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

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.

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. By joining forces through the Scalefast Commerce Cloud, brands can del

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.

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 sate

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 t

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 al

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.

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.  

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.

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 offeri

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 diff

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

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.

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 ship

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.

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