dynamics of cyber security within the framework of a renowned networking giant. With a career that spans influential roles at VMware and now at Cisco, Tom offers unique insights into the evolution of cybersecurity strategies and their crucial role in shaping business resilience.

Tom discusses the latest innovations unveiled at Cisco Live. From the groundbreaking Cisco Hypershield to enhancements in AI-driven security management, these developments represent Cisco's commitment to fortifying enterprise defenses against increasingly sophisticated threats. As we delve into these topics, Tom will also share his personal journey and the reasons behind Cisco's accelerated innovation in recent times.

So, buckle up as we transport you to the heart of Cisco Live, where the future of enterprise security is being redrawn. Join us for a conversation that promises to be as enlightening as it is inspiring. What are your thoughts on the trajectory of cyber security and the innovations discussed today? How do these advancements resonate with your professional experiences or the challenges faced by your organization? I encourage you to share your perspectives and join the ongoing dialogue by reaching out through our various platforms.

2920: Cisco Live: Exploring Retail Tech With Steve Madden Jun 05, 2024

How can a fashion-forward brand like Steve Madden redefine the intersection of style and technology? In this episode of the Tech Talks Daily Podcast, I'm live at Cisco Live, engaging with Steve Madden's top tech minds: Kamran Siddique, Global CISO and head of infrastructure and Nitin Srivastava, Director of IT Infrastructure & Operations.

We delve into the dynamic world of retail technology and explore how Steve Madden, a brand celebrated for its trendy footwear and accessories, leverages cutting-edge technology to enhance customer experiences worldwide. Despite its traditional association with fashion rather than tech, Steve Madden is making significant strides in integrating technology into its operations, particularly with its recent shift to a new SaaS-based POS system designed for iPads.

During our discussion, Kamran will share insights on the crucial security measures Steve Madden prioritizes to protect customer data and ensure transaction integrity. We'll uncover how the brand maintains a balance between robust security protocols and a seamless user experience, especially in high-traffic retail settings. Furthermore, Kamran will reflect on the evolving role of a CISO in the retail sector, particularly as digital and SaaS-based solutions become more prevalent.

We will also hear about the challenges of aligning IT infrastructure with broader business strategies and the metrics that are pivotal in evaluating the effectiveness of IT security and infrastructure efforts.

Join us as we uncover the technological pulses behind a global fashion giant at one of the biggest tech events of the year. After listening, what do you think are the biggest tech challenges facing the retail industry today? Share your thoughts and join the conversation.

2919: Cisco Live: Lowe's Tech-Enabled Retail Transformation Jun 04, 2024

How is technology reshaping the way businesses connect with their customers? Today on Tech Talks Daily, I, Neil Hughes, sit down with Shad Aul, Senior Manager of Network Engineering at Lowe's, to uncover how the home improvement giant is transforming its customer interactions through a groundbreaking collaboration with Cisco.

In our discussion, Shad delves into the strategic shift from a traditional on-premise solution to a unified SaaS platform using Cisco Webex Contact Center. This bold move not only streamlines operations across 25 business units and accommodates 8,781 agents but also plays a pivotal role in reducing Lowe's IT overheads and licensing costs significantly. With over 1 million customer calls handled seamlessly in the first quarter of 2024 alone, Lowe's exemplifies how scalability and reliability in technology can lead to superior customer service.

Moreover, we explore how this technological overhaul is not just about efficiency but also enhancing customer satisfaction through a seamless omnichannel experience that meets evolving consumer expectations. Shad shares insights on the integration of advanced AI applications, set to redefine the future of customer engagements and drive Lowe’s forward in attracting top-tier tech talent.

Join us as we discuss the intricacies of implementing such extensive changes without interrupting business flow and the ongoing benefits of Cisco's Lifecycle Services in speeding up the realization of business value through AI-driven outcomes.

What could this mean for the future of retail and customer service? Share your thoughts and join the conversation as we delve into the intersection of innovation, customer satisfaction, and business growth.

2918: Exploring Space with BAE Systems: The Azalea Project Jun 04, 2024

In this episode, we explore the exciting developments in space technology with Liz Seward, Head of Space Strategy and Market Development at BAE Systems.

With a background in business development, marketing, thermal engineering, and mission systems engineering, Liz has worked on notable projects such as the ExoMars rover and a mission to return a sample from an asteroid. She is also a prominent figure in Women in Aerospace Europe and the International Astronautical Federation.

Our conversation begins with an introduction to the role of space in defense, emphasizing the need for earth observation and near-real-time intelligence for multi-domain operations. Liz explains how space technology provides critical capabilities for global monitoring, weather forecasting, mapping, and communications, all essential for modern defense strategies.

We delve into BAE Systems' re-entry into the space sector after 20 years, highlighting the Azalea project. Azalea is a groundbreaking initiative combining multiple sensors and machine learning for faster data analysis. It uses software-defined radios, synthetic aperture radar, and onboard processing to fuse multi-sensor data such as RF, radar, and optical, providing actionable insights rapidly. This project aims to reduce the time from data capture to useful information for operators, marking a significant advancement in earth observation capabilities.

Liz also discusses the future of space innovation, focusing on dual-use capabilities that serve both defense and civilian needs. She shares insights on software-defined satellites that can be reprogrammed to meet different use cases securely and the UK’s efforts to establish supportive regulations around space sustainability and debris mitigation.

A critical aspect of our discussion is the urgent need for talent development in the new space age. Liz introduces BAE Systems' launch of the UK's first-ever space engineering apprenticeship program. This initiative aims to build a talent pipeline by combining part-time work at BAE with a part-time engineering degree from the University of Portsmouth. The program seeks to attract passionate individuals eager to work on hands-on space projects, including the Azalea project.

Throughout the episode, Liz provides a comprehensive view of how BAE Systems measures success, both in delivering new capabilities to key customers like the UK government and in providing solutions internationally to allied countries. For the Azalea project, success is defined by its ability to offer step-change earth observation capabilities.

Join us as we uncover the innovative strategies and projects at BAE Systems that are set to shape the future of space technology. How is your organization preparing for advancements in space capabilities? Share your thoughts and join the conversation.

2917: AI and IDPs: Harness's Blueprint for Next-Gen Software Development Jun 03, 2024

In this episode, I sit down with Martin Reynolds, the Field CTO at Harness, to explore the rise of platform engineering as developers strive to accelerate digital innovation amidst rising costs and tightened budgets. Martin sheds light on the importance of internal developer portals (IDPs) in this evolving landscape. He argues that IDPs are crucial for ensuring developers can build at scale without increasing toil, especially given the rising complexity of software delivery pipelines in the cloud-native era.

IDPs provide developers with a single pane of glass, allowing access to the necessary capabilities and infrastructure to deploy code and manage services efficiently. Much like how a bank’s customers need not worry about the backend processes when making a deposit, an IDP encapsulates the development infrastructure, enabling developers to focus solely on writing and committing code rather than getting bogged down by complex deployment processes.

Martin discusses how this trend is set to further disrupt the developer experience and accelerate transformation in 2024. He highlights that platform engineering helps solve non-coding tasks (toil) by providing a reliable, secure platform with automated pipelines for quick and consistent software delivery. This approach allows developers to focus on coding, thereby enhancing productivity and innovation.

We delve into how IDPs act as a gateway and orchestrator for all developer tools, tasks, and resources, offering visibility into existing services, security, and costs. This prevents reinventing the wheel and allows for self-service access to tooling, infrastructure, and pipelines, ultimately enabling more agile and rapid delivery compared to traditional environments.

Martin emphasizes the benefits of IDPs, such as improved productivity, accelerated innovation, and reduced onboarding time for new developers. However, successful adoption of IDPs requires treating developers as customers, understanding their needs, and integrating familiar tools to provide a seamless experience.

Looking ahead, Martin envisions a future where AI assistants augment IDPs, providing contextual information and recommendations without replacing developers. The goal is to shift information left, ensuring developers have the right context at the right time to make informed decisions.

Join us as we uncover how platform engineering and IDPs are revolutionizing the developer experience, driving digital transformation, and shaping the future of software delivery. How are you adapting to these changes in your development processes? Share your thoughts and join the conversation.

2916: Flying High with AI: Virgin Atlantic's Customer Service Revolution Jun 02, 2024

What real-world impact is AI having on businesses today? How do we measure its success? These are the questions we are exploring at the Experience 2024 event by Genesis in Denver, Colorado. Amid the buzz about AI, I want to dig deeper and uncover tangible examples of its business value.

In this episode, I speak with Louise Phillips, Vice President of Customer Centres at Virgin Atlantic, and Michael Johnson, Operational Change Manager at Virgin Atlantic. They reveal how Virgin Atlantic is leveraging AI to revolutionize customer and employee experiences. They also share remarkable outcomes such as a 25-point improvement in customer satisfaction and a 12-point increase in employee happiness within just a year.

We explore how AI is used to create smarter, more cohesive experiences, including the implementation of predictive routing, voice segmentation bots, and bot flows. Louise and Michael explain how these technologies have transformed Virgin Atlantic's customer journey, particularly for transatlantic routes, and how they've allowed the company to quantify and improve service.

They also discuss future advancements, such as Agent Assist and predictive engagement, that promise to further enhance operations and customer experiences. As the event concludes, they reflect on their partnership with Genesys and the exciting potential of AI.

Join us as we dive into the real-world impact of AI on business, the measurable successes, and the future possibilities. How do you see AI shaping the future of business? Share your thoughts and join the conversation.

2915: Securing the Future: How F5 Tackles AI Challenges Jun 01, 2024

In this episode, we dive into the evolving landscape of AI integration and security with Kara Sprague, Chief Product Officer and EVP at F5. IDC predicts that by 2025, organizations will allocate over 40% of their core IT spend to artificial intelligence-related initiatives. Just as enterprises raced to the cloud, companies today are scrambling to integrate AI into their IT architecture. The challenge? They must cut existing IT costs to remain competitive.

We discuss how companies need to implement AI technology quickly and reliably while fending off new cybersecurity threats created by AI. Managing the cost and complexity proves challenging for IT budgets. In previous years, IT leaders rushed to onboard cloud services, only to struggle with network complexity and cloud spend. To avoid repeating these mistakes, enterprises must streamline and conserve IT spend to power and protect their AI-based applications and APIs across various environments—be it the edge, cloud, or on-premises.

Kara shares insights on the growing wave of companies reallocating resources to use AI to strengthen and protect their AI-based applications and APIs. She highlights how F5 customers utilize F5’s new AI-based distributed cloud services to support and secure their AI-based apps and APIs across every IT environment.

During our conversation, we delve into the crisis and complexity enterprises face with hybrid multi-cloud environments. Apps are now spread across multiple locations, including multiple clouds, SaaS, edge locations, and corporate data centers, increasing operational complexity. This dispersion brings higher costs from siloed operations and inefficient traffic routing, while expanding the API attack surface creates significant security risks.

Kara explains how AI will drive more apps, APIs, and associated security risks, necessitating architectural changes to manage these hybrid environments effectively. F5 aims to simplify hybrid multi-cloud management with consistent policies across different environments, making the integration process seamless and secure.

We also explore how F5 provides consistent capabilities and flexibility across on-premises, cloud, and SaaS deployment models, ensuring that organizations can maintain robust security and performance. Kara discusses the unique solutions F5 offers for API and distributed cloud security, addressing the growing need for a different approach to securing APIs compared to traditional web apps.

One of the critical aspects we cover is how F5 helps protect against AI-powered threats, such as malicious bots, with advanced anti-bot solutions. Kara highlights the importance of developing new security capabilities tailored to the unique vulnerabilities of AI models and services. We reflect on lessons learned from the complexities of cloud adoption and emphasize the need for architectural intent to avoid similar challenges with AI integration.

Additionally, Kara shares how F5’s Distributed Cloud solutions simplify networking across environments, significantly reducing appliance upgrade times from hours to minutes. This streamlining of processes allows organizations to focus more on innovation and less on operational burdens.

As we look to the future, Kara expresses excitement about the promise and challenges of AI. While AI presents a tremendous opportunity to accelerate digital capabilities, it also requires rethinking architectures and security strategies to manage the associated complexity effectively.

Join us as we uncover the real-world impact of AI on IT architecture, the critical importance of API security, and the future of hybrid multi-cloud environments. How are you preparing for the integration of AI in your business? Share your thoughts and join the conversation.

2914: The Evolution of Serrala: 40 Years of Cutting Costs and Boosting Efficiency May 31, 2024

I recently read that 52% of Companies in the Fortune 500 List Have Disappeared Over the Last 20 Years. Another quick search revealed that 1955 v. 2016, only 12% of Fortune 500 Firms remain.

I then came across a company that has evolved over four decades to remain at the forefront of financial process automation.

Join us in this insightful episode as we sit down with Axel Rebien, CEO of Serrala, a company that has spent 40 years helping businesses cut costs and automate financial processes. Axel shares his unique perspective on leadership, shaped by his extensive background in tech, finance, fashion, and healthcare, and how it influences Serrala's customer-centric approach.

In our conversation, Axel delves into the strategic transformation of the CFO role, highlighting how Serrala leverages AI-driven scenario modeling and predictive analytics to provide near real-time visibility into financial health. We explore the importance of customer focus in product development, and how speaking directly with clients ensures that Serrala's solutions solve real-world problems efficiently and effectively.

Axel's passion for transforming finance from a strategic gatekeeper to a value creator shines through as he discusses the integration of Serrala's solutions with SAP, enhancing user experience and efficiency for finance teams. He also offers valuable advice for aspiring business leaders on adopting a customer-centric approach and driving innovation.

How can AI and predictive analytics redefine the strategic role of finance functions? What does it take to lead a company through four decades of technological advancements while staying true to customer needs? Listen in as Axel Rebien shares his journey and vision for the future of finance automation.

Join the conversation and let us know your thoughts on how technology is reshaping the finance industry. How do you see AI impacting financial processes in your organization? Share your insights and let's discuss!

2913: Sphere 24: WithSecure’s Christine Bejerasco on Evolving Cyber Threats and Effective Security Practices May 30, 2024

I am live from Sphere 24 in Helsinki in this special Tech Talks Daily Podcast episode. I am pleased to speak with Christine Bejerasco, the Chief Information Security Officer at WithSecure. Christine brings her extensive 20-year experience in cybersecurity to our discussion, offering a unique perspective from the CISO point of view.

We dive into what makes Sphere 24 a standout event in the cybersecurity landscape. Christine shares her passion for this participant-driven unconference that brings together experts from diverse backgrounds to tackle the multifaceted challenges of cybersecurity. She emphasizes the importance of collaboration and multiculturalism, highlighting how these elements are integral to the success of Sphere and WithSecure's approach.

Our conversation covers the primary challenges CISOs face, particularly in balancing minimum adequate security with proactive cyber defense, especially in resource-constrained environments. Christine provides valuable insights into how exposure management is helping organizations identify and prioritize their most critical vulnerabilities, ensuring a more strategic and practical cybersecurity posture.

Christine also shares her thoughts on cyber adversaries' evolving tactics and the importance of embedding security into organizational processes to elevate overall security maturity. We discuss the role of AI in cybersecurity and the necessity of adopting a "secure by design" mindset to build resilient technologies and organizations.

Join us for this engaging discussion, during which Christine Bejerasco offers practical advice, forward-thinking strategies, and a glimpse into the future of cybersecurity. Whether you are a business leader, cybersecurity professional, or simply interested in the latest trends, this episode provides knowledge and inspiration. Listen in, and don't forget to share your thoughts with us!

For more information, visit WithSecure's website at www.withsecure.com and explore their latest blogs and resources on the evolving cyber threat landscape. Thank you for tuning in to the Tech Talks Daily Podcast from Sphere 24.

2912: Sphere 24: WithSecure’s Antti Koskela Talks Luminen and Co-Security May 29, 2024

In this special episode of the Tech Talks Daily Podcast, I am live from the Sphere Event in Helsinki, joined by Antti Koskela, the interim CEO of WithSecure. Antti, a seasoned global software business executive, brings a strategic perspective on how midmarket companies can navigate the often enterprise-centric world of cybersecurity.

During our conversation, we delve into the unique needs of midmarket firms and how WithSecure is addressing these through innovative solutions tailored specifically for them. We also explore the European approach to cybersecurity and how it shapes the strategies and offerings of WithSecure.

Antti introduces us to Luminen, WithSecure’s latest GenAI-powered cybersecurity tool designed to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of IT teams. We discuss how Luminen leverages advanced algorithms to simplify complex tasks, provide contextual guidance, and offer precise, actionable recommendations. This tool aims to democratize cybersecurity by making it accessible and manageable, even for non-experts.

Tune in to learn how WithSecure is not only protecting businesses but also enabling them to thrive in an increasingly digital world. Antti’s insights into the future of cybersecurity and the importance of collaboration, or co-security, are invaluable for anyone interested in the latest advancements and strategies in the field.

Join us as we explore these topics and more, live from Sphere 24, where cybersecurity professionals and heroes unite to create a safer digital future. Don't miss this engaging discussion with Antti Koskela. Listen, reflect, and share your thoughts with us!

2911: Workday on Inclusivity: Pioneering the Path for Women in Technology May 29, 2024

Are we truly prepared to foster the next generation of female innovators in tech? In this special episode of Tech Talks Daily, I am thrilled to welcome back Clare Hickie, CTO EMEA at Workday, alongside Caroline O'Reilly, Workday’s General Manager of Analytics. Together, they bring a wealth of experience and passion for shaping a more inclusive and diverse tech industry.

As we approach International Women’s Day, celebrated on March 8th with the theme 'Inspiring Inclusion,' Clare and Caroline share their insights on the future of females in tech. We delve into the importance of an employee-first mindset, the often-overlooked topic of menopause at work, and the value of industry experience offerings to attract more women into tech roles.

Clare and Caroline emphasize why an employee-first mindset is integral for creating solutions based on feedback, ensuring an inclusive workplace for all. They highlight how Workday’s initiatives are setting a precedent for supporting women in tech, including programs to aid women experiencing menopause, thus improving retention and attraction of midlife workers.

We explore the barriers that prevent women from progressing in the tech industry, such as stereotypical branding of tech roles and imposter syndrome. Clare and Caroline share how Workday’s "Return to Work" program and skill-based hiring practices are making strides to address these issues. They also discuss how early STEM education outreach, mentoring circles, and employee belonging councils like Women at Workday are crucial for attracting women to tech roles.

Clare and Caroline share strategies for continuous learning and keeping pace with rapid tech advancements, providing invaluable advice for anyone looking to thrive in this dynamic field. They discuss how Workday's "vibe" philosophy fosters unique perspectives and equal opportunities, creating an inclusive tech industry. Supporting menopause at work, Clare and Caroline stress the significance of open discussions and specialized support programs, which play a crucial role in improving retention and attraction of midlife workers.

In our conversation, Clare and Caroline also delve into the importance of early STEM education outreach, mentoring circles, and the impact of initiatives like Women at Workday. They highlight the significance of treating diversity as a business goal with data-driven accountability and overcoming imposter syndrome to support career re-entry through Workday's "Return to Work" program.

What are your thoughts on how we can inspire more women to pursue careers in tech? Share your insights and let’s continue this important dialogue.

2910: From MySpace to AI: Ted Leonard on Photobucket’s Evolution and Future May 28, 2024

How has a digital image platform with a legacy of over two decades adapted to the rapidly changing landscape of technology and user expectations? In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, we delve into the fascinating journey of Photobucket with Ted Leonard, CEO of this pioneering company.

Photobucket, a platform that supports more than 15 billion images for 90 million users worldwide, has been a steadfast caretaker of memories for over 21 years. Its mission is simple yet profound: to preserve users' cherished moments and ensure they are securely and conveniently shared with loved ones. But how does Photobucket continue to thrive and innovate in the age of AI and ubiquitous cloud storage solutions?

Ted Leonard takes us through the evolution of Photobucket, from its early days as a photo hosting solution for MySpace to its current status as a leading independent cloud storage service. He discusses the pivotal shifts the company has made, including the transition to a subscription model focused on privacy and preservation, the challenges they faced in staying relevant, and how they navigated technical debt to deploy new, cutting-edge products.

One of Photobucket's latest innovations is "Group Buckets," a feature designed to revolutionize photo sharing and collaboration within communities. Ted explains how Group Buckets offer an effortless way for friends, families, and communities to share and collaborate on photos and videos, enhancing the social aspect of memory preservation.

As AI continues to shape the tech landscape, Photobucket leverages this technology not for generative purposes but to enhance user experience through image tagging, automated organization, and facial/object recognition. Ted shares insights on how AI helps streamline these processes and explores the potential of licensing content for AI training models.

Throughout our conversation, Ted emphasizes Photobucket's commitment to centralization, community, preservation, and longevity. He discusses the company's carbon-neutral stance and the promise of not selling user data, reinforcing Photobucket's dedication to being a trustworthy guardian of users' digital memories.

Join us as we explore the rich history and innovative future of Photobucket with Ted Leonard. How do you see the role of digital platforms in preserving our memories evolving in the coming years? Share your thoughts with us after the episode.

Tune in for an enlightening discussion on the intersection of technology, memory preservation, and community, only on Tech Talks Daily.

2909: F5: Leadership and Championship Refereeing: Carl Berry's Story May 27, 2024

How does one juggle the intense demands of refereeing professional football and managing channel partners across a vast region for one of the world's leading application security companies? This intriguing balance is the story of Carl Berry, EMEA Channel Director at F5, who joins us on this episode of Tech Talks Daily.

Carl joined F5 in March 2022, bringing over 20 years of experience in the IT market, particularly within partner and channel ecosystems. But what sets Carl apart is his parallel career as a Championship football referee, a role that has seen him touted for the Premier League. How do the disciplines of refereeing at such a high level translate into managing over 500 partners in the technology space? Carl shares how the integrity, elite communication, and decision-making skills honed on the pitch have influenced his approach to his role at F5.

In our conversation, Carl delves into the synergies between refereeing and his channel director responsibilities. He discusses the importance of integrity and effective communication in both fields and how these traits have shaped his leadership style. We also explore the current technology trends Carl is observing, including multi-cloud networking, the growth of app/API security, and the rise of generative AI.

Carl offers his insights on the unexpected growth in the retail vertical last year and shares his perspective on the technologies that failed to meet expectations. He advises channel partners on the importance of embracing and demystifying AI, focusing on practical business outcomes rather than getting bogged down by the complexities of the technology.

Join us as we unpack Carl Berry's unique journey and gain valuable insights into the evolving landscape of technology and channel partnerships. What skills from your own unique experiences do you bring to your professional life? Share your thoughts with us after the episode.

Tune in for an engaging discussion that bridges the worlds of football and cybersecurity, only on Tech Talks Daily.

2908: Crafting Authentic Content with AI: Balancing Technology and Human Touch May 26, 2024

Are you curious about how AI and automation can revolutionize your content creation and marketing strategies? In today's Tech Talks Daily Podcast episode, I sit down with James Taylor, founder of PowLeads, to explore the cutting-edge tools and techniques transforming the industry.

From summarizing calls and generating action items with Read AI to automating workflows using Make.com and Zapier, James shares his insights on how these technologies can streamline your processes. We also dive into the capabilities of ChatGPT for script and content outline creation and discuss the innovative Auto Alchemist for automating video and image production.

James, with his rich background in video production, animation, and marketing, has pivoted towards AI-driven solutions to help businesses enhance their brand presence on platforms like LinkedIn and TikTok. He emphasizes the importance of maintaining a human touch in AI-generated content by editing and adding your own voice.

Discover how AI will shape the future of personal brand avatars and learn about the significance of clear use cases for successful AI integration. Whether you're an entrepreneur or a seasoned marketer, this episode offers valuable insights into leveraging AI and automation for impactful content creation and marketing.

Join us as we discuss:

The journey of James Taylor from video production to AI and marketing automation.
The role of AI tools like Read AI, Make.com, Zapier, ChatGPT, and Auto Alchemist in content creation.
The future of AI in creating personal brand avatars and enhancing content authenticity.
Balancing innovation with the human element in content creation and marketing.

Tune in to gain actionable strategies and stay ahead of the curve in the ever-evolving landscape of AI and content marketing. How is your organization leveraging AI to boost its content creation efforts? We'd love to hear your thoughts. Share your insights with us and continue the conversation.

Stay connected for more thought-provoking discussions on the Tech Talks Daily Podcast, and remember to explore the latest technological advancements with us. Until next time, keep innovating and pushing the boundaries of what's possible in content creation and marketing.

2907: Xperience 2024: The Intersection of AI, Sustainability, and Customer Experience May 25, 2024

Have you ever wondered how sustainability and advanced AI can converge to shape the future of customer experiences? In this episode, we sit down with Peter Graf, the Senior Vice President of Strategy at Genesys, live from Xperience 2024, to delve into the groundbreaking innovations driving the future of personalized, AI-powered customer interactions.

Join us as we explore the pivotal role of sustainability in technology with Genesys Cloud operations now achieving carbon neutrality. Peter sheds light on how this milestone was reached and what it means for the broader tech industry. We also dive into the latest enhancements in the Genesys Cloud platform, including new AI capabilities like Copilots, Virtual Agents, and Empathy Detection, designed to revolutionize customer and employee experiences.

We'll discuss the impact of these innovations on real-world businesses, featuring success stories from Virgin Atlantic, Modivcare, Kiwibank, and the National Domestic Hotline, all of whom have harnessed Genesys' solutions to achieve remarkable results.

As the landscape of AI and customer experience continues to evolve, Peter offers insights into the strategic partnerships and forward-thinking approaches that position Genesys at the forefront of this transformation. From managing customer journeys with deeper insights to the integration of social media analytics through the acquisition of Radarr Technologies, this episode is packed with valuable information for anyone interested in the intersection of AI, sustainability, and customer experience.

Tune in to discover how Genesys is not only accelerating the future of AI-driven customer interactions but also ensuring these advancements are sustainable. What does the future hold for AI in customer experience? How can businesses leverage these tools to enhance both customer satisfaction and operational efficiency? Share your thoughts and join the conversation as we explore these critical questions and more.

Don't miss this engaging discussion with Peter Graf, and be sure to share your insights on how AI and sustainability are reshaping the tech landscape.

2906: Inside Syensqo: Leading the Charge in Sustainable Technology May 24, 2024

Have you ever considered what goes into the products you use every day, from the shampoo in your shower to the battery powering your electric vehicle?

In this episode, we explore the transformative world of Syensqo, a company at the forefront of the green energy transition. Our guest is Mike Finelli, Syensqo's Chief Technology & Innovation Officer and Chief North America Officer, who brings over 30 years of experience in the chemical industry to the table.

Mike will delve into how Syensqo is leading the way in developing essential materials for electric vehicle batteries, with a particular focus on their groundbreaking work in lithium-ion battery components. As North America’s largest production facility for polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) gears up to open in Augusta, Georgia, Mike will share insights on how this new site will play a critical role in the U.S. "Battery Belt," driving the clean energy transition.

We’ll also discuss Syensqo’s innovative use of artificial intelligence to revolutionize chemical production, making processes more efficient and environmentally friendly. Mike will explain how AI is leveraged in their R&D labs, leading to breakthrough discoveries that push the boundaries of what's possible in sustainable technology.

Join us for a deep dive into the megatrends shaping our future—lightweighting, electrification, and advanced connectivity—and learn how Syensqo is not just keeping up but setting the pace for industrial decarbonization. How are they managing to stay ahead in an industry that's rapidly evolving? And what can other businesses learn from their approach to innovation and sustainability?

As we uncover the layers of Syensqo’s strategic vision, we invite you to ponder: How will these advancements change the products you use daily and the world at large? Share your thoughts with us after the episode.

2905: How AI is Transforming Tech Companies from the Inside Out May 23, 2024

What does the future hold for tech companies as AI continues to evolve and integrate into their operations? In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I sit down with Thomas Lah, the Executive Director and Executive VP of the Technology & Services Industry Association (TSIA), to explore this pressing question.

As an expert with over two decades of experience helping major tech firms enhance their operational efficiency, Thomas provides invaluable insights into the profound changes AI is bringing to the industry.

AI is revolutionizing internal workflows, leading to significant improvements in key performance indicators (KPIs), ranging from 15-70%. This transformation is not just about automating tasks but fundamentally changing how companies operate from the inside out.

Thomas highlights that while much of the AI buzz centers around customer-facing solutions, its impact on internal operations is equally transformative. Some companies are rapidly adopting AI to enhance their workflows, creating a divide between the "haves and have-nots" in the industry. Case studies demonstrate that deploying AI in workflows can lead to substantial KPI improvements, underscoring its potential.

One of the most discussed aspects of AI's integration is its impact on headcount. Research indicates that AI could reduce headcount in tech companies by up to 20%. Companies like Google have openly discussed how AI has enabled workforce reductions, while others have slowed their hiring rates despite experiencing revenue growth. This trend raises important questions about the future of work in the tech industry.

The prospect of reduced headcounts brings about a critical need for companies and society to invest in retraining and supporting displaced workers, ensuring a smooth transition into new roles that leverage their existing skills in conjunction with AI capabilities.

Thomas explains that education services and support services are currently reaping the highest benefits from AI implementations. These areas are seeing significant returns on investment, making them prime examples of where AI can deliver substantial value. In contrast, areas like revenue management and sales/renewals are lagging in terms of AI-driven ROI, highlighting the varying degrees of AI impact across different functions.

For companies looking to overcome the barriers to AI implementation, Thomas advises starting with well-defined workflows and integrating AI into these existing processes rather than creating new ones from scratch. He emphasizes the importance of having a sense of urgency, as AI capabilities are not just a passing trend but a permanent fixture in the tech landscape.

The ability to quickly and effectively adopt AI can determine a company's future success, making it imperative for tech leaders to prioritize these initiatives.

Looking ahead, AI promises to deliver more consistent business value and operational efficiency. Thomas and I discuss how AI will reshape workflows for everyone in the industry, creating distinct market winners and losers based on the speed and effectiveness of AI adoption. This shift will necessitate a new approach to business strategy, focusing on leveraging AI to gain a competitive edge.

Beyond the immediate impact of AI, Thomas shares insights into how the classic SaaS business model is under pressure due to inflation, high interest rates, and deflated company valuations. He discusses how companies like Salesforce are adapting to these economic challenges by leveraging big data and AI to offer next-generation value propositions. This adaptability is crucial for SaaS companies to navigate the current economic landscape and emerge stronger.

Throughout our conversation, Thomas emphasizes the role of industry associations like TSIA in helping SaaS companies navigate the challenges brought by AI disruption. He advises that every executive team should focus on their big data play to unlock unique value propositions for their customers. By doing so, companies can not only survive but thrive in an AI-driven future.

We conclude the discussion by reflecting on the broader implications of AI in the tech industry. We agree that AI will enable more consistent business value and operational efficiency, changing everyone's workflows and creating a clear divide between those who quickly adapt and those who lag behind.

As we look to the future, the question remains: How will tech companies continue to evolve and leverage AI to stay ahead in an increasingly competitive landscape? I invite you to share your thoughts on this transformative journey.

2904: Heidrick & Struggles: Navigating AI's Impact on Leadership May 22, 2024

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, we delve into the seismic shifts AI adoption is bringing to the technology landscape with Sam Burman, a partner at Heidrick & Struggles. As AI continues to revolutionize industries, it's not just transforming business operations but also the very fabric of leadership and career progression in the tech world.

Sam Burman brings his extensive expertise to the table, shedding light on how the rapid integration of AI is altering the traditional career ladder. With companies entering an AI recruitment arms race, traditional career progression models are becoming obsolete. We explore how tech giants are now seeking and cultivating talent directly from top universities, propelling fresh graduates into high-level roles right from the start. This trend is reshaping the future of leadership teams and creating unprecedented opportunities and challenges.

Moreover, Sam discusses modern leaders' crucial qualities to navigate this new era. Emotional intelligence, storytelling skills, and fostering trust and transparency around AI are now indispensable. We'll also touch on the latest findings from Heidrick & Struggles' survey of 201 executives in Europe and the US, revealing the current state and future direction of AI and data analytics in leadership roles.

Sam will provides reassuring guidance on how businesses can embark on their AI journey with focused use cases, assuring them that it's a step-by-step process rather than a daunting overhaul of entire leadership structures.

Are we ready for a future where AI dictates the rhythm of career advancements and leadership structures? How can businesses ensure they effectively and responsibly integrate AI into their operations? Join us for this thought-provoking discussion and share your thoughts on how AI transforms the workplace.

For insights and information, visit Heidrick & Struggles online and connect with Sam and his team.

2903: Integrate to Innovate: Celigo's Impact on Business Efficiency May 21, 2024

Have you ever wondered how automation and integration can transform your business, making it more efficient and scalable? In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I sit down with Gert-Jan Wijman from Celigo to explore the revolutionary impact of process automation on businesses across various sectors.

Celigo's integration platform is at the forefront of enabling automated, scalable business processes by seamlessly connecting data across different systems. Gert-Jan explains how this eliminates human intervention in routine business tasks, allowing data to flow smoothly between systems, removing bottlenecks, and ultimately making business processes more scalable.

We delve into the critical role of proper platform and integration approaches in harnessing the potential of underused business technologists. By lessening the burden on IT departments while still providing them with the necessary oversight, Celigo's platform empowers "citizen integrators" – non-IT employees with technical skills – to contribute significantly to automation initiatives. This approach not only accelerates implementation but also brings valuable business context to the table.

Gert-Jan shares how automation is particularly beneficial for businesses operating across multiple countries and regions. By ensuring efficient connectivity between systems and intelligently handling errors and changes, Celigo's platform supports agile processes that can adapt to different market demands and regulatory environments.

We also discuss the impact of AI on integration and vice versa. Celigo leverages AI for error handling, using pattern recognition to resolve issues automatically, thereby making business process management more efficient. This integration of AI not only enhances the automation process but also ensures more reliable and consistent operations.

A significant focus of our conversation is the e-commerce and retail sector, where automation plays a crucial role in providing consistent omnichannel customer experiences. Gert-Jan highlights how automation frees employees from repetitive tasks, improving their overall experience and enabling them to focus on more strategic activities. For customers, this means seamless interactions across various channels, which is essential for a positive shopping experience.

Gert-Jan provides compelling examples of how brand aggregators on platforms like Amazon use Celigo's solutions to integrate acquired brands rapidly, leveraging economies of scale. This capability also extends to expanding brands into new geographical markets quickly and efficiently.

As we look ahead, Gert-Jan shares insights into emerging trends, particularly the convergence of integration, automation, robotic process automation (RPA), business process management (BPM), and API management for the mid-market. He emphasizes that companies increasingly seek integrated automation platforms rather than separate tools, and Celigo's roadmap reflects this trend by evolving into a broader automation platform.

Join us in this insightful episode as we explore how Celigo is redefining the landscape of business automation and integration. How can automation transform your business operations? Listen in to find out, and don't forget to share your thoughts on this exciting topic!

2902: The Tech Enhancing The Trevor Project’s Lifeline for LGBTQ+ Youth May 20, 2024

How is technology revolutionizing the way we provide mental health support to LGBTQ+ youth? In this special episode of the Tech Talks Daily Podcast, I sit down with Emmett Troxel, Director of Contact Center Technology at The Trevor Project, during the Genesys Xperience 2024 CX event in Denver, Colorado.

With over 25 years of expertise in contact center operations, specializing in IVR, Interaction Routing, Workforce Management, and Automation, Emmett brings a wealth of experience to their role as the Director of Contact Center Technology at the Trevor Project. He is dedicated to leveraging technology for good, helping end suicide among LGBTQ+ young people.

The Trevor Project is the world's largest suicide prevention and mental health organization for LGBTQ+ young people, and Emmett shares how they are leveraging cutting-edge technology to save young lives.

Emmett discusses the imperative for The Trevor Project to evolve its services from more than a dozen vendors to an all-in-one platform, enhancing their ability to support the LGBTQ+ community and manage their unique staffing needs. Emmett delves into the challenges and successes of managing a diverse workforce of full-time staff and thousands of volunteers, highlighting the importance of formalized training, real-time supervision, and the right mix of skills for both voice and digital interactions.

Throughout the conversation, Emmett provides valuable insights into how The Trevor Project is integrating new technologies, including soon-to-come social media platform integrations, to extend their reach and effectiveness. He shares the transformative impact of these advancements on their 24/7 phone lifeline, chat, and text services, as well as TrevorSpace, the world’s largest safe space social networking site for LGBTQ youth.

2901: Combating Greenwashing: How Technology Enhances Environmental Transparency May 20, 2024

Have you ever wondered if the eco-labels on your favorite products truly reflect their environmental impact? In this episode, I sit down with Christophe Girardier, CEO of Glimpact, to explore how technology is transforming our understanding of sustainability. Christophe, a serial entrepreneur, brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the table, shedding light on the critical role of technology in achieving genuine sustainability.

We begin by critiquing the current state of eco-labeling, questioning whether smarter algorithms and data analytics can pave the way for more accurate, dynamic, and helpful sustainability ratings for consumers. Christophe shares insights on how Glimpact's technology goes beyond the narrow focus on carbon emissions, emphasizing the complexity of true sustainability. It's not just about carbon; it's about biodiversity, water, and soil health.

One of the key topics we delve into is the challenge of greenwashing and the importance of authentic sustainability efforts. Christophe introduces Glimpact's global footprint measurement approach, leveraging the EU's OEF method to capture a comprehensive view of environmental impact. This rigorous and holistic assessment spans 16 impact categories, including water depletion, biodiversity loss, and more.

Christophe also highlights the pivotal role of technology in environmental sustainability. We discuss how AI can help consumer brands become more sustainable, using examples like Lacoste to illustrate the importance of a systemic view. Technology not only prepares companies for future reporting demands but also enables them to measure and mitigate a wide array of environmental impacts.

We explore the adoption of PEF/OEF methods for a systemic approach, ensuring a rigorous assessment of environmental footprints. Christophe explains each of the 16 impact categories, from climate change to resource use, and how they contribute to a comprehensive understanding of sustainability.

Finally, we propose a revolution in corporate environmental strategy, urging companies to include all dimensions of the environmental crisis in their decision-making processes. It's about moving beyond carbon balances to consider the full spectrum of environmental impacts.

Join us as we uncover the complexities of sustainability, the dangers of greenwashing, and the revolutionary potential of technology in driving authentic environmental responsibility. How can brands integrate these insights into their business models? Listen in, and don't forget to share your thoughts on how we can all contribute to a more sustainable future.

2900: Transforming Grab-and-Go: The Role of AI and IoT in Modern Retail May 19, 2024

How can smart vending machines change the way we shop for food on the go? In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I sit down with Aslak de Silva, CEO of Selfly Store, to explore how his company is leveraging IoT, AI, and intelligent vending machines to transform the grab-and-go food shopping experience.

Selfly Store is at the forefront of innovative retail technology, using real-time data and AI to predict demand, optimize operations, and enhance customer convenience. De Silva shares insights into how these smart vending machines provide merchants with invaluable data on inventory, sales, and customer behavior, allowing for dynamic pricing and predictive planning. This technology not only boosts sales but also enables 24/7 service without additional overhead costs.

We'll delve into the concept of "half-mile stores," hyperlocal vending solutions that meet consumers' immediate needs based on real-time data, and discuss the critical role of properly categorizing and cleansing data to extract meaningful insights from AI. De Silva's vision for the future includes more automated, data-driven retail solutions that can adapt to consumer demand and streamline operations.

Join us as we uncover the benefits and challenges of integrating AI and IoT into retail, and explore how business leaders can harness these technologies to stay ahead in a rapidly evolving landscape. Aslak de Silva provides a unique perspective on the future of intelligent vending and the transformative potential of data-driven retail solutions.

Are you ready to see how smart vending machines are shaping the future of grab-and-go shopping? Tune in to this insightful episode and share your thoughts on the potential of AI and IoT in revolutionizing the retail industry.

2899: Xperience 2024: Genesys and a Future of Personalized AI-Powered Experiences May 18, 2024

How is artificial intelligence transforming customer experiences across industries? In today's special episode of Tech Talks Daily, we are live at Xperience 2024, where we have the pleasure of speaking with Brett Weigl, Senior Vice President of Product Management for AI at Genesys. Brett shares his insights on the latest AI innovations from Genesys, including their groundbreaking developments in Customer Journey Management.

Brett delves into the findings from a recent consumer perception study on AI in customer experience, emphasizing the role of chatbots and AI-powered solutions in enhancing customer interactions. He explains how Genesys is harnessing AI to optimize every touchpoint in the customer journey, ensuring smoother, more personalized experiences.

We also explore the newly announced native journey management capabilities for the Genesys Cloud™ platform. Brett highlights how these capabilities provide organizations with deeper insights and control over customer interactions, allowing them to visualize, analyze, and improve customer journeys effectively. This integration not only enhances automation and prediction but also improves conversational intelligence, setting a new standard for AI-driven customer service.

Join us as Brett discusses the synergy between Genesys Cloud AI and Journey Management, revealing how these technologies work together to deliver unparalleled customer experiences. We also get a sneak peek into future innovations and what they mean for the industry.

Tune in to discover how Genesys is leading the charge in AI-powered experience orchestration and what it means for the future of customer service.

2898: #Xperience24: Coca-Cola Bottlers' Sales & Services AI Innovation May 17, 2024

In today's episode of Tech Talks Daily, we dive into an insightful conversation with Nicole Thomas, VP of Customer Care Center at Coca-Cola Bottlers' Sales and Services Company (CCBSSC).

Nicole shares how CCBSSC has extended the capabilities of the platform by utilizing Genesys Dialog Engine Bot Flows to introduce an innovative account finder voicebot. This technology determines the customer’s identity and intent before connecting them to an agent, ensuring inquiries are routed efficiently and eliminating multiple transfers. As a result, the customer care experience has become smoother and more effective.

Additionally, Nicole discusses how integrating tools from the Genesys AppFoundry® Marketplace, like Help Lightning, has revolutionized technical support. Through video chat, technicians can now visualize and resolve issues remotely, leading to a 12% improvement in fix rates and significant cost savings by reducing the need for site visits.

We explore the impressive outcomes of these technological advancements, including the correct identification and routing of over 80% of calls by voicebots, a $1 million savings in technician site visits, and a 50% TCO reduction. These achievements highlight the profound impact of embracing cloud-based solutions and AI-driven technologies.

How does a global brand like Coca-Cola continuously innovate to maintain its market leadership? What lessons can other businesses learn from CCBSSC’s journey with Genesys Cloud? Tune in to discover the strategies behind these successes and how they shape the future of customer care.

2897: Unlocking the Experience Edge With Contentstack May 17, 2024

How can businesses harness the power of technology to stand out in a crowded digital landscape? In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, we sit down with Conor Egan, VP of Product at Contentstack, to explore the innovative solutions and strategies that are redefining digital customer experiences. Conor brings over 15 years of experience in the industry and has been instrumental in creating solutions that disrupt the CMS market.

We begin by discussing Contentstack’s pioneering role in the development of headless CMS and composable digital experience platforms (DXP). Conor explains how these technologies help brands deliver personalized, omnichannel experiences while overcoming the limitations of legacy CMS systems. He shares Contentstack’s vision of making technology an enabler, allowing brands to focus on executing their most innovative ideas.

Our conversation moves to the "Experience Edge" framework, a unique approach Contentstack uses to help brands identify their competitive advantage. Whether it’s faster time to market, superior UX, or innovative creativity, Conor emphasizes how even small improvements in customer experience can drive significant business outcomes.

As we delve into the evolution of martech, Conor highlights the explosive growth in this space and the challenges that come with integrating diverse platforms and data sources. He advocates for a composable approach, enabling brands to use best-of-breed technologies and adapt as their needs change.

Conor also shares insights into Contentstack’s corporate culture and community initiatives, including their support for Girls Who Code and other charitable organizations. He discusses how regular hackathons and community service foster innovation and engagement within the company.

Lastly, we explore the broader implications of digital transformation, touching on how every business, regardless of industry, will need to embrace technology to remain competitive in 2024 and beyond. Conor provides a detailed explanation of the differences between composable DXP, headless CMS, and traditional CMS, highlighting the benefits and opportunities each brings.

How can your business leverage the experience edge to drive customer loyalty and stand out from competitors? Tune in to this episode and join the conversation by sharing your thoughts on these cutting-edge topics.

2896: The Role of AI in Enhancing Supply Chain Efficiency and Security May 16, 2024

What does the future of warehouse technology look like, and how can it shape the supply chain industry? Join us in this insightful episode of Tech Talks Daily as we sit down with Matt Gregory, Managing Director of Northern Europe for Körber's Supply Chain Software. With over 17 years of experience in the supply chain software industry, Matt brings a wealth of knowledge on how technology is revolutionizing the way we manage warehouses and supply chains.

In our conversation, Matt delves into the significance of employee well-being in boosting productivity and retention in warehouse environments. He explains how Körber's solutions prioritize the human factor, ensuring that technology supports rather than replaces the workforce. We explore the latest trends in warehouse technology and Matt shares his predictions for the future, highlighting the pivotal role of automation, AI, and digital twins in creating more efficient and adaptable supply chains.

We also tackle the pressing issue of technology's impact on job creation. Contrary to popular belief, Matt argues that technology is not just taking over jobs but also creating new opportunities within the supply chain sector. He provides real-world examples of how AI and automation can enhance decision-making and operational efficiency without fully automating the human touch out of the equation.

As we navigate the complexities of supply chain security, Matt sheds light on how AI can be both a boon and a threat. He emphasizes the importance of cautious integration and robust safeguards to protect supply chains from emerging risks. The discussion also touches on the evolution of smart warehouses and the critical factors for successful implementation, from digital twin simulations to the orchestration of diverse technologies.

Finally, we look at how businesses can create future-proof retail solutions to meet ever-increasing customer demands. Matt shares insights on leveraging software and automation to streamline high throughput operations and build resilient, customer-centric retail environments.

How can businesses leverage AI to improve efficiency and productivity across their supply chains? What does a future-proof retail solution look like in an age of rapid technological advancement? Tune in to find out and join the conversation by sharing your thoughts on these transformative topics.

2895: Elsevier - AI in Healthcare: The Role of ClinicalKey AI May 15, 2024

How can AI transform the future of clinical decision-making? Today on Tech Talks Daily, we explore this pivotal question with Rhett Alden, CTO at Elsevier Health. Rhett brings deep insights into the integration of AI with clinical knowledge to enhance healthcare delivery.

Rhett discusses Elsevier's latest innovation, ClinicalKey AI, poised to revolutionize how clinicians access and utilize medical information. Developed with the sophisticated blend of Elsevier’s vast clinical knowledge assets and advanced AI technologies, ClinicalKey AI is designed to deliver trusted, transparent, and timely support to medical professionals. Rhett highlights how this tool leverages a retrieval-augmented generative architecture to provide accurate responses, greatly reducing the time clinicians spend researching complex cases.

Delving deeper, Rhett explains the rigorous validation frameworks that underpin ClinicalKey AI, ensuring the accuracy and reliability of the AI responses while addressing potential biases in AI applications. He emphasizes the importance of transparency, with the system designed to allow clinicians to easily trace and verify the sources of information it provides.

Localization of content is another key aspect Rhett touches upon. ClinicalKey AI is customized for diverse global healthcare systems, adhering to local protocols and regulations, thereby enhancing its applicability and effectiveness worldwide. Looking ahead, Rhett shares Elsevier’s vision for the future—transitioning from on-demand tools to anticipatory, embedded clinical advisors, with a particular focus on expanding into the fast-evolving field of oncology.

Join us as Rhett Alden from Elsevier Health unveils how ClinicalKey AI and generative AI are setting new standards in healthcare technology. After the episode, we invite you to share your thoughts: How do you see AI shaping the future of clinical decision support systems in your environment?

2894: IBM and the AI Revolution: Enhancing Enterprise Applications May 14, 2024

Are enterprises ready to harness the full potential of generative AI in application modernization? In today’s episode of Tech Talks Daily, we dive deep with Kyle Charlet, IBM Fellow and CTO for IBM Z Software, exploring the transformative impact of AI on hybrid cloud strategies and legacy systems.

Kyle provides expert insights into how application modernization is crucial for executing successful hybrid cloud strategies, with generative AI playing a critical role in this evolution. He discusses the benefits of AI in translating outdated code from languages like COBOL to more contemporary languages such as Java, enhancing developer productivity, and ensuring business agility. With IBM’s comprehensive lifecycle approach, Kyle outlines how organizations are not just rewriting, but intelligently enhancing their existing assets for future-proof platforms.

We also cover the significant challenges that come with modernization, such as understanding complex, monolithic legacy applications developed over decades. Kyle explains how generative AI serves as a tool to demystify these systems, assisting in generating test cases, synthetic data, and highlighting potential security vulnerabilities that need addressing from the outset.

The conversation shifts to the impact on IT roles and skills, emphasizing the increasing importance of testing, security, and integration competencies. Kyle points out that developers will need to adapt rapidly to interpret AI-generated code and focus more on application architecture and less on building from scratch.

Looking ahead, Kyle speaks on the expectations for faster innovation cycles and more interconnected systems across hybrid environments. He stresses the need for Ops teams to prepare for managing this complexity and the optimization of DevSecOps pipelines to stay competitive.

Join us as we explore how generative AI is reshaping the landscape of application modernization and what this means for the future of enterprise IT. After the episode, we invite you to share your thoughts: How do you see generative AI influencing your industry’s approach to modernization and hybrid cloud strategies?

2893: Evan Goldberg on the Future of Oracle NetSuite and AI Integration May 13, 2024

Are we witnessing a tech evolution or merely chasing the latest shiny object? Today on Tech Talks Daily, we're thrilled to welcome Evan Goldberg, EVP and Founder of Oracle NetSuite, as we explore the journey and future of cloud computing and AI integration within business software. We’re broadcasting from SuiteConnect in London, where Evan shares his excitement about connecting with industry professionals beyond the digital realm.

Evan recounts the inception of NetSuite 25 years ago, following a pivotal five-minute conversation with Oracle's Larry Ellison. This story not only marks the birth of the world's first cloud software company but also encapsulates a moment that defined an era of internet and business software revolution.

As we discuss the flashy allure of AI in today’s tech landscape, Evan draws parallels to early challenges at NetSuite, emphasizing the importance of not getting sidetracked by allure without substance. With Oracle recently unveiling plans to infuse AI across NetSuite, Evan explains how "Text Enhance" and broader AI applications are set to transform user experiences and operational efficiency, aligning with the core needs of CEOs across industries.

Addressing the economic uncertainties of our time, Evan reflects on lessons from the dot-com bubble and the resilience shown during the COVID-19 pandemic, offering sage advice for navigating recessional periods. He also touches on learning from setbacks, underscoring how past failures pave the way for future successes.

In a world increasingly driven by ESG goals and social consciousness, Evan discusses how businesses can achieve success while genuinely contributing to societal good—an ethos deeply ingrained in NetSuite’s operations.

Looking ahead, Evan reveals the tech trends that energize him each morning and previews what’s on the horizon for NetSuite's customers. Lastly, for those feeling overwhelmed by the rapid pace of technological change, Evan shares his strategies for continuous learning and keeping abreast of industry evolution.

Join us for this enlightening discussion and share your thoughts: How do you stay current and balanced in the face of incessant tech advancements?

2892: Four Pillars of Growth: Accenture’s Strategy for Software and Platform Companies May 12, 2024

Are software and platform companies poised to conquer the next wave of innovation, or are internal obstacles derailing their trajectory? In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, we sit down with Kevan Yalowitz, the global lead for Software & Platforms at Accenture, who brings over 15 years of experience at the nexus of business and technology.

Kevan unpacks the rapid evolution within the software and platforms industry, which has dramatically reshaped our daily interactions from shopping to socializing. Despite the industry's drive towards constant hypergrowth, there lurks a series of internal challenges—organizational siloes, complex processes, and unfocused engineering talent—that could stall future advancements.

In our conversation, Kevan outlines a strategic roadmap designed for these companies to navigate through these hurdles. He highlights four critical pillars: leveraging generative AI for new growth opportunities, crafting compelling user experiences, enhancing employee engagement, and unlocking internal value. Each component plays a pivotal role in not only overcoming existing challenges but also in solidifying a foundation for sustained innovation.

As we explore these themes, we ponder a crucial question: How can software and platform companies recalibrate their strategies to thrive amidst these evolving challenges? Join us as we delve into this topic, and after listening, we invite you to share your views on whether your favorite tech brands are truly ready for the next chapter of growth.

2891: How Jamf is Demystifying Apple's Security Myth May 11, 2024

Has the longstanding belief in Apple's invulnerability to cyber threats finally been shattered? In today's episode of Tech Talks Daily, we're joined by Jaron Bradley, Director of Threat Labs at Jamf, to dissect this evolving narrative. As Apple devices have become commonplace in professional environments, they've also become hot targets for sophisticated cyber threats, including trojans, ransomware, and Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs).

Jaron will unpack the seismic shift in the threat landscape for Apple's ecosystem, highlighting the transition from nuisance adware to more menacing malware varieties that now plague Mac environments. We’ll explore why the myth of Apple's security invincibility is dissipating and discuss the strategic importance of acknowledging and addressing these vulnerabilities within organizational cyber frameworks.

Moreover, Jaron will shed light on the dire state of cyber hygiene, particularly on mobile devices, and provide actionable insights on how organizations can bolster their defenses against this new wave of threats. With Jamf's cutting-edge solutions at the forefront, we'll delve into practical measures for enhancing security protocols and ensuring robust protection for Apple devices.

As we navigate through these complex challenges, one question remains: Are we doing enough to adapt our security strategies to keep pace with these sophisticated threats? After listening, share your thoughts on how prepared you think organizations really are to tackle this new era of Apple vulnerabilities.

2890: Elevating Tradespeople: How Jobber is Empowering the Deskless Workforce May 10, 2024

How do you build a thriving tech company that supports tradespeople while revolutionizing an industry rooted in tradition? In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I sit down with Sam Pillar, the co-founder and CEO of Jobber, to uncover the remarkable journey of transforming how small home service businesses operate.

Sam shares his inspirational story of meeting his co-founder, Forest, in a coffee shop and how their shared vision led to the creation of a powerful platform that makes everyday tasks easier for home service providers like HVAC technicians, painters, and landscapers. Jobber helps these tradespeople move from pen-and-paper inefficiency to streamlined, profitable operations, allowing them to focus on their craft and create "blue-collar millionaires."

We discuss the challenges of convincing small businesses to trust cloud software, the critical importance of consistency, and the unique opportunities that exist in traditional industries ripe for disruption. Sam also reveals how emerging AI technologies will further streamline back-office processes and enhance customer service.

As you listen, consider the untapped potential within your industry or community. How can technology improve lives and foster business growth in ways that have yet to be explored? Please share your thoughts with us after the episode!

2889: Inside the World of Hacktivist DDoS Attacks with NETSCOUT's Richard Hummel May 09, 2024

In this Tech Talks Daily Podcast episode, I sit down with Richard Hummel from NETSCOUT to delve into the ever-evolving DDoS threat landscape. Why has there been an explosion in hacktivist groups and DDoS attack activity this year, and what does this mean for organizations across all sectors? With over 1,200 hacktivist groups active in 2023 alone, the threat landscape is more challenging than ever.

We explore how geopolitical tensions are directly influencing attack strategies and targets, resulting in a continuous onslaught of sophisticated attacks that challenge traditional defense mechanisms. Critical infrastructure, particularly DNS servers, is being targeted with unprecedented frequency, posing significant risks to the stability of the internet itself.

Richard provides valuable insights into how attackers are employing more advanced tactics, including leveraging public cloud hosting to evade defenses and utilizing AI to generate potent attacks. He also highlights how global conflicts, elections, and political unrest directly trigger hacktivist activity, with adversaries often striking both sides of a conflict.

To help organizations defend themselves, Richard shares the importance of adopting a predictive defense strategy based on real-time threat intelligence, stressing that visibility into network traffic is critical. With proactive blocking of known adversary infrastructure and AI chatbots identifying new attack vectors, Richard outlines practical recommendations for staying ahead of the curve.

Tune in to understand the risks, challenges, and the strategies organizations can implement to bolster their defenses. Do you feel adequately prepared for this evolving threat landscape, or is your organization vulnerable to these increasingly sophisticated attacks? Listen and share your thoughts!

2888: AI and the Shift to Strategic Decision-Making in Finance May 08, 2024

Have you ever wondered how the evolving role of finance is being transformed by AI and new technology? In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I sit down with Pam McIntyre, Senior Vice President and Corporate Controller at OneStream Software, to explore how AI tools are reshaping finance roles and tackling the industry's talent shortage.

We'll discuss the current challenges facing finance professionals and the shortage of candidates with the right skills. Pam shares her perspective on how AI is automating routine tasks, empowering finance teams to focus on strategic decision-making and become true partners in business growth. She reveals how OneStream's platform provides real-time insights, allowing finance leaders to look around corners and deliver trusted data and insights that support forward-looking decisions.

Pam draws on her wealth of experience in senior finance leadership to highlight how AI is changing the profession, not just by automating tasks, but by shifting finance from being mere record-keepers to strategic advisors. Learn how companies can leverage these tools to attract emerging talent, retain tenured employees, and equip finance professionals with the analytics and skepticism skills necessary for success.

Join us as we delve into how technology is changing the role of finance, the CFO, and the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. How will AI impact finance as it continues to evolve? Listen in, and then share your thoughts!

2887: Revolutionizing Supply Chains: Inside Logility's AI Success Story May 07, 2024

How is AI reshaping supply chain management, and what role is Logility playing in this transformation? In today's episode, I sit down with Scott Tillman, Senior Vice President of Innovation at Logility, to explore the company's groundbreaking approach to integrating artificial intelligence into supply chain operations. Logility's digital supply chain platform leverages AI to recognize patterns and improve forecast accuracy, helping clients reduce inventory by 20% and unlock significant working capital.

Scott shares insights into how AI empowers supply chain managers with real-time insights, significantly reducing latency and enabling more effective decision-making. He provides a comprehensive look at how Logility tailors its platform to scale with clients, meeting them wherever they are on their digital transformation journey. We'll delve into how the company has focused its AI efforts on specific use cases that deliver tangible value, such as optimizing inventory and improving demand forecasting.

We'll also discuss future trends like prescriptive AI guidance and the intelligent automation of routine tasks. As AI use becomes more pervasive, companies must adopt a portfolio approach, targeting high-value use cases that drive tangible business impact. Are you ready to understand how AI can transform your supply chain strategy and operations? Join us to uncover how Logility's innovative platform can redefine your approach.

What are your thoughts on AI's role in supply chain management, and where do you see the most significant opportunities? We'd love to hear from you!

2886: Dr. Zero Trust on the Toxic Talent Dilemma: Leading, Not Bleeding May 06, 2024

What makes a leader fail? Dr. Chase Cunningham, affectionately known in the cybersecurity realm as "Dr. Zero Trust," offers an unfiltered look at the pitfalls of leadership through his latest book, "How NOT to Lead."

In this episode, we'll explore Dr. Cunningham's transformation from a cybersecurity expert to a thought leader on what makes or breaks leaders today. He brings a fresh perspective with his vivid metaphors like "dumpster chickens" and "mushroom farming" to vividly describe the leadership failures he's witnessed firsthand. Dr. Cunningham emphasizes the necessity of the three critical 'currencies' of leadership—time, trust, and respect—and the peril of missing any one of these in a leadership role.

Join us as he shares lessons from consulting at companies that led to these insights, and hear his candid advice on handling 'brilliant jerks,' drawing from the drastic measures taken by leaders like Steve Jobs to refocus and save an entire company. If you're looking to avoid common leadership traps and inspire genuine respect and productivity in your team, this conversation is a must-listen.

What are the biggest leadership challenges you've faced, and how have you tackled them? Join the discussion online and share your experiences!

2885: From Control to Freedom: Self and the Quest for User Empowerment May 05, 2024

Can technology foster an ethical, user-controlled future? Today's episode features Jonathan MacDonald, a visionary leader and the force behind self.app, a platform dedicated to reshaping how personal AI assistants interact with user data under a banner of ethics and empowerment.

From his early exposure to computers in the 1970s to becoming a stalwart advocate for digital rights, Jonathan has consistently championed the need to reverse big tech's overpowering influence.

Self, rooted in blockchain and quantum computing, embodies his commitment to transparency, control, and human rights in technology. Jonathan shares compelling insights on navigating the complex landscape of fundraising, where human principles often clash with profit-driven motives, and paints a vivid picture of a tech future that prioritizes user empowerment over exploitation.

Join us as we dive deep into the ethical challenges and transformative potential of today's tech landscape with a pioneer who believes in technology's power to enhance human freedom rather than constrain it.

Where is technology taking us, and how can we ensure it remains a force for good? Share your thoughts and continue the conversation online!

2884: Building your Professional Brand in 1-Click, with AI May 05, 2024

How can artificial intelligence redefine personal branding for professionals worldwide? Today, we delve into this fascinating intersection of technology and individual growth with Deboshree Dutta, CEO of Criya and a beacon for BIPOC immigrants in the tech industry.

From her early days as a product leader to her dynamic rise as a YC-backed entrepreneur, Deboshree has navigated the complexities of building a personal brand that not only captures her essence but also opens doors to unimaginable opportunities. Under her leadership, Criya has empowered over a thousand high-net-worth individuals with advanced AI tools to craft compelling professional identities. J

Join us as Deboshree shares her journey from securing an EB1 Green Card through her significant contributions to technology, to revolutionizing personal branding with Criya’s innovative platform. What does it take to transform your professional visibility and influence in today’s digital world?

Feel free to share your thoughts and experiences on personal branding in the comments or online! What steps are you taking to enhance your professional visibility?

2883: AI in the Great Outdoors: Best Parents' Tech Approach to Summer Learning May 04, 2024

How does technology shape the future of education for teenagers? In today’s episode, we’re joined by Aditya Advani, co-founder of Best Parents, an innovative education technology platform revolutionizing how parents select summer camps and enrichment programs for their teens.

With a reach spanning 68 countries, Best Parents leverages AI to match teenagers with programs that not only aim to boost their chances of getting into prestigious universities like Harvard and Oxford but also cater to a wide range of interests from medicine to business management.

Join us as Aditya shares insights on the journey of Best Parents, the impact of tailored educational experiences, and how they maintain high standards amidst diverse cultural expectations. What does it take to provide a safe, seamless, and culturally inclusive educational adventure?

2882: From Chess Grandmaster to ML Innovator: Tal Shaked’s Journey May 03, 2024

Are machines really capable of thinking like humans, or are we merely programming them to mimic our own patterns? Today on Tech Talks Daily, we delve into this intriguing question with Tal Shaked, an American chess grandmaster and Chief Machine Learning Officer at Moloco, a leading machine learning performance solutions innovator.

In a world rapidly transforming through the application of machine learning and artificial intelligence, the distinction between additive and transformative technology becomes blurred. Tal offers a unique perspective on how ML is reshaping not just individual industries but the entire landscape of software engineering. Unlike previous advancements such as SQL and relational databases, ML's evolution seems to forge a new path, one that might redefine the essence of software itself.

Throughout the episode, Tal discusses the underappreciated art of ML engineering—a discipline that extends beyond traditional software engineering to balance robust infrastructure with high-quality outputs. This intricate balance is crucial for building systems that not only perform well but are also trustworthy and free from biases.

The conversation takes a deeper dive into why the tech community has focused intensely on AI, yet the broader concept of 'machine intelligence'—a perspective that acknowledges the fundamental differences between human and computer cognition—remains less discussed. Tal explores this oversight and its implications for future technologies.

We also address the practical aspects of eliminating bias in machine learning models. Tal shares insights into how engineers can refine their approaches to data to ensure fairness and accuracy in AI systems, and the skills that are becoming essential as ML grows more prevalent across sectors.

As we explore these complex themes, we invite you to reflect on the following: How can we ensure that the pursuit of machine intelligence does not lose sight of human values? Share your thoughts and join the conversation on how we can harmonize human creativity with machine efficiency.

2881: AI in Cybersecurity: The LogRhythm Perspective May 02, 2024

Are we on the brink of a new era in cybersecurity, one where artificial intelligence (AI) reshapes how we protect our digital frontiers? Join us on this episode of Tech Talks Daily as we delve into this fascinating topic with Andrew Hollister, Chief Information Security Officer and Vice President of Labs R&D at LogRhythm.

In our conversation, Andrew shares his insights on the evolving role of generative AI in cybersecurity. Despite widespread apprehension that automation may displace human analysts, Andrew suggests a different narrative—AI as a collaborator enhancing human capabilities, not replacing them. With its rapid development, generative AI is finding its place in cybersecurity, aiding in tasks like summarizing threat reports, detecting patterns in massive datasets, and translating technical log data into understandable language.

However, the technology has its challenges. Andrew points out the potential risks of AI, such as producing misleading information—what he terms "hallucinating false facts." This underscores the irreplaceable role of human oversight, where seasoned analysts apply critical judgment to AI outputs.

Looking ahead, we explore the future skills necessary for cybersecurity professionals. As AI takes over more routine, data-heavy tasks, there's a growing need for roles focused on strategy, problem-solving, and lifelong learning to adapt alongside evolving technologies.

What will the future security operations centers (SOCs) look like? How will AI transform the cybersecurity landscape? After listening to our discussion, what are your thoughts on AI's role in cybersecurity?

Share your views with us as we explore these questions and more.

2880: Bridging the Gap: Are Junior Cybersecurity Pros Outpacing Veterans in Skills Development? May 01, 2024

Is your organization's cybersecurity team equipped to handle the evolving landscape of cyber threats? This pressing question brings us to today's discussion with Max Vetter, Vice President of Cyber at Immersive Labs. In a world increasingly dependent on digital defenses, many organizations report a concerning gap in readiness, with seasoned professionals lagging behind their junior counterparts in tackling more complex cybersecurity challenges.

Immersive Labs has unearthed some eye-opening trends: notably, junior staff often engage with training content that surpasses the difficulty tackled by veterans by an average of 5%. This revelation raises an important question: Are industry veterans becoming complacent, or is there a deeper issue at play within the structure of ongoing professional development?

In this insightful episode, Max will dissect these dynamics, highlighting the vital need for continuous learning across all levels of cybersecurity expertise. He argues that robust security defenses stem from a culture that encourages all team members, regardless of seniority, to stay abreast of the latest threats and solutions. Additionally, Max will outline a strategic checklist to bolster organizational resilience and ensure that both junior and senior cyber professionals are prepared to meet future threats head-on.

As we navigate this complex topic with Max, one must wonder: How can leaders reinvigorate a culture of proactive learning and adaptation among seasoned cybersecurity professionals? After listening, join the conversation and share your thoughts on how organizations can better equip their teams for the cyber challenges of tomorrow.

Listen and share your insights: Are we doing enough to encourage continuous development in our cybersecurity teams?

2879: Quantum Horizons: How Thales is Pioneering the Path to Secure Encryption Apr 30, 2024

Is the shift to post-quantum cryptography ushering in a new era of digital security? With the advent of quantum computing, the cryptographic landscape is undergoing a seismic shift, posing significant challenges and opportunities for businesses worldwide.

Today, we're joined by Robert Burns from Thales, a leading global technology and security provider, to discuss the profound impact of quantum computing on cybersecurity.

In this episode, Robert provides an insightful explainer on the state of cybersecurity in the post-quantum era. We delve into how organizations can effectively transition from legacy cryptography to safeguard their sensitive data against future threats. Thales is at the forefront of this evolution, having recently launched the pioneering Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) Starter Kit. This kit represents a significant step forward, offering enterprises a unique opportunity to test their crypto agility and preparedness for quantum disruptions within a trusted lab environment.

Robert will share insights into the development of the PQC Starter Kit, how it enables companies to assess and enhance their cryptographic frameworks, and the importance of crypto agility in an era where traditional cryptographic methods are becoming obsolete. With 61% of organizations yet to outline a strategy for a post-quantum world, the necessity for readiness is more pressing than ever.

Join us as we unravel the complexities of quantum-hardened security measures and discuss how Thales is helping enterprises navigate these uncharted waters. As we ponder the future of digital security, one question remains: Are we on the brink of a cryptography revolution that will redefine how we protect our most critical data?

What are your thoughts on the transition to post-quantum cryptography? Do you think your organization is ready for the quantum age? Share your insights with us.

2878: SmartRecruiters - AI's Role in the Talent Shortage Crisis Apr 29, 2024

Are you feeling the impact of the talent shortage in your business? In today's episode, we explore this pressing issue with Rob Symons, the Chief Sales Officer at SmartRecruiters. In our conversation, Rob sheds light on the dynamic shifts in the hiring landscape and the innovative strategies shaping the recruitment future.

In this episode of the Tech Talks Daily Podcast, we unpack how the ever-present talent shortage is compelling HR leaders to overhaul traditional recruitment approaches. Rob discusses the increasing necessity for companies to prioritize skills over experience, opening doors to a broader and potentially more innovative talent pool. This shift challenges old paradigms and aligns with the evolving demands of the modern workforce.

Our discussion also explores the role of AI and automation in recruitment. These technologies, while enhancing the efficiency of hiring processes, are not here to replace the human touch. Rob underscores that they are designed to augment human efforts. By automating routine tasks, recruiters can devote more time to engaging with candidates and ensuring a fit that benefits the company and its potential employees.

Rob also underscores the strategic importance of Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) in recruitment strategies. In 2024, embracing D&I is not just a moral imperative but a business necessity. Companies that integrate these principles into every aspect of their hiring process are more likely to thrive. SmartRecruiters, through its innovative platform, supports businesses in making these significant adjustments, ensuring a fair and inclusive recruitment process that taps into diverse talent pools and boosts business performance.

As we wrap up our discussion with Rob Symons from SmartRecruiters, it's clear that the recruitment landscape is undergoing a significant transformation. How is your organization adapting to these changes? Are you seeing the benefits of prioritizing skills and diversity in your recruitment efforts? Join the conversation and share your experiences and thoughts with us.

2877: From Baby Boomers to Gen Z: Building a Multi-Generational Tech Workforce Apr 28, 2024

Are you prepared to navigate the complex dynamics of a multi-generational workforce in the tech industry? In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, we delve into the profound insights of Michael Reidy, a seasoned consultant with Interaction Associates, who has dedicated over two decades to enhancing intergenerational collaboration within technology companies.

Michael will share his experiences on embracing the constant shifts in the tech landscape helps organizations stay innovative and responsive. With a rich background in mediating generational challenges, he emphasizes fostering relationships built on trust and mutual respect. According to Reidy, leaders play a critical role in shaping a culture that values diverse perspectives and promotes an enriching work environment for all age groups.

Throughout our conversation, we'll explore how interest-based dialogues, instead of position-based discussions, can bridge generational divides. Michael provides intriguing examples, including insights from the Northern Ireland peace process, demonstrating how finding common ground can lead to significant progress and innovation. Additionally, we'll discuss how the interplay between the 'crystallized intelligence' of experienced employees and the 'fluid intelligence' of younger workers can drive forward-thinking solutions and create a thriving, dynamic workplace.

As we ponder the implications of a future that includes up to five generations working side by side, Michael will share why recognizing and leveraging these generational differences is necessary and a considerable advantage for any tech organization.

How is your company preparing to integrate and benefit from a diverse generational workforce? After listening, join the conversation and share your thoughts and experiences with us.

2876: Are We Prepared for the Evolving Landscape Where AI meets DevOps? Apr 27, 2024

Are we prepared for the evolving landscape where AI meets DevOps?

In today's episode of the Tech Talks Daily Podcast, we delve into a critical discussion with Elizabeth Lawler, CEO of AppMap and a serial startup founder renowned for her groundbreaking contributions to developer tools. As AI continues to reshape DevOps workflows, understanding this transformation becomes imperative for every tech professional.

Elizabeth brings a unique perspective, having launched ventures like Navie AI which uses runtime context to aid developers, and the open source initiative Code Challenge, designed to encourage innovation and transparency in AI development. Our conversation explores how the hype surrounding AI's impact on jobs reflects the early days of cloud computing and DevOps—promising not job elimination, but transformation and new opportunities.

We'll unpack the dual necessity of rapid upskilling and maintaining an open, transparent approach to AI integration in DevOps. Elizabeth argues that developers hold the power to shape the AI landscape by opting for open source models, which are crucial in avoiding the "black box" nature of some AI technologies. The need for a robust ecosystem of monitoring tools is as relevant today as it was in the early days of DevOps.

The skills landscape is also shifting. Professionals now must possess not only the technical know-how but also critical thinking abilities to interpret AI outputs and design architectures that maximize model strengths while understanding their limitations. Innovation becomes essential in challenging historical data limitations and pushing the boundaries of what AI can achieve in a DevOps context.

What does it mean to redefine workflows with AI? We'll discuss how assessing risk, emphasizing human oversight, and learning from past implementations like configuration as code are shaping the new standards. Elizabeth emphasizes the importance of ethical considerations and building AI solutions focused on human empowerment rather than replacement.

As we navigate this conversation, it's clear that the intersection of AI and DevOps is not just a technological shift but a cultural one, requiring a thoughtful blend of skills, ethical considerations, and a commitment to continuous learning.

What are your thoughts on integrating AI into DevOps workflows? How do you see these changes impacting your work or industry? Join the discussion and share your experiences as we explore these transformative shifts together.

2875: Mastering Sustainable Multi-Cloud Strategies With Nutanix Apr 26, 2024

Is your organization effectively leveraging cloud technologies to boost efficiency and advance sustainability? In this enlightening episode of Tech Talks Daily, we sit down with Steen Dalgas, Senior Cloud Economist at Nutanix, to unravel the complexities of cloud economics and its pivotal role in driving sustainable technological advancements and robust multi-cloud environments.

Steen shares his expertise on how Nutanix, a company at the forefront of hyper-converged infrastructure, is revolutionizing the way enterprises approach cloud technology, delivering substantial cost benefits and enhanced operational flexibility. We dive into how cloud economists like Steen are instrumental in crafting transparent Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) models that extend beyond mere cost analysis to include profitability, risk, and sustainability.

Moreover, we discuss the critical role of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) factors in today’s IT strategies. Steen explains how Nutanix is tackling IT emissions through optimized operations and a dedication to renewable energy, thus making a significant impact on the company's carbon footprint.

The conversation also covers the evolution of hybrid multi-cloud architectures, addressing the inherent complexities and how Nutanix aims to streamline these through standardized operating models. Plus, we explore the emergence of marketplaces designed to facilitate frictionless IT solution purchases with clear pricing models.

Join us as Steen Dalgas shares valuable insights on why there are no shortcuts to achieving Net Zero and how digital sobriety should be part of every organization’s strategy to ensure sustainable and financially sound cloud solutions.

What are the sustainable practices your organization has implemented in its cloud strategy? Share your thoughts and join the conversation on our social media channels or leave a comment below.

2874: AI, Autonomy, and Sustainability at BAE Systems FalconWorks Apr 25, 2024

Today, I sit down with Dave Holmes, Managing Director of Falcon Works at BAE Systems FalconWorks, to delve into the innovative frontier of defense technologies that are shaping the future.

In this episode, Dave shares insights on how BAE Systems FalconWorks harnesses the power of partnerships with SMEs, academia, and governments to spearhead developments in uncrewed systems, AI, and sustainability.

With a strong emphasis on low-carbon and net-zero solutions, Dave explains how these initiatives are not only advancing defense capabilities but are also driving significant environmental considerations.

What makes the UK a fertile ground for these groundbreaking advancements? We explore the synergy between Britain's rich academic landscape and its robust inventor culture which, according to Dave, are integral to BAE Systems FalconWorks' success.

From the importance of autonomy in defense to the potential of trusted autonomy and advanced materials, we cover the gamut of technological innovations that could redefine global defense strategies.

How does BAE Systems FalconWorks plan to maintain its edge in a rapidly evolving tech landscape? What can other sectors learn from their approach to innovation and collaboration? And as we think about the future, what ethical considerations come into play with the deployment of these advanced technologies?

2873: Understanding M&A Trends With Ernst & Young Apr 24, 2024

In today's episode, we're joined by James Brundage from Ernst & Young to unravel the dynamic shifts and significant trends in the technology mergers and acquisitions sector for 2023. Why was technology singled out as the EY M&A Sector of the Year? Amidst a landscape marked by economic turbulence and evolving market demands, technology has not only rebounded but has also carved new paths for strategic growth and innovation in M&A activities.

During our discussion, James sheds light on the factors that fueled a resurgence in tech M&A activities, particularly in the latter half of 2023. From AI-driven transformations in company strategies and operations to the burgeoning importance of cybersecurity in transaction considerations, we delve into how these elements are reshaping acquisition priorities.

Moreover, the conversation explores the significant role of private equity in navigating the current valuation landscape, highlighting how investment strategies are adapting to capitalize on emerging opportunities.

James also provides insights into the headwinds and tailwinds affecting the sector. With geopolitical tensions, regulatory challenges, and financial conditions dictating the pace and nature of deals, what strategies are firms adopting to thrive? And how is the CHIPS Act influencing investment trends, especially in semiconductors and related technologies?

As we look ahead, what can we expect for tech M&A in 2024? Are we poised for an upturn in deal volumes and values, and how might emerging technologies like generative AI influence future M&A landscapes?

Join us as we explore these intricate dynamics with James Brundage, uncovering how today's challenges are paving the way for tomorrow's opportunities in the tech sector. What do you think the future holds for technology M&A? Share your thoughts and join the conversation.

2872: Ultima's Vision: Shaping the Future of Tech with AI Apr 23, 2024

In today's episode of Tech Talks Daily, we're joined by Scott Dodds, CEO of Ultima, a pioneering technology services provider and one of the first to gain early access to Microsoft Copilot. Scott shares his firsthand experiences with this transformative AI tool, providing valuable insights into how businesses can harness AI for automation and as a strategic partner in improving productivity and inclusivity.

Scott discusses the unique approach required to integrate AI effectively within business operations, emphasizing the necessity of training and interacting with AI like a team member to maximize its utility. He reveals how Copilot has revolutionized tasks at Ultima, from enhancing meeting efficiency to assisting employees with diverse needs, including language barriers and dyslexia.

Scott underscores the importance of leadership in the successful deployment of AI technologies. He argues that for AI to deliver on its promise of significant ROI, it must be championed from the top—ensuring both executive buy-in and a clear strategic vision.

Join us as we delve into the practicalities of AI in the workplace, exploring both the opportunities it presents and the diligence required to leverage AI responsibly and effectively. How does your organization view AI integration, and could Microsoft Copilot be the key to unlocking new levels of efficiency in your operations? Let us know your thoughts, and join the conversation.

2871: Mastercard Reveals Emerging Technology Trends Apr 22, 2024

Are we standing on the brink of a technological revolution in commerce? Today, on Tech Talks Daily, we're joined by Ken Moore, Chief Innovation Officer at Mastercard, to delve into the company's "Emerging Technology Trends for 2024" report. This comprehensive analysis outlines the technological strides expected in AI, computing power, and data and the converging forces reshaping how we buy, sell, and interact in the digital economy.

In this episode, we'll uncover how AI advancements, such as generative AI, are poised to transform consumer experiences over the next three to five years. Imagine AI assistants responding to your queries and anticipating your needs, making shopping and travel more personalized than ever before. We'll explore the development of Mastercard's Shopping Muse, a new AI tool designed to redefine how consumers discover and purchase products.

However, with great technology comes great responsibility. The rise of deepfakes and other digital threats is pushing companies like Mastercard to innovate in cybersecurity, employing AI for robust fraud detection and prevention strategies. We'll discuss the importance of building a security framework that earns consumer trust while safeguarding data.

Moreover, we'll dive into how technologies such as tokenization are expanding to cover more than just payments. Ken will explain how this concept extends to tokenize identities, reward points, and even biometric data, paving the way for a more integrated commerce experience that spans both physical and digital realms.

Mastercard's vision extends beyond transactions; it aims to facilitate an expansive value exchange among diverse stakeholders. By actively shaping data standards and principles, Mastercard is at the forefront of advocating for responsible data usage and enhanced portability.

As we navigate these transformative times, what ethical considerations and challenges must businesses address to ensure these technologies benefit everyone? How can organizations like Mastercard maintain consumer trust while pushing the boundaries of innovation?

Join us as we explore these questions and more. And we'd love to hear from you—how do you see these emerging technologies impacting your daily life and business operations? Share your thoughts and join the conversation.

2870: The AI Assistant Helping You Manage Your Finances More Efficiently Apr 21, 2024

Are you tired of feeling disconnected from your financial life? In today's episode, we dive deep into personal finance management with Sam Taylor, VP of Technology at Cleo, the AI assistant making waves in the financial sector. Sam brings a decade of experience leveraging AI and ML to enhance and personalize user experiences, especially economically.

Founded out of frustration with traditional banking systems and the growing disparity in financial wellness, Cleo was designed to combat the increasing stress money issues bring into people's lives. With a clear vision of empowering individuals to manage and thrive beyond their next paycheck, Cleo utilizes AI to provide insightful, humorous, and highly personalized financial guidance. Sam discusses how this approach has helped over 7 million users stay on top of their finances and improve their relationship with money significantly.

In this discussion, we explore the origins of Cleo, from its foundational beliefs to its rapid growth, including a recent $80 million Series C funding round. Sam shares insights on building products and platforms that harness the power of machine learning and generative AI to create proactive, intelligent financial assistants. He emphasizes maintaining a simple yet powerful engineering stack that facilitates rapid experimentation and understanding, vital for continuous innovation.

As Cleo moves forward, the role of AI is only set to expand. Sam envisions a future where AI assistants proactively optimize various aspects of users' lives, making personal finance management a seamless part of daily living rather than a chore.

What role do you think AI should play in our financial decisions? Are we ready to trust AI with more proactive roles in our personal lives? Please share your thoughts and discuss how technology reshapes our economic well-being.

2869: Transforming Transactions: Kani Payments' Approach to Financial Challenges Apr 20, 2024

Are we overlooking the value of fintech in simplifying the complex, yet crucial aspects of financial services? In today's episode of Tech Talks Daily, we sit down with Aaron Holmes, CEO of Kani Payments, a company at the forefront of revolutionizing the financial services industry through their innovative reconciliation and reporting platform.

Since its inception in 2018 in Newcastle, UK, Kani Payments has been dedicated to transforming the cumbersome processes of transaction reconciliation, payment reporting, and merchant settlement. Their platform, which has garnered significant acclaim—including being named Europe's leading financial services startup—offers a unique solution to manage and simplify complex financial data. We'll uncover how this platform can process weeks of transaction reporting and reconciliation work in mere seconds and explore the remarkable growth trajectory of Kani Payments.

Aaron will share insights from his early career, influenced by mentors who emphasized the importance of understanding individual challenges and proactive problem-solving. We'll dive into the specifics of how Kani Payments addresses the high data volume and complex regulatory requirements that many financial institutions face. Moreover, Aaron will discuss the strategic partnership with Pismo and its implications for global expansion, particularly in North America.

Through this conversation, we aim to shed light on how fintech innovations like Kani Payments are not just solving "boring" problems but are essential to the efficiency and security of financial services globally. What are the potential untapped opportunities for fintech to further revolutionize this industry? Join us, and share your thoughts on how technology continues to reshape the financial landscape.

2868: Bridging the Gap: OPSWAT's $10 Million Cybersecurity Scholarship Initiative Apr 19, 2024

Are we truly prepared to defend our critical infrastructures against cyber threats? In today’s episode of Tech Talks Daily, we're joined by Irfan Shakeel, the VP of Training & Certification Services at OPSWAT, a pivotal player in cybersecurity for critical environments. OPSWAT has recently announced a commendable $10 million scholarship program aimed at addressing the urgent global need for 4 million more cybersecurity professionals. This significant initiative seeks to fill the widening skills gap within the critical infrastructure sectors through targeted training in both Information Technology (IT) and Operational Technology (OT).

During our conversation, Irfan will delve into the motivations behind this transformative scholarship program, which is not just a response to academic needs but also aligns with the U.S. Executive Orders and the National Cybersecurity Strategy. This initiative underscores the importance of enhancing our cybersecurity measures and fortifying the workforce tasked with protecting our critical infrastructures.

Listeners will gain insights into the practical aspects of the training offered, focusing on hands-on learning experiences designed to equip professionals with the necessary skills to address current and emerging threats. Irfan will also discuss the criteria for selecting candidates for this program, emphasizing the commitment to fostering a robust pipeline of skilled cybersecurity professionals.

Additionally, we will explore the vital role of public-private partnerships in closing the cyber skills gap and how OPSWAT's collaborative efforts with academic institutions and government agencies are crucial to this endeavor.

As we navigate these discussions, one can’t help but ponder: how well are public and private sectors aligned in their efforts to safeguard our vital systems against increasingly sophisticated cyber threats? Join us, and let’s unravel the complexities of cybersecurity training and workforce development together. What are your thoughts on the effectiveness of such large-scale educational initiatives in combating cybersecurity threats?

2867: Bridging the AI Gap: Strategies and Insights with WNS Global Services Apr 18, 2024

Are businesses truly prepared to integrate generative AI into their operations? In today's episode, we engage with Sanjay Jain, Chief Business Transformation Officer at WNS, to delve into a thought-provoking discussion based on a recent survey conducted by WNS and Everest Group.

The survey sheds light on the readiness of various enterprises to adopt generative AI technologies and highlights the four pivotal factors influencing this readiness: technology, data, process, and people.

We will explore how sectors like telecom, technology, and media are setting the pace due to their advanced change management maturity and robust data infrastructure capabilities. Sanjay will share insights into how enterprises can address talent shortages by forming strategic partnerships that provide access to essential expertise and co-create innovative solutions. Additionally, we will discuss the importance of compliance and ethical considerations in the deployment of generative AI, particularly in regulated sectors such as banking, financial services, and healthcare.

Throughout our conversation, Sanjay will also illustrate transformative use cases of generative AI that are revolutionizing customer experiences by enhancing efficiency, effectiveness, and impact. These include improving customer service through instant, accurate, and tailored responses, personalizing recommendations using customer data, summarizing large sets of unstructured data, and automating content creation for knowledge bases.

As we consider the broader implications of generative AI, it becomes clear that its impact varies significantly across different industries. This raises an intriguing question: What can sectors that are lagging in AI adoption learn from those that are leading? Join us as we unpack these insights and discuss how businesses can navigate the challenges and seize the opportunities presented by generative AI.

What do you think are the biggest challenges and opportunities for your industry in adopting generative AI? Share your thoughts with us and join the conversation.

2866: Leading Digital Change: KPMG on the Future of AI in Business Apr 17, 2024

Are you curious how large firms integrate advanced technologies like AI into their operations effectively? In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, we sit down with James Osborn, Chief Digital Officer at KPMG UK, as he reflects on his first year in this pivotal role. James will share his insights on deploying KPMG's internal AI, dubbed Ava, and spearheading initiatives such as the "Trusted AI Framework" and the "Summer of AI."

With 16,000 global participants from 14 countries engaging in this transformative technology, what can we learn from their experiences? James will discuss the challenges of fostering AI adoption within a well-established firm and the strategies that helped promote an ethical, human-centric approach to digital transformation. How do these technologies augment professional expertise and maintain the integrity and trust crucial in the professional services sector? As we unpack these topics, we'll also delve into practical advice for organizations beginning their AI journeys.

Join us to uncover the nuanced landscape of AI integration in professional services. After listening, share your thoughts: How do you see AI evolving in your professional sphere?

2865: Navigating the Multi-Cloud Maze with CockroachDB Apr 16, 2024

Are you curious how businesses can thrive in the rapidly evolving landscape of cloud computing and multi-cloud environments? In the upcoming episode of Tech Talks Daily, we're diving into the world of resilient databases with Spencer Kimball, CEO of Cockroach Labs. Spencer will share insights on CockroachDB, a pioneering technology designed to ensure business continuity even during outages that would cripple traditional databases.

In our discussion, we'll explore how CockroachDB's ability to replicate data across regions and cloud providers maximizes uptime and facilitates massive scaling. We'll discuss the strategic importance of data locality in improving performance and complying with regulatory demands. We'll also discuss how CockroachDB's flexible architecture helps businesses avoid vendor lock-in and seamlessly manage data across multiple clouds.

Originally founded by three former Googlers, Cockroach Labs has become a key player in the database market, challenging giants like Oracle and cloud provider databases. With high-profile users like Netflix, Bose, and Comcast, CockroachDB stands out for its robust data replication capabilities and distributed architecture, which were once confined to single data centers.

Join me as Spencer elucidates on the evolution of Cockroach Labs in the competitive database market, the growing trend towards multi-cloud strategies among large enterprises, and the future of cloud portability. How is CockroachDB enabling companies to build above the cloud and avoid restrictive vendor lock-ins?

As businesses continue to navigate the complexities of digital transformation, understanding the tools and technologies that facilitate this shift is more important than ever. What challenges and opportunities do you think lie ahead in the journey toward multi-cloud adoption? Please share your thoughts with us after the episode.

2864: Gigster And The AI Manufacturing Evolution Apr 15, 2024

Are we on the brink of a new era in manufacturing, driven by AI? Today on Tech Talks Daily, we're joined by Humberto Moreira, Principal Solutions Engineer at Gigster, to explore this transformative landscape. With over 15 years of experience in the software industry, Humberto has been at the forefront of integrating AI with traditional manufacturing processes.

In this episode, Humberto shares exciting insights into how AI is revolutionizing the industry by bridging the gap between mass production and customized manufacturing. We delve into the role of AI in various stages of manufacturing, from ideation and testing to delivery, and discuss the significant shift towards personalized products without compromising on speed or quality. This is a future where AI is not just a tool for optimization, but a catalyst for reimagining what manufacturing can achieve.

We'll also discuss the emerging role of "cobots"—collaborative robots that work alongside humans in factories, enhancing efficiency and safety. Humberto explains how these innovations are not just reshaping production lines but also redefining the workforce, emphasizing the mutual learning between humans and machines.

Moreover, we tackle the pressing legal and ethical challenges of generative AI in manufacturing, such as intellectual property disputes highlighted by recent high-profile cases. Humberto provides his perspective on how companies can navigate these complexities while leveraging AI for innovation.

Join us as Humberto also highlights Gigster's unwavering commitment to sustainable manufacturing practices. We explore how AI-driven solutions can lead to more environmentally friendly production processes, underlining the importance of our collective responsibility towards the planet. We conclude with a look into the future, discussing the next frontiers for AI in manufacturing and how technologies like pervasive AI and seamless data flows will continue to push the industry forward.

Tune in to understand how AI is not just a tool for optimization but a catalyst for reimagining what manufacturing can achieve. What could this mean for your business as we approach 2024 and beyond? Let's discuss.

2863: Retail Reinvented: Customer Experience and Technology Trends Apr 14, 2024

How are today's retailers transforming the digital landscape to meet evolving consumer expectations? On this episode of Tech Talks Daily, we sit down with Rachel Valentine from Vincit to delve into the pressing trends in digital transformation within the retail sector as we approach the crucial year of 2024.

Rachel shares how global spending on digital initiatives is set to skyrocket, emphasizing the critical role of personalized experiences in customer acquisition and retention. She explains how leveraging analytics and AI can not only anticipate customer preferences but also optimize their shopping experiences across multiple channels. The discussion also covers the impact of progressive web apps (PWAs), which enhance user experience across devices by offering the combined features of web and mobile apps.

Moreover, Rachel discusses the importance of empowering employees to foster a culture of innovation and problem-solving, which directly contributes to customer satisfaction and business growth. We also explore how embracing automation, augmented reality, and seamless user experiences across all platforms are pivotal for retailers to stay competitive.

As we dissect these transformation strategies, Rachel provides actionable insights for leaders in the retail industry on how to leverage technology to not only survive but thrive in the digital age.

What steps is your business taking to adapt to these digital transformation trends? Join the conversation and share your insights with us online.

2862: From Data to Decisions: The Impact of AI on SMB Operations Apr 13, 2024

Are small businesses truly harnessing AI's transformative power? Today on Tech Talks Daily, we delve into this question with Ram Almog, Director of Product Management for AI at vcita, a company making significant strides in integrating AI into the small and medium business (SMB) sector.

In our conversation, Ram introduced us to BizAI, vcita's pioneering AI-driven business advisor explicitly designed for SMBs. This innovative tool doesn't just analyze data—it synthesizes it, offering actionable advice tailored to each business's unique situation. From optimizing digital content to crafting precise email campaigns, BizAI is redefining how SMBs approach their operations and marketing strategies.

However, the journey towards AI adoption has its challenges. Many SMB owners remain skeptical, often due to a fundamental misunderstanding of what AI can do and fears of it replacing human jobs. Ram discusses how BizAI is designed to augment rather than replace human capabilities, emphasizing its role in enhancing business processes and decision-making.

Join us as we explore how Vcita is addressing these concerns by making advanced technology accessible and relevant to SMBs' everyday needs. How can small businesses overcome their hesitance and fully embrace AI's benefits? After listening, visit Vcita online to discover more about BizAI and how it could transform your business operations. What are your thoughts on AI's role in small business innovation? Share your insights and join the conversation online.

2861: Beyond Hallucinations: The Role of Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) in Trustworthy AI Apr 12, 2024

Are AI hallucinations undermining trust in machine learning, and can Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) offer a solution? As we invite Rahul Pradhan, VP of Product and Strategy at Couchbase, to our podcast, we delve into the fascinating yet challenging issue of AI hallucinations—situations where AI systems generate plausible but factually incorrect content. This phenomenon poses risks to AI's reliability and threatens its adoption across critical sectors like healthcare and legal industries, where precision is paramount.

In this episode, Rahul will explain how these hallucinations occur in AI models that operate on probability, often simulating understanding without genuine comprehension. The consequences? A potential erosion of trust in automated systems is a barrier that is particularly significant in domains where the stakes are high, and errors can have profound implications. But fear not, there's a beacon of hope on the horizon—Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG).

Rahul will discuss how RAG integrates a retrieval component that pulls real-time, relevant data before generating responses, thereby grounding AI outputs in reality and significantly mitigating the risk of hallucinations. He will also show how Couchbase's innovative data management capabilities enable this technology by combining operational and training data to enhance accuracy and relevance.

Moreover, Rahul will explore RAG's broader implications. From enhancing personalization in content generation to facilitating sophisticated decision-making across various industries, RAG stands out as a pivotal innovation in promoting more transparent, accountable, and responsible AI applications.

Join us as we navigate the labyrinth of AI hallucinations and the transformative power of the Retrieval-Augmented Generation. How might this technology reshape the landscape of AI deployment across different sectors? After listening, we eagerly await your thoughts on whether RAG could be the key to building more trustworthy AI systems.

2860: AI Deception: Combating Phishing and Deepfakes in Election Season Apr 11, 2024

In a world where technology evolves at breakneck speed, so too do the methods by which cybercriminals exploit it for malicious purposes. As we edge closer to the 2024 general election, the digital landscape becomes a minefield of sophisticated cyber threats aimed at voters. To navigate this complex terrain, we've invited Andrew Newman, CTO and co-founder of ReasonLabs, to share his invaluable insights on the cybersecurity challenges looming over this pivotal event.

Andrew, a seasoned cybersecurity professional with a wealth of experience and the guiding force behind ReasonLabs—a leading provider of enterprise-grade protection—brings a unique perspective to the table. His insights into emerging trends and digital pitfalls that voters may face are invaluable. Today, he will delve into the sophisticated tactics employed by cyber adversaries, including the use of AI to craft convincing phishing attacks and the creation of deepfakes designed to sow discord and manipulate public perception.

The use of generative AI by scammers has significantly lowered the barriers to creating realistic fake content, posing a serious threat to election security. Andrew will break down how these advanced threats work and the implications for voters' privacy and the integrity of electoral processes. He will also stress the crucial role of public education in countering these threats despite the challenges posed by the realistic nature of AI-generated content.

ReasonLabs, a pioneer in consumer cybersecurity, is at the forefront of implementing layered protections. These include anti-phishing measures and Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) systems designed to counter these emerging threats. Through this conversation, Andrew aims to equip listeners with the knowledge and tools they need to protect themselves against the sophisticated scams that are expected to proliferate during the election season.

Expect to uncover the nature of the cyber threats targeting voters, from the evolution of phishing attacks to the sinister use of deepfakes. Learn to discern between genuine and malicious communications, the importance of verifying information sources, and the best practices for ensuring digital security in an increasingly vulnerable online environment.

As we delve into these critical issues, Andrew will also shed light on the expected increase in election-related scams compared to previous years, fueled by advancements in technology that enable scammers to craft more believable and, thus, more dangerous threats. From robocalls and SMiShing to phishing sites and deceptive donation requests, listeners will understand the scams to watch out for and the measures to avoid becoming a victim.

This episode is not just about highlighting problems; it's about forging solutions and strategies to bolster our digital defenses against a significant democratic event. Join us as we explore the intersection of technology, security, and democracy with one of the industry's most seasoned experts. How prepared are we to defend the sanctity of our votes in the digital age? Share your thoughts and join the conversation.

2859: Exploring a Cloud-based Future With Synchronoss: AI, Privacy, and Expansion Apr 10, 2024

In today's episode, we welcome Jeff Miller, CEO of Synchronoss Technologies, for our annual catch-up to discuss the evolution and significance of secure and intelligent personal cloud solutions in today's increasingly digital world. When we last spoke in July 2023, Jeff illuminated the vital role of Synchronoss Personal Cloud in empowering users with secure, limitless storage and advanced AI functionalities. Today, we delve deeper into how Synchronoss has continued to innovate and expand its offerings, standing out in a crowded marketplace where data privacy and seamless user experiences are more important than ever.

What sets Synchronoss Personal Cloud apart from global service giants like Verizon, AT&T, BT, and Softbank? It's the unparalleled data privacy, unlimited storage solutions, and AI-driven capabilities that these giants have chosen to white-label. Unlike conventional Over-The-Top (OTT) solutions, which often come with storage limitations and privacy concerns, Synchronoss provides a robust alternative that prioritizes user security and engagement.

Since our last conversation, Synchronoss has sharpened its focus on cloud solutions, streamlining its business to divest non-core segments and channel all its energies into enhancing cloud services. A notable achievement includes the launch of "Anshin Databox" in Japan with SoftBank—a platform that epitomizes security and peace of mind ("Anshin" in Japanese). Amidst tightening regulations on tech giants in Europe and the U.S., Synchronoss aims to carve a niche by offering a privacy-first cloud solution that refuses to monetize user data.

Jeff Miller will also share insights on the innovative strides Synchronoss is making to keep users engaged. These advancements, from AI-powered photo enhancements to personalized content curation, are redefining how we interact with our digital memories. Looking ahead, Jeff will outline the company's roadmap, emphasizing a stronger iOS integration, improved content searchability, and plans for global expansion—all while continuing to integrate more home devices into the personal cloud ecosystem. These developments are not just about technology but about enhancing your digital life.

As we uncover the layers of Synchronoss's strategic pivot and technological advancements, we invite you to reflect on the changing landscape of cloud storage and digital content management. How do these innovations impact your digital life? Are there concerns or features you believe are essential for a personal cloud service in today's world?

We're eager to hear your thoughts and experiences. Join the conversation and share your insights with us.

2858: Navigating the Generative AI Revolution: A Deep Dive with Rackspace Apr 09, 2024

In a world where technology evolves at lightning speed, have you ever wondered how generative AI is not just reshaping the tech landscape but also becoming a pivotal ally in sustainability efforts?

Today, I am speaking with Srini Koushik, President of AI and Sustainability, Global Head of Foundry for AI at Rackspace (FAIR). With an illustrious career spanning over two decades in the tech industry, Srini brings a wealth of knowledge and insights into the transformative power of generative AI.

As we delve into our conversation, Srini explores the innovative ways organizations are leveraging AI to enhance their sustainability initiatives, highlighting the shift from traditional methods to more dynamic, AI-driven strategies.

The discussion doesn't stop there; we also tap into the emerging trends in generative AI workloads and the strategic opportunities and challenges they present. Srini paints a vivid picture of an industry on the cusp of a revolution, akin to the seismic shift witnessed with the adoption of smartphones and mobile apps. But what does this mean for the workforce?

Srini addresses the critical need for reskilling and upskilling to harness the full potential of generative AI, emphasizing the importance of aligning these initiatives with talent acquisition strategies. Furthermore, we explore the ethical dimensions and the imperative for organizations to adopt a responsible AI framework that resonates with their core values.

Throughout the episode, Srini shares intriguing insights into how AI is not just a technological advancement but a tool that empowers organizations to 'move up the Maslow hierarchy,' automating mundane tasks to unlock human creativity and problem-solving capabilities. We also look at how advancements in AI chips and models are paving the way for significant sustainability gains.

Join us in this enlightening discussion with Srini Koushik and explore the vast expanse of generative AI's potential. How are you preparing for the generative AI revolution? Share your thoughts and join the conversation.

2857: Twilio - Putting AI at the Heart of Customer Engagement Apr 08, 2024

What if the key to transforming customer engagement in today's digital landscape lies in the heart of AI technology? This episode of Tech Talks Daily Podcast welcomes Sam Richardson, the esteemed Customer Engagement Consultant at Twilio, for an insightful exploration into the pivotal role of AI in enhancing customer experiences.

Twilio, renowned for its commitment to real-time, personalized interactions, is leading the charge in leveraging AI to foster deeper, more meaningful connections between brands and their customers.

Sam brings to the table over two decades of expertise in advising the globe's premier brands on optimizing customer engagement strategies. His insights are particularly timely, given Twilio's recent research revealing a significant gap in AI strategy alignment among UK organizations, with only a third prioritizing customer engagement at the core of their AI initiatives.

This episode promises to unravel the layers of AI's impact on customer interactions, dissecting the barriers to adoption and unveiling the enormous potential of AI to revolutionize how brands interact with their customers.

Listeners will be treated to an in-depth discussion on the necessity of education and AI literacy for organizations to navigate skepticism and embrace AI technologies. Sam emphasizes the critical need for modernizing legacy tech infrastructures and ensuring high-quality data architecture to avoid the pitfalls of "garbage in, garbage out." Moreover, he advocates for breaking down silos within organizations to align AI strategies with actual customer needs and outcomes.

Delving into the transformative power of AI, Sam highlights the burgeoning trends of chatbots and hyper-personalized brand interactions, as validated by both IT decision-makers and consumers alike. Despite the enthusiasm for AI's capabilities, he sheds light on the hurdles stymying AI adoption, including technological skepticism, financial constraints, and infrastructural deficiencies.

As we navigate this conversation, Sam will also share actionable advice for businesses looking to embark on their AI journey, stressing the importance of starting small with focused experiments and fostering collaboration to learn from existing AI applications.

In what ways do you believe AI can enhance the customer experience in your industry, and what are the first steps your organization can take towards this goal? Let's engage in a vibrant discussion on the future of customer-centric AI strategies.

2856: The Dawn of Digital Agents with D-ID Apr 07, 2024

Have you ever pondered the impact of generative AI on the digital society and how it's reshaping the fabric of marketing, customer experience, and learning?

This episode of Tech Talks Daily delves into the heart of innovation with Tomer Zuker, the visionary VP of Marketing at D-ID, a trailblazing entity in the generative AI arena known for transforming still photographs into captivating AI-driven video narratives.

With an illustrious career spanning over two decades in tech marketing and sales at behemoths like Microsoft and IBM, Tomer brings a wealth of knowledge and insight into the rapidly evolving world of digital technology.

In our conversation, we uncover the origins and aspirations of D-ID, a company at the forefront of creating digital humans through its proprietary platform. Tomer shares his journey from the tech consulting world to spearheading marketing initiatives at D-ID, emphasizing the pivotal role of digital agents in establishing a more natural and engaging user interface. He elaborates on how generative AI is revolutionizing marketing strategies by enabling personalized and real-time customer interactions like never before.

Listeners will gain an in-depth understanding of D-ID's innovative approach to digital agents, the significant strides generative AI has made in content creation, and the transformative potential it holds for marketing departments worldwide. Tomer also addresses the challenges and opportunities of AI adoption, advocating for a hands-on approach to learning and the invaluable support of community engagement in navigating the AI landscape.

Furthermore, we'll explore Tomer's perspective on the future integration of AI in our daily lives and the convergence of software with robotics, painting a picture of a world where digital and physical realms merge seamlessly.

As we delve into these riveting topics, we invite you to reflect on how digital agents could redefine your interaction with technology and the implications for your personal or professional life. Where do you see the role of generative AI heading in the future of marketing and beyond?

Join us for this thought-provoking journey with Tomer Zuker and discover how D-ID is setting the stage for a future where digital agents become an integral part of our digital society.

How do you envision the integration of digital agents in your daily life or business? Please share your thoughts and join the conversation on our social media channels.

2855: Navigating Uncertainty: The Mu Sigma Way Apr 06, 2024

In a world where the pace of change is accelerating and the volume of data is overwhelming, how can businesses stay ahead and make informed decisions? This episode of the Tech Talks Daily Podcast features an insightful conversation with Dhiraj Rajaram, the visionary founder of Mu Sigma, a decision sciences company that has redefined problem-solving and decision-making for Fortune 500 companies.

Dhiraj Rajaram, with his groundbreaking approach, emphasizes the importance of understanding interactions over individual entities and advocates for a learning-focused mindset in navigating today's complex environments.

With over 15,000 employees, Mu Sigma has become India's first unicorn startup under Rajaram's leadership, blending youthful energy with purpose and experience to tackle complex challenges.

This episode dives into the unique problem-solving framework that Mu Sigma employs, emphasizing nonlinear thinking and the construction of "signal engines" and "inquiry engines" to extract insights and pose the right questions. Dhiraj shares examples of how this approach has been applied in various industries, from pharmaceuticals to retail, to develop AI solutions that are at the intersection of technology and practical business use.

Dhiraj’s core message of valuing adaptability over predictability and his recommendation to embrace the principles outlined in Nassim Taleb's "Antifragile" offers a fresh perspective on preparing for the future.

We explore how the art of problem-solving not only accelerates decision-making but also enables organizations to scale and adapt swiftly in an uncertain world.

The conversation also sheds light on the common pitfalls of rushing technology development without a deep understanding of the problems it intends to solve, underscoring the importance of a solid framework for decision-making within organizations.

Join us as Dhiraj Rajaram shares his journey from a management consultant to founding Mu Sigma, his insights from past talks and podcasts, and the accolades that have recognized his innovative contributions to the industry.

This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in the intersection of data science, decision-making, and the continuous evolution of technology in business.

2854: From Hacker to Hero: Simplifying Cyber Risks for Business Leaders Apr 05, 2024

Is cybersecurity the hidden iceberg threatening to sink businesses in today's tech-infused world? In the upcoming episode of Tech Talks Daily, we delve into the complex world of cybersecurity with Jonny Tyers, founder and CEO of Threatplane. With a fascinating journey from hacker to heralded protector, Jonny brings a unique perspective to the cybersecurity challenges and opportunities facing businesses today.

As businesses increasingly anchor their operations in technology, the risks escalate. The sophistication of the cybercrime market, coupled with a widespread "explainability problem" among business leaders, underscores the urgent need for clarity and actionable insights. Jonny's approach with Threatplane is refreshingly straightforward, focusing on demystifying cybersecurity and making it accessible and relevant to business leaders' strategic objectives.

Through threat modeling, Jonny's team at Threatplane not only identifies risks but connects these to technical controls in a language that resonates with business leaders. This method bridges the knowledge gap and empowers businesses to make informed decisions about their cybersecurity strategies.

But what happens when emerging technologies like AI and IoT enter the fray, expanding the battlefield in the cyber "arms race"? Jonny discusses the dual-edged sword these technologies represent, offering new challenges and innovative defenses against cyber threats.

Listeners will be treated to Jonny's compelling story, from his early days as a hacker to his pivotal role in assisting a leading UK high-street bank to navigate their digital transformation. His membership in the Internet of Things Security Foundation and partnerships with giants like Mastercard and CISCO highlight his significant influence in cybersecurity.

Join us as we explore the intricacies of cybersecurity in the modern business landscape, from the hidden risks to the cutting-edge strategies that can protect and propel businesses forward. How can companies to stay ahead of the curve in a world where technology evolves at breakneck speed?

2853: Technology and Racial Equity with Microsoft's Darrell Booker Apr 04, 2024

Shaping a New Future: Technology and Racial Equity with Darrell Booker

Can technology genuinely shape a better future for racial equity? In today's episode, I have the privilege of sitting down with Darrell Booker, the Racial Equity Tech Lead at Microsoft. His unique blend of personal experiences and professional insights form a powerful lens through which we can explore this question.

Inspired by his mother's challenges as a Black child in foster care, Darrell has dedicated his career to leveraging technology to create, improve, and uplift Black social support networks.

Through the lens of the EMBRACE Project—a national study launched in partnership with Gallup—Darrell shares his vision for how technology can advance policy goals and fundamentally change the experience for Black youth and families in the child welfare system. This project isn't just about data; it's about real lives and the potential to alter their course for the better.

Darrell will also explore how Microsoft is pushing the boundaries of racial equity, from diverse hiring practices to supporting minority-owned businesses and expanding affordable broadband access. Moreover, he will reveal how artificial intelligence might be the key to enabling nonprofit organizations to operate more efficiently and make impactful, data-driven decisions.

But at the heart of our conversation is the question: Why is the EMBRACE Project so crucial, and what goals does it strive to achieve? Darrell's narrative and professional endeavors provide a unique insight into the power of technology as a tool for societal change. Where can you dive deeper into Darrell Booker's work, or how can you contribute to the advancements in technology for racial equity? We'll explore where to connect with Darrell and his team online, ensuring our listeners can engage further with the transformative projects discussed today.

As we navigate this thought-provoking dialogue, we invite you to reflect on the intersection of technology, racial equity, and social support systems. How can we, as a society, utilize technological advancements to foster a more equitable world for all?

After hearing Darrell's insights and aspirations, how do you see technology advancing racial equity and supporting vulnerable communities? Share your thoughts with us, and let's continue this meaningful conversation.

2852: Wanchain: Unlocking Blockchain's Potential Through Interoperability Apr 03, 2024

Is blockchain technology truly poised to revolutionize our world? In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I sit down with Temujin Louie, CEO of Wanchain, to peel back the layers of blockchain interoperability and its critical role in pushing blockchain towards mainstream acceptance. As we navigate through the origins of Wanchain and its mission to democratize access to blockchain technology, we uncover the vision of a world where different blockchain networks seamlessly interact with one another.

Despite blockchain's promise, its journey into the mainstream is fraught with challenges. The lack of standardized practices not only complicates the regulatory landscape but also hampers the user experience, making it daunting for the average person to leverage blockchain applications. Moreover, enterprises stand at the precipice, eager to embrace blockchain but held back by the absence of a core infrastructure that can foster adoption.

As we delve into the concept of interoperability, we highlight its significance in achieving the scalability necessary for global adoption. With the example of the ERC-20 standard, we discuss how established protocols can guide the development of interoperable systems that pave the way for innovation and growth within the Ethereum ecosystem and beyond.

Through an engaging conversation with Temujin, we explore how Wanchain's decentralized bridges facilitate the movement of data across different chains, thereby enhancing the user experience by simplifying cross-chain transactions. However, the path to seamless blockchain integration requires further abstraction of the underlying complexities, ensuring that the transformative potential of blockchain can be accessed by everyone, irrespective of their technical knowledge.

Join us as we engage in community conversations that highlight the importance of interoperability, listen to the needs of enterprises and regulators, and caution against the pitfalls of a one-size-fits-all approach to blockchain solutions.

In a world where blockchain stands as a beacon of decentralization and equitable access, how can we bridge the gaps to unlock its full potential? Share your thoughts with us as we explore the future of blockchain through the lens of interoperability.

2851: GHD Digital - Cyber Critical Infrastructure and Risk Apr 02, 2024

How secure is the invisible foundation that our modern society rests upon? In this thought-provoking episode of Tech Talks Daily, I'm joined by Kumar Parakala, President of GHD Digital, to unravel the complexities of protecting our critical infrastructure from increasingly sophisticated cyber threats. As we delve into the digital age, our reliance on technology exposes vital systems—power plants, water facilities, and more—to cyber adversaries' constantly evolving tactics. With a staggering 125% average annual increase in attacks on these essential networks, the conversation has never been more urgent.

Kumar brings expertise from leading GHD Digital initiatives, focusing on the nexus between technology and cybersecurity. He shares actionable insights on the societal shifts necessary to fortify our defenses, the role of digital transformation in bolstering security without compromising innovation, and how GHD Digital's Cyber Critical Infrastructure and Risk Centre of Excellence is pioneering solutions to these pressing challenges. Furthermore, we'll explore the double-edged sword of AI in cybersecurity—its power to detect and respond to threats and its potential to broaden the attack surface.

This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in the future of cybersecurity and how we can collectively navigate the treacherous waters of digital threats. By understanding the intricacies of the landscape and the innovative approaches being developed, we can better appreciate the steps needed to ensure the resilience and security of our critical infrastructure.

One question looms as we confront these challenges: How can individuals, corporations, and governments collaborate more effectively to safeguard the digital and physical systems that underpin our society?

Join the discussion and share your thoughts on navigating the complexities of cybersecurity in an interconnected world.

2850: From Data Overload to Insight: Sigma Computing's Blueprint for Business Intelligence Apr 01, 2024

In the dynamic realm of business intelligence and data analytics, the journey from static charts to live, collaborative decision-making platforms illustrates a profound evolution. This episode of Tech Talks Daily welcomes Mike Palmer, CEO of Sigma Computing, to shed light on this transformative journey and Sigma's role in shaping the future of data analytics.

Business intelligence has significantly transformed beyond historical data visualizations to enable real-time collaboration, forecasting, and decision automation.

Mike Palmer discusses how Sigma Computing is at the forefront of this change, offering a unique cloud analytics solution that combines the familiarity of spreadsheet interfaces with the power of cloud computing. This innovative approach makes expert-level data analytics accessible to everyone through user-friendly interfaces like spreadsheets, SQL, Python, and natural language processing, regardless of their technical expertise.

Key to the discussion is the crucial role of high-quality data and robust governance in achieving data-driven decision-making. Sigma's platform emphasizes data security, lineage tracking, and collaboration, ensuring that organizations can trust the accuracy and integrity of their data.

Mike Palmer also highlights how Sigma is driving sustainable tech growth by maximizing employee productivity and minimizing tool complexity, thereby streamlining workflows and enhancing overall efficiency.

Looking to the future, Sigma is not just another business intelligence tool; it's a gateway to innovative forms of customer collaboration and the development of live applications on cloud data platforms. Mike shares insights into how Sigma eliminates manual steps in workflows and reporting, thus enabling a more agile and responsive business environment.

Whether discussing the evolution of business intelligence, the democratization of data analytics, or the impact of cloud computing, Mike Palmer's insights offer a comprehensive overview of the challenges and opportunities in today's data-driven world. From retail to healthcare, Sigma Computing is redefining industries by putting powerful data analytics tools into every employee's hands, driving informed, timely, and impactful decisions.

Join me as we explore the future of data with Mike Palmer and discover how companies like Sigma are navigating the modern data era, driving transformation, and empowering organizations to achieve data-driven success through awareness, accuracy, collaboration, and ongoing innovation. How will this evolution affect your industry, and are you ready for the future of data analytics? Let's dive into the conversation and find out together.

2849: PocketLaw: Revolutionizing Legal Workflows with Technology Mar 31, 2024

In a world where the pace of technological advancement often outstrips the ability of industries to adapt, the legal sector stands on the brink of a transformative era. This episode of Tech Talks Daily features Kira Unger, CEO and co-founder of PocketLaw, a pioneering force in the legal tech space, aiming to redefine how legal teams operate. With a mission to democratize legal services through technology, PocketLaw combines the power of AI, automation, and data to streamline legal workflows, making them more efficient, cost-effective, and accessible.

Kira, alongside her childhood friend and business partner Olga, has embarked on a journey to tackle the legacy industry's resistance to change. Together, they've navigated the challenges of digitizing an industry steeped in tradition, leveraging their complementary skillsets to build a solution that not only meets but exceeds the evolving demands of legal teams worldwide.

The conversation delves into the heart of PocketLaw's vision: to augment human capabilities within the legal industry rather than replace them. Kira underscores the importance of embracing state-of-the-art technologies, including large language models, to ensure the accuracy and reliability of legal tech solutions. By automating repetitive tasks, PocketLaw empowers legal teams to focus on high-value strategic work, transforming them from cost centers into true business partners.

Kira shares insights into the founding and growth of PocketLaw, the impact of AI on the legal industry, and the future of AI and legal experts working together. She also addresses the unique dynamics of starting a SaaS company with a lifelong friend, the challenges of transforming a legacy industry, and how technology is cutting business legal costs in an era of rising inflation.

As we explore the shifting role of legal teams and the adoption of new technology, Kira offers her expertise on digitizing legacy industries, the intersection of AI and law, and the societal impact of these changes. PocketLaw's holistic, user-friendly solution exemplifies the potential for legal tech to make a significant, positive difference in how legal work is done, paving the way for a more efficient, inclusive, and adaptable legal landscape.

Join us in this thought-provoking episode as we uncover how PocketLaw is leading the charge in legal tech innovation, enabling a future where legal services are more accessible, efficient, and aligned with the needs of businesses and individuals alike. How can technology further transform the legal industry and what does the future hold for legal professionals in this evolving digital age? Share your thoughts and join the conversation on the role of innovation in driving legal and societal progress.

2848: Onafriq's Role in Fostering Africa's Climate Resilience Mar 30, 2024

In an era where climate change and economic development are two of the most significant challenges facing the African continent, how can technology and financial innovation pave the way for a more resilient and prosperous future?

This episode of Tech Talks Daily delves into the heart of these issues with Funmi Dele-Giwa, General Counsel and Head of Governance, Risk & Compliance at MFS Africa, now steering the helm at Onafriq with a vision to revolutionize Africa's financial landscape.

Africa, despite its minimal contribution to global emissions, finds itself on the frontline of climate change's adverse effects. With extreme weather events becoming more frequent and severe, the need for robust climate adaptation and resilience strategies has never been more pressing. However, the continent's fight against climate change is hampered by a lack of adequate funding and a financial architecture that fails to address its unique challenges.

Enter Onafriq, a company poised at the intersection of financial services and technological innovation, aiming to make cross-border payments within Africa as seamless as making a local phone call. In this enlightening conversation, Funmi Dele-Giwa sheds light on the pivotal role that fintech and digital financial services can play in addressing both climate change and the broader economic challenges facing the continent.

From the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement to the need for a climate-centric financial architecture, we explore the pathways toward enhancing intra-African trade and, ultimately, funding for climate adaptation and resilience.

The discussion doesn't stop at identifying the problems; it dives into the practical solutions that Onafriq and similar initiatives offer. By digitizing payments and addressing regulatory barriers, Onafriq is not just facilitating easier trade and financial inclusion; it's laying the groundwork for a more united African economy capable of tackling climate change head-on.

As Africa stands at a crossroads, the question looms: Can the continent leverage its vast potential to foster growth and resilience from within? Join us as Funmi Dele-Giwa shares her insights on how Onafriq's mission goes beyond financial transactions to spearhead a movement towards a more interconnected and resilient Africa.

Listeners, as we navigate these transformative ideas, what role do you see digital innovation playing in Africa's journey toward climate resilience and economic empowerment?

Share your thoughts and join the conversation on how technology can help bridge the gap between Africa's financial and environmental challenges.

2847: Algorithms vs. Aspirations: Navigating the Digital-Financial Divide Mar 29, 2024

In a world increasingly governed by algorithms and artificial intelligence, the control over everyday choices—from the entertainment we consume to the products we purchase—has shifted out of human hands. But what happens when these impersonal algorithms dictate something as crucial as our financial wellbeing?

Have you ever faced the disheartening "computer says no" response when seeking credit for essential life milestones, like buying a home or car? It's a stark reminder of the chasm between our financial needs and the digital gatekeepers that stand in our way.

This episode of Tech Talks Daily delves into a pressing issue many face, yet few discuss openly: the daunting challenge of navigating financial systems designed without the user in mind.

We're joined by Gregor Mowatt, co-CEO and co-founder of Loqbox, a Bristol-based financial wellbeing venture pioneering a revolution in personal finance. Loqbox isn't just another fintech company; it's a beacon for those struggling to find footing in the treacherous waters of credit scores and financial planning.

Gregor illuminates a sobering reality: one in four adults is teetering on the edge of financial distress, exacerbated by soaring interest rates and stringent borrowing criteria from traditional banks. With the financial sector poised for exponential growth, the necessity for consumer education has never been more critical. Loqbox's mission is to empower individuals, giving them the tools and knowledge to enhance their financial situation amidst an ongoing cost-of-living crisis and the transformation of global payment trends.

We'll explore Loqbox's innovative solutions, designed to demystify credit scores and offer a lifeline to those aiming to improve their financial health. From their revolutionary approach to building credit without a credit card to their financial education tools, Loqbox is leading the charge in making finance accessible and understandable for everyone. With nearly 2 million people benefiting from their services, Loqbox is not just changing lives; it's reshaping the future of personal finance.

As we unpack the challenges and opportunities within the financial landscape, we invite you to reflect on your own experiences and the broader implications of a world where financial wellbeing is within reach for all.

How can we collectively bridge the gap between the digital and financial divides? Join the conversation and share your thoughts on how technology can further humanize our approach to our finances.

2846: Innovating Wellness: The Groundbreaking CELLIANT Technology by Hologenix Mar 28, 2024

How often do we consider technology and the fabric of our lives as a catalyst for health and recovery? In this enlightening episode of Tech Talks Daily, I sit down with Seth Casden, CEO of Hologenix, to unravel the innovative world of infrared textile technology through their flagship product, CELLIANT.

Seth shares his compelling journey from personal recovery to professional revelation, detailing how an injury led him to discover the profound benefits of CELLIANT. This technology accelerated his healing process and showed remarkable results in animal health, moving beyond a mere placebo effect to a tangible wellness innovation.

Listen as we discuss how this technology works, transforming body heat into infrared energy that promotes cellular respiration and circulation, enhancing performance, recovery, and sleep. Discover how partnerships with major brands like Under Armour and Bear Mattress are not just about differentiation but about introducing a product line that genuinely benefits the end-user's health and well-being.

The episode navigates the hurdles of embedding minerals into textiles, the evolution of manufacturing processes, and a vision for the future where all textiles offer measurable health benefits. Seth envisions a world where every fabric in our lives, from our clothes to the beds we sleep in, serves a purpose beyond the basic, propelling us towards a healthier, more energized existence.

As we wrap up, Seth leaves us pondering the potential of textiles that don't just exist but interact with our bodies in beneficial ways. What if the future of fashion and furnishings could fundamentally enhance our quality of life?

What are your thoughts on the intersection of technology and wellness through the lens of textile innovation? Please share your insights and join the conversation as we delve into the fabric of the future with Seth Casden.

2845: How BAE Systems is Extending Reality With Synthetic Training Environments (STE) Mar 27, 2024

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, we're venturing into the evolving military training landscape with Lucy Walton, Head of Training at BAE Systems, who will shed light on Project OdySSEy.

This initiative stands at the forefront of transforming how armed forces prepare for the complexities of modern warfare across air, land, sea, space, and cyber domains. But what makes synthetic training environments such a game-changer?

Lucy will discuss the inception and rapid progress of Project OdySSEy, which transitioned from a concept to a demonstrable reality through collaboration in just four months. This leap was made possible by leveraging expertise from various fields, including gaming, simulation, supercomputing, and augmented and virtual reality. These partnerships accelerate innovation and bring diverse perspectives to the challenges at hand.

We'll explore how synthetic training offers significant advantages over traditional methods. It allows for unlimited, safe, and ecologically responsible training scenarios that can quickly bring together allies across the globe. Gaming technology and artificial intelligence in these environments promise a new era where ambition and capability align more closely than ever.

Moreover, Lucy will explore the personalized aspects of training enabled by AI and data analytics, offering insights into how these technologies can tailor training programs to individual performance, stress levels, and decision-making processes.

As we look to the future, the conversation will also touch upon the enduring value of live training alongside synthetic environments to ensure that military personnel are fully prepared for the physiological challenges of real-world operations.

What could this blend of virtual and physical training environments mean for the future of military preparedness, and how might these innovations influence other sectors? Join us as we delve into these questions and more. After listening, we invite you to share your thoughts on how synthetic training will shape the future of the military and beyond.

2844: A Conversation About AI, Zero Trust, and Public Sector Transformation with Intel Mar 26, 2024

In today's digital age, how can organizations fortify their defenses against the ever-evolving landscape of AI threats and risks? This question sets the stage for a compelling episode of the Tech Talks Daily Podcast, where we sit down with Steve Orrin, Federal CTO at Intel, to delve into the pivotal role of AI in shaping cybersecurity practices and transforming public sector enterprises.

Our journey begins with a deep dive into the Zero Trust Architecture—a strategy that's gaining traction across industries as a means to bolster security in an increasingly complex digital world. Steve shares his insights on starting this journey, emphasizing the importance of asset inventory and multi-factor authentication as foundational steps. But the conversation doesn't stop there; we explore how Zero Trust is a continuous path of evolving controls and maturing capabilities, rather than a one-off implementation.

Shifting gears, Steve illuminates the transformative power of AI within the public sector. From enhancing mission capabilities through advanced object detection and tracking to optimizing back-end processes, AI's role in government mirrors its impact in the private sector. Yet, the journey to successful innovation with AI demands a strategic approach—understanding customer needs, planning for deployment requirements, and piloting technology in a "Goldilocks Zone" of impact without risking critical systems.

As we navigate the conversation towards emerging technologies, Steve introduces us to the concept of AI PCs, which promise to bring native AI acceleration to the edge, where users work. This discussion underscores Intel's commitment to scaling AI and security across diverse environments through innovative computing solutions and custom silicon designs.

Throughout the episode, Steve shares invaluable advice for staying ahead in the tech landscape, from leveraging resources like Hacker News to engaging with a community of experts and continuously learning from one's team.

As we conclude, we ponder the question: In the pursuit of technological advancement and security, how do we ensure that we're not just reacting to threats but proactively shaping a future where technology serves the greater good?

We invite you to share your thoughts and join the conversation. For more insights from Steve Orrin and to explore the topics discussed today, find us and our guests online. Your journey towards understanding and leveraging the latest in AI, cybersecurity, and technology trends begins here.

2843: Securing GenAI: Strategies and Solutions from Zscaler Mar 25, 2024

How are organizations harnessing the transformative power of generative AI (GenAI) while navigating the labyrinth of security risks it introduces? In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, we're joined by Sam Curry, the Chief Information Security Officer at Zscaler, who delves into the intricate dance between innovation and security in the age of GenAI.

As we unfold the layers of Zscaler's latest global study, "All Eyes on Securing GenAI," Sam offers an enlightening perspective on how businesses are rapidly integrating these tools, the security implications at play, and the steps crucial for safeguarding their digital ecosystems.

The study's findings are a wake-up call, highlighting the enthusiasm for GenAI across sectors, alongside an acute awareness of its potential security pitfalls. With an overwhelming majority of organizations jumping on the GenAI bandwagon, the conversation shifts to the delicate balance between seizing opportunities and mitigating risks.

Sam shares his insights on the pivotal role of IT in driving GenAI adoption, the pressure points from various stakeholders, and the transformative impact of a zero-trust approach in securing GenAI usage.

Through a deep dive into the challenges of data leakage, the necessity of comprehensive visibility and control over AI applications, and the strategic implementation of data protection measures, this episode is an essential guide for businesses at the frontier of the GenAI revolution.

2842: A Rocket Scientist's Journey: Masha Petrova on Overcoming Stereotypes in Tech Mar 24, 2024

What does it take to go from a creative spirit who dislikes math to a rocket scientist at the helm of a cutting-edge tech company? In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I delve into the inspiring journey of Masha Petrova, CEO of Nullspace and a beacon of innovation in the aerospace engineering field.

Masha's path to becoming a leading figure in the world of engineering simulation and RF technology is as unconventional as it is fascinating.

Join me as I explore the crucial role of engineering simulation in propelling our technology into the future. Masha sheds light on how Nullspace is revolutionizing the RF simulation space, offering solutions that are more than 25 times faster than existing products.

This breakthrough capability is not just about speed; it's about enabling rapid innovation in a world increasingly reliant on radiofrequency technology—from agriculture to space exploration. Masha's story is a testament to breaking barriers and challenging stereotypes within the traditionally introverted domain of engineering.

Her journey from a creative who hated math to a rocket scientist underscores the importance of perseverance, passion, and pushing beyond one's comfort zone. We'll discuss how her extroverted nature and unique perspective have shaped her career and how Nullspace stands out among deep tech companies for its innovative approach and commitment to diversity.

This episode also delves into the growing demand for radiofrequency technology and its ubiquity in our daily lives, from the devices we use to the cars we drive. Masha will share her insights on the explosion of acquisitions in the engineering simulation software space and what this means for the future of technology development.

How can aspiring engineers and creatives draw inspiration from Masha's journey to overcome their own challenges and make their mark in the tech world? Tune in to this captivating conversation on Tech Talks Daily, and let's discover together the power of innovation, diversity, and determination in shaping our technological landscape.

Share your thoughts with us—how do you see the role of engineering simulation evolving, and what impact will it have on our future?

2841: Leading the Leap in Healthcare Efficiency Through AI Mar 23, 2024

How can lean principles and artificial intelligence revolutionize the healthcare industry, creating a more efficient and effective system that benefits providers and patients? In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I'm joined by Mohan Giridharadas, founder and CEO of LeanTaaS, a company at the forefront of transforming healthcare operations through innovation.

With a rich background of 18 years at McKinsey & Company, where he co-created the lean service operations practice, Mohan has dedicated his expertise to improving healthcare delivery.

LeanTaaS stands out not just for its groundbreaking use of AI in optimizing healthcare operations but also for its commitment to delivering tangible results. The company's iQueue platform has been instrumental in unlocking capacity in critical healthcare assets, such as operating rooms and infusion chairs, across over 1,000 hospitals and centers in the U.S.

This episode will delve into how LeanTaaS's unique approach to using sophisticated algorithms, much more advanced than traditional methods, is whispering actionable advice into the ears of healthcare providers, much like how Netflix suggests what to watch next.

Mohan will share his journey, from identifying the gap in the market to leveraging software for lean transformations in healthcare, highlighting the challenges and breakthroughs along the way. We'll explore the significant impact of LeanTaaS's solutions on healthcare operations, including substantial increases in surgical volume, market competitiveness, staffing optimization, and overall utilization of procedural areas.

Privacy and data security remain paramount, and Mohan will discuss how LeanTaaS ensures the utmost care in handling sensitive information, adhering to stringent healthcare compliance standards while encapsulating customer data.

As we look to the future, Mohan envisions a vast landscape of opportunities for AI to enhance healthcare efficiency, potentially unlocking billions in savings and significantly improving patient care. Join us as we uncover the transformative power of lean principles and AI in healthcare with Mohan Giridharadas. What are your thoughts on the potential of these technologies to change the healthcare landscape?

Please share your views with us, and let's engage in a meaningful conversation about the future of healthcare innovation.

2840: The CISO’s Journey: Balancing Risk, Resilience, and Business Growth Mar 22, 2024

How can Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) transcend traditional boundaries to become enablers of business success and innovation? Join me on Tech Talks Daily as I sit down with Jim Doggett, CISO of Semperis and a veteran in the field of cybersecurity, to delve into this pressing question.

With over three decades of experience in leading cybersecurity and risk programs across global organizations, Jim brings a wealth of knowledge and a unique perspective on the evolving role of CISOs in today's business environment.

In our conversation, we will explore the transformation of the CISO role from a technical doer to a visionary leader who not only protects the digital assets of a company but also drives business growth by leveraging digital infrastructure. Jim will share his insights on the importance of balancing security measures with business enablement, emphasizing the concept of "rarely saying no" but rather offering alternative solutions that align with the company's objectives.

We'll also discuss the critical role of resiliency in the face of threats like ransomware, the significance of maintaining a focus on security basics amidst the allure of new technologies, and the growing importance of identity and behavioral analysis as the digital perimeter continues to dissolve.

Furthermore, Jim will offer practical advice on gaining leadership buy-in by framing security in terms of business risk and impact, thereby fostering a culture of security that supports business continuity and profitability.

Underpinning our discussion will be Jim's perspective on leadership versus management, the necessity for CISOs to redefine what's believed to be possible, and the strategic approach to deploying digital infrastructure in a way that not only secures the business but also drives revenue and sustainable growth.

How can CISOs navigate the complex interplay between security, innovation, and business strategy to redefine their role and contribute to the overall success of their organizations? Tune in to this enlightening episode of Tech Talks Daily, and let's unravel the future of cybersecurity leadership together.

Share your thoughts with us on social media or drop us an email—what do you believe is the key to transforming the role of the CISO in today's business world?

2839: AI Trailblazers: Icertis's Vision for the Future of CLM Mar 21, 2024

Have you ever wondered what propels an enterprise to the pinnacle of success in the bustling realm of artificial intelligence? Today on Tech Talks Daily, we invite you into a conversation with Deanna Lanier, Chief Strategy Officer at Icertis, a trailblazer in AI and the first contract lifecycle management (CLM) company to achieve a valuation of over a billion dollars.

As we navigate through the burgeoning AI landscape of 2024, Deanna sheds light on a pivotal distinction: the chasm between innovation and imitation.

In an era where digital mimicry seems pervasive, with tales reminiscent of Snapchat's features replicated by giants like Facebook, we delve into the crux of what truly separates the frontrunners from the followers in AI.

Icertis, with its extensive portfolio managing over 10 million contracts across 93 countries, stands as a testament to what innovative foresight coupled with strategic agility can accomplish. Partnering with heavyweights such as Microsoft, SAP, and Salesforce, Icertis has not just navigated but set new standards in the AI domain.

Deanna will unravel the trends that are shaping the AI arena in 2024, emphasizing the critical need for enterprises to architect their unique AI strategies. Beyond the horizon of mere competition, she envisions a future where AI innovators outpace the imitators by not just a step, but a leap.

From leveraging a massive dataset of contracts to fuel AI-driven insights to pioneering in autonomous contracting with the integration of AI, machine learning, and blockchain, Icertis's journey is one of relentless innovation.

As we explore the symbiosis between AI and CLM, Deanna provides an intriguing perspective on how contracts, often seen as mere legal formalities, can be transformed into dynamic assets that drive enterprise-wide intelligence and efficiency. The conversation promises to be an enlightening exploration of how AI is not just reshaping industries but also redefining the paradigms of competition and innovation.

What new standards are we setting today to pioneer the AI-driven enterprises of tomorrow? After listening to our discussion with Deanna Lanier, we invite you to share your thoughts on how AI innovation can further revolutionize the way we do business.

2838: Revolutionizing Retail: A Deep Dive into Visual Commerce Mar 20, 2024

What does the future of retail look like when technology like augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and artificial intelligence (AI) are leading the charge in transforming customer experiences? This Tech Talks Daily Podcast episode welcomes Angelo Colletta, the visionary founder of Zakeke, a platform at the forefront of the visual commerce revolution.

Angelo shares his insights on how Zakeke empowers brands like Valentino, HP, Etsy, Uber Eats, Zapier, and Printful to offer immersive augmented reality and virtual try-on experiences, thus revolutionizing our shop.

With a background as a serial entrepreneur and investor in AR/VR technologies, Angelo has positioned Zakeke as a global leader in visual commerce, serving over 10,000 clients across 400+ industries. He discusses the platform's role in reducing over-manufacturing and promoting thoughtful customer engagement through live product personalization and 3D/AR views.

The conversation delves into how C-suite executives can prepare for the imminent launch of new tech like the Apple headset and its impact on content creation and consumption. Angelo also explores AI's role in fostering ethical consumption and reducing environmental impact, marking a shift towards more responsible retail practices.

Listeners will gain insights into the concept of 'retailtainment,' the blending of shopping with entertainment, and how this is becoming the new norm in attracting and retaining customers. Moreover, Angelo provides a visionary outlook on the future of brick-and-mortar stores, which are expected to transform into dynamic, personalized spaces with AI and VR innovations.

Angelo's journey from founding multiple companies to leading Zakeke in visual commerce highlights the importance of continuous learning and staying ahead of technological advancements. This episode is not just a glimpse into the future of retail but a call to action for brands to embrace visual commerce to enhance customer engagement, personalize shopping experiences, and drive sales and loyalty.

As we unpack these trends with Angelo Colletta, we invite you to consider how your brand could leverage visual commerce technologies to meet the evolving demands of the digital age. What role will AI and AR play in your future retail strategy, and how can you begin integrating these innovations today to create more engaging, personalized, and sustainable shopping experiences?

What are your thoughts on the convergence of technology and retail, and how do you see it shaping the future of shopping? Share your insights and join the conversation.

2837: Beyond the Firewall: A New Era of Cybersecurity with Lucid Mar 19, 2024

How do businesses stay one step ahead in an era where cyber threats evolve as swiftly as the technology designed to counter them? This Tech Talks Daily Podcast episode features an enlightening conversation with David Torgerson, VP of Technology and Security at Lucid Software, who brings his expert insights into the rapidly changing landscape of cybersecurity.

2023 has seen companies grappling with significant pain points, from communication barriers within teams to the urgent need to prioritize initiatives that truly set them apart. David emphasizes the indispensable role of clear communication in cybersecurity, highlighting how a unified understanding of business goals and cybersecurity strategies is crucial for organizational resilience.

The conversation takes a deep dive into the changing nature of cyber attacks expected in 2024, with financial gain becoming the primary motive for attackers. David sheds light on the sophistication of phishing and ransomware tactics, propelled by advancements in AI, making them more personal, timely, and challenging to detect.

However, it's not all doom and gloom in AI and cybersecurity. David also explores the positive side, where AI emerges as a formidable ally in automating mundane tasks, enhancing productivity, and allowing cybersecurity professionals to focus on strategic initiatives and innovation.

According to David, the key to improving an organization's security posture is implementing processes that simplify doing the right thing for employees, thus enhancing the overall cybersecurity framework. From the critical importance of clear communication across diverse teams to leveraging AI as both a tool and a challenge in cybersecurity, this episode is packed with actionable insights.

David also shares an intriguing anecdote from his career, offering a personal glimpse into the high-stakes world of cybersecurity and the lessons learned from moments of crisis.

As we explore these pressing issues with David Torgerson, we invite you to reflect on your organization's cybersecurity strategies and the potential of AI to transform the landscape. How can companies better prepare for tomorrow's cybersecurity challenges, and what steps can we take today to ensure a more secure digital future?

What are your thoughts on the evolving role of AI in cybersecurity, and how do you see it shaping the future of digital defense? Share your insights and join the conversation.

2836: Insights from Accenture's Technology Vision 2024 Report Mar 18, 2024

How is technology shaping the future of human potential and productivity? I sit down with Adam Burden, Accenture's chief technology officer. We explore the insights from Accenture's 2024 Technology Vision report, "Human by Design: How AI unleashes the next level of human potential."

Adam discusses the transformative potential of generative AI, poised to impact a significant portion of working hours across industries, enhancing productivity in numerous job types and potentially adding trillions to the global economy. The conversation extends beyond the realms of generative AI to the broader spectrum of "human by design" technologies. These innovations are redefining our relationship with technology, making it a more seamless extension of human capabilities.

The episode also covers the shift in how knowledge is organized and accessed, with AI reshaping our approach to information processing and decision-making. Adam illustrates this with examples of how AI can suggest perspectives and solutions that might not have been considered, effectively acting as a catalyst for creativity and innovation.

Furthermore, we discuss the emerging importance of spatial computing in the enterprise sector despite the consumer side still searching for its "killer app." They touch on the potential of digital twins for training and exploring AR/VR in retail, highlighting the necessity of modern networks like 5G to support these technologies.

Another intriguing topic is the evolution of body electronics, where technology becomes increasingly integrated and natural in our daily lives. This trend emphasizes the need for responsible AI and ethical considerations as these technologies become more embedded in our physical and digital interactions.

Adam emphasizes the gap between intentions and organizations' operationalization of responsible AI frameworks. He outlines key steps for businesses to embrace and implement responsible AI practices, highlighting the critical nature of governance, risk assessment, and compliance monitoring in this context.

As technology evolves at an unprecedented pace, Adam's insights from Accenture's 2024 Technology Vision report offer a roadmap for harnessing these advancements to unlock human potential.

2835: Empowering Mothers in Tech: The Supermums Journey Mar 18, 2024

In a world where technology shapes our everyday lives and the demand for digital skills continues to soar, how can we ensure that everyone, especially mothers looking to re-enter the workforce, has access to the opportunities tech offers? This Tech Talks Daily Podcast episode delves into the inspiring journey of Heather Black, the visionary CEO of Supermums, a global initiative transforming the tech landscape for mothers and promoting gender equality in the digital age.

Supermums, born from Heather's realization of Salesforce's potential as a powerful enabler of flexibility and employment, has, since its inception in 2016, welcomed over 4,300 trainees from more than ten countries, demonstrating a formidable impact on reducing the gender pay gap, supporting women returners, and addressing the digital skills gap. With a keen focus on aligning with the UN's Sustainable Development Goals, including Quality Education and Gender Equality, Supermums offers high-quality online learning and paves the way for remote work opportunities in the burgeoning Salesforce ecosystem.

Join us as Heather shares her journey from running a non-profit to leading Supermums, the challenges and triumphs of scaling a social enterprise globally, and the innovative approaches Supermums employs to match parenting attributes to Salesforce roles. Heather's dedication to leveraging Salesforce for social good, her strategic vision for Supermums, and her passion for empowering women through education and employment in the tech sector are inspiring.

As we explore the future of work, the indispensable role of digital skills and the unique challenges and opportunities mothers face in the tech sector, Heather also sheds light on her aspirations to secure investment for Supermums, aiming to further amplify its global impact.

Where can you join the Supermums mission or learn more about how technology bridges employment and education gaps for mothers worldwide? Dive into this enlightening conversation with Heather Black to discover how Supermums is making tech careers more accessible and empowering mothers to achieve their full potential in the digital world.

As we reflect on the transformative power of tech education and flexible employment opportunities, we invite you to share your thoughts on how technology can continue to foster an inclusive, equitable workforce. How can initiatives like Supermums contribute to shaping a future where anyone, anywhere, can thrive in a digital economy?

2834: Quantum Leaps in Cybersecurity With Quantinuum Mar 17, 2024

In today's episode of Tech Talks Daily, we pose an intriguing question: How is the burgeoning field of quantum computing poised to redefine the landscape of cybersecurity? To shed light on this complex topic, we welcome Duncan Jones, the Head of Cybersecurity at Quantinuum, the world's largest dedicated quantum computer provider. Our conversation navigates the fascinating intersection of quantum computing and cybersecurity, highlighting Duncan's insights on how quantum technology is beginning to assert its commercial value and impact within the tech sphere.

Duncan brings a wealth of experience, with over 15 years dedicated to cybersecurity and cryptography. He takes us on a journey through the evolution of Quantinuum, from its inception inspired by Stephen Hawking to becoming a $5 billion quantum computing titan. Quantinuum stands as a testament to the power of full-stack quantum computing, encompassing hardware, software, operating systems, and applications across various sectors including chemistry, machine learning, and notably, cybersecurity.

One of the pivotal topics we explore is the dual-edged sword of quantum computing in cybersecurity. Quantum technology harbors the potential to both compromise and enhance encryption methods. Duncan delves into this paradox, explaining how Quantinuum is pioneering efforts to harness quantum principles for fortifying cybersecurity, through innovations like quantum key distribution and quantum random number generation.

Our discussion extends to real-world applications and partnerships that underscore the tangible benefits of quantum cybersecurity. From Honeywell's integration of Quantinuum's Origin product in smart meters, to collaborations with giants like BMW and Airbus, Duncan provides compelling examples of quantum computing's practical utility in safeguarding digital infrastructure.

Moreover, Duncan shares his vision for the future, projecting significant advancements in quantum computing and cybersecurity within the next decade. This forecast not only emphasizes the ongoing development of quantum hardware but also the increasing integration of quantum-enhanced security technologies across industries.

As we navigate this conversation, we invite listeners to reflect on the transformative potential of quantum computing in redefining cybersecurity standards. How will businesses and individuals adapt to this new quantum era? Join us in exploring the implications of quantum technology's rapid advancement and its role in shaping a secure digital future.

We conclude by asking our audience: What are your thoughts on the integration of quantum computing into cybersecurity? How do you envision this convergence impacting your digital security measures? Share your insights and join the discussion on the future of quantum computing in cybersecurity.

2833: Accelerating SMB Marketing Success with AI Mar 16, 2024

How is artificial intelligence (AI) transforming the way small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) approach marketing and customer interaction? I sit down with Ryan Johnson, Chief Product Officer at CallRail, a platform empowering over 200,000 SMBs with advanced call, text, and form tracking capabilities, to explore this pivotal question. With a deep dive into AI's role in product innovation, this episode offers a unique perspective on leveraging technology to enhance marketing effectiveness and optimize customer experiences.

Ryan brings a rich background in AI and machine learning (ML) from his time at a pre-revenue AI startup, where he learned firsthand the challenges and expenses associated with building AI solutions in-house. At CallRail, the focus is not on becoming an AI shop but on enhancing customers' ability to market more effectively through strategic partnerships with AI leaders. This approach allows CallRail to integrate AI meaningfully, making it purposeful, valuable, accessible, reliable, and scalable for SMBs.

Listeners will get an inside look at CallRail Labs, an initiative inviting customers to test new AI capabilities and provide feedback that shapes future development. This collaboration between CallRail and its customers ensures that AI applications are both innovative and practical, addressing real-world marketing challenges.

One of the standout AI features discussed is conversation intelligence, which saves significant time by reviewing and analyzing customer interactions, thus enabling better lead qualification and improving marketing ROI. Additionally, AI-based call coaching offers objective feedback to help agents improve, enhancing the overall customer experience.

Ryan also touches on how AI helps optimize marketing efforts in a world where traditional cookies are declining, highlighting the growing importance of conversation intelligence in targeting and lead qualification.

As we wrap up, Ryan shares his unique perspective on how AI in product development parallels his personal passion for car racing, emphasizing the need for precision, speed, and continuous improvement to stay ahead.

2832: How StartupOS is Empowering Tech Startups for Success Mar 15, 2024

What if there was a way to turbocharge your tech startup's growth with AI-driven tools, mentorship, and a vibrant community? I spoke with Paul Pluschkell, the visionary behind StartupOS, on Tech Talks Daily to explore how the StartupOS Launchpad is revolutionizing the support system for startups. Paul, a serial entrepreneur, investor, and technologist, brings a wealth of experience and insights into the challenges and opportunities facing today's startup ecosystem.

In this episode, Paul shares his journey through the tech landscape, from founding companies to now leading StartupOS, a platform designed to nurture early-stage startups by providing them with the needed resources. From refining investor pitch decks to achieving the elusive product-market fit and assembling a talented team, Paul discusses how AI-powered technology is not just a tool but a game-changer for startups.

Listeners will be treated to an in-depth conversation on the changing dynamics of the startup landscape, how startups can leverage AI to scale and succeed, and the importance of a supportive ecosystem that includes mentors, investors, and partners. Paul also shares his vision for the next 6-12 months in the venture space, offering valuable perspectives for founders, investors, and anyone interested in the future of startups.

The StartupOS Launchpad platform, described as a lifeline for accelerators, enterprises, communities, and educational institutions, showcases the potential of collaborative and technology-driven ecosystems in building and launching successful companies. Paul's passion for giving back to the startup community and his insights into the power of AI technology make this episode a must-listen for entrepreneurs and innovators seeking to make their mark in the world.

As we wrap up, we're left to consider: How will AI and ecosystem support redefine the journey of startups in the coming years? Join us as we delve into these topics and more, and share your thoughts on the future of startup innovation.

2831: Rethinking Ransomware With Rapid7 Mar 14, 2024

In today's cybersecurity landscape, where does the true threat of ransomware lie? I explore this critical question with Raj Samani, SVP and Chief Scientist at Rapid7, in a revealing episode of Tech Talks Daily.

With ransomware attacks making headlines and disrupting operations for both public and private organizations, the conversation shifts from the frequency of these incidents to the evolving capabilities of ransomware actors. Raj, who has extensive experience assisting law enforcement agencies and serves as a special advisor to the European Cybercrime Centre (EC3), brings a wealth of knowledge on dark web trends and the tactics employed by these malicious actors.

The discussion opens with Raj's perspective on how the cybersecurity community has been addressing ransomware threats, suggesting a need to refocus our attention on the capabilities and strategies of ransomware groups rather than the sheer number of attacks. He highlights recent campaigns, such as MOVEit and SysAid, to illustrate how ransomware actors are moving beyond traditional methods like exploiting the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) to leveraging zero-day vulnerabilities.

Raj explains how the dark web facilitates a marketplace for skills, allowing individuals with minimal expertise to launch sophisticated ransomware attacks. This shift emphasizes the importance of understanding and mitigating the threat landscape's dynamic nature.

Listeners will gain insight into the implications of these trends for cybersecurity strategies and the measures organizations can take to protect against these evolving threats. Raj also shares his journey in cybersecurity, acknowledging the support and mentorship that have been pivotal in his career.

As the episode concludes, Neil and Raj discuss where listeners can connect with them online to continue the conversation and learn more about combating ransomware effectively. This episode is not just an exploration of the technicalities of ransomware but a call to action for the cybersecurity community to rethink our approach to one of the most pressing challenges of our time.

2830: Decoding Digital Product Management with Airtable Mar 13, 2024

Is the rapid evolution of technology complicating product management more than facilitating it? I sit down with Anthony Maggio, Head of Product Management at Airtable, to explore the intricate landscape of digital product management in today's fast-paced world. Anthony brings a wealth of experience to the table, having navigated the challenges and opportunities that product leaders face in an era where technology products proliferate at an unprecedented rate.

As organizations strive to discern which products or tools align best with their business objectives and team requirements, Anthony delves into the pivotal role of product leaders in guiding these crucial decisions. The conversation tackles the concept of the digital product supply chain, illuminating how the explosive growth of software has led to more distributed project lifecycles and the unique challenges this presents.

Anthony shares invaluable advice on combating "strategy drift," a phenomenon where accessible data and technology tools can inadvertently lead teams away from their core business goals. He emphasizes the importance of drawing clear connections between projects and overarching business objectives to stay on course.

Furthermore, the discussion highlights the transformative potential of leveraging AI for enhanced support in product management. Anthony illustrates how AI can provide teams with crucial visibility into project lifecycles, enabling more informed decision-making and proactive responses to user feedback.

Listeners will gain insights into best practices for digital product management, including the significance of understanding customer needs, building well-prioritized roadmaps, and fostering collaboration across various teams. Anthony also shares his vision for the future, where AI could empower individuals to quickly develop customized software solutions simply by describing their needs.

As we wrap up, we're left to ponder: In a world where every company is becoming a digital product company, how can product leaders navigate the complexities of their role to drive success and innovation? Join the conversation and share your thoughts on the evolving challenges and opportunities in digital product management.

2829: Johnson Controls and the Tech Advancing Sustainable Buildings Mar 12, 2024

How can technology transform buildings into sustainable and efficient environments for their occupants? I speak with Vijay Sankaran, Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at Johnson Controls, to delve into the forefront of intelligent building technology. As we emerge from COP28 with a renewed focus on climate action, Vijay brings invaluable insights into how advanced technologies such as AI, IoT, cloud computing, and cybersecurity are shaping the future of intelligent buildings and playing a pivotal role in the fight against climate change.

Johnson Controls stands at the helm of this transformation, spearheading the integration of these technologies through its OpenBlue digital platform. Vijay discusses how this platform leverages cloud and edge computing to enable seamless connectivity and real-time analytics, breaking down barriers between devices and systems for continuous improvement. The conversation navigates through the significance of AI-enabled autonomous intelligent building technology in crafting next-generation sustainable infrastructure, highlighting the transformative potential of digital twins in optimizing building performance and enhancing user experiences.

Vijay shares compelling insights from Johnson Controls' recently released white paper, "The Smart Building of the Future." The Paper emphasizes the critical importance of sustainable infrastructure in meeting enterprise performance goals and global climate commitments. With buildings contributing to 40% of global greenhouse gas emissions, the episode sheds light on how adopting these technologies is not just a matter of innovation but a necessary step towards decarbonization and climate action.

The discussion also touches on practical advice for leaders looking to integrate these technologies into their strategies, emphasizing the need to solve business problems first and identify the right technologies to address them. Vijay's experience across various industries, including his previous roles at TD Ameritrade and Ford Motor Company, provides a rich backdrop to the conversation, offering listeners a comprehensive view of the challenges and opportunities in adopting intelligent building technologies.

As we conclude, we're prompted to think: In the race towards 2030 climate commitments, how can we ensure that our buildings are innovative and sustainable? Join the conversation and share your thoughts on how technology can transform our built environment for the better.

2828: Synopsys - A Discussion Around the Increased Cyberattacks in Healthcare Mar 11, 2024

Are we doing enough to protect our healthcare systems from cyber threats? In this compelling episode of Tech Talks Daily, I sit down with Tim Mackey, Head of Software Supply Chain Risk Strategy at Synopsys, to unravel the complexities of cybersecurity in the healthcare sector.

The healthcare industry has become the prime target for cyber-attacks, with more incidents than any other sector. Through hacking, supply chain attacks, phishing, and ransomware, cybercriminals exploit the vulnerabilities of healthcare systems, endangering patient safety and compromising sensitive data.

Tim Mackey sheds light on why healthcare organizations are in the crosshairs of cybercriminals and how the intrinsic value of patient data makes it a lucrative target. With healthcare facilities often prioritizing patient care over IT security, the episode delves into the consequences of this underinvestment and the increasing risk it poses to patient safety and privacy.

The discussion pivots to the multifaceted approach required to bolster defenses against such threats. Mackey emphasizes the importance of adopting a zero-trust network framework, conducting thorough cybersecurity reviews of vendors and medical device manufacturers, and the need for continuous improvement in cybersecurity practices to counter evolving threats.

But what does the future hold? As governments scramble to enforce new cybersecurity standards, is it enough to stem the tide of cyber-attacks on healthcare systems? Join us as we explore the balance between patient care priorities and the imperative to secure sensitive health data against a growing cyber threat landscape.

As the episode concludes, we're left pondering: How can healthcare organizations better prepare for and mitigate the impact of cyber threats without compromising patient care? Please share your thoughts and insights as we navigate these critical challenges together.

2827: Data, Decisions, and Dagster: Nick Schrock's Blueprint for Engineering Excellence Mar 10, 2024

Nick Schrock, the innovative mind behind Dagster Labs and the renowned co-creator of GraphQL, joins me on Tech Talks Daily. Nick takes us through his illustrious journey from his foundational days at Facebook, where he spearheaded the Product Infrastructure team, to his visionary leap into solving some of the most pressing issues facing data and ML engineering today through Dagster, his open-source data orchestration platform.

Nick shares insights from his experience at Facebook, elaborating on how internal tools like React and GraphQL revolutionized the company's development practices and set new benchmarks for the developer community worldwide. His transition from Facebook to founding Dagster Labs was driven by a deep-seated desire to address the complexities and inefficiencies in data infrastructure, a challenge he identified as a critical pain point for engineers across industries.

Throughout the conversation, Nick delves into the core areas of data orchestration, highlighting the importance of enabling practitioners to have end-to-end ownership of data pipelines without the need for a centralized team. This approach, he argues, is pivotal in the era where data and ML engineering are becoming fundamental to decision-making processes both in human and business contexts.

Much of the discussion is dedicated to exploring the future of open source in the SaaS-dominated landscape and the operational convergence of ML, AI, and data engineering. Nick emphasizes the delicate balance required in managing an open-core business model and shares personal anecdotes about the "Engineering Founder's Dilemma" — the intricate dance between leading the vision and running the company.

Listeners will gain a unique perspective on the evolution of data platforms and engineering, underscored by Nick's advocacy for a robust, community-driven approach to open-source development. He sheds light on the challenges and rewards of building a platform like Dragster, which aims to simplify and democratize data infrastructure for companies of all sizes.

Nick also advises technical founders on maintaining equilibrium between their visionary roles and their companies' operational demands. This episode is a deep dive into the mechanics of data orchestration and a masterclass in leadership, innovation, and the transformative power of open-source projects in addressing complex engineering challenges.

2826: From Grassroots to Greatness Mar 09, 2024

In today's episode of Tech Talks Daily, I enjoy a conversation with Lloyed Lobo, the visionary author behind "From Grassroots to Greatness." Lobo brings to the table a riveting narrative that challenges conventional wisdom on brand success in the digital age. He posits that in a marketplace saturated with fleeting innovations, the true differentiator for enduring brands lies not in their products but in their ability to foster genuine human connections through community.

Lobo's insights are not just theoretical musings but are deeply rooted in his extraordinary life journey. From spending his childhood in the slums of Mumbai to navigating the challenges of being a Gulf War refugee, Lloyed's experiences are a testament to the resilience and transformative power of community support. His unconventional path, from entering engineering without a high school diploma to cold calling as his first job, and eventually bootstrapping a tech company to significant revenue without any marketing spend, underscores the pivotal role that community engagement and support have played in his success.

Through a candid recount of his personal adversities, including a near-fatal bout with COVID and a struggle with depression and addiction, Lobo highlights how communities have been his lifeline, providing not just a safety net but a launching pad for rebirth and success. This episode delves into Lloyed's philosophy that every innovation, no matter how groundbreaking, is destined to become a commodity. The only sustainable competitive advantage, he argues, is the community—a sentiment echoed through his analysis of over a hundred brands and discussions with more than a thousand leaders.

Listeners are invited to explore the essence of Community-Led Growth, a concept that Lloyed champions as the cornerstone for creating brands that not only survive but thrive by turning customers into passionate evangelists. He shares how brands like Harley Davidson, Nike, Peloton, and CrossFit have cultivated fierce loyalty and a cult-like following, not through marketing budgets but through the power of community.

As we traverse Lloyed's four-step path to greatness, the conversation illuminates how the future of branding is shifting from what companies tell the world about themselves to what their communities say about them. It's a future where authentic human connections are the ultimate currency, and building a community ensures your brand never becomes a commodity.

2825: Celebrating Women's Influence on International Women's Day With CyberArk Mar 08, 2024

In a world where the digital landscape is continually evolving, how do we ensure that women's voices are heard and valued, especially in the tech sector? This International Women's Day, join us on Tech Talks Daily Podcast as we sit down with Eduarda Camacho, the dynamic COO of CyberArk, a global leader in identity security. From facing doubts about her potential in tech due to her gender, nationality, and non-engineering background to ascending to the executive ranks and making a significant impact, Eduarda's journey is nothing short of inspiring.

In this candid conversation, Eduarda shares the challenges and triumphs of her career, offering invaluable advice to women navigating the tech industry. She emphasizes the importance of staying authentic, seeking support when necessary, and the power of perseverance. But Eduarda's insights don't stop there. As the new COO of CyberArk, she outlines her vision and goals for the company, focusing on driving customer value, expanding platform adoption, and gearing the organization for growth and scalability.

We also delve into CyberArk's latest groundbreaking research, revealing that women are more concerned than men about the use of AI by cybercriminals to compromise their digital identities. Eduarda explores why women perceive their digital assets like social media profiles and personal photos as more integral to their identity and why they feel more vulnerable to AI-powered impersonation attacks. This discussion opens up a broader conversation on the gendered dimensions of cybersecurity and the critical need for more inclusive strategies to combat evolving digital threats.

Eduarda's commitment to fostering diversity and inclusion in cybersecurity is a testament to her belief in the strength of diverse perspectives. As we navigate the complexities of AI in cyberattacks, Eduarda's leadership at CyberArk signifies a hopeful step toward a more secure and inclusive digital future.

Why do these gendered perceptions and concerns around cybersecurity exist, and what can we do to address them? Join us as Eduarda Camacho shares her expertise, experiences, and the proactive measures CyberArk is taking to stay ahead of cyber threats in an AI-driven world. Share your thoughts and join the conversation about women's role in shaping the future of technology and cybersecurity.

How can we further empower women in the tech industry and ensure their security concerns are addressed? Share your thoughts with us and let's continue the conversation.

2824: Navigating the Future of Work, The Remote Revolution and AI's Transformative Role Mar 07, 2024

Are we on the cusp of a workplace revolution? In this thought-provoking episode of Tech Talks Daily, I explore the evolving landscape of remote work and artificial intelligence's pivotal role in shaping the future of our work environments.

I'm joined by Iwo Szapar, a trailblazing Remote Work Advocate and the co-founder of Remote-how, we explore the dynamics of the remote work revolution, powered by insights from a community of over 25,000 professionals spanning 128 countries.

Iwo Szapar, known for his relentless drive and passion for enabling remote work globally, shares his unique journey across three continents and 65 countries, fueled by a desire to enhance productivity and achieve work-life harmony. As someone who's been at the forefront of the remote work advocacy, featured by prestigious outlets like BBC, Forbes, and Business Insider, Iwo brings to the table a wealth of knowledge on the trends shaping our work today and tomorrow.

This episode tackles the contentious "back to office" debate, revealing the underlying fears and resistance to change that challenge the transition to remote work. We delve into how AI is not just a tool for automation but a catalyst for operational excellence, enabling companies to implement best practices on autopilot and empowering employees to upskill and reskill in an ever-evolving job market.

With a special focus on the Remote-First Institute's AI Mentor, we discuss how personalized AI can revolutionize productivity by optimizing distributed work, offering a sneak peek into the future where AI assistants are indispensable to knowledge workers. Iwo and Neil also walk us through the Distributed Work Score, a comprehensive metric designed to measure and enhance remote work capabilities across ten critical areas.

As we gaze into the crystal ball, Iwo shares his predictions for 2024 and beyond, offering insights into how AI and remote work will continue to redefine the parameters of operational efficiency and workforce empowerment.

What does the future of work hold for us? Will AI be the ultimate enabler of a more flexible, efficient, and satisfying work life? Tune in as we unravel these questions, inviting you to join the conversation and share your thoughts on how technology is reshaping the way we work.

2823: RingCentral: The Human Touch in AI-Powered Customer Service Mar 06, 2024

Have you ever hung up after a customer service call, feeling more frustrated than when you dialed in? In today's episode, we delve into customer service, where dissatisfaction seems to be the norm rather than the exception. With a staggering 97% of people reporting poor interactions in recent surveys, it's clear that the pandemic has only intensified these challenges. But what if there was a silver lining amidst these frustrations?

Joining us today is John Finch, VP of Product Marketing at RingCentral, who is exploring how technology, specifically Artificial Intelligence (AI), revolutionizes customer service. We'll uncover the transformative power of RingCX, RingCentral's omnichannel customer engagement product, and how it's leveling the playing field for businesses of all sizes by integrating advanced AI capabilities such as sentiment analysis, quality management, and next-best action recommendations.

But it's not all about automation. In our conversation, we'll balance leveraging technology and preserving the irreplaceable value of personal human interactions. How does RingCX maintain this equilibrium, and what role do integrations with platforms like Salesforce play in creating a seamless, unified customer experience?

Data security, privacy, and the future of AI in customer service are also on the agenda. With RingCentral's commitment to data protection, we'll discuss how businesses can navigate the complexities of utilizing AI while ensuring customer information remains secure. Furthermore, we look ahead to how AI might evolve to enhance customer service further, potentially surpassing human capabilities with advancements in semantic search, machine learning, and natural language processing.

Whether you're a business owner, a customer service professional, or simply someone intrigued by AI's potential to solve real-world problems, this episode promises to demystify the technology and showcase its practical value in improving customer experiences.

2822: JLL - Reimagining the Workforce: AI's Role in Job Creation and the Evolution of Skills Mar 05, 2024

In this thought-provoking episode of Tech Talks Daily, we delve into the dynamic intersection of artificial intelligence and the future of work with Or Hiltch, Chief Data and AI Architect at JLLT, the technology arm of global real estate advisory firm JLL.

Amidst a backdrop where technological advancements are often viewed with apprehension regarding their impact on job security, Or presents an alternative and refreshing perspective. He argues that akin to past technological revolutions, AI is not a harbinger of job displacement but rather a catalyst for job creation and transformation.

But how does this align with human nature and behavior, especially considering our intrinsic desire for human interaction and trust? Or illustrates this with the enduring presence of human-operated cash registers despite the advent of cashless technology. This episode explores the intricate balance between embracing AI's potential to enhance efficiency and maintaining the indispensable human touch in our social fabric.

On the technological front, while areas like generative AI are making significant strides, Or points out the relatively slower progress in robotics. This discrepancy underscores the likelihood that professions requiring manual labor or complex human interactions are off the brink of obsolescence. Instead, we're witnessing a reshaping of roles, with AI acting as a sophisticated tool that elevates human capabilities rather than replacing them outright.

It also sheds light on the evolving tech industry landscape, highlighting the emergence of prompt engineering as a sought-after skill. This development signifies a broader shift towards valuing interdisciplinary skills, where expertise in literature, philosophy, and languages becomes as crucial as technical acumen in crafting effective AI interactions.

The conversation takes a deeper dive into how AI is poised to reshape professions laden with language and analysis, such as law and real estate. Or envisages a future where the ability to interpret and leverage AI-generated insights becomes more pivotal than the traditional emphasis on technical programming skills.

As we navigate these transformative times, Or advocates for a balanced approach to AI ethics, emphasizing the importance of addressing challenges like algorithmic bias over speculative fears of artificial general intelligence. This pragmatic perspective is particularly relevant as we consider the role of regions like Israel, known for its prowess in foundational AI models and cybersecurity, in shaping the global AI landscape.

As we wrap up this enlightening discussion with Or Hiltch, we're left pondering how AI will continue redefining our work and lives. How will we adapt to these changes, and what new opportunities will emerge as we leverage AI to unlock unprecedented potential? Please share your thoughts and join the conversation as we explore the evolving relationship between humanity and artificial intelligence.

2821: Revolutionizing Banking: The Coreless Future with Norris Koppel of Monese and XYB Mar 04, 2024

In today's episode, we pose the question: How is technology revolutionizing the traditional banking sector? Join us as we dive deep into this topic with Norris Koppel, the visionary Founder and CEO of Monese Bank, the UK's pioneering mobile app alternative to traditional banks. In 2023, Monese has once again disrupted the banking landscape with the launch of XYB, an innovative 'coreless' banking platform provider that promises to redefine the industry.

Norris will share insights into how XYB, in a significant shift from the centralized systems of core banking providers, enables banks and non-banking financial institutions to swiftly access new financial services solutions. By leveraging highly flexible decentralized microservices, XYB overcomes the limitations imposed by traditional core banking systems. This breakthrough means that businesses can now deliver the financial products and services their customers need, exactly when and where they're needed.

A cornerstone of our discussion will be XYB's groundbreaking partnership with Google Cloud, integrating generative AI and machine learning tools into its platform. This collaboration is not just a technological leap but a transformation in how financial products are conceptualized, developed, and delivered. Norris will elucidate on how this partnership empowers banks, non-bank financial institutions, and fintech companies to create cutting-edge products with ease and speed, paving the way for hyper-personalized customer experiences and a new era of industry-wide innovation.

Imagine a world where financial products are tailored to individual spending habits, where customer inquiries and complaints are resolved without human intervention, significantly reducing operational costs. Norris will discuss how XYB's strategic embrace of generative AI through its partnership with Google Cloud represents a bold step towards such a future, breaking free from conventional constraints to foster innovation in the financial services sector.

As we explore the transformative potential of XYB and its coreless banking platform, we'll also delve into the broader implications for the banking industry.

2820: The Cyber Insurance Equation: Risk, Responsibility, and Readiness Mar 03, 2024

In today's digital landscape, the role of cybersecurity within organizations is more critical than ever. As businesses navigate the complexities of protecting their data and infrastructure, the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) stands at the forefront of this evolving battlefield. In this thought-provoking episode of Tech Talks Daily, we are joined by James Alliband, Cybersecurity Strategist EMEA at Carbon Black, to explore the shifting paradigms of cybersecurity leadership and strategy.

James brings a wealth of experience from Carbon Black, a leading cloud endpoint security company that has recently transitioned from VMware Security following the Broadcom acquisition. His insights shed light on the pivotal role of the CISO and how it is expected to transform in the coming year. With cybersecurity now recognized as a strategic business issue, James discusses the critical responsibility of CISOs in managing organizational risk exposure and the delicate balance between security effectiveness and manageability.

A significant part of our conversation revolves around the concept of duty of care in cybersecurity and its impact on the changing world of cyber insurance. As businesses face increasing scrutiny, James elucidates what providing a duty of care truly means and how proactive security measures can influence cyber insurance policies and premiums. The dialogue extends into automation, orchestration, and the importance of simplifying security processes to enhance manageability without compromising effectiveness.

Moreover, James highlights the evolution of the CIO's role into that of a Chief Risk Officer, emphasizing the broadening scope of responsibilities to include security and overall business risk management. He also touches upon the rapid technological changes, including AI and automation, and their potential impact on the role of CISOs and the cybersecurity landscape.

Join us as James Alliband navigates through these critical topics, providing invaluable insights for CEOs, CTOs, and cybersecurity professionals. As we delve into the future of cybersecurity leadership, the evolution of cyber threats, and the strategic importance of security in business, this episode promises to enlighten and inspire. How are these shifts influencing your approach to cybersecurity? Please share your thoughts and join the conversation as we explore the future of protecting our digital world.

2819: Investing Beyond Capital: Frederic Joye's Strategy for Tech Startups Mar 02, 2024

In today's episode of Tech Talks Daily, we immerse ourselves in the fascinating world of tech startups and software development through the eyes of Frederic Joye, co-founder of Arcanys and a seasoned SaaS investor. With a career spanning over two decades, Fred offers invaluable insights into navigating the complexities of software development and the art of tech startup investment. But before we dive deep into our conversation, thanks to [Sponsor Name] for supporting this episode.

Fred's journey from Switzerland's financial and insurance sectors to the tech scene across Hong Kong and the Philippines is a narrative of relentless pursuit and adaptability. His venture into the entrepreneurial realm, notably with Arcanys, a company that has become synonymous with innovation in software development and investment in tech startups, paints a vivid picture of a strategist at work.

Today, we delve into the essence of "smart money" - an investment strategy that transcends financial capital to include real technical expertise and time. Fred shares why investing in tech startups is more than providing financial backing; it's about contributing to a startup's growth trajectory through strategic mentorship and technical support.

The evolution of software development outsourcing, particularly with the advent of remote and distributed teams, is another critical area of our discussion. Fred looks closer at the benefits and challenges of managing distributed software teams, offering a blueprint for leveraging global talent while maintaining team cohesion and innovation.

Furthermore, Fred's insights into evaluating startups highlight the importance of an experienced team, proven traction, and sound financial management. His advice to tech companies underscores the significance of agility, customer success, talent investment, and culture cultivation in achieving sustainable growth.

As we navigate these topics, Fred's narratives serve as informative dialogues and guiding lights for CEOs, CTOs, and tech leaders steering tech-enabled businesses and B2B SaaS companies. His perspectives on the future trends in AI, low-code platforms, and cybersecurity offer a glimpse into the evolving landscape of technology and its impact on businesses and society.

2818: Qualcomm and Deci Collaborate to Democratize Gen AI Mar 01, 2024

In this episode of the Tech Talks Daily Podcast, we venture into the cutting-edge world of artificial intelligence with Yonatan Geifman, CEO and co-founder of Deci.

Deci, renowned for its pioneering work in deep learning and artificial intelligence, is at the forefront of creating AI that builds better AI. Today, we focus on the transformative technology Deci is developing and its groundbreaking partnership with Qualcomm Technologies. This collaboration sets new benchmarks in AI efficiency and makes generative AI more accessible and cost-effective across various industries. But first, let's extend our gratitude to [Sponsor Name] for their support in bringing this episode to life.

Yonatan shares with us the essence of Deci's innovative journey, particularly its strategic partnership with Qualcomm. This collaboration is a game-changer, challenging the status quo and offering high-performance, energy, and cost-efficient solutions in the AI ecosystem. Through their joint efforts, Deci and Qualcomm are introducing two revolutionary Generative AI models tailored for the Qualcomm® Cloud AI 100. These models, DeciCoder-6B and DeciDiffusion 2.0, boost the cost efficiency and scalability of GenAI-based services and address the pressing GPU shortage in the market.

DeciCoder-6B, a state-of-the-art code generation model, and DeciDiffusion 2.0, a text-to-image diffusion model, exemplify Deci's commitment to enhancing AI accessibility. Developed using Deci's proprietary Neural Architecture Search Technology, AutoNAC™, these models are optimized to leverage the full potential of Qualcomm's hardware, setting new standards in performance and efficiency.

As we delve deeper, Yonatan enlightens us on the significant impact of these innovations across various sectors, from healthcare to finance, and the pivotal role of open-source in advancing AI technology. The democratization of Generative AI, facilitated by Deci and Qualcomm, promises to unlock new levels of creativity and efficiency, making the transformative power of AI available to all.

Join us as we explore how Deci's collaboration with Qualcomm is reshaping the landscape of artificial intelligence, making it more accessible, efficient, and transformative for industries worldwide. What does the future hold for AI development, and how will these advancements impact our approach to technology and innovation?

Share your thoughts and join the conversation.

2817: BRG: What to Expect From the EU AI Act and How the AI Pact Will Bridge the Gap Feb 29, 2024

In an era where technology rapidly reshapes the boundaries of privacy and innovation, understanding the intricate dance between AI regulation and data privacy becomes paramount. We explore critical domains with the expertise of Amy Worley, a distinguished figure in AI regulation and data privacy, currently making waves at Berkeley Research Group.

Amy Worley, described as a "data globe trotter," brings to the table an unparalleled depth of knowledge garnered from her extensive experience consulting across borders—from advising a foreign government in Holland on data privacy to guiding Fortune 500 companies through the labyrinth of data compliance, privacy, and ethics. With a background as the global chief privacy officer for a leading global pharmaceutical and medical device company, Amy's insights are at the forefront of shaping how we navigate the complexities of data in a digital age.

This episode unfolds the expected changes and challenges as the EU's new AI Act approaches its implementation. Amy elucidates how this act aims to foster innovation while safeguarding human rights, categorizing AI systems based on risk levels to balance progress with protection. Furthermore, we delve into the AI Pact's role in bridging the gap between current practices and future regulations, offering companies a collaborative platform to align with upcoming compliance requirements.

However, the data privacy landscape isn't just a concern of the future but a pressing issue of today. Amy sheds light on the stalled progress of data privacy regulation in the US, dissected by political divides yet animated by state-level initiatives crafting their laws in response. Despite these challenges, a bipartisan consensus emerges on the necessity to protect children's privacy online, hinting at possible avenues for legislative progress.

Staying abreast of these developments is no small feat. Amy shares her strategies for continuous learning and recommends essential readings and resources that offer broad overviews and deep dives into AI, privacy, and their societal impacts.

As we wrap up today's enriching dialogue with Amy Worley, we're reminded of the ongoing evolution of AI regulation and data privacy laws. The conversation highlights the complexities of navigating these changes and emphasizes the importance of informed engagement with these topics. But the discussion doesn't end here; we invite you to share your perspectives. How do these regulatory shifts impact you or your business? What steps are you taking to adapt and stay informed?

2816: The Future of Data Centers: Autonomy, Analytics, and AI Feb 28, 2024

How does a company transform the complex data management landscape in today's ever-evolving enterprise data centers? On this episode of Tech Talks Daily, we sit down with Mark Walsh, Vice President at Tintri, to delve into how Tintri's innovative approach to data management revolutionizes how organizations store, manage, and understand their virtual machine environments.

Mark Walsh's journey from medical research to the forefront of technology innovation is inspiring. Sparked by a serendipitous encounter with John Sculley's "Odyssey," Mark's career pivot is a testament to the transformative power of tech. Under his guidance, Tintri has emerged as a leader in providing autonomous operations, real-time insights, and AI-driven analytics to enterprise data centers around the globe.

Tintri's flagship product, Tintri VMstore, has been lauded as the "best employee" by customers for its ability to automate the most tedious IT tasks. By slashing storage management costs by up to 95%, Tintri optimizes application performance from day one and empowers IT teams to redirect their focus towards strategy, innovation, and activities that drive greater business impact.

One of the most compelling aspects of Tintri's technology is its integrated real-time analytics, which immediately optimizes application performance. Coupled with predictive analytics, Tintri enables unparalleled visibility across workloads, machine learning-enhanced speed and resource forecasting, and the ability to model storage and compute needs up to 18 months in advance. This predictive capability ensures that organizations can effectively plan and budget for their future needs, safeguarding against the unexpected.

In a world where cybersecurity threats loom large, Mark also discusses the critical importance of immutability in protecting data against breaches. Tintri's approach to ransomware protection, through immutable snapshots and rapid recovery capabilities, offers a robust defense mechanism that ensures business continuity in the face of cyber attacks.

As we explore Tintri's impact on IT teams and the broader technology landscape, Mark shares his vision for the future of data management. His insights into the synergy between autonomous operations, AI analytics, and predictive planning illuminate a path toward a more efficient, secure, and innovative IT ecosystem.

The case study that Mark mentions in the podcast is now live on the website, here is the link: https://tintri.com/resources/tpt-retirement-solutions/

2815: Unravelling the Fallacy of Scale in AI with Trevor Back Feb 27, 2024

In today's episode of Tech Talks Daily, we explore the intriguing intersection of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and real-world applications with Trevor Back, the Chief Product Officer at Speechmatics. But what does the journey from computational astrophysics to spearheading innovation in speech technology look like?

Trevor's unique trajectory from academia to being a pivotal figure at DeepMind and now leading Speechmatics unveils a narrative that challenges and reshapes our understanding of AI's potential.

The conversation delves deep into critically examining AI's current dependency on large datasets. Trevor articulates why the industry's fixation on scale is a fallacy that we must move beyond. Instead, he advocates for a shift towards more efficient learning methods. These approaches enhance quality and inclusivity and pave the way for models that comprehend human intent more accurately. But how can speech technology evolve to facilitate seamless voice interactions that render technology invisible, seamlessly integrating into the fabric of our daily lives?

Trevor shares insights from his extensive experience, highlighting the transformative power of models capable of learning at higher levels of abstraction. This capability is not just about refining AI's understanding of language; it's about building systems that genuinely grasp context and intent, offering personalized and genuinely valuable interactions.

Furthermore, the discussion touches upon the significance of inclusive and accessible AI. By prioritizing sample efficiency, Speechmatics is at the forefront of developing technology that understands diverse voices and accents, reflecting a commitment to making speech technology human-like for all users.

Yet, the journey is not without its challenges. Trevor candidly addresses the limitations inherent in large language models, including their tendency towards hallucination and the lack of personalization. The future of speech technology, as envisioned by Trevor, is one where voice interactions become so natural and intuitive that technology fades into the backdrop of our lives. But what does it take to reach that future? And how close are we to making this vision a reality?

As we conclude, Trevor shares a personal touch, revealing a book that has inspired him and a favorite song that resonates with his journey. These reflections add depth to our understanding of the man behind the innovation and offer us a glimpse into the broader cultural and intellectual influences that shape the development of AI and speech technology.

Now, we turn the conversation over to you. How do you see the role of AI and speech technology evolving shortly? What are your thoughts on moving beyond the fallacy of scale towards more efficient, personalized, and inclusive AI systems? Join the discussion and share your insights as we continue to explore the profound impact of technology on our lives and businesses.

2814: ThoughtSpot CTO on Why AI Could Make Products Worse Feb 26, 2024

In an era where artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly being integrated into every facet of technology, the line between innovation and overreach becomes increasingly blurred. In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, we are joined by Benn Stancil, ThoughtSpot’s Field CTO, to delve into a provocative prediction for 2024: the potential of AI to make products worse, not better.

As companies race to imbue their offerings with AI, the rush towards "smart" products often overlooks a fundamental principle: the distinction between creating a product and creating a good product. Benn argues that while AI has the power to transform, this transformation will not always be for the better.

The conversation will explore the nuances of AI in product development, emphasizing the importance of starting with real customer problems, thinking beyond the conventional applications of AI, and the necessity of substantial investment for genuine results.

ThoughtSpot stands at the forefront of this discussion as an AI-Powered Analytics company dedicated to making the world more fact-driven through an intuitive analytics platform. With its emphasis on natural language search and the ability to generate actionable insights from complex data, ThoughtSpot exemplifies how to navigate the AI paradox successfully.

This episode promises to unpack the complexities of integrating AI into products without falling into the trap of overselling and underdelivering. We'll cover how ThoughtSpot has managed to sidestep common pitfalls in AI development by focusing on actual customer needs, maintaining transparency about product capabilities, and integrating AI into workflows in a way that truly adds value.

Join us as Benn Stancil takes us through the intricacies of AI's role in product development, offering insights into how businesses can leverage AI responsibly to enhance, rather than complicate, user experiences. Whether you're a tech enthusiast, a business leader, or someone curious about the future of AI, this episode will provide a critical perspective on the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead in the quest to build products that genuinely improve our lives.

2813: Beyond Headless: Hygraph's Vision for the Future of CMS Feb 25, 2024

In today's digital age, where content is not just king but the cornerstone of customer engagement, how can businesses stay ahead in crafting the next generation of customer experiences? This pivotal question brings us to an enlightening conversation with Michael Lukaszczyk, co-founder and CEO of Hygraph, on the Tech Talks Daily Podcast, hosted by Neil C. Hughes.

Michael takes us through a journey into the evolution of content management systems (CMS), highlighting the transformation from traditional web CMS to headless CMS, and now to the groundbreaking realm of federated content platforms. With the global digital content creation market projected to reach $24 billion by 2027, the pressure is on for organizations to deliver fast, personalized services reminiscent of Netflix and Amazon's seamless experiences.

Hygraph emerges as a beacon for organizations navigating the complex landscape of digital content management. Michael elucidates how Hygraph's federated content platform is revolutionizing the CMS industry by enabling businesses to federate content sources into a single universal content API. This innovation not only future-proofs CMS investments but also significantly cuts down integration costs, allowing for the rapid development and scaling of connected digital experiences.

Moreover, Michael shares insights into the role of AI and machine learning in automating content creation and personalization, a frontier that promises to redefine how digital experiences are developed. The conversation also touches upon the importance of synergy between marketing/content teams and engineering teams in creating engaging digital experiences.

From his early days of coding websites at age 11 to his profound realization of the potential of headless CMS and GraphQL, Michael's journey is a testament to the power of innovation and vision in the tech world. Join us as we explore the future of content management systems, the burgeoning role of AI in content personalization, and how Hygraph is leading the charge towards more integrated, dynamic, and personalized digital experiences.

As businesses and creators alike strive to meet the ever-evolving expectations of their users, what will the next leap in content management look like? Tune in to this fascinating episode with Michael Lukaszczyk, and share your thoughts on how we can navigate the future of content in the digital era.

2812: Getting Digital Adoption Right With Apty Feb 24, 2024

Are we too quick to invest in technology without fully understanding how to integrate it into our daily workflows, or do digital adoption challenges simply reflect the growing pains of a rapidly evolving digital landscape? Today on Tech Talks Daily, we delve into these questions with a special guest, Krishna Dunthoori, CEO of Apty, a leading digital adoption platform that's reshaping how enterprises onboard new hires and navigate the complexities of digital transformation.

Krishna brings a wealth of experience from the front lines of software value realization, having guided Apty in its mission to streamline operations and enhance efficiency through guided experiences and analytics. In this episode, we explore the multifaceted challenges enterprises face with technology integration and user experience. Krishna will share insights into how Apty's platform enhances the onboarding process for new employees, significantly impacting their productivity and engagement from day one.

We'll also discuss the importance of optimizing existing technology investments within organizations and how Apty ensures business process compliance during critical digital transformations. With success stories that illustrate the tangible benefits of effective digital adoption, Krishna will highlight the evolution of digital adoption platforms and what the future holds for businesses striving to keep pace with technological advancements.

As enterprises continue to navigate the digital landscape, choosing the right solutions for their needs becomes paramount. Krishna will shed light on the key factors that businesses should consider when implementing a digital adoption platform, ensuring a smooth transition and maximum return on investment.

Join us as we uncover the intricate dance of integrating technology into our work lives, the role of digital adoption platforms in facilitating this process, and the visionaries like Krishna who are leading the charge towards a more efficient, engaged, and productive digital future.

How can organizations balance the rush towards digital transformation with the need for thoughtful integration and adoption strategies? Share your thoughts and experiences as we navigate the digital adoption journey together.

2811: Unlocking AI's Potential: BAE Systems at the Technological Forefront Feb 23, 2024

In a world where the boundaries between digital and physical increasingly blur, how is artificial intelligence (AI) transforming the defense landscape? Rob Merryweather, Group Technology Director at BAE Systems, returns to Tech Talks Daily to discuss the groundbreaking impact of AI in defense and beyond.

Rob Merryweather, positioned at the helm of technology strategy within BAE Systems, plays a pivotal role in harnessing technology to fuel collaboration, innovation, and business growth. With a rich history of leading multi-domain integration across land, sea, air, space, and cyber divisions, Rob's insights offer a unique vantage point on the evolving role of technology in defense.

This episode will explore how BAE Systems, leveraging partnerships and open architectures, creates what they term "decision advantage" – turning actionable information into strategic power on the battlefield. We'll delve into the transformative applications of AI, from natural language processing and autonomous systems to developing intercept behaviors that protect critical infrastructure.

Rob will share how AI is not just about automating tasks but is pivotal in enhancing performance, speeding up capability development cycles, and, ultimately, shaping a future where technology and human decision-making coalesce more seamlessly than ever.

Expect to hear about AI's opportunities to automate mundane or complex tasks, thus enabling human operators to concentrate on critical decision-making processes. We will also touch on the excitement surrounding AI's potential, the pace of technological advancement it allows, and how ethical frameworks are being integrated to guide this rapid evolution.

Rob's journey, from fostering cross-division collaboration to his current focus on marrying the agility of AI startups with the robust assurance frameworks of a leading defense company, offers a compelling leadership narrative at the technology frontier.

As we navigate these discussions, we invite you to reflect: How can the defense sector and broader industries leverage AI to enhance operational efficiency and ensure ethical, sustainable growth? Please share your thoughts and join the conversation as we unpack the transformative impact of AI with one of the industry's leading figures.

2810: Interview with IBM UK & Ireland Chief Executive About AI Adoption Feb 22, 2024

Are UK businesses leveraging AI effectively to stay competitive on the global stage? To explore this critical topic, I invited Dr. Nicola Hodson, Chief Executive of IBM UK&I, to share her invaluable insights on AI adoption within UK enterprises and the steps necessary to ensure the UK's competitive edge in technology.

IBM's recent Global AI Adoption Index reveals a stark reality: while over a third of large UK enterprises have embraced AI, with another 40% experimenting, the UK still trails behind global leaders like India, China, and Singapore. This discrepancy poses a significant challenge, especially after the Global AI Summit's ambition to position the UK as a forefront player in AI innovation.

Dr. Hodson will delve into the nuances of the report, highlighting the critical barrier of AI skills shortage facing UK companies and how this impediment can be overcome. She'll discuss strategies for fostering responsible AI development that doesn't compromise safety or ethics, closing the AI and tech skills gap, leveraging technology to bridge the productivity gap, and rethinking cybersecurity in the AI era.

This episode promises to shed light on the current state of AI adoption in the UK and explore how embracing technology can propel UK businesses to global competitiveness. We'll examine the implications of the AI skills gap, ethical AI development, and the transformative potential of technology in driving business innovation and productivity.

As we navigate these complex topics with Dr. Hodson, we invite you to reflect on the role of AI in your industry or business. How can AI serve as a catalyst for innovation and growth in your domain? Please share your thoughts and join the conversation as we explore the future of AI in business, guided by one of the leading voices in the field.

What steps can your organization take to adopt AI and do so responsibly and competitively on a global scale? Let's discuss.

2809: Rackspace and AI: Crafting the Next Wave of Digital Transformation Feb 21, 2024

How is the digital transformation landscape evolving, and what role does generative AI play in reshaping industries and business practices? In today's episode of Tech Talks Daily Podcast, we're joined by Jeff DeVerter, Chief Technology Officer at Rackspace Technology, to explore the dynamic journey of digital transformation and the pivotal moments that are setting new benchmarks in the tech world.

Rackspace Technology is celebrated for its innovative approach to cloud services. Gartner's Magic Quadrant recognizes it as a leader and is at the forefront of empowering businesses through every phase of their digital transformation journey.

Digital transformation is more than a buzzword; it's a continuous process of change and adaptation. Jeff sheds light on how Rackspace Technology is navigating this landscape, emphasizing the importance of managing apps, data, security, and multiple clouds to reach the cloud and innovate and maximize IT investments. As we delve into the conversation, we'll uncover the key takeaways from the generative AI boom, including its role in infrastructure modernization, empowering industries like healthcare and government, and the importance of a curiosity-driven, continuous learning mindset for thriving in an AI-augmented future.

Jeff also addresses the critical balance between leveraging AI to empower employees and the steps toward automation, underscoring the importance of responsible AI principles that are symbiotic, secure, and sustainable. From exploring AI's impact on social good initiatives to reimagining traditional business roles and enhancing efficiency across sectors, this episode is a deep dive into how companies can navigate the challenges and opportunities presented by AI and digital transformation.

As we explore these topics, we'll touch on the real-world implications of data privacy, regulation, and the essential governance and security controls necessary for responsible AI deployment. Jeff's insights provide a roadmap for businesses looking to leverage AI as a tool for innovation and a catalyst for meaningful change and growth.

In a world where the promise of tomorrow is shaped by the technological decisions of today, how can businesses ensure they're not just keeping pace but setting the pace? Join us as we explore these questions and more, and don't forget to share your thoughts on how digital transformation and AI are reshaping the landscape of your industry.

2808: The AI Imperative: How Safeguard Global is Redefining Work and Leadership Feb 20, 2024

Is the future of work already upon us? In this thought-provoking episode of Tech Talks Daily, I sit down with Duri Chitayat, the Chief Technology Officer at Safeguard Global, to explore the transformative power of artificial intelligence in reshaping how we approach work, innovation, and leadership in the digital age. With a rich background in developing disruptive AI tools, Duri offers invaluable insights into accelerating innovation through "quick innovation sprints," fostering a culture of continuous improvement and leveraging creative problem-solving to unlock new possibilities.

As we delve into the conversation, Duri sheds light on AI's pivotal role in redefining work dynamics, emphasizing the importance of human strengths such as creativity, strategic thinking, and emotional intelligence—areas where automation has yet to tread. He argues that by investing in strategic planning, leadership, and clear communication, companies can harness AI to support their mission and core values and foster a competitive edge in the ever-evolving business landscape.

However, the path to AI integration is fraught with challenges. Duri outlines three major hurdles tech leaders must navigate: overcoming the limitations of legacy systems to make data more accessible for AI applications, bridging the skills gap in the burgeoning field of AI, and cultivating a company culture that embraces change and innovation. With one-third of CIOs already deploying AI technologies and more on the cusp, understanding these dynamics is crucial for any organization looking to thrive in the age of AI.

Join us as Duri Chitayat provides a roadmap for tech leaders to navigate the complexities of AI implementation, offering a blend of strategic insights and practical advice to make the AI development process a resounding success. How can companies balance the drive for innovation with the need

2807: The AI Pathway: Nikola Mrkšić's Journey from Serbia to Silicon Valley Feb 19, 2024

Have you ever wondered about the incredible journeys that lead innovators to the forefront of technology? In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, we dive deep into the life and work of Nikola Mrkšić, CEO and co-founder of PolyAI and one of the brilliant minds behind Apple's Siri. From selling books on the streets of Serbia to earning a Ph.D. in Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing from the prestigious University of Cambridge, Nikola's story is a testament to where determination and passion for technology can lead.

Join us as Nikola shares his early experiences of selling his own science fiction stories in Belgrade, igniting a spark for innovation that would eventually lead him to contribute to one of the most famous digital assistants in the world. We'll explore his decision to study computer science at Cambridge, a pivotal moment that set him on a path towards AI and technology entrepreneurship, and his insightful reflections on nearly leaving it all for investment banking.

Nikola will delve into the challenges and triumphs of starting PolyAI, from learning how to sell and implement enterprise software at scale to building human-like voice assistants that are revolutionizing customer experience and contact center operations. Discover how PolyAI's technology not only enhances efficiency but also empathetically bridges the gap between human and artificial communication, seamlessly transferring customers to human agents when needed and improving overall satisfaction.

We'll also discuss the rapid advancements in AI, particularly in understanding human emotions and context, and debunk myths about AI turning against humanity. Nikola's vision for PolyAI aims to automate repetitive tasks in contact centers, enhancing the human role rather than replacing it, and ensuring that technology serves to improve our lives and businesses.

Hear firsthand from enterprise customers and consumers who have been amazed by PolyAI's conversational AI technology, often without realizing they're interacting with an AI. This episode promises to be an enlightening journey through the evolution of AI in customer service, seen through the eyes of a leader who's lived it from the streets to the pinnacle of technological innovation.

As we unravel Nikola Mrkšić's remarkable journey and the groundbreaking work of PolyAI, we invite you to reflect on the human aspect of technological advancement. How do you see AI and human collaboration evolving in the future? Share your thoughts and join the conversation as we explore the possibilities together.

2806: The Story Behind The New AI Budgeting Tool to Replace Mint Feb 18, 2024

Are you seeking a fresh perspective on managing your finances? In today's episode, we delve into the innovative world of Piere, an intelligent budgeting app redefining personal finance management. Join us as we sit down with Yuval Shuminer, Piere's visionary founder and CEO, to uncover the story behind this groundbreaking platform.

Yuval Shuminer, with her rich background as a consultant at BCG and an alumna of the Wharton School, embarked on a journey to transform personal finance through Piere. Drawing from her own experiences and the challenges of managing finances in bustling NYC, Yuval saw the need for a tool that tracks spending and provides personalized financial insights and guidance. Piere stands out with its user-friendly interface offering two-tap budgeting, automated reconciliations for shared transactions, and a unique feature to pool money for group purchases or holiday savings.

Throughout our conversation, we'll explore the core features that set Piere apart from traditional financial management tools, including its use of AI to offer tailored advice and simplify budgeting for everyday expenses and life's bigger adventures. Yuval's journey from conceptualizing Piere in her living room to being quoted in major financial publications highlights the app's impact on users seeking financial clarity and independence.

As we delve into Yuval's background, the inspiration behind Piere, and the app's key differentiators, we'll discover how Piere empowers individuals to achieve their financial goals confidently. Whether planning a trip to Burning Man or navigating the holiday season without breaking the bank, Piere offers the tools and insights to make informed financial decisions.

What does it mean to have a personal financial assistant at your fingertips? How can Piere change the way we think about and manage our money? Tune in to gain valuable insights from Yuval Shuminer and learn how Piere could be the key to unlocking your financial freedom. We invite you to share your thoughts and experiences with personal finance apps. Have they transformed the way you budget and plan for the future? Join the conversation and let us know your perspective.

2805: Digital Intimacy: Building Brand Loyalty in an App-Driven World Feb 17, 2024

How do brands cultivate meaningful relationships with their consumers in an era where digital convenience reigns supreme? This intriguing question forms the backbone of our latest episode with Thomas Butta, Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer at Airship, a leading innovator in mobile app experiences.

What makes a consumer choose to share their personal details with a brand? According to Airship's groundbreaking Mobile Consumer Survey, which spans 10 countries and 11,000 participants, personalized interactions and special incentives are the answer. This comprehensive study sheds light on the evolving consumer preferences in the mobile app landscape, revealing that 77% of UK consumers are willing to share their interests for a more tailored engagement with brands. Ease of use and life simplification emerge as the top motivations for app usage, overshadowing traditional lures like deals and rewards.

Thomas Butta delves into the insights gleaned from the survey, offering a deep dive into what consumers truly seek from their interactions with mobile apps. He reveals that beyond the allure of deals and loyalty rewards, consumers are drawn back to apps that offer ease of use (42%) and simplify their lives (29%). Yet, despite these enticing benefits, a staggering 49% of consumers are ready to delete an app after just a few uses, highlighting the critical importance of first impressions and the ongoing exchange of respect and reward.

Butta also explores the delicate balance between personalization and privacy, noting that while consumers are open to sharing their data for benefits, there's a fine line between personalized engagement and intrusive overreach. The survey findings underscore the necessity for brands to establish a rapport with consumers from the outset, emphasizing the value and improvement an app promises to bring to their lives.

Join us as we unravel the intricacies of building brand loyalty in the digital age, guided by the expert insights of Thomas Butta and the revealing data from Airship's Mobile Consumer Survey. From the key reasons behind app deletions to the evolving trends in consumer engagement, this episode offers a comprehensive overview of the landscape of mobile consumer preferences and how brands can navigate it to foster lasting relationships.

As we ponder the future of mobile engagement and the role of AI in scaling personalized interactions, we invite you to share your thoughts on how brands can better connect with consumers in this digital era. How can businesses leverage these insights to meet and exceed consumer expectations, fostering loyalty and connection in the process?

2804: Smartling's AI Revolution: Bridging Language Gaps in Business and Beyond Feb 16, 2024

Have you ever wondered how leading global brands effortlessly communicate with customers worldwide in their native languages? Today's episode peels back the curtain on this fascinating process as we sit down with Bryan Murphy, CEO of Smartling, the company at the forefront of AI-driven translation and localization technology.

Is the language barrier the last hurdle in your company's race to global expansion? Discover how Smartling's innovative LanguageAI platform is revolutionizing how businesses approach new markets, making translation hurdles a thing of the past. With clients like Canva and Pinterest under their belt, Smartling's impact on global communication strategies is undeniable. Bryan shares how his company leverages AI to enable seamless localization and scaling, helping brands reach millions of non-English speaking users with unprecedented efficiency.

Smartling, recognized as the leader in translation management systems by CSA Research and the top-rated system by users on G2, employs a data-driven approach to slash translation times and costs while maintaining the highest quality. This episode dives into the mechanics of Smartling's platform, which combines automation, neural machine translation, and generative AI to deliver human-quality translations at half the cost and time.

Bryan explains the intricate process of localizing content for different markets, from the importance of maintaining a brand's voice across languages to the challenges of translating for B2B versus B2C audiences. We'll explore how Smartling's AI advancements, including using generative AI models like GPT-3, enable the creation of fluent, culturally relevant content that resonates with a global audience.

Join us as we discuss the transformative power of AI in breaking down language barriers, facilitating global expansion, and cultivating a more connected world. Whether you're a business looking to scale globally or fascinated by the intersection of technology and language, this conversation with Bryan Murphy offers invaluable insights into the future of communication.

As we navigate the complexities of global expansion, we invite you to reflect on the role of AI in overcoming the challenges of entering new markets. How can your business leverage AI-driven translation to communicate and connect with a global audience?

Share your thoughts and join the conversation on the transformative impact of technology on global business strategies.

2803: Securing Enterprise Data in the Generative AI Era Feb 15, 2024

In today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape, where does the balance lie between harnessing the power of generative AI and ensuring the security and privacy of enterprise data? This pivotal question sets the stage for our insightful discussion with Rehan Jalil, CEO and President at Securiti.ai, a trailblazer in the realm of data security and privacy in the generative AI era.

Is your enterprise ready to navigate the complexities of generative AI without compromising data security and privacy? Join me as I delve into the heart of this critical issue with Rehan Jalil. With a distinguished career at the helm of Securiti, Jalil brings a wealth of knowledge on the innovative strategies and technologies needed to safeguard sensitive information in a world increasingly driven by AI.

From the pioneering Data Command Center that Securiti has developed, enabling the safe use of data across hybrid multicloud environments, to the nuanced challenges of data governance, our discussion spans the spectrum of securing enterprise data against the backdrop of generative AI advancements.

We explore the myriad risks that accompany the generative AI era, such as privacy concerns, the generation of biased or inappropriate content, and the potential misuse of AI-generated materials. Jalil emphasizes the importance of governing sensitive data with robust policies, encryption, and a keen focus on data retention and deletion practices.

Mitigating these risks requires cutting-edge techniques like differential privacy, synthetic data generation, and federated learning, all aimed at protecting data while fostering the responsible adoption of generative AI technologies. Jalil advocates for a collaborative implementation approach, highlighting the critical role of cross-functional teams in developing comprehensive data security policies and fostering a culture of continuous education on AI ethics and data privacy.

As we navigate the conversation, Jalil underscores the need for a balanced approach to generative AI adoption, one that ensures benefits are harnessed without sacrificing control over data and privacy. He sheds light on the evolving landscape of risks and regulations, stressing the importance of adapting policies accordingly and promoting a culture of data responsibility and ethical AI practices.

In a world where generative AI presents both immense opportunities and significant challenges, organizations must stay vigilant, embracing innovative solutions and collaborative strategies to ensure the secure and responsible use of AI technologies. Through the lens of Securiti's achievements and the insightful perspectives of Rehan Jalil, this episode offers a deep dive into securing enterprise data in the generative AI era.

As we ponder the future of AI in enterprise security and privacy, we invite you to reflect on how your organization is preparing for these challenges. How are you balancing the potential of generative AI with the imperative of data security? Share your thoughts and join the conversation on responsible AI adoption.

2802: The Cohesity Approach: Transforming Cyber Resilience in the Age of Ransomware Feb 14, 2024

Have you ever pondered the resemblance between a ransomware attack and a natural disaster? Each can bring operations to a sudden halt, plunging businesses into chaos. But what if our approach to ransomware needs to be revised? In this thought-provoking episode of Tech Talks Daily, I engage with James Blake, Global Head of Cyber Resiliency Strategy at Cohesity, to explore the necessity of a paradigm shift in business perception and response to digital extortion threats.

This episode is not merely an exploration of ransomware; it's a deep dive into rethinking our responses to these digital threats. James argues that ransomware should be regarded with the same seriousness as natural disasters, advocating for a holistic strategy beyond traditional IT security measures. Drawing from his extensive workshops with business leaders and CIOs, he emphasizes the importance of a unified approach between security and IT teams, the critical nature of the initial response to an attack, and the evolving landscape of cyber threats.

The discussion also touches upon the changing perspectives within boardrooms about cybersecurity, the integration of security and IT for effective ransomware response, and Cohesity's innovative approach to data management that empowers businesses against cyberattacks. This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in cybersecurity, offering a fresh outlook on how companies can navigate the tumultuous waters of ransomware threats.

As we navigate the complexities of the digital age, the strategies for defending against and recovering from cyber threats must evolve. The insights provided by James Blake not only illuminate the path forward but also challenge us to rethink our approach to cybersecurity. With ransomware likened to a natural disaster in its potential to disrupt business operations, it's clear that a new mindset is required—one that prioritizes resilience, preparation, and the integration of technology with strategic planning.

2801: Exploring Quantum Frontiers With BAE Systems Feb 13, 2024

What does the future hold for defence technologies in an era where quantum computing, sensors, and AI are no longer just theoretical concepts but tangible realities? Neil Hughes invites Rob Merryweather, Group Technology Director at BAE Systems, to explore the groundbreaking impact of quantum technologies and AI in the defence sector. This episode promises a fascinating journey into how these advanced technologies are redefining capabilities, strategies, and the very nature of security and defence operations.

Rob Merryweather brings a wealth of knowledge from BAE Systems, a leading company at the forefront of defence and security innovations. We delve into the revolutionary potential of quantum technologies, from quantum sensors that are setting new standards in navigation and anti-submarine warfare to quantum computing's role in reshaping the development and production processes within the defence industry. Rob will share insights into how these quantum advancements are not just enhancing existing capabilities but creating new paradigms of operational efficiency and strategic advantage.

Listeners will gain an understanding of how quantum sensors offer unprecedented accuracy and reliability in geolocation, far surpassing today's GPS devices, and opening up new possibilities for exploration and interaction with the world. Rob will also discuss the transformative potential of quantum computing in tackling complex computational challenges, such as managing large fleets of autonomous vehicles and integrating multi-domain operations, offering significant operational advantages in the battlespace.

Moreover, this episode will touch upon the critical role of AI in defence, from automating mundane or hazardous tasks to enhancing human decision-making processes. Rob will highlight BAE Systems' approach to leveraging AI across various applications, including flight controls, missile warning systems, and training modules, emphasizing the importance of ethics, responsible use, and the need for explainability in AI's recommendations to operators.

As we navigate through these topics, we'll uncover the key opportunities that quantum technologies and AI present for the defence sector, focusing on performance enhancement, the acceleration of capability development, and the automation of tasks. Join us as we discuss the future of defence with Rob Merryweather and consider the implications of these technological leaps for global security, ethical considerations, and the balance between human and machine collaboration in making critical decisions.

How are quantum technologies and AI transforming the defence landscape? What challenges and opportunities lie ahead? Tune in to this enlightening conversation and share your thoughts on the future of defence innovation.

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2800: Navigating the Agile Evolution With Scrum.org. CEO Dave West Feb 12, 2024

Are you fascinated by the ever-evolving world of agile methodologies and how technology shapes our approach to work? I sit down with Dave West, the esteemed CEO of Scrum.org, for an enlightening conversation on agile methodologies' past, present, and future. This episode promises a deep dive into the agile transformation journey, from the structured days of the Rational Unified Process to the flexible, principle-based frameworks that dominate today.

Dave West, a key figure in the agile community and a pivotal force behind Scrum.org, shares his rich experience from leading the development of RUP at IBM/Rational to his influential role in shaping agile practices globally. With a career spanning key positions at Forrester Research and Tasktop, Dave brings a wealth of knowledge on scaling agile, the integration of emerging technologies, and the power of distributed teams.

Listeners will be treated to an expert's view on how agile frameworks have transitioned from prescriptive methodologies to embrace a culture of empiricism, empowered teams, and continuous improvement. Dave will explore the significance of iterations, the pivotal role of empowered teams, and the constant alignment to outcomes that have stood the test of time in agile methodologies.

Moreover, this episode will explore how emerging practices like design thinking, lean startup, and coaching reshape agile teams today. With the advent of AI technologies like ChatGPT, Dave discusses the potential for automating repetitive tasks, freeing up teams to focus on creative work that directly impacts customer needs and outcomes.

As the conversation unfolds, discover how distributed teams can thrive with collaboration tools like Mural, Slack, and Zoom and how data analytics empowers teams like never before. Dave will also share critical insights on avoiding the pitfalls of "Water-Scrum-Fall," emphasizing the importance of genuinely empowering teams and measuring success based on outcomes rather than outputs.

Dave offers timeless advice for aspiring leaders and agile practitioners: build relationships, be kind, continuously learn, and focus on helping others. This episode is a treasure trove of knowledge for anyone looking to deepen their understanding of agile practices and lead their teams to more incredible innovation and efficiency.

As we explore the agile landscape with Dave West, we're reminded of the importance of adaptability and the continuous pursuit of improvement. How are you navigating the agile evolution in your organization? Join the conversation and share your experiences with us.

2799: How Prodoscore is Tackling Productivity in the Hybrid Workplace Feb 11, 2024

Are you intrigued by how technology can enhance employee productivity in today's evolving workplace? Join us as Neil Hughes welcomes Sam Naficy, the visionary CEO of Prodoscore, to delve into the future of workplace productivity and the innovative tools shaping our work environments. In this engaging episode, we explore how Prodoscore's cutting-edge technology harnesses APIs, AI, and machine learning to revolutionize employee productivity tracking, offering insights and opportunities for companies to thrive in a hybrid work model.

Sam Naficy brings a wealth of experience as a serial entrepreneur with a remarkable journey from founding a pharmaceutical brokerage to leading the world's premier provider of intelligent video-based surveillance services.

Now at the helm of Prodoscore, Sam shares how this platform is not just about monitoring productivity but fostering a culture of transparency, trust, and high performance within organizations. We'll dive into the balancing act between maintaining employee privacy and boosting productivity, debunking the myth of invasive surveillance technologies. Sam explains how Prodoscore prioritizes an employee-centric approach, providing individuals with the tools to understand and enhance their work patterns.

Listeners will also gain insights from Sam's entrepreneurial journey, emphasizing the importance of focus, intuition, and the drive to innovate. From success stories highlighting Prodoscore's impact on government agencies to practical advice for young entrepreneurs, this episode is packed with invaluable lessons and forward-thinking strategies.

As we shift towards more flexible work arrangements, tools like Prodoscore are becoming essential components of the modern tech stack, ensuring that productivity and satisfaction go hand in hand. How can leaders implement these technologies effectively to support their teams? What does the future hold for workplace productivity?

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2798: Bridging Traditional Finance with Blockchain Innovation Feb 10, 2024

I'm delighted to welcome Petr Kozyakov, CEO and co-founder of Mercuryo, a global payments infrastructure platform, to share his invaluable insights on this transformative journey.

Petr Kozyakov is a visionary leader with a deep understanding of the financial market, and his journey in FinTech began in the late 2000s. Throughout his career, he has held top management positions in payment companies, making him uniquely qualified to discuss the intersection of blockchain and finance.

Our conversation with Petr delves into the potential of crypto payments as a fast and cost-effective solution, particularly for cross-border transactions. While cryptocurrency adoption is still in its early stages, Petr highlights the need for greater integration between crypto and fiat systems to unlock its full potential.

Regulatory changes are also on the horizon, and Petr believes they are ultimately positive for crypto adoption as they legitimize the space and build trust among enterprises and consumers alike. However, he emphasizes the importance of businesses focusing on actual use cases that address genuine pain points rather than adopting crypto for hype.

We explore the diverse use cases of crypto payments, from settling group expenses across borders to facilitating remittances with low fees and high speed. Stablecoins, in particular, are transforming the landscape by providing a store of value in countries with unstable currencies.

Petr envisions a hybrid future of payments, where challenger banks become "crypto-first," seamlessly integrating crypto and fiat services. This integration will bridge the gap between crypto apps and traditional banking, offering users a holistic financial experience.

Despite the immense potential, Petr acknowledges the challenges of implementing blockchain technology in payments. He advises businesses to take the time to understand the technology thoroughly and recommends starting with specific pain points before wholesale adoption. Strategic partnerships can also ease the transition for companies new to the crypto space.

Join us for an enlightening conversation that explores the evolving regulatory landscape, the role of established card networks like Visa and Mastercard in crypto, and the exciting possibilities that lie ahead as blockchain innovation transforms the future of finance.

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2797: Sustainable Blockchain Revolution: Solana's Journey to Carbon Neutrality Feb 09, 2024

In this episode, we venture into blockchain technology and sustainability, where the Solana Foundation has made significant strides. Amira Valliani, Strategy & Policy at the Solana Foundation, joins me to discuss their remarkable journey towards achieving carbon neutrality.

Solana, known for its energy-efficient proof of stake blockchain, has emerged as a beacon of sustainability in the blockchain space. Amira reveals that Solana's carbon footprint is a mere 2-3% of services like Spotify. We explore how Solana consistently tracks its emissions and how the latest Energy Use Report showcases a remarkable 17% decrease in total emissions and a 25% decrease per transaction.

One of the standout achievements is the Solana Foundation's innovative approach to carbon offsetting. Amira explains how they purchase verifiable carbon credits entirely on-chain, enhancing transparency and eliminating intermediaries. This approach reduces emissions and sets a precedent for the broader blockchain industry.

Discover how the passionate Solana community has responded enthusiastically to these sustainability efforts, with many building climate-focused decentralized applications (DApps) on the Solana network. We dive into the technological aspects of Solana's energy efficiency, findings from the latest energy use report, and the challenges faced in data collection and normalization in the agricultural sector.

Amira also sheds light on the partnerships and collaborations that have been pivotal in Solana's journey towards sustainability. With a focus on startups, academia, and enterprises, Solana aims to deliver innovative solutions and positively impact the entire blockchain ecosystem.

Join us for an inspiring conversation highlighting the intersection of technology and environmental responsibility. Discover how blockchain can catalyze sustainability as Solana reduces carbon emissions and builds a greener future.

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2796: Cultivating Tomorrow's Farms: Land O'Lakes' Tech-Driven Agriculture Revolution Feb 08, 2024

How is technology transforming the landscape of agriculture, making it more efficient, profitable, and sustainable? Today's episode delves into the exciting world of agricultural innovation and technology. Teddy Bekele, the CTO at Land O'Lakes, takes us on a journey through the cutting-edge initiatives that are reshaping the future of farming and ensuring a resilient and sustainable food system.

Land O'Lakes, a renowned agricultural cooperative, is harnessing the power of AI and machine learning to provide hyperlocal, customized insights to farmers. Discover how these digital tools enable real-time decision-making in the field and empower farmers to optimize their operations.

Our conversation also explores Land O'Lakes' commitment to sustainability. Teddy discusses how precision agriculture technologies such as GPS, sensors, and imagery are pivotal in promoting sustainable farming practices. Learn how Land O'Lakes quantifies sustainability gains, potentially monetizing them through carbon credits.

Teddy unveils Land O'Lakes' digital transformation strategy, focusing on data, AI/ML, IoT, automation, and other emerging technologies. Discover how these innovations deliver actionable insights to farmers, strengthening connections across the food value chain.

Tune in to gain valuable insights into the intersection of technology and agriculture and how Land O'Lakes is paving the way for a more efficient, profitable, and sustainable future in farming.

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2795: Quantum Leaps: IBM and IDA Ireland Powering Ireland's Quantum Computing Surge Feb 07, 2024

The Quantum Computing industry has been making waves in recent years, transitioning from theory to reality, and Ireland has emerged as a formidable player in this quantum revolution. This episode explores the quantum landscape, its opportunities, challenges, and Ireland's pivotal role.

John Durcan, Chief Technologist at IDA Ireland, joins us to shed light on the quantum computing phenomenon. Quantum computers, driven by qubits, offer parallel computation capabilities that classical computers can only dream of. They've entered the era of "quantum advantage," where they outperform classical counterparts in specific tasks, particularly in fields like finance, life sciences, cybersecurity, and material science. The potential for breakthroughs in quantum simulation and optimization is staggering.

But, as we delve into the quantum realm, we confront significant challenges. How do we make business leaders understand the value of quantum computing and incorporate it into their R&D roadmaps? John Durcan offers insights into the importance of addressing the quantum software skills gap and fostering education initiatives to equip developers for the quantum future.

Dr. Juan Bernabe Moreno from IBM Research Europe/UK & Ireland joins the conversation to discuss Ireland's quantum journey. With its strong tech talent pool, investments in research infrastructure, and partnerships with industry giants like IBM, Ireland is poised to become a global quantum leader. We explore the outlook for the next five years, foreseeing an explosion of use cases, the increasing importance of qubit modularity and quality, and the thrilling race between quantum and classical algorithms driving major innovations.

2794: Securing Tomorrow: WatchGuard's Cybersecurity Predictions Feb 06, 2024

Corey Nachreiner returns to our show to share his experiences and the remarkable work done by the WatchGuard Threat Lab research team. We kick off by reflecting on his journey over the past year, setting the stage for a deep dive into WatchGuard’s cybersecurity predictions for 2024.

These predictions aren’t just speculative; they are a window into the future challenges and opportunities in the realm of cybersecurity.

Corey discusses the intriguing concept of "Prompt Engineering," a potential vulnerability in large language models (LLMs) that could lead to significant data leaks. He elaborates on the growing trend of AI/ML-based social engineering, with a particular focus on phishing automation kits sold on the dark web, presenting a formidable challenge for organizations worldwide.

We then shift our focus to the rise of AI-driven voice phishing (vishing) attacks. Corey explains how the combination of deepfake audio and LLMs could lead to an alarming increase in sophisticated vishing calls. The conversation also covers the vulnerabilities associated with the widespread use of QR codes, revealing the risks of what seems like a simple technology.

A particularly fascinating segment delves into the emerging threats in the realm of virtual and mixed reality (VR/MR). Corey shares insights on how hackers could potentially steal detailed environmental data from VR/MR headsets, a concerning prospect for privacy and security.

The episode also highlights the crucial role of Managed Service Providers (MSPs) in addressing the cybersecurity talent shortage. Corey discusses how MSPs are leveraging automated platforms to double their security services, despite the skills gap in the industry.

In closing, we explore the broader trends shaping the cybersecurity landscape in 2024 and beyond. Corey offers strategic advice on how organizations can adapt and prepare for these evolving threats. We also ponder over the future threat landscape, considering the impact of emerging technologies on cybersecurity.

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2793: Ripple - How AI and ML Powered Liquidity Hub Benefits Enterprises Feb 05, 2024

How does the crypto world adapt and thrive amidst market volatility and technological evolution? In today's episode of Tech Talks Daily, we dive deep into this question with our special guest, Brad Chase. Join us as we explore the intricate dance of liquidity management in the crypto space, the rising influence of AI, and the unique solutions Ripple is bringing to the table.

Brad Chase, a leading figure at Ripple, joins us to shed light on the challenges and opportunities in the cryptocurrency market, especially after recent setbacks like the FTX collapse. How is Ripple crafting a roadmap for liquidity management that the entire industry can follow? Brad will share valuable insights into Ripple's innovative approach, including leveraging AI and machine learning in their Liquidity Hub to benefit Ripple's medium and large enterprises.

We delve into the evolving landscape where blockchain and AI intersect. Is AI set to disrupt the crypto industry, or will these two powerful technologies converge to forge a new path? Brad will share his perspectives on this exciting intersection, drawing from his extensive experience at Ripple.

The conversation will also touch on the anticipated trends for 2024 in the crypto industry. What can we expect regarding advancements, regulatory developments, and market shifts? And importantly, we'll hear about Ripple's ambitious plans for their Liquidity Hub and how they aim to expand and enhance service in Ripple's year.

What does the future hold for cryptocurrency and blockchain technology as we navigate these turbulent but exciting times? Please share your thoughts with us, and let's continue the conversation.

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2792: How Trimble is Reshaping Construction and Agriculture with AI Feb 04, 2024

Are you ready to dive deep into the transformative power of Artificial Intelligence in the most unexpected places? In today's episode, I'm thrilled to welcome Karoliina Torttila, the Director of AI at Trimble, an industrial technology company revolutionizing 'traditional' industries like construction, transportation, geospatial, and agriculture through cutting-edge AI and ML solutions.

Karoliina, with her extensive experience, brings a unique perspective on how AI is not just a buzzword but a practical tool reshaping how we think about these foundational sectors.

Trimble's foray into the AI realm is more than just impressive—it's a blueprint for how traditional industries can harness technology for efficiency, sustainability, and transformation. From creating lifelike 3D models for architects to developing AI-driven workforce management platforms, the applications are as varied as they are groundbreaking. Karoliina will explore how AI facilitates better decision-making, elevates design conceptualization, and pioneers workforce transformation.

The conversation will also touch upon the emerging trends in AI, such as multimodal AI models that can process diverse data types, offering unprecedented flexibility and capabilities. But it's not all about the tech wonders; we'll also tackle the challenges, particularly in implementing AI in fragmented industries. How do you start? Where do you focus? Karolina's insights on starting with specific problems rather than a blanket approach could be the key.

Moreover, we'll discuss the ethical side of AI deployment. How does Trimble ensure transparency and trust, especially when data privacy and bias are hot topics? Finally, Karoliina will share invaluable advice for business leaders adopting AI, emphasizing the importance of hands-on experimentation and community engagement.

So, how is AI shaping the future of industries that have been the backbone of our economy for centuries? And what can we learn from Trimble's journey in integrating AI into the core of their operations? Join us as we uncover these answers and more in a conversation that promises to demystify AI and highlight its real-world impact.

How do you see AI transforming your industry, and what are the challenges and opportunities you anticipate? Share your thoughts and join the conversation.

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2791: From NASA to VC: Sailesh Ramakrishnan's Stellar Journey in Tech Feb 03, 2024

How do visionaries navigate the complex pathways from groundbreaking ideas to revolutionary technologies? Today's episode of the Tech Talks Daily Podcast explores this fascinating journey with Sailesh Ramakrishnan, partner at Rocketship.vc.

Sailesh's story is not just inspiring; it's a masterclass in the art of blending diverse disciplines to fuel innovation. From his early days dreaming of space exploration, leading him to a pivotal role at NASA, Sailesh has been on a relentless pursuit of knowledge and impact. His academic journey is a tapestry of engineering, construction management, and artificial intelligence, culminating in his work on AI for cancer modeling and developing reasoning capabilities for a robotic assistant for the elderly.

But how does one transition from working on Mars Rovers at NASA to diving into the startup world? We delve into Sailesh's decision to leave NASA for the startup scene, his experience co-founding LocBox (later acquired by Square), and his reunion with former colleagues to launch Rocketship.vc. Here, Sailesh uses AI to unearth hidden gems in the global startup ecosystem, moving beyond traditional venture capital models.

In our conversation, we uncover the essential elements that Sailesh believes are crucial for startup success: a strong, cohesive team and an unwavering focus. We'll also get his insights on the role of AI in empowering solo founders and the waves of innovation being spurred by the urgent need to address climate change.

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2790: How UKG is Redefining Workplaces with AI Feb 02, 2024

Are we genuinely leveraging the full potential of AI in our workplaces? In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I dive into an enlightening discussion with Hugo Sarrazin, Chief Product and Technology Officer at UKG, exploring how AI is transforming the landscape of work and employee engagement.

UKG, a trailblazer in workforce management, is not only innovating in the realm of AI but also rigorously upskilling its workforce to harness these advancements. Hugo highlights how UKG's impressive team of over 50 AI scientists is one of its fastest-growing groups. He delves into the intriguing process of training over 1,000 people within their engineering organization, empowering them to leverage AI tools in their roles effectively.

The role of hackathons in fostering a culture of innovation and creativity at UKG is another captivating aspect that Hugo discusses, detailing how these events drive product and service innovations. But how do employees and leaders perceive AI? Hugo provides insights from recent data revealing a dichotomy: while most employees are open to embracing AI, transparency from their organizations is crucial.

Interestingly, there is a disconnect between the perceptions of C-suite leaders and employees regarding AI usage in their daily work. Hugo addresses these challenges and the ethical considerations companies face as they race to adopt AI technologies.

Moreover, Hugo talks about UKG's overarching strategy to maximize the impact of generative AI, creating better workplaces not just for office workers but crucially for the often-overlooked frontline employees. With 65% of today's workforce on the frontlines, UKG is pioneering the use of AI to enhance their experience, aiming to break the cycle of high turnover and burnout by catering to their needs for autonomy, mastery, and purpose.

In addition to exploring these themes, we discuss Hugo's journey, from playing varsity water polo to leading product and technology at UKG. We also ponder the pressure of continuous learning in our fast-paced world and where one might turn to self-educate effectively.

How is your workplace adapting to the AI revolution? Are the tools and technologies in place aligning with the needs and aspirations of the workforce? Join the conversation and share your thoughts on how we can collectively harness the power of AI to create more human-centric, efficient, and fulfilling workplaces.

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2789: Navigating the Cloud Revolution with Accenture Feb 01, 2024

I explore the intricacies of modern network technologies and their transformative impact on businesses with Accenture's Cloud First Lead, Andy Tay. Our discussion revolves around Accenture's insightful Modern Networks Report and its implications for the tech landscape in 2024.

Andy Tay brings a wealth of expertise and a forward-thinking perspective to our conversation. He's at the forefront of Accenture's cloud initiatives, guiding enterprises through the ever-evolving realm of cloud computing. As we navigate through the intricacies of this topic, Andy shares his insights on how four key imperatives are converging to redefine business reinvention and transformative value in the upcoming year.

We explore the concept of future-proofing your architecture. What does it truly mean for an enterprise to be future-ready in the context of network technology and cloud infrastructure? Andy also breaks down complex tech jargon into understandable language, illuminating how companies can adapt and thrive in this rapidly changing environment. But that's just the start. Andy's viewpoint on the intersection of technology and business strategy promises to offer new perspectives on how enterprises can harness the power of modern networks to drive innovation and growth.

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2788: How Sportradar Are Revolutionizing Sports with AI Jan 31, 2024

Luka Pataky, an expert in sports technology from Sportradar, joins me to discuss the groundbreaking advancements in sports broadcasting. As AI and Computer Vision technologies evolve, they are creating a new paradigm in sports. Luka explains how these technologies not only mimic human vision but go beyond to offer real-time, detailed insights that enhance fan engagement, player performance and even sports betting.

In this episode, we explore the role of AI in providing contextual overlays and dynamic advertising, fundamentally altering how we consume sports media. Luka delves into the burgeoning world of micro-betting, explaining how AI-powered real-time data is creating new markets and tapping into a potential $9 billion annual spend in the US alone.

But what are the challenges? Luka discusses the hurdles of data collection, processing power, and the ethical implications of such advanced technology in sports. He highlights Sportradar's commitment to using technology responsibly, ensuring the integrity of sports remains intact while enhancing the experience for fans, broadcasters, and bettors.

As we navigate through the intricate world of sports technology, Luka offers a glimpse into the future – from AI's growing influence in performance analysis and officiating to immersive fan experiences. Join us as we explore how Sportradar's cutting-edge technology is not just keeping up with the changing landscape but actively shaping the future of sports.

The integration of AI and Computer Vision in sports is not just a leap in technology; it's a stride towards an entirely new way of experiencing and understanding the games we love. How do you see these technologies influencing your sports experience? Have you encountered AI-enhanced sports broadcasting or participated in micro-betting? Share your thoughts and experiences with us!

2787: Navigating the Evolving Landscape of Application Security With Checkmarx Jan 30, 2024

In this compelling episode, we delve into the strategic importance of application security as businesses undergo digital transformation. Sandeep Johri, with his rich experience at Checkmarx, sheds light on this domain's multifaceted challenges and opportunities. We discuss how vulnerabilities in applications can erode customer confidence and pose significant regulatory challenges.

Checkmarx stands out in this landscape with its comprehensive application security platform, CX1, which provides holistic coverage of AppSec. This sets them apart from competitors who may only focus on one or two areas. But what truly enhances Checkmarx's capabilities is the integration of Artificial Intelligence. AI not only accelerates the ability of developers to fix vulnerabilities but also enables Checkmarx to proactively detect emerging threats, particularly those arising from AI systems themselves.

A key theme of our discussion is the communication of AppSec value to corporate boards. Johri emphasizes the importance of maturity assessment models and risk quantification in presenting a clear picture of AppSec status and priorities. This strategic approach offers a roadmap for improvement and a tangible understanding of ROI in application security. However, technology is just one piece of the puzzle. We delve into the human aspect – training developers in AppSec. Here, Checkmarx's integrated "Codebashing" modules come into play, offering quick, context-relevant tutorials for developers to address vulnerabilities efficiently.

Illustrating the impact of these strategies, Johri shares success stories from Checkmarx's engagements, notably with large banking institutions, where they've assisted in swiftly prioritizing and eliminating vulnerabilities. Many of these clients began with relatively immature AppSec processes, underscoring the transformative potential of Checkmarx's approach.

2786: Home Sweet Tech Home: Revolutionizing Homeownership Jan 29, 2024

Join me as I explore the story behind Keepingly - a platform that's much more than just a digital tool. Daniel and Jillian, driven by their own experiences as homeowners, have dedicated themselves to advocating for better housing policies and equitable solutions. They discuss how Keepingly is empowering homeowners to view their homes as assets, centralizing all aspects of homeownership, from maintenance checklists to document storage.

Daniel, with a keen focus on housing policies, particularly in appraisals, and Jillian, with her expertise in home and lifestyle, bring a unique synergy to Keepingly. They share their commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, emphasizing how promoting Black homeownership is crucial in achieving equitable housing and generational wealth.

We delve into the technological heart of Keepingly, understanding how it aims to standardize home details and documentation, facilitating home sales and enhancing transparency. The platform's roadmap includes addressing appraisal bias and promoting sustainability, reflecting a holistic approach to homeownership.

The episode also offers valuable insights for PropTech founders. Daniel and Jillian advise building with policy in mind and solving real market needs, emphasizing the importance of an egoless approach and the readiness to adapt.

2785: Navigating the Crossroads of Autonomous Vehicles and Progressive Policy Jan 28, 2024

In this insightful episode, we explore the transformative potential of Autonomous Vehicles and their societal implications. Chris MacKenzie, representing the Chamber of Progress, a center-left tech industry policy coalition, shares expert insights into how technology, particularly AVs, can align with progressive values while ensuring responsible operation and societal benefit.

We delve into the challenges and opportunities AVs present. While they promise to reduce traffic accidents and fatalities drastically, concerns about job displacement in the transportation sector loom large. Chris emphasizes the need for effective education and retraining programs to facilitate workforce transitions in this rapidly evolving landscape.

A significant part of our discussion revolves around building public trust in AVs. Despite safety data showing their superiority over human drivers, skepticism remains a barrier. We discuss the necessity of real-world deployment to showcase the benefits of AVs and how alliances with advocacy groups, such as Moms Against Drunk Driving, LGBTQ+ groups, and disability advocates, are crucial in this journey.

The conversation also touches on the ethical dimensions of deploying emerging technologies. Chris argues for a balanced approach, advocating for the responsible use of technology like AVs and AI, which can save lives, while acknowledging and addressing the short-term tradeoffs, such as job displacement.

2784: Navigating the Next Wave of Mobile Technology Jan 27, 2024

In the latest episode of Tech Talks Daily, we venture into the evolving landscape of mobile technology with Tristram Bates, the Head of Mobile at NewDay and an influential figure in the UK's largest iOS meetup group. Our discussion turns from the usual AI focus, delving into the future of mobile apps and the imminent challenges posed by technologies like Apple's rumored Vision Pro headset.

The conversation with Tristram is a journey through the potential and challenges of the ever-advancing mobile technology world. One of the intriguing aspects we examine is the rumored launch of Apple's Vision Pro headset. As the mobile tech community buzzes with anticipation, Tristram provides a nuanced perspective on this groundbreaking device. We ponder its price point, the market it's aimed at, and the broader implications for consumers and tech enthusiasts alike.

As someone who has witnessed the evolution of mobile technology from its infancy, Tristram's insights into the development of apps for varying platforms and form factors are particularly enlightening. The challenge of adapting user interfaces for devices like the Vision headset is not just a technical hurdle but also a creative endeavor. It's a task that requires developers to reimagine how users interact with technology in a world where augmented reality (AR) could soon be as commonplace as smartphones.

Our discussion also touches on the implications of alternative app stores, which have gained significant attention with the European Union's recent regulations. Tristram's perspective on this shift offers a glimpse into a future where the app ecosystem might mirror the more open model on Android platforms. This change could mark a pivotal moment in how apps are distributed and accessed, potentially reshaping the mobile app industry.

At the heart of our conversation lies the role of artificial intelligence and machine learning in shaping the future of mobile apps. Tristram envisions a future where apps are not just tools but intelligent companions, intuitively providing information and services without needing explicit instructions from users. This evolution could mirror the transformation of search engines over the years – from requiring specific queries to intuitively organizing information based on a user's context and needs.

As we wrap up our conversation, Tristram shares a thought-provoking viewpoint on the cyclical nature of technology. The choice of the song "History Repeating" is symbolic, highlighting how understanding the past can give us invaluable insights into the future of technology. This perspective is especially relevant in an era where the lines between different tech domains are increasingly blurred and where understanding historical patterns can help us navigate the future more effectively.

2783: Unveiling the Cloud's Hidden Challenges Jan 26, 2024

Is your business navigating through the murky waters of cloud costs and customer-centric design effectively? In today's Tech Talks Daily Podcast, I'm excited to welcome Claire Milligan, the CEO of Aimably, to unravel these intricate topics. Cloud computing revolutionized the tech landscape, offering unparalleled efficiency and scalability. But beneath this silver lining, hidden costs and complexities lurk. How can businesses identify and tackle these expenses without compromising on the services they need?

Claire brings her wealth of experience to the table, discussing the often-overlooked pitfalls of cloud services. While companies like AWS have simplified operations, many businesses are entangled in a web of unnecessary costs. Claire will delve into how companies can discern if they're being overcharged and the steps to take if they are. The conversation will also cover the importance of having a design mindset when understanding and solving customer pain points. With her design background, Claire offers a unique perspective on discovering and addressing these issues, boosting product integration and profitability.

Moreover, we'll explore the dangers of overprovisioning in the cloud. Overpaying for unused features can be a silent drain on resources. Claire will share her insights on how businesses can avoid this trap by effectively managing their cloud services.

Throughout our discussion, we aim to provide valuable takeaways for optimizing cloud costs, understanding the delicate balance between necessity and excess in cloud services, and developing products that truly resonate with customers' needs. We'll also touch on the broader impact of cloud computing on software companies, including the shift from CAPEX to OPEX and its implications.

So, are you ready to uncover the hidden costs of the cloud and learn how to align your products with customer needs better? Join us in this enlightening conversation with Claire Milligan.

2782: Demystifying Cloud Innovation: A Journey from GoDaddy to the Future of Cloud Computing Jan 25, 2024

Have you ever wondered about the masterminds shaping the cloud computing landscape? In today's episode of Tech Talks Daily Podcast, we dive into the world of cloud innovation with a special guest, Darren Shepherd, the Chief Architect and co-founder of Acorn Labs.

Darren's journey in the cloud space has been nothing short of remarkable. From his early days at GoDaddy to creating CloudStack, the most comprehensive IaaS platform, and his influential projects like Rancher and k3s, he has continuously pushed the boundaries of cloud technology. His latest venture, Acorn Labs, marks a significant step in making cloud computing more accessible and user-friendly with its innovative platform, Acorn.

In this episode, we explore how Acorn is changing the game by allowing users to run software in their own cloud sandbox and share their creations effortlessly. We delve into the challenges and triumphs Darren has faced in his over-a-decade-long journey in cloud development. With over 22,000 followers on Twitter, Darren is not just a developer but a voice for the community, constantly influencing and inspiring many in the field.

As we navigate this conversation, we'll uncover the opportunities and hurdles in today's cloud computing landscape. What does the future hold for cloud technology, and how can platforms like Acorn simplify the complex world of cloud computing for everyday users and businesses? How does Darren's experience at GoDaddy and his work on CloudStack inform his vision at Acorn Labs?

Join us in this enlightening discussion as we seek to understand the nuances of cloud technology from one of its leading innovators. And as always, we're eager to hear your thoughts. What are your views on the evolution of cloud computing, and how do you think platforms like Acorn can shape its future?

2781: Exploring AI's Impact on Multiple Industries with Paula Phelan Jan 24, 2024

In this episode, I sit down with Paula Phelan, a technology trailblazer whose journey spans from being a software engineer in the 1970s to her recent foray into AI startups. Paula shares extensive insights into what it takes to start and sustain a successful business and the motivations behind her decision to gift her thriving business to her employees.

We explore the transformative power of AI across various industries, with a particular focus on public relations. Paula provides real-world examples of how AI reduces costs, expands global reach, and revolutionizes traditional PR practices. She also sheds light on AI startups' challenges, such as potential access inequalities and biases stemming from flawed training data.

This episode is not just about technological transformation; it's a deep dive into the ethical considerations and the potential societal impacts of AI. We discuss how AI might shape future job landscapes and the importance of ensuring AI is accessible and unbiased. Paula offers practical advice for businesses and entrepreneurs considering integrating AI into their models, emphasizing the significance of solving real problems rather than adopting AI for its own sake.

As we delve into how AI is redefining IT and technology, Paula's networking background offers a unique perspective on the intersection of traditional IT and AI-driven solutions.

Dr. Paula Phelan is a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, developer, and investor with expertise in emerging and disruptive technologies in the fields of cybersecurity, 5G, quantum computing, and artificial intelligence. Dr. Phelan has assisted over 150 companies in reaching successful exits. Her entrepreneurial spirit and decades of experience in technology, funding, and strategic planning make her a sought-after speaker and advisor in the industry. Currently, she is working with several AI companies, including one of her own.

2780: ServiceNow: How Technology is Democratizing App Development Jan 23, 2024

In today's fast-paced world, where the boundaries of technology are constantly being pushed, how do we bridge the gap between the increasing demand for tech solutions and the scarcity of traditional developer talent? This intriguing question sets the stage for our latest episode of the Tech Talks Daily podcast, where we explore the fascinating intersection of technology, AI, and app development.

Joining us is Jithin Bhasker, General Manager and Vice President for the App Engine business at ServiceNow. Under Jithin's visionary leadership, ServiceNow is revolutionizing the way we think about app development. They're pioneering methods that enable code generation from a variety of prompts, blending the worlds of low-code platforms and generative AI. This approach is not just about streamlining the development process; it's about empowering a wider range of individuals to contribute meaningfully to this realm, thereby democratizing app development.

We delve into the global tech talent shortage, a pressing issue that's only exacerbated by the rising demand for skilled engineers and developers. Despite significant tech layoffs, there's still a massive need for these professionals, with a projected shortage of over 500,000 developers in the US alone over the next decade.

Jithin sheds light on how citizen development through low-code/no-code platforms is enabling non-technical people to build apps and automate processes, addressing this talent crunch. We'll explore how ServiceNow's platform provides the necessary governance for such democratization, ensuring balance and control.

The rise of generative AI, including innovations like text-to-code and text-to-workflow, is making developers more efficient, accelerating app development, and reducing barriers for less technical users. But with this democratization comes the need for continuous learning and adaptation, a challenge for both technical and non-technical roles.

In this episode, we aim to uncover the true potential of combining low-code platforms with AI, how it's still in an experimental phase for many CIOs, and the importance of maintaining proper governance, such as access controls, in this new era of app development.

2749: Intuit Mailchimp: The Tech Empowering SMBs and Driving Growth Jan 22, 2024

In this enlightening episode of the Tech Talks Daily Podcast, we sit down with Jim Rudall, the dynamic General Manager for EMEA at Intuit Mailchimp, to delve into a plethora of topics shaping the future of small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and digital marketing. Jim, who once aspired to be a musician before pivoting to a successful career in technology and sales, brings a unique perspective to the table. We explore what drew him to his role at Mailchimp and his journey through various leadership roles, including a foundational stint at Shopify.

As we navigate through our conversation, Jim sheds light on the evolving landscape of SMBs in the UK. He discusses the significant challenges these businesses currently face and offers predictions on how the SMB market will develop over the next year. With customer expectations continuously shifting, Jim provides invaluable insights into adapting and thriving in this ever-changing environment.

A key focus of our discussion is the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on marketing. Jim talks about how AI is revolutionizing the way businesses approach their marketing strategies, emphasizing the importance of personalization in enhancing customer experience. He draws on insights from Mailchimp's recent Holiday Report and the acclaimed Clustomer campaign to illustrate the critical role of tailored messaging in making customers feel valued and more likely to engage.

We also delve into Jim's key marketing predictions and trends for 2024, offering a glimpse into the future of digital marketing. Jim discusses how privacy legislation and the responsible use of customer data will become focal points in the coming year, highlighting the need for educating customers about these changes.

Join us in this episode as we explore the intersection of technology, marketing, and SMB growth with one of the industry's thought leaders. How is your business adapting to these trends, and what strategies are you implementing to stay ahead in the digital marketing game? Share your thoughts with us after the episode!

2748: Navigating the Future of AI and Network Security Jan 21, 2024

How do businesses today navigate the complex world of IT and managed network solutions while keeping pace with technological advancements and security challenges? I sit down with Alan Stephenson-Brown, CEO of Evolve Business Group, to explore this intricate landscape.

Evolve, an independently owned company specializing in end-to-end IT and managed network solutions has been a trailblazer since 2005. It provides services that help businesses reduce costs, simplify service management, and allow teams to focus on their core competencies. With its umbrella of brands – Evolve, 4G Voice & Data, and GB3 – the company has become a key player in keeping networks of various industries compliant, protected, and connected.

Alan Stephenson-Brown, leading Evolve since 2012, has been instrumental in the company's transformation from a Guest WiFi and connectivity provider to a powerhouse in fully managed network solutions, including best-in-class SD-WAN. Under his leadership, Evolve has expanded its reach to 11 countries, working with prominent clients like KFC, Starbucks, and BP.

This episode delves into the multifaceted aspects of managed network solutions and the use of AI. Alan will shed light on how Evolve began as a guest WiFi provider and evolved into offering completely managed network solutions, the importance of AI in analyzing network alerts and data to enhance services and security, and the critical role of segregating networks and ensuring PCI compliance.

Moreover, we'll explore the recent strategic acquisitions by Evolve, including 4G Voice and Data and GB3, which have doubled its headcount and expanded its services into IT, cloud, and cybersecurity.

In a world where the security landscape is constantly changing and the integration of AI and IoT is becoming more prevalent, Alan offers his expert insights on the challenges and opportunities businesses face. Alan provides practical advice and solutions for businesses navigating these complexities, from the dangers lurking in back-office technologies like CCTV and printers to the impending PCI DSS V4 compliance requirements.

2747: Innovating Postgres for the Cloud Era: Neon's Story with Nikita Shamgunov Jan 20, 2024

Have you ever paused to consider the rapidly evolving landscape of database technology, especially in the era of cloud computing and serverless architectures?

Today's Tech Talks Daily Podcast episode welcomes a visionary in this domain, Nikita Shamgunov, the CEO and Founder of Neon. This pioneering startup is not just altering the Postgres database scene; it's revolutionizing it with serverless capabilities, a transformative step that recently attracted a staggering $40M investment, pushing their total funding to an impressive $100M.

Our journey today with Nikita isn't just about numbers and investments. It's a narrative of innovation, determination, and foresight. Before Neon, Nikita laid the foundation of MemSQL (now SingleStore), where he honed his skills as both CTO and CEO. His journey is a remarkable tale, spanning from the learning grounds of a Facebook boot camp to the competitive arena of Silicon Valley, a testament to what vision and perseverance can achieve.

In our conversation, Nikita delves into the essence of Neon's innovative architecture. What sets Neon apart is not just its serverless multi-cloud Postgres databases but its ability to simplify complex database functionalities into a straightforward URL. This simplicity is a beacon of hope in an otherwise complex technological landscape.

Neon's story is compelling, especially considering its inception only in 2021. Yet, it has redefined what a database provider should be in this short span. With automated management of clusters, storage, and compute functions, Neon offers fresh air in database management. Its generous free tier and scale-to-zero pricing are not just attractive features; they represent a commitment to accessibility and efficiency.

The addition of database branching, allowing for instantaneous replication of any database at any point in its lifecycle, positions Neon as a frontrunner for modern development workflows.

As we delve into these topics, we also touch upon the broader implications of Postgres in the era of AI and machine learning and how early-stage companies can harness the power of open-source databases.

So, what does the future hold for Postgres and serverless databases? Join us in this enlightening conversation with Nikita Shamgunov and discover Neon's potential to reshape this landscape. And remember to share your thoughts: How do you see the role of databases evolving in the future of technology and business?

2746: From Poland to the World: The G2A.COM Success Story with Bartosz Skwarczek Jan 19, 2024

In today's episode of Tech Talks Daily, I enjoy a conversation with Bartosz Skwarczek, the entrepreneurial mastermind behind G2A.COM, a behemoth in the world of digital marketplaces. With a customer base spanning over 25 million users across 180 countries, G2A.COM stands as a testament to Bartosz's vision and relentless pursuit of innovation.

Have you ever wondered what it takes to build a global digital empire from the ground up? Bartosz, a renowned entrepreneur and public speaker, offers a glimpse into his journey of transforming a modest online store in Poland into an international powerhouse. His story combines ambition, strategic foresight, and an unwavering commitment to excellence.

Cybersecurity, a critical aspect of any digital venture, takes center stage in our discussion. Bartosz delves into the intricacies of protecting a vast digital marketplace in an era where cyber threats are escalating. The conversation is intriguing as we explore how G2A has fortified its platform, achieving a ten times more robust security standard than the industry average.

But what does the future hold for digital marketplaces? Bartosz shares his insights on the transformative impact of emerging technologies like AI, AR, and blockchain. He paints a picture of a future where these technologies are not just buzzwords but integral components reshaping the digital landscape.

Beyond the technological marvels, Bartosz's journey is also a lesson in entrepreneurship. His mantra, "Every day is a school day," reflects a perpetual learning and growth philosophy. For aspiring entrepreneurs, his experiences underscore the importance of resilience, hard work, and maintaining a clear vision amidst the challenges and triumphs of building a business.

Listeners, what are your thoughts on the convergence of technology and entrepreneurship? How do you see digital marketplaces evolving in the face of new technological advancements? Share your views and join the conversation!

2745: Redefining IT Ops with AI: Insights from BigPanda's CEO Jan 18, 2024

In today's episode of Tech Talks Daily, we embark on an enlightening journey with Assaf Resnick, CEO and Founder of BigPanda. We're exploring the question: How is BigPanda redefining IT operations with groundbreaking AI technology?

BigPanda emerges as a beacon of innovation in the technological landscape, harnessing the power of advanced AI and machine learning to revolutionize the management of IT incidents. Picture a scenario where the detection, investigation, and resolution of IT issues are efficient and almost effortless. This vision is what drives BigPanda. With impressive funding of $337M and a client list that includes industry giants, BigPanda's impact is tangible and growing.

The story behind BigPanda is as compelling as its technology. Assaf Resnick's experience at Sequoia Capital exposed him to the intricate challenges IT teams face in rapidly scaling companies. This exposure, combined with his entrepreneurial acumen, led to the inception of BigPanda. However, our conversation with Assaf goes beyond the innovative AI solutions of BigPanda. We delve into the mind of an entrepreneur. We explore the nuances of scaling a tech company, the current challenges faced by early and growth-stage tech companies, and how AI is not just a tool but a catalyst in the rapidly evolving digital landscape.

Our discussion with Assaf unveils several fascinating insights. BigPanda's mission is a testament to the power of AI in empowering IT teams and helping them manage the increasing data and complexity brought about by adopting cloud computing. The integration of GPT-3 into BigPanda's framework marks a significant shift in AI development, moving from a reliance on specialized AI expertise to enabling domain experts to create impactful solutions. This is a game-changer in the field of AI.

Moreover, we discuss the challenges in IT operations, particularly the complexity that has escalated without a corresponding budget increase. BigPanda's platform addresses this imbalance, showcasing how technology can provide practical solutions in a resource-constrained environment. The evolution of AI Ops, especially with the potential of GPT-3 and large language models, hints at an exciting future full of innovation and disruption in IT operations.

Assaf also shares invaluable entrepreneurial advice, emphasizing the importance of focusing on real customer problems and balancing technology and practical solutions. He highlights the role of AI in augmenting human capabilities, a crucial perspective in today's technology-driven world.

For those who want to dive deeper into the world of BigPanda or connect with Assaf and his team, the digital world offers numerous avenues. From BigPanda's website to its active social media channels, the resources are readily available for anyone keen to explore IT operations' future as BigPanda envisioned.

As we wrap up this engaging conversation, one can't help but ponder: In what ways has AI influenced your professional journey? We invite you to share your experiences and join us in this ongoing dialogue about the transformative power of technology in solving real-world problems.

2744: From Barcelona to Beyond: Glovo's Unicorn Journey Jan 17, 2024

In today's episode of Tech Talks Daily, we ask: How does a small Barcelona-based startup transform into Spain's second tech unicorn, expanding across 25 countries and impacting millions of lives? Join us as we explore this intriguing journey with Sacha Michaud, co-founder of Glovo.

Sacha delves into the fascinating story of Glovo, conceptualized with his co-founder Oscar Pierre. From its inception as a simple delivery service, Glovo has evolved into a multi-faceted platform, offering various products beyond restaurant food - including groceries, flowers, electronics, and even fashion. We'll uncover the strategies and innovations that propelled Glovo to its unicorn status and how it's reshaping the delivery industry.

But Glovo's story isn't just about business growth; it's also a tale of social responsibility and positive impact. Sacha shares insights into Glovo's Impact Fund and the groundbreaking Courier's Pledge, initiatives demonstrating a deep commitment to couriers and communities. We'll hear about the significant strides Glovo has made in enhancing the lives of its couriers through social rights, benefits, and learning opportunities.

Sacha also sheds light on the vibrant startup scene outside Silicon Valley, particularly in Europe. He offers valuable advice to both burgeoning and established businesses on fostering growth and navigating the challenges of the tech world.

As we delve into Glovo's journey from a local startup to a global player, we also discuss the company's acquisition by Delivery Hero and its vision for the future, including the burgeoning field of quick commerce.

How does a company like Glovo balance rapid growth with social impact, and what lessons can other businesses learn from their experience? We invite you to join the conversation and share your thoughts on this inspiring story of innovation and responsibility.

2743: Solar Revolution: Technology and Renewable Energy Jan 16, 2024

In today's Tech Talks Daily Podcast episode, we delve into the increasingly relevant and rapidly evolving world of solar energy. With a global shift towards sustainability, solar energy is not just a buzzword but a practical solution for property owners to reduce energy costs. The last decade has seen a remarkable 70% drop in the cost of solar equipment, making it more accessible than ever. Additionally, energy storage, now a part of 40% of residential solar installations, is a game-changer, particularly for businesses looking to eliminate demand charges.

We're joined by James Kennedy from Beach Cities Solar Consulting LLC to navigate these exciting developments. With his deep expertise in solar and renewable energy, entrepreneurship, and personal finance, James shares invaluable insights into the technological advancements in the solar industry and how these can economically benefit both homeowners and businesses.

His journey from finance to founding Beach Cities Solar Consulting is a testament to his commitment to renewable energy and sustainable business practices. James's experience in growing his business remotely, with most projects based in California while he is in Puerto Rico, highlights today's business world's innovative and adaptive nature.

In our conversation, James sheds light on the crucial aspects of solar technology, including the significant reduction in equipment costs and the pivotal role of battery storage technology. He also emphasizes the importance of educating clients about these technologies and their economic benefits.

As we wrap up, we extend a heartfelt thanks to James for enlightening us about the multitude of advantages that renewable energy brings to homeowners and businesses. His journey from working as a financial advisor to running successful companies in the renewable energy sector offers a wealth of knowledge and experience.

2742: Navigating the AI Ethical Maze: Insights from IBM's AI Leader Jan 15, 2024

In today's Tech Talks Daily Podcast episode, we ask: "As we race to embrace the transformative powers of generative AI, are we adequately considering the ethical, societal, and environmental impacts of this technology?" Joining us is a distinguished guest, Francesca Rossi, IBM Fellow, AI Ethics Global Leader, and a Co-Author of ACM's TechBrief on Generative Artificial Intelligence. Francesca brings her extensive expertise to shed light on the pressing issues surrounding the rapid commercialization of generative AI technologies.

Our conversation dives into the profound implications of AI on the workforce, with the startling revelation from ACM's TechBrief that generative AI will significantly impact an estimated 80 percent of U.S. workers. Francesca will discuss the need for comprehensive AI policies incorporating end-to-end governance approaches, addressing risks at every AI development and deployment stage.

We'll explore IBM's pioneering role in developing ethical AI principles. Francesca will share insights into how IBM addresses the challenging issues of biases in AI systems, ensuring fairness and inclusivity and setting industry standards for ethical AI practices. Moreover, she will elaborate on IBM's specific ethical guidelines and how they are integrated into their AI projects.

The conversation will also navigate the broader landscape of generative AI, examining the ethical and societal challenges likely to intensify in the coming years. Francesca will offer her perspective on future challenges, including issues like AI-induced hallucinations, deep fakes, and the importance of accountability in AI.

In light of the rapid changes and concerns surrounding AI, we'll discuss the role of organizations and individuals in staying informed and educated about these ethical implications. Francesca will highlight IBM's role in this educational aspect, paving the way for a responsible advancement of AI technologies.

Finally, amidst the prevalent concerns, we'll seek optimism. What could the future of AI and society look like if we get it right? Francesca's insights aim to offer a more hopeful story about the potential of AI in shaping a better future.

What do you think the future holds for the ethical development of AI technologies? Are we on the right track, or are there areas where we need to focus more attention? Join the conversation and share your thoughts on this critical issue.

2741: Transforming IT Expenses into Profit Jan 14, 2024

Is it possible for enterprises to transform an often-overlooked IT expense into a robust profit center? In our latest Tech Talks Daily Podcast episode, we delve into this intriguing possibility with Amitabh Sinha, the CEO of Workspot and a seasoned Citrix executive. Amitabh brings his wealth of experience to the table, unraveling the complexities and potential of end-user computing in today's multi-cloud environment.

In an era where terms like "next-gen" and "revolutionary" are thrown around liberally, Amitabh helps us cut through the noise. He sheds light on the concrete meaning of these terms within the realm of end-user computing, emphasizing the integration of diverse environments – from on-premises to hybrid and cloud solutions, encompassing giants like Azure, Google, and AWS.

However, the journey is not without its challenges. Amitabh discusses the intricate hurdles that IT leaders face in managing and harmonizing different private and public cloud systems. The critical question he addresses: How can businesses navigate these complexities to mitigate pain points and derive profit from them?

Amitabh's insights are not just theoretical; they are grounded in the practical realities and strategic moves of CIOs and IT leaders increasingly turning to multi-cloud end-user analytics and observability. These tools are not just about oversight; they offer a window into valuable insights across the enterprise, transforming how we understand and leverage technology.

Join us as Amitabh Sinha takes us on a journey through the evolving end-user computing landscape. His perspectives promise to reshape our understanding of IT from a mere operational necessity to a pivotal profit-generating aspect of the business.

What are your thoughts on the potential of transforming IT expenses into profit centers? Do you see this as a feasible strategy for most businesses, or does it require a certain level of scale and technological maturity? Please share your thoughts and experiences with us, and let's continue the conversation.

2740: Meet the Security Mentalist Helping Organizations Educate Staff About Cybersecurity Jan 13, 2024

Have you ever considered how your workplace educates its staff about cybersecurity? Do they use engaging, even humorous, methods to make the information stick? In a world where compliance training often becomes a forgettable ritual, finding innovative ways to raise awareness about cybersecurity is crucial.

Gary Chan is a pioneer in blending cybersecurity education with entertainment. Three years ago, Gary shared his insights on Free Security Awareness Training. Now, he's back to discuss his unique approach to driving security initiatives through entertainment.

Gary has spent a year creating a cybersecurity + mentalism educational entertainment show that's been a hit in cities like Chicago, Milwaukee, Phoenix, St. Louis, and even Warsaw, Poland. His approach isn't just about educating; it's about engaging and making an impression. From putting security messages in fortune cookies to designing custom mugs for password policy changes, Gary turns potential objections into opportunities for storytelling and awareness.

His efforts have resonated not just with IT professionals but also with their families, leading to a demand for cybersecurity educational materials for kids. Gary's keynote speeches, blending mentalism and security awareness, have become a popular fixture at conferences and corporate events.

In this episode, we'll delve into Gary's journey of becoming a 'security mentalist,' his methods of making security fun and engaging, and how he's helping companies transform their approach to cybersecurity awareness.

We'll explore:

How Gary's show has changed the conversation about security.
The balance between entertainment and education in his work.
His vision for the future of cybersecurity awareness.

Join us as we uncover the creative ways Gary Chan is making cybersecurity awareness more effective and memorable.

2739: A Dive into NEC's Digital Identity Solutions with Jason Van Sice Jan 12, 2024

How often have we longed for a smoother, more efficient travel experience? In this Tech Talks Daily Podcast episode, we delve into the innovative world of airport biometrics and digital identity solutions with Jason Van Sice, the Vice President of Advanced Recognition Systems at NEC Corporation of America.

Jason is at the forefront of revolutionizing air travel by integrating biometric tools such as facial recognition systems and fingerprint scans. These technologies are not just about enhancing security; they transform the traveler experience. From reducing check-in times to making boarding seamless, NEC's approach to digitizing travel is paving the way for a future where your face is your passport.

We explore the recent implementation of new biometric tools at Frankfurt Airport and the overall digital transformation of travel. Jason shares insights on how these technologies reduce operational struggles for airlines and airports, leading to fewer delays and misplaced baggage. But it's not just about convenience; there's a significant emphasis on privacy and security. NEC adheres to privacy-by-design principles, ensuring that traveler data is handled carefully.

As government agencies like Customs and Border Patrol and the Transportation Security Administration adopt these digital IDs, we'll discuss the importance of federal frameworks to regulate these technologies. With NEC's Traveler Verification Service (TVS) and other innovations, the conversation will also touch on how such technology can streamline international and domestic travel.

2738: Embracing Intuition and Technology - Say Yes to Your Yes! Jan 11, 2024

In this inspiring episode of Tech Talks Daily, Neil Hughes invites Jennifer Jane Young, author of "Say Yes to Your YES: How to Trust Your Gut and Take the Leap," to explore the intersection of intuition, technology, and personal growth. Jennifer, an entrepreneur who transcended anxiety and the confines of traditional education, shares her compelling journey. She delves into how embracing technology was pivotal in transforming her life and business, helping her harness her intuition and creativity.

We dive deep into Jennifer's background, understanding how her struggles shaped her path to entrepreneurship and her unique approach to technology. Her story is a testament to the power of self-belief and taking risks.

Jennifer also talks about her book, "Say Yes to Your YES: How to Trust Your Gut and Take the Leap." The episode also sheds light on the evolving role of technology in our lives. Jennifer views technology as a powerful enabler, amplifying human capabilities and fostering connections. Her excitement about emerging tech trends, especially in virtual spaces and AI, reflects a hopeful vision of the future where technology complements rather than replaces human intuition.

Join us in this enlightening conversation with Jennifer Jane Young, as she unveils the secrets to saying 'Yes' to your intuition, embracing imperfect action, and leveraging technology to craft a more fulfilling and aligned life. This episode is not just an interview; it's a journey towards understanding how to balance the logical and the intuitive, the technological and the human, in the pursuit of personal and professional growth.

2737: AI, Automation, and Growth Strategies in Small Businesses Jan 10, 2024

Shawn Herring, the Chief Marketing Officer at airSlate, joins me in an insightful conversation exploring the nuances of AI and automation in small businesses. With his extensive experience in scaling marketing teams from startups to major enterprises, Shawn brings a unique perspective on how these technologies are not just tools for the future but actively shaping the present landscape of business operations.

Our discussion starts by looking at airSlate's recent report, which provides a startling insight: an overwhelming 94% of small businesses feel confident about embracing AI and automation. This statistic opens the door to a broader conversation about why small businesses, often perceived as cautious or conservative in their approach to new technologies, are leading the charge in this arena.

Shawn shares his thoughts on how AI and automation can be seen from two angles – as friends or foes. For many small businesses, these technologies have emerged as allies in their journey toward growth and efficiency. The conversation then shifts to understanding why small businesses are uniquely positioned to leverage these technologies. According to Shawn, their direct engagement with pain points and challenges makes small businesses more agile and open to transformative solutions.

Our talk further delves into practical strategies for adopting AI and automation. Shawn emphasizes starting with small, manageable steps, focusing on specific processes that hinder revenue generation, particularly in the back office. This approach is not about overhauling systems overnight but identifying areas where automation can immediately impact and scaling up from there.

Looking ahead, Shawn discusses the evolving landscape of AI and automation. He views these technologies as moving from being novel concepts to essential business tools. He shares his predictions on how implementing these technologies will redefine work and set leaders apart in the small business sector.

2736: Programmable NFTs Built on the Immutable Miniverse Format (IMF) Jan 09, 2024

In this episode of the Tech Talks Daily Podcast, I welcome Dr. Allen Yang, the Co-Founder of Hitch Interactive on the show, to discuss the innovative intersection of AI, blockchain, and culinary arts through the lens of the new NFT project, Yami Hamo. Hitch Interactive, known for combining advanced technology with education, has ventured into uncharted territory with Yami Hamo, representing a unique fusion of gourmet dishes and NFT technology.

Dr. Yang, with his extensive background as a serial entrepreneur and an 18-year tenure as a UC Berkeley faculty member, delves into the creation of Hitch Interactive in 2019. His journey in AR and VR technologies since 2015 has culminated in this groundbreaking project. Yami Hamo, Hitch Interactive’s first NFT collection, showcases 1000 gourmet dishes, each depicted in an NFT with intricate artwork and embedded data designed to educate about culinary culture. This NFT collection is not just a visual feast but also serves as a tool to train a private AI assistant in the nuances of global cuisines.

The discussion explores the broader implications of the Yami Hamo project for the future of NFTs and Web3. Dr. Yang highlights the need for NFTs to have more tangible, real-world utility and describes how Hitch Mint, their new platform, will empower creators to craft their own decentralized miniverses powered by AI. These miniverses, self-contained within each NFT, represent a significant leap in how NFTs can be utilized beyond just digital art, extending into education and interactive experiences.

Dr. Yang discusses how the Yami Hamo project challenges the conventional perceptions of NFTs, integrating them into everyday life in meaningful and educational ways. This episode is a must-listen for those intrigued by the evolving world of NFTs, AI, blockchain, and their application in unconventional domains like the culinary arts.

2735: Decoding the 5G Iceberg With Gil Rosen from Amdocs Jan 08, 2024

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, we are delighted to welcome Gil Rosen, the CMO of Amdocs, who brings a unique blend of expertise as a futurist, innovator, and sociologist. Gil's multifaceted role at Amdocs extends beyond the conventional boundaries of marketing, driving him to influence technology developments and the overarching direction of the company through cross-departmental collaboration.

Today's conversation centers around a crucial technological advancement shaping our world: 5G. Amidst growing discussions and sometimes skepticism around 5G, Gil offers a refreshing perspective on why this technology is not just a fleeting trend but a transformative force in the telecom industry. He delves into the "the 5G iceberg" concept, dissecting how 5G continues to empower networks to innovate and unlock new services.

Gil also addresses the common misconception about the early transition to 6G. He believes that to harness the power of 5G truly, there needs to be a comprehensive shift of core ecosystems to this technology. He emphasizes that 5G is still in its early stages, with only a fraction of telecom operators having fully deployed it, and its full capabilities are yet to be realized.

Throughout our discussion, Gil touches on the multiple dimensions 5G brings to the table, extending beyond mere speed enhancements. He talks about its role in guaranteeing bandwidth, enhancing network programmability, and ensuring quality of service. These capabilities enable groundbreaking use cases across various industries, from precision agriculture with drones to autonomous vehicles and smart factories.

Gil further explores the impact of 5G on different sectors, including retail, entertainment, and automotive. He stresses the need for these industries to understand and leverage 5 G's transformative potential for their business processes, citing the need for 5G literacy among many business leaders as a significant barrier.

In a world where connectivity is increasingly becoming the "oxygen" of our digital lives, Gil underscores the critical role of 5G in powering modern society. From streaming and cloud gaming to enterprise systems, the quality of networks is central to our digital experiences.

As we look to the future, Gil advises businesses to educate themselves on the capabilities of 5G and fully leverage its potential before prematurely jumping to the next big thing in telecom. He suggests engaging with industry publications and conferences to stay informed and prepared for the evolving connectivity landscape.

Join us in this enlightening episode as Gil Rosen from Amdocs shares his expert insights on the 5G iceberg, its impact on various industries, and the future of digital connectivity.

2374: Navigating the SaaS Data Protection Maze Jan 07, 2024

I sat down with Simon Taylor, founder and CEO of HYCU Inc., to discuss the rapidly escalating challenge of SaaS data protection. As SaaS applications become increasingly integral to IT infrastructure, their vulnerabilities are more exposed than ever. Simon Taylor, with his book "Averting the SaaS Data Apocalypse," offers a timely and critical insight into this growing issue.

The episode begins with Simon Taylor introducing HYCU, the world's fastest-growing SaaS data backup and security business. He lays the groundwork by highlighting the vulnerability of SaaS data, noting that 52% of ransomware attacks occur through these applications. Despite the widespread use of SaaS apps across departments like finance, marketing, and HR, a staggering majority lack enterprise-grade data protection.

We explore the myths and misconceptions surrounding SaaS data protection. They discuss the prevalent belief that SaaS data is automatically protected, a dangerous assumption given that most vendors only protect infrastructure, not customer data. This leads to a vast gap in security, with less than 10 major SaaS apps protected by legacy vendors.

The conversation shifts to HYCU's innovative approach to this challenge. Their platform allows for quick integration building to protect a wide array of SaaS apps, a significant advancement compared to the limited options available from other vendors. Simon shares insights from his book, including in-depth HYCU customer case studies from organizations like Bain Capital and the Boston Red Sox. These examples shed light on how companies navigate the complexities of multi-cloud experiences and cybersecurity challenges.

We also explore the legal and compliance aspects of SaaS data protection, anticipating that it will soon become a significant legal issue. They discuss the potential for CEOs to be held liable for unprotected SaaS data and the necessity for organizations to audit their SaaS apps and develop robust recovery plans.

Listeners will leave this episode with a deeper understanding of the challenges and solutions in SaaS data protection, equipped with the knowledge to navigate the evolving landscape of SaaS security effectively.

2733: Securing the Open Source World Jan 06, 2024

I sat down with Gal Elbaz, the co-founder and CTO of Oligo Security, to discuss the vulnerabilities and challenges within open-source software.

Gal Elbaz, renowned for his pivotal discovery of a critical vulnerability in an open source library used by Instagram, brings his extensive experience and knowledge to the forefront. He will discuss his journey from being a security researcher at Check Point to founding Oligo Security. This transition marks a significant shift from identifying vulnerabilities to developing robust solutions for open source security.

The episode also highlights Oligo Security's innovative approach to tackling the vulnerabilities in open source software. Special attention is given to their recent discovery, 'ShellTorch', a critical vulnerability within TorchServe, a component of the PyTorch ecosystem. This discovery is particularly noteworthy considering TorchServe's widespread use across major global corporations.

I learn how Oligo Security leverages eBPF-powered platforms to enable security teams to efficiently identify, prioritize, and respond to real and relevant threats in pre-deployment and post-deployment environments. This approach marks a significant departure from traditional methods that often overwhelm security teams with theoretical threats.

2732: Decrypting the Crypto Universe with Cryptonauts Jan 05, 2024

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I welcome Nathan Leung, co-founder and host of Cryptonauts, a platform renowned for its insightful crypto and blockchain content. Nathan joins us to explore the vital role of education in cryptocurrency and blockchain technology.

Nathan's journey into the crypto world is as fascinating as inspiring. Having transitioned from a career in Hollywood production, where he worked on commercials for renowned brands, to cryptocurrency, Nathan brings a unique perspective. His foray into crypto began in 2016, sparked by a neighbor's belief in Ethereum's potential. This encounter led to Cryptonauts, a YouTube channel dedicated to demystifying the complexities of the crypto world for a global audience.

With over 3 million channel views and nearly 100k subscribers, Cryptonauts is a testament to Nathan's commitment to making crypto education accessible and engaging. The channel is known for its high-quality explainer videos, humanizing documentaries, and comprehensive conference coverage. Nathan and his team strive to educate the world about developments in Bitcoin, Ethereum, DeFi, and everything related to crypto and Web3.

In our conversation, Nathan sheds light on the current state of crypto education, discussing the challenges and opportunities ahead. He delves into the varied attitudes towards crypto in different regions, highlighting how Asia's supportive stance contrasts with the more cautious approach in the US. Nathan also touches upon the biggest barriers for new users in the crypto space, emphasizing the need for usability and practical applications.

We also explore the creative methods Nathan employs to enhance crypto education, such as original soundtracks and community-focused events. He shares insights into Cryptonauts' self-funded business model and its focus on giving back to the community.

Looking ahead, Nathan expresses excitement for 2024, anticipating it to be a pivotal year for crypto adoption, akin to the early days of the internet. He predicts that institutional money and new regulatory frameworks will significantly make crypto more accessible to a broader audience.

Join us in this enlightening episode as Nathan Leung from Cryptonauts shares his invaluable insights on crypto education, digital currencies' evolving landscape, and blockchain technology's future. This is an episode you want to experience if you're curious about the world of crypto or looking to deepen your understanding of this rapidly evolving space.

2731: The Evolving Role of AI in Business: Perspectives from Pendo's Leader Jan 04, 2024

In today's episode of Tech Talks Daily, I had the privilege of hosting Todd Olson, CEO of Pendo, for a fascinating discussion that traverses the realms of product analytics, AI adoption, and digital customer experiences. Todd's insights offer a deep dive into the evolving landscape where traditional companies increasingly identify as tech entities, requiring significant shifts in mindset and strategy.

Todd elaborates on how enterprises are undergoing a paradigm shift, moving from project-based work to embracing the agility and continuous iteration technology enables. This transition necessitates shorter cycle times in software development, allowing rapid user feedback and influencing subsequent releases. Todd underscores the importance of transitioning from a 'project' to a 'product' mentality, highlighting that software demands ongoing care and nurturing.

A critical aspect of our conversation revolves around the differing attitudes towards AI adoption in Europe and the United States. Todd points out that Europe tends to be more regulatory and cautious, particularly concerning privacy issues and AI accuracy, while the US often prioritizes innovation. He advises a measured approach to AI implementation, advocating for thorough testing and a gradual build-up of comfort based on proven results.

Integrating new technological roles into existing structures is another challenge that Todd addresses. He emphasizes the importance of blending internal and external hires for effective knowledge transfer, highlighting that internal employees understand the company and product while external hires bring specialized role knowledge.

Leadership communication around AI also emerges as a critical theme. Todd speaks to leaders' need to clearly articulate the 'why' behind AI to ensure middle management buy-in, a group often focused on executing current plans.

Todd also touches on the crucial aspect of upskilling existing teams. He discusses the need to assess teams' willingness to embrace failure and change, acknowledging that some level of attrition can be healthy for company transformation.

Lastly, we delve into the realm of digital customer experiences. Todd shares his belief in the power of empathy, achieved through self-use and observation, to ensure exceptional digital interactions. He provides insights into how observing user sessions can reveal critical pain points and drop-offs, ultimately enhancing the customer experience.

2730: Unveiling the Green Data Blind Spot With NetApp Jan 03, 2024

Today, we're delving into a topic quietly shaping the environmental discourse in the tech world – the ecological impact of data storage. Matt Watts, the Chief Technology Evangelist at NetApp, joins me and brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to this vital discussion.

As businesses continue to expand their digital footprints, the need for sustainable data storage practices has become increasingly critical. With his decade-long tenure at NetApp, Matt has closely observed and participated in technological shifts and strategic evolutions within the industry. He brings to the table his experience and insights into the recent push towards sustainability in data management.

In our conversation, Matt delves into how organizations can navigate the green data blind spot. He highlights the importance of understanding the environmental footprint of data storage and how businesses can leverage this knowledge to drive sustainable practices. Matt's perspective is not just about reducing carbon footprints; it's about unlocking the full potential of green data storage.

We also discuss new research conducted by NTT Data and NetApp. This research sheds light on various aspects of green data storage, including measurement and reporting mechanisms that reveal the environmental implications of data storage and expansion. Matt emphasizes the importance of fostering a culture of responsible data usage and proactive data estate management actions that can eradicate waste and improve sustainability.

A particularly compelling part of our discussion focuses on the reality that most data created by companies is never used again but continues to consume electricity and add to the carbon footprint in data centers. Matt points out that while there has been a focus on hardware efficiency, the real opportunity lies in using data analytics to understand and manage data more effectively.

As we explore these topics, Matt also touches upon the challenges in the current landscape, such as the lack of data ownership and the need for sustainability metrics to be translated into efficiency metrics that IT professionals can understand and act upon. He also brings to light how AI and large language models are poised to create massive amounts of new data, thereby intensifying the sustainability issues in data management.

This episode is an eye-opener for anyone interested in understanding the often-overlooked environmental aspects of data storage and management. Matt Watts' insights provide a roadmap for organizations looking to make significant strides toward sustainable data practices.

2729: How Figma is Revolutionizing Design Collaboration. Jan 02, 2024

In today's episode of Tech Talks Daily, we embark on an enlightening journey into the complex yet crucial world of designer-developer relationships. Our special guests, Lauren Andres, a Designer Advocate, and Jenny Lea, a Software Engineer from Figma, join us to unravel the intricacies of this dynamic through the lens of Figma's groundbreaking innovation, DevMode.

The conversation opens with exploring the traditional challenges that have long defined the designer-developer dynamic. With their rich backgrounds in design and development, Lauren and Jenny shed light on the often fraught nature of this relationship. They emphasize how differing perspectives and languages can lead to misunderstandings and inefficiencies in the collaborative process.

This is where DevMode comes into play. Lauren and Jenny delve into how this new tool from Figma revolutionizes how designers and developers interact and collaborate. DevMode, they explain, is not just a technological solution but a transformative approach to aligning language and objectives. It facilitates a shared understanding and a cohesive workflow, enabling designers and developers to work harmoniously while keeping their audience's needs at the forefront.

The conversation takes a deeper dive into our guests' personal experiences and learning journeys. Jenny shares her insights on the importance of continuous learning and adaptability in the fast-paced tech industry. She talks about her journey of self-education and growth, providing valuable takeaways for our listeners navigating similar paths.

We also touch upon the practical implications of using DevMode in the real world. Lauren and Jenny provide examples from companies like Decathlon and Linear, showing how DevMode has positively impacted their design and development processes. These stories highlight the tangible benefits of improved collaboration, efficiency, and productivity that DevMode brings to teams.

As we explore the human aspect of technology, our guests remind us of the importance of not just relying on tools but also fostering genuine conversations and understanding from the user's perspective. This approach, they argue, is crucial in creating impactful and accessible designs that resonate with users.

This episode is not just a discussion about a tool but a deep dive into the evolving design and development landscape. It's a testament to how technology like DevMode can bridge gaps, enhance collaboration, and lead to more user-centric and practical solutions in the tech world.

Please tune in to this insightful episode for a comprehensive understanding of the transformative impact of Figma's DevMode on the designer-developer relationship and discover how it sets a new standard in collaborative technology.

2728: Embracing AI in Creativity Jan 01, 2024

In this episode of the Tech Talks Daily Podcast, I sit down with Roshmond "Sum" Patten, the innovative Creative Director at GLOW, to delve into a topic that is becoming increasingly crucial in the creative industry: the intersection of Artificial Intelligence and creativity. Sum, a specialist in AI with a rich background in music, copywriting, and creative direction, brings a unique perspective to this discussion.

Sum's journey is as diverse as it is impressive. He has worked with tech giants like Microsoft, Fox, and Disney in research and community management, and his expertise extends to music streaming, where he trained music discovery algorithms for some of today's biggest platforms. His creative flair is not just confined to technology; he's also a celebrated musician and a two-time Independent Music Award nominee, featuring his work in major TV shows and video games.

Sum emphasized the critical need for creatives to discuss AI in our conversation. AI continues to play a pivotal role in our industry, and there's a growing concern among creatives about embracing this technology. Many fear it might render their roles obsolete or drastically alter their work. Sum addresses these concerns, advocating for a safe space where creatives can openly discuss the challenges and opportunities AI presents.

Sum's passion for this subject is evident as he talks about the necessity for leadership to involve creatives in conversations about AI. He believes that doing so ensures that their voices are heard, and their roles are preserved and adapted in a way that benefits from AI advancements rather than being overshadowed by them.

Beyond his professional accolades, Sum is also an activist, serving as Creative Director in Residence for the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition since 2020. His work in this area has helped to raise awareness about the expanding police surveillance state and the potential harms of artificial intelligence in predictive policing. This work earned a nomination for a Mozilla Foundation Creative Leadership Award in 2021.

Sum's insights are not just limited to his professional experiences. As the Founding Principal and Creative Director at The Kizmet Experience Studio, he brings an interdisciplinary approach to creative direction, blending his extensive knowledge of AI with his creative expertise to forge new paths in the industry.

Join us in this compelling episode as Sum Patten shares his invaluable insights on the role of AI in creativity, the importance of inclusive discussions in the tech industry, and the future of AI in shaping creative roles. This conversation is a must-listen for anyone interested in the evolving landscape of technology and creativity, offering a nuanced understanding of how AI can be a

2727: Dima Kats | CEO & Founder - Clear Junction Dec 31, 2023

I sit down with Dima Kats, the visionary CEO behind Clear Junction, a company on a mission to reshape the landscape of global payments. Founded in 2016, Clear Junction emerged from a need identified by Kats and his financial experts: a gap in the market for efficient, cost-effective cross-border payment solutions for businesses and financial institutions.

With a background rich in fintech and a keen eye for the challenges faced by the industry, Kats set out to revolutionize how financial institutions engage with banking partners and handle international transactions.

Clear Junction's journey involves innovation, perseverance, and strategic foresight. The company, leveraging its proprietary technology, has successfully addressed some of the most pressing issues in global payments, such as high foreign exchange fees, prolonged settlement times, and limited access to multi-country payment options. These solutions have propelled Clear Junction's growth and provided a lifeline to many businesses and financial institutions previously marginalized in the realm of international finance.

Much of our conversation delves into the unique challenges of the "severely underbanked" financial institutions, a sector Kats has been passionately committed to serving. The lack of corresponding banking accounts and the barriers this creates in the financial world are crucial areas Clear Junction aims to dismantle. The company has effectively tackled issues such as unpredictability in transfer times and fees by providing access to local instant payment systems for international transfers, thus enhancing competition and service quality.

Beyond the technicalities, Kats shares insights into the strategic decision-making that has guided Clear Junction's growth and independence. Eschewing external investment, the company has maintained a focus on serving regulated financial institutions, a decision that has been instrumental in its sustainable scaling. This approach and meticulous risk management and compliance adherence have allowed Clear Junction to venture into innovative territories, such as introducing an escrow service in digital asset trading.

2726: Pixee - Who Secures Our Code When an Army of Robots Are Writing It? Dec 30, 2023

In today's episode of Tech Talks Daily, we delve into a crucial and timely topic at the intersection of AI and cybersecurity. Our guest is Arshan Dabirsiaghi, a renowned security researcher turned entrepreneur, whose unique journey from the helm of a successful software security unicorn to the founder of Pixee is as fascinating as it is inspiring.

Arshan's story is not just about technological innovation; it's also a testament to the resilience and dreams of immigrants, as his father's immigration story vividly illustrates.

The core of our discussion revolves around a burgeoning issue in the tech world: the increasing reliance on Large Language Models (LLMs) like GitHub's Copilot in software development. With an estimated 46% of code on GitHub now generated by LLMs, we're witnessing a seismic shift in how software is created.

However, this shift brings with it a host of security challenges. Historically, developers have not been primarily focused on security, a gap that has led to numerous vulnerabilities and high-profile hacks. The integration of LLMs into the coding process is exacerbating this issue, creating a vast expanse of code that needs to be secured, far outpacing our current capabilities.

Arshan discusses his latest venture, Pixee, and its flagship product, pixeebot. Pixeebot is not just another security tool; it represents a revolutionary step forward in the fight against software vulnerabilities. This free GitHub App acts like a virtual security engineer, not only identifying but also fixing code vulnerabilities. More than a mere band-aid solution, Pixeebot offers an educational component that could be vital for training both new programmers and, potentially, LLMs themselves.

This episode is not just about Pixee or pixeebot, though. It's a broader conversation about the urgent need for solutions in a world where the ratio of code developed to code secured is becoming astronomically unmanageable. We explore the landscape of software development, the primary security concerns in this AI-augmented era, and the critical role of "virtual security engineers."

We explore how AI and automation can scale secure code efforts across the software development lifecycle, from planning and threat modeling to code creation and production monitoring. As we navigate these discussions, we also touch on the broader implications for the industry and steps that companies and developers should take to adapt to this rapidly evolving landscape.

Join us on this enlightening journey as we unravel the complexities and explore the innovative solutions at the forefront of AI and cybersecurity with Arshan Dabirsiaghi.

2725: Head of SAP Business Technology Platform Development Services, JDC Group Dec 29, 2023

Michael Lemashov, a seasoned SAP expert and Head of SAP Business Platform at JDC Group, joins me on Tech Talks Daily. Bringing over two decades of experience in various SAP roles, Michael's insights illuminate the path for businesses navigating the rapidly evolving digital landscape.

Our discussion takes a deep dive into the significance of 2027 for SAP ECC customers, marking a critical deadline for migration to S/4HANA or extending maintenance. Michael will explore the nuances of this deadline and its far-reaching implications for enterprises around the globe. He also tackles the typical challenges encountered in cloud migration, such as the lack of a clear strategy and the increased complexity of IT landscapes, which collectively contribute to the difficulties organizations face in this transition.

A focal point of our conversation will be SAP Clean Core, a methodology designed to enhance flexibility and stability by reducing technical debt before cloud migrations. Michael will elaborate on how this approach, governed by four fundamental principles, is instrumental in preparing enterprises for a smoother transition to the cloud.

We will also venture into a comprehensive overview of SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP), where Michael will detail its suite of tools that amalgamate data, analytics, AI, automation, and more. He'll underscore how SAP BTP's integrated features can expedite innovation and streamline business processes, marking a significant leap in enterprise technology capabilities.

Moreover, the role of JDC Group in this transformative era forms an essential part of our dialogue. Michael will discuss how JDC Group's BTP Development Services are aiding clients in navigating the complexities of cloud migration. He will shed light on their approach to reducing technical debt, making effective customization decisions, and guiding innovation initiatives, all while ensuring a seamless transition to the cloud.

2724: How Xero is Paving the Digital Path for Small Business Growth Dec 28, 2023

In this episode, I dive into the intricacies and untapped potential of digital adoption in small businesses with Alex von Schirmeister, UK Managing Director of Xero. With a recent report from Xero and the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) shedding light on small businesses' hurdles in fully embracing technology, Alex offers invaluable insights into how we can collectively work towards a more digitally inclusive business environment.

Our conversation will explore the report's startling findings, highlighting the disparity between the digital uptake of small businesses and larger SMEs. The report reveals an eye-opening perspective: if small businesses were to digitalize at the pace of the most tech-forward 20%, there could be a £77.3 billion increase in turnover and the creation of 885,000 jobs. This statistic alone underscores the immense value and urgency of digital integration.

Alex discusses the challenges hindering this digital transition, addressing the reasons behind the reluctance of many businesses to adopt new technologies. He'll articulate the compelling case for digital adoption, drawing a direct correlation between embracing technology and enhanced economic growth. We'll hear about the remarkable difference in revenue growth between rapidly digitalized SMEs versus those that have lagged behind.

However, this episode isn't just about identifying problems; it's about providing solutions. Alex will share pragmatic advice for small businesses caught in the 'digital drag,' offering strategies to overcome resource limitations and make meaningful steps towards digitalization.

Listeners will gain a comprehensive understanding of the current state of digital adoption among small businesses, the barriers they face, and the profound economic impact of embracing digital tools. Alex's insights will also highlight the importance of balancing technological advancements with maintaining human connections, particularly as we look toward emerging trends and the digital landscape of 2024.

Whether you're a small business owner, a tech enthusiast, or someone interested in the intersection of technology and business, this episode promises to equip you with the knowledge and inspiration to be part of the digital revolution. Join us for an engaging discussion that bridges the gap between technology and business growth and discovers how small businesses can harness digital tools to unlock their full potential.

2723: Navigating Workplace Surveillance With 1E Dec 27, 2023

In today's episode of Tech Talks Daily, I'm tackling a topic that sits at the intersection of technology, privacy, and workplace ethics – workplace surveillance tools. I'm joined by Ian van Reenen, CTO of 1E, a company at the forefront of digital employee experience (DEX) monitoring, to guide us through this complex landscape.

As remote and hybrid work models become the norm, using surveillance tools to monitor employee productivity has sparked significant debate and concern. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) recently highlighted the public's apprehension about these tools, particularly the lack of control employees have over their data. This issue is further complicated because 87% of IT managers have noticed a negative impact on their teams since implementing surveillance technology.

Ian van Reenen brings a wealth of experience to this discussion, shedding light on the dos and don'ts of using surveillance tools in the workplace. We delve into why a staggering 73% of IT managers are uncomfortable deploying productivity surveillance technology due to transparency issues. Van Reenen emphasizes the detrimental effects these tools can have on employee morale, trust, and the overall company culture, as evidenced by the increase in employee turnover and hiring challenges faced by companies using such tools.

Throughout our conversation, we explore viable alternatives to surveillance, focusing on setting clear organizational goals, empowering employees, and utilizing technology to identify and address friction points in the digital work environment. Van Reenen argues for a more holistic approach that balances productivity with privacy and trust.

This episode highlights the challenges posed by workplace surveillance tools and offers insights into how organizations can foster a culture of trust and accountability. It's a must-listen for anyone grappling with the ethical implications of surveillance technology in the modern workplace.

2722: Hybrid Intelligence in Finance: A Conversation with Vahe Andonians of Cognaize Dec 26, 2023

In this thought-provoking episode of Tech Talks Daily, I am joined by Vahe Andonians, the founder and CTO of Cognaize, a company revolutionizing AI's role in the financial sector with its hybrid intelligence approach. Fresh off the success of Cognaize's Series A funding round, Andonians brings his deep expertise and unique perspective on AI to our audience, blending his experience as a senior lecturer at the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management with his practical insights from the industry.

Andonians introduces us to "hybrid intelligence," a pioneering approach where AI and human expertise collaborate rather than compete. This method, he argues, is essential for the financial industry, where judgment and decision-making require a nuanced understanding that AI alone cannot provide. He emphasizes the limitations of large AI models like ChatGPT in economic contexts, citing hardware constraints, the potential for inaccurate outputs ('hallucinations'), and privacy concerns.

Cognaize, under Andonians' guidance, opts for smaller, more targeted AI models. These models are designed to analyze structured and unstructured data effectively, providing insights while sidestepping the downsides of larger, more generalist AI systems. Andonians shares how this approach enables banks and financial institutions to harness AI's power without compromising precision or privacy.

Andonians predict a rapid advancement in AI, including the potential emergence of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). However, he cautions that computational limitations might initially constrain its applications. He also delves into the intriguing possibilities of combining AI with gene editing, hinting at a future of exponential innovation.

For financial institutions eager to embrace AI, Andonians offers practical advice. He underscores the importance of educating staff at all levels, including board members, about AI. He also recommends partnering with experienced vendors to facilitate a smooth adoption process and advises a multifaceted approach, cautioning against reliance on a single initiative or vendor.

Join me in this fascinating episode as Vahe Andonians unravels the complexities of AI in finance, offering a glimpse into the future of financial decision-making, where human expertise and artificial intelligence merge to form a more powerful, insightful, and ethical approach to financial services.

2721: Mastering AI in Product Development With Sprig Dec 25, 2023

In this insightful episode of Tech Talks Daily, I welcome Ryan Glasgow, Founder and CEO of Sprig, for a deep dive into integrating artificial intelligence (AI) in product management. Glasgow, a seasoned product manager with a track record of scaling startups to successful exits, shares his expertise from his experience at Sprig - a platform trusted by industry giants like Paypal, Coinbase, and Peloton for measurement of user experience.

Our conversation begins with exploring how AI is revolutionizing the building of new features and products. Glasgow discusses the practicalities and importance of prototyping and testing AI applications, ensuring they solve customer problems before fully integrating into products.

We then shift our focus to the critical task of measuring user sentiment. Glasgow highlights common pitfalls teams encounter in this area and shares his insights on effectively gathering and interpreting user feedback. This discussion naturally leads into an examination of the modern product stack in 2023, as Glasgow describes the evolution of product management tools and how world-class teams are integrating diverse tools to understand and meet user needs at scale.

One key theme of our conversation is understanding user experience as a user base scales. Glasgow emphasizes the importance of collecting and analyzing large-scale data to achieve this. He also underscores the need for product teams to continually ask tough questions about product-market fit and to let customer feedback drive strategic decision-making.

As we delve deeper, the discussion illuminates how AI transforms product teams. Glasgow and I examine the challenges and opportunities presented by this transformation, focusing on solving the right problems for customers and understanding their specific needs. We also touch on the potential impact of AI on product-market fit and the evolving landscape of SaaS tools.

Join us for this episode as Ryan Glasgow unravels the complexities of incorporating AI into product development, offering invaluable advice for product teams aiming to build world-class products.

2719: Redefining AI's Learning Curve: The Art of Unlearning Dec 24, 2023

Today, I welcome Zuzanna Stamirowska, CEO and co-founder of Pathway, a pioneering French tech startup. Zuzanna, celebrated for her achievements including the Female Founders Challenge award at VivaTech, joins us to explore the innovative concept of 'unlearning' in AI and its transformative implications.

Unlearning in AI, as Zuzanna elucidates, involves the ability of AI models to delete specific data points and their effects without undergoing a complete retraining. This advancement is particularly crucial in the realm of linear models like trees, compared to the complexities of neural networks. The concept goes beyond mere technical innovation; it's a step towards implementing privacy rights like the EU's 'right to be forgotten' and addressing the challenge of catastrophic forgetting in AI.

I explore how Pathway leverages unlearning for dynamic operational analytics in sectors such as logistics, legal search, and financial trading. We discuss the unique challenges and solutions in applying unlearning to generative AI, emphasizing its multidimensional nature. An enlightening segment of our conversation focuses on Pathway's mission of enabling real-time learning and data use for data scientists. We explore their recent advancements, including query functionality for AI applications and efforts towards ensuring consistency in real-time systems.

This episode also touches on practical applications and client success stories, highlighting how organizations like La Poste have benefited from Pathway's unlearning capabilities, leading to significant improvements in efficiency and data management. As we look ahead, Zuzanna shares insights into Pathway's future directions, aiming to bring streaming data and models to a broader user base, including integrating with tools like Jupyter and expanding conversational AI capabilities.

2718: The Sound of Innovation: Toa Dunn on the Future of Music in Gaming Dec 23, 2023

Today, I'm joined by Toa Dunn, a visionary in the convergence of technology, gaming, and music. With over a decade of experience, including a significant tenure at Riot Games, Toa now consults in this exciting field.

Today's conversation centers around the significant evolution in technology and entertainment, highlighting the unique merger of music and gaming. This fusion has given rise to virtual artists and transmedia storytelling, offering seemingly limitless possibilities. We aim to explore this intersection and understand the future trajectory of virtual music groups.

We welcome Toa to the show and immediately dive into the heart of the discussion. Toa's insights reveal a landscape where AI, VR, and XR are not just buzzwords but instrumental in shaping the future of music production and consumption, especially in the gaming industry. The emergence of virtual artists adds a new layer of creative expression, revolutionizing how fans engage with music.

As we conclude the episode, we reflect on the enlightening insights provided by Toa. His experiences at Riot Games have been pivotal in transforming how we perceive music in the gaming realm. From virtual heavy metal bands like "Pentakill" to pop groups like "K/DA," Riot Games has been at the forefront of this innovative merger.

The discussion also touches upon the impact of social media, virtual influencers, and the Metaverse on the future of Riot Games Music. Toa emphasizes that while their approach is not to mimic traditional music labels, their focus remains on enhancing music experiences for players and fans by creatively intertwining music with technology.

We also discuss the influence of video games on music, illustrated by the surge in popularity of a classic Tom Petty track used in the Grand Theft Auto 6 trailer. This example underscores the symbiotic relationship between gaming and music, a theme that has been recurrent throughout our discussion.

2617: Revolutionizing Manufacturing With Universal Robots Dec 22, 2023

In this groundbreaking episode of Tech Talks Daily, we're joined by Anders Beck, Vice President of Strategy and Innovation at Universal Robots, to explore the transformative role of AI in industrial automation. As we stand at the cusp of a new era in manufacturing, Beck guides us through how AI is revolutionizing factories and redefining the future of automation.

We start by addressing a common misconception: while generative AI may be in its nascent stages, AI technology is already leaving a significant mark on the manufacturing industry. Beck shares insights into how AI, mainly through advancements in computer vision and perception technologies, enables robots to interact with the physical world in previously thought impossible ways. He highlights Apera AI's '4D Vision' technology, which grants robots humanlike perception, allowing them to understand and manipulate objects in disordered environments – a critical breakthrough in automation.

Furthermore, Beck discusses how AI empowers robots to handle a variety of objects without the need for prior teaching or programming. This flexibility is crucial in modern manufacturing environments, where adapting to different shapes and sizes of objects can dramatically increase efficiency and reduce downtime.

Precision in manufacturing is another focal point. Beck delves into how AI, as demonstrated by Inbolt's AI-based Inbrain technology, processes vast amounts of 3D data at high frequencies. This capability enables robots to perform tasks with incredible accuracy, such as the intricate assembly of gears, by adapting their trajectory in real-time based on the position and orientation of workpieces.

Looking towards the future, Beck shares his vision of the 'future factory,' heavily reliant on AI and robotics. This evolution promises performance improvements, cost savings, and a significant shift in the roles of human workers, who can focus on more creative and less repetitive tasks.

Throughout the episode, we will also cover the biggest challenges facing the integration of AI in manufacturing, from finding the right implementation strategies to training and understanding the iterative nature of AI development. Beck provides valuable advice for manufacturers looking to embrace AI, encouraging them to be bold and open-minded in piloting these technologies in natural production settings.

This conversation with Anders Beck is not just about the present state of AI in industrial automation but also a look into the future – where AI and robotics are not just tools but integral parts of a brighter, more efficient, and innovative manufacturing landscape.

2616: Demystifying AI in Data Analytics With Qlik Dec 21, 2023

In today's episode of Tech Talks Daily, we delve into AI's intricacies in data analytics and business intelligence with James Fisher, Chief Strategy Officer at Qlik. Qlik, a leader in the field, has recently unveiled its ambitious AI strategy, marking a significant commitment to advancing AI applications in data handling. This move is especially noteworthy following Qlik's acquisition of Talend, strengthening its capabilities in managing data quality, governance, and lineage in the cloud.

