Tech Talks Daily

Proof-of-Stake (PoS) continues to dominate the blockchain landscape in 2021, with Ethereum moving closer to its 2.0 upgrade and PoS consensus, as well as other major protocol launches this year using the consensus mechanism. Tushar Aggarwal, CEO, and Founder of Persistence, an ecosystem of next-generation financial services designed to stimulate global liquidity, has been a long-term advocate for PoS blockchains. A former Podcast Host for Decrypt Asia and Venture Partner deal sourcing for blockchain and crypto startups for Outlier Ventures, Tushar has extensive expertise across operations, investment, and management consultancy in the financial technology and blockchain industry. Prior to founding Persistence in 2015, Tushar worked as a Principal at blockchain and cryptocurrency fund LuneX Ventures. The experienced entrepreneur and investor, Tushar was awarded a place on the renowned Forbes 30 under 30 Asia list in 2021 for his work in finance and venture capital. As CEO of Persistence, Tushar is aiming to bridge the gap between legacy finance and decentralized finance via a fully interoperable protocol and evolving ecosystem of services purpose-built for seamless integration across blockchains. As a recognized thought leader on DeFi, staking, and interoperability, he shares his insights on several developments in blockchain including, Interoperability in blockchains; the importance of a self-sovereign network of blockchains. We also discuss Blockchain network governance on Eth2.0 and liquid staking and how to stimulate locked assets. Finally, we discuss unlocking mass DeFi adoption through better tooling.

The UK's plans to explore its own central bank digital currency (CBDC) is a testament to the increasingly mainstream adoption of cryptocurrencies and the realization of its potential to truly revolutionize the way we move money around the world today. Rishi's Sunak's recent announcement claimed that a Britcoin could tackle some of the challenges of popular cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin – i.e., from a regulatory and volatility point of view. However, Joe Baguley, VP, and CTO, EMEA at VMware believes the chancellor must also consider the sustainability cost of introducing Britcoin en-masse and how it could foil the government's green ambitions due to the unjustifiably high environmental burden of cryptocurrencies. Joe joins me on Tech Talks Daily in a conversation about the fundamental mistake the founders of bitcoin made by building the cryptocurrency on a proof-of-work blockchain which consumes an incredible amount of energy. We also discuss why we cannot unpick the environmental problems proof of work blockchains have caused by plugging renewable resources into powering them. If the UK considers its own CBDC seriously, it must learn from the industry's early mistakes and ensure that it is green by design. We explore what building a more sustainable blockchain ecosystem would look like and the role that VMware will play in a new future of work from any device, location, and time.

Now in its 18th year, Cybersecurity Awareness Month continues to raise awareness about the importance of cybersecurity. So what will you be doing differently this year? Will it be switching to a password manager? or adding MFA to your email and social accounts? Alanna Gilson and Eric Due from Robust Network Solutions join me on today's episode of Tech Talks Daily in a discussion about how to improve your security hygiene. Robust Network Solutions is a premier IT consulting firm headquartered in San Mateo, CA, that specializes in providing proactive services to many professional firms in the San Francisco Bay Area. Specializing in Microsoft, VMware, Cisco, Citrix, HP, IBM/Lenovo, network buildouts, technology projects, mobile technology, remote access, enhanced security, disaster recovery, improved network performance, helpdesk support. About Eric Eric Due works as a Senior Engineer at Robust Network Solutions. He helps provide business planning and implementation to bring digital services that align with business needs. He has over 25 years in systems and business implementation. Alongside his design skills and startup experience, he brings a wealth of perspective. Focusing on people and reducing risks, Eric is passionate about aligning solutions with business goals and ensuring IT is a positive experience. About Alanna Alanna has worked in the digital media tech industry for more than 20 years. With experience in global web and mobile app monetization, inventory management, and internet fraud, the seasoned tech business development executive is also passionate about advancing cybersecurity and cyber-Training for Businesses and their Employees. In addition to business development/IT consulting, she is also involved in digital marketing, virtual/experiential events, and digital content development. Outside of the office, Alanna enjoys her work as an accomplished artist and spending time with her family.

