The Tech Trek

Some of what Brian talks about: Developers own the QA process Adding sand in the gears Technical asset development (technical debt) explained as a positive experience TAD is nothing to be ashamed about Service intervals to make sure you have scheduled a “monthly oil change” to address framework/language updates Meet: Brian Hosie has worked for a decade helping small businesses owners to succeed, grow and thrive. He's passionate about building tech that solves real problems for real people. Over his 15 year career in technology, he has led and grown several highly functioning engineering teams that deliver on time without heroics or 2 AM death marches. Brian currently serves as the Senior Vice President of Lendio, the largest online marketplace for small business lending in the United States. If you have any questions for Brian, please feel free to reach out via: https://linkedin.com/in/bhosie I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

Some of what Jeff talks about: Upscaling the relationship between testing and SRE Ensuring the quality of the platform Being error-free is the lowest bar The first mandate is to protect the health of the production environment Moving from quality assurance to quality engineering Meet: Jeff Vier - Technical Operations Leader.  Metrics enthusiast.  Testing evangelist. If you have any questions for Jeff, please feel free to reach out via: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffvier/ I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

Some of what Jeff talks about: Making the decision to move to a larger organization Making decisions when things aren’t greenfield Finding interesting opportunities by uncovering legacy work Managing technical debt within a larger organization Meet: Jeff Byrnes is the SRE Manager at athenahealth. Jeff is a musician turned web dev turned ops/infrastructure engineer turned engineering manager. If you have any questions for Jeff, please feel free to reach out via: https://twitter.com/thejeffbyrnes https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffbyrnes https://www.instagram.com/jeffbyrnes I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

Some of what Ali talks about: Handling the hiring process to overcome the challenges of hiring remote Adjusting the software development process to minimize the impact of employees that might leave Paying attention to context switching Building a team post-pandemic Shifting the development process from Scrum to Kanban Meet: Ali Hosseinkhani is the Director of Software Engineering at Next Trucking leading four teams focusing on data engineering, machine learning, platform application development, and infrastructure. If you have any questions for Ali, please feel free to reach out via: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kosarh/ I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

Chad dives into everything data platform product management including: Why does your org need a data product manager Origin of where the role comes from Measuring the impact of the data platform product manager What to look for in hiring a data platform PM Take advantage of internal-facing PM roles Meet: Chad Sanderson is the Head of Product for Convoy’s Data Platform team, which includes the data warehouse, streaming, BI and visualization, experimentation, machine learning, and data discovery. If you have any questions for Chad, please feel free to reach out via: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chad-sanderson/ I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

Some of what Juan Pablo talks about: Lean into potential An early-stage startup can take risks to let people grow into roles Hiring someone with experience means you are hiring someone that has already made mistakes Experience can be a double-edged sword People grow linearly; organizations grow exponentially Interviewing is part of building software and you must account for that process Meet: Juan Pablo Buriticá is a software engineering leader who has built and led distributed teams at companies like Stripe and Splice. He currently leads Engineering at Ritchie Bros, is originally from Bogotá, Colombia, and lives in New York City. After a decade of building distributed engineering teams, he compiled his experience in The Holloway Guide to Remote Work. Juan Pablo has built high-performing software engineering organizations by emphasizing Open Source software values, technical excellence, trust, and empathy. He has also organized more than 10 software engineering conferences in the US & Latin America, founded multiple JavaScript meetups, and led the creation and growth of Colombia’s JavaScript community, now one of the largest Spanish-speaking JS communities in the world. His favorite food group is empanadas. If you have any questions for Juan Pablo, please feel free to reach out via: https://www.linkedin.com/in/buritica/ I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

Key takeaways: Gap analysis to forecast data pipeline needs Work backward from the end-user point of view Every system has to have some human involvement Going beyond the initial scope of work to learn about a new industry Working with stakeholders to help them understand what goes into getting analytics to them Meet:  Trenton Huey is the Director of Data at Vida Health, which provides access to therapists, registered dietitians, and health coaches for mental and physical health conditions. His team drives innovation, clinical outcomes, and business growth through machine learning, AI, and reporting and analytics. If you have any questions for Trenton, please feel free to reach out via: https://www.linkedin.com/in/trentonhuey/ I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

Key takeaways: Optimize resource allocation by examining maturing applications Find ways to offload activities to 3rd party services to help scale Being remote requires an open work culture Meet:  Aniket Soneji is passionate about solving the world's most important and difficult problems with innovative engineering solutions. He holds multiple engineering degrees from UC Berkeley, and spent his first few years in technology consulting, helping clients across the US build-out and scale their IoT and Analytics platforms. He currently serves as the VP of Engineering at AutoGrid, where his team is building the software to help support, optimize and monetize today's energy transition. If you have any questions for Aniket, please feel free to reach out via: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aniket-m-soneji/ I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

Some of what Brent talks about: Engineering management is made up of complex systems Provide your team with a playbook and make sure the playbook is being executed People are the most complex system Build up engineering management systems and refactor Meet: Brent Goldman is the VP of Engineering at Sisu Data, the industry's first decision intelligence engine helping companies make better business decisions with data. Prior to Sisu, Brent was an engineering director at Uber, where he founded and led teams responsible for dispatch, pricing, self-driving cars, measurement & inference platforms, and more. Before Uber, Brent co-founded Standard Treasury,  a YC-backed enterprise API banking platform acquired by SVB. Brent started his career at Facebook as an early engineer building the third-party Developer Platform, and he earned a B.S. in Computer Science & Economics from Caltech. Outside of work, Brent is an active angel investor with a portfolio of ~100 startups, as well as a conceptual artist building electronic & experiential art. If you have any questions for Brent, please feel free to reach out via: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brentgoldman I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

In this episode, Gil talks about the impact that prebuilt integrations have on an organization and how these integrations have expanded opportunities for both end-users and software companies.  Meet: Gil Feig is the co-founder of Merge. Previously the Head of Engineering at Canvas, he’s led projects at Wealthfront and LinkedIn. A graduate of Columbia University, Gil lives and works in San Francisco. If you have any questions for Gil, please feel free to reach out via: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gilfeig/ https://twitter.com/GilFeig I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

What we talk about on this episode: “Ship Wow, Ship Now” mantra Developer autonomy to drive process improvement Using your “I intend to” voice Focus on delightful experiences, high-quality products and act with urgency Perceived vs actual velocity Meet: Kirby Frugia is MURAL’s SVP of Engineering and is responsible for Product Engineering, DevOps, and Data Engineering. He joined the company in October 2020 and since then, he has grown his team from 48 MURAListas to over 200. Kirby first got into software engineering because he loves problem-solving and making things easier for people — whether that’s a process, a tool, or an experience. He’s always looking for ways to unlock someone’s creativity or ability to do more with what’s in front of them. Over the course of his career, Kirby has worked at numerous companies, including Hewlett-Packard, InVision, and New Relic, where he’s built both products and teams. While at HP, he built software for digital printing presses and realized his passion for managing teams. From HP, he transitioned to New Relic, where he found his niche growing and helping teams adapt to a high-growth start-up environment while staying true to who they are as a company. For Kirby, building products and building teams have something in common: They both involve a firm sense of the company’s values, scaling processes and practices, and lots of communication and listening. He holds bachelor’s degrees in business administration and computer science from Oregon State University. He lives near Portland, Oregon. If you have any questions for Kirby, please feel free to reach out via: https://twitter.com/kfrugia https://www.linkedin.com/in/kfrugia/ https://www.mural.co/blog/meet-kirby-frugia I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

Key takeaways: Define when you should look to formalize the product role Look for a bottleneck in the decision-making process Creating an opportunity for people on the team to grow into new roles Look to internal staff to promote people into product positions Growing into a new role means owning the decisions and learning opportunities Meet:  Chris White is currently the Chief Technology Officer of Prefect, overseeing the design and implementation of the next generation of data workflow automation systems. Chris began his journey into data tooling while getting his Ph.D. in Mathematics at the University of Texas at Austin, where he researched optimization guarantees for highly non-convex data-driven problems. Throughout his career, Chris has gained experience in a diverse number of roles - teacher, researcher, data scientist, software engineer, sales engineer, and security officer to name a few. In his spare time, he is an avid runner and loves spending time in the ocean. If you have any questions for Chris, please feel free to reach out via: https://www.linkedin.com/in/whitecdw https://twitter.com/markov_gainz I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

Key takeaways: Overcoming the perceptions of the healthcare and life sciences industry Mission-driven aspects of the industry is a massive draw from high-tech companies Ramping up on nomenclature Moving fast and saving lives Software engineering becoming a competitive advantage rather than a service organization Meet:  Over the past 15 years, Hamed Ahmadi has contributed to many software products in various industries impacting millions of users with very diverse needs. To name a few, Microsoft Visual Studio, Office & Windows, the data acquisition & monitoring systems for the largest fleet of renewable energy power plants in the world, the infrastructure and software systems for two pioneer Life Sciences companies leading the development of novel blood-based genomic tests for diagnosing the cause of cancer and infectious diseases. Hamed is passionate about our environment and positive social impact, which is projected in his work, volunteering activities, and photography as his hobby when not working on software systems. If you have any questions for Hamed, please feel free to reach out via: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hamedahmadi I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

Key takeaways: Product velocity and delivering with quality Strategic technical debt - making the trade-off of customer acquisition vs robust code Focusing on strategic projects to pay down debt Early-stage startups have external pressures that drive growth Shifting from sales-driven growth to product management driven growth Meet:  Bill Press is the SVP of Engineering at Iterable. He is an accomplished technology leader with over a dozen years in enterprise and on-demand software. He has strong leadership skills and deep technological background. Bill has a proven track record for shepherding organizations through technological and cultural shifts, for building strong, collaborative teams, and for directing a broad range of ambitious projects to high quality, on-time delivery. If you have any questions for Bill, please feel free to reach out via: http://linkedin.com/in/billpress I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

Key takeaways: Talk about process changes and explain the reasons behind them Going through acquisition and staying agile Looking to managers as the canary in the coal mine Getting the team to leverage dashboards/metrics Anchor points to review the relevancy of metrics Meet:  Daniel Hood is the Director of Engineering at Action Network, a sports media company focused on delivering data, news, and analytics to fans and sports bettors.  Over the past decade, he has worked as both a developer and a manager to build and design engaging digital media products at scale.  Daniel graduated from the University of North Carolina with a degree in computer science. If you have any questions for Daniel, please feel free to reach out via: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-h-9aa77634/ I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

Key takeaways: Balancing innovation with what is needed Managing stakeholder expectations and “excitement” Technology and business stakeholder partnership is key to success Meet:  Rashu Garg is the SVP and Enterprise Head of Data Products at Regions Bank. If you have any questions for Rashu, please feel free to reach out via: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rashu-garg-93249812/ I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

