Wizardest

Avani Agarwal is a UX Designer at Google where she works on products that center around social good, and she is also the co-Founder of Stature, a lifestyle brand for petite women. Prior to joining Google in 2011, she previously worked as an Art Director at Yahoo. Avani discusses her approach to design, creating a unified UX across Google, designing for consumers vs. brands, her experience as a startup founder, how AI and data can help inform design decisions, and assorted other topics.

Founded by former Microsoft engineers and designers, FiftyThree is the creator of the award-winning app Paper and their latest release, Paste, is taking on the holy grail of productivity tools: presentations. As an early proponent of iPad as a device for creating, Georg talks about the journey he’s taken at FiftyThree, design vs. engineering, auto-layouts, the economics of the App Store, and drawing inspiration from dance.

How can we break out of our media echo chambers? The Week aims to provide a balanced, spin-free collection of news and opinion pieces from all across the political spectrum — a service needed today more than ever. Ben Frumin talks politics, echo chambers, business models for news, and why it’s important to see things from the other side.

Marissa DeVito, daughter of legendary producer and record executive Don DeVito (Bob Dylan, Billy Joel, Aerosmith), talks about the current state and future of the music industry, her days creating early digital and social marketing strategies at Universal Music Group for artists like Justin Bieber, working at Sony Music Studios with Green Day and Beyoncé, pioneering digital remixing with her former startup Umixit, and ridiculous stories of getting lost with Bob Dylan as a child, and well as her current role working with brands at SoundCloud.

The AP has been reporting and distributing news for over 170 years, first delivered by boat and today by fiber optics. An industry veteran for over 40 of those years, we discuss how the business of news has changed over time, the AP’s unique wholesale and non-profit models, the resiliency of text-based media, paradigm shifts both past and future, and a variety of other topics.

The News Partnerships team helps journalists and media companies better leverage Facebook at a time when Facebook is playing an ever important role in the distribution of news — both real and fake. We talk all about fake news, workings of The Algorithm, business models for news, the age of individuals as publishers, and other assorted topics.

In my first ever solo episode, I explore my initial thoughts around iPhone X and its role as the first mass market AR device. I also discuss how AR will change the world in the future.(spoiler: glasses you wear all the time, loss of touch with physical reality, everyone having pet dinosaurs)

Angela Lee is Founder at 37 Angels, Chief Innovation Officer at Columbia Business School, and a lifelong educator and entrepreneur who was named one of Entrepreneur’s “6 Innovative Women to Watch”. We discuss what it takes to become an angel investor, the process of choosing which startups to invest in (hint: saying no a lot), and the power of education.

To celebrate the 10th episode, one of my best friends, Steven Tartick, talks about the future (and present) of Broadway, how AI will impact the creative process, VR theater, our time together at Apple, productivity hacks, and more.

Vik Hristov is a music producer and DJ turned tech entrepreneur — he is in underground mode on a new startup set to disrupt the restaurant industry. Having previously worked at Apple, Vik sees creativity as something that be applied in many different ways and strongly believes in the power of networking (he points out that 8 years after meeting he and recording a podcast as proof). We talk about topics ranging from veganism to hiring technical teams, and everything in between.

Vengo is a cloud-enabled network of touchscreen vending machines that is disrupting the world of physical on-demand commerce, with a media twist. Brian Shimmerlik, Co-Founder and CEO of Vengo Labs, tells the story of how he started the company, his experience as a CEO and growing a company culture, dealing with rejection, and about his legendary TV debut on Shark Tank. Ultimately Brian’s vision for the future of touchscreens and ecommerce extend well beyond the mobile screen that most of us spend our time fighting over.

Blake Harris is a bestselling author, filmmaker, and the brains behind Console Wars, a comprehensive “business thriller” about the epic battle between Sega and Nintendo - soon to be a feature film in partnership with Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg as well as legendary producer Scott Rudin (think The Social Network, The Truman Show, and every other awesome movie ever), and he is now working on a new book about VR. We explore Blake's career and also get into a deep and rich discussion around media sensationalism, false realities, and how “President Trump might be right about fake news” - a perfect demonstration of how a quote can be taken out of context.

Shawn is the guy that Gary Vaynerchuk (prolific entrepreneur, author, investor, and star of the new TV series Planet of the Apps) trusts to figure out what is going to be the next big thing. Vayner Capital has invested in some amazing companies we’ve all heard of like Snapchat and Medium, and tons that you haven’t heard of yet — and that’s the whole point of early stage investing: getting in before it’s obvious.
We talk about Shawn’s investment strategy, about Gary, about the future of VC, AR, fake news, the NY tech scene, new companies that are doing awesome stuff, fatherhood, and other assorted topics.

Paul Wallace, VP - Media Solutions at VICE Media, and I had a fun conversation about everything media tech, ad tech, and the future of TV. We talk about what's happening at VICE, as well as programmatic advertising, monetizing off platform, OTT, and a variety of other related and not-so-related topics.

Brian Scordato, Founder at Tacklebox Accelerator, an early stage accelerator, gives a unique perspective on why so many startups end up failing. Also featuring MAZ COO (and my brother!) Justin Canetti as the three of us discuss cover topics ranging from common startup mistakes, getting to know your customers, what Y Combinator is really like, key differences between B2C and B2B businesses, and which gym memberships include complimentary towels.

Two time Y-Combinator alum and Forbes 30 Under 30 Maran Nelson and former Dropcam/Nest engineer and PhD Jason Laska join me for a deep discussion on using AI and machine learning to create amazing human experiences.

The first ever episode of the Wizardest Podcast features a conversation with Dasmer Singh, Product Manager at Venmo and explores topics ranging from iOS development and product management to iOS 10, iMessage Apps, Siri, Facebook Messenger bots, and everywhere in between.