Fisher offers a comprehensive insight into why data stands at the core of any AI development. He emphasizes the importance of generating trustworthy and actionable data outputs for enhanced decision-making processes. This topic aligns seamlessly with Qlik's long-standing integration of AI into its data analytics products and its recent focus on GenAI, which is crucial for understanding and improving data quality, especially for large language models (LLMs).

We'll explore how Qlik, in collaboration with partners like Snowflake and Databricks, is pioneering the delivery of LLMs in the cloud. Fisher will share success stories from early adopters such as Harman and ChatGPT, illustrating these technologies' practical applications and benefits in business environments.

Throughout the conversation, Fisher will shed light on the role of AI and GenAI in transforming data analytics and business intelligence. He'll discuss the challenges and opportunities in creating a data infrastructure supporting enterprise-scale generative AI. This includes a deep dive into the necessity of data quality and governance for the success of generative AI and how Qlik's holistic approach is shaping the future of AI in the workplace.

Listeners will gain insights into how AI democratizes data beyond expert circles, lowers barriers to insight generation, and evolves workplace roles. We'll also explore Qlik's cloud partnerships, emphasizing how hybrid cloud access and scalability are vital for training domain-specific models.

2615: Demystifying the AI Revolution in Business With Alteryx Dec 20, 2023

I welcome Asa Whillock, the Vice President and General Manager of Machine Learning at Alteryx, to delve into the transformative world of generative AI and its real-world impact on businesses. Asa, an acclaimed AI and machine learning expert, brings to light the critical gap between the anticipated benefits of generative AI and its practical implications in the business environment.

Our discussion pivots around a compelling revelation: that the success of AI in businesses is not merely about its implementation but hinges on individuals' ability to utilize and trust AI technologies.

Asa argues that without a profound understanding and confidence in how AI operates, businesses are unlikely to reap the expected benefits. This issue is underscored by Alteryx's recent AI Pulse survey, which reveals a surprising statistic: although 40% of businesses have adopted AI, a majority still rank their AI maturity at the preliminary stages of exploration or experimentation.

Throughout our conversation, Asa shares insights on the current state of AI in businesses, highlighting the trend of AI adoption driven more by a Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) rather than strategic business intelligence. We examine the intriguing findings from Alteryx's research, noting that only 18% of businesses classify their AI maturity as 'optimizing' or 'innovating'.

This episode is a treasure trove for those interested in the intersection of AI and business efficiency. We discuss how organizations can effectively implement and govern AI, ensuring that it aligns with their business strategies and ethical standards. Key topics include the challenges of AI adoption, the misconceptions surrounding AI's impact on employment, and the importance of regulatory compliance and ethical governance in building trust in AI systems.

Asa also sheds light on the future trends in AI for 2024, emphasizing a shift from hype to practical value and ROI of AI investments. We explore how breaking down data silos can enable more insightful cross-functional analysis, potentially revolutionizing decision-making in businesses.

Join me in this compelling dialogue with Asa Whillock as we unravel the complexities of AI in the business world, offering insights that are both thought-provoking and actionable.

2614: Advancing Diversity in Tech: A Conversation with PowerToFly's Co-Founder Milena Berry Dec 19, 2023

In this Tech Talks Daily Podcast episode, we are privileged to host Milena Berry, Co-Founder and CEO of PowerToFly, the groundbreaking platform at the forefront of accelerating economic equity by upskilling and connecting underrepresented talent with significant roles in visible sectors.

Our discussion delves into Milena's visionary mission, striving to partner with the top 100 brands to offer a range of diversity solutions through PowerToFly. We explore the human element of success, seeking insights into the influential figures who have shaped Milena's journey.

A focal point of our conversation is PowerToFly's innovative feature within their PowerPro product, 'Candidate Search.' This transformative tool redefines talent acquisition, enabling companies to identify and recruit candidates from underrepresented backgrounds with unprecedented inclusivity and efficiency. We discuss how this tool uses Enhanced Search to identify candidates based on diversity parameters like gender and ethnicity, revolutionizing the hiring landscape.

We confront sobering statistics, such as the disproportionate job losses among DEIB workers in 2021 and the persistent issue of racial discrimination in the tech industry. PowerToFly's response, through their Diversity Filters and beyond, offers a comprehensive suite of solutions addressing these challenges.

Our discussion with Milena also ventures into strategies for implementing effective and enduring DEIB policies, encompassing leadership accountability, regular training, and integrating DEIB into every hiring phase. We examine how these strategies can weave DEIB into a company's DNA, fostering ethical practices and business success.

2613: Sopra Steria: Shaping a Responsible Future With Ethical AI Dec 18, 2023

Today's episode of the Tech Talks Daily Podcast brings a thought-provoking conversation with Andy Whitehurst, UK Chief Technology Officer, and Kevin Macnish, Digital Ethics Consulting Manager, from Sopra Steria. Sopra Steria, a powerhouse in Europe's tech sector, employs 55,000 across nearly 30 countries, known for its advanced consulting, digital services, and software development. In 2022, the group generated a substantial revenue of €5.1 billion, indicating its influential role in global technology and digital transformation.

Our conversation today delves into the burgeoning field of artificial intelligence (AI), which is pivotal in its evolution. With the European Union recently passing groundbreaking legislation to regulate AI development, the topic of ethical AI is more relevant than ever. AI's potential to profoundly transform society is undeniable, yet it carries inherent risks, including data misuse and ingrained gender bias. These challenges underscore the urgency of guiding AI development along an ethical path.

Andy and Kevin bring their extensive expertise to the table, discussing the intricate balance of harnessing AI's transformative power while mitigating its potential pitfalls. They emphasize the importance of considering and addressing the consequences of unethical AI use and development promptly. The discussion extends to the necessity of fostering public dialogue about ethical AI at both governmental and industry levels, reflecting a collective responsibility towards this emerging technology.

The episode also highlights the 'ethics by design' approach as a cornerstone for responsible AI development. This methodology isn't just about embedding ethical considerations into the fabric of organizational structures; it's about integrating these principles throughout the AI development process. By asking the right technical questions and prioritizing ethical considerations from the outset, we can ensure that AI serves the greater good of society.

Join us in this episode as Andy Whitehurst and Kevin Macnish navigate the complex yet fascinating landscape of ethical AI, offering insights on how we can collectively shape a future where technology not only advances but also aligns with our core values for a positive and equitable world.

2612: Boardroom Battles: The Rising Tide of Cybersecurity Challenges Dec 17, 2023

Joining me today is Peter Dyson, Head of Analytics at Kovrr, a company at the forefront of cyber risk modeling. With over 15 years of experience in risk and financial modeling in the insurance industry, Peter brings a unique perspective on how cyber risks reshape business strategies at the highest levels.

Our conversation orbits around Kovrr's recently released Fortune 1000 report, a critical piece of research that provides crucial cyber risk benchmarks aiding companies in identifying and managing material risks. This report gains even more relevance after the new cybersecurity rules issued by the SEC, which mandate greater transparency and risk communication, effectively making cybersecurity a top concern in the boardroom.

Peter, with his rich background that includes a PhD in engineering, will shed light on the complex intersection of technology, analytics, and business. We explore how cybersecurity is no longer confined to IT departments but has become a pivotal financial discussion, demanding attention from CFOs and CEOs alike.

We also dive into the practical applications of Cyber Risk Quantification (CRQ), a solution provided by Kovrr. Peter elucidates how CRQ helps businesses articulate technical cyber risks in financial terms, allowing for more informed decision-making at the highest levels. This becomes particularly essential as companies grapple with understanding the economic impact of potential cyber incidents.

One of the key takeaways from our discussion is the realization of how different industries face varying cyber risk profiles and how larger companies might have better economies of scale in terms of cyber defenses. This information is crucial for business leaders looking to benchmark their risk profiles and understand their standing in an increasingly interconnected and digital business world.

Finally, as we gear up for 2024, Peter shares his insights on the importance of continuous learning in cybersecurity and offers a crucial tip for businesses planning for the upcoming year.

This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in understanding how cybersecurity transforms business discussions at the highest levels and the role of advanced technologies like CRQ in navigating these challenges.

2611: Transforming Workplace Dynamics With Technology Dec 16, 2023

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I engage in a thought-provoking conversation with Wade Bruffey and Zoltan Sarda, the dynamic co-founders of GoMobi.work. This discussion ventures beyond the conventional boundaries of workplace management, delving into the essence of effective performance management and the subtle yet powerful forces that shape company culture.

Wade Bruffey, with his rich background in scaling purpose-driven businesses and driving significant growth as a business & life coach, shares his insights on the transformative impact of aligned leadership and strategies in organizations. He reveals the secrets behind the staggering 300% revenue growth he fostered in a high-growth startup, highlighting the synergy between leadership, strategy, and purpose.

Zoltan Sarda, an internationally acclaimed coach and program developer, brings over three decades of experience. His expertise in developing mentorship and coaching systems within growing organizations offers a unique perspective on fostering mission-aligned effectiveness. Zoltan's doctoral research, which delves into interpersonal dynamics and their influence on workplace behavior, is a cornerstone of his approach to cultivating a workplace of well-being.

Together, they dissect what most organizations misunderstand about performance management and unravel the concept of "micro-moments" instrumental in shaping a company's culture. The episode also explores the pivotal role of clarity, alignment, and guiding principles in crafting a conducive work environment.

Furthermore, our guests elucidate leveraging data to inform and enhance effective coaching methodologies. They share their vision for the "workplace of well-being," a revolutionary concept that promises to redefine the landscape of modern work environments.

2610: Workday: Innovation and the Future of AI in Business Dec 15, 2023

In the latest episode of the Tech Talks Daily Podcast, I had the opportunity to engage in a fascinating discussion with Clare Hickie, CTO for EMEA at Workday. Clare, with her extensive cloud technology experience and pivotal role in a company that serves over 10,000 customers, offers a unique perspective on the rapidly evolving world of AI and machine learning in the business sector.

Our conversation was particularly timely, coinciding with the release of a new Workday report. This report provides an in-depth look at the current state of AI investment and preparedness in the UK, offering valuable comparisons with global and European standards. Given Workday's significant involvement with 40% of the FTSE 100, Clare's insights are not just theoretical musings but are grounded in substantial real-world experience and data.

One of the most striking aspects of our discussion was the optimism surrounding AI and machine learning. Clare highlighted that a significant majority of business leaders, about 73%, believe these technologies will profoundly impact the global business landscape in the next three years. Furthermore, 58% think these advancements will significantly amplify human potential.

However, this optimism is tempered by a concerning revelation from the report: preparation levels need to keep pace with investment ambitions. While nearly half of the respondents indicated that over 20% of their organization's annual technology budget is invested in AI and ML, only 13% of UK organizations feel entirely prepared to adopt these technologies.

Clare and I also explored the issue of trust in AI, a critical factor in its adoption and integration into business processes. The report indicates that trust in AI is relatively low, with 46% of business leaders expressing concerns about the trustworthiness of AI and ML. This is a crucial area that needs addressing if AI is to realize its full potential in the business world.

During our conversation, Clare shared her insights on how AI and ML are expected to transform essential business functions. She emphasized the strategic role of AI in augmenting human capabilities, particularly in areas like financial reporting, HR tasks, and IT risk reduction. The importance of data quality in training reliable AI models was another significant point of discussion. Clare pointed out that Workday ensures high-quality data through a uniform structure across its customer base, essential for generating responsible and reliable insights.

An exciting segment of our discussion focused on the UK's position in AI adoption globally and in Europe. Clare noted that the UK is ahead in terms of openness to AI and data accessibility compared to other regions. However, she also mentioned that regulations will continue to play a vital role in shaping responsible innovation in this field.

As we looked ahead, Clare shared her predictions for the next decade of AI. While acknowledging the challenges in making accurate forecasts, she expressed confidence that AI would continue significantly boosting productivity and engagement, empowering us to become better versions of ourselves. Workday's commitment to developing impactful, responsible AI was a testament to this belief.

2609: Beyond Celebrity Vulnerabilities: A Deep Dive into Cybersecurity Strategy Dec 14, 2023

I explore the intricate world of cybersecurity with Adi Dubin, a seasoned expert from Skybox Security. With over 20 years of experience in the field, Adi brings a unique perspective to the table, discussing the challenges and strategies essential for modern cybersecurity.

Adi begins by sharing his extensive background in cybersecurity and his role at Skybox Security, where he leads product management. His passion for continuous learning in this rapidly evolving field sets the tone for a deep and insightful conversation.

We dive into Skybox Security's holistic approach to vulnerability identification and prioritization. Adi explains how their method combines both active and passive technologies, focusing on systematic and customer-specific risks. This approach ensures that organizations efficiently allocate their limited resources to address the most critical issues.

The conversation then shifts to the topic of 'celebrity vulnerabilities'. Adi discusses the pitfalls of focusing solely on high-profile breaches, which can lead to a disproportionate allocation of resources and neglect other significant threats. He highlights Skybox's methodology, which considers both exposure and asset criticality, to determine the impact of various vulnerabilities on each customer.

Further, we delve into the role of predictive analytics and artificial intelligence in cybersecurity. Adi talks about how machine learning aids in threat detection but also emphasizes the irreplaceable value of human judgment in making complex decisions. He stresses the importance of integrating comprehensive data and processes to enhance the effectiveness of these technologies in prioritization.

Adi also touches upon the critical role of the human element in cybersecurity. He discusses how automation and algorithms are crucial but cannot entirely replace human intuition and problem-solving skills. Education, awareness, and policy play a vital role in fostering a proactive security culture within organizations.

As we discuss emerging threats and strategies for effective prioritization, Adi points out the increasing sophistication of social engineering attacks. He advises on the importance of managing attack surfaces and exposure through discovery, risk assessment, automation, and swift response to stay ahead of evolving methods.

In his final thoughts, Adi offers valuable advice for enhancing an organization's cybersecurity posture. He emphasizes the importance of collecting comprehensive operational and technical data to power effective prioritization, automation, training, and decision-making.

2608: SAP - Revolutionizing Supply Chains with AI Dec 13, 2023

I sit down with Darcy MacClaren, the Chief Revenue Officer for the global supply chain at SAP, to explore the burgeoning role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in revolutionizing supply chain management. This episode is a must-listen for business leaders and tech enthusiasts keen on understanding the dynamic intersection of AI and supply chain operations.

The conversation starts with Darcy sharing insights from her interactions with customers eagerly looking to AI to build more risk-resilient supply chains. She delves into how businesses prepare for potential disruptions, emphasizing the predictive power of AI in forecasting and mitigating unforeseen challenges. This discussion is particularly relevant for listeners interested in how AI can proactively approach supply chain management.

We also explore the practical applications of AI in enhancing supply chain efficiency. They discuss integrating responsible and relevant AI technologies in optimizing warehouse organization, improving the accuracy of freight order deliveries, and refining demand planning forecasts. This segment is a deep dive into the operational benefits of AI, showcasing how intelligent systems can streamline processes and boost overall efficiency.

A significant part of their discussion centers on business leaders' need to invest in supply chain technology. Darcy articulates why embracing AI is a trend and a strategic imperative for companies aiming to maintain a competitive edge. She highlights how SAP and its customers are already reaping the benefits of AI through automation and advanced analytics, leading to substantial time and cost savings.

We also discuss the future trajectory of AI in supply chain management. They predict that generative AI will be crucial in revolutionizing the industry, offering contextualized responses and enhancing efficiency across various supply chain facets. Darcy also shares personal anecdotes, including her father and mentor Mitch Wesley's influence on her successful supply chain technology career.

2607: Exploring the Future of Retail Payments with Karna Crawford of Marqeta Dec 12, 2023

I explore the rapidly evolving world of retail payments with Karna Crawford, Chief Marketing Officer at Marqeta. Our conversation centers around the intriguing insights from Marqeta's 2023 State of Payments report, mainly focusing on the burgeoning trend of embedded finance technology and its implications for retailers and consumers alike.

The discussion begins with an exploration of embedded finance trends and consumer behavior. Karna shares key findings from the report, highlighting the growing consumer confidence in digital banking and the notable shift towards mobile wallet usage. An eye-opening statistic reveals that 72% of consumers now feel confident enough to leave their wallets at home, relying solely on their phones for payments.

As we approach the holiday season, the conversation shifts to holiday shopping trends and credit card usage. Karna sheds light on the critical role of credit cards and Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) schemes in holiday purchases. This segment also touches on the broader economic concerns affecting consumer spending habits, offering a nuanced view of the challenges and opportunities facing retailers.

We also discuss retailer opportunities with embedded finance and loyalty programs. Karna explains how personalized payment methods can not only drive traffic and purchases but also how optimizing rewards programs using consumer data can foster deeper loyalty and more meaningful relationships with customers.

Karna also highlights the potential impact of AI in the payments industry. She discusses how predictive credit cards, powered by generative AI and machine learning, could revolutionize the application process and enhance the rewards experience, offering a glimpse into a future where technology seamlessly integrates with consumer finance.

2606: HGS: Revolutionizing Customer Service with AI Dec 11, 2023

Today, I am joined by David Morton, Chief Revenue Officer and Chief Customer Officer at Hinduja Global Solutions (HGS) UK. With a rich background spanning over two decades in strategic sales, customer relationship management, and business process outsourcing, David offered an in-depth perspective on the transformative role of artificial intelligence (AI) in customer service.

The conversation opened with a look at the evolving role of the Chief Revenue Officer. David reflected on how this position has significantly changed over the past decade, transitioning from a role that was once spread across multiple senior stakeholders to a consolidated position focused on business growth and strategy. He highlighted the increased complexity of the role, especially in navigating digital transformation and commercial models in today's fast-paced business environment.

A key focus of the discussion was the integration of AI in customer service. David emphasized that AI should be viewed as a tool to support overall business strategy, rather than an end in itself. He shared insights on how AI is enhancing process automation, making it more intuitive, and optimizing operations. However, David also pointed out the importance of maintaining a balance between digital solutions and human interaction, ensuring that customers still have the option for personal contact in their service journey.

David then delved into the strategies for building value with clients. He stressed the importance of understanding a client's industry, challenges, and long-term plans before engaging with them. This approach involves providing actionable insights tailored to the client's strategy and desired outcomes, and committing to a clear roadmap for transforming operations and delivering measurable business results.

The integration of digital solutions in customer service was another significant topic. David discussed the challenges of operating across multiple channels with limited budgets and the role of digital solutions like multilingual chatbots in improving customer journeys. Despite the advancements in technology, he reiterated the need for the human element in customer service, which is crucial for culture, creativity, and gaining deeper customer insights.

The episode concluded with David sharing where listeners can find more information about HGS and connect with his team online. This conversation with David Morton is a must-listen for anyone interested in how technology, especially AI, is reshaping customer service. It highlights the importance of AI in enhancing customer experience while underscoring the irreplaceable value of human interaction in the digital age.

2605: Magna International - Revolutionizing the Road Technology Dec 10, 2023

I sit down with Jörg Grotendorst, Senior Vice President of Car of the Future at Magna International, to explore the cutting-edge advancements in the automotive industry. This episode promises to be a treasure trove of insights for anyone interested in the future of mobility, automotive technology, and sustainable innovation.

We discuss the challenges and opportunities presented by vehicle over-the-air updates. Jörg provides an in-depth look at how Magna addresses these challenges, focusing on implementing robust security protocols and developing new vehicle architectures. The duo also touches upon Magna's efforts to measure and minimize the environmental impact of their products and processes, highlighting the company's commitment to an environmentally friendly supply chain, especially in electric vehicle components.

We also navigate the evolving market trends and customer expectations surrounding future cars. A special emphasis is placed on electric vehicles and software functionalities. They discuss Magna's strategic positioning as a top supplier in active safety features and their decision to prioritize L2 and L2+ applications over fully autonomous vehicles, considering factors like cost and consumer willingness to pay.

The episode's key theme is innovation, with Jörg discussing Magna's new technologies, such as breakthrough lighting and integrated battery systems. These innovations are about enhancing vehicle performance and offering design flexibility and functional advantages for electric and autonomous vehicles. Jörg also sheds light on Magna's approach to partnerships and collaborations, including significant acquisitions and joint ventures, to expand their presence in the new mobility market segment and gain deeper insights into customer behavior.

This episode of Tech Talks Daily is a must-listen for anyone interested in how technology is reshaping the automotive industry and the broader implications of these changes for our future mobility and environmental sustainability. Join us for an enlightening discussion that bridges the gap between complex technological concepts and their practical, real-world applications.

2604: MongoDB - Unlocking the Future of Data Security Dec 09, 2023

In a recent enlightening conversation with Kenneth White, Principal Security at MongoDB, we delved into the intricacies and innovations of MongoDB's latest offering in data security - Queryable Encryption. This discussion, part of my ongoing series on Tech Talks Daily, offered profound insights into MongoDB's journey from a startup to a significant player in enterprise-level data management and security.

Kenneth White's insights began with an overview of MongoDB's evolution. Initially perceived as a tool tailored for startups, MongoDB has significantly expanded its reach and capabilities. It now plays a crucial role in managing high-value workloads across various industries, including finance, healthcare, and telecom. This transformation from a startup-focused technology to an enterprise powerhouse underscores MongoDB's adaptability and the importance of flexible, robust database management systems in today's business landscape.

A central focus of our discussion was MongoDB's Queryable Encryption, a groundbreaking approach that allows developers to perform searches on encrypted data without exposing it. This innovation is crucial in today's digital environment, where data breaches and insider threats are increasingly common. Using cryptographic tokens, MongoDB's approach ensures that the database processes encrypted results without accessing the data or queries. This method bolsters security and aligns with stringent regulatory requirements like GDPR and PCI, making it a valuable tool for businesses concerned with data privacy and compliance.

Developing Queryable Encryption was a journey filled with challenges, as Kenneth highlighted. One of the primary goals was to make this advanced encryption technology accessible and user-friendly for developers. Balancing ease of use with high performance and scalability was no small feat. The MongoDB team dedicated significant time and resources over five months to optimize performance, ensuring that the solution met modern developers' speed and efficiency expectations.

An intriguing aspect of MongoDB's advancement in encryption technology was the strategic acquisition of a startup from Brown University specializing in encrypted search. This move led to an Advanced Cryptography Research Group within MongoDB. This group's establishment marks a significant stride in MongoDB's commitment to leading-edge encryption solutions, positioning the company at the forefront of data security innovation.

Looking ahead, Kenneth outlined MongoDB's priorities for the upcoming year. The company is set to make strides in AI and machine learning capabilities, mainly focusing on vector search. Enhancements in search offerings and ongoing security innovations, including differential privacy and multi-party computation, are also on the agenda. These initiatives reflect MongoDB's dedication to staying ahead in the rapidly evolving world of database technology and data security.

In conclusion, my conversation with Kenneth White from MongoDB offered a comprehensive view of how MongoDB is reshaping the landscape of data security and database management. The introduction of Queryable Encryption is a testament to MongoDB's innovative spirit and commitment to addressing the complex data security challenges businesses face today. As MongoDB continues to evolve and introduce new solutions, it remains a crucial player in the future of secure, efficient, and user-friendly database technologies.

2603: The Future of Finance: Embedded Services and Consumer Empowerment Dec 08, 2023

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I have a fantastic conversation with Emma Steeley, CEO of Aro, formerly known as Freedom Finance. With 17 years of experience in consumer finance and fintech, Emma brings a wealth of knowledge and insight into the rapidly evolving world of financial services.

The episode starts with Emma discussing the strategic rebranding of Freedom Finance to Aro. She explains how this change reflects the company's commitment to innovation, adaptability, and growth, aiming to meet customers better needs in a dynamic global landscape.

A significant part of the conversation is dedicated to how Aro is leveraging machine learning to transform personal credit matching. Emma elaborates on how the company uses application data, credit reports, open banking, and internal data in their machine learning models. This approach enables Aro to match customers with lending offers they are most likely approved for, significantly enhancing the customer experience beyond what generic credit scores can offer.

We delve into the opportunities and challenges presented by open banking. While open banking holds great potential through consented data sharing, its adoption could be faster. Emma discusses the hurdles such as consent friction, the need for transparent customer value exchange, and lenders' apprehensions about using new data types for underwriting. She emphasizes the need for industry collaboration to overcome these challenges, address conduct risks, and demonstrate the benefits of data sharing.

A key highlight of the episode is the discussion on the value of open banking APIs in democratizing lending. Emma explains how these APIs provide crucial data to power more inclusive lending decisions, especially for traditionally underserved segments, offering them fair and affordable credit options.

Looking towards the future, Emma shares her insights on the rise of embedded finance. She predicts that significant brands will increasingly offer financial services, driven by consumer expectations for seamless experiences. She also touches upon the importance of balancing convenience with responsible lending practices.

As the conversation wraps up, Emma shares her thoughts on the trends to watch in 2024 for the credit industry. She anticipates focusing on stability and using diverse data sources to deepen the understanding of customer needs and risk profiles. She foresees a gradual maturation in open banking integration through collaborative learning and shared experiences.

This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in the future of finance, the role of technology in lending, and the impact of innovative leadership in transforming industries. Emma's insights provide a unique perspective on how financial services evolve and what we can expect in the coming years.

2602: Zellis: Empowering Financial Wellbeing in the Workplace Dec 07, 2023

Today, I enjoyed an engaging conversation with David Woodward, the Chief Product and Technology Officer at Zellis, a frontrunner in Human Capital Management (HCM) and payroll technology. David, with his extensive background spanning over two decades in the HR and payroll tech industry, including senior roles at ADP, SD Worx, and MHR, brings a treasure trove of insights and experiences.

This episode arrives at a crucial time as the world grapples with a significant cost of living crisis. David sheds light on how technology is not just a tool for efficiency but a powerful ally in enhancing the financial wellbeing for employees. He shares his experiences with integrating Wagestream's financial wellbeing suite into several large organizations, both in the public and private sectors, highlighting how these initiatives are making a real difference in employees' lives.

We delve into the nuances of how HR and payroll teams can effectively use technology to provide much-needed support to employees during these challenging economic times. They explore future technological advancements that could further improve the financial wellbeing for workers and businesses.

A particularly poignant part of the discussion revolves around early access to wages. David explains how this approach can be a game-changer for employees, offering them much-needed flexibility and support. However, it has its challenges. David candidly discusses the hurdles organizations face when implementing these new tech solutions, from integration issues to ensuring user-friendliness, and shares valuable insights on navigating these challenges successfully.

2601: Ethical Marketing in Action: Vericast's Approach to Data and Privacy Dec 06, 2023

I sit down with Hans Fischmann from Vericast to explore the evolving world of data privacy and ethical marketing. Vericast, known for its influence on how over 130 million households engage with the market, is at the forefront of redefining marketing solutions through a business-to-human approach. This discussion comes at a crucial time when consumer data protection is more regulated than ever, posing unique brand challenges and opportunities.

We explore the groundbreaking partnership between Vericast and Qonsent, highlighting their shared commitment to placing consumer consent at the heart of data collection. We dissect how this collaboration is revolutionizing how brands interact with and maintain records of user consent, ensuring compliance in a complex digital landscape.

The conversation shifts to Vericast's innovative strategies, particularly the NXTDRIVE platform, which empowers brands to utilize fully consented first-party data for targeted marketing. Hans offers insights into balancing potent marketing campaigns with stringent data privacy regulations, emphasizing the need for ethically sourced data with provenance.

A key focus of the episode is the importance of centering the consumer in data collection processes. We discuss how this approach enhances marketing strategies and aligns with the evolving relationship between data privacy and marketing. We touch upon Vericast's efforts to separate advertising tech from marketing tech, all while maintaining a privacy-centric use of consumer data.

2600: The Internet Society: Big Tech, Government, and Future of Web Governance Dec 05, 2023

In today's episode of Tech Talks Daily, I, Neil, am thrilled to welcome Andrew Sullivan, President and CEO of the Internet Society, for a thought-provoking conversation on the future of Internet governance, regulation, and the ongoing battle to keep the Internet open and accessible for everyone.

The internet, a marvel of the modern world, stands at a crossroads. Originally conceived as a decentralized "network of networks," it's now facing challenges that could reshape its very essence. Andrew Sullivan, with his wealth of experience in the Internet Society, brings a deep understanding of these issues to the table. We delve into how large corporations increasingly try to "enclose" the internet, shifting the paradigm from an open web system to a more controlled application-based environment. This conversation takes us through the nuances of technical proposals like Web Environment Integrity, "NewIP," and Private Access Tokens and what they mean for the future of the internet.

Our discussion also turns to the role of governments in this evolving landscape. With initiatives like Canada's Online News Act and the EU's Digital Markets Act, we explore the intention behind these regulations and their potential unintended consequences. Andrew offers a unique perspective on how these well-meaning laws might inadvertently reshape the Internet, often at the expense of smaller entities and the general public.

Much of our conversation revolves around the complex issue of misinformation and social problems in the digital age. We explore how these challenges, while amplified by the internet, are not necessarily of its own making. Andrew provides insights into how the internet reflects societal divisions rather than creates them and how regulations aimed at big tech might not address the root causes of these issues.

In this episode, we also focus on solutions and the way forward. We discuss the importance of remembering the benefits of connectivity and ensuring that regulations do not stifle these advantages. Andrew highlights initiatives like encryption, Internet Impact Assessments, and the involvement of civil society as crucial steps in protecting the open Internet.

2599: Navigating Sustainability in Banking with Hexaware-Mobiquity Dec 04, 2023

Peter-Jan Van De Venn, VP of Global Digital Banking at Hexaware-Mobiquity. Our conversation centered around a pressing issue in the banking sector: the relegation of sustainability initiatives amidst the current economic crisis.

Peter-Jan brought to light some startling revelations from recent research. The study, involving 600 C-suite banking executives globally, indicated a significant shift in the banking sector's approach to sustainability. Notably, only two-thirds of these leaders now view sustainability as a key business strategy, a stark contrast to last year when it was unanimously seen as a top priority. This shift is particularly intriguing as more than a third of the executives acknowledge the profitability potential of prioritizing Environmental Societal Governance (ESG).

Our discussion delved into the reasons behind this dramatic change, particularly in the context of current economic uncertainties. Peter-Jan shared his insights on why banks are increasingly focusing on short-term bottom lines, potentially overlooking the long-term benefits and necessity of sustainable practices.

A key part of our conversation focused on the role of technology in driving sustainability in the banking sector. We explored how advancements such as AI, machine learning, cloud analytics, and even Augmented Reality can revolutionize the way banks operate and interact with customers. These technologies are not just tools for efficiency; they are catalysts for sustainable practices, enabling banks to make informed investment decisions, monitor their impact, reduce their carbon footprint, and provide more accessible digital services.

Peter-Jan also emphasized the importance of adopting a sustainability mindset, integrating it into a bank's brand and operations. He highlighted how Hexaware-Mobiquity is assisting banks like Aditya Birla Capital, Bank ABC, and the Bank of the Philippine Islands in leveraging digital technologies to drive both sustainability and overall performance.

Throughout our conversation, we touched upon the potential risks associated with sidelining sustainability, including reputational damage, missed opportunities for cost savings and innovation, and the broader societal impact.

2598: Unraveling the Complexities of Data Security Dec 03, 2023

I recently had the pleasure of talking with Kurt Markley from Apricorn, a company at the forefront of encrypted hard drives and flash drives. Our conversation was a deep and insightful exploration into the world of data security, a topic that resonates with businesses and governments alike.

Kurt brought to the table a wealth of knowledge, particularly highlighting a widespread issue in the realm of data backup protocols within organizations. It was intriguing to learn that even seasoned IT professionals in these organizations are often not doing enough to protect their data, a concern that Apricorn is keenly aware of and actively addressing.

One of the most compelling parts of our discussion revolved around the need to simplify security practices. Kurt emphasized that current security measures are often too complex, too expensive, and, ironically, not sufficiently protective. This simplicity in approach, as Kurt suggested, is not just about making things easier but also about enhancing the effectiveness of data security measures.

We also delved into the debate of cloud versus hardware for secure storage. Kurt offered a fresh perspective, advocating for a complementary relationship between the two. He explained the 3-2-1 rule of data management, highlighting how it integrates both cloud and hardware solutions to offer a balanced and robust approach to data security.

Another significant aspect of our conversation was the cost-effective management of data. Kurt shared insights on how organizations could better manage their cloud costs by considering archiving practices. This approach would involve moving unused but necessary data off the cloud, thus reducing ongoing expenses while ensuring data protection.

As we progressed, we tackled the barriers to adopting encrypted solutions in organizations. Kurt's insights here were particularly enlightening, revealing the challenges organizations face and how Apricorn is working to overcome them. He also touched upon the future of hardware encryption in data security, suggesting it as a pivotal element in the evolving landscape of data protection.

2597: Revolutionizing Mental Health Care With Tech: A Conversation with John Letter of Proem Behavioral Health Dec 02, 2023

In the latest Tech Talks Daily Podcast episode, I had the privilege of speaking with John Letter, CEO of Proem Behavioral Health. Our conversation offered a deep dive into how technology is reshaping the landscape of mental health care, a topic that resonates with many in our current times.

John introduced Proem Behavioral Health, a company at the forefront of clinical workflow support software. Their mission is to streamline the screening process for mental illnesses, aiding in diagnosis and tracking treatment outcomes. As John highlighted, this approach is a game-changer i

n addressing the fragmented nature of behavioral healthcare. One of the most striking aspects of our discussion was the real-world impact of Proem's technology. John shared an example from Eastern Europe: their tools are used to screen patients proactively. This proactive approach is critical in mental health care, where early detection can significantly alter treatment outcomes.

However, the journey has its challenges. John candidly discussed the hurdles patients and providers face in adopting new technologies. The biggest challenge? Time. Proem's solution is its asynchronous capability, which allows patient information to be collected ahead of visits, saving hours for healthcare providers and enabling them to focus on treatment rather than data collection.

John's enthusiasm was palpable when discussing the integration of subjective questioning with objective data from wearable devices. This holistic view of a patient's health is where he sees the future of mental health care heading.

For John, the intersection of technology and mental health care is more than just a business venture; it's a passion driven by the potential to make a real difference in people's lives. His advice to aspiring entrepreneurs in the mental health space was clear: listen to the needs of both patients and providers. It's this understanding that drives innovation.

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2596: Aircall - Embracing AI in Communication Dec 01, 2023

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I enjoy a thought-provoking conversation with Olivier Pailhès, the Co-founder of Aircall. Olivier's journey is a fascinating one, starting his career at The Boston Consulting Group and ArcelorMittal, where he gained invaluable insights into the business world. This experience laid the foundation for his venture into entrepreneurship with Aircall, a company that has recently celebrated a significant milestone, achieving centaur status with over $100 million in annual recurring revenue.

Olivier shares his insights on the importance of embracing change and taking risks, especially in a landscape marked by economic challenges and unpredictability. His perspective is particularly relevant in today's fast-paced, technology-driven environment, where adaptability and innovation are key to success.

A significant part of the discussion revolves around the launch of Voice AI, a groundbreaking development in the communications industry. Olivier explains how this technology is not just a disruptor but a transformative tool that is reshaping how businesses interact with their customers. He emphasizes the need for greater education around AI, citing Aircall’s research which reveals a gap in understanding this technology.

Interestingly, the research also highlights a sense of optimism about AI, especially among younger employees, and its potential to streamline tasks like transcribing calls and writing notes.

Neil and Olivier delve into the findings of a survey on AI implementation and concerns among SMB employees. This part of the conversation sheds light on the role of companies like Aircall in democratizing AI technology for SMBs and the broader implications of AI in automating low-value tasks. This automation, as Olivier points out, is not something to fear but to embrace, as it allows human employees to focus on more meaningful and creative work.

The episode also touches upon the future vision of Aircall, including plans to expand their customer base, focus on omni-channel communication, and leverage AI technology further. Olivier's interest in understanding the challenges and impacts on society through a potential meeting with a political leader adds a unique dimension to the discussion, highlighting the broader societal implications of technological advancements.

In summary, this episode not only provides a deep dive into the journey of a successful tech entrepreneur but also offers valuable insights into the evolving landscape of AI in business communication. It's a must-listen for anyone interested in understanding the intersection of technology, business, and society.

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2595: Rethinking Data Security: A Deep Dive with Terry Ray of Imperva Nov 30, 2023

In this compelling episode of Tech Talks Daily, I am joined by Terry Ray, Senior Vice President at Imperva, for a crucial discussion on a frequently overlooked aspect of data security: protecting low-value data. Terry brings a wealth of knowledge and a unique perspective, warning organizations about ignoring what is often perceived as insignificant data.

Throughout the episode, Terry emphasizes a critical message: no data should be ignored, regardless of its perceived value. He draws an analogy between data security and home security, illustrating how leaving low-value data unprotected is akin to leaving your front door wide open. This oversight can give cybercriminals a foothold, allowing them to gather insights and eventually target more valuable, sensitive data.

The conversation delves into why organizations need to monitor low-risk data as intensely as high-risk data. Terry argues that the goal of data security shouldn't be merely to catch criminals in the act but to identify and thwart their efforts before they can execute their plans. He stresses that even data classified as low risk can be extremely valuable in the wrong hands, necessitating vigilant monitoring and protection akin to other cybersecurity practices.

We explore real-world examples where organizations have suffered significant breaches due to insufficient attention to low-value data. These examples highlight the need for comprehensive visibility and knowledge of all data types to detect and respond to breaches effectively.

A vital part of the discussion focuses on balancing data accessibility and security. Terry underscores the importance of continuous monitoring and analysis of unusual behavior and implementing robust controls to ensure that data access is both authorized and secure.

In a world where data breaches are increasingly common and sophisticated, Terry advises organizations to prioritize data security and close any existing gaps in their security strategies. He also highlights the growing importance of leveraging machine learning and AI in analyzing data and identifying potential risks.

2594: Icertis - Harnessing AI for Sustainable Supply Chains Nov 29, 2023

Today, I am joined by Monish Darda, the CTO and Co-founder of Icertis, in a riveting discussion about the intersection of technology and sustainability. As businesses grapple with the complexities of environmental responsibility, Monish brings his rich experience in using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to the forefront, discussing how these technologies are revolutionizing supply chain management and contract intelligence.

The conversation begins with an exploration of how AI is being used to quantify and mitigate the environmental impact of supply chain partners. This topic is particularly relevant in light of the recent EU's Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directives and the UK's Sustainable Disclosure Requirements, reshaping the landscape of corporate responsibility. Monish offers insights into how AI ensuresensures compliance with these new regulations and helps companies navigate this changing terrain.

We discuss the transformative role of machine learning in analyzing millions of contracts. This technology ensures that businesses and their suppliers uphold their environmental commitments. Monish shares how Icertis leads this charge, helping companies align with sustainability requirements and manage contractual obligations.

A critical part of their discussion centers on the role of AI in combating greenwashing and promoting genuine sustainability practices. They explore the evolving role of AI in environmental sustainability and the importance of regulation in this domain, highlighting how AI can address complex sustainability challenges.

The conversation also touches on the practical applications and challenges in this field. Monish shares insights from his work at Icertis, discussing the hurdles organizations face in reducing their climate footprint and how technology can offer solutions. He emphasizes the importance of viewing regulatory changes not as obstacles but as opportunities for innovation and improvement.

Adding a personal touch to the discussion, Monish shares his experiences transforming businesses through technology. He recounts a humorous anecdote from a sales presentation with a German car company, providing a glimpse into the lighter side of the tech world.

This episode is a deep dive into how AI and ML are not just shaping the future of business but also steering it toward greater environmental responsibility. Our conversation is a blend of technical insights, regulatory perspectives, and real-world experiences, making it a must-listen for anyone keen on understanding the role of technology in fostering sustainable business practices.

2593: Blending AI and Blockchain in Gaming With Parallel Studios Nov 28, 2023

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I had the privilege of speaking with Kohji Nagata, the head of game design at Parallel, a Canadian gaming studio at the forefront of integrating AI and blockchain technologies. Our conversation offered a deep dive into Parallel's innovative projects, mainly focusing on how these technologies revolutionize the gaming industry.

Kohji introduced us to Colony, a unique project epitomizing Parallel's innovative approach. He described Colony as a blend between a Tamagotchi and a Large Language Model, where players interact with an AI avatar that acts autonomously based on its memories and biography. This groundbreaking concept in gaming allows for a dynamic and unpredictable gameplay experience, setting Parallel apart from other studios.

We discussed the Parallel Trading Card Game (TCG), a prime example of web3 and NFT integration in gaming. Kohji shared insights into the game's development process, highlighting the use of AI tools in coding and workflow enhancement. He also shed light on the involvement of industry veterans from Riot, Blizzard, Xbox Game Studios, Wizards of the Coast, and Epic Games, adding a layer of expertise to the project.

Much of our conversation revolved around Parallel's community-first approach to game and tech development. Kohji and I explored how this strategy has shaped their projects and bolstered audience engagement, a crucial element in the success of modern gaming ventures.

Looking ahead, Kohji shared his predictions for the future of blockchain and web3 in gaming. He envisioned a landscape where these technologies become more simplified and seamlessly integrated into gaming experiences, drawing a parallel to email's evolution and widespread adoption.

Kohji also offered valuable advice to aspiring tech entrepreneurs, emphasizing the importance of taking action and solving problems along the way rather than getting bogged down in details.

An intriguing aspect of our discussion was Kohji's recounting of how Parallel gained unexpected support from Chad Hurley, co-founder of YouTube. This serendipitous connection through a cold message on Twitter led to Chad's involvement as a co-founder, significantly contributing to the success and legitimacy of Parallel.

2592: Pleo: Revolutionizing Business Spending with Thorbjørn Fink Nov 27, 2023

In this Tech Talks Daily Podcast episode, I had the opportunity to engage in a fascinating conversation with Thorbjørn Fink, COO of Pleo, a trailblazing company in the fintech sector. Our discussion offered an in-depth look at how Pleo transforms how businesses handle spending through innovative solutions that streamline financial processes and empower employees.

Thorbjørn began by sharing his journey in finance and what led him to join Pleo. His insights provided a unique perspective on the company's mission and operations, setting the stage for an enlightening discussion about what distinguishes Pleo in the competitive fintech landscape.

Much of our conversation revolved around Pleo's challenges while scaling across different markets. Thorbjørn highlighted the hurdles in attracting and retaining talent and the critical importance of investing in infrastructure and regulatory compliance to facilitate rapid expansion. This part of our dialogue offered listeners a rare glimpse into the complexities of scaling a fintech company internationally.

We then shifted our focus to the role of tools and automation in enhancing organizational efficiency and improving the working lives of employees. Thorbjørn emphasized the need for companies to identify areas where manual tasks bog down employees. He shared how Pleo's solutions, such as intelligent company cards and automated expense reports, are designed to alleviate these burdens, thereby unlocking business value through automation.

Another critical topic we delved into was the importance of automating processes in finance departments. Thorbjørn and I discussed how automation minimizes human errors and allows finance teams to focus on more strategic, value-added tasks. He stressed the necessity of building a scalable foundation in finance departments and being open to adopting new tools to future-proof these critical business units.

Throughout our conversation, Thorbjørn provided insights into Pleo's unique features, including its ability to catch receipts on the go, automatically categorize expenses, and offer full compatibility with Apple Pay and Google Pay. He also touched upon Pleo's innovative Pocket feature, which enables instant out-of-pocket spend reimbursement, illustrating how Pleo captures wall-to-wall spending across businesses.

As we wrapped up, Thorbjørn shared where listeners can find more information about Pleo and its offerings, inviting them to explore how Pleo's solutions can revolutionize their business spending and financial management.

2591: AI Co-Pilots in Manufacturing: A Future Vision with Artem Kroupenev of Augury Nov 26, 2023

In this episode of the Tech Talks Daily Podcast, I had the opportunity to converse with Artem Kroupenev, VP of Strategy at Augury. Our discussion offered a deep dive into the transformative role of AI co-pilots in the manufacturing sector and how they are poised to redefine the industry in the coming years.

Artem started our conversation by outlining his role at Augury, a company at the intersection of manufacturing and cutting-edge technology. He detailed how Augury's innovative machine health and process health solutions leverage AI to predict machine failures and optimize production processes, thereby enhancing efficiency and reducing costs in the manufacturing industry.

Our discussion focused heavily on the application of AI in manufacturing, particularly in the context of machine health and optimization. Artem and I explored how AI co-pilots are not just futuristic concepts but current realities transforming factory floors. These AI systems create safer work environments, boost efficiency, and improve product quality, marking a significant leap in manufacturing operations.

We delved into the challenges and benefits of integrating AI co-pilots into manufacturing workflows. The conversation highlighted the importance of building trust, fostering cross-functional collaboration, and effectively measuring the impact of AI adoption. Artem emphasized that AI in manufacturing empowers workers and augments their capabilities rather than replacing human expertise.

Our dialogue then shifted to the broader implications of embracing AI in the manufacturing industry. We discussed the concept of hybrid intelligence, where human expertise synergizes with AI to make informed decisions and improve processes. This approach is not just about enhancing operational efficiency; it's about driving innovation and sustainability in manufacturing.

In a particularly engaging segment, Artem, Kiah, and I discussed the importance of staying abreast of industry trends, the value of self-education, and the critical role of learning in adapting to technological advancements. We also touched upon the impactful work Augury is doing in solving complex problems in the manufacturing industry, setting a benchmark for others to follow.

As the conversation wrapped up, Artem shared insights on where listeners can find more information about Augury and their groundbreaking work. He pointed to their online presence as a resource for those interested in learning more about AI's role in manufacturing and the future of industrial operations.

This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in understanding the future of manufacturing, the role of AI in transforming industries, and the innovative strides companies like Augury are making. Join us as we explore these fascinating topics with Artem Kroupenev, a thought leader in AI and manufacturing.

2590: Closing the Cyber Skills Gap: A Conversation with Roy Zur of ThriveDX Nov 25, 2023

In this latest episode of the Tech Talks Daily Podcast, I had the pleasure of speaking with Roy Zur, CEO of ThriveDX Enterprise, a company at the forefront of cybersecurity training and education. Our discussion centered around ThriveDX's innovative approach to addressing the critical cybersecurity skills gap, its unique training model, and its groundbreaking Cybersecurity Apprenticeship program.

The conversation started by exploring the current cybersecurity landscape and its growing importance in a tight economy. Roy then shared his insights on how cybersecurity offers vast opportunities for individuals looking to reskill or upskill, especially in today's digital age, where security threats are ever-evolving.

We then delved into what sets ThriveDX's training model apart. Roy elucidated on their hands-on, practical approach to cybersecurity education, which equips candidates with the necessary skills and prepares them for the real-world challenges they will face in the field. This focus on practical training is a cornerstone of ThriveDX's success in producing highly competent cybersecurity professionals.

Much of our discussion was dedicated to ThriveDX's new Cybersecurity Apprenticeship program. Roy explained how this program offers companies a risk-free way to bring in new cybersecurity talent and reskill their current employees.

This initiative, aimed at closing the cyber skills gap and building diversity across the industry, partners with nonprofits to provide employers with the opportunity to train and hire cyber professionals from diverse communities. The program stands out for its zero training costs and reduced hiring fees, making it a win-win for employers and aspiring cybersecurity professionals.

Roy and I also discussed the value of hiring individuals from non-tech backgrounds, such as veterans or analysts, for cybersecurity positions. He highlighted how ThriveDX identifies potential candidates, provides them with comprehensive hands-on training, and boasts a high employment rate in the field.

We further discussed the significant cybersecurity skills gap and the challenges businesses face in filling these positions. Roy emphasized the importance of apprenticeship programs in addressing this shortage and the long-term benefits and loyalty apprentices bring to organizations.

Roy also shed light on the Apprenti program, which provides government grants for training individuals in the United States and has partnerships in other countries. He spoke about ThriveDX's continuous learning approach through 'last mile training,' collaborating with tech companies to stay updated with industry advancements.

2589: The Future of Voice Technology: A Deep Dive with Tobias Dengel of WillowTree Nov 24, 2023

In this insightful episode of the Tech Talks Daily Podcast, I sat down with Tobias Dengel, CEO of WillowTree, a leader in the digital product industry. Our conversation revolved around the transformative potential of voice technology and its role in reshaping our interaction with devices and machines. Tobias brought a wealth of knowledge and foresight on how the latest advancements in AI and voice technology are set to revolutionize our daily lives and the business landscape.

At the outset, Tobias and I explored the concept of the complete reinvention of human-device interaction. We delved into how voice technology, powered by cutting-edge AI, is not just an emerging trend but a pivotal shift towards a more intuitive, efficient, and human-centric way of engaging with technology. Tobias emphasized the evolution of digital experiences towards multimodal interfaces, which integrate spoken words, screens, keyboards, sounds, and haptics, creating a seamless connection between humans and machines.

A crucial part of our discussion focused on crafting exceptional user experiences in voice technology. Tobias highlighted the need for a multimodal approach, where voice is used for input and other output forms like text or graphics. This approach, he believes, is the breakthrough we need to enhance our interaction with technology, making it more natural and effective.

We then tackled the challenges inherent in creating relatable and compelling voice interactions. Tobias and I discussed the crucial balance between making voice technology relatable yet transparent about its non-human nature. We also touched upon the sensitive data collection and usage issue, underscoring the need for clear communication and ethical practices in this domain.

Diversity in voice technology development was another significant topic we covered. Tobias highlighted the progress made in training systems to recognize a variety of accents and languages, underlining the importance of inclusivity in this field. He also advised businesses on implementing voice technology, advocating for a step-by-step approach that focuses on solving bounded problems and gradually building trust with users.

An exciting part of our conversation was when Tobias discussed his book, which delves into the convergence of General AI and conversational AI in the voice technology sector. He shared his prediction about the future of Siri and other voice assistants, envisioning a scenario where they become integrated layers within various applications, facilitating a more fluid and natural voice interaction experience within apps.

This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in understanding the future trajectory of voice technology and its implications for both personal and professional realms. Join us as we unravel the complexities and explore the immense possibilities of voice technology with Tobias Dengel, a visionary in the digital product space.

2588: Harnessing Space for Earth: A Conversation with Peter Platzer of Spire Nov 23, 2023

In this pisode of the Tech Talks Daily Podcast, I had the privilege of engaging with Peter Platzer, the visionary CEO of Spire, a company at the forefront of utilizing space technology to address some of the most pressing challenges on Earth. As we delve into the intricacies of Spire's mission and operations, our discussion unveils how this innovative company is leveraging the vastness of space to bring tangible solutions to our planet, particularly in the face of escalating climate disasters.

Our conversation began with an exploration of Spire's foundational mission: harnessing space to solve problems on Earth. Peter eloquently described how Spire, a data and analytics powerhouse, is utilizing its fleet of satellites to revolutionize our approach to weather forecasting and monitoring maritime and aviation activities. This global network of satellites is not just a technological marvel but a critical tool in predicting and understanding patterns that have far-reaching impacts on economies, international security, and environmental sustainability.

A significant focus of our dialogue centered on the increasing risks posed by climate change and how Spire's technology is pivotal in monitoring and early detection of weather-related disasters. Peter shared insightful details on how Spire's collaboration with esteemed organizations like NOAA, NASA, and OroraTech's Wildfire Solution is enhancing our ability to mitigate and track environmental risks. This partnership is a testament to the power of combining expertise for the greater good.

We then navigated through the fascinating journey of Spire in building a space-powered, global data network. Peter's belief that every industry vertical should incorporate a space strategy, akin to the adoption of internet strategies in the past, was a thought-provoking highlight. This perspective underscores the evolving landscape of business and technology, where space is no longer a frontier for a select few but a domain of immense potential for diverse industries.

Our discussion also illuminated how Spire's unique combination of weather and scientific expertise, bolstered by a robust satellite and space infrastructure, enables them to generate accurate 15-day global weather forecasts. This capability is not just about numbers and predictions; it's about empowering communities worldwide to prepare for and mitigate the effects of extreme weather events.

Delving deeper, we discussed Spire's innovative use of small satellites, which orbit the Earth every 90 minutes, providing unparalleled coverage and data collection capabilities. The use of radio waves to analyze critical weather conditions, such as wind speed and moisture, exemplifies how advanced technology can be harnessed for the greater good, aiding in disaster prediction and mitigation.

Peter also illuminated the importance of capturing data from space for accurate global weather prediction. The ability of Spire to generate precise 15-day forecasts marks a significant leap in our weather prediction capabilities, with profound implications for various sectors. In a fascinating segment, Peter shared insights into Spire's latest projects, including developing new weather data sources and advancements in aviation safety and aircraft tracking. His enthusiasm for the future of space habitats and the broader application of space technology in scientific and climate change initiatives was infectious and inspiring.

This episode is not just a conversation; it's a journey into space technology and its profound impact on our planet. Join us as we unravel the complexities and celebrate the innovations shaping our world, one satellite at a time.

2587: RetailTech: Honeywell's Strategy for a Frictionless Future Nov 22, 2023

In this episode, we're exploring the innovative world of Honeywell, a Fortune 500 company renowned for inventing and manufacturing technologies that tackle global safety, security, and energy challenges. I'm joined by Mehul Patel from Honeywell Safety and Productivity Solutions (SPS) to delve into how Honeywell is revolutionizing the retail experience.

We discuss how modern customer demands are reshaping the retail landscape. Technology is playing an increasingly crucial role, from autonomous stores to the need for instant, informed customer service. With its rich history in the retail supply chain dating back to the 1970s, Honeywell is at the forefront of creating frictionless experiences in both shops and distribution centers. Notably, 60 of the top 100 global retailers and 50 percent of the top 100 e-commerce retailers rely on Honeywell's automated material handling solutions.

Mehul shares insights on how Honeywell Technologies is helping retailers digitize their processes, offering a unified shopping experience across all channels. This digital transformation is not just about technology; it's about enhancing customer satisfaction and loyalty. We delve into the role of automated solutions in retail, discussing how they optimize workflows, boost worker productivity, and allow employees to focus on more impactful tasks like customer service.

Further into our conversation, we explore how automation and autonomy are crucial to creating a frictionless retail experience. Mehul provides real-life examples of retailers successfully implementing Honeywell solutions, showcasing measurable operations and customer satisfaction improvements.

Lastly, Mehul highlights Honeywell's collaborative approach with vendors, suppliers, and customers. This synergy drives innovation and creates solutions that effectively address their unique challenges. With a proven track record, low total cost of ownership, and integration of the latest technology, Honeywell is a preferred choice for many top global retailers.

Join us in this fascinating episode as we uncover the layers of retail innovation and the transformative impact of Honeywell's technologies in creating seamless, efficient, and customer-centric shopping experiences.

2586: Pentera — Educating the Next Generation About Cybersecurity. Nov 21, 2023

Today, I'm thrilled to have Aviv Cohen, the Chief Marketing Officer of cybersecurity unicorn Pentera, join us for a fascinating discussion on a topic that's crucial yet often overlooked: educating the next generation about cybersecurity.

In this episode, Aviv and I dive into his unique initiative – the creation of a children's book titled "Castle Defenders: What Do Cyber Parents Do?" This Amazon #1 Bestseller is not just a book; it's a movement towards making cybersecurity a household conversation. Aviv shares the inspiration behind this innovative approach to educating children about the digital world and the importance of online safety.

We start our conversation by exploring Aviv's role at Pentera, a category leader in Automated Security Validation. Pentera's platform is pivotal in enabling organizations to consistently test the integrity of their cybersecurity defenses, a mission that Aviv is deeply passionate about.

The core of our discussion, however, revolves around "Castle Defenders." Aviv explains how he managed to distill complex cybersecurity concepts into a format that's not only digestible for children but also engaging and educational. We delve into how this book serves as a vital tool for parents – whether they're cybersecurity professionals or not – to educate their children about the nuances and dangers of the internet.

Further into the episode, we discuss the broader implications of "Castle Defenders." Aviv and I ponder over the potential of such educational tools in inspiring future generations to pursue careers in cybersecurity. We agree that understanding and appreciating the work of cybersecurity professionals from a young age can foster a more secure digital future.

The conversation also touches upon the expansion of the "Castle Defenders" series, including exciting plans for an audiobook with multiple voices and translations into various languages. Aviv highlights the role of private companies like Pentera in public education, emphasizing the importance of early education and parental involvement in cybersecurity.

As we wrap up, Aviv shares insights into Pentera's mission and its impact on the cybersecurity landscape. With thousands of security professionals and service providers globally relying on Pentera for guidance in remediation and closing security gaps, Aviv's insights are invaluable for anyone interested in the current and future state of cybersecurity.

2585: Telit Cinterion - IoT's Role in EV Charging and Smart Metering Nov 20, 2023

Welcome back to Tech Talks Daily! In today's episode, we're venturing into the innovative world of IoT with Neil Bosworth from Telit Cinterion, the largest western provider pioneering IoT innovation. Telit Cinterion is known for its award-winning and highly secure IoT solutions, modules, and services, catering to the industry's top brands. Our conversation today revolves around the transformative impact of IoT in two critical areas: Electric Vehicle (EV) charging and smart metering.

First, we delve into the integral role of IoT in reshaping the EV charging landscape. Neil sheds light on how cellular connectivity is crucial in providing reliable charging services. He explains how Telit Cinterion's expertise plays a pivotal role in this transformation, ensuring that EV charging is not just accessible but also efficient and dependable.

We then tackle the challenges faced by EV charging stations, including revenue losses and reputational damage due to unreliable or dysfunctional charging points. Neil reveals how Telit Cinterion mitigates these risks by offering robust solutions like SIM cards and industrial connectivity. He also discusses the tools they provide for managing the connectivity of charge points, highlighting the importance of reliability and security in this rapidly growing sector.

A significant part of our discussion is dedicated to the revolution of e-SIM technology. Neil explains how this innovation eliminates the need for physical SIM cards, simplifying the management of mobile network operator profiles. He emphasizes the importance of staying abreast of technological advancements and network operator strategies to ensure long-term, effective connectivity solutions for IoT devices.

Moving to smart metering, Neil and I explore the benefits these devices bring to grid management, energy efficiency, and customer engagement. We discuss how secure and reliable connectivity is essential for smart meters to function effectively, and how this technology is revolutionizing the way we manage and consume energy.

This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in understanding the profound impact of IoT in our daily lives and its potential to reshape industries. Neil Bosworth's insights provide a deep dive into how Telit Cinterion is leading the charge in harnessing IoT for a smarter, more connected world.

2584: Empowering Voices Through XR: A Deep Dive with Michaela Ternasky-Holland Nov 19, 2023

Today, I'm thrilled to welcome Michaela Ternasky-Holland, an Emmy and Webby award-winning director renowned for her groundbreaking work in immersive and interactive storytelling. Michaela's expertise in XR (Extended Reality) and the metaverse has positioned her as a leading voice in using technology for social impact.

In this episode, Michaela shares her journey as an XR/metaverse creator, consultant, and speaker. Her work, featured by prestigious brands and organizations like Disney, TIME, Forbes, and the Tribeca Film Festival, focuses on creative strategy and impact production. We delve into how she leverages VR (virtual reality), AR (augmented reality), and XR for purpose-driven projects, addressing global issues like nuclear weapons and gun violence and advocating for diversity in storytelling.

Michaela discusses her recent project, "MAHAL," a VR film that was a finalist for the VR Film of the Year. This film exemplifies her commitment to championing underrepresented voices and cultures. We explore the nuances of creating impactful educational experiences using VR and AR and how these technologies can evoke emotional responses and drive real-world change.

Michaela emphasizes the need for equitable distribution of resources and opportunities, working with international organizations to promote global engagement in XR. We also touch upon radical inclusivity and community involvement in XR technologies, discussing the potential for behavior change through immersive VR experiences.

Further into our discussion, Michaela shared insights into the technical challenges of creating VR content using tools like Oculus Quill. She highlighted the potential of XR technologies in promoting mental well-being and mindfulness while acknowledging the need for caution regarding their impact on the brain.

As we look towards the future, Michaela expresses her interest in generative AI and developing clean, sustainable technology. Our conversation also covers the broader implications of technology on the environment and society.

Michaela's journey is not just about technology; it's about empowering voices and creating meaningful change. Her story is an inspiration to anyone interested in the transformative power of XR and the responsibility that comes with it.

2583: Innovating for a Better World: The Studio Elros Story Nov 18, 2023

Charlie Robertson and Harry Simmonds from Studio Elros join me on Tech Talks Daily. Studio Elros isn't just another venture studio; it's a hub where world-class inventors and forward-thinking organizations converge to co-create products and startups.

Their mission? To foster positive change for people, the environment, and communities. This episode takes us on a journey from the West Midlands to Edinburgh and New Zealand, illustrating the power of curiosity and uncertainty in driving innovation.

Charlie and Harry share the fascinating origin story of Studio Elros, including their serendipitous meeting while walking the length of New Zealand. This adventure marked the beginning of their partnership and laid the foundation for a venture studio driven by a passion for exploration and a commitment to making a meaningful impact.

We delve into Studio Elros' unique partnership model, focusing on building relationships with organizations to create products that genuinely move the world forward. The duo discusses their approach to selecting projects, emphasizing their passion for initiatives that align with their core values.

Harry brings insights from his experience at Apple, shedding light on how big tech influences smaller innovation hubs. We also explore the studio's sustainability and environmental focus with a fascinating dive into one of their projects on algae farming. This example underscores their commitment to sustainability and showcases how technology can be leveraged for environmental good.

As educators in AI, ML, and product design, Charlie and Harry emphasize the importance of sustainable focus in these fields. They believe in nurturing a culture of open-minded thinkers and builders dedicated to designing products that solve problems and contribute positively to our world.

This episode is a testament to the power of curiosity, serendipity, and openness to new ideas and opportunities. It intertwines life, technology, the universe, and everything in between, reminding us that a human story is at the heart of every technological advancement.

Join us on this inspiring journey with Charlie Robertson and Harry Simmonds from Studio Elros and discover how technology, combined with human creativity and a vision for a better world, can lead to extraordinary outcomes.

2582: Navigating the Data Landscape With Alation Nov 17, 2023

In today's episode of Tech Talks Daily, we discuss the evolving world of data and analytics with Julie Smith, the director of data and analytics at Alation, a global leader in data intelligence. With over thirty years of experience in the data industry, Julie offers a unique perspective on its transformation and the role of women in this traditionally male-dominated field.

Our conversation with Julie centers around the critical theme of a people-led data transformation. She believes there is no 'one size fits all' approach to data governance and emphasizes the importance of considering the diverse needs and perspectives of people involved in these processes. Julie's insights are precious for organizations looking to balance the technical aspects of data governance with the human elements that drive its success.

Julie also discusses her journey as a woman in the tech industry, highlighting the barriers that still exist for women aspiring to succeed in data and tech roles. Despite the progress made, Julie acknowledges the need for greater diversity and inclusion in the field. Her experiences provide valuable lessons and inspiration for women navigating their careers in tech and data.

Much of our discussion focuses on the importance of effective communication in data management and governance. Julie highlights how data intelligence is revolutionizing various industries, from retail giants like Sainsbury's to energy companies like Vattenfall. She stresses the need for flexibility in data transformation strategies, considering organizational culture and scale factors.

For those aspiring to build a career in tech and data, Julie offers sage advice. She emphasizes the importance of building confidence, the power of networking, and the value of staying true to one's authentic self. Julie's anecdote about a humorous mishap with a sat-nav on a work trip is a light-hearted reminder of the importance of human input and context in our increasingly technology-driven world.

Join us in this enlightening episode as Julie Smith shares her seasoned insights on data governance, the data industry's evolution, and women's empowerment in tech. Whether you're a data professional, aspiring to enter the field, or simply interested in the intersection of technology and human dynamics, this episode is packed with wisdom and inspiration.

2581: Bridging the Gap With CompTIA : Cybersecurity Skills and Training Nov 16, 2023

In this compelling episode of Tech Talks Daily, I am thrilled to host James Stanger, Chief Technology Evangelist at CompTIA, the world's leading non-profit provider of vendor-neutral IT certifications. Our conversation offers a panoramic view of the current landscape in cybersecurity skills and training, addressing critical issues and emerging trends in the tech industry.

We kick off the episode by discussing the significance of IT certifications, especially cybersecurity. James provides valuable insights into how these certifications serve as benchmarks of achievement and play a crucial role in expanding the employment horizon for those aspiring to enter this dynamic field.

Diving deeper, we explore the benefits of apprenticeships in tech. James shares compelling statistics from the National Apprenticeship Service, highlighting how apprenticeships improve staff retention and offer a practical, hands-on approach to learning and skill development. This segment is particularly enlightening for businesses considering the integration of apprenticeship programs.

The conversation then shifts to the pressing issue of the UK's growing cybersecurity skills gap. James offers his expert perspective on this impact on businesses and the necessary steps to mitigate these challenges. We discuss CompTIA's role in this scenario, focusing on its comprehensive training platform and the resources and certifications it offers for individuals pursuing a tech career.

Much of our discussion is dedicated to the strategic advantages and potential risks of open source in today's enterprise environment. James emphasizes the importance of effective communication, understanding the intricate relationship between business and technology, and implementing data-driven approaches in cybersecurity training programs.

As we delve into the future of tech and training, James highlights the importance of developing a robust technical foundation and digital fluency. We discuss the evolving role of AI in the workplace, stressing the need to view AI as a collaborator rather than a replacement and how it can be utilized to automate mundane tasks, freeing humans to focus on creative and interpretive thinking.

This episode is a treasure trove of insights for anyone interested in the intersections of technology, cybersecurity, and workforce development. Based on his extensive experience and leadership roles in the tech community, James Stanger's expertise provides a unique and authoritative perspective on these critical topics.

2580: Digital Highlands: The Scottish Government's Cloud Revolution Nov 15, 2023

In this enlightening episode of Tech Talks Daily, I am joined by Neill Smith, Head of Infrastructure at the Agricultural Economy Directorate for the Scottish Government. We delve into the intricate journey of the Scottish Government's transition towards a more digital and cloud-centric approach. This episode offers a unique perspective on how a significant arm of the government, responsible for disbursing around $1 billion in subsidies to farmers, is navigating the complex landscape of modern technology.

Neill Smith shares his insights on the challenges and opportunities presented by cloud migration, emphasizing the importance of understanding and adapting to the specific needs of each workload. He sheds light on the common misconceptions about cloud-first strategies and the importance of a nuanced approach in public sector digital transformation.

We also explore the broader implications of this shift, including the rising expectations of citizens for digital services, the challenges of cloud skills shortages, and the importance of diversity in tech to foster innovative solutions. Neill's perspective on the role of culture and people in driving technological change is particularly thought-provoking.

Furthermore, we discuss the Scottish Government's commitment to sustainability and how technology is being leveraged to promote greener farming practices. Neill highlights the use of cutting-edge technologies like AI and satellite imagery in agriculture, showcasing how these innovations can lead to more efficient and environmentally friendly practices.

As we delve into the future of application delivery and the vision for a more digital government, this episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in how technology is reshaping the public sector. Neill Smith's expertise and experience offer invaluable insights into the journey of modernizing government services and the strategic deployment of cloud services.

Join us for this episode of Tech Talks Daily, where we uncover the layers of digital transformation in the public sector and the visionary leadership driving this change.

About Neill Smith:

Neill Smith is a renowned expert in Cloud, Virtualization, Linux, and Middleware. As the Head of Infrastructure at The Scottish Government (ARE Directorate), he brings a wealth of experience and knowledge. A respected figure in the tech community, Neill has spoken at major technical conferences like AWS re:Invent, VMworld, and Gartner Infrastructure, Operations & Cloud Strategies. His insights into the intersection of technology, government, and industry are invaluable for understanding the future of digital governance.

2579: The Chief Customer Officer: Roles, Responsibilities and ROI Nov 15, 2023

Join me for an insightful conversation with Mary Fratto Rowe, the newly appointed Chief Customer Officer at Navisite. With over three decades of experience in customer success and leadership, Mary brings a wealth of knowledge on transforming customer success organizations and driving business growth through exceptional customer experiences.

In this episode, Mary discusses the evolving role of the Chief Customer Officer and how it's becoming increasingly pivotal in aligning company strategies with customer needs and expectations. She shares her vision for Navisite's customer experience, emphasizing the importance of building strong, honest relationships and the implementation of strategic programs like executive sponsor programs and customer advisory boards.

We explore the concept of a customer-centric organization, delving into how such an orientation can drive a company's growth and success. They discuss the significance of a robust customer success program in increasing revenues, profitability, and shareholder return, especially in today's challenging business environment.

Mary also touches on the exciting potential of AI in enhancing customer-facing teams and the future of support portals. She envisions a more intelligent and helpful system that empowers customers to find answers more efficiently. The episode concludes with Mary reflecting on the influences in her career, particularly highlighting Maria Martinez's impact on her professional journey.

2578: How ABB is Powering the Future With Public EV Charging Infrastructure Nov 14, 2023

In this electrifying episode, I plug into the world of electric vehicle (EV) charging with Dan O'Shea, VP of Business Development at ABB E-mobility. With over a decade of experience in EV charging infrastructure and a finger on the pulse of public charging and utilities, Dan brings an invaluable technologist’s perspective to the table.

ABB E-mobility, a global leader in EV charging solutions, boasts the highest uptime and the largest installed base of DC fast chargers in the market. Dan discusses the company's vertically integrated offerings, including a wide portfolio of AC and DC charging hardware, digital services, and advanced energy and fleet management solutions. He highlights how critical cloud-based connectivity enables ABB to provide round-the-clock remote monitoring and diagnostics, ensuring reliability and availability.

We explore the pressing question of whether EV charging infrastructure can keep pace with the anticipated growth fueled by government investment. They delve into the role of fleet electrification in the broader context of the EV revolution and how it fits into the big picture of sustainable transportation.

The conversation shifts to the best practices for ensuring charging reliability and uptime in public spaces. Dan shares insights on the importance of robust infrastructure, the integration of smart technology, and the need for continuous innovation to meet the demands of an ever-growing EV market.

Furthermore, they discuss the pivotal role of utilities in achieving industry-wide reliability and the further adoption of EVs. Dan emphasizes the collaborative efforts required between various stakeholders to create a seamless and user-friendly charging experience for EV owners.

This episode is a deep dive into the technological advancements and strategic thinking required to expand and enhance the public EV charging infrastructure. Listeners will gain a comprehensive understanding of the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead in the journey towards a fully electrified future.

2577: Quantum Computing: Today's Impact and Tomorrow's Promise with Tony Uttley of Quantinuum Nov 14, 2023

Some often view Quantum computing as a futuristic concept. But Tony Uttley brings it into the present, discussing its real-world applications and the transformative impact it's already having across various sectors. From enhancing cybersecurity with advanced encryption methods to driving innovation in finance, pharmaceuticals, and materials development, quantum computing is not just a theoretical marvel but a practical tool reshaping our world.

Tony and I dive into the potential risks and rewards of investing in quantum computing. We tackle common misconceptions, emphasizing that quantum computing is more than a theoretical concept; it's a burgeoning field demonstrating tangible benefits and capabilities across diverse industries.

A significant focus of our conversation revolves around the critical role of quantum computing in cybersecurity. We discuss how quantum computing addresses sophisticated threats and the importance of preparing for the quantum leap in data protection and encryption.

One of the unique aspects of Tony's approach at Quantinuum is the integration of a dedicated physics department within the company. This strategic decision allows for tapping into the expertise of leading experts across various fields, fostering an environment of innovation and cutting-edge research.

As we look towards the future, Tony shares insights on the upcoming milestones in quantum computing, including surpassing classical simulation capabilities and the emergence of applications that will tangibly impact our daily lives. He emphasizes the importance of staying informed and engaged with the advancements in quantum computing, inviting listeners to explore more through the Quantinuum website.

This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in understanding the current state and future potential of quantum computing. Join us as we unravel the complexities of this revolutionary technology and its implications for our world today and tomorrow.

2576: Securing the Cloud: Liat Hayun's Vision of Data Security in the Digital Age Nov 13, 2023

In an era where cloud breaches are not just risks but realities, I sit down with Liat Hayun, co-founder of Eureka Security and a vanguard in the cybersecurity domain, on this episode of Tech Talks Daily. Liat, with a decorated background from the Israeli Cyber Command to Palo Alto Networks, and now at the helm of Eureka Security, brings a wealth of experience and a track record of innovation to the table.

The episode kicks off with Liat sharing her journey as a female tech leader and entrepreneur. She reflects on her pivotal roles, from her service in the IDF, which earned her the Israel Defense Prize, to leading the production of Cortex XDR at Palo Alto Networks. Liat offers insights into the growth opportunities and learnings from her transition from on-prem to cloud solutions and the nuances of building a threat hunting team.

As the conversation progresses, we delve into the evolution of data security. They dissect the challenges businesses face in securing data in the cloud and how Eureka's distinctive approach—centered on data discovery, comprehension, and management—addresses these issues.

The importance of data management and access control is underscored, with Liat emphasizing the critical role these play in protecting customer data, maintaining reputation, and ensuring regulatory compliance. They explore how understanding and mitigating data risks is a continuous process, vital for the health of any organization.

We also touch upon the strategic value of engaging with early-stage startups, especially in the current economic climate, for tailored security solutions. They discuss real-world use cases where Eureka Security's solutions have empowered businesses to not only meet compliance requirements but also to harness new technologies effectively.

2575: Redefining Team Development With OnLoop Nov 12, 2023

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I enjoy a thought-provoking conversation with Projjal Ghatak, the innovative mind behind OnLoop, a platform that's pioneering the space of Collaborative Team Development (CTD). Projjal, with his rich background from Uber to Accenture and his academic stint at Stanford GSB, brings a disruptive approach to traditional performance management.

The dialogue opens with an exploration of OnLoop's mission to transform how hybrid teams are assessed and developed. Projjal shares his decade-long frustration with outdated enterprise performance tools and how it fueled his dedication to empowering the world's 1 billion knowledge workers.

We dive into the nuances of managing team productivity, discussing the critical need for managers to maintain visibility on their team's capacity to perform. They dissect the concept of shared clarity on business and personal goals, and the importance of building habits around frequent and constructive feedback.

A significant highlight of the conversation is the discussion on the redundancy of writing performance summaries in the digital age. Projjal suggests that generative AI could streamline this process, although user feedback on this innovative approach remains to be seen.

The challenges and benefits of managing hybrid teams take center stage as Projjal acknowledges the complexities of remote work, from reduced accountability to the necessity of finding effective management solutions. They agree that hybrid work is here to stay, underscoring the need for tools that support this enduring shift.

Feedback's role in professional growth is also a focal point, with Projjal introducing 'On Loopers', an app designed to facilitate effective feedback exchange. They touch upon the value of diverse global teams in creating universally relevant products.

Closing the episode, Projjal emphasizes the importance of self-education and coaching, advocating for learning through various channels, including podcasts. This discussion is not just a deep dive into the mechanics of CTD but also a testament to the power of innovation in unlocking team potential.

2574: The Mind Behind the Startup: Yael Daniely on Founder Psychology and Emotional Resilience Nov 11, 2023

I explore the psychological underpinnings of the startup world with Yael Daniely, a seasoned startup psychologist and co-founder therapist. Yael brings to the table a unique blend of clinical expertise and intensive research focused on the mental and emotional well-being of founders and their teams.

The conversation opens with Yael discussing the common psychological barriers that startup founders face. From the specter of burnout to the pervasive stress and fear of failure, Yael unpacks the personal experiences and triggers that can hinder founders' professional journeys. With 70% of her portfolio successfully moving on to their next funding round, Yael's approach to transforming vulnerability into strength is not just theory but proven practice.

As a therapist who specializes in co-founder relationships, Yael sheds light on the complex dynamics that can make or break the startup's leadership. She stresses the importance of personal relational resumes, psychological contracts, and the necessity of regular, open communication to navigate the highs and lows of startup life.

We also explore the essential factors that contribute to a healthy co-founder relationship. Awareness, understanding, and embracing the challenges of growth are discussed as cornerstones for fostering emotional health and resilience among founders.

Yael also paints a vivid picture of the startup environment's unique stresses and challenges, where founders often grapple with intense responsibility and anxiety for their venture's survival. She shares early signs of burnout and advocates for a holistic approach to mental health, which includes physical self-care, building a robust support system, and strategies for reframing thoughts and emotions.

This episode is a must-listen for founders, co-founders, and anyone involved in the startup ecosystem who is looking to build resilience, improve performance, and maintain emotional health in the face of intense entrepreneurial demands.

2573: VMware Explore - Exploring Multi-Cloud Innovation Nov 10, 2023

In today's episode of the Tech Talks Daily Podcast, I'm thrilled to bring you an engaging conversation straight from the bustling halls of VMware Explore 2023. It's here, amidst the center of the multi-cloud universe, where I had the fortunate chance to bump into Andy Corcoran, the UK&I Channel Sales Director at VMware.

Known for his fervent passion for leveraging technology to drive positive business outcomes, Andy brings a wealth of knowledge and insight into VMware's approach to multi-cloud innovation.

Our discussion kicks off with an in-depth look at VMware's partner program. Andy eloquently describes how this program is intricately designed to align with the evolving needs of both partners and customers in the cloud technology space. He emphasizes the importance of these partnerships in driving incremental business value, a testament to his meticulous approach in planning and executing business strategies.

As we delve deeper, Andy shares his insights on how VMware collaborates with key partners to address the diverse and complex cloud technology needs of their customers. This collaboration, as he points out, is not just about delivering tailored solutions but also about ensuring that these solutions are effective and future-proof. It's a glimpse into the symbiotic relationships that VMware nurtures and values in its ecosystem.

A significant part of our conversation revolves around the appeal of VMware's technology, particularly VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF). Andy explains why an increasing number of customers are turning towards VMware's offerings to enhance their business operations. It's not just about the technology itself, but also about the trust and reliability that VMware has cultivated over the years.

Data sovereignty, a key focus at this year's VMware Explore, is another critical topic we explore. Andy highlights the importance of data sovereignty for organizations and how VMware Sovereign Cloud assists in ensuring this crucial aspect. He doesn't shy away from discussing the risks associated with the lack of a defined data sovereignty policy or supporting technologies, underscoring the urgency and importance of this issue in today's digital landscape.

Private AI, another significant theme at VMware Explore 2023, is also a topic we touch upon. Andy provides a clear and concise explanation of what Private AI entails, integrating it into the broader vision of VMware. He navigates the complexities of balancing the benefits of AI with privacy and compliance rules, a challenge that many organizations face today.

As our conversation nears its end, Andy shares his thoughts on the future - specifically, the challenges and opportunities he foresees for IT and Channel partners in 2024. His forward-looking insights offer a glimpse into what the future holds for the industry, making it a must-listen segment for anyone keen on staying ahead in the rapidly evolving world of cloud technology.

2572: VMware Explore: Navigating the Cloud Innovation Race Nov 10, 2023

This episode is a special broadcast live from VMware Explore in Barcelona. This event is at the forefront of guiding businesses on their journey to multi-cloud, and today, we're diving into a topic that's on everyone's mind: the evolving priorities of C-suites regarding cloud innovation.

Martin Hosken, VMware's Chief Technologist for Cloud in EMEA, joins me in this insightful discussion. Martin is a driving force behind VMware's technology vision and a recognized thought leader in the Hybrid Cloud and Multi-Cloud communities. A rich technology strategy background and a deep industry understanding shape his insights.

Alongside Martin, we're joined by Gavin Jolliffe, CEO and Co-Founder of Xtravirt. Gavin's expertise lies in steering a modern consulting and managed services firm committed to unlocking the full potential of cloud and business technologies for its clients. His perspective is crucial in understanding how consulting services are shaping the future of cloud strategies.

In our conversation, we delve into the nuances of cloud innovation from the C-Suite perspective. We discuss the latest trends, challenges, and opportunities businesses face in the cloud domain. Martin and Gavin share their insights on why financial and technical expertise, particularly in FinOps, is becoming increasingly crucial yet challenging to acquire in today's market.

We also touch upon the current state of the labor market in cloud recruitment. Understanding what skills are in demand and how traditional cloud skills like DevOps are evolving in the present landscape provides a clearer picture of the industry's direction.

Moreover, our discussion extends to the practical aspects of cloud application and management. We explore how businesses can gauge their cloud applications' and strategies' value and returns. This includes understanding the metrics and signals that indicate successful cloud implementation and value acceleration.

Lastly, we wrap up with some forward-looking advice for businesses seeking to harness the full benefits of cloud computing across their organizations. Martin and Gavin offer their perspectives on how companies can navigate the complexities of cloud adoption and maximize its advantages.

2571: Accelerating Web3 By Fostering the Cronos Ecosystem and Embracing AI Nov 09, 2023

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I sit down with Ken Timsit, Managing Director of Cronos Labs, the driving force behind the Cronos chain ecosystem's remarkable growth. Cronos, known for being the first EVM-compatible layer-1 blockchain network built on the Cosmos SDK, has seen a staggering 600% increase in on-chain transactions and a quadrupling of its user base, despite the market's volatility.

Ken, who has been instrumental in this exponential growth since joining Cronos in November 2021, shares his experiences and the strategic moves that have led to the flourishing of over 500 dApps within the Cronos ecosystem. He sheds light on the Cronos Accelerator Program's second cohort, emphasizing the program's focus on AI and its implications for the future of blockchain applications.

Listeners will gain a deep understanding of how Cronos is nurturing its ecosystem, with Ken discussing the accelerator program's contribution to the chain's success. He elaborates on Cronos' commitment to building a blockchain with utility at its core, aiming to serve an addressable user base of 80 million, with particular attention to GameFi, DeFi, SocialFi, and infrastructure.

We also venture into the broader industry outlook, examining the exciting intersection of AI and blockchain technology. They discuss the implications for the future of decentralized finance and blockchain games, as well as the potential for these technologies to redefine social interactions and business models in the digital age.

2570: Improbable | Venture into New Worlds Nov 08, 2023

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I am joined by Rob Whitehead, the visionary co-founder and Chief Product Officer of Improbable and M2, who has been at the forefront of pioneering interoperable virtual worlds. With a background that marries academic rigor from Cambridge University to the entrepreneurial zeal of the Web3 frontier, Rob offers a unique vantage point on the burgeoning metaverse landscape.

As the metaverse conversation gains renewed vigor, with recent milestones like Futureverse's $54 million funding round and the anticipation of new augmented reality headsets, we engage in a timely discussion about the resurgence of virtual spaces and their potential to revolutionize our digital interactions.

Rob shares his journey from the early inspirations drawn from Second Life to orchestrating the vast, interconnected realms of Improbable and M2, where thousands can converge in shared digital experiences. The duo delves into the potential of virtual spaces to transcend gaming, touching upon the integration of music, sports, and entertainment into the fabric of the metaverse.

The technical prowess of Improbable's Morpheus technology is brought to light, showcasing its ability to scale and deliver realism within these virtual worlds. Yet, the conversation is open to the ethical considerations, such as data privacy and the emerging role of governance in these spaces.

Looking to the horizon, we explore the concept of future-proofing the metaverse ecosystem. They discuss the role of generative AI as a transformative tool and the burgeoning influence of gaming and esports in shaping cultural trends.

This episode is not just a peek into Rob Whitehead's illustrious career but also a profound exploration of the metaverse's potential to create a new digital epoch. Listeners will gain insights into the challenges and opportunities of building a network of diverse, interoperable virtual worlds and the steps necessary to make these shared digital experiences a part of our everyday lives.

2569: ThoughtSpot and the Third Wave of BI: Generative AI's Transformative Role Nov 07, 2023

Cindi Howson, Chief Data Strategy Officer at ThoughtSpot joins me in an enlightening episode of the Tech Talks Daily Podcast. With a career spanning over three decades in the analytics space, Cindi brings a wealth of knowledge and insight into the evolving world of business intelligence (BI) and the revolutionary impact of generative AI.

In this episode, we delve into the transformative effects of generative AI on BI, discussing the significant advancements since the advent of OpenAI's GPT 3.5. They explore the nuanced shifts in data team roles and the emergence of new specializations, underscoring the importance of adapting to a rapidly changing landscape.

The conversation takes a deep dive into the critical role of data literacy in businesses today. Cindi addresses the future of AI-powered analytics and the sectors poised for disruption. They don't shy away from the tough questions, tackling the ethical concerns of AI's integration into our daily decision-making processes and advocating for a balance of innovation with transparency and trust.

As ThoughtSpot's mission to democratize data takes center stage,we also discuss the hurdles of cultural change within organizations. They emphasize the importance of design in crafting engaging and user-friendly data experiences, making analytics not just accessible but enjoyable for all users, regardless of technical expertise.

Beyond the insights, this episode also gives listeners a glimpse into Cindi's illustrious career and her contributions to the field of data and analytics. As a thought leader and advocate for women in tech and AI ethics, Cindi's perspectives are not just informative but also deeply inspiring.

Finally, Cindi shares 10 books on data, analytics, and AI that leaders should read in 2023

2568: JAMF - Breaking Down Silos: Executive Leadership in IT and Security Alignment Nov 06, 2023

For years, IT and security have operated as separate entities within organizations, each with its own set of priorities and concerns. IT professionals often view security teams as the "Department of No," hindering progress and innovation. On the other hand, security teams see IT as reckless, prioritizing speed over safety. However, as digital transformation accelerates, the need for these two departments to collaborate has never been more critical.

Linh Lam, the Chief Information Officer at Jamf Software brings her expertise to the table, shedding light on the root causes of the tension between IT and security teams. She argues that this division is not just counterproductive but also detrimental to the organization's overall health. Linh outlines four key strategies to mend this fractured relationship: changing the culture of division, fostering early collaboration and communication, overcoming C-suite hierarchy issues, and adopting the CISO-as-risk-management-leader model.

During the podcast, Neil and Linh explore the negative impacts of poor communication and lack of collaboration between these two critical teams. They emphasize the importance of transparency, partnership, and joint planning to avoid unintended consequences and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of security initiatives.

The conversation also touches on the challenges of bridging the gap between IT and security, particularly the role of executive leadership in fostering collaboration and breaking down silos. Linh stresses the need for the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) to act as a risk management leader, elevating the conversation around security and educating the organization on its importance in achieving business objectives.

Towards the end, the discussion shifts to the challenge of balancing speed and security in IT initiatives. We both agree that collaboration between IT and security is essential for aligning roadmaps and understanding the risks and outcomes, thereby enabling a successful digital business transformation.

This episode offers a nuanced look at an issue that affects nearly every modern organization. It's a must-listen for CIOs, CISOs, and any digital technology leader looking to better understand how to harmonize the often conflicting agendas of IT and security teams for the greater good of the organization.

2567: RetailTech: Smart Stores and the Cooler Screens Revolution Nov 05, 2023

I sit down once again with Arsen Avakian, the Founder and CEO of Cooler Screens, a company that's revolutionizing the in-store retail experience. Arsen's innovative approach to retail media has garnered significant attention and support from industry giants across retail, consumer products, and technology sectors.

Retail media, the practice of showing personalized ads to consumers both online and in physical stores, has been gaining traction. It's a win-win for both retailers and consumers. Retailers get to monetize their platforms, and consumers receive personalized ads based on their preferences. The scale of this is enormous, with projections indicating that retail media advertising could reach $125.7 billion by 2023 and even outpace TV ad revenue by 2028.

Cooler Screens is taking this concept a step further by bringing digital ads right to the store aisles. Imagine walking into a grocery store and seeing smart screens instead of traditional cooler doors. These screens not only display ads but also provide product details and can even change what's displayed based on real-time data. It's like having the internet on a cooler door.

During the podcast, we delve into how the pandemic has accelerated the need for businesses to adapt and innovate. They discuss the evolution of retail media and how technology like Cooler Screens can provide valuable data analytics and insights for retailers and brands. The conversation also touches on the importance of consumer privacy, with Arsen highlighting his company's focus on understanding consumer intent without compromising personal data.

Arsen explains that Cooler Screens' algorithm is designed for a one-to-many experience, eliminating the need for personal identity data. This approach has attracted partnerships with industry giants like PepsiCo and Kraft Heinz, driving incremental sales and brand equity for these companies.

Looking ahead, Arsen explores the future of retail media, discussing its potential to surpass traditional advertising mediums like TV. They also talk about how Cooler Screens is contributing to sustainability and social responsibility in retail. The episode wraps up with a discussion on the importance of customer experience as the foundation for technological advancements in the retail industry, and a mention of an upcoming innovation summit featuring big tech companies like Microsoft and NVIDIA.

2566: AI, Humans, and the Future of Service Delivery Nov 04, 2023

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily Podcast, I explore the fascinating intersection of human labor and artificial intelligence with Kit Cox, the Founder and CTO of Enate. Kit's journey is a compelling narrative that many in the tech industry can relate to. After years of working on bespoke automation projects for large-scale enterprises, he reached a pivotal moment in 2017. He realized that the technology he had been developing had matured to a point where it could effectively mimic human actions. This led him to a crossroads: should he continue down the path of custom projects, or pivot to create a platform that could manage a hybrid workforce of both humans and digital workers?

Choosing the latter, Kit founded Enate with a straightforward yet ambitious vision—to help businesses navigate the future of work by organizing their operations and maximizing efficiency. Enate is a no-code process orchestration platform that allows work from multiple sources to flow into a single system. It enables teams to build simple workflows and manage hybrid workforces, all while maintaining complete visibility and governance. The result? Businesses that implement Enate's solutions can achieve up to a 20% increase in efficiency.

During the podcast, Kit and I delve into the mechanics of service delivery, breaking it down into three essential components: understanding customer requests, gathering the necessary information, and executing the task. Enate serves as a linchpin in this process, automating certain tasks while seamlessly involving human expertise where it's most needed.

However, the journey to this point hasn't been without its challenges. Kit opens up about the role of external funding in scaling Enate. Investments from angel investors and venture capitalists have been instrumental in hiring top-tier talent and aligning the company's objectives for rapid growth. He also shares case studies, including one involving TMF, that showcase how Enate has helped major brands globalize their operations across multiple countries.

One of the most intriguing parts of our conversation revolves around the challenges of standardizing services across diverse geographies, each with its unique laws and regulations. Kit discusses how Enate employs various automation technologies, such as Robotic Process Automation (RPA), Generative Pre-trained Transformers (GPT), and intelligent document processing, to navigate these complexities.

As we look toward the future, Kit and I examine the role of AI in different job functions. We both agree that while AI has enormous potential, the importance of human validation and correction cannot be overstated, especially in service delivery environments. We also touch upon the rapid advancements in AI technology, the inevitable obsolescence of older models, and the shift towards using more general models like GPT for a broad range of applications.

2565: Sweat Economy: Catalyzing Change in Health and Crypto with Oleg Fomenko Nov 03, 2023

In an enlightening episode of the Tech Talks Daily Podcast, I sits down with Oleg Fomenko, Co-Founder of Sweat Economy, to explore the transformative power of technology in the realms of health, well-being, and economic productivity. Sweat Economy, a top 4 dApp on DappRadar with over 7 million users, is at the forefront of catalyzing cultural change by intersecting crypto and health. Built on the NEAR protocol, the platform is making strides in mainstreaming Web3 technology while rewarding physical activity.

The episode kicks off with Oleg discussing the high-level mission behind Sweat Economy: to establish a movement economy that realizes the value of physical activities. The platform aims to inspire a healthier, wealthier planet by rewarding all forms of movement. Oleg delves into the 'Move-to-Earn' concept, explaining how incentivizing physical activity not only enhances individual well-being but also contributes to broader economic productivity by lowering healthcare costs.

As the conversation progresses, we explore the challenges and opportunities in performance analysis while safeguarding data privacy in the fitness industry. Oleg emphasizes the importance of user privacy and outlines how Sweat Economy is navigating this complex landscape. He also shares insights into the role of the NEAR Protocol in supporting their robust community and enabling seamless, low-cost transactions.

The dialogue then shifts to the intriguing topic of bringing the Web2 user experience to Web3. Oleg discusses the need for user-friendly products that engage the mass market and how Sweat Economy is working to make this transition smooth for its millions of users. He also touches on the value of building a marketplace and enhancing brand visibility to global communities.

Towards the end of the episode, Oleg shares a book that has inspired him and a favorite song to be added to the Tech Talks Daily Spotify Playlist, providing a personal touch and the story behind his choices.

This episode is a treasure trove of insights for anyone interested in the intersection of technology, health, and economic productivity. Whether you're a tech enthusiast, a health-conscious individual, or someone intrigued by the potential of blockchain technology, this conversation with Oleg Fomenko offers a nuanced perspective on the challenges and opportunities in these interconnected fields.

2564: Inside the SEC Settlement: Bittrex Global's Path to Regulatory Compliance Nov 02, 2023

In a timely episode of the Tech Talks Daily Podcast, I welcome back Oliver Linch, the CEO of Bittrex Global, to discuss the company's recent settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This episode comes on the heels of the SEC's charge against Bittrex Global for allegedly operating an unregistered exchange in the U.S., making it a crucial conversation for anyone interested in the evolving regulatory landscape of the crypto industry.

We dive into the rise of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) and the confusion surrounding them. We discuss the urgent need for clear regulations in the crypto industry and express hope for a hybrid solution that marries the best aspects of blockchain technology with traditional finance.

As the conversation progresses, Oliver shares his insights on the recent settlement between Bittrex Global and the SEC. He underscores the importance of proper legislative processes and regulation clarity, advocating for global standards that can unlock the full potential of regulated crypto. Oliver's perspective is precious given his firsthand experience in navigating these complex regulatory waters.

The discussion then shifts to the European Union's adoption of markets in crypto assets regulation. We also explore the significance of aligning crypto regulations with traditional finance principles to gain institutional trust. They also touch on the unique challenges that blockchain companies face in condensing decades of financial learnings into a short period, emphasizing the need for patience and perspective.

Oliver also discusses the strategic importance of engaging with the U.S. market despite its challenging regulatory environment. He outlines Bittrex Global's focus on delivering a straightforward and highly regulated spot exchange and discusses partnerships to enhance security and regulation in the industry.

This episode is a must-listen for anyone keen on understanding the complexities and opportunities in the regulated crypto space, offering a nuanced and informed perspective that only a seasoned industry leader like Oliver Linch can provide.

2563: Dentsu: Redefining Marketing With Agility, AI, and Authenticity Nov 01, 2023

Today, I enjoyed a conversation with Az Raj, EMEA CMO of Merkle, and the UK & Ireland CMO of Dentsu. With over two decades of experience in the digital industry, Az is a recognized thought leader and a member of prestigious boards and committees, including the Forbes Communications Council and the Data & Marketing Association (DMA) customer engagement committee.

This episode offers a deep dive into the evolving landscape of marketing, focusing on consumer-centric experiences, agility, and the role of technology in shaping customer interactions. The conversation starts with Azlan introducing himself and his unique approach to marketing, which emphasizes solving problems over traditional campaigns. He discusses the shift from product-centric to consumer-focused experiences, citing examples of businesses that have successfully deviated from conventional strategies.

Az underscores the importance of agility in today's fast-paced digital age, challenging the old adage of "Ready, Aim, Fire" by suggesting that sometimes it's more effective to "Fire, Ready, and then Aim," especially when capitalizing on emerging trends.

We also delve into the key technologies and methods employed at Merkle and Dentsu to understand and address customer pain points in real-time. We also discuss tools like brand leadership mapping, consumer panels for understanding motivations, and Mercury technology for authentic customer understanding. The conversation also touches on the ethical considerations in data collection and customer experience, emphasizing the importance of transparency, trust, and prioritizing consumer value.

As the discussion progresses, the focus shifts to the importance of outcomes over functionality in marketing, particularly in the tech space. Az introduces a new AI tool called Artemis that predicts the performance of creative assets, highlighting the emerging role of AI in marketing. He also challenges the traditional notion of strategy, arguing that in a rapidly evolving business landscape, CMOs must be agile and flexible.

2562: Criteo - Unlocking the Future of Retail Media With Tech Oct 31, 2023

I sit down with Nicole Kivel, Managing Director of Northern Europe at Criteo, to dissect the burgeoning field of retail media. Nicole, an early evangelist of retail media who successfully launched HookLogic Sponsored Products to the European market, brings a wealth of experience and insights to the table. The episode is a deep dive into the complexities, challenges, and opportunities that retail media presents in today's advertising landscape.

The conversation kicks off with Nicole and Neil discussing the pivotal role of in-store data for retailers. Nicole argues that this data can serve as a unique selling proposition, especially when competing with online behemoths like Amazon. She emphasizes that leveraging in-store behavior can make retailers stand out in a crowded media market, citing the UK as a strong player in this area with companies like Boots, Tesco, and Sainsbury’s all having robust loyalty programs.

As the dialogue progresses, the focus shifts to the need for standardization, transparency, and self-service capabilities in retail media. Nicole believes that these elements are crucial for attracting agency budgets and for the seamless integration of retail media within the broader advertising ecosystem. She and Neil delve into the importance of being easy to buy and enabling access to data while also protecting it. They highlight the need for retailers to move away from a 'walled garden' mentality to unlock greater value for both advertisers and retailers online.

The conversation then turns to the issue of fragmentation in the retail media landscape. Nicole points out that while the space is fiercely competitive with new entrants appearing all the time, it's crucial for retailers to present a unified front. She stresses the importance of common currencies, common ways of doing business, and a common language to ensure success. Failing to address this fragmentation, she warns, could cut 20% from the $42 billion on the table for retail media.

Towards the end of the episode, Nicole and Neil explore the balance between technological investment and human expertise in managing complex retail relationships. They discuss the importance of understanding customer data and loyalty schemes, and Nicole shares her belief that to capitalize on the golden opportunity that retail media presents, retailers need to embrace more standardized practices.

This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in the evolving world of retail media. It offers a nuanced perspective on the challenges and opportunities in the field, making it a valuable resource for advertisers, retailers, and agencies alike.

2561: Data in Motion: Confluent's Pioneering Approach to Combatting Fraud Oct 30, 2023

In this episode of the Tech Talks Daily Podcast, I speak with Peter Pugh-Jones from Confluent, a company at the forefront of data infrastructure focusing on data in motion. This episode is a deep dive into the alarming rise of fraud in the UK, the complexities of data analysis for fraud detection, and the unique challenges faced by financial services organizations. The conversation is timely, given that over £600 million was stolen in the UK in the first half of 2022 alone due to fraud.

The discussion begins with the risks that financial services organizations face, particularly the reputational damage that can result from data breaches. Peter and Neil explore the proactive steps that can be taken to mitigate these risks. They discuss the simplification of architectures, the implementation of event-driven systems, and the creation of data products designed for better management and security.

The conversation then shifts to the concept of fusion centers. These specialized units amalgamate different types of data to gain actionable insights to combat fraud. Peter elaborates on how the evolution of technology in the banking industry is not just about enhancing security but also about enriching customer experiences through more accurate data analysis.

As the dialogue unfolds, Peter shares strategies for businesses to protect themselves better. He emphasizes the importance of early detection and discusses how adopting data streaming platforms like Confluent can be a game-changer in fraud prevention. Peter also delves into his methods for staying updated and educated, which include reading books, listening to podcasts, and drawing insights from various industries.

2560: Decoding Hacker Culture with Kim Crawley Oct 29, 2023

I sit down for a thought-provoking conversation with Kim Crawley, author of "Hacker Culture: A to Z." The discussion serves as a comprehensive guide to understanding the complexities of hacker culture, cybersecurity, and the ever-changing landscape of technology.

The episode begins with Kim demystifying the dark web, a term often laden with negative connotations. While it's true that the dark web is a breeding ground for illegal activities such as drug trafficking and cybercrime, Kim points out that it's also a refuge for political dissidents and whistleblowers. This perspective adds a layer of nuance to the conventional narrative, encouraging listeners to view the dark web as a more multifaceted domain.

As the conversation progresses, Kim expresses her reservations about the increasing demand for user identification on social media platforms like Twitter. She argues that such requirements could potentially infringe on the anonymity that many users rely on, particularly those who use these platforms as a means to speak out against oppressive regimes or to act as whistleblowers. This leads her to discuss her migration to alternative social media platforms like Mastodon and Blue Sky, which offer more privacy and less centralized control.

The dialogue then shifts to the historical aspects of computer programming. Kim highlights the seminal contributions of figures like Grace Hopper, Ada Lovelace, and Margaret Hamilton, emphasizing that the field of technology is built on collective intelligence rather than individual genius. This segues into a discussion of Kim's other book, "Agriculture A to Z," which, despite its casual tone, underscores the importance of recognizing that groundbreaking technologies often have roots in collaborative efforts, including those originating from military projects.

Towards the end of the episode, the focus turns to the subject of self-education and continuous learning. Kim shares her personal learning methods, which include spending time online, reading books, and hands-on experimentation with technology. She stresses that learning is a natural process that can be undertaken by anyone, regardless of their background or previous education.

This episode with Kim Crawley is a masterclass in understanding the intricate world of hacker culture and cybersecurity. It challenges preconceived notions, offers fresh perspectives, and encourages a more nuanced understanding of technology's role in modern society. Whether you're a seasoned tech expert or a curious layperson, this conversation offers valuable insights into the challenges and opportunities that lie at the intersection of technology, culture, and ethics.

2559: Unlocking Team Efficiency Through Strategic Outsourcing Oct 28, 2023

The quest for efficiency is a never-ending journey in a rapidly evolving business landscape. I sit down with James-King Baskin, CEO and Founder of OutSource Kings, to delve into the intricacies of team efficiency, outsourcing, and the ever-evolving role of technology in the business world.

The conversation kicks off with a robust discussion on the challenges and misconceptions surrounding outsourcing. Neil and James debunk prevalent myths, notably the idea that outsourcing drains domestic job markets. On the contrary, they highlight how a lack of managerial bandwidth often limits the success of outsourced endeavors, emphasizing the need for services that are meticulously tailored to each client's unique demands.

As we pivot towards the transformative role of technology, the focus narrows on artificial intelligence (AI). We explore how AI has remarkably enriched the quality of questions businesses can ask, along with providing unprecedented access to actionable data. The conversation takes an unexpected yet fascinating turn towards the ethical and societal aspects of technology, spurred by a mention of AI-powered dogs that perform tasks—bringing shades of Black Mirror into the real world.

Furthering the technology talk, James shares insights about a programmable bionic robot dog equipped with visual recognition and machine learning capabilities. He finds it unsettling how quickly people are anthropomorphizing these robotic entities, treating them more like pets than machines. This raises imperative questions about our emotional investment in technology and the ethical dimensions that come with it.

Switching gears, James opens up about his philanthropic involvement, specifically his focus on people management for construction companies and organizing events like a kids' Halloween party. A man of many hats, James also divulges his affinity for iconic rock bands like Metallica and The Who, providing a refreshing breather from the tech-heavy conversation.

Wrapping up, the spotlight turns to James's book "Outsource Kings." In a gracious gesture, James extends an offer to send copies to interested listeners, encapsulating his commitment not just to efficient business but also to community building and knowledge sharing.

By the end of this riveting conversation, listeners will have been taken on a journey that not only demystifies complex topics like outsourcing and AI but also offers actionable insights to improve team efficiency and client satisfaction in a competitive marketplace.

2558: Unlocking Business Value Through Strategic IT Interoperability Oct 27, 2023

In this thought-provoking episode, Neil sits down with Eric Helmer, CTO at Rimini Street, to delve deep into the labyrinthine world of IT infrastructures. As organizations invest heavily in new technologies and services, the question of value becomes increasingly complex. Are enterprises truly getting what they pay for, especially when dealing with a hodgepodge of on-premises, cloud, and hybrid systems?

Eric offers invaluable insights into the multifaceted challenges that IT leaders face as they continually integrate the 'next big thing' into their already complex technological frameworks. The conversation goes beyond the surface-level complexities to dissect the hidden costs of interoperability in hybrid IT systems. Here, both Neil and Eric emphasize the significance of planning for 'believability,' which encompasses extreme high availability, fault tolerance, and compliance with a labyrinth of regulations.

The duo also discuss the pitfalls of integrating siloed technologies without a strategic vision. Contrary to common assumptions, interoperability isn’t just about making disparate systems communicate; it's about orchestrating a symphony of moving parts in a way that adds value to the business. They stress the importance of evaluating emerging technologies based on a justified business case, advocating for a 'start small, prove value, then scale' approach.

Additionally, the conversation dives into the legal and ethical minefields surrounding compliance and security. It's not just about connecting systems seamlessly but ensuring that these connections don't become the weak links in an organization's security armor. Eric speaks to the role of open standards in promoting interoperability and the need for a robust ethical evaluation of AI technologies that handle sensitive data.

Lastly, Neil and Eric examine the precarious balance between leveraging third-party solutions for interoperability and being entirely dependent on vendors. They bring attention to the often-overlooked need for an exit plan and the continuous evaluation of available options in this fast-paced world of technological advancements.

For anyone interested in learning more about the complexities of IT interoperability or to reach out to Eric and his team, the best place to connect is through Rimini Street’s official website and social media channels. This episode serves as a comprehensive guide for IT leaders and business executives alike, providing actionable insights and strategies for navigating the complex landscape of modern IT infrastructures.

2557: AI, Identity, and the Law: A Crucial Conversation with Venafi's Thought Leaders" Oct 26, 2023

In this compelling episode, we welcome back Kevin Bocek, VP of Ecosystem and Community at Venafi, along with Matt Barker, Global Head of Cloud Native Services at the same company. The conversation couldn't be more timely. With the AI Act debate reaching new heights, and Foreign Secretary James Cleverly making statements that AI challenges our basic assumptions about defense and deterrence, the insights Kevin and Matt bring are invaluable.

Kevin introduces us to the groundbreaking concept of an identity-based "AI Kill Switch," a security measure that could be instrumental in making AI "safe and predictable by design," as James Cleverly emphasized at a recent UN meeting. The UK is gearing up to host the first global summit on AI, and Kevin argues that without incorporating identity into every line of code that makes up AI systems, principles of safety and predictability are mere pipe dreams. An identity-based approach can offer the kind of control and observability that could, for instance, thwart attempts to poison AI algorithms used for facial recognition on smartphones.

Matt Barker steps into the discussion with his expertise in open-source innovation. Drawing from a paper he recently authored for Open UK, Matt discusses the impact of AI on open-source development. He also delves into the potentially stifling effects of the EU’s Cyber Resilience Act on European innovation, highlighting lessons that the UK could learn to avoid similar setbacks.

Throughout the episode, the importance of open-source models in driving AI innovation stands out as a recurring theme. Matt, Kevin, and I also discuss the challenges and opportunities posed by EU regulations on open-source development. The conversation doesn't stop at AI and extends to other cloud-native technologies like Kubernetes and MLOps. The significance of these technologies in the current AI landscape is examined, along with the unique potential of applying identity management across both cloud-native and traditional IT environments.

As we wrap up, the episode leaves listeners with much to ponder. It serves as a deep dive into the complexities and intricacies of a future shaped by AI, identity management, and open-source technologies. Whether you're a business leader, a policymaker, or just a technology enthusiast, this episode offers a well-rounded understanding of the multi-dimensional challenges and opportunities at the intersection of these critical areas.

2556: Decoding NIS2: The EU's Next Big Step in Cybersecurity Oct 25, 2023

In today's episode of Tech Talks Daily Podcast, we delve into a subject of immense relevance to organizations across the European Union—the Network and Information Security Directive, commonly known as NIS2. Neil sits down with Arik Diamant, Principle Solution Architect EMEA at Claroty, to unpack this complex and transformative piece of legislation. Set to come into effect by October 2024, NIS2 aims to fortify the cybersecurity landscape of the European Union, mandating a higher level of resilience within organizations.

Arik brings a unique perspective to this conversation, advocating that for Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs), NIS2 is nothing short of a dream come true. He highlights how the directive forces organizations to meticulously lay out strategy objectives and incident response plans. But what truly stands out in this directive is the emphasis on information sharing and collaboration among organizations. This focus, Arik argues, is not just a step in the right direction, but a leap towards creating a fortified, collective cybersecurity environment.

Yet, the clock is ticking. Arik underscores the urgency for organizations to act swiftly to ensure they are in compliance with the new directive. Drawing a parallel with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), he observes that just like its predecessor, NIS2 is expected to have a sweeping impact on the business ecosystem. While GDPR focused on data protection and privacy, NIS2 takes a broader approach, targeting the overall cybersecurity infrastructure. This makes it a complex, yet welcome challenge for CISOs who are entrusted with not just safeguarding information but also ensuring a resilient cybersecurity framework.

One of the critical points of discussion in this episode revolves around financial planning. Arik explains that budget allocation is not just about throwing money at the problem; it requires strategic foresight to identify and prioritize key areas that align with NIS2 requirements. He warns against common pitfalls, emphasizing the need for meticulous planning, especially given the relatively short timeframe for compliance.

Moreover, the conversation takes an interesting turn when it shifts towards supply chain cybersecurity. NIS2 extends its reach beyond the organization, mandating a close examination of cybersecurity preparedness across the supply chain. This means that companies now need to consider not just their internal practices, but also how secure their external partnerships are. Arik provides valuable insights into how organizations can navigate this complex landscape, offering suggestions for collaborative strategies to enhance security measures.

In a notable comparison, Arik describes the introduction of NIS2 as akin to the advent of GDPR, particularly in the imposition of penalties for non-compliance. He calls attention to the onus of responsibility now placed on organizations, reiterating that failure to comply will not go unnoticed or unpunished.

As the episode winds down, I raise the topic of national cyber crisis management, asking Arik to envision the role national authorities will play in this new regulatory framework. Arik suggests that there is an opportunity for member states to learn from each other's experiences, thereby collectively raising the bar on cybersecurity standards across the European Union.

This episode serves as a comprehensive guide to understanding the multi-faceted elements of NIS2, providing actionable insights for organizations gearing up for the compliance deadline. From budgetary considerations to supply chain security, and from the role of national authorities to the penalties for non-compliance, the conversation with Arik Diamant leaves no stone unturned.

2555: From Hyperinflation to Crypto Solutions: Mauricio Di Bartolomeo's Journey with LEDN Oct 24, 2023

In this thought-provoking episode of the Tech Talks Daily Podcast, I explore the intersection of cryptocurrency, financial integrity, and socio-economic challenges with Mauricio Di Bartolomeo, Co-Founder & CSO of Ledn.

The conversation kicks off with an emotionally resonant look at Mauricio's origins in Venezuela. Witnessing the devastating effects of hyperinflation in his homeland, Mauricio shares how Bitcoin became not just an investment but a lifeline. His personal journey from Venezuela to Canada offers a visceral understanding of the grim realities that many people face in economically unstable countries, making this episode a must-listen for anyone interested in the human stories behind technological solutions.

Mauricio recounts how his firsthand experiences propelled him to co-found Ledn, a trailblazing digital currency lending company. By providing Bitcoin-backed loans with an emphasis on transparency and client control, Ledn has issued over $600 million worth of loans in 130 countries. Mauricio explains that this was a deliberate effort to help people like him get liquidity in stable currencies without having to sell off valuable assets like Bitcoin.

But Mauricio goes beyond the headlines to delve into the nuance of financial planning and asset management. He challenges conventional wisdom by discussing his realization that not all debt is detrimental. In a world where governments often rely on printing money rather than effective governance, asset-backed debt can be a smart financial strategy, especially during inflationary periods.

This line of discussion naturally segues into an analysis of Ledn's survival through the lending crisis of 2022. Mauricio contrasts Ledn's approach with that of other digital asset companies that fell by the wayside, attributing Ledn's resilience to an unwavering commitment to transparency, integrity, and sound financial planning.

The conversation takes a broader turn as Neil and Mauricio discuss the role of cryptocurrencies in enabling financial freedom across the globe. From Venezuela to Congo to Russia, they explore how digital assets can circumvent the failures of traditional banking systems, especially in countries grappling with economic and political instability.

As if navigating through economic collapse and industry crises weren't compelling enough, Mauricio also provides a glimpse into Ledn's future, discussing their new innovative products like DCNs and Growth Accounts. These products stand as a testament to Ledn's commitment to revolutionizing how we think about loaning and growing money in the digital age.

This episode is not just an examination of Bitcoin or digital lending; it is a compelling narrative that intertwines personal struggle, innovative solutions, and the universal quest for financial stability and freedom. It's an episode that bridges the gap between the potential of technology and the realities of the human condition, making it an essential listen for anyone interested in the intersection of technology, economics, and social justice.

2554: Strategies for Cloud Financial Management: Insights from Navisite's Tom Monk Oct 23, 2023

In this engaging episode of the Tech Talks Daily Podcast, I sit down with Tom Monk, the Senior Director of Cloud Product Management at Navisite, to demystify the financial labyrinth that companies often encounter when transitioning to the cloud. The conversation kicks off with a deep dive into the concept of FinOps, a framework designed to bridge the often-siloed departments of finance and IT.

Tom Monk elucidates that adopting a FinOps framework is critical for businesses that wish to master the financial aspects of their cloud strategy. He argues that the practice transcends traditional departmental roles and mandates a collaborative approach to budgeting, forecasting, and parsing through often-confusing monthly billing. Far from being just another industry buzzword, FinOps emerges as an essential blueprint for responsible and effective cloud cost management.

Moving on, the discussion shifts to the necessity of integrating DevOps into business processes. Monk contends that automating common DevOps operations is not a luxury but a requirement in today's cloud-centric business environment. He shares that automating tasks such as build and deployment, unit testing, and maintenance tasks contributes to operational efficiency and, by extension, cost savings.

Continuing on the theme of automation, the dialogue explores the concept of "reserved instances"—pre-allocated virtual servers available for use in the cloud. Monk provides clarity on how these reserved instances can offer significant cost-saving benefits. Companies can lock in lower rates by committing to long-term contracts with their cloud providers, and software tools are available to automate these commitments, further reducing manual oversight and enabling additional savings.

Tom also focuses on the importance of keeping tabs on key performance indicators (KPIs) and measuring cost savings after migrating to the cloud. They acknowledge the cultural obstacles organizations may face when adopting new frameworks and metrics, emphasizing that successful implementation is often contingent on open dialogue and educational outreach across all departments.

Towards the end of the episode, the conversation turns to the broader cloud ecosystem. Both hosts compare different cloud service providers and consider the imperative for companies to future-proof their cloud strategies. Tom stresses the importance of staying abreast of industry trends and suggests that companies build a "cloud center of excellence" to adapt and refine their cloud strategies continually.

This episode offers a multi-faceted view of cloud economics, touching on the strategic, operational, and cultural factors that determine success. It's an invaluable listen for anyone looking to understand how to navigate the cloud landscape both financially and operationally.

2553: Fortanix: Why Confidential Computing Will Be the Underlining of Training Data for AI Oct 22, 2023

In the rapidly evolving landscape of artificial intelligence and data science, today's episode of the Tech Talks Daily Podcast brings forth a critically important yet often overlooked aspect—securing data through its entire lifecycle. Our esteemed guest is Anand Kashyap, the CEO and Co-founder of Fortanix, a company that has pioneered in the realm of confidential computing.

Anand and his team at Fortanix have uniquely positioned themselves in the industry, focusing not just on securing stored or in-transit data, but also data while it's being processed.

As AI models increasingly become the linchpins for competitive advantage, it's no longer just about the intricacies of these models but the treasure trove of data that fuels them. Giants like Google and Microsoft, armed with vast amounts of data, seem to have an edge. Yet, this edge brings its own challenges around the ethics, privacy, and compliance of using such data—questions that are resonating loudly, not just in the EU under the shadows of regulations like GDPR, but across the globe, including the US.

During our conversation, Anand demystified the concept of confidential computing, a term that is gradually becoming a cornerstone in the discussion around data security. At its core, confidential computing involves leveraging hardware-based trusted execution environments to protect both data and code. One might wonder how this impacts the realm of privacy regulations. Interestingly, confidential computing provides an effective, transparent mechanism to demonstrate compliance without diminishing the operational integrity of AI models.

As the conversation unfolded, Anand offered valuable insights, pointing out that while confidential computing does augment runtime security, it is not a silver bullet. The necessity for well-crafted applications and comprehensive security measures remains unabated. He emphasized that this form of computing, though robust in security mechanisms, does not negate the need for diligent application development and maintenance. We also touched upon the far-reaching implications of data privacy laws like GDPR on the global architecture of data solutions.

Anand highlighted how such regulations are catalyzing the adoption of confidential computing solutions across different jurisdictions, with an intriguing possibility of creating sovereign cloud zones within public clouds.

Ethical considerations in data protection strategies occupied a significant segment of our discussion. With a discerning perspective, Anand shared his thoughts on deploying confidential computing for a myriad of new use cases, from healthcare to financial services. Anand, who continually evolves through self-education, including listening to thought-provoking podcasts, left us with an enriching viewpoint on the challenges and opportunities lying ahead in the data security spectrum.

As the spotlight continues to shine on AI and data, understanding how to secure this data effectively is not just an operational need but an ethical imperative. This conversation with Anand Kashyap illuminates that pathway, shedding light on both the potential and the limitations of confidential computing.

Whether you are a business leader, a tech enthusiast, or someone deeply involved in data privacy concerns, this episode offers a comprehensive lens through which to view the evolving narrative of data security.

2552: Tailscale Co-founder & CEO Shares His Startup Journey Oct 21, 2023

Today's episode of the Tech Talks Daily Podcast is indeed an inspirational one. We have Avery Pennarun, the Co-founder and CEO of Tailscale, a security networking startup that's not just making waves but has also garnered a valuation of over $1 billion CAD. Avery's journey is nothing short of incredible, having consulted Alphabet's senior leadership, led Google Fiber's gigabit WiFi and platform analytics team, and even sold his startup, Net Integration Technologies (Nitix), to IBM in 2008.

Tailscale, launched in 2019, found itself confronting the unprecedented challenges of a global pandemic. Yet, not only did it survive, but it thrived, carving a unique space for itself in the crowded world of network security solutions. Recognized as one of VentureBeat's top 20 zero-trust startups to watch in 2023, Tailscale is undoubtedly a company that commands attention.

So, what sets Tailscale apart in an arena rife with competition? For teams yearning for secure, private networks without enduring weeks of arduous setup and configuration, Tailscale delivers simplicity and efficiency. It distinguishes itself from traditional corporate VPN solutions by eliminating upfront costs, reducing latency, and offering compatibility with existing services. Furthermore, earlier this year, Tailscale rolled out a zero-trust virtual private network solution specifically aimed at enterprise customers, broadening its market reach and applicability.

In our conversation, Avery provided keen insights into the treacherous yet rewarding path of entrepreneurship, especially in the tech space. His perspectives are invaluable for startup founders and tech leaders grappling with the complexities of scaling a business in economically turbulent times. We delved deep into his experiences navigating Tailscale through the unpredictable waters of a global pandemic, discussing the strategies he employed and the lessons he gleaned along the way.

The dialog didn't stop at Tailscale's rise; it extended into the broader context of network security, particularly focusing on the zero-trust paradigm. Zero-trust architecture has emerged as a critical framework for modern network security, and Avery's expertise offered a nuanced understanding of this concept. We explored the current state of zero-trust models and where Tailscale fits into this evolving narrative, separating fact from fiction in a domain that often leans into buzzwords over substance.

Avery also shared his entrepreneurial journey, a narrative that encapsulates the quintessence of startup resilience and ingenuity. His story serves as a testament to the indomitable spirit that underlies successful startups and offers a beacon of inspiration for aspiring founders across the globe.

So, to all our listeners in Canada and beyond, buckle up! This episode is not just a deep dive into technology and entrepreneurship but also a genuine feel-good story that stands as a monument to what passion, innovation, and resilience can achieve.

2551: UiPath and the AI New Gen AI Tools for Businesses Oct 20, 2023

I recently had the pleasure of sitting down with John Kelleher, head of the UK and Ireland business at UiPath. Our conversation navigated through the intricate maze of artificial intelligence and automation, focusing on UiPath's groundbreaking advancements in this space. If AI is the brain, then automation serves as the body that propels it into action, a sentiment that resonated throughout our discussion.

UiPath made headlines today as they announced their latest AI-powered automation features, aimed at accelerating the discovery, automation, and scaling of business processes. Among the notable offerings are Generative AI and Specialised AI capabilities, including OpenAI and Azure OpenAI connectors with support for the GPT-4 model. These tools are far from mere bells and whistles; they have practical applications such as drafting responses to customer inquiries and summarizing extensive documents into key points.

However, the innovation doesn't stop there. Another feature, Clipboard AI for Finance, employs UiPath's Computer Vision and Generative AI to transfer data between documents, spreadsheets, and applications. This facilitates a more streamlined flow of information, helping businesses operate with increased efficiency and reduced error. Additionally, UiPath's Communications Mining and Document Understanding now harness GPT models to bolster their capabilities.

Beyond these technical details lies a more profound value proposition: the undeniable impact of AI-powered automation on productivity and talent retention. John and I explored how the amalgamation of AI and automation does more than simply improve efficiency. It elevates the quality of work, thereby attracting top-tier talent and offering organizations a unique competitive edge across industries such as healthcare, manufacturing, and financial services.

Of course, one cannot discuss the rise of AI and automation without addressing the elephant in the room: the societal fears surrounding job losses. However, both John and I agreed that these fears, though valid, are not unprecedented. From the invention of the printing press to the advent of the internet, every technological leap has induced concerns about job displacement. Yet history has consistently shown that technology more often creates new opportunities than it takes away.

Our conversation also touched upon the relationship between specialized and generative AI. While specialized AI offers solutions to specific problems, generative AI provides a broader range of possibilities. This duality allows businesses to tackle unique challenges with a balanced blend of flexibility and precision.

As we look towards the future, it becomes increasingly apparent that a new generation of workers will soon make AI and automation non-negotiable norms in the workplace. This younger workforce isn't merely open to the idea of AI; they expect it, thereby accelerating its adoption across multiple sectors.

We wrapped up our engaging conversation by discussing the implications of AI on sectors like manufacturing, healthcare, and financial services, acknowledging that regulation must be nuanced and sector-specific. A one-size-fits-all regulatory approach will hardly suffice given the unique challenges and opportunities presented by AI in different industries.

The pinnacle of our discussion was the real-world examples provided by John, which transformed our theoretical talk into a practical dialogue. UiPath's new capabilities are not just conceptual; they offer real tools that businesses can leverage to address targeted challenges through AI-powered automation.

In summary, today's discussion underscored the fact that the union of AI and automation is catalyzing unprecedented opportunities and efficiencies. Yet, like any significant technological advance, it comes bundled with its challenges and fears.

The latest offerings from UiPath symbolize not merely an advancement in technology but a stride towards a more automated, intelligent, and, indeed, promising future.

2550: TEKsystems on the Evolution of Data Analytics and AI Oct 19, 2023

I chat with Srini Swaminathan, Managing Director at TEKsystems Global Services, a company at the forefront of solving complex technology and business challenges for a vast majority of the Fortune 500 companies. The conversation opens with Srini sharing invaluable insights about his background in data analytics and the evolving landscape that now includes notable advancements in AI and machine learning models.

The dialogue then takes a deeper dive into the undeniable necessity of having a robust data strategy for unleashing innovation and data monetization opportunities. We explore the need for building a strong data foundation that not only involves contributions from domain experts and IT departments but also calls for carefully chosen partnerships to implement AI in a safe and responsible manner.

As the conversation unfolds, the focus shifts to best practices in implementing AI projects. We also discuss the critical role of domain expertise in training AI models for accurate decision-making and discuss the importance of considering the business value and ROI of such projects. The episode closes with an engaging chat about the limitations of AI, the importance of human intervention for meaningful decision-making, and the sharing of experiences and resources for anyone looking to make a deep dive into this transformative technology.

2549: Unpacking the Thales Data Threat Report Oct 18, 2023

I sit down with Bob Burns, the Chief Product Security Officer at Thales Cloud Protection and Licensing, a division of Thales. The discussion was a deep dive into the alarming statistics and insights from Thales' 2023 Data Threat Report, which provides a comprehensive look at the evolving landscape of cybersecurity threats, notably ransomware.

Bob starts the conversation by highlighting how ransomware attacks have not just increased in frequency but have also evolved in sophistication. What's more disconcerting is that despite this knowledge, the industry as a whole has not substantially improved its cybersecurity posture. This lack of progress is manifesting as a critical impact on businesses, disrupting operations and diminishing revenues.

We continue to delve into the worrisome metrics around data loss due to cyberattacks. Bob's insights bring to light the severe implications of inadequate cybersecurity planning. The conversation touches on the notion that having a robust ransomware plan isn't just a technological necessity but also a strategic imperative for business continuity. Bob stresses the value of proactive rather than reactive measures in mitigating the threat landscape.

Legal and ethical considerations also take center stage in the discussion. We explore the complexities that organizations face when deciding whether or not to pay a ransom. The debate surfaces the ethical dilemmas, legal repercussions, and long-term business consequences that accompany such a critical decision.

At the heart of the episode is the conversation on the financial impact of ransomware attacks. We both agree that beyond data loss and potential reputational damage, the most immediate effect is on a company's bottom line. The 2023 Data Threat Report supports this view, revealing that of those affected, a staggering 67% experienced some form of data loss, with 35% reporting a significant impact or exposure to external operations.

The episode concludes with an analysis of how companies are shifting their spending to prevent ransomware attacks, as revealed by the 2023 Data Threat Report. While 61% of respondents claim they would allocate or shift budgets toward ransomware preventive tools, the report also indicates a lack of clarity in terms of what specific tooling organizations are investing in. Despite these incremental changes in spending, the report underscores the need for more coordinated efforts between stakeholders.

In sum, the episode is a compelling discourse that not only provides alarming statistics about the increasing threat of ransomware but also engages listeners in the broader complexities of cybersecurity planning, ethical considerations, and financial consequences. It serves as an invaluable guide for business leaders, IT professionals, and policymakers seeking to understand and address the intricate challenges posed by ransomware and other evolving cybersecurity threats.

2548: Talking AI-Powered CLM Solutions With Sirion Oct 17, 2023

I sit down with Ceschino Brooks de Vita, Head of Evangelism at Sirion, a leader in contract lifecycle management (CLM) solutions. With a potent mix of academic and professional credentials, including a JD from Harvard Law and an MBA from UT-Austin, Ceschino marries his profound understanding of law and contract management with insights into emerging technologies like artificial intelligence.

The episode opens with Ceschino discussing the rise in mergers and acquisitions (M&As) in the United States during economic downturns, particularly in 2023, where over 4,000 such deals have already been inked. This surge in M&As amplifies the challenges of managing numerous complex contracts, from asset purchases to tender offers and consolidations. Traditional methods of manual contract review have proved to be labor-intensive and prone to human error, amplifying the need for intelligent solutions.

Against this backdrop, Ceschino elucidates the immense value proposition of AI-powered CLM solutions. We explore the ways in which AI can serve as a linchpin in automating contract generation and review, optimizing templates, and identifying potential risks. The discussion delves into how these AI-driven processes are not merely theoretical but provide tangible benefits in accelerating legal review cycles, thereby enhancing operational efficiency for enterprises.

Continuing on this thread, Ceschino talks about the risk mitigation aspects of AI-based CLM solutions, particularly in M&As. The duo elaborates on how AI can pinpoint specific contract clauses that may pose risks and compare these against standard enterprise language. In doing so, businesses gain a comprehensive overview of their contractual commitments and liabilities, enabling a more robust due diligence process.

The conversation culminates with a deep dive into the role of AI in extracting actionable insights from documents. Ceschino outlines the transformational potential of AI, emphasizing its ability to revolutionize the industry by automating data extraction processes and even offering natural language interfaces for contract management.

Overall, the episode is a compelling narrative on how artificial intelligence is poised to radically alter the landscape of contract management, particularly in the high-stakes world of mergers and acquisitions. Listeners stand to gain a nuanced understanding of AI’s immediate applicability and future potential in legal and business settings, thus making it a must-listen for anyone invested in the integration of law and emerging technologies.

2547: Luno - A Sensible Approach to Crypto Oct 16, 2023

In this episode, I converse with Alwyn Jones, the CFO of Luno, a global cryptocurrency company. This conversation is particularly notable given Alwyn's two decades of experience in the traditional financial services industry, making him uniquely positioned to speak on the burgeoning world of crypto. With such an extensive background, Alwyn bridges the gap between traditional finance and the emergent field of cryptocurrencies, offering an informed perspective on how the industry is maturing and how businesses can best navigate this volatile landscape.

We kick off the conversation by diving into Alwyn's transition from traditional finance to crypto. Alwyn speaks to the disruptive potential of cryptocurrency technology, drawing parallels to how new asset classes have historically shaken up the financial landscape, as seen in 1999, the 1970s, and even as far back as the 1920s. The dialogue takes an interesting turn as both thought leaders emphasize the importance of learning from past financial disruptions to guide strategic decision-making in managing crypto assets.

They then pivot to discuss the evolving role of CFOs, particularly in the crypto sector. Alwyn identifies two distinct types of CFOs: the operational numbers-focused CFO and the value-driven CFO. Being the latter, he shares his approach to driving value within Luno, moving beyond the conventional CFO role to become a business strategist. We jointly explore the transition from CFO as a steward of past and present financials to a role that requires looking ahead to future business opportunities.

Further enriching the conversation, Alwyn discusses the practical advantages of incorporating crypto payments in business strategies, extending beyond mere consumer demand to include enhanced security and privacy protocols enabled by blockchain technology. He makes a case for why financial discipline and risk management are vital in the crypto industry, and how these classical finance principles apply in this brave new world.

We discuss the role of regulatory bodies in the crypto industry and the long-term impacts of the pandemic on Luno’s strategy. They delve into how the pandemic has accelerated changes in investment behavior and validated the remote work model, shedding light on the shifting paradigms in business strategy and financial management.

The episode brings to the fore an informed and nuanced perspective on the crypto industry, serving as an indispensable listen for anyone invested in understanding the evolution of finance in a digital age. With Alwyn’s extensive background in traditional finance and his current role in the crypto sphere, the discussion adds layers of depth to the subject matter, encompassing both the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead in the realm of crypto.

2546: Phill Rosen, CTO of MoneyLion on Embedded Finance & Fintech Oct 15, 2023

I sit down with Phill Rosen, the CTO of MoneyLion and the Business Leader of Engine by MoneyLion - Web Services. Phill's expertise offers listeners a nuanced look into the ever-evolving world of financial technology, particularly focusing on the growing trend of embedded finance.

The conversation begins with the discussion of what embedded finance means for both consumers and businesses. As Phill elucidates, embedded finance is more than just a technological advance; it's a transformative way of distributing financial tools directly within consumer experiences. MoneyLion aims to redefine this space by providing customized financial solutions right within its app, aiming to democratize access to financial services.

The question then arises: Could embedded financial tools be the golden key to enhancing financial literacy and accessibility for the masses?

As the discussion progresses, Phill opens up about MoneyLion's acquisition of EvenFinancial, and how it transformed into Engine by MoneyLion. This strategic move not only repositions MoneyLion within the marketplace but also allows for the unlocking of new synergies in fintech.

However, this transition isn't without its challenges. We delve into how the current market conditions, laden with high capital costs and financial uncertainties, create hurdles that fintech companies must overcome.

One pivotal aspect that stands out in the conversation is the role of artificial intelligence and data analytics in fintech. MoneyLion leverages these technologies to deliver a personalized financial experience to its users.

We discuss how AI and data analytics have the potential to transform the way decisions around credit and financial services are made, enabling automation and operational efficiency. Yet, they also acknowledge the ethical and logistical complexities that surround the collection and use of consumer data.

Towards the end of the discussion, the conversation veers towards the challenges and merits of consolidating diverse financial services into a single app. While MoneyLion’s all-in-one digital financial solution offers a level of convenience, the process of integrating multiple first-party and third-party products while maintaining regulatory compliance is far from simple. It raises questions around the feasibility and scalability of such a model in a highly regulated industry.

We emphasize the importance of empowering consumers by providing not just seamless access to financial services, but also the tools for improving their financial literacy. The episode concludes with a focus on MoneyLion’s broader mission of democratizing finance for all. By offering an array of financial tools embedded within a single platform, MoneyLion seeks to rewrite the narrative around consumer finance, making it more accessible and engaging for everyday Americans.

2545: Tenable - The Cybersecurity Tightrope: Balancing Risk and Innovation Oct 14, 2023

In today's episode of Tech Talks Daily, we delve into the labyrinthine world of cybersecurity with none other than Satnam Narang, a Senior Staff Research Engineer at Tenable. As we navigate through an age where digital safety is paramount, Tenable serves as a guardian for approximately 40,000 global organizations, helping them understand and minimize cyber risk.

Our discussion covers a multitude of pressing topics—from known vulnerabilities in both UK and global infrastructure to the lurking decade-old bugs that could be the fine line between your safety and a multi-million-pound breach. We explore the urgent need for robust cyber hygiene practices as well as the rising prevalence of social media scams and crypto cyber-attacks. Satnam brings an unparalleled depth of expertise, shedding light on Tenable's pioneering work, including their renowned Nessus® technology.

This episode is particularly timely, considering the recent CISA warnings about new, yet often ancient, Linux vulnerabilities that are actively exploited, presenting considerable risks to federal enterprises. We also delve into the role of open-source libraries in both innovation and the vulnerability landscape. Drawing from real-world examples like the CLOP group's ransomware attack, we discuss how even well-known, old vulnerabilities are proving to be lucrative targets for both average cybercriminals and state actors. Satnam and I share strategies for reducing cyber risk, emphasizing the need for prioritizing vulnerabilities, improving visibility into network assets, and creating an effective incident response playbook.

With cyber threats evolving at an unprecedented pace, this episode serves as an indispensable guide for organizations and individuals alike to bolster their digital fortresses.

2544: Bazaarvoice: Ethical Dimensions of AI in Retail Oct 13, 2023

In today's thought-provoking episode of Tech Talks Daily, I'm thrilled to host Colin Bodell, a leading voice at Bazaarvoice, the company revolutionizing the connection between brands, retailers, and consumers through data-driven insights and interactive shopping experiences.

Our conversation couldn't be timelier. With the explosion of interest in the Metaverse and the increasing integration of augmented and virtual reality into our daily lives, we find ourselves at a pivotal moment. Bazaarvoice's 2022 Shopper Preference Report reveals that an astonishing 59% of consumers envision AR and VR technologies as essential components of future physical retail environments. But what are the practical implications of these findings for retailers and consumers alike?

Colin and I venture beyond the headlines to discuss how these immersive technologies could radically reshape the retail experience. We also engage in a critical conversation about the role of artificial intelligence in e-commerce. While AI can undeniably elevate the customer experience, it also introduces ethical quandaries, particularly around the authenticity of product reviews. Given the recent controversies surrounding fake AI-generated reviews, this is an issue that brands and consumers cannot afford to overlook.

So whether you're a business leader strategizing the implementation of emergent technologies, or an everyday consumer intrigued by how shopping is set to evolve, this episode promises a comprehensive exploration of both the remarkable opportunities and the significant challenges posed by this technological shift.

2543: Fortinet: The Future-Proof Strategy for Supply Chain Security Oct 12, 2023

In a world where digital transformation has accelerated beyond anyone's imagination, cybersecurity remains a cornerstone issue that demands our constant vigilance. This was the theme of my recent conversation with Paul Donegan, the Country Manager in Ireland at Fortinet.

Ireland is a case study worth examining. As one of the world's most open and export-driven economies, it's an international hub for business and technological advancement. However, this economic vitality also attracts a less savory element: cybercriminals seeking to exploit vulnerabilities in supply chain security.

During our discussion, Paul and I delved into why supply chain security should be on every C-suite executive's radar. We explored how organizations are faltering in this aspect—often overlooking the necessity of vetting their suppliers' cybersecurity postures. There is a clear and urgent need for implementing robust risk assessment and testing methodologies.

We also tackled some of the most common pitfalls that organizations encounter. Zero Trust, for example, is not just a buzzword but an essential strategy that needs more than just boardroom attention—it demands action. The idea that you should never assume safety within your networks could be a game-changer in supply chain cybersecurity.

The concept of 'future-proofing' emerged, emphasizing the importance of staying ahead in this ever-evolving landscape. We touched upon how learning in the cybersecurity space is a continuous process. With threats evolving, there needs to be room for complacency.

Lastly, we took the discussion to the concept of the cybersecurity poverty line—an idea that deserves more attention. It's not just about having security measures in place but ensuring they are effective and up-to-date, a process that calls for ongoing education and awareness programs across every stratum of an organization.

This is one episode that promises not only to enlighten but also to offer actionable insights for those willing to take the steps necessary to fortify their supply chain security. Do tune in to understand why, in a digital world, the old adage still holds true: A chain is only as strong as its weakest link.

2342: How Workiva Integrates Financial, Regulatory, and ESG Reporting Oct 11, 2023

Financial, regulatory, and ESG reporting are no longer siloed compartments within corporations, thanks to platforms like Workiva. With a vast clientele that includes leading names like Slack, Delta Airlines, and USAA, Workiva is redefining how businesses approach data and reporting in an era demanding unprecedented corporate transparency.

In this enlightening episode, I am joined by Paul Volpe to discuss the technological solutions empowering businesses to meet ever-changing reporting requirements. The episode kicks off with Paul highlighting how Workiva's software has evolved to adapt to the dynamic landscape of ESG and financial reporting.

The conversation delves into real-world examples of how various companies have leveraged Workiva's technology to enhance data collection, drive smarter business decisions, and integrate non-financial metrics with traditional financial data for strategic advantage. The discussion also uncovers Workiva's collaborative efforts with industry giants like Slack, PWC, Deloitte, and KPMG, aimed at transforming the way organizations manage their multifaceted data needs. From tackling challenges of data integrity to delivering actionable insights, Workiva is at the forefront of enabling informed business decisions.

Further into the conversation, we explore the quantifiable business value of adopting Workiva's platform. From the imperatives of data integrity to the advantages of cost savings, the talk elucidates the myriad benefits that extend beyond the balance sheet, such as instilling a higher degree of trust in data and even aiding in talent acquisition.

As Workiva positions itself at the intersection of technology and robust data reporting, this episode provides invaluable insights for businesses grappling with modern reporting complexities. Listen in to understand how Workiva is shaping the future of data reporting through technological innovation, focusing on content data management, and fostering global collaboration.

2341: Cybersecurity Awareness Month: Cofense - Why Your Email Security Strategy is Failing Oct 10, 2023

In an era where global spending on cybersecurity solutions is forecasted to surpass $200 billion in 2023, and nearly $300 billion by 2026, the persistence of cyberattacks is a baffling paradox. More perplexing is the fact that phishing attacks constitute more than 90% of these cyber incursions. To dissect the reasons behind this incongruity and chart a viable way forward, I spoke with Max Gannon, Vice President of Threat Research at Cofense, a company that stands at the forefront of anti-phishing solutions.

Max Gannon offers an eye-opening perspective that challenges conventional cybersecurity wisdom. He argues that the overreliance on technology to solve phishing problems is a fundamental flaw in how organizations approach security. Despite the sophistication of machine learning algorithms and threat detection systems, technology alone is unable to fully understand the human behaviors and decision-making processes that often lead to successful phishing attacks.

This brings us to another pivotal point made by Max: the underestimated value of Security Awareness Training (SAT). In a digital culture where checking boxes often substitutes for comprehensive understanding, SAT programs can sometimes be reduced to a perfunctory exercise. Max emphasizes the necessity of evolving these programs into continuous educational experiences that adapt to ever-changing threat landscapes.

Integrating human intelligence into cybersecurity strategy is not just an add-on; it's imperative. According to Max, human intelligence can catch the nuances and intricacies that often evade machine-led security measures. Organizations can leverage both human and machine capabilities with a more foolproof defense mechanism by having a more integrative approach.

During our conversation, we also explored the current state of the cyber threat landscape, highlighting the limitations of current email security measures. Max notes that even the most advanced technologies can fall prey to sophisticated social engineering attacks, making up 98% of social engineering attacks according to some statistics. We also delved into the future of cybersecurity, examining potential strategies and solutions that organizations can adopt to stay one step ahead of increasingly inventive and aggressive cyber adversaries.

This engaging dialogue with Max Gannon is a conversation and a call to organizations to rethink their cybersecurity strategies. As phishing remains a ubiquitous threat, the insights from Max offer a robust framework for reinforcing organizational cybersecurity measures. I highly recommend tuning into this enlightening discussion to learn how to fortify your defenses in an ever-volatile cyber world.

2340: Playform: The Evolution of Art in the AI Era Oct 09, 2023

The art world has long been a canvas for innovation and disruption, and with the advent of artificial intelligence, the medium is undergoing a transformation unlike any before. I sat down with Ahmed Elgammal, founder of Playform and creator of AICAN, to delve into the state of Generative AI in art-making. This topic straddles technology, creativity, and ethics.

Playform's recent 500-participant survey provides a unique vantage point to analyze how AI is shaping artistic practice. AI is increasingly integrated into the artist's studio, from aiding in idea generation to refining final pieces. But as Ahmed and I discussed, this brings forth questions about the artist's identity and the art's originality. Does AI-enabled creation dilute or enhance human ingenuity?

Ethically, the use of AI in art isn't without its complexities. Issues like copyright infringement loom large, especially as artists use AI tools trained on existing works. Ahmed highlights the importance of using one's own images for training the AI to avoid legal complications. And while the technology is dazzling, it's not without operational challenges, such as the difficulty in controlling outcomes and seamlessly incorporating these tools into traditional workflows.

Commercially, AI's place in art is still a subject of debate and even skepticism among artists and critics alike. Can a machine-generated image hold the same artistic value as a human creation? Or is it simply a tool that assists in the creative process? Ahmed and I touched on these differing viewpoints, highlighting that the role of AI in art might best be described as that of an enabler rather than a creator.

The conversation also ventured into the synergy of AI with other emerging technologies in the art world, stressing that the focus should not be on AI creating art, but rather on how it can enhance human artistic expression and experimentation.

In essence, our talk illuminated the expansive yet intricate role that AI is beginning to play in the world of art. It's a narrative of collaboration and tension, innovation and apprehension, but above all, it's a story still being written. We encourage you to explore Playform's website to see for yourself how AI can be a game-changer in the creative process.

2539: Meet IMPT, The Planet's Loyalty Programme Oct 08, 2023

In a world grappling with the dire consequences of climate change, innovators like Denis Creighton are pioneering solutions that marry technology with environmental responsibility. Denis, the CEO & Co-Founder of IMPT, sat down with me to explore how blockchain technology is transforming the carbon credit market.

IMPT is not just another carbon-offsetting platform; it's an ecosystem designed to connect retail brands and consumers in a socially responsible pact for sustainability. The IMPT model allows consumers to be part of climate change mitigation in a way that's not only easily accessible but also verifiable thanks to blockchain technology.

The discussion kicked off by addressing the crucial need for a green blockchain that assures transparency and traceability in carbon credit programs. I learn how IMPT empowers everyday consumers to make sustainable choices through their retail experiences, allowing them to earn free carbon credits.

Denis emphasized the moral imperative for businesses to reduce their carbon footprint. He introduced the IMPT Retail Partnership Network, a strategic alliance aimed at cultivating a culture of eco-consciousness. The Planet's Loyalty Program, another IMPT innovation, not only incentivizes responsible consumption but also allows points to be exchanged for carbon credits, thus offering a twofold benefit.

Blockchain's role in this ecosystem is significant. Denis pointed out that this technology ensures a level of traceability and credibility hitherto difficult to achieve in carbon offset projects. This fortifies trust and encourages more individuals and businesses to partake in these crucial initiatives.

We discuss the throwaway culture prevalent in society today and the resultant environmental degradation. Drawing inspiration from literature and music, including books like "Long Walk to Freedom" and "The Power of Your Subconscious Mind," as well as their shared favorite song, "Skinny Love," they stressed the need for individual and collective action.

The conversation also addresses the darker aspects of the carbon credit industry, notably the deceptive greenwashing tactics employed by companies like BP and the environmental toll of agriculture.

Through IMPT, Denis aims to facilitate actionable climate change mitigation that places the power back in the hands of consumers. The platform epitomizes a future where blockchain guarantees transparency, enabling everyone to contribute to a more sustainable planet.

2538: The Role of AI and Blockchain in Revolutionizing Music Payments Oct 08, 2023

I sit down with Bruno Guez, the founder of Revelator, a pioneering enterprise transforming the music industry's financial landscape. With a background steeped in 25 years of music business acumen, Bruno provides a nuanced look into how Revelator is shifting paradigms by offering holistic solutions for catalog management, digital distribution, income tracking, and more.

Our conversation begins with a discussion on the challenges the music industry faces in embracing Web3 technologies and NFTs. Bruno illuminates the intricate legal frameworks that underpin the music business and outlines why existing models fall short when applied to the decentralized web. He presents Revelator's groundbreaking work in developing the infrastructure required to support new forms of royalty management and compensation.

As the dialogue progresses, we delve into Revelator's cornerstone principles. Bruno details the company's focus on not just streamlining financial reporting and royalty operations, but also pioneering new revenue streams for rights holders. By leveraging cutting-edge technologies such as AI and blockchain, Revelator is setting the stage for a safer and more efficient IP economy.

Bruno also touches upon the symbiotic relationship between music IPs and emerging fields like VR, gaming, and AI. Through interoperable solutions, Revelator is eliminating bottlenecks in monetization and payments, making it easier for artists and record labels to thrive in a digital-first environment.

This episode is a deep dive into the future of music, viewed through the lens of financial and technological innovation. It's a must-listen for anyone eager to understand the tectonic shifts that are redefining how music creators get paid in an ever-evolving digital landscape.

2537: Stadia Maps: Redefining Geospatial Services in the Digital Age Oct 07, 2023

I reconnected with Ian Wagner and Luke Seelenbinder, co-founders of Stadia Maps, to dive deep into the intricacies of geospatial technology and the transformative power of location-based services. We initially met in Tallinn, Estonia—a digital innovation hub—the actual conversation unfolds months later in a remote setting, breaking geographical barriers.

Ian and Luke recount their entrepreneurial journey as American expats who have leveraged Estonia's e-Residency program to work remotely from Switzerland and South Korea. They shed light on how Estonia's progressive digital ecosystem has been a catalyst in the evolution of Stadia Maps, offering an in-depth look into the advantages of e-Residency, including data privacy and global compliance.

The dialogue then transitions to the core of Stadia Maps' operation: a robust, partnership-centric approach to business. Ian and Luke outline their strategy, which goes beyond traditional vendor-client relationships to build long-term collaborations. They spotlight their work with Stamen Design and their commitment to integrating both open and proprietary data to offer a comprehensive suite of mapping services.

Yet, the narrative extends beyond the geospatial. The co-founders share their future plans, which include incorporating emerging technologies like augmented reality and enhancing their customer support to world-class standards.

2536: Cognizant and the Oceanic Frontier: Leveraging AI for Sustainability Oct 06, 2023

I host Stig Martin Fiskå, the visionary Global Head of Ocean at Cognizant in today's Tech Talks Daily Podcast episode. With the backdrop of a declining oceanic ecosystem that impacts the environment and the livelihoods of 3.3 billion people, Stig Martin brings a message of hope through innovation.

We discuss the transformative role Artificial Intelligence (AI) is playing in decarbonizing the oceans and rejuvenating their ecosystems. While climate change and over-exploitation pose severe challenges to our oceans' health, Stig Martin argues that AI can be the linchpin for sustainable solutions. From optimizing aquaculture through precise feeding schedules to measuring existing biodiversity for planning renewable energy projects, AI's scope is broad and critical.

One essential facet discussed is how AI technology is making strides in harnessing massive data sets—from satellite imagery to weather forecasts—to revolutionize maritime activities. AI-driven models are cost-effective and eco-friendly by optimizing shipping routes and improving fuel efficiency.

This episode goes a step further to discuss real-world applications. In collaboration with Tidal, a project by Alphabet's Moonshot Factory, Cognizant has successfully rolled out an AI platform trained on an astounding 8 billion observations across 900 terabytes of operational video. This platform is designed for one of the most challenging environments on the planet, showcasing AI's robust capabilities in sustainability.

Take advantage of this episode if you want to expand your horizons on how emerging technologies like AI are disruptive and can be redemptive, especially for our fragile ecosystems.

2535: How Intel is Navigating the Challenges and Opportunities in IT Sustainability Oct 05, 2023

Today, I am joined by Motti Finkelstein, Intel's Corporate Vice President of Digital Transformation, to delve deep into the critical issue of sustainability in technology. The episode comes on the heels of Intel's groundbreaking survey, encompassing perspectives from CTOs, CEOs, and CSOs across the world's largest companies in 22 global markets. Motti provides an enriching discourse on the multi-dimensional role of CTOs in driving both technological innovation and sustainability goals.

Among the salient issues discussed is the inherent challenge of improving computing performance while achieving greener IT. A large majority of senior IT leaders find this a considerable hurdle, revealing a tension between the immediate demands for performance and the long-term responsibility for environmental sustainability. Motti elucidates this point, sharing insights on how this balance might be achieved without sacrificing either imperative.

Another pressing concern highlighted is the existing knowledge gap in the IT industry around sustainability and green initiatives. Motti believes there is a dire need for upskilling the IT workforce to understand and implement sustainable practices. The lack of this specialized knowledge in the IT field presents a daunting challenge but also serves as a call to action for industry stakeholders.

Moreover, the episode delves into the idea that technology and sustainability strategies can no longer exist in silos. Motti discusses how CTOs are now at the crossroads of technological innovation and sustainable practices. This alignment is imperative for businesses aiming to be future-ready and environmentally responsible, a sentiment echoed by a significant percentage of senior IT leaders in Intel's survey.

Notably, the role of the CTO has evolved to encompass more than just technological stewardship. Many CEOs and CSOs now consider the CTO to be the lynchpin in driving sustainability initiatives within the organization. Motti offers his perspective on this emerging role and how CTOs can best position themselves to be effective leaders in this domain.

Beyond identifying challenges, the episode also sheds light on actionable solutions for a greener IT future. Motti talks about Intel's own initiatives, including best practices for CTOs and a roadmap for sustainability. Intel is also spearheading a Sustainable CTO Advisory Board, involving industry leaders from companies like Cisco, IBM, and Shell. This board aims to foster collective intelligence and problem-solving in achieving sustainability goals.

In summary, this episode offers listeners a well-rounded understanding of the complexities and opportunities involved in marrying technology and sustainability. Motti Finkelstein's insights serve as both a catalyst for thought and a blueprint for action, making this episode a must-listen for anyone invested in the future of green technology.

2534: Botify - How to Gain a Competitive Edge in Organic Search Oct 04, 2023

In today's complex digital ecosystem, organic search has emerged as a fundamental element for building brand authority and generating ROI. But how exactly do brands measure and optimize their organic search efforts in a sea of data and paid marketing strategies? In this insightful episode of Tech Talks Daily, I dive deep into this subject with Adrien Menard, the CEO and Co-Founder of Botify, a disruptive web page performance platform that empowers brands to enhance their organic search visibility.

Adrien offers a compelling argument for why organic search should be at the forefront of your brand's marketing strategy. Contrary to prevailing notions that SEO is neither "shiny" nor "sexy," Adrien discusses how the landscape is ripe for innovation through data science, automation, and machine learning. Discover how Botify is modernizing the SEO industry and learn about their unique approach to measuring Return On Organic Search Spend (ROSS).

Tune in to hear about the challenges and opportunities faced by digital marketers, especially concerning the high costs of advertising and intense competition. Adrien and Neil delve into the intricacies of Botify's ROSS metric and how it can revolutionize the way marketers allocate resources between paid and organic search campaigns.

As the conversation progresses, they also touch upon the evolving future of SEO, underscoring the essential role of content and search engine connectivity. This episode isn't just about algorithms and analytics; it's about understanding the transformative power of organic search in today's digital age. Whether you're a seasoned marketer or new to the SEO game, this conversation is guaranteed to enlighten you about the untapped potential of organic search as a high-impact performance marketing channel.

2533: BSI - Exploring TISAX (Trusted Information Security Assessment Exchange) Oct 03, 2023

As technology continues to weave itself into the fabric of industries worldwide, there's an increasing urgency to protect the integrity of supply chains—especially in the automotive sector. In this eye-opening episode of Tech Talks Daily, I sit down with David Mudd, Assurance Global Head of Digital Trust at BSI, to discuss TISAX, a ground-breaking standard aimed at fortifying the auto industry's supply chain.

David provides invaluable insights into his role at BSI, where he oversees initiatives that shape and support best practices in digital trust. We delve into the catalysts that drove the development of the TISAX (Trusted Information Security Assessment Exchange) standard, pinpointing the critical need to secure information within the auto industry's labyrinthine supply chain.

The conversation takes a nuanced turn as we discuss why trust—often an intangible and overlooked aspect—forms the bedrock of a secure supply chain. It's not just about technology; it's also about the mindset and culture of the people involved. TISAX, as David explains, is designed to be a holistic approach to cybersecurity, one that encapsulates a variety of elements ranging from organizational ethos to robust cybersecurity frameworks.

Addressing the challenges of adoption, David underscores how TISAX is more than a compliance checklist; it's a commercial passport for doing business in an interconnected global ecosystem. Companies that invest in TISAX certification aren't just improving their cybersecurity posture; they're also making a strategic investment that could provide a competitive edge.

As we explore the multi-faceted world of cybersecurity, David and Neil emphasize the need for a comprehensive and realistic approach that acknowledges the complexity of international regulations. They talk about the flexibility of TISAX in allowing organizations to tailor their cybersecurity strategies based on specific risks and jurisdictional complexities, a feature that speaks to the standard's future-proof design.

Closing the episode, David alludes to the extensive competency requirements that lend credibility to TISAX, emphasizing the importance of experienced auditing and impartiality. Intriguingly, he suggests that the lessons learned and structures created through TISAX have applicability beyond the automotive industry, hinting at a future where these standards could be universal.

This episode should provide listeners with a comprehensive understanding of how standards like TISAX are becoming increasingly pivotal in an era where digital trust is both a necessity and a differentiator.

2532: Shopify and the New Era of Retail: Marrying Flexibility with Cutting-Edge Innovation Oct 02, 2023

Did you know that Shopify currently powers over 10% of all e-commerce in the United States? Astoundingly, the platform has processed transactions amounting to over half a trillion dollars. Shopify, a juggernaut in the e-commerce space, is making significant strides in establishing a new paradigm for retail—one that marries flexibility and scale with the cutting-edge innovation we've come to expect in sectors ranging from AI to headless commerce.

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I had the privilege to chat with Bobby Morrison, the Chief Revenue Officer at Shopify. I learned more about what differentiates Shopify is its commitment to enabling millions of businesses to maintain control over their brand identity, customer relationships, and data. This conversation is crucial as enterprise retailers grapple with rapid technological changes and ever-increasing customer expectations.

To cater to the complex needs of enterprise customers, Shopify offers three distinct 'flavors' of its platform, each designed to empower retailers to tailor their approach to customer engagement and operations. This level of differentiation is particularly critical in a market that is increasingly competitive, enabling retailers not just to survive but thrive.

One of the episode's pivotal moments was our discussion about Shopify's recent extension of its Shop Pay feature to enterprise retailers outside its ecosystem. With over 100 million opted-in users, Shop Pay is revolutionizing the checkout process, boasting the internet's best conversion rates. But, according to Bobby, this move is not merely a feature addition; it's part of Shopify's broader strategy to alleviate some of the most significant pain points that plague enterprise retail.

In addition to this, we also delved into headless commerce—a buzzword that has piqued the interest of many in the retail industry. Bobby demystified the concept, describing it as a technological shift and a strategic approach that frees up resources. It allows retailers greater control over the front-end customer experience, thereby aligning with the broader trends of customization and differentiation.

Another subject that stood out was the issue of latency. Shopify has mitigated this challenge through its globally scaled infrastructure, boasting over 150 network edge points of presence worldwide. According to Bobby, this approach has significantly reduced latency, contributing to higher conversion rates than competitors and aligning with the idea that 'latency is pollution' in the e-commerce world.

As we look towards the holiday season, a critical period for retailers, Bobby touched upon how Shopify is positioning itself to aid enterprises in their preparations and to navigate the forthcoming challenges. His insights suggested a focus on agility, scalability, and leveraging data analytics to make informed decisions.

Whether you're a retailer, a tech enthusiast, or just someone interested in the colossal shifts taking place in the retail industry, this episode provides a nuanced understanding of both the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.

2531: Data-Driven Advertising in a Privacy-Centric World Oct 01, 2023

In today's Tech Talks Daily Podcast episode, I delve into the nuanced and ever-evolving landscape of data privacy with Alan Chapell from Chapell & Associates. Known for his in-depth expertise in this field, Alan offers invaluable insights into various critical topics shaping the global privacy conversation.

Beginning with the EU-U.S. treaty that aims to enable the free flow of personal data across the Atlantic, Alan elucidates why the path to seamless data transfers has been rife with challenges. Is data localization a feasible strategy for tech companies in this regulatory environment? As we navigate this digital age, advertisers often find themselves at the crossroads of innovation and regulation.

Alan shares his thoughts on the current privacy enforcement priorities that data-driven advertisers should pay attention to. This episode also examines Google's Privacy Sandbox—an initiative that piqued industry interest for its promise of user privacy and personalized advertising. But is it a viable tool on which businesses can be built? Alan unpacks the complexities.

No conversation on data privacy would be complete without discussing the two tech giants that loom large over the digital landscape: Apple and Google. How do their approaches to advertising converge and diverge, and what does this mean for users and advertisers alike?

Looking ahead, the possibility of a comprehensive U.S. privacy law in the next few years is a subject of great debate and anticipation. Alan weighs in on the factors that could influence the passage of such legislation and ventures to imagine what it might entail.

Lastly, for those who wish to delve deeper into the intricacies of data privacy and its impact on business strategy, Alan points listeners to his monthly report, which serves as a vital guide in these uncertain times.

So, whether you're an advertiser, a tech enthusiast, or someone concerned about how your data is being used, this episode offers a compelling look at the state of data privacy today and what we can expect soon.

2530: Merlin's CEO on Music, Tech, and Copyright Sep 30, 2023

I sit down with Jeremy Sirota, the CEO of Merlin. Merlin is a trailblazing entity in the realm of digital music, boasting a global market share of 15% in the independent music sector and forming premium partnerships with tech behemoths like Apple, Spotify, and TikTok. With a background in technology law and a specialized focus on copyright issues, Jeremy offers a multidimensional perspective that bridges the music and technology industries.

The conversation kicks off by exploring Merlin's key mission, which is to offer independent artists and labels the access, transparency, and opportunities they need to thrive in the digital world. Merlin's impact transcends traditional streaming services, encompassing strategic collaborations with alternative platforms like Pinterest, Canva, and Twitch to reach new audiences on a global scale.

The dialogue takes a nuanced turn as we delve into the transformative impact of emerging technologies such as Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) on the music industry. The potential partnerships with platforms like Supernatural become a focal point, prompting listeners to consider how such technologies might enrich the musical experience for end users.

As a former copyright lawyer, Jeremy adds another layer of depth to the conversation by highlighting the pivotal role Merlin plays in protecting artist rights, especially in emerging tech sectors like gaming. This naturally transitions into discussions about the future of the industry, touching on the potential integration of music into wearable technology and the expansive opportunities that lie beyond traditional streaming services.

The episode wouldn't be complete without addressing one of the most intriguing and debated topics of our time: the role of generative AI in music creation. We examine the ethical dimensions of this technology, emphasizing the imperative to ensure that AI acts as an enabler for human creativity rather than as a replacement. The conversation stresses the importance of consent, control, and fair compensation for artists in this evolving landscape.

This episode stands as an enlightening deep dive into the intricate challenges and vast opportunities that lie at the intersection of music and technology. It's a must-listen for artists, tech enthusiasts, and music aficionados alike, offering fresh perspectives that will compel listeners to rethink the future of music in our increasingly digital world.

2529: How Endel Turns Neuroscience into AI Soundscapes Sep 29, 2023

In today's Tech Talks Daily Podcast episode, I welcome back a special guest from Berlin—Oleg Stavitsky, the CEO of Endel. Some of our regular listeners might remember Oleg's previous appearance, where we delved into the innovative collaboration between James Blake and Endel.

The conversation circled around 'Wind Down,' an album designed to facilitate a smooth transition from the hustle and bustle of daily life to a state of restfulness. This unique auditory experience is rooted in the power of artificial intelligence, neuroscience, and Endel's commitment to elevating our mental wellness.

Today, we are going to navigate the evolving role of AI in the realm of creative music generation. We discuss how Endel's Generative AI repurposes existing music stems to craft functional soundscapes. These soundscapes aren't mere alterations; they serve specific functions like aiding sleep or enhancing focus. Such creative synergy between AI and artists like Black opens up intriguing possibilities, including new revenue streams and an extended lifespan for musical albums.

A focal point of the conversation is the transformative potential of Generative AI in amplifying the wellness quotient of music. This is no longer music for the sake of entertainment; this is artist-driven, functional music curated to have a direct, positive impact on listeners' mental health. We also explore how this collaborative model is opening doors to partnerships with significant industry artists and leading to the release of new, unexpected soundscapes.

This episode offers a nuanced view of AI's disruptive yet enriching impact on the creative process. While the larger dialogue often portrays AI as a futuristic threat to human creativity, individuals like Oleg are changing that narrative. AI can be a collaborative tool that enhances artistic endeavors and brings quantifiable benefits to creators and consumers.

Oleg is at the forefront of this paradigm shift, having recently penned essays for high-profile publications like Billboard, Music Business Worldwide, and Variety, in which he details his conviction that AI should be an instrument for artists rather than a replacement.

Today's episode is more than just a catch-up with an innovative leader; it's a lens into the future of music, wellness, and the constructive role that AI can play in that intersection. As you listen, you'll find yourself contemplating the technology that powers these transformations and the ethical, financial, and artistic layers that make this a watershed moment in how we interact with music and technology.

2528: Balancing Tech and Touch: Leadership Lessons from Arise Virtual Solutions' Jonathan Shroyer Sep 29, 2023

In today's episode, I sit down with Jonathan Shroyer, the Chief CX Innovation Officer at Arise Virtual Solutions and one of CIO Journal's "Top CX Professionals of 2022." This episode offers an in-depth exploration into the intricacies of modern customer experience (CX) and unpacks the key priorities every leader should focus on for organizational success.

We discuss the urgent importance of psychological safety in the workplace. Jonathan illuminates how empathy, communication, and genuine leadership can catalyze team engagement and drive business outcomes.

As we navigate through the era of digital transformation, the conversation shifts to how artificial intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing the CX industry. We dissect the ethical complexities and operational challenges tied to AI implementation. They stress that while AI has the potential to optimize efficiency, the human element of empathy must never be sidelined.

The discussion takes a practical turn as they tackle the pressing need to strike a balance between automation and human touch in customer service. Drawing upon decades of experience, Jonathan provides insights into harnessing next-gen AI for creating compelling customer journeys, without losing sight of employee experiences.

2527: Kore.ai: AI-Optimized Customer and Employee Experiences Sep 28, 2023

In today's episode, I engage in a discussion with Raj Koneru, the visionary founder and CEO of Kore.ai, a global leader in enterprise conversational AI solutions. With the recently announced Experience Optimization (XO) Platform V10.1 upgrade, Kore.ai is breaking new ground in the fast-evolving realm of automated customer service.

The conversation kicks off with the fascinating journey of Kore.ai, tracing its evolution from initial proof-of-concept stages to a comprehensive solution for customer service automation. Raj provides an insider's look at the platform’s innovative features like Smart Co-Pilot and AI-Assisted Dialog Nodes, revealing how generative AI and large language models are revolutionizing the bot development process by enabling dynamic workflows and dialogues.

Dive deeper as Neil and Raj explore the fusion of Large Language Models (LLMs) with ontology-based knowledge graphs, which opens new vistas for personalized and contextually aware bot interactions. The concept of domain-specific Intelligent Virtual Assistants (IVAs) is brought into focus, demonstrating how AI can be meticulously tailored to meet specialized business requirements.

Not stopping at customer interactions, the episode also delves into Kore.ai's ambitious plans to expand the scope of conversational AI to all applications. Raj provides insights into their strategic initiatives, including a burgeoning professional services business unit facilitated through preferred platinum partnerships. He also shares his vision for the future, which includes a revolutionary new product aimed at enhancing employee productivity.

For any business looking to stay ahead in the age of AI and automation, this episode offers a wealth of insights. You'll come away with a nuanced understanding of conversational AI's current state and future possibilities, and how Kore.ai is pioneering these advancements.

2526: Democratizing Digital: How Issuu is Leveling the Playing Field for SMBs Sep 27, 2023

I sit down with Joe Hyrkin, the visionary CEO of Issuu, a premier omni-channel content tools and publishing platform. With a career spanning over two decades in the startup and tech space, Joe lends his profound insights into the ever-changing landscape of marketing and technology that small and medium-sized businesses navigate daily.

The conversation kicks off with an exploration into the challenges and opportunities faced by SMBs in 2023, especially in the realms of digital marketing and tech adoption. Neil and Joe delve into the disruptive forces, from Google to AI-powered tools, that have democratized access to technology, thereby enabling businesses to be more efficient and creative.

At the core of the discussion is Issuu's role in simplifying the content creation process. Transforming a single piece of content into multiple formats and integrating seamlessly with platforms like Canva and MailChimp, Issuu is setting new standards in digital content distribution. They also tease a future where Issuu intersects with the burgeoning Metaverse, adding yet another layer of complexity and opportunity for both business and entertainment.

Shifting gears, the duo tackles the subject of scaling in the Metaverse. Joe emphasizes the critical importance of delivering real value to consumers and fostering strategic partnerships within this expansive ecosystem. The conversation culminates with a candid discussion on navigating businesses through periods of global uncertainty. Drawing from his extensive experience, Joe highlights the enduring principles that can guide entrepreneurs and businesses through tumultuous times.

As an industry veteran who's been at the helm of various startups and tech companies, and with a portfolio that includes stints at Reverb, SingleFeed, and the Economist Group in China, Joe offers a multi-faceted view on marketing, technological innovation, and what lies ahead in the uncharted waters of the Metaverse.

2525: Tenable - Hacker Trends and Cybersecurity with Nico Popp Sep 26, 2023

I explore the escalating challenges of cloud security and hacker trends with Nico Popp, Chief Product Officer of Tenable—the leading Exposure Management company. With public cloud spending estimated to soar to nearly $600B in 2023, organizations find themselves in a race against evolving cyber threats.

Nico lends his expertise to decode the complexities around the pressing need for unified Cloud Security Posture Management and vulnerability solutions, as Tenable rolls out advancements in their Tenable One platform.

The episode unpacks how simple misconfigurations and software vulnerabilities can serve as gateways for significant security breaches, making it essential for businesses to transition from reactive threat detection to preventative cloud security.

Nico also highlights the concept of exposure management as a paradigm shift that consolidates various security vendors into a unified data platform. This forward-thinking strategy not only operationalizes vulnerability management but also transcends mere compliance to bolster real cybersecurity capabilities.

Tune in to glean actionable insights on achieving a robust cloud security architecture and staying a step ahead of imminent hacker trends. A must-listen for anyone tasked with safeguarding complex cloud environments.

2524: Co-CEO Leadership in Fintech: A Conversation with Monika Liikamaa of Enfuce Sep 25, 2023

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I sits down with Monika Liikamaa, Co-CEO of Enfuce, for a conversation that takes us from a hotel lobby to a moving taxi—illustrating that innovation never stands still.

With operations across Europe and numerous accolades under its belt, Enfuce is at the vanguard of modern payment processing. The discussion kicks off with the audacious strategic decision by Enfuce to move card issuing entirely to the cloud, positioning the company as a trailblazer in a highly competitive industry.

However, the episode isn't just a chronicle of tech milestones; it’s also a study in unconventional leadership. With Monika at the helm as Co-CEO—a rarity in any industry, but particularly in fintech—Enfuce is challenging the status quo on multiple fronts. Monika elucidates how this distinctive leadership model has been pivotal for the company, especially in navigating the complex fintech landscape.

Amid these business insights, Monika confronts an issue that the tech world often sidesteps: gender imbalance in leadership. With women making up a paltry percentage of CEOs in financial services globally, Monika’s perspective serves as both a wake-up call and a beacon of change. Tune in to discover how Enfuce is not just leading in technology, but also in shaping the future landscape of leadership in fintech.

2523: Atom Computing: How the US can Win the Quantum Race Sep 24, 2023

Today, I am joined by Rob Hays, the CEO of Atom Computing, a company specializing in the creation of scalable, gate-based quantum computers. In an era where quantum computing is quickly evolving from theoretical research to practical application, Rob Hays comes forward with an impassioned perspective on why the United States needs to lead the global race in this pivotal technology.

As we unpack his views, you will discover a detailed roadmap that includes increased public funding, diversified investment strategies, and the essential role of government partnerships. Rob and I also tackle the increasingly important topic of talent acquisition and retention in the burgeoning field of quantum technologies. The conversation illuminates the U.S.'s struggles and opportunities as it attempts to maintain a competitive edge, particularly when pitted against international rivals in the technology sector.

However, this isn't merely about a race but the consequences of who crosses the finish line first. We will explore the monumental economic value and the array of industries that stand to benefit from large-scale quantum computing. Moreover, we will touch upon the implications of new rules under consideration by U.S. Treasury officials that could restrict the flow of investments and knowledge to foreign companies, particularly in China, which is making strides in semiconductors, AI, and quantum computing.

Join us as we engage in an incisive discussion that goes beyond the headlines to provide a nuanced understanding of the complexities, challenges, and vast opportunities in the world of quantum computing.

2522: Mypinpad and the Tech Behind Secure Payments on the Move Sep 24, 2023

In this episode, I am joined by Barry Levett, the CEO of Mypinpad, a B2B SaaS enterprise making remarkable strides in the sector. Headquartered in Cardiff, UK, but with a presence in over 20 countries, Mypinpad aims to be the go-to solution for seamless and secure mobile transactions.

Fresh from securing a $13 million investment led by the respected fintech investor Crossfin Holdings, Barry joins us to shed light on Mypinpad's ambitious goals and innovative technology. He will share how the company actively pursues financial inclusion in emerging markets, helping individuals access and manage their financial resources.

Given the current global economic landscape, it's an initiative that feels particularly timely, and we'll dive deep into how technology can make a difference in these communities. Beyond its laudable mission, Mypinpad is also setting the industry standard when it comes to security. We explore the company's emphasis on bank-grade security protocols that have undergone rigorous testing. Barry's insights offer much-needed reassurance for anyone concerned about the safety of financial transactions in a digital-first world.

Navigating the regulatory waters of the fintech industry is a complex task, and this is where our conversation takes an intriguing turn. We'll delve into the challenges surrounding PCI compliance, a crucial aspect of data security in the payment card industry. This is a realm where partnerships are invaluable, as Barry will illustrate. Collaborations not only help companies like Mypinpad meet stringent regulatory requirements but also enable them to augment their offerings, thereby providing additional value to customers.

In a time when the payments landscape is continuously evolving, Barry and his team at Mypinpad are keenly attuned to the shifting needs of their customer base. The company is not just reacting to changes in the market but actively shaping it, looking ahead to what secure mobile transactions could and should look like in the future.

2521: Menlo Security: Why We Should Be Embracing the Realm of AI Sep 23, 2023

Tom McVey, Senior Sales Engineer EMEA at Menlo Security, joins me in a layered discussion about the complexities and potentials of artificial intelligence (AI). Drawing on Tom's extensive background in cybersecurity and AI, this episode serves as a comprehensive guide on how to boldly embrace AI's disruptive power while being vigilant about its ethical and security implications.

The episode starts with Tom addressing the increasing proliferation of AI-generated images, videos, and voices and the threats these pose regarding misinformation and false flag operations. We examine the urgent need for verification tools to discern human-created content from AI-generated material, marking this as an essential line of defense against AI-based threats.

Tom discusses the delicate balancing act of implementing ethical frameworks while not stifling the innovative potential of AI technologies. They also explore the concept of AI models controlling other AI models—what Tom refers to as the 'sci-fi reality' of multi-intelligence-based systems.

We delve into Menlo Security's latest product, HEAT Shield, and its machine learning capabilities to thwart these complex cyber threats. The conversation also brushes upon how Menlo's unique architecture isolates user interaction from potentially harmful web content.

Towards the end, Tom dismisses the idea of halting AI development, comparing it to the societal transformations unleashed by Johannes Gutenberg's invention of the printing press. He argues that pausing progress would be both impractical and counterproductive, giving adversaries an unfair advantage.

2520: Dimitra: Bridging Tech & Agriculture for a Sustainable Future Sep 22, 2023

Today, I am joined by Jon Trask, CEO of Dimitra, a trailblazing agtech company. Dimitra is revolutionizing the agricultural sector through its blockchain-based platform, designed to empower smallholder farmers across 18 countries. From combating deforestation to leveraging technology for sustainable agriculture, this episode offers a unique glimpse into how emerging technologies can address pressing global challenges.

As an agtech pioneer, Jon outlines how Dimitra's flagship product, Connected Farmer, harnesses cutting—edge technologies— from blockchain and IoT sensors to satellite imagery—to offer a holistic solution to smallholder farmers. The platform equips them with the necessary tools to optimize yields, reduce costs, and secure financial assistance to foster sustainable agriculture.

Jon shares how Dimitra's use of blockchain AI and machine learning can mitigate issues like deforestation while guaranteeing agricultural products' provenance. The dialogue emphasizes the critical role of education and training for farmers, elucidating how the adoption of these emerging technologies can redefine the agricultural industry.

With an eye on the European Union's sustainability goals and a closing note on Jon's aspiration to meet with Bill Gates, this episode serves as a comprehensive guide to understanding technology's untapped potential in advancing sustainable agriculture and combating climate change.

If you're a stakeholder in agriculture, an environmentalist, or simply someone intrigued by the interplay of technology and sustainability, this episode is a must-listen.

2519: Delinea - The Business of Cybersecurity Sep 21, 2023

Join me in conversation with Joseph Carson, Chief Security Scientist at Delinea, where we delve into a critical but often overlooked aspect of cybersecurity: its alignment with business metrics. Based on alarming statistics from Delinea's Global CISO research, this episode urges cyber decision-makers to reframe their perspective and underscores the pressing need for integrating cybersecurity with business objectives.

We explore the challenges stemming from the traditional cybersecurity-focused approach, emphasizing a seismic shift towards holistic business security. The statistics from Delinea’s Global CISO research set the tone: 89% of survey respondents reported experiencing at least one negative business impact in the past year due to the absence of alignment between cybersecurity and business strategies. This underscores the importance of the conversation and the pressing need for structural changes.

We discuss the art of communicating the value of cybersecurity initiatives to executive boards. Joseph argues that merely focusing on technical or activity-based metrics such as the number of prevented attacks isn't enough. These metrics must be integrated into strategic business objectives, helping to break down the conventional silos within organizations and positioning cybersecurity as a crucial enabler of business growth.

Joseph shares why businesses need to prioritize the most critical assets and incorporate security considerations early in project development phases. He underscores the significance of a symbiotic relationship between the CIO and CISO roles for better alignment and fortification against looming cyber threats.

Whether you are a CISO, a business leader, or an executive, the discussion renders invaluable insights into aligning cybersecurity strategy with business goals to gain consensus, appropriate budgets, and, ultimately, a seat at the executive table.

2518: Qualcomm: Navigating the Future of Connectivity with Wi-Fi 7 Sep 20, 2023

In this episode, I am joined by Ganesh Swaminathan and Javier del Prado from Qualcomm Technologies. We discuss Qualcomm's exclusive Wi-Fi 7 Day event in San Diego, exploring the latest initiatives and technologies shaping the future of connectivity. The conversation ranges from Wi-Fi 7's advanced features to its seamless integration with Fiber and 10G networks.

We kick off the episode with an introduction to Qualcomm's Wi-Fi 7 Day event, which Ganesh and Javier describe as a seminal moment for the tech industry. Here, we delve into the advanced features of Wi-Fi 7, including its adaptability and remarkably higher connection speeds. Within the first ten minutes, you'll be up to speed on how Wi-Fi 7 is poised to revolutionize internet access with enhanced speed, low latency, and optimized interference management.

We also take a deeper dive into Wi-Fi 7's breakthrough features. We cover how these attributes, such as interference puncturing, multiple connectivity, and high band simultaneous multi-link, promise to improve not just internet speed but also latency and interference management. Whether you're at home or part of a sprawling enterprise network, Wi-Fi 7 offers benefits that are both wide-ranging and substantial.

Around the 18-minute mark, we shift gears to discuss the confluence of Wi-Fi 7 technology with fiber connectivity and 10G. We underline this integration's tremendous benefits to end-users, particularly in terms of ultra-low latency and high reliability in applications like 4K gaming and ultra HD streaming.

From a tech implications standpoint, the capability of Wi-Fi 7 to integrate with other technologies like Fiber and 5G points to a future where user experience is seamless and high-quality, irrespective of the device or access type. Additionally, Qualcomm's Service-Defined Wi-Fi holds the potential to transform the broadband industry fundamentally, thanks to its application-level granularity in quality of service.

So tune in to this episode for an expansive, thought-provoking discussion that offers a multi-faceted look at the future of connectivity technologies like Wi-Fi 7.

2517: How Manna Drone Delivery is Redefining Last-Mile Deliveries Sep 20, 2023

I explore the world of drone delivery with Bobby Healy, the experienced inventor and technology entrepreneur behind Manna, the world's first aviation-grade B2B drone delivery 'as-a-service' company. The episode provides an enlightening look into Manna's journey to revolutionize last-mile delivery, with exclusive insights into their European operations, technology, partnerships, and future plans.

We explore the genesis of Manna. Taking us down memory lane, Bobby shares how Manna was born and the early days of experimentation involving quirky methods like parachutes and cherry pickers. Here, Bobby brings to light the significance of their unique license, positioning Manna as a trailblazer in the European drone delivery landscape.

Manna's collaborations with the Irish government and the healthcare sector show how technology can be leveraged for the greater good. The episode delves into Manna's poignant role during the pandemic, ensuring that medication reached vulnerable individuals when needed.

The episode takes an interesting turn when Neil and Bobby discuss Manna's strategic partnership with Hillwood in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. Bobby elaborates on how partnerships and collaborations are fundamental for scaling a tech business while delivering tangible benefits to local communities.

This episode serves as a blueprint for how transformative technologies like drones can redefine industry norms. The success Manna has achieved in Europe signals the expansive potential that lies ahead, yet it also underscores the challenges that accompany rapid innovation, such as safety and regulatory hurdles.

From a business standpoint, the episode accentuates the symbiotic nature of strategic partnerships. Aligning with real estate development companies like Hillwood is not just about corporate growth but also about creating value for end-users.

This episode offers a comprehensive yet nuanced perspective for anyone interested in the intersection of technology, logistics, and social impact. As we venture deeper into the 21st century, last-mile delivery is emerging as a critical touchpoint for consumers and businesses. Manna seems to be at the forefront of this transformation.

2516: XYO CEO and Co-Founder Discusses Self-Sovereignty & Market Trends Sep 19, 2023

As the boundaries between the digital and physical worlds blur, I sit down with Arie Trouw, the visionary CEO and Co-Founder of XYO Network, to dissect the labyrinthine world of geo-spatial technology within the blockchain universe. Known for their pioneering role in anonymously collecting and validating over 3 million IoT devices' geospatial data, XYO is also breaking ground in the metaverse and Web3.

Key Topics:

Mapping the Future with XYO World 4.0: Arie unveils XYO’s ambitious 2023 product roadmap, with a spotlight on their forthcoming XYO World 4.0. Learn how XYO aims to make geographical staking more granular and accessible than ever, all stored on the Ethereum blockchain.
Self-Sovereignty in a Digital World: Navigate the idea of self-sovereignty and digital asset ownership as Arie outlines the ethos behind XYO’s mission. If personal data is the new oil, how does XYO plan to return the well to its rightful owners?
Unlocking Geo-Tokens and NFTs: Get introduced to Geotokens, the unique NFTs that are integral to XYO World. Arie and Neil unpack how these tokens democratize digital real estate ownership and pave the way for user-generated rules and gameplay.
State of the NFT Market: From oversaturation to value proposition, the conversation takes a hard look at the current trends and future predictions in the NFT marketplace. Is this the next bubble or the dawn of a new digital asset class?
Challenges and Opportunities in Web3: Diving into the technicalities, the dialogue explores the limitations of shared ledgers and the untapped potential of decentralized technologies. How does XYO envision overcoming scalability issues to unlock a more functional Web3?

Arie Trouw, with his wealth of experience and insights featured in various high-profile platforms like Yahoo Finance and BeinCrypto, provides an invaluable perspective on the evolving nexus of geospatial technology, blockchain, and NFTs.

Whether you're a Web3 developer, a C-suite executive navigating digital transformation, or simply intrigued by the blockchain's real-world applications, this episode promises to be a treasure trove of insights, offering both micro and macro-level understanding of these game-changing technologies.

2515: PA Consulting - Navigating the AI Labyrinth With Alwin Magimay, Global Head of AI Sep 18, 2023

In an era where AI's transformative potential oscillates between allure and ambiguity, I sit down with Alwin Magimay, a three-decade veteran in digital and data science and currently the Global Head of AI at PA Consulting. Known for his interdisciplinary acumen, Alwin serves as a strategic guide at the intersection of academia, business, and innovation. His vast experience provides a multilayered lens through which we examine the disruptive influence of AI on financial services, among other sectors.

Key Insights from our conversation:

The Boardroom's AI Agenda: Alwin's latest research unlocks the mysteries of AI for board members, setting the stage for what every C-suite executive should know. Learn why a company's "AI IQ" is as essential as its bottom line and why an "AI manifesto" might be the cornerstone of future business ethics.
The Annual Report 2.0: Explore Alwin's provocative assertion that the next evolution of annual reports will mandate the explication of AI usage and ethical frameworks. Transparency isn't just a buzzword; it's becoming a regulatory imperative.
Unveiling AI's Double-Edged Sword: From hacking to deepfakes, the conversation delves into the darker potentials of AI. The key takeaway? Trust and ethical considerations aren't secondary; they're foundational to AI's mainstream acceptance and utility.
Bridging Ivory Towers and Marketplaces: Alwin argues for a tighter symbiosis between academic rigor and market pragmatism in AI applications. He shares his own criteria for evaluating the potential of AI startups, offering a roadmap for innovators and investors alike.
The Multi-Industry Impact of Generative AI: Get a panoramic view of how AI technologies, including generative models, are revolutionizing industries as diverse as healthcare, transport, and retail. What opportunities do they offer, and what vulnerabilities do they expose?

This episode is a must-listen for anyone tasked with navigating the AI labyrinth—whether you're a board member, a startup founder, or an academic. Alwin's insights offer not just a compass but also a detailed map, replete with pitfalls and treasures, for those journeying through the ever-changing landscape of artificial intelligence.

2514: Deploying Business Intelligence at Scale - TIBCO & ibi, Cloud Software Group Sep 17, 2023

In today's episode of Tech Talks Daily, I sit down with Ali Ahmed, the recently appointed EVP and General Manager of TIBCO & ibi, Cloud Software Group—a business unit underpinning the mission-critical software of some of the world's most innovative enterprises. With over two decades of experience in the industry, Ali provides a lucid, nuanced perspective on the seismic shifts occurring in the landscape of Business Intelligence (BI) and data analytics.

Key Takeaways:

Unlocking Enterprise Efficiency: Learn how deploying BI at scale isn't just a buzz term—it's the cornerstone of enterprise productivity and cost optimization.
BI Evolution: Ali shares firsthand insights into the transformative changes in BI use over the last three years. Discover why modern BI is not your grandfather's reporting tool.
Cloud is the New Fort Knox: A counter-intuitive perspective that cloud migrations, often seen as a security risk, are stepping stones to bolstering organizational security.
AI and ML: The Next Frontier in Analytics: Understand how Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning are not just adding layers of complexity but significantly augmenting analytics capabilities.
Economic Downturn as a Catalyst for Innovation: A thoughtful discussion on why a weakening economy could paradoxically spur technological innovation.
The Future of BI: The year ahead promises a significant shift from traditional to modern BI. What does this mean for enterprises, and how can they prepare for it?

This episode is a treasure trove for C-level executives, data scientists, and aspiring thought leaders who want to glean both the challenges and opportunities embedded in the fabric of BI and cloud technology. As Ali Ahmed guides us through TIBCO's strategy and innovation pathways, you'll walk away better equipped to navigate your organization's data-driven journey.

2513: Measuring Meaningful Impact: Sherry Shannon-Vanstone on AI, Culture, and Philanthropy Sep 17, 2023

Today, I am joined by Sherry Shannon-Vanstone, the mastermind behind Profound Impact Corporation. Sherry founded the company as a heartfelt tribute to her late husband, Scott A. Vanstone, and she brings to the table a wealth of expertise in startups, technology, and systems security and a life devoted to philanthropy and leadership.

They kick off the discussion with a look at the unique and emotional origin story of Profound Impact, an AI-based software company focused on driving meaningful change. The conversation naturally flows into Sherry's personal journey in the STEM fields, where she emphasizes the crucial role of mentorship and breaks down her experience of venturing into new areas. Her narrative serves as a practical guidebook, especially resonant for young women aspiring to make their mark in science, technology, research, and entrepreneurship.

The dialogue also takes a significant turn towards diversity and inclusion, especially within the context of cybersecurity—a field where Sherry's extensive background in cryptography shines. Sherry stresses the latent power of diverse perspectives in meeting the burgeoning challenges in the sector.

In a nuanced conversation about the interplay between philanthropy and startups, we explore the necessity of intentional and measurable philanthropic efforts. The need to align these efforts with a company's core strategy is laid bare, illustrating how goodwill isn't just an ethical need and a business imperative.

This episode serves as a rich tapestry of wisdom, offering a 360-degree view of technology, diversity, and the human aspects that influence both. The talk is layered with strategic insights and emotional intelligence, making it a must-listen for anyone interested in the intersection of technology, society, and impactful leadership.

2512: The Intersection of Tech and Finance: Unpacking DivideBuy's Consumer-Centric Model Sep 16, 2023

In today's episode, I sit down with Ian Barrell, Partnerships & Business Development Manager at DivideBuy, a frontrunner in the burgeoning consumer finance industry. Join me in a conversation that dissects the rapidly expanding landscape of consumer financing while shedding light on the technological innovations that are setting DivideBuy apart.

We explore the unique selling points of DivideBuy, focusing on their dedication to merging technology with retail finance. The discussion pivots to the importance of ethics and responsibility in lending, emphasizing DivideBuy's commitment to making prudent and informed lending decisions.

As we delve deeper, the conversation takes an exciting turn toward DivideBuy's recent acquisition by Zopa. Ian unravels the synergistic opportunities this merger opens up, from leveraging Zopa's underwriting capabilities to infusing new technological advancements into their portfolio. This union aims to redefine the Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) concept by incorporating comprehensive credit checks and affordability assessments.

Ian talks about the 'installments as a Service' model. This modern take on consumer financing offers businesses an edge, allowing them to integrate seamlessly with DivideBuy's solutions, enhancing their customer experience. They also discuss potential avenues for the company, including the possibility of venturing into subscription and rental services.

Don't miss out on this eye-opening discussion that concludes on a lighter note as Neil and Ian share a musical recommendation that perfectly encapsulates the zeitgeist of our times.

2511: CYPHER Learning and the Mission to Transform Education With AI Sep 15, 2023

In this thought-provoking episode of Tech Talks Daily, I explore the transformative world of edtech with Graham Glass, CEO of CYPHER Learning and a visionary in the field of educational technology. Graham, a former senior lecturer at the University of Texas, Dallas, shares his fascinating journey from academia to entrepreneurship, revealing how he has consistently been at the forefront of driving meaningful change in the education industry.

The conversation explores the seismic shift happening in learning environments—traditional and corporate—pivoting on human-focused experience design. Graham discusses how he and his team at CYPHER Learning are championing this shift through next-generation intelligent learning platforms. These platforms are not merely responsive; they actively mentor learners, regardless of geographical distance, breaking down traditional barriers to effective education.

Among the episode's highlights is the discussion about Copilot, CYPHER's revolutionary AI-driven tool that significantly accelerates course creation. We examine the complexities and challenges of integrating AI into education, balancing the potential for fast, automated course design with the need for human oversight to ensure content quality and accuracy. Here, they touch on a pervasive concern: as we delegate more tasks to AI, how do we guard against misinformation and maintain the integrity of educational content?

Taking a broader view, the conversation also encompasses the future of EdTech, scrutinizing how emerging technologies like AR could further revolutionize the landscape. Graham offers insights into how technologies can be harnessed to create tailored, personalized learning experiences that resonate with the learner.

This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in the future of education, the ethical and practical implications of AI in learning, and how technology can be leveraged to create more inclusive and effective educational experiences.

2510: QuEra's Quantum Leap: Demystifying the Future of Computing Sep 14, 2023

In today's episode, I will take you on a journey through the frontiers of quantum computing, a technology surrounded by an aura of scientific intrigue and commercial promise. Yuval Boger, Chief Marketing Officer at QuEra, joins us to cut through the fog surrounding this emerging field. QuEra, a visionary Boston-based company founded by luminaries from MIT, has set out to transform quantum computing from a theoretical wonder to a practical tool for solving real-world problems.

The crux of our conversation orbits around the timeline of quantum computing's contributions to real-world business applications. While the technology has been enveloped in a whirlpool of hype over the years, Yuval provides a sober perspective on when quantum solutions might genuinely disrupt industries like finance, oil and gas, and government research.

Yuval offers a nuanced view of how quantum processors will coexist with traditional CPUs and GPUs. The key takeaway is that rather than upending the computational apple cart, quantum will supercharge certain calculations and unlock problems beyond the reach of classical computing systems.

By the end of our conversation, it becomes apparent that while quantum computing is undoubtedly a revolution in the making, it's a revolution that will integrate with, rather than overthrow, existing technological infrastructures. For companies and individuals willing to grasp its complexities and nuances, quantum computing offers opportunities that could redefine problem-solving in the 21st century.

2509: AvePoint CEO TJ Jiang on SaaS Growth and Cybersecurity in the Hybrid Workplace Sep 13, 2023

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I sit down with TJ Jiang, the Co-Founder and CEO of AvePoint, a company at the forefront of SaaS operations and cybersecurity. With an esteemed client list including the U.S. Department of State, NASA, Ikea, and Bloomberg, AvePoint is the critical infrastructure for optimizing the hybrid workforce, data management, and secure collaboration.

The conversation with TJ offers an in-depth exploration of modern technology's multifaceted challenges and opportunities. TJ starts by delineating the growth trajectory of SaaS applications, which have become indispensable for modern enterprises. Given AvePoint's client base of over 17,000 worldwide, his insights are backed by hands-on experience and a broad spectrum of case studies.

Data sprawl, a natural byproduct of our digital age, becomes the next focal point of the discussion. TJ delves into how this complexity can be managed effectively, particularly in hybrid work environments. For organizations grappling with enormous and dispersed datasets, the debate around data sprawl is an invaluable guide.

Artificial Intelligence, a recurring subject on Tech Talks Daily, is another major topic. TJ expresses a nuanced view of the burgeoning field, highlighting its transformative potential and the risks accompanying its widespread adoption. He presents a compelling argument for a balanced approach to AI, advocating for comprehensive strategies that weigh both its opportunities and challenges.

As the conversation turns to cybersecurity, TJ's insights become especially salient. With ransomware attacks and cyber threats regularly making headlines, he provides actionable tips on how individuals and organizations can mitigate risks. These insights stem from AvePoint's extensive network of over 3,500 managed service providers and its continuous endeavor to stay ahead of the technological curve.

To round off this insightful dialogue, Neil and TJ discuss the future of the hybrid work model and how AvePoint plans to evolve its solutions to meet the ever-changing demands of this paradigm. The episode makes it abundantly clear that while technology offers unprecedented benefits, it also presents a labyrinth of challenges that demand robust, multifaceted solutions.

2508: Boston Consulting Group (BCG): AI Ethics and Responsible AI in Recruitment Sep 12, 2023

In today's episode of the Tech Talks Daily Podcast, I speak with Alfons Straek, a seasoned leader in the tech industry with a wealth of experience at giants like Amazon and Microsoft. Currently serving as the Senior Director of Global Recruiting Technology and Experience at Boston Consultant Group, Alfons is the go-to expert regarding the intersection of AI, recruitment, and ethical considerations.

The episode comes at a critical time. After an unfortunate incident where employees unintentionally leaked sensitive data, Samsung banned its employees from using ChatGPT on company devices. This event underscores the risks of integrating generative AI solutions like ChatGPT into HR and recruitment processes. Alfons takes the opportunity to dissect these challenges, leaning on his two decades of experience in the technology sector.

Alfons kickstarts the conversation by discussing the growing prominence of AI in recruitment. He emphasizes that companies must develop responsible AI programs as AI becomes an increasingly vital piece of the recruitment puzzle. These comprehensive programs should include elements like strategy, governance, processes, tools, and a culture that imbibes responsible AI usage across the organization. The aim is to ensure that while technology evolves, it doesn't outpace our moral and ethical responsibilities.

Data privacy emerges as another key theme of the conversation. In a world where data breaches are an everyday news headline, Alfons impresses upon listeners the imperativeness of protecting candidate data. He goes beyond mere warnings and offers tangible insights companies can use to safeguard sensitive information. The emphasis is clear: As AI-driven tools become increasingly integrated into our systems, they must be built and deployed with the highest security measures to protect candidate and employee information.

On the subject of implementing AI in recruitment, Alfons is pragmatic yet optimistic. He offers listeners a trove of actionable insights for implementing AI tools in HR processes that are technologically advanced but also responsible. His recommendations range from choosing the right vendors to identifying metrics that can help measure AI applications' effectiveness and ethical impact.

To wrap up the episode, Alfons delves into the future, offering a glimpse of what we might expect as AI-driven solutions evolve and improve the candidate experience. While AI promises tremendous opportunities, it also comes with challenges, ethical quandaries, and potential risks. He provides a nuanced perspective that should equip HR leaders and tech enthusiasts with the understanding and tools they need to innovate responsibly.

We also demystify the complex landscape of AI in HR and recruitment, balancing the scales between technological advancement and ethical responsibility. As Alfons puts it, technology has the potential to solve real-world problems, but it's up to us to ensure that it does so ethically and securely.

So, tune in to understand the challenges and opportunities in adopting AI in recruitment and HR processes. With insights from an industry leader like Alfons, you'll be better equipped to navigate the increasingly complex business technology landscape.

2507: How Intel is Leading the Charge for Sustainable 5G Sep 11, 2023

In today's rapidly evolving digital landscape, the deployment of 5G networks holds the promise of unprecedented speeds and data capabilities. However, with these advancements comes the imperative to address their environmental impact, a challenge the technology industry must confront head-on. I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Jeni Barovian, Intel's VP and GM of the Network & Edge Compute Division, about this pressing concern.

Our conversation touched on many critical points, starting with Intel's strategies for making 5G networks more power-efficient. Jeni shared insights into innovative approaches, such as integrating Intel VRAM boost into processors. These advancements help to optimize power consumption without compromising on performance. Another fascinating initiative she highlighted was the development of Intel's Infrastructure Power Manager software, specifically designed to calibrate performance levels with energy use in 5G networks.

Jeni and I agreed that collaboration will be the linchpin for making technology more sustainable. The technology ecosystem is expansive and involves many stakeholders—from technology vendors, operators, and service providers to governments, NGOs, and industry leaders.

We hope to overcome the hurdles in the path to a sustainable future through a collective, multi-stakeholder approach. This harmonized action is vital for sharing knowledge and best practices and creating common methodologies and frameworks that are universally applicable.

As we delved deeper into the subject, it became increasingly clear that sustainability is not a localized issue; it's a global one. For 5G and other technologies to be sustainable, there's an undeniable need for international partnerships.

Different regions present unique challenges, and tackling them necessitates a harmonized global strategy. With the impending threat of climate change, Jeni emphasized that these alliances are not just preferable but essential. It's a race against time to meet sustainability goals on a global scale, and doing so requires us to transcend national borders and work as one cohesive global unit.

Towards the end of our conversation, we touched upon Intel's long-term vision for a greener, more sustainable future. Jeni talked about the company's ambitious goals of achieving renewable electricity, net positive water impact, and zero waste targets. She reiterates that sustainability is not an endpoint but a journey that requires continuous effort and, more importantly, collaborative initiatives within the technology ecosystem.

2506: Transforming Futures: AI, Robotics, and Beyond with Donna Loughlin Michaels Sep 10, 2023

Today, I am rejoined by Donna Loughlin Michaels, an award-winning PR influencer, strategic communicator, and recognized innovator in many tech spaces. She brings unparalleled insights into the transformational power of technology, especially regarding AI, agritech, EVs, and robotics.

The episode kicks off with an exploration into the role of AI in automating labor-intensive tasks in agriculture, a subject that has become incredibly pertinent due to the pandemic-induced labor shortages. Donna brings an illuminating perspective on how autonomous tractors and AI interfaces are revolutionizing not only agriculture but other industries like automotive.

Safety, predictability, and responsibility are crucial parameters for technological integration, a topic we discuss with gravitas. Donna highlights the need to build systems that prioritize these aspects without stifling innovation, essentially striking a balance that supports public good and corporate interests.

One of the most enlightening segments is when the conversation steers towards the role of AI platforms like ChatGPT in corporate communications and content creation. Donna insists on the importance of integrity and responsibility while leveraging such platforms, underscoring that ethical considerations should accompany technological power.

2505: Navigating a Future of AI-Driven Digital Transformation Sep 09, 2023

I sit down with Ranjit Bahia, the CEO of Cyferd, a next-generation digital transformation startup that is redefining how businesses approach low-code development and unified data processes in the cloud. This eye-opening conversation dives into the intricacies of AI-driven digital transformation and the far-reaching implications it has on the future of work, governmental policy, and the business landscape at large.

The episode begins with an engaging exploration of Cyferd's unique cloud-based data platform. Ranjit shares how their platform leverages artificial intelligence to streamline application development and unify disparate systems, setting the stage for more agile and efficient businesses. We delve into how this paradigm is especially vital in sectors like healthcare, where inefficiency can be costly both financially and in human terms.

As the conversation progresses, they discuss the transformative potential of AI. We address the common fears surrounding AI, demystifying the notion that AI will replace human workers. Instead, they emphasize the idea that AI can work alongside humans to enhance efficiency and reduce risks, serving as a tool for empowerment rather than replacement.

A particularly thought-provoking segment of the episode centers on the regulatory challenges of AI, especially within the United Kingdom. Ranjit offers a critical look at the lack of governmental support for fostering AI innovation and what it will take for the UK to become an AI superpower in the global landscape.

Toward the end of the episode, the focus shifts to practical applications of AI, featuring Cyferd's own product, Neural Genesis. This solution exemplifies how digital transformation can be achieved by leveraging AI and machine learning technologies for enhanced efficiency and growth.

This episode is a must-listen for those looking to understand the complex yet rewarding landscape of AI and digital transformation. Ranjit Bahia not only brings a wealth of experience but also a passionate viewpoint on how businesses, irrespective of size, can harness the transformative power of AI to pave the way for a more efficient and innovative future.

2504: Empowering Founders and CEOs Beyond Series B Funding Sep 08, 2023

In this episode, I am joined by Katy Trost, a highly sought-after coach and advisor specializing in guiding CEOs and executive teams through the intricacies of scaling up. With a client list that reads like a 'Who’s Who' of the venture capital world, including firms like SoftBank, Octopus Ventures, and First Round Capital, Katy brings unparalleled experience to the table.

The conversation starts with an insightful discussion on the challenges CEOs commonly face as their companies move through funding rounds and scaling stages. Katy delves into the psychological aspects of leadership, touching upon the role of imposter syndrome, the CEO's relationship with the board, and nuanced gender differences in how leaders seek and utilize support.

As the episode progresses, Katy shares her perspective on the dynamism that exists within various departments of a scaling company—from the sales team to tech to finance. The chat sheds light on how CEOs can serve as the linchpin that connects different personalities and professional objectives into a coherent, effective leadership framework.

One of the episode’s highlights is a deep dive into company culture, a concept often misunderstood or underemphasized during rapid growth. We explore the necessity of maintaining a strong culture at scale and the challenges that can arise when implementing change across an organization. They also discuss the importance of measuring and setting Key Performance Indicators (KPI

2503: LogicMonitor - Data Observability with Taggart Matthiesen Sep 07, 2023

Today, I dive into the complex and often nebulous world of data observability with a leading expert in the field, Taggart Matthiesen, the Chief Product Officer at LogicMonitor. With an impressive career trajectory that includes pivotal roles at Lyft, Twitter, and Salesforce, Taggart offers an insider’s view on the challenges and opportunities of harnessing data for actionable business intelligence.

The discussion opens with Taggart sharing his unique perspective on how data has evolved to become the heartbeat of every business. In a world saturated with information, how do enterprises sift through the 'noise' to identify that elusive 1% of data which can drive decision-making and business outcomes? Taggart elucidates on the growing potential in the data observability space, shedding light on why this has become indispensable for businesses of all scales.

As AI continues to infiltrate every aspect of our lives, questions around data responsibility become increasingly pertinent. We explore the readiness—or the lack thereof—of using AI to contextualize data. They discuss the ethical and practical implications, offering a balanced view on the technological advancements and the cautionary tales that serve as important guideposts for AI adoption in data observability.

The episode then shifts to explore LogicMonitor's AI ops tool, DEXTA, as a case study. Taggart recounts how this tool provided immediate value by pinpointing the cause of a network outage, thereby showcasing the utility of intelligent data observability solutions. What are the design principles that inform such solutions? And what safeguards does LogicMonitor put in place to ensure data integrity and security?

If you are a business leader, a product manager in SaaS, or someone simply interested in the frontier of data science and AI. In that case, this episode offers a holistic view on where data observability is headed, why it matters, and how to leverage it responsibly for business success. Prepare for an insightful journey through the world of data, AI, and business innovation.

2502: Bloomberg: How Open Source is Driving Innovation in Tech Sep 06, 2023

Today, I am joined by Adam Wolf, the Global Head of Engineering at Bloomberg—a company renowned for delivering data, news, and analytics through groundbreaking technology. With more than 17 years at Bloomberg and a strong academic background from Yale, Adam is a veritable treasure trove of insights when it comes to software engineering and innovation.

Bloomberg may be a titan in providing professional services that connect decision-makers, but did you know that its true "superpower" lies in its engagement with the open-source community? In a thought-provoking dialogue, Adam uncovers how Bloomberg leverages open-source technology to catalyze true technological innovation, compelling why this open approach has more benefits than meets the eye.

We dive into Bloomberg’s transformative journey in the adoption of open source, examining the company's cultural metamorphosis. Was it a natural evolution or did it necessitate a seismic shift? How critical is it for businesses to contribute back to the community from which they draw so much? Adam touches upon Bloomberg’s efforts in language standardization and what these contributions mean not just for Bloomberg but for the tech ecosystem at large.

The conversation then turns to the symbiotic relationship between open-source communities and large enterprises. We dissect the nuances of democratic funding models like Bloomberg’s FOSS Contributor Fund. They reflect on how these funding avenues are not just a give-back mechanism but also an investment in sustainable innovation.

Adam highlights the array of benefits and challenges that engineers face while working on open source projects. The exchange delves into how open source can be a fertile training ground for budding engineers, offering avenues for them to sharpen their skills and broaden their horizons. But what does this mean for Bloomberg’s talent pool? Adam shares unique perspectives on Bloomberg's "visiting engineer" pilot program, aiming to infuse fresh ideas and perspectives within its technical teams.

Towards the end, we explore why Bloomberg's commitment to open-source innovation has made it more popular in these circles than even the FAANG companies. What does this mean for Bloomberg’s positioning in the tech landscape? And importantly, what does it indicate about the evolving ethos in tech development?

This episode is not just for the tech-savvy but also for business leaders, policy-makers, and even the casually curious. Tune in to delve into the future of open-source technology and its transformative impact on innovation in the global tech industry.

2501: ForgeRock: Why The Future is Passwordless Sep 05, 2023

Welcome to another illuminating episode of Tech Talks Daily Podcast. I sit down with Fran Rosch, the visionary CEO of ForgeRock, a global leader in digital identity management. With a radical transformation on the horizon, Fran sheds light on the pressing challenges and monumental opportunities in enterprise identification management. Having previously been at the helm of Symantec's $2B+ Consumer Digital Safety segment, Fran brings two decades of rich industry experience to the table.

In this episode, Fran takes listeners through a historical overview of how authentication has evolved over the past 20 years, punctuating the narrative with intriguing insights. Has technology really moved the needle, or are we stuck in a quagmire of incremental advancements? With solutions like self-service options and biometrics, Fran argues we're on the cusp of a passwordless future. But is the industry ready for it? Are we, as users, prepared for such a monumental shift?

As we delve deeper into the realm of identity management, we discuss the far-reaching challenges and opportunities for organizations and governments in an ever-connected world. With identities numbering in the millions, perhaps billions, Fran casts a lens on the complexities of scale, specifically in the context of AI and IoT.

We then explore why, despite notable technological advances, flawed passwords continue to be the Achilles heel of digital identity management. Is it inertia, or is it a complex web of technological, social, and economic factors?

Fran paints a vivid picture of the challenges surrounding technology adoption and change management, especially when it comes to passwordless authentication. He emphasizes the urgency for companies to transition to new identity solutions—not just to stay competitive, but also to improve user experiences, both for consumers and within the enterprise.

This episode is a must-listen for anyone intrigued by the future of digital identity, AI, and the ever-evolving technological landscape. From C-suite executives to tech enthusiasts, there are actionable insights and thought-provoking discussions that promise to keep you engaged from start to finish. Tune in and prepare to rethink what you know about passwords and digital identity.

2500 : Digital Marketing Finance: A Conversation with Chris Pearce of Marigold (Cheetah Digital) Sep 04, 2023

Today, I will take you into the often-overlooked corridors of finance within the digital marketing realm. My guest, Chris Pearce, serves as the International Finance Direct for EMEA and APAC at Marigold, a name that commands respect in the digital marketing arena.

In the episode, Chris walks us through Marigold's transformative journey as they made the shift from manual to automated accounts receivable using Quadient AR by YayPay. Chris delves into the before and after, revealing a landscape fraught with challenges, including inconsistent system reports and missed follow-ups that were a part of their pre-automation days.

With automation, the game has entirely changed for Marigold, with remarkable improvements like securing on-time payments, enhancing customer experiences, and slashing overdue customer payments by an impressive 40%.

We then discuss the K-Piver-Cordion system, a leap forward in the company's automated accounts receivable efforts. This has significantly optimized communication with customers, streamlined payment processes, and bolstered cash flows. The conversation turns richly informative as Chris elaborates on the challenges Marigold had to navigate during this transition. He emphasizes the meticulous data organization and communication strategies that were pivotal to their success.

We also explore the exciting horizons that automation and artificial intelligence could offer Marigold in the near future. Not just confined to accounts receivable, but the potential for sweeping transformations across various operational facets of the company.

Tune in for a deep-dive into the transformative role of finance in digital marketing, as Chris Pearce offers an unprecedented look at the operations behind one of the industry's leading names. Whether you're a digital marketer, a finance professional, or someone intrigued by the blend of the two, this episode promises invaluable insights.

2499: LegalTech: Navigating the Future of Legal Operations Sep 03, 2023

I sit down with Tom Stephenson VP, Community & Legal Ops/Legal.io Plus and Host of Dear Legal Ops. Tom, brings over a decade of rich experience from global law firms, Fortune 500 companies, and legal tech vendors, illuminates the myriad facets of the legal landscape in today's digital age.

The conversation kicks off with Tom sharing insights into how technology is transforming the very bones of the legal profession. Whether it's machine learning algorithms expediting contract reviews or AI tools revolutionizing compliance checks, technology stands as a game-changer.

However we delve deeper, discussing the thorny challenges that accompany this digital shift. Issues like imposter syndrome, perfectionism, and the complexities of migrating from traditional law firms to in-house corporate legal roles are examined with a critical lens. The episode takes a riveting turn as Tom unpacks his role at Legal.io, a disruptive force aiming to redefine the legal hiring process and provide resources for career advancement. Tom elucidates how his platform is not just a marketplace for jobs but a community that fosters growth, innovation, and transformative professional experiences.

We then venture into the realm of community building within the legal tech landscape. Tom reveals the magic behind cultivating effective relationships and aligning disparate groups under a unified mission. His insights are deeply rooted in his role as Vice President of Community & Legal Operations at Legal.io, where he has proven his prowess in steering the ship of organizational strategies.

Tune in to this episode for an intricate, multi-dimensional view of legal operations, technology, and the paths that lie ahead. It's a masterclass in understanding the future of law through the lens of someone who is actively shaping it.

2498: Unlocking the Power of Modern Data Sep 03, 2023

Today, I explore the world of modern data analytics with Aron Clymer, Founder and CEO of Data Clymer. Aron brings to the table a wealth of knowledge and experience, from his time building the Product Intelligence team at Salesforce to democratizing data at PopSugar, and finally leading Data Clymer to become a force to be reckoned with in the realm of data and analytics.

Our journey begins with Aron sharing his personal story, illustrating how his passion for data analytics has driven his career. He uncovers the transformative power of data in problem-solving across various sectors, highlighting how data is no longer a side note but central to business strategy.

The discussion takes a deep dive into the modern data stack, a concept Aron is fervent about. He stresses the importance of centralizing, democratizing, and making data analytics-friendly. Amidst the chatter about buzzwords like 'data democratization,' Aron brings clarity by offering a pragmatic approach to building a robust data culture, grounded in solving specific use-cases and iterating solutions.

The conversation shifts gears as we explore the evolution of data warehousing. Cloud technology, it appears, has been a game-changer. Aron elucidates how it's now possible to run an entire business operation off a data warehouse, obliterating the need for data movement. This technological leap means that employees in diverse roles can become 'data heroes,' wielding analytical tools with relative ease to glean valuable insights.

As the dialogue moves forward, Aron shares captivating insights on the future of data analytics, including the harmonization of real-time data and batch processing. The discussion spirals into the specific challenges and opportunities in the domain of marketing analytics, hinting at what's next on the horizon for Data Clymer, particularly in untapped industries like sports and entertainment.

Don't miss this episode if you're looking to understand not just the mechanics of data but its soul; how it can empower, inform, and most importantly, drive success.

2497: Doppl.ai: Is the Future of Authenticity AI-Driven Digital Twins? Sep 02, 2023

In this episode, Neil delves into the intricate world of digital identities with Thibault Launay, a serial entrepreneur and the innovative mind behind Doppl.ai. An evolution from Thibault’s earlier venture, Exclusible, Doppl.ai reimagines the concept of a digital twin by incorporating generative AI technology. Far from being just another avatar, the 'Doppl' becomes an interactive, highly precise digital version of oneself, evolving in real time based on the individual's data.

Thibault shares the origin story of Doppl.ai, giving listeners an intimate look at his entrepreneurial journey that began at the young age of 22. Not just a solo venture, he elaborates on how he has recruited an exceptional team from varied backgrounds, including veterans from IGN, GameFly, and Speechmatics. Each team member brings unique insights and skills, contributing to the revolutionary product they're building.

As the conversation unfolds, it becomes evident that Doppl.ai isn’t just about digital identity—it's about the convergence of disruptive technologies like NFTs, the metaverse, and AI. It takes the scattered, curated, and often deceptive digital identities of traditional social media and transforms them into something far more authentic. This venture represents a significant leap in the ongoing quest for individuality in digital spaces, offering a transparent, real, and engaging user experience.

Toward the end of the discussion, Thibault touches on the future of Doppl.ai. We talk about the rigorous quality improvements planned before its market launch and express their excitement about what lies ahead. If you’re interested in the future of digital identity, AI, and how we present ourselves in increasingly virtual worlds, this episode is a must-listen.

2496: Unlocking Digital Collaboration and The Future of Hybrid Work Sep 01, 2023

In this captivating episode, Neil speaks with Sriram Sampath, Vice President of CX Management and Collaboration platforms at Tata Communications, a leader in enabling digital ecosystems for global enterprises. They delve into the imperative need for powerful yet straightforward digital collaboration platforms in today's hybrid work environment.

We explore the complexities of merging our personal and professional lives in the age of remote work. As digital walls continue to blur, they discuss how the right technological frameworks can help manage these transitions and even aid in task-switching between different roles.

The conversation further turns to the often-undiscussed challenges of a hybrid work culture—unproductive meetings, procrastination, and the friction points employees encounter when transitioning back to physical workspaces. Drawing on Sriram's wealth of experience and insight, they outline how companies can best navigate these issues. They highlight that failing to address such challenges risks not just productivity but also personal time, as described by The Wall Street Journal's report on the erosion of weekends in a hybrid-first world.

Sriram provides an insider look into how Tata Communications is partnering with tech giants like Cisco and Microsoft to deliver end-to-end solutions that help companies communicate more effectively and adapt to these new work paradigms. He shares the forward-looking strategies that Tata Communications is adopting, from evolving platform capabilities to introducing features designed to meet the unique needs of a modern workforce.

Listen in to gain a nuanced understanding of the digital transformation journey, its impact on the global work landscape, and the innovative solutions Tata Communications brings. This episode offers a 360-degree view on the challenges, opportunities, and next steps in digital collaboration and hybrid work culture.

2495: The Evolution of AI: From the Obama White House to Conexus with Dr. Eric Daimler Aug 31, 2023

In a thought-provoking episode, I sit down with Dr. Eric Daimler, an eminent authority on artificial intelligence and robotics with over two decades of multifaceted experience. As a Presidential Innovation Fellow for AI and Robotics under the Obama Administration and the CEO of Conexus, Dr. Daimler offers a unique vantage point on the intersection of policy, innovation, and entrepreneurship in the ever-evolving AI landscape.

The conversation kicks off with an exploration into Eric's role as the first AI authority in the Obama White House. They delve into the strategic importance of having technology expertise within the governmental structure, examining how such expertise can shape public policy and drive national initiatives.

From the macro to the micro, the conversation shifts towards the mounting challenges of data management in AI implementations. With his current venture, Conexus, Dr. Daimler aims to revolutionize data integration and migration through a category-theory-based platform, CQL. The discussion takes a deep dive into the complexities of managing data deluge and the role of category theory in simplifying this monumental task.

The discourse then moves into the social and ethical dimensions of AI and robotics. Eric and Neil ponder on the responsibility of communities and citizens in shaping the future of these technologies. They stress the necessity for a collective approach towards understanding the ethical, societal, and economic impacts of AI.

As the conversation advances, we discuss the prospects and challenges for AI in automating vocational IT work and synthesizing various tools' actions. They underscore the transformative potential of AI in diverse sectors, including supply chain management, organ donation, and drug discovery.

Dr. Daimler brings an unparalleled blend of academic rigor, policy insight, and entrepreneurial spirit to the episode. This is a must-listen for anyone interested in the multifaceted aspects of AI, from data management to ethical considerations and policy implications.

2494: Mimecast - CISO Neil Clauson on Articulating Cyber Risk to the C-Suite Aug 30, 2023

In this insightful episode of Tech Talks Daily, Neil Clauson, Regional CISO at Mimecast, joins us to shed light on a subject that has now found a permanent place in boardroom agendas worldwide: cyber risk. The World Economic Forum's 2023 Global Risks Report has highlighted cyber risk as a top concern for global leaders, echoing the urgent need for board-level understanding and action in this domain. But how do CISOs make the complex world of cybersecurity comprehensible to the C-Suite and the board? Neil Clauson offers a masterclass.

We explore the nuances of demystifying mid-to-long-term risks associated with cyber threats, urging the importance of language that resonates with the board. Gone are the days when technical jargon could dominate these high-level discussions. In today's interconnected business landscape, it's crucial that cyber risks are articulated in terms directly correlating with business outcomes. But it's not just about communicating what could go wrong; it's also about focusing on why it can go wrong. For instance, why does heavy reliance on a single security provider increase risk?

The episode explores Clauson's recommendations for aligning cyber risk with the broader business landscape. By doing so, CISOs can move away from a crisis-response model to one that is integral to the business strategy, thereby elevating the cybersecurity discourse from a niche IT concern to a core business functionality.

Neil Clauson also imparts wisdom on how to frame cyber risk without inciting unnecessary panic. He suggests tactical approaches that allow the board to quantify these risks accurately, driving home the point that not every incident warrants a five-alarm fire.

Finally, we delve into the evolving role of the CISO, emphasizing the need for a sense of humor, preparedness, and proactive risk management strategies that go beyond mere compliance to embed cybersecurity into the very fabric of the business.

This episode is a must-listen for CISOs grappling with the challenge of making cybersecurity a board-level priority and for board members looking to gain a nuanced understanding of this multifaceted risk landscape.

2493: Hyland - Bridging Legacy Gaps: How Cloud and AI are Redefining Content Management Aug 29, 2023

In a digital era where content is king and data is the new oil, businesses grapple with the challenge of intelligently connecting these invaluable assets. In the next episode of Tech Talks Daily Podcast, I engage in a candid conversation with Tim Hood, VP for EMEA & APAC at Hyland, a company at the forefront of crafting technology foundations that empower over half of the Fortune 100 companies.

With 15 years in content management and a formidable track record of expanding Hyland's European team from 48 to over 600, Tim brings an unmatched depth of insight into content management and digital transformation.

Our discussion starts by tackling the age-old frustrations of legacy systems— their inflexibility, growing obsolescence, and widening performance gaps. Tim provides an eloquent analysis of why businesses often find themselves shackled to these outdated technologies, citing concerns ranging from cost and convenience to custom integrations and technological inertia.

The conversation then transitions to the undeniable power of cloud technology in addressing these challenges. Tim elucidates how the cloud can pace a company's digital evolution, mainly through hybrid storage approaches. By framing the cloud as more than just a tool but as a strategic asset, Tim makes a compelling case for its role in shaping the future of content management.

One of the unique aspects we explore is the regional nuances in digital transformation strategies. While the technological challenges remain consistent globally, the approach to solving them varies. Tim outlines how market behaviors differ across the UK, Europe, and the US, offering insights into how Hyland tailors its strategies to align with regional idiosyncrasies.

Further, we dive into the broader narrative of digital transformation. Tim stresses the importance of a well-defined vision that includes technology, people, and processes. He discusses Hyland's mission of enabling intelligent connections between content, data, and processes using a blend of cutting-edge technologies like AI and machine learning. A holistic outlook has fueled Hyland's remarkable growth under his leadership.

The episode wraps up with Tim sharing glimpses into the future— from the expansion of the content services market to Hyland's ongoing focus on enhancing customer experiences through technologies like Insight. Plus, he shares a bit of whimsy, expressing his hypothetical dining companions from history and tech, namely Charles Babbage and Bill Gates.

This episode serves as a comprehensive guide for businesses looking to navigate the complex landscape of digital transformation, especially in the realm of content and data management. It's a conversation rich in expert insights and practical strategies, equipping listeners with the knowledge to make informed decisions in a rapidly evolving technological landscape.

2492: FinTech, De-Dollarization & Market Dynamics: Expert Insights with AvaTrade's Kate Leaman Aug 28, 2023

In a financial landscape increasingly characterized by uncertainty and volatility, clarity and expertise are prized commodities. I sit down with Kate Leaman, Chief Market Analyst at AvaTrade, to shed light on some of the most pressing issues affecting the financial markets today.

Kate Leaman isn't just another talking head in the world of financial analysis. With a background in financial broadcast journalism and over 15 years in the financial media landscape, she brings a nuanced understanding of market dynamics. She’s not only a seasoned analyst but also an experienced trader, providing her with a 360-degree view of market movements.

Our conversation begins with an exploration of Kate's role at AvaTrade, delving into the intricacies of analyzing markets in an era marked by unprecedented challenges, from inflation and fluctuating interest rates to the weakening of the U.S. dollar. Kate shares how her day-to-day responsibilities include not just scrutinizing numerical trends but also deciphering their implications for AvaTrade's vast clientele.

One of the central themes of our discussion revolves around de-dollarization. This trending phenomenon signifies a shift away from the U.S. dollar in international trade, a move that resonates with broader geopolitical implications. Kate delves into how this trend has evolved, fueled by factors like Federal Reserve policies, trade imbalances, and emerging markets finding their foothold in the global economy.

The conversation also touches upon the symbiotic relationship between inflation and interest rates. In an era where central banks have become proactive economic agents rather than mere regulators, understanding this relationship becomes vital for both institutional and retail investors. Kate offers actionable advice on diversifying portfolios and focusing on high-quality investments to hedge against inflationary pressures.

Trading in uncertain times requires more than just financial acumen; it demands emotional intelligence. Kate and I discuss the importance of removing emotions from trading decisions, urging traders to adhere to a disciplined plan. She emphasizes starting small, being prepared for market volatility, and most importantly, learning from mistakes.

Lastly, we venture into the intersection of technology and trading. The financial markets have seen a digital transformation that goes beyond algorithmic trading to include social trading platforms and blockchain technologies. Kate offers her insights into how traders, both novice and seasoned, can benefit from these technologies without getting lost in their complexities.

As we traverse through an increasingly interconnected and volatile global economy, this episode stands as an essential guide for anyone looking to navigate the financial markets effectively. Kate Leaman’s expert insights serve not just as a forecast of what’s to come, but as a roadmap for how to prepare for it.

2491: The Future of Impact-Driven Tech With Ananda Impact Ventures Aug 27, 2023

In the ever-evolving landscape of tech startups, one may wonder if the rush for innovation has room for meaningful impact. The conventional venture capital model has been scrutinized for its focus on rapid growth, often at the expense of the broader societal implications of the technologies being funded. Does this need to be the norm, or can we chart a more conscientious path for tech innovation?

In a thought-provoking Tech Talks Daily Podcast episode, I delve into this pertinent question with Johannes Weber of Ananda Impact Ventures. Johannes introduces us to his revolutionary "Impact Carry Model," a framework designed to ensure that tech companies not only set but also meet impact Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

Far from an idealistic endeavor, the model implements a concrete 'theory of change,' meticulously measuring a company's impact over time. What sets this model apart is its in-built self-checking mechanism that goes beyond mere intentions to quantifiable impact. If "what gets measured gets managed" holds true, Johannes' Impact Carry Model could be a vanguard in managing for good.

While many venture capital firms talk about creating an impact, their claims often prove to be little more than marketing slogans. Johannes takes a different route by writing purpose-related clauses into contracts and term sheets, ensuring accountability and steering companies back to their original mission.

Johannes and I discuss the potential pitfalls of the "grow at all costs" mentality often propagated by traditional VC models. This single-minded focus has resulted in a burnout culture that impacts startups and founders. Johannes advocates for a balanced approach that gives equal importance to founder resilience, backing it up with proactive support measures like coaching and peer discussions.

We also explore the innovative frontiers of impact-driven tech, spotlighting unique startups such as I-E-Z-O-I-E-S-O Digital Health, Nature Metrics, and Aurora Tech. These companies stand as testaments to what can be achieved when business imperatives are aligned with societal needs. The conversation takes a softer turn as we delve into the importance of kindness in the tech industry. Johannes shares a heartwarming anecdote about a pitch centered around the concept of kindness, which not only succeeded in securing funding but also led to a sustainable and impactful partnership.

The episode provides actionable insights for startup founders keen on creating sustainable, impact-driven businesses. The industry's call to action is to move beyond mere talk and commit to quantifiable, impactful change.

2490: The Inspiring Story of M-Files - From Vision to Centaur Status Aug 26, 2023

In a world where information management often leads to chaos, M-Files emerges as a beacon of organization and innovation. Antti Nivala, the CEO and mastermind behind M-Files, joins Neil on the Tech Talks Daily Podcast to discuss the company's remarkable journey to Centaur status, achieving $100M in Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR). Through pragmatic leadership and a unique metadata-driven approach, M-Files stands as a testament to what unwavering commitment and clever strategy can achieve.

Antti's journey began with the challenges he observed in engineering and construction projects, grappling with disorganized document handling. He realized the traditional folder paradigm was no longer sufficient, leading to the birth of M-Files and its metadata-driven approach. With over $150 million in investment, Antti has driven the enterprise SaaS company to new heights, reaching markets across the globe and particularly expanding in the U.S.

Leadership at M-Files is not about authority but about empowerment. Antti emphasizes transparency and trust within the team. Under his guidance, the company celebrated the milestone of $100 million in recurring revenue—an achievement that speaks volumes about the firm's potential and its future in the market.

Being named Software Entrepreneur of the Year and CTO of the Year didn't just bring Antti accolades; it shaped his leadership strategy. These recognitions instilled in him the courage to pursue audacious goals and enabled him to guide others on their entrepreneurial journeys. Antti's mantra is clear: Focus on what your startup does best, and stay committed to success.

Achieving Centaur status, especially during turbulent economic times, is no mean feat. Antti's pragmatic approach to sustainable growth is a shining example for tech startups looking to expand globally. His stewardship has helped M-Files become the only pure-play modem platform in the document management space—an incredible feat that resonates with both industry insiders and newcomers alike.

Antti Nivala's story is a masterclass in leadership, innovation, and resilience. From understanding the core issues of document chaos to creating a global leader in information management, M-Files is a testament to what clear vision and dedicated execution can achieve. As the conversation with Neil unveils, Antti's approach is not just about technology; it's about human values, commitment, and the courage to do what one does best.

2489: How Memrise is Revolutionizing Language Learning with AI Aug 25, 2023

In this enlightening episode of the Tech Talks Daily Podcast, Neil delves into the world of language learning with Steve Toy, the CEO of Memrise. A name synonymous with innovation in education, artificial intelligence, and mobile applications, Steve Toy's journey is nothing short of inspiring.

The conversation kicks off with an introduction to Memrise, a powerful language learning app with over 65 million users. Steve unveils MemBot, their latest innovation—an AI language chatbot powered by ChatGPT technology. This ground-breaking tool provides a friendly, encouraging language partner that aids learners in overcoming the daunting prospect of speaking a new language for the very first time.

Steve then elaborates on MemBot's unique features, such as providing hints, translations, and suggested responses. It's more than just a tool; it's a safe space that offers all of the practice with none of the pressure. Steve passionately discusses how Memrise has used technology to personalize content, offering immediate feedback to users. The integration of videos from platforms like YouTube and TikTok, matched with words and phrases each user knows, brings a fresh perspective to language learning.

The conversation turns reflective as we discuss the importance of continuous self-education and staying abreast with tech trends. Steve emphasizes the value of self-learning through free resources and the effectiveness of Memrise for language acquisition. But this technological advancement doesn't come without its concerns.

We also touch on the challenges and negative aspects of AI in education. While AI offers highly engaging learning experiences, questions about it potentially replacing human interaction and ethical considerations in AI use are thoughtfully examined.

Finally, they explore MemBot's ability to attract users with varied interests, personalizing their learning experiences, much like how Netflix recommends movies and TV shows. Steve also shares Memrise's future plans, underlining their vision of scaling language immersion digitally.

2488: Zeta Global CEO: Gen Z Shopping, AI, and the Retail Revolution Aug 24, 2023

In today's episode, we sit down with the dynamic David A. Steinberg, the co-founder and CEO of Zeta Global, a cloud marketing tech giant that recently broke down the distinctions between the shopping behaviors of Gen Z, Millennials, and Gen X. How are they choosing brands? What's their shopping platform of choice? And how do these patterns signal the booming rise of live shopping and the "phygital" fusion in the retail space?

As marketers scramble to decipher the digital-native Gen Z and anticipate the upcoming Generation Alpha, David sheds light on why understanding these consumer habits is paramount. But that's just the tip of the iceberg. With Zeta Global's expertise in harnessing AI-powered insights from a monumental data pool, they've been steering Fortune 500 brands like Hanes, Toyota, and Purple towards understanding consumer intentions. Not to mention their recent introduction of generative AI data analysts, ramping up companies' marketing arsenals.

Co-founding Zeta Global alongside ex-Apple CEO John Sculley, David has seen the company's triumphant public debut in 2021 and watched its market cap soar to a staggering $2B. But with AI's meteoric rise come significant concerns, especially regarding its impact on jobs. In light of recent events where thousands of film and television writers went on strike, citing AI as a factor in their job insecurity, David provides a refreshing perspective. Contrary to common fears, Zeta Global has showcased a model where AI augments the workforce rather than replaces it.

In our deep dive, David speaks about:

The unique role AI plays in enhancing workplace productivity by weeding out redundant tasks.
Tasks that AI can masterfully automate, which are beyond human capability, especially handling vast data quantities.
The potential AI holds in not only creating new job avenues but also elevating existing ones.

With rivals like Salesforce, Adobe, and Oracle in the fray, Zeta Global stands out with its unique blend of technology, data, and consumer insight. Dive in as we unpack David's profound insights, his vision for the future of AI and retail, and his storied journey in scaling tech businesses over the past three decades. It's a conversation brimming with revelations, and you won't want to miss it!

2487: Redefining Tech Leadership With Crayon CEO Melissa Mulholland Aug 23, 2023

In today's episode, we delve deep into the tech world with Melissa Mulholland, the remarkable CEO of Crayon. Navigating a realm traditionally dominated by men, Melissa's journey is one of grit, innovation, and a passion for tech. Discover how Crayon is at the forefront of helping organizations maximize their software and cloud investments, all while creating unparalleled value for businesses.

From her early challenges, where societal expectations did not align with her vision, to personal stories highlighting the transformative power of AI technology, Melissa breaks down the essence of what it truly means to be a leader in the IT industry. Rather than embodying an "untouchable" superhuman, she reminds us that the most influential CEOs are those who prioritize trust, sharing, dedication, and, most importantly, humanity.

This enlightening conversation ranges from discussions about the need to disrupt traditional perceptions of IT leadership to Melissa's insights on the very human acts that differentiate great CEOs. Plus, hear about her work with Intel, Microsoft and the very personal story of her son's journey with autism and the role AI played in it.

Prepare for an episode that touches on tech and delves into the heart of leadership, challenges, and the profound impact technology can have on human lives. Join me for an episode that promises tech insights and stories of resilience, vision, and transformation. Whether you're in the IT industry or someone who believes in the potential for change, this conversation with Melissa Mulholland is not missed.

2486: Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL): Navigating Security in 80 Countries with Doug Shepherd Aug 22, 2023

In a digital age marked by rapid technological advancements and increased global connectivity, ensuring cybersecurity for large corporations can often seem daunting. Today, I am joined by Doug Shepherd, Senior Director of Offensive Security and Global Insider Risk for Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL). This leading, billion-dollar real-estate services company spans 80 countries.

JLL's challenges are multifaceted: ensuring the safety of a decentralized workforce, navigating the complex terrains of diverse privacy laws and regulations across continents, and maintaining real-time visibility into an impressive 100,000 endpoints.

During our insightful chat, we delved deep into the previous security issues faced by JLL. The intricacies of having endpoint checks just every 75 days, coinciding with password changes, posed significant risks. Doug sheds light on the dynamics of managing security across different jurisdictions, emphasizing the importance of local expertise and overarching global strategies.

Together, we explore the prevalent cyber threats that JLL and other organizations of its stature grapple with. Doug shares the transformative impact of real-time endpoint monitoring on JLL's cybersecurity posture, highlighting its role in enhancing incident response capabilities. The broader industry has its challenges.

Doug and I discuss the relentless pace of the cybersecurity sector, the balancing act between data privacy and augmented security measures, and the critical symbiosis between security and business. The episode also touches on innovative training programs and technologies, such as Immersive Labs and CASB, that are ushering in a new era of cybersecurity preparedness.

Wrapping up, Doug, with his rich background as a former 'spook' and red team leader, offers a nuanced perspective on the pressing need to find the middle ground between rigorous data collection and upholding privacy.

Join us in this riveting episode as we journey through the cyber labyrinths of a global giant and uncover the strategies, challenges, and solutions that shape the future of organizational security.

2485: STEPN, GNT, Gas Hero: A Deep Dive into Find Satoshi Lab's Innovations Aug 21, 2023

In today's Tech Talks Daily episode, we dive deep into the exhilarating world of Web3, NFTs, and innovative gaming. Joining us is Shiti Manghani, the dynamic COO of Find Satoshi Lab (FSL) and an award-winning business leader with a formidable track record spanning 14 years and 11 countries.

Find Satoshi Lab began its exciting journey with the introduction of STEPN, a revolutionary Web3 application that marries fitness with crypto rewards. Imagine being rewarded for your every step, jog, or run with the help of a virtual NFT sneaker. That's the innovation of STEPN, and Shiti offers a behind-the-scenes look at its inception during the height of COVID-19 and its subsequent impressive growth trajectory.

But why would a digital sneaker hold more appeal than its physical counterpart in our current era? We delve into this intriguing topic, understanding the strategic confluence of health awareness and technological allure.

The future of Web3 is vast and promising. Shiti offers her perspectives on the trailblazing projects in this domain that aren't just innovating but also turning profitable. Find Satoshi Lab, the genius team behind STEPN, has recently unveiled GNT, an AI-powered NFT generator. This unique platform is a boon for creators, founders, and startups, offering them the prowess to craft distinctive digital art pieces that can be instantly minted as NFTs.

And there's more. Awaiting launch is the online multiplayer game, Gas Hero. This game, accessible via web browsers and mobile phones, promises a tantalizing mix of power, fame, and money, accentuating the importance of player interaction. Shiti shares her insights on the psychological intricacies of game development, emphasizing the meticulous care FSL is putting into refining Gas Hero's UX and UI.

Shiti's journey is nothing short of inspiring. With an academic foundation in Electronics Engineering and an MBA in Marketing, she's donned several esteemed hats. From founding a top-ranked computer vision-based AI start-up in the UK to launching the Wall Street Journal's digital arm in India and building influential brands for PepsiCo US, Shiti's story is one of innovation, tenacity, and global impact.

So, gear up for an episode replete with insights on Web3, the explosive potential of NFTs, and the future of immersive gaming. Dive into the world of Find Satoshi Lab and the brilliant mind of Shiti Manghani.

2484: How Your Data Infrastructure Budget Will Determine Your Fate Aug 20, 2023

In today's episode of Tech Talks Daily, Neil dives deep into the world of data infrastructure and its transformative power in the digital landscape. As organizations grapple with the complexities of building robust and flexible data infrastructure, we uncover why such an investment can unlock unparalleled potential despite not always being in the limelight.

The global Data Infrastructure Construction Market is on track to see an impressive growth of over +7% by 2030. But what’s driving this surge? And how should organizations approach budgeting, modernizing, and strategizing for it?

Joining the conversation is Diana Bald, President of Blue Orange Digital. With over 20 years of experience in leading digital transformations and fostering sustainable product development across diverse industries, Diana shares her invaluable insights. She delves into her journey at the helm of Blue Orange Digital and how the company has been pivotal in aiding businesses in their digital evolution.

As the narrative unfolds, the duo touches upon the evolving challenges and opportunities of recent years. From navigating the tides of remote/hybrid work models and economic flux to ensuring tangible ROI on tech ventures, the discussion is both insightful and timely. Data's undeniable power also takes center stage. How can organizations harness its full potential?

From revolutionizing industries to fueling innovation, Diana and Neil view data not just as an asset but as a continuous expedition. Diana emphasizes the integral aspects organizations must focus on when budgeting for data infrastructure. From aligning goals and ensuring scalability to understanding the cloud paradigm and ensuring impeccable data security, the nuances are many.

The digital age sees a proliferation of IoT devices, an influx of unstructured data, the shift to cloud, and heightened data protection norms. Diana and Neil ponder what this means for the global data infrastructure construction market. The conversation then steers towards the art and science of modernizing data infrastructure. Diana and Neil navigate the roadmap to ensure businesses can evolve without causing rifts in their current operations. Their mantra is clear: run systems in parallel, begin on a smaller scale, and always be in the iterative mode.

Peering into the future, the episode delves into what's next for data infrastructure. With data volumes soaring, advancements in cloud technology, industries becoming increasingly tech-reliant, and AI & digitization becoming more embedded in daily life, the future promises to be exciting. Wrapping up, Diana recounts her professional trajectory and the unique ways Blue Orange Digital empowers businesses in their digital journeys.

This episode is a riveting discussion on the very core of digital transformation: data infrastructure. Tune in to equip yourself with the knowledge to navigate its intricacies.

2483: How Zinier is Bridging the Field Service Gap: AI, Automation, and Frontline Empowerment Aug 20, 2023

In today's episode of Tech Talks Daily, Neil delves into the vital world of field service automation with Prateek Chakravarty, CEO of Zinier, a frontrunner in leveraging AI and machine learning to revolutionize field installation and maintenance operations.

At the heart of our conversation is Zinier's mission: to make field service organizations more intelligent, efficient, and swift in their response. As the digital age advances, with phenomena like 5G and the boom in IoT devices, data floods in at an unprecedented pace.

The age-old manual methods and legacy solutions are proving inadequate to keep up with the demands of the times. Enter Zinier, with its comprehensive solution that seamlessly merges the back office with the field, ensuring not just the efficient management of tasks but also a transformative touchless field service delivery experience.

Prateek passionately discusses technology equity, emphasizing the urgency to level the playing field between desk and frontline workers in terms of technology access. In a world racing towards innovation, he believes it's crucial that our frontline workers aren't left behind.

We explore the unique challenges infrastructure-centric industries face in embracing technology. Beyond the technological hurdles, we ddress the socio-economic dimensions of this transformation, underscoring the essence of ESG measures in modern business strategies.

Our conversation takes a deeper dive into the importance of sustainable and inclusive practices in heavy industries. With the global push towards eco-consciousness and gender equality, how are industries adapting? We also evaluate the role of no-code and low-code platforms in catalyzing this change.

While AI presents unprecedented opportunities, it's not without pitfalls. Prateek candidly discuss the challenges and imperatives of integrating AI into infrastructure-focused sectors. Whether you're a tech enthusiast, an industry professional, or someone curious about the future of infrastructure, this episode promises valuable insights and takeaways!

2482: How ArcBest is Transforming Logistics through Tech Aug 19, 2023

In today's episode, I explore the convergence of technology and logistics with Michael Newcity, the CINO and president of ArcBest Technologies. While logistics may not immediately evoke thoughts of high-tech innovation, Michael sheds light on how ArcBest sets new industry standards through technological advancements.

ArcBest's commitment to harnessing the power of tech is evident in its groundbreaking Vaux Freight Movement System. This state-of-the-art system comprising software and hardware components is a game changer for the logistics landscape. Michael delves into its ability to drastically reduce the time spent loading and unloading freight — a transformative shift from hours to mere minutes.

The Vaux system's proprietary technology, which seamlessly integrates into existing setups, offers warehouse managers and dock supervisors the tools to supercharge productivity. But that's not all. The software's unique tracking technology ensures real-time visibility, further reinforcing ArcBest's vision of providing unparalleled efficiency in the logistics realm.

Michael emphasizes that the Vaux system is a testament to ArcBest's robust investment strategy in technology. Remarkably, half of the company's impressive $150M annual technology budget is allocated towards strategic, transformative projects — a figure that surpasses industry benchmarks.

Throughout the discussion, Neil and Michael also touch upon the industry's historical strides in tech, such as the pioneering efforts in online tracking for consumers. Michael's insights underscore ArcBest's customer-centric approach, using innovative solutions like the Vaux system to provide unprecedented value.

As the conversation unfolds, the duo deep dives into broader tech trends reshaping the logistics industry, especially after recent supply chain disruptions. From the surge in IoT and digitization to the promises of edge computing, listeners will get a panoramic view of the tech-driven metamorphosis in logistics.

Tune in to understand how technology is not just augmenting but revolutionizing the logistics domain. This episode offers an inspiring narrative of how forward-thinking strategies and relentless innovation can drive a century-old business like ArcBest into the future.

2481: Zenoss - From Cloud to AI: The Evolution of IT Infrastructure Aug 18, 2023

In today's episode of Tech Talks Daily, I sit down with Trent Fitz, a seasoned veteran in the tech space with over two decades of leadership experience, especially in cloud computing, AI, and cybersecurity. As Chief Product Officer of Zenoss, Trent has been at the forefront of technological innovation, steering product strategy, and global marketing.

If the terms 'AI' and 'IT Infrastructure Management' get your gears turning, you're in for a treat. We dive deep into how AI is revolutionizing how we manage complex IT ecosystems, encompassing hardware, software, and network devices. From the historical evolution of IT infrastructure management, with a spotlight on mobile and cloud computing, to the pivotal role AI promises to play in the domain - the conversation promises a whirlwind of insights.

Remember the days when mobile and cloud computing were the buzzwords? Trent draws from his vast experience to explain how these tech trends have evolved over the past quarter-century and why AI stands to overshadow them in terms of impact. His stint in cloud computing has uniquely positioned him to approach AIOps with a nuanced perspective, especially considering the escalating complexity of today's digital infrastructures.

Listeners get a peek into the world of AIOps: its current trajectory, the inherent challenges, and the multitude of benefits it promises. But, as with all technology, there are pitfalls. Neil and Trent emphasize the need for discretion in selecting AIOps tools. A one-size-fits-all? Think again. Thorough research and precise alignment of vendor capabilities with individual use-cases are crucial to sidestep ill-fated projects.

The duo also shines a light on the intersection of AIOps with data security and compliance. With rising concerns about data breaches and regulatory mandates, could AI be the knight in shining armor?

Beyond the nitty-gritty of AIOps, Trent shares snippets of his personal journey into the tech realm, offering words of wisdom for budding tech enthusiasts. His roles, ranging from leadership stints at Nimboxx and SailPoint Technologies to his consultancy practice, have equipped him with a 360-degree view of the tech landscape.

To all our listeners pondering the seismic shifts in information technology or those sifting through the AI chatter to separate myths from reality – this episode has you covered. Plus, today's discussion is a gold mine for anyone contemplating a tech career or simply seeking a deeper understanding of AI's business applications – from security and compliance to sales and marketing.

Take advantage of this enlightening conversation with Trent Fitz, where we bridge IT management's past, present, and future through the lens of AI.

2480: Therabody - How Intentional Tech & Thoughtful Designs Deliver Real Results Aug 17, 2023

In today's episode of Tech Talks Daily, I delve into the intriguing world of technology behind wellness products with Jaime Sanchez, VP of Product Development and Manufacturing at Therabody.

While many recognize Therabody as a pioneering brand in percussive therapy, few are aware of the intricate tech, rigorous R&D, and science-backed principles that underpin their celebrated products. Jaime peels back the curtain to unveil the thought processes and advanced technologies incorporated to prioritize human needs.

From the deployment of rare earth magnets in the Theragun motor for precision pressure control to the innovative use of Cryo-thermal technology that rapidly cools the skin to a consistent 10 Celsius, every facet of product design is meticulously crafted to serve genuine user needs.

Throughout the conversation, we explore the brand's commitment to changing the paradigms of self-care. We discuss the painstaking R&D journey, the critical role of customer feedback in refining products, and share light-hearted moments like experimenting with the Theragon device on the face.

With patented heart rate sensors, a unique bed design enabling versatile product features like air massages and vibrations, and a commitment to iterative development based on genuine feedback, Therabody sets the bar high in the wellness tech sector. Throughout the conversation, we explore the brand’s commitment to changing the paradigms of self-care. We discuss the painstaking R&D journey, the critical role of customer feedback in refining products and share light-hearted moments like experimenting with the Theragun device on the face which led to the invention of the TheraFace PRO.

I also gain insights into the upcoming innovations from Therabody, with a peek into the development of the SmartGoggles product, boasting a distinctive heart rate sensor.

This episode is an insight into how Therabody harmonizes technology with human-centric design, ensuring that their offerings don’t just promote wellness but also cultivate behavior that prioritizes health.

2479: AI Everywhere With IEEE Senior Member Ayesha Iqbal Aug 16, 2023

In today's episode of Tech Talks Daily, we're diving deep into the world of artificial intelligence with Ayesha Iqbal. She is an IEEE Senior Member and Engineering Trainer at Manufacturing Technology Centre, UK.

Throughout our discussion, Ayesha uncovers AI's profound influence across many industries, illustrating both the opportunities it presents and the challenges it raises. We delve into the transformative power of AI in healthcare, from genetic code discoveries to robot-assisted surgeries, and how the technology promises to reshape diagnosis, treatment, and monitoring. Yet, as with any technological evolution, it's crucial to move forward with caution.

Ayesha highlights the urgent call from the World Health Organisation (WHO) for rigorous oversight, ensuring that AI's integration in healthcare remains safe, effective, and ethically sound. But our AI journey doesn't stop at healthcare. We venture into AI's broader applications, discussing its burgeoning influence in travel, transportation, and even its potential to address some of the planet's most pressing climate and environmental challenges.

One can't help but feel a flurry of lightbulb moments while listening to Ayesha's insights, inviting listeners to dare to think bigger, to envision the art of the possible.

In addition to her illustrious work in the AI realm, Ayesha has an impressive academic and professional background. With a master's in electrical engineering, a decade of professional experience, and numerous publications to her name, Ayesha's expertise is undeniable.

2478: Check Point Software - Why Boardrooms Need to Measure Cyber Resilience Aug 15, 2023

On today's episode of Tech Talks Daily, we're diving deep into the world of cyber resilience with Deryck Mitchelson, Field CISO at Check Point Software. The number is staggering: organisations lost over $2.7 billion in email fraud last year. But should this continue?

In our dynamic conversation, Deryck and I explore why many CISOs may be underestimating the threat of email security breaches and how the right security measures can lead to significant cost savings for companies.

Amidst the rising tide of cyberattacks and the socio-political turmoil, it's evident that traditional cybersecurity measures are no longer sufficient. Instead, Deryck introduces us to the concept of cyber resilience, where organizations strive to anticipate, withstand, and bounce back from cyber onslaughts.

We also discuss the pressing need for organizations to transition from a detection-focused mindset to a prevention-first approach. Central to our conversation is the three C's vital for enhanced cyber resilience: Comprehensive measures, Consolidation of tools, and Collaboration within the cybersecurity ecosystem. Deryck emphasizes the role of Checkpoint Software in pioneering this shift, offering solutions to ensure businesses stay one step ahead of cyber adversaries.

Referencing his insightful article, "How Does Your Board Measure Cyber Resilience?", Deryck further delves into the frameworks that businesses can adopt to bolster their security and why resilience is the cornerstone of any modern cybersecurity strategy. As threats grow and evolve, resilience becomes more critical than ever, and Deryck offers a roadmap on how businesses can navigate this complex landscape.

2077: Intel Accessible Computing & Inclusive Technology Design Aug 14, 2023

In the latest Tech Talks Daily podcast episode, we sat down with Darryl Adams, Director of Accessibility at Intel. Darryl provides enlightening insights into how Intel is harnessing technology to bridge the accessibility gap, particularly for individuals with hearing disabilities. Here are some of the key takeaways:

Global Access to Assistive Technology: In a heartwarming partnership with 3DP4ME, Intel is making strides in increasing the availability of assistive tech in developing countries. A pilot project in Jordan stands as a testament to the potential of this initiative. By employing 3D printing technology, 3DP4ME is equipping children with custom-fitted hearing aids. This not only ensures a better fit but also proves to be a quicker and more cost-effective solution than traditional methods.

Seamless Aid-to-PC Integration: Leveraging the insights from their employees with hearing impairments, Intel's innovative team is closing the compatibility gap that once restricted the full use of hearing aids with PCs. Thanks to the implementation of Bluetooth LE Audio, users can now directly connect their hearing aids to their computers.

A Tailored Audio Assistance Experience: Recognizing that one size doesn’t fit all, Intel is pioneering personalized audio assistance solutions. For those challenged by specific sound frequencies, Intel’s tools are designed to help them concentrate on their PC tasks without missing out on vital ambient sounds. The All Ears software is a prime example of this, alerting users to significant sounds in their surroundings through on-screen notifications.

This conversation sheds light on the power of technology in making the world a more inclusive space for all.

2476: ThoughtSpot - How AI Analytics is Redefining Business Intelligence Aug 14, 2023

In the rapidly evolving world of data analytics, staying ahead of the curve is essential. Today on Tech Talks Daily, I'm thrilled to have Sumeet Arora from ThoughtSpot to walk us through their game-changing announcements. ThoughtSpot is already renowned for its advanced analytics tool, but with its recent launches, they are truly pushing the boundaries.

Dive in with us as we discuss the all-new ThoughtSpot Sage, a search experience that blends foundational language models with ThoughtSpot’s unmatched search technology. Get excited as we unveil its integration into free trials, enhancing accessibility for users everywhere.

As businesses globally rely heavily on workplace productivity tools, ThoughtSpot's integrations with giants like Excel and Google Workspace aim to embed analytics right within your everyday workflow. But that's just the start. With Liveboards now enabling real-time collaborative decision-making using data, we examine the tangible benefits this brings to the table.

The episode then takes a deeper dive into the expanded universe of ThoughtSpot's features. With the recent launch of ThoughtSpot SaaS on Google Cloud Platform, the introduction of a range of new database connectors, the unveiling of the Data Modeling Studio, and innovative embedded Liveboard features, businesses are in for an enriched data experience like never before.

Sumeet also elaborates on the exciting launch of Monitor for Mobile, a feature that not only notifies users about business metric changes but provides invaluable insights into the 'why' behind these shifts.

We then switch gears to discuss ThoughtSpot's strategic acquisition of Mode Analytics for a whopping $200M. How does this merger aim to empower data teams with Generative AI? And how will it redefine the landscape of Business Intelligence?

If you've been seeking to understand how to truly harness the power of your data, this episode is packed with insights, updates, and a vision of the future you won't want to miss. Join Neil and Sumeet as they chart the course of AI-driven analytics and explore the next frontier in data interpretation.

2475: How Concordium Enables Decentralized Online Identity Verification Aug 13, 2023

In today's episode, I delve deep into decentralized identity verification with Lars Seier Christensen, Chairman of Concordium. Riding high on the recent announcement of their groundbreaking product, mysome.id, Concordium aims to revolutionize how we perceive and manage digital identities.

As a banking industry veteran, Lars brings a wealth of knowledge and a unique perspective to the ever-evolving realm of blockchain. With mysome.id, Concordium has rolled out a zero-cost alternative to centralized verification models, such as Elon Musk's Twitter Blue. Initially launching on LinkedIn, mysome.id seeks to tackle some of the most pressing issues in the digital space: fake profiles, data breaches, and the myriad challenges arising from centralized data storage.

Lars shares insights into his journey in the cryptocurrency world, stressing the significance of finding a balance between decentralization and essential regulatory requirements. At the heart of Concordium's mission lies a dedication to bolstering security and trust in digital transactions. With tools like mysome.id, users can now reclaim control of their identity data, emphasizing authenticity and user-driven privacy.

Through the lens of Concordium's offerings, listeners gain a comprehensive understanding of self-sovereign IDs and verifiable credentials, which promise a future where identity verification is both private and transparent, devoid of centralized control.

We also venture into the broader implications of blockchain technology for shaping a safer, more secure web3 future. Lars elaborates on Concordium's unique protocol, Concordia, designed to ensure transactional security, robust identity verification, and a formidable defense against fraud across platforms, including social media giants like LinkedIn and Twitter.

As Concordium carves a path towards creating a safer digital realm, mysome.id stands out as a testament to the potential of Web3 technology in addressing Web2's most pressing challenges. With innovative strides like the soon-to-launch Web3 ID and continuous community-driven enhancements, the future looks promising for both Concordium and the broader world of decentralized digital identity.

2474: Debunking AI Myths and Harnessing AI's Potential Aug 12, 2023

A recent article by Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson painted a somewhat grim picture of AI and its implications, stirring significant controversy within the tech community. Today's episode dives deep into the ongoing debate about AI technology's potential risks and rewards.

I welcome Shomron Jacob, Head of Applied Machine Learning and Platform at Iterate.ai, to offer a fresh perspective. Shomron provides a nuanced view of AI, emphasizing the importance of recognizing the diversity and dynamism inherent in AI technologies, the actors involved, and their contexts.

One of the highlights of our conversation will be AI's potential as a leveling force. How can this revolutionary technology prevent monopolies, especially in the saturated tech sector? Shomron sheds light on how AI is democratizing opportunities for businesses of all sizes, with a special focus on smaller companies.

Our exploration wouldn't be complete without discussing the innovations at Iterate.ai. We'll delve into how they're harnessing AI to accelerate projects within large enterprises, enabling businesses to reach their market at an astounding 17x faster rate.

Generative AI has been making waves in the tech world, and we'll investigate its role in boosting creativity across various sectors. Why is it trending, and how is it shaping the future of design, art, and more? We'll also trace the evolution of AI technology, understanding how it has matured over the years and identifying pivotal moments that have defined its current state.

In the realm of AI, with great power comes great responsibility. Our discussion will also touch upon the ethical deployment of AI. How can users, developers, and businesses ensure the technology's ethical use? And, as we look ahead, we'll hypothesize the future trajectory of AI, exploring its implications for businesses and society at large.

Join us in this insightful conversation, where we debunk myths, understand challenges, and envision a future shaped by AI's limitless potential.

2473: Pit Stops & Data Drops: Merging the Worlds of F1 Racing and Cybersecurity Aug 11, 2023

Today, I have the pleasure of reconnecting with Rob Scott, a multifaceted figure in the world of technology, cybersecurity, sports, and entrepreneurship. Since their last conversation, there have been seismic shifts in Rob's journey. Notably, Cygilant's acquisition by SilverSky and Rob's ascent to their Chief Strategy Officer.

Journey with us as Rob delves deep into the cybersecurity arena, revealing the challenges the industry grappled with during the pandemic. He unveils the expansion of their security operation centers post the CyberX acquisition and emphasizes the essence of cybersecurity education. Listen closely as Rob warns of the lurking dangers of phishing emails and stresses the necessity for businesses to embed cybersecurity in their core strategic plans.

But that's not all! From the race tracks of Formula One to the thrill of entrepreneurship, Rob gives us a glimpse of his diverse past. He introduces us to his latest passion project, "Let's Go Racing". A venture that interweaves technology, cybersecurity, and the exhilarating world of F1 racing. Dive into his insights on staying tech-savvy in this fast-evolving digital age.

Neil and Rob then navigate the inspiring phases of Rob's life. From the football pitches of Manchester United to the fencing battlegrounds of the Olympics, and the high-speed circuits of Formula One. Rob recounts his invaluable interactions with mentors, his board of directors, and the inspirations that shaped his illustrious career.

Whether you're a tech enthusiast, an F1 aficionado, or an aspiring entrepreneur, this episode has treasures for everyone. Don't forget to check out the links to "Let's Go Racing" and SilverSky to immerse further into Rob's world.

2472: SevenRooms - The Tech Helping Hospitality Teams Streamline Pre-Service Operations Aug 11, 2023

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I dive into the innovative world of hospitality technology with Austen Asadorian from SevenRooms. With a mission to revolutionize the dining experience, SevenRooms has unveiled its latest product feature, Pre-Shift – a game-changer for the restaurant industry.

As labor shortages continue challenging the sector, Pre-Shift emerges as the beacon of efficiency. This cutting-edge tool empowers restaurant teams globally by streamlining pre-service meetings, replacing tedious paper reports with dynamic, real-time data presentations about each guest for the upcoming shift.

Listen in as Austen elaborates on how Pre-Shift harnesses rich customer data to offer invaluable insights like dining preferences, allergy information, and past reviews. This tool is not just about logistics but about enhancing the diner's journey from the moment they step in, making each experience truly personalized.

Highlighting its user-friendly design, Neil and Austen discuss the platform’s capability to deliver this information on-the-fly, via devices like iPhones and iPads, demonstrating its superiority in the reservation management space.

Get a front-row seat to testimonials from industry heavyweights like Allison Page, Co-Founder & Chief Product Officer at SevenRooms, who likens the Pre-Shift feature to magic. Plus, hear from Steve Scott Springer, the General Manager at Spago Beverly Hills, who recounts the transformational impact Pre-Shift has had on their pre-service meetings.

Whether you're a restaurateur, a techie, or someone who loves a great dining experience, this conversation promises to serve up a rich blend of technology, innovation, and hospitality insights. Join me as I explore how SevenRooms is setting the table for the future of dining.

2471: SC Ventures by Standard Chartered and The Technologies Reshaping FinTech Aug 10, 2023

In this enlightening episode of Tech Talks Daily, I sit down with Thorsten Neumann from SC Ventures, the innovation engine behind Standard Chartered Bank. As the force overseeing technology at SC Ventures, Thorsten plays a pivotal role in seeking out disruptive business models and state-of-the-art technologies that are reshaping the financial services sector.

Throughout our discussion, we delve deep into the multifaceted roles of SC Ventures, ranging from investment to incubation, and highlight the symbiotic relationship with startups that fuels groundbreaking innovation and sharpens investment decisions. We also unpack the strategy behind the identification of game-changing business paradigms, focusing on a quintet of defining themes such as the burgeoning online economy, the role of digital assets, the future of SME and World Trade, and the imperative of sustainability and inclusivity.

With the VC landscape itself on the cusp of change, we discuss the ascent of technologies like blockchain, AI, and the tantalizing potential of quantum computing. Thorsten shares invaluable insights into the synergy between the bank’s broader strategies and its portfolio of innovative companies, illustrating with the success story of TASconnect, a supply chain financing platform.

Thorsten also underscores the bank's ambitious vision to harness its global footprint and the power of AI to shape its future trajectory. Finally, we reflect on the indispensable role of AI infrastructure in propelling businesses forward and extend heartfelt appreciation to the SC Ventures leadership and the wider community of technologists and partners for their unwavering support.

Tune in to understand the delicate art of juggling the roles of venture capitalist and venture builder, and to explore how SC Ventures is not only amplifying the bank's ambitions but also creating a ripple effect in the fintech realm, delivering solutions that redefine traditional banking.

2470: A Conversation with HubSpot's Scott Brinker, Godfather of Martech Aug 09, 2023

In this episode, I sit down with none other than the 'Godfather of Martech', Scott Brinker. Don't believe the title? A quick Google search will validate that claim! Before HubSpot, Scott's leadership as the co-founder and CTO of ion Interactive set the gold standard for interactive content, serving titans like Cisco, Dell, and Microsoft.

Currently steering the ship at HubSpot as the Vice President of its Platform Ecosystem, Scott's vast expertise encompasses shaping platform strategies and fostering global technological partnerships. We discuss the essence of versatility in the tech stack: Why businesses should embrace diverse tools and bypass restrictive competitive overlaps.

On the subject of the IT-Marketing Evolution, we explore how "no-code" has emerged as the marketer's secret weapon, empowering them to keep pace with rapid industry changes minus the constant IT hand-holding.

We also talk about marrying AI with marketing and discuss the monumental potential of AI in content creation, software interaction, and data analytics. Scott also tips his hat to the book "Antifragile" by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, shedding light on the resilience and adaptability of platform ecosystems in our dynamic tech landscape.

Additionally, we delve into the concept of an anti-fragile ecosystem, exploring what happens when one dominant social network disappears and the subsequent rise of innovative software to seize the day. For those yearning for more nuggets of wisdom, Scott points listeners to HubSpot's marketplace and his insightful blog, ChiefMartek.com.

If Martech's complexities have ever befuddled you or if you're keen to discover how to weave technology into mainstream marketing seamlessly, this episode promises a masterclass from the very best in the business.

2469: Sitecore CEO Steve Tzikakis on the Crossroads of Technology, Marketing, and Innovation Aug 08, 2023

Today, I welcome Steve Stathis Tzikakis, the dynamic CEO of Sitecore, a visionary in digital transformation with a legacy that spans continents and industries. Steve, a stalwart of the tech industry since the '90s, boasts a glittering track record, from his 13-year tenure at SAP - where he helmed its monumental growth across the EMEA South region, to his present role at Sitecore, where he is revolutionizing the way brands perceive and deliver digital experiences.

In this enlightening episode, we reminisce about their last meeting at the Sitecore Symposium 2022 in Chicago. We delve into how brands have had to shift gears over the past six months, emphasizing the increasing importance of agility, scaling content, and delivering impeccable digital experiences at the speed of light.

The conversation takes a financial turn as we also discuss the remarkable $1.2 billion investment in Sitecore in 2021. Against economic unpredictability, this investment has been a beacon, propelling consistent global growth.

Steve elaborates on the benefits of a composable strategy, not just for marketers but for end users too. London, with its bustling Martech scene, gets a special mention. As a resident and the CEO of Sitecore, Steve shares his unique insights on what makes the UK capital a hotbed for tech innovation.

Technological landscapes are shifting; brands are on a rollercoaster, navigating from the urgency to deliver rapid digital experiences to grappling with pioneering tech like generative AI. Steve shared with me where Sitecore fits into this whirlwind of change.

Settle in for a captivating discussion on technology, transformation, and the trajectory of brands in an ever-evolving digital universe.

2468: Paro: Pioneering the AI Revolution in Freelance Marketplaces Aug 07, 2023

In today's episode of Tech Talks Daily, I am joined by Michael Burdick, Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Paro, the disruptive startup changing how companies connect with on-demand financial talent. Burdick, a leading authority in the freelance marketplace industry, will delve into the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI) and freelancing, a domain where he sees a promising future for AI.

Freelance marketplaces have often found it difficult to compete with larger, more established Managed Service Providers (MSPs), due to concerns around risk, security, compliance, and potential misclassification lawsuits. Michael, however, believes in the power of AI to level the playing field. Through Paro, he has demonstrated how AI can help these platforms not only compete but also scale and disrupt the industry.

Throughout the conversation, we explore the challenges faced by freelance marketplaces in competing with traditional MSPs, and how AI can be a game-changer. They also delve into the transformative impact of AI on the gig economy, offering greater flexibility and choice to high earners in the freelance world and challenging traditional employment norms.

In addition to these broader industry topics, the discussion also spotlights Paro's innovative use of AI in its platform. From financial modeling and expert talent selection to potential applications in areas like pricing, business optimization, and professional career growth, Paro is leveraging AI to redefine how freelance marketplaces function.

This conversation is a must-listen for anyone interested in the future of freelancing, the disruptive potential of AI in this space, and the innovative work being done at Paro. As Paro's founder, chief strategy officer, and interim CFO, Michael Burdick is uniquely positioned to provide these insights, offering a fresh, forward-thinking perspective on the rapidly evolving freelance marketplace industry. Don't miss out on this insightful discussion.

2467: Behaviol and the Technology Redefining Sports Entertainment Aug 06, 2023

Today, I'm joined by Chris Ebeling, an industry-renowned animator, creative director, writer, and digital artist who recently joined Behaviol's leadership team. Chris shares insights from his extensive experience, having worked on Hollywood blockbusters and AAA gaming cinematic productions, as well as innovative projects such as ZED.RUN, a blockchain-based, digital horse racing game.

We explore the fascinating world of Behaviol, a tech studio at the cutting edge of sports gaming. Behaviol stands out with its revolutionary use of artificial intelligence and machine learning to create unique digital athletes. Starting with their flagship game, META11, they're pioneering the world's first free-to-play triple-A sports gaming omniverse, which is set to transform the sports entertainment industry.

Join us as we delve into the intricate use of AI to train digital avatars in META11, discuss the ethical considerations of integrating AI in gaming, and predict how AI and digital avatars are going to reshape the future of esports. We also address how the fusion of traditional sports and esports is leading to a new era of immersive gaming, attracting major sports brands to extend their reach and fan engagement.

Don't miss out on this enlightening conversation that explores the intersection of AI, gaming, and sports, with a sprinkle of privacy considerations and cultural representation in the gaming world.

2466: Shadow API Usage Surges 900%, Revealing Lack of API Visibility Among Enterprises Aug 05, 2023

On this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I sit down with William Glazier, an expert from Cequence Security to delve into the ins and outs of the groundbreaking "API Protection Report: Holiday Build-up Shows 550% Jump in Unique Threats."

This revealing report is based on an analysis of approximately a trillion transactions spanning a variety of industries and uncovers the pressing API threat trends that are currently challenging organizations. We unpack key findings, such as a 900% spike in shadow APIs, a worrying 550% increase in unique threats during the holiday season, and a surprising revelation that API and web application security tactics are being combined by attackers, leading to a 220% increase in anomalous traffic.

Join us as we dive deep into the conversation about the vital role of API security in today's digital landscape and how Cequence Security stands out with its history of mitigating bot attacks and its keen focus on both risk analysis and blocking malicious traffic.

We'll also explore the alarming rise in fraud and retool attempts in the telecom industry and discuss how businesses can navigate the expanding threat landscape while safeguarding both legacy and new APIs. Listen in as we envision the future of API security, highlighting the role of generative AI in developing robust testing methods and ensuring that security becomes an integrated part of application development.

Don't miss this eye-opening episode that sets a new standard in understanding the evolving threats and strategies in API security.

2465: Imperva: Navigating the Data Breach Landscape Aug 04, 2023

In today's digitized world, the security of our data is paramount. Understanding the complexity of data breaches and developing robust security strategies can often be a challenging task for businesses. To shed light on this critical issue, I'm thrilled to have Terry Ray from Imperva, a global leader in cybersecurity, on Tech Talks Daily.

Terry brings a wealth of knowledge to our discussion, focusing on the key findings from Imperva's '100 Data Breaches Findings' report. We delve into the root causes of data breaches, from hacking and unsecured databases to the prevalent menace of social engineering. We also examine the types of data most frequently targeted by cybercriminals and identify the industries most susceptible to these attacks.

In our conversation, Terry underscores the importance of comprehensive data security strategies, emphasizing the need for monitoring all data activity and not just a few servers. He shares valuable insights into common oversights in data security, such as the lack of multi-factor authentication and limited visibility of activity monitoring.

Terry also outlines his work on developing algorithms to assess and improve data security risk scores for organizations, a testament to Imperva's integrated approach that combines edge, application security, and data security.

Whether you're a seasoned tech professional, an entrepreneur navigating the digital world, or simply someone curious about cybersecurity, this episode offers a deep-dive into the world of data breaches. So join us as we unravel the complex terrain of data security with Terry Ray.

To get more insights from the '100 Data Breaches Findings' report, visit https://www.imperva.com/ and stay one step ahead of the threat landscape.

2464: Seagate: Addressing the Data Storage Crisis Aug 03, 2023

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I'm joined by Hugo Bergmann from Seagate, a global leader in data storage solutions, to tackle a significant problem facing today's businesses: the rising and often unsustainable costs of data storage.

According to recent statistics, more than half of British businesses' IT leaders are grappling with the spiraling costs of data storage, which are becoming untenable. With some companies spending as much as £231k per year, many businesses are compelled to delete data that could potentially unlock revenue-generating innovation, a decision they can ill-afford in a world where data is king. What's worse, over half of IT leaders believe their senior leadership remains oblivious to the magnitude of the problem.

During our discussion, Hugo and I delve into this pressing issue, exploring how the current global economic crisis has exacerbated the need to curb data costs without losing the valuable insights that data offers. We shed light on the necessity of better data management and discuss innovative strategies such as storage-as-a-service models, that can help predict costs more accurately.

Hugo also highlights Seagate's commitment to fostering a circular economy in the data storage industry. We discuss the importance of refurbishing and reusing storage devices, thereby extending their lifespan, and the steps the data storage industry can take toward creating a sustainable data sphere.

Whether you're an IT leader battling ballooning data storage costs or a tech enthusiast interested in the future of data management, this episode is a treasure trove of insights. Tune in as we navigate the challenges and possibilities in the realm of data storage with Hugo Bergmann.

2463: Hedera Hashgraph: A Developer's Gateway to the Future Web Aug 02, 2023

In this compelling episode of Tech Talks Daily, we delve into a hot topic that concerns us all: internet privacy. Zenobia Godschalk, the Founder of ZAG Communications and Senior Vice President of Communications for Hedera Hashgraph, joins me to explore the notion of personal data being bought and sold online and how we, the people, have become "the product."

With a wealth of experience in high-tech PR, blockchain, and cybersecurity, Zenobia shares her insights on how we can utilize blockchain technology to shape the internet that we deserve rather than the internet that we have today. She takes us on a deep dive into the world of Web3 and its transformative potential for application builders, developers, and businesses.

We explore the real-world adoption of blockchain and DLT, focusing on their vital role in the future of business and the benefits they can bring. Zenobia provides valuable tips and tools for enterprise architects, enabling them to enhance their blockchain security practices and navigate the ever-evolving landscape of cybersecurity.

This episode is particularly beneficial for enterprise architects, application builders, developers, women in tech, CEOs, IT decision-makers, and founders interested in blockchain/DLT, Web3, blockchain security, the metaverse, sustainability, women in Web3, and women in tech.

Whether you're an enthusiast of emerging technologies or simply interested in better understanding internet privacy and how to safeguard it, this conversation with Zenobia Godschalk is a must-listen. Join us as we explore the intriguing intersection of privacy, blockchain, and the future of the internet.

2462: Illumio - Unlocking the ROI of Cybersecurity Aug 01, 2023

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I sit down with Raghu Nandakumara, a seasoned cybersecurity expert and Head of Industry Solutions at Illumio, a company at the forefront of zero trust segmentation technology. Raghu brings us insights into where business leaders need to focus their attention to achieve maximum ROI on cybersecurity investments.

We dive deep into the critical importance of proving ROI in the first six months of deployment, discussing how vendors need to support businesses in achieving a quick payback. We explore an ideal ROI percentage and compare how Illumio measures up against industry averages.

Raghu also highlights the often overlooked and less quantifiable benefits that can't be ignored. These range from the growing institutional knowledge to the regulatory compliance benefits. We address why many organizations do a poor job of tracking ROI on security products post-purchase and how this trend needs to change.

We also examine the findings from the Forrester Total Economic Impact of Illumio Zero Trust Segmentation (ZTS) study. Illumio's platform demonstrated a total benefit of $10.2 million over three years and paid for itself in just six months.

Whether you're a business leader trying to justify security spend or a cybersecurity professional looking to stay on top of the latest trends, this episode with Raghu Nandakumara is not to be missed.

2461: Accenture Technology Vision 2023: Generative AI to Usher in a New Future for Business Jul 31, 2023

In this thought-provoking episode of Tech Talks Daily, we dive into the cutting-edge insights from the Accenture Technology Vision 2023 report titled "When Atoms Meet Bits: The Foundations of Our New Reality." Joining us is Michael Biltz from Accenture, who sheds light on the transformative technology trends shaping the convergence of the physical and digital worlds.

Michael and our host Neil explore the fascinating world of generative AI and its potential to augment human capability as a co-pilot, creative partner, or advisor. Discover how generative AI is poised to spark significant creativity and innovation while ushering in a new era of enterprise intelligence. With as much as 40% of working hours expected to be supported or augmented by language-based AI, Michael explains why AI foundation models are crucial for organizations' future strategies.

The discussion deepens into the strategic importance of digital identity technologies, the authentication of digital users and assets, and how they form the foundation for traversing both digital and physical realms. Uncover the impact of data transparency on business success, as well as the increasing role data plays as a key competitive differentiator.

As we look to the future, Michael outlines the powerful feedback loop between science and technology, and its potential to unlock the world's grand challenges. Learn how Accenture is at the forefront of driving these disruptive technologies forward, including the establishment of their Generative AI and Large Language Model (LLM) Center of Excellence.

Join us in exploring Accenture's Technology Vision 2023, where we discuss the convergence of the digital and physical worlds, the transformative potential of generative AI, the significance of data transparency, and the feedback loop between science and technology. As the line between the physical and digital worlds becomes increasingly blurred, this episode is a must-listen for technology enthusiasts, business leaders, and anyone curious about the future of business in a rapidly evolving world.

2460: Modernizing Wealth Management: A Back Office Revolution Jul 30, 2023

I sit down with Ryan George, the CMO of Docupace, a leading cloud-based fintech platform transforming the back office processes in the financial services industry. With over 15 years of marketing and communications experience in finance, Ryan shares his journey and how he became a driving force in modernizing and digitizing the back office.

Discover the transformative trends in fintech and wealth management tech as Ryan sheds light on what's worth paying attention to and what might be overhyped, including the role of cryptocurrency and the potential impact of AI in the industry's future.

The COVID pandemic accelerated the back office revolution in wealth management, and Ryan emphasizes the importance of digitizing and transforming these processes to enhance efficiency and improve the client experience. Learn how Docupace's platform played a significant role in transforming operations for leading financial firms like RBC wealth management by reducing processing time and paperwork rejections.

Docupace's impressive journey is backed by over $70 million in funding, and the company serves some of the largest independent broker-dealers and registered investment advisers (RIAs) in the financial services industry. Tune in to hear how Docupace earned accolades like being named to the 2021 Inc. 5000 list of America's fastest-growing private companies and winning the 2021 Gold Globee Award for "Hot Technology of the Year."

Ryan's admiration for business leader Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan Chase, stems from his optimism and perspective, and he discusses how technology is reshaping the financial industry.

Don't miss this episode where Ryan George shares his expertise and insights into the future of financial advice and how technology will revolutionize the financial services landscape in the years to come. Whether you're a financial professional, tech enthusiast, or interested in the future of finance, this episode offers a fascinating exploration of the back office revolution and its transformative impact on the industry.

2459: Tech Innovations for Success: Exploring Digital Twins and AI in Business Jul 29, 2023

I have the pleasure of hosting Slava Podmurnyi, the Co-Founder and CEO of Visartech, a leading software technology partner specializing in custom software solutions. With over 13 years of experience in applying technology to diverse business niches, Slava brings a unique perspective and valuable insights to the table.

Join us as Slava shares his journey, starting with WizardTech Incorporated, a game development studio that evolved into Visartech, with a laser focus on AR and 3D solutions. Discover how Visartech has become a reliable tech partner, helping businesses tackle major challenges and turn them into intelligent and interactive solutions.

Slava's expertise spans various areas, including digital twin ecosystems, metaverse platforms, and SaaS products. Tune in as he discusses the significance of adopting new technologies and remote work in today's business landscape. Learn how optimizing IT infrastructure with DevOps practices can save business funds while building a strong foundation for applications.

Explore the world of digital twins and their transformative capabilities, from simulating processes to predicting problems and training employees. Slava sheds light on the power of a bespoke metaverse with solid backend architecture and interactive interfaces, creating immersive 3D experiences that enhance user interactions.

We discuss the adoption and feedback of metaverse technology among big tech companies, exploring its potential applications in training, education, and beyond. Uncover the rising demand for content generation using AI tools, leading to faster application development and enhanced user experiences.

Visartech Inc. has a remarkable track record of crafting digital masterpieces for brands, from SMBs to Fortune Global 500 corporations. Discover some of their best cases, including a metaverse for remote collaboration, a golf simulation platform for the sports industry, and a fintech solution for secure lending.

Don't miss this episode filled with valuable insights from Slava Podmurnyi, as he shares how Visartech is shaping the future of software solutions and paving the way for innovative business experiences. Whether you're a business leader, developer, or technology enthusiast, this episode offers an inspiring and informative conversation on the potential of digital twins and the metaverse.

2458: AI for Good: Empowering Industries with Mara Cairo from AMII Jul 28, 2023

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I am thrilled to have Mara Cairo, the Product Owner of Advanced Technology at Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (AMII), as our guest. Mara is a trailblazer in the world of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, with a passion for leveraging AI for the greater good.

With a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and esteemed designations as a P.Eng. and PMP, Mara brings a wealth of expertise to the table. Prior to joining AMII, she made significant contributions in the hardware development space, helping clients bring their products to market with a specific focus on micro- and nano-technology.

At AMII, Mara leads a dynamic technical team that empowers industries to build their internal machine learning capacity. By collaborating with clients committed to advancing AI adoption, Mara's team tackles the most challenging business problems using machine learning. Their transformative solutions span across diverse industries, including agriculture, health, supply chain, oil and gas, and forestry.

During the episode, Mara will share her insights into the AI adoption journey, demystifying the technology and showcasing its potential to drive tangible results. As a seasoned team leader, she will also provide valuable strategies for recruiting and retaining top-notch AI talent, ensuring a sustainable talent pipeline for businesses aiming to thrive in the rapidly evolving AI landscape.

Whether your organization is already exploring AI or seeking to establish data science teams, this episode is a must-listen for business leaders. Mara's expertise and commitment to using AI for good will inspire and enlighten, offering actionable insights to harness the power of AI to transform your business.

Join us as we delve into the world of AI with Mara Cairo, and discover how her vision and expertise are driving meaningful change in industries worldwide.

2457: NETSCOUT - Defending Against the Rising Tides of DDoS Attacks Jul 28, 2023

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I sit down with cybersecurity expert Richard Hummel from NETSCOUT to explore the alarming rise of Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks in the digital landscape. Richard unveils the key findings from NETSCOUT's 5th Anniversary DDoS Threat Intelligence Report, which provides a comprehensive overview of the new threat landscape.

With an average visibility of a staggering 401 Tbps of internet traffic and over two decades of data from more than 500 internet service providers (ISPs), NETSCOUT's ATLAS platform presents crucial insights into the evolving tactics of adversaries. From the emergence of direct-path bot attacks dominating the attack toolkit to the increasing complexity and motivations behind DDoS attacks, Neil and Richard delve into the growing challenges faced by enterprises and service providers alike.

Learn about the dangerous trends observed in the second half of 2022, such as the surge in bandwidth and throughput, the prevalence of multi-vector attacks, and the evolving techniques like carpet-bombing and application-layer attacks. Discover how these attacks are affecting various industries, from national security and government to manufacturing, wireless telecommunications, and more.

Neil and Richard discuss the critical importance of global visibility in assessing the DDoS threat landscape, enabling organizations to identify trends, prepare for attacks, and implement effective defense strategies. They emphasize the need for adaptive DDoS solutions to combat both short-lived and long-lived attacks, showcasing real-world scenarios where enterprises and service providers can benefit from this approach.

Tune in to this informative episode to gain insights into the ever-changing world of DDoS attacks and how NETSCOUT's Threat Intelligence Report offers valuable knowledge to enhance cybersecurity practices. Stay ahead of the evolving threat landscape and protect your organization against the rising tides of DDoS attacks.

2456: CyberArk - Unearthing the Hidden Dangers in Communication Platforms Jul 27, 2023

In this intriguing episode, I welcome David El, Malware Researcher at CyberArk, to discuss the underbelly of popular communication platforms like Discord. While the recent Pentagon document leaks via Discord have alerted us to the platform's potential misuse, new research from CyberArk Labs has shed light on the magnitude of these threats.

David delves into the specifics of the newly discovered malware, its operations, the implications it poses, and the indicators of compromise (IOCs) organizations should watch out for. He takes us behind the scenes, narrating how they unearthed a burgeoning cybercrime group while infiltrating their Discord server.

As more large enterprises adopt Discord for their strategic communications, this malware heightens the risk of opening up networks to command and control attacks. David enlightens us on this increasing threat and the advanced preventative measures required to guard against it.

Throughout the episode, we also discuss the attractiveness of Discord and similar platforms for cybercriminals, owing to their casual nature and vulnerability to impersonation and social engineering attacks. As we foresee the complexity and capabilities of malware to advance in line with Discord's growth, David equips us with knowledge on how we can stay one step ahead.

Join us on this enlightening journey through the maze of cybersecurity, where we unmask the dark side of popular chat platforms and discuss how to defend against their misuse.

2455: Tech for a Greener Tomorrow: Data, AI and Energy Optimization with Alteryx Jul 26, 2023

Today, I'm joined by Vishal Soni, a trailblazer in the realms of data analytics, machine learning, and process automation at Alteryx. In this day and age, with escalating environmental concerns and stricter regulatory norms, Vishal's work in harnessing technology to optimize energy usage, reduce ecological footprint, and unlock significant cost savings for businesses becomes particularly salient.

Our conversation delves into the crucial importance of energy optimization for enterprises, the transformative potential of technology in this sphere, and the promising future prospects of this field. Join us as we navigate the complex interplay of data, technology, and energy optimization.

Through this enriching discussion, Vishal shares his insights on how automation and data analytics can revolutionize the way companies assess and enhance their energy usage. We also explore the role of AI in identifying, monitoring, and reducing energy wastage, along with the significance of integrating diverse streams of energy consumption data for robust modeling and optimization.

Looking towards the future, we touch upon how businesses can adapt by investing in digital infrastructure, keeping abreast with energy regulations, and leveraging data analytics to improve their energy efficiency. Learn about Alteryx's ground-breaking work in energy optimization and how businesses can harness these tools to go beyond environmental regulation compliance to achieve significant cost savings.

In the end, remember, technology isn't just about gadgets or codes; it's about making our world a better place, one kilowatt at a time.

2454: TD SYNNEX - Unleashing Technology's Potential with Luc van Huystee Jul 25, 2023

Join me in this insightful episode as I converse with Luc van Huystee, the Vice President of Mobility at TD SYNNEX, an innovative leader in the global IT ecosystem, which has been recently acclaimed as the 2023 Microsoft Operational Excellence Partner of the Year!

Van Huystee, a veteran with over a decade of expertise in mobility, SmartHome, Metaverse, and AR/VR solutions, discusses the compelling journey of TD SYNNEX and its significant role in transforming the technology industry. Dive into the conversation as we explore the rapid advancements in AR/VR, SmartHome tech, and the burgeoning Metaverse, and learn how TD SYNNEX is carving out its unique niche in these emerging domains by focusing on commercial applications and assisting vendors in crafting solutions.

We also delve into topics such as remote assistance potential, the rise of smart home technology, the crucial role of maximizing IT investments for clients, and TD SYNNEX's firm commitment towards fostering diversity and inclusion in its operations. Listen as we underline the importance of understanding customer needs, tapping into specialist knowledge, backing resellers, and striving towards building a balanced organization for unprecedented success.

Listen in as we explore the exciting terrains of emerging technologies in the IT ecosystem, such as AI, green tech, and the game-changing impact of AR/VR. This episode promises to be an enlightening journey into the future of technology, as envisioned by one of the industry's most forward-thinking leaders. Tune in to stay ahead of the tech curve!

2453: Semperis - Why Businesses Need to Prioritize Active Directory Security Jul 24, 2023

Join us on this episode of Tech Talks Daily, where I sit down with Simon Hodgkinson, the former Chief Information Security Officer at BP and current strategic advisor at Semperis. Transitioning from the role of a CISO to a strategic advisor, Simon delves into his journey and emphasizes the critical importance of prioritizing secure Active Directory for IT departments across all industries.

Simon enlightens us about Semperis, an innovative solution that focuses on Active Directory security and recovery. By continuously monitoring for configuration drift and automatically remediating issues, Semperis stands as a crucial line of defense against potential threats.

In this enlightening discussion, Simon elaborates on the importance of recovering Active Directory and how Semperis automates this process. He also provides insights into the common strategies hackers employ to exploit Active Directory, highlighting the challenges that come with securing hybrid identity environments.

Further into the episode, our conversation steers towards the critical management and security of Active Directory to prevent misconfigurations and configuration drift - potential threats to an organization's security. Simon emphasizes the necessity of specialized identity threat detection and response tools, such as Semperis, to safeguard critical IT services related to identity and access management.

As the conversation progresses, Simon underscores the pivotal role of Active Directory in an organization's IT landscape and the crucial need for a recovery plan in the face of a catastrophic event. He reiterates the importance of investing in tools that protect identity and access management solutions to ensure operational resilience.

Finally, the episode concludes with a profound discussion on the importance of building a culture of transparency and psychological safety in cybersecurity. Simon draws parallels to the safety culture in the airline industry, as described in the book "Black Box Thinking" by Matthew Syed.

Tune in to this enlightening episode to glean insights from an industry veteran and learn more about securing your organization's Active Directory.

2452: Redefining Due Diligence for Tech Investments: A Conversation with Raphaëlle d'Ornano Jul 23, 2023

I am joined by Raphaëlle d’Ornano, Founder and Managing Partner at D’Ornano + Co., a leading global advisory firm. D’Ornano + Co. has revolutionized the analysis of tech and tech-enabled companies, focusing on their long-term resilience and investment potential.

Raphaëlle sheds light on the transformative technology shaping the investment landscape and urges businesses to consider counter-intuitive ways to navigate emerging tech trends. She provides thought-provoking insights into how specific sectors such as ClimateTech, AgTech, and HealthTech are paving the way for the next wave of business innovation.

Our conversation delves deep into the inner workings of D’Ornano+Co and Raphaëlle's journey to pioneer a new form of due diligence – one that caters specifically to the unique challenges and opportunities presented by tech and tech-enabled businesses.

In a volatile economic environment, assessing risk accurately is more crucial than ever, especially for tech companies. Raphaëlle discusses the hurdles that tech companies are grappling with and emphasizes the importance of risk assessment for promoting sustainable growth.

Drawing on her insights shared in her February newsletter, Raphaëlle also provides an intriguing analysis of the current tech investing environment. This episode is an enriching dive into the world of tech investments, touching on the transformative power of technology, the need for a more nuanced approach to due diligence, and the future of tech-enabled industries. Tune in to gain a deeper understanding of the complex dynamics at play in tech investments today.

2451: How LingQ is Expanding Language Horizons With Tech Jul 22, 2023

In today's episode of Tech Talks Daily, we are joined by Mark Kaufmann, the CEO of LingQ, an innovative language-learning app. LingQ has recently made headlines for announcing the addition of Swahili to their extensive catalogue of languages, raising their total to 42 languages on offer.

Swahili, spoken by over 100 million people across East and Central Africa, represents LingQ's first venture into African languages. The LingQ platform focuses on providing an authentic learning experience, offering lessons from real-life conversations, news articles, videos, and much more, making language learning as immersive and engaging as possible.

Join us as Mark takes us through his journey from professional hockey player to tech entrepreneur, drawing inspiration from his experiences in different countries, his father's passion for language learning, and encounters with immigrants. The genesis of LingQ is a story of continuous learning and pivot, culminating in a successful multi-language learning platform.

We delve into the unique aspects of LingQ's approach, including its content-based methodology that focuses on 'flooding' the brain with the target language to optimize learning, and how this method has garnered positive testimonials from users worldwide. Mark further discusses how LingQ harnesses machine learning and AI to customize and enhance the user's language journey, an aspect backed by third-party studies highlighting LingQ's effectiveness.

As the conversation progresses, Mark reveals the launch of Afrikaans as LingQ's second African language and drops hints about future features, including automatic transcript generation for podcasts and a chatbot to help learners practice their speaking skills.

2450: Ahad Khan, CEO of Kajabi Discusses The Power of Knowledge Entrepreneurship Jul 21, 2023

I host Ahad Khan, the CEO of Kajabi, a revolutionary all-in-one platform designed for knowledge entrepreneurs and creators to build, market, and sell educational content.

In the age of the "Great Resignation," millions of people are breaking traditional employment chains to start their own ventures. However, the risks and difficulties associated with entrepreneurship can be discouraging. Ahad discusses how Kajabi is offering a solution, enabling individuals to monetize their expertise without sacrificing their day jobs or making substantial time and capital investments.

As we delve deeper into Kajabi's functionality, we explore how it provides a single, user-friendly platform to publish, market, and sell a variety of digital products, including online courses, membership sites, and communities. Kajabi has been instrumental in fostering the success of tens of thousands of entrepreneurs.

The company is valued at $2 billion and empowered over 60,000 creators to collectively earn more than $5bn, reaching more than 70 million people worldwide.

Ahad shares inspiring stories of individuals flourishing on Kajabi, such as Dr. Jamie Wilkey, who earned $230,000 in a year by teaching an online course for pharmacists.

In the conversation with Ahad, we uncover Kajabi's technology stack, the role of AI in accelerating its platform functionalities, and the vision behind Kajabi's effort to empower creators and celebrate their achievements.

We also dive into Ahad's personal journey, his views on entrepreneurship, and his book recommendation for our listeners, "The Ascent of Money" by Niall Ferguson.

This episode is a treasure trove of insights for anyone looking to understand the potential of knowledge entrepreneurship and the power of innovative platforms like Kajabi in driving this new wave of digital enterprise. Tune in to learn more about the journey, successes, and future plans of Kajabi under the leadership of Ahad Khan.

2449: How Informatica is Revolutionizing Data Management With Generative AI & CLAIRE GPT Jul 20, 2023

Greg Hanson, GVP platform sales specialist at Informatica, joins me on Tech Talks Daily in an engaging conversation where we explore the innovative potential of artificial intelligence (AI) for data management, highlighting the capabilities of Generative AI and the industry-first CLAIRE GPT launched by Informatica.

We dive deep into the advancements and applications of Generative AI, exploring its role in simplifying data management through automation. Greg discusses how AI is helping organizations like Ericsson and Unilever become data-driven and make sustainable decisions, addressing ESG requirements and even solving supply chain shortages.

Starting with their own journeys, Greg and Ed share their experiences and insights into how AI is transforming data management, enabling companies to digitize, innovate, and operate intelligently.

Greg then introduces us to CLAIRE GPT, Informatica's generative AI-powered data management platform, which brings a natural language-based interface to their Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC). With CLAIRE, Informatica processes 53 trillion monthly transactions, empowering the digital transformation of companies such as Puma, Avis Budget Group, and Abu Dhabi Ports Group.

We also delve into the benefits of CLAIRE GPT for enterprises, including fostering deeper data democratization and self-service, optimizing data management, and providing an in-context data experience at the point of consumption.

Join us on this enlightening journey, and discover the future of data management powered by AI. You will learn about how AI and Generative AI are supporting various innovations, the potential of AI in automating data management and analysis, and the tremendous capabilities of Informatica's new generative AI technology, CLAIRE GPT. This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in data management, AI, and digital transformation.

2448: Trustwave - Cybersecurity Communication: Bridging the Gap Between CISOs and C-Suite Jul 19, 2023

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I welcome Ed Williams, VP, Consulting, Professional Services at Trustwave, a global leader in managed security services. Ed brings invaluable insights into the challenges and strategies around communicating cybersecurity risks and solutions within an organization, particularly between CISOs and the less technically inclined C-suite.

Ed kicks off the conversation by sharing his unique journey into the cybersecurity field and his experiences, including an unexpected appearance in a Bollywood film.

We then delve into the heart of the matter - the struggle CISOs face when conveying technical risks to the C-suite. Ed provides his top tips for effective communication, highlighting the importance of simplifying language, prioritizing key security topics, and aligning these with business metrics to demonstrate their impact on the bottom line.

Our conversation further explores the critical role regular communication and collaboration play in building a resilient cybersecurity infrastructure. Ed emphasizes how understanding an organization's risk appetite helps shape an effective security strategy, debunking the misconception of cybersecurity as merely a cost and highlighting it as a business enabler.

We also touch upon the importance of identifying and presenting meaningful cybersecurity metrics to the board. Ed suggests methods for engaging the C-suite in these discussions, ensuring their understanding, and keeping them abreast of the latest cybersecurity trends.

Finally, we explore how Ed's team stays updated on AI and machine learning developments, with Ed sharing his favourite resources, including the Trustwave SpiderLabs team's insightful blog on the latest threats and vulnerabilities.

Join us for this enlightening episode as we demystify the art of cybersecurity communication within an organization, and understand its pivotal role in fostering a secure business environment.

2447: Guarding Against Deepfakes: Authenticating Identity in the Digital Age Jul 18, 2023

In this thought-provoking, I'm joined by Andrew Bud, CEO of iProov, the global leader in face biometric verification and authentication technology. As we delve into the evolving world of deepfakes, we unpack the security implications for businesses and individuals alike.

Andrew kicks off the conversation by sharing crucial insights into the security risks of using voice replication as a biometric verification method. With generative AI technologies becoming increasingly advanced, it has become alarmingly simple for both cybercriminals and regular individuals to replicate voices, posing significant threats to the security of sensitive information.

We explore how deepfakes, including face swaps and voice replication, have become common tools for cybercriminals. According to iProov's 2023 Biometric Threat Report, digital injection attacks, such as the use of deepfakes, have risen dramatically, occurring five times more often than persistent presentation attacks in 2022.

With the rise of these sophisticated cyber-attacks, Andrew underscores the importance of robust biometric authentication. He explains how iProov's technology, including the IPU flashmark, analyzes the reflection of screen illumination from a user's face to ensure they are a live human and not a generative deepfake.

Andrew and I delve into the importance of authenticating and not just verifying customers, the largely misunderstood threat of deepfakes, and why overconfidence and unsuspecting victims intensify this threat. We discuss how organizations can safeguard against these advanced attacks and the imperative role of strong verification in protecting users on social platforms.

Whether you're concerned about your online security, work in the digital space, or are simply interested in the evolving world of deepfakes, this episode is packed with valuable insights. Join us as we navigate the intricacies of biometric authentication in a world where distinguishing between real and fake has become a crucial security measure.

2446: NodeReal and the Role of Infrastructure in Blockchain Adoption Jul 17, 2023

Dr. Ben Zhang, founder of NodeReal, joins me on Tech Talks Daily. NodeReal is a one-stop infrastructure and solution provider, paving the way for the high-speed blockchain era and the evolution of Web3 technology.

Dr. Zhang and our host discuss the crux of easing the transition from Web2 to Web3 and how it's integral to large-scale enterprise adoption. By highlighting real-world case studies like a South Korean game studio leveraging blockchain technology, they delve into the pivotal role of managed services in empowering traditional enterprises to navigate the blockchain landscape.

