Tech Talks Daily

Left Lane Capital is a leading global venture capital and growth equity firm investing in high-growth internet and consumer technology companies that are fundamental to the lives of customers. The foundation of Left Lane's strategy is built on four main elements: specialization in internet-first businesses, proprietary sourcing at every level, deep data rigor and best practices, and a genuine philosophy around partnering with founders. Dan Ahrens (Managing Partner) joins me on Tech Tech Talks Daily to discuss Left Lane's second fund with $1.4 billion in commitments, how the firm is focused on growing the internet and consumer tech category by identifying and supporting category-defining companies, the market potential for consumer internet companies, and their recent investments in GoStudent, M1 Finance, iTrust Capital, and Tovala.

Logitech released the Logitech Pen in January, one of the first mainstream tech tools designed for and with students. The Pen is a USI stylus for Chromebooks, designed for learning, so students can unlock their full potential. Tech is not often built with kids in mind (but it should be). It's built for adult and consumer use. Children have smaller hands, different developmental needs, etc. Logitech took all this into consideration when designing the Pen, with students at the center every step of the way. Grace Lee is Head of Design for Logitech for Education. She is a leader in design who is passionate about creating user-centric education products that delight students and teachers. I invited her onto the podcast to learn more about the design process and discuss the development process of the Pen and what it can tell us about the future of tech design overall. We discuss how the future of learning (and life) is increasingly digital and why bridging the 'awkwardness' gap is so important. We also explore where tech can be a comfortable extension of our real physical selves to build confidence.

Dr. Usama Fayyad is Executive Director of the Institute for Experiential AI at Northeastern University. The Institute is a game-changing research center focused on researching and developing human-centric AI solutions that leverage machine technology to extend human intelligence. ​I invited him on Tech Talks Daily to learn more about their mission to solve core research problems centered on building real solutions in real contexts to make reliable and responsible AI that works effectively and cooperatively with humans. The world-renowned expert in AI and an industry leader joins me to discuss what the Institute will mean to the advancement of AI and experiential AI. We also talk about the development of AI talent, the creation of AI solutions for real-world problems, AI ethics, and the promotion of Responsible AI. Finally, I learned that he was the Global Chief Data Officer & Group Managing Director at Barclays Bank in London and the first person in the world to hold the Chief Data Officer title when at Yahoo!

Simon Blunn is SVP and General Manager for the EMEA region at WalkMe, a pioneer of the digital adoption sector. In a nutshell, digital adoption is the process of helping businesses make sure people – both staff and customers – are actually using any new technologies those businesses have embraced as part of their digital transformations. Simon is also a veteran of the enterprise IT industry more broadly, whose career has encompassed stints at the likes of HP and Cisco. Simon joins me on Tech Talks Daily to talk about what digital adoption is, why it's important to businesses, and how businesses can achieve true digital adoption. He also talks about WalkMe's recently-released Digital Adoption For Dummies guidebook. We discuss the centrality of digital adoption. Simon shares his belief that although digital transformation is essential to businesses in all industries, the technologies embraced during these businesses' digital transformations must be used and understood – this often isn't the case! Replacing legacy technologies with swanky new software may actually make things more confusing for businesses' staff, worsening their digital experience and driving down productivity. In short, achieving digital adoption is central to successful digital transformation. Simon also shares his view, if businesses want to retain and attract talent, an IT team that ensures a fuss-free digital experience is paramount. The pandemic-induced increase in home working means many staff are less concerned about whether their office has a coffee machine, and more concerned about whether they can easily use the applications and software necessary to do their jobs.

Ten years ago, Zach Supalla wanted to find a way to help his deaf father send and receive text messages. Specifically, he wanted to enable his dad's phone to flash when he got a text from his wife. What began as a personal mission turned into a global integrated IoT platform-as-a-service. Since its inception in 2012, Particle has grown immensely to be the most widely used IoT platform, making it easier for 8,500 others to bring their physical products online. Zach joins me on Tech Talks Daily to share his inspirational story. I learn how the founder wants to help you reprogram the world and how Particle empowers innovators to solve industry problems. Particle provides an integrated IoT Platform-as-a-Service that helps businesses connect, manage, and deploy software applications to connected devices, from edge to cloud and back. Over 240k developers and 160+ Enterprise customers are building on Particle, from fast-growing startups to Fortune 100 companies that are all building connected solutions to business problems.

At CES earlier this year, Vuzix unveiled Vuzix Shield, a revolutionary leap for enterprise AR smart glasses. They are lightweight, stylish, prescription-ready safety glasses and a powerful 8-core CPU combine to deliver a singular wearable experience. Vuzix's CEO, Paul Travers, rejoins me on Tech Talks Daily for a catchup on their many developments and milestones and to discuss how Vuzix's technology today is allowing people to connect themselves to the metaverse easily. We discuss how their smart glasses now support Microsoft Endpoint Manager to streamline device onboarding and provisioning for Microsoft Teams. We also talk about other strategic partnerships to address the future of the deskless workforce. About Paul Paul Travers is the founder of Vuzix and has served as President and Chief Executive Officer since 1997 and as a member of our Board of Directors since November 1997. Before the formation of Vuzix, Mr. Travers founded both e-Tek Labs, Inc. and Forte Technologies Inc. He has been a driving force behind the development of Vuzix products. He is a nationally recognized industry expert with more than 30 years of experience in the consumer electronics field and 26 years of experience in the virtual reality and virtual display fields. He holds an Associate degree in engineering science from Canton, ATC, and a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical and computer engineering from Clarkson University.

