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

What does it really mean when AI moves from answering questions to making decisions that affect real people, real money, and real outcomes? In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I'm joined by Joe Kim, CEO of Druid AI, for a grounded conversation about why agentic AI is becoming the focus for enterprises that have moved beyond experimentation. After years of hype around generative tools, many organizations are now facing a tougher question. Can AI be trusted to take action inside core business processes, and can it do so with the accuracy, security, and accountability that enterprises expect? Joe brings a rare perspective shaped by decades leading large-scale enterprise software companies, including his time as CEO of Sumo Logic. He explains why Druid AI deliberately avoids positioning itself as a generative AI company, and instead focuses on systems that can make decisions, trigger workflows, and complete tasks inside regulated, high-stakes environments. We unpack why accuracy thresholds matter when AI touches

The world is building data centers, identity rails, and AI policy stacks at a speed that makes 2026 feel closer than it is. In this conversation, Rajesh Natarajan, Global Chief Technology Officer at Gorilla Technology Group, explains what it takes to engineer platforms that remain reliable, secure, and sovereign-ready for decades, especially when infrastructure must operate outside the safety net of constant cloud connectivity. Raj talks about quantum-safe networking as a current risk, not a future headline. Adversaries are capturing encrypted traffic today, betting on decrypting it later, and retrofitting quantum-safe architecture into national platforms mid-lifecycle is an expensive mistake waiting to happen. He also highlights the regional nature of AI infrastructure, Southeast Asia prioritizing sovereignty, speed, and efficiency, Europe leaning on regulation and telemetry, and the U.S. betting on raw cluster scale and throughput. Sustainability at Gorilla isn't a marketing headline, it's an engineering re

What makes live events feel personal in an age of algorithms making the calls? That's the tension marketers are living in right now. Ben Kruger, Chief Marketing Officer at Event Tickets Center, sits at the center of this shift. He has spent 20 years shaping server-side systems and performance marketing strategies, including a decade of persistence chasing a role at Google before landing a position in New York just as eCommerce demand went into overdrive during the pandemic. Now, at ETC, he runs marketing for more than 130,000 live events simultaneously. It's a scale that forces automation to step in. The industry moves in real time, resellers update prices by the hour, artists trend globally overnight, weather can shift demand before a stadium gate opens. Ben credits Google's AI tools and internal models as a competitive advantage, but he also talks openly about the risks. The early excitement of automation gave way to skepticism after seeing unaligned promises from new platforms and unpredictable campaign be

What does it really take to build software that can grow from a single line of code to millions of users a day without losing its soul along the way? In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I'm joined by Alex Gusev, CTO at Uploadcare, for a wide-ranging conversation about scale, simplicity, and why leadership in technology starts with people long before it gets anywhere near frameworks or tooling. Alex has spent two decades building server-side systems, often inside small teams, and has seen firsthand how early decisions echo through a company's future, for better and for worse. We talk openly about the realities of early-stage engineering, including why shipping imperfect code is often the only way to survive, how technical debt should be taken on deliberately rather than by accident, and why knowing when to slow down and clean things up is one of the hardest leadership calls to make. Alex shares his belief that simplicity is the strongest ally in high-load environments, and how over-engineering, often inspired

If you have ever opened Candy Crush over the holidays without thinking about the design decisions behind every swipe, this episode offers a rare look behind the curtain.  I sit down with Abigail Rindo, Head of Creative at King, to unpack how accessibility has evolved from a well-meaning afterthought into a core creative and commercial practice inside one of the world's most recognizable gaming studios.  With more than 200 million people playing King's games each month, Abigail explains why inclusive design cannot be treated as charity or compliance, but as a responsibility that directly shapes product quality, player loyalty, and long-term growth. One of the moments that really stayed with me in this conversation is the data. More than a quarter of King's global player base self identifies as having an accessibility need. Even more players benefit from accessibility features without ever labeling themselves that way. Abigail shares how adjustments like customizable audio for tinnitus, reduced flashing to limi

