Tech Talks Daily

Neil C. Hughes

Episodes

Mentioned books

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Jan 16, 2022 • 47min

1848: Technology, Mindfulness, and Stress Intelligence

Over the last two years, the lockdowns have seen adults flirt with burnout as they now find themselves permanently tethered to their office. Children have also experienced stress with masks in schools, being socially distanced from their friends, etc. However, in a world where people of all ages are feeling stressed, I invited Liam Joe Blackwood from Stressbox on the podcast to discuss how technology contributes to stress and how it can also help relieve it. I learn how StressBox provides a psychological assessment and treatment service for individuals experiencing stress, anxiety, and other related difficulties.
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Jan 15, 2022 • 32min

1847: Democratizing Data Science for Predictive, Real-Time Personalization

In 2022 (and beyond), personalization is more important than ever. There is no room for broad, generalized marketing. Instead, customers crave and expect personalized experiences that subtly enable them to discover and find products they actually want. Data science is a powerful way to take personalization to the next level. However, it's not always readily accessible or actionable without engineers or data scientists. Breinify is a personalization platform on a mission to democratize data science by finding ways to make predictive capabilities accessible to non-technical, yet data-driven marketing teams. Breinify's AI solution enables enterprise marketers to deliver predictive personalization in real-time and build more meaningful customer experiences. The platform blends traditional machine learning with temporal AI to predict a consumer's future interests, needs, and behaviors. The algorithms enable dynamic segmentation and fully individualized personalization, which minimizes the manual involvement required from marketing and tech teams while producing top-tier results. Diane Keng, co-founder, and CEO of Breinify, talks about democratizing data science, predictive personalization, and trends in this space to watch out for in 2022.
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Jan 14, 2022 • 26min

1846: Why Tech Running Data Centers and Apps on Cloud is Part of a Bigger Story.

RackN Digital Rebar standardizes the full lifecycle management of your infrastructure, mitigating risk and taming automation helping you innovate faster. Rob Hirschfeld founder RackN, an Austin-based start-up that develops software to help automate data centres joins me on Tech Talks Daily. Rob has been in the cloud and infrastructure space for nearly 15 years and has done everything from working with early ESX betas to serving four terms on the OpenStack Foundation Board. Rob believes that the technology of running data centers and applications on cloud is just part of the bigger story. We discuss why Rob believes developers often develop infrastructure incorrectly and why he is a strong advocate for lean/agile processes. We also talk about the increasing focus on automation, the impact of open-source software, and its emphasis on agility and fast decision-making.
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Jan 13, 2022 • 33min

1845: Conti Ransom Gang Now Selling Access to Victims

Organizations infected with the Conti ransomware affiliate programs malware who refuse to negotiate a ransom payment are added to Conti's victim-shaming blog, where confidential files stolen from victims may be published or sold. But, sometime over the last 48 hours, US security expert Brian Krebs has reported that the cybercriminal syndicate has updated its victim-shaming blog to indicate that it is now selling access to many of the organizations it has hacked: Ilia Kolochenko, Founder of ImmuniWeb and a member of Europol Data Protection Experts Network, joins me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss why this new marketplace indicates that well-organized cybercriminals are not afraid of law enforcement agencies anymore. We also talk about how criminals create mature, agile, and multistakeholder ecosystems similar to legitimate businesses and how cybercriminals are creating online subscriptions, free trials, and discount systems for recurrent customers to maximize their profits. Finally, we explore the most significant challenges and what global governments must do to combat the issue or risk losing the battle to cybercrime.
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Jan 12, 2022 • 26min

1844: Balancing Automation and Human Support in Financial Advising

Altruist is on a mission to make independent financial advice better, more affordable, and accessible. The company has built an all-in-one platform that reduces barriers for financial advisors to deliver great advice. As a result, advisors using Altruist can work more efficiently and substantially lower operating costs, enabling them to grow on their terms and help more people. Adam Grealish offers an overview of the state of the financial advising industry and why there's a time and place for Robo advisors. But there's a growing need for human financial advice too. About Adam Adam Grealish's career is rooted in financial innovation. Through his work (formerly at Betterment and Goldman Sachs, and now at Altruist as Head of Investments), Adam has a unique pulse on the trends and issues shaping the wealth management and financial planning technology spaces. Further, because Adam has assisted financial advisors for years in various roles, he has keen insight into how the industry has evolved and where it needs to go. Before serving as Betterment's investing lead, Adam was Vice President in the Fixed Income, Currencies, and Commodities division at Goldman Sachs. Adam was responsible for structured corporate credit and macro credit trading. In addition, Adam was part of the quantitative equity portfolio management team at New York Life Investments earlier in his career.
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Jan 11, 2022 • 34min