Our conversation shifts towards NodeReal's unique approach of providing end-to-end solutions for scalable blockchain implementation. From high-performance blockchain services to hosting solutions, Dr. Zhang walks us through the concept of a one-stop service that caters to the demands of web3 developers.

A significant part of the discussion dwells on the impact of traditional tech giants like Amazon and Google venturing into the Web3 space and offering managed services. Dr. Zhang provides insight into how Web3-native companies like NodeReal can not only co-exist but thrive in this evolving ecosystem, focusing on customer needs and creating collaborative opportunities.

We further explore the industries showing a growing demand for NodeReal's services, such as loyalty programs, DeFi, and AI integration with blockchain. Dr. Zhang underscores the opportunities and challenges associated with Web3 technology, emphasizing the need for infrastructure simplification, improved data management, and the importance of continuous learning in this rapidly evolving domain.

2445: How Grubtech is Transforming the F&B Space with AI Jul 16, 2023

I sit down for an enlightening conversation with Mohamed Al Fayed, founder of Grubtech, a revolutionary platform that is reshaping the Food and Beverage (F&B) industry with its end-to-end operating system for omnichannel restaurants and cloud kitchens.

We kick off the episode exploring Mohamed's entrepreneurial journey, as he shares insightful tips for launching a startup in the competitive F&B space. We delve into the inception of Grubtech, understanding how this young start-up has digitized the F&B scene, enabling the digital transformation and optimization of clients in 23 countries, including prestigious brands like Subway, Eataly, and Burger King.

The conversation then pivots to the transformative potential of AI in the F&B industry. Mohamed sheds light on how Grubtech leverages AI to personalize customer experiences and streamline operations, from a multi-brand menu and recipe management to enhanced marketing capabilities and operational analytics. He further discusses the true value of Cloud Point of Sale (POS) systems, providing insights on how these systems future-proof businesses.

We also discuss Grubtech's role in empowering entrepreneurs and restaurants, enhancing efficiency and reducing errors in delivery operations. Delving into the realm of sustainability, we explore how Grubtech's enhanced analytics prevent wastage and greenwashing in the industry.

Additionally, we address the cultural aspects of consumerism and tastes, highlighting how these factors shape business strategies in the F&B space, especially in regions outside your own.

Finally, we close with an exciting discussion on Grubtech's recent product innovation, including the integration of OpenAI's ChatGPT and Language Models for menu optimization, content creation, and providing nutritional value.

Don't miss out on this captivating journey through the world of AI-powered restaurant management and the future of the F&B industry.

2444: Unpacking the Kaseya 2023 MSP Benchmark Report Jul 15, 2023

Mike Puglia, Chief Strategy Officer and General Manager of Security Products at Kaseya, joins me on Tech Talks Daily. Mike sheds light on the much-anticipated Kaseya 2023 MSP Benchmark Report, an insightful resource that dives deep into the trends, challenges, and priorities of over 1,000 managed services providers (MSPs) worldwide.

Our discussion centers around the critical themes of automation, cybersecurity, and integration. Mike expounds on how 90% of the respondents view automation as a game-changing technology for their businesses, enhancing efficiency and revenue generation by streamlining processes such as endpoint management, monitoring, and cybersecurity.

We delve into the growing significance of cybersecurity, a realm that has seen a 15% surge as the top IT challenge from the previous year. With a clear majority of MSPs regularly advising their clients on cybersecurity, Mike explains how this trend has also fuelled the growth of managed detection and response solutions.

Tackling the issue of software integration, we explore how poor integration continues to hamper productivity and daily operations. Mike elucidates how the ability to integrate core applications can reduce duplication of efforts, automate repetitive tasks, and ultimately improve work-life balance for executives and technicians.

We address the various challenges that MSPs anticipate, such as intensifying competition and escalating security threats. From co-managed IT services to M&A strategies, we delve into different tactics to overcome these hurdles and ensure business growth.

Join us to uncover key insights about MSP operations, understand how break-fix activities impact revenue streams, and explore the strategic potential of co-managed IT services. This episode is a must-listen for anyone keen on the future trajectory of the MSP sector and the burgeoning role of cybersecurity within it.

2443: How HBAR Foundation is Unlocking the Potential of Blockchain for Sustainability Jul 14, 2023

I sit down with Hania Othman, Director of Sustainable Impact for Europe and Africa at the HBAR Foundation. Hania brings a wealth of experience from her diverse roles in the Web3 space, including her stint as the Head of Impact at Smart B and as the co-founder of TrustFactors.

We delve into the pressing need for enhanced security, transparency, and efficiency in the digital age. Hania paints a vivid picture of how these necessities are more critical than ever before, drawing from her extensive work in designing and building solutions for the next-gen economy.

Our conversation covers the unique intersection of inclusivity and sustainability, demonstrating how these two concepts are indispensable to each other in driving positive change. We discuss the HBAR Foundation's pivotal role in the adoption of the Hedera network and its focus on employing technology to address global sustainability challenges.

Hania shares insights into the foundation's strategies for grant and investment decisions based on five key goals, including making climate finance auditable and establishing a global climate asset price. We also explore the necessity for accurate and auditable ESG reporting to counteract climate risks and prevent greenwashing. Plus, we dive into the differences in driving sustainable practices across various regions like Europe and Africa.

Tune in to hear about the potential of emerging technologies in fostering economic growth, the intersection of blockchain and sustainability, and how digital public goods can lead to climate solutions and a just transition. A must-listen for those interested in the future of Web3, sustainability, and the role of technology in making a difference.

2442: Rewired: The McKinsey Guide to Outcompeting in the Age of Digital and AI Jul 13, 2023

Today, I have the privilege of hosting Eric Lamarre, a senior partner at McKinsey's Boston office and one of the authors of 'Rewired: The McKinsey Guide to Outcompeting in the Age of Digital and AI.'

In a world where digital transformation has become a fundamental business requirement, Eric shares his valuable insights from the trenches, discussing McKinsey's playbook that they've developed over the years by working with over 200 clients. With a focus on generative AI, transformation roadmaps, talent management, operating model agility, technology, data, and adoption scaling capabilities, this conversation promises a deep dive into the multifaceted aspects of digital and AI transformation.

During this discussion, Eric sheds light on the key trends businesses are currently adopting, including the application of generative AI such as ChatGPT. He discusses the importance of aligning leadership towards a common North Star vision and how to leverage technology to reimagine businesses.

We also delve into the significant topic of talent management and building an organization that nurtures innovation and growth. Eric shares insights on choosing the right operating model for your organization, emphasizing the need for speed and distributed innovation in a technology-driven world. Furthermore, we discuss the role of data architecture in ensuring quality, easy enrichment, and reuse of data.

But what happens when despite implementing great digital solutions, businesses fail to unlock their full value? Eric provides keys to this crucial question, discussing strategies for achieving true value from digital transformation.

For leaders navigating the digital transformation landscape or anyone interested in the impact of AI and technology on businesses, this episode with Eric Lamarre offers a wealth of wisdom.

2441: Eventbright - Scaling the Live Events Industry with Tech Jul 12, 2023

Join me for an enlightening episode of Tech Talks Daily as I welcome Vivek Sagi, the accomplished Chief Technology Officer of Eventbrite, a global platform renowned for transforming the landscape of live experiences. With an impressive career that has spanned over 20 years in e-commerce, B2B marketplaces, and enterprise software, Vivek brings a unique blend of technical prowess and business acumen to our discussion today.

In this episode, Vivek shares his insights on the essential skills required to build, lead, and scale successful product portfolios. From his early days as a serial entrepreneur to his executive roles at Amazon and RetailMeNot, and now at Eventbrite, Vivek's journey is rich with lessons on marrying technology with customer obsession for optimum impact.

Explore how technology is revolutionizing the live events industry and how Eventbrite's innovative platform equips creators with the tools needed to scale their events and reach larger audiences. Dive deep into Eventbrite's customer-centric approach and learn about its commitment to combating social isolation through shared experiences, a vision more crucial now than ever.

Get a glimpse of how Eventbrite's technology, including its marketplace and boost marketing tools, supports creators across 180 countries, enabling them to host world-class events that resonate with varied interests. Listen to Vivek's thoughts on the future of the industry, with a focus on virtual and hybrid events and the role of AI-powered tools in enhancing event marketing.

This episode promises a wealth of knowledge for anyone passionate about technology's transformative power in creating shared human experiences. Whether you're an entrepreneur, a tech enthusiast, or an event creator, you'll find a trove of inspiration in Vivek's words.

2440: FestivalPass and the Tech Transforming How We Experience Events Jul 11, 2023

In this enlightening episode of Tech Talks Daily, I sit down with Ed Vincent, the dynamic mind behind FestivalPass. Ed's entrepreneurial journey has spanned from investment banking to creating an experiential agency and even working as an interim Chief Data Officer at MoviePass. Today, he’s leading FestivalPass, the world's first festival and events subscription marketplace.

Throughout the conversation, Ed delves into his experiences, the ups and downs of his entrepreneurial journey, and the insights he gained from his time at MoviePass. He further sheds light on how he's differentiating FestivalPass through unique subscription benefits and leveraging blockchain technology to tokenize the business for added value.

As the conversation progresses, Ed elaborates on FestivalPass's innovative approach to integrating NFTs and maintaining their value despite market fluctuations. He envisions a future where all major ticketing platforms will harness the power of blockchain and operate as NFTs.

Ed's passion for live events and creating memorable experiences shines through as he talks about FestivalPass. The platform not only enables subscribers to access and discover a myriad of events, but it also facilitates interactions among like-minded people, encouraging them to live, life, live.

Whether you're a fan of music, art, food & wine, film, or other interests, this episode is sure to inspire and get you excited about the future of live events, technology, and how FestivalPass is transforming the space.

Join us for this exciting episode as we explore the intersection of live events, blockchain technology, NFTs, and how FestivalPass is setting the pace for the industry.

2439: Synchronoss - Exploring Privacy-First AI Powered Personal Clouds Jul 10, 2023

Join us in today's episode of Tech Talks Daily as we sit down with Jeff Miller, CEO of Synchronoss Technologies, to talk about the significance of secure and intelligent personal cloud solutions in this digital era. Synchronoss, with its newly redesigned personal cloud platform, is taking a revolutionary stride in providing customers with advanced cloud management features harnessing Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML).

As an ex IT guy, our host Neil is particularly keen to explore the importance of data backup and privacy. He discusses with Jeff the unique features of Synchronoss Personal Cloud, which is currently set to roll out to major carriers including Verizon and AT&T.

Jeff sheds light on the unique aspects of the platform including:

BackTrack: A game-changing feature that safeguards your files against accidental deletions or losses, by retaining old versions of backups for 30 days.
Genius: An AI tool that colorizes black and white photos, enhances photos, touches up faces, and applies other filters for an optimized visual experience.
Advanced Highlights: This ML-based feature facilitates categorization, tagging, and easy management of content.
Private Folders: This added layer of security allows subscribers to create pin-protected folders for sensitive data like tax documents, ID documentation, and secret recipes.

Unlike OTT solutions, Synchronoss Personal Cloud, purpose-built for telecom provider and carrier networks, ensures utmost data privacy and security. Jeff emphasizes how they prioritize data privacy by not leveraging user data for ads or other services and focusing on carrier-grade security measures.

Additionally, Neil and Jeff delve into the future of cloud solutions incorporating AI, 5G networks, and IoT devices. Jeff also shares his personal journey in technology, his admiration for his father's values, and his commitment to leaving things better than he found them.

Get ready for an insightful conversation on how Synchronoss is reshaping the landscape of personal cloud solutions and prioritizing your data's privacy and security. Tune in now!

2438: How Broadridge is Transforming Finance with Distributed Ledger Technology Jul 09, 2023

On today's episode of Tech Talks Daily, we are delighted to host Horacio Barakat, Head of Digital Innovation for Capital Markets at Broadridge Financial Solutions. Broadridge, a global fintech leader with $5 billion in revenues, delivers cutting-edge communications, technology, data, and analytics solutions that help clients transform their businesses.

Horacio has been at the helm of Broadridge's expansion and implementation of Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) in their DL Repo platform. With a staggering volume surpassing a trillion dollars a month in total transactions, Broadridge handles millions of trades a day involving trillions of dollars. Giants of the financial world like UBS and Société Générale are already onboard.

In this insightful conversation, Horacio shares his expert perspectives on the new DLT use cases in finance and provides an in-depth analysis of its application in repo transactions. He highlights how DLT has brought about significant operational efficiencies and improved capital velocity, increasing liquidity, and facilitating different types of transactions in finance and bond trading.

We also delve into the evolution of DLT in the finance industry. Starting in specific areas and slowly expanding, its adoption journey has been as expected. But along with opportunities, there are challenges—Horacio emphasizes the need to fully comprehend the technology and its benefits.

The discussion further extends to how Broadridge is harnessing the power of smart contracts and the digital representation of securities to enhance workflows in securities lending and build a matching platform.

Lastly, we touch on the importance of continuous learning in the financial services industry. Broadridge facilitates this through online training platforms like LinkedIn and Coursera. Horacio encourages listeners to explore the Broadridge website for more insights and examples of platform solutions.

Join us in this enlightening episode, as we unravel the complexities and opportunities of Distributed Ledger Technology in the world of finance with Horacio Barakat.

2437: Democratising Rental Access with AI - A Conversation with Sipho Simela of Matrix Rental Solutions Jul 08, 2023

In today's episode, I sit down with Sipho Simela, the innovative Founder and CEO of Matrix Rental Solutions, a company revolutionizing the tenant-screening process using AI. With 34% of the U.S population living in rental housing, Sipho's mission to streamline the rental application process couldn't be more timely.

Matrix Rental Solutions is leading the charge in tackling biases found in conventional applicant algorithms that often obstruct renters. With an AI that provides a holistic view of an applicant's financial stability, Matrix ensures deserving renters get a fair chance, showing that 89% of conditionally accepted applicants were able to make at least three consecutive on-time rental payments.

Sipho shares insightful discussions on the measures Matrix has taken to mitigate fraud in the rental market, which has seen a significant increase during the pandemic. We delve into the importance of empowering consumers with control over their data and how Matrix's advanced tools detect fraudulent documents and identity theft.

Our conversation also uncovers the limitations of the traditional tenant evaluation system, such as cumbersome paper-based applications and slow processing times. Sipho envisions a future with faster, more accurate tenant evaluations through the power of AI and other emerging technologies.

We also discuss the necessity of industry-wide standardization through a Universal Rental Application, and how technology can shield tenants, realtors, and brokerages from housing discrimination cases.

In a particularly heartening segment, Sipho shares his humbling personal journey that led to the birth of Matrix Rental Solutions. Despite the complexity of the tech world he navigates, Sipho's humility shines through, adding a layer of personal connection to our conversation.

Join us as we explore the intersection of AI, real estate, and equity with Sipho Simela. Learn how Matrix Rental Solutions is forging a path for a fairer rental process, democratizing access to quality housing, and shaping the future of tenant screening processes.

2436: Bridging Technology and B2C Sales: A Conversation with Alex Levin of Regal.io Jul 07, 2023

About 30% of "abandoned" prospects answer calls branded and triggered by Regal.io, leading to conversations that help you hit your growth goals way faster. They are behind some of the fastest-growing B2C companies like SoFi, Ro, Emeritus, The Farmer's Dog, Vroom, and Fidelity Life. For instance, in just a month, Angie's List increased their new customer conversion by 26% without increasing marketing spend.

On today's episode of Tech Talks Daily, I sit down with Alex Levin, the Co-Founder, and CEO of Regal.io, to delve into the heart of B2C sales and the role of technology in reshaping its landscape.

Alex starts our conversation by tracing his professional journey from Personal and Thomson Reuters roles to being an early employee at Handy (acquired by ANGI in 2018) and eventually co-founding Regal.io. He shares the motivation behind Regal inception: a vision to revolutionize the B2C sales industry with tools that enhance customer experience at the internet scale.

In a fascinating discussion about Regal's successes, Alex highlights the significant role of a customer-first approach. They discuss how technologies like text message marketing can be wielded effectively to engage with customers at scale and drive increased revenue.

The conversation takes an insightful turn as we discuss the importance of having honest conversations with customers to boost conversion rates. In this context, they touch upon the steps Regal is taking to combat call spam and robocalls and the benefits these measures present in terms of improved answer rates and customer value.

As our discussion concludes, we tackle the challenge of balancing personalized service and customer privacy in B2C marketing. We also explore the potential of AI in elevating the customer experience and its role in the future of B2C sales.

Whether you're a business professional, a marketer, or someone interested in the future of sales, this episode is packed with insightful conversations and forward-thinking perspectives. Tune in to learn more about the evolving landscape of B2C sales and the innovative solutions offered by Regal.io.

2435: Streaming Sound: TuneIn CEO Discusses the Future of Radio Jul 06, 2023

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I am delighted to host Rich Stern, the CEO of TuneIn, a platform that has emerged as a significant player in the audio streaming market. As we navigate the intersection of technology and radio, Stern shares his perspective on the challenges, opportunities, and future of the radio industry in the digital age.

Our conversation begins with Stern highlighting the transformative impact of digital technology on radio, exploring concepts like AI DJs and the shift from hyper-local to hyper-global distribution. Throughout our discussion, he emphasizes the importance of companionship and human connection in radio listening, advocating for inclusive technology solutions that benefit broadcasters and listeners alike.

Diversity and inclusion take center stage as Stern explains TuneIn's approach towards content and product development. Drawing from his diverse professional experiences, he discusses the strategies employed to enhance user experiences and expand TuneIn's user base through digital transformation and ubiquity.

As we probe deeper into the competitive landscape of audio streaming, Stern discusses TuneIn's unique positioning that pivots on live audio and curated content. As he predicts the future of the audio streaming industry, we explore the challenges and uncertainties in the profitability of the streaming music and podcasting industry.

Join us for an exciting discussion that offers a 360-degree view of the radio industry's transformation, straight from the helm of one of its front-runners. Whether you're an audio enthusiast or a tech aficionado, this episode promises valuable insights into the world of digital radio streaming.

2434: Navigating the Ecosystem Economy With Oliver Tuszik of Cisco Jul 05, 2023

In today's episode, I'm thrilled to have Oliver Tuszik, SVP of Global Partner Sales and GM Routes to Market at Cisco, join me on Tech Talks Daily. We delve deep into the heart of the ecosystem economy, said to be "the most significant economic transformation in history."

With 90% of Cisco's revenues coming through partners, Oliver shares his unique perspective on the changing needs of businesses and the crucial role that a robust partner ecosystem plays in delivering successful outcomes from IT investments. In a rapidly evolving tech landscape, partnerships are more critical than ever, driving significant portions of global GDP and reshaping traditional industry boundaries.

Join us as we explore how 'as-a-service' models are providing businesses with the flexibility to focus on their core strengths in the face of economic uncertainties and how multi-partner technology agreements are increasingly being leveraged to meet customer demands and manage solution complexities.

We'll also dive into a thought-provoking discussion around the future of business models, with a particular focus on the strategic importance of partnerships and ecosystems in the current climate, where a staggering 90% of tech sales are partner-assisted.

Don't miss out on this insightful conversation with Oliver Tuszik, as we decode the 'tech-tonic' shift underway, providing you with the knowledge you need to navigate the complex terrain of the ecosystem economy.

2433: The Fortra Approach to Securing the Digital Frontier Jul 04, 2023

In this episode, I explore the rapidly evolving landscape of cybersecurity with Antonio Sanchez, Principal Evangelist at Fortra.

Formerly known as HelpSystems, Fortra carries forward a legacy of people-first support, now reinforced with a renewed focus on exceptional protection and peace of mind. Antonio opens our conversation with an overview of Fortra's evolution, discussing the shift from systems management to delivering robust cybersecurity solutions.

In this candid discussion, Antonio underscores the dynamic nature of the cybersecurity industry and outlines Fortra's proactive approach to staying ahead of the curve. Through continuous investment in threat intelligence and a customer-centric feedback system, Fortra navigates the industry's shift towards an integrated platform world.

We delve into some of Fortra's recent cybersecurity initiatives, including their collaboration with Microsoft in combating illegal infrastructures. Antonio offers valuable advice to businesses on stratifying and evolving their cybersecurity strategies over time, and shares success stories of how Fortra has enhanced organizations' security postures via penetration testing and integrated solutions.

Rounding off our conversation, we take a lighter detour into Antonio's personal journey in cybersecurity, touching on the changing landscape of the field, the importance of automation, and the critical role of security in the C-suite. And as a fun anecdote, we learn about the seven Antonios in his family!

2432: The Great Transition - The Personalization of Finance is Here Jul 03, 2023

In this thought-provoking episode of Tech Talks Daily, I'm joined by Emmanuel Daniel, a global thought leader on the future of finance and listed as a top 10 global influencer in the "Fintech Power50" for 2021 and 2022. The founder of The Asian Banker and Wealth and Society, and author of “The Great Transition: The Personalization of Finance is Here,” Daniel takes us on a journey through the evolving landscape of finance.

Our discussion unravels around the continuous growth and impact of decentralized finance (DeFi), the importance of accessibility, and the potential of these technologies to revolutionize the financial landscape. Daniel explains Total Value Locked (TVL) - a key measurement in DeFi, the challenges of its understanding and its immense potential in reshaping our financial systems.

We delve into the dichotomy between Web3 and Web3.0, highlighting the battle between decentralization and platform dominance. This conversation extends into the realm of personalization in the banking sector, emphasizing the importance of decentralizing identity, value transmission, verification, and information transmission.

As we examine the concept of self-sovereign identity, Daniel illustrates its potential to transform our interactions with financial institutions. Furthermore, we explore the financialization of data and how trading and transacting digital assets can spur GDP growth.

Finally, we discuss the value of cryptocurrencies in a networked world, the future of the deposit business in the banking industry, and the potential role of stable coins. Wrapping up the conversation, we reflect on the banking crisis in light of Emmanuel's predictions in his book, "The Great Transition."

Tune in for this insightful episode, as we demystify complex financial technologies and delve into the future of the financial industry. Whether you're a financial enthusiast or an industry expert, this is an episode you don't want to miss.

2431: Unraveling the Mysteries of AI with Alex Babin, CEO of ZERO Systems Jul 02, 2023

In this enlightening episode of Tech Talks Daily, I sit down with Alex Babin, CEO of ZERO Systems, a company at the forefront of AI innovation, working with Fortune 500 companies and recently recognized as a "Cool Vendor" by Gartner.

Starting with debunking some of the most common misconceptions about AI, Alex explains that it's not an 'out-of-the-box' solution, nor a tool that flawlessly executes tasks with just any data. The path to AI effectiveness begins with understanding one's data and the company's ROI, taking a step-by-step approach.

This episode dives deep into the evolution of AI, shedding light on the new layer of metric data - user-generated data or feedback loop - which is revolutionizing the way AI tools interact and learn. Listen to Alex as he illustrates how AI can be a bridging mechanism to connect ontologies, and how this can be leveraged by Fortune 1000 companies for more efficient data utilization.

A core theme of our discussion is the lack of enterprise-scale AI solutions and the current trend of piecing together fragmented applications. As we navigate these challenges, Alex introduces us to the concept of skilled AI models (SAMs), a potential roadmap to achieving comprehensive, end-to-end solutions.

As AI is rapidly advancing, an 'arms race' of sorts has been initiated. Alex underscores the urgent need for AI governance and ethical considerations to ensure this powerful tool doesn't spiral out of control.

Join us in this riveting conversation as we explore the landscape of AI, its potential, its challenges, and the future it's carving out for enterprises across the globe.

2430: CleverCards and the Mission to Revolutionize Digital Payments Jul 01, 2023

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I chat with Kealan Lennon, the mind behind CleverCards, a disruptive global payments platform that is reshaping how both public and private sectors transact. With its astronomical growth, CleverCards has challenged traditional banking systems by opening over 100,000 accounts across Europe in 2022, a significant feat in a year of sweeping changes in the financial landscape.

Kealan takes us behind the scenes of CleverCards' genesis and its rapid rise to success, including a revenue increase by a staggering 5,000% in just a year. He sheds light on how CleverCards uses cutting-edge technology to bypass unnecessary processes and participants in the payment value chain, creating unrivalled efficiencies while automating compliance with complex financial services regulations.

Listen as Kealan explains the technology that powers CleverCards, from building an infrastructure that issues digital Mastercards across Europe to processing payments globally in less than a second. He shares the challenges they've encountered while navigating intricate financial regulations and how they've leveraged these into a competitive edge.

Kealan also discusses how CleverCards is innovating payment processes by offering configurable digital Mastercards for various use cases. This flexibility has even seen CleverCards used by the British state to distribute fuel and gas vouchers during the cost-of-living crisis.

We explore the company's remarkable expansion plans and its focus on Europe and the Middle East as potential markets. Additionally, Kealan shares his insights on disrupting traditional banking and payment methods, hinting at possible offerings of digital credit cards in the future.

2429: Metis.io - Bridging the Web3 Gap With Elena Sinelnikova Jun 30, 2023

Today on Tech Talks Daily, I'm excited to host Elena Sinelnikova, co-founder of Metis.io and CryptoChicks, as she shares her unique journey from a Government of Canada solutions architect to a pioneering blockchain entrepreneur.

Elena's groundbreaking work with CryptoChicks, an educational hub and accelerator for women in blockchain, has made significant strides towards inclusivity in the space, extending its reach to 56 countries. Now, at the helm of Metis.io, a Layer-2 blockchain, she is focused on building a completely decentralized infrastructure to fuel the burgeoning web3 economy.

With over $50 million raised and more than 110,000 wallets in their infrastructure, boasting a total value locked exceeding $45 million, Metis.io is at the forefront of tackling high transaction fees and slow processing times on Ethereum.

Elena opens up about the challenges and innovations within the Layer-2 ecosystem and Metis.io's strategic focus on collaboration with targeted startups to address specific industry pain points.

Join us as we delve into an enlightening conversation about the potential of DeFi, the need for increased blockchain education, and Metis.io's unique edge over other Layer-2 solutions. We also touch upon the invaluable contributions of influential figures like Natalia Amelin, Vitalik Buterin, and Kevin Liu to the Metis.io journey.

Whether you're a blockchain enthusiast, a tech entrepreneur, or just keen on learning about the power of decentralized collaboration, this episode is not one to miss. Tune in as we explore the next steps in lowering the barrier of entry to blockchain technology and truly unlocking the potential of the web3 economy.

2428: Digital Adoption Platforms Demystified: With Dan Adika of WalkMe Jun 29, 2023

In today's episode of Tech Talks Daily, I welcome a special guest Dan Adika, the co-founder and CEO of WalkMe, a leading player in the burgeoning industry of Digital Adoption Platforms (DAPs) as recognized by Gartner's first-ever market guide on DAP.

Digital adoption platforms are transforming how organizations interact with technology, enabling more seamless and efficient user experiences. Dan takes us on a journey through the concept of DAPs, illustrating their intrinsic value to businesses - from gaining observability into tech stacks to guiding employees in completing business processes.

By leveraging DAPs, companies can improve productivity and reduce errors, paving the way for a new level of operational excellence. In our engaging conversation, we delve into the rise of DAP professionals and their pivotal role within organizations. Dan emphasizes how WalkMe aids organizations in their digital transformation endeavors, enhancing employee experiences and ultimately transforming the workplace.

We further explore how DAPs can revolutionize decision-making within organizations, empowering them to be more data-driven and proactive. Our discussion also touches upon the complexities of AI and generative AI, addressing critical considerations around data privacy, compliance, and security.

Finally, we turn our attention to the importance of continuous learning and self-education in the ever-evolving technological landscape. Listen in as we delve into the potential of AI to lower the barriers to entry across various fields, highlighting the promise of a more accessible and inclusive digital future.

2427: How a Digital Publisher and Talent Manager are Unlocking the Creator Economy Jun 28, 2023

Victor Potrel, VP of Content Distribution at TheSoul Publishing, and Reza Izad, Co-Founder of Underscore Talent. Sitting at the unique crossroads of creators, platforms, and consumers, Victor and Reza share insights from their wealth of experience in the ever-evolving creator economy.

The duo begin by shedding light on their respective backgrounds and their companies' commitment to fostering the growth of content creators across various platforms. Their combined experience of over 30 years, a portfolio reaching 1.5 billion social media subscribers, and representation of over 200 big names in digital-first talent, provides a comprehensive look at the intricacies of the creator economy.

We explore their collaborative work in amplifying the voices of creators, the challenges of the attention economy, and how creators need to adapt to different platforms and formats to reach their audience effectively.

Victor and Reza delve into the complexities of working with both traditional and digitally native talents. They highlight the importance of diversifying across multiple platforms and how strategic navigation during platform shifts can yield an early advantage.

In a deep dive into monetization in the creator economy, our guests elucidate various strategies, including subscriptions, branded content, and merchandising. They discuss the ongoing platform battle among giants like YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram, and the implications of this rivalry for content creators.

Our guests underline the significance of their partnership in the creator space, emphasizing the importance of supporting this growing part of the economy. They offer a glimpse into the ongoing professionalization of businesses in the creator economy, driven by larger creators running significant enterprises.

Whether you're an aspiring content creator or an enthusiast eager to understand the intricacies of the creator economy, this episode brims with wisdom from two industry leaders transforming the creator space. Join us as we navigate this complex industry, and glean invaluable advice for future creators on investing in multiple platforms and effectively delegating tasks to sustain their businesses.

2426: Freepik and The Future of Design: Exploring AI and Creativity Jun 27, 2023

In this enlightening episode of Tech Talks Daily, we are joined by Joaquin Cuenca Abela, the CEO and co-founder of Freepik Company. From his humble beginnings as an engineer to leading several successful startups, Joaquin takes us through his inspiring journey and shares the crucial lessons he's learned along the way.

Listen to Joaquin as he unfolds the story of Freepik, a venture that began as a search engine for free graphics and progressively adapted to user demand by creating its own unique images. Drawing from his time at Google, Joaquin emphasizes the importance of staying user-focused while keeping a keen eye on financials for startup success. He also shares invaluable advice for budding entrepreneurs about listening to users, leveraging quality data, and progressing steadily towards their goals.

Our conversation takes a deep dive into the intricacies of scaling a business, including the need for strategic hiring and fostering talent, especially in the midst of a tech skill shortage. Joaquin discusses his experiences and strategies in talent acquisition and development that propelled Freepik's growth.

We delve into a rich discussion about the role of product-centric focus in trumping competition, and how Freepik is transforming the design industry by democratizing creativity and utilizing AI to enhance user experience. Joaquin also shares a glimpse into Freepik's ambitious future plans aligning with current industry trends.

Whether you're an aspiring founder, a design enthusiast, or simply curious about the transformative impact of AI in creative industries, this episode packs a wealth of insights from Joaquin's 20-year industry experience. Join us in this fascinating dialogue as we uncover the secrets behind running successful bootstrapped companies and the exciting developments shaping the future of design.

2425: Surviving the SaaS Squeeze: TSIA's Thomas Lah on the Next-Gen Pivot Jun 26, 2023

Thomas Lah, the Executive Director and Executive VP of the Technology & Services Industry Association (TSIA) is my guest today. With over two decades of experience in advising global technology companies, Thomas brings invaluable insights into the evolving SaaS landscape amid inflation, high-interest rates, and deflated company valuations.

Join us as we delve into the challenges confronting unprofitable SaaS companies as they face slower growth and adverse economic conditions. Thomas shares his expertise on the levers for increasing profitability and cites Salesforce as a successful example of a company adapting to the current economic environment.

Our discussion takes a deep dive into the future of SaaS companies in trying times. We explore how traditional enterprise SaaS models are feeling the heat, leading to a crucial pivot towards next-generation value propositions that leverage big data and AI. Thomas also sheds light on the enduring relevance of SaaS as a delivery model despite current challenges.

We touch upon the instrumental role of industry associations in helping SaaS companies steer through the disruptions brought on by AI. Drawing from his wealth of experience and his acclaimed books like 'Technology-as-a-Service Playbook' and 'Digital Hesitation,' Thomas provides advice that every executive team should heed - focusing on their big data play to unlock unique value propositions for their customers.

Additionally, we also talk about Thomas's podcast, Tectonic, its unique approach to examining technology and services trends, and the equipment he uses to record it.

Whether you're a seasoned tech executive, a startup founder, or just interested in the future of SaaS, this episode is a must-listen. Join us for this insightful conversation as we decode the path forward for successful SaaS in these challenging times.

2424: Nutrisense - Smart insights into your unique body with CGMs Jun 25, 2023

I sit down with Dan Zavorotny, the co-founder of the revolutionary health tech company, Nutrisense. Starting from scratch, Dan has led his startup to remarkable heights, building a $100 million company with over 170 employees in a mere three years.

Our conversation explores the vital strategies that have contributed to Nutrisense's rapid growth, including Dan's unique approach to effective hiring for startups. He sheds light on the necessity of founders immersing themselves in each role before hiring and emphasizes the value of seeking mentors and experts who can significantly elevate the company's performance.

We delve into the compelling world of unscalable marketing strategies that, contrary to the traditional wisdom, Dan believes are indispensable for acquiring customers and understanding their needs in depth. He elaborates on the crucial role these strategies played in Nutrisense's expansion, leading to innovative solutions like real-time blood glucose monitoring.

Hear about the inspiring anecdote of Dan's extreme customer service that involved personally delivering a lost package to a customer in France, ultimately turning that customer into a valuable team member and leader within Nutrisense.

We also discuss Nutrisense's ground-breaking health technology, its prospects, and upcoming trends that could revolutionize the company’s offerings further.

Join us as we delve into the journey, the mistakes, the lessons, and the triumphs of one of today's most inspiring tech entrepreneurs. This episode is a must-listen for everyone interested in startup growth, innovative health tech, and the art of unconventional yet effective strategies in entrepreneurship.

2423: Incredo Sugar: How Tech is Revolutionizing Sweetness with Less Sugar Jun 24, 2023

On this episode of Tech Talks Daily, we're serving up an exciting conversation with Ari Melamud, CEO of Incredo Sugar, an innovative food tech company that's on a sweet mission to revolutionize sugar consumption.

In what seems to be a paradox, Ari explains how his company is reducing the amount of sugar in our food, using sugar itself! Dive into the science and strategy behind Incredo Sugar, a patented sugar reduction solution that is not just combating health issues linked with high sugar consumption, but also contributing to sustainability.

Listen as Ari takes us through the meticulous development journey of Incredo Sugar, detailing how it's able to deliver the same sweetness using up to 50% less sugar. He touches upon the challenges they faced and how they successfully worked with food manufacturers to incorporate this groundbreaking sugar into their products.

In a lighter vein, Ari shares his love for Simon and Garfunkel's "Sound of Silence", his go-to karaoke song, and how his career path, spanning from Kimberly-Clark to Sharon Laboratories, has led him to lead a sugar revolution with Incredo Sugar.

This episode promises an informative deep-dive into food tech, filled with insights into how simple ingredients like sugar can be innovatively tweaked to promote healthier eating habits. Whether you're a food tech enthusiast or someone keen on understanding the future of food, join us as we unravel the sweet science behind Incredo Sugar with Ari Melamud.

2422: Certinia: The Tech Behind the Single Source of Certainty for Services Businesses Jun 23, 2023

Deb Ashton joins me on the Tech Talks Daily Podcast. .With over 25 years of experience in ERP and digital transformation, Deb has cultivated an impressive reputation in the industry and has now directed her focus towards connecting business systems, enhancing data analysis, and promoting intelligent business decision-making with Certinia.

In this insightful discussion, Deb sheds light on the evolution of FinancialForce into Certinia, revealing the vision and strategy behind the rebranding. We delve into the heart of Certinia's mission to provide certainty in data, highlighting its unique attributes of a connected business, intelligent delivery, and scalable agility.

Deb will share her thoughts on the emergence and potential of generative AI, and how Certinia is planning to stay ahead of the curve in an ever-evolving tech industry. We also uncover the secrets behind Certinia's culture and how it plays a pivotal role in staff retention.

Finally, we touch on the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the tech industry, a cause that Deb is particularly passionate about, and discuss how she sees the future of ERP and PSA technology solutions shaping up.

For tech enthusiasts, digital transformation advocates, and aspiring leaders, this episode offers an insightful view into the journey of a technology company from its early roots to its current success. Tune in to learn from Deb Ashton's wealth of experience and understand why Certinia is making waves in the world of Services-as-a-Business platforms.

2421: Nium and the Technology Empowering Global Real-Time Payments Jun 22, 2023

Robin Gandhi, Chief Product Officer at Nium discusses the transformative innovations in global payroll management. As businesses are increasingly operating across borders with remote and distributed teams, payroll complexities and compliance issues are becoming more significant hurdles to overcome. Nium is at the forefront of addressing these challenges, enabling companies to pay employees and contractors worldwide in a seamless and efficient manner.

Robin shares how Nium's infrastructure powers renowned companies like Panther and Rippling, helping them navigate the intricate world of global payroll. We dive into the impact of real-time payments on employee experience and the operational effectiveness of businesses, the role of transparent foreign exchange rates in global payroll, and the exciting future of embedded payments.

We also delve into how the pandemic has accelerated the trend of digitizing B2B payments and how Nium is leveraging this to offer innovative solutions. With Robin's decade of experience in the industry, this episode offers deep insights into the ongoing evolution of global payroll systems and the opportunities it holds for businesses worldwide.

Tune in to discover how Nium is simplifying global payroll and shaping the future of global payments!

2420: How Hitachi Vantara is Driving Efficiency and Sustainability in Data Centers Jun 21, 2023

I sit down with Lynn Collier, Global Solutions Manager for Digital Infrastructure at Hitachi Vantara, to talk about their pioneering work in enhancing data center storage systems. Lynn shares insights about their efforts to increase sustainability and efficiency in the face of rising electricity consumption in data centers worldwide.

Lynn tells the success story of South African IT company Gijima, who, with the help of Hitachi Vantara, successfully deployed Hitachi VSP systems in their production data center. By replacing bulkier spinning-disk arrays with all-flash storage systems, Gijima significantly consolidated its physical infrastructure, reduced power consumption by 66%, and enhanced its disaster recovery capabilities.

We delve deeper into the complexities business leaders face when striving for improved sustainability without sacrificing performance, reliability, or disaster recovery capability. Lynn explains how Hitachi Vantara’s innovative solutions, such as data-driven automation and sophisticated diagnostics, are helping organizations to address these challenges and continually lower their carbon footprint.

Lynn also shares a sneak peek at some exciting sustainability-focused tools in the pipeline at Hitachi Vantara. She talks about the development of a CO2 calculator tool that will enable organizations to assess their environmental footprint accurately.

This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in how tech companies are innovating to make data centers more efficient and sustainable and how these advancements can deliver significant business benefits.

2419: How the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) is Driving Digital Change Jun 20, 2023

Join me, as I sit down with Nic Granger, Director of Corporate and CFO of the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA), to discuss her critical role in overseeing the transformation of the oil, gas, and carbon storage industries in the UK, and how she champions the intersection of tech, diversity, and agility within her organization.

As a woman at the helm of digital transformation, Nic shares her fascinating journey into tech, sparked by her parents' purchase of a ZX Spectrum. She sheds light on how this early exposure ignited her passion for technology and eventually steered her into the pivotal position she occupies today.

Throughout our conversation, we delve into the significant strides the NSTA is making in fostering a robust digital culture. Nic provides insights into its innovative initiatives, such as its digital academy, digital awareness sessions, and the digital ambassadors program, all of which aim to enhance digital literacy within the NSTA.

We also touch on the crucial role diversity plays within the tech sector and how the NSTA is addressing this issue head-on. Through strategic recruitment and immersive storytelling sessions, they ensure a breadth of views, experiences, and ideas are brought to the table, enriching the overall innovation and problem-solving process.

Nic takes us through the NSTA's successful implementation of Agile methodologies, underscoring how this has facilitated the swift launch of high-quality products and allowed for their constant improvement based on user feedback.

Finally, we discuss the challenges and strategies involved in driving digital change. Nic shares how she equips other leaders to prioritize projects effectively and the importance of influencing boards and stakeholders on digital and data initiatives. She elaborates on how collaboration is a vital part of digitizing offshore energy in the UK and how the strategic repurposing of data can unlock significant value.

Tune in if you're interested in digital transformations, agile leadership, and the digital future of the offshore energy sector.

2418: British Gas Zero: The Technology Building a Sustainable Energy Future Jun 19, 2023

Andrew Middleton from British Gas Zero joins me on this episode of Tech Talks Daily. Andrew plays a pivotal role in a venture dedicated to installing, managing, and supporting EV chargers, heat pumps, and smart home technologies. These innovations are helping pave the way to a decarbonized future for public and private sectors, under the trusted banners of British Gas, Hive, and PH Jones.

With the UK government's firm commitment to achieving net zero by 2050, we delve into the timely topic of sustainable energy, affordability, and the role of technology in the fight against climate change. The conversation touches on the implications of the newly announced department for energy security and net zero, highlighting the importance of this national goal amidst rising living costs and pressing environmental concerns.

Andrew sheds light on how British Gas Zero is helping customers lower their energy bills while making significant strides in reducing carbon emissions. We explore how technology is fostering a future where UK homes can fully embrace decarbonization and discuss why enhancing energy efficiency in homes is imperative in our path to sustainability.

We explore the steps individuals and businesses can take to help achieve the national net-zero goal, the perceptions around this ambitious target, and how businesses can simplify the decarbonization agenda. Andrew also shares insights on how the net zero venture is aiding the UK's energy transition and British Gas Zero's collaborations with other organizations and initiatives in support of this transition.

If you're curious about the UK's net zero ambition, concerned about climate change, or simply interested in how tech can help make your home more energy-efficient, this episode offers vital insights and practical advice.

2417: Defining the DeFi Landscape with the CEO of Folks Finance Jun 18, 2023

In this episode, we welcome Benedetto Biondi, CEO of Folks Finance, a trailblazing decentralized protocol developed on Algorand that's reshaping the future of lending, trading, governance, and asset management. Benedetto walks us through his intriguing journey from a mechanical engineering background to becoming a key player in the blockchain arena, steering the ship at Folks Finance.

We delve into the inherent problems with centralized exchanges and explore how Folks Finance is revolutionizing the status quo through smart contracts and blockchain applications. We also take a step back to consider the broader impact of the DeFi revolution on the financial industry and its role in constructing the infrastructure for a new, permissionless, and borderless financial system.

As our conversation unfolds, we examine the reasons behind Folks Finance's choice of Algorand for their project, shedding light on the scalability, decentralization, and security of this layer-one blockchain. We navigate the challenges often faced by innovators in the DeFi space, providing valuable insights for those venturing into this dynamic field.

Benedetto discusses his influential role as a mentor in the Algorand accelerator and shares how Folks Finance's emphasis on ecosystem nurturing has helped position them as a leader in the industry. He also touches on his academic engagement as a DeFi lecturer at the University of Florence, reinforcing the critical role of education in grooming the next generation of Web 3.0 innovators.

Looking ahead, we discuss emerging trends in the DeFi industry, the integration of blockchain technology and real-world assets into the permissionless market, and future plans for Folks Finance, including a lending platform.

If you're curious about decentralized finance, interested in blockchain, or seeking to understand the future of digital asset management, this conversation with Benedetto Biondi is a must-listen.

2416: How Appdome is Securing the Mobile World Jun 17, 2023

In today's episode, I welcome Chris Roeckl, the Chief Product Officer at Appdome, a global leader in cybersecurity automation defense for mobile applications. With mobile apps becoming increasingly central to our daily lives, the need for robust security and protection measures is more vital than ever before.

Chris shares his expert insights into the complex world of mobile app security and data protection. We delve into some of the most common types of mobile app attacks, such as screen overlay attacks, credential stuffing, and man-in-the-middle attacks, and explore how organizations can safeguard their mobile platforms against these threats.

We discuss how Appdome is empowering industries - from finance and gaming to healthcare - to enhance their app security through encryption and other cutting-edge security capabilities. Additionally, Chris touches on the unique approach Appdome takes to incorporate cybersecurity within DevOps processes, emphasizing full integration into the CI/CD pipeline and certification of implemented security protections.

Moreover, we explore the challenges of achieving mobile app compliance and how Appdome is helping organizations meet stringent security requirements. As we examine Appdome's mission to protect every mobile app worldwide, we gain insights into how the company stays ahead of evolving threats through a collaborative approach and a dedicated security research team.

Whether you're an app developer, a cybersecurity enthusiast, or just a mobile app user, this conversation provides valuable insights into securing the mobile world, underscoring the importance of staying one step ahead in this ever-evolving digital landscape.

2415: Pioneering Virtual Care & Business Transformation: A Conversation with the CTO at Grand River and St. Mary’s Hospital Jun 16, 2023

In today's episode of Tech Talks Daily, we are privileged to host Shival Seth, the dynamic Chief Technology Officer at Grand River and St. Mary's Hospital in southwestern Ontario, Canada. Serving over a million patients, Shival's mantra is "What you lack in skills you make up in will," which has proved integral to his leadership role in this diverse community.

Our conversation unfolds as Shival explains the journey of business transformation, specifically focusing on the use of technology to enhance services for administrators, clinicians, and patients alike. With an array of innovations in staff scheduling, HR processes, and patient scheduling, we gain an insight into the challenges and solutions found in healthcare technology.

Shival will walk us through his collaboration with HIMSS and the Cisco Customer Experience (CX) Team to conduct an INFRAM (Infrastructure Adoption Model) assessment. This helped map out their technology infrastructure capabilities and align them with clinical, strategic goals and international standards. Shival’s insightful explanation on how the INFRAM assessment led to significant investments in technology infrastructure will be a valuable lesson for all tech leaders.

A major part of our discussion will delve into how Cisco’s Webex has revolutionized the hospital's operations, allowing for secure, virtual care. From emergency consultations to upgrading meeting rooms, Shival demonstrates the power of technology in modern healthcare.

We’ll also cover the role of Cisco security and Full Stack Observability in safeguarding the hospital's network, and Shival's future vision for pioneering virtual triaging and abolishing traditional waiting rooms.

Key discussion topics include:

• The role of Webex Connect in virtual care and hybrid work • Webex’s integration with Cerner and its inclusivity tools • The efficiency of Webex Connect (CPaaS) in staffing, patient monitoring, and scheduling • The value of a unified view in security tools like Duo, Umbrella, ISE, and ThousandEyes • How Cisco Full Stack Observability enables proactive problem-solving • The importance and value of an INFRAM assessment

Join us as we venture into the exciting world of healthcare technology with Shival Seth, a pioneer making waves in his industry.

2414: How Tech is Embracing Neurodiversity and Fostering Different Perspectives Jun 16, 2023

Join us on Tech Talks Daily for a conversation about the power of neurodiversity in the tech industry. In this episode, a prominent figure at Lucid, Bryan Stallings shines a light on the strategies businesses can employ to nurture neurodiversity and create an inclusive environment that embraces diverse perspectives.

With Lucid's visual collaboration suite revolutionizing the way teams see and build the future, Bryan shares his insights on how organizations can leverage the unique capabilities of neurodiverse individuals to enhance productivity, innovation, and engagement. Drawing inspiration from his personal experiences as a father of four neurodivergent children, Bryan's understanding of neurodiversity extends beyond the workplace, offering valuable perspectives on applying learnings from home to solve technical and human problems at work.

Throughout the episode, Bryan delves into practical tips for team leaders and business owners, highlighting the importance of establishing patterns, defining success criteria, creating transparency, and leveraging Agile principles and Scrum practices. By breaking down tasks into manageable increments, businesses can promote alignment and minimize confusion for neurodiverse individuals, unlocking their true potential.

As an Agile practitioner with over two decades of experience and a certified Scrum trainer, Bryan brings a wealth of knowledge to the conversation. He shares his passion for creating inclusive environments that value diverse perspectives, not only within the workplace but also in society, ensuring his children have a place to thrive.

Don't miss this inspiring and thought-provoking discussion on how embracing neurodiversity can transform the tech industry. Learn how Lucid's Visual Collaboration Suite is empowering teams worldwide to turn ideas into reality, clarify complexity, and collaborate visually, regardless of their geographical location. Tune in and discover the secrets to nurturing neurodiversity and driving success in today's ever-evolving tech landscape.

2413: How Wix is Advancing Website Creation With an AI Text Creator Jun 15, 2023

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I sit down with Oz Golan and Eli Brosh, from Wix, a leading global SaaS platform, to discuss their groundbreaking development in the sphere of Artificial Intelligence - the AI Text Creator. This cutting-edge feature, developed in collaboration with OpenAI’s GPT-3, is designed to facilitate the generation of high-quality and uniquely-tailored content for users' websites.

We dive into the intricate development process of integrating GPT-3 into the Wix editor, the challenges faced, and the gratifying results of user adoption and retention. Discover how this AI feature is transforming the website content creation process, making it more efficient and less time-consuming for users.

My guests share exclusive insights about the capabilities of this AI technology and Wix's future plans, including expanding language support and adding new features. He underscores the significance of validating each feature to ensure it contributes genuine value to users' websites and overall business success.

This conversation offers an intriguing exploration of how AI technology is increasingly being leveraged to streamline website-building and content creation, ultimately enhancing the quality of online presence. Whether you're a tech enthusiast or a business owner seeking to optimize your digital presence, this episode is packed with valuable insights. Join us as we explore the exciting frontier of AI in website content creation.

About the guests

Dr. Eli Brosh is the Head of AI Research at Wix, where he is working on future-looking technologies to enhance and reinvent the website design experience. Prior to Wix, Eli held AI leadership positions in leading startups in the fields of visual driving analytics and smartphone-based medical diagnostics. Eli holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Columbia University and has authored multiple publications and patents. Oz Golan is a Product Manager in Wix's Editor division. He has over 10 years of experience in SaaS B2C and B2B environments with millions of end-users. His expertise is in building high converting, long retention, and high CLV products.

2412: Cognizant - How Technology is Advancing Life Sciences Jun 14, 2023

Join me in this captivating episode of Tech Talks Daily as we delve into the ever-evolving world of Life Sciences with Rohit Alimchandani, the Head of Life Sciences for UK & Ireland at Cognizant. With over two decades of experience with Europe's biggest life sciences businesses, Rohit provides invaluable insights into the industry's transformative journey.

Our conversation begins with an exploration of the importance of sustainability in the Life Sciences sector. Rohit elaborates on how Cognizant is pioneering sustainable practices and innovations through setting examples, advising clients, and building strategic partnerships.

We venture into the realm of cutting-edge technology and how it's reshaping the Life Sciences industry. Be it virtual reality games for patient adherence, robotic arms for lab experiments, or machine learning bots for medical legal review, Rohit discusses the plethora of exciting advancements that are transforming the industry's landscape.

The conversation delves into the challenges companies encounter while embracing digital transformation, particularly in the areas of talent acquisition and fostering a collaborative partner ecosystem. Rohit emphasizes the crucial role that diversity plays in fostering innovation and shares insights about Cognizant's efforts in promoting a diverse workforce.

Listen as we uncover the story behind the development of a COVID tracking app through a collaboration between Cognizant, Microsoft, and Sensyne Health. Finally, join us as we look into the future of the Life Sciences sector, focusing on precision medicine, and Cognizant's role in advancing it.

Whether you're an industry insider or a curious outsider, this episode is an opportunity to learn from an industry expert about the innovations and transformations shaping the Life Sciences sector. Discover how technology, sustainability, and diversity are paving the way for a brighter, healthier future. Tune in!

2411: Behind the Seams: The Technology Driving Carhartt's Success Jun 14, 2023

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, we are rolling up our sleeves and diving deep into the fascinating world of Carhartt, a company renowned for its high-quality, durable workwear. This time, we're not focusing on the fabric but the technology that underpins their impressive operations.

I'm broadcasting live from Cisco Live in Las Vegas, where we're sitting down with Bryan Laszlo, Carhartt's Manager of Application Performance. Bryan's been instrumental in transforming Carhartt's approach to IT infrastructure and operations, reducing downtime and improving performance to meet the growing demands of their customer and associate base. His secret weapon? Full-Stack Observability solutions from Cisco, including Cisco AppDynamics and Cisco ThousandEyes.

Bryan shares his team's innovative approach to achieving 360-degree visibility across their tech stack, which has not only enhanced customer and associate experiences but also saved the company millions of dollars in operational expenses. We delve into the tangible benefits of prioritizing observability, including how it's positioned Carhartt to support increased production volume and expand their business footprint.

Carhartt has been "outworking them all" since 1889. But in today's digital world, the company is proving that even long-established businesses must adopt cutting-edge technology to stay ahead. This is a conversation about the fusion of tradition and innovation you won't want to miss.

Remember, technology isn't just about gadgets and gizmos - it's woven into the very fabric of every business. So, sit back, relax, and get ready for another daily dose of tech insights on Tech Talks Daily.

2410: Driving Innovation: The Cisco CX Customer Hero Awards with Alistair Wildman Jun 13, 2023

On this special episode of Tech Talks Daily, I'm broadcasting straight from Cisco Live in Las Vegas, and I'm about to take you behind the scenes of the most anticipated event of the conference: the Cisco CX Customer Hero Awards. This is the place where extraordinary customer achievements in technology innovation are recognized and celebrated.

Joining us is the man leading the celebrations, Alistair Wildman, Senior Vice President of Cisco Global Customer Experience (CX). With a career in technology spanning over two decades, and having held executive positions at tech giants like Microsoft, Salesforce, and VMware, Alistair's insights into the tech world are second to none.

In this conversation, Alistair shines a light on the award winners, sharing the transformative stories of each customer Hero, from NYC Health + Hospitals' secure network initiative to Nationwide's digital transformation, Princess Cruises' innovative customer experiences, Honeywell's automation triumph, and many more. Alistair's passion for customer success is evident as he details the groundbreaking work these companies have achieved with the aid of Cisco's cutting-edge technology.

But this episode isn't just about celebrating technology's triumphs; it's also about the future. Join us as we explore these inspiring tales of technological innovation and discuss the future of customer experiences. As always, remember that technology isn't just changing the way we live—it's the driving force behind every successful business. So, tune in, get inspired, and let's talk tech.

2409: Bridging the IT-Business Divide with Nathaniel Morris Jun 13, 2023

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I'm thrilled to welcome Nathaniel Morris, founder of EQ Digital. EQ Digital is at the forefront of bridging the often overlooked gap between IT and business, striving to create harmony in this integral space by transforming technical leaders into strategic business owners.

Morris and his organization have been instrumental in saving millions in annual expenses, cultivating high-performing teams, and contributing significantly to the bottom line of numerous businesses.

Join us as we dive deep into the critical need for sound business skills amongst technical leaders. We'll explore how Nathaniel's innovative, business-aware approach to technical leadership has redefined the dynamics within retail and technology sectors, promoting efficiency and profitability without compromising on budget or timelines.

In this conversation, we'll unpack the details of EQ Digital's strategies, Nathaniel's unique leadership style, and discuss how to bridge the IT-Business divide.

Whether you're a seasoned tech executive, an ambitious startup founder, or just passionate about the interplay of business and technology, this episode promises to be full of valuable insights and practical advice. Tune in to learn how to leverage technology to your business's advantage and create a harmonious, high-performing team.

2408: CiscoLive - The Impact of a Zero Trust Framework on Security Resilience Jun 12, 2023

TK Keanini is a seasoned veteran in the network and security space with over 25 years of experience, TK also brings unparalleled insights from his extensive career at Cisco. Currently driving technical innovation and the integration of security solutions with both private and public cloud-based computing platforms, TK is transforming the way we view cybersecurity.

In this episode, we dive into a range of compelling topics, including the latest product news with a focus on Secure Access Service Edge (SASE), implementing AI assistants in security, and the ever-evolving capabilities of firewalls and multi-cloud defense. We'll explore the product launches that are part of the broader Cisco Security Cloud and understand how they align with Cisco's strategic vision to build an integrated security platform.

We further venture into the hot topic of zero-trust framework and its significant impact on security resilience. With the increasing complexity of modern IT environments and an escalated threat landscape, the zero-trust model becomes essential. TK provides an expert view of how it influences the development of secure networks and enhances overall security resilience.

This episode offers the perfect blend of tech, innovation, and security, providing listeners with a comprehensive look into the current state and future of cybersecurity. Whether you are a tech enthusiast, an IT professional, or just curious about the digital world, there's something for everyone. Don't miss out on this unique opportunity to hear from one of the leading figures in the tech world.

2407: How Webex is Shaping the Future of Hybrid Work and AI-Powered Customer Experiences Jun 11, 2023

Today, I am honored to host Lorrissa Horton, the recently-appointed Chief Product Officer at Webex, who is shaping the future of hybrid work and collaboration technologies.

Webex, a Cisco company, is renowned for its end-to-end platform, providing robust solutions for both collaboration software and hardware. These offerings are designed to revolutionize the way we work and interact, tailoring to the evolving needs of hybrid workspaces and customer experience landscapes.

Since taking the helm, Lorrissa has focused on scaling the platform and driving innovations that align with Webex's mission to promote inclusivity. Her remarkable work and her creative approach to work-life integration have earned her recognition as one of the top Asian American business leaders today. A holder of over ten patents and an advocate for remote work, Lorrissa is truly a force to be reckoned with in the tech industry.

In this episode, we delve into the recent genAI announcement from Webex and their intriguing partnership with AT&T. We will also unpack Webex's vision for the future of customer experience, powered by artificial intelligence, as well as the remarkable strides they have made in the realm of cloud calling.

Don't miss this deep dive into the world of collaborative technologies with one of the industry's top leaders. Stay tuned for a thought-provoking conversation on the future of work, the role of AI in customer experience, and the intriguing crossroads of technology, leadership, and work-life balance.

2406: Zscaler - Harnessing Zero Trust Architecture for Resilience & Performance Jun 10, 2023

Today, Nathan Howe, the VP of Emerging Technology and 5G at Zscaler, makes a return appearance to delve into the increasingly relevant topic of Zero Trust architecture.

In an era marked by hybrid workforces, global economic instability, and evolving cybersecurity threats, Nathan explains how Zero Trust architecture serves as more than just a security measure, transforming into a potent business solution delivering resilience, superior performance, and cost reductions.

The conversation kicks off with an in-depth discussion on the concept of Zero Trust architecture – the application of least privilege in computing to safeguard business assets, ensuring only authorized entities can access specific applications and data sets.

Neil and Nathan then explore why Zero Trust architecture deserves a priority spot on the C-suite agenda and why businesses can ill afford to overlook it.

Moving on, Nathan provides fascinating insights into the numerous benefits of adopting Zero Trust architecture for businesses, including enhanced security, improved resilience, boosted performance, and decreased costs. Drawing from Zscaler's experience, he shares real-world examples of how their Zero Trust platform empowered organizations to eliminate inbound VPN services, thus reducing exposure risks.

Nathan then delves into the concept of policy-based steering and Zscaler's ability to forge direct paths for workloads, citing key trends in cloud security like the shift towards edge compute and AI usage.

Don't miss out on this insightful exploration of Zero Trust architecture with Nathan Howe. Tune in and stay updated on the latest in emerging technology and cybersecurity trends. If you enjoyed the episode, please rate us on your preferred podcast platform and share it with other tech enthusiasts!

2405: The Future of Cybersecurity and Collaboration: A Conversation with Jeetu Patel at Cisco Live Jun 09, 2023

I sit down with Jeetu Patel at Cisco Live. We discuss the scale of global security and its far-reaching implications for every individual and organization.

Jeetu provides a comprehensive look at the challenges of cybersecurity and how the digital landscape is changing. We explore the idea of making security a seamless, frictionless experience for users through the latest release of Cisco Secure Access, aimed at simplifying and enhancing cybersecurity measures for all.

Our conversation also navigates the complexities of current security setups, where companies often struggle with managing numerous products and policy engines. Jeetu shares insights on the importance of reducing cognitive load for users and the efforts Cisco is making to accomplish this.

This podcast is a deep dive into the significance of achieving a balance between zero trust and zero friction, to provide least privileged access without overcomplicating the security process.

Jeetu also touches on the importance of integrating AI in cybersecurity to handle sophisticated attacks at scale. He gives us a sneak peek into Cisco's upcoming security policy management gen AI assistant, set to revolutionize the way security rules are managed and hygiene is maintained in the cybersecurity space.

Listen in to stay updated on Cisco's upcoming releases and to gain valuable insights into the future of cybersecurity. Whether you're a tech enthusiast, an IT administrator, or a general user, this conversation will provide crucial takeaways for you. Tune in to discover how Cisco is shaping the future of global security and what it means for you.

2404: How Interstates is Redefining IT Infrastructure with Cisco Jun 08, 2023

Today, I am live from the buzzing showfloor at Cisco Live in Vegas, where we have a chance to talk to Nathan Bullock, IT Operations Manager at Interstates.

Interstates, a company with a rich 60-year history based out of Iowa, is known for maximizing value for its manufacturing customers. How? By simplifying and updating its servers through a strategic partnership with Cisco, a global leader in IT and networking.

In this episode, Nathan will walk us through how Cisco server technology is being leveraged by Interstates to innovate and optimize its operations. Thanks to Cisco's advanced solutions, Interstates has seen a significant reduction in the frequency of server infrastructure overhauls. But that's not all - they've also experienced improved systems integration, enhanced automation, and better scalability.

Furthermore, Nathan will discuss how these changes have simplified and accelerated their data center operations. The result? A whopping 75% acceleration in deployments to manufacturers, providing them with the efficient, high-quality service they need to remain competitive in today's fast-paced business landscape.

We will also touch on the challenges that come with such a massive transformation and how Interstates has navigated the path to digital transformation, emerging stronger and more efficient.

With Nathan's rich experience in IT operations and his leadership at Interstates, this conversation is guaranteed to offer valuable insights for anyone looking to understand the power of updated IT infrastructure, the crucial role of server technology, and the impact of strategic partnerships in driving business value.

Tune in for this insightful discussion with Nathan Bullock live from Cisco Live in Vegas, and discover how the right technology can revolutionize IT operations, optimize value delivery, and drive the future of manufacturing. It's an episode you won't want to miss, right here on Tech Talks Daily.

2403: AI at Work: How Cisco is Redefining the Workplace with Javed Khan Jun 07, 2023

Javed Khan, SVP and GM of Cisco Collaboration, joins me in a discussion about the world of Hybrid Work. Javed reveals the approach of Cisco Collaboration in leveraging AI to deliver unrivaled experiences for both organizations and contact center agents. We explore the impact of AI on teamwork, decision-making, and efficiency, transforming the very way we understand and approach work.

Javed also discusses the concept of the 'mobile office', giving us a glimpse into the future of work. He shares his vision of a seamless blend of technology and connectivity, where geographical boundaries cease to restrict productivity and innovation.

In addition, we delve into Javed's leadership at Cisco, where he previously ran Cisco’s Cloud Calling business and led the Webex Meetings business unit. We learn about the strategy and transformative initiatives that have been the hallmark of his tenure, such as the development of a single meetings platform architecture and the modernization of the Webex experience.

Listen in as we explore the intersection of technology, work, and the future. If you are interested in the future of work, AI, or just curious about what comes next, you won't want to miss this episode.

2402: Cisco Live - The Digital Transformation of the Sports and Entertainment Industry Jun 07, 2023

I sit down with Ken Martin, the Managing Director of Global Sports, Media & Entertainment at Cisco. As the strategic advisor to the world's premier sports leagues, venues, and organizations, Martin has been a key player in transforming the digital landscape of stadiums globally, setting the pace for the future of fan experiences.

From pioneering video delivery in stadiums 15 years ago to architecting high-density Wi-Fi and IP Fabric for broadcast, Cisco is now at the forefront, enabling more than 460 stadiums worldwide to deliver personalized, immersive experiences to their audiences. With advanced technologies such as AI, Wi-Fi 6, Wi-Fi 6E, and dynamic security tools, Cisco is revolutionizing the guest and fan experiences by enhancing convenience, customization, and personalization.

During the podcast, Ken will share insights on how Cisco's technology underpins the infrastructure of the most technologically advanced venues, such as SoFi, State Farm, and Allegiant Stadiums, which hosted the 2022, 2023, and 2024 Super Bowls. He will also shed light on the integral role of Cisco's networking technology in powering the biggest events, including Super Bowl LVII and upcoming grand events like the 2026 World Cup and the 2028 Olympic Games.

Moreover, we'll delve into Cisco's partnerships with organizations like the NFL to ensure enterprise-level security. From handling 100 million DNS requests and blocking 200,000 of them during the 2023 Super Bowl to analyzing 800,000 suspicious files using secure Malware analytics, Cisco's role in cybersecurity is extensive.

Ken Martin will also reveal how Cisco's technology, such as Cisco Secure Firewalls, Umbrella, and Secure Malware Analytics, is utilized to aggregate intelligence feeds that are integral to threat hunting and monitoring.

This is a must-listen episode for all tech enthusiasts and sports fans curious about the future of sports entertainment and the massive digital transformations behind the scenes. Join us to discover how technology is transforming the global sports, media, and entertainment industries.

2401: How Indiana is Harnessing Cisco Full-Stack Observability Jun 06, 2023

On this episode of Tech Talks Daily, we're coming to you live from the bustling show floor of Cisco Live in Las Vegas. Our focus today is on the evolution of technology adoption in the public sector, a field traditionally seen as lagging behind its private counterparts. We're busting myths and challenging stereotypes as we delve into the intriguing world of public services, proving that they are, indeed, keeping pace with the digital world.

Our special guest is Brad Walsh, Lead Program Manager for Application Performance Management at the Indiana Office of Technology. Brad offers unique insights into the current technological shift in the public sector and reveals how governmental organizations are not just catching up, but in some areas, leading the charge in implementing cutting-edge solutions.

We're shining a spotlight on Cisco's Full-Stack Observability (FSO), a game-changing solution that provides end-to-end visibility across applications, infrastructure, and network layers. This powerful tool can transform IT operations and enhance overall business performance, boasting benefits like improved visibility, faster problem resolution, increased collaboration, scalability, and heightened security.

But what does this look like when applied in the real world? How can it truly revolutionize public services and raise public expectations from government services? Brad Walsh will share his firsthand experience with the Cisco FSO and will reveal how this tech solution is transforming operations at the Indiana Office of Technology.

Tune in for an eye-opening discussion about the future of public sector technology, straight from the heart of Cisco Live. We're breaking down barriers, shattering misconceptions, and bridging the gap between the public and private sectors. Don't miss out!

2400: Linux Foundation Europe and the Geopolitics of Open Source Jun 06, 2023

I sit down with Gabriele Columbro, General Manager of Linux Foundation Europe (LF Europe) and Executive Director of Fintech Open Source Foundation (FINOS), to dissect the geopolitics of open source and the dynamic growth of LF Europe.

We kick off by understanding why a regional foundation like LF Europe is vital in the ever-evolving global landscape of open source. Gabriele provides fascinating insights into the rapid growth of LF Europe, which has amassed over 100 members in just 8 short months. We then delve into the instrumental role of the public sector in Open Source Software (OSS) sustainability and its potential to elevate the open-source community.

Our discussion then veers towards the implications of the Cyber Residency Act (CRA), the intricacies of open-source policy, and the pressing need for liability clarity for open-source contributors and commercial entities. We also touch upon the recent launch of the Linux Foundation Europe Advisory Board (LFEAB), aiming to define priorities, foster new collaborations, and expand the open-source community across Europe.

Furthermore, we explore the 2023 Global Spotlight Survey, reflecting on the significant findings from the previous year's survey that have influenced LF Europe's operations. Lastly, Gabriele shares exciting glimpses into the upcoming Linux Foundation Europe Member Summit scheduled in Spain, which will revolve around hot topics such as collaboration between the public and private sector, upcoming projects, and the role of LF Europe in Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Don't miss out on this intriguing conversation with Gabriele Columbro as we delve into the geopolitics of open source, discuss pivotal community and policy matters, and unveil what lies ahead for the Linux Foundation Europe.

2399: Accenture: The Race to Cloud and Reaching the Inflection Point to Value Jun 05, 2023

On this episode of Tech Talks Daily Podcast, I am excited to host Ashley Skyrme, a notable figure from Accenture. Ashley plays a pivotal role in shaping Accenture's cloud strategy and has recently been involved in their latest report, “The race to cloud: Reaching the inflection point to long sought value.”

During our engaging conversation, Ashley sheds light on how the cloud market is evolving at an unprecedented pace. Our discourse delves into the report's findings that reveal cloud commitment is no longer optional but has become a business mandate. An astonishing 86% of companies report ramping up the scope and volume of their cloud initiatives since 2020.

While cloud adoption shows promising progression, it's not without challenges. We talk about the persistent hurdles businesses face, such as security and compliance risks, the complexity of operational change, and how a few early adopters have managed to overcome these barriers to unlock the true value of their cloud investments. Ashley generously shares some success stories, strategies, and best practices that have worked for companies, providing listeners with valuable insights and solutions.

Our conversation also includes a future-forward perspective as we discuss the upcoming trends in cloud adoption. Ashley explains the strategic shift towards reinventing the digital core, sustainable cost transformation, and the importance of AI-centric and industry-specific cloud investments.

In this episode, we don't just scratch the surface but deep dive into the current state of the cloud market, its benefits, complexities, and how businesses can optimize their cloud strategies.

2398: How AI is Making Building Software as Easy as Ordering Pizza Jun 05, 2023

Sachin Duggal, the innovative mind behind Builder.ai joins me in a deep dive into the journey of making software creation as easy as ordering a pizza.

Sachin's experience with the arduous process of app development and the frustrations that came with it sparked the inception of Builder.ai. He was determined to create a platform where anyone, regardless of their technical knowledge, could bring their app ideas to life. Builder.ai revolutionizes software development by creating an AI-powered platform that transforms complex coding processes into a simple selection and customization task.

Listen in as Sachin dissects the world of low code and no code platforms, the limitations that these platforms possess, and how Builder.ai navigates through these challenges. They delve into the recurring barriers to entry in the software industry and explore how Builder.ai elevates its users' confidence in building software and ensuring successful outcomes.

Sachin shares insights on how his platform enables non-technical customers to build apps with the help of an AI assistant. The platform's unique approach allows clients to own the code and build anything within reason, making Builder.ai stand out in the crowd.

In addition, the duo discuss how Builder.ai reduces the risk of building the wrong product, automates the software production process and fosters a high return on investment by creating an expert network of developers and designers.

Discover how Sachin Duggal, a computer prodigy since his early teenage years, evolved from fixing a broken computer to founding one of the first cloud computing companies and eventually building Builder.ai. Get inspired by Sachin's remarkable journey from a passionate tech enthusiast to a World Economic Forum Tech Pioneer and Entrepreneur.com's Serial Entrepreneur of the Year.

Join me on this enlightening journey of transforming the landscape of software development. Learn how Builder.ai is reshaping the software industry and making it more accessible to the non-tech savvy community. Tune in and get inspired to bring your app ideas to life!

2397: How Direct Digital Holdings is Disrupting the AdTech Space Jun 04, 2023

In this episode of The Tech Talks Daily Podcast, we explore the rapidly evolving AdTech and digital programmatic advertising industry with Mark D. Walker, the CEO, Co-founder, and Chairman of Direct Digital Holdings (DDH).

Mark unpacks how DDH, a burgeoning titan in the industry, continues to lead with its innovative technology platform that manages approximately 90,000 clients monthly, generating over 100 billion impressions per month across various media channels. Amid industry turbulence, this disruptive tech entity uniquely stands strong, continuing to grow and succeed.

Crucially, DDH isn't your typical AdTech firm. Comprising Huddled Masses, Colossus SSP, and Orange142, DDH presents a unique ad ecosystem that offers services on both the ad-buy and ad-sell sides, a feature that most competitors lack. DDH has strategically positioned itself as a leader in programmatic advertising, emphasizing reaching consumers and publishers in mid-sized, multicultural, and under-represented markets, including those linked to gender, race, and sexual orientation.

On a prouder note, DDH carries the torch of being the 9th ever black-owned business to list on a US exchange (Nasdaq: DRCT), an accomplishment that Mark, who is well-versed in the complexities and potential of multicultural markets, holds with great pride.

In our conversation, Mark discusses a recently released whitepaper featuring noteworthy research findings indicating that, during a time of economic uncertainty, many brands are neglecting potential revenue and market share growth opportunities due to a lack of focus on Black, Hispanic/Latin, AAPI, and LGBTQIA+ communities. Mark offers actionable insights to address this issue.

This episode promises to provide a deep dive into the future of AdTech, the unique vantage point of DDH, and why this fast-growing company should be on everyone's radar. Stay tuned for this insightful discussion with Mark D. Walker, a trailblazer and advocate for diversity in the tech industry.

2396: Guarding the Web: CHEQ and the Fight Against Bots and Fake Traffic Jun 03, 2023

Guy Tytunovich is the founder and CEO of CHEQ, a leading security firm specializing in the elimination of bots, fake web traffic, and malicious users. Born from the minds of former members of Israel's elite intelligence Unit 8200, CHEQ is dedicated to shielding over 15,000 companies worldwide from damaging web activities that can significantly impact their bottom lines.

In our conversation, Guy unpacks the startling extent to which bots and fake traffic disrupt businesses, with a whopping 40% of all web traffic comprised of invalid users and bots. He illuminates how this trend sabotages marketing efficiency, skews data and analytics, and hampers on-site conversion efforts.

Guy brings the issue to life with real-world examples. We dive into CHEQ's findings, which reveal an astounding potential wastage of $658M annually in Twitter ad spend on bots and fake users. Guy also touches on the infamous bot attacks on Ticketmaster during Taylor Swift's tour sale, which led to site crashes and congressional hearings.

We explore the recent case of JP Morgan Chase, which suffered a $175M loss due to a fraudulent customer list during the acquisition of startup Frank. In the rapidly heating M&A landscape, Guy sheds light on how businesses can properly vet acquisition targets and steer clear of such pitfalls.

Join us for this insightful episode as we explore the hidden threats in the digital landscape and discuss how CHEQ, with its advanced cybersecurity measures, is paving the way for safer, more efficient business practices in the web realm.

2395: How Calaxy is Reinventing the Creator-Fan Relationship in Web3" Jun 02, 2023

Rusty Matveev, Chief Strategy Officer at Calaxy discusses the surge of investment in the creator economy and its implications in the world of Web3. The creator economy, predicted to hit a whopping $75 billion USD market worth by 2024, is set to revolutionize the traditional commerce sector and the way celebrities and influencers connect with their fans.

Calaxy is a next-generation social marketplace aiming to reinvent the creator-fan relationship, providing creators with a direct line of engagement with their fans, free from the confines of traditional social media conglomerates. With an impressive line-up of creators including NFL star Ezekiel Elliott, The Bachelor's Matt James, and singer Teyana Taylor, Calaxy is a prominent player in the creator economy.

Boasting over 15 years of experience in the emerging tech and startup space and a background in venture capitalism, Rusty is uniquely positioned to shed light on this thriving sector. He explores the shift in power dynamics within the creator community, the growing impact of NFT-powered commerce, and the potential of utility-driven NFTs.

In our conversation, Rusty and I delve into Calaxy's hybrid social platform that serves as a unique marketplace for creators, providing a storefront for direct fan engagement. We also touch upon the exciting potential the creator economy holds for its participants, with Rusty predicting that creators could earn millions of dollars daily through direct fan engagement.

Don't miss this episode for insights into the future of the creator economy, the transformative potential of Web3, and how platforms like Calaxy are empowering creators and revolutionizing fan relationships.

2394: The Art of Active Listening and Building a Culture of Connectivity Jun 01, 2023

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I host Heather Younger, a prominent keynote speaker, author, CEO, and Founder of Employee Fanatix and an all-around amazing human being. At a time when we are hearing about the importance of people in the tech industry and every business, I learned how Heather focuses on empowering leaders to value their people at work.

Heather shares the significance of active listening, a skill she explores in depth in her recent book and believes is crucial for a robust company culture, especially in today's hybrid work environment. Despite the wealth of communication, we talk about the frequent neglect of effective listening in workplace communication.

Heather shares insightful instances where a lack of customer listening led to unfavorable outcomes, highlighting the need to incorporate all voices in an organization and build a culture fostering connection and belonging. She discusses prevalent workplace myths and misconceptions, stressing the importance of uniting individuals from all tiers to drive superior strategies.

Echoing hope for the future, Heather cites examples of leaders starting to pay attention to inclusivity and implementing broad changes that could benefit their employees and the people they serve.

In conclusion, Heather and Neil discuss her new book, The Art of Active Listening, her Leadership with Heart podcast, and future plans for a workshop and certification program. This episode underscores the power of active listening in enhancing belonging, loyalty, profitability, and innovation, making workplaces more engaging and inclusive for everyone.

2393: How Outlier Ventures is Pushing the Boundaries of Web3 May 31, 2023

Ben Meyer from Outlier Ventures joins me for a deep dive into the world of Web3, decentralization, and the unique challenges startups face in this arena. Outlier Ventures, renowned for propelling the Web 3 movement, boasts a track record of 25 cohorts, partnerships with multiple layer one protocols, and an impressive $350 million raised for their pre-seed portfolio companies.

Ben delves into Outlier Ventures' mission to foster a decentralized economy, outlining the array of challenges that they help startups navigate. These include the technical intricacies of Web 3, issues of scalability, regulatory uncertainties, interoperability, user adoption hurdles, security concerns, talent acquisition, funding, and limitations of infrastructure. He also introduces us to the zero knowledge cohort, a program designed to mentor founders and assist them in exploring diverse design spaces and ecosystems.

We also touch upon the importance of stress-testing projects for endurance through future cycles in the Web 3 industry. We delve into how DeFi can address challenges like transparency, auditability, and privacy, and discuss Ally Adventures' method of evaluating potential projects based on the resilience and adaptability of founders.

Ben shines a light on the Aptos X Outlier Move accelerator program, which focuses on mainstreaming Web 3, enhancing user-friendliness, and boosting scalability. He also shares insights on Outlier Ventures' role in ecosystem development and the exciting convergence of AI and crypto.

Finally, Ben explores the crucial role of zero knowledge in enabling scalability and privacy for Web 3, along with opportunities for infrastructure, tooling, and authentication. Wrapping up the conversation with a book recommendation, Ben invites eager listeners to reach out to learn more.

Join us for this insightful conversation, offering a glimpse into the future of Web 3, the dynamic landscape of decentralization, and the exciting endeavors of Outlier Ventures.

2392: How INK is Spearheading the AI Evolution in Content and SEO May 30, 2023

Alexander De Ridder, the Co-Founder and CTO of INK joins me on Tech Talks Daily. As the creator of the world's first AI-powered content optimization software, Alexander brings a unique blend of experience from startups to Fortune 100 companies, offering deep insights into the evolving landscape of AI, SEO, marketing, and social media.

Alexander shares the exciting journey behind INK, the revolutionary software leveraging AI to optimize content across SEO and social media. As we explore the upcoming shift to the interactive web, Alexander explains how INK aims to steer the SEO industry towards this novel phase. He also provides fascinating insights into his previous contributions to machine learning and the scope of Web 3.0.

Addressing ethical considerations in the realm of AI, the discussion revolves around its role in business, marketing, and social media, with an emphasis on delivering unique data and experiences via quality content. Alexander forecasts the transformative impact of AI assistants on our web interactions and the need for businesses to engage conversationally with AI.

With Alexander's diverse roles from project manager to chief innovator, this episode offers a rich exploration of AI's potential to reshape SEO, content optimization, and business interaction dynamics. Stay tuned for a fascinating journey into the future of AI and SEO with Alexander De Ridder.

2391: Sten Tamkivi: From Skype to Plural Platform - A Journey of Tech Leadership May 29, 2023

In today's Tech Talks Daily Podcast, we're coming to you from Latitude 59 in Estonia, hosting an enlightening conversation with the prominent Sten Tamkivi. A stalwart in the tech scene from an early age, Sten established the first digital media agency in Estonia when he was just 18 years old, and played a significant role in Skype's monumental $8.5B sale to Microsoft.

Now, Sten is pushing the boundaries of the tech industry with his Plural Platform, where he invests in groundbreaking tech companies at their infancy. Through his multi-family office, Taavet+Sten, he's also making remarkable strides outside of early tech. In our chat today, we'll explore the culture of founders supporting founders, Europe's pivotal role in the global tech scene, and the lessons gleaned from the evolution of Estonia's tech landscape.

With Sten, we venture into the world of venture capitalism, challenging the conventional hierarchy and creating a scalable network of peers committed to nurturing the next generation of tech builders. Through his work, he hopes to generate a GDP-level impact on Europe and foster a product-building mindset among the upcoming tech entrepreneurs.

I learn how Sten's investment strategy via Plural Platform focuses on the earliest stages of legendary tech companies. His previous work includes founding Teleport (acquired by Topia in 2017), and an 8-year journey with Skype from its startup phase to reaching 300M active users and a $8.5B exit to Microsoft. An active voice for entrepreneurship, tech education, and an open, creative society, Sten continues to shape the future of European tech.

Join us as we delve into Sten's inspiring journey and vision, sharing unique insights and exploring innovative strategies. Whether you're a budding entrepreneur, seasoned tech professional, or simply a tech enthusiast, this is a conversation you won't want to miss.

2390: NordicNinja - Deep Tech and Sustainable Transformation May 29, 2023

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I am joining forces with Rainer Sternfeld and Tomosaku Sohara, the powerhouse Managing Partners of NordicNinja. This unique joint venture between Japan and Estonia is at the forefront of cultivating an international, collaborative tech environment, and we can't wait to dig into this fascinating partnership.

Rainer Sternfeld, a seasoned founder turned investor, has spent the last 20 years building tech businesses across continents. As the co-founder of Planet OS, a climate tech company acquired by Intertrust, Rainer has established a solid foothold in the intersection of tech and sustainability. With his extensive experience and unique perspective, he is a crucial link between Japan, Europe, and the U.S., strengthening ties and fostering a harmonious tech ecosystem.

Our second guest, Tomosaku Sohara, brings his profound knowledge in investment and clean technologies to the table. As a former leader of investments at JBIC IG Partners and having financed cleantech and mobility projects across the globe, Tomosaku is deeply embedded in the tech sector, focusing on climatetech, energy, and blockchain applications.

In this conversation, we'll explore the fascinating synergy between Japan and Europe, the unique opportunities and advantages of founder-led venture capital firms, and the imperative digital and sustainable transformations happening in our world today.

The collaboration of Rainer and Tomosaku exemplifies the power of cross-continental teamwork in creating a sustainable future. Through the innovative work of NordicNinja VC, we'll delve into how technology can bridge the gaps between nations and propel us towards a future that is both digitally advanced and ecologically responsible.

So, gear up for this eye-opening episode as we delve into the tech world's cutting-edge innovations and the transformative power of global collaboration. From Japan to Estonia, from AI to climate tech, and everything in between, this is one episode of Tech Talks Daily you won't want to miss!

2389: Salv - The Collaborative Crime-Fighting Network Tech Combatting Financial Crime. May 28, 2023

Today, I'm diving into the complex and increasingly important realm of financial crime. To guide us through this labyrinth, I am joined by an industry veteran and dedicated crime fighter, Taavi Tamkivi.

As the Co-Founder and CEO of Salv, Taavi Tamkivi brings decades of experience in fraud, revenue assurance, and consumer analytics. Prior to founding Salv, he led the AML, Fraud, and KYC teams at distinguished companies such as TransferWise and Skype. However, despite his significant contributions, Taavi felt the vast financial crime expended a more collaborative and holistic approach. This inspired him to establish Salv, a company focused on innovative, cooperative methods of combating financial crime.

At Salv, Taavi is pioneering Europe's first collaborative crime-fighting network, creating a new front line in the battle against financial crime. Today, we'll delve into the emerging threats of financial crime, financial institutions' difficulties in combating it, and how collaboration is key to turning the tide.

As we conclude our insightful dialogue with Taavi Tamkivi, we're left with a deeper understanding of the complex landscape of financial crime. His insights into detection, prevention, and the power of collaboration in the fight against crime are invaluable in this rapidly evolving sector.

2388: E-Residency and Beyond: Taavi Kotka’s Blueprint for a Digital World May 28, 2023

I'm thrilled to be broadcasting from Latitude 59 in Estonia today, renowned as the cradle of the digital revolution. And the person who'll be joining us today is someone who has played a pivotal role in shaping that revolution – Taavi Kotka.

Taavi Kotka is not just an entrepreneur, but also the first-ever Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the Government of Estonia. His innovation and vision were key in shaping e-Estonia, the world's most digitally advanced nation. His contributions, notably the world's first e-Residency program, have revolutionized the way the government interacts with its citizens and conducts its operations.

Starting his career as a humble programmer and eventually becoming the CEO of Webmedia (now Nortal), Taavi has worn several hats throughout his illustrious career. His achievements range from being crowned Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year to receiving Estonia’s prestigious White Star III Class Order.

Now, as a special advisor to the European Commission Vice-President Andrus Ansip on the European Digital Single Market, Taavi continues to influence the tech sphere, whether it's through his startup ventures, consulting for enterprises and governments, or his thought-provoking keynotes at global conferences.

In today's episode, we're going to deep dive into a conversation with Taavi Kotka. We’ll explore his journey, the milestones he’s achieved, and his views on the future of digital governance and transformation.

I also learn how for community-led businesses, Koos simplifies shared ownership to let business-critical communities earn and own equity-like stakes in that business without messing with the cap table.

As we wrap up this insightful conversation with Taavi, we're reminded of the disruptive power of technology. Through his relentless efforts and innovative thinking, Taavi has transformed not only industries but also an entire nation. His insights into digital transformation, government policy, and the startup ecosystem offer a unique perspective on the future of technology.

2387: Etherspot and Evolving Web Ecosystems: A Discussion on Account Abstraction, DeFi, and DAOs May 27, 2023

Michael Messele is the Co-Founder and CEO of Pillar Project, and also at the helm of Etherspot, revolutionizing cross-chain asset transfers and Web3 user experience. A seasoned campaigner in the FinTech realm, Messele brings his 15+ years of experience to the table, sharing profound insights from his blockchain journey.

Today, Messele outlines the significance of decentralized economies and how it can shape future technologies. From Cranfield School of Management to leading multiple blockchain-centric projects, Messele discusses his leadership ethos, entrepreneurial spirit, and his keen interest in exotic derivatives and independent pricing verification.

During the podcast, we focus on the major pain-points of blockchain adoption. They discuss how to create a frictionless Web3 user experience via Account Abstraction, the potential to draw millions into the DeFi space, and demystify the transition from Web2 to Web3 for developers. Also, they contemplate why Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) should ideally steer product development in the blockchain arena.

Additionally, we attempt to unravel Etherspot's contributions to simplify decentralized apps usage and minimize transaction barriers. They converse about account abstraction's role in simplifying decentralized wallets usage while preserving data ownership. Furthermore, the hurdles faced by Web2 developers during the Web3 transition and the solutions Etherspot provides to smoothen this transition are discussed.

Finally, the future of web development, the evolving dynamic between DAOs and conventional product development structures, and data ownership's importance are expounded upon. Stay tuned for an enlightening discussion on the power of decentralization, continuous learning, and the future of blockchain.

2386: How Venly is Bridging Web2 and Web3 May 26, 2023

In today's episode of Tech Talks Daily, I dive into the fascinating world of blockchain and Web3 with Stefan Colins, Head of Marketing and Community at Venly, a Belgium-based trailblazer in the crypto space.

Amidst a notable decrease in global venture funding, Venly stands out, having successfully secured €21 million in a Series A funding round in April 2022.

They've since been at the forefront of innovation, providing a seamless transition solution for Web2 companies to embrace the promise of Web3, along with a robust suite of tools designed to boost user growth in the industry.

My guest, Stefan, takes us behind the scenes at Venly, discussing their broad range of offerings, including their Shopify wallet integration, Venly wallet, Venly NFT marketplace, market API, and their comprehensive suite of NFT tools. Serving over 3 million end users, Venly has been driving revolutionary advancements across both the Web2 and Web3 domains, with renowned partnerships with Shopify, Stripe, Sandbox, OpenSea, 1inch, and Aavegotchi.

We delve into Venly's key milestones, including their partnership with Stripe, which enabled new fiat-to-crypto onramps, and the integration allowing Shopify users to sell NFTs via their storefront. Stefan also enlightens us on the challenges and strategies involved in catalyzing mainstream adoption of Web3 by onboarding traditional companies to this new domain.

Our engrossing dialogue with Stefan promises insights on Venly's vision for the future of blockchain, their commitment to regulatory compliance, and their expansion plans. Join us in this episode for a deep dive into the transformative power of blockchain and the endless possibilities of Web3 with Stefan Colins from Venly.

2385: Reimagining the Workplace With Remote.com CEO Job van der Voort May 25, 2023

Join me in a discussion about the world of remote work with Job van der Voort, the visionary co-founder and CEO of Remote. Join us as we explore the profound impact of remote hiring on modern business paradigms, with insights drawn from the latest research commissioned by Remote.

We begin our journey by scrutinizing the fascinating evolution of Remote, a company that expanded from a dozen to a thousand employees, proving that geographical boundaries no longer dictate the limits of success. From there, Job sheds light on the role of remote hiring in enhancing diversity and inclusion, while fueling sustainable economic growth.

The discussion then veers towards the rise of the digital nomad culture and the challenges that businesses face in adopting remote hiring practices. Job expertly navigates these complexities, explaining how Remote is defying these hurdles by providing comprehensive solutions for compliance, taxes, payroll, and benefits.

The conversation further delves into dispelling myths and concerns surrounding global hiring and the disparities in healthcare and total compensation across different regions. We conclude our discussion with Job sharing valuable advice on how companies can tap into a diverse pool of talent across Asia, Middle East, and Africa, and the importance of fostering a remote default culture.

With key findings from Remote's Tech Talent research, our chat uncovers how remote hiring could revolutionize employment, promote local growth, and catalyze an upsurge in workforce diversity. Yet, it also reveals how many are still restrained by domestic hiring practices, missing out on this opportunity.

Join us to understand the barriers to global hiring and how to overcome them, changing your perspective on remote work forever. Tune in to this episode of Tech Talks Daily Podcast, where the future of work awaits.

2384: How Estonia Built a Digital Society and E-government May 25, 2023

Ever wonder if Estonia’s digital transformation is everything it’s cracked up to be? Wonder no more. I'm about to show you. Embark on a journey through the future with Estonia – a country that has produced the largest number of unicorns per capita in Europe. My guest today is Ott Velsberg, Estonia's Government Chief Data Officer and a driving force behind the country's digital revolution.

From discussions at the Tallinn Digital Nomad meetup to a deep dive into Estonia's digital government infrastructure, our conversation with Ott promises an inside look into a future where public sector innovation matches—and even surpasses—that of the private sector.

Estonia stands apart in a world where ease of use is often exclusive to private sector innovations like Amazon's One-Click Basket or Netflix's viewing continuity. Here, 99% of government services are available online, transforming the way citizens interact with the public sector. But how did this Baltic nation achieve this feat? Ott, a key player in implementing Estonia's open data, data management, and AI action plan, will help us decode this fascinating journey.

From exploring the underpinnings of e-government to the sensitive topic of repurposing data with user consent, Ott's insights are bound to challenge conventional wisdom. We'll also touch on the role of AI in public service, the implications of data privacy regulations, and the concept of the 'Sputnik moment'—how countries technologically advanced are leaving others behind.

If you're curious about the power of technology in governance, the future of AI, or the role of data consent in a digitally driven society, this episode is a must-listen. Brace yourself as we uncover the remarkable story of Estonia's digital leap and how it continues to reshape the world's perception of what's possible in the public sector.

2383: How Couchbase is Demystifying AI Bias May 24, 2023

In this next episode of the Tech Talks Daily Podcast, I'm thrilled to welcome Ravi Mayuram, the CTO of Couchbase.

As the technological sphere enters an intense period of competition in artificial intelligence (AI), with key players like Microsoft and Google vying for supremacy, we find ourselves at a critical juncture for AI adoption. Ravi argues that confronting and eliminating inherent bias in AI is now more crucial than ever.

Ravi also discusses the critical need for AI to be a beacon of virtue, especially when 36% of enterprises report negative impacts due to AI bias. He'll explore the wide-ranging implications of AI bias, from reputational damage to severe financial and legal consequences, backed by recent examples.

He'll also stress the urgency for AI's "Guardians of the Galaxy." In a world rife with hate speech and misinformation, the role of data scientists as AI and data custodians has never been more significant. Ravi will emphasize the need for ethical practices during data collection and cleansing to ensure fair and representative decision-making by AI algorithms.

Ravi will delve into the importance of a robust AI architecture that can "connect the dots" and observe the broader picture. In line with classic tales of small-town individuals discovering a diverse world, AI must also transcend its limited perspectives that can potentially induce bias. By eliminating data siloes and curating a conducive environment for AI to absorb diverse perspectives, we can mitigate bias.

Join us as we navigate this complex and vital issue with Ravi Mayuram, understanding Couchbase's role in aiding businesses to counter AI bias, the importance of flexible data architectures, and the need for constant learning amid rapid technological change. Don't miss this insightful conversation, shedding light on the responsible use of AI, fostering the democratization of creativity, and preparing for the profound impact of emergent technologies on application development and software composition.

2382: How VMware is Demystifying the Innovation Conundrum in Hybrid Workplaces May 23, 2023

Amid the burgeoning global popularity of Digital Nomad VISAs, we focus on the rise of hybrid workplaces and the intriguing innovation problems they present. I discuss this topic with Spencer Pitts, VMware's Digital Workspace Chief Technologist.

Our conversation explores startling research findings from VMware, which point to a significant disparity between organizations and their employees on the concept of anywhere working. While 66% of EMEA employers are convinced that remote work hampers innovation, 81% of employees report enhanced job satisfaction with the flexibility to work from anywhere.

With Spencer, we delve into the shifting power dynamics in workplaces leading to phenomena like 'quiet quitting' and talent shortages. We discuss how a digital-first approach can stimulate innovation and the significance of crafting tailored digital experiences for employees based on demographics and roles. We also show the balance between bolstering security and optimizing employee experience in hybrid work models.

Our enlightening conversation with Spencer equips listeners with insights on navigating the challenges of hybrid workplaces, prioritizing efficiency and innovation without compromising employee morale. Then, tune in for a nuanced discussion on reimagining productivity, job satisfaction, and the future of work with Spencer Pitts from VMware.

Join us in this episode as we unearth the keys to an innovative, employee-friendly hybrid work environment. Take advantage of this compelling discussion packed with thought-provoking insights and practical strategies.

2381: How Cisco is Redefining Hybrid Work with AI May 22, 2023

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I explore the transformative power of artificial intelligence in hybrid workplaces with an industry leader, Jeetu Patel, Cisco's Executive Vice President and General Manager of Security and Collaboration.

I learn more about Cisco's recent AI-powered upgrades to their renowned Webex platform. My guest enlightens us about the innovative feature that guarantees high-quality video irrespective of camera quality or bandwidth constraints and introduces us to the generative AI capabilities now inherent in Webex Connect.

We further discuss how Cisco is shaping the future of hybrid work models, using technology to break down communication barriers and minimize meeting fatigue. Patel also expounds on the ethical and security implications of integrating AI into workplace environments and underscores the necessity of responsible AI use.

Finally, our conversation steers towards the critical need for collaboration between public policy and private sectors in regulating AI and intellectual property. Tune in to better understand AI's potential in reshaping workplaces straight from the AI frontier at Cisco. This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in the future of work and the intersection of technology, ethics, and public policy.

2380: Mphasis - The Next-Gen Technology Transforming Enterprises May 21, 2023

In this insightful episode, we welcome Anurag Bhatia, a leading figure from Mphasis Corporation, known for its cutting-edge application of next-generation design, architecture, and engineering services. Bhatia shares Mphasis' vision of being the "Driver in Driverless Car" for Global Enterprises and how their innovative Front2Back™ approach uses the power of cloud and cognitive technologies to deliver hyper-personalized digital experiences.

He takes us through Mphasis' commitment to the UK market, the largest in Europe, discussing strategies for zero-cost transformation and self-funded projects during economic slowdowns. We delve into how Mphasis' acquisitions of Blink UX and data litics have boosted their growth, broadened their services, and enhanced their data capabilities. Bhatia also highlights the importance of collaboration in driving tech innovation and discusses how Mphasis is tackling the challenge of evolving technologies.

A key focus of our conversation is service transformation initiatives, with Bhatia sharing real-world examples of automation that resulted in cost savings and increased product density. He also shares valuable advice for those aspiring to make their mark in the tech industry. Listen in as we explore the future of the tech industry, the role of AI and machine learning, and the significance of cybersecurity.

2379: Unlocking Innovation with R&D Tax Relief May 20, 2023

In this captivating episode of Tech Talks Daily, I am joined by Andrew Howarth, the founder of Easy R&D and Storetech, a successful entrepreneur with a deep passion for commercial innovation. With over 25 years of experience, primarily in advanced software solutions, Andrew is dedicated to transforming businesses with the power of R&D tax relief.

Our conversation begins with Andrew sharing his journey in the corporate world, his decision to forge his path with his businesses, and his firsthand experience with claiming R&D tax credits. He takes us through his origin story, the founding of EdiFax, and how his experience with the R&D tax relief scheme inspired the inception of Easy R&D.

Andrew expounds on the benefits of the R&D tax relief scheme, explaining how it can help businesses navigate economic challenges and spur innovation. He also addresses the hurdles faced by the UK in R&D productivity and innovation, with a focus on industries like retail and smart buildings.

Sharing success stories of businesses that have successfully leveraged R&D tax relief, Andrew highlights a heartfelt letter from a grateful client. He encourages business leaders to recognize when their developments have been technically challenging and to investigate the potential for making a claim.

The discussion transitions to Andrew's business, Easy R&D, and its mission to assist UK businesses in claiming against HMRC's R&D Tax Relief Scheme. Andrew also recommends the gripping read "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer and shares his contact information for anyone seeking assistance.

This episode is a must-listen for anyone looking to unlock capital, accelerate innovation, and sustain growth in the face of challenging climates. Tune in to gain insights from Andrew's wealth of experience and passion for driving business success through R&D tax relief.

2378: Driving Business Success with Revenue Science: Ariel Geifman at Dealtale May 19, 2023

Ariel Geifman, Chief Revenue Officer at Dealtale, a Vianai company joins me on Tech Talks Daily. Ariel's entrepreneurial journey spans over 15 years, marked by the intersection of marketing, analytics, and artificial intelligence. As a co-founder of Dealtale and an MBA graduate from the Darden School of Business Administration, he carries a wealth of knowledge and experience.

We start our conversation by delving into Ariel's journey as an entrepreneur and revenue leader. He shares the challenges he faced, the triumphs he celebrated, and how these experiences shaped his unique approach to business. We also discuss Dealtale, a game-changing AI-based customer analytics and attribution platform.

Ariel sheds light on the transformative role of conversational AI in marketing analytics, discussing how it has revolutionized data analysis and decision-making for marketers. He also examines the AI-driven metrics marketers rely on today and delves into the rising popularity of attribution models for revenue contribution analysis.

Discussing the often-complex issue of tracking ROI in marketing campaigns, Ariel shares various techniques to measure it accurately, including multi-touch attribution and media mix modeling. He explains the significance of causal inference in marketing analytics and its potential to optimize campaigns for better outcomes.

We dive into Ariel's experience as an MBA graduate, discussing the real-life challenges it helps tackle, and the importance of balancing the roles of leading sales, marketing, and customer success teams. As we explore the future of revenue science, Ariel talks about how AI can augment human talent to drive business success. Finally, Ariel shares his insights on AI's potential in marketing analytics, and pays tribute to a past investor who provided invaluable guidance. Tune in to learn more about Ariel's journey and his vision for Dealtale's future.

2377: CoinLion: Simplifying the Crypto Landscape with CEO Eric McDonald May 18, 2023

In this intriguing episode of Tech Talks Daily, I sit down with Eric McDonald, the dynamic CEO of CoinLion, a platform simplifying cryptocurrency investments. With a rich history in tech entrepreneurship, including 19 years as the Founder and CEO of DocuTAP, Eric now channels his expertise into making crypto trading accessible to all.

Join me as Eric shares his journey from leading DocuTAP, an urgent care software company, through explosive growth, multiple fundraising rounds, acquisitions, a successful merger, and a subsequent billion-dollar acquisition. Now, at the helm of CoinLion, Eric is leveraging his experience to navigate the volatile and complex world of cryptocurrencies.

We delve into how CoinLion, with over 530K+ executed trades worth over $1B, is demystifying the crypto market for beginners. By offering a unique auto-trading feature that allows users to mimic expert traders' strategies, CoinLion empowers individuals to navigate the crypto market efficiently, maximizing profits and mitigating risks.

Eric discusses the current global economic climate, underlined by an energy crisis, inflation, and market uncertainties, and explores why investors are turning to crypto as a potential safe haven. He also shares lessons for crypto leaders and investors from the collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX and his outlook on the future of cryptocurrency.

Finally, we discuss Eric's passion for building excellent teams centered on customer needs and his involvement in other innovative tech businesses, such as Phraze.AI, Journey Tellr, and SideCar. Please tune in to hear Eric's unique insights on leading in uncertain times and his vision for CoinLion, aimed at turning the complex crypto jungle into a walk in the park for investors.

2376: Mothership - The Tech Startup Modernizing the Antiquated Freight Industry May 17, 2023

In this compelling episode of Tech Talks Daily, I chat with Aaron Peck, the dynamic CEO of Mothership, a company revolutionizing the freight industry with its on-demand network of connected trucks and streamlined local freight operations. Aaron, a former drummer for the band A Thorn for Every Heart (ATFEH), shares his fascinating journey from music to tech entrepreneurship and his relentless pursuit to solve last-mile delivery problems.

Join us as Aaron walks us through his past ventures, including Beat Deck and Skirt, leading up to the inception of Mothership. First, we explore the origins of the name 'Mothership', a choice that sparked passionate debates within his team. Then, listen in as Aaron discusses the company's triumphs, including securing their domain name and raising an impressive $76 million from prominent investors like Westcap, Benchmark, and Bo Capital.

We dive deep into the trends shaping the freight and commerce industry, emphasizing the growing importance of technology, the rise of independent truckers, and the impending market consolidation. Aaron provides advice for aspiring entrepreneurs on staying open to opportunities and avoiding rigid plans.

In a futuristic discussion, Aaron shares Mothership's exploration of AI technology and their ambition to mend the fractured furniture delivery sector. A passionate problem-solver, he sheds light on his thirst for knowledge through podcasts and reading and emphasizes each individual's essential role in shaping and running the world.

Whether you're an entrepreneur, tech enthusiast, or love a good startup story, this episode offers a unique blend of insights from a drummer-turned-CEO at the forefront of tech innovation. Tune in to hear how Aaron's rhythm of problem-solving is driving Mothership to new heights.

2375: How DEPT® is Building the Next Generation of the Web May 16, 2023

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I venture into the world of Web3 and the metaverse with Isabel Perry, VP of Emerging Tech, DEPT®. Isabel spearheads a 300-strong team, crafting the future of the web and aiding renowned brands like H&M, Tomorrowland, SPIN, Eurovision, Sprite, and Dubai World Expo in their adventurous foray into blockchain technology and immersive metaverse experiences.

Join us as we explore how Web3 and the metaverse are revolutionizing the marketing industry, disrupting traditional value exchange and compelling brands to adapt and evolve. Isabel provides an enlightening perspective on the transformative potential of these technologies for businesses, including the profound impact on SEO, the growing importance of immersive web experiences, and the intriguing role of NFTs in future marketing strategies.

We discuss the phenomenal success of DEPT®, one of the fastest-growing digital agencies worldwide, with a unique 50-50 split between marketing and technology. Discover how DEPT® empowers its clients to navigate and embrace emerging technologies through education, consultancy, and hands-on experience.

We discuss the challenges and opportunities of marketing in the metaverse, stressing the importance of ethical considerations and education, the need for brands to adapt to new channels and experiences, and debunk the myth that entry into the space requires massive investment. Isabel also gives us a sneak peek into Web3Dep Labs, a program designed to demystify Web3 fundamentals for clients and employees.

Whether you're a marketing enthusiast or a professional looking to understand the future of the web and the metaverse, this episode offers invaluable insights straight from a leader at the forefront of these emerging technologies. Tune in and prepare to be enlightened.

2374: Aerospike - How Data is Shaping the World Around Us May 15, 2023

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I explore the world of data with Martin James, the VP of EMEA at Aerospike, a company specializing in real-time data management serving major players like Yahoo, Wayfair, and Experian. Martin, known for his unique perspective on the colossal growth of global data and its effective management, takes us through his journey in the data landscape and the important role it plays in sectors such as ad-tech.

Join us as we explore the rise in data usage, its implications for enterprises, and how they can maximize their data utility. Martin sheds light on the significance of data platforms in delivering real-time processing to power globally distributed applications. As a horse enthusiast, Martin also shares some interesting insights drawn from his love for horses and the parallels he sees with data management.

Together, we dissect the impact of technology, revenue generation, cost reduction, and regulatory compliance on the data explosion. Hear Martin's unique take on how Aerospike's no-SQL database helps organizations manage voluminous data with lean hardware requirements, meeting the demands of modern application development.

This episode takes a deep dive into the challenges and opportunities presented by data in the ad-tech industry, the role of real-time data management platforms, and the future of data management with the emergence of generative AI, 5G, and IoT.

Whether you're a data enthusiast or a professional looking to harness the power of data, this episode offers valuable insights into the future of data management, the importance of scalable and flexible data platforms, and the need for actionable data.

2373: Navigating Kubernetes Complexity With Fairwinds CEO May 14, 2023

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I am joined by Bill Ledingham, CEO of Fairwinds, a company dedicated to helping businesses deploy and manage cloud-native applications at scale. we dive into the complexities of Kubernetes and discuss how Fairwinds Insights simplifies the process for platform teams and developers deploying and managing containerized applications.

Bill shares how Fairwinds assists platform engineering teams in enabling developers to build and deploy containers securely, reliably, and cost-efficiently in Kubernetes. By monitoring the development life cycle, scanning containers for vulnerabilities, and providing actionable feedback, Fairwinds stands out in the market by integrating with popular DevOps tools and embracing open-source technology.

Discover how Fairwinds Insights helps organizations operationalize Kubernetes and containers at scale by ensuring consistency, reducing time spent on code reviews, and offering developers automated assistance and remediation suggestions. In addition, learn about the tool's capabilities in educating developers on best practices for securely, cost-effectively, and reliably deploying applications.

Bill highlights Fairwinds' commitment to providing visibility into Kubernetes resource usage to optimize spending on containerized infrastructure. He explains how their solution enables organizations to understand the resource usage of each application or workload, including CPU and memory.

Finally, explore Fairwinds' unique combination of software and services, including their managed services team and platform engineers who develop solutions for common pain points. Understand the company's focus on addressing challenges faced by cloud-using businesses and their efforts to create software that standardizes development best practices for Kubernetes platform engineers.

2372: Building a Sustainable FinTech Future: Early-Stage Startups and Investment Strategies May 13, 2023

In this episode, I am joined by Kevin Chong, co-founder and general partner of Outwood VC, a London-based FinTech venture capital fund. Kevin shares his journey, the founding story of Outwood VC, and his insights on the counter-cyclical nature of early-stage startups and the challenges they face when raising significant capital.

Kevin discusses the pitfalls of unsustainable growth in early-stage startups that rely too heavily on paid acquisitions. Instead, he emphasizes the importance of fostering sustainable growth through strategic partnerships and highlights London's unique advantages as a global fintech hub.

As the conversation unfolds, Kevin explores the appeal of mission-oriented FinTech startups and the verticals poised for growth in the industry. He notes how founders and investors have pivoted their focus during economic downturns, becoming more meticulous in preparing for funding rounds and hiring strong CFOs to identify efficiencies.

Kevin shares his perspective on the opportunities the pandemic-induced downturn presents, explaining why it's an ideal time to invest in early-stage fintechs that can emerge stronger and more sustainable. He stresses the importance of looking beyond financial services in isolation and investing in startups that focus on the future of consumer finance.

Finally, Kevin reflects on his experiences in venture capital and investing in companies, appreciating the privilege of being part of others' business journeys. He provides information about his company, Howzat Partners, and offers guidance on how to get in touch for more details. Join me in exploring the ever-evolving FinTech landscape and the exciting opportunities it presents.

2371: Tech's New Talent: How Resilient Coders is Championing BIPOC Youth May 12, 2023

Today I am joined by Ayanna Lott-Pollard, Executive Director of Resilient Coders, a non-profit organization with a mission to achieve social justice through economic empowerment. Resilient Coders offers a 20-week coding boot camp to BIPOC youth from low-income communities, providing them a pathway to becoming software engineers with an average salary of $94,420.

With over 20 years of experience in marketing and operations, Ayanna is a transformational leader who has dedicated her career to empowering the next generation. Neil and Ayanna discuss how Resilient Coders is closing the generational wealth gap and challenging the traditional educational system by emphasizing skills over degrees.

Discover the impact of Resilient Coders on graduates and their communities as they provide access to high-growth careers in the tech industry. Ayanna shares success stories of alumni who embody the organization's mission and highlights the importance of creating pathways for young adults to succeed and envision a brighter future.

Ayanna also opens up about her experience as a woman of color in leadership positions, advising young adults from BIPOC communities on navigating challenges and staying resilient. Learn about Ayanna's work with The Leadership Collective, her passion for developing emerging leaders, and her vision for a more inclusive and equitable tech industry.

Listen in as we explore the power of social justice, economic empowerment, and the importance of nurturing diverse talent in the world of tech.

2370: How Xtract One Technologies is Redefining Event Security and Venue Safety With AI May 11, 2023

Xtract One Technologies is at the forefront of threat detection and security solutions, using AI to prioritize patron access experiences without compromising safety. With a recent investment from Madison Square Garden Sports, the company is poised for growth and continued innovation in the physical security space.

Peter Evans, CEO of Xtract One Technologies, joins me in a conversation about how AI-driven security is revolutionizing the event experience. Peter brings over 25 years of experience leading organizations through digital transformations, solving modern security problems with innovative solutions, and applying AI in the physical world. As a four-time high-tech CEO, Peter has a track record of driving revenue growth and accelerating profitability, making him the perfect guest to discuss the future of event security and the role of AI in creating a safer world.

In our conversation, we dive into how Xtract One's AI-powered weapon detection technology transforms perimeter screening and security, replacing outdated metal detectors with seamless, unobtrusive threat detection systems. By focusing on weapons rather than the person, Xtract One's integrated security solutions provide patrons with a frictionless, welcoming experience while ensuring their safety.

We also discuss the challenges and opportunities of integrating AI-powered security solutions and how Xtract One addresses concerns about personal privacy. Finally, Peter shares an example of how a venue transformed its outdated security system using its smart gateway lanes, resulting in significant cost savings and an improved patron experience.

Finally, we'll explore emerging trends and technologies in AI-driven security, including the potential for AI to replace labor-based business models and create digitally enhanced security guards.

2369: FiscalNote: The Tech Behind Global Policy and Market Intelligence May 10, 2023

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I chat with Tim Hwang, the 30-year-old CEO of FiscalNote, who became the youngest Asian American CEO on the NYSE in August 2022. Under Tim's leadership, FiscalNote has grown significantly.

FiscalNote is the premier platform for regulatory and policy data, functioning as the "Bloomberg terminal" for state, federal, and global policy information. With over 5,000 clients, FiscalNote powers the data used in President Biden's daily briefings, informs decision-making at half of the Fortune 500 companies and enables foreign embassies to monitor global changes and enact diplomacy and treaty negotiations.

During the interview, Tim shares the background story of FiscalNote, which he started during his junior year of college alongside his childhood friends. He also discusses how he secured Mark Cuban as the company's first investor through a cold email after watching Shark Tank.

Tim emphasizes the importance of a "Bloomberg terminal" for policy in today's rapidly changing regulatory landscape. With 69% of people in the government and regulatory affairs sector experiencing increased policy issues, FiscalNote's technology and AI-driven platform help key decision-makers navigate complex policy environments.

Lastly, Tim delves into his commitment to equal opportunity information and intelligence, highlighting FiscalNote's work with clients across the political spectrum and around the world. As misinformation continues to plague modern society, Tim believes everyone should have equal access to accurate data, regardless of political beliefs. Join me and Tim as we explore the innovative world of FiscalNote and its impact on policy intelligence.

2368: From Olympic Athlete to Criteo CEO: Megan Clarken’s Journey to Transforming Adtech May 09, 2023

Megan Clarken shares her unique background, going from a woman with no college degree to an Olympic athlete and finally to the CEO of Criteo. She discusses her dedication to promoting diversity and inclusivity within the tech industry based on her experiences of discrimination.

We discuss the challenges of implementing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in the tech industry, emphasizing the need for long-term commitment over immediate progress. Megan reveals Criteo's approach to attracting and hiring diverse talent, focusing on pay parity and collaborations with diversity-focused groups and universities.

Together, we explore Criteo's innovative DEI programs, such as the Open Path program for underprivileged students and the Top Talent program for career growth. Megan expresses her optimism for the future of diversity and inclusion in the workplace, driven by the demands of the younger workforce.

Megan highlights the importance of fostering a culture of inclusivity within organizations and the pitfalls of short-term "quick fixes" that often fail. Finally, we discuss the benefits Criteo has experienced from implementing DEI programs and the ongoing efforts to prioritize pay parity and inclusivity.

I learn more about the power of diversity and inclusion in building a more resilient and innovative company culture and Megan's inspirational journey as a woman leader breaking barriers in a male-dominated industry.

2367: Apps Flyer - Unlocking the Power of Mobile Marketing May 08, 2023

Join me in a conversation with Oren Kaniel, the CEO and co-founder of the successful Israeli mobile marketing measurement and experience platform, AppsFlyer. In this episode, Oren shares his journey of creating AppsFlyer, a unique technology that empowers brands to better understand their users and make informed decisions. Learn how AppsFlyer's independence and unbiased measurement approach has gained the trust of major players in the ecosystem, including Coca Cola, HBO, Walmart, and eBay.

Discover how AppsFlyer anticipated the mobile industry's transformative impact on our lives and the crucial role of analytics in mobile app marketing. Oren and our host, Neil, discuss the challenges posed by privacy changes and regulations on the digital ecosystem and how AppsFlyer is responding with privacy-preserving technology.

Explore the potential of AI as a game-changing technology and how AppsFlyer is working at the intersection of data privacy and AI to ensure consumer privacy and safety in the digital ecosystem. Hear about AppsFlyer's mission to provide privacy-preserving technologies and measurement solutions in the face of an ever-evolving industry.

In this conversation, Oren also shares insights from his blog and the influence of Tony Hsieh's book, "Delivering Happiness," on AppsFlyer's company culture. Don't miss this fascinating discussion with Oren Kaniel, the leader of a unicorn startup that has grown to a valuation of over $2 billion and is trusted by more than 12,000 brands worldwide.

2366: FashionTech Revolution: Unleashing the Power of Wearable Technology with DIGISEQ May 07, 2023

Terrie Smith, Co-founder and Global Ambassador of wearable tech pioneer DIGISEQ joins me on Tech Talks Daily.Terrie shares her expert insights on the future of wearable technology, and how it is transforming payments, consumer engagement, access control, and authentication across various industries. Discover how NFC chip design is paving the way for fashionable items to become payment and ID devices, and how the wearable tech market is expected to reach $186 billion by 2030.

In this episode, Terrie talks about smart clothing, powered by passive wearable tech, and explore the opportunities it presents for tech innovators and forward-thinking designers to collaborate on a new style revolution. Learn about the concept of tokenisation, which Terrie helped create for ApplePay, GooglePay, Garmin, and more, and discuss the current state of FashionTech.

Key points covered in this episode include:

The use of sensors to track biometric data, acting as living ID
The application of wearable tech for home or venue access control, and as an interface between the physical world and augmented virtual reality
How the diversity of wearable tech applications is being embraced by high-end fashion designers and luxury brands worldwide

Don't miss this exciting conversation with Terrie Smith, a trailblazer in fintech and the driving force behind the Mastercard Digital Enablement Service (MDES) and mobile contactless payment services like Apple Pay. Be inspired by Terrie's innovative leadership, ground-breaking payment technology patents, and her commitment to raising the bar for tech ingenuity today.

2365: Revolutionizing Mobile Technology: Quantum Computing, and Telecom Trends May 06, 2023

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily,I chat with Paul Ruppert, a Harvard graduate, skilled negotiator, CPaaS veteran, and holder of 2 tech patents, as they explore the world of mobile technology, messaging, and telecommunications. Paul shares insights from his impressive career, which includes launching Messaging Trust with AT&T, a cybersecurity solution that generated $6 million in its first year and won the GSM Association's global product award for "Best Cyber Security Solution.

Paul discusses his involvement in the development of voice-activated personal assistant technology, as well as the future trends in the telecommunications industry, including asynchronous messaging for customer care and the integration of various communication platforms through data management.

We also delve into the potential of text messaging for businesses to engage with customers and the emergence of quantum computing and its applications in the industry. Paul shares his perspective on innovation and staying competitive in a rapidly evolving tech landscape, emphasizing the importance of humility, agility, and adaptability.

With a track record of generating $400 million in tech sales and engineering multiple trade acquisitions, Paul has worked with clients such as Facebook, MasterCard, Western Union, and private equity firms like National Bank of Kuwait, HIG Capital, Warburg Pincus, and One Equity Partners. He shares valuable insights on emerging trends, such as Quantum Computing, AI, Conversational Commerce, and Secure Authentication.

Listen in as we discuss global telecoms and messaging megatrends, uncovering the secrets to staying innovative and competitive in the rapidly changing technology industry. Learn about the potential of cutting-edge technologies like quantum-safe cryptography and the importance of leveraging technology to enhance customer engagement.

2364: Vlerick Business School - Why Every Company is a Technology Company May 05, 2023

In this episode, I welcome Prof Stijn Viaene from Vlerick Business School, a renowned digital transformation and leadership expert. We delve into the critical role of digital infrastructure in business success and the importance of collaboration across organizational silos for effective digital transformation.

The discussion highlights the debate around every company being a tech company and emphasizes the need for business transformation, with digital technology playing a dominant role. My guest shares insights on the four leadership styles (vigilant, voyager, visionary, and vested) crucial for successful digital transformation.

We discuss ensuring digital transformation is purpose-driven and that technology complements human skills. We also discuss the importance of focusing on business transformation, aligning objectives with resource allocation, balancing past exploitation with exploring the future, and addressing the talent gap.

Together, we examine companies' challenges and pitfalls during digital transformation, such as the need for a forward-looking vision, digital literacy gaps in executive teams, and the importance of routine transformation.

The conversation explores the need for businesses to stay ahead of the curve, continuously adapting to industry innovations and disruptions. All were brought to life with examples of successful companies, including DBS Bank, KBC, John Deere, and the City of London, that have introduced new products and services while transforming their ways of working with technology.

2363: Ontology, Decentralized Identity, and Purpose-Driven Blockchains with Humpty Calderon May 05, 2023

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, Neil C. Hughes interviews blockchain expert and Ontology enthusiast Humpty Calderon. As a passionate advocate for emergent technologies, Humpty has extensive experience in everything from drone technology to cryptocurrencies. The pair discuss the potential of purpose-driven blockchains, the importance of decentralized identity, and the future of decentralized finance.

Humpty explains Ontology's unique approach to tackling problems in the blockchain space and the potential it holds for content creators looking to take ownership of their work. They dive into the benefits of different layer one protocols and the need for simplifying the blockchain landscape for mainstream users.

As the conversation unfolds, Humpty emphasizes bridging Web2 and Web3 through decentralized identity and reputation systems, making technology invisible to users for widespread adoption. The ONT token and staking rewards within the Ontology network is also discussed, alongside upcoming developments like the Goshen L2 project. Humpty encourages listeners to explore the Ontology blog and his podcast, Crypto Sapiens, for more information.

With a deep understanding of various cutting-edge technologies, Humpty has founded businesses, grown protocols and applications, and launched the podcast Crypto Sapiens, which reaches over 100,000 listeners. He also founded DAO LA, a group connecting Los Angeles founders, investors, and hackers.

Join me in an insightful conversation about blockchain, Web3, crypto, Ontology, and the world of staking as they explore the future of technology and its impact on our lives.

2362: Exploring Global Connectivity With Iridium May 04, 2023

Did you know that cellular networks only cover 15% of the world? In today's episode of Tech Talks Daily, I sit down with Josh Miner, Vice President of Land Mobile Services at Iridium Communications, to explore the exciting world of satellite communication.

Iridium Communications is the only company offering true pole-to-pole coverage, connecting people and organizations across the globe. They discuss the unique benefits of Iridium's network, including satellite phones, push-to-talk, and data products that cater to various industries.

We discuss Iridium's innovative approach to global communications and how it's reshaping industries. I also learn more about the Iridium GO! exec device and its powerful new features. Together we explore the fascinating world of Iridium Communications and how this ultra-portable device creates new possibilities for global connectivity and transforms how businesses, governments, and adventurers stay connected.

Whether working off the grid or exploring the world, I discover how the Iridium GO! exec brings reliable communication to your fingertips.

2361: Clari Visionaries: Shaping the Future of RevOps (Revenue Operations ) May 03, 2023

In this thought-provoking episode of Tech Talks Daily, I speak with Kat Hartigan, VP of International at Clari, a revenue operations platform that is transforming businesses across the globe. With a rich background at Soho House and WeWork, Kat shares her inspiring journey from studying neuroscience to leading Clari's international expansion.

Kat also discusses her experience as a female leader in the tech industry, addressing challenges such as confidence gaps and the lack of diversity in leadership positions. She shares her personal battle with imposter syndrome and offers valuable advice for women seeking leadership roles in technology and business.

Neil and Kat delve into the concept of revenue operations (RevOps) and its impact on businesses in the UK, as well as the benefits of Revenue Governance & Collaboration as an emerging trend. They explore how Clari's Revenue Platform improves efficiency, predictability, and growth across the entire revenue process, providing total visibility to drive process rigor, spot risks and opportunities in the pipeline, and increase forecast accuracy.

Kat shares a success story and highlights how Clari's platform has helped the company enhance its forecasting accuracy. She also provides insights into Clari's future plans and upcoming features, emphasizing the company's commitment to innovation and support for its users.

2360: Adobe Unleashed: Redefining the Boundaries of Creativity May 02, 2023

I sit down with Paul Saccone, Sr. Director of Adobe Video Marketing, to dive into the latest Adobe announcements and explore how AI revolutionizes video creation. Paul shares insights on Adobe Premiere Pro's new features, including generative AI and AI-powered text-based editing, and the company's dedication to providing workflow innovations that enable customers to execute their ideas faster.

We discuss the recent improvements in Adobe's Premiere Pro and After Effects, touching on workflow animations, tone mapping, and the new property panel interface for After Effects. They also delve into Adobe's expansion of the Frame.io collaboration platform to encompass still images and PDF documents.

With the increasing demand for content, I learn more about how Adobe is committed to offering tools like Firefly and Sensei to help creators work more efficiently and produce unique content. We also explore the potential of generative AI and Adobe's focus on supporting artists and creators while maintaining authenticity in content creation.

Finally, we examine the use of generative AI in professional video work, and its ability to enhance creativity and speed up the creative process. Paul also shares some exciting news about Adobe's upcoming releases and how customers can try them. Tune in to this insightful episode as we delve deep into the world of video tech, AI, and the innovations shaping content creation for years to come.

2359: Pegasystems and The Improvisational CTO May 01, 2023

In today's episode of Tech Talks Daily, we explore the unconventional path to business success with our special guest, Don Schuerman, Chief Technology Officer of Pegasystems, a global US software firm with major clients such as Lloyds Banking Group, Booking.com, and the UK government. Don shares how his passion for musical improv theatre has helped him rise to the top and transformed how he and his colleagues make better business decisions.

In this fascinating conversation, Don discusses the business value of improv as a hobby and how theatrical improvisation skills can sharpen curiosity and collaboration capabilities crucial for success in today's fast-paced business environment. He also delves into OpenAI's recent introduction of ChatGPT and the challenges organizations face when deciding where to begin their automation and AI implementation journey.

Don further reveals how embracing improv can help business professionals develop a mindset that accepts constant change as exciting and interesting, fostering a perpetual openness to new ideas.

Join us for this enlightening episode as we uncover the power of improvisation in business and technology and learn how a unique skill set can make a difference in achieving success.

2358: The Content Performance Revolution: A Deep Dive with Christoph Trappe Apr 30, 2023

Christoph Trappe, a global top 14 content marketer and top 100 digital marketer, who has transformed businesses across industries through powerful content marketing campaigns. Christoph shares his expertise in building and engaging prospects, driving results with his unique Content Performance Philosophy, and the impact of the Create Once, Publish Everywhere (COPE) model.

Learn about Christoph's successful career leading teams of journalists, content creators, strategists, and designers, and how his approach has driven growth and customer engagement for businesses in healthcare, nonprofits, SaaS, publishing, technology, and professional services. We'll also discuss his latest book, "Going Live," and the popular Business Storytelling Podcast, which has been downloaded over 400,000 times in more than 100 countries.

Discover Christoph's five pillars of content performance: an embraced content performance culture, innovation by all, next play mentality, right players in the right seats, and ongoing evaluation. Don't miss this insightful conversation with one of the industry's leading voices in content marketing and storytelling.

2357: Sailing Towards Sustainability: ZeroNorth's Data-Driven Revolution in Maritime Trade Apr 29, 2023

I chat with Søren Meyer, CEO at ZeroNorth, the maritime technology company leading the green transition of global trade. As the world faces an existentially challenging environment, Søren discusses the critical role that data and digital technologies play in ensuring sensible decision-making within the shipping industry.

Learn how data can provide stability in times of radical transformation, as it remains impartial and immune to the volatility of the global economy. Søren highlights the importance of leveraging data for transparent and measurable decision-making, particularly when human decision-making falls short.

Join us as we explore how data-driven insights can identify and eliminate inefficiencies in the shipping sector, leading to more profitable operations and genuine progress on decarbonization. Don't miss this enlightening conversation on the future of global trade and the green transformation of the shipping industry!

2356: Video Technology Unleashed: A Chat with Kwindla Kramer CEO of Daily Apr 28, 2023

Kwindla Hultman Kramer, Co-founder and CEO of Daily discusses the transformative power of video technology in our lives. From remote work and accessible healthcare to new teaching methods, social media, and more, video is reshaping the way we use technology.

Kwindla shares insights into Daily's rapidly evolving video tech architecture and how the ability to lead in this video-first era will differentiate the top growth companies over the next decade. Discover how Daily's scalable video infrastructure serves a diverse range of companies and use cases, powering real-time audio and video for millions of users worldwide.

Daily provides video and audio APIs for developers to build interactive live streaming experiences seamlessly into their applications and websites. Learn how this Series B startup, having raised $40 million, is helping both small startups and Fortune 500 companies embed video into their products.

Join us for this fascinating conversation with Kwindla Kramer as we explore the undeniable impact of video on businesses and industries, and how Daily is enabling developers to create innovative, real-time experiences for users across the globe.

2355: Modern Campus: Transforming the Educational Landscape with Kimberly Prieto Apr 27, 2023

Today, I am joined by Kimberly Prieto, Vice President of Product at Modern Campus, to discuss how the company is revolutionizing the higher education landscape across North America. Learn how Modern Campus supports over 2,000 institutions to grow their annual revenue by tailoring their digital engagement engine through targeted, personalized content and experiences for students.

Discover the wide array of solutions offered by the Modern Campus platform, including non-traditional student management, web content management, catalog and curriculum management, student engagement and development, career pathways, and campus maps and virtual tours. Kimberly shares the story behind the company's growth and its acquisitions that have helped create a seamless "Learner-to-Earner" lifecycle for institutions.

Join us as we delve into Kimberly's personal passion for higher education and her extensive experience in the FinTech industry. Gain valuable insights on how Modern Campus is enabling colleges and universities to adapt to the changing technological and demographic shifts, ultimately providing administrators with the tools needed to drive efficiency and streamline workflows. Don't miss this fascinating conversation on the future of higher education!

2354: RingCentral Chief Innovation Officer on Transforming Work and Communication Apr 26, 2023

Kira Makagon, Chief Innovation Officer and head of RingCentral Ventures discusses her remarkable career journey, her insights on the latest trends in the tech industry, and how she is driving innovation and investments at RingCentral. As a recognized leader in her field, Kira shares her thoughts on the rise of AI and generative technologies, and the lessons she's learned along the way.

Dive deep into Kira's experience in investing in workplace AI technology and learn how she has been instrumental in redefining RingCentral's product strategy, global reach, and market-leading position in the communications and collaboration landscape. From launching RingCentral's open platform to spearheading the development of RingCentral Video®, Kira's impact on the industry is undeniable.

Join us for this engaging conversation about reimagining the future of work through cutting-edge communications and collaboration solutions.

2353: From FBI to F5: Dan Woods on Cyber Threats and Bot Protection Apr 25, 2023

In this captivating episode, I sit down with Dan Woods, former FBI Special Agent, CIA Cyber-Operations Officer, and now the Global Head of Intelligence at F5, to explore the world of fraud protection and bot detection. Dan sheds light on the inner workings of bots, mitigation strategies, and reveals specific examples of malicious bot activities targeting banks, hotels, airlines, insurance companies, and social media sites.

We delve into the surge of marketplaces like Genesis Marketplace, which provide attackers with an avenue to buy digital fingerprints, and discuss the implications for cybersecurity. Finally, Dan shares his expert advice on what organizations can do to address bot threats and the critical need for neutral third-party validation of bot traffic.

Join us for this eye-opening conversation with a cybersecurity veteran who has dedicated his career to staying one step ahead of the ever-evolving cyber threats.

2352: Bridging the Gap: Automating Data Management for Competitive Manufacturing Apr 24, 2023

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, we are joined by Jonathan Kaplan, COO of Magic Software Enterprises, Inc., and a technical leader with over 20 years of experience in bringing transformative technology to the corporate IT environment. Jonathan takes us through the critical importance of Industry 4.0 for small and mid-sized manufacturers and the challenges they face in automating data management.

Listen in as we explore how systems data integrations, software implementation, and the elimination of data silos can lead to increased efficiency, and how connecting the factory floor to the C-Suite can help North American factories stay competitive in a complex market. You'll also learn about Jonathan's journey from founding and serving as CTO of PowWow Mobile, a leading provider of low-code mobile tools, to its acquisition by Magic Software in 2019.

Don't miss this insightful conversation on the future of manufacturing and how businesses can harness the power of automated data management solutions. Tune in now!

2351: Rethinking 'Shifting Left': Empowering Developers and Unleashing Innovation Apr 23, 2023

In this insightful episode of the podcast, we are thrilled to have Nick Durkin, the Field CTO of Harness.io, join us to discuss the challenges and opportunities developers face in the rapidly evolving world of software delivery. Harness.io, a leader in the field, focuses on automating the most tedious aspects of developers' jobs, allowing them to concentrate on what they love – creating and innovating.

Nick, a seasoned developer with 20 years of experience, dives deep into the current notion of "shifting left" in software development and how today's organizations might be getting it wrong. With recent studies revealing that developers only spend three hours a day coding while the rest is spent on operational tasks, it's evident that a change is needed.

Drawing from his own experiences, Nick shares his unique vision for a more effective way of shifting left – not by overburdening engineers with tasks, but by rapidly moving critical information to the right people at the right time. This approach empowers developers to write exceptional code and harness powerful systems to deliver it where it's needed most.

In this captivating conversation, Nick also delves into next steps for teams looking to embrace this new perspective on shifting left and explores broader developer topics. As a bonus, he offers valuable insights into cloud cost management considerations organizations should take into account in the face of economic uncertainty.

Listen in as we uncover new ways of empowering developers, unleashing innovation, and redefining the future of software development. Don't miss this thought-provoking and inspiring discussion – tune in now!

2350: MEHRWERK GmbH - Unlocking Data-Driven Process Optimization Apr 22, 2023

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily Podcast, I'm live at QlikWorld with Jan Birkholz, a process mining evangelist from Mehrwerk, discussing how they support businesses in establishing a data-driven process understanding and optimize their operations.

Mehrwerk, a Qlik Elite Solutions Provider, offers software-based business process optimization solutions, utilizing Qlik Sense to help organizations integrate data from multiple sources and transform it into meaningful insights. Jan shares how data visualization plays a crucial role in today's data-driven world and the benefits of Qlik Sense's intuitive software in creating reports and dashboards.

We explore the latest version of Qlik Sense, which features personalized dashboards, larger datasets in scatter graphs, and chart animations, and discuss how these enhancements improve user experience and help businesses better understand their data.

Jan highlights success stories from clients like Galderma, EMSA, and Agilent, showcasing how Mehrwerk's partnership with Qlik has made a significant impact on their business performance. We also discuss the challenges organizations face when optimizing their processes using data-driven insights and how Mehrwerk's approach helps overcome these obstacles.

Finally, Jan shares his vision for the future of business intelligence solutions and data visualization, and the roles that companies like Mehrwerk and Qlik will play in shaping this landscape. Tune in for valuable advice on how businesses can leverage data more effectively and become more agile in today's competitive market.

2349: Revolutionizing Elite Sports Performance with Active Intelligence: Apr 21, 2023

Martin Sahlin is the visionary behind Stretch on Sense, an active intelligence platform for elite sports that is transforming the way coaches, players, and stakeholders access, analyze, and utilize data to make informed decisions.

Stretch on Sense gathers all relevant data around players' game performance, practice routines, and well-being into one easy-to-understand platform. By doing so, it empowers sports clubs to better understand their teams and fosters informed discussions and decision-making, leading to improved results.

As a Qlik Elite Solutions Provider, Stretch on Sense has collaborated with Qlik to deliver data analytics to Malmö Redhawks, a leading Swedish ice hockey organization, resulting in reduced injuries due to overtraining and a more informed decision-making process. The Qlik-based product, Hat Trick, measures team practice, performance, and player well-being, leading to better insights and outcomes.

We also discuss how Stretch on Sense leverages Qlik's Cloud Services track to enhance customer relationships and accelerate adoption, adapting to shifting technology needs and new customer buying behaviors.

Join us as we explore the enormous demand for a simplified and detailed player analysis in elite sports and how Stretch on Sense is revolutionizing the industry by providing a comprehensive overview of where teams are, where they are going, and how they are performing. Discover how Active Intelligence in elite sports is taking the game to the next level with Martin Sahlin and Stretch on Sense.

2348: Embracing Data-Driven Innovation: Insights from QlikWorld Apr 21, 2023

In today's special episode of Tech Talks Daily Podcast, I am live at QlikWorld in Las Vegas, reconnecting with a returning guest. His name is Adam Mayer, and he has previously shared insights with Natwest and the Nationwide Police. It's always a treat to build friendships with our guests and have the opportunity to meet them in person at tech conferences.

In this lively conversation, we discuss the QlikWorld experience and the excitement of being back on the show floor in Vegas. We delve into the impact of ChatGPT and generative AI on organizations and the world of work, and explore other data and analytics trends that are catching our attention.

We also share insights from conversations on the show floor, highlighting recurring themes around data privacy, governance, and the growing importance of real-time data in industries like financial services and retail. We discuss the cultural shift towards "Data Everywhere" and how businesses that prioritize data-first strategies will emerge as the big winners.

As our guest reflects on the transformative impact of data across various industries, we consider what thoughts and ideas from QlikWorld will occupy their mind on the long flight home. Don't miss this engaging and insightful episode, recorded live from the heart of QlikWorld in Las Vegas!

2347: Harnessing Data Analytics to Drive Business Growth and Better Decision Making Apr 20, 2023

In today's episode of Tech Talks Daily Podcast, we're live at QlikWorld, where we sit down with Martin Tombs, VP of Market Readiness at Qlik, to discuss the challenges and opportunities businesses face when it comes to their data and analytics strategies.

As part of Qlik's global transformation team, Martin shares his insights on the common challenges customers encounter in leveraging data analytics and the exciting opportunities that arise when organizations effectively harness the power of data to drive better decision-making.

Tune in as we explore specific examples of how Qlik has significantly impacted businesses, enabling them to capitalize on data analytics for growth and innovation. We'll also delve into common themes and trends emerging from customer conversations, shedding light on how data analytics is helping organizations create new value.

Furthermore, we discuss Qlik's commitment to staying ahead of the curve in terms of innovation and addressing the ever-evolving needs of businesses in the data analytics space. Martin shares his advice for organizations looking to improve their data and analytics strategies to better leverage insights and drive growth.

Don't miss this enlightening conversation with Martin Tombs, as we dive into the future of the data analytics landscape and explore the critical role Qlik will play in shaping the industry. Listen now!

2346: InsurTechX: How CDL is Revolutionizing Retail Insurance Apr 20, 2023

Join us for a special episode of Tech Talks Daily Podcast, live from the show floor at QlikWorld in Las Vegas! Today, we're diving deep into the world of retail insurance and exploring how CDL, the UK's leading retail insurance software provider, is revolutionizing the industry with its cutting-edge data solutions.

In this engaging conversation, Matt Houghton, a prominent figure at CDL, shares his insights on the challenges of managing vast amounts of data in the retail sector and underscores the importance of real-time analysis for businesses looking to stay ahead of the competition.

Together, we'll uncover how CDL's Kingfisher data platform, powered by Qlik, is transforming the way insurance providers access and utilize data, enabling them to make well-informed decisions at lightning speed. We'll also delve into the crucial role of Qlik Data Integration in ensuring a seamless flow of data from various sources, allowing CDL customers to gain valuable insights at the pace their business demands.

Listen in as we learn how CDL's innovative solutions have reduced data access time from 24 hours to mere minutes, significantly enhancing customer value and ROI.

So buckle up and hold on tight as we beam your ears all the way to Las Vegas, where Matt Houghton takes us on an exciting journey through the rapidly evolving world of retail insurance and data-driven decision-making. Discover how CDL is helping retailers capitalize on trends in retail, from price comparison sites to the connected home, and how their game-changing approach to data is paving the way for a brighter future in the industry.

2345: Qlik - Data Everywhere: Empowering Teams with Analytics at QlikWorld Apr 19, 2023

This week, I am broadcasting from the QlikWorld conference in Las Vegas, dedicated to exploring the latest data integration and analytics innovations. One of the key themes here is "Data Everywhere," where every team within an organization is empowered to utilize data to drive a business forward.

In this episode, I am joined by Josh Good, Senior Director of Product Marketing at Qlik. With over a decade of experience in the BI and analytics industry, Josh has been a leader in business transformation and innovation. We discuss how Qlik is meeting the growing demand for cloud-based services, enabling SaaS adoption with data capacity pricing, and ensuring that businesses can unlock the value in their data to make better decisions.

We also dive into the importance of data integration, democratization, and how Qlik works to provide greater access to data and analytics for more people within organizations. Finally, Josh shares the challenges businesses face when transitioning to cloud-based BI and analytics solutions and how Qlik helps overcome these obstacles.

We explore the role of artificial intelligence and machine learning in the future of data integration, BI, and analytics and how Qlik is incorporating these technologies into its product offerings. Finally, we discuss what we can expect from Qlik regarding product innovation and how the BI, analytics, and data integration landscape will evolve over the next few years. Tune in to this exciting episode and learn from one of the leading voices in the BI and analytics industry.

2344: Cloudera: Moving Beyond Big Data to Hybrid Data Mastery Apr 18, 2023

I sit down with Chris Royles, EMEA Field CTO at Cloudera, to discuss the evolution of Big Data and why hybrid data is the next challenge for businesses to tackle. In this episode, we explore how the term 'Big Data' has become dated and how the rapid rise of hybrid data has shifted the conversation.

Chris will take us through the explosive growth of structured data in the past decade, from less than 1ZB in 2011 to a staggering 14ZB in 2020, and its expected trajectory to triple by 2025. Then, as organizations continue to collect and manage increasingly large datasets, Chris will explain why hybrid data is here to stay and how businesses can harness its power.

We'll also dive into the importance of a modern data architecture that integrates multi-function data analytics with secure and governed data management, regardless of where the data resides – be it in the cloud, on-premise, or at the edge. Finally, learn how businesses can leverage hybrid data to make real-time decisions and why data truly is the new oil.

Take advantage of this fascinating conversation with Chris Royles, an expert in the ever-evolving world of data, as we uncover the challenges and benefits of embracing hybrid data in today's technology-driven landscape.

2343: How Targus is Building a Greener Future With Sustainable Tech Accessories Apr 17, 2023

I sit down with Marcus Harvey, General Manager and EMEA Sales Director at Targus, to explore their groundbreaking work in sustainability and the tech-accessories sector. With over 40 years of experience in understanding materials' social, environmental, and chemical impact, Targus is a leading force against greenwashing and a pioneer of sustainable business.

Marcus shares with me how Targus has continued to innovate and prioritize sustainability, creating long-lasting, environmentally friendly tech protection. I also learn more about the collaborative efforts between Targus and their channel partners in preventing over two million plastic bottles from ending up in the ocean and landfill.

One example is the Targus 15.6" EcoSmart ® Zero Waste Backpack which utilizes recycled materials in all elements of the product, even its packaging. It uses it to create the bag's standup silhouette. Thoughtfully designed to help reduce waste, the bag's external packaging is flattened into a rectangle, slipped into a pocket along the back panel, and reused as structural support and added laptop protection.

In addition, this bag was designed with the environment in mind. Using GRS-certified recycled materials, 20 plastic bottles were kept out of our waterways and landfills, shredded into small flakes, re-polymerized into plastic chips, and heated and spun into yarn stitched sewn into the fabric of this EcoSmart® bag.

Marcus Harvey is a passionate leader dedicated to building a successful and sustainable business with Targus. Take advantage of this engaging episode that delves into the world of sustainable tech accessories and the crucial role they play in tackling climate change. Tune in and learn how Targus is shaping the future of the tech-accessory industry.

2342: The Power of Strategic Marketing: and the Rise of Blockchain in Advertising Apr 16, 2023

Sheila Kloefkorn, the multi-award-winning marketing thought leader and Founder of KEO Marketing, joins me on Tech Talks Daily. Sheila's B2B marketing agency has been instrumental in helping Fortune 1000 companies and mid-market businesses in 100+ countries scale faster by executing well-rounded, goal-oriented marketing plans.

In today's episode, Sheila shares her insights on common marketing mistakes companies make and offers actionable marketing tips that entrepreneurs can apply to increase the profits and value of their businesses. Sheila also discusses how leveraging a fractional CMO can lead to faster and more economical business growth.

As a marketing visionary, Sheila explores the future of blockchain in the realm of marketing and advertising. She emphasizes the potential of this groundbreaking technology to revolutionize the industry and shares her predictions on how blockchain will shape advertising in the coming years.

With over 25 years of experience in the marketing industry, Sheila began her career in New York City at a small marketing firm, which she helped expand into the largest youth marketing firm in the world. As one of the first online advertisers, Sheila has witnessed the rapid evolution of the digital marketing and advertising sector.

Her numerous accolades include In Business Magazine Phoenix's 2022 Women of Achievement, Phoenix Business Journal's Top 10 Business Leaders of the Year, and Top 25 Dynamic Women in Business.

Don't miss this enlightening conversation with Sheila Kloefkorn on Tech Talks Daily, where she shares valuable insights and expert advice on marketing strategies, business growth, and the future of blockchain in advertising.

2341: Re-imagining the SWG (Secure Web Gateway) With a “Fly Direct” Model Apr 15, 2023

On today's episode of Tech Talks Daily, I'm thrilled to welcome Kunal Agarwal, the rising under-30 CEO of Dope Security, who's on a mission to disrupt the multi-billion dollar SWG (Secure Web Gateway) market. Kunal shares the story behind Dope, his perspective on entrepreneurship, and the opportunity he sees in the underserved SWG market.

Having recently announced a $16M Series A funding round (bringing their total funding to $20M), Dope Security is making waves in the industry. Before founding Dope, Kunal led product management teams at SWG giants Symantec and Forcepoint. There, he recognized an inevitable flaw in legacy technology - the reliance on stopover data centers for security checks, a method designed before the advent of cloud computing and remote work.

With today's distributed workforces, the traditional approach to SWG no longer works efficiently, leading to data center congestion, performance issues, and privacy concerns. Dope Security addresses these problems by performing security checks on the endpoint, a more efficient and scalable solution. Decrypted data never leaves the endpoint, ensuring reliability and privacy.

Join me as Kunal delves into the founding of Dope Security, his approach to building the company, and the innovative technology they've developed. Don't miss this insightful conversation with one of the brightest young minds in the world of cybersecurity. Tune in now to learn how Dope Security is revolutionizing the SWG market and redefining the future of cybersecurity.

2340: STRV Founder Talks About the Power of Web 3.0 Technology Apr 14, 2023

On today's episode of Tech Talks Daily, we're excited to bring you an exclusive interview with Lubo Smid, the CEO & Co-founder of STRV, an award-winning software design and engineering company that has built products for high-profile startups and Fortune 500 brands. Lubo is a tech entrepreneur passionate about cutting-edge technology, especially in Web3. I learn more about his origin story from humble beginnings as a freelance web developer in high school to building a $20M company.

In this episode, Lubo shares his insights on the ups and downs of building STRV, the importance of embracing Web 3.0 and blockchain, and how he keeps himself mentally and physically fit to handle the challenges of running a successful company. He also dives into the world of Web 3.0, discussing the potential and challenges of blockchain technology and why he believes it's the future for businesses and entrepreneurs.

Key takeaways from this episode:

The journey of building STRV: from humble beginnings to working with Fortune 500 brands and living on the edge.
The importance of embracing Web 3.0 and blockchain for businesses and entrepreneurs.
Lubo's peak performance secrets for maintaining physical and mental health while running a 200-person company.
How Lubo overcame one of the most challenging periods in his business during the pandemic and economic crisis.
Lubo's thoughts on the future of Web 3.0, the challenges of market adoption, and his perspective on the Metaverse.

Listen to this inspiring startup story with Lubo Smid as he shares his experiences, wisdom, and insights on the world of tech and entrepreneurship.

2339: NEC Corporation of America - Biometrics, Digital Identity, and the Future Apr 13, 2023

In this episode, I am joined by Eugene Le Roux, Vice President of Digital Government at NEC Corporation of America, to discuss the ever-evolving landscape of biometrics and digital identity. With digital access to government services becoming increasingly essential, we delve into the importance of a robust governance framework built upon the four key pillars of authentication, accessibility, interoperability, and data protection.

We explore the role of biometrics in digital identity tools and the necessity of a national framework that ensures security, accuracy, and accessibility for all citizens. We also discuss how NEC's Digital Identity Platform, trusted by numerous government agencies worldwide, aligns with these pillars to prioritize privacy and accuracy.

As the conversation unfolds, we address the challenges and roadblocks governments face in implementing digital identity solutions, such as privacy and security concerns, technological infrastructure challenges, and budget constraints. They emphasize the importance of transparency and collaboration between governments and private companies in ensuring data protection and privacy for citizens.

We also delve into the significance of transparency and accountability in public-private partnerships, particularly in the context of digital identity platforms. Finally, we shed light on NEC's digital identity platform and discuss potential future collaborations.

Join us in this thought-provoking conversation as we uncover the future of digital identity and its impact on our increasingly connected society. Gain valuable insights from industry expert Eugene Le Roux on why NEC Advanced Recognition Systems advocates for a federal framework that guarantees independent systems meet interoperability and privacy standards. Learn about the transformative potential of digital identity solutions and how they can shape the future of government services.

2338: DigitalBits & The Brand Economy - Blockchain Meets Loyalty Programs. Apr 12, 2023

Daniele Mensi, Managing Director at DigitalBits Foundation, joins me for a deep dive into the world of DigitalBits blockchain and its transformative impact on the brand economy and consumer engagement. DigitalBits aims to drive the adoption of blockchain technology in the retail and brand sectors, partnering with renowned brands and organizations to offer innovative blockchain-based loyalty programs and enhance customer experiences.

Daniele, a seasoned Italian serial entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience in technology, finance, and telecommunications, shares his insights on how the DigitalBits blockchain is tailored to cater to brands and the retail sector by creating a more meaningful way for brands and consumers to engage. He discusses the importance of authenticity and imperfections in their work and how partnerships with companies like CoinBar and Dr. Gungar enable digital Bitcoin as a payment tool for retail products.

In this episode, you'll also learn about DigitalBits' collaborations with sports organizations and brand ambassadors, such as MotoGP rider Fabio Di Giannantonio, to drive the adoption of blockchain technology. Daniele delves into the challenges of managing a B2B2C model and the importance of timely community interactions in the crypto space.

Join us as we explore the fascinating blend of B2B and B2C approaches in the brand economy and the role of blockchain technology and NFTs in enhancing the brand experience. Daniele emphasizes the importance of education and user experience in expanding the adoption of these technologies and discusses DigitalBits' ambitious goal of becoming one of the top five blockchains regarding transactions and adoption.

Learn more about the future of brand engagement and blockchain technology's role in shaping tomorrow's consumer experiences.

2337: The Rise of CBDCs: A Discussion with Bittrex Global CEO, Oliver Linch Apr 11, 2023

On this Tech Talks Daily Podcast episode, I speak with Oliver Linch, the London-based lawyer, and CEO of Bittrex Global, a leading cryptocurrency exchange. With Europe's central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) rapidly developing, Oliver offers a unique perspective on the current landscape and future of digital money in the region.

Following the UK's decision to move forward with its Digital Pound project, CBDC initiatives are gaining momentum across Europe. However, significant opposition remains to digital currencies, with some arguing that central banks should not be involved in CBDCs due to the associated costs and risks.

As Bittrex Global's General Counsel and with a background in advising on regulatory policy in financial regulation and fintech, Oliver Linch is well-equipped to discuss the evolving CBDC landscape in Europe. In this episode, Neil and Oliver delve into why the UK decided to embrace the Digital Pound despite a fragile economy and ongoing political uncertainty.

We also explore the causes of opposition to CBDCs, the EU's slow progress in this area since 2021, and why most CBDC projects in Europe remain in the pilot phase, according to the Central Bank Digital Currency Tracker.

During our conversation, Oliver discussed the potential benefits and drawbacks of CBDCs compared to cryptocurrencies. While CBDCs may not fully leverage the advantages of blockchain technology, they acknowledge the convenience and speed of transactions that CBDCs can offer.

Addressing concerns about the centralization of data and government control, we question the motives behind CBDCs and the need for their proponents to explain their necessity and superiority over existing currency forms.

Finally, the podcast touches on the challenges governments and central banks must overcome to successfully implement CBDCs, such as regulatory and technological obstacles. Oliver emphasizes the importance of understanding the purpose of CBDCs before building a system around them and explores the potential impact of generative AI on businesses.

2336: Halborn: Bridging the Web2 and Web3 Security Gap Apr 10, 2023

In today's episode of Tech Talks Daily Podcast, I am joined by David Schwed, the COO of Halborn, an award-winning blockchain cybersecurity firm providing end-to-end cybersecurity advisory services and products to both Web2 and Web3 organizations, such as Coinbase and Avalanche. David shares his insights on the unique challenges posed by Web3 security and how Web2 and Web3 must collaborate to ensure a secure digital ecosystem.

Before joining Halborn, David served as the Global Head of Digital Assets Technology for BNY Mellon. In addition, he held various senior roles in the financial services sector for Merrill Lynch, Salomon Smith Barney, Citigroup, and Galaxy Digital. In addition, David is the founding director and professor of the cybersecurity Master's program for the Katz School of Science and Health at Yeshiva University, where he is also their practitioner-in-residence.

During the episode, David delves into why Web3 projects often overlook cybersecurity. He shares his transition from traditional finance (TradFi) to decentralized finance (DeFi), offering recommendations for those on a similar path. He also discusses the best security practices for organizations and users to secure their crypto assets.

David and Neil explore the convergence of Web2 and Web3, the role of ethical hackers in identifying attack vectors and vulnerabilities, and the importance of education in addressing misconceptions about blockchain and crypto security. They also recommend resources like the Crypto Consortium and Blockchain Council for those interested in learning more about Web3 and decentralized finance.

David concludes by discussing his vision for the future of blockchain cybersecurity, predicting that it will become as secure as traditional banking systems within the next five to ten years. He also introduces Halborn's open-source product, Zion, and emphasizes the significance of continued education in the industry.

2335: How Visual Content is Unlocking New Opportunities for Data-Driven Businesses Apr 09, 2023

On today's episode of Tech Talks Daily Podcast, I am joined by Cody Coleman, the inspiring co-founder, and CEO of Coactive AI, a Cloud 100-recognized startup transforming how organizations analyze and search image and video data. Cody shares his remarkable personal journey, from humble beginnings to earning his Ph.D. at Stanford and leading a cutting-edge visual data analytics company.

Cody is also a passionate advocate for sustainable and ethical AI, working relentlessly to fight algorithmic bias in computer vision. He discusses his recent research in this area and shares exciting news about Coactive AI's $14 million funding round, led by Andreessen Horowitz and Bessemer Venture Partners. We dive into how this investment will fuel the development of their visual content analytics platform and help refine their go-to-market strategy.

Discover how Coactive's platform is set to benefit both enterprises and startups by unlocking the hidden value in the world's images and videos. Cody also talks about their closed beta, featuring companies like Fandom, which aims to gather valuable feedback and make essential adjustments to the platform before its official launch.

Join us on this compelling episode as we explore Cody's incredible backstory, Coactive AI's mission, and their platform's revolutionary potential in visual data analytics.

2334: The Future of Generative AI in the Workplace. My Interview With an AI-Generated Human. Apr 08, 2023

Over the past few weeks, we've heard many experts and leaders share their thoughts about the impact of generative AI on the future of work and the global workforce. While there are many opinions on this controversial topic, I wanted to gain a unique perspective - what does AI have to say about working alongside humans and being called a co-pilot or a tool?

Inspired by a recent podcast interview with Christoph Trappe, I was inspired to perform a technological experiment by interviewing ChatGPT 4, a language model trained by OpenAI, to learn more about generative AI and the future of its impact in the workplace. So, instead of asking a human guest, I asked the AI model and recorded its responses.

To add an extra layer of depth to the conversation, I then used Synthesia to create an AI-generated avatar and provided it with the answers from ChatGPT 4. This allowed me to bring the words of AI to life. After recording the interview, I used Descript to transcribe the video and edit it like a document. This allowed me to rearrange the content to ensure it flowed well and was easy to follow.

Overall, this approach allowed me to explore a fascinating topic unique way to provide insights from the perspective of AI. Although the outcome was slightly flawed, it offers food for thought on where this technology is heading and the new opportunities it could unlock.

In my conversation with Mark, the generative AI guest did offer valuable insights into the potential of human-AI collaboration in the workplace. But it's essential to understand the capabilities and limitations of generative AI models and approach AI as a collaborative tool that can augment human capabilities rather than replace them.

By focusing on collaboration, remaining informed about the latest advancements in AI research and best practices, and embracing lifelong learning, workers can alleviate their concerns and create a productive and rewarding partnership with generative AI. Ultimately, this partnership has the potential to unlock unprecedented levels of creativity, innovation, and problem-solving, driving positive change across various domains.

As AI technologies continue to evolve, it will be interesting to see how the human-AI relationship develops and how it will shape the future of work. The experiment with Mark offers a glimpse into this future and highlights the potential for a world that thrives on the combined strengths of both human intelligence and artificial intelligence.

The phrase "With great power comes great responsibility" is especially relevant when it comes to the use of technology. It requires a forward-thinking mindset where everyone considers the future implications of their actions. This means moving away from the "move fast and break things" mentality and taking a more cautious approach. If we fail to do so, we risk behaving like small children with a very dangerous box of toys, playing with them recklessly and without regard for the consequences.

However, Mark said it best when he advised, "AI presents both opportunities and challenges for humans. On the one hand, these AI models can be incredibly valuable for automating tasks, enhancing human creativity, and solving complex problems across various industries. But, on the other hand, by working together, AI and humans can complement each other's strengths and achieve better outcomes than either could independently."

We all must recognize the potential impact of our actions and work together to ensure that technology is used responsibly and for the betterment of society. So how will you leverage technology to augment human creativity, help solve complex problems and improve the workplace?

2333: Disrupting the Workplace Industry: Kofi Gyekye's Journey to PropTech Success Apr 08, 2023

In today's episode of Tech Talks Daily, we're joined by Kofi Gyekye, a self-made tech entrepreneur who successfully sold his prop-tech company Lane for $200 million. Born to African parents and raised in Italy, Kofi's journey has taken him from founding the award-winning digital agency Little Room to co-founding Lane, the world's largest and most innovative workplace experience platform, connecting over 300 properties across 22 cities and 8 countries.

Listen in as Kofi shares his unique experiences and insights into how he turned multiple companies into thriving businesses that disrupted the workplace industry. Discover the challenges and triumphs he faced while building and scaling these businesses, and learn about the impact of his work on the property technology landscape.

Alongside his work in the tech industry, Kofi has also led multiple digital strategies and fundraising initiatives for non-profits, such as the Leyaata Project, which aimed to reduce mother and infant mortality in 50 villages in Northern Ghana. For his contributions, Kofi was awarded the UNICEF Global Standard by the Canadian International Development Agency.

Join us for this inspiring and enlightening conversation as we explore Kofi Gyekye's journey to success in the world of prop-tech and beyond, and learn valuable lessons from his experiences that can help aspiring entrepreneurs make their mark in the industry.

2332: Navigating the Digital Skills Gap: The Future of Work Apr 07, 2023

In today's episode of Tech Talks Daily Podcast, we welcome Simon Walker and Tim Smeaton from Kubrick Group, as we tackle the challenge of under-skilling in basic digital skills, which could affect 5 million workers by 2030. We dive into the UK's digital sector, its exponential growth, and the future impact of the UK's Digital Strategy, which aims to contribute an additional £41.5bn to the economy and create 678,000 jobs.

Join us as Simon and Tim emphasize the importance of recruiting and cultivating talent from non-traditional backgrounds, focusing on the "frozen middle" – a group with 5-10 years of experience at risk of being left behind in the digital economy. Learn how companies can address this issue and help shape the future of work in the tech industry. Don't miss this insightful conversation on bridging the digital skills gap!

2331: Antavo and the Tech Behind Next-Gen Omnichannel Loyalty Programs Apr 06, 2023

In today's Tech Talks Daily Podcast episode, I sit down with the inspiring Zsuzsa Kecsmar, Chief Strategy Officer and Co-founder of Antavo, the leading loyalty technology platform used by major brands like BMW, KFC, Simply Be, Ripcurl, Kathmandu, and Luisaviaroma. Zsuzsa shares her journey from Journalist of the Year in Hungary (2009) to being listed by Forbes as one of Europe's top 100 female founders in tech (2016).

Zsuzsa's fascinating origin story unfolds as she reveals how her experience as a local radio producer in Hungary shaped her path into the tech industry. She also discusses the vibrant tech scene in her home country.

Discover how Antavo is revolutionizing loyalty programs, enabling next-gen solutions that go beyond transactions. Zsuzsa explains how their platform helps brands like BMW and KFC revamp their loyalty strategies and achieve business goals.

Learn about the importance of gradual change in loyalty programs, the innovative technology that supports these strategies, and the challenges brands face in creating effective loyalty systems. Zsuzsa also shares her thoughts on exciting tech trends in the industry, the AI revolution's impact on Antavo and their global strategy to bring their loyalty solutions to professionals and systems integrators worldwide.

Gratitude plays a significant role in Zsuzsa's success story, as she highlights the support she received from investor Kristina Perkin-Davison, founder of iEurope. The conversation wraps up with a glimpse into Zsuzsa's upcoming business travels and Neil's podcasting business.

Take advantage of this incredible interview with one of Europe's top female tech founders as she shares her journey and insights into the world of loyalty technology and beyond.

2330: Cybersecurity Frontlines: Tackling Skill Shortages and Protecting the Digital World Apr 05, 2023

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, we're joined by Jesper Trolle, CEO of Exclusive Networks, a global cybersecurity and cloud transformation specialist dedicated to safeguarding data and helping companies navigate the complex world of cybersecurity. Listen in as Jesper shares insights on how Exclusive Networks scouts the market for innovative cybersecurity manufacturers, partners with them, and brings their solutions to market through their extensive network of over 26,000 partners.

Together, we discuss the pressing issue of the cybersecurity skills shortage and the importance of initiatives that connect young people and professionals from other industries to cybersecurity education and opportunities. Jesper emphasizes the need for diversity in the industry and the value of on-the-job experience in training.

Together we delve into the challenges posed by the accelerating threat landscape of cybercrime, highlighting the necessity for international collaboration between businesses and governments. We also explore the critical role of technology and cybersecurity in today's interconnected world, driven by the rise of remote work due to COVID-19.

Discover the impact of the shift to cloud computing on the security perimeter, and learn about the importance of securing access to data as digital transformation accelerates. Jesper recommends the book "Digital Hesitation" for understanding the challenges of digital transformation. Finally, we discuss Exclusive Academy's three-year program to address the cybersecurity skill shortage and the importance of international collaboration in the fight against cybercrime.

2329: Digital Wellbeing - Managing the Negative Sides of Tech Apr 04, 2023

In today's episode of Tech Talks Daily, we are joined by Sam Flynn, a Digital Wellbeing Coach with 12 years of experience as a social media trainer. Sam discusses the importance of managing the negative aspects of technology in our lives and shares valuable insights into how we can consciously use the digital world to minimize its negative impact on our focus, time, sleep, mental health, and creativity.

In this episode, Sam covers:

The challenges of smartphone addiction and its consequences
Strategies for maintaining a healthy relationship with technology
Tips for managing digital wellbeing in personal and professional life
Turning off notifications, using blocking apps, and other practical steps
How Sam overcame her own phone addiction and now helps others
Leveraging Business Psychology to improve productivity in teams

Join us for an enlightening conversation with Sam Flynn as she shares her expertise and personal journey to help individuals and teams achieve a healthy balance between the digital world and their overall wellbeing. Don't miss this episode of Tech Talks Daily for valuable insights and actionable tips on mastering digital wellbeing!

2328: Smartsheet - Navigating the Resource Recession - Future of Work Management Insights Apr 03, 2023

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, we are joined by Ben Canning, the Senior Vice President of Product at Smartsheet, an enterprise platform for modern work management. Ben discusses the recent findings of Smartsheet's inaugural Future of Work Management Report, which reveals a "resource recession" affecting businesses across the globe as they operate with limited personnel, technology, and support.

The report uncovers a rise in "citizen project managers," junior employees taking on additional work outside their job descriptions and without proper training.

Key talking points in this episode include:

Work management trends and the future of work
Insights from Smartsheet's Future of Work Management Report
The rise of the "citizen project manager"
How businesses can turn the resource recession into a resource revolution
The importance of support, training, and technology for project teams
Focusing on the "middle work" for project success and employee satisfaction
The value of scalable, repeatable processes in project management

Join us for an insightful conversation with Ben Canning as he shares expert insights into the current state of work management and provides valuable advice on how businesses can empower their teams with the right tools, technology, and training to succeed in this rapidly changing landscape.

2327: From Finance to IT: Alex Svinov's Path to Startup Triumph Apr 02, 2023

Join me for an engaging conversation with Alex Svinov, CEO and Co-Founder of Insquad, as he shares his journey from a career in finance and banking to becoming a successful serial entrepreneur. After realizing his passion for IT, Alex launched his first startup while working full-time, eventually co-founding five businesses, four of which achieved remarkable success.

In this episode, Alex offers valuable insights on:

Pivoting in your startup journey: Learn when and how to pivot when your startup isn't reaching the desired results, emphasizing the importance of execution and the ability to test hypotheses quickly.
The significance of AI: Explore why AI is the most crucial technology of this decade and how it's changing the landscape across various industries, with recent breakthroughs like ChatGPT showcasing its revolutionary potential.
The future of tech growth: Alex discusses the recent massive layoffs in the tech industry and explains why this is just a temporary setback, with the fundamental growth story still very much alive.
Staffing and remote work trends: Discover why the shift towards remote work will continue in the future, not just in IT but across multiple industries.

With years of experience in IT and entrepreneurship, Alex Svinov now leads Insquad, a platform that helps companies hire remote engineering talents quickly and efficiently. In addition, his expertise in founding and managing successful startups offers invaluable insights and advice for aspiring and seasoned entrepreneurs.

2326: M&A: Rod Cope's Strategies for Tech Integration Success Apr 01, 2023

In this episode, we are joined by Rod Cope, Chief Technology Officer at Perforce Software, a company that has made 11 acquisitions in the past six years, including his own. Rod shares his unique insights on navigating the challenges and uncertainties that come with mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and provides valuable advice on eliminating friction and ensuring successful integration between companies.

Rod's extensive experience in M&A has taught him that it typically takes at least two years for companies to fully integrate and become a cohesive unit. He shares his top tips for tech leaders on both sides of an M&A to support a positive experience:

Host a Town Hall early on with an AMA (Ask Me Anything) section to build trust and open communication among the entire team.
Set clear expectations through transparent and constant contact, ensuring everyone is on the same page throughout the process.
Swap out the brands early on, including building signs, email signatures, and more, as these small details can make a significant difference in establishing a unified identity.
Ensure employees don't experience any friction with calendars, emails, and communication, allowing them to feel like part of the greater team.

Rod also discusses how tech leaders can better prepare for acquiring or merging with another organization and the importance of understanding the time it takes for a successful integration.

As companies worldwide rely on Perforce to build complex digital products faster and with higher quality, Rod's insights and experiences offer a valuable perspective for tech leaders navigating the M&A landscape. Tune in to this episode to learn from Rod Cope's extensive expertise in M&A and discover how to successfully eliminate friction and foster a positive experience during the integration process.

2325: Univention - How to Turn IT From a Hindrance Into an Asset Mar 31, 2023

Univention is a leading supplier of Open Source products for the major operation and management of IT infrastructures - either classic on-premises, in the cloud, or in hybrid environments, for companies of any size. It also provides standardized identity management systems for organizations from 5 people to 5 million.

Kevin Korte joins me in a conversation about how companies can adopt leading-edge cybersecurity practices and turn IT from a hindrance into an asset. We also discuss digital identities, password management, single sign-on, and Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA).

2324: Poll Everywhere - Cybersecurity Tips for the Remote Workplace Mar 31, 2023

The shift to remote work has brought numerous changes to the professional landscape. Still, one often overlooked aspect is the need for robust security measures to protect employees and organizations. In this episode, we discuss the crucial topic of cybersecurity in the era of remote work with Alec Nuñez, Director of Business Compliance at Poll Everywhere.

With many organizations transitioning to hybrid or fully remote work models, ensuring proper security protocols are in place has never been more important. In fact, only 32% of companies with existing cybersecurity plans updated their security measures after shifting to a remote work model, leaving them vulnerable to a range of cyber threats.

Alec shares his valuable insights and experiences, as Poll Everywhere has been a hybrid company since its inception in 2007 and is now fully remote. He discusses what proper work-from-home (WFH) security looks like and how organizations can adapt and strengthen their security measures to safeguard against attacks and breaches in an increasingly digital world.

In this episode, we cover the importance of updating security protocols for remote and hybrid work environments and the challenges and risks faced by organizations that don't prioritize cybersecurity in a remote work setting. Alec shares his firsthand experience with Poll Everywhere's transition from hybrid to fully remote work and the security measures they implemented. He also shares practical steps and best practices for organizations to bolster and maintain security for their remote workforce.

Join us for an engaging conversation with Alec Nuñez as we delve into the world of cybersecurity for remote employees and learn how organizations can protect themselves and their workforce in the new era of remote work. Don't miss this opportunity to gain invaluable insights and tips from a seasoned professional to help you ensure your organization's cybersecurity is up to par in today's ever-changing work landscape.

2323: Rocket Money - Using Tech to Cancel Forgotten Subscriptions and Negotiate Bills Mar 30, 2023

In this episode, I take a deep dive into the world of personal finance and explore how Rocket Money, a personal finance app with over 3.4 million members, is empowering consumers to take control of their financial lives. We are joined by Yahya Mokhtarzada, the face behind Rocket Money's television commercials and its co-founder, as he discusses his journey developing Rocket Money, the app's money management features, and shares tips on how consumers can live their best financial lives.

Rocket Money, formerly known as Truebill, has made its mark as a leading personal finance app with a mission to help users optimize their spending, manage subscriptions, lower their bills, and effortlessly set aside money to achieve their savings goals. By analyzing members' spending habits, identifying inefficiencies, and offering immediate solutions to improve their financial health, Rocket Money gives its members a valuable advantage on their financial journey.

In this episode, Yahya shares the app's unique features, such as canceling unwanted subscriptions, creating personalized budgets, and even negotiating bills on behalf of users. Yahya also gives us a behind-the-scenes look at how Rocket Money's technology makes it all possible. Key discussion points include:

Join us for an insightful conversation with Yahya Mokhtarzada as we delve into the world of personal finance and uncover how Rocket Money is revolutionizing money management for millions of users.

2322: Boson Protocol - NFTs and the New Age of Customer Loyalty: Mar 29, 2023

As brands increasingly turn to loyalty programs to foster lasting customer relationships, NFTs have emerged as a game-changer, providing a new level of exclusivity and engagement. With Boson Protocol's unique approach, businesses can develop decentralized alternatives to traditional eCommerce, offering consumers exclusive experiences, events, and content by purchasing NFTs.

Justin Banon, CEO and Founder of Boson Protocol, discusses the power of token-gated commerce and NFTs in driving long-term customer engagement. He shares insights on how brands implement token-gated commerce to forge new customer relationships, the potential for NFTs to deliver enduring consumer benefits, and how the Boson Protocol's latest release, v2 of their dApp, empowers brands to launch their tokenized loyalty programs.

In this episode, you'll also learn about how major brands like Starbucks, Disney, and Adidas have embraced NFTs to drive long-term community engagement. We also explore the global customer loyalty management market's impressive growth, predicted to surpass $24 billion by 2028 and the increasing popularity and utility of NFTs, particularly among institutional investors.

I also find out more about the role of Boson Protocol in creating a decentralized alternative to eCommerce through redeemable NFTs. Take advantage of this fascinating conversation on the future of commerce and loyalty programs in the age of NFTs with Justin Banon of Boson Protocol.

2321: Emplifi - Why a UGC Strategy Matters in 2023 and Beyond Mar 28, 2023

In this insightful and timely podcast episode, we sit down with Kyle Wong, a thought leader in user-generated content (UGC) and influencer marketing, to discuss why a UGC strategy matters more than ever in 2023 and beyond. As social media continues to evolve, businesses must adapt to stay ahead of the curve, and Kyle's expertise offers valuable insights into this rapidly changing landscape.

Kyle delves into the importance of UGC in scaling businesses, explaining how brands can leverage the power of social proof to grow and succeed in an increasingly competitive market. He emphasizes the necessity for authenticity and shares his insights on how businesses can create genuine experiences for their customers that resonate on a deeper level.

We also explore the ongoing debate about the effectiveness of UGC versus influencer and celebrity campaigns. Finally, Kyle provides real-world examples of brands that have successfully harnessed the power of UGC, demonstrating how this strategy can lead to tangible results and long-term success.

In addition to addressing the challenges brands face when starting a UGC strategy, Kyle discusses the evolution of user-generated content and its impact on social media and social commerce. He highlights the growth of social proof as a vital marketing channel. Finally, he shares his predictions on the future of brand social media management, stressing the importance of integrating social channels and content into a winning strategy.

Join us in this conversation with Kyle Wong, and learn how your business can tap into the power of UGC to scale, create authentic experiences, and outshine the competition in today's digital world.

2320: Datastax - Cirque du Soleil to Silicon Valley: How Dance Shaped Mala Tejwani Into a Data Operations Leader Mar 27, 2023

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, we are thrilled to host Mala Tejwani, the operations lead at DataStax, who shares her inspiring journey from a world champion in Indian classical dance to a leading role in Silicon Valley's tech industry. Mala's unconventional background provides a fresh perspective on how her experiences as a dancer translate to the tech world.

Mala reflects on how her dance career taught her the importance of fluidity, agility, passion, precision, and creativity, and how these qualities are crucial for anyone starting a new career in any industry. Mala started her tech career at Google in an entry-level position, but her passion for solving complex problems and creating efficient solutions led her to grow within the organization and eventually take on a leading role at DataStax.

During the conversation, Mala shares insights into her experience leading operations at DataStax through significant periods of activity and growth. She also advises professionals looking to pivot into tech from other industries and how to harness their unique skills and experiences to succeed.

Mala's story is a testament to the power of resilience, adaptability, and pursuing your passion in the face of challenges. If you're interested in hearing how Mala's background in dance helped her succeed in the tech industry, this episode is a must-listen.

2319: Rally and the Evolution of E-commerce and Checkout Solutions Mar 26, 2023

In this episode, I am joined by Jordan Gal, co-founder of Rally, a company on a mission to empower merchants and app developers by providing them with a headless, fully optimized, one-click checkout solution. Rally is revolutionizing the modern headless e-commerce ecosystem, bridging front- and back-end platforms, and creating seamless customer checkout experiences.

Listen in as Jordan shares the origin story of Rally and the problems it aims to solve with technology and how Rally collaborates with Swell, Klarna, and Stripe to help small businesses scale without being tied to Shopify, acting as a 'headless' checkout option. He also shares s use case to help listeners understand how Rally can work in their world

Jordan also talks about his experience raising $6M in 2021, along with advice for startup founders looking to follow in his footsteps. In addition, he evem finds time to share a few tips for early-stage founders looking to grow a business in this area, and his passion for ensuring small business owners can operate on their terms.

Join us for an insightful conversation with Jordan Gal as we explore the power of Rally's innovative checkout solution and the future of e-commerce.

2318: THORWallet DEX - Permissioned vs. Permissionless DeFi Mar 25, 2023

Permissioned blockchains have gained popularity as an alternative to open distributed networks, attracting institutional investment by ensuring security through restricted access.

Although permissioned decentralized finance (DeFi) could ease the transition for traditional finance players into the blockchain industry, it is undoubtedly a departure from the core ethos that drives the development of permissionless blockchains like THORChain, a non-custodial decentralized exchange that opens access to native and cross-chain liquidity.

Permissioned chains offer the familiarity standards of security, privacy, and control that financial institutions are used to. By that very nature permissioned DeFi is oxymoronic, recreating the restrictions of the traditional financial system that DeFi was designed to bypass. Such permissioned protocols may attract institutional support but inevitably stray from the open, transparent, and equitable ethos that is championed by permissionless blockchains.

Pedro Isaac Lopez, Chief Growth Officer at THORWallet DEX, the gateway to THORChain and the only non-custodial DeFi wallet to offer cross-chain swaps, advocates for the position that if it is not permissionless, then it is equally not decentralized: it’s centralization masquerading as innovation. Listen in as we discuss how decentralized blockchain networks maintain security through over-collateralization without sacrificing open access for everyone.

2317: Adobe Summit - Thriving in Uncertainty: The New Playbook for Leaders Mar 24, 2023

At the Adobe Summit, I sat down with Joan Smith, Managing Director and leader of Protiviti Digital, to discuss how leaders and marketers can navigate the uncertainties of today's rapidly changing landscape. As the lines between digital and physical continue to blur, businesses are grappling with challenges such as shifting consumer behavior, data privacy regulations, and supply chain interdependence, all while facing a looming economic downturn.

In this enlightening conversation, Joan shares her insights on Meeting customer expectations in an economic downturn by delivering meaningful experiences. We also discuss connecting technology to customer value, focusing on experience rather than process, and orchestrating purposeful interactions for hyper-personalization without being creepy.

We also discuss how businesses can embed agility and automation into operating principles to adapt to a world of constant change in an informative chat on thriving in uncertainty, embracing change, and redefining the playbook for leaders and marketers.

2316: Jonathan Rosenberg, CTO, Five9 on Transforming the Telecom Industry Mar 24, 2023

In this episode of The Tech Talks Podcast, I am thrilled to welcome Jonathan Rosenberg, the CTO and head of AI at Five9. With over 25 years of experience, Jonathan is a true pioneer in the industry, co-inventing SIP and being named one of the 100 most innovative technologists in the world by Technology Review Magazine.

Join us as we dive into Jonathan's passion for technology, his pivotal role in SIP's development, and how it transformed the communications landscape by creating new markets and job opportunities. We'll also explore Five9's innovative AI strategy, including their latest product, Agent Assist, designed to enhance customer service agent productivity and efficacy.

As the leading provider of cloud customer service technology, Five9 is at the forefront of AI-powered solutions for customer experience. We'll discuss the impact of AI technologies like ChatGPT and GPT-3 on businesses, brand loyalty, and customer experience. Jonathan will share his thoughts on innovation during economic uncertainty, explaining his mantra: "Be adopters, not innovators."

Finally, we'll discuss Five9's new European Research and Development site in Portugal and the challenges their engineering teams are tackling. Jonathan will also share his excitement about the future of technology and where current tech trends are taking us.

2315: ClickUp - The Crucial Role of Technology and Culture in Driving Productivity Mar 23, 2023

In this episode, we delve into the fascinating findings of a recent study by ClickUp, conducted by Sapio Research, which uncovers the critical factors that differentiate high-productivity businesses from their less productive counterparts.

Join me and my special guest, Richard McGuinness, VP of Sales EMEA at ClickUp, who shares his expertise on the essential role of technology, training, and culture in driving productivity. We'll discuss how open communication channels, strong team cohesion, and a focus on employee well-being all contribute to improved organizational productivity and job satisfaction.

Together, we'll explore top-performing organizations' most effective productivity measurements techniques, such as tracking task progress and completion and performance against set objectives or deliverables. Additionally, we'll examine the importance of setting employees up for success by providing them with the right technology, resources, and an inclusive culture fostering growth and innovation.

During our conversation, we'll also dive into the impact of higher productivity on employee well-being. The study shows a strong correlation between high productivity and better job satisfaction, work-life balance, and motivation.

2314: Adobe Summit: The Future of Sports Technology with Rick Limpert Mar 22, 2023

Welcome to this episode of the podcast, where we explore the intersection of sports and technology with Rick Limpert, the No.1 Sports Tech Writer in the U.S. With over a decade of experience in this field, Rick has become a leading voice in the industry, appearing on major news networks and writing for prominent publications.

In this episode, Rick shares his insights on the ways in which technology has transformed the world of sports, and how many of the consumer tech devices we use today have their origins in the sports world. We dive into the exciting advancements in sports fan engagement, including the use of technology in arenas and stadiums, and the trends shaping the armchair fan experience.

Rick's passion for sports and technology is contagious, and his enthusiasm for the future of this industry is inspiring. Join us as we explore the fascinating world of sports and technology, and discover how these two seemingly disparate fields are converging in ways that are revolutionizing the way we experience sports. Don't miss out on this insightful conversation with one of the leading voices in sports tech!

2313: Qlik - The Rise of Synthetic Data and Actionable Intelligence Mar 21, 2023

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, we're joined by Dan Sommer, Qlik Senior Director and Global Market Intelligence Lead, as we explore the challenges and opportunities businesses face amidst a perfect storm of economic recession, declining VC funding and conflicting global regulations. Dan, a former Gartner analyst, shares his expertise on markets, trends, competitive landscape evaluations, and go-to-market strategies.

I learn more about how Qlik, a US company with a Swedish heart, aims to change the world by making it easier for people to make more insightful, data-driven decisions and act on them. Dan emphasizes the importance of honing the accuracy of decision-making to anticipate unexpected events and achieve connected governance in a world of disparate and siloed datasets.

Join us as we discuss the impact of market consolidation, the rise of synthetic data, and the need for AI to move deeper into the pipeline to consolidate and strengthen organizations' data processing. Finally, Dan shares how to navigate uncertainty and future-proof your business in this rapidly changing tech landscape.

2312: How KFC is Embracing Technology and Conversational Analytics Mar 20, 2023

This daily tech podcast explores how technology transforms our lives, work, industries, and world. At the recent X4 event by Qualtrics, I sat down with Rob Swain, the Global COO of KFC. Tune in as we dive into how technology and conversational analytics have unlocked actionable insights for KFC.

I learn more about how in each of their 27,000 restaurants, every manager takes on the role of a part-time data analyst. They monitor social media, assess customer feedback, guide employees, and propose enhancements. This empowerment enables the overall brand to prioritize what truly matters to customers by integrating customer and employee feedback.

We'll discuss how these tech tools have empowered KFC's team to tune in to what people say about their brand, allowing them to improve everything – from taste and food service to the delivery experience. Rob Swain's insights on the technology will enable every listener to take a peek behind the curtain at the tech behind every KFC experience.

After listening to this episode, you may find that your future KFC orders will never be the same. You might even feel compelled to share the fascinating story of conversational analytics and the tech behind KFC with the person next to you. But be warned – they might tell you to be quiet, enjoy your boneless banquet, and stop making everything about tech. Or maybe that's just what happens to me.

2311: The Future of Cybersecurity: An Introduction to Naoris Protocol Mar 19, 2023

David Carvalho joins me in a conversation sharing his insights on how the Naoris Protocol is revolutionizing cybersecurity for enterprises and individuals in today's hyper-connected world. In this episode, we'll explore the decentralized cybersecurity mesh architecture (dCSMA) that protects networks and data by turning every connected device into a trusted validator node.

We'll discuss how Naoris Protocol leverages the power of blockchain and swarm AI to record real-time immutable ZK proofs of every device's status, identifying and mitigating threats in milliseconds and ensuring infrastructure security.

With the average breach detection time for a large enterprise being 280 days, Naoris Protocol is a game changer for regulators and cybersecurity in general. Our proactive solution helps companies manage cyber risks in real time instead of relying on reactive regulation after the fact.

Join us as we dive deep into the world of cybersecurity and discuss how Naoris Protocol is paving the way for a safer and more secure future.

2310: Alva Labs - Can AI Reduce Employee Churn and Improving Retention? Mar 19, 2023

Today we explore the future of recruitment and the role of AI in creating a more equitable and efficient job market. In this episode, we are joined by Malcolm Burenstam Linder, the CEO of Alva Labs, a company that is dedicated to using technology to revolutionize the recruitment process.

We start by discussing the traditional recruitment methods that are known to promote bias and how technology can help replace them. Malcolm shares his insights on the importance of maintaining a long-term hiring strategy, particularly in a changing market, and how technology can create a more candidate-centric approach to recruitment.

We also delve into the role of AI in recruitment and how it can assist in making the process more accurate, diverse, and efficient. Malcolm shares how companies that base their hiring decisions on data rather than personal opinions can recruit with better accuracy and higher diversity while reducing employee churn and improving performance.

Join us as we explore the future of recruitment and how technology can help create a more equitable and efficient job market that benefits both organizations and job candidates alike.

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2309: Finding the Way: The Entrepreneur's Tale Mar 18, 2023

In today's episode of the Tech Talks Daily Podcast, we delve into the world of entrepreneurship and investing with the guidance of Cap Treeger, a serial entrepreneur and investor. Join us as we explore the lessons he's learned from his own successes and failures in building multiple businesses in various industries.

As the Wall Street Journal and National best-selling author of Finding the Way, Cap Treeger has invested directly in several dozen early stage ventures and indirectly in hundreds more through his engagement in angel and venture funds. Through his experiences, he's gained invaluable insights into the world of entrepreneurship and investing.

In his fictional account of an entrepreneur's journey to the top, Cap Treeger crafts a series of dynamic and well-drawn lessons for anyone who wants to start or build a business venture. Follow the story of Ren, a driven individual with a dream to build his own startup from the ground up, as he navigates the complexities of the business world. With the help of his mentors and his own trial and error experiences, Ren discovers the importance of building a solid team and crafting a well-thought-out business model.

Join us on the Tech Talks Daily podcast as we explore the factors necessary for success in entrepreneurship and investing, with insights from one of the industry's most experienced and successful players.

2308: Assurant - The Sustainable Future of Refurbished Tech Devices Mar 17, 2023

In this episode, we're diving into the world of refurbished tech devices, e-waste, and the great digital divide. Our special guest is Biju Nair, EVP & President of the Global Connected Living business unit at Assurant, a leading provider of device protection, support, and logistics solutions for mobile devices, smart homes, and connected devices.

Biju's expertise in the wireless industry spans more than 25 years. He oversees the refurbishment and recycling of connected devices for Assurant, which repurposed over 17 million devices last year for companies like AT&T and Vodafone. Biju's entrepreneurial and innovation leadership has driven Assurant's sustainability and environmental responsibility commitment.

In this episode, we discuss the impact of automation on sustainability in the e-waste and recycling market. We also explore the benefits of repurposed technology for consumers in developed and emerging markets, such as improved sustainability and connectivity. Join us as we delve into the exciting world of refurbished tech devices and learn how they are changing the game in the tech industry.

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2307: Bridging the Digital Divide with Code Division Mar 17, 2023

On today's episode of Tech Talks Daily, I am joined by Bianca Peel and Frank Duffy, the founder of Code Division, a non-profit organisation and SQA-certified learning centre in Scotland. They are on a mission to provide free digital education to those who need it most, focusing on individuals who are unemployed, facing barriers to employment, and from underrepresented backgrounds in tech.

As automation and technological advancements threaten to displace 75 million jobs, Code Division empowers communities through industry-driven courses in data analysis, cyber resilience, business applications, software development, and more. By offering practical work-based learning and SQA accreditation, they prepare learners for various digital roles and help bridge the digital divide.

In this insightful conversation, we'll discuss the importance of digital equality and the positive social impacts of Code Division's latest initiatives. Learn how this inspiring non-profit brings the tech community together to support students with job opportunities, laptop donations, and mentoring.

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2306: Allianz Travel and the Tech Revolution Transforming CX Mar 16, 2023

Last week at the X4 Summit, I dived into the world of customer experience with Maggie Butler, Director of Customer Experience at Allianz. With keynotes from inspirational figures like Martha Stewart, Sean White, Tony Hawks, and The Killers, this event is packed with excitement. But my conversation with Maggie takes center stage in this episode.

We explore how Allianz, a travel insurance company assisting 25 million customers annually, leverages its partnership with Qualtrics to better understand and serve its customers. Learn how Allianz unifies data from its Voice of the Customer (VoC) program, customer service call monitoring, satisfaction surveys, and social media platforms to identify actionable insights and align its products with customers' actual needs.

About Allianz Partners

Allianz Partners is a world leader in B2B2C insurance and assistance, offering global solutions that span international health and life, travel insurance, automotive, and assistance. Customer-driven, their innovative experts are redefining insurance services by delivering future-ready, high-tech, high-touch products and solutions that go beyond traditional insurance.

Their products are embedded seamlessly into their partners' businesses or sold directly to customers and are available through four commercial brands: Allianz Assistance, Allianz Automotive, Allianz Travel, and Allianz Care. Present in 75 countries, our 21,100 employees speak 70 languages, handle over 71 million cases each year, and are motivated to go the extra mile to offer peace of mind to their customers around the world.

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2305: Marketing Mix Optimisation: A Triangulated Approach by Ekimetrics Mar 16, 2023

Today's guest is Matt Andrew, UK Managing Director and Partner at Ekimetrics. The global data science consultancy helps brands improve their marketing performance, understand customers, and enhance operational excellence through analytics and data science.

Ekimetrics uses econometrics as a basis and employs triangulated methods such as Marketing Mix Optimisation (MMO) to ensure that brands make consistent decisions. Matt Andrew has worked with Google and Meta on solutions like MMO, helping clients make more confident decisions.

I learn more about how The UK team at Ekimetrics grew by 60% last year and has over 400 data scientists worldwide. The ongoing development and expansion of its Data Science Transformation, Customer Centricity, and MMO solutions are helping some major brands with holistic measurement globally at scale.

In this episode, we explore the potential of emerging technologies such as the Metaverse, web 3.0, and AI. We also discuss the true potential of digital as an integral part of marketing. Sustainability is high on Ekimetrics' agenda for 2023, and we discuss their plans in this regard.

Join us as we delve into the fascinating world of data science and marketing effectiveness with Matt Andrew of Ekimetrics.

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2304: WatchGuard Cybersecurity Predictions Mar 15, 2023

Corey Nachreiner, CSO at WatchGuard, joins me in a conversation about the latest cybersecurity predictions for 2023 from WatchGuard’s Threat Lab research team. Our guest then shares the story behind the batch of predictions for 2023, offering different takes on potential hacks and attacks in various categories.

We discuss two matchups: “Insurers Going Vertical” and “Targeting Vendors and Partners.” Then, moving on, we explore the hype around the metaverse and web3 and question whether we could see a Big Metaverse Hack this year too.

One of the standout predictions is the potential surge in MFA-targeted Social Engineering Attacks. Our guest expands on this trend and explains the prediction regarding Hacking AI Robotaxis in a simple and accessible way as if explaining it to a five-year-old. The podcast also explores the prediction regarding Vulnerability Proliferation through AI Coding Tools, discussing how AI tools could empower script kiddies to write malware and write more convincing phishing emails.

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2303: Coinfantasy - Gamifying the Experience of Investing in Crypto Mar 14, 2023

In this episode, we have invited Harishkarthik Gunalan, a crypto enthusiast and expert in the gaming industry, to share his insights on CoinFantasy. Harishkarthik will delve into the key USPs and innovations of CoinFantasy, and how it differs from other Play-to-Earn model games.

He also shares his thoughts on the future of this space, new innovations and trends in the De-Fi Gaming Industry in 2023, and how gaming can transform the financial sector. Additionally, he will discuss how CoinFantasy can influence the financial and gaming industry and the plans in the pipeline.

I learn more about how CoinFantasy is a platform that offers a unique and innovative approach to investing in cryptocurrency, making it accessible to anyone without the risk of financial losses. The platform uses blockchain technology to create a decentralized and transparent ecosystem, providing users with a secure and reliable cryptocurrency investment platform.

This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in the gaming industry's future and blockchain technology's potential to transform the financial sector. Harishkarthik's insights and expertise will give listeners a deeper understanding of CoinFantasy and its exciting opportunities.

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2302: How Tech is Transforming the Shake Shack Experience Mar 13, 2023

Join me on the Tech Talks Daily podcast as I welcome Charles Frankievich, Director of Consumer Insights at Shake Shack. In this episode, we discuss the critical role that technology and data play in shaping the customer experience at Shake Shack.

We discuss the brand's 5-year plan to become a national competitor and how insights from data and analytics helped Shake Shack truly understand how guests feel and what they need to do to keep them coming back.

Charles reveals how Shake Shack will continue to leverage technology to improve the customer experience and shares fascinating insights into what goes on behind the curtain at the popular fast-casual restaurant chain. If you're a fan of Shake Shack or simply interested in how technology is transforming the restaurant industry, this is an episode you won't want to miss.

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2301: Data Transformation: ETL vs. ELT: Making the Right Choice for Your Business Mar 13, 2023

In this episode, we are joined by Matthew Scullion, the CEO of Matillion, a cloud data integration software company. Join us as we dive into an intriguing conversation about ETL and ELT - their differences, how to choose which one to use, and why making the wrong choice can lead to a waste of IT budgets.

Matthew also sheds light on the challenges caused by the ever-increasing volume and complexity of data and data sources, and shares his insights on how to overcome these barriers. We also discuss the risks of information gaps caused by slow and inefficient data processes and how to bridge these gaps.

Furthermore, we explore the best approach for data teams in using a mix of no code/high code/own code and how to determine which one is best suited for specific circumstances in terms of cost savings and efficiency. Tune in for an enlightening conversation on all things data integration with Matthew Scullion!

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2300: Make Work Better With HR Tech: A Call to Action for HR and Business Leaders Mar 12, 2023

Over the last few years, the way we work has changed dramatically. We have transitioned from working in an office to working from home at scale to hybrid working. While this transition was challenging at first, we now expect to work from any device, on any network, in any location at any time. So the big question now is, how can we make work better? How can we improve the future of work?

In this episode of Tech Talk Daily Podcast, I am joined by Doug Dennerline, CEO and Chairman, and Jamie Aitken, VP of HR Transformation at Betterworks. as our special guests. Betterworks is a company that aims to help HR and business leaders make work better by providing innovative HR tech solutions.

Doug and Jamie shed light on some of the most pressing HR tech trends shaping the future of work. They discuss employee-first work culture, new HR tech trends, pay transparency, quiet quitting and firing, and the role of tech in improving DEI. They also provide valuable insights and advice to business leaders on staying ahead of the curve and leveraging the latest HR tech trends to make work better.

One of the key themes that emerges in our conversation is the importance of putting employees first. Doug and Jamie explain that an employee-first work culture is critical for building a motivated and engaged workforce. In today's hybrid working world, creating a culture that fosters collaboration, communication, and connection is more important than ever. HR tech solutions can play a vital role in facilitating this process.

Another topic we explore in depth is the role of tech in improving DEI. As Doug and Jamie explain, HR tech solutions can help businesses identify and address bias in the hiring process, track diversity metrics, and provide training to help employees understand and embrace diversity. Toward the end of the podcast, we discuss the newly released book "Make Work Better" and who it is aimed at. The book is a collaboration between Doug and Jamie, providing insights into the trends shaping the future of work.

They give us a sneak peek into what readers can expect from the book and share their favorite book or song that has inspired them. Overall, this episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in making work better and staying up-to-date with the latest HR tech trends. So tune in, sit back, and enjoy the ride as we explore how tech is shaping the future of work!

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2299: The CEO Reshaping the Lettings Industry With Technology Mar 11, 2023

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I am joined by William Reeve, a serial tech entrepreneur with an extensive track record of founding and chairing successful high-growth tech businesses. William shares his insights on why the rental sector has been overlooked by the tech industry for so long, despite impacting a significant percentage of homes in the UK.

As CEO of Goodlord, a RentTech company, William discusses how he is using technology to revolutionize the rental experience for agents, landlords, and tenants. We explore the challenges faced by the lettings industry and the role that RentTech can play in addressing these issues.

Join us as we discuss the potential of RentTech to reshape the world of renting and establish itself as a major player in the tech industry. Learn why the lettings industry desperately needs tech reform and how Goodlord is leading the charge to bring much-needed innovation to this important sector.

William has extensive experience founding companies such as Fletcher Research (sold to Forrester Research), LOVEFILM (sold to Amazon), and Secret Escapes. He has also served as NED and/or Chair of various high-growth tech businesses, including Graze (sold to Carlyle), Nutmeg (sold to JP Morgan), True Knowledge (sold to Amazon), Media Ingenuity, and Zoopla.

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2298: Virgin Voyages - Technology Takes to the Seas Mar 10, 2023

Virgin Voyages is a cruise line that aims to offer a unique experience to the adult traveler. The company has also partnered with a Creative Collective, including some of the most sought-after interior designers, artists, and architects, to create a sleek, contemporary, and stylish look for the ships.

Virgin Voyages offers city-like eating to sea with 20+ food choices onboard, with no traditional dining rules. The company has also banned single-use plastics on board its ships, including straws, bottled water, other beverage bottles, and food packaging.

Virgin Voyages is committed to having one of the cleanest fleets at sea and has offset its direct climate change emissions by purchasing carbon offsets, making the brand the first cruise line to become carbon-neutral for its direct emissions footprint from its first day of commercial operation. But what does all this mean>

Ultimately, Virgin Voyages is attempting to build a narrative that its ships will be cooler and edgier than what's currently on the market. But I want to learn more about the role of technology in delivering new experiences in the industry.

At the X4 Summit in Utah, Tamara Pluviose, Director of Digital Strategy, at Virgin Voyages, shares her insights and how technology is transforming the cruising experience. Tamara owns the B2C, and B2B digital experiences at Virgin Voyages, and part of that is ownership of the strategies and tactics that help deliver more human brand experiences.

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2297: The Dawn Of A New Marketing Normal: Fusing Human Expertise With AI Technology Mar 10, 2023

The world of marketing is rapidly changing, and businesses need to adapt to stay ahead of the curve. With the rise of AI technology, a new marketing normal is emerging that bridges the gap between brands and their target audiences. AI is being used to analyze vast amounts of data and generate insights that can inform marketing strategies and make them more effective. By using AI, brands can create highly tailored content for their target audiences, which is crucial to building stronger relationships and driving business growth.

In this Tech Talks Daily podcast episode, we delve deeper into this topic with Thomas "AI Nerd" Helfrich, CEO of InstantlyRelevant.com. As an expert in AI technology and marketing, Thomas brings a wealth of knowledge and experience, and is passionate about helping businesses build trust and relevance with their target audiences.

Together, we explore how businesses can leverage technology, data, and experts to create meaningful content with a strategy and purpose. We discuss the challenges of creating content that resonates with target audiences and the importance of understanding your audience and using data to inform your content creation. We also dive into how AI can generate insights and identify new trends and opportunities, which can help brands create more compelling content that drives business growth.

One key takeaway from our conversation is the power of combining a human and AI to create highly tailored, scalable, and effective content. While AI can analyze vast amounts of data and generate insights, humans bring empathy and creativity to the table. By working together, these two elements can create content that is both highly effective and tailored to the specific needs of target audiences.

We also discuss the importance of having a strategic content plan, which is critical for any business looking to accelerate growth and amplify its brand. A strategic content plan can help companies to identify their goals, target audience, and key messaging and can provide a roadmap for creating and distributing content that resonates with their audience and drives business growth.

Overall, this episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in staying ahead of the curve in the ever-evolving world of marketing. With insights from an expert in AI technology and marketing, you'll gain a deeper understanding of how to create meaningful content that has a strategy and purpose, and how to leverage technology and data to drive business growth. Tune in today to learn more!

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2296: AMEX and The Tech Transforming CX in Financial Services Mar 09, 2023

Did you know that last year, Qualtrics analyzed 2 billion conversations and 16 billion surveys? That's a lot of data on customer experiences. And this week, at the X4 Experience Management Summit in Salt Lake City, around 10,000 attendees are discussing how technology can turn a customer into a fanatic, an employee into an ambassador, and a product into an obsession.

One of the companies speaking at the event is AMEX, and they are on a panel discussing how they are transforming financial services with XM. AMEX has set the bar high regarding customer service, and they continue to make world-class service a key differentiator. But how do they stay ahead of the game?

CX is embedded in the culture at AMEX, and they have had a program since 2007. They are now looking at how they approach this from not just a transactional lens, but a journey-centric lens. At the heart of all this is the idea that technology can make businesses more human.

Luis Angel-Lalanne from American Express shares how they transformed how customer sentiment is gathered to help improve their CX. Join us as we explore this fascinating topic in today's podcast.

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2295: The Fine Art Marketplace on Solana Powering the Creator Economy Mar 09, 2023

In this episode of the Tech Talks Daily Podcast, I am joined by Alex Fleseriu, the CEO of Exchange.Art, a fine arts marketplace on Solana. Alex shares with us the impressive growth Exchange.Art has experienced since launching in October 2021, with a consistent 20-60% growth despite other marketplaces dipping this year.

Exchange.Art is a unique marketplace that is creator-focused, unlike its buyer-focused competitors. Alex explains how they have launched a Royalties Standard, giving NFT creators a chance to profit from secondary sales, and a Provenance Feature that shows the entire history of an NFT to prevent fraud. The goal of Exchange.Art is to have a platform that supports creators and gives them the tools to make a living off their work.

Alex reveals that Exchange.Art has paid out $1.2 million in USD to creators in 2022, and grown to a community of 150,000 creators, with 7.3 million collectors and 22 million NFTs minted on the platform since launch. We also discuss NFTs as a form of investment and how they could outperform other asset classes amidst market turndowns.

Furthermore, Alex shares his predictions for web3 and NFTs in 2023 and how Exchange.Art plans to navigate the changes in the industry. Lastly, we learn about the conferences Exchange.Art will be speaking in 2023.

So, tune in to this exciting episode to learn more about Exchange.Art and its unique approach to the NFT marketplace.

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2294: Qualtrics X4 With Brad Anderson - Making Business More Human With Tech Mar 08, 2023

Qualtrics Experience Management (XM) is a software platform that helps brands continually assess the quality of their four core experiences—customers, employees, products, and brands. Last year, Qualtrics analyzed 2 billion conversations and 16 billion surveys.

The Company's X4 event takes place in Salt Lake City this week, where around 10,000 attendees will be discussing how technology can you turn a customer into a fanatic, an employee into an ambassador, A product into an obsession, and create the write-home, tell-everyone-you-know kind of experiences we all love. But, most of all, how technology can make Business more human.

I will report from the event, where there are three days of inspiring keynotes, breakthrough product sessions, live training with Qualtrics experts, and much more. There is so much going on with Keynotes, with some big names such as Ryan Reynolds to Martha Stewart and even music by the Killers.

In today's episode, I sit down with Brad Anderson, President of Products and Engineering at Qualtrics, about his origin story and why he left Microsoft. But most importantly of all, we discuss the big themes at the X4 event and what excites him about leveraging technology to make business more human.

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2293: Thales - The Importance of the Human Factor When Designing Technology Mar 08, 2023

This episode delves into the often-overlooked human factor in cybersecurity with Amanda Widdowson, Head of Human Factors Capability at Thales. Businesses can invest significantly in cybersecurity infrastructure, but human error can undermine it. Amanda shares her extensive knowledge of human factors and ergonomics, highlighting the need to design policies that consider human factors rather than blaming people for poor security practices.

We discuss the importance of adapting policies to compensate for human error and why companies need to fit procedures around the people they have rather than trying to change people. Amanda stresses that while awareness training is crucial, it's not enough. People will still make errors, and technology to prevent these errors is critical.

Finally, we explore the additional challenges that have emerged over the past few years, including home information security. If you're a business owner or work in cybersecurity, you will want to take advantage of this insightful discussion on the human factor in cybersecurity.

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2292: The Future of Cybersecurity with Malwarebytes CEO, Marcin Kleczynski Mar 07, 2023

In this episode, we are joined by Marcin Kleczynski, the CEO and co-founder of Malwarebytes, a leading cybersecurity company. Marcin shares his insights on the cybersecurity workforce gap and its implications for cyberattacks in 2023.

We also discuss the current economic climate and how the cybersecurity industry is weathering it, with the increasing need for better defenses against cyberattacks. One of the key talking points is the importance of Managed Service Providers for small-to-medium sized businesses. Marcin discusses MSPs' role in providing cost-effective and comprehensive cybersecurity solutions to these businesses.

We also delve into entrepreneurship and Malwarebytes' journey from its creation to its current position as a leader in the industry. Finally, Marcin emphasizes the importance of positive leadership in business and investing in your people to build a strong culture.

Additionally, we explore the strategic partnership between Exasol and TurinTech, and how it brings AI to customers. Finally, Marcin shares his thoughts on the growth potential of the cybersecurity industry and how companies can take advantage of this growth to build a more secure future.

Join us as we discuss these critical topics and more with Marcin Kleczynski, a cybersecurity expert and successful entrepreneur.

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2291: Deloitte - The Data-Driven Guide for Digital Transformation Mar 06, 2023

Today, on the Tech Talks Daily Podcast, I am diving into the world of digital business transformation with Tim Bottke, senior Strategy Partner at Monitor Deloitte and Associate Professor for Strategy and Digital Transformation at SDA Bocconi business school.

Years after companies spend millions of dollars on digital transformations, their investors often ask why there's no return on investment. It's not that digital transformations are a waste but that companies haven't designed them to maximize value. As a result, they overpay and get no payback. However, Digital Transformation Payday: Navigate the Hype, Lower the Risks, Increase Return on Investments, Tim's new book, delivers a provocative new perspective on digital business transformation.

As businesses are faced with doing more with less, every tech project must face scrutiny on the value it offers. With this in mind, Tim shares a proven framework for defining any company's next digital transformation effort from end to end, ensuring maximum return on investment and value. In addition, Tim shares how to design digital transformations to maximize value, lower risk, and navigate the hype.

Join us as we explore how to ensure a return on investment and value, no matter the scale of your business or industry. And get ready to buckle up tight for a deep dive into the world of digital transformation with Tim Bottke.

Tim Bottke is a senior Strategy Partner at Monitor Deloitte and an Associate Professor for Strategy and Digital Transformation at SDA Bocconi, a Financial Times/Forbes/Bloomberg Businessweek Top-Five European business school. He has more than 22 years of top management consulting and (digital) transformation experience from two global strategy boutiques and Deloitte, working with clients in more than 20 countries.

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2290: OpenUK CEO Amanda Brock On The Future For Open Source Mar 05, 2023

As businesses and individuals, we rely increasingly on digital services in our everyday lives. Our lives have become dependent on technology, from cloud services to mobile phones and streaming sites to the apps we use. And behind these technologies lies open source software.

Open source software has become a vital part of building digital services. It has made it possible for developers to collaborate and share code, making it faster and more cost-effective to build software. But with this increase in use, the importance of security planning and governance has also grown.

Amanda Brock, CEO of OpenUK, is a leading open-source software and governance expert. She has been an advocate for open source software for over a decade and has seen its impact on the industry. Amanda shares where we are with open source and why we must care about how our software gets put together and where it comes from.

Amanda discusses the importance of understanding the source of the code and the licenses used. With the rise of open source software, it is essential to be aware of potential legal issues and ensure compliance with licensing requirements. She also highlights the importance of building and maintaining trust with open source communities and contributing back to them.

Amanda also emphasizes the role of governance in ensuring the security and reliability of open source software. She points out that open source projects must have a strong governance structure to ensure that contributors are held accountable and that the code is secure. As Amanda notes, open source software has become too important to ignore. We must ensure that we are not only using it but also contributing to it and supporting its continued growth.

By understanding where our software comes from and its governance structure, we can ensure the security and reliability of the technologies we rely on daily. As businesses and individuals, we must recognize the importance of open source software and take steps to ensure its continued growth and success.

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2289: The Company Enhancing Fraud Prevention in the Crypto Industry Mar 04, 2023

In this podcast episode, I'm joined by Alex Zeltcer, the CEO and Co-Founder of nSure.ai, who shares insights on payment fraud prevention in the crypto industry. He debunks the notion that preventing fraud in the crypto space is a complex process and provides real-life examples of how fraudsters attempt to attack crypto businesses. Alex also offers practical tips for listeners to safeguard themselves against such attacks.

Furthermore, Alex sheds light on how his company is utilizing predictive AI to detect and prevent fraud, while maintaining the best possible customer experience. We also address the misconception that crypto fraud prevention is challenging and discuss the five most common ways that fraudsters target the crypto industry.

Lastly, we delve into the significance of KYC in maintaining a healthy financial system, and the dilemma of customers' reluctance to disclose their personal information, despite it being a crucial aspect of the process.

2288: Pivoting from Optometry to Tech: A Journey into Machine Learning Mar 03, 2023

Dominika Szulc from Future Processing joins me on Tech Talks Daily to share the inspirational story that saw her pivot from the optometry industry into a career in tech. She shares her unique career transition to IT and offers advice for anyone wanting to follow in her footsteps. We also discuss how the ML world works from a junior specialist perspective and the tech scene in Poland.

Dominika also shares her view on women in tech and Learning and Development in the industry.

About Dominika

Dominika is a highly-motivated and passionate about machine learning and the use of technology. After +5 years spent in the sales and optometry industry, Dominika decided on career transition. Since 2020, Dominika has attended online coding school, Turing College. Previously, she finished a postgraduate degree: Data Science – Big Data algorithms, tools and techniques (Warsaw University of Technology) and before that, she studied chemistry (Military University Of Technology And Erasmus Exchange at Universidade de Coimbra, Portugal) and Optometry at Warsaw University. At Future Processing, Dominika is developing skills as Junior ML Engineer, working on interpreting data and generating models and prototypes.

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2287: Avanade - Transforming the Employee Experience with Purpose-Driven Technology Strategies Mar 02, 2023

The world is changing, and the way we work is changing with it. For many people, working for a company that is purpose-driven and focused on creating real change is becoming increasingly important. Pam Maynard, CEO of Avanade, believes that technology can play a key role in creating a better employee experience, but only if businesses focus on purpose-driven technology strategies.

In this episode of the Tech Talks Daily podcast, Pam discussed the importance of purpose-driven technology strategies and how they can help transform the employee experience. Pam believes that businesses need to focus on creating change that is meaningful and that truly makes a difference in the lives of their employees.

At Avanade, the company practices what it preaches by being purpose-led. One way it does this is by ensuring that its thirteen employee networks have a say in the work it does and the strategies it creates. This approach helps to create a culture of inclusion and diversity and ensures that employees feel listened to and recognized.

Another key topic discussed in the podcast is the importance of durable growth. Business leaders need to ensure that their organizations are a core part of their customers' prosperity, especially during turbulent times. By focusing on long-term, durable growth and embedding themselves into customer culture, technology businesses can set themselves on the road to ongoing and continuing growth.

The conversation also touches on the importance of inclusion and diversity. It's not just about implementing DEI strategies for the sake of it; it's about doing the right thing and ensuring that all workers feel recognized and valued. Bias must be exposed and eliminated, and leaders must tackle these issues from the front with empathy.

This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in the future of work and the role of technology in creating a better employee experience. It's clear that purpose-driven technology strategies, durable growth, and inclusion and diversity are all critical components of a successful and empowered workforce. By listening to Pam's insights and ideas, business leaders can gain valuable knowledge on creating a more purpose-driven and inclusive organization.

About Pamela

CEO Pamela Maynard believes Avanade's purpose is to make a genuine human impact. She is committed to Avanade's vision: to advance the world through the power of people and Microsoft.

Before being named CEO in September 2019, Pamela was President of Product and Innovation, focused on defining and delivering innovative solutions for our clients. Earlier in her Avanade career, she was President of our European organization after serving as General Manager of Avanade UK.

Throughout her career in the technology industry, Pamela has helped clients rethink how they do business, whether it's to be more resilient in their operations, empower their employees to do more remotely, strengthen customer experience, and beyond. She is passionate about using technology not just as an enabler of business but to support the missions of non-profit organizations and closing the digital divide, especially for young people, so that everyone has an opportunity to participate in the digital world.

2286: Rapid7 - Embedding Cybersecurity in Your Business Processes Mar 01, 2023

As businesses face an ever-growing number of cyber threats, it's no surprise that cybersecurity spending is rising. However, despite all this spending, cyberattacks and data breaches are still occurring at an alarming rate. So what is going wrong?

According to Jason Hart, CTO EMEA at Rapid7, the missing piece of the puzzle is often the failure to operationalize cybersecurity. In other words, businesses need to embed security into their culture and make it a part of their everyday business processes. Instead, they rely solely on technology solutions to detect and respond to threats.

In this podcast interview, Jason outlines the core elements businesses need to have to guarantee a solid foundation for a secure business. One of the critical components is culture and accountability. Companies need to create a culture where security is seen as a shared responsibility across the entire organization, from the boardroom to the front lines. This means providing regular training and education to all employees and ensuring that security is embedded into all business processes and decisions.

Another essential step is identifying what risk is and what isn't. Only some threats are created equal, and businesses need to be able to distinguish between high-risk and low-risk threats. This allows them to focus their resources on the most critical areas and ensure they are adequately protected.

Finally, operationalizing cybersecurity means making it a business process. This involves setting clear metrics and outcomes for security and measuring and reporting on these regularly. This not only helps businesses to track their progress and identify areas for improvement, but it also ensures that security becomes a part of the fabric of the business.

In today's fast-paced, digital world, cybersecurity is no longer an optional extra - it's an essential part of doing business. By following the steps outlined by Jason Hart, companies can ensure that they are taking a proactive approach to security, embedding it in their culture and making it a part of their everyday business processes. This, in turn, will help them better protect their customers, reputation, and bottom line.

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2285: HCL Technologies - The Rise of AI, Multi-Cloud, and Quantum Computing Feb 28, 2023

In this Tech Talks Daily podcast episode, I'm joined by Kalyan Kumar, the Global Chief Technology Officer at HCL Technologies & Chief Product Officer at HCL Software in London. We discuss the impact of technology trends on businesses over the next year.

One of the main topics of the conversation was the role of cloud infrastructure in the quantum revolution. According to Kalyan, by 2030, businesses will no longer be talking about which cloud services to use but how the cloud can deliver on business priorities so they can be ready for the quantum era.

The quantum market is predicted to reach $1 trillion by 2035, and businesses must level up their cloud infrastructure to take advantage of this next generation of computing. However, only those businesses that have nailed the cloud and made it instinctual to them will benefit from the full potential of quantum.

Another topic discussed was the move toward carbon neutrality in the tech sector. HCL Technologies has committed to becoming net zero by 2040, reflecting the increasing pressure from customers for organizations to become greener. KK believes that the tech industry, one of the planet's biggest producers of carbon, will focus on developing new approaches for trapping and removing carbon dioxide from the air. This will lead to a significant focus on carbon sequestration in the next decade in enterprise IT.

Kalyan Kumar's insights provide a glimpse into the future of technology and how it will impact businesses. Cloud infrastructure will be a crucial aspect of the quantum revolution, and organizations must level up their cloud infrastructure to take advantage of this next generation of computing.

In addition, businesses must also consider their environmental impact and focus on achieving carbon neutrality to meet the growing demand for a more sustainable future. Only by embracing these changes will businesses be able to thrive in the coming years.

2284: Vodafone - Exploring The Economy of Things and Digital Identities Feb 27, 2023

In the digital age, businesses of every size constantly look for innovative and efficient ways to embrace positive change and improve their operations. One company leading the way in this space is Vodafone Business, a part of the Vodafone Group that provides a wide range of digital communication technologies to businesses worldwide.

At the forefront of Vodafone Business's digital innovation is David Palmer, the Chief Product Officer and co-founder of Vodafone's Digital Asset Broker (DAB) platform. As a digital visionary and global platform innovator, David is an expert in blockchain technology and its applications to telecoms and wider enterprise businesses.

In this episode of the Tech Talks Daily podcast, David discusses several exciting developments in the world of digital communications, including Vodafone Business's Digital Asset Broker Platform, the economy of things, SIM linking to the blockchain, new middleware to enable IoT devices for business, device identity passports, device wallets, and the metaverse of things.

The Digital Asset Broker (DAB) platform is a blockchain-based solution that allows businesses to easily and securely manage their digital assets, such as contracts, licenses, and intellectual property, through a single platform. This innovative platform helps companies to streamline their operations, reduce costs, and improve their overall efficiency.

David also discussed the "economy of things," which is the idea that the increasing number of connected devices in our world will create new economic opportunities and revenue streams. He explained how Vodafone Business is working to enable businesses to take advantage of these opportunities by providing them with the necessary tools and infrastructure.

Another exciting development that David discussed is SIM linking to blockchain. This technology enables businesses to securely store and manage their SIM cards using blockchain, improving security and reducing the risk of fraud.

David also talks about the importance of device identity passports and device wallets, which are vital components of Vodafone Business's IoT offerings. These solutions enable businesses to securely manage and authenticate their devices, making integrating them into their operations easier.

Finally, David discussed the metaverse of things: the idea that virtual and physical worlds will become increasingly intertwined. He explained how Vodafone Business is working to enable businesses to take advantage of this trend by providing them with the necessary tools and infrastructure to operate in this new world.

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2283: How to Harness the Power of EDB Postgres Feb 26, 2023

Marc Linster, the CTO of EnterpriseDB (EDB), joins me recently on Tech Talks Daily to talk about the benefits and growing popularity of open source database technology. With over 20 years of experience in the database industry, Marc is a leading expert on Postgres, an open source database system that has seen tremendous growth in recent years.

EDB is a leading provider of enterprise-class software and services that enable businesses and governments to fully leverage the power of Postgres. As the world's leading open-source database, Postgres is highly scalable, flexible, and performant. As a result, it is used by organizations of all sizes across a wide range of industries, including finance, government, media, and IT.

During our conversation, Marc explained how Postgres has evolved over the years to become a highly reliable and secure database system suitable for even the most mission-critical applications. He also highlighted the benefits of open source technology, such as the ability to unlock innovation and rapidly iterate on software.

As the role of the CTO continues to evolve, Marc discussed how EDB is helping its clients to harness the full potential of Postgres. With deep database expertise and 24x7 global support, EDB ensures that its clients can leverage the power of Postgres to drive business growth and innovation.

Finally, we discussed the broader tech landscape and how C-suite executives navigate the ongoing shift from proprietary to open-source software. Marc provided valuable insights into the challenges and opportunities facing businesses in a variety of industries and how they can take advantage of open source technology to drive growth and innovation.

If you're interested in learning more about the benefits of open source database technology or how to leverage the power of Postgres for your business, be sure to check out our conversation.

2282: The Insights Engine Combining Human Intelligence and AI Feb 25, 2023

In a recent podcast episode, Lauren Hawker Zafer, the Head of Training and Education at Squirro Artificial Intelligence, joined the discussion on Education in Enterprise digital transformation. As more and more organizations embark on their digital transformation journeys, the importance of educating employees on the changes that come with it cannot be overstated.

One of the key questions we discussed in the podcast is, "When should you educate an enterprise?" We discuss why educating employees at the beginning of the digital transformation process is important. This helps set the tone for the changes that will take place and helps employees understand why these changes are necessary. It is also essential to continuously educate employees throughout the transformation process to ensure that everyone is on the same page and that there are no knowledge gaps.

Another important topic discussed was what education should cover when undergoing a digital transformation. We explore why education should cover the technical aspects of the transformation and the cultural changes that come with it. This includes communication, collaboration, and teamwork, which are all essential for a successful digital transformation.

Finally, the podcast touches on what many CDOs have failed to educate on when carrying out a digital transformation. According to Lauren, many CDOs still need to educate employees on the potential impact the change could have on their roles and responsibilities. This can lead to resistance and confusion among employees and ultimately hinder the transformation's success.

2281: Why Zero Trust Security is More Than a Nice to Have Feb 25, 2023

As the Chief Strategy Officer at Ericom Software, Dr. Chase Cunningham is a leading voice in cybersecurity. With his extensive experience in enterprise security and his nickname "Dr. Zero Trust," Dr. Cunningham is well-positioned to offer insights and advice to organizations looking to protect themselves from advanced security threats.

One of the key points that Dr. Cunningham stresses is the importance of Zero Trust security. Zero Trust security is not just a "nice to have," but an essential component of modern cybersecurity. With businesses becoming increasingly digital and connected, their security threats are also growing. Dr. Cunningham explains that implementing Zero Trust security is a proactive way to reduce risk and ensure that sensitive information is protected from cyberattacks.

Cybersecurity Threats and Vulnerabilities are also key areas of concern for Dr. Cunningham. He is currently seeing an increase in the use of ransomware and other cyberattacks, and he believes this trend will only continue in the future. As a result, businesses need to be proactive in their approach to cybersecurity, and they need to make sure that they are using the latest technologies and strategies to protect their assets.

Another topic that Dr. Cunningham discusses is the recent rapid growth of ChatGPT. ChatGPT has gained 100 million users in just three months, a trend that will likely continue. However, with this growth comes an increased risk of cyberattacks, and Dr. Cunningham believes that organizations must be prepared for these challenges.

Finally, Dr. Cunningham touches on the growing threat of Cyber Warfare. With so much global conflict and political tension, he believes that it's only a matter of time before we see an increase in cyberattacks carried out maliciously. This is why he stresses the importance of Cyber Forensic and Analytic Operations, which can help businesses understand the root causes of these attacks and take steps to prevent them in the future.

The Best of Tech Talks Daily - Classic Interviews You May Have Missed Feb 24, 2023

Welcome to the Daily Tech Podcast! As we approach 2,300 interviews, we have had the privilege of hosting some of the most memorable guests from the tech world and beyond. However, due to limitations on Apple Podcasts, some of these interviews are not easily accessible as they only show the last 2,000 episodes.

In this episode, we feature some forgotten clips that deserve to be highlighted. From William Shatner talking about singing Pupl's Common People to Wendy Williams sharing her backstory, we bring you some of the biggest names in the industry.

We also spoke with John Sculley, former CEO of Apple, who shared stories about his time with Steve Jobs and how he discovered that Jeff Daniels would play him in a movie. Other notable guests include Guy Kawasaki, who shared stories from his time at Apple, and Marylene Delbourg-Delphis, the Duchess of Silicon Valley, who shared her secrets for startup success and how she tempted Guy away from Apple. Finally, I share a clip of my interview with Gary Vaynerchuck when he predicted Joe Rogan's 100 million dollar deal before it happened.

Now I want to hear from you! How long have you been listening, who were your favorite guests, and who would you like to see on the show?

2280: Powerledger - The Tech Solution for Sustainable Energy Trading Feb 24, 2023

Dr. Jemma Green, co-founder and executive chairman of Powerledger, joins me on the Tech Talks Daily Podcast. We discuss the importance of renewable energy and the role of blockchain technology in encouraging its growth. As renewable energy becomes more prevalent, the current centralized grid system in place can create issues for grid stability, leading to wasted energy and increased costs.

Powerledger has developed a blockchain-enabled software that matches the time and place of energy generation to when and where it is required, enabling peer-to-peer trading of excess renewable energy within local energy communities. This system reduces the cost of energy, encourages the growth of renewable energy, and reduces the need for fossil fuel-based energy.

Additionally, Powerledger has developed a proprietary blockchain solution that is less energy-intensive and faster than previous blockchain systems. The company has won numerous awards for its work in this space and has implemented projects in 12 countries. Dr. Green’s championing of sustainability and corporate social responsibility, coupled with her PhD in electricity market disruption, laid the groundwork for Powerledger's mission to create a more agile energy market.

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2279: How Exasol and TurinTech Are Making AI Accessible For All Feb 23, 2023

Mathias Golombek and Dr. Leslie Kanthan bring a wealth of experience and expertise to the podcast, as they share their insights on the data science industry and the role of AI in today's fast-paced business environment. They discuss the challenges faced by companies looking to integrate AI into their workflows and how the partnership between Exasol and TurinTech helps businesses overcome these obstacles.

Throughout the podcast, Mathias and Leslie delve into the technical aspects of how their solutions work, and how they enable organizations to quickly and easily create high-performing models for data analysis. They also talk about the future of AI and how it will continue to shape and transform the business world.

Hopefully, you will walk away from this episode with a better understanding of the importance of data democratization and how companies can leverage the power of AI to drive better decision-making, increased efficiency, and a more agile business. Join Mathias and Leslie as they share their thoughts on the future of AI and data analytics in this engaging episode of Tech Talks Daily.

2278: Radix - Demystifying Blockchain, Crypto, Sharding and the Future of DeFi Feb 22, 2023

In the ever-evolving world of blockchain and cryptocurrency, it can take time to keep up with the latest developments, technologies, and protocols. With so much jargon and technical language, it's easy to feel intimidated and overwhelmed, even for those well-versed in the space. However, on this episode of Tech Talks Daily, we have an exceptional guest who has a talent for simplifying complex topics and making them accessible to all.

Meet Adam Simmons, the Chief Strategy Officer of Radix, a DeFi protocol that aims to lower barriers and bring decentralized finance to the mainstream. In this episode, we dive deep into what sets Radix apart from other DeFi platforms, how to scale blockchain, the future of DeFi, and how crypto can benefit the unbanked in underdeveloped economies.

Adam's expertise and patient approach make him the perfect guide to explore the intricacies of DeFi and potential impact on the world. Radix's public ledger and token ($XRD) with a market cap of over $1bn is the only decentralized network that allows for fast building, rewards everyone who contributes to making it better, and scales without friction.

During the conversation, Adam discusses the various challenges that DeFi faces in gaining mainstream adoption, such as high fees and slow transaction times. In addition, he highlights the importance of creating a user-friendly and seamless experience for newcomers to the space and predicts that DeFi will have more liquidity than any other single exchange within the next ten years.

Adam shares his insights about the future of DeFi and its impact on unbanked and underdeveloped economies. By using crypto and blockchain technology, individuals and businesses in these regions can access financial services that were previously unavailable to them. This could lead to a more inclusive and equitable financial system.

Adam Simmons' passion for DeFi, and his ability to communicate its potential impact clearly and concisely make this episode a must-listen for anyone interested in the future of finance and technology.

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2277: The Tech and Legal Risks of ChatGPT Feb 21, 2023

Dr. Ilia Kolochenko, an expert in cybersecurity and cyber law, offers some advice on how to deal with the potential risks of the rapid growth in AI projects like ChatGPT. For example, collecting training data from public sources, such as websites and social networks, may raise concerns for content creators who do not want their work used without their permission or compensation.

Ilia discusses content owners can protect their intellectual property by updating their terms of service to prohibit the use of their content for AI training. They should consult a lawyer to ensure the clause is enforceable in court. This will shift any disputes from the murky area of intellectual property law to the clearer ground of contract law.

Regulators and lawmakers can also promote transparency in AI training data by requiring AI companies to disclose their sources and giving individuals and organizations the right to restrict the use of their IP for AI purposes without consent. Ilia shares why transparency is essential for the responsible development of AI, but more regulation can be counterproductive. Lawmakers must work with AI experts, scholars, and entrepreneurs to find a fair balance.

2276: How Cloudflare is Championing Inclusion in the Tech Industry Feb 20, 2023

Jennifer Taylor is the Chief Product Officer at Cloudflare, a company that provides internet security, performance, and reliability to organizations around the world. She oversees the development of cloud-based solutions for companies of all sizes, from nonprofits to a significant portion of the Fortune 1000.

Jennifer is a strong advocate for inclusion and allyship in the workplace. She is the founder of Proudflare, Cloudflare's LGBTQIA+ Employee Resource Group that supports and celebrates diversity both within and outside the company. As a lesbian woman, she emphasizes the importance of embracing individuality and creating a supportive environment for all employees.

In addition to her leadership at Cloudflare, Jennifer is passionate about mentorship and the challenges faced by women in the tech industry. She believes that women in tech are responsible for inspiring future generations of leaders and provides tips on how organizations can protect themselves from cyberattacks.

This year marks the 8th anniversary of Cloudflare's Project Galileo, a program that provides free cybersecurity services to public interest groups. The project is crucial to Cloudflare, as they believe cybersecurity is essential to supporting human rights. For example, project Galileo supports LGBTQ+ organizations in the UK, ensuring their websites and helplines remain online and protected from cyberattacks. One such organization supported by Project Galileo is Switchboard, one of the UK's oldest LGBTQ+ helplines, providing a safe and non-judgmental space for those in need.

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2275: From Double-Unicorn to Payments Revolution: The Story of Zilch Feb 19, 2023

Tech Talks Daily is pleased to welcome Philip Belamant, co-founder and CEO of Zilch, to share his insights on the payments technology industry and how Zilch is changing the game.

Philip Belamant is a visionary entrepreneur who has spent his career building innovative companies that disrupt established markets. Zilch, which he co-founded and led as CEO, is no exception. However, Zilch stands out from the crowd as a UK-based payments technology company by offering a unique combination of payments and commerce on a single direct-to-consumer platform.

What makes Zilch truly special is its business model, unlike anything we've seen before in the payments industry. By building direct relationships with customers and hosting retailers on its platform, Zilch earns commission from the retailers' marketing budgets. This innovative approach means that Zilch can process vast volumes of payments, at attractive margins, without charging customers any interest or fees.

This business model has resonated with investors, as evidenced by Zilch's recent Series C funding round. Despite the trend of falling valuations in the fintech space, Zilch has maintained its $2bn valuation and even extended its Series C by securing an additional $50m, bringing the total raised to $160m.

Philip Belamant attributes Zilch's success to its focus on the customer and its commitment to building a sustainable business model. "At Zilch, we believe that everyone should have access to financial services that are both affordable and convenient," says Belamant. "We're committed to providing a service accessible to all, regardless of their credit score or financial situation."

Zilch's unique business model, combined with its focus on the customer, has set it apart from traditional BNPL providers like Klarna and Affirm. Investors are responding positively to this different approach, and it's clear that Zilch is on track to revolutionize the payments industry.

2274: Reneum: Revolutionizing Climate Finance with Blockchain Technology Feb 18, 2023

Climate change is one of the biggest challenges facing our planet today. The need to transition to renewable energy sources has never been more pressing, and it requires a new form of climate finance that is efficient, transparent, and accountable.

This is where Reneum comes in. Reneum is a global green energy marketplace built on blockchain technology that provides a platform for individuals and organizations to fund climate action and accelerate the energy transition.

By using blockchain as a mechanism to drive a new form of climate finance, Reneum solves the industry's transparency, accountability, and traceability issues. With Reneum's full proof-of-provenance, stakeholders can gain increased authenticity and ownership of their actions, giving them the ability to look under the hood and see the impact they are making.

Brianna Welsh, CEO and founder of Reneum, is a thought leader on the intersection of sustainability and deep technologies. With an in-depth knowledge of the challenges faced by female founders, Brianna has successfully raised $4.1M in pre-seed funding for Reneum.

Prior to Reneum, Brianna led carbon markets for Sindicatum Renewable Energy in APAC and has worked in mergers and acquisitions in New York and London. She is also a partner in several initiatives for a positive crypto future, including Blockchain for Social Impact, Crypto Climate Accord, and Blockchain for Climate Foundation.

In this episode of the Tech Talks Daily podcast, Brianna discusses why Web3 is key to curbing the climate crisis, what steps organizations must collectively take to propel the industry, and how to catalyze the energy transition to turn climate frustration into real impact. She believes that blockchain technology has the potential to revolutionize the way we approach climate finance, enabling us to create a positive-sum ecosystem where individuals and organizations can work together to solve the industry's most pressing challenges.

I learn how Reneum is providing a solution to the challenges faced by the energy sector, offering a platform for individuals and organizations to fund climate action and drive the energy transition forward. With the support of visionary leaders like Brianna Welsh, the future of climate finance is looking bright, and we can all look forward to a more sustainable future for our planet.

2273: Kobalt - How Technology is Empowering Music Creators Feb 17, 2023

Professor Giana M Eckhardt from King's Business School and Willard Ahdritz from Kobalt join me on Tech Talks Daily. Today's topic is how Kobalt leverages technology, to provide music publishing services and promote social responsibility within the music industry.

Kobalt's innovative technology has set them apart from other companies, enabling them to process royalty payments almost instantly and providing unparalleled fairness and transparency in the industry. This is in stark contrast to other tech companies accused of exploiting artists, such as Spotify and YouTube, who pay only a small amount per play.

However, Kobalt's commitment to using technology for good has paid off, as other major players are now forced to follow suit in response to the demands of their clients. Despite this, competitors will struggle to match Kobalt's level of trust and authenticity, as evidenced by the growing number of big names moving their catalogs to Kobalt, including Lorde and Paul McCartney.

I learn how Kobalt has successfully leveraged technology to build a brand centered around purpose-led branding, appealing to both artists and consumers who value transparency and fairness. We discuss how this has led to strong loyalty for both artists and consumers, solidifying Kobalt's position as a leader in the music publishing industry.

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2272: CEO of VanHack on the Tech Building a Diverse Workforce Feb 16, 2023

In the fast-paced world of technology, the demand for talented developers and tech professionals has never been higher. With a massive shortage of tech talent in the market, companies are facing the challenge of attracting and retaining top tech professionals. However, Ilya Brotzky, founder and CEO of VanHack, has found a solution to this problem.

VanHack is a fast-growing tech recruitment platform that helps over 1000 companies hire the best tech talent quickly. With a network of over 350,000 developers from 120 countries, VanHack has the largest diverse workforce of tech professionals. This platform also provides a team of 80+ employees in 13 countries, generating mid-seven figures in annual revenues.

Born in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, raised in Vancouver, Canada, and with a degree in business administration from Cornell University in the US, Ilya's journey to creating VanHack began in Rio de Janeiro. While working as a management trainee with Brazilian mining giant Vale S.A., he met software engineers who wanted to relocate to Canada but lacked English skills. This inspired him to start VanHack in 2015, providing English resumés and interview skills to help them get hired by companies seeking hard-to-find tech talent.

Ilya has been featured in Fast Company, Forbes, and Time, and has helped raise over $100,000 for various charities in Africa and South America. In this podcast, we talk to Ilya about the current shortage of tech talent, the changes happening in the workspace and recruitment industry, and how remote hiring can help companies build a more diverse workplace.

The current shortage of software developers and other tech talents is a problem faced by many companies. Ilya explains that this shortage is due to the rapid growth of technology, leading to an increased demand for tech professionals. Companies are struggling to find the right talent to meet their needs, and VanHack provides a solution to this problem.

The workspace and recruitment industry are undergoing massive changes, and Ilya highlights the importance of these changes in the tech industry. With remote working becoming increasingly popular, companies have the opportunity to build a more diverse workplace, attracting top tech professionals from around the world.

Finally, Ilya talks about how remote hiring can help tech companies build a more diverse workplace. Remote working provides companies with access to a larger pool of talent, enabling them to find the best candidate for the job, regardless of location. This also helps to break down geographical barriers, leading to a more inclusive and diverse workplace.

I learn how VanHack is helping companies to overcome the challenge of attracting and retaining top tech talent, providing a solution to the current shortage of software developers and other tech professionals. With the changes happening in the workspace and recruitment industry, remote hiring is the key to building a more diverse workplace and finding the best tech talent from around the world.

2271: Yubico - YubiKey: Strong Authentication, Less Friction Feb 15, 2023

Yubico, the company behind the YubiKey, is revolutionizing online security with its hardware-based security keys. These keys provide an extra layer of protection for your online accounts, making them less vulnerable to cyber threats such as phishing, man-in-the-middle (MitM) attacks, SIM swapping and account takeovers. The YubiKey is the world’s first security key and protects over 4,000 organizations worldwide.

The shift to remote work due to the pandemic has highlighted the need for better cybersecurity measures. According to Yubico’s research, 42% of people feel more vulnerable to cyber threats while working from home, and 39% feel unsupported by IT. However, hardware-based security keys like the YubiKey provide a more secure solution while reducing friction at login. They meet the FIDO2 and WebAuthn standards, helping to pave the way for interoperability.

Niall McConachie, Regional Director (UK & Ireland) at Yubico discusses the most common cyber threats people face and why not all security is equal. He emphasized that while one-time passcodes (OTPs) sent by SMS or mobile authentication apps are the most popular forms of two-factor authentication (2FA), they are still vulnerable to attacks. On the other hand, hardware-based security keys provide strong authentication and reduce the friction of logging in to multiple apps and accounts each day.

Niall also discusses the future of secure, passwordless authentication. The evolving modern authentication ecosystem, with the help of hardware-based security keys, is paving the way for a future where passwords are no longer the primary form of authentication. This not only makes our online accounts more secure, but also reduces the hassle of remembering multiple passwords.

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2270: Windscribe - How Yegor Sak Grew the VPN Company to 50 Million Users Feb 14, 2023

Yegor Sak shares his journey of building Windscribe and the challenges he faced along the way. He explains how he was able to grow the company to more than 50 million active users, despite the intense competition in the VPN industry. Yegor highlights the importance of providing a high-quality product, excellent customer support, and focusing on the needs of the user.

Yegor also discusses his approach to scaling the company with a small team. He believes in the power of remote work and investing in technology to automate processes. This has allowed him to build a global team and scale the company effectively.

One of the key topics of discussion was the ongoing consolidation in the VPN industry and its impact on the consumer. Yegor believes that as larger companies gain more control, prices may increase and privacy may decrease. He also shares his decision to not terminate Russian access to Windscribe, as he believes that people in the country should have access to real news outside of the state media propaganda.

In addition to his work with Windscribe, Yegor also discusses his other company, ControlD. This fully customizable DNS service allows users to block annoyances like malware, tracking, ads, and IoT telemetry, and unblock over 200 services through a network of servers in over 100 cities. All without any apps to install.

Yegor Sak is a true visionary in the tech industry. With his passion for programming and commitment to providing a high-quality product, he has been able to build two successful companies, Windscribe and ControlD. His insights on scaling a company with a small team and the impact of consolidation in the VPN industry are valuable lessons for any entrepreneur.

2269: Kyndryl - Private 5G Networking And The Future of Enterprise Adoption Feb 13, 2023

Private wireless networks have become increasingly important in achieving networking success, with telecom providers and tech giants investing in new capabilities to drive private 5G adoption among enterprises. By 2030, it is estimated that over 150 million cellular devices will be connected to local private networks, a significant increase from 5 million by the end of 2022. The industry for private networks within enterprises is expected to grow to $109 billion.

As industries adopt private 5G networks, enterprises must understand why this shift from traditional network infrastructure is so important and how they can adapt to achieve success. On The Tech Talks Daily Podcast, Darren Parkes, Country Practice Leader - Network & Edge at Kyndryl, shares his insights on this topic.

Darren emphasizes the need for highly secured and reliable networks for enterprises that require high-security reliability. He also discusses the cost benefits of private networks, as it allows enterprises to better prioritize operational costs and remain agile with a faster application pace.

5G network technologies provide a higher level of security for enterprises due to the use of licensed spectrum and embedded security standards. As a result, private 5G, if implemented correctly, offers a more robust security posture and greater control over the network for enterprises. The implementation process for private networks involves understanding the spectrum to be used, matching it with the technology to be deployed, and connecting to local area networks, wide area networks, and the public cloud to transfer or analyze data.

Darren also made predictions for the future, with private 5G serving as a "trigger" for the general use of Edge as a third landing zone for data beyond on-prem or cloud. This expansion of options for working with data highlights the importance of private networks as key enablers for advancement.

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2268: The Future of Personalisation: Insights from Emarsys, an SAP company Feb 12, 2023

In today's episode, we dive into the world of personalized customer experience with Meghann York, Global Head of Product Marketing at SAP Emarsys. Meghann takes us on a journey to understand how brands are leveraging AI-powered automation to provide highly relevant and personalized recommendations to their customers across multiple channels.

One of the critical elements of the Emarsys platform is its ability to unify, cleanse and analyze first-party data. This data, which includes information from business applications, customer data, and commerce solutions, is used to build a rich profile of each customer. This information allows the platform to automate communications and provide personalized recommendations to customers.

Meghann also shares her insights on the role of technology in customer obsession, retention, and loyalty. We also discuss insights gained from the Emarsys Customer Loyalty Index. Meghann shares what will drive customer loyalty in 2023 and beyond based on their findings.

Listen in as Meghan provides valuable insights into personalized customer experience and how brands leverage AI-powered automation to provide highly relevant and personalized recommendations. She also highlights the importance of unifying first-party data and how it plays a critical role in building rich customer profiles and driving customer loyalty.

2267: Leading the WordPress Revolution: Insights from DevriX CEO Mario Peshev Feb 12, 2023

Mario Peshev is the CEO of DevriX, a global WordPress agency serving industries from publishing to fintech, healthcare, e-commerce, and more. Peshev focuses most of his time on running his business and leading distributed tech teams at DevriX of 50+ people crafting high-scale WordPress solutions optimized for revenue.

Mario started with development as a hobby and built his first website in 1999. Since 2015, DevriX has consistently ranked among the top 20 WordPress consultancies worldwide, scaling world-known enterprise brands and high-traffic publishers with up to 900M monthly page views on top of WordPress. He also has over 10,000 hours of training and consulting activities for organizations such as CERN, Saudi Aramco, VMware, SAP, and many others, coaching business owners on growth strategy, technical architecture, marketing funnels, and digital presence.

In addition to leading DevriX, Peshev also advises up-and-coming web developers and tech entrepreneurs, attracting over 2.5 million views to his transparent Quora discussions on his experience of entrepreneurship and IT work life, and he recently authored the book 126 Steps to Becoming a Successful Entrepreneur: The Entrepreneurship Fad and the Dark Side of Going Solo. Follow him on Twitter @no_fear_inc and connect on LinkedIn.

Mario joins me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss some of the high-scale WordPress solutions that DevriX has developed for clients in various industries. He also shares his thoughts on the importance of digital transformation for businesses and how DevriX helps companies in this process. Finally, I learn more about his book 26 Steps to Becoming a Successful Entrepreneur: The Entrepreneurship Fad and the Dark Side of Going Solo.

2266: Justdiggit - The Power of Technology in Restoring the Land Feb 11, 2023

Justdiggit is a non-profit organization dedicated to regreening degraded land in Africa. The company works with local farmers to implement cost-effective, nature-based solutions to increase biodiversity and improve ecosystems. The ultimate goal is to capture more CO2 and help cool the planet.

So far, the company has made significant progress in its mission. They have dug 200,000 water bunds and brought back 9.7 million trees. This has resulted in 300,000 hectares of land being regreened. The company aims to reach 350 million farmers by 2030, and they plan to make this a reality.

One way Justdiggit achieves this goal is through its regreening app. Harnessing the growth and penetration of mobile technology in Africa, the app provides farmers with the tools and instructions they need to restore their own land. Once fully developed, the app will make everyone with a mobile phone an ambassador of regreening, helping to spread the message and reach more people.

Justdiggit is also utilizing technology to track the progress and impact of their work. In partnership with Planet Labs, they are using daily earth data and high-res satellite imagery to evaluate their regreening projects. This allows them to understand the tangible change they are making to the land, including the amount of water retained and changes in biomass.

Listen in to Sander de Haas as he shares the story behind this inspiring organization and how they are working with local farmers and using technology to track their progress, they are restoring degraded land and making the planet a greener place.

2265: F5 - Breaking Free from Rigid Enterprise Architecture: Feb 10, 2023

Everything is now digitized, and businesses are expected to be available 24/7. Unfortunately, in this digital-first world, traditional enterprise architectures have hindered businesses' ability to keep pace with changing needs and requirements. The rigid framework that governs how applications are developed, delivered, secured, and integrated limits businesses' ability to progress further into the digital era.

This rigid framework was created before the widespread adoption of the internet and the era of digitization we find ourselves in today. It defines how data should be stored, accessed, and governed, and it constrains infrastructure to aging standards. It makes assumptions about applications and their interactions, and about the nature of their users.

For CIOs and IT leaders to successfully navigate the second phase of digital transformation, they must first identify key technologies and capabilities critical to enabling businesses to progress into the third and final phase of digital transformation. To reach the third phase of transformation, businesses need a new enterprise architecture that enables them to adapt to changing needs and requirements across all key components: data, applications, infrastructure, and security.

They must also add architectural concepts to address the growing dependence on telemetry and automation that is enabling business to become truly digital. This new architecture must be a digital enterprise architecture, designed to be efficient, scalable, secure, and able to adapt to changing needs.

The digital enterprise architecture must include the ability to deliver applications in a distributed model that includes private and public clouds, data centers, and edge computing. It should also expand and scale digital operations by adopting site reliability engineering (SRE) operational practices to align technology with business outcomes.

The architecture should take advantage of AI and analytics in both IT and lines of business by reimagining data architectures and governance to adapt to the convergence of operational technology (OT) and IT. Furthermore, it should operate securely at scale by incorporating security as a key component in every aspect of the digital business and embracing app delivery as a core disciplinary domain.

Geng Lin, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at F5, joins me on today's edition of Tech Talks Daily. Listen in as we discuss all this and much more.

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2264: Brightcove CEO on Rise of the "Producer Economy" Feb 09, 2023

Marc DeBevoise, CEO of Brightcove, joins me in today's episode of Tech Talks Daily in a discussion about the rise of the future of streaming. As a seasoned executive with a wealth of experience in the streaming industry, Marc provides an in-depth look at what is driving the evolution of the creator economy into a producer economy.

According to Marc, the rise of the producer economy is fueled by the growing number of creators and producers leveraging technology to produce high-quality content and reach new audiences. In addition, the producer economy is characterized by the democratization of content creation and distribution. For example, anyone with a smartphone and a creative idea can reach a global audience with their content.

This is a massive shift from the old entertainment industry model, where a limited number of gatekeepers controlled what content was produced and how it was distributed. Marc also shares his thoughts on the current state of the streaming wars, which are shaping up to be the biggest battle for the future of entertainment.

Marc's insights and experience in the video technology industry, along with his deep understanding of the evolution of the creator economy into the producer economy, provide us with a valuable glimpse into the future of streaming and the video technology industry. I highly recommend checking out the entire conversation with Marc DeBevoise on Tech Talks Daily.

2263: Rackspace Technology - Cybersecurity and Cloud Trends Feb 08, 2023

Rackspace Technology is a leader in the cloud technology services industry, offering end-to-end solutions for customers looking to modernize their technology environments. With a focus on the entire cloud journey, from design and build to operation, Rackspace provides support and guidance to businesses of all sizes in adopting innovative technologies and building new products.

In this episode of the Tech Talks Daily Podcast, Jeff DeVerter, Chief Technology Evangelist at Rackspace, joins us to discuss the latest trends and advancements in the technology industry. With over 10 years of experience in the cloud-based services sector, Jeff offers valuable insights into the importance of cybersecurity, the difference between private and public clouds, and the technological trends across various industries.

One of the key topics we discuss is the growing concern over cybersecurity and the increasing risk of cyberattacks due to the rise of hybrid work environments. Jeff highlights the importance of cloud implementation for enhancing cybersecurity measures across all business sectors. With more and more companies relying on remote work, the need for robust cybersecurity measures has become even more critical.

We also delve into the latest tech spending trends, discussing where investments are likely to rise and fall this year. Jeff provides valuable insights into the factors driving these trends and the impact they will have on various industries. Finally, Jeff shares his thoughts on the current hiring trends in the technology industry, including the skills and experience that companies are looking for in new hires. He also provides advice for job seekers looking to break into the tech industry and grow their careers.

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2262 Wysa - How Tech is Improving Everyday Mental Health Feb 07, 2023

Ramakant Vempati, the President and Co-founder of Wysa, joins me on the Tech Talks Daily podcast to discuss how AI revolutionizes the mental health industry. Wysa, the leading AI-guided mental health platform, delivers scientifically validated care through its emotionally intelligent conversational AI, 150+ mental resilience exercises, and expert human coaching.

Wysa has redefined accessibility in mental healthcare by providing 24/7 support to individuals facing everyday stressors or critical moments of crisis. It has already facilitated over 400 million therapeutic conversations and is growing rapidly, having raised $20 million in its Series B funding round in July 2022. With over 4.5 million users in 65 countries, Wysa is accessible through employee benefits providers, insurance providers, schools, and the mobile app.

Wysa empowers individuals to take control of their mental health and addresses issues such as anxiety, sleep problems, depression, relationship struggles, school pressure, and work stress. In addition to its direct-to-consumer care, Wysa's complete workplace solution supports organizations in improving employee wellbeing and productivity at scale.

We discuss how Wysa is leading the charge in transforming the mental health industry through its AI-guided platform and evidence-based approach. With its commitment to privacy, security, and accessibility, Wysa is making a difference in the lives of millions of individuals, and we can expect to see continued growth and impact from this innovative company.

2261: Epic - The Importance of Data For The Greater Good Feb 07, 2023

Dave Little, MD, Clinical Informaticist and Phil Lindemann, VP of Business Intelligence and Analytics at Epic, join me on The Tech Talk Daily podcast. Epic manages electronic health records for more than 250 million patients and is now expanding clinical trials by kicking off a Life Sciences program to help speed up the development of new therapies. Providers across the world use Epic to conduct more than 100,000 active research studies with 4.7 million patients.

Today many clinical trials struggle to find the right participants - the first stage of Life Sciences will be accurately matching organizations with clinical trials suited to their patients. This will allow researchers to be able to recruit more effectively and help ensure that clinical trials benefit more representative populations.

Dave and Phil discuss the importance of companies providing data for the greater good of Americans' lives. I also learn more about how large data sets like Epics’ Cosmos can provide health officials with the data needed to enact changes. This allows doctors to learn from thousands of other hospitals and support researched-health needs like adverse trends in healthcare and outbreak detection.

2260 Nextdoor: The Tech Connecting You to Your Neighborhoods Feb 06, 2023

Nextdoor is a platform that helps you connect to your local neighborhood and build real-world connections with your neighbors, local businesses, and public services. It is a place where people can turn to receive trusted information, ask for help, get things done, and build relationships with those around them.

Emma Mondolino, the Head of Nextdoor Create, is a seasoned marketing and sales professional with extensive experience in the tech industry. Before joining Nextdoor, she worked at Pinterest in both sales and marketing and was a key member of the brand strategy team at Twitter.

In this podcast episode, Emma joins the host to discuss the trend towards localism and why this got her excited about the Nextdoor opportunity. She explains why CMOs are moving their budget from regional to hyperlocal audiences and how localism can work at scale with the help of technology.

She shares her insights into the importance of localism and how Nextdoor is helping people build strong connections within their communities. By focusing on hyperlocal audiences, Nextdoor is giving brands a new way to reach their target audience in a more meaningful and impactful way.

Whether you're a business looking to reach local customers or a resident looking to stay connected to your neighborhood, Nextdoor has something to offer. Tune into the podcast to learn more about this innovative platform and the future of localism.

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2259: Customer Experience Automation Technology Trends With ActiveCampaign Feb 05, 2023

Today's guest is Sameer Kazi, President of ActiveCampaign, who is responsible for guiding the core operations and helping prepare the company for its next growth phase. We discuss how ActiveCampaign is helping businesses grow by scaling their customer experiences and data points from the Customer Experience Automation Impact Report.

I learn how communicating via one channel just won't cut it. All brands still need to be taking an omnichannel approach — 99% of those surveyed agree companies grow faster by using multiple channels beyond email marketing alone, and 93% report using their website as an engagement channel to supplement their email marketing efforts. 

We also discuss how CXA + social media is the sweet spot for B2C: Nine in 10 (89%) B2C businesses using CXA also leverage social media to share information with existing and potential customers. We talk about how this omnichannel approach helps improve customer experiences by sending the right message at the time it's going to be best received by existing and potential customers. 

Highly relevant communications are critical to a great customer experience: Nearly 80% of CXA users agreed that the technology helps them send highly relevant communications, leading to greater retention and customer acquisition. Customer loyalty depends on whether each buyer feels a brand is speaking directly to them and communicating with them based on their own personal wants and needs. 

About Sameer

Sameer is a deeply experienced software executive and operator with global P&L and public company experience helping growth stage & mature SaaS businesses scale revenue and operations. Sameer is also co-founder and Managing Director of Operating Capital, an investment firm focused on helping operating teams at B2B SaaS companies win through capital, operating best practices and by leveraging our global talent and industry network.

Prior to ActiveCampaign, Sameer served as CEO and board member of Cheetah Digital, interim CEO and Executive Chairman at Simply Measured (acquired by Sprout Social), board member at Emarsys (acquired by SAP), and as EVP at Salesforce.com and ExactTarget (acquired by Salesforce in 2013 for $2.5B).

2258: Why CRO’s Need to Adapt to Being Data-First to Survive Feb 04, 2023

Contract Research Organisations (CROs) are a vital cog in the pharmaceutical industry – they provide essential support services to help companies conduct clinical research more efficiently and effectively, saving money and time. Whilst CROs traditionally largely involve data management, new technological advancements are changing how they work.

Richard Young, Vice President Vault CDMS Strategy at Veeva Systems, joins me on Tech Talks Daily to explore how study teams can now aim higher because of new technologies, as they can begin to work faster and more efficiently, and traditional CROs can use technology to help them look at data with fresh perspectives, as automation helps with the bulk of data management.

We also talk about how new technology means that there is no longer the burden of tedious administrative tasks that took up workers’ time. Workers can use platforms like Veeva’s to sort data efficiently, allowing them to be able to focus on important data analysis instead. In turn, this will enable better clinical data success. Employees could therefore benefit from upskilling, rather than necessarily being replaced by technology.

2257: Leemon Baird - Co-Founder of Hedera and Inventor of Hashgraph Feb 03, 2023

In this podcast episode, we dive into the world of Hedera, a distributed ledger technology that sets itself apart from its competitors with its unique governing council. Comprising of some of the biggest names in the tech and finance industries, including Google, IBM, Standard Bank, Shinhan Bank, and the London School of Economics, this governing council plays a crucial role in ensuring the network's transparency and security

We explore the benefits of this type of governance model and learn how these council members utilize Hedera's technology to bring value to their businesses and organizations. With Hedera being a member of the World Economic Forum, we also discuss their recent presence at Davos including their President and Chair Brett McDowell's attendance and speech at the main sessions.

Today's guest on Tech Talks Daily is Leemon Baird, the mastermind behind the innovative hashgraph distributed consensus algorithm and the Co-Founder and Chief Scientist at Hedera. Join us as we uncover the cutting-edge technology behind Hedera and discover its potential impact on the future of finance and technology.

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2256: Carlos Meza, CEO of Crowd Content - Tech and Content Creation Feb 02, 2023

Many new technologies like AI and ChatGTP are disrupting how articles, company information, social media, and other content are created. It is also changing how it reaches and performs with audiences. So, it feels like something big is happening.

"In 2023, people-first content and SEO supremacy will make or break content success for major brands and companies," said Carlos Meza, CEO of Crowd Content. "The days of plugging in keywords to reach the top of search results are over. Instead, leaders will only drive their business towards successful goals for 2023 with optimized content that puts people first." After hearing this, I invited him on Tech Talks Daily to explore this topic.

We discuss how an understanding of marketing technology (SEO, web design) influences how audiences search for content and engage with it. We also discuss building a tech-driven content platform that can still focus on people-first / human-first intentions and serving the "why" in content creation.

About Carlos Carlos Meza serves as President & CEO of Crowd Content, a leading content creation service provider connecting talented writers and editors with businesses needing high-quality, people-first, publish-ready content at scale in a tech-driven platform experience. A master of scale himself, Meza has been leading high-growth technology companies over the last five years.

Before being appointed CEO of Crowd Content in 2021, he served as CEO of Kivuto Solutions, a SaaS Edtech company. An industry veteran, Meza brings a background in engineering and corporate finance to expand the Crowd Content footprint of global brands served. During the early part of his career, Meza spent 13 years working with multinational brands and banks that included Citibank and HSBC. He holds a bachelor's degree from the Universidad Industrial de Santander and an MBA from the University of Calgary.

2255: Insights From the Figma Design Hiring Report Feb 01, 2023

The tech industry is facing a paradox as we hear of a global tech skills shortage on the one hand and big tech layoffs on the other due to economic uncertainty. In this podcast, Andrew Hogan joins me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss the impact of these trends on design hiring and what the recent Design Hiring report by Figma has to say about it.

Andrew is a thought leader in the field of Design and UX with over 50 published Forrester reports and is recognized by leading publications such as Fast Company, WSJ, Forbes, and Business Insider. He also provides expertise in creating training modules for CX certification, including journey mapping and the integration of data/AI and Design.

So, how is the paradox of tech hiring impacting Design hiring in particular? The Design Hiring report provides valuable insights into the current state and future prospects of the design industry. From the report, we can see that despite the economic uncertainty, the demand for design talent is increasing. This presents both a challenge and an opportunity for designers and design teams looking for work or looking to hire.

I learn how the tech industry may be facing conflicting trends, but the design industry continues to thrive. With the help of innovative solutions like Figma, design teams can navigate the challenges and seize the opportunities presented by the current job market. Keep an eye out for the Design Hiring report for a more in-depth understanding of the design industry and its future prospects.

About Figma

Figma, a design platform for teams building products together, offers a solution to streamline the design process and make it more efficient, fun, and collaborative. Whether it's consolidating tools, simplifying workflows, or working with teams across time zones, Figma ensures everyone is on the same page.

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2254: The Future of Cloud Email Security With Abnormal Security's Behavioral AI Platform Jan 31, 2023

Abnormal Security is revolutionizing cloud email security with its behavioral AI-based platform. Using machine learning, the platform detects and stops sophisticated inbound email attacks and dangerous email platform attacks that traditional solutions often miss. The anomaly detection engine analyzes the risk of every cloud email event, preventing inbound email attacks, detecting compromised accounts, and remediating emails in milliseconds, all while providing visibility into configuration drifts across your environment.

The company has recently launched Security Posture Management, a product that monitors each entity for potentially risky configuration changes. This includes changes like the escalation of administrator privileges or the integration of new unverified applications with read-write access to mailboxes. When changes occur, Security Posture Management alerts administrators so they can understand the impact and take appropriate downstream action to protect their cloud email platform from insider threats or attacker infiltration.

CISO at Abnormal Security, Mike Britton, shares the company's mission to redefine cloud email security and protect against email platform attacks. Mike shares why he belives that with Abnormal Security, organizations can have peace of mind knowing their cloud email platform is protected from sophisticated attacks.

2253: Uniphore: The Tech Unicorn Expanding its Business into Emotion AI Jan 30, 2023

Uniphore, a privately held startup company, recently achieved the coveted status of a "unicorn" by raising $400 million, giving it a valuation of $2.5 billion. The company, which made its name in conversational AI, is revolutionizing the way contact center agents have conversations by harnessing the power of machine learning.

Imagine this scenario: A customer calls to request internet installation at their new apartment. With the help of Uniphore's AI technology, the agent can automatically scan the system to find out what modem the customer currently has, what technology is already installed at the new property, and when an installation technician is available. This means the call is resolved quickly and efficiently without needing multiple back-and-forth exchanges.

The AI can also automatically log follow-up actions, freeing up the agent to move on to the next call. But Uniphore's innovation continues beyond there. The company has expanded its business into "emotion AI" - a subset of AI that can gauge human emotions during sales calls.

This allows for feedback to be provided to sellers and pitchers, highlighting the most engaging parts of the pitch and points of concern that need to be addressed to close the deal. Umesh Sachdev, CEO & Co-Founder of Uniphore, is the mastermind behind this revolutionary technology. In this podcast episode, he shares the story behind the company and its exciting journey into the world of AI.

2252: How Turkey’s Leading E-Logistics Company is Transforming the Industry with Robotics Technology Jan 29, 2023

In this episode, I sit down with Halit Develioglu, the CEO of OPLOG, Turkey's leading e-logistics company. OPLOG recently raised €11mn in a pre-series A funding round, which will fuel the company's expansion, most notably into the UK.

OPLOG was founded in 2012 and has grown exponentially over the years. The company has topped the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Turkey, having experienced 4564% growth and graduated from the Microsoft for Startups GrowthX Accelerator. OPLOG has also experienced 91% YoY growth in units fulfilled, in contrast to the wider e-commerce slowdown post-pandemic.

Ultimately, it enables brands to streamline and optimize their post-purchase fulfillment operations. The company's user-friendly management platform provides brands with an end-to-end fulfillment service that eliminates the operational costs and challenges needed to develop their shipping infrastructure.

The company's proprietary robotics technology is helping to solve global supply chain issues by streamlining fulfillment operations. OPLOG's CEO, Halit Develioglu, shares with me their mission to solve the supply chain crisis using technology. I learn more about the company's plan to open a new fulfillment warehouse in the UK in 2023, employing over 100 people within its first 18 months of operation.

Halit shares with me how the company's proprietary robotics technology is helping to streamline fulfillment operations globally. Join us as we delve into the importance of innovation in the face of the ongoing supply chain crisis and the challenges businesses face with shipping and fulfillment delays.

2251: Sean Moss-Pultz, Co-Founder and CEO of Bitmark Inc. Jan 28, 2023

Sean Moss-Pultz is recognized as an open-source hardware pioneer, having founded and served as CEO of Openmoko, the world's first open-source phone and precursor to the iPhone and Android smartphones. He is the Co-Founder and CEO of Bitmark, a blockchain startup that aims to bring traditional property rights into the digital age by providing tools that enable anyone to affirm ownership and control digital assets they create and post online.

They've raised $10.3M in funding from investors, including Alibaba and Kevin Lin (Co-Founder of Twitch), and their clients included Pfizer, UC Berkeley, Health2Sync, and KKBOX. One of their products is Autonomy, the world's first and only digital art wallet that allows traders to showcase their NFT collection and view it on any screen, TV, or projector, anywhere.

Property rights were invented for land (real property) and then ideas (intellectual property), but none extend to the digital world. Because of this oversight, millions of us give away what we create online and our personal data for free to entities that profit from it every day, and we don't get a cut because we don't own it. Bitmark intends to change that.

Sean joins me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss defining property in the digital environment and how we can secure personal data in an age when it has become fully commoditized. We also discuss whether the new digital economy will stay or go bust, and Sean shares his thoughts on the current state of the NFT market and the future of NFTs.

2250: CareerFoundry - The Online School for a Career in Tech Jan 27, 2023

Martin Ramsin, a tech prodigy from Stockholm, has always been passionate about computers. From a young age, he knew he wanted to make a difference in the tech industry. His first job as a programming intern took him to San Francisco during the height of the internet bubble, where he learned valuable lessons about the industry. After moving to Berlin, Martin honed his skills in product management and decided to return to his roots in web development, teaching himself the latest technologies like Ruby on Rails.

Together with Raffaela, Martin co-founded CareerFoundry, an online tech school that empowers individuals to reach their full potential through education and training. They recognized the increasing skills gap in the tech industry and wanted to make a difference.

On Tech Talks Daily, Martin shares the story behind CareerFoundry and how it's addressing the skills gap by preparing individuals for the future. He also delves into how remote working is leveling the playing field for talent in developing nations and how online tech academies can open up new job opportunities.

Martin also explains why online tech schools offer better career prospects at a more affordable price and how flexible learning is working towards closing diversity gaps. He also discusses the link between reskilling and recessions and how the 2008 recession gave rise to the first tech Bootcamp, as macroeconomic headwinds forced workers to adapt.

Lastly, Martin explains the difference between upskilling and reskilling, with 54% of CareerFoundry students having zero experience in the field of their course.

2249: Fluid - The AI Quant-Based Crypto Liquidity Aggregation System Jan 26, 2023

Ahmed Ismail, a seasoned investment banker and tech-driven entrepreneur with 18 years of experience at major financial institutions such as Bank of America, Credit Suisse, and Jefferies, is now the CEO and President of FLUID, a liquidity aggregator that uses AI quant-based models to tackle fragmented liquidity in virtual asset markets.

In today's episode of Tech Talks Daily, Ahmed discusses how AI can change the decentralized ledger and explains the benefits of using AI in the crypto market. We also talks about how liquidity aggregators could help manage market participants get through Black Swan events and the growing number of tech talent migrating to Web3.

About Fluid:

FLUID is the AI quant-based liquidity aggregator providing execution for CeFi and DeFi at high throughput, ultra-low costs, ultra-low latency, and zero counterparty risk. Many physical and digital assets will be tokenized in the future. FLUID intends to capitalize on the multi-trillion dollar tokenized market volume potential across spot, futures, derivatives, synthetics, STOs, tokenized assets and more.

FLUID is driven by a seasoned senior team with diversified experience in tier one financial institutions such as Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, BNY Mellon, Citibank, Visa, and founders of leading regulated digital asset OTC trading desks, quantitative firms, and popular blockchain companies.

2248: Intel Labs - Real-Time Deepfake Detector and Responsible AI Jan 25, 2023

Intel's Responsible AI work recently revealed FakeCatcher, a deepfake detection technology that can detect fake videos with 96% accuracy. The platform is the world's first real-time deepfake detector that returns results in milliseconds.

FakeCatcher uses Intel's hardware and software to assess "blood flow" signals in real videos to detect inauthenticity. The technology can run up to 72 different detection streams simultaneously on 3rd Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors. Social media platforms can use this technology to prevent the spread of deepfakes, global news organizations to avoid amplifying manipulated videos, and non-profit organizations to democratize the detection of deepfakes for everyone.

Intel also recently announced its extended collaboration with Mila, an AI research institute in Montreal, to help advance AI techniques to tackle global challenges like climate change, identify drivers of diseases, and expedite drug discovery.

Accelerating the research and development of advanced AI to solve some of the world's most critical and challenging issues requires a responsible approach to AI and the ability to scale computing technology. As leaders in computing and AI, Intel and Mila will work together to tackle some of the challenges the world faces today and drive tangible results.

Lama Nachman, Intel Fellow and Director of Intelligent Systems Research Lab at Intel Labs, joins me on Tech talks Daily in a discussion about Responsible AI and the real-time deepfake detector.

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2247: Polywork - Meeting the Unmet Needs of Professionals Collaborating Beyond Their 9-5 Jan 24, 2023

Are you tired of feeling trapped in the traditional 9-5 workday? Meet Peter Johnston, the founder of Polywork, the revolutionary professional network for multi-hyphenates. With $44.5M in funding from top investors such as Andreessen Horowitz, Polywork is changing the game for those looking to pursue multiple passions and collaborate with like-minded individuals.

Join me as I speak with Peter about his own journey from product designer to CEO, the inspiration behind Polywork, and why traditional online communities like LinkedIn fall short for those looking to explore multiple career paths. Plus, Peter offers valuable advice for those ready to take the leap and start their side hustle or passion project. Don't miss out on this exciting episode of Tech Talks Daily.

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2246: LogRhythm - Navigating a Changing Threat Landscape Jan 23, 2023

CISA recently announced critical guidance on threats against organizations using certain forms of multi-factor authentication. The agency urged all organizations to implement phishing-resistant MFA controls in order to prevent phishing and increasingly automated and sophisticated attacks on authentication processes.

With so many phishing attacks targeting credentials to be used in a later campaign, more organizations are getting the hint that they need to have MFA in place for at least those users with access to critical resources and/or valuable data, if not everyone. However, what happens when the threat actor has the credentials but doesn't have the additional forms of authentication?

I invited Sally Vincent, Threat Research Senior Engineer at LogRhythm to join me on Tech Talks Daily. Listen in as we discuss how organizations can identify unusual authentication activity and explore mitigation strategies to stay ahead of phishing attacks.

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2245: Precisely CEO Shares Insights on M&As in the Tech Industry Jan 22, 2023

I'm excited to have Josh Rogers, CEO of Precisely, joining us today. We last spoke in 2020, but I was intrigued to learn that he has led the company through seven acquisitions. So I invited him to join me again to share his unique perspective on the current Mergers and Acquisitions (M & A) market.

As we all know, today's business leaders are facing a complex and challenging economic environment, with many facing the decision to either move forward or cease M&A activity completely. In fact, PwC reports that in comparison to the first half of 2021, deal values have declined by 20 percent.

However, buyers can experience better returns during a downturn and achieve outsized growth as valuations come down, according to the same analysis from PwC. Josh touches on this and the current economic environment, evaluating risk, and how leaders should proceed with M&As. He also shares his experience leading Precisely through seven acquisitions and the company's acquisition plans in the current market. Additionally, we discuss how leaders should communicate acquisitions to customers and the acquired company's employees.

Listen in as one of the most experienced M&A leaders in the tech industry shares his insights.

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2244: Continuing the Data Sovereignty Conversation With Severalnines Jan 21, 2023

On today's edition of Tech Talks Daily Podcast, I'm joined by Vinay Joosery, CEO of Severalnines. The database industry veteran shares with me how Severalnines has built its reputation around open-source database operations, driven by a values-driven approach to building products that deliver "Wow!" moments to customers.

Vinay also delves into data sovereignty and how organizations often center their discussions around data residency for compliance purposes. He explains that true data sovereignty is an extension of sovereignty over an organization's stack and that heavy users of public clouds and their services, such as DBaaS, are not truly sovereign. However, it's not a binary proposition, and there are varying degrees of sovereignty.

Vinay also touches on the importance of stack decisions being made based on balancing capabilities and risk tolerance, not convenience. He also points out the risks of cloud deployment models, including vendor, environment, ecosystem lock-in, database license type and stability, key-man risk, cost predictability, etc.

Vinay shares that the landscape has evolved to enable organizations to get the convenience of cloud deployment models and the reliability and scalability of DBaaS without sacrificing their sovereignty wholesale. Please tune in to learn more about data sovereignty and how organizations can make informed decisions about their data stack.

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2243: Inteliforz - Connected Workplace Safety Technology Jan 20, 2023

On today's episode of the podcast, we're discussing the importance of innovation in warehouse safety as workers in states like New York, Illinois, and California speak up about poor safety protocols and high injury rates. I am joined by Beemal Vasani, Director of Ansell's Inteliforz, a connected workplace safety solutions brand.

Beemal believes that a company's safety program directly reflects its workplace culture and explains how investing in safety solutions technology and employee engagement tools can encourage safer workplaces, speed up training, and reduce onsite injuries. According to the National Safety Council, every $1 invested in injury prevention returns between $2 and $6.

We'll also discuss how wearable technology can act as the eyes and ears of employees, especially when staffing and training courses are tight, to ensure the correct personal protective equipment is being used at the right time. Additionally, we'll explore how communication platforms or apps can help workers quickly identify and report unsafe conditions and provide real-time feedback.

Beemal also shares how Inteliforz can tailor its platforms to a company's specific needs, making them as large and robust or as simple and minimal as needed. In addition, with customizable haptic technology based on a company's dataset, Inteliforz enables solutions to be tailored to a company's specific needs.

Tune in to learn more about how technology can improve health and safety in the warehouse industry and how organizations can better equip their staff through wearable and connected technology.

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2242: Theta Labs - How Web3 is Transforming Media and Entertainment Jan 19, 2023

Theta Labs is the company behind Theta Network, the leading chain for media & entertainment. Theta has partnered with brands and personalities such as Katy Perry, Sony, Samsung, Google, American Idol, World Poker Tour, and many more. So, the recent launch of Metachain seemed like an excellent opportunity to learn more about it. ]

Metachain is the new customizable, highly scalable blockchain designed for media and entertainment businesses, built from the ground up to be a user-centric, simple, and intuitive platform. It's developed for the needs of video platforms, ticketing companies, metaverses, and other enterprises as they evolve to decentralized models.

Among two of Theta's biggest fans — and two of its advisors — are Steve Chen, co-founder of YouTube, and Justin Kan, Co-Founder of Twitch. Steve Chen has said, "Theta's innovation is set to disrupt today's online video industry much in the same way that the YouTube platform did to traditional video back in 2005."

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2241: Oracle Communications: Trends in 5G Technology Jan 18, 2023

Andrew De La Torre is the Group Vice President of Technology at Oracle Communications. He is responsible for making strategic decisions that improve the company's competitiveness and leads the technical sales, business development and acquisitions teams. He has over 20 years of experience in the telecommunications industry, including leadership roles at Vodafone, and has also consulted in other industries such as oil and gas and construction. He has experience in corporate governance, finance, strategic planning, and technology transformation.

Today, he joins me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss the upcoming trends in 5G technology and what communication service providers are looking for. I also learn more about how Oracle Communications offers integrated comms & cloud solutions for service providers & Enterprises to accelerate their digital transformation journey.

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2240: SOURCE Global - The Tech Behind the World's First Renewable Drinking Water System. Jan 17, 2023

SOURCE Global is an Arizona-based organization founded by world-renowned Engineering professor Cody Friesen whose mission is to make drinking water an unlimited resource. The brand is backed by Bill Gates Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Microsoft's Climate Innovation Fund, and Blackrock.

I invited Neil Grimmer to join me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss how the company's hydropanels use the sun to draw pure water vapor out of the air and transform it into fresh, high-quality, perfectly mineralized drinking water. I also want to learn more about the technology that makes it al possible and how it has impacted the citizens of remote communities in 50 countries worldwide.

About Neil Neil Grimmer is an entrepreneur with a rich history of disrupting categories by bringing to market innovative products and human-centered brands. Leading with an exceptional blend of intuition and data-driven strategy, he has been an architect and accelerator of impact-driven companies for over two decades. Currently, Neil is the Brand President for SOURCE Global, PBC, a technology company harnessing the unlimited resources of sunlight and air to produce clean drinking water globally.

Prior to his current role, Neil served as the first- ever Brand President for Harley Davidson where he was responsible for all consumer-facing global touchpoints. For over a decade, Neil solidified his passion for brands with a social purpose when he founded two successful health and wellness companies, Habit and Plum Organics. Both companies share a progressive approach to food innovation and nutrition science with disruptive products that revolutionized their industries.

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2239: Intel Ignite and the Next Generation of Tech Startups Jan 16, 2023

Intel's Ignite program is one of the most competitive and challenging accelerator programs for early-stage startups, providing the winners with everything they need to compete and succeed in the tech industry. The program offers access to world-leading experts in technology and business, a preferred path to top investors, as well as the knowledge, resources, and association that comes with being accepted into the program.

The 12-week program focuses on mentorship and is designed for the 10 most diverse and impressive early-stage startups. Tzahi "Zack" Weisfeld, the program director, joins md on Tech Talks Daily to discuss how the Ignite program stands out from other startup accelerators and the recent expansion in Boston. He also shares insights he's gathered from the program since its launch in 2019.

I also learn how they are helping turn cutting-edge ideas into industry-disrupting technologies by giving entrepreneurs hands-on mentorship, technical support, and the business acumen they need to build world-changing companies.

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2238: The Story Behind DeFi Startup Quasar Finance Jan 15, 2023

Quasar is a new app-chain built in the Cosmos Ecosystem, optimizing inter-chain value capture with a human-centric design. Its mission is to provide sustainable, sovereign, and ergonomic investment vehicles for digital assets. Quasar’s flagship product will be yield-aggregating vaults that enable users to easily deposit Cosmos-based tokens, and passively earn yield generated from automated strategies. It will function like a decentralized, permissionless hedge fund.

Valentin Pletnev, the 23-year-old CEO and co-founder of Quasar Finance, discusses how Cosmos represents the future of blockchain and why he beives it's the best way to deliver on the decentralization blockchain has promised from the start. He also discusses the Appchain thesis, Permissionless vaults, Non-custodial trading, Defi native inter-chain strategies.

Listen in to learn more about Quasar and how it plans to bring simplicity, fairness, and ease of use to the DeFi sector, with the aim of opening the sector to much wider adoption.

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2237: Jobbatical. - The Tech-Driven Solution to Employee Relocation Jan 15, 2023

Karoli Hindriks, an Estonian entrepreneur, has made a major pivot in her business that has proven to be a game-changer for her company, Jobbatical. In 2018, the company was recognized by Forbes as one of Europe's 10 most exciting technology SMEs. However, as Karoli noticed that the biggest problem for her clients in international hiring was not the hiring process but getting people into the country, she decided to take an incredible leap of faith.

Karoli decided to focus on automating the immigration and relocation process, providing businesses with a way to retain talent amidst a growing global skills shortage. Her new business model, which removes the friction of labour mobility, became more critical than ever in 2022 as worker priorities continue to shift in favor of borderless working in the wake of the pandemic.

As a result, business has been booming for Jobbatical, with 8x ARR growth in the past 12 months alone. Karoli's entrepreneurial spirit began early, founding her first company at 16 and becoming the youngest inventor in Estonia to have a registered patent. By the age of 23, she became the youngest-ever CEO at MTV. In 2021, she gave a talk at TED@Monterey, becoming the first person from Estonia to ever speak on the main TED stage in the US.

Karoli's TEDtalk, "Why Passport Needs an Upgrade," has been translated into twelve languages. In 2020, the EU Council named her one of 8 most inspiring women in Europe, and this year EU-Startups named her one of the 50 most influential women in the European startup and VC space for the seventh year running.

Karoli shares her story, Jobbatical's journey, the importance of hiring beyond borders, why being resilient in business is critical for success, and her famous Happy Dance in Times Square.

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2236: Master Data Management (MDM): Strategies and Insights With Ataccama Jan 14, 2023

In today's data-driven world, staying aware of the latest trends and strategies in data management and innovation is essential for success. Unfortunately, many chief data officers (CDOs) and business leaders must understand what other organizations and industries are doing with data. However, with this awareness and a basic curiosity, CDOs may be able to innovate and improve their business operations.

On this Tech Talks Daily podcast episode, Roman Kucera discusses this issue and the importance of staying informed about other companies' data strategies and practices. He emphasizes that while there are rarely entirely new ideas for using data, there are often opportunities to borrow and adapt ideas from others.

I also learn more about the story behind Ataccama. Recently spun off from Adastra, the company also secured $150 million in funding from Bain Capital to fuel its worldwide expansion. As a provider of master data management (MDM) and data quality solutions, Ataccama understands the importance of high-quality data that is appropriately managed.

We discuss the need for data quality and proper management, as well as the art of telling effective stories using data (hint: pie charts aren't always the answer). With the right strategies and tools in place, businesses can turn data into a powerful asset for driving growth and innovation.

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2235: Data-Driven Success: Insights from Kazuki Ohta, CEO of Treasure Data Jan 13, 2023

Join us as we sit down with Kazuki Ohta, CEO, and founder of Treasure Data, a leading customer data platform. Kaz has dedicated his career to helping businesses effectively leverage data to power exceptional customer experiences in marketing, service, and sales. He will share his insights on the importance of understanding customer data and walk us through the steps to personalize the customer experience and stay ahead of the competition.

With his background as the founding CTO of Treasure Data, as well as his experience co-founding the world's largest Hadoop User Group and contributions to open-source software, Kaz is a true industry expert you won't want to miss. We also touch base on Kaz journey of moving to America and overcome the language barrier and his key role in building world fastest super computer while he was still a student.

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2234: Demandbase: Brewster Stanislaw on Building a World-Class R&D Organization Jan 12, 2023

I sit down with Brewster Stanislaw, a true industry veteran with experience leading product and strategy at some of the biggest names in tech, including Google, Adobe, and Marketo. Currently the Chief Product Officer at Demandbase, Brewster has a wealth of knowledge to share about building a world-class R&D organization, defining product-led growth, innovation during hypergrowth, and the crucial role of the customer in product development. Whether you're a product manager, marketer, or simply interested in how these industry giants operate, you won't want to miss this episode!

About Demandbase

Demandbase is a B2B marketing technology company that provides a variety of solutions to help businesses target and convert high-value B2B accounts. Their platform offers features such as account-based marketing, website personalization, and real-time visitor tracking to help businesses identify and engage with their ideal customer profiles. Additionally, Demandbase also provides a suite of analytics and optimization tools to help businesses measure the effectiveness of their campaigns and make data-driven decisions about how to improve them.

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2233: Alteryx - Why Businesses Are Stuck On An AI Hamster Wheel' Jan 11, 2023

On today's episode, I have the pleasure of introducing you to Alan Jacobson, Chief Data and Analytics Officer at Alteryx. Alan leads the company's data science practice, helping businesses get the most out of their data and insights. He is also responsible for data management, governance, and the use of the Alteryx Platform to drive growth.

Alan has held a variety of leadership roles at Ford Motor Company and was recognized as a top leader in the automotive industry with awards such as the Automotive Hall of Fame Leadership & Excellence award and the Outstanding Engineer of the Year by the Engineering Society of Detroit.

He has also worked as an advisor on data science topics with the National Academy of Engineering and other organizations. In this episode, Alan will be discussing driving key data initiatives and accelerating digital business transformation for the Alteryx global customer base, as well as the issue of many businesses being stuck on the AI hamster wheel and why nearly 80% of organizations do not trust or use their own analytic insights for decision making.

2232: F5 Survey of IT Decision Makers on Emerging Tech Jan 10, 2023

On today's episode of the Tech Talks Daily Podcast, we're joined by Angel Grant to discuss the results of the F5 Survey on Emerging Tech. For example, did you know that one in ten IT decision-makers are already operating in the Metaverse, and 51% expect to be there within five years or sooner.

However, this virtual world also brings new threats, such as virtual reality storefront attacks and the potential for ransomware in the Metaverse. Many IT professionals are also concerned about the security and data privacy risks associated with the Metaverse, with six in ten reporting that it has introduced complexities their organization may not be equipped to handle. Additionally, 37% say their organization has already been attacked in relation to the Metaverse.

As we continue to explore the possibilities of the Metaverse, we discuss the importance of addressing these concerns to ensure a seamless and secure experience.

2231: Minds - The Decentralized Social Network Dedicated to Internet Freedom. Jan 09, 2023

We have arrived in 2023, and big topics such as Social media, independent media, journalism, futurism, censorship, surveillance, algorithms, digital rights, and Internet freedom are more important than ever. But what role does technology play in fixing the problems created by big tech?

Bill Ottman is the co-founder and CEO of Minds, an open source decentralized social networking app with 6M+ users focused on censorship resistance, global dialogue, privacy, and creator monetization with both traditional payments and cryptocurrency. He is also the co-author of "The Censorship Effect".

I learn more about how the code and algorithms behind Minds are free and open source for maximum transparency and accountability and how they believe the only way to change someone's mind is if you provide them with a platform to speak it.

2230: Marketing Automation Tech Trends During Economic Uncertainty Jan 08, 2023

Rytis Lauris, the co-founder and CEO of Omnisend, shares practical insights on how e-commerce stores can benefit from omnichannel marketing during this period of economic uncertainty. We also discuss how paid advertising costs are rising while its effectiveness is plummeting.

About Omnisend

Omnisend is an e-commerce-tailored email & SMS marketing automation platform built to help nimble teams drive more revenue without increasing their workload. One-click ecommerce stack integrations, pre-built workflows and intuitive drag & drop editing make it easy to get up & running without diving into the gritty details unless you want to.

More than 80,000 ecommerce brands use Omnisend to grow their businesses on autopilot, converting their customers with quick-to-build, highly-relevant emails & texts.

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2229: Patch and the Technology Scaling Unified Climate Action Jan 07, 2023

Brennan Spellacy, Co-Founder, and CEO of carbon offset technology business Patch shares the story behind the company. I also learn how their technology enables customers to calculate their carbon footprint to identify and finance offset projects that capture the equivalent carbon dioxide emissions associated with that footprint. The company works with over 100 corporations and institutions, including the likes of Farfetch, Afterpay, Harvard University, and the University of Oxford. Its customer portfolio spans industries such as travel, fintech, crypto, and ecommerce. Patch is jointly headquartered in London and San Francisco, and its principal investor is American VC fund Andreessen Horowitz. We discuss how the software allows companies to choose which projects they'd like to finance to support the removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, with projects ranging from reforestation and conservation projects to more high-tech, early-stage technologies like direct air capture and sequestration projects.

Finally we explore the current macroeconomic landscape for climate technology founders in the UK and US right now and how Patch's technology works in practice and why it should not be viewed as an alternative to the decarbonisation of business.

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2228: The First Satellite Telecom Operator for Global IoT Connectivity Under 5G protocol. Jan 06, 2023

Sateliot is the only satellite company that connects IoT solutions worldwide under the 5G protocol with its patented technology via a low-Earth orbit (LEO) constellation of nanosatellites. Its satellite constellation functions as cell towers from space and delivers its service to land-based telecom operators, extending mobile operators' coverage to everywhere on the planet, including formerly out-of-coverage places.

Jaume Sanpera, CEO and Co-founder of Sateliot, joins me in a conversation about how satellite constellations can bring 5G networks worldwide to users without having to purchase equipment other than their own mobile device.

We discuss the differences between 5G-IoT-NB satellite constellations and other satellite constellations. We also talk about how cubesats (nanosatellite standardized models) have made access to space easier for start-ups and the benefits of this new space scenario to the world.

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2227: Anoma - 'Privacy As A Public Good' Jan 05, 2023

According to Chainanalysis, over $2 billion in cryptocurrency has been stolen in cross-chain bridge attacks last year. Exasperated by another string of bridge hacks over the last two weeks, many are calling into question the technology's ability to adequately secure users' assets and enable the interoperable, multi-chain future that is needed to propel the DeFi industry forward..

With hacker techniques becoming increasingly sophisticated in cryptocurrency, we talk about the state of security across cross-chain bridges and why the industry needs better solutions. But most importantly, what can be done to prevent future hacks. Finally, we discuss why an interoperable, multi-chain future is essential for the DeFi industry.

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2226: PandaDoc - How eSignatures Improve the Speed and Security of Docs Jan 04, 2023

As work environments undergo a rapid transformation and distributed and hybrid workforces become the norm, the need for an efficient, smooth digital document creation and management process becomes paramount. Documents remain the essential glue of how business gets done, but many professionals still need help in manual legacy processes or face challenges in their digital document creation.

The old way of signing and sending documents means you’re tethered to your desk. The new way: collect eSignatures wherever life takes you – whether it’s an office or a beach halfway around the world. You can even track important updates right from your mobile phone.

So today, I have invited Mikita Mikado, CEO of PandaDoc, to explore Digital transformation in remote work environments and the mission to create seamless document creation and finalization tools. We also discuss how PandaDoc recently introduced the first "forever free" e-signature solution and offers businesses of all sizes an all-in-one solution to easily manage the creation, editing, and signing of documents in every work setting in the new era of hybrid and remote work.

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2225: CompTIA - Switching Careers into IT or Grow Your Tech Career Jan 03, 2023

The well-documented tech skills shortage also provides opportunities for people from any age or background to consider a tech career. In today's episode, I am joined by Graham Hunter from CompTIA to share his insights and actionable tips for anyone to start or grow their career in tech with an IT certification from CompTIA.

Graham reveals insights from CompTIA's recent report into the State of the Tech Workforce UK. I also learned more about the cyber security skills gap and a new initiative to help those who don't make it as professional footballers into careers in the sector and what needs to be done to address the UK's data skills gap.

About Graham

Graham Hunter is Executive Vice President, Global Sales at CompTIA. The company represents over 12,000 member companies and registered users worldwide; it is the world's leading provider of vendor-neutral skills certifications for the global IT workforce.

Graham is responsible for explaining how critical it is for governments, businesses and educators to provide the most current certifiable IT training programs for their employees and students to meet the demands of the global IT workforce, as well as providing senior strategic direction, leadership, management, and support to the EMEA, APAC and Canadian team.

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2224: Appian - The Story Behind the Low-Code Application Development Platform Jan 02, 2023

In 1999, Michael Beckley, Matt Calkins, and two other friends were in a basement. Twenty-three years later, Appian is publicly traded with more than 2,000 employees - and was the most successful software IPO of 2017. Today he joins me in a discussion on growth in tech and shares tips to push through the looming recession. He shares how they grew Appian to be a company with a market cap of more than $3B, giving giants like Salesforce and ServiceNow a run for their money.

Appian became a unified platform for change that accelerates customers' businesses by discovering, designing, and automating their most important processes. The Appian Low-Code Platform combines the key capabilities needed to get work done faster, Process Mining + Workflow + Automation, in a unified low-code platform.

Michael offers advice for newer tech execs on how to combat economic downturns. We also discuss why companies automating tasks in white-collar office roles are not taking away jobs but changing the workflow dynamic to remove menial tasks and allow employees to focus on more important aspects of their job.

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2223: No Longer Virtual - Connecting Beyond The Keyboard With Sarah Elkins Jan 01, 2023

In today's episode, Neil shares his new year message and explores the opportunity to learn more about leveraging technology to make lasting connections. Then, Sarah Elkins, the founder of the No Longer Virtual (NLV) Conference, shares her insights on how to use technology to create meaningful connections.

Through her inspiring stories and lessons learned, Sarah provides tips on how to benefit from stories to shape personal growth and development. She also discusses the importance of pushing oneself beyond fear and taking risks, as well as her favorite song, Hang On Little Tomato, by Pink Martini.

Sarah shares how to use technology to create meaningful connections and build relationships. She also shares her motivation for creating the NLV conference and how the stories we tell ourselves that shape our perception of the world. Listen in as Sarah offers advice on how to push ourselves beyond our fears and encourages us to open ourselves up to the opportunities that technology can provide.

2222: Tracklib and The Tech Demystifying Music Licensing Dec 31, 2022

In today's Tech Talks Daily episode, I explore technology's role in demystifying music licensing and its complexities. More Specifically: how Tracklib has automated sample licensing to the benefit of both music creators (artists, producers, and songwriters – superstars and budding talent) and rightsholders (labels and publishers).

Today's guest is Pär Almqvist: who caught my attention when he said, "There's a big, positive implication from knowing you can sample something and not be afraid of being sued." I learn more about how Tracklib makes sampling and sample clearance fast, easy, legal, and affordable for every music producer worldwide.

By simplifying music licensing, can technology unlock creative opportunities for all the world's music creators, new revenue for the whole music industry, and change how the world can make music? Listen in to learn more.

2221: Founder of Otovo, Europe’s Solar Marketplace Dec 30, 2022

Otovo is Europe’s leading online residential solar marketplace and has assessed over 4 million homes across Europe. They’re currently active in 13 markets, serving 90% of Europe’s population.

Andreas Thorsheim, its founder and CEO, joins me on today's episode of Tech Talks Daily. I learn more about how Otovo uses proprietary technology to connect customers to local, vetted installers, making the process of adopting solar at home as smooth and seamless as possible.

We discuss how the online marketplace takes a customer's address and then automatically calculates the size, shape, and specification of suitable rooftop solar products. Using satellites, Otovo also calculates exactly how much sun is shining on a roof and how much energy can then be produced from it. It then runs an automated, 'real time' auction between local solar installers to find the cheapest price for the work required.

As a pioneer in solar, Otovo is already the market leader in their native Norway, where they've managed to cut the price of solar in half over the past 5 years alone. They've helped over 10,000 households in Europe transition to domestic solar power already, operating at a pace of 9,000 installations per year.

2220: Digital Surgeons Co-Founder Design-Led Entrepreneur, Pete Sena Dec 29, 2022

Pete Sena is a design-led entrepreneur who loves to partner with forward-obsessed founders, entrepreneurs, and business leaders to unlock new possibilities and growth. For nearly 20 years, Pete has built and led cross-functional teams that have delivered many successful multi-channel programs and activations, ranging in scale from venture-backed startups to Fortune 50 companies.

Pete joins me in a conversation that covers everything from marketing, branding, entrepreneurship, design thinking, tech (Web3, AI, metaverse), and the importance of a growth mindset. I also learn how he constantly remains curious and the tech trends that excite him in 2023.

2219: EdgeQ - RISC-V: The Linux of 5G Dec 28, 2022

2219: EdgeQ - RISC-V: The Linux of 5G

EdgeQ is a 5G chipmaker leveraging the RISC-V architecture to open its tech. RISC-V is not only shaping the evolution of 5G, it's also redefining the broader mobile landscape. The mobile/telco industry has historically been dominated by proprietary, closed technologies and vendors. However, with RISC-V's growing popularity, the mobile industry is adopting openness at a massive scale for the first time.

Just as Linux drove enterprises to embrace open-source software, RISC-V is driving mobile operators and telcos to adopt open approaches to building networks. This is a necessary shift: For 5G to pay off, organizations need the flexibility and customizability RISC-V delivers. But the impact of this shift will extend beyond 5G and enable the industry to deliver other innovations that would be lost in a proprietary ecosystem.

Adil Kidwai shares with me how RISC-V adoption is transforming the mobile industry and what this mean for 5G and beyond.

2218: Retail Tech Trends With COO at REPL Group, Part of Accenture Dec 27, 2022

Neil McGregor, COO at REPL Group, Part of Accenture, has amassed over 15 years of consulting experience – mainly focused on global retail systems integration. Neil has been at REPL for over six years, taking on the role of COO back in 2020, where he leads all people, projects, and operations across the consulting team globally. Before that, he was Consulting Operations Director, where he lead and motivated the delivery team; and Consulting Director, where he was responsible for leading complex change, system implementation and developed teams of solution oriented consultants. Prior to REPL, Neil has held roles at both EY and Accenture – where he kickstarted his career.

In today's episode, Neil shares his story and the retail technology trends that excite him along with a few predictions and challenges for the year ahead.

2217: Onapsis - How Businesses Can Keep a Lock on Cyber Threats. Dec 26, 2022

Cyber crime is everywhere, it's on your phone, laptop, it's even seeping into warfare, shutting down entire countries. How many times have you received a notification saying your password has been compromised on a retail website you've spent far too much time on? Usually you change the password as soon as possible, the risk to bank details and other personal information is too great.

Yet, the same attention and diligence is not given to cybersecurity for businesses, despite reports of fraud and cybercrime in the UK reaching more than 400 000 in 2021 alone. It is critical that businesses have strong cyber defences in place, much like changing your personal password, businesses need to be on top of threats before they go too far.

JP Perez-Etchegoyen, CTO of Onapsis, a cybersecurity provider for business-critical applications, has extensive experience identifying and solving these threats. Onapsis provides cybersecurity solutions to 20% of Fortune 100 companies around the world and has grown 187% over the past three years.

JP joins me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss why organizations should be worried about unknown internet-facing vulnerabilities and how they can prevent them.

2216: The World’s First Fully Functional Data-In-Use Encryption Solution Dec 25, 2022

Ryan Lasmaili is the Co-Founder & CEO of Vaultree, the world's fastest searchable encryption technology for databases. Ryan has been fascinated by technology breakthroughs from space travel to EnviroTech since childhood, and in the last 12 years he has been involved with technology startups developing solutions to major problems.

Ryan's background is in financial mathematics with a passion for astrophysics and economics, having also worked in corporate environments in roles ranging from project manager to senior analyst, reporting to executives in listed multinationals.

Ryan is always looking for ways to improve and apply his out-of-the-box thinking to solve significant cybersecurity problems, with his biggest undertaking to date solving today's and tomorrow's data encryption and protection challenges.

2215: Surveillance State - Technology and a New Era of Social Control Dec 24, 2022

Surveillance State tells the gripping, startling, and detailed story of how China’s Communist Party is building a new kind of political control: shaping the will of the people through the sophisticated—and often brutal—harnessing of data.

It is a story born in Silicon Valley and America’s “War on Terror,” and now playing out in alarming ways on China’s remote Central Asian frontier. As a minority separatist movement strains against Party control, China’s leaders have built a dystopian police state that keeps millions under the constant gaze of security forces armed with AI. But across the country in the city of Hangzhou, the government is weaving a digital utopia, where technology helps optimize everything from traffic patterns to food safety to emergency response.

