TechieBytes

Episode 86: Today I'm speaking with Adam Nathan, CEO at Almanac, a startup that's building the asyncOS for the future of work. We discuss what the future of work looks like, what to look for in an investor, how he thinks about pricing his product, and what Adam's thoughts are on the Miami tech scene. Enjoy!

Topics we discussed:

What is Almanac? Why did build it?

What does the future of work look like to you?

How can documents replace meetings and messages?

Why can't wikis offer what you built at Almanac?

What's the most difficult challenge you've faced building Almanac to date? How did you overcome it?

What do you look for in investors and how do you determine if they're a good fit for you and your company?

Early hires are crucial to any startup, what do you look for in those employees?

How did you come up with your pricing model? Do you expect it to change ever?

What do you think of the Miami tech scene?

Episode 85: Today I'm speaking with Lior Barhai, Co-founder & CEO at Envonics, a startup based in Miami that's helping farmers using hydroponics grow better and more sustainably with data. We discuss why these improvements in farming are necessary, how they lead to a healthier population, why he's building in Miami, and more. Enjoy!

Here's the questions and topics we discussed:

• Who are you? What are you building?
• What made you want to get into ag-tech?
• What's the future look like without leveraging the technology you've developing?
• How big is this market?
• Why build in Miami?
• Best advice for an entrepreneur moving to Miami?
• What's been the most challenging thing you've faced in your journey so far? How'd you overcome it?
• Why are you the person to build Envonics?
• What's your ask for the community?

Episode 82: It was only a matter of time! Yep, today's episode is about NFTs. Today I'm speaking with Chad Knight, a digital and 3D artist who is the Director of 3D Footwear Design at Nike. We discuss his background as a 3D artist, what exactly NFTs are and how they work, plus what the future of NFTs could look like! Enjoy!

Chad's Links:

https://www.instagram.com/chadknight/

https://foundation.app/chadknight/fortune-teller-north-21386

https://twitter.com/chadknight

Jeff's Links:

https://twitter.com/jeffweisbein

https://twitter.com/besttechie

https://instagram.com/besttechie

https://instagram.com/jeffweisbein

https://www.besttechie.com

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Episode 80: Today I'm speaking with Joseph Ansanelli, he's the CEO and co-founder of Gladly, a company that helps brands like Crate & Barrel, UGG, and Warby Parker improve customer service. He's also a venture partner at Greylock. We discuss what is means to provide great customer service and how companies should be thinking about their customer service experience. Plus we dive into what entrepreneurs should know about pitching and selling their companies. Enjoy!

Episode 79: Today I'm speaking with Nate Elliott, he's a law student and also runs content for BillBox. We discuss the up hill struggle that is awaiting Clubhouse as more competitors emerge, including by social incumbents such as Twitter and Facebook as well as what the app looks like after the pandemic. Enjoy!

Read his Twitter thread on the bear case for Clubhouse.

Jeff's Links:

https://twitter.com/jeffweisbein

https://twitter.com/besttechie

https://instagram.com/besttechie

https://instagram.com/jeffweisbein

https://www.besttechie.com

JOIN OUR MEMBERS ONLY DISCORD: 

https://bt.gd/39DQJso

Episode 75: Today I’m speaking with Andrew Gazdecki, serial entrepreneur and founder at MicroAcquire, a company that helps facilitate acquisitions for buyers and sellers. We discuss what he’s learned as serial entrepreneur, whether entrepreneurs should consider bundling companies, and what M&A looks like in 2021. Enjoy!

Episode 74: Today I’m speaking with Jason Bade, co-founder & CEO at Pico, a company focused on helping digital media firms by providing a CRM-based platform for their audience. We discuss what the future of the digital media and content creation looks like, how creators should be thinking about business models, and why you need to own your own audience. Enjoy!

Episode 73: Today I’m speaking with Jesse Chambers, founder & CEO at wrkfrce, a media company focused on educating people about the future of work. We discuss why remote work is the future for knowledge workers, how to separate your work and personal life when you work from home, and how employers will need to evolve to offer an effective remote work experience. Enjoy!