Key takeaways: Focusing on solving the right problem, not the most difficult Define the “north” star Seeing the most impactful project Positioning the need to deal with the “plumbing” before you seeing the reporting Meet:  Mike Ganz is a leader in the data space, currently serving as Senior Director of Data & Analytics at Optoro. There he focuses his time on differentiating Optoro's products through data and ensuring that the most difficult returns problems retailers and the environment face today are met with dynamic and robust data solutions. Prior to joining Optoro, Mike worked as an Engagement Manager at Applied Predictive Technologies, which was later acquired by Mastercard. In that role he helped Fortune 500 companies across a variety of industries design, implement, and measure the impact of business experiments. Mike holds a BSE in Systems Science & Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania. If you have any questions for Mike, please feel free to reach out via: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-ganz-23989955/ I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

Key takeaways: Never a perfect process, but the right process for the stage you are at Making an investment into a more efficient process The time horizon gest longer as you grow and mature Meet:  Thor Clark is a senior technology executive with broad experience building and leading engineering and product teams in public and private companies and has multiple successful exits as technical co-founder and early employee. In addition to being the CTO at WELL, he also serves as an advisor at Burner (Ad Hoc Labs). Before joining WELL, he was CTO at TigerText, a comprehensive clinical communications solution, and previously VP of Engineering at Barracuda. If you have any questions for Thor, please feel free to reach out via: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thorclark I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

Key takeaways: Don’t be too technology-focused without identifying the customer value it should provide The “connecting tissue” isn’t always obvious Conversations around the “art of the possible” Meet: Kishore Aradhya is currently the Head of Data Engineering, AI & Data at Bose. If you have any questions for Kishore, please feel free to reach out via: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karadhya/ I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

Key takeaways: Team behavior and measuring impact Looking at a 3 sprint rolling average to gauge velocity Keeping the workplace fun by focusing on skill mastery and being given autonomy Modeling behavior on core values You want people to be truthful and speak up Meet: Mark DiAntonio is Vice President of Engineering at HqO, overseeing engineering operations and accelerating the development and delivery of innovative products. With twenty years of engineering expertise, he has a proven track record of building and leading successful engineering teams with a focus on innovation, agile processes, and great teamwork. Prior to HqO, Mark held senior-level positions at Promoboxx, DraftKings Inc., Warner Brothers Games, and Arthur J. Gallagher. During his time at DraftKings, Inc., Mark served as the Director of Engineering for Fantasy Sports, and then as VP, Head of Product, Media. In these roles, Mark successfully led his team through a period of extreme growth while also evolving their process to changing compliance and regulatory landscape. During his time at WB Games, Mark has been credited on game titles in the Warner Brothers Games digital platform group including Batman Arkham City, Gotham City Impostors, Mortal Kombat, Injustice, Shadows of Mordor, Cartoon Universe, Lord of the Rings Online, D&D online, and Infinite Crisis. If you have any questions for Mark, please feel free to reach out via: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-diantonio-578687a/ I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

Key takeaways: Look at a job’s deliverables to find the right hire The new data analyst needs to understanding core CS concepts Don’t let the process define the hire If you have any questions for Andy, please feel free to reach out via: https://www.linkedin.com/in/awowens/ I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

Key takeaways: Good data pipeline, “bad data” problem Investing in data observability - it will cost you one way or the other Being proactive vs reactive Data engineering and data product manager would be best to own observability Meet:  Barr Moses is CEO & Co-Founder of Monte Carlo, a data reliability company backed by Accel, GGV, Redpoint, and other top Silicon Valley investors. Previously, she was VP Customer Operations at Gainsight, a management consultant at Bain & Company, and served in the Israeli Air Force as a commander of an intelligence data analyst unit. Barr graduated from Stanford with a B.Sc. in Mathematical and Computational Science. If you have any questions for Barr, please feel free to reach out via: https://www.linkedin.com/in/barrmoses/ https://twitter.com/BM_DataDowntime I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

Key takeaways: Ramifications of waiting to implement security Consider alignment before jumping to tools Look within your current team to see if skills are currently covered Tradeoffs of allocating resources to build tools vs buying Meet:  Johnathan Hunt is the VP of Security for GitLab, an open-source code repository and collaborative software development platform for large DevOps and DevSecOps projects.  He has been in the InfoSec and cybersecurity space for more than 20 years, and he has worked across several verticals including SaaS, financial, telecommunications, healthcare, government, and more. Johnathan is particularly passionate about bug bounty, supply chain security, and DevSecOps.  He has conducted many conference keynotes, podcasts, interviews, and blog series on these topics.  He holds numerous security certifications, has a master’s degree in information systems, and is currently pursuing a second master’s degree at Harvard University. If you have any questions for Johnathan, please feel free to reach out via: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnathanhunt/ I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

Key takeaways: Build vs buy in the security industry Focusing on speed to get value out of tooling Avoiding tools that tie you into a rigid structure Carrying over Anwar’s software engineering background to security Meet: Anwar Reddick is a 15+ year computing technology veteran. He started his career in software engineering and computer science research and quickly pivoted into information security. He has security experience doing applied research and development, defending business technology assets, supporting business development, and leading compliance programs. After working in multiple verticals, contexts, and tech stacks, he has found a niche managing security teams and programs for cloud-native SMB technology product firms. He holds BS Computer Science and MS Information Security degrees from the Georgia Institute of Technology. If you have any questions for Anwar, please feel free to reach out via: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anwarreddick I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

Key takeaways: Aligning the security roadmap to business objectives Preparing for the initial requirements  assessment Making sure you understand what is important to the business and not just 1-2 people Assessing internal capabilities Iterating and collaborating on the roadmap Coming into the job with a blank slate view Meet:  Noah Beddome is the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) at Opendoor, the leading digital real estate platform, where he is responsible for protecting the data and technology infrastructure as well as overseeing Opendoor’s information security program and IT. Noah has more than a decade of experience working in information security in enterprise and government environments. Most recently, he served as VP of Security Engineering and interim CISO for Datadog. Prior to that, Noah worked as the Practice Director for Strategic Infrastructure Services (SIS) at NCC Group, where he built and led the SIS practice. Noah began his career in security consulting, conducting assessments and penetration testing for several firms. He also served as a non-commissioned officer in the U.S. Marine Corps for four years. If you have any questions for Noah, please feel free to reach out via: https://www.linkedin.com/in/noah-beddome-6b794940/ I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

Key takeaways: Building and improving data quality through more testing Dividing work among geographically remote teams Quality decline as a symptom of team burnout Honing in on understanding the team's emotional and mental health Meet:  Josh Scherbenski is the VP of Data at Zeus Living, where he leads the analytics, machine learning, data engineering, and pricing teams. His teams are located here in the US and remotely in Singapore. He has more than a decade of experience working in the data science and engineering fields where he’s developed multiple data architectures and machine learning data products from end-to-end. Prior to Zeus, Josh worked for NASA as a program manager and space systems engineer. After leaving NASA, he went on to work for Google and a couple of other startups, including Glassdoor, where he was the company’s first data scientist. He has an MBA and a Master’s of Engineering in Space Systems. If you have any questions for Josh, please feel free to reach out via: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshscherbenski/ I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

Key takeaways: Importance of having context around the greater pieces of what the business is doing Staying engaged in the business vision post-onboarding The 1-on-1 is the employees time Transparency helps employees stay aligned to the company vision Meet:  Jason Wilcox is head of technology for automotive services at Jerry. Jason leads teams using artificial intelligence and machine-learning-powered customer flows to develop software that makes managing vehicle financing and products easier. Jason brings 20 years of expertise in software design, development, information security, data security, data analytics, and subject matter knowledge in fintech to Jerry. A proven people leader, Jason was most recently Chief Technology Officer at RefiJet, where he led software development, information technology, and analytics teams. He’s also held leadership roles at LCS Financial Services, LenderLive, and Chess. Jason holds bachelor’s degrees in biomedical engineering and physiological sciences from Marquette University. A lifelong learner, he also holds a master’s degree in strategic and competitive intelligence from the American Military University, a master’s degree in predictive analytics from Northwestern University, and a master’s degree in business administration from the Quantic School of Business and Technology. If you have any questions for Jason, please feel free to reach out via: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wilcoxjasone/ https://twitter.com/jwilcoxdata https://amioraretheotherscrazy.substack.com/ I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

Key takeaways: Bringing modern tech thinking to a legacy company Moving away from a FAANG to a non-tech company Ability to move the needle Building agile pods aligned to company objectives Adjusting compensation and hiring strategies Meet:   Brian Pivar is the Senior Director of Data and Analytics at Kraft Heinz.  He has been at Kraft Heinz for over 2.5 years and is responsible for building out the data science, and business intelligence engineering teams from the ground up.  Previous to Kraft Heinz, he led the data and analytics org at Amazon Restaurants (think food delivery for Amazon...like a Door Dash or Uber Eats).  Previous to that he spent about 3 years at Uber in various strategy, analytics, and leadership roles.  Brian Graduated from Purdue with a degree in finance and a minor in computer science. If you have any questions for Brian, please feel free to reach out via: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pivar/ https://twitter.com/pivar I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

Top takeaways: Challenges around scaling data engineering teams Pros and cons of keeping job descriptions vague Waiting to make the “right” hire? Focusing on retention and career progression Meet: Liran Eisenberg is a forward-thinking Data Architect with 20 years of technical management experience guiding the development and design of enterprise database platforms for global organizations. Working both as a consultant and employee, oversee implementation of data architecture projects and platform solutions within highly regulated high-tech, financial, military, and health care sectors ranging from startups to large corporate enterprises. If you have any questions for Liran, please feel free to reach out via: https://www.linkedin.com/in/liraneisenberg/ I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

What you’ll learn: What to think about when you are looking to scale your engineering team Healthy tech debt to support fast growth 3 categories of tech debt Team design and growth ladders Meet:   Anil Beniwal is the Head of Engineering at Arcadia, an organization with the goal of accelerating the world's adoption of renewable energy. He was previously VP of Engineering at Betterment, an automated money management solution, and had spent the majority of his career in fintech. Anil cares a great deal about providing a safe and productive environment for engineers to do their best work and to drive the business forward. If you have any questions for Anil, please feel free to reach out via: https://www.linkedin.com/in/abeniwal/ I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

What you’ll learn: 1-way vs 2-way doors Making a transition from a FAANG to a startup A good process should solve an acute problem Meet:   Anthony Girolamo leads the product and engineering organization at FLEXE. His teams are responsible for the development of the FLEXE Technology Platform and the capabilities that set FLEXE apart. Prior to joining FLEXE, Anthony spent 9 years at Amazon as a senior technical leader of Amazon Fulfillment Technologies and Supply Chain Optimization Technologies. He also held senior software engineering positions at Microsoft and received both his BSE and MSE in Computer Science at the University of Michigan. If you have any questions for Anthony, please feel free to reach out via: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthony-girolamo-b3b21b2/ I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