Award-winning journalists Liza Lin takes listeners on a journey through the new world China is building within its borders, and beyond. Telling harrowing stories of the people and families affected by the Party’s ambitions, Surveillance State reveals a future that is already underway—a new society engineered around the power of digital surveillance.

2214: Decentralized Digital Identities Aren’t Just for Humans - Machines Need Them Too Dec 23, 2022

The machines we interact with every day make our lives easier. As they become more intelligent and able to help us in new ways, we need to take a step back and consider whether how third parties govern them is fit for purpose, particularly as we move towards a world with autonomous vehicles. Many machines, devices, and vehicles we use daily are centrally controlled, limiting what the machines can or can't do regarding the provision and rendering of goods and services.

Machines built for Web2 exist in a closed, permission-based environment, which massively limits how they can interact with other machines, where they can go, and what they can do. Existing identification numbers are one-dimensional and are used to label machines and their specifications. This does not enable them to leverage their identity to enable movement, service authorization, trade, or payment.

Sheridan Johns, Enterprise Lead at Ocean Protocol, and Leonard Dorlöchter, co-founder of Peaq discuss their mission to enable the secure, fast, and frictionless transfer of value and data between humans and machines through Self-Sovereign Machine IDs (SSMIs).

I learn how the implementation of SSMIs as digital identities will enable vehicles, machines, robots, and devices to identify themselves with each other, people, and their environment. Decentralized Machine IDs will solve some of our biggest societal and economic challenges while enabling communities to benefit from the increased use of machines and automation within the workplace.

We discuss how giving machines Self-Sovereign Machine IDs will change the future of work and how Web3 can ensure that job automation empowers a global workforce. We also explore what a fully decentralized machine economy will look like and how this can benefit individuals.

2213: How Push Protocal is Simplifying Web3 Communications. Dec 22, 2022

Push Protocol is a web3 communication network, enabling cross-chain notifications and messaging for dapps, wallets, and services. It powers communication for over 100 of the world’s leading dapps and service providers across DeFi, NFTs, gaming, dev tools, and more.

Until Push, no solution existed to enable native communication between wallets in response to on- and off-chain data. The result was a fractured dapp ecosystem, held together by antiquated and centralized communication platforms. Push is building the communication network for Web3, addressing a gap in critical infrastructure and improving the everyday experience for blockchain users.

Harsh Rajat, CEO and co-founder of Push Protocol (recently rebranded from EPNS), joins me on the Tech Talks Daily Podcast in a conversation about bringing simplicity and ease of use to web3 communications. Listen in as Harsh defines what Web3 communication is and why it matters. He also offers an overview of Push Protocol and PushChat. Finally, we explore the future of decentralized social media and much more.

2212: Pluralsight - Advancing the World’s Technology Workforce Dec 21, 2022

Sean Farrington, EVP EMEA at Pluralsight – the workforce development platform, joins me on today's episode of Tech Talks Daily to talk about the ongoing challenges around hiring and the role of internal skill development in plugging gaps.

We discuss the scramble for talent and how tech companies must still take on high revenue projects, bring new products to market and keep customers happy. This means talent remains critical, but businesses will need to turn to expanding the skillsets of existing teams, rather than relying on new hires or outsourcing work, and support them to deliver on new projects.

We also talk about the importance of capitalising on the hunger to learn. For example, 75% of technologists determine whether to stay at their company partly based on how dedicated their employer is to development opportunities. Now more than ever, reducing turnover is key. A commitment to L&D can support this, and develop more engaged team members.

Finally, we discuss why tech leaders need to create a culture of learning and why putting this culture of learning in place needn't cost businesses a fortune. In fact, it makes good business sense to invest in upskilling – with estimates suggesting that upskilling could save at least $3,125 per employee.

2211: IEEE - Assessing Website Password Practices Dec 20, 2022

Steven Furnell, IEEE senior member and professor of cybersecurity at the University of Nottingham, joins me on today's episode of The Tech Talks Daily podcast. Steven discusses the findings of his recently published paper titled 'Assessing website password practices –Unchanged after fifteen years?', which explores how leading websites guide and support users in making appropriate password choices. The paper presents the fifth in a series of studies that have been conducted every few years since 2007, with the aim of examining the level of guidance provided to users before and during the password selection process, as well as examining the nature of the passwords that users are then permitted to choose.

We also discuss the enforcement of password rules and applying various tests which determine whether the site filters out common or predictable password choices.

About Steven

Steven Furnell is a senior member of the IEEE and professor of cybersecurity at the University of Nottingham. His research includes usability of security and privacy, security management and culture, and technologies for user authentication and intrusion detection. He has authored more than 320 papers in refereed international journals and conferences, as well as books including Cybercrime: Vandalising the Information Society and Computer Insecurity: Risking the System.

2210: Skiff Founder Asks Is the Future of Email Decentralized? Dec 19, 2022

A recent report has revealed that Google harvests 39 types of private data on its users, which includes users’ specific location, their browser history and the emails on their Gmail accounts. Google is constantly invading our personal space thanks to the many formats at its disposal, including: Search, Chrome, Gmail, Youtube, Maps, Workspace, and Android.

As Google's oppressive dominance continues to grow, more and more email users are ready to embrace new decentralization tools that are providing private solutions.

Skiff is fusing the mail interface that consumers use everyday with Web3 open source technology, to provide a privacy-first, end-to -end encrypted, wallet native workspace. Users will be able to send messages, write notes and share files all while completely owning their own data. Utilizing IPFS, Skiff users will also have the option to store their content, including all Skiff Drive files, fully decentralized and end-to-end encrypted.

In light of this, Andrew Milch, CEO and Co-Founder of Skiff, joins me in a conversation about how new technologies can help individual de-couple privacy concerns from a reliance on big tech companies. We also discuss the need to embed privacy into the platforms we use in order to protect against the non-consensual usage of sensitive data by third parties.

Finally, we explore the advantages for users of switching from other cloud storage providers to a totally private storage platform that is entirely censorship-resistant and decentralized.

2209: The Tech Helping Businesses Understand Customers and Enhance Digital Experiences Dec 18, 2022

When every business is talking about the power of digital experiences, I want to learn more about what that means and look beyond the buzzwords and toward the business value it offers. Contentsquare, the global leader in digital experience analytics, was recently named a winner of the 2022 Aragon Research Innovation Award for Digital Experience Analytics. So today's guest is Dave Anderson from Contentsquare, which helps brands deliver the power to make the digital world more human.

Dave shares his origin story and the path that led him to an AI-powered platform that provides rich and contextual insight into customer behaviors, feelings, and intent at every touchpoint in their journey. I also learn more about the story behind Contentsquare, founded in Paris with offices worldwide and has raised $1.4B in investment funding.

We also discuss the emergence of apps and reliability but the lack of focus on the experience. Finally, we talk about the Tech Seeking Human Podcast - a podcast about AI built on the back of working at Dynatrace and exploring where AI is heading.

2208: Draft.dev CEO Karl Hughes The Story Behind Using Experts in Developer Marketing Dec 17, 2022

Draft.dev helps businesses achieve their technical content goals through a team of writers who are also professional software developers and subject matter experts. As a result, they create content that resonates with technical audiences and performs well on search engines.

After spending eight years as a CTO, building software engineering teams in venture-funded startups, Karl Hughes started Draft.dev to help companies create authentic technical content that resonates with software developers. Since founding the company in 2020, the team has grown to include marketers, editors, engineers, and over 130 technical writers.

Karl joins me on Tech Talks Daily to share his story of transitioning from engineer to team leader to business owner. He also reveals the skills and lessons learned throughout his career. I also learn how he had to learn to sell and closed over $1mm in new business in his first year. Karl also discusses growing a business quickly and going from 1 to 16 employees and 200 contractors in 2 years with no funding.

2207: Xactly - Demystifying Statistical Analysis and Forecasting Technology Dec 16, 2022

Jeffrey Partyka, Principal Data Science Engineer at Xactly, joins me on Tech Talks Daily in a discussion about the rise of data scientists and their value for companies. Jeffrey shares how forecasting models work, the importance of statistical analysis, and how wider teams can utilize data to create better business products. He discusses how this role has evolved and is better institutionalized in recent years.

We also explore Xactly's survey report - Insights on The Sales Talent Crisis of more than 400 U.S. sales leaders, and the lessons learned from the great resignation.

Jeffrey Partyka has been a principal data science engineer at Xactly since July 2020, actively conducting and overseeing numerous machine learning/statistical projects relating to sales forecasting, churn, cross-selling, and other sales areas. Jeff has worked in data science since 2007 as a Big Data engineer, data science team lead, research & development manager, and part-time professor across multiple domains, including geospatial indexing, psychometrics, productivity optimization, and sales performance management.

2206: Dynatrace Grail and a Mission to Unify Observability Data Dec 15, 2022

Continuous digital transformation has created a data explosion that's overwhelming many organisations. Every tap, click, or swipe from a user, new code deployment or architecture change, and attempted cyberattack generates more data that can be captured and analysed. However, there is too much data to store and use cost-effectively.

Organizations are therefore forced to discard most data or lock it away in cheaper storage layers where it can't be analyzed. This has led to a tipping point, where the datasets used for observability and security analytics are too incomplete to be truly valuable.

The value of observability and security data is in the insights it can provide to help organizations optimize their digital services. However, current approaches to analytics mean they often need help to maximize the detail those insights contain. As well as having an incomplete dataset, most of what they keep is stored and analyzed in silos, so it lacks a crucial ingredient – context. This means any answers from data analytics are often incomplete, imprecise, or even incorrect – limiting its value to the business.

Grail is a data lakehouse, purpose-built to solve these challenges. It combines the structure, management, and querying capabilities of a data warehouse, with the low-cost benefits of a data lake. Bob Wambach shares the story behind Grail and how it enables organizations to store vast quantities of observability and security data cost-effectively and analyze it together in context.

I also learn how Grail uses a massively parallel processing (MPP) analytics engine, enabling organizations to run thousands of queries simultaneously rather than processing them sequentially. As a result, they can get instant, more precise, and cost-efficient insights from analytics.

2205: General Motors and the Tech Driving the Future of Transportation Dec 14, 2022

The transportation industry is going through a massive digital transformation right now. The changing value proposition of cars is moving software to the center of a legacy business. So it's a great time to get in on an early software trend that will soon redefine driver expectations.

In today's episode, I want to learn more about how the advanced technology team at General Motors is doing inspiring work driving the future of transportation, from EVs and AVs to connected cars. Padma Sundaram, director of Software Defined Vehicle Quality and Operations at General Motors, joins me on Tech Talks Daily to share how she played a crucial role in launching a new software platform called Ultifi.

I learn more about how Ultifi will leverage a Linux-based operating system allowing third-party developers worldwide to create apps for GM. This will also help expand the capabilities of a customer's connected car long after it's sold and create collaboration opportunities never seen before.

We discuss how open source is powering the shift to an era of software-defined vehicles where cars will become much more like our smartphones – a connected device that will regularly update, customize and evolve with their owners over time. Padma also shares how the auto industry might be the next frontier for tech talent looking to build their careers.

2204: COP15 - Tech and the Biodiversity Investment Ratings Agency (BIRA). Dec 13, 2022

Did you know that Biodiversity loss represents a risk to more than half the world's GDP - about $44 trillion? Today, I want to explore what Biodiversity is and technology's role in improving it. Dr Mike Musgrave joins me in a conversation about all this and more.

We discuss his work with the School of Wildlife Conservation at the African Leadership University is working with Dalberg Catalyst and Financial Services Deepening Africa to develop a Biodiversity Investment Ratings Agency (BIRA). Dr Mike Musgrave graduated from Rhodes University and the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa and holds a PhD in Sustainable Development from the University of St Andrews in Scotland. A recipient of the prestigious Frederick Soddy Award from the Royal Geographic Society, he writes broadly on African customary law, common-pool resource governance and nature-based solutions for addressing climate change in Africa.

Mike is currently Conservation Leadership Faculty in the School of Wildlife Conservation at the African Leadership University in Kigali, Rwanda where he leads the development of a Biodiversity Investment Ratings Agency for Africa in partnership with Dalberg and FSD Africa.

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2203: Cloud Security Orchestration and Remediation Dec 13, 2022

Visibility and detection tools such as Orca, AWS Security Hub, Wiz, Lacework, and others revolutionized cloud security assessment and analysis, inching the world of SecOps towards remediation. The transformation they introduced to risk prioritization and assessment in the cloud brought to the surface valuable indications and alerts that required the attention of security teams. SecOps teams are now swamped with a growing number of security findings but no comprehensive tools or streamlined processes to remediate them. Opus is filling that gap. Meny Har witnessed firsthand the growing need for SecOps orchestration in cloud security remediation. Listen in as Meny shares with me how they have built a solution that will do for cloud SecOps remediation what Orca, Wiz, and others did for cloud risk detection and prioritization. Opus strives to transform cloud SecOps by enabling organizations to effectively respond and remediate in the cloud.

About Opus

Opus Security is a Cloud Security Orchestration and Remediation startup emerging from stealth with funding in the double-digit millions led by YL Ventures, Tiger Global, and big-name security executives and serial entrepreneurs, including the CEOs of CrowdStrike and Cyber Ark. The co-founders, are experienced, successful executives who come out of Siemplify, acquired by Google in Jan. to boost SecOps.

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2202: IDEO - Why A Sustainable, Equitable Future Is For All of Us To Design Dec 12, 2022

At IDEO, they believe a more sustainable, equitable future is for all of us to design. And there is an urgency to that collective effort, as today's challenges are increasingly global and interconnected. For decades, They have helped individuals, leaders, and organizations navigate such complexity, designing the products, services, and experiences of the future. But what is the role of technology in these efforts?

Wes Eugene, CIO IDEO on the podcast, joins me on Tech Talks Daily to share his story. We discuss the Circular Economy and How organizations can tackle the greatest challenge of our lifetime. For example, H&M recently partnered with IDEO to eliminate plastic in its packaging (2,000 tons, in fact). Logitech also turned to IDEO to set new sustainability goals when they decided to become climate positive by 2030.

We also discuss how to design inclusion into existing systems and processes. For example, IDEO worked with LA County to create a new voting experience that's more intuitive and accessible, as well as Ford Foundation to elevate frontline workers in the business decision-making process.

Finally, we explore organizational transformation and how organizations can evolve around global forces and digital innovation while staying true to their mission and purpose. For example, IDEO worked closely with Ford Motor Company on designing its successful electrified fleet last year. It's also worked with governments such as the UAE on new ways of designing policy when traditional processes fail.

2201: The Biometric and Motion Smart Sleeve For Physical Rehabilitation Dec 11, 2022

Cipher Skin CEO Phillip Bogdanovich shares the story behind the biometric and motion smart sleeve used for physical rehabilitation. He is a former US Marine Corps Amphibious Recon Medic and was Tactical Medical Chief Diplomatic Protection for the US Dept of State. I learn more about how he launched Cipher Skin after his own physical rehabilitation recovery from combat injuries and success with previous startups.

We also discuss how the patented technology has numerous applications, including athletic performance and industrial monitoring (like oil and gas pipelines). We also discuss what biometric and motion data is collected through Cipher Skin and explore the possibilities for future hybrid care and wearable technology.

2200: The Impact of Increased Global Conflict on Cybersecurity Risks Dec 10, 2022

Stephen Semmelroth was in the Army for 6+ years, and he served in Afghanistan and the Army's Cyber Corps, where he led a red team and a threat intelligence team defending US assets across an entire continent. Unfortunately, he broke his back while on a mission which left him paralyzed, and he had to relearn how to walk.

After retiring from the Army, he founded Rainier Cyber, a cybersecurity recruiter that matches Cyber Vets with tech jobs across the county, which was acquired by StrataCore in 2020. Stephen holds CISSP, PMP, GSNA, GCIA, and GPEN cyber security certificates, and he mentors between 200-300 people annually in the cybersecurity space.

Stephen shares his story with me and discusses a rise in global conflict necessitates a review of cybersecurity best practices. He also talks about how companies and non-tech professionals can solve the cybersecurity talent problem.

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2199: The Technology Association of Georgia (TAG) Dec 09, 2022

Larry Williams is the President and CEO of The Technology Association of Georgia (TAG), one of the largest tech associations in North America with 30,000+ members. His role is to help strengthen the innovation ecosystem of Georgia, a state particularly well-known for its booming technology industry.

Through TAG-Ed, Larry also works tirelessly to promote STEAM education and support workforce development for tech professionals. Larry shares with me his insights about supporting the technology ecosystems that help innovative companies bridge the gap between their customers, partners, products, technologies and markets.

Larry also shares insights about educating, building and supporting the technology workforce of tomorrow. Finally, he reflects from his experience as the Founder and President of the National Technology Security Coalition, a non-profit, non-partisan trade association serving as the voice of CISOs to help improve national cybersecurity.

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2198: Issuu - Big Tech’s Responsibilities for the Future of Marketing and Publishing Dec 08, 2022

Issuu is the world's largest SaaS content publishing and marketing platform. The Issuu Story Cloud empowers content creators to transform creative designs from static files into web-optimized assets for every marketing channel, including web, mobile, social, email, and more.

Joe Hyrkin, CEO of Issuu, the Omni-channel content tools and publishing platform, joins me on today's episode of Tech Talks Daily. We discuss how the Issuu Story Cloud enables millions of global marketers, brands, creators, and publishers to digitally share and monetize their longer-form quality content and create marketing materials.

We discuss big tech's responsibilities for the future of marketing & publishing, the workflow mentality shift among enterprises, and streamlining processes strategically amidst a recession. Finally, we discuss what is driving the creator economy, the future of publishing, and what's next for Issuu and other brands in this space.

About Joe

Joe joined Issuu in early 2013 after more than 20 years of leading startup/growth companies in executive, business development, and product roles. He served as CEO of Reverb during two rounds of financing; in addition, as head of SingleFeed, Joe oversaw that firm's acquisition by Alibaba. Before that, Joe held sales and leadership positions at Gala Interactive, Yahoo, Flickr, and Virage. He directed the Economist Group's business in China and has extensive board and tech-advisor experience. Joe was educated at the State University of New York in Albany and as a foreign student at Beijing Normal University in China.

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2197: IFTTT - The Story Behind the Automation Platform Dec 07, 2022

Linden Tibbets, Founder and CEO of IFTTT (If This Then That), shares the story behind the platform that allows users to integrate different apps, devices, and services to create automated responses and routines. I learned more about his vision to empower everyone to automate and integrate their favorite apps and smart devices to work together by launching IFTTT in 2010. Before that, he worked as a communications designer at IDEO, a renowned product design firm.

Did you know there are over 700+ apps, services, and devices, including the world's biggest brands like Google, Discord, Slack, Dropbox, Alexa, and Fitbit, as well as millions of their users rely on IFTTT for their most essential integrations?

From notifications (letting your spouse know you've left work and are heading home automatically), to tapping into the Internet of Things (turning on your lights when you unlock the front door) — IFTTT makes it easy to control and customize their world. To date, they've also raised $62.5M from investors, including Salesforce and IBM, and their users perform 1B+ automation and integrations monthly.

Listen in as Linden shares how he built his company from the ground up to become one of the leading IoT solution platforms with million-dollar revenues. We also explore the top IoT trends we can expect to see in the next five years and the future of human-computer interaction.

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2196: Infobip Discuss the 30th Anniversary of SMS Messages Dec 06, 2022

On Dec. 3, 1992, a 22-year-old Papworth texted "Merry Christmas" to Richard Jarvis, a director at Vodafone who was at a company Christmas party. It was the first time a cellphone user had ever received words instead of a voice call on their device. Papworth was a developer and test engineer for Sema Group, which was rolling out the world's first short message service (SMS) center for Vodafone U.K.

This noteworthy event later led to Papworth being featured in a Best Buy Super Bowl commercial, a Jeopardy! question, a book and the Museum of Global Communications. It also gave rise to an important new medium now used regularly by most Americans and employed by billions of people globally.

Neil Papworth discusses the changes he has seen since sending the first text message. Best known as the first person ever to send a text, Neil made his indelible mark on the world of communications – and the annals of tech and text history – early in his career.

In addition, Infobip recently revealed insights from their 30th Anniversary of the SMS report, so I invited Ivan Ostojic back on the podcast to join the discussion. In 2020, Infobip became the first Croatian company to reach unicorn status. In the past 12 months alone, over 5 billion people have used Infobip solutions and services.

Ivan shares insights from the report and discusses the future of SMS and other means of messaging for business purposes.

Tech Talks Daily Podcast Sponsor

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2195: ManageEngine: IT at Work and the Democratization of IT Dec 05, 2022

Arun Kumar is a regional director at ManageEngine, the enterprise IT management division of Zoho Corporation. With almost two decades of global experience in enterprise IT, Arun has a deep knowledge and peer network in the IT management industry. He has been working with ManageEngine since 2003. In his current role, he leads all channel and partner-related initiatives for the company in the United Kingdom (UK) and Asia Pacific (APAC) markets.

Arun joins me on Tech Talks Daily to share insights from their global survey around the empowerment and democratization of IT with 3,300 decision-makers from across IT and business decision-makers. On the topics of IT Leadership, Autonomy + Expectations we explore the relationship between IT and the C Suite, and levels of consultation. We also discuss the influence and importance of the IT department and how they collaborate with other internal teams.

We also talk abot IT Sovereignty and decentralization in UK companies versus the global average. Why companies are choosing to decentralize their IT, their motivation for doing so, and the levels of independence for IT decision-making. Finally, we discuss the perceived role of IT in preventing security attacks and how the UK compares with the global market regarding educating its workforce about security threats.

Tech Talks Daily Podcast Sponsor

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2194: Tech For Good - Andy Wilkins CEO & Co-Founder at Futr Dec 04, 2022

With a legal and finance background, Andrew Wilkins founded the first international wealth management platform, which he sold in 2015, going on to start an early-stage incubator, Fintecho. Futr.ai was born in 2017 when Andy and co-founder Lee Skyrme saw the massive opportunity to use cutting edge artificial intelligence to transform the way we access public services. Five years later, with the support of an amazing team and fantastic VCs, Futr is proud to include the police, the NHS, and many amazing charities and social services as well as private organisations as valued customers.

Over the past year, Futr has accelerated its work with a myriad of organisations as they have all implemented AI chatbots to ensure increased engagement with their end-users and deliver a seamless customer service experience. From government to business, their chatbots are used by over 1,000 organisations across the world.

We discuss their work with the NHS, various UK police forces (recently launching the first live chat support service for domestic abuse victims), UK housing associations and the charity CALM. I also learn how Futr is also now integrated with the social media profiles of the UK police divisions as well as CALM (among others), so they not only have access to real-time data, but past historical data as well.

Andy shares his knowledgeable insights into current AI chatbot technology as well as practical guidance based on a wealth of experience for implementing digital transformation in the future.

Tech Talks Daily Podcast Sponsor

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2193: Exploring Master Data Management With William McKnight Dec 03, 2022

William McKnight has been recognized as the #1 global influencer in big data, cloud, and data center by Thinkers 360 and the #1 global influencer in master data management by Onalytica in 2022. He is the Founder and President of McKnight Consulting Group, which advises many of the Global 2000 companies, including Pfizer, Verizon, UnitedHealth Group, Dell, Oracle, and Scotiabank, on ways to grow their businesses with big data faster.

They've been recognized as one of the Inc. 5000 fastest-growing private companies in the US two times and their clients in 14+ countries have reaped tremendous ROI and turned data into a real corporate asset. With over 30 years of experience, William is a highly sought-after speaker who has spoken on four continents for various organizations, including IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, Bank of America, Orange South Africa, and SAP.

Listen in as we discuss personal data, who's watching you, and how they can use the data collected from you. We also discuss new analytic uses of master data management in the enterprise, how AI will significantly impact users and how organizations think about their data resources.

Tech Talks Daily Podcast Sponsor

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2192: Couchbase CTO on Data Trends, Decentralisation, and Cloud Best Practice. Dec 02, 2022

The brains behind Couchbase's leading data platform, CTO Ravi Mayuram, joins me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss how businesses can avoid the $8.75m cloud overspend revealed in the company's latest cloud evolution report. Ravi shares that even though companies now view the move to the cloud as inevitable, enterprises are still caught out by issues such as inflexible pricing plans, ineffective management tools, and data not stored where it needs to be.

We also explore how businesses can make the cloud live up to its promise and how new tech adoption impacts companies. Despite the current reputation of Web 3.0 being tarnished by Crypto-bros, NFTs, and Mega – Ravi believes there is definite potential for companies to explore blockchain technology.

We also talk about how businesses can unlock this potential and what it will mean for data. While it's no surprise that the decentralization concept has extended to the IT industry, business infrastructure must be in place to achieve the benefits. Finally, Ravi shares his thoughts on how the future of IT must mean managing data anywhere, including on the edge, a server, or the cloud.

Tech Talks Daily Podcast Sponsor

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2191: Keeper Security - Insights from the 2022 Cybersecurity Census Report Dec 01, 2022

Cybersecurity is now recognized as a critical priority for businesses around the world. However, cybersecurity threats are evolving as risks, and the responses necessary to mitigate them, change rapidly. As a result, staying ahead of bad actors is a continuous challenge, and businesses, despite their intentions, are only sometimes keeping pace.

To solve these problems, IT leaders must understand why. They need answers to questions such as, how is cybersecurity transforming? How are cyberattacks harming businesses? Where must investments in preventative training and tools be focused? Is cybersecurity being prioritized by leadership? And how does cybersecurity fit within an organizational culture?

In partnership with Sapio Research, Keeper's second annual Cybersecurity Census report maps the transforming landscape of cybersecurity based on these expert insights. It provides leaders with a forensic assessment of their businesses' threats and details the urgent strategies necessary to overcome them.

Darren Guccione, CEO & Co-founder at Keeper Security, returns to the Tech Talks Daily Podcast to share insights from the report.

Tech Talks Daily Podcast Sponsor

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2190: How Oxbotica is Deploying Sustainable Mobility Solutions Nov 30, 2022

Ben Uprcoft, VP of Technology at Oxbotica, joins me on Tech Talks Daily. Today's guest has extensive experience in perception systems for field robotics ranging from commercial passenger vehicles, all-terrain vehicles, draglines, haul trucks, and underwater platforms to unmanned aerial vehicles.

At Oxbotica, Ben is responsible for technology development and our team of skilled engineers, balancing state-of-the-art algorithms with real-world system implementation to achieve intelligence in self-driving platforms - on and off road.

Ben's previous life was as a tenured academic in Computer Vision and Robotics at the Queensland University of Technology, Australia where he focussed on machine learning for field robotics. He led the Robotics and Autonomous Systems group of over 150 postgraduate students, postdocs, and academics.

Today, we explore delivering safe and sustainable AV technology that will reshape the future of transportation and mobility. I learn more about Oxbotica's software, Oxbotica Driver, which brings flexibility to its fleet customers and partners, such as the Ocado Group, enabling a unique last-mile delivery service.

We discuss how Oxbotica is accelerating the adoption of its full-stack Oxbotica Driver by revolutionizing last-mile delivery not just in the UK but in the US, as the company plans to go global and work towards its mission of 'Universal Autonomy.'

Earlier this year, the all-electric AppliedEV vehicle, driven by Oxbotica, completed a journey in Oxford with no onboard driver, marking the next step in commercializing AV technology. The target for the first public on-road business deployment with Ocado Group, with a goods delivery variant, completing customer orders will be from 2023 onwards.

2189: PwC - Why Every Board Needs a Tech Subcommittee Nov 29, 2022

Mike McCarron is a partner at PwC, where he helps C-suite executives in a range of industries drive transformation across all aspects of business operations through IT strategy and governance. Mike has spent his career advising and supporting leaders as they navigate technology, investments, and operations. Prior to PwC, he was a CIO at Bain Capital, GE Capital, and Fidelity, among other companies.

In today's episode of Tech Talks Daily, Mike discusses why so many CIOs struggle to make an impact (and turnover in the role is so high). He also reveals why so many companies treat technology simply as a series of risks to be managed, not as a key lever of corporate strategy. We also explore why corporate boards should create tech subcommittees, and he reveals the two years in the military (when he was in his early 20s) that taught him more about leadership than any other experience.

2188: Avery Dennison - The Digital Solutions Preventing Counterfeit goods Nov 28, 2022

It is estimated that the sportswear industry is worth approximately $33bn, and counterfeiting is a growing issue, especially during globally renowned events such as the World Cup which has already seen multiple seizure operations of counterfeit merchandise. Connected garments are the future of sportswear.

Innovations in sportwear such as 'smart' numbers and invisible digital triggers which can be scanned with a smart phone. These innovations exist to boost consumer engagement as they have the power to unlock exclusive content such as match day information, quizzes and competitions for fans. They are also used to prove authenticity of the garments.

Michael Colarossi is the vice president of Innovation and Product Line Management for Avery Dennison RBIS. In this role, Michael is responsible for RBIS' portfolio of products and solutions, product line strategies, and technical product innovation. He also leads the division's sustainability, social, and product compliance efforts.

Listen in as we discuss how digital solutions can help brands and consumers, especially from a sustainability point of view, and stop fake merch.

2187: How Technology Is Making the Golden Quarter a Success Nov 27, 2022

Aaron Goldman, CMO, Mediaocean joins me in a discussion about “The Golden Crunch Point”. As we are all aware, we are entering that time in the marketing calendar where for many brands, the majority of their revenue and sales are made – the Golden Quarter. These three months have always been huge but this year it has been amplified with the continued unpredictable headwinds of cost of living, changing consumer confidence and a potential recession. The crunch point for brands is that, while retail sales are expected to be lower this year - while consumers are more cautious of what they spend their money on - they still to need to make revenue. Aaron discusses “the four must haves” brands and retailers need for their Golden Quarter campaigns this year to entice new and existing customers outside discount and deals. With $200 billion in annualized ad spend running through its software, I also learn more about how Mediaocean provides foundational solutions to connect brands, agencies, media, technology, and data.

About Mediaocean Mediaocean is the mission-critical platform for omnichannel advertising. With more than $200 billion in annualized media spend managed through its software, Mediaocean connects brands, agencies, media, technology, and data. Using AI and machine learning technology to control marketing investments and optimize business outcomes, Mediaocean powers campaigns from planning, buying, ad serving, and creative personalization to analysis, optimization, invoices, and payments. Mediaocean employs 1,700 staff across 30 global offices and supports over 100,000 people using its products

2186: LegalTech - Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) Nov 26, 2022

Sergio Esteve De Miguel is the co-founder of Bigle Legal, an innovative legaltech startup from Barcelona. Together with his brother, he wanted to combine their expertise in business and technology to transform the legal industry. Sergio believes technology can change how legal professionals approach their jobs and make their work lives much more enjoyable and productive.

In today's episode, Sergio shares his story, the problems they are trying to solve, the future of legal operations, and how intuitiveness is critical in a contract lifecycle management or tech solution.

About Bigle Legal

Bigle Legal is a Contract Lifecycle Management Software, provides an AI-powered, cloud-based solution that automates the legal operations of a company while improving safety and minimizing the risk of legal contingencies. A pioneer tech company and leader in the field of document automation from Spain, with a presence in the UK, Austria, Netherlands and Italy, and has a network reseller across Europe and Latin America. Its clients include real estate companies, corporations, and large law firms. The platform is precise, flexible, and intuitive, providing full control over the entire document life cycle.

2185: Jumio - Identity Verification Through Informed AI. Nov 25, 2022

Philipp Pointner leads Jumio's digital identity strategy and the initiative to enable multiple digital identity providers in its ecosystem. Prior to Jumio, Philipp was responsible for paysafecard, Europe's most popular prepaid solution for online purchases.

As well as sharing his personal experience in the technology industry and the projects he's worked on, Philipp discusses how digital identity for identity verification is a great place to start when it comes to building an ecosystem of trust. Listen in as we explore the different ways digital identity can make everyday transactions safer and easier for consumers while also improving people's online experience with brands

Finally, we discuss why it's important to not just 'Know Your Customer' but 'Know Your Business' in order to navigate business challenges without compromising on security.

2184: Understanding Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM) Nov 24, 2022

In July, Gartner introduced Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM). In practice, CTEM is a set of processes and capabilities that allow organizations to evaluate the accessibility, exposure and exploitability of all digital and physical assets. The objective of CTEM is to create an actionable security posture remediation and improvement plan that business executives can understand, and architecture teams can act on. Haggai Polak, CPO of Skybox Security discusses what this new process means for enterprise security. Haggai also shares how Skybox has observed the approach in practice to help organizations better understand how exposure management can help stay ahead of today’s cybersecurity threats.

2183: How The Modern Milkman is Using Tech to Tackle Ocean Pollution Nov 23, 2022

Simon Mellin and his friends founded Modern Milkman in 2018 to reduce waste while making sustainable choices convenient and accessible to all. Modern Milkman set out to tackle the problem of single-use plastic packaging and food waste to ultimately protect the environment by reinventing the milk round.

In today's episode of Tech Talks Daily, Simon shares how his inspiration came after watching David Attenborough's 'Blue Planet' TV show and the global aim of cutting single-use plastics from ending up in the ocean in a trash area five times the size of France. I also learn more about how sustainability, supporting independent suppliers, farmers, and plastic waste reduction remain at the heart of his mission. But it's data and AI that make all this possible.

We discuss how Modern Milkman uses technology to deliver on its mission and transform the consumer experience. I learn how critical it is for customers to have what they ordered on time and the key to execution is capturing all the data points and running live analytics on the data so that Modern Milkman can map deliveries and predict demand and order flows to ensure no waste.

Simon also speaks about the role of ThoughtSpot as part of the Modern Milkman data story and how it powers both business growth as well as Modern Milkman's mission.

2182: Founders of Acast Launch Solution to Subscription Fatigue Nov 22, 2022

Måns Ulvestam and his co-founders, Karl Rosander and Markus Ahlstrand, sold their shares in Acast to launch a new book, audio, and news platform, Sesamy. The platform allows users to buy only what they need, when they need it, and access it on any device or app through single purchases. In addition, no subscription is needed to access (and own) digital content. They've already rolled out in Sweden and Denmark, and have significant expansion plans in place.

By using their own unique SmartID software, Sesamy can ensure a single-purchase option does not cannibalize existing subscription income. Instead, it creates an additional, incremental revenue stream to support publishers and provide consumers with flexible options in a time of considerable financial uncertainty. Sesamy have exciting upcoming plans for this software in the news/magazine sectors in particular.

With inflation through the roof, and troubles ahead, the worst is arguably yet to come for those wedded to subscription models. It plausibly figures that the publishing sector, already facing a downturn in ad revenues, will also see the same trend as consumers cut back and grow ever tired of 'peak subscription'. Given these developments, subscription-dependent sectors are crying out for an alternative and are now increasingly finding they've optimized their own subscriber numbers. Growth is tailing off, and at risk of declining rapidly with these self-evident economic pressures.

2181: The Tech Help Helping Employers Reduce Burnout and Increase Retention Nov 21, 2022

Greg Sloan, CFP®, CEPA, CPM™, is a Chief Purpose Officer and Co-Founder of Go Beyond. This People Development company combines Behavioral Science and Technology to improve well-being in the workplace.

With over 25+ years of experience in financial services, Greg is a serial founder who discovered his purpose and wants to share the knowledge of how to achieve this same goal with others. He is a thought leader who centers his time and energy on purpose and people, focusing on purpose in the workplace, the future of work, and financial wellness.

Go Beyond's mission is to create scalable, science-based tools and content that can be easily distributed worldwide to enable people to live better lives. They accomplish this by activating purpose in the workplace to help companies recruit, grow, and retain workers. Research shows that aligning company and personal goals improves productivity, retention, and overall wellness in the workplace.

After consecutive pandemic years, employee burnout has become a ubiquitous problem, impacting companies of every size, industry, and level. The consequences are devastating and far-reaching, negatively impacting people's personal and professional lives. For example, one employee survey found that a staggering 77 percent of employees are experiencing burnout at their current job.

This reality is exacerbating already-high employee turnover rates, which reached historic highs this year, reorienting the workforce in real-time. As a result, four in five HR leaders say that mental health and employee well-being are top priorities for their companies.

Today's episode discusses how Purpose Pulse enables companies and coaches to measure individual and organizational well-being. In addition, we explore how the combination of behavioral science and technology can help diagnose the root causes of disengagement, turnover, and burnout to allow organizations to allocate resources effectively to the most needed employee assistance programs.

2180: Lessons Learned From Tech Sales and Renewals Conversations Nov 20, 2022

Businesses across the country are already cutting costs amid the looming recession. From hiring freezes to trimming headcount, difficult decisions are already being made. As customers and clients try to cancel and tighten contracts, Kraig Swensrud shares the hardest questions he’s getting in the sales and renewals conversations right now, and how to handle them.

Kraig has led two companies through acquisition and is now the CEO of Qualified, which just raise $95M for their Series C. Even with an average 4,000% ROI across customers, Kraig is still having to navigate customers trying to cut costs.

2179: The Startup Story Behind the AI-Driven Social Media Manager Nov 19, 2022

Arjun Rai, serial entrepreneur and founder of the crowdsource-funded HelloWoofy.com joins me on Tech Talks Daily to share his story. His passion for technology and helping entrepreneurs and small businesses compete with the unlimited marketing budgets of their corporate competitors through digital marketing and equity fundraising make him a perfect fit for the show.

Arjun offers tips for anyone struggling to keep up with post creation, scheduling, integrations etc. For startup founders, he also shares his experiences with equity crowdfunding, scaling a startup and how to survive and thrive as a founder.

2178: Female Founder's Healthy Social App Making Advocacy Easy Nov 18, 2022

Sparkseeker is a new, healthy alternative to current social apps that combines humane data practices, emotional wellness, and social good in one video-centric platform. It's fully built and launched its crowdfunding campaign earlier this summer, and crowdfunding contributors will receive early access to the app's private beta testing phase.

As more and more people look to social media to share and further the causes most important to them, Sparkseeker's unique, action-focused features make online advocacy easy. At the same time, Seekers (the app's term for users) can post freely about their everyday lives without worrying about anonymous comments or bots, thanks to the app's fully video-based model. In addition, Sparkseeker's use of responsible technology and neuroscience-supported features ensures a healthier Seeker experience without invasive data practices, harmful algorithms, or in-stream ads.

Sparkseeker's Founder and CEO, Kalista Zackhariyas, shares her incredibly engaging story about building a new healthy alternative to current social media apps.

2177: Claire Vo, CPO at Color Shares Her Journey From Tech to Healthcare Nov 17, 2022

Claire Vo, Chief Product Officer at Color, shares how she went from tech to healthcare. At Color, Claire leads the engineering, product management, data, and design teams to develop the company’s population health platform, services, and technology. She joined Color from Optimizely, where she was Chief Product Officer, building enterprise-grade experimentation and progressive delivery products.

After spending her entire career in tech, Claire made the jump into healthcare when she realized how the pandemic revealed just how inaccessible much of the U.S. health infrastructure is for people who need it most.

The digital health industry boomed during the pandemic, with a proliferation of new services to address every part of the care ecosystem, but it also revealed just how inaccessible much of the U.S. health infrastructure is for people who need it most. Based on her current position at Color, a company focused on delivering a scalable public health infrastructure for millions, Claire discusses what it means to build a healthcare product focused on increasing access for millions and how companies can build infrastructure for scaled impact.

Within digital health, Claire is passionate about the fact that software alone cannot solve public health crises – a notion which was proven through many companies’ responses to the COVID-19 pandemic laid bare. There is a tendency to believe better tech is always the answer, but while the right software can reduce friction and drive better insights, healthcare is essentially a human interaction at the end of the day. It requires a hybrid model that incorporates both better technology and the personal touch of a visit to the doctor’s office or a pharmacy.

2176: BCG Henderson Institute - Rival Versions of the Metaverse Nov 16, 2022

François Candelon, Global Director of the BCG Henderson Institute – BCG's research think tank, joins me in a conversation about the growth of the many metaverses. Listen in as we talk about how the race is on to capture digital engagement.

With 30 years in tech and as a global team leader analyzing the impact of the Metaverse through research, François discusses what metaverses actually exist and their purpose in shaping the future, from full-second digital lives (for work and play) to gaming communities and even crypto-centric marketplaces.

We also talk about how organizations across industries can and must understand these rival metaverses before engaging. Finally, we look into who is winning the Metaverse and who the wild card contenders will be. About François Candelon:

François Candelon is the Global Director of the BCG Henderson Institute, Boston Consulting Group’s think tank dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, economics, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. He is also a leader of BCG GAMMA’s AI@Scale effort for technology, media, and telecommunications companies. GAMMA is BCG’s data science and advanced analytics unit. François joined BCG in 1993. He has worked in several European countries, led BCG’s global telecommunications work from 2008 to 2012, and spent seven years in China, where he worked with the most advanced tech companies. His research is focused on AI and digital as a source of competitive advantage for businesses and national economies. His work has been published in several prestigious reviews (Harvard Business Review, MIT, and Sloan Management Review). He has also been a speaker in global conferences like Mobile World Congress, TED@BCG, Web Summit, Politico AI Summit, and Wuzhen Internet Conference.

2175: 3 Lessons From Accenture’s CIO To Digitally Transform Enterprise Sustainability Nov 15, 2022

Research from Accenture found that most CEOs list becoming a sustainable and responsible business as a top priority, even at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, companies with higher sustainability performance also perform better financially than their peers.

As meeting ESG benchmarks becomes a requirement, not simply a goal, Accenture recently shared its sustainability roadmap, including priorities, learnings, and best practices. I invited Accenture’s internal global IT organization/Accenture CIO Penelope Prett to join me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss her strategy that focuses on three key pillars:

Data: Sustainability commitments require greater access to sustainability data and environmental sustainability reporting tools that can identify trends in specific products or locations and build bridges to end goals.

Cloud optimization: Optimizing migrations to the public cloud can reduce global carbon emissions by 59 million tons of CO2 annually. Accenture runs 95% of its infrastructure in the cloud, which led to an estimated reduction of 220 metric tons of carbon emissions in only nine months.

Value Chains: Driving supplier engagement through data platforms and procurement hubs to influence responsible buying decisions and help businesses optimize their supplier base. We discuss how delivering on the promise of sustainable technology means that CIOs must embed sustainability into the core of operations to help the business achieve sustainability goals while also managing the environmental impact of the technology itself.

2174: Venafi - The Rise of Nation-State Cyber Attacks Nov 14, 2022

Venafi®, the inventor and leading provider of machine identity management, recently announced new research findings that evaluate the security impact of the increasing number of nation-state attacks and recent shifts in geopolitics.

The survey of over 1,100 security decision-makers (SDMs) globally found that 66% of organizations have changed their cybersecurity strategy as a direct response to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, while nearly two-thirds (64%) suspect their organization has been either directly targeted or impacted by a nation-state cyberattack.

I invited Kevin Bocek to join me on the podcast to discuss how cybersecurity has become intertwined with geopolitics, with state-backed hackers using cybercrime to advance their nation's wider political, economic, and military goals.

I learn how everyone is a target, and unlike a kinetic warfare attack, only you can defend your business against nation-state cyberattacks. There is no cyber-Iron Dome or cyber-NORAD. Every CEO and board must recognize that cybersecurity is one of the top three business risks for everyone, regardless of industry."

We also discuss the Venafi research into the methods used by nation-state threat actors shows the use of machine identities is growing in state-sponsored cyberattacks. The digital certificates and cryptographic keys that serve as machine identities are the foundation of security for all secure digital transactions. Machine identities are used by everything from physical devices and to software to communicate securely.

2173: From Pro Basketball Player to Scoring Unicorn Status With Solo.io Nov 13, 2022

Idit Levine, founder, and CEO of Solo.io, shares her inspirational tech startup story with me on Tech Talks Daily. Her journey took her from playing basketball professionally in her home country of Israel to founding Solo.io in 2017, the modern service connectivity company that’s already valued at $1 billion! Idit shares with me the lessons she has learned along the way including how to scale as a CEO, hiring in the current market, and how to monetize open-source services.

2172: How Dexioprotocol (DEXI) Is Enhancing Web3 Experiences Nov 12, 2022

Greg Gould is the COO of Dexioprotocol (DEXI), a crypto-based gaming company with several utilities. Their flagship product, DexiHunter, aims to be the "Pokemon Go" of cryptocurrency, and it allows players to earn crypto by hunting and collecting bounties around their cities. I invited Greg to join me on Tech Talks Daily to talk about Dexioprotocol and the worldwide adoption of crypto bounty hunting.

We discuss how gaming is helping to get more people interested in cryptocurrencies and the future of blockchain, and we reflect on what's happening in the market.

2171: TSIA - Digital Hesitation: Why B2B Companies Aren't Reaching Their Digital Transformation Potential Nov 11, 2022

Many B2B companies are struggling to truly innovate their operating models. As a result, leading companies in high-tech, industrial, medical device, and other B2B tech markets are hesitating to take the steps necessary to change how they build and deliver their solutions.

They are carrying too much baggage―high labor costs, slow time to customer value, under-responsive sales and services―into a future that won't stand for it. That's true even though the technologies are available to enable the changes NOW.

Digital Hesitation is a technology business book that examines why most B2B companies fail to reach the full potential of their digital transformation efforts. The authors join me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss how the book is written from the perspectives of a dozen experts who interact with and advise the world's top technology companies daily.

About J.B. Wood

J.B. Wood is president and CEO of the Technology & Services Industry Association (TSIA), the leading association for today's technology and services organizations. Through TSIA, Wood advises the world's largest B2B technology companies on strategies to increase growth and profitability by optimizing their services, sales, product, and channel operations.

Wood is a best-selling author and frequent industry speaker on the topics of business outcome engineering, X-as-a-Service (XaaS) business models, transformations in the traditional customer-supplier relationship, and TSIA's LAER customer engagement model (Land, Adopt, Expand, and Renew). He has also appeared in such leading publications as Fortune, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal.

About Thomas E. Lah

Thomas Lah is the executive director and executive vice president of the Technology & Services Industry Association (TSIA), the leading association for today's technology and services organizations. For over 20 years, he has been helping some of the world's largest technology.

About TSIA

The Technology & Services Industry Association (TSIA) is the world's leading research organization dedicated to helping technology companies achieve profitable growth and solve their top business challenges.

80% of the Fortune 100 technology companies have a TSIA membership, and executives from these companies look to TSIA for data and guidance that helps them make the right business decisions to ensure success.

2170: Pendo - Insights From the State of Product Leadership Report Nov 10, 2022

Four years ago, I spoke with Todd Olson, millionaire CEO and co-founder of software development platform Pendo - the man on a mission to elevate the world's experiences with software. The serial entrepreneur famously teamed up with product leaders and technologists from Red Hat, Cisco, and Google to launch Pendo in October 2013.

Fast forward to 2022, and Pendo has gone on to raise $356 million in venture capital, land more than 2,300 customers, and employ 900 people across seven offices around the globe. Pendo also landed on the Forbes Cloud 100 and Inc. Best Workplaces lists for the fourth year in a row in 2021.

Todd returns to Tech Talks Daly to share further insights around the recently released fourth annual State of Product Leadership Report. We explore trends impacting product management, the evolution of the Product Manager role, and how Europe is faring in terms of product-led digital transformation.

Todd also talks about how he used his knowledge of the digital economy to help community banks meet surge of demand for online services and encourage schools to make the most out of their educational software throughout the height of the pandemic.

2169: AWIN - MarTech Chat on Understanding Gen Z and Millennials Nov 09, 2022

One is the largest generation in the US, and the other is at the forefront of shaping expectations for brands — so how does marketing to Gen Z and millennials really work? Millennials, born between 1981-1996, make up 23% of the global population and 21% of the US population, meaning they are the largest demographic by age.

Gen Z refers to people born between the mid to late '90s and the 2010s and is the most diverse generation in human history. Despite some being close in age, they vary significantly in the type of marketing that resonates with them. For example, Millennials are known for driving a perfect aesthetic, while Gen Z rejected the trend by actively trying to avoid it.

This means that to appeal to both generations, businesses must strike the perfect balance of authentic and 'real' while also offering the same sense of aspiration. Carissa Flinders shares with me her insights on what technology each generation is using and how brands can leverage tech to better communicate with audiences.

2168: DXC Technology - Discussing the Best Cyber Security Approaches Nov 08, 2022

I have invited Mark Hughes from DXC technology to join me on Tech Talks Daily to share insights around best practices for securing complex IT environments. We also discuss cyber security approaches for fighting the enemy within and how to make cyber security a top priority for boards and CFOs. Finally, we dare to explore smart security in the metaverse, and Mark shares a few Cyber security tales from the trenches.

About Mark:

Mark Hughes is president of Security for DXC Technology. He is responsible for DXC’s Security business including cyber defense, digital identity, secured infrastructure and security risk management.

Mark joined DXC from BT, a world-leading global telecommunications provider, where he most recently served as chief executive of BT Security. He joined BT in 2002 and held a variety of senior appointments, including key government customer-facing roles.

In 2013 Mark led the formation of BT Security, which has become a global leader with 3,000 cyber security experts across 15 security operation centers globally and double-digit annual revenue growth. Earlier in his career, Mark was the commercial director at MWB Business Exchange. He began his career in the British Army.

Mark has served on national boards, including the Cyber Growth Partnership for the United KingdomKingdom, and the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Cybersecurity Board. Awarded a BS with honors by the University of Leicester, Mark trained at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, and the Junior Division of Staff College. He was awarded advanced military certificates in French and German from the University of Westminster.

2167: Exploring Proptech With CBRE Nov 07, 2022

CBRE Group's Chief Digital and Technology Officer Sandeep Dave joins me on Tech Talks Daily Podcast to discuss how technology impacts the commercial real estate industry. I also learn more about how they recently piloted a program to test collaborative tools used in virtual worlds for onboarding, training, and hybrid work.

About Sandeep Dave

Sandeep Dave leads the company's digital strategy and execution globally. He and his team provide the technology capabilities and infrastructure to support CBRE and CBRE's clients and professionals across the globe. He is also a member of CBRE's Global Executive Committee.

Prior to his current role, Dave served as Chief Digital and Technology Officer for CBRE's Global Workplace Solutions business with responsibility for digital enablement and transformation of the business. Prior to CBRE, Dave headed digital strategy and transformation for Citibank leading the firm's digital agenda across businesses and geographies globally. In his role, he helped Citi respond to digital trends and effectively compete and win in the face of changing customer expectations and emerging disruption.

About CBRE Group

CBRE group is one of world's largest commercial real estate services and investment firm. With deep market knowledge, superior data and proprietary technology, their multi-dimensional perspective helps you use real estate to transform your business and find greater success. Their mission is to realize the potential of clients, professionals and partners by building the real estate solutions of the future. From instilling confidence in today's decisions to re-imagining tomorrow's spaces, they thrive in complex and ever-changing environments.

2166: EtherMail - Web3 eMail is Here Nov 06, 2022

MailChimp recently decided to clamp down on crypto companies. Given the ramifications of this move for web3 projects, I invited Gerald Heydenreich of EtherMail on the podcast. We discuss how the first Web 3.0 email solution is setting the standard for anonymous and encrypted wallet-to-wallet communication. Think Gmail + MailChimp + Metamask and you have EtherMail.

EtherMail recently closed a $3 million seed round, led by top Web3 investors Fabric Ventures and Greenfield One. Founded in Q4 2021 by serial entrepreneurs Shant Kevonian and Gerald Heydenreich, EtherMail is the first web3 tool to allow web3 companies to send rich, relevant content directly to their asset holders based on blockchain-synced real-time information.

2165: anotherblock: Own a Share of Your Favorite Song and Earn Royalties Nov 05, 2022

When you stream your favorite songs on Spotify, the owners (rightsholders) of that music are eligible to receive money (royalties). On anotherblock, owners of music sell NFTs containing a share of the streaming royalty rights of your favorite songs. As an NFT owner, you will receive your share of the streaming royalties.

anotherblock is a community of music lovers building music rights catalogs. The company was founded in 2021 by entrepreneurs Michel D. Traore, Sebastian Ljungberg, and Filip Strömsten. anotherblock was built upon the idea that accessing music rights should be easy and democratic. By connecting music rights to NFTs, anotherblock creates a smooth and easy way to both buy and sell music rights - a community of music lovers building music rights catalogs together with artists.

Michel D. Traore joins me on Tech Talks Daily to talk about the story behind the company and improving the value of music by introducing it to a free and open market. I learn more about their mission to solve the institutionalized imbalance of power within the industry with technology.

We also talk about how the marketplace for music royalty NFTs is following on its first rapid-fire sell-out drops to offer shares in the streaming income from Alan Walker’s track, “Alone, Pt. II,” a pop-perfect ballad with vocals by Ava Max. Each of the 500 anotherblook NFTs gives holders the rights to 0.001% share of streaming revenue from the song.

2164: Sanjay Brahmawar, CEO of Software AG, The Enterprise Tech/IoT Company Nov 04, 2022

Sanjay Brahmawar, CEO of enterprise tech/IoT company Software AG joins me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss why successful digital transformation hinges on two criteria. I learn more about the importance of cultural transformation and talent – and how to leverage both to modernize your enterprise.

We also talk about the roadblocks businesses face when undergoing company-wide strategic changes, and how to get buy-in from leaders to push forth that change. He also shares the leadership lessons he’s learned, including resilience and patience in the face of such a large, strategic transformation.

About Sanjay Joining Software AG in 2018, Sanjay initiated a multi-year journey to convert the business to a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) based model. Called the Helix transformation, the strategic shift has required buy-in from stakeholders and employees and a change in sales models, processes and internal culture.

The five-year transformation, undeterred by the challenges brought on the COVID-19 pandemic, recently celebrate its third year. The program has been successful to date, seeing total recurring revenue growing, with 2021 seeing a 10% YOY increase, driven by six consecutive quarters of double-digit bookings growth within its Digital Business.

The proportion of Subscription and SaaS bookings in the Digital Business – a key indicator of the transformation – continued to increase to 88% for 2021.

2163: Analysys Mason Predicts Increased IT Spending by SMBs Nov 03, 2022

In its latest SMB technology forecast, Analysys Mason predicted that IT spending by SMBs will grow at a growth rate of 7.5% between 2022 and 2027. In addition, cloud-based categories are expected to grow from USD $600 billion in 2022 to USD $1.0 trillion in 2027.

Bob Takacs, Research Director and SMB IT practice leader at Analysys Mason, commented on the forecast, “Our latest forecast reveals the shift in SMBs’ behavior and priorities since the pandemic. We see increased investments in categories driving resiliency and efficiency. This is an important release because we accounted for the impact of three critical drivers, including SMB’s changing behaviors post-pandemic, macroeconomic headwinds, and the global political unrest.”

Bob joins me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss how the report suggests that SMB’s spending priorities include IT solutions that support efficiency, resiliency, and business continuity. We also discuss how three categories will account for almost half of all spending; managed services, infrastructure, and cybersecurity. Finally, we talk about how a distributed workforce and hybrid working practices will continue to influence IT spending.

2162: HarperDB - Jaxon Repp Shares His Tech Startup Story Nov 02, 2022

HarperDB's CEO Stephen Goldberg shared the story behind the company with me in July on episode #2028. We discussed how their technology is changing other companies in unique and innovative ways. But this time, I have invited Jaxon Repp, Head of Product, on the podcast to learn more from his twenty-five years of experience architecting, designing, and developing enterprise software.

Jaxon is the founder of three technology startups and has consulted with multiple Fortune 500 companies on IoT and Digital Transformation initiatives. The partially-reformed developer understands what it's like to wrestle with technology instead of benefiting from it,

He also believes that if the Jetsons never had an episode where a config file error brought down the food-o-Matic, it surely should not be a problem now. Join me in learning more from Jaxon Repp.

2161: ManageEngine - From Self-Service to SaaS Evolution Nov 01, 2022

Rakesh Jayaprakash from ManageEngine joins me on Tech Talks Daily as discuss how Analytics Plus was originally an on-premises IT analytics solution. Recently though, Rakesh and his team finished transforming the product into a SaaS solution that allows IT to connect several data sources into an integrated analytics platform that can be deployed on private and public clouds including AWS and Azure. This will help organizations attain faster time to market, increase productivity, curb expenditure, and garner more revenue.

Rakesh also discusses the decision to evolve Analytics plus into a SaaS offering, share the journey of doing so, and the value this update will bring to IT teams.

2160: How AtlasEdge Is Shaping the Future of Edge Computing Oct 31, 2022

There is so much hype around emerging technologies, but I want to move beyond the buzzwords, demystify the technology, and understand the business value and tangible results it can offer. So today, I want to talk about Edge Computing.

AtlasEdge, the leading pan-European edge data centre provider, recently appeared on my radar after they announced the acquisition of Datacenter One ("DC1"), the leading German provider for data centre development. The company is also rapidly gaining a reputation as a leading European Edge data centre platform with over 100 locations across 13 countries.

Giuliano Di Vitantonio, CEO of AtlasEdge, joins me on Tech Talks Dailyto discuss how their distributed data centre portfolio allows their customers to plan and shape their technology and network infrastructure to meet the growing requirements for lower latency, higher performance, and localised solutions.

2159: Third-Party Lifecycle Management Technology Oct 30, 2022

Experts are predicting an economic downturn in the coming months. Tech companies across the US have already implemented hiring freezes and are trimming up to 20% of their workforce. Unfortunately, this means that corporate sustainability initiatives will also likely fall by the wayside to save cash.

In the wake of the recession and the new wave of globalization, Jag Lamba, founder of Certa, discusses specific practices that businesses can implement to prioritize ESG, mitigate risk, and maintain visibility into their supply chain, where 70% of all risk lies.

Jag also shares the story behind Certa’s no-code platform and how it was designed to make it easy to digitize and manage the lifecycle of all suppliers, partners, and customers. With automated onboarding, contract lifecycle management, and ESG management, Certa eliminates the procurement bottleneck and allows companies to onboard third-parties 3x faster.

2158: Enabling Secure Remote Access Experiences Everywhere Oct 30, 2022

On this podcast, I pride myself on sharing stories from all over the world and have interviewed guests from more than 75 countries. Today, I am going to take you on a trip to the Czech Republic, where Artur Kane from Good Access is going to discuss the importance of establishing an encrypted connection between employees and business systems from wherever they're working.

Artur is also regarded as a passionate speaker on protecting remote workers and company data in a digital world at industry events and often contributes to security/networking magazines. We discuss how zero trust access control provides a more secure alternative to corporate VPN for remote working security and how companies can move from VPN to zero trust access.

2157: The All-Female-Founded Tech Startup on a Mission to Open up the Workforce Oct 29, 2022

According to a recent Gartner study, DEI is one of the top five business priorities for businesses in 2022. However, hybrid and in-person work environments could jeopardize company access to talent. So while more organizations are doubling down on diversity and inclusion efforts and implementing consequential reporting, meeting those goals still remains a challenge for many corporations.

One way to help increase diversity in an organization is to provide opportunities for growth from the entry-level employee sector. Ahva Sadeghi, Co-Founder & CEO of Symba shares with me how remote internship programs allow employers to access diverse talent and fill their future hiring pipeline. Ahva also shares her inspirational tech startup story and ways remote positions can feed an overall DEI strategy, and how they contribute to tenure, culture, and overall company wellness.

2156: Paolo Ardoino, CTO at Tether and Bitfinex Discusses Plan B Oct 28, 2022

Lugano’s Plan ₿ Forum is a Bitcoin conference bringing together world leaders, technologists, and entrepreneurs to discuss nation-state Bitcoin adoption, economics, financial freedom, and freedom of speech. Although I am not attending the event, I did get to spend a little time with Paolo Ardoino, CTO at Tether and Bitfinex to discuss the Plan B forum.

We discuss how Bitfinex and Tether's actions for financial freedom might influence the rest of the world and fight for innovation through governmental, corporate, individual, and technological tracks. We also talk about how Bitfinex is participating in Adopting Bitcoin in El Salvador in November. Finally, we dare to imagine IT without any infrastructure or reliance on the cloud.

2155: Databricks - The Story Behind the Lakehouse Company Oct 27, 2022

Many are citing open source as the future. The UK Government's National Data Strategy even talks about the importance of opening public sector datasets to form the backbone of innovation, efficiency, and growth. This is a trend that Databricks is betting on in a big way.

Databricks is the lakehouse company. More than 7,000 organizations worldwide — including Comcast, Condé Nast, H&M, and over 40% of the Fortune 500 — rely on the Databricks Lakehouse Platform to unify their data, analytics and AI. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, with offices around the globe. Founded by the original creators of Apache Spark™, Delta Lake and MLflow, Databricks is on a mission to help data teams solve the world's toughest problems.

I have invited Dael Williamson, EMEA CTO, Field Advisory & Engineering at Databricks, to join me on Tech Talks Daily to share the story behind the company and how they are helping data teams solve the world's most challenging problems.

2154: The Supply Chain Innovations Transforming Parts Town Oct 26, 2022

Kenny William is the "Senior Director of Distribution Center Wizardry" at Parts Town, the world’s largest distributer of OEM parts for the food service industry. Parts Town has made significant automation improvements at its recently expanded 300,000 sq. ft. distribution center. The company implemented AutoStore, an automatic storage and retrieval system (AS/RS) that has helped improve picking accuracy by more than 50% and handles 72% of parts picks in only 7% of the total distribution center space.

The distribution center also features over 100 robots and an elevated conveyor belt that moves parts throughout the space without taking up additional floor space. Kenny joins me on Tech Talks Daily to talk about their supply chain innovations in this unique market segment and discuss how these investments are transforming Parts Town team members into tech-savvy professionals.

Kenny shares with me how they are using technology to circumvent supply chain challenges for OEMs and the purchasers of these parts (restaurant owners, service companies, etc.).

2153: NETSCOUT Reveal Insights From DDOS Threat Intelligence Report Oct 25, 2022

NETSCOUT recently announced findings from its DDoS Threat Intelligence Report. The findings demonstrate how sophisticated cybercriminals have become at bypassing defences with new DDoS attack vectors and successful methodologies.

"By constantly innovating and adapting, attackers are designing new, more effective DDoS attack vectors or doubling down on existing effective methodologies," said Richard Hummel, threat intelligence lead at NETSCOUT. "In the first half of 2022, attackers conducted more pre-attack reconnaissance, exercised a new attack vector called TP240 PhoneHome, created a tsunami of TCP flooding attacks, and rapidly expanded high-powered botnets to plague network-connected resources. In addition, bad actors have openly embraced online aggression with high-profile DDoS attack campaigns related to geopolitical unrest, which have had global implications."

NETSCOUT's Active Level Threat Analysis System (ATLAS™) compiles DDoS attack statistics from most of the world's ISPs, large data centres, and government and enterprise networks. This data represents intelligence on attacks occurring in over 190 countries, 550 industries, and 50,000 autonomous system numbers (ASNs). NETSCOUT's ATLAS Security Engineering and Response Team (ASERT) analyses and curates this data to provide unique insights in its biannual report.

When I hear phrases such as DNS water-torture attacks and carpet-bombing attacks on the rise combined with a new Netscout Threat Intelligence report, I immediately reached out to my go-to guy for cybersecurity threats. Richard Hummel rejoins me on Tech TAlks Daily to discuss the news in more detail and demystify some of the terminologies around the threat landscape.

2152: METRO.digital - How to (Not) Ruin a B2B Organization Oct 24, 2022

Today, every B2B omnichannel retail user experience is expected to be seamless, without boundaries for users, with well-aligned journeys and a fully integrated experience across all channels. But can one truly achieve that in a big company, with a huge history and complex processes, while keeping customers happy and engaged?

Rehan Saleem, Product Manager, and Tobias Schröder, Ph.D., Product Manager, joined me in a conversation on the show floor at Sitecore Symposium 2022 about powering brand experiences. At the event, their presentation, "How to (not) ruin a B2B organization," focused on the challenges of creating and maintaining a seamless user experience and keeping a great relationship with our customers.

Tobias and Rehan share with me how their teams manage to build human-centered solutions while handling business models and METRO shops in 23 countries. We also discuss personalization technology and experience platforms.

2151: Intel Corporation Federal CTO and Senior Principal Engineer Steve Orrin Oct 24, 2022

As Chief Technology Officer and Senior PE for Intel Corporation, Steve Orrin orchestrates and executes customer engagements in the Federal space, overseeing the development of federal solution architectures to address challenges in a government enterprise, national security, and other federal areas of focus.

In today's episode of Tech Talks Daily, Steve joins me in a discussion about the key trends in cybersecurity. Steve reveals the latest threats and techniques used against corporations and governments and shares the best practices to help.

We also discuss the security/risk concerns around supply chain security and what organizations can do today and in the future to address or reduce this risk. With trust being top of mind for CISOs, Steve also advises how organizations can adopt Zero Trust Architectures and what new security innovations are waiting on the horizon.

About Steve Orrin

Steve Orrin offers three decades of extraordinary success in a series of high-level roles at top-tier companies that include Intel Corporation, Sarvega, Watchfire Inc., Sanctum Inc., First Genetic Trust Inc., Lockstar Inc., and SynData Technologies Inc. He has developed a reputation as an industry leader, leveraging a history of delivering results in Innovation, Intrapreneurship, and Entrepreneurship. He is a Tech-enabled business professional who has launched and scaled companies and brought innovative industry-leading products to market.

Steve's invaluable expertise and broad business range have powered a history of developing successful products, technologies, and new markets. Such traits have consistently enabled Steve to achieve an impressive command of the skills needed to manage ongoing business planning processes while developing strategies to meet future challenges.

2150: Sitecore Symposium 2022 - Meet Every Moment Oct 23, 2022

I have been watching many keynotes at Symposium, and two of the speakers from Sitecore's leadership team are joining me on the podcast today.

First of all, we are going to speak to Dave O'Flanagan, CPO at Sitecore, who will walk me through the big announcements at this year's event. We discuss Content Hub One, a new AI-powered standalone search derived from Sitecore's Reflektion acquisition and Sitecore Connect.

We will then meet Nick Malone, COO, who has some great insights to share with me about how enterprises can create superior digital experiences. We discuss the need to operate in a state of always-on innovation and adapt to the ever-evolving expectations of consumers.

About Nick Malone

Nick is a proven executive with 24 years of leadership experience within both client and vendor roles spanning UK, Europe, Middle East, USA, Russia and Central Asia. Extensive experience in sales leadership and business development within both mature & emerging markets and in the management of diverse cultures, complex business environments and an extended ecosystem of national and international alliance partners & national & global corporations

About Dave O'Flanagan

Dave O'Flanagan is the Chief Product Officer in Sitecore. Sitecore delivers a digital experience platform that empowers the world's smartest brands to build lifelong relationships with their customers.

An industry leader, Sitecore is the only company bringing together content, commerce, and data into one connected platform that delivers millions of digital experiences every day. Leading companies including American Express, ASOS, Kimberly-Clark, L'Oréal and Volvo Cars rely on Sitecore to provide more engaging, personalised experiences for their customers.

Previously the CEO & Co-Founder of Boxever, a personalisation platform that uses data and AI to help the world's biggest brands make every customer interaction smarter and deliver game-changing customer experience.

2149: Reinventing the Jacuzzi Customer Experience With Technology Oct 22, 2022

Jacuzzi is known around the world for its hot tub and spa manufacturing. But people seldom think about their technology or how their digital presence is a primary source for generating leads.

The Jacuzzi Group had a fragmented dealer model, including hundreds of Jacuzzi-owned stores, Jacuzzi-only dealers, and brand-agnostic dealers, all who had their own websites and e-commerce experiences. This made managing the Jacuzzi brand a nightmare, not to mention the inconsistent experience it was portraying to customers.

Kyle BladesJacuzzi's Director of Digital Marketing shares their digital transformation journey with me and how they leveraged technology to unify its customer experiences, delivering both a best-in-class experience and future-proofed, omnichannel connectivity at scale.

2148: Cirque du Soleil’s Show-Stopping Digital Transformation Oct 22, 2022

Cirque du Soleil started with a group of street performers in Montreal, Canada in 1984 and manages approximately 40 shows worldwide today. In addition to the iconic shows under the blue and yellow big top, the Cirque du Soleil brand includes other live entertainment brands such as the Blue Man Group, VStar Entertainment Group, and The Works Entertainment Group.

After being shut down for an extended period during the pandemic, Cirque Du Soleil is back, stronger than ever across multiple continents. But this time, they are also delighting their customers with an Interactive Program to enhance the fan experience and enable more engagement opportunities.

Pierre-Luc Camirand, Director of Digital Customer Experience, at Cirque du Soleil shares their digital transformation journey with me. With annual global ticket sales ranging from 11-12 million, most of these transactions are completed online and move through the Sitecore digital ecosystem. Through micro-interactions and behavioral personalization, I learn how Cirque du Soleil is increasing engagement, conversion rates, and repeat business.

We discuss how they are replicating the experience of a live show in the digital environment and creating a seamless customer experience across all digital platforms with content in multiple languages.

2147: Personalized Metaverse Experiences Without a Headset Oct 21, 2022

Digital tools have transformed the car buying experience for drivers over the last twenty years. Most will routinely do their own research online before visiting their local dealer, but could the Metaverse further transform the process of browsing and purchasing your next vehicle?

Sitecore's 2022 Perceptions of the Metaverse Report recently revealed that consumers are ready (and expect) to engage brands in new virtual environments. The company is also working with Honda to streamline the purchasing experience using a Metaverse that does not require strapping a clunky headset to your face.

The concept promises to help make car configuration easier and more interactive. Drivers will be able to get all the information they need in a virtual world before completing the purchase. Ultimatley, technology is beginning to reimagine the traditional car dealership as an experience centre.

I sit down with Aswin Mannepalli, Global Director, Industry Strategy and Marketing for (Automotive and Manufacturing) at Sitecore Symposium 2022 to explore how digital and metaverse experience tools can streamline the car buying process to ease the path to conversion.

2146: Wolters Kluwer - An Inspiring Digital Transformation Story Oct 20, 2022

Wolters Kluwer is a 189-year-old company and global leader in professional information, software, and services for health, tax and accounting, governance, risk and compliance, and legal and regulatory sectors. However, in the digital age, the company had a fractured user experience, unmanageable marketing operations systems, siloed data, and a disconnected brand presentation across hundreds of marketing and product websites.

This is a story that many listeners will be all too familiar with, but Wolters Kluwer embarked on a digital transformation journey and selected one CMS to present a single global website leveraging analytics and reporting better aligned to the company's strategy.

The theme at this year's Sitecore Symposium event is Meet Every Moment. With this in mind, I invited Amy Kolzow and Mike Shaw from Walters Kluwer to share their inspiring digital transformation journey with me.

About Amy Kolzow:

Amy is a marketing technology leader with over two decades of experience driving digital transformation. As Vice President of Global Digital Marketing at Wolters Kluwer, Amy designed and led a program that brought 280 websites together into one global website to deliver a unified customer experience. Reaching more than two million visitors a month, www.wolterskluwer.com is a game changer in Wolters Kluwer's 189-year history. Amy applies her analytics-first mindset to her passion for escaping marketing mediocrity and achieving tangible, repeatable results.

About Mike Shaw:

Mike is the Associate Director of Marketing Technology and Operations at Wolters Kluwer. Among his responsibilities, Mike manages the transformation of the marketing technology stack as the company rapidly evolves. With over ten years of Sitecore experience, Mike leverages Sitecore's technologies to meet the needs of a continuously expanding organization.

2145: American Dental Association (ADA) - A Digital Transformation Story Oct 19, 2022

The last two years have seen tremendous change. People all over the world have been doing business online more than ever before, and with that, their digital expectations are now sky-high. The brands that will thrive in a post-pandemic world are the ones that can connect intelligently and meet their customers with authentic experiences at every touchpoint along their journey.

At this year's in-person Sitecore Symposium, I set out to learn how some of the world's biggest brands are empowered to deliver standout CX through innovative solutions that drive results and build customer loyalty.

When the American Dental Association (ADA) began its journey to refresh its member digital hub, the solution was not just about modernizing the technology. Instead, modernizing how the team worked and interacted with the hub and each other had to change, placing the member experience at the center of every decision.

Jen Sutherland and Ken Zenger from the American Dental Association share key insights that ADA learned along the way to build an evergreen hub model that would continue to deliver relevant and easily navigated content to new and established members into the future. We also discuss the dangers of having out-of-date information outranking new content.

2144: DFINITY - How to Put an End to Blockchain Hacks Oct 18, 2022

In the space of three days, Solana lost about $4.5 million worth of tokens to hackers while the Nomad protocol was drained of $200 million. Zooming out, ChainAnalysis estimates that $2 billion in cryptocurrency has been stolen from cross-chain bridges across 13 separate hacks so far this year.

Dominic Williams, the founder of DFINITY Foundation shares his take on the prevalence of blockchain hacks and the fundamental infrastructure flaws behind their regular recurrence. It's Dominic’s assertion that these hacks will continue so long as trusted intermediaries reign supreme in the blockchain world. Until the industry steps away from centralized MetaMask-style wallets, hacks of this nature will continue.

The DFINITY Foundation is building the Internet Computer Protocol (ICP). This set of protocols allows independent data centers worldwide to band together and offer a decentralized alternative to current centralized internet cloud providers.

Dominic highlights why hacks keep happening in blockchain and how the industry can best approach the problem. Dominic also shares his opinions on the bear market and what we can expect from the DFINITY Foundation.

2143: Bitwarden - The Open Source Password Manager Oct 17, 2022

Bitwarden's CEO, Michael Crandell joins me on Tech Talks Daily to share Bitwarden's origin story from side hustle to business used by millions and discuss the role of the password in today's digital sphere. We also explore why many believe the recent growth in biometric-based security and MFA methods will be the final nail in the coffin for the password. Still, much like the paperless office, a truly passwordless world has yet to appear.

Together we discuss the future of the password and the role of biometrics and MFA methods. We also discuss the impacts of remote work, increased reliance on cloud services, and what that means for businesses as social engineering hacks continue to grow.

We also discuss passwords in the increasing number of IoT and smart devices and the problems password management can solve.

2142: AND Digital - Creating a Culture of Creativity to Drive Innovation Oct 16, 2022

AND Digital is on a mission to close the world's digital skills gap. They believe in empowering people with the knowledge they need to unlock the full potential of technology. So I invited Mairead O'Connor on the Tech Talks Daily podcast to discuss creating a culture of creativity to drive innovation. We discuss how many are approaching digital transformation wrongly by focusing too much on technology and not enough on the people. But how a ''culture of creativity'' where people are at the centre of all innovation could make a massive difference to businesses.

We also talk about how the key to upskilling is making technology easier. Most enterprises don't want people with obscure technology skills and if we focus on making the tech infrastructure in an organisation simpler for the people, the tech integration will come easier as well. I also learn more about AND Digital worked with an airline to build a culture of creativity and keep re-evaluating what their people want.

2141: The Biotech Company Transforming Lab Automation Oct 15, 2022

Mostafa ElSayed, CEO of lab automation start up Automata joins me on the Tech Talks Daily Podcast. Spending the first half of his career working for top architecture firms, Mostafa is not your typical biotech CEO. With the initial intent to make building structures easier with robots and automation, Automata was born from an observation that automation was not taking off in a range of markets. We’ve seen the world of automotive manufacturing get transformed through automation, but others like pharmaceuticals and life sciences were staying behind. This is what sparked Mostafa to launch Automata, which now provides software and hardware lab-automation solutions to enable efficiencies and scale in labs, working with customers including the NHS, Novartis and Imperial College London. A recent partnership with the University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust aims to develop a strategy and plan to bring the benefits of automation to a number of disease areas, including prostate and cervical cancer screening. Mostafa shares with me how his background in architecture brought him to where he is today, the challenges facing CEOs in the UK biotech industry in 2022 and his views on how the lab automation market is changing and growing.

2140: SolarWinds Hybrid Cloud Observability Oct 14, 2022

SolarWinds is number one in network management software beating out IBM, Cisco and others, and serves over 300,000 customers including 498 of the Fortune 500. Its products have become ubiquitous because they are easier to use, more powerful and scalable and more affordable than other providers, including its recently launched Hybrid Cloud Observability Platform. This is the first platform that the company has built from the ground up since the SUNBURST supply chain incident that targeted SolarWinds and other technology companies last year. The platform provides customers with an integrated, full-stack solution that's able to detect productivity and security anomalies, identify issues and take automated remediation actions to maximize productivity, prevent security issues and reduce costs.

The company's Head Geeks, Chrystal Taylor and Sascha Giese join me on Tech Talks Daily to talk about what observability can do for network administrators and learn more about SolarWinds' new Hybrid Cloud Observability Platform.

2139: Cybersecurity Best Practices for Analyzing Who’s Behind the Sign-on Oct 13, 2022

It's been nearly a decade since the famed story of a Verizon employee who leveraged a VPN to outsource his job to privately hire workers in China. In 2013, remote employees accessing company networks was a less frequent occurrence than it is now. But today, studies are projecting that by 2025, 36M American employees will work remotely.

HR professionals and business leaders are welcoming a newer, more flexible age of working arrangements to accommodate digital nomads, work-from-home offices, and in some cases, a partial return to the office or hybrid work.

Meanwhile, cybersecurity professionals tasked with managing now ever-expanding digital boundaries of the organization face exponentially increasing threats. All while managing users accessing companies' systems and sensitive data during the once-in-a-career jump to WFH catalyzed by the pandemic has become a new standard working protocol that adds layers of complexity to access control and authentication measures.

In this new cybersecurity best practices discussion, Jonathan Tomek provides background knowledge on the importance of applying threat intelligence protocols to track, identify and analyze IP address data to ensure safe work environments, regardless of how they are accessed.

2138: Huawei 5.5G The Bridge Bridge Between 5G and 6G Oct 12, 2022

Wang Qi (Joey) is responsible for Huawei's 5.5G marketing. He has more than 17 years of experience in the mobile communications industry. He has a deep understanding of industry developments and solutions related to 5G, LTE, indoor coverage, and vertical industry applications.

I recently sat down with him to discuss 5G-Advanced, the key capabilities of this technology, and real-world use cases of how businesses can unlock new opportunites. We also take a look under the hood at 5.5G's key characteristics which include 10 Gbps downlink, 1 Gbps uplink, 100 billion connections, and native intelligence.

Driven by new toC and toB services, 5.5G will enhance eMBB, URLLC, and mMTC, it provides new capabilities of sensing, passive IoT, positioning, and native intelligence. We also discuss how Huawei are on a mission to build intelligent 5.5G that support 10 Gbps downlink, 1 Gbps uplink, and 100 billion connections, embarking on a new journey of 5G.

2137: Cybersecurity Awareness Month: Managed Risk, Managed Detection and Incident Response Oct 12, 2022

In February, eSentire announced a bursary with Munster Technological University to support students in their learning and development around security. Ciaran Luttrell, Senior Director, SOC Operations EMEA at eSentire joins me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss how companies should get involved in developing the next generation of security professionals, using direct funding and providing internships. We also discuss the challenges teams face in running a SOC and supporting customers with their security responses.

About eSentire

eSentire, Inc. is the Authority in Managed Detection and Response, protecting the critical data and applications of 1500+ organizations in 80+ countries, representing 35 industries from known and unknown cyber threats. Founded in 2001, the company’s mission is to hunt, investigate and stop cyber threats before they become business disrupting events.

Combining cutting-edge machine learning XDR technology, 24/7 Threat Hunting, and proven security operations leadership, eSentire mitigates business risk, and enables security at scale. The Team eSentire difference means enterprises are protected by the best in the business with a named Cyber Risk Advisor, 24/7 access to SOC Cyber Analysts, Elite Threat Hunters, and industry-leading threat intelligence research from eSentire’s Threat Response Unit (TRU).

2136: In Conversation With Kris Beevers, NS1 Founder and CEO Oct 11, 2022

Kris Beevers, founder, and CEO of NS1 joins me on Tech Talks Daily. I learn more about how this New York City-based startup delivers smart network control across core network services for over 800 global customers, including Dropbox, Fox, Salesforce, LinkedIn, & eBay.

We also talk about the tech startup story behind their success which began as a specialist in DNS, and to quote TechCrunch, took: ‘a slumbering and dreary yet reliable aspect of the Internet and turned it into a strategic moat and an enterprise win’.

Kris is a recognized authority on all things DNS, but he also knows a lot about building and deploying high-performance infrastructure globally. He has a Ph.D. in Computer Science. We discuss the impact of outages (including in the summer heatwave) and the importance of multi-cloud or multi-CDNs. We also talk about DDoS attacks, the importance of working with the open source community.

2135: Closing the Digital Divide with Accelerated Geospatial Data Analytics Oct 10, 2022

The pandemic highlighted what many already knew: high-speed internet access is not a luxury, it’s a necessity. Yet, the digital divide remains prevalent, with 21M U.S. citizens still lacking internet connection. The UN Human Rights Council considers access to the internet as a basic human right, but despite numerous strides that have taken place in the technology realm in the last two decades, billions of people worldwide still don’t have access to the internet.

So, how can telcos and government organizations work together to accelerate the process of identifying these “digital deserts” to build the infrastructure needed for internet access? The answer lies in accelerated big data analytics, which enables users to analyze billions of data points in minutes and generates detailed visualizations of regions that still lack broadband.

Dr. Mike Flaxman, head of product at HEAVY.AI joins me on TechTalks Daily to discuss how utilizing GPU-powered advanced data analytics and visualization can help to close the digital divide and shares different use cases for the technology.

2134: The Story Behind Perimeter 81 and Reaching Unicorn Status Oct 09, 2022

Amit Bareket, CEO of client Perimeter 81, just helped secure a $100 million Series C funding round for the company, making them one of the latest unicorns in the cybersecurity industry. He's a former operative of Unit 8200.

Perimeter 81 simplifies corporate network security with its Security Service Edge (SSE) platform. As a holistic, cloud-based solution, Perimeter 81 allows organizations of all industries and sizes to efficiently support the decentralized, hybrid workplace while avoiding the cyber complexity that hurts IT's ability to defend corporate cloud and on-prem networks.

I invited Amit on Tech Talks Daily to discuss the most significant cybersecurity risks businesses face and what they need to do differently to address them better. We also discuss why the zero-trust model is top of mind for security experts and explore a few practical ways businesses can begin to implement/think about zero trust.

2133: The Brain Training Tech Using Neurofeedback and Biofeedback To Keep You Calm Oct 09, 2022

Max Newlon is the President of BrainCo USA, a brain-computer interface company leading the way in biofeedback tech. FocusCalm is one of the company's verticals that uses neurofeedback to help users train and optimize their brains. When I sampled the FocusCalm headband myself, I quickly learned how active my brain was when I thought I relaxed.

Thanks to neuroplasticity, our brain is always capable of change and is within our control. Max joins me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss how FocusCalm quantifies your brain state so you can measure your brain activity and learn to adjust it. He shares how anyone can learn to stay calm and change how they react in stressful situations or optimize their mental efficiency. We also discuss applications for workplace wellness and leadership mentality.

2132: A Conversation About Cloud Sustainability (GreenOps) Oct 08, 2022

Benjamin Brial, the former Red Hat EMEA Cloud Manager and now Cycloid's founder. A company he created to help organisations aid the transition to the cloud by increasing their automation capabilities through a DevOps and hybrid cloud platform. With the rapid transition of organisations to cloud/multi cloud, businesses currently need more visibility and control over their servers. Cycloid helps organisations regain control of their cloud operations, limiting the energy being needlessly wasted by organizations.

Benjamin shares insights from his time at Red Hat as GM of EMEA Cloud Manager. We also talk about Cycloid's launch of GreenOps, that will help organisations improve the sustainability of their cloud infrastructure by automating the process of turning servers on and off when not in use.

We discuss how Cycloid is bringing businesses back to point zero by reverting their infrastructure back to code, offering greater control of deployed infrastructure and greater automation.

2131: Talend: Disjointed Data Privacy Regulations – What’s Next for Data? Oct 07, 2022

I recently came across the Talend Data Health Barometer, and one of the highlights of the report is that 97% of the respondents face challenges in using data. So I invited Nick Vigier, CISO at Talend, on the podcast to learn more about the research and explore the complex regulatory landscape, how it's evolving, and how organizations can navigate accelerated technological change to find their way through the data privacy quagmire.

We discuss how many areas of the industry have been focusing on the wrong problem and how it's not about moving data from point A to point B. By contrast, we talk about why companies need to drive data health to enable data-driven business decisions with confidence that ultimately lead to successful business outcomes.

Every company needs documented, universal standards on the quality, accessibility, and security of its data. We talk about how this helps the entire business reach a shared understanding of their data's reliability and accuracy. Once data standards are established, getting a pulse on the health of any business will be much easier. We also discuss whether data sovereignty is outdated or the last hurdle in the life cycle of the privacy policy and how it could open an opportunity to refer to the establishing data excellence use case where data governance plays a central role.

About Nick

Nick is a technology and security leader focused on innovation to drive business results. In his 18 years of security leadership, he has focused on building high performance teams to ensure security is a business driver rather than a cost center. His focus on all areas of security ranging from physical security to risk management through to application security, infrastructure security, and operations gives him a unique perspective on how security can positively impact an organization.

2130: GSMA - The Benefits and Opportunity of 5G-Advanced Oct 06, 2022

The GSMA (Global System for Mobile Communications Association) represent the interests of the global mobile industry. Spanning 219 countries, the GSMA unites nearly 800 of the world’s mobile operators, as well as more than 400 companies in the broader mobile ecosystem, including handset makers, software companies, equipment providers, Internet companies, and media and entertainment organizations.

The GSMA is focused on innovating, incubating and creating new opportunities for its members, all with the end goal of driving the growth of the mobile communications industry. I recently caught up with Barbara Pareglio, Executive Director for Advanced Air Mobility and IoT Technical Director, GSMA at this year's MWC in Las Vegas to discuss advancing the 5G Era Benefits and the opportunities 5G-Advanced will unlock.

Listen in as we discuss why 5G-Advanced is important and how the GSMA helps to spread knowledge and accelerate the adoption of 5G-Advanced. Barbara also shares the activities the GSMA is doing in relation to 5G evolution and how people can join the GSMA.

Spanning 219 countries, the GSMA unites nearly 800 of the world’s mobile operators and more than 400 companies in the broader mobile ecosystem, including handset makers, software companies, equipment providers, Internet companies, and media and entertainment organizations.

The GSMA is focused on innovating, incubating, and creating new opportunities for its members, all with the end goal of driving the growth of the mobile communications industry.

About Barbara

Barbara has over 20 years of experience in the mobile industry. She has been part of the GSMA Internet of Things Programme since 2014, working on several aspects of the IoT such as the development of the Mobile IoT Technologies (LTE-M, NB-IoT), GSMA IoT Security Guidelines, GSMA Drone Interest Group and looking at a variety of emerging technologies, like machine learning/AI and edge computing, for helping the mobile industry to create trusted solutions for the IoT.

Before joining the GSMA Barbara worked in R&D in several areas of telecommunications, including Intelligent Networks, IMS, Service Enabling and M2M/IoT. She also participates in and actively contributed to several standards.

About GSMA Internet of Things

The GSMA Internet of Things helps operators to fully realise the opportunity in the IoT, operators must deliver secure IoT networks as well as scalable value-added data services for the world’s industry and machines beyond connectivity. This is to be achieved by industry collaboration, appropriate regulation, optimising networks as well as developing key enablers to support the growth of IoT.

Webinar: Advancing the 5G Era – Benefits and Opportunity of 5G-Advanced

2129: Why Cybersecurity Professionals Feel Overworked and Lack Confidence Oct 06, 2022

Valued at $4.3bn, you may have seen the Arctic Wolf logo adorning the Oracle Red Bull F1 race car this year or as a sponsor of the Wolves football club. But the business provides security operation services and does more than just help these specific partners with their security issues. Ian McShane, VP of Strategy, has over 20 years of experience in cybersecurity. A former Gartner analyst, Ian has advised some of the world's largest and fastest-growing companies. He can talk about all facets of the cybersecurity industry and is not afraid to call out bad practices when he sees them. Ian also discusses new Arctic Wolf research, which has found that UK organisations are being put in a precarious and unsecure position, with over a quarter (27%) of respondents stating they don't feel knowledgeable enough as an individual to spot a cyber threat. The critical nature of these revelations becomes even more apparent when noting the report also discovered that 30% of cybersecurity workers claim they don't know how to use their organisation's security tools effectively.

2128: Exploring the Future of Digital Experiences (DX) With Sitecore Oct 05, 2022

Like it or not, we are all in the digital experience business. We demand it as consumers and enterprises are challenged with continuously raising the bar to keep consumers coming back for more. But doing this at every stage of the customer journey can be incredibly daunting.

Sitecore is a company unifying data, content, commerce, and experiences to empower brands like L'Oréal, Microsoft, and United Airlines to deliver unforgettable interactions across every touchpoint. The company also has a big event in Chicago called Symposium, where Mindy Kaling will speak. There will also be 100+ sessions with top global brands sharing how they are creating digital experiences.

This week, Sitecore released its 2022 U.S. Holiday Report with Paige O'Neill, Sitecore CMO, advising, "This season, shoppers will seek out brands that offer competitive pricing, buy-now-pay-later options, and low-cost shipping. Brands that empathize with consumers' inflation-forced financial constraints and focus on meeting their needs by delivering content that focuses on value and shows authentic empathy — where they can — will come out ahead this holiday season.

In today's Tech Talks Daily Podcast episode, Paige shares insights from the Reality of Holiday Shopping research and reveals what we can expect at Sitecore's Symposium 2022 event.

About Paige

Paige brings over 20 years of experience in senior marketing roles crossing many areas of enterprise software, customer experience, and cloud computing. As Chief Marketing Officer, she combines product marketing expertise with an extensive background in communications and a passion for developing thought leadership programs that build awareness, differentiation, and demand.

Prior to joining Sitecore, Paige was CMO at digital workplace platform provider Prysm, where she rebranded the company and helped it transition to a combined SaaS and hardware business. She previously served as CMO at SDL and as Vice President of Marketing for Aprimo, where her thought leadership, demand generation, and communications programs contributed to rapid growth.

Paige also served as CMO at PHH Arval and two early-stage startups—Aravo and GreenRoad Technologies. Prior to PHH, Paige spent a decade at Oracle Corporation leading a variety of marketing initiatives.

2127: How CityFibre is Building a Full Fibre infrastructure for the UK Oct 05, 2022

CityFibre is building a new generation of Full Fibre infrastructure for the UK - a network capable of transforming the digital capabilities of citizens and businesses, sparking innovation, and underpinning our economy in a gigabit age.

In a recent report in collaboration with Hatch, they identified over £38bn in potential economic benefits, derived over fifteen years, stemming from CityFibre's rollout of future-proof Full Fibre infrastructure in 285 cities, towns, and villages in England and Scotland.

Rob Hamlin discusses the importance of Full Fibre, how this impacts how we live and other industry trends, including 5G, and the economic benefits of a Full Fibre Britain.

2126: Deep Instinct - How AI Can Reduce Stress in Cybersecurity Teams. Oct 04, 2022

The job of defending against increasingly advanced threats on a daily and hourly basis is causing more problems than ever with The Great Cybersecurity Resignation plaguing industries across the world.

New research reveals that 49% of UK C-Suite leaders have considered quitting the industry due to stress, with the primary issues being an unrelenting threat from ransomware and the expectations to always be on call or available.

However, there is greater awareness that AI-enabled tools can effectively combat sophisticated attacks such as ransomware. For example, 79% would rather depend on AI than humans to hunt threats, and 47% agree that "they need greater automation through AI/ML to improve security operations." So, how can AI reduce the burden put on security teams?

Justin Vaughan-Brown, VP of Market Insight at Deep Instinct, joins me in a conversation about how AI can be used to reduce the stress experienced by security teams. We discuss why there is so much stress and pressure placed on the C-Suite and the fear felt by those whose decision it is to pay ransom demands.

I learn more about how organizations can stop a cycle of stress and prevent themselves from becoming the victims of ransomware attacks in the first place. Finally, Justin explains why AI has the potential to reduce critical productivity challenges like reducing false positives that will allow teams to focus their time and resources on more critical cyber defense issues.

2125: Ericsson - How Telecoms is Aligning Around 5G-Advanced Oct 03, 2022

In today's episode of Tech Talks Daily, Olof Liberg from Ericsson joins me in a discussion about how the telecoms industry is aligning around 5G-advanced to support immersive reality, evolving IoT, and sustainability.

Olof Liberg is a researcher and program Manager at Ericsson's department for Standards & Technologies. Olof joined Ericsson in 2008 and specialized in designing and standardizing cellular radio access technologies. He is currently leading Ericsson's 3GPP radio access network standardization team. Olof holds a bachelor's degree in Business and Economics and a master's degree in Engineering Physics, both from Uppsala University.

2124: SAP - How Technology is Improving Public Sector Agility Oct 02, 2022

From social services to the NHS, most public sector organizations have been feeling the strain of funding cuts, staff shortages, and a lack of end-to-end digital transformation over the past few years. Now, with record numbers leaving to work elsewhere and services increasingly squeezed by inflation, public sector organizations are facing their biggest challenges.

Satpal Biant, Head of Public Sector, UK & Ireland at SAP joins me on the Tech Talks Daily Podcast in a conversation about how technology is the key to modernizing the management of staff working on the frontline. We explore how it could play a key role in halting this mass exodus from the public sector in the months and years ahead. We also discuss how technology can streamline the administration, management, and operation of staff working on the frontline.

We discuss the importance of facilitating greater communication between managers and employees and how this can lead to an improved understanding of staff wellbeing and morale. But also how HR software, including sentiment analysis and automation, can play a key role in tracking and understanding employee sentiment.

2123: How This Dutch Entrepreneur Built a $1M Consultancy Company Oct 01, 2022

In this podcast, I pride myself on sharing stories from all over the world and have interviewed guests from more than 75 countries. Today, I am going to take you on a trip to the Netherlands to speak with Jasper van Horssen who will share his startup story.

In less than two years, he bootstrapped Dxfferent; a Dutch Top Ranked IT Consultancy company, to more than $1M. We also discuss how Autotask PSA is one of the top project management systems in the world and how it helps manage employees, clients, projects, tasks etc in an easy way.

Jasper also shares how he helps businesses with the best practices to implement Autotask PSA in a business.

2122: AFEX and the Technology Transforming Lives in Africa Oct 01, 2022

AFEX is building the physical and technology-enabled infrastructure for the continent’s commodity sector to provide access to markets and unlock capital for smallholder farmers, processors, and export operations.

Its technology-enabled solutions provide traceability and transparency that ensures shared prosperity between soft commodity producers, processors, and investors.

Akintunde Akinyink shares how AFEX is aiming to help the continent feed itself by boosting food security and making food production more efficient, closely aligning its company goals with the UN SDGs, in particular no poverty, ending hunger, gender equality, decent work, and economic growth, and responsible consumption

I learn more about how AFEX has created the largest network of warehouses in Nigeria and Kenya with 130 warehouses, securitizing physical commodities through its electronic warehouse receipts, which can be traded on the exchange through its proprietary electronic trading platform.

2121: Exploring The Laws of Creativity With Baronfig Founder Joey Cofone Sep 30, 2022

Creative thinking—humankind's unique ability to combine unrelated and abstract ideas—has been utilized in countless ways since the dawn of humanity. Every day, people in creative and non-creative fields take advantage of creative thinking to reach all kinds of goals, personally and professionally.

Joey Cofone, founder of Baronfig and author of The Laws of Creativity: Unlock Your Originality and Awaken Your Creative Genius, joins me on the Tech Talks Daily podcast to share the inspiring tech startup story behind Baronfig.

We all began our lives creative, and many let go of it as they got older. But how can you reawaken your creative side? Together we dispel the myth that only a select few people are creative. In his book, Joey defines creativity, how it works, and how you can harness it in your everyday life. He demystifies the creative process by uncovering the thinking and science behind it. We explore the 39 laws that contain illuminating concepts and powerful instruction.

Each law is illustrated with inspiring, enlightening, and surprising stories of iconic creators across history—including Albert Einstein, Serena Williams, Martin Luther King Jr., Harry Houdini, Grace Hopper, Bruce Lee, and many more by simply breaking down how they wielded creativity to reach incredible heights.

2120: 4 Years On, How has GDPR Affected Data Hygiene Practices? Sep 29, 2022

After the fourth GDPR anniversary, what's changed since its inception? And what is the best way forwards for companies to navigate the complexity? These are just a few topics that I explore with Dave Horton from Odaseva.

We discuss the API challenges of backing up SaaS data, data subject access requests, and right of access. We also talk about how residency-as-a-service helps organizations navigate complex and evolving Data residency laws, e.g., PIPL in China.

Finally, we discuss ransomcloud – what it is, attackers' techniques, which organizations are most at risk, and how preparation is key for organizations to protect themselves.

2119: Endel Ushers in a New Generation of Ambient music Using AI Sep 28, 2022

Have you heard James Blake's album version of Wind Down done in collaboration with sound and wellness company, Endel? Inspired by the science of sound and sleep, Wind Down is a prelude to bedtime, helping listeners shift gradually from the activity of day to the calm of night. It uses the same AI technology and sounds found in the adaptive experience, available exclusively in Endel apps for iOS, Android, Mac, Apple TV, and Amazon Alexa.

It’s no secret that more and more people are turning towards ambient music as an effective tool to help improve relaxation, focus, movement and sleep. What is interesting about the Wind Down album in particular is that it is the first ambient music album constructed via AI to be released by a Universal label. Blake’s musical artistry blends seamlessly with Endel’s patented AI technology. This method of composition has the ability to give ambient music an enhanced functional edge that is actually backed by neuroscience.

This prompts a bigger question: Has AI technology ushered in a new era of ambient music that can more effectively serve specific wellness and mental health purposes? Oleg Stavitsky, CEO & Co-Founder at Endeljoins me in exploring the answer to this question as we discuss the growing intersection of science, technology, sound, and wellness.

If you are interested in trying Endel for free for 1 month, Oleg kindly shares the following link that unlocks a free 1-month subscription, no card is needed.

https://code.endel.io/?code=dailytech

2118: Honeywell Discuss New Carbon and Energy Management Software Sep 27, 2022

In recent years, thousands of companies have voluntarily pledged to meet sustainability targets, but many of them likely lack the knowledge and the tools to properly measure progress and how to optimise their carbon and energy footprints. Honeywell is working to help solve this problem with its new Carbon & Energy Management, a carbon energy management software, that enables building owners to track and optimise energy performance against carbon reduction goals, down to a device or asset level. Companies face increasing pressure today – from stakeholders as well as regulatory agencies – to curb energy consumption, reduce carbon emissions and create more sustainable, healthier facilities. There’s an urgent reason for this: commercial buildings currently account for almost a third of global energy consumption and 37% of global energy-related CO2 emissions. While 28% of those emissions are related to building operations – or the energy used to heat, cool and power the building – many building owners likely don’t have device or asset level insight into energy consumption or carbon impact.

Through using the Honeywell Forge enterprise performance management software solution’s artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) algorithms, Carbon & Energy Management autonomously identifies and implements energy conservation measures to help drive efficiency, resiliency and accountability throughout a real estate portfolio. It continuously investigates, analyses, and optimises building performance, down to an asset-specific level, measuring critical sustainability KPIs including carbon emissions.

Manish Sharma, VP & general manager of sustainable building technologies at Honeywell, joins me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss this topic in more detail.

2117: DocuSign - Ronan Copeland, Group VP & General Manager EMEA Sep 26, 2022

With the hyper digitalisation of business, electronic signatures have become a necessity. Contracts are a crucial element of every business; when overlooked, they can be detrimental, especially when renewal season comes around. And, as we feel the fallout of Brexit, businesses need to ensure their service agreements, employment contracts, etc., are all up to scratch, or it could mean lost revenue and costly legal penalties.

Ronan Copeland, Group Vice President & General Manager EMEA at DocuSign, joins me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss the present and future of digital identities. In addition, we explore how AI can be implemented to improve and augment workflows, freeing employees to focus on creative or strategic priorities.

We also discuss how paper contracts are not only outdated but dangerous and the value of AI and automation in the context of contract lifecycle management. But how implementing CLM and AI-driven tools could make a business more agile and impact a business's bottom line

As we look to the future, we talk about how many people now see automation and the integration of ML and AI into our daily working lives as the next frontier of the future of work. I learn how these technologies will reshape the way we work and how leaders are overcoming the fear factor when integrating AI in the workplace.

2116: KPMG - How CISOs can Better Protect Their Supply Chain Sep 25, 2022

In KPMG’s recent UK CEO Outlook Survey, 81% of leaders said that protecting their partner ecosystem and supply chain is just as important as building their own organisation’s cyber defences. Given the numerous high-profile supply chain cyber-attacks seen in 2021, this will not come as a surprise.

However, as enterprises continue to prioritise digital transformation, the sharing of data throughout a complex and connected ecosystem of partners and suppliers will only get more convoluted. Already, they have incredibly complex ecosystem structures and may not have clear obligations for establishing adequate controls to protect their partners’ data, leaving the entire network vulnerable to cyberattacks.

Furthermore, existing vetting processes for suppliers requires tremendous and perhaps infeasible due diligence by each ecosystem partner. Some existing approaches aren’t even fit for purpose.

As a result, many businesses, third-party vendors, and even regulators are under increased pressure to provide continuous assurance over the security of their ecosystems. This is only going to become more challenging as the complexity of the supplier ecosystem increases, and fourth parties, shadow-IT, and a lack of SaaS provider oversight demand more and more attention.

2115: Over - What is Augmented Reality and Why Does the Metaverse Need It? Sep 24, 2022

As Google announces its intention to test new AR glasses prototypes, the reality that AR may be our future is finally starting to settle in. Unlike the traditional virtual reality (VR) metaverse we have come to know, augmented reality (AR) technology gives users the best of both worlds, merging the real world with the technological advances, interactivity, and information of the web.

OVER, is a company building the first augmented reality open metaverse and enabling users to create unique geolocalised experiences that bridge the gap between our physical and digital worlds. Utilising world-class, community driven 3D mapping, OVER provides users and builders alike with the opportunity to own AR metaverse real estate, map their local areas to earn OVR tokens, and explore Web3 like never before. In light of this recent announcement and the growing groundswell for information related to the emerging AR market, I invited Diego De Tommaso, Co-founder, and COO of OVER to join me on Tech Talks Daily to share his story and vision for the future.

2114: SCP Founder Builds an Inclusive Web3 Home for Pop Culture fans Sep 23, 2022

Stevie Hopkins – CEO and founder of merch company SCP, shares the inspirational story that began with him working with big names such as Billie Eilish, Freddie Gibbs, and Louis the Child. Here in 2022, we discuss how he is building an NFT-powered, fan-guided community that will resemble a city in its cultural complexity and offerings called Dropolis.

From Hopkins' professional career in merchandising and fan engagement, he has seen the massive potential web3 can have for those often unseen in the existing community. So he is bringing that idea to those interested in everything from music, food, and fashion, offering up IRL experiences/physical rewards through NFT drops.

Building a "city-like" structure removes the facade and narrative NFT projects have created for web3. This way, finding a home for NFTs makes an authentic-safe space for everyone. Something Hopkins believes web3 has longed for. I learn how Dropolis will be nothing like you've seen as it breaks through the chaotic noise of digital collectible marketplaces lacking tangible, real-life experiences.

2113: Dynatrace - 75% of CISOs Worried Application Vulnerabilities Leak Into Production Sep 22, 2022

Software intelligence company Dynatrace (NYSE: DT) recently announced the findings of an independent global survey of 1,300 chief information security officers (CISOs) in large-size organizations. The research reveals that the speed and complexity created by using multi-cloud environments, multiple coding languages, and open-source software libraries make vulnerability management more difficult. In addition, 75% of CISOs say that despite having a multi-layered security posture, persistent coverage gaps allow vulnerabilities into production.

The report highlights the growing need for observability and security to converge, paving the way toward AISecDevOps practices. This will empower organizations with a more effective way of managing vulnerabilities at runtime and the ability to detect and block attacks in real-time. Daniel Kaar joins me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss these findings in more detail.

2112: The Future Is Now With Bill Burns of Zebra Technologies Sep 21, 2022

Bill Burns from Zebra Technologies defines what the on-demand economy is and what it takes to be a successful business and leader in it. We also discuss why reacting faster in an on-demand environment is no longer good enough and how leaders in major industries – like retail, logistics/warehousing, and healthcare – can plan better for what's coming next.

Finally, we explore what emerging technologies or techniques organizations can use to have a more accurate picture of what's happening in their business and move forward with innovation strategies and digital transformation initiatives.

About Bill Burns

Bill Burns joined Zebra in 2015 and today leads the product & solutions group. In his role, Mr. Burns oversees product and solutions strategy, investments, and development operations for the company's expansive technology portfolio which includes mobile computing, specialty printers, data capture solutions, location solutions, and intelligent edge solutions. Mr. Burns is also responsible for the chief technology office - focused on emerging technologies and solution incubation.

Mr. Burns has more than 25 years of experience in the high-tech sector. Before joining Zebra, he served as chief executive officer of Embrane, a Silicon Valley-based venture capital-backed startup Cisco acquired in April 2015. Before joining Embrane, Mr. Burns served as chief executive officer of Spirent Communications, a global leader in test and measurement solutions publicly traded on the London Stock Exchange. He has also held various executive and sales leadership roles at Tellabs, Inc., now Coriant.

2111: Talking Data Unions and The Evolution of the Trust in Web3 With Shiv Malik Sep 20, 2022

Pool CEO Shiv Malik - a technologist, award-nominated broadcaster, author of two books, former Guardian investigative journalist, and co-founder of the Intergenerational Foundation think tank joins me on Tech Talks Daily. UK-based Pool, currently valued at $39m, is building a data marketplace and associated payment rails for new data-sharing entities called data unions. These new data-sharing organisations seek to leverage shifts in privacy, the end of consumer data following Chrome's deletion of third-party cookies, and new EU rules for data portability which are due to come into effect next year. The most powerful companies on Earth are those who monopolise vast swaths of humanity's information. Pool's purpose is to redistribute the control and value of that knowledge and thereby completely reconstitute power relationships in the political economy of the 21st century. I learn how Pool is doing this by taking an old-fashioned organisational structure - the trust - and evolving it with Web3 technology to make it fit for the digital era. This straightforward model allows Data Unions to align incentives around data creation. It's why the model is backed not just by EU regulators through the upcoming Data Governance Act.

2110: Benchling and the Tech Cloud-based platform for Biotech R&D Sep 19, 2022

Biotechnology is leading the most important scientific revolution since computing. R&D is the key to unleashing biotechnology's potential to transform our world radically, but software hasn't kept up with science. Scientists deserve and urgently need technology that's designed for what they do. But I invited Paul Robson to join me on the podcast to discuss how Benchling R&D Cloud is built for scientific work.

We talk about the shortcomings currently present within life sciences R&D that inspired its creation and the role of the cloud, and how its transforming R&D in life sciences to speed up scientific discoveries, including Covid-19 research.

About Paul

Paul Robson is Head of Field Operations at Benchling, overseeing all aspects of global sales, from deployment and customer success to strategic partnerships and regional expansion. Paul brings more than 25 years of experience scaling high-performing field organizations.

Most recently, as President of International at Adobe, he led global business across 160 countries. He joined Adobe in 2011 and played a key role in the company's transformation from packaged desktop software to a cloud subscription model. Prior to Adobe, Paul held leadership roles at Hewlett-Packard and Compaq.

Paul is an advisory member on Telecoms and Technology for UK Trade & Investment and board member of techUK. Originally from Australia, Paul graduated from Western Sydney University and holds graduate degrees from INSEAD and University of Helsinki.

2109: Extended Reality With Antonia Forster, Unity Senior XR Technical Specialist Sep 18, 2022

Unity is the world's leading platform for creating and operating interactive real-time 3D content and one of the main drivers within the XR space as the evolution of the internet continues. By using technology such as AR, Unity has the digital tools to bring this parallel world to life to help create beautiful, immersive experiences that engage from the very first pixels.

Antonia Forster, Unity's Senior XR Technical Specialist joins me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss everything from "the metaverse" and emerging technology to business cases for VR/AR to my work on the LGBTQ+ VR Museum.

About Antonia

Antonia Forster is an award-winning VR/AR developer, TEDx speaker, and advocate for women, LGBTQ+ people, and marginalised voices in tech. A self-taught coder with expertise in emerging and immersive technology, Antonia is Senior XR Technical Specialist at Unity; and the founder of DiVRse Technologies Ltd, an innovation studio "using virtual worlds to change the real world for the better".

Antonia has also been shortlisted for Nature's John Maddox Prize, the WiIT Advocate of the Year award, and won the YTKO Breaking Barriers award for her impactful work; including the creation of the world's first LGBTQ+ VR museum, which won Tribeca Film Festival's New Voices Award.

2108: Babbel and The Tech Transforming Language Learning Sep 17, 2022

Arne Schepker is Babbel's CEO, the world's top-grossing language learning platform. But I wanted to learn more about how he has leveraged technology and implemented a rather exciting approach to growing his business.

Babbel is a whole ecosystem of language learning offerings, with over 10 million subscriptions sold and over 60,000 courses for 14 languages. Arne joined Babbel as CMO in 2015, and later became CEO in 2019, successfully scaling it from a start-up of 250 employees to a household brand, with now 750 employees across more than 60 nationalities.

Arne is passionate about the transparency and authenticity of the Babbel workplace. Before he took up the position of CEO, he did job shadowing every single team at Babbel to experience what his colleagues were going through daily. Overall, this played a pivotal role in helping him better understand the necessary measures required to scale and grow his business even further.

Arne joins me o Tech Talks Daily to share how Babbel evolved its services from a mobile app to a multi-product ecosystem and how the pandemic ultimately digitized skill building. We also discussed the importance of integrating diversity and inclusion guidelines into your work culture and product offering and how to maintain a positive workplace culture across a team of over 750 employees in a tech company.

2107: The Story Behind Marmoset and Track Club, A New Music Licensing Subscription App Sep 16, 2022

Ryan Wines has consistently advocated for creators, makers, and artists and once gave a TED Talk about leading creatives amidst a modern landscape. Today, the founder and CEO of Marmoset shares the story of turning this bootstrapped startup into industry-leading tech-powered music licensing company. I learn more about how they set out to become the Patagonia of music licensing, bring transparency into the industry, and how Web 3.0 will impact the future of music licensing.

We discuss Track Club: Marmoset's subscription app for the creator economy. The platform knows what creators need when they look for music. As a rule, they want to get in, get exceptional music, and get out quickly — and they want the music to feel custom-made for their content. We also discuss MixLab: Track Club's new stem mixer technology, empowering creators to mix, arrange & produce music.

2106: Exploring Continuous Integration and Delivery With CircleCI Sep 15, 2022

CircleCI is one of the biggest players in a relatively unknown but increasingly important corner of the developer world known as Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery (CI/CD). Its value lies in giving companies like Samsung, Ford Motor Company, Spotify, Lyft, Coinbase, and Stitch Fix the ability to release software more frequently to constantly improve features and function.

In today's episode, I am joined by Rob Zuber, CTO at CircleCI, a position he has held since 2014. As a 20-year veteran of software startups, a four-time founder, and a five-time CTO, Rob has the technical software knowledge and proven leadership in managing infrastructure and engineering operations. Since joining CircleCI, Rob has seen the company through multiple funding rounds and an acquisition while leading a team of 200+ engineers distributed worldwide.

Rob discusses how the constant pressure to innovate faster and the competition for developer talent is leading companies to look towards no-code and low-code solutions to help developers get more done. We also discuss how this might be building tools for people who already know how to make software but neglecting those who don't want to be programmers.

We also explore CircleCI's 2022 State of Software Delivery Report, highlighting the state of software delivery and providing insights into the qualities of the most successful engineering teams. Finally, we discuss why organizations need to stop focusing on hiring talent based on degrees and qualifications, what it means to be a good coder and the benefits of diverse dev teams.

2105: Zapata Computing Prepares Andretti Autosport for a Quantum Era Sep 14, 2022

Zapata Computing is a Boston-based company that branched out from Harvard, where its founders pioneered the field of near-term quantum algorithms. As a leading enterprise software company for quantum solutions, Zapata Computing is helping various industries prepare for a quantum future.

Christopher Savoie discusses what companies can do to be quantum-ready, what a quantum future could look like, the industries that can benefit from quantum (including supply chain, automotive, security, etc.), and potential use cases for quantum. Christopher also shares exciting insights from their partnership with Andretti Autosport.

2104: Netwrix Cloud Data Security Report Reveals Cloud Vulnerabilities Sep 13, 2022

Dirk Schrader, VP of security research at Netwrix, joins me on The Tech Talks Daily Podcast to discuss the cybersecurity firm's latest research into cloud vulnerabilities and what more organizations can do to better protect data in the cloud.

Dirk shares insights from Netwrix's new Cloud Security Report. The report's findings show that 88 percent of UK organizations store sensitive data in the cloud, where it can be left vulnerable to cyberattacks. Of this data, 65 percent was personally identifiable information (PII) of customers, 42 percent was the PII of company employees, and 31 percent was corporate financial information.

Furthermore, threats to this data were ubiquitous, with 52 percent of surveyed UK companies reporting a cyberattack on their cloud infrastructure within the last 12 months. Of these attacks, phishing was the most widespread at 69 percent of reported incidents, followed by account compromise at 35 percent and targeted attacks against cloud infrastructure at 31 percent. In this climate of constant cybersecurity risk, 65 percent of UK respondents named integration with the existing IT environment as the main factor that slows down cloud adoption in their organizations. In the interview, Dirk also discusses the research findings and what more companies can do to take full advantage of the cloud and all it can bring while remaining safe from cloud cyber risk.

2103: The DIgital Transformation of the Maritime Industry Sep 12, 2022

Wärtsilä Voyage develops the technology that enables the maritime industry's digital transformation. Responsible for the carriage of around 90% of world trade, shipping is the lifeblood of the global economy. Sarah Barret shares with me how the industry is waking up to the reality of data-enabled decision-making and how it holds the key to optimizing every vessel and voyage.

I learned more about how the volume of data we have at our fingertips has never been greater, but as more data is generated, it becomes increasingly complex to store, manage, and analyze. Finally, Sarah discusses how data can help connect the dots across the entire maritime ecosystem and how shipowners and operators can use data to their advantage.

Wärtsilä Voyage has also developed a whitepaper outlining seven key benefits of data-driven decision-making in the maritime industry. The benefits include achieving long-term regulatory compliance, enabling transparency and accountability, allowing for timely decisions to optimize operations, and providing greater tracking of iterative changes. These offer feedback loops to support shipping's data evolution, augmenting crew activity and ultimately unlocking commercial benefits.

2102: The Tech Behind the AR-Enabled Short Film, Remembering on Disney+ Sep 11, 2022

Elijah Allan-Blitz and Brie Larson have an innovative recently released on Disney+ called REMEMBERING. The short film uses first-of-its-kind technology via a companion Augmented Reality app that allows viewers to interact with the story by scanning the TV to extend the World of Imagination into your room.

Elijah joins me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss REMEMBERING, the technology behind it, why it was created, and the inspiration behind it. I also learned more about how Brie & Elijah's VR experience, The Messy Truth, won them an Emmy in 2020.

We discuss bringing the future of storytelling to audiences through innovative technology -- a pillar that is core to their joint production company, The Great Unknown Productions.

2101: Advancing Your World Through Tech and All Facets of Design Sep 11, 2022

The future is electric. The automobile and the supporting industries are investing heavily in electric battery technology, testing, and manufacturing. This is happening locally in the Detroit area as well as abroad. Leaders in the industry are saying we are at the beginning of an Electrical Revolution.

At HED, they believe great design is about thinking creatively to overcome challenges and improve tangible outcomes. So, I wanted to learn more about how they improve every facet of design, from architecture, consulting, engineering, and planning to creating a positive impact through responsive, innovative, and sustainable design solutions.

Todd Drouillard shares how technology and facility updates are changing how organizations conduct business. We also discuss how the pandemic and increased shipping issues have forced companies to rethink their real estate needs. Finally, we explore how manufacturers are investing in new and existing facilities to build products in the United States.

2100: How Dimo is Connecting Your Car While Enabling You to Own Your Data. Sep 10, 2022

DIMO is an open platform that connects data producers (like cars) and consumers (applications and businesses) to unlock next-generation mobility services. So I invited Andy Chatham to join me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss the converging tech trends around cars, IoT, data, crypto, and software development.

Andy Chatham has worked in the mobility industry for ten years, overseeing some of the largest autonomous and electric vehicle fleets and developing software used by millions of passengers. Before DIMO, he managed a team of hundreds of people working on Waymo, Google's self-driving car division. He's also worked in many other areas of mobility, assisting transportation and real estate partners in leveraging emerging technology and deploying mobility-as-a-service solutions.

We explore the future of mobility for transit-dense cities, reinventing the digital infrastructure for moving objects, the importance of growing decentralized IoT networks and how blockchain and IoT technologies are powering innovation in the auto industry.

2099: The Tech Behind the RingGo Cashless Parking Solution Sep 09, 2022

Despite the acceleration of tech developments, it can often seem like consumer expectations outpace every industry. Whether outlandish or reasonable, consumers want intuitive, tech-enabled experiences in the here and now. It's all well talking about what's possible in 2030 or even 2050, but how much of that is readily available for us to use currently – what technologies are turning vision into reality?

On this podcast, I enjoy exploring how those expectations transform areas you don't associate with tech, and a great example of this is car parks. For instance, it's not uncommon to pay for your parking space using a smartphone app.

Today's guest takes that a step further and believes that today's cars do much more than get you from A to B, as integrated tech experiences are revolutionizing travel on our roads by making transport greener and more innovative while turning cars into smartphones on wheels. Peter O'Driscoll, Managing Director of RingGo, joins me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss the future of parking, mobility, and the automotive industry. We discuss the impact of the technological age with the increased prevalence of tech and easy accessibility and tackling the rising CX demands. We also talk about the knock-on effect reflected in car trends towards tech-enabled, sustainable transport, with one in five buyers looking to go electric, according to SMMT.

2098: Nathan Howe, VP of Emerging Technology at Zscaler Sep 08, 2022

Nathan Howe, VP of emerging technology and 5G at Zscaler, once again joins me on the Tech Talks Daily Podcast. Nathan discusses how AI and ML-based capabilities can secure and manage cloud infrastructure, sensitive data, and native applications deployed across multi-cloud environments.

Lean-running IT and security teams are experiencing security alert fatigue with increasing exposure to real-time threats and often don't have the resources or skills to effectively investigate and respond to the mounting volume of threats. Nathan shares how to address these challenges by providing one-click root cause analysis to instantly identify the issues behind poor digital experience, freeing up IT and security teams from troubleshooting to focus on preventing attacks.

On the topic of AI-powered phishing prevention, we talk about how to detect and stop credential theft and browser exploitation from phishing pages with real-time analytics on threat intelligence from 300 trillion daily signals. We also discuss AI-powered segmentation and how to simplify user-to-app segmentation to minimise the attack surface and stop lateral movement with AI-based policy recommendations. These are trained by millions of cross-customer signals across private app telemetry, user context, behaviour, and location.

Finally, we discuss how to dynamically adapt security and access policies in real-time to maintain network integrity against rapidly-evolving cyber threats and how to accelerate mean time to resolution. All by putting impacted end users back to work in a matter of seconds by identifying root causes of poor user experiences 180 times faster, freeing IT from time-consuming troubleshooting and analysis.

2097: Meta Discusses Facebook, Business Messaging and Conversational Commerce Sep 07, 2022

More than one billion people use messaging platforms such as WhatsApp and Messenger to connect with businesses. This is proving to be a significant consumer behavior shift that requires businesses of all sizes to adapt quickly to their customers' rising expectations. Dan Levy, VP, Business Messaging at Meta, joins me on the Tech Talks Daily podcast to discuss the future of tech, the Metaverse, and business messaging.

We discuss why conversational commerce looks set to be the next big thing in online shopping and why Facebook is doubling down on business messaging. We also explore how businesses can expect to meet these demands of having a fluid conversation across WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram.

With one eye on the future, we also talk about how business-to-consumer messaging and business messaging will evolve with metaverse and the brave new world of Web 3.

2096: Teamwork - The Startup Story Behind the Scalable Project Management Platform Sep 06, 2022

Peter Coppinger, Co-Founder, and CEO at Teamwork, a Cork, Ireland-based project management platform, with hubs in Boston, Belfast, Amsterdam, and Barcelona. Started in 2007 by Peter and his fellow developer pal Dan, they now have a global workforce of over 350 employees. Their platform is used by over 20K companies worldwide, including Disney, Spotify, and Paypal.

Peter joins me on Tech Talks Daily to share the story behind Teamwork which is currently the only scalable project management platform built for client work and founded by former agency owners. We discuss the importance of understanding the efficiency of your organization is key to unlocking the next level of success and avoiding burnout.

We also discuss how businesses that deliver client work should work smarter, not harder, by getting organized and managing all of their work in one tool that scales with you as you grow. Finally, we explore how process drives efficiency and profitability and why it's the only way to confidently scale your business with the future of work, rise in remote work, and The Great Resignation.

2095: Mulesoft - How Automation Done Right Fuels Efficient Growth Sep 05, 2022

New research shows automation demand surged in more than 90% of companies. With macroeconomic uncertainty — across markets, hiring, costs, and more — now firmly top of mind, CEOs and leaders across the business focus on efficient growth, cost savings, and increased productivity. As a result, companies are turning to automation more than ever to drive immediate value across all parts of the business, from technical to non-technical departments like sales, customer service, marketing, and commerce.

To understand how IT is approaching these demands and some of the challenges businesses face, I invited Matt McLarty from MuleSoft to join me on Tech Talks Daily. Matt shares how organizations across every industry want to automate processes and customer experiences as quickly as possible. However, they'll impede true innovation if they try to go fast with the wrong tools and techniques.

Matt discusses why it's vital that organizations become more adaptable to technological change, enabling them to build automation and connect data and applications in a holistic manner. As a result, organizations risk compounding rather than reducing their technical debt without a more composable approach. But we explore how when automation is done right; it fuels efficient growth.

2094: Why Device-as-a-Service is the Most Sustainable Solution Sep 04, 2022

Mobility programs often rely on carrier-provided devices or, if corporate-owned, represent a high CapEx burden. Internal IT resources have to deal with staging, MDM, help desk, and logistics, while repair shops and insurers are used to mitigate unforeseen device defects. This often leads to an outdated device inventory that's often a patchwork of different models and operating system versions resulting in security risks, sub-par staff productivity, cost spikes, accounting challenges, and problematic sustainability and DE&I situations.

These are just a few examples of how enterprises face many challenges regarding mobile device management and maintaining employee satisfaction/productivity. Tillmann Schwabe, General Manager of Everphone US joins me on Tech Talks Daily in a conversation about overcoming these challenges, what's coming next, and the solutions available.

We also discuss the circular economy and how device-as-a-service is the most sustainable solution for enterprises and how Everphone's model reduces each device's CO2 footprint by 120 lbs.

2093: The Slovenian Startup Helping Businesses Scale Webflow Projects Sep 04, 2022

Before Flowout was born in April 2021, they were just a friendly bunch of freelancers. Each of them with a startup story, a passion for bootstrapping products, and a love for Webflow. But this passion for launching new products led them to seek how they can help brands stand out on the internet.

With a mission to help brands create unique and superior user experiences, they created Flowout, a business focused on all things Webflow. Today, Flowout is currently in full growth mode, successfully conquering the US market. From building a new SaaS tool, giving back to the community, and sharing free templates to gaining bigger clients with exciting projects.

Ziga Fajfar shares his story and what differentiates Flowout from other Webflow companies. We also talk about the thriving tech startup scene in Slovenia. He also shares tips on successfully conquering the US market from Europe and the lessons they have learned in scaling Flowout and other ventures.

2092: No-Code Data Loss Prevention for SaaS Sep 03, 2022

Polymer is a no-code Data Loss Prevention (DLP) platform that allows companies to monitor, auto-remediate & apply behavioral techniques to reduce the risk of insider threats, sensitive data misuse & leakage over 3rd Party SaaS platforms. It focuses on SaaS platform data security because that is a 'dark web' of sorts for organizations where data controls generally do not exist. Additionally, most SaaS applications' high collaboration focus makes it easy to lose or exfiltrate sensitive data.

Data Loss Prevention is no longer a technical problem but a business risk, especially in a remote/hybrid work environment. In addition, information security resiliency is critical in the cloud-first infrastructure where the tech stack is no longer a clear set of boxes (like it used to be for on-premises tech architecture) but rather a mishmash of SaaS and an overlapping set of technology services.

Often in infosec, teams view security as a 0 or 1 problem-either I am secured (check box) or I am not. As an ex-wall street bond trader, Yasir Ali looks at risk on a more probabilistic gradient. By deploying mitigating controls and nudging the workforce to behave responsibly, one can make any organization's information security posture resilient.

2091: Exploring Connected Fitness and the Futuristic Full-Body Workout With Vitruvian Sep 02, 2022

Jon Gregory started his career as a finance guy, working around the clock on algorithmic trading and high-frequency computing and squeezing in workouts in the company training room, which consisted of a bunch of metal weights. Surely, we can do something better, Jon thought.

Using his degree in applied physics, Jon dedicated himself to making training more effective, efficient, engaging, and beneficial by transforming the traditional gym using 21st-century technology. And, just like that, Jon exchanged the trading floor for the weight room and created Vitruvian, one of the fastest growing connected fitness brands in the world, on a mission to disrupt human health and wellness.

Delivering up to 440 lbs. of digital weight, the Vitruvian Trainer+ uses artificial intelligence to adjust its weight to individual users in real-time, loading and unloading the optimal resistance up to 50 times per second, all in a slim carbon fiber platform that can easily slide under a couch or bed.

Jon joins me on Tech Talks Daily to share his startup story while also discussing entrepreneurship, technology, and how Vitruvian is revolutionizing the in-home gym and the future of the fitness industry.

2090: The Story Behind PraSaga Revealing SagaPython at Consensus 2022 Sep 01, 2022

PraSaga is a Swiss Foundation building the next generation of Layer One blockchain. Its technology solution is on a mission to solve many of the limitations that plague first-generation Layer One blockchains. The SagaChain™ successfully addresses lowering transaction fees and extensibility for supply chains and significantly lowers development costs.

We’ve designed the next evolution of blockchain architecture. A Layer One blockchain achieves the promise that all blockchains aspire to. One that provides the highest level of resistance against attacks. Rewards its ecosystem of contributors. And most importantly, it scales in throughput as more resources are added to the network, providing the maximum possible increases in speed.

Any additional information: Rich Phillips, Chief Product Officer of PraSaga, joins me on Tech Talks Daily to talk about all this and the recent announcement of SagaPython at Consensus 202

2089: The AI Startup Trying to Fix Gender Bias in the Workplace Aug 31, 2022

Women make up 64% of the 40 lowest paying jobs in the US despite being less than 50% of the overall workforce. Additionally, the pandemic pushed women's labor force participation rate to 1993 levels, and the US lost 11 years of progress toward parity throughout the pandemic.

Katica Roy is a Gender Economist and CEO of Pipeline, a technology platform that uses AI to weed out unconscious bias and help companies create gender equity in the workplace by analyzing employee hiring, pay, performance, potential, and promotion data. Katica joins me on Tech Talks Daily to share story.

We discuss how a recession might disproportionately impact women as they are typically the first to lose their jobs during a recession and the last to gain them back. Katica also shares how Pipeline found through its implementations that men receive promotions at a 21% greater rate than women, and the promotion gap doubles for Black women (men are promoted at a rate of 42% greater than Black women).

I learn more about the steps companies can take to change inequitable systems in the workplace, including embedding equity into the employee lifecycle and creating workplace cultures that facilitate authenticity without retaliation. But also how Pipeline is using technology to help make the process easier.

2088: Moving into the Metaverse With DXC Technology Aug 30, 2022

What is the Metaverse? The metaverse is a persistent shared virtual environment where you, as an avatar, can meet and interact with other people and engage in a wide array of virtual activities. The metaverse can be used to work, play, learn, or all three — and its applications in the enterprise are limitless.

The metaverse is a topic that is becoming impossible to ignore. It promises to present a virtual world and extended reality of possibilities for enterprises. Many believe that companies that master the metaverse can reap business benefits by exploiting the power of shared virtual environments. But what does this mean for the future of the workplace?

Mike McDaniel, president of Modern Workplace at DXC, and Nathalie Vancluysen, DXC's Head of Extended Reality, join me on Tech Talks Daily to talk about all things virtual reality, extended reality, and the metaverse regarding businesses. In addition, we explore the different services, virtual environments, and how easily they can be deployed.

2087: GroupRoom Brings Digital Hybrid Workplaces to Citrix Workspaces Aug 29, 2022

Video chat doesn't work as well for large groups or social situations. By letting participants move around the space and collaborate with others, GroupRoom gives individuals their freedom back. Three people on one side of the room can have a group conversation with a whiteboard or google doc etc completely separate from a group of two people on the other side.

Chris Matthieu, founder & CEO of XRPA.NET, and Chris Fleck, Vice President and Technical Fellow at Citrix Systems, join Neil C. Hughes in a conversation about digital hybrid workspaces. We also discuss how businesses can leverage technology to re-enable those moments of serendipity in the workplace that are the lifeblood of every organization.

About Chris Matthieu

Chris Matthieu is the founder & CEO of XRPA.NET inc., a metaverse company. We build and market spatially-aware alternative communications platforms including: GroupRoom.io (2D digital twin virtual offices for digital hybrid workplaces) andMetaverses.io (3D metaverse platform allowing users to build, explore, and host their own metaverses). Prior to XRPANET, Chris co-founded Computes Inc. (a decentralized supercomputing platform company) which was acquired by MagicLeap and co-founded Octoblu Inc. (an enterprise IoT platform company) which was acquired by Citrix.

About Chris Chris Fleck is Vice President and Technical Fellow at Citrix Systems. In this role he is responsible for Emerging Technology, IP, and driving innovation. Previously, Mr. Fleck was CEO and a founder of 14 South Networks, an IBM Spin-off and pioneer in the application of Blade Technology for the IT industry. He was a NYS Licensed Professional Engineer and has twelve patents issued, he graduated from NYU Poly and has an MBA from Union College

2086: User Experience and Conversion Rate Optimization Technology Aug 28, 2022

Scalefast is changing the way brands do direct-to-consumer eCommerce, by empowering them to regain the control and simplicity they need to create an exceptional shopping experience, directly from their online storefront.

By joining forces through the Scalefast Commerce Cloud, brands can deliver localized and personalized direct-to-consumer shopping experiences while leveraging the volume and data of an entire brand ecosystem.

Scalefast’s modern approach to eCommerce has generated award-winning success for their clients and has allowed them to become the fastest-growing eCommerce platform in the U.S. Its full-stack enterprise solution brings together a cloud-based eCommerce platform, global business services and an international footprint of logistics, payment, tax and business partners.

Amandine Soares shares her inspirational story with me on Tech Talks Daily. She's an absolute rockstar and pro on Scalefast's Air360 platform, a US analytics solution that helps reduce friction in the customer experience, increase conversions and improve loyalty.

2085: The Technology Simplifying Information Security Aug 27, 2022

Ryan Cloutier, CISSP and president of Security Studio joins me on Tech Talks Daily to talk about their mission to help simplify cybersecurity. In particular, Security Studio is passionate about working with underserved/under-resourced organizations like local governments and public educational institutions to improve their cybersecurity. Ryan discusses why public organizations like schools and local governments find themselves woefully unprepared for cyberattacks and how hybrid workplaces have affected them. We also discuss the importance of taking a holistic approach to risk assessments and simple steps that organizations (and individuals) can take to improve their cyber-resilience (or ability to recover from a cyber-attack).

Ryan shares real-world examples of how cybersecurity risks in public institutions (on both sides of the pond) affect us all. For example, from recent FOI requests in the UK, just five government departments confirmed they have a data backup in place. The Department for Education (DfE) also confirmed it had lost or reported 116 stolen devices between September 2020 and September 2021.

2084: RevOps CEO Chat with Andy Byrne of Clari Aug 27, 2022

Most CEOs have difficulty answering the most critical question in business: "Are we going to meet, beat, or miss on revenue?" Why? After more than $1 Trillion spent on ERP, CRM, Business Intelligence, spreadsheets, and collaboration software, there is no enterprise approach to revenue. As a result, there is no way for "Revenue-critical" people, processes, and systems to work together.

Andy Byrne, CEO, and Co-Founder of Clari joins me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss how RevOps is a rapidly emerging concept in the UK. We talk about the importance of business unification and the end of siloed operations. Andy also shares how he put a deck on LinkedIn detailing his recommendations for how companies can not just thrive during the downturn but thrive and how it went viral.

I also learned how Clari is helping companies including Zoom, Equinix, Atlassian, and Okta forecast revenue growth, manage operations efficiently, and how they have achieved a valuation of $2.6 billion.

2083: The Tech Driving Growth in Africa’s Emerging E-commerce Sector Aug 26, 2022

Fehintolu Olaogun, the CEO of CredPal joins me on Tech Talks Daily to share his story. This consumer credit startup has offered BNPL infrastructure to African retail merchants since 2018 and has garnered interest insights in the niche. Fehintolu was just in DC last month at the Africa Fintech Summit, where his panel discussed embedded finance.

For example, one exciting perspective he shares is that while BNPL is often regarded as a tool for impulse buying elsewhere in Africa, it's a necessity because many cannot afford upfront payment for essential items. Having served over 4000 merchants and now looking to scale across Africa, CredPal has a great vantage on BNPL and consumer credit in Africa.

2082: Tech Trends in Digital Grocery Shopping Aug 25, 2022

Digital commerce expert Spryker recently released research into the grocery shopping habits of 2,500 UK consumers. The company found that 60% of UK consumers now order their groceries online, and 16% now do most of their food shopping via the internet.

With the cost-of-living crisis shrinking consumers’ budgets, shoppers at low-cost supermarkets are crying out for online services from the likes of Aldi and LIDL – with almost half (43%) of consumers keen to see their low-cost providers operate online. Other findings include: Spryker CEO and co-founder Boris Lokschin reveals more findings from the report with me as we explore the broader trends in the digital grocery space – such as checkout-less shopping and Q-commerce apps.

About Spryker

Spryker is a composable digital commerce platform that enables enterprises to future-proof their business and accelerate growth at any point in their commerce journey. Spryker’s headless, API-first model allows companies to adapt, scale, and quickly go to market while facilitating a lower cost of ownership and higher return on investment.

As a leading platform for Enterprise Marketplaces, IoT Commerce, B2B, and D2C, Spryker has empowered 150+ customers in more than 200 countries worldwide to differentiate based on how they sell best and is trusted by brands such as Aldi, Siemens, Hilti, and Ricoh.

Gartner® recognized Spryker as a Visionary in the 2021 Magic Quadrant™ for Digital Commerce, just one year after it first appeared (2020), and it has also been named a major player in B2B e-Commerce by IDC. Spryker is a privately held technology company headquartered in Berlin, Germany, and New York, USA.

2081: How Wejo is Unlocking the Power of Autonomous Vehicle Data Aug 24, 2022

Sarah Larner, Executive Vice President of Strategy & Innovation, Wejo joins me on Tech Talks Daily. Sarah is responsible for the formulation and management of the strategic initiatives at Wejo. She has been at Wejo since 2015, playing an integral role in the organization’s growth and success.

Sarah shares her story and discusses the connected vehicle landscape across automotive and the marketplace. Wejo is a UK-headquartered company publicly listed on NASDAQ. It's also a global leader in connected vehicle data, revolutionizing how we live, work and travel by transforming and interpreting real-time vehicle data.

The company enables smarter mobility by organizing 12 trillion data points from approximately 12 million vehicles and more than 59 billion journeys globally, across multiple brands, makes, and models, and then standardizing and enhancing those streams of data on a vast scale.

Wejo partners with ethical, like-minded companies and organizations to turn that data into insights that unlock value for consumers. With the most comprehensive and trusted data, underpinned by leadership in data privacy, Wejo is creating a smarter, safer, more sustainable world for all.

2080: Talking Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAO) Aug 23, 2022

Tally builds tools for DAOs. The company helps people join decentralized orgs and help user-owned communities make decisions together. Tally CEO, Dennison Bertram is an avid futurist, artist, and serial entrepreneur with a keen eye for the future of technology and its social impacts. He's also an early block-chain technologist, having founded the first Bitcoin Exchange for Czech Crowns (BuyBTC.cz), a technologically advanced physical bitcoin wallet (Aeternum Key-Vault), and a paypal like digital currency wallet (Terrawallet).

Dennison joins me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss what are DAOs? How do they work and why should you care about them? He also shares the most interesting uses of DAOs right now and why he believes DAOs will replace corporations and become the dominant organizational form for human capital and creativity. Finally, Dennison also shares his tips on how to invest in DAOs without losing your money or becoming a victim of fraud.

2079: Semtech's Steven Hegenderfer and the LoRa Developer Portal Aug 22, 2022

Semtech's LoRa device-to-Cloud platform is a globally adopted long-range, low-power solution for IoT applications, enabling the rapid development and deployment of ultra-low power, cost-efficient, long-range IoT networks, gateways, sensors, module products, and IoT services worldwide.

Semtech's LoRa technology provides the communication layer for the LoRaWAN® standard, which the LoRa Alliance® maintains, an open IoT alliance for Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) applications that have been used to deploy IoT networks in over 170 countries.

With the proliferation of LoRa devices and the LoRaWAN standard, the LoRa Developer Portal is a place to learn, connect, collaborate, and find resources to help accelerate your LoRa development process. Semtech is a founding member of the LoRa Alliance.

Steven Hegenderfer, senior director of developer ecosystems at Semtech, joins me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss Semtech's LoRa Developer Portal. The portal allows developers of all levels to quickly build and test IoT devices connecting with LoRaWan. In addition, I learn how it aims to help developers bring their ideas to life and close the skills gap many companies are facing by offering resources for education and training purposes.

This portal comes at a time when building IoT devices and solutions are more complex than ever before, and developers need additional resources to build and test device connectivity efficiently.

2078: The Importance of Digital transformation Initiatives in Freight Brokers' Tech Stacks Aug 21, 2022

Shawn Vo is the CTO and co-founder of Axle, the all-in-one financial platform for modern freight brokers. Back in May, they completed a $10 million Series A round of funding led by Crosslink Capital. This financing follows a record year for Axle, during which volume grew 850% on their payments and financing platform. A graduate of the University of Virginia, Shawn spent seven years in financial technology, building software for fast-growing startups and consulting for the top 20 largest banks before starting Axle with his longtime business partner and friend, Bharath Krishnamoorthy. He is also member of the Forbes Technology Council, as well as an angel investor in fintech and developer tools.

We discuss the importance of digital transformation initiatives, integrations and personalization in freight brokers' tech stacks. I also learn how moving toward open platform tools will benefit brokers so they can continue to build a tech stack that's personalized specifically for their back-end, data-driven processes.

2077: The Evolving Needs for Citrix Performance Monitoring Aug 20, 2022

Rachel Berry of eG Innovations and Richard Faulkner from the Conversant Group join Neil C. Hughes on the Tech Fusion Podcast. They discuss the importance of performance monitoring for Citrix deployments. Rachel shares where eG Innovations adds value to Citrix customers and how it relates to Citrix built-in tools.

Richard shares more about the problems they solve for businesses at Conversant Group and how they work with eG Innovations. We also talk about what changes they have seen from Citrix customers' needs in terms of monitoring throughout the last year.

2076: Sho Sugihara Shares The Inspiring Story Behind UK fintech Startup Pave Aug 19, 2022

Pave is on a mission to improve access to credit for millions of people by building the world's best credit builder. They already have close to 500,000 registered users and are helping their members improve their credit health. But I wanted to learn more about the company's story, and this is where things got interesting.

Co-Founder and CEO Sho Sugihara spent the first half of his life in Japan. He started his career working for The Big Issue to help the homeless by delivering magazines to newspaper vendors. Then, at 18, he went to Brazil to work for an NGO, helping underprivileged families keep their children in school through a state-sponsored microfinance and daycare program. These experiences opened his eyes to the power of financial inclusion.

After university, he worked at McKinsey for three years to save up cash to finally start his own business before leaving to co-found Pave out of Entrepreneur First in 2017. Fast forward to 2022, we're seeing extreme income volatility and an unprecedented surge in energy prices and living costs. In times like these, Sho believes there are new opportunities to help consumers and businesses.

As a result, they launched Fuse, a credit analytics B2B service that helps businesses make better lending decisions using our state-of-the-art analytics capabilities. Combining Open Banking data, Credit File data, and tangible outcomes data, the company can help enterprises to make the best affordability decisions with powerful insights.

I invited Sho on the podcast to share his inspiring story and how it led to two products aimed at helping Pave solve the inefficiencies they see in the credit system faster and at a critical time.

2075: The Tech Empowering Businesses Through Payment Orchestration Aug 18, 2022

Payment Orchestration continues to be a hot topic in digital payments. It has become even more prevalent post-COVID-19 with increased demand from consumers for more digitized payment methods, combined with the push from merchants to drive global growth ambitions with efficient cross-border services.

CellPoint Digital is a leader in payment orchestration and has a longstanding history of delivering payment orchestration services for brands in the air travel sector. One of the most complex markets from a cross-border payments perspective – it bosts Virgin Atlantic, Cebu Pacific, and Avianca (one of the oldest airlines in Latam) as its clients and has transformed their payment architecture.

I invited Kristian Gjerding to share the company's story and explore how to navigate complex payments data with a payment orchestration’s proprietary rules engine that can optimize existing payments relationships. We also discuss how they are on a mission to make life easier for organizations that take payments. For example, they don’t have to renegotiate with payment providers and make system changes.

2074: Quantinuum Makes Quantum Computing Advancement With InQuanto Aug 17, 2022

Quantinuum, the largest full-stack quantum computing company, recently revealed its quantum chemistry platform. InQuanto makes it easy for computational chemists to explore and experiment with quantum computing. This quantum computing offers a path to rapid and cost-effective development of new molecules and materials, which in turn, could generate novel answers to some of the biggest challenges we face in sustainability, climate change, drug discovery, and more. Quantinuum’s quantum chemistry team developed InQuanto to support collaborations with partners such as BMW, JSR, Nippon Steel Corporation, and TotalEnergies. Through these collaborations, InQuanto has already led to the achievement of many firsts. I invited Jenni Strabley and Simon McAdams to share some of these and talk about the opportunities that Quantum computing will unlock.

2073: Keysight Technologies - The Future of 5G and What Lies Ahead in 6G Aug 16, 2022

Ben Coffin is a Solutions Marketing Manager for PHY and ORAN emulators at Keysight Technologies. Having spent the last decade in the test and measurement industry, Ben has spent his time in business development, product management, and systems engineering roles across the wireless communications space.

Ben is also enthusiastic about telling stories about how the technology in the wireless world is advancing and how the bleeding edge finds root through research and industry and academic collaboration. In a nutshell, he's a perfect fit for the Tech Talks Daily podcast.

Is it too early to be talking about 6G? We discuss 5G, 6G research, Open RAN, academic research on communications, research, and policy initiatives. We also explore how wireless communications will evolve how we communicate and the type of partnerships needed to exist (private/public, government) to make research in the wireless space successful.

2072: CyberArk Biohacker Reveals 3 Ways Any QR Code Can be Spoofed Aug 15, 2022

When the pandemic hit, the need to touch as few things as possible to slow the spread of the virus meant QR codes took off quicker than Netflix stock. Now that we as consumers are programmed to scan them without a second thought, we find ourselves in a vulnerable situation. The FBI has even issued a formal warning about faked QR codes. In his new research, Len Noe, aka 'the Biohacker' and White Hat Hacker at CyberArk, has revealed three ways that any QR code can be spoofed to provide an attack vector. Crucially, Len's research has shown how mobile devices can be taken over and used to provide an attack vector in corporate environments to launch advanced attacks. Len discusses why we should be wary rather than blindly trusting forms. For example, a fake job ad containing a malicious QR code offers a perfect opportunity to send all that personal sign-up information straight to an attacker, not a prospective employer.

We also discuss the importance of vigilance when installing new apps from a QR code. Len shares how he spoofed the Google Play Store to gain ultimate access to a user's phone – including reading personal messages and taking pictures with the camera. Finally, he shares how even scanning a rogue QR code to order takeout could result in your details getting phished. In one fell swoop, Len had access to a user's phone, leaving their GPS location and sensitive user information open to play with.

2071: The Tech Making Road Trips Safe and Convenient for University Students. Aug 14, 2022

Moiz Janjua Built his first public website, a college news blog when he was 16. He started working as a freelance designer in 2014. He built a couple of indie mobile games for iOS and Android in 2016. His love and passion for design and problem solving paved his way in the startup world. In 2021 founded SplitTrip.

Splittrip is a road trip-sharing app for verified university students. It provides a marketplace where verified Hosts with vehicles going on road trips offer extra seats to verified Riders. All participants equally share the trip cost, including the accommodation and fuel.

I invited him on the podcast to share his story and how they raised their first pre-seed investment of £50,000 by delivering groceries door to door in a high-net-worth area in central London. I also learned how Splittrip is officially endorsed by Coventry University and one of 10 startups endorsed in 2021.

2070: The Female Founders Changing the Game for Resellers With List Perfectly Aug 13, 2022

List Perfectly is an e-commerce solution for sellers to efficiently list and cross-post products on multiple major marketplaces and channels like Poshmark, Mercari, Instagram, Shopify, eBay, and more. The company was created by founders Amanda Morse and Clara Albornoz for sellers like them, who make a living from online sales, as a solution to the frustrating and laborious process of listing on multiple channels.

However, there is an inspirational story behind the company. I invited co-founder Clara Albornoz on Tech Talks Daily to share how her arthritis prevented her from listing her products as a seller and how it inspired her to create something that would go on to save sellers an average of 80 hours per month.

I learn how its member base has grown by over 600% and sellers have cross-posted over 20 million products using its software in the last year alone. We also discuss how they are leveraging technology to fulfill the company's sustainability-driven mission to keep products out of landfills.

2069: The Gen Z Insights Startup Unlocking Market Data With Video Analysis AI Aug 13, 2022

Gen Z is transforming the way we consume. With a keen eye toward sustainability, they are influencing older generations to prioritize sustainability in their purchasing decisions.

Aneesh Dhawan of Knit, joins me on Tech Talks Daily. The consumer insights startup appeared on my radar after learning it provides market data for Gen Z audiences and works with NASCAR, the Minnesota Twins, the San Antonio Spurs, and JBL Speakers, to name a few brands. Using the Knit platform, brands can upload questions and get 30-90 second "selfie" video responses from hundreds of Gen Z consumers in as quickly as a few hours. With their video analysis AI, brands can analyze hours of video feedback in minutes, helping larger brands rapidly learn more about what Gen Z audiences want. We discuss the three key 'takeaways' brands should keep in mind when looking to attract the attention of Gen Z'ers and what Gen Z data tell us about building thriving communities online.

2068: Infosys Finacle - The Future of Cashless Payments Aug 12, 2022

Less than half of Gen Z have an account with a traditional bank revealing that non-traditional payment methods will dominate the future of digital banking. But Sanat Rao, Chief Business Officer, and Global Head, Infosys Finacle, believes many countries across the globe are falling behind in developing the infrastructure needed for a fully cashless, digital banking system.

Sanat joins me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss the pros and cons of a cashless environment. Sanat shares how going cashless will create ease and efficiency, but to do so, countries need to digitize every step of transactions, including opening accounts with digital documentation. This is costly and requires a profound change in infrastructure, posing a significant barrier for many countries.

We also explore Blockchain security considerations. For example, Blockchain combats security concerns of digital payments by recording digital transactions, and Sanat believes this will not only curb fraud but also allow for cross-border transactions to increase exponentially.

On navigating end-to-end digital adoption, Sanat shares his thoughts on improving digital adoption progress and continuing to build infrastructure for a cashless environment.

2067: The Story Behind Left Lane Capital and $1.4B Second Fund Aug 11, 2022

Left Lane Capital is a leading global venture capital and growth equity firm investing in high-growth internet and consumer technology companies that are fundamental to the lives of customers. The foundation of Left Lane's strategy is built on four main elements: specialization in internet-first businesses, proprietary sourcing at every level, deep data rigor and best practices, and a genuine philosophy around partnering with founders.

Dan Ahrens (Managing Partner) joins me on Tech Tech Talks Daily to discuss Left Lane's second fund with $1.4 billion in commitments, how the firm is focused on growing the internet and consumer tech category by identifying and supporting category-defining companies, the market potential for consumer internet companies, and their recent investments in GoStudent, M1 Finance, iTrust Capital, and Tovala.

2066: How Logitech is Reimagining Tech Design for Students Aug 10, 2022

Logitech released the Logitech Pen in January, one of the first mainstream tech tools designed for and with students. The Pen is a USI stylus for Chromebooks, designed for learning, so students can unlock their full potential.

Tech is not often built with kids in mind (but it should be). It's built for adult and consumer use. Children have smaller hands, different developmental needs, etc. Logitech took all this into consideration when designing the Pen, with students at the center every step of the way.

Grace Lee is Head of Design for Logitech for Education. She is a leader in design who is passionate about creating user-centric education products that delight students and teachers. I invited her onto the podcast to learn more about the design process and discuss the development process of the Pen and what it can tell us about the future of tech design overall.

We discuss how the future of learning (and life) is increasingly digital and why bridging the 'awkwardness' gap is so important. We also explore where tech can be a comfortable extension of our real physical selves to build confidence.

2065: Northeastern University and the Institute for Experiential AI Aug 09, 2022

Dr. Usama Fayyad is Executive Director of the Institute for Experiential AI at Northeastern University. The Institute is a game-changing research center focused on researching and developing human-centric AI solutions that leverage machine technology to extend human intelligence. I invited him on Tech Talks Daily to learn more about their mission to solve core research problems centered on building real solutions in real contexts to make reliable and responsible AI that works effectively and cooperatively with humans.

The world-renowned expert in AI and an industry leader joins me to discuss what the Institute will mean to the advancement of AI and experiential AI. We also talk about the development of AI talent, the creation of AI solutions for real-world problems, AI ethics, and the promotion of Responsible AI.

Finally, I learned that he was the Global Chief Data Officer & Group Managing Director at Barclays Bank in London and the first person in the world to hold the Chief Data Officer title when at Yahoo!

2064: WalkMe Presents: Digital Adoption for Dummies Aug 08, 2022

Simon Blunn is SVP and General Manager for the EMEA region at WalkMe, a pioneer of the digital adoption sector. In a nutshell, digital adoption is the process of helping businesses make sure people – both staff and customers – are actually using any new technologies those businesses have embraced as part of their digital transformations. Simon is also a veteran of the enterprise IT industry more broadly, whose career has encompassed stints at the likes of HP and Cisco.

Simon joins me on Tech Talks Daily to talk about what digital adoption is, why it’s important to businesses, and how businesses can achieve true digital adoption. He also talks about WalkMe’s recently-released Digital Adoption For Dummies guidebook.

We discuss the centrality of digital adoption. Simon shares his belief that although digital transformation is essential to businesses in all industries, the technologies embraced during these businesses’ digital transformations must be used and understood – this often isn’t the case! Replacing legacy technologies with swanky new software may actually make things more confusing for businesses’ staff, worsening their digital experience and driving down productivity. In short, achieving digital adoption is central to successful digital transformation.

Simon also shares his view, if businesses want to retain and attract talent, an IT team that ensures a fuss-free digital experience is paramount. The pandemic-induced increase in home working means many staff are less concerned about whether their office has a coffee machine, and more concerned about whether they can easily use the applications and software necessary to do their jobs.

2063: Particle - The Story Behind the Integrated IoT Platform-as-a-Service Aug 07, 2022

Ten years ago, Zach Supalla wanted to find a way to help his deaf father send and receive text messages. Specifically, he wanted to enable his dad's phone to flash when he got a text from his wife. What began as a personal mission turned into a global integrated IoT platform-as-a-service.

Since its inception in 2012, Particle has grown immensely to be the most widely used IoT platform, making it easier for 8,500 others to bring their physical products online. Zach joins me on Tech Talks Daily to share his inspirational story. I learn how the founder wants to help you reprogram the world and how Particle empowers innovators to solve industry problems.

Particle provides an integrated IoT Platform-as-a-Service that helps businesses connect, manage, and deploy software applications to connected devices, from edge to cloud and back. Over 240k developers and 160+ Enterprise customers are building on Particle, from fast-growing startups to Fortune 100 companies that are all building connected solutions to business problems.

2062: Vuzix Shield Enterprise AR Smart Glasses Aug 06, 2022

At CES earlier this year, Vuzix unveiled Vuzix Shield, a revolutionary leap for enterprise AR smart glasses. They are lightweight, stylish, prescription-ready safety glasses and a powerful 8-core CPU combine to deliver a singular wearable experience. Vuzix's CEO, Paul Travers, rejoins me on Tech Talks Daily for a catchup on their many developments and milestones and to discuss how Vuzix's technology today is allowing people to connect themselves to the metaverse easily.

We discuss how their smart glasses now support Microsoft Endpoint Manager to streamline device onboarding and provisioning for Microsoft Teams. We also talk about other strategic partnerships to address the future of the deskless workforce.

About Paul

Paul Travers is the founder of Vuzix and has served as President and Chief Executive Officer since 1997 and as a member of our Board of Directors since November 1997. Before the formation of Vuzix, Mr. Travers founded both e-Tek Labs, Inc. and Forte Technologies Inc. He has been a driving force behind the development of Vuzix products.

He is a nationally recognized industry expert with more than 30 years of experience in the consumer electronics field and 26 years of experience in the virtual reality and virtual display fields. He holds an Associate degree in engineering science from Canton, ATC, and a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical and computer engineering from Clarkson University.

2061: SingleStore Creates 3-Minute Assessment Tool for Applications Aug 05, 2022

SingleStore recently launched the ‘Data Intensity Index’ tool to help companies understand how data-intensive their applications are. Using five variables, the Data Intensity Index gives you an assessment of what kind of data infrastructure an application will need to deliver the best user experience. This 3-minute assessment, spread over 10 questions, aims to understand how data is used by the application and calculate the intensity score. Shireesh Thota joins me on Tech Talks Daily to share the story behind the tool and the problems they set out to solve. I also learn more about the data intensity assessment and what it means if you have a high or a low score. We discuss why data-intensive applications need a modern data infrastructure and the five critical components that impact application performance

2060: Microverse - The Online School for International Software Developers Aug 04, 2022

Ariel Camus is the Founder and CEO of Microverse, an online school that helps anyone become a high-paid, international software developer. The best part? The program costs $0 until you get employed. They are the first ones to scale peer-to-peer model (no other school/university has been able to do it).

Microverse has also raised over $17M+ and was part of the Y Combinator 2019 Batch. Thousands of people from over 100 countries apply to join Microverse every month, and hundreds of remotely-employed alumni from Colombia to Nigeria are making 3-10x their previous salary working for companies like Microsoft, VMware, Huawei, and Globant. Before starting Microverse, Ariel was the Co-Founder and CEO of TouristEye, a mobile app for planning trips and discovering new things to do while traveling. He grew the app to 1M users in 180+ countries before selling it to Lonely Planet in 2013. After the sale, Ariel worked as a Senior Product Manager of Lonely Planet's website, with over 150 million unique visitors per year. Ariel joins me on the Tech Talks Daily Podcast to discuss the instant solution to the massive shortage of software engineering talent and why ignoring the solution will make the problem even worse. We also discuss how remote hiring can help tech companies build a more diverse workplace. Finally we explore the future of work and the wider investment opportunities in the new world of remote work.

2059: MediaOptions and Why All Roads Lead To Domain Names Aug 03, 2022

Have you ever wondered what happens when Elon Musk X.com by, Zoom.com by ZOOM, as well as Prime.com, Podcast.com, Tube.com, Author.com, and others by Amazon? These are just a few examples of the tens of thousands of domain names today's guest has sold over the years.

Andrew Rosener is an industry-leading Domain Broker, Domain Investor, Digital Asset Investor and pioneer in domain name valuation methodology. He has completed more than $500 Million in domain name transactions and has been involved in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies since 2013.

The industry leader in third-party escrow services, Escrow.com, has recognized Andrew and his firm, MediaOptions.com, as the #1 or #2 Domain Broker in the World since 2013 when they began the Award. He has also won and been nominated for many other awards, including Domain Name Hall of Fame and Domain Investor of the Year.

Furthermore, Andrew Rosener is the creator of the Rosener Equation, an algorithm that determines the full objective end user or retail value for premium generic .com domain names. "My job is to create liquidity for an illiquid asset," says Andrew. Join me and Andrew in conversation about why he believes domains are the original NFT - connecting the future and the past.

2058: How Trend Micro is Making the World Safer for Exchanging Digital Information Aug 02, 2022

Trend Micro is a global cybersecurity leader on a mission to make the world safe for exchanging digital information. Fueled by decades of security expertise, global threat research, and continuous innovation, their cybersecurity platform protects hundreds of thousands of organizations and millions of individuals across clouds, networks, devices, and endpoints. The platform delivers a range of advanced threat defense techniques optimized for environments like AWS, Microsoft, and Google, and central visibility for better, faster detection and response. In addition, the global threat research team delivers unparalleled intelligence and insights that power cybersecurity platform and help protect organizations worldwide from 100s of millions of threats daily. But I wanted to learn more about how they are helping organizations to simplify and secure their connected world.

Kevin Simzer. Chief Operating Officer, Trend Micro, joins me on Tech Talks Daily to share how they are using technology to make the world a safer place. As COO, Kevin is responsible for all field operations, including global sales, marketing, business development, strategic alliances, and corporate development.

Kevin has held various roles since joining Trend Micro, including CMO, Global Alliances, and Corporate Development & Strategy. Before joining Trend Micro, Kevin held a number of executive positions including COO, general manager, chief marketing officer (CMO) and VP engineering for security pioneer Entrust (now Entrust-Datacard) where he was part of the founding team.

Before starting Entrust, Kevin began his career working in several product development positions while at Nortel in engineering, developing next generation networking technology. Kevin has held a number of board positions with Entrust, the Queen’s University High Performance Computing Virtual Laboratory, and has also served on the board of Certes Networks, an innovative cloud network security specialist.

2057: How Donna Loughlin Is Helping Visionaries Tell Their Story to the World Aug 01, 2022

Donna Loughlin is the Founder of LMGPR and is best known for her work with futurists and innovators. She has launched more than 500 companies taking them from stealth to market leaders since forming her agency in 2002. She is also the host of BeforeItHappened, a leading narrative podcast featuring visionaries and the moments, events, and realizations that inspired them to change our lives for the better.

Donna joins me on Tech Talks Daily to share her inspirational story as a woman in tech and insights gained from the evolution of Silicon Valley. I also learn more about how she launched a public relations firm with the sole purpose of helping visionaries tell their story to the world—almost 20 years ago. Two decades later, her podcast takes a deep dive into a singular lightbulb moment that inspired the visionaries to push forward and change our lives.

We also talk about the global tech skills shortage and what we need to do to ensure we attract more women in STEM.

2056: Why Wireless Charging is Now Ready for Prime Time Jul 31, 2022

Wireless charging applications are almost endless, from powering IoT applications like smart retail, building automation, smart home, digital advertising, touchless appliances, and industrial sensors.

Ori Mor co-founder and Chief Business Officer of Wi-Charge, joins me on Tech Talks Daily. The Israeli-based start-up is the first company to bring wireless charging from exciting potential to actual commercial deployments.

Wi-Charge’s patented infrared wireless power technology safely and efficiently delivers several watts of power to client devices at room-sized distances. It frees end-users from being tethered to wires or limited usage due to power constraints and gives product designers the power they need to usher in the next generation of mobile smart devices.

2055: Building Trust and Empathy in the Virtual Workplace Jul 31, 2022

While the tech industry's teams have seamlessly evolved into remote and hybrid-based work operations - what's still missing when it comes to how companies operate as cohesive cultural units working in this disrupted fashion? And within a business setting - how do you define trust and empathy in tech companies? These are just a few topics I explore with today's guest.

Chris Williams, Chief Operating Officer for Interaction Associates, joins me on Tech Talks Daily Podcast. Interaction Associates is best known for introducing the concept and practice of group facilitation to the business world in the early 1970's. For over 50 years, IA has provided thousands of leaders and teams with practical, simple, and effective programs, tools, and techniques for leading, meeting, and working better across functions, viewpoints, and geographies.

We explore how leaders can take concrete steps to build trust and empathy in the workplace - especially virtually and what sort of technology and protocols come into play. Finally, we discuss how it can impact building trust and empathy and what can be done to optimize technology to make and sustain connections for teams vs disrupt them?

2054: The Tech Forging a Better Way to Feed the Planet. Jul 30, 2022

The quality and quantity of food we depend on are at risk — from weather extremes and scarcity of cropland to supply-chain dysfunction and war. Consumers are demanding more nutritious and sustainable food. Governments are mandating that growers use less water and energy to produce crops. Innovation in agriculture has exploded with so much hype and promise. But how can we move away from hype and toward agtech solutions for producing more nutritious, sustainable food at scale?

AgriFORCE is an agtech IP development company also listed on NASDAQ that aims to facilitate resource-conservative, high-yield food production for consumers while creating sustainable, long-term jobs for local communities. The AgriFORCE vision is to be a leader in delivering plant-based foods and products through advanced and sustainable AgTech solution platforms that make positive change in the world—from seed to table.

Whether it's reshaping greenhouse design to harness the power of the sun, reimagining ways to capture the full nutrient value of crops or reigniting the passion and purpose of the next generation of growers through education and support, AgriFORCE is on a mission to break down the siloes of a fragmented industry and forging a better way to feed the planet. These are just a few of the topics I discuss with Ingo Mueller in today's episode of Tech Talks Daily.

2053: The Tech Creating Social Experiences for Real-Time Connection Jul 29, 2022

I recently discovered a company called Topia that is leveraging technology to help communities bring people together to build stronger and more meaningful connections through shared experiences.

Daniel Liebskind joins me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss how companies can use the metaverse today to create value for their prospects, customers, and community. In addition, we explore the ethical considerations of the evolving internet and how to prevent dystopian outcomes. Finally, we discuss how different technology trends converge into systems and paradigm shifts and how people can prepare, gain skills, and shape their expectations for the future

2052: How Cloud Computing Is Changing Everything with Alina Timofeeva Jul 28, 2022

Have you heard? From angry Adele fans to broken robot vacuums, millions were hit by the suspension of services that use Cloud. Robot vacuums ceased sucking, WiFi cameras stopped watching, and eager Tinder daters were left unable to "swipe right" on their smartphone apps. These are just a few of the many recent news stories that highlight how Cloud technology is everywhere.

Cloud is widely seen as helping deliver value to customers through innovation, improved resilience, and positive sustainability impact. But it also has its imperfections. Can Cloud fail us? Should you be investing in Cloud skills? And is it time to remediate Cloud? These are just a few areas I explore with today's guest.

Alina Timofeeva is a multi-award-winning Principal at Oliver Wyman who helps major organisations adopt Cloud so they can deliver on their business ambitions in a safe and cost-effective way. She was recognized by 7 industry awards only in 2021, including Cloud Professional and Digital Leader.

Outside of work Alina actively gives back to the community, through mentoring immigrants and women of diverse cultural and social backgrounds - so we can all look at our failure as an opportunity, instead of a setback. Her recent TEDxTalk "Fail but never give up" was watched by over 500 000 people and translated into 20 languages globally.

2051 Rapid 7 - How Cloud Misconfigurations Increase Security Risks Jul 27, 2022

Over the last year, we have seen a rapid increase in the number of cyberattacks on cloud environments, with breaches having potentially disastrous consequences. The rise has even led to CISA releasing guidance and legislation on how to improve cloud security.

However, the issue of securing cloud environments does not have to be as complex as it is sometimes made out to be. Far too many breaches result from organizations relaxing their security settings on cloud resources or simple cloud misconfigurations. Therefore, what extra security checks and training should organizations be implementing to reduce the risk of breach?

Gadi Naor, VP of Software Engineering, Cloud Security at Rapid7 joins me today on Tech Talks Daily to discuss why cloud security does not need to be such a complex problem as once thought. In addition, we discuss which sectors are most vulnerable to cloud misconfigurations and how data breaches in the cloud can result in further attacks, for example, social engineering attacks.

We also talk about how organizations have helped contribute to the rise in attacks, including relaxing security settings and deploying unencrypted instances on the cloud. Finally, discuss what organizations can do to ensure that cloud misconfigurations are resolved.

2050: Akamai - Build, Deliver, and Secure Digital Experiences. Jul 26, 2022

Dr. Robert Blumofe (Bobby), EVP and CTO of Akamai Technologies, discusses where the bar has been set for digital transformation at the enterprise level and how organisations globally can keep pace with those setting the gold standard. We also discuss how those lagging in their digital journey can catch up without exposing their security infrastructures to risk.

We talk about the pivotal role that Zero Trust plays in defending against increasing cyber-attacks in the new world of work. Finally, we explore why the centralised cybersecurity model underpinned by a centralised technology stack is no longer effective against cyber threats that increasingly originate from the edge of a network.

Akamai is a cloud company that helps companies build, deliver, and secure digital experiences. The company has more than 8,000 employees worldwide and, in 2021, generated $3.5 billion globally. More than 50% of the Fortune 500 use Akamai’s products and services, and its customers include the likes of Lufthansa, Airbnb, and Honda.

2049: VMware - Tom Kellermann, Head of Cybersecurity Strategy Jul 25, 2022

Did you know there has been a fundamental restructuring of cybercrime cartels thanks to a booming dark web economy of scale? Powerful cybercriminal groups now operate like multinational corporations and are relied upon by traditional crime syndicates to carry out illegal activities such as extortion and money laundering.

As a result, cybercrime cartels are more organized than ever before and often enjoy greater protection and resources from the nation-states that view them as national assets. A recent report from VMware found that 63% of financial institutions experienced an increase in destructive attacks, a 17% increase from last year. Destructive attacks are launched punitively to destroy, disrupt, or degrade victim systems by taking actions such as encrypting files, deleting data, destroying hard drives, terminating connections, or executing malicious code.

Tom Kellermann, Head of Cybersecurity Strategy, joins me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss the findings in the report and share his insights.

About Tom Kellermann

Tom Kellermann is the Head of Cybersecurity Strategy for VMware Inc. Previously, Tom held the position of Chief Cybersecurity Officer for Carbon Black Inc. Before joining Carbon Black, Tom was the CEO and founder of Strategic Cyber Ventures. In 2020, he was appointed to the Cyber Investigations Advisory Board for the United States Secret Service. Additionally, on January 19, 2017, Tom was appointed the Wilson Center’s Global Fellow for Cyber Policy.

Tom previously held the positions of Chief Cybersecurity Officer for Trend Micro; Vice President of Security for Core Security and Deputy CISO for the World Bank Treasury. In 2008 Tom was appointed a commissioner on the Commission on Cyber Security for the 44th President of the United States. In 2003 he co-authored the Book “Electronic Safety and Soundness: Securing Finance in a New Age.”

2048: Red Box - Why Voice Data is the Fuel for Business Change Jul 24, 2022

Red Box, the AI voice software specialist, is enabling enterprise businesses to capture and unlock the power of their voice data to drive digital transformation, AI innovation, and compliance – all while giving their customers full ownership of their data. Voice data, both from internal communications and customer interactions, is commonly overlooked in informing an enterprise’s decision-making. However, it is amongst the most powerful data sets a business can own! Pete Ellis, Red Box’s Chief Product Office, talks about the many ways voice data is the fuel for change businesses need and provides a crucial foundation for digital transformation and AI deployments. We also discuss how data ownership is a key part in unlocking the benefits from AI and analytics tools, and how many businesses are losing out on this valuable asset because of things like paywalls and extra charges for exporting data.

2047: How Tech is Transforming Finance Into a Strategic Business Function Jul 23, 2022

Mike Whitmire is the co-founder and CEO of FloQast, a close management software company that helps rapidly growing companies, particularly pre-IPO and public companies, close their monthly financial books with greater accuracy and speed.

Mike joins me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss how tech is revolutionising the finance function to make it a strategic business function and the role of automation in supporting forward-thinking CFO's. We also discuss upskilling in the finance function, continuous talent optimisation and how tech can help accountants achieve a better work-life balance at work.

2046: The Advantages of Hybrid Cloud, SaaS Apps and Security Jul 22, 2022

Many businesses are currently juggling two different worlds. We have the modern cloud infrastructure and Kubernetes. But on the flip side, there is 10-20-year-old legacy tech such as Oracle Solaris, old IBM and HP servers, etc. Elsewhere, business leaders are also challenged with managing security, the Cloud, and hybrid working. Anil Kumar from Citrix and Sharon Besser from GuardiCore join Neil Hughes in discussing the advantages that hybrid cloud and SAS apps can offer businesses.

About Sharon Sharon Besser is an accomplished data and network security expert with a successful track record combining deep technical hands-on excellence with a market vision to incubate new solutions and develop next-generation technologies.

Sharon was the CTO and co-founder of Publicom (acquired by Comsec), co-founder of Contondo (acquired by Bigtincan), co-founder of EyeOTee Inc., VP Technologies at Net Optics, (acquired by IXIA), VP of Products Strategy at Imperva, Director of security solutions at Check Point, Director of security products at Websense, through the acquisition of Port Authority Technologies. Sharon holds a BSc degree in Computer Science, Mathematics, and Geography from Bar Ilan University.

About Anil As a Technical Marketing Manager at Citrix, Anil Kumar is responsible for Building and owning an Ecosystem of Networking, Security, and Cloud technology partners. He is also a subject matter expert on the Citrix cloud, networking and security products, and services. Anil is also responsible for developing and managing a test infrastructure in-house/on-prem and on Cloud for proof of concepts and for partner product verifications.

2045: Gloat - The AI Talent Marketplace Creating an Agile Workforce Jul 21, 2022

The challenges facing organizations today are timely, urgent, and complex. Business leaders must find new ways to manage hybrid work models, unleash diversity, equity and inclusion for all employees, and most importantly, understand the needs of talent and provide every individual with the opportunity to experience choice and growth across an organization.

In January 2021, I spoke with Jeff Schwartz about Deloitte's Global Human Capital Trends Report. Jeff is an incredible subject matter expert and innovator who has had a front-row seat to the changes that have transformed and shaped the modern workplace. He's now the VP of Insights & Impact for Gloat, a pioneer of the internal talent marketplace. Trusted by some of the most respected brands in the world like Unilever, Nestlé, Seagate Technology, and Standard Chartered Bank, Gloat uses a two-sided platform that connects the talent within an organization to full-time roles, gigs, projects, mentorships, networking opportunities and more, enabling companies to democratize career development, unlock skills, and future-proof their workforces. I welcome Jeff back to the podcast to discuss how talent marketplaces are establishing a new category of HR technology and what forward-looking companies must do to succeed long-term as the world of work undergoes major shifts. We also discuss the benefits a talent marketplace provides to employees, managers and businesses as well as the future developments in this field.

2044: NGrave ZERO - Cold-Wallet Crypto Storage Jul 20, 2022

Ruben Merre is the CEO and Co-founder of NGRAVE, the creators of ZERO, a military-grade cold wallet with the highest security certification in the world. Ruben joins me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss the vulnerabilities digital asset holders face by using hot wallets that are connected to the internet as opposed to transferring their assets to cold wallets which are offline and therefore cannot be attacked.

We talk about NGRAVE’s $6 million seed round which saw investment from renowned DeFi and Web3 investors, including Woodstock Fund, Morningstar Ventures, DFG Group, Spark Digital Capital, and Mapleblock Capital. We also explore the growing problem of phishing and hacking scams, which have impacted users of Axie Infinity, OpenSea, and the Bored Ape Yacht Club.

2043: TrustRadius - The Age of the Self-Serve Buyer is Here Jul 19, 2022

Suppose you are thinking of purchasing a new laptop, TV, home appliance, car, or any big purchase. Where do you begin? For the most part, it probably reviews sites and YouTube videos that help you learn more about the pros and cons of each model. However, when we enter the workplace, we have those exact expectations, but we seldom do the same research before buying somehting.

Vinay Bhagat is an entrepreneur passionate about improving the software buying process so professionals like HR teams can make better decisions for their organizations. Under Vinay’s leadership, TrustRadius, has become the most trusted business technology review site, delivering over 386,000 reviews & ratings from 100% verified users.

Vinay started TrustRadius after experiencing challenges when buying enterprise solutions at his last company. He shares his journey as an entrepreneur and insights into how buyers make buying decisions.

We also explore the 2022 B2B Buying Disconnect report—a survey of 2,185 respondents that shows year-over-year trends in business technology buying and selling. The annual survey covers significant industry findings and further analysis and insights.

Check out the report.

2042: Exploring a Remote-Friendly Hybrid Collaboration Future With Tandem Jul 18, 2022

Hybrid collaboration can be challenging. Remote teammates suffer from the "second-class citizen problem" - feeling excluded from spontaneous brainstorms, magic moments, and the creative energy of the office. Hybrid Spaces bridge the gap between remote and in-person teammates to make hybrid work the best of both worlds.

Tandem is a virtual office that facilitates frictionless collaboration and allows distributed teams (such as Airbnb, Lyft, and Spotify) to feel connected, collaborate in real-time, and increase productivity. As the world struggles with redefining the way we work, I invited Tandem CEO and Co-Founder Rajiv Ayyangar to join me on Tech Tech Talks Daily to discuss what Techcrunch calls "remote-friendly hybrid collaboration".

I learn more about how hybrid workers can teleport around the office, connect, and collaborate.

2041: Jellysmack - The Tech Unicorn Leading the Creator Economy Jul 17, 2022

Jellysmack is a global creator company founded in 2016 that detects and develops the world's most talented video creators through AI. Top creators with Jellysmack include PewDiePie, MrBeast, Bailey Sarian, Derek Deso, Karina Garcia, Charles & Alyssa Forever, and Brad Mondo. Jellysmack has also been named #1 Most Innovative Company in Video by Fast Company.

The company optimizes and distributes content for over 500 leading individual video creators on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and YouTube. It enables creators to grow their audiences, maximize earnings and generate more revenue opportunities. The company says the result is about 10 billion video views monthly, reaching 125 million people. In addition, its influencers have a combined 360 million followers.

Jason Brown shares with me the story behind the company and the road to Series C funding from the SoftBank Vision Fund in May 2021, which catapulted the company to "unicorn" status. I also learn more about the tech that makes it all possible and why Jellysmack is a strategic partner across every aspect of the creator's journey and fully invests in a creator's long-term success.

2040: SpotGamma and the Tech Behind Options Software and Market Analysis Jul 16, 2022

Brent Kochuba is the Founder of SpotGamma, a financial insights company, which applies its proprietary methodology toward modeling index and equity options and then provides unique content to its subscribers. SpotGamma has thousands of members and has been featured in publications such as The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg Markets. At SpotGamma, Brent oversees all of the product development and creative content.

Prior to SpotGamma, Brent was most recently a portfolio manager with Seven North Capital Management where he focused on creating options-based investment strategies. Prior to that, he spent time as a derivatives broker at Wolverine Execution, Credit Suisse and Bank of America. Brent now lives with his wife and children in Easton, Connecticut. Brent holds a B.S. in Emerging Technologies from the University of Connecticut.

Brent joins me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss why tech, stock, and options analysis work so well together. We also attempt to demystify the options market and empower investors at all levels.

2039: How Meliá Hotels International is Driving Digital Transformation with Dynatrace Jul 15, 2022

Meliá Hotels International anticipated an industry shift, with demand for travel hitting record levels following the pandemic. To accommodate this demand and deliver frictionless guest experiences, meeting guests on the mobile and online platforms on which they interact, Meliá Hotels accelerated its digital transformation by migrating its critical applications to the cloud.

A cloud-native environment allowed Meliá the agility to release better digital functionality faster, enabling its guests to access more of its services via mobile and web platforms. I wanted to learn more about the importance of choosing the right support partner and how they leverage the Dynatrace platform's broad and deep observability and advanced AIOps capabilities to detect any anomalies in Meliá's infrastructure before they create issues for customer experiences.

Christian Palomino joins me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss their digital transformation journey and how choosing the right partner enabled Meliá to ensure its digital services deliver the same quality experience as in-person interactions with hotel staff.

2038: Zebra Technologies and the Flurry of SaaS Acquisitions Jul 14, 2022

Can a Zebra change its stripes? Yes, if the rapid set of software acquisitions in the past few years by Zebra Technologies are anything to go by. It has catapulted Zebra firmly into the world of SaaS and injected some new ‘magic’ into their ubiquitous hardware portfolio, says David Lancefield, software solutions director at Zebra, who joined via the acquisition of AI-powered workforce management and planning company, Reflexis. Zebra’s recent flurry of acquisitions include Adaptive Voice (machine vision software), Profitect (prescriptive analytics for retail), Reflexis (AI-powered workforce management and planning) and antuit.ai (AI demand forecast and inventory optimisation) – all aimed at complementing and enhancing their current software and hardware for frontline workers in retail, warehouse, manufacturing, and logistics, to name a few.

With brands like Dixons Carphone UK, McDonald's UK and Coop Switzerland under their belt, Zebra helps retailers improve their inventory visibility, optimise costs to streamline shipment completion times, identify fraud, and manage workers and tasks in real-time. With the pandemic in the UK feeling more behind us and labour shortages and supply chain pressures in front,

David Lancefield, software solutions director at Zebra, discusses why we’re seeing the rise of vertical SaaS for specific industries like retail and logistics. We also explore how SaaS changes workplaces into ecosystems where people, inventory, hardware and software are connected.

2037: Polygon and Opera Discuss Layer 2 Integration in Crypto Browser Jul 13, 2022

Opera, the company behind the popular multi-platform web browser, has fully integrated the Polygon Network into its lauded Crypto Browser Project.

The integration will unlock unfiltered access to Polygon's vast array of more than 7,000 decentralized apps (dapps), including popular gaming dapps such as Decentraland, Sandbox, Aavegotchi, My Crypto Heroes and Atlantis World, and Decentral Games, among many others.

Critically, the direct integration bypasses the need for users to transfer assets from Ethereum to Polygon — increasing the environmental benefits of using Polygon’s solution. Bridge contracts alone account for about 70% of Polygon PoS gas usage. By circumventing the need to bridge assets, Opera users can dramatically reduce their carbon footprint.

Susie Batt, Crypto Ecosystem lead at Opera, and Brian Trunzo, Metaverse Lead at Polygon Studios, join me in a discussion about accessing Web3 and crypto functionality technologies to create a trusted and unique way for everyday users to access the future web.

I learn more about the future for both Opera and Polygon in the growing Web3 industry and how these two companies are working together.

2036: Tufin - Factors to Consider Before Relying on Cloud Native Solutions Jul 12, 2022

It goes without saying that security has not developed at an equal rate to software innovations in the last few decades. This has led to Cloud-Native organically evolving security to be coherent with how software is made today. In addition, creating disposable layers of protection on certain scales of attack has prevented security bottlenecking and allowed eager users to implement cloud-native.

Nevertheless, questions are being posed as to the consequences of relying on such solutions and whether they are reliable or adequate to deal with the risks in the current landscape. Thorsten Geissel from Tufin joins me on Tech Talks Daily in a discussion about Traditional vs Cloud Native applications and the biggest risks of relying on native cloud security solutions.

We also discuss whether cloud native tools are strong enough and how collaboration can be maintained and amplified to break free from silos.

2035: Transforming ideas into NFTs With NFT Requests Marketplace Jul 11, 2022

Creaticles is the first custom NFT request platform connecting businesses and individuals with creators ready to fulfill any occasion of custom NFTs. It enables users to engage in various contest modes to ensure your NFT request, whether a meme, logo, game, or web asset, is fulfilled to your expectations at a price you can afford.

The platform allows anyone to source custom NFTs through ‘Creaticles contests’, using a Request for Proposal (RFP) model. Users submit an NFT idea request to the platform’s roster of verified artists, who are remunerated for their work in ETH and other cryptocurrencies. Creaticles was also selected as one of eight of the most promising projects in CoinList’s Seed batch for Fall 2021, out of a field of over 500 crypto projects, and recently announced a partnership with Fantom. Jonathan Chen joins me on Tech Talks Daily to share the story behind the company.

2034: The Tech Unifying Search, Feed, Ads, and Promotions for Marketplaces Jul 10, 2022

Andrew Yates is the co-founder and CEO of Promoted.ai, a tech startup that helps marketplaces maximize conversions through optimizing for better search results as well as real-time personalization for new and anonymous users. Promoted.ai was part of the Y Combinator 2021 batch.

Before starting Promoted.ai, Andrew worked at Pinterest and Facebook, where he led ads ranking, auction, and marketplace engineering and research teams. In today's episode Andrew shares how Promoted.ai plans to better match every buyer with a seller across all marketplaces on web or mobile. We also explore how ad engineering works behind the scenes and tips ad engineers can use to design great ad marketplaces.

Finally, Andrew shares his experiences of getting Promoted.ai into Y Combinator and what the experience has been like.

About Promoted

Promoted is the only company to unify search, feed, ads, and promotions for top marketplaces like Outschool, Hipcamp, Teachers Pay Teachers, Snackpass, and other e-commerce unicorns. Promoted works by measuring everything in the marketplace using its real-time streaming data infrastructure. Then, Promoted maximizes conversions in search and feed through machine learning. Backed by Y Combinator, the company was founded by former ad engineers from Pinterest, Facebook, and Google.

2033: The CEO Empowering Tech Teams to Work from Anywhere Jul 09, 2022

Rick Hammell, CEO, and founder at global HR Tech Firm Atlas, joins me on Tech Talks Daily. Rick is the author of “Getting Sh*t Done!: The Millennial CEO,” so his productivity and exponential growth of his company should come as no surprise.

We discuss the recent rebranding from elements Global Services and how they are helping to define the “work from anywhere” space. In today's conversation, we cover various topics from the labor shortage to tech employee retention and paying different salaries depending on where you live, for the same job. But at the heart of everything, we talk about the opportunities being unlocked by emerging technologies in the workplace.

2032: PiggyVest Builds Trust With Nigeria's Millenials Jul 08, 2022

Odun Eweniyi (COO & Co-Founder at PiggyVest) joins me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss how she's revolutionizing the savings & investments culture amongst young Nigerians. She is also a Forbes Africa 30 under 30 Technology Pioneer awardee.

Based in Nigeria, PiggyVest is West Africa's first digital savings and micro-investment app with a focus on restoring trust and democratising financial services for Gen Zs & millennials. They've built a strong customer base of over 3.5 million users since launching in 2016 and in 2021 alone, the platform paid out over $582 million to its users. PiggyVest's growth is also especially impressive when you consider its last fundraise was a $1.1mn seed round in 2018.

Why do savings & investments in Nigeria need change? There are very few countries in the world where savings are more of a necessity than Nigeria. Due to the severe lack of credit options, Nigerians are well-accustomed to paying for goods and services upfront, forcing them to rely heavily on their savings. However, with excessive bank charges and poor interest rates further eroded by high inflation, they are heavily disincentivized to save with traditional financial institutions, which often leave them with less money than their original deposits.

Equally, the barriers to boosting wealth creation through investments are just as daunting. The average entry point to invest with formal financial institutions stands at 10,000 Naira, which is 8% of the average Nigerian's annual income. We discuss how technology is restoring trust and democratizing financial services for Gen Zs & millennials in Nigeria. I also learn more about how technology and innovation is sweeping across Africa.

2031: Can Tech Resolve Nuisance Calls, Texts and Intrusive Notifications? Jul 07, 2022

We're beginning to see businesses return to normality – but it appears part of getting back to normal is ramping up the volume of irritating customer communications advises Andrew Stevens, Principal, Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance, Quadient.

"The number of complaints accelerated towards the end of 2020, but now we're in a worse position than before the pandemic. The sheer volume of spam calls and texts will take a toll on worried customers, who are already grappling with the energy crisis and soaring costs of living. So businesses need to pull the handbrake on annoying customer calls and texts, or they could hit record levels of complaints this year, which would hit revenues when customers decide to leave." With the cost-of-living crisis at the top of everyone's minds, consumers are more worried than ever about their finances. Banks must provide helpful and personalized communication to demonstrate they are on the customers' side. By bombarding customers with irrelevant content, banks are only exacerbating what is already a stressful time.

Instead, they don't need to be sent innumerable offers or reminders, instead functions like spending tracking tools and searchable statements. Communications that highlight these valuable functions and how to use them, or give other ways to reduce costs, will be much more welcome. These are just a few topics we explore in today's episode of Tech Talks Daily.

2030: The Future of Work - Bridging the Digital Experience Divide Jul 06, 2022

Lakeside Software is a leader in digital experience monitoring and a Citrix partner. The company recently released a report, "The Future of Digital Workplaces Bridging the critical 2021 digital experience divide between CEOs, IT leaders, and employees."

I invited Peter Collins from Lakeside and Allen Furmanski from Citrix onto the podcast to discuss insights from the report and talk about how they are working together to solve some of the biggest business challenges around digital experiences. We also discuss how this partnership enables them to provide the visibility IT teams need to design and support productive digital workplaces.

About Peter Peter Collins is a Senior Solution Architect with Lakeside Software, focusing on Digital Employee Experience. At Lakeside DEX is at the heart of what we do. SysTrack monitors 10,000 individual data points every 15 seconds, providing you with the richest insights into your employee experience. Peter has had the opportunity to work with some of the largest organizations, providing how to save money and make employees happier.

About Allen Allen Furmanski is a Principal Product Marketing Manager with Citrix focusing on virtual app and desktop offerings and hybrid cloud solutions. He is a passionate IT professional, Citrix evangelist, creative problem-solver, and public speaker. In his personal time, Allen enjoys traveling, outdoor activities, digital photography, and trying new cuisines.

2029: The Story Behind the Technology Bringing Creative Visions to Life Jul 05, 2022

Dan Goman is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Ateliere, a tech company that solves many of the production and distribution challenges of legacy technology. It does this through its cloud-native digital media supply chain and distribution platforms.

Its solutions help companies focus their time, energy, and resources toward delivering the best audience experience possible. It works with leading production and streaming companies and aims to have the leading and only solution available on the market for the expected $932 billion streaming industry by 2028.

Born in Western Romania during the 1970s, Dan and his family lived under an oppressive communist regime, where his father was given a choice: conform or shut up. He did neither, so his parents were fired from their jobs. The family of eight kids struggled as they applied for political asylum to move to the U.S.— but once this was granted, they never looked back

Dan was an ambitious child and wanted to succeed in his new, unknown surroundings — he learned English from watching television shows and taught himself programming on an old IBM computer. He went on to graduate from the University of Maryland and began a career in software development.

This led to him start-up his own company, Ateliere (formerly named OWNZONES), in 2010. As streaming services started rising in popularity, Dan knew this was a valuable market, as these streaming platforms would need support with the consolidation of production and content

We discuss how he has become a successful start-up developer as an immigrant from a troubling background and the lessons he's learned that have facilitated Ateliere's significant success. We also explore how Ateliere is fuelling an evolution by helping streaming giants consolidate their media content and helping other platforms come together with merging businesses.

I also learn why the next generation of filmmakers and directors need to think cloud-first – upskilling the entertainment industry to incorporate new technology.

2028: Stephen Goldberg, HarperDB Founder and CEO Shares His Startup Story Jul 04, 2022

After learning how HarperDB's technology is transforming their business, and their technology is changing other companies in unique and innovative ways. I felt compelled to find out more. So I invited their CEO Stephen Goldberg onto the podcast to find out more and ask his to share his startup story.

Stephen has worked as a CTO and CEO of startups, held several roles at larger organizations like Red Hat, and led digital transformation projects at a number of Fortune 500 companies across many verticals. He is an established thought leader in the IoT space, having been published on sites like Tech Target, and quoted in a number of articles and publications like Forbes and ZDNet. He has been a speaker at IoT World, SAP Sapphire, and Salesforce.com’s Dreamforce. Stephen holds 2 patents with Kyle and Zach.

2027: Which Retailers Will Win as Inflation Bites? Don't Be Fooled. It's a Tech Race. Jul 03, 2022

Tom Summerfield, Retail Director at Peak joins me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss how he has helped retailers including B&M, Nike, and ASOS to stay ahead of the curve. We discuss why retail survival in the current climate is likely to boil down to the tech they have at their disposal. we also explore the impact of inflation on retailers and how best to manage this against shrinking costs.

In the coming months, Primark won't be the only retailer fighting to be competitive as inflation squeezes margins. For the first time, we're going to see a divide opening up between the haves and the have nots; those with the tech in place to adequately manage yet another catastrophe in a sector already hit hard by supply chain distribution and fluctuating demand.

However, the battle ground won't just be operational efficiency (as big as it is), stock availability and convenience will be increasingly crucial. Shopper behaviours have changed post-pandemic, and are likely to again as inflation bites and consumers downgrade their choices. Demand forecasting is a struggle for many right now, and this could push them to breaking point. If retailers don't have the right stock on their shelves at the right time, they'll see once loyal customers voting with their feet. Artificial Intelligence is being leveraged across the value chain to tackle pain points that include demand forecasting, stock optimisation, allocation and distribution resource planning which are increasingly important in a high inflationary environment.

2026: Protecting Against Active Directory Against Attacks Jul 02, 2022

Organizations that use Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktop solutions must secure both their on-premises and cloud environments. Citrix virtual solutions provide flexibility for the workforce but can remain a prime target for attackers since infecting the environment extends their reach greatly.

Attackers have demonstrated that they can evade security controls to compromise an internal system, using it as a beachhead to infiltrate the network and target critical or sensitive data and infrastructures, such as Active Directory and Citrix VDI. Organizations must look to new solutions to enhance their security and prevent attackers from remaining undetected within the network.

Joesph Salazar from Attivo Networks, the award-winning leader in deception for cybersecurity threat detection, and Rajkumar Repswal from Citrix to discuss how together organizations can protect against active directory attacks with Attivo's Citrix Ready® solution. We discuss how organizations can protect Citrix VDI endpoints against attackers successfully querying Active Directory and AD resources like privileged users, computer groups, and service accounts.

2025: Cisco Talos Intelligence Group - Cybersecurity in the Metaverse and Web3 Jul 01, 2022

I chat with the inspirational Jaeson Schultz, a technical leader for Cisco Talos Security Intelligence & Research Group. Jaeson has over 20 years’ experience in Information Security and his experience ranges from hardware hacking, to log analysis and security policy recommendations, to thwarting misuse of Internet application layer protocols like DNS, HTTP, and SMTP.

We discuss securing Web3 and what cybersecurity in the metaverse might look like. I also learn more about Cisco's how Talos Group is dedicated to advancing the state-of-the-art of threat defense and enhancing the value of Cisco's security products.

2024: Exploring the Future of Work and the Paperless Office With PandaDoc Jun 30, 2022

As work environments undergo rapid transformation and distributed and hybrid workforces become the norm, the need for an efficient, smooth digital document creation and management process becomes paramount. Documents remain the essential glue of how business gets done, but many professionals are still stuck in manual legacy processes or facing challenges in their digital document creation.

In today's episode, I explore the benefits of document automation and digitization of workflows with Nate Gilmore, CMO, PandaDoc. I also learn more about how this all-in-one document workflow automation platform helps fast scaling teams accelerate the ability to create, manage, and sign digital documents, including proposals, quotes, contracts, and more. On average, their customers achieve a 28% increase in close rate, an 18% increase in the average sales price, and a 65% decrease in the document creation time.

We discuss the age-old story of how David is taking on Goliath in the world of SaaS dynamic documents and how close we are to the dream of a paperless office.

About Nate

With over 20 years of executive experience, Nate helps high-growth SaaS startups supercharge their sales, develop effective marketing programs, and execute customer success plans that move the needle. As CMO for PandaDoc, Nate oversees the marketing team using his broad-based knowledge and extensive experience in business development to ensure that the strategic direction is implemented.

With a passion for leadership and mentorship, Nate is a seasoned tech operator, investor, and advisor and has worked with hundreds of smaller startups to help them reach their revenue goals.

2023: How Tech is Reshaping and Improving Field Service Industries Jun 29, 2022

Amit Jain from ServiceMax joins me in a conversation about how digital transformation strategies and SaaS are reshaping and improving field service industries such as manufacturing, energy, healthcare, etc. I learn more about Asset Data Gravity and how AI influences field service and product design.

About ServiceMax

ServiceMax's mission is to help customers keep the world running with asset-centric field service management software. ServiceMax's mobile apps and cloud-based software provide a complete view of assets to field service teams. By optimizing field service operations, customers across all industries can better manage the complexities of service, support faster growth, and run more profitable, outcome-centric businesses.

2022: How Citrix and Stratodesk Are Delivering Endpoint Experiences Beyond the Infrastructure Jun 28, 2022

Mikhael Lindholm from Stratodesk and Nitin Sharma from Citrix discuss how to provide an endpoint experience beyond the infrastructure. We talk about the advantages of using Citrix workspace in a Linux environment.

About Mikael

Mikael is an EUC, VDI, and virtualization industry veteran that has a long story with different jobs within industry-leading companies. He started as a Citrix Instructor in the early 2000. Mikael has spent his professional life in the world of virtualization and cloud and today saves the world at Stratodesk Software one endpoint at a time. In his free time, he spends time with his family, enjoying the Swiss Alps, mostly by foot and occasionally with his motorbike.

About Stratodesk

Stratodesk is the leading global innovator in EUC management and OS software. Stratodesk partners with Citrix to bring a greater level of efficiency, convenience, and security to Citrix VDI endpoints and organizations. Stratodesk NoTouch, our management, and OS software for VDI endpoints, is ready to connect to Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops in a matter of minutes. With the Citrix Ready Workspace Hub, Stratodesk can offer an all-in-one solution for your Citrix environment and combines PC repurposing for existing hardware.

Stratodesk's cutting-edge, Linux-based solution, NoTouch OS, is impervious to common security threats running on x86 and Raspberry Pi endpoints. Stratodesk offers the perfect user experience for administrators and end-users via NoTouch Center – the most advanced and user-friendly endpoint management software.

NoTouch Center is a browser-based solution, packed with enterprise-grade features and can be run on-premise or in the cloud, enabling Remote Workforce to access and manage virtual apps and cloud workspaces from anywhere, on any device."

About Nitin Sharma Nitin Sharma is a leader in product and solutions marketing strategy at Citrix. He is responsible for designing and executing global companywide go-to-market strategies for digital workspace solutions. With a passion for solving business problems with technology solutions, he has held various solutions sales and marketing roles—targeting audiences at all levels: executive, line of business, and IT.

2021: Why a Digital Transformation is Necessary for SMBs to Remain Competitive Jun 27, 2022

Designed to bring the cloud to the cloudless, Thryv is an end-to-end client experience platform that has already helped nearly 50,000 small businesses across the country take their businesses to the cloud.

Joe Walsh, CEO, Thryv joins me in a discussion about why a digital transformation is necessary for SMBs to remain competitive against their enterprise-level competition, as well as discuss the technology and tools available to help them do so. Joe shares the different aspects SMBs are presently being impacted by, the customer experience challenges in the changing climate and how the supply chain is changing business priorities for SMBs

We also dive into the findings of the Thryv, Payments Dive 2022 Consumer Payments Survey, which takes a look at how payment strategies have changed over the past few months, what customers seek from vendors, and how they’ll respond if a business doesn’t offer their preferred payment method and more.

2020: IT Department Silos - Recognizing the Impact of Community Jun 26, 2022

IT departments are often very siloed, with 75% of DevOps initiatives failing due to difficulties working across teams. Creating a community can break down these silos. Additionally, having a community forum can give IT departments support. When IT pros need support, they want it at all hours and prefer self-service that can come from online community forums.

During the pandemic, every business was forced to go remote almost overnight and now explore the world of hybrid work. But behind all of this is the need for more tech. But where do you get that equipment at scale and how do you manage that at scale, improving the experience while keeping support calls low? David Sholkovitz from StarTech.com, joins me on Tech Talk Daily to explore this topic with me.

2019: SubQuery - Transform and Query the World’s Data For Web3 Jun 25, 2022

James Bayly is the Head of Business Development at SubQuery, a data as a service platform that speeds up querying and extracting blockchain data so anyone can take the data off-chain and build Web3 applications of the future. Since its launch in 2021, SubQuery has raised $10.8M, and the platform is serving millions of Polkadot data queries daily.

James is also the Head of Business Development at OnFinality, a SaaS platform that supports blockchain teams worldwide by providing critical infrastructure so they can focus on building the next dApp. OnFinality’s API service receives 700M+ daily API requests from blockchain developers.

James joins me on Tech Talks Daily in a conversation about building decentralized networks with huge communities, sourcing data for cross-chain application development and building core infrastructure for the blockchain industry.

2018: Kashable The Tech Offering Financial Wellness for Employees Jun 24, 2022

Kashable uses innovative technology to improve the financial well-being of working America with a commitment to both reliability and affordability. Ultimatley, it's a socially responsible financing solution for employees offered as an employer-sponsored voluntary benefit. I wanted to learn more about how it deploys innovative technology to offer immediate access to low-cost credit.

Rishi Kumar, Founder of Kashable joins me on Tech Talks Daily to share his story. Rishi is also an engineer, an innovator, and a serial entrepreneur, who has built his career creating value at the nexus of technology and finance. As an MIT computer scientist and former derivatives trader on Wall Street, Rishi combined his engineering techniques in analyzing big data with cutting-edge financing and underwriting to create a cloud based solution that makes instant access to affordable on-demand credit available to every American worker.

2017: Candu - The Rise (and History) of No Code Jun 23, 2022

I recently discovered Candu, a product-led experience builder that helps any team improve their existing SaaS product without code. Ultimatley, anyone can strategically embed UI components to create personalized, in-product content experiences that engage users throughout the customer lifecycle.

The company has also raised $5 million in seed funding, and I wanted to learn more about the story behind all this. Jonathan Anderson, co-founder, and CEO of Candu, joins me on Tech Talks Daily to reveal all. We also discuss the pros and cons of using no-code for business software development and the power of personalized user interfaces in your product adoption journey.

2016: How Businesses Can Protect Against Unpredictability Jun 22, 2022

The recent news surrounding the Log4j vulnerability exposes the many cracks that exist within information security tools. Unfortunately, most technologies lack the visibility to detect critical vulnerabilities creating massive enterprise-wide challenges. When I learned that Lakeside software technology is so unique that it identifies dormant vulnerabilities before they become a massive threat to organizations' information security, I felt compelled to find out more.

Ryan Purvis, Head of Solutions, Lakeside Software, joins me on Tech Talks Daily. Ryan is focused on helping Lakeside customers solve complex problems and transform their businesses through the strategic application of our technology. In his 20+ year career, Ryan has led cross-functional teams in multiple roles, ranging from Chief Information Officer for HiLo Maritime Risk Management to Director for Cyber Defence at UBS and Engineering Lead for JP Morgan Chase. Ryan divides his time between the UK and South Africa.

We discuss why many leading information security tools lack the visibility to detect critical vulnerabilities and the severe impact that this can have on enterprise organizations. We also talk about the importance of speed as a critical factor in remediation.

2015: The Increasing Problem of E-Waste and Hardware Hacking Jun 21, 2022

The fastest-growing part of the world's waste stream is e-waste (unwanted or unusable consumer electronics). This is because technology continues to improve or evolve faster and faster, so electronics become outdated more quickly.

Electronic items should not be thrown in the trash (or in landfills) because they contain toxins such as lead, mercury, and cadmium that can leach into the soil and water supplies. For these reasons alone, all electronics should be responsibly recycled. But they seldom are. A company called ERI specializes in the environmentally safe and socially responsible dismantling of electronic waste and ensures 100% data destruction and compliance.

John Shegerian is the co-founder and Chairman/CEO of ERI. He is also the author of a book about hardware hacking called the Insecurity of Everything, which went to #1 on Amazon in the cybersecurity category. I invited him on Tech Talks Daily to discuss the scale of the problem and how e-waste plays a pivotal role in the circular economy.

We discuss e-waste and data protection and the trends he believes will continue. I also learn more about the most significant factor driving the need for efficient data destruction and how serious a problem hardware hacking is. John also shares real-world examples of devices that store personal data that people don't even think about.

2014: Sidetrade Reveals B2B Global Payment Trends from Unique Data Lake Jun 20, 2022

Sidetrade recently revealed B2B global payment trends from its unique Data Lake – industry-first predictive payment intelligence map of 20.7 million companies worldwide

Sidetrade CTO Mark Sheldon joins me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss the recent launch of Sidetrade’s AI-powered Data Lake which I an industry first for finance leaders. It is the most unique data lake of B2B payment behaviours on the market and combines true AI with real-time collaborative intelligence. With this publicly available AI-powered data lake, finance teams can become more strategic and forward-looking and can use predictive analytics to benchmark and make more strategic business decisions vs. leveraging traditional, tactical/reactive data. We discuss how technology enables finance teams to transform into futurist teams and the power of AI over RPA in the finance function. Mark also reveals the biggest myths about building and maintaining a huge data lake. Finally, I learn more about how Sidetrade has also been featured as a leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Integrated Invoice-to-Cash applications!

2013: Communications Platform as a Service and Customer Experience Jun 19, 2022

Jay Patel, VP Business Development, GM imi Mobile (Cisco acquisition) - the state and future of Communications Platform as a Service and Customer Experience; running a startup to being part of Cisco post-acquisition

Jay Patel is the VP & GM of Cisco's Webex CPaaS initiative and joined Cisco when the company he ran was acquired for $730m in 2021. He helped start IMImobile PLC and as CEO led it to a successful IPO in 2014 and then to its exit to Cisco. Today he is working on combining the IMI platforms with relevant technologies from Webex to create solutions that help our clients deliver the world’s best customer experiences. We sat down at Cisco Live and explored the Communications Platforms as a Service landscape. I learn more about how cloud-based messaging APIs help Customers use the technology to interact with clients over voice, SMS, email, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Twitter, Apple Business Chat, WeChat and Google RCS. Jay also shares a few tips for founders listening to our conversation and what excites him about the future.

2012: Cisco Live - The Tech Fueling Innovation at McLaren Racing Jun 18, 2022

While at Cisco Live, I learned how American Football is being transformed by technology with a tour of the Allegiant Stadium, the home of the Las Vegas Raiders. But, in today's episode, I wanted to turn my attention to the role of technology in Formula 1

McLaren Racing recently announced a multi-year partnership extension and expansion with Cisco as an Official Technology Partner of the McLaren Formula 1 Team from 2022. But I wanted to learn more about how Cisco's technology will help with enterprise networking, Wi-Fi, digital signage, collaboration, and more.

At Cisco Live, I sat down with Edward Green, Head of Commercial Technology, McLaren, to explore how technology has transformed F1 and why marginal gains mean everything. I also learn more about how Cisco and Webex are fueling innovation at McLaren.

We discuss the importance of finding the perfect tech partner for a team like McClaren and how the relationship with Cisco enables both parties to deliver great things together. We also talk about the growth of esports and how this is helping the McClaren team. We even heard a few anecdotes about Lando Norris too.

2011: Cisco Live: What's Wrong With Hybrid Work and How to Fix It Jun 17, 2022

98% of the meetings moving forward will have at least one participant that's not in the same physical space as everyone else. That means every meeting will have someone not in the same location, and if these people feel left out, we have regressed. This is just one of the many reasons Jeetu Patel, EVP and General Manager, Security & Collaboration at Cisco, believes hybrid work is broken.

Meetings are impacted by the audio and video quality. But it's networking and connectivity that users reply on the most. Employees connecting on insecure networks and unmanaged devices into unsanctioned apps in many businesses are also causing cybersecurity concerns. If these words resonate, it's because we all know there are problems with hybrid working, but Cisco is on a mission to solve them.

Jeetu shares the big announcements made at Cisco Live to resolve many problems with hybrid working. We also discuss the Cisco security cloud vision.

2010: Cisco Live: The Digital Transformation of Las Vegas Jun 17, 2022

Cisco Live ignites creativity, delivers practical know-how, and accelerates the connections that fuel the digital future. But what does that mean in the real world? Today I explore the technology behind Las Vegas and help everyone see the entertainment capital in a different light.

Living on the edge may conjure up images of the City of Las Vegas, a city exploding with growth and more than 40 million visitors per year. And with this many residents and visitors, Michael Sherwood, CIO, is living on the edge of technology with IoT and edge computing solutions by Cisco.

"With Cisco's advanced cloud applications for connected and automated vehicle technology, the City of Las Vegas has not only advanced digital initiatives but has also delivered real traffic benefits for residents and visitors in the areas of traffic safety and pedestrian protection. The partnership with Cisco has also allowed the City of Las Vegas to expand our data sharing strategy rapidly and securely, which directly supports our region's integrated traffic management and transportation planning."

2009: Cisco Live - 3D Immersive Collaboration With Webex Hologram Jun 16, 2022

Tackling meeting fatigue is a big topic at Cisco Live on the show floor. But Webex Hologram is on a mission to solve this problem with 3D immersive collaboration. The real-time meeting solution takes advantage of Augmented Reality headsets combining meeting functionality with immersive 3D. So I invited Edel Joyce on the podcast to give me an overview of what it is and the problems it solves.

Edel Joyce is an experienced high performing senior manager with 20 years of industry experience. She has held pivotal roles across Engineering Design, Operations, Customer Experience, Governance, and Strategy in the Technology sector. Most recently, she is leading the productization of Webex Hologram, the industry's first holographic collaboration system, taking it from its innovative roots to a full mainstream product.

2008: Cisco Live - Reimagining the Future of Education to Benefit Every Student and Reduce the Digital Divide. Jun 15, 2022

The St. Vrain Valley School District (SVVSD), is a socioeconomically and geographically diverse area based in Longmont, Colorado. SVVSD is home to 60 schools, 33,000 students and spans 411 miles. A St. Vrain’s core value is that each student should have equal access to the classes and learning tools they need to succeed. To bridge this gap, SVVSD Leadership soon recognized that Cisco collaboration tools could help SVVSD for staff, educators, and students close the digital divide.

Michelle Bourgeois, CTO, St. Vrain Valley School District, joins me on Tech Talks Daily to share her journey in tech and the importance of finding the right tech partner to bring your vision to life. In addition, we discuss the massive culture shift that impacted staff and students and how they got everyone on board to embrace new ways of teaching and learning.

We also discuss reimagining the future of education to benefit every student and reduce the digital divide.

2007: BAE Systems is Making Sense of Quantum Sensing Jun 14, 2022

Quantum computing is still a while away from widespread commercial application, but another technology could become available much sooner – quantum sensing. Quantum sensors can measure different physical properties, including temperature, magnetic field, and rotation, with extreme sensitivity. These sensitives give the technology distinct advantages for applications including communication, infrastructure monitoring, navigation, and radar.

Henry White, Lead Technologist in Sensing at BAE Systems, joins me in a conversation on 'Making Sense of Quantum Sensing'? We discuss what the technology is in more detail, as well as the current and potential real-world applications of quantum sensing, such as threat detection in the military or at airports.

2006: Coiled | Python for Data Science on the Cloud with Dask Jun 13, 2022

Matthew Rocklin, the creator of Dask, the popular Python native distributed computing library. Matthew is also a founder and CEO of Coiled, which helps teams run Dask in the cloud. The past decade has seen a boom in several open source tools built specifically for data scientists. However, most of these projects struggle to gain wide adoption. Matthew is one of the few leaders in the developer tools space who knows how to build things that data scientists love. Matthew believes that for a data science tool to be successful, it must be human-centric. Data science is a diverse field. It should be easy for any data scientist to pick up a tool and quickly adapt it to their unique use case. Coiled is built on the success of Dask and is being used by thousands of data scientists and engineers in organizations like NASA, Capital One, Anthem Health, and the USAF to combat climate change, perform a credit risk analysis, and manage supply chains.

Matthew shares his entrepreneurial path and offers tips on building a human-centric developer tool that thousands of developers will love. We dare to explore the future of distributed computing.

2005: Merging Data Science With the Art of Food With Jack Li, CEO of Datassential Jun 12, 2022

Jack Li is the CEO and founder of Datassential. He took a 2-man company in 2001 and created a global food and beverage digital research powerhouse that helps brands like Target Foods, Jack in the Box, and General Mills innovate with data. This is the company that predicted the rise of avocado toast and is helping restaurants and food service providers match new menu items with consumer preferences. Specifically, they focus on making food data more usable for these brands through digital tools. For example, one of their tools allows you to enter in a new menu item you’re considering and see data on how likely consumers are to enjoy it, or how to alter it to improve its appeal. Jack joins me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss how he grew the company, how Datassential predicts food trends, and the practice of merging data science with the art of food. We talk about the tech behind food trend insights, the different models Datassential uses to judge the performance of certain dishes, and how these tools benefit its customers.

We also discuss how technologies such as databases and algorithms are helping push restaurants, food service providers, and food brands into the next era and create targeted appeals to customers.

2004: Developing and Integrating ML functionality Into Your Application Jun 11, 2022

I recently discovered a company called Nykcel that develops an ML platform that allows anyone to develop and integrate ML functionality into their application quickly. So I invited Oscar Beijbom onto the podcast to learn more. He shares his story and some incredibly cool use cases that should give everyone listening to a little food for thought on the value this tech can offer.

Oscar is the co-founder and ML lead at Nyckel. He has 20 years of experience shipping ML products for a wide range of products including self-driving cars, airbag bicycle helmets, coral reef monitoring, and microscopy. His academic work on deep learning has been cited over 5000 times and includes topics on object detection, domain transfer learning, and fine-grained visual categorization.

We discuss how machine learning differs from artificial intelligence and how entrepreneurs can use machine learning to accelerate the growth of their companies. He also shares tips on how developers can improve the accuracy of their machine learning model.

2003: Ronny Leber On Creating Events That Educate and Entertain Jun 10, 2022

Many teams have been thrust into collaborating using video tools as hybrid working becomes the norm. But in a world of Zoom fatigue, how can you present yourself on video, and radiate energy, to garner the right attention? How can you create or host memorable live, virtual, or hybrid events? And what is the secret to building an emotional connection with your audience? Ronny Leber joins me on Tech Talks Daily to share his insights and expertise.

Ronny Leber is a world-renowned keynote speaker, TV host, stadium host, and legacy coach who has entertained millions of people, live, and worldwide at major sporting events, corporate events, and seminars. He loves to motivate his listeners, fill them with momentum, and provide magic moments that enhance team-building skills and peak performance.

Ronny specializes in working with high-level individuals to create their legacy and multiply their impact by helping them build an emotional bridge to their audience and create raving fans. "The reason why I do, what I do is simple: I love to entertain and inspire people in a positive way. I love to create “Magic Moments” to build a bridge between the audience and the protagonists and to create an emotional bond.

Ronnie shares tips on performance preparation when thousands of eyes are all on you and how to get the most out of tech-based tools.

2002: Commvault and Metallic - Protecting the Multi Cloud World Jun 10, 2022

Whether supporting new remote workforces, overhauling legacy systems and applications, or combatting ransomware and other cyberattacks, IT organizations face new and evolving challenges to their business and their data. Corporate data has never been more valuable or vulnerable, and data security and management is a C-level business problem, not just an IT problem.

Commvault (NASDAQ: CVLT) is on a mission to liberate business and IT professionals to do amazing things with their data by ensuring the fundamental integrity of their business. For 25 years, more than 100,000 organizations have relied on Commvault, and today, Metallic is accelerating customer adoption to modernize their environments as they look to SaaS for the future.

Today's guest is David Ngo, who has been with Commvault for 24 years--his whole career. He shares his career trajectory and how he has seen the company change, such as launching a SaaS venture, Metallic, of which he is now CTO).

We discuss how Metallic’s conversations with customers are expanding—from IT operations and infrastructure to matters of security—forcing IT and Security teams to converge on their strategies.I also learn more about how Fiscal Year 2022 was the best in Commvault's history. The growth was driven by large deals and continued traction of SaaS offerings-–including Metallic.

The past six quarters since Metallic has been available globally were a success, and this quarter, we crossed a milestone in ARR – reaching $50M.

2001: How to Boost Your Crypto Portfolio Through DeFi Jun 09, 2022

As crypto trading becomes increasingly prevalent, so too does the opportunity to maximize returns using various technology-driven tactics. One such tactic is the concept of yield farming, the process of using decentralized finance (DeFi) to maximize returns.

Brad Yasar is the CEO, and Co-Founder of EQIFI, a decentralized finance (DeFi) investment platform powered by a regulated bank. Brad joins me on Tech Talks Daily to share how he and his team have created the EQIFI Yield Aggregator, harnessing the power of DeFi to generate steady returns across a range of digital asset classes.

EQIFI's Yield Aggregator optimizes users' returns across multiple protocols by automatically identifying the most attractive yields based on risk tolerance levels and investment criteria. As a result, EQIFI's Yield aggregator has achieved 70% APY, trumping alternative DeFi platforms like Nexo, which generates 12% APY for its users. Brad demystifies the technology and potential profitability associated with yield farming and why crypto traders should consider utilizing yield farming tactics. Brad also discusses how to approach yield farming for those new to the concept.

2000: How No-Code Tech Democratizes Access to the Digital Transformation Jun 08, 2022

Trusted by over 15 million users worldwide, Jotform's forms and a suite of no-code tools are flexible enough for small businesses and robust enough for enterprises. Jotform helps organizations go from busywork to less work with forms that use conditional logic, accept payments, generate reports, automate workflows, and more. Jotform's products make it easy for any team to streamline its processes with 10,000 templates, hundreds of integrations, and almost 400 widgets.

Jotform's Steve Hartert joins me on the Tech Talks Daily Podcast to explore how business owners can take advantage of no-code/low-code tech to grow their businesses and customer base. As a SaaS, cloud software, and B2B enterprise products and services expert, Steve discusses how no-code and low-code tech is democratizing access to software and results that weren't possible for small- and medium-sized businesses before. Steve also shares how this type of tech can empower small business owners to embrace digital transformation and take their businesses to the next level.

1999: AttackIQ CEO Reveals How to Achieve an Assume Breach Mindset Jun 07, 2022

Brett Galloway, CEO of AttackIQ, joins me on The Tech Talks Daily Podcast to discuss how security leaders can build a comprehensive defense-in-depth strategy to confidently report to their boards, auditors, and leadership teams the strength of their security posture. I ask why CISOs keep investing in more and more security controls when 82% of enterprise breaches that existing controls should have stopped weren't. Finally, we discuss why buying more silver bullet tools to combat evolving threats doesn't solve the underlying problem: how to be indeed confident in your defenses against adversaries.

Brett expands on his belief that the only way to do so is by gaining data-driven visibility into what's working across your whole system, people, processes, and technologies by continuously validating them. Then, organizations can build a comprehensive defense-in-depth strategy to stop intruders from breaching their applications, networks, and clouds by automating adversarial emulation.

1998: TEKsystems - Insights From the State of Digital Transformation Report Jun 06, 2022

Ram Palaniappan, Chief Technology Officer, TEKsystems, joins me on the Tech Talks Daily Podcast to discuss its recent State of Digital Transformation report. The report found that leaders who strategically applied technology to enable business transformation thrived and further increased the gap between themselves and digital laggards.

We discuss highlights from the report such as why 2 out of 5 organizations note that digital transformation initiatives fail to deliver the identified outcomes. As leaders continue to invest in all aspects of digital transformation, we also talk about how their expected return-on-investment is more immediate, with leaders expecting ROI in one to three years, compared to the laggards at three to five years.

TEKsystems recognizes that each organization’s road to transformation is rarely a straight line and collectively works with partners to map out attainable wins to identify a path to long-term success in total business transformation.

9 out of 10 organizations indicated that the skills critical to their workforce are also areas where they experience the most significant gaps. We explore how overcoming these gaps, albeit challenging, requires the development of creative talent strategies where companies can acquire new talent, upskill and reskill existing talent, and cultivate a future-ready workforce.

1997: ID.Me Startup Story: From Army Ranger to Founder of an Identity Verification Unicorn Jun 05, 2022

Blake Hall is a former Army ranger who turned his vision of helping veterans into ID.me, the leading digital identity verification company. Blake has grown his company from 21 employees into a $1.5 billion entity. I invited him on Tech Talks Daily to share his tech startup story and learn more about the innovative technology changing how Americans identify themselves online by:

We discuss how they are eliminating identity fraud and the $56 billion consumers lost to it in 2020. We also discuss reducing bias and opening access to online services for Americans in underserved communities. Finally, Blake shares how he built ID.me into a unicorn from his initial VC pitch to passing the $1billion valuation mark and how his military background helped him navigate the business world.

1996: Standardising IoT Technology to Make Smart Cities Scalable and Connected. Jun 04, 2022

Wi‑SUN Alliance® is a global industry association devoted to seamless connectivity. They seek to promote certified standards that coordinate various wireless systems and standardize power levels, data rates, modulations, and frequency bands, among other variables. Through technology development, market building, and regulatory programs, Wi-SUN Alliance supports the worldwide development of Wireless Communications Networks for Utilities, Smart Cities, and IoT.

Phil Beecher, President and CEO of Wi-SUN Alliance, joins me on Tech Talks Daily to share his story and mission to accelerate the implementation of smart cities, smart utilities, smart grids and other large-scale outdoor Internet of Things (IoT) applications by enabling the global adoption of interoperable solutions based on open standards.

Since 1997, Phil has played a key role in developing communications standards, including Bluetooth, WiFi, and IEEE, and the specification of test plans for many Smart Utilities Network standards.

We discuss how IoT is transforming cities and the technology making it happen. We also talk about how smart networks enable other applications, such as smart traffic signals, public transit signs, parking spaces, and electric vehicle charging stations. Finally, we explore how smart cities benefit businesses and residents.

1995: F5 - How Hybrid Work is Driving a Shift to Identity-Centric Security Jun 03, 2022

When it comes to hybrid work, debates continue to rage about who should decide where employees work on any given day and how many days they should be in the office. But, the notion of a fully hybrid workforce has been accepted across those industries that can support it. However, the implementation details of a hybrid work model aren't as important as a result: there will be employees working from home and from the office every day of the week. Hybrid work is the new default. And this promises to have a profound impact on the future of access strategies.

F5 application services ensure that applications are secure and perform the way they should—in any environment and on any device. But in today's episode, Lori MacVittie from F5 joins me in a conversation about how hybrid work is driving a shift to identity-centric security.

Lori MacVittie is a Principal Technical Evangelist at the Office of the CTO at F5. She has extensive development and technical architecture experience in both high-tech and enterprise organizations. She also serves on the Board of Regents for the DevOps Institute and CloudNOW, and has been named one of the top influential women in DevOps. We discuss IP-based access and how traditional IP-based technologies rely primarily on a fixed set of network ranges and addresses, but why identity is the way and how the security challenges associated with hybrid work are accretive to those arising from the rapid pace of digitization.

We also talk about the importance of expanding our understanding of identity beyond people to the workloads, applications, and devices we increasingly rely on.

1994: Recruitment Tech - Securing Business-Critical Talent in Technology Jun 02, 2022

Giancarlo Hirsch from Phaidon International's Glocomms brand joins me in a conversation around securing business-critical talent in technology. We discuss the intricacies of recruiting in the tech space right now, including the most lucrative positions and insights from both the candidates and companies on what they are looking for.

We also talk about bringing humanity back into recruiting and why it's more than just a numbers game while also busting a few myths and misconceptions of recruiting in the tech industry.

1993: The Creator of Creator of PowerDirector, PhotoDirector, PowerDVD, and FaceMe AI solutions. Jun 01, 2022

Seamlessly monitoring people’s temperatures in real time was essential during the height of the pandemic, so Jau Huang took his award-winning photo editing AI tools and adapted them into a COVID health monitoring solution deployed in hotels, malls, and workplaces across the US. Jau Huang is the Founder and CEO of CyberLink, a company that’s grown from a small startup into an international powerhouse for multimedia products and facial recognition tools for private businesses.

Originally, Huang developed a popular virtual makeup applicator called YouCam, and then transformed it into a facial recognition software called FaceMe that could pair with temperature cameras for accurate identification and health monitoring of subjects, even when masked. The solution consistently ranks as one of the most accurate in the world. On the podcast, Jau shares his journey to adapting his tech for health monitoring and discusses how AI is transforming industries including banking, retail, and employee management.

1992: Peter Wang - Co-Founder and CEO of Anaconda May 31, 2022

Peter Wang is a veteran software developer turned co-founder and CEO of Anaconda, which brought the programming language Python to the mainstream for business data analysis. Anaconda’s open-source data science solution helps organizations mitigate bias, deploy deep learning models using neural networks, and predict numerous current business challenges, such as customer churn, consumer demand levels, stock prices, maintenance needs and outage probabilities. Anaconda also partners with some of the world’s largest tech organizations, including IBM, Red Hat, Snowflake, AWS, and Intel. Peter shares his story on Tech Talks Daily and discusses why bias in data, AI and ML should be an enterprise priority right now. I also learn how Anaconda and the open-source community is responding to the Russian-Ukraine crisis and the importance of mentorship in an ever-changing field like data science.

1991: Meet Infobip, The First Croatian Company to Reach Unicorn Status. May 30, 2022

Ivan Ostojic was recently named Chief Business Officer of Infobip, the Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS) which, in 2020, became the first Croatian company to reach unicorn status. In the past 12 months alone, over 5 billion people have used Infobip solutions and services. Ivan joins me on Tech Talks Daily to share the story behind the company. We discuss the new Adobe partnership and how the company introduced SMS and WhatsApp messaging for Adobe Commerce customers. This means customers can get real-time alerts via texts or WhatsApp with information related to stock levels, personalized special offers, and order tracking, adding value to the Adobe Commerce experience. We also discuss how Infobip recently secured funding of $500m, advised by Morgan Stanley and led by funds managed by the Credit Group of Ares Management Corporation and funds and accounts managed by BlackRock. We also explore several macro trends in the API market, the rise of CPaaS, the unicorn effect, and more.

1990: John Reeves, Managing Director of Viasat UK May 29, 2022

Viasat is a global communications company that believes everyone and everything can be connected. That’s why they are building the ultimate communications network, to enable great, global connectivity to be brought to where it’s needed and wanted most: to homes all over the world, to faraway communities, to warfighters on the battlefield, and to people in the air or at sea — to name a few.

John Reeves, Managing Director of Viasat UK joins me on Tech Talks Daily. John discusses the need for better technology development using third parties within the public sector and connectivity. More specifically, we explore a fresh approach to technology development.

With MI6 recently outlining plans to use technology developed by outside companies for the first time, John shares why the Government and bodies such as the MoD need to perform the same cultural shift. John also expands on how and why using commercial technology can, with the right approach and controls in place, offer more opportunities to innovate, adapt and develop the best capabilities against the rise of increasingly advanced and sophisticated adversaries. After all, ultimately it’s all about getting tech into the hands of people in the field.

John also outlines the importance of a hybrid approach, using a combination of technologies to deliver end users the connectivity and services they need. After all, the person on the ground – whether armed personnel, paramedics, or someone living in a remote village – doesn’t care how their service arrives. They just care that it arrives.

1989: How Tech is Elevating People, Companies, and Communities. May 28, 2022

Anthony Hughes is the co-founder and CEO of Tech Elevator, a 14 to 30-weeks coding bootcamp that teaches students in-demand tech skills that can lead to meaningful careers in the tech industry. After reading that 2,300 students have graduated from Tech Elevator, with 90% of whom secured tech positions at companies within 6 months, I felt compelled to find out more about the story behind the company. Anthony has been nominated twice for the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award (2020 and 2021). Before starting Tech Elevator, he was the President of the Software Craftsmanship Guild, another fast-paced program that teaches the skills required for a tech career which Learning House acquired in April 2015.

In today's episode of Tech Talks Daily, Anthony shares his story. He discusses how Covid-19 has accelerated the need for a digital workforce and why anyone thinking of joining the tech industry should do it now as the career leap will be worth it. We also talk about how the modern-day coding bootcamps are helping companies meet the enormous demand for tech talent.

1988: The VC firm Supporting Exceptional Founders on their Extraordinary Journeys May 27, 2022

Itxaso Del Palacio, Partner of VC fund Notion Capital joins me on Tech Talks Daily. Notion is a European VC fund in the B2B SaaS and Cloud space with more than $700m in assets under management. Having made 80+ investments to date, the Notion team founded, built, and exited two highly successful SaaS businesses – Star and MessageLabs – and today invests exclusively in exceptional founders with the ambition to build global category leaders.

The fund's investments include Go-Cardless, Paddle, Currencycloud, and Tradeshift. Notion is also the founding fund of Included VC, the venture capital fellowship for individuals from diverse and overlooked communities from around the world. But I wanted to learn more about Itxaso's unconventional journey to the VC world, which includes a decade of classical ballet, working on the assembly line at DaimlerChrysler, a Masters in Engineering, and, ultimately, a PhD in Entrepreneurship. Once she turned her hand fully to VC investing, since 2010, she moved to London and has invested in more than a dozen businesses in the last 12 years. She has also taught entrepreneurship to around 2,000 students at University College London and Imperial College. And before joining Notion, she spearheaded the European launch of Microsoft Ventures and led investments in Onfido, Beamery, and Unbabel. In the episode, we discuss why there is no one route to entering the VC industry and how product-led growth will be the key to the expansion, explosion, and even domination of European software companies globally. Itxaso also shares what traits she looks for in founders and what the best founders do to blow away investors beyond their entrepreneurial vision.

1987 : Eversheds Sutherland - The Global Law Firm Driven by Legal Technology May 26, 2022

Eversheds Sutherland is a global top 10 law practice that provides legal advice and solutions to an international client base that includes some of the world's largest multinationals. They have a reputation for helping their clients, people, and communities to thrive by providing quality, innovation, and consistency in legal service delivery around the globe from over 70 offices in more than 30 countries.

The legal industry has been criticized for being slow to adapt to the digital world, but I wanted to determine if this is a myth that we can finally lay to rest. So I invited James Grice on the podcast to discuss how this law firm is being driven by legal technology and how it launched the hugely successful Techtober alongside its first Legal technology graduate scheme last year.

James Grice is an experienced technology transformation professional, working directly with clients and lawyers to collaborate on new, innovative solutions. He is also the Head of Legal Service Design at Eversheds Sutherland LLP.

Having conceived and built the team to design new service delivery models and drive continuous process improvement. He leads a diverse team of talented professionals focusing on human-centered solutions, designing and implementing their Legal Service Design framework to ensure the consistent delivery of excellent service to clients.

James also has a keen interest in emerging technology, leading the firms Robotic Process Automation CoE, as well as supporting the business in the implementation of new legal tech solutions, coordinating the overall product portfolio, and driving adoption and awareness across the firm.

He is a qualified Business Change Practitioner, Design Thinking practitioner and facilitator, Lean Six Sigma Green Belt, APMQ Project Manager, and Certified Technical Trainer.

1986: SAP Co-Innovation Lab, Africa - Tshepo Mahloko Shares His Innovation Journey May 25, 2022

Tshepo Mahloko heads up the Co-Innovation Lab for SAP. He leads a team dedicated to developing groundbreaking applications for software and technology. Yet, it’s his inspiring journey to his career as a technologist that truly serves as a foundation for his current vision as a leader.

Growing up in South Africa, he began to hone his skills as an innovator from a young age, experimenting with ways to pair technological prowess with an unwavering passion for social good. He ultimately found early success applying his abilities by leading grassroots initiatives that employed technology to help alleviate poverty within his community.

These formative experiences helped mold his abilities as a problem solver while further reinforcing his ability to lead within a highly competitive field. So I invited him on the podcast to share his story, which began with the African way of innovation and how it led him to the global company lSAP.

About Co-Innovation Lab for SAP

Have you ever wondered how many liters of water it takes to create one liter of mineral water? Or what happens when you have to stop a sugar mill because there is a shortage in the delivery of sugar cane? Can a repair centre safely retread a particular truck tire without impacting the tire warranty?

The SAP Co-Innovation Lab provisions and delivers co-innovation services and project environments from currently 16 locations worldwide. Each location uniquely reflects regional nuances while offering the same degree of professionalism and co-innovation experience.

1985: Lucid - Empowering The Future Hybrid Work Model, May 24, 2022

Dave Grow is the CEO of Lucid – the leading provider of visual collaboration software. After raising more than $500 million in June 2021, the company is now valued at $3 billion and trusted by 99% of the Fortune 500 to connect candidates and employees and help them clarify complexity, collaborate visually, and progress opportunities to advance no matter where they're located.

Looking back at the last two years of the pandemic, we can no longer underestimate the hit collaboration has taken in the shift to remote working – and how visual collaboration technology can help restore it. Great virtual meetings don't happen by accident.

As offices open their doors again amid mass resignations, project managers are increasingly asking themselves, 'what could've gone better during the pandemic?' and 'what technology do I need' to redefine the next wave of working.

For Dave Grow, businesses have still not cracked proper remote collaboration platforms. 75% of employees believe collaboration suffered most during the pandemic, according to Lucid's research. I invited Dave to join me on the Tech Talks Daily podcast to discuss the importance of understanding the difference between an adaptive strategy vs. a reactive strategy and altering collaboration processes for new circumstances.

I learn how one size doesn't fit all and why businesses should equip themselves with the most relevant tools to facilitate collaboration for their team. But why they shouldn't rely on the tech, they brought in during the pandemic but constantly re-evaluate their stack. Finally, we talk about creating an environment where everyone can contribute, no matter if they are in person or remote.

1984: Jumio - Identity Verification Through Informed AI May 23, 2022

Europe has been paving the way for digital IDs with the eIDAS legislation, and the U.S. is next in line. Apple is rolling out a feature that will enable U.S. residents to upload their government-issued ID to their Wallet app, while some states like Mississippi and Florida have already launched or are working on launching their own digitized driver’s license program for residents.

While digital ID solutions do offer a more convenient alternative to physical IDs, the high sensitivity of these documents means this approach will come with many potential security and privacy implications that governments must be prepared to face.

Jumio has verified more than 500 million identities issued by over 200 countries and territories from real-time web and mobile transactions. Jumio’s solutions are used by leading companies in the financial services, sharing economy, digital currency, retail, travel, and online gaming sectors.

Bala Kumar, Chief Product Officer at Jumio Corporation, discusses what we currently know about digital driver’s licenses and what governments should consider to safeguard their residents’ identities. Bala can also discuss the privacy challenges that may arise with a digital ID system and best practices for ensuring the system is truly secure.

1983: Propagrub - The Tech Behind the Social Hub for Foodies May 22, 2022

If you have ever looked at the food hashtags on Instagram, it doesn't take long until you feel hungry. But have you ever opened up the Deliveroo, Just Eat, or UberEats App to see the same big fast food outlets? If you are a food lover, you will probably want something more sophisticated or tastier than a Mcdonald's or a KFC.

Father and son duo Brandon, CEO, co-founder, and the COO Jacob of Propagrub share their story on the Tech Talks Daily Podcast. I learn more about the technology behind a new food delivery service app that aims to create a community for foodies.

Inspired by the impact of the pandemic and how it hit chef unemployment rates and the rise of small businesses selling goods through social platforms, Propagrub was born. The platform provides independent chefs and traders with new business and exposure. For food lovers, it makes food discovery easy. It also builds a foodie community where users can chat, and share food images, recipes, clips, reels, and experiences. Ultimately the love and passion for food.

Brandon shares how he worked for 28 years as a chartered surveyor growing hospitality brands from one or two sites to 100+. His first client was Cafe Rouge who he began working in 1994, assisting in their expansion to 150 units in three years.

Jacob brings Propagrub a wealth of experience spanning marketing technology, merchandising, operations, cryptocurrency, design, and development, having already run several start-ups in the past decade.

1982: SEO Optimizers Founder Brandon Leibowitz May 21, 2022

Brandon Leibowitz runs and operates SEO Optimizers, a digital marketing company that focuses on helping small and medium-sized businesses get more online traffic, which in turn converts into clients, sales, leads, etc. For the past 14 years, he has been involved with search engine optimization and other digital marketing strategies to help drive targeted traffic that converts.

I invited Brandon on the podcast to share his story and explore SEO topics such as advanced link-building strategies and analyzing your data to find SEO opportunities.

1981: Gigster - Talking NFTs, Web3 and Blockchain May 20, 2022

Gigster is on a mission to companies develop software applications with the speed of a startup, coupled with the quality and expertise of the most innovative global talent.

Cory Hymel leads all things Web3 as the Director of Blockchain at Gigster, a company dedicated to helping businesses develop software applications with the speed of a startup, coupled with the quality and expertise of the most innovative global talent. Cory also manages academic partnerships to help further research into distributed teams and the future of work.

I invited Cory on the podcast to share his insights on what he sees as emerging trends for mass adoption and early execution of enterprise impacting technology like NFTs, blockchain and Web3. We also discuss how to create a roadmap for an NFT marketplace development project and why inter-blockchain communication is the key to blockchain mass adoption.

We explore the topic of high Ethereum gas fees and why Gas is vital on the Ethereum network as it avoids poor performance and security issues for every transaction.

1980: HeartFlow - Medical Tech and Coronary Artery disease. May 19, 2022

I recently read that approximately 50 percent of men and 30 percent of women in the US will develop symptomatic heart disease. I wanted to learn more about the scale of the problem and how non-invasive technology can help determine who is at the greatest risk for a cardiovascular episode,

Dr. Charles Taylor, co-founder, Chief Scientific Officer, and member of the Board of Directors of HeartFlow joins me on Tech Talks Daily. We discuss how technology is transforming the diagnosis and management of coronary artery disease.

We also discuss how the medical community has received HeartFlow and how technology drives a more proactive healthcare approach. About Charles A. Taylor, Ph.D.

Dr. Taylor is a co-founder, Chief Technology Officer (CTO), and member of the Board of Directors of HeartFlow. Previously, he was an Associate Professor in the Department of Bioengineering and Surgery at Stanford University with courtesy faculty appointments in the Departments of Mechanical Engineering and Radiology.

He is internationally recognized for the development of computer modeling and imaging techniques for cardiovascular disease research, device design, and treatment planning. He received his BS degree in Mechanical Engineering, MS degree in Mechanical Engineering, and MS degree in Mathematics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University.

1979: SAP SuccessFactors - Workforce Psychology and HR Technology May 18, 2022

In today's episode of Tech Talks Daily, Dr. Steven Hunt, Chief Expert, Technology & Work at SAP, joins me in a conversation about Workforce Psychology, HR Technology & Business Strategy. Steven shares his origin story, and we discuss how technology is influencing the way we work and how this has evolved over the last few years.

Shifting demographics combined with the digitalization of all aspects of life are transforming the nature of work. This is forcing companies to rethink how they design jobs and recruit, develop, and engage employees.

In Talent Tectonics: Navigating Global Workforce Shifts, Building Resilient Organizations, and Reimagining the Employee Experience, Steven Hunt explains how technology is changing the purpose of work and why creating effective employee experiences is critical to building organizations that can thrive in a world of accelerating change and growing skill shortages.

I learn more about how a technology company like SAP embraces this area of focus and how it impacts new software solutions being developed. We also explore the role of technology in all of this and what tools are critical in this future of work evolution.

About Steven

A recognized expert on strategic human resources (HR), Dr. Hunt has had a pivotal role in developing systems that have improved productivity and engagement of millions of employees working for hundreds of companies around the globe. A well-known speaker, author, and thought leader on strategic human resources, Dr. Hunt has written over 100 articles, published two books, and supported strategic HR efforts working with companies across five continents. Dr. Hunt holds a Ph.D. in industrial-organizational psychology from The Ohio State University, a B.A. in applied mathematics and psychology from the University of California, San Diego, and certification as a Strategic Professional of Human Resources (SPHR) from the Society of Human Resource Management. He has experience as an advisory board member for the Society of Human Resource Management, the Workforce Institute, the Journal of Management, and other talent management organizations. Prior to joining SuccessFactors, Dr. Hunt held positions with Kronos Talent Management Division, Starbucks Coffee Corporation, SHL Inc., Personnel Decisions International, and the U.S. Department of Energy National Laboratories.

Find out more information on today's conversation at http://talenttectonics.com/

1978: BlackBerry Prevention First AI & Predictive Security May 17, 2022

At CES this year, Peter Virk, Vice President, IVY Product & Ecosystem at BlackBerry on #1839, shared how over 195 million cars worldwide currently use BlackBerry software. In the light of current geopolitical events and the consequent necessity for extra cyber security vigilance, I wanted to bust a few more myths and talk about the role of BlackBerry in Cybersecurity.

After 14 years at McAfee, where he was vice president of central and north/eastern Europe, Hans-Peter Bauer moved to BlackBerry to start his new role as senior vice president of EMEA. But I wanted to learn more about BlackBerry's Prevention First approach, which involves using AI and machine learning ML to prevent attacks from the outset.

We discuss why a four-day workweek is possible for the always-on cybersecurity industry and what it looks like for a small business to be fully protected against cyber-attacks and explore if it's sustainable.

We also talk about why a prevention first cybersecurity approach is much more than just a perimeter defense – at its best; it's an active effort to neutralize malware before the exploitation stage of the kill-chain

Finally, we talk about how not to become a victim, the shortage of IT workers, why security specialists are critical, and what organizations can do to attack new cyber specialists.

1977: Trustpilot Founder and CEO Peter Holten Mühlmann May 16, 2022

Peter Holten Mühlmann founded Trustpilot in 2007. Over the last fourteen years, he has led Trustpilot from a small Danish startup to a global FTSE-250 listed company. Day to day, Peter focuses on business strategy and product development and has overseen Trustpilot's expansion to 800+ employees across six countries. Peter joins me on Tech Talks Daily to talk about the story behind Trustpilot and how they are using techology to remove fake reviews.

We talk about a new Consumer Verification tool, an industry first in the world of online reviews. This tool is yet another step in Trustpilot's effort to protect and promote trust online – something that continues to be a struggle, as we've seen with companies like Fashion Nova hiding bad reviews from the public and businesses buying fake reviews. As a result, it's difficult for a shopper to trust what's said online.

We also discuss the growing issue of misinformation causing distrust between consumers and businesses and discuss some recent data Trustpilot has uncovered through recent consumer surveys. For example, 84% of Americans say they'd be motivated to prove their identity if it would protect others from misinformation online.

We explore how another recent survey about consumer grudges that revealed 66% of Americans aged 45-54 years old are less likely to regret holding a grudge than those aged 25-34 (37%) and 69% of Americans are holding a grudge, while 51% regret holding a grudge.

1976: The Automated Crypto Trading Platform May 15, 2022

Oleg Giberstein is the Co-Founder of Coinrule (YCombinator backed startup, S21), which is all about catching the next market opportunity on your behalf by automating your investments. With Coinrule, hobbyist investors can compete with professional traders and hedge funds by creating automated strategies for Crypto and Stocks.

The company has achieved over 209% of its seed target during one of its most recent crowdfunding campaigns, raising an impressive $700K from 670+ investors. Other investors include the founders of Twitch, EightSleep, and Fitbit.

I invited Oleg on Tech Talks Daily to share his story, which began when he worked in Banking and Risk roles at Citigroup London for many years. In his last role at Citi, Oleg was Chief of Staff to Citi's Global Public Sector Portfolio Head. Here in 2022, I learn more about Coinrule and the problems it solves for its customers.

We talk about fintech, crypto, trading, investing, and how Oleg organizes Enterprise Ethereum Alliance meetups in London.

1975: Technology and the Transition to 100% Clean Renewable Energy May 14, 2022

Yotta is a solar storage solution that simplifies the solar storage process through decentralized, panel-level storage and optimizes energy efficiency with intelligent software. Through its flagship product, SolarLEAF™, they have pioneered a modular storage solution with smart thermal regulation that seamlessly integrates behind each photovoltaic (PV) panel while maximizing the life and performance of the battery.

Unlike fixed storage centers, SolarLEAF allows you to expand the development of solar + storage microgrids in minutes. Today, the market needs a breakthrough in energy storage solutions. Although solar+storage has risen in popularity over the last 10 years, the industry has faced challenges with producing practical batteries for energy storage.

Omeed Badkoobeh shares Yotta's vision to accelerate the adoption of solar+storage by engineering a new generation of solar storage that is cost-effective and reliable, changing the face of solar energy as we know it.

1974: Exploring Remittance Tech Trends With WorldRemit May 13, 2022

Remittance tech is booming right now and the digitization of sending money isn't slowing down. 2021 was a milestone year for remittances, and according to a recent report from the Remittance Industry Observatory, digital transactions accounted for 37% of all global remittances – a 15% bump compared to 2020. Moreover, as the global payment industry continues to maneuver choppy macroeconomic situations, the digitization of remittances is only expected to grow, with industry leaders estimating that digital transactions will reach 50% by 2032. Earl Melivo, a global payment expert and Director of Country and Business Development at the digital-first remittance company, WorldRemit joins me on Tech Talks Daily. We discuss the digital remittance trends WorldRemit is already seeing with their users worldwide. He also shares his first-hand insights on how the industry is heading towards a more digital world.

1973: Epiverse - The Global Collaborative and Distributed Pandemic Tools Program by Data.org May 12, 2022

Epiverse is a global collaborative led by data.org to co-create distributed data analysis tools that will get ahead of the next global health crisis. Its inclusive, open-source software ecosystem is led by an interdisciplinary community of experts driving equitable innovation in infectious disease response. Ultimatley, it's an interdisciplinary collaboration of experts from health, science, academia, business, technology, and philanthropy working to improve global epidemic response. But I wanted to learn more about the story behind the company developing privacy-preserving technology to unlock insights in non-traditional data,

Danil Mikhailov, Executive Director at DataDotOrg, joins me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss how data collected and distributed in silos does not support a cohesive global response and how Epiverse is building a global software ecosystem centered around people and a sustainable system of data sharing.

However, technology is just one part of a larger human system of connection and relationships. It's also important to remember that global social impact strategies will fail without conscious inclusion and a focus on capacity-building within LMIC's.

We talk about how the Epiverse community and ecosystem aspire to serve as a blueprint to inform how technology design and global collaborative response can be applied across the social good sector.

1972: Scale People, Processes, and Products Through Outcome-Driven Development. May 11, 2022

Rootstrap is a full-service custom design and development shop specializing in responsive web/mobile solutions and custom applications. They help companies scale people, processes, and products through outcome-driven development.

The company has helped launch more than 750+ digital products with more than 100 million combined downloads. Their mission isn't to merely build pretty interfaces. Instead, it's to iteratively design software solutions. The outcome? Achieving your business goals & generating ROI.

Patrick Ward, Vice President of Marketing, Rootstrap, joins me on Tech Talks Daily to share his story. We also explore emerging tech trends on the way to Web3, why AI isn't going to take your job, and why NFTs aren't just a get-rich-quick fad.

1971: How The Divi Project is Increasing Adoption of Digital Currency May 10, 2022

Last year, Divi and LaLiga agreed on a deal that would bring crypto to the masses as fans' love for football and crypto overlapped for the first time. I wanted to learn more about this deal and their most well-known project Divi Wallet which enables instant crypto payments for everyone.

Nick Saponaro, CEO of The Divi Project, joins me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss how they aim to increase the adoption of digital currency. The most well-known project is Divi Wallet, which enables instant crypto payments for everyone. Since beginning in the crypto space in 2013, Nick has become one of the leading experts in the cryptocurrency and blockchain space with media appearances in Nasdaq, The Fintech Times, and Quartz.

Nick shares his perspective on risk, given the stock market's current untethering from reality and the historical crashes that have followed periods like the one we're living through now. We also discuss the future of crypto, decentralization goals, and the importance of crypto's investment narrative.

1970: techUK - Why Digital Tech is the Best Way to Reach Net Zero May 09, 2022

techUK is the trade association that brings together people, companies, and organisations to realise the positive outcomes of what digital technology can achieve. With over 850 members (the majority of which are SMEs) across the UK, techUK creates a network for innovation and collaboration across business, government, and stakeholders to provide a better future for people, society, the economy, and the planet.

Matthew Evans, Director for Markets, techUK, joins me on Tech Talks Daily in a conversation about why digital transformation is critical to the decarbonisation journey of organisations in every sector. I learn more about how industries are converging across supply chains and sectors with tech partners to find innovations that reduce carbon emissions and efficiencies that drive down energy use.

By 2030, digital technology can cut global emissions by 15%. Cloud computing, 5G, AI, and IoT have the potential to dramatically reduce carbon emissions in sectors such as transport, agriculture, and manufacturing. techUK is working to foster the right policy framework and climate leadership so we can all play our part.

We discuss how techUK focuses on applying emerging technologies in traditional forms of infrastructure to deliver innovative environmental solutions. We also talk about their core aim to work towards a policy and regulatory environment that removes the barriers to tech investment. For example, techUK will lobby for a tax, R&D, innovation, and business environment that enables all sectors to invest in digital tools to help them decarbonise and, in turn, supports clean tech organisations.

Overall digital tech is the best way to reach net zero and deliver wider benefits such as cost savings, process efficiencies, and new business models.

1969: The AdTech Helping Brands Anticipate the Unexpected May 08, 2022

Sightly is a market insights resource that helps brands anticipate the unexpected. Its proprietary Brand Mentality platform uses data science, predictive algorithms, and expert human know-how to help brands maximize their media planning & outcomes, maintain authenticity and understand when, why, and how to effectively lean into controversial, hot-button issues in a meaningful way.

Robert Helstrom, SVP of Marketing, Sightly, talks about how they are helping brands navigate shifting marketing insights while holding themselves to a higher accountability standard. We also discuss the current trends within adtech and how brands should plan to adapt to get ahead of the metaverse and Web3.

1968: The Tech Helping SaaS Brands Become SOC-2 Compliant May 07, 2022

Girish Redekar is a CEO & Co-Founder of Sprinto.com. A company helping SaaS brands become SOC-2 compliant, close enterprise deals faster, and pass vendor security assessments easily.

Previously, he built and bootstrapped RecruiterBox to 2500+ customers and 50+ employees in the US and India. The company was acquired by San Francisco based private equity firm Turn/River Capital in an undisclosed all cash deal (no stock or earn-outs).

Girish is a passionate programmer and entrepreneur, keen on helping other SaaS businesses demonstrate security chops and close enterprise deals faster. So I invited him on Tech Talks Daily to share the startup story of how he took his first company from SMB to Enterprise, gaining over 2500 customers and exiting in an all-cash deal.

1967: REPL Group (Part of Accenture) - Sustainability Leadership in Tech May 06, 2022

Hundreds of businesses around the world rely on REPL to help them solve critical enterprise problems. They develop intimate partnerships with businesses in order to transform their people, supply chain, and customer experience to create and deliver long-lasting value.

Tech and retail sustainability expert Graeme Hamlet from REPL Group joins me on Tech Talks Daily in a conversation about sustainability leadership and its implications for businesses. We talk about the multitude of opportunities to make positive changes, increased transparency on production and consumption, reduced waste and emissions, improved working conditions, and greater learning & development goals. Graeme also discusses supply chains, in-store technology, workforce management, data science, and project delivery concerning sustainability goals for the industry.

1966: The Tech Giving Homeowners Control and Optimisation of Energy Use From a Smartphone May 05, 2022

Lumin balances energy storage needs and multiple power sources (traditional electrical grid, solar PV, backup generator) by adding standard electrical panels and making ordinary circuits smart and responsive. Alex Bazhinov joins me on Tech Talks Daily to share how Lumin is helping homeowners automatically or manually control their home's microgrid to enhance and protect their investment in solar PV and energy storage.

I learn more about the tech that makes it possible and how Lumin can connect to any existing circuit breakers, while competitors may require LG or Stalla to be installed. In addition, you do not have to purchase a costly, time-consuming upgraded circuit breaker to implement the smart control features that Lumin provides.

1965: The AI Startup Behind Tom Cruise Deepfakes on Building Metaverse Experiences May 04, 2022

Metaphysic is building the AI tools and resources that creatives, the entertainment industry, and brands need to develop hyperreal content and tell incredible stories. The software being developed by Metaphysic will help creators process datasets, mix and remix proprietary and open-source AI models and integrate traditional production workflows.

The result is a decentralized production process that can generate exponentially more hyperrealistic content without extra time and cost. Founded by the creators of @DeepTomCruise, Metaphysic and its team have worked with such brands as South Park, Gillette, and The Belgian Football Association.

Metaphysic CEO and co-founder Thomas Graham joins me on the Tech Talks Daily podcast. We discuss the story behind the Tom Cruise Fake videos and how it has raised $7.5 million from leading tech investors and creators, including Section 32, 8VC, TO Ventures, Winklevoss Capital, and Logan Paul.

I learn how the funding will help expand Metaphysic’s groundbreaking work in pushing the boundaries of digital experiences, including its focus on pioneering synthetic content creation tools for emergent metaverse worlds that Facebook and other networks are building.

1964: Why There isn't a Single Solution for Optimised Data Privacy May 03, 2022

Brian Pagano, Chief Catalyst and VP at Axwa joins me on Tech Talks Daily to offer tips, best practices, and expert analysis for organization leaders tackling privacy issues. Before Axway, Brian was a Global Platform Strategist at Google and was VP of Digital Success at Apigee. In addition, he has worked for years as a technology executive on Wall Street and was a CTO in Italy. Brian discusses why we should abandon the old faith in passwords. He argues that you can tell if an IT department is not evolving if you are required to frequently change your password (this practice has been shown to decrease security and has largely been abandoned). Keeping data private involves data-at-rest and data-in-motion, mostly ensuring that whoever is trying to access the info has the proper entitlements to that data.

If privacy is a top concern, the organization should adopt a need-to-know check for any document. Prove you need this information. Then, keep logs and audit them randomly. We also discuss how there is no one solution for optimized data privacy and how the cloud has the same problems around data-in-motion. Finally, we talk about APIs and data privacy and how APIs are the critical front door to your business.

1963: SALT Lending - Bitcoin & Crypto-Backed Loans May 02, 2022

As cryptocurrency becomes more widely adopted and additional real-world assets become tokenized, Salt Lending Inc is on a mission to offer solutions that allow people to hold and borrow against their crypto-assets securely. With SALT, individuals and businesses can secure fiat or stable coin loans without worrying about credit checks.

Unlike a traditional loan that takes your credit score into account, a SALT loan is an asset-backed loan in which your crypto assets act as collateral for your line of credit. They have issued hundreds of millions in blockchain-backed loans.

Justin English, CEO of Salt Lending Inc, is one of the earliest entrepreneurs in the space and serves on Elite Mining Inc.'s board, a crypto mining operation focused on clean energy and green mining. He joins me on Tech Talks Daily to talk about all things fintech, crypto, trading, investing, and raising money.

1962: Meet The Host.Co - The Tech Creating Shoppable Airbnbs. May 01, 2022

Have you ever stayed at a chic Airbnb and wished you could buy one of the paintings on the wall? Or woken up with a headache while spending a weekend at your short-term rental and wished you had some ibuprofen? Having to leave in search of a nearby pharmacy is enough to make your head spin. Now, shoppable Airbnb rentals are on the rise as guests seek out all the comforts of home and long to bring a piece of their getaway back with them.

Annie Sloan recently launched The Host Co, the digital commerce marketplace for short-term rentals, so I invited her on Tech Talks Daily to find out more. We discuss the growing trend of 'shoppable Airbnbs.'

Designed for spaces like Airbnb, VBRO, and even Swimply, The Host Co. gives hosts the ability to add items for sale and increase revenue while improving the guest experience. The Host Co. adds the amenities guests receive at a hotel, including preordered services and products, but have been missing from Airbnbs and other short-term rentals. Guests also have access to curated local goods they can ship home, such as artisanal foods and crafts.

Annie Sloan discusses the benefits of digital retail for guests and hosts at their Airbnb rentals and what products and services are most demand.

1961: Canopy Servicing: Why Fintech Should Embrace Transparency Apr 30, 2022

Canopy Servicing offers a flexible infrastructure to build and launch next-gen credit, debit, and lending products and support them with world-class service in a secure and compliant way. Canopy’s API-first loan management and servicing platform enable small Fintechs and large enterprises to quickly bring differentiated products to market.

Its clients offer revolving credit, debit, and installment loans, including fixed-rate, mixed-rate, and differed with customized interest rates, promotions, billing cycles, etc. But I wanted to learn more about its flexible and immutable ledger technology and how it makes it possible to apply policies on a per-account level, empower customer service agents with real-time account information, automate dispute processing, and retroactively reprocess accounts, re-calculate interest, and apply for payments.

Matt Bivons, Founder & CEO at Canopy, discusses how embedded finance is the fault line for the future of the fintech industry, and finding true market fit will lead to the next evolution of innovation. We also discuss why the fintech industry should embrace transparency and how credit providers can make alternative credit options safer for consumers (Buy Now, Pay Later).

1960: Talking Security Service Edge (SSE) With Zscaler Apr 29, 2022

Nathan Howe, VP of Emerging Technology at Zscaler, joins me on Tech Talks Daily in a conversation about developing transformative technology such as Security Service Edge (SSE). SSE reflects the circumstances organizations have contended with over the past two years. Driven by the pandemic, employees have left the secure network and instead access their applications through various new working environments.

In addition, as more organizations adopt SaaS offerings, data and applications will continue to be increasingly distributed outside of on-premise data centers. We also discuss How hybrid work will shake up IT infrastructure and why instant and real-time demands will drive 5G and edge computing.

About Nathan

In his current role, Nathan is in charge of developing a security strategy for 5G. As a digital transformation and telecommunications expert, he's assisted hundreds of enterprise customers in seamlessly modernizing their environments, adapting to distributed workforces cloud migrations, and standing up private 5G networks. He has more than 20 years of experience in the security industry and previously worked for Nestle and Verizon.

1959: Empowering Gen Z to Grow and Own Their Creativity With Polarr Apr 28, 2022

Polarr is a photo and video editor made by creators, for creators. Its sharing ecosystem is designed to enable creativity within the creator community, empowering creators to establish their visual identity and express their individuality through the filters they create

Polarr’s focus is to use technology to empower and protect the creativity of Gen Z and its other users and be a platform where they can maintain full ownership of their creativity and unlock their creative potential alongside a growing community of creators. Borui Wang, CEO, and founder of Polarr, joins me on Tech Talks Daily.

We discuss the great divide in the current creator economy between those profiting handsomely off their creativity and those not being compensated at all. But how companies must step forward and play a role in helping creators who use their platforms establish their visual identity and learn how to take the next steps in their creator journeys.

With over 75% of its users being Gen Z, we also discuss its unique position in identifying the latest trends among Gen Z creators. As Web 3.0 continues to make its way into various industries, Borui believes the metaverse will not only be about ownership b

1958: Forever Labs: Adult Stem Cells Storage & Banking Technology Apr 27, 2022

Did you know that your adult stem cells are a specialized population of cells that have the unique ability to self-renew and differentiate into multiple tissue types. Because of this, they can replenish dying cells and regenerate damaged tissue. You can think of them as the tools your body uses to repair damage acquired over time.

As we age, the number and function of our stem cells decline. But what if you could stop time on this invaluable resource and preserve the biological potential of these cells for the future. I recently discovered a company called Forever Labs which uses technology to bank your stem cells to help you live healthier and longer.

Steven Clausnitzer, CEO and Co-founder of Forever Labs, joins me in a conversation about how the company is evaluating autologous interventions to extend the healthy human lifespan.

Forever Labs has received several patents, including one for a service providing accelerated healing and reversing hair loss. In addition, Steven has managed to personally raise over $8 million in funding for Forever Labs, building his brand in a way that continues to make a difference in the future. An avid supporter of young entrepreneurs, I also learn how Steven spends his free time mentoring these individuals.

1957: The Hiring App for Startup Founders Filling Jobs in Hours Apr 26, 2022

Hiring is a time-consuming process. Have you ever gone through hundreds of resumes, shortlisted candidates, scheduled multiple interviews, and still could not find the right person for your team? This is the exact problem a company called Hirect set out to solve.

Hirect focuses on top tech startup hiring. Using its proprietary algorithm, they match job seekers and recruiters instantly. The one-stop-shop for matching candidates and video interviewing removes the time-consuming email tennis waiting for responses.

Stephanie Lovell shares how Hirect's algorithms combined with asynchronous communication are, helping tech startups find the right candidate fast. I also learn how this means no more anxious waiting or messy communications for candidates.

1956: How Oasis is Addressing the Complexity of Data Sharing in Web3 Apr 25, 2022

Imagine if essential data such as your name, address, date of birth, etc., was public information that anyone could access. Would you feel safe? Data is an important driver that helps an individual or an organization make key decisions. However, a lot of this data is sensitive, and once out in the public domain, people lose control of how it will be used, misused, or re-used.

Solving this data sharing problem, working towards building responsible Data DAOs, and powering the next-gen of web3 with privacy, speed, and security is one of the leading blockchain networks, Oasis.

By leveraging the Oasis Protocol, developers can address the complexities of data sharing in Web3 by enabling individual data sovereignty and the right to own and share data on their terms. Linda Lu joins me on Tech Talks Daily in discussing using data for social welfare and economic efficiency. We also talk about governance for data rights, prevention of misuse/abuse, and more

1955: Quanterix (NASDAQ: QTRX) Biomarker Detection Technology Apr 24, 2022

Kevin Hrusovsky, CEO of Quanterix and the Powering Precision Health Summit founder, joins me on the Tech Talks Daily Podcast. Kevin has more than 25 years of experience leading life sciences and biotechnology companies and believes that accelerating precision medicine is the key to changing our current healthcare system and improving the population's longevity. Two years ago, he founded the Powering Precision Health Summit as a way to bring all key stakeholders – including doctors, scientists, patients, patient advocates, investors, innovators, etc., together to discuss how we can accelerate research and turn today's sickcare into tomorrow's healthcare. He sees collaboration as the key for advancing our healthcare system and currently sits on the board of several life science companies, to ensure that all medical milestones are capitalized on. Finally, Kevin believes the ability to track the environment's impact on our health is key for helping move the needle forward. He grew up in a coal mining town and from an early age became fascinated with how environmental factors dictate our health. He has found that protein biomarkers can track a person's health as it changes over time, which can enable doctors to spot diseases before they occur, and is working to advance digital technologies that can measure these biomarkers in real time.

We discuss how biomarker technology is enabling researchers to see and monitor health conditions that were previously impossible to study in blood, including COVID-19, TBIs, Alzheimer's, MS, cancer and more. I learn how this tech is making a tremendous impact by identifying diseases much earlier in the disease progression opens the floodgates to new and better treatment outcomes.

1954: The Boston Based VC Fund With 15 Exits and 3 Unicorns Apr 23, 2022

Flint Capital is a Boston-based international VC fund that has raised $250M in two funds and announced that it closed its second fund. Its portfolio includes 45 companies like Flo, Socure, Walkme, CyberX, Cyolo, and 15 successful exits, 3 of which are unicorns. But what is the story behind the company?

At the age of 35, Andrew Gershfeld of Flint Capital ($500M fund) has already made a few brilliant investments, including Flo. Additionally, he is a ski marathon runner, which gives him a sense of confidence while competing with top venture funds. I invited him on the podcast to share his insights into how startups become unicorns and how venture funds can help startups scale successfully.

We discuss how health tech startups disrupt the healthcare system, how the pandemic has changed the venture market, and with 90% of pitches being made online, he also shares tips on pitching via zoom.

1953: QuickSwap, the Largest Decentralized Exchange on Polygon. Apr 22, 2022

QUICK is an Ethereum token that powers QuickSwap, a decentralized exchange that runs on the Polygon Network in order to provide faster and cheaper transactions on Ethereum. QUICK can be used to create and vote on proposals governing QuickSwap and can be staked to earn a portion of trading fees.

Nicole Grinstead joins me in a conversation about how QuickSwap became the biggest decentralized exchange on Polygon since launching in 2020. We discuss DeFi growth, especially layer 2 platforms, and why institutional investors can no longer afford to ignore DeFi. We also talk about Indian blockchain and DeFi innovation and recent FUD around regulation, DeFi growth, and what happens next.

1952: Talking AdTech and Content Discovery With Taboola CEO Adam Singolda Apr 21, 2022

Adam Singolda, CEO of leading ad-tech company Taboola joins me on Tech Talks Daily to share his insights on the open web, personalization, metaverse and AI, and content and consumption. We also discuss the top readership trends driving consumption on the web and how Meta’s decisions in the attention economy are fundamentally harming the publisher/consumer relationship.

Taboola’s recent history has been noteworthy, as the company has experienced exponential growth and released new products that have shaken up the market. Recent examples include their acquisition of Connexity for $800m, their partnership with Microsoft, and the launch of Homepage For You, which adds AI to power editorial recommendations. About Taboola

Adam Singolda, Taboola’s CEO, founded the company in 2007. The company’s platform, powered by artificial intelligence, is used by digital properties, including websites, devices and mobile apps, to drive monetisation and user engagement.

Taboola has long-term partnerships with some of the top digital properties in the world, including CNBC, NBC News, Business Insider, The Independent and El Mundo. More than 13,000 advertisers use Taboola to reach over 500 million daily active users in a brand-safe environment. The company has offices in 18 cities worldwide, including New York and Tel Aviv.

1951: Audius Co-Founder Forrest Browning Talks About $Audio Apr 20, 2022

Audius is a digital streaming service that connects fans directly with artists and exclusive new music. It does this by being fully decentralized: Audius is owned and run by a vibrant, open-source community of artists, fans, and developers all around the world. Audius gives artists the power to share never-before-heard music and monetize streams directly.

Developers can build their own apps on top of Audius, giving them access to a unique audio catalogue. Backed by an all-star team of investors, Audius was founded in 2018 and serves millions of users every month, making it one of the largest crypto applications ever built.

Audius also recently introduced $AUDIO 'Engage to Earn' Crypto Rewards program with Cheat Codes, Alina Baraz. The feature allows artists and fans to earn $AUDIO through challenges on the web's largest decentralized streaming service. I invited co-founder Forrest Browning on the podcast to find out more.

About Forrest Browning

Forrest Browning, co-founder, and CPO of Audius, is a Forbes 30 Under 30 recipient, and most recently was a Co-Founder of StacksWare, an enterprise datacenter management platform started from a Stanford University research project. The company provides analytics at scale for Fortune 500 customers, and was successfully acquired in late 2017.

1950: The Tech Bringing Leadership Into the 21st Century Apr 19, 2022

Leadership is a strange word. For some, it conjures up images of the "old" world of work, with strict hierarchies, stuffy titles, and (predominantly) ageing men in suits with inflated salaries. For others, it's a fluffy concept filled mostly with hot air.

However, as work shifts to become more collaborative, cross-functional, and complex, it's more important than ever for managers to excel at bringing people together, inspiring them, and empowering them to reach their full potential. And that's what leadership is.

BUNCH is an AI leadership coach on a mission to help anyone become a great leader. BUNCH enables anyone to overcome everyday leadership challenges with personalized 2-minute leadership tips - all in the format of a sleek, intuitive app.

Bunch co-founder Darja Gutnick joins me in a conversation about the science of leadership and how anyone can become a great leader. We explore how leadership is a mindset that can be learned and not some hidden talent that we need to discover. Then, Darja shares a few lessons she had to learn the hard way on female entrepreneurship.

1949: Quantinuum: The World's Largest Integrated Quantum Computing Company Apr 18, 2022

Two leading quantum companies – Honeywell Quantum Solutions and Cambridge Quantum Computing (CQC) – have merged to form a new business called Quantinuum. The new company combines Honeywell's expertise in quantum hardware with CQC's software capabilities. "Quantinuum is now the largest and most advanced integrated quantum computing company in the world," said Ilyas Khan, CEO of the new company and founder of Cambridge Quantum.

Ilyas Khan, CEO of Quantinuum joins me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss the state of the quantum computing industry overall and Quantinuum's place in it. Ilyas also shares an inspirational origin story and being inspired by Stephen Hawking.

1948: How To Switch to a Successful Career in IT Apr 17, 2022

An “unprecedented” lack of tech skills is threatening the progress of digital transformation projects at more than two-thirds of companies worldwide. For example, did you know that the Asia Pacific region is bracing itself for a shortfall of 3 million unfilled cyber security positions? These skills shortages are creating opportunities for anyone to transition into a new tech career in anything from project management and coding to cyber security.

Mark Wheatland from the Learning People joins me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss how anyone can make the switch to a career in tech. We also discuss recruiting challenges when no one has the two years of experience employers are searching for and why University IT degrees are not always fit for purpose.

We talk about the right skills and qualifications people need to land their dream job in IT, coding, and project management. We also discuss the hot areas of shortages and skills gaps that are in the highest demand right now.

1947: Fighting Against Misinformation: How Technology is Shaping Decision-Making Apr 16, 2022

Bilal Baloch, Co-Founder & COO of Enquire.ai joins me on Tech Talks Daily. Enquire’s technology is empowering Fortune 500 companies like Apple and Oracle through diverse knowledge and a complete range of perspectives, which has proven to be critical in the fight against misinformation. Bilal provides unique insights into how technologies within the digital media landscape are promoting the consumption of low-quality information.

We discuss how social media networks are currently failing their users and the potential implications of spreading misinformation. We also talk about why there is a current lack of trust behind an abundance of data and what steps we need to ignite a wave of change.

We also explore trends around the future of information consumption looks like what declining CNN & MSNBC TV ratings mean for the future of the news cycle. Finally, we chat about the development of up-and-coming technologies that are changing the way we use information to make decisions.

1946: Ukraine TrustChain Facilitates the Evacuation of More Than 23,000 Ukrainian Refugees Apr 15, 2022

Not long after the shelling began in Ukraine, Daniil Cherkasskiy got a phone call from a close friend. The surrogate mother of his friend’s twins, trapped in Kyiv, had given birth at 33 weeks. But, unfortunately, the babies were in dire need of preemie formula.

Local pharmacies were blocked by Russian gunfire. Daniil began working through the night to help coordinate the delivery of the formula. Through a series of connections, he met Natalia, a real estate agent, and young mother. Instead of evacuating, she stayed, narrowly escaping shelling as she drove from pharmacy to pharmacy — risking her life for a stranger’s babies. The first link of trust was established.

That moment led to a launching of a Chicago nonprofit called Ukraine TrustChain, made up of primarily Ukrainian immigrants who are working to fund six teams on the ground in Ukraine to meet citizens’ most critical daily needs – food for bomb shelters, sleeping pads, evacuations of senior homes, baby formula, etc.

I invited Daniil on the podcast to learn more about his story and how the Ukraine TrustChain tech has facilitated the evacuation of more than 23,000 Ukrainian refugees.

More info - https://www.ukrainetrustchain.org/

1945: Insights from the NETSCOUT Threat Intelligence Report Apr 15, 2022

NETSCOUT, one of the leading cybersecurity and network diagnostics firms globally, recently revealed the findings of its bi-annual Threat Intelligence Report. The report provided insight and analysis into distributed-denial-of-service (DDoS) attack trends in 2021. I invited Richard Hummel, ASERT Threat Intelligence Lead for NETSCOUT, to join me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss the big takeaways from the report.

Richard shares how DDoS-for-hire services are now more accessible to the public and the significant increase in computer manufacturers and computer storage manufacturing attacks. We also discuss the different types of attacks used and who the suspected attackers are. Finally, I learn more about which industries have been most targeted and what business leaders need to be aware of when it comes to DDoS attacks.

1944: Barco - Meeting Inequality in the Hybrid Work Environment Apr 14, 2022

With hybrid work – or a flexible corporate environment that enables employees to operate both remotely and in a physical office – now a permanent professional fixture, workers have come to expect new levels of flexibility. However, employees now demand even more from their hybrid work experience – namely greater meeting equity.

Simply defined, meeting equity ensures that remote employees receive the same level of engagement, collaboration and access to a meeting room experience as those who are physically seated around the table. As a new Barco ClickShare survey released today found, hybrid workers are growing more concerned about perceptions of an inequal and less productive meeting experience while apart from their colleagues, and many are going as far as to consider new opportunities at organizations where they believe they will be more included.

The recently-released Barco ClickShare Hybrid Work Survey shows, businesses must now address the challenge of meeting equity in the hybrid environment. Simply defined, meeting equity ensures that remote employees receive the same level of engagement, collaboration and access to a meeting room experience as those who are physically seated around the table. The survey finds that nearly one in three workers struggle to feel heard during hybrid meetings, amplifying calls for improved meeting inclusion. In today's episode, Anthony Wright from Barco shares insights uncovered from the Hybrid Work Survey and reveals a few surprises.

1943: Will Dropping “News” from “Feed” Mean Anything for Meta’s User Habits? Apr 13, 2022

DiMassimo Goldstein (DiGo) is the world's first creative agency focused exclusively on promoting better habits by building brands and businesses using Positive Behavior Change marketing.

Becoming “Metamates” and dropping “news” from “feed” are just a few items off the long list of rebranding tactics Mark Zuckerberg has in mind as Facebook becomes Meta. But is it enough? Will this actually result in user habits that Zuckerberg is seeking for his vision of Meta?

Mark DiMassimo, is the Founder & Creative Chief of DiGo, a creative agency promoting better habits by building businesses using Positive Behavior Change marketing. Mark joins me on Tech Talks Daily to take an in-depth look into the rebranding and marketing choices Facebook is making now, whether it’s enough to change consumer habits, and ways to ensure not just behavior change, but positive behavior change among Meta users.

1942: Reinventing Process Automation for the Digital Enterprise Apr 12, 2022

Camunda process orchestration software helps orchestrate complex business processes that span people, systems, and devices. With Camunda, business users collaborate with developers to model and automate end-to-end processes using BPMN-powered flowcharts that run with the speed, scale, and resiliency required to compete in today’s digital-first world. Hundreds of enterprises such as Allianz, ING, and Vodafone design, automate, and improve mission-critical business processes with Camunda to drive digital transformation.

Jakob Freund, CEO, and co-founder of process automation provider, Camunda, joins me on Tech Talks Daily in a conversation about the missed opportunity when organizations don't start small with automation and the criteria for organizations that can significantly benefit from bringing a Chief Automation Officer on board.

1941: Fujitsu ServiceNow - Levelling Up Your IT Workflows Apr 11, 2022

In February 2022, the UK Government released its ‘Levelling Up’ manifesto, revealing its plans to drive innovation and economic growth, while upskilling people and leading the way to a better society and more sustainable environment. In many ways, this is a microcosm of the wider world and organisations on all corners of the globe should too be striving to level up. Doing so is key to deliver digital products and services faster, to keep up with customer demands and remain competitive amid increased market pace and competition.

IT is essential to this, but they in turn need the right architecture, underpinned by composable applications, which Gartner predicts will become a strategic objective for 60% of organisations by 2023, while 80% will use iterative, experimental methods like lean, agile and design-thinking for service design. To this end, IT / digital workflows will also play a pivotal role. So, in this podcast episode, we explore the non-negotiable need for workflows within organisations, and how companies can use the Now Platform to level up and empower their IT teams.

Andy Lockard, Solutions, Development & Architecture Lead, Fujitsu, (ServiceNow) joins me on Tech Talks Daily in a discussion about these trends and much more.

1940: How to Solve the Identity Management Crisis Apr 10, 2022

Wade Ellery, Senior Solution Architect at Radiant Logic, joins me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss how many organizations have an identity management crisis without realizing it and what they can do to solve the problem?

For many organizations, identity data exists in multiple forms across different locations (such as LDAP, AD, SQL, and web services), which creates a fragmented infrastructure within the organization, resulting in a deceleration of the time it takes to authenticate a user and the expansion of the organization's attack surface.

Many organizations see current Identity Access Management solutions as incapable of meeting the demands of scalability, performance, and security needed in the work-from-anywhere era. So, what can be done to solve the identity management crisis experienced by organizations today?

We discuss how many realize too late that they suffer from a fragmented infrastructure that results in a sprawl and why digital transformation has exacerbated organizations' current identity management problem. Finally I learn more about how using identity data fabric can help solve the identity sprawl problem.

1939: Password Security and Authentication Tech Apr 09, 2022

Cybersecurity can seem complicated, but the truth is, many cyberattacks could be stopped with something very simple: improving password security. In fact, over the last two years, passwords were at the heart of some of the most high-profile breaches, including SolarWinds and Colonial Pipeline. And with an estimated 1 million passwords stolen every week, anyone could be the next target if they haven't taken steps to improve their password security.

Darren James, a password security expert and Head of Internal IT at Specops Software, joins me on Tech Talks Daily. Darren discusses his role at Specops and what inspired him to pursue a career in security. We also discuss best practices that every business and individual should be using and why password breaches are so common.

1938: IBM's Automation Growth & Industry Trends Apr 08, 2022

IBM recently announced its fourth-quarter 2021 earnings results, which showcased significant growth in automation software, with revenue up 15 percent. Dinesh Nirmal, General Manager, of IBM Automation joins me on the Tech Talk Daily Podcast to discuss IBM's plans to accelerate automation adoption in 2022,

We also discuss the following three key industry challenges and trends that businesses are facing today: Skills gap: Automation is helping close the skills gap by solving the shortage of data scientists and developers that the industry is currently experiencing. For example, new automation tools like Watson Orchestrate provide workers access to their own interactive AI to help them perform both mundane and mission-critical tasks faster – everything from scheduling meetings and procuring approvals to interacting with business systems and preparing proposals.

Complexity of legacy systems: Many challenges arise for enterprises when dealing with the complexity of legacy systems. Instead of having to deal with the number of workloads, databases, platforms, storage systems, security models, and so on, businesses are looking for a one-stop-shop for automation across business automation and IT automation.

Increasing digitization, fast: Automation has become the go-to solution to speed up the level of digitization in order to continue to grow at a competitive pace. By providing clients with a one-stop-shop for AI-powered automation powered by recent acquisitions of Turbonomic, MyInvenio, WDG Automation and Instana, IBM has created an easy pathway for our customers to embrace automation, making it one of the most beneficial technologies for businesses today on an industry-wide level.

1937: Mass Personalization for Business Communications Apr 07, 2022

Gianna Scorsone, General Manager and Head of North America at global technology company Aircall ($1B valuation), joins me on The Tech Talks Daily Podcast. We discuss the importance of mass personalization for business communications and how cloud-based, digital-first companies face fierce competition for customer loyalty. Potential and existing customer interactions with a company’s sales and customer service team must be personalized and positive to distinguish a brand from similar products and services and continue driving sales growth.

In the day and age of the Great Resignation and labor shortages, businesses are reassessing what’s needed to retain and recruit employees. Gianna firmly believes employee retention is directly tied to the culture companies create in the workplace.

As a GM, she believes in prioritizing people first, then sales. Finally, she offers advice to future sales leaders and women working in tech.

1936: Meet CyrusOne, The Global Data Center Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) Apr 06, 2022

Matt Pullen, EVP, Managing Director, CyrusOne, joins me on Tech Talks Daily. The premier global data center real estate investment trust (REIT) has over 50 data centers worldwide, including a range of facilities in London, Dublin, and Frankfurt, and some exciting expansion plans in Europe.

We discuss what the future data center will look like and how increased regulation and legislation will impact the landscape. Matt also shares his predictions for the future and explores sustainability in the industry, and I learn more about the founding of the Climate Neutral Data Centre Pact.

About CyrusOne

CyrusOne (NASDAQ: CONE) is a premier global REIT specializing in design, construction and operation of more than 50 high-performance data centers worldwide. The Company provides mission-critical facilities that ensure the continued operation of IT infrastructure for approximately 1,000 customers, including approximately 200 Fortune 1000 companies.

A leader in hybrid-cloud and multi-cloud deployments, CyrusOne offers colocation, hyperscale, and build-to-suit environments that help customers enhance the strategic connection of their essential data infrastructure and support achievement of sustainability goals. CyrusOne data centers offer world-class flexibility, enabling clients to modernize, simplify, and rapidly respond to changing demand.

Combining exceptional financial strength with a broad global footprint, CyrusOne provides customers with long-term stability and strategic advantage at scale.

1935: Meeting Lifecycle Automation Technology Apr 05, 2022

In April, Chili Piper, the leading inbound conversion platform for sales and marketing teams, announced a Series B of $33M led by marquee VC, Tiger Global and includes Google’s Gradient Ventures as an investor. After the ongoing onset of the pandemic, Chili Piper’s co-founder and CEO, Nicolas Vandenberghe, was able to win over investors in just 20 minutes.

Nicolas shares his origin story which includes a great anecdote of a conversation he had with Steve Jobs and his journey to ChiliPiper. I learn more about their playbook for success how customers can increase conversion and drive more leads with a “speed-to-lead” approach.

1934: Fujitsu ServiceNow - How to Tackle Organisational Debt Apr 04, 2022

No matter who you are and what kind of organisations you’ve worked for, everyone knows the pressure to just get it done. It can be for the sake of stakeholders, the cause, or the bottom line, but the consequences are the same: eventually you amass organisational debt.

Like technical debt, this has accelerated amid recent disruption, where the need to keep things moving, at any cost, was greater than ever. But if this isn’t addressed, the knock-on effect on your culture, people and all-round effectiveness can be severe.

Ultimately, everyone knows organisational debt is there, but no one wants to talk about it. However, this needs to change – and fast – if businesses are to rid themselves of complexity and inefficiency. So, herein lies the purpose of this podcast episode, where our experts will be exploring some of the key things to look out for to fathom if your organisation is suffering from this debt.

Complete with a deep dive into the power of IT workflows and other ways to free yourself from these shackles, to empower your people and drive growth in the remainder of the year (and beyond).

Jason Fowler, VP of HR for Fujitsu in Northern and Western Europe joins me on Tech Talks Daily to tackle the topic of Organisational Debt.

With twenty years’ experience in the technology sector, Jason has seen first-hand the impact that digitalisation has had, and continues to have, in disrupting organisations and their employees. He believes that in the era of total tech, the people capability of an organisation becomes the principal point of commercial differentiation – and it is the role of HR to create this.

1933: Enhancing UX and Doubling Ecommerce Acquisitions by Optimizing Your Superfans Apr 03, 2022

Today’s guest, Jay Gibb, is a former software engineer and the Founder and CEO of B2B SaaS company, CloudSponge. Together with his team, Jay has helped thousands of e-commerce store owners optimize their word-of-mouth sales since 2010. With a unique blend of tech expertise and soft skills, Jay is an expert at helping e-commerce stores build the right features to reduce customer acquisition costs and increase sales

Jay joins me on Tech Talks Daily to share his story and the critical role that their products have played in the growth stories of household name tech companies like Airbnb, Nextdoor, GoFundMe, Morning Brew and Yelp.

1932: The Tech Reimagining Your Business Phone Apr 03, 2022

Mahyar Raissi, co-founder and CEO of OpenPhone, an app-based phone service that is disrupting the antiquated and clunky business telecommunications market, joins me on Tech Talks Daily. OpenPhone replaces traditional business phones designed primarily for voice communication with intuitive and full-featured mobile and desktop applications.

In the last five years, there has been an explosion in collaboration technologies, such as Slack and Zoom. However, there has been little innovation in phone services, particularly for startups and small businesses for which the phone remains the center of communications. As a result, SMBs typically have to choose between basic mobile services or expensive and complicated enterprise technologies until now. OpenPhone includes features such as messaging and collaborative tools to meet business needs and integrates with other productivity applications and tools on which businesses rely, such as HubSpot, Slack, email, and Zapier.

Mahyar shares his inspiring origin story where he emigrated from Iran with his family and started OpenPhone three years ago through the Y Combinator program.

1931: LGBTQ+ Technology - The Equal Hiring Index by Mathison Apr 02, 2022

Arthur Woods is a social entrepreneur, LGBTQ+ advocate working at the intersection of equity and technology. He is the author of the nationwide best-selling book Hiring for Diversity and most recently co-founded Mathison, a venture-backed technological platform equipping employers with all they need to manage their diversity hiring efforts. He has delivered over 300 keynote speeches and is a three-time TEDx speaker. He has advised multiple brands over his career including Disney, Sonos, the Smithsonian, and many more.

Arthur was named to Forbes 30 Under 30 and 40 Under 40 by BEQ. He is a World Economic Forum Global Shaper, GCT Entrepreneur in Residence, and many more! He was the lead of Google's Education and Schools division. Since then he has been at the forefront of developing platforms such as Imperative, Out in Tech & Social Impact 360, a collegiate social enterprise education program.

Arthur joins me in a discussion about how technology can help companies reduce bias in hiring and the biggest problems in most companies' diversity hiring efforts. We also explore some helpful tools (free or paid) and strategies that HR teams can use to make better hiring decisions.

I also learn more about the Equal Hiring Index® and how tech can help assess your full hiring and retention process to ensure equity and access.

1930: The Tech Changing How We Are Charging the World. Apr 01, 2022

ZapBatt started with a simple experience that we have all been through, being stuck with a dead battery and having no time to charge it. Their story is centered around people who want to improve how we use energy, and how that impacts our planet. From backgrounds in waste energy regeneration, batteries for wildlife, e-bikes, and more, their team has helped shape the technology they have built and their impact on the world for both consumers and companies.

Charlie Welch, founder, and CEO of ZapBatt joins me on Tech Talks Daily in a conversation about how they are creating a new kind of battery system to power a wide range of electrical products for both businesses and consumers.

In addition to its software technology, I learn more about ZapBatt's utilizing unique battery chemistry with a nano-structured crystal compound called lithium-titanate. Compared to other batteries, a lithium-titanate battery charges faster lasts longer, and is better for the environment and the bottom line. Until now, this chemistry has mostly been used in large-scale infrastructure oil and gas projects and industrial applications.

1929: Zellis - How Hybrid Working is Changing the Business Landscape Mar 31, 2022

Whether physical or digital, a good onboarding process should reflect and understand the needs, expectations, and – indeed – frustrations that come with being a fresh face. This is especially important for the key HR processes that accompany many of the critical first interactions a new hire has with their employer.

George Dunnett from Zellis joins me on Tech Talks Daily about tech's role in transforming these processes. Zellis provides payroll, HR and managed services to UK and Ireland-based companies with over 500 employees. They are the largest business of this nature in the UK counting a third of the FTSE 100 as customers, serving over 5 million of our customers' employees and processing in excess of 60 million payslips a year.

We discuss how hybrid working is positively changing the business landscape, but how many things are still missed that could be tweaked with good tech initiatives. We also explore where tech investments should go next.

1928: EDR is Not Enough. Stop Responding. Start Preventing Zero-Day Attacks. Mar 30, 2022

To many organizations, endpoint detection and response (EDR) is seen as the latest cybersecurity innovation and the tool to keep their network safe. However, with attacks now only needing 60 seconds after executing to cause significant damage to an organization’s network, EDR solutions give an organisation a false sense of security.

With attackers now looking to cause as much damage as possible in the shortest time possible, security teams can no longer react to a cyberattack but must start preventing them altogether. So how can organizations start preventing cyberattacks and protecting themselves?

Deep Instinct is the first company to apply deep learning to cybersecurity. Deep learning is inspired by the brain’s ability to learn. Once a brain learns to identify an object, its identification becomes second nature. Similarly, as Deep Instinct’s artificial brain learns to detect any type of cyber threat, its prediction capabilities become instinctive. As a result, zero-day and APT attacks are detected and prevented in real-time with unmatched accuracy.

Chuck Everette joins me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss why EDR solutions are not secure enough to stop cyberattacks which have a low dwell time. and why prevention-first solutions will be the next layer in an organisation’s security stack. Finally, we discuss how deep learning, a subset of AI, will shift an organisation’s mindset from detecting and responding to cyberattacks to actually predicting and preventing them.

1927: Matterport CEO Discusses Digital Twins and Turning Buildings Into Data Mar 29, 2022

RJ Pittman is the CEO of Matterport, a leading company that develops digital twins. Think of it as a way to create a digital replica of the real world, where people can either visit locations virtually to keep track of their inventory. Matterport is also a company contributing to the metaverse conversation, which is a topic that will likely continue to evolve next year.

RJ joins me in a conversation about using this technology across many verticals. We explore the role of digital twins across tourism, travel, and real estate and how it ties to a potential metaverse.

I learn more about Matterport's spatial computing platform turns buildings into data making every space more valuable and accessible. Millions of buildings in more than 150 countries have been transformed into immersive Matterport digital twins to improve every part of the building lifecycle from planning, construction, and operations to documentation, appraisal, and marketing.

1926: Intel Corporation and The AI Incubator Network Mar 28, 2022

A 2021 EdScoop survey underwritten by Dell Technologies and Intel found that higher education officials believe the demand for AI training is outpacing both supply and the current ability of higher education institutions to meet that demand. Fifty-three percent of survey respondents suggested AI would account for the most significant increase in instructional demand over the next three years, and 50 percent said they would like support from a consortium/association of peer institutions.

Intel, Dell Technologies and the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) recently announced the AI Incubator Network. The new initiative from Intel’s AI for Workforce program will design and build artificial intelligence (AI) labs across the country by utilizing the expertise and industry connections of America’s community college system.

The partnership is opening applications for community colleges that would like to participate in the AI Incubator Network by designing and building their own AI incubators as physical laboratories, on virtual platforms or in hybridized models.

Community colleges that join the AI Incubator Network can participate in discussions, connect on economic development, strategize on student engagement into AI programming, share lessons about student projects between the participating colleges. It will also gather best practices from the field of AI Incubation as identified by AACC, Intel, Dell and other industry partners. The labs will also provide students with more access to AI equipment, tools and resources, and foster the skills needed for future jobs.

Carlos Contreras shares more information on the announcement along with Intel’s 2030 Goals and the company’s dedication to using tech as a force for good, underscoring its aim to make technology fully inclusive and to expand digital readiness worldwide.

1925: imimobile (part of Webex) - The Tech Making Every Interaction Matter Mar 27, 2022

imimobile, part of Webex by Cisco, provides cloud communications software and services that manage business-critical customer interactions at scale. Cisco Systems acquired the business in February 2021 and now forms an integral part of the Webex CX strategy.

Since its foundation in 2000 at the start of the mobile internet era, the company has worked with many large enterprises across different industries to create superior customer experiences. Its API and low-code Communications Platform-as-a-Service (CPaaS) offering, Webex Connect, enables large enterprises to automate, orchestrate and monitor their customer interactions all on one platform. This helps businesses to lower costs, reduce complexity and accelerate IT roadmaps.

I invited Ramy Riad on Tech Talks Daily to learn more about how they are helping businesses stay connected to their customers in a world where every touchpoint, on every channel, is an opportunity to deliver rich, engaging, intuitive experiences. A world where every interaction matters.

We discuss the right strategies that can make it possible to employ a single platform to deliver next-level CX, the future of messaging, and how leaders can expedite their approach across digital channels with solutions like CPaaS.

1923: How to Pivot and Increase Revenue Through Digital Transformation. Mar 26, 2022

Paul Oppong is a leader in the project management & digital transformation space. I invited him to join me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss why more companies are beginning to embrace digital transformation and why it’s key to their survival. We also talk about how to pivot and increase revenues through digital transformation.

ABOUT PAUL:

Paul Oppong is a project management consultant, author, and speaker specializing in digital transformation and leadership. He has a strong record of success in helping organizations meet the technology challenges of tomorrow in a wide range of sectors such as Aeronautics, Defence, Automotive, Transport, Financial Services, and Energy. In addition, he’s delivered countless projects in big data and technology.

Paul is also a published thought leader whose writing has appeared in The Project Times and The Business Analyst Times. In addition, he’s written several books, including “The Future-Proof Business

1924: LegalTech: Document Automation, Negotiation and Analysis Platform Mar 26, 2022

Do the traditional "moats" around the legal services industry still exist? And is the legal industry still slow to embrace technology? I wanted to bust a few myths today and learn how the industry embraces technological change and does things differently.

Today I want to explore the world of legal tech, document automation, negotiation, and analysis platforms. Giles Thompson, Head of Growth at Avvoka, a lawyer by trade (formerly Kirkland & Ellis and Herbert Smith Freehills) shares his story on Tech Talks Daily and how he is now a tech investor and entrepreneur.

I ask if LegalTech is the next FinTech, and who/what will be the next DocuSign? We also discuss how many lawyers are beginning to ask why they still have to negotiate contracts over email, with track changes and several lawyers building a different future that makes their lives easier.

I also learn how Avvoka is a document automation, negotiation and analytics tool designed to help law firms, in-house legal teams and businesses draft documents, negotiate them, and leverage data insights from that process to draft better documents and get to “yes” faster.

1922: Fujitsu ServiceNow - Diagnosing the Symptoms (And Solutions) of Technical Debt Mar 25, 2022

Carey Blunt, Global Head of ServiceNow Solutions at Fujitsu joins me in a conversation about diagnosing the symptoms (and solutions) of technical debt.

In a nutshell, technical debt is the cost of additional rework caused by choosing an easy solution over a better approach that would take longer. It’s something that is impacting a huge number of organisations, especially in the wake of all the disruption we’ve seen in recent years. But while this has likely been born out of necessity, if these burdens from the past aren’t addressed, the repercussions for your future could be severe. As shown by the fact that for every hour spent on innovation, organisations spend three hours tackling technical debt.

Even more worrying, however, is the recent study that revealed how 68% of organisations believed their technical debt would increase in 2022. So, to help organisations overcome this, this podcast will explore the main traits of technical debt to raise awareness among leaders who often fail to recognise the symptoms in their own business. But of course, like any good doctor, we won’t just diagnose the symptoms, we’ll also provide the cure – in the shape of thought leadership from our experts and a healthy dose of looking at the benefits of digital / IT workflows.

1921: Portland General Electric - Decarbonization Tech Mar 24, 2022

This is a highly challenging time for energy companies as we head towards a cleaner future that is only achievable through decarbonization and electrification. John Kochavatr, VP of IT & Supply Chain and CIO at Portland General Electric joins me on the Tech Talks Daily Podcast to share their story.

Portland General Electric is a fully integrated energy company based in Portland, Oregon, with operations across the state. The company serves approximately 900,000 customers with a service area population of 2 million Oregonians in 51 cities. Oregon has some of the most ambitious clean energy targets in the U.S. – and PGE is committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions from power served to customers by 80% by 2030 and 100% by 2040.

John shares how their path to reach these targets involves everyone working together - from their customers, regulators, stakeholders and technology providers. But how they have also participated in multiple ambitious projects to help us reach those targets, including our up-and-coming battery storage facility Wheatridge and the recently completed Integrated Operations Center (IOC).

I learn more about how Portland General Electric sees technology in service of its larger mission of providing their customers with clean, safe and reliable energy. We also discuss some of the innovative ways they are currently using technology to improve reliability.

1920: Talking Autonomous Integrated Cloud Security With Censornet CTO Mar 23, 2022

Richard Walters, CTO of autonomous integrated cloud security firm Censornet joins me on the Tech Talks Daily Podcast. Censornet provides mid-market organizations with the confidence and control of enterprise-grade cyber protection. Its platform integrates attack intel across email, web, and cloud to ensure their cyber defenses can react immediately, whether it's day or night. The company has more than 1,500 customers globally, including several standout names such as Fever-Tree, the National Portrait Gallery, Hallmark Hotels, and Thatchers Cider.

We discuss why attacks on critical infrastructure are on the rise and why ransomware will be the next security threat to cause human casualties. In addition, we also discuss the ABC of cybersecurity will be Activity, Behaviour, and Context and why we are moving a step closer to Walled gardens to protect data.

1919: Accenture Interactive: Mark Curtis, Head of Innovation and Thought Leadership Mar 22, 2022

Mark Curtis, Head of Innovation and Thought Leadership at Accenture Interactive returns to the Tech Talks Daily podcast. Mark is a serial entrepreneur and innovator. His first company, Curtis Hoy, pioneered radio sales promotion from 1989. Highlights included introducing fixed frequency low-cost radios as a sampling driver for the Pepsi taste test, bringing drive-in movies to the UK for the first time ever (Diet Pepsi) and designing the first marketing use of virtual reality in 1993 (for a Unilever brand). Today's episode discusses how the Metaverse and its technology could impact brands and customers. In addition, we talk about how this is expanding beyond just the gaming community – designers, digital product developers, creatives, and technologists will play a central role in virtual world-building and content placement, as everything is 3D-based.

However, as brands seek to capitalize on the opportunities presented by the Metaverse, ethics around behavior manipulation, sustainability, and accessibility for all must remain front of mind. Finally, we discuss the democratization of access might lead to a new wealth of shared cultural experiences and new economies.

1918: Qualcomm Wi-Fi 7 | Next-Gen Wi-Fi Standard Mar 21, 2022

WiFi has increasingly become a critical need for both consumers and enterprises over the years, and technology has needed to evolve to address these new experiences for all. WiFi 6 and WiFi 6E are fast becoming mainstream, and there is a growing need to improve performance. Just when you thought you were on top of the game, WiFi 7 is now within tangible reach, and it's expected to bring next-level wireless connectivity and performance to all. So today, I have invited Andy Davidson, senior director of technology planning, at Quualcom in a discussion about What is WiFi 7? And why it's already shaping up to be the next big thing in connectivity.