Episode 72: We spoke with Avori Henderson, professional gamer and model, she recently hosted an all-female PUBG tournament that garnered more than 135k unique views and raised over $5,000 for charity. We discuss the state of the esports industry, how the pandemic has affected gaming, what it’s like to be a professional gamer, how to handle and deal with trolls, and so much more. Enjoy!

More about Avori

Colorado-based Avori Henderson is a model and former pageant participant turned… gamer? From a young age, she made it her goal to model professionally. Since then she has made her dream a reality and then some, taking home three titles in the Miss America Organization. In the midst of her success as a model, she began to upload her gaming abilities online and quickly gained a fan-base as a female trailblazer in that world as a full-time video game streamer and content creator. Yes, this means she plays video games for a living! Not only has she made a name for herself in the industry, but she is also a pioneer for women in the male-dominated industry of eSports.

Episode 71: Today I’m speaking with Margie Agin, founder and chief strategist at Centerboard Marketing, she helps companies develop and measure content, perform market research, and get the most from inbound and influencer marketing campaigns. We discuss what you need to know before diving into content marketing, how to find relevant content topics, and how to measure whether your content is working. Enjoy!

Episode 70: Today I’m speaking with Kamyl Bazbaz, VP, Communications at DuckDuckGo, a search engine with a focus on privacy. We discuss how companies can be profitable without tons of user data, why privacy is crucial for the health of the internet, the difference between Google and DuckDuckGo search results, and more! Enjoy!

Also a quick programming note: we’re now recording TechieBytes podcast episodes with video as well! You can watch new video episodes on BestTechie.com. Check it out and let us know what you think! 

Episode 68: Today I’m speaking with Jonathan Skogmo, Founder  & CEO at Jukin Media, the company that buys up viral videos. We discuss the why Jonathan decided to start the company, how Jukin Media decides which videos it wants to purchase, and what he thinks of TikTok and Quibi. Enjoy!

Episode 67: Welcome back! Today I’m speaking with Jorge Perdomo, co-founder at goTenna and also the designer behind the art installation The Fluffy Cloud which has made appearances at multiple festivals including Burning Man. We discuss the challenges surrounding starting a hardware company, what people can do to increase their marketability in the workforce, and what it’s like to attend Burning Man. Enjoy!

More information about Jorge

As the Inventor, Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of  goTenna  - the world’s leading mobile decentralized off-grid communications system for smartphones - Jorge knows the entrepreneurial journey well. Jorge brought the project from concept to market in six years, during the course of which, he designed and released 10 different critically-acclaimed hardware and software products. The uniquely broad experience Jorge gained at goTenna allows him the ability to speak on just about every class of tech company; from mobile apps to servers and of course, the unique intricacies of hardware development itself. 

“Hardware is the double-black diamond of tech startups,” says Jorge, “Unlike software-only companies where a bug can be patched with the click of a button, hardware tech is a high stakes game where a single mistake can cost months of delays and hundreds of thousands of dollars. This is in addition to still having to do all the typical software tasks. It was an incredible challenge that allowed me to gain perspective on just about every facet of technology development and startups in general.”

Episode 66: We spoke with Mike Morris, CEO at Topcoder, a crowdsourcing company with a global community of designers, developers, data scientists, and competitive programmers. We discuss how to cultivate a community, the benefits of crowdsourcing, how soon until we see quantum computing at scale, and why Mike believes the gig/passion economy is the future of work. Enjoy!

Also, a quick programming note: We’ll be taking a few weeks off from TechieBytes, but fear not, we’ll be back soon with more awesome interviews. So stay tuned and stay safe out there!

We’re looking for new podcast sponsors, if you’re interested in sponsoring TechieBytes, please get in touch.

Episode 65: We spoke with Mike Cessario, Co-founder & CEO at Liquid Death, a company that helps you murder your thirst and save the environment with its canned mountain water at the same time. We discuss how important marketing is for companies selling commodities, why plastic is even more terrible for the environment than you may have realized, and how he plans to ramp up distribution. Enjoy!

Episode 64: We spoke with Mada Seghete, co-founder and Head of Market Development at Branch, a company that helps app developers increase customer acquisition, revenue, and engagement. We discuss the best ways to promote your app, whether or not  you should spend time on App Store optimization, and how to be a good corporate data citizen. Enjoy!