What you’ll learn: Very important to define stretch goals Leveraging eNPS - employee net promoter score Using employee net promoter score within your agile process Constantly tweaking and improving the methodology Getting to Teal! (Laloux Cultural Model) Meet:   Nate Loomis is a Director of Cloud Engineering at Ally Financial and Product Manager of the Cloud Patterns (Patterneers) squad.  At Ally, his squad is focused on patterns of automation that implement public cloud services and enhance the capabilities available to development teams from their workspace or the command line.  He has been a developer, architect, and various levels of manager throughout his career, always searching for new challenges.  His friends say he is now a #developer (commented out) but he still loves to tinker with new languages and tools.  He loves to hear from others and hopes you find this episode useful. What is Servant Leadership?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKk0AaaFqtU Simon Sinek on Inspiration: https://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action Laloux Cultural Model: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0Jc5aAJu9g If you have any questions for Nate, please feel free to reach out via: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nloomis/ I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

Top 3 takeaways: The looming retention problem - returning to the office Balancing team distribution via fewer time zones Adjusting salary bands to account for location and experience Meet: Mike Brittain is the VP of Engineering at Transfix, where he leads technology initiatives to build a simpler, smarter, and more sustainable freight ecosystem. His career in Internet software dates back to the late ‘90s and includes over 15 years in team leadership and executive roles. Mike played a significant role in building the team and shaping culture at Etsy over a 7-year period spanning pre and post-IPO phases. He lives with his wife and four kids in the Greater New York area. If you have any questions for Mike, please feel free to reach out via: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikebrittain I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

What you’ll learn: Decisions as a bridge between ideation and execution RACI decision-making Decisions can’t be made absent of context; Provide as much context as possible Meet: Dan Simon is currently the VP of Engineering at Qventus, a health care operations company.  In his capacity there he manages all aspects of engineering execution and operations, from application development to data science.  Prior to Qventus Dan held leadership roles in several startups across 8 different industries, including real estate software, security, social gaming, live event ticketing, and video platform.  He holds a bachelor’s in computer science and a bachelor’s in applied math from UC Davis. If you have any questions for Dan, please feel free to reach out via: https://www.linkedin.com/in/simondan/ I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

What you’ll learn: - Adjusting to the differences in structure between private industry and the military - Valuing the importance of resource allocation - Dealing with the difference between training and education - When taking your first post-military role try to understand the importance of geography, industry, and function - Transitioning your network from the military to the private industry - Leveraging your “one last move” - Discovering the hidden talent in the military Meet: Chris Ieva is a retired Marine Corps Infantry Officer who now heads up Data Science for Anheuser-Busch. If you have any questions for Chris, please feel free to reach out via: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisieva I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

What you’ll learn: How to grow an agile data and analytics team Solving data discovery challenges to speed up productivity Agility vs velocity Providing data capabilities to more users Meet: Romit Jadhwani is the Head of Growth Analytics, Data Science, and Business Intelligence at Pinterest. Before Pinterest, he led the Ads Business Intelligence team at Google. Romit is passionate about helping companies grow and scale and is always looking for ideas and techniques to drive innovation and agility with analytics and data. He loves solving problems, whether it is helping a $1B+ company continue with its hyper-growth trajectory or teaching his young kids why it is important to eat all their vegetables. If you have any questions for Romit, please feel free to reach out via: https://www.linkedin.com/in/romitjadhwani/ I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

What you’ll learn: Challenges in getting deep expertise in many areas Moving from a project focus to deeper subject matter expertise Moving towards intent-based leadership To learn more about Intent-Based Leadership - https://davidmarquet.com/ Meet: Brian Berger has served in a variety of Engineering and Operations leadership positions in IaaS and SaaS companies for 20+ years.  He works with organizations to improve delivery velocity and increase service reliability within and between Software Development and Operations organizations. He currently serves as Ping Identity’s Senior Director of Infrastructure Operations.  His teams are accountable for infrastructure services, reliability, and delivery pipelines for Ping’s Global SaaS Identity Management solutions serving over 60% of the Fortune 100. Prior to joining Ping Brian was Sr. Director of Engineering at Wellsky where he led  Software Development, Quality Assurance, and SRE programs for their Home Health, Hospice, and Private Duty Agency management SaaS offerings. If you have any questions for Brian, please feel free to reach out via: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianberger/ I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

What you can take away from this episode: Connecting consumer experiences to the product Using alternative data-rich sources of information to increase understanding Considering indirect factors in consumer behavior Future technologies to capture additional consumer data points Meet: Chris Ieva is a retired Marine Corps Infantry Officer who now heads up Data Science for Anheuser-Busch. If you have any questions for Chris, please feel free to reach out via: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisieva I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

What we cover: Improving asynchronous communication Understanding where decisions are being made Establishing repeatable actions and rituals Leadership is about availability Part of the job of the leader is to tell the story and celebrate the team Meet: Mitch Trale is Head of Infrastructure at HackerOne -- the world's leading crowdsourced security platform. He is responsible for HackerOne's highly available, performant, and secure web application architecture. A hacker and startup technologist, Mitch has been building engineering teams and digital products for 20 years. If you have any questions for Mitch, please feel free to reach out via: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mitchtrale/ I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

What you’ll learn: Growing and building your security capabilities Prioritizing the first cybersecurity hire Security tools and automation rather than shifting left Building relationships with security startups to expand capabilities Meet: Jonathan Jaffe, Lemonade Insurance's CISO. Jonathan's been practicing security since 1997. He has designed and installed the earliest internet-centric access control systems for airlines, banks, manufacturers, and tech companies. He has designed identity and access management systems for more than 45 companies since 1999. Jonathan is also a privacy attorney, taking a mid-career tangential detour to develop and prosecute the largest US privacy class action at the time against Facebook, protecting the privacy rights of billions of people and leading to the closure of Facebook's Sponsored Stories. Jonathan is a founding member of Silicon Valley CISO Investments, a group dedicated to advancing better security products for the benefit of all. Jonathan assists security start-ups by advising them on market fit and helping them improve their products. You can reach him at https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanjaffe/ I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

What you’ll learn: Building resiliency into systems Failing and non-failing validations If failure happens, what’s the fallback plan? Creating SLAs with upstream teams Meet: Teresa Martyny is the Engineering Manager for the Data OS Infrastructure team at New Relic, an observability platform built to help engineers create more perfect software. If you have any questions for Teresa, please feel free to reach out via: https://www.linkedin.com/in/teresamartyny/ I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

What you’ll learn: The extensibility of the Salesforce platform Growth and evolution of the platform Pushing Salesforce to do something that it shouldn’t Dealing with technical debt Meet: Hyung Lee started his career in finance software and really took a more focused route during his tenure at Salesforce. From there he had the fortune to work at some noteworthy technology companies. He has a passion for solving problems with technology, people and process and over the course of his career have grown to be a "people first" technology leader. Chi Ho is a platform-as-a-service champion with 13+ of years building applications on Salesforce. He is currently leading multiple teams in enterprise digital transformation for over 20,000 users with an emphasis on bringing intuitive design and consumer-like features into the workplace. If you have any questions for Hyung or Chi, please feel free to reach out via: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chiwho/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/hyungslee/ I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

What you’ll learn: Building trust and transparency in the team Adjusting the structure of the 1-1 meeting for Zooms Replicating the ideation process while remote Meet: Zak Allen is the VP of Engineering at Shogun. Shogun, backed by 8VC and Founders Fund, empowers home improvement contractors with software products to help them manage their businesses such as Financing, Payments, and other tools. Zak was one of the first employees at Shogun and has seen it grow to over 100 people, serving over 10,000 contractors across the US. Prior to Shogun, Zak was the first employee at FlyHomes, a real estate tech startup backed by Andreessen Horowitz, which has similarly grown now to over 250 employees. If you have any questions for Zak, please feel free to reach out via: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zakallen I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

What you’ll learn: The power of being underestimated Being one of few females as an IT Director in the Massachusetts technology public sector Early exposure to technology had a very positive impact From liberal arts degree to leader in Infrastructure Get ahead by finding the work that nobody wants to do. Doing it. And doing it well. Meet: Kendra Rozett McCormick is Manager of Infrastructure Engineering at HealthEdge, provider of the industry’s leading mission-critical claims processing, care management, and payment integrity technology assets for payers. Kendra has a unique background combining a liberal arts education with proven technology leadership, first in the public/local government sector for 11 years, and now in the Healthcare software space, with a passion for leadership and promotion of women in technology. If you have any questions for Kendra, please feel free to reach out via: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kmccormick916/ I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

What you’ll learn: The widening scope of IT Service Management Does ITSM need their own Service Management Officer? ITSM buy-in and the why behind it Meet: Carlis Ragland - Assistant VP Configuration Manager at Valley Bank - has over 25 years of IT experience, and 10 years of IT Information Library (ITIL) experience using IT Service Management (ITSM) platforms such as ServiceNow. He was formally the Configuration Management Leader for Becton Dickinson, ITSM Solution architect for Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC), and ITSM System Integrator/Service Manager and Architect for CompuCom Inc. on the Public Service Electric & Gas (PSEG) of New Jersey account for over 10 years. In addition, he is a retired Air Force Reserve Officer with 33 years of military experience. Carlis holds a Master of Science Degree in Information Technology with a Business Intelligence specialization from Kaplan University. He is an Adjunct Professor at Fairleigh Dickinson University teaching Data Communications and Computer Networking courses. His hands-on and leadership experience with configuration management databases, data integration, automation, process, and workflow management have shrunk timelines, matured processes, provided financial transparency to reduced cost, and reduced the number of unplanned IT outages. If you have any questions for Carlis, please feel free to reach out via: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carlisragland/ I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

What you’ll learn: Finding the right skill set mix in growing your analytics team Interviewing tip: Trying to understand how a candidate’s problem-solving skills when there isn’t a clear cut outcome Modern analytics driving further advanced skills Meet: Krishna is a quantitative strategic leader with a focus on finding solutions to business problems through the use of big-data behavioral analytics and qualitative data. He places an emphasis on working directly and through his team with key stakeholders to translate both small and large data sets into actionable business solutions. With a primary focus on developing and scaling nascent ideas, Krishna brings a pragmatic but rigorous empirical philosophy to decision making and team leadership. Using his background in big-data analytics, data strategy, marketing, operations, finance, consulting, and psychology, he has applied novel and effective solutions to challenging business problems across a variety of industries, clients, and circumstances. Most recently, he has been focused on scaling the distribution side of the insurance marketplace at EverQuote. If you have any questions for Krishna, please feel free to reach out via: https://www.linkedin.com/in/krishna-ramaswamy-analytics/ I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

