The Tech Trek

In this episode, Amir Bormand talks with Ashu Agte, the CTO at Artera, about dealing with an exit and its impact on organizational transformation and design. Artera is a messaging platform for health systems that aims to improve patient experience and satisfaction. Ashu shares his experience and insights on the responsibilities of an engineering leader, organizational restructuring, and the challenges of managing a team during an exit. He also highlights the importance of communication and transparency in the process. Highlights: [00:01:06] Improving patient experience. [00:04:19] Startup leadership and acquisition. [00:08:34] Post-acquisition challenges. [00:14:21] Criteria for choosing a job. [00:17:18] Uncomfortable vs Patient. [00:22:24] Situational leadership. [00:24:21] Empathy in Leadership. [00:30:08] Executive coaching and self-improvement. [00:35:30] Measuring engineering success. [00:37:10] Engineering Analytics Metrics. Guest: Ashu Agte is the Chief Technology Officer at Artera. A seasoned software engineering leader, he brings over 20+ years of experience overseeing engineering organizations at hyper-growth SaaS companies, including through multiple successful exits. Ashu has a proven track record of product development, team growth, and technical innovation.  --- Thank you so much for checking out this episode of The Tech Trek, and we would appreciate it if you would take a minute to rate and review us on your favorite podcast player. Want to learn more about us? Head over at https://www.elevano.com Have questions or want to cover specific topics with our future guests? Please message me at  https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand)

In this episode, the host interviews Chris Majka, staff VP of Business Intelligence at FM Global, a commercial property insurer. Chris shares insights about his team's structure, which includes ten analysts with a mix of experience levels. He also explains how they approach working with stakeholders with a centralized and advanced data analytics team. The discussion also touches on onboarding new team members and making them valuable contributors. Overall, the episode provides valuable insights into data analytics in a commercial insurance context. Highlights: [00:02:30] Stakeholder discussions and requirements. [00:04:08] Building a talent pipeline. [00:08:39] Providing and incorporating feedback. [00:12:02] Prioritizing stakeholders and requirements. [00:16:37] Technology FOMO. [00:18:27] Re-platforming and team morale. Christopher Majka has been managing and leading teams for ten years in various industries. Chris is currently a Staff Vice President of Business Intelligence at FM Global, where he manages a team of 11. The Business Intelligence team strives to empower the larger org by providing tools and insights so they can make better decisions. Away from work, he is a husband and father, star wars fan, and enjoys playing golf and running (occasionally).  https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopher-majka-mba/ https://twitter.com/CJMajka --- Thank you so much for checking out this episode of The Tech Trek, and we would appreciate it if you would take a minute to rate and review us on your favorite podcast player. Want to learn more about us? Head over at https://www.elevano.com Have questions or want to cover specific topics with our future guests? Please message me at  https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand)

In this episode of the podcast, the host interviews Anna Chalon, Head of People at Runway, a content creation platform powered by machine learning. The discussion focuses on building a feedback culture, with Anna defining it as ingrained in the day-to-day without additional efforts. Topics covered include the benefits of a feedback culture, the steps to building one, and lessons learned from implementing it at Runway. The episode offers insights into creating a healthy culture where employees can learn, grow, and thrive. Highlights: [00:01:51] Feedback culture defined [00:04:13] Demystifying feedback culture. [00:08:06] Giving and Receiving Feedback. [00:11:44] Giving constructive feedback. [00:17:10] Radical candor and feedback. [00:19:27] Psychological safety and inclusion. [00:23:24] Company culture and feedback. [00:29:26] Feedback training in triads. [00:31:37] Giving Feedback and Validation. [00:35:08] Feedback culture in relationships. [00:40:03] Culture of remote vs hybrid. Guest: Anna Chalon is originally from Paris, France, where she studied Private Law before moving to London to study guitar and songwriting and eventually moving to NYC in 2012.  She pursued a singer-songwriter career for a few years, allowing her to receive a Green Card and transition into a different career!  She joined the Recruiting team at Percolate, a Marketing SaaS company, and led the department a few years later. She then went on to join Frame.io as the 50th employee to build the Recruiting and DE&I functions.  For 4.5 years there, she helped the company scale to over 300 by the time of its acquisition by Adobe. She stayed on for six months post-acquisition to work on integration initiatives before transitioning to a new role as Head of People at Runway.  Runway is a Series C content creation software powered by AI. The company has scaled from 30 to 45 employees in less than a year and has exciting growth plans for the remainder of 2023. --- Thank you so much for checking out this episode of The Tech Trek, and we would appreciate it if you would take a minute to rate and review us on your favorite podcast player. Want to learn more about us? Head over at https://www.elevano.com Have questions or want to cover specific topics with our future guests? Please message me at  https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand)