What does it actually mean to prove who we are online in 2025, and why does it still feel so fragile? In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I sit down with Alex Laurie from Ping Identity to talk about why digital identity has reached a real moment of tension in the UK. As more of our lives move online, from banking and healthcare to social platforms and government services, the gap between how identity should work and how it actually works keeps widening. Alex shares why the UK now feels out of step with other regions when it comes to online identity schemes, and how heavy reliance on centralized models is slowing adoption while weakening public trust. We spend time unpacking the practical consequences of today's verification systems. Age checks are regularly bypassed, fraud continues to grow, and users are often asked to hand over far more personal data than feels reasonable just to access everyday services. At the same time, public pressure around online safety is rising fast. That creates an uncomfortable p

What does it really mean to keep humans at the center of AI when agentic systems are accelerating faster than most organizations can govern them? At AWS re:Invent, I sat down with Michael Bachman from Boomi for a wide-ranging conversation that cut through the hype and focused on the harder questions many leaders are quietly asking. Michael leads technical and market research at Boomi, spending his time looking five to ten years ahead and translating future signals into decisions companies need to make today. That long view shaped a thoughtful discussion on human-centric AI, trust versus autonomy, and why governance can no longer be treated as an afterthought. As businesses rush toward agentic AI, swarms of autonomous systems, and large-scale automation, Michael shared why this moment makes him both optimistic and cautious. He explained why security, legal, and governance teams must be involved early, not retrofitted later, and why observability and sovereignty will become non-negotiable as agents move from ex

What does responsible AI really look like when it moves beyond policy papers and starts shaping who gets to build, create, and lead in the next phase of the digital economy? In this conversation recorded during AWS re:Invent, I'm joined by Diya Wynn, Principal for Responsible AI and Global AI Public Policy at Amazon Web Services. With more than 25 years of experience spanning the internet, e-commerce, mobile, cloud, and artificial intelligence, Diya brings a grounded and deeply human perspective to a topic that is often reduced to technical debates or regulatory headlines. Our discussion centers on trust as the real foundation for AI adoption. Diya explains why responsible AI is not about slowing innovation, but about making sure innovation reaches more people in meaningful ways. We talk about how standards and legislation can shape better outcomes when they are informed by real-world capabilities, and why education and skills development will matter just as much as model performance in the years ahead. We al

What does it really mean to support developers in a world where the tools are getting smarter, the expectations are higher, and the human side of technology is easier to forget? In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I sit down with Frédéric Harper, Senior Developer Relations Manager at TinyMCE, for a thoughtful conversation about what it takes to serve developer communities with credibility, empathy, and long-term intent. With more than twenty years in the tech industry, Fred's career spans hands-on web development, open source advocacy, and senior DevRel roles at companies including Microsoft, Mozilla, Fitbit, and npm. That journey gives him a rare perspective on how developer needs have evolved, and where companies still get it wrong. We explore how starting out as a full-time developer shaped Fred's approach to advocacy, grounding his work in real-world frustration rather than abstract messaging. He reflects on earning trust during challenging periods, including advocating for open source during an era when

What does it really take to build a fintech company that quietly fixes one of the most frustrating problems SMEs face every day? In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I'm joined by Pierre-Antoine Dusoulier, the Founder and CEO of iBanFirst, for a candid conversation about entrepreneurship, timing, and why cross-border payments have remained broken for so long.  Pierre-Antoine's story begins in London, where his early career as an FX trader felt like a compromise at the time, yet quietly gave him a front-row seat to inefficiencies most people accepted as normal. That experience would later shape two companies and a very clear point of view on how money should move across borders. Pierre-Antoine walks through his first venture, Combeast.com, one of France's earliest FX brokerages for retail investors, and what he learned from selling it to Saxo Bank and staying on to run Western European operations. That chapter matters, because it exposed the gap between how sophisticated FX markets really are and how poorly