Episode 63: We spoke with Karim Lakhani, Professor at Harvard Business School and co-author of the new book: Competing In The Age of AI. We discuss how AI is disrupting all kinds of businesses, how companies should think about implementing AI, and the rise of the AI factory. Enjoy!

More about Karim

Karim Lakhani is the Charles E. Wilson Professor of Business Administration and the Dorothy and Michael Hintze Fellow at the Harvard Business School.  He is the founder and co-director of the Laboratory for Innovation Science at Harvard, the principal investigator of the NASA Tournament Laboratory at the Harvard Institute for Quantitative Social Science, and the faculty co-founder of the Harvard Business School Digital Initiative. He specializes in technology management and innovation. His research examines crowd-based innovation models and the digital transformation of companies and industries. Lakhani is known for his pioneering scholarship on how communities and contests can be designed and managed to achieve innovative outcomes. He has partnered with NASA, Topcoder, and the Harvard Medical School to conduct field experiments on the design of crowd innovation programs. His research on digital transformation has shown the importance of data and analytics as drivers of business and operating model transformation and source of competitive advantage. He serves on the Board of Directors of Mozilla Corporation and Local Motors.

Episode 62: We spoke with Eyal Feldman, co-founder & CEO of Stampli, a company that makes it easier and faster to get your invoices paid. We discuss how Stampli can benefit your business, how Eyal is managing his team during the Coronavirus outbreak, and why startups should focus on the mid-market before the enterprise. Enjoy!

More about Eyal

Eyal Feldman, founder and CEO of Stampli, an AI-based platform that streamlines the accounts payable process and reduces the time spent chasing invoice approvals by 5X. Stampli, whose customers include Revolve, Purple Mattress, GrubHub and TechStars, processes more than $13B in invoices annually.

Eyal has had an interesting global tech path – from getting his MBA at Solvay Brussels to working at Colgate-Palmolive uniting all subsidiaries under one SAP ERP to building the Documentum business in Israel for Ness. He is now CEO of Stampli. He has a lot to say about a non-traditional path and some great advice.

Episode 61: We spoke with Chrys Bader, co-founder of Ikaria, a company focused on building the next generation of social apps. Chrys was also a co-founder at Secret, a social app that encouraged anonymity which ended up shutting down in 2015 despite raising $36 million in funding. We discuss Chrys’ time at Secret and what he learned from it, what the next generation of social apps needs to consider, whether or not he would sell to Facebook, and more. Enjoy!

Episode 60: We spoke with Bill Demas, CEO of Conviva, a company that offers streaming media intelligence and analytics. We discuss the ongoing streaming wars playing out amongst Netflix, Disney, Amazon, WarnerMedia, and others and what it means for consumers, his views on when it’s time for a startup to hire a professional CEO, and more. Enjoy!

Bill Demas, CEO of Conviva, a company that provides media industry giants, including CBS, HBO, Hulu and WarnerMedia, streaming media intelligence and analytics. Conviva has a global footprint of more than 150 billion streams per year across three billion applications streaming on devices.

Bill is a four-time CEO, startup mentor and angel investor. In the past, Bill was CEO of Shopkick as well as Turn and held executive roles at Yahoo!, Overture and Microsoft. Throughout his 25-year career, Bill has successfully scaled dozens of software companies – usually while simultaneously serving as a mentor, coach, board member, board director and venture partner. He has also been recognized by Goldman Sachs as one of the 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs.

Episode 59: We spoke with Terry Jones, founder of Travelocity.com and founding chairman at Kayak.com. We discuss the early days of Travelocity, why Terry got back into travel tech with Kayak, and how traditional companies can compete with newer, more agile startups. Enjoy!

Terry Jones was the founder of Travelocity.com and founding chairman of Kayak.com, is author of the new book Disruption OFF: The Technological Disruption Coming for Your Company and What to Do About It. For the last 15 years he’s been speaking and consulting with companies on innovation and disruption. Jones began his career as a travel agent, jumped to two startups and then spent 20 years at American Airlines, serving in a variety of management positions including Chief Information Officer. While at American he led the team that created Travelocity.com, served as CEO for six years, and took the company public. After Travelocity he served as Chairman of Kayak for seven years until it was sold to Priceline for $1.8 billion.