In this episode, Amir Bormand interviews Aruneesh Salhotra, Nomura's global head of application security. They discuss the future of attack surface management (ASM) and the additional risks posed by shadow IT. Aruneesh explains the differences between ASM and other components of security and shares his experience as a fractional CISO for his own consulting company, S&M Consulting, where he advises organizations on setting up security programs. They also touch on Aruneesh's experience helping numerous organizations with their cloud assessments, including AWS and Azure. Highlights: [00:02:26] Attack Surface Management and Risks. [00:06:33] Cloud security and attack surface. [00:10:29] Attack Surface Management program. [00:12:17] Integrating DAS with ASM. [00:17:30] Keeping Technology FOMO in check. Security, Infrastructure, Fractional-CISO | Lifetime learner | Generalist | All views expressed are my personal opinions | Ex-Oracle | Ex-Liquidnet / Ex-Nortel https://www.linkedin.com/in/aruneeshsalhotra/ --- Thank you so much for checking out this episode of The Tech Trek, and we would appreciate it if you would take a minute to rate and review us on your favorite podcast player. Want to learn more about us? Head over at https://www.elevano.com Have questions or want to cover specific topics with our future guests? Please message me at  https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand)

In this episode, Amir Bormand interviews James Turnbull, SVP of Engineering at Sotheby's, about organizational design. James shares his experience working with early-stage startups and emphasizes the importance of scaling best practices. He also talks about dealing with cultural changes and logistics while working with legacy companies. James explains his role as the owner of all engineering functions, including mobile and data engineering, at Sotheby's. They touch upon Sotheby's diverse business ventures, including an e-commerce luxury goods marketplace and a financial services business, SFS, that lends money against art. Highlights: [00:02:30] Scaling a growing company. [00:04:09] Hiring with forethought. [00:08:09] Suitability of Name Brands. [00:12:08] Working with RSUs. [00:16:12] Technology as a cost center. [00:17:38] Suitability for startup vs mature company. [00:21:21] Attracting talent with brand reputation. [00:24:26] Managing technology FOMO. James is an engineering, product, and business leader with over twenty-five years of experience. He focuses on helping companies build culture, leaders, and teams that develop and ship products that delight users. James coaches people to become better leaders and engineers and to build environments that make teams and individuals more productive and effective. https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnbulljames/--- Thank you so much for checking out this episode of The Tech Trek, and we would appreciate it if you would take a minute to rate and review us on your favorite podcast player. Want to learn more about us? Head over at https://www.elevano.com Have questions or want to cover specific topics with our future guests? Please message me at  https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand)

In this episode of the podcast, Amir interviews Matt Drozdz, the Engineering Manager of Observability at Okta. They discuss best practices for observability, differentiation with SRE teams, and hiring challenges. Matt explains Okta's role in simplifying security for developers and shares his journey as a new observability manager at the company. Highlights: [00:01:43] Observability and its importance. [00:03:07] Observability in SRE teams. [00:08:56] Cost reduction in observability. [00:09:36] Observability and OpenTelemetry. [00:14:36] Finding purpose in observability. [00:18:35] Moving into the observability role. [00:19:56] Skills gap in tracing. [00:23:28] Impact of AI on observability. [00:25:57] Observability in software development. Matt Drozdz is a lover of technology and a people-first servant leader who firmly believes that in order to get the most out of your team, you need to lead with great empathy and understanding so everyone can bring their most authentic selves to work. In my spare time, I love to spend time with my wife and four kids, being active in my church, trying new foods, and traveling. https://www.linkedin.com/in/mdrozdz17/ --- Thank you so much for checking out this episode of The Tech Trek, and we would appreciate it if you would take a minute to rate and review us on your favorite podcast player. Want to learn more about us? Head over at https://www.elevano.com Have questions or want to cover specific topics with our future guests? Please message me at  https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand)

In this episode of the podcast, Amir talks to Vlad Eidelman. Vlad is the CTO of Fiscal Note and joins this podcast to discuss his journey toward becoming CTO. Fiscal Note is a software-as-a-service company that collects, analyzes, and refines policy and regulation data from local to global levels to help its customers understand how laws and regulations can impact their businesses and nonprofits. Vlad has been working in the industry for 15 years, focusing on building machine learning systems, becoming the first data science hire, and ultimately managing the R&D side of the business. [00:05:48] Perseverance in career growth. [00:06:33] Continuous Learning and Development. [00:11:21] Helping People Ask Questions Comfortably. [00:14:20] Overcoming communication barriers. [00:17:06] Importance of self-assessment. [00:19:50] Leadership and team structure. [00:24:30] Transitioning to a manager. [00:28:13] Value of computer science education. Vlad Eidelman is the CTO and Chief Scientist at FiscalNote, where he is responsible for setting the technology vision and execution strategy for the global R&D organization. He holds a Ph.D. in CS and has over 15 years of experience developing, leading, and advising technology teams, building diverse SaaS and consumer products with state-of-the-art machine learning and NLP systems. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/veidelman/ --- Thank you so much for checking out this episode of The Tech Trek, and we would appreciate it if you would take a minute to rate and review us on your favorite podcast player. Want to learn more about us? Head over at https://www.elevano.com Have questions or want to cover specific topics with our future guests? Please message me at  https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand)