What happens when artificial intelligence moves faster than our ability to understand, verify, and trust it? In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I sit down with Alexander Feick from eSentire, a cybersecurity veteran who has spent more than a decade working at the intersection of complex systems, risk, and emerging technology. Alex leads eSentire Labs, where his team explores how new technologies can be secured before they quietly become load-bearing parts of modern business infrastructure. Our conversation centers on a timely and uncomfortable reality. AI is being embedded into workflows, products, and decision-making systems at a pace most organizations are not prepared for. Alex explains why many AI failures are not caused by malicious models or dramatic breaches, but by broken ownership, invisible dependencies, and a lack of ongoing verification. These are not technical glitches. They are organizational blind spots that quietly compound risk over time. We also explore the ideas behind Alex's recently publ

How much value do your developers actually get to deliver in a typical week, and how much of their time is quietly lost to meetings, context hunting, and process drag? I'm joined by Phil Heijkoop, Global Practice Head of Developer Experience at Valiantys, for a conversation that cuts through the hype surrounding AI and asks a harder question about why so many engineering teams still struggle to see meaningful returns.  Phil argues that most organizations are only unlocking a small fraction of a developer's true contribution, not because of a lack of talent, but because process drag slowly squeezes out deep, focused work. AI, he explains, does not fix this by default. Without the right foundations in place, it simply accelerates the wrong work at scale. We explore the long shadow cast by the "move fast and break things" mindset and why that philosophy becomes risky inside regulated, enterprise environments where resilience and trust matter more than speed alone. Phil shares what he sees when organizations chas

What happens when the future of money stops being about speculation and starts being about people, ownership, and agency? In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I'm joined by Dr. Friederike Ernst, co-founder of Gnosis, to unpack a conversation that goes far beyond crypto price cycles or technical hype. This is a thoughtful discussion about where blockchain is heading and, just as importantly, where it could go wrong if we are not paying attention. Friederike has spent more than a decade building foundational infrastructure for the Ethereum ecosystem, from smart wallets to decentralized exchanges and blockchain networks that quietly power large parts of Web3. But as she explains, the industry is now standing at a fork in the road. One path leads to blockchain becoming a silent backend upgrade for banks and incumbents, improving efficiency while keeping power centralized. The other path is far more ambitious, using blockchain to return ownership, control, and financial agency to everyday people. We talk a

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I'm joined by Stuart Thompson, President of ABB's Electrification Service Division, to explore the intersection of industrial sustainability, energy security, and cutting-edge technology.   As industries face growing energy demands and climate targets, Stuart explains how companies can modernize their infrastructure to drive efficiency, reduce carbon footprints, and stay ahead of the energy curve.   Navigating the Industrial Sustainability Challenge   We start by addressing the urgent need for industries to rethink their energy and carbon strategies. Stuart highlights the significant role of construction and manufacturing in global energy-related emissions, stressing that many businesses are still behind on their 2030 sustainability targets.   We dive into the emerging shift from capital expenditure (CapEx) to operational expenditure (OpEx) models, such as predictive maintenance, to maximize value from existing assets.   Asset Modernization   Stuart explains how asset mode

Are we finally treating water risk like a board-level issue, rather than a line item that only shows up when something breaks?   In this episode, I'm joined by Emilio Tenuta, SVP and Chief Sustainability Officer at Ecolab, to unpack why water has become a strategic variable for business, right alongside energy and carbon. Ecolab works with customers across more than 40 industries in more than 170 countries, so Emilio has a front row seat to how quickly the conversation is changing.   Why water risk feels different in 2025 One of the most useful parts of this conversation is how Emilio frames water as "hyperlocal." A company can publish a global target, but the real pressure shows up basin by basin, site by site, community by community.   We also discuss the misconception that water is primarily an operational concern. The knock-on effects show up in uptime, expansion plans, permitting, reputation, and the social license to operate.   Emilio points to disclosure data that puts real money behind the issue. CDP