Andy also shares how Qualcomm is at the forefront of WiFi evolution, driving the standards and technology to meet the aspirations of the ever-growing customers, devices, applications, and services.

1917: CD Baby - The Tech Making The Music Business Accessible to All Mar 20, 2022

CD Baby is an artist-services platform that makes it easy for independent musicians to distribute, promote, and monetize their music so they can thrive outside the major-label system. Built on the belief that every artist should be able to pursue their vision without compromise and have an equal opportunity to be heard, CD Baby’s distribution services, self-promotion tools, and educational initiatives are designed to increase artist autonomy and empower independent artists to build their audiences without corporate assistance. Home to over 1 million artists and more than 10 million tracks, CD Baby has paid out over $1 billion in royalties to artists since its founding in 1998. However, with all the recent startup posturing, model shuffling, and race-to-the-bottom pricing in music distribution, it’s time to take a step back and think, what is the role of a music distributor? Kevin Breuner shares his philosophy on what it means to be a music distributor in 2022.

1916: How the Mobile and App Development Industry is Evolving Mar 19, 2022

Nik Froehlich is the CEO and Founder of Saritasa, a full-service mobile web, software, AR/VR, and IoT development brand. Today, he discusses the unique position of working with developers post-Covid, how the mobile and app development industry has changed, and trends that he's seen in working with some household name brands.

One unique brand that they've worked with is: iHeartRadio. For their annual music festival, Saritasa's team was tasked with creating an immersive 'earthquake experience'. They've also created apps for BJs and other restaurants across the US and world. But where did it all begin?

In 1987, he started a sidewalk repair company, and that is when he realized the real power of technology; and how he can use tech to scale a business. He created a database and a CRM to run this new business. Utilizing technology, he eventually grew the company to cover over 20 branches in 9 states across the country.

1915: All In The Loop: Event Technology for In-Person, Virtual and Hybrid Events... Mar 19, 2022

All In The Loop creates virtual, hybrid, and in-person event solutions. The company supports thousands of events in over 45 counties, and they pride themselves on delivering an outstanding event experience with their unique events technology platforms. Whether your event is virtual, in-person or somewhere in between, their versatile mobile apps and virtual event platforms can be tailored to your requirements.

In 2020, the event industry was decimated by the pandemic. All in the Loop were forced to evolve its offering to cater for the rapidly emerging virtual event market. They positioned themselves to serve remote working audiences.

By partnering with its homegrown streaming technology, they were very quickly able to provide a virtual event solution for their clients.

All In The Loop designed and launched virtual rooms for attendees to view live presentations, which became the industry standard.

Today, they pride themselves in supporting thousands of events worldwide, whether in-person, hybrid, or virtual. Lawrence Gillward shares their journey and how their technology is transforming events.

1914: Agreena - Agritech and the rise of Carbon Farming Mar 18, 2022

Agreena was founded within the industry by visionary farmers and fintech-savvies. What originated as an online commodity trading marketplace has become one of the first carbon farming platforms in the pan-European landscape. Using a set of core principles to regenerate soil, the company’s unique vertically integrated solution suggests putting the farmer first – backing with the knowledge, support, and incentives to implement sustainable ag practices at scale.

In 2021 alone, Agreena serves more than 150 farmers in eight countries; and more than 50,000 hectares of farmland yielding regeneratively. Verified to the ISO 14064-2 standard, AgreenaCarbon is based on a yearly harvest cycle, with the data capture process giving farmers the opportunity for payouts from year one.

Simon Haldrup, Co-founder & CEO, Agreena, joins me in a conversation about how we are entering an exciting phase of climate action where both farmers and innovation are stepping center-stage as discussions move toward removing carbon from the atmosphere.

We discuss the Carbon Farming Initiative and how it emphasizes public funding to spur growth and create more certainty for landowners to participate.

With new funding on the horizon for carbon farming through mechanisms such as the CAP eco schemes, I learn more about how it will be essential to ensure that all programs are designed to complement what has already been created through incentives from the private sector and voluntary carbon market.

With plans to develop a carbon removal certification, the European Commission is currently positioning itself to take a leading role; getting measures in place from a governing body can ensure transparency and environmental integrity of the market.

Now is the time that requires collaboration and activation across all stakeholders – public, private, academic, civic – all hands in the soil. We discuss how technology will bring all this together.

1913: How DroneShield Protects Against Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS), Mar 17, 2022

DroneShield is a worldwide leader in counter-UAS security and technology. The company develops pre-eminent UAS security solutions that protect people, organizations and critical infrastructure from intrusion from UAS threats. Its leadership brings world-class expertise in engineering and physics, combined with deep experience in defence, intelligence, and aerospace.

I wanted to learn more about how this anti-drone company uses AI to jam or shoot drones out of the sky. Matt McCrann, US CEO of DroneShield (DRSHF), breaks down types of attacks, potential risk, rise in drone use age, etc.

Matt elaborates on both the benefits and downfalls of drone use and discusses how the use of drones will shift the type of attacks we see in modern warfare. But most importantly, he also provides insights on how destructive attacks can be prevented.

1912: UiPath: Accelerating Human Achievement With Tech Mar 16, 2022

UiPath is a leading robotic process automation (RPA) software company. Renzo Taal designs and manages the company's growth strategy for the EMEA region in close collaboration with the senior leadership team and has been recognized as one of the most influential young business leaders in the EMEA. We discuss the importance of retaining and attracting talent with automation education and how to best implement automation upskilling and reskilling programs within the context of the current job market. Finally, Renzo shares his story and how an increased awareness of the power of UiPath's end-to-end automation platform coupled with solid execution by the team resulted in a fiscal third-quarter ARR of $818 million, an increase of 58 percent year-over-year.

1911: Thales Group - Rise of the Sovereign Cloud. Mar 15, 2022

Rob Ellis from Thales joins me in discussing the rise of the sovereign cloud. We discuss how data sovereignty is not just about localization; it's ensuring that nation-states can store their data in their own country and control access to it.

There are now more than 1,800 data compliance laws companies must comply with on a global scale. I learn how this surge in regulation is creating a shift towards the containment and localisation of data and why we will see this more and more in the years to come.

The public will become increasingly aware of these challenges too, with individual data sovereignty on the horizon. This will allow individuals to control where their data is and how it is used, strengthening the correlation between identity and data protection.

Finally, we discuss how it's likely that more tech giants will build localized data centers to circumnavigate geographical barriers to business. This in turn will lead to an increasing level of investment from global cloud providers in the cloud infrastructure of nation-states, driving forward their ongoing digital transformation journey.

1910: BSI - How Cyber Vulnerabilities are Plaguing the Supply Chain Mar 14, 2022

Cybersecurity vulnerabilities have been plaguing supply chains across industries. According to an analysis conducted by BSI, ransomware attacks on the supply chain have increased by 66 percent in the last three years, expediting the concern of cybersecurity for private companies. Considering these attacks range from targeting the sea modality to the trucking modality, tools to combat the threat of cyber-attacks on the supply chain have solidified in the last year, making it a central part of the United States cybersecurity policy.

Mark Brown, Global Managing Director, Digital Trust Consulting Services at BSI joins me in a conversation about all this, along with cybersecurity risk and trends that are emerging along with how we can better prepare,

Mark Brown joined BSI in February of 2021 as the Global Managing Director of the Consulting Services, Cyber Security, and Information Security business. In his role, Mark drives a new global focus on emerging technologies and risks such as IoT and Operational Technology (OT), increased cloud adoption, RPA Security, 5G security, and the CISO desire to achieve central management over the new converged digital arena, positioning cyber security as a business enabler. With over 25 years of in the industry, Mark brings a wealth of knowledge on the expanding cybersecurity marketplace as organizations grapple with digital transformation and addressing new technologies that bring new business risks. Mark has previously held global leadership roles across industry and professional services, including tenures as Global CISO at SABMiller plc, and Global CIO/CTO at Spectris plc, as well as leadership roles as a Partner at Wipro Ltd., and Ernst & Young (EY) LLP.

1909: How to Avoid Hasty Cloud Migrations Mar 13, 2022

The COVID-19 pandemic has added many layers of complexity to the workplace, as companies are increasingly relying on technology to establish secure remote work capabilities. Since a multi-cloud IT infrastructure can provide exceptional benefits, including optimizing cost performance, avoiding vendor lock-in, and increasing reliability by distributing assets in the event of an IT crisis, it’s no wonder so many companies are racing to adopt multi-cloud solutions. However, this rush to migrate sensitive data and business functions from on-premises to multiple clouds is leaving many organizations ill-prepared for security and compliance issues. Gartner has predicted that by 2025, 90% of the organizations that fail to control public cloud use will inappropriately share sensitive data. Companies that fail to employ security guardrails when planning a cloud migration are severely increasing their risk of misconfigurations that can lead to devastating security and compliance incidents. Keith Neilson, Technical Evangelist at CloudSphere joins me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss how companies can maintain a competitive edge and keep company data secure by leveraging a more agile cyber asset management approach.

1908: The Digital Transformation of Healthcare Mar 12, 2022

Paddy Padmanabhan is the Founder and CEO of Damo Consulting Inc., a digital transformation and growth advisory firm focused on the healthcare sector. For over 20 years, Paddy has had a distinguished career in leadership roles working extensively as a technology strategist and trusted advisor to C-suite executives in large health systems and digital health firms.

Paddy is also the author of the best-selling book Healthcare Digital Transformation - How Consumerism, Technology, and Pandemic are Accelerating the Future and The Big Unlock – Harnessing Data and Growing Digital Health Businesses in a Value-based Care Era.

We discuss the top digital priorities for health systems today and the Digital transformation trends driving healthcare in 2022. We also talk about developing enterprise digital roadmaps and digital maturity in healthcare.

1907: How Trace Network Labs is Enabling Lifestyle For Metaverse Mar 11, 2022

Trace Network Labs is creating an ecosystem that will allow an individual to create their own exclusive virtual space, live their lives, and roam freely across. They aim to enable the evolution of the luxury lifestyle for the metaverses as the boundaries between real and virtual continue to blur.

Lokesh Rao discusses how the Metaverse will change the way people connect with others and express themselves through clothing, accessories, etc. We also discuss what this will mean for consumers and brands and how NFTs will continue to revolutionize the fashion industry.

We also talk about how technology has changed and influenced fashion over recent years and what we might expect from the convergence of blockchain and fashion.

1906: Data Intelligence and The Future of the Data Catalog Mar 10, 2022

Steve Neat, GM EMEA of a large Enterprise Data Catalog and Data Governance company called Alation, joins me in a conversation about Data Intelligence. IDC recently coined the term to mean a system that delivers trustworthy, reliable data.

We discuss how Alation is credited with creating the data catalog product category, how this relates to data intelligence, and why a number of the world’s best known brands are now turning to data intelligence to create a more data-driven culture. I learn how an ability to better understand and trust data across an organization leads to creating communities around data where people can reach out to each other and share information.

1905: The Tech Helping Businesses Stay Carbon Neutral. Mar 09, 2022

We all care about climate change - but it's not always easy to know what to do about it. So what are the best things we can do - and how can we quantify our impact? Treepoints is the easiest way to do good and earn rewards along the way. With Treepoints, not only will you offset your carbon footprint, but you'll support projects that deliver life-changing benefits to vulnerable communities and local ecosystems.

Treepoints had raised £150k to help us reach our goal of planting 67 million trees (one for every UK resident) within the next five years. But I wanted to learn more about how technology brings all this to life. Jacob Wedderburn-Day returns to the podcast to talk about all this and much more.

1904: The Future Of D2C Tech Beyond Performance Marketing Mar 08, 2022

Building on Shopify and selling on Facebook won't work anymore for the brands as this is just pushing CAC through the roof, leaving brands struggling for profitability and growth. Organically reimagining commerce is the only way for digitally native brands to win in every normal.

dotkonnekt is building the industry's first Experiential Commerce platform, purpose-built for brands to grow their D2C channel organically. How? By converging Content, Community, and Commerce and scripting a composable and unique experience for their customers visiting their site. The commerce platforms that exist today, Shopify's of the world were built for Retailers and SMB's, hence brands feel stuck, with no room for creativity, in their templatized and monolithic architectures.

Started amid a pandemic last year by 2 retail enthusiasts & industry veterans Dhiraj (in Bangalore) & Chandan (in the US), who in their previous avatars have led this space for 2.5 decades.

1903: Is It Time to Automate Your Unified Communications? Mar 07, 2022

The recent pandemic response has elevated the importance of simplified administration of UCC platforms like Teams to senior management who are navigating a highly complex hybrid working environment with increasingly distributed workforces.

However, the fragmentation of technology in the UCC space has actually led to a disunification of communications, meaning that the challenge for businesses now is to re-unify and automate management and user administration, freeing admin specialists to do the work they need to do, and employees to work, collaborate and innovate. Kurmi is a company that works with the likes of Verizon, NTT, Orange, BP, L’Oreal, BNP Paribas, etc to handle the automated provisioning of around 5 million people worldwide to ensure that employees have the tools and platforms they need to get working ASAP.

Eric Olson, VP Sales Americas joins me in a conversation about the multitude of different platforms like Teams, Google, Avaya, Cisco etc, and collaboration tools that organizations need to navigate. We also discuss how things like ‘the great resignation’ and hybrid working have created greater pressure for admin teams and why automation can alleviate the burden.

1902: Now®️ - The Tech Supporting Small and Minority-Owned Businesses Mar 06, 2022

Lara Hodgson is the CEO and co-founder of Now®️, a fintech startup enabling minority-owned small businesses to grow through its invoice payment solution that redefines how and when companies get paid. Lara also serves as an Entrepreneur in Residence at Harvard Business School and is an internationally recognized speaker, leading seminars on creativity, innovation, and access to capital.

Lara joins me on Tech Talks Daily to share lessons from the growing pains of starting her own small business with Stacey Abrams and their guide for entrepreneurs highlighted in their upcoming book, Level Up.

In 2010, they created NowAccount because they were sick of waiting for their customers to pay. Initially, they celebrated when they landed a big contract, but weeks and weeks would pass and payment would still be outstanding. They needed working capital to continue business operations and their cash was tied up in their invoices.

Everyone told them to get a line of credit or try factoring, and they thought, “Why should we have to borrow money or factor when we are the free bank to our customers? There had to be a better way!” I also learn more about her entrepreneurial journey as a female founder and startup story about how and why she co-founded Now®️.

Finally, we discuss the ongoing effects of COVID-19 on small businesses and the importance of supporting small, minority-owned businesses.

1901: Exploring Data-Driven Growth With The NPD Group Mar 05, 2022

Darren Person joins me on Tech Talks Daily. As Global CIO, Darren leads NPD's Technology Group, encompassing the company's operations and technology organizations, and is responsible for spearheading the development of NPD's next-generation platform, addressing clients' needs through innovations in data and analytics.

Today's episode explores the opportunities beyond Silicon Valley, and we discuss where to find the best tech jobs across America. Darren also shares advice on how to find the right company to further your career in tech and shares tips on why a career in technology is the best investment you can make.

Finally, we discuss the importance of data-driven decision-making across organizations, and the guest offers some strategic advice for CIOs on building a future-proof tech workforce.

1900: Breaking the Boundaries of Techno-Polymers Additive Manufacturing Mar 04, 2022

Founded in 2015, Roboze was created to redesign the global supply chain through its patented ultra-precise 3D printing technology for super materials, leveraging a proprietary CARBON PEEK material - the highest performing 3D printing super polymer in the entire industry. Roboze currently works with GE, Bosch, Airbus, and other global organizations across space, energy/sustainable energy, medical, manufacturing, and more to design and create end-use parts.

The company recently released the world's largest 3D printer equipped with a heated chamber for the fast production of incredibly strong non-metallic parts and is the creator of additive manufacturing systems with the highest accuracy and repeatability in the world.

I invited Alessio Lorusso onto Tech Talks Daily to learn more about his tech startup story, 3D printing, and much more.

1899: RCRDSHP - Digitisation and the Future of Music Collections Mar 03, 2022

Digital collectibles platform, RCRDSHP, has just embarked on a brand new journey with RCRDSHP Studio. Developing a space for artists and fans to engage with each other in such an innovative and personalized web3 environment is everything RCRDSHP has aimed to do, and now it is here for the world to explore.

Far from the big tech hype and commercial bluster surrounding NFTs and web3, thousands of projects and collectives are quietly shaping new music communities via decentralized tech. These grassroots, often fan-driven efforts blend experiences, collaboration, collective creation and investment with ever-evolving creativity.

RCRDSHP wants more of these experiments to flourish. To make this happen, the web3 music platform has launched RCRDSHP Studio, a home base that provides the tools for music lovers and artists to experiment together with all that web3 offers.

RCRDSHP Studio gives music fans a base and the tools to play around with new web3 experiences, from collectively creating something to running a remix contest to supporting a cause that matters. These experiences take place primarily on Discord and Twitch, NFTs, and the legacy music business to build a bridge to music’s web3 future. It’s part of RCRDSHP’s ongoing mission to find new ways to assert music’s value and create sustainable artist livelihoods.

Obie Fernandez joins me in a discussion about the future of our music collections.

1898: Securing the Mobile Workforce Mar 02, 2022

Denis O’Shea joins me on Tech Talks Daily in a discussion about securing remote workers using their personal devices. We also talk about balancing security with employee experience, and he shares a few tips around running a paper-less, server-less, password-less business. Finally, I learn more about the story behind Mobile Mentor.

Denis O’Shea founded Mobile Mentor in New Zealand in 2004. Since then, the company has helped millions of people unlock the full potential of their technology. In 2017, O’Shea moved to Nashville, Tennessee to launch the company’s US business, with a focus on securing the mobile workforce in industries such as healthcare, education, finance, and government services.

Mobile Mentor is a global leader in the endpoint ecosystem, helping clients navigate the right balance between security and employee experience. The company was named Microsoft’s 2021 Global Partner of the year for Modern Endpoint Management primarily for their work helping Alive Hospice safely treat patients during COVID 19.

In addition to being a top Microsoft partner, they are also certified by Apple and Google. In addition, mobile Mentor has recently worked with Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Michigan Medicine, Mayo Clinic, and the US Coast Guard.

1897: The Tech Helping People Create & Sell Online Courses & Coaching Mar 01, 2022

Under the "Great Resignation," millions of people are leaving their jobs to start their own businesses. However, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 20% of those businesses will fail within the first year. And those that do survive the first year will likely not turn a significant profit for quite some time — if ever.

What if people could keep their day jobs and monetize their expertise without significant risk or time and capital expenditure? Well, that's exactly what Kajabi is doing. With Kajabi, users have a single platform to publish, market, and sell online courses, membership sites, communities, and other digital products. Tens of thousands of entrepreneurs rely on Kajabi to build and manage their online businesses, and the company has helped these entrepreneurs generate over $2 billion in sales from nearly 50 million customers to date. As an example of how people are growing their businesses on Kajabi, Dr. Jamie Wilkey earned $230,000 in 2021 on Kajabi through her online class that teaches pharmacists to use personalized medicine to change the trajectory of their careers.

Ahad Khan is the CEO of Kajabi, an all-in-one platform for knowledge entrepreneurs and creators to build, market, and sell educational content. I learn more about the story behind Kajabi and how they are helping people and businesses with their tech.

1896: LANDR: The Tech Behind The Creative Tools for Musicians Feb 28, 2022

A company called LANDR recently set off my tech spidey senses when they launched Chromatic, a first-of-its-kind virtual instrument featuring exclusive sounds by well-known artists, session players and producers. These sound sets are grouped by color and mood to spark more creativity for music makers.

With an impressive streaming library growing with new material in the next month, including artist-generated sound sets by 2020 Grammy nominee D Smoke (Best New Artist, Best Rap Album) and platinum selling Montreal singer-songwriter Ariane Moffatt (with her SOMMM collective), Chromatic offers the artist community a playable interface they can use in producing new works.

Chromatic will soon incorporate royalty splits for creators who are contributing sound sets and those who utilize them in their works, generating potential new revenue streams for artists everywhere while allowing for artful collaboration and exchange in a unique way. It will function as an intriguing additional asset artists can use to promote their recordings and projects and boost their income.

Khaled Said shares the story behind LANDR.

1895: Preparing For a Touchless Future Feb 27, 2022

Tina D’Agostin is the CEO of Alcatraz AI, an artificial intelligence company that employs facial authentication technology to create autonomous access control solutions for enterprises. D’Agostin previously served as the Chief Revenue Officer for Alcatraz AI, responsible for driving top-line growth and expanding Alcatraz’s footprint globally. As CEO, she plans to take Alcatraz AI into its next chapter to modernize the access control industry. Tina brings over 25 years of experience within the security technology and solutions industry, with leadership experience building high-performing organizations in hardware, IT, and smart technologies. Prior to Alcatraz AI, D’Agostin was the General Manager of Building Technology & Solutions at Johnson Controls, focused on delivering smart building technologies to global companies. Tina earned her undergraduate degree and her MBA from Rockford University. An avid and lifelong student, she has continued her education at Stanford University, receiving professional certifications in Innovation & Entrepreneurship and Energy Innovation & Emerging Technologies. Tina currently serves on the board at the Bay Area Council and is a contributing member of the Forbes Technology Council. In today's episode, we discuss the touchless future awaiting all of us as well as how buildings are getting smarter and how these technologies evolving are making for safer physical environments.

1894: Why Startups Should Care About Cybersecurity Feb 26, 2022

Should small startups care about cybersecurity? Did you know that the average cost of a ransomware attack is $500k? For most small businesses and startups, this means they go out of business. Even if they can afford to pay the ransom, the reputation damage is permanent. For that reason, more than 60% of small businesses & startups never survive the attack. Scary statistics.

Brian Fritton, CEO & Founder of Havoc Shield shares how they’ve taken the technical and legal ocean of complexity in the security arena and turned it into a simple step-by-step action plan that integrates many of the products, services, and policies companies normally need to wade through and implement individually.

Brian discusses why cybersecurity is not only for the big players as 43% of attacks target brands under 500 employees. He also shares easy-to-apply strategies that can literally save the businesses of everyone listening.

Finally, we talk about how something as simple as putting a cybersecurity badge on your website increases the conversion rate by more than 5%. And that’s just one of the underleveraged strategies.

1893: The Tech Changing How We Teach and Learn Feb 25, 2022

Panos Siozos is the Co-Founder and CEO of LearnWorlds, an online course platform for creating, selling and promoting online courses. He formerly worked in the European Parliament as a policy adviser for research and innovation issues (2009-2014). He is currently 'tasting his own medicine' having co-founded his edtech SaaS startup.

LearnWorlds is a powerful, easy-to-use and reliable training solution for individuals and enterprises. A fully customizable, white-label solution to train employees and associates, educate customers, or sell online courses to a wide audience.

The cloud-based e-learning platform offers Professionals, Entrepreneurs & Training Managers a solution tailored to their specific needs and a team of experts to help achieve your goals. Much more than just selling online courses, LearnWorlds comes with a built-in Social Community. But I wanted to learn more about the technology that makes it easy for anyone to create, market, and sell the most engaging online courses.

Panos joins in on Tech Talks Daily shares the story behind LearnWorlds, how the pandemic affected the way we learn, market trends, and surge in demand.

1892: Andrew Butt, Co-founder and CEO of Enable, a venture-backed ($62M) SaaS startup Feb 24, 2022

In 2017, Andrew Butt launched his third startup -- Enable, a venture-backed ($58.6M) cloud-based SaaS solution for B2B rebate management. The software is used by procurement and finance professionals in distribution, wholesale, and manufacturing across over 50 industries so that they can have an easy, seamless solution to execute and track their full range of trading programs.

More than $1 trillion in rebates are issued each year, and 4% of potential rebate revenue typically goes unclaimed due to companies using old methods like inadequate software solutions and excel sheets. Enable makes sure this revenue doesn't fall through the cracks and has more merchants and suppliers in the UK and US than any other comparable software solution.

Andrew Butt, Co-founder, and CEO of Enable, shares his story with me on Tech Talks Daily Podcast.

1891: Ransomware - Why Detection and Recovery Are More Important Than Recovery Feb 23, 2022

Andres Rodriguez is the founder and CTO of Nasuni, a cloud file storage provider. He is also the former CTO for the New York Times. We last spoke a few years ago, and I was eager to invite him back onto Tech Talks Daily for a catchup.

Andres talks about why ransomware has finally pushed back up to the breaking point. Backup, especially as the last line of defense against disasters like ransomware, is dead and ineffective. If it’s taking an enterprise or organization 2 weeks to recover their files (because they are following “best practices”) and suddenly paying the ransom seems like a good idea for business continuity, then the model is broken.

Prevention is no longer enough. It’s the detection and, most importantly, recovery. Unfortunately, the IT silos and no one wanting to take responsibility for recovery exacerbates the problem, causing it to fall between the cracks.

As ransomware attacks continue into the new year, the traditional backup will be more widely exposed as entirely inadequate for business continuity and minimizing disruption to the business. But we discuss how cloud-native, global file systems can make a recovery in minutes possible, not days or weeks.

1890: Minterest | The Highest Long-Term Yield in DeFi Feb 22, 2022

Most of today's DeFi lending and borrowing protocols have inflationary token models, don't capture or pass on the value the protocol generates, often lack cross-chain capabilities, and offer an overly complex user experience. Minterest changes that.

Having launched in September, following a $6.5 million from top-tier investors, the team is made up of ex-Cardano, Prysm Group, Chainlink, and IBM leaders and members with elite academic and technology credentials.

What sets Minterest apart from DeFi incumbents is that it is engineered from the ground up to capture the value it generates. By utilizing its buy-back mechanism, the protocol passes on 100% of revenue generated to its community of active participants.

Josh Rogers, the CEO and Co-founder is an Australian entrepreneur with more than 20 years of experience as a serial entrepreneur. Josh has been a founding member of numerous start-ups, including COMindico, the world's first point-to-point IP telco (US$300M raise); Oriel Communications, the world's first micro-billing content engine including the world's first monetisation of Big Brother 2 content; Freelancer.com, and the world's largest freelance marketplace.

In today's episode of Tech Talks Daily, Josh discusses why the Minterest protocol provides users with decentralized token money markets, combined with a uniquely fair incentive structure. He also shares how Minterest recaptures crypto's vision of creating a fairer, more egalitarian financial system and the industry's current issues.

1889: Iris, The Audio Technology Creating Active Listening Feb 21, 2022

IRIS is a revolutionary new audio experience that dramatically increases sound quality by introducing the space usually missing from recorded audio, unlocking the 'live' dimension that's often lost. This is achieved through a proprietary algorithm that splits out and increases the phase information sent to the brain. The listener's brain then reassembles this vast increase in information and becomes far more active in the listening process.

The audio technology company has also just launched IRIS CLARITY, a desktop application that eradicates all background noise in online meetings, ensuring the voice of each participant is heard clearly and bringing control to otherwise uncontrollable environments.

Jacobi Anstruther joins me on Tech Talks Daily to share how this new audio technology company is on a mission to enable the world to listen well. Their patented algorithms use advanced psycho-acoustics, machine learning, and AI to create cutting-edge, sound innovation software that enhances audio streams in real-time and dramatically increases sound quality.

About Jacobi

Jacobi Anstruther has been considered a leading innovator in the music industry for over 15 years. Possessing a background in finance and an irrepressible entrepreneurial spirit, he has been behind start-ups spanning technology, music, venues, and record labels.

With a clear vision and desire to instigate change in the music space by bringing 'live' experiences to everyone, Jacobi became obsessed with tackling music compression and audio quality issues alongside neurological behaviour and human performance.

It was in 2016, while building a music festival in California that would blend music and social change with audio quality at its heart, that he was introduced to the two key engineers behind IRIS technologies Ltd. Instantly blown away by the superior audio experience and their unique understanding of the neurological effects of sensory input stimuli, he began to build a business model focused on hacking the nervous system to improve human performance and quality of experience looking to solve the many issues found with digital content.

Today IRIS has been recognised as the most innovative steps forward in audio and human performance in over 10 years. IRIS continues to expand its understanding of this area and the book of patented technology solutions.

1888: Ordnance Survey, a Digital Transformation Story Feb 21, 2022

Every piece of data tells a story. Ordnance Survey data is more than a map. It keeps us all safe, helps businesses be more productive and gives people the freedom to step outside and explore.

The emergency services depend on it to get exactly where they’re needed. And when disaster strikes we work with our partners to minimise damage and save lives. Its data is used to plan smart cities, brings gaming worlds to life, helps lenders and insurers assess risk and prevent fraud, and supports over £100 billion of our nation’s economy.

For over 230 years, Ordnance Survey has been mapping Great Britain in extraordinary detail. But I wanted to learn more about the company's digital transformation and how it has developed one of the world's largest spatial databases. So first, Lloyd Clarke shares how its old products and data sets were on multiple Oracle databases. Then, we discuss how Ordnance Survey (OS) has completely overhauled its approach to data storage with Pure Storage and achieved its innovation goals.

I also learn how thanks to FlashArray™, the company can now deploy servers and spin up virtual machines in minutes, which allows it to react to its customers far quicker than before.

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1887: Meet the New Dynatrace CEO Rick McConnell Feb 20, 2022

At Dynatrace's annual Perform conference, the company revealed new capabilities to help developers automate observability and security best practices in their applications. In addition, the $13.48 billion monitoring and observability company is going head-to-head with Splunk and Datadog on its mission to boost growth.

We have recently spoken with Steve Tack from Dynatrace about going multi-cloud with serverless monitoring, and I also learned that they have a new CEO in Rick McConnell. At the Perform 2022 event, I caught up with him to learn more about his origin story, what attracted him to Dynatrace's vision for the company's future, and much more.

Join me in learning more about the motivations, passions and insights from the Dynatrace CEO.

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1886: How Tech is Helping Wiley to Unlock Human Potential Feb 19, 2022

For over 200 years, Wiley has been helping people and organizations develop the skills and knowledge they need to succeed. They are known for creating digital education, learning, assessment, and certification solutions to help universities, businesses, and individuals move between education and employment and achieve their ambitions.

By partnering with learned societies, Wiley supports researchers to communicate discoveries that make a difference. Its online scientific, technical, medical, and scholarly journals, books, and other digital content build on a 200-year heritage of quality publishing.

At last year's Dynatrace Perform event, I got chatting with Wiley's CIO and CISO; Sean Mack shared his experience in DevOps, infrastructure, security, enterprise applications, development, and program management. But, at this year's Perform Event, I have invited Eric Lytle on the podcast to learn more about how Wiley's digital transformation journey has progressed. We also discuss how Wiley accelerated its cloud journey and worked with Dynatrace.

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1885: VGS - The Rise of Virtual Cards and Embedded Fintech Feb 18, 2022

Providing essential security and compliance infrastructure, Very Good Security (VGS) enables startups and enterprises to focus on their core business instead of compliance and regulatory overhead. With one single integration, VGS customers unlock the value of sensitive data without the cost and liability of securing it themselves, while also accelerating compliances like PCI, SOC 2, GDPR and more.

Since I last spoke to VGS in 2019, the company has raised a $60 million Series C funding. It has also hit several key milestones including recognition as a Forbes Next Billion-Dollar Startup, doubling revenue and headcount, launching several pivotal products, acceptance into the AWS ISV Accelerate Program, and expanding its executive bench.

Peter Berg, VP of Business Development & Strategy at Very Good Security (and former head of Visa Ventures) joins me on Tech Talks Daily. He has a great back story and is a fintech expert who shares the latest industry trends (like the rise of virtual cards and embedded fintech) and why data security is a crucial pillar for payments and e-commerce companies as consumers are increasingly worried about using their personal info.

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1884: The Key Elements to a Successful Product Launch Feb 17, 2022

Derek Osgood is a former marketing exec turned founder, building Ignition – the collaborative GTM platform helping Product and Marketing teams to get new products to market faster and more effectively.

Prior to founding Ignition, he was an early hire at Rippling where he stood up the Product Marketing function and helped scale the company to $20M in ARR. As a Product Marketing leader everywhere from startups to major brands like PlayStation, Derek has launched over 100 products, and his products have generated over $1B in revenue. Now he's building the platform he wished he had along the way.

In today's episode, Derek discussed the vital elements to a successful product launch and the future of software for product and marketing teams. We also talk about the biggest mistakes companies make when launching products + how to avoid them.

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1883: The Collaborative Technology Solving Complex Social Problems Feb 16, 2022

ECINS started as a germ of an idea back in 2000, when founders, Gary and Sarah Pettengell, were still working in the police force. They saw vulnerable people grappling with problems like gambling, addiction, family violence and sex crimes and wondered if there might be a less authoritarian, more compassionate way to help them.

They thought how much better it might be if support agencies could securely share their knowledge about people, so the complexity of their lives and struggles might be more fully seen and supported. They wondered what might help empower vulnerable people and communities to take action in their own lives. And so, Empowering Communities through Integrated Network Systems, or ECINS, was born.

Gary and Sarah share how their collaborative technology is solving complex social problems.

Bios:

Gary Pettengell

Global CEO

As head honcho of E-CINS, if there is one thing you can be sure of, it’s that Gary’s sights are firmly set on making things better. Whether during his time in the police force, helping vulnerable people. Or when E-CINS first began. Or right up to this day, when he learns about the problems his clients are facing, and stays up late into the night, mind ticking over to the next piece of new functionality he can add to E-CINS to make things better for users. Never one to sit still, it’s no wonder coffee is his best friend.

Sarah Pettengell

Director of Services

Sarah’s compassion has always been front and centre in her approach to life and work. This quality served her well during her time in the police force, chairing domestic abuse conferences and managing specialist teams grappling with complex issue such as child abuse, vulnerable adult abuse and serious sexual violence. Dunsborough is her home base in Australia. It brings with it the sounds of the ocean and sand between the toes that spell relaxation with a capital R. Sarah’s in-depth knowledge of the real problems faced not only by vulnerable people, but those helping them, is invaluable to our clients.

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1882: Ripple - Sendi Young, Managing Director, Europe. Feb 15, 2022

The UK and European fintech space has seen a boom in recent years. But over the last five years in particular, Europe has seen huge growth. In the first half of 2021 alone, fintech investment in the region reached $39.1bn. The boom in Europe’s fintech scene is apparent in our work at Ripple too.

A quarter of our customer base is from the region. Over the years, Europe has developed strong foundations for the fintech industry to flourish, and it looks set to continue this upward trajectory with no signs of slowing down soon. So why does Europe have a booming fintech scene?

Sendi Young, Managing Director, Europe, Ripple, joins me on the Tech Talks Daily Podcast to discuss Ripple’s momentum in the market, trends she’s seen in digital payments, crypto adoption, and financial regulation in this space.

We also talk about how Ripple is supporting the next generation of talent in finance with initiatives including its University Blockchain Research Initiative (UBRI) in partnership with the world’s leading universities.

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1881: Technology and the Importance of Financial Literacy Feb 14, 2022

Adam Moelis shares why half of American's can't come up with $400 in an emergency, and 78% of people live paycheck to paycheck. But they spend $80 billion on the lottery every year. We also discuss a recent study that showed that most wished they'd learned more about money in school and scored themselves low when it came to financial literacy. Could tech change this?

Adam shares how he founded Yotta to help Americans make healthier financial decisions and become more financially secure. Adam's company provides the chance to win big every week, similar to playing the lottery but in an FDIC-insured account where customers cannot lose any money.

About Adam

Adam Moelis is the Co-Founder and CEO of Yotta, a financial technology startup whose mission is to help Americans become more financially secure by offering a unique banking experience that allows customers to win weekly prizes of up to $10 million.

Adam graduated summa cum laude with a B.S. in Finance and Accounting from Wharton. His degree and interest in personal finance and passion for behavioral psychology led him to co-found Yotta with Ben Doyle. Adam and Ben were honored with the prestigious Forbes 30 Under 30 in 2021 for their social impact on founding their company, Yotta. Additionally, Yotta has raised over $17 million from investors like Base 10, Core Innovation Capital, Slow Ventures, FundersClub, TwentyTwo VC, Chapter One, Capital X, among some angel investors. Yotta graduated from the prestigious Y Combinator in July of 2020.

Previously, Adam was an investment analyst in the Multi-Strategy Investing Group at Goldman Sachs. He also worked as a Product Manager and Data Analyst at YipitData, where he built a mobile app for consumers.

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1880: Inventing, Designing and Launching Digital Ventures Feb 13, 2022

Since co-founding NineTwoThree Digital Ventures in 2012, Andrew Amann has helped launch countless ventures for clients and emerging companies and turned his business into one of the fastest-growing private companies in America on the Inc 5000 list. Amann is an experienced intrapreneur and entrepreneur. He is responsible for patents for nuclear submarine components and three supply chain innovations and has successfully launched twelve startups, including the digital business card solution, Inigo App, acquired by Royaltie. Amann excels at bootstrapping startups without the involvement of venture capital. In today's episode, Aman shares how he has navigated the startup world by building a digital venture studio vs. a traditionally backed V.C. model startup. He also discusses how mentors and encourages young entrepreneurs with this approach.

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1879: The Tech Connecting Teams to Collaborate Faster & Work Smarter Feb 12, 2022

As many traditionally in-person industries embrace hybrid work on a large scale, there have been, and will continue to be, many changes to both the technology and the workplace. But I wanted to learn more about how workplace collaboration technology shifted and grown over the last 2 years to meet the needs of this new workforce. Jamie Snaddon shares his insights and story. About 8x8

8x8, Inc. (NYSE: EGHT) is transforming the future of business communications as a leading Software-as-a-Service provider of voice, video, chat, contact center and enterprise-class API solutions powered by one global cloud communications platform. 8x8 empowers workforces worldwide to connect individuals and teams so they can collaborate faster and work smarter. Real-time business analytics and intelligence provide businesses unique insights across all interactions and channels so they can delight end-customers and accelerate their business.

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1878: VMware Security, Rick McElroy, Principal Cybersecurity Strategist Feb 11, 2022

The Great Resignation is here, employees are seeking new opportunities and businesses are having to re-evaluate their workplace cultures to improve employee retention and evolve their onboarding programmes for new joiners. Whilst business leaders are busy finding solutions to retain talent with new perks

The reality is, the Great Resignation has brought about growing business IT challenges associated with insider threats. Insider threats have become a new, distinct challenge for organizations as they try to balance employee turnover, employee onboarding and the use of non sanctioned apps and platforms.

The sheer number of employees leaving their jobs and potentially still having access to the network or proprietary data has created a headache for IT and security teams tasked with protecting the organization. In 2022, Rick McElroy, Principal Cybersecurity Strategist at VMware believes we'll see the number of insider threat incidents increase.

Attackers will also start targeting employees to carry out their attacks or plant ransomware. As a result, we'll see new protocols and guidelines established as organizations work to keep networks and sensitive data protected.

In today's episode, we discuss the growing IT challenges associated with insider threats and how businesses can respond to this new threat, and how businesses can make sure employees with legitimate access to systems aren't using this privilege for illegitimate reasons.

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1877: Dynatrace Perform - Multi-Cloud With Serverless Monitoring Feb 11, 2022

Steve Tack, SVP, Product Management at Dynatrace, reveals the big announcements from Dynatrace Perform 2022. We discuss how Dynatrace will extend observability and advanced AIOps to all major serverless architectures. As a result, DevOps and SRE teams can now automatically discover, analyze, and optimize serverless applications in cloud-native applications at scale, freeing teams from manual processes and enabling them to spend more time accelerating innovation. We also discuss how Dynatrace will enhance its Application Security Module to deliver on the promise of Runtime Application Self-Protection (RASP) for cloud-native applications. Building on existing capabilities, including immediate and automatic detection of vulnerabilities in cloud-native apps and container workloads, Dynatrace will also block against attacks. As a result, organizations can secure modern cloud workloads and applications – accelerating throughput. Finally, we discuss why these product updates are important and what they mean for Dynatrace's product portfolio.

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1876: SAP - How to Lead in B2B Tech with Resilience Feb 10, 2022

Amanda Mountain has been with SAP for over 15 years. She serves as Global Vice President of SAP Digital Commerce, providing customers one seamless experience across all digital channels. She oversees digital customer strategy for SAP across sales, customer success, support and marketing, and has enabled and exemplified the digital transformation of SAP.

In today's episode, Amanda discusses how 2020 (and much of 2021!) reshaped the way she led her team at SAP. From the impact being virtual had on employees to its effect on B2B sales and customer experience, Amanda highlights how she has remained human-focused to keep employees and engaged and business in the green.

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1875: Nextiva Connect - Connected Communications Technology Feb 09, 2022

Tomas Gorny was born and raised in Poland. He moved to the United States in pursuit of the American Dream at the age of 20 without knowing any English. Today, he’s a technology visionary, Co-founder and CEO of Unitedweb and Nextiva, and on the board of directors for Endurance International Group. Tomas has received numerous awards for his leadership in the technology industry. In 2014 he was recognized as the "Business Leader of the Year" at Arizona Technology Council’s 2014 Governor’s Celebration of Innovation, and in 2017, he was named Top Tech CEO by the Phoenix Business Journal. Nextiva co-founder and CEO joins me on Tech Talks Daily to share his story. We discuss how Nextiva brings together communications, customer management, intelligence, and automation to help businesses build deep, lasting relationships with their customers.

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1874: The Tech Helping Companies Make Better Talent Decisions Feb 08, 2022

Josh Millet is the founder and CEO of Los Angeles-based Criteria, a venture-backed ($64.3M) assessment company dedicated to helping organizations make better talent decisions using objective, multidimensional data. The company acquired Alcami Interactive, a video interviewing platform, and Revelian, the leading game-based assessments company in the past couple of years.

Josh founded Criteria in 2006 with a vision to create a SaaS-based pre-employment testing service that would eliminate biases in the hiring process. I invited him to share his story on Tech Talks Daily.

With over 20 million assessments administered globally, the company has helped organizations make objective, data-driven hiring decisions that lead to better business outcomes with its scientifically validated assessments across multiple dimensions, including aptitude, personality, and skills. On average, Criteria has helped organizations increase their hiring success rates by 52%, reduce turnover by 48%, and generate 25% more revenue.

Before launching Criteria, Josh co-founded an online test preparation company, Number2.com, which Xap Corp acquired in 2002. Josh holds a Ph.D. in history from Harvard University, where he was a Fulbright Scholar and a Mellon Fellow.

I learn how Criteria helps companies make better talent decisions and how their goal is to help companies practice science-based talent management, producing better outcomes and reducing the impact of bias.

Finally, Josh shares his belief that the predominant hiring model centered around resumes consistently produces bad outcomes and exacerbates bias. He advised the science of what works and what doesn't work in hiring is very clear, but most companies are still

1873: DataKind - The Power of Data Science & AI in the Service of Humanity Feb 07, 2022

Lauren Woodman, the tech-for-good veteran who was recently announced CEO of DataKind, joins me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss the future of the Data for Good movement.

DataKind is a global non-profit organization that leverages data science in the service of humanity. They are unique for pushing the boundaries of what is possible when social and humanitarian causes leverage advanced technology to enact positive change in the world. Woodman has over 25 years of experience in the technology and non-profit sectors including roles as congressional liaison at the UN and GM of Microsoft’s global education programs. Most recently, she was the CEO at NetHope where she awarded $190 million in technology capabilities and infrastructure to humanitarian organizations. In this episode, we discuss her experience as a pioneer in the tech policy and non-profit space. I also learn more about the current data projects DataKind is working on using AI solutions and its social impact.

1872: The Transparent Solar Tech Reducing the Carbon Footprint of Buildings Feb 06, 2022

Miles Barr, Founder and Chief Technology Officer of solar startup Ubiquitous Energy, joins me on Tech Talks Daily. The solar energy company designs transparent solar technology for windows, electronics, and other applications. We discuss their goal of helping solve climate change by creating truly transparent renewable energy for every surface across the globe. Founded in 2011, Ubiquitous Energy was started by a group of MIT and MSU scientists and engineers looking for new ways to reduce humanity's carbon footprint by seamlessly integrating solar power technology into everyday products and surfaces.

Here in 2022, Ubiquitous Energy has the world's leading transparent solar technology – converting light into electricity using semiconducting materials while maintaining visible transparency. To both residential and commercial building occupants, Ubiquitous Energy's solar windows provide a clear, vibrant experience that is expected from traditional Low-E windows, but with self-contained, on-board power and smart functionality.

1871: The Future of Quantum Threats Feb 05, 2022

Quantum technology is on the brink of a breakthrough. This giant leap forward in computing power will enable unprecedented speed and power for certain industries. However, with this scientific milestone also comes significant cyber risk. For example, quantum computing has the power to break today's standard encryption methods - processes that are widely used to protect customer data, complete business transactions, and secure communications.

While a handful of industry giants in tech and academia have reported "quantum breakthroughs" there are still skeptics that disprove quantum's progress thus far. Nonetheless, it's just a matter of time. Quantum advances aside, the reality is that anything secure today will no longer be secure in the future. Because of this, companies need to be vigilant about staying up to date with the adoption of new standards.

However, industry groups (for example, NIST in the United States) are expected to debut new standards for quantum-resistant cryptography. In turn, companies will need to understand what these new standards will mean for their organization overall.

Ted Shorter, co-founder, and CTO of Keyfactor, joins me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss the potential impact of a quantum cryptography advancement and what this means in the future. We also talk about how the new standards will affect OS/software vendors and how the new standards will affect organizations.

1870: How Redis is Enabling the Future of Real Time AI Feb 04, 2022

Redis is a popular open-source database. As a real-time data platform in the cloud, global enterprises have become a critical component to compete in the digital economy. Alongside this, it's a company that's gone from strength to strength in recent times, with revenue growth of 54% over the last three years. In April, it secured $110m in series G funding, which closely followed a $100m funding round in August 2020, providing the company with a $2bn valuation.

Taimur Rashid, Chief Business Development Officer at Redis, joins on Tech Talks Daily to why it's time for senior teams to start seeing the creative value of developers within their organizations. Taimur shares his belief that software developers can offer a lot more value to their business. Therefore, organizations should empower their developers and give them a voice to experiment and innovate.

We also discuss how Redis is enabling the future of real-time AI. Finally, Taimur declares we're in the golden age of AI and ML and that it's becoming a core part of businesses worldwide. Finally, we talk about innovating at an enterprise pace and maintaining stability while adopting innovation.

Enterprises face a fast-changing, hyper-competitive market that requires organizations to implement changes to applications and infrastructure much faster than they did in the past—Taimur shares why they must balance stability and innovation.

1869: Top VC Firm/Former Home Depot CISO on Cybersecurity Strategies Feb 03, 2022

High-profile hacks and ransomware breaches continue to plague headlines, making cyber risk more tangible for individuals. So it's no surprise that a Bloomberg analysis found cyber expenses rising faster than overall IT spending. In addition, as remote/hybrid work shifts more workflow to the cloud, spending is expected to increase. Insight Partners is a NY-based VC/PE firm with over $30 billion under management. It is also a top enterprise software investor specializing in cybersecurity and data privacy. Notable investments in this space include DarkTrace, Tenable, Armis, Veeam, OneTrust, Cylance, Recorded Future, and Aqua Security. Steve Ward, Managing Director at Insight, formerly the CISO of Home Depot and a member of the Secret Service, Steve has over 20 years of experience in cybersecurity, physical security, fraud, and technology risk. We discuss where companies allocate cybersecurity spending and the innovations disrupting the market.

We also talk about how the shift to remote/hybrid work has affected cyber investment, the most critical threats, and how cyber innovation responds.

1868: D2L - Tech and HigherEd's Post-COVID Recovery Plans Feb 02, 2022

Stewart Watts, VP EMEA at D2L – the global learning provider, joins me on Tech Talks Daily in a conversation on the state of digital transformation across HigherEd, and the sectors’ recovery plans. As part of its Outcome Delivery Plan: 2021 to 2022, the Department for Education (DfE) has prioritised improving the sector’s digital infrastructure and connectivity. Indeed, DfE has placed ‘innovation, technology and data’ front and centre and this has been reflected in the recent Autumn Budget and Spending Review, with a new package of £1.8 in financial support. However, it has acknowledged that it will need to reassess all current staff training initiatives, particularly in the use of digital technologies, in order to facilitate this. In its latest research, D2L consulted 500 higher education professionals in the UK on their motivations behind their digital transformation strategies, as well their struggles over the last 18 months, and what the drivers behind their post-pandemic recovery plans will be. It found that improving student experience, course quality and digital infrastructure are vital and will play a major role in most institutions future growth plans.

Stewart Watts discusses DfE’s recovery plan and how universities should approach DX in the coming months. Drawing upon D2L’s research, he also argues that faculties will need to reassess all current online or blended learning programmes. Including:

The current state of UK digital learning programmes and how institutions approached DX based on D2L’s findings
What institutions should be prioritising as part of their recovery plans and how learning must be ‘data-driven’
The tools at universities’ disposal as they look to cover the gaps in students’ learning and improve overall experienceThe need for a flexible online learning environment and contingency plans to guarantee continuity for students

1867: SITA - Air Transport IT Insights For The Travel Industry to Recover Feb 01, 2022

Over the past year, COVID-19 has dramatically impacted the travel industry, forcing it to reimagine its future. SITA sets out five critical areas for the air transport industry to recover and recently published a survey highlighting SITA’s remodelled solutions to tackle the significant challenges facing air travel in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sergio Colella, SITA Europe President, expends how SITA will help the industry recover quickly. We discuss how technology will affect passengers, especially when addressing the new health requirements through automation and making the passenger journey more mobile-enabled and touchless in the airport.

I also learn how SITA is making progress in driving down its emissions and energy consumption through its Planet+ program – a program recognized by the UN as a Sustainable Development Goal Good Practice.

SITA recently published their CSR report revealing they are on course to be carbon neutral by or before 2022. We discuss the acquisition of Safety Line to help airlines drive more efficiencies and fuel savings around the aircraft while taking immediate and sustainable steps to reduce their carbon footprint.

Finally, we discuss why governments should review their border control operations to ensure a sustainable economic recovery and how robust border controls that allow safe travel can be configured quickly to treat evolving risks.

1866: MuleSoft - The Rise of the Business Technologist and Hyperautomation Jan 31, 2022

Current trends are increasingly geared towards delivering improved user experiences and innovation at speed. Unlocking data and harnessing digital capabilities will be the cornerstone of future transformation initiatives, with composable businesses set to take centre stage in the year ahead.

MuleSoft, provider of the world’s #1 integration and API platform, has outlined the trends that will shape these emerging operating models and IT priorities in 2022.

Emely Patra discusses how the future of work will be built on connected hybrid experiences. We also discuss how the composable business matures and why 2022 will be the year of the business technologist and the growth of hyper-automation.

1865: How Tech Impacts Background Screening and Hiring Jan 31, 2022

As companies address employee demand for more flexible work arrangements, they will need to adapt their hiring processes to protect data privacy, accelerate hiring time, and expand the candidate pool. In addition, employers will need to continue to stay apprised of new and developing hiring laws to ensure compliance and reduce the risk of monetary and reputational harm resulting from lawsuits.

Market forces have increased the need for background screening because of tailwinds in the economy, but it's coming into conflict with heightened scrutiny concerning privacy protection. At the very time when background screening is needed, governments are making it harder to get access to information about people.

In 2006, during the earliest days of the big data era, Inflection was founded to address three emerging trends: the increasing prevalence of people searching for people online, the emergence of online records, and the privacy implications of the easy availability of personal information.

I explore this topic with Max Wesman. Max joined Inflection in 2012 to lead the planning and launch of GoodHire. He now oversees all of Inflection’s product strategy, roadmap, development, pricing, and growth initiatives.

Before joining the team, Max managed and launched B2B software products for HP and Microsoft. He received an MBA from UC Berkeley Haas School of Business and undergraduate degrees from the Wharton School and the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania.

His passions outside of work include international travel, golf, pickleball, cooking, home brewing, and escape room games.

1864: How to Solve the Cloud Cost Optimization Challenges With AI and Automation Jan 30, 2022

AI-driven cloud optimization platform that slashes cloud cost, optimizes DevOps, and automates disaster prevention. Leon Kuperman, CTO Cast AI, discusses how AI powers cloud automation. We explore exactly what value AI brings to the table and why simple automation is not enough. We also discuss the Top 3 tips for businesses adopting cloud automation. On the subject of cloud cost management, we look at the big picture of what management optimization is and the main reasons it's complicated (hint: cloud providers aren't exactly helping most of the time). But we talk about how automation helps with cloud costs and how AI brings this automation up a notch.

I also learn more about Leon's story in techand how he started his career at IBM when he was just 19, but realized very early that he was best suited in the startup world so in 1998 started his first company and has been working through the battle scars ever since. A few companies to mention - Zenedge (acquired by Oracle), CUJO.

1863: AI-Assisted Translation - A.I. Powered, Human Perfectedd Jan 29, 2022

Matija Kovac from Taia Translations discusses the future of machine translation, how localization can enhance global strategy and how AI is revamping the translation industry. He also shares his entrepreneurial story, knowledge, and industry insights.

Taia Translations is a modern translation platform, where they help companies translate their documents, websites, and other content with AI-assisted, human perfected translations.

If advanced neural machine translation is good enough, you can get your files translated, with formatting intact, in just a few seconds. But when you need a professional touch, you can order from a range of services, right inside the app.

The Taia Translations app was created to make the ordering process as seamless as possible, as we are aware that ordering translations can be a bit time-consuming. You drag 'n' drop your document into the uploader, select the right parameters for your needs, and just a few moments later your project is being reviewed by TAIA's project management. Based on your chosen parameters, you'll be assigned the perfect translator for your project.

1862: Endava: Reimagining the Relationship between People and Technology Jan 28, 2022

Over the past two decades, companies have increasingly used new web, cloud, and mobile technologies to address business challenges and realize new business opportunities. However, the recent pandemic turned this digital business wave into a tsunami, as organizations scrambled to create new digital properties to address supply chain management, customer relationships, employee communications, and other urgent business problems. As these companies accelerated their use of digital to address their pandemic-related business problems practically overnight, many came to a realization: the quick, discreet, iterative, do it or die approach they took to digital initiatives during the pandemic succeeded in addressing their immediate pandemic business challenges, even if these initiatives now need further refinement.

Endava is a leading next-generation technology services provider working to help businesses accelerate disruption by delivering rapid evolution to enterprises. They saw a 20%+ year-on-year growth in their 3rd quarter results as part of businesses turning to them for support and are working with some of the largest brands.

Endava Chief Digital Officer, Justin Marcucci, discusses what he sees in terms of customer refinement and how the quick do-or-die processes from last year are being updated for longer-term success.

1861: Outnumbering Cybercriminals Together With Crowdsec Jan 27, 2022

Philippe Humeau is the Founder of CrowdSec, an open-source multiplayer firewall that can analyze visitor behavior & provide an adapted response to all kinds of attacks.

In addition, it leverages crowd power to generate a global IP reputation database to protect the user network. Today, users come from 110+ countries, approximately block 700,000+ malevolent IPs by quarter, and the company also raised $5M in funding!

Phillipe has also received an MBA in Computer Sciences from EPITA, created five start-ups, and seeded 10 of them. Philippe joins me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss the biggest issues currently facing cybersecurity and how open-source cybersecurity platforms combat them.

We discuss why multiplayer firewalls can help limit zero-day attacks and minimize cyberware from attempting to ‘divide and conquer’ businesses.

Philippe also shares how malevolent IP attacks are growing and how everyday users equip themselves to protect their data.

1860: Fixing the Broken Dental Insurance Industry With Tech Jan 26, 2022

Every great idea starts with a problem. For Eric Johnson, it was simple: dental insurance was broken. The founder and CEO of membersy is a digital health company democratizing access to quality, affordable dental care through subscription-based dentistry. While building his career in the dental care space, Eric founded membersy in 2015 with the mission of helping dental professionals take back the dental care narrative from big insurance companies through pricing transparency and a personalized membership experience for patients. It became the first and largest subscription-focused company in the dental industry, providing Dental Service Organizations (DSOs) of all sizes with the tech, marketing, and administration infrastructure to launch and grow a modern membership experience.

Today, more than 4,000 dental practices and close to 1 million members across the United States utilize membersy's advanced subscription platform for a more personal and connected dental care experience. Eric shares the tech startup story behind the success.

1859: Dynatrace - Long Term Events of Log4Shell Jan 25, 2022

In light of the recent Log4Shell vulnerability that has been dominating the headlines, I invited Asad Ali, Senior Director, Global Centre of Excellence at Dynatrace to join me on Tech Talks Daily. We talk about the longer-term impact this vulnerability will have on the way organizations handle their cybersecurity practices and the next steps they can take in the more immediate term. Some organizations may not even know they are affected or which instances of the vulnerability are most urgent to address. For example, not all cases will be present in applications exposed to public networks and reveal sensitive data to malicious attackers. We discuss why the dynamic and complex nature of today’s cloud environments has broken traditional approaches to application security. We also talk about how an AI-driven approach can help dramatically speed up risk and impact analysis of the vulnerability by automatically and continuously identifying and prioritizing instances that access critical databases or file systems in the environment.

Finally, we talk about what to expect from Dynatrace Perform in February.

1858: SAP Labs - Hybrid Working and Collaborative Communities Jan 24, 2022

Anamarie Huerta Franc is the head of SAP Labs US in Palo Alto. Her charter for one of the largest software companies in the world is an ambitious one - to build a collaborative community across the thousands of developers working in the United States on SAP’s broad range of cloud-based software groups, which includes technologies such as Concur (expense management), SuccessFactors (human capital management) and Fieldglass (vendor management system).

Hiring, motivating, and retaining employees has always been a challenge for software companies, but no more so than today when the demand for developers has never been higher and when companies are grappling with workplace and culture issues driven by COVID-19 and the evolving definitions and expectations of the workplace. One of Anamarie’s charters is to challenge the traditional corporate assumptions that community and culture can only be built in a physical office and determine how to balance flexibility and accountability.

As an example of Anamarie’s efforts, she led SAP’s hybrid workforce pilot program on its Palo Alto campus that involved 300 workers who put its new flex work model into practice. Teams worked in a hybrid fashion at home and in the office, using a new iOS app to help them utilize office space and have meaningful experiences when in the office. The program's goal was to determine the best approach to creating office spaces with high energy and high utilization.

After working at SAP for over a decade, Anamarie shares her story along with many interesting insights and experiences.

1857: Female Blockchain CEO on Why Crypto is Taking Security Seriously Jan 23, 2022

Recent reports show that DeFi exploits totaled $12 billion in 2021. Between this fraud spike, the social engineering attack at Robinhood, and the recent Google Play scam, it's more critical than ever that cybersecurity becomes an embedded part of cryptocurrency. Tammy Kahn, co-founder and CEO of BTblock has a team of some of the best dedicated DeFi logic security analysts. Having performed cybersecurity code reviews of the software supporting major blockchain protocols, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and Cardano, she and her team continuously observe how significant an impact security concerns have on widespread adoption. With crypto scams and fraud skyrocketing, Tammy discusses some of the core issues plaguing the industry in 2022. We talk about why until 'basic' users can feel their funds are secure, the adoption of crypto and other types of micro-investing will remain slower. Too much is at risk; people may not know the answer, but many know enough to be scared.

We also explore why we need more than cyber training needs to happen and why it needs to be built from the code up.

1856: Improving Attention and Reducing Stress Through AI Jan 23, 2022

Hannes Bend is on a mission to improve mental health at work with technology. His work was inspired by when he felt disconnected and depressed until he discovered mindfulness. This moment led to him founding breahting.ai, which allows users to focus solely on where it belongs.

breathing.ai uses the webcam and machine learning to detect vital signs (heart rate and respiration) and stress and then adapts and personalizes the screen's colors, fonts, and UI to the user's wellbeing. Breathing.ai founder and CEO Hannes Bend developed award-winning technological projects with cross-disciplinary collaborations with top researchers and labs.

Hannes joins me on Tech Talks Daily and shares how he has worked with my mentor friend Wim "The Iceman" Hof since 2015 to develop pioneering AR biofeedback projects that inspired the breathing.ai startup and its technology.

I also learned how Wim's breathwork, in-depth meditation practices in Myanmar, and yoga transformed Hannes from decades of anxiety and depression to living healthy and happy. Finally, we discuss how breathing.ai develops patented machine learning technologies to adapt and personalize screens and audio interactions to each user.

1855: Talking Digital insecurity and Surveillance Capitalism With Datacappy Jan 22, 2022

Big Tech sees your data—your clicks, your online shopping choices, your browsing history, as the most valuable stuff on earth. Datacappy consists of independent developers worried about the sudden loss of online privacy. Digital insecurity and what’s been called “Surveillance Capitalism” are serious problems for our kids, ourselves, and you. And not a lot of people are doing anything about it.

At Datacappy they see your data as yours. They think your clicks are your business. If your children want to research tigers and rocket ships, they should be able to do so without an unaccountable corporation using that data to build a profile of them and profit off it. I wanted to learn more about how they are helping users preserve their privacy, use the internet securely, and keep their information under their control.

Marco Bellin, the author of PrivacyParent.com and engineer behind Datacappy VPN (built on the open-source WireGuard), joins me on the Tech Talks Daily podcast in a conversation about the year ahead threats to consumer data privacy from more apps, advantageous data selling to malware via USB ports. We also discuss how the US is trying to catch up to its peers with a national data privacy law.

1854: SHABANG! Peter Hurley Reveals Photography Inspired NFT Collection Jan 21, 2022

Peter Hurley is a world-famous photographer, an official partner of Canon and B&H Photos. He is also the creator of Headshot Crew, the world's largest team of headshot and portrait photographers. As a man who spins many plates, he also an inspiring TedTalks and has authored The Headshot - an in-depth book on the importance of a proper headshot and how to take the best shots possible.

More recently, he launched the first-ever photography-inspired NFT collection, Shabangrs. Named in honor of Peter's catchphrase, "Shabang!" the collection features 10,000 unique pieces that come with utilities and enter holders into giveaways, raffles, and more.

Ownership of Shabangrs NFTs will automatically grant you citizenship in Shabangrsville, a virtual city in the Metaverse. In addition, Shabangrs citizens will have access to exclusive lifetime perks and rewards as well as access to a flourishing community of the world's best photographers and creators.

Peter joins me on Tech Talks Daily to share his story that began by earning his stripes in the photography industry and why he feels that NFTs are the logical next step for the photography industry.

1853: How Tech is Enabling PDWise Share Parkinson's Disease Stories and Wisdom Jan 21, 2022

Allan Cole was diagnosed with young-onset Parkinson's disease five years ago, at the age of 48. He subsequently started PD Wise, a blog and community hub aimed at telling stories, providing education, and building community among those living with Parkinson's and their loved ones. I wanted to learn more about how he was using technology to help others.

I quickly learned that Allan had published Counseling Persons with Parkinson's Disease (Oxford). He has two additional books that will be published this year, Discerning the Way: Lesson's from Parkinson's Disease and In the Care of Plenty: Poems (Cascade).

So I invited Allan Cole to the podcast to discuss Parkinson's, which is yes is progressive, and currently, there is no cure. However, there are lots to be hopeful for, and as this is a tech podcast, the role he sees technology playing in helping people.

1852: Exploring the Tech Challenges for the Transportation Industry Jan 20, 2022

The state of the global supply chain has hit the headlines recently, and it has dramatically impacted both businesses and consumers. This got me thinking about the challenges in the trucking/logistics companies and the most significant technical challenges for the transportation industry right now.

Wendy Greenland, CEO of Openforce, joins me on Tech Talks Daily to explore this topic with me. Openforce, the provider of technology-driven and insuretech solutions for transportation companies, offering onboarding, settlement, compliance and insurance services for managing independent contractor workforces.

Through the transparent and collaborative leadership of CEO Wendy Greenland, Openforce is well-positioned at the forefront of where technology and the shifting modern labor markets converge. According to a recent survey by MIT and Deloitte, tailwinds are driving the new world of work. 33% of companies plan to utilize a 1099 workforce in the next 18-24 months. Of those companies, 52% plan to implement a technology platform to manage them.

With vast experience in technology leadership and, most recently, transportation, Wendy provides a unique skill set to bridge the gap between companies and independent contractors–that only technology can do.

Wendy brings nearly 30 years of experience and leadership to Openforce, focused on developing and delivering technology-driven business services and solutions, providing outstanding client service, and driving profitable revenue growth. Within Openforce, she drives the organization's mission and creates a standard of quality to provide best-in-class products and services to our contractors and clients.

1851: ClickUp Founder Shares the Story Behind its $4B Valuation Jan 19, 2022

A recent Gartner survey revealed that nearly 80% of workers are using collaboration tools for work in 2021, up from just over half of workers in 2019. While many organizations relied on productivity platforms before the pandemic, the emergence of remote and hybrid work models has proven just how vital an all-in-one solution is to maintain workplace collaboration and efficiency.

ClickUp, the world's first productivity platform, recently announced they raised $400 million in Series C funding -- the largest funding round to date in the workplace productivity market. This funding puts ClickUp at a $4 billion valuation, which will be used to support the creation of 600 European jobs, a regional European HQ, and a new development center.

ClickUp's unique offering in the market has fueled their success as one of the fastest-growing SaaS startups in the world -- ClickUp is the only solution that replaces all individual workplace productivity tools within a single, unified platform. In less than 18 months, the company has raised $535 million in funding ($35M Series A in June 2020; $135M Series B in December 2020.)

In the last year, the company has tripled its revenue and grown its user base from 200,000 to 800,000 teams worldwide and has more than 85,000 paying customers, including teams at McDonald's, Booking.com, and Netflix to name a few. Zeb Evans, ClickUp founder, shares how he has taken ClickUp from a 50-person Series A startup to a $4 billion-dollar company.

1850: Sage for Accountants How Tech is Transforming Digital Accounting Jan 18, 2022

Before launching this daily tech podcast and writing about technology, I was an IT guy. So I was the first port of call for any problems with Finance applications and upgrades to applications like SAGE in a corporate environment. The shift to digital-first accounting is seen as imperative by nearly all accountants – with new Sage research showing 99% of accountants are using some form of digital accounting.

Fast forward six years, and I will be talking to SAGE about their new product that accountants design for accountants, 'and it's called Sage for Accountants. It's a practice management suite that provides client onboarding, connected client management, productivity tools, data collection and intelligent reporting, bookkeeping, payroll, and compliance. The product applies to general practices of all sizes.

Chris Downing, Director of Product Marketing, Sage & Gerty Bester, Director of Product Marketing, Sage, join me on Tech Talks Daily to share their stories. They are both former chartered accountants. They will be discussing why they've invested so much time and resource into this new product, how they involved their customers in its development and how it can help accountants meet practical demands in a challenging marketplace.

Designed by accountants for accountants, I learn how Sage for Accountants is removing the friction from practice management by providing onboarding, connected client management, and productivity tools, truly digitized data collection and intelligent reporting, bookkeeping, payroll, and compliance.

We also discuss how by digitising business processes and relationships with customers, suppliers, employees, banks, and governments, the SAGE digital network connects SMBs, removes friction, and delivers insights. Knocking down barriers also means using our time, technology, and experience to tackle digital inequality, economic inequality, and climate crises.

1849: Cloudera - Why Acceleration Shouldn't Run Rampant Without Control. Jan 17, 2022

With the announcement of the UK publishing its first AI Strategy - a ten-year plan fit to make the UK an AI Superpower - it will be to businesses' detriment to not capitalize on the power of AI and automation. However, with this rapid shift towards automation, one of the primary areas of value is often overlooked — enabling humans to focus on what matters and strategically control the acceleration.

Romain Picard, Vice President EMEA, of the recently acquired multi-billion-dollar enterprise data cloud company Cloudera, believes in a world dominated by robots, chatbots, drones, and other machine learning and artificial intelligence-powered technologies, the power of human touch is still relevant. Romain joins me on Tech Talks Daily to share his insight on why acceleration shouldn't run rampant without control. We also discuss how it is essential that, alongside automation, we form bold strategies that keep our focus on what's essential — human ingenuity. Finally, we talk about the ability automation provides for teams to bring their A-Game more, increase productivity and growth.

Maybe now is the time for businesses to reimagine their culture to one that uses automation to its fullest value and celebrates human capabilities at their best

1848: Technology, Mindfulness, and Stress Intelligence Jan 16, 2022

Over the last two years, the lockdowns have seen adults flirt with burnout as they now find themselves permanently tethered to their office. Children have also experienced stress with masks in schools, being socially distanced from their friends, etc.

However, in a world where people of all ages are feeling stressed, I invited Liam Joe Blackwood from Stressbox on the podcast to discuss how technology contributes to stress and how it can also help relieve it. I learn how StressBox provides a psychological assessment and treatment service for individuals experiencing stress, anxiety, and other related difficulties.

1847: Democratizing Data Science for Predictive, Real-Time Personalization Jan 15, 2022

In 2022 (and beyond), personalization is more important than ever. There is no room for broad, generalized marketing. Instead, customers crave and expect personalized experiences that subtly enable them to discover and find products they actually want. Data science is a powerful way to take personalization to the next level. However, it's not always readily accessible or actionable without engineers or data scientists.

Breinify is a personalization platform on a mission to democratize data science by finding ways to make predictive capabilities accessible to non-technical, yet data-driven marketing teams. Breinify's AI solution enables enterprise marketers to deliver predictive personalization in real-time and build more meaningful customer experiences. The platform blends traditional machine learning with temporal AI to predict a consumer's future interests, needs, and behaviors.

The algorithms enable dynamic segmentation and fully individualized personalization, which minimizes the manual involvement required from marketing and tech teams while producing top-tier results.

Diane Keng, co-founder, and CEO of Breinify, talks about democratizing data science, predictive personalization, and trends in this space to watch out for in 2022.

1846: Why Tech Running Data Centers and Apps on Cloud is Part of a Bigger Story. Jan 14, 2022

RackN Digital Rebar standardizes the full lifecycle management of your infrastructure, mitigating risk and taming automation helping you innovate faster.

Rob Hirschfeld founder RackN, an Austin-based start-up that develops software to help automate data centres joins me on Tech Talks Daily.

Rob has been in the cloud and infrastructure space for nearly 15 years and has done everything from working with early ESX betas to serving four terms on the OpenStack Foundation Board.

Rob believes that the technology of running data centers and applications on cloud is just part of the bigger story. We discuss why Rob believes developers often develop infrastructure incorrectly and why he is a strong advocate for lean/agile processes.

We also talk about the increasing focus on automation, the impact of open-source software, and its emphasis on agility and fast decision-making.

1845: Conti Ransom Gang Now Selling Access to Victims Jan 13, 2022

Organizations infected with the Conti ransomware affiliate programs malware who refuse to negotiate a ransom payment are added to Conti’s victim-shaming blog, where confidential files stolen from victims may be published or sold. But, sometime over the last 48 hours, US security expert Brian Krebs has reported that the cybercriminal syndicate has updated its victim-shaming blog to indicate that it is now selling access to many of the organizations it has hacked:

Ilia Kolochenko, Founder of ImmuniWeb and a member of Europol Data Protection Experts Network, joins me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss why this new marketplace indicates that well-organized cybercriminals are not afraid of law enforcement agencies anymore.

We also talk about how criminals create mature, agile, and multistakeholder ecosystems similar to legitimate businesses and how cybercriminals are creating online subscriptions, free trials, and discount systems for recurrent customers to maximize their profits.

Finally, we explore the most significant challenges and what global governments must do to combat the issue or risk losing the battle to cybercrime.

1844: Balancing Automation and Human Support in Financial Advising Jan 12, 2022

Altruist is on a mission to make independent financial advice better, more affordable, and accessible. The company has built an all-in-one platform that reduces barriers for financial advisors to deliver great advice. As a result, advisors using Altruist can work more efficiently and substantially lower operating costs, enabling them to grow on their terms and help more people.

Adam Grealish offers an overview of the state of the financial advising industry and why there's a time and place for Robo advisors. But there's a growing need for human financial advice too.

About Adam

Adam Grealish's career is rooted in financial innovation. Through his work (formerly at Betterment and Goldman Sachs, and now at Altruist as Head of Investments), Adam has a unique pulse on the trends and issues shaping the wealth management and financial planning technology spaces.

Further, because Adam has assisted financial advisors for years in various roles, he has keen insight into how the industry has evolved and where it needs to go. Before serving as Betterment's investing lead, Adam was Vice President in the Fixed Income, Currencies, and Commodities division at Goldman Sachs.

Adam was responsible for structured corporate credit and macro credit trading. In addition, Adam was part of the quantitative equity portfolio management team at New York Life Investments earlier in his career.

1843: Metaverse Solutions Enabling the Digital Transformation Brands Jan 11, 2022

This episode explores the Metaverse and bridging the gap between value and enterprise through video games with Alexander Fernandez, the CEO of Streamline Media Group. The independent video games group is dedicated to publishing / developing great games, cultivating diverse talent, and breaking barriers of interactive entertainment.

Alexander is a proud latinX entrepreneur passionate about bridging the gap between video games and traditional enterprise industries. He has grown Streamline Media Group from a modest gaming-focused startup to a global company with over 180 employees across three continents and various brands under the Streamline Media Group umbrella.

Alexander shares his valuable insights into the entrepreneurial journey and how he became successful at what he does. Next, we discuss how the Metaverse will impact business strategies in the next five years. Finally, we talk about the best ways to promote diversity in the video game industry and how he's established an innovative and multicultural environment for his employees.

1842: The Tech-Stack That Captures & Convinces Business Solutions Jan 10, 2022

Doron Gerstel, CEO, Perion, joins me on Tech Talks Daily. Perion is a global technology innovator in the digital advertising ecosystem, providing brands and publishers with an opportunity to unlock lucrative growth opportunities. The company operates across the three main pillars of digital advertising – ad search, social media, and display/ CTV, representing a potential market of more than $300B.

Perion generates revenue from both demand and supply sides, and in the last year, they signed an agreement with Microsoft Bing to drive growth opportunities. Doron shares a recap of how adtech companies performed during the pandemic, what the end of third-party cookies will mean for advertisers, and how companies will adapt.

We also discuss how ongoing privacy changes will impact the adtech landscape and the importance of agnostic technology, and how it will help companies adapt to any changes in digital marketing.

1841: Threekit - The Future of Digital Commerce is 3D and AR Jan 09, 2022

In 2022, it’s estimated that $7.4T worth of B2C and B2B commerce will happen digitally, however, shoppers are now demanding a faster, easier, and more visually compelling customer experience. In response, brands are creating millions of images, but they are falling short. Whether it is photography that requires a physical product to be built or the impossible task of manually capturing thousands (or millions) of SKUs, brands rely on broken processes to create visual experiences and improve their operations.

Threekit, a leading developer of high-end visualization software that automates the creation of visuals and bridges the gap between the creative and commerce worlds. The company's visual commerce platform, which does not require prototype experience, engineers, or CAD artists, enables brands to create interactive, augmented reality (AR), and photorealistic 3D visuals and engage in lean commerce and asset-light manufacturing.

To date, Threekit visualized products have generated over $1 billion in sales for customers. TaylorMade, Duluth Trading, and Ciroc use Threekit because it drives a 40% increase in conversion, a 90% reduction in photography costs, and an 80% reduction in returns. Matt Gorniak, CEO of Threekit joins me on Tech Talks Daily to share the story behind Threekit.

1840: Achieve Your Financial Goals With Behavioral Science and Tech Jan 08, 2022

Your smartphone will probably have several different apps to manage your finances, from personal bank accounts, bills accounts, credit cards, savings, and even crypto. But what if you could have a singular view of everything. Today, I explore the role technology can play in helping people reach their financial goals and how couples can work better as a team while still having their privacy and independence.

I have invited Katherine Salisbury, Co-Founder, and Co-CEO of Qapital, on the podcast. She founded the company with her partner George Friedman when they wanted a solution to provide a joint overview of all their finances and automate how their money moved to savings, investments, bills, and spending accounts.

Qapital is a new kind of banking experience that aims to empower people to maximize their happiness by saving, spending, and investing with their goals in mind. By blending behavioral science with technology, Qapital provides users with the tools they need to make managing money easy and fun.

1839: CES - BlackBerry IVY and Car-to-Cloud Collaboration With AWS Jan 07, 2022

It was the End of an era for BlackBerry as the company pulled the plug on support for its classic smartphones — 22 years after the device first hit the market this week. But what these headlines didn't tell you is that over 195 million cars worldwide currently use BlackBerry software.

BlackBerry IVY, developed in partnership with AWS, is the company's cloud-connected software ecosystem that equips OEMs to analyze vehicle sensor data and derive actionable insights. Blackberry revealed more about their smart car innovation at CES 2022. Peter Virk, Vice President, IVY Product & Ecosystem at BlackBerry, joins me on Tech Talks Daily to talk about the announcements at CES. We discuss how vehicle data can be turned into actionable insights and how BlackBerry QNX technology is integrated across the vehicle.

I learn more about how BlackBerry IVY brings together signals from various sensors across the vehicle and how configuration is then controlled via the cloud-based IVY console. Finally, we discuss how the IVY platform makes real-time AI decisions and the role of IVY "Buck": BlackBerry's physical car dashboard.

1838: Desktop Metal - How Additive Manufacturing 2.0 is Reshaping Manufacturing Jan 06, 2022

Desktop Metal recently appeared on my radar after reading how their technology is accelerating the transformation of manufacturing with 3D printing solutions for engineers, designers, and manufacturers around the world

Jonah Myerberg is Co-founder, Chief Technology Officer, and SVP of Global Engineering at Desktop Metal. He joins me on Tech Talks Daily to provide an overview of Desktop Metal, Additive Manufacturing 2.0, and how it is reshaping the future of mass manufacturing by leveraging digital factories. We also discuss how additive manufacturing can impact the supply chain, lumber shortage, sustainability, and how businesses expand into new fields like space tech and healthcare.

About Jonah Myerberg

Jonah Myerberg is responsible for leading the technical direction of the company’s 3D printing solutions and driving global engineering efforts. Before joining Desktop Metal in 2015, Myerberg held senior positions with various organizations focused on high-performance battery development, including Renovo Motors and Boston Impact, which he founded, and A123Systems.

At A123Systems, Myerberg established and led the motorsports business unit, which focused on developing high-performance batteries. His products were adopted by most Formula One teams, including the McLaren, Force India, Mercedes Benz, RedBull, and other high profile motorsports teams like the Porsche 919 team, which won the 24 hours of Le Mans in 2015 and 2016.

Jonah was also a race engineer for Porsche on the 919 team and the Mahindra on the Formula E team. Additionally, he helped launch Gradiant Corp., where he managed the deployment and operation of large-scale water desalination plants that converted fracking water into fresh water.

1837: How Unified Data Model Platforms Can Beat Adobe and Oracle Jan 05, 2022

Cheetah Digital is a marketing tech platform that has collected over 2 billion data entries for brands including Arsenal FC, Hilton, BBC, Citibank, Vodafone UK, and the Postcode Lottery, McDonald's, Pizza Hut UK, Godiva, Urban Outfitters.

Richard Jones, CMO of Cheetah Digital, joins me on Tech Talks Daily in a conversation about why smaller enterprise-specific marketing technology and unified data model platforms provide far more benefits for customers than those from more prominent players. For more than 20 years, I have learned how Richard has worked in technology, specifically, building marketing technology for the likes of Adobe, Oracle, and how he has been a CMO integrating martech to deliver business results.

We discuss the growth of customer engagement suites that ingest various kinds of data, batch data, streaming data, point of sale data, and weather data according to a businesses' requirements. We also talk about how companies can use machine learning and artificial intelligence to segment and analyze that data.

Finally, we discuss why leveraging the same data model with the customer engagement data platform at its heart is key if you're building software from the ground up.

1836: Rich Nanda from Deloitte Explores The Transformation Myth Jan 04, 2022

Rich Nanda is a principal in Deloitte Consulting LLP, where he serves as the leader of Deloitte’s US Monitor Deloitte practice. He has significant experience in guiding clients through strategy-led transformation to achieve profitable growth. He routinely advises boards, CEOs, and executive teams at consumer products companies on topics spanning growth, business model innovation, operating models, capability building, analytics, and technology adoption.

Nanda has also co-authored a new book and sequel to The Technology Fallacy. The Transformation Myth takes a deep dive into how companies that use disruption as an opportunity for innovation emerge from it stronger, while companies that choose to weather the storm miss an opportunity to thrive.

All of this is especially noteworthy as the pandemic has disrupted business – yet many companies have emerged better-positioned than before and innovated in response to changing circumstances. As a leading expert in digital transformation, Rich discusses his experience guiding clients through strategy-led transformations and key findings featured throughout the book.

1835: CES 2022 - Baracoda Daily Healthtech Receive Two Innovation Honors Jan 03, 2022

Baracoda Daily Healthtech has a strategic vision focusing on preventive healthcare in a digital environment. At CES 2022, the focus is on The Bathroom of the Future. With a focus on balance, posture, spine health, oral health as an indicator of systemic health and wellness, using predictive technology to alert you about changes in your skin, your heart rhythm, your risk of falling if you're a senior.

Healthtech makes it possible to monitor your wellness in a noninvasive way. And physicians have a way to monitor whether a prescribed treatment is working, all in a very non-invasive way. And for the first time – a thermometer that doesn't need batteries, so it's always ready when you need it while using minimal plastic.

Healthtech meets sustainability. One example of Baracoda using proprietary software to scale a product can be seen in the partnership with Colgate. Thomas Serval, the CEO, reveals more about Baracoda's Open Innovation model, which encourages collaboration to further the preventive health mission through the bathroom of the future.

We also discuss how Baracoda Daily Healthtech has received two Innovation Honors at CES 2022. The first award is for BBalance, the first connected product to use footprint recognition and merge medical indexes — posture and balance, weight, and BMI (body mass index). And the second is for bcool - the first thermometer to operate without batteries, combining healthtech with sustainability.

Finally, we discuss how their partner Colgate also earned an Innovation Award at CES 2022, For their new low-price smart toothbrush - Bringing the benefits of smart technology to the general population, as we all strive for optimal wellness.

1834: Bitrise - The Mobile Industry’s First Fully Automated Workflow Platform Jan 03, 2022

Mobile DevOps company Bitrise recently announced Arpad Kun as its VP of Engineering and Infrastructure. In his time at Bitrise so far, he led the development of their new enterprise-grade platform, which increased the business's speed to app market by 50%, saving them time and money.

Now, Kun is scaling Bitrise's technology to support enterprises with an all-in-one platform fully. In addition, the platform will automate mobile app workflows, allowing organizations more time to concentrate on creativity, customer-centricity, and innovation.

Previously Arpad served as Chief Architect for Network Services at IBM Cloud and TPM at Facebook Infrastructure. Arpad shares his years of experience in the development space and discusses the importance of platforms that streamline workflows so developers can keep up with the growing demands of consumers and app stores.

In today's episode, Arpad shares his story and what is on the horizon for Bitrise and mobile app development as a whole.

1833: Amplify the Climate Action of Your Sustainable Spending Jan 02, 2022

Dublin-based climate action fintech is a climate donation app that empowers conscious shoppers to amplify their positive impact by earning free, personalized climate donations from their spending. Amplify partners with a network of sustainable brands, allowing their customers to earn a donation for a high-impact climate cause of their choice on every purchase, at no added cost.

Users choose a climate charity, securely link their bank card, and then 2% of each transaction they make with a sustainable brand in Amplify’s network is automatically donated to their chosen cause for free. Supported by Enterprise Ireland and approved by the world’s leading card networks, Amplify is setting out to transform the donation experience for sustainable brands and conscious shoppers, empowering them to amplify the climate action of every sustainable purchase.

David Beakey, Co-founder of Amplify, shares how they combine their passions for sustainability and technology to help conscious consumers transform the impact of their sustainable spending.

1832: WalkOut CEO Goes Where Amazon Does Not GO Jan 01, 2022

Assaf Gedalia is the co-founder of WalkOut, the developer of an autonomous end-to-end checkout platform that created a smart cart solution to provide an efficient, frictionless checkout.

This smart cart is an AI, computer vision-based solution mounted onto shopping carts in the form of a screen and cameras and becomes shoppers' personalized advisory board. WalkOut can identify every item placed in the cart with high accuracy, tally them up, and notify the shopper of an anomaly. That means knowing when an item is what the shopper is looking for, if it goes against a dietary need, or contains an ingredient that will cause an allergic reaction.

Walkout provides shoppers with a unique experience where all they have to do is walk in, place items in the cart, and walk out. Unlike other checkout options, the tally, bagging, and payments are all done on the cart itself.

Assaf Gedalia is the co-founder of WalkOut, the developer of an autonomous end-to-end checkout platform that created a smart cart solution to provide an efficient, frictionless checkout.

So shoppers have prime convenience, and grocers can implement the affordable WalkOut solution that involves very little changes to the shop's environment and compete with the bigger players.

In today's episode, Assaf shares how technology upgrades traditional brick & mortar shops and improves the shopping experience. We also chat about why smart carts are the best integration for a shop and the benefits of in-store shopping compared to online \ delivery \and even Amazon GO. Finally, we discuss the intricacies of the different proprietary algorithms WalkOut developed to reach a 99.2% accuracy rate on product identification.

1831: Nick Neuman, CEO of Bitcoin Self-Storage Startup Casa Dec 31, 2021

Casa is a US-based provider of Bitcoin security services, which enables users to have total self-custody over their crypto holdings, without the risk of theft or hacks like those experienced by exchanges. Bitcoin can be purchased through Casa and deposited directly into a user’s wallet on the service where they control the funds, without the company having custody over the holdings at any point.

Nick Neuman, CEO of Bitcoin self-storage startup Casa shares his view that despite sovereignty being the biggest issue in the Bitcoin space, it’s ultimately the one that’s being addressed the least. It’s not a technology problem or a process problem, but rather that the big challenge is how to make security technologies standard in an industry with an overall poor track record for keeping its customers’ coins safe. Nick discusses the different Bitcoin safety solutions on the market that holders need to be aware of and why they should consider taking their coins off exchanges altogether. We also talk about why a wallet alone might not be enough and what questions investors should be asking of their Bitcoin partners to ensure they can always keep sovereignty of their coins.

1830: Analytics and Personalization Expert on MarTech Buzzwords Dec 30, 2021

Joaquin Viramontes, Director of Personalization at digital experience agency R2i, joins me on the Tech Talks Daily Podcast. The seasoned expert in analytics, personalization, and all things data shares insights on personalization and why it's much more than a buzzword for marketing professionals.

R2i is a digital experience agency that creates digital solutions that connect and accelerate customer experiences to drive impact for brands. I learn more about their relentless focus on combining data, insights, and technology with creative design to drive engaging and high-impact digital experiences.

Joaquin shares how businesses can go beyond making a case for personalization to implementing a long-term program that shows ROI. He also explains a marketer's ideal toolkit of analytics and optimization tools that can be used to identify wins and optimal ways to invest time and resources.

Finally, we discuss how to establish a company culture of data-driven decisions and build excitement around the value that tech and data can bring to all decisions in every department.

1829: The MLC: $100M and Counting to Songwriters in 2021 Dec 29, 2021

In January 2021, the Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC)began administering blanket mechanical licenses to eligible streaming and download services (digital service providers or DSPs) in the United States. The MLC will then collect the royalties due under those licenses from the DSPs and pay songwriters, composers, lyricists, and music publishers.

The MLC has built a publicly accessible musical works database, as well as a portal that creators and music publishers can use to submit and maintain their musical works data. These tools will help ensure that creators and music publishers are paid properly.

It is also striving to ensure songwriters, composers, lyricists, and music publishers receive their mechanical royalties from streaming and download services in the U.S. accurately and on time.

In order to pay these royalties, The MLC utilizes a portal where creators and music publishers submit their musical works data, which is then matched to the appropriate monies. Therefore, the importance of getting the word out to self-administered songwriters and collecting the necessary data is paramount in ensuring that creators are being compensated for their work. The MLC’s CEO Kris Ahrend shares insights from its first full year of operations and how it has already distributed more than $106 million in royalties to songwriters.

1828: BlueOcean and the AI-Driven Brand Navigator Dec 28, 2021

Grant McDougall is a marketing and advertising veteran who hit a tipping point in the agency space after working with brands like AT&T and Chevron. He started BlueOcean, an AI driven platform helping companies like Google and Microsoft track, measure, and compare their brand health to competitors using AI. The company also recently announced a $15M Series A funding.

As we all know, branding is one of the most critical assets for a company. It can significantly impact customer loyalty, stock price, employee retention, and other key metrics of success. So I invited Grant on the podcast to explore how conventional marketing agencies are not capable of giving their clients relevant and actionable information to outpace their competition.

The growing and future of consumer privacy compliance have allowed users to manage their data tracking, but this popular option has developed challenges for marketers across all platforms. We discuss how AI technology for data insight has become the core for services like BlueOcean who offer data input reports to help financial institutions.

1827: Ben Brook CEO of VC Backed Tech Start Up, Transcend Dec 27, 2021

Ben Brook's story started when he set out to find out what companies had collected his personal information - and he realized his data was nearly impossible to track, control, or reclaim.

Ben, who is now the founder and CEO of Transcend, raised 25M from Index Ventures and Accel, with participation from South Park Commons, Phil Venables (Board Member and former CISO, Goldman Sachs), and Dylan Field (CEO, Figma), just months after graduating from Harvard.

Since launching, Ben's company has successfully tapped into the swelling interest in data rights, privacy, consumer rights by helping customers such as Paetron, Indiegogo, etc., encode privacy across their tech stack.

Ben had a great idea - give people the rights to their data by making it easy for companies to deliver. With GDPR, CCPA, and 40 different state-level bills in the US pending, this is a major issue for businesses and almost feels like perfect timing. Ben shares his startup story on Tech Talks Daily.

1826: Content Creation and Repurpose Content Goals in 2022 Dec 26, 2021

Shiv Gupta, the founder of Incrementors Web Solutions, a Digital Marketing Agency, joins me on Tech Talks Daily. He shares his story, how he crafted his content marketing strategy, and how digital marketing, especially SEO, transformed his life.

We discuss what types of content businesses should be creating for their industry and how to repurpose content in different ways to make it last longer. Shiv also shares tips for your content that sells your products naturally or in a way that comes across as not pushy to the customer.

1825: Neil's Alternative Christmas Speech Dec 25, 2021

One of the traditions in the UK is to watch the Queens Christmas Speech on Christmas Day. I thought I would offer an alternative for tech fans where I look at where we are now and what the following year in tech will look like.

1824: What Sci-Fi Gets Wrong About Space Travel Dec 24, 2021

Whether it’s the concept of fold space in Dune, warp drive in Star Trek, or light speed in Star Wars, sci-fi creators and fans alike have always been intrigued by the idea of moving from one galaxy to another in the blink of an eye. Thanks to Hollywood, we associate the slow stretching of stars, streaks of particles drifting behind the exhaust pipes, and the silent rumble of engines with space ships - but what is the reality of space travel?

Daniel Bock, CEO & Co-Founder at Morpheus Space, joins me on Tech Talks Daily to dig into precisely what Hollywood gets wrong, how far off commercial space travel is, and what the industry needs to do not only to make it viable but to keep ESG at the core of it.

The space entrepreneur also shares his story and how he aims to enable a sustainable and safe future of our planet Earth by seeking new ventures and pushing boundaries. Morpheus Space is disrupting the NewSpace industry by introducing Agile Constellations, a fusion between advanced electric propulsion and Artificial Intelligence.

The solution package enables satellite service providers to operate entire constellations as one entity. Furthermore, with the support of its groundbreaking spacecraft electric propulsion systems, each satellite can perform countless orbital maneuvers, allowing the possibility of “objective first” mission planning with an automated trade-off.

All this provides the flexibility of satellite networks exploited by the A.I. to optimally morph the constellations to fulfill the user’s objectives, ranging from revisiting frequencies to observing moving POIs.

1823: Electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing (EVTOL) Technology Dec 23, 2021

Overair Inc. - Overair is positioned to be a global leader in advanced air mobility. In August 2021, they announced the design of their revolutionary Butterfly – an all-electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft for advanced air mobility. Butterfly is designed to be the most robust, efficient, and quiet aircraft in its class – a mobility workhorse that produces zero carbon emissions in flight.

Overair CEO Ben Tigner talks about Butterfly’s technology and how they want to change the way we live, work, and travel.

1822: Fintech - Exploring the World of Embedded Finance Tech Dec 22, 2021

Embedded finance looks set to radically transform digital businesses and create a new benchmark for customer experience across multiple industries. According to Juniper Research, the embedded finance market will be worth $138 billion by 2026.

In the near future, embedded finance will enable digital businesses to serve SMEs and micro-entrepreneurs worldwide, helping them sell to their core offering and create diversified revenue streams by embedding payments, insurance, lending, and other financial services under the banner of their existing brand.

Innovative businesses are also expected to adopt embedded finance to overcome perennial challenges around handling payments across geographies, currencies, and differing regulatory zones. As a result, they will be able to offer fintech as a service to help clients implement financial services into their own business models.

Frederick Crosby - Chief Revenue Officer at NIUM, joins me in a conversation about the trend towards embedded fintech and how the Nium platform enables banks, payment providers, travel companies, and other businesses to collect and disburse funds in local currencies to over 100 countries.

About Frederick

Frederick is the Chief Revenue Officer at Nium, an advanced global payments platform redefining how consumers and businesses can send, spend, and receive funds around the world. Frederick leads the global Business Development, Marketing, and Communications teams that have helped inform and transform business models for banks, fintechs, and other platforms that needed new payment capabilities in this quickly evolving digital age, and that have made Nium one of the fastest-growing global fintechs in the payment space.

Frederick is a veteran in the cross-border payments and e-commerce space and has catapulted huge global businesses and customer bases at start-ups and enterprise companies alike.

In the early days of PayPal, Frederick unlocked the potential of cross-border e-commerce by aligning eBay/PayPal’s massive supply/demand, and providing new functionality for global buyers and sellers to transact. At Western Union, he led a team that transformed digital remittances into the largest growth engine at the company to attain the #1 position in all their global markets.

As CRO at Veem, Frederick joined a pioneering team bent on making global SMB bank payments into a five-minute affair. His sales and marketing teams built a network of over 170K SMBs around the world who could send and receive payments in a click, and the partnership team, in turn, brought the capability into the world’s largest small business accounting and e-commerce platforms.

1821: Jerry Shi - Managing Partner - Synergis Capital Dec 21, 2021

Synergis, a globally focused technology venture capital firm whose existing investments include SMIC, WuXi AppTec, eSign, etc., launched its flagship Venture Fund I earlier this year. In addition to sectors such as SaaS, Biotech, and Consumer, the fund also has a dedicated Crypto/Blockchain strategy that has already allocated to six seed-stage funds and made one direct investment.

Synergis is set to launch Shanghai-based “Synergis LaunchPad” to assist portfolio GPs and companies in expanding founder-sourcing and community-building capabilities throughout Asia.

Jerry Shi is also a crypto evangelist and investor based in Toronto and New York. He institutionalized Synergis Capital with a strong team based on his differentiated model and track record with family assets and managed SPVs. I invited him on the podcast to learn more about his story.

1820: Nationwide & Qlik on Regulation and Trust in Data in Financial Services Dec 20, 2021

The UK government recently launched data reforms to boost innovation, economic growth and protect the public, a year on from the creation of the National Data Strategy and a key step in its 10 Tech Priorities, which include unlocking the power of data. The proposed reforms aim to empower the ICO and businesses using data in innovative and responsible ways to benefit people's lives, in areas from healthcare to financial services. However, a new report from data analytics leader, Qlik, into the UK's FS industry suggests that while AI and predictive analytics has huge potential in FS organisations, low trust and regulatory fears are still holding back their widespread adoption in the industry.

In fact, Only half (50%) of IT leaders FS organisations trust decisions made by predictive analytics solutions are without bias, 46% of IT leaders believe the regulatory burden outweighs the benefit that predictive analytics solutions could offer.

Richard Spiegal, BI Centre of Excellence Leader at Nationwide, and Adam Mayer, Senior Manager at Qlik join me in a conversation on the state of regulation and trust around data in the financial services (FS) sector.

We discuss how to tackle the issues laid out in Qlik's report, particularly around trust and regulation issues and the power of data analytics to help organisations build a data pipeline and democratise data in a safe, secure way with customers interests at heart.

I also learn how Nationwide is exploring analytics use cases across anti-money laundering, financial crime, risk management, and supporting human decisions, for example, by triaging and helping to prioritise staff caseloads.

A big thank you to the team at Feedspot for featuring Tech Talk Daily on their Best 40 UK Tech Podcasts list.

1819: Data Observability: Monitor, Identify & Solve Silent Data Issues Dec 19, 2021

I recently discovered a Belgian company called Soda who focuses on data quality monitoring and testing. Think of it a bit like application or software monitoring which is now ubiquitous. Soda scans for issues caused by human error, firmware upgrades, schema changes, cross-platform integration snafus, bought data, or transformation bugs.

The aim is to automate, verify, and validate the flow of data from various sources and encourage collaboration between software/data engineers and downstream business decision-makers. The big idea here is to eliminate so-called ‘silent data issues.’ These are the issues that bubble up (hence the name Soda!) further downstream having gone undetected in datasets. In an era when most companies are moving towards being entirely data-driven, ensuring data is of the optimum quality is critical. I invited Soda CEO and founder Maarten Masschelein on the Tech Talks Daily to learn more. Maarten discusses why data quality monitoring is becoming a hot topic and provides examples of where bad data has caused serious problems. I also learn how Soda was listed as a data management Cool Vendor by Gartner.

1818: The Complex Journey to Multi-Cloud Networking is Getting a Boost Dec 18, 2021

It has been remarkable to witness the enterprise transition to the cloud in just a few short years -- but what is next? Multi-cloud networking is the new way for enterprises to manage applications worldwide for dispersed and remote users. Managing applications in the cloud - and through multiple cloud service providers (CSPs) -- can mean a host of benefits, including reduced latency, more affordable transit costs, and heightened security.

However, we are not there yet. Most organizations are still struggling with the complex networking infrastructures needed to achieve "a multi-cloud networking Nirvana." Ramesh Prabagaran, co-founder and CEO of Prosimo, recognized the opportunity for a newer type of infrastructure -- one that would provide enterprises a better way to network to multiple CSPs - a safer, less complex, and more affordable way.

As the former co-founder of Viptela, acquired by Cisco for $610 million in 2017, Ramesh is one of the pioneers in the SD Wan field - and is no stranger to overcoming serious networking challenges. Ramesh and his team at Prosimo have developed a single, vertically integrated infrastructure stack to deliver an application experience that balances performance, security, and costs across multi-cloud environments.

Just months out of stealth, the team has had early success with several enterprise customers, including Flexport, announced partnerships with Google Cloud, AWS, and Verizon, and was recently included in the 2021 Gartner Market Guide for Cloud Networking Software.

Multi-cloud networking is complex and not easy to do or even understand. Still, in today's episode, Ramesh breaks it down and explains it all in a language everyone can understand. He also shares his own story, which involves a series of successes and innovations.

1817: Building a Future of Passwordless Authentication Dec 17, 2021

The way we authenticate online is fundamentally broken. Technology has evolved significantly since the advent of the internet, yet we still rely primarily on passwords for authentication. Passwords pose significant security and user experience issues, negatively impacting both consumers and businesses. In addition, passwords are also responsible for the vast majority of data breaches each year.

According to Verizon's 2021 Data Breach Investigations Report, 81% of all breaches involve weak or stolen passwords. In addition to being insecure, passwords also introduce significant consumer frustration. According to a recent Google study, ~75% of users report feeling overwhelmed trying to keep track of their passwords. So it's no surprise that users often re-use the same password across sites to make this process easier, but it introduces its own risks.

Julianna Lamb, co-founder, and CTO of Stytch, joins me on Tech Talks Daily to explore this topic in more detail. Stytch is the first company that's built a platform for passwordless authentication so that any application or website can embed passwordless sign-up and login flows.

I learn more about the story behind Stytch. We also discuss how thousands of companies have used Stytch's software to eliminate password-based authentication's security and user experience shortcomings.

1816: How e-commerce Retailers Can Leverage Technology Dec 17, 2021

Consumers seem to begin their holiday shopping earlier each year. This year, it's likely that shoppers will start buying even earlier as supply chain shortages impact everything from popular toys to footwear and even coffee. So, how should retailers prepare for this shopping season? For e-commerce retailers, website crashes or slow sites are all too common during holiday shopping, leading to frustrations for customers and potentially costing companies millions during downtimes on top of ongoing shortages. As a result, IT teams can become overwhelmed trying to ensure there are no disruptions for shoppers, but there is only so much they can do.

However, automating certain processes throughout the e-commerce workflow can help mitigate these issues and ensure customers don't feel any impact. And while automation is effective, many teams don't know what to automate to be most successful. Ritu Dubey from Digitate discusses how retailers should automate workflows to relieve IT teams so that they can rest easy this holiday season, knowing that their customers are having a good experience.

1815: Discussing Synthetic Data With Accenture Dec 16, 2021

Fernando Lucini, Global Data Science & Machine Learning Engineering Lead at Accenture, joins me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss synthetic data.

We explore how privacy concerns and process issues are still holding businesses back from developing advanced analytics initiatives – and how synthetic data (artificially generated by an AI algorithm) might be able to help. We discuss how the technology has potential across a range of industries. Synthetic data’s most obvious benefit is that it eliminates the risk of exposing critical data and compromising the privacy and security of companies and customers.

With synthetic data, a company can quickly train machine learning models on large data sets, accelerating the processes of training, testing, and deploying an AI solution. While the benefits of synthetic data are compelling, realizing them can be difficult.

Generating synthetic data is a highly complex process, and to do it right, an organization needs to do more than plug in an AI tool to analyze its data sets. We discuss how the task requires people with specialized skills and truly advanced knowledge of AI.

1814: Sharethrough and The Future of Feed-Based Consumption Dec 15, 2021

Dan Greenberg, president of Sharethrough, one of the world’s largest omnichannel exchanges, joins me on Tech Talks Daily. Dan has his pulse on how businesses can ensure their ads get as many eyeballs as possible. In particular, Dan has thoughts on how our desire to read through feed-based visuals will inform how we interact with advertising in the future, particularly when it comes to TV.

Dan believes that the current, catalogue-style home page that most streaming services have adopted will become obsolete and that adapting to the way we consume other media through personalized feeds on channels like social will become the norm. In addition, with streaming giants such as Netflix reporting slowing subscriber growth, streamers need to find new ways to breathe life into their UX.

About Dan

Dan is the President of Sharethrough, overseeing market development and customer strategy. As the founding CEO of Sharethrough, Dan is a recognized leader in the industry and the Silicon Valley tech ecosystem.

Coming from a research background at Stanford in Behavior Design, Dan has been at the cutting edge of digital advertising since 2005, bringing together unique expertise in persuasive technology and native monetization.

Dan is the founding chair of the IAB Native Advertising Committee and has spearheaded the native advertising movement since its inception in 2011. Dan has been recognized as an AdAge “Media Maven,” Forbes “30 Under 30,” Inc “35 Under 35″, and AdAge “40 Under 40.” He is a regular speaker at advertising and technology conferences and contributing author for Forbes, AdAge, TechCrunch, and other industry publications.

1813: The Best Digital Marketing Strategies to Implement in 2022 Dec 14, 2021

White Shark Media is a digital marketing agency with more than ten years of experience managing pay-per-click campaigns with Google, Microsoft, and Facebook Ads. We provide custom PPC solutions and white label services to businesses, agencies, and organizations.

At White Shark Media, Daniel Alvarado helps organizations use technology to create meaningful experiences, simplify complex tasks and generate value for their clients. Daniel joins me on Tech Talks Daily to share the best digital marketing strategies to implement in 2022.

We discuss why automating marketing allows for better personalization in your marketing content while also being time-efficient. By obtaining data and segmenting your audience, you have a better chance at engaging your product or service with customers to convert them faster.

We also discuss how making bids automatic instead of manual gives personnel more time to dedicate to other marketing efforts, and keeping business information up to date is critical as it can allow your business to achieve higher client acquisition rates.

1812: Amira Learning - When Reading Science Meets AI Dec 13, 2021

Amira Learning CEO Mark Angel joins me on Tech Talks Daily to share how they are building a first-of-its-kind voice AI-based reading tutor for kids. With previous experience working at Nuance, which MSFT recently acquired for $19B, Mark's goal in developing Amira is to make every child a motivated and masterful reader.

I learn how they have raised $11 million to scale up with a new app and growing customer base. We also talk about how 'Amira & the StoryCraft' has been named one of TIME's 100 Best Inventions of 2021. Only one of three inventions honored in the Education category. The list features 100 products and services that change how we live, play, work, and think about the future.

Amira's Dyslexia Screener identifies students at risk of Dyslexia and other disorders. In longitudinal testing conducted by the University of Houston, the Screener missed only 1% of at-risk students. Finally, we talk about how Amira uses AI to generate the right reading intervention at the right time when an unproductive struggle helps create motivated and masterful readers.

1811: Conversational AI for the Restaurant, Retail and Service Industries. Dec 12, 2021

Rob Carpenter is the CEO and Founder of Valyant AI, the first Artificially Intelligent "Digital Employee" to work directly alongside employees in customer-facing roles. For example, Valyant's AI "Holly" works in fast food restaurants to greet customers at the drive-thru post, answer questions and take food orders.

The revolutionary nature of this technology is that it pulls AI from being a hidden back-office tool to something that feels like a real staff member, which humanizes a brand's personality and brings the AI experience front and center to a physical location.

The major technological innovation of Holly is her Conversational AI. It allows her to speak with a human-sounding voice, to understand context, nuance and to be able to manage a free-form and wide-ranging conversation within the context of food ordering.

After five years of development Valyant AI now has paying customers, can deliver up to 20% average order increase and has begun rolling out with two restaurant chains that have a combined 5,000 locations. Much like self-driving cars, Conversational AI has had a long and bumpy road to deployment, but the technology is maturing, and Valyant is at the vanguard of this new era of customer service automation for physical locations.

Rob joins me in a conversation about the future of AI-human relations and its impact on the labor market - both positive and negative. We also discuss the developments in robotics and the commercialization of space travel.

1810: The Rise of Personalized Phishing Attacks Dec 11, 2021

At the end of 2020 Troy Gill, Senior Manager of Threat Intelligence at Zix, predicted in the 2020 Global Security Report that we would see attackers further personalizing and customizing their attacks this year. Over the last 8 months, it has come true over and over again. One such attack lived up to this prediction. The phishing attempt was posing as certificate errors for the recipient’s website. What made it unique was it pulled their real certificate data and DNS (Domain Name System) A-record to tailor the phishing message to their domain. The payload URL also led to a credential harvesting site customized for their specific web platform admin page. While testing, we observed the generic WordPress admin login page and Shopify login pages (depending on the target).

Troy Gill joins me on the podcast to discuss the rise of personalized phishing attacks and what businesses can to do protect themselves.

1809: Transaction Network Services - TNS Secure SD-WAN Dec 10, 2021

Transaction Network Services (TNS) is a leading global provider of data communications and interoperability solutions. Its global network and innovative services enable transactions and the exchange of information to many of the world’s leading retailers, banks, payment processors, financial institutions, and telecommunication firms.

Founded in 1990 in the United States, TNS has grown steadily and now provides services to customers in over 60 countries across the Americas, Europe, and the Asia Pacific region. Its reach extends to many more. TNS has designed and implemented a global data network that supports various widely accepted communications protocols and is designed to be scalable and accessible by multiple methods.

John Tait joins me in discussing the important role SD-WAN will play in enabling the next generation of connected payments and what it means for merchants and consumers. First, I learn more about how SD-WAN enables a retailers to securely connect a wide range of devices to their POS system.

This can be anything from ordering a delivery of milk directly from your refrigerator, to ordering new ink cartridges directly from your printer, to paying for parking, gas, or a car wash directly from your vehicle.

You can read more about the benefits of SD-WAN here: https://tnsi.com/infographics/tns-secure-sd-wan-the-benefits-of-mission-critical-payment-capability/

1808: REPL Group, Part of Accenture Dec 09, 2021

The digital workplace brings the potential for numerous world-beating solutions, but many businesses don't have the resources to find the perfect solution. That's where REPL comes in, drawing on years of experience in the technology sector to provide a solution that gets results for businesses. Cerys Johnson took on the CEO role in 2017, after six years working for the company, firstly as Chief Financial Officer and later as Chief Operating Officer. Her in-depth knowledge of how the firm works have given her an unpreceded insight into how to guide the path of the company's growth globally. Her tenure as CEO thus far has seen REPL double in size, with a reported increase in revenue of 40% year over year. With over twenty-five years of experience in strategic and digital transformation roles, she knows how to ensure that companies make the most of what they have. With her unique perspective driving the strategy and execution that spans all the aspects of REPL's business model, there has been a chance to impact product development, IT, marketing, and sales. When REPL opened its doors in 2007, the aim was to enhance the capacity of businesses of all sorts. No one deserved to be left before in the technological age. This demanded an innovative approach that could scale easily and adapt effectively to suit the needs of different markets and industries. We discuss how this feels even more relevant today than 14 years ago, When it comes to the technology sector, it's easy to get lost in the hardware that goes into making a success. Cerys also shares how they have achieved your success through working closely with people.

1807: Harvard Professor Discusses Quantum Technologies Dec 08, 2021

A divisive topic for techies is quantum computing. Although still in its infancy, many wonder if it can ever live up to its hype. We can expect these debates to intensify after IBM revealed its 127-qubit quantum computer, double the size of comparable machines made by Google and the University of Science and Technology of China.

I wanted to explore this topic further and found the perfect guest. Her name is Prineha Narang. She is the assistant professor of computational materials science at Harvard. She heads up NarangLab, where she and her team work on many of the most promising quantum computing technologies.

We discuss why quantum technologies and what it holds for consumers, engineers, developers in the future. We also talk about how to think about quantum technologies and their impact on a spectrum of applications/industries. Finally, we explore the limitations and benefits of quantum tech across computing, networking, and sensing.

1806: Algolia: Site Search & Discovery powered by AI Dec 07, 2021

We have all searched on a website, search engine, or even a podcast app to find this episode. But when that search function does not deliver, it can be nearly as frustrating as slow wifi. Algolia solves this problem with an API-first approach that allows developers and business teams to surface relevant content when wanted.

I wanted to learn more about how this tech satisfies the demand for instant gratification while also building and optimizing online experiences that enhance online engagement, increase conversion rates, and enrich lifetime value to generate profitable growth.

More than 10,000 companies, including Lacoste, Birchbox, Stripe, Slack, Medium, and Zendesk, rely on Algolia to manage over 1.5 trillion search queries a year – that's six times more than Microsoft Bing, 16 times more than Yahoo, and 50 times more than DuckDuckGo (four times more than Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, Baidu and Yandex combined).

Bernadette Nixon is an entrepreneurial & driven CEO with a strong track record of growing and scaling global businesses and is focused on doing that at Algolia. Most recently, she led the company in a new funding round that resulted in the company closing $150 Million in funding and a new valuation of $2.25 Billion – almost QUADRUPLE the company's previous valuation.

1805: The Tech Helping Brands Adopt an Omnichannel Approach to Retail Dec 06, 2021

We are currently right in the eye of the storm of the holiday season, and I find myself fascinated by how technology is raising our expectations from retailers. Everything from smart changing rooms, smart mirrors, and the evolution of virtual shopping via 3D, AR, and virtual try-on's highlights how much the industry has changed.

Zakeke is empowering brands and retailers to offer their customers live product personalization and 3D / AR View. Zakeke also integrates Visual Commerce Solutions online and offline to engage their customers with a rich and interactive "design-your-own" experience.

People are different and have unique tastes. As customers, they want to play a primary role in designing the products they use, configuring them according to their needs and preferences. Merchants are discovering the value of letting their customers create their own unique products and taking personalization a big step into mass customization.

Lou Leporace joins me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss how Zakeke enables merchants to meet the increasing demand for customized products.

1804: Digital Maturity and Customer Experience With Optimizely CEO Alex Atzberger Dec 05, 2021

With Google's plan to delay killing third-party cookies until 2023, many businesses are breathing a sigh of relief that they no longer have to scramble to plan out their consumer data collection practices.   However, as the world moves toward increased consumer data privacy measures backed by legislation like the GDPR and at the local state levels in Colorado and California, the death of third-party data is inevitable and businesses need to get ahead to succeed.

Alex Atzberger, CEO of Optimizely, shares why companies need to personalize based on the behaviors behind content consumption, even if the visitors are unknown. He also reveals how to build trust brands should do the following:   

Offer loyalty programs, as seen recently by McDonald's and Chipotle, where customers can receive points for purchases that translate into freebies later on  
Track the content your customers are engaging with to see what's resonating, even if the customer is anonymous   
Glean customer feedback on their preferred channels and ensure you're engaging with them, on ones they favor

We also discuss how Gen Z and Millennials start their shopping journeys on social media apps, but most leave the apps to purchase on 3rd party sites like Amazon.

1803: How Technology is Improving Healthcare Outcomes Dec 04, 2021

As you all know by now, I am fascinated by how we have gone from a reactive approach to healthcare to a proactive approach where we record calories, steps, sleep, and heart rate to monitor our health. HGS AxisPoint Health is a technology-enabled care management services company focused on applying whole-person interventions to improve healthcare outcomes, reduce costs, and increase satisfaction.

Michele Kratz and SV Krishnan from HGS AxisPoint Health join me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss how health plans and providers are beginning to use a predictive analytics model known as "impactability" to more effectively address the multifaceted aspects of an individual's health.

1802: Advancing Women in Technology (AWIT) Dec 03, 2021

There is a visibility problem within the tech industry as there is a large absence of female leaders and role models. The diversity gap among tech leadership roles is wider today than it was in 1984. A 2021 report found that 50% of women abandon tech careers by 35 and are leaving at a 45% higher rate than men.

AWIT was founded to address this representation gap in tech leadership roles by giving underrepresented individuals the resources they need to exceed, including mentoring, skills-based training, and advocacy. Nancy Wang shares the story behind AWIT.

In addition to being CEO and Founder of AWIT, Nancy pulls double duty. She is the GM of Data Protection Services at Amazon Web Services (AWS) — understanding first-hand what it means to climb to be a female leader within the tech industry.

We discuss all of these reasons represent the need for mentorship and continuing education for women and underrepresented individuals to have the right support to accelerate their careers to the next level. I learn how AWIT has recently created the industry’s first 1:1 executive mentorship program for MongoDB and teamed up with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to release two online certification programs for Coursera.

1801: Rewind - We've Got Your Back(up) Dec 02, 2021

Mike Potter is the CEO and Founder of Rewind, a leading provider of cloud backups for SaaS applications that help businesses easily back up and restore their cloud data. While Mike and Rewind have experienced tremendous growth and success, supporting over 80,000 organizations across the globe, this wasn't always the case. Mike weathered the failure of two companies to get to where he is today.

Mike knows the path to success isn't always glamorous. Over the years, he has learned to embrace the discomfort of pivoting or persisting. This point in growing a business is essential to its success and a founder's sanity. Mike shares his story on Tech Talks Daily.

We also discuss how to balance life and work while creating a company that people love, Tips for overcoming agency challenges and what it takes to build a $100M startup.

1800: Remote Patient Monitoring Technology With Biotricity Dec 01, 2021

A new study reveals the remote patient monitoring industry (RPM) is expected to grow by 12.5% in the next ten years. And another study shows that almost half of healthcare providers believe that remote patient monitoring will be as prevalent as in-person monitoring within the next five years.

All this comes at a time when Apple also recently announced new heart and health monitoring features for their latest smartwatch. Waqaas Al-Siddiq, CEO and founder of Biotricity, discusses how RPM will continue to improve patient outcomes and why RPM tech is poised for rapid growth.

Waqaas shares his insights on whether wearable devices such as the Apple Watch can replace other devices for patients with heart conditions. We also explore what the future holds for remote patient monitoring technology.

About Biotricity

Biotricity is a medical technology company committed to improving healthcare by developing solutions that aid chronic disease prevention and management. Biotricity’s premier product is Bioflux, an ECG monitoring system that will be prescribed by physicians to diagnose and remotely monitor cardiac patients.

Biotricity is expanding medical-grade monitoring into the consumer market via its Biolife solution, which empowers users to self-manage chronic conditions. Biolife helps users make lifestyle changes by combining medically relevant ECG data with social media interactivity and a lifestyle log.

Biotricity’s R&D continues to focus on the preventative healthcare market, with a vision of putting health management into the hands of the individual. The company aims to support the self-management of critical and chronic conditions with the use of innovative solutions to ease the growing burden on the healthcare system.

1799: Cyngn and the Autonomous Technology for Industrial Vehicles Nov 30, 2021

There is a lot of talk around autonomous vehicles and electric cars right now, and I wanted to demystify this world. This path led me to Cyngn, a developer of innovative autonomous driving solutions for industrial and commercial enterprises that recently announced its partnership with Columbia Vehicle Group.

Lior Tal shares the story behind the company, the road to the partnership with Columbia, and current trends shaping the market. I also learn more about how Cyngn's autonomous vehicle capabilities are powered by DriveMod, an end-to-end solution that can be integrated with Columbia vehicles – or any vehicle.

DriveMod enables vehicles to switch easily between manual, remotely-controlled, and fully autonomous modes. Autonomous vehicle technology brings various benefits to industrial organizations by increasing efficiency, continuity and making it easier for workers to stay focused on their most mission-critical tasks. The pairing of Cyngn's DriveMod with Columbia's fleet of electric utility vehicles means material handling organizations can begin to implement autonomy today.

1798: Dr. Chase Cunningham, CSO of Ericom Software Nov 29, 2021

Dr. Chase Cunningham, CSO of Ericom Software released a techno-thriller book during Cyber Awareness Month titled "C:\>_gAbrIel." This book draws on Chase’s real-world experience as a technologist and how cyber warfare, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence (AI) can be leveraged by bad actors.

Although fiction, the information in this book offers a glimpse at what can potentially happen in the future if these technologies remain unchecked. Chase’s background includes interacting with national security and intelligence communities, countering cybercriminal actions, and building and deploying secure systems to counter malicious cyber threats.

About Chase

Dr. Chase Cunningham primarily guides client initiatives related to security operations center (SOC) planning and optimization, counter-threat operations, encryption, network security, and strategic concepts and implementation. In addition, he helps senior technology executives with their plans to leverage comprehensive security controls and the use of a variety of standards, frameworks, and tools to enable secure business operations.

Chase has served as a director of cyber threat intelligence operations at Armor. He was the computer network exploitation lead for Telecommunication Systems and the chief of cyber analytics for Decisive Analytics.

Dr. Cunningham is also a retired U.S. Navy Chief with more than 20 years’ experience in cyber forensic and cyber analytic operations. He has past operations experience, stemming from time spent in work centers within the NSA, CIA, FBI, and other government agencies.

1797: Casting off the Legacy Technology Shackles With Couchbase Nov 28, 2021

Chris Harris from Couchbase joins me in a conversation about the challenges that businesses continue to face with legacy technology. Using the database industry as a case in point, we discuss how business' legacy arrangements hinder their chances of being competitive in the post-COVID, digital-first world.

Chris argues that reliance on legacy database technology such as Oracle is holding them back from achieving their digital goals. We also talk about cloud and IoT to AI, and even 5G calls for a much higher level of data agility than legacy databases can provide.

In Chris' view, one of the key reasons businesses struggle to move away from legacy tech is skills; often and companies lack the resources to adopt more modern alternatives that are better suited to meeting digital transformation requirements.

Finally, Chris offers his thoughts on where he sees the database industry moving next, looking at emerging technologies that businesses increasingly demand, such as edge computing or real-time analytics, and explaining how the database industry is evolving to support them.

At Couchbase, they believe data is at the heart of the enterprise. They empower developers and architects to build, deploy, and run their mission-critical applications. Many of the world’s largest enterprises rely on Couchbase to power the core applications their businesses depend on.

1796: Exploring the Benefits, and Pitfalls, of APIs With Imperva Nov 27, 2021

Could the API revolution and the digital transformation be exposing everyone to security risks? An API is the connective tissue that binds together cloud-native architecture and enables us to enjoy digital services. While these are fundamental for the way we work and live, they're exposing organizations to a new domain of security risk.

Peter Klimek, Director of Technology, Office of the CTO at Imperva joins me on the Tech Talks Daily Podcast in a conversation about the benefits, and pitfalls, of APIs.

Imperva is a cybersecurity leader with a mission to protect data and all paths to it. They protect the data of over 6,000 global customers from cyberattacks through all stages of their digital transformation. Their products are informed by the Imperva Research Lab, an international threat intelligence community that feeds the latest security and compliance expertise into our solutions.

1795: Terra Virtua, The Marketplace For Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) Nov 26, 2021

Terra Virtua is the world's first fully immersive social digital collectables platform. Given your expertise in this area, I invited Jawad Ashraf, CTO, and Co-Founder of the company, onto the Tech Talks Daily Podcast.

Launched in 2016, Terra Virtua is on a mission to turbo-charge fandom - from art to sports, music to movies, games to comics - with the world's first fully immersive platform for buying, sharing, trading, exhibiting, and interacting with digital collectibles.

As the world has started shifting the digital realm – from working to shopping, entertaining, and connecting with friends and family Terra Virtua is at the start of using the internet as a virtual world. NFTs isn't an evolution of traditional collecting; it's a whole new form of entertainment.

I learn how Terra Virtua is revolutionizing the way people experience digital tokens, and it's the only place where fans can buy and own 2D, 3D, or animated collectibles. We also discuss how Terra Virtua ensures that the environment doesn't pay a heavy price for this game-changing technology and has just switched to Polygon – a new, energy-efficient, scaled blockchain solution.

Since launching, Terra Virtua has collaborated with numerous industry leaders, such as Paramount Pictures and Legendary Entertainment, to bring the best NFT content and collaborations to their platforms. The brand has big plans for growth and creating a whole new form of entertainment for its fans.

1794: How Blockchain is Disrupting of Uber's Ride Hailing Model Nov 25, 2021

Firdosh Sheikh is the Co-founder and CEO of DRIFE, a decentralized Ride-hailing platform powered by blockchain to empower both the drivers and the riders without any existence of a central entity. Firdosh shares her powerful origin story that she calls 'the ride that changed my life.'

I learn why ride-hailing is crying out for innovation. Despite being a huge global market, drivers, riders, and ride-hailing platforms are all struggling. Uber still is not making profits. So one of the original big disruptive industries is crying out for disruption itself.

We discuss how DRIFE is breaking the vicious cycle of centralised ride-hailing platforms like Uber and the high commissions leaving drivers trapped with little to no profits.

1793: The Tech Making it Easier to Manage Last Mile Deliveries Nov 24, 2021

Khaled Naim is Co-Founder & CEO of Onfleet a provider of last-mile delivery management software. Since its launch in 2015, Onfleet has grown to power millions of deliveries per month for thousands of businesses around the world. Clients include Gap, Total Wine & More, Capsule, Imperfect Foods, and United Supermarkets.

Onfleet's software provides advanced route optimization, dispatching, real-time driver tracking, proof of delivery, analytics and customer communications. Onfleet was ranked #124 on the Inc 5000 list of America's fastest-growing companies in 2019 and #13 in San Francisco Business Times' Fast100 list of the Bay Area's 100 fastest growing companies.

Khaled joins me on Tech Talks Daily and shares his story and how Onfleet's technology helps businesses streamline this onerous undertaking by efficiently connecting businesses, dispatchers, drivers, and deliveries to happy customers.

1792: The Silicon Valley VC Firm With $1.9B Under Management Nov 23, 2021

Scale is a Silicon Valley-based venture capital investment firm with $1.9B under management. They were early investors in SaaS pioneers like Bill.com (NYSE:BILL), DocuSign (NASDAQ:DOCU), HubSpot (NYSE:HUBS), JFrog (NASDAQ: FROG) and Root (NASDAQ: ROOT).

Today they are focused on the next generation of enterprise software companies building Cognitive Applications like: Comet.ml, Observe.ai, Techsee and Viz.ai.

Eric Anderson is a Partner at Scale Venture Partners, where he focuses on cloud infrastructure and security investments. He is a Board member at Scale portfolio companies Datastax and Upsolver and a Board observer at Matillion, BigID, Expel, Honeycomb, Tetrate, and AppOmni.

Before Scale, Eric led early Google Cloud and Amazon Web Services product teams. At Google, he was a Product Manager in the Data Analytics and Machine Learning group. He led the team that launched Cloud Dataprep and critical components of Cloud Dataflow. Previously, Eric built aircraft engines in General Electric's Operation Management Leadership Program.

Eric is a go-to resource on open source (he also moonlights as the host of the Contributor podcast) and has deep expertise in cloud infrastructure, cybersecurity, and app development and contributed to the deal teams for Matillion and BigID and more recent deals like AppOmni, Comet, and Upsolver.

I learn more about the early-stage VC investor that is focused on intelligent business software, and we discuss the trends he is seeing in the industry.

1791: How Blue Wireless is Enabling the Wireless Enterprise Nov 22, 2021

Blue Wireless was founded in Singapore in 2015 to solve what was missing in the market – a flexible connectivity solution and a provider able to guide enterprise customers and simplify their connectivity journey to focus on their business. Since then, it has grown its presence with offices across APAC, Europe, and the US. They serve 80 countries with LTE/5G connectivity and have doubled their customer base in the last year.

I wanted to hear about the story behind the company, and how they are transforming the way Global Enterprises use LTE/5G services, so I invited Ivan LandenFounder and CEO of Blue Wireless, to find out more.

I learn how founders come from a telco world. Hence, they know the faults and limitations of customer service, flexibility, and even connectivity (wired vs. wireless). Finally, we discuss the 5G boom and how enterprises are looking for alternatives to telcos and their challenges when it comes to connectivity.

1790: Flytrex Drone Delivery to Your Backyard Nov 21, 2021

In a recent viral video on TikTok, a Starbucks customer was waiting in a field for her Starbucks order to be delivered by drone. The video quickly garnered over 2.2 million views. (Video here https://bit.ly/30GQMCn).

So I tracked down the company and invited their CEO onto the podcast to learn more. Yariv Bash, CEO, and Co-founder of Flytrex, a leading on-demand drone delivery service in the food and retail space, shares his take on the future of drone delivery.

Drawing from his experience operating an on-demand drone delivery system since August 2017 and witnessing advancements in the space since Yariv discusses how technology and regulation have come together in recent years to create a viable framework for safe and secure drone innovation across applications.

Flytrex expects to gain airworthiness certification from the FAA in the not-so-distant future -- once that happens, the sky’s the limit. I learn more about Flytrex and its role in bringing about a future where drone delivery is the rule, not the exception.

1789: Why 5G and Edge are Gatekeepers to Net Zero Emissions Nov 20, 2021

Until recently, 90% of enterprise data was sent to the cloud. However, this number is dropping to only 25% over the next three years. By 2025, 75% of enterprise data is expected to be created and processed at the edge. With edge adoption increasing in adoption, bringing in the power of 5G should also be considered for improving energy efficiency. 5G has a positive impact on edge operations as it allows for the installation of lower power but faster computational power, making it a more sustainable option. Furthermore, by integrating 5G and edge computing, enterprises can harness meaningful data to drive better business decisions around sustainability and reduce carbon emissions. Chris Penrose, COO at FogHorn, a developer of edge AI software and solutions, discusses how 5G and edge capabilities drive sustainability, ultimately helping enterprises and communities achieve net zero emissions?

1788: HCL Technologies - Digital Change in Financial Services Nov 19, 2021

Rahul Singh from HCL Technologies discusses how covid has accelerated digital change in the financial services industry. Banks had to adjust in 2020, as the use of cash dropped off a cliff and mobile banking grew by 13%, while branches were forced to close overnight rapidly. As lockdowns were imposed without warning, some of the world’s oldest, most cautious organizations were suddenly forced to change – do nothing, and they would surely see a mass customer exodus.

HCL manages IT for Deutsche Bank, ING, and Metro Bank, so I asked Rahul to share his unique insight into the industry challenges faced during the pandemic. He also explores the three significant digital shifts that have occurred within the financial services industry:

1. An explosion in remote working. With existing ways of working, and the obvious privacy and security concerns, banking has been slow to adopt remote working compared to other industries. However, the pandemic made it a necessity – banks had to find a way to enable people to work remotely without damaging customer experience.

Rahul talks about the key areas they had to address: removing entrenched rule-based processes to accommodate remote workers and providing the required collaborative tools for employees to complete the necessary functions. He also discusses how recent announcements from HSBC and JP Morgan indicate this isn’t a temporary shift but a permanent change.

2. Pushing mobile payments to the top of the agenda. Paying through your phone was once a nice to have, but that all changed when the pandemic meant we had to avoid unnecessary physical contact – so chip and pin card machine use dropped. This meant banks had to speed up mobile payment roll-out and ensure mobile apps were reliable – they couldn’t risk letting customers down at the crucial moment. Imagine queuing for half an hour to enter a supermarket, loading your trolley with essentials, and then finding payment doesn’t go through when you arrive at the checkout…

Rahul says this meant banks’ contactless and phone payment options had to mature quicker than initially planned. IT projects had to be re-prioritized, with future-facing alternative payment projects now pushed front and center. The sudden introduction of new rules and directives, such as the FCA’s decision to increase the single transaction contactless payment limit to £100, also means banks must be prepared to quickly update payment systems based on directives at short notice.

3. Adopting public cloud computing at breakneck speed. Financial services have been one of the slowest industries to adopt the public cloud, with regulations and restrictions keeping FS out of the fast lane. However, banks had to dramatically speed things up when they suddenly had large remote workforces to support, requiring computing beyond the current capabilities of many existing on-premise or private cloud systems.

This led to many flexing their financial muscles to make a move and play catch-up. Rahul can explain how this move unfolded, with critical workloads shifting to the likes of Amazon and Google. He says that every bank around the world will emerge from the pandemic with a public cloud strategy, meaning it will become increasingly prevalent across the industry.

1787: WalkMe and Breaking Down Barriers to Digital Transformation Nov 19, 2021

Companies are investing millions of dollars to digitally transform their entire operations. This involves deploying hundreds or thousands of applications. So if there’s a business problem like in sales or HR, there’s an app for it. Enterprises will spend half a trillion dollars on software this year alone— and they’ll spend nearly three-quarters of a trillion in 3 years (by 2024).

While software vendors are constantly delivering new features and improvements that enterprises continue to deploy, nobody focuses on software adoption. These actual people need to use the software for the digital transformation to be successful. That is why 90% of all digital transformation projects fail.

Dan Adika is the co-founder and CEO of WalkMe, a software company that recently went public on NASDAQ, explains that’s where WalkMe comes in. The company’s Digital Adoption Platform (DAP) enables organizations to measure, drive and act to maximize the impact of their digital transformation to improve productivity, humanize technology and drive more effective use of all of the software.

We discuss how WalkMe drives users to action as they use software or websites, providing step-by-step guidance without requiring the user to leave the screen, watch video tutorials, or read tedious manuals or FAQ pages.

1786: Mike McDaniel, DXC Technology's President of Modern Workplace Nov 18, 2021

DXC Technology and Qualtrics recently announced a new collaboration to make the Qualtrics’ EmployeeXM™ experience management platform a part of DXC’s Modern Workplace service solution. Blended with DXC’s Modern Workplace operational data, DXC will capture and integrate experience data from Qualtrics–how employees feel about their technology experience at work–to provide valuable, real-time employee sentiment to drive greater engagement and collaboration, and productivity. Qualtrics research also found that employees’ technology experience plays a larger role in the overall employee experience, particularly as the digital workplace continues to evolve. Over 90% of CIOs believe the IT experience is essential when it comes to attracting and retaining talent and building corporate culture.

I invited Mike McDaniel back on to the podcast to talk about all this and also learn more about how DXC will be the first to use the Modern Workplace solution internally to transform the digital experiences for its more than 130,000 employees.

1785: Launch a Podcast, Get Podcast Guests or be a Podcast Guest Nov 17, 2021

In today's episode of Tech Talks Daily, I want to explore three of the most common questions that I am asked on this show. How do I launch a podcast without the hassle of editing audio files and submitting them to all the podcast platforms? How do I get high-quality guests on my new podcast? And if you are a business leader, how can I get invited onto more podcasts as a thought leader in 2022?

Ryan Estes from Kitcaster joins me on the podcast to talk about all this and much more. He also discusses how to leverage podcast interviews to generate leads, validate new products, create new opportunities, and build brand awareness through personal connections.

About Kitcaster

Kitcaster books podcast interviews for funded start-up founders, entrepreneurs with exits, and C-suit execs. Get on-demand podcast placements scheduled for you by professionals.

All growing businesses run into the same fundamental marketing problems. Automated bots, fake news, rampant amateurism. The good news? kitcaster™ solves them. Podcasts cut through the gobbledygook and make fundamentally authentic connections.

Podcasts make business better. Where are you in your entrepreneur journey? Validation? Launch? Traction? Scale? Wherever you are, podcasts will take you further. They book you on top podcasts that speak directly to your ideal audience. These are your peeps – this is your influence. Podcasts are good for business and good for people.

1784: Why Businesses Must Rethink Path to Trusted Data Nov 16, 2021

Precisely is the global leader in data integrity software, providing accuracy, consistency, and the context in data for 12,000 customers in more than 100 countries, including 97 percent of the Fortune 100. Precisely's data integration, data quality, data governance, location intelligence, and data enrichment products power better business decisions to create better outcomes

A Survey of 300 chief data officers revealed that worldwide adoption of digital initiatives continues to accelerate despite significant data quality, integration, and enrichment challenges. Precisely and Corinium Global Intelligence ran the independent study of more than 300 C-level data executives in the U.S., Europe, and the Asia Pacific. One of the biggest takeaways was 82% of Chief Data Officers have data quality concerns.

Dan Adams, SVP Data and Operations at Precisely joins me on the Tech Talks Daily podcast and shares why businesses must rethink the path to trusted data as a foundation for digital transformation and business growth.

Useful Links

https://www.precisely.com/resource-center/analystreports/data-integrity-trends

https://www.linkedin.com/company/preciselydata/

1783: RetailTech and how Retail is Preparing for the Holiday Season Nov 15, 2021

Dan Wallace-Brewster, Senior Vice President Marketing at Scalefast, joins me in a conversation on the state of the retail industry as we continue to navigate more waves of COVID and face the upcoming holiday season.

Dan leads the content and lead generation engines for Scalefast as it accelerates an already-exponential growth curve. He has mechanized custom content throughput by enabling internal and external creative teams and focused messaging on defined ICPs and products in collaboration with sales leaders. Under his leadership, a new marketing technology stack has been deployed to ensure multi-touch attribution, maximum funnel velocity, and accountability for every B2B marketing investment.

About Scalefast Scalefast is on a mission to change the way brands do direct-to-consumer eCommerce by empowering them to regain the control and simplicity they need to create an exceptional shopping experience directly from their online storefront.

1782: How to Use Data Analytics to Drive Business Growth Nov 14, 2021

The Smart Cube is a global provider of research and analytics solutions focused on CPG, retail, and life sciences. Nitin Aggarwal, Vice President of Data Analytics, discusses how to use data analytics to drive growth, including featured case studies/examples in retail and CPG.

About The Smart Cube

The company researches, analyses and addresses the needs of businesses in today’s intelligence age with tailored sector-specific solutions and Amplifi – their organisational platform, rich with knowledge, cutting edge tools, and advanced analytics – delivered by talented minds. Primarily serving the CPG, Energy & Chemicals, Financial Services, Industrials, Life Sciences, and Retail sectors, they work with a third of companies in the Fortune 100, helping them make smarter decisions, accelerate value and gain a competitive edge.

1781: Early-Detection Sensors for Power Grid Failures and Wildfires Nov 13, 2021

Gridware was founded by Tim Barat, a former lineman, who developed the company out of frustration with the immense shortage of information available to the people responsible for providing reliable electricity to our society.

Tim believes that this data shortage leaves grid operators forced to operate a fragile electricity grid to fail to identify problems. While the symptoms of this problem present themselves in many different ways across the globe, he believes the most chronic symptom is the increased risk of wildfire ignition occurring throughout the west.

The company specializes in feeding real-time utility line tracking information to commercial and public utility companies to prevent wildfires and environmental damages due to powerline abnormalities.

Gridware combines a cloud-based system with several different sensors connected to utility poles to provide consistent updates of environmental, mechanical, and temperature-related statuses. The device runs on solar power and uses patented wireless and satellite technology to provide a detailed account of the powerline's health 24/7 to the grid operator in milliseconds.

Tim shares his inspirational story of going from an actual lineman to entrepreneur, trying to prevent issues and wildfires caused by utilities, and looking out for the safety of linemen with technology.

1780: The Community-Driven Blockchain Building An Open and Free Internet. Nov 12, 2021

Free TON is a community-driven blockchain cultivating an open and free internet. I invited Alexander Filatov, Co-Founder, and Chief Executive Officer at TON Labs on Tech Talks Daily, to share how he oversees the development of Free TON, a community-driven blockchain underpinning an open and free internet.

In this role, he leverages his extensive corporate and VC experience towards fostering meaningful partnerships and communities to build a decentralized 'WebFree' platform.

Prior to co-founding TON Labs in 2018, Alexander held several Executive positions, heading three multibillion-dollar manufacturing corporations in the automotive, construction equipment, and oil & gas equipment industries.

After more than 20 years in the corporate industry, Alexander turned to the world of private equity and venture capital, in 2018 co-founding Industry 4.0, a diversified venture fund focused on exponential technologies, including blockchain.

1779: The Automation Solution Accelerating Software Development Nov 11, 2021

At Moderne, they automatically identify and patch security holes in your code, freeing you to create, build, and make exciting new things. Olga Kundzich and Jonathan Schneider join me on the Tech Talks Daily podcast to discuss the downsides of cloud-native application development and maintaining modern applications.

It has become clear that modern cloud-native applications require a tremendous amount of maintenance to keep up with the constant changes to all of the components used to build them. This includes managing thousands of APIs and open source components. It is an enormous challenge for any size company, taking up to 30% of the development team’s time, which acts as a tremendous drag on innovation and software quality.

I learn how Moderne was founded to tackle this enormous problem. Moderne’s technology is based on OpenRewrite, a large-scale tool for code maintenance that Moderne co-founder Jonathan Schneider developed while working at Netflix. Moderne has picked up OpenRewrite and expanded its scope.

1778: How Streaming Technologies Are Transforming Sport Nov 10, 2021

Jed Corenthal, the CMO of Phenix (real-time streaming technology platform) returns to the Tech Talks Daily Podcast to discuss their unique OTT technology infrastructure. I learn how it allows for streaming video as close to real-time as possible without sacrificing broadcast quality and scale.

We discuss their Syncwatch™ technology and how it ensures every user consumes the content simultaneously, regardless of location or connection. Trusted by Verizon, Racecourse Media Group, and many more, this technology helps avoid the ‘Spoiler Alert’ moment from a game lagging behind other streams/broadcasts.

We also talk about how this technology allows for the 21st-century sports viewing experience through gamification and interactivity, such as offering ‘Watch Together’ features, in-game trivia, etc. Finally, Jed shares examples of interactive fan experiences and accurate game-day streams.

1777: Figma - Remote Collaboration and Diversity in Design. Nov 09, 2021

Here in 2021, Figma is a web-based design platform used by Uber, Deliveroo, and Bulb that's challenging the likes of Adobe and Sketch. Forget Unicorn status after Figma has received significant VC investment and also has a heavy-weight $10BN valuation. But what is the story behind Figma?

Pierre Berlin shares the story and Figma's ambitions for growth in the UK and beyond, including expansion plans, hiring plans and new tools on the horizon, and the critical milestones made in the region to date. We also discuss reinventing remote collaboration and empowering diversity in design.

I learn more about the new business model of design, how it's accelerated during the pandemic, and why design differentiates brands across every sector. We also discuss the USP of web-based tools which are enabling true remote collaboration across all locations, operating systems, and platforms – and why diversity is so important.

1776: Theorem and the Future of Flexible Digital MarTech Solutions Nov 08, 2021

Jay Kulkarni founded Theorem in 2002. Over the last 12 years, Kulkarni has been the driving force behind the company's extraordinary expansion.

Theorem works with top brands and publishers, including Tory Burch, Pandora, Roku, News Corp, Hearst, and the New York Times, to operate as a true extension to their in-house teams and support their overall business goals and marketing strategies.

The company recently announced plans to challenge traditional working models by creating a flexible, full-service marketing solution offering. In addition, the company consolidated all its deep strategic talent into one Consultancy team while also expanding its six global operations teams to focus more on client servicing and delivery.

Jay expands on the idea of the "flexible" working model, how the business ecosystem is evolving, and unpack what it means for the future of business. We also discuss how today's publishers, brand marketers, and advertisers can better leverage the marketing cloud and programmatic tech to rise to the next level.

1775: The Story Behind erxes. A Mongolian MarTech Company Nov 07, 2021

Mongolia, a country of untapped mineral wealth, has become a target for the most advanced mining technology, but it does little for indigenous people. At erxes, they are working hard to prove that Mongolia can do better than trying to dig its way out. They believe in the untapped brilliant minds of young people who can start leading the way in the IT Industry on a global scale.

It can be daunting to live in a world where everything is shifting, especially how we communicate. With apps like Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp, WeChat, and Instagram, consumers are communicating daily and on the go more than ever. This means that businesses need to keep up. But it doesn’t have to be so hard.

erxes Inc is the second generation of tech entrepreneurs in Mongolia. With over eight years of experience, they are proud to be a part of the pioneer movement to bring forth their country on the global stage.

Nauren Batjargal, co-founder and COO of Erxes, shares the story behind the fully open-source growth marketing platform. We also discuss open-source vs. closed and proprietary.

1774: The Tech Helping Retailers Adapt to the Pandemic Nov 06, 2021

Once the pandemic hit, stores became vulnerable, and retail headquarters began sending out 3X the amount of information to stores. Hy-Vee, L.L.Bean, Fjällräven, Sephora, and American Eagle Outfitters became customers during the pandemic, among others.

People in the retail trenches created zipline. They have been there and know the execution struggle inside and out. This is not technology for the sake of technology. This solution was designed to truly help people (brands, operators, communicators, and stores) achieve their goals by a team that truly knows the grind, barriers, and struggle of achieving them.

Their goal is to enable all customers to be the best version of themselves: every day, in every location. Melissa Wong, CEO & Co-Founder of Zipline, shares the inspirational tech startup story behind the company. She shares how they are helping a c-store be speedy, efficient, and contact-less.

1773: Koch Disruptive Technologies (KDT) Nov 05, 2021

Jason Illian, Managing Director of Koch Disruptive Technologies (KDT), the venture and investing arm of Koch Industries, joins me on Tech Talks Daily. Artificial intelligence, blockchain and crypto, bio IT and genomics, and industrial robotics are just a few segments being explored by KDT.

Since 2003, Koch has invested $133 billion in growth and improvements and has spent $30 billion on technology investments and acquisitions in the last six years. I learn how Koch’s “Creative Destruction” philosophy guides the company’s bets on transformative technologies that will bring long-term success to itself and its partners.

Jason shares real-world examples of technologies that KDT has invested in and how Koch has learned from and empowered different technologies. We explore how KDT’s role is to partner with entrepreneurs who are creating a “could-be” world, which includes investing in technology companies that disrupt and transform Koch’s core businesses and expand into new platforms and capabilities.

1772: Barco - Visualization and Collaboration Technology Nov 05, 2021

As organizations begin to envision what the return to the office will look like – or in some cases, have put their plans into action – they have the unique opportunity to reimagine the layout and feel of their space. While the nature of on-site work has changed significantly since the start of the pandemic, the office still represents a prime forum to inform, engage and entertain employees and visitors. After spending so much time working remotely and away from their colleagues, workers want to feel more involved and connected with their counterparts and employers than ever before. While there are many ways to go about this, we're seeing more businesses turn to technology to create experiences employees and visitors will remember and take pride in.

Barco designs and develops visualization and collaboration solutions for a variety of selected professional markets. Piet Vanhuyse, Barco's global segment marketing director for large video walls, shares his insights.

1771: Talking Data Compliance With Talend CISO Anne Hardy Nov 04, 2021

Are data privacy and compliance laws at risk of becoming speeding tickets for major enterprises? Progress from governing bodies like recent bipartisan data privacy bills in the US or the EU's new focus on unethical AI are all steps in the right direction. But recently levied fines and pushback against new regulations suggest compliance will not enforce protection so much as force companies to budget for its existence.

Talend's Talend's CISO, Anne Hardy, joins me on Tech Talks Daily in a conversation about data compliance. Anne shares her belief that there is an opportunity for both big tech and government regulators to set a precedent for good compliance and regulation. We discuss how outdated attitudes towards personal consumer data collection can lead to compliance breaches.

We also talk about how international tech giants can turn compliance into teachable moments for smaller and burgeoning companies dealing in data and why compliance regulators need to focus on smaller companies and not just those offering major payouts.

1770: Cognitive Behavioral Science Tech For Substance Use Disorders Nov 03, 2021

Clark Lagemann is Co-CEO of Avidon Health, a platform for employers and healthcare providers to offer wellness and healthcare-related courses to help individuals improve health outcomes.

Clark joins me on the Tech Talks Daily Podcast to discuss how technology can help employees who are struggling with substance abuse. According to a recent survey, the pandemic has exacerbated substance use for employees. Among workers struggling with addiction or substance abuse issues, more than one-third say it has affected their work more since the pandemic began. Unfortunately, many employees are afraid to say they need help.

They may end up leaving the workforce altogether or suffer in silence as their work deteriorates––and they may experience safety risks if their job entails driving or using heavy machinery. So what can employers and companies do to help if they don’t know their employee is struggling?

Fortunately, technology can make a difference for individuals needing to make a change and Avidon Health takes a different approach to online coaching through a hybrid approach

1769: The Next-Gen Machine Identity Automation Platform Nov 02, 2021

Murali Palanisamy, chief solutions officer of AppViewX, joins me on the Tech Talks Daily Podcast. He shares why machine identity management is critical for today's enterprises and share some of the latest findings from AppViewX and Vanson Bourne's The Next-Gen Machine Identity Management Report.

The report explores where the current machine identity market stands, the challenges and opportunities for organizations today, and what has been the true impact of sub-optimal digital identity management.

Some of the key findings:

61% of organizations don’t hold full awareness of certificates and keys across their digital assets
67% believe managing certificates is too complex 66% lack of skill sets within IT/security teams to properly manage digital identities and certificates
After implementing a machine identity management strategy, 51% of enterprises have strengthened security credentials and 41% have reduced outages due to certificate expiry or human error

About Murali Palanisamy

Murali is responsible for the overall product vision, development and technical direction of AppViewX. Prior to AppViewX, he was a Senior Vice President at Bank of America, where he was leading the e-commerce application delivery’s architecture and engineering team. He also served as VP of Architecture and Product Engineering for Merrill Lynch, where he designed and developed automation and integration solutions for servers, application delivery controllers, IP services and networking.

1768: AI Computer Vision and Motion Analytics Unlocking CCTV Data Nov 01, 2021

Fyma was founded by Karen Burns and Taavi Tammiste. They have created an AI platform that easily plugs into most retail, city, urban, and CCTV cameras, transforming your standard camera feed into deep insights into objects, people, and bahaviours in real-time.

Use cases include The London LegacyDevelopment Corporation, using AI to keep building the Olympic park legacy; major retailers and shopping centres; the Dutch GranPrix; European city governments; urban planners and event spaces.

It's more ethical - the AI is trained to not recognise faces, ever, in the training and deployment stages of AI, so there's no risk of facial/racial profiling. And, Fyma does not store any camera feed data, only the metadata.

For businesses, it's good for unlocking data, getting new insights to create more tailored retail experiences, loyalty schemes, offers, etc., to improve in-store revenue. For venue owners and urban planners, it means getting the insights to adapt and create more accessible, inclusive, and efficient spaces.

For citizens and consumers, it's all about protecting privacy, avoiding data being misused, no racial or facial profiling. Fyma is pushing ahead with AI learning in new ways and focusing on other things (movements, weather, gender, age, etc.).

Taavi Tammiste, CTO and co-founder of Fyma joins me on the Tech Talks Daily Podcast to share the story behind the company.

1767: How SquadLocker is leveraging Printing Technology Oct 31, 2021

Gary Goldberg is an entrepreneur and third-generation textile scientist who has combined his passion and unique knowledge of the craft with a relentless entrepreneurial spirit to disrupt the way sports leagues, teams and schools design and purchase customized gear for today’s young athletes through his B2B and B2C business: SquadLocker.

The company has grown phenomenally in recent years and raised $20 million in a Series C funding round in 2020, one of the largest institutional funding rounds in Rhode Island in recent years.

SquadLocker leverages a sublimated printing technology that has allowed the company to circumvent the recent strains of the supply chain by dyeing fabric entirely through the printing process, and not relying on shipments of particular fabric colors to fulfill orders. They’ve also utilized a more streamlined production process so that orders can be placed directly by individuals rather than through coaches or school administrators, allowing for a better customer experience and direct shipping of goods (which became more important during the pandemic when social distancing was broadly recommended).

Gary is also extremely passionate about the impact of mentoring when it comes to helping today's young athletes reach their full potential. He also believes coaches, teachers and mentors are the unsung heroes in the fabric of America's youth and has launched a podcast which dives deeper into the topic called On The Whistle.

1766: The Tech On A Mission To Help You Make More of Your Money Oct 30, 2021

We're entering a savings account crisis where millennials' uninvested cash will lose over $18.5B to inflation in 2022 alone. Investing is imperative. Did you know that the average portfolio of 25-35-year-olds consists of a broad range of assets, including stock, crypto, shoes, cards, whiskey, private equity, and more?

I am fascinated by how people are turning away from savings accounts and 1% interest rates and turning to alternative investments. Firma is an investment platform built to support new generations of investors with different goals and behaviors than their predecessors. They offer public and private securities across asset classes so users can build a comprehensive and well-balanced portfolio.

Anna Roubos shares how Firma helps investors manage and keep their portfolios healthy by providing access to tools and opportunities typically reserved for institutions and the ultra-wealthy. I also learn more about the technology that makes all this possible.

1765: Gary Brotman, CEO of Cambridge start-up Secondmind Oct 29, 2021

The automotive industry is in transformation. Whilst the sector has made huge strides to reduce its environmental impact, pressure to do more increases each day. The result is an engineering design process that is orders of magnitude more complex than anything faced before.

Secondmind is on a mission to help automotive manufacturers navigate the increasing complexity of engineering design in its transition to electrification. The technology is underpinned by years of award-winning, practical machine learning and artificial intelligence technology to design cleaner cars, and achieve greater sustainability.

Gary Brotman, the newly appointed CEO of Secondmind joins me on the Tech talks Daily Podcast. We discuss how the role of technology will continue to increase as automotive manufacturers move away from creating hardware to software. Gary also shares how AI/ML technology will gradually lead to new approaches like digital twinning and simulation-led manufacturing with AI/ML technology at the forefront.

We also talk about the future of automotive and the transition to green will be a multi-decade journey for the industry. It’s a complex problem facing the industry on the road to greener mobility beyond fuel emissions. But Gary reveals how Secondmind’s technology is helping automotive brands prepare for this future.

1764: MarTech - MarTech - Digital Asset Management and Customer Retention Oct 28, 2021

Jake Athey, VP of Marketing and Customer Experience at Widen Enterprises, provider of digital asset management and product information solutions, joins me on the Tech Talks Daily Podcast. We discuss the value of digital asset management (DAM) as part of core brand and marketing channel strategies and the technology that makes it all possible.

We also talk about how effective management and efficient use of content is critical to maximizing return on marketing investments, ways to ensure brand consistency to increase revenue and drive customer retention.

1763: The Virtual Events Platform Humanizing Online Interactions. Oct 27, 2021

Hoyin Cheung, founder, and CEO of Remo left an online meeting and couldn't shake the feeling that he couldn't connect with people in the same way he could connect with someone in the real world. Worse yet, he noticed time and again that social media had become anti-social.

Hoyin asked a simple question: What's stopping us from cultivating online relationships that are every bit as deep, meaningful, and enriching as relationships that develop in-person? From there, he set out to transform the experience of connecting, communicating, and collaborating with people across the globe by "humanizing" online interactions.

Remo Conference helps creators, coaches, and event organizers create immersive online events! Users can learn and connect with each other, just like in real life. The platform allows people to have face-to-face networking just like in-person events, building meaningful relationships and conversations.

Hoyin joins me on Tech Talks Daily to share his story. We discuss how we can use technology for authentic conversations that build meaningful relationships. I also learn how Remo is leveraging technology with his online interactive events platform that connects people more authentically.

1762: Paul Stobart, CEO of Zen Internet on Going Net Zero by 2028 Oct 26, 2021

Everyone has talked about how much the world has changed in the last two years. But today, I want to explore how our home internet expectations have increased. Wi-fi is now fundamental to every aspect of the family home. In some cases, doorbells, lighting, heating, 4k streaming, online gaming, and a long list of smart devices are all hungry for a slice of bandwidth. Research from Zen Internet recently revealed that 75% of people are unaware microwaves could interfere with their internet connection, and one in seven regrets not switching broadband providers over the last year. I invited Paul Stobart on the podcast to learn more about the report.

We also discuss how Zen is the first broadband provider to go Net Zero by 2028 – meaning it will remove more carbon emissions from the environment than it generates. I also learn more about why Zen has also been awarded the Cisco Powered SD-WAN Service accreditation for its SD-WAN solution.

Finally, we talk about how CityFibre, with help from Zen, is extending its infrastructure to 216 additional towns and villages across Britain – delivering gigabit-speed broadband and ensuring everyone has access to full fiber.

1761: What the Vaccine Rollout Teaches About Big Data and B2B Marketing Oct 25, 2021

Amnon Mishor is the CTO and founder of Leadspace, a leading B2B Customer Data Platform. He has designed and deployed innovative global data & AI solutions for some of the world's largest B2B tech organizations such as Zoom, Salesforce, SAP, Oracle, and more.

After successfully designing and deploying world-class technology to aid the military in catching terrorists, Amnon saw an opportunity to apply data and AI in another industry where leaders cannot afford to "fail": B2B enterprise software. He shares his experiences from his time heading up the Intelligence Systems and Data Mining Department of the Israel Defense Force's Technological Intelligence Unit.

In 2010, he founded Leadspace to help Silicon Valley's biggest enterprise companies take full advantage of customer and prospect data — their most valuable business asset. Have you ever wondered what the vaccine rollout teaches us about AI and big data? Amnon Mishor believes there are key takeaways for B2B marketers.

In this podcast, Amnon shares expert opinion as a data technologist to expose what the vaccine rollout teaches B2B companies about big data, AI and more. We also discuss what's wrong with applying big data solutions to small data sets - and how to get it right.

1760: MarTech Interview With Anudit Vikram, CPO at MediaMath Oct 24, 2021

Anudit Vikram, former board member of the IAB Data Center of Excellence and Chief Product Officer, MediaMath joins me in a discussion about consumer privacy (amid Amazon fines), Google’s FLoC (which recently wrapped up the first phase of testing), and addressable/scalable identity solutions to replace third-party cookies.

Anudit explains, “While there has been a flurry of activity preparing for the demise of the third-party cookie, the pushback around it and signals from the EU hinted that it would not be smooth sailing for Google, so, ultimately, it’s not a complete shock that the timing changed. There is no question that first-party data performs better, and that the quality of third-party data is questionable, but that is not the only factor driving transparency. Transparency to the actual user – what we call addressability – is directly affected too. To continue the momentum of creating a more transparent supply chain, industry leaders must continue work around the activation of first party identity options and creating cohort-based solutions. As far as next steps for the industry, marketers, advertisers, publishers and the like should use this time to start working with first party identity solutions and perfect the stack they will use, while still being able to leverage the scale provided by third-party cookies.”

1759: The Personal Finance Revolution Powered by Blockchain Oct 23, 2021

Modern banking hasn't changed since the 1400s, when financial institutions were established by Machiavelli’s Medici family in Florence, Italy. Since, the power has long been in the hands of the intermediary. We've been at the mercy of market fluctuations and currency volatility.

Today, with the rise of blockchain, the power is shifting. As Rob Frasca, Managing Partner at Cosimo Ventures and a holder of ndau, the world’s first adaptive digital currency, states, "This is the single largest value creation event in our lifetime, because we’re moving to a more resilient networked approach to value and trust exchange.

It’s a borderless resilient value exchange, putting financial control into the hands of the people. Consider this: less than 50% of people in the world have a bank account. Yet, 75% of the world’s population have smartphones. More than 50% of those who have smartphones have prepaid accounts. We now have the technology to allow 75% of the world to have true cross-border banking. It’s a personal property, a personal finance revolution: owning the property rights to your money versus bank control."

Frasca discusses what this seismic shift means and dives into the realities of market volatility and the benefits of owning your savings for the long term.

1758: MuleSoft - The IT and Business Alignment Barometer Report Oct 22, 2021

MuleSoft is a trusted integration and API platform provider that can empower any company to quickly unlock and integrate their apps and data to create connected experiences faster. Paul Crerand joins me on the Tech Talks Daily Podcast to discuss the IT and Business Alignment Barometer report findings.

Highlights from the report include:

Significant hurdles preventing automation: Security and data governance issues, along with data siloes, are hindering automation initiatives for more than 70 percent of organisations

Security concerns slow the pace of innovation: the majority (87 percent) of IT and business leaders say that security and governance concerns are slowing down the pace of innovation

Seeing eye-to-eye? Almost nine in ten (87 percent) reported that IT and business alignment has improved over the past 12 months, suggesting there are opportunities to overcome security and governance challenges and enable faster innovation

Disparate systems remain a key challenge: almost three quarters (73 percent) of organisations say the integration of disparate systems has increased their concerns around data security and governance – 34 percent say it had ‘significantly’ increased concerns

Empowering non-technical users key to creating connected experiences: The vast majority (86%) of organisations agree business outcomes would improve if business users were able to use low or no code to securely connect apps and data on their own to create connected experiences

We discuss the technological and operational challenges organizations face in achieving their business priorities. We also talk about what is behind these results and what businesses should take away from them.

1757: Agritech - Fermata and AI Plant Disease Detection Oct 21, 2021

Valeria Kogan, founder of the agritech startup Fermata built a scientific career in bioinformatics and worked as a hired employee in Gero (a Singapore-based longevity biotech company) for more than five years before founding her agrotech startup Fermata. The next-generation farming tool uses AI-based technology to provide farmers with precise monitoring of their greenhouses, preventing 30% of the harvest loss and reducing the monitoring time by 50%.

Valeria Kogan joins me on the podcast to talk about how crop and livestock monitoring applications will hold a significant market share from 2020 to 2025. Fermata offers an integration within weather data, irrigation, nutrient, and other systems to improve resources used and boost output by more accurately identifying deficiencies.

We discuss enhancing data quality in the ecosystem, and the potential use case for data in agriculture. Massive data volumes of mapping, variable rate seeding, soil testing, crop monitoring, and crop rotation must be stored and managed correctly as successful farming relies entirely on it for assessing the conditions and improving regular operations. At the same time, it is pretty hard for farmers to develop and fulfill data storage from scratch: that's where intelligent technologies are needed!

1756: The Role of Tech and Geospatial Analytics in Pandemic Response Oct 20, 2021

The COVID-19 pandemic brought the importance of timely, detailed, and comprehensive data to the forefront. To help curb or prevent the next pandemic, many leading institutions are actively discussing how global data-sharing could be established and governed to detect the risk of future pandemics and disease outbreaks more quickly.

One company at the forefront of this new, collaborative approach is HSR.health. The health tech firm has successfully adapted its ‘Health Risk Index’ to improve pandemic emergency response efforts with hyper-focused risk indices that nations and public health agencies have adopted worldwide.

Ajay Gupta, CEO of HSR.health, reveals the many benefits of health-focused geospatial analytics in aiding pandemic response and mitigating future risk.

1755: Farmer Connect and the Surging Supply Chain Demand Oct 19, 2021

The world of consumer goods is changing for the better – and technology is at the forefront of this transformation to answer demands for a more sustainable and ethical supply chain.

CEO of Farmer connect® Michael Chrisment has already helped secure $9 million in a Series A investment round for the platform that uses blockchain to track the lifecycle of coffee and chocolate. He now continues his mission to transform the agriculture supply chains by cleverly connecting farmers to consumers and everyone in between.

Michael joins me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss the importance of traceability. He also shares his insights on the company’s vision and the future of the industry. We recorded the episode on World Coffee day. So, we also discuss the importance of supply chain traceability and why coffee/cocoa companies should be transparent in their product journey

farmer connect® is a platform that allows consumers, farmers, and retailers to have insight into the complete supply chain of the coffee and chocolate products, using blockchain-based on IBM technology, self-sovereign identity, and artificial intelligence. It connects the user to farmers, traders, roasters, and brands. Its rapidly growing roster of clients and industry partnerships already includes some of the world’s biggest coffee brands, such as UCC coffee, HEMA, and Massimo Zanetti Beverage.

1754: Blue Prism - How RPA is Transforming the Workforce of the Future Oct 18, 2021

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is the fastest-growing part of the AI industry. But it's is often overlooked by the media and misunderstood by the general public. RPA allows businesses to automate necessary processes, whether invoicing or data entry, without investing in lengthy and costly IT systems.

While businesses and organizations like the NHS are already using RPA, many still view RPA simply as a threat to their jobs. The reality is that RPA is transforming how businesses function and the workforce of the future will be hybrid with human employees managing extensive team of digital workers.

Blue Prism pioneered the concept of RPA, and Eric Tyree, their Head of AI, explains how RPA is already transforming how businesses work and what the workforce of the future will look like together. Eric also discusses how accessible AI and RPA are becoming, as systems are increasingly designed to be understood and used by everyone – not just IT or tech professionals.

Eric Tyree biography Eric Tyree is the head of AI at Blue Prism and is an expert in the commercial application of AI and advanced analytics with over 20 years’ experience in related product and technology leadership roles. Eric has led the development of a wide range of data driven products and services in travel, consumer analytics, HR, pensions & insurance, portfolio management, algorithmic trading, retail banking and equity exchanges. Eric is experienced in building and leading high-performance organizations and has worked with a wide range of companies ranging from some of the largest corporate institutions in the world to start-ups developing from the ground up. Before joining Blue Prism, Eric was CTO and chief data scientist for the data division of CWT where he was responsible for data products, personalization and data driven revenue management. Prior to that Eric was chief data scientist at Capita Plc responsible for new data products and services. Eric has also founded and/or advised a number of startups while serving in a range of senior AI/data science, product and technical roles. About Blue Prism Blue Prism has operations globally and is currently listed on London’s AIM stock market. It has grown fast from around £50m when it listed in 2016. They have a great long-term perspective on the industry and its evolution, with a global client base – including EY, Jaguar Land Rover, Siemens and Google.

1753: How Payhawk is Building the Financial System of Tomorrow Oct 17, 2021

One of the big reasons I record this podcast every day is to try and feature as many voices and tech communities from around the world, NOT just silicon valley. So today, I am excited to take you on a trip to Bulgaria, where Hristo Borisov, Co-Founder & CEO of Payhawk, discusses how and why fragmentation in fintech is coming to an end.

Payhawk is an all-in-one integrated finance platform for businesses, combining credit cards, payments, expenses, cash management and pre-accounting into one platform to give businesses maximum control and visibility over their spending. The company is London founded and headquartered, with Bulgarian roots, and recently raised $20m from Klarna's investors QED. Its customers include the likes of Zenloop, Nexo, and Telus.

Due to Payhawk’s technology, the average finance team saves 2-3 days of work each month and broadly speaking, a customer with approximately 100 expenses per month can save an extra $3,540 per month on average when switching from manual processes to Payhawk.

We discuss how Payhawk reimagines how payment works (by simplifying and automating processes and building an end-to-end experience). We also talk about how banks and fintechs could coexist in the future? (working together rather than against them).

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1752: Level Up Your Remote Teams With Virtual Reality Training Oct 16, 2021

We now have employees recruited, onboarded, and working daily without ever meeting their teammates in person. So how do we bring everyone together and make them feel a valued part of a team well? In today's episode of Tech Talks Daily, I explore how technology can help develop and train teams to innovate even when employees are working from home and the office.

When a team is stuck in its comfort zone, growth and innovation are dead in the water. But a tech company believes that nothing inspires a new mindset more than adventure. But most teams can't drop everything to climb a mountain.

At Vestigo, they are bringing the adventure to you: VR experiences that force employees to let go of fear and think differently, designed to help remote teams level up from fear to bravery, enabling radical innovation and adaptability. For example, Vestigo’s AltspaceVR experience unites teams in an unforgettable Mt. Everest expedition.

Marshall Mosher is a world-record-holding action sport poly athlete, tech futurist, and host of the Inside the Adventure podcast. As the Founder and CEO of Vestigo, he’s bringing his passion for adventure into the digital world by building the future of virtual reality adventure by digitally recreating the world’s most inspiring and daunting adventure environments.

I learned how his recent VR team programs include work for enterprises and businesses like Microsoft and the CNN Emerging Product & Platform team. Marshall has tapped into something with his business as he evaluates how tech teams are tapping the power of virtual reality to harness their fearlessness to innovate and work together.

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1751: LogRhythm - Why It’s Time for the CSO to Report Directly to the CEO Oct 15, 2021

In the wake of major breaches over the last few months, organizations across industries are re-evaluating their cybersecurity strategies, with many realigning priorities to ensure their security team and technology solutions can meet the needs of an evolving threat landscape.

Mark Logan, CEO of LogRhythm, talks about the importance of the CSO reporting directly to the CEO. Mark explains why this reporting structure demonstrates the value a company places on cybersecurity as an enabler of business performance at a time when cyber breach headlines are top of mind for the public and maintaining trust is crucial. Cybersecurity is now a board-level initiative for all companies, not just those in the software and security spaces. We talk about why enterprises that do not get on board with this shift in organizational structure that brings CSOs to the forefront could lose out on key talent.

Perhaps more concerningly, they also stand to see a weakening of consumer trust and business value, especially if the organization ultimately experiences a damaging breach because security was not prioritized. Mark discusses how this reporting structure fosters trust among consumers and future business partners that security and data privacy are taken seriously and given the highest priority within the company.

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1750: AvidPlay and the Tech Making Music Distribution Seamless Oct 14, 2021

AVID empowers media creators with innovative technology and collaborative tools to entertain, inform, educate and enlighten the world. For example, AvidPlay, Avid's subscription-based, independent music distribution service, now allows independent artists and labels to distribute their Dolby Atmos tracks directly to Apple Music's Spatial Audio.

Apple Music is the latest streaming service with the largest user base to receive Atmos tracks directly from AvidPlay. In addition, the distribution service has delivered immersive audio to Amazon Music and TIDAL since 2020.

Avid is the only provider of both music production tools and an independent distribution service where Dolby Atmos tracks can be made and delivered from the same setup. AvidPlay makes it extremely easy for artists and labels to distribute and monetize the music they're creating with Pro Tools, Avid's industry-leading,

Rob D'Amico joins me on Tech Talks Daily to share his lifelong passion for audio and production informed his position and goals at Avid. I learn more about AvidPlay: what it is, who uses it, and details about the audio formats and quality it enables artists and producers to work with, as well as details about how compensation, splits, and fees work with other independent distribution services in the market.

Rob shares a few use cases to illustrate how AvidPlay works and a detailed description of the process from production suite to streaming services. We discuss why today's creators need AvidPlay; the opportunities it provides artists, labels, audio engineers, and how AvidLink fosters community amongst users by enabling feedback and questions.

We talk about how an artist can start using AvidPlay and make the most out of the service, along with how customer demands and feedback are informing future offerings.

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1749: Exploring The Great Resignation With Explorance Oct 13, 2021

As “the Great Resignation” continues to rock companies across industries (recent surveys say 37% of workers are thinking of making a move) it’s more important than ever to listen to employee feedback and take real action to improve employee retention. However, mining rich, actionable insights from thousands of employee comments has always proved a daunting and incredibly time-consuming task until now.

Samer Saab, the CEO of Explorance, shares his story and the path that led to him starting Explorance 18 years ago. He discusses the three foremost challenges facing the industry today – recruiting, retention and inclusion. We also talk about machine learning has proven beneficial in helping address these issues.

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1748: Empathy and The Tech Helping Families Navigate Loss Oct 12, 2021

It feels like every aspect of our lives is dominated by tech. It also makes our lives easier in so many ways. But when we lose a loved one, it seems that tech and innovation are absent. Suddenly at a time when you don't want to speak to anyone, you can be thrust into endless calls to arrange a funeral, flowers, closing accounts, removing names from mailing lists, and so much more,

Empathy is removing the taboo on death while providing information to help families navigate the logistics of losing a loved one. These are just some things technology excels at, like navigating logistics. Empathy’s app combines technology and human support to streamlines end-of-life bureaucracy, minimizes tedious tasks, and automates processes involved in the administration of an estate while also providing emotional guidance.

It's a sensitive topic, and today I learn more from Ron Gura about how the collaboration of humans and technology can help when we are trying to go through the grieving process.

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1747: How to Prevent Email Tracking With Ghostery Oct 11, 2021

Pete Knowlton, Senior Director of Operations for Ghostery, rejoins me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss data tracking, specifically the new (terrifying) channel of email tracking. Pete is a privacy expert who leads US operations for Ghostery, a privacy intelligence platform with over 7 million monthly active users.

Pete focuses primarily on web tracking and how little bits of code can get ahold of your data when you're using Google or another browser. However, as more people have become wary of online tracking, Ghostery has found that email trackers are becoming more prolific, and most people don't know how to protect their data in their inbox. Pete shares what email tracking is and how to prevent it in a language that everyone can understand.

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1746: How Etherisc Is Democratizing & Decentralizing Insurance Oct 10, 2021

Etherisc is developing a protocol for decentralized insurance applications. We use blockchain technology to make the purchase and sale of insurance more efficient, enable lower operational costs, provide greater transparency into the industry.

Christoph Mussenbrock shares how Etherisc is on a mission to make insurance fair and accessible through its open-source, decentralized insurance protocol and collectively build insurance products on the Ethereum blockchain. Since its launch in 2016, the Etherisc protocol has been reimagining insurance solutions to democratize the process in the interest of the consumer.

Etherisc is currently working with ACRE Africa on the Bima Pima crop insurance product, which offers farmers weather index insurance policies to protect them against climate-related risks for their crops. This crop insurance is more affordable, fairer, and more transparent than the traditional insurance solutions available to farmers to protect their livelihoods in case of extreme weather events fueled by climate change.

Other projects currently hosted on Etherisc’s open-source Generic Insurance Framework include Flight Delay Insurance, Crop Insurance, Social Insurance, and Hurricane Protection.

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1745: Re-Experience Life's Best Memories With Free AI Cloud Storage Oct 09, 2021

Degoo is an experience-driven cloud provider offering 100GB of free, secure storage with an AI-empowered interactive display that helps users re-discover their best, stored memories. Designed in the bursting Swedish startup scene, Degoo’s platform offers users a place to securely store and uniquely experience their photos and memories anywhere in the world.

With Degoo, users will never run out of space for their photos and have protection knowing that running out of storage space or a broken phone no longer equals the loss of your favorite photos. In addition, Degoo is available across operating systems and on the web, meaning that users will never be without their memories.

Degoo is constantly innovating and improving their product, having recently released AutoAlbums, which uses AI to create albums of similar photos - whether they are taken during the last year or are photos of basketball games or specific landmarks.

Carl Hasselskog joins me on the podcast and discusses how Degoo has watched competitor after competitor acquired by Google Photos, making it one of the few challenger brands left on the market. He also shares how Degoo has navigated the changing landscape of photo cloud storage.

1744: Cybersecurity Month: The Citrix Security Stack and Ecosystem Oct 08, 2021

Andre Leibovici and Anil Kumar join me in a conversation where we explore the Citrix Security Stack and Citrix Ready Security Ecosystem.

The guests discuss how expensive it has become to recruit security professionals and how businesses can turn this challenge into an opportunity. They also talk about retiring legacy VPNs, Zero Trust, monitoring, and analytics to measure your security improvements.

Useful Links

Citrix Ready Workspace Security Ecosystem: https://citrixready.citrix.com/program/workspace-security-program.html

Citrix Secure Access solutions: https://www.citrix.com/solutions/secure-access/

1743: Carbon Sequestration to Creating an Intergalactic Internet Oct 07, 2021

Mike Betzer, CEO of Hypergiant, joins me on The Tech Talks Daily Podcast to chat about how artificial intelligence is actively solving some of the world’s biggest problems, both on earth and in space. From powering carbon sequestration machines with algae and fighting climate change to building out the infrastructure for an internet on Mars, artificial intelligence undoubtedly has the capacity to do good. As an enterprise AI company, Hypergiant is genuinely in the trenches developing these groundbreaking technologies – just ask companies like NASA, Boeing, and Apple, all of which are turning to Hypergiant for new and improved AI solutions.

Hypergiant Industries is an enterprise AI company focused on developing world-changing technologies to solve the world's biggest problems in the areas of space, defense, and critical infrastructure. Hypergiant offers a suite of AI services, software, and solutions that support companies and governments in preparing for the future of AI.

Mike discusses how artificial intelligence impacts space innovations, defense solutions, infrastructure improvement, climate solutions, and how tech and AI can shape the future.

1742: Happy Mining With RAKwireless on The Peoples Network (HNT) Oct 06, 2021

Since 2014, RAKwireless has delivered simple but powerful tools that eliminate barriers in IoT connectivity and empower people to build a smart future. RAK's continuous development of these IoT solutions empowers innovators and commercial enterprises to build the right environment for their property.

The brand has held partnerships with some of the world's leading tech players such as Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and Microsoft. In addition, they regularly partner with academies, schools, and organizations supporting young people working to build a better, more innovative future through IoT devices. But after hearing how they recently secured $10M in Series A funding, I invited Jose Marcelino, Solutions Architect at RAKwireless, on the podcast to learn more.

Despite global manufacturing and supply chain disruption, the renowned producer of IoT tools, hardware, miners, and software tools has seen tremendous growth. We talk about RAKwireless, the relationship with Helium, and how the miners work. We discuss the People's Network, what it represents and why the 'builder community is so important to RAKwireless. We also talk about how to mine the Helium cryptocurrency tokens (aptly named HNT) and how it allows people to create passive income. Finally, we talk about why this is such an exciting time for RAK fans and other young folks who love to 'tinker, create and build new devices and ideas?

1741: Sezzle - The Tech Behind The Buy Now, Pay Later Solution Oct 05, 2021

Killian Brackey is the CTO at Sezzle, a Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) payments tool working with global brands like Discover, Target, Lamps Plus, GameStop, Barstool Sports and more.

Over the last few years Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) has exploded in popularity, especially during the peak of the pandemic when online spending saw record levels. Now that stores have fully reopened across the country, consumers are looking to get a fix of the in-store shopping experiences.

However, many still want to have the option to finance their purchases with BNPL payments platforms. Additionally, BNPL will only improve the touchless experience at the register, with tap-to-pay tools, improving the overall contactless experience.

Killian discusses what Sezzle is doing to move the needle on that front with its own tap-to-pay technology, as well as Apple’s move into buy now, pay later, whether big tech is set to take over the space (and why that may not be a good thing for innovation), and more.

1740: accessiBe - The Tech Making the Internet More Accessible Oct 04, 2021

People relied on the internet more than ever before throughout the pandemic, doing everything from ordering groceries to keeping up with critical health updates online. However, for millions of people with disabilities, only 2% of all websites are accessible, making navigating the internet nearly impossible. This is where accessiBe comes in, using proprietary technology to make websites usable for people in the disability community. As a web accessibility hub, accessiBe provides different AI-Powered solutions for testing and remediating web accessibility and various professional services to create an inclusive web and help businesses comply with web accessibility standards and regulations, i.e., WCAG and ADA.

accessiBe's full suite of web accessibility solutions enables businesses of all sizes, from solopreneur to large corporations, to participate in global inclusion efforts and make their websites available to everybody, regardless of ability. accessiBe's founding team has deep domain expertise in the field of web development and accessibility services. It has developed the technologies in close partnership with users who have vision impairments or blindness, epilepsy, motor impairments, cognitive dysfunctions, and other disabilities.

I learn how their technology helps businesses meet ADA and WCAG 2.1 compliance within 48 hours and as low as $49/month.

1739: Forbes Asia 30 under 30 Crypto CEO on Staking, DeFi and Blockchain Interoperability Oct 03, 2021

Proof-of-Stake (PoS) continues to dominate the blockchain landscape in 2021, with Ethereum moving closer to its 2.0 upgrade and PoS consensus, as well as other major protocol launches this year using the consensus mechanism.

Tushar Aggarwal, CEO, and Founder of Persistence, an ecosystem of next-generation financial services designed to stimulate global liquidity, has been a long-term advocate for PoS blockchains.

A former Podcast Host for Decrypt Asia and Venture Partner deal sourcing for blockchain and crypto startups for Outlier Ventures, Tushar has extensive expertise across operations, investment, and management consultancy in the financial technology and blockchain industry. Prior to founding Persistence in 2015, Tushar worked as a Principal at blockchain and cryptocurrency fund LuneX Ventures.

The experienced entrepreneur and investor, Tushar was awarded a place on the renowned Forbes 30 under 30 Asia list in 2021 for his work in finance and venture capital. As CEO of Persistence, Tushar is aiming to bridge the gap between legacy finance and decentralized finance via a fully interoperable protocol and evolving ecosystem of services purpose-built for seamless integration across blockchains.

As a recognized thought leader on DeFi, staking, and interoperability, he shares his insights on several developments in blockchain including, Interoperability in blockchains; the importance of a self-sovereign network of blockchains. We also discuss Blockchain network governance on Eth2.0 and liquid staking and how to stimulate locked assets. Finally, we discuss unlocking mass DeFi adoption through better tooling.

1738: Joe Baguley, VP and CTO, EMEA at VMware Oct 02, 2021

The UK’s plans to explore its own central bank digital currency (CBDC) is a testament to the increasingly mainstream adoption of cryptocurrencies and the realization of its potential to truly revolutionize the way we move money around the world today.

Rishi’s Sunak's recent announcement claimed that a Britcoin could tackle some of the challenges of popular cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin – i.e., from a regulatory and volatility point of view. However, Joe Baguley, VP, and CTO, EMEA at VMware believes the chancellor must also consider the sustainability cost of introducing Britcoin en-masse and how it could foil the government’s green ambitions due to the unjustifiably high environmental burden of cryptocurrencies.

Joe joins me on Tech Talks Daily in a conversation about the fundamental mistake the founders of bitcoin made by building the cryptocurrency on a proof-of-work blockchain which consumes an incredible amount of energy. We also discuss why we cannot unpick the environmental problems proof of work blockchains have caused by plugging renewable resources into powering them.

If the UK considers its own CBDC seriously, it must learn from the industry’s early mistakes and ensure that it is green by design. We explore what building a more sustainable blockchain ecosystem would look like and the role that VMware will play in a new future of work from any device, location, and time.

1737: Cybersecurity Awareness Month With Robust Network Solutions Oct 01, 2021

Now in its 18th year, Cybersecurity Awareness Month continues to raise awareness about the importance of cybersecurity. So what will you be doing differently this year? Will it be switching to a password manager? or adding MFA to your email and social accounts? Alanna Gilson and Eric Due from Robust Network Solutions join me on today's episode of Tech Talks Daily in a discussion about how to improve your security hygiene.

Robust Network Solutions is a premier IT consulting firm headquartered in San Mateo, CA, that specializes in providing proactive services to many professional firms in the San Francisco Bay Area. Specializing in Microsoft, VMware, Cisco, Citrix, HP, IBM/Lenovo, network buildouts, technology projects, mobile technology, remote access, enhanced security, disaster recovery, improved network performance, helpdesk support.

About Eric

Eric Due works as a Senior Engineer at Robust Network Solutions. He helps provide business planning and implementation to bring digital services that align with business needs. He has over 25 years in systems and business implementation. Alongside his design skills and startup experience, he brings a wealth of perspective. Focusing on people and reducing risks, Eric is passionate about aligning solutions with business goals and ensuring IT is a positive experience.

About Alanna

Alanna has worked in the digital media tech industry for more than 20 years. With experience in global web and mobile app monetization, inventory management, and internet fraud, the seasoned tech business development executive is also passionate about advancing cybersecurity and cyber-Training for Businesses and their Employees.

In addition to business development/IT consulting, she is also involved in digital marketing, virtual/experiential events, and digital content development. Outside of the office, Alanna enjoys her work as an accomplished artist and spending time with her family.

1736: CEO of $400M+ Funded Startup on Culture-first Hypergrowth Sep 30, 2021

Liftoff is a performance-based mobile app marketing and retargeting platform, using post-install user data to run true cost-per-action user acquisition and re-engagement campaigns.

Traditionally, marketers pay for each click or app download when devising a mobile ad campaign, regardless of whether new customers spend money in the app. Liftoff changes this model by only requiring marketers to pay for advertising when a person completes an action or spends money in an app.

Powered by machine learning and lookalike targeting, Liftoff's campaigns drive actions beyond the install, securing only the most engaged users for its customers.

Mark Ellis, CEO, and co-founder of Liftoff joins me on the Tech Talks Daily Podcast. Mark has made community and culture a core tenet of Liftoff's work, eschewing the toxicity that's rampant in fast-growing Silicon Valley businesses and aiming for impact beyond revenue alone. This approach has been integral to building Liftoff's global, high-performance mobile app marketing platform that's attracted customers like CBS Sports, Amwell, Lifelock, acorns, and many others.

The last three years served as another great stretch for Liftoff as the company had explosive growth with over 400% increase in revenue from 2017-2020. With Mark's leadership, Liftoff cemented itself as an industry leader, creating an alliance of mobile marketers focused on promoting good-business practices in a dynamic sector. This community-first approach has come to define Mark's successful tenure and sets him apart from his peers in the tech-startup world.

1735: Expert AI - The Case for a Hybrid Approach to AI in NLP Sep 30, 2021

Industries like insurance, finance, and media have all found impactful ways to apply symbolic AI and deep/machine learning to common pain points when taking unstructured language data from documents, social content, and emails. By extracting sentiment and the deeper meanings of words that only humans can do, language can be turned into data, and actionable insights for a wide range of use cases can be drawn from it. Walt Mayo, CEO of expert.ai, the natural language processing AI company trusted by The Associated Press, Dow Jones, Gannett, and other top brands, joins me on the Tech Talks Daily podcast. We discuss how combining a symbolic approach to AI with machine learning can form an innovative hybrid model.

Walt talks about the difference between symbolic AI and deep learning/machine learning and what kinds of use cases are typically applied together. We also discuss the strengths of each and what organizations can gain by combining them. Finally, we discuss how a hybrid approach addresses the "black box" problem in AI; and scaling existing human biases.

1734: Infragistics and the Tech Accelerating Application Design Sep 29, 2021

Dean Guida officially launched enterprise software company Infragistics in 1989 when his small start-up of 10 people went head to head against Microsoft for a $300k deal with Philadelphia Conrail—and won.

Dean has since scaled the company to 250 employees across six countries, including a 75,000 square foot headquarters in New Jersey, without accepting outside funding. As a result, the company now boasts a client roster that includes 100% of the S&P 500, including Intuit, Exxon, and Morgan Stanley. And this year, Dean launched Infragistics’ $50M Innovation Fund and Lab to encourage entrepreneurism within his own company.

Dean joins me on the Tech Talks Daily Podcast to share his entrepreneurial journey and how he has navigated Infragistics through its 30+ years in the tech space. Infragistics has thrived through major economic recessions, tech bubbles, and bursts. Dean reveals how the company survived – and saw success –during even the most challenging times.

Dean also shares why he never accepted outside funding and how he bootstrapped Infragistics to, the multi-million dollar global company today, without ever taking VC funding. We also discuss how their Innovation Fund works and creates freedom for internal inventors to experiment with innovations beyond its core UI/UX products without an immediate need to generate revenue.

1733: AdTech - The Tech Transforming Digital Ad Verification Sep 28, 2021

Integral Ad Science (IAS) ensures ads are running exactly where, when, and how you want — no ifs, ands, or bots. They help protect brands and save their cusotmers from spending time and money on inappropriate content, markets, or fraudulent traffic. These insights are based on 100+ billion web transactions they process every day.

Netflix, Apple TV, and consoles are becoming more popular advertising avenues than traditional linear TV. As a result, we're consuming more video than ever before, and I wanted to explore the challenges and opportunities with connected TVs and explore the latest shopping trends. I invited Tony Marlow, CMO, Integral Ad Science, to analyze these trends and understand the scale of the problem with fraud and the role that technology will play in the industry's future.

Tony Marlow is the Chief Marketing Officer for Integral Ad Science, based in New York. He is an insights-driven executive and leads all aspects of corporate marketing strategy, brand development, and communications for the company.

Before joining IAS in 2019, he was the CMO for the big data company Data Axle. Before that, he was the Global Head and Vice President of B2B Marketing for Yahoo – overseeing all B2B Marketing, Marketing Strategy, Product Marketing, Sales Learning, and Sales Insights.

1732: The Role of Tech in Fleet Tracking and Telematics Solutions Sep 27, 2021

Geotab is advancing security, connecting commercial vehicles to the internet and providing web-based analytics to help customers better manage their fleets. In addition, Geotab’s open platform and Marketplace allow both small and large businesses to automate operations by integrating vehicle data with their other data assets.

As an IoT hub, the in-vehicle device provides additional functionality through IOX Add-Ons. Processing billions of data points a day, Geotab leverages data analytics and machine learning to help customers improve productivity, optimize fleets by reducing fuel consumption, enhance driver safety, and achieve regulatory compliance.

Since being established in 2000, Geotab Inc. has grown from a small family business to a global leader in fleet management and vehicle tracking solutions. They are now one of the largest telematics outfits globally and have become the first to surpass two million connected vehicles built on a single, open platform.

David Savage, Associate Vice President, UK, and Ireland at Geotab, joins me in a discussion about electric vehicle adoption, fleet telematics, sustainability, and tech.

David leads the operational, commercial, and organizational activities of the UK and Irish regions. In addition, he has accountability for delivering Geotab's overall strategy and realization of the company's ambitious growth targets in support of its wider UK/European growth focus.

With more than 15 years of experience within operations and transport management, David has a proven ability in helping businesses to scale sustainably. Before joining Geotab, he held the role of General Manager at FreeNow (formerly MyTaxi and Hailo), Europe's leading e-hailing app.

David shares his story and also discusses the growing conversations around the intersection of sustainability and tech.

1731: How Tech Can Foster Great Inclusivity in the Workplace Sep 26, 2021

The case for diversity in the workplace is straightforward: it's the right thing to do, and numerous studies suggest it can drive better business performance, too. For example, a 2018 report found that gender-diverse executive teams, which make the most important strategic and operational decisions, were correlated with profitable outcomes across geographies; and companies with the most ethnically/culturally diverse boards worldwide are 43% more likely to experience higher profits.

However, an organization might consider its workforce "diverse," but that doesn't mean all employees feel valued or are given the same opportunities. Far too often, because of unconscious bias, inclusivity is left out of the equation.

In the past, unconscious bias was often perceived as subjective or circumstantial versus a larger systemic issue. Now, rather than taking action against an individual, emerging technologies are empowering business leaders to analyze the different ways that diversity and inclusion are hindered at a foundational level and inspire action to remove those factors from the equation.

The team at Knockri, for instance, understands the detrimental effects unconscious bias has on applicants and organizations—and has designed a suite of AI-powered behavioral assessments that help eliminate these issues and shortlist the best-fit job candidates to interview during the early screening process of hiring.

Knockri's CEO, Jahanzaib Ansario joins me in a conversation about how tech can foster great inclusivity in the workplace.

1730: Unlock Your Digital Potential Through Experimentation and Personalisation Sep 25, 2021

The pandemic’s impact on the acceleration of digital means that just providing a personalized experience to customers is no longer good enough. In order to succeed and stay one step ahead of the competition, brands need to embrace a data-driven approach to optimize every digital experience based on outcomes.

Justin Anovick, Chief Product Officer at digital experience company, Optimizely joins me on Tech Talks Daily. We talk about how businesses can unlock digital potential through a combination of personalization and experimentation. Justin also discusses why it’s so important to look beyond just personalisation and the importance of combining this with experimentation in order to move away from guesswork and gut decisions to use data to a more scientific approach that will provide customers with the best digital experience possible.

About Optimizely

With its digital experience platform (DXP), thy equip teams with the tools and insights they need to create and optimize in new ways. Now, companies can operate with data-driven confidence to create hyper-personalized experiences. Building sophisticated solutions has never been simpler. Optimizely’s 900+ partners and 1100+ employees in offices around the globe are proud to help more than 9,000 brands, including Peloton, Uber, AMEX, WSJ, Santander, KLM and Mazda enrich their customer lifetime value, increase revenue and grow their brands. `

1729: Octopus Energy Founder & CEO Greg Jackson Sep 24, 2021

Octopus Energy Founder & CEO Greg Jackson joins me on the Tech Talks Daily Podcast. Greg is inspired by giving customers the best experience at the cheapest price-point possible to drive the green energy revolution. We discuss how technology is reinventing the energy industry and tackling climate change.

For years, the energy industry has been running on the software equivalent of floppy disks, but through the application of technology, Octopus Energy is bringing energy into the present day, innovating in the space through their tech platform - Kraken – to provide affordable and clean energy to millions across the globe with an unrivalled focus on the customer experience.

Described as ‘Amazon of energy’ Octopus Energy are a global disrupter bringing energy towards a greener future. They currently serve 2.2 million customers with renewable, clean energy which their technology allows them to do cheaper and much more efficiently than anyone. They also license their technology to their competitors around the globe in USA, Australia & Japan reaching 15 million homes and currently growing at 100k per month.

1728: How Spark Commodities is Empowering Trade With Technology Sep 23, 2021

Serial entrepreneur Tim Mendelssohn had an early entrepreneurial experience, starting his first company, Elephant Branded in university. Famously, it was featured in an episode of BBC's Be Your Own Boss. After that, he had a progressive career in technology and finance before becoming a CEO of Spark, including roles at Sony, Warner Brothers, BP, and Koch Supply and Trading.

With no ability to code but passion for seeing how technology can fundamentally improve how the markets operate, Tim saw the flaws of markets and took on the challenge of using the technology to take on the competition of established companies with 50+ years in the industry.

Spark Commodities was founded in 2019 with a mission to disrupt the trade in the commodity markets thanks to technology and data. Spark's key users are leading commodity market participants, exchanges and brokers focused on bringing value to customers suffering from expensive, unsophisticated legacy providers

In February 2021, Spark beat legacy market players such as Baltic Exchange (250+ years), Platts (100 years) and Argus (50+ years) to secure a listing on ICE - an exceptional achievement for a startup. Tim Mendelssohn shares his inspirational story on Tech Talks Daily

1727: The Serial Entrepreneur Merging his Love for the Ocean and Tech Sep 22, 2021

Serial entrepreneur, William West, has founded four startup companies; his most successful sold to a global outsourcing company. In addition, he’s written two business books, was featured on CBS 60 Minutes and in FORBES, won twenty entrepreneurial awards, and made the Inc. 5000 list five times.

Now, after twenty years building tech companies using VR, AR, and AI, West is building his piece-de resistance, a passionate endeavor merging his love for the sea with that of building companies. His most recent venture, Regatta VR, trained companies to tackle difficult HR issues and used cutting-edge VR technology to do it.

Regatta Travel uses its technology to tackle more fun issues: planning the perfect vacation for you. If you want to shop, its app will send you to St. Bart’s; if you want to hike the rain forest, to Dominica. And if you’re a celebrity or a couple just wanting your privacy, Regatta’s algorithm can handle that too.

Regatta Travel Co. is built around its Waypoint app, which overcomes the Paradox of Choice typically associated with travel planning and engages the Dopamine Circle the way a dating app does. Unlike a dating app, every option is the crème de la crème and sure to delight – it’s simply a matter of what the client wants to do on this trip. In fact, focusing on the activities their customers want to enjoy—the experience—is what sets Regatta apart from other travel companies.

Instead of exhaustive lists of villas or boats that all look like, and leave customers unhappy with their eyes glazed over, Waypoint focuses on what vacationers want to do, and then aligns them with the top locations and accommodations on them.

While Regatta’s fleet, one of the largest in the travel industry, includes 1,000 boats, 1,000 villas, 4,000 planes, and 30 private islands across 50 countries, users will only see options based on their vacation vibe they’re going for, and the activities they’re most interested in enjoying on their trip.

1726: The Student Tech Startup Story Behind StuDocu Sep 21, 2021

The Amsterdam-based scale-up StuDocu was founded in 2013 by four students, including CEO Marnix Broer, and StuDocu was born out of the need to share study resources more efficiently. Since launching, the company has expanded to markets like Australia, Canada, Germany, the UK, and the United States. It boasts more than 15 million monthly active users, helping the platform become the international leader in the document sharing space.

Marnix shares his startup story and his belief that education is a resource that should be accessible to everyone and built the platform on that premise. In addition, Marnix feels strongly that education technology, particularly platforms like StuDocu, needs to complement teachers' and professors' work, creating ways for students to study for exams and learn the course material applicable in their careers in the future.

Marnix also discusses the continued rise of EdTech over the past 18 months and how StuDocu recently received $50M in funding. I also learn why the solutions so desperately needed during COVID-19's study-from-home period will continue to be important as students return back to school.

StuDocu utilizes a freemium model, where 80% of all documents on the site are free to access by all, and 20% fall into the premium category, which can be accessed by paying a small quarterly or annual fee or by uploading your own study materials for premium access.

1725: Cult Wines - How Tech is Transforming the Wine Industry Sep 21, 2021

Tom Gearing is the CEO of Cult Wines, the global leader in fine wine investment. But I wanted to learn more about how Cult Wines is leveraging technology to disrupt the fine wine investment industry. Traditionally, fine wine investing was targeted to the "snooty" high-net-worth investor, but Tom uses technology to bring more accessibility, transparency, safety, and credibility to the industry.

Tom grew up with an investment banker father who took him all over the vineyards of Europe as a boy, and he learned and sampled wine and is more knowledgeable about fine wine than people twice is his age. But his love for technology has been instrumental in making Cult Wines a leader in innovation. They released the first NFT in their industry for auction on OpenSea, and they are continuing to utilize blockchain and other technologies to set Cult Wines apart from its competitors.

Tom shares his tech story and how he appeared on BBC's Apprentice a decade ago. He has also overseen the growth of the business, receiving several awards, including appearing on the Sunday Times Fast Track 100 in 2015 and 2017 and receiving a Queen's Award for International Trade. But here in 2021, he regularly appears as a market commentator on media outlets such as Bloomberg, CNBC Europe, CITYAM, and more.

1724: Preparing for BIMI (Brand Indicators for Message Identification) Sep 20, 2021

Both Google and Entrust recently announced support for email authentication specification BIMI (Brand Indicators for Message Identification). A survey of 1,000+ US and UK adults from Red Sift, a leading cybersecurity company, looks at consumer interaction when brands are able to display their logos in an email inbox consistent with BIMI standards – revealing how this will affect consumer interaction with emails, open rates, buying behavior and brand recall. For example, the study found that BIMI has the greatest impact with Gen Z with 28% reporting that not deploying BIMI would negatively impact purchasing decisions. Rahul Powar, CEO, and Founder of Red Sift, joins me in a discussion about the rise of BIMI standards and what this will mean for marketing and security.

We talk about the impact of BIMI and how this standard will translate into market value, why BIMI will be the new standard for logo visibility in email, and how BIMI will become a crucial part of security protocol in the future.

1723: The Tech Transforming Reservations and Ordering in Hospitality Sep 19, 2021

Since its inception, SevenRooms has served hospitality operators from independent restaurateurs to global hospitality groups. They created the company to overcome a challenge they recognized within the industry: limited access to and ownership of guest data.

Over the past ten years, they have built a platform that unlocks a 360-degree view of the guest journey and empowers operators to deliver highly personalized experiences to every on- and off-premise diner. As a result, they are leveraging technology to helping hospitality businesses, big and small, increase revenue and create loyal guests for life.

Joel Montaniel, CEO & Co-Founder of SevenRooms, returns to the Tech Talks Daily Podcast for a catchup. We discuss on-premise and off-premise dining, vaccine passport mandates, and how customer's needs have evolved over the last 15 months. We also talk about how Joel sees hospitality adapting to these needs by leveraging technology.

Finally, we discuss how restaurants can create a seamless journey that diners prefer from discovery to booking to the dining experience itself with technology.

1722: NOK NOK - Talking Metal Payment Cards and Passwordless Authentication Sep 18, 2021

According to ABI Research, the market for metal payment cards is expanding rapidly and is expected to reach 90 million cards (cumulative) by 2025. In addition, CompoSecure, the category leader in metal payment cards, and Nok Nok Labs, the co-founder of the FIDO Alliance and leader in passwordless authentication, recently revealed they would bring to market the first Internet ID and Payment Card that can be used as a virtual ignition key for the authentication of a user into any digital service on any device.

This new offering will combine Nok Nok’s passwordless, secure and scalable authentication server with CompoSecure’s three-factor authentication technology and patented metal NFC hardware to ensure a high level of security on any device or card. In addition, all transactions using the CompoSecure internet ID and payment card will be enabled to be used for either a POS or a card-not-present transaction.

Other everyday use cases for the card include cryptocurrency transactions, eGaming, online gambling, and identity verification applications. Phil Dunkelberger joins me in a conversation about the recent announcement and shares insights from his career in tech.

About Nok Nok

Nok Nok is a trusted leader in passwordless consumer authentication to the world’s largest organizations. Delivering the most innovative authentication solutions in the market today, Nok Nok empowers global organizations to improve the user experience to access digital services, while meeting the most advanced privacy and regulatory requirements.

The Nok Nok™ S3 Authentication Suite integrates into existing security environments to deliver a proven, cost-effective, future-proof and standards-based passwordless consumer authentication solution. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, California, the company has delivered unique inventions and innovations that are protected by a robust global patent portfolio.

As a founder of the FIDO Alliance and an inventor of FIDO specifications, Nok Nok is the expert in deploying standards-based authentication, and its industry leading customers and partners include BBVA, DDS, Inc., Ericsson, Fujitsu Limited, Hitachi, Intuit, Lenovo, MTRIX GmbH, NTT DATA, NTT DOCOMO, OneSpan, SoftBank, T-Mobile and Verizon.

1721: How FIDO is Accelerating the Global Charge Past Passwords Sep 17, 2021

The FIDO (Fast IDentity Online) Alliance was formed in July 2012 to address the lack of interoperability among strong authentication technologies and remedy the problems users face with creating and remembering multiple usernames and passwords. By harnessing the collective expertise of hundreds of leading technology, consumer services, and government organizations, the FIDO Alliance enables simpler and stronger online experiences and more secure online identities and services.

Did you know that every device you open right now has FIDO and WebAuthn through a simple API? FIDO Executive Director/CMO Andrew Shikiar discusses how the FIDO Alliance recognized a need for service provider help with User Experience, and for FIDO to take off, it needed some common elements to drive the change.

I learn how Top Tech Design Engineers and UX Leads from companies such as VISA, Wells Fargo, Facebook, JP Morgan Chase, and Microsoft were involved in shaping the new UX guidelines and formed the UX Taskforce.

Authentication is moving towards less dependence on knowledge and more on inherent authentication. I learn more about their mission to let people log in the same way they unlock their devices and make access easy for everyone by offering a standardized way of doing it.

1720: How Tech is Transforming Wealth and Asset Management Sep 16, 2021

Anthony Caiafa, Chief Technology Officer at SS&C Technologies joins me in a conversation about how automation and AI can help the finance industry’s burnout problem, further exasperated by the pandemic and the loom of a hybrid workforce. We also talk about where technology fits in to revolutionize the traditional wealth and asset manager role, and the reception from Wall Street to these broadening tech capabilities.

Anthony is a technology leader and innovator with a deep understanding and experience across the entire stack. SS&C has emerged as the largest hedge fund, private equity, and transfer agency in the world, growing to over 25K employees, 18K+ clients, and over 200+ products and solutions in its portfolio, in its 35 years in operation.

I also learn more about how it is rooting itself first as a technology company, and always looking to bring automation, advanced technology, and digital transformation to a traditionally antiquated industry known for being slow adopters amidst mass regulations and compliance restrictions.

1719: Meet BUX, Europe's Fastest-Growing Neobroker Sep 15, 2021

Recent research by the Bank of Ireland reveals that many people have become accidental savers during the Covid-19 crisis. Understandably, half of those surveyed want to build up a rainy day fund for the future. Moreover, within today's climate of low interest rates and high living costs, many are considering investing as a way to make their money go further.

Offering a new investment alternative for the Irish market, BUX, Europe's fastest-growing neobroker, officially launched its zero-commission investing app, BUX Zero, in Ireland this week, making it the first exclusively mobile platform to offer investing in the country.

The arrival of BUX Zero in Ireland promises to make investing easier and more affordable through commission-free investing. In addition, BUX aims to remedy the findings that only 23% of people claim to have sufficient knowledge of markets and investment options. It is a platform that provides intuitive tools to start investing and educational content that helps users to invest responsibly.

Yorick Naeff, CEO of BUX, joins me on the podcast to share the story behind the company. I also learn how BUX's flagship platform, BUX Zero, is making commission-free investing more accessible and allows users to invest in the companies they believe in.

1718: The Tech Combining Data, Influencer Strategy, Social Insights, and Brand Storytelling. Sep 14, 2021

Captiv8 CEO and co-founder Krishna Subramanian joins me on Tech Talks Daily to share his tech journey. Krishna is an expert in mobile advertising. Before creating Captiv8 in 2015, he was a co-founder at BlueLithium, an online advertising network that Yahoo acquired for $300 million after becoming the fifth largest ad network in the US and the second-largest in the UK. He then went on to co-found Mobclix, a mobile ad exchange network, which went on to be acquired by Velti, where Krishna then became the CMO.

Captiv8 started as a social listening tool and has grown to become a leading Influencer Marketing company that offers a fully self-service, AI-powered platform and a managed service marketplace. We also discuss their partnership with LiveRamp to turn brands’ first-party data into scalable influencer campaigns.

1717: How Businesses are Impacted by Employee Identity Theft Sep 13, 2021

Emily Snell, President of Allstate Identity Protection, joins me on Tech Talks Daily. Allstate Identity Protection, formerly known as InfoArmor, has been a leader in the employee benefits space for over 13 years and provides advanced identity and privacy protection to more than 30% of the Fortune 500. Emily shared her insights into how identity theft impacts businesses.

We discuss how personal data is most commonly stolen from employees and what costs employers incur from these breaches. We also discuss why and how companies should better protect employees and themselves against identity theft.

1716: Why IT Needs Closer Collaboration Between Business and Academia Sep 12, 2021

Alois Reitbauer, VP, Chief Technical Strategist, and Head of Innovation Lab at Dynatrace, returns to Tech Talks Daily to discuss how forging stronger links between business and academia will drive the next wave of digital innovation. Alois has 20 years of software experience, starting as a developer before moving into tech strategy. Passionate about all things tech, he is also a co-chair for the App Delivery Special Interest Group for the CNCF (Cloud Native Computing Foundation). In his role as Head of Innovation Lab at Dynatrace, Alois is responsible for Dynatrace Research, which has a team made up of academic researchers from the University of Linz, Austria, and passionate software experts from Dynatrace, to spearhead research into future technologies that can solve the challenges facing the most advanced use cases for modern data systems. He shares why he believes this approach exemplifies the broader need for the IT industry to champion closer collaboration between business and academia, covering: Accelerating innovation – 89% of CIOs say digital transformation has accelerated, and 58% believe it will continue to speed up. However, organisations are struggling to keep up with this fast-paced innovation. Partnering with academia can help bring new knowledge, fresh thinking, and novel ways of working into a business to help accelerate the charge towards new digital frontiers. However, these partnerships are often viewed as a CSR initiative rather than being a core part of the R&D process, which limits their potential.

Forging stronger links – Alois believes academic partnerships can drive more meaningful impact if they sit firmly within the business. This helps provide more direction and enables academic partners to dedicate research efforts to solving current or pressing business challenges, which can’t be done in a classroom. Organisations should create joint innovation teams, including university researchers, developers, and other business stakeholders, with practical knowledge of the company’s systems, processes, and vision.

Think fast, build fast, learn fast – With access to real-world business experience and first-hand knowledge of the challenges organisations are trying to solve, academics can create solutions that truly change the world instead of developing a theory that takes years to be tested. This can help foster a ‘think fast, build fast, fail fast’ mentality that accelerates the pace of digital innovation and drives the next wave of transformation.

1715: How the Human-AI Relationship Will Define the Future of Work Sep 11, 2021

Josh Feast, MIT alumnus and CEO and co-founder of AI company, Cogito joins me on the Tech Talks Daily podcast to share his story and how the human-AI relationship will define the future of work. We explore how we can extend ourselves with AI, teach AI to understand us better and create human-AI interactions that work in the moment.

I learn more about how Cogito provides aware human technology to help professionals elevate their performance. Cogito’s contact center AI instantly analyzes hundreds of conversational behaviors to provide live in-call guidance combined with a real-time measure of customer experience.

The technology is augmenting the emotional intelligence of thousands of agents in the world’s most successful enterprises – improving sales results, delivering world-class service and enhancing the quality of care.

Backed by Goldman Sachs, Romulus Capital, and Salesforce Ventures. We also discuss how they produce innovative technology that drives customer success and helps people live more productive lives.

1714: How Tech Is Building & Monetizing Communities Sep 10, 2021

Today I have an inspirational tech startup story to share with a New York mom turned technology entrepreneur by turning her parenting into a passion! What makes her story stand out is she caught the eyes of leading investors like Sequoia Surge, Unilever Ventures, and Qualgro, who recently announced a $9 million investment into her company. Today's guest is Tamanna Dhamija. She founded Baby Destination after she had her first child a few years ago. The online parenting community she built grew into a community resource for 2 million parents. Tamanna and her co-founders saw that online communities were built and managed by passionate people, but they could not monetize these passions into a source of income. This insight led them to create Convosight, which built the technology tools to help community managers on Facebook, Reddit, and Discord to earn from their passion and drive the creation of the passion economy. In the last year, Convosight's community members grew exponentially from 34 million to 300 million. In the last 12 months, Convosight has also made nearly $1 million in payouts to community managers.

Tamanna shares her inspirational story and the role that tech plays in bringing online communities together.

1713: The Tech Changing In-Store Shopping Experiences Sep 09, 2021

The customer journey is blurring the line between digital and physical experiences. Therefore, retailers should look to create consistent, convenient, and inspirational customer experiences in their brick-and-mortar stores while providing the physical touch, engagement, and interaction with products. By investing in AR, VR, AI, and gesture technology, businesses can focus on improving omnichannel shopping experience to optimise engagement opportunities with customers both online and in-store, while also allowing the retailer to get to know the customer better and provide customised offerings such as personalised samples, loyalty points or discounts. I invited Valtech MD Chris Daplyn onto the podcast to share his insights into the technology guiding the future high street. Chris has over 20 years of experience in the digital agency landscape. He is a proven leader with a passion for bringing together diverse talent to connect brands and audiences in relevant and contemporary ways. Before joining Valtech, Chris has led the significant growth of several businesses as managing director of Wunderman, and most recently, as CEO of Mirum in Europe.

1712: The AI-powered Candidate Search and Data Hub Transforming Recruitment Sep 08, 2021

Steve Jiang, CEO, and co-founder of Hiretual, a leader in AI-powered recruitment software, joins me on Tech Talks Daily. Steven’s background is far from ordinary. From growing up in a small rural town in China to becoming a pioneer leader in his industry, he always possessed a steadfast dedication to differentiate himself from his peers - leading him to build an innovative company in his own vision.

As companies around the country experience the crisis to find candidates for their job openings (9.3 million job openings, to be exact), now more than ever is the time to find the right tools to help fill the gap. I learn more about how Hiretual’s software can help transform the recruiting process for companies across the board – it has even become a key resource for those in the recruiting and sourcing industry by helping businesses cut their sourcing time by as much as 80%. Steven shares why AI is helping the post-pandemic hiring market, his experience in the technology and recruiting industry, and the story behind the creation of Hiretual.

1711: The FinTech Supporting Families in Their Home Countries Sep 07, 2021

Retailers such as Walmart entered the financial services space when it launched a payment app that allows Mexican customers to receive remittances from the US. With global professionals wanting to send home payments back home to their families, I wanted to explore how the remittance market is heating up. With Remity filing to go public and BayaniPay's partnership with BDO Bank and Seafood City there seems to be a growing number of trends that I wanted to talk about.

Los Angeles-based BayaniPay recently launched a new borderless digital banking service in partnership with BDO Unibank, the largest bank in the Philippines, and Seafood City, a large US-based Filipino supermarket chain. Through the service and partnership, the companies offer millions of Asian Americans a low-cost, frictionless way to send money to their families back in their homelands, pay bills and conduct online transactions.

BayaniPay takes its name from ""Bayani,"" the Filipino word for "hero"—a term often used to describe global professionals in their home countries. Born out of a partnership between inclusion tech venture studio Talino Ventures and leading Asian American multimedia publisher The Asian Journal, BayaniPay received funding from Wavemaker Partners, a cross-border venture capital firm investing in early-stage startups in the United States and Southeast Asia.

Winston Damarillo is the co-founder and CEO of BayaniPay. He joins me on the Tech Talks Daily Podcast to share BayaniPay's mission to use technology to break down the borders in banking and level the playing field for all global citizens.

1710: Why MPC Will Revolutionise Blockchain Sep 06, 2021

The lack of confidentiality and privacy on blockchains is obvious. It hampers blockchain technology’s disruptive potential as a WEB 3.0 platform supporting value transfer, especially in an increasingly interconnected and data-reliant world.

Dr. Kurt Nielsen, PhD, President of Partisia Blockchain, believes that industry players need to take urgent action to safeguard privacy considerations. Kurt and the team at Partisia Blockchain are pioneering Multi-party computation technology (MPC), a type of distributed cryptography. While blockchain boasts increased security over personal data, MPC ensures that data remains confidential.

Dr. Kurt Nielsen joins me on the Tech Talks Daily podcast to discuss how the combination of MPC and blockchain will pave a trustworthy road for advanced solutions and greater peace of mind for internet users. We also talk about how Partisia Blockchain represents the first successful complete integration of blockchain technology with MPC, allowing for companies to interact with targeted individuals without compromising the users’ confidential data.

Finally, we chat about Partisia’s recent fundraising round which saw $20m of investment, and their plans to use this funding to build an internet privacy infrastructure for the greater good.

1709: Integrating Cutting-Edge Technologies into Human-Centered Solutions Sep 05, 2021

Elisabeth Bohlmann joins me on the podcast to share her story and talk about how design drives technology. We explore the wearable ecosystem, the role of mobile applications for smart devices, and the strategic development of health and fitness apps. I also learn more about why Latin America is the perfect location for US startup growth.

Elisabeth is VP of Client Strategy at December Labs, a high-touch Design & Development firm for mobile and web products that are at the frontline of innovation. She drives December Labs’ expansion strategy and accompanies up-and-coming startups and enterprise companies towards scalable and continuous growth, making her a sought-out speaker for key industry events, such as CES or the Austin Startup Week, to top 100 tech, entrepreneur and product podcasts.

With over a decade of leadership background in tech, digital marketing and international operations in addition to a degree in Economics from Bonn University in Germany, Elisabeth is a scrum-trained trilingual cross-functional marketing executive with a passion for design-thinking and integrating cutting-edge technologies into human-centered and value-driven solutions. She has developed and led projects for iconic brands such as Mattel, NBCUniversal, Food Network, and the NBA.

1708: Neurotechnology and Biohacking Sep 04, 2021

As an entrepreneur, Alon Braun is the founder of Neurotech Analytics and Riverbank Consulting. He has a passion for scaling enterprises and scientific innovations, especially in the deep tech industry. Articles by or about Alon have been featured in Inc Magazine, Forbes, Entrepreneur Magazine, and Thrive Global. In addition, his new book, The Entrepreneur Journey: 8 Steps from Inspiration to Global Impact. Besides Alon's work in science and technology, his areas of expertise include business growth strategies, agile methodologies development, and decision-making consultation.

Alon Braun is a master at decision making especially helping people make difficult decisions. One of the ways that he helps with this is that he is an expert in understanding cognitive hacks that allow you to maximize your cognitive load capacity such that people who have to make complex long-range decisions involving factors with which are difficult to measure, those decisions can be made optimally and using his technologies.

In today's episode, we explore the topic of Neurotechnology and Biohacking. We discuss the cognitive limit to making decisions and how to bypass it to enhance your performance. We also talk about creating more purpose with memory hacks and Alon's unique methodology that combines mathematical rigor with holistic consideration of the values important to the entrepreneur.

1706: How iOS 15 Updates Are Affecting Email Marketing Sep 02, 2021

iOS 15 is ending open rate tracking and bringing a fundamental change to 20-year-old email marketing best practices. Rytis Lauris, the co-founder and CEO of Omnisend shares his insights and actionable tips on how email marketers can get ready for this change,

We discuss what is happening with the iOS15 update, what it means for email marketing, and how marketers can prepare for these changes. Rytis also shares tips & tricks about e-commerce email marketing, SMS marketing, and omnichannel marketing.

1705: Digital Health Tech For Chronic Conditions Sep 01, 2021

DarioHealth is a software as a service company that began for diabetes management and hypertension and recently branched out into musculoskeletal and behavioral health in 2021. The company has a compelling combination between medical devices and strong software capabilities integrated with health coaching.

Data shows that 29% of people with a chronic condition have a behavioral health issue as well. DarioHealth, available to users worldwide, aims to offer a holistic platform for users not to use multiple applications to address needs.

Omar Manejwala discusses how the software uses AI to encourage sustained behavior change in users. Finally, we discuss how the app offers remote patient monitoring and provides users with coaching and the motivation to manage their chronic condition, ultimately reducing healthcare costs.

1704: How COVID Permanently Changed the Role Of The Startup CFO Aug 31, 2021

The CFO role has been emphasized more than ever over the last 15 months. While reducing fear and uncertainty amongst employees and investors has always been a part of the job description, it became a major focal point during the pandemic. This intense focus led to a complete transformation of the role of finance/the CFO within many organizations, elevating it from a purely technical position to become a strategist and change agent within the company. Danielle Murcray, CFO at AttackIQ, shares firsthand how her role as a startup CFO has shifted to a far more strategic partnership with the CEO and the board. But while also playing an integral part in shaping the adoption of innovative technologies to aid in the security and prosperity of an increasingly distributed enterprise. Danielle also shares why proving the value of cybersecurity investments has never been more critical, and how the CISO/CTO and CFO can work together to understand how effectively they’re detecting, alerting and blocking threats.

1703: Oishii and the Future of Indoor Vertical Farming Aug 30, 2021

Hiroki Koga, CEO, and co-founder of Oishii, shares his inspirational story on today's episode of Tech Talks Daily. Oishii is the company behind the world's largest indoor vertical strawberry farm, where Hiroki is on a mission to transform the future of farming/agriculture and make the most delicious and healthy produce available to everyone. With continued tech innovations, indoor vertical farming is becoming a more sustainable farming practice and a better way to cultivate fruits/vegetables at any time of the year with less land and water. Hiroki and his team have been able to marry ancient Japanese farming techniques with modern AI/ML technologies, which has allowed them to produce their Omakase Berry. A Japanese varietal is known for its sweetness, creamy texture, and aroma. The Omakase Berry is an example of cultivating tasty, nutrient-rich fruits while keeping sustainability a top priority. Hiroki shares the technology behind the vertical farming world, the precise technologies needed, and its potential in providing communities with hyper-local and organic fruits/vegetables with little to no carbon footprint. I also learned how Oishii incorporated AI and machine learning technologies with rigorous farming practices to develop a first-of-its-kind pollination method conducted naturally with bees.

1702: The Tech Updating Modelling for the Digital Age Aug 29, 2021

Andreas von Estorff is CEO and Founder of ModelManagement.com — a digital marketplace for models, talents, and influencers built on the principles of transparency, trust, and safety, helping clients around the world source models and talents for their projects.

The ModelManagement.com ecosystem is trusted by over 1 million models and influencers worldwide; 50,000 brands such as Nike, H&M & Garnier, agencies and photographers; and is home to over 10 million model images. ModelManagement.com is leading the digital transformation of the modelling world while leveraging Artificial Intelligence and blockchain technology innovations to help models and their clients manage their image rights and payments with absolute confidence and clarity.

To help aspiring models entering the space navigate the inherent industry challenges and risks, the company launched the Model Academy — an online educational course for industry newcomers led by seasoned models from the ModelManagement.com ecosystem. The company’s ‘More than Models’ podcast also provides in-depth interviews with models and influencers, charting their career trajectories and providing invaluable advice to prospective talents.

1701: Olyseum - Can Non-Fungible Tokens Bring Fans and Stars Closer? Aug 28, 2021

Shant Kevonian is Chief Operating Officer of Olyseum — the star-led, virtual social engagement platform for fans and brands to trade and rent experiential Non-fungible Tokens (xNFTs). As COO, Shant works closely with Olyseum CEO Carlos Grenoir in directing the company's growth strategy while overseeing the business's day-to-day administrative and operational functions.

During his distinguished career, Shant has excelled at creating proprietary algorithms and solutions geared towards scaling early and medium stage enterprises.

Shant has demonstrated exceptional analytical, managerial, and technical acumen across several C-suite positions, including CTO of cang.eco — a marketplace for eco-conscious brands and sustainable products — and CTO of Youtiful.net — the carbon-neutral cosmetics brand and genesis platform that would subsequently launch cang.eco.

An entrepreneur in his own right, Shant founded Prodcast.tv in 2018 — a fully integrated marketplace and live video-streaming platform delivering a dynamic video-shopping experience to consumers, providing a competitive alternative to Twitch and Amazon. Before this, Shant served as Head of R&D at Pippa&Jean — a social selling community geared towards empowering 100,000 women to start their own business and CTO of Deliverea — a cloud shipping management service that manages the logistics of users' e-commerce platforms.

Shant is passionate about driving fan engagement forward through NFT and crypto innovations while leveraging technology as a force for good.

1700: How Simulation Tech is Powering the Next Wave of AVs Aug 27, 2021

Ansys is the leader in engineering simulation technology that provides a multiphysics simulation solution leveraging high-fidelity physics, spanning a scale from silicon to the city, which includes:

• Integrated chip package and system analysis. • Signal, power and optical integrity. • Antenna design, placement and integration. • RFI, EMI/EMC and de-sense mitigation and full communication analysis in electrically large and complex environments. • Open environment delivery for optimization, simulation data and process management, workflow customization, access to cloud and high-performance capacity (HPC). • Support of third-party integration for deployment across the enterprise.

Larry Williams, Director of Technology shares how Ansys provides comprehensive simulation technology that is helping automakers tackle autonomous vehicle production and safety challenges — without the need for expensive prototypes or countless hours of test driving.

In fact, autonomy in the automotive industry won’t happen in our lifetime without simulation technology. To that end, Larry shares more insight into the future of space, the benefits of these recent major advancements, what implications these have on the environment, infrastructure, and consumer trust, and the significant challenges the industry is up against.

I learn how Ansys works with over 45,000 customers worldwide and many of the biggest names in the automotive industry. We discuss how simulation can address the myriad challenges faced by those engineering the future of 5G, delivering a significant competitive advantage.

1699: Exploring Conversation Intelligence With Invoca CEO Aug 26, 2021

Gregg Johnson is an expert on helping businesses use data to gain insight into the buyer journey to improve customer experience and increase revenue. He’s a former Salesforce exec turned CEO of Invoca who just led the company through its first acquisition (of DialogTech) and through the release of its second product, Invoca for Sales.

Invoca’s technology is used in the contact center to help B2C companies deliver customer experience that drives sales. Invoca recently found that consumers actually want to call the contact center with 68% of respondents preferring to speak with businesses over the phone than any other form of communication. And they’re enjoying their experience -- 50% of consumers say agents are more helpful now than before March 2020.

In today's episode, Gregg brings to life what’s happening on the other side of the phone call when you call contact centers, how data is powering those interactions, why interactions are improving and how businesses can keep the momentum going.

1698: Michel Tricot, CEO of Airbyte, (Big Data Startup to Watch) Aug 25, 2021

Michel Tricot is the CEO and Co-Founder of Airbyte, an open-source data integration platform. 4,000+ companies have synced data using Airbyte, and $31 million has been raised through Accel, YCombinator, and others to fund the project.

Michel has been working in data engineering for the past 15 years. As head of integrations and engineering director at Liveramp (NYSE: RAMP), he grew the team responsible for building and scaling the data ingestion and data distribution connectors, syncing 100s TB every day.

In 2020, he co-founded Airbyte, the new open-source data integration platform, with the vision to commoditize data integration pipelines across all industries and organizations.

We talk about Business Intelligence, Data Infrastructure, Security and Integration and what makes Airbyte different from Fivetran or StitchData.

1697: AWS and Symantec leader Joins Pindrop as New CTO Aug 24, 2021

Pindrop (the global technology leader in identity, security, and trust for voice interactions used by 8 of the 10 largest U.S. banks) recently announced that it hired former AWS and Symantec I.T. leader Collin Davis as its new CTO.

Pindrop continues to gain momentum in the voice biometrics industry, with the launch of IVR, expansion into streaming IoT, and most recently, the acquisition of Next Caller. To keep pace with this rapid growth, the company attracted a global tech leader like Collin, and I felt compelled to fight out more.

Collin Davis joins me on the Tech Talks Daily podcast to share his story, having founded and launched Alexa for Business and led the engineering and Q.A. teams that built the suite of Norton Security Products while at Symantec. He also shares why he moved to Pindrop from global, well-respected tech leaders like AWS.

Finally, he shares his insights into the intersection of voice and security, and where voice capabilities are headed based on his time at AWS and Symantec. Finally, we discuss Collin's future vision for Pindrop's expansion into new markets to remain the leader in voice authentication technology.

We discuss why he made the move to Pindrop from global, well-respected tech leaders like AWS and offers Insider Insights into the intersection of voice and security, and where voice capabilities are headed based on his time as an I.T. leader at AWS and Symantec.

Colin also shares his future vision for Pindrop's expansion into new markets in order to remain the leader in voice authentication technology

1696: Adopt CaaS or risk losing customers, Quadient Warns Aug 23, 2021

Quadient is the driving force behind meaningful customer experiences. By focusing on four key solution areas: Customer Experience Management, Business Process Automation, Mail-Related Solutions, and Parcel Locker Solutions, Quadient is on a mission to simplify the connection between people, and what matters.

The company claims that businesses face a customer exodus if they don’t shift to CaaS (Communications as a Service). This comes as IDC predicts that a quarter of all connectivity budgets will run through CaaS within two years. Scott Draeger from Quadient discusses the immense pressures businesses currently face, with customers demanding an almost instant reply across an increasingly expanding range of channels. In contrast, different business departments struggle to keep pace as interaction with customers is slowed by constantly needing to call on the assistance of their IT team.

We also talk about how these problems risk damaging customer experience, leaving people to conclude that the business is too slow to respond/makes them repeat themselves. Gartner reports that more than four-fifths of companies compete based on customer experience poses a real risk of leaving for a competitor.

1695: Transforming Live Events Into Digital Experiences Aug 22, 2021

Regardless of where you live and what you do, 2020 was a challenging year for everyone around the world. It decimated the event and trade show industry. As veterans of live event production, in order to survive and thrive, Echelon knew it had to pivot from physical experiences to virtual ones. The change was always coming. Fate just demanded it happen sooner.

Endeavoring to convert this challenge into an opportunity, SURREAL was conceived and created by Chicago-based Echelon Design, an event marketing and production company with offices in Chicago, Atlanta, Las Vegas and Portland.

The result is this best-of-breed virtual Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) AND a mission is to provide unparalleled live experiences across any industry—especially when cost, carbon footprint or other factors make on-premise events impractical or impossible.

Built with Unreal Engine, SURREAL is a browser-based, pixel-streamed, 3D virtual events platform where audiences experience fully customizable and unparalleled experiences. It provides clients with a different level of storytelling, game design, and multi-player participant immersion—one that reimagines and redefines the human condition and our relationship with physical distance.

I invited Adam Voss onto the podcast to learn more about how Surreal Events bridges the possible and impossible, and the physical and digital worlds, to bring any event to life, in any virtual environment imaginable.

1694: Postoplan - AI-Powered Marketing Automation in Social Networks. Aug 21, 2021

Today's episode explores remote teams, the humanization of onboarding, and company culture in remote startups with Katerina Sukhenko, founder & CBDO at Postoplan. In just 14 months, Katerina led the company to reach $1M revenue and expanded its customer network to 112,000 clients.

Postoplan is a marketing platform that calls itself better than Buffer or Hootsuite. It's a fully remote company, and its' employees are working from 18 countries and help marketers & entrepreneurs across the world to build more efficient social media strategies.

Katerina shares her story, and the startup's mission is to help small businesses to work in social networks. We discuss how it's the only platform that allows users to create and post content free of charge and without any time limits and why she is passionate about marketing automatization.

1693: The Technology That Brings Concerts and World Tours to Life Aug 20, 2021

With very little tear-down and build time between shows, the entire production of extensive tours often requires several weeks of practice to become a well-oiled machine before they go full-time on the road. That is *the* problem Elevation Studios has targeted to eliminate completely with a dedicated state-of-the-art 26-acre complex, located just outside one of the best music cities in the country -- Nashville, TN. The company recently announced that they are completely shovel-ready and breaking ground this summer on the multi-purpose creative campus, which will be delivering large-scale facilities and support services for creators of live entertainment, touring productions, broadcast, and new media content. This project, and its massive $100M investment in the roaring return of live music, is the feel-good story music fans have been hoping for. The show will go on, and Elevation Studios will help the show go off without a hitch in a gorgeous private facility twenty minutes from Music Row. Eric Elwell, the CEO of Elevation Studios, shares the story behind the company and reveals more about the technology that brings concerts and world tours to life.

1692: Gurus Direct - Automation on Demand Aug 20, 2021

Gurus Direct is a platform that connects businesses directly with on-demand experts offering services in niche areas of IT that have the biggest skill shortage and highest demand. These experts streamline workflows, making organizations more profitable, flexible, and responsive.

They provide technology that increases employee satisfaction, engagement, and productivity by removing mundane tasks. In addition, they can be non-invasive, remote, and rapidly implemented into your digital transformation teams as you need to scale up or down.

Steve Brooks, Mandy Downham, and Peter Walker join me on the Tech Talks Daily podcast to share the story behind the company and the problems their mission is to maximize access to automation talent. In addition, I learn how they are leveraging technology to connect businesses with on-demand Automation experts offering services in RPA, IDP, and Process Mining.

Businesses can hire only the talent they need, when needed, and stay lean and flexible as you grow on your digital transformation journey. We discuss how they can narrow automation experts by the vendor, department, process, location, language, etc. In doing so, they can find the right blend of skills such as expertise across multiple toolsets, relevant industry knowledge, the right language skills, and prior qualifications.

I also learn more about the benefits for consultants who can build their online presence to attract new business while developing skills, make new connections to grow their income. But also work flexibly at a time and in a manner that suits them.

1691: Optical Tech - The Tech Behind Glasses That Adapt to You Aug 19, 2021

We look at our phones an average of 58 times a day. This means that this summer 2.1 billion people who suffer from the deterioration of one’s ability to focus on nearby objects, will end up switching between reading glasses and shades every 12 minutes. Yariv Hadad, CEO, and Co-Founder of DeepOptics, the inventor and pioneer of a novel adaptive lens technology, joins me on Tech Talks Daily in a conversation about optical technology.

Yariv puts his formidable professional experience to use as he has led for the past 20 years different high-tech R&D groups and ventures to great successes. He was the Founder & General Manager of Trevo Technologies, served as the Director of imaging, and R&D Dblur where he met the other current co-founders of DeepOptics. Yariv graduated with a B.A. in Computer Science from the Technion, Israel, and an MBA from Tel-Aviv University.

Lately, DeepOptics has launched their 32°N sunglasses, the first and only adaptive focus sunglasses, on Kickstarter, reaching their goal in a couple of hours. Their timing is impeccable, as many of the other major players are still behind on the technology.

Yariv also discusses topics like the influence of smart technology on daily gadgets and the future of optical technology.

1690: Technology and Customer Experience Design Aug 18, 2021

Jesus Ramirez is a mission-driven leader, an innovator, and a humble, life-long learner. In his career, he has helped build and lead several technology-driven products, teams, and companies in the education, healthcare, and labor industries. He is VP of Strategy & Innovation at Tallwave, where he helps companies create exceptional customer experiences.

Recently, Tallwave surveyed 1000+ individuals aged 24-65+ about their perceptions, behaviors, and customer experiences before and during the pandemic. The data revealed that consumers want a choice for how they can interact with a brand, making retail hybrid experiences more critical than ever.

The report highlights the most influential components of customer experience, satisfaction, and loyalty and how organizations can transform experiences for a digital-first, hybrid, and hyper-personalized world. In addition, we discuss how the digital shifts we have experienced over the past year have affected consumer behaviors and tech adoption and how brands can enhance their hybrid customer experiences.

1689: Growth Gorilla - Fintech Digital Marketing Aug 17, 2021

Shameer Sachdev is the founder of Growth Gorilla -- a growth marketing agency focused on helping fintech, proptech and financial services firms go apesh!t and smash through their growth marketing goals.

Originally launching his career in financial services, as an equity broker, Shameer has worked for big brands like Alexander David and Barclays Wealth. Shameer then moved on to focus more on client acquisition and eventually became Marketing Director at a well-known online trading platform provider.

While working with marketing agencies as a client, Shameer couldn’t help but notice their flaws. Most marketing agencies simply didn’t understand how things worked inside financial service companies.

Equipped with a background in financial services and technology, Shameer struck out on his own -- advising courageous fintech, proptech and financial services firms on how to accelerate their growth.

1688: Technology and the Future of Storytelling Aug 16, 2021

HELO creates moving experiences that connect brands with their consumers by bringing together the best in creative strategy, storytelling, production, and event design. They've worked with top brands to include Amazon Studios, Hulu, Comcast, Budlight, and Santander.

In just our three years, they have won 13 Cannes Lions including Gold Lions in Promo & Activation, Production, Entertainment, and Cyber, an AICP Gold for Production, and were named MOST NEXT in the AICP NEXT Awards, recognizing the most innovative, forward-thinking work in the industry.

With their willingness to tackle even the trickiest productions, AdAge named us a Production Company Standout. They have built a reputation by pulling off the 'not-been-done-before' things, and we wouldn't want it any other way

For example, they recreated the 1862 World's Fair for the launch of one of Amazon Studio's most ambitious original films - AERONAUTS. Brendan Kiernan joins me on the podcast to talk about the challenges and future of storytelling. We also discuss how technology and media consumption is continuously changing and how organizations can keep up.

1687: R-Zero Biosafety Technology and Sustainable Sanitization Aug 15, 2021

At the end of every episode, I always ask the listeners to share their stories and offer an open invitation to join me on the Tech Talks Daily Podcast. After receiving an email from Grant Morgan, I invited him on Tech Talks Daily to discuss tech's role in achieving must-have sustainable sanitization.

For years, the biosafety landscape has been dominated by lumbering, archaic giants, but their time at the top of the food chain may be about to end. While companies like Clorox and Ecolab continue to focus on harmful, inefficient chemical disinfectants, R-Zero envisions a new era of hi-tech public safety strategies. Grant shares his plans to use IoT-enabled hardware, smart sensors, software, and machine learning to crack open a $200B+ market.

Antibiotic soaps and sanitizers are driving a deadly new wave of antibiotic-resistant infections. Harsh chemical disinfectants can create hazardous environments for staff and employees, and their overuse is already harming wildlife around the world. Let's face it — the status quo is not sustainable. Grant discusses the urgent need for environmentally-friendly disinfection, and talk about the advances in technology that are finally making it possible.

1686: Axway - Is Your Business Leading Or Lagging With APIs? Aug 14, 2021

The average enterprise has two to three API management vendors and plans to adopt more soon. However, 40% of organizations have three or more API management vendors, and most don't intend to consolidate to a single vendor throughout the enterprise. Thus, complexity is growing, but it can be an opportunity. API Ecosystem complexity, if unmanaged, is slowing down enterprises. Don't try to simplify your complexity. Master it and control it, it happens for good reasons, but you will not go fast if you leave it alone. The task then is to keep, even boost, the agility that autonomous business units create with their own particular applications and API ecosystems amid the tech sprawl that they also perpetuate. Teams need creativity and flexibility, so it's essential to have a centralized governance system while at the same time offering developer teams autonomy so they can work in the languages and platforms that make sense to them. Jana Frejova shares how at Axway, they recognize that companies want the freedom to use different API vendors for different solutions. Still, they also need the freedom to manage all of those APIs as they see fit – and to be able to freely access all of their data without it being locked into silos.

1685: iProov - Authentication Tech for Online Identity Verification. Aug 13, 2021

iProov is a small British biometric authentication company that is currently working with the NHS to provide secure login for the NHS Digital app. They are also working with the Home Office for the EU Settlement Scheme and with a range of other high-profile international customers who deploy their technology, including the US Department for Homeland Security, the Singapore government, the Australian government, and the Eurostar.

However, most recently, the company has very much been at the centre of a lot of nationwide debate around the introduction of Covid status certificates and the interoperability of vaccine passports internationally. This is due to the fact that in January this year, iProov announced plans to develop technology for vaccine certificates, having received a grant from Innovate UK to fund the pilot project.

Andrew Bud CBE is the Founder and CEO of face biometrics firm iProov. He is also the Chair of the Mobile Ecosystem Forum (MEF), the global trade association of the mobile content and applications industry. I invited him on the podcast o talk about the role that biometrics will play in a post-Covid world in wide a range of industries.

We also discuss how Covid status certificates will be integrated into public life and the developing conversation around their use.

1684: Advanced Human Imaging - Measurement Intelligence. Aug 12, 2021

Advanced Human Imaging has developed and patented a proprietary dimensioning technology that enables its users to check, track, and assess their dimensions using only a smartphone privately and accurately. Building off success in apparel and fitness, AHI is now redefining how the smartphone is used for insurance assessments, remote medical consultation, and timely interventions of chronic disease and oncology.

The technology is a smartphone-based biometric software. They are a B2B company partnering with digital health (diagnostic and remote monitoring), fitness and apparel companies across the globe. They have recently announced a spat of partnerships to integrate their biometric software into their partner's platforms.

The company has also partnered with Triage Technologies to develop Derma AI, an advanced system to identify dermatological conditions capable of accurately classifying skin conditions from an image captured on a standard smartphone camera and processed by deep neural networks. Using the largest proprietary database of its kind in the world, the AI analytics engine can classify 588 common or rare skin conditions in 133 categories – including all categories of skin cancers.

Vlado Bosonac shares the story behind Advanced Human Imaging and his grand vision for the company.

1683: Otter.ai - The Story Behind AI Transcription Aug 11, 2021

With more companies adapting to a hybrid work model, business leaders are looking for the best ways to create an engaging and productive environment for employees in the office and at home. Sam Liang built his company and product, Otter.ai, to develop solutions for this very challenge.

Otter.ai is a tech tool that takes live meeting conversations and turns them into highly accurate, collaborative meeting notes, all in real-time. It has transcribed 100 million+ meetings and 3 billion+ minutes and works with Dropbox, IBM, UCLA and more.

Sam joins me on the Tech Talks Daily podcast and shares why he believes it is essential to adopt speech and natural language processing AI technologies. We discuss how it can develop an understanding of ever-changing physical and contextual environments and human-to-human interactions. Sam also discusses the best solutions that leaders should take into account when adapting their businesses to the new hybrid work model.

1682: Goodyear’s Tire Intelligence Technology, Goodyear SightLine, Aug 10, 2021

When thinking about Goodyear, you probably think of tyers. But if you take a peek behind the curtain, you will find the recent launch of SightLine. It's a suite of intelligent tire solutions that use AI and sensors to help fleet managers and drivers predict breakdowns, minimize downtime and monitor tire pressure and wear for safer and more cost-efficient mobility – think of it as a Fitbit for tires.

Erin Spring, Senior Director of New Ventures, at Goodyear joins me on the Tech Talks Daily Podcast to talk about the recent launch of SightLine and the importance of sustainability and tires. We also discuss the future of mobility and how SightLine is helping enable seamless, safe, and reliable mobility for all vehicles starting with cargo vans serving the field service, construction, and last-mile delivery industries.

1681: ex-Googler, Ryan Gurney Joins YL Ventures as CISO-in-Residence Aug 09, 2021

After several years of serving on YL Ventures' Venture Advisory Board among 100 global CISOs and cybersecurity executives from Fortune 100 and high-growth companies, Ryan Gurney is now looking to take a more active role in fostering the success of early-stage startups as a full-time CISO-in-Residence. He brings the experience of holding leading security roles in both startups and global enterprises to provide Israeli cybersecurity entrepreneurs with unparalleled guidance on achieving product-market fit and customer success.

Ryan is also the Former Chief Security Officer (CSO) at Looker, a business intelligence software and big data analytics platform acquired by Google for $2.6B, now part of the Google Cloud Platform. Prior to the acquisition, Gurney served as Looker's CSO, leading security and compliance and helping Google and Looker integrate and centralize key security processes post-acquisition.

Previously, he also led all security functions at Zendesk in his role as VP of Information Security, where he played a key role in the company's successful IPO. Additionally, he held security leadership roles at Engine Yard, eBay and PwC.

Ryan shares his story and career in tech. We talk about supply chain management and explore where customer and company data is going, who administers it, how it's protected, and what it costs. We also discuss IP protection, API security, and much more.

1680: The Startup Turning Social Creators Into Movie Stars Aug 08, 2021

Creator+ is a new film studio and streaming platform for digital-first storytellers. The company was co-founded in 2021 by Benjamin Grubbs and Jonathan Shambroom, and is backed by PETRA Group and Freestyle Capital, along with prominent creators, technology founders, and entertainment industry executives.

Built from the ground up with the community and better economics in mind, the studio team (based in Culver City) has more than 100 films under their belt. It also includes prominent industry execs: Adam Wescott (Head of Content Studio), Ben O’Keefe (Head of Diversity and Impact), Nick Phillips (Head of Production), McKenna Marshall (Director of Development).

Unlike ad-supported or subscription-based models, the whole idea is to allow more creative control through an end-to-end platform that provides everything passionate storytellers need to take IP to feature-length films - from financing and production to marketing and distribution.

Benjamin Grubbs joins me on the Tech Talks Daily podcast to share his ambitious vision to build an entire ecosystem for creative talent where they have more ownership of their audience.

1679: Building a Business Platform through Data Modernization Aug 07, 2021

Tomorrow's business applications will be built differently than they are today. The rise of AI-enhanced business logic and data as a product will enable business analysts and users to create new models and roll out business/domain products. Anup Nair, SVP and CTO of Mphasis Digital, joins me on the Tech Talks Daily podcast in a conversation about building a business platform through data modernization.

We discuss low-code/no-code solutions and how ecosystems will have hundreds, if not thousands, of self-learning and ever-growing models. Every business is currently navigating uncharted digital waters. We explore building new ecosystems and what the apps of tomorrow will look like.

About Mphasis

Mphasis applies next-generation technology to help enterprises transform businesses globally. Customer centricity is foundational to Mphasis and is reflected in the Mphasis' Front2Back™ Transformation approach. Front2Back™ uses the exponential power of cloud and cognitive to provide hyper-personalized (C=X2C2TM=1) digital experience to clients and their end customers.

In addition, Mphasis' Service Transformation approach helps 'shrink the core' through the application of digital technologies across legacy environments within an enterprise, enabling businesses to stay ahead in a changing world. Mphasis' core reference architectures and tools, speed and innovation with domain expertise and specialization are key to building strong relationships with marquee clients.

1678: Insurtech - How Technology is Transforming Insurance Aug 06, 2021

Anthony Mayer the VP of Engineering, GetSafe, moved from Silicon Valley to the very rural part of Germany, famous for its vineyards rather than tech and startup hubs. But his mission is to drive disruption in the insurance industry was just getting started.

Here in 2021, he leads a team of 20 engineers from more than ten different nations who are all challenged to rethink the role of insurance in a digital-first world. Through the GetSafe app, they bring insurance to the smartphones of over 200,000 users. The technological platform creates speed and flexibility in one of the slowest and most inflexible businesses in the world.

I learn more about Anthony's journey and how InsureTech enables users to cancel insurance policies daily, change details or report claims via an app. We also discuss how the technological platform is their foundation to expand quickly, analyze countless data points and adjust the entire insurance experience for their users. With $53 US million in funding, Getsafe is one of Europe's top 10 funded insurance startups, operating in Germany and the UK.

1677: The Role of Data Analytics Technology in Data Driven Policing Aug 05, 2021

An analysis of Freedom of Information responses obtained by data leader, Qlik found 80% of UK police constabularies used data analytics to support their response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The development of data analytics use cases accelerated as forces across the UK relied on data to help them respond to the changing crime landscape during periods of lockdown. Those constabularies that introduced dedicated analytics dashboards and applications to manage their pandemic response built them to support crime forecasting (63%) and geo-map crime (58%).

Many police forces also used data to monitor and track the impact of Covid-19 within their constabulary. For example, over three-quarters of respondents who created new analytics dashboards monitored cases amongst employees (83%) and identified which employees were isolating (79%).

However, it also revealed critical areas of opportunity where constabularies can expand their use of analytics to support even better outcomes in policing real-time decision-making, data-sharing, Upskilling police forces in data predictive analytics and forecasting.

I invited Adam Mayer from Qlik and Will White from the Avon and Somerset Police to learn more about how they are working together to leverage data analytics technology and explore the new world of data-driven policing.

I learn how data was integral for managing changing crime demand at Avon and Somerset during the pandemic. We discuss how Qlik dashboards helped to monitor breach reports and fixed penalty notices issued, as well as locations of enforcement activity. We also talk about how Avon and Somerset quickly understood and adapted to the new and emerging risks of policing the pandemic. Behind the scenes, Qlik dashboards enabled teams to achieve data democratization, empowering the workforce to make informed decisions based on the same information. As a result, all staff made consistent decisions that kept the community safe and staff protected.

1676: T-Mobile Scam Shield – How to Block Scam & Unwanted Calls Aug 04, 2021

I don’t have to tell you all that scams and robocalls are a hot topic and threat to consumers. Unfortunately, as scammers get more sophisticated, so does the technology used to prevent them. With call centers now open again globally and robocall volume returning to pre-pandemic levels, I wanted to learn more about what T-Mobile is doing in the fight to keep consumers protected.

It’s been just over one year since T-Mobile launched Scam Shield, a suite of advanced scam-fighting tools, and the company just shared news about successfully using Rich Call Data and continuing to lead the charge toward more advancements when it comes to protecting consumers. T-Mobile’s Grant Castle, Vice President, Engineering Services & Quality Assurance, explains the recent STIR/SHAKEN deadline and its impact on everyday consumers in a language that everyone can understand. In addition, we discuss what T-Mobile and other wireless providers are doing to help fight scammers today. Grant also shares his insights on current consumer perceptions.

We also talk about how Number Verification provided by STIR/SHAKEN, coupled with free Caller ID provided by T-Mobile Scam Shield, ensures that the calls they receive are authenticated as coming from the phone number displayed in Caller ID and have not been spoofed. This makes Caller ID even stronger in the fight against scams and robocalls, and with Scam Shield, all T-Mobile, Metro by T-Mobile, and Sprint brand individuals, families, and small businesses get free Caller ID.

1675: Doceree: Healthcare Precision Marketing Aug 03, 2021

Harshit Jain MD is the Founder and Global CEO of Doceree, the first global network of physician-only platforms for programmatic marketing. With Doceree, he aims to address the acute problem of the rising cost of healthcare by bringing in efficiency and effectiveness in marketing to physicians by pharma brands on digital platforms with methodical use of data and creativity.

As a healthcare innovator, he drives health transformation across the globe, delivering life-changing, creative and sustainable ideas. Recognized as Elite 2020 Disrupter Award by premier global PM360 Magazine for his venture, Harshit has addressed some of the biggest health challenges – Immunization, Vitamin D deficiency, Diabetes by creatively and innovatively using data.

In his over 13 years of professional journey, he weaved together his domain expertise of medicine and his marketing acumen to come up with out-of-the-box ideas and campaigns in the healthcare space. An accomplished speaker Harshit played a key role in making India win the first ever Black Pencil – the highest honor at D&AD Awards through the Immunity Charm campaign, a brainchild of his.

Today, I learn more about the idea behind the start-up and physician-only platforms for programmatic marketing. We also discuss how physician marketing and the role of technology in this space.

1674: Coupa - Environment, Social and Corporate Governance (ESG) Aug 02, 2021

Coupa Software (NASDAQ:COUP) is the cloud platform for business spend management (BSM). Coupa has a reputation for empowering companies around the world with the visibility and control they need to spend smarter and safer. But I wanted to learn more about how Coupa is helping businesses to use technology to make more ethical spending decisions.

Donna Wilczek, Coupa’s SVP of Product Strategy and Innovation discusses the launch of eight new features that put Environment, Social and Corporate Governance (ESG) right at the forefront of crucial business investment and spending decisions – hopefully inspiring businesses to operate much more sustainably and with a far greater sense of social purpose in future. Despite the tremendous pressure on businesses to implement and execute ESG initiatives, most struggle to get started, make programs actionable, and measure them. Coupa’s technology is focused on helping businesses better manage their spending and achieve social impact goals, turning what is often rhetoric and intention into measurable actions. Companies such as IKEA, AXA, Procter and Gamble, and Nike are all using Coupa’s software to improve and measure their ESG initiatives. More than $2.6 trillion worth of business spending has passed through Coupa’s platform, which shows the scale of how much money could be redirected to diverse and sustainable suppliers.

We discuss why technology is so important for companies looking to spend more ethically and the difference that spending more with ethical and diverse suppliers can make. I learn how Coupa's software works - and how companies use it to improve their sustainability and diversity efforts.

1673: SIA - Meet Skynet, a Decentralized Internet for a Free Future Aug 01, 2021

Today's guest is David Vorick, the Co-Founder and Lead Developer of Sia, a decentralized cloud storage network that ultimately allows its users to have more control over their data.

With the launch of Skynet, Nebulous’s focus shifted from building the leading decentralized data storage platform to enabling a user-controlled, truly decentralized internet. As they embrace the rich legacy and the solid foundation of Sia and assimilate their new mission, I learn more about how their brand is evolving.

We discuss the future of data ownership, the perils of everything being owned by corporations. We explore how blockchain and other decentralized technologies can give back control over our own lives. We discuss how this extends not only into users but also into creators and publishers as well. I learn more about their mission to build a future where people are no longer vulnerable to the arbitrary de-platforming decisions of megacorps and random advertisers.

1672: Talking AI, 5G, Edge Evolutions With Wind River CTO Paul Miller Jul 31, 2021

Paul Miller is the Chief Technology Officer at Wind River, a global leader in delivering software for intelligent connected systems. With nearly three decades of telecommunications and advanced technology leadership at both large companies and successful startups, he is currently focused on Wind River's edge virtualization and AI solutions, including Wind River's market-leading 5G cloud offering based on StarlingX.

Prior to joining Wind River, he was the Chief Technology Officer of GENBAND. He has led the architecture and development of various switching, IMS, IP media, call control, and web applications solutions employed by multiple tier-one operators worldwide. His last eight years have been focused on OpenStack, SDN, and NFV automation technology, including operation of a multi-site, multi-cloud infrastructure, multiple Tier one CSP VNF deployments, and a significant NFV patent history.

Paul's contributions throughout his career have enabled many communications service providers worldwide to create new revenue streams while dramatically reducing operating costs.

In today's episode, we explore 5G applications and use cases beyond telecom and how they can enable new revenue streams for operators. We also discuss disruption around cloud-native networks and what businesses should be thinking about when building intelligent systems in the era of 5G and AI.

1671: Ericom - ZTEdge, Zero Trust Cloud Solution for MSEs & SMBs Jul 30, 2021

Ericom Software recently announced the release of ZTEdge, an all-in-one zero trust cloud security platform designed specifically for midsize enterprises, a market underserved yet highly vulnerable to cyberattacks. Ericom's CSO, Chase Cunningham joins me on the Tech Talks Daily Podcast to discusses the market, positioning, and why this product is an industry-first for midsize enterprises.

Large enterprises have accelerated their adoption of zero-trust security in response to the increased levels of cyberattacks experienced during the pandemic. Equally vulnerable, midsized enterprises and small businesses have the same need for zero-trust security protection. Still, existing solutions are too complex, too expensive, and too resource-intensive for many of them to adopt.

ZTEdge provides a solution that is right-sized for the needs of this market. It offers a comprehensive solution that reduces cyber risk, cuts complexity, and improves performance, all at price points dramatically lower than competitive offerings.

We explore the following key areas: Identifying Users and Authenticating Devices: connects the right people and devices to the right apps and resources by using password-based or passwordless authorization and multi-factor authentication.

Secure Web and Internet Access: protect users as they interact with the web and email by leveraging URL filtering, anti-virus scanning, anti-phishing protection, remote browser isolation (RBI), and more.

Secure Remote Private Application Access: provides a simple way to connect remote workers with private cloud or on-premises applications, using Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) capabilities.

SaaS Application Access Control: offers dedicated ZTEdge tenant IP addresses allowing organizations to enforce IP-based access policies to secure apps like Office 365 or Salesforce, thereby eliminating credential theft risks.

Network Protection and Monitoring: segments and monitors networks using machine learning-powered micro-segmentation and granular network traffic analysis – stopping threats from spreading.

User-Branch-Internet Connectivity: integrated SD-WAN capabilities allow an organization to securely connect users and offices and securely route branch traffic directly to the ZTEdge cloud and internet, eliminating the need to backhaul branch traffic over costly MPLS circuits.

1670: Startup War Stories with Erik Fogg Jul 29, 2021

Erik Fogg is the co-Founder, and Chief Operating Officer at ProdPerfect joins me on the Tech Talks Daily podcast to share his startup stories and discuss how AI in testing is changing software development.

Software development, especially testing, is terrible at using data. It relies too heavily on "human smarts." We can do better. Our own mindsets can explore the art of the possible, what's been done before, and what we have to accept, hold us back from being able to improve the business processes we're responsible for (and ourselves)

Corporations are, unfortunately, the best systems we have right now to help humans flourish (the education system is too calcified and slow to adapt). However, by crafting deliberate cultures around learning and growth, we can turn corporations into little utopias where our people thrive.

Machine Learning is coming for parts of all of our jobs. We should embrace it and accelerate its adoption to help humans spend their time doing what they're great at and what they love. Erik shares how ProdPerfect has been successful because they were first-time founders and very stubborn. He shares how they broke a lot of rules that they didn't even know they were breaking. Erik also expands on why he believes founders need to have nerves of steel to hold the line and do the right thing.

About Erik Fogg

Erik Fogg is the co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer at ProdPerfect, fixing E2E software testing with Machine Learning and good operational design. In addition, ProdPerfect automatically builds and maintains E2E test automation by analyzing user journeys on web applications.

Erik graduated from MIT with a bachelors and master's of science in Mechanical Engineering, and prior to ProdPerfect fixed and led operations in factories, mines, refineries, and hardware startups.

1669: The CEO Powering the Next Wave of AI in the Legal Industry Jul 28, 2021

In a market expected to grow to $17 billion by 2023, Everlaw is an AI-powered e-discovery platform that helps teams uncover the needle-in-a-haystack pieces of information that can make or break a case. As the digital universe expands rapidly, litigators and internal investigators are tasked with mining through mountains of data and documents, most of which end up being irrelevant.

Everlaw can process up to 500K documents per hour and is 5x faster than the nearest cloud competitor, with its largest case reaching 68M documents. Both data stored and the number of cases on the platform has more than doubled YoY.

AJ Shankar, CEO, and Founder of legal tech company Everlaw joins me on the Tech Talks Daily Podcast. AJ offers an overview state of technology in the legal industry in the US and the complexities of investigations and discovery in the digital age, where unimaginable amounts of data are created each day.

I learn how Everlaw is helping law firms, corporate legal departments, government agencies, and journalists to transform the way they handle the troves of data to uncover the truth in their investigations and cases. AJ also shares what the future holds for the legal industry for cloud-based e-discovery solutions.

1668: The Tech and Innovation Helping Fleets Thrive Jul 27, 2021

Omnitracs helps drive the transportation and distribution industries through innovative software and SaaS fleet management solutions. Companies of all sizes trust them to improve visibility into real-time action for back-office and dispatch teams. Their tech creates a more efficient driver experience through intuitive workflow and compliance tools that enable streamlined communications. I wanted to explore how tech is helping leadership teams make improved business decisions through actionable insights into fleet data.

Ashim Bose, Chief Data and AI Officer at Omnitracs joins me in a conversation about transportation intelligence and the growing need for accelerated delivery services in a post-pandemic world. We also discuss insights gained from the Omnitracs Delivering on Demand: Consumer 2021 Insights Survey.

Consumer preferences and needs have shifted during the pandemic, putting more pressure on fleets to deliver on these promises. With consumers becoming more dependent on delivery services during lockdowns, stay-in-place orders, and times when leaving home was simply not safe, trucking (and the drivers behind the wheel) became their lifeline.

We discuss how the survey found patterns in the growing usage of—and dedication to—deliveries as a primary mode of receiving goods (vs. in-store experiences) and, subsequently, consumers’ wants moving forward.

1667: Games Industry Veteran Randy Breen - Ember Sword Jul 26, 2021

Danish game developer Bright Star Studios was founded in 2018 by games-industry veterans. Their goal is to reinvent the usual pay-to-win mechanics and loot boxes common to free-to-play games and instead develop a player-driven economy that allows gamers to earn rewards through in-game activities, including creating unique, tradable NFT items. Through the blockchain, gamers from across the world can build their own world and create tangible income from the game.

The company also recently announced that videogame veteran Randy Breen has joined the Ember Sword development team as an advisor. With over 18 years of industry experience at Electronic Arts and LucasArts, Breen will help the Bright Star Studios team deliver on its vision of creating an immersive MMORPG with a true play-to-earn economy.

Breen has an illustrious career in the games industry. His career began at Electronic Arts, where he grew from Assistant Producer to Executive Producer and Creative Director before becoming the head VP of Development at LucasArts. During his time there, he guided many beloved Star Wars games to PC and console, including Star Wars Battlefront, MMORPG Star Wars Galaxies, and BAFTA award-winning RPG Knights of the Old Republic. Bright Star Studios will harness this wealth of experience and expertise to help bring Ember Sword to life.

Bright Star Studios recently announced that it secured over $2 million in funding from multiple investors to help deliver on its vision for Ember Sword. Last week also saw the successful completion of the game's first land sale that sold out in just six hours, with all of the regular plots being purchased in under an hour.

The sale of 12,000 in-game plots of virtual Solarwood land generated a total of over $1.5M. Bright Star Studios intends to use these funds to further the title's development, enabling the team to create a high-quality and immersive player-first gaming experience supported by an innovative play-to-earn economy powered by the blockchain.

1666: Distributed - Quality Driven Tech Teams. On-Demand Jul 25, 2021

Today's guest is Callum Adamson. Despite growing up in the shadow of a rockstar father Big country musician Stuart Adamson), Callum was actually raised in a household with little money. After dropping out of an Aeronautical Engineering degree, he worked unpaid at a friend's startup and slept on his floor. During this period, Callum considered the broken tech talent model. Businesses big and small now need to change at such speed that they cannot find the skilled workers to do this quickly enough without paying extortionate fixed costs for large consultancies.

To address this issue, Callum founded Distributed using profits from Bitcoin investing. From a London HQ, Distributed uses its AI-enabled platform to project manage a global community of on-demand, highly skilled software developers. This connects skilled tech workers with customers such as Capita and the Ministry of Justice. They can tap into the community and use as much or as little resource as they like at any one time – for simple or complex projects – offering the time and cost flexibility of freelancers with the capacity and quality assurance of consultancies. As a result of these trends and efforts, Distributed just completed a Series A funding round and continues to grow rapidly, expand its freelance community and deliver projects for more businesses. We discuss why the tech skills gap is an illusion and how the world is full of undervalued and poorly organized resources. We also talk about why freelancing will become the preferred profession. With the advent of remote workforces and increased flexibility, people will realize they can work for multiple clients and get paid more than traditional employment.

I learn how Distributed aims to provide its community with perks and career development you wouldn't usually get as a freelancer.

1665: Exploring PropTech With Shane Neman Jul 24, 2021

Shane Neman, the founder of Neman Ventures, joins me in a conversation about PropTech. We also discuss how COVID has pushed more investment into property technology. Shane also shares what emerging technologies he's excited about.

Shane Neman has always been a problem solver and a consummate optimist, which are traits that have been significant advantages in his life as a serial entrepreneur. His experience and expertise in business span many industries, from technology and telecommunications to real estate and hospitality.

After earning a computer science degree from NYU, he started three tech startups (two of them – EZ Texting and JoonBug – were acquired) with hundreds of employees and tens of thousands of customers. He's a prolific backer of startups including Impossible Foods, Convoy, Prose, and Universal Standard, Apostrophe, MeetMindful, MapAnything, VinePair, Smylen, Hyperice,, Teamflow HQ, ResiDesk, Symmetry Systems and more.

He's also a real estate investor and developer with more than two dozen large-scale properties across the US ranging from commercial shopping and industrial centers to residential buildings.

1664: Rackspace and the Changing Face of Digital Transformation Jul 23, 2021

Rackspace Technology CTO, Jeff DeVerter joins me on the Tech Talks Daily Podcast to discuss the changing face of digital transformation.

In previous years - digital transformation was relegated to a corner or department of an organization. This is largely fueled by a few key factors:

· The changing/expanding IT buyers within an organization. · The rising digital fluency of businesses. · The adoption of RPA and low-code / no-code solutions. · The transformation to cloud-native development techniques within organizations. These four trends are driving a dramatic amount of transformation within organizations which are resulting in greater agility, productivity, revenue, and profits for those who are willing to embrace change. Now for those who aren't, they are actively being left behind. Each of these results is occurring in every industry - in every geography today.

1663: Why Low Cost Satellite Data is a Perfect Match For IoT Jul 22, 2021

While there will be an estimated 40 billion connected devices by 2025, a big limitation to fulfilling this technology's potential is that 90% of the world's surface doesn't have access to cellular service or WiFi. While existing satellite data services like Iridium and Starlink are rapidly growing, these services are prohibitively expensive for IoT device users and manufacturers who don't require high-speed, high-cost connectivity.

A new Silicon Valley satellite technology startup, Swarm, is addressing these issues by developing a low bandwidth, low-cost service that commercially launched in February. The service is ideal for a wide range of IoT use cases in industries ranging from agriculture to logistics to maritime to transportation.

Founded in 2016, Swarm is committed to making data and communications accessible to anywhere on the planet for just $5/month. Swarm's combination of uniquely small satellites (think the size of a grilled cheese sandwich) and user hardware deliver low bandwidth (think 90's modem speed) data services at the industry's lowest cost (1/10th the cost of traditional data services) and highest value to customers. Ben Lomgmeir, co-founder and CTO of Swarm, joins me on Tech Talks Daily to share the potential impact the company's data services could have on the IoT market.

1662: Auth0 - The Login Experience Customers Want Jul 21, 2021

YouGov and Auth0 recently published their new global research, ‘The Login Experience Customers Want’, revealed that most organizations fail to meet consumer expectations around login technology. Steven Rees-Pullman, SVP International at Auth0 joins me on Tech Talks Daily to share more insights from the research.

Auth0 and YouGov’s study consisted of two surveys, questioning more than 8,000 consumers and 1,200 IT and marketing decision-makers who work for businesses that offer an app/online service to customers (excluding sole-traders) across six global markets: the UK, France, Germany, Australia, Singapore, and Japan.

The study found that consumers around the world want greater choice in login technologies, and actively seek them out. However, many businesses are still falling short on consumer expectations and risk frustrating their users, losing sales, increasing churn and opening themselves up to credential stuffing attacks as a result.

As an example, the statistics show that consumers are more likely to sign up to an app/online service if they can use MFA (47%), biometric logins (48%) and passwordless (30%) login technologies. Yet only 27% of UK businesses currently offer MFA, biometric logins (14%) and passwordless (13%). The research goes on to explore a widening gap in expectations – with consumers wanting to use digital services but prepared to take their business elsewhere if the login process is clunky or frustrating. Steven discusses the report's findings in more detail and shares what it means for the identity management landscape and how the desire for ease and security is driving consumers to seek out modern identity solutions for a better UX.

1661: Exploring the Relationship Between Technology and Language Jul 20, 2021

Technology and language are eerily similar, and if you learned how to code then you've also learned a language. When Megan Miller was living in Madrid, her host mom would always tell her to aprovechar la experiencia: to take advantage of her time there. Now, she wants to help people take advantage of the tech tools available to learn and incorporate Spanish into their daily lives, without needing to invest thousands on expensive immersion trips abroad.

Megan shares her story and tech background and how it led her back to her "roots" of Spanish. I learn more about how it has allowed a series of shifts in perspective; whether it's a right-brain, left-brain thing, or just plain worldly experience. One of the most inspiring aspects of this conversation is how she didn't fit into the typical IT stereotype and didn't fit in with the huge educational conglomerates: so she created her own bubble.

Megan now offers professional and certified IT and business translation services from Spanish to American English. Using her CSM and PMP certifications, she manages the scope, timeline, and translation using agile methodologies to make sure the words, tone, and intent translate to a professional technology-based audience

1660: Digital Transformation of Teams, Processes and Technology Tips Jul 19, 2021

Ash Finnegan, digital transformation officer at Conga, joins me on the Tech Talks Daily to share insights from the company’s latest study regarding the current state of digital transformation across EMEA.

Drawing upon over 20 years of experience in the digital space, Ash argues that companies need to rethink how they transformation their teams, processes, and technology to ensure they maximize revenue yield, align teams and truly connect the customer experience

Often initiatives are rushed or short-sighted, and COVID-19 has only accelerated this issue. According to Conga’s latest research, only 36 percent of all projects relating to the transformation of commercial operations are considered somewhat successful, with 95 percent of leaders citing that their organization needs to improve its revenue operations.

On the podcast, Ash discusses how companies should approach transformation initiatives as they begin their post-COVID recovery plans. Drawing upon Conga’s recent study, we explore:

Conga’s Digital Maturity Model: how Ash approaches a customer’s transformation programme, establishing clear objectives.

The state of DX: why COVID-19 has proven commercial transformation is critical, but not necessarily easy to implement.

Future of work: streamlining workflows and enabling further collaboration will be the key drivers to the post-COVID economy and hybrid workforce

1659: The the Future of Business, Culture, and Tech with Erich Joachimsthaler Jul 18, 2021

Erich Joachimsthaler, founder and CEO of Vivaldi, as well as a renowned strategy consultant and author of The Interaction Field, joins me on Tech Talks Daily. His consulting firm has helped companies such as American Express, Samsung, and Coca-Cola transform their customer and marketing strategies to enhance their business models. The firm frequently achieves $1.2BN in revenue growth in 6 months for one client.

In his book discusses his take on the future of business, culture, and tech. In the pages, he addresses hard-hitting questions such as: how do you create a culture of innovation? How did Sony miss what Apple captured? Today, Erich shares his insights on why today’s companies fall into three categories and why.

We talk about what it takes to become an “interaction field” company and why it’s imperative and discuss the future of business in a pandemic era and what big tech companies should look to drive innovation. Erich also shares how John Deere, Alibaba, Amazon, and other tech companies are getting it right… or wrong. Finally, we explore the fundamental change in mindset that all business leaders need to embrace for success

1658: Exasol - Addressing the Data Scientist Skills Shortage Jul 17, 2021

Peter Jackson, Chief Data and Analytics Officer at Exasol, believes that data teams have room for all sorts of people, from the technical masterminds to the data storytellers. In today's episode, Peter shares how the best data scientist he ever had in one of his teams had a philosophy degree from Warwick University; he was creative, curious, and could turn insights into compelling arguments. We discuss how if we concentrate too much on STEM, then we'll have people who understand the numbers and stats. But, still, they won't necessarily have the skills to articulate the meaning of that data and turn them into actionable insights for the business. Bringing information to life and allowing everyone to see the business value hidden inside company data is critical.

We talk about why business leaders should recruit people with an arts background so teams can create narratives from data to aid storytelling. Combining a mixture of people and their different skills and abilities will make the translation of data more powerful.

1657: Hydra Energy and the Tech Converting Trucks to Run on Hydrogen Jul 16, 2021

Hydra Energy is the world's first Hydrogen-as-a-Service (HaaSTM) provider for commercial fleets looking to reduce costs and emissions today with limited risk and no up-front investment. The company's innovative approach sources green hydrogen from leading chemical partners and provides clean fuel to fleets at below-diesel prices, enabling a rapid and economic transition to cleaner trucking.

In exchange for long-term, discounted fuel contracts, Hydra quickly converts semi-truck fleets to a proprietary hydrogen injection system helping operators optimize truck performance, fuel efficiency, and emissions reduction regardless of payload and weather.

With Hydra Energy's retrofit technology, hydrogen tanks and gas handling components are installed behind the truck cab. This is where the hydrogen is stored. Each truck has 30kg of hydrogen on it. A hydrogen injection manifold is installed in line with the air intake, blends hydrogen and air before entering the engine block. This is how hydrogen is injected.

A dedicated, secondary controller is installed behind the truck dashboard, which controls hydrogen flow. When the driver presses the pedal, it signals the master OEM computer, which the secondary Hydra controller intercepts.

It then injects the required hydrogen needed to produce 40% of the required power demand directly into the air intake, eliminating the need to modify the engine block. By using existing semi-trucks, and Hydra's Hydrogen-as-a-Service infrastructure, you can have hydrogen today. There's no need to wait for entirely new vehicles and fueling infrastructure to be designed and built at some point in the future.

With as high as 40% diesel displacement, Hydra trucks can run up to 1,000 km/a day burning 24 kilos of hydrogen, even with the heaviest payloads and in the heart of winter. There's no need to worry about range either, as Hydra trucks can seamlessly switch to just running on diesel if the hydrogen runs out.

Hydrogen technology for large internal combustion engines enables seamless switchover without losing fuel efficiency, range, power, torque, and payload capacity. I invited Jessica Verhagen to share the story behind the company and how they plan to propel low-carbon hydrogen trucking solutions.

1656: Exploring Workplace Analytics With Humanyze Jul 15, 2021

Ben Waber is the president and co-founder of Humanyze, a workplace analytics company based out of Boston. Born out of the MIT Media Lab, the company’s goal is to help business leaders improve organizational effectiveness.

The company analyzes workplace interactions (over 20 billion interactions, to be exact) to see company-wide trends around how work gets done in order to inform and improve management decisions that positively impact financial performance and the employee experience. Specifically, one of the core focuses of their analysis is the impact of working from home on the workplace, HR, and digital transformation initiatives and how those affect organizational health.

Ben discusses the impact of remote work on organizations across the globe, best practices, and thoughts to consider when returning to work, and the power of data to inform business decisions.

About Humanyze

Founded in 2011, Humanyze is a world leader in understanding team dynamics and work patterns. With over 10 years of research into organization network analysis and behavioral science, led by leaders in the world of social physics and graduates of the MIT Media Lab, they help companies understand how work gets done. Humanyze counts with a global presence spanning the US, Europe, and Asia, and are on a mission to improve the future of work.

1655: How Helena Murphy is Helping Startups Raise Investment Jul 14, 2021

Helena Murphy is the Founder and Managing Director of Raising Partners, the investment firm that guides startups through each step of their fundraising process.

Helena started a sustainable clothing e-commerce business straight out of St Andrews University in her native Scotland. She was unprepared for how rocky and opaque the fundraising process would be, and experienced first hand the pitfalls of seeking investment. Helena was left with £100,000 of personal debt after being forced to fold her business, a process that left her feeling defeated and caused her to lose her hair due to stress-related alopecia.

As a result of this traumatic experience, Helena then worked as an in-house consultant for several years in order to help other businesses raise capital and avoid the mistakes she made. In that time, she developed an extensive network of connections, from investors, to accountants, entrepreneurs to lawyers, and became an expert in early-stage investment.

Raising Partners is the company she wished had existed when she was going through her own investment process. Helena and her team are determined to level the investment playing field, demystify the fundraising process, and help deserving businesses flourish.

Founded in 2017, Raising Partners has helped over 110 companies - including the likes of Thread, Celtic Renewables, ARQ, Equipsme, Poppy’s Picnic, Penfold, and Ilumoni - raise over £30 million, through pre-seed to Series B rounds. After an initial consultation, Raising Partners assesses the individual funding requirements of a startup, before creating a comprehensive, tailored investment strategy and proposal.

Raising Partners also provides end-to-end crowdfunding support, introducing new investors to the campaign, creating critical crowdfunding-specific assets, such as campaign videos, investor decks, testimonials, and pitch pages, and assisting with investor communications.

1654 The Creation Generation - Understanding Gen-Z's Jul 14, 2021

Cultural marketing agency Culture Group and storytelling platform Wattpad have collaborated to produce a whitepaper positioning Gen Zs as "the Creation Generation" because of their love for creating stories and sharing them with the world. Gen Zs grew up with the Internet, which has democratized creation in a way never seen before by allowing everyone to express their thoughts. It is clear that Gen Zs care more about issues and are more willing to express themselves.

Michael Patent, Founder and President of Culture Group, discusses Gen Zs' defining characteristics and how advertisers can tap into Gen Z's uniqueness to produce more compelling narratives. We also talk about how Gen Zs' defining traits change over time, and how this will lead to different behavior, hobbies, likes and dislikes, etc.

About Culture Group

Culture Group is a brand advisory and integrated marketing agency delivering transformative cultural ideas across Asia. They are cultural provocateurs, makers, and thinkers who collaborate with brands to disrupt the norm, shaping consumer moments into brand movements. The company builds unique partnerships between brands and entertainment properties, articulating its vision and executing a strategic approach across all consumer touchpoints. Our client list includes some of the most recognized and well-respected brands in Asia.

1653: Equinix - How Leaders Use Their Digital Infrastructure to Fuel Growth Jul 13, 2021

Maurice Mortell, Managing Director of Ireland, Equinix – the world's digital infrastructure company joins me on Tech Talks Daily. With over 20 years of experience in the data centre sector, Maurice has been a key figure in the rise of the data center industry in Ireland. Maurice also holds the 2012 ICT Excellence' Person of the Year' honour, awarded based on his invaluable contribution to the ICT sector in Ireland.

Equinix is a global data center and interconnection platform with 229 data centers across 29 countries. The company's objectives are to help enterprise customers mitigate operational risk, significantly reduce exposure to cybercrime, and ultimately safeguard data. Global trends around digital transformation and regulatory compliance have propelled Equinix's growth trajectory, as more and more top-tier enterprises and providers routinely harness Equinix's trusted global platform to bring together and interconnect the foundational infrastructure that fuels their success. The company recently commissioned an independent study of 127 senior IT decision-makers in Ireland, illustrating the prevailing sentiments pertaining to the security challenges linked to remote working for businesses nationwide. The survey found that two-thirds of IT decision-makers in Ireland feel more susceptible to data breaches due to the IT strain associated with pandemic-driven remote working.

In today's episode, Maurice shares his story and reveals insights around the significant macro trends driving today's transformation challenges.

1652: How Alteryx is Unifying Analytics, Data Science and Automated Processes Jul 12, 2021

Libby Adams, Co-Founder and Chief Advocacy Officer at US publicly listed data analytics firm Alteryx joins me on the Tech Talks Daily podcast.

Alteryx is a publicly listed $8bn technology giant that generated over $400m in revenue in 2019 and achieved revenue growth of 25% in Q3 2020. Over 7,000 global customers use the company's data analytics software, more than 38% of the Global 2,000, and they have use cases in 90+ countries.

In the UK specifically, Alteryx's platform is used by the likes of Sainsbury's, Gymshark, Anthony Nolan, and ITV to help improve the digital skills of their respective workforces and create an entirely new generation of data scientists in the process. For example, Gymshark, one of the UK's fastest-growing sportswear brands, turned to Alteryx's software to help it survive and easily pivot during the pandemic.

In May, the company hosted its annual Inspire conference. During the three-day event, Libby hosted a panel on Women in Data Science (WiDS), which is part of the annual WiDS Worldwide conference organised by Stanford University and broadcast to an estimated 150+ locations worldwide.

In today's episode, we discuss why up-skilling will be the biggest challenge for organizations in the next 12 months. We also talk about the importance of human diversity for inclusivity in data science and artificial intelligence. Libby shares what needs to happen in primary education to build awareness of data science skills at an early stage amongst young women.

1651: Jeff Wald, Author of The End of Jobs Jul 11, 2021

Jeff Wald, best-selling author of two books, including The End of Jobs: The Rise of On-Demand Workers and Agile Corporations. Jeff is also the Founder of WorkMarket (purchased by ADP in 2018 for $135 million), and several other technology companies, including Spinback, a social sharing platform (eventually purchased by Salesforce.com), an angel investor and startup advisor, and serves on numerous public and private Boards of Directors.

Based on hundreds of formal interviews with CEOs, HR executives, and political leaders, The End of Jobs: The Rise of On-Demand Workers and Agile Corporations guides readers through the history of work to understand how companies and workers reacted to the last three industrial revolutions. Jeff asks what lessons we can learn from these revolutions and the current state of the labor market and in order for workers, companies, and societies to prepare for the Rise of the Robots.

Included in the book is the $10 million Future of Work Prize. Jeff challenged twenty leading thinkers of the future of work on their vision for the workforce in 2040. Jeff shares his story and lessons he learned building four companies, investing in and advising hundreds of others. We discuss why new technologies like autonomous vehicles seldom lead to the job losses people expect.

1650: A Chat With Award-Winning CSO Andy Ellis From YL Ventures Jul 10, 2021

YL Ventures funds and supports brilliant Israeli tech entrepreneurs from seed to lead. With headquarters in Silicon Valley and Tel Aviv, YL Ventures manages $260 million and specializes in cybersecurity. It accelerates the evolution of portfolio companies via strategic advice and U.S.-based operational execution, leveraging a powerful network of CISOs and global industry leaders.

Andy Ellis was recently named operating partner at YL Ventures, has been inducted into IDG's CSO Hall of Fame. The former CSO at Akamai Technologies will now be supporting YL Ventures' portfolio companies post-investment with product development, go-to-market strategies, and customer engagements. In today's episode, Andy shares his story and insights from his career. We discuss why VC firms and investing in Israeli cybersecurity startups and why more CISOs are taking advisor/investor roles. I also learn what brings him to Israeli cybersecurity companies.

1649: The Simulators Improving Healthcare Learning With HoloLens Jul 09, 2021

Jim Archetto of Gaumard Scientific joins me in a conversation about medical training simulations and how they are leveraging HoloLens 2 headsets.

Gaumard Scientific specialize in creating simulators for medical training that are in use at major teaching hospitals, nursing schools, medical military trainings and emergency medical services. The company recently launched Obstetric MR™, a mixed reality labor and delivery simulation experience that synchronizes holograms with the physical world. Obstetric MR™ is comprised of a HoloLens 2 headset preloaded with software designed to help learners observe the dynamic physiology underlying childbirth. In addition, it brings, for the first time, digital learning content into the physical simulation exercise, allowing participants to link knowledge and skill through an entirely new hands-on tactile training experience.

1648: Tech For Non-Techies with Sophia Matveeva Jul 08, 2021

Sophia Matveeva is the founder of Tech For Non-Techies, a learning community and media company. Sophia has contributed to the Financial Times, The Guardian, and Forbes on entrepreneurship and technology and hosts the top-rated Tech for Non-Techies podcast. She has also guest lectured at Chicago Booth and London Business School, and led the Blackstone x Techstars accelerator at the University of Texas at El Paso. As a non-technical founder, she has co-created apps and algorithms that have been used by thousands, won App of the Day by Mashable, and were featured by Inc, the BBC and more. Sophia loves helping entrepreneurs and has advised Chicago Booth’s New Venture Challenge and Microsoft x London College of Fashion incubator. She also holds an MBA from Chicago Booth, and a BSc (Hons) in Politics from Bristol. She speaks English, Russian and French.

Sophia Matveeva shares her startup story. Then, we talk about why investors are turning towards non-technical founders and what this means for the industry. Sophie shares advice on how non-technical professionals can transition into a career in tech for non-technical professionals.

1647: Meet Collibra’s Chief Data Citizen and Founder Stijn Christiaens Jul 07, 2021

Stijn “Stan” Christiaens has a new title at Collibra - Chief Data Citizen. He joins me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss how Collibra is getting data and policies ready for a cloud-native world, ensuring the company complies with growing privacy regulations, protecting data assets, and more. We also discuss why the most critical priority for this year is increasing and maintaining data quality. Over the past transformative year, Collibra has spent many resources in getting the business to be digital-first. And he knows that data products are garbage in, garbage out, so the outcomes of the product, the user experience, and the smart features all depend on the quality of the data that feeds them. I also learn why he’s changed his title and what it means. Collibra is putting smart data quality controls at various places and how he plans to organizational data priorities for the rest. We also talk about the EU’s recent announcement to take control around AI and how the proposed legislation will strengthen AI update, investment, and innovation across the EU.

1646: Can This Tech Make Education Accessible for 100 million Students? Jul 06, 2021

Rohan Pasari is the co-founder and CEO of Cialfo, an AI-driven platform that brings together people, software, and data to simplify college and career counseling workflows. He co-founded Cialfo with the vision to make education accessible for 100 million students globally.

Rohan joins me on the Tech Talks Daily podcast to discuss how EdTech can make higher ed more accessible, how data analytics is transforming the college recruiting process and shares insights into the shift to virtual search and recruitment channels for higher education.

1645: Yubico: Social Platforms Showing Support for Security Keys Jul 05, 2021

Recent announcements from Facebook and Twitter are signaling growing support for security keys as a means of user protection. Stina Ehrensvärd from Yubico discusses why this is an essential step toward a genuinely passwordless future for all.

Yubico has worked closely with both platforms to support two-factor authentication based on its physical security keys. So while Facebook users have been able to use the hardware to secure their accounts on desktops, the recent announcement sees iOS and Android users now able to do the same.

This adds a critical security layer and prevents a password from being the last line of defense against phishing or other malicious attempts to compromise private information. Importantly, security keys also reduce friction and complexity for users compared to the repeated insertion of One Time Passcodes or similar security features.

Yubico’s mission has always been to make the internet a safer place for everyone – and over the years, it has partnered with tech giants such as FIDO Alliance, Google, and Microsoft to develop appropriate standards and realize this vision. In our interview, Stina discusses the collective impact of these recent announcements and how increased industry collaboration is delivering the highest level of security and convenience to more users online, regardless of device and platform.

I learn more about how Yubico helps companies like Google secure 85,000+ of its employees against online fraud, platforms like Gov.UK to help protect gateways against cybercriminals, and within the UK government and defense departments to secure their security users.

1644: How Citrix is Creating a Culture of Well-Being With Technology Jul 04, 2021

With stakeholder capitalism and conscious capitalism entering the mainstream, we wanted to explore the future of work and how businesses are not just leveraging technology to help run their business but also transform the employee experience.

Danijela Nandi, Senior Product Manager at Citrix Workspace, and Nancy Pautsch, Chief Evangelist of Stakeholder Value (President) of Envision IT talk about how hybrid working and how technology makes teams more productive and helping to build a more conscious culture where everyone has a sense of purpose. They also discuss the ROI of improving employee engagement and wellbeing.

About Envision IT

Envision IT is a soulful company whose business is technology optimization, ensuring that mainstream technologies in businesses today are an enabler to employee engagement and business success (versus being an obstacle).

Nancy Pautsch is the Chief Evangelist of Stakeholder Value (President) of Envision IT, a group of curious and compassionate people growing a soulful company. Envision's mission is to enrich the lives of their stakeholders. Their business is technology consulting focused on optimization to ensure technology is an enabler to employee engagement and business success. Envision is the go-to technology partner for organizations across the U.S.

Nancy has been in the technology industry for 20+ years. Keys to her leadership are a growth mindset and fostering collaborative cultures that breed a grounded sense of purpose while striving for excellence. As a thriving Firm of Endearment, Envision has been lauded locally for their contributions to the community and economy; recognized globally in the technology industry as 'best of the best' for engineering quality, innovation, and customer experience; and highlighted by the Conscious Capitalism movement as a model for stakeholder orientation.

1643: The Tech Attempting Re-Ice the Arctic Jul 03, 2021

Real Ice is a Wales-based company that has invented a revolutionary renewable energy-powered ice maker to replenish the polar ice caps that are melting as a result of global warming.

The Real Ice machine, developed by recent Bangor University graduate Cian Sherwin, is a windpowered machine that pumps water from under the Ice to the surface, where it freezes rapidly and patches gaps in the sea ice. It also works to thicken the Ice, thus increasing the albedo effect, which is the ability to reflect the sun’s energy back into space instead of being absorbed by the earth.

Still in the prototype phase, the project plans to employ indigenous people of Arctic regions to own, maintain and operate the machines. At the same time, they earn carbon credits which can be sold to companies to offset their fossil fuel use.

By combatting the effects of global warming and ice loss on traditional local communities, Real Ice also hopes to boost the development of Arctic regions experiencing the harsh negative effects of global warming.

1642: Juniper - Why Hyperconnected Data Centers Need Automation for Efficiency Jul 02, 2021

Mansour Karam is the Co-Founder of data center network automation company Apstra, which was recently acquired by the networking giant Juniper Networks. With over a decade of experience in network automation and network solutions, Mansour currently works at Juniper as the VP of Products, helping clients deliver on their networking solutions and make the most out of their business with Juniper.

Mansour discusses how automation is essential to minimizing costly mistakes and eliminating human error from mundane tasks in a hyperconnected data center. Mansour also elaborates on the two main areas where automation maximizes productivity in the data center.

We talk about scaling capacity with output so that data center development is not inhibited and processing repetitive tasks, so developers have more time and bandwidth for crucial development. Mansour also explains how automation is essential to minimizing expensive mistakes and provides robust data sets for IT leaders to apply hyper-accurate insights in development.

About Juniper

Juniper Networks challenges the inherent complexity that comes with networking and security in the multicloud era. They do this with products, solutions and services that transform the way people connect, work and live. They simplify the process of transitioning to a secure and automated multicloud environment to enable secure, AI-driven networks that connect the world.

1641: The Tech Company Reducing Unnecessary Hospital Transfers Jul 01, 2021

Curve Health is an elderly care telemedicine platform that is installed directly into nursing homes and skilled nursing facilities (SNFs). The company announced a $6m seed round in late 2020, and on May 6th, will announce national partnerships with facilities in Minnesota and California, bringing telemedicine access to the bedsides of hundreds of patients.

The platform is peer-reviewed & proven by the Western Journal of Emergency Medicine to reduce unnecessary hospital transfers from skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) by up to 80%.

About Tim Peck

Tim Peck is the founder of Curve Health. Before founding Curve, Peck earned his MD from NYU, then held a faculty position at Harvard Medical School and was the Chief Resident in the Emergency Department at Beth Israel Deaconess (BIDC). From there, Peck cofounded Call9, a company that was the forebearer to Curve Health and was responsible for changing the landscape of care delivery to nursing homes.

1640: Discussing the Increase in Cloud Attacks with Aqua Security Jun 30, 2021

Assaf Morag and Ehud Amiri from Aqua Security join me on the Tech Talks Daily Podcast to discuss finding from Aqua's 2021 Security Report, which assesses cloud infrastructure risks. During 12 months, Aqua Security conducted an in-depth analysis of Aqua Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) usage data and found that 40% of users had at least one misconfigured Docker API. But, overall, 84% of users were able to detect and remediate misconfiguration issues using CSPM, which would otherwise have gone unnoticed without manual involvement. Although cloud-native applications have many benefits, such as allowing more agility by giving more people access to define the environment, it means that many organizations are moving away from a centralized approach to security. Where once there was only a small, highly skilled team of security practitioners making all configuration changes, we now have a modern, decentralized approach. Indeed, a recent IDC survey showed that almost 80% of respondents had at least one cloud security breach over the preceding 18 months.

We talk about Aqua's 2021 Security Report findings, explore the complexity of cloud environments, and discuss some solutions to help mitigate these risks.

1639: Fortune 500 IAM Expert and the Future of Remote Authentication Jun 29, 2021

With nearly half of Americans currently working from home, and an additional 20% expected to remain that way in the future, the challenge of remote authentication has never been more important. Replacing passwords and updating software are no longer enough as lines blur between work/personal security posture and data subsequently becomes more at risk.

Eric Brown, Senior Manager, Enterprise Identity & Access Management at SAIC, urges that with this change comes a need for organizations to recalibrate their approach to authentication. Eric shares his insights and advises how to secure identities while balancing a simplified user experience. He also discusses lessons learned with SAIC as the company transformed to a remote workforce – including key takeaways related to their multi-factor authentication platform for remote employees.

About SAIC

SAIC is a premier Fortune 500® technology integrator driving digital transformation. Their robust portfolio of offerings across the defense, space, civilian, and intelligence markets includes secure high-end solutions in engineering, IT modernization, and mission solutions. Using their expertise and understanding of existing and emerging technologies, they integrate the best components from their own portfolio and partner ecosystem to deliver innovative, effective, and efficient solutions critical to achieving their customers' missions.

Saic consists of a team of 26,000 driven by mission, united purpose, and inspired by opportunity. Headquartered in Reston, Virginia, SAIC has annual revenues of approximately $7.1 billion.

1638: Gidi Cohen - Creator of the ‘Google Maps’ of Cybersecurity Jun 28, 2021

It's just over twenty years since the dot-com bubble burst, leaving economic chaos and unemployment in its wake. In the years following, a little-known project – Google Maps – was in its early stages intending to create more user-friendly maps. At the same time, Gidi Cohen, CEO of Skybox Security, had a similar vision, only for the cybersecurity space. "In the same way Google Maps allows users to understand their terrain, location and how to interpret traffic lights, we are helping security teams make sense of their IT network topology." Through a network model approach to security, Skybox has become a trusted partner to large enterprises like P&G, Vodafone and Estee Lauder. Skybox helps these organizations to connect the dots and get better visibility into the threats that lie within their fragmented networks, decentralized, inconsistent configurations and change management processes, unsafe cloud, and network configurations. Gidi joins me on the podcast and talks about why it's important to understand exposure vs. exploitability on vulnerabilities. We also attempt to demystify security complexity and talk about what is currently keeping CISO's awake at night.

Gidi also shares his origin story and how he married his passions of math, analytics, technology, and cybersecurity to create Skybox. But even as founder and CEO, how he stills rolls up his sleeves to code.

1637: How Alliance Block is Bridging Traditional and Decentralized Finance. Jun 27, 2021

AllianceBlock is building the first globally compliant decentralized capital market. The AllianceBlock Protocol is a decentralized, blockchain-agnostic layer 2 that automates the process of converting any digital or crypto asset into a bankable product. Incubated by three of Europe's most prestigious incubators: Station F, L39, and Kickstart Innovation in Zurich.

It is led by a heavily experienced team of ex-JP Morgan, Barclays, BNP Paribas, Goldman Sachs investment bankers, and quants, AllianceBlock is on the path to disrupt the $100 trillion securities market with its state-of-the-art and globally compliant decentralized capital market.

The first globally compliant decentralized capital market, recently announced that it secured funding under the $100M accelerator fund set up to boost the Binance Smart Chain ecosystem, the latest in a series of announcements made in the past week. It's been a huge few weeks for the DeFi powerhouse, which continues to cement its position within the burgeoning DeFi industry.

Rachid Ajaja, CEO and Co-founder of AllianceBlock, joins me on the Tech Talks Daily podcast to share his grand vision for AllianceBlock.

1636: How Businesses Can Protect Themselves From Ransomware Jun 26, 2021

Ransomware threats are snowballing. Time and again we have witnessed that a ransomware attack on a single endpoint brings down the enterprise infrastructure just in a few seconds. Despite the hype around cybersecurity, there aren't credible solutions available to addresses the most fundamental reasons behind the majority of the cyber breaches – shared VLANs; excessive access granted by traditional firewalls/ VPNs; and legacy protocols over unpatched systems.

While there are many security companies trying to prevent ransomware from getting into your network, Airgap's "Zero Trust Isolation Platform" is protecting organizations even if their perimeter is breached or if they have unpatched vulnerable servers inside their data center.

Airgap's "Ransomware Kill Switch" is a potent ransomware response for the IT organization. Airgap can be deployed in minutes without any agents, forklift upgrades, or design changes.

Ritesh Agrawal, CEO, Airgap, returns to the Tech Talks Daily podcast to talk about Ransomware trends. We discuss how to protect against business disruption caused by ransomware attacks that often cripple organizations.

1635: Humanz - The Influencer Marketing Match-Maker Jun 25, 2021

Liav Chen, CEO and Co-Founder of Humanz joins me on the Tech Talks Daily podcast to talk about the AI-based influencer marketing platform with a twist. Over the years, advertising has migrated towards social media marketing, and today more than ever before, marketing tactics rely heavily on influencer endorsement and vise versa. Currently, this model suffers from influencer fatigue, and both marketers and influencers lack the ability to trust the data.

There seems to be a river of 'dirty money' flowing from buying fake followers, having bots engaged with content, and more. Platforms like Humanz were created to make sure authenticity and real value are being measured and presented as part of any potential collaboration.

Using Humanz's unique technology, based on two main sets of proprietary algorithms and big data analysis, influencer marketing's largest problems face a reckoning. It's a new level of targeting that taps micro-influencers, a vastly underutilized resource in the marketing sphere.

Before co-founding Humanz, Liav spent five years serving in the highly esteemed Israeli Intelligence Unit 8200. This is where he gained extensive experience in DevOps, big data, and machine learning. Chen identified multiple shortcomings in influencer marketing and created the Humanz platform to fix what is broken. Chen built the platform to provide a total scope of data on a content creator's account and its following, allowing for better collaborations, better ads, and greater success with reaching an audience.

Liav discusses how influencer marketing became the new billboard and how Humanz mediates existing flaws and uses AI and big data to do so.

1634: Techies Go Green - The World's First Carbon-Neutral IT Distributor Jun 25, 2021

Michael O’Hara, Group Managing Director of specialist IT distributor DataSolutions, joins me on the Tech Talks podcast. The company appeared on my radar when they recently announced that they are aiming to become the world’s first carbon-neutral IT distributor by the end of 2022. As well as implementing measures to improve its own sustainability, the organization has also launched a “Techies Go Green” community to encourage and support partners and other businesses in doing the same. Michael discusses his ambitious growth plans for DataSolutions and talks about his decision to expand from Ireland into the UK market back in 2016 on the cusp of Brexit and how he has successfully built up the UK arm of the business over the last four years. In fact, the organization was recently awarded the title of Distributor of the Year at the Network Computing Awards 2020, showcasing its increasing influence and growth. Michael also provides insights into how the business has adapted throughout the pandemic and supports organisations in doing the same through its innovative mobility and security offerings, which have become vital for many companies over the last 12 months. 2020 research by DataSolutions revealed just how crucial such technologies are for both now and going forward, with a third of office workers admitting they would quit if home-working weren’t supported.

1633: CloudSphere - Cloud Access Control Risks Jun 24, 2021

CloudSphere helps organizations simplify cloud management by automating governance, minimizing security risks, and managing costs from a single platform. Keith Neilson, Technical Evangelist for the company, joins me on the Tech Talks Daily Podcast.

The IDC forecasts worldwide spending on cloud services will surpass $1 trillion in 2024. Keith shares why securing and governing multi-cloud environments is a top IT challenge facing enterprises as cloud adoption accelerates amid the pandemic. I learn how this challenge has driven demand for CloudSphere’s solution, which helps organizations simplify cloud management/avoid costly breaches.

We also discuss the immense cloud governance gaps enterprises experience that ultimately leaves sensitive data vulnerable to breaches. Keith shares how CloudSphere recently released research which found that 32% of enterprises experienced unauthorized access to cloud resources, and another 19% were unaware if unauthorized access occurred.

Keith also discusses why having visibility into which users have access to data and resources is increasingly difficult due to the complex nature of cloud environments and best practices for enterprises to manage cloud access rights.

