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

If I were to ask you, what does ROKU mean to you? I imagine you would immediately think of streaming players and smart TV apps. But did you know that Roku also works with 90% of the Ad Age top 200 advertisers? In 2020 Roku introduced OneView- the ad buying platform built for TV streaming – to the market. OneView reaches the most cord cutters of any ad platform and bring identity and viewing data from America's #1 streaming platform. OneView's device graph covers an estimated 4 in 5 homes in America. Even if an advertiser doesn't want to buy ads through OneView, they can still add their existing deals into OneView to improve targeting, avoid ad collision, measure deduplicated reach, and more. Louqman Parampath joins me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss the background on OneView Roku's Ad Platform built for TV streaming. I learn more about the impact of COVID on the TV/ad industry and the importance of first-party data in advertising. We also talk about how streaming uniquely positioned to help advertisers reach t

In today's episode, I want to learn more about the role mobility plays in enabling employees to be productive as the nature of work continues to evolve given the pandemic. Joseph Boyle is a listener of the show and also CEO of Truce software and is the perfect person to talk discuss these topics. Truce provides a contextual mobile device management (CMDM) platform so businesses can ensure safe and appropriate device use by employees at work. In February new research gauged workforce sentiment on whether employees believe mobile devices enable or inhibit productivity at work. It also looked at how workers' views of mobility have shifted over the past year due to the pandemic evolving the nature of work for many (e.g. fewer people going into physical offices, as one example) and whether they believe increased usage is leading to more blurred lines between work and personal lives. They found, for example, that 62% of respondents said they agree mobile phones or tablets play a key role in helping them be producti

Founder and CEO of Method Media Intelligence (MMI) Shailin Dhar joins me on the Tech Talks Daly Podcast in a conversation about Ad fraud, Ad-tech, and giving advertisers a path to be more successful. I also learn more about their mission to bring trust and transparency into the fragmented online advertising ecosystem. After his experience working at ad-networks and in the affiliate marketing space, Shailin began speaking out against ad-fraud in 2014. Called the "Fraud Crusader," Shailin takes ad-fraud very seriously because of the wider implications to the economy and integrity of the open internet. Working with international advertising trade bodies, agency groups, brand advertisers, ad-tech firms, and ad-verification companies to fight advertising fraud has solidified his reputation as a leading expert on the topic. Shailin's time working independently since 2014 led him to found Method Media Intelligence in 2017 to take his crusade to the next level by teaming up with like-minded experts that can help make

The pandemic has forced many businesses to digitize and do so in a smart way. Those who weren't technologically ready to respond to an unprecedented shift in how business was done quickly struggled to keep the pace. In some unfortunate cases, companies have folded. Having an IT architecture that can pivot quickly and seamlessly as a business' needs change is now critical. The MACH Alliance was formed in June 2020 to help enterprise organizations navigate the complex modern technology landscape. It aims to guide and show the business advantage of open tech ecosystems: Microservices-based, API-first, Cloud-native SaaS, and Headless. All MACH Alliance members meet certification principles. The Alliance welcomes technology companies and individual industry experts who share the same vision for the future. MACH Alliance president Kelly Goetsch discusses how the pandemic has forced IT leaders and the C-suite to rethink their IT architecture. We talk about how businesses can cut ties with a long-term platform partne

2020 brought massive disruption from COVID-19, and the abrupt shift to a remote workforce In March created holes in the cybersecurity landscape for malicious actors to exploit. Amid the pandemic, the harrowing spike in cyberattacks toward the government, hospitals, education institutions, and even security firms forced all enterprises, large and small, to take a closer look at potential vulnerabilities, starting at the API level. I have invited Cyber Security Veteran Jasen Meece from Cloudentiy onto the podcast today to talk about how he sees the landscape right now and explore some of his predictions for the road ahead. Jasen Meece, CEO and Board Member of Cloudentity, joins me on today's episode of Tech Talks Daily. Jasen is a dynamic, results-oriented executive who leverages technology products and services to achieve business value-based transformation efforts. He has over 20 years of leadership experience in IT, driving both internal and external facing organizations. Cloudentity is a provider of dynamic