Peter Pezaris, co-founder and CEO of CodeStream, a company helping development teams communicate more efficiently. Peter is a serial entrepreneur with three successful exits under his belt (including Glip, sold to RingCentral and Commissioner.com, sold to CBS), with CodeStream being his fourth startup. Interestingly, Peter has kept his executive/founding team intact throughout the four startups and over two decades (they met as undergrads at Carnegie Mellon).

Episode 57: We spoke with Pedro David Espinoza, internet entrepreneur, angel investor, and co-author of Differences That Make A Difference. We discuss diversity and inclusion in the workplace, including in-depth conversations about the gender pay gap, implementing policies such as blind interviews, and how diversity helps your bottom line. Enjoy!

Pedro David Espinoza is an internet entrepreneur, angel investor, TED speaker, and author. At the age of 19, Pedro became the founder & CEO of SmileyGo, a platform that helps companies give smarter. Pedro is also the CEO of Alpaca Pan Peru, a social venture that empowers women to become entrepreneurs. Educated at Stanford and Berkeley, Pedro began his career as a car mechanic at Toyota. He has been profiled in Univision, Telemundo, Hispanic Shark Tank, Fox News, and Forbes.

The leaders -- 80 male, 80 female -- include Reed Hastings (CEO, Netflix), Michelle Lee (Former Under Secretary of Commerce), Eric Schmidt (Google) and Judith Estrin (Internet pioneer). Spanning the globe and representing a variety of ages and cultural backgrounds, they give voice to two key conclusions:

• Diversity and inclusion do make a tangible difference
• Organizations that are not doing the work of keeping diversity and inclusion alive and thriving are missing out on vital opportunities.

Episode 55: We spoke with Tiffany Rose, Co-founder at Lux Life Now (formerly Big Crowd Media), an influencer firm which specializes in loop marketing campaigns for big names including Amber Rose and Kyle Richards. We discuss how to build and measure successful influencer campaigns, the importance of Instagram Stories for brands, and how to best utilize hashtags. Enjoy!

READ MORE: Lux Life Now co-founder Jonathan Rose talks about how to measure influencer campaign ROI.

Tiffany Rose, Co-Founder of Lux Life Now (formerly Big Crowd Media), is a former actress and model who has graced the front covers of MAXIM and FHM worldwide, and shot to fame in the UK on the TV show HollyOaks. Through Tiffany's hollywood contacts, she was able to create a network of A list celebrities that shared her vision of driving celebrities Instagram traffic to corporate sponsors’ Instagram accounts. Lux Life Now was born and has resulted in clients gaining tens of thousands of new customers with reported spikes in sales and engagement.

Episode 54: We spoke with RJ Talyor, Founder & CEO at Pattern89. We discuss how RJ helped pioneer the concept of SMS marketing in 2002, his time as VP of Messaging Products at Salesforce, and how what he's building at Pattern89 is changing marketing for brands like Fabletics, LIDS, Finish Line, and more! Enjoy!

R.J.’s career started at ExactTarget, where he was the mastermind behind the company’s mobile strategy. He would eventually create the concept of SMS marketing in 2002, leading to Bank of America to sending its first SMS text. His leadership was instrumental when Salesforce later acquired ExactTarget for $2.5 billion in 2013, where he would become the vice president of mobile products for the company.

A couple years later, he wanted to take his knowledge on marketing, social media and analytics to create a company that would easily integrate Artificial Intelligence with social media marketing, and launched Pattern89. Since its founding in 2018, the company already has more than 700 customers, specifically within the e-commerce industry, with customers such as Fabletics, LIDS, Just Fab, Finish Line, and more. Customers seeing an ROI as high as 65% in as little as 15 days.

Episode 52: We spoke with Mitch Grasso, CEO at Beautiful.AI, a company creating a newer and smarter way to design your presentations. Prior to Beautiful.AI, Mitch founded SlideRocket which was acquired by VMWare. We discuss raising venture funding, his approach to customer acquisition, important design rules, and more.

Mitch is a serial entrepreneur with strong technology, design and product skills. Prior to Beautiful.AI, he founded SlideRocket, cloud-based presentation productivity software focused on team collaboration and co-founded AdSpace Networks, a digital signage network deployed to over 200 malls and reaching over 48M unique viewers/month.

Episode 51: We spoke with Sujan Patel, co-founder at Ramp Ventures, the firm behind products like Mailshake and RightInbox. We discuss building web-based businesses, how to generate leads and interest for new businesses, enhancing your SEO, and what it means to take risk.

Sujan is the co-founder of Ramp Ventures, a firm that helps companies leverage the latest and greatest marketing strategy to fuel their businesses. Sujan has over 13 years of internet marketing experience and has led the digital marketing strategy for companies like Sales Force, Mint, Intuit and many other Fortune 500 caliber companies.

Episode 49: We spoke with Larry O'Connor, Founder at OWC, a computer hardware company known for its Mac-based upgrade kits. We discuss how Larry started OWC 30+ years ago, the company's relationship with Apple, what Larry thinks Apple should do with the MacBook Pro, and why Apple's RAM is so expensive.

Also, a quick programming note—we're going to off for a couple weeks but fear not, we'll be back soon with new episodes!

Episode 48: We spoke with Ash Karbasfrooshan, CEO at WatchMojo, one of the largest YouTube channels with more than 20 million subscribers. We discuss how Ash realized YouTube was the best platform for video, why listicles have such staying power, how to keep your audience fully engaged, and if he's concerned about brand safety on YouTube.

Episode 47: We spoke with Jesus Chavez, CEO at Vertical Networks, a company building a mobile-first premium content studio featuring hit shows like Brother and Phone Swap. We discuss what it means to be mobile-first, what the future of mobile video looks like from a content and distribution standpoint, and what it's like being a first-time CEO.

Jesus has a deep understanding of digital operations, content marketing, social platforms and business strategy, prior to becoming CEO at Vertical Networks, he was most recently the COO for Mitu a digital media company focused on Latino youth. Before building digital organizations in the startup world, Jesus spent almost 9 years with Univision in multiple senior leadership roles where he ran digital operations and strategy for the Univision Television Group (UTG) and previously the Local Interactive Media Group. Under his leadership the UTG digital group achieved profitability. He also successfully led the expansion of the local digital business for the Radio and TV groups, re-launched 70 online and mobile sites in a seven-month period as well as the first Univision music branded app. 

Episode 46: We spoke with Travis Bernard, Senior Director of Subscriptions and Audience Insights at TechCrunch. We discuss what audience development looks like at TechCrunch, what analytics TechCrunch utilizes (as well as who gets access to them), and the recent launch of Extra Crunch (including a sneak peek of what's to come).

Travis has helped TechCrunch nearly double its monthly active users since he started and is responsible for running paid and organic media campaigns to help promote TechCrunch's event business, resulting in millions of dollars in new revenue. He was also engaged in business development and partnership operations, including TechCrunch's work with Facebook Live, Messenger chat bot, and event integration with audio startup Otter.ai. He's currently running audience development for TechCrunch as well as leading the business operations and marketing effort behind Extra Crunch. 

Episode 44: We spoke with Melanie Deziel, founder at Storyfuel and also an international keynote speaker who is recognized as one of the world’s leading experts in native advertising and branded content. We discuss the biggest myths about content marketing, how to properly brainstorm your content, as well as how to distribute it effectively.

Thanks to everyone for listening, I’m super excited to continue releasing the podcast. I’d also encourage you to visit BestTechie.com for new content every day. If you want to get in touch with me, you can email me jeff@besttechie.com or feel free to tweet me @jeffweisbein or @besttechie. 

Episode 41: We spoke with Alissa Fleck, Managing Editor at ICO Ranker, a site dedicated to providing honest in-depth ICO reviews and analysis. We discuss the current state of ICOs, what to look for when investing, and also spent time talking at length about crime and crypto including the anatomy of an ICO scam and which celebrities to be wary of.

Episode 40: We spoke with Manny Medina, CEO at Outreach, a sales engagement platform that increases the productivity of sales teams. We discuss what it was like to be on the original team building Amazon Web Services, the unique way he realized it was time to pivot his HR company into Outreach, and what it takes to create an effective cold email.