1632: Heap CEO - From Navy Physicist to Redefining Digital with Analytics Jun 23, 2021

Ken Fine is the new CEO of Heap, the leading analytics platform helping product, marketing, and customer success teams craft exceptional digital experiences that convert and retain users. Grabbing hold on a company that's outperformed on ARR expectations in the last year and raised $191.1M over nine funding rounds, he's fully prepared to propel Heap even further ahead. And, he's got some friends in high – and unconventional – places to thank.

I wanted to learn more about Ken's story and how he was influenced by his time in the Navy as an engineer designing and constructing submarine propulsion systems. Here in 2021, Ken shares his vision for the future of Heap, building on his 20 years of experience leading growth-stage B2B SaaS companies.

Ken discusses the crucial importance of companies investing in data systems – especially when looking to scale. He also shares more about the principles he lives by and how those will manifest in Heap's product offerings, in turn guiding him in cementing the company's position as the go-to analytics provider.

1631: Exploring the Automation Maturity Curve with Tray.io Jun 22, 2021

Rich Waldron is CEO and co-founder of Tray.io. He believes strongly in democratizing the use of software and data for anyone – not just for engineers. He helped create Tray.io to lead the low-code general automation movement so that any business user can have the power to integrate their tech stack and automate mission-critical business processes by themselves.

About Tray.io

The Tray.io General Automation Platform democratizes automation and integration so anyone can easily turn their unique business processes into repeatable and scalable workflows that evolve whenever business needs change. Unlike iPaaS solutions, which are expensive, complex, and code-intensive, Tray.io’s flexible self-service platform makes it simple to build integrations using any API and connect enterprise applications at scale without incremental costs.

Process innovation is today’s competitive advantage since companies can no longer differentiate on their tech stack alone. The promise of SaaS led to an avalanche of siloed point solutions that require businesses to force their processes into rigid, predetermined schema.

The Tray Platform removes these limitations, empowering both non-technical and technical users to create sophisticated workflow automations that streamline data movement and actions across multiple applications. Freed from tedious and repetitive tasks, citizen automators, product leaders, and IT are able to uplevel their skill set with automation to unlock their full potential and do things in a way that’s right for their business.

Teams at leading companies including FICO, New Relic, Segment, and Udemy bring the future of work to life using Tray.io’s solutions. Their motto is simply, Love your work. Automate the rest.™

1630: The Veteran Hollywood Agent Transforming How Studios Buy Ideas Jun 21, 2021

When watching the latest summer blockbuster movie, you might think that the industry is at the cutting edge of technology. But behind the curtain, Hollywood is actually clunky and slow to change, and nowhere is this more evident than in the IP acquisition process.

Around 50% of all entertainment is based on existing IP (novels, articles, biographies, memoirs, etc.)—this number is closer to 80% in television. Yet, the process of finding and buying the rights is analog and outdated—a person would have to find the source, spend weeks or months identifying the various rights holders, then negotiating the option rights.

With Every network launching a streaming service, there is a voracious appetite for new content. 700+ new shows launched last year. But did you know, in order to launch even one show, it typically takes 80+ story ideas at the top of the funnel?

Cue Story Scout—an online marketplace that curates IP, pre-negotiates all the rights, and allows studios and independent producers to find and option ideas with the click of a button. StoryScout is an immediate marketplace. They do all the finding of cool stories, clear the rights, represent everything and negotiate the deal. Think of it as an Amazon for cool ideas.

Current subscribers include Sony Television, New Line, and Range Media, with sights set on deals with Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, Warner Bros, NBC, Paramount, HBO, Fox, Sony Pictures, Snap, and CBS. Todd Hoffman, CEO of StoryScout, shares how this kind of tech is hyper-focused for Hollywood’s needs.

Hoffman and his colleagues all come from Hollywood and know what studios are looking for, from super-specific tagging (E.g., Stories set in “Latin America” that are “family-friendly” and “quirky” and are about “divorce”) to film/TV-worthy stories. They’re engineering machine learning tools to help them filter the most interesting, relevant ideas, too.

1629: Inspiring Startup Story Behind Innovative Green Tech Company Jun 20, 2021

Daniel Gold is the co-founding partner of Future Energy Solutions. A serial entrepreneur obsessed with helping customers solve their pain points. He's transformed FES from a Florida lighting startup into an industry disrupter and global operation.

FES has multi-billion dollar financial backing and has generated over $200M in energy savings for thousands of customers, including Hilton, Ford, Burger King, Taco Bell, Best Western, and Chevrolet. But where did it all begin?

I sit down with Daniel in a relaxed conversation where he shares his inspiring startup story. I also learn how he created the "Gold Initiative" which offers businesses a complete LED Lighting Installation at no up-front cost, 15 years of free maintenance, no credit agreement, and no catch.

Daniel shares how he knew business owners and managers are cash-strapped, and that's why he's endowed FES with the offer of a cost-free way for them to make major capital improvements, save money over time and become more sustainable.

Here in 2021, FES is an international player in the LED lighting space. Daniel has been recognized by Forbes, Inc, and Fortune and honored by Florida Business Journal for 'Business of the Year.' But it's Daniel's inspiring story that will stay with you long after the end of this podcast episode.

1628: The Future of Work - Data, Decentralization, and Automation. Jun 19, 2021

Dr Mark van Rijmenam is the founder of Datafloq and Mavin. Datafloq is the one-stop source for emerging tech, offering C-level Executives information, insights, knowledge, and opportunities to drive innovation with data. The international keynote speaker is also the author of 3 best-selling management books.

I wanted to learn more about his mission to educate people and organizations about how the future of work will revolve around data, decentralization, and automation. In doing so, they could gain a deep understanding of emerging technologies, including big data, blockchain, and artificial intelligence, and how they will change the future of work.

We live in exponential times and simply having a digital strategy focused on continuous innovation is no longer enough to thrive in a constantly changing world. Van Rijmenam discusses how big data, blockchain, and AI will change collaboration and enable a networked society.

The organization of tomorrow will look fundamentally different than today's organization. Those enterprises aware of the upcoming changes can best prepare and achieve competitive advantage in a data-driven society. Consequently, the future of work will require management and employees to take a different approach to create and deliver a product or service.

The future of work will be defined by three concepts: data, decentralization, and automation that will radically change leadership, culture, privacy, and security. Van Rijmenam shares valuable insights around the future of work and how to build a competitive business.

1627: Venky B, Co-Founder, Plivo Shares His Startup Story Jun 18, 2021

Plivo provides easy and affordable APIs for businesses to develop powerful voice and messaging applications. Applications built over Plivo seamlessly integrate across web and telephony, including Mobile, PSTN, VoIP, and Gtalk. But where did it all begin?

Venky B shares the story behind Plivo and how they serve thousands of innovative businesses in more than 190 countries, such as IBM, GoDaddy, PagerDuty, Deckers Brand, etc., through SMS and Voice APIs.

I learn more about how the company's founders all met over GitHub, and the team signed its first paying customers before they had a commercial offering. Venky recommends launching early, iterate with few anchor customers to build a product marketing fit, and charge as early as you can.

For startup founders, Venky B offers the following advice.

Debt Funding: This was a no-brainer for Plivo, and other companies should consider this route as there is no dilution and helps with short-term investments.

Entrepreneurship: Venky has guided the company to hold out from taking money and being trapped. This route is less taken, and Venky shares the benefits that he has seen thus far from this strategy.

Recruiting: In the early days of your company, find passionate early employees who thrive in an unstructured environment. Additionally, hire generalists early and then form more specialized teams as you scale.

Growth: The first step is finding a product-market fit with repeatability, focusing on making a few customers happy, and keeping an eye on churn.

Global Expansion: Whenever financially feasible, build a local go-to-market team and engage customer teams to create passionate customers.

1626: AnkerWork Product Line to Support Hybrid Working Jun 17, 2021

Anker Innovations, a global leader in mobile charging and consumer electronics, recently announced two products under the AnkerWork product line, including the PowerConf C300, Smart AI-enabled HD webcam, and the PowerConf S500 Portable Conference Speaker.

For many, working from home has been a dream come true, but it also brings its unique challenges; distracting pets, family, poor lighting, and power and cable management issues, to name a few. AnkerWork products have been designed to help address many of these issues, while providing portable solutions and can be easily used in the home, the office, and on the road. Adam Weissman joins me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss Anker’s decision to enter the B2B tech space at this moment in time, along with his vision of how the future of work will center on flexibility and mobility. We also talk about where the hybrid work model is heading, how future AnkerWork product offerings will be equipped to address the future of work, and what AI technology can play a stronger role in the new age of work.

1625: Sagacity - Why Data Decides Whether M&As Succeed or Fail Jun 16, 2021

O2 and Virgin have almost 40 million customers between them, so it will be a huge challenge to bring their records into one platform. Of course M&As have become increasingly common in the telco industry in recent years, and tongues continue to wag about potential activity involving both BT and Nokia over the next few months.

Data solutions provider Sagacity work with leading telcos, so I invited Harry Dougall, CFO and founding partner at on the podcast to discuss the typical challenges companies face when merging. We explore some of the mammoth data tasks that could make or break M&As, such as joining all the data together in a unified format. A merger of this scale often takes years, especially if customer information is spread across siloed departments.

We talk about the importance of checking for accuracy and records that need to be merged (if somebody was a customer of both organizations). We also discuss how making decisions about which packages are appropriate for which type of customer, where they could be cross-selling services, and identify the most valuable customers to focus on retaining them.

1624: The Tech Manifesto and Transformation Journey at Liberty Mutual Jun 15, 2021

Several years ago, Liberty Mutual developed a “Technology Manifesto,” a six-page document that explained where they were going and what needed to change as part of their transformation journey. It laid out the tools needed to compete in the marketplace and a picture around the types of technology skills employees needed for roles in the future.

Eric Drobisewski is the Senior Architect of Fortune 100, Liberty Mutual Insurance. Eric has more than 20 years of enterprise IT experience spanning many technology verticals, including Telecom, Network, and Cloud services. As a Senior Architect, he’s responsible for more than 40,000 systems across the globe in a highly virtualized environment with a goal of modernizing a significant portion of those workloads for public cloud platforms. Over the past several years, Eric’s focus has been on Liberty Mutual’s enterprise cloud strategy, strategic enablement, DevSecOps and Infrastructure as Code practices, and driving containerization as the company’s core compute fabric. With the mass shift to remote work, we talk about the technologies that enabled Liberty Mutual’s 50,000 global employees to succeed and various areas of technology the company is continuing to expand to this year.

I also learn how they are aiming to fully pivot to the cloud and reduce their three owned data centers to a single one, with aspirations to get to zero in the future.

1623: How Indico Competes With Microsoft, AWS, Google, and IBM Jun 14, 2021

Slater Victoroff is the Founder and CTO of Indico. An enterprise AI solution for unstructured content that emphasizes document understanding. Slater has been building machine learning solutions for startups, governments, and Fortune 100 companies for the past seven years and is a frequent speaker at AI conferences.

Indico’s framework requires 1000x less data than traditional machine learning techniques, and they regularly beat the likes of AWS, Google, Microsoft, and IBM in head-to-head bake-offs. Indico recently announced a $22 million Series B raise.

Slater has been building AI, machine learning and deep learning solutions for the enterprise for the better part of the past decade, having worked with everyone from the federal government to two-person startups to the Fortune 100. He has also educated hundreds of business users on successfully implementing deep learning through a simple framework that helps executives rapidly accelerate the adoption of the technology in their businesses.

We talk about The future of AI / Machine Learning, the effect of AI on automation processes, and making STEM more inclusive.

1622: The Importance of Creating Space for Minorities Within the Tech Industry Jun 13, 2021

Calvin Brown is a tech founder with experience managing global teams and multi-million dollar software deliverables. His software architecture background, coding capabilities, and keen understanding of the entire process help inform his mindful but competitive approach.

Calvin is fueled by his passion for understanding the nuances of the technical challenges businesses face across all industries. He considers himself a ‘forever student,’ eager to build on his hands-on technical foundation by architecting, building, and teaching others how to master the art of making complex technical issues solvable.

Calvin has developed applications for some of the world’s largest brands. What makes him unique is his dedication to educating entrepreneurs and other tech professionals on how to create the software that we all know and love. The tech group that he created for black coders, Black Men Code, has now grown to over 1,000 professionals. His many publications have aided him in his mission to spread knowledge, educate entrepreneurs and empower them to solve their own technical issues.

Calvin shares how he helps businesses solve problems and run better by providing software-based solutions with an emphasis on innovation, creativity, and common-sense solutions. We discuss the importance of creating space for minorities within the tech industry, and Calvin shares his journey from a lower-middle-class Mississippi home to global tech success. We also talk about how to bring your application dream into reality and explore the future of tech.

1621: Workplace Technology, Smart Buildings and Innovation Jun 12, 2021

Dinesh Malkani is Founder and CEO of Smarten Spaces. His company provides an AI-based technology platform/solutions to transition back to the workplace safely and securely. Smarten Spaces is working with Fortune 500 companies across 50+ cities globally. In today's episode, we talk about hybrid working, back-to-work technology, and the future of the workplace.

About Smarten Spaces

People spend a significant time inside buildings, and they thrive when these spaces are convenient and intuitive. At Smarten Spaces, their vision is to transform all spaces where people spend time, and they do so by designing technology that keeps human behavior and experience in mind.

The company dreams of enabling future-ready spaces that help users optimize for the most value. Our tech solutions allow users to make informed financial decisions based on how their spaces are being utilized while also enhancing the experience of those that interact with the spaces. Better business, better experience.

They believe that technology should be seamless. That's why their configurable solutions are designed for your convenience when planning for and interacting with the spaces of the future. With offerings across workplace management, space management, and tenant engagement, they are currently smartening 90 million square feet globally (and counting).

1620: Don't Let Your Next Technology Project Turn Into a Tragedy Jun 11, 2021

Rich Rudzinski always had an entrepreneurial spirit and found different ways to express that while growing up. He has been infatuated with computers since he first locked eyes on the sweet 486 Windows machine his uncle got his family in the early 90s. He broke, fixed, and gamed on that computer until he saved enough to build his own machine from scratch.

The top of his class in high school, Rich followed his passion for computers while studying at UCSD where he graduated early with an innovative art/technology major (ICAM), with a focus on building interactive experiences with new technologies.

Rich started his current venture, Tragic Media, in 2009 after working as a technology consultant for a variety of digital agencies. He saw a common theme of project overages, disappointed clients, and outsourcing went awry; and sought to build a company to solve that problem. Initially, a white-label solution for other agencies, Tragic Media now helps businesses of all sizes avoid technology tragedies. Over the years, the logo and frameworks have evolved, but Tragic still focuses on providing sound technical leadership for non-technical organizations. From the web to apps to the cloud and beyond! They partner with their clients to help them build a technology foundation built to scale. Rich is also in the process of building out a SaaS product for software team reporting and working to grow a sub-brand focused on helping organizations with IoT integrations and system implementations.

I chat with Rich about entrepreneurship, pivoting a business, building processes with technology. We also discuss what emerging technologies excite him.

1619: The Tech Offering An Impartial View of World News Jun 10, 2021

Here in the UK, the Daily Mail and Guardian Newspapers will give you to completely different sides of a news story. In the US, CNN and Fox News will often do the same thing. But how did we get here? And is there an appetite to return to factual rather than opinion-based reporting?

Tim Huelskamp from 1440 Media joins me in a conversation about the monetization of polarization and how the click-bait structured media world is creating an outrage machine that relies on misleading headlines and sensationalism to sustain itself. I also learn how 1440 media is tackling this problem and the role of technology in helping people find an alternative to their echo chamber and find explore fact base news that challenges rather than strengthens your worldview.

About 1440 Media

Instead of cleverly crafted messaging and media narratives, 1440 provides an impartial view of what’s happening in the world so our readers can form their own conclusions. Scouring hundreds of sources each day, 1440 delivers news with breadth plus depth, thoughtfully curated by experts, in a single morning briefing. We believe news is not about proving one side is right – it should inspire objective conversation that helps you navigate the world around you. While it may sound lofty, our goal is to empower readers so they can lead better, well-informed, more productive lives.

1618: Mendix - The Rise of Low-Code Adoption Around the World Jun 09, 2021

Nick Ford, the chief technology evangelist at Mendix, discusses some of the recent trends that have contributed to the rise of low-code adoption around the world. He also shares some of the most compelling findings from a recent survey commissioned by Mendix about low-code adoption in the manufacturing sector. I also learn more about the recent launch of Mendix 9 and how it can help businesses develop apps up to 10x faster.

About Mendix

Mendix, a Siemens business and the global leader in enterprise low-code, is fundamentally reinventing the way applications are built in the digital enterprise. With the Mendix platform, enterprises can “Make with More” by broadening an enterprise’s development capability to conquer the software development bottleneck; “Make it Smart,” by making apps with rich native experiences that are intelligent, proactive, and contextual; and “Make at Scale,” to modernize core systems and build large app portfolios to keep pace with business growth.

The Mendix platform is built to promote intense collaboration between business and IT teams and dramatically accelerate application development cycles while maintaining the highest standards of security, quality, and governance — in short, to help enterprises confidently leap into their digital futures. Mendix’s “Go Make It” platform has been adopted by more than 4,000 leading companies around the world.

1617: Ontology - Changing The Face of Decentralized Identity and Data Jun 08, 2021

This year, global attention has continued to focus on privacy and data ownership questions within the digital sphere. On a mission to solve these issues and change how data is managed and transferred, Ontology has established itself as the platform of choice for developers, enterprises, and end-users alike.

Having launched its Mainnet in June 2018, Ontology has gone from strength to strength over the last three years, forging tangible partnerships across various industries. I invited Gloria Wu, Chief of Global Ecosystem Partnerships at Ontology Blockchain on to the podcast to discuss their recent partnerships, including:

Daimler — In a move set to transform the experience of drivers all over the world, Ontology recently partnered with the Daimler Mobility AG Blockchain Factory, which was set up to bring the benefits of blockchain innovations and applications to the automotive finance and mobility industry.

Microworkers — To further their mutual aim of empowering microworkers across the globe, Ontology is collaborating with global freelancing marketplace leader MicroWorkers (MW). Following the initial confirmation of the partnership in February 2020, Ontology recently confirmed the integration of its ONTO Wallet with the MicroWorkers platform, facilitating additional payment options for workers.

Binance Smart Chain – In August 2020, Ontology partnered with Binance Smart Chain Adopting its Decentralized Identity Solution for Security Tokenization Offering Projects.

OGQ — Ontology joined forces with social creator platform OGQ in a strategic partnership that allows OGQ to leverage the Ontology blockchain to increase copyright protection for its content creators, while also presenting users with a new opportunity to purchase digital asset content using OEP-4 tokens.

About Ontology

Ontology is a high-performance, public blockchain specializing in decentralized identity and data. Ontology’s unique infrastructure supports robust cross-chain collaboration and Layer 2 scalability, offering businesses the flexibility to design a blockchain that suits their needs.

With a suite of decentralized identity and data sharing protocols to enhance speed, security, and trust, Ontology’s features include ONT ID, a mobile digital ID application and DID used throughout the ecosystem, and DDXF, a decentralized data exchange and collaboration framework.

1616: Mimecast - Insights From The State of Email Security Report Jun 07, 2021

Mimecast recently released their annual State of Email Security report, which reveals enterprises faced unprecedented cybersecurity risk, including increasing attack volume, the pandemic-driven digital transformation of work, and generally deficient cyber preparedness and training.

The Mimecast report revealed that 61% of organizations were infected with ransomware in 2020. It also found that 79% suffered disruption or financial loss due to cyber preparedness shortcomings.

Jeremy Ventura, Senior Security Engineer at Mimecast, discusses the report's findings and the current threat landscape along with the problems organizations face today. We also discuss what organizations can do to combat threats like ransomware. Jeremy also talks about the importance of email and web security and security awareness training, which the report highlights a lack of.

About Mimecast Mimecast (NASDAQ: MIME) was born in 2003. Each day, they take on cyber disruption for tens of thousands of customers around the globe and never giving up on tackling their biggest security challenges together. The company built an intentional and scalable design ideology that solves the number one cyberattack vector – email.

The company continuously invests to thoughtfully integrate brand protection, security awareness training, web security, compliance and other essential capabilities. Mimecast protects large and small organizations from malicious activity, human error and technology failure; and to lead the movement toward building a more resilient world.

1615: Understand, Apply, and Engage with Tech in Meaningful Ways. Jun 07, 2021

For a long time, tech existed in the background. Now, Customers want to do business with innovative companies, making marketing new cutting-edge technology (whether it's for mobile orders, contactless payment or online banking) more important than ever before in order to deepen customer loyalty and get continued buy-in.

Dominick Profico, CTO, Mobiquity discusses how technology adoption and the need for contactless tools has led companies to bring their digital offerings to the forefront. We also talk about why this advertising is necessary to see a positive ROI on digital transformation projects and how this tactic can keep brands on the cutting edge of innovation moving forward.

Mobiquity is a global digital consulting firm that helps the world’s leading brands understand, apply, and engage with technology in meaningful ways. We guide companies through the process of designing and building digital products and services that serve a purpose.

1614: The AI-Powered Assistant Improving Support on Cloud-Native Forums Jun 06, 2021

Robin Purohit returns to the podcast to talk about the Peritus Assistant. He reveals how it uses AI to source and rank over 25 million answers, tips, and published content on Stack Overflow, related community, and product vendor forums from previous conversations and reported GitHub issues. I learn how It provides DevOps professionals and application developers with recommendations to help them answer support questions on community and vendor sites.

Peritus.ai is a patented cloud-based recommendation engine that provides technical advice when it’s needed most. The company’s current focus is transforming community forums from best effort to a best-in-class support experience by empowering community users to find and answer questions faster. The Peritus roadmap includes use cases for DevOps self-service and IT Support.

The Peritus Assistant, which is available as a free Chrome extension on the Google Chrome Store, is pre-trained with machine learning to empower developers, DevOps engineers, and SREs to answer cloud-native questions.

1613: Augmented Analytics and the Future of Data Analytics Jun 05, 2021

Rohit Maheshwari, Head of Strategy and Product at Subex, joins me in a conversation about Augmented Analytics and the future of data analytics in enterprises.

Augmented Analytics is one of the latest data and analytics trends that is gaining considerable traction. Many organizations have realized the importance of Big Data and its role in decision-making across the business. However, this sheer volume of data available to organizations is making effective interpretation a real challenge. According to Forrester Research, less than 0.5% of all data is ever analyzed and used. In contrast, a mere 12% of enterprise data is used to make decisions.

According to IDC Forecast, this will only make it worse with the growth in IoT-connected devices, which is expected to generate 79.4 Zeta Bytes (ZB) of data across 41.6 billion devices. We talk about how leveraging augmented analytics will greatly accelerate transformation projects in enterprises and the typical roadblocks to AI adoption for decision analytics.

We also discuss how organizations can adopt augmented analytics technology, including connecting disparate and live data sources, finding relationships within the data, creating visualizations, and helping human users effortlessly share their findings across the entire organization.

1612: Meet Ecosia - The Search Engine That Plants Trees Jun 04, 2021

The "search engine wars" are heating up. But Google, Yahoo, and Bing are not the only players in the game. One of the fastest-growing search engines in the U.S. is Ecosia (Ecosia.org). Ecosia is an ethical tech and not-for-profit search engine that aims to tackle the climate crisis by planting and protecting trees around the world.

As a certified B-Corp, Ecosia joins the ranks of companies like Patagonia, Ben & Jerrys, and Allbirds, who have met the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance. This "eco-friendly" alternative to other search engines can track the number of trees they are planting with their searches, which helps reduce CO2 and the impact of climate change.

The company is founded on green principles and has built solar farms that produce enough renewable energy to power its searches twice over. The excess actively removes dirty energy from the grid. Ecosia is also currently the largest financier of native tree restoration in the world.

Ecosia is now the fifth-largest search engine in the U.S. and is rapidly adding new users and planting trees. For every 45 searches, Ecosia plants a tree, and it has now planted over 120 million trees across 9,000 planting sites worldwide.

Ruby Au (Head of Ecosia North America) shares the story behind Ecosia.

1611: Network Observability With Avi Freedman, CEO of Kentik Jun 03, 2021

Avi Freedman is the co-founder and CEO of Kentik, a network observability company. He has decades of experience as a technologist, networking executive and is also a professional poker player.

Before Kentik, he was at Akamai for over a decade, as VP Network Infrastructure and then Chief Network Scientist. Prior to that, Avi started Philadelphia’s first ISP (netaxs) in 1992, later running the network at AboveNet and serving as CTO for ServerCentral.

Avi discusses lessons learned throughout his career, including how his poker skills have helped him in the tech industry.

1610: The Ex Alipay Exec on a Mission to Empower Millions of Creators Jun 02, 2021

Jingming Li is the former vice president and CTO of Alipay, where he spent seven years helping to build the company which lifted millions of people out of poverty in China. He is now setting his sights on doing the same thing for creators through a new company and service, TrovaPage, Which has already been used by thousands of entrepreneurs to build, market, and bill for services, ranging from yoga instruction to guitar lessons, to small restaurants, to non-profits.

While the market for e-commerce solutions for selling products is competitive and mature, it has failed to develop a comprehensive solution for creators that want to easily build, market, and monetize their own business. Current solutions such as Yelp or Fiverr are either too expensive, lack the necessary functionality, or are overly complex for creators to use, and trying to get a handle on all of the CRM, social media, invoicing and bill payment solutions needed to run a business is beyond most small businesses and creators.

Jingming discusses why he is motivated to create millions of creator-driven businesses and what he learned at Alibaba and his time under Jack Ma. I also learn how it has helped him drive his innovation at TrovaPage.

1609: Mike Lynch Shares His Story, and the Idea Behind Darktrace Jun 01, 2021

Mike Lynch shares his startup story, the idea behind Darktrace, and how we still need to get better at turning ideas in university seminar rooms into saleable products. As an investor and technologist, Mike also shares what sort of ideas and pitches he would like most want to see and how AI will change the legal industry.

Dr. Mike Lynch OBE FREng FRS is a celebrated technologist, entrepreneur, and investor. Having founded and lead some of the UK's most successful tech companies, including Autonomy, Blinkx, and Cambridge Neurodynamics, Mike then created Invoke Capital in 2012 to create and support world-leading fundamental tech businesses such as Darktrace and Luminance.

Referred to as the UK's answer to Bill Gates, Mike read Natural Sciences at Cambridge University, where he also gained a Ph.D. and held a research fellowship in adaptive pattern recognition. He was awarded an OBE for Services to Enterprise in 2006, is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of the Royal Society, and was elected to the Prime Minister's Council for Science and Technology in 2011.

1608: Cipher Skin - Decoding the World in Motion May 31, 2021

Dr. Shaka Bahadu, Harvard College, Cornell Medical and Stanford grad, who is the is the COO and co-founder of Cipher Skin.

Cipher Skin: Cipher Skin is a data company founded in 2017, built on technology that translates the physical world into actionable insights. Cipher Skin’s patented technology, Cipher Mesh, is a network of sensors that can be printed on any textile and wrapped around anything—a person, a pipe, a bridge. This technology captures gapless data and translates it through proprietary software to provide instantaneous, visualized data and diagnostics.

Because of Cipher Skin’s versatility, there are nearly unlimited applications, from physical therapy and training to continuous monitoring in pipeline management. The brainchild of combat veterans, Cipher Skin has also countless military applications. At its core, however, Cipher Skin melds next-gen hardware and software to help make sense of our complex world.

Having recently scored Series A funding last month, Cipher Skin has found great success working with physical therapists, athletes, and in June 2020, the Department of Defense—in which they were awarded a $1.5M contract working directly with soldiers to further develop its product set and assess range of motion during field training.

Shaka talks about the future of data technology, and its potential for a variety of industries, in addition to his entrepreneurial journey and what led him to start Cipher Skin with his co-founder and CEO, Philip Bogdanovich.

1607: Service Mesh & the Next Generation of Cloud Networking May 30, 2021

Varun Talwar, CEO of Tetrate joins me on today's episode in a discussion about advancements in the service mesh sector and the pros and cons of the next generation of cloud networking. I learn how Tetrate is an enterprise-ready service mesh company that is on a mission to connect the world's services and create the next generation of cloud networking. The company’s roster includes clients such as, FICO and the DoD. As an industry leader and veteran, Varun has nearly two decades of global experience across the technology sector. Not only is he the co-founder of Tetrate, but he is also the co-creator of the gRPC and Istio projects -- he served as the PM on those projects during his tenure at Google. Varun is passionate about creating a safer and more responsible path to modernization for enterprises.

1606: ART AI - AI Creates Original Art, You Create its Meaning. May 29, 2021

ART AI is the world’s largest gallery of AI-generated art. Our gallery displays thousands of original designs authentically created by artificial intelligence. We embarked on this fascinating expedition to explore how artificial intelligence can generate art that people can emotionally connect with.

Since the beginning of time, art has served as a tool for emotional expression. It was used to evoke feelings, inspire ideas, and offer new creative perspectives on the world around us. Following the rise in technological development, new age mediums started to form as extensions of the human mind, opening the gateway to new waves of arts that were never possible before.

As passionate believers in both art and technology, the team was greatly intrigued by the idea of developing artificial intelligence that would be able to affect people emotionally while inspiring creativity and innovative thinking.

Ben Kovalis, co-founder and CMO at ART AI, joins me on the podcast to discuss how they use artificial intelligence to create one-of-a-kind artworks generated entirely by computer algorithms. Even more incredible, it teaches itself to create more and more mesmerizing pieces over time.

I learn how what started as a clever idea has grown past anyone’s wildest expectations, captivating artists and art lovers around the world. We discuss how AI-generated art will affect our world and our homes and what it takes to train a computer to generate something that usually takes human artist months.

1605: Rocket.Chat - The Largest Open-Source Communication Platform May 28, 2021

Gabriel Engel is the CEO and co-founder of Rocket.Chat, the leading open-source team communication platform that allows users to chat securely on the web, desktop, or mobile and offers the choice of both Self-Managed and SaaS options.

Rocket.Chat is used by companies and individuals from a variety of sectors ranging from education and technology to financial, non-profit, governmental and public services. Rocket.Chat Marketplace launched in September 2018, enabling users to build, browse and download apps on Rocket.Chat’s newest app ecosystem, allowing for easy customization of the platform with a range of plugins, themes and integrations with other key software.

Gabriel founded Rocket.Chat in 2015 and is passionate about collaboration tools, open-source and new tech. Prior to Rocket.Chat, Gabriel co-founded Konecty, and worked as Product Manager for Business Innovation and Mobile Applications at Vodafone Global Enterprise. Gabriel’s long-term vision for Rocket.Chat is to replace email with a real-time federated communications platform. Watch this space!

We discuss the death of email and the rise of chat platforms. We also explore what the future of work and the successes of a distributed workforce might look like. Finally, we tackle big topics around WFH, security, privacy, control, and the value of Open source communication.

1604: IntelliShift - The Tech Connecting Vehicle and Asset Operations May 27, 2021

Twenty years ago, fleet managers provided drivers with paper maps and driver scorecards and wished them well on their delivery. Today, fleet managers and drivers have taken on an entirely new role: technology professional.

With advanced telematics tracking solutions and the development of AI and machine learning in recent years, those in the fleet world have become innovators and adapters in their own right, using new technology to optimize routes, IoT for preventative maintenance, and AI video monitoring technology to capture a driver’s every move to keep them as safe as possible. IntelliShift, a connected vehicle, and asset management solution, has been around for two decades of this transformation through their parent company, VTS, and has seen first-hand how driver behavior monitoring solutions like their AI Video has led to fewer accidents and lives saved. John Cunningham, founder, and CEO of IntelliShift (and VTS), discusses how roles have drastically changed in fleet management over the last twenty years he’s been CEO. He also shares how customer behaviors have shifted with this transformation and the futuristic tech he foresees taking center stage in fleet management – think virtual reality and electric vehicles.

1603: Whitebox CEO on the eCommerce Boom and the Future of Product Fulfillment May 26, 2021

E-commerce technology has never been hotter. Marcus Startzel can joins me on the podcast to discuss the future of the direct-to-consumer market, data-driven marketing for brands, and more. Marcus is a trusted and experienced executive leader with a track record of driving growth for several technology-centric organizations for more than 20 years.

As CEO of Whitebox, a Baltimore-based company dedicated to being an end-to-end e-commerce technology partner, Marcus helps brands and manufacturers maneuver the challenges and find success within the modern-day marketplace.

Under Marcus' leadership, Whitebox raised a Seed Round of $2.6 Million in 2017, a Series A investment of $7 Million in 2019, and a Series B funding round of $18 million in 2020.

Marcus is no stranger to driving growth for companies, having been a senior leader with several organizations leading up to and during their IPO or acquisition. Before joining Whitebox, Marcus served in various senior leadership roles within AppNexus, a cloud-based software platform that enabled and optimized programmatic online advertising, ultimately helping lead efforts in their 2018 $1.6B acquisition by AT&T. Marcus joined AppNexus through its acquisition of MediaGlu, a cross-device technology company where he served as chairman and CEO.

Through 2020 when the global pandemic had forced millions of people indoors, online shopping grew 44%, representing 21% of total retail sales - the highest growth ever recorded. This explosive industry growth has helped Whitebox see impressive growth of their own: revenue in 2020 grew more than 300% year-over-year; the company also reports that direct-to-consumer shipments grew more than 300% over the first half of 2020 and had 141% growth year-over-year from 2018 to 2019.

Additionally, as a partner in brands’ entire e-commerce journey - from factory floor to customers’ front door - Whitebox has invested in expanding its warehouse real estate; in 2020 the company moved its headquarters to a larger space in Baltimore, taking over a 365,000-square-foot space that previously served as an Under Armour distribution center. With this move and expansive growth in Las Vegas and Memphis, Whitebox now occupies nearly 900,000 sq. ft. of warehouse space.

As a technology and fulfillment partner within the e-commerce marketplace, Whitebox works with large established brands such as McCormick & Company, Ricola, and French’s, as well as challenger and established digital-native brands such as Super Coffee, Roar Organics, Made Good, and ChicoBag.

Whitebox’s growth has helped the company of 125 employees secure several industry awards, including being named “Best in Tech” 2020 by the Baltimore Business Journal and “Growth Company of the Year” by Technical.ly. Marcus was also recognized by E-Commerce Weekly as a 2020 Top 100 Influencer in E-Commerce.

1602: Geothermal Tech with Dandelion Energy founder Kathy Hannun May 25, 2021

Kathy Hannun is the co-founder and President of Dandelion Energy, the largest residential geothermal company in the United States. Dandelion transitions homeowners from fossil-fueled to geothermal heating and cooling using their custom geothermal drilling suite and Dandelion Air heat pump. Before founding Dandelion, Hannun was a Rapid Evaluator at X, Alphabet’s innovation lab, where she focused on finding “Moonshots,” i.e business opportunities to harness technology for large-scale positive impact. She initiated Dandelion as an X project and then launched it into an independent startup company in May 2017. Dandelion has since raised millions in funding from top venture capitalists, set a new standard for geothermal quality and cost- effectiveness, and empowered homeowners to avoid over 100 million pounds of carbon emissions and counting. In February 2021, Dandelion announced a $30M Series B funding round led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures. The company has partnered with Con Edison utility to promote heat pumps as an alternative to natural gas heating and successfully advocated for increased policy support for heat pumps throughout the Northeast. In addition, Dandelion has increased public awareness of the benefits of ground source heat pumps through stories in publications media such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, Fast Company, WIRED, Bloomberg, and TechCrunch and many others. Hannun has been recognized as a TED Fellow, a DOE C2E Award recipient, one of Fast Company’s Most Creative People in Business, and as one of MIT Technology Review’s “35 under 35.” She graduated from Stanford with a B.S. in Civil Engineering and an M.S. in Computer Science.

1601: How BandLab Is Empowering 30 Million Music-Makers With Tech May 24, 2021

BandLab is where musicians and music fans worldwide can come together to make, collaborate on, and share music. The platform offers an easy, all-in-one solution for the modern social musician. It is wholly owned by BandLab Technologies and is the flagship digital product in the organization’s portfolio of music experience brands.

BandLab combines music-making and collaboration tools, like the world’s first cross-platform DAW with social features like video sharing, messaging, and discovery. In 2017 it launched a hardware division dedicated to producing affordable, high-quality audio hardware.

Since 2015, BandLab’s mission has been to break down the technical, geographic, and creative barriers between creators, collaborators and the music community. BandLab has empowered more than 30 million registered users to date.

Meng Ru Kuok and his team of elite music tech aficionados have continued to bring innovative ideas to BandLab, and will continue to see growth over the next few quarters, and beyond. After hearing that BandLab is currently matching established player GarageBand in new mobile downloads, I invited him onto the podcast to find out more.

1600: Alignment: Overcoming Internal Sabotage and Digital Product Failure May 23, 2021

Jonathon Hensley is CEO & chief creative officer of Emerge. His passion for designing and developing digital products and services and gaining support from the critical audiences involved in their inception and growth led to the authoring of his latest book entitled, Alignment.

Growing up in Silicon Valley at the onset of the digital evolution transformed his life. Jonathon's fascination with the digital world and how people engage with technology led him to pursue his passion in the industry for over 20 years. Over the last two years, he met with over 50 industry insiders, organizational leaders, product managers, designers, and engineers as he delved into my work, research, and writing on Alignment.

Alignment in product transformation encompasses four levels; individual, team, organizational, and market. Understanding these levels is paramount to moving your organization through product transformation. Part one of the book focuses on what Alignment is, and why it’s so critical to the success of digital product and business transformation.

Part two provides a straightforward, honest look at why so many digital product and transformation initiatives fail or underperform. Part three explores what leading with Alignment looks like today. It sheds light on the fundamental knowledge and skills necessary to build teams to navigate the digital product life cycle and transformation.

Part four reveals the baseline from which every successful digital product initiative must start and the elements and guiding forces that make up a strategic foundation. Finally, part five explores the connection between your digital product strategy and team performance, rapidly accelerating the delivery of results.

1599: Ethical Tech: Energy Transition Ventures May 22, 2021

Craig Lawrence and Neal Dikeman recently founded Energy Transition Ventures. Backed by two operating companies from the GS Group of Korea, the new fund Energy Transition Ventures (ETV) will focus on investing in renewable energy with a focus on network, computing, and intelligence technologies impacting and enabling the energy sector as it works towards decarbonization.

Craig Lawrence joins me on Tech Talks Daily to share his story and Energy Transition Ventures mission. I learn how they are focussing on how network, computing, and intelligence technologies can enable the energy sector as it works towards decarbonization.

Craig previously held venture capital roles at Accel Partners and senior executive positions at leading companies driving the energy transition.

Roles included Vice President of Products at energy analytics software startup Treverity, Vice President of Product Management and Marketing at SolarBridge Technologies - one of the leading residential solar inverter manufacturers (acquired by NASDAQ:SPWR), and General Manager of Residential Solar at SunEdison, one of the pioneers in solar project development and financing.

1598: HITLABS - The AI Music Technology Company Partially Owned by Akon May 21, 2021

HITLAB is an AI-based music technology company partially owned by Akon servicing artists, brands and fans. The digital media and entertainment company is revolutionizing the way cultural content is discovered, produced, and consumed. I wanted to learn more about how they use technology to engage consumers and create strong interactions between consumers and brands.

Michel Zgarka reveals more about the company's Digital Nuance Analysis (DNA) patented technology. I also learn more about its Digital Emerging Artist Showcase using DNA software. Finally, we discuss the important partnerships with digital platforms like TREND and Boomplay along with the company's current and future plans to become a major player in AI-music-specific developments.

Michel Zgarka CEO, HITLAB is an experienced executive with a successful career of over 35 years in the productions, communications, marketing, financial engineering and business development fields. He is highly skilled in strategic and creative planning, marketing and personnel management for the media industry.

Mr. Zgarka has produced, directed and distributed numerous film and television productions for the international marketplace, including “GUMMYBAR” which garnered over 6 billion views on YouTube. He has been a guest speaker at over 50 international entertainment industries events as well as the Delegate general of the Montreal Israeli Film Festival whose celebrating its 13th year anniversary in 2018.

1597: Myoshia Boykin-Anderson - From Nowhere to Tech Millionaire May 20, 2021

Myoshia Boykin-Anderson shared her inspirational journey in tech and startup story. Myoshia truly represents the “American Dream.” As a native Houstonian and a proud graduate of Jack Yates Senior High School, Myoshia saw some of life’s most difficult times, but she didn’t let that stop her from striving for a better future.

In November 1998, with no savings and no college degree, Myoshia got her first taste of entrepreneurship by starting her first company. She was able grow it to a multi-six figure operation before closing it in 2007. After taking the lessons learned from that experience, she launched her second company in January 2009.

Myoshia is now the award-winning founder and CEO of one of the leading IT Consulting companies in the country, AndTech Solutions, LLC. Over the past 11 years, under Myoshia’s leadership, AndTech has grown into a multi seven-figure consulting firm providing custom application development and other technology services to some of the top U.S. companies and organizations.

They’ve implemented health plans responsible for managing over 56 million members across 25 states and consulted with small businesses in creating custom application solutions to meet their technology challenges.

What makes this even more impressive is that Myoshia has done this with grit and hard work as a self-made businesswoman with no formal higher education or college degree. Myoshia is proud to hold Women’s Business Enterprise (WBE), Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) and Historically Underutilized Business (HUB) certifications and sits on the Executive Board of C-STEM, an organization whose mission is to inspire the next generation of innovators and thought leaders. Myoshia and her husband are parents to two adult children and are based in Houston, TX.

1596: The Benefits and Limitations of Employee Experience Technology May 19, 2021

Businesses are struggling with mass employee burnout, turnover, and a mental and physical health crisis fueled by the state of the world. Many are turning to technologies to show employees they care. But tech without humans does little to support employees and further exacerbates these issues.

Tech can deliver care at scale, bring culture to life in remote workspaces and reach employees wherever they are. But, tech can’t provide true human interaction, continually outperform other apps and platforms, or be successful without reinforcement from leaders and managers in an organization.

So how do business leaders find the sweet spot that helps them show their employees that their business cares while humans pick up where the tech leaves off? Henry Albrecht, CEO of Limeade (an employee experience company) discusses how his company that built a business on sounding the alarm on employee care has found a greater purpose catalyzed by the pandemic.

Henry also compares EX technology’s benefits and how to deliver care at scale, and its limitation. I learn more about how companies can develop an experience that best supports their employees.

1595: Anaqua - The Tech Behind The IP Management and Innovation Software Company May 18, 2021

Bob Romeo, CEO of Anaqua joins me on the Tech Talks Daily Podcast. Anaqua is an IP management and innovation software company with a great story. Its software and services help corporations and law firms gain a true competitive advantage from their intellectual property.

Over fifteen years ago IP leaders from Ford Motor Company and British American Tobacco identified an important gap within enterprise software solutions. Managing IP with patchworks of commercial and homegrown systems left them with unreliable data that increased their costs and exposed them to risk.

They took matters into their own hands by collaborating on a new web-based, unified system for intellectual property – a comprehensive software platform capable of managing and automating the full IP lifecycle of patents, trademarks, designs, trade secrets and contracts. That collaboration was the beginning of Anaqua – the world’s first web-based unified platform for intellectual property.

From the start, our technology leadership and product innovation has been driven by our customers. Today, Anaqua’s AQX software is used by nearly a million IP executives, attorneys, paralegals and administrators in corporations and law firms all over the world. Many of the best-known brands and most innovative products were conceptualized, evaluated, protected and monetized through the AQX software platform.

In February 2021, Anaqua acquired global IP cost estimating software provider Quantify IP. On the heels of PATTSY WAVE, the acquisition continues the acceleration of Anaqua’s law firm growth strategy and supports the company’s commitment to delivering IP solutions that address the diversified and evolving needs of today’s IP management market.

I learn more about how Anaqua will continue to leverage technology to support innovators in an increasing number of ways, helping them improve lives across the world.

1594: AI as a Service (AIaaS) and the Thriving AI Ecosystem in Ireland May 17, 2021

Shane Nolan from IDA Ireland joins me in a discussion about how the use of AI has evolved over the years and the guest shares his predictions for how it will continue to revolutionize business. I also learn how Ireland is addressing the AI skills gap talk about overall tech talent in Ireland, government investment in AI and Ireland being the first to offer a master's degree in AI).

We discuss the topic of AI as a Service (AIaaS) and how is it being utilised. We also talk about the potential benefits and risks AIaaS has to businesses along with who are the top players in AIaaS already and which industries are likely to adopt it. Finally, I learn more about what makes Ireland such a great base for these top tech/AI providers

About Shane Nolan Shane has been with IDA Ireland for over 18 years and currently heads up both IDA Ireland’s Technology and Emerging Business Divisions leading teams. These teams manage the relationships with the largest technology investors in Ireland and also work with fast-scaling technology and digital start-ups to help them leverage Ireland as part of their growth.

Shane previously led the organisation’s Digital & Consumer business and, before that, its business in AsiaPac and Emerging Markets. Shane was also based for a number of years in IDA’s Silicon Valley office and has held other strategy and business development roles in his time with IDA. Prior to IDA, Shane worked for a number of start-ups in telecommunications and mobile software in technical and business development roles.

About IDA Ireland

Ireland continues to win international investments from global corporations because it is seen as a business location where the workforce, as well as being highly qualified, has a unique capacity to improve, to innovate and to initiate new ideas, new processes and new ways of working that can make business more dynamic, more efficient and ultimately more profitable.

Ireland’s inward Investment Promotion & Development agency, IDA Ireland (Investment Development Agency) is responsible for the attraction and development of foreign investment in Ireland. Today, Ireland is home to companies such as, Facebook, Sanofi, Intel, Yahoo, Adobe, Microsoft, SAP, Liebherr, HP, Apple, LinkedIn, Zalando, Deutsche Bank, Google and Amazon.com, to name just a few.

1593: ImmuniWeb - Attack Surface Management with Dark Web Monitoring May 16, 2021

If you sell web-based software for a living and ship code that references an unregistered domain name, you are asking for trouble. But what about when the same mistake is made by a Fortune 500 company? That's the case for Fiserv, a $15 billion firm that provides online banking software and other technology solutions to thousands of financial institutions, which has been using an unclaimed domain.

Ilia Kolochenko at ImmuniWeb joins me on the podcast to provide a different perspective on this news story, combining legal and tech. Based in Europe and having studied two Masters in legal studies in the US, Ilia has unique observations on the continuously evolving differences between European legislation, including GDPR compliance and the varying laws that each of the 50 US States follows.

A cybersecurity expert and law school graduate, Ilia talks about the rise in cybersecurity issues from a legal and technical point of view - for individuals and businesses. We also discuss the innovations of attackers in response to businesses implementing different security tech and practices.

About ImmuniWeb

ImmuniWeb is a global application security company operating in over 50 countries, headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. Most of ImmuniWeb customers come from regulated industries, such as banking, healthcare, and e-commerce. ImmuniWeb® AI Platform leverages award-winning AI and Machine Learning technology for acceleration and intelligent automation of Attack Surface Management and Dark Web Monitoring. The data is later leveraged for a threat-aware and risk-based Application Penetration Testing for web, mobile, and API security testing.

1592: AI Perspectives With Dr. Steven Shwartz May 15, 2021

Dr. Steven Shwartz began his AI career as a postdoctoral researcher in the Yale University Computer Science Dept. He has been a founder or co-founder of multiple companies. His Esperant product became one of the leading business intelligence products of the 1990s, and, more recently, he co-founded Device42, which has won many awards as a fast-growing tech company. He has also helped fund many startups as an investor, including Tangoe, which had one of the best-performing public offerings of 2011.

His recent book Evil Robots, Killer Computers, and Other Myths: The Truth About AI and the Future of Humanity” expresses a refreshing perspective on AI. It explains why AI will not take over the world or take all our jobs, why self-driving vehicles won’t dominate our roads for a long time, and other topics.

1591: Be Current - Using Tech to Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time May 14, 2021

Sophie Chiche is a French American entrepreneur, optimistic and intuitive. She's fueled by the desire to share, stimulate, and inspire meaning. Her lifelong dedication to exploring the question of "why" has taken her all over the world, where she's presented speeches and connected with movers and shakers like Arianna Huffington and Nelson Mandela with the goal of advancing human consciousness.

Technology was supposed to make us more productive, make our life easier, and give us more time to do the things we love. But we lost our way and neglected the art of daydreaming as we stare into a screen. What if we dared to combine technology with self-awareness, personal productivity, and freedom?

Sophie speaks to those who are open to exploring new habits that fuel success as she imparts inspiration and encouragement. She'swritten for several renowned international publications, served as a coach for high-powered entrepreneurs and executives in large corporations, and helped craft businesses and social ventures of all shapes and sizes.

She's earned masters degrees in business and journalism in her native city of Paris, France and added one in psychology soon after she moved to Los Angeles in 1993. She's given two successful TEDx talks and co-authored the well-received book, "The Power of Personal Accountability: Achieve what Matters to You." Her latest book, "closer to my bones," is expected to come out later this year.

Do you feel that your brain keeps churning at the end of the day, and you find it challenging to make time for your priorities? Or do you think there is more to life, and now is your time? If this sounds familiar, sit down with Sophie and me as we discuss how we can make tech work for us, rather than the other way around.

1590: Intrapreneurship - Empowering Employees to Innovation May 13, 2021

Kevin D’Silva is one of the pioneers in intrapreneurship, the process of encouraging employees to drive impactful innovation from within enterprises. He created the blueprint for the modern intrapreneur by founding Nestlé’s employee-driven innovation accelerator, inGenius. Across 108 countries, 63,000 Nestlé employees - nearly a quarter of the conglomerate’s total headcount - have generated 6,575 new ideas and launched 70 cutting-edge solutions that address some of the world’s biggest problems.

Kevin is now CEO and founder of Ideateplus, an innovation consultancy that guides companies through the intrapreneurship journey, helping them to launch new products, increase staff engagement, boost revenues, improve customer service, and reduce costs and wastage. Here’s an article Kevin recently wrote for City A.M. on how intrapraneurship can help to foster a culture of creativity and innovation -

Kevin joins me on the podcast to discuss how some of the best examples of innovation have come from within - products invented by employees within large organisations include the Post-it Note, Sony PlayStation, and McDonald’s Happy Meals. We also talk about why intrapreneurship can enable large companies to be more agile and launch new innovative products, and in turn fend off challenger startup competitors.

I learn more about Ideateplus, including its Rapid Innovation Process and why, in the era of remote working, keeping staff engaged by encouraging them to contribute to internal innovation is more important than ever.

1589: A&R Songwriter Discovery Tool and Technology for Publishers May 12, 2021

Meddling, the artist discovery platform for record labels, is unveiling a new version of its service built specifically for music publishers to discover songwriters.

Meddling founder Travis Rosenblatt joins me in. conversation about how the music industry and world of technology are colliding. At the forefront of A&R, Meddling delivers indispensable data and tools to help subscribers turn knowledge into action. Meddling brings together real-time data on global music markets, cutting edge technology like deep learning metadata compilers, powerful analytics, communications tools, and tracking capabilities to ensure total digital A&R coverage.

Travis Rosenblatt is a former major and indie label A&R turned self-taught software developer & entrepreneur. His first company, Meddling, has provided modern artist discovery services to the majority of major labels since 2015 and continues to expand to serve other companies with digital A&R coverage needs.

Rosenblatt's third company, Signal, is attempting to drag royalty payment infrastructure into the 21st century. He absolutely adores music as well as the industry and will keep poking it with a stick. That's how he shows his love.

1588: Monty Munford - When Privacy meets DeFi, Meet Sienna May 11, 2021

Sienna is a privacy-first and cross-chain decentralized finance platform where you can privately swap, lend and convert your tokens into their private equivalent. The wSIENNA (wrapped SIENNA) is an ERC-20 version of the native SIENNA token running on Secret Network (SNIP-20).

I invited Cheif Evangelist of Sienna, Monty Munford, onto the podcast to learn more about their recent launch and explore what happens when privacy meets DeFi.

Before Covid, Monty Munford was a keynote speaker on technology after speaking at more than 200 global events. He was moderating panels and conducting fireside chats with names such as Kim Kardashian, Steve Wozniak, John McAfee, Brock Pierce, Ghostface Killah, Brian Solis, and more at the world's best tech events.

He was previously a weekly tech columnist for Forbes in New York, the Telegraph in the UK and have contributed to MIT Tech Review, Mashable, Wired, Newsweek, TechCrunch, The Guardian, The Independent, Times of India and continues to write regularly for the BBC and The Economist. He is even an Ex-Bollywood villain. as well as Evangelist

1587: Aragon - Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs). May 11, 2021

José Pinto from Aragon joins me in a conversation about decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs). José manages legal matters and ensures the legal compliance of Aragon — the platform for building & running decentralized autonomous organizations.

We speak about how DAOs are making strides in the legal sphere as of late, with Wyoming’s Blockchain Bill No. 38 having just passed through the legislature. We also talk about the enormous flexibility DAOs will enjoy with this legislation approved and how DAOs will structure their affairs using any mix of statutory filings, legal agreements, or smart contracts to organize in the long term.

About Aragon

Aragon is currently undergoing a transition to consolidate its digital juror network — is well known for underpinning more than 1,600 global, permissionless and decentralized communities. DeFi projects like AAVE, Curve, and mStable also use Aragon's platform and services for financial transparency, asset management, and protocol governance. Vocdoni, acquired by the Aragon Project earlier this year, has also been developing digital voting solutions that will stand to benefit from legal developments such as this.

1586: Microsoft - Customer-Cloud Shared Responsibility and Zero Trust May 10, 2021

Today, I explore the topics of Customer-Cloud Shared Responsibility, Zero Trust Computing, and Emerging Threats with Joseph Davis, Cybersecurity, Data Privacy, Business Risk, and Information Compliance Advisor for the US Health and Life Sciences fields at Microsoft.

Joseph is part of a global team of former CISOs, cybersecurity leaders, and Azure security subject matter experts, the Microsoft Security Solutions Area (formerly CSG), who advise Microsoft's strategic customers on their cybersecurity, information compliance, data privacy, and risk management strategies.

Chief Security Advisors strive to solve Microsoft's customers' toughest security challenges by leveraging Microsoft's end-to-end enterprise security, compliance, data governance, and information lifecycle management solutions. Joseph strives to accelerate Cloud adoption, migration, and modern workplace transformation through innovative cybersecurity products, engagements, and programs.

1585: Female Leadership in Cybersecurity With S3 Founder Johanna Baum May 09, 2021

Johanna Baum is the founder and CEO of Strategic Security Solutions (S3) Consulting and is a CPA in the state of Georgia with over 20 years of security, eGRC, IDG, and SAP technical and strategic advisory experience. Her vast expertise in the security and compliance field has served both industry and large consulting organizations.

Johanna sought to build an organization that approached security and identity initiatives differently. She wanted a community of experts focused on the holistic needs of the client and their employees rather than simply a technology reseller. She also sought to change the approach of boutiques looking to build the entire employee, not simply utilization-driven targets without empathy and investment in the individual.

Johanna founded S3 Consulting in 2005 to provide strategic professional services and guidance around security, eGRC, and IDG services for Fortune 2000 companies. Since beginning the company 15 years ago, Johanna has been hands-on in providing successful assessment, implementation, and deployment solutions throughout the full life cycle of both technical and strategic initiatives.

Identity threats will increase exponentially, causing organizations to focus on prevention: Identity attacks are also happening faster. In 2021, the focus is shifting from authenticating identity and authorization to controlling access.

Even if a business keeps the attack contained, they still have a significant issue – identity was compromised. Increasingly, organizations will take cyber security awareness training to better secure and manage user identities and scrub for inactive identities. Talking points/key messages: tips / best practices for ensuring strong identity. What does identity mean?

Also, with the rise of ‘contactless’ everything means authentication will become more complex. Amid COVID-19, e-commerce, online banking/payment systems, contactless travel, and other transactions are rising, however they require a high level of identity assurance and authentication.

In 2021 and beyond, preventing credential compromise will depend on stronger, more complex authentication security and identity validation. Increasingly, an individual’s identity will become their credentials (face scans, finger prints, etc.) We also discuss how enterprises are slowly shifting away from enterprise password use and over to more secure alternatives.

1584: Sovryn Bitcoin With Edan Yago and the Bitcoin Mutants May 08, 2021

Sovryn is a decentralized application allowing users to trade Bitcoin on Layer 2 in a permissionless, noncustodial, and censorship-resistant way. It enables users to leverage Bitcoin up to 5x and earn interest without sacrificing their security or privacy.

Sovryn is like a company, except that it runs entirely on bitcoin and is not incorporated into any centralized organization. In other words, it is a fully remote, novel type of company that is fluid, distributed, and powered by Bitcoin.

The company has developed an exchange and programmatic USD coin system leveraging the RSK Bitcoin sidechain, and it is actively looking at other BTC Layer 2 technology to scale its services. Sovryn likes RSK's technology because it is based on the existing Ethereum technology stack, making it interoperable with the entire Ethereum defi ecosystem.

Edan Yago joins me on the podcast and shares how the members of the Sovryn team refer to themselves as "Bitcoin Mutants" rather than "Bitcoin Maximalists." The Mutants understand that Bitcoin is key, but they cannot leverage the decentralized tech being built elsewhere. They see the Ethereum and altcoin ecosystem as an opportunity for Bitcoin to conquer as the defacto money and trading pair.

We discuss how the Sovryn team sees Bitcoin as the main building block of the new decentralized economy and think that Bitcoiners should not settle for centralized technology solutions.

1583: The Biotech Transforming Disease Detection and Monitoring Drug Response May 07, 2021

As regular listeners will know, I am fascinated by our new proactive rather than reactive approach to healthcare, and the role tech plays in that change. We already monitor our steps, heart rate, calorie intake and can even have an ECG machine on hand. Today, Caroline Loew, CEO of Glympse, joins me in a conversation about biotech innovation.

Caroline shares their mission to detect diseases earlier and help develop better therapies so that people don't become patients and return to health faster. We discuss their novel technology: activity-based biosensors that are bioengineered and tunable to any protease-mediated disease.

I also learn how Glympse's technology can measure and predict the trajectory of a disease in a non-invasive, real-time, functional readout that is clinically actionable.

Glympse Bio is pioneering an in vivo sensing technology dedicated to transforming disease monitoring. The company has built a product engine enabling the rapid development of tunable and bioengineered activity sensors for multiple indications, including fibrosis, cancer, immunology, and infectious diseases.

The technology has been validated in 10 different diseases using multiple delivery methods and a broad range of analytical readouts. Glympse aims to improve healthcare globally by serving the needs of patients, clinicians, researchers, drug developers, and payors to help advance the science and our understanding of human diseases.

1582: Mark Curtis, Head of Innovation at Accenture Interactive May 06, 2021

In 2020 at the start of the pandemic, Accenture Interactive predicted we were entering the beginning of the 'Virtual Century.' The shift towards virtual solutions resulting from Covid-19 would permanently affect ways of communicating across learning, working, transacting, and consuming. Now, almost a year on, Mark Curtis, Head of Innovation at Accenture Interactive, can discuss the lasting impact of this trend and why it is more important that organizations streamline the hurdles of going virtual all experiences. Companies need to look at how they utilize technology to remain viable, connect with their customers, and create a positive environment for their employees. Mark joins me on the podcast to discuss what's next for the workplace, the innovation of tomorrow, and how organizations can overcome the growing digital disconnect. What's next for the workplace – There is no such thing as an 'old normal' anymore, just old processes and technology. Regardless of what the future workplace looks like, the value of being physically present has been forever diminished. In 2021 businesses need to take a holistic approach acknowledging how alterations across talent acquisition, control, and technology can influence and foster different working environments remotely. The innovation of tomorrow – Creativity has been able to shire through throughout the pandemic, driven by technology. From TikTok to Microsoft Teams, 2021 will see platforms creatively repurposed and products increasingly perceived as unfinished tools adapted in more inclusive designs for larger audiences. Businesses can tap into this trend, viewing their customers not just as end-users but as creative co-collaborators How organizations can overcome the growing digital disconnect – while businesses must create new, people-focused, digital workplaces and adjust how they convey and use technology, 2020 has also seen a new challenge – empathy. More and more people are feeling excluded digitally. Mark can discuss how empathy is crucial to the design of new systems and the implementation of new technologies.

1581: How Springbuk's Health Intelligence Empowers Impactful Decision Making May 05, 2021

Rod Reasen is the Co-Founder and CEO of Springbuk, which recently raised a $20M series round. Rod has started 7 companies, sold 4 of them, and 2 are still ongoing concerns. He is a trailblazer, innovator, and visionary who sees trends at the macro level and tries to inspire others to see what he sees.

In 1 year, Rod: flew a fighter plane, drove a NASCAR 172 mph, bungee jumped off Victoria Falls Bridge. He has been to Africa 5 times and has visited 27 countries in total. He has seen the poorest of 3rd World countries and has hung out with some of the richest people in the world, which has given him a breadth of perspective on what's wrong in the world and what's possible.

At Springbuk, Rod drives the company toward the goal of "preventing disease with data." He believes that a company's mission - and adherence to the mission through bad times - plays a significant factor in whether it will succeed.

Rod shares his story and talks about the state of healthcare, employee benefits programs, and how technology can improve employee health outcomes while saving employers money.

1580: The Top 3 Reasons to Build an Online Customer Community May 04, 2021

A recent study found that COVID-19 has accelerated the adoption of digitization of customer interactions by several years. Michelle MacCarthy, Global Head of Customer Success at Unit4, believes these changes are here to stay and companies must adapt by building online customer communities.

These communities allow for large organizations to collaborate with others in the industry on a peer-to-peer level and helps with accessibility to information sharing. Communities can be grouped by industry or by the service they are currently employing. Join Michelle and me as we discuss customer communities and why organizations should get started now.

1579: The Technology Reducing Racial Bias in the Workplace May 03, 2021

While most organizations today have racial bias response protocols and remediation strategies, Panther Data Solutions' Racial Bias Alert™ is the first proactive solution to provide an immediate deterrent to racial bias in an organization.

Dean Haynesworth, CEO of Panther Data Solutions, shares his story and how they leveraged technology to monitor racism, sexism, and bias in the workplace. Dean also spearheads Black Progress Matters, which funds Panther Solutions. It is an incubator for startups led by founders of color and provides minority staffing direction.

Dean shares the inspiration behind creating Panther Data and the racial bias alert tool. We discuss the biggest hurdles for many organizations today regarding bias and the black progress matters tech incubator hopes to accomplish.

1578: Honeywell Building Technologies on Creating Healthier Spaces May 02, 2021

According to various studies, having a healthy building has many benefits to organizations, such as improved productivity, attracting and retaining talent, and better occupant health. But in the last year, the entire world also turned its attention to creating a cleaner, safer indoor spaces amidst the coronavirus pandemic.

Change has been a constant theme for the world in recent months. It’s been business as unusual. Many of us have changed where we work, how we socialize, how our children learn, how we shop, and more. The full extent of our new normal is still unknown. What role will tech play in analyzing air quality, safety & security, and helping to create healthier spaces?

Manish Sharma, CTO & Vice President at Honeywell Building Technologies shares how they are developing emerging technologies that ultimately create healthier environments for commercial buildings.

1577: Securing Your Startup With Crowdsourced Security May 01, 2021

Approximately 2,217 startups were founded in 2020 amidst the COVID-19 pandemic to meet new industry demands, many of which were spawned by large enterprises. As a result, these organizations began using digital transformation as means of survival to accommodate remote work operations.

However, rapid-paced deployment of innovative technologies often leaves the door for potential cyberattacks -- such as the recent Parler breach -- which is why security must be top of mind, especially for startups. To address this, startup companies must look beyond their internal security teams and leverage external security researchers via a bug bounty or vulnerability disclosure program (VDP) to help identify and disclose vulnerabilities before bad actors can exploit them.

After reading how Bugcrowd is trusted by more of the Fortune 500 than any other crowdsourced security platform, I invited their CEO, Ashish Gupta, onto the podcast to learn more about this topic.

More enterprise organizations trust Bugcrowd to manage their bug bounty, vulnerability disclosure, attack surface management and next-gen pen test programs. By combining the largest, most experienced triage team with the most trusted hackers around the world, Bugcrowd generates better results, reduces risk through remediation advice, and empowers organisations to release secure products to market faster — with no hidden fees.

1576: Social Robotics and Conversational AI With a Human Face Apr 30, 2021

Samer Al Moubayed is the CEO of Furhat Robotics, one of the world's fastest-growing social robotics companies. Furhat's 'Social Robot' is highly customizable and allows for building very sophisticated robot personalities.

Companies such as Disney, KPMG, and Honda are already utilizing Furhat for employee training scenarios, HR purposes, and day-to-day operations with customers. It also comes with its own SDK and flexible development platform which allows each individual unit's "personality" and capabilities to be tailored to desired functions.

As a former specialist for robotics R&D at Disney, Samer has learned very early on in his career that robots can also be more than mere appliances or tools. They can be beloved, helpful companions for even the smallest or most vulnerable members of society. It's this exact thought on which he founded his company Furhat Robotics in Stockholm, Sweden, in 2016 after his time with Disney.

About Furhat Robotics: Headquartered in Sweden, Furhat Robotics are pioneers in social robotics, where robotics technology meets a sophisticated, adaptive language AI capable of picking up social queues and communicating in real-time over forty languages.

The newest line of robots has a built-in camera with facial recognition software and a silica mask that uses projected, customizable facial animations to make the interaction between humans and machines as lifelike and seamless as possible.

However, the plans Samer and his team of visionaries have for their growing invention do not stop merely providing services for businesses. They are currently looking into the field of psychology as well, where they conduct experiments in empathic capability to ultimately be able to use their creation in child psychology and assist with care for patients with Alzheimer's or dementia.

Deskless Technology for Deskless Workers Apr 29, 2021

The world looks so much different than it did this time last year. In just 12 months, the global workforce shifted remote and gone is the day of the desk. Approximately 80% of the total workforce, or 2.7 billion people, now make up the deskless population, including sales reps, customer service advisors, technicians, and more.

Those new to remote work faced issues arising from a lack of digital tools to aid with productivity, inability to access real-time information, and dated communication/reporting systems that do not reach consumers on mobile devices.

To survive in 2020, companies were forced to evolve fast. Now aware of the vast disparity between traditional office technology and deskless tools, top management is taking action to accelerate the development of deskless tools.

Ashish Joshi from goDeskless explores this topic with me in today's episode. We discuss how their AI-powered workforce automation platform was designed for the frontline deskless workforce. We also talk about the lessons learned from 2020's mass push towards a digital workforce.

1574: D-Orbit and the Technology Delivering Logistics In Space Apr 28, 2021

Luca Rossettini is the CEO and founder of Italy-based D-Orbit, the global market leader in the space logistics and transportation services industry with a track record of space-proven technologies, successful missions, and customer outcomes.

The company is committed to helping companies profitably and sustainably maximize the opportunities to do business in space today and into the future. Having developed proprietary space logistics technology and transportation solutions, they are accelerating the growth and development of a trillion-dollar space economy, including human expansion into space.

With an incremental strategic approach to the space marketplace, D-Orbit is delivering successful customer outcomes today while developing advanced products and services for the needs of tomorrow. In today's episode, I learn how D-Orbit has successfully flown 44 payloads into space.

We discuss how just as companies on Earth depend on logistics providers, the future of space (including satellites, human expansion, etc.) will also require logistics companies. D-Orbit is the first company to address these needs. This could include satellite life extension, active debris removal, interplanetary logistics, and more.

About Luca Rossettini

Luca Rossettini is CEO and founder of D-Orbit, Expert at the Space Advisory Group of the European Commission, Board member of AIPAS (space SME industrial association), Board member of Confindustria Florence, and corresponding member of International Academy of Astronautics (IAA). He is an aerospace engineer with a Ph.D. in advanced space propulsion, awarded with honors by Politecnico di Milano. He holds a Master in Strategic Leadership Towards Sustainability and a Certificate in Technology Entrepreneurship from Santa Clara University, California.

1573: The First Children's Book to Demystify Data Science Apr 27, 2021

Ryan Kelly is a marketing leader at Domino Data Lab and author of the world’s first-ever children’s book about data science. But he didn’t write this children’s book to encourage the next generation to get passionate about future careers in data science. He also wrote it to inspire a passion for problem-solving.

Ryan believes that our world is full of problems, and our future relies on the passion and willingness of future generations to solve them. He was also tired of trying to describe to his daughter what he did at work. I invited him onto the Tech Talks Daily podcast to learn more about the story behind Florence, the Data Scientist.

Domino Data Lab powers model-driven business for the world’s most advanced enterprises, including over 20% of the Fortune 100. Its Enterprise MLOps platform speeds up the development and deployment of data science work while increasing collaboration and governance to scale data science into a competitive advantage.

The platform enables thousands of data scientists to develop better medicines, grow more productive crops, adapt risk models to major economic shifts, build better cars, improve customer support, or recommend the best purchase to make at the right time.

1572: Permission.IO - Earn Crypto for Your Time and Data Apr 26, 2021

Since the dawn of the Internet, advertisers have been targeting consumers in an increasingly invasive and distracting manner, resulting in users fighting back by installing ad blockers, privacy-based browsers such as Brave and even going so far as to delete their social media accounts entirely.

Furthermore, big tech has been aggressively collecting and monetizing user data without consumers knowing how, where, and when their data is used. It's against this backdrop that ⁨Permission.io⁩ was born to change the status quo via their platform that empowers consumers to own their own data and to be compensated for it.

By returning control to users, consumers are properly rewarded for their time and attention, and advertisers are assured of reaching a willing and truly engaged audience. Google has partnered with ⁨Permission.io⁩ to bring permission-based ad solutions to its users.

Permission.io⁩ is powered by the ASK token, the currency of permission, which allows users to earn ASK by securely sharing their data and opting in to receive relevant ads and content. Marketers can "ask permission" and deploy ASK on their own channels as an incentive to drive loyalty through personalized ad campaigns, thereby increasing ROI, driving conversions, and building consumer trust.

I invited Charles Silver onto the podcast to discuss how Permission.io⁩ is solving critical problems in the privacy/data puzzle for a new Web. Charles is a start-up business expert who has built several enterprises from the ground up to successful exit. I learn about the story behind Permission.io⁩ and how the platform enables businesses to connect with individuals on a permission basis, building trusted, transparent, and interruption-free relationships.

1571: NETSCOUT - Crossing the 10 Million Mark: DDoS Attacks Apr 25, 2021

NETSCOUT, one of the leading cybersecurity and network diagnostics firms, recently revealed the findings of its bi-annual Threat Intelligence Report. The report provided insight and analysis into the unprecedented nature of Distributed-Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks in 2020. Darren Anstee, Chief Technology Officer for Security at NETSCOUT, shares insights from the report.

We discuss who the suspected attackers are and how the attacks have differed over the last year. I learn how attackers focused on COVID-era lifelines such as healthcare, e-commerce, finance, and educational services with complex, high-throughput attacks designed to overwhelm and quickly take them down.

We talk about what business leaders need to be aware of when it comes to a DDoS attack and its impact. Darren also shares how NETSOUT helps businesses with the challenges presented by DDoS attacks.

1570: Intelligent Automation Software Transforming Business Workflows Apr 24, 2021

Kathleen Delaney, the CMO of Kofax, joins me on the Tech Talks Daily podcast. Kathleen is an innovative marketing leader and digital strategist who has lead her team towards amazing accomplishments because of her ability to navigate and innovate complex projects. An example of this has was displayed through Kofax's recent "Work Like Tomorrow" rebrand campaign.

With over three decades in marketing leadership roles, Kathleen joined Kofax in 2018 to lead the private-equity owned company through a massive rebrand. Dubbed the Work Like Tomorrow campaign, Kathleen dusted off the company's previous brand promise and coordinated a global effort to change its image of being a legacy technology company to its current position as a leader in the Intelligent Automation space.

The campaign drove roughly 2.0B impressions in 2019 from over 1K global media placements, leading to a nearly 20% global share of voice, from almost zero in 2018. It also led to analyst recognition, including placement in the Gartner RPA Critical Capabilities report

Kathleen reveals the best practices she learned from a successful global rebrand and her market-tested strategies for driving revenue, increasing profit, and invigorating brands.

1569: How AI, ML and Cloud Storage Are Upgrading Presentations Apr 23, 2021

From Moses and his stone tablets to Elon Musk revealing his plans to colonize Mars, people have been leveraging the persuasive power of presentations for thousands of years. But while the basic elements of a great pitch have remained the same, today’s most successful presenters employ a host of hi-tech tools to drive sales like never before.

James Ontra from Shufflrr shares how AI, cloud storage, and machine learning are changing the presentation paradigm — all while saving time, increasing productivity, and helping businesses put their best foot forward.

With over 30 million PowerPoint presentations created every day, it’s no surprise that the internal presentation situation at most companies is a tangled morass of out-of-date, redundant slides. It doesn’t have to be this way. James also explores how top companies are cleaning up the quagmire and reclaiming their digital assets.

Movie theaters. Marriage. Mayonnaise. These are just a few of the things millennials have been accused of killing. Here’s one more thing you can add to the list: old-fashioned PowerPoint presentations. In their place, a new generation of spontaneous, interactive presentations are infiltrating the business world — James reveals how to take advantage of this emerging trend to reach a valuable new audience.

1568: Dolby Laboratories - Interactive, Audiovisual Experiences Apr 22, 2021

Stephane Giraudie, a mobile/SaaS entrepreneur, is an expert in developing forward-thinking solutions. He currently heads up Cloud Communications at Dolby, which acquired his company, Voxeet, in 2019.

As founder and CEO at Voxeet, Stephane pioneered in-flow communications, enabling leading apps in telemedicine, e-learning, and collaboration to significantly improve their users’ experience while creating new revenue streams. Previously, Stephane was one of the patented early innovators of digital photography and built corporate sustainability and philanthropic fundraising solutions.

Stephane joins me in a discussion about the future of how we Meet and Connect. We discuss the future of employee and customer engagement depend on interactive, audiovisual experiences. We also talk about how the increase in consumer listening and user-generated content has created a boom for audio-first businesses.

1567: Ski Tech - Digital Ski Platform And Wearable Tech Apr 21, 2021

Bode Miller, two-time overall World Cup champion and six-time Olympic medalist, recently announced his new tech venture, SKEO. The concept for the digital ski platform concept was pioneered by Martin Kawalski—CEO of Snowcookie Sports and European physician with a Ph.D. in neuroscience.

Intrigued by the idea of a smart connected ski and recurring winter ski injuries seen during his orthopedics rotations, Kawalski shifted his focus to hone in on education and preventability measures. Using a proprietary algorithm to fine-tune body position, edge control and improve safety like never before, SKEO will enable skiers of all levels to go farther and faster while mitigating risk.

Meet the physician-led Swiss startup, Snowcookie Sports. I wanted to learn more about how they invite every user to analyze and improve their skills, exchange stats, embrace safety, and enjoy their time on the slopes. I also learn more about the tech behind the digital ski platform that measures, coaches, and ranks your skiing to level up.

Martin Kawalski shares his story and talks about the free app, optional wearable sensors, and how the proprietary algorithms can propel skiers further, and faster.

1566: Capbase - The Complete Digital Back-End For Startups Apr 20, 2021

Greg Miaskiewicz is a security expert, product designer & serial entrepreneur. Previously, founded and sold a bot detection startup (Swarm) in 2016 to Integral Ad Science, then led R&D into advertising fraud at Integral, leading up to Integral’s $850mm sale to Vista in 2018.

Miaskiewicz is currently CEO & Co-Founder at Capbase, a venture-backed fintech startup, and advisor at Golden and Mobius Acoustics. Capbase is a digital back-end for your startup: Incorporation, cap table management, stock issuance, corporate governance and compliance in one single platform.

Today, Miaskiewicz joins me on the Tech Talks Daily Podcast to share how to avoid pitfalls when dealing with equity, contracts and compliances. We also discuss fundraising for a startup in the middle of a pandemic and the lessons learned he from selling a startup in Silicon Valley.

1565: Helping App Developers Start Mobile Subscription Businesses Apr 19, 2021

According to AppAnnie, fewer than 3000 apps are making more than US$1,000,000 a year from paid downloads, in-app purchases, and subscriptions. This reality has given rise to a whole ecosystem of mobile marketing tools to help app publishers focus on growing audiences, not creating a sustainable business. Dan Burcaw founded Nami because the marketing tools built for the mobile industry's growth era didn't help app developers succeed in the subscription era.

Dan has founded companies on the forefront of profound technology waves: open source software, smartphones, and cloud computing. He describes himself first as a serial entrepreneur, a repeat startup founder, and CEO. His startups have built or powered world-renowned products used by millions of people around the world. Dan's career has also been shaped by wisdom attained from tenures at two technology giants: Apple and Oracle.

After two decades of entrepreneurship, Dan took a year-long sabbatical to innovate himself. This startup-like effort to elevate all aspects of his performance is the foundation for his next entrepreneurial endeavors. He's now ready for the next wave.

In today's episode, Dan shares how he wrote code that ended up on a submarine when he was 17 and an incredibly cool Steve Jobs and Apple story. I also learn how Nami is the smartest service to help you launch, scale, and optimize your mobile app subscription business.

1564: Citrix, Star2Star and The Future of Intelligent Workspaces Apr 18, 2021

On the Tech Fusion Podcast, we explore how technology empowers employees and organizations to unlock innovation, engage customers, and be productive—anytime, anywhere. We talk with Citrix and their partners to learn more about how they are collaborating to solve real-world problems.

At Star2Star Communications, they are on a mission to help organizations to overcome the reliability and quality limitations of other communications technologies. The company has built its reputation around unifying customers' voice, video, fax, instant messaging, and presence management into a single, easy-to-use system.

In today's episode, Mick Miralis from Star2Star and Citrix's Nitin Sharma discuss the future of intelligent workspaces and how they are evolving for connected workers. The guests also talk about building a cohesive environment that enables connected workers to be effective and productive while removing complexity and friction between applications. We also learn more about how Citrix and Star2Star are collaborating to bring this vision to life.

1563: From the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) to the Fifth. Apr 17, 2021

The world has changed. Retailers are experimenting with augmented technologies and virtual reality, robots are moving from factory floors to front-line response, and 3D printers are being used to manufacture masks en masse.

Mark Hughes, regional VP for UK and Ireland at Epicor, the ERP cloud solution provider, joins me on the Tech Talks Daily Podcast. Although everyone is talking about ‘Industry 4.0, Mark reveals how factories have undergone a revolution, with manufacturing and supply chain industries already moving from the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) to the fifth.

We discuss how manufacturing leaders have also increasingly valued the benefits that automation can bring to their business. For example, companies including GE and Merck have rolled out RPA to automate back-office elements.

We also talk about how developments like nanosensors and CRISPR gene-editing technology are driving change among grocery retailers looking at how it could potentially impact the products they sell. Mark what he thinks the future of factories will look like. Finally, we explore the radical redefinition of how organizations use technology, people, and processes to fundamentally change business performance.

1562: The Next-Generation Analytics Tech Empowering Analytic Teams Apr 16, 2021

Rick Hall is a software entrepreneur focused on the analytics market. He has led the development of over a dozen software products and taken several companies from the early stage to an eventual sale. Rick led a group in the purchase of Aginity in March of 2020 and has taken over the CEO role as a result.

Aginity was an early innovator in Analytics Management and launched Aginity Pro early this year. The product is off to a fast start attracting 13,000 subscribers in the first nine months, and is set to grow by more than 250% through 2021.

Rick joins me in a conversation about how companies can effectively manage their analytic initiatives and the role tech should play. We also discuss the processes and technology companies need to succeed with analytic programs and the evolution and current state of analytics technology.

1561: Wiley - The Tech Helping People and Organizations Develop the Skills to Succeed Apr 15, 2021

For over 200 years we Wiley has been helping people and organizations develop the skills and knowledge they need to succeed. They develop digital education, learning, assessment, and certification solutions to help universities, businesses, and individuals move between education and employment and achieve their ambitions.

At the recent Dynatrace Perform event, I got chatting with Wiley's CIO and CISO, Sean Mack. The visionary technology executive has extensive experience in DevOps, infrastructure, security, enterprise applications, development, and program management.

As an innovative leader driving global business strategy and transformation, I wanted to learn more about how Wiley is bridging the higher education gap by delivering content solutions in new and innovative ways to enrich the learning experience.

Wiley is an education-focused platform that takes companies from dysfunctional models to mature, globally scalable, world-class organizations, aligning business strategy and execution. We discuss the changes in their customers' usage since the pandemic and how the shift to remote learning has impacted the company.

We also discuss why they adopted the Dynatrace platform and what benefits they have leveraged.

1560: The Future of Micromobility - Hail a Spin E-Scooter From Your Phone Apr 14, 2021

Spin provides dockless electric scooters in more than 60 markets in the US, including San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington DC, Charlotte, and Miami. Their regulatory team led the nation’s first stationless mobility permit system with the Seattle Department of Transportation.

It’s also the micromobility arm of Ford. The company prides itself on putting riders’ safety first, working closely with local governments, and scaling its fleet responsibly.

Head of Spin Europe, Felix Petersen returns to the Tech Talks Daily Podcast to discuss the launch of e-scooter trials across the UK. Almost six months have passed since the trials were announced, with Spin successfully launching several public-hire e-scooter schemes around the country. Felix also discusses Spin’s European e-scooter strategy, Key learnings from the successful e-scooter trial, E-scooter usage trends in the US and Europe. We also talk about how to build a genuinely sustainable transportation solution and the future of micro-mobility.

I also learn more about Spin Valet that allows people to call a micromobility scooter from their phone, in the same way, they would an Uber or Lyft. In combination with Spin S-200’s front and rear cameras, GPS technology allows Spin to precisely locate each scooter. If needed, Tortoise’s team of remote operators can safely relocate the vehicle at a slow rate of speed (2–3 mph).

1559: NICE - Customer Experience (CX) Transformation Benchmark Apr 13, 2021

NICE surveyed over 1,000 global contact center decision-makers in UK, US, Australia and Canada. Findings show rapidly growing role of digital channels for customer interactions, increasing investments in digital channels, artificial intelligence, and contact center technology for seamless omnichannel experiences for customers.

I invited Paul Jarman, CEO NICE inContact to learn more about the NICE inContact 2021 Customer Experience (CX) Transformation Benchmark.

About NICE

When the world's leading companies want to improve their business performance, increase their operational efficiency, prevent financial crime, ensure they're fully compliant, or enhance their safety and security, they talk to NICE. The company prides itself on leveraging technology not only to transform experiences but ensure they are also extraordinary and trusted

About Paul Jarman

Paul Jarman holds the position of NICE inContact CEO. Mr. Jarman is responsible for the enterprise, midmarket, government organizations and business process outsourcers (BPOs) who operate in multiple divisions, locations and global regions.

A pioneer of the cloud movement, Mr. Jarman was instrumental in guiding inContact from its roots in telecommunications to its strategic offering of cloud-based contact center solutions and has been a part of every major enhancement the company has made since 1997.

As part of inContact's strategic shift to a contact center software provider, he spearheaded four software acquisitions and two telephony acquisitions. He led inContact's successful addition to the NASDAQ and under his leadership, inContact has experienced strong compound annual growth rate in software revenues over the past three years.

Mr. Jarman has spent his career building a service-driven business focused around both customers and employees, resulting in a strong corporate culture with high retention rates of both groups. Prior to joining inContact, Paul was an executive with HealthRider, Inc.

Paul has a contagious energy and is always pushing the limits to grow the company and drive market leadership. He follows the mantra of Abraham Lincoln, "Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle."

1558: How Biometric Tech is Shaping the Future of Authentication Apr 12, 2021

Biometric technology allows companies to uniquely identify a person based on one or more characteristics deemed unique to a particular individual, such as their face or physical fingerprint.

However, in a pandemic world, both your hands and face end up covered by gloves and masks, so relying on those traditional second-factor authentications (2FA) methods could increase friction and hurt the end-user experience.

UnifyID helps identify and authenticate individuals based on how they move and walk, leveraging machine learning algorithms and sensors in smartphone devices.

Common use cases:

Contactless payments
Physical access to a building
User authentication
Fraud reduction on payments platforms

UnifyID Founder and CEO John Whaley shares how biometric technology is shaping the future of authentication.

1557: How Spacemesh Is Making Satoshi's Vision a Reality Apr 11, 2021

Tomer Afek is the CEO and Co-founder of Spacemesh, a fairly-mined programmable cryptocurrency platform powered by a novel proof-of-space-time (PoST) consensus protocol. Spacemesh is free open-source software that aims to become a core Internet protocol for blockchain computation.

Previously, Tomer has more than 20 years of experience across the tech, digital, and finance industries. Tomer also spent seven years as an Investor at Evergreen Venture Capital, one of Israel's oldest and largest VCs, where he led the company's Internet and New-Media investments.

Tomer shares the story behind Spacemesh and the social meaning at the heart of the company. I learn more about precisely what Spacemesh is, why they are building Spacemesh, the implications for future generations, and why it will be more decentralized than current currencies.

1556: e7 Health - The Uber of Preventive Medicine Apr 10, 2021

When Jonathan Baktari, M.D., was arguably at the peak of his medical career as a triple board-certified physician, he saw an opportunity to try something new. Taking everything he’d learned as a doctor, medical director, and educator, he launched two businesses—a vaccine clinic and a drug-testing enterprise—that are driven by technology and designed for fast, customer-centric service. Now, as those businesses grow, he’s continuing to write his second career chapter as a health care CEO.

Dr. Baktari’s company e7 Health was named the best technology company in the healthcare space in 2019. e7 Health could best be described as “the Uber of preventive medicine” in that it is a systems company that has invested heavily in developing their own electronic cloud-based software to leverage technology for the benefit of their operation, patients, and clients.

In addition to vaccines, antibody testing, and many other medical services essential to employers around the country, e7 is now providing at home COVID-19 tests for individuals and companies all over the US. Dr. Baktari has always believed that helping others was the ultimate achievement in life. Now, as a business leader and sought-after speaker, he’s excited to share his expertise in tech entrepreneurship, COVID-19, preventative health, and many other topics with your listeners.

1555: The Data Warehouse for Distributed Clouds Apr 09, 2021

Mark Cusack from Yellowbrick Data joins me on the podcast to talk about Real-time data warehousing and the future of faster, more flexible cloud data warehouses and why it's a must for data professionals and IT leaders from all industries.

We talk about how 2020 has challenged enterprises to find new ways to succeed and grow. I learn how data warehouses will become a critical capability for enabling real-time business decision-making and why the separation of data warehouse compute and storage will become standard.

About Yellowbrick

Yellowbrick is the world’s fastest data warehouse for hybrid and multi-cloud environments. Enterprises rely on Yellowbrick to power critical business outcomes and get answers to the hardest business questions for improved profitability, better customer loyalty, and faster innovation in near real time, and at a fraction of the cost of alternatives.

Yellowbrick offers superior price/performance for thousands of concurrent users on petabytes of data, along with the unique ability to run analytic workloads on-premises, in a private cloud, and/or in any public cloud and manage them in a simple, consistent way—all with predictable pricing via annual subscription.

About Mark Cusack

Before joining Yellowbrick, Mark was Vice President for Data and Analytics at Teradata, where he led a variety of product management and technology teams in data warehouse and advanced analytics groups. He was also Chief Architect of Teradata's IoT Analytics effort. Mark joined Teradata in 2014 when Teradata acquired the startup RainStor, where he was a co-founding developer and Chief Architect. Prior to RainStor, Mark was a lead scientist in the UK Ministry of Defence.

1554: Digital Transformation Experience Platforms (DXPs) Apr 08, 2021

Karim Marucchi, CEO at Crowd Favorite, a global firm that specializes in digital strategy and web development for companies like Starz, Salal Credit Union, Lexus and National Geographic. Karim has more than 20 years of experience in specializing in enterprise-grade digital strategy and has taken many companies public, managed M&As

We discuss:

Digital transformation trends that enterprises must be in front of in 2021;
What the future holds for data collection, the benefits of WordPress, and the role of open-source software in 2021;
The latest digital transformation experience platforms (DXPs) trends and happenings; and
What tech leaders need to know about open-source software in 2021.

We discuss how Crowd Favorite has elevated enterprises' website experiences for each site visitor and helped accelerate enterprises' digital transformation. - Optimization for the new Google update and what this means for enterprises; and much more

About Crowd Favorite

Crowd Favorite’s mission is to connect the digital experience to the human experience. Founded in 2007, Crowd Favorite was the original WordPress agency focused primarily on enterprise clients. Over a decade later, they evolved into a multi-discipline, digital consulting firm specializing in enterprise-grade digital strategy and elite Open Source development.

Crowd Favorite empowers organizations to achieve their full digital potential by focusing on the comprehensive landscape of their business and the unique challenges they face. Then, by connecting their financial and operational obstacles to world-class digital strategy, web development, and digital support services, the optimal technology solution is put in play.

1553: The Technology Making Every Business Climate Positive Apr 07, 2021

Handprint a tech platform that is looking better to bridge the gap between business activity and sustainability initiatives. They do this by tapping into consumer action. Handprint strives to ensure that every sale is climate-positive and assures transparency in all financial transactions by leveraging blockchain.

To date, Handprint works with NGOs such as Worldview International Foundation (WIF) and Yayasan Gajah Sumatera (YAGASU), some of the world's leaders in reforestation and mangrove conservation and counts the likes of leading Swiss-born F&B firm SaladStop! as one of its earliest partners.

Mathias Boissonot, Co-founder and CEO at Handprint, shares his insights on how businesses can better integrate their sustainability investments into each consumer interaction. In the age of digital shareability, we also discuss how companies can leverage novel technologies to maximize the visibility of their sustainability initiatives to appeal to a social-media-savvy generation.

1552: How Tech is Helping Airbus Ventures Reach for the Stars Apr 06, 2021

Headquartered in Silicon Valley, with offices in Toulouse and Tokyo, Airbus Ventures is a fast-moving, early-stage venture capital company that independently funds and supports startups impacting the aerospace industry. Airbus Ventures has helped aspiring innovators reach new dimensions of achievement since 2015.

From its founding, Airbus Ventures has embraced the heritage of its mothership Airbus in adaptive innovation, system, thinking, and international mindset,

'Building on this heritage, 'Airbus Ventures closely supports its portfolio of companies to better understand, team, and promote their founders' businesses – and now, with new Japanese investors alongside, they are confident that we can add to global scale and system play for all their entrepreneurs' growth worldwide,

I invited Lewis Pinault on to today's episode of Tech Talks Daily to learn more about their story and mission to accelerate humanity's ascent of the Z-axis, from the ground to deep space.

Dr. Lewis Pinault is an Airbus Ventures Partner based in Tokyo, managing Airbus Ventures' activities in the Asia Pacific region. Advising and supporting Airbus innovation projects for over a decade, Lewis also designed and led incubator and innovation centers for the UK Government's Digital Catapult, EDS, Shell, and others, building from his own mid-career experiences as a NASA researcher trying to link startups to large corporates.

His lifelong passion for exploring the oceans and space seeking the most advanced technologies available first brought him to Asia as an engineer and corporate planning analyst with Nihon Kokan.

1551: PREQUEL, The Aesthetic Editor Enhancing Human Creativity Apr 05, 2021

Prequel is a photo and video editing app with unique effects and editing tools. The product regularly reaches the top 10 in its category. The app has 30m iOS downloads and on Android. Over 2M prequels are created every day, and the company has around 2.1M followers on Instagram and 1.7M on TikTok.

In Prequel, art and technology meet together to bring unique effects and editing tools to their users. They don’t follow trends but invent them. To fulfill that goal, their team turns to various fields of expertise. They have created a technological laboratory where their experts, from graphic and product designers to software engineers and R&D specialists, work together to develop and grow the product.

Headquartered in New York City and with offices in Moscow and Kaliningrad, They believe in thinking outside the box and expanding the boundaries. Timur Khabirov Co-founder, CEO at Prequel, shares the story behind the company and how the technology that enables everyone to enhance their creativity.

1550: Going Live - Create Once, Publish Everywhere Apr 04, 2021

Many brands are starting podcasts and are then disappointed by the number of downloads. One way to maximize your podcasting is by live-streaming the recordings to your existing social communities like Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and YouTube. Other channels to consider include Clubhouse, Twitter Spaces, and Amazon Live.

In his fourth book, “Going Live”, Christoph Trappe covers how any brand can make live streaming part of their content strategy and integrate it into Create Once, Publish Everywhere. I invited Christoph on to the podcast to talks about his book and his authentic storytelling project.

We discuss why and how live streaming can give your brand a competitive advantage and how to show your brand’s authenticity and humanness. We also talk about the technologies and strategies that will help you build your success.

1549: Challengermode – A Mission to Make Esports Accessible to All Apr 03, 2021

The Esports industry has exploded in recent years and is not slowing down, but the industry remains extremely top-heavy and built around sponsorship and advertising revenue, rather than consumer revenue and participation. Challengermode is looking to turn the current industry model on its head - creating value for all esports stakeholders from the bottom up as well as the top down.

After major success in Europe, running millions of competitions for millions of players, Challengermode is currently gearing up to expand into North America this year, and is currently valued at over $40m. I invited: Robel Efrem from Challengermode onto the podcast to find out more.

Robel himself, has an incredibly impressive resume; he speaks four languages, has been nominated for the Young Entrepreneur of the Year award three times, and has founded two companies in the last 10 years - the first which resulted in a successful exit and the second which is Challengermode, which received a $12m investment from Alibaba, with other investors including Telia Ventures, GP Bullhound, Back in Black Capital and Swedish soccer player Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

1548: The Air Purification Technology in Public Spaces Apr 02, 2021

Next-gen air purifier CEO Christoph Burkhardt sees the current HEPA filters as outdated 70-year-old tech that move the air not clean the air. That is why he is creating more sustainable purifier products with OneLife, a company backed by German engineers to produce the world's most efficient air purifiers. They are launching revolutionary plasma filter technologies that will protect us unlike any other purifier on the market.

We discuss the outdated air purification technology being used in public spaces such as subways, elevators, offices, etc and why he is concerned about the air we are currently breathing."

1547: The Tech Reimagining How Companies Use Their Spaces Apr 01, 2021

Real estate is the largest expense for most companies. More than a trillion dollars is put towards unused (but leased) space. But for buisness leaders paying expensive leases, how much office space do they need? And how do they know how many people are in the building?

The second challenge is how space used in a world of hybrid working? Are certain amenities empty while others are always crowded? Some businesses even have entire floors occupied by five people. This year, two of the most significant opportunities are optimizing real estate during a pandemic and designing real estate spaces, so employees/customers have exactly what they need and need it.

When COVID hit, Density Founder and CEO Andrew Farah realized that bringing people back to the office safely, it would require new types of real-time data to ensure social distancing. They created go/wait screens for customers that gave people the necessary information to know when it was safe to enter and launched new sensors that gave even more insight into usage. Things started to take off in three months, Density had seen more revenue than all of 2019 combined.

Andrew went on to raise a $51M Series C from Kleiner Perkins, Founders Fund, Jason Calacanis, and others to scale further. By the end of the year, the company had nearly doubled in size and signed a record number of Fortune 100 enterprises, universities, governments, warehouses, etc.

There was no way to forecast what 2020 would hold, but Andrew was able to turn one of the worst scenarios facing any founder into the fastest growth period in company history.

In today's episode, Andrew shares the journey he has been on and talks about how their technology sits above any open space and gives a real-time view of that information. There are no cameras to track people or behavior -- on purpose. Its privacy-focused and highly advanced tech uses infrared light, artificial intelligence, and depth data to determine what's happening below.

Imagine the room you're in right now represented by billions of dots, with your movement shown as different colored dots lighting up in that space. Then A.I. analyzes what's happening from there.

1546: The Technology Taking The Mystery Out of Our Water Usage Mar 31, 2021

Eric Adler is the CEO and founder of Flume, a smart device that wraps around your water meter and detects leaks and water usage across your entire property - inside and out. He was studying chemical engineering in hopes of designing a product that would have a positive environmental impact.

Flume is a purpose-driven business that came about because in 2014, California was experiencing its worst drought in 1,200 years. Officials encouraged ways to reduce consumption, but no one really knew how much water they were using.

Eric designed Flume when he was a grad student at Cal Poly to provide a better way to share high-definition water data with people and the communities they live in. Now, Flume puts the power of water consumption and conservation in consumer’s hands, protecting their home, and improving their relationship with our most precious resource.

1545: How Artificial and Human intelligence Delivers Smart Transcription Mar 30, 2021

Over the last twelve months, people worldwide sheltered in place to stem the spread of COVID-19. As a result, video gained a new level of prominence in a wide variety of fields – from online lessons to virtual business meetings to streaming content.

Tom Livne is the CEO and Founder of Verbit, the world's leading AI-powered transcription and captioning platform that recently raised $60M in Series C funding. Verbit leverages Natural Language Processing technology to provide over 99% accurate transcripts and captions to diverse customers in the education, legal, media, and enterprise sectors.

Verbit harnesses the power of artificial and human intelligence to provide a smart transcription and captioning solution. Built on adaptive algorithms, it is the only technology that generates the most detailed speech-to-text files to provide over 99% accuracy, delivered at record-breaking speed.

Smart AI technology supports on-demand CART services for real-time results. Verbit's customized solution helps organizations maximize their audio and video files' potential by making information searchable, accessible, and actionable.

Tom joins me on the podcast to share how Verbit's platform has played a key role in ensuring that all media shared in classrooms, workplaces, and online platforms is accessible.

1544: Citrix - How Hybrid and Remote Working Impacts Cybersecurity Mar 29, 2021

The switch has been flipped - and there's no going back. In today's episode, Heath Spencer, CEO of TraitWare, and Anil Kumar from Citrix join me in a conversation about the importance of cybersecurity. With remote work and hybrid working here to stay, I learn how Traitware and Citrix are working together to help companies adapt to their new digital surroundings.

As we approach the first anniversary of COVID-19 lockdowns, the enterprise has seen enormous change. Experts say that remote and hybrid working is likely here to say. According to a recent Upwork survey, by 2025, 36.2 million Americans will be working remotely, an 87% increase from pre-pandemic levels." One area hugely affected by remote work is cybersecurity.

As cybercrime increasingly tops the news, it is critical for all enterprises to ensure that solid cybersecurity plans are in place. But where do we start? Fortunately, there are solutions that drastically reduce the risk of attack and make life easier for the entire company while also saving on costs in the process.

1543: AdTech - How ROKU Helps Brands Reach Cord Cutters Mar 28, 2021

If I were to ask you, what does ROKU mean to you? I imagine you would immediately think of streaming players and smart TV apps. But did you know that Roku also works with 90% of the Ad Age top 200 advertisers?

In 2020 Roku introduced OneView- the ad buying platform built for TV streaming – to the market. OneView reaches the most cord cutters of any ad platform and bring identity and viewing data from America’s #1 streaming platform. OneView’s device graph covers an estimated 4 in 5 homes in America. Even if an advertiser doesn’t want to buy ads through OneView, they can still add their existing deals into OneView to improve targeting, avoid ad collision, measure deduplicated reach, and more.

Louqman Parampath joins me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss the background on OneView Roku's Ad Platform built for TV streaming. I learn more about the impact of COVID on the TV/ad industry and the importance of first-party data in advertising. We also talk about how streaming uniquely positioned to help advertisers reach their goals, the future of programmatic in streaming and it streaming is changing the ad funnel.

1542: Contextual Mobile Device Management Mar 27, 2021

In today's episode, I want to learn more about the role mobility plays in enabling employees to be productive as the nature of work continues to evolve given the pandemic. Joseph Boyle is a listener of the show and also CEO of Truce software and is the perfect person to talk discuss these topics.

Truce provides a contextual mobile device management (CMDM) platform so businesses can ensure safe and appropriate device use by employees at work. In February new research gauged workforce sentiment on whether employees believe mobile devices enable or inhibit productivity at work.

It also looked at how workers' views of mobility have shifted over the past year due to the pandemic evolving the nature of work for many (e.g. fewer people going into physical offices, as one example) and whether they believe increased usage is leading to more blurred lines between work and personal lives.

They found, for example, that 62% of respondents said they agree mobile phones or tablets play a key role in helping them be productive at work. Over a third said their mobile device usage at work has increased more or significantly more than a year ago. Another interesting finding: 56% of those surveyed believe it's their right to use their personal device on the job.

1541: AdTech - Digital Ad Measurement for Verification Mar 26, 2021

Founder and CEO of Method Media Intelligence (MMI) Shailin Dhar joins me on the Tech Talks Daly Podcast in a conversation about Ad fraud, Ad-tech, and giving advertisers a path to be more successful. I also learn more about their mission to bring trust and transparency into the fragmented online advertising ecosystem.

After his experience working at ad-networks and in the affiliate marketing space, Shailin began speaking out against ad-fraud in 2014. Called the “Fraud Crusader,” Shailin takes ad-fraud very seriously because of the wider implications to the economy and integrity of the open internet.

Working with international advertising trade bodies, agency groups, brand advertisers, ad-tech firms, and ad-verification companies to fight advertising fraud has solidified his reputation as a leading expert on the topic.

Shailin’s time working independently since 2014 led him to found Method Media Intelligence in 2017 to take his crusade to the next level by teaming up with like-minded experts that can help make a real impact on the industry.

Shailin is a firm believer in “Knowledge is Power.” Having written many publicly available articles and research pieces on the topic of ad-fraud, Shailin’s goal is to increase the level of awareness across the industry.

About MMI Method Media Intelligence offers comprehensive digital admeasurement to ensure validity, measure viewability, and support brand safety & suitability while covering every transaction and respecting user privacy. Its core product MMI360 offers complete protection of digital ad budgets and provides clear data and guidance for verification, analytics, supply path optimization, media planning, and billing reconciliation.

Innovation can be disruptive, so MMI supports all change management for its customers in their journey to having transparency in online advertising.

1540: MACH - Microservices-based, API-first, Cloud-native SaaS, Headless Mar 25, 2021

The pandemic has forced many businesses to digitize and do so in a smart way. Those who weren't technologically ready to respond to an unprecedented shift in how business was done quickly struggled to keep the pace. In some unfortunate cases, companies have folded. Having an IT architecture that can pivot quickly and seamlessly as a business' needs change is now critical.

The MACH Alliance was formed in June 2020 to help enterprise organizations navigate the complex modern technology landscape. It aims to guide and show the business advantage of open tech ecosystems: Microservices-based, API-first, Cloud-native SaaS, and Headless. All MACH Alliance members meet certification principles. The Alliance welcomes technology companies and individual industry experts who share the same vision for the future.

MACH Alliance president Kelly Goetsch discusses how the pandemic has forced IT leaders and the C-suite to rethink their IT architecture. We talk about how businesses can cut ties with a long-term platform partner despite spending millions on them over many years. We also discuss when it makes sense to stick with an incumbent commerce platform when there are "cheaper" or "slicker" platforms out there.

I learn how the Alliance has had an immense amount of traction by way of members and ambassadors joining and companies inquiring about starting their transition to MACH. I ask what the rise of the Micros-service, API-driven, Cloud, Headless (MACH) ecosystem means and if it now makes sense to ditch what you have and go 100% MACH?

1539: ZeroTrust Identity-Based Policy Automation and API Governance Mar 24, 2021

2020 brought massive disruption from COVID-19, and the abrupt shift to a remote workforce In March created holes in the cybersecurity landscape for malicious actors to exploit. Amid the pandemic, the harrowing spike in cyberattacks toward the government, hospitals, education institutions, and even security firms forced all enterprises, large and small, to take a closer look at potential vulnerabilities, starting at the API level.

I have invited Cyber Security Veteran Jasen Meece from Cloudentiy onto the podcast today to talk about how he sees the landscape right now and explore some of his predictions for the road ahead.

Jasen Meece, CEO and Board Member of Cloudentity, joins me on today's episode of Tech Talks Daily. Jasen is a dynamic, results-oriented executive who leverages technology products and services to achieve business value-based transformation efforts. He has over 20 years of leadership experience in IT, driving both internal and external facing organizations.

Cloudentity is a provider of dynamic authorization solutions for modernizing and integrating legacy applications and cloud services. Unlike traditional security models based on roles or lists that present multiple points of security failure, Cloudentity dynamic authorization grants or denies access to applications, data, or other sensitive assets in real-time based on policy and according to the context of the user and transaction.

1538: The Tech Creating Digital Experiences at Live and Virtual Events Mar 23, 2021

Studio Z specializes in social media-enabled open air photo booths for weddings and events. Established in 2012, the company aims to give their clients all the fun of a photo booth with high-end quality photos they can share and treasure forever. The company is based in NYC and has partnered with world-class brands such as Estee Lauder, Lego, and Warner Bro Pictures to name a few.

Since COVID, the company has evolved and is helping brands create digital experiences at virtual events too. I felt compelled to find out more after learning how they have built a reputation on being the masters at using experimental marketing to boost brand awareness and help companies stand out online and offline.

Founder Zach Schiffman has a vast amount of knowledge in brand activation, experiential marketing, modern branding, stage management, and production technology! And not only does he run an exciting business, but he is also the floor manager for the Today Show!

Zach joins me on today's episode of Tech Talks Daily in a discussion on Photo technology in the event industry and brand activation world. I learn how technology has evolved and then pivoted in the covid era.

1537: The Inspirational Female CEO Story and LED Lighting Technology Mar 22, 2021

While the number of female CEOs increased to over 25 percent in 2020, there are still many industries where women leaders are under-represented, including industrial lighting/manufacturing. Dialight is the world leader in industrial LED lighting technology, and its solutions are supporting over 2 million LED fixtures globally. But this tech company wanted to change the narrative when it comes to the gender gap. In 2020, the company announced the permanent appointment of its first-ever female CEO, Fariyal Khanbabi.

Fariyal Khanbabi has already demonstrated great success in her early months in the C-Suite. One example is the creation of the Dialight Foundation, the nonprofit arm of Dialight aiming to transform the lives of people in need in local communities where the company does business, focusing on supporting children and youth causes. In 2020 alone, the foundation raised over $61,000, more than tripling its initial fundraising goal. Fariyal attributes much of her leadership skills to her early childhood years, where she lived on a shipping vessel as the only eight-year-old amongst a crew of primarily adult men. Through this unique upbringing, she learned to thrive as the “only” woman in a male-focused workplace, but also where she experienced her first of many C-level management lessons that have made her the business leader she is today.

About Dialight Dialight is a global leader in improving sustainability, safety and operational efficiency for its customers by providing high-efficiency, long-lasting LED lighting technology for industrial applications. With over a million fixtures installed worldwide, Dialight's class-leading technology reduces energy use, cost and environmental impact for customers and is certified to a broad range of international standards. The company's operations are headquartered in the U.S., and it is listed on the main market of the London Stock Exchange under the ticker DIA.

1536: Muzik To Release First-Ever Camera Headphones Mar 21, 2021

Muzik is a disruptive innovation lab and technology company specializing in wearable devices built for culture by culture. It currently works with icons across the worlds of sports, music, fashion, and technology to create products that empower you to listen, create and share in exciting new ways.

When I heard that they were building the first camera/headphone, which allows users to merge sound, photos, and video, utilizing voice and touch, I had to find out more. Muzik CTO Kevin Calloway joins me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss the announcements and share more details on VISION's SDK for developers. I learn more about what this might mean for the future of video streaming and connectivity.

Like the GoPro, VISION's camera offers POV-style video that can be live-streamed, and thanks to the SDK, it can be customized to individual or enterprise needs. For example, a real estate agent can easily operate a POV-style virtual tour of a home using the headphones and incorporate it into their own branded applications. Another key differentiator is that the camera will stream at the eye-line level, allowing for a realistic user-experience unlike anything else on the market.

1535: WatchGuard - The Security Market and Cybersecurity Predictions Mar 20, 2021

Corey Nachreiner, CTO at network security company WatchGuard Technologies, and Marc Laliberte, a senior security analyst at WatchGuard join me on the Tech Talks Daily Podcast. Corey and Marc discuss the state of the security market and share their security predictions, including prominent attacks and infosec trends that the WatchGuard Threat Lab research team believes will emerge this year.

I learn more about the tidal wave of automated spear-phishing campaigns, how hackers are infesting home networks with worms, and how attackers are swarming VPNs and RDPs as the remote workforce grows. We also discuss the key steps organizations can take to improve their security posture.

About Corey Nachreiner Corey Nachreiner is the CTO of WatchGuard Technologies. A front-line cybersecurity expert for nearly two decades, Corey regularly contributes to security publications and speaks internationally at leading industry trade shows like RSA. He has written thousands of security alerts and educational articles and is the primary contributor to the Secplicity Community, which provides daily videos and content on the latest security threats, news and best practices. A Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), Corey enjoys "modding" any technical gizmo he can get his hands on and considers himself a hacker in the old sense of the word.

About Marc Laliberte Marc Laliberte is a Senior Security Analyst at WatchGuard Technologies. Specializing in networking security protocols and Internet of Things technologies, Marc’s day-to-day responsibilities include researching and reporting on the latest information security threats and trends. He has discovered, analyzed, responsibly disclosed and reported on numerous security vulnerabilities in a variety of Internet of Things devices since joining the WatchGuard team in 2012. With speaking appearances at industry events including RSA and regular contributions to online IT, technology and security publications, Marc is a thought leader who provides insightful security guidance to all levels of IT personnel.

About WatchGuard WatchGuard Technologies, Inc. is a global leader in network security, endpoint security, secure Wi-Fi, multi-factor authentication, and network intelligence. The company’s award-winning products and services are trusted around the world by more than 18,000 security resellers and service providers to protect more than 250,000 customers. WatchGuard’s mission is to make enterprise-grade security accessible to companies of all types and sizes through simplicity, making WatchGuard an ideal solution for midmarket businesses and distributed enterprises. The company is headquartered in Seattle, Washington, with offices throughout North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Latin America.

1534: Akamai Technologies - The Intelligent Edge Platform Mar 19, 2021

Today, with massive numbers of connected devices and as industries transform to deliver truly innovative services and experiences all connected to the web – from voice assistant devices and video streaming platforms to connected and autonomous cars – the delivery and protection of data over the internet to offer a seamless experience is more critical than ever. In light of this, I invited Michael Gooding from Akamai Technologies on the podcast. Akamai is the world's largest cloud delivery platform. It is crucial for many companies, from gaming and mobile networks to tech firms and manufacturers, as a result of its Edge platform and Content Delivery Network, which ensures customers and businesses are agile, fast, and secure.

With its vast network, Akamai has unique security and web performance offering. Its experts can view and defend businesses from the growing attacks against armies of bots around the globe. Michael Gooding joins me in a conversation about the importance of edge computing (Scalability & performance).

We also talk about the history of edge computing, bandwidth restrictions at the core of the internet, and the exponential growth of devices.

1533: Memmo - The Tech Connecting Fans and their Idols. Mar 19, 2021

What would happen if technology built a bridge between famous people and fans? Imagine your favorite footballer, actress, comedian, reality star, or YouTuber to wish a family member or friend a personalized video message. Meet memmo. An app that is using technology to creating personal connections between fans and celebrities.

After thinking for a long time about the positive and emotional effect that occurs when you have personal contact with inspiring people, the idea of memmo came to Gustav Lundberg Toresson and Tobias Bengtsdahl, when they sat each night as guests at different wedding dinners.

During many lengthy speeches, often a little too internal for everyone to appreciate, the evening suddenly stopped. A video clip featuring the bride's main idol was presented, with some playful lines about how it could have instead been the bride and he - with a big congratulations to the lucky groom. A few miles south on a similar event outside Paris, all of the wedding guests suddenly sit in unified laughter.

A French football player has been shown via video clips during dinner, and the mood is quite different from what it was before. The same questions arose in both Gustav and Tobias' minds - how had they managed to get hold of the videos, and is there a way to share these positive experiences more often?

One answer led to the other. Getting hold of these profiles was not a simple story. Personal contact with agents or the profiles themselves was just the beginning, and the implementation of the video was another process. A complicated gift, which nevertheless was more than worthwhile. The reactions to these clips were unbeatable and something that more people should be aware of - at least Gustav and Tobias thought so, and the idea of memmo was born.

memmo is a platform that offers personalized video messages from well-known profiles to their fans and followers. As a customer, you send a request for a specific message - a greeting, an internal joke, or some fancy words for a big speech - and the profile decides what videos they want to perform for the predetermined price. The video is recorded, sent, and paid for directly via our platform.

Gustav Lundberg Toresson joins me on Tech Talks Daily to share the story behind memmo and his vision of leveraging technology to create personal connections between fans and their idols.

1532: Smart Dental (Teledentistry, 3D Mapping, IoT Toothbrushes, AR) Mar 18, 2021

Today, I want to explore the world of connected dental space with a Brooklyn-based technology company called Toothpic. The company is minimizing the risk of major dental work with an approach that it's calling Smart Dental.

Smart Dental is based on applying new technologies like Teledentistry, 3D Mapping, IoT-connected toothbrushes, and augmented reality. It shifts care from treatment to prevention with the enablement of new diagnostic approaches such as AI pattern matching to guide dentists' diagnoses. It heralds an era of ultra-personalized oral care for patients.

Through an app, users upload pictures of their teeth which are then assessed by a network of dentists on an ongoing basis. Patients no longer need to wait for appointments and have up to the minute access to their dental records. The improvements in dental health are significant. Toothpic was founded by Mark Moore, an Irish-born former physicist, back in 2016. Mark started developing the concepts around Smart Dental after his father (a dentist) diagnosed a dental issue from a picture Mark sent him while studying Nanotechnology at Trinity College, Dublin.

If it was possible to accurately make a diagnosis from an iPhone picture, what could be possible if IoT, AI, and Data Analytics could also be applied? Toothpic now numbers around 50 employees in Brooklyn (HQ) and Dublin, counts Mark Zuckerburg's father as a senior advisor, and works with a number of the major insurers in the US (inc Blue Cross) and oral care providers (inc. Phillips).

Mark joins me on the podcast to talk about the rise of smart dental for patients, making dental practices dental secure and the role of technology in the evolution of dental insurance polices.

1531: The Hearing Aid Tech Revolution Mar 17, 2021

Hear.com, the largest online retailer of medical-grade hearing aids, is launching a new line of hearing devices that features next-gen technology in a sleek and nearly invisible design. The global health-technology company starting its journey in 2012 and has since helped over 100,000 customers get on the path to better hearing using the latest technology.

The company is also introducing new features, including speech boost and Zen mode to their devices, including the must-have components found in today's top-of-the-line hearing aids. Speech boost amplifies the clarity and volume of voices during conversations, and Zen mode provides an ambient soundscape for ultimate relaxation.

Rick Rutter joins me on the Tech Talks Daily podcast to discuss the hearing aid tech revolution, how hearing aid tech isn't what it used to be, and the recent launch of next-generation hearing tech from ⁨hear.com⁩

1530: The Business Value of Location Intelligence Technology Mar 16, 2021

Feargal O’Neill is the CEO of Gamma Location Intelligence Services, a company that has offices in Dublin (Ireland), Manchester (UK), and Bilbao (Spain). The company integrates software, data, and services to help clients reduce risk through location intelligence. Gamma Location Intelligence works with insurance companies, delivering location intelligence data through its Perilfinder platform to better support risk assessment across areas, including subsidence and flooding. At the end of last year, Gamma carried out research that found climate change is to put 1.2M GB properties at flood risk by 2050, while subsidence will affect 1.9M. The company also provides data insights to the retail industry via its Storecast solution to enable network planning and the measurement of convenience. Such data could prove valuable to retail businesses in the recovery period following the pandemic as they plan to analyze their store locations and target market behaviors. Feargal has 25 years of experience working in the location intelligence sector and has great ambitions for the company, including expansion into even more markets. Today, he shares his insights about the value that location intelligence can deliver for businesses and how Gamma Location Intelligence′s technology solutions are innovating for their clients.

1529: The Technology Transforming Order to Cash (O2C) Mar 15, 2021

Order-to-cash is often neglected, but there are clear benefits to digitizing this process – you can increase efficiency, adopt remote working, and optimize cash management and working capital. Artificial Intelligence is no longer confined to science fiction; finance professionals are already using AI in their daily lives to automate processes successfully and increase efficiency.

As technology gets smarter, a company called Sidetrade is leading this digital revolution. For 21 years, Sidetrade has pioneered O2C automation technology. Their innovative use of AI, intelligent automation, and collaboration technologies can help companies accelerate cash flow, reduce bad debt, resolve disputes quicker and optimize working capital.

This week, CFOs and senior leaders from top global organizations are gathering online to attend Sidetrade's 2-day virtual summit on 15th – 16th March. Before hitting the stage, I sat down with Sidetrade CPO Rob Harvey to discuss what new innovative digital technologies can help streamline the O2C process.

Sign up for the virtual sessions at the summit of your choice and explore ways in which you can leverage the challenges of the current environment in order to accelerate cash generation.

1528: Software ScaleUp's Impact on Job Creation and Economy Mar 14, 2021

Insight Partners recently released a report highlighting the resilience of software ScaleUps and research around how software ScaleUps, graduates of startups, are catalyzing economic growth and fueling job creation amid widespread economic hardship.

The report surveyed 300 global software leaders on scaling and the factors enabling rapid business growth. Lonne Jaffe, Managing Director at Insight Partners, joins me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss the report findings.

I learn how the the majority (71%) of software leaders are highly focused on scaling, with most expecting to scale within 3–5 years – showing continued plans to prioritize growth iIn the near future. Elsewhere four in five (80%) Scaling Focused companies forecast that their investment in scaling activity will increase through 2021.

ScaleUps displayed their resilience through quick pivots amid the pandemic, shifting to policies aimed at securing revenues. Most ScaleUps introduced concession strategies to retain customers (55%), and nearly half (48%) made premium product features free to all users during the pandemic. Insight Partners is a leading global venture capital and private equity firm investing in high-growth technology and software ScaleUp companies that are driving transformative change in their industries. Founded in 1995, Insight Partners has invested in more than 400 companies worldwide and has raised through a series of funds more than $30 billion in capital commitments.

Insight’s mission is to find, fund, and work successfully with visionary executives, providing them with practical, hands-on software expertise to foster long-term success. Across its people and its portfolio, Insight encourages a culture around a belief that ScaleUp companies and growth create opportunity for all.

1527: Space Communications With CesiumAstro Mar 13, 2021

CesiumAstro builds high-throughput, plug-and-play phased array communication payloads for space and airborne platforms. Cesium's full-stack, multi-mission hardware and software products enable a diverse range of commercial and defense objectives.

Backed by Airbus Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, and additional key investors, CesiumAstro is at the center of this evolution, with a configurable, adaptable product portfolio that extends the quality and cost of terrestrial data networking to new frontiers.

Shey Sabripour is the founder and CEO of CesiumAstro, Inc. Shey has nearly three decades of leadership success in design, development, and execution of LEO and GEO telecommunication satellites, launch vehicles, and other interplanetary space vehicles.

During his 24 years of continuous career with Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Shey served as a design engineer, technology innovator, program manager, and ultimately, the Director of Spacecraft Design responsible for an organization of 370 engineers, scientists, and business professionals in missions ranging from $100M to $1B.

From 2001 through 2005, Shey served as the Director of Agile Payload Program, where he led a multidisciplinary team for design, development, qualification and successful flight of the first Lockheed Martin Commercial Active Phased Array Payload. His last program at Lockheed Martin was in the design, development, qualification and production of the United States Navy's first MUOS communication satellite. Shey was recognized 14 times by Lockheed Martin Corporation as a visionary innovator and program leader. He was named person of the year in 2005 at Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems.

From September of 2014 to December of 2016, Shey served as the CTO for Firefly Space Systems, a startup rocket company in Austin Texas. In that role, Shey was responsible for technical and program management of the Alpha Rocket. He was instrumental in growing the small team of 11 engineers to more than 160 in 2016. His team successfully bid and won the NASA VCLS mission and two DARPA contracts at Firefly.

1526: RapidAPI - Why 71% of Developers Plan to Up Their API Usage Mar 12, 2021

It all began at a hackathon in 2015. RapidAPI was made by developers for developers so they could have one place to access APIs and Microservices and build applications more efficiently and easily. Today, RapidAPI is the world’s largest API Marketplace where over 1 million developers can find, test, and connect to tens of thousands of APIs — all with a single account, single API key, and single SDK.

Software developers can also share and collaborate on internal APIs using RapidAPI for Teams, a common workspace to publish internal APIs and share public API subscriptions. In turn, organizations can use RapidAPI Enterprise to create a centralized hub environment to help developers reuse and connect to existing APIs faster while providing IT with enterprise-wide visibility and governance of API consumption.

Iddo Gino, CEO of RapidAPI joins me on the Tech Talks Daily podcast. We talk about the Growth of the API Economy through the pandemic and beyond. I lear how developers are not just using APIs to connect apps and services, they are using them to build new digital business models and services and to drive innovation.

They use APIs like Lego blocks, putting them together in different ways to create new products and services. This is how companies will transform their business - by empowering the developer. We discuss how RapidAPI helps developers and their organizations accelerate digital transformation efforts and API use cases they are seeing.

1525: How ResTech Provides Marketers With a Roadmap to Success. Mar 12, 2021

New Orleans is becoming a hotbed for entrepreneurial activity, and Patrick Comer intends to contribute to the growing startup energy in the region. With a background in research, data analysis, and technology development, the next new thing of course, combines all three.

Patrick Comer founded Lucid with a vision to democratize data collection by applying programmatic technology to market research. Lucid is now the worldwide leader in enterprise marketplaces for sampling. Since its inception in 2010, Lucid has become one of the most successful tech startups in New Orleans, with hundreds of employees across the globe.

The company has evolved to democratize market research through programmatic technology -- effectively helping global brands (like Spotify) understand changing consumer sentiments and how to best market to these new personas. All through data provided at what was previously an unprecedented pace and scale for the market research industry.

Patrick also coined the term ResTech. ResTech is a comprehensive term for the software and tools that help platforms, agencies, and brands target, deliver, and analyze their insights initiatives. Patrick shares the story behind the company that now far exceeds $10 million in annual revenue.

Patrick shares his belief that ResTech has the power to provide marketers with a clear roadmap to success. It helps marketers remain on the pulse of their customers’ changing sentiments so that they can understand what makes them tick, what they care about, and how to best appeal to them through personalized and targeted messaging.

1524: Ensuring All Kids Screen Time is Positive Screen Time Mar 11, 2021

I used to hear parents proudly discussing screen limits they imposed on their kids. But fast forward 12 months when those same screens are essential to their education and entertainment, most parents would agree things have changed.

When researching the topic, I came across an inspiring story of Estelle and Douglas Lloyd, the husband-and-wife entrepreneur duo & founders of kids' edutainment app Azoomee, who are on a mission to make all childrens' screen time count. As new parents, Doug and Estelle quickly realized that the most innocuous search terms on their kids' computers could result in utterly inappropriate and even psychologically damaging web pages being served to their young children. Azoomee was born out of the necessity to allow the couple's kids to browse and enjoy the internet freely without the risk of stumbling upon adult content.

The topic of children's online safety has never been more pertinent than during lockdown. The fact is, the internet remains an incredibly dangerous playground unless carefully curated for young people. Screen-time is suddenly all the time, with most children now relying largely or entirely on their tablets, phones, and laptops for their education - so this needs to be an absolute priority for parents. The couple are advocating for a wholesale reimagining of education, driving for a holistic approach to learning, bringing it out of the drudgery of 'go to school/go home', and making learning something that happens organically, enjoyably, round-the-clock, and most importantly of all - safely.

Azoomee is a global media company, and app development studio focused on engaging entertainment applications for kids. Available across connected devices and platforms, Azoomee offers a vast library of inspiring and imaginative TV shows that foster curiosity and wonder in kids.

BAFTA-nominated and winner of multiple awards, the Azoomee app delivers a unique selection of action-packed games, brainteasers, puzzles and creative activities so that kids can build their imaginations and sense of wonder.

Everything's handpicked, so kids are safe to explore. Azoomee is loved by children worldwide and can be downloaded for free from the App Store and Google Play store, and found on connected TVs and via our partnerships with Amazon, O2, Vodafone, and many other platforms around the world.

Douglas Lloyd shares the story behind Azoomee and how it helps keep kids safe online by ensuring all screen time is positive screen time. We also discuss the potential of 5G and AR to bring education to life for kids.

1523: Connecting Technology Leaders to Their Teams Mar 10, 2021

Many technology leaders struggle to be highly connected to their teams and fully engaged with their families. They are wicked smart, high IQs, and know their business like the back of their hands. They live in a tech world that is rapidly changing; and unfortunately, many are under tremendous stress.

It is not their fault - they don't have time, energy or knowledge to think about engagement, connectedness or emotional intelligence with their teams. Fortunately, it is possible for them to become deeply self-aware of their behaviors, identify solutions for their specific challenges and fully engage and connect with their teams and their families.

After spending 20+ years in corporate software and security companies, Tenice Wehmeyer began partnering with security and software leaders to create curiosity of the ripples and level of engagement they have with those around them – both inside and outside of the office. Then using this self-awareness, we create new ripples of productive impact with their team, peers, and key stakeholders and the energy to devote to their life outside of work.

After reading how Tenice coaches Cybersecurity leaders to have a greater impact by being connected and engaged with those who matter most, I invited her on to the podcast to learn more. Tenice shares her story and how she is helping others

1522: MarTech - Dan McGaw One of the Original Growth Hackers Mar 09, 2021

Dan McGaw is an award-winning entrepreneur and speaker. He is also the Founder and CEO of McGaw.io, an analytics and marketing technology consultancy. Coined as one of the original growth hackers, he has led the teams at Kissmetrics.com, CodeSchool.com, UTM.io and more.

In 2015, Dan was selected to be a United States Ambassador of Entrepreneurship by the United States Department of State, where he had the privilege to advise the government, universities, and private corporations on how to build entrepreneur ecosystems.

Dan takes a deep dive into MarTech and discusses how to leverage Amazon-like automation & and personalization strategies without having an Amazon-like budget. When people think of advanced personalization, they often assume it is complex and out of reach for them. However, with the right data taxonomy and structure, 1 to 1 personalization across email, text, ad campaigns, and on-page optimization, can be achieved, a lot easier than you think.

As each customer enters the funnel at different stages, Dan shares how companies can build an advanced personalization journey that increases conversions through each stage, without the need for expensive back-end developer resources.

1521: Emarsys - How Technology is Changing the Retail Industry Mar 08, 2021

Emarsys empowers digital marketing leaders and business owners with its omnichannel customer engagement platform built to accelerate business outcomes. By rapidly aligning desired business results with proven omnichannel customer engagement strategies — crowdsourced from leading brands, their platform enables their customers to accelerate time to value, deliver superior one-on-one experiences, and produce measurable results.

This industry-specific, outcome-driven approach combined with a customer-centric personalization, actionable AI, and a fully integrated Customer Engagement Platform (CEP) can deliver transformational results.

Alex Timlin is the senior vice president of verticals at omnichannel customer engagement company Emarsys. Alex leads the company's world-class client success organization to drive adoption and growth across 2,000+ clients in more than 100 countries — empowering them to better communicate with their contacts and customers across billions or engagements.

Alex joins me on the Tech Talks Daily podcast to discuss how technology has changed the retail industry, the rise in online shopping, and digital channel engagement mean for brands. We also discuss the latest news on the impact of the ASOS acquisition of Arcadia brands Topshop, Topman, Miss Selfridge, and sports brand HIIT.

1520: Cyber Security and Business Continuity Mar 07, 2021

Raffi Jamgotchian has been in the cybersecurity and IT field for over 25 years, first in corporate finance and later as the owner of his own firm. Currently, Triada Networks supports boutique investment firms. Raffi recently co-authored an Amazon bestseller called "On Thin Ice" with 30 other cybersecurity experts.

Raffi shares insights from the book and his journey in tech. We also discuss how you can learn from making mistakes and taking losses in business, and you can overcome challenges in business.

Triada Networks provides data security, business continuity, and IT solutions. Boutique investment firms and small businesses deserve cybersecurity and IT solutions that give them a competitive edge, not take it away. I learn more about their mission to empower businesses and employees to leverage the best technological solutions so they can grow.

1519: Le Wagon - The High Demand for Data Science Skills Mar 06, 2021

Le Wagon is a coding bootcamp that teaches students to develop web applications from scratch. Our cutting-edge curriculum and world-class teachers give students all the skills and tools needed to kick-start their tech career, land a job as software developers or product managers, or launch their own startup.

Today's guest is Boris Paillard, founder and CEO of Le Wagon. We discuss why we're currently seeing such a high demand for data science skills. As the demand for these skills continues to increase, it's essential to understand what's driving this demand. Boris shares his expert perspective on these factors and can also cover the broader trends shaping the data science sector, including:

Widespread digital transformation of companies – At a significant pace, across all industries
Decision making rooted in data, not individual judgment – The scale of large companies prohibits effective, individualized judgments
The historic data skills gap – Why it existed, and what's changing

1518: Exploring Artificial General Intelligence Mar 05, 2021

Peter Voss is a Serial Entrepreneur, Engineer, Inventor, and a Pioneer in Artificial Intelligence. Peter started out in electronics engineering, but quickly moved into software. After developing a comprehensive ERP software package, Peter took his first software company from a zero to 400-person IPO in seven years. Fueled by the fragile nature of software, Peter embarked on a 20-year journey to study intelligence (how it develops in humans, how to measure it, and current AI efforts), and to replicate it in software. His research culminated in the creation of a natural language intelligence engine that can think, learn, and reason -- and adapt to, and grow with the user. He even coined the term ‘AGI’ (Artificial General Intelligence) with fellow luminaries in the space.

Peter founded SmartAction.ai in 2009, which developed the first AGI-based call center automation technology. Now, in his latest venture, he is taking that technology a step further with the commercialization of the second generation of his ‘Conversational AI’ technology with a bold mission of providing hyper-intelligent hyper-personal assistants for everyone. In addition to being an entrepreneur, engineer, inventor and AI pioneer, Peter often writes and presents on various philosophical topics including rational ethics, free will and artificial minds; and is deeply involved with futurism and radical life-extension. Aigo.ai is the first *personal* personal assistant that becomes smarter and more personalized as it learns from you and your network (people, devices, other AIs), essentially becoming your ExoCortex. Based on a highly advanced ‘cognitive architecture’ – implementing the ‘Third Wave of AI,’ Aigo will change the way we communicate with each other - and our network of family, friends, and devices.

1517: D2L - How Technology is Shaping Education Driven by COVID. Mar 04, 2021

A global leader in EdTech, D2L is the creator of Brightspace, the world’s first integrated learning platform. The company partners with thought-leading organizations to improve learning through data-driven technology that helps deliver a personalized experience to every learner, regardless of geography or ability.

D2L’s open and extensible platform is used by more than 1000 clients and almost 15 million users in higher education, K–12, healthcare, government, and the enterprise sector—including Fortune 1000 companies. The company has operations in the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, Brazil, and Singapore.

D2L’s Chief Strategy Officer Jeremy Auger discusses how technology is shaping education driven by COVID. Auger explores the current and future role of technology in education, closing the education tech gap, opportunities for edtech/municipality collaboration to push advancement forward, and the future of learning.

As Chief Strategy Officer, Jeremy is directly responsible for corporate strategy development, intellectual property strategy, mergers and acquisitions, and government relations at D2L. With a strong commitment to client success and a desire to constantly evolve the state-of-the-art, Jeremy joined the D2L team when the company was founded and continues to take a leadership role in driving the organization’s success within the online education industry.

Prior to joining D2L, Jeremy came from a strong technical and business background involving work with numerous high-tech companies throughout North America. Specifically, he has been actively involved with eLearning and technology companies for over fifteen years.

1516: LegalTech - The Legal Trends Report by Clio Mar 03, 2021

While talk in 2020 has focused on interpreting the new normal, this discussion has been altogether shortsighted. Instead, we should be thinking about what a better normal looks like beyond the pandemic.

The research in this year's 2020 Legal Trends Report from Clio aims to further our vision for what this better normal could look like, based on what they have seen so far.

The Legal Trends Report uses aggregated and anonymized data from tens of thousands of legal professionals in the United States. This year, the company has adapted and expanded their analysis to provide more up-to-date data on law firms to better identify the challenges faced during the global pandemic in 2020. George Psiharis, COO, Clio joins me on the Tech Talks Daily podcast to share insights from their Legal Trends Report.

George Psiharis is the Chief Operating Officer at Clio, the leader in cloud-based legal technology. Specializing in customer success, business development, and data operations, George has worked extensively with law schools, bar associations, and other legal professionals to help make information on cloud computing and law firm economics increasingly accessible.

Clio is powering the future of legal services for lawyers and their clients through a suite of cloud-based solutions, including legal practice management, client intake and CRM, online payments, and client-attorney communication and collaboration software. Clio has been transforming the industry for over a decade with 150,000 customers spanning 100 countries, and the approval of 66 bar associations and law societies globally.

Clio continues to lead the industry with initiatives like the Legal Trends Report, the Clio Cloud Conference, and the Clio Academic Access Program. Clio has been recognized as a Deloitte Fast 50 and Fast 500 company and a market leader by G2 Crowd.

1515: The Tech Pioneering Data Intelligence in Commodity Markets Mar 02, 2021

François Cazor is the Co-Founder & CEO of the fast-growing technology company Kpler. François shares his inspiring tech startup story, which began after a chance meeting in New York in 2009. At the height of the financial crisis, they noticed that financial organizations began to jump into CO2 trading. Realizing that there was little transparency to this, in 2009, Cazor and Maynier set about building the first real-time intelligence platform for this market, eCO2Market.

Despite being a successful, expanding company, almost overnight, the rules on CO2 trading changed due to the second phase of the Kyoto Protocol beginning in 2012 - eCO2Market was effectively finished. To keep the company alive in some form, Cazor and Maynier consulted and also paid interns with their household savings while searching for another idea.

Kpler became an instant success. Much like the CO2 market, until Kpler, there had been little to no transparency of the commodity market. Within the first quarter of its foundation in 2014, the company was already cashflow positive.

Like flight radar, the Kpler terminal tells you precisely what’s going on in commodity markets in real-time. This helps commodity professionals (traders, analysts, charterers, etc.) better understand the market and make well-informed business decisions, maximizing business opportunities while reducing risk.

Using advanced technology (AI, machine learning, satellite imagery interpretation), the platform has the ability to crunch over 10 million data points from over 500+ different sources each day to provide real-time, global intelligence about the physical flows of crude oil, refined products, LNG, dry bulk, and more (25+ commodities in total).

By refining such volumes of raw data into real-time information, Kpler has disrupted intelligence in traditionally opaque commodity markets - thanks to Kpler these markets are much more transparent today. It works with over 600+ companies and has over 5,500+ users for the Kpler terminal and in H1 of 2020, the company went over $30 million+ in bookings.

1514: Epson Examine the Sustainability of all its Technologies. Mar 01, 2021

What does Epson mean to you? I suspect you might immediately think of printers. But after learning about their Moverio smart glasses and a focus on sustainability, I wanted to learn more about how the pandemic challenged Epson to examine the sustainability of all its technologies.

We all have a role to play in building a better future. For Epson, being a sustainable company means being mindful of every aspect of their organisation – from the smallest lightbulb to the largest factory. It fuels their innovation, drives growth, motivates their workforce and, ultimately, to contribute to society. It is also an essential part of how they work with our partners across the supply chain.

Daniel Quelch, Sustainability Manager at Epson, joins me on the podcast to discuss how the societal shift in where and how we work has created new opportunities for companies to focus on more sustainable tech. I also learn how smart glasses can provide remote technical assistance to printers capable of printing labels for restaurants that have pivoted to takeaway-only.

I also learn why sustainability is an important part of Epson's Japanese heritage, and it's ingrained throughout the company.

1513: The Business Value of Contextual Decision Intelligence Feb 28, 2021

The ability to make informed decisions based on data and insights is the future of decision-making. Business intelligence has been making waves throughout organizations because it provides useful information and data that allows executives to make decisions for the good of their business.

Organizations are increasingly using new generation decision intelligence tools to get a more accurate and efficient view of their growing volumes of data. However, the implementation of decision intelligence can further bolster these insights, leading to more context (from both customers and operations) and overall better decision-making by executives.

With all this in mind, I have invited Imam Hoque, Chief Product Officer at Quantexa, on the podcast today to discuss the value that decision intelligence can provide and why relevant and timely context is essential to business success.

More than a decade ago, Quantexa founders pioneered network analytics. Now, they’ve combined the same innovative approach with the latest data and analytics technology to help organizations identify and connect the relationships that matter the most to empower better operational decisions.

Imam has more than 31 years’ experience in the IT industry and pioneered Quantexa’s network analytics, saving billions of pounds in fraud and financial crime across government, banking, and insurance. He led Quantexa through two rounds of funding and is responsible for driving Quantexa’s strategy to expand into new sectors and propositions, including business development and credit risk.

As an expert in AI, Imam empowers organizations to drive decision intelligence using new technologies.

1512: The Tech Revolutionizing Real-Estate Business Development Feb 27, 2021

SetSchedule is the technology innovator revolutionizing the real-estate business and data services. The company’s multi-patented agnostic leads marketplace and SAAS products suite leverage AI-powered predictive data, trend insights, and automated marketing software tools to deliver better business efficiency to agents, teams, brokers, and other vertical markets.

Roy Dekel is CEO and Co-Founder of SetSchedule. Preceding SetSchedule, Roy sold billions in financial products and prior to trends, institutionalized the buy and hold residential lifestyle model, managing a lofty residential portfolio. Before moving to California, Roy grew up in Israel, a child of Romanian refugees. He served as a first lieutenant in the Israeli Defense Forces of the Navy Seals.

We talk about the new patented software and developments at SetSchedule. I learn how artificial intelligence and machine learning software in real estate will affect the industry moving forward. Roy shares his experience creating a company to use innovative technology and cutting-edge tools to disrupt the real estate industry and maximize efficiency for both real estate agents and home shoppers.

1511: MuleSoft - Exploring Insurance-as-a-Platform Tech Feb 26, 2021

MuleSoft is a SalesForce company famous for its integration and API platform. It makes it easy to connect data from any system to create connected experiences faster. It also enables insurance companies to modernize legacy systems, bring new products to market faster, and extend distribution channels. I wanted to learn more about how MuleSoft drives digital engagement and transforms the policyholder experience.

Jerome Bugnet Senior Manager, Digital Transformation Solutions at MuleSoft. I invited him on the podcast to explore the world of InsurTech and how the rising expectations from consumers are changing the industry. We talk about re-imagining the insurance ecosystem and what the future of insurance might look like.

Global lockdowns have forced consumers online, and the result is a much more digital-savvy market. As a consequence, consumers have come to expect a much-improved digital experience from their providers. For insurers, this requires urgent investment in the technologies and capabilities that power digital customer journeys, such as analytical tools that can crunch vast sets of customer data to provide a more personalized experience.

Jerome argues that we're at the start of a fundamental shift in the way insurance services are provided. Instead of owning customer relationships, insurers will increasingly offer their services in concert with those from other industries, such as banking and retail. The result is a single, unified experience from the customer's perspective, in which they don't interact with individual providers at all. We already see insurance services bundled in with products such as internet-enabled home security devices: in Jerome's view, this is just the start.

In Jerome's view, the main obstacle to achieving this new business model is that many insurers' IT systems are arranged in departmental silos with compartmentalized processes, limiting their ability to innovate quickly or partner with others.

1510: Dentons - Exploring Big Tech, Politics and Policy Changes Feb 25, 2021

With Twitter recently hitting the headlines for silencing President Trump, many have questioned if tech giants now possess more power than governments. With increased polarization in society, many also blame tech and social media for division rather than uniting the global community.

How did we get here? And how do we stop a tech lash from building and get back to leveraging technology to bring us together? Dentons is the world's largest law firm, and I wanted to learn more about their experiences with legal policies in technology. Victor Boyajian and his colleague Michael Drobac from Dentons share their insights on legal challenges they see in technology. We also discuss what excites them about tech's future in society and Legal Tech.

Victor Boyajian heads Dentons' Global Venture Technology practice. A recognized leader in his field, Victor focuses on representing emerging growth technology companies and Fortune 500 companies in a broad array of venture capital, private equity, securities and strategic transactions from Silicon Valley to Boston to New York and around the globe.

He counsels senior executives, boards of directors and venture firm principals on a wide range of issues, including business strategy, finance, mergers and acquisitions, executive compensation, board governance, intellectual property and litigation strategy, and he has been recognized for his deep network among venture firms and investment banks.

Victor has been recognized by Chambers USA as one of the leading practitioners in the sector. Under his leadership, Dentons has been ranked among the top 10 nationally in venture capital deals, as reported in Dow Jones Private Equity Analyst. He has also been selected as one of AlwaysOn's Power Players New York City.

Drawing from deep experience in the private and public sector, Michael Drobac's practice straddles the intersection of technology and public policy. He helps clients from the tech and telecommunications sectors develop messaging to define and execute outreach strategies, while advocating before Congress and federal agencies in support of policy objectives.

Michael's experience working in the private sector — which gave him an understanding of key public policy issues facing the global Internet industry — combined with insights on legislative processes acquired during his years on Capitol Hill, afford him an ability to provide advice informed by both perspectives. He was recognized by The Hill as one of the top lobbyists of 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019, and was named a Government Relations Trailblazer by the National Law Journal in 2019.

He previously worked as head of government affairs for digital streaming giant Netflix. There Michael established, and served as the first director of, Netflix's Washington, DC, office, where he identified and developed the first official set of short- and long-term policy goals for the company on federal, state and international policy issues. He also advocated before Congress and other federal agencies in support of policy objectives including net neutrality, interconnection access, privacy, accessibility rules, taxation and copyright issues, and represented the company in market expansion in Canada and Latin America.

1509: How to Integrate, Unify and Protect Your Knowledge Platforms Feb 24, 2021

Employees can now work anywhere and everywhere thanks to a long list of remote working tools and productivity apps. But remembering which app you saved your document, message, presentation, report, video, project plan, or a task list can be frustrating.

Onna is an eDiscovery startup that raised $27M during the lockdown. The latest funding round was led by Dawn Capital, with participation from Dropbox, the Slack Fund, and existing early investor Nauta Capital. Onna also works with Slack, Dropbox, Fitbit, EA and Lyft.

Salim Elkhou shares the story behind Onna and how it uses machine learning to help consolidate knowledge and discover information across multiple connected apps. I learn how it helps companies find information that would have otherwise been scattered across multiple remote work applications (i.e. Gmail, Slack, etc).

Throughout his career, Salim Elkhou recognized a gap with the rise in popularity of cloud-based and hosted enterprise apps. He started a successful eDiscovery business, eStet, a service provider acquired by EY, that created custom technology solutions to enhance the litigation strategy of corporations, AmLaw 100 firms, and boutique law firms. In 2015, he realized that a technology-based solution was needed to address the growing discovery problem at scale and founded Onna.

He saw that knowledge can become quickly fragmented, making search between applications manual and time-consuming, and slowing down overall performance and productivity. Risk and compliance issues get tougher too, especially given the fact that many governments are strengthening regulations. So, Salim started Onna with a mission to make the totality of people and organizations’ proprietary knowledge accessible, useful and secure.

1508: Getting Back to the Point of Healthcare With Technology Feb 23, 2021

Point Health is a digital healthcare startup on a mission to make healthcare easy to find, easy to understand, and easier to afford for members of insurance plans and healthcare sharing organizations. The company recently announced the intent to acquire The Karis Group, an Austin-based company with 25 years of experience in healthcare billing negotiation and patient advocacy. Member retention and loyalty are big problems with insurance companies losing an estimated 33% of members each year. Point Health intends to help solve part of this problem through a new technology platform for payors. Matthew Dale joins me on the podcast to discuss the issue of healthcare accessibility in the US; why is transparent pricing so critical? and how technology can solve this problem.

I also learn how healthcare billing is such an incredibly complex system in the US but how technology is changing tech change that. Matt shares how technology is helping families navigate thousands of dollars in healthcare bills each year.

Matt’s career with healthcare began in 2000 when Karis was in financial constraints and his father asked him to come work (for no pay) as a patient advocate right when Matt was graduating from college. He took on the challenge. After a year, The Karis Group was profitable and he was the second-largest shareholder.

From there, Matt worked for Karis for nearly a decade before leaving to found a series of successful startups which he grew to the point of acquisition. His ultimate mission, making accessible and quality healthcare a human right for all, brought him back to The Karis Group in 2017 to take responsibility as Vice President of Strategic Planning. In 2020 he became CEO and oversaw the acquisition of The Karis Group by Point Health. Matt now serves as CEO of Point Health.

1507: How Citrix AMD and Microsoft Are Building The Future of Work Feb 22, 2021

In the Citrix Ready Podcast series, I explore how technology can empower people and organizations to unlock innovation, engage customers, and be productive—anytime, anywhere. In today's episode, I learn more about how collaboration and hybrid working environments are reshaping the future of work.

It recently occurred to me that Microsoft, Citrix, and AMD were all playing roles in how I was working. But we only think of them as solutions in their own right. So I wanted to try and get people from all 3 companies onto the podcast to understand the role that they play in our working life.

Kevin Raines, Senior Product Marketing Manager for HPC at Microsoft, Isidro Gonzalez, business development executive with the AMD, and Nitin Sharma, product and solutions marketing strategy all join me on the podcast. We discuss how they are collaborating together and reshaping and reimagining how we work anywhere and everywhere.

Kevin Raines is a Senior Product Marketing Manager for HPC at Microsoft. He has over 25 years of Information Technology experience, including worldwide project implementations, managing opportunity life cycle, delivering mission-critical projects, and managing a $200+ million portfolio. The Enterprise solutions have yielded strong ROI, greatly improved operational performance, increased customer revenue, and developed the foundation for continuous improvements.

Isidro Gonzalez is a business development executive with the AMD Radeon Technology Group. He has over 20 years of enterprise software marketing experience, specializing in adding value to corporate organizations through strategic partnerships, product alignment, and GTM execution. Combines a clear understanding of customer needs with the nuances of technology and current market trends to guide organizations to leading market positions worldwide.

Nitin Sharma is a leader in product and solutions marketing strategy at Citrix. He is responsible for designing and executing global, companywide go-to-market strategies for digital workspace solutions. With a passion for solving business problems with technology solutions, he has held various solutions sales and marketing roles—targeting audiences at all levels: executive, line of business, and IT.

1506: How Does your Approach to Network Management Compare? Feb 21, 2021

Auvik Networks recently released its 2021 Network Field Report which surveyed IT pros across North America and looks at how in-house IT admins manage their networks and the current state of network management practices. Steve Petryschuk joins me on the podcast to share insights from the survey.

I learn how there appears to be high network confidence with low network knowledge in some organizations. For example, more than half of IT pros have incomplete knowledge about how their networks are configured, yet 77% of these same people also report a high or very high confidence in their networks.

We discuss how this could indicate a potential mismatch between perception and reality, with IT pros unaware of the weaknesses in their network management practices. I also learn how only 36% of organizations back up their network device configurations daily or weekly, despite additional data showing that configuration changes are frequent.

Founded in 2011, Auvik’s cloud-based network management software keeps IT networks around the world running optimally by automating and simplifying network management. Auvik is one of the fastest-growing North American technology companies, and is a winner of the Deloitte Technology Fast 50, Deloitte Fast 500, and recognized as the #1 ranked Canadian company in the FT Americas’ 500 Fastest Growing Companies 2020.

1505: Deloitte - Thriving in the Era of Pervasive AI Feb 20, 2021

As AI adoption grows, how are companies working to manage risk and stay ahead of the pack? Deloitte's third annual survey suggests how leaders' thinking is changing as applications become pervasive throughout the organization.

Beena Ammanath, executive director of the Deloitte AI Institute shares insights in relation to Deloitte's latest State of AI in the Enterprise survey.

We talk about the biggest skills gaps, the most in-demand technology skills, what companies are looking for, and how employees and leaders at all levels can best prepare themselves for the new normal by prioritizing disruptive technologies like AI. In addition to the tech skills gap and training, Beena also talks about employee anxiety about being replaced by machines, and how leaders and employees can work collaboratively to downplay the fear. Ultimately, humans and robots can and should work together. Beena is Executive Director of Deloitte AI Institute and leads Trustworthy AI. Beena is an award-winning senior executive with extensive global experience in AI and digital transformation, spanning across e-commerce, finance, marketing, telecom, retail, software products, services, and industrial domains with companies such as HPE, GE, Thomson Reuters, British Telecom, Bank of America, e*trade and a number of Silicon Valley startups.

She is also the Founder of the non-profit, Humans For AI. A well-recognized thought leader in the industry, she also serves on the Advisory Board at Cal Poly College of Engineering and has been a Board Member and Advisor to several startups. Beena thrives on envisioning and architecting how data, artificial intelligence, and technology in general, can make our world a better, easier place to live for all humans.

1504: How Issuu Is Connecting Content to People Feb 19, 2021

Today's guest is Joe Hyrkin, CEO of Issuu, the Omni-channel content tools and publishing platform. The Issuu Story Cloud enables millions of marketers, brands, and creators, and publishers globally to digitally share and monetize their longer-form quality content and create content marketing materials.

As someone that creates a wealth of content, I am curious how Issuu makes it possible to create something once and distribute it everywhere. By taking your PDF, images, and text and transform them using your design and Issuu's templates to give you a native experience on desktop, mobile web, app, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and all other social media.

I learn how the pandemic has affected Issuu and how their customers used the platform. Joe shares how they started to see a flood of menus being posted as restaurants scrambled to respond to online ordering and takeout needs. Some even posted QR codes of Issuu formatted menus in storefront windows so patrons could view the menu and order food over the phone from the safety of their cars.

Issuu also noticed an influx of real estate brochures, property flyers, and market reports from realtors. With restrictions on in-person showings and office walk-ins, the entire real estate industry began to adjust its sales process.

Joe has more than 25 years of experience in start-up and growth technology leadership globally, covering stints in Asia, Europe, and the US, from early-stage through to IPO. He is also a frequent thought and industry leadership contributor to the likes of Inc., Entrepreneur Magazine, Recode, Techcrunch, CNBC, FoxBusiness, Bloomberg and has spoken at conferences and events globally, including Web Summit, Founders Forum, Horasis Summit, The Wrap's Grill Summit, The Issuu Generator's Summit among others.

1503: Spiceworks Ziff Davis: How The Pandemic Impacted Tech Spending Feb 18, 2021

Spiceworks and Ziff Davis B2B joined forces to offer customers unparalleled access to the world's most active and influential technology buyers.

Robin Peto, Managing Director at Spiceworks Ziff Davis, joins me on today's Tech Talks Daily episode. Robin is responsible for directing the organization's research strategy, as well as leading a team of subject matter experts and talented researchers to help inform clients' mission-critical priorities. She offers insights grounded in her 20+ year career in the B2B tech sector.

IT departments everywhere have rapidly deployed technologies to maintain business continuity during the rapid rush to remote work in the global health crisis. The massive move to work-from-home policies spurred shifts in hardware, software and services spend and will continue to make waves as many companies stick to flexible working arrangements permanently.

To gain perspective on how this great shift will influence IT in the coming years, SWZD surveyed more than 1,000 technology buyers in companies across North America and Europe. To provide context into the magnitude of the shifts expected in 2021, the report tracks tech trends over three years.

Robin reveals insights from their 2021 State of IT report. We discuss changes in IT and tech spending during the pandemic. We also talk about shifts in business communication tools, the future of business chat apps, remote working security concerns, and workers returning to physical offices/workforce of the future.

1502: Talking AI and HCL Tech Journey to $10 Billion Revenue Feb 17, 2021

Regular listeners will know that I have featured HCL many times on this podcast. We have discussed the digital transformation of Man Utd, Cyber Security Fusion Centers and even spoke to them from the show floor at the Adobe Summit in Vegas. Today, Kalyan Kumar, CVP & CTO, IT Services, HCL Technologies, joins me on the podcast.

Drawing on his experience of working with more than 200 customers across Europe, including the likes of Deutsche Bank, Asda, and Anglo American amongst many others, Kalyan discusses how COVID-19 disruption has led to greater demand for AI solutions amongst global enterprises, but also why he urges businesses to remember there is no ‘plug and play’ options – careful planning is crucial.

We explore the topic of AI and sustainability: and how the COVID-19 crisis has highlighted a gap in businesses’ bottom-up approach to sustainability, leading many to turn to AI. He can give you the low-down on specific use cases – from helping chefs cut food waste in half through ‘smart bins’, to making fast fashion more sustainable through an AI and blockchain-powered platform.

We also discuss who is responsible for plugging the AI skills gap. Is the onus on enterprises to reskill staff to take their place in the augmented workforce? Should employees take their own initiative and train themselves up using MOOCs? Or are governments and universities responsible for teaching AI-related skills to employees of all ages? Kalyan shares his thoughts on how society can work together to solve the talent shortage.

Organizations are already partnering with technology leaders to identify the right upskilling, reskilling, and micro-skilling initiatives that can efficiently close these AI skills gaps. Kalyan talks through the specific steps already being taken by organizations to improve employee proficiency with software suites and develop collaborative skills in harnessing AI to optimize back-office processes.

1501: The Technology Transforming Compliance Training Feb 16, 2021

Brendan Kavanagh, CEO of Olive Group. The Irish-founded EdTech company joins me on today's episode of the Tech Talks Daily Podcast. We talk about how they are leveraging technology and their strategic five-year partnership with the UK's National Open College Network (NOCN) Group.

As part of the strategic partnership, they'll be launching a new best-in-class virtual learning platform, 'vLearn,' which will bring virtual learning services to over 2000 training providers and colleges globally, including the UK and international markets. vLearn launched this year with market-leading virtual support materials for apprentices across some of the most popular Apprenticeship Standards. The platform will then be rolled out to the wider NOCN Group as part of a 12-month project to deliver unrivalled digital support to customers.

The platform's key features will include digital materials to support the delivery of qualifications, virtual classrooms, and one-to-many online exam proctoring. The NOCN Group educational charity offers a range of integrated services, including endpoint assessment, regulated UK and international qualifications, access to Higher Education, short courses, assessment services, as well as consultancy and research services. Founded and headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, Olive Group produces low-cost, high-end online training courses to help more people access affordable education and help businesses onboard, train and upskill staff. Since its establishment in 2006, the company has trained more than two million people across the world and created digital learning content in 27 languages.

Employing 600 people across 12 countries, Olive Group produces world-class digital content using the latest technological innovations to engage learners and save businesses 85% of the costs associated with the delivery of classroom-based training courses.

1500: LivePerson CTO Alex Spinelli, Former Head of Alexa OS for Amazon Feb 15, 2021

LivePerson makes life easier for people and brands everywhere through trusted Conversational AI. Its conversational cloud platform empowers consumers to stop wasting time on hold or crawling through websites and message their favorite brands instead, just as they do with friends and family.

The company has 18,000 customers, including leading brands like HSBC, Orange, GM Financial, and The Home Depot. They use their conversational solutions to orchestrate humans and AI at scale and create a convenient, deeply personal relationship — a conversational relationship — with their millions of consumers. LivePerson was also named to Fast Company's World's Most Innovative Companies list in 2020 and is a founding member of EqualAI.

Alex Spinelli joins me in a conversation about all things AI. We discuss the potential AI backlash, and people will respond as we move into and past the through of disillusionment part of the hype cycle. I also learn more about how AI made it possible to get to this critical moment of the first COVID vaccinations and what we can expect next for the healthcare industry.

We also discuss why AI ethics and fighting bias in decision-making is more critical than ever. Alex shares insights on the tools and technologies that will finally be put in place to fight this bias, going further than just standards and talk.

Alex Spinelli leads the technology organization at LivePerson, overseeing all R&D globally. Before LivePerson, he was global head of Alexa OS for Amazon, running a large, distributed team of developers around the world, and leading the development of the core software systems and capabilities that underpin the Alexa platform.

Before joining Amazon, Alex served as CTO of McCann Worldgroup — one of the world's largest marketing organizations with 24,000 staff across more than 100 countries — and CTO for North America and Asia-Pacific at AXA Technologies, where he built large-scale grid computing for predictive modeling. At Thomson Reuters, he oversaw product and technology for news and media, including real-time, AI-driven news curation for financial professionals.

Alex has also held executive technology leadership positions at TheStreet.com and MTV Networks as CTO of Comedy Central. Alex started his career as an engineer in New York City, working on real-time data feeds. He has an MBA from Duke University.

1499: AdTech - Meet Flip By Digital Remedy - The OTT and CTV Platform Feb 15, 2021

Digital Remedy is proof that success can be found with the right combination of people and technology. The digital media solutions company is leading the tech-enabled marketing space. But it was co-founded by Mike Seiman while still a college student at Hofstra University in the early 2000s. The company has grown quickly and is now a major player within the crowded digital advertising landscape.

Mike Seiman is now the CEO and Chairman and joins me on the podcast to share his startup story. I also learn more about FLIP, a proprietary OTT and CTV platform that allows users to track statistics like app installs, site visits, checkout amounts, and store visits.

60% of advertisers planned to shift their ad dollars from linear TV to either CTV or OTT in 2021 – and among this group, 81% cited targeting and efficiency as a reason. Mike discusses the growth of programmatic CTV video ad growth and how it is impacting their client's ad spend toward this space. We also talk about how the pandemic has changed the availability of CTV video impressions.

1498: Startup Story - 30-Year Old Entrepreneur Raises $15 million Feb 14, 2021

Artificial intelligence (AI) is one of the most critical mega-trends in business in recent years. It streamlines transactions for higher productivity and automation of routine tasks such as production lines, banking, insurance companies, and so on. Founded in 2018, BeyondMinds has built the first enterprise AI solution that is universally applicable and easily adaptable. The company delivers hyper-customized, production-ready AI systems that enable companies to overcome the massive failure rate in AI adoption and rapidly implement ROI-positive transformations. The company has more than 70 employees, with the majority being AI technologists. They have offices in New York, Tel-Aviv and London. Clients include Fortune 1000 companies, including Microsoft, Samsung, KPMG, and numerous leading defense companies and financial institutions. Most recently, the company raised $15 million series A funding, co-led by leading Israeli venture capital fund Grove Ventures and private investor Marius Nacht.

Rotem Alaluf is the Co-Founder and CEO of BeyondMinds. He shares how they have built the first enterprise AI system that is universally applicable and easily adaptable. Alaluf is passionate about creating more stable and accurate ways of bringing AI to production, ultimately accelerating the adoption of AI in ways that we see and feel in the real world.

Prior to founding BeyondMinds, Rotem worked in the defense technology industry as a researcher in a variety of fields, including optimization, natural language processing (NLP), and vulnerabilities of AI systems. Rotem has a B.S. in both electrical engineering and physics from Israel’s respected Technion, the Israel Institute of Technology.

1497: The Fastest Shared File System for AI and Technical Computing Feb 13, 2021

Weka offers WekaFS, the modern file system that uniquely empowers organizations to solve the newest, biggest problems holding back innovation. Optimized for NVMe and the hybrid cloud, Weka handles the most demanding storage challenges in the most data-intensive technical computing environments, delivering truly epic performance at any scale.

Its modern architecture unlocks the full capabilities of today’s data center, allowing businesses to maximize the value of their high-powered IT investments. Weka helps industry leaders reach breakthrough innovations and solve previously unsolvable problems.

Ken Grohe is the newly appointed President of Weka and CRO. He brings 30 years of B2B SaaS, sales, and data science experience to the table and joined Weka as they accomplished 600% growth in 2019. Ken joins me on the Tech Talks Daily podcast to chat about how the critical role of storage in successful AI initiatives. We talk about the emerging high growth AI/ML markets and the emerging role of the CDO.

We also discuss enriching people’s lives by enabling faster product innovation, such as autonomous driving vehicles, and driving better business outcomes by enabling faster data analytics.

Grohe comes to Weka from Samsung’s Stellus Technologies, a leading data systems company that addresses the way companies capture, store, access, and process the unstructured data, where he served as CRO and drove the company’s overall go-to-market strategy. A highly seasoned veteran of the industry, Grohe previously served as President of SignNow, SVP and GM of Barracuda Networks, and CRO of Virident, a Western Digital Company.

Grohe also had an impressive 25-year career at Dell EMC, finishing as VP and GM with a focus on the global flash business. With over three decades in the SaaS and storage industry, Grohe has deep experience and possesses a rare dedication and passion for winning that is based on a customer-centric perspective. In addition to his roles at major tech companies, Grohe is an advisor and board member of many Silicon Valley fast-rising companies.

1496: The Quest For Full Fibre With Paul Stobart, CEO, Zen Internet Feb 12, 2021

Chancellor Rishi Sunak recently published his 2020 Spending Review and kicked off the new £5bn UK Gigabit Broadband Programme. Even though the promise of full-fiber is great for 85% of the population by 2025, it’s imperative it’s delivered, so the whole country has access to it.

To help accomplish that, Zen has focused on full-fibre for 2021 and upgraded its core network. Paul Stobart, CEO, Zen Internet, the UK’s largest independent telecommunications and technology service provider, joins me on the Tech Talks Daily Podcast.

Paul has been in the technology industry for over 20 years, 16 of those years being in CEO positions at Sage (business software), CPP (financial services), and Tunstall Healthcare (healthcare technology), and has developed a strong belief that having inspired people inside a business will deliver superior financial returns.

We discuss why full-fibre is key to the growth of the UK in 2021 for businesses and what other tech investing in full-fibre enables for companies. Paul also shares how Zen is investing in its core network to allow every customer to access full-fibre and why he left a multi-national company like Sage, where he grew the company from £120m turnover to £1.3bn, to join Zen.

1495: Dynatrace Perform - Transform Your Business Faster Feb 11, 2021

Last year, I attended the Dynatrace Perform event in Las Vegas and interviewed their CEO John Van Siclen. This year Dynatrace has made several announcements aimed at helping organizations overcome existing challenges with IT complexity and transform faster to meet today's business needs.

Steve Tack, SVP, Product Management, joins me on the Tech Talks Daily podcast to talk bout some of the big news coming out of the event. We talk about the Infrastructure monitoring enhancements, and by expanding its automatic and intelligent observability with native log support for Kubernetes and multicloud environments, Dynatrace is enabling teams to drive faster innovation. I learn more about the Dynatrace Software Intelligence Hub and how within just a few clicks, Dynatrace customers can access an ecosystem of 500+ technologies from leading providers including AWS, and Google, enabling them to build and manage customer Dynatrace extensions without additional code.

We also discuss the extension of Session Replay and business analytics to native-mobile applications, and now organizations in even the most highly regulated industries – financial services, health care, government – can optimize mobile app performance, feature adoption, and conversions. Steve shares more details about the Cloud Automation Module and how the new module enables DevOps and SRE teams to automate operations and continuous delivery processes to deliver higher-quality cloud-native apps faster and with less risk. Finally, I learn more about how they are broadening application security coverage with enhancements that will empower DevSecOps teams to make more informed decisions.

With almost 20 years of experience in software support, engineering, and product management, he's just as comfortable with performance technologies as he is with competitive cycling. His broad business consulting and market development expertise bring a relentless customer focus to the product organization. As he teaches the kids on his lacrosse and soccer teams, speed is important―but it takes clear strategies and endurance, and velocity to win the game. He brings them all together for Dynatrace.

1494: The Company Upgrading Obsolete Public Safety Technology Feb 11, 2021

Kevin Ruef co-founded 10-8 Systems after exceeding multiple companies’ sales records (both domestically and internationally). With more than a decade in sales, his experience ranges from B2B, B2G, and B2C. Since the company’s start in 2019, Kevin is responsible for business development, strategic partnerships, and business operations.

Kevin Ruef, the co-founder of 10-8 Systems, shares the story behind launching 10-8 Systems on The Tech Talks Daily Podcast. 10-8 Systems is a cloud-based computer-aided dispatch (CAD) system for first responders, law enforcement, EMT, firefighters, and other government agencies.

FEMA used the software in the Bahamas during Hurricane Dorian. With the help of their system, 500 people were rescued! They have since been contacted by organizations ranging from security to search-and-rescue across the world, such as in Africa, Australia, Canada, the European Union, and Caribbean countries.

10-8 Systems' computer-aided dispatch software leverages technology to provide public safety agencies with the most up to date information and pinpoint precise location information to better help response time and connectivity. I learn more about how their technology helps revolutionize the way first responders handle emergency calls.

1493: Transformation in Times of Crisis Feb 10, 2021

The coronavirus pandemic is the kind of unpredictable, global catastrophe of staggering proportions that comes along not just every few years but perhaps once in a hundred years. What started out as health crisis, has quickly developed into an economic crisis spurring social unrest across the world. And yet, despite the widespread distress, the picture is more complex than it may seem. For some companies, the crisis has and continues to, provide opportunities for new growth.

A timely book by a visionary business practitioner, Nitin Rakesh, CEO, Mphasis, and an award-winning academician, Jerry Wind, Lauder Professor Emeritus, Wharton bridges the worlds of industry and academia to bring you the knowledge that can help your business thrive in the new world. The book defines 8 key principles that form a highly adaptive framework, that gives businesses the tools to adapt and succeed in a new reality.

When Nitin Rakesh and Jerry Wind started collaborating on the book prior to the 2020 pandemic, these 8 principles were concepts on the best ways to navigate disruption that needed further exploration. However, today, having incubated the ideas for a period and encountering the unprecedented crisis, this book is a game-changer for the business community. Any business, large or small, can customize and implement a winning strategy by using the eight principles and tools clearly outlined here to seek out opportunities for long-term value creation in a post-pandemic world.

1492: Nuvei - How the Pandemic Has Affected Digital Payments Feb 09, 2021

Nuvei, one of the world's largest payment technology providers, has partnered with companies all over the world to create seamless commerce experiences, specifically in the esports and online betting industries. Motie Bring, Chief Commercial Officer, Digital Payments, Nuvei, joins me on the podcast.

We discuss how local marketplaces like Etsy are going global and how markets are shifting towards global eCommerce. We also talk about the rise in the esports and sports betting industries and how payment technology providers are creating seamless commerce experiences. I also learn more about how COVID-19 has accelerated the shift to eCommerce.

Motie Bring has over 18 years of experience in payments, holding various management and leadership positions in related industries. He served the last seven years in senior management roles at WorldPay (acquired by FIS in 2019), most recently as General Manager EMEA, Global Enterprise eCommerce, while also heading up the global commercial gambling teams. Prior to this, he was responsible for leading the company's iGaming and digital content relationship management groups.

1491: Deloitte Tech Trends: Enterprises Emerge Resilient Feb 08, 2021

Deloitte’s annual 2021 Tech Trends report examines how enterprises have adapted to fluctuations, accelerated digital transformation, and overall emerged resilient amidst a year of disruption. Although COVID-19 rendered even the best-laid of January 2020’s plans useless, the crisis has driven change in an important and unexpected way and CIOs are already charting a promising path toward the future. The 12th annual Report discusses the opportunities, strategies, and technologies that will drive confidence in new planning and implementation during the next 18 to 24 months. The 9 trends fall under three categories:

The Heart of the Enterprise: Strategy, Engineered; Core Revival; and Supply Unchained focus on the alignment of organizational and technology strategy. These components of the enterprise are complex, but imperative for success, and must work in concert to support each other.
A Better Experience, Inside and Out: Bespoke for Billions: Digital Meets Physical and Rebooting the Digital Workplace explore merging digital and physical experiences to drive more value for customers and employees. DEI Tech: Tools for Equity discusses increasingly sophisticated tools to support organizational DE&I, which is the spark that powers innovation.
Data: The Art of the Possible: As enterprises move further towards automation, human capacity can be augmented at scale. MLOps: Industrialized AI; Machine Data Revolution: Feeding the Machine; and Zero Trust: Never Trust, Always Verify represent three specific opportunities for enterprises to realize more value through industrialization. Scott Buchholz Emerging Technologies Research Director and Government and Public Services CTO at Deloitte Consulting, joins me on the podcast to discuss this year’s Trends!

1490: Is Agriculture Embarking on a Digital Transformation? Feb 07, 2021

Despite holding up remarkably well during the pandemic, the early disruption to the supply chain has served as a wake-up call to the agriculture sector. Consequently, an industry that has typically been five-ten years behind the technology curve is (finally) coming to recognize the potential of AI as a catalyst for (arguably, much-needed) change.

A recent survey by Proagrica, the world's largest data and tech business serving the ag sector, looked into attitudes towards AI across seven core sectors: government, healthcare, insurance, legal, science/medical, banking and agriculture.

It found that AI has risen up the agenda in agriculture - here are some key findings:

87% of agricultural respondents believe that AI technologies played a role in slowing the spread of COVID-19.
76% of agricultural respondents say they've increased investment in AI in the last year against an average of 68% across other sectors
87% of agricultural respondents state that their company offers training on AI technologies, up from 81% in 2019.

Lindsay Suddon, Chief Strategy Officer for Proagrica, joins me on the podcast to discuss the findings. As one of the original architects of Proagrica, Lindsay's focus continues to be on strengthening Proagrica's ability to provide a wide range of data-centered solutions to a variety of industry segments across the supply chain, unlocking value for all.

Under Lindsay's time with Proagrica, the division has transformed itself into a technology and data business, acquiring a variety of best-in-class assets such as GateKeeper, F4F (Adaptris), and SST. A large part of the strategy involves organic innovation and development, bringing together existing and acquired assets to create new, valuable products and solutions; smart insight-driven data analysis that helps drive the industry forward; managing risk and driving productivity; and profitability and compliance.

1489: Airgap Ransomware Kill Switch and Exploring Ransomware Trends Feb 06, 2021

The world order has changed overnight. The IT organization is under more pressure and scrutiny than ever before. In addition to ensuring security, there is a strong argument in favor of modernizing enterprise infrastructure. Trusted by leading managed service providers, Airgap’s patent-pending enterprise-grade Agentless Zero Trust Isolation platform addresses some of the fundamental security and networking challenges faced by the IT organizations.

Ritesh Agarwal, CEO, Airgap, joins me on Tech Talks Daily and shares Airgap’s core capabilities, the roadmap, and their vision. I learn more about how Airgap’s Zero Trust Isolation Platform offers defense against cyber-threat propagation. Airgap’s patent-pending agentless solution works for any user and any device accessing business assets from any location and it can be installed in a few minutes without any forklift upgrades.

1488: Cybersecurity - Sharing and Analysis Centers (ISACs) Feb 05, 2021

Banks, retailers, and healthcare institutions have been some of the biggest targets for hackers for years. With large networks, hackers can breach platforms and access financial institutions' data, retailers' customer payment information, and patient files. With this looming threat continually growing in complexity, cybersecurity organizations need to share threat information to develop a roadmap to defeat malicious actors.

This is best done through Information Sharing and Analysis Centers (ISACs), where cybersecurity professionals can anonymously share these details about threat vectors for others to be on the prowl for. So why are organizations so hesitant to do so?

Neal Dennis, Threat Intelligence Specialist at Cyware, discusses why it's imperative for the cybersecurity industry to share threat information (hackers do it, so shouldn't we?) and how this could help prevent the next Capital One Marriott breach. He also debunks the misconceptions of threat sharing and ISACs that many organizations may have.

Cyware Labs is a product-based cybersecurity provider headquartered in New York, USA. Cyware offers a full-stack of innovative cyber fusion solutions for all-source strategic, tactical, technical, and operational threat intelligence sharing & threat response automation. Cyware's Enterprise Solutions are designed to promote secure collaboration, inculcate cyber resilience, enhance threat visibility and deliver needed control by providing organizations with automated context-rich analysis of threats for a proactive response without losing the element of human judgment.

Cyware solutions are pushing the boundaries of current security paradigms by utilizing advances in Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Security Automation & Orchestration technologies to empower enterprises in adapting to the evolving threat landscape. Cyware's clients include Fortune500 financial, healthcare, energy and defense organizations, multinational retail corporations, trade associations, industry groups (including ISACs and ISAOs), non-profits and government agencies.

1487: E-Commerce Economics Are Broken, Meet The Solution Feb 04, 2021

Paul Palmieri is the Co-Founder & CEO of Tradeswell, the first real-time trading platform for e-commerce brands that helps them sell more successfully across digital platforms. Paul helped define the mobile advertising industry and led Millennial Media to IPO. He's now taking a similar approach to help brands scale and take advantage of a $3T e-commerce opportunity.

As CEO of Tradeswell, Paul now works with brands like McCormick's Spices, Frank's Red Hot, and Rare Beauty Brands, using AI to improve sales and margins and empowering them with valuable customer insights to grow their business.

Paul recently launched the company with backing from leading venture capital firms like SignalFire, and he shares his journey, from entrepreneur to investor, where he saw hundreds of DTC companies and passed on investing in them because margins were too thin, and some of the early results he's seeing from brands using the platform.

I learn how they help bridge the gap between humans and machines, giving them the insights they need that have traditionally been left in silos and behind walled gardens. Paul also shares details of the solution that provides synchronous optimization across key functions, including marketing, assortment, inventory, forecasting, promotion, and pricing, all in real-time.

Paul is a visionary, leader, and investor who helped define the mobile advertising industry and the app economy business model. As co-founder, Chairman, and CEO of Millennial Media, Paul built an industry-defining team and platform and oversaw its $1.4 billion IPO. As Managing Partner of Grit Capital Partners, he is a successful investor in early-stage technology companies, leading a high performing early-stage venture capital fund.

Paul previously led consumer mobile data for Verizon in the early stages of mobile internet growth, where he and his team struck deals with some of the world's largest technology, brand, and entertainment companies, building a 4.5bn business in just five years. Early in his career, he led one of the earliest outsourced e-commerce logistics businesses that combined technology platforms with consumer distribution in the telecommunications space

1486: Next Pathway and the Increasing Importance of Cloud Migration Feb 03, 2021

Next Pathway is the automated cloud migration company that the Globe and Mail recently named one of the hottest cloud start-ups. Today I am joined by Chetan Mathur and Clara Angotti in a conversation about the importance of cloud migration and how the cloud can provide a competitive advantage.

We also discuss why companies with the agility of the cloud will be set up for long term success and how businesses are using the cloud to reduce cost and increase operational efficiency.

Chetan Mathur is the Chief Executive Officer of Next Pathway Inc., the Automated Cloud Migration company, named Canada's hottest cloud start-up by the Globe and Mail in 2019. Mr. Mathur is responsible for providing senior leadership and counsel to ensure the company is at the forefront of the ever-changing technology landscape.

In addition to Next Pathway, Mr. Mathur has established and grown two other information technology firms. He founded Sage Information Consultants in 1992, an international technology integrator that specialized in complex financial services software. Mr. Mathur oversaw Sage's growth to become a leading supplier of IT consulting services for global banking and financial institutions. He negotiated the sale of Sage in June 2000 to a NASDAQ listed company.

Clara Angotti, President, and Founder of Next Pathway Inc. has been named a recipient of the prestigious Canada's Most Powerful Women: Top 100 Award by the Women's Executive Network. She received her award in the "Entrepreneur" category. This is the second time Clara has been recognized as a Top 100 Award Winner; Clara received this award previously in 2011.

1485: The Tech Behind The First Credit Card as a Service Solution Feb 02, 2021

Railsbank is the pioneer and innovator in the global Banking as a Platform (BaaP) sector, enabling banks, businesses, and brands to define the future of consumer and SME finance. Currently, Railsbank is live and enabling customers in the UK, Europe, SE Asia, and the US.

The Railsbank platform enables marketers, product managers, developers to take their financial product vision and rapidly prototype, launch and scale their vision using its open finance platform, financial operations, regulatory licensing, and rich set of APIs.

Dov Marmor joins me on the podcast to talk about banking as a service and its next frontier, credit as a service. We discuss the difficulties of building credit cards for fintechs and new use cases that credit card as a service could unlock. We also talk about why building on a platform is a faster way to test ideas, get market feedback, and build a unique value proposition using a standardized set of tools.

Dov Marmor has led two of the top FinTech platform businesses in banking and international payments. Formerly GM and Head of BaaS at Green Dot, Dov grew that business 3X over 2.5 years, launching enterprise programs including Intuit TurboCard, Uber Debit/Money, Stash Banking, Wealthfront Debit, and many others. Prior to that, he launched the US business of Currencycloud, building over 20 new programs and expanding the teams and operational processes for scale.

1484: How Viasat Connects Consumers, Businesses and Governments Feb 01, 2021

Viasat is a global communications company that believes everyone and everything in the world can be connected. For more than 30 years, Viasat has helped shape how consumers, businesses, governments, and militaries around the world communicate. Today, the Company is developing the ultimate global communications network to power high-quality, secure, affordable, fast connections to impact people's lives anywhere they are—on the ground, in the air, or at sea. Viasat recently expanded its operations in Europe and setting a foundation for its upcoming ViaSat-3 satellites by purchasing the remaining 51% share of Euro Broadband Infrastructure (EBI), the wholesale broadband services business created as part of Viasat's former partnering arrangement with Eutelsat Communications.

In today's episode, Rick Baldridge shares Viasat's plans for KA-SAT, as well as Viasat's broader commitment to Europe and its road-map to ensuring ViaSat-3 his supporting a full suite of offerings to consumers and businesses. I also learn how Delta recently selected Viasat's in-flight connectivity to revolutionize the customer experience.

Rick Baldridge is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Viasat, Inc. He is responsible for the executive and operational leadership of the Company, with a focus on building and growing a customer-centric organization that will continue to deliver compelling global services and products.

Rick oversees the corporate strategy and operations for the organization, guiding and evaluating the Company's three operating segments (Broadband Services, Government Systems and Space & Commercial Networks) and cultivating and maintaining relations with the investor community.

1483: DXC Tech Partners With Microsoft on Modern Workplace Solution Jan 31, 2021

DXC Technology (NYSE: DXC) helps global companies run their mission-critical systems and operations while modernizing IT, optimizing data architectures, and ensuring security and scalability across public, private, and hybrid clouds.

With decades of driving innovation, the world’s largest companies trust DXC to deploy the Enterprise Technology Stack to deliver new levels of performance, competitiveness, and customer experiences. Learn more about the DXC story and our focus on people, customers, and operational execution

However, what put them on my radar was the recent news that DXC Technology and Microsoft are collaborating to power a more personalized, intelligent, secure, and modern workplace experience for global enterprises.

I wanted to learn more about how DXC and Microsoft were joining forces to deliver a solution and suite of services called DXC MyWorkStyle™. Michael McDaniel shares how they enable employees to work, connect and collaborate — with a more consumer-like, end-to-end digital workplace experience.

Michael McDaniel is vice president and general manager of Modern Workplace at DXC Technology. He is responsible for DXC’s Modern Workplace business, leading innovation and growth, managing all activities and global staff, and achieving customers’ expectations.

1482: GSD&M - The Creative Tech Bringing Every Touchpoint to Life Jan 31, 2021

GSD&M are the agency behind work for brands that include the United States Air Force, Capital One, Southwest, the Great Chicken Sandwich War of 2019 - remember the chicken wars started by Popeyes - oh yeah, it was GSD&M that came up with it. They were recently tasked to launch the first-ever brand and recruitment campaign for SPACE FORCE.

Maria D'Amato made a name for herself as a brilliant creative mind and smart technologist. A formative partner to clients like Southwest Airlines, Capital One, Pizza Hut, United States Air Force, and others, she has created or been integral in the creation of some of GSD&M's smartest work. For instance, this year's creation of an enormous virtual jigsaw puzzle, the 'Million Piece Mission'. It even made it made into the Guinness Book of World Records!

Perhaps her biggest achievement at the agency so far is her leadership role in helping to establish experience design as a discipline. The formalization of the XD practice—now immersed across all work streams —has fundamentally altered the way the agency approaches problem-solving. GSD&M's XDs fuse a deep understanding of users' behaviors with technical expertise and pursue innovation to the traditional creative workflow.

Maria joins me on the podcast today to share her story and how they are using technology to help brands come alive across every single touchpoint.

1481: The Convergence of Technology and Out-of-Home Advertising Jan 30, 2021

Matthew O'Connor is the CEO and co-founder of AdQuick. This first online platform allows brands, agencies, and individuals to complete the entire process of planning, buying, executing, and measuring out-of-home (OOH) advertising campaigns anywhere in the world.

Out-of-home advertising includes billboards, bus benches, transit stations, vehicle wraps, as well as spaces on cartops, rooftops, and bike-share kiosks, to name a few.

In the past, OOH campaign planning has been a painfully tedious process, requiring dozens of phone calls, comparing prices and inventory, multiple copies of cumbersome spreadsheets and hundreds of back and forth emails, and the like. Technology changed all that.

The out-of-home advertising industry has made significant advancements with technologies, particularly workflow automation, to eliminate up to 90% of the back and forth to execute a campaign. This saves B2B and B2C organizations significant time and money while making it easy to incorporate out-of-home ads into their overall marketing campaigns.

I learn more about how AdQuick is leveraging technology to reshape the out-of-home (OOH) advertising industry and bring it into modern times. We also discuss what role outdoor media will be playing in 2021 when things open back up in the UK, US, and around the world.

1480: Aspen Technology and Industrial AI Category Growth Jan 29, 2021

The ongoing trend toward Industry 4.0, coupled with the pressures of 2020’s climate have accelerated the urgency of AI. Industrial organizations lack AI expertise, but it’s become a matter of survival. This is driving the creation of a new category, “Industrial AI,” with startups like C3 and legacy industrial players like Aveva and AspenTech (NASDAQ: AZPN) racing to win.

In Aug., Aveva acquired an AI company to get a leg up, and AspenTech launched an entirely new business unit, AIoT Hub, to pivot its business focus entirely toward Industrial AI.

AspenTech took on the approach of operationalizing Industrial AI – including (un)supervised and reinforcement learning – for industrial customers. Their aim is to accelerate time to ROI by creating a centralized AI Hub to simplify data management and build a self-optimizing plant of the future without the traditionally needed AI technical skillset. It’s still early days for Industrial AI, and there’s much to be learned.

Frédéric Bastien discusses the challenges of this Industrial AI category, the different players (startups vs. legacy), and the specific AI technical approaches required for Industry 4.0.

1479: Introducing dCommerce With Boson Protocol Jan 28, 2021

Boson Protocol aims to change the world of commerce by enabling enterprises, organizations, and customers to bridge the divide between decentralized digital technologies and the transfer and trade of physical goods.

Creating the de facto infrastructure to achieve this with minimized arbitration, cost, and trust, Boson Protocol is taking eCommerce to the next level with use cases including; loyalty and rewards, crypto exchanges, games, and tokenized networks, amongst others.

Leading the charge at Boson Protocol is serial entrepreneur Justin Banon. Justin previously spearheaded the Travel Experiences Division of Collinson, where he managed a group of global loyalty rewards platforms, including LoungeKey, Mastercard Airport Experiences, and Priority Pass. The latter of which he scaled twenty-fold from $50m to $1bn per annum revenue during his tenure.

Boson Protocol recently closed an oversubscribed SAFE fundraising round, which saw the investment of 8 Outlier Ventures partners, among other notable investors.

Justin shares how the use of eCommerce is compromised due to the industry's centralized, monopolistic nature. We also discuss exactly what 'dCommerce' is and how a decentralized approach to eCommerce can allow parties to engage in online commercial activity in a trusted, safe and fair environment.

1478: Brightcove - Why Enterprises Need Reliable Video Technologies Jan 27, 2021

The events of the year have proven that video as a business tool is a must-have. The global “safer at home” orders have sped its growth, with the power of video growing exponentially and putting traditional media in the catch-up phase. But what’s next for the category as we head into the unknowns of 2021? According to Brightcove, the global leader in video for business, video media usage has been up 40% year over year for the majority of 2020 - establishing that the future for all organizations, from entertainment and sports to retail, enterprise, media publishing and more, is rooted in video.

Brightcove recently released its Global Video Index Year in Review, which showcases video data throughout 2020 and what this means for video in 2021. Brightcove CEO Jeff Ray talks about the evolving trends of video as a necessary medium for storytelling and how businesses need to utilize it in 2021 to remain competitive and profitable. Jeff also shares how he saw an opportunity to seize on an evolutionary moment in time through video. Over the past year, Jeff has worked with partners across categories, including major events like the Tribeca Film Festival, NAB Show, and even Willie Nelson’s “A Night in Austin” COVID-19 aid benefit, as well as organizations like Cvent, DocuSign and ServiceNow to help them pivot to video during the pandemic and remain connected and engaged with audiences.

Jeff discusses specific data from the report on how video usage has increased in different industries this year, as well as insights into how organizations need to use video in order to grow.

1477: Rollbar - The Continuous Code Improvement Platform Jan 26, 2021

Today, I speak with the CEO who co-founded two successful startups before the age of 30, was responsible for growing the social gaming company Lolapps to 100 million users worldwide, and is now revolutionizing the way software bugs are detected and fixed for tech leaders like Twilio, Instacart and Adobe.

Brian Rue founded his first tech company Lolapps while still a Stanford University student in 2008. He left school to dedicate himself full-time, ultimately leading Lolapps to acquire the social gaming company Roflplay. One of their most popular games, Ravenwood Fair, had more than 25 million players worldwide.

While he was at Lolapps, Brian, along with his co-worker and eventual co-founder Cory Vivok, experienced a new reality that building software can be quick and painless. And, in doing so, it allowed for quicker release cycles, leading to shorter times between an idea to users enjoying them, and, overall, the ability to be more creative. In 2012, Brian was inspired to build something that would let every developer experience the magic of building software. Rollbar is a company that has helped more than 5,000 customers and 23,000 paid users process more than 40 billion errors – resulting in 9x increase in releases per year.

We talk about why Brian founded Rollbar and what problems he was trying to solve for developers. We also discuss how most businesses aren’t paying enough attention to their code and are paying for it with unhappy developers and customers.

Brian envisions a world where software is easy to understand, bugs are easy to reproduce, and software can fix itself. He shares his tech predictions for 2021 and what the biggest challenges for developers and what trends we can expect to see across the industry.

1476: Honeywell Quantum Solutions Deliver Quantum Computer Jan 25, 2021

A team of scientists, engineers and technicians at Honeywell have built what is currently the highest performing quantum computer available.

With a quantum volume of 64, the Honeywell quantum computer is twice as powerful as the next alternative in the industry. That means they are closer to industries leveraging our solutions to solve computational problems that are impractical to solve with traditional computers.

“What makes our quantum computers so powerful is having the highest quality qubits, with the lowest error rates. This is a combination of using identical, fully connected qubits and precision control,” said Tony Uttley, president of Honeywell Quantum Solutions.

Brian Neyenhuis, commercial operations leader at Honeywell Quantum Solutions joins me on Tech Talks Daily. He shares Honeywell’s progress in quantum computing in 2020, where he sees it going in 2021, and the types of applications quantum computing can be used for.

1475: Deloitte’s 2021 Global Human Capital Trends Report Jan 24, 2021

Jeff Schwartz, a principal with Deloitte Consulting LLP, is the US leader for the Future of Work and author of Work Disrupted. Schwartz is an adviser to senior business leaders at global companies focusing on workforce and business transformation. He is also the global editor of the Deloitte “Global Human Capital Trends” report series, which he started in 2011.

COVID-19 fundamentally changed the way humans work with technology. As organizations position themselves for 2021, Deloitte’s 2021 Global Human Capital Trends report points to “superteams” as a make-or-break factor for growth. Superteams are powerful combinations of people and technology, leveraging their complementary capabilities to enable greater innovation and productivity at a speed and scale not otherwise possible. Business leaders who are best positioned to thrive in 2021 know that technology is not a substitute for workers. Instead, artificial intelligence and automation technologies can augment the human capabilities of agility and resilience on display this year to a great effect. Jeff Schwartz joins me on the podcast to discuss the report findings and how organizations can adopt superteams to reimagine how work gets done. Jeff also discusses why some organizations haven’t yet embraced superteams as a widespread strategy but how the executive perspective on AI is shifting, with executives recognize that the use of technology and people is not an “either-or” choice a “both-and” partnership.

Jeff also talks about his new book, Work Disrupted: Opportunity, Resilience, and Growth in the Accelerated Future of Work.

1474: Postgres Everywhere: Why Postgres is the Tech to Watch Jan 23, 2021

Ed Boyajian, President and CEO of EDB, joins me on today's Tech Talks Daily episode. We talk about how open-source technology and principles are rebuilding global collaboration. We also discuss how tech companies will need to embrace diversity to accelerate innovation and why Postgres is the technology to watch, especially with hybrid cloud deployments on the rise. Finally, Ed shares his 2021 predictions for Postgres and the broader open source community.

Ed drives the development and execution of EDB's strategic vision and growth strategy in the database industry. Ed joined EDB in 2008 after six years at Red Hat, where he rose to Vice President and General Manager of North America. He played a central leadership role in the development of the modern business model for bringing open source to enterprises.

Before that, he was Vice President of Red Hat's global OEM business, responsible for all partnerships, including the early Linux adoption by HP, IBM, and Dell. As a 15+ year veteran of the open-source software movement, Ed is a seasoned enterprise software executive who emphasizes that EDB must be a technology-first business to lead the open-source data management ecosystem.

Ed is adamant that great technology, above all else, drives market leadership. Ed believes strongly in the importance of investing in partnerships across the open-source and commercial software and hardware ecosystem. Ed served as a Captain in the U.S. Army and trained as an Airborne Ranger. Within EDB, he coaches and encourages each employee to hone leadership skills. Ed is known for his passion, relentless energy, and strategic leadership.

1473: Mobile Wallets Thrive in the Wake of COVID-19 Jan 22, 2021

The global pandemic has forced Billions to change their behaviors — how they interact, how they manage their money, and how they make payments. In September 2020, in partnership with Propeller Insights, Marqeta surveyed 2,006 Americans to find out how this last year has impacted consumer buying habits and the payments landscape as a whole.

Mobile wallets have been called the “next big thing” in payments since Apple Pay was introduced in 2014. Consumer and merchant adoption rates of digital wallets told a slightly different story, however, with adoption growing steadily but falling short of the hype. This all changed when the world changed in 2020. Mobile wallet adoption has surged in the last year, becoming one of the preferred consumer payment methods throughout the pandemic.

I invited Vidya Peters from Marqeta onto the show to explore the report and learn more about how mobile wallets are now at the forefront of the evolution of payments. As the Marqeta Chief Marketing Officer, I also learn how Vidya was named #1 on the Top 25 Women Leaders in Financial Technology list.

Marqeta is the first global modern card issuing platform, providing the most advanced infrastructure and tools for building highly configurable payment cards. With its open API, the Marqeta platform is designed for businesses who want a simple and tailored way of managing payment programs so that they can create world-class experiences and power new modes of commerce.

1472: The Security Risks of Unmanaged Tech In Businesses Jan 21, 2021

New data reveals the competing – and sometimes conflicting – challenges and priorities of IT leaders from 2020 that are shaping IT’s agenda for 2021 when it comes to managing risk. According to a new global survey, 72% of IT leaders and 52% of employees agreed that security is the biggest issue when it comes to unaccounted for and unmanaged technology. It seems that IT’s continuous efforts to reinforce security best practices may finally be paying off. But there is a lower level of awareness for additional issues, especially among employees, with 16% believing unaccounted for and unmanaged technologies do not cause any business problems whatsoever. Snow Software CIO Alastair Pooley joins me on Tech Talks Daily to dive deeper into the findings. On joining Snow, Alastair championed the idea of launching SaaS services and established both a hosting and Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) function to support such growth. This provides the infrastructure and Support for over 200 customers who have adopted such services and provided a path to future growth for the business.

By adopting a SaaS/IaaS approach to IT services Snow has managed to pass $100M of ARR with barely any owned infrastructure. Over 90% of Snow’s IT lives either with a SaaS provider or in the public cloud. This is achieved on a zero-trust design which focuses on building single sign on capabilities with strong cybersecurity controls. Alastair also initiated, and now oversees, the cybersecurity function at Snow to provide a central risk and compliance function for the business.

1471: How Wacom and Citrix Became EdTech Enablers Jan 20, 2021

COVID-19 forced many industries to rethink their use of technology. Many of which you wouldn't automatically associate with tech. As teaching went from the classroom to remote learning, I wanted to learn more about how Citrix and its partners were working together to work beyond their traditional IT infrastructure and embrace new equipment that is transforming education.

After learning more about how Citrix and Wacom were working together to ensure this transition was much easier, I felt compelled to share that story with you all. Todd Smith from Citrix and Mindy Thielges from Wacom join me in a conversation about transforming our students, teachers, and parents' approach to education through technology.

Mindy Thielges is a Senior Sales Specialist at Wacom. Mindy is an evangelist for digital pen and ink technologies in education – and is a key player in Wacom's growing education initiatives across K-12 and higher education.

Before joining Wacom, Mindy spent 15+ years focused on education technology as a sales leader, in addition to delivering professional development workshops for teachers on 3D printing and robotics, and also spearheaded a workforce initiative to provide certification training in computer-aided design software for displaced mechanical engineers.

Mindy's passion for education is driven by seeing how the teaching tools she has sold over the years connect students with each other while they learn critical thinking skills and spark their creativity to design a better world.

Todd Smith is a Sr. Sales Engineering Manager at Citrix Systems. In this capacity, Todd manages a team of technical sales professionals providing customers and partners with modern workspace solutions for business challenges. He has been responsible for the healthcare vertical, as well as emerging products. His particular areas of expertise include; digital transformation, the delivery of mission-critical applications, desktop and server virtualization, mobile computing, disaster recovery, IT compliance, information security, and green IT. Prior to Citrix, Todd has worked in the technology industry for more than 30 years in multiple industry verticals including; IT Auditing and Consulting for HIPAA, Sarbanes-Oxley, ITIL, and ISO certification and compliance, IT Consulting, Program Management, Outsourcing, and IT Operations Management, Application Development and Management for Financial Services, and IT Services for Transportation Systems. Todd earned a BS in Computer Science from Wentworth Institute of Technology, Boston, MA, and resides in Danvers, MA.

1470: Hughes Network Systems - Connecting the Unconnected Jan 19, 2021

As the world continues to cope and battle with COVID-19, the Internet has become a lifeline for billions of people to work, learn, access critical information, and stay connected with friends and family. According to United Nations estimates, only 53.6% of the global population has Internet access. Some reports indicate that nearly 42 million Americans still lack broadband internet in rural areas. As a result of the pandemic, countries worldwide are compelled to reckon with the repercussions of a digital divide within their borders, and many are accelerating efforts to connect the unconnected. However, the digital divide is a complicated issue, and it is essential to distinguish the lack of land-based connectivity from there being no internet connectivity available at all. With growing innovations and a lot of buzz around space recently, satellite technology prevails as the only fast, affordable, and sustainable solution that can address the glaring connectivity deficit the pandemic has illuminated.

Mark Wymer from Hughes Network Systems joins me on the podcast to talk about the technologies that are helping to connect the unconnected worldwide (e.g., cellular backhaul, community wi-fi). We also discuss the evolving/emerging satellite technologies that help create a ubiquitous network, including how 5G, LEO, MEO, and GEO satellites will work together to achieve multi-path connectivity.

Hughes Network Systems is the global leader in broadband satellite technology and services for home and office. Its flagship high-speed satellite Internet service is HughesNet®, the world’s largest satellite network with over 1.5 million residential and business customers across the Americas.

For large enterprises and governments, the company’s HughesON™ managed network services provide complete connectivity solutions employing an optimized mix of satellite and terrestrial technologies.

The JUPITER™ System is the world’s most widely deployed High-Throughput Satellite (HTS) platform, operating on more than 40 satellites by leading service providers, delivering a wide range of broadband enterprise, mobility, and cellular backhaul applications.

To date, Hughes has shipped more than 7 million terminals of all types to customers in over 100 countries, representing approximately 50 percent market share. Its technology is powering broadband services to aircraft around the world.

1469: Helping Businesses Meet Compliance, Security, and Privacy Goals Jan 18, 2021

Gary S. Chan is an information security management consultant focused on helping businesses stay secure and meet compliance obligations. Companies hire Gary to help them build or improve their cybersecurity programs. Today, he joins me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss how companies can build information security that makes pragmatic sense.

We discuss the current and future state of cybersecurity and why small companies need to think about cybersecurity, and how to do it within budget. We also discuss how large enterprises can build effective and efficient cybersecurity programs and talks about security innovation.

Gary has 16 years of experience, four security certifications, and an electrical engineering and computer science degree from MIT. Having worked in over a dozen countries, Gary has deployed security solutions to multiple state agencies, built the information security program for large-cap companies, mentored cybersecurity start-ups, and given seminars on cybersecurity.

1468: Doubling Customers, Sales and Profits with A/B testing Jan 17, 2021

Competition is on the rise, advertising costs are going up, and target market buying habits are changing. For you to evolve and adapt quickly, you need to be testing. You need to test fast, and you need to test often to grow and scale effectively. Your website might look great, but is it optimized and delivering results? Increasing your online sales isn't a matter of closing your eyes, throwing a dart, and hoping you hit the bullseye. There's a proven, methodical, and scientific process for creating an online sales engine that predictably and continually increases your profits, month after month and year after year. But I wanted to learn more about the technology that makes it all possible. Today's guest is Justin Christianson. He is a self-proclaimed numbers junkie and a digital marketing veteran. Not to mention a Father, Husband, and #1 Bestselling author of "Conversion Fanatic: How to double your customers, sales and profits with A/B testing". Justin is also the co-founder and President of Conversion Fanatics, a full-service conversion rate optimization company, helping companies like Burt's Bees, Dr. Axe, and many others improve their results.

Justin shares tips on marketing growth, conversation optimizations, user experience optimization, scaling, starting/growing/managing a business, eCommerce marketing, and analytics-driven marketing. You can learn more about Justin at http://conversionfanatics.com/.

1467: Dronamics Reveals Five European Droneports Jan 16, 2021

Dronamics, the world's leading middle-mile cargo drone developer and operator, recently unveiled the first five airports in its European network of cargo droneports. The Dronamics European Droneport Network is the world's first cargo droneport network. It includes private airports and airport groups operating more than 35 airports in 11 European countries, connecting 300 million people with low-cost same-day cargo service.

The company will operate same-day flights within the network using its proprietary "Black Swan" large cargo drones, each with a capacity of 350 kg and range of up to 2,500 km, reducing time, cost and emissions by up to 80% compared to traditional air cargo. Svilen Rangelov, Co-Founder and CEO of Dronamics, shares his mission to enable same-day air deliveries for every single person on the planet at a cost that everyone everywhere can afford. I learn more about how this Bulgarian startup wants to reinvent e-commerce with its cargo drone and how drone technologies can help supply chains become lockdown-proof during the pandemic

1466: An AI Recommendation Engine for Technical Support Jan 15, 2021

When something goes wrong, tech teams don't have the luxury of logging a support ticket. When I heard about Peritus, an AI recommendation for technical support, I felt compelled to find out more.

Robin Purohit is the co-founder and CEO of Peritus.ai, a Bay area startup that is tackling technical support for developers and engineers. He was previously a senior executive at BMC and HP Software, where he led multi-billion dollar business units for IT management, application delivery, and security.

AI chatbots for customer support are getting significant attention and investment in industries ranging from retail to financial services to employee help desks. However, an important area neglected is support for engineers and developers who are driving IT innovation.

These technical users have little patience for pre-wired chatbots without industry context and view opening a support ticket as the last resort. Instead, they look for insights from trusted experts on Community Forums, such as Stack Overflow or vendor-sponsored communities. When done well, community forums can create both user loyalty and deflect costly support cases.

Peritus, an AI recommendation engine for support automation, recently announced the results of its first IT Industry Forum Benchmark that examined over 12 million posts and responses on over 50 leading IT industry forums for vendors and open source technologies such as Cisco, MongoDB, and Kubernetes.

The benchmark study zeroed in on four key metrics:

The number of posts that were resolved
How quickly the average length to resolve each post was resolved.
Whether posts were resolved by the first response,
How many experts answered the bulk of the questions.

1465: How Password Managers Can Prevent You From Being Hacked Jan 14, 2021

How secure are your passwords? Have you ever used the same password on more than one website or app? If one of those sites suffers a breach, hackers will attempt to use the exact details on popular websites such as NETFLIX, Amazon. PayPal etc.

An average person has 70-80 passwords. A strong password's key aspects are length, a mix of letters (upper and lower case), numbers, and symbols, no ties to your personal information, and no dictionary words. Nobody can remember them all, and it's not safe to write them all down.

In today's episode, I explore online security fails and how to avoid them. Gary Orenstein is the CCO of Bitwarden, a password management app that embodies the password security for all mindset.

It's the only open-source solution focused on enterprise AND individuals: Source code transparency means it is easy to review, audit, and contribute to the Bitwarden codebase, keeping it secure under the world's watchful eyes.

Gary shares tips for businesses to seamlessly transition to using a password manager and how to outsmart phishing scams. We also discuss how both individuals and companies.

1464: Baracoda - CES 2021 Innovation Awards Honoree Jan 13, 2021

Did you know that a high percentage of missed school days in emerging markets are due to dental problems caused by poor dental care practices? Or, that 90 percent of global health problems, including COVID-19, would be solved if all of us washed our hands seven times a day?

In this podcast, Thomas Serval, CEO of Baracoda Group, discusses how health issues can be prevented through daily care and wellness practices. His company is creating new smart objects for the bathroom—mirrors, bathmats, toothbrushes, and so on—connected by an open operating system, CareOS. The smart bathroom ecosystem Baracoda and its partners are developing is privacy-first, but the data and insights generated can help people proactively prevent diseases and support better health practices over the long-term.

We talk about Thomas’ 17 years of experience at CES, where Baracoda has consistently introduced award-winning daily healthtech innovations. This year marks the fifth year in a row of garnering CES Innovation Awards.

At this year’s virtual event, Baracoda unveiled the Themis smart mirror, named a CES 2021 Innovation Awards Honoree. Themis provides a privacy-first wide range of health and wellness capabilities: skin analysis, product recommendations, makeup and beard tutorials, daily temperature checks, smart alerts, fertility cycle reminders, and more—all in a compact form factor with a 10-inch screen at an accessible price. The company also showcased Baracoda BBalance, the smart bathroom mat that checks weight, balance, and posture—also a CES 2020 Innovation Awards Honoree.

Not many people think of the bathroom as the hub of preventative health practices, but this enlightening podcast will change your mind. New connected objects can help you spot suspicious moles that might signal skin cancer, check your temperature and heart rate, and determine whether or not you are brushing your teeth effectively.

Learn more about Baracoda’s daily healthtech innovations, the company’s strategy, and the impact it could have on your health through better daily care—all in the privacy of your bathroom.

Thomas Serval, Co-Founder Chairman and CEO - Baracoda

Former senior executive at Microsoft and Google. A graduate of the Ecole Normale Supérieure, and of the Ecole Nationale de la Statistique et de l’Administration Economique (ENSAE), Thomas filed his first patent - a Bluetooth barcode scanner - in 2000, and co-founded Baracoda the following year. Thomas is a serial entrepreneur and a visionary leader. He transforms large companies, as much as the daily life of consumers, through his disruptive innovations. Thomas is a board member of Arte and Younited Credit.

1463: Technology and the Future of CRM With Jeroen Corthout Jan 13, 2021

Jeroen Corthout, Co-founder at Salesflare, joins me on the Tech Talks Daily Podcast. We talk about why people don't use CRMs and how to fix that. We discuss why a CRM is even more critical today with remote selling etc. We also explore the future of CRM and the impacts of data automation, sales automation, AI, and other emerging technologies.

I also learn more about the startup story behind the company. For those that don't know, Salesflare is an intelligent CRM that is attractive to startups and small businesses. It's a zero-input sales pipeline tool that thinks and works for its user, not the other way around. No more manual data entry. Salesflare fills out your address book and keeps track of all interactions with the people you're in contact with.

Its technology takes data from social media, company databases, phone, email, calendar and hands it to you in automated customer timelines that tell you everything you need to know. You just have to write the emails, make the calls, and have the coffee. Never miss a deal again. Salesflare will tell and remind you what to do about leads so deals can't fall through the cracks anymore.

Visual pipelines and powerful insights put you in full control of your sales funnel. Intuitive and easy-to-use, Salesflare turns complexity into simplicity so you can turn leads into customers. Salesflare works wherever you work and with whatever you are working with. It can be used on desktop, mobile or just from a sidebar in your email inbox (Gmail and Outlook). Get even more out of Salesflare by integrating with 400+ other productivity tools, such as Google Apps, MailChimp, Trello and Slack.

1462: How Industrial Remote Workers Are Leveraging Mixed Reality Jan 12, 2021

Kognitiv Spark is a tech company and Microsoft MRPP gold partner recognized for its competency in the secure, reliable, and network agnostic applications of Mixed Reality for remote support.

Its flagship product, Remote Spark, is an industrial-grade platform that allows a remote worker to establish a low-bandwidth, secure audio-video call with a subject matter expert when they need help solving a complex problem.

The expert, who can be located anywhere in the world, can then see what the remote worker sees and use holographic assets to support the task, all the while keeping the user heads-up and hands-free. RemoteSpark can facilitate the transfer of photos, files (PDFs, Microsoft Office documents), and multi-step animated holograms.

IoT data can be tied to holographic assets and represented to remote workers for increased situational awareness. AI can be leveraged for the delivery of task-relevant assets.

Ryan Groom is Kognitiv Spark's Co-Founder and CTO. An accomplished software developer and author, Ryan achieved his first published software application in 1992. Two software books co-authored by Ryan were published in 1997 and 1998, followed by a Security Publication for Microsoft in 2004. Ryan was the Security Business Guide for ⁨About.com⁩, a New York Times web property from 2006 to 2008.

With his experience and expertise in networking, software development, and security, Ryan formed the company CyberSecure in 2002. CyberSecure became Microsoft Canada's first Gold Security Partner and won the 2004 Microsoft Canada Impact Award for Excellence in Security Solutions for the work done with the Toronto Police Department.

The company was wholly acquired on September 1st, 2004. Shortly after the acquisition of CyberSecure, Ryan joined VE Networks as Chief Engineer and later became the Chief Technology Officer, which resulted in a successful patent filing.

Ryan has consulted for some of the biggest IT companies, including IBM, Microsoft, Cisco, and Bell Canada. In his spare time between holographic computing, Ryan films for his TV show Trekkit and helps out with the local Scouts Canada troop.

1461: Procore and the Digital Transformation of Construction Jan 11, 2021

COVID-19 forced many industries to rethink their use of technology. This is incredibly true for construction – one of the oldest, largest, and least digitized industries in the world (only slightly ahead of Agriculture in its adoption of tech).

Construction cannot simply stop, but when the global pandemic tried to do just that, 2020 became the year that finally forced construction – an industry that remained a holdout – to officially adopt a new approach to getting work done through the use of technology.

Procore is a construction management software platform. The company is on a mission to connect everyone in construction on a global platform. It was founded in 2002, and Wyatt Jenkins joined the company earlier this year after leading product Patreon and Shutterstock.

I invited him on the podcast to discuss how 2020 became the year that the construction industry went digital and tech's role in transforming the construction industry, and what's ahead for the industry in 2021.

I learn how this transformation is creating mountains of data that can be used to improve efficiency and effectiveness within the construction industry. It is also placing a burden on construction companies to decide how to best operate with a whole new set of tools.

1460: Mark Donnigan and the Startup Founders Marketing Playbook Jan 10, 2021

Mark Donnigan builds disruptive innovative startups. Mark's superpower is architecting go-to-market plans and marketing motions that drive real business outcomes for technical and product-centric founders. Mark's growth and market development experience spans 20 years as a transformative B2B marketing and business leader, driving demand, brand development, and strategy for startup and growth-stage companies.

Mark joins me on the Tech Talks Daily Podcast to talk about what a go-to-market engineering process looks like and how to leverage category design to build your market. We explore the latest MarTech trends and why demand gen is the responsibility of the entire company, led by marketing.

Mark also shares why he feels today's CMO is a business strategist and an ecosystem/domain expert as much as a marketer. He also advises how to act as a Wartime CMO and what behavior differentiates wartime from peacetime.

1459: Connecting Sensors to the Cloud to Power the IoT Revolution Jan 09, 2021

Alicia Asin Perez is the CEO of Libelium, a Spanish company she founded back in 2006 to monitor and improve the efficiency of everything from agricultural crops and water quality management (for instance helping beluga wales in Alaska) to smartphone detection and smart city management using digital technology.

As an example, Libelium's technology is currently being used above the tomb of Tutankhamun to collect climatic data (relative humidity, temperature) and measure fracture aperture behavior above the tomb. The tech is even now being used to monitor water quality for the Scottish Salmon Association! Alicia is extremely focused on using digital technology for environmental and sustainability purposes, hence why her company does so much work in this area. Libelium now has around 150 employees around the world and customers in more than 120 countries.

Alicia shares her journey to becoming a tech CEO, balancing family life with two children while building and financing a global tech company with ongoing projects in every continent around the world. In 2015, Alicia became the first Spanish woman to win the National Entrepreneur Award and has gone on to collect many similar awards and speak at lots of international events.

I also learn how Libelium designs and manufactures technological solutions to make the Internet of things possible. Alica shares how Libelium’s wireless sensor platform allows connecting the physical and digital worlds.

1458: What Remote First Companies Need to Think About in 2021 Jan 08, 2021

2020 saw millions of people adapt to remote working across the globe. As a result of the pandemic, businesses including Twitter and Microsoft, to name a few, have committed to long term remote working plans for their employees.

However, how do these businesses, who may not have had remote work strategies in place before the pandemic – adapt to this way of working? How do new remote companies continue to hire employees worldwide while remaining fully compliant with individual country laws and regulations?

Remote was founded in 2019 by Job Van Der Voort and Marcelo Lebre to simplify how companies employ global talent. Their entire team works remotely in countries around the world. They don’t have any offices because we believe that people do their best work when they are free to work where they choose.

Before founding Remote, Job Van Der Voort worked as a neuroscientist and was the VP of Product at GitLab, the world's largest fully remote company. I invited Job to join me in conversation on the Tech Talks Daily Podcast to share how they help unite international payroll, benefits, compliance, and tax for businesses in one place.

1457: On-Demand Pay Fintech Provider DailyPay Jan 07, 2021

For innovative companies of scale, DailyPay is the leading no-cost, on-demand pay experience platform. It delivers transparent, compliant, and seamless integration with existing payroll systems. Employers who offer DailyPay can reduce costs substantially by out-hiring the market and keeping employees longer, because employees with financial peace of mind are happier, more productive, and have stronger relationships with their employers.

The senior management team at DailyPay spent years at AOL, Goldman Sachs, and LendingHome. DailyPay is backed by leading venture capital firms and world-class strategic investors. The Company is headquartered in New York.

Since its inception in 2015, DailyPay has partnered with over 250 companies like Kroger, Burger King, Vera Bradley, and Sprinkles Cupcakes to provide employees real-time access to earned pay, with the end goal of empowering Americans to have more control of their earnings to better save, spend and invest.

Jason Lee, CEO, and founder, joins me on the Tech Talks Daily Podcast. We talk about why the traditional monthly payroll system is outdated in a digital age and on-demand world.

Before founding DailyPay, Jason spent nearly two decades at Goldman, Sachs & Co. where he founded and led the Global Structured Equity Group. Jason is an active angel investor and is a member of the Forbes Finance Council.

1456: Noah Labhart - Startup Founder, CTO and Podcast Host Jan 06, 2021

Veryable is a marketplace for on-demand labor for manufacturing and distribution, which provides businesses with higher productivity and fewer administrative burdens and workers with flexible work arrangements.

Noah Labhar is a startup founder, CTO, and podcast host. Noah shares his startup story and personal experience building an engineering team of non-CS grads.

In a tech startup, how do you get from an idea on the back of a napkin to a fully functioning product? Code Story is a podcast hosted by Noah featuring tech leaders, reflecting the roads they travelled and the products they created.

He interviews tech visionaries on his show, digging into the critical moments of what it takes to change an industry and build & lead a team that has your back. Code Story is a window into the digital startup world. In their own words, tech veterans share what it feels like to create a world-class product, how to recover from critical mistakes, and how to scale your solution to the masses.

We talk about all this and the shifting landscape for on-demand workers, and the tech hurdles Noah has overcome in his career.

Useful Links https://noahlabhart.com https://veryableops.com https://codestory.co

1455: The Tech Bringing Interactive Screens Into Cooler Aisles Jan 05, 2021

Arsen Avakian, founder/former CEO of Argo Tea and current co-founder and CEO of Cooler Screens, joins me on the Tech Talks Daily Podcast. Cooler Screens recently announced its largest round of funding yet, backed by Microsoft and Verizon.

I learn how Cooler Screens has secured a multi-year collaboration with Microsoft focused on bringing an immersive digital experience to brick-and-mortar retail environments. Through the collaboration, Cooler Screens will work with Microsoft to scale the delivery of its immersive digital media and merchandising platform hosted on Microsoft Azure to retailers and product brands. The companies will also explore additional integration opportunities to deliver enhanced experiences to customers.

Cooler Screens is transforming retail cooler surfaces into IoT-enabled screens. Their media platform reimagines the brick-and-mortar shopping experience for consumers in the cooler and freezer aisle while delivering new marketing opportunities and smart merchandising for brands and retailers.

Employees work directly with proven leaders as an integral part of the development and growth of our company. Their digital- and design-led culture allows our team members to think creatively, challenge the status quo, and use their abilities to change the face of retail forever.

Arsen also shares his plans for the future of the first-of-its-kind media and merchandising platform that leverages smart screens powered by AI and IoT.

1454: Optimizing the Customer Experience With Conversational AI Jan 04, 2021

Liam Delap, Digital Automation Leader and Director of Enterprise at Pypestream, joins me on the Tech Talks Daily Podcast.

Liam is a CX automation and Conversational AI evangelist and has served as an enterprise technology consultant and leader throughout most of his career, working with many Fortune 1000 organizations to transform their customer's digital experience.

At Pypestream, Liam enables both existing and prospective clients with insight into how to craft their automation journey using Conversational AI for optimal success. His dedication to understand each client's environment and needs allows Liam to design custom solutions that always ensure an outstanding return on investment (ROI).

Pypestream is a conversational AI platform that optimizes the customer experience at the enterprise level. Pypestream has been in business for five years. They are venture-backed, with 38M raised and seeing increased success as the pandemic forces large companies to think outside of the call center box when outsourcing customer support.

We talk about AI Chatbots and using artificial intelligence to automate customer experience. We also discuss the effects of the CoronaVirus pandemic on CX and the technological changes they have forced.

1453: Leverage Google and Facebook Ads Profitably Jan 03, 2021

Ads can be complicated. Ajala Digital is on a mission to make them simple. Run by a former Google employee, the company is a certified Google Partner specializing in mobile, search, video, shopping, and display ads.

Pamela Wagner is the founder and CEO of Ajala Digital. A company that has worked with more than 2000 companies to grow their businesses through paid ads.

In 2017, Pamela was made Forbes 30 Under 30 list, and her insights have been featured on all major media platforms, such as ABC News, Forbes, Yahoo, Mashable, MSN, the Washington Times, Google Startup Grind, and many more.

Before founding her company, she worked at Google, and the accomplishment she is most proud of is Climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro at 22. I invited her on to the show to talk about how to grow/scale companies through Google Ads & Google Analytics and manage Google Ads (or paid ads in general) effectively in-house.

1452: Average Joe: Be the Silicon Valley Tech Genius Jan 02, 2021

Many of putting tech geniuses such as Steve Jobs or Elon Musk on a pedestal. Equally, self-imposed limitations and imposter syndrome prevent us from building the next Amazon out of a garage like Jeff Bezos. But how can the average Joe or Joanne be the next Silicon Valley Tech Genius?

How did some tech founders create breakthrough products and grow their startups into household names? How did one tech entrepreneur convince an investor in a brief car ride to sign a term sheet for 4 billion dollars?

They are tech geniuses—software programmers and startup founders with a magic touch and a special mystique. They capture the imagination of our media, as they turn simple ideas into highly profitable, billion-dollar businesses. But the tech genius is not exactly what you might think.

Shawn Livermore tackles this subject head-on in his Amazon Best Selling Business Business Non-Fiction Book called Average Joe: Be the Silicon Valley Tech Genius.

Average Joe dispels the myth of the tech genius, explaining how these clever nerds work their wonders. But in a surprising twist, it also helps anyone become the myth themselves.

Using new concepts and tools like the Slow Create Framework, the Mindless Work LADDER, and Sustainable Mystique, anyone can up their game and go from average Joe to tech genius.

1451: The Role of Technology in Event Food and Sustainability Jan 01, 2021

Have you eaten and drank too much over the holiday season? Have you already uttered the words, New Year, New Me? In today's episode, I want to explore our relationship with food and the increasing role that technology plays in managing our diet.

I invited Tracy Stuckrath onto Tech Talks Daily to discuss the apps and tech solutions that she recommends. We also talk about the food tech scene and community and how more people are turning to technology to manage their health and wellbeing. Tracy shares the tech trends that could help people with dietary requirements, lays to rest a few myths around food allergies and dietary requirements.

Tracy Stuckrath is an event planner and international speaker with food allergies based in New Bern, North Carolina. She launched Thrive! Meetings & Events in 2010, changing the trajectory of her event planning career to educate organizations on how to feed attendees with dietary needs.

Tracy has co-authored two books — Humans@Work and You@Work, working on her third (Eating at a Meeting), and has been named Top 25 Women in the Meetings Industry, Meetings Industry Change Maker and one of the Top 500 Event Professionals in North America for her work on the topic of inclusive food and beverage.

Tracy's Eating at a Meeting podcast explores various topics on food and beverage (F&B) and how they impact individual experience and inclusion, sustainability, culture, community, health and wellness, laws, and more. Her mission is to share authentic stories that illustrate the financial, social, emotional, and mental impact food and beverage have on individuals, organizations, and the earth.

1450: Cryptocurrency Tax Software - The TurboTax for Crypto Investors. Dec 31, 2020

Millions of cryptocurrency users face a challenging problem when it comes to staying compliant with tax laws. Due to the way the digital asset is treated by governments around the world, it is most often subject to capital gains and losses rules similar to stocks, bonds, and other forms of property.

This sparks a wide variety of problems for consumers, cryptocurrency exchanges, tax professionals, and other platforms that need to provide both cost basis data and fair market value data to properly report the asset for tax purposes.

CryptoTrader.Tax is a platform built to solve this challenge, and with its 2018 partnership with tax giant TurboTax, it is now bringing cryptocurrency tax services to the mainstream. The company is often referred to as The TurboTax for Crypto Investors.

David Kemmerer is a veteran in the crypto space and co-founder and CEO of CryptoTrader.Tax, a tax reporting software for Crypto Investors. He joins me on Tech Talks Daily to share the fascinating story of how he got started in Crypto and what we can expect in the coming years in this exciting new field.

David is a thought leader in the cryptocurrency industry on all things tax-related. His work has been featured in Forbes, Bloomberg, Venture Beat, CoinTelegraph, and many other publications. David has also spoken at industry events like the LA Blockchain Summit, TF Blockchain Conference, and more.

1449: Real-Time Locating Systems (RTLS) Dec 30, 2020

Quuppa has raised the bar for advanced location systems, delivering the world’s most open, accurate, and reliable location positioning thanks to a unique combination of Bluetooth®, the Angle-of-Arrival (AoA) and Angle-of-Departure (AoD) methodologies, advanced location algorithms, and management software tools that have been developed over the course of more than 15 years.

To date, the Quuppa Ecosystem has more than 180 partners around the world who use Quuppa’s open positioning platform to deliver accurate, cost-effective location solutions to companies in a range of industries, including manufacturing and logistics, retail, healthcare, sports, law enforcement, and security, government, asset tracking, and others.

Fabio Belloni, CCO, Quuppa, joins me on the podcast to talk about their all-in-one indoor positioning systems that enable unmatched accuracy, safety, and reliability. I learn more about how Quuppa offers highly accurate positioning using a multifaceted, data-driven approach that applies to a seemingly endless number of use cases.

We also discuss the importance and power of location service technology and how by providing real-time insights into key environments, businesses, and lives can be protected and improved, especially in an increasingly challenging world.

1448: The Future of Blockchain Network Governance Dec 29, 2020

Blockdaemon is a blockchain deployment facilitator. What Heroku does for the cloud, they do for blockchain networks: easy one-click deployment, management, and supervision of nodes, no matter in what configuration.

Their solution is fully portable, allowing you to switch networks and chains with the click of a button, so you don't have to worry about picking the perfect network configuration from day one. The company also supports the blockchain developer ecosystem with best-of-breed dev-ops advise.

Konstantin Richter, CEO/Founder, Blockdaemon, joins me on the Tech Talks Daily podcast. Konstantin shares his background as a software developer, and how he came to enter the world of crypto/blockchain. We discuss the origins of Blockdaemon and how the company has evolved over the past three years.

Other topics up for discussion is the institutional adoption of DLT. The pros and cons of institutions entering the sector and how we can bring institutions into crypto the right way. Finally, why nodes are important scaling up blockchain networks and democratizing the control of nodes in a network.

1447: AI & ML Require the Right Complementary Tech to Fight Fraud Dec 28, 2020

Entersekt is an innovator of mobile-first fintech solutions. Financial services providers and other enterprises rely on its patented mobile identity system to provide both security and the best in convenient new digital experiences to their customers, irrespective of the service channel. Dewald Nolte, Chief Strategy Officer at Entersekt, joins me on the Tech Talks Daily podcast. A recent Javelin report found that account takeover fraud is trending at the highest loss rate, up a staggering 72% over the prior year. Initially, AI-driven behavioral biometrics was used primarily to prevent this type of fraud. However, more recently, its application has expanded to identity proofing in light of the massive data breaches and enables risk-based authentication in payment apps. According to Dewald, advances in AI will continue to drive even more capabilities, but its behavioral biometrics isn’t multifactor authentication – it must be combined with a robust digital-certificate-based ID to consumers’ devices.

When there is enough interaction in an existing user journey to allow behavioral analytics to seamlessly slot in and perform well, then it’s an ideal use case. In situations where user interaction and data are limited, it would be better to use other tools in the authentication stack rather than forcing a use case to adapt to a technology.

1446: Big Tech's Responsibility in Protecting Data Privacy Dec 27, 2020

Infrastructure for personal data access, storage, and portability. Dataswift liberates the value of personal data. Untethering it from central silos and distributing it to individual Personal Data Accounts. Fully owned, fully accessible, fully permissible.

Irene Ng, leading data privacy expert and CEO of Dataswift, joins me on the Tech Talks Daily podcast. We discuss big tech's responsibility in protecting data privacy and the importance of the ethical data economy. Irene also shares her controversial opinion about why big tech is actually undervalued and why big tech's problem isn't the monetization of data; it's the lack of transparency.

Irene Ng is an entrepreneur, academic and market design economist, Professor of Marketing and Service Systems at WMG, University of Warwick, a Turing Fellow. She is the inventor of personal data accounts (patent pending) for a new asset class of personal data owned by individuals themselves and also the CEO of Dataswift.io. Irene was also previously named one of the 50 women to watch on the Female FTSE Board Report in 2019 and was called a "Data Guardian" by BBC.

1445: Transforming The In-Car Experience With AR Holographic Display Tech Dec 26, 2020

Envisics is a globally-renowned dynamic holography pioneer. Since 2010, Envisics has been developing holographic technologies for augmented reality head-up displays (AR-HUDs) and automotive sensor systems. The advancement of Envisics' technology has the opportunity to transform automotive displays and revolutionize the in-car experience.

In partnership with the world's leading automakers and tier-one suppliers, Envisics is making the future of holographic technology a reality for smarter and safer vehicles. With a successful track record of commercializing its technology, Envisics has been qualifying its next generation of holographic technology for series production.

Already in use in more than 200,000, the company recently raised $50 million Series B from blue-chip automotive companies Hyundai Mobis, General Motors Ventures, SAIC Motors, and Van Tuyl Companies (VTC) to revolutionize holography and the in-car experience.

Dr. Jamieson Christmas developed an early passion for holography as a massive fan of Star Wars, and later earned a doctorate at Cambridge University, where he attained his a Doctorate of Philosophy from the University of Cambridge, where he focused on creating real-time holography for displays.

In his current role as Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Envisics (formerly Two Trees Photonics, which was acquired by DAQRI), Envisics emerged in 2017 to specialize in the development and supply of holographic technologies for the automotive market.

Jamie discusses his journey and origins of Envisics as well as the recent partnerships and where the company is bringing true augmented reality holographic head-up displays (HUDs) and holographic sensing systems to the automotive sector for multi-use applications and how this will drive future innovations for safer navigation and an improved driving experience.

I learn how Hyundai Mobis, General Motors Ventures, SAIC Motors, and Van Tuyi Companies invested $50M in Envisics for In-Car Holography.We also talk about how automotive leaders back pioneering holography startup to fast-track the development of technology already used in more than 200,000 vehicles.

1444: Neil's Alternative Christmas Speech Dec 25, 2020

1443: Qualcomm - A Journey In Wireless Audio Technology Dec 24, 2020

For many of you listening, I suspect you will have a drawer of different headphones depending on whether you are traveling, exercising, or wanting to avoid distractions and interruptions in the office. But today, I want to explore the technology and innovation that is transforming the Audio that brings to life the music, audiobooks, and podcasts that we consume.

Bluetooth LE Audio is a new industry standard that will extend the capabilities of classic Bluetooth and offer up new possibilities for wireless audio use cases, with capabilities such as broadcast, multicast, and audio sharing.

Qualcomm has worked closely with the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) and is helping to further the wireless audio ecosystem evolution. This includes innovating integrated technology platforms that support the current Bluetooth standard alongside LE Audio, which is critical for ensuring end-products are fit for purpose in the real world.

Guy Gampell joins me on the show to discuss Qualcomm's audio innovations and technology. We discuss how the New Ultra-Low Power Bluetooth Audio SoCs will improve the true wireless sound. I also learn how Qualcomm's breakthrough adaptive active noise-cancelling technology is Designed to Deliver Increased Comfort, Consistent Performance, and Improved Sound Quality for True Wireless Earbuds.

I also look under the hood to learn how the Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 888 Mobile Platform, with the Qualcomm® FastConnect™ 6900 connectivity system, brings mobile-side support for Bluetooth 5.2, LE Audio, aptX audio, and other features providing further interoperability benefits for sound quality, wireless audio robustness, and responsiveness.

1442: Inpixon - Turning Location Data into Actionable Indoor Intelligence Dec 23, 2020

Inpixon® (Nasdaq: INPX) is an indoor intelligence company specializing in capturing, interpreting, and giving context to indoor data so it can be translated into actionable intelligence.

The company’s indoor location data platform ingests diverse data from IoT, third-party and proprietary sensors designed to detect and position all active cellular, Wi-Fi, UWB, and Bluetooth devices. It uses a proprietary process that ensures anonymity.

Paired with a high-performance data analytics engine, patented algorithms, and advanced mapping technology, a multitude of industries leverages Inpixon’s solutions to do good with indoor data. This multidisciplinary depiction of indoor data enables users to increase revenue, decrease costs, and enhance safety.

I invited Nadir Ali on to the show to learn more about how Inpixon customers can take advantage of location awareness, analytics, sensor fusion, and the Internet of Things (IoT) to uncover the untold stories of the indoors. We also talk about contact tracing solutions for companies, schools, offices, and governments and how they provide them with indoor mapping analytics that can pinpoint potential threats. I also learn how Inpixon distinguishes between online users in a specific space using 3-5 meter accuracy – making it a preventative tool to help avoid cross-contamination in public spaces. Finally, we discuss how these sectors can return to normal amid the uncertainty.

Nadir Ali leads Inpixon with a collective two decades in enterprise software, business analytics, and information technology. For over 15 years, in his executive-level roles at Inpixon (formerly Sysorex), he has tapped into the $12 billion industry of indoor positioning and data analytics, growing to $23 billion by 2021. Nadir is a leading expert voice in the indoor intelligence and location technology industry

1441: Open Systems and the Future of SASE Solutions Dec 22, 2020

The rise in cyberthreats has led to breaches that can shut down IT systems, leak client data and intellectual property and potentially halt production - and enterprises need to have an immediate response to security threats. But Open Systems, a secure access service edge (SASE) is a pioneer delivering a complete solution to network and security. The company helped Mikron Group, the Swiss-based manufacturer of customized automation solutions, respond more quickly and effectively to security threats and shift to a unified managed detection and response. Like many companies, Mikron enabled Microsoft Azure Sentinel SIEM (security information and event management) as part of its Microsoft 365 E5 license to bolster cybersecurity. However, Mikron CISO Rolando Galeazzi found himself buried in threat alerts, unable to separate the true threats from noise. “Bad actors don’t care about company size. It’s impossible for a small team to monitor cyberthreats 24x7,” said Galeazzi Mikron already worked with Open Systems’ SASE platform for a secure, cloud-based SD-WAN. But then he learned the Open Systems’ Managed Detection and Response (MDR) service is built on top of Sentinel, allowing him to still make use of Mikron’s investment in Microsoft and enabling seamless integration across both Sentinel and SASE. Ric Longenecker, CISO shares how the integration created a 24x7 security operations center for Mikron and increased the speed of Mikron’s average time for security change requests from 72 hours to 15-30 minutes.

Ric joined Open Systems as Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) in 2020, after following the company with growing respect for the better part of a decade. A seasoned security leader with global experience in the Government, Energy and Consumer Services industries, he remains strongly passionate about security and enablement in a fast-changing world.

Ric holds a degree in Electrical Engineering from Lehigh University, a number of certifications, and is strongly involved with multiple industry groups and associations in the US, Europe and Israel.

1440: Avalon.AI - The Tech Helping Doctors Prevent Opioid Addiction Dec 21, 2020

Avalon.Ai is an AI company dedicated to developing real-time enterprise solutions connecting customers with end-users through smart technology. In germinating global ecosystems, Avalon.Ai brings together many of the world’s best minds and talent to generate the greatest impact in solving worldwide challenges like the COVID-19 Pandemic and America’s Opioid Epidemic through its pipeline of AI technologies.

Americans are increasingly turning to opioids as depression and anxiety worsen during this pandemic, yet U.S. treatment centers are still shut down or turning away patients suffering opioid addiction. How can America help stop the opioid epidemic as it worsens and COVID persists? Dr. Sean McMillan, an orthopedic surgeon specializing in alternative treatments to opioids, works with a team of over 400 doctors called the Army of Warriors who seek to end opioid addiction. They are also piloting Avalon.ai, an AI platform to assist in opioid detection and treatment. We discuss the causes of opioid addiction and how doctors are using Avalon.ai for opioid detection. We also discuss why opioid addiction is now worsening during COVID-19 and what steps can be made to help stop it.

1439: Meet less. Communicate More. The End of Meetings as We Know It. Dec 20, 2020

Josh Little is the founder of four tech companies–Maestro, Bloomfire, Qzzr, and Volley, collectively used by hundreds of millions of people. With two successful exits and a third pending, he's currently on a mission to save the working world from death-by-meetings with his fourth creation, Volley.

Volley is a conversation tool that allows you to have asynchronous conversations with your team, colleagues, and customers. I wanted to learn more about the problems and opportunities for workplace communication. Specifically, how to free up your calendar and increase productivity by turning synchronous meetings and calls into asynchronous conversations.

Josh talks about combatting Zoom Fatigue, how to meet less, and communicate more. Could the answer be Navigating the space between Slack and Zoom? We explore the art and science of conversation and creating a safe space for brainstorming.

We also discuss the problem with group dynamics and going remote without going crazy. If you dread the great plague of productivity and dream of a lifestyle that consists of fewer meetings, you will love today's conversation.

1438: The Tech HelpIng Hospitality Create Experiences Post COVID Dec 19, 2020

Founded in 2011 and venture-backed by Amazon and Comcast Ventures, SevenRooms has dining, hotel F&B, nightlife, sporting, and entertainment clients in more than 250 cities worldwide. From neighborhood restaurants to international, multi-concept hospitality groups, SevenRooms is a hospitality platform that helps operators unlock guest data's full revenue potential.

By combining operations, marketing, and guest engagement into one front-of-house solution, the platform allows operators to maximize profits, build brand loyalty, and enable personalized guest experiences.

Joel Montaniel, CEO & Co-Founder of SevenRooms, returns to the Tech Talks Daily Podcast for a catchup on how their data-driven hospitality platform combines operations, marketing, and guest engagement tools.

The last time we spoke, we talked about the tech that's transforming the hospitality industry. It has been a challenging year, and I wanted to learn more about what we can expect in a new hospitality era in a post-COVID world. How will technology help meet guests evolving expectations? And what role will SevenRooms play in that future? These are just a few topics we cover.

1437: Managing Distributed Data Centers with Automation Dec 18, 2020

Apstra delivers Intent-Based Networking software to streamline Data Center network management. Its tailored solutions automate the build, operations, troubleshooting, and security of your data center network. Guided by innovation and simplicity, we free your team to focus on business imperatives.

These days, enterprises are relying heavily on distributed data centers. But managing a distributed data center comes with its management and agility challenges. To avoid major disruptions and remain reliable, networks need to self-diagnose and make pivots when required.

The problem is that to maintain this agility, companies using distributed data centers can't pivot unless they have the right automation approach. By enabling a best of breed software, updating processes to reduce human error, and maintaining a strong network foundation, companies can do just that. So what is the delay?

Zack Zilakakis, Tech Evangelist at Apstra works closely with industry leaders to help define vision, strategy end execution. I invited him on the podcast today to learn more about how to solve these problems and more.

We discuss the ins and outs of managing distributed data centers with automation and how organizations and channel partners can quickly identify what vendors are delivering the best plug-and-play software to solve data center challenges.

We also talk about how data center agility allows organizations to remain more competitive in their industry by allowing network engineers to focus on strategy rather than fire fighting.

1436: AI Patient Biology Accelerating and Transform Drug Discovery Dec 18, 2020

BERG Health is a Boston-local biotech that leverages AI and patient biology to accelerate drug discovery and development for oncology, neurology, and rare diseases. They partner with the likes of Boehringer Ingelheim, Sanofi, AstraZeneca, among others, to drive key drug development.

BERG is also working with the US Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Lab to blend BERG's AI platform with the Summit supercomputer to map out and repurpose drugs. They intend to help stop the progression of COVID-19 in patients.

The company also recently announced a new study published in the Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities, which they conducted in collaboration with the University of Oxford and Virginia Commonwealth. The study identifies why COVID-19 is more prevalent in African American populations and how to treat it using existing ACE inhibitors and ARBs.

Dr. Niven R. Narain is Co-Founder, President & CEO of Berg, discusses what they are working on across all working drug pipelines and biotech's future amid and beyond COVID.

Today's guest is a pioneer in technology development at the intersection of Biology and AI and is the inventor of the Interrogative Biology® platform. It has unraveled actionable disease insight leading to de novo and repurposed development of a deep pipeline of oncology products, metabolic, rare, and CNS diseases. Namely, BPM 31510 currently in Phase 2 trials for cancer covered by over 650 issued and pending US and international patents.

1435: Data Integrity and Building Trust in Your Data Dec 17, 2020

Precisely (formerly Syncsort) recently hosted the inaugural virtual Data Integrity Summit in conjunction with releasing a new IDC Research paper outlining the changing role of data across industries and emerging technologies. The summit included speakers from MasterCard, Apria Healthcare, and Creditsafe, and keynotes from IDC analysts. Precisely CEO Josh Rogers joins me on Tech Talks Daily Podcast to discuss how data integrity is currently helping local authorities in New York and Florida improve accuracy of COVID-19 contract-tracing efforts. I also learn how the report found that 56% of respondents indicated a general lack of trust in data quality within their organization. This lack of trust can be traced back to data silos within organizations. In fact, 95% of organizations are integrating data across hybrid cloud environments. Data silos inhibit data from having appropriate context, which is key when thinking about using that data effectively, ultimately creating a greater lack of trust.

Precisely provides businesses with increased accuracy and consistency in their data through four key areas that make up data integrity: data integration, data quality, location intelligence, and data enrichment. By ensuring the integrity of its data, a company can make confident business decisions.

Josh discusses what data integrity is and how it helps businesses across various industries improve their bottom lines and provide insight into the critical role trusted data will continue to play moving forward.

1434: Diaceutics: The Diagnostic Network for Precision Medicine Dec 16, 2020

Belfast-based Peter Keeling, CEO, and Founder of Diaceutics – the originator of the world's first diagnostic network for precision medicine.

Having floated on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange last year, Diaceutics is firmly committed to addressing the most pronounced issues hindering the traditional cancer testing landscape.

Peter has driven Diaceutics to become a leader in innovative solutions that enable Pharma to leverage diagnostic testing globally. With over 30 years in international healthcare, Peter is a thought leader in precision medicine commercialization, a respected speaker at industry events and has published widely. Peter has also spent two extended periods in applied industrial research, including a year at MITís Pharmaceutical Program.

The problem is a lack of collaboration between precision medicine stakeholders. It led to a broken testing ecosystem where only 50% of eligible patients in oncology getting access to the right treatment.

The Diaceutics' Network solution has been purpose-built to solve the broken testing ecosystem by enabling the industry-wide collaboration needed to get every patient the treatment they deserve

I wanted to learn more about the company's story, how they are leveraging technology, and insights from their precision medicine readiness report. The second Report in their Axis for Change series analyzes the broken diagnostic testing ecosystem impeding the delivery of precision medicines today and recommends a collaborative industry solution.

Peter also reveals that The Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) testing market will expand to $3.6 billion in the United States by 2025 – up considerably from just $125 million today. But currently, only half of the patients with advanced NSCLC are receiving the right drug.

1433: Reimagining Work With Productivity & Automation Tools Dec 15, 2020

Formstack is a SaaS-based forms-driven workflows platform that helps organizations streamline data collection and management without code. With Formstack, businesses and teams of all types and sizes can easily create and use online forms to automate repetitive business processes and tame data chaos.

Formstack’s no-code online form builder saves time by automating workflows, document generation, and eSignature collection. Because the forms are effortless to build, easy to publish and simple to manage, anyone in an organization can pinpoint areas for improvement and gain deep data insights.

Formstack maximizes value from existing enterprise data investments and minimizes rip-and replace by working with what you have. The Formstack Platform uniquely offers 2-way syncing with enterprise systems of record and has over 40 pre-built integrations with major applications such as Salesforce, Mailchimp, HubSpot and Paypal, enabling customers to keep data accurate across enterprise platforms.

Founded in Indiana in 2006, Formstack is a remote-first company with 220 employees who live and work all over the world. Chris Byers is the CEO of Formstack and runs the day-to-day operations of the company. His goal is to deliver on the company’s mission to "transform the way people collect data and put it to work."

We discuss why so many digital transformation initiatives fail and the key considerations to ensure success. We also chat about how low-code/no-code tools can help with a smooth transition during digital transformation and help organizations adapt quickly to survive.

I learn how businesses can leverage tech to streamline workflows, automate manual tasks, and fix broken processes - securely, in the cloud and without code - turning everyday tasks into remarkable results.

1432: Mike Fischer, CEO at Cloud Gaming Platform, Shadow Dec 14, 2020

Shadow was created in 2015 to design and develop the PC of the future, with a simple vision: free users from physical hardware constraints by giving them access to a powerful, cloud-based computer. A high-performance PC based entirely in the Cloud, this ground-breaking service provides access to a fully-featured high-end Windows 10 computer via any internet-enabled device, including a laptop, tablet, and smartphone.

Free from hardware failures in their highly secure and local data centers, Shadow targets one of the most demanding types of PC users: gamers. Their goal is to meet gamers’ expectations as proof that their technology can be adapted to virtually every PC need and usage. Shadow employs a team of passionate, highly skilled developers, as well as experts in business, law, marketing and distribution, and gaming.

I invited Shadow CEO Mike Fischer onto the Tech Talks Daily Podcast to learn more about the tech that makes it all possible.

Mike is a leader in interactive entertainment, including executive positions at Amazon and Microsoft, CEO of game publisher Square Enix America (Final Fantasy, Tomb Raider) and head of publishing at Epic Games (Fortnite).

I learn how all the user needs is an internet connection. No more hardware FOMO; no more worrying about having to update security software; no more worrying about software updates–Shadow does all this for you. And, if you’re socially conscious, this produces less e-waste for the environment.

1431: The Tech Improving the Way Investors Trade Stocks Dec 14, 2020

Manuel Heyden, CEO, Co-founder of Nextmarkets, joins me on the Tech Talks Daily Podcast. He started his career in 1999, founding his first online marketing company at the age of 19. Since then, Manuel has followed his passion for product development, design, and online marketing, especially in the financial technology sector.

After spending two and a half years in investment banking with ABN AMRO Bank in Frankfurt and London to establish an online brokerage company, he founded the social trading company, ayondo, in 2007 and sold most of his shares in 2014. Manuel holds a Master of Science from European Business School, Oestrich-Winkel.

Manuel shares his vision for Nextmarkets and how he and his team are passionate about improving the way private investors trade on the stock markets through education. I learn how Europe’s commission-free online broker considers itself as an exchange coach, analyst, and trading platform in one.

In a world of up and downs, private investors can be accompanied by more than a dozen trading coaches in an innovative way, so that the term “curated investing” has been created. I also learn more about the technology that makes all this possible.

Nextmarkets, with offices in Cologne and Malta, currently employs 35 people and is backed by leading venture capitalists such as Peter Thiel, Falk Strascheg, and the publicly listed FinLab AG.

1430: How Tech Enabled Customer Experience (CX) to Evolve in 2020 Dec 13, 2020

Improving experiences is why InMoment exists. The company is on a mission to help its clients improve experiences at the intersection of value--where customer, employee, and business needs come together.

The heart of what they do is connect their clients with what matters most through a unique combination of comprehensive data, modern technology, and human expertise that helps executives--and the companies they lead--recognize the power and value of customer and employee experiences.

With their years of Experience Improvement (XI) Solutions and Experience Intelligence (XI) Platform, they ensure businesses understand and own the moments that matter--to transform experiences today that deliver the highest business value tomorrow.

Eric Smuda, VP of CX at customer experience (CX) platform, InMoment, joins me on the Tech Talks Daily Podcast. We discuss how the CX space has shifted throughout the pandemic and what trends he thinks will dominate 2021.

I also learn more about how they have recently rolled out a new suite of solutions aimed at experience improvement to better meet its clients' shifting needs due to the pandemic. But more than anything, I'm interested in how InMoment achieved its goals through a unique combination of data, technology, and human expertise.

1429: Growing InsurTech Businesses And AI in Insurance Dec 12, 2020

Integrated Specialty Coverages (ISC) is a Program Administrator dedicated to underwriting excellence, client service, and customer experience. As an innovative industry leader, ISC has built an end-to-end insurance platform by connecting a broad network of insurance markets and distribution channels.

ISC uses sophisticated systems and analytics to revolutionize how complete programs are underwritten and operated. With their most recent strategic partnerships, ISC has expanded their programs from commercial property, and hospitality, including bars, taverns, and nightlife, to now offer long-haul trucking and a wide variety of contractor's coverages, including general liability workers' compensation.

Matthew Roselle, Chief Operating Officer, Integrated Specialty Coverages joins me on Tech Talks Daily and shares the story behind the company.

Matt rapidly grew his business and was selected to become a District Manager in 2004. Over the next six years, Matt built a multi-line general agency to nearly $50 million of annual premium and was recognized in the top .5% of all brokers nationally.

Matt also talks about leveraging AI and third party data to drive low loss ratios as his own company produces loss ratios for carrier partners between 10-15% lower than industry averages.

Matt's company ISC is unique in that most of its technology team on the west coast had no prior experience in insurance. We talk about how to build a team that marries carrier/insurance expertise and relationships with programs and AI platforms.

1428: AllianceBlock - Bridging Traditional and Decentralized Finance Dec 11, 2020

DeFi has been the big success story in crypto this year but what does the future of finance actually look like and how do we get there?

Building a bridge between traditional and decentralized finance and seeking to unlock trillions of dollars in capital is AllianceBlock, an organization which is building the world’s first globally compliant, decentralized capital market. Backed by three of Europe’s most prestigious incubators: Station F, L39, and Kickstart Innovation in Zurich, AllianceBlock is led by a heavily experienced team of ex-JP Morgan, Barclays, BNP Paribas, and Goldman Sachs investment bankers and quants.

Rachid Ajaja is co-founder and CEO of AllianceBlock. With a decade of experience in investment banking, Rachid worked as a Quantitative Analyst in leading investment banks Barclays and BNP Paribas. He has a degree in Computer Science and Signal Processing from IMT Atlantique, and a Master’s degree in Probability Theory, Stochastic Process, and Quantitative Finance from Université Paris Diderot.

AllianceBlock is building the first globally compliant decentralized capital market. The AllianceBlock Protocol is a decentralised, blockchain-agnostic layer 2 that automates the process of converting any digital or crypto asset into a bankable product.

Incubated by three of Europe’s most prestigious incubators: Station F, L39, and Kickstart Innovation in Zurich, and led by a heavily experienced team of ex-JP Morgan, Barclays, BNP Paribas, Goldman Sachs investment bankers, and quants, AllianceBlock is on the path to disrupt the $100 trillion securities market with its state-of-the-art and globally compliant decentralized capital market.

1427: Why eSIM Will Transform the Way the World Connects Dec 10, 2020

Mobile connectivity has long relied on physical SIM cards. However, as eSIM technology revolutionizes mobile, the need for physical SIM cards is declining rapidly and digitally disrupting traditional notions of phone usage. eSIM brings wide-ranging benefits to consumers, enterprises, and IoT solutions.

Mobile phone users can switch carriers instantly connecting their devices digitally without physically locating and changing the SIM in their device when traveling or on home soil. It has also enabled new smaller device categories, such as smart-watches and fitness trackers. It is opening up avenues of universal connectivity for laptops, raising the bar on IoT's potential.

Since 2011, Sim Local has made it its mission to keep people connected, seamlessly, wherever they are. I learn more about their mission and how eSIM will transform the way the world connects to mobile network.

So what's the barrier for consumer and operator adoption? Gary Waite, Head of eSIM Strategy, discusses everything eSIM, from what it is, the technology behind it to the benefits for both consumers and mobile operators alike and its expected rise in the coming years.

Gary has 30 years' experience across the telecommunications and mobile sector and has been key to the success of SIM technology ever since its inception. He has worked for companies including Telefonica and is considered a world expert on eSIM, NFC, Mobile Wallet and M2M/IoT.

1426: JFrog: Talking DevOps, SecOps, CI/CD, and Cloud Native IoT Dec 09, 2020

JFrog is on a mission to enable continuous updates through Liquid Software, empowering developers to code high-quality applications that securely flow to end-users with zero downtime. The world’s top brands such as Amazon, Facebook, Google, Netflix, Uber, VMware, and Spotify are among the 5,000+ companies that already depend on JFrog to manage binaries for their mission-critical applications.

Gal Marder is the vice president of global DevOps acceleration and has worked with numerous development teams at some of the world’s largest companies. Even as security becomes embedded within DevOps platforms and development processes under the umbrella of DevSecOps, many organizations are still failing to embed a security mindset within all stages of the software development and development lifecycle. Gal has some interesting insights on some of the ongoing changes in how companies are integrating security within DevOps practices including: Security must be iterative. Security must mimic software development and become an interactive process. Gone are the days when the security team conducts an exhaustive review and audit of software code after the application development is completed. The better approach is to incorporate security at every stage of the development process.

Patch fast or die. As software release schedules have accelerated to a daily event, the potential for software vulnerabilities has also increased. Rather than viewing this as a problem, security teams should view this as an opportunity to match the rapid pace of software development with the rapid identification and fixing of these vulnerabilities.

Ignore software licenses at your own peril: 80% of software is built using open source components yet many developers fail to understand the rules before embedding it within their software.

1425: Exasol - How Data Visualization Is Highlighting Gender Inequality Dec 08, 2020

Exasol is passionate about helping companies to run their businesses smarter and drive profit by analyzing data and information at unprecedented speeds. The company develops the world’s fastest in-memory database for analytics and data warehousing, and offers first-class know-how and expertise in data insight and analytics.

The in-memory analytic database is the first to combine in-memory, columnar compression and massively parallel processing, and is proven to be the world’s fastest topping the list in the TPC-H Benchmark tests for performance.

Exasol is committed to helping organizations with their data challenges by offering them an analytic database that performs, has an open framework and is easy to use. The solution is designed to scale from commodity hardware to Hadoop and co-exists with any infrastructure, whether on-premise or in the cloud. The company also offers an easy migration path, an easy installation process and a solution that is future-proof.

Companies that depend on Exasol to analyze their data in real-time include Adidas Group, GfK, IMS Health, King, Olympus, myThings, Sony Music and Xing.

As Technology Evangelist at Exasol, Eva Murray is focused on building awareness through specific industry and technology campaigns, which involve content creation, events (virtual), and enablement sessions for partners and customers. She uses a variety of formats, including blogs, podcasts, press and analyst interviews, webinars, and workshops.

Using her expertise in data visualization and specifically Tableau for businesses of all sizes, Eva works with prospects and customers to ensure they can maximize the value they get from their investment in analytics.

I wanted to learn more about how Eva’s involvement in the Visualize Gender Equality” project is designed to harness the power of data visualization to raise awareness of extreme gender inequality. Eva shares her experiences working in a male-dominated industry and overcoming the struggles brought about by gender bias in the world of data.

We also discuss the growing prominence of the Chief Data Officer (CDO), the buzz around ‘data literacy,’ and how organizations need to introduce not just a digital transformation but a data transformation too. Finally, we discuss how intelligent use and the understanding of data are integral to the success of charities and other non-profits.

1424: Daniel Burrus - Anticipatory Thinking and Disruptive Change Dec 07, 2020

Do you ever wish you could accurately foresee disruptive and technological change and utilize it to actively shape your future and lead your team and your company to greater success and competitive advantage? Daniel Burrus believes you can turn disruption & change into opportunity and advantage.

Daniel Burrus is considered one of the World’s Leading Futurist Speakers on Global Trends and Disruptive Innovation. The New York Times has referred to him as one of the top three business gurus in the highest demand as a speaker.

Daniel has delivered over 3,000 keynote speeches to corporations, associations, and professional organizations worldwide. In his presentations, he blends timely and provocative insights with just the right amount of humor and motivation to enable his audiences to take positive action

Burrus is a strategic advisor to executives from Fortune 500 companies helping them to develop game-changing strategies based on his proven methodologies for capitalizing on technology innovations and their future impact. He is also the author of seven books, including The New York Times and Wall Street Journal best-seller Flash Foresight, as well as his latest book, The Anticipatory Organization: Turn Disruption and Change Into Opportunity and Advantage.

1423: Closing the Accent Gap in AI-driven Speech Recognition Tech Dec 06, 2020

Speechmatics is an AI-driven speech to text provider. The company powers applications that require mission-critical, accurate speech recognition using its any-context speech recognition engine. Its technology is used by enterprises in scenarios such as contact centers, CRM, consumer electronics, security, media & entertainment, and software.

Speechmatics processes millions of hours of transcription worldwide every month in 30+ languages. Having pioneered machine learning voice engineering, Speechmatics enables companies to build applications that detect and transcribe voice in any context and in real-time. Its neural networks consider acoustics, languages, dialects, multiple speakers, punctuation, capitalization, context, and implicit meanings.

Katy Wigdahl, Speechmatics CEO, is an experienced C-Level exec and was the company's CFO before taking over as their first female CEO officially in August.

Katy has noticed the different languages of male and female leaders. From defining words differently – "ambition" or "optimize" – to more or less frequently referencing first or third person, she believes that dissecting the language of leadership can help us better understand how organizations led by men or women act, react and measure success differently.

We discuss the different languages of male and female CEOs, encouraging women in technology, and the lessons Katy has learned when moving from the CFO to CEO roles. Finally, we talk about the importance of closing the "accent gap" in AI-driven speech recognition technology.

1422: How AI is Reshaping Influencer Marketing and Reducing Fraud Dec 05, 2020

HypeAuditor is a comprehensive set of tools to discover and analyze influencers on Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok, verify their authenticity, and track the results of influencer marketing campaigns. It also developed a unique withing influencer industry tool that allows doing in-depth market researches and competitors analysis. All services are based on machine learning algorithms.

Alexander Frolov, CEO, co-founder of HypeAuditor, joins me in a conversation about how AI is reshaping the influencer marketing industry and why more companies should begin to implement the technology for their influencer marketing needs. We discuss how using AI/ML can detect fraudulent activity on social media.

I learn more about how they use tech to find and perfectly match the best influencers for brands. This tech is essential in discovering emerging trends on Instagram and YouTube while also boosting ad campaign performance while tracking account growth over time.

We explore how technology will impact the future of influencer marketing. Finally I learn how Hype Auditor is providing analysis of influencer marketing campaigns for brands along with advanced Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok analytical reports.

1421: CWJobs Turning to Tech Report - Reducing The Tech Skills Gap Dec 04, 2020

For the last 20 years, CWJobs has been the home for tech jobs. They match employers from all industries with the most relevant tech talent through our innovative product technology and unique candidate audience. Its CV Database has over 1.2 million skilled candidates.

The UK tech skills gap is set to narrow, as leading UK tech job board, CWJobs' reveals over half (55%) of non-tech workers contemplating a career change have considered or begun the process of moving into a tech or IT-based role since the pandemic.

Dominic Harvey, Director at CWJobs, said: "Tapping into this new pipeline of future talent will help alleviate the gap by supporting and offering training to those willing to learn and upskill. Going forward, businesses must be open to welcoming individuals into the industry, considering various job backgrounds, levels of experience and the transferable skills that new candidates can bring to the role and their company. In doing so, the tech job market will remain agile and robust, offering unique opportunities for all."

Dominic shares how as businesses recognize the increased value of IT and technology support, the 'Turning to Tech' report by CW Jobs found that nearly half (45%) of IT workers said their company is currently actively recruiting for tech-based roles. This news comes following the CBI's announcement that £13bn will be needed to retrain adults by 2030 to support the future economy. I learn more about the report's key findings and how over a fifth (22%) of all workers have undertaken online tech training courses since the pandemic hit to enhance their employability and ensure they are adaptable to the future world of work.

Dominic also shares how over eight in 10 (81%) IT workers would welcome talent from outside the tech industry, with almost three in 10 (28%) supporting this as it would help close the skills gap. Finally, we discuss how IT support (33%) and cybersecurity (23%) are top priorities for tech skills needed.

1420: Fugro - The Geo-Data Tech Supporting Maritime Workers Dec 04, 2020

Fugro is the world's leading Geo-data specialist, collecting and analyzing comprehensive information about the Earth and the structures built upon it. But I wanted to learn more about how this technology is making different areas that you probably don't think about.

For example, did you know that Seafarers working in today's cargo industry undergo many physical and mental challenges in their work? Many seafarers make significant sacrifices to gain the qualifications and experience needed to work in an offshore environment. However, there's evidence that these workers may be particularly prone to emotional exhaustion and burnout, which can take a toll on mental health.

Seafarers tend to work as part of small crews. Most work long hours and have contracts that require them to be at sea for up to twelve months at a time. This can often lead them to suffer from loneliness, isolation, and in some cases, depression.

Ross MacFarlane, USV Policy and Public Affairs Advisor at Fugro, is focused on seafarers' mental health and well-being in the maritime industry. He shares how technology supports mental health and improves seafarers' working conditions, automating processes, and limiting the time spent at sea.

I learn how seafarers often have minimal communication with family and friends while offshore due to a lack of connectivity, time zone differences, and long working hours, which can all contribute to mental health difficulties.

1419: Why Data-Driven Creative is More Important Than Audience Data Dec 03, 2020

Paul Coggins is the CEO at Adludio who’s revolutionary ‘Sensory Ad Science’ technology delivers 10x results for blue-chip clients – like Unilever, Nestle & PayPal – compared to traditional mobile advertising solutions. The company’s accomplishments include being named ‘Best Advertising Company’ at the TechCrunch Europa Awards 2016, and winning MOMA’s ‘Best User Experience’ award.

Adludio has also been listed in The Sunday Times Tech Track 100 ‘Ones to Watch’, and ranked in the Deloitte Fast 50 for the second year running, making it one of the fastest-growing adtech companies in the UK. We last spoke in February this year when the world was a very different place.

I invited Paul back on to the podcast to learn how the pandemic has affected their business. We discuss the importance of data-driven decision making and how Adludio focuses on creative data as opposed to audience data.

On the topic of data-driven creative, I learn what gives Adludio an edge over everyone else who focused on audience data vs. creative data. We also discuss proprietary algorithms and how their data science team helps them provide a unique engagement approach for better performance.

I also learn more about their Brand impact optimization. A system of mini-surveys that measure key soft metrics in real-time and feedback loop to creative optimization and data collection

1418: Olive Cybernetics Division - Smart and Independent AI Dec 02, 2020

Olive builds artificial intelligence and RPA solutions that empower healthcare organizations to improve efficiency and patient care while reducing costly administrative errors. The company is on a mission to AI workforce makes healthcare more efficient, more affordable, and more human - improving your bottom line today.

Rohan D'Souza is the Executive Vice President and General Manager of Cybernetics. For more than a decade, Rohan has led product development teams at healthcare technology companies KenSci and eClinicalWorks, where he oversaw successful build-outs of various healthcare technology solutions.

In his current role, Rohan oversees the day-to-day operations of the cybernetics division. Rohan is also a nationally recognized leader in interoperability and a champion for the adoption of standardized API's across the siloed health systems.

In today's episode, we discuss the $51 million funding to accelerate Olive's AI workforce for healthcare and how Olive's AlphaSite adoption with Gundersen Health System will power a scalable AI workforce to improve the patient experience.

We also discuss their recent partnership with Verata Health, which is tackling the $31B prior authorization challenge and how the company combined technologies to unlock conversational applications for artificial intelligence solutions.

1417: The Tech Removing Unconscious Bias and Rebuilding Trust Dec 01, 2020

Tori Reichman is the VP of Customer Success of the Vault Platform. I wanted to learn more about the tech behind the groundbreaking workplace misconduct and resolution app that empowers employees and protects employers.

Record. Report. Resolve: Vault has a simple mission; to change the world of work by giving companies and their employees a safe place to record, report, and resolve misconduct in the most human, confidential, efficient, and legally sound way possible.

Tori benefits from a 15-year career as an HR Generalist, Change Management Consultant, and Start-Up Leader, so she has great insights into the actual application ofVault Platform for HR functions as well as the specific challenges they face.

Tori has also built relationships with executive teams at multinational enterprises across industries and is passionate about putting people at the center of everything to help companies build a more ethical and successful culture.

She thrives in chaos, loves finding solutions to complex problems, builds great teams, and spends time working out how she can bring more value to her customers. Tori believes that good communication can avoid - or at least solve - most problems, and a bit of negotiation will get you a long way.

I learn more about Vault’s ongoing mission to use technology to remove unconscious bias and rebuild trust between employers and employees.

We discuss how the Covid discrimination feature is benefitting employees and employers. Tori also shares her thoughts on how the Vault Platform can advance equity and racial equality in the workplace.

1416: Pulse Secure Reveals Pulse Zero Trust Access (PZTA) Nov 30, 2020

I recently read how a phishing scam was discovered in Google Cloud Services, the latest sign of hackers quickly evolving to attack these environments. To fully protect themselves from the growing threat, organizations need to adopt a Zero Trust policy that can be enforced across the cloud.

Pulse Secure also announced Pulse Zero Trust Access (PZTA), a cloud-based, multi-tenant secure access solution that enables organizations to provide anywhere access to multi-cloud and data center applications with Zero Trust assurance.

I invited Scott Gordon back on to the podcast to learn more about how organizations can scale Zero Trust protections to their entire infrastructure, including cloud or multi-cloud environments.

Scott Gordon is the Chief Marketing Officer at Pulse Secure, responsible for global marketing strategy, communications, operations, channel, and sales enablement. He possesses over 20 years of experience contributing to security management, network, endpoint, data security, and risk assessment technologies at innovative startups and large organizations across SaaS, hardware, and enterprise software platforms.

Previously, Scott was CMO at RiskIQ and ForeScout (FSCT). He has also held executive and management roles at AccelOps (acq by Fortinet), Protego (acq by Cisco), Axent (acq by Symantec), and McAfee.

Pulse Secure suites uniquely integrate cloud, mobile, application, and network access to enable hybrid IT in a Zero Trust world. Today, more than 80% of the Fortune 500 and over 20,000 enterprises (and 18M end-points) and service providers across every vertical entrust Pulse Secure to empower their mobile workforce to securely access applications and information in the data center and cloud while ensuring business compliance.

1415: Leadfeader - AI Lead Generation Technology Nov 29, 2020

Leadfeeder is a startup based in Helsinki, Finland. Their roots are deep in web analytics and have been the successful pioneers of web analytics technology development in Northern Europe. Their mission is to bring web intelligence into a business. Leadfeeder CEO Pekka Koskinen joins me in a conversation about lead generation technology.

Pekka shares his vision for lead generation technology, which includes using AI to pinpoint the exact moment across that journey for the salesperson to engage based on the purchase intent of the prospect.

He also shares a variety of lead generation tips, including why the need to focus on the first party and not third party intent data. Third-party intent data is interesting, but build the foundations based on your data.

The company recently announced that Pipedrive selected and integrated Leadfeeder's AI-powered, lead automation technology as a key component to Pipedrive's new lead generation and management toolset LeadBooster 2.0 announced in Fall 2020.

I also learn more about the latest news and developments with Leadfeeder and how they have experienced 70 percent year on year growth.

1414: Verb Energy - Tech Start Up That Began In A Yale Dorm Room Nov 28, 2020

Bennett Byerley launched Verb Energy with three friends out of a dorm room at Yale, cooking and delivering caffeinated bars to friends for studying. From there, they’ve scaled their business to target precisely what their customers want – personalized communications and ordering via text, flexible and easy to use subscription models, and exciting new flavors and have no intention of stopping.

Verb Energy is a text-to-order energy brand that delivers healthy, tasty energy bars with the same amount of caffeine as a shot of espresso, but through all-natural ingredients, straight to your doorstep. At the core of the brand is the belief that there is nothing more powerful than human energy and that when a person feels their best, they can do amazing things.

They started Verb to make people feel incredible by delivering energy in a healthy, convenient, and delightful way. Now, they are striving to change the way people get their energy and bring more humanity to how companies interact with people.

I invited Bennett onto the podcast to share his inspirational tech startup story, which began in a Yale dorm room. I also learn how they’ve scaled their business to target precisely what their customers want – personalized communications and order via text, flexible and easy to use subscription models, and exciting new flavors and have no intention of stopping.

The Boston-based startup has raised more than $5 million from Global Founders Capital, with Nebari Ventures, Great Oaks, Supernode Ventures, FJ Labs, Kevin Ryan, and other strategic angel investors.

1413: Esri UK - Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Nov 27, 2020

Esri UK provides world-class geographic information systems (GIS) and has the single largest pool of GIS expertise in the UK. Every day millions of decisions are powered by GIS, helping businesses become more profitable and public service more efficient through a better understanding of location analytics.

The UK is in the midst of a housing crisis, with a lack of appropriate homes keeping people off the property ladder – and many stuck in unsuitable homes. Despite good intentions from those at both a central and local Government level to provide sufficient affordable and social housing, the slow progress made over recent years makes it clear that we need improved technology and new tools to model a way forward.

The government recently published the UK Geospatial Strategy, which recognizes the potential of location intelligence technology for the UK economy. Under Housing and Local Planning, the strategy states that “Innovation in property-related technology…is transforming how developers find land and evaluate building potential, how local authorities and residents approach planning, and how homes are bought, sold or rented”.

There are three key areas where location intelligence can help local authorities and housing associations improve the provision of housing: mapping local infrastructure, identifying the right schemes/projects for local needs and assessing housing capacity.

Charles Kennelly, chief technology officer, Esri UK, joins me on Tech Talks Daily to talk about all this and much more.

1412: Experian - AI/ML Investment Trends Pre-and-Post Pandemic Nov 26, 2020

Experian is the world’s leading global information services company. During life’s big moments – from buying a home or a car, to sending a child to college, to growing a business by connecting with new customers – they empower consumers and their clients to manage their data with confidence.

Experian also helps individuals to take financial control and access financial services, businesses to make smarter decisions and thrive, lenders to lend more responsibly, and organizations to prevent identity fraud and crime.

Today, I learn more about investment in AI and Machine Learning since the COVID-19 pandemic began, and how these trends can continue. Shri Santhanam, Experian’s EVP of global analytics and AI solutions discusses these trends based on newly-released data from Experian’s Global Insights Report, which looked at businesses across ten countries, which found:

• Nearly 70% of businesses have used either AI or Machine Learning to help manage their businesses in the current marketplace. • Almost 60% of businesses are increasing their budget for analytics and customer creditworthiness in the next 12 months.

Shri champions data innovation and enables organizations of all sizes to apply AI and analytics so they achieve their business goals. Shri discusses how businesses can allocate these investments to better leverage AI and ML data. We also talk about why AI and ML will continue to dominate data analytics and how the pandemic has changed the AL/ML landscape of the future.

1411: The Role of eG Enterprise in the Citrix User Experience Nov 25, 2020

Having been a Citrix Premier Technology since 2003, eG Innovations has developed key expertise in Citrix technologies. Their solutions are used to monitor some of the largest Citrix deployments in the world.

eG Innovations provides IT performance monitoring and digital intelligence solutions that automate and dramatically accelerate the discovery, diagnosis, and resolution of IT performance issues in on-premises, cloud, and hybrid environments.

Many of the world’s largest businesses use eG Innovations' solutions to enhance IT service performance, increase operational efficiency, ensure IT effectiveness, and deliver on the ROI promise of transformational IT investments across physical, virtual, and cloud environments. But role will they play in the future of work? and how are Citrix and eG working together?

Barry Schiffer from EG and Ed Duncan from Citrix join me in conversation about all this and much more.

1410: Honeywell - Why Technology The Anatomy of a Healthy School Nov 24, 2020

Honeywell Building Technologies (HBT) is a global business with more than 20,000 employees. HBT creates products, software and technologies found in more than 10 million buildings worldwide. Commercial building owners and occupants use our technologies to ensure their facilities are safe, energy efficient, sustainable and productive

Peter Fehl, head of the building management team at Honeywell joins me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss “the anatomy of a healthy school”? Many schools seems stumped when it comes to how to make their buildings safe and are delaying an in-person return. While others think that simply opening the windows will eliminate risk. Peter discusses how schools need to take a holistic approach to allow a safer return and that no one change will make the difference.

We talk about how much like the human body, all the systems need to work together – HVAC (the lungs), video analytics (the eyes), AI (the brain/nervous system), touchless-access (the motor system), and UV light sanitation (like the immune system). If one of these systems is not functioning properly your (or your school’s) health is at risk. We also discuss how school administrators can address the holistic health needs of schools and how this approach will be critical in schools returning and staying in-person this year.

1409: Organizational Alignment and Operational Agility Nov 23, 2020

Jonathon Hensley is co-founder and CEO of Emerge, a digital product consulting firm that works with companies to improve operational agility and customer experience. For more than two decades, Jonathon has helped startups, Fortune 100 brands, technology leaders, large regional health networks, non-profit organizations and more, transform their businesses by turning strategy, user needs, and new technologies into valuable digital products and services.

Jonathon writes and speaks about his experiences and insights from his career and regularly hosts in-depth interviews with business leaders and industry insiders. He lives in the Pacific Northwest with his wife and two boys. Originally from Silicon Valley, Jonathon got into the digital product space inspired by the incredible people developing new technologies all around him and the possibilities they unlocked.

All this fueled his curiosity to understand how technology transforms the ways in which people live and work. That curiosity continues to drive him today, as he works to help businesses harness technology. His work focuses on helping leaders define the value they want to create in a succinct and tangible way; where to focus, why, and what it will take to achieve that outcome. His favorite part is going beyond the idea and mapping how you bring together people, data, and processes so that clients can succeed.

We also talk about alignment and why it is so important. I learn why so many digital initiatives fail and all about his new book.

1408: IQVIA - The Human Data Science Company Nov 22, 2020

IQVIA is a human data science company inspired by the industry they serve and provide solutions that enable life sciences companies to innovate with confidence, maximize opportunities, and ultimately drive human health outcomes forward.

Their approach is human data science – a discipline that advances their understanding of human health and allows stakeholders to make better, more insightful decisions and discover breakthroughs. The ROI for research and development within the pharmaceutical industry has decreased from 10.1% in 2010 to just 1.8% over the last ten years. This drastic decrease directly results from fewer drugs being brought to market due to delays in drug development, specifically the regulatory processes with more than 2,000 new or modified FDA regulations since 1998. Working in siloed departments inadvertently creates data silos, preventing valuable data and insights from being shared across departments. These valuable insights could offer more end-to-end visibility to help identify potential issues that could threaten patient safety more quickly, reduce costs, improve efficiencies of regulatory compliance reporting, and open up more opportunities for future innovation.

With cross-functional data visibility, pharma companies could take advantage of existing data to optimize the industry's drug development process to bring drugs to market faster.

I invited Joe Rymsza, Vice President, Global Pharmacovigilance and Regulatory Technology Solutions at IQVIA, on to the podcast to talk about all this and much more. In his current role, Joe leads a global team of incredibly talented professionals in the US, Europe, Japan, and India that develop, deploy, sell, market, and support IQVIA's leading SaaS, management & technology consulting and hosting and managed services solutions.

1407: HR Tech - Oyster, The Remote Employment Platform Nov 21, 2020

Tony Jamous is the CEO & Founder of Oyster, the remote work employment platform. Before that, he was president of Nexmo, a Vonage Company. He joined Vonage as part of Vonage's acquisition of Nexmo, Inc. in June 2016.

The company is on a mission to remove the barriers between talented people and great full-time jobs globally. They believe it should be easy for any company to hire any person, no matter where either is located in the world.

Now more than ever, smart companies can't allow their HQ location to dictate the size of their talent pool. Your next transformative hire could be anywhere. They also believe the most in-demand knowledge workers today want to leverage a global career perspective, the freedom to live where they want, and the security of full-fledged employment with benefits.

However, the flow between talent and opportunity worldwide is still blocked by the costs and legal complexity companies face before they can fully employ in another country. Cross-border hiring is still arcane, remarkably un-transformed by software, and ripe for disruption.

I learn more about the story behind the software platform created to solve the complexities of giving full-time, full-fledged employment to anyone in the world while providing a delightful experience to employers and employees.

1406: DXone - The Next Gen Crypto Trading and Research Platform Nov 20, 2020

DXone is described as a next-generation crypto intelligence and trading platform. With plans to expand beyond blockchain markets, DXone CEO Luciano Nonnis and his team built a platform swift enough for traditional markets but tailored first for digital assets.

Luciano joins me on the Tech Talks Daily podcast. Luciano discusses the recent surge of bitcoin, the gentrification of the crypto industry, and how the team is unifying the old and new financial paradigms and bridging crypto and traditional markets by deploying a sophisticated and highly performant global trading hub.

I also learn how DXone systems are built from the ground up by financial, crypto, and engineering experts, providing traders, investors, and analysts with an innovative revenue-sharing model and feature-rich trading platform.

Luciano co-founded the world's most popular and largest self-sustaining crypto education groups in the German language (Alles über Kryptowährungen und Blockchain). He founded Crypto-Coach, a non-profit online and offline education center.

He also ran a major cryptocurrency mining facility in Austria, formally one of the world's top five Dash miners. An entrepreneur to the core, Luciano is pragmatic about the crypto industry and focuses on bridging the gap between the cryptocurrency and traditional finance industries.

1405: Vincit - Fast Company's Best Workplaces for Innovators Nov 19, 2020

Vincit is not just another software company. It is on a mission to restore faith in the future with human-driven digital transformations. They help their customers with holistic digital transformation, design & develop software for all kinds of uses & devices, and maintain them for you. Vincit was also named in Fast Company's list of Best Workplaces for Innovators 2020 worldwide.

The company also prides itself on keeping complex things as understandable and easy-to-use as possible. Today's guest is Ville Houttu, Founder and CEO of Vincit, California. Previously, he helped the Finnish company to reach 350 employees and make it public on Nasdaq First North marketplace. After the IPO, he moved to California to start Vincit's local subsidiary.

During the first two years of operations, he has built a team of 30 developers in California, acquired OC's two hottest digital branding agencies, XTOPOLY and Devise Interactive, and was named the 2018 Entrepreneur of the Year by the Greater Irvine Chamber of Commerce.

We talk about the modern tech work culture in a post-COVID-19 world and why it is not entirely remote. We also discuss why the future of industrial and digital transformation is agile and customer-centric.

1404: Why Cloud Gaming Is Positioned for Strong Future Growth Nov 18, 2020

Last week, a new Playstation and Xbox arrived. The video game industry is now worth $146bn, and that's before the holiday season gets underway. But, the entire industry is about to be revamped by more than just new hardware.

Microsoft unveiled its Netflix-style cloud gaming service in Sept with the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. New research from Clarivate reveals that more than four in five gamers who do not currently play cloud games say they will start cloud gaming in the next twelve months.

In its report 'Cowboys, combat and candy: cloud gaming through the lens of IP' on levels of innovation and brand creation in the $146 billion gaming industry as evidenced by patent, trademark, and domain name activity, Clarivate explores the drivers of change both in terms of technical transformation and also the companies behind it.

Clarivate's databases power research around the world for major universities, brands, and organizations across the globe. Just recently, it also went through a $900M acquisition with CPA Global and have offices around the world.

Ed White, Head of Analytics, IP Group at Clarivate joins me on Tech Talks Daily to explore the report in greater detail. I learn how cloud gaming through the lens of IP', found that improving the user experience through innovations in cloud infrastructure has seen the most patent activity. On average, we recognized 300 to 500 inventions annually year-on-year over the past decade.

1403: Exploring the State of New York Fintech With Maria Gotsch Nov 17, 2020

Maria Gotsch is the President and CEO of the nonprofit venture capital fund Partnership Fund for New York City and Co-Founder of the FinTech Innovation Lab, a New York City-based accelerator program that pairs fintech startups with leading financial institutions. Maria has been called New York City's "Fintech Ecosystem Architect" by Institutional Investor magazine and has an unparalleled view of how major financial institutions are sourcing and incorporating technology into their businesses.

Maria has a unique vantage point as a guide to emerging fintechs and liaison to the world's leading financial institutions. Maria also has the enviable position to know what types of technologies financial institutions are working to adopt and what technologies are most promising.

For more than ten years, Maria and the FinTech Innovation Lab have helped fintechs conduct hundreds of proofs-of-concept, with 14 alumni companies having been acquired after graduating from the Lab. We discuss the best practices for fintech startups trying to partner with or sell themselves to financial institutions and what's coming next in fintech.

I also learn more about the state of the New York City tech/fintech ecosystem, given the COVID-19 pandemic and what the tech community is doing to help bring New York back.

You can learn more about the fintech lab and its application due December 1 at fintechinnovationlab.com.

1402: Apprentice Winner, Lee McQueen Launches Tech Start-Up Nov 17, 2020

Lee McQueen, the former winner of The Apprentice and leader of the award-winning business, Raw Talent, shares his story and how it led to his latest tech startup. McQueen has a genuine passion for developing solutions that enable organizations to select and develop people.

Phoenix51 is a new technology platform enabling data driven decisions & bringing people assessment into the digital age. Underpinned by a core understanding of talent analytics's importance, he is a firm believer that a data-driven approach to assessment will define the next epoch in talent assessment and beyond.

I learn more about Phoenix51, a tech platform for remote hiring & onboarding. There is already a host of blue-chip clients on board, including Reach PLC, IHG, CenturyLink, Tottenham Hotspur, TP/ICAP, and Mediacom.

We discuss how the HR technology-enabled platform allows organizations to make data-driven decisions at every stage of the employee journey, from hiring through to benchmarking, training and retention, guaranteeing the highest return on investment from selected talent.

The platform creates digital frameworks and scorecards that allow organizations to assess and interview against key behaviors and competencies specific to a job role in vertical and horizontal hiring. It also takes essential interviewing and assessment to the next level by automating the data, giving candidates and employees incredibly accurate and detailed feedback.

However, at the heart of everything, it's not the technology that excites McQueens, but it's engaging and making a difference with people.

1401: Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Trends With Netscout Nov 16, 2020

The Connected World is only as strong as the people who protect it. NETSCOUT delivers service visibility and protects the digital infrastructure that supports our connected world.

Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks are coordinated attempts to disrupt the regular availability and performance of a targeted website or online service by flooding it with traffic, and they have been on the rise in 2020. Recently, Netscout has published data focusing on the UK since the start of the year.

The data showed how attacks had changed significantly compared to previous years, with the key findings being:

• Attacks destined to the United Kingdom increased by 62% year-over-year, bandwidth spiked 56% upwards, and throughput increased by 43%. • Since the global COVID-19 Pandemic in early- to mid-March, the number of observed attacks increased month-over-month. • The most common DDoS vector for attacks against the United Kingdom during this period was DNS Reflection/Amplification.

In today's episode, Darren Anstee, CTO at Netscout, joins me on the Tech Talks Daily podcast. We explore the current trends around DDoS and what businesses need to be aware of in terms of risk and risk mitigation.

I also learn more about Netscout's Adaptive Service Intelligence (ASI) technology continuously monitors the service delivery environment to identify performance issues and provides insight into network-based security threats, helping teams to quickly resolve problems that can cause business disruptions or impact the user experience.

1400: HR Tech: Meet Topia, The Global Talent Mobility Technology Nov 15, 2020

Topia is an HR tech company specializing in Global Talent Mobility, helping businesses deploy, manage, and engage employees anywhere in the world. The arrival of COVID and a shift to remote working is responsible for an increased need for the Topia tech platform. Many employees can now work from anywhere and everywhere. But it creates a series of challenges.

Steve Black, Co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer at Topia, believes data is changing the world and wants to be part of it. I invited him onto the podcast to learn more about the story behind Topia. We also discuss the following: The massive demand from organizations struggling to monitor tax exposure and automate payroll withholdings. Why companies need a way to track newly remote workforces to optimize tax obligations, save up to 25%+ per year in local tax obligations, and mitigate the risk of penalties and audits that target distributed workforces.

The UK government’s controversial campaign to get workers back in the office. Steve doesn’t think the incentive is there and predicts we’ll see more companies going the way of Siemens—working remotely 2-3 days a week forever; impact to local economies (those that rely on foot traffic like retail) will be big.

Controversial “employee tracking.” People are traveling for the weekend and being required to tell HR where they went. Despite many believing this is a violation of privacy, Steve argues companies need this information for the safety of all employees as we look at COVID-19 hot zones.

1399: Amino, The Tech Enabling Confident Health Care Decisions Nov 14, 2020

Today, there is a huge gap in public access to data-driven, actionable health information — information that can potentially affect the decisions we make about our care. Consumers make more informed decisions about where to eat dinner or what car to buy than who gives them healthcare. How is tech changing this?

David Vivero is the co-founder and CEO at Amino. A healthcare financial wellness benefit that eliminates barriers for employees, and their families, to access affordable, high-quality medical care. They do this by combining data, design, and consumer-first thinking.

David believes there are differences that matter in health care, but without data, it's been hard to see those differences and thus choose care accordingly. By using their data to uncover powerful insights and publish stories like we have about C-sections, they hope to help individuals answer important questions about their care.

Ultimately, David and his team believe that this kind of transparency can move the needle on improving health care quality and outcomes.

I wanted to learn more about how technology enables Amino to offer guidance features that curate each user's personalized matches for in-network facilities and provides concierge appointment booking with nearly every doctor in America.

I invited David onto the podcast to talk about all of this and explore the latest health tech trends. We also discuss the importance of convenience and user experience in healthcare technology.

1398: Add Zero Trust Controls to Your Existing VPN and Local Network Nov 13, 2020

Ericom Software is a leading provider of Zero Trust secure access solutions that protect organizations from advanced cybersecurity threats. Leveraging innovative isolation capabilities and multiple secure remote access technologies, Ericom solutions enable secure policy-driven access to mission-critical cloud and on-premises business systems and resources, including the public Internet, without impacting end-user productivity.

John Peterson joins me on the podcast to talk about the Application Isolator. I learn how it provides enterprise organizations with the capability to add zero-trust network access and micro-segmentation controls to their existing VPN infrastructure, offering an alternative to costly software-defined perimeter technology.

John is a Michigan bred, 30-year serial entrepreneur, executive leader, technology evangelist, and innovator with small, medium, and large company experience. I have worked in numerous capacities that have included efforts in Research & Development, Technical Support, Sales Engineering, Product Management, Marketing and Product Marketing. I specialize in assisting companies in their growth efforts to go IPO.

Throughout his 30-year career, Peterson has held leadership positions at multiple security companies, including a number of startups that he helped to scale and guide toward successful acquisitions or initial-public-offerings. Most recently, he was founding Chief Product Officer at cybersecurity innovator Stellar Cyber.

Before Stellar Cyber, he was General Manager of Cybersecurity Products for Comodo and VP of Enterprise Technology at Barracuda. Earlier in his career, John held product and go-to-market roles at Juniper Networks, Fortinet, Websense (now Forcepoint), Montego Networks, and Netscreen.

1397: AI Powered Supply Chain Risk Management Nov 13, 2020

Jennifer Bisceglie is the founder and CEO of Interos, an AI-powered multi-tier, multi-factor risk management platform that helps customers understand risk in their multi-tier, global supply chains. With a team of analysts, Interos researched and assessed individual suppliers, providing customers complete supply chain maps, identifying risks, and alerting businesses to areas that required attention.

Keeping pace with the growing complexity of global supply chains required finding a faster way to keep pace with the complex risk-influencing events that occur every day. In 2015 the company took a massive leap forward, embracing the power of emerging technology and beginning development of an automated platform that would provide multi-tier, multi-factor risk scoring on a continuous basis.

Today their knowledge graph contains and analyzes information on over 50 million relationships, making it the world’s largest company database. Using this technology coupled with natural language processing, and machine learning, Interos ingests over 85,000 information feeds, processing 250 million risk events per month.

Interos instantly visualizes the most complex multi-tier, 3rd party relationships updating and alerting to changes in risk along five factors– financial, geographic, compliance, cyber and strategic.

With 25 years of industry experience managing risk in the global economy, Jennifer leads the company in helping F500 companies and major government entities assess risk factors through automating the discovery and response to third-party risk in every tier of global supply chains.

Before Interos's use of AI, the ability for real-time, continuous monitoring of the health and stability of a company's hundreds of thousands of business partners was near impossible. The company has seen exponential growth as a result of its innovative approach to automation, achieving 961% revenue growth since January 2019.

Evident through Interos's 500% increase in inbound requests since March 2020, the onset of COVID-19 has driven a greater need for visibility into risk - a level of visibility that can only be achieved through the use of technology.

As a woman business owner, Jennifer is also a long-time advocate for empowering other female entrepreneurs, working on behalf of organizations including Women Impacting Public Policy (WIPP), where she served as a chairperson from 2010 – 2016. Jennifer was also previously selected as the U.S. delegate to the W(omen’s) 20, an engagement group to the G20 focused on addressing gender inequality.

1396: The Signature Technology Transforming Digital Contract Execution Nov 12, 2020

The e-signature market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 34.7% to reach $9,073.1 million by 2023.* The demand stems from surging security concerns among enterprises, an increasingly challenging regulatory environment with more stringent requirements for authentication and compliance, a growing global e-commerce market, and environmental concerns fuelling the paperless movement.

Additionally, the Coronavirus pandemic, which has a profound effect on the nature of work, can only drive further adoption of technologies that enable decentralized collaboration, expanding the e-signature and video conferencing market. Syngrafii – A LegalTech/regtech company is offering a compelling and enhanced alternative to other eSignature providers and has many applications across Fintech, financial services, legal, automotive leasing, and real estate, to name a few sectors. Syngrafii provides a complete suite of products including eSignatures, and a video signing room (VSR™). VSR is a patented, all-in-one electronic signing solution that allows the signing and witnessing of documents in a secure live video-conferencing session. VSR preserves the biometric protection of a traditional signature, mitigates the risk of fraudulent behavior, provides enhanced consumer protection, and lowers the environmental impact of in-person signing. Nonrepudiation is built into every step. It is the only remote signing solution that is fully compliant with remote swearing, commissioning, and notarizing – mitigating potential legal issues with virtual signings. Syngrafii also provides a remote wet ink signature using Syngrafii’s robotic LongPen – enabling viewing a document in one location and a wet ink signature application in another. Syngrafii, CEO, Matthew Gibson, joins me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss all this and much more.

1395: How ioXt Is Building The Global Standard for IoT Security Nov 11, 2020

The average home now has an increasing number of connected devices. The so-called Internet of things (IoT) are adding an always-online connection to almost every new home appliance, from refrigerators to toasters and doorbells.

It has been reported that every second, around 127 new devices are connected to the Internet, and it's also predicted there will be 75 billion IoT devices by 2025. But these home devices could be attacked by hackers to steal consumer data.

Many organizations stress the importance of protecting connected devices like smartphones or smart speakers; however, consumers overlook a list of other IoT devices when thinking about security in their homes.

Hidden in plain sight, smart appliances, connected light bulbs, or routers can be used as a gateway for hackers to infiltrate home networks and steal data. Still, they are not typically called out as security threats. With more devices being added to the market daily, what do consumers need to know to protect themselves from a hack in their own home?

Brad Ree, CTO of the ioXt Alliance, shares his mission of building confidence in Internet of Things products through multi-stakeholder, international, harmonized, and standardized security and privacy requirements, product compliance programs, and public transparency of those requirements and programs.

We discuss the vulnerable devices in the consumer IoT market and examples of hacks. I learn what consumers need to know to protect themselves from hackers. We also discuss the importance of global security standard adoption in the IoT industry.

1394: The Ex MoD Penetration Tester Turned Mobile Security Specialist Nov 10, 2020

Matt Body is an ex MoD penetration tester turned mobile security specialist. He has reverse-engineered hundreds of mobile malware samples reviewing the techniques used by cyber crooks to steal data or money from their targets. With this information and knowledge, he has helped craft an AI-based system to help thwart mobile malware with Traced.

I recently learned more about what threats businesses face on their mobile devices. For example, the rise of Stalkerware is even affecting users in Apple's walled garden. But 61% of companies still say they have no employee mobile protection whatsoever.

However, I wanted to learn more about how machine learning can detect suspicious apps. But also why just detecting apps isn't enough. Matt shares with me Traced's vision to make the invisible visible. It's about creating software that shines a light on threats that are invisible to traditional forms of detection.

It's about transparency in pricing and making sure their software protects people by being easy to understand and effective. All while respecting users' and employees' privacy by being transparent about what you're doing and why.

Matt shares the inspiration behind building a different kind of security company. A company that understands and talks about the threats that businesses face every day, rather than the ones that get the best headlines or induce the greatest fear.

1393: How Citrix and Zuryc Are Eliminating the Burden of Traditional IT Nov 09, 2020

Zuryc is a partner to its clients, solving business problems with technology solutions. By eliminating the burden of traditional IT obstacles, Zuryc’s seasoned professionals deliver an experience focused on security, scalability, and speed.

With a keen ability to anticipate tomorrow’s needs today, Zuryc pairs customers with technology that evolves as business goals change and that anticipates and avoids obsolescence. Zuryc leverages over three decades of experience in the information technology industry, with service areas including security and cyber defense; IT as a Service (ITaaS); cloud technology; business technology; and hardware.

Zuryc stays ahead of the curve in making insurance agents, financial advisors, and, most importantly, their clients financially successful at every stage in their lives. PlanFacts is a suite of web-based financial planning tools for lead generation, Social Security maximization, retirement planning, insurance needs analysis, estate planning, and business continuation.

I wanted to learn more about all this, but also the relationship with Citrix. Cyrus Hurly from Zuryc joins me on the podcast with Chandrika Srinivasan from Citrix. We talk about how together they are building a new future of work and how to avoid past obstacles and serve the evolving needs of businesses. Most importantly, I learn how, together, they are focusing on serving a billion users.

1392: Mobe - Combining Data Science with Digital Health Nov 08, 2020

For the tens of millions of people across the US, managing chronic conditions, weekly doctor's visits, and prescriptions continue to rise, along with their collective cost of care. But everything about your health is connected to everything else: your body and mind, your doctors and medications, your diet and sleep habits, your happiness or unhappiness.

After reading this, I invited Eric Hamborg of MOBE to find out more about using technology to join up the dots. MOBE was founded in 2014 to address a gap in the healthcare system for people who may not be receiving the assistance they need to address their unique and persistent health challenges

Eric shares his journey with MOBE and how their algorithm uses data science. We also talk about how technology is creating a more proactive and reactive approach to healthcare.

1391: Branded: The Technology Reviving The Event Industry Nov 07, 2020

The event industry has been hit harder than most by COVID. I wanted to learn more about how event producers and organizers can overcome the pandemic's obstacles with technology. I also want to explore how virtual platforms be leveraged to ensure that virtual events are on par with physical events.

Jasper Donat is the CEO of Branded, the company behind AllThatMatters, Music Matters, Gaming Matters, Digital Matters, Sports Matters, the YouTube FanFest, and It's a Girl Thing.

Founded in 2002, Branded is recognized as a top 10 Event Marketing Agency by Marketing Magazine. Branded partners with organizations to create, produce, and commercialize integrated multi-media platforms that connect, engage, inform, and entertain consumers.

In the past decade, Branded has live-streamed hundreds of events from Asia to North America to the Middle East. Over the past few months, All That Matters has begun its metamorphosis, transforming itself into an always-on conference, networking, and content experience.

We dare to look towards the future and a post-pandemic world where the industry could host hybrid events. Could future event revenue consist of physical and virtual paying attendees? What are the secrets to good and bad online events? Join Jasper and me as we talk all about all this and much more.

1390: ICON - Connecting Blockchain to the Real World Nov 06, 2020

ICON is one of the world's largest decentralized networks, scalable for public and private blockchain use cases. ICON is used for real-world applications in banking, healthcare, education, government, and more.

Recently, ICONLOOP, a top blockchain enterprise company in South Korea, helped launch a COVID-19 contact tracing app for Jeju Island, Korea's most popular domestic tourist destination. The app uses ICONLOOP's Digital Identity solution to tie each person's verifiable credential to a record stored on a highly secure private blockchain network.

I chat with Min Kim about all this and much more. Min Kim has 15+ years of experience in the financial and technology industry. He started his career in Deutsche Bank's technology investment banking division in San Francisco, later becoming COO at Tapas Media and CSO at DAYLI Financial Group, Korea's largest fintech holding company.

Min discusses connecting blockchain to the real world and how governments and institutions in every vertical can integrate blockchain technology to deploy private, secure applications. Min also expands on real, live use cases like ICON's decentralized identity technology for Shinhan bank's remote KYC, Jeju Island contact tracing, and Saramin HR certificates.

1389: Creating Belonging For Remote New Hires and Leadership Teams Nov 05, 2020

Since COVID, board and leadership teams have had to make most senior hires in enterprise tech entirely without in-person meetings. For example, HIEC has appointed tens of executives and board directors worldwide into enterprise tech without any in-person meetings, including CEOs and board members. Who would have ever thought that a few months ago?

How do you build relationships with your new Exco/Board? How do you assess your own leadership team when you can’t meet them over coffee/wine/dinner? How do you collect all the data points you need to make an impact after your 90 days?

Tim Robson and Anita Sands join me on Tech Talks Daily to talk about all this and more. We also explore how to create belonging for new hires and the organizations generally, so they culturally stick and build trust even when working remotely.

Tim Robson has spent two decades in executive search, appointing Independent Board Directors, Board Advisors, CEOs, and C-Suite Executives in the technology, software, and professional services industries around the globe. His clients include a mix of Venture Capital, Private Equity, and leading Fortune 500 organizations, and he is one of the founding Partners of H.I. Executive Consulting, the global search firm.

H.I. Executive Consulting (HIEC) is a leading global executive search firm focused on hiring Board, CEO, and Senior-level executives globally. HIEC was established to disrupt the traditional approach to executive search by placing a premium focus on hiring transformational leaders across the sectors they serve.

Anita Sands is a U.S. based board-director, author, and speaker. A former Fulbright Scholar, she holds a Masters in Public Policy and Management as well as a Ph.D. in Atomic and Molecular Physics.

Anita is also a regular contributor to Forbes.com on the topic of leadership and strategy, and along with her colleagues at Propel Performance Group, advises organizations and leaders around the world on how to thrive in conditions of ambiguity and change.

1388: The Factual - The Tech Delivering Unbiased News Nov 04, 2020

Do you find the news experience frustrating? News outlets that were respected in the past are now increasingly partisan and biased. That's led to thousands of new sources, but it's hard to know which ones to trust. When you finally find an article you want to read, you're often asked to buy a full subscription just to read that one article.

Arjun Moorthy and his team had those same frustrations, so they decided to apply their skills gained at Stanford, IIT Madras, and Waterloo to solve this problem close to their hearts and help the world to love reading news again. They believe that the best news enlightens us, brings us together, and improves our communities. But can they do that with technology and eliminate bias?