1843: Metaverse Solutions Enabling the Digital Transformation Brands

This episode explores the Metaverse and bridging the gap between value and enterprise through video games with Alexander Fernandez, the CEO of Streamline Media Group. The independent video games group is dedicated to publishing / developing great games, cultivating diverse talent, and breaking barriers of interactive entertainment. Alexander is a proud latinX entrepreneur passionate about bridging the gap between video games and traditional enterprise industries. He has grown Streamline Media Group from a modest gaming-focused startup to a global company with over 180 employees across three continents and various brands under the Streamline Media Group umbrella. Alexander shares his valuable insights into the entrepreneurial journey and how he became successful at what he does. Next, we discuss how the Metaverse will impact business strategies in the next five years. Finally, we talk about the best ways to promote diversity in the video game industry and how he's established an innovative and multicultural environment for his employees.
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Jan 10, 2022 • 35min

1842: The Tech-Stack That Captures & Convinces Business Solutions

Doron Gerstel, CEO, Perion, joins me on Tech Talks Daily. Perion is a global technology innovator in the digital advertising ecosystem, providing brands and publishers with an opportunity to unlock lucrative growth opportunities. The company operates across the three main pillars of digital advertising – ad search, social media, and display/ CTV, representing a potential market of more than $300B. Perion generates revenue from both demand and supply sides, and in the last year, they signed an agreement with Microsoft Bing to drive growth opportunities. Doron shares a recap of how adtech companies performed during the pandemic, what the end of third-party cookies will mean for advertisers, and how companies will adapt. We also discuss how ongoing privacy changes will impact the adtech landscape and the importance of agnostic technology, and how it will help companies adapt to any changes in digital marketing.
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Jan 9, 2022 • 28min

1841: Threekit - The Future of Digital Commerce is 3D and AR

In 2022, it's estimated that $7.4T worth of B2C and B2B commerce will happen digitally, however, shoppers are now demanding a faster, easier, and more visually compelling customer experience. In response, brands are creating millions of images, but they are falling short. Whether it is photography that requires a physical product to be built or the impossible task of manually capturing thousands (or millions) of SKUs, brands rely on broken processes to create visual experiences and improve their operations. Threekit, a leading developer of high-end visualization software that automates the creation of visuals and bridges the gap between the creative and commerce worlds. The company's visual commerce platform, which does not require prototype experience, engineers, or CAD artists, enables brands to create interactive, augmented reality (AR), and photorealistic 3D visuals and engage in lean commerce and asset-light manufacturing. To date, Threekit visualized products have generated over $1 billion in sales for customers. TaylorMade, Duluth Trading, and Ciroc use Threekit because it drives a 40% increase in conversion, a 90% reduction in photography costs, and an 80% reduction in returns. Matt Gorniak, CEO of Threekit joins me on Tech Talks Daily to share the story behind Threekit.
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Jan 8, 2022 • 18min

1840: Achieve Your Financial Goals With Behavioral Science and Tech

Your smartphone will probably have several different apps to manage your finances, from personal bank accounts, bills accounts, credit cards, savings, and even crypto. But what if you could have a singular view of everything. Today, I explore the role technology can play in helping people reach their financial goals and how couples can work better as a team while still having their privacy and independence. I have invited Katherine Salisbury, Co-Founder, and Co-CEO of Qapital, on the podcast. She founded the company with her partner George Friedman when they wanted a solution to provide a joint overview of all their finances and automate how their money moved to savings, investments, bills, and spending accounts. Qapital is a new kind of banking experience that aims to empower people to maximize their happiness by saving, spending, and investing with their goals in mind. By blending behavioral science with technology, Qapital provides users with the tools they need to make managing money easy and fun.
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Jan 7, 2022 • 26min

1839: CES - BlackBerry IVY and Car-to-Cloud Collaboration With AWS

It was the End of an era for BlackBerry as the company pulled the plug on support for its classic smartphones — 22 years after the device first hit the market this week. But what these headlines didn't tell you is that over 195 million cars worldwide currently use BlackBerry software. BlackBerry IVY, developed in partnership with AWS, is the company's cloud-connected software ecosystem that equips OEMs to analyze vehicle sensor data and derive actionable insights. Blackberry revealed more about their smart car innovation at CES 2022. Peter Virk, Vice President, IVY Product & Ecosystem at BlackBerry, joins me on Tech Talks Daily to talk about the announcements at CES. We discuss how vehicle data can be turned into actionable insights and how BlackBerry QNX technology is integrated across the vehicle. I learn more about how BlackBerry IVY brings together signals from various sensors across the vehicle and how configuration is then controlled via the cloud-based IVY console. Finally, we discuss how the IVY platform makes real-time AI decisions and the role of IVY "Buck": BlackBerry's physical car dashboard.

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