What you’ll learn: Proactive vs reactive problem management Managing the multiple touchpoints involved in a service incident Balancing needs vs the squeaky wheel Meet:  Kevin Recio is an Information Technology professional with 6+ years of experience across multiple companies and industries. His IT experience includes enterprise platform implementations, management of IT service operations roles, and development of SDLC processes. He is familiar with ITIL, IT Service Management, and ServiceNow. If you have any questions for Kevin, please feel free to reach out via: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-recio-59a04621/ I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

What you’ll learn: Work fast and iterate very quickly Try to think with a clear mind - communicate through writing over talking Shorten time to ideation Happiness of the customer as a measure of product quality Meet: David Ting, Vice President of Nylas, has over 20 years of leadership experience in mobile development, scalable architecture, cloud infrastructure, big data, and machine learning.  At Nylas, he is currently running the Engineer, Product, and Support teams to power the productivity layer of the software stack.  David has served as the Head of Online Production for Blizzard Entertainment, the General Manager of IGN Entertainment, and the General Manager of NetEase North America. David holds 6 patents and has received 2 IBM Outstanding Achievement Awards and the AltaVista Employee of the Year Award. If you have any questions for David, please feel free to reach out via: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dting I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

What you’ll learn: Upskilling the data analyst role Medical knowledge is doubling every 73 days; pushing the technical envelope to cope with the increase Organizational maturity will drive the analytics hiring needs Meet: Nana Somuah the Director for Data Analytics at Cityblock, responsible for Data Strategy and managing a team of data analysts. My main goal within the company is to improve our member health outcomes by utilizing the power of Data and Analytics. If you have any questions for Nana, please feel free to reach out via: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nana-somuah-73a34417/ I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

What you’ll learn: Deeper partnership between platform and security engineering teams Security by design Focusing on a handful of problems that really matter Meet: Aidan Anderson is a Security Engineering Manager at FloQast, where he is focused on building a best-in-class security program that delivers resilience, confidence, and trust in the solution.  Aidan has had the privilege of helping scale technology, people, and processes at FloQast, helping grow the organization from a seed round startup to a Series C company.  Aidan has a passion for lean product development, risk management, and security through automation and software development practices and has over 14 years of experience in Information Technology. If you have any questions for Aidan, please feel free to reach out via: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aidan-anderson-06b4b17b/ I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

What you’ll learn: Delivering analytics in a hypergrowth industry Simplifying and pinpointing the direct analytic needs Meet: Martin Corso is the Director of Measurement and Analytics for Surfside, a data-driven customer acquisition platform that specializes in activating and expanding 1st party data for marketing, insights, and measurement. Martin has diverse experience utilizing digital and offline datasets to build SaaS/DaaS products for hyper-growth tech startups. If you have any questions for Martin, please feel free to reach out via: https://www.linkedin.com/in/martinjcorso/ I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

What you’ll learn: Team health as a good barometer for team velocity Tech debt is inevitable; keeping it at a sustainable rate Balancing team size Meet: Scott Persinger is the VP Engineering at Tatari. He previously managed alternative payments at Stripe and was Director of Platform Services at Heroku. Scott was a co-founder at Cloudconnect (acquired by Salesforce), and a co-founder at Remixation (acquired by Vevo). If you have any questions for Scott, please feel free to reach out via: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottpersinger/ https://twitter.com/persingerscott I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

What you’ll learn: Reasons why you should hire a data product manager Data product manager roadmaps are typically longer Being data-informed rather than being data-driven Meet: Murali Bhogavalli has a proven track record of building data products that span the entire spectrum from raw data to self-serve analytics tools. Currently, he is a Group Product Manager at Tinder, leading, directing, and managing data and platform strategy, ensuring data and platform solutions are coordinated, integrated, and perform to the highest standards. Prior to Tinder, Murali worked at two startups building data products and got his roots in data/information management at Deloitte Consulting at the start of his career If you have any questions for Murali, please feel free to reach out via: https://www.linkedin.com/in/muralidharbhogavalli/ https://twitter.com/mbhoga I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

What you’ll learn: Benefits of incorporating security earlier in the process Balancing between business and security goals Avoid looking for the “unicorn” hires Meet: Eiwe Lingefors leads Director of Engineering, Cybersecurity & Platform at Teachable, an edtech company that enables independent professionals to turn experience and know-how into thriving businesses. If you have any questions for Eiwe, please feel free to reach out via: https://twitter.com/alienswede https://www.linkedin.com/in/eiwelingefors/ I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

What you’ll learn: Leading with empathy in managing your team Making sure to allocate time to prioritize learning Meet: Nathan Wan is the Director of Machine Learning Platform at Freenome where he leads a team of researchers and engineers building a blood test to detect early-stage cancer. He believes that technology is most powerful when applied to the hardest problems we face not just as individuals, but as a society. Prior to Freenome, he led teams at Google for the Speech Recognition and Shopping Express projects. Nathan holds BS degrees in Computer Science and Electrical and Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University. If you have any questions for Nathan, please feel free to reach out via: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nwan1 I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

What you’ll learn: Moving from a non-traditional degree program into data and machine learning Stubbornness as a superpower (sticking to a problem is key) Improving the hiring process by understanding the limitations of using a data-driven hiring process Meet: George London is the Director of Engineering at Survata and the Co-Organizer of the San Francisco PyData Meetup Group. He has over a decade of experience as an entrepreneur, engineer, and manager working to help businesses use data to make better decisions. If you have any questions for George, please feel free to reach out via: https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgelondon/ https://twitter.com/rogueleaderr I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

What you’ll learn: Looking at the number of merges to evaluate team velocity Reducing wait times during code reviews Software is getting cheaper to make and faster to deliver Meet: Ben Garvey heads up the team building the next generation of financial management software at Betterment for Advisors. Previously, he led world-class SAAS data engineering teams at RJMetrics, Magento Commerce, and Adobe. He holds a computer science degree from American University and likes charts, maybe a little too much. If you have any questions for Ben, please feel free to reach out via Twitter: https://twitter.com/bengarvey I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

What you’ll learn: Using stand-downs to check-in at the end of the day Clarifying expectations and establishing a clear technical ladder Doubling down on creating communication channels within the team Meet: Myles Guanzon is a servant engineering leader with a strong passion for data-driven, lean product development, Myles comes from a non-traditional engineering background. His career started in DevOps with server management and progressed by learning web development and co-founding a design agency to develop web applications for clients, including NASA. Today as the VP of Engineering at Omada Health, Myles leads the B2C teams that are responsible for engaging its members into lifelong health. If you have any questions for Myles, please feel free to reach out via LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/myles-guanzon-9ab50020/ I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

What you’ll learn: Focusing on predictability rather than velocity How the code base’s complexity can affect estimation Balancing the effect of technology change on the team David references the following book: Nicole Forsgren’s book: Accelerate Meet: David Kaplan is the head of engineering at Policygenius, the nation’s leading online insurance marketplace. David has been an engineering leader for over a decade as a VP of Engineering at Yodle (Acquired by Web.com), a Senior Manager at Bloomberg L.P., and the co-founder of Helioscene, which was a SaaS startup in the video production space. If you have any questions for David, please feel free to reach out via LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davebkaplan/ I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

What you’ll learn: Inversion of talent vs seniority Hiring is not all about the hard skills Focusing on employees motivations for the long term benefit to the company Meet: David Relyea received a Ph.D. in physics from Princeton in 2003. He has worked in the defense sector, ad tech, fintech, and cybersecurity, largely in the areas of machine learning and optimization. He is currently Director of Data Science at BlackBerry. If you have any questions for David, please feel free to reach out via LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-relyea-44120557/ I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

What you’ll learn: Growing security awareness and maturity Starting with a security framework in mind Cybersecurity is an accessible field (moving past the myth) Meet: Ryan Weeks - As Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), Ryan is responsible for directing and managing Datto's Information Security program. Ryan spent 11 years securing enterprise applications, systems, and sensitive customer financial data at FactSet Research Systems, where he orchestrated all facets of the global information security program. Ryan holds a B.S. in Computer Information Systems from Ithaca College, an M.S. in Information Assurance from Northeastern University, and has industry security certifications including the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) and the Certified Information Security Manager (CISM). If you have any questions for Ryan, please feel free to reach out via LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanweeks/ I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

What you’ll learn: Challenges in moving to CI/CD What is continuous testing? The new skills required for people in testing Meet: Liliya Frye is a Technology Leader and a Manager of Quality Assurance Engineering with over 20 years of experience in IT. She is very enthusiastic about digital product quality, security, cloud computing, and leadership. She is naturally curious and loves the continuous process of learning, as well as sharing her knowledge with others. She is a Leader of OWASP (Open Web Application Security Project) San Fernando Valley Chapter and a part of the planning committee of AppSec California security conferences. Liliya authored the following articles: 1. Leaders who deliver  vs. Leaders who destroy  2. How to Get Hired: Encoded Secrets of Hiring Managers  3. Focusing on Customers in Agile SDLC with 80/20 Rule  4. CI/CD/CT - Shift-Left and Shift-Right with Automated Continuous Testing  If you have any questions for Liliya, please feel free to reach out via LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/liliyafrye/ I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

What you’ll learn: Being curious, staying curious Servant leadership style Pushing for opportunities to grow Meet: I am an experienced technologist with over 10 years of experience in the Internet industry. I've worked with companies that build and distribute web applications internally within an organization as well as externally to users around the world. I've seen the industry grow and advance greatly over the past decade and the technical knowledge I've gathered, helps me to be successful at building any web application of any scale. I am also a very experienced people manager who has coached many engineers and helped them to grow both their technical skills as well as their leadership traits to elevate their careers to the next level. If you have any questions for Andy, please feel free to reach out via LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andylu821/ I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

What you’ll learn: Evaluating where data science and machine learning can be applied Complimenting human decision making with algorithms Being aware of impacting existing processes Meet: George Bezerra is a strategic data executive with expertise in Machine Learning and Data Science. Currently VP of Data Science at Frontdoor, he was previously the head of data science at car insurance startup Metromile and spent five years at TripAdvisor where he was Senior Director of Data Science and Analytics. Like many data scientists, George has an academic background, including a Post-doctorate at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of New Mexico. If you have any questions for George, please feel free to reach out via: www.linkedin.com/in/george-bezerra I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

What you’ll learn: Modernizing a legacy data infrastructure and culture Pushing people out of their comfort zone Quick wins while building the long term foundation Meet: George Bezerra is a strategic data executive with expertise in Machine Learning and Data Science. Currently VP of Data Science at Frontdoor, he was previously the head of data science at car insurance startup Metromile and spent five years at TripAdvisor where he was Senior Director of Data Science and Analytics. Like many data scientists, George has an academic background, including a Post-doctorate at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of New Mexico. If you have any questions for George, please feel free to reach out via: www.linkedin.com/in/george-bezerra I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