Arjun joins me on Tech Talks Daily to share how they are helping people get the most credible stories on critical trending news topics. The Factual analyzes the credibility of over 20,000 stories every day on dimensions such as diversity of references, neutral tone of writing, author expertise on the topic, and historical site scores. Its aim is to deliver the most credible stories on the critical trending news topics every morning with The Factual newsletter.

1387: Sunday Sky - The Video Experience Platform for CX Nov 03, 2020

When it comes to engaging with customers digitally (as we all must do nowadays, vs. face-to-face), leading with empathy and capturing the human experience has never been more important. SundaySky CEO Jim Dicso shares how customers Kaiser Permanente, DISH, and Comcast successfully used emotionally intelligent multimedia to better connect with customers and improve the customer experience (CX).

The campaigns his team is building with household brands guide other marketers that want to engage customers more quickly over digital while having limited data about the individual, including:

Contextualizing customers' first experience with a brand by creating interactive media that lets them guide the journey or get to self-service assistance faster Using buildable, modular video and multimedia Converting static text pages (How we're making your trip safe during COVID; Here's the discounts we're providing our members as a result of COVID) into dynamic media that re-engage customers contemplating a purchase in the future.

SundaySky is transforming customer experience for the world's most demanding brands, enabling them to deliver video-powered experiences that drive breakthrough outcomes at moments of consequence across customer journeys.

With SundaySky's Video Experience Platform, brands generate millions of unique digital experiences annually that transform high-stakes moments of consumer frustration, confusion, or indecision into moments of engagement that delight and inspire customers to action.

Proven with companies like 1-800 Contacts, AT&T, Citi, Staples, UnitedHealthcare, Verizon, and many others, SundaySky's unparalleled platform and unmatched domain expertise equip brands to achieve step-change business results and quantifiable value from increased revenue, reduced costs, lower churn, and higher customer satisfaction.

1386: The Technology Supporting Police Accountability and Change Nov 02, 2020

Many Americans want to transform law enforcement in the U.S., evident in both the non-stop protests and in recent polling. But while there is an appetite for change, the exact ways police departments should move on from here has been less clear.

Envisage Technologies, creators of the Acadis Readiness Suite, are sparking engaging discussions around the keys to building and managing tomorrow’s police department. Acadis is the most comprehensive public safety training and compliance software platform for officer performance management, use of force reports and cases, decertification, and analytics, and used by nearly 2M first responders nationwide.

Ari Vidali is the founder and CEO of Envisage Technologies, a unique software company developing training and compliance ecosystems for Law Enforcement, Public Safety and Military professionals. Envisage is the sixth high-tech enterprise for which Vidali has served as the lead founder and visionary.

His current work spans a host of interconnected disciplines: next-generation training/learning architectures, cloud-based learning, social media applied to public safety, automation of high-liability training, complex logistics management, operational automation, and pervasive readiness technologies.

During his 20-year career, Vidali has been instrumental in developing innovative readiness strategies for Military, Public Safety and Law Enforcement commands. As a visionary, inventor, frequent speaker and award-winning writer on the subjects of technology in support of readiness, he has been featured in numerous national and international publications.

1385: BMC - The Path to an Autonomous Digital Enterprise Nov 01, 2020

Today’s businesses won’t see tomorrow without embracing tech-enabled disruption and adapting and evolving to meet the demands of the digital future.

The path to an Autonomous Digital Enterprise—a state in which intelligent, integrated, value-creating functions operate with minimal human involvement across every facet of the organization and its ecosystem—begins with solutions that maximize the efficiency of your existing operations so you can deliver the innovative services and capabilities that attract and retain customers.

From core to cloud to edge, BMC delivers the software and services that enable over 10,000 global customers, including 84% of the Forbes Global 100, to thrive in their ongoing evolution to an Autonomous Digital Enterprise.

BMC's solutions help IT with artificial intelligence, automation, optimization, performance, security, and service management, covering everything from mainframe to multi-cloud. The BMC portfolio of open, scalable, modular technologies ensures that our customers can run and reinvent their businesses for growth and competitive edge while optimizing cost, performance, and security—just as we do, every day.

Ayman Sayed was named president and chief executive officer of BMC Software, Inc., in October 2019. Before joining BMC, Ayman was president and chief product officer of CA Technologies, a $4.25 billion Fortune 500 company, where he was responsible for the vision, strategy, and development of their portfolio of products and solutions.

During his tenure, he led a significant transformation of CA into higher-growth businesses, including infrastructure software management, security, automation, and DevOps.

Ayman previously served as senior vice president at Cisco Systems. He led the Network Operating System Technology Group, responsible for the software on which nearly every Cisco networking product runs. He helped Cisco pioneer the programmable networks arena and drove innovation broadly across networking software, which enabled the evolution of the intelligent network to support application awareness and the Internet of Things.

I invited Ayman onto Tech Talks Daily to share his vision for BMC as well as for the multi-cloud, big data, and automation spaces. He also shares how as we navigate the pandemic and head into 2021, enterprises need to use automation to drive innovation that will further business agility, customer centricity, and actionable insights.

1384: Zembles - The ProspectTech Lead-Gen Platform Oct 31, 2020

As the world continues to plunge through a pandemic and struggling economy, sales teams need all the tools they can get to generate leads now more than ever before. While searching for contact information or company stakeholders is helpful, what about finding the critical information that tells customers a potential prospect's spending habits, credit scores, capital raises, etc. that would indicate the organization's actual market value?

Zembles is a first-of-its-kind "ProspectTech" lead-gen platform that recently unveiled its First Identification Technology. The Zembles platform creates sales efficiencies, arming sales teams with the most promising target companies and individuals based on its data-cloning intelligence.

Powered by one of the largest databases of U.S. businesses, Zembles finds prospects that bear an uncanny resemblance to a company's best customers – and then prioritizes them based on their financial health and credit risk. Jim Swift, the founder of Zembles, discusses how they are using AI to make sales searches operate more like Spotify or Netflix by offering customized sales leads and information on those prospects such as data analysis of annual B2B purchasing data from companies across industries in the company's credit scores, capital raises and news coverage.

Swift also shares additional insights that drive to fix the broken model of manual sales prospecting.

1383: ThousandEyes - The X-Ray Machine of the Internet Oct 30, 2020

ThousandEyes is a real-time map of the Internet. Companies that rely on the Internet rely on ThousandEyes for instant visibility into what's breaking, where. The company delivers visibility into digital experiences delivered over the Internet and has been dubbed the "X-Ray machine of the Internet."

The world's largest companies rely on the platform, collective intelligence, and smart monitoring agents to get a real-time map of how their customers and employees reach and experience critical apps and services across traditional, SD-WAN, Internet, and cloud provider networks.

ThousandEyes is used by some of the world's largest brands, such as Microsoft, Slack, and Twitter. It also works with 8 of the 10 top global software companies, 20 of the 25 leading SaaS, 6 of the 7 top US banks, 80+ of the Fortune 500, and 150+ of the Global 2000.

Yogi Chandiramani, VP of Solutions Engineering, shares how they help their clients understand how the Internet and networks work worldwide, solving connection complexities from global networks to users. We discuss how the Internet really works and why its infrastructure is not ready for modern cloud technologies.

We also talk about how COVID has affected networks around the globe and what to expect from the future of the web.

1382: Texthelp - How EdTech Is Bringing Positive Change Oct 29, 2020

Martin McKay founded Belfast-based Texthelp, an international education technology company in 1996, to help people with communication difficulties. Its products are used in both the education and corporate sectors by 29.7 million people across North America, Europe, and Australia.

Martin has tracked the industry through decades of change. EdTech started as a tool for those with special educational needs or learning a second language. But now remote learning strategies are commonplace due to coronavirus school closures. He also has an inspirational story to share too.

Given the rise in interest and demand in EdTech – particularly amidst COVID-19, Martin discusses the evolution of EdTech and how the landscape is different across the different territories, and what the future holds.

We also explore the evolution of EdTech over the past few decades, the real benefit of EdTech for the broader education industry, the challenges EdTech faces, and how the usage of EdTech has been implemented around the pandemic.

1381: The Data and Predictive Models Driving Digital Transformation Oct 28, 2020

Christopher Rigg is an innovative senior leader with extensive experience in the corporate setting as a technology and operations executive and in the consulting setting as a managing partner, delivery partner, and account leader. He is intently focused on leveraging Technology to improve client experiences, increase revenue, and enhance operational efficiency.

Christopher appeared on my radar when I read that he said, "Technology will change. Resources will come and go. But the most important thing is understanding your north star vision and the technologies that are shifting and evolving to help you continue your growth, regardless of the underlying changes."

During Amazon's annual conference, a reporter asked Jeff Bezos what's going to change in the next ten years, and here was his response: "Well, certainly, in 10 years, many things will evolve; Technology will change. Machine-learning Technology, in particular, will evolve very significantly over the 10-year time horizon.

But I would always encourage people, when they think about ten years, to ask the question, what won't change? That's the more important question. You can build strategies around things that will be stable in time. In that 10-year vision, there are a bunch of things at Amazon that are not going to change.

One of them, maybe the most important one, is that we will stay customer-obsessed instead of competitor-obsessed. We will work on maintaining that culture." [Jeff Bezos on Planning for the Future in Uncertain Times] I wanted to learn more about this and how EKI's #ShiftHappens campaign aims to educate on how businesses can thrive during the ever-increasing digital shift currently underway. I learn more about how they will be producing a series of webinars, podcasts, whitepapers, and social media content regarding the shift that we're all experiencing.

1380: Bain Capital Tech Opportunities Oct 27, 2020

Bain Capital Tech Opportunities aims to help growing technology companies reach their full potential. They focus on companies in large, growing end markets with innovative or disruptive technology where they believe they can support transformational growth.

They invest in fundamental long-term tailwinds as technology penetrates across industries, creating a large and growing number of investment opportunities. The team focuses on five priority sub-verticals: Application Software, Infrastructure & Security, Fintech & Payments, Healthcare IT, Internet & Digital Media.

I invited Darren Abrahamson, Managing Director, Bain Capital Tech Opportunities on to the Tech Talks Daily podcast to find out more. Darren joined Bain Capital in 2005 and is a Managing Director on the Bain Capital Tech Opportunities team, based in Boston. Darren has served as a director at Blue Coat Systems, CentralSquare Technologies, SunGard Availability Services, Vertafore, and Viewpoint Construction Software.

Prior to joining Bain Capital, Darren was a consultant at Monitor Group, where he advised in the technology, pharmaceutical, and energy industries. In our conversation, I learn more about the impacts of the global pandemic on tech investing and the road ahead for tech startups.

1379: The 82 Year Old Helping Companies Digitize Their Files Oct 26, 2020

82-year-old Greg Copeland is the founder of FileBank. This multi-million dollar-a-year enterprise manages physical and digital assets for the Metropolitan Opera, Doctors Without Borders, and the New York City Ballet. Three hundred regional schools and municipalities are also run out of its massive Archive Center in Oakland, New Jersey, which has grown expediently during these challenging times – mostly because companies are looking to move their physical files to digital assets. Greg is looking to take FileBank nationwide, solving a big problem for big and small companies – digitizing files as more companies declare that they are allowing employees to work from home and other employees are hesitant to head back to the office.

Greg joins me on Tech Talks Daily to share the evolution of Filebank and the lessons he has learned after a lifetime in tech.

1378: How Telos Is Helping to Power the Economy of the Future Oct 25, 2020

Blocktivity. described Telos as a high-capacity network and one of the most active blockchain platforms in the world. Telos features a robust, third-generation blockchain governance system including advanced voting features and smart contracts that can be fully configured to meet the needs of any developer.

Created by developers for developers, Telos extends its state-of-the-art blockchain and governance features to all DApps on its platform, delivering the best user experience in the marketplace. Telos also supports the blockchain ecosystem by serving as an incubator and accelerator for decentralized applications.

Douglas Horn is the Whitepaper Author and Chief Architect of the Telos public blockchain. He is also the Founder and CEO of GoodBlock, a dApp development company, which creates cutting-edge dapps, tools and games.

Prior to blockchain, Douglas worked in the entertainment and gaming industries. He has written and directed award-winning feature films and designed and produced mass-market games for Disney, Pokémon, Warner Bros., and other brands. But how did he go from films and videogames to blockchain?

Douglas shares his story and his journey at Telos. We also talk about the road ahead and what the Telos community can expect in the future.

1377: Automation and AI in the Workplace Oct 24, 2020

According to Deloitte, nearly every company in the world will be using robotic process automation‎ (RPA) in some form within the next five years, as attempts to automate manual tasks in verticals like operations, HR, and accounting have fallen short. Gartner also estimates that by 2024, low-code application development will be responsible for more than 65% of application development activity.

JIFFY.ai, the first-ever unified enterprise automation innovation company structured to have a lasting social impact over the next several decades, today launches to help enterprises optimize business functions, focused on finance and operations.

The company is pursuing a responsible path to AI innovation and has a customer base that already comprises Fortune and Global 1000 companies. Our goal is to set a new standard for business at the intersection of entrepreneurship and innovation,” said Babu Sivadasan, CEO and co-founder of JIFFY.ai.

“Across our entire team, we’re dedicated to tackling the effects of automation on the workforce, not just by accelerating the path to profit for businesses, but also through our foundation arm. We’ll invest in programs to re-train and up-skill workers whose jobs may be displaced.”

With a focus on creating lasting social impact and improving the lives of workers whose livelihoods have been affected by automation, the company’s largest equity shareholder is its non-profit organization, Paanini Foundation.

Babu Sivadasan shares how the foundation will offer job training and placement assistance programs for people impacted by automation in the workplace and how it will tackle demands from its corporate partners and existing client base.

1376: Omnitracs: The Fleet Management Tech Driving Innovation Oct 23, 2020

Omnitracs helps drive the transportation and distribution industries through key innovative software and SaaS fleet management solutions.

Companies of all sizes trust them to improve visibility into real-time action for back-office and dispatch teams, create a more efficient driver experience through intuitive workflow and compliance tools, enable streamlined communications for better customer service, and help leadership teams make improved business decisions through actionable insights into fleet-data.

Michal (Mic) Yariv discusses how the supply chain and trucking industry leverages data analytics to react to the pandemic in real-time and keep much-needed goods moving. She also shares how she has led an initiative to supply truckers with real-time alerts about COVID-19 cases in regions they were driving through as well as updates on stay-at-home orders, mask requirements, and restaurant and rest stop closures.

We also discuss location intelligence and leveraging data to provide information about mechanics, food, rest stations, as well as calculate how long truckers are likely to spend at warehouses and where they need to go within those locations.

Finally, we talk about the technology that provides real-time micro-weather information for truckers, helping them make decisions on the road that increase safety and efficiency. For example, if heavy rain is approaching, a driver can turn off cruise control before hitting bad weather.

1375: Live In Their World - Changing Workplace Culture With VR Oct 22, 2020

Live in Their World is helping companies and organizations use VR technology to tackle workplace cultural issues and help employees develop and practice new skills for a respectful engagement at work. Today, VR is an immersive technology that many HR executives are starting to embrace to train employees on workplace issues from racism to sexism to hidden systemic biases.

Especially in the wake of new Black Lives Matter protests, Live in Their World (LITW) hopes to use Virtual reality to help people better understand others by putting them in their colleagues' shoes, allowing organizations to use the technology to help create a more diverse and more inclusive work environment.

By immersing employees in realistic digital environments, virtual reality can lead to mind-bending experiences, such as making users feel as if they have swapped bodies with someone else, letting them see first hand what it's like to be discriminated against or treated in an uncivil way.

According to Harvard Business Journal, Incivility costs an estimated $14,000 per employee per year through sharp declines in employee performance and effort and lost time. Managers spend a total of seven weeks each year on average of addressing employee conflicts and their effects, not counting increased turnover or legal costs.

Even more specifically, nearly a third of adults in the US, UK, France, and Germany have experienced or witnessed racism in the workplace, according to research from Glassdoor, making it even harder to retain staff from ethnic minorities.

Robin Rosenberg, Ph.D., CEO and Founder of Live in Their World and shares with me how the company uses virtual reality to address issues of bias and incivility in the workplace and upskill employees for respectful engagement.

She is a clinical psychologist, and prior to starting her company, she had both psychotherapy and coaching practices, wrote college textbooks, and taught psychology classes at Lesley University and Harvard University. Robin combined her interest in immersive technologies with her coaching and clinical experiences to foster in employees a deeper understanding of how and why other people may feel slighted or marginalized and how to approach such interactions differently.

She's also been interested in virtual reality (VR) for years and was the lead author of a study to investigate using "VR for good." She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Clinical Psychology and Assistant Clinical Professor at the University of California, San Francisco.

1374: The R&D Tax Credit Driving Innovation Oct 21, 2020

Alliantgroup specializes in the Research & Development tax credit, which is a wage-based credit that allows businesses to essentially fund and pay for R&D to find a new way of doing things. Rick Lazio and the alliantgroup team have already helped thousands of companies across a variety of industries secure millions from this credit in the first few months of 2020 alone.

During the pandemic, it’s been more critical than ever for businesses to quickly innovate with technology to meet new consumer and society needs. Rick shares examples of their innovative work and how the R&D credit has allowed companies to expand and increase innovation to strengthen business across the country. But Rick has an inspirational story to share too.

Rick Lazio is a former US Representative from New York serving in Congress from 1993-2001. While there, he became a strong advocate for small businesses by sponsoring the successful Small Business Tax Fairness Act. After Congress, Rick moved to the private sector, working for JP Morgan Chase as a Managing Director and then Executive Vice President.

Rick is committed to his continued interest and support of small to mid-sized businesses by brokering his insight and experience in the public and private sectors to provide strong job growth incentives. This interest has extended into his civic and philanthropic work in New York with the Committee for Economic Development and the Association for a Better New York.

Alliantgroup’s mission is to strengthen American businesses by helping US companies, and the CPA firms advise them to take full advantage of federal and state tax credits, incentives, and deductions available to them.

The US government has legislated these powerful programs to help businesses grow and successfully compete in the US and abroad. I wanted to learn more about how they have helped over 16,000 companies claim more than $8 billion in tax incentives!

How Citrix and Control Up Are Making Monitoring Great Again Oct 20, 2020

In this episode of the Citrix Ready Podcast series, I wanted to explore one of the tech's unsung heroes, application monitoring. Traditionally, a dashboard would warn IT teams something was wrong, and they would react to the problem as users jammed the service helpline asking for updates.

In 2020, businesses need to be more proactive and address a problem before it becomes a problem. When browsing the Citrix Market place, I learned that Scoutbees by Control Up helped monitor business app availability proactively and notifies teams in advance about any issues.

I invited Allen Furmanski from Citrix and Gadi Feldman from Control Up to learn more about the relationship between both companies and how together they are making monitoring great again.

Allen Furmanski is a Senior Alliance Platform Solutions Architect with the Global Alliances Team focusing on joint solutions and go-to-market initiatives with key industry partners. He is a passionate IT professional, Citrix evangelist, creative problem-solver, and public speaker. In his time, Allen enjoys traveling, digital photography, and trying new cuisines.

Gadi Feldman is the creator of Scoutbees.io at Control Up. The SaaS Application monitors the availability of your EUC published resources and notifies you in advance about any issue. We talk about all this and explore how the relationship between Citrix, Control Up, and their customers are evolving in a world of digital experiences.

1372: Adobe - How COVID-19 Has Impacted Shopping Behaviour Oct 19, 2020

New research from Adobe into the online shopping habits of UK consumers between March and June found that online marketplaces, such as Amazon, were four-times more popular than retailers’ own websites and apps, demonstrating the appeal of quick, convenient, one-stop shopping experiences to customers online as well as offline. The research found that since March, 69% of Brits regularly shopped online, and that more than half of them (57%) made a purchase from an online marketplace, compared with just 13% who bought directly from retailers’ websites. This suggests that even with more time on their hands and restrictions to shopping in-store, consumers were drawn to the broad product ranges, robust delivery infrastructure and limited steps between logging-on and checking-out that characterise marketplaces.

Additionally, between March and June, the average online shopper made 11 purchases from an online marketplace, and just three from an online retailer.

Commenting on the findings, Peter Bell, Marketing Director, EMEA, at Adobe, said: “Many brands and retailers already deliver great digital experiences, but to break the dominance of the marketplaces and attract customers to their sites and apps, they need to capture their attention in ways that marketplaces can’t. That could be through hosting exclusive content, giving early access to sales or specific products, or even offering subscription or membership options that make the shopping experience even more convenient and seamless.

Peter Bell, Marketing Director for EMEA at Adobe joins e on The Tech Talks Daily podcast. Peter has over 25 years of experience in marketing and retail, contributing to the success of a portfolio of brands from Microsoft and MSN to Xbox and Windows.

We discuss how businesses have adapted to this widespread adoption and evolution of digitisation, pushed into a few months as a result of Covid-19, alongside Adobe’s latest insights around shopping trends throughout the pandemic. Peter also talks about how retail is set to evolve as a result of Covid-19 and how the pandemic will likely impact high street retailers along with the technologies they may adopt moving forward. I learn more about what steps retailers need to take to remain on the cutting edge of the customer experience.

1371: Live Entertainment, Hybrid Events and Ticketing Tech Oct 18, 2020

Jim McCarthy is the co-founder and CEO of Stellar Tickets (www.stellartickets. com) and Goldstar (www.goldstar.com), a company that sells millions of live event tickets to millions of people on behalf of more than 5,000 venues and producers each year. An e-commerce veteran, Jim has spent his entire career in high-growth businesses and likes to share his knowledge and insight with others.

Jim is also the editor and main contributor to SellingOut.com a website for live entertainment and arts marketers. He’s the curator and co-founder of TEDxBroadway the sold-out annual event dedicated to the question: “What’s the Best Broadway Can Be?” He’s spoken at conferences all over the world, including TED, SXSW, INTIX and more. His articles have been in Forbes, Fast Company and Business Insider

Jim shares his current mission of enabling artists and organizations to create high-quality online content — helping them find success in this new era where online events are transforming the entertainment landscape. We also discuss online events during the COVID crisis, the future of live events, and pivoting using technology.

1370: The RegTech Company Making Compliance Sustainable Oct 17, 2020

PiChain uses AI and Blockchain along with Deep Domain Expertise to ensure Sustainable Compliance Management. They help Compliance and Regulatory Professionals to make better decisions by ensuring upto 93% reduction in False Positives.

Shubhradeep (Shub) Nandi is the CEO, and Co-Founder of PiChain, a RegTech company on a mission to make compliance sustainable. The serial entrepreneur is also a mentor, global speaker, and a quest to achieve sustainable compliance for 500 Enterprises by 2025.

Shub joins me on Tech Talks Daily to share his insights on how Regtech firms provide banks & various financial institutions with reliable & sustainable tech tools to ensure compliance. I learn more about how the company also researches and develops DeepTech systems that can proactively learn, solve and automate compliance problems for financial institutions.

1369: How Luminar AI Combines Human and Artificial Intelligence Oct 16, 2020

Luminar AI challenges the traditional approach of presets and sliders with the ability to use adaptive Templates and human-centric edits powered by AI.

With traditional photo editors, creating the perfect photo is a time consuming process that involves moving dozens of sliders. Many seek to use presets to speed this up, but there are severe limitations. Presets tend to only work on images that are virtually identical to the original.

To change this tedious and frustrating process, innovative companies race to embrace Artificial Intelligence. But some creatives have been skeptical about its effectiveness and limitations. Their fears center around a loss of control and a homogenization of creative output. This does not need to be the case, if AI is properly trained.

With Luminar AI, Artificial Intelligence is woven throughout the entire editing process. The AI has been trained with expert input from artists, photographers, colorists and scientists. Luminar AI offers creatives the ability to save time and obtain consistent quality throughout their images. Luminar AI brings the perfect balance of technology and human innovation.

With Luminar AI, we wanted to ensure that AI not only was easy to use, but that it also provided creatives a way to express themselves. Through our unique 3D depth-mapping and segmentation technologies, we’re able to recognize the contents of a photo, recommend edits and then allow creatives to refine every aspect of that recommendation,” said Alex Tsepko, CEO of Skylum.

“Doing this lets creatives retain their unique style in their edits without tedious, manual work. Professional results, but in a fraction of the time.”

After hearing this, I invited Alex onto the podcast to learn more.

1368: Agile Security in Remote Working Environments Oct 15, 2020

The widespread decision corporations have made to allow employees to work from home is a great thing. But the rapid move to remote working has left many businesses ever more vulnerable to cybersecurity threats, including increased risk of browser attacks, unsecured wireless networks and inability to remediate remote security incidents.

Within this new set of working from home dynamics, corporations need to be ever more agile in their security posture. One of the greatest deficiencies facing security teams in enterprises is their lack of agility, while at the same time, attackers are more agile than ever.

Attackers are highly innovative and can use the latest technology to their advantage, while security organizations are often hamstrung by the difficulty in adding a new solution to the network or making an important change, or slow to change procedures since change management is so difficult.

In fact, the opening up of company networks to comply with work-from-home mandates driven by COVID-19 has only exacerbated the problem, and refocused entire business strategies around being able to connect workers to each other and cloud-based applications securely. This is causing businesses to adopt new security tools at an unprecedented rate, requiring a greater need to have the visibility to understand what to deploy where.

Zeev Draer from Niagara Networks talks about the big operational differences between attackers and defenders and how that has put security groups at a severe disadvantage especially in today's remote work environments. He also discusses steps that enterprises can take to put a faster, easier pace of innovation in place while minimizing risk and, just as important, developing a different mindset to stay one step ahead of attackers.

1367: How leadership and Tech Impact Business Growth Oct 14, 2020

In the current climate, it seems that most businesses have finally agreed that the old way of doing things is just not going to cut it anymore. But where do you begin to build an innovation strategy or a culture of innovation? And how can tech help business recovery in a post-covid world?

A company called Sidetrade uses artificial intelligence to empower marketing, sales, and finance teams to grow sales and accelerate cash. Sidetrade also identifies untapped business opportunities on the customer journey with Aimie, its Artificial Intelligence platform.

Mark Sheldon was appointed group CTO of Sidetrade in July 2019, after the British AI start-up he co-founded, BrightTarget, was sold to Sidetrade. After a consultancy and in-house career in the software and digital transformation space, he now oversees Sidetrade's global R&D strategy, leads a team of data engineers and data scientists, and oversees the company's annual Coding Academy for college and university leavers.

Mark also recently opened the company's newest tech hub in the centre of Birmingham, backed by £30m investment for new jobs in R&D and community engagement. Mark is also sharing his story and offering his advice for would-be and current entrepreneurs and those looking help grow tech in the West Midlands at the Birmingham Tech Week event.

In today's episode of Tech Talks Daily, Mark shared his insights around how to anticipate technological evolutions in AI. He discusses how to stay at the forefront of innovation, hiring, and keeping tech talent. Finally, Mark also shares the global R&D recruitment drive at Sidetrade and how listeners can get involved.

1366: Why Monitoring is Essential to Digital Customer Experiences Oct 13, 2020

We’re in the midst of an information revolution, and monitoring is at the center of it. Businesses are moving from asking, “What happened?” to predicting what’s coming, solving problems before they start and using data to unlock opportunities.

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated a change already well underway in customer experience – namely that the digital experience is now inseparable from the customer experience. An effective business strategy now relies on a seamless customer experience.

Mark Banfield, CRO LogicMonitor, joins me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss what this looks like in a post-COVID-19 world and how effective monitoring is essential to maintaining the digital customer experience.

Artificial intelligence and machine learning turn from sci-fi to everyday realities, LogicMonitor's technology is enabling businesses to see what’s coming before it happens. They collaborate closely with our customers to understand their risks and anticipate their needs, providing insights that unlock their vision.

We discuss how effective monitoring is essential to maintaining the digital customer experience. We also discuss why it's more important than ever to ensure your applications, tools, and services are available for your remote workforce.

1365: Why The Pharma Industry Needs to Transform Digitally Oct 12, 2020

From drug and device discovery and development to regulatory approval, drug reimbursement to lifecycle management – they all need to make smart decisions that give you an advantage in a fast-changing market.

The pharma and healthcare sector faces unparalleled upheaval: increasing pressures on research and development teams to show a better return on investment, difficulty keeping abreast of complex regulatory and pricing and reimbursement environments, and the race to get the best deal in a competitive business development arena.

Informa's Pharma Intelligence is the trusted partner of all of the top 50 global pharmaceutical companies and the top 10 contract research organizations (CRO's) – providing timely intelligence and insight to make authoritative decisions.

The pharma business model has worked for hundreds of years and was completely upended that because people are staying home, messaging people directly. How will tech help the industry adapt?

I invited Katleen Richardson to learn more about how technology is helping pharma companies to open their lines of communication and stop relying on sales representatives and doctors to reach consumers (whether this is through text messaging, chatbots, video messaging, etc.)

We discuss how pharma needs to understand the importance of one-on-one interaction, building relationships, and trust. I learn how pharma as an industry isn't inherently innovative; it focuses on product innovation as opposed to internal innovation.

1364: Cybersecurity - Privitar Exceeds $150m Investment Milestone Oct 11, 2020

Jason Du Preez, the CEO, and co-founder of data privacy provider Privitar joins me on Tech Talks Daily. Born in South Africa, he launched Privitar in London in 2014 and has since taken the company global, recently securing $87M in funding, including a $7M investment from Privitar customer HSBC bank which takes them to a grand total of $150 million. After witnessing the lack of consideration for data protection when adopting big data platforms firsthand, Jason shares his insights and experiences within the space. We discuss how CEOs can make data privacy part of their leadership roadmap. On the topic of HR and bias data, we explore what it means for leadership.

We also talk about COVID-19 and its effect on how businesses approach data privacy, especially as we see an increase in contract tracing in the workplace and beyond. Finally we discuss the ethical concerns surrounding data privacy and how businesses can move forward without jeopardizing employees’/customers personal data or productivity.

1363: The Zero Trust Isolation Platform that Confines Ransomware to a Single Device Oct 10, 2020

Ritesh Agrawal, CEO, Airgap, joins me on Tech Talks Daily and shares Airgap’s core capabilities, the roadmap, and their vision. I learn more about how Airgap’s Zero Trust Isolation Platform offers defense against cyber-threat propagation. Airgap’s patent-pending agentless solution works for any user and any device accessing business assets from any location and it can be installed in a few minutes without any forklift upgrades.

1362: MedSign - The Telehealth Technology That Uses Your TV set Oct 09, 2020

The big insurance carriers cover Telehealth, but due to the lack of set standards for private health insurance companies, billing has been haphazard, reimbursement spotty and confidence low. Now that telehealth appears to be the future of how we support our most at-risk, we must make sure that it is accessible both logistically and financially.

However, there is a growing digital divide as elderly patients who do not have smartphones and wi-fi are slowly getting left behind. MedSign and Qortex are making this transition easier and much more affordable.

The Qortex platform was specifically designed to focus on reducing ER visits and early readmissions from recently discharged or chronically ill patients by providing 24/7 virtual connectivity to their healthcare providers while recovering in the comfort of their homes and does not require expensive or complicated smartphones, tablets, or computers. Simply plug Qortex into a TV and receive healthcare services anytime.

The Qortex system is currently available to hospitals, physician groups, CHHAs, home care agencies, insurers, government agencies and others throughout Florida, New York and California. Tom Conroy shares their solution along with how and why millions have been denied access to cost-effective Telehealth solutions that ensure patients are safe and secure from Coronavirus and other issues.

1361: Intelligence Node - Real-Time Retail Price Intelligence Tech Oct 08, 2020

Sanjeev Sularia, serial entrepreneur and technology evangelist. He is currently the CEO & Co-Founder of Intelligence Node, a big data lab leveraging machine and deep learning to help the retail industry with pricing and merchandise optimization globally.

Sanjeev started the retail intelligence company in 2012 as a small startup with a mission to empower retailers to grow in the Age of Amazon using data-driven competitive insights. Fast forward eight years later, and Intelligence Node has built the world’s largest retail product database, which feeds the growth of more than $600 billion in retail revenue globally.

Sanjeev Sularia joins me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss how the global pandemic has created a permanent shift in the consumer shopping experience. The strategies retailers should implement to adapt to this new reality, and his predictions for what retail will look like in 2020 – and beyond. We also explore the key findings from the Intelligence Node’s consumer survey, which reveals that consumers are eager to shop, but more cautious about how they spend their money this holiday season. We also talk about how convenience and selection stores paved the way for pricing optimization; and why other retailers should follow suit.

1360: European Telcos Look to Unlock Roaming Blockchain Benefits Oct 07, 2020

Clear is a blockchain-based settlement company transforming transactions for telcos. Last month, three of the world’s largest telecommunications companies, Deutsche Telekom, Telefónica, and Vodafone successfully finalized a trial automated settlement of roaming discount agreements using a solution developed by Clear.

Eran Haggiag, Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of Clear blockchain technologies joins on today's episode. Eran understands the reconciliation of mobile roaming payments is a time-consuming, costly, manual process that results in major delays in revenue recognition, discrepancies between partners on invoices, and high costs in disputes that follow.

The WEF estimates commercial disputes cost up to $870bn per year. I learn how Clear is changing the way telecoms operators interact with each other, moving from a manual paper-based process to algorithmic blockchain-based smart solutions, allowing them to interact seamlessly with less disputes and more time to focus on results.

We discuss how the telecoms industry is benefiting from Clear’s solution, how the solution works, and what the tangible outcomes have been following recent projects with leading industry operators Deutsche Telekom, Telefónica, and Vodafone;

We also talk about why the telecoms industry is the perfect example for how automated payment and contract solutions can transform how companies interact with each other, making it faster and more transparent, while allowing players to focus resources on what matters most.

1359: How Podcasts Can Help Articulate Your Value to the World Oct 06, 2020

Tristan Pelligrino joins me in a conversation about the power of podcasts and how you or your business can launch a podcast with a helping hand. We also discuss how important it is for tech companies to be able to articulate their value to the world.

Tristan is the Co-Founder of Motion, an agency that helps tech companies get noticed, engage their prospects, and become thought leaders in their industry. He is also the host of Tech Qualified - A Podcast for B2B Tech Marketers.

With Motion, Tristan can combine his firsthand experience in technology with his marketing expertise to help tech companies develop unique content, position themselves as the choice in their industry, and ultimately show the world their value.

Tristan shares how he helps tech companies use genuine conversations to generate business demand and talks about the power of conversation to fuel content marketing. Tristan also shares how they are helping tech companies get noticed, engage their prospects, and become thought leaders in their industry.

Where did it all begin? Tristan's early career began with consulting, working for large firms such as Oracle and IBM. During his early years, Tristan learned how much of a challenge it was to articulate technology's value. From there, he created a done-for-you podcasting service that is built for technology companies.

Starting a podcast can be challenging when thinking about storytelling, cover art, interview techniques, hosting, recording platforms, and equipment. Both Tristan and I share our experiences in hosting and managing podcasts and how not to make the mistakes that so many new podcasters make.

1358: Radix CEO Piers Ridyard on Lowering Barriers to DeFi Oct 05, 2020

Decentralized finance applications are currently being built on protocols that were not designed to meet the needs and requirements of DeFi services. Radix uses significant technology innovations to be the first layer 1 protocol specifically built to serve the rapidly growing DeFi industry.

Radix focuses on the three drivers of DeFi growth:

Access: Despite the rapid growth of cryptocurrency, it is difficult and expensive to get money in and out of the DeFi ecosystem. Radix’s user-centric, vertically integrated approach makes on-ramping and off-ramping simple, secure, and as frictionless as possible.

Liquidity: Liquidity is the lifeblood of the global economy, yet most of the world’s tokens and assets have limited liquidity fragmented across platforms that do not effectively interoperate. Radix provides native functionality for projects, developers, and market makers to create and access liquidity pools at the call of an API.

Choice: The network effects of a public ledger are based on both the number of users and the number of connections between assets/applications on the platform. By standardizing and simplifying the way financial assets are represented on Radix, these asset code blocks can be easily scaled.

Friction in the financial system costs $71 billion annually, and DeFi can only change this if we lower the barriers to entry and make it easier to get assets in and out of the ecosystem.

Piers Ridyard is a Y Combinator alum and the CEO of Radix. I invited him on the podcast to share his mission and how they are turning challenges into opportunities.

With $6 million in startup funding, I learn how Radix is accelerating DeFi by making on-ramping and off-ramping secure and frictionless, providing access to liquidity for investors, developers, and market makers.

1357: Phoenix, The Connected Place - Where Innovation Goes to Scale Oct 04, 2020

There has been a lot of doom and gloom this year. But in Phoenix, rather than closing its borders, they are inviting tech companies to do business in what is affectionately called the connected place. As a result, Phoenix is thriving.

Earlier this year, seven software-as-a-service (Saas) companies selected by the Greater Phoenix Economic Council (GPEC) participated in a virtual trade mission with designated experts from London and Greater Phoenix to discuss key market entry strategies in the UK as an initial starting point into Europe. Greater Phoenix is now home to more than 350 Saas companies and is one of the country’s fastest-growing software and IT hubs.

The Metro Phoenix Export Alliance (MPEXA) Global RISE, a program of GPEC and funded by JPMorgan Chase, also supports Greater Phoenix-based companies seeking to grow their business by engaging in the global marketplace. RISE stands for Resources, Innovation, Strategies, and Execution. The local companies were selected earlier this year, and we’re scheduled to attend a coordinated sales mission to the UK in March to establish institution channels. Due to the pandemic, GPEC pivoted and stood up the virtual program to further its commitment to creating a more robust export-centric economy. International trade represents an opportunity for local businesses to create jobs, attract capital, and grow the Greater Phoenix economy. Working closely with experts, each participant developed a digital roadmap for the UK, participated in educational seminars, and received resources covering the most-pressing issues tech companies face in growing their business globally. They were also each given a $3,500 grant to help execute strategies. The first-year program has been in the works for more than a year in a collaboration between the Global Cities Initiative, a joint effort of Brookings and JPMorgan Chase, and Greater Phoenix stakeholders. Chris Camacho serves as the President & CEO at one of the longest standing public-private partnerships for economic development across the country.

GPEC has fueled the regional economy by helping more than 850 companies, creating more than 154,000 jobs and $20.4 billion in capital investment.

Some of the more notable projects include Apple, Deloitte, Infosys, Creighton Medical School, Silicon Valley Bank, Zenefits, GoDaddy, Yelp, Amazon, Garmin, General Motors, and many others.

1356: Cygilant - From F1 to Accelerating Hybrid Security Oct 03, 2020

At Cygilant, they are passionate about helping organizations of all sizes build a comprehensive enterprise-class security program. The company has an ambitious goal to be the #1 customer-centric organization in the IT Security industry.

Acting as an extension of their customers’ IT teams, Cygilant, a pioneer in hybrid security as a service, provides continuous security operations based on best-of-breed technology at a fraction of the cost of alternate solutions. Cygilant is also a trusted advisor to organizations that need to improve their IT security and compliance posture and protect against cyber threats and vulnerabilities.

However, there is an inspiring story at the heart of this company. Former Formula 1 race car driver, Rob Scott is president and CEO of cybersecurity provider Cygilant. But I wanted to learn more about how being a professional race car driver has impacted his career and share some of the lessons learned while racing that have shaped his career as a top executive.

Rob joined Cygilant with a proven track record of accelerating a company's growth and helping them capitalize on new markets and opportunities.

Since becoming CEO of Cygilant last year, Rob has helped re-create the company by strengthening its leadership team, cornering a crowded cybersecurity market by appealing to resource-constrained medium-sized businesses, and most recently, opening a new office and security operations center (SOC) in Belfast, Northern Ireland – in the middle of a pandemic.

In addition to his Formula 1 career, Rob is a great storyteller with no shortage of tales from his diverse background and job experiences that resonated with me.

1355: The Deep Learning-Based Endpoint Threat Prevention Oct 02, 2020

There is currently a need for consolidation and convergence of cybersecurity solutions. Businesses are searching for a more scalable and flexible platform approach that delivers threat prediction, prevention, detection, and response in a single solution. Only then can IT untangle the number of point-solutions.

A company called Netsurion has made a giant stride in leading this convergence by bringing AI-driven threat prevention into an already strong managed threat detection & response platform. Netsurion is a managed security service provider that converges network management, threat protection, and compliance readiness for SMBs and service providers.

A.N. Ananth is the chief strategy officer of Netsurion. With an extensive background in product development and operations for telecom network management, he has consulted for many companies on their compliance strategy, audit policy and automated reporting processes. Ananth is a leading expert in IT security and compliance with over 25 years of experience in IT control and operations and frequently speaks on these topics.

Flexibility and security within the IT environment are two of the most important factors driving business today. I learn more about Netsurion’s cybersecurity platform and how it enables companies to deliver on both. Ananth shares how Netsurion’s approach of combining purpose-built technology and an ISO-certified security operations center gives customers the ultimate flexibility to adapt and grow, all while maintaining a secure environment.

1354: How The Open Talent Economy Can Transform Global Business Oct 01, 2020

During 2020 more than 50 million freelance workers will enter the workforce. By 2025 open talent systems are predicted to be the predominant employment model. Re-source is a new consulting business run by Barry Matthews who has a track record of spotting disruptive trends and launching businesses that enable them.

2020 has seen the world of work transform before our eyes. The global freelance workforce has been augmented by millions of skilled workers looking to engage in new, creative ways while businesses look to reduce their fixed costs and move to flexible, resilient, as-a-service delivery models. A diverse range of technology platforms match this supply and demand, enabling immediate access to the best global talent and competitive advantage for those that get it right

Sourcing models are being disrupted, intelligent automation is rapidly maturing and open talent eco-systems are accelerating fast. Accessing the power of the crowd alongside more traditional internal, freelance, outsourced and automated delivery models requires a new way of thinking and a new way of sourcing

Barry and I chat about the potential of the open talent economy to transform global business and how and why he believes re-source can help them to do it.

1353: Why CIOs Need to Start Acting Like Humans Sep 30, 2020

Ciena (NYSE: CIEN) is a networking systems, services, and software company. They provide solutions that help its customers create the Adaptive Network™ in response to their users' constantly changing demands. By delivering networking technology through high-touch consultative relationships, the company prides itself on building the world's most agile networks with automation, openness, and scale.

Craig Williams, Chief Information Officer at Ciena, joins me on today's Tech Talks Daily episode. Craig talks about the CIO's evolving role and how they need to focus more on connection with team members and less on dry technology. He also shares his insight into setting up a remote team and how Ciena had a large chunk of its staff remote even before COVID-19 hit.

Craig has 25+ years in business and technology transformation spanning multiple industries in complex and varied environments, including High-Tech, Department of Defense (DoD), Commercial and Academic industries.

As CIO, he seeks to level the employee/customer engagement experience through a work anywhere, anytime on any device philosophy. He enjoys cultivating and inspiring teams to solve business problems while creating a "delight the customer" attitude. I learn more about his people philosophy, " Hire and retain "PHDs"- people who have Passion, Heart, and Drive for what they do.

1352: ANote Music: Using Tech to Invest In Music Royalties Sep 29, 2020

ANote Music is the European marketplace for investing in music royalties and was founded in Luxembourg by Marzio F. Schena, Matteo Cernuschi, and Grégoire Mathonet in January 2018. ANote Music has identified the power of music as the next big investment opportunity and created a bridge between the music industry and the capital markets.

It enables publishers, record labels, and artists to sell music rights, introducing them to a new system of financing, as well as offering users a new investment opportunity and the chance to own shares in promising artists. In January 2020, ANote Music closed a €500,000-plus funding round, led by the European music industry’s foremost players.

ANote Music is also supported by Luxinnovation, the Luxembourg national innovation agency, providing access to government funding for the startup. They also recently announced it will officially launch to the public on 28th July, 2020.

It will allow users to invest in music, own rights from content creators, and earn returns through the royalties that are generated over time. The platform also offers new and innovative funding methods for artists, connecting them to financial markets for the first time. Marzio Flavio Schena is CEO and Co-founder of ANote Music, the European marketplace for investing in music royalties. Prior to co-founding ANote Music in 2018, Marzio was a fund manager at Woodpecker Capital, specialising in global equities and derivatives. He is a member of the Global Shapers Luxembourg Hub, a community of entrepreneurs formed by the World Economic Forum to drive dialogue, action, and change.

Marzio also has 5 years of experience in the event management industry in Milan, Italy. He holds an MSc in Finance from Bocconi University, studied at UCLA (US), and was enrolled in an MBA Program at INCAE (Costa Rica).

1351: The AI Eye-Tracking Heatmaps Predicting Visual Attention Sep 28, 2020

Attention is the most limited resource in marketing. But what if you could see your design through the eyes of your customers and make data-driven decisions. A company called Attention Insight has created a first of its kind AI based platform for consumer attention monitoring. It is also a part of Google for the Startups spring cohort.

Predict visual attention with eye tracker precision. Attention Insight is visual attention prediction algorithm based on deep learning. Within minutes it will accurately predict where people will look while engaging in your content.

The AI-powered design analytics allows you to see websites through the eyes of users. Learn how users engage with designs, improve user experience, measure against your competitors and make data-driven decisions. It's also based on deep learning technology and trained with 30 800 eye-tracking studies data. Attention heatmaps are 90% accurate as compared with eye-tracking research studies.

Kamilė Jokubaitė, CEO, Attention Insight, joins me on the Tech Talks Daily podcast. We talk about how AI is shaping the future of marketing. I also learn more about the story behind Attention Insight.

1350: Publicis Sapient - Digital Identity And The Decentralized Web Sep 27, 2020

My guest, Max Kirby is one of the thought-leaders in Digital Identity and Data Privacy, he leads Cloud Solutions at Publicis Groupe - that’s one of the big players in the agency world - and he is helping his clients adapt to new technologies and data privacy laws as they come out. He’s also a big believer in the next phase of the internet: the decentralized web.

Max is an expert in Digital Identity, or who we “are” on the web. He speaks from his philosophy background and technology career to help make this complex topic simple. Advancements in technology are leaving everything else to catch up, and it can be messy and difficult to understand. The proliferation of sensors, biometrics (soon to be bionics), public cloud and AI are creating new gaps in our laws and political lives and shifting our moral principles along with who we are.

Abstracting the underlying essence of technological concepts, Max helps the layperson understand advances in technology and how our principles might change as technology progresses. Max spends his professional days working with the internet giants (Google, Amazon, Microsoft) and platforms to better his client’s strategies and help them become modern, customer-centric organizations.

Max’s optimistic passion comes through his explanations of how technology can advance business and politics without compromising what makes us human. His areas of expertise cover the growth and meaning of cloud computing, the opportunities and perils of using personal data, and the next frontier of the internet: the Decentralized Web.

1349: How WeeCare Built Fever Free App To Reopen Schools Safely Sep 26, 2020

After reading on Business Insider and USA TODAY the tech behind Fever Free and how it helped keep 2000+ WeeCare daycare businesses safe and open, I felt compelled to find out more.

WeeCare Co-Founder, Matt Reilly, shares how they built the Fever Free app to help businesses, schools, and cities reopen. Fever Free allows organizations to verify all individuals are healthy before interacting each day through virtual fever and symptom checks, powered by its patent-pending AI.

K-12 schools and preschool centers are signed up to implement Fever Free as part of their reopening plans, restaurants are using it to keep employees and customers safe, assisted living facilities are signing up to keep elderly patients and staff healthy; the list goes on.

If you're not familiar WeeCare is the largest network of in-home childcare in the United States. They help parents and childcare providers find and provide childcare without all of the stress that normally comes along with it.

We discuss how since the pandemic, they built AI-powered temperature check technology in their app, so that families and daycares can verify they are healthy before interacting each day. I also learn how businesses in all industries are now using the app to reopen safely.

Learn more about WeeCare: https://weecare.co/ WeeCare full directory of daycares across the United States: https://weecare.co/daycare-near-me Learn more about Fever Free virtual fever and symptom checks: https://feverfree.ai/

1348: How Citrix and Flexxible IT are Tackling Digital Wellness Sep 25, 2020

Technology is becoming increasingly prevalent in our day-to-day lives both at home and at work. As organizations shift operations to support more remote working, employees are finding that once where collaboration was face-to-face, technology has taken its place and their work-life is now predominantly digital.

While technology plays a helpful and critical role in our daily work life, it can also distract us and become counterproductive. As our lives become more technology integrated, employers have a responsibility to ensure the products and systems they deploy to support the digital wellbeing of employees. Join us to discover how Citrix and Flexxible IT are taking on this new responsibility in these ever-changing times.

1347: The Technology Keeping Frontline Workers Safe Sep 24, 2020

In the era of the post-lockdown, digital transformation will be crucial in enabling organizations to reopen safely. Enabling line managers to work remotely, staff to keep better track of new hygiene regimes, and sensors to monitor social distancing provisions in real-time will contribute to keeping both frontline workers and consumers safe.

Digital transformation can be used by organizations to empower the frontline workforce. Enabling frontline staff to log incidents, communicate with their line managers, and digitally check-in when carrying out a task will help frontline morale and an organization's bottom line. But how?

I invited Over-C CEO, Michael Elliott, on to the podcast to learn more. Over-C is a leading provider of workplace management and analytics. It is currently deployed across a number of sectors to help clients with frontline staff management, including Thomond Park (the home of Munster Rugby), ScotRail, and Southside Shopping Centre.

From serving as a search-and-rescue pilot to founding Over-C, Michael has been a truly unique career. The story of Over-C began when Mike ran his own manned security guarding company – Akita Security. He soon realized that he – and the industry – had a major problem: when asked for insights into the efficiency of the service he was providing, Michael couldn't get his hands on the information he needed to answer them. He had no visibility.

When an incident occurred, he was often the last to know: by then, it was too late to either act or rectify what had happened. Mike shares how he made it his mission to change this industry for the better. He sold his security company and founded Over-C.

1346: AI, Innovation and Data-Driven Transformation Strategies Sep 23, 2020

EKI-Digital has helped large organizations identify and capture billions in revenue and cost efficiencies. Started in 1998, EKI-Digital has served clients around the globe specializing in government, retail, and financial services.

I wanted to learn more about their unique combination of technology and industry expertise that allows EKI-Digital to offer solutions to help clients move from uncertainty to possibility.

Mo Sahgal leads the Data Engineering practice at EKI-Digital. The practice brings AI-driven data solutions to help clients identify, build, and commercialize the value of data for competitive and strategic advantage. He is also spearheading EKI’s #ShiftHappens campaign to educate businesses on using their data to survive and thrive during these rapidly changing times.

Mo has published many Business Intelligence and Data Warehouse articles in several industry journals, including DM Review, B-EYE Network, and BI Review. He is a communicator across all levels of an organization — adept at building delivery organizations and mobilizing and managing multicultural, international teams.

I wanted to learn more about how they are helping businesses at a time when there is a need for faster, easier data integration, and monetization is increasing at an accelerated pace.

On the subject of AI Solutions, we talk about running a data-driven enterprise and data-driven innovation for enterprises & universities. We also explore the first steps to creating a data-driven organization, managing and optimizing your data-led innovation programs.

1345: AI-Driven Data Extraction Reducing Cost Of Contract Diligence Sep 22, 2020

As an attorney and serial entrepreneur, Ajay Agrawal has spent years working with contracts within the private legal sector and built his first company, UnitedLex Corporation, to more than $300M in revenue. In his latest venture, SirionLabs, Ajay is working to streamline contracts for modern businesses' needs.

With 4x customer growth over the last 18 months, SirionLabs is a leading contract lifecycle management (CLM) platform that uses AI to bring businesses into the future. But what problems are they solving with technology?

Despite the rapid digitization of contracts in our largely subscription-based economy, only 15% of Fortune 500 companies are tracking their contracts' performance - resulting in up to 15-20% of the contract value being lost as value leakage, which translates to $2-3T lost annually.

While legacy tools to help manage contracts exist, they usually focus only on contract creation and storage. There's a massive opportunity to take CLM to another level by allowing companies to go beyond signature into the operation stage of a contract to easily manage their risks, obligations, and entitlements.

The company is already trusted by 200+ leading organizations including BP, Vodafone, and Unilever. SirionLabs has saved its customers over $2.2B. With decades of experience, Ajay shares his expert insights into new and exciting technologies that modern enterprises need to bring improved visibility and collaboration across enterprises.

Ajay discusses the larger role that AI will play in strengthening relationships between buyers and suppliers and the key to building trust over the long term. He also walks through successful case study examples as to how he's helped these businesses achieve operational excellence and why this can be transformative in challenging economic times that we live in now.

1344: How White Ops Is Restoring The Integrity of Digital Interactions Sep 21, 2020

White Ops is the global leader in bot mitigation. They protect more than 200 enterprises—including the largest internet platforms—from sophisticated bots by verifying the humanity of one trillion online interactions every week.

The most sophisticated bots look and act like humans when they click on ads, visit websites, fill out forms, take over accounts, and commit payment fraud. They stop them. The White Ops Bot Mitigation Platform can detect, prevent and outwit bot populations of every level of sophistication.

They get inside their adversaries’ OODA loops with proactive adaptation. Their unique approach to bot mitigation put them in the lead role to collaborate with the FBI, Google, Facebook and many other partners in the takedown of 3ve, one of the largest botnets ever defeated.

White Ops is a pro-privacy, pro-human organization. Their privacy-sensitive code detects bots without tracking humans. And that privacy-centric approach has earned the trust of our partners and allowed us to reach an enormous global scale. Their code runs in countless websites and apps every day, affords us a footprint larger than any single anti-virus or threat detection platform on the internet.

I wanted to find out more about their mission at White Ops to protect the internet by verifying the humanity of every online interaction and disrupt the economics of cybercrime. On my quest for knowledge, I also uncovered an inspiring backstory that began in 2012 in a Brooklyn sci-fi bookstore.

Michael Tiffany, President, and Co-Founder White Ops, shares the story behind White Ops, The takedown of the 3ve botnet in partnership with the FBI and Google. We also discuss other more recent fraud investigations such as ICEBUCKET (Largest Connected TV botnet to date) and Terracotta.

1343: The Deep Learning Accelerator Enabling AI Deployments Sep 20, 2020

Most AI breakthroughs are driven by deep learning. However, current models and deployment methods suffer from significant limitations, like large energy and memory consumption, high costs, and hyper-specific hardware. Hardware advancements have gotten deep learning deployments this far, but for AI to meet its full potential, a software accelerator approach is required.

Dr. Eli David, a pioneering researcher in deep learning and neural networks, has focused his research on the development of deep learning technologies that improve the real-world deployment of AI systems, and believes the key lies in software. Bringing his research to fruition, Eli has developed DeepCube, a software-based inference accelerator that can be deployed on top of existing hardware (CPU, GPU, ASIC) in both datacenters and edge devices to improve deep learning speed, efficiency, and memory drastically.

For example, some of his results include:

•Increasing the inference speed on a regular CPU to match and surpass that of a GPU, which costs several times more •Increasing the inference speed on a GPU to equal the performance of 10 GPUs

1342: Continuous File Versioning - An Alternative to Backup? - Nasuni Sep 19, 2020

Nasuni enables organizations to store, protect, synchronize, and collaborate on files across all locations at scale. Nasuni Cloud File Services™, powered by the Nasuni UniFS® global file system, leverages cloud storage to modernize primary NAS and file server storage; archiving; backup; and disaster recovery, while offering transformational new capabilities for multi-site file sharing.

By combining the low cost, unlimited capacity, and durability of object storage from leading cloud vendors such as Amazon, Azure, Dell EMC, and IBM, with the high performance, security, and broad application compatibility of traditional file storage, the Nasuni subscription service improves workforce productivity, simplifies IT operations, and reduces IT costs.

The world’s largest companies in 12 industry sectors rely on Nasuni to maximize the business value of their file data and ensure business continuity.

Traditional backups, often an organization’s last line of defense again a disaster, are outdated and costing them time and money. Configuring incremental and full backup schedules, or pulling backups across the WAN to a central site, are cumbersome at best, unreliable at worst. So are babysitting backups to find out if they worked, and rotating and refreshing tape and disk media. And in the end, it still takes days or hours to recover.

David Shaw, chief science officer of Nasuni, discusses the alternatives to backups. We talk about continuous file versioning, which continuously loads file deltas to the cloud for safe and easily accessible storage, making the recovery processes easier, and more critically, faster (within minutes), minimizing costly downtime.

David also shares real-life anecdotes about customers who were able to recover files within minutes and maintain productivity without breaking stride.

1341: The Tech Behind Newsy's Anti-Partisan Approach to News Sep 18, 2020

Tech is often blamed for creating echo chambers and encouraging binary thinking. I wanted to learn more about how you can be informed — not influenced — with Newsy's anti-partisan approach to news. Get the facts without pundits and opinions. For people who aren't satisfied getting only the loudest part of the story, Newsy delivers honest, in-depth context on stories that matter.

How do they do it? What is the role of technology? And how has the network has been able to run smoothly during the pandemic? Blake Sabatinelli, CEO of Newsy, the next-generation national news network, reveals more and shares their mission.

Before joining Newsy, Blake oversaw video strategy at Newsy's parent company, The E.W. Scripps Company. Blake has a long history in both news and digital strategy. A native Texan, he started his career as a digital producer at ABC Action News in Tampa. He was later promoted to executive producer, managing a team of producers and overseeing editorial operations. Blake later led the digital strategy and operations at WJLA and News Channel 8 in Washington, D.C.

1340: The Mobile Keyboard With 80% Fewer Typos and 100% Privacy Sep 17, 2020

Typewise was started in Switzerland with the vision is to enable a digital world that genuinely respects user privacy. Its mission is to build the most secure and intelligent human-machine interface by developing text prediction technology using artificial intelligence (AI) that is private-by-design.

They envision Typewise's technology to power every human-machine interaction across mobile, desktop, wearable, and brain-computer interfaces. Their purpose is to deliver productivity through intelligence that safeguards user privacy.

Their first product, Typewise Keyboard, is the next-generation keyboard explicitly designed for two-thumb typing on smartphones.

The Typewise Keyboard idea originated after realizing that our current keyboard was designed for typewriters in the 19th century and is not fit for the mobile age. Yet, it is the most central interface of the smartphone. We use it 76 times every day across all kinds of apps.

Typewise Keyboard reduces typos by 4X through their patented honeycomb layout. It enables typing in multiple languages simultaneously and features autocorrection and text completion that genuinely understands the user. Most importantly, it doesn't transmit any typing data to the cloud but performs its AI magic fully offline.

In light of recent privacy scandals (e.g., Cambridge Analytica), more users turning to privacy-friendly apps (such as Signal/Telegram), and increased skepticism of Chinese-made apps (many keyboard apps are Chinese).

David Eberle shares how the tech start-up has also closed an $850K seed round to build out its typo-busting, 'privacy-safe' next word prediction engine designed to run entirely offline.

1339: Marga Hoek - Tech And Sustainable Development Goals Sep 16, 2020

Marga Hoek is a member of Thinkers50. She is that rare combination: a true visionary on sustainable business and capital and a successful, innovative business leader who understands and applies the commercial realities of business. Marga is also the award-winning author of The Trillion Dollar Shift.

The Trillion Dollar Shift is the first ever business book on the opportunities the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals open to business and capital. It features over 50 inspiring business case studies, across every sector – from agriculture to energy to ICT and advanced technologies.

They explore how businesses – from global giant Unilever to ground-breaking social enterprises like Grunfos, GSMA and Evaptainers – are tackling challenges, successfully working towards sustainable development goals and strategizing for the future.

Marga is considered one of the most influential thought leaders leading the way in the transition towards a sustainable world. She is unique in demonstrating how today’s ICT’s and technological innovations can be a huge force for good and has a strong track record in the financial sector. Marga shares her experience working with the UN and sustainability goals. We explore the challenges tech entrepreneurs will face after the crisis is over and talk about creating a shared value business model in these uncertain times. We also discuss her award-winning book, The Trillion Dollar Shift, the focus of her TEDx talks, and the lessons she learned from interviewing ten prominent CEOs across the world.

1338: Conexiom - Accelerating Automation for Business Resiliency Sep 15, 2020

According to Bain's recent survey, automation of business processes is rapidly scaling up, with the fallout from the coronavirus likely accelerating adoption. Thanks to automation, companies revealed cost savings of roughly 20% on average over the past two years.

The report projects that automation could spread through US companies 2-3 times more rapidly than in previous transformations in agriculture, manufacturing, and construction.

That being said, more than 7.5 trillion dollars of business-to-business sales orders are still manually processed in North America alone, and on average, customer service representatives spend a third of their day keying in purchase orders.

Manufacturers and distributors understand this problem better than most, as they're drowning in customer inquiries at a time when staff are working from home without their typical tools. Automation can reduce costs, create resource efficiencies, scale to thousands of trading partners, and improve the customer experience.

Sandy Shen, Senior Director Analyst at Gartner, said it best: "This is a wake-up call for organizations that have placed too much focus on daily operational needs at the expense of investing in digital business and long-term resilience. Businesses that can shift technology capacity and investments on digital platforms will mitigate the outbreak's impact and keep their companies running smoothly now, and over the long term."

Conexiom, a cloud-based sales order automation solution that companies like Grainger, Genpak, Diversey, Prysmian, Compugen, and many others use to eliminate manual order processing, is validating Bain's findings with unprecedented year-over-year company growth of more than 70%.

Ricardo Craft talks about accelerating automation for business resiliency, as companies aim to re-emerge from the COVID-19 fallout with modernized processes tied directly to measurable business value.

1337: The Impacts of COVID-19 on OTT Streaming Services. Sep 14, 2020

Founded in 2007, Evergent set out to tackle challenges faced by global digital media, entertainment, and telecommunication providers. These providers were struggling to find new revenue streams and best adapt to developments transforming the industry on all levels:

Technological Advances — from new devices to new ways to access content forever changing the competitive landscape.
Evolving Consumer Demand — individual choice and independence had become increasingly important for digital content consumption.
New Delivery Models — including direct-to-consumer channels required establishing and managing the integration of all subscriber interactions throughout the user lifecycle.

Evergent responded by developing a modern, frictionless, business enablement solution that would help its customers delight their customers. The Evergent Revenue and Customer Management Platform offers a solution that helps companies reduce time to market for products and services, minimize subscriber churn, simplify complex monetization models, and run back-office processes more efficiently.

Evergent customers include cable and satellite companies, telecommunication and wireless organizations, and media and entertainment businesses worldwide.

Today's guest is Vijay Sajja, who shares the story behind the company. We discuss the current state of the OTT streaming landscape the impacts of COVID-19 on OTT streaming services. We also discuss how OTT streaming services can compete in this overcrowded market and how subscription services can benefit from digital transformation.

1336: Meet Kris Reid, The Coolest Guy in SEO Sep 13, 2020

Right now, your potential customers are actively searching and either finding you or your competition. Are you trying to build your online reputation, become the ultimate authority of your niche? Or increase conversions through authority marketing and dramatically increase your business?

Today's guest talks about how you can do all that and more. Kris Reid is known online as the coolest guy in SEO. He was on a mission to get ranked to the first page of Google, be on front-page news, get trending, and get his name boosted to the world. But how did he do it? I invited Kris on to the Tech Talks Daily Podcast to learn more about his tech journey.

Kris shares how he followed his passion. He shares SEO tips and tricks, along with reputation management. We also discuss the importance of content planning, performance analysis, and how to create predictable revenue streams.

https://ardorseo.com/tech-talks-daily/

1335: Dr. Darren Schulte, CEO of Apixio On COVID19 Data Sep 12, 2020

Dr. Darren Schulte is the CEO of Apixio where they are using data to move medicine from a practice to a science. Improving healthcare outcomes requires access to the right data at the right time. Apixio is advancing value-based care with data-driven intelligence and analytics.

I wanted to learn more about how their AI solutions for risk, quality, and clinical insights unlock actionable information from administrative data and unstructured clinical information. The results drive better clinical decision-making and a smarter approach to healthcare. We also discuss how COVID-19 has impacted healthcare.

About Dr. Darren Schulte

Before joining Apixio, Darren served in executive leadership roles at Alere Health, Anvita Health, and Resolution Health. Darren co-developed twenty-five clinical measures endorsed by the National Quality Forum to measure ambulatory care quality using electronic data. He is a nationally recognized speaker on the topics of healthcare analytics and quality improvement.

Darren received his B.S. degree from U.C. Berkeley, his M.P.P. degree from Harvard, his M.D. from Stanford, and trained in Internal Medicine at University of California, San Francisco. Darren serves as a Board of Trustee at the Chinese American International School in San Francisco. He is the co-author of two US patents.

1334: Infor - 3 Pillars of a Winning Hyper-Automation Strategy Sep 11, 2020

Infor is a global leader in business cloud software specialized by industry. With 17,300 employees and over 68,000 customers in more than 170 countries, Infor software is designed for progress.

Hyper-automation is set to be one of the largest tech trends emerging in the wake of COVID-19. With a renewed focus on driving organizational efficiencies, businesses should shift to a hyper-automation mindset to streamline day-to-day operations, improve customer and employee satisfaction, and protect the bottom line.

To remain competitive in the post-COVID landscape, businesses must develop robust cloud strategies that can combine data across AI, ML, NLP, process mining, and other technologies needed for hyper-automation. Rick Rider, Vice President, Product Management at Infor, believes the scope of automation will evolve from discrete tasks and transactions based on static rules to automating knowledge work. This will require moving beyond RPA to developing a hyper-automation strategy that focuses on optimizing digital processes from IT infrastructure to customer-facing applications.

Rick discusses the 3 pillars of a winning hyper-automation strategy:

Clear roadmap: Work with business leaders and trusted partners to define a clear roadmap to achieve specific business goals.
Augment with AI and ML: Determine how AI/ML functions will perform in conjunction with other components of your business and augment human capabilities to achieve end-to-end process automation.
Maximize impact with cloud technology: Establish a clear view of all data sources, then leverage cloud technology to deliver that data to applications for intelligent process automation.

1333: Clarivate - Accelerating The Pace of Innovation Sep 10, 2020

Clarivate provides trusted insights and analytics to accelerate the pace of innovation. They have built some of the most trusted brands across the innovation lifecycle, including the Web of Science™, Cortellis™, Derwent™, CompuMark™, MarkMonitor™, and Techstreet™. Today, Clarivate is on a bold entrepreneurial mission to help customers reduce the time from new ideas to life-changing innovations.

The company is on a mission to change how the world’s risk-takers and trailblazers create life-changing innovations. They believe that human ingenuity can change the world and improve our future. Clarivate is a global leader in providing trusted insights and analytics to accelerate the pace of innovation. Our vision is to improve the way the world creates, protects, and advances innovation.

Jerre is Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Clarivate plc. Jerre served as CEO of Churchill Capital Corp until its merger with Clarivate in May 2019. He has led and been on the board of over 50+ companies. He is also a high-net-worth philanthropist who started a children’s hospital in Iowa and created mental health centers across the US.

We discuss how cross-global teams can collaborate amid a pandemic after an acquisition and bridging company cultures after an acquisition. We also talk about why are entrepreneurs are so important to the post-COVID economy and how COVID will impact the way people work.

Finally, we explore the top trends Jerre is seeing in the health tech sector.

1332: How Qualcomm Is Leading The Way With Wi-Fi 6E Sep 09, 2020

Qualcomm is a wireless technology innovator and the driving force behind the development, launch, and expansion of 5G. When we connected the phone to the internet, the mobile revolution was born. Today, their foundational technologies enable the mobile ecosystem and are found in all 3G, 4G, and 5G smartphones.

They bring the benefits of mobile to new industries, including automotive, the internet of things, and computing, leading the way to a world where everything and everyone can communicate and interact seamlessly. But there is much more the company than 5G and mobile connectivity.

With networks pressured more than ever by simultaneous work and school-from-home, surging on-demand video streaming, and latency-sensitive real-time gaming, the newly opened 6 GHz spectrum is the solution to meet the moment.

The latest platforms introduce Qualcomm® Tri-Band Wi-Fi 6, offering simultaneous operation in 2.4, 5, and 6 GHz frequency bands. Setting a new industry benchmark for scalability and performance, the Qualcomm Networking Pro Series Platforms are the first to offer support for up to 2,000 simultaneous users while designed to deliver full network capacity in an unprecedented 16-stream Wi-Fi 6E configuration.

Choosing from four scalable Wi-Fi 6E offerings, manufacturers can develop products with applications ranging from home Wi-Fi mesh systems to enterprise access points targeting business, large-venue, and campus networks.

"The newly opened 6 GHz spectrum and the advent of Wi-Fi 6E are important industry milestones that promise to usher in a new wave of Wi-Fi innovation that will bring exceptional wireless experiences to life.”

“We see this announcement from Qualcomm Technologies as a positive step forward in what’s possible for networking across the industry,” said David Henry, senior vice president of Connected Home Products and Services for NETGEAR.

Rahul Patel senior vice president and general manager of the Connectivity & Networking Business Unit for Qualcomm Technologies Inc talks about all this and the new Snapdragon 865 Plus 5G Mobile Platform.

1331: How A2K Partners and Citrix Are Building The Future of Work Sep 08, 2020

In this episode of the Citrix Ready Podcast series, I explore how technology can empower people and organizations to unlock innovation, engage customers, and be productive—anytime, anywhere.

A2K Partners are creating future of work solutions for right now problems and helping companies thrive in a crisis and economic downturn. I wanted to learn how they are helping organizations retool, optimize, and automate to innovate through any disruption.

A2K Partners is also a Citrix partner. Both companies are leading businesses throughout this turbulent period together and helping them turn challenges into opportunities.

Ray Wolf, CEO, A2K Partners, and Danijela Nandi Senior Product Manager at Citrix Workspace share how organizations can boost productivity, engage consumers, and empower their people to connect, collaborate, and innovate anywhere—on any application, any device, any cloud, at any time.

1330: How COVID-19 Has Impacted Business Continuity Sep 07, 2020

O3 World specializes in digital ecosystem consulting and custom design and development delivery, using new and emerging technologies like AI, voice, IoT, and conversational design. Clients such as Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, La Colombe, Caron Treatment Centers, Vertex, and SEI, as well as emerging companies like Gettacar, work with O3 World because of the agency's long-term approach to strategy and innovation.

Tim Breslin, chief technology officer, O3 World shares how COVID-19 has impacted digital transformation and business continuity, and the industries hit the hardest. He also reveals how to create an immersive digital experience. We also explore trends and fads in AI & ML in digital products.

Tim Breslin has 20+ years of experience in the e-commerce, digital products, marketing, data, and customer experience industries. As a software engineer who quickly transitioned to the digital product space when it was in its infancy (working in leadership roles at Digitas Health, Razorfish, The Onion, and more), Tim continues to lead many brands' digital product, digital transformation, and tech strategies.

1329: How TrueDrive Technology Is Driving E-Mobility Forward Sep 06, 2020

Reducing the cost of electric vehicles (EVs) while maintaining performance and drivability is the most significant hurdle to EVs' scalability and mass adoption. Put simply, OEMs are struggling to offer a mass-market EV that is similar to an ICE-equipped car in its performance (speed, range, torque, driving experience, etc.) and its price.

To meet the performance curve of traditional vehicles, OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers must resort to over-spec motors, two motors, or weighty and costly batteries. With limited performance and often low reliability, lower-cost vehicles serve only a niche (urban mobility) market, not suitable for mass adoption. Without sacrificing performance and drivability, OEMs cannot bring down the cost and stand to lose a significant share of the automotive market – the affordable EV.

Current government incentives aimed at speeding up the adoption of EVs by subsidizing costs are unsustainable in the long term. Without a significant change to the efficiency of their components, EVs will remain at either too high a price point or too low a performance level. There needs to be a technical innovation that makes EV technology at least equivalent to the 100+-year-old traditional car.

Moran Price, CEO, and Co-founder IRP systems discusses how automakers can leverage new technologies to change the industry paradigm, transforming EVs from luxury status item to upper-middle-class staple, and bringing them to the mass market.

About IRP Systems

IRP Systems is removing the last barriers of electric vehicle adoption by making electric mobility technology affordable for the mass market and accelerating its adoption worldwide. The company's uniquely innovative, patented electric powertrain technology is changing a paradigm in the EV industry.

Current solutions on the market require OEMs to choose between lowering the cost while limiting the performance or having a high-performance vehicle that is too expensive. IRP Systems' TrueDriveTM portfolio of electric motors and controllers offers an unprecedented level of powertrain efficiency, which optimizes battery use and allows for a smaller battery at a reduced cost.

IRP's reliable offering is backed by the company's experience designing unique systems to meet the stringent size, weight, and quality standards of the aerospace industry.

1328: PropTech - Inside Real Estate Doubles Down on Innovation Sep 05, 2020

Inside Real Estate, a Salt Lake City-based has just acquired a pricing technology tool called dashCMA. The acquisition will further Insider Real Estate’s technology capabilities and help guide agents and brokers through the difficult pricing environment created by the pandemic.

Inside Real Estate’s CEO, Ned Stringham, shares how the company made an acquisition during this time and how the real estate industry overall can embrace technology integration and learn valuable lessons to come out of this pandemic stronger than before.

We also discuss trends and data in the residential real estate market and insights from the recently released COVID-19 Industry Outlook and interactive dashboard.

Ned is a recognized entrepreneur, business strategist, and technology investor. Ned earned an MBA from Harvard Business School and founded and ran Impact Partners, a management consulting firm based in Sydney Australia. He also co-founded (1998) SBI Group, a digital marketing and technology consulting firm acquired by Aquantive, where Ned joined the Board.

Ned joined Inside Real Estate, as a partner in 2012 and helps shape the vision and strategic direction of the company. We talk about how real the estate industry overall can embrace technology integration and learn valuable lessons to come out of this pandemic stronger than before.

1327: Ford’s Spin Electric Scooters and The Freedom To Move Sep 04, 2020

Spin provides dockless electric scooters in more than 60 markets in the US, including San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington DC, Charlotte, and Miami. Their regulatory team led the nation's first stationless mobility permit system with the Seattle Department of Transportation.

It's also the micromobility arm of Ford. The company prides itself on putting riders' safety first, working closely with local governments, and scaling its fleet responsibly.

As the company expands across Europe and recently launched in the UK, I wanted to learn more about how technology is enabling Micromobility to deliver a convenient, clean, and cost-effective travel choice instead of buying a car or using ride-hailing services that increase congestion and pollution.

In the US, Spin has seen its ridership bounce back faster than public transit, competing with both walking and driving. It makes sense, wanting to be out in the great outdoors than cramped next to a man spreader on the tube or train.

Felix Petersen, head of Europe at Spin, discusses the current deployment of e-scooters in the UK and Europe. We also talk about using tech to build sustainable transport solutions and how E-scooters' usage patterns have risen since Covid-19.

1326: Dentons VentureBeyond: Insights From Venture Tech Sep 03, 2020

Dentons is the world's largest law firm, delivering quality and value to clients around the globe. But today, I want to finally bust the myth that law firms are slow to adapt to technological change.

From Berlin to Utah, whether your aim is an IPO or an M&A transaction, or to transform your industry, Dentons are gathering their insights and sharing thought leadership to help businesses drive their success at dentonsventurebeyond.com

Victor Boyajian heads Dentons' Global Venture Technology practice. A recognized leader in his field, Victor focuses on representing emerging growth technology companies and Fortune 500 companies in a broad array of venture capital, private equity, securities, and strategic transactions from Silicon Valley to Boston to New York and around the globe.

Victor counsels senior executives, boards of directors, and venture firm principals on a wide range of issues, including business strategy, finance, mergers and acquisitions, executive compensation, board governance, intellectual property, and litigation strategy. He has been recognized for his deep network among venture firms and investment banks.

His clientele reflects a cross-section of industries, including software, digital media, mobile, and Internet/e-commerce. He also devotes a significant amount of time to advising universities, federal labs, and corporations seeking to commercialize technology and protect their IP rights.

Chambers USA has also recognized Victor as one of the leading practitioners in the sector. Under his leadership, Dentons has been ranked among the top 10 nationally in venture capital deals, as reported in Dow Jones Private Equity Analyst. He has also been selected as one of AlwaysOn's Power Players, New York City.

We discuss everything from robotic temperature screening at building entrances to driverless vehicles and automated cleaning systems.

1325: How Poly Is Powering Human Connection and Collaboration. Sep 02, 2020

During my IT career, I remember noticing that Plantronics and Polycom made almost every headset in a call center or speaker in a meeting room. Here in 2020, Plantronics and Polycom are now Poly, the global communications company that powers authentic human connection and collaboration.

Poly offers a vast set of smart endpoints for unified collaboration span personal and group communication systems, with a full range of headsets, desk and conference phones, and video collaboration solutions. But they also provide cloud software and services, advanced management, analytics, and insights that drive first-rate business decisions.

Face to face, we sift and sort millions of verbal and non-verbal cues to glean meaning. I wanted to learn more about how Poly is finding new ways to inject these cues into audio and video communication to replicate the face-to-face experience. To build intimacy. To break walls and span the distance. To nurture the simplicity and beauty of human connection. One to one, one to many, many to many.

Paul Clark, Senior VP and EMEA MD for multi-billion communications brand Poly joins me on Tech Talks Daily. Paul is responsible for everything from market strategy to brand development in EMEA and has played a vital role in guiding the company through the uncertainty of both Brexit and COVID-19.

We discuss how the workplace is being shaped by the unique challenges of the past year. I learn how office and homeworking technologies are evolving to meet these challenges. For example, meeting spaces will be equipped with touchless solutions for safer collaboration. We also explore how the relationship between employers and employees changes as a result and ultimately gives employees more freedom to work in ways that suit them best.

1324: Where VC Investors Should Look Post-COVID-19 Sep 01, 2020

Gaurav Kapoor – COO MetricStream, discusses why companies should have integrity at the heart of the business strategy, particularly following the coronavirus pandemic and looming recession set to be worse than 2008. After the 2008 financial crash, it became clear that no company is too big to fail. Banks and financial institutions have been held to the highest standards and scrutinized by regulators, shareholders, and employees alike.

The consumer's voice is now stronger and louder than ever owing to the rise of social media, and companies need to be aware of their influence during these challenging times. News of company scandals frequently graces the headlines, and reports of businesses appearing to capitalize or act unethically during this time will not go unnoticed or be forgotten by the public any time soon. Gaurav explains the importance of organizations acting with integrity and draws on his own experience of changing company culture for the better. His advice includes placing ethics and integrity at the core of the business strategy, setting the tone at the top, investing in holistic, regularly assessed governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) programs and ethical technologies to keep an organization on the right track during the pandemic and beyond.

Gaurav has been involved with the company since its inception and as the COO, is responsible for the overall Go-to-Market Strategy, Sales, Marketing, Customer Advocacy, and the Partner and Community Ecosystem.

Until 2010, he also served as the CFO of MetricStream. Previously, Gaurav held executive positions at OpenGrowth and ArcadiaOne. Prior, he spent several years in business, marketing and operations roles at Citibank in Asia and in the U.S. He also serves on the board of Regalix, a digital innovation and marketing company.

1323: Unicorn Tradeshift On Why Digital Will Become Default Post-COVID Aug 31, 2020

Tradeshift is a $1B unicorn supply chain payments platform used by 1.5M companies across 190 countries, including 150 of the Fortune 500. Co-Founder and CEO, Christian Lanng, joins me on Tech Talks Daily to share the story behind the company and his positive vision for the road ahead.

From Google to Amazon, many companies were founded just before or during a crisis. Leaders today will have to take a page from this book to come out on top. So as much as COVID represents a global tragedy, it's also an opportunity to reset and rebuild in a way we failed to in the 2008 Financial Crisis.

The answer is digital + finance as default. This is the way to make processes resilient. From eliminating 30-40-year-old paper-focused models to utilizing platforms like Zoom and continuing the same service customers are used to.

We also discuss how many organizations implement high-level tech like AI, RPA and blockchain internally, but 54% still rely on paper-based processes, which leads to widespread waste, lengthy processing times, lack of supply chain transparency, and suboptimal decision making.

By contrast, they should digitize every level of the supply chain. That means every participant from banks, suppliers, and buyers needs to connect across the broader supply chain ecosystem. Internal digitization is excellent, but keep in mind that globally, just 8% of trade transactions are digital.

You can learn a thing or two from your routine outside the office. Bank statements, boarding passes - nothing is paper-based anymore. Take a page from social media's book, where relationships are digital and connected via online ecosystems.

1322: The Tech Democratizing Access to Funding and Mentorship Aug 30, 2020

Vintro Makes It Easy to Pitch Global Business Leaders Looking to connect with a venture capitalist, founder, Fortune 500 CEO, or Nobel Prize winner? On Vintro, you get guaranteed attention and insights from leaders who can elevate your business. I felt compelled to learn more about the inspirational story behind the company.

Noor Sugrue, the founder of Vintro and founded the company while she was in high school. I invited her onto Tech Talks Daily to learn more about how the platform is democratizing access to level the playing field for entrepreneurs and help as many new businesses succeed.

Noor Sugrue grew up in an entrepreneurial family. From a young age, she saw the struggles it took to launch and grow businesses, from endless travel to vast chunks of time spent trying to connect with the right person to get feedback, pitch ideas, and build partnerships.

Noor founded Vintro in late 2017 after watching an episode of Shark Tank, the US version of Dragon's Den. She became fascinated by what happens to the thousands of businesses that don't get selected to be part of the TV program, let alone secure the investment of a' Shark.'

Today, Noor is about to start her second year at the University of Chicago and aims to combine her studies with running the Vintro platform. Noor says: "Great ideas can come from anyone, anywhere in the world. But an idea dies without the right resources.

Now everyone can have guaranteed direct access and engagement from the world's most important leaders. They always said it was about 'who you know' as much as 'what you know' - we didn't think that was fair - so we fixed it."

1321: Reinventing The Broadway Guest Experience With AI Tech Aug 29, 2020

After reading about the devastation to the theatre community and the rise of the low touch economy, I wanted to find a little hope for the future and how technology helps create opportunities at this challenging time.

For example, Broadway is expected to be closed for the remainder of 2020. An entire industry and people's livelihoods hang in the balance, but I think most of us want to get back out there and enjoy life and see live events again. So I invited Micah Hollingworth from Broadw.ai (Pronounced Broadway AI) onto the show. We will learn more about how the company uses AI in a typically technologically untouched space Broadway.

Broadw.ai is the leading AI platform solution for Broadway shows, which improves the visitor experience and provides a more seamless ticket purchasing process for its guests. Through leveraging Broadw.ai's technology, Broadway guests are not only able to purchase directly from an AI-powered virtual assistant via the show's official website but also through Facebook Messenger and Amazon Alexa. Broadw.ai's partnering shows include world-renowned musical Wicked, and the longest-running musical in Broadway history, The Phantom of the Opera.

As we adjust to a new low touch economy, I learn more about how Micah has created something that enables Broadway guests to not only able to purchase directly from an AI-powered virtual assistant via the show's official website but also through Facebook Messenger and Amazon Alexa and wherever their customers are.

Micah shares the origin story of Broadw.ai and the latest technology developments on Broadway in the last 12 months, along with future tech trends. We discuss the market adoption of AI technology and the Broadw.ai platform.

We also explore how voice purchasing will change the ticketing landscape. I learn how AI/Machine learning is being used for faster and more accurate customers' responses using conversational intelligence tools.

1320: How Businesses Are Live Streaming To Promote Their Brand Aug 28, 2020

Live streaming has gained immense popularity over the years, with COVID-19 acting as a catalyst to push the industry further. For business owners, live streaming bridges the gap between them and their customers, helping them better understand their clients' needs and helping customers feel more connected to businesses – both of which are key to ensuring brand loyalty and retention.

Be.Live is helping content creators & SMB's grow their communities by creating the most engaging live shows on Facebook & Youtube. I wanted to learn more about how businesses can create customizable and engaging streams with zero installation and no setup with an out-of-the-box professional look for their stream.

Daniel Mayer, the co-founder, and CEO of BeLive, joins me on Tech Talks Daily to share his story. He founded two web-based broadcasting startups like AweVid, among other exciting business endeavors. He shares his experience of leading a global team of over 30 people in five countries and helping the company grow its user base nine-fold

We discuss how live streaming is the ultimate marketing tool to help businesses of all sizes promote their brand, interact with, and engage with their audience and grow their business. I also learn how BeLive takes the benefits of live streaming one step further by allowing companies to connect with their communities engagingly and profitably, giving them the tools they need to build brand recognition and community via live streaming.

1319: How FloQast Is Helping Accountants Close The Books Faster Aug 28, 2020

Mike Whitmire is the co-founder and CEO OF FloQast, a close management software company that helps rapidly growing companies, particularly pre-IPO and public companies, close their monthly financial books with greater accuracy and speed.

Mike started his career as an accountant at one of the Big Four, and then worked in the accounting department of Cornerstone OnDemand, a high flying software company where he helped prepare the company for its IPO.

From these experiences, Mike was inspired and motivated to leave the accounting profession and found a company focused on automating and improving the accuracy of accounting operations, moving it from a world of thousands of spreadsheets and pages of checklists to modern software.

Seven years later, FloQast is an emerging leader in close management software with over 1000 customers, including many public companies and late-stage, pre-IPO private companies such as The Golden State Warriors, Yelp, Zoom, and Lyft.

I learn more about how FloQast helps pre-IPO startups and public companies, close their monthly financial books with greater accuracy and speed. Mike makes the mundane world of audit workflow management to the cloud and amortization reconciliation sound exciting by sharing his story and the problems that the business solves in a language that everyone can understand.

Mike also shares how for the 4th year in a row, FloQast has been named one of LA Business Journal's top companies to work at, ranking #1 overall for tech companies.

1318: Pactum - Can AI Negotiate Retail Merchandising Deals? Aug 27, 2020

Martin Rand has been an entrepreneur for many years. He was a product manager at Skype, created VitalFields (which he later sold to Monsanto) and now, is the founder and CEO of Pactum. Pactum is an AI-based system that helps global companies to autonomously offer personalized, commercial negotiations on a massive scale. The system adds value and saves time for both the Pactum client and their negotiation partner by aligning their values to determine win-win agreements via an easy-to-use chat interface that implements best-practice negotiation strategies.

The web-based tool's applications range from supplier negotiations for online marketplaces to enterprise and retail procurement negotiations. Pactum is currently working with Walmart to renegotiate contracts and has been signed on as a partner with DocuSign. The company is based in Mountain View with engineering and operations in Estonia. It's backed by founders of Skype and TransferWise and built by luminaries from Skype, Starship Technologies, and the Government of Estonia's e-Residency program. But all are agreed on Pactum's vision of artificial intelligence, improving business relationships while safeguarding humanity with ethical AI.

Pactum is particularly useful in the current situation, as companies are losing money and needing to renegotiate contracts. Pactum saves money for retailers while also getting the best deals for vendors- all without human interaction on the company's side.

1317: Crestron - How Tech Is Changing Offices After COVID-19 Aug 26, 2020

Businesses worldwide have been forced to leverage technology and work differently over the last six months. Many now want to continue that momentum. I wanted to find a guest who is passionate about the subject and working with the tech that is changing things but also has the ear of many of the world's biggest organizations.

My search took me to Andrew Gross from Crestron, one of The world's leading innovators of advanced control & automation systems for the office, campus & luxury home, and their tag line is reinventing how people live & work.

So I invited him on the podcast today to discuss the types of technologies that will support a safe yet collaborative return to offices following the pandemic. I learn more about how occupancy sensors make sure new capacity limits aren't exceeded in meeting rooms and how automated meeting start technology forgoes the need to touch A/V equipment (detects people, starts meeting tech)/

We also talk about the need for easily transportable (rolling) conference room equipment that can turn any space (lobbies, hallways, any larger areas) into a meeting room for easy social distancing. The ability to control meetings and share presentations and content from a personal device without the need to touch shared conference room equipment is also increasing in popularity.

In a world where employees now expect to be able to work from anywhere, I also learn how enhanced real-time video conferencing and whiteboard technology is making employees that are socially distanced across meeting rooms and even remote employees feel like they're right there.

1316: How Unilever Is Reinventing Reward With uFlexReward Aug 25, 2020

Peter Newhouse, Unilever Global Head of Reward, and Ken Charman, CEO of uFlexReward, share the story behind the bespoke HR data consolidation platform.

The platform extracts all the necessary data from payroll, pension systems, benefit supplier systems, share administration systems, and so on, as well as the value of non-monetary rewards, making this data available in real-time.

Thanks to this technology, Unilever is now able to experiment with allowing employees the freedom to choose how their reward is allocated in a way that goes well beyond the flex benefits that employees are familiar with. The company can also understand each employee's cost in real-time, which is crucial for regulatory compliance and effective reporting and analysis.

After the platform became instrumental at Unilever, the multinational has spun it out into its company, uFlexReward, to make it available for peer organizations. I learn more about how total reward data is especially critical right now for organizations trying to respond to the impact of Covid-19, be that through reducing headcount, cutting reward spend, pausing pension contributions, and more.

1315: HubSpot The Age of Experience Disruption is Here Aug 24, 2020

Inken Kuhlmann-Rhinow is Marketing Director EMEA at HubSpot, where she has been working since 2013. She leads the EMEA team and is responsible for a diverse group of marketing professionals who execute go-to-market strategies, improve Hubspot's brand awareness, and support local sales teams. In addition, Inken oversees and ensures the creation of local campaigns and collaborations with regional sales teams to deliver high-quality leads.

In 2018, Inken won the Great Manager Award on behalf of Hubspot - an award for managers who have a meaningful impact on their team. Inken's nomination was due to her dedication to the high performance of her team and their personal development.

We discuss the topic of experience disruption. I learn how it's giving customers a new, different experience that pleases them and keeps them returning for more through the use of new modern technologies and techniques (think Netflix and Spotify).

We talk about giving customers an experience they didn't know they wanted and making interactions with brands frictionless.

1314: Peter Yared, The 7x Founder With More Than $500M In Exits. Aug 23, 2020

Peter Yared is a 7x founder with more than $500M in exits. He joins me on Tech Talks Daily to share his insights and tips with business leaders on how to stay afloat during these uncertain times based on his experience starting and selling six successful startups.

Peter is currently the CEO and founder of InCountry, the world’s first Data Residency-as-a-Service platform, and can talk about the realities of running a startup during a recession. We also discuss what CEOs and founders need to do now and the things that can wait.

1313: The FinTech Start-up Revolutionizing Financial Planning Aug 22, 2020

Financial planning shouldn't be perceived as clunky, traditional, or outdated. It should be something that's important to people, and therefore needs to have the most beautiful and seamless user experience.

BetterTradeOff is a Singapore-headquartered FinTech start-up that is revolutionizing financial planning with a holistic life-planning solution that simplifies and demystifies the financial planning process.

It also has a direct-to-consumer solution called Up, which provides people with a do-it-yourself tool to explore and understand different financial choices and outcomes, allowing people to make better financial decisions.

The company won the 'Global FinTech Hackcelerator,' which was organized by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). It also won the 'DIAmond Award – Most Innovative Start-up' at the most prestigious InsurTech event in the world, the DIA Conference 2018.

Shannon Cullum, CMO at BetterTradeOff, shares how they are providing some of the world's leading financial institutions with a collaborative tool that allows advisors to work together with clients on a plan to finance and protect their dreams.

We also discuss what financial planning should prioritize as an industry. For example, how Hyper personalization and digital experiences can delight customers and improve their lives.

1312: Challenges In A Post-Moore’s Law World Aug 21, 2020

Gopal Sharma, CTO, and co-founder of Diamanti joins me on Tech Talks Daily. I learn how the Kubernetes management company is supporting companies rapid migration to cloud-native applications. As a former lead engineer on Cisco's UCS, the seminal project that launched the hyper-converged server market, Gopal shares his interesting insights on the data center infrastructure market.

Moore's law states that the number of transistors in a circuit doubles about every two years, helping to increase processor performance. The end of the laws' effectiveness means that we are no longer seeing performance gains from processor advancements. We explore what that means for the future of computing that has been historically tied to advances in speed to drive higher application performance.

Gopal also discusses the end of Moore's Law and its means for future innovations in supporting cloud-based applications.

1311: Can Fintech Save Main Street? Aug 20, 2020

Victor Ho, Co-Founder, and CEO of Fivestars returns to the Tech Talks Daily Podcast. Victor co-founded Fivestars following his work at McKinsey & Company, where he helped build out loyalty and customer engagement strategies for premiere Fortune 50 brands.

He started his career as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs and holds three degrees from the University of California, Berkeley, where he triple majored in Industrial Engineering, Rhetoric, and Business Administration.

The company provides local small businesses with a simple solution to process payments and automate marketing. Under his leadership, Fivestars drove $3 billion in local sales last year, grew its customer base to 60M users who make 10M monthly in-store visits to 14,000+ merchants.

However, today we talk about how COVID-19 has wreaked havoc on small businesses and why small businesses are worth fighting for. We also discuss how to survive; SMBs need to focus on building relationships with their customers. And fintech may be their saving grace to do this.

We discuss how payments technology can power financial recovery for local businesses, who are increasingly out-gunned by Amazon.

1310: Transformation in Times of Crisis Aug 19, 2020

Front2Back™ uses the exponential power of cloud and cognitive to provide hyper-personalized (C=X2C2TM=1) digital experience to clients and their end customers. Mphasis' Service Transformation approach helps 'shrink the core' through the application of digital technologies across legacy environments within an enterprise, enabling businesses to stay ahead in a changing world.

Mphasis' core reference architectures and tools, speed, and innovation with domain expertise and specialization are key to building strong relationships with marquee clients.

Nitin Rakesh, Chief Executive Officer at Mphasis, joins me on Tech Talks Daily. He takes pride in leading an applied tech company, where it's cool to be a geek. His teams are driven every day to empower enterprises to embrace digital transformation journeys by optimizing assets, inculcating a learning culture, and pivoting approaches in preparation for an exciting, digital future.

Nitin's big passion is enabling his team of driven technologists, customers, and their end-users to stay ahead of the curve by leveraging next-gen technology to solve big and small enterprise IT challenges creatively. He also believes that change is the only constant and is inspired to steer his team towards enabling their clients to be agile, iterative, and future-ready in today's digital era.

We talk about his new book, Transformation in Times of Crisis, that includes eight principles to create opportunities in a crisis and defend against disruptors or become one. I learn more about how to build a framework to develop your implementation strategy.

1309: The Unique And Inspiring Startup Story Behind Fivetran Aug 18, 2020

Taylor Brown, COO, and co-founder of Fivetran has a unique startup story. He and his fellow co-founder, CEO George Fraser, have known each other since they were toddlers. Their two families used to vacation together at a lake in Wisconsin – a tradition that spans four generations – and Taylor and George still make this pilgrimage each summer to Wisconsin.

They crossed paths in San Francisco several years ago and decided to start Fivetran from George's tiny apartment in San Francisco. After getting accepted to Y Combinator, George and Taylor emerged to build Fivetran – fueled by its core values of integrity, initiative and "1 Team, 1 Dream."

Backed by Andreessen-Horowitz and other VC's, Fivetran has more than 1,000 customers and is poised to disrupt the data integration industry. The company's mission: making access to data as simple and reliable as electricity. Over the past year, the company has also increased revenue by more than 150 percent and more than doubled its global team, which is now at approximately 350 employees.

The company has garnered a long list of awards over the past year, including the Deloitte Fast 500, Gartner Peer Insights Customer Choice, Y Combinator Top Companies, and a Great Place to Work. But I want to learn more about the unique story behind this tech startup.

1308: The Business Automation Software for the Oil & Gas Industry Aug 17, 2020

WolfePak provides Business Automation Software for the oil & gas industry. Upstream, midstream, services companies and investors rely on WolfePak to improve margins by running their businesses more efficiently, reducing costs and increasing revenue. WolfePak comes with "Expertise Built-in" - exclusive accounting functionality and best practices for the oil & gas industry.

WolfePak streamlines and simplifies complex processes like revenue distribution, joint interest billing, division order management, production accounting, A/P automation, contract management, and more. I wanted to learn how WolfePak puts mobile technology into the hands of field personnel that simplifies the collection of oilfield data, eliminating hand-written run tickets and even pumper tickets.

Ryan Lailey, CTO, WolfePak Software joins me on Tech Talks Daily to share his thoughts on how oil and gas companies transitioning back to the office, and what digital workflow decisions need to be made now. We also discuss best practices and future technology integration, including tighter security for hybrid work environments, digital document management, storage, Financial, and business automation.

1307: AI In Manufacturing - A Second Set of Eyes Aug 16, 2020

There has been a lot of hype around the potential for AI in the manufacturing industry, but historically, AI has been too expensive or complex to deploy at scale. But now, with pressure to maintain quality products and keep up with irregular consumer demands with fewer people on the factory floor, new solutions are emerging.

With this in mind, Neurala launched VIA (Vision Inspection Automation): new software to help manufacturers ensure quality inspection on the production line while scaling with increasing consumer demands.

With less data required and faster training, VIA was created to improve ROI by increasing inspection rates, decreasing human intervention, and allow smaller batches of product to be inspected. It will also enable production facilities to avoid wasted resources by catching defects early while giving manufacturers the flexibility to train and run multiple AI models based on changes in products they produce or levels of consumer demand.

Dr. Massimiliano Versace, the co-founder and CEO of Neurala, and the company visionary joins me on Tech Talks Daily. After his pioneering research in brain-inspired computing and deep networks, he continues to inspire and lead the world of autonomous robotics.

He has spoken at dozens of events and venues, including TedX, NASA, the Pentagon, GTC, InterDrone, National Labs, Air Force Research Labs, HP, iRobot, Samsung, LG, Qualcomm, Ericsson, BAE Systems, AI World, Mitsubishi, ABB and Accenture, among many others. His work has been featured in TIME, IEEE Spectrum, CNN, MSNBC, The Boston Globe, The Chicago Tribune, Fortune, TechCrunch, Venture Beat, Nasdaq and many other media.

Max is a Fulbright scholar, has authored dozens of academic publications, holds several patents and two Ph.Ds: Experimental Psychology, University of Trieste, Italy; Cognitive and Neural Systems, Boston University, USA.

1306: How Michigan Startup OneStream Reached Unicorn Status Aug 15, 2020

OneStream, a CPM-finance platform, secured Unicorn status following a $500M investment from PE firm KKR and a $1B valuation. Currently, OneStream is working with major brands like UPS, Fruit of the Loom, and The Carlyle Group.

Tom Shea is the founder and CEO of OneStream Software. He was the original founder of UpStream Software in January of 2000, where he invented and architected UpStream TB and later UpStream WebLink. These products pioneered a new space called Financial Data Quality. They achieved a better way to manage data quality for Hyperion products by providing a packaged product (UpStream/FDM) every company could use.

Tom's passion and real strength stems from a deep, unique understanding of finance that leads to truly innovative and revolutionary products. Tom began working on OneStream XF more than eight years ago. His vision is to change the entire CPM ecosystem with a solution that combines power and flexibility with ease of use, deployment, and maintenance.

In today's episode, we discuss the drivers and business insights that companies should be monitoring for economic recovery. When re-starting hiring in a post-pandemic economy, we explore how to balance needs and revenue.

When competing with industry giants, I learn more about why OneStream has its own eyes on an IPO. Finally, we dare to look at the future of finance, and we share real use cases for AI and ML and what we can learn from the acceleration of digital transformation.

1305: The Power (And ROI) Of Influencer Marketing Aug 14, 2020

A&E is a digital agency that has the largest client portfolio of Fortune 500 companies such as Wells Fargo, J&J, P&G, and Netflix. Ther founders, Amra Beganovich and Elma Beganovich, have garnered 2+ million followers across social media. They are based in New York and have worked with high-profile brands such as Theory, Dr. Marten’s, Desigual, ESPRIT, Nicole Miller, Uber, Smartwater, Burt’s Bees, and Make Up For Ever.

However, I wanted to learn more about their back story and how they left traditional careers behind an economist and an attorney to start their digital agency and also bust a few myths around influencer marketing. I invited Elma onto Tech Talks Daily to share their journey.

Elma is Georgetown Law attorney turned founder and digital marketer with her sister and partner, Amra Beganovich. She is the creator behind Amra & Elma, an influencer marketing agency based in Manhattan, as well as Influencer Magic by A&E, proprietary software that matches brands with influencers according to their target demographic. She leads business development efforts with Fortune 500 companies, agencies and digital networks, and oversees A&E’s press relations

When brick and mortar is closed, I learn how influencer marketing can stimulate eCommerce spending and direct buying. We also discuss the important analytics and metrics when working with influencers and how businesses can measure ROI with influencer marketing by leveraging the latest tech tools and different KPIs to set.

1304: PPS - Europe’s Biggest Apple Pay Issuer Aug 14, 2020

Ray Brash is the CEO and Chairman of PPS, formerly Prepay Solutions. He has amassed over 20 years’ experience in retail, e-commerce, finance, and information services. Before joining PPS in 2004, Ray was finance director at The Economist, and previously held leadership roles at United News & Media, Telstar Electronic Studios, Kingfisher and PwC.

PPS has a successful track record of delivering programmes that are innovative but also deliver scale to leading fintechs (such as Monese, Tide and Coconut). Many players can do one or the other, but few do both, and this is therefore a true strength of PPS, providing reliable services to challenger banks and supporting its customers’ day-to-day financial needs.

In partnership with parent company, Edenred, PPS drives the migration of mobile payments technology and is the beating heart of the digital payments industry in a wealth of sectors including banking, retail, mobile and travel.

The company has served over 210 client programmes across 30 + countries around the world, processed in excess of 2 billion transactions worth the total value of $36 billion across fintech, corporate payments and retail portfolio and is Europe’s biggest Apple Pay issuer.

Ray joins me on the podcast to share how PPS has launched the first-ever e-money wallet to offer credit with koto - providing two different ways to select and repay credit based on the users immediate need. We also discuss how supported retailers such as Sainsburys during COVID-19 with launches of Volunteer Shopping Cards, enabling friends and helpers to shop on behalf of the elderly, disabled and vulnerable who were unable to shop for themselves.

1303: Recalibrating Real Estate Via Blockchain Technology Aug 13, 2020

David Bartels Broker/Owner Help-U-Sell Full Service Realty joins me on Tech Talks Daily. David is one of America's Top 100 Real Estate Agents who believes the US real estate sector primed and ready for a phase of deep recalibration post-pandemic, powered specifically by blockchain technology.

David is a distinguished expert in real estate negotiations, distressed property solutions, foreclosure avoidance, and real estate investing. It has some interesting takes on how the current pandemic has significantly impacted the global real estate sector. He shares his vision to empower prospective home sellers to market and sell their homes themselves;

We also discuss how, for too long, prospective home sellers have been forced to choose between two extremes on the home selling spectrum – bloated full-service agent fees versus the uncertainty of navigating the home selling process independently.

I also learn why only 8% of prospective home sellers grapple with the prospect of marketing and selling their home themselves, without enlisting the services of full-fee agents. However, the latest technological innovations can create a more consumer-centric model while addressing the legacy sector issues that have placed too much power in the hands of full-service agents.

1302: Changing The VC World From The Ground Up Aug 12, 2020

Zane Venture Fund is a woman-led venture fund investing in early-stage, tech-enabled B2B, B2C or DTC companies, with exceptional diverse founders, and teams. Their mission is to catalyze the proliferation of world-class organizations led by diverse founders and teams building tech-enabled solutions by providing capital access and support to companies that can capitalize on these resources to scale their business.

Shila Nieves Burney is the founder of Atlanta-based Zane Venture Fund. An entrepreneur at her core, Shila is dedicated to reinventing the world of venture capitalism with – and for – the next generation of diverse entrepreneurs.

In June, Shila and ZVF announced the Zane Access Pre-Capital Program, a new program aimed at helping these entrepreneurs from the very beginning of their startup journey. This 12-week program, sponsored in part by Techstars’ Brad Feld, is specifically focused on providing and supporting diverse founders (women, POC, LGBTQ+, etc.) The Zane Access Program is a first-of-its-kind approach to leverage our network and provide these early-stage founders with the strategy they need to accelerate growth, gain traction and get founders thinking about how to go down the right funding roadmap for their companies – be it venture, crowdfunding, or a different option.

1301: Digital Solutions Powered By Innovative Technologies Aug 11, 2020

Alex Lutskiy is the Co-Founder and CEO of Innovecs, a global software development company. Under his leadership, Innovecs became one of the fastest-growing US companies, according to Inc. 5000 in 2017, 2018, and 2019.

The company is also recognized on The 2020 Global Outsourcing 100® list by IAOP and is one as the youngest on the list. Alex founded Innovecs in 2012, starting with three team members - now we have 800+ people on the team. Moreover, Innovecs is achieving +65% YOY growth for the last three years. Before Innovecs, Alex held several executive management positions at CitiGroup, Ipsos, and GlobalLogic.

Alex shares valuable insights from his success story, change management, human-to-human approach, and tips and tricks on entering emerging markets. He also reveals a few tips and tricks for growing from 3 people to 800+ employees and achieving +65% YOY growth for three years in a row;

I learn more about their the human-to-human approach in B2B business and why emotions and relationship are exactly what drives the business. We also discuss the challenges and opportunities for tech companies in emerging markets in a virtual world without borders where entrepreneurs’ mindset has changed.

1300: How Samasource Is Powering AI for 25% of the Fortune 50 Aug 10, 2020

25% of the Fortune 50 trust Samasource to deliver secure, high-quality training data and validation for the technology teams driving humanity forward. From self-driving cars to smart hardware, Samasource fuels AI. But I wanted to learn more about the story behind this tech success story.

Founded over a decade ago, its teams are regarded as experts in image, video, sensor data annotation and validation for machine learning algorithms in industries including automotive, navigation, AR/VR, biotech, agriculture, manufacturing, and e-commerce. Their staff are driven by a mission to expand opportunities for low-income people through the digital economy. Their social business model has helped over 50,000 people lift themselves out of poverty

Here in 2020, the pandemic is affecting every tech sector - including AI. But what exactly have been the effects on AI so far? How will companies in this field be impacted in the long-run? Do they need to pivot their business models? These are just a few topics Wendy Gonzalez, President and Interim CEO of Samasource discusses with me.

As the leading training data company fueling Silicon Valley’s AI, Samasource has seen firsthand how the pandemic has affected the entire industry. Given Samasource’s vertical expertise, Wendy takes a deep dive into how the autonomous vehicle and virtual reality industries are being impacted.

We discuss how AI/ML companies are pivoting business models to adapt to new times and how they are using AI to fight against COVID-19. We also discuss how this pandemic will change the investments made into AI and what AI leaders need to prioritize right now to be successful post-pandemic

1299: Being More Creative and Human In The Age Of AI Aug 09, 2020

We live in a time where busyness is a badge of honor. Time off can seem like a forgotten or even despised concept. Although this is a tech show, as it's Sunday, I wanted to explore how time off and leisure will be the essential skills and competitive advantage that keep you happy and unique.

Many are working from home for the first time. It can be challenging to find work/life balance. Taking time off isn't about extravagant vacations; it is about finding small ways to take breaks throughout the day. Today's guest is Max Frenzel. He is an AI researcher, digital creative, coffee lover, writer, beatmaker, and Co-author of Time Off, a book about finding success without the stress.

Many of the greatest minds in history knew about the importance of time off. But this is not an outdated concept. Even though most of us seem to have forgotten about it, time off is just as applicable (and essential) now than ever. Today, people who are recognizing this ancient wisdom are reaping tremendous benefits from it.

1298: Quantum Metric - Creating Digital Customer Experiences Aug 08, 2020

Mario Ciabarra, CEO of Quantum Metric (SaaS platform that delivers behavioral and predictive analytics for major global brands like Neiman Marcus, Lenovo, Lululemon, etc.), returns to the Tech Talks Daily Podcast. As a teenager, Mario worked in retail, identifying which customers needed help choosing products. Growing up through the digital era, he questioned how companies could do this digitally with both scale and speed – providing the best customer experiences to increase brand loyalty, drive higher revenue, more digital channel adoption, and reduce costs. Fast forward to 2015, Mario founded Quantum Metric, a platform for Continuous Product Design (CPD), which is a fundamentally new approach to this idea, helping organizations deliver digital products that have a greater impact, both quickly and reliably. Under Mario’s leadership, Quantum Metric has seen rapid adoption from Fortune 500 eCommerce, travel, entertainment, and financial services companies. Securing a $25M Series A capital raise in 2018, Quantum Metric’s customer base, team, and revenues have more than tripled in 2018 and 2019.

Mario discusses how CPD is empowering a new generation of cross-functional teams, where Product, Marketing, VoC, Ops, and Engineering work together to discover, analyze, and align on what next project will make the most substantial impact to their business in real-time. He also shares tips for startup founders on overcoming the biggest challenges in getting companies to adopt and embrace your tech, We also explore how the trend of CPD is increasingly empowering a new generation of cross-functional teams, where Product, Marketing, VoC, Ops, and Engineering work together to discover, analyze, and align on what next project will make the largest impact to their business in real-time.

1297: BAE Systems Spins Out SOC.OS Cybersecurity Startup Aug 07, 2020

BAE Systems is one of the world's leading global defence, security, and aerospace companies. The company recently announced an Applied Intelligence spin-out, cybersecurity venture called SOC.OS. The announcement is considered another milestone in what has been an eventful and remarkable few years for its CEO, David Mareels. David is a graduate of BAE Systems' demanding SIGMA leadership programme. His journey with the company has taken him from project engineering management in Portsmouth, to a Eurofighter Typhoon program in Warton, before settling in Applied Intelligence in 2018. During this time, he became involved in the corporate incubator programme, taking a lead role at SOC.OS.

SOC.OS is a SaaS product and can be thought of as embedding an extra analyst into the team, one who can remember every interconnected relationship between every alert produced from each security tool, even if generated weeks and months apart. SOC.OS continuously operates, analyzes, triages, and prioritizes the most important incidents before escalating it to the IT security team for further review via a graphical user interface. I invited David onto the podcast to learn how technology is transforming multiple industries. But also learn more about David's journey from engineering graduate to CEO.

1296: Affiliate Trends With Rakuten Advertising Aug 06, 2020

Rakuten Advertising is the leading global provider for marketing and advertising services and technology. Working with agencies and brands around the world, Rakuten Advertising brings together unique media inventory, a global affiliate network, advanced machine learning, and consumer insights to deliver experiences that increase brand awareness and marketing performance – while pushing the advertising industry forward.

Stuart McLennan, Senior Vice President, APAC Region at Rakuten Advertising shares his insights on affiliate marketing and the Holiday Shopping Report - https://bit.ly/2EdSr6t

He has a proven track record of building and managing high-performance teams, delivering multiple reorganizations and changing management initiatives to ensure the prospect consolidation position as The World’s #1 performance agency.

Highly experienced in creating go to market narratives to meet clients’ changing demands across data, analytics, and digital paid media, securing significant new business revenue and existing client cross-sell revenue.

We explore the impacts of COVID-19 on publisher networks and industries such as travel, hospitality, and luxury brands. But also how can these sectors can evolve and potentially bounce back. With online shopping experiencing massive growth, we also talk about motivating users when shopping at home.

Finally, we attempt to bust a few myths and misconceptions in the industry and learn how the marketing landscape will continue to evolve.

1295: Infosys Finacle - The Tech Serving 1 Billion People Aug 05, 2020

As banking systems struggle to survive the impact of the current pandemic, customers look to their banking providers seeking financial aid, stability, and accessibility to banking services. Before the pandemic, banks were figuring out how to renovate their legacy models and deploy advanced technologies.

Fast forward to 2020, and banks are suddenly on the fast track to not only replace traditional operational tools with digital options but meet increased demand and provide full-fledged services to customers without displacing the trust that existed before.

John Dangoia, Head of Product Management for the U.S. and Europe at Finacle, is a dynamic product and operations executive with 25+ years of experience leading growth in industry-leading banking and insurance businesses. Before joining Infosys, John was Vice President of Product Management at Fiserrv in support of the company’s Financial & Risk Management Solutions (FRMS) Group.

Finacle is used by leading banks in over 100 countries to serve more than 1 billion people and has aided numerous banking systems with their digital transformation initiatives. Finacle is part of EdgeVerve Systems, a subsidiary of Infosys.

We discuss how the shutdown of physical branches and manual processes being unavailable have led to the profound significance of the access to digital services. But banking modernization has suddenly become an urgent feat, leaving banking management questioning which programs genuinely make a difference to the end-user.

We explore why focusing on providing solutions that offer the most significant relief to customers is imperative during a crisis, and the banking system’s role in helping the economy recover from a global pandemic.

1294: The Role of AI-Powered COVID-19 Chatbots In Healthcare Aug 04, 2020

Greg Kefer from AI-powered COVID-19 chatbot company, LifeLink, joins me on Tech Talks Daily. In today's episode, I explore the Chatbot benefits for healthcare providers and pharmaceutical companies as the landscape in healthcare continues to evolve.

COVID-19 has left healthcare providers in dire need of support - both on the front lines and back-of-house (call centers are seeing a 10x increase in volume!). In response, health systems like Jefferson Health, Memorial Health, and Banner Health have all quickly deployed chatbots like LifeLink because of its unlimited capacity to pre-screen and schedule appointments for patients.

I learn more about how this sudden need has pushed chatbots into the mainstream and transforming it overnight. Greg shares chatbots' new mission-critical role in the healthcare system and what this means for the "new normal" of healthcare.

1293: Digital Asset - Creators of DAML Aug 04, 2020

Yuval Rooz, co-founder and CEO of Digital Asset, is working with developers to incorporate blockchain approaches that simplify how distributed applications and processes are built and interconnected between organizations to easily drive business transactions.

Previously, he served as both the CFO and COO. In this capacity, Yuval hired the majority of the company’s executive leadership, established its global presence, and oversaw its acquisition of four technology startups. Before DA, Yuval held positions at Citadel and at DRW Trading, where he managed an algorithmic trading desk and helped launch DRW Venture Capital.

Digital Asset has an interesting, developer-friendly, open-source application platform called DAML. With DAML, developers can easily build and deploy multi-party applications on any distributed ledger platform or database; blockchain experience is not required.

As the demand for developers with blockchain skills continues to rise (Linkedin listed it as a top-ten in-demand skill for 2020) this is a great solution for developers to expand their talents in the dAPP space or enterprises keen to expand product offerings.

Companies such as ASX, HKEX, Amazon, Tencent’s WeBank, and others are using DAML to build new trading platforms built on blockchain or for software development to launch and deploy new products and services on a blockchain or a traditional database.

Yuval joins me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss how blockchain is evolving from technology focused on the financial services industry to one that is being adopted across vertical markets such as healthcare and retail.

I also learn how VMware recently joined the company’s Series C financing round. With the investment, VMware joins technology leaders Salesforce Ventures and Samsung Venture Investment Corp (Samsung) as investors in Digital Asset and its growing ecosystem of DAML partners.

1292: Automated vs. Manual Testing With QA Supermarket Aug 03, 2020

QA Supermarket provides comprehensive QA testing services on-demand and with competitive, completely transparent prices. The company is on a mission to offer Manual Testing as SaaS. The startup was founded by current CEO Paul Belevich, whose previous roles include Product Development Director at Blue Lithium (acquired by Yahoo!) and GM of Wargaming Research and Development Center in Austin. Most recently, he was founded software development company Software2Life.

I wanted to learn more about how they found a way to change a long, boring, and difficult application testing to an easy, transparent, and hassle-free one. We talk about the differences between Automated and Manual testing. We discuss what trends they are noticing in the industry. We also bust a few myths and misconceptions in the world of application testing,

1291: Predicting The Future With Behavioural Science Aug 02, 2020

Dectec is a Behavioural Science consultancy where they help clients predict future market responses and applying their insights across far-reaching sectors, including banking, telecoms, and retail. The company was created to provide the most accurate and best value forecasts available on how people will behave in new situations.

The team are enthusiastic proponents of behavioral research, randomized controlled trials, and data modelling. Founded in 2002, they are based in London and are staff-owned and are members of the Market Research Society and Management Consultancies Association.

I wanted to learn more about how they model human behavior to reveal the responses to different scenarios, giving clients a significant edge over their competitors in choices across range, pricing, communications, and offer. Dr. Henry Stott is the Co-founder of Dectech and a passionate proponent of doing more randomized controlled trials in business.

Henry has over 25 years of commercial experience across retail, finance telecoms, and other sectors. Before Dectech, he helped to create Oliver Wyman's Risk practice. We talk about what factors drive people's behavior and decision making. We also explore the alternative methods out there to predict the 'future', and I learn how accurate they are.

1290: NASA Detects Lattice Confinement Fusion Aug 01, 2020

A team of NASA researchers seeking a new energy source for deep-space exploration missions, recently revealed a method for triggering nuclear fusion in the space between the atoms of a metal solid. I felt compelled to find out more.

Lawrence Forsley is a senior experimental physicist with NASA, research fellow at the University of Texas, and CTO of Global Energy Corporation.

During the past 45 years, he has worked with laser fusion, mirror fusion, tokamaks, modular bremsstrahlung sources, sonoluminescence, and bulk Pd/D electrolysis and the patented co-deposition protocol.

Lawrence specializes in temporally, spatially, and spectrally resolving infrared through gamma-ray energy photons, charged particles, and neutrons. He is an author or co-author of over 40 scientific papers and book chapters.

In his spare time, he’s developed and deployed autonomous seismic sensors around the world and applied space-based Differential Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (DInSAR) to places hard to write home from, let alone pronounce.

We discuss the methods to drive and monitor condensed matter nuclear reactions in industrial, US Navy, and NASA laboratories, with an eye toward a clean, energy-rich future.

1289: Extended Threat Detection and Response (XDR) Jul 31, 2020

Extended Threat Detection and Response (XDR) is an emerging hot category that I wanted to learn more about. My curiosity led me to Hunters.AI, which is the first autonomous threat hunting solution. It's a pure-play vendor-agnostic XDR startup noted in the Gartner report. For CrowdStrike users, Hunters extends threat detection beyond the endpoint and enables XDR capabilities.

Hunters.AI generates and delivers actionable visualized attack stories allowing organizations to more quickly and effectively identify, understand, and respond to attacks. Uri May Co-Founder & CEO, Hunters, reveals how XDR has emerged as the next-gen successor to EDR and SIEM solutions. He also shares why it's different and what it brings to the IT security stack.

On the subject of missed signals, I learn how XDR finds legitimate threats while filtering out the noise and why a vendor-agnostic approach is essential to success. Finally, we discuss how Hunters grants XDR capabilities using AI for autonomous threat hunting.

1288: Accelerated Digital Transformation and Business Continuity Jul 30, 2020

Regardless of how a business looks at flexibility, workplace innovation continues to advance at high speed, evolving into a more natural and integrated aspect of life and dominating modern workers' expectations. The shift in traditional work's rhythm creates assumed challenges that may be intimidating for organizations trying to adapt.

Pushing aside misconceptions and uncovering the truth about flexible work can accelerate an organization's path to delivering a successful balance of work and flexibility to all its employees, regardless of age or working preferences.

Jed Brown, SVP of Product & Design at Fuze joins me on Tech Talks Daily to explore the three main misconceptions that prevent flexible work from being successful throughout organizations, and importantly explains how the right technology will not only kick-start flexible work now, it can also prepare a business for what's to come, keeping them open to the future too.

About Fuze Fuze is a global cloud communications provider for the enterprise. Its intuitive unified communications and contact center platform enables seamless transition between calling, meeting, chatting, and sharing powered by the industry-leading intelligent cloud architecture. Fuze empowers the digital and distributed workforce to communicate anywhere, anytime, and across any device. Founded in 2006, Fuze is headquartered in Boston, MA with offices around the world.

1287: The Robotics Company Empowering Humans Jul 29, 2020

Daniel Theobald is the CEO of Vecna Robotics. His company recently raised $50M for their Series B and has been helping automate materials handling for global clients like FedEx. Daniel is a passionate leader who is dedicated to the idea that technology can be used to improve life for everyone on the planet.

Daniel is also a co-founder of Mass Robotics - an independent, non-profit organization serving as the innovation hub for robotics and connected devices in the Greater Boston, MA area, so he has his pulse on the innovation of the robotics industry. But I wanted to learn more about the robotics company that believes the future belongs to those who empower humans.

We talk about how robotics, AI and automation help keep the supply chain running, the importance of robots and humans working together to increase workflow efficiency, and what the robotics industry needs to do to push interoperability forward. We also discuss why humans and robots are better together.

1286: Aweber Founder, Email Automation Industry Leader Tom Kulzer Jul 28, 2020

AWeber delivers powerfully-simple email marketing software specifically designed for small businesses. Since 1998, They have helped over 1,000,000 small businesses around the world grow their businesses by giving them the tools and knowledge they need to connect with their prospects and customers.

AWeber is a 100% remote-first team. That means they work from the comfort of their homes while making an impact on customers around the world. they value collaboration, flexibility, and entrepreneurial spirit — not what you wear or where you choose to do your most productive work.

They also believe that an incredible culture is not about where you work, but about the people that you work with.

1285: Commercial Drone Analytics Enriches Data to Empower Action Jul 27, 2020

When a utility embarks on a capital project, they’re doing so to serve their customers better, comply with regulations, and/or build the value of their asset network—and they’re increasingly making drones a part of their efforts.

Utilities are using drones across the capital project lifecycle. Whether to inventory assets, monitor current project work, or evaluate pre-completion performance, project managers achieve greater data breadth and precision. Not only does this help justify CapEx spend, but it also enables better project management.

PrecisionHawk, the market leader of commercial drone analytics, has seen first-hand the challenges of keeping utility asset databases up-to-date. During routine inspections for all of their utility clients, PrecisionHawk has found discrepancies in location data for up to 50% of poles. And while ground teams typically find that 10% of poles are out of compliance, they have, on average found that the number is actually 25-30%.

As a solution, Drone technology is implemented to accurately geolocate all pole assets, convert imagery and data into metadata for quality assurance, and execute strategic business decisions accordingly with substantial evidence.

Robert Henley joins me on Tech Talks Daily in a conversation about how utilities leverage drone technology to improve their asset management systems and validate capital projects tied to critical infrastructure.

1284: The Future of Sports? Creating a Social Living Room Jul 26, 2020

Sporting leagues are beginning to unveil their plans to return to play, and the NBA is planning to return at Walt Disney World. When exploring the future of sport, leagues must start thinking about the live stream viewing experience will look like for fans. They also have to consider if platforms are capable of supporting the influx of people tuning in from home and how they'll be able to replicate the in-person fan experience at home.

Jed Corenthal, the CMO of Phenix (real-time streaming technology platform), discusses what platforms must prioritize seamlessly delivering virtual experiences that will keep fans happy. If games are delivered in real-time and synchronous streams, the opportunities to engage viewers are endless – from trivia games to switching up camera angles and even selling merchandise – but this is all only possible if livestream technology is up to par.

Phenix has customers on five continents, and all focused on delivering a superior user experience by reducing latency, maintaining a high-quality stream, and reaching large audiences. I learn more about how they were challenged to create compelling interactive mobile content to keep viewers engaged throughout the Oscars broadcast with short development timeline.

Disney/ABC selected Phenix and its partners to deliver the first ever Official Oscars Trivia Game. During commercial breaks, the game featured a real-time "audience cam" capturing celebrities chatting and socializing.

The 2019 Oscars digital experience was nominated for an Emmy Award. Jed shares this and many more stories.

1283: The Cybersecurity Skills Gap and the Opportunities For Women Jul 25, 2020

Did you know there is a massive labor shortage in the cybersecurity field? It has been estimated that, on a global scale, there are over 1 million unfilled cybersecurity jobs—and if history is any indicator, that number is likely to increase.

So how do we solve the labor shortage in the cybersecurity industry? Think women. Right now, women in cybersecurity represent a mere 11% of the industry worldwide. That means that the cybersecurity industry is missing out on almost half of the population’s talent pool, during a period in history when cyber-crime poses one of our most menacing threats.

So how do we solve the labor shortage in the cybersecurity industry? I invited Amie Wei to Tech Talks Daily to talk about the opportunities for women in cybersecurity and learn more about her inspirational journey in tech.

Amie is the founder of the cybersecurity company Stellar Cyber and has 20+ years of experience building successful products and leading teams in data networking and telecommunications.

Amie also has extensive working experience for early-stage startups, including Nuera, SS8 Networks, Kineto Wireless, and well-established companies like Nortel, Ciena, and Cisco.

Before founding Stellar Cyber, she was actively developing Software Defined Networks solutions at Cisco. Aimei enjoys building a product from its initial design to its final launch. Aimei has an M.S. in Computer Science from the Queen’s University in Kingston, Canada, and an Undergraduate degree in Computer Science from the Tsinghua University of China.

1282: WalkMe, The World's First Digital Adoption Platform Jul 24, 2020

Rafael Sweary, co-founded WalkMe, the leading digital adoption platform, in 2011. Previously, Rafael was the co-founder, CEO, and then President of Jetro Platforms, which was acquired in 2007. Since then, he has funded and helped build a number of companies both in his role as Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Ocean Assets and in a personal capacity.

WalkMe, pioneered the Digital Adoption Platform (DAP) to empower business leaders to realize the promise of their technology investment by transforming the user experience in today’s overwhelming digital world. With WalkMe’s enterprise-class guidance, engagement, insights and automation platform, employees are more efficient and productive.

Executives have better visibility into digital usage, and organizations maximize the full value of their digital assets and successfully guide their enterprise through digital transformation. WalkMe has raised over $307 million to date, and its DAP is used by 2,000 enterprises across all industries, including 30% of the Fortune 500.

Rafael joins me on Tech Talks Daily to speak on the Next Normal caused by COVID-19, and how to thrive in the next normal, organizations need to reinvent their digital strategy by encouraging workforce agility, redefine customer journeys, and accelerate tech modernization. We also talk about digital transformation and digital adoption.

1281: Driving Growth Through Enterprise A.I. Technology Jul 23, 2020

Gary Saarenvirta, founder/CEO of Daisy Intelligence, is recognized as one of North America’s preeminent authorities on artificial intelligence. Gary is a passionate evangelist for the application of A.I. and reinforcement learning in strategic merchandising decisions. He’s not afraid to challenge the status quo when it comes to the advantages of deep learning over traditional approaches to data mining and analysis, both in speed and precision.

Gary’s 25+ years of experience includes managing the analytics practice at LoyaltyConsulting Group and leading IBM’s analytics and data warehousing practice areas. He entered the workforce with an aerospace engineering degree (so yes, he’s even a trained rocket scientist). Today, his focus lies in making A.I. an indispensable tool for data-driven businesses.

Using autonomous machine intelligence, Daisy helps global organizations drive revenue and profit growth by transforming massive quantities of consumer data into better and smarter business decisions. Daisy specializes in retail merchandising solutions and insurance fraud detection.

For retailers, Daisy’s A.I. platform transforms a massive amount of transactional data to do promotional product mix and price mix optimization while taking into account cannibalization,forward-buying, stock-outs, and more.

Gary joins me on Tech Talks Daily to talk about driving growth for retailers and insurance companies through enterprise A.I. technology. We discuss how global retailers and insurance companies are often drowning in data, yet struggling to gain any practical insight from this ever-growing pool of data -- inside of which lies the keys to creating a better customer experience and significantly better financial results.

1280: How Big Data and AI Accelerates Lending From Months To Minutes Jul 23, 2020

Keren Moynihan is co-founder and CEO of Boss Insights, a company that uses big data and AI to accelerate lending from months to minutes. Boss Insights started with a vision to empower lenders to measure businesses on merit and credit. In an era where tech giants have increased customer expectations, lenders and private capital providers are challenged to offer complete and personalized solutions.

Boss Insights' data platform gives lenders the clearest view of their business customers. The platform accelerates small business and commercial lending from months to minutes. It also increases sales opportunities for other financial products.

Their mission is to provide banks and credit unions with a real-time understanding of their business clients, enabling them to offer customer delight. But I wanted to learn more about how they are helping financiers to empower and measure business vision? To obtain a better understanding of the scale of the problems out there at the moment. Keren also explains how the US CARES ACT led to $659 Billion being approved through the SBA and the challenges that quickly arose as a result. But she also shares her insights on how the crisis led to banks, credit unions, and Fintechs collaborating in an unprecedented manner. We also discuss how technology will continue to improve communication and collaboration between borrowers and lenders.

1279: Can Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Co-Exist With Zero Trust. Jul 22, 2020

Ericom Software is a leading provider of Zero Trust secure access solutions that protect organizations from advanced cybersecurity threats. Leveraging innovative isolation technology and software-defined perimeter principles, Ericom solutions enable simple, secure policy-driven access to mission-critical cloud and on-premises business systems and resources, including the public Internet, without impacting end-user productivity.

John Peterson, Chief Product Officer of Ericom Software, joins me on Tech Talks Daily. He is responsible for product strategy and helping to define and support Ericom’s go-to-market activity. Most recently, he was founding Chief Product Officer at Stellar Cyber. In his 30-year career, John has held executive positions at Comodo, Barracuda, Juniper, Fortinet, Websense, Montego Networks, and Netscreen. He was a key member of four companies that went public and three that were acquired. John served as a United States Marine and holds multiple patents.

We talk about Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) and how this new security concept can co-exist with Zero Trust. SASE can be thought of as a unified vision on how an organization can achieve Zero Trust for their network, and based on the fact that networks have changed, the security that protects them must change as well. This integration streamlines processing simplifies access and reduces latency while enforcing security. It also requires a network and network security architectures to be rethought and rebuilt from the ground up.

I also learn how SASE can greatly improve network security without burdening the user.

1278: Counter Ransomware Attacks with Cohesity Jul 21, 2020

Steve Grewal is the former CISO, CTO, and CIO for the U.S. Dept. of Education, and currently, the CTO, Federal, for data management company Cohesity. He is working with government agencies to address cybersecurity issues, specifically the growing number of ransomware attacks.

In 2020, we have already seen many high-profile ransomware attacks against hospitals, state, municipal, and government agencies and organizations. This includes Los Angeles County, Fort Worth Independent School District in Texas, ExecuPharm, Boston Children’s Hospital, and more. Malicious hackers will continue searching for their next target, and ransoms will continue to be paid.

However, many fail to realize that there are strategies for combating ransomware attacks, which ensure that a ransom does not need to be paid, regardless of its severity. As the global pandemic puts an enormous financial strain on many private and public sector organizations, it is more important than ever for organizations to know what to do in the case of a successful ransomware attack.

Malicious hackers will continue searching for their next target, and ransoms will continue to be paid. However, many fail to realize that there are strategies for combating ransomware attacks, which ensure that a ransom does not need to be paid, regardless of the severity of the attack. As the global pandemic puts an enormous financial strain on many private and public sector organizations, it is more important than ever for organizations to know what to do in the case of a successful ransomware attack.

1277: Neil Sahota - Repositioning A.I. For Social Good Jul 20, 2020

Neil Sahota is an IBM Master Inventor, United Nations (U.N.) Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) Advisor and Faculty at UC Irvine. With 20+ years of business experience, he works with clients and business partners to think disruptively and create next-generation products/solutions powered by emerging technology. He is also the author of Own the A.I. Revolution, a practical guide to leveraging A.I. for social good and business growth and was named Best Business Book of 2019 by Soundview.

Neil’s work experience spans multiple industries, including health care, life sciences, retail, travel and transportation, energy and utilities, automotive, telecommunications, media/communication, and government. Before his current role, he was a thought leader, consultant, and practice leader in IBM Global Business Services, where he led the sales and delivery of consulting engagements in business strategy, new product development, revenue optimization, process improvement, and business/system integration.

Neil has lived and worked in Ningbo, China, where he was involved in economic development projects, gaining extensive experience in assisting companies and entrepreneurs in defining their products, establishing their target markets, and structure their companies. He is a member of several investor groups and a director of various tech companies. Neil resides in California and spends a significant amount of time traveling the world to participate in business development and global expansion projects.

We talk about creating a "Tech for Good" mindset to drive social enterprise/entrepreneurship and building the ecosystem to bring business, technologists, and government together to solve problems. Neil also shares why Moonshots are good but we also need "Earthshots" - solutions to help tackle some of the big problems of our planet and society.

1276: Red Points - The Technology Protecting Brands Jul 19, 2020

Red Points protects brands and their content in the digital environment through their proprietary technology, which employs machine learning algorithms to scan the internet and identify all violations and infringements.

As a result, the company is the preferred brand protection partner for some of the leading global brands and content owners in the sporting, entertainment, fashion, editorial, and software industries. They have also been tagged as "one of Europe's hottest tech companies" by Wired.

Juan Galdeano, CTO, Red Points, has over twenty years' experience in software development. He is designing and implementing the fast-moving Red Points technology. Under his leadership, the Technology Team aims to deliver the best online brand protection technology.

Today we talk about how online counterfeiting is an issue that's running rampant globally across industries). It's estimated that by 2022, counterfeiting will be a $4.2 trillion industry, and global damages from counterfeit goods are expected to exceed $323 billion.

Even the most tech-savvy consumers are tricked by these false ads, resulting in lost revenue and a hit to a brand's image. Through Red Points, brands are now beginning to use AI and machine learning to detect and remove counterfeit goods across the internet (from Amazon to the smallest copycat website).

I also learn more about the advent of eCommerce and social media advertising. It is spurring exponential growth of counterfeits and piracy online and how AI is powering technology like image recognition to track brands, patterns, and products.

1275: SEMRush - Ecommerce & Consumer Trends During Coronavirus Jul 18, 2020

After months of being locked down, many are returning to the office and sitting in meeting rooms to discuss the lessons they have learned over the last few months. What will your busy be doing differently? And what does the future of work look like in your organization?

SEMrush is a SaaS product used by over 5,000,000 marketers worldwide. For the past 11 years, SEMrush has grown into an all-in-one marketing suite consisting of more than 40 tools and reports that help companies market better online. The company began analyzing the impact of COVID-19 on online behavior to reveal industries and companies that have been hit the hardest or boosted.

On top of being one of the best keyword research tools worldwide, SEMrush now helps users fix technical website issues, improve the health of their backlink profile, and track local rankings on both mobile and desktop. In a nutshell, they have their finger firmly on the pulse of the web.

Their vision is to create the only tool a digital marketing team would ever need to improve their online marketing results, ensure a smooth workflow between team members, and save time on routine tasks. Today, Olga Head of Global Marketing at SEMrush joins me in a conversation where we discuss Market Winners By Search Data And Traffic Trends, Industries That Have Suffered the Most, and How the consumer demand has been changing within the past few weeks.

I also learn which industries have seen the most significant spike in traffic and which products top the most searched online.

1274: The Tech Reimagining How You Buy Or Sell A Used Car Jul 17, 2020

George Arison shares how he saw Uber coming before Uber did. In 2007, he co-founded Taxi Magic, which today books millions of yearly rides with service in 50 US cities. Prior to working in technology, George ran a parliamentary campaign for a leading opposition party in his native country of Georgia and published a book titled Democracy and Autocracy in Eurasia.

Here in 2020 he is the co-founder of Shift, an online marketplace disrupting the used car industry. George immigrated from Eurasia to the United States as a teenager and no sooner began his career as a project manager for Google before going on to co-found the first on-demand mobile transportation booking technology, Taxi Magic (now known as Curb), two years before Uber was even created.

I learn more about how Shift is an e-commerce startup on a mission to change the car-buying and selling industry. George shares his goal to transform the burdensome life event into a delightful experience, bringing trust and simplicity to the peer-to-peer used car market.

Shift is the new way to buy and sell cars: on your terms, at your door. Backed by leading Silicon Valley investors and poised for enormous growth, thy bring together cutting-edge technology and dedicated people to create an unparalleled experience for both buyers and sellers.

George is an incredible innovator and businessman with an inspirational tech startup story to share.

1273: The Tech Startup Story Behind The Uber For Lawn Care Jul 16, 2020

Bryan Clayton is CEO and co-founder of GreenPal, an online marketplace that connects homeowners with local lawn care professionals. GreenPal has been called the "Uber for lawn care" by Entrepreneur magazine and has over 100,000 active users completing thousands of transactions per day.

Before starting GreenPal, Bryan Clayton founded Peachtree Inc., one of the largest landscaping companies in the state of Tennessee, growing it to over $10 million a year in annual revenue before it was acquired in 2013. Here in 2020, if you live in the US, you can open an app on your phone and have someone come and cut your grass.

I learn more about his story that began when he was pushing a lawnmower many years ago and how he went on to scale to the whole of the US and maybe even the UK in the future. Bryan's vast experience in entrepreneurialism, small business growth, marketing, and bootstrapping businesses from zero revenue to profitability and exit make this a must-listen for startup founders.

1272: How CI/CD Went From "Bleeding-Edge" to Mission-Critical Jul 15, 2020

Almost no business is immune from the need for quality software development. The act of building quality software, and shipping it quickly, has become the core engine of value creation in companies across all industries. CircleCI allows teams to rapidly release code they trust by automating the build, test, and delivery process for both mobile and web apps, either in the cloud or on their own private server.

Thousands of leading companies, including Samsung, Ford Motor Company, Spotify, Lyft, Coinbase, PagerDuty, Stitch Fix, and BuzzFeed, rely on CircleCI to accelerate delivery and improve quality.

CircleCI was named a Leader in cloud-native continuous integration by Forrester in 2019 and has been named to multiple Best DevOps Tools lists. CircleCI is the first CI/CD tool to become FedRAMP certified and processes more than 30 million builds each month across Linux, macOS, Docker, and Windows build environments.

Jim Rose returns to the Tech Talks Daily podcast for catchup after the recent $100 million Series E funding round. He also shares his thoughts on the recent acceleration of DevOps and CI/CD.

CI/CD is a practice that has moved from "bleeding-edge" to mission-critical. If there's a screen between you and a customer, there's a piece of code needed to be maintained to keep the interaction alive. Jim also shares how they are helping businesses accelerate their delivery of value through software.

This might be through working with Facebook on their open-source machine learning library, Pytorch, or with a non-profit creating low-cost ventilators to help COVID-19 patients in the developing world.

1271: Rapid Response to Unpredictable Application Demands Jul 14, 2020

More than ever, software needs to work perfectly. Businesses must monitor, optimize, and scale every app in any cloud. As consumers rely on digital services during the pandemic, companies are seeing increases in site traffic that are causing performance degradations and other technical challenges.

Insights from Dynatrace found increases across industries in key website performance metrics. In this episode, I learn about increases across industries in key website performance metrics, how unpredictable changes in demand, and how organizations in retail and the governments turn to automation and AI-assistance to deliver essential business outcomes both efficiently and cost-effectively.

For example, SAP CX –is seeing a 50% increase in page impressions on customer sites compared with peak times (i.e., Black Friday), so it is using AI to automate operations to ensure proactive responses to issues. As a result, SAP CX spends less time firefighting, leaving more time for product innovation.

Kroger – as a leading grocery retailer, Kroger is an essential business on the frontlines of the pandemic, so keeping business up and running 24/7 is paramount. With the help of AI, the company can proactively address site issues before customers are impacted.

DXC Technology – working with the Flemish government, DXC Technology developed an application to process requests from local businesses for financial support in response to COVID-19. Leveraging AI, the organization has automated its development pipeline, allowing it to create new features faster, multiplying the team’s productivity and, ultimately, helping the Flemish government provide financial support for its citizens.

Alois Reitbauer VP, Chief Technology Strategist at Dynatrace, joins me on Tech Talks Daily to expand on these insights. We also discuss how the ability to identify the exact root cause and impact of problems wherever they occur before a support ticket is raised should be a priority.

Keeping the lights on everything from backend applications, underlying cloud infrastructure, and networks to mobile apps and devices needs a different approach to APM.

1270: The Story Behind The First Digital Stethoscope Jul 13, 2020

Thinklabs was founded in 1991 by Clive Smith, an Electrical Engineering graduate of Caltech. The name implies the company's goal - think deeply about problems that matter and develop imaginative solutions. Smith has always had a passion for medical electronics, sound, music, and signal processing.

In the mid-'90s, Smith read a Circulation paper, indicating that stethoscope acoustics had not improved since Laennec built the first stethoscope in 1816. Physicians confirmed that even top-of-the-line conventional stethoscopes did a poor job of amplifying heart and lung sounds. Thus began Smith's obsession to re-invent the stethoscope.

The concept of an electronic stethoscope was not new. For a century, the road to perfect auscultation was littered with the carcasses of failed efforts. Smith started experimenting. Technologies were tested, rejected, modified and retested. The key breakthrough came with a question: How can one create an electrical analog to the acoustic pressure changes in a conventional stethoscope?

All the benefits of advanced electronic technology would then accrue and the authentic sound of the stethoscope would be preserved. Physicians would not require any ear retraining. A completely new transducer was needed.

Clive Smith went on to design the One Digital Stethoscope. But I want to find out more about that journey and the Thinklabs One motto of never stop inventing. We discuss how doctors and patients are leveraging new technology for remote medicine.

1269: Cloud OLAP for Enterprise Analytics Jul 12, 2020

As more enterprises embrace cloud transformation, IT and data teams face increased pressure to harness the power of data and analytics for business intelligence.

Hybrid cloud and multi-cloud strategies are key to big data analytics. New data regulations and cybersecurity vulnerabilities are creating roadblocks for IT teams looking to use data for business intelligence, which is why data virtualization and data governance are top priorities in 2020.

AtScale is an intelligent data virtualization provider for advanced analytics. The Global 2000 relies on AtScale to provide a single, secure, and governed workspace for distributed data. The AtScale platform powers business intelligence and machine learning resulting in faster, more accurate business decisions at scale

AtScale Co-founder, Sarah Gerweck, joins me on Tech Talks Daily. She previously served as chief architect and has been instrumental in the design and development of AtScale's award-winning technology and creation of a global development presence.

Before AtScale, Sarah was lead architect at Yahoo, where she was responsible for the design, deployment, and management of the company's Advertising Insights product, including the world's largest Analysis Services deployment.

Sarah provides an overview of the company, its founding story, and the problem it's trying to solve in the marketplace. She also discusses the recent company announcements, including AtScale's Covid-19 project and platform updates. We also talk about her journey and what it's like to be a C-level female executive in the notoriously male-dominated tech industry.

1268: Wheel - The Technology Changing How Healthcare Works Jul 11, 2020

Wheel is leveraging technology to change the way healthcare works with quality virtual care at scale. I wanted to learn more about how they empower clinicians on the front lines of patient care in telehealth and move healthcare forward as a result.

Wheel CTO Chris Norris once said that his generation's best minds are thinking about how to make people click ads. That sucks! It was at that moment that I realized he was the perfect guest for the Tech Talks Daily Podcast. I invited him to share his vision for the future and how they are helping clinicians and the industry deliver better care for all.

Norris has a rare track-record of taking four startups in a row to IPO, $150m+/unicorn acquisitions. His success with the demands of both startups and enterprises is a result of his focus on the customer, and a consistent drive for entrepreneurial innovation. He has also built businesses and products from the ground-up and scaled teams, technology, and process 10-100x.

The pragmatic decision-maker takes pride in being an authentic servant leader who puts my people first and creates 'no politics, no BS' cultures. We discuss how the medical industry is behind on technology innovation-which ultimately burdens the clinician and the ways Wheel is taking a unique approach to telehealth by providing a platform that can more effectively scale services while empowering clinicians.

We also talk about the power of data and analytics to reveal virtual care patterns and insights that could exponentially improve how healthcare is delivered. For startup founders listening, we explore taking startups through rapid growth phases by maintaining a fast pace of progress while cultivating a transparent culture.

Although this is a daily tech podcast, we also talk about the importance of empowering teams to focus on the experience of their end-users, clinicians, and clients to build the best possible healthcare solutions.

1267: Mitek (NASDAQ: MITK) - Digital Identity Verification Tech Jul 10, 2020

Despite consumer’s growing reliance on online marketplaces (especially during social distancing) many still don’t have an adequate level of assurance for verifying customers (e.g. many only require an email, username and password).

Meanwhile, other online marketplaces leverage hundreds of different behavioral biometrics and knowledge-based parameters for verifying customers. But the disadvantage there is that the additional security layers slow down the verification process, which can lead to lost customers (especially younger generations). Another largely unknown fraud technique that’s a particularly significant, common threat amid the COVID-19 outbreak involves using SSNs stolen from recently-deceased individuals and public or breached information to create synthetic identities (and even synthetic families with a spouse and kids).

Cybercriminals then establish creditability for those synthetic identities using a variety of tactics, such as making online transactions and leaving a digital trail of breadcrumbs – allowing them to eventually load up on loans and credit, spend it all and vanish. Sanjay can discuss this growing threat, how identity theft is changing during the pandemic, and how businesses and consumers can help prevent it.

Sanjay Gupta from Mitek discusses how online marketplaces are leveraging biometrics in customer onboarding and how they can balance security with usability. We also talk about how cybercriminals are capitalizing on the recently-deceased and creating synthetic identities and synthetic families.

1266: The First Fantasy Esports Platform Booming During Lockdown Jul 09, 2020

When we think of video games and technology, we usually think of the development of the games themselves, with sophisticated engines and impressive graphics. But esports is showing that technological innovation lives outside the game as well, with streaming services racking up increasingly larger audiences.

Now a new tech player has entered the esports arena. Esports One has an incredible fantasy esports platform for fans of League of Legends (with more games planned for this year). The game itself is a salary-cap style fantasy game, but the tech behind it is pretty amazing. Matt Gunnin, CEO at Esports One, reveals more about the first all-in-one fantasy esports platform with real-time predictive data.

Since COVID-19 forced most of the world indoors, esports has seen an influx of new fans, new participants and new partners, many from outside the esports world. For these new fans, the world of esports may seem confusing and foreign. Matt and his team at Esports One have created a fantasy esports experience that is at once familiar (pick players in a salary cap-style league.)

Since early February Esports One has seen a dramatic increase in numerous traffic KPIs for their fantasy platform, including a more than 300% increase in users. Matt also shares how their unique approach to data + predictive analytics is proving to be a hit with fantasy esports fans of all stripes.

I learn how they use Computer Vision and Machine Learning technology developed at MIT and CalTech to record everything that happens in every League of Legends game. They've got 2.3 billion data points, from 10+ years of games and around 100 million players. It's an incredible trove of data. So incredible in fact, they can predict, with 90% accuracy, who's going to win a match just a few minutes after it has started.

1265: Understanding AI UX Design for a Better Post-COVID World Jul 08, 2020

From contact tracing to four-legged drone delivery devices, trying to discover what the most effective "new normal" looks like post-COVID involves a significant degree of new A.I. applications most companies and consumers are largely unfamiliar with or even fear. How can users and hyperscalers alike better understand new designs of AI/ML, that way we as a society can implement the best practices to come out of this pandemic unscathed? Myplanet has been working behind the scenes on this task for years. Over the past decade, Myplanet's team of mastermind developers have been on the heels of various cutting-edge A.I. solutions for a range of Fortune 500 companies such as Uber, Google, Delta New Balance, SoftBank, Salesforce and more.

Jason Cottrell—CEO and Co-Founder of Myplanet shares the look on the numerous projects Myplanet has already taken a hand in developing, and AI/ML designs the company is currently working on to help curb COVID-19.

Jason also discusses the importance of normalizing AI technology to solve some of the world's biggest issues, and how much of the existing technology we're familiar with is actually the same as what consumers sometimes fear.

1264: Affectiva - Emotion Recognition Software and Analysis Jul 07, 2020

Rana el Kaliouby is an Egyptian-American computer scientist and entrepreneur in the field of expression recognition research and technology development, which is a subset of facial recognition designed to identify the emotions expressed by the face.

Rana joins me on Tech Talks Daily to speak about her book, Girl Decoded. The captivating memoir provides an intimate view of her personal transformation as she follows her calling–to humanize our technology and how we connect with one another.

A number of years ago, el Kaliouby had an "a-ha" moment: what if our technology could understand us in the same way that we understand one another? That set her on a path to pioneer the new technology category of Emotion AI. Girl Decoded chronicles Rana el Kaliouby's journey from a "nice Egyptian girl" to a woman carving her own path as she revolutionizes technology. But decoding herself–learning to express and act on her own emotions–would prove to be the biggest challenge of all.

We also discuss Rana's work with Affectiva to humanize technology. An MIT Media Lab spin-off, Affectiva created and defined the technology category of artificial emotional intelligence or Emotion AI. Having evolved beyond emotion detection, Affectiva is now pioneering Human Perception AI: software that can detect not only human emotions and cognitive states, but also behaviors, activities, interactions, and objects people use. Affectiva's in-cabin sensing AI enables leading automotive OEMs, Tier 1 suppliers, ridesharing providers, and fleet management companies to build next-generation mobility that adapts to complex human states. Affectiva's technology is also used by 25 percent of the Fortune Global 500 companies to test consumer engagement with ads, videos, and TV programming. Rana also touches on the potential for Affectiva's technology to help us all stay connected during this time of social distancing.

1263: Estonian e-Residency‎ Attracts Digital Nomads and Businesses Jul 06, 2020

Estonia's government created a first of its kind program called e-Residency, which lets users set up electronic residency in the country and now boasts Pope Francis as a member. But it's doing far more than making headlines around the world: It's also allowing small businesses who'd never have dreamed it was possible to work in the international business community since Estonia is a member of the EU.

Working there used to be extremely cost-prohibitive, but with e-Res, it takes just over $300. Ott Vatter, managing director, e-Residency in Estonia joins me on Tech Talks to share the benefits e-Residency's popularity has brought to his small country.

I learn how the program hooks users up with its lauded transparent business environment and then allows members to do business in the EU without all the regular hassle. It got its start for the export of Estonian services, but five years in it's now benefitting companies around the world. Ott also discusses the challenges of creating a "digital first" nation and how it became a cornerstone of Estonia's identity, as well as how governments can help build business, and the importance of updating legacy governmental processes.

1262: LeddarTech – Paving the Way to Autonomy Jul 05, 2020

LeddarTech provides a versatile and scalable auto and mobility LiDAR platform based on the unique LeddarEngine, which consists of a suite of automotive-grade, functional safety certified SoCs working in tandem with proprietary LeddarSP signal processing software.

The company is responsible for several innovations in cutting-edge mobility remote-sensing applications, with over 70 patented technologies (granted or pending) enhancing ADAS and autonomous driving capabilities.

LeddarTech also serves the mobility market with solid-state high-performance LiDAR module solutions for autonomous shuttles, trucks, buses, delivery vehicles, and robotaxis. These modules are developed to support the mobility market but also to demonstrate the capabilities of LeddarTech’s auto and mobility platform as a basis for other LiDAR suppliers to build upon.

Frantz Saintellemy, President and Chief Operating Officer Engineer, innovator, and internationally recognized expert in advanced technologies joins me on Tech Talks Daily. Frantz has over 21 years of experience in the electronics and automotive sectors, with specialized knowledge in automotive, autonomous driving, AI, IoT and automation applications, and business and product development, applications engineering, global sales, and marketing.

He is a dedicated entrepreneur and philanthropist. He is also Co-founder of Groupe 3737, an incubator and innovation center that houses more than 30 companies and start-ups, in addition to offering a framework for ideation to revenue generation.

Frantz joined LeddarTech in September 2017, having previously served as VP and General Manager of the Automotive and Industrial Division of Integrated Device Technology (Nasdaq: IDTI), a California-based company specializing in a broad array of complete mixed-signal solutions.

Before IDT, Frantz was President and Executive VP of Global Sales and Marketing at ZMDI AG, a global supplier of MEMs-based sensor solutions for automotive and industrial applications acquired by IDT in December 2015.

Throughout his career, Frantz has produced numerous patents and technical innovations. He also founded and co-founded many successful start-ups and corporations, including SMGT Inc., Q-Links Home Automation, Groupe Reno-Metrix, Capital Plus, and OMNI Global, and sits on several boards and advisory committees.

Frantz also holds degrees in electrical engineering, business and marketing, and is also a graduate of the MIT Sloan Engineering Fellows Program on Innovations and Global Leadership.

1261: Backing Early-Stage B2B Founders Building The Future Jul 04, 2020

Domenic Perri always believed the journey of building meaningful, authentic, and long-lasting relationships is the most important foundational element of a successful profession and thriving business. Maybe, one of his favorite speakers, Esther Perel, says it best: "The quality of our relationships determines the quality of our lives."

Domenic's tech journey began at BRAK Systems, working closely with the founder, Robert Herjavec of ABC's "Shark Tank," where we pioneered enterprise cybersecurity in Canada and acquired by AT&T Canada. He joined Vertex US in 2019 to build a foundation of quality relationships and help our early-stage founders accelerate their growth thoughtfully.

Vertex Ventures US Vertex US is an early-stage venture capital firm that backs companies transforming industries through software and data. With investments including LaunchDarkly, PerimeterX, and Desktop Metal, Vertex US brings pioneering experience to pioneering enterprises.

Before Vertex US, he spent his entire career in Corporate Development and Business Development, including at Dropbox, leading a global team responsible for product ecosystem partnerships, go-to-market, and distribution partnerships.

In his career, Don has worked at Juniper Networks as Senior Director of Corporate Development responsible for M&A and partnerships. Before that, he held senior roles at Caymas (acquired by Citrix), and Internet Security Systems (IPO then acquired by IBM for $1.3B). I also wanted to find out more about his time in Tesla's M&A team to lead the integration of Grohmann Automation (700 employees) on-site in Germany.

Domenic shares his tech journey and talks about corp dev strategies for startups as we get accustomed to changing the digital landscape.

1260: BioSelf's Sensate & Stress Busting Vagus Nerve Therapy Tech Jul 03, 2020

Stress-related mental and physical health issues are on the rise. Despite an abundance of mindfulness apps, and a rise in the popularity of meditation and yoga, effective relaxation is harder than ever to achieve and not something easily mastered in a short time. Stefan Chmelik has designed and developed a small, pebble-like wearable that can offer users deep immediate relaxation to help fight everyday stress and anxieties - in just 10 mins per day called Sensate.

New wearable targets vagus nerve to improve health and reduce stress, Sensate was originally created for PTSD sufferers but is now available for everyone. Its game-changing Infrasound (low-frequency vibration) Resonance Engine transmits sound at multiple frequencies for immediate relaxation.

BioSelf Technology has developed pioneering, clinically validated, wearable technology that offers a solution for a time-poor generation to the exponentially growing stress pandemic. More than ever, the world needs a shortcut to emotional regulation in this global crisis. Regular relaxation and meditation are well established as the most effective ways to self-manage stress; however, few people have the time to learn or practice this important skill. But how can tech help?

Stefan shares how BioSelf, the company behind Sensate created a paradigm-shifting wearable device that decelerates stress in real-time. I learn how it also uses Patent Pending novel technology, which was developed and has been in operation in a Harley Street clinic over the last three years with highly successful patient results.

1259 Konica Minolta, with All Covered Discuss Health and Education Jul 02, 2020

Konica Minolta is an example of a global enterprise – nearly a century old – that has evolved its business to stay competitive in today's ever-changing landscape – parlaying strengths in cameras to copiers, to its own digital transformation that allowed it to become a major player in IT and IoT services. But the company wasn't able to change overnight; there had to be an inflection point.

Going against the advice of a leading global business consultancy, Konica Minolta's North American CEO made the decision to acquire All Covered, an IT services startup, because he saw the need - both among his customers and internally - for trusted IT services and support with true digital transformation consultants. The collision of a digital-first, service-provider mindset with a global hardware-provider mindset was the catalyst for change that Konica Minolta needed. The strategy was not to rebuild their entire business model from scratch but to bring in an agile partner that could lead by example and identify small areas for growth that would kick-off a gradual transformation process.

Now, Konica Minolta, with All Covered, is one of the few global enterprises that has changed its business model – from hardware maker to service/hardware hybrid – without changing the fabric of its values. Jon Clemons and Navin Balakrishnaraja join me on the podcast to share how All Covered has impacted education and the healthcare IT industry.

Navin is the National Practice Director, Healthcare IT Services at All Covered. He has more than 18 years of demonstrated experience in planning, building, and delivering IT services in the US, China, and India for different business verticals. Navin also has vast experience in providing strategic directions in the areas of IT governance, IT strategy, program management, and vendor management.

As the National Solution Architect for Education, Jon's primary focus is to lead the direction of All Covered's Education Practice nationwide in all technical aspects as well as sales enablement and go to market strategies. In this role, he developed processes and procedures for bidding and quoting network infrastructure solutions to education clients.

1258: How IoT and Digital innovation Is Transforming Food Retail Jul 01, 2020

We currently grow enough food to feed the population twice over, yet more than two billion people experienced moderate or severe levels of food insecurity in 2019, equating to around 26.4% of the world’s population. It’s an unsustainable model at a time of elevated demand and digitization (like traceability systems etc) can manage the advocacy, source, and safety of food.

Jason Murphy is Managing Director, IoT Retail for IMS Evolve, a company whose technology for the past twenty years has helped food retailers change their refrigeration practices to extend stock shelf-life and increase the supply of perishable foods for consumption. It does this with a platform that automates and maintains commercial fridges and freezer systems by collecting and managing the vast volumes of data being generated. The technology is currently in use across as many as 20,000 sites globally.

Jason shares how supermarkets have adapted quickly during the pandemic to ensure the nation stays fed and how connected systems such as contactless payments, self-checkouts, and shop services have enabled social distancing without upgrades or extra staff.

We discuss how digital innovation, such as customer flow tracking and footfall analytics allow one-way and one-in-one-out policies to be rolled out efficiently; and how IoT connectivity across the ‘cold supply chain’ has meant stock levels remain high. Jason also talks about the rapid digitalization of the food supply chain - from agriculture all the way through the chain to the home, where wastage is excessive.

1257: How to Embrace the Future of Work, Today Jun 30, 2020

The workforce of the future is more than robots and holograms. In fact, the future of work is already influencing business decisions in ways that were once visions in the minds of workers. From 5G connectivity to boundaryless communication, the modern workforce is pushing full speed ahead into a new definition of work, and businesses have the responsibility to embrace it.

Fuze is a global, cloud-based unified communications platform that empowers productivity and delivers insights across the enterprise by enabling simplified business voice communications, flexible video conferencing and always-on collaboration. In a nusthell, they combine voice, video conferencing, and chat in one easy-to-use application people use at work.

Amanda Maksymiw is the director of content marketing at Fuze and an award-winning marketer. Amanda takes a left-brain/right-brain approach on all projects and believes that great content drives growth lives in that intersection. We discuss how businesses can embrace the future of work, today.

I learn more about how IT leaders can take full advantage of the changing work landscape, the key strategies to understand and implement to prepare their workforce — whether they are spread across countries or continents.

1256: People Empowering People UP Through Technology Jun 29, 2020

More than 17 million Americans have filed unemployment claims as a direct result of economic uncertainty caused by COVID-19; PepUp Tech sees this as an opportunity to invest in skills training to drive more talent into the growing Salesforce ecosystem.

The company offers free virtual Salesforce skills training programs designed to provide skill advancement opportunities to individuals whose employment prospects have been negatively affected due to the COVID-19 epidemic and members of underserved communities.

Selina Suarez is the executive director at PepUp Tech, a nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing the number of underrepresented people in tech. Selina joins me on Tech Talks Daily to share more about the skills training program and the company’s mission.

I learn more about the immeasurable impact the program has on its student’s livelihood and future career prospects (600% more earning power). We also discuss the power of the Salesforce ecosystem and the opportunities that exist for displaced workers.

We discuss the story behind this nonprofit company that is dedicated to increasing the number of underrepresented people in tech. Selina shares their goal of inspiring individuals to learn about computer science and technology, gain access to people and careers in these industries and ultimately give back to their communities.

Learn now that PepUp Tech is empowering the next era of tech through education and gives motivated, underserved students the access, skills, mentors, and confidence needed to begin careers in tech.

1255: To The Market - From Tech Leader to Hero of the Pandemic Jun 28, 2020

TO THE MARKET (TTM) uses technology to help create transparent supply chains for retailers and brands, enabling them to source and manufacture socially and environmentally responsible products at competitive prices, lower minimums, and faster turnaround times. They have built a growing network of more than 100 suppliers in over 20 countries.

Historically, one of the U.S. manufacturing challenges has been that retailers and brands must go through brokers. You provide brokers with the necessary specs, and they come back with options for who can deliver your product and at what price. The markup is significant, and the buyer is essentially sourcing from a black box — there is minimal transparency with this model. The TTM platform works as a broker. It has a vast network of thoroughly vetted suppliers who bid on projects.

Jane Mosbacher Morris, the CEO & Founder of TO THE MARKET (TTM), was named on Fortune's Annual Greatest Leaders list because of her work activating TTM's network of suppliers to source personal protective equipment (PPE) in early March.

Morris’s organization matches big buyers—like Target and Mastercard—with a global network of nontraditional manufacturers, mostly women-owned and based in vulnerable communities.

In March, dozens of TTM makers retooled their operations to produce masks, gowns, and scrubs. Barely 30 days later, the personal protective equipment (PPE) began rolling in. Morris has orders for over 1.2 million units in the U.S. and hopes to eventually distribute in Kenya, Ghana, and India too.

We discuss the global pandemic and how the team handled pivoting. We also discuss the supply chain of the future and how this will make companies think differently about how they procure/source post-pandemic and technology's role in making it a reality.

1254: TrustArc - Privacy and The Implications of Contact Tracing Jun 27, 2020

TrustArc has a reputation for leading the wave of innovation, transforming privacy compliance and risk management. They helped start the industry in 1997 with industry-leading privacy certifications to build consumer trust across websites, mobile apps, and the cloud.

The company also pioneered using SaaS technology starting in 2010 to operationalize privacy management for consent, privacy assessments, data inventory, and much more. They introduced privacy intelligence into their Platform in 2018 to simplify compliance management for the GDPR, CCPA, and hundreds of other global regulations.

Hilary Wandall is SVP Privacy Intelligence and General Counsel of TrustArc Inc. She leads the TrustArc Privacy Intelligence, Research, Legal, Regulatory Affairs and Policy, and Business Development teams to design and develop the company’s privacy frameworks and Knowledge, Intelligence, and Assurance Products. She also serves as Corporate Secretary of TrustArc.

Hilary joins me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss the implications of contact tracing, and the slippery slope leading to government surveillance. We also talk about the impact of telehealth on data privacy rules such as HIPAA.

We explore the impact of remote work on data privacy as workers handle consumer data on personal devices. I ask the question, does your employer have the right to access your health information if you contract the virus, or are they even responsible for knowing if you have tested positive or negative?

Finally, I learn more about the expectations for enforcement for the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) beginning July.

1253: RS Components - Lessons in Digital Strategy / Transformation Jun 26, 2020

RS Components (RS) is a trading brand of Electrocomponents plc (LSE: ECM), a global omni-channel solutions partner for industrial customers and suppliers. It has also been supporting and inspiring generations of engineers since 1937. I wanted to learn more about that heritage and how they have evolved with technology too.

The world’s leading electronic products retailer offers more than 500,000 industrial and electronic products, sourced from 2,500 leading suppliers, and provide a wide range of value-added services to over one million customers. The company also has operations in 32 countries, trades through multiple channels, and ships to over 50,000 parcels a day.

RS supports customers across the product life cycle, whether via innovation and technical support at the design phase, improving time to market and productivity at the build phase, or reducing purchasing costs and optimizing inventory in the maintenance phase.

Mike England, COO at RS Components joins me on Tech Talks Daily to share the rich history of the company, and they have not been afraid to pivot, embrace innovation, and leverage technology. Mike also shares the moment when he noticed his teenage kids, juggling multiple video calls, across a myriad of screens on smartphones, tablets, and computers. This moment offered a glimpse into the future and the expectations of employees in 5-10 years' time.

1252: ZERO: The Most Secure, Easy-To-Use Crypto Wallet Jun 25, 2020

NGRAVE Co-Founder and CEO Ruben Merre is a serial entrepreneur who launched his first business when he was 8 years old. He has led & launched many international tech projects, including several automated algorithmic trading platforms.

Prior to launching NGRAVE, Ruben worked in strategy for Deloitte and Hedera and helped launch Belgium's first automated online investment platform. But his current mission is to eradicate the loss and the malicious hacking of your cryptocurrencies.

Every single day, millions of dollars are stolen from users' wallets. Cryptocurrency theft topped a record $2.5 billion in 2018 and an astounding $4.3 billion in 2019. But almost two years ago, the three co-founders of NGRAVE came together to build a solution that they would entrust with their very first to their very last bitcoin.

Whereas competing wallets like Ledger and Trezor rely on a USB or Bluetooth (giving them attack vectors), NGRAVE removes the need for any connection, it uses QR codes to remain fully air-gapped even when creating accounts and conducting transactions. NGRAVE also uses firmware that has earned the highest security certification in the world, EAL7.

For the first time ever, you no longer have to worry about any third party - not even NGRAVE - potentially finding or figuring out your key. Existing solutions give you a key, so they may have a database holding all the keys they ever made, including yours. They also rely completely on the interior chip for generating your key, and also here, there could be backdoors, as has been proven in recent history.

I learn how ZERO introduces a whole new key generation process that not only relies on the interior chip, but that also includes your biometrics and your surrounding light. Ruben also shares the secret to their hugely successful Indiegogo Campaign

1251: Galaxy Interactive - Let’s Talk About Building the Metaverse Jun 24, 2020

Sam Englebardt is an established media and tech investor, a licensed attorney and content producer who has created, acquired and/or financed a broad range of traditional and digital businesses and dozens of films and television shows over the past decade.

However, he also a Co-Founder and Partner at Galaxy Digital, a blockchain and digital assets merchant bank, and the Head of Galaxy Interactive, a $325M fund that focuses exclusively on companies and projects with particular emphasis on video game studios, esports, digital objects, virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR), lifestyle applications and related infrastructure tech.

Galaxy Interactive is one of the world’s largest dedicated video game and interactive content and technology investors with principal investments in player-owned virtual economies (Mythical, Immutable, Ember Sword), large-scale persistent virtual worlds (Playable Worlds, High Fidelity), skill-based gaming, hyper-core and social simulation MMO (N3twork, Avia Games, Lightheart, Big Run Studios, Dazzle Rocks), two-way live streaming interactivity (Genvid, Azarus), and several others.

After recently Googling the Metaverse, I learned that it is a collective virtual shared space, created by the convergence of virtually enhanced physical reality and physically persistent virtual space, including the sum of all virtual worlds, augmented reality, and the Internet. But I wanted to learn more in a language that everyone can understand.

So, today, I want to talk about building the metaverse. What is it? What are the technological, legal, economic, social challenges to building and scaling it? And how should we think about identity in and across virtual worlds? Can the metaverse be occupied by anonymous or pseudonymous avatars, or will true identity be a necessary condition?

We talk about all this and discuss which companies will matter most to the creation of the metaverse over the next decade? Will incumbents win or will it be created by a start-up(s)? Hit play to find out more.

1250: A Data Science Laboratory To Predict Online Performance Jun 23, 2020

It is the shared interest for search engines and the exploitation of Big Data that led François Goube and Tanguy Moal to join forces to create Cogniteev, the company behind the data platform OnCrawl.

With over 15 years experience in search and semantics, François Goube, serial entrepreneur, and Tanguy Moal, NLP expert and Data geek wanted to build the most advanced research technologies accessible to the greatest number of people. And it was already proven from their previous experiences that they were able to build products used by millions of people (Exalead, JobiJoba...).

In 2013, OnCrawl was born. Built from an industrial consortium with Cdiscount - the leading French e-commerce website - the team behind OnCrawl managed to develop a SEO crawler able to analyze millions of pages - in a short period of time - and at a competitive cost. They then understood that a large number of SMBs but also larger companies needed that technology previously held by Fortune500 companies.

These are just a few reasons why they decided to democratize such a solution by officially releasing OnCrawl in 2015. OnCrawl provides a scientific approach to search engine optimization by delivering reliable and accurate data that can be used to monitor, understand and optimize a website’s performance on search engines results.

François Goube joins me on Tech Talks Daily to talk about their new platform called OnCrawl Labs. Entirely based on Data Science and Machine Learning and offering a portfolio of ready-to-use algorithms. It allows companies to predict their online and SEO performance with robust data and SEO features not yet available on the market.

We also discuss why SEO will become more and more technical in the future and explore the rise of data science in the SEO industry.

Link to our data science platform: https://labs.oncrawl.com/ Link to OnCrawl website: https://www.oncrawl.com/

1249: nChain – Enterprise-Grade Blockchain Solutions Jun 22, 2020

nChain is the world’s leading provider of enterprise-grade blockchain solutions, helping businesses and organizations realize and protect the value of their data. nChain boasts the largest team of blockchain developers globally and a leading portfolio of novel blockchain I.P. nChain is committed to helping clients maintain competitive advantage in business through more efficient management of data.

The company has a vision of a world where people, businesses, and organizations are yielding significant value from a more efficient data economy. The company is in the business of enterprise-grade public blockchain solutions and security that is scalable and business-ready. The team is also backed by two Bitcoin heavyweights, Calvin Ayre and Craig Wright.

Collectively, they believe that data is going to be the single most important commodity over the next 5-10 years, and the only way that is possible is if it is captured and made actionable. This is where nChain, which manages and uses BitCoin S.V.’s technology comes in.

The CEO, Dave Washburn, shares his unique perspective that he brings to the business. Before joining nChain, David spent 17 years in capital markets and is a PHD Physiology & Biophysics. This blend of both traditional industry knowledge combined with nChain’s deep bench of blockchain and bitcoin experts, makes this an interesting company to watch.

It’s not for nothing that representatives of the Suisse and Norwegian national banks are in talks with nChain to explore digital national currencies.

1248: Put A Face To Your Brand With Personalized Video Messages Jun 21, 2020

Bonjoro is an app for sending individual personalised videos to welcome and onboard new customers and clients. It allows your customers know just how much you care about them. I wanted to learn more about how brands can stop spamming with impersonal, generic messages and craft something meaningful instead.

Matthew Barnett joins me on Tech Talks Daily to share the story behind Bonjoro. He reveals how he grew a team in 6 countries over 3 years, with a 97% non-Australian customer base. I also learn how highly personal video messages help build trust, love and convert customers for life.

We also discuss the growth of personalization at scale in the marketing mix and how asynchronous video creates advocates and superfans.

1247: The Crowdsupport Pages Leveraging Tech To Help Communities Jun 20, 2020

I recently discovered an under-tapped online tool that leverages technology to serve as a very streamlined and holistic platform for all of us to help one anothe from a distance. Supportful is the only all-in-one online crowdfunding for support platform that's relevant to the current climate of hardship. Not only right now, but in the weeks and months to come.

Unlike more prominent name online crowdfunding tools like GoFundMe, Supportful has allowed people to raise funds for a cause/person but also takes it a step further. The portal provides e a singular, virtual place to crowdfund support in other ways, such as transportation, meals, and babysitting.

Given the fact that people everywhere are experiencing a range of hardships from financial and job loss to hospitalization and isolation, the team is gearing up to launch a new and dedicated page to curate COVID-specific support efforts.

I wanted to learn more about how we can use our new age and culture of online connection during this pandemic to help each other. For example, it's helping people with basic living expenses, shipping groceries, creating care packages, creating virtual tip bars or happy hours for local bars, coordinating wellness check-ins, scheduling digital entertainment for the elderly.

Nicholas Emerson Mazzone, Founder and CEO of Supportful.com joins me on Tech Talks Daily to share the story behind this free online platform. We discuss how they are using technology to provide friends and families going through hardships with the tools and resources they need to get help in meaningful and practical ways.

1246: The Economic Value of Prevention in the Cybersecurity Lifecycle Jun 19, 2020

The Economic Value of Prevention in the Cybersecurity Lifecycle report was recently released by the Ponemon Institute and sponsored by cybersecurity provider Deep Instinct. The report delineates the savings that organizations could actualize per incident if effective preventative measures are implemented, which range from around $300,000 to over a million USD depending on the nature of the attack.

The study uncovered an interesting discrepancy: although a whopping 70% of cybersecurity professionals believe preventative security measures improve cybersecurity posture and reduce overall security costs, only 21% of their organizations’ budgets are allocated to attack prevention.

Steve Salinas joins me on the podcast to address how deep learning is making preventative cybersecurity a reality. I learn more about how Deep Learning is a fully autonomous system that can learn from all the available raw data, as an expert’s technological knowledge does not limit it. It provides the best unknown cyber threat prevention, detection, and response with the highest detection rates of unknown malware; while generating a near-zero false-positive rate.

Since Deep Learning is input-agnostic, I also explore how it can protect any new type of device, endpoint, mobile or server, and type of operating system, against a broad range of file-based or fileless attacks, with a low impact on performance. The Deep Learning brain handles most of the security, in almost zero-time (milliseconds). It also provides administrators a very user-friendly management console (deployed in the cloud or on-prem) to view all of the relevant information.

1245: How ASML Is Changing The World, One Nanometer At A Time Jun 18, 2020

ASML makes machines that make chips, the hearts of the devices that keep us informed, entertained, and safe. Devices that improve our quality of life and help to tackle the world's toughest problems. They build some of the most amazing machines that you will ever see, and the software to run them.

Never satisfied, they measure performance in their units that begin with pico or nano. ASML has been around for more than 35 years and companies with that kind of longevity are not always thought of as fast-moving, quick thinking, problem solvers. But as with everyone, ASML faced some major issues serving their customers during the Coronavirus required isolation.

ASML is a manufacturing company that makes large scale machines responsible for creating tiny microchips for all of the major chipmakers around the world. Keeping those machines up and running is a necessary part of the ecosystem. If the machines break once they are in a customer's lab, then the products we use every day like cell phones and computers, won't get made.

So, some engineers at ASML partnered with one of the US-based customers and piloted an AI-based solution to spot-checking the machines and keeping them running smoothly. They use Microsoft HoloLens and smartphones to simulate an onsite visit!

Peter Peusens, Director of Customer Support DUV Operations at ASML, shares how they could keep their EUV lithography technology up and running even when they couldn't be onsite with their customers. I also learn how ASML used augmented reality to maintain business continuity and customer support during the COVID-19 pandemic.

1244: How GrandPad Is Helping Seniors Keep in Touch With Family Jun 17, 2020

The global pandemic separated families around the world for months. It also highlighted the digital divide between generations. Many were given a wake-up call that senior family members were locked out of the world of photo sharing, video calls, and instant messaging. They have been left out of the digital communications that we all take for granted.

GrandPad is a digital health company that develops engagement solutions to improve the health and well-being of older adults by reconnecting them to families, friends, and caregivers through technology that is safe, reliable, and easy to use.

The company recently expanded capabilities when an increasing number of home health agencies and other healthcare companies were turning to GrandPad to facilitate video visits during COVID-19 restrictions prohibiting in-person care.

The GrandPad is a purpose-built tablet for people over the age of 75. It's the first mobile device of its kind. It addresses usability, security, and connectivity issues that are often roadblocks for integrating remote monitoring and telehealth into professional and familial caregiving settings.

The company's secure cloud platform with built-in LTE and web applications allows care teams and family members to engage remotely with older adults without depending on wifi connectivity. GrandPad enables a variety of interactions, including video calls, sharing essential care-related emails and messages, and conducting multi-party video care conferences between family members and a patient's continuum of caregivers.

Scott Lien is GrandPad's Chief Executive Officer, leading the company as it builds a platform that empowers seniors of all ages and technological skills to connect with family, friends, and caregivers. Having previously developed user-friendly software for companies such as Target, Best Buy, and Bank of America, as well as having led the mobile technology innovation group at Intuit.

With GrandPad, I learn how Scott strives to create a world where no seniors are lonely or isolated from digital communication.

1243: SecurityScorecard: Security Ratings & Cybersecurity Risk Jun 16, 2020

SecurityScorecard is the global leader in cybersecurity ratings and the only service with over a million companies continuously rated. SecurityScorecard’s patented rating technology is used by over 1,000 organizations for self-monitoring, third-party risk management, board reporting, and cyber insurance underwriting; making all organizations more resilient by allowing them to easily find and fix cybersecurity risks across their externally facing digital footprint.

SecurityScorecard is the only provider of instant risk ratings that automatically map to vendor cybersecurity questionnaire responses - providing a true 360-degree view of risk. But, I wanted to learn more about the story behind the company and their recent Presidential candidates get smart cybersecurity report.

Aleksandr Yampolskiy is a globally recognized cybersecurity innovator, leader, and expert. As co-founder and chief executive officer, Yampolskiy has led the company since its beginnings in 2013 to become one of the world’s most trusted cybersecurity brands. His vision is to create a new language for cybersecurity by enabling people to work collaboratively across the enterprise and with external parties to build a more secure ecosystem.

Prior to founding the company, Yampolskiy was a hands-on CTO at Cinchcast and BlogTalkRadio, the largest online talk radio and podcast hosting platform. Prior to that, he led security and compliance at Gilt Groupe, where he managed all aspects of IT infrastructure security, secure application development, and PCI compliance. Yampolskiy has a B.A. in mathematics and computer science from New York University and a Ph.D. in Cryptography from Yale University.

1242: The Tech Tackling The Global Mental Health Crisis Jun 15, 2020

Synctuition is an Estonian born startup offering a unique relaxation experience technology. By using the incredible power of 3D sound, Synctuition goes far beyond meditative relaxation providing an immersive mind travel experience that cannot be compared to any other audio mediation in the world.

In its first year, it has become one of the world’s leading mindfulness apps with over four million users in Europe, the U.S., and Asia. In 2019 the startup was also selected by Google as one of the Top 10 fastest-growing startups in Europe.

With the world on the brink of a mental health crisis due to the COVID-19 outbreak, Synctuition, the mindfulness, and mind relaxation app backed by well-known scientists and experts recently announced that their platform will be made free to people in 14 countries.

The announcement comes as the company reports a surge in demand and usage over the past few months, becoming one of the top five highest-grossing mindfulness apps globally. The app has now been made available for free from the now until 31st July 2020 to the United Kingdom, Ireland, United States, Canada, Amsterdam, Australia, Belgium, Estonia, Dubai, Israel, Finland, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark.

Led by veteran tech leaders from Estonia, Synctuition offers free access to the app at a crucial time as the COVID-19 pandemic affects the mental health of people worldwide, with federal agencies and experts warning of a wave of pandemic PTSD and other mental health issues on the rise. The WHO has warned that in public mental health terms, the main psychological impact to date is elevated rates of stress or anxiety.

As people worldwide endure the lasting impact of the pandemic – especially quarantine and its effects on many people’s usual activities, routines, or livelihoods – levels of loneliness, depression, harmful alcohol, and drug use, and self-harm or suicidal behavior are also expected to rise. But can technology help solve these problems? Michael Burich, COO, and Co-founder of Synctuition shares their mission and also talks about the tech startup scene in Estonia.

1241: Startup Story - Dark Matter Physicist Turned Tech CEO Jun 14, 2020

Deepgram is an automatic speech recognition startup that uses end-to-end deep learning technology to train speech models to learn under complex, real-world conditions—regardless of customers' unique vocabulary, accents, product names and acoustic environments. It's an entirely new approach compared to the other players in the space, like Google, Amazon and Nuance.

CEO Scott Stephenson, came up with the idea for Deepgram while researching the creation of dark matter in a bunker two miles underground as a Ph.D. student. In the few hours that weren't devoted to his research, Scott recorded audio from his life, 24,7, and realized there wasn’t a tool available that would help process his recordings and pinpoint valuable timestamps.

The company has since raised $13.9m to date and intends to use the funds to expand operations and its business reach. I invited Scott onto the podcast to learn more about his tech startup story. Scott shares how they are helping enterprises unlock the potential of their audio data with custom trained speech recognition built for accuracy and scale.

Scott also reveals how businesses are using Speech Recognition APIs to empower their business and what makes Deepgram stand out in a crowded market place dominated by tech giants.

1240: Chasing Black Unicorns And Interpol Most Wanted list. Jun 13, 2020

Marek Zmysłowski is a Polish-born entrepreneur and executive, focused on online businesses in Frontier and Emerging Markets, author of "Chasing Black Unicorns. How building the Amazon of Africa put me on Interpol Most Wanted list."

Silicon Valley meets Indiana Jones – Chasing Black Unicorns is an autobiography written by one of Poland's most respected internet entrepreneurs. Witty and humorous, the book covers many dramatic and often dangerous events.

Before moving to Nigeria to set up the 'Amazon of Africa,' Zmysłowski worked for one of Poland's most prominent financial services companies and is the founder of many online ventures in Central Europe. While establishing the first online network of funeral services in Poland, he had to overcome challenges from criminal gangs running the market sector.

His businesses in Nigeria have also made him enemies, powerful individuals who have corrupted police and government officials to stand against him. Overnight, Marek became an international fugitive and was put on the most wanted list by Interpol, an organization with a history of being manipulated by corrupt regimes. Zmysłowski describes this and many other events, putting them in the context of African history and cultures, a continent he is now deeply in love with.

The book reveals an engaging story of an entrepreneur who scales big businesses in Africa. Marek's experiences show the behind-the-scenes business building for many of us on the exotic continent and investor relations and the fight against big competition.

Marek also co-founded Jumia Travel – Africa's Biggest Hotel Booking Portal listed on NYSE as part of Jumia Group and HotelOnline.co – a Travel Technology Company. In 2014, he was chosen as one of the Ten Most Important People in Tech by IT News Africa Magazine. He is a Lead Mentor at Google's Launchpad and World Bank's XL Africa Program

1239: The Technology Creating Peace of Mind in Public Spaces Jun 12, 2020

Outform is a global retail innovation agency that works with some of the world's leading brands, including Absolut, Motorola, and Peroni. MD, Simon Hathaway is a pioneer of retail experience, working with technology that is transforming our expectations of shopping and leading the way in the future of retail experience.

The company recently released the iDISPLAY Thermometer, which is designed to instill a sense of trust and safety in people across industries as they re-commence everyday activities, and public gatherings post COVID-19. I learn how the company continues to find innovative ways to do their part in flattening the curve.

The non-contact infrared thermometers enables customers to invite users back in stores, schools, and work, in a cost-effective, efficient, and safe way. Backed by the world's leading technology in infrared thermopile arrays, the iDISPLAY Thermometer uses Heimann, Melexis, or Omron Sensors to capture temperature in a contactless, frictionless, and accurate way. Within a matter of two seconds, iDISPLAY Thermometer can read body temperatures, alert users, and designated associates if they have a fever.

Given the current 'work from home, stay at home' world we're now living in, Simon discusses how he's had to adapt to meet clients' needs in these weird times. More generally, Simon also provides expert insights on the role of retail innovation in the evolving retail industry and how to create successful in-store activations.

Simon shares examples of the seven technologies Outform unveiled at EuroShop, and the role innovative technology has to play in retail. We also talk about how they provide brands and retailers with transformative shopper insights by leveraging technology.

1238: The AI Company With Expertise in Computer Vision Jun 11, 2020

Phil Schraeder is CEO of GumGum, the artificial intelligence company focused on computer vision and natural language processing. Since 2008, the company has applied its patented capabilities to serve a variety of industries from advertising to professional sports, with more to come.

Essentially, the company unlocks the value of images and videos produced everyday across the web, social media, and broadcast television. They teach machines to solve hard problems across the media industry. The company serves contextual marketing in line with content users, helps marketers and right holders understand the media value of their sponsorship investments, and introduces the content safety analysis engine that finds what is relevant or what is dangerous.

In February 2020, they raised $22 million from existing investors Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital, NEA spinout NewView Capital, and Upfront Ventures – bring their total to nearly $60 million. In addition to a walk-through into their technology, Phil shares the new neuroscientific research that explains why contextual targeting is an effective digital advertising tactic.

The findings come from a study GumGum conducted in partnership with neuro analytics company SPARK Neuro, which examined how an ad’s contextual relevance to content influences consumers. Ads with the most contextual relevance elicited 43% more neural engagement and 2.2 times better ad recall, the study found. It also revealed that contextually relevant ads inspired a statistically significant increase in purchase intent.

I learn more about how GumGum is doing their part surrounding education around how to stop the spread of COVID-19. They have partnered with the Ad Council to support the #AloneTogether PSA initiative discussing the importance of social distancing. Additionally, this year, in partnership with the Ad Council, they began developing GumGum Smile, a unique platform experience aimed to amplify the Ad Council’s messaging initiatives.

1237: Start Within: How to Sell Your idea And Love Your Job Jun 10, 2020

Co-authors Douglas Ferguson & Karen Holst have spent the last 20 years in the trenches bringing new ideas forward within organizations. They have learned what it takes to launch innovation within a company and has covered the gamut of organizational types from state government agencies and military armed forces to startups and large public corporations. Reflecting upon these experiences, they noticed that while no one company or organization is like the other, there are common patterns that were almost universal. Assembled from these observations and insights about innovation and bringing new ideas to life, the Start Within framework was created to provide a way to assess your situation, how it relates to the unique nature of your company, and what tools and actions are appropriate for you to move forward.

In the book, Karen and Douglas argue that most of us already have everything we need to enjoy a fulfilling career in our current companies, if only we can push for the big innovative changes we care about. This type of intrapreneurship can be challenging, which is why the book outlines a process ranging from accessing organizational preparedness to prototyping, and how to turn a "no" into a "yes."

I learn more about the story behind Start Within and their mission to help anyone who wants to innovate within their company, take ownership of their work, and design the career of their dreams.

1236: How Estonia Digitally Transformed to e-Estonia Jun 10, 2020

I recently learned how Estonia's government created a first of its kind program called e-Residency, which lets users set up electronic residency in the country and now boasts Pope Francis as a member. But it's doing far more than making headlines around the world: It's also allowing small businesses who'd never have dreamed it was possible to work in the international business community.

Since Estonia is a member of the EU, working there used to be extremely cost-prohibitive, but with e-Res, it takes just over $300. In charge of the digital government and society as well as telecommunications and post areas.

Siim Sikkut, CIO of Estonia is responsible for setting the strategy and policies to launch and steer strategic development initiatives and regulations. He also represents the government in the EU and other international organizations, commenting and collaborating on policies concerning technology and digital adoption. From online banking to e-school and digital prescriptions, most everyday tasks are carried out digitally in Estonia, with the country embracing its moniker "e-Estonia." But the countries digital revolution has also fostered a business environment that boasts the highest number of unicorns in Europe. There are 7.4 startups per 10,000 inhabitants in Estonia.

Bolt, Transferwise, Salv, and Funderbeam are just a few examples of successful Estonian unicorns that have taken root there, a manifestation of Estonia's innovation-driven society. It is now attracting venture capitalists from around the globe looking for the next big tech unicorn, trying to follow in the footsteps of Estonian companies with valuations exceeding $1bn. Siim joins me on Tech Talks Daily for a chat about the rapidly growing tech scene and how the government supports it. He also shares the secret sauce of how the capital city of Tallinn has become a hotbed for ex-pats and entrepreneurs.

1235: How Tech Is The Interaction Between Artists and Musicians Jun 09, 2020

By pairing software developers with consumers who offer critique in real-time, MOD Devices, German-based effects processor developer, aims to develop products that create a community. Founder and CEO Gianfranco Ceccolini established MOD to encourage a dynamic addition to the creative economy community. Ceccolini notes, "In this world of total connectivity, our platform catalyzes the interaction between artists and musicians with a unique community-driven approach. The direct contact provided by this group fosters the collective. This conversation drives not only the development of the audio plugins but also the devices themselves. We feel that connecting the minds behind the tools with the creative community using them is in step with a new model of digital collaboration and directness." This marketplace for unique ideas was inspired by the urge to create a community that can be easily adapted by beginners. While simultaneously catering to expert musicians who want to express themselves, MOD created a simple first step solution to both parties. I invited Gianfranco on the podcast to discuss his creative economy idea in depth. We also talk about how their project was funded on Indiegogo in just 24 hours and how he built an audio processing platform that unleashes musicians' creativity.

1234: Digital Design Firm Builds COVID-19 App To Helps Docs Save Lives Jun 08, 2020

Upstatement officially opened its doors in 2008 but was born during late nights at the Syracuse University student newspaper. That's where founders Mike, Jared, and Tito met before graduating to the newsrooms of The New York Times and Boston Globe. But they don't come from a typical agency background, and Upstatement doesn't look like your typical studio.

Their team is filled with curious, versatile designers and engineers who all do a little bit of everything: Designers develop. Engineers sketch. Everyone contributes to creative concepts (because the best work comes from diverse teams). That's why nothing they do is cookie cutter. It's much more about daring to dream big, looking for fresh challenges, and push themselves.

Here in 2020, the company provides design leadership for a diverse client list: publishers, products, non-profits, and the world's most remarkable brands. All unified by strong stories and the desire to make a positive impact.

Tito Bottitta joins me on Tech Talks Daily to talk about how Upstatement is connecting with doctors on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic to build the COVID Protocols product. Tito shares how they are helping the team of over 50 Brigham and Women's Hospital physicians, respiratory therapists, pharmacists, and nurses from multiple different divisions, organize the vast amounts of incoming info, and decide next how best to share it.

From a technology perspective, I learn how Upstatement is building something useful around obstacles like hospital firewalls, etc. We also discuss what it's like designing quality work under extreme pressure (time & safety). The latest iteration, viewable at covidprotocols.org, came together thanks to Dr. Lee and Boston-based digital design and engineering studio, Upstatement.

Through the partnership, Upstatement rapidly worked to find user base value in the tool while keeping it as a Google Doc by rebuilding potential caching problems that sending tens of thousands of people into a file at once could pose - making them a major key player in the project's success. The tool also had to be something useful built around obstacles like hospital firewalls, etc.

Tito shares their inspirational work across three projects that are leveraging technology to create a unique approach to making a difference against the global pandemic.

COVID Protocols - Captures emergent medical conventions that help doctors make life-saving decisions on the front lines. In association with Brigham & Women's Hospital. Read more about it on Medium.
COVID Safe Paths - A privacy-first contact tracing app that could help us flatten the curve and return to normal. In association with MIT, Path Check Inc., and others. Read more about it on Medium.
Project Z - Think of it as Yelp for COVID safety. Find the local businesses that are doing the most to keep you safe. When you have to go out, do it with confidence. In association with a group of silicon valley founders & V.C.s.

1233: Why Music Tech Is On the Right Track With AIMS API Jun 07, 2020

AIMS API is an AI tech company that uses machine learning to solve some of the problems in searching through large catalogs of music. Their technology takes the next step from the current way of searching with keywords and metadata. It allows you to do searches similarly to the way your brain identifies similarities in music.

By analyzing an audio track, the AIMS algorithm will find you more similar music in a given music catalog. This is extremely helpful for editors, music supervisors, and other creatives in the media industry. AIMS have used the technology to create tools that help music professionals, publishers, and record labels work smarter and faster than ever before

AIMS CEO and co-founder Martin Nedved joins me on Tech Talks Daily to share his tech startup story. Nedvěd knows the struggle firsthand. He spent fifteen years running Studio Fontana, the biggest production music sub-publisher serving clients around Central Europe and managing sub-publishing deals with partners around the world.

With AIMS business development lead Einar Helde, he shares how he founded an agency to collect neighboring rights royalties for production music performers and libraries in Europe. He’s also been running a production music catalog for nearly a decade.

Nedvěd also knows the challenges that rights holders and music teams face and how the pace of production has skyrocketed while budgets shrink. Music supervisors and library owners need to do a lot more with less, and this “more” often involves digging up the right music fast from catalogs with millions of tracks.

I also learn more about the recent collaboration with UNIVERSAL PUBLISHING PRODUCTION MUSIC (UPPM) which is integrating AIMS' similarity search technology on all UPPM websites worldwide.

1232: Application Modernization and Digital Transformation Jun 06, 2020

The application modernization market is projected to reach $16.7 billion by 2022, and according to recent data, nearly 50% of decision-makers planned to prioritize app modernization tech this year. That said, almost half of those CIOs also say that the most significant barrier to modernizing processes or systems is cost – a barrier that might pose detrimental in the future – and Modern Systems is working to help change that narrative with customers.

While the industry clearly understands how imperative it is to remain agile and modernized in the digital world, not all realize the importance of app modernization as a critical first step in that process. Brandon Edenfield, Managing Director of App Modernization for Modern Systems, an Advanced Company joins me on the podcast to further explore the topic.

Modern Systems was acquired last July by Advanced -- the UK's third-largest provider of software and services -- and the two have melded to create a global modernization powerhouse. It has 35+ years under their belt transforming legacy environments, whether on the mainframe or locked in outdated UNIX environments.

It has also completed 500 application modernization projects and 2.5 billion+ lines of code. The company's approach for the mainframe to cloud transition is an incremental one, and they leverage their unique Modernization Platform as a Service (ModPaaSTM ), a collaborative cloud-based platform.

Clients of both Advanced and Modern Systems include The New York Times, GE Capital, Hargreaves Landsdown, Deutsche Bank, the US Department of Energy, the State of Utah, and CIBC. We discuss all this and much more in today's episode.

1231: Global Processing Services (issuer-processor of Revolut) Jun 05, 2020

Global Processing Services (GPS) is the issuer processor enabling many of today's most high-profile fintech innovators and disruptors, including Revolut and Starling Bank. It is certified by Mastercard and Visa to process and manage any credit, debit or pre-paid card transaction globally. Neil Harris is the chief commercial officer at GPS. I invited him on the Tech Talks Daily Podcast to learn more about the payments technology provider powering challenger banks, digital wallets, and fintech companies. With over 14 years of experience in the payments industry, Neil's key focus includes driving customer success by delivering added value and creating efficiency through technology.

Before GPS, Neil was Head of Business Development at Bottomline Technologies, an innovator in business payment automation technology. He was Co-founder and Vice President of Global Sales at Access Pay, a provider of cloud-based global payments and cash management solutions. Neil is also Chair of the Financial Inclusion Committee at the Emerging Payments Association. He is part of a leading taskforce to provide benchmarking capabilities within the industry to determine the level of impact fintechs have in tackling financial inclusion issues. Neil was also part of the UK Fintech Trade Mission to Austria and Switzerland, which sought to promote UK payments technology.

We talk about the positive economic impact of financial inclusion and how it will be driven forward, amidst an impending global recession.

1230: Linksquares - The AI-Powered Contract Management Tool Jun 04, 2020

LinkSquares is a web application tool designed to help legal and finance teams work smarter. The AI-powered contract repository automatically finds and extracts key terms and meta-data from contracts and provides key insights with deep search, custom reporting, and analytics.

LinkSquares also saves high-growth companies hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars by eliminating manual contract review and the need for outside counsel.

By capturing and analyzing every contract created and stored, LinkSquares gives legal teams and their constituents full visibility into their contract repository's data, content, and liabilities from inception through a company's evolution.

In February, the AI-powered SaaS contract management and analysis tool raised $14.5 million in Series A financing led by Jump Capital. That meant The company has raised $21.4 million to date and will use the funding to expand its engineering, sales, and product teams and build out its solution portfolio.

Vishal Sunak, CEO of LinkSquares, explains how they have proved its commercial value in the market, and steadily leading in AI-driven contract management product innovation. With over half a million contracts under management, LinkSquares helps its hundreds of customers understand and better mitigate risks and liabilities in minutes, not months.

I learn how Companies such as DraftKings, Fitbit, Twilio, Asurion, VMware, and Pendo rely on LinkSquares to elevate their internal value, reputation, and productivity by eliminating time spent on manual and ineffective processes so they can protect their companies with confidence.

1229: Uberall and The Memorable 'Near Me' Brand Experience Jun 03, 2020

As a business, your online interactions have never been more important. The coronavirus has changed the way we’ll be conducting business for the foreseeable future. Now, more than ever before, your customers are turning to you online for rapid responses to their queries across multiple platforms, and real-time information about your hours and delivery services.

A company called Uberall is empowering some of the world’s biggest brands and agencies to deliver a memorable ‘Near Me’ Brand Experience — from online interactions to offline sales. The ‘Near Me’ Brand Experience consists of all the online touchpoints that a consumer has with the local outlets of a brand, from finding, persuading, buying and recommending, to returning as a regular customer.

Uberall’s solutions enable multi-location brands to easily manage search and discovery, engagement, and conversion in real-time on all online platforms — mobile, voice, and desktop — across websites, mobile apps, store locators, search engines, maps, social platforms, and advertising networks.

I invited Greg Sterling, VP Market Insights on Tech Talks Daily to find out more. The digital marketing and search expert talks about what SMBs and multi-location brands should be doing to weather the crisis. We also discuss the impact that COVID-19 is having on digital marketing and how to prepare for recovery.

1228: Vodafone - Talking Smart Cities, 5G, AI, and Blockchain Jun 02, 2020

IoT is growing with around 50bn IoT devices forecast by 2025. At the same time, other developments like Autonomous Cars, Smart Cities, 5G, AI, and Blockchain are shaping a new dynamic of interoperability and integration. All of which is driving the transition to the internet of value.

Vodafone partners with businesses of every size and are embracing positive change through digital communications technologies. They are working with the world's largest multinational companies, fast-growing enterprises, Government teams, ambitious start-ups, and small businesses across the globe.

However, Vodafone is much more than mobile, fixed, and unified communications. The company isdeveloping the capability to leverage their IoT SIM to generate PKI and also incorporate a SIM wallet to equip IoT devices to be part of the economy of things. I wanted to learn more about how it will provide the capability to transact peer to peer and how the blockchain also acts as a trust anchor/ledger for IoT device interoperability (Security and Authentication).

Smart Cities/Smart Citizens are also developing to act as a service provider for things, and a possible purchaser of data generated by IoT devices. Recent developments in Smart Buildings and IoT Payments also show how Vodafone is approaching these challenges.

After seeing David Palmer talk about Blockchain, IoT, and 5G for Vodafone Business, I invited him on to Tech Talks Daily to talk about what it all means for technology communications and enterprises.

1227: Mark McClain, CEO and co-founder of SailPoint Technologies Jun 01, 2020

Mark McClain, CEO, and Co-founder, SailPoint, has over 20 years of experience developing and leading innovative technology companies. Under Mark’s direction, SailPoint has grown from a collection of fresh ideas into a publicly recognized leader in the identity management software market.

Mark recently released his first book Joy and Success at Work, which delves into his history and experience as a tech entrepreneur; navigating complex market conditions, boards, IPOs and scaling; trying to disrupt an industry while ensuring a strong culture for employees; how to embrace key employees’ exits and why long-term success starts with hiring.

When it comes to starting up and scaling, Mark stresses the importance of building your core team: the first twenty-five to fifty people you hire are critical to future success not only from a business perspective but also from a cultural perspective. Think about building a company like a construction project – you have to lay a strong foundation first as everything that follows will rest on top.

I invited Mark onto Tech Talks Daily talk about all of this and also discuss some of the core concepts he explores within his book.

1226: Michal Magdziarz, CEO and co-Founder of DeepCrawl, May 31, 2020

Michal Magdziarz, CEO and co-Founder of DeepCrawl, the technical SEO cloud-based platform, joins me on the podcast. Michal has spent the last 15 years in the SEO and web business industries, and the last nine years with DeepCrawl. Currently, he leads business strategy and growth while steering the company through a dramatically changing industry.

Michal has a unique background in the tech industry and has seen the 100M websites grow to almost 2 billion. Today he shares how he has seen web services evolve over the last decade. We also discuss why the web is far more complex and dynamic now, why brands need to adapt and how brands can be using SEO to accelerate growth and mitigate losses.

1225: Your Resume and AI Based Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) May 31, 2020

Lynda Spiegel is a professional resume writer whose 14 years as a Global Human Resources executive means she knows how your resume will be viewed by recruiters and hiring managers. She is also a frequent writer and speaker on job search and networking skills and also a member of The Wall Street Journal‘s Experts Panel.

As a recruiter, she has posted jobs on LinkedIn, so she also knows how to write a LinkedIn profile. I learn how you can improve your chances of being found by your target employer by articulating your professional brand and the specific accomplishments that differentiate you from every other candidate.

I invited her onto the podcast to share a behind the scenes insights that will improve your chances of getting an interview. We also chat about how you can ensure your application stands out in a world of AI-driven application tracking system and much more.

1224 - The Virtual Assistants Giving Business Owners Time Freedom May 30, 2020

John Jonas has helped thousands of entrepreneurs succeed in their business by doing outsourcing differently. He created the world’s largest website for finding Filipino Virtual Assistants, OnlineJobs.ph, which has over 500,000 Filipino resumes and over 100,000 employers from around the world using it.

Since 2005, John has taught hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs how to profitably delegate to VAs in the Philippines (and get their lives back in the process). With help from his own VAs based in the Philippines, John has created an outsourcing empire that allows him to work 17 hours/week and spend most of his time with his wife and 5 kids – traveling, golfing, cycling and living his ideal life.

John shares his expertise on how to hire rock star virtual assistants, helping business owners accomplish time freedom, and helping talented individuals overcome the economic challenges of living on an island. We also discuss when you should hire a virtual assistant? Why the Philippines? and how to find a good VA.

1223: Augmented Reality & Virtual Events May 29, 2020

AT NexTech AR Solutions Corp they are developing a proprietary Augmented Reality (AR) advertising platform that uniquely engages consumers by connecting them to brands and retail locations through a fully immersive AR experience.

With a focus on their two core technologies, augmented reality and holographic telepresence, NexTech AR offers innovative solutions that can be harnessed across a wide range of industries. Harnessing these technologies allows us to bridge the physical and the digital worlds, pushing the boundaries of branded communication and user experience in a disruptive new way.

It is the first publicly traded augmented reality (AR) company (OTCQB: NEXCF /CSE: NTAR) and the fastest growing “pure-play” AR company. It is also the first to market with its patent-pending WebAR e-commerce 3D shopping solution.

The fourth transformation has begun. So I invited Evan Gappelberg CEO/Founder at NexTech AR Solutions to join me on Tech Talks Daily. Evan shares his startup story and the role serendipity has played in his success.

Finally, we talk about the recent acquisition of Jolokia, which is a virtual events webcasting live streaming software company. I learn how these combined companies make it possible to launch AR first Virtual conferences

1222: Gary Vaynerchuk - The All In Challenge TikTok Telethon May 28, 2020

In our last interview, you might remember Gary Vee telling me in 2019 that "Joe Rogan is going to eventually sign a $100 million-plus deal to go exclusive on a platform because of the level of attention he has." We all know what happened next.

After interviewing Gary Vaynerchuk twice on this podcast, you could be forgiven for thinking that you know his story inside out. But today, I want to explore his softer side of Kindness, humility, and helping others. As part of TikTok’s ongoing efforts to use the platform to make a positive impact, they partnered with GaryVee for a one-of-a-kind 12-hour TikTok LIVE stream.

In the first hour and a half, Gary raised $100,000 and was not stopping by repeatedly asking the audience to share, tap the treasure chest, and donate as much as possible. Jay Strongbow donated $100K and Will.I.Am donated 25,000. Those that feel they are too old for TikTok took comfort from Joey Fatone who declared, "I'm 43-years-old some people say TikTok is too young for you but I say no - I'm having a lot of fun here."

The streaming event raised nearly $900K on the live-stream, with an additional $250,000 donation from Patriots owner Robert Kraft. With the TikTok match, this means Meals on Wheels raised about 2.3 million yesterday. I wanted to find out more about the story behind the #ALLINCHALLENGE on TikTok and why it means so much to Vaynerchuk.

We also talk about how he has been coping and working from home taking Zoom calls instead of living on planes.

1221: The Drone Software Platform Built For Enterprise May 28, 2020

A lot is happening in the drone space right now, with one of the big stories being the emergence of open-source for drones. Auterion has found itself an interesting niche in the industry, developing a drone operating system and analytics platform based on open-source R&D that is rapidly gaining traction. Think iOS vs. Android (Auterion). Auterion enables drone manufacturers to focus on their hardware, so they no don't have to worry about developing and continually updating the software layer that controls the aircraft and captures and manages the data. This reduces R&D costs and enables companies to focus on innovating new applications and payloads and focusing on key differentiators.

Auterion is building an ecosystem of hardware platforms unified around a single software system, with a consortium of companies mounting a credible challenge against market leader DJI, chipping away at their market dominance. GE Aviation, Freefly, Avy, Impossible Aerospace, Quantum-Systems, and several other companies already use Auterion, with more in the works. At the heart of Auterion is PX4, the most used flight control software (in terms of units) in non-DJI drones. The project was started by Lorenz over 10 years ago and today counts more than 8000 users (individuals and companies) and 600+ contributors. Because the project is open source (and is permissively licensed) it has gained broad adoption worldwide and is today comparable to "the Linux" for drones. Hundreds of companies build components, products, and solutions that are compatible with these open standards.

Lorenz Meier Co-Founder of Auterion joins me on the Tech Talks Daily Podcast to share the story behind the software platform designed to make large-scale drone operations simple, safe, and fully integrated in workflows.

1120: ZenHub - Agile Project Management for GitHub May 27, 2020

Aaron Upright co-founded ZenHub in 2015 as a company to empower software development with flexible workflow and organization within GitHub using a fully-featured integrated project management platform for Agile development.

ZenHub helps development teams build better software faster. Aaron currently serves as the Head of Strategic Accounts, managing both strategic partnerships and customer relationships, while helping current and prospective users get the most out of their experience with ZenHub.

Previous to founding ZenHub, Aaron was at tech incubator AxiomZen, where he focused on developing go-to-market strategies for early-stage companies. It was here that Aaron formed ZenHub.

I wanted to learn more about the GitHub extension that first become popular with Github users at midsize companies, and how it has attracted a fan base at the enterprise level. Aaron joins me on the podcast to share his story and his beliefs around software development.

We also discuss prioritizing creativity along with efficiency without diminishing creativity in the software development cycle and why stiff adherence to a particular tool or methodology needs to be a thing of the past.

Aaron also talks about the importance of building trust among teams and offers tips for incorporating the best of Agile development while fostering each contributor's power. Finally, I learn why distraction is the greatest enemy of productive software development.

1219: Sounil Yu - Creator Of The Cyber Defense Matrix May 26, 2020

After a seven-year tenure as Chief Security Scientist at Bank of America, Sounil Yu joined YL Ventures as CISO-in-Residence. The move will also help the firm help entrepreneurs better understand enterprise customer needs and navigate during this increasingly difficult COVID-19 environment and beyond. Sounil is also the creator of the OWASP Cyber Defense Matrix and DIE Resiliency Framework. His vision is to put the Cyber Defense Matrix to the test to see how well it can help entrepreneurs discover capability gaps in the market and reveal common patterns that can be applied to develop solutions that can fill those gaps. Sounil joins me on Tech Talks Daily to talk about the tools needed to meet infrastructure security challenges from a workforce that is suddenly 100% remote and how companies can apply the Cyber Defense Matrix to rationalize technologies when budgets are going down.

We also discuss why CISOs make such good advisors to VCs, putting them to work on behalf of startups to make better solutions (YLV convenes 80 CISOs from Fortune 500 companies on its advisory board).

1218: Embracing The Future of Flexible Work and Collaboration May 25, 2020

Fuze is a global cloud communications and collaboration software platform for the enterprise. Through an innovative and consumer-inspired unified experience, Fuze enables seamless transition between voice, video, messaging, and content sharing. Fuze empowers the digital workforce anytime, anywhere, and across any device.

As VP of Brand and Corporate Marketing, Lisa Walker oversees brand strategy, public relations, customer advocacy, content, and creative at Fuze. Additionally, Lisa chairs the Fuze Women's Network, a community of women within the organization focused on opportunities for development of women in technology.

Prior to Fuze, Lisa ran brand and product marketing for Forrester Research (NASDAQ: FORR), where she oversaw the launch of successful new products including the CX Index and Executive Programs, and led the company through a successful rebrand in 2015. Prior to Forrester, Lisa ran marketing and communications for Gather.com, an early social network that later became Skyword, a leading content marketing agency.

In today's episode, we talk about how businesses can embrace the future of work. The workforce of the future is more than robots and holograms. In fact, the future of work is already influencing business decisions in ways that were once visions in the minds of workers. From 5G connectivity to boundaryless communication, the modern workforce is pushing full speed ahead into a new definition of work, and businesses have the responsibility to embrace it.

We also talk about eliminating gender bias in non-promotable work tasks.No one likes a messy house - or a messy office. But still somehow, not everyone is held equally responsible for the upkeep of either space. According to analysis from University College London, on average, women spend 16 hours a week on household tasks, while men spend just six hours.

Finally, we also talk about the top 3 misconceptions surrounding flexible work. Regardless of how a business looks at flexibility, workplace innovation continues to advance at a high-speed, evolving into a more natural and integrated aspect of life and dominating the expectations of modern workers.

The shift in the rhythm of traditional work creates assumed challenges that may be intimidating for organizations trying to adapt. Pushing aside misconceptions and uncovering the truth about flexible work can accelerate an organization's path to delivering a successful balance of work and flexibility to all of its employees, regardless of age or working preferences.

1217: Aqilliz, Blockchain For The Digital Marketing Ecosystem May 24, 2020

Beyond regulations, there's also infrastructural changes to today's internet, beginning with Google's decision to phase out third-party cookies. Why does this matter?

Aqilliz is a blockchain solutions provider addressing the many issues currently plaguing the platform economy. Founded by a team of advertising industry veterans, entrepreneurs, and experienced engineers, Aqilliz is able to identify sector-specific challenges in the field of digital marketing to develop bespoke, blockchain-based solutions.

Within a rapidly crowding platform ecosystem, the exchange of value now takes place at unprecedented rates and across multiple destinations, with marketers struggling to efficiently manage campaigns, connect with consumers, and track results. Powered by Zilliqa's high-throughput blockchain platform, Aqilliz is able to tip the value scale, restoring the balance between brands, platforms, and consumers of content across a largely fragmented industry ecosystem.

Gowthaman Ragothaman is the CEO of Aqilliz, a blockchain solutions provider that looks to address issues across the platform economy. Affectionately known as G'Man across Asia's advertising community, his career spans over 20 years across the continent, having held multiple positions during his tenure at the WPP group of companies. Throughout his career, G'Man has worked with leading global FMCG conglomerates, such as PepsiCo and Unilever.

Most recently, G'Man was the Global Client Lead at WPP and Global Blockchain Solutions lead at GroupM, where he looked to introduce blockchain-based solutions and distributed ledger technology to WPP clients worldwide. G'Man also previously served as the Chief Development Officer for the Asia Pacific, Middle East, and Africa (APMEA) region at Mindshare.

G'Man shares his background and what prompted his decision to leave behind the world of traditional advertising at WPP and transition to form Aqilliz. I learn more about Aqilliz and what challenges they hope to solve.

With the rise of privacy regulations, we also discuss the leading challenges that marketers need to contend with today.

1216: How AI-Powered Data Insights Are Transforming Sales May 23, 2020

The customer journey is often misunderstood, and the effect on sales can be massive (Hubspot recently revealed that only 24.3% of salespeople exceeded their quota last year). In today's episode, I explore the impact of AI-powered customer data intelligence on enterprise sales productivity and performance.

In enterprise sales specifically, with its lengthy buy-cycle and maze of decision-makers, timing is everything. To gain a competitive edge, reps should engage with target prospects as soon as the customer journey begins, i.e., when internal key stakeholders realize that change is both inevitable and critical to the bottom line.

Regardless, enterprise sales reps need concrete data insights into their customer's actual problem, their level of urgency, and the financial case for change in advance of their first prospect engagement—as all subsequent decisions will flow from it. Arming reps with AI-powered customer intelligence is vital to elevating both productivity and performance.

According to Salesforce, teams are twice as likely to prioritize leads based on data analysis of "propensity to buy" rather than on intuition, and high-performing sales teams are 1.5 times more likely to base forecasts on data-driven insights.

The Databook Customer Intelligence Platform combines predictive intent data, real-time insights, and time-saving productivity tools to improve selling performance across the enterprise. Every sales rep that uses Databook, regardless of experience or skill set, can deliver the right pitch, for the right audience, at the right time--building true, sustainable customer value from the first conversation.

Databook's CEO, Anand Shah, developed an innovative platform that's utilized today by some of the world's leading companies that identify which accounts to prioritize, which buying groups have pain/urgency, and offers access to a hyper-personalized point of view for enterprise reps to engage the customer.

We talk about how AI-powered data insights are transforming sales by offering a crucial headstart on the customer journey.

1215: Reimagining The Customer Experience With Voice Tech May 22, 2020

I explore the world of voice technology and dare to look beyond asking a digital assistant a question and explore how it can transform how we interact with it the world. Tobias Dengel, CEO of WillowTree— one of Inc. Magazine's "fastest-growing private companies of 2018" and one of Deloitte's Technology Fast 500 for 2019, joins me on Tech Talks Daily.

WillowTree creates digital products for big-name consumer brands like HBO, National Geographic, Johnson & Johnson, and Pepsico. Tobias regularly talks about the implications voice technology has for many industries (retail, finance, medical, etc.) He also recently wrote an op-ed that addresses how voice will transform financial services for MarketWatch.

Tobias is deeply involved in re-inventing the digital space. He helped create geo-location for AOL Local. Just as AOL is extinct, Tobias believes strongly that Siri and Alexa will face extinction soon enough. They will, in his informed view, be replaced by "Voice 2.0" — a multi-modal experience of humans speaking and getting text/graphic results.

The voices will be diverse and non-binary. A good deal of WillowTree's Voice 2.0 focus is financial transactions. Tobias sees a coming transformation in mobile transactions, but he also has much insight to offer on a variety of related topics from how voice will transform various industries from healthcare to consumer goods.

WillowTree is a full-service mobile agency focused on creating world-class digital products for partners. WillowTree Inc. has released over 400 consumer and enterprise applications for businesses, including General Electric, PepsiCo, Johnson & Johnson, Time Warner, Turner Broadcasting, Wyndham Hotel Group, 21st Century Fox, Zappos, and many others.

1214: How Onapsis Is Protecting Mission-Critical Applications May 22, 2020

Onapsis is more than your typical application cybersecurity company. They are different because their solutions help eliminate the costs and risks preventing you from building better, smarter, and more dynamic applications faster and more securely.

Gartner recently acknowledged the importance of mission-critical business applications by highlighting one of the security capabilities of the Onapsis platform. Upon hearing this, I felt compelled to find out more.

They call themselves "The Tribe" in tribute to their Argentinean roots. But they take their name Onapsis from the Onas, an ancient, hardy, nomadic tribe indigenous to the Patagonian region of southern Argentina. Like the ancient Onas, they are proud people who work together as a team and rely on other members of The Tribe to help us succeed.

Juan Pablo "JP" Perez-Etchegoyen, CTO of cybersecurity firm Onapsis joins me on Tech Talks Daily. He is responsible for the design, research and development of Onapsis' innovative software solutions, and helps manage the development of new products as well as the SAP cyber-security research that has garnered critical acclaim for the Onapsis Research Labs.

He is regularly invited to speak and host trainings at global industry conferences including Blackhat, HackInTheBox, Troopers, and SAP TechEd/DCODE. Prior to joining Onapsis, Juan Pablo led many Information Security consultancy projects for Companies in Latin America, EE.UU. and Europe. His strongest experience is in the field of Penetration Testing, Web Application Testing, Vulnerabilities Research, Information Security Auditing's and Standards.

JP discusses what enterprise practitioners need to know as they migrate business-critical applications to the cloud, including how traditional on-prem security tools fall short and who is responsible for protecting the applications before, during, and after migration.

JP explains what vulnerabilities can be exploited if apps remain unprotected. As the founding member of the Cloud Security Alliance ERP Working Group, he also shares site key findings, and best practices from the organization's research.

1213: How MakeSpace Leveraged Tech to Disrupt the Storage Industry May 21, 2020

Rahul Gandhi is a co-founder and the CEO at MakeSpace, a full-service storage company based in New York that is revolutionizing the 38 billion dollar storage industry. Rahul co-founded MakeSpace in 2013 along with his two co-founders based on their various experiences with self-storage during Hurricane Sandy. They designed MakeSpace to transform the antiquated storage industry, combining innovative technology with a customer-first approach to service. MakeSpace utilizes data and machine learning to provide a convenient and seamless self-storage experience. Through AI-driven algorithms, customers are able to store and retrieve their items on-demand, receive optimal pricing, easily schedule appointments, track their pick-ups in real time, leave reviews and tip through the app, and view a secure photo inventory of stored items. Rahul shares how he has leveraged technology to disrupt the storage industry and the need to adapt more technology within the sector. He also speaks to the benefits this has on cities and urbanization, his journey as an entrepreneur, and more.

1212: DeFiner - The DeFi Lending Network For Digital Assets. May 20, 2020

Jason Wu is an experienced digital currency entrepreneur solving real-world problems with blockchain technology. With a Masters in B.A and Supply Chain Management, the founder and CEO of DeFiner, a true peer-to-peer fintech network for digital savings, loans, and payments, shares his unique insights.

Powered by blockchain technology, DeFiner’s decentralized financial (DeFi) platform enables users to effortlessly lend, borrow, and earn digital assets within a global network. DeFiner removes the friction and costs associated with conventional financial services and instead offers maximum flexibility to set one’s own rates and terms. DeFiner also eliminates the need for third parties from its financial ecosystem, by using an immutable blockchain to track all loans and transactions, providing ultimate security for users.

A key player already disrupting the USD 100 trillion loan market, DeFiner was recently accepted onto the TechStars Accelerator program. By creating revolutionary banking solutions, DeFiner is working to make lending and borrowing smoother, faster, cheaper, and above all, more secure.

1211: Paul Dix, Founder and CTO of InfluxDB May 19, 2020

Relational database management systems have been the mainstay of IT departments since they were first commercially introduced by Oracle in the 1970s. But over the past decade, a new generation of database categories have taken over as the top choice for enterprise IT projects.

In the past few years, developers have started to reach a consensus about which of these “specialty database categories” can best handle specific use cases where relational databases haven’t kept up. According to DB-Engines, the database management categories with the fastest user growth in the past two years are Time Series databases, Graph databases, and Key-Value stores. During that time, relational database usage has stayed the same or declined slightly.

Organizations now track, measure and analyze metrics from a wide range of sources that provide new data every second. According to IDC, the amount of data being produced worldwide is expected to grow nearly fivefold by 2025 to 175 zettabytes per year, driven by the proliferation of IoT sensors, serverless infrastructure, containerization and microservices.

Most of this is time-stamped data generated at high frequency and in great volume that requires rapid ingestion and real-time querying to extract maximum value. This means that the future of tech innovation will require real-time system observability, with granular insights to make more precise decisions to optimize operations and improve customer experience.

Paul Dix, creator of InfluxDB (open-source time-series database) and the founder and CTO of InfluxData joins me on Tech Talks Daily. With over two decades of experience helping companies like Microsoft, Google, McAfee, Thomson Reuters, and Air Force Space Command build software, Paul has unique insights to share on how and why time-series data is going to be the biggest hurdle and opportunity for tech organization in the future.

1210: Kin + Carta - Designing With Empathy May 18, 2020

In the real world, you don’t need big promises about transformation, or the endless “exploratories” that accompany them. You need progress. Transformation isn’t a process or a product. It’s an outcome - the result of a thousand steps in the same direction.

Progress is what makes transformation possible. By combining deep industry expertise, data-intelligence, world-class engineering, and seamless delivery, we’re setting out to prove why it’s time for a new approach to making progress.

Kevin Mar-Molinero, director of experience technology at Kin + Carta Connect, joins me on Tech Talks Daily. He’s got a deep interest in accessibility and inclusive design, with a personal passion and story behind it. He explains the potential that the ‘purple pound,’ which is worth over £249bn, presents. Kevin shares why he is so passionate about designing with empathy when it comes to digital transformation and is well-versed on what’s not currently happening - and what needs to happen - to engage with a part of the community that’s sizeable, but often overlooked. Kevin believes that in a society where our differences are increasingly recognized and celebrated - not to mention a society that is getting older - it is vital from both an economic and ethical perspective that we respond to the changing design priorities that come with this. Kevin provides expert insight into the problems with accessibility legislation regarding digital design and why so many brands do the bare minimum, reacting rather than leading. We also discuss what they’re missing out on as a result, in attracting revenue, innovation and diverse staffing.

1209: Re-Thinking The Healthcare Payment Experience With Tech May 17, 2020

Patientco is a payment technology company headquartered in Atlanta, GA founded specifically to re-think the healthcare payment experience. The company believe that patients and health systems deserve better than the status quo. So they built easy-to-use technology that ensures health systems maximize patient payments.

Patientco CEO and Co-founder Bird Blitch joins me on the Tech Talks Daily Podcast. Bird is an entrepreneur who is striving to make the patient financial experience an economic growth engine for health systems. He came up with the idea for PatientCo after he and his wife had their first child and were subsequently flooded with bills from several different providers. Bird found this process to be overwhelming and created PatientCo to make healthcare payments easier and more convenient.

As an entrepreneur striving to make the patient financial experience an economic growth engine for health systems, I learn where the idea came from and what inspired him to solve these problems? We also talk about the issues regarding billing in the healthcare industry and how technology can be used to combat these problems and much more.

1208: Demystifying 5G With Qualcomm May 16, 2020

Billions, maybe trillions of times a day, people around the world touch something made better by Qualcomm. It could be the smartphone in your pocket, the tablet on your coffee table, that wireless modem in your briefcase. It could even be that navigation system in your car or that action camera strapped to your chest.

Who is Qualcomm, and what do they do? They are engineers, scientists, and business strategists. They are from many different countries and speak many languages. They come from diverse cultures and have unique perspectives. They focus on a single goal, inventing breakthrough technologies that transform how the world connects, computes, and communicates.

However, over the last few months, our world has dramatically changed. Will 5G will move from a buzzword to reality as 5G-enabled smartphones hit the market and carriers began offering 5G service? I invited John Smee VP Engineering, Qualcomm 5G Wireless R&D Lead onto the podcast to find out more

John is the 5G R&D lead responsible for overseeing all 5G research projects, including end-end systems design, standardization contributions, advanced antennas, radio, hardware, and software prototype implementations, as well as external engagement with wireless operators and vendors worldwide.

Over the past 15 years, he has taken on roles of project engineering lead, systems lead, and algorithm designer on a variety of projects focused on the innovation of wireless communications systems such as 3G, 4G LTE, and 802.11 WiFi.

A particular area of focus has been taking advanced system designs and signal processing techniques from theory through design, simulation, standardization, implementation, and productization. John has also worked closely with business and product teams to define features, requirements, and timelines for successful product launches.

1207: Opting Out of the Attention Economy With The CEO of Flow May 15, 2020

Daniel Scrivner has an inspirational tech startup story to share. His journey took him from college dropout to Head of Design at Square to CEO of Flow. The simple project management software is used by teams at Apple, Shopify, TED, and Harvard to manage projects and tasks, collaborate and stay productive.

Daniel's path to success has been anything but typical. He's now considered a leader in his field, with numerous design awards and accolades under his belt and a client roster that includes household names like Nike and Disney. So I invited him onto the podcast to learn more about his story.

While the brightest minds in Silicon Valley are working to get us addicted to likes, retweets, and notification badges, I learn how Daniel views this as the "anti-metric". He explains why he believes the path forward for Flow lies in building a tool that gets more powerful the less you need to use it.

When it comes to setting your brand apart from the pack in an increasingly crowded space, companies must stand out to survive. Brands that understand what they are, what they're not, and what they stand for come across as singular and authentic in an ocean of me-too mediocrity. Daniel also explains how thoughtful design imbues meaning, expresses values, and sparks connection.

Great designers know that what you cut is as important as what you keep. So while the competition rushes to add new bells and whistles, Daniel has been pruning Flow's feature set to perfection. Daniel also reveals more about his peculiar hobby — studying centuries-old companies operated by the same family for generations.

Fascinated by their ability to stand the test of time, Daniel shares the wisdom he's gleaned from their rich history and how the lessons of the past still apply today.

Integrated Workspace from Fujitsu RunMyProcess and Citrix May 14, 2020

Fujitsu RunMyProcess and Citrix have been working together on a collaboration that consists of Fujitsu’s low code platform, RunMyProcess, and Citrix Workspace. With this technology partnership, companies can increase efficiency and productivity by utilizing RunMyProcess’ core capabilities of rapid integration of systems (SaaS, on-premise, etc.) and development of custom applications that will route to Citrix Workspace.

The joint solution provides a robust and secure digital workspace where enterprises can transform their employee experience in various phases depending on their transformation journey:

- Integration: Integrate workspace with front and back-office systems - Automation: Automate workflows across silos to increase productivity - Co-Creation: Co-Create new applications to transform the way work is done.

Tien Nguyen (Fujitsu RunMyProcess.com), Bryan Janes (Citrix), and Manjunatha Gali (Citrix) join me in a conversation about the employee experience transformation journey. We discuss how employees want a simple, intelligent, and reliable experience that enables them to work when, where, and how they want and be their most productive.

I learn how combining Citrix Workspace with Fujitsu RunMyProcess, companies can quickly and efficiently deliver it across all types of SaaS, on-prem, and even legacy environments.

About the Guests

Tien Nguyen, head of global partnerships at Fujitsu RunMyProcess.com. Passionate about driving digital transformation with his partners by bridging technology and business value together to deliver outcomes. Tien has a proven track record of developing strategic business relationships with alliance and channel partners to produce incremental revenue. He is focused on strategic execution, systematic processes, and solution-based methodologies.

Bryan Janes has over 20 years’ experience with end-user technologies in the enterprise, across their design, deployment, and operation. Having previously worked for companies such as UK Post Office IT Services, Nokia, Infor, CSC, he has witnessed the impact of many technologies trends. Bryan also has a deeply-held belief that technology should be an enabler, not an end in itself. Working at Citrix for the last seven years as a Global Solution Architect and Director within the Global System Integrators Group, he works with key strategic partners who are helping customers transform their business and workforce experience.

Manjunatha Gali seasoned technical marketing leader with over 12 years of experience in the IT industry. I have executed quality leadership in managing numerous technical programs and projects for multiple Citrix and partner product integrations. Passionate about Citrix products, partner marketing, and alliance marketing, backed by impressive technical skills in multiple virtualization and cloud platforms.

1205: How Will Enterprises Battle Cyberattack Onslaught? May 13, 2020

This year has already been defined by outdated and vulnerable security systems, crippling ransomware attacks, and escalating nation-state cyberwarfare concerns. Many of those risks have been exacerbated by people working from home at scale.

The question remains: Are enterprises and governments prepared to battle the cyberattack onslaught if we look back to a pre COV9D-19 world, the first two weeks of the year centered around cybersecurity hysteria?

Toby Olshanetsky, co-founder and CEO of prooV, argues that while organizations recognize the importance of stringent cyber defense evaluation procedures such as red team and penetration testing, many businesses cut corners due to time and resource constraints.

Traditional proof-of-concept methods can no longer keep pace with the global threat of cyberattacks. However, Toby points to AI advancements that can now simulate sensitive enterprise data to hasten how companies identify, evaluate, and deploy cybersecurity solutions.

1204: Content Platform Working With The Top 5 Streaming Providers May 13, 2020

Varnish Software is a pioneer in high-performance content delivery and works with major the top 5 streaming providers in the U.S. The company delivers advanced solutions for customers but also grow revenues, reduce costs, and increase profitability. But many are unaware of the technology that is powering 10+ million websites and that their caching technology is used across every industry to accelerate content delivery and protect critical infrastructure. James Whyte, General Manager of Varnish Software U.S., a high-performance content delivery network, joins me on Tech Talks Daily. Having spent the last five years working to help customers deliver optimized content via streaming, web-delivery, and even building their own content delivery network, James shares his insights.

We discuss why the industry needs to build instead of renting CDN and the importance of providing streaming viewers a fast experience in an oversaturated market. We also talk about how companies can benefit from a web and API acceleration that is faster and scalable. Finally, we explore what life will look like on the other side of the global pandemic.

1203: How Businesses Can Leverage Machine Learning May 12, 2020

Anodot Autonomous Analytics is a machine learning anomaly detection platform that independently monitors business metrics and locates critical incidents. But This turn-key solution autonomously learns behavioral patterns within times series data, so that it can immediately pinpoint anomalies across a large scale and continuously anticipate future values.

Anodot alerts operate in real-time and offer context, correlating high-impact incidents to related factors, to support root cause analysis. This capability has helped users to dramatically reduce time to detection and resolution. The pioneering technology is trusted by industry leaders across telco, eCommerce, fintech, adtech, gaming, and more.

Anodot co-founder Ira Cohen joins me on the podcast to discuss how businesses can leverage machine learning to tap into human perception and identify critical business incidents. I learn how much glitches cost companies across industries and how to prevent them.

We explore how the Data Scientist role has evolved over the past decade, as well as where it is going. We also discuss the current trends in data analytics and how those trends will impact companies looking into the future.

1202: OpenWater - A Tech Startup Story From Washington D.C. May 11, 2020

Who is Kunal Johar? Some say he is a tech-savvy, blunt-speaking, highly productive startup founder with a rock-solid technical foundation and incredible business acumen. In his early career, he received accolades for his technological prowess at the Department of Defense and NATO.

After leaving the government, he formed a consultancy where he architected software systems for two companies that went on to receive Inc 500 status.

The consultancy was just the appetizer for his real dream - to build a product company. He continues to realize this dream at OpenWater, a company he co-founded with Timothy Spell. With revenue doubling year over year, he plans to make OpenWater his avenue to promote his views on how businesses should be.

Inspired by Tony Hsieh and Ben Horowitz, he believes companies must treat employees and customers fairly at all costs and especially when tough decisions need to be made. But I wanted to learn more about his story and what got him where he is today.

Kunal Johar, as previously a part of the US government and is incredibly passionate about education. His software empowers Fortune 1000, Universities, Non-profit events, and associations to better organize awards and fellowships to students. He also feels that integrity is one of the most important components of a successful tech company.

In 2020 they also launched their Virtual Conference product based on the needs of an association conference with 1000s of concurrent sessions that needed to go virtual. The response to our product within our client base has been overwhelming.

I learn more about how the unique software for non-profits and schools – helps to organize awards, grants, scholarships, fellowships, abstracts, and more in one platform. It also created the tech behind the Inc. 5000 awards

We discuss why integrity is such an important facet of any startup and why diversity is so s important to a team. With so many startup and tech discussions coming from Silicon Valley, we also talk about how has the tech scene is thriving in DC and the east coast of the US.

1201: James 'The Outsource King' Baskin May 10, 2020

Is the task of searching for leads and chasing your ideal prospects taking all of your time? Or preventing you from selling as much as you should and want to? What if you could delegate the cumbersome work so you could spend 100% of your time on more value-added activities.

James King Baskin is the founder of Outsource Kings and shares his mission to leverage technology to help businesses get their time back. On average, his team is making 3,000-5,000 phone calls a week. But I wanted to learn more about the story behind Outsource Kings.

I learn how he came to live in Colombia and manage a team in the Philippines. We also talk about how they focused on one niche in the beginning and grew inside that niche but then expanded to other niches and are still growing.

1200: Energy Efficient Semiconductor Based Innovations May 09, 2020

ON Semiconductor (Nasdaq: ON) is a Fortune 500 company driving energy efficient innovations, empowering customers to reduce global energy use. The company is a leading supplier of semiconductor-based solutions, offering a comprehensive portfolio of energy-efficient power and signal management, logic, standard, and custom devices.

The company's products help engineers solve their unique design challenges in automotive, communications, computing, consumer, industrial, medical, and military/aerospace applications. ON Semiconductor operates a responsive, reliable, world-class supply chain and quality program, and a network of manufacturing facilities, sales offices and design centers in key markets throughout North America, Europe, and the Asia Pacific regions.

Joseph Notaro shares how they are using technology to help engineers solve their unique design challenges in automotive, communications, computing, consumer, industrial, medical, and military/aerospace applications. I learn how ON Semiconductor is reducing road traffic accidents and saving nine lives per hour with its ADAS systems and sensors.

We also discuss the latest developments in ON Semiconductors automotive safety systems, energy-efficient semiconductor-based innovations, the latest developments in ON Semiconductors automotive safety systems, and what developments we can expect to see in the next decade.

1199: Foursquare Engineering and Innovation Labs Advisor Max Sklar May 08, 2020

Do you remember when Foursquare launched at SXSW in 2009? For those that don't, it was a huge location-based social network, which let people check in to locations to share with their friends and earn badges. In 2014, Foursquare split its main app into two separate apps, the Foursquare City Guide and Swarm.

Swarm let users check in to locations and earn mayorships and other stickers, focusing on the social utility that was eventually de-emphasized in favor of lifelogging. Foursquare City Guide, on the other hand, used past check-in data and data from Swarm to power a Yelp competitor, giving users a way to find great restaurants and experiences in their area.

In short, here in 2020, Foursquare labs have evolved. But today's guest is Max Sklar from Foursquare Labs. Max is a software engineer and new product developer by trade, with a focus on machine learning, content discovery, and prototyping.

The bulk of his work as a machine learning engineer was at Foursquare, where he built Foursquare City Guide's critically acclaimed 10-point venue rating system and the Marsbot app. More recently, he led the development of a causality model for Foursquare's Ad Attribution product and now works at Foursquare's innovation lab. He's also the host of The Local Maximum Podcast.

We talk about machine learning, rapid prototyping, building products, emerging technology, the state of the tech industry, Silicon Valley, Foursquare, and much more.

1198: The Stand Up Comedian, and Serial Entrepreneur May 08, 2020

Ollie Horn is a stand-up comedian from the UK. He got his first taste of stand-up comedy while treading the boards while a student at Oxford University. After failing to be a lawyer, and doing fairly well in the world of startups, Ollie now tours the world performing stand-up comedy and is a mainstay at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. He helps growth-stage startups with their messaging, storytelling, and growth strategy.

Ollie reveals the skills he has learned as a stand-up comedian to help startup founders raise money, hire people, and make sales. and why he believes that storytelling is one of the most powerful tools that any tech entrepreneur can use to connect their big ideas with the real world.

I also learn how the role of a stand-up comedian is to have empathy for the audience, and that's precisely what a startup founder needs - empathy for their end-users (to truly understand their persona and the problem they're solving), their investors, and other stakeholders.

1197: Open Raven Emerged From Stealth Data Security, Reimagined May 07, 2020

Open Raven is the modern data security platform that brings visibility and control to an organization’s data protection program. From mapping data stores in clouds and corporate networks to identify the data within. The platform is designed so that discovery, query, and response capabilities can be readily extended to match the most complex and demanding environments.

Open Raven CEO, Dave Cole, joins me on the Tech Talks Daily Podcast. Dave shares how they launched Open Raven out of stealth in February to help companies course-correct the pressing security issue of accidental data exposures that are now happening in record numbers. For example, the data leaks of 1.2 billion Facebook users and the entire population of Ecuador late last year.

Dave believes shares that it's not nation-states that are the biggest cause of data breaches crippling organizations. It’s actually the lack of good data hygiene. We discuss why the data hygiene problem is plaguing the industry and what companies can do to get a better handle on it.

Before starting Open Raven, Dave was chief product officer at CrowdStrike and Tenable. He currently is the host of the Security Voices podcast, so he’s an excellent resource with years of security experience.

1196: The AI Engine for Contract Automation on a No-Code Platform May 06, 2020

Agiloft CEO and founder, Colin Earl joins me on Tech Talks Daily. The software industry veteran has over 25 years of experience as a developer, product manager, and CIO. Colin worked at IBM, General Electric, and three start-ups before founding Agiloft in 1991. Colin also won a Gold Stevie® Award for "Entrepreneur of the Year" in the 2018 American Business Awards.

Colin's vision was to accelerate the building and deployment of enterprise business applications by removing the need for manual coding. Under his leadership, Agiloft has achieved this goal, creating a market segment for agile business software.

Over three million users at organizations ranging from small enterprises to U.S. government agencies and Fortune 100 companies depend on Agiloft's top-rated product suites for Contract Management Software, Service Desk, and Custom Workflow.

Gartner, Inc. also recently announced the results of its first-ever Magic Quadrant for Contract Life Cycle Management* solutions. In an analysis of the top 12 vendors and their performance, Agiloft was named a CLM solution Leader.

However, I wanted to learn more about their newest product release that includes out-of-the-box A.I. tools and custom A.I. functionality for contract management. Colin shares how they are helping customers to create completely custom A.I. capabilities on its no-code platform to drive efficiency, visibility, and security in commercial processes.

We also discuss the open A.I. Engine for advanced contract management automation and how Agiloft is the only no-code contract management platform today that provides open A.I. capabilities.

1195: Kount - AI-Driven Fraud Prevention‎ May 05, 2020

Rich L. Stuppy, the Chief Customer Experience Officer at Kount, joins me on today's episode of Tech Talks Daily. For more than a decade, Rich has been involved in developing fraud mitigation, compliance, and big data strategies.

Rich came to Kount after 14 years with a fortune 50 retailer. His background in enterprise-class systems, machine learning, and analytics have shaped KKount'stechnology into an industry-leading platform helping clients scale their business while at the same time reducing fraud, risk, and loss.

In his role as Chief Customer Experience Officer, Rich is responsible for client success, data analytics, and ensuring KKount'susers have the best customer experience. Collaborating directly with customers, he works to inform Kount's product roadmap, identify new and emerging threats, and drive innovation for ultimate customer satisfaction.

Rich regularly works with executives from all areas of the commerce, payments, and fraud-prevention ecosystems to discover trends and develop strategies that create value. Rich is a highly sought-after speaker for industry events and has addressed audiences around the world on several topics surrounding payments and fraud.

I learn more about how Kount's Identity Trust Global Network delivers real-time fraud prevention, account protection, and enables personalized customer experiences to more than 6,500 leading brands and payment providers.

We also discuss how Kount Control is leveraging technology to help retailers and banks personalize their customer's experiences based on the level of trust present within every interaction -- from account creation to login, payments, and every step in between.

1194: Flippa - How to Invest Your Time and Resources in Digital May 04, 2020

Many people are currently questioning their reality as the global pandemic tightens its grip on the global economy. Many are asking, is my safe job? and seeing interest rates on their savings drop considerably. Many are beginning to look at how they can invest in their future in an uncertain time. Could digital assets be the answer?

In today's episode, I want to explore how a Flippa is helping people buy digital assets and websites. I look wanted to learn more about how specific niches, safer investments, and how to obtain strong returns. For anyone interested in alternative investments and tech, you should find a lot of value in this episode.

Founded in 2009, Flippa exists to support the small business ecosystem so that any business owner or buyer can sell or acquire a business. Flippa is the leading platform and network connecting online business owners with buyers all over the world.

Co-Founded by the Founders of 99Designs and SitePoint, Flippa aims to help small business owners find their exit, in an easy to use and safe environment. I invited Blake Hutchison, CEO at Flippa, back on to my podcast, to learn more about the platform that makes it easy to buy and sell digital and online businesses.

We discuss how the shift to online retail is growing faster now than ever before. I learn also learn how the passion economy is thriving and people are building micro-communities and making money from them.

1193: The Trial-and-Error Tech Startup Path from $0 to $1 Million May 03, 2020

Dominic Wells is the founder of OnFolio and authority in buying, selling, and growing online businesses. He is also known for bootstrapping Human Proof Designs to 7 figure revenue and exiting in early last year. In fact, during 2019, he bought 20+ websites valued from $30,000 to $500,000.

Dominic joins me on the Tech Talks Daily podcast to talk about the lessons he has learned from investing in online businesses (specifically content/affiliate based sites rather than eCommerce) and getting above market-average returns. We also explore best practices when scaling remote teams and content marketing for SEO.

Dominic has been building, buying, and selling content websites since 2012. Since 2016, He has been helping others do the same. With a lot of trial and error, losing his own money a few times, he has become successful at repeatedly buying websites and operating them at scale.

After overcoming the common difficulties with all doing this, such as cost creep, asymmetrical risk, and identifying a good asset, Dominic shares everything that he has learned.

1192: How Security Will Change in a Post-COVID-19 World May 02, 2020

Privafy is redefining how to protect Data-in-Motion. Data-in-motion has rapidly become the most vulnerable part of every organization's information and communication architecture.

As organizations embrace the openness of the Internet and move data and applications to the cloud, traditional network security technologies and systems are no longer effective in protecting data as it moves between cloud workloads and applications.

The Internet is now the new network – affording businesses and employees to easily connect with customers, partners, and each other from any location. But as data traverses between locations – it's increasingly at risk from a multitude of vectors and threat actors.

Privafy's security-as-a-service application secures data wherever it travels. The company's cloud-native technology integrates all the functionality of traditional point solutions, such as encryption, firewall, DDoS protection, IDS/IPS and DLP technology, to provide comprehensive data protection as it moves between locations, clouds, mobile devices, and IoT.

Guru Pai joins me on the podcast to talk about the blurring of boundaries between home and the workplace and why it is an unsettling factor for many enterprises. We also discuss why WFH employee solutions often don't have the same protection/monitoring as in the home office-- as result compromises away from work premises will increase --explain some examples like an attacker tailgating into the enterprise, etc.

Guru also provides his five predictions of why and how digitalization and security will change in a post-COVID-19 world. Today's guest is an industry veteran with over 30 years of experience leading and scaling high-performance organizations ranging from startups to large global firms. A results-oriented executive, Guru co-founded Privafy with a mission to fix the currently flawed approach to securing Data-in-Motion.

Before Privafy, Guru served in senior roles at Verizon Communications, where he was responsible for overseeing the products, services, and operations for all of Verizon's businesses. Before Verizon, he served in varying senior executive roles at companies such as Sonus Networks, AT&T/Bell Labs and Motorola. Guru is also a successful entrepreneur, having founded technology startups within the networking and big data and analytics industries.

1191: Fastly - The Edge Cloud Platform Behind The Best of the Web May 01, 2020

For major global events like the Super Bowl, Black Friday, elections, and breaking news, speed and security are paramount to ensure that websites run properly and that internet users are happy. The secret sauce that gives Fastly the power to handle 639 billion internet requests a day lies in the mind of Tyler McMullen.

Self-taught from the age of 9, Tyler learned to program from the books in his local library in central Pennsylvania before he even had a computer to work on, and got a job developing software at 16.

Fast forward to 2011, and Tyler is crashing on a friend’s couch when he meets Artur Bergman who is now Chief Architect and Executive Chairperson at Fastly and the rest is history. At Fastly, the two have sought to create a space in which developers can experiment without fear, and leverage their creativity to usher in the future of the internet.

To this end, Tyler has spearheaded multiple open-source programs aimed at empowering innovating at the edge. A great example is Fastly Labs, a first-of-its-kind research and experimentation arm that allows developers to test drive in-progress projects and get inspiration to execute new ideas safely, at-scale.

Tyler shares his story and how his non-traditional background set him up for success at Fastly. We also discuss how his commitment to developers set Fastly up for success on the public market and how open-source is driving innovation in the IoT world

1190: Ontology: The Blockchain On A Steady Rise To The Top May 01, 2020

On today's episode of Tech Talks Daily, I learn more about Ontology, a high-performance enterprise blockchain that is consistently reaching targets on its steady rise to the top. Powered by the Ontology Coin (ONT), the distributed collaboration platform allows businesses to enjoy the benefits of smart contracts and tokenization while retaining control of their sensitive data.

Having launched its mainnet in June 2018, Ontology enables mainstream blockchain adoption by providing enterprises dipping their toes into DLT waters with an ecosystem that supports choice. With a primary focus on delivering a robust, speedy, easy to use platform, Ontology affords businesses the flexibility to design a blockchain that best suits their needs.

Its features include ONT ID, a mobile digital ID application, as well as DDXF, a decentralized data exchange, and a collaboration framework to solve issues related to identity security and data integrity. Together these applications work to transfer data ownership into the hands of the user.

Erick Pinos, Ecosystem Lead of Ontology's Americas Operations, graduated from MIT, where he was President of the MIT Bitcoin Club and a researcher at the MIT Digital Currency Initiative. Erick joins me on the podcast to talk about the Ontology story so far and its future plans. We also discuss why Ontology's bespoke technology is an industry game-changer for developers, enterprises, and end-users.

1189: Eventador - The Streaming Data Engine for Killer Applications Apr 30, 2020

The Eventador Platform is a high performance, enterprise-grade engine for running continuous stream processing jobs. Users can now materialize stateful and queryable views of data using ANSI SQL for use in applications, notebooks, machine learning models, and more.

The company recently launched the first end-to-end, produce-to-consume stream processing platform. The Eventador Platform 2.0 removes the need for additional database, web server, load balancing, or other complex infrastructure, which means developing streaming applications is now faster and less costly than with current, often piecemeal stream processing systems.

Kenny Gorman, founder, and CEO of Eventador, joins me on Tech Talks Daily to share the story behind the company, their latest announcement and their vision for the future.

1188: Deloitte Consulting - Who Is Driving Digital Transformation? Apr 29, 2020

Rich Penkoski is a principal and deputy CEO—Markets for Deloitte Consulting LLP, responsible for defining and delivering the industry-specific insights and solutions clients need to solve their most complex business challenges. He also serves on the Deloitte Consulting Executive and Management Committees, the Deloitte USA Board of Directors and as chairman of the Board, Deloitte Consulting Management GmbH & Co. KG.

Rich has led many of Deloitte’s largest Finance and IT-enabled transformation programs and has served many of Deloitte Consulting’s most significant clients across Financial Services, Retail, and Consumer Products. He believes that measurable and sustainable value is only achieved when strategy, implementation, and ongoing operations are delivered through a combination of business acumen, technical excellence, and extensive industry depth.

Though we often hear about the value and importance of digital transformation—who exactly should be driving these efforts within an organization? The Chief Technology or Information Officers are usually top of mind, but the Chief Financial Officer is equally as influential. I invited Rich onto the podcast to discuss how CFOs are leading the way as key players and incubators of digital transformation.

Rich also shares his experience in leading many of Deloitte’s largest financial—and information technology-based digital transformations, and I learn how CFOs and the wider C-Suite can collaborate to drive successful digital transformation efforts.

1187: Intuition Robotics - Meet The Empathetic Digital Companions Apr 28, 2020

The human-machine relationship is evolving. Up until now, our relationship with technology has been primarily command-based for utilitarian purposes. With today's advancing artificial intelligence, that's all about to change. Now more than ever, people want products that are personalized and easy to use, fully understand them, and anticipate their needs.

Unlike digital assistants, digital companion agents provide much more than just a voice user interface – social AI entities that proactively interact with each user. They interpret a myriad of sensory data to understand the context of their user and environment that create effective, empathetic experiences that drive the desired outcomes from your product.

Intuition Robotics enables the creation of relationships between humans and machines that influence behaviors and emotions through digital companion agents, powered by the company's cognitive AI engine, Q. The company offers Q to 3rd parties, starting with automakers, to transform their products into dynamic, white-labeled digital companions. Q also powers ElliQ, the company's internal product aimed at improving the lives of older adults. They have recently secured a $36M funding round to further the development of the Q platform.

Intuition Robotics was also named one of Fast Company's most innovative companies for 2020. I invited, Dor Skuler - CEO, Co-Founder of Intuition Robotics onto Tech Talks Daily. We discuss building digital companions that create a relationship between humans and machines.

I also learn more about the story of how they created ElliQ - the sidekick for happier aging which improves the lives of older adults.

1186: The Conversational AI Platform For Recruitment Apr 27, 2020

Employers are finding that remote workers are more productive and less stressed, and it seems that people who work remotely want to continue working remotely. Before the global pandemic, 80% of workers say they'd turn down a job that didn't offer location flexibility. Is that still the same? Has remote working lost its shine?

As the world of work continues to evolve and change, teams will need to decide when and where to use a remote workforce. But first, companies will need to take a look at their hiring practices and make sure they are reaching the growing majority of workers who require flexible working conditions.

Companies can start by creating quality job postings that outline the limits of location flexibility. A section on the careers page must be targeted at attracting remote workers as well in order to keep candidates interested. Recruiting programs, including AI solutions that source and contact passive candidates, should also be upfront about work from home flexibility in order to create quality leads.

After hiring a remote worker, it is critical to set aside some initial time for onboarding. An initial project allows them to showcase their skills and enable the employer to then evaluate after completion. This gives your new employee a chance to show their eagerness and initiative while allowing you to assess how the employee fits within your company and overall culture.

Vinita Venkatesh, VP at Mya Systems, reveals how businesses can ensure teams will attract remote talent and onboard them properly.

1185: Cleantech - Next-Generation Solid-State Batteries Apr 26, 2020

Solid Power CEO, Doug Campbell, has had quite the journey as an entrepreneur. He started early adulthood as a formerly troubled teen without a clue as to what he was going to do with his life. After a stint as a professional mountain biker, he decided to get a college degree and has since founded two CO-based startups – Solid Power (Solid-state batteries for EVs) and Roccor (next-generation deployable spacecrafts reducing the cost of access to space).

Doug joins me on Tech Talks Daily to share his startup story and talk about the benefits of all-solid-state batteries compared to conventional lithium-ion batteries. We also discuss his future vision for the energy storage market and the role that technology will play.

Solid Power is an industry-leading developer of next-generation all solid-state batteries. These solid-state batteries provide a major improvement in energy density, safety, and reliability compared to the best lithium-ion cells available. Together, these performance attributes can enable profound performance improvements of battery-powered devices such as electric vehicles, medical devices, aircraft, and satellites through increased run time, increased safety, and lower cost.

Established in 2012, Solid Power has assembled a world-class team of battery researchers and engineers. The company occupies a 21,000 square-foot facility located within the Colorado Technology Center in Louisville, CO, along with the front range of the Rocky Mountains. Solid Power's facility is being outfitted with a state-of-the-art multi-MWh, roll-to-roll pilot production line.

The pilot line will support early product sales into beachhead markets, and by focusing on repeatable and scalable manufacturing, the facility will allow our technology and processes to scale towards automotive-grade performance.

1184: How Fantasy Football Led To $16 million In VC Funding Apr 25, 2020

Woodrow Levin was playing fantasy football with the CEO of Draft Kings when one of his players got hurt, causing him to lose a bet. What started as a joke about buying insurance for players quickly spiraled into "what if I can offer insurance/extended warranties on all online products?" It was on this premise that Extend, an extended warranty company that works with online retailers responsible for over $11B gross annual sales, was founded.

The company has since raised $16M in VC funding. Extended warranties have become a big business with more than $45B a year in plans sold. Only the top 1% of merchants (Amazon, Costco, and BestBuy) offer extended warranty, leaving a massive portion of the market unable to offer their customers protection plans.

By leveraging machine-learning technology and a network of top-rated insurance companies that cater to merchants of all sizes, Extend now offers a solution to the rest of the market to drive incremental bottom-line net income. But also increase overall purchase conversions, and create loyal customers with a digitally native customer experience.

However, I felt compelled to find out more about the story behind Woody's tech journey and how serendipity is just as important as technology.

1183: Stardust - The Movie & TV Social App Leveraging AI Apr 24, 2020

How are you spending your lockdown time? Do you spend more time trying to find a movie or boxset to binge than actually watching anything? A mobile app called Stardust asks you to rate your fave shows and movies and will provide you with a personalized selection of content.

Stardust is also a mobile community of film & TV fanatics sharing video reactions to movies and shows. Think of it as a social network-oriented around entertainment; it also drives movie attendance and TV tune-in by encouraging discussion amongst friends and fans.

If you love movies and TV and spend most of the time talking about movies and TV, the Stardust App might offer you a way to entertain and connect with like-minded souls.

Stardust was born out of CEO Derek Forbes’ burning desire to discuss every episode of Game of Thrones in deep detail immediately after it aired. Observing a lack of social platforms dedicated to providing such an experience, he designed a niche social platform specifically for movie and TV-lovers. But I wanted to learn more about the tech behind Stardust.

Ashley Fauset shares how Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning are both growing at a rapid pace within the entertainment industry. Websites, mobile apps, and streaming services alike are ingesting information around users’ preferences, usage habits likes, and dislikes.

I learn how Stardust is using technology to bring the discussion of movies and shows to life, amplified with the power of mobile, video, and social media. We also discuss the importance of user-generated content in social media platforms and how they will continue to leverage technology to drive Stardust forward.

1182: Wattbike Real Ride Feel Technology Apr 23, 2020

Richard Baker is the CEO of Wattbike, a company that sells home cycling machines targeted towards professional cyclists and avid bikers. Richard joins me on Tech Talks Daily to talk about how technology is being incorporated into the cycling world and how it can help cyclists – from professionals to amateurs – improve overall performance.

However, Wattbike isn’t just the choice of elite road and track cyclists. World and Olympic champions across all sports use Wattbike to train smarter, push harder, and improve performance. Watt bikers include endurance cyclist and world record holder, James Golding. 2 x Olympic silver medallist, Commonwealth & European swimming champion Jazz Carlin and even England Rugby Head Coach Eddie Jones.

I learn how technology is becoming incredibly valuable to those obsessed with performance when measuring just heart rate, and calories aren’t enough. As an avid cyclist himself, Richard shares the difference in understanding data can make in training, as well as the drastic improvements they have seen in the space over the past few years. We also discuss real ride technology and cutting edge analysis and unrivaled accuracy.

1181: From Google to scaling a $100M+ business and Investor Apr 22, 2020

Minnie Ingersoll joins me on Tech Talks Daily to share her inspirational journey in tech. We discuss how she turned an idea into a Series D, 9-figure online business and how she is now a venture partner at L.A.-based seed-stage firm TenOneTen Ventures.

Minnie started her career as an early product manager at Google where she was classmates with Marissa Mayer. Minnie co-founded the Access nteam; a cross-functional product, policy, and engineering team that spun off Google Fiber. After 11+ years, she left Google to begin her aown entrepreneurial journey as the co-founder and COO of Shift, an online marketplace for used cars. Minnie learned a lot of lessons hiring hundreds of employees and scaling a $100M+ business.

Here in 2020, Minnie is a partner at TenOneTen Ventures, which is a Los Angeles based early-stage venture capital firm. The company invests in entrepreneurs that apply data and technology to disrupt existing industries, or create new categories entirely.

I wanted to learn more about how this team of technologists who believe technology can help shape the world and the belief that ‘having the data’ leads to the best decisions. Minnie shares her journey in tech, her work with TenOneTen Ventures, and how she even finds time to host the LA Venture podcast too.

1180: The Common Myths Associated With Encryption Apr 21, 2020

Tim Reilly, the CEO of Zettaset, joins me on Tech Talks Daily in a discussion about the common myths associated with encryption. I learn how enterprise organizations need to look beyond these myths and understand how encryption can support the security of digital technologies such as containers and Kubernetes.

Tim has more than 25 years of successful public and private experience in the high-tech industry, filling key operational roles within product line business units and venture capital-funded companies through all stages of growth.

During his time at Zettaset, the company has successfully grown its software-defined encryption portfolio to provide a comprehensive data protection solution across all physical, virtual, and cloud environments. Before joining Zettaset, Tim was VP Finance & Operations at Trapeze Networks, where he helped build the company into a leading provider of wireless LAN equipment, which was later acquired by Juniper Networks.

Tim also served as VP Finance at Nicira, a network virtualization company (acquired by VMware), netVmg, an internet traffic optimization company (acquired by Internap), and in various financial roles at WorldxChange, a global telecom carrier. He has a BS in Accounting from the University of Southern California and currently resides in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Zettaset is a software-defined encryption solution that can be transparently deployed across all physical and virtual enterprise environments. Unlike traditional appliance-based solutions, Zettaset is a cost-effective, software-only solution that is easy to deploy, does not impact performance, and scales with your business from on-premise to the cloud.

1179: Crestron & Logitech Build Workplace Collaboration Experience Apr 20, 2020

What do Mark Zuckerberg's home, the University of Notre Dame, the biggest casino in Reno, and Shopify's offices all have in common? They're all powered by Crestron technology. Who is this $1.5B silent leader that's transforming how we live, work, learn, and play? Crestron was founded in 1971 and has come a long way from its A/V nerd roots.

Here in 2020, Crestron is at the forefront of cutting edge technology that is, in a nutshell, making our lives easier. Crestron is partnering with companies like Apple and Amazon to connect all facets of our lives. For example, in a Crestron-powered meeting room, you could say, "Alexa, start my meeting," and you will automatically be dialed-in to a conference line with your presentation displayed on the screen.

However, meeting rooms aren't all they're doing. Crestron's circadian lighting is helping improve productivity AND sleep schedules. Its smart home technology is customizable and easy to use. They're making "smart" hospital rooms that improve patient and physician experiences.

Recently, Crestron announced a new partnership with Logitech to deliver a premier video conferencing, room control, scheduling, and management experience for rooms of any size. These workplace solutions pair the Crestron Flex C series with Logitech MeetUp, Logitech Rally or Logitech Rally Plus to deliver a complete unified communications experience for small, medium, and large rooms. Each system is compatible with Microsoft Teams Rooms® or Zoom Rooms™, providing greater choice and flexibility for customers.

In addition, each system includes room booking capability powered by Crestron Room Scheduling, as well as a Management portal powered by Crestron XiO Cloud™, that seamlessly integrates Logitech's Sync APIs, aggregating Logitech, and Crestron products into one common management platform.

I invited Nic Milani, executive director at Crestron onto Tech Talks Daily to share how this partnership came about and what the two companies hope to provide to their customers? Nic also talks about how it will enable support teams to easily manage all of the technology in a meeting room with a simple set of tools, while also providing key insights about how employees work and how the workspace is being utilized.

I learn how Crestron and Logitech technology works together to provide customers a seamless room experience from videoconferencing to advanced room controls such as lighting, occupancy sensors, wireless presentation, source switching, and beyond.

1178: Qualitest - Innovation in Software Testing Apr 19, 2020

QualiTest is the world’s largest pure-play software testing and quality assurance specialist. They design and deliver solutions that leverage deep industry-specific understanding with cutting-edge testing technology.

The company has expanded rapidly over the past year, moving its headquarters to London, opening additional offices in India, Portugal, Mexico, and the US, and completing acquisitions such as their recent acquisition of Algotrace.

The company also has ambitious plans to reach $1B revenue goal in 5 years. Norm Merritt is the global CEO of Qualitest. He has a proven track record of running highly-responsive and successful technology-enabled service businesses. Norm has run large business services firms such as iQor, where he led a turnaround of the $600 million business outsourcing firm. He has run various other companies like ShopKeep, a SaaS business and MortgageIT, an online mortgage origination business.

He also led an advisory practice helping mid-size CEOs drive success through the use of technology. Norm graduated cum laude from Brigham Young University and from the Harvard Business School with an MBA.

We discuss the importance of software testing before implementation and how businesses can make it easier to integrate software testing across multiple industries.

With experience growing businesses through organic growth and through acquisitions, running large BPO companies like iQor with a revenue of $700M, as well as later-stage start-ups like ShopKeep, he also shares the biggest lessons he has learned along the way.

1177: The Chat-Driven IT Support Solution Simplifying IT Apr 18, 2020

Ryan Denehy is a 3x entrepreneur and the Founder and CEO of Electric. Having experienced the pain and frustrations that many business owners encounter in managing their IT infrastructure and support needs, Ryan's light bulb idea to create a cloud-based, real-time, 24-7 IT Support ecosystem laid the foundation for Electric's vision to redefine IT Support for a new generation.

Electric is the world's first all-in-one IT support solution for small and midsize offices delivered in real-time. Through a chat and web interface, personalized service, and flat-rate pricing, Electric enables companies to assess, deploy and manage their technology at a fraction of the cost and headaches frequently experienced with traditional IT managed service providers.

Electric's core package includes troubleshooting, systems administration, security, and network management, and on-site assistance.

Last year, Electric hit the headlines for successfully raising $25M as part of a Series B financing round led by GGV Capital with participation from existing investor Bessemer Venture Partners. To date, Electric has raised $38M. But I wanted to learn more about where it all began.

Ryan shares how he was running his previous company in San Francisco in 2013 and wrongly assumed that IT was an outdated and unnecessary concept for a modern company.

Who’s going to set up computers for all the new hires?
What software should we put on them?
How do we revoke access if someone leaves?
How do we manage administrative access to all of our documents and apps?
What happens if we get hacked? How do we prevent from getting hacked?
The wi-fi is out...now what?

One evening he started Googling stuff like “IT startups” “modern IT platform” “Zenefits for IT” - nothing. He couldn’t believe that the only solution was going on Yelp, finding a local consultant, and dealing with the most out of date, old-fashioned, inefficient processes to get this stuff done.

Crazier still, it became clear that even small businesses like his were continuing to buy and use more technology. Technology forms the backbone of all the work we do - somebody needed to fix this. Listen and learn more from Ryan who shares his inspirational story.

1176: Sedentary Lifestyle and Social Distancing? Improve Your Posture Apr 17, 2020

A few months ago, I read that Americans are sitting an average of 13 hours a day! According to the British Journal of Sports Medicine, this sedentary lifestyle increases the chances of obesity, heart disease, and diabetes. Still, it also negatively influences your posture, causing lower back pain. Your bad posture could be causing your lower back pain. So, moral of the story, don't get trapped by the "sitting disease.

However, it occurred to me that at a time when people worldwide are working from home at scale, many are probably sitting down for even more extended periods.

Upright Pose aims to fix the world's slouching problem with one, small consumer product. It uses patented technology to determine when the user is slouching. Using a slightly noticeable vibration, Upright's devices let the user know when they are slouching and straighten up! Their products, Upright Go and Upright Go 2, provide realtime feedback for the user, giving them a full analysis of their training sessions and their progress.

With the growing importance of workplace health and wellness in general, Upright has become a power player in the consumer technology industry, especially in the health and wellness market. I invited Ori Fruhauf to the podcast to learn more about Upright Go and how it can improve our posture during our increasingly sedentary lifestyle.

Today's guest also provided me with 15% code of all products, and it can be redeemed at www.uprightpose.com. Simply use the code- Techtalks.

1075: The Tech Connecting Videographers to Media Customers Apr 16, 2020

Stringr is a marketplace that allows media organizations (such as TV news stations) to buy video from both amateur and professional videographers. The media organizations can preview all footage. If they like what they see, they can immediately download the video. Once they do, you (the videographer) will get paid the next business day!

It seems that we are are all glued to 24-hour news channels at the moment, and we are all following the same narrative. As you all know, I like to focus on human stories and learn how people are leveraging technology to show a more positive glimpse into the future.

Stringr was started by two friends – one a former news producer and the other a product manager and consultant who started his first company in high school. Lindsay Stewart spent over 10 years in TV news producing segments for ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox News, and Bloomberg, among others. That's when the idea for Stringr came to her.

Lindsay Stewart joins me on today's episode to share her story and how the idea for Stringr came to her working in a busy newsroom. Here in 2020, I learn how Stringr is a hugely successful business thriving in a period of uncertainty by helping independent videographers and media outlets.

1174: Pepperdata - Removing the Blindfold to Control Cloud Spend Apr 15, 2020

Today, whether through lift-and-shift or re-architecting, almost every large enterprise has carried out some migration to the cloud, with increasing pressure on IT operations to manage a hybrid big data architecture effectively.

The trending problem: Large enterprises are running enormous big data clusters with thousands of nodes that require full-stack visibility to optimize application performance, support SLAs, uncover infrastructure inefficiencies and minimize MTTR (mean time to repair). They need to make Spark apps run faster and stop Hadoop clusters from blowing up. They need to deal with any malfunctioning workload as quickly as humanly possible.

The solution: In the quest to control cloud spend, analytics are key. To meet budgets, organizations need more transparency to determine usage patterns; understand average peak computing demand; map storage patterns; determine the number of core processors required; treat nonproduction and virtualized workloads with care, and more.

According to Gartner, “Most monitoring solutions, while valuable in their own right, have not optimized the process of troubleshooting performance and availability problems. Users often complain of limited visibility with too few tools or too much complexity with too many tools, and everything in between.”

Big data teams ultimately need powerful in-depth insights to visualize and optimize big data operations instantly, at scale, access a single dashboard for all big data environments, and initiation of automated infrastructure optimization.

Ash Munshi, CEO of Pepperdata joins me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss the importance of removing the blindfold to control cloud spend. We also discuss how businesses can stay rightsized post-migration.

1173: Scalyr’s ‘Sonic Boom’ Analyzes 250 TBs of Daily Data Apr 14, 2020

Scalyr, the log management, and observability company, today announced the availability of the first cloud-based log analytics platform capable of ingesting over 250TBs of data per customer in real-time. As a result, Scalyr customers can upload, search, analyze, and retain data at an enterprise scale, at a cost that is orders-of-magnitude below current industry standards.

Scalyr believes that every company should be able to affordably collect, retain, and use all of its application and infrastructure performance data to maximize system and product insights, reduce MTTR, improve SLAs, and optimize performance.

“We code-named this project ‘Sonic Boom’ because we aimed to break through the sound barriers of scale and costs that have prevented many companies from moving log management and analytics to the cloud,” said Christine Heckart, CEO at Scalyr.

“The amount of event data that modern organizations must collect, store, and analyze continues to grow exponentially, while budgets do not. Today’s announcement is Scalyr’s answer to this critical issue. This is a watershed moment that will fully transform observability tools into a baseline business utility.”

Christine Heckart, Chief Executive Officer of Scalyr, is a veteran of the technology industry, having worked for iconic companies including Microsoft, Juniper Networks, Cisco, and NetApp. I invited her onto the podcast to learn more about Scalyr and what their Sonic Boom breakthrough will mean for businesses.

Scalyr is the log management and observability platform for the new stack. Purpose-built to handle the scale and complexity of modern cloud architectures, Scalyr changes the dynamics of delivering healthy applications by allowing engineers to troubleshoot problems quickly and focus on doing what they love – coding.

With 96% of searches completing in under one second and thousands of active users, Scalyr has transformed logs from an afterthought into an advantage. Scalyr’s rapidly growing customer base includes NBCUniversal, Business Insider, Valentino, Giphy, Zalando, and OkCupid.

1172: Mavenlink - Prioritizing Tasks to Reduce Employee Burnout Apr 14, 2020

Mavenlink is a modern software platform for professional and marketing services organizations. It is the only solution that helps services firms establish an operational system of record that facilitates their business lifecycle, including key capabilities like resource management, project management, collaboration, project accounting, and Business Intelligence.

Roger Neel, co-founder and CTO of Mavenlink for over 11 years, is an accomplished web designer, Ruby on Rails engineer, thought leader in agile software development, mentor to startup founders and software developers, and a strong advocate for pair programming.

There are a lot of people working from home at scale at the moment, and many people will not be able to switch off and overcompensate. Roger joins me on Tech Talks Daily to explore the topic of burnout. Roger states that "one of the major factors that contribute to overwhelmed staff members is a lack of focus of vision from management - resulting in too many conflicting projects and priorities.

For example, if you give someone 20 tasks and say they're all critical, they'll be overwhelmed. If instead, you're more focused and do a better job prioritizing, people are less likely to wind up overwhelmed with their task list."

1171: The Emmy Award-Winning Journalist And AI Transcription Apr 13, 2020

Jeff Kofman, an Emmy award-winning journalist and former war correspondent, thinks that AI might help solve the problem of disinformation if used rightly. Now CEO and co-Founder at Trint, an AI-based transcription company, Jeff witnessed a number of issues plaguing journalists all converging at once: fewer resources, less time, and more disinformation.

Jeff believes that by shortening the time to access information for reporters (and the public) - and eventually leveraging AI to help people ID relevant parts of manuscripts - the war against disinformation campaigns is more easily fought.

Jeff has lived the workflow that Trint is transforming. In more than three decades as a reporter, foreign correspondent, and war correspondent, he estimates he has manually transcribed thousands of hours of interviews, speeches, lectures, and news conferences.

Trint goes beyond automated transcription to provide the world's most innovative and collaborative platform for searching, editing, and getting the most out of your content. But I wanted to learn more about the story behind the company.

The idea for Trint was first hatched at the Mozilla Festival in London, an annual coding conference in London that showcases cutting-edge media innovation. It was November 2013; Mark Panaghiston, Mark Boas and Laurian Gridinoc were previewing a prototype of software that linked manually transcribed text to its source audio. It was a new concept in both audio and transcription: they found a way to glue a piece of text on the screen to its source audio file, stitching each word of a transcript to the exact time that word was spoken.

The trio of developers was introduced to Jeff Kofman. Jeff was still working as ABC News London Correspondent but he was also teaching a university course on 21st century journalism, which was why he was attending Mozfest. He immediately took an interest in the technology the team was demonstrating. Jeff asked Laurian if automated speech-to-text could be added to the software along with some way of correcting the machine-generated errors. If so, they could turn the world of tedious, time-consuming, and costly manual transcription on its head.

"It's an interesting idea," said Laurian. "We could try it." "I felt like I was looking at the future," Jeff remembers. "It was a real light bulb moment. I remember saying to the guys, 'This is what the future is going to look like. We can get together and see if we can make it work, or we go our separate ways and one day a few years from now one of us will walk into a coffee shop and see someone working on a platform like this that automates transcription.'"

That chance encounter began a journey into entrepreneurship, invention, and the world of startups.

1170: Exploring The Public Trust of AI With Fountech.ai Apr 12, 2020

Nikolas Kairinos, founder and CEO of the Fountech.ai, joins me on the Tech Talks Daily Podcast. Nikolas has been working in the artificial intelligence space for over 30 years, during which time he has focused on developing novel AI solutions to make the world a better place. Amongst other projects, he has overseen the development of a lead generation software solution and a personalized learning tool.

Fountech.ai is the umbrella company to three specialist AI firms: Fountech.Solutions, Fountech.Ventures and Fountech.Science. Fountech.ai is driving innovation in the AI sector, helping consumers, businesses and governments understand how this technology can make the world a better place. More recently, Nickolas and Fountech.ai received widespread national coverage in likes of ITV News, The Daily Mail, Metro, and The Daily Express for a survey of over 2,000 UK consumers investigating public trust of AI. The results are striking! Most notably, over a fifth (22%) of consumers would trust AI to handle political negotiations (such as Brexit) over politicians. In comparison, more than a quarter (28%) would trust AI to care for an elderly relative. We discuss these findings in greater depth, as well as touch upon what a lack of AI education could mean for future tech developments. Given the wider debate surrounding the EU’s AI regulation, enjoy this timely and interesting interview with Nickolas.

1169: AI vs Art: Can the Machine be Creative? Apr 11, 2020

Artists have long used technology--from photography to Photoshop--to push their ideas into new territory. Playform offers the latest opportunity for artists and creators to explore the edge of technological possibility and express their humanity. It harnesses AI’s power and turns it into the perfect co-creating companion.

Last year, AICAN gained international acclaim as the first AI-artist awarded solo exhibitions at such galleries as HG Contemporary and SCOPE New York. Now, a team of scientists and artists have transformed AICAN’s revolutionary technology into a “creative soulmate” for visual thinkers: Playform.

Playform utilizes generative AI to enrich creativity rather than replace it. Playform is the only user-friendly software that allows artists to custom train the AI with their own images and provides a variety of features for experimentation.

Its ‘Sketch to Image’ tool transforms simple sketches into full-fledged images with color, texture, and stunning detail. Artist Devin Gharakhanian partnered with Playform to develop the ‘Creative Morph’ tool, used to create his portrait series as seen at the SCOPE Art Fair.

Most recently, artist Qinza Najm exhibited her Playform collaborative series at the National Museum of China, attracting over 1 million visitors!

Dr. Ahmed Elgammal, director of the Art and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, joins me on the podcast to talk about the relationship between technology, art and much more.

1168: The Future of Cybersecurity in a World of Remote Working Apr 10, 2020

Buffer & AngelList recently released the state of remote work report. The findings all pointed to a surge in companies going remote- 63 percent of companies now have remote workers. But since that report was released, it feels like most of the world is currently working from home.

That means that companies worldwide have workers signing into Slack, Instagram, HubSpot, Google Docs, and many other Cloud-based platforms on a daily basis. From multiple locations across the world. While the remote trend shows a huge productivity increase amongst workers, some executives are left with a few unanswered questions about how to handle security.

SafeGuard Cyber, the leading provider in end-to-end digital risk protection, has some tips for addressing the remote security issue. Really understand your risks: Before you can address your security risks, you must understand what they are.

Think about all of the tools your organization uses in its daily operations, tools that make business processes more efficient. CRM has moved to Salesforce, Marketing spends their time on social media, and Sales are using social media and collaboration apps, like Slack, to communicate faster.

Your employees are on the frontline of data protection: Educate everyone on your staff about security protection. Security teams need to work closely with stakeholders to ensure all cloud environments are secure, and avoid the shadow IT trap.

It’s a matter of empowering your employees to use these apps securely so they can do their best business, not saying ‘no’ to ignore the problem. Instead, teams should work together to understand what tools are needed to conduct business, and why they need them. By developing a close relationship you avoid being asked for approval at the last minute, or worse, finding out the team adopted an app without asking.

It’s the little things: Your employees use the chat function on Teams and Slack for quick collaboration. For example, an employee might send a team member a link to the proposal they are working on in Slack. Then follow up with a link to a GIF about how tired and hungry they are. As a company, your focus might be on policies that ensure the proposal is in line with compliance regulations and is not shared externally.

Jim Zuffoletti, CEO of SafeGuard Cyber, talks about all this and the future of cybersecurity in a remote world.

1167: SE2 - Wearable Technology’s Impact on Life Insurance Apr 09, 2020

SE2, an Eldridge Industries business, is a leader in technology-driven third-party administration services for the U.S. life and annuity insurance industry. SE2 currently administers nearly 2 million active policies on behalf of its 25+ clients. SE2 has over $100 billion in assets under administration and handles more than 200,000 new business applications annually.

Vinod Kachroo, CIO of SE2, was a 22-year executive at MetLife, Prudential, and AIG before coming to SE2. He's the visionary responsible for leading innovation at SE2 to develop a future-proofed technology platform. Vinod has 30 years of experience driving transformation, and he's committed to generating growth and ensuring that all SE2 associates not only fulfill their potential but increase it exponentially.

Vinod is also a sought-after speaker, author, and futurist. He's not only able to create a vision for innovation, but he's also able to take a complex idea all the way through planning and execution.

Vinod joins me in a conversation about the growing impact wearable technology has on consumer expectations within the life insurance industry. He shares his insights and findings from a recently published report that found 85% of adults would improve their health and fitness habits for lower monthly life insurance premiums. Vinod talks about the role customer engagement plays and how gamification has become an incentive for consumers to live healthier lifestyles. We also discuss the insurance industry's shift to tailoring coverage offerings to fit individual insurance and wellness needs, along with the importance of creating digital experiences that consumers of today and the future will expect.

1166: Fjord, Accenture Interactive, on What AI Success Will Look Like Apr 08, 2020

Fjord, the design and innovation consultancy for Accenture Interactive, believes that the next step for AI is a generation of systems that blend it with human intelligence to empower people to cope with increasing complexity in the workplace and enhance the human experience. Businesses must reposition their thinking and reimagine how to design AI for the human intelligence around it. With this in mind, I invited Connor Upton onto the podcast to learn more about the urgency with which organizations need to rethink their overall approach to AI, moving away from just ‘adoption’ into long term strategic implementation at scale. As businesses accelerate their adoption of AI, Connor reveals how they will see a dramatic impact in the below three areas through unlocking the full potential of humans and AI working together:

Enhancing the human experience through extending human’s perceptual capabilities like vision, hearing or helping us learn better
Empowering people in complex systems and driving trust in AI through designing interfaces that make the logic of AI visible and open to human direction
Envisioning and developing new products and services and how designers use AI to do this

Connor Upton is the Regional Data Design Director for Fjord EALA. He is based in the Dublin studio, which sits at the heart of Accenture’s multidisciplinary innovation hub, the Dock, where he fosters collaboration between designers, data scientists & software engineers.

Connor applies human-centric approaches to the design of complex work environments and has published and spoken widely on this topic. His projects cover multiple domains, including public safety, manufacturing, and sustainability. He is keenly interested in how interactive visualizations can support collaboration between human and artificial intelligence.

1165: Socialbakers - Social Media And The Impact of COVID-19 Apr 07, 2020

During this period of uncertainty and fear of technology, I want to add some much-needed positivity to the current narrative. I recently watched a TED Talk by Yuval Ben-Itzhak, Chief Executive Officer at Socialbakers, about how Artificial intelligence will unleash the potential in each of us.

When I researched the company, I also learned how COVID-19 is changing behavior on social media for both brands and users. As someone that likes to focus on how technology can make a difference in transforming businesses and re-shaping the industries, Yuval is the perfect guest for this podcast.

Socialbakers is a trusted social media marketing partner to thousands of enterprise brands and SMBs, including over 100 companies on the list of Fortune Global 500. Leveraging the largest social media data-set in the industry and machine learning, they are helping brands engage & grow their customer base through content personalization based on actionable AI-powered audience insights.

With more people working from home and consuming digital content, I learn how COVID-19 is changing behavior on social media for both brands and users. But also how it has shifted the balance of the marketplace.

Will artificial intelligence take over the world? Yuval Ben Itzhak takes me on a journey of technology and human capabilities.

1164: Building Success On The Foundation of Remote Work Apr 06, 2020

Much of the world is currently embracing remote working at scale. There have been many reports about how to navigate around the challenges that it might create for businesses. But today I talk with a company that was built on remote work.

Acceleration Partners is a global partner marketing agency that has been entirely remote for its 13-year existence. Amidst growth to 170+ employees, they've also been recognized for industry performance and company culture with an organization built on a foundation of remote work. If asking your entire team to telework seems like a drastic step or worst-case scenario for your organization, here's the good news: most businesses are capable of thriving in this environment under the proper conditions.

Robert Glazer, CEO of Acceleration Partners, who's led his large team of remote employees effectively for over a decade, shares his experience on the Tech Talks Daily Podcast. Robert is a founder, author, speaker, and expert in elevating performance in both business and life.

Robert also has a passion for helping individuals and organizations build their capacity to outperform and was ranked #2 on Glassdoor's list of Top CEO of Small & Medium Companies in the US. Under his leadership, Acceleration Partners has become a recognized global leader in the affiliate marketing industry, receiving numerous industry and company culture awards.

Acceleration Partners has received several prestigious awards and accolades for both our client services and culture, including “Best Agency” (International Performance Marketing Awards), “Best Workplaces” (Inc.), “Best Places to Work” (Glassdoor), “Most Committed to Work-Life Balance” (Digiday). All of which highlights what can be achieved on the foundations of remote working.

1163 : ChartHop, The Tech Helping Businesses Run and Scale Better Apr 05, 2020

ChartHop is an organizational management platform empowering leaders and team members alike to see the past and present of their organization and design its future. It enables businesses to visualize, plan and analyze their organizations within minutes. Customers can structure and analyze people's data by multiple factors, including location, salary, stock grants, number of direct reports, gender, and more.

In a nutshell, ChartHop makes organizations run and scale better. ChartHop plays well with 20 plus platforms, including ADP, BambooHR, Carta, Greenhouse, Lever, SAP SuccessFactors, Workday, and more. Based in Brooklyn, New York, ChartHop was founded in 2018 by Ian White.

“Technology shouldn’t hinder HR and People teams from being strategic business partners or supporting employees — it should empower them,” Ian White, ChartHop’s founder, CEO and CTO.

In today's episode, I wanted to learn more about how ChartHop leverages technology to enable leaders to understand their organization in real-time more clearly. I also wanted to explore if this technology can finally break through information silos and unearth hidden biases so leaders can take action and affect change.

Ian White joins me on today's edition of Tech Talks Daily, to talk about all of the above and how they emerged from stealth today with $5 million in seed funding.

1162: How JULABO Has Applied Tech To Enhance Their Business Apr 04, 2020

JULABO manufactures, distributes, and sells highly precise temperature control equipment used to support research, development, and innovation in numerous industries including academic/scientific research, aerospace, automotive, analytical labs, chemical labs & manufacturing, biotechnology, cannabis, clinical testing, material testing, pharmaceuticals, petrochemicals, semiconductors, and more.

I wanted to learn more about how technology is transforming its business and solving problems for their customers. vDelivery, LucaVision, IoT, Holographic Displays are just a few areas I wanted t to explore, so I invited Dr. Dirk Frese onto the podcast.

Dr. Dirk Frese is a scientist and biochemist with a background in sales and leadership for scientific equipment companies and manufacturers. He is also the V.P. Sales, Marketing & Service at JULABO USA, and founder of Wisdom.

Much of the technological innovations are focused on product/instrumentation innovation. But with his deep passion for technology, Dirk explains how it can also be used to drive customer engagement and experiences. I also learn how they applied technology to enhance their business when they first started offering vDelivery five years ago.

We discuss how JULABO USA has been implementing AR/VR technologies to reduce service wait times for customers. Dirk also shares the inspiration behind LucaVision and reveals why he turned to holographic displays after growing increasingly concerned about the amount of money being spent on shipping equipment to and from tradeshows.

Technology is changing every aspect of their business, and even IoT sensors are being added to machines post-production to help track equipment performance, service, and maintenance needs. Our conversation covers a wide range of emerging technologies and how they are being used in the business world. But, it's human storytelling at the heart of the business.

1161: What Are Valuegraphics and Why Do They Matter? Apr 03, 2020

David Allison recently wrote that Millennials continue to be blamed for ruining everything from the diamond industry to homeownership, and, in response, joke that Baby Boomers destroyed the planet and can't work smartphones. Except it's not a joke. These statements do nothing but push us further apart.

In the closure of his recent article, he advised that we all have to stop using demographics labels to paint each other with broad brushes. The inconvenient truth is that although we try to pigeonhole people, the reality is that age, gender, income, marital status, education, number of kids—none of it indicates any similarity. We're all the same age now. Some of us just haven't figured that out yet.

David Allison is the Founder of The Valuegraphics Database, the world's first global dataset that can change the behavior of any target audience 8X more effectively than ever before. He is a best-selling author, internationally acclaimed speaker, and the leading advocate of values-thinking as the new best practice for organizational decision-making.

In retrospect, the path to his work today seems like a straight line. Working on campaigns for some of the biggest brands in the world, building an award-winning marketing creative firm, and writing three influential books on communications strategy left him questioning a fundamental concept of marketing.

In a post-demographic era when age, gender, income, and education no longer restrict how we choose to live, he wondered, why are we still using demographics to predict and influence how target audiences behave? He sold his firm in 2015 and worked with a team of university researchers to launch, collect, and analyze a half-million surveys about why groups of people behave the way they do.

The data was immediately clear on two points. First, demographics were a shockingly ineffective way to understand how groups behaved. More importantly, leveraging shared values turned out to be the most powerful way to trigger behavior. Now, for the first time, there was accessible, customizable, empirical data that proved what we value determines what we do.

Further data analysis revealed that we waste 90% of our time and money trying to engage target audiences using demographics. What could we do with 90% of our financial and human resources redeployed elsewhere? What if we only did things that people cared about? Wouldn't the world be better off if everything was based on the values we share?

Since then, David has been focused on defining a new post-demographic era where values-thinking influences everything we do. His background consulting, writing, speaking, and creating simple stories from complex ideas has helped amplify the global shift away from outdated demographic ideas.

I learn more about his mission is to change the way we look at the world. His latest book, We Are All the Same Age Now: Valuegraphics and the End of Demographic Stereotypes was the number-one global marketing best-seller within 48 hours of its release. Kirkus Reviews called it "A genuinely original contribution to marketing literature," and INC Magazine named it one of the top ten leadership books of the year.

David talks about building an award-winning marketing creative firm and writing three influential books on communications strategy, which left him questioning a fundamental concept of marketing.

1160: Is Tech And Aluminum The Answer to Sustainable Packaging? Apr 02, 2020

Because of the powerful interests behind it, the plastics industry dominates most conversations around waste and sustainability, and the truth about solutions and circular materials is often hidden behind doctored research and metrics. As a result, consumers are continually blamed for the problems we’re facing, and Aluminum is often overlooked and misdefined.

Did you know that the only genuinely sustainable beverage container is Aluminum? Or did you ever stop to think about the technology that makes it possible to ensure the empty can of coke is recycled and back on the shelf within 60 days?

Ball Corporation, the world’s leading supplier of aluminum cans and bottles, is working on a lifecycle assessment (LCA) of aluminum beverage packaging that demonstrates that recycled Aluminum is the most sustainable and lowest carbon packaging material. This is compelling, given that 75% of Aluminum is still in use today, and aluminum beverage packaging has the highest recycling rates and yields of any standard beverage container.

Ball Corporation supplies innovative, sustainable aluminum packaging solutions for beverage, personal care, and household products customers, as well as aerospace and other technologies and services primarily for the U.S. government. Ball Corporation and its subsidiaries employ more than 18,300 people worldwide and reported 2019 sales of $11.5 billion.

Adam Shalapin joins me on Tech Talks Daily for a deep dive into the technology that makes it possible for Aluminum to be recycled an infinite number of times without losing quality. I also learn how they can also be recycled to take on a new life as a car, laptop, or bicycle.

1159: VUniverse - Browse All Streaming Services In One App Apr 01, 2020

With an endless amount of movies and shows across an overwhelming number of streaming services, VUniverse was created with one solution in mind: to be able to answer the time-consuming question…what should I watch?

Have you ever found scrolling through every streaming service exhausting? Today's guests noticed none of the recommendations provided by streaming services were really personalized or tailored to their taste.

It has been reported that it takes the average viewer 20 minutes to find somehting to watch. Even if you know what you are looking for, it can be challenging opening and closing Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, Disney Plus, YouTube TV, HBO, and Apple TV to see which platform has the license this month.

Today's guests didn't want to keep googling were a show or movie was streaming. They built VUniverse to make the ever-expanding world of streaming services easier so that you can spend less time searching and more time watching. But what is it?

VUniverse is a personalized movie and show recommendation platform that enables users to browse their streaming services in one app—a channel guide for the streaming universe. Using artificial intelligence, VUniverse creates a unique taste profile for every user and serves smart lists of curated titles using mood, genre, and user-generated tags, all based on content from the user's existing subscription services. Users can also create custom watchlists and share them with friends and family.

VUniverse was also recently named as one of the top 5 finalists in the AI & Machine Learning category for the 2020 SXSW Innovation Awards. But the event was later canceled due to the Coronavirus. On the one hand, I was struck by the impact of a new business having its big moment snatched away. But on the other, I realized with so many people working from home; online streaming has never been more popular. I invited Evelyn Watters, CEO and Monica Brady, COO onto the Tech Talks Daily podcast to share their journey and also their insights on the world of online streaming.

1158: Adobe Summit - Mindtree, An Adobe Specialized Business Partner Mar 31, 2020

For the last four years, I have been covering the Adobe Summit in Las Vegas from the Venetian hotel. This year's event was going to be even more special as it had merged its event with Magento. But we all know what happened next.

However, the show must go on and Adobe is hosting the Summit virtually. So, I will be attempting to take those conversations I would normally be having face to face on the show floor and chat with the guests virtually too.

Mindtree is a global technology consulting and services company, helping enterprises marry scale with agility to achieve competitive advantage. In a nutshell, they provide technology solutions to make businesses and societies flourish. The company is also an Adobe Specialized Business Partner and the perfect company to explore emerging digital customer experience trends.

I also want to learn more about emerging technologies, solutions and how businesses are leveraging them to become experience-driven. Anshuman Singh, General Manager & Head of Digital Strategy & Consulting at Mindtree joins me on today's edition of Tech Talks Daily.

Anshuman leads Mindtree Interactive, globally. Mindtree Interactive designs & builds compelling experiences to deliver the brand-promise through persuasive content and friction-less transactions for consumers, customers, partners, and employees. Additionally, he also represents Digital Team in Europe.

Digital team provides Interactive, Data Science & Engineering and Cloud services across various sectors like Retail, CPG/ FMCG, Manufacturing, Travel, Transportation, Hospitality, Technology, Media, Services, Banking, Financial Services & Insurance.

Anshuman reveals more about their born to be digital mantra. We also talk about leveraging augmented reality (AR) to enhance customer experience, the immediate impact of AR and how are companies innovating with AR/

1157: A New Decade, Is Blockchain-Based Web 3.0 Finally Here? Mar 30, 2020

For an Internet in flux, Web 3.0 takes on new meaning in its imagined proposition of a far more synergistic, secure, and ultimately trustless economy. And yet, having not truly witnessed the arrival of a breakout application or critical mass, it seems that the investment thesis for Web 3.0 is getting ahead of reality - or is it?

LongHash Ventures, the global blockchain incubator, and investor is laying down the building blocks of a native Web 3.0 blockchain economy. With the LongHash Hatch Program having raised over $11 million to date, LongHash Ventures is committed to catalyzing the growth of the next generation of blockchain startups. Shi Khai, Chief Operating Officer at LongHash Ventures, and a former management consultant at McKinsey have an intimate knowledge of the intersection between real-world deployment and technical innovation. With an eye on the practical nuance of Web 3.0 adoption.

In today's edition of the Tech Talks Daily Podcast, Shi Khai shares insights on unpacking Web 3.0 and reinventing the legacy of the Internet for purpose and profit. On the subject of adoption, we discuss how blockchain is already building a community for it. We also explore the dichotomy between 'Don't be evil' and 'Can't be evil';

As a global blockchain incubator and investor, I also ask how blockchain startups can make their startups attractive to investors and join the Web 3.0 blockchain native economy.

1156: MarTech Interview with Alex Collmer, Founder at Vidmob Mar 29, 2020

Alex Collmer, the founder and CEO of VidMob, the world’s premier technology platform to help brands more intelligently use data and scale their mobile advertising creative. Since founding the company in 2015, he has raised more than $45M and counts many of the world’s leading brands and agencies as clients. An engineer by training, Collmer’s career has always been at the intersection of technology, design, and consumer entertainment as those sectors have evolved. Prior to founding VidMob, he was the co-founder and CEO of Autumn Games, a premier publisher of video game franchises. Under his leadership, Autumn Games developed successful partnerships with such personalities as Jimmie Johnson, the 7-time NASCAR champion and companies like Def Jam, the leading urban culture brand, as well as the award-winning fighting game franchise, Skullgirls.

VidMob focuses on designing technology to make human creativity more scalable, accessible and efficient, enabling brands to understand which creative attributes are driving performance.

Built on a proprietary pipeline of machine learning services and data processing, and integrated with social platform APIs, their technology service - Agile Creative Studio - provides precise creative insights that are immediately actionable. Over the past two years alone, VidMob has seen its revenue grow by over 35 times, and is currently an official creative partner of Facebook, Instagram, Google/YouTube, Snapchat, Twitter, Pinterest and LinkedIn among others.

Its roster of clients includes global brands such as Bayer, Intercontinental Hotel Group, Ikea and Neutrogena, as well as disruptor brands like True & Co and Acorns. VidMob also works with global creative and media agencies including Publicis, Ogilvy and Universal McCann. I learn more about how VidMob focuses on designing technology to make human creativity more scalable, accessible, and efficient, enabling brands to understand which creative attributes are driving performance.

1155: Inspirational Startup Story Plagued With War and Innovation Mar 28, 2020

Dmitriy Akulov is a tech innovator and entrepreneur whose story is plagued with war and innovation. At 26, the young entrepreneur has earned a name for himself within the world of technology. But I wanted to learn more about his inspirational story.

Having outlasted the war in Ukraine. Akulov recalls daily bombings, tanks on the streets of Donetsk, and armed militia traveling freely throughout the place he called home. While the war went on outside, Akulov remained persistent.

Akulov went on to become a leading force behind some of the largest names in the tech world, including, PerfOps, jsDelivr, and Prospect One. Prospect One specializes in web performance, server management, and high availability systems. We also develop complex software that allows people to scale their systems and websites.

Akulov started jsDelivr, a free- multi-CDN for open course projects, at the age of 16. Today, the platform is one of the largest in the world, serving over 65 billion users on a monthly basis. Clients include some of the world’s largest websites, including multiple government sites.

Akulov’s track record of success in the tech startup world has taken him around the globe with the purpose of building products that revolutionize life for real people. I learn how he has travelled around the world motivated by a mission of building products that transform the lives of real people.

1154: INRiver - Redefining Commerce With Technology Mar 27, 2020

A company called inRiver believes that every product tells a story. They are on a mission to redefine the way e-commerce product marketers and merchandisers work. By providing product information management (PIM) products and services that help create, update, refresh, maintain and distribute content about products globally, they help businesses to drive increased revenue, customer satisfaction, and brand equity.

More than 1000 brands and 400 customers across 19 countries rely on them to efficiently control the product flow for their globally recognized brands. I wanted to learn more about the story behind the company and how they leverage technology.

However, I also wanted to explore how inRiver and their clients are coping with the global pandemic. Although the Coronavirus has caused mass quarantines and social distancing across the globe, making us feel isolated, there are more and more stories of "togetherness" that need to be heard. Today's guest shares some of his optimism for the future.

Johan Boström is a senior business leader with over 20 years of experience leading international technology companies and is one of the founders of inRiver. Before founding inRiver, Johan held leading positions at DDMM, Sema Group Consulting, and UDK. He has worked with PIM, e-commerce, and content management since the mid-1990s in both EMEA and North America.

We talk about how B2B e-commerce is changing and how technology is not just disrupting in the DTC space with retail e-commerce companies, but also old, slow-to-change industries like industrial manufacturing. With such a vast amount of solutions and technologies in the martech stack, Johan also shares a few tips that we should prioritize.