Studio Z specializes in social media-enabled open air photo booths for weddings and events. Established in 2012, the company aims to give their clients all the fun of a photo booth with high-end quality photos they can share and treasure forever. The company is based in NYC and has partnered with world-class brands such as Estee Lauder, Lego, and Warner Bro Pictures to name a few. Since COVID, the company has evolved and is helping brands create digital experiences at virtual events too. I felt compelled to find out more after learning how they have built a reputation on being the masters at using experimental marketing to boost brand awareness and help companies stand out online and offline. Founder Zach Schiffman has a vast amount of knowledge in brand activation, experiential marketing, modern branding, stage management, and production technology! And not only does he run an exciting business, but he is also the floor manager for the Today Show! Zach joins me on today's episode of Tech Talks Daily in a dis

While the number of female CEOs increased to over 25 percent in 2020, there are still many industries where women leaders are under-represented, including industrial lighting/manufacturing. Dialight is the world leader in industrial LED lighting technology, and its solutions are supporting over 2 million LED fixtures globally. But this tech company wanted to change the narrative when it comes to the gender gap. In 2020, the company announced the permanent appointment of its first-ever female CEO, Fariyal Khanbabi. Fariyal Khanbabi has already demonstrated great success in her early months in the C-Suite. One example is the creation of the Dialight Foundation, the nonprofit arm of Dialight aiming to transform the lives of people in need in local communities where the company does business, focusing on supporting children and youth causes. In 2020 alone, the foundation raised over $61,000, more than tripling its initial fundraising goal. Fariyal attributes much of her leadership skills to her early childhood

Muzik is a disruptive innovation lab and technology company specializing in wearable devices built for culture by culture. It currently works with icons across the worlds of sports, music, fashion, and technology to create products that empower you to listen, create and share in exciting new ways. When I heard that they were building the first camera/headphone, which allows users to merge sound, photos, and video, utilizing voice and touch, I had to find out more. Muzik CTO Kevin Calloway joins me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss the announcements and share more details on VISION's SDK for developers. I learn more about what this might mean for the future of video streaming and connectivity. Like the GoPro, VISION's camera offers POV-style video that can be live-streamed, and thanks to the SDK, it can be customized to individual or enterprise needs. For example, a real estate agent can easily operate a POV-style virtual tour of a home using the headphones and incorporate it into their own branded applications.

Corey Nachreiner, CTO at network security company WatchGuard Technologies, and Marc Laliberte, a senior security analyst at WatchGuard join me on the Tech Talks Daily Podcast. Corey and Marc discuss the state of the security market and share their security predictions, including prominent attacks and infosec trends that the WatchGuard Threat Lab research team believes will emerge this year. I learn more about the tidal wave of automated spear-phishing campaigns, how hackers are infesting home networks with worms, and how attackers are swarming VPNs and RDPs as the remote workforce grows. We also discuss the key steps organizations can take to improve their security posture. About Corey Nachreiner Corey Nachreiner is the CTO of WatchGuard Technologies. A front-line cybersecurity expert for nearly two decades, Corey regularly contributes to security publications and speaks internationally at leading industry trade shows like RSA. He has written thousands of security alerts and educational articles and is the pr

Today, with massive numbers of connected devices and as industries transform to deliver truly innovative services and experiences all connected to the web – from voice assistant devices and video streaming platforms to connected and autonomous cars – the delivery and protection of data over the internet to offer a seamless experience is more critical than ever. In light of this, I invited Michael Gooding from Akamai Technologies on the podcast. Akamai is the world's largest cloud delivery platform. It is crucial for many companies, from gaming and mobile networks to tech firms and manufacturers, as a result of its Edge platform and Content Delivery Network, which ensures customers and businesses are agile, fast, and secure. With its vast network, Akamai has unique security and web performance offering. Its experts can view and defend businesses from the growing attacks against armies of bots around the globe. Michael Gooding joins me in a conversation about the importance of edge computing (Scalability &

What would happen if technology built a bridge between famous people and fans? Imagine your favorite footballer, actress, comedian, reality star, or YouTuber to wish a family member or friend a personalized video message. Meet memmo. An app that is using technology to creating personal connections between fans and celebrities. After thinking for a long time about the positive and emotional effect that occurs when you have personal contact with inspiring people, the idea of memmo came to Gustav Lundberg Toresson and Tobias Bengtsdahl, when they sat each night as guests at different wedding dinners. During many lengthy speeches, often a little too internal for everyone to appreciate, the evening suddenly stopped. A video clip featuring the bride's main idol was presented, with some playful lines about how it could have instead been the bride and he - with a big congratulations to the lucky groom. A few miles south on a similar event outside Paris, all of the wedding guests suddenly sit in unified laughter. A Fr

Today, I want to explore the world of connected dental space with a Brooklyn-based technology company called Toothpic. The company is minimizing the risk of major dental work with an approach that it's calling Smart Dental. Smart Dental is based on applying new technologies like Teledentistry, 3D Mapping, IoT-connected toothbrushes, and augmented reality. It shifts care from treatment to prevention with the enablement of new diagnostic approaches such as AI pattern matching to guide dentists' diagnoses. It heralds an era of ultra-personalized oral care for patients. Through an app, users upload pictures of their teeth which are then assessed by a network of dentists on an ongoing basis. Patients no longer need to wait for appointments and have up to the minute access to their dental records. The improvements in dental health are significant. Toothpic was founded by Mark Moore, an Irish-born former physicist, back in 2016. Mark started developing the concepts around Smart Dental after his father (a dentist) d

Hear.com, the largest online retailer of medical-grade hearing aids, is launching a new line of hearing devices that features next-gen technology in a sleek and nearly invisible design. The global health-technology company starting its journey in 2012 and has since helped over 100,000 customers get on the path to better hearing using the latest technology. The company is also introducing new features, including speech boost and Zen mode to their devices, including the must-have components found in today's top-of-the-line hearing aids. Speech boost amplifies the clarity and volume of voices during conversations, and Zen mode provides an ambient soundscape for ultimate relaxation. Rick Rutter joins me on the Tech Talks Daily podcast to discuss the hearing aid tech revolution, how hearing aid tech isn't what it used to be, and the recent launch of next-generation hearing tech from ⁨hear.com⁩

Feargal O'Neill is the CEO of Gamma Location Intelligence Services, a company that has offices in Dublin (Ireland), Manchester (UK), and Bilbao (Spain). The company integrates software, data, and services to help clients reduce risk through location intelligence. Gamma Location Intelligence works with insurance companies, delivering location intelligence data through its Perilfinder platform to better support risk assessment across areas, including subsidence and flooding. At the end of last year, Gamma carried out research that found climate change is to put 1.2M GB properties at flood risk by 2050, while subsidence will affect 1.9M. The company also provides data insights to the retail industry via its Storecast solution to enable network planning and the measurement of convenience. Such data could prove valuable to retail businesses in the recovery period following the pandemic as they plan to analyze their store locations and target market behaviors. Feargal has 25 years of experience working in the lo

Order-to-cash is often neglected, but there are clear benefits to digitizing this process – you can increase efficiency, adopt remote working, and optimize cash management and working capital. Artificial Intelligence is no longer confined to science fiction; finance professionals are already using AI in their daily lives to automate processes successfully and increase efficiency. As technology gets smarter, a company called Sidetrade is leading this digital revolution. For 21 years, Sidetrade has pioneered O2C automation technology. Their innovative use of AI, intelligent automation, and collaboration technologies can help companies accelerate cash flow, reduce bad debt, resolve disputes quicker and optimize working capital. This week, CFOs and senior leaders from top global organizations are gathering online to attend Sidetrade's 2-day virtual summit on 15th – 16th March. Before hitting the stage, I sat down with Sidetrade CPO Rob Harvey to discuss what new innovative digital  technologies can help streamlin

