Times Tech

Latest Episodes:

Hinge's Justin McLeod: "Engineering intimacy" Aug 13, 2021

Show notes

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Justin McLeod, founder of Hinge, to talk about dating in the pandemic (2:41), launching an app (4:33), his early years as a “hot mess” (5:51), cleaning up his act (6:50), loneliness (9:45), overhauling the app (12:15), the irony of maximizing for “time in app” (15:03), injecting friction into the process (18:10), introducing a “vaccine status” badge (23:28), Facebook dating (27:00), the future of dating (30:03), the 36 questions to find love (32:14), his worst day of work (38:14), reconnecting with his wife (39:49), video first dates (41:49), and selling to IAC (43:20).

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Pearson's Andy Bird: "Our business model was broken" Aug 06, 2021

Show notes

Pearson’s Andy Bird: “Education is going to be disrupted like music”

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Andy Bird, chief executive of Pearson, to talk about transforming the education giant (5:40), creating textbook “playlists” (8:30), growing up in Manchester (14:45), getting into the entertainment industry (16:10), being recruited by Bob Iger (21:30), remaking Disney's foreign operations (23:05), cutting ties with Netflix (27:40), failing at Disney’s first streaming attempt (29:10), retiring (34:25), un-retiring and join Pearson {38:00), the backlash over his ‘golden hello’ (41:00), the breakdown of the higher education business model (43:40), the future of Pearson (49:40), overhauling a 177-year-old company (52:40), and learning from failure (57:40).

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Stephen Levy: "Peak Facebook" Jul 30, 2021

Show notes

Amid Facebook's record-setting financial performance and its pivot toward become a "metaverse" company, we air a revealing interview from last year (March 2020) with Stephen Levy, author of Facebook: The Inside Story, Levy talks about the moment he decided to write the book (4:15), the first time he met Zuck (8:55), the “book of change” (10:30), why Zuckerberg didn’t need an “adult in the room” (14:00), his deification in Silicon Valley (17:15), how Trump used Facebook (19:15), dark profiles (22:00), why Facebook is still moving fast (25:15), Facebook’s antitrust fight (28:45), on whether encryption changes things (31:15), Facebook as a utility (34:15), Zuckerberg’s shrinking inner circle (36:00), the hardest thing about writing the book (39:45), how Zuckerberg has changed (44:15), the Facebook phone (48:30), Cambridge Analytica (49:30), and whether Facebook is too big to control (53:45).

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Antonio Garcia Martinez: "Silicon Valley's necessary delusions" Jul 23, 2021

Show notes

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Antonio Garcia Martinez, to talk about his winding career in tech and media (3:25), living in the woods (7:25), his Facebook memoir (11:00), criticizing tech but also defending it (15:55), landing a gig at Apple and then getting fired (20:10), the Silicon Valley culture wars (23:25), launching a newsletter (30:25), the breakdown of the media business model (37:45), the tectonic plates shifting in the ad world (42:20), the privacy push (45:20), Apple and Google tightening their grip on the web (49:05), whether we should care (55:00), and living in Reno (58:30).

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Sofar’s Tim Janssen: “Google Maps for the ocean” Jul 16, 2021

Show notes

The Sunday Times' tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Tim Janssen of Sofar to talk about the paucity of ocean data (3:30), creating an ocean sensing network (6:15), the engineering challenge (8:30), modeling (10:30), why he left academia (15:15), raising money (19:20), coming here from the Netherlands (21:10), his customers (22:30), what’s happening in the oceans (33:25), and dropping the first sensor in the water (37:30).

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Throwback edition! A deep dive into the space race Jul 15, 2021

Show notes

We repost a podcast from Tales of Silicon Valley, the narrative podcast that Danny did two years ago. In the week that Sir Richard Branson touched space, and just days before Jeff Bezos prepares to do so as well, we go back to this investigatio into how billionaires are racing to become the first to settle on the moon. We talk to astronauts, and the billionaires themselves, about their plans to turn humans into a multi-planetary species.

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Atai’s Christian Angermeyer: “Funding the psychedelic renaissance” Jul 09, 2021

Show notes

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Christian Angermeyer to talk about spending $40 million on his own money to reinvent the psychedelics industry (3:46), his first magic mushroom experience (6:58), convincing investors (11:09), targeting opioid addiction (17:35), the stoned ape theory (21:06), the legal challenge (24:33), the timeline (28:35), the social media effect (29:43), bad trips (39:56), developing a network of professionals to guide therapy (42:47), plus his view on the return of live events (46:23), the epidemic of undocumented mental health issues (50:27), and how he made his money (53:37).

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Archer Aviation’s Brett Adcock and Adam Goldstein: “The world is rooting for our air taxis” Jul 02, 2021

Show notes

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Brett Adcock and Adam Goldstein, co-founders of Archer Aviation, to talk about their air taxi startup (6:00), starting out in recruiting (9:00), how they pivoted to flying cars (12:30), setting up an aeronautics lab (18:20), designing a plane (21:30), finding a billionaire backer (30:00), and then United Airlines (33:00), launching by 2024 (37:45), working toward test flights (41:10), the talent war (42:10), unveiling a plane that hasn’t flown (45:10), what air taxis will be able to do (49:15), and the adoption period (54:40).

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Bonus Episode; Secrets of the Side Hustle- Tech for good with OLIO co-founder Tessa Clarke Jun 28, 2021

Show notes

Danny will be back later this week with more tales from the valley. But first, here's a special extra episode from the team behind "Secrets of the Side Hustle"

Food waste is one of the biggest contributors to the climate crisis. Could sharing be the solution? Tessa Clarke, co-founder of the OLIO app thinks so.

She sat down with host, Laura Jackson, to talk about how tech companies can change the world for the better, the struggles many female founders find when seeking investment and even more.

Subscribe now to hear more from "Secrets of the Side Hustle"

Guest

Tessa Clarke, co-founder of food sharing app, OLIO

Host:

Laura Jackson

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Whatnot’s Grant Lafontaine: “Creating an eBay for millennials” Jun 25, 2021

Show notes

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Grant LaFontaine, co-founder of Whatnot, to talk about creating the successor to eBay (3:40), the collectibles boom (7:50), his first startup (12:30), his early interest in marketplaces (14:25), working at Youtube (17:40), launching Whatnot in 2019 (23:45), starting with Funkopops (27:55), what’s happening in China (33:30), what works about live shopping (35:40), the Pokemon phenomenon (41:15), luring star investors (45:15), his worst day (49:15), and the future of eBay (51:20).

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