1153: Carbon Products And Cutting-Edge Climate Technology Mar 26, 2020

Tito Jankowski and his team created Negative because they were frustrated. The climate is in peril and they didn't want to sit back. So they did their homework and realized that lots of others cared about the climate, but the problem seemed too big, and they didn't know how to help.

I wanted to learn more about their story and how they worked to make climate action closer to home and tangible. With their first product, the Negative Bracelet, they are offering a physical symbol of climate action, something you can see, feel, and use to get inspired to take further action while also supporting cutting-edge climate technology.

Tito explains how they teamed up with two of the world's leading climate technology startups: Climeworks and Carbon Upcycling Technologies. Their innovative machines can capture CO2 from ambient air and then it's pumped underground and turned into stone. This locks up the carbon for good.

In a nutshell, the Negative bracelet is made with captured atmospheric carbon emissions. This stuff would be heating up our planet. Now it's tied up your wrist.

The bracelet's beads are where the magic happens. Each bead is a blend of atmospheric carbon and naturally-sourced clay. These atmospheric ingredients didn't exist outside the lab until recently, so we're still learning what's possible. Their ultimate goal is to make a bracelet that is 100% atmospheric carbon (Air Diamonds, anyone?!), and this bracelet is the first step in that direction.

We also discuss their Kickstarter Campaign and how they were on the front page of the platform for over a month.

1152: Welcome To The Next WAVE of Sports &. Entertainment Mar 25, 2020

Brian Verne is the CEO of WAVE, sports media for the next generation of fans. The company builds communities and enables two-way conversations on the consumer's platform of choice.

Verne also previously founded Phenom, an angel-backed sports technology company. Phenom, an angel-backed startup based in San Francisco, CA, and a 500 Startups Batch 16 company, was founded out of a desire to give young athletes a voice. He built the largest community of young athletes, enabling them to talk about the products that they love and share stories about their athletic achievements.

Today I want to learn more about how WAVE powers many of the most popular brands at the intersection of sports and entertainment on the social and digital platforms that Gen Z and millennials think of today as television. In just two years, WAVE has become one of the largest digital publishers in the world, generating over 2.5B video views and 90M+ engagements per month. WAVE has over 40M followers/subscribers and reaches over 300M sports fans each month.

However, with the Coronavirus pandemic stopping sport across the globe, I also wanted to learn more about how they are overcoming the challenges that COVID-19 is bringing to their business. But also why they are optimistic about the future and how they are creating opportunities.

1151: Douglas Ferguson, Voltage Control: Beyond The Prototype Mar 24, 2020

In a time of uncertainty where we are all surrounded by hype, fear, and all things related to the Coronavirus pandemic and COVID-19 alerts, I want to bring in hope, optimism, and new solutions via this daily tech podcast. Today, I wanted to learn more about Design Sprints and how they can help teams unite even when working from home.

If you have ever found yourself asking, What are Design Sprints? Why are Design Sprints so valuable? When should teams conduct Design Sprints or just want a few tips for running a successful Design Sprint and what to do with the information after the Design Sprint is over, you are in a for a treat today.

Voltage Control was founded by Douglas Ferguson, an entrepreneur and technologist with over 20 years of experience. With his unique combination of expertise in technology, product strategy, and design thinking, Voltage Control offers trusted guidance to companies who want to jumpstart their product or project with an impactful innovation workshop. Austin-based Voltage Control designs and leads custom innovation workshops and Design Sprints, as developed by Google Ventures. In addition to workshop facilitation, Voltage Control engages with organizations for Digital Transformation, Innovation Training, Corporate Summits, and Strategic Planning. Douglas is also the author of Beyond the Prototype, a new book that offers a six-step plan for companies struggling with the shift from discovery to launch.

Prior to Voltage Control, Douglas held CTO positions at numerous Austin startups, where he led product and engineering teams using agile, lean, and human-centered design principles. While CTO at Twyla, Douglas worked directly with Google Ventures running Design Sprints and now brings this experience and process to companies everywhere.

Douglas also recently published his first book, Beyond the Prototype, which offers a six-step plan for companies struggling with the shift from discovery to launch. Douglas is active in the Austin startup community where he serves on the board of several non-profits, mentors startups, and advises early-stage ventures. He spends his free time patching up modular synthesizers, playing guitar, and taking photographs. He graduated from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

Join me in learning from Douglas, who outlines everything companies need to know before, during, and after conducting a Design Sprint.

1150: The Changing Digital Marketing landscape With John Lincoln Mar 23, 2020

At a time where a global pandemic is forcing us all to work and think differently, I also believe it could be an excellent opportunity to share the challenges that all businesses are dealing with right now. Maybe we could all learn from each other by sharing stories of how we are overcoming the difficulties caused by the Coronavirus outbreak.

I want to learn more about how people and businesses are leveraging technology to get through this period of unprecedented uncertainty. John Lincoln is CEO of Ignite Visibility, and he joins me on today's episode of the Tech Talks Daily Podcast. He is one of the top digital marketing agencies in the US and an Inc. 5000 company.

Lincoln is consistently named one of the top marketing experts in the industry. He has been the recipient of the Search Engine Land "Search Marketer of the Year" award, named the #1 SEO consultant in the USA by Clutch.co, most admired CEO and 40 under 40.

Lincoln has written two books (The Forecaster Method and Digital Influencer) and made two movies (SEO: The Movie and Social Media Marketing: The Movie) on digital marketing. He is a digital marketing strategy adviser to some of the biggest names in the business.

With 85 employees and over 160 clients, Lincoln leads Ignite Visibility. Agency specialties include digital strategy, SEO, CRO, Social Media Marketing, Paid Media, Conversion Rate Optimization, Email Marketing, Amazon, and Analytics. All work is entirely custom and tailored to the individual online business model. I learn how the company can improve your online presence and increase your bottom-line.

We discuss voice tech, digital marketing, SEO, and how the COVID-19 outbreak is changing the digital landscape. But why there are many reasons to be optimistic about the road ahead.

1149: Daniel Burrus, Managing Uncertainty Caused By COVID-19 Mar 22, 2020

As the global pandemic continues to spread, both consumers and businesses now have a very different set of goals to what they had when they started 2020. As the world faces a period of uncertainty, businesses must strive to be significant, not successful. Helping customers rather than selling to them is the fresh approach that we all need.

The COVID-19 pandemic has created a new level of uncertainty. But how can you or your business actively shape the future? My search for answers led me to the New York Times Bestselling Author and Technology futurist, Daniel Burrus. He told me, “If you look around, nobody’s moving or buying, and everybody is hurting. But this presents every business with an opportunity to help their customers and grow their brand by doing something extraordinary.”

In our podcast interview, Burrus advised we should all shift our focus to be a significant business and a significant leader. Success is all about you. Significance is about what you do for others.

1148: Omnichannel Marketing Automation for Ecommerce Mar 21, 2020

Rytis Lauris, the co-founder, and CEO of Omnisend, a marketing automation platform joins me on the Tech Talks Daily podcast. I wanted to learn more about why email marketing alone isn't effective in a digital age.

As a successful entrepreneur, Rytis has spent the last 10 years building and bootstrapping startups and getting involved in the eCommerce world. Rytis discovered eCommerce marketers have very particular needs pertaining to automation. Since then he has been on a mission to use Omnisend to empower small and medium-sized eCommerce merchants.

Omnisend started life in 2014 as an email marketing platform called Soundest. From day one, they made it their priority to put e-commerce marketers at the center of every decision they make. At the time, that meant empowering them with simple yet impactful email marketing tools.

Three years later, they set out to offer even more to our growing number of customers and their growing businesses. They expanded from an email service provider to an omnichannel marketing automation platform. And they launched a new mission: to Make Marketing Relevant. Since then, they have helped thousands of eCommerce marketers build lasting relationships with their customers by sending relevant messages to the right people, at the right time, using the right channel.

Omnisend has become a top-rated app in the Shopify App store and has been listed in the G2’s selection of the Top 50 Products for Marketers 2019 and the Top 100 Software Companies in EMEA. But I wanted to learn more about the story behind the company.

We also discuss how businesses are overcoming the challenges caused by the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

1147: The Smart Cube — The Analytics Player in Supply Chain Sourcing Mar 20, 2020

The Smart Cube researches, analyses, and addresses the needs of businesses in today’s intelligence age with tailored sector-specific solutions. Primarily serving the CPG, Energy & Chemicals, Financial Services, Industrials, Life Sciences, and Retail sectors, they work with a third of companies in the Fortune 100, helping them make smarter decisions, accelerate value and gain a competitive edge.

Prasad Kothari, VP Data Science, and AI join me on the Tech Talks Daily Podcast. We explore several data science and AI topics and discuss the future of AI/Machine Learning/Data Science.

Prasad is an analytics and data science leader who has worked extensively building high-performing teams for various organizations and has provided consulting to many fortune 500 clients. At The Smart Cube, he focuses on helping clients realize the value of data science to solve priority business problems, including customer analytics, marketing analytics, RWE/RWD, and supply chain analytics.

He has also been able to help clients leverage data science to drive innovation and top-line and bottom-line impact. Prasad has published healthcare data science research papers across leading journals, such as the American Journal of Public Health and American Journal of Psychology, as well as published books in AI. Further, he is part of the editorial board of leading research journals.

Prasad has collaborated with several universities in the US and given guest lectures on Quantum Machine Learning, NLP/NLU, topological data analysis, and computer vision research. He spends his weekends reading AI books and listening to Indian classical music.

1146: PureWeb - Interactive and Immersive 3D Web Experiences Mar 19, 2020

In Hyun-Suk Kim's CES keynote presentation, the Samsung Consumer Electronics President and CEO declared the 2020s the "Age of Experience." This "decade of human-centric innovation" is all about customization and personalization through intelligent, cutting-edge technology.

For example, 3D configurators make online buyer experiences fully user-focused. It gives customers complete control. "3D rendering provides a hyper-realistic experience that allows a user to fully customize a product and see how it interacts with the real world, all with the same fluidity you'd expect while playing a modern video game," said PureWeb's James Henry.

James Henry is the CTO at PureWeb, an interactive 3D streaming service focused on photorealistic 3D visualization, configuration, and simulation. I invited him on to the Tech Talks Daily Podcast to talks about interactive technology in the Age of Experience.

James shares his extensive experience leading international software organizations. James has set and led strategies for startups, turnarounds, and pivots in a variety of industries experiencing rapid technology change (e.g. oil & gas, healthcare, telecommunications, CAD, gaming, construction, emerging technologies).

I learn how PureWeb’s patented smart streaming technology enables anyone to publish, collaborate and interact with massive data files, including photo-real 3D simulations and game engine projects. It deploys this on any cloud or hardware device without coding, moving or copying the source data.

1145: Bitfury Surround - A Bespoke Ecosystem for the Music Industry Mar 18, 2020

Bitfury Group, leading security and infrastructure provider for the Bitcoin Blockchain, has launched a music entertainment division named Surround last year, the first initiative of which is a fully interoperable digital ecosystem for the tracking, storing, and monetization of music and entertainment copyrights.

Secured by the Bitcoin Blockchain, the platform is capable of capturing 100K transactions per second in immutable form and completing tasks such as user authentication, metadata management, and split royalty payments. The ecosystem enables a dynamic marketplace and the creation of commercial APIs for third party partners and developers.

Providing users with a dashboard where they can track these transactions in real-time, Surround aims to ensure transparency and trust, as artists are empowered, and payment procedures are incentivized. This mission is grounded in the industry wisdom and experience behind Surround’s founding team led by CEO and co-founder Stefan Schulz.

Schulz joins me on Tech Talks Daily to talks about Surround and how the platform deploys blockchain technology. Schulz was a founding member of Universal Mobile and has over twenty years of experience in the music industry.

1144: Ex-Google Head Tanzil Bukhari on Bots & Brand Safety Mar 17, 2020

Tanzil Bukhari might be Europe's top programmatic expert. He led DoubleClick's EMEA business before Google acquired them. After that, Google kept him on for ten years, overseeing the DoubleClick Ad Exchange.

Now, programmatic is facing mounting challenges – from ads being placed next to hate speech and terrorist videos, to bots taking advantage of the automation to steal billions from brands.

Tanzil joins me on Tech Talks Daily for a chat about the future of programmatic and how it can adapt to these threats. Tanzil recently joined DoubleVerify, the global leader in authenticating digital media to make sure ads are brand-safe, fraud-free, and viewable.

DoubleVerify is a leading software platform for digital media measurement, data, and analytics. I learn more about their mission to be the definitive source of transparency and data-driven insights into the quality and effectiveness of digital advertising for the world's largest brands, publishers, and digital ad platforms.

We also talk about how the technology platform provides advertisers with consistent and unbiased data and analytics that can be used to optimize the quality and return on digital ad investments. Since 2008, DV has helped hundreds of Fortune 500 companies gain the most from their media spend by delivering best in class solutions across the digital advertising ecosystem, helping to build a better industry.

1143: GNY Launches SAAS Tool To Enable Businesses To Go AI Mar 16, 2020

Artificial Intelligence makes it easy to detect subtle patterns in data, enabling businesses to make more informed decisions. Using AI is a major priority for companies. However, many do not know what data they should be collecting in the first place.

GNY is launching a new SAAS tool on the AWS marketplace that enables businesses to check the AI-readiness of their data, along with support from their team to learn how they should strengthen their data. GNY is already helping businesses improve their user engagement by 100% and predicted next-day sales with 75% accuracy.

Cosmas Wong, Founder, CEO of GNY, joins me on today's edition of the Tech Talks Daily. Cosmas is a London based tech investor and entrepreneur who has been building companies for more than 20 years. He has his roots in corporate finance and private equity lawyer in London and Singapore, and has worked with large and small companies around the world.

Cosmas also has a broad background in corporate structures, business strategy, and implementation, intellectual property, and investments. He has a keen interest in innovative data-driven solutions for businesses.

In 2010, Cosmas co-founded Enso Financial Management LLP, a New York-based financial services data platform to service some of the world's largest hedge funds. Enso was eventually sold to iCap plc in 2016. Cosmas' interest in data solutions and, in particular, Artificial Intelligence and the blockchain, led him to establish Grey Jean Technologies in New York; the genesis of the GNY platform, and then GNY.IO in Jersey, UK.

We discuss how they are helping businesses unlock the hidden value in their data with a machine learning platform that is secure, affordable, and customizable. GNY is the first company to decentralize advanced machine learning software across the nodes of a blockchain - effectively using blockchain to reinforce and distribute machine-learning tools. I also learn how any business can optimize data-driven business decisions securely with machine learning, at a fraction of the cost of our competitors. Think of GNY as your plug and play machine-learning assistant. Free to download, and you only pay for what you use with our GNY and LML utility tokens.

1142: The Insurtech Startup Story Behind Kin Insurance Mar 15, 2020

Sean Harper is the co-founder and CEO of Kin, an insurance company built from scratch on modern tech to make it easier and more affordable to insure a home (especially in areas prone to extreme weather).

The insurtech startup is on a mission to fix home insurance through intuitive tech, affordable pricing, and world-class customer service. Launched by seasoned financial tech entrepreneurs Sean Harper and Lucas Ward in 2016, Kin is committed to serving catastrophe-prone regions and coastal homeowners most impacted by climate change.

As a self-proclaimed tech geek, Sean has spent his career developing apps to revolutionize antiquated industries. When he realized that the homeowner's insurance industry was still being managed unlike any other consumer financial products today (relying on paperwork, legacy IT systems, and distribution through local brokers), he saw an opportunity.

Sean co-founded Kin as a tech-based insurance agency in 2016 and has grown it to a fully-licensed home insurance carrier supported by a team of over 100 employees. With a focus on world-class customer service, insurance literacy, and smart coverage, Sean and his team are changing the way insurance is done.

I learn what inspired him to embark on this InsurTech startup journey? We also discuss how tech is changing the home insurance industry. But the impacts of climate change on home insurance too.

1141: No Longer Virtual - Connecting Beyond The Keyboard Mar 14, 2020

Have you ever wondered how you could leverage your incredible online professional network to improve your face-to-face business and community? Or what would happen if you built and nurture your online network to benefit your offline life too? These are just a few reasons why Sarah Elkins decided to tear down the barriers between online and offline and connecting beyond the keyboard.

At this year's No Longer Virtual (NLV) event, Sarah Elkins once again revealed that her secret power was getting people to do things they wouldn't usually do. As the world went crazy and travel bans became the norm, I hopped don a plane to travel 3,700 miles to connect beyond the keyboard in Chicago.

NLV enables a group of people from all over the world to connect beyond the keyboard. As someone who is passionate about sharing and learning from the stories of others on my podcast, it was easy to see why I was so attracted to the event.

I wanted to try and capture why so many people traveled far and wide to attend NLV 2020. Listen to this year's attendees who share why they attended and ensured that NLV wouldn't be just another canceled event in 2020.

I learn how Sarah took a significant risk and faced the pressure of planning an event with international attendees in her stride. But, filling a room of people that intimately shared their stories of success and failures to learn from each other is genuinely priceless.

Amy Blaschka, Heather Younger, Melissa Hughes, Kevin Strauss, Arlene Mendoza & Hannah Bratterud also share what NLV means to them.

As someone that covers many tech events and attends conferences all over the world, it was being surrounded by these eclectic, smart, talented, open, and fun people that left me feeling both inspired and empowered.

Maybe, you would like to join me at next year's No Longer Virtual, where I will be the guy with the big beaming smile excited to be once again, sharing and learning from the shared paths, journies, and stories of my online connections.

1140: Learn a New Language quickly With AI-powered Lingvist Mar 13, 2020

I recently read a fascinating story about a particle physicist turned co-founder of an AI-based language learning app called Lingvist and felt compelled to find out more. Mait Müntel was part of the Higgs boson discovery team at CERN, where he was frustrated by being unable to speak French fluently. In typical scientist fashion, he decided to look at the French language as a mathematical problem that could be fun to solve-- and soon used CERN's machine learning capabilities to run his language-as-math hypothesis, then began building out software to test it.

Within a year, he was able to study French for 200 hours, then pass a high school French test. So he left to start Lingvist, a company that uses AI to create personalized language experiences, with 1.4 million language users. Mait joins me on Tech Talks Daily to chat about how machine learning is significantly accelerating the language learning process, and how important scientific theories have been to Lingvist's success.

I learn how he got the idea to approach language learning like a mathematical challenge and decided to build his own solution instead. Mait's prototype drew upon the machine learning work he had used while searching for the boson particle, along with the basics of language statistics and cognitive science theory.

After learning with a homemade prototype for 200 hours, he put himself to the test and took a high-school-level French exam, which he passed with a strong score. That was the seed from which Lingvist took root.

Mait took those principles he had used to teach himself and started developing them for anyone to use, with the goal of significantly accelerating language learning and reducing inefficiency in the learning process.

They built the proof of concept after receiving the Prototron Grant, a seed-funding initiative for budding startups, in March 2013. In 2014 Lingvist was selected from a pool of over 1,500 applicants to participate in the world-renowned TechStars London accelerator program.

Today, Lingvist is an eclectic team of more than 40 languages and technology lovers hailing from around the world. Members include alumni from Skype and CERN, and specialists in areas ranging from AI and computational linguistics to UX and product development.

1139: Dentons - The Global Guide to Autonomous Vehicles 2020 Mar 12, 2020

Dentons is the world's largest law firm, delivering quality and value to clients around the globe. You probably don't automatically associate the law firm with autonomous vehicles. But autonomous vehicle technology and legislation is a hot topic that Denton's is passionate about.

Last year Dentons launched its Driverless Commute blog geared toward the latest news and analysis on the autonomous vehicle (AV) industry. Authored by Dentons' Autonomous Vehicles team, the Driverless Commute interprets emerging innovations and implications facing the AV sector.

It is an extension of a popular, long-running weekly email digest of the same name that will allow for a more nimble publishing of legal and policy analysis of the fast-changing automated car landscape. It also provides insightful analysis of the current regulatory environment, monitors public perception of AV technology, covers the global race to market, and highlights pilot programs, including shuttle buses, package delivery vans, robo-taxis, shared-fleet vehicles, truck convoys, and row-cop tractors.

Leveraging the Firm's experience serving the automotive, technology, and renewable energy sectors, Dentons' Autonomous Vehicles team was launched to act as a source for companies navigating the rapidly evolving landscape of laws and regulations relating to the development and deployment of AV technology. Dentons' Autonomous Vehicles team is made up of attorneys and professionals from across the Firm's Public Policy, Corporate, Energy, Litigation, Insurance, Intellectual Property, and Venture Technology practice group.

Eric Tanenblatt is the Global Chair of Public Policy and Regulation of Dentons, the world's largest law firm. He also leads the Firm's US Public Policy Practice, leveraging his three decades of experience at the very highest levels of the federal and state governments.

Mr. Tanenblatt, a renowned lecturer and political counselor who's widely regarded as one of the nation's preeminent public policy thought leaders, has served in the administrations of three US presidents and as a senior advisor to a US senator and governor, and held a US Senate-confirmable post governing a federal agency.

He also has a passion for shepherding disruptive companies and industries through the complicated web of law and regulation, and often writes and speaks about the innovation economy. He leads Dentons' global autonomous vehicles team and authors a popular weekly digest tracking the most consequential regulatory, political, and technical developments in the world of automotive autonomy.

We explore The Global Guide to Autonomous Vehicles 2020, and take a look at the top issues and challenges facing the development and advancement of autonomous vehicles worldwide.

1138: Doodle CEO Renato Profico Talks About Collaboration Technology Mar 11, 2020

Businesses globally reported investments in digital reinvention totaling more than $100 billion between 2016 and 2018, and yet most reported poor returns on their digital investments. The fallout? The disconnect between concept and execution. IT directors and CIOs face mounting pressures to transform operations as we near the brink of a digital revolution, but when it comes to rollout, things breakdown when employees are faced with poor user experiences or lack the insights needed to execute change successfully.

One of the most impactful first steps to evaluate digital success is the tools your employees use to do their day-to-day work. Integration across productivity tools are playing a massive role in remedying this problem. We’ve hit a critical point in enterprise app overload, with multi-solution integration across technology providers as the only way forward.

For these reasons alone, I invited Doodle CEO, Renato Profico onto the podcast to talk about how productivity tools like Doodle are streamlining the workplace operations and enabling effective digital transformation results.

Renato shares his experiences managing a global tech firm and the role of collaboration technology. We also discuss why businesses need to focus on integration across enterprise tools to prevent app overload and the future of work as digital natives take over our workforce.

1137: Empowering Businesses To Shoot Video Today & Share Tomorrow Mar 10, 2020

Brands around the world are demanding more authentic stories to share with their audiences. A company called Shootsta sat back, smiled, and decided to change the way video gets created.

Calling out a professional crew can cost between $5-$7k. This is a budget many businesses can't afford. Not to mention the hassle of trying to organize your CEO for what should be a 5-minute shoot. Because of this, video output is irregular, the messages are mixed, and there's no consistency for viewers.

The team behind Shootsta came from the corporate video production world and constantly had clients tell them that they wanted to produce internal, marketing, or promotional videos every week. Still, it was just too hard and too expensive. They realized if they could equip companies with the right gear and training, they could film their own content, and they could do all the heavy lifting with the post-production. And that's when Shootsta was born.

Mike Pritchett, Founder & CEO Shootsta, joins me on today's episode of Tech Talks Daily. Mike has over 14 years of experience in the video production industry. Starting his career behind the camera then moving into post-production, as a visual media communications expert, he now specializes in directing and project management.

Mike spent four and a half years of his career traveling across Asia, producing promotional and corporate videos for an international media company. He is the co-founder of Australian charity Kenya Aid leading him to be a guest speaker for The United Nations Young Professional Conference. He has also been a lecturer at the Digital Marketing Institute, on the effectiveness of video marketing.

Mike Founded Trapdoor Productions Pty Ltd in 2006 and built it up to include a suite of fortune 500 clients, including Adobe, Nikon, Rio Tinto, Campbell Arnott's, Schweppes, and many more. Trapdoor were also finalists in two categories at the 2015 Business Excellence Forum. Over the past decade, Mike has switched his focus from video production to business, completing the Australian Institute of Company Directors Course in 2012. His passion is now to build a thriving international company that meets a growing demand for corporate video.

1136: The Rise of Virtual Conferences As The Coronavirus Spreads Mar 09, 2020

Apple, Google, Adobe, and others are canceling their big events as part of Coronavirus prevention guidance. But many are turning to technology and virtual conferences to make their announcements. Matchbox Virtual Media is a startup located in Montreal that helps create meaningful conversations but virtually.

The increasing demand for virtual conferences is making it a very busy time for them. The Matchbox website, currently states "We are currently processing a high volume of requests due to concerns of event cancellations related to COVID-19. If you're interested in taking your event online, we got you! These requests will be prioritized."

The company began just over a year ago and help host virtual conferences. They recently held a virtual event for CPA professionals across the country which saw 249 attendees taking part in conversations spread over 2 days and 4 sessions.

There were a total of 33,000 words exchanged between them and over 980 connections made! Matchbox CEO and Founder Arianna Rehak joins me on Tech Talks Daily to share the story behind the company.

When Arianna was 7-years-old she lugged her toys and art supplies onto her front lawn with a sign bearing the title of my new venture: Rent-It. For a small price, her neighbours could rent out anything from a fairy stencil to a red marker. She made $1.15 in one day's work, but she attributes that to bad price pointing. From that day on, her entrepreneurial rigor only got stronger, but more significantly, it became more pointed.

Ariana calls herself a student of human nature, which has guided both her channels of learning and her career direction. She has learned that good intentions are not enough to get things done, and it is her ultimate goal to use both critical and creative thinking to achieve maximum impact.

Arianna shares with me how they are helping organizations produce virtual events that foster meaningful conversations.

1135: Tony Saldanha - Why Digital Transformations Fail Mar 08, 2020

Tony Saldanha is the author of "Why Digital Transformations Fail." After a 27 year career at P&G where Tony was VP, Global Business Services, Next Generation Services, he is now CEO of Transformant, a consulting firm that provides advice to boards and CEOs in Fortune 500 companies on digital transformation. During the past year, he has advised C-suite leaders in more than 20 Fortune 100 companies.

Tony joins me on today's edition of the Tech Talks Daily Podcast to discuss what two simple things can be done to counteract digital transformation failure. We also discuss how Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain are being implemented in large, complex organizations and why it is critical for organizational leaders to get their organizations ready for a digital world right sooner rather than later.

1134: Phil Strazzulla - From Side-Hustle to Bootstrapping to Success Mar 07, 2020

Phil Strazzulla is the founder of NextWave Hire, along with a new side project Select Software Reviews. Before that, he was a student at Harvard Business School and previously worked as a venture capital investor at Bessemer Venture Partners.

However, I wanted to learn more about the inspiration behind his career in tech. Phil was originally from Cohasset, MA, where he grew up, wrestled, and then moved on to NYU to study finance and explore NYC.

After getting his MBA from Harvard, Phil started SelectSoftware as a side-hustle, which is a site dedicated to providing in-depth and unbiased reviews of business software. SelectSoftware is an excellent example that entrepreneurs don't need a fancy business idea to create a sustainable business that reaches six figures a month.

In today's episode, we discuss his practical tips on starting and growing a side-hustle. I also learn more about how he began his career as a self-taught coder who bootstrapped his way to tech startup success.

I also learn more about how there is an average of 10 hours of research required before businesses buy HR Software. But how Select Software Reviews can reduce this through unbiased, expert research that relies heavily on the expertise of forward-thinking users from the global community.

1133: The Dental Tech Making Dental Practices Fit For A Digital Age Mar 06, 2020

Dandy is a venture-backed digital health tech start-up founded by Toni Oloko and Daniel Hanover. Dandy combines in-person dental treatment with advanced virtual care to deliver optimal patient outcomes while improving the dental experience for both patients and doctors.

Every day I explore how technology is transforming a different industry. But after 1,100 interviews, I don't think I have covered the world of dentistry, and the impact technology is having on it. Is it because the industry has been slow to implement technology? Or am have I been blindsided?

I recently discovered a company called Dandy that aims to get the technology, high-quality restorations, and the support dentists need to take their dental practice into the future. Dandy Founder, Toni Oloko joins me on Tech Talks Daily to share his insights and how he is trying to bring density into the digital age.

We also discuss the problems that modern dental technology helps solve and how the industry has evolved.

1132: Don Jones Be the Master - Achieve Your Success, Help Others Mar 05, 2020

Wouldn't you rather your life be measured by the number of lives you've helped succeed? In the really old days, much of our working-class society revolved around Masters, who would take on apprentices and bring them up in a trade.

We've mostly lost that kind of education in our everyday lives, and it's a shame. Part of the reason is that, as individuals, we often fail to recognize that we even have something worth teaching and sharing, or because we don't feel we've achieved a sufficient level of success to be seen as "Master" by someone else.

That's all wrong. Every one of us has something to offer, and we're more than worthy. Sure, maybe you need a certain level of success in order to carve out the time to help others, but that's a straightforward journey. These are a few of the challenges that Don Jones tackles in his book Be The Master.

It explored new ways to recognize that you are worthy of sharing what you know. It's a step-by-step, actionable guide to defining and achieving whatever you see as "success." And it's a way of using that success to help other people achieve theirs - and in turn, becoming even more successful yourself.

Don Jones currently works for a company that develops self-paced learning content (videos, interactive projects, and the like) to teach information technology subjects to people all over the world. But I wanted to learn more about his inspirational journey in the tech industry.

Prior to that, he was mainly known for being a big fan of Microsoft's Windows PowerShell, a product that's included with their Windows operating system and which is designed to facilitate the automation of IT administration and operations. It's also available cross-platform as just "PowerShell," these days.

Don Jones has written, and co-authored numerous books on PowerShell and Microsoft has recognized him with their annual MVP Award since 2003. Don also help run PowerShell.org, the PowerShell Summit events, the Scripting Games, and a slew of other PowerShell-related things.

Don can also be found speaking at several conferences worldwide each year, mostly about PowerShell and even teach classes, both public and private, about the technology.

I have also agreed on a permanent discount code (good for all our products in all formats) at Manning Publications for listeners to the Tech Talks Daily Podcast. Simply use the promotion code podtechtalks20.

1131: The Former Founder of Two Startups Turned Investor Mar 04, 2020

Costanoa Ventures back tenacious and thoughtful founders who change how business gets done. The firm's investments include companies such as Alation, Demandbase, Directly, Kenna Security, Return Path, Roadster, and Quizlet.

Mark Selcow is a partner at the early-stage investor in enterprise software. Mark invests in companies like LivelyHSA, Quizlet and Skedulo.

Prior to joining Costanoa, Mark was a serial entrepreneur and operator, who led organizations in the enterprise software and consumer Internet sectors. He co-founded and served as President of two companies-- Merced Systems and BabyCenter. BabyCenter was sold to Johnson and Johnson in 2001 and Merced Systems was sold to NICE Systems in 2012.

As a former founder of two startups and now investor, I invited him onto the podcast to learn how raising VC money previously as a founder has impacted his investment style and process and why he invests in enterprise technology versus consumer.

We also discuss the interesting industries and trends he's tracking today. (areas where technology is helping workers become better and more adaptive performers; how and why technology is reinventing the financial and insurance markets).

1130: The Tech Unlocking the Potential of Your Entire Workforce Mar 03, 2020

David Hassell is a business columnist, speaker, and serial entrepreneur who believes that when leaders institute cultural practices that support each person in being their best self, high performance and uncommon loyalty naturally result.

As co-founder and CEO of 15Five, David and his team have developed industry-leading continuous performance management software that helps leaders and managers drive high performance by bringing out the best in their people.

With a degree in computer engineering, David began his career in “beige cubicle land”, working 10 to 11 hour days from a windowless computer lab in Roseland, NJ, doing work that he described as “soul-crushing.” David realized that it wasn’t the work itself, nor the environment that were to blame, but it was the organization’s poor culture and the lack of context that was given to him about his work.

How did his work impact the company, the world, anyone? This launched David into a near decade long inquiry and exploration where he studied a vast range of subjects, from productivity to psychology (and everything in between) and attended seminars on topics ranging from personal development to business.

“While I may not have been consciously aware of it at the time, what I was really seeking was a sense of meaning & purpose, I was seeking to become my Best-Self.” - David

A conversation with David is an opportunity to share his expertise in management, workplace productivity, employee performance, and effective leadership skills with your audience.

David formerly served as President of the San Francisco chapter of the Entrepreneurs’ Organization. He has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Inc., Entrepreneur, Wired, Fast Company, the Financial Post, and was named by Forbes Magazine “The Most Connected Man You Don’t Know in Silicon Valley”.

Exploring the Citrix Developer Program With Zoho Mar 02, 2020

In this episode of the Citrix Ready Podcast series, I explore how Citrix and Zoho are working together to solve real-world problems for businesses. Today I want to learn more about the Citrix Developer Program. We also talk about micro apps, and how Zoho syncs up with Citrix in this domain.

About John Panagulias

John has over 20 years of experience building technology partner programs, strategic alliances, and marketing at multi-billion-dollar technology companies such as Sun Microsystems and VMware. He is currently Director of Developer and Partner Programs at Citrix, where he leads the Citrix Ready Program and the new Developer Program for Citrix Workspace.

Prior to Citrix, John was a Sr. Marketing Manager for Cloud Solutions at VMware. During his time at Sun, he held positions in Market and Business Development, Partner Marketing, and Web Strategy.

About Citrix

Company Profile: Citrix (NASDAQ: CTXS) is powering a better way to work with unified workspace, networking, and analytics solutions that help organizations unlock innovation, engage customers, and boost productivity without sacrificing security.

With Citrix, users get a seamless work experience, and IT has a unified platform to secure, manage, and monitor diverse technologies in complex cloud environments. Citrix solutions are in use by more than 400,000 organizations, including 98 percent of the Fortune 500.

About Vinay Chandrasekaran:

Vinay navigates complex business and technology relationships by working with senior executives to establish platform standards and set engagement strategy for Zoho and it's technology partners. He also leads the strategy and execution of product-enabling partnerships to fuel Zoho, including identifying new opportunities where partnerships can help accelerate product growth.

With a passion for entrepreneurship, marketing, and technology, Vinay enjoys solving complex business problems with technology solutions; he has held various business development and growth roles at Zoho.

About Zoho:

Founded in 1996, Zoho Corporation is the software company behind three great brands: Zoho, ManageEngine, and WebNMS. With 45+ apps, Zoho covers nearly every major business category, including sales, marketing, customer support, accounting, and back-office operations, and an array of productivity and collaboration tools, Zoho Corporation is one of the world's most prolific software companies.

Zoho is privately held and profitable, with more than 8,000 employees. Zoho is headquartered in Austin, Texas, with international headquarters in Chennai, India. Zoho respects user privacy and does not have an ad-revenue model in any part of its business, including its free products. More than 50 million users around the world, across hundreds of thousands of companies, rely on Zoho every day to run their businesses, including Zoho itself.

For more information, please visit www.zoho.com

Join the Citrix Developer Program - https://www.citrix.com/community/citrix-developer/ Get Your Test Instance - https://developer.cloud.com/citrix-workspace

1128: BandPay - The Tech Building Trust In The Music Business Mar 01, 2020

A singer with a vision for a new single is looking for a producer. She asks around, finds a guy who’s a friend of a friend, and sounds promising. They come to terms, she pays him--only to get ghosted. She’s got no track, and now she has to raise money from scratch, doubling the cost of the single. Stories like this happen regularly to artists, managers, and other music professionals.

The issue of how payments in the music industry should be handled is a hot topic of discussion. Creators rightfully want to make sure their work is appropriately compensated in the complex webs of digital production, distribution, and marketing.

BandPay is a fully customizable payment platform that is introducing a simple solution to the delays, errors, and losses that slow down many music professionals’ transactions and creative output.

The platform streamlines two-party agreements by setting up deadline-based milestones in a given project and assigning payments to each milestone. This builds accountability and minimizes errors, especially with the feature that guarantees that funds are available to complete a transaction.

It establishes trust by ensuring all parties, from musicians to producers to social media influencers, stick to their side of the agreement. Centralizing all payments in one platform is bound to revolutionize cost management and revenue maximization in the music business.

DeCarlos Garrison is a music marketing expert, artist manager, and tech entrepreneur based in Orlando, Florida. He started his career as a college rep for Def Jam Records in 1995, later becoming manager of street team promotions.

DeCarlos teamed up with developer Gleb Teper and spent several years designing and building products to eliminate key pain points in music creation, management, and accounting. Together they created Bandpay, an app that links payment to project milestones to decrease friction between creative collaborators.

I invited them both onto the podcast to find out more about how they are reducing friction and increasing trust between people making music and undertaking other projects together.

1127: Vue.ai. - How AI is Saving a Retail On and Offline Feb 29, 2020

Anand Chandrasekaran is the founder and CTO of Mad Street Den, an Artificial Intelligence company, powering the Retail Industry with its Image Recognition platform, Vue.ai.

Anand comes from a long history in academia, with a PhD in Neuroscience, a Post Doctoral Fellowship in Neuromorphic Engineering at Stanford. As a Neuroscientist turned entrepreneur, he develops a platform for intelligent agents Mad Street Den.

The company is headquartered in the Bay Area, California with offices in Seattle and Chennai (India). Vue.ai, the company's first vertical, works with marquee retailers, brands, and marketplaces across the globe, transforming the fashion industry's operations through intelligent automation.

Prior to Vue.ai, Anand worked as a Research Scientist and Consultant developing machine learning solutions for companies including IBM and DARPA. He has also used his scientific background to develop the most advanced retail AI + computer vision solution for brands around the world.

We discuss how the company's 'neural network' of products alleviates time-intensive tasks such as manual data entry, inventory management, and catalog tagging. I learn how it enables up to 30hrs in time saved per person per week so they can focus instead on creating amazing customer experiences.

Anand shares their journey as a company and how they've scaled the platform since launch in 2016, to power commerce in over 180 countries for brands like ThredUp, Levi's, Macy's, and more. He also reveals what's next for Vue's platform and how they've successfully built a global company of 175+ employees, with 50% women, many at the executive level.

1126: Why CruxPay Is On A Mission to Revolutionise Digital Payments Feb 28, 2020

CRUXPay is a decentralized protocol for blockchain naming and payment system. It enables users to create CRUX ID, which can be linked to the user's blockchain addresses. Using CRUX ID, users will be able to send, receive, and request payment. Additionally, users will be able to securely connect to any service/dApps on any device anywhere in the world.

The company insists that CRUX ID is completely secure and tamper-proof. It is generated by your wallet using your local public/private keys and is secured by hash power of Bitcoin by registering your CRUX ID on the bitcoin network. But I felt compelled to find out more about what makes this solution different than all the others out there.

Ashish Singal, the Co-Founder, and CEO of CRUXPay is also a hacker to the core and has won almost every major Hackathon in India, including those hosted by Sequoia, Google, Amazon, and LinkedIn. While working at Amazon as a Software Development Engineer in 2014, he led the internal team in building Amazon Prime's 1-hour delivery model.

Ashish Singal joins me on the Tech Talks Daily podcast in a conversation about the trends and technology that are shaping the broader adoption of cryptocurrency payments. We also discuss the potential pitfalls or otherwise of Libra's digital currency adoption.

I learn how crypto payments are outpacing modern payments technology and how crypto payments are a potential disruptor to modern banking systems.

Traitware - Next-Gen Authentication On The Citrix Market Place Feb 27, 2020

In this featured partner series called Citrix Ready podcasts, I explore the technology integrations that Citrix has with its partners. In this series, I invite guests from Citrix and their partners to spend some time with me to share how they are solving real-world problems for businesses. Not on their own but by working together.

In this episode of the Citrix Ready Podcast series, I explore how Citrix and Traitware are working together to solve real-world problems for businesses. I hear how customers are leveraging Traitware to provide insights to admins on the key utilization of the apps and tasks users perform within.

Secure login by Traitware® replaces usernames, passwords and PINs. Thereby, TraitWare® reduces identity theft and transaction fraud. More importantly, we improve the user experience. Improved user experience drives adoption of security best practices.

Heath Spencer, CEO-CMO Traitware believes in positive outcomes that work for all involved and no matter what challenge may come his way, his competitive nature will ensure success. He is the former Founder and CEO of Full Throttle Tahoe LLC and has extensive sales and marketing experience with Chase International.

As a Technical Marketing Manager at Citrix, Anil Kumar is responsible for Building and owning an Ecosystem of Networking, Security, and Cloud technology partners. He is also a subject matter expert on the Citrix cloud, networking and security products, and services. Anil is also responsible for developing and managing a test infrastructure in-house/on-prem and on Cloud for proof of concepts and for partner product verifications

Together, we discuss how Traitware is bringing its next-gen authentication to the Citrix Market Place. The Passwordless login is already here and bringing an alternative to credential management and risk. We also discuss how Traitware can substantially increase security while simplifying access to digital and physical resources through the elimination of the need for traditional usernames and passwords.

I also explore the evolution of Citrix Workspace and how Citrix is helping to power a smarter, more flexible way to work. With credential phishing being tied to traditional credential management, we talk about how Citrix and Traitware are working together to create an alternative future of authentication. Passwordless MFA and its advantages in Virtual environments are just one of many topics we cover in today's podcast.

1124: What is UX? and also what isn't UX? Feb 26, 2020

Strathearn Design is run by Sam Horodezky, a 15+ year veteran of the UX space. Sam has founded and grown 2 UX teams from scratch. Sam has directly managed all stripes of designers and seen both successful and unsuccessful UX initiatives from up-close.

The company specializes in exec level guidance on product design. Although Sam loves technology, but like's to apply a skeptic's lens.

Sam recently returned to his native town Toronto, after 20 years in the US, to found his own consultancy, Strathearn Design. Previous to this, he held senior product management positions at Teradata Marketing Applications and Qualcomm Inc. Sam holds an MS in cognitive science from UC San Diego, and six patents from the USPTO.

Right now, it seems that everyone is talking about user experience and the experience economy. As regular listeners will tell you, I do like to bust a few myths and right a few wrongs on this podcast, so I ask Sam finally lay to rest some of the misconceptions around what is UX? and also what isn't UX?

Sam shares his story and how he founded and grew 2 UX teams from scratch and the biggest lessons he has learned along the way? We also discuss the increasingly blurred lines between B2B and B2C and what this means for UX.

1123: Why A Diamond Is The Ultimate Semiconductor Feb 25, 2020

From phone screens to semiconductors, military defense capabilities, and self-driving cars, a diamond can be applied to a number of different technologies to make them operate more efficiently. Diamond is stronger and harder than industry standard smart screen glass and runs much cooler than silicon, the traditional material used for semiconductors. Currently, companies like Lockheed Martin are using diamonds to enhance the survivability of fighter jets and drones.

Formed in early 2013, AKHAN Semiconductor, Inc. (AKHAN SEMI) is the global leader in diamond semiconductor technology. The primary aim of AKHAN SEMI is the development and manufacture of next-generation Nanocrystalline (NCD) based materials & devices.

The company's comprehensive Miraj Diamond™ platform is at the center of AKHAN's ability to manufacture next-generation diamond semiconductor technology. The platform enables the fabrication of complex devices such as high speed/power transistors, RF, and microwave electronics. Adam Khan, CEO, and Founder of AKHAN Semiconductor, talks about how diamonds are grown, what differentiates them from jewelry, and how they are planning to use diamonds in the next generation of technology.

Adam has authored several patents and technical publications and is also a frequent speaker on Diamond Semiconductor & Clean Technology. As a result of his award-winning research, which he began as an electrical engineering student at age 19, Adam is the inventor of the Miraj Diamond® Platform.

Adam has also served as a speaker and expert witness to a variety of Federal bodies, including the U.S. House Space, Science, & Technology Committee, and the U.S. Department of Energy. He has been everything from a CleanTech Open Midwest Innovation Summit winner, a Forbes 30 Under 30, to a Modern-Day Nikola Tesla in the International Documentary Film' Tesla's Children' (2016).

1122: PX - The First Transparent Customer Acquisition Platform Feb 24, 2020

PX was founded in 2010 as ReviMedia by two demand-gen experts and best friends. Frans and Bas began with a mission to deliver best-in-class customer acquisition solutions to marketers. Overcoming the obstacles of an arcane, opaque, and highly-fragmented industry, they built a thriving business and continued to invest in technology.

That near decade-long experience and investment resulted in the PX platform and a new corporate identity: PX. The focus and solution have evolved, but the mission continues unchanged.

Here in 2020, it claims to be the world’s first transparent customer acquisition platform, providing a single marketplace for companies to acquire customers from hundreds of vetted and sought-after sources.

The company provides solutions for marketers to grow and efficiently scale their customer base, and is active in the Home Services, Financial Services, and Insurance industries. Its headquarters are in New York City, with offices in Amsterdam, Panama City, and Odessa, Ukraine.

PX also has clients in the home services, financial, automotive, and insurance industries, including ADT, LendingTree, Vivint Smart Home, and Progressive Insurance, to name a few. But I wanted to learn more about their proprietary technology in the space, so I invited, Co-founder, Frans van Hulle on to the podcast.

Frans shares how the company provides a mar-tech solution for marketers to grow and efficiently scale their customer base. But he also shares the story behind the business and how other entrepreneurs inspire him.

We also explore how PX is using technology to change the industry and what emerging technologies excite him at the moment.

1121: Using AI to Better Understand Your Child’s Digital Footprint Feb 23, 2020

In today’s digital age, AI is being used in all sorts of different capacities to help humans better understand the world we live in. So, why aren’t more tech companies deploying AI to help us better understand our children in the age of technology?

The use case for AI in parenting is simple. AI can provide a watchful eye over children online and give parents insights into their activities. Tal Guttman, CEO and Co-Founder of Jiminy, the AI-powered parental awareness app, shares his insights as to how this kind of software works, and what exactly parents & children can gain from its use.

Guttman is the former head of strategic innovation at 8200, where he built a social intelligence network with 10,000 users, and director of core platform at Windward, where he was in charge of turning maritime big data into risk indicators.

We talk about the story behind the company and how they wanted to give their Kids a phone without putting a screen between them and to sleep well at night without wondering what’s hiding in their text messages. I learn how they created a solution that would spot things like loneliness, cyberbullying or toxic phone usage.

However, they also wanted it to tell them what game they’ve been having fun with lately, or who their favorite YouTuber was last week. The team at Jiminy believes that each problem is actually an opportunity, for parents and kids, to talk and learn.

Jiminy is an app that helps parents learn more about their children’s lives, with alerts, fun facts, a weekly report, so you can be aware of the good and the bad. They do this by combining expertise in clinical psychology, education, and advanced machine learning and big data.

1120: Talking Zero Trust Privileged Access With Odo Security Feb 22, 2020

Odo Security is focused on the challenges that organizations face in this new digital reality defined by the cloud, mobility, and increasing demands for agility. The leader in zero trust remote access and management recently announced the availability of privileged access management.

OdoAccess supports web, SSH, RDP, and database protocols. The Odo zero trust architecture enables administrators to provide the least privileged access to company resources on-premises and in the cloud while receiving full visibility on all user activity, with minimal effort on the part of security teams.

Every access attempt is treated as suspect until authenticated and authorized. Users only have access to those resources they have been authorized to see, which are presented in an easy-to-use SaaS-like interface.

I invited Or Zilberman, the CEO of Odo Security onto Tech Talks Daily to learn more about the story behind the company and where it is heading.

1119: Combining Technological Innovation and Human Expertise Feb 21, 2020

Founded in 2011, SquareFoot is a new kind of commercial real estate company that helps companies win at finding their next (and next) office, providing transparent access to inventory, brokerage services, and a flexible space offering. But it also brings together technological innovation and human expertise to solve clients’ needs.

SquareFoot raised $16 million in 2019 in a Series B financing round led by DRW VC, with Triangle Peak Partners, RRE, Rosecliff, and senior real estate executives. But they have raised $29 million in total since its founding. I invited SquareFoot Founder/CEO Jonathan Wasserstrum onto the podcast to share his tech startup journey.

Jonathan founded SquareFoot in 2011 as a new kind of commercial real estate company that helps companies win at finding their next (and next) office. Based in New York City, SquareFoot provides transparent access to inventory, brokerage services, and a flexible space offering. The company has executed over 1,200 leases to date.

Wasserstrum began his career in commercial real estate as part of the International Capital Group at industry leader Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL), where he advised foreign and domestic clients on more than $3 billion worth of transactions globally.

He attended Columbia Business School, where he earned his degree in May 2012. He also has a BA in Economics from Emory University. Outside of work, Jonathan is interested in the three B’s -- bourbon, buffalo wings, and brass bands.

1118: How Startups/Consumers are Driving Sustainable Packaging Feb 20, 2020

Recycling and the necessity for greater sustainability have been top of mind for years. As climate change continues to accelerate, many feel they are doing their part by increasing their recycling efforts, especially of plastics.

However, the uncomfortable truth is that most plastics cannot be recycled and will sit in a landfill or burned. According to the Plastic Pollution Coalition, about six times more post-consumer plastic waste is burned in the U.S. than is domestically recycled. While plastic that makes it to a landfill will stay for thousands of years and may never truly disintegrate.

The convenience afforded to us by e-commerce, globalization, and plastics is destroying the planet. Consumers are wising up and choosing brands based on their commitment to sustainability. Accenture found that more than 80% of people surveyed said they felt it was "important or extremely important" for companies to design environmentally conscious products.

As we continue into 2020, this sentiment will be the driving force behind the pledge for the adoption of sustainable packaging from large corporations. However, while it is admirable to make that pledge, are large corporations truly equipped to make the switch?

As the founder and CEO of VentureFuel, a leading innovation consultancy, Fred Schonenberg joins me on the Tech Talks Daily podcast to talk about how new innovations in sustainable packaging from startups will facilitate the move to greater adoption by large corporations. We also discuss the types technology and innovations being used to create sustainable packages

For over 15 years, Fred has introduced new formats, first-to-market opportunities and is known for his award-winning creative solutions and ability to forge strategic partnerships to grow revenue. He is a frequent speaker at industry events such as SXSW, Ad Tech, Advertising Week, IAB, OMMA, and thought-leader published in everything from The Huffington Post, Business Insider, Media Post, The Drum, Tech.co, Creator Magazine, Advertising Week, Event Marketer, etc.

I also learn how VentureFuel helps established companies discover and implement new technologies that drive measurable growth. Described as "the secret weapon" to top corporate innovators, their "Excelerator" is a repeatable innovation framework that delivers consistent cutting-edge solutions with tangible results.

VentureFuel has helped over 100 established companies (Netflix, Beam Suntory, General Mills, Microsoft, Hershey's, The Chicago Cubs, etc.) discover breakthrough technologies and innovations that drove growth, competitive advantage, and tangible results such as 18.7% sales lift, over $10 million in savings and purchase intent increases of 5x.

1116: Exploring The Data Privacy Spotlight Report by Dynata Feb 19, 2020

Dynata is the world's largest first-party data and insight platform. With a reach that encompasses 62 million consumers and business professionals globally and an extensive library of individual profile attributes collected through surveys, Dynata is the cornerstone for precise, trustworthy quality data.

The company has built innovative data services and solutions around its robust first-party data offering to bring the voice of the customer to the entire marketing continuum – from strategy to innovation, to branding, advertising, measurement, and optimization.

Dynata serves nearly 6,000 market research, media and advertising agencies, publishers, consulting and investment firms and corporate customers in North America, South America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. The company also has a reach that encompasses 60+ million people globally and an extensive library of individual profile attributes collected through surveys.

I invited Jackie Lorch, VP, Global Knowledge Management of Dynata onto the Tech Talks Daily Podcast to talk about the global research around data privacy. The mistrust between consumers and companies is at an all-time high, according to new data by Dynata. The Data Privacy & Trust report surveyed consumers in nine countries, including the US, to get their perspectives on data transparency by companies, the value exchange, familiarity and privacy.

Topline findings include the facts that 70 percent of consumers agree that companies have been dishonest about how personal data is used. 80 percent of consumers would be more willing to share data if brands were more transparent about their plans for that data. But only 27 percent would feel more comfortable sharing data if “valuable benefits” were offered in exchange. We further discuss this research and implications to brands, why we need to fundamentally change how we think and talk about transparency and “the value exchange.” We also explore and where we’re at in our evolution around data ownership and privacy.

1115: Vuzix Smart Glasses and Augmented Reality Technology Feb 18, 2020

Vuzix is a leading supplier of Smart-Glasses and Augmented Reality (AR) technologies and products for the consumer and enterprise markets. The company wowed crowds in Las Vegas, where the upcoming Vuzix Labs Smart Swim product received two CES 2020 Innovation Awards in recognition of its outstanding design and engineering.

Imagine watching Netflix while swimming. Smart Swim, an innovative smart glasses accessory for swimmers, is the first smart glasses product born out of Vuzix Labs, a newly created rapid development product and engineering division of Vuzix.

Earlier this month, Vuzix also unveiled its newest AR Smart Glasses - the M4000. The M4000 utilizes Vuzix's latest see-through waveguide optics and is built with Qualcomm's Snapdragon XR1 processor for smooth and high functioning operations.

Paul Travers is the founder of Vuzix and has served as President and Chief Executive Officer since 1997 and as a member of the board of directors since November 1997. Before the formation of Vuzix, founded both e-Tek Labs, Inc. and Forte Technologies Inc.

The driving force behind the development of Vuzix products. With more than 30 years' experience in the consumer electronics field, and 25 years' experience in the virtual reality and virtual display fields, is a nationally recognized industry expert. We discuss the recent developments at Vuzix as well as the AR industry as a whole.

1114: Creating A Digital Workspace With Citrix and Apps2Digital Feb 17, 2020

In a featured partner series of Citrix Ready podcasts, I explore the technology integrations that Citrix has with its partners. In this series, I invite guests from Citrix and their partners to spend some time with me to share how they are solving real-world problems for businesses. Not on their own but by working together.

In this episode of the Citrix Ready Podcast series, I explore how Citrix and Apps2Digital are working together to solve real-world problems for businesses. I hear how customers are leveraging Apps2Digital to provide insights to admins on the key utilization of the apps and the tasks users perform within.

I explore how Apps2Digital helps customers with their applications in Citrix environments. App performance, rationalization, packaging, and deployment are just a few topics we discuss. From a Citrix standpoint, I also learn more about how this works with micro apps and saas apps, where users can only perform tasks of that app specific to their role.

Nigel Woods is a Technical Evangelist specializing in all aspects of End User Computing, Desktop Virtualisation, Cloud Computing, Desktop Transformation, and Application Delivery. With over 20 years of EUC experience and involved in start-up to sale of the first Citrix based DAAS in Europe and then starting up EMEA for FSLogix to completion with the acquisition by Microsoft, Nigel now heads up Business Development for Apps2Digital for EMEA.

1113: How To Measure Your Adaptability Quotient (AQ) Feb 16, 2020

40% of the jobs that exist today will not exist in 10 years’ time. Fuelled by technology, change is coming at a rate that exceeds our ability to adapt. What got past generations here, won’t get the next to where they want to be.

Rapid technological change means we must all keep learning. Our ability to adapt can be measured by our adaptability quotient (AQ) which is becoming a big talking point for those serious about their future career success.

In today's episode of Tech Talks Daily, I want to learn more about AQ, or adaptability quotient which is the first-ever holistic metric of adaptability in the workplace. At Adaptai, their aim is to not only quantify and provide insight into AQ but also to help individuals and organizations to improve their ability to adapt in the fastest period of change in human history via their future coaching and digital training programs.

They measure adaptability across three core dimensions (ACE): Ability (your adaptability skills), your Character (the innate aspects of Self that determine the ways in which you may approach adapting), and Environment (how your environment can help or hinder your adaption).

Together with twelve sub-dimensions, such as Grit, Resilience, Mindset, and Learning Drive, they can give an accurate picture of where you are in terms of your AQ journey. AQai are working collaboratively with experts, universities, professors, leaders in psychology, people analytics, and human behaviour to build a robust and accurate measure of human adaptability in the workplace.

Ross Thornley, co-founder of Adaptai joins me to talk about they are making a difference. I learn why people are moving from EQ to AQ and why it’s the key to the future of work.

1112: How Businesses Can Use HR Analytics to Improve Efficiency Feb 15, 2020

GetApp is an online resource for businesses exploring software products. Its comparison shopping platform and free interactive tools help buyers compare software products side-by-side and navigate the world of software purchasing. GetApp features software research, insights, trends, and validated user reviews, giving buyers the tools they need to make informed decisions for their organization.

GetApp is also a Gartner company. But it was their State of Analytics in HR report that caught my eye. GetApp recommends that employers can set their teams up for success in 2020 by auditing HR processes and then using analytics to improve these processes and reviewing embedded analytics features to see what tools are already at the team’s disposal.

Employers can also use data analytics to improve staff retention. For example, some employers may find that there is a correlation between longer commute times and the likelihood to quit. To prevent staff from leaving, employers can have proactive conversations with employees and offer more flexible working options.

Using analytics to spot these trends could be very beneficial for companies, as employee turnover can cost a 100-person business up to $2.6 million per year. Lauren Maffeo, an associate principal analyst at GetApp, joins me on the Tech Talks Daily Podcast to talk about all this and much more.

Lauren covers the impact of emerging tech like AI and blockchain on small and midsize business owners. She has also been cited by sources such as Information Management, TechTarget, CIO Online, DevOps Digest, The Atlantic, Entrepreneur, and Inc.com.

In 2017, Lauren was named to The Drum’s 50 Under 30 list of women worth watching in digital. That same year, she helped organize Women Startup Challenge Europe, which was the continent’s largest venture capital competition for women-led startups.

Lauren has served as a mentor for Girls in Technology’s Maryland chapter, and DCA Live included her in its 2018 list of “The NEW Power Women of Tech”. Lauren was also shortlisted for the Future Stars of Tech Award in AI and Machine Learning by Information Age in 2019.

1111: The Cutting-Edge Neuroscience Research Helping Brands Grow Feb 14, 2020

HeyHuman is the transformative communications agency, specializing in neuromarketing, brand, content, social and experiential. They create Unusual Everyday™ Ideas that connect with people and change behaviours to kick-start brand and business growth.

Before they launched HeyHuman, their journey began by thinking about the behaviours of successful Human Brands and how they echoed the behaviours of people who they connect really well with in real life. They then looked at these human brand behaviours as the most important ones for them as a group of people.

The company now helps brands grow by thinking differently about people, brands, and marketing. We make this happen through their MindKind™ approach and Unusual Everyday™ Ideas. Our clients include Diageo, Merlin Entertainments, Mondelez, SlimFast, Natures Menu, and Typhoo.

I invited Aoife McGuinness, Neuroscience Consultant at HeyHuman, onto the podcast. Aoife is a neuroscience consultant based between London and Berlin. Working in the intersection between art and science, she analyses how the brain processes communications at HeyHuman and creates multisensory experiences with electronic music collective, Universe of Tang.

I learn more about how brands can use neuroscience to adapt their storytelling. We also discuss the value of multisensory experiences in marketing and the impact of neuroscience on social media strategy. However, in an over digitalized world, we also talk about how brands can become more 'human.'

1110: Meet Stasher, The Airbnb of Luggage Feb 13, 2020

Described as the "Airbnb of Luggage," Stasher is a sharing economy solution for storage. They realized that people don't want to drag their suitcases, backpacks, or more around a city when they just have a few hours before they have to depart.

They created a global network of hotels and stores with extra space where travellers can find affordable, convenient storage for their belongings. Secured with the same standards as a hotel check-in, Stasher partners with leading brands like Premier Inn, Accor & Hotels.com to provide storage worldwide.

The service has no size restrictions and award-winning customer support. Pick the most convenient location to store your bags and book easily online from just £6, €5, or $5 per item for up to 24 hours. Each bag is also fully insured up to £1000. Book online now and get instant confirmation.

How did it all start? People were always asking to store their stuff at Anthony's home near King's Cross. When Matt asked, Anthony replied, "Sure, but I'm charging you for it." This joke was the lightbulb moment. On 21 September 2015, they incorporated CityStasher Ltd (now Stasher).

Fast forward to 2020, and the travel tech startup secured a $2.5 million funding round and was featured in TechCrunch, Forbes, and Yahoo. I invited Jacob Wedderburn-Day, CEO & Co-Founder at Stasher onto the podcast.

Jacob oversees operations, finance, and strategy at Stasher. Prior to co-founding the startup in 2015, he graduated BA Economics & Management from Oxford University and MSc Economics from UCL. He's passionate about entrepreneurship, economics, and football.

1109: Robert Beadles Host of Crypto Beadles and Monarch Co-Founder Feb 12, 2020

In May of 2020, bitcoin (BTC) will see its next halving. But what will the reduction of the reward for successfully mining a block mean to its value? Speculation has probably played a part in already pushing the price over the $10,000 price barrier. But hopefully, we have all learned a few lessons, and people won't make the same mistakes as a few years ago.

In a world where doing your own research is paramount, I have been a big fan of Robert Beadles for some time due to his open and honest approach. Robert is the co-founder and president of Monarch, a crypto wallet with 340,000 users.

Monarch aims to create a robust ecosystem of consumer, business, and investment solutions that are powerful, simple & easy to use. The company is on a mission to empower people with the ability to control all aspects of their financial kingdom from the palm of their hand.

Whether its buying and selling crypto, converting crypto to fiat for merchants and consumers, paying for goods and services in crypto, soon, using crypto for recurring payments, Monarch has it's sights set on empowering the people.

Robert is also the host of Crypto Beadles, a YouTube channel with nearly 90,000 subscribers, where he educates his audience about blockchain technology and crypto-assets.

Robert invites crypto projects on to his platform to learn more about it and let the audience decide whether it is of value or not. In many ways, he feels like a kindred spirit, so I invited him onto the Tech Talks Daily podcast.

As Bitcoin and the crypto markets experience an early 2020 rally, many investors are eager to learn the best strategies for digital asset investing and trading. Robert shares his insights on what investors should know about investing in BTC, ETH, and other top assets. We also discuss how to evaluate potential crypto investments, their risks/upsides, and how crypto investing compares to traditional trading.

1108: The Privacy and Data Protection Risks to Your Company Feb 11, 2020

YL Ventures funds and supports brilliant Israeli tech entrepreneurs from seed to lead. Based in Silicon Valley and Tel Aviv, YL Ventures manages $260 million focused on deep-technology sectors and specializes in cybersecurity.

The company accelerates the evolution of portfolio companies via strategic advice and U.S.-based operational execution, leveraging a powerful network of Chief Information Security Officers and global industry leaders. The firm's track record includes successful, high-profile portfolio company acquisitions by major corporations, including Palo Alto Networks, Microsoft, CA, and Proofpoint.

I chat with Roger Hales, who has become the CISO-in Residence at YL Ventures. The former Chief Information Security Officer of Informatica - a $1+ billion annual revenue software development company talks about privacy and data protection risks to a company?

We talk about the value of attending events such as RSAC and CyberTech Tel Aviv. We also discuss the latest big tech and privacy trends that are dominating conversations in conferences around the world.

Roger's legacy in technology and information security extends across multiple verticals, including financial services, healthcare, eCommerce, biotech, and education, so for these reasons alone, it's a pleasure to get him back on the podcast.

1107: New Security Threats to the Enterprise in 2020 Feb 10, 2020

Today, more than 80% of the Fortune 500 and over 20,000 enterprises (and 18M end-points) and service providers across every vertical entrust Pulse Secure to empower their mobile workforce to securely access applications and information in the data center and Cloud while ensuring business compliance.

Sudhakur Ramakrishna is CEO of Pulse Secure and joins me on Tech Talks Daly to talk about a variety of security trends that will be impacting the tech industry in 2020. We discuss the impact that the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) trend is having on security in the enterprise and What Zero Trust is going to mean to the enterprise in 2020.

We also talk about the evolution of security, SaaS, and Cloud before tackling Hybrid IT and the expanded attack surface too. Meanwhile, I learn more about how Pulse Secure provides software-driven Secure Access solutions that provide visibility and seamless, protected connectivity between users, devices, things, and services.

Sudhakar Ramakrishna is CEO of Pulse Secure, where he oversees all aspects of business strategy and execution. With nearly 25 years of experience across the Cloud, mobility, networking, security, and collaboration markets, Sudhakar joined Pulse Secure from Citrix.

At Citrix, Sudhakar served as the senior vice president and general manager for the Enterprise and Service Provider Division, where he had profit and loss responsibility for approximately a $2.5 billion portfolio of virtualization, cloud networking, mobile platforms, and cloud services solutions.

Before Citrix, he was at Polycom and was president of products and services. Sudhakar has also held senior leadership roles at Motorola, 3COM, and US Robotics and brings significant experience in strategic planning and execution, organization development, and incubating and scaling new businesses to Pulse Secure.

Sudhakar earned his master’s degree in Computer Science from Kansas State and an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. Sudhakar is a member of the board of directors at Health iPass. He has significant experience as a board member and advisor of Public and Private companies.

1106: Dynatrace Perform 2020: Dynatrace CEO John Van Siclen Feb 09, 2020

Dynatrace provides software intelligence to simplify enterprise cloud complexity and accelerate digital transformation. With AI and complete automation, the all-in-one platform provides answers, not just data, about the performance of applications, the underlying infrastructure, and the experience of all users.

Many of the world's largest enterprises, including 72 of the Fortune 100, trust Dynatrace to modernize and automate enterprise cloud operations, release better software faster, and deliver unrivaled digital experiences. But this story could have had a very different ending. Dynatrace CEO John Van Siclen shares the story where they were forced to disrupt rather than be disrupted at Perform2020 in Las Vegas.

John Van Siclen, Chief Executive Officer of Dynatrace, is a native Californian and long-time Silicon Valley exec. As a tech entrepreneur, he's made a career of building highly successful companies in competitive growth markets. CRN Magazine named John a "Top 25 Disrupter" for his relentless focus on breaking the mold and championing new business models. And in 2019, Comparably recognized John as one of their Top 25 CEOs across all US companies over 1000 employees.

Upon moving to the east coast, John joined Dynatrace as CEO in 2008 and established headquarters for the company in Boston. Over the past 12 years, Dynatrace has grown from 60 employees to over 2200 today. Balancing a keen focus on customer success with relentless innovation to anticipate disruptive opportunities, Dynatrace has emerged as both a market and technology leader in the rapidly growing software intelligence market.

With strong growth and market-leading product, Dynatrace became a public company in the summer of 2019, trading on the NYSE under the ticker 'DT.' John is a graduate of Princeton University, the father of 4 boys, and a US Pond Hockey Seniors Champion.

On today's episode of the Tech Talks Daily podcast, I learn more about the story behind the success of Dynatrace. Looking to the future, we also discuss how a more proactive approach to APM is the new standard, and automation is no longer just a nice to have.

1105: The LegalTech Transformation Story At The BARBRI Group Feb 08, 2020

This week I am reporting live from the show floor at Dynatrace Perform 2020. Today, I speak with Mark Kaplan, director of IT, BARBRI, about their digital transformation story.

At the core of The BARBRI Group Companies is BARBRI Bar Review, which has helped more than 1.3 million lawyers around the world pass a U.S. bar exam. The company also provides online J.D., post-J.D. and international programs for U.S. law schools, and specialized ongoing training and certifications in areas such as financial crime prevention, eDiscovery and cyber awareness, security and protection.

The BARBRI Group, founded in 1967, is a Leeds Equity Partners portfolio company headquartered in Dallas with offices throughout the United States and around the world. It has also has helped more lawyers prepare for the bar than any other company and is now positioned to meet the legal education needs of both law students and attorneys throughout their academic and professional careers.

BARBRI's leading legal and education experts cultivate better prepared, engaged students who are more likely to succeed, which translates to lower attrition rates at law schools and higher bar passage and job placement rates.

Mark Kaplan shares their LegalTech success, and digital transformation story with me on the show floor at Dynatrace Perform in Las Vegas.

1104: Autodesk - A Digital Transformation Story At Dynatrace Perform Feb 07, 2020

This week I am reporting live from the show floor at Dynatrace Perform 2020. Today, I speak with Prakash Kota, CIO, at Autodesk about their digital transformation story.

Autodesk makes software for people who make things. If you’ve ever driven a high-performance car, admired a towering skyscraper, used a smartphone, or watched a great film, chances are you’ve experienced what millions of Autodesk customers are doing with their software.

Autodesk gives you the power to make anything. Over 100 million people use Autodesk software like AutoCAD, Revit, Maya, 3ds Max, Fusion 360, SketchBook, and more to unlock their creativity and solve important design, business, and environmental challenges.

The software runs on both personal computers and mobile devices and taps the infinite computing power of the cloud to help teams around the world collaborate, design, simulate and fabricate their ideas in 3D.

Prakash joined Autodesk in 2005 and leads the company’s global IT organization, which manages critical technology systems supporting worldwide enterprise applications and infrastructure. His primary focuses are building talent, customer and employee experience, operational excellence, industry partnerships, and positioning Autodesk for global scale.

Prior to being CIO, Prakash held various other roles, including VP IT, senior director of infrastructure and enterprise operations, and senior director of global enterprise operations. Kota holds a Bachelor of Engineering from the University of Madras and an M.S. in electrical engineering from Oklahoma State University.

1103: Rack Room Shoes - A Digital Transformation Story at Dynatrace Perform Feb 06, 2020

Once again, Dynatrace is bringing together thousands of technical experts, industry leaders, and some of the world's biggest brands at its Perform event. As well as reporting all the latest news and announcements, I also wanted to hear from leaders, and their digital transformation stories live from the show floor.

Known as an innovator in the shoe industry for more than 90 years, Rack Room Shoes offers a wide selection of nationally recognized and private brands of shoes for men, women, and children in comfort, dress, casual and athletic categories.

As an industry leader, Rack Room Shoes’ outstanding selection, trusted brands, superior customer service, convenience, and value help the company remain poised for great achievements for years to come. But how did they approach the digital transformation of its traditional business?

Kevin McNall, Director, Digital Projects at Rack Room Shoes, joins me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss their long history and how he has seen technology transform their business. We also talk about the benefits Rack Room Shoes has seen and what he expects to see from using Dynatrace.

1102: Bringing Digital Education Tools to Students Worldwide Feb 05, 2020

Matthew Glotzbach is the CEO of the largest user-generated consumer learning platform in the US, Quizlet. He is also a friend of the podcast and returns today for his third appearance in four years Matthew has experience working as a mechanical engineer, on product at YouTube, and was on the founding team of Google Apps—where he worked for over a decade. He led Quizlet from an early stage startup shortly after its founder Andrew Sutherland launched the company when he was 15 years old, all the way to its $20M Series B funding round in 2018 and milestone of 50 million unique monthly users and named to Deloitte's Technology Fast 500 of the fasted growing companies in North America.

While he's worn many hats, Matthew is, more than anything, an advocate for using technology to make education more accessible to students around the world. On today's tech podcast we explore why edtech funding is on the rise and I ask if we can expect the momentum to continue.

I learn what makes Gen Z students different than previous generations and how modern learning is evolving to meet their needs. We also discuss the role of AI and machine learning in the larger education ecosystem and why education technology is built to complement rather than replace human teachers, and how interactive tools create longer-lasting learning.

1101: The Tech Enabling Small Businesses by Easing Onboarding Feb 04, 2020

SyncDog challenges the status quo and changes the game on how organizations empower their mobile workforce. The company prides itself on enabling companies to reset expectations on how employees can get work done on the go.

Although almost all companies today have employees who want or need the ability to work outside the four walls of the organization, the current mobile security solutions being utilized today still have them tethered to their laptop and office – They still utter the phrase “I’ll get to that once I’m back at my desk” far too often.

Your employees should be able to do their work from wherever they are. SyncDog combines of a suite of office applications (email, calendar, contacts, office editor, file share, location services, messaging, etc.) along with an architecture that protects and secures your mobile workforce through FIPS 140-2, AES 256 bit encryption that finally removes the technological struggle of having to choose between increased security or increased productivity.

SyncDog recently announced their unrivaled support for small businesses and franchises by reducing the complexity and costs of outfitting and enabling employees with mobile devices. Onboarding new employees can be especially challenging for small companies as they often lack the time, resources, and manpower required to piece together the data and apps employees need to get the job done and then load them onto a mobile device that’s familiar to the end-user.

SyncDog CRO, Brian Egenrieder, joins me on the Tech Talks Daily Podcast to talk about all this and much more. He is a veteran sales strategist and leader of more than 25 years in enterprise software. His experience includes building the sales processes around software solutions, enterprise applications, and SaaS/Cloud computing to the Fortune 500 Commercial Market and U.S. Federal Government.

Brian also works closely with CEO Jonas Gyllensvaan to build on existing traction in Banking, Government, and Healthcare.

1100: How Can DevOps Help Financial Services Keep Pace? Feb 03, 2020

As technology continues to advance, the workplace will need to adapt to meet the new expectations of the workforce. The usage of traditional IT models is causing regulatory hurdles for many financial firms. As a result, many financial service firms have begun their quest for upgrading technical infrastructure, both at the backend and the front-end.

DevOps brings security along throughout the process chain, monitoring errors and failures at the very instance of the occurrence, making this an increasingly essential tool for financial service organizations. Dinesh Venugopal, President at Mphasis, joins me on the Tech Talks Daily Podcast to talk about this subject and much more.

As President, and Member of the Executive Council, Dinesh is the global head for Direct-Core Business and Digital across industry verticals. With over 20 years of cross-functional leadership experience spanning strategy, technology innovation, M&A, and marketing, Dinesh has been instrumental in catalyzing Mphasis growth through focus in delivering business value and delighting customers.

Under Dinesh's leadership, Mphasis has transformed its solution, and services portfolio has enabled Direct-core business to grow faster than the industry. Also, Mphasis is now consistently ranked as #1 or #2 service provider by our top 5 Industry-leading customers.

The new-age digital-first companies like Amazons and Googles of the world are moving along a mile a minute. Innovating on modern software delivery practices and deploying software updates rapidly to take their business forward at incredible speeds and agility has become the norm.

We talk about how a new standard and how high expectations for service that can be tough for other businesses & industries to match up on, particularly ones in highly regulated businesses such as financial services. While financial services continue expanding their digital capabilities, the ability to deliver new software-based services efficiently becomes exceptionally critical.

However, we explore how DevOps is changing the game and how the financial services industry has not only played catch up but has been an industry-leading the change. I learn how it is speeding up innovation and how adopting modern software delivery practices, including agile, continuous delivery (CD), and DevOps.

1099: Ampverse - Exploring eSports and The Role Of Tech In Asia Pacific Feb 02, 2020

Ampverse is a gaming and eSports entertainment company that was founded by senior Twitch and Media executives in Asia. Ampverse aims to engage and develop top gaming talent to create meaningful partnership opportunities with brands, game publishers and agencies.

The business will operate across three distinct units, designed to galvanize and nurture a powerful community of gaming and esports influencers and then create attention-grabbing, entertainment formats with brands:

Ampverse Influence: An extensive portfolio of top esports influencers with tens of millions of followers, generating over 500 million monthly views.

Currently operating in Thailand and Singapore. Ampverse has plans to rapidly roll out across Southeast Asia in the coming months having recently closed their seed fundraise from strategic gaming and entertainment investors across Southeast Asia.

How? Ampverse Talent represents the commercial interests of top-tier gaming and esports talent, offering talent management and development in order to help them realize their full potential. While Ampverse Publishing is a creative studio focused on building unique creative formats and co-branded intellectual properties with brands.

Charlie Baillie, Co-founder at Ampverse joins me on the Tech Talks Daily podcast to talk about the future of the gaming industry and what makes Asia so attractive to the gaming and eSports industries.

We also discuss the hurdles that lie ahead for eSports industries and the intersection of gaming and emerging tech.

1098: Adludio Sensory Advertising Feb 01, 2020

Adludio is 1 of the UK’s fastest-growing B2B software scale-ups: having quickly launched in 3 continents, delivered ad campaigns in 70+ countries, & grown revenues 40% month on month, Adludio qualified for the Sunday Times 2019 Tech Track “Ones to Watch.”

The technology-driven ad company on a mission to drive and redefine the future of mobile advertising. Adludio also specialises in using technologies including augmented reality and 3D effects to bring ads to life on mobile.

Paul Coggins joins me on the Tech Talks Daily podcast to not only share his journey but also talk about the evolution of the advertising industry. He shares his insight into why mobile-first advertising is the future of advertising and 2020 trends for the advertising industry. I learn more about exactly what sensory advertising and why it matters.

1097: Emmy-Award Winning Producer Turned Tech Entrepreneur Jan 31, 2020

Zvi Frank is a serial entrepreneur, former Israeli Air Force pilot and Emmy Award-winning producer who currently serves as the Co-CEO and founder of Copilot, an automated customer experience (CX) management platform for consumer electronics.

He, along with partner and fellow pilot Tsiki Naftaly, developed the aptly named Copilot while working together at Zemingo, Israel’s largest mobile services house, where Frank previously served as the Executive Chairman since 2013.

At Copilot, he drives the overall strategy and vision for the development of the first CX solution exclusively for IoT and connected products. Get a detailed analysis of each user’s behavior to better understand which features they are using.

The platform delivers on the promise of IoT (Internet of Things) by offering manufacturers of connected consumer products and smart home devices the opportunity to automatically engage end-users with meaningful, data-driven, and behavior-based communications. Companies that employ Copilot improve onboarding, reduce product returns, boost product ratings, and open new channels of revenue, giving them a critical advantage that increases overall customer satisfaction and builds Lifetime Value.

Zvi Frank join me on Tech Talks Daily to shares his story as a pilot and Emmy-Award winning producer turned entrepreneur. We discuss everything from his biggest obstacle that he overcame as an entrepreneur to the tech trends in the consumer electronics space that he anticipates we will see in 2020.

1096: The Most Unselfish Selfie: The Future of Person-Centered Care Jan 30, 2020

Try to imagine a scenario where you have an accident or are in a healthcare crisis and can't communicate. When you need it most, you cannot communicate with doctors, nurses, or other caregivers to share your wishes.

How do you ensure sure the right people are contacted no matter where they, or you, are? Want to be an organ donor, or perhaps not, and make sure your wishes are clear? Very often, a family member will be forced to make decisions on your behalf, but what if technology could ensure your voice is still heard should the unthinkable happen?

Selfie culture has become the norm in our world. Kim Kardashian West has published an entire book of selfies, and Ellen DeGeneres' Oscar selfie went viral in seconds. Jeff Zucker noted in his TEDx talk if we're going to use selfies to indulge every aspect of our lives, why not use them in ways meaningful to our health?

Jeff joins me on this daily tech podcast to explain how one can and should record videos of themselves, highlighting their health wishes in advanced healthcare planning.

"Nobody should have to live in fear that they'll have a health crisis and not have a voice in their care," said Jeff Zucker, ADVault's CEO. "As Jamie Dimon has said many times and every CEO here knows, the chaos and confusion that surrounds a health emergency, chronic disease, and elderly health crisis touches many people and directly impacts economic productivity. Recent advances in technology have made 2020 the year when person-centered care is a cost-saving reality."

Jeff Zucker is the CEO and Cofounder of MyDirectives®, the world's leading all-digital advance care planning platform that empowers users to create, store, update and share high-quality digital advance care plans, or upload a paper advance directive and portable medical order in case of a healthcare emergency. This gives the person and their loved ones the assurance that their voices can be heard if they suffer a health care crisis and cannot communicate with doctors, nurses, or other caregivers.

MyDirectives works with personal health records and electronic medical record vendors, as well as healthcare providers and payers, to ensure that all information is securely available on-demand — whenever and wherever needed.

1095: Humanising Customer Experiences in the Digital World Jan 29, 2020

Go Instore is a unique technology that closes the gap between the online and offline worlds. They appeared on my radar after reading how they partner with leading global brands, including Dyson, Porsche, Cartier, Marriott International, and Knight Frank.

Go Instore provides website customers shopping for high ticket and premium items with the opportunity to engage in a human-led one-to-one shopping experience, instantly connecting them to an intelligently matched instore product expert via HD live video.

As online shopping continues to grow in popularity for consumers, Go Instore is able to deliver the unrivalled customer experience previously only associated with a physical visit to a brand or retailers store, with the convenience and comfort of shopping online.

The ability to combine the huge visitor traffic potential of websites with the significantly greater conversion rates associated with visiting a store, dramatically increases purchasing and engagement amongst brands and retailers using the solution. Go Instore combines these two strongest assets from each channel to deliver a new, premium method for retailers and brands to engage and sell to their customers.

Go Instore is redefining the online shopping experience by adding a human touch to the digital world, rapidly marking itself as an invaluable asset to brands and retailers in this ‘new retail era’.

The consultative approach uses the strengths of your brand, people, and physical locations to deliver an enhanced customer experience, which increases sales and customer satisfaction.

Retail is not changing – it has changed. Ecommerce is not emerging – it is fully established as a means for retailers to sell to customers. However, this doesn’t mean that physical stores are redundant. In fact, 76% of all transactions still happen in the store. The challenge retailers are having is finding ways to account for the increasing costs of the stores, while meeting the preferences of their customers. - André Hordagoda

André Hordagoda CEO & Co-Founder, Go Instore, joins me on the Tech Talks Daily Podcast to talk about how they are humanizing customer experiences in the digital world.

1094: Connecting Brands and Consumers Via the Internet of Things Jan 28, 2020

Cameron Worth, is the CEO and founder of SharpEnd, the London-based The IoT Agency. Cameron is a pioneer in helping brands harness IoT. SharpEnd has also become the first ever IoT agency to be recognised as ‘One to Watch’ in Econsultancy’s Top 100 Digital Agencies Report – the definitive listing of the UK’s leading digital agencies.

Cameron is a regular speaker and writer on how brands can leverage technology innovation to build their presence in a connected world. He’s also a consummate public speaker and has spoken at Cannes, the Festival of Marketing, Ad:Week Europe and New York, DMA, the Connected Consumer Conference, Mobile World Congress and the IoT World Forum.

Cameron's particular sectors of expertise are FMCG, CPG, beauty, cosmetics, smart packaging, connected homes, smart spaces and retail innovation. SharpEnd’s mission is to help brands get closer than ever to consumers by connecting packaging, retail and experiential activity. Their clients include Unilever, Pernod Ricard, Böen Wine, Nestlé and Pepsi - so he understands the client landscape from the front line.

Cameron joins me on Tech Talks Daily to share his insights on the impact of innovation at scale, smart buying, and the impact it has had on brands owners like Mattel, Pernod Ricard and PepsiCo the retail and packaging landscape of the future.

1093: Bridging The Distance Between Insights, Tech & Strategy Jan 27, 2020

OST is an integrated, cross-functional business technology firm bringing together strategy & insights, digital experiences, connected products, data center transformation and enterprise managed services as they work alongside clients to optimize and grow their businesses.

At OST, they are helping their customers bridge the distance between insights, technology, and strategy—in smart, meaningful ways that yield transformative results. But I wanted to find out more about their mission to change how the world connects.

Meredith Bronk, President, and CEO of OST joins me on the Tech Talks Daily Podcast. She joined OST as a Project Manager and was promoted to Chief Operating Officer for several years before being named President and CEO. Her diverse experience has created a unique combination of strong analytical and interpersonal skills.

Meredith’s servant attitude and commitment to the success of others is an excellent representation of OST’s dedication to its employees and customers.

Meredith shares her inspirational story as a female who rose to the top in a male-dominated industry. I learn how OST is bringing creative solutions to clients and leveraging technology while maintaining a strong organizational culture. But how her passion, and empathy are equally as important as technology in their vision.

I also find out more about the tech scene in West Michigan and how women in tech are making a big impact.

1092: How Startups Can Solve The Tech Talent Crisis Via Automation Jan 26, 2020

Kyle Campbell is a 3x startup founder and current CEO of CTO.ai, a platform that makes it easy for startups to empower teams through automation of DevOps tasks without writing any lines of code. At the core of CTO.ai's mission is to uplevel developers by giving them the tools to perform like senior engineers and make teams 10x more efficient.

Why does this matter? To keep up with this digital transformation, companies of all sizes are competing for technical workers. But there's a major deficit of talent. With over 1 million tech jobs anticipated to be left unfilled by 2020 in the US, this poses a greater threat to scaling businesses than access to capital.

As a result, companies pay for a handful of deep technical expertise whose time is often misallocated to training new developers or wasted on time-intensive, tactical tasks -- adding up to just about $300B of lost productivity every year.

That's why after hearing first hand from founders who tried to get him to be their full-time CTO, Kyle went about creating a platform to meet what he saw as an unmet need. I invited Kyle onto Tech Talks Daily to learn insights into the technical talent crisis facing startup teams, and why they should care.

We discuss what to consider when it comes to future workplace environments, such as:

The increasing complexity of problems facing today's enterprise - it's like a snake trying to eat an elephant!
How collaboration, not competition, will drive the success of tomorrow's startups
How technology is making highly technical jobs more accessible to junior employees
How automation is creating operational efficiency and creating superhuman devs that allowing them to do more impactful work.

Kyle also shares more information about the recent announcement of the $7.5M round from Slack Fund and Tiger Global that was featured on TechCrunch.

Founded in 2017, CTO.ai is a Slack-backed start-up that provides an open registry of shortcuts to help technical leads at startups quickly scale developer teams and streamline developer productivity 10x. Kyle has successfully guided the company to team to 60 full-time staff, profitably, with a 400% revenue increase over the last 18 months.

Previous to CTO.ai, Kyle founded 'Retsly,' a company that helped developers access real-estate data from multiple listing services. Retsly was acquired in 2014 by leading real estate technology company Zillow, where Kyle continued to lead the execution of Retsly's original vision by creating a safe and reliable platform upon which to build innovative real estate software.

Based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Kyle is a self-taught developer and has been programming since the age of 8. As an investor and advisor to a wide range of technology startups, Kyle's mission is to democratize DevOps to help the next generation of workers reach their full potential.

1091: How Data Visualization Is Empowering Visual Communication Jan 25, 2020

Payman Taei is the founder of Visme. Over 3.5 million users use the leading Visual Communication tools from over 100 countries. It used by leading Non-profits and Fortune 500 companies that include IBM, WorldBank, Capital One, and General Dynamics.

However, many people don't know the story behind the success of the company, which began bootstrapped on a 10K budget. This wasn't an overnight success story. It took him 18 years and plenty of painful mistakes to turn this into a success.

As an avid technologist, Paymen loves new trends and keeping up with the ever-evolving internet. His background in biology led him to truly believe in the art of evolution.

"Everything changes in time. You either follow or create new trends or will be left behind." Payman Taei

Payman started HindSite Interactive with a mere $170 to pay his way through college. Over the last 16 years, he and his team have worked with over 300 companies large and small from all walks of life. Frustrated with the lack of easy-to-use tools to empower non-designers to speak visually, he went on to create Visme.

The "Swiss Knife of Visual Content" bootstrapped to profitability within 18 months of launch and helping businesses, non-profits and individuals to improve the way ideas are visualized into engaging presentations, infographics and other forms of visual content.

I learn more about this easy-to-use online design tool that enables anyone to create engaging Presentations, Infographics, Banners and more. But I also learn more about the story behind the company that is empowering everyone to communicate visually.

1090: Dentons - Regulation & Legislation Challenges of Cannabis Tech Jan 24, 2020

Dentons is the world’s largest law firm and recognized by prominent business and legal publications for its innovations in client service. But, they are also pioneering the intersection of technology innovation and the legal industry and also exploring legislation and regulation around emerging technologies.

I have already spoken to guests from Dentons about smart cities and autonomous cars. But today I want to explore the effects tech, and legal tech is having on the emerging Cannabis industry,

Ausra Deluard is a member of Dentons’ national Health Care practice group, resident in the Oakland office. Her current practice focus is on helping clients in the nascent cannabis industry achieve their business objectives by advising them on the sector’s rapidly evolving laws and regulations.

Ausra’s experience in high-stakes antitrust litigation in the M&A context and in civil and criminal investigations was excellent preparation for counseling companies in avoiding the liability risks of operating in a highly regulated consumer industry.

Ausra meanwhile continues to advise clients in a range of sectors on contentious and non-contentious antitrust matters relating to proposed acquisitions, gun-jumping, global pricing and distribution policies, competitor collaboration, licensing arrangements, interlocking directorates, and pharmaceutical settlements.

She has handled numerous “second request” merger investigations before the Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission for clients in the cannabis, tobacco, health care and technology sectors, using cutting-edge technology to efficiently and cost-effectively manage HSR Act investigations and persuasive advocacy to resolve substantive competition law issues.

1089: Twisthink - Innovation Excellence Over Operational Excellence Jan 23, 2020

Robert Niemiec is the Managing Partner at Twisthink where he manages business strategy, day-to-day team leadership, and business development.

Throughout his 15 years of entrepreneurial experience and 18 years of senior-level corporate experience, Robert has a proven track record of building high functioning, diverse teams that achieve success and deliver results.

Robert Niemiec created Twisthink as an experiment to test the belief in the value of twisting together the skills of design and technology for the purpose of innovation. For nearly 2 decades, Robert has been leading his team to serve Fortune 500 clients as well as entrepreneurial start-ups with speed and excellence.

Some of their clients include Whirlpool, Stryker, Herman Miller, Crown Equipment, Lutron, and BISSELL. Robert brings a unique background and perspective to the world of digital innovation, with a strong focus on methods to understand stakeholders’ unique problems, unmet needs, goals, and constraints.

Twisthink’s fresh eyes approach allows the team to imagine new business opportunities and create exciting new user experiences through their “relentless empathy” for the end-user. Robert Niemiec returns to the podcast to discuss how they are helping companies create the ideal user experience, which allows their customers to become leaders in their industries and accelerate growth.

We discuss the importance of focusing on innovation excellence over operational excellence. Why it’s important for business leaders to lean into change in today’s digital age and why design thinking is a proven process for creating successful IoT or AI solutions.

We also talk about why the digital edge is the most intriguing place for product innovation to occur and explore the power of a cross-functional team that contains both left-brain and right-brain thinkers. All this is washed down with inspiring stories of digital stories of innovation that unlock new business value.

Digital stories of innovation that unlocked new business value (including industries like healthcare, industrial, residential, automotive and manufacturing) The power of a cross-functional team that contains both left-brain and right-brain thinkers.

1088: The Tech Turning Hospitality Into Experience Makers Jan 22, 2020

A report by Accenture showed that 75% of customers are much more likely to buy from a company that knows who they are, their personal preferences and can recommend relevant products or services. Welcome to the experience economy.

The experience is now more important than the product, and the last best experience that anyone has anywhere has become the minimum expectation for the experience they want everywhere.

How can businesses not only keep up but raise the bar too? Joel Montaniel is the CEO & Co-Founder of SevenRooms, a data-driven hospitality platform that combines operations, marketing, and guest engagement tools, where he leads business strategy and sales.

From neighborhood restaurants to international, multi-concept hospitality groups, SevenRooms is a hospitality platform that helps operators unlock the full revenue potential of guest data.

Joel joins me on the podcast to discuss how they are helping clients and share real-world examples of how to be an experience maker. We also look into the future at how voice tech will help brands deliver personalized experiences through the hotel minibar, restaurant, and nightlife venues.

Other topics covered are the increased role of guest data – from remembering allergies and preferences to customized marketing and loyalty rewards (imagine an allergen-free mini bar for your gluten-free child during your hotel stay).

As sustainability becomes more important, we also talk about how tech can help eliminate food waste and how predictive technology will evolve to inform restaurants’ ordering to minimize food waste and maximize profit margins.

1087: The Tech Transforming the Century-Old Insurance Industry Jan 21, 2020

Sonny Patel is the 25-year-old CEO and founder of Insurmi, a conversational-AI powered customer engagement platform for insurance carriers. But it's the human story behind the company that both resonated and inspired me.

While working as a sales director and financial advisor at a local life insurance company, Sonny realized the process of buying and selling insurance was unnecessarily cumbersome and outdated. He went to work to develop a solution that would simplify and take the guesswork out of the insurance buying process.

Today, Insurmi is being used by a number of top-tier global insurance carriers, including several from the Fortune 500, to not only easily generate new business online but also streamline customer claims and deliver excellent customer service through conversational AI. In September, he secured $1M to grow his team at Insurmi's headquarters in Phoenix, Arizona.

In today's episode, Sonny shares his journey and what he believes it takes to disrupt a legacy industry. We also discuss the challenges he's faced as a 25-year-old in a relatively "grown-up" sector. Finally, we talk about why he believes AI is the future of insurance, and how other industries can leverage it for sales, customer engagement, and save costs.

1086: Non-Destructive Testing With Art+Logic's Bob Bajoras Jan 20, 2020

Art+Logic's Bob Bajoras has noticed something interesting often happens when clients first lay out a problem they hope the software team can solve: "They'll present the problem in the form of the solution," he notes. "We then get to ask, 'Why do you want to do that? What's the problem you want to solve?' What they're suggesting will work, but with our understanding of what can be done with software, we often realize we could do more than just that. This leads us to a solution that does more than expected."

The recent news that Amazon, Apple, and Google are working together to create a new standard for smart home communication is a rare display of unity amongst the giants of our interconnected worlds. But will their work be successful? Is this the right time for this? Why now?

These are just a few topics that we discuss on today's podcast. Bob Bajoras, President of Art+Logic, an innovative software development firm for over 25 years, who have worked with Google and Apple in the past, has some thoughts on the plans.

Because none of these companies have dominated the smart home field yet, Bajoras sees this plan as a truce more than a standard. Bajoras' and Art+Logic's extensive experience in designing for all things IoT make them thought leaders on this subject.

Art+Logic is a software development firm that designs, develops, and delivers high-level tech solutions for their clients. The company specializes in mobile apps, web software, desktop software, IoT, and has recently branched into product development where they are putting their software expertise to use contributing to the evolution of new hardware.

Since 1991, Art+Logic has built a strong reputation solving tough technical problems that other firms couldn't, relying exclusively on their talented team of dispersed North American engineers, designers, and developers to get the job done. They pioneered remote work, allowing them to bring on the best talent possible regardless of their location.

Their design team is on the cutting edge of human-centered computing, focusing on building beautiful user interfaces and seamless experiences. The Art+Logic development team ensures that their clients benefit from the most effective, efficient, and reliable technologies for their projects.

1085: Associated Costs of Ransomware up 200% Year on Year Jan 19, 2020

Datto offers business continuity and disaster recovery, networking, business management, and file backup and sync solutions, and has created a one-of-a-kind ecosystem of partners that provide Datto solutions to businesses across the globe.

In Datto's Global State of the Channel Ransomware Report, it revealed that SMEs may be continuing to take the ransomware bait, but MSPs are now enabling two-factor authentication to double down on ransomware preparation against their list of future ransomware attack targets: IoT devices (64%) and social media accounts (63%).

The average ransom requested by hackers in 2019 has increased too, costing $5,900 (£4,800) now compared to $4,300 (£3,500) in 2018. That's a 37% increase, and despite this increase, 24% of MSPs reported clients having paid the ransom to recover their data. But outsourcing IT services reduces the ransomware threat.

Ryan Weeks, CISO, Datto join me on this daily tech podcast to talk about the findings in the report and explore the Ransomware threat landscape.

As Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), Ryan is responsible for directing and managing Datto's Information Security program. Ryan spent 11 years securing enterprise applications, systems and sensitive customer financial data at FactSet Research Systems, where he orchestrated all facets of the global information security program.

Ryan holds a B.S. in Computer Information Systems from Ithaca College, a M.S. in Information Assurance from Northeastern University and has industry security certifications including the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) and the Certified Information Security Manager (CISM).

1084: B2C and B2B Customer Experience Management Tech Jan 18, 2020

Shreesha Ramdas is an entrepreneurial executive with a track record of launching and growing products in competitive markets. He also has General management experience in product development, Growth Hacking, and go-to-market strategy & execution.

Shreesha is the CEO of Strikedeck, a leader in Customer Success Automation. Strikedeck is a Customer Success Platform that helps businesses deliver outstanding customer experiences while maximizing the value of their customer relationships. Founded by industry veterans with a proven track record in marketing automation, Strikedeck has enabled innovative customer-focused companies to optimize the deployment of precious resources to reduce churn, grow revenue, and maximize customer lifetime value.

However, Strikedeck was acquired by Medallia in 2019. Medallia is the pioneer and market leader in Customer Experience Management. Medallia's award-winning SaaS platform, the Medallia Experience Cloud, leads the market in the understanding and management of experience for customers, employees and citizens.

Medallia captures experience signals created on daily journeys in person, digital and IoT interactions and applies proprietary AI technology to reveal personalized and predictive insights that can drive action with tremendous business results.

Together, Medallia and Strikedeck, uniquely, will promote seamless, 360-degree views on customer account health, including information on renewals, product adoption and usage, subscriptions, billing, and more. The combination will also provide clients intelligence on where to focus and how to improve the B2B customer journey and the ability to manage the entire lifecycle of business customers.

Both companies use deep artificial intelligence, machine learning and predictive analytics to understand the risks and opportunities for every customer and to uncover issues and obstacles in the overall customer journey. But I wanted to learn more about how the Strikedeck and Medallia partnership is designed to round out B2B and B2C offerings in CS and CX. But also what it means for businesses.

Shreesha joins me on Tech Talks Daily to share his story, the future of CS and CX, and his predictions for 2020.

1083: The AI-Powered Commerce Solution For The Experience Economy Jan 17, 2020

Coveo uses AI and intelligent search and recommendation technologies to personalize millions of digital experiences for customers, partners, dealers, and employees.

However, Coveo for Commerce is transforming the way businesses sell online and its AI-powered solution is helping to deliver relevant buying experiences that is driving business growth. But I wanted to find out more about this experience intelligence platform.

Coveo for Commerce is enhancing product and content discoverability, detects buyer intent, and automatically merchandizes personalized product recommendations that make business sense.

“The experience economy is built on data and AI. Tech-first companies have trained people to expect personalized, relevant, and unified experiences. With Coveo, every business can be an intelligent experience leader.” Coveo Chairman and CEO Louis Tetu.

However, personalization alone is not enough; businesses also want to increase the profitability of their customer lifetime journeys. In today's episode, I explore how this experience intelligence platform stitches together content and data, learning from every interaction, to tailor every experience using AI. I learn how Coveo for Commerce connects and unifies product catalogs and product-related content to provide shoppers with comprehensive, relevant information in their shopping experience. We also discuss how structured product catalog data can blend with unstructured content.

Mark Floisand is Chief Marketing Officer at Coveo joins me on Tech Talks Daily to talk about all this and more. He has over 20 years of marketing, sales and general management experience in the technology industry, spanning blue chip and start-up companies across three continents, including Apple, Adobe, BusinessObjects, SAP, Total Defense, Untangle and WeVideo.

Mark was most recently with Sitecore, a Coveo technology partner, where he led product marketing. Mark holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa; and an MBA from the University of Durham in the UK.

1082: Takeaways From The Consumer Electronics Show - CES 2020 Jan 16, 2020

Last week 175,000 people from165 countries make their annual trip to the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Over 4,500 global companies and tech startups showcased new and innovative tech. The media desperately searched for the best ideas hidden inside 2.9 million net square feet of exhibition space.

After following the news online, I was a little disheartened around new tech that didn't seem to solve any real problems. Samsung's Ballie is a tennis ball-like robot that beeps and rolls around following its owner and captures special moments. But this seemed at odds with our new privacy-aware state,

With the increasing awareness around climate change, I found myself wondering if Charmin's Bluetooth-controlled robot bear that brings its owner a spare toilet roll is the best use of our resources? But rather than turn into just another bitter tech columnist, I went in search of a more positive and optimistic view.

Over at Finn Partners, they have a talented mix of researchers, strategists, designers, technologists, content specialists, and campaigners. With over 800 people across three continents, I knew they would have someone that attends CES every year that could talk about the trends they have seen over the years and what stood out at this year's event.

Barry Reicherter is a senior partner at Finn Partners and has a passion for Digital Insights and Ideas. The Digital transformation and innovation leader joins me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss what he saw at CES. We also discuss the conversations he was monitoring online and those he heard on the show floor.

With more than 20 years of experience in digital marketing, Barry leads Finn Partners' Insights team focusing on online and social media research, analytics, planning, and measurement for clients operating in consumer, healthcare, education, government, public affairs, travel, and technology sectors.

Holding positions at AOL, Porter Novelli, Active.com, Sage Software, Widmeyer Communications and Finn Partners, Barry's body of work has been focused in the digital strategy and measurement for clients such as Hyundai, CapitalOne, American Express, Amalgamated Bank of Chicago, American Express, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Steelcase, Rosetta Stone, HP, Nestlé, Pfizer, Chase, Pearson, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, and Reed-Elsevier.

Barry is also a frequent speaker-panelist at industry conferences. Recently Barry joined the faculty of the Kogod School of Business at American University as an adjunct professor of digital branding for the M.B.A. program.

1081: The Tech Behind The Internet of Things (IoT) Jan 15, 2020

Software Design Solutions provides embedded system software development, desktop application development, and software process improvement consulting. The company prides itself on decades of expertise to learn new best practices in agile embedded software development.

Ed Kuzemchak is an expert on the Internet of Things and the founder of Software Design Solutions. As an embedded software thought leader, I invited Ed back onto this tech podcast to shares his experience around the challenges and pitfalls of designing intelligence into objects.

As an embedded software thought leader, Ed Kuzemchak is well-versed in the challenges and pitfalls of designing intelligence into objects. His experience across multiple industries has afforded him unique insights that he can share with companies looking to create, update, or improve their own IoT technologies.

While CES focuses on the shiny new tech solutions and buzzwords, I wanted to look under the hood of these emerging technologies. Ed explores the real challenges and opportunities that surround the internet of things (IoT)

In today's conversation, we talk about the convergence of low-cost networking (NBIoT/Cat-M1) and how power-efficient highly capable edge nodes are changing the IoT landscape. We also explore the unique challenges of IoT in industrial control settings (harsh environments, legacy equipment, IT vs. OT, security).

As we look beyond the smoke and mirrors of the tech hype, we look beyond the impacts of 5G and talk about the role of Fog computing in a world where edge nodes are becoming more and more capable. We also dare to ask, do you need Machine Learning for your IoT application? Or is good old fashioned heuristics what you really need?

1080: The Artist and Event Database Aiming To Be The IMDb for Music Jan 14, 2020

According to Statista, live music industry revenue in the United States is on track to reach 11.99 billion USD in 2021 (up from 9.28 billion USD in 2015). But what setbacks could stall this foreseen growth? One of the greatest challenges plaguing the live music industry is a lack of robust data, a problem that live music data company Viberate is perfectly positioned to solve.

On the Viberate platform, entities are organized by event, festival, artist, venue, genre, subgenre, city, and country. Entities are crowdsourced with the help of over 20 thousand contributors, and each and every entry is then curated by a team of 70 full-time database curators.

Viberate also taps into the API's of major ticket vendors, which provide tens of thousands of events daily (contributors can add events manually as well). Artist profiles are also rich with content and always up-to-date, since Viberate sources the content from entities' official sources and enrich the content with metadata.

To date, the Viberate database includes 1/2 million artists, 1/2 million events, 150,000 venues, 5,000 festivals. But it's the success that it is delivering to artists that is the most impressive part of this startup story. But it's the success that it is delivering to artists that is the most impressive part of this startup story. Viberate Co-Founder and COO Vasja Veber joins me on the podcast to discuss how Viberate is solving a major pain point in the live music industry. Vasja tells me how "You can't develop anything using the current data in the live music business. It's just too unstructured. It's also hard to keep the information updated. Standardization is our only way forward."

Viberate aims to standardize and map the entire global ecosystem for live music, becoming something akin to IMDb, a single, verified, and artist-approved source for music information. To accomplish this, the Ljubljana-based startup uses a carefully calibrated mix of crowdsourcing and curation, and blockchain, incentivizing contributors and supporting artist control of assets and information.

"Blockchain has become the long-overdue catalyst for the music industry to update its policy and business models toward music-makers and to provide quick and seamless experiences for anyone involved in creating or interacting with music," notes Viberate advisor, blockchain advocate, and musical innovator Imogen Heap.

"Anything that involves music-makers being independent and having space where they can reach out to anybody who wants to make business directly with them is a really positive thing."

Vasja Veber explains how he and his team are doing for music what IMDb does for the movies.

1079: Meet ADA and The Automated Customer Experience (ACX) Jan 13, 2020

It seems that almost every website now has a chatbot. Some are quite good, but many create more frustrations than they solve. Meanwhile it has been reported that we all spend 43 days of our lives waiting on hold.

I wanted to get a company that stands out from the crowd in this area, and it didn't take long for me to find the perfect guest.

Ada, the market leader for Automated Customer Experience (ACX), is disrupting the customer service sector with a fundamentally new approach that brings an automation first strategy to drive cost savings and improved CSAT.

Ada replicates manual behavior with machine learning freeing up expensive agents to pursue more meaningful, urgent tasks on behalf of customers. With Ada's transformative approach to customer service, businesses are evolving their customer service departments from cost centers into profit centers.

Air Asia is an excellent example of the power of Ada's automation first strategy. They fly 100 million passengers per year and used to struggle with customer support wait times of more than one hour. Within 30 days of launching Ada, the wait time for customers is now less than one minute. AirAsia is now generating millions in annual revenues because they've automated meal plan purchases, ticket changes, and more.

In 2019, Ada was also included in Gartner's Competitive Landscape: Virtual Assistant Platforms, Worldwide and recognized as one of the leading vendors leveraging linguistics, machine learning, and knowledge programming to create conversational user experiences.

I invited Ruth Zive, Ada's head of Marketing, on to this daily tech podcast to learn more about how Ada is transforming how people work and how businesses design their customer service organizations.

1078: ARwall - Green Screen Replacement And Experiential Marketing Jan 12, 2020

Eric Navarrette, Chief Marketing Officer ARwall, joins me on the podcast to reveals how their augmented reality technology is fixing issues for entertainment studios that utilize a Hollywood staple: the green screen.

ARwall is an AR technology company that has created the first AR display that requires no headset, no goggles, no smart device. Its spatial imaging technology is four times faster than anything equivalent on the market.

The green screen replacement has already been used for projects by studios like Netflix, Syfy, and HBO, and made an appearance on the HBO series Watchmen red carpet. But problems does this tech really solve? Post-production can be time-consuming and expensive, often pushing film and television projects past deadlines and budgets. After spending over two decades founding startups and leading in the advertising space, ARwall Founder and CEO Rene Amador developed a breakthrough solution: digital backdrops that display realistic, VFX-heavy sets in real-time, with no "fix it in post" required. The invention spectacularly replaces the green screen.

The 'ARwall' significantly reduces editing costs and cuts down on filming time for production teams. With VFX that studios would have needed to add in post-production already present on-set, ARwall shortens project pipelines and budgets, helping film and TV projects stay on-pace with today's heightened viewing cycle.

ARwall is also helping solve problems for businesses in post-production with real-time technology, staying innovative in a fast-paced industry. Eric returns from CES after winning an award for 'Best AR Experience for ARwall' and reveals how they are using AR to transform an entire industry.

1077: How Trintech Is Transforming Financial Processes Jan 11, 2020

Learn How Trintech is Making Accounting Faster, More Efficient and Human.

Trintech Inc., a pioneer of Financial Corporate Performance Management (FCPM) software, combines unmatched technical and financial expertise to create innovative, cloud-based software solutions that deliver world-class financial operations and insights.

In today's episode, Derick Schaefer, the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Trintech joins me to talk about Trintech's mission to take the drudgery out of accounting, making it faster, more efficient and more human. We also talk about why the best kind of innovation comes from customers.

I learn more about his passion for causes outside of tech, including local theater and water conservation. He breeds cattle at his ranch in Texas too.

As Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Trintech, he is responsible for leading its software engineering, cloud operations, information technology, and information security functions. Schaefer has spent over 25 years in a variety of software leadership roles, including the last ten years running large scale SaaS and PaaS operations.

Before joining Trintech, Schaefer led engineering, information security, and compliance for Silicon-Valley based Digital Insight (an NCR Company) who provided online banking and mobile solutions for community financial institutions. Schaefer also received his Bachelor's degree in Liberal Arts from the University of Texas at Austin and his MBA from The University of Miami.

1076: Being Present And Transforming the Employee Experience Jan 10, 2020

On today's podcast, I want to spend some time thinking about the individuals who must "be present" every day to do their jobs as these are the unsung heroes that make up the majority of the global workforce.

However, they are not as frequently considered in discussions about work-life balance, career growth, employee experience, and creative benefits. A new book is daring to challenge yesterday's mindset while strategically looking at the future of work. It reveals eye-opening insights on the positive outcomes for employers who invest in their workers' experience.

"Being Present" challenges readers to consider the differences in the employee experience between laptop-toting office workers and the frontline workforce, with the goal of inspiring leaders to strategically and creatively build frontline workplace capability, development, productivity, flexibility, empowerment, and trust.

Written by some of today's most respected leaders and practitioners in human resources, workplace technology, and the future of work, the authors share new ways to create and build frontline workplace capability, productivity, performance, empowerment, and trust. Joyce Maroney joins me today to discuss these topics and much more.

Joyce Maroney is the executive director of the Workforce Institute at Kronos Incorporated. She founded the Workforce Institute in 2007 to provide a platform and forum to research and discuss workplace issues relevant to leaders of both salaried and hourly teams.

Workforce Institute content, including research, opinion pieces, and podcasts, can be found at www.workforceinstitute.org. Before joining Kronos in 2006, Joyce served as vice president of services, products, and recruitment outsourcing at BrassRing and held management positions in marketing, sales, and operations for companies such as Lotus/IBM, Software AG, and Wang Laboratories.

1075: MarTech - The Road Ahead For Customer Data Platforms (CDPs) Jan 09, 2020

Jason Davis is co-founder and CEO of Simon Data. Simon Data is a customer data platform (CDP) that provides enterprise marketers at brands including Blue Apron, Venmo, Equinox, and Peloton with live and personalized data to monitor purchasing trends and predict customer behavior.

These transformative brands are part of the fuel behind Simon's success recently marked with a fast follow $25M Series C funding round. On today's podcast, Jason discusses the state of the CX today – where it fails us, how CDPs are delivering on the promise of Big Data and Business Intelligence solutions.

“Over the last year or so, we have seen an uptick in older companies positioning themselves as CDPs to try to take advantage of the buzz around the category, without offering the capabilities of a true CDP. As the market matures, these follower companies have struggled to keep up - recent acquisition news around Acquia/AgilOne and Amperity/Custora is evidence of this.

However, these acquisitions do highlight the increasingly critical role customer data plays in driving marketing strategy, as well as the importance of having a competitive product in this new category." – Josh Neckes, President/Cofounder, Simon Data

After the recent Acquia / AgileOne acquisition news. Jason also shares his perspective on what this means for the industry and why we can expect to see more M&As in 2020.

I also learn how Simon Data his helping brands across industries achieve a unified customer view. On the subject of customer data privacy, we also discuss if CDPs will get to a place where we're not just okay for data to be shared.

1074: The Tech Transforming Employee Reimbursement For Mobile Workers Jan 08, 2020

Since 2005, the mobile-enabled workforce has grown 11 times faster than the total workforce, with more than 92 million mobile-enabled workers now in the U.S. alone and a growing number of companies allowing use of personal devices to make balancing the demands of work and personal life easier.

Motus recently announced the launch of a first-of-its-kind solution that makes it possible for companies to easily and accurately reimburse employees for the business use of their personal mobile devices. As the world’s foremost experts on reimbursement, Motus developed the Fixed and Variable Rate (FAVR) reimbursement methodology.

After the IRS recognized FAVR as a tax-free reimbursement option in 1992, Motus used it to transform how companies reimburse employees for personal vehicle use. With this new solution, Motus applies the same FAVR code to mobile devices for the first time, allowing companies to fairly, accurately and compliantly reimburse employees for this rapidly growing mixed-use asset class.

As recent trends in employment law now require employers to recognize even small tasks performed by employees on their personal devices as work, fair and defensible reimbursement is more important than ever. Organizations often face legal action over inaccurate expense reimbursement – and lawsuits have begun to include disputes over accurate mobile device reimbursement.

Motus CEO Craig Powell joins me on this daily tech podcast to discuss the announcement in further detail, including why he believes this is a huge stepping stone in helping to accommodate the needs of the future workforce.

Craig also discusses how the company’s recent acquisition of Wireless Analytics made this possible and shares the strategic vision Motus has for the future of reimbursement for mobile-enabled workforces.

Craig is the visionary of Motus with experience leading companies to achieving market leadership within their industries. As President and CEO, he is responsible for the vision, strategic direction, cultivation of key relationships and tone of the winning culture at Motus.

1073: Ghostery - How AdTech And Ad Trackers Slow Down Websites Jan 07, 2020

Did you know that every website has 15 seconds to keep the attention of its audience? As humans, our attention span is now less than that of goldfish at 8 seconds and your visitors will form an opinion about your site in 5 seconds. Finally, if your website fails to load within 3 seconds, users will leave and never return again?

What’s even more eye-opening is how much seemingly minute increments of additional load time actually impact the outcome. A mere 100s of difference can cause conversion rate to drop by 2.4%. A page loading 1 second slower can see their conversion rates plummet 21.8%, and a page loading 2 seconds slower could find 36.5% of their conversions lost.

If you want users to stay on your page, then statistics hurt even more – with a 2-second delay causing a 62.1% average increase in bounce rate. Meanwhile, many retailers are filling their websites with trackers that are increasing load times and creating negative experiences for their visitors.

These are a few areas that I wanted to explore on this daily tech podcast. Today I have invited Jeremy Tillman back onto the podcast from Ad Tracker experts Ghostery who recently released their 2019 Retail Tracker Tax Report. Ghostery revealed insights to analyze the specific tracker stack of 12 retailers’ websites to expose the hidden cost of certain trackers.

Ghostery found that many retail websites in this study suffered from frivolous trackers that were found to negatively impact customer experiences. Some of the worst-performing websites belonged to Everlane, Footlocker and Urban Outfitters, which all had the biggest discrepancies between default load time (load time with all trackers in place) and load time with trackers blocked – with a difference between load times of 6 seconds, 5 seconds and 5 seconds, respectively.

Although these three retailers did not have relatively high numbers of trackers on their websites among those analyzed, the trackers they did have were attacking performance. Jeremy reveals other findings from the report and much more.

1072: Healthcare Technology Trends and With Terry Rowinski Jan 06, 2020

The US healthcare system is one that I don't fully understand. But I have a few friends who have received a few big bills at the end of treatment, so I wanted to learn more about it. Technology is revolutionizing the healthcare industry with continuous advancements and procedures in the operating room. But, I also wanted to explore how it's influencing payments in healthcare. Health Payment Systems (HPS) is a Milwaukee-based company that has plans for a major expansion in 2020. The company enhances the healthcare billing experience for consumers, employers, and providers.

Terry Rowinski joins me today to talk about emerging healthcare technology. He provides insights on how emerging healthcare technology trends can enhance the patient experience through improved payment processes.

We also discuss the basics of stop-loss insurance, when to encourage clients to use level funding, and reducing costs with self-funded plans. But I also use the time t learn more about the tech startup scene in Milwaukee. Afterall Sharing is caring!

While Terry has spent the last five years in the healthcare and patient billing industries, his senior leadership has made a positive mark in logistics, E-commerce, and online retail, including guiding retail giant Kohl's Department Stores Inc.'s online merchandising launch as VP and GMM of E-commerce.

Terry's commitment to thriving work environments and amazing customer relationships has made him a highly sought-after motivational and keynote speaker for groups and events ranging from 5-5000.

1071: Pod - The Social Network That Wants You To Meet In Person Jan 05, 2020

The first generation of social media apps encouraged us all to take our friends, put them online, and communicate with them online. What would happen if we used technology to do the opposite and bring people together?

When I learned that anew social networking platform called Pod wants to help users make connections the old-fashioned way by leaving our homes and meeting in person for a face to face conversation, I felt compelled to find out more.

I quickly learned that Pod has already gained over 5 million users on its web platform and also recently launched a free app for iOS & Android. I invited Dr. Jo Webber, serial software entrepreneur, and the founder and CEO of Pod onto this daily tech podcast, to learn more about the social networking platform that puts people on the map.

We discuss how technology is creating loneliness among millennials and why meeting face to face is key to business networking. I also learn more about exactly what Pod is and how the platform helps users make friends easily in real life.

Jo has a wealth of executive and software product experience, having served as the chief executive officer for multiple private and public software companies in the fintech, cybersecurity, and scientific software markets.

Jo is also the Chairman of the Board for the Los Angeles - based Saas company Edlio and also serves on a non-profit board. Before Pod, Jo founded the youth digital payment B-C startup, Oink. Forbes featured Oink as the Paypal for Kids in 2012, and the Oink app won the SIIA Codie Award for the Best Commerce Solution in 2015.

Jo was also the recipient of the Woman of the Year in Technology award in 2014 from the International Business Awards group. She graduated from Nottingham Trent University with a BS in Chemistry and a Ph.D. in Quantum Physics.

1070: The Digital Intelligence Platform Improving Customer Experiences Jan 04, 2020

In 2015, Mario Ciabarra founded Quantum Metric to help enterprises understand where they can improve their digital customer experience. Previously founding and exiting an APM startup that solved where enterprise applications can be improved, Mario saw the natural next step was to solve where the entire digital journey could be improved too.

Here in 2020, Quantum Metric's Digital Intelligence Platform gives cross-functional teams real-time, out-of-the-box insights to easily and proactively identify, prioritize and act to help their clients maximize the business impact of their web and native apps.

I wanted to learn more about how the platform's intelligent analysis enables modern enterprises to deliver exceptional online experiences quickly. Mario joins me on the podcast to talk about how businesses can make the most of customer data to tell the story of digital consumer experience for companies. Mario shares his passion for understanding what's causing customers the most amount of frustration that has the most significant impact on the business, and getting executives to put themselves in the customer's shoes – basically feeling their pain – and matching that to business impact.

For example, if a website has an issue with its search feature that affects 2 million customers vs. an issue with it's Check Out/Shopping Cart page that's affecting 500 customers and actively costing a brand money, the latter should be prioritized. It's a game of working smarter, not harder and using time effectively.

Join Mario Ciabarra and me as we discuss how businesses can overcome large-scale technology challenges to thrive and survive in the experience economy.

1069: The Role of CISO and How Businesses Should Prioritize Data Risks Jan 03, 2020

Conversations around data and privacy are already dominating conversations in 2020. We have already discussed the impacts of the California Consumer Privacy Act CCPA and GGDPR on yesterday's episode, and today I want to explore how businesses should prioritize data risks to their business.

YL Ventures accelerates the evolution of portfolio companies via strategic advice and U.S.-based operational execution, leveraging a powerful network of Chief Information Security Officers and global industry leaders. The firm's track record includes successful, high-profile portfolio company acquisitions by major corporations, including Palo Alto Networks, Microsoft, CA, and Proofpoint.

Roger Hale is YL Ventures' CISO-in-Residence. In this role, he imparts his 30 years of industry experience towards the firm's due diligence process by vetting candidates and concepts in the pipeline and its value-add services to its portfolio companies.

Roger proactively supports the ideation processes of up and coming entrepreneurs, advises them on the industry's greenfield opportunities, and helps YL Venture portfolio companies remove communication roadblocks with customers, refine their positioning, and validate their go-to-market strategies.

Previously, Roger directed and managed the global information security, risk, and compliance of some of hi-tech's most notable players. Most recently, this included his position as VP and CISO at Informatica. Prior to this, he served as CISO at Inkling Systems, Senior Director of Security Architecture and Engineering at Symantec, and the first ISO at Brocade Communications.

Roger's legacy in technology and information security extends across multiple verticals, including financial services, healthcare, eCommerce, biotech, and education. He has a proven track record of delivering effective strategies that align information lifecycle management with specialized business objectives, information assurance, and risk management.

1068: Is Your Website Ready For The California Consumer Privacy Act? Jan 02, 2020

Exploring the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) With Vanessa Wu, Rippling's General Counsel

The Global Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) caused significant confusion and forced companies to clean up their act online when it was introduced in Europe last year. Now, a new set of regulations, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), is about to go live in 2020 and is giving businesses something else to worry about.

As we continue to redefine the entire landscape of how online user data is to be handled, I explore the impacts of the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) With Vanessa Wu, Rippling's General Counsel.

I also learn how Rippling is the first way for businesses to manage their HR & IT — from payroll and benefits to employee computers and apps — all in one, modern system.

In 90-seconds, a company can onboard a new employee and set up their payroll, health insurance, work computer, and third-party apps like Gmail, Microsoft Office, and Slack. It's the only platform that unifies every employee system and automates the administrative work behind each.

Vanessa Wu currently serves as the General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of Rippling, the first employee data system of record across all of a company's HR and IT systems. In this role, she oversees all legal and compliance issues, including corporate governance, product counseling, and regulatory compliance, and influences emerging privacy legal frameworks and data protection strategy. Prior to Rippling, Vanessa was the General Counsel at LiveRamp, Inc. (NYSE:RAMP), a global leader in identity resolution and data marketplace services for the advertising and marketing ecosystem. Vanessa also previously worked in private practice at the international law firm Latham & Watkins LLP, where she advised technology companies on high-stakes litigation, merger control, and regulatory proceeds involving the intersection of antitrust, data protection, and privacy. Vanessa graduated, cum laude, from Princeton University, and from the UCLA School of Law, where she was order of the Coif. Vanessa is also a Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP/US) and serves on the advisory board of the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP).

1067: CareTech - How WeMa Provides Wellbeing For Businesses Jan 01, 2020

Vivek Patni, CEO, and Co-Founder of Lavanya Plus, joins me on my daily tech podcast to talk about the recent launch of WeMa Care. The new CareTech solution is aimed at helping businesses – including fintech heavyweight Global Payments – to provide advice, support, and referrals so informal carers can arrange care services on behalf of their loved ones. For context, there are 8 million informal carers in the UK, with 18% of full-time workers also providing some form of unpaid care for someone close to them; of them, 88% say their employer provides no support; 46% feel lonely or isolated as a result of their caring responsibilities, and 82% do not feel comfortable talking about their caring responsibilities at work. Vivek reveals why he believes that CareTech could ease the ever-increasing pressure faced by informal carers. He also believes that such technology can also help businesses to offer some long-overdue support to employees, who currently feel torn between fulltime employment and care responsibilities. As we approach the cold winter months that will impact vulnerable individuals and, consequently, the people who care for them, I explore how CareTech could help employers provide greater support to their families.

1066: temtum - Cryptocurrency on the Temporal Blockchain Network Dec 31, 2019

Try to imagine a decentralized financial future where banks are irrelevant and the people hold the power. Today's guest is on a mission to fight the status quo is turning this vision into a reality.

Richard Dennis is the founder and CEO of TemTum (TemTum.com), the efficient, quantum-secure, ultra-fast, and environmentally friendly cryptocurrency. He is a globally recognized cybersecurity and cryptography expert and one of the world's leading lecturers on secure networks, blockchain, and encryption.

Dennis has a significant body of published research. He delivers presentations on next-generation solutions across a wide range of subjects, including Bitcoin wallet vulnerability, an analysis into the scalability of Bitcoin and Ethereum, and a formal analysis of the Temporal block.

As a former member of the Cypherpunk community at 16, Dennis went on to study Mathematics and Computer Science before becoming the world's youngest cryptography lecturer at the University of Portsmouth.

For cryptocurrency, blockchain needs to take the next step in its evolution. I learn how temtum is aiming to do just that by helping to secure a truly distributed, decentralized, and democratic future for finance where transactions are secure, traceable, transparent using the quantum attack resistant architecture that their experts are world leaders in.

Built on years of academic research, we discuss how temtum features unmatched security and maximum transaction times of 12 seconds, plus no risk of a 51% attack.

I also learn how temtum is set to announce the launch of its web wallet, which allows any internet-connected (from phones to cars) to conduct crypto transactions. During one recent test, temtum turned a BMW into a full-service node on the network, facilitating device-to-car payments.

1065: How Unqork Is Driving the No-Code Enterprise Revolution Dec 30, 2019

Unqork is the industry pioneer no-code enterprise application platform that helps large companies build, deploy, and manage complex applications without writing a single line of code.

Companies like Liberty Mutual, Goldman Sachs, and John Hancock are using Unqork's drag-and-drop interface to build enterprise applications faster, with higher quality, and lower costs than conventional approaches.

Unqork first appeared on my radar when it recently closed an $80 Million Series B Funding Round Led by CapitalG. I wanted to find out more about the story behind the company and how this latest funding round is driving the no-code enterprise revolution.

Unqork CEO Gary Hoberman talks about how they enable brands to bring complex, regulated products to market without writing a single line of code. Gary is a 24-year financial technology veteran, holds eight patents, was the youngest-ever MD at Citigroup, and is a nationally recognized thought leader, having been featured in such publications as Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Forbes, and Financial Times. Prior to Unqork, Gary was Executive Vice President and Global CIO for MetLife, overseeing technology across 47 countries and managing a $1.2 billion budget. Gary Hoberman has spent the last 24 years helping top financial institutions bring transformative solutions to market.

1064: How To Declutter Your inbox And Embrace Conversational Email Dec 27, 2019

As you all know, the ways we interact as humans are continually evolving. However, Email, the most dominant form of contact in today's world, has not adapted to the fast-paced communication of the 21st century.

If you're like me, you have Outlook for work emails, a Gmail for personal emails, a Slack for team collaboration, and a Skype for client meetings. Consistently flipping through apps is time-consuming and honestly fairly annoying.

In today's episode, I learn how Spike is a one-of-a-kind platform that combines emails, chats, calls, team collaboration, and tasks – all in one place.

Dvir Ben-Aroya is the co-founder and CEO of Spike. He has over 20 years of executive experience leading technology and internet companies. As an entrepreneur, he is passionate about creating SaaS businesses and nurturing them throughout their entire lifecycle. When he's not talking about how to improve modern communication, you can find him surfing with friends or running after his three boys.

Dvir joins me on this daily tech podcast to share why they set out to tackle the problem, going where no other email platform had gone before and created the world's first conversational Email. Could upgrading the way we work, save our teams time, sanity, and a lot of headaches?

As we are at the time of year where we are all open to change and setting goals to reach inbox zero, I learn more about how we could all declutter our inboxes with Spike if we embrace conversational Email.

1063: The CleanTech Making It Easy and Profitable Stop Climate Change Dec 26, 2019

On this daily tech podcast, I enjoy exploring how technology is transforming our world. But what if tech could actually change the world for the better?

Meet a global CleanTech 100 company making it easy and profitable for building owners to help stop climate change. Carbon Lighthouse is on a mission to stop climate change by making it easy and profitable for building owners to eliminate carbon emissions caused by wasted energy.

The company’s unique approach to Efficiency Production goes deep into buildings to uncover and continuously correct hidden inefficiencies that add up to meaningful financial value and carbon elimination that lasts.

Established in 2010, the company has served over 500 buildings, cutting the carbon emissions equivalent of three power plants and delivering an average financial return of 14%. Our clients include Tesla, Kilroy Realty, Durst, Related, Stanford University, Wilson Meany, and Dostart Development.

Transforming the way energy is used in commercial buildings is one of the most impactful ways to make a difference. Commercial real estate contributes 20% of US annual carbon emissions. At Carbon Lighthouse, they approach the challenge by first focusing on reducing and cleaning the energy consumption of the built environment.

I wanted to learn more about how to amplify the environmental impact of each engagement; their non-profit arm participates in government auctions to reduce the supply of pollution permits available to power plants in the United States.

Brenden Millstein, CEO at Carbon Lighthouse, joins me on this daily tech podcast. I learn more about how two Berkeley natives not only became fast friends; they went on to become lab partners in middle school and later donned coats and goggles together in the physics department at Harvard University.

They discovered they had everything they needed right in front of them, both the means and the motivation to form a catalyst for change.

1062: The Tech Blog Writer's Alternative Christmas Speech Dec 25, 2019

I also answer a few questions from listeners to this daily tech podcast.

1061: The Airbnb on Water Making Waves In The Experience Economy Dec 24, 2019

The rise of the experience economy is changing how we travel and where we stay on our trips. Rather than walking into a faceless lobby of a hotel and soulless room for a few nights, people are looking for something unique with character that is Instagram worthy.

GetMyBoat is leveraging technology to change the way the world goes boating by powering the largest boat rental and charter marketplace. With over 130,000 listings in 184 countries and 9,300 locations, there is an experience for new boaters and seasoned sailors alike.

Launched in San Francisco in 2013, GetMyBoat empowers owners of every type of watercraft, from kayaks and sailboats to powerboats and yachts, to post their watercraft for rent or charter. From California to Croatia, their users can search, find, and book their dreamboat. Experience the water.

The company is on a mission to use technology to open up the world of boating for both renters and owners. Boating enthusiasts get the benefits of worldwide inventory without the cost or headache of ownership. And as the average boat is only used 8% of the year, boat owners get the chance to make owning a boat more affordable by earning some income from their under-utilized asset.

GetMyBoat has been described as both Uber and Airbnb on water. I invited Val Streif, head of marketing for GetMyBoat onto the podcast to find out more about how this easy-to-use app, for boat lovers all around the world had sent over 60,000 people out on the water.

I also learn more about how the app is pushing for standardization of the boat rental industry as a whole and putting systems in place for captain verification, price transparency, and other areas.

1060: How Performance Monitoring Can Drive Business Growth Dec 23, 2019

Monitoring unlocks new pathways to growth by expanding what's possible for businesses and advancing the technology behind them. LogicMonitor seamlessly monitors infrastructures, empowering companies to focus less on problem-solving and more on evolution.

I wanted to learn more about how they help customers turn on a complete view in minutes, turn the dial from optimization to innovation, and turn the corner from sight to vision. Mark Banfield joins me on the reveals all on my daily tech podcast.

We discuss the changing nature of today's work environment and how it is causing organizations to evaluate the best ways to monitor their IT infrastructure. I also learn the most common mistakes businesses make in IT performance monitoring.

However, LogicMonitor is much more than just another SaaS-based performance monitoring platform. We also discuss how performance monitoring is also being used to help business growth and the migration of workloads into the cloud, etc. I also learn more about LogicMonitor's recent announcement around an early warning system for AIOps.

Mark is a seasoned leader with a history of developing international go-to-market strategies for high-growth businesses. He comes to LogicMonitor from Autotask (acquired Vista in 2014 and merged with Datto in 2017), where he was most recently Senior Vice President and General Manager, International.

In his previous role, Mark was responsible for establishing and operating all international offices and grew Autotask's international business to around 50% of the total company's revenue. Prior to Autotask, Mark held various sales management roles at Innopath and SmartTrust.

1059: Crowdtesting and Improving Digital Quality of Experiences Dec 22, 2019

It feels like every business and brand are increasingly focussing on creating unique digital customer experiences to provide the wow factor. As the experience economy gathers place, we need to remember that we can only improve what we can measure. But is there a way to test the effects of these new experiences that we are creating?

Applause, the worldwide leader in digital quality and crowdsourced testing, helps hundreds of leading brands improve the quality of their digital experiences by testing with real users, on real devices, in native languages, under real conditions.

Applause recently launched Applause Labs, the industry's largest innovation team dedicated to the quality and testing of applications. Applause Labs also released the first and only enterprise-quality benchmarking tool – the Applause Quality Score (AQS).

Leveraging 11+ years of data on digital quality issues, the AQS will deliver insights into clients' overall quality at the build, release, and product level, along with other benchmarking features. This is the future of digital quality and will impact most of the apps on your phone right now.

I invited Doron Reuveni onto the podcast to talk about how important digital quality is to brands today, and how Applause Labs and the AQS will empower these businesses to meet their customers' high expectations for digital quality.

Doron Reuveni is the Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Applause. Since founding Applause (formerly uTest) in 2007, Doron has led the creation of the crowdtesting market and solidified Applause's position as the market leader. Doron's leadership has made him an internationally-recognized expert in software development, testing, and entrepreneurship.

Although the idea of "in-the-wild" software testing through a crowdsourcing model was a radical notion when Applause was founded, today, it has become an integral part of the software development process for thousands of companies worldwide.

Under Doron's leadership, Applause has evolved into an enterprise-grade solution, meeting the complex requirements of the world's most influential brands. Doron's vision has transformed Applause into the digital quality leader through expanded product offerings, investment in its SaaS platform, and growth in our global community of vetted digital experts.

1058: Live Commerce - Building a Live-Streaming Broadcast App Dec 21, 2019

Wowza Media Systems is the recognized gold standard of streaming, with more than a decade of experience working with 35,000+ organizations in 170+ countries.

Retailers must adapt to thrive and survive in the digital world. They also need to ramp up their efforts quickly if they are serious about genuinely connecting with their customers.

I recently read a case study outlining how global retailer Jewelry.TV (JTV) adapted their sales strategy to connect with their changing consumer demographic. This change has resulted in significant success for the retailer.

Just as online shopping transformed retail twenty years ago, live streaming plays an integral role in transforming e-commerce today. Dubbed live commerce, this convergence of video and shopping helps close the gap between customer and product, improve engagement, and drive sales.

Demographic shifts spurred this digital transformation. By letting customers select when, where, and how they engage — be it on their living room television or a mobile app while riding the subway — JTV broadened their reach to attract a younger population.

Wowza Media Systems was the company that built the platform, so I invited David Stubenvoll, Chief Executive Officer and Cofounder on this tech podcast to discuss the study and help offer guidance for other retailers looking to invest in technology to drive sales.

David Stubenvoll is a streaming-industry veteran, launching Wowza Media Systems with Charlie Good to fill a stark void in the industry: the lack of flexible, robust media server software on which to build reliable streaming.

Wowza is Dave’s fifth new business venture, having previously served as entrepreneur in residence at Adobe Systems and as CEO/cofounder of Freeworks. Dave has also held senior positions at Intuit and served as president of GALT Technologies (an Intuit subsidiary).

1057: How DTCs Can Create Loyalty Through Subscriptions Dec 20, 2019

In the past year, subscription services have exploded from a niche market to a model that shoppers are familiar with – with brands like Dollar Shave Club and Hello Fresh gaining traction – now over half of online shoppers use subscription box services. But while shoppers are willing to in convenience and value over time, subscription churn rates are high, and consumers will quickly cancel services that are not delivering on their expectations. I invited Mike Schwartz from Scalefast to talk about the ways DTCs can navigate subscription services successfully?

We discuss how DTCs can create successful subscription services through: Specialization: Whether that means finding a niche or offering customization, curated, and personalized services that allow users to think less about the things they need.

Serving your current audience: Before offering subscriptions to the public, test the waters with current customers first who already trust your brand

Avoiding hiccups: Subscription customers value convenience– and will notice if there is a change in the quality of service. Rent the Runway’s recent mishap could have been avoided by planning for volume and logistics in advance, and putting backups into place to keep things running smoothly during upgrades.

I also learn more about the story behind Scalefast and how they plan to continue leveraging technology to empowering and help them thrive in a digital age.

1056: MarTech With Abhi Yadav, Founder and CEO at Zylotech Dec 19, 2019

Abhi Yadav, CEO and co-founder of Zylotech, a self-learning B2B customer data platform that was spun out of MIT joins me on Tech Talks Daily.

Zylotech is pioneering customer analytics, offering marketers the ability to engage their customers on a deeper and more personal level than most other martech. The Zylotech CDP Platform transforms how marketers can completely understand their customers through data.

Powered by AutoML, the platform unifies internal and external data, and enables ongoing micro-segmentation, non-obvious pattern discovery, and recommendations. Results can be activated through most marketing tools to be used in cross/upselling and retention marketing.

Zylotech has been at the forefront of solving customer retention problems since launching out of MIT by experts and industry veterans in 2014. Headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Zylotech has grown to include a world-class team of data scientists, engineers, and product development leaders.

Abhi is a tech entrepreneur with experience at many stages of the lifecycle - startup/bootstrap, VC and M&A. He's worked with enterprise brands across retail, tech, and financial sectors, including Dell, Palo Alto Networks, Keurig, Staples, Oracle, Cisco, Staples, and others. He is an engineer with an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management.

In addition to general entrepreneurial and tech topics, Abhi and I discuss the findings from a new report from The Relevancy Group, which revealed that 83% percent of marketers using a CDP has seen significant improvements in business as a result.

I learn more about technology's impact on the transformation of the overall marketing organization. We also explore how marketers can bridge the gap between customer data and analytics -- a pain point that's rapidly growing in today's marketing landscape.

1055: BIOLIFE4D - Bioprinting Human Hearts for Transplant Dec 18, 2019

I chat with the CEO of a company that is perfecting the technology to make viable organ replacements a safe, accessible, and affordable reality.

Heart disease is the #1 cause of death in virtually all developed countries throughout the world, but one company looking to change the way we treat heart disease is BIOLIFE4D. Based out of Chicago, BIOLIFE4D is a pioneering biotech company laser-focused on leveraging advances in life sciences and tissue engineering to 3D bioprint a viable human heart suitable for transplant – lifesaving technology that gives patients the gift of time.

Operated by seasoned business leaders and guided by world-class biomedical engineers and life sciences experts, BIOLIFE4D is driving a movement to transform the treatment of heart disease. I wanted to learn more about how they are perfecting the technology to make viable organ replacements a safe, accessible, and affordable reality.

While leading CMCS, Steven simultaneously conducted more than two years of in-depth research into the specific processes and technologies of the 3D bioprinting and regenerative medicine field – and quickly recognized the nearly unlimited financial and human potential of this emerging market.

Coupling his vast hands-on experience in medical manufacturing with extensive research and a partnership with industry-leading experts he formed BIOLIFE4D, a regenerative medicine 3D bioprinting company with the goal of facilitating the biological printing of viable human organs for utilization in patient-specific human transplantation.

Steven Morris joins me on Tech Talks Daily to talk about their recent milestone, the benefits of printing a mini heart, and how bioprinting can revolutionize healthcare, and this is the closest anyone's ever gotten.

1054: The Digital Nomad Story Behind Take Some Risk Dec 17, 2019

Duane Brown has been called a digital nomad by friends after living in 6 cities across three continents and visiting 40 countries around the world. After leaving Toronto, Canada in 2011 to gain an international view of the world, he has worked for Telstra in Australia and brands including ASOS, Mopp (bought Sept. 2014), Jack Wills and Grant Thornton while in London, UK.

After London, Duane went traveling in Asia for 10 weeks and then came back to Canada and got a job with Unbounce. That job allowed him to work on more PPC landing pages than any marketer in the world. He now lives in Montreal, Canada helping ecom & SaaS brands grow through data, CRO and marketing.

Duane runs a digital marketing agency called Take Some Risk. He has helped brands including ASOS, Jack Wills, and Mopp grow through PPC (pay per click) marketing and CRO. I invited him to join me on Tech Talks Daily to share his fascinating story.

We talk about how to grow any business through PPC campaigns and the digital marketing landscape. But, beyond the tech talk, we discuss Duane's traveling experience, and he visited 40-countries and working as a digital nomad.

1053: Emailage - Fraud Prevention Using Only An Email Address Dec 16, 2019

Emailage was founded in 2012 and is helping companies significantly reduce online fraud. Through key partnerships, proprietary data, and machine-learning technology, Emailage builds a multi-dimensional profile associated with a customer’s email address and renders a predictive risk score. Customers realize significant savings from identifying and stopping fraudulent transactions.

I invited Rei Carvalho, CEO & Founder at Emailage joins me on Tech Talks Daily to share the story behind the company and reveals why an email can be the most important weapon in your fraud prevention arsenal?

Rei is an experienced entrepreneur and the founder of Emailage. He is a computer scientist with more than 20 years of experience in data security, effective software creation, and efficient management. Rei also enjoys playing drums, soccer, and spending time with his family and friends.

1052: The VC Firm Investing in Early Stage Technology Companies Dec 15, 2019

Wildcat Venture Partners seeks the wildcatters of the 21st century (tech entrepreneurs) who prospect, refine, and monetize digital oil (data) to become the next market disruptors and category leaders.

The company invests in B2B and B2B2C startups leveraging key technologies such as Machine Learning/AI, IoT, and Cloud & Mobility in the following markets: Digital Health, EdTech, Enterprise SaaS, and FinTech. But I wanted to learn more about the story behind Wildcat and obtain valuable insights for startup founders who listen to this daily tech podcast.

Bryan Stolle is a Founding Partner at Wildcat, where he focuses on investments in FinTech, EdTech, quant marketing, and technology that addresses elder care. His specific areas of interest include software as a service (SaaS) and platforms that enable alternative credit, payments, and insurance, as well as those that support the post-K-12 educational market and the growing elder care market. Concurrently, he is a General Partner at Mohr Davidow Ventures, which he joined in 2007.

Growing up under two generations of self-made businessmen, Bryan’s work ethic and entrepreneurial spirit are deeply rooted in his youth. As a teen, he competitively raced motocross, taking on jobs delivering newspapers and making pizzas to support his racing passion. His early love of athletics has led him to view his role in venture capital as more of a coach or mentor to entrepreneurs who are embarking on a journey he’s also taken. When not at work, Bryan is a sports fan, cheering on his teams: the Texas Longhorns, Golden State Warriors, and San Francisco Giants.

A serial entrepreneur, Bryan, created more than $1 billion in realized liquidity for his investors as a founder. He oversaw the creation, go-to-market, and market growth of product and service offerings that have achieved more than $2 billion in revenues, and has raised more than $1 billion in venture, public market, and investment management capital.

As founder and CEO of Agile Software (formerly, NASDAQ: AGIL), Bryan led the creation of a new category now called product lifecycle management (PLM). He led the company through a public offering and secondary offering that raised over $500 million. He executed on almost two dozen private and public M&A transactions and steered a major strategy shift that led to the eventual acquisition of the company by Oracle.

1051: Identity Crisis: The Future of Password Security Systems Dec 14, 2019

Secret credentials are indispensable in the Internet-driven life. Text passwords/PINs are still the most used form of secret credentials. Biometrics is being promoted for authenticating the digital identity of the humans with text passwords/PIN as a fallback system. Text passwords seem insufficient but are not harmful.

Biometrics is insufficient and appears to be harmful in terms of data breach/stealing and spoofing. What can be a viable solution in this crisis situation?

Debesh Choudhury rejoins me on the Tech Talks Daly Podcast.

Debesh is a hardcore researcher and innovator with 24+ years of hands-on experience in defense research and information security. He also got 16+ years of experience in teaching electronics and communication engineering in the higher education arena.

Besides having a Ph.D. from Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, India, he also enjoyed his two years postdoctoral stint at the University of Electro-Communications, Tokyo, Japan. Debesh was fortunate to have collaborated with celebrated American Scientist late Prof. H. John Caulfield. In 2011, they invented a new direction “Artificial Color Perception using Microwaves.”

Debesh worked on 3D shape sensing and recognition for quite some time. His method paved down a way for 3D human face recognition. He also developed an asymmetric cryptosystem for privacy protected biometric security.

Since leakage of biometric databases can cause permanent damage to the citizens' privacy and security, and also biometrics is less reliable than text passswords, Debesh and a group of researchers are proposing to have a sustainable digital identity platform using a non-text graphical password system.

Debesh has formed a LinkedIn group "Identity Crisis: The Future of Password Security" to critically explore the field and find a sustainable identity solution.

1050: (Pocket) Money Management Re-imagined For Children Dec 13, 2019

In an increasingly cashless world and online banking, where do parents begin to teach your children how to manage cash? Rather than telling young people what they should be doing when it comes to money, the team at gohenry is helping kids learn the ropes for themselves.

The upshot is that our product gives kids a safe space to learn and occasionally make mistakes: no debt, no overdrawn accounts, and with the option for parents to jump in and help out if needed.

Ultimately, they want every child to graduate from gohenry with confidence, independence, and money sense. Most importantly, they want them to be fully prepared for the digital economy and the rise of a cashless society. But what is it?

gohenry is a debit card (Mastercard) and app with unique parental controls for young people aged 6 to 18, which helps them learn good money habits and empowers them to earn, save, spend, and give safely and responsibly.

Launched in the UK in 2012 with a mission to help millions of kids be good with money, gohenry was the world's first financial education tool built for the digital generation. gohenry launched in the US in partnership with Mastercard in 2018.

Founded by parents, designed for kids and teens, gohenry offers a debit card and app with unique parental controls for kids aged 6-18. Parents use gohenry to help their children spend safely and learn good money habits, and it also helps to make allowance easy and to spark positive conversations about money with their kids.

Dean Brauer, Co-founder & Executive Vice President at gohenry joins me on the show to share the story behind the company. I learn how gohenry was grown by a small group of friends who wanted a simple, meaningful, and common-sense solution for kids' money management.

1049: Toast - The Evolution Of Restaurant Technology and CX Dec 12, 2019

When Aman, Steve, and Jon first launched Toast as a consumer payments app for restaurants, they quickly found that they were blocked at every turn by tired, dated, legacy point of sale systems and that restaurants of all sizes were in search of a better solution. One that was easy to deploy could be accessed from anywhere, and intuitive to use.

In July of 2013, they launched Toast Point of Sale. Built on Android and based in the cloud, Toast was quickly embraced by the restaurant community in our hometown of Boston and grew quickly from there. Through word of mouth the growth of our community continued to accelerate.

In fact, to this day, 1 out of every 5 new restaurants on Toast comes as a referral from an existing customer. Today they remain passionately focused on serving our community of restaurateurs. I wanted to learn more about the story behind Toast and the evolution of restaurant tech as consumer preferences develop.

Steve Fredette is President and co-founder of Toast, where he leads product and innovation initiatives. Prior to Toast, he worked on mobile app development before the iPhone came out, creating the first Flickr and Shoebuy.com apps.

At Endeca, now Oracle, he co-founded their mobile commerce business, building the product team and driving sales, marketing, and services to over $10 million in revenue in two years. Today, we talk about the growth of voice ordering will impact restaurants in 2020. We also explore how technology up levels the customer experience in a restaurant setting.

1048: The Intersection of Innovation And Intellectual Property Dec 11, 2019

The International Trademark Association (INTA) is a global association of brand owners and professionals dedicated to supporting trademarks and related intellectual property (IP) to foster consumer trust, economic growth, and innovation.

Members include more than 7,200 trademark owners, professionals, and academics from 191 countries, who benefit from the Association's global trademark resources, policy development, education and training, and international network.

I try to use this podcast to unite the tech and business community to share insights and overcome real-world challenges with technology. So, when I heard that the International Trademark Association had a unique podcast focusing on innovation and intellectual property that featured Audrey Dauvet as a host, I felt compelled to find out more.

I wanted to learn how Audrey uses the medium to give the floor to individuals with a 360-degree vision to help brand owners, IP lawyers, and marketing and finance professionals (and beyond!) stay curious and agile in an ever-evolving environment.

The host of Brand & New joins me on the Tech Talks Daily Podcast to discuss the intersection of innovation and intellectual property, the impact of new technology on brand owners, intellectual property offices, and consumers. We also explore the ways she has and hoped to change her listeners' perceptions.

Audrey also built and implemented its anti-counterfeiting programs deployed in key markets around the world. She then became Vice President Legal, Compliance & Corporate Affairs for Pernod Ricard Americas, in New York.

1047: How d1g1t Is Closing The Gap In Analytics Technology Dec 10, 2019

d1g1t is an enterprise-level wealth management platform engineered to meet the needs of all firms providing investment advice, managing investment portfolio or selling wealth management products to individual investors and families.

d1g1t has already signed 11 clients responsible for managing approximately CAD$50 billion of assets under management (AUM). The company signed its first US client - BBR Partners - ranked #8 on Barrons’ Top 50 RIA Firms for 2019. The company is currently speaking with several large banks and building on its momentum to expand its footprint in the U.S.

The firm also recently announced a strategic partnership with CI Financial, an independent Canadian company offering global asset management and wealth management advisory services. As part of the agreement, CI will deploy the d1g1t technology platform across the firm’s advisory businesses and is making an equity investment in d1g1t equal to 9.5% of the company.

This builds upon their Series A financing which saw Purpose Financial, Extreme Venture Partners, Portag3, Illuminate Financial, angel investors and d1g1t clients invest over CAD$12M to fund the continued growth of its enterprise wealth management platform. I felt compelled to find out more about how d1g1t is transforming this space through technology.

An Internationally recognized Quant and Fintech entrepreneur, Dr. Dan Rosen is also an Adjunct Professor of Mathematical Finance at the University of Toronto, and was the first Director of the Center for Financial Institutions at the Fields Institute.

Dan has also worked with numerous financial institutions around the world, lectures extensively on risk and portfolio management, financial engineering, and Fintech innovation, and has authored numerous research publications and several patents.

In 2010, he was inducted a Fellow of the Fields Institute for his “outstanding contributions to the Fields Institute, its programs, and to the Canadian mathematical community”. Dan was the co-founder and CEO of R² Financial Technologies, acquired by S&P Capital IQ in 2012.

1046: Meeting The Demand For AI-Enabled Products and Solutions. Dec 09, 2019

ABBYY is an innovator and leader in artificial intelligence (Al) technology including machine learning and natural language processing that helps organizations better understand and drive context and outcomes from their data.

The company sets a goal to grow and strengthen its leadership positions by satisfying the ever-increasing demand for AI-enabled products and solutions. Its technologies are used by thousands of enterprises in finance, insurance, transportation, healthcare and other industries, helping organizations make intelligent business decisions.

Research firm Cognilytica reported that between documents, images, emails, online data, and videos, up to 90% of the content in the enterprise is in the form of unstructured data, which is growing at an astounding 55%-65% per year. At the recent ABBYY Content IQ Summit in Nashville, attendees learned about the use of A.I. to transform and process unstructured and structured data. This is extremely important because if you think about any customer-facing process, it consists of unstructured content.

ABBYY Chief Innovation Officer Anthony Macciola joins me on the Tech Talks Daily Podcast to share how businesses are leveraging A.I. enabled skills to understand enterprise content and processes. Deloitte, KPMG and other companies will be there sharing their experiences using A.I. in their content.

We discuss the future of automation and the impact of robotic process automation (RPA), and how businesses are leveraging AI-enabled skills to understand enterprise content and processes to make intelligent business decisions.

1045: MarTech Interview - Gio Gallo, Co-CEO at ComplianceLine Dec 08, 2019

For over 20 years ComplianceLine has been the premier provider of ethics and compliance solutions. ComplianceLine’s continuous improvement culture and pursuit of quality over short term profit affords clients the industry’s best tools in assisting the identification of unethical, illegal and questionable behavior.

The ComplianceLine team provides helpline and sanction screening services in 50,000 locations worldwide through highly trained, tenured, and caring compliance- minded professionals focused on improving the lives of our clients through excellent service. ComplianceLine clients include many of the largest healthcare and higher education organizations in the world.

Giovanni Gallo, Co-CEO of ComplianceLine, joins me on The Tech Talks Daily Podcast. We explore the use cases and how technology is transforming multiple industries. I also learn why these services are critical across industries from higher education to energy to finance and insurance.

Giovanni Gallo's career has included working in innovative startups and advising multinational companies on strategic growth initiatives. While guiding growth-oriented healthcare providers (home health, infusion, institutional pharmacy, and healthcare IT). This enabled him to understand the impact that compliance can have as a key driver of quality and key to helping organizations achieve their mission.

As Co-CEO and Chief Development Officer of ComplianceLine, Giovanni enjoys seeing people thrive in the workplace by developing solutions that enable compliance professionals to be more effective in their jobs so they can successfully protect their teams and meaningfully serve their missions.

1044: Solve.Care: The Healthcare Blockchain Platform Dec 07, 2019

Solve.Care is a global healthcare blockchain technology company. Using innovative approaches, they are working to solve the complex problems that plague healthcare around the world.

The Solve.Care journey began when they realized that the current healthcare system is failing us. Too complex and involving too much bureaucracy, the system is unbearable, even for the healthy. If you or a loved one becomes ill, then you unavoidably become mired in an endless cycle of attempting to coordinate medical care.

For these reasons, they began to build a patient-centric platform, one that actually connects people, and coordinates benefits, care, and payments. Since setting off on this journey, they have built a global community of tens of thousands and growing.

Today, the core Solve.Care team numbers over 100 full-time specialists, working worldwide, with hundreds more contractors and advisors. Solve.Care was also awarded the Most Innovative Blockchain Project Award at the Blockchain Life 2019 Forum in Singapore.

Solve.Care CEO Pradeep Goel is a healthcare executive with a relentless focus on improving the administration, coordination, quality, and efficiency of care. He is also armed with over 25 years of healthcare experience as CEO, COO, CIO and CTO in insurance, benefits administration and public programs.

Pradeep has been passionate about designing and building solutions for public programs, such as Medicaid, the Children Health Insurance Program, Medicare, SNAP/TANF, the Child Welfare Program, and other health insurance and health information exchanges.

In his time, he has built four healthcare IT companies and taken them to the top of Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500, INC500/5000 fastest-growing companies vlists multiple times. Pradeep is also in the rankings of the 100 Most Promising Entrepreneurs Worldwide, as compiled by Goldman Sachs.

I invited Pradeep onto this tech podcast to learn more about Solve Care and what motivated him to establish a decentralized healthcare platform built on blockchain technology.

1043: Aligning the Supply Chain In The Age Of The Delivery Economy Dec 06, 2019

As consumers, we have an insatiable desire for instant gratification. Any book, TV show, movie, or album that pops in your head can be on your device in seconds. You can grab a date on Tinder, meal on OpenTable, flight to Paris, hotel room all using the smartphone. But as a business, how can you meet these rising expectations?

Supply chain professionals are feeling the pressure of customer demands for faster, cost-effective, and more transparent delivery. On today's podcast, I want to explore the very real pressures that are preventing supply chain professionals from meeting the expectations and demands of today's consumers.

A recent study called the "Delivery Economy Uncovering Misalignment In the Supply Chain" by project44 revealed that 73% of supply chain professionals are pressured to improve and expand delivery capabilities, requiring improved collaboration across stakeholders. I felt it was a topic I had to learn more about.

project44 CEO Jett McCandless joins me on the podcast and shares how he has been creating a digital infrastructure to eliminate inefficiencies. As project44's founder and CEO, I also learn how he has seen the problems in the logistics and delivery space firsthand every day for 20 years.

project44 is the world's leading advanced visibility platform for shippers and logistics service providers. It also connects, automates, and provides visibility into key transportation processes to accelerate insights and shorten the time it takes to turn those insights into actions.

Jett reveals how customers are leveraging the power of the project44 cloud-based platform and increasing operational efficiencies, reducing costs, improving shipping performance, and delivering an exceptional Amazon-like experience to their customers.

Connected to thousands of carriers worldwide and having comprehensive coverage for all ELD and telematics devices on the market, project44 supports all transportation modes and shipping types, including Parcel, Final-Mile, Less-than-Truckload, Volume Less-than-Truckload, Truckload, Rail, Intermodal, and Ocean.

1042: Sierra Wireless And The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) Dec 05, 2019

Sierra Wireless is the world's largest maker of wireless embedded modules and gateways and has shipped more than $150million devices worldwide. Sierra Wireless has helped thousands of companies connect millions of things and machines to the internet with customers ranging from energy to automotive to healthcare and enterprise.

Whether it is a solution to help a business securely connect edge devices to the cloud, or a software/API solution to help manage processes associated with billions of connected assets, or a platform to extract real-time data to make the best business decisions, Sierra Wireless works with their clients to create the right industry-specific solution for their next IoT endeavor.

Marc Overton is responsible for Sierra Wireless Solutions and Services and joins me on today's episode of The Tech Talks Daily Podcast. Marc joined Sierra Wireless in 2017 from Cisco Jasper, where he was Managing Director, Global Innovation and Sales for the Cisco IoT business.

Prior to this role, he was Head of Global Operator Strategy & Business Development at Cisco Jasper. Before joining Cisco Jasper, Marc was SVP and Co-GM, EMEA for First Data, where he launched connected payment solutions, and VP of Wholesale and IoT at EE, where he ran the MVNO business, which included 27 mobile partners hosting more than 6.5 million subscribers and generating 2.5 million IoT connections.

Earlier in his career, Marc held senior positions at Orange, as well as Hutchison 3G UK, Europe's first 3G mobile operator. Marc earned his undergraduate degree in Politics from the University of Exeter, an MPhil in International Relations from the University of Cambridge, and a Master of Business Administration from Henley Management College.

1041: The Concept-To-Launch Software Innovation Company Dec 04, 2019

In the age of AI, cloud computing, big data, analytics and mobile, anything seems possible. But creating real value fast means having the courage to act on the big ideas, and it means having the ability to rapidly and reliably build high-quality software that translates vision into reality. You bring the former. Originate the software development partner brings the latter.

“To us, success in innovation is never about having great ideas -- those are common. It’s about executing on those ideas in a way that compels people to avail themselves of that innovation. To do that, we must infuse design into every aspect of our business, from engineering to operations, and we’re thrilled to have Mirco lead us in this effort.” Brent Cohen, CEO of Originate.

The concept-to-launch innovation firm is behind some of the most meaningful digital transformations for both blue-chip firms and startups. But when I learned that the company has brought on renowned designer Mirco Pasqualini as its Global Head of Design, I felt compelled to invite him onto the show.

Mirco brings 25 years of experience leading a wide variety of clients in their design journeys. Most recently, he was Head of Design at Ogilvy for 6 years. He’s also held positions with R/GW and Arc Worldwide, and published a book in 2018, Agencies & Brands in the Experience Economy.

I learn more about how Originate designs and builds bespoke digital products to solve complex problems for the world’s most recognizable legacy brands and leading startups. As the technology industry's secret weapon for innovation, we also discuss how Originate guides organizations in future-proofing their businesses by turning disruptive ideas into real-world opportunities.

1040: IBM - Consumers Demand Businesses Protect Their Data Dec 03, 2019

Women are taught at a young age to be alert and aware in the real world, but now are learning to be more concerned with the data they are sharing online too. With women-centric apps including period and pregnancy trackers sharing sensitive data with Facebook or even employers, it is no surprise that women are concerned with their data privacy.

In fact, according to a recent IBM survey conducted by The Harris Poll, 83% of women feel it's important to be able to opt-out of having their data shared with third parties, while only 69% of males say the same. Other interesting highlights from the report

82% of females say it's important companies use encryption and identity theft protection security measures; 72% of males say the same
77% of female say it's important to have the ability to fully take back or retrieve personal data; 68% of males say the same
88% of females are concerned that their pictures shared on social media are compromised; 70% of males say the same
95% of females are concerned that their medical history is compromised; 86% of males say the same

I invited IBM's CTO of Data Privacy. Cindy Compert onto the podcast to discuss the survey. We also discuss why consumer apps should be focusing on women's concerns over data privacy.

Cindy is a technical visionary driven by wanting to make a difference around the world, advancing the health, safety, and well-being of others. She believes that Data Security and Privacy are key enablers to realizing the benefits of the digital and Cognitive enterprise.

Cindy is also an active member of the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP), a Certified Information Privacy Manager/Certified Information Privacy Technologist, and co-author of “Information Governance Principles and Practices for a Big Data Landscape”.

Report Details Harris Poll: www.ibm.biz/harrisprivacy2019 IBM Institute for Business Value, "Build Your Trust Advantage" study: www.ibm.biz/buildtrust

1039: The Digital Impacts of Brexit Dec 02, 2019

ExpressVPN recently revealed that 60% of Brits still feel unprepared for Brexit in its "Brexit: Consumer Digital Readiness Report." The study looks at the digital impacts of Brexit — including online shopping, access to content and data protection — and consumers' understanding of these issues.

It also reveals that most British do not fully comprehend the implications of Brexit, and 62% think that Facebook bears some responsibility for the outcomes of Brexit.

"There's a lot of discussion about Brexit, but what's missing is conversations around the potential digital impacts," said Harold Li, vice president, ExpressVPN. "With digital technology impacting almost every aspect of consumers' daily lives, it is no wonder that many, especially Millennials, are concerned about Brexit's impacts on their digital habits."

Millennials have also consistently had the most concerns across all three digital impacts of Brexit: online shopping, accessing content, and data protection. Millennials are also almost twice as likely to be worried about the digital implications of Brexit, with more than 80% of Millennials sharing concerns.

Interestingly, Baby Boomers have consistently ranked the lowest when it comes to awareness of the potential digital impacts of Brexit across all topics. Yet, they also claim to be the most prepared for Brexit, as compared to other age groups. 65% of Baby Boomers said they do not understand the full implications of Brexit, but 52% said they feel personally prepared for Brexit. The study was conducted by Propeller Insights on behalf of ExpressVPN. It was done in September 2019, with more than 1000 consumers in the UK, ages 18+. All survey responses were nationally represented to the UK population for age, gender, ethnicity, and region. See the overall raw data here, and the age breakdown of data here.

Harold Li joins me on my daily tech podcast to reveal more insights from the report and talk about the road ahead for ExpressVPN

1038: A New Digital Insurance Experience On The Smartphone Dec 01, 2019

The insurance industry is a 5 trillion dollar market worldwide that is highly digitizable. With a data-driven business model, a company called Getsafe sees itself as a technology company active in the insurance industry - not the other way around.

The company based in Heidelberg, Germany, is using technology and artificial intelligence to help people identify, organize and protect what they care most about in life: With a few clicks, customers can learn about, buy, and manage insurance on their smartphone – simple, social and fair by design.

Using a radical mobile-first approach, Getsafe has already achieved app usage rates four times higher than those of direct digital competitors: 35% of customers return to the app every month. Smart algorithms helps to identify insurance fraudsters at an early stage and to objectively design the insurance process for customers again.

Together with partners such as Munich Re and venture capital investors such as Earlybird, Getsafe is building one of the world's leading digital insurers. The company was founded in 2015 by Christian Wiens (CEO) and Marius Blaesing (CTO). I invited Marius on the show to learn more about the story behind GetSafe.

As the CTO and Co-founder of Getsafe technology and prototyping are what gets Marius fired up. I learn more about the digital insurance provider that is becoming the market leader for millennials in Germany and about to expand throughout Europe.

1037: What You Need To Know About Proofs Of Space Time (PoST) Nov 30, 2019

Spacemesh is a fairly-mined programmable cryptocurrency platform powered by a novel proof-of-space-time (PoST) consensus protocol which is provenly secure, proof-of-work free, race-free, and highly incentive-compatible.

The platform is designed to achieve three main objectives; to create a fair cryptocurrency that will become a global means of payment; to ensure the fair distribution of that cryptocurrency; and to establish a global programmable infrastructure for tokenized apps, communities and economies.

Spacemesh is created, maintained, and secured by ordinary people from around the world who run the software on their existing desktop computers. Anyone can join the decentralized Spacemesh blockchain computer without requiring permission, simply by committing some of the free space on their hard-drives. Running energy-density proof-of-work (PoW) computations or buying a dedicated expensive mining hardware is not required.

I wanted to find out more about how it is resistant to Application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) and has fewer barriers-to-entry than proof-of-stake (PoS) based blockchains. I also wanted to learn more about its vision to become the core Internet protocol for blockchain computation and is fully open-sourced.

Spacemesh co-founder Aviv Eyal joins me on the show to talk about the road ahead for the company. I learn how this entrepreneur and technologist has a passion for building consumer digital products and services that are useful, innovative, easy to use, and have a great user experience.

Aviv is also a universalist software designer that has a track-record building high-quality full-stack systems, native apps, server, and backend stacks all the way from conception, design, project management to production, and users growth with small teams and limited resources.

Over the years, he has been serving mainly in Co-Founder/CTO roles in innovative startups, where he always makes hands-on product and technology contributions while also driving the higher-level strategic technology decisions, team building, and growth, and IP.

1036: Virtana - The Truth About AIOps With John Gentry Nov 29, 2019

Virtual Instruments recently evolved into Virtana and continues to deliver the industry's only real-time monitoring and AIOps platform for mission-critical IT infrastructure — from the data center to the public cloud.

Virtana is the result of products and technologies from several different companies coming together: Virtual Instruments, Load Dynamix, Xangati and most recently Metricly and Netuitive. The combination of these entities has allowed us to become a leading provider of hybrid infrastructure monitoring, analytics and automation solutions.

John Gentry, Chief Technology Officer and SVP Business Development at Virtana returns to the Tech Talks Daily Podcast to share his unique perspective on the latest buzz-worthy technology: AI-assisted IT operations, also known as AIOps.

Much like the hype cycle we experienced with the cloud a few years back, we're now moving past the buzzword phase and into the reality of meaningful "smart technology" initiatives such as AIOps. John has witnessed that people are slowly but surely understanding that this technology may not be the 'easy button' they initially thought it was, but he can also speak to the value of true AIOps for helping companies maintain their extremely complex IT systems, thus resolving IT issues before a single customer is impacted. John also talks about the rebranding of the company and their mission to provide unprecedented visibility into the performance, health, and utilization of hybrid IT infrastructure — empowering their customers to guarantee the performance and availability of their mission-critical applications and proactively prevent application slowdowns and outages.

1035: Why Documents Are The Key To Digital Transformation Nov 28, 2019

Conga is the leader in end-to-end Digital Document Transformation (DDX). The Conga Digital Document Transformation Suite drives segment-leading ROI by simplifying and automating intelligent data, documents, contracts, signing and reporting.

In a nutshell, the company has a reputation for automating business productivity through end-to-end Digital Document Transformation. Conga recently made two announcements that captured my attention in the tech headlines. The first is a recent study with Vanson Bourne that found that the key to unlocking the potential of digital transformation is something organizations spend countless hours in every day, but may easily overlook: documents.

In fact, documents are so imperative to a business’ success that according to the research, 89% of organizations say the key to successful digital transformation is getting a grip on their everyday documents. Conga also recently announced an integration with Salesforce Manufacturing Cloud to help manufacturing companies better their sales processes and achieve greater visibility in the contract process – a key step in successful digital transformation.

Daniel Incandela is CMO at Conga and a former guest which officially makes him a friend of the show. I invited him back onto this daily tech podcast for a much-needed catch-up. A creative, strategic thinker, Daniel has more than 15 years of digital and marketing industry leadership experience.

Daniel has led creative teams across myriad industries including the arts, sports and entertainment, sales, cloud, and marketing automation, which has earned him industry awards and a designation on the prestigious Indianapolis Business Journal’s Forty Under 40 list.

Daniel also previously served as CMO at Return Path, and held leadership roles at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, ExactTarget, and Salesforce Marketing Cloud.

1034: How Tech Is Helping B2B Manufacturers Craft Digital Experiences Nov 27, 2019

Kula Partners is an agency that helps B2B manufacturers digitally engage buyers, serve customers, and outsource their competition online and Synchrostack enables organizations using WooCommerce to integrate their online store to any other system in their business.

I wanted to learn more about how Kula Partners is committed to helping B2B manufacturers craft digital experiences that transform how they engage buyers, serve customers, and outpace their competition online. So I invited them onto the show and they happily obliged.

Jeff White, the co-founder of Kula Partners and developer of Synchrostack and he joins me on the show today. Jeff is a cool Canadian who provides real-world examples of how technology is transforming businesses and reshaping industries, especially in the international manufacturing sector.

A User Experience (UX) and usability expert, Jeff began building sites for the web over 25 years ago. He leads the design and development practice at Kula Partners, Canada’s first Platinum HubSpot Partner agency. A number of years ago, Jeff returned to NSCAD University as a sessional professor, bringing his understanding of web standards to a new generation of design students.

Jeff is also a passionate advocate for usability and an open web that is accessible to everyone, Jeff frequently speaks on web design, usability, accessibility, marketing and sales at events such as HubSpot’s Inbound conference. He is also the co-host of The Kula Ring, a weekly podcast that focuses on talking technology, marketing and sales with some of the most interesting minds in manufacturing marketing.

However, in today's episode of the Tech Talks Daily podcast, Jeff shares how he leverages technology with his manufacturing clients and how he helps them overcome challenges with emerging technology.

1033: Hide and Seek: Malicious Websites Hidden in Plain Sight Nov 26, 2019

Imagine you're surfing the web to read about the latest round of political debates, catch the score from last night's football game, or even make a simple online purchase -- all pretty common mobile activities. Would you expect any of the websites you visit to inject malicious code or malware on your device? Probably not. Well, it turns out you might want to think again, as sites that appear to be "good" may not be as safe as you think.

Nearly half of the internet's most popular websites are deemed "risky," according to Menlo Security's 2018 State of the Web Report. Even more troubling, at least 42% of the sites have used server software known to be vulnerable to cybersecurity attacks, had distributed malware or even launched attacks at some point in the past, or had suffered a security breach within the past 12 months.

I invited Kowsik Guruswamy, CTO at Menlo Security, to discuss known critical issues with popular websites and the potential impact for users? Kowsik also sheds light on how 10% of "good" websites are actually bad, how the web browser, or other site functionalities, serve as one of the primary conduits for delivering malware, and what can be done to easily defend against these issues.

Kowsik also considers himself as an entrepreneur, polyglot hacker, app tinkerer, DevOps dude, cloud whisperer, startup advisor, speaker, and a blogger/writer. With a diverse hands-on experience in product development and vision, including gaming, network & application security, performance, NoSQL, cloud, DevOps and polyglot frameworks.

I learn how he also has a unique perspective on connecting unrelated dots together in unique ways. A passionate, lead-by-example kind of CTO that can inspire a team to do amazing things.

1032: UTRUST - Connecting E-Commerce to a New Multi-Billion Market Nov 25, 2019

After seeing Sanja Kon at Magento Live in Amsterdam talking about the future of online payments, and the role of UTRUST in that future, I invited her onto my daily tech podcast. Thankfully, she said yes.

At UTRUST, they believe digital currencies are the money of tomorrow. Utrust helps merchants easily accept digital currencies for goods and allows buyers to pay with them. One merchant at a time, they are revolutionizing how payments happen. For merchants, reaching a growing base of customers using digital currencies is easy: online or off.

In a recent conversation with Gary Vaynerchuk about how emerging technologies such as blockchain will affect businesses, he advised, "Anybody in the middle, from the person that makes the product to the person that consumes the product, is vulnerable. Technology is coming after you, and if you're in the middle, you need to pay attention to that statement."

Crypto cuts out the middleman, and lets merchants keep more of their profit margin. Getting an edge on the competition is easy with their ready-to-be integrated API & plugins for major e-commerce platforms - and with the ability for our dev team to tailor it to your business.

The Utrust platform went live in 2019 when football club S.L. Benfica came on board as the first merchant and the first major European football club to accept cryptocurrency. Utrust has since added Phone House Portugal to its growing list of merchants.

Sanja Kon is a senior digital executive with more than ten years and has previously worked at eBay and Pay Pal. She is also a TEDx speaker and leadership coach. Sanja shares her vast experience in developing and executing global digital strategy, delivering sustainable revenue growth in multinationals within the E-Commerce, Fintech and telecommunication industries.

As the V.P. of Global Partnerships at UTRUST, Sanja's primary focus is to partner with key international players to improve the accessibility of digital assets and increase cryptocurrency merchant adoption.

1031: Transforming Businesses Into Digital Innovators Nov 24, 2019

Virgil Wong is the global practice head of DX/Creative at HGS Digital, a digital transformation company. He is also co-founder of Medical Avatar LLC, a digital health company creating time travel simulations to improve healthcare delivery, reduce health care costs, and improve outcomes. HGS Digital has built a reputation for helping enterprises create simple, frictionless digital experiences that solve complex problems. They help businesses increase revenue, engage customers, optimize operations, and improve people's lives. The company also provides the strategy, design, and technology needed to successfully become a digital innovator in your industry. A recent Adobe report found that a majority of CMOs (64%) are making customer experience (CX) and digital transformation a priority. Implementing the right digital strategy is more important than ever. I invited Virgil onto my daily tech podcast to talks about the emerging/2020 trends in digital customer experience and digital marketing. While "digital transformation" has become a buzzword, I learn how HGS Digital makes it happen with technology-agnostic, high-end digital strategy and solutions that create frictionless customer experiences and solve complex business problems such as:

Converting more online shoppers to buyers
Growing CPG brands' direct to consumer sales platforms
Helping the largest healthcare insurance companies innovate CX
Automating and simplifying online travel bookings Helping Fortune 100 companies, such as McDonald's, build positive online reputations

Virgil talks about all this and much more on today's episode. After listening, please share your thoughts, expertise, and insights by contacting me.

1030: Ari Pham Shares Her Vietnamese Startup Story With WatchSignals Nov 23, 2019

Zapevo is a data-driven platform for luxury goods (new & pre owned) and services, empowering customers with an AI driven valuation tool. The help company enables customers to enjoy a high value shopping experience, without overpaying for their goods.

A unique feature is its value prediction model, based on Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning algorithms. But I wanted to learn more about the human story behind the Vietnamese startup scene.

Ari Pham is the founder of WatchSignals. Her tech startup is bringing transparency in the niche market of pre-owned luxury watches. WatchSignals is a meta-search and comparison platform to enhance the shopping experience of watch collectors, buyers, investors with price analysis and prediction of luxury watches with the help of A.I. and Machine Learning

1029: Stratifyd - The AI Powered Data Analytics Platform Nov 22, 2019

AI in financial services is a growing trend. With AI, FinServ companies are increasingly able to ingest and analyze data from a variety of channels in a timely and accurate manner - dramatically impacting on customer experience, acquisition, and retention.

North Carolina-based Stratifyd is a technology company providing an end-to-end AI-powered customer analytics platform to companies worldwide. The platform utilizes unsupervised machine learning, natural language understanding, topic modelling, predictive intelligence, sentiment analysis, and more to help solve the unique problems enterprises face.

Stratifyd is already deployed by blue-chip companies in sectors spanning CPG, automotive, pharma, insurance, and Fortune 500 financial services companies. The Stratifyd’s platform enables companies to efficiently tailor marketing efforts, increase customer retention, improve products and services, and boost revenue based on the timely and accurate analysis of unstructured data.

The platform’s sophisticated AI-powered engine is also able to ingest complex data feeds and rapidly deliver real value in the form of actionable insights – all delivered via an easy to use interface which requires no prior knowledge of natural language processing or analytics by the end-user. The Firm also recently closed a $25 million Series B investment led by Georgian Partners who are investors in growth-stage SaaS-based business software companies that harness applied artificial intelligence, conversational AI, and trust – along with participation from previous investors. Derek Wang, Co-founder and CEO, Stratifyd, joins me on my daily tech podcast to share the human story behind the tech company. He grew up in Beijing and received a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Shortly after, he – along with the company’s two other co-founders – began conducting government-funded research on the ways AI could be used to ingest, analyze, and visualize unstructured data.

During this period, Derek found strong use cases while working with Bank of America, Microsoft, and Motorola Solutions. This post-doctorate work was the foundation on which Stratifyd was built. Under Derek’s leadership, Stratifyd is recognized as an innovator and global force in the customer analytics industry. As the company continues to grow, Derek is looking towards the future. I learn how he is currently focusing on Stratifyd’s vision to take data and AI democratization to the next level.

1028: Transforming The Technical Recruiting Process Nov 21, 2019

Founded in 2015, CodeSignal is the first company to develop an objective automated skills-based assessment platform that can be used as a standard for technical recruiters and employers. The company is now helping big organizations like P&G, Robinhood, Lenovo, and Uber make smarter hiring decisions for their technical hires.

The CodeSignal's Machine Learning algorithm has analyzed terabytes of skill assessment data to develop the Coding Score, which is a predictor of a developer's coding and problem-solving ability, and technical interview performance.

"Amazing things happen when a group of incredibly smart people work in unison to change the world. As a leader, your job is to create that environment." Tigran Sloyan Chief Executive Officer

Here in 2019, more than 50% of software engineers are self-taught. So if a top programmer didn't attend an elite university, how can they prove their chops to potential employers? In the current state, technical hiring and testing during the interview process has been called a "bloodbath," and often leads to mis-hires or missed hires because what is being tested isn't actually realistic or relevant to the job at hand. I invited Tigran Sloyan back on to my daily tech podcast to learn more about the Certify solution. We discuss how it allows recruiters to make data-driven hiring decisions based on the skills that candidates show through real-world coding assessments.

We also discuss how it streamlines the technical recruitment pipeline to help HR professionals move away from a reliance on traditional resumes. But also how tech can reduce subconscious gender, racial, educational, and socioeconomic bias in hiring.

1027: Simplifying Microsegmentation Nov 20, 2019

Edgewise makes an automatic microsegmentation solution that enables enterprises to create zero-trust environments. Zero trust and microsegmentation are hot topics in the information security landscape at the moment, with Gartner recently listed it as a top security priority, second only to better network hygiene.

Edgewise founder and CEO Peter Smith joins me on my daily tech podcast to share his expertise and insights. The serial entrepreneur built and deployed Harvard University’s first NAC system before it became a security category.

Peter brings a security practitioner’s perspective to Edgewise with more than ten years of expertise as an infrastructure and security architect of data centers and customer-hosting environments for Harvard University, Endeca Technologies (Oracle), American Express, Fidelity UK, Bank of America, and Nike. Most recently, Peter was on the founding team at Infinio Systems where he led product and technology strategy.

Historically, attempts at microsegmentation have been long, complicated and expensive, taking up to a year to complete. Once “done,” it’s never finished - as applications and data stores get moved around, they leave a vulnerability until the policy is updated. And with the dynamic nature of the cloud where things change daily, simply repurposing firewalls (the current approach) is not adequate or efficient.

I learn how Edgewise brings a unique approach to creating zero trust. First, machine learning maps the network and eliminates non-critical pathways, reducing the attack surface. Then, with a single click, it microsegments the network.

Edgewise’s innovation is to tie policies to the applications themselves, versus the underlying IP address. Peter explains zero trust and microsegmentation in a language that everyone understands. We also discuss why current methods are outdated and cannot support the dynamic nature of clouds and containers.

1026: Building For Today's Data-Rich, Multi-Channel World Nov 19, 2019

You know you're an established industry when you're drowning in complexity, with Frankenstack at the center. As Simon Data works as a standalone and also plays nice in the CDP sandbox with everyone, Jason shares the advice he gives customers around when they can get more value out of their Frankenstack and when it's time to rip and replace.

I also learn how Simon Data his helping brands across industries achieve a unified customer view. Jason talks about what's ahead in 2020. On the subject of customer data privacy, we also discuss if CDPs will get to a place where we're not just okay for data to be shared.

On a more personal note, Jason holds a Ph.D. in Machine Learning and is responsible for some of the IT infrastructure powering Etsy. I ask Jason what it's like to give up Google and academia to bootstrap a startup.

1025: How Billfold POS Cuts The Line At Live Events to Boost Sales Nov 18, 2019

Large concert venues and sporting arenas have the problem of trying to serve 14,000 people during an interval. But is there a solution to the long lines of people wanting food, drink, and merchandise? Billfold prides itself on being cashless POS for the event industry that actually works.

The simple checkout process increases onsite sales from 20-40%. Fast and easy implementation - Staff love it: easy to use, no cash, no change, and no bank cards. They do it by streamlining event operations and changing guests' spending behaviors. Billfold is a wireless point-of-sale system that delivers RFID technology to on-premise payments at large-scale events and venues and helps boost customer spending. Patrons use Billfold's self-serve kiosks to activate RFID wristbands onsite and create a secure connection to their credit cards in less than 30 seconds.

Alternatively, if the wristbands are mailed out prior to the event, guests can activate them on their computer or phone directly through the event website. Once the wristband has been activated, patrons don't need to return to the kiosks to add more credit. Instead, they enjoy easy and secure transactions in fast-moving lines to purchase beverages, food, merch, and instant ticket upgrades.

Event operators receive real-time sales data sorted by individual staff, bar or vendor, helping them respond better to the needs and preferences of their customers. In addition to the extensive reporting features, event organizers can use Customer Journey Reports to engage with attendees based on their purchase history.

Billfold POS is a collaborative project built by event operators Stas Chijik and Benjamin Roshia, and a highly qualified development and design team under Albert Akbashev's direction. Chijik and Roshia have years of experience in large-scale event operations and live music productions in addition to their owner-operator history with The Brooklyn Mirage/Avant Gardner.

Stas Chijik joins me on my daily tech podcast to share how Billfold provides full deployment support and consumer insights so that their partners can focus on producing great events and experiences for their guests. But most importantly of all make it easier for attendees to grab food and drink without waiting in line.

1024: The Inspiring Tech Startup Story Behind Bleeding Bulb Nov 17, 2019

Formed in 2010, Bleeding Bulb is a strategic digital development shop that fell in love with small businesses. It was a match made in heaven. What caught their eye was the need for growth and services that were, at the time, unaffordable for smaller firms. Everyone likes to root for the underdog, right?

One of the things they found interesting about small businesses is that they are waiting to blossom into their own, like teenagers finding their way. Searching for purpose and identity. Full of potential, but needing a little guidance to find the right path.

They say it takes a village to raise a child. But Bleeding Bulb wants to be a part of your tribe, and they don't care how corny that sounds. Frank Goodman, the founder of Bleeding Bulb, joins me on Tech Talks Daily to share his inspirational startup story.

Frank reveals how Bleeding Bulb is on a mission to make the small business owners more productive while keeping their overall business costs low. Frank also shares why he believes that a company's core values contribute to its success. But it's Frank's personal story that steals the show.

The serial entrepreneur from Washington, D.C. helps small businesses lower overhead, leverage more online visibility and increases sales, dedicated to raising the small business success rate through growth strategies, websites, and apps.

Frank's journey saw him progress from a trouble-making D student to an accomplished Engineer and business owner who was also named on the 2018 Black Enterprise Modern Man 100 list. But after talking with Frank today, I get the impression that he is just getting started,

1023: Ghost Work - Are We Building a New Global Underclass? Nov 16, 2019

Mary L. Gray is a Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research and Faculty Affiliate at Harvard University's Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society.

Using the tools of anthropology and critical media studies, Mary explored how material conditions and everyday uses of technologies transform people's lives, particularly in places where technological access is hard to come by.

I invited Mary onto the Tech Talks Daily Podcast to talk about her book "Ghost Work: How to Stop Silicon Valley from Building a New Global Underclass," which she co-authored with computer scientist Siddharth Suri. In the book she explores the lives of people paid to train artificial intelligence and, increasingly, serve as "humans in the loop" delivering on-demand services.

Hidden beneath the surface of the web, lost in our wrong-headed debates about AI, a new menace is looming. I learn how services delivered by companies like Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Uber can only function smoothly thanks to the judgment and experience of a vast, invisible human labor force.

These people doing "ghost work" make the internet seem smart. They perform high-tech piecework: flagging X-rated content, proofreading, designing engine parts, and much more. An estimated 8 percent of Americans have worked at least once in this "ghost economy," and that number is growing. They usually earn less than legal minimums for traditional work, they have no health benefits, and they can be fired at any time for any reason, or none.

There are no labor laws to govern this kind of work, and these latter-day assembly lines draw in--and all too often overwork and underpay--a surprisingly diverse range of workers: harried young mothers, professionals forced into early retirement, recent grads who can't get a toehold on the traditional employment ladder, and minorities shut out of the jobs they want.

1022: BarBend - The Startup Path to 1 Million Monthly Visitors Nov 15, 2019

BarBend is the leading online source for strength sports news coverage, analysis, and opinion pieces. But did you know that the founder grew two very different online brands to more than 1 million online visitors a month each? On today's podcast, I wanted to find out more about the inspiring tech story behind the building of this niche community.

David Tao joins me on my daily tech podcast and talks about how to scale and grow your site to one that partners with major household names and why niche content is key to all your marketing efforts. I also learn how BarBend grew from a small content site to one that is now the official media partner of USA Weightlifting that raised $825,000 in seed funding.

BarBend's Co-Founder and Editorial Director, David Tao, is a veteran of the health & fitness industry, with nearly a decade of experience building and running editorial teams in the space. He also serves as a color commentator for both National and International weightlifting competitions, many through USA Weightlifting.

David graduated from Harvard University and served for several years as Editorial Director/Chief Content Officer of Greatist.com. In addition to his work in the health & fitness industry, David has been a writer for Fortune and Fortune.com, as well as a contributor to Forbes.com, Slate, and numerous other outlets across the web and in print.

Today's guest is especially passionate about the intersection of strength sports and quality, professional media coverage — overlapping interests shared by the BarBend editorial team and which drive their content strategy each and every day.

David is a proud Kentucky native. In his free time, David is a voiceover actor and can be heard in animated films, independent shorts, music videos, commercials, and podcasts.

1021: Enterprise Technology Management - Mobile and Cloud Nov 14, 2019

Regular listeners will remember that I spoke with MOBI co-founder Josh Garrett several times on this tech podcast before Tangoe acquired them at the end of last year. Tangoe provided traditional telecom expense management while MOBI offered managed mobility services. Together they now offer Tangoe Fixed, Tangoe Mobile, and the just-launched Tangoe Cloud.

Tangoe provides Enterprise Technology Management solutions to the world’s biggest brands, helping them streamline complex technology environments — for fixed, mobile and cloud. Tangoe helps companies like Chevron Corporation, Northern Trust and UPS save more than $100 million in IT spend each year.

Through one complete solution, the Tangoe Platform gives IT and Finance departments a centralized view of their enterprise technology programs, expenses and asset management. The Tangoe Platform includes Telecom Expense Management (TEM), Managed Mobility Services (MMS), and Cloud Expense Management (CEM) solutions.

I invited Josh back on to the podcast to learn more about how they are helping businesses identify everyday opportunities to improve their mobile workforce productivity. We also discuss how they are using tech to help add value to existing management processes and policies.

1020: LastPass by LogMeIn - How Safe Are Employee Passwords? Nov 13, 2019

LastPass by LogMeIn recently released its 3rd annual Global Password Security Report which covers password use in the workplace. The report dives into password hygiene findings from 47,000 organizations worldwide, including the use of security measures like multifactor authentication and single sign-on.

This report comes on the heels of the FBI’s revelation that attacks on 2FA are increasing, with secondary tokens or one-time codes lacking the security provided by a more robust MFA solution. LastPass can speak to why a multi-layered approach is necessary for true online security. Highlights from the report include unsurprising news that password sharing and reuse remains a common practice in most businesses and employees reuse a password an average of 13 times. But multifactor authentication (MFA) use is on the rise with more than half of companies globally (57%) now have employees using MFA, up 12 percentage points from last year’s report.

The password struggle is real, especially for employees at small businesses – Employees at small businesses have an average of 85 passwords to manage compared to 25 passwords for those at the largest companies. Employees at small businesses reuse 10-14 passwords compared to just four among employees at larger organizations.

Yaser Masoudnia, Senior Director Product Management, Identity Access Management, at LogMeIn shares insights from the LastPass Global Password Security Report 2019.

1019: SolvIng Real-World Challenges With IoT For Smart Cities Nov 12, 2019

Itron, is a publicly-traded smart technology company enabling utilities and cities to safely, securely, and reliably deliver critical infrastructure services to communities in more than 100 countries. The company also recently completed its inaugural Smart City Challenge. The competition brought together the cities of London and Glasgow and tech startups to solve difficult city challenges.

Itai Dadon, director of smart cities and IoT at Itron advised, “The inaugural Itron Smart City Challenge shows how we are applying technology for a purpose. While these solutions were purpose-built to address specific needs defined by the sponsoring cities, river safety and noise pollution are common concerns for cities worldwide. We invite cities from around the world to collaborate with Itron to launch the next set of open innovation challenges.” Itai Dadon, Itron’s director of smart cities and IoT joins me on my daily tech podcast to talk about the company’s work with London and Glasgow. We also talk about the innovators who participated in the challenge. I learn how The Smart City Challenge showcased how Itron is enabling cities and technology innovators to work together to solve problems and improve citizen wellbeing. Using Itron’s standards-based developer tools, the winning companies created integrated IoT solutions that leverage Itron’s IoT networks in the Cities of Glasgow and London.

1018: IdRamp - What Self-Sovereign Identity Mean To Your Business Nov 11, 2019

Mike Vesey has founded companies providing transformative solutions for the global enterprise. He has developed award-winning products in unified communications, service operations, security, and data management.

Mike co-founded DBVisions Inc producing enterprise-grade content management and security platform that was later acquired by a leading CMS provider.

Mike went on to found VCI Inc with a focus on identity and security integration for global organizations. VCI developed the enterprise Single Sign On solution for Microsoft Live Meeting. VCI was the exclusive Microsoft integration partner for deployment of Live Meeting into complex, global enterprise environments.

VCI has supported and maintained complex identity management integrations with some of the world's largest organizations. This success led Mike to design IdRamp, a decentralized integration fabric focused on automating identity security and application interoperability.

IdRamp is a decentralized identity service to simplify integration, improve security and continuously innovate your business. With IdRamp you can easily integrate and orchestrate multiple identity silos. Tailor authentication and access control policies according to your business strategy.

Add decentralized self-sovereign identity to any business strategy. Through distributed authentication, IdRamp secures the identity threat surface by eliminating the need for public network-facing identity and access management systems.

I invited Mike onto the podcast to learn more about his tech startup story and IdRamp. I also learn more about how IdRamp is providing adaptable digital bridges that interoperate across all generations of identity management.

1017: How Ekata Is Linking Digital Identity Back To Humanity Nov 10, 2019

Ekata provides global identity verification solutions via enterprise-grade APIs for automated decisioning, and Pro Insight, a SaaS solution for manual review for cross-border businesses to grow revenue by maximizing their predictability of good transactions.

The product suite is powered by the Ekata Identity Engine (EIE), the first and only cross-border identity verification engine of its kind. It uses complex machine learning algorithms across the five core consumer attributes of email, phone, name (person or business), physical address, and IP, to derive unique links and features from billions of real-time transactions within Ekata’s proprietary network and the data licensed from a broad spectrum of global providers.

Ajay Andrews, VP of Product, joins me on my daily tech podcast. We discuss how businesses, such as Alipay, Stripe, Airbnb, and Microsoft, rely on Ekata’s solutions to approve more good transactions, reduce friction, and find fraud.

Ajay talks about the current identity verification landscape and how the market is projected to reach $20 billion by 2020. We also discuss the key steps organizations can take to build customer trust and smooth online customer experience.

Ajay leads the product management and data science teams at Ekata, and has 10+ years of experience working in consumer finance, payments, e-commerce, productivity apps, and identity/fraud in both Asia and the US. He also holds a bachelor’s degree in Electrical & Electronic Engineering from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management.

1016: How Tech And Crowdgifting Is Changing Gift-Giving Culture Nov 09, 2019

As the holiday season approaches, do you dread receiving gifts that you don't want or need? Seasonal socks, soap sets, and toilet joke books? I wanted to explore how tech is changing our gift-giving culture and why crowd gifting apps offer the perfect solution to such problems.

Yiannis A Fafalios, co-founder of WhatWeWant shares the difficulties that he faced with gift-giving. I l learn why he built a tech solution that would make the process simpler and inherently less stressful. He also talks about what it's like to launch a tech startup/ build an app with his immediate family.

The team at WhatWeWant also recently surveyed over 2,000 UK consumers to uncover how many Brits receive unwanted gifts and what they do with them, and found that 53% of UK consumers have received an unwanted gift over the past 12 months and as a result, 43% of the recipients have admitted to regifting their unwanted presents.

20% revealed they have thrown away ill-fated presents without using them and 43% have one or more gifts they have never opened or used sitting in their house. Meanwhile, evidence suggests that the gift-giving process is unpleasant for both parties: WhatWeWant app enables gift givers to share the cost of gifts with family and friends. It allows users to create a gift for an upcoming event for themselves, or for someone. The app notifies your friends and family so they can contribute towards your gift; and you can send a link to your gift to your family, friends, co-workers and anyone else who might want to contribute too.

The money is saved in a secure account until the price of the gift is reached. Once you’ve raised enough, the money can be withdrawn so you can go ahead and buy what you want.

1015: Building a World Where Technology is Trusted Nov 08, 2019

Since 2001, the Denim Group have been helping their clients create resilient software that can be deployed to withstand attacks. They do this across the portfolio of software that clients have, and also do it at scale across the enterprise.

I wanted to learn more about how their software development background helps them bridge the gap between security and software development, which enables their clients to build more secure software faster. Dan Cornell joins me on my daily tech podcast to talk about all this and much more.

A globally recognized application security expert, Dan Cornell holds over 15 years of experience architecting, developing, and securing web-based software systems. As the Chief Technology Officer and a Principal at Denim Group, Ltd., he leads the technology team to help Fortune 500 companies and government organizations integrate security throughout the development process.

Cornell is a sought-after speaker on topics of web application security, speaking at international conferences including the RSA Security Conference, OWASP AppSec USA and EU, and Black Hat Arsenal. He has also appeared as a guest speaker at institutions such as the Los Alamos National Laboratory. He has published papers on topics ranging from data security to high-end graphical simulations, as well as an IBM Redbook on building server-side Java applications for the Linux platform.

Today's guest is also a recognized expert in the area of web application security for SearchSoftwareQuality.com and has been quoted as an expert in SC Magazine, Network World, CSO Magazine, Dark Reading, and many more.

1014: Malwarebytes - Talking Ransomware and Cyber Threats Nov 07, 2019

Today's guest is Akshay Bhargava, SVP at Malwarebytes, the $200M (US)/a year privately held cybersecurity company. Malwarebytes proactively has built its reputation on protecting people and businesses against dangerous threats such as malware, ransomware, and exploits that escape detection by traditional antivirus solutions.

Malwarebytes protects more than 60,000 businesses and millions of people worldwide, using AI and machine learning to catch new threats rapidly. Akshay is one of Silicon Valley's most prominent experts on cybersecurity and related issues facing the world, and believes that computer security is an individual right.

Under his leadership, Malwarebytes has created software based on anomaly detection and behavior matching that exceeds conventional antivirus programs to trip up hackers and block ransomware. We talk about the most significant threats in cybersecurity facing organizations today. But we also look at the risks that the average person needs to be concerned about.

While Akshay works in a highly stressful field, he is one of the calmest and most focused people you'll meet. He credits daily yoga and meditation. He says anyone can do it and, "Regular practice can make a profound impact on one's mental, cognitive, and emotional intelligence, especially in today's fast-paced and high-pressure environment." Back in my IT support days, Malwarebytes helped me remove malware from many machines over the years. This is just one of the reasons why I was so excited to speak with Akshay.

1013: How Holloway Is Rewriting Publishing With Its Startup Guides Nov 06, 2019

The team at Holloway grew up with big expectations around the possibilities the internet would bring. They envisioned a brave new world where anyone could find anything, learn anything. But out of this explosion of knowledge, we also got the foolishness of popups, banner ads, and how-to articles written by who-knows-who.

Today, learning on the internet is a long and winding scavenger hunt. We sometimes stumble on that rare reliable source, other times we are forced to accept something that "seems legit," and otherwise still do our best to filter out flat out falsehoods. The thing is, others have faced and overcome almost all the big challenges we face in our life and work.

Instead of having access to the knowledge of those who've been there and done that before, we're left to run on an endless treadmill reinventing wheels and tumbling down pitfalls. So Holloway was created to devote ourselves to building a corner of the internet that provides access to the consolidated wisdom of experts.

Holloway works directly with top professionals like Brad Feld to write its professional guides that never go out of date, so that entrepreneurs, founders, and employees can learn the essentials of building a business from those who have done it.

Holloway's guides also have no ads. They're incredibly easy to read. They have topics on raising venture capital, equity compensation, and technical recruiting + hiring, and more to come. But what about the startup story behind Holloway?

I invited Andy Sparks, co-founder, and CEO at Hollway onto my daily tech podcast to learn more about his vision and lessons learned from his startup journey.

When Andy Sparks was nineteen, he tried to start a microbrewery with a friend. That was the moment where he got hooked on business. After learning that it was illegal to own a microbrewery before turning twenty-one, he got a job at a startup, DOmedia. A year or so later, he joined an iOS and web development shop doing an odd combination of product design and sales.

Thousands of TechCrunch articles later, Andy was convinced he could start his own company. I left for greener pastures, packed up everything that would fit in his Ford Focus, and moved to California with his two dear friends.

After 500 Startups and a rude awakening to the challenges of starting a business, we shuttered our startup. Shortly thereafter, he joined Danielle and Kevin Morrill to start Mattermark and spent almost four years building that business. In the fall of 2016, he left Mattermark and started Holloway where he is now solving the discovery problem for long-form content.

Andy admits that the whole journey of starting companies is hard as hell, and has gotten all the silly ideas like "doing it for the money" out of his system. Holloway is a pure labor of love—it's something that he believes can do some real good in the world.

1012: Owl Pro - Video Conferencing For The Hybrid Workforce Nov 05, 2019

Owl Labs is a software-led hardware company dedicated to creating a better workplace experience for today's hybrid workforce of remote and in-office employees in over 20,000 businesses. The Meeting Owl is the first intelligent all-in-one 360° video conferencing device that combines video and audio to simplify your meeting set up.

The company's products use emerging technology such as artificial intelligence to bring teams together for better work. While focused on its core hardware, the company is developing advanced software technology to reinvent the conference room ecosystem and make it smart.

The Meeting Owl product line is driven by Owl Labs' proprietary Owl Intelligence System™. While sitting in the center of the table, it uses vision and voice recognition to automatically shift the camera to focus on whoever is speaking.

This creates a fully immersive experience for those who can't be on site. Both products are compatible with all popular video conferencing platforms (i.e. Zoom, Google Meet, Skype for Business, etc.) and accessible to nearly all businesses at a sub $1,000 price point.

Frank Weishaupt is the CEO at Owl Labs, creator of the smart conferencing camera Meeting Owl. Weishaupt previously served as SVP of Sales at CarGurus and played an instrumental role in the company' company's growth, leading to a successful IPO in October 2017.

Before joining CarGurus, Weishaupt served as Chief Operating Officer at Jumptap, leading to an acquisition by Millennial Media. He also served in executive roles at Yahoo! and Criteo, which had a successful IPO in 2013.

How Citrix and IGEL Technology Are Working Together Nov 04, 2019

In this episode of the Citrix Ready Podcast series, I explore how Citrix and IGEL Technology are working together to solve real-world problems for businesses.

IGEL delivers powerful unified endpoint management (UEM) software that is revolutionary in its simplicity and purpose-built for the enterprise. The company’s world-leading products, including the IGEL Universal Management Suite™, IGEL OS™-powered thin and zero clients, and all-in-one thin client solutions, deliver a smart and secure endpoint management experience that shifts granular control of thin and zero client devices from the end-user to IT.

Guests

Sagnik Datta is a product leader working for Citrix as a Technical Marketing Manager driving partner route-to-market strategies. With 8+ years in the hi-tech industry, Sagnik led several technical programs to increase the adoption of Citrix products, solutions, and services in horizontal and vertical industries.

Sagnik holds a bachelor’s degree from BITS Pilani and is passionate about technology, spending initial years as a quality assurance engineer, and eventually specializing himself to drive various outbound product managerial and alliance business development functions.

Jim Airdo Vice President of Strategic Alliances at IGEL Technology

Jim Airdo oversees the fast-growing global ISV partner ecosystem for IGEL driving increased confidence for customers using multiple hardware and software solutions to access workspaces in the cloud via the Next-Gen OS from IGEL.

Airdo’s longstanding business philosophy has always included a heavy focus on going to market with partners; thus his “Partner Led” commitment has led to strong, enduring, trusting relationships with worldwide distributors, global systems integrators, and value-added resellers.

Airdo brings over 25 years of technology experience to IGEL and has a wide range of industry experience across workspace management, EUC, virtualization, and cloud computing.

Prior to joining IGEL, Airdo held executive-level sales and business development leadership roles for innovative software technology companies such as FSLogix, Microsoft, AppSense, BMC Software, and he also played a seminal role in the early development of Citrix Systems in building their enviable systems engineering team.

Jim resides in South Florida with his family, where he plays hockey, eats tacos, and serves on the board of Live the Life South Florida and Lauderdale Lead.

1010: Cypherium - The Enterprise-Focused Blockchain Platform Nov 02, 2019

Cypherium is a highly scalable and robust smart contract platform. The hybrid design features a joint Proof-of-Work (PoW) and HotStuff (Also adopted by Facebook's Libra) consensus mechanism that can achieve thousands of transactions per second without sacrificing decentralization.

Cypherium also implements a Turing-complete virtual machine for smart contracts that runs on Java, the most widely-utilized and reliable programming language in the world. This enables us to democratize the development of smart contracts and lower the barrier to blockchain adoption for existing enterprise.

Sky Guo is Chief Executive Officer at Cypherieum. His extensive knowledge of blockchain consensus, transaction, and cryptographic algorithms stems from his background in computer science. With a B.S. from Pepperdine University and a degree in Entrepreneurship from Draper University, Sky also serves as a columnist for China's top financial media outlet.

Sky joins me on my daily tech podcast to talk about how they are focused on addressing the key shortcomings of existing public blockchain infrastructures, where scalability seems to come at the cost of decentralization in every corner of the ecosystem.

As a result, slower, more centralized blockchain infrastructures have hindered the commercial adoption of distributed ledger technologies. By providing a truly decentralized and scalable framework, combined with an accessible and intuitive user interface, Cypherium lays a comprehensive foundation for developers to create groundbreaking apps capable of transforming the future of business, law, and enterprise solutions.

Unlike many second- and third-generation blockchains that abandon Satoshi Nakamoto’s original permissionless, trustless consensus mechanism, Cypherium is built on the valuable innovations of previous blockchains. The platform’s unique consensus mechanism provides unprecedented transaction throughput and contract execution time through HotStuff, while leveraging an ASIC-resistant PoW system that maintains a thoroughly decentralized node election.

1009: Answering Unsolved Challenges In Natural Language Understanding Nov 01, 2019

Francisco Webber is co-founder and CEO of Cortical.io and inventor of the company’s proprietary Retina technology. This technology applies the principles of cerebral processing to machine learning and natural language understanding (NLU) to solve real-world use cases related to big text data. Cortical.io 2 solutions are based on the actual meaning of text, rather than on statistical occurrences.

Francisco’s interest in information technology developed during his medical studies, when he was involved in medical data processing. Over the course of two decades, he explored search engine technologies and documentation systems in various contexts but became increasingly frustrated with the limitations of state-of-the-art statistical methods.

Francisco recognized that the brain was the only high-performing system when it came to natural language understanding. While closely following developments in neuroscience, he formulated his theory of Semantic Folding, which models how the brain processes language data. In 2011, he co-founded Cortical.io to apply the principles of cerebral processing to machine learning and text processing and solve real-world use cases related to big data.

Cortical.io provides natural language understanding (NLU) solutions that enable large enterprises to automate the extraction, monitoring, and analysis of key information from any kind of text data. By understanding the meaning of text, Cortical.io Retina software reduces the time and effort it takes to complete business-critical data search and review processes.

Cortical.io solutions can be quickly trained without supervision in the specialized vocabulary of any business domain and in multiple languages. I learn how their enterprise-grade technology is implemented at multiple Fortune 100 businesses, covering a wide spectrum of use cases.

Francisco Webber joins me on my daily tech podcast and talks about how their unique approach is inspired by the latest findings on the way the brain processes information. It helps businesses solve many open NLU challenges like meaning-based filtering of terabytes of unstructured text data, real-time topic detection in social media, or semantic search over millions of documents across languages.

1008: Demystifying Early-Stage Investing For Tech Startups Oct 31, 2019

Vertex U.S. is part of the global Vertex Ventures network of funds. In addition to the U.S., the Vertex Global Network is comprised of affiliates in Israel, China, Southeast Asia, and India. They seek founders who want to tackle fundamental challenges. People who identify with a problem or concern that’s kept them up late at night — broken tools, broken lines of communication, broken processes, broken boundaries of trust.

Sometimes this will require new skills; sometimes it will require different processes. Sometimes, it will require a completely new organization. Whichever of these is necessary is ultimately beside the point, because there is just one result when the solution is in place and the naysayers have bought into the vision: Things will simply be better.

Chase Roberts joins me on my daily tech podcast for a conversation about demystifying early-stage investing for startups. We discuss how startup founders will know when it’s time to raise money and the key metrics V.C.’s want to see

Inspired by Clayton Christensen’s book called The Innovator’s Dilemma, Chase Roberts left everything he knew (small-town life and a career in finance) at the age of 25 so he could be a part of uprooting industries with technology.

Eager to learn more about Professor Christensen’s theory of disruption, he stumbled upon a video of him delivering the keynote at a conference for a company called Box. He left his job three days later and sent a cold email to Box’s recruiting team seeking to help write their own story of disruption — they hired him.

In the half-decade that followed, heheld various roles in sales, channel, and commercial partnerships at Box. He led the growth for what became Box’s largest reseller channel and helped launch partnerships with companies including Microsoft and Canon.

Before joining Vertex US, Chase led large technology partnerships at Segment, where he was the first hire on the business development team. At Segment, he built partnerships with AWS, Facebook, and Google among others. He also helped launch Segment’s startup program, which gives thousands of startups access to the tools and knowledge necessary to implement data analytics in their products and growth strategies.

Now at Vertex US, Chase invests in early-stage founders developing software or API applications that apply new business models to existing industries, founders building for the future of work, or those using enterprise tech to tackle traditionally “non-tech” industries like real estate, finance, and construction.

1007: ImagineBC - Giving You Control of Your Personal Information Oct 30, 2019

ImagineBC is a collaborative project built by entrepreneurs, tech enthusiasts, and dreamers. Their goal is to create an online community where you can regain control of your data and discover new ways to monetize your own personal information.

In a world where big tech is making money off your data, they want to give you – the individual – the advantage. With ImagineBC, you own all your data. Everything is stored securely, and you're the only one with the key to access it.

Through blockchain technology, they aim to be as transparent as possible about how they make money. ImagineBC earns a 10% fee from each completed transaction. I invited Erik Rind onto my daily tech podcast to share the story behind ImagineBC. I learn more about how he launched ImagineBC with a simple rallying cry that can resonate with a global audience.

"The status quo says it's okay that Facebook and Google profit from your data. We say that money should go in your pocket." Additionally, a recent eSecurity Planet article reported that over 95% of American internet users are concerned with companies collecting and selling their personal information without their consent.

ImagineBC was conceived as a result of this growing outcry from individuals seeking to regain control of their online data from companies who have long profited from it.

We discuss how using both blockchain and AI/ML technologies, ImagineBC wants to remedy this crisis by providing a secure platform within a mobile app to store one's data. We also talk about opportunities to monetize one's data, as well as offer efficient alternative methods of advertising for businesses who wish to join the community.

1006: Soundwhale - Share Your Studio With Anyone Oct 29, 2019

Remote collaboration on audio projects is not where it should be, especially when working with video. Asynchronous back-and-forth communication can kill creativity in the studio. Laggy, jittery feeds, over compressed streams, and unworkable delays distract users and ruin sessions.

Tech-obsessed musician and audio engineer Ameen Abdulla learned this the hard way, working with coastal clients on important post-production projects from his Twin Cities studio. “I lost a ton of clients,” he recalls. “I worked with a company in Minneapolis that had an LA office and does production in both places. They liked working with us.

They suggested that we could take on LA shows, but do a remote scenario for post-production. Nothing worked. We tried so many things from expensive hardware boxes to existing software, but we couldn’t get around network and routing issues. Delays were just too big. Quality was too compressed.” Abdulla decided to tackle the problem, creating Soundwhale.

Soundwhale is a remote collaboration solution for audio post and music production that allows users to create content and exchange ideas. It’s meant for clients and collaborators that cannot be in the same room. Users can connect over the network and listen to the same audio, communicate, and make changes during the creative process in realtime.

Soundwhale is geared towards all users. Users with little or no audio experience can connect with voice talent and musicians and record them directly in Soundwhale. More experienced users that want to edit, mix, or produce can connect and stream from external software like Pro Tools.

Communication occurs through audio, video, or text chat. Post-production mix reviews can occur from a distance as the client will receive a live audio mix that’s locked to picture. Any changes to the mix will happen in realtime as the client gives direction to the mix engineer.

1005: Keeper Security - Cybersecurity in SMB Report Oct 28, 2019

For the third consecutive year, small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) have reported a significant increase in targeted cybersecurity breaches. A newly released global survey found that attacks against the U.S., U.K., and European companies are growing in both frequency and sophistication.

Further, nearly half (45%) of the 2,000 respondents described their organization's IT posture as ineffective, with 39% reporting they have no incident response plan in place.

The 2019 Global State of Cybersecurity in Small and Medium-Sized Businesses report underscores growing cybersecurity concerns best illustrated through the year-over-year trends dating back to 2016. The survey, commissioned by Keeper Security, measured responses from 2,391 IT and IT security practitioners in the U.S., U.K., DACH, Benelux, and Scandinavian.

"Cybercriminals are continuing to evolve their attacks with more sophisticated tactics, and companies of all sizes are in their crosshairs," said Dr. Larry Ponemon, chairman and founder, The Ponemon Institute.

"More businesses are experiencing highly-targeted, sophisticated, and severe cyberattacks than ever before, yet the results of our study show they aren't doing enough to close the gap," said Darren Guccione, CEO, and co-founder of Keeper Security.

"We sponsor this annual research with Ponemon because we want SMBs to understand that no target is too small for cybercriminals, and it's not enough to simply be aware of the cyber threats that exist. It's critical that these businesses take the next step toward cybersecurity preparedness and get a strong prevention strategy in place."

Continue the conversation with Neil Hughes, Darren Guccione, and Larry Ponemon for an informative webinar where you'll learn about the biggest threats to SMEs in EMEA and the three easy actions you can take to protect your company.

US (Oct. 30) - https://www.keeper.io/2019-ponemon-webinar-us UK & Europe (Oct 31) - https://www.keeper.io/2019-ponemon-webinar-emea

1004: Joost Rigter - What The World Looks Like Without Seeing Oct 27, 2019

I recently witnessed a beautiful way to end the MagentoLive event in Amsterdam. Joost Rigter helped 2,000 attendees see what the world looks like without seeing, if only for a short time, and learn to adapt to change.

How do you deal with technological and transformational change? How do you find light in the dark? How do courage, humour, acceptance and self-confidence ensure that obstacles are actually much smaller than they seem?

Joost Rigter takes audiences on a journey with him during his lecture and shows you in a quite literal sense. Because, ‘there is always just a light switch somewhere’, according to Joost. Joost Rigter’s vision is an eye-opener, his lectures an experience and a source of inspiration.

This explains Joost’s popularity as a speaker for the world of business, both nationally and internationally. From Shell to Walt Disney, from Deloitte to KLM and from the UWV to ABN AMRO, his story suits every company.

Until the age of 26, Joost Rigter could see. Today he only sees 0.8 percent. A rare eye disease made Joost almost blind within ten years. It meant a complete turnaround, nothing would be the same anymore. But is life less beautiful now? Absolutely not, according to Joost. Different, but also very beautiful. This fact is at the heart of Joost Rigter’s lectures. A unique, but very recognizable story about change.

1003: Wyebot - WiFi Assurance for Enterprise, Educational, & Healthcare Oct 26, 2019

Wyebot is a data-analytics driven platform for WiFi ecosystems designed to help organizations, large and small, with a viable, reliable, and secure solution that can help handle their highly-trafficked networks.

Its vendor-agnostic Wireless Intelligence Platform analyzes, optimizes and, using the patent-pending AI-based engine and market-leading multi-radio sensor, automatically provides problem and solution identification resulting in a 90% reduction in mean-time to problem resolution, a 50% reduction in WiFi problem tickets, and reduction in onsite problem-solving visits by up to 80%.

“We are excited to announce the broad availability of the Wyebot WIP and to bring robust WiFi assurance solutions to enterprise and educational facilities nationwide. Today’s business need for constant connectivity has created a burden on IT departments to keep an entire organization connected – especially difficult with the proliferation of distributed enterprises and campuses,” said Roger Sands, CEO, Wyebot.

“Organizations can’t afford the lost productivity that occurs when their WiFi isn’t working or they are unable to access critical applications and information in the cloud.

I invited Roger Sands onto my daily tech podcast to learn more about the patent-pending AI-powered engine. I learn how it automatically identifies performance issues and recommends solutions both reactively, when the issues are occurring, and proactively before they impact users, ensuring maximum performance across the network.

1002: Contact Center Freedom and Workforce Optimization Oct 25, 2019

Calabrio CEO Tom Goodmanson discussed how technologies like automation, AI, and analytics can help companies deliver a richer human interaction.

Human interaction is becoming a luxury. In the era of excessive screen time, cyber trolls, hacking, catfishing, fraud - tech has done a lot to hurt the way we interact. Now it’s time for tech to make it up to us.

With poor customer service costing businesses more than $75 billion a year, companies simply cannot afford to delivery anything other than exceptional customer experiences. And while there’s great irony in the idea that humanizing the workplace depends on artificial intelligence and analytics, learn how it makes perfect sense.

1001: Meet Shufflrr A Digital Antidote To Death by PowerPoint Oct 24, 2019

Almost every aspect of our lives has been transformed by technology. But we are starting to see the inefficiencies with outdated traditional office software such as PowerPoint.

How we present, crucial, and valuable information has changed very little in the last 20 years. But how can organizations maximize their content? And how can they inspire audiences rather than send them to sleep?

Shufflrr makes presentations better for everyone across the enterprise. It is the leading presentation management technology, letting users visualize and format all files as slides, so they are easily accessible and "ready to present" at a moment's notice. It transforms single-use presentations and makes them easy to reuse, on-demand.

In so doing, companies are able to get a better ROI on their marketing content, control their brand and message, all while making it easier and faster for the employees in the field to give a successful presentation that drives business. Shufflrr is presentation management.

James Ontra, Shufflrr's CEO, co-founded the company with his sister Alex Anndra. I invited him onto this daily tech podcast to learn more about the story behind Shufflrr and how he is going to save us all from death by PowerPoint.

James Ontra talks about the components of presentation management and why presentations are an essential part of the marketing mix. We also discuss the presentation's role in business communications and why presentations are a crucial part of the sales funnel.

1000: Looking Back At 1,000 Podcast Interviews With Tech Leaders Oct 23, 2019

As a long-time sufferer of imposter syndrome, I have been waiting for someone to tap me on the shoulder and say that's it mate, we are onto you now. But guess what? Nothing happened, and I now find myself with 1,000 interviews with tech leaders from all over the world.

Over the last four years, I have spoken with tech leaders from Microsoft, Adobe, IBM, Sony, and Lenovo. I have also learned how technology has transformed Manchester United, Real Madrid, F1 Racing, and even Fender Guitars. Then there were the surreal moments that Talk Show Host Wendy Williams and Star Treks William Shatner came on the podcast for a chat.

However, it was the startup stories of bootstrapping entrepreneurs that really inspired me on this journey. Individuals that came across a problem and left their day job behind to create a solution that will help others. It's a rollercoaster ride of ups and downs. But I hope that some of these stories will help and inspire others on their journey too.

In today's episode, I look back at some of the highlights and critical lessons that I have learned along the way after chatting with over 1,000 tech leaders from all over the world. Maybe one day, I will gather these lessons and quotes for a book called something like "Lessons learned from chatting to 1,000 tech leaders."

Speaking of books, my first book will be released next year. After watching hundreds of TED talks, I have created a guide book on how any organization or entrepreneur can stay successfully innovate. My publisher has just sent me a copy of the first book cover draft. You can find out how to win a copy in today's episode.

The secret sauce behind the success of this daily tech podcast is the audience. With listeners in 165 countries, it's you and your input that ensures we feature as many voices and opinions as possible. Together we can ensure that none of us get too comfortable inside an echo chamber that supports rather than challenges our worldview.

I hope you will continue to join me on this ride and prove to the world that technology really does work best when it brings people together.

999: MagentoLive - Talking All Things Magento With Gary Specter Oct 22, 2019

At MagentoLive Europe, Adobe announced the creation of a new organization within the Digital Experience business to support the unique needs of SMB and mid-market companies to connect with their customers in new and meaningful ways.

The dedicated sales, customer success and support organization is led by Gary Specter, formerly vice president of Magento global sales and customer success, and taps the proven success of the Magento and Marketo teams in serving the needs of growing companies.

This effort is aimed at building on Adobe's strong heritage in the small and mid-market customer segment across its Creative Cloud and Document Cloud product portfolios and highlights Adobe's commitment to extending enterprise-grade capabilities to help them differentiate and grow.

What does all this mean for the digital landscape, the open-source community, Magento customers, and small to medium-sized businesses that cannot afford Adobe products? I sit down with Gary Specter to talk about the latest announcements and the road ahead for Magento.

998: MagentoLive Europe 2019 - Jason Woosley Oct 21, 2019

Jason Woosley is a seasoned technology executive with over 20 years of proven success in building high-performance product development organizations at scale. I invited Jason onto my daily tech podcast to learn more about Adobe Announcements at this year's Magento Live event.

We discuss the new commerce capabilities for SMBs and Mid-market Merchants such as the Amazon Sales Channel Extension for Amazon's U.K. Marketplace and how the Amazon Sales Channel in Magento is now available for the Amazon U.K. Marketplace, with support for additional European territories arriving next year.

The extension for Magento Commerce and Open Source removes the barriers to entry for merchants that are trying to gain a strong position with Amazon while also managing their owned channel. It also allows brands to quickly and easily integrate their catalog, establish a bi-directional data flow, and start managing listings from their Magento admin.

Jason Woosley explains that since Imagine 2019, their work with Product Recommendations powered by Adobe Sensei has garnered a lot of enthusiasm from their customers as it enabled brands to leverage data and insights to drive real-time relevance and personalized experiences.

At MagentoLive Europe, I learn more about the announcement and that in January of next year, they will be opening the Early Access Program to Magento Commerce customers. Once the program kicks off, participating merchants will be able to embed the feature in their Magento storefront and reap the benefits immediately.

We also discuss the opportunities and challenges ahead facing business leaders and how Adobe's increasing suite of products is helping to transform e-commerce.

997: How H.I. Executive Consulting Locate Transformational Leaders Oct 20, 2019

Tim Robson, Managing Partner at H.I. Executive Consulting (HIEC), a globally-dispersed executive search firm, joins me on my daily tech podcast. The company works to fill tech-focused c-suite roles and was established over a decade ago to disrupt the traditional approach to executive search.

The secret to their success is a focus on digital and technology across all sectors they serve. The rapid globalization and digitalization brought by breakthrough technologies have given rise to new types of disruptive leaders spread across the global hubs in the traditional and transformative functional areas of all sectors.

I learn how HIEC is devoted to nurturing clients and organizations with this new wave of leaders through a forward-looking vision, globally joined-up team, and bespoke consulting approach for each.

Operating across 13 offices in North America, Europe, Middle East, and Asia Pacific, unified by one global P&L and delivery model, they have cultivated a new professional standard that challenges the competitors in their field.

Tim Robson's global experience and industry knowledge makes him a much sought out search executive amongst the clients looking for international industry knowledge and experience.

He also works extensively with Private Equity firms on initial as well as transformational management team build-outs for their portfolio businesses, as well as major Technology, Technology Services, and Business & Professional Services companies that are seeking to grow in their markets and beyond.

As a result, amongst others, Tim's clients include Fortune 500, 'Big 4', and leading Private Equity companies globally. Before co-founding HIEC, Tim led his own boutique Executive Search firm, where he and his team specialized in providing C-level search and consulting services to the clients in Strategy, Management Consulting, I.T.I.T. & Business Outsourcing, and Technology Services industries across Europe.

He founded the firm after a successful ten year run as a search consultant for other London-based boutique search firms. Tim holds a Law Degree from Birmingham City University.

996: Entertainment Intelligence, Analytics For Music Streaming Oct 19, 2019

Did you know that artists only get paid if you play a song on a music streaming service such as Spotify for more than 30 seconds? These new trends are changing the way the creative process for musicians. But, a company called Entertainment Intelligence (Ei) is also changing the way the music industry collects, views, and utilizes data.

Ei is unique in its ability to seamlessly blend information, including social, playlists, sales, and consumption data from a limitless number of sources, tracking and analyzing information at breath-taking speed.

Charts are helpful if you’re part of music’s top 10%, but what about the other 90%? Public data analytics dashboards look cool, but what do they really tell us? Music data analysis experts Entertainment Intelligence (Ei) have established a whole new approach to help artists and labels see where they stand with fans--and to guide them to better marketing and creative decisions in a global music market.

Using a large body of granular data, it has generated a powerful set of Indie Benchmarks (iB) that offer actionable insights to independent labels, artists, agents, and marketers on par with the internal tools used by the majors.

“Charts are an artifact of the physical retail era when we only really cared about how many units were moving out of the store,” notes Ei founder Greg Delaney. “Data like total overall sales or follower counts are of extremely limited use; how many people go and unfollow an artist or playlist, for instance?”

Ei founder Greg Delaney joins me on my daily tech podcast to share the story behind the company and how they are helping artists. Greg is an innovative and versatile technologist with experience across a wide range of industries, from banking and finance to transport, entertainment, and manufacturing.

Having established, run, and sold a number of start-ups, Greg explains how he is now using his experience to help other small and growing businesses evolve through technology. I learn how Ei uses listener-level data direct from DSPs like Apple and Spotify, anonymizes them across its client base, which includes labels like Concord, Domino, and the Secretly Group.

We also explore how they apply machine learning to uncover relevant audience patterns and peer artists, creating truly useful benchmarks for independent music professionals.

995: How Open Systems Offer Secure SD-WAN for the Masses Oct 18, 2019

Open Systems was founded in 1990 as a security integrator and Managed Security Services Provider (MSSP). In 2012, as software-defined networks came into their own, they transitioned into a leading provider of secure SD-WAN globally. They have been a leader in the field ever since and currently operate in more than 180 countries. Co-headquartered in Zurich and Silicon Valley, they consider innovation is their birthright. The company combines next-generation technology, machine learning-enhanced operational processes, and the world’s top engineers to deliver an end-to-end, fully integrated SD-WAN for their customers. I invited Moritz Mann onto my daily tech podcast to learn more about SD-WAN (software-defined networking in a wide area network). Moritz Mann studied at the Dualen Technical College Baden-Württemberg (DHBW) in Lörrach, Germany. He holds a degree in Information Systems. Additionally, he has earned a Bachelor in Business Administration from Open University in Milton Keynes, UK.

After finishing his studies, Moritz Mann joined Open Systems AG directly. Between 2012 and 2017, he held the responsibility for Mission Control Operations in Zurich and Sydney after having worked in different roles in Development, Professional Services, and Sales. In mid-2017, he became the Chief Product Officer, responsible for product development in the market.

We discuss increasing network safety for IoT using SD-WAN and how endpoints can be connected to respond to the changing nature of a network. I also learn how SD-WAN can be implemented using simple, rapid configuration, so IoT endpoints have bandwidth support.

Finally, we explore how SD-WAN can provide insights that deliver the best customer experience. But while also allowing enterprise stakeholders to remove the complexity of network management and shift focus to business growth.

994: The Legal Tech Startup Story Behind Persuit Oct 17, 2019

Jim Delkousis is the CEO and Founder of Persuit, a small tech firm that is working with some of the biggest names in the Fortune 100. But Jim's tech journey is not your average tech startup story.

Delkousis spent 15 years as a high-powered lawyer in Australia and Dubai, then decided that the industry wasn't doing its client's right. Nobody knew what a fair price for lawyers was, so everyone overpaid. Jim quit his job and moved to the US to build Persuit - a firm that lets clients offer up legal projects for law firms to bid on.

Persuit is early in its journey. But they've already signed up clients like Walmart, Citi, Shell and Johnson & Johnson, to name a few. They all love Persuit for the simple reason they get a better price from law firms and - for the first time - actual data on the industry.

A team of lawyers and engineers, provided the team at Persuit with an acute understanding of the unique requirements of legal and technology to build a platform that even lawyers love.

In addition to taking the pain out of the RFP process, Persuit allows clients to:

* Drive Healthy Competition among their Panel Law Firms * Build Centralized & Scalable Processes * Scales AFAs * Unlock Data-Driven Insights * Promote Collaboration With Law Firms

However, the real star of the show is the very human story behind this legal tech company. An unconventional founder disrupting a huge industry is possibly one of the most inspirational stories that I have heard.

993: Biotechnology And The Future Of Precision Probiotics Oct 16, 2019

After reading about that Bill Gates believes that Probiotic pills could bring an end to malnutrition, I felt compelled to out more about how biotechnology is changing how and what we eat. My online search quickly led me to Sun Genomics, which is harnessing the power of genomic sequencing to improve the quality of your microbiota.

Sun Genomics is a unique precision probiotic that creates a custom-formulated probiotic tailored to one's unique DigestiveDNA and is the world's first tailored probiotic.

After reading more about the San Diego-based custom probiotic startup, and I invited their CEO, Sunny Jain onto my daily tech podcast to learn more about the story behind the Company.

Sun Genomics was founded by CEO, Sunny Jain in 2016, and the Company's story began with the birth of his son. When his son began suffering from digestive distress, Sunny went to find a probiotic. But he quickly found himself standing in front of the probiotic aisle AKA the "Wall of Confusion."

Sunny quickly realized there wasn't a probiotic solution available. Instead of choosing a supplement at random, Sunny took tons off the shelf that day, and instead of going home, he went to the lab and began testing probiotics, sequencing his son's gut microbiome, and researching strains that best matched his son's gut microbiome analysis.

Sunny reveals what customers should be looking out for when staring at the endless list of probiotics. He also reveals more about biotech startups and their role within the health ecosystem to solve major health crises beyond gut health.

992: Making Room For People In The Modern Workplace Oct 15, 2019

The average person spends more than 90,000 hours of his or her life at work, making it more important than ever that employees feel productive and happy in their environment. Companies and employees alike are realizing that today's current iteration of the workplace, the open office leaves a lot to be desired.

ROOM has positioned itself at the center of this conversation as a solution to the workplace's most pressing issues: lack of privacy and dwindling productivity. They believe that modern workplaces need to be flexible, agile, and able to respond to the shifting needs of an organization.

Their booths are cost-effective, high quality and are becoming an integral part of modern design for all types of companies, from startups to Fortune 500s such as Uber, Salesforce, JP Morgan and Google. But when I heard they had also launched in the UK, I invited their CEO and founder, Brian Chen onto my daily tech podcast to find out more.

Brian Chen, is no stranger to open plan environments, having spent the majority of his career working with and advising tech startups, where he routinely found himself exposed to constant noise and distraction. He's a Y Combinator alum, and was a founding member of Bluesmart, a smart luggage company that pioneered a new category of connected consumer travel accessories.

991: HR Tech - The Story Behind HR Acuity Oct 14, 2019

Deb Muller is driven by an obsession to do things the right way, particularly in employee relations, where she has spent her career championing excellence and effectively managing workplace investigations.

After serving in executive HR roles at numerous Fortune 500 companies like Honeywell, Citibank, and Marsh & McLennan, Deb launched HR Acuity to create technology with built-in expertise and equip organizations to manage employee relations more strategically.

Deb provides a wealth of real-world experience and guidance to help companies strengthen processes, transform workplace culture, and elevate employee relations as a strategic driver of business success. I invited her onto my daily tech podcast to learn more about her HR Tech startup story.

While conducting workplace investigations at high-profile companies like Honeywell and Citibank, Deb Muller realized there was no standardized or formal training for HR professionals working in investigations, which put organizations at risk for potential lawsuits.

To solve the issue, Muller founded the tech platform HR Acuity to help companies identify, track and investigate employee issues, which is now being used by companies such as Lyft and LinkedIn.

About HR Acuity While you can't prevent every employee relations issue, you can change how you respond. HR Acuity is the only technology platform specifically built for employee relations management.

HR Acuity's SaaS technology that empowers you with built-in intelligence, templates and reporting so you can conduct best practice, fair investigations; uncover trends and patterns through forward-looking data and analytics; and provide trusted, consistent experiences for your people

Why Citrix, Stratodesk and NComputing Formed an Alliance Oct 13, 2019

In our featured partner series of Citrix Ready podcasts, we explore the technology integrations that Citrix has with its partners. In this series, I invite guests from Citrix and their partners to spend some time with me to share how they are solving real-world problems for businesses. Not on their own but by working together. Today, I learn how Citrix, Stratodesk and NComputing created an alliance to create an alliance that brings truly differentiated solutions to the market. I also learn more about NComputing's long history with Citrix and their expertise in developing & delivering thin client solutions. I'm also excited to learn why they picked the Raspberry Pi platform to enhanced their thin client portfolio. As a leading partner to the Citrix Workspace Hub program, today's guests share a few success stories around about customers adopting the Citrix Workspace Hub solution. We also learn about their challenges and how the solution benefits them. Finally, we get a Sneak peek on what is next for NComputing's Workspace Hub solution. Roger Cao is responsible for strategy, vision and engineering management of Citrix innovations in workspace transformation, workflow automation and AR/VR. Combining advanced analytics, AI and IoT capabilities for data driven context and user experience to create the most advanced cloud for powering company's digital workspaces. Hernan Contreras is an experienced sales professional with more than 15 years' experience selling software, computer hardware, and networking solutions. Hernan feels privileged to disrupt the VDI marketplace with top of line OS enabling their customers to make business decisions which best fit their organizations. Stratodesk breaks the chains of hardware manufacturers by allowing you to centrally automate your endpoint management no matter what vendor of endpoint devices you have including Raspberry Pi! Rich Severson is a seasoned Thin Client industry veteran. As a senior solutions engineer, he plays a key role in driving Stratodesk's continued global growth. This includes expanding core business and our growing workspace IoT offering. This is not the first time that Rich has played a pivotal part in transforming the future of a company. In his previous role at NComputing, he helped the Thin Client manufacturing leader and Stratodesk partner become the globally recognized brand that it is today. Richard Sah is the Chief Technology Officer at NComputing and leads the planning & development of product portfolios and new technology initiatives.

Richard brings over 20 years of product management, marketing, engineering & development experience in technology, and is passionate about creating new innovative solutions to transform the cloud computing era. Richard also an has extensive hands-on experience ranging from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies and has a successful track record building a new ecosystem and infrastructure from the ground up.

989: Gary Vaynerchuk - From Vegas to Armenia, A Chat With Gary Vee Oct 11, 2019

After spending two years of working in a corporate IT department 9-5 and then working on my side hustle and recording podcasts 7-midnight, I finally decided to go it alone.

In May this year, I went from listening to Gary Vaynerchuk on the commute to an office with no windows to traveling 5,000 miles to Las Vegas to thank the man who inspired me to follow my dream in person. I even got to record a podcast with him at the Magento Imagine event with more than a little help from DRock.

Looking back, this was the moment when my journey came full circle. I thanked Gary, and we went our separate ways. But the universe was not finished with us just yet. Last week I found myself at the WCIT event in Armenia with Kim Kardashian, Alexis Ohanian, Serj Tankian from System of a Down, and Gary Vaynerchuk.

Once again, I found myself in a room with Gary Vee with a chance to hear his thoughts on the latest digital and tech trends. Gary shared why businesses need to pay attention to the explosive growth in audio content and why he believes that Joe Rogan is going to eventually sign a $100 million-plus deal to go exclusive on a platform because of the level of attention he has."

We are living in a world where our newsfeeds and social media timelines are attempting to demonize technology and deliver a vision of a dystopian future where machines rule the world. Thankfully, Gary Vaynerchuk has a much more positive outlook and advises everyone to get into accountability and stop demonizing technology.

"If you're a 28-year-old truck driver, and you know that autonomous vehicles will be arriving in 20 years when you will be 48 years old. Is it an autonomous truck's fault? Or is it your fault for not creating a new skill and getting a new job?"

We discuss how we have been here before and can learn how technology has transformed our lives and business throughout history. "People used to not have traffic lights, and somebody used to get paid to help you get through intersections."

"Does everybody cry when they get to the airport, and they go through a machine now, not somebody who checks your passport? No, they're happy because they don't want to wait 15 minutes." Gary went on to say that if you only care when your own job is in jeopardy, it makes you a hypocrite.

Share your thoughts and insights from today's interviews by commenting below.

988: Lantern Pharma - How Technology is Fighting Against Cancer Oct 10, 2019

Lantern Pharma, is a pharmaceutical company that uses AI and ML to rescue "failed" cancer drugs.

The clinical-stage pharmaceutical company is developing new classes of precision cancer drugs with novel mechanisms of action, and also rescuing or revitalizing abandoned or failed cancer drugs using machine learning techniques, genomic data, and precision oncology trials.

Lantern Pharma recognizes that the high cost and low success rates in oncology drug development largely stem from the inability to appropriately stratify patient populations prior to enrollment, and also from the inability to fully elucidate mechanisms of action that can suggest potent combinations.

The startup's approach leverages its RADR(TM) platform to provide rapid, meaningful insight to both of these central problems in oncology. Lantern is also focused on accelerating personalized cancer therapy development through the use of AI and genomic-based patient stratification.

I invited Panna Sharma, Chief Executive Officer, and President of Lantern Pharma onto my daily tech podcast to learn more about how much of a critical role technology is and will continue to play in the fight against cancer.

987: The Role Of AI-Powered Search In The Digital Workplace Oct 09, 2019

Lucidworks builds AI-powered search solutions for many of the world's largest brands. Fusion, Lucidworks' advanced development platform, provides the enterprise-grade capabilities needed to design, develop, and deploy intelligent search applications at any scale.

Companies across all industries, from consumer retail and healthcare to insurance and financial services, rely on Lucidworks every day to power their consumer-facing and enterprise search apps. The company also recently hit the headlines after raising $100M to expand in AI-powered search-as-a-service for organizations.

The team at Lucidworks is made up of seasoned Silicon Valley veterans and brilliant newcomers from all over the world. And they all have something in common: they know that there has to be a better way for teams to access and distribute information relevant to their organizations.

The company created a platform enabling the enterprise and digital commerce businesses to connect users with the data that they need to make decisions and move forward. I invited Lucidworks CEO, Will Hayes onto my daily tech podcast to learn more about their technology and the story behind their success.

Will joined Lucidworks in 2013 as our Chief Product Officer and was appointed CEO in 2014. He has over 15 years of product, marketing, and business development experience. Prior to Lucidworks, he was head of technical business development for Splunk, where he was responsible for defining the company's market category and key product feature sets.

He created and led the company's global partner program, building an ecosystem of consultants, developers, resellers, system integrators, service providers, and technology partners. Earlier in his career, Hayes served as a software engineer at Genentech, where he built solutions that supported the sales and drug development teams in their field activities.

986: When Coffee Meets Tech Oct 08, 2019

Commonwealth Joe Coffee Roasters is a leading tech-enabled specialty coffee company offering full-service, kegged beverage programs with Nitro Cold Brew and other craft beverages on tap. With one coffee roasting machine, three friends from college, and his mother, CWJ's current Master Roaster, Julia Peck, Commonwealth Joe Coffee Roasters, was born.

Earlier this year, Commonwealth Joe raised $4M in funding to invest in Kegerator vending machines, which are created by Smart Beverage Technologies. They leverage the latest advancements in telemetry and workflow automation to deliver beverages to CWJ's partners. But I wanted to learn more about what smart beverage technology is and how technology is transforming the coffee machines in offices throughout the US.

Alex Kilkka, Chief Technology Officer at Commonwealth Joe joins me on my daily tech podcast to reveal more about how they are using tech to transform beverages.

985: Improving Network and Application Performance Visibility Oct 07, 2019

Accedian is a leader in performance analytics and end-user experience solutions. The company provides its customers with the ability to assure their digital infrastructure while helping them to unlock the full productivity of their users.

The company appeared on my tech radar after learning how the company is used by 75% of the top 50 communication service providers, including Verizon, Comcast, Cox Communications, and others. Enterprise customers include Thomson Reuters, L'Oreal, Goldman Sachs, and others.

The team pride themselves on being committed to empowering their customers with the ability to see far and wide across their IT and network infrastructure. But with a microscopic ability to dive deep and understand the experience of every user. Why? To help them to delight their customers every time.

I invited Sergio Bea from Accedian on to my daily tech podcast to find out more. As Vice President Global Enterprise and Channels, Sergio draws on more than two decades of telecom industry experience in his role in directing Accedian's enterprise and global channel strategy.

Sergio has worked for Fortune 500 global corporations in key strategic roles throughout his career, with prior roles across various disciplines, including sales, business development, strategy, consulting, and services.

Sergio draws on more than two decades of telecom industry experience in his role in directing Accedian's enterprise and global channel strategy. We also discuss how his experience has helped him grow Accedian, as well as provide an update on the company and the network and application performance industry?

984: True Identity Management Oct 05, 2019

Over the last couple of years, Dawid Jacobs has noticed an increasing number of people jumping onto the Identity Management bandwagon. But without any knowledge thereof, even zero knowledge regarding fingerprints, biometrics etc.

Frustrated by seeing more and more people posting inaccurate and in many cases false information, Dawid asked to come on my daily tech podcast to set the record straight.

Dawid Jacobs is a prominent Identity Management Specialist in South Africa. He received intensive training in the South African Police Service as a Fingerprint Expert and Crime Scene Forensic Investigator (CSI).

During his career in the South African Police Service as a Fingerprint Expert, he identified, matched and verified Hundreds of thousands of fingerprints and crime scene fingerprints. On numerous occasions, Dawid was called on to testify in the highest courts of South Africa in his Expert capacity to authenticate the identity of individuals involved in various crimes.

Dawid also compiled study material on Fingerprint Identification and the Investigation of Crime Scenes for Forensic educational institutes. He has also been invited to various conferences, published media, radio and television shows in South Africa to provide professional input on Identity Theft and how to Protect an Identity.

Dawid has been part of the creation of the first Pro-Active Identity Protection and Verification system which allows for various methods of Authentication which include Automated and Physical (Forensic) Fingerprint Identification Systems, a Verified Trust Exchange solution and Blockchain Identity Attestation solution.

All these solutions are based on the Critical importance of optimized accuracy in the enrolment phase of an Identity, utilizing Forensic Protocol procedures.

The Identity Management Solutions Dawid has been involved in, was created for the Global market and focusses on making every individual economically inclusive as well as to reinstate trust between institutions and their customers. Diverse Authentication Library (Pty) Ltd (DAL) is comprised of “Identity Management Specialists” with over 100 years of collective experience in Automated Biometric Identification Systems (AFIS and ABIS), law enforcement solutions, expert fingerprint analysis and forensic expertise from around the world.

DAL is a South African company focussing on providing niche services in the Identity Management arena. By combining Identity Management with Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) principles with our experience and expertise a “Disruptive Innovation” was created – Identity-as-a-Service (IDaaS).

A fully independent solution to “Know Your Customer” (KYC) that not only proves who the person is or where that person can be reached, but also returns trust between Institution and client. They link the Single Existing Real-World Human Being to the Cyber-World Single “Digital Twin” with forensic protocol and have therefore also optimized the Self-Sovereign Identity principle, to a REFERENCED Self-Sovereign Identity. Our form of regulatory compliance is just what the “FinTech" revolution has been crying out for.

DAL is a total Independent Identity Management solution service provider, with no bias to any country, government or political party. The DAL MASTER Identity is a Permanent Persistent Identifier of the Single Existing Real-World Human Being.

All Identities stored and protected by DAL remains the ownership of the registered owner thereof. DAL is only the custodian of Identities with the consent of the owner in the Independent Global Referenced Identity Library.

983: How Public Blockchain Findora that Aims to Redefine Finance Oct 04, 2019

Benedikt Bunz is the inventor of Bulletproofs — a next-generation form of Zero Knowledge Proof technology. After reading how it is proven to be more effective and secure than its predecessor, I invited the Stanford cryptography expert onto my daily tech podcast.

I learn how Benedikt is employing his invention with his new project Findora, which is building distributed ledgers to decentralize the entire financial industry. Findora aims to unlock a new epoch of finance where users control their own data, identity, and financial assets. Using Bulletproofs to guarantee confidentiality, Findora will build an open banking platform, and peer-to-peer lending platform, and a smart asset ecosystem.

Benedikt is also a researcher interested in applied cryptography especially as it relates to cryptocurrencies. His work focuses on enhancing the privacy, usability and security of protocols that are somehow related to blockchains.

Currently, Benedikt is pursuing his Ph.D. in computer science at Stanford and advised by Dan Boneh. He is also a semi-professional runner and enjoys traveling, especially in inconvenient vehicles.

982: Zapier Apps at Work: The Fastest Growing Apps in 2019 Oct 03, 2019

Zapier lets SaaS users create integrations that push data between hundreds of best-in-breed web applications without having to write any code or wrangle APIs.

Zapier also gives people internet superpowers by letting them easily connect and automate the apps they use. Partners, including Salesforce, Intuit, Google, and Dropbox, utilize Zapier to offer their customers integrations with 1,500+ apps. The Zapier Developer Platform enables developers to add APIs for private or public use.

The company is in a unique position as the connector between the most popular business apps in the workplace. But this also lets us see the new software trends from some of today's most productive workers. These are the people adopting apps that help them achieve more in less time.

The company analyzed the usage of over four million users across 1,500+ apps to determine which apps are growing the fastest. The report revealed that apps from around the world are now competing for head-on with the best of Silicon Valley, as five of this year's fastest-growing apps have headquarters outside the United States—and two are built by global, distributed teams.

The report also highlighted how Integrations have made us stop worrying and love these new apps. Over half of surveyed regularly use five or more apps, and over 17% use nine or more apps. We're not using one software suite for everything—we're switching between apps and relying on integrations to ensure data is where we need it.

Zapier co-founder Wade Foster joins me on my daily tech podcast to share insights from the report and how these trends are reshaping the digital landscape.

981: PlantWave By Data Garden - The Tech That Enables Plants To Sing! Oct 02, 2019

You know how it feels to go on a hike or be surrounded by nature. You come out more relaxed, refreshed, and energized. Imagine if you could recreate the feeling of being immersed in a forest through music.

Thanks to PlantWave, this experience will soon be available. With PlantWave, your phone becomes a way for you to connect to nature, rather than feeling separate from it. PlantWave turns a plants’ biorhythms into music.

Just attach two sensors to a plant’s leaves and PlantWave connects wirelessly to an iOS or Android device running our app. The app has instruments we’ve built for plants to play.

Digital technology has made life easier in many ways, however, as we’ve advanced technologically, we’ve welcomed increased stress and distraction into our lives. — JOE PATITUCCI / FOUNDER

PlantWave detects slight electrical variations in a plant via two electrodes placed on the leaves. These variations are graphed as a wave, which we translate into pitch messages or notes that are routed to play instruments.

Other characteristics of the wave are translated into messages that give a plant the ability to change the textural qualities of those sounds. The result is a continuous stream of pleasing music that gives you a sonic window into the secret life of plants.

Data Garden is building a bridge from a world of digital distractions to a life of physical presence. — JOE PATITUCCI / FOUNDER

Jon Shapiro produces biofeedback music performances and built an online learning platform for music education. He led in developing the supply and fulfillment chains for their previous product, MIDI Sprout. He continues to lead software development and joins me onto the Tech Talks Daily Podcast.

We talk about the PlantWave Kickstarter campaign, and I also try and convince Jon to take PlantWave and the Data Garden Quartet to the Greenfields at next year's Glastonbury Festival.

980: How Gembah Turn Your Idea Into a Full-Fledged Design Oct 01, 2019

If you had an idea for a product that doesn't even exist yet, how would you bring that idea to life? Have it made? Simple as that. Gembah handles design, pre-production, sourcing, and logistics for people and companies who want to build better products.

On today's tech podcast, Zack Leonard president and founder of Gembah shares how listeners can turn their idea into a full-fledged design. We discuss how Gembah product designers can take an idea–as simple as a napkin scrawl or just the glimmer of a concept–and produce multiple designs for you to review.

Spotted a trendy product in the market? Make a better one and leap ahead of competitors. Manufacture an affordable, functional, beautiful, and more durable product. I learn how the team pinpoint the perfect factory from a worldwide selection, then combine it with their experience and leverage it to get a better price than most companies could on their own.

As the President and Founder of Gembah, Zack has helped E-Commerce Brands, Amazon Sellers and Promotional Products companies create new products that have sold for 7-Figures in Revenue. Zack lives in Austin, TX with his wife and 2 dogs.

Zack was also on the ground floor of the unicorn company Instacart – helping build the Texas markets from $0 to 7 Figures in weekly GMV, build the national supply forecasting system and fostering partnerships with Whole Foods, Costco, and HEB.

979: How Tech Is Improving Medical Device Safety In Infusion Pumps Sep 30, 2019

George Gray, CTO of Ivenix joins me on The Tech Talks Daily Podcast to talk about the first-ever IV pump to be cleared under the FDA's stringent guidelines.

Ivenix is a medical technology company with a vision to eliminate infusion-related patient harm. The company was founded to develop innovative solutions to transform infusion delivery. Ivenix designed an infusion system from the ground up to streamline medication delivery and bring legacy technology into the digital age.

The Ivenix Infusion System includes a large volume infusion pump supported by a robust infusion management system designed to set new standards in usability, medication precision, and interoperability.

It is the first-ever IV pump to be cleared under the FDA's more stringent guidelines and was adopted in 2014 in an attempt to reduce skyrocketing costs associated with infusion-related errors, pump recalls and security breaches.

To give you a sense of just how far-reaching this is, more than 12 million patients were recently affected by a data breach at the American Medical Collection Agency, along with another 7.7 million LabCorp patients.

George Gray joined Ivenix in December 2011 as Vice President of Software Development and Chief Information Architect and later served as CTO and VP of Software & Information Systems. George is responsible for overseeing all research and development activities, as well as user experience design and testing.

George discusses why cybersecurity and interoperability are critical to device security and how connected devices present an enormous security risk to hospitals and medical centers.

978: How Brands Create Original And Authentic Mobile Video Ads Sep 27, 2019

Vidsy is the creative technology engine powering mobile video ad creation for the world’s leading brands. Their technology, combined with a global community of 6,000+ vetted creators and fully managed services, are empowering brands to intelligently transform their digital advertising for an ever-evolving world of mobile video.

Vidsy also provides opportunities for creators based in over 70 countries and is a global creative partner with Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest and Twitter. In 2017, the company was awarded Facebook’s Global Innovator for ‘Creativity in Video’.

Besides finding talent, this area has not been commoditized like media planning and buying have. As a result, brands tend to struggle to create short-form ads as it's not easy to pack a meaningful narrative into a shorter slot. However, a new generation of mobile creators understand this and can create business-driving results, fast.

I wanted to learn more about how businesses of all sizes can harness a network of global creators to produce video ads across all digital platforms at scale. Gerard Keeley, CEO of Vidsy, joins me on my daily tech podcast to talk about how they produce video ads across all digital platforms at scale for brands, including L’Oreal, Ubisoft, Barclays, Adidas, Rakuten, Warner Bros.

We also discuss while technology can enhance human creativity, it simply can’t replace it. Technology may drive media, but humans drive creative.

977: ManagedMethods - How Machine Learning Powers the Zero Trust Security Model Sep 26, 2019

Zero Trust Security - the concept of "never trust, always verify" - was a term coined by Forrester back in 2010. However, with the prevalence of data breaches today, this concept has taken on a larger role and interest among companies when it comes to security.

Furthermore, most data breaches are found to be caused by internal threats and human error. This means companies must not only be monitoring for threats outside of their organization, but also internally.

A couple of Gartner's Top Security Projects for 2019 include detection & response, and cloud access security broker (CASB). This should come as no surprise as companies continue to adopt SaaS applications and need AI/machine learning to keep up with the monitoring of all their users and data. A recent Capgemini report also found that 61 percent of enterprises can't detect breach attempts without AI.

Machine learning helps companies protect against hackers and account takeovers by knowing locations, devices, IP addresses and times of a typical employee logging into a company's SaaS application, which provides valuable insight regarding unusual account behavior and can be a sign that a user account has been compromised.

Machine learning can also help companies understand who exactly is accessing company documents, who the documents are being shared with, where the documents were downloaded from, who is modifying the documents and more.

I invited ManagedMethods CEO Charlie Sander onto my daily tech podcast to discuss this topic further.

ManagedMethods, is a leading provider of cloud application security solutions for mid-market companies, K-12 school districts and local governments. ManagedMethods provides an award-winning solution that empowers organizations with full and continuous control of cloud application data, including Google G Suite and Microsoft Office 365.

ManagedMethods' API-based cloud security solution helps organizations gain data security against internal and external breaches by leveraging AI and machine learning-powered threat detection.

976: Exploring Enterprise Collaboration and the Digital Workplace Sep 25, 2019

Igloo is a leading provider of digital workplace solutions, helping companies build inspiring digital destinations for a more productive and engaged workforce. Offering a suite of modern features and solutions for today’s evolving workplace, Igloo partners with customers to address challenges related to communication, collaboration, knowledge management, culture and engagement.

In addition, Igloo offers the ability to integrate with leading enterprise and cloud apps like Office 365, Google Drive, Salesforce, Zendesk, Dropbox, and Slack. The company has also helped clients (some of which are completely remote) like Hulu, Leidos and Heifer International (90% remote) move beyond traditional intranets to all-encompassing digital workplaces that improve communication, knowledge sharing, collaboration, and culture.

Igloo was named to Deloitte’s 2015 Fast 50 and Fast 500 – recognized as one of the fastest-growing public and private technology companies in Canada, and North America respectively. Igloo is a SaaS company that doesn't just provide the technology, but solutions and support to solve unique business challenges. These are just a few reasons why I invited Mike Hicks onto my daily tech podcast.

Mike Hicks brings 20 years of experience to Igloo and leads all marketing efforts, including responsibility for bringing new products and services to market. Mike is a recognized leader in global enterprise software marketing and his career includes senior roles at integrated communications agencies and global enterprise software companies.

Prior to joining Igloo, Mike led enterprise marketing and global demand generation for the software portfolio at BlackBerry through their shift to being a software-driven company. We talk about Mike's road to success and also cover the following topics.

The collaboration tool wars as Slack falls into the background + Microsoft Teams comes to the forefront The impact the rise of remote work is having on today’s workplace Why the intranet never died, just transformed into the “digital workplace”

975: Patsnap Academy - IP Education For The Online Community Sep 24, 2019

PatSnap has brought together the world's most comprehensive R&D dataset in one easy to use the platform to help innovation leaders analyse tech trends, assess new opportunities, conduct competitor intelligence and maximise return on IP assets.

By combining millions of data points from patents, licensing, litigation and company information with non-patent literature, PatSnap provides the world's most innovative organisations with a new intuitive source of information to accelerate their R&D.

Academy by PatSnap is a free online learning hub with over 600 minutes of video, arranged into bite-size courses for R&D professionals and innovators. I felt compelled to find out more.

Duncan Clark, Head of Academy by PatSnap academy.patsnap.com joins me on my daily tech podcast. With over ten years' experience supporting and subsequently working in marketing teams, he enjoys translating data insights or technical information into pragmatic advice that drives business outcomes or inspires customers.

Duncan is also a keen advocate of new technology solutions that improve our interaction with the world around us, especially in the fields of mobile tech, the mobile web, wearable technology and the Internet of Things.

Intrigued by the speed of innovation in this area he especially loves it when technology and science combine to solve big world problems. I enjoy competitive analysis, go-to-market strategies, market research and presenting data to others in a way that engages and excites.

974: Why BitTorrent Founder Bram Cohen Wants A Greener Crypto Sep 23, 2019

Bram Cohen is an American computer programmer, best known as the author of the peer-to-peer (P2P) BitTorrent protocol, as well as the first file-sharing program to use the protocol, also known as BitTorrent which grew to over 40% of Internet Traffic.

Bram is also the co-founder of CodeCon and organizer of the San Francisco Bay Area P2P-hackers meeting, the co-author of Codeville and was also featured in 2005 Time's 100 Most Influential People. But here in 2019, he is the CTO, Chairman & Co-Founder of Chia.

The Chia Network is a decentralized open-source global blockchain which is less wasteful, more decentralized, and more secure. It is inspired and similar to the Bitcoin blockchain, but in Chia the resource is not computing power, but disk space.

To achieve this, the “proofs of work” used in Bitcoin are replaced by “proofs of space”, so disk-space becomes the main resource. This is combined with “proofs of time” to come to a decentralized “Nakamoto-style” consensus that validates transactions.

I wanted to find out more about the man who created BitTorrent sitting in his living room on a laptop, as an unknown programmer in San Francisco. But more importantly the incredible work he is doing right now with Chia. Bram Cohen joins me on the Tech Talks Daily podcast, to talk about all this and much more.

973: Ohi - The Amazon Prime Now Experience For E-Commerce Sep 21, 2019

Ohi is building the “Amazon Prime Now” experience for e-commerce brands, providing Amazon levels of speed and data intelligence to every other company.

The platform is helping e-commerce companies position inventory into micro-warehouses within cities, and provides the technology to enable fulfillment from these spaces – replacing the existing 3PL network with one capable of doing one-day and same-day delivery at a low cost.

Ohi also enables businesses to extend your brand experience from checkout to box opening, with Ohi’s same-day and on-demand delivery. Ohi’s partnerships mean you can do away with cardboard delivery boxes, making your customers feel special with presentation bags, or by not using packaging at all.

Ohi’s AI is helping growth-stage companies like you find their second, third or fourth fulfillment centers across the US, without the commitment of long-term leases and expensive integration. After learning that they have also secured 2.9M in seed funding, I invited Benjamin Jones, Founder & CEO at Ohi on to my daily tech podcast.

I learn how they are making eCommerce more environmentally friendly and sustainable.

972: Uberall Examine SMB Owners' Relationship With Online Reviews Sep 20, 2019

91% of SMBs Think Online Customer Reviews Are Critical, And a whopping 60% say they respond "all the time" or "frequently." Uberall, Inc. recently released data on how small- and medium-sized businesses feel about online customer reviews across platforms like Yelp, TripAdvisor, Facebook, Instagram, Google, and more. For the survey, more than 300 SMB owners were asked a series of questions about their relationship with customer reviews and the role they play in their overall business strategy.

"Online reviews are essential to SMBs," said Florian Huebner, Founder & Co-CEO of Uberall. "SMBs typically play in a crowded marketplace, making positive reviews a critical differentiator and a major lead-generation tool."

Uberall is a global leader in location management technology. Its flagship Location Marketing Cloud platform solution empowers the world's biggest brands to connect with their customers and turn online interactions into offline sales.

Uberall gives businesses central control of their digital presence and online reputation. They enable them to easily manage brand interactions in real-time on all digital platforms—mobile, voice and desktop—across websites, mobile apps, store locators, search engines, maps, social platforms, and advertising networks.

The Location Marketing Cloud provides a consistent, accurate digital brand footprint that helps businesses capture new customers and maximize revenue for every location.

Uberall is headquartered in Berlin, with additional offices in San Francisco, London, Paris, Amsterdam, and Cape Town. Its clients include Fortune 500 companies and industry leaders from all over the world.

Florian Huebner, Founder & Co-CEO of Uberall joins me on my daily tech podcast to share insights from the report. We also talk about how Uberall is solving a new set of digital problems for its customers.

971: Huawei Mate 30 Launches Without Google. Is It a Turning Point? Sep 19, 2019

Huawei today unveiled its ground-breaking HUAWEI Mate 30 Series at an exclusive launch event in Munich. The world’s first second-generation 5G smartphone provided the wow factor to audiences who were watching the live stream all over the world.

Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei Consumer Business Group, said: “The HUAWEI Mate 30 Series unleashes the full potential of the smartphone. The era of 5G is an opportunity to rethink smartphone technology and the HUAWEI Mate 30 series is the ultimate expression of what’s possible.”

HUAWEI Mate 30 Pro introduces the Intuitive Side-touch Interaction feature to replace the side volume buttons with invisible virtual keys. This feature also allows users to customise the volume key position on either sides of the device and makes HUAWEI Mate 30 Pro the most integrated, all-in-one design smartphone currently available. Together, HUAWEI 3D Face Unlock and In-Screen Fingerprint provide high levels of biometric security and convenience.

Turn the device over and the iconic ring design of the quad-camera system immediately stands out, surrounded by a metallic ‘halo’. Mirroring the design of a DSLR camera and designed to be held comfortably, the beautiful HUAWEI Mate 30 Series makes the user the focus of the crowd, attracting all the attention.

The HUAWEI Mate 30 Pro also features HUAWEI Acoustic Display Technology to deliver high-quality audio through a sound-emitting display. There were also several other products such as the Watch GT 2, FreeBuds 3, and Vision TV unveiled too. But the biggest headline was the absence of Google's Apps.

I wrote an article about how this could be a turning point for the tech industry on my weekly tech column at Tech HQ. But I invited Paul Lipscombe from Mobile News onto my podcast to share his thoughts on insights from the big event in Germany.

970: Meet the First Open and Intelligent Digital Experience Platform Sep 18, 2019

BloomReach helps companies around the world move fast to create, measure, scale and continuously improve the customer experience. They believe that velocity comes from the ability to adapt quickly to the next touchpoints, channels, and expectations.

So their next move was to design AI-driven search and merchandising tools, next-gen content management system, and digital experience platform architecture to be the most flexible on the market. They now solve everyday frustrations for marketers, developers, and eCommerce professionals. Not to mention the deeper technology issues sitting at a company's digital core, so that businesses can deliver a fantastic digital experience to every visitor.

When I also learned that they have teams, based in Mountain View, Dallas, Boston, Amsterdam, London, and Bangalore, I had to find out more. I invited Bloomreach CTO, Xun Wang, on to my show to discuss why they are on a mission to become the world's leading customer experience platform for digital business.

Xun Wang is passionate about technology and engineering. He led the transformation of Medallia's entire cloud infrastructure to a modern, scalable, efficient, and cost-effective platform. He also led the development of the world's highest quality cloud gaming platform: Nvidia's Geforce Now from idea inception to launch.

969: The Blue Yeti X Microphone For Streamers and Podcasters Sep 17, 2019

Blue Microphones is part of the Logitech International portfolio of brands. Regular listeners will be familiar with the range of microphones such as the Snowball and Yeti microphones. But today we will be talking about the release of the Yeti X.

We are living in a digital world where all generations are creating content and streaming online. Gamers are streaming on Twitch. Vloggers have made a name for themselves on YouTube, entrepreneurs stream Facebook and LinkedIn Live is bringing waking up the boardroom to the possibilities around streaming online too.

As a result of this explosion in content creation, Blue has announced the Yeti X. A Professional USB Microphone with Blue VO!CE Software for Creators and Streamers which enables content creators to dial-up professional vocal effects and custom presets at the push of a button.

A four capsule condenser microphone array delivers exceptional focus and clarity, high-res LED metering provides visual, real-time feedback for vocal levels, and a multi-function smart knob provides instant control over essential mic functions.

Combining traditional Blue audio quality with innovative new features, Yeti X is the ultimate tool for creators who want to deliver professional content and build their audience. Additionally, new features like high-res LED metering and a multi-function smart knob make it easier than ever to deliver professional results for gaming, streaming, and podcasting.” Yeti X is plug and play on Mac and PC and includes advanced Blue VO!CE audio software, a suite of broadcast vocal tools and effects that makes it easier than ever to achieve professional on-stream sound quality. Creators can quickly access and select a variety of professionally-tuned presets for broadcast, radio voice, male and female voices, and effects such as crisp and modern, warm and vintage and more.

In addition, Blue VO!CE gives creators access to professional effects including noise reduction, expander, gate, de-esser, EQ, compression and limiter. The Yeti X also features an 11-segment LED meter that goes from green to red, so streamers can check and adjust their vocal levels at a glance and easily maintain professional sound quality while live on camera.

An illuminated multi-function smart knob provides precise control over mic gain, mute, and headphone volume. The smart knob also controls the blend of microphone signal and computer sound, so creators can quickly adjust the amount of computer audio versus microphone audio that is heard in the headphones. Blue VO!CE is accessible exclusively through Logitech’s free, easy-to-use G HUB platform, enabling content creators to manage mic gain, headphone volume, monitoring preferences, and pickup pattern selections right from their desktop.

Streamers can also match the color and design of their desks by personalizing the color of Yeti X’s LED lights. Yeti X is also compatible with the Blue Sherpa companion app, which features quick and direct control options from your desktop to help you get the most from your mic. Doug Sharp, senior global product manager, desktop streaming and broadcasting solutions at Logitech joins me on my daily tech podcast. We talk about the release of Yeti X and much more

968: InsureTech - Purpose-Built AI Solutions for Commercial Insurance Sep 16, 2019

Chisel’s purpose-built AI solution for commercial insurance reads unstructured insurance data 400 times faster than a human with greater accuracy. The solution automatically recognizes over 500 insurance-specific data points, including limits, premiums, deductibles, coverages, exclusions, and more.

The advanced platform and intelligent workflows automate high volume, mundane processes like policy checking, quote comparison, submission triage, and prioritization. By digitally transforming routine underwriting and brokering activities, commercial insurance carriers and brokers can double their business and deliver a better customer experience without adding staff.

Chisel won Gold at the 2019 Zurich Innovation World Championship and the ACORD InsurTech Innovation Challenge in 2018. Ron Glozman joins me on my daily tech podcast to share his start-up story that was founded in a university dorm room.

A technology enthusiast at heart, Ron Glozman founded Chisel AI with a vision to leverage AI to help industries like insurance which deal in high volumes of unstructured data and manual processes digitally transform.

Ron was recently named on the 30 Insurance Innovators to Watch list published by Digital Insurance and is also an under 30 AI leader and CEO.

967: Fulphil - Tech to Empower Philly and Youth to Make An Impact Sep 15, 2019

Fulphil inspires and enables university students to get involved in targeting their city's toughest social issues. Students form teams and compete in Fulphil's annual, themed, case competition designed to create and launch for-profit social enterprises which target specific problem areas.

Fulphil selects each annual theme in consultation with their partners, including local social enterprises and city administrators while connecting students to the proper resources from the ideation to scaling process. And every year, they award seed capital to the winning team to help them meet their company's needs to fulfill their city's needs.

Tiffany Yau, the founder of Fulphil joins me on my daily tech podcast to share her inspirational tech story. Tiffany is passionate about creating sustainable social impact through social entrepreneurship and more importantly, community empowerment.

Tiffany is also the recipient of the 2019 Greater Philadelphia Social Innovation Award, and been recognized by Generocity, Social Innovation Journal, Philadelphia Citizen, Wharton Business Radio, and Penn News as a social entrepreneurship thought leader.

I learn how she launched Fulphil and also Hult Prize Ivy in 2017 with the goal of empowering ambitious youth to pursue their passions through entrepreneurship.

966: Byron Reese, CEO of Gigaom Talks AI and The The Fourth Age Sep 14, 2019

Byron Reese is the CEO and Publisher of Gigaom, one of the world’s leading technology research companies, and also regularly writes at Gigaom Publisher’s Corner. He brings his experience as a technologist, a passion for history, and his proven business acumen to illuminate how today’s technology can solve many of our biggest global challenges.

The following quote alone was enough alone for me to get him on the podcast today. “Technology is empowering. It augments us. And yet today, many are being told they should fear technology. In my writing, I reject that and offer a different narrative, of how technology can bring about a peaceful and prosperous world for all.”

Byron's new book "The Fourth Age: Smart Robots, Conscious Computers and the Future of Humanity," is an excellent read for those looking for a more positive narrative about the impact of tech on our world and using 100,000 years of human history as his guide.

I invited him on to my daily tech podcast to talk about the issues around artificial general intelligence, robots, consciousness, automation, the end of work, abundance, and immortality. With 25 years as a successful tech entrepreneur, with multiple IPOs and exits along the way, Byron Reese is uniquely suited to comment on the transformative effect of technology in the workplace and society at large.

“The biggest problems of tomorrow will not be a lack of jobs but a shortage of humans to take advantage of all of the opportunities technology will offer.” – Byron Reese

We are living in a digital age where many journalists focus on writing about a dystopian future inspired by fictional writing. By contrast, Byron shares why he writes books that explore the wonders of the world of tomorrow about the future of work and life.

965: Interview With WePay Co-Founder Rich Aberman Sep 13, 2019

Rich Aberman is the co-Founder and CSO at WePay, which is a payments partner to the platform economy. I invited him onto my daily tech podcast to share his background having started WePay as a side project on his way to law school.

In today's interview, Rich offers a little more depth into how WePay started as well as its evolution over the past 11 years, specifically related to the company's acquisition by JP Morgan Chase in a deal valued at $400M.

We tend to hear that financial services are ripe for disruption. But Rich expands on why he thinks that the next disruptor won't be a neobank or an addictive app, but commerce software. We also explore the lessons that he learned from a successful exit and how he guided WePay through multiple pivots, a successful exit and then integration

I also learn how WePay recently launched Same-Day Deposits to offer faster payments to their customers at no additional cost. While other payment processors can take up to 72 hours to complete a payment, as both a bank and a processor, WePay enables same-day deposits.

This will be hugely beneficial, particularly to SMBs that rely on fast payments to keep their business running. This feature will also be unique to Chase, which is the only bank with a fully owned payments business.

The new functionality will help tens of thousands of U.S. small businesses that use platforms like BigCommerce and Xero to get paid faster. It also showcases the combined capabilities of a Silicon Valley financial technology company joining one of the world's largest, most admired financial institutions.

964: Blockchain Interview - Ada Xiao, CSO of PlatON Sep 12, 2019

Ada Xiao is the Chief Strategy Officer of PlatON joins me on my daily tech podcast. We discuss how PlatON is solving the privacy and scalability problem for decentralized network with privacy-preserving computation & verifiable computation.

PlatON is a next-generation computing architecture that aims to facilitate secure, seamless, and open data sharing for the public good. Through Privacy-Preserving Computation (PPC), PlatON breaks down data silos and enables secure data exchange and collaborative computing for enterprise users. With its open-source data marketplace, PlatON supports and incentivizes individuals and businesses looking to both monetize and utilize data resources.

PlatON addresses limitations in scalability and security by way of Verifiable Computation and privacy-preserving encryption capabilities, currently enabling real-world usability across a variety of global industries, including advertising, healthcare data management, IoT and decentralised AI, financial services, as well as key management systems.

Ada Xiao is the Chief Strategy Officer of PlatON where she focuses on developing, communicating, and sustaining PlatON’s strategic initiatives. One of the first employees and the former Head of Business Development at Wanxiang Blockchain Laboratory, Ada also led all Asia Pacific-related blockchain investments and partnerships at Fenbushi Capital.

Ada is a seasoned player in the global capital markets and asset management space, having previously worked for prominent investment banks and financial institutions in Hong Kong, including Goldman Sachs and UBS Global Asset Management. Ada obtained her MBA from Columbia Business School, and her Bachelor of Arts from Trinity College, University of Cambridge.

963: Crestron - Voice Powered Meeting Rooms And Circadian Lighting Sep 11, 2019

What do Mark Zuckerberg’s home, the University of Notre Dame, the biggest casino in Reno, and Shopify’s offices all have in common? They’re are all powered by Crestron technology.

Who is this $1.5B silent leader that’s transforming how we live, work, learn and play? Crestron was founded in 1971 and has come a long way from its A/V nerd roots. Today, they’re at the forefront of cutting edge technology that is, in a nutshell, making our lives easier. Crestron is partnering with companies like Apple and Amazon to connect all facets of our lives.

For example, in a Crestron-powered meeting room, you could say, “Alexa, start my meeting,” and you will automatically be dialed-in to a conference line with your presentation displayed on the screen.

Meeting rooms aren’t all they’re doing. Crestron’s circadian lighting is helping improve productivity AND sleep schedules. Its smart home technology is customizable and easy to use. They’re making “smart” hospital rooms that improve patient and physician experiences.

Crestron’s director of enterprise technology, Dan Jackson joins me on my daily tech podcast to talks about what the technology-powered world of the future looks like. We talk about how technology is transforming the workspace and what changes are on the horizon.

Dan Jackson has been working at Crestron since January 2006. Prior to that, he held positions with Elexos and Zemma Technologies. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Engineering & Economics from Northwestern University and is based in New York.

962: IFA - Why Jabra Elite True Wireless Earbuds Rival Apple AirPods Sep 10, 2019

It has been a few years since true wireless earbuds arrived on the scene. They often come with onboard storage, activity tracking, heart rate monitoring, and much more. Apple's AirPod's and Huawei's FreeBuds 3 all keep the same "toothbrush" form-factor which is not for everyone.

These are just a few reasons why one of the standout products at IFA 2019 for me was the Jabra Elite 75t. They have now been engineered to last longer and designed to fit better and they don't look like you have an electric toothbrush head sticking out of your ear.

The Elite 75t is specifically designed to provide enhanced comfort through its optimal earbud shape and size. The earbuds have been extensively tested for a secure fit, so users can be confident that the earbuds will stay put. Perfect for someone like me who cannot run more than a few feet without my Apple Earbuds falling out of my ears.

Taking it one step further, Jabra also collated valuable insights on user needs and preferences to determine the primary barriers to a true wireless experience. Jabra is also seeking to address consumer demand for more battery life, better fit and ease of connectivity with the newest addition to the Elite range.

The Elite 75t offers up to 28 hours of battery life with the charging case and 7.5 hours without. The earbuds feature fast USB-C charging to ensure users will never run out of battery when on the go. Based on consumer feedback, Jabra also enhanced the ease of use of the charging case by ensuring easy access and adding magnets.

René Svendsen-Tune, CEO at Jabra, said, "Our biggest news at IFA 2019 is also our smallest yet and is a result of our dedication to listening to and providing for changing customer expectations for a truly wireless experience."

After swinging by the Jabra show booth at IFA 2019, I invited Tanni Toft from Jabra onto my daily tech podcast to learn more about how they listened to customer feedback to innovate and create a unique true wireless experience.

961: IFA 2019 - Lithuanian Startup Millo Appliance Sep 09, 2019

Millo Appliances is a food-tech company on a mission to inspire the global community to adopt a healthier and more sustainable diet by developing innovative solutions for simple, enjoyable food preparation.

Founded in 2016, the company created the Millo blender, a smart, simple, and silent device. Millo is the blender reimagined and reinvented as a smart gadget for our busy lifestyles. Inspired by minimalist design and crafted with materials of the highest quality, Millo seamlessly blends into any environment, fitting in with other smart devices.

Its technology makes it three times quieter than the average blender and allows it to do things that other appliances can’t. Millo doesn’t need any buttons - it can be controlled from anywhere on its 360-degree, touch-sensitive surface, as well as via its own smartphone app. It is cordless, fully portable, and can make up to 10 smoothies on the go with just one charge.

Millo is powered by a brushless engine with an integrated magnetic coupling. This innovative technology, called AirDrive, was developed and patented by Millo’s Founder and CEO Ruslanas Trakselis, who was inspired to create it after seeing his daughter play with a toy with two dancers that were spun magnetically.

Ruslanas, an avid athlete who does marathon and triathlon training in the early morning, decided to reinvent the blender after becoming frustrated by the mess and noise caused by making his post-workout smoothie with a regular blender, which often woke up his family.

Millo Appliances has raised a total of €1.5 million in investment. Its Kickstarter campaign in 2017 raised over €100,000 and saw over 300 reservations for Millo in less than 30 days.

Millo’s Founder and CEO Ruslanas Trakselis shares the startup story that began with an idea in Lithuania and has taken him to the show floor at IFA in Berlin.

960: Funding and Supporting Cybersecurity Entrepreneurs Sep 08, 2019

The firm’s track record includes successful, high-profile portfolio company acquisitions by major corporations including Palo Alto Networks, Microsoft, CA, and Proofpoint.

John Brennan, YLV partner joins me on my daily tech podcast.

959: AVA Labs - Build. Ship. Disrupt finance. Repeat Sep 07, 2019

With an increasing number of enterprises looking to blockchain for business applications, the very nature of decentralization is being called into question.

The recent Senate hearings on Facebook's Libra highlight that any project whose value can be distorted by a central authority, as is the case with Libra's consortium of just 27 nodes, cannot be classified as truly decentralized.

While some projects reject decentralization in favor of business benefits, others remain focused on delivering on the original promise of blockchain technology.

Co-founded by preeminent blockchain authority and Cornell professor Emin Gün Sirer, and seasoned software engineer Kevin Sekniqi, AVA Labs is one such project that is focused on developing a "platform of platforms" for blockchain applications, with the bold goal of challenging established players such as Ethereum.

AVA's Avalanche protocol facilitates high throughput and scalability and, in combination with the network's unprecedented flexibility - allowing nodes across the system to utilize different scripting languages - AVA opens up a whole new level of decentralization for Proof-of-Stake protocols, bringing them in line with the level of decentralization offered by Bitcoin.

Kevin Sekniqi, Co-Founder & Chief Protocol Architect at AVA Labs joins me on the Tech Talks Daily Podcast, shares his mission to build a payments rail and computation engine based on the breakthrough Avalanche family of consensus protocols.

Before this, Kevin was a Ph.D. candidate in Computer Science at Cornell University, researching distributed systems, cryptography, security, and economics. He previously did research and software engineering at many prominent organizations, including Microsoft and NASA. Kevin also previously co-founded an AI company focused on hyper-parameter optimization.

958: Aries Wang, Co-Founder of Bibox Interview Sep 06, 2019

On today's tech podcast, Aries Wang, Co-Founder of Bibox sits down with me to talk about the digital asset exchange based on AI technology.

The top ten cryptocurrency exchange platform, Bibox, has officially launched in Europe with fiat-to-crypto currency trading of the Euro (EUR) with Bitcoin and Ethereum now open. But I wanted to dig a little bit deeper and learn more about the story behind the launch.

Looming economic uncertainty means that European citizens are increasingly looking for alternative investment opportunities and BiboxEurope appears to be meeting this challenge by offering access to new economic possibilities for retail and institutional investors looking to build their own digital asset portfolio.

Aries discusses why Europe's concise regulatory and legal framework for cryptocurrencies makes it a hotbed of development. We also discuss how the future of cryptocurrency trading and A.I will become inextricably linked as well as his experience as a partner for Blockwater Capital, a leading digital asset fund.

About Aries Wang

A serial crypto entrepreneur and seasoned investor in Blockchain, Aries (Wanlin) Wang is always on a fast-paced upswing. Within a year of co-founding Bibox digital asset exchange, Wang has led the team to bring the exchange to a top ten position on CoinMarketCap and the exchange now has become a staple of the crypto world.

In ten months, Bibox reached a stable daily trading volume of about US$200 million. With its delicate selection of tokens, the current valuation of the company is at an astounding US$50 million.

While developing Bibox exchange, Wang joined BlockWater Capital and went on investing in top-tier projects. BlockWater Capital is one of the largest blockchain funds in South Korea and Aries Wang is the only partner from outside of South Korea.

With the strong belief that the current disruption of crypto-economics and blockchain is only the beginning, BlockWater Capital developed a diversified high-quality portfolio, and was an early investor in Fusion (fusion.org) and Fantom (fantom.foundation).

957: How ReliaQuest's GreyMatter Unifies Disparate Technologies Sep 05, 2019

Every year Forrester puts out a report with top recommendations for cybersecurity leaders. This year, Forrester listed the most persistent problems for CISOs, and introduced “vendor sprawl.” The number of security solutions within enterprises -- which operate in silos, unable to integrate or communicate with each other -- is undermining companies’ security posture, and are exacerbating staffing gaps/skills shortages.

However, there's a bottom-line impact to all of this. Companies are spending billions in cybersecurity annually, and security teams are getting slammed. For example, 32% of IT pros ignore alerts, unable to keep up with the resulting noise.

This is where ReliaQuest comes in. ReliaQuest recently announced GreyMatter, a first-of-its-kind platform that connects data from disparate cybersecurity tools to improve security operations, and allows customers to proactively identify and addresses threats to allow better response times.

ReliaQuest's average customer has $10B in revenue -- some of the largest global enterprises, who as a result of their partnership have improved threat detection by 4X in less than 90 days and reduced security system downtime by 98%.

The company has also helped decrease security spend by 35% due to more efficient defenses. I wanted to learn more about this progress and how ReliaQuest's business has been booming with increased revenue of 451% in a three year period.

ReliaQuest Founder and CEO, Brian Murphy joins me on my daily tech podcast to talk about all this and how ReliaQuest has become the first national cybersecurity partner of 3DE, bringing cybersecurity awareness and education to high schools

956: BingeWith: How to Add Audio to Your Blogs and Articles Sep 04, 2019

Alex Eremia trained as a data analyst and has experience building eCommerce and web products. Alex also worked at Google Express, where she was part of the team to create the first Google eCommerce experience for the Google Home and helped reach positive order margins for some stores.

Most recently, she founded Bingewith to help everyday content writers match the prowess of Bloomberg by engaging their audience with insightful audio content.

BingeWith provides an audio player "play button" for any webpage - so users with dyslexia or those who prefer to digest content via voice can easily read content on a webpage, PDF, eBook or online article. Using intelligent technology - the player can locate which content on a page is relevant and read it in a variety of tones and speeds.

Back in 2016, I had an idea to bring a human voice to my column at INC magazine by embedding a podcast interview with the startup I was writing about at the bottom of the article. The idea was that visitors could learn from startup stories and then hear the human voices behind it afterward.

However, INC decided it wasn't for them and wondered if I could focus on listicles such as "5 ways to be a better entrepreneur," so we went our separate ways. For these reasons alone, I was incredibly excited to hear more about how Alex is transforming written articles into audio content and how everyone can listen to the internet with BingeWith.

Alex Eremiajoins me on my daily tech podcast and shares her startup story that has taken her from being a Google analyst to voice tech innovator launching BingeWith. We also explore her experiences with voice tech and artificial intelligence.

955: Terminal - Building Skilled Remote Teams For Tech Companies Sep 03, 2019

Terminal is a company that is putting a unique twist on the remote work experience. They're building offices of remote teams (not just hiring remote workers) in places they've identified as emerging innovation hubs with skilled tech talent so that startups can access engineers all over the world -- not just Silicon Valley. This includes places like Montreal, Vancouver, and most recently Guadalajara.

I found myself fascinated by the story behind Terminal and how it was founded in 2015 with a mission of pushing the world forward by bringing global opportunities to talent. Its founders all shared a common struggle: an inability to find enough engineering talent to scale their businesses because the demand for engineers far exceeded the supply of talent.

They knew they had a market-level problem that required a macro solution. That's when they conceived of Terminal — a way for forward-thinking tech companies to avoid the war for talent altogether by building remote teams of skilled engineers around the world.

Today, propelled by the same mission, Terminal taps into engineering talent around the globe who want to do meaningful work at innovative companies.

Dylan Serota, co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Terminal joins me on my daily tech podcast. We discuss how the startup is building remote teams and offices across emerging innovation hubs to help scale (engineering teams/IT operations).

Under his leadership, Terminal has attracted multiple rounds of investments, opened four Terminal Campuses and helped top technology startups like Eventbrite, Hims, Bungalow, and Dialpad recruit engineering talent.

Dylan brings over ten years of entrepreneurial and enterprise experience. Dylan was an early employee at Eventbrite, where he rose to become head of the platform and led the company in building a third-party developer ecosystem and platform partnerships. Dylan currently also serves as an advisor to Bus.com, a technology-powered marketplace for private/ride-share charter buses.

The company is backed by Lightspeed Venture Partners, Thiel Capital, Kleiner Perkins, Atomic, David Sacks' Craft Ventures, and Yahoo! founder Jerry Yang as an angel investor, and clients include Him's, Bungalow, Eventbrite, Dialpad and Ever AI. Some of the companies that use Terminal include Hims, Bungalow, Eventbrite, and Bluescape.

We also discuss startups can compete with the tech goliaths in the hiring wars. Overcoming the remote work mind block, and genuine roadblocks. Tangible actions that leaders can implement in their companies to ensure remote workers feel included and apart of the company and retention strategies for remote workers.

954: Development To Market with "devToM" Augmented Intelligence Sep 02, 2019

devToM is a cloud-based, AI-powered SaaS-solution for product development designed for maker's, product owner, product managers and entrepreneurs in a DIY package. devToM generates unique insights to augment product development to the market journey of a new product idea/ product improvement concept.

While many companies employ entire departments devoted to product development, Venkat and Raj from devTom saw the need for a software solution that allows inventors, entrepreneurs and businesses to launch new products quickly and at a minimal cost.

The cloud-based software includes insights, tips and resources that guide a user and optimizes the quality of each stage of the development cycle. devToM’s proprietary AI modules provide additional support, gathering data on your product and processes, which speeds the process and optimizes your ability to have a successful launch.

I invited Venkat and Raj onto the show to share the story behind devTom learn more about their journey.

Venkat has spent the last two decades creating and getting successful products to the market. He has held leadership roles in engineering and technology in Automotive and consumer product industries.

Raj is a technology entrepreneur who has worked on the product development teams of Nokia, Microsoft and built several new products as an electronics engineer and launched them as product owner/ manager that has won several product innovation awards. Raj mentors young entrepreneurs in the UK in his free time.

953: ZenGo The World’s First Keyless Crypto Wallet Sep 01, 2019

KZen is the company behind ZenGo, a mobile app that enables users to simplify how they secure their crypto. With conversations increasingly focussing on how to increase adoption of blockchain and crypto, I was intrigued by how ZenGo is approaching the problem of crypto wallets being too complicated or insecure for mainstream users.

The team at ZenGo believe that one day, all physical and digital assets will be represented on a blockchain. After failing to find a suitable solution, they decided to make the crypto economy more accessible to everyone and build one themselves.

The "keyless wallet" is a radically new approach to crypto asset management that requires no passwords, no specialized hardware, and no complicated backup schemes. In addition to the convenience, they have completely removed the single point of failure that plagues the industry today.

After reading how ZenGo now supports the Libra testnet, I wanted to find out more about how users can send and receive Facebook's new cryptocurrency, Libra. Although the testnet funds don't hold any real value and are only for testing purposes, it's where we are heading that excites me.

Co-founder and CEO Ouriel Ohayon joins me on my podcast to share how they are providing increased security and a great customer experience too.

We also discuss how they hope that ZenGo will make it easier for everyone to participate in the crypto economy. Maybe even unlock new areas of innovation, and lead to more financial freedom for people around the world.

952: The Significance of Mobile Based Offerings in Real Estate Aug 31, 2019

We are living in a digital world where people expect what they want and when they want it. There is a sense of immediacy and urgency in every action, purchase, and communication. This has made a massive impact on so many industries such as retail, hospitality, technology.

However, in the real estate industry, buying homes, building commercial spaces, remains a long and frustrating process. But. mobile-based offerings are making it possible to have processes happen so much more quickly and efficiently.

According to Jeff Berman, general partner at Camber Creek, mobile applications are changing how real estate is managed, accessed, experienced, bought, and sold, giving individuals more control and visibility into their homes and offices.

The shift towards mobile offerings is accelerating the speed at which real estate transactions happen, the demands made by customers on property managers and owners, and the connectivity generally within the industry.

More than enough to capture my attention, so I invited Jeff onto the show to find out more. We discuss the advancements of technology and mobile-based offerings in real estate. We also explore how they have changed and impacted the industry and how things work.

Camber Creek is a VC firm that focuses solely on investing in technologies for real estate. Jeff spends his days studying and examining tech companies that are making waves in real estate or have the potential to and is based in New York City.

In addition to coordinating investments in numerous portfolio companies, Jeffrey is a current or past board member of Nestio, Bowery Valuations, Vedero (acquired by Murata), and SalesWarp. Jeffrey brings close to two decades of executive experience in the real estate industry. He also received a BA from New York University’s Stern School of Business.

951: Polymath - Head of Tokenization Graeme Moore Interview Aug 30, 2019

Polymath is a decentralized platform that makes it easy to create security tokens. The Security Token Standard (ERC1400) spearheaded by Polymath embeds regulatory requirements into the tokens themselves, restricting trading to authorized participants only.

There has been a great deal of hype surrounding blockchain and crypto. But there is an argument that the technology is underhyped rather than overhyped. So what is holding back progress?

The success of any new technology is often determined by the level of mainstream adoption. If blockchain and crypto are going to shake its image problem and get more businesses on board, we need to have more conversations. These are just a few reasons why I invited Graeme Moore onto the podcast.

Graeme is the author of B is for Bitcoin which was the first-ever ABC book about Bitcoin and cryptocurrency. The book enabled readers to learn their ABCs while also learning about open, global, transnational, borderless, censorship-resistant, permissionless, digital money.

Here in 2019, Graeme is the Head of Tokenization for Polymath, the decentralized platform that makes it easy to create security tokens and conduct security token offerings. The platform simplifies the complex technical challenges of creating a security token and aims to bring the multi-trillion dollar financial securities market to the blockchain.

Earlier this year, Polymath also announced Polymesh, a purpose-built security token blockchain, in collaboration with Charles Hoskinson, Co-Founder of Ethereum and Cardano. We explore all this and dare to answer the question. Is crypto winter really over?

950: Onewheel - Ridable Technology and The Micro Mobility Industry Aug 29, 2019

E-scooters and dockless bicycles are appearing in cities' bike lanes in great numbers. Whatever your opinion, there is an incredible demand for single-occupant vehicles for people looking for an environmentally friendly commute. But it is creating challenges for both providers and government agencies.

How can micro-mobility work for citizens, cities, and service providers? and what is the ridable technology that is making it all possible? These are just a few topics up for discussion in today's tech podcast.

I wanted to learn more about the technology behind the micro-mobility industry so I invited Jack Mudd from Onewheel onto the podcast. We discuss the future of the micro-mobility industry learn more about the self-balancing, electric board that is bridging the gap between recreation and transportation.

Their newest board, Pint has recently launched and brings the convenience and fun of small electric vehicles to the masses with a vehicle that is less expensive than most personal transportation options available now.

I explore how Onewheel and Pint are aiming to revolutionize the transportation industry and what the future has in store for the micro-mobility industry.

949: The Tech Blog Writer Podcast Evolves Into Tech Talks Daily Aug 28, 2019

After nearly 1000 interviews, with some fantastic guests including household names such as Gary Vaynerchuk, William Shatner, Wendy Williams, as well as tech giants like Microsoft, Sony, Adobe, Lenovo, and IBM, and even sports teams, Real Madrid and Manchester United, it's clear that we've created a bit of a monster here.

After four years of hosting the Tech Blog Writer podcast, I am making a brave decision to rename the show to the "Tech Talks Daily Podcast." Both the show and the community we have created together has evolved into something much bigger than I had originally anticipated.

On the podcast, I always talk about how every business must leverage technology and continuously evolve. So I figured maybe I need to do that myself too. But before doing it, I just wanted to grab you all for a quick chat, a regrouping and see just how far we've come in in the last four years together since I first won the LinkedIn Top Voice award back in 2015.

I also wanted to move the show away from being about me the Tech Blog Writer and more about how business leaders, startup founders, and the audience are all leveraging technology to change their world. It's also about sharing these stories so we can all learn from each other. Welcome to Tech Talks Daily.

In today's catchup solo show, I invite anyone attending IFA 2019 next week to meet up with me for a chat. I also talk about potential giveaway ideas for listeners when we celebrate 1,000 interviews.

948: Sarah Elkins On Using Technology to Bring Us Closer Together Aug 27, 2019

On my daily tech podcast, I enjoy exploring how technology is transforming businesses, reshaping industries, and even changing lives.

Today's guest is my good friend Sarah Elkins who I met in Denver at her No Longer Virtual conference.

One of the reasons I invited Sarah back onto the podcast today is to share how she is leveraging technology to transform both her life and business.

Using tech to tear down the barriers between online and offline

After supporting and receiving support from online connections throughout the world, Sarah found herself wanting to connect with people beyond the keyboard. What if you could leverage your incredible online professional network to improve your real life, face-to-face business, and community?

The result was her online connections flying from all over the world to meet in a room in Atlanta, Denver, and next year, Chicago. As someone that also believes in connecting with listeners, guests in real life too, I will also be connecting with her beyond the keyboard in Chicago in 2020.

Using tech to launch a podcast

Your stories don't define you, but how you tell them will. If relationships are the key to happiness, communication is the doorway, and communication is most engaging when we use stories as our foundation.

In Sarah's podcast series, you'll hear personal stories of professionals who have identified pivot points that shaped their careers. These stories will resonate with you, you'll nod your head in understanding, and then we'll dig into the lessons from each of those situations. When she is working with clients, she reminds them to listen for understanding, not to respond.

During her podcast, she asks that you listen to consider your related stories and to listen and consider which stories in your life might have similarly impacted you.

Using tech to publish a book

Sarah then set out to crowdfund her new book "Your Stories Don't Define You, How You Tell Them Will" using a platform called Publishizer.

In the book, Sarah will help readers understand the stories we tell and why. The intention of this book is to improve self-reflection and improve relationships as a result.

In today's podcast, I learn more about how Sarah once again turned to technology and the online community to bring her book to life using Publishizer. We also disucss how the crowdfunding platform matches authors with publishers.

Authors write proposals, readers pre-order copies, and publishers express interest to contact authors. Publishizer queries publishers based on pre-orders milestones at the end of the campaign. The author receives a range of offers and selects the best one.

About Sarah

Sarah is a keynote speaker, Gallup Certified Strengths Coach, and has been hosting a successful podcast for nearly two years. Her keynote and coaching clients are diverse, including science and higher education non-profits, medical professionals, startup teams, and local, state, and Federal agencies. She is described as "down to Earth" and as having a "practical approach to stories as a communication tool."

Sarah shares how she has leveraged technology to launch her own conference, podcast, and book. But, all with the same goal in mind, using technology to bring us all closer together.

How Citrix and NVIDIA Are Building A New Future of Work Aug 26, 2019

Every aspect of our lives and work has been transformed by technology. Businesses of all sizes all have an increasing number of devices and applications that play a crucial role in the success of their company. On the Citrix Ready podcast, we explore the future of work.

I speak with a member of the Citrix team and one of their partners to learn more about how they are working together to build a better future and more efficient workforce. On this episode, we bust a few myths and explore exactly what Citrix means to businesses. We also discuss the impacts that Citrix App and Desktop Virtualization is bringing to the digital landscape too.

We also learn more about NVIDIA, GPU, and vGPU in a language that everyone can understand. However, the most exciting aspect of today's conversation is the blossoming relationship between NVIDIA and Citrix. We discuss how NVIDIA and Citrix perfectly complement each other and are working together to help businesses overcome real-world challenges.

Roberto Moreno, Principal Product Manager for Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops joins Konstantin Cvetanov, Sr. Solution Architect at NVIDIA to discuss the following:

The market trends driving migrations to Windows 10
Considerations that customers should keep in mind when moving to Windows 10
How Citrix technology helps deliver the same user experience on a Windows virtual desktop, over the network, as a physical Windows device
The NVIDIA’s Windows 10 MAP program
What customers learn more about Citrix, NVIDIA and the value of vGPU for Windows 10.

About Roberto

Roberto is a Principal Product Manager for Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops, based out of Florida. Previously a field consultant with 8 years of experience working on large and complex Citrix deployments in many countries and across different business verticals. He is also a distinguished speaker and has presented insightful sessions at Synergy events, as well as a Citrix Certified Instructor.

About Konstantin

Konstantin Cvetanov is a Sr. Solution Architect at NVIDIA. He specializes in GPU Virtualization and is squarely focused on increasing adoption and implementation of NVIDIA vGPU solutions among strategic customers.

Konstantin is an avid speaker has been presenting to audiences on a range of topics and working with members of the community to increase participation and leadership among peers.

In addition to well-known IT events, Konstantin regularly delivers training to engineering audiences from NVIDIA channel partners helping them acquire the expertise necessary to implement NVIDIA solutions in the field.

946: Jyve - The First Skills-as-a-Service Platform Aug 25, 2019

Anu Gupta has spent more than 20 years cutting her teeth in the worlds of retail, technology and private equity organizations. Currently, Anu serves as COO of Jyve, the leading platform for in-store flexible and skilled labor.

Jyve is a technology company that’s redefining how, when, and where we work. Jyve’s Skills-as-a-Service platform and on-demand talent marketplace matches enterprise businesses like large brands and retailers with certified workers (aka “Jyvers”) to execute in-store jobs.

Jyvers accomplish a variety of tasks, including auditing, brand ambassadorship, display building, e-fulfillment shopping, merchandising, ordering, and stocking. Jyvers choose their own hours and get paid by the job, enabling flexibility and acceleration in their professional growth.

The future of work will be about connecting needs to skills, and making those connections will require a platform for a Skill Economy workforce. Jyve is that platform.

Anu joins me on the podcast to discuss how Jyve's technology helps enable retailers to expand their labor capacity while minimizing costs, mitigating the impact of turnover rates and making it easier for in-store employees to succeed.

Throughout her career, she learned first hand of the massive pain-point impacting the retail industry: $252.5 billion is lost annually due to a lack of access to labor that is skilled and certified to effectively and quickly meet in-store execution and needs.

Led by Anu’s deep experience in retail, technology and problem-solving, Jyve is solving this pain-point for retailers by creating a first-of-its-kind Skills-as-a-Service Platform. Jyve’s platform uses machine learning to intelligently match businesses’ in-store execution needs with the right skilled labor - Jyvers - to the needs of the retailer, at the right time.

This also improves work for Jyvers, allowing them to grow in their careers and new challenges in different workplaces. Payment by task, not by the hour, allows Jyvers to know how much they will make each day and can make more if they can complete jobs more efficiently. Jyvers also received unprecedented autonomy of their schedules, unlike traditional gig workers.

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