The Tech Blog Writer Podcast - Inspired Tech Startup Stories & Interviews With Tech Leaders, Entrepreneurs And Innovators

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 r

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 t

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 inter

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.

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 colla

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.

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 g

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. 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

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 approximate

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 an

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 Neu

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 d

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 accordin

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 t

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 themselve

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-kin

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

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, P

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.

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, Qua