What you’ll learn: Security professionals and mental health Accepting that there are inherent limitations in security If you burn yourself out you are doing more harm to the business than you think Simulate how you would handle a security breach Meet: Ian Amit is the CSO at Cimpress. Ian is an executive manager in the security and software industry with vast experience in multiple fields - from enterprise security, through retail, to end-user software and large back-end systems. Highly experienced in leading marketing opportunities, and translating technical innovation into marketable concepts that increase sales and exposure. He is an Information Security expert with vast experience ranging from low-level technical expertise and up to corporate security policy, regulatory compliance, and strategy. Ian keynote speaker, with vast experience in public speaking and private customer-focused seminars (Conferences featuring BlackHat, DEFCON, RSA, BSides, BlueHat, ZonCon, Source, and many more). He is also a founding member of the PTES (Penetration Testing Execution Standard), IL-CERT, and the Tel-Aviv DEFCON group (DC9723). If you have any questions for Ian, please feel free to reach out via: https://www.linkedin.com/in/iamit/ https://www.iamit.org/ I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

What you’ll learn: Setting up an internal MSSP (managed security service provider) Establishing a baseline of security (using the NIST Cybersecurity Framework) Using the M&A process to get a headstart on security Meet: Ian Amit is the CSO at Cimpress. Ian is an executive manager in the security and software industry with vast experience in multiple fields - from enterprise security, through retail, to end-user software and large back-end systems. Highly experienced in leading marketing opportunities, and translating technical innovation into marketable concepts that increase sales and exposure. He is an Information Security expert with vast experience ranging from low-level technical expertise and up to corporate security policy, regulatory compliance, and strategy. Ian keynote speaker, with vast experience in public speaking and private customer-focused seminars (Conferences featuring BlackHat, DEFCON, RSA, BSides, BlueHat, ZonCon, Source, and many more). He is also a founding member of the PTES (Penetration Testing Execution Standard), IL-CERT, and the Tel-Aviv DEFCON group (DC9723). If you have any questions for Ian, please feel free to reach out via: https://www.linkedin.com/in/iamit/ https://www.iamit.org/ I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

What you’ll learn: Managing the complexities of the modern data platform Balancing between hiring for the right data skill Breaking out roles by areas of specialization Meet:  Peter Fishman is the co-founder and CEO of Mozart Data (YCS20), the easiest way to spin up a modern data stack.  Previously, he was the Chief Strategy Officer at Eaze, a cannabis technology platform. He has also worked at fast-growing startups including Opendoor, Zenefits, Yammer/Microsoft, Playdom/Disney.  He also has been involved with sports analytics at the Philadelphia Eagles and has run a hot sauce company, Bacon Hot Sauce.  He holds a B.S. from Duke University and a Ph.D. in economics from UC Berkeley. If you have any questions for Fish, please feel free to reach out via LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petefishman/ I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

What you’ll learn: Security shifting left Taking security from afterthought to active participant Keeping up with the pace of change in security Meet: Cassio Goldschmidt is regarded as an internationally recognized, award-winning security expert. With more than 20 years of experience, Mr. Goldschmidt has a remarkable record of industry accolades and honors. They include: Winner of the 2019 (ISC)² Information Security Leadership Award for all Americas Nominee for the 2019 TEN Information Security Executive Award for North America Winner of the 2020 TEN Information Security Executive Best Project Award for the West Coast region Winner of the 2011 (ISC)² Cybersecurity Community Services Star Award for all Americas Finalist of the 2011 (ISC)² Americas Information Security Leadership (ISLA) Awards 2011 in the Information Security Practitioner category Nominee for the 2012 OWASP Web Application Security Person of the Year (WASPY) Awards Other honors include being: Publicly thanked by Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court (TSE) for finding security weaknesses and providing significant recommendations to improve the security of the electronic voting systems used in the country’s presidential election A member of Forbes Technology Council and contributor of Forbes.com The founding member of OWASP Los Angeles Chapter, which was elected the best OWASP chapter in the world in 2013 A co-founder of OWASP AppSec Cali conference A speaker at many of the most respected international security conferences, including RSA, Black Hat, ISSA, CIO Event, ACSAC, (ISC)² Security Congress, FS-ISAC, Better Software, NULLCon, and Global OWASP AppSec in countries such as Brazil, China, India, Poland, Sweden, and the United States The single inventor of three U.S. patents and the co-inventor of the fourth U.S. patent Cassio holds a bachelor degree in computer science (BS in CS) from Pontificia Universidade Catolica do Rio Grande Do Sul (PUC-RS), a masters degree in software engineering (MS in SE) from Santa Clara University (SCU), and a master of business administration (MBA) from the University of Southern California (USC). If you have any questions for Cassio, please feel free to reach out via LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cassiogoldschmidt/ I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

Meet: Cassio Goldschmidt is regarded as an internationally recognized, award-winning security expert. With more than 20 years of experience, Mr. Goldschmidt has a remarkable record of industry accolades and honors. They include: Winner of the 2019 (ISC)² Information Security Leadership Award for all Americas Nominee for the 2019 TEN Information Security Executive Award for North America Winner of the 2020 TEN Information Security Executive Best Project Award for the West Coast region Winner of the 2011 (ISC)² Cybersecurity Community Services Star Award for all Americas Finalist of the 2011 (ISC)² Americas Information Security Leadership (ISLA) Awards 2011 in the Information Security Practitioner category Nominee for the 2012 OWASP Web Application Security Person of the Year (WASPY) Awards Other honors include being: Publicly thanked by Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court (TSE) for finding security weaknesses and providing significant recommendations to improve the security of the electronic voting systems used in the country’s presidential election A member of Forbes Technology Council and contributor of Forbes.com The founding member of OWASP Los Angeles Chapter, which was elected the best OWASP chapter in the world in 2013 A co-founder of OWASP AppSec Cali conference A speaker at many of the most respected international security conferences, including RSA, Black Hat, ISSA, CIO Event, ACSAC, (ISC)² Security Congress, FS-ISAC, Better Software, NULLCon, and Global OWASP AppSec in countries such as Brazil, China, India, Poland, Sweden, and the United States The single inventor of three U.S. patents and the co-inventor of the fourth U.S. patent Cassio holds a bachelor degree in computer science (BS in CS) from Pontificia Universidade Catolica do Rio Grande Do Sul (PUC-RS), a masters degree in software engineering (MS in SE) from Santa Clara University (SCU), and a master of business administration (MBA) from the University of Southern California (USC). What you’ll learn: Addressing the security challenges of shadow IT Hackers are looking for just one thing to get in The impact of the pandemic on the security roadmap If you have any questions for Cassio, please feel free to reach out via LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cassiogoldschmidt/

Meet: Michael Remyn is a product management executive who is passionate about creating intuitive user experiences within enterprise software. As a Director of Product Management at American Express, Michael has delivered products aimed to bring user efficiency and productivity to multiple instances of Salesforce, from complex transformations such as combining instances and overhauling the user interface to a variety of smaller products meant to improve sales and client management processes. Michael has built high performing digital product teams while coaching and training others through the organization. He also has shown a continued focus on the digital experience by creating his own in-house user experience team to increase focus on user workflow and build the right solutions that solve user and stakeholder problems. Michael also has experience with data analytics, corporate strategy, and financial management before moving full time into digital product management. What you’ll learn: Salesforce is not just an IT application Managing user request change Enterprises are becoming more customer-centric With more data, we need more clarity Data quality is a journey If you have any questions for Michael, please feel free to reach out via LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-remyn-875145/

Meet: Mike Arbitman, Senior Director, Technology Organization Data and Analytics at Medidata, a technology leader skilled at defining, building, improving, and optimizing data-focused organizations delivering innovative and leading-edge solitons What you’ll learn: Modernization of master data management Determining the system of record The changing complexity of data projects If you have any questions for Mike, please feel free to reach out via LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelarbitman/

Meet: Mark Shasha is the Head of Security at Braze. He is a career security professional specializing in enterprise application and infrastructure security. What you’ll learn: Working in an engineering org where the CTO still checks in code Owning  security processes Looking for transferable skills in hiring DevOps and Security professionals. If you have any questions for Mark, please feel free to reach out via LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markshasha/

Meet: Chris Ham is the Engineering Operations Manager and Chief of Staff to the CTO at Novantas. He is responsible for DevOps, Cloud/on-prem implementation and integration, the interface between Engineering and Infrastructure, and Big-data infrastructure. Chris’s career path has focused on blending leadership and deep technical expertise. His CV includes: -Continued service, including a deployment, as an officer in the US Navy Reserve -A background in corporate Tech Ops finance -Work as a quant in the bank treasury/risk space What you’ll learn: Leveraging his military management experience Partnering with DevOps and the strategic technology roadmap Transitioning from the military to the private sector If you have any questions for  Chris, please feel free to reach out via LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopher-l-ham/

Meet: Maria Latushkin is responsible for leading Omada Health’s technology vision and team. Prior to joining Omada Health and moving to the healthcare space, Maria has spent over 15 years in eCommerce, retail, and enterprise SaaS companies ranging from series B startups to large companies, such as Walmart. What you’ll learn: Don’t hire for culture fit, make culturally additive hires Hiring people for the right context for your environment or stage of growth Signals that you might need to add process to your org Adjusting style and process in supporting a fully distributed engineering org If you have any questions for Maria, please feel free to reach out via LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maria-latushkin-799700/

Meet: Greg Miaskiewicz, CEO & Co-Founder at Capbase, a startup building legal & financial tools for startups. Previously, CEO & Co-Founder of Swarm, a bot detection startup, which exited to Integral Ad Science in 2016. Greg has over a decade of experience working at early-stage Silicon Valley startups in product, engineering, and design roles. What you’ll learn (disclaimer - this is not legal advice): Avoiding pitfalls in forming your startup’s legal entity Implications of incorrectly setting up your entity What to look for in evaluating equity as apart of a job offer If you would like to reach out to Greg about anything he discussed on the podcast, please reach out to him via: https://twitter.com/miaskiewicz https://www.instagram.com/miaskiewicz/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/miaskiewicz/ email: greg@capbase.com

Meet:  Sanji Fernando is a senior vice president at Optum, where he leads the Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Analytics Platforms team for Optum Enterprise Analytics (OEA).  He is responsible for developing platforms that support the design and development of leading-edge AI models and analytic tools for the enterprise. Previously, Sanji was a vice president at OptumLabs and led the OptumLabs Center for Applied Data Science (CADS).  The CADS team applied breakthroughs in AI and machine learning to solve complex health care challenges for UnitedHealth Group (UHG) by developing and deploying software product concepts. CADS pioneered using deep learning to streamline administrative processes in revenue cycle management and developed graph analytics tools to support provider network design, among other innovations. Sanji joined OptumLabs in 2014 from Nokia, where he created Nokia’s first data science team.  His team launched the first big data computing cluster at Nokia, using cluster derived insights on user activity and engagement to design new product concepts.  Before that, Sanji spent 9 years at Nokia in a variety of corporate roles with Nokia’s Multimedia Division, Nokia Research Center, and Nokia Ventures. Prior to Nokia, Sanji was a co-founder and VP of Engineering at Vettro, a venture-backed mobile software company.  Sanji began his career in consulting with Viant and Accenture. Sanji is a graduate of Trinity College with a bachelor’s degree in computer science.  He lives in the Boston area with his wife and their three boys.  In his free time, Sanji enjoys coaching his sons in basketball and baseball.   He also serves on the board of his local Little League. What you’ll learn: Evaluating the value of AI solutions Growth of AI in the healthcare space Establishing short and long term goals Sanji mentioned our annual survey on AI in health care and we recently shared the findings from our 3rd annual survey; we have both a press release and special report on that. If you would like to reach out to Sanji about anything he discussed on the podcast, please reach out to him via: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanjifernando/

Meet: Marick S. Sinay, Ph.D. is Vice President Head of Data Science and Analytics for Aspiration. Dr. Sinay has been in the broader financial services industry in various quantitative financial modeling and data science roles. He has experience working at large financial institutions, Bank of America and Western Asset Management, as well as at FinTech startups in the Los Angeles area. Dr. Sinay has successfully hired and led teams of data scientists, data analysts, and data engineers to drive business intelligence and advanced predictive analytics using machine learning to solve enterprise initiatives. He has a Ph.D. in Statistics and Applied Probability, Masters in Statistics, and a Masters in Economics from the University of California Santa Barbara. What you’ll learn:  Career advice - tips and advice for analyst and data scientists to grow Building data teams - do’s and don’ts to building a successful diverse team

Meet:  Ankur Goyal is the co-founder and CEO of Impira. previously built and scaled the engineering team at MemSQL as employee #2 and VP of Engineering. Ankur received his B.S. in Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon's School of Computer Science. He also holds several patents in database technology. What you’ll learn: Extracting more value out of documents Helping companies automate their paper processes to digital Getting an AI project into production and the related ROI Talking about a new feature that allows someone to extract information from any doc through the UI If you would like to reach out to Ankur about anything he discussed on the podcast, please reach out to him via: https://twitter.com/ankrgyl?lang=en https://twitter.com/impirahq https://www.linkedin.com/in/ankrgyl/

Meet: Ash Berlin-Taylor is an active committer and member of the PMC for Apache Airflow and Director of Airflow Engineering team at astronomer.io. Before getting involved with Airflow he spent many years working in (web) infrastructure Kaxil Naik is currently the Committer, PMC Member, and Release Manager of Apache Airflow. He is also the Manager of Airflow Engineering team @ Astronomer. He did his Masters in Data Science & Analytics from Royal Holloway, University of London. What you’ll learn: Major features in the upcoming Airflow 2 release Upgrade path and compatibility What the team might be working on in future releases Learn more about the upcoming release: https://www.astronomer.io/blog/introducing-airflow-2-0 If you would like to reach out to Ash or Kaxil about anything they discussed on the podcast, please reach out to them via: https://twitter.com/kaxil https://www.linkedin.com/in/kaxil/ https://twitter.com/ashberlin

Meet:  Mike Bennett, Director of Enterprise Digital Farming at Climate Corp - Bayer Crop Science.  Responsible for Enterprise data governance and new business models. What you’ll learn: Mentoring vs coaching Leadership through influence Importance of messaging and tone If you would like to reach out to Mike about anything he discussed on the podcast, please reach out to him via: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelsbennett https://twitter.com/MikeSBennett

Meet: Doug Puett is the Head of Data Science at UserTesting. UserTesting has the world’s greatest data source on how user research is done. Prior to joining UserTesting, Doug worked at a startup that was acquired by LinkedIn. He has an MS degree from Columbia and a Bachelor’s from Cornell. What you’ll learn: Getting the feedback cycle started early Having a deep interest in product Matrixed embedded data science teams If you have any questions for Doug, please feel free to reach out to him via LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dougpuett/

Meet:  Marian manages the Experiments and Optimization team at Zymergen. She spent the last ten years building data science solutions for problems in remote sensing, epidemic modeling, weather science, ag-tech, and now in synthetic biology. What you’ll learn: Taking advantage of innovation Relationships with science and product teams Advice if you want to get into data science If you would like to get in touch with Marian regarding anything discussed on this episode, please connect via: https://twitter.com/bayesiangirl

Meet: Xin Heng is currently the VP/Head of Data at Punchh. Before joining Punchh, he was the Head of Data Science at StubHub and a Data Science Manager at Uber. He has his Ph.D. in Applied Physics, Electrical Engineering from Caltech. What you’ll learn: Machine Learning Software Development - the differences between building ML software for B2B and B2C companies The Value of AI - predictivity vs interpretability Building an AI team - from the right leader and to core team members If you would like to connect with Xin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/xin-heng-8781302/

Meet:  Arkadiy is Head of Application & Infrastructure Security at Chime. He is passionate about all forms of digital harm reduction, ranging from technical, to policy & legal, to security management & leadership. What you’ll learn: Establishing a security champion and culture Developers make for great security engineers Learning lessons from launching his own product If you would like to reach out to Arkadiy about anything he discussed on the podcast, please reach out to him via Twitter: https://twitter.com/arkadiyt

Meet:  Rick Medina is a security practitioner, OSINT junkie, button pusher, and checkbox un-checker What you’ll learn: Dealing with Covid’s impact on security within the retail space Security becoming more agile If you would like to get in touch with Rick regarding anything discussed on this episode, please connect via: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ricardomedinajr/

Meet: Kyle is a CISO and VP, Security, Privacy, and Compliance. He has 18 years of establishing, growing, and leading Security and Software Engineering Teams that built security in consumer, enterprise, and SaaS software products. What you’ll learn: Bootstrapping a security program Security policy as code Starting point to move to shift security left If you have any questions for Kyle, please feel free to reach out to him via LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kylerandolph/

Meet:  Ken is the data engineering manager at Alto Pharmacy - which offers free, same-day medication delivery to customers.   Alto's data engineering team supports the entire business with a large focus on improving the logistical efficiency of the organization. Ken's career has focused on data engineering in which he has held a variety of roles in management,  data engineering, and data architecture roles, and worked as both an employee and consultant.   Ken feels that data engineering is a specialization of software engineering - and benefits from many of the same process innovations - around testing, agile, DevOps, and dataops methodologies. What you’ll learn: What does a modern data warehousing solution look like Data engineering shift from GUI tools to software engineering Data engineering viewed as specialized software engineering If you would like to get in touch with Ken regarding anything discussed on this episode, please connect via: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kenfar/

Meet: Prior to LeafLink, Nikhil led the data science function for Gartner’s Marketing practice, gaining deep expertise in building scaled data products for large consumer brands. He has extensive experience in generating insights from e-commerce, search and transactional data leveraging experimentation, machine learning, and implementing business intelligence solutions. Nikhil has also held positions managing data science teams at and consulting F500 clients on marketing and advertising. Currently, Nikhil is responsible for continuing to evolve the data platform that powers the LeafLink marketplace. What you’ll learn: Adjusting to a less regulated industry Building out the data infrastructure Technology choices and tradeoffs

Meet: Nachi is a Director of Engineering at Electric.AI. Having started his career building software at a large investment bank, he has since transitioned into working for startups based out of NYC. He enjoys the role of being an early technology hire and is passionate about building inclusive & diverse engineering cultures, strong agile practices, and delighting customers. Topic: Empowering engineers to understand the why behind what they are working on To connect with Nachi: https://www.linkedin.com/in/n4ch1k3t/

Meet: Kunal Bhattacharya is a Security Leader, Organization builder, and mentor who helps organizations build robust Cyberdefense and detection capabilities. He does this by building Secure SDL processes and machination encapsulating Shift left strategy, SecDevOps, Cloud, and Penetration testing. Kunal's prior experience in all phases of application development, System and database administration, and Quality engineering have helped him in building lasting relationships with peers in engineering and product organizations and working towards shared security goals. Kunal has worked with Tech Titans like PayPal, Credit Karma, Symantec, etc in the Silicon Valley and has been instrumental in building multiple high-performing organizations in his career. What you’ll learn: Moving security from a black box view Thinking about security earlier in the design and development phase Mental health aspects for security professionals If you have any questions for Kunal, please feel free to reach out to him via LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kunal-bhattacharya/

Meet: Chris Millikin is the Head of Infrastructure and Security at Nuna. Prior to Nuna, Chris spent over a decade building security engineering teams focused on detection, response, and security by design at Google as well as Alphabet’s Security “bet”, Chronicle Security.  Chris is passionate about building strong teams and developing them to their full potential and is currently hiring passionate problem solvers. What you’ll learn: How a security breach can shape your future views Applying an innovative mindset to healthcare Striving for balance in security If you would like to reach out to Chris about anything discussed on the podcast, please reach out to via: https://www.linkedin.com/in/%F0%9F%97%85-chris-millikin-80b2951/ https://www.twitter.com/chrismillikin

Meet: Ben is a Senior Director of Software Engineering at Flatiron Health, where he leads the Machine Learning Team. Prior to Flatiron, he worked at Google on NLP applications for Google Search. He has a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Washington. What you’ll learn: The impact of machine learning in healthcare data Solving text classification problems Can machine learning be overused If you would like to reach out to Ben about anything discussed on the podcast, please reach out via: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-birnbaum-657a4730/ https://twitter.com/benbirnbaum

Meet: Joel Anderson has worked in cybersecurity and IT as an engineer, advisor, and executive with impact across public, private, and social sectors: - technology leader for over 15 years - strong focus on information security and emerging technologies - agile, proven strategic thinker/thought leader relating technology to business value - experienced leading global teams What you’ll learn: CI/CD Business Systems for Performance and Security Mainland China Deployments Navigating Compliance as a Growing Company If you would like to reach out to Joel about anything he discussed on the podcast, please reach out via: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jcpanderson/

Meet: Ella Alkalay Schreiber, Head of Pricing and Recommendations she leads a cross-functional team of product managers, data scientists, designers, and engineers in the creation of data-driven fintech products that make travel planning easier, most notably our Price Freeze product. These services leverage our immense first and third-party data to create products and values that do not exist elsewhere. In less than 12 months, Hopper has grown its attach rate of Fintech products on travel bookings from 0% to +50% and today 75% of the company's revenue is derived from them. As VP of Data Science at Hopper, I was responsible for leading the company’s data science team and building a data-driven culture within the organization. During my time at Hopper, I have tripled the data science team and spearheaded the company’s AI and machine learning efforts which drive over 20% of the company’s sales. What you’ll learn: Customer-driven and LTV New data science features that impact business revenue Move quickly and optimize later If you have any questions for Ella, please feel free to reach out to her via LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ella-alkalay-schreiber-94a986a8/

Meet: Wen-Ying is helping revolutionize how data insights can be turned into accelerators for strengthened growth at Plastiq. She has been a leader and champion of analytics and science in both start-up and corporate environments, including LendingClub, Mercari, GREE, Storm8, and eBay. What you’ll learn: Impact - address impact, to the business, to yourself to drive results Project Management - work backward, set deadlines and time tables to ensure successful projects Effectively communicating - Know your audience

Meet: Sen Xu is the head of engineering at Replica, where he leads the engineering effort to build a scalable data solution to provide movement insights. Prior to Replica, he was at Lyft's self-driving division, Uber, Twitter, and cofounded his own startups in the commodity trading industry. What you’ll learn: Moving forward from activities and processes that don’t scale 4 main pillars of engineering management Scaling requires more specialization If you would like to reach out to Sen about anything he discussed on the podcast, please reach out to him via: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sxualex/ Blog mentioned: https://replicahq.medium.com/reimagining-work-in-the-covid-19-era-1026a5f69845

Meet: Anjali Samani is a Director of Data Science at Salesforce. When we recorded this episode, she was leading the Predictive Modelling team at CircleUp. Anjali has extensive experience in managing and delivering commercial data science projects and has worked with senior decision-makers in startups, Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE) 100 businesses, and public sector organizations in the UK and US to enable them to develop their data strategy and execute data science projects. Her roles bridge technical data science and business to identify and execute innovative solutions that leverage proprietary and public data sources to deliver value and drive growth. In her former life, Anjali spent nearly a decade working as a quantitative analyst in asset management, and she has a background in computer science, economics, and mathematics. What you’ll learn: Assigning a growth score to a brand Removing bias from investing Brand growth in emerging markets If you have any questions for Anjali, please feel free to reach out to her via: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anjalisamani/ https://twitter.com/anjalisamani

Meet: Allen Ko is a data science manager working at States Title, where he's leading the company's efforts to automate document processing and parsing. He has a bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering and loves to spend his free time hiking and wandering in the outdoors. What you’ll learn: Transitioning to the data industry via Metis Stepping up to a manager role More integration with the product team If you have any questions for Allen, please feel free to reach out to him via LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allenwko/

Meet: Connan has a strong background in Economics with his Ph.D. and has also taught at UCLA as a professor. He was a Data Scientist at Uber for over 4 years before taking over the Data Science team at Just Auto Insurance. What you’ll learn: Hiring for your Data team - a balanced team for success Future of Data Scientists - evolving requirements and technical skills Customer Lifetime Value (LTV) - an example from Uber If you have any questions for Connan, please feel free to reach out to him via LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/connan-snider-4249311b/

Meet: Anson Whitmer - Head of Data. After completing a Ph.D., then a post-doc at Stanford, in cognitive neuroscience, Anson transitioned into data science.   He is now the director of data at Calm, a company that he help build up, as the first data hire, to its current unicorn+ status What you’ll learn: Fueling growth by discovering a new uses case for a product Employe number 10 and first data hire Prioritization - Focusing on delivering the most value for the business If you have any questions for Anson, please feel free to reach out to him via: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ansonwhitmer/ http://www.ansonwhitmer.com/

Meet: Daniel Gremmell is the Head of Data at Policygenius where he leads data engineering, data analysis, and data science. Before Policygenius, he was VP of Data Science at Plated. Daniel has experience in numerous industries including automotive, aerospace, and publishing. Daniel holds 2 master's degrees including an MS in Statistics from Rochester Institute of Technology. What you’ll learn: Finding ways to identify new requirements Importance of having accurate views of the job and company you will be joining Evaluating soft skills through virtual interviewing If you have any questions for Dan, please feel free to reach out to him via LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-gremmell-6953842b

Meet: Peter has held management-level positions at Hearst and Freestar, before landing at Teachable, where he is the Head of Data. He also has his MBA from NYU. What you’ll learn: Building your data science team - case study and lessons learned 3rd party applications - pros/cons and the debate, to build in-house or buy If you have any questions for Peter, please feel free to reach out to him via LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-jaffe-4b18a66/

Meet: Marnie Benney is an Independent Curator working at the juncture of contemporary art and technology. Over the last decade, she has produced 27 exhibitions in city centers, public spaces, galleries, and festivals around the world including the New York Hall of Science, University of Cambridge London, the National Aquarium in Maryland, and The Nook Gallery in Los Angeles. Benney is the Co-founder and Curator of AIArtists.org, the world’s largest community of artists using Artificial Intelligence, where she provides a platform for artists to share their practice and investigate the future implications of AI on society. What you’ll learn: The impact of AI in Art Technology mixing with art is not something new (see da Vinci) Art has always pushed the envelope If you have any questions for Marnie, please feel free to reach out to her via:: http://www.marniebenney.com/ https://www.instagram.com/marniebenney/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/marniebenney/ Some of the artwork/links discussed in the podcast: https://aiartists.org/ http://bensnell.io/ http://www.saparcontemporary.com/ http://www.saparcontemporary.com/exhibitions#/art-andai

Meet: Bryan has worked at Facebook and Indeed on the Data Science and Machine Learning teams. He’s currently the Data Science Manager at Nextdoor. What you’ll learn: Grad School - the pros and cons and what you can do to jumpstart your career Remote work - the pros and cons If you have any questions for Bryan, please feel free to reach out to him via LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bryangilbertdavis/

Meet: Josh Scott, an experienced security leader that focuses on building high performing and innovative security programs that are business-focused. Passionate about delivering security solutions that are maintainable, deliver value to the organization, and are as transparent as possible to customers both internal and external. More than 20 years of security experience in many security and technology domains and across various industries. What you’ll learn: Getting away from evaluating 3rd party tools and start building your own tools The evolving relationship with other engineering departments Find a small pilot project to begin shifting security left If you would like to reach out to Josh about anything he discussed on the podcast, please reach out to him via LinkedIn or Twitter: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuascott/ https://twitter.com/joshuascott94

Meet: Sean has worked at Google and Facebook. He was a Data Science Manager at Facebook working on the VR team before moving over to Goodwater Capital as their Data Science Manager. What you’ll learn: Data Moat - insight collection, defining success, operationalizing data applications Showing your value - examples for data scientists to show their value If you have any questions for Sean, please feel free to reach out to him via LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shunpochang/

Meet: Clare Corthell is an entrepreneur and product manager in mapping and data science. She founded companies in drone mapping, data science consulting, and consumer ridesharing. She started the Open Source Data Science Masters, used as the blueprint for university accredited degrees since 2014. She is currently the Product Manager of map data at Lyft, hails from Stanford Engineering, and grew up in the wilds of Alaska. What you’ll learn: The relationship between product and data science The risk of optimizing before doing experimentation Data science of risk vs the data science of certainty If you have any questions for Clare, please feel free to reach out to her via Twitter: https://twitter.com/clarecorthell

Meet: Silvano has 20 years of experience in IT and Information Security and his interests include DevSecOps, AppSec, and business-driven risk-based approach. Silvano is a proponent of Security integrated into the product development lifecycle to create a seamless culture of security by design. What you’ll learn: Finding the right balance as a product-focused CISO Compliance requirements as a part of selling into the enterprise space Partner with developers earlier in the development process If you have any questions for Silvano, please feel free to reach out to him via LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/silvano-silva-7694833/

Meet: Jesse Lehmier is a data engineering manager at ASAPP. He previously worked in analytics, big data, and full-stack software engineering roles. What you’ll learn: Seize opportunities to develop soft skills Transitioning from a software engineering role into data engineering Don’t spin your wheels, ask for help sooner If you have any questions for Jesse, please feel free to reach out to him via LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/lehmier

Meet: Adam Oliner, Head of Machine Learning at Slack. Prior to Slack, Adam was leading the team at Splunk. He has his Masters and Ph.D. in Computer Science from Stanford and did his undergraduate degree at MIT. What you’ll learn: Commoditization of tooling - how it affects your career Structuring your Machine Learning organization - best practices and approaches Machine Learning Projects - how to get traction and how to think about your projects (failures and iterations) If you have any questions for Adam, please feel free to reach out to him via LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-oliner-b9a2b35a/

Meet: Rohit Vashisht is the co-founder and CEO of whiz.ai, a conversational AI platform for Life Sciences commercial ops and field teams. Previously, Rohit was CEO and co-founder of Sverve – an influencer marketplace that was acquired by Bloglovin’ and rebranded as Activate. Rohit holds an M.B.A from the NYU Stern School of Business and an engineering degree from I.I.T, Delhi. What you’ll learn: Why can't enterprise software be as easy to use as consumer software Helping organizations answer questions simpler and faster Leveraging AI to deliver answers faster to sales and ops teams in the field If you would like to reach out to Rohit about anything he discussed on the podcast, please reach out to him via his LinkedIn or Twitter: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rohitv/ https://twitter.com/_techCEO

Meet: Jeshua Bratman is an expert in building technology products powered by artificial intelligence. He’s a founding member of Abnormal Security and head of machine learning. Prior to joining Abnormal, Jeshua played a critical role in building Twitter’s machine learning platform and detecting and preventing abusive behavior on the Twitter product. Prior to Twitter, Jeshua built the AI engine that powered TellApart’s advertising product and bringing it to over $100 million ARR and acquisition by Twitter and integration. His academic experience is in theoretical reinforcement learning and deep learning at the University of Michigan. What you’ll learn: Machine learning driving business value Email hackers against machine learning models - the chess match Advice on how to find your next machine learning position If you would like to reach out to Jesh about anything he discussed on the podcast, please reach out to him via his LinkedIn or Twitter: https://twitter.com/nojeshua linkedin.com/in/jeshuabratman/

Meet: Gagan Sandhu, Sr. Engineering Director at Square. He leads the ML, Data Engineering and Mobile engineers within the e-commerce product division at Square. What you’ll learn: Machine Learning - How to apply ML effectively to your organization: from getting buy-in for projects, managing expectations, and solving the right problems by working with the right people. Mentorship - Different strategies for different people and building trust as a leader. Keeping a pulse on your team and creating rituals for your team. If you have any questions for Gagan, please feel free to reach out to him via LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gaganjit

Meet: Drew Silverstein is the CEO and co-founder of Amper Music. Founded in 2014, Amper Music combines the highest levels of artistry with groundbreaking technology to empower anyone to create unique, professional music, instantly. He is part of the Forbes class of 2018 "30 Under 30" list for music. Prior to Amper Music, Drew was an award-winning composer, producer, and songwriter for film, television, and video games in Los Angeles at Sonic Fuel Studios. Drew graduated from Vanderbilt University's Blair School of Music, where he studied Music Composition and Italian and holds an MBA from Columbia Business School. What you’ll learn: How AI affects the speed of music-making and the amount of content produced Evolution of music composition and tools Economic impact of using AI to create music If you would like to reach out to Drew about anything he discussed on the podcast, please reach out to him via LinkedIn or Twitter: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drewsilverstein/ https://twitter.com/DrewSilverstein

Meet: Adam Robertson is a DevOps Leader with more than 15 years of professional experience architecting and building technical organizations from early-stage startups to established long-running companies. Starting young at the beginning of the internet revolution he had a natural proclivity to everything technical and was building computers for friends and family by his early teens. After spending most of his teenage years working in various computer shops he attended the University of Texas at Austin where he earned his BS in Computer Science. Shortly after he made the move to Silicon Valley to join the fast pace of the startup culture and has been loving it ever since. What you’ll learn: What is the tipping point that brings about change Modern DevOps practices are more about getting people involved, not replacing people Reengineering a solution requires you to understand the problems they were trying to solve If you would like to reach out to Adam about anything he discussed on the podcast, please reach out to him via LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamianrobertson/

Meet: Jude Gomila is currently CEO and Founder of the startup Golden. Jude Gomila was previously President and Co-Founder of Heyzap (Union Square Ventures and Y Combinator funded in 2009) which sold to Fyber for $45m in 2016. He has also made over 200 angel investments into startups. What you’ll learn: Focusing on solving search issues Applying trust to a data source and resolving the conflicts between different sources Converting the firehouse of data and applying structure If you would like to connect with Jude: http://www.judegomila.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/judegomila/

Meet: Kunal Haria, Data Engineering Manager at StyleSeat. He has his Masters in Information Management from Syracuse University. What you’ll learn: Interviewing - tips for data engineers, from resumes to whiteboarding Transition to Management - lessons learned going from a lead to a manager Buy vs Build - how to evaluate to build in-house vs buying an off the shelf solution If you want to connect with Kunal, please reach out to him via Medium: https://medium.com/@dataengineering

Meet: Phillip Schafer leads the data science team at IronNet. He has a PhD in physics from Penn State, where he developed voice recognition algorithms modeled on the human brain's processing of speech. He previously worked on algorithms for pricing and dispositioning returned retail goods at retail startup Optoro. At IronNet, he has implemented machine learning models to help enterprises defend themselves against sophisticated cyber attacks. He lives in Columbia, Md., with his wife and two-year-old son. What you’ll learn: Moving from academia to the business world Data science challenges within the cybersecurity industry Transitioning to a management role and moving away from being an individual contributor If you would like to reach out to Phillip about anything he discussed on the podcast, please reach out to him via LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/phillip-schafer/

Meet: Ryan Scolnik, the Head of Data Science at FortressIQ. He was employee #4 and currently leads the company's data science, computer vision and AI strategy. Ryan holds a PhD in Statistics from Florida State University and enjoys Kaggle competitions and long bike rides in his spare time. What you’ll learn: Being the 1st Data hire - lessons learned and finding data vs simulating data Transition to being a manager - be prepared for more meetings, less coding and lots of communicating Ego and Coding - trusting your team and letting your ego go If you want to follow up with Ryan, please connect with him on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-scolnik-5718193a/

Meet: Michael Weiss has spent the past 16 years in information security. While at Microsoft, he managed the Security Assurance Program for Windows 7. His latest role is as Chief Information Security Officer at Funding Circle, a fintech small business lender based in London. What you’ll learn: Look to security adjacent roles to find your next security hire natural interest in security is one of your best paths to getting hired for your first security role Security takes a back seat if you don’t have a champion You can connect with Michael via LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/weissmichaela/

Meet: Shailvi Wakhlu, the Head of Analytics at Komodo Health. She loves to volunteer, mentor, and inspire within the data and analytics community. What you’ll learn: Resume and Interviewing - tips for analysts Women in Data - how to share your achievements Women in Data - job promotion advice The best way to connect with Shailvi is on Twitter - @ShailviW

Meet: Daniel Barber is the CEO & Co-founder of DataGrail. In the new age of privacy, DataGrail is the only purpose-built privacy management platform that ensures sustained compliance with the GDPR, CCPA, and forthcoming regulation. Prior to DataGrail, Daniel led revenue teams at DocuSign, Datanyze (acquired by ZoomInfo), ToutApp (acquired by Marketo), and Responsys (acquired by Oracle). He also advises several high-growth startups including Chorus.ai, Outreach.io, and SignOnSite. What you’ll learn: - Privacy is not optional and how to protect yourself - The manual complexities around handling privacy requests resulting from CCPA and GDPR - The benefits of automating privacy deletion requests and the risk of something slipping through the cracks If you would like to reach out to Daniel about anything he discussed on the podcast, please reach out to him via LinkedIn or Twitter: https://twitter.com/gaijindan https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-barber/

Meet: Chris Byington is VP of Data at Updater, where he leads the Data team in partnering with stakeholders to bring data to bear on the company’s toughest problems.  Before Updater Chris led Analytics at Heroku, a Salesforce company, where he used data to deeply understand software developers and help them be more successful.  A recovering stats nerd, Chris’s favorite statistical technique is bootstrapping.  He holds a bachelor's degree in French and Economics from Pomona College What you’ll learn: Mentoring - if you have ever wanted to become a mentor we have great tips Mentees - are you looking to find a mentor? Professionals - so you are a senior IC or a manager and you might want to find a mentor If you would like to reach out to Chris about anything he discussed on the podcast, please reach out to him via his LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-byington/

Meet: Mahesh Ramasubramanian is the co-founder and CEO of Loom.ai, a San Francisco-based company that has developed an end-to-end deep learning platform for deploying personalized 3D avatars for enterprise applications. With over 15 years of experience leading visual effects for several blockbuster movies at DreamWorks Animation, Mahesh is also a voting member of the Oscars Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. What you’ll learn: Simplifying - leveraging AI and deep learning to bring a complex Hollywood technology to individual consumers Deep learning - Loom.ai went from 7 minutes to process an image into an avatar to just seconds LoomieLive - creating your own personalized 3D avatar You can reach out to Mahesh via LinkedIn Give LoomieLIve a try!

Meet: Lisa Mirkovic, VP of Data Engineering at Capital Group. Lisa has been at the Capital Group for over 20 years and is passionate about paying it forward whenever possible, especially within the data and engineering community. What you’ll learn: Career Advice - how to be self-aware and be happy in your career Data Engineering - the key attributes it takes to be a good data engineer Leveling Up - creating an internal training academy for your organization If you would like to connect with Lisa please message her on LinkedIn.

Meet: Mike Doll is the Head of Data at Udacity, an online education platform dedicated to training the world's workforce in the careers of the future. Mike is responsible for the functions of data engineering, data science, BI, and analytics. What you’ll learn: Nontraditional path - transitioning to data science without having the hard skills Lean into the curiosity and opportunity - build connections within your organization Coming up to speed - focused on the longterm, but providing value in the short term If you want to connect with Mike, please reach out via LinkedIn

Meet: Suxi Li, the Head of Data Analytics at Investor's Business Daily (IBD). He has his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Miami and ran analytics teams at Experian and J.D. Power before joining the team at IBD. What you’ll learn: Team Building - who to hire and when Onboarding - how does Covid-19 affect onboarding; you need more communication and touchpoints Interviewing - providing the right details If you would like to connect with Suxi please visit his LinkedIn profile.

Meet: Sivan Aldor-Noiman, the Head of Data Science and Data Engineering at Wellio What you’ll learn: Academia - do’s and don'ts when transitioning to industry Business Acumen - the importance of understanding solving business problems and how you can help improve your business knowledge Diversity in data - increasing diversity makes for better models You can reach out to Sivan via LinkedIn.

Meet: Sri Sethupathy, the VP of Data and Analytics at Age of Learning. Sri built the analytics team at Hulu. He has served as an executive advisor to multiple startups and early-stage companies as well. What you’ll learn: Building teams - set the right tone with relationships and have the right people in the right roles Interviewing - do research, be prepared, and be passionate. Your attitude matters. Hiring - heat skill map to help identify gaps and synergy between all internal teams Connect with Sri: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vastav

Meet Pedro Alves, founder and CEO of Ople.ai. Pedro founded Ople.ai in 2017. He started Ople with the goal of creating a platform that puts the knowledge and expertise of the world’s leading data scientists at the fingertips of analysts and SMEs. What you’ll learn from this episode: ROI - the top 3 things to help establish ROI for AI projects Democratize AI - allow larger numbers within an organization to use AI and make it commonplace Data Scientists - how the role of a data scientist will continue to evolve Bonus tip: Regret - listen to Pedro’s view on how he deals with the path not taken Contact Pedro: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pedroalvesds/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/pedro_data_sci

Meet Raghu Dhara, the Head of Data Science at KeepTruckin. He is a Harvard grad who founded a start-up from his dorm room and was also a staff writer on the Harvard Crimson newspaper. What you’ll learn: Entrepreneurship - do’s and don'ts of building a start-up Skills - what data scientist need to do to up their skills and stay relevant Hiring - what to put on your resume and interviewing tips Bonus tip Founder’s view - there is a lot more to starting a company than just coding - market validation is a must

Meet John Morra who is the Chief Data Scientist at Zefr. He’s a member of the LA CTO Forum and organizer of the LA Machine Learning Meetup. Three key takeaways from this episode:: Team management - give your team full trust and they will give you trust  Teamwork - how to make sure you have the right resource balance on your team Hiring - what to look for when making a data scientist hire Bonus tip Founder’s view - there is a lot more to starting a company than just coding - learn about how to run a business too

I had an insightful conversation with Dennis Mortensen, CEO and founder of x.ai, about the software’s uses and the people it serves. Founded in 2014, x.ai is a productivity tool powered by AI that allows users to schedule meetings effortlessly. It should be easier and less time-consuming to schedule meetings, and x.ai is built to help achieve that. Dennis is an entrepreneur at heart and we discuss his thought process in how he launches his ideas as well as making sure he stress tests them before diving in. Key listening points: Who is Dennis Mortensen? [:05] What is x.ai? [1:40] The romanticism of startups [2:32] What was Dennis’ frame of mind when x.ai first started? [3:34] The thought process in trade-offs [6:01] The internal structure of checks and balances [8:10] Processes for Dennis’ previous startups [10:53] The startup race [14:04] The love/hate of risk [16:07] How Dennis poses the idea of x.ai to investors and potential employees [20:45] x.ai in the blink of an eye [23:25] The future of x.ai [25:26] x.ai for the personal space [29:24] Unique abilities of x.ai [33:19] The target audience for Amy and Andrew [35:50] VIPs feature [39:33] Connect with Dennis Mortensen: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dennismortensen/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/DennisMortensen Connect with Elevano Website: www.elevano.com Connect with Amir Bormand LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/amirbormand?lang=en