Insight Partners recently released a report highlighting the resilience of software ScaleUps and research around how software ScaleUps, graduates of startups, are catalyzing economic growth and fueling job creation amid widespread economic hardship. The report surveyed 300 global software leaders on scaling and the factors enabling rapid business growth. Lonne Jaffe, Managing Director at Insight Partners, joins me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss the report findings. I learn how the the majority (71%) of software leaders are highly focused on scaling, with most expecting to scale within 3–5 years – showing continued plans to prioritize growth iIn the near future. Elsewhere four in five (80%) Scaling Focused companies forecast that their investment in scaling activity will increase through 2021. ScaleUps displayed their resilience through quick pivots amid the pandemic, shifting to policies aimed at securing revenues. Most ScaleUps introduced concession strategies to retain customers (55%), and nearly half (48%)

CesiumAstro builds high-throughput, plug-and-play phased array communication payloads for space and airborne platforms. Cesium's full-stack, multi-mission hardware and software products enable a diverse range of commercial and defense objectives. Backed by Airbus Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, and additional key investors, CesiumAstro is at the center of this evolution, with a configurable, adaptable product portfolio that extends the quality and cost of terrestrial data networking to new frontiers. Shey Sabripour is the founder and CEO of CesiumAstro, Inc. Shey has nearly three decades of leadership success in design, development, and execution of LEO and GEO telecommunication satellites, launch vehicles, and other interplanetary space vehicles. During his 24 years of continuous career with Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Shey served as a design engineer, technology innovator, program manager, and ultimately, the Director of Spacecraft Design responsible for an organization of 370 engineers, scientists, and busin

It all began at a hackathon in 2015. RapidAPI was made by developers for developers so they could have one place to access APIs and Microservices and build applications more efficiently and easily. Today, RapidAPI is the world's largest API Marketplace where over 1 million developers can find, test, and connect to tens of thousands of APIs — all with a single account, single API key, and single SDK. Software developers can also share and collaborate on internal APIs using RapidAPI for Teams, a common workspace to publish internal APIs and share public API subscriptions. In turn, organizations can use RapidAPI Enterprise to create a centralized hub environment to help developers reuse and connect to existing APIs faster while providing IT with enterprise-wide visibility and governance of API consumption. Iddo Gino, CEO of RapidAPI joins me on the Tech Talks Daily podcast. We talk about the Growth of the API Economy through the pandemic and beyond. I lear how developers are not just using APIs to connect apps a

New Orleans is becoming a hotbed for entrepreneurial activity, and Patrick Comer intends to contribute to the growing startup energy in the region. With a background in research, data analysis, and technology development, the next new thing of course, combines all three. Patrick Comer founded Lucid with a vision to democratize data collection by applying programmatic technology to market research. Lucid is now the worldwide leader in enterprise marketplaces for sampling. Since its inception in 2010, Lucid has become one of the most successful tech startups in New Orleans, with hundreds of employees across the globe. The company has evolved to democratize market research through programmatic technology -- effectively helping global brands (like Spotify) understand changing consumer sentiments and how to best market to these new personas. All through data provided at what was previously an unprecedented pace and scale for the market research industry. Patrick also coined the term ResTech. ResTech is a comprehen

I used to hear parents proudly discussing screen limits they imposed on their kids. But fast forward 12 months when those same screens are essential to their education and entertainment, most parents would agree things have changed. When researching the topic, I came across an inspiring story of Estelle and Douglas Lloyd, the husband-and-wife entrepreneur duo & founders of kids' edutainment app Azoomee, who are on a mission to make all childrens' screen time count. As new parents, Doug and Estelle quickly realized that the most innocuous search terms on their kids' computers could result in utterly inappropriate and even psychologically damaging web pages being served to their young children. Azoomee was born out of the necessity to allow the couple's kids to browse and enjoy the internet freely without the risk of stumbling upon adult content. The topic of children's online safety has never been more pertinent than during lockdown. The fact is, the internet remains an incredibly dangerous playground unl