SingleStore recently launched the 'Data Intensity Index' tool to help companies understand how data-intensive their applications are. Using five variables, the Data Intensity Index gives you an assessment of what kind of data infrastructure an application will need to deliver the best user experience. This 3-minute assessment, spread over 10 questions, aims to understand how data is used by the application and calculate the intensity score. Shireesh Thota joins me on Tech Talks Daily to share the story behind the tool and the problems they set out to solve. I also learn more about the data intensity assessment and what it means if you have a high or a low score. We discuss why data-intensive applications need a modern data infrastructure and the five critical components that impact application performance

Ariel Camus is the Founder and CEO of Microverse, an online school that helps anyone become a high-paid, international software developer. The best part? The program costs $0 until you get employed. They are the first ones to scale peer-to-peer model (no other school/university has been able to do it). Microverse has also raised over $17M+ and was part of the Y Combinator 2019 Batch. Thousands of people from over 100 countries apply to join Microverse every month, and hundreds of remotely-employed alumni from Colombia to Nigeria are making 3-10x their previous salary working for companies like Microsoft, VMware, Huawei, and Globant. Before starting Microverse, Ariel was the Co-Founder and CEO of TouristEye, a mobile app for planning trips and discovering new things to do while traveling. He grew the app to 1M users in 180+ countries before selling it to Lonely Planet in 2013. After the sale, Ariel worked as a Senior Product Manager of Lonely Planet's website, with over 150 million unique visitors per year. Ariel joins me on the Tech Talks Daily Podcast to discuss the instant solution to the massive shortage of software engineering talent and why ignoring the solution will make the problem even worse. We also discuss how remote hiring can help tech companies build a more diverse workplace. Finally we explore the future of work and the wider investment opportunities in the new world of remote work.

Have you ever wondered what happens when Elon Musk X.com by, Zoom.com by ZOOM, as well as Prime.com, Podcast.com, Tube.com, Author.com, and others by Amazon? These are just a few examples of the tens of thousands of domain names today's guest has sold over the years. Andrew Rosener is an industry-leading Domain Broker, Domain Investor, Digital Asset Investor and pioneer in domain name valuation methodology. He has completed more than $500 Million in domain name transactions and has been involved in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies since 2013. The industry leader in third-party escrow services, Escrow.com, has recognized Andrew and his firm, MediaOptions.com, as the #1 or #2 Domain Broker in the World since 2013 when they began the Award. He has also won and been nominated for many other awards, including Domain Name Hall of Fame and Domain Investor of the Year. Furthermore, Andrew Rosener is the creator of the Rosener Equation, an algorithm that determines the full objective end user or retail value for premium generic .com domain names. "My job is to create liquidity for an illiquid asset," says Andrew. Join me and Andrew in conversation about why he believes domains are the original NFT - connecting the future and the past. Have you ever wondered what happens when Elon Musk X.com by, Zoom.com by ZOOM, as well as Prime.com, Podcast.com, Tube.com, Author.com, and others by Amazon? These are just a few examples of the tens of thousands of domain names today's guest has sold over the years.

Trend Micro is a global cybersecurity leader on a mission to make the world safe for exchanging digital information. Fueled by decades of security expertise, global threat research, and continuous innovation, their cybersecurity platform protects hundreds of thousands of organizations and millions of individuals across clouds, networks, devices, and endpoints. The platform delivers a range of advanced threat defense techniques optimized for environments like AWS, Microsoft, and Google, and central visibility for better, faster detection and response. In addition, the global threat research team delivers unparalleled intelligence and insights that power cybersecurity platform and help protect organizations worldwide from 100s of millions of threats daily. But I wanted to learn more about how they are helping organizations to simplify and secure their connected world. Kevin Simzer. Chief Operating Officer, Trend Micro, joins me on Tech Talks Daily to share how they are using technology to make the world a safer place. As COO, Kevin is responsible for all field operations, including global sales, marketing, business development, strategic alliances, and corporate development. Kevin has held various roles since joining Trend Micro, including CMO, Global Alliances, and Corporate Development & Strategy. Before joining Trend Micro, Kevin held a number of executive positions including COO, general manager, chief marketing officer (CMO) and VP engineering for security pioneer Entrust (now Entrust-Datacard) where he was part of the founding team. Before starting Entrust, Kevin began his career working in several product development positions while at Nortel in engineering, developing next generation networking technology. Kevin has held a number of board positions with Entrust, the Queen's University High Performance Computing Virtual Laboratory, and has also served on the board of Certes Networks, an innovative cloud network security specialist.