On this episode of Tech Trek, Amir asks Suresh Teckchandani, the VP of Product and Engineering at Ancestry, how to balance the need for speed with quality when delivering value at scale. As companies grow and expectations increase, quality becomes crucial to making or breaking a product. Suresh explains that the key is to focus on automation and establishing good communication channels between teams to ensure that quality is not sacrificed for speed. Highlights [00:01:15] Balancing quality and velocity. [00:03:44] Experimenting with ideas. [00:07:15] Managing tech debt properly. [00:10:51] Team-specific metrics. [00:14:26] Company's Purpose and Execution. [00:19:26] Successful team values and principles. Suresh Teckchandani Technology executive with over 25 years of experience building customer-facing SaaS products and services, technology platforms, and mar-tech stacks at scale. Connect with Suresh at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/teckchandani/ --- Thank you so much for checking out this episode of The Tech Trek, and we would appreciate it if you would take a minute to rate and review us on your favorite podcast player. Want to learn more about us? Head over at https://www.elevano.com Have questions or want to cover specific topics with our future guests? Please message me at  https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand)

On this episode of Tech Trek, Lisa Hall, Chief Information Security Officer, talks about her experiences building a security program at the genetic testing company. The program covers infrastructure security, application security, product security, governance, risk, and compliance. Lisa discusses the challenges and strategies in building and maintaining a security program in a constantly evolving landscape. Highlights [00:02:29] Building security strategies. [00:03:42] Adapting to different company cultures. [00:07:16] Engineering first organizations. [00:11:16] Finding security champions. [00:14:30] Celebrating quick wins. [00:17:25] Finding the right leadership voice. [00:20:49] Cybersecurity and Business Impact. [00:23:55] Productivity and motivation. [00:27:47] Call-to-action for engagement. With over 16 years of experience in information security, Lisa Hall has built security programs from the ground up and optimized existing security and compliance initiatives at scale. She focuses on building holistic security strategies and comprehensive information security management programs- ensuring products and business systems are developed with security in mind. Lisa has experience building and growing teams, leading companies through IPO, acquisitions & mergers, and leading Application/Product Security, Infrastructure Security, and Compliance programs (SOX, SOC2, ISO 27001, FISMA, FedRAMP, & HITRUST). She believes security should make it easy to do the right thing. Lisa has previously held Information Security roles at PagerDuty, Twilio, and EY. Lisa is a Venture Advisor at YL Ventures and an Advisory Board Member for Day of Shecurity. She is also a co-author in "Reinventing Cybersecurity"- A JupiterOne book authored by female and non-binary security practitioners. --- Thank you so much for checking out this episode of The Tech Trek, and we would appreciate it if you would take a minute to rate and review us on your favorite podcast player. Want to learn more about us? Head over at https://www.elevano.com Have questions or want to cover specific topics with our future guests? Please message me at  https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand)

In this episode of Tech Trek, the host interviews AJ Wasserman, Portfolio Product Owner of Cloud FinOps & Tech Data Insights at Liberty Mutual Insurance, about the financial aspects of cloud computing. She discusses the challenges and cost considerations that come with cloud migration and the importance of monitoring and optimizing cloud usage to maximize cost savings. She provides valuable insights for businesses considering or currently utilizing cloud computing. Highlights: [00:02:34] Cloud financial operations. [00:03:26] Cloud cost management. [00:08:50] Cloud adoption challenges. [00:11:29] Automation for optimization. [00:13:03] Cloud cost optimization strategies. [00:17:50] FinOps and DevOps integration. [00:19:15] Cloud cost optimization advice. [00:23:23] Pace of change in the cloud. Guest: Angela “AJ” Wasserman, Portfolio Product Owner of Cloud FinOps & Tech Data Insights, Liberty Mutual Insurance AJ has over 20 years of experience in both financial management and data analytics. In her current role, she is responsible for the development and execution of strategic global priorities within the Cloud FinOps and Tech Data Insight spaces, with a focus on leveraging data to improve the developer experience and to optimize technology investments. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/angela-aj-wasserman-0871146/ --- Thank you so much for checking out this episode of The Tech Trek, and we would appreciate it if you would take a minute to rate and review us on your favorite podcast player. Want to learn more about us? Head over at https://www.elevano.com Have questions or want to cover specific topics with our future guests? Please message me at  https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand)