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

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 t

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 en

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.

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

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.

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

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 Mot

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 analy

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 g

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

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.

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

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

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 walle

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 an

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 w

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 Bl

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.  

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.

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.