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I sit down with Yuyu Zhang to unpack a shift that many developers can feel but struggle to articulate. Yuyu's journey spans academic research at Georgia Tech, building recommendation systems that power TikTok and Douyin at global scale, and leading the Seed-Coder project at ByteDance, which reached state-of-the-art performance among open source code models earlier this year. Today, he is part of Codeck, where the focus has moved beyond AI assistance toward autonomous coding agents that can plan, execute, and verify real engineering work. Our conversation begins with a simple but revealing observation. Most AI coding tools still behave like smarter autocomplete. They help you type faster, but they do not own the work. Yuyu explains why that distinction matters, especially for teams dealing with complex systems, tight deadlines, and constant interruptions. Autonomy, in his view, is not about replacing engineers. It is about giving them back their flow. We explore Verdent, Co

How do you move faster with AI and cloud innovation without losing control of security along the way?   Recorded live from the show floor at AWS re:Invent in Las Vegas, this episode of Tech Talks Daily features a timely conversation with Kimberly Dickson, Worldwide Go-To-Market Lead for AWS Detection and Response Services. As organizations race to adopt agentic AI, modernize applications, and manage sprawling cloud environments, Kimberly offers a grounded look at why security must still sit at the center of every decision.   Kimberly explains how her role bridges two worlds at AWS. On one side are customers dealing with prioritization fatigue, fragmented security signals, and growing pressure to do more with fewer resources. On the other hand, there are the internal service teams building products like Amazon GuardDuty, Amazon Inspector, and AWS Security Hub. Her job is to connect those realities, shaping services based on what customers actually struggle with day to day. That perspective sets the tone for a

How do you capture every moment of a golf tournament spread across hundreds of acres, tens of thousands of shots, and dozens of players competing at the same time? That question sits at the heart of this conversation recorded at AWS re:Invent, where I sat down with Eric Hansen, VP of Product at the PGA Tour, and Elaine Chiasson, who leads the global golf team at AWS, to unpack how data and AI are reshaping the way fans experience the game. Eric explains why modern professional golf has more in common with Formula 1 than most people realize. Every ball struck, every position on the leaderboard, and every shift in momentum generates data that needs to be processed instantly. With more than thirty thousand shots across a single tournament and only a fraction of them shown on traditional broadcasts, the PGA Tour faces a constant challenge. How do you give fans context, insight, and a sense of presence when most of the action is never seen on screen? Elaine shares how AWS has helped the Tour build the foundation t

How do you make sense of an industry that is changing at a pace few predicted, especially with SIGNAL London still fresh in our minds and Twilio unveiling the next stage of its vision for customer engagement? That question sits at the heart of today's conversation with Peter Bell, VP of Marketing for EMEA at Twilio, who joined me to unpack what the past year has taught both companies and consumers about AI's role in shaping modern experiences. Peter begins by grounding everything in a single, striking shift. Only a year ago, AI-powered search barely registered in global traffic. Today it accounts for around a fifth of all searches. That leap signals a broader behavioral shift as consumers move instinctively toward conversational interfaces, which, in turn, leaves brands with a clear message. The clock has moved on. AI is no longer a nice-to-have. It is a direct response to how people now choose to discover, question, and buy. Our conversation turns to the gap between customer expectations and the experiences

Why do smart people still click when every instinct tells them they should pause first? That question sits at the heart of this conversation with Denny LeCompte, CEO of Portnox and a rare cybersecurity leader who brings a background in cognitive psychology to identity, trust, and human error.   It is a discussion that pulls back the curtain on the habits, shortcuts, and blind spots that shape our decisions long before a breach becomes a headline.   Denny explains why people rely on benevolence cues, confirmation biases, and loss aversion, and then shows how attackers weaponize each. He explains why training alone cannot fix human fallibility and why a different design mindset is needed if we want security people can actually live with.   Through clear examples and thought-provoking analogies, he describes how teams can build environments that remove opportunities for mistakes rather than punishing people for being human.   We also explore what Zero Trust really means beyond marketing-speak. Denny cuts through