Liftoff is a performance-based mobile app marketing and retargeting platform, using post-install user data to run true cost-per-action user acquisition and re-engagement campaigns. Traditionally, marketers pay for each click or app download when devising a mobile ad campaign, regardless of whether new customers spend money in the app. Liftoff changes this model by only requiring marketers to pay for advertising when a person completes an action or spends money in an app. Powered by machine learning and lookalike targeting, Liftoff's campaigns drive actions beyond the install, securing only the most engaged users for its customers. Mark Ellis, CEO, and co-founder of Liftoff joins me on the Tech Talks Daily Podcast. Mark has made community and culture a core tenet of Liftoff's work, eschewing the toxicity that's rampant in fast-growing Silicon Valley businesses and aiming for impact beyond revenue alone. This approach has been integral to building Liftoff's global, high-performance mobile app marketing platform that's attracted customers like CBS Sports, Amwell, Lifelock, acorns, and many others. The last three years served as another great stretch for Liftoff as the company had explosive growth with over 400% increase in revenue from 2017-2020. With Mark's leadership, Liftoff cemented itself as an industry leader, creating an alliance of mobile marketers focused on promoting good-business practices in a dynamic sector. This community-first approach has come to define Mark's successful tenure and sets him apart from his peers in the tech-startup world.

Industries like insurance, finance, and media have all found impactful ways to apply symbolic AI and deep/machine learning to common pain points when taking unstructured language data from documents, social content, and emails. By extracting sentiment and the deeper meanings of words that only humans can do, language can be turned into data, and actionable insights for a wide range of use cases can be drawn from it. Walt Mayo, CEO of expert.ai, the natural language processing AI company trusted by The Associated Press, Dow Jones, Gannett, and other top brands, joins me on the Tech Talks Daily podcast. We discuss how combining a symbolic approach to AI with machine learning can form an innovative hybrid model. Walt talks about the difference between symbolic AI and deep learning/machine learning and what kinds of use cases are typically applied together. We also discuss the strengths of each and what organizations can gain by combining them. Finally, we discuss how a hybrid approach addresses the "black box" problem in AI; and scaling existing human biases.

Dean Guida officially launched enterprise software company Infragistics in 1989 when his small start-up of 10 people went head to head against Microsoft for a $300k deal with Philadelphia Conrail—and won. Dean has since scaled the company to 250 employees across six countries, including a 75,000 square foot headquarters in New Jersey, without accepting outside funding. As a result, the company now boasts a client roster that includes 100% of the S&P 500, including Intuit, Exxon, and Morgan Stanley. And this year, Dean launched Infragistics' $50M Innovation Fund and Lab to encourage entrepreneurism within his own company. Dean joins me on the Tech Talks Daily Podcast to share his entrepreneurial journey and how he has navigated Infragistics through its 30+ years in the tech space. Infragistics has thrived through major economic recessions, tech bubbles, and bursts. Dean reveals how the company survived – and saw success –during even the most challenging times. Dean also shares why he never accepted outside funding and how he bootstrapped Infragistics to, the multi-million dollar global company today, without ever taking VC funding. We also discuss how their Innovation Fund works and creates freedom for internal inventors to experiment with innovations beyond its core UI/UX products without an immediate need to generate revenue.

Integral Ad Science (IAS) ensures ads are running exactly where, when, and how you want — no ifs, ands, or bots. They help protect brands and save their cusotmers from spending time and money on inappropriate content, markets, or fraudulent traffic. These insights are based on 100+ billion web transactions they process every day. Netflix, Apple TV, and consoles are becoming more popular advertising avenues than traditional linear TV. As a result, we're consuming more video than ever before, and I wanted to explore the challenges and opportunities with connected TVs and explore the latest shopping trends. I invited Tony Marlow, CMO, Integral Ad Science, to analyze these trends and understand the scale of the problem with fraud and the role that technology will play in the industry's future. Tony Marlow is the Chief Marketing Officer for Integral Ad Science, based in New York. He is an insights-driven executive and leads all aspects of corporate marketing strategy, brand development, and communications for the company. Before joining IAS in 2019, he was the CMO for the big data company Data Axle. Before that, he was the Global Head and Vice President of B2B Marketing for Yahoo – overseeing all B2B Marketing, Marketing Strategy, Product Marketing, Sales Learning, and Sales Insights.

Geotab is advancing security, connecting commercial vehicles to the internet and providing web-based analytics to help customers better manage their fleets. In addition, Geotab's open platform and Marketplace allow both small and large businesses to automate operations by integrating vehicle data with their other data assets. As an IoT hub, the in-vehicle device provides additional functionality through IOX Add-Ons. Processing billions of data points a day, Geotab leverages data analytics and machine learning to help customers improve productivity, optimize fleets by reducing fuel consumption, enhance driver safety, and achieve regulatory compliance. Since being established in 2000, Geotab Inc. has grown from a small family business to a global leader in fleet management and vehicle tracking solutions. They are now one of the largest telematics outfits globally and have become the first to surpass two million connected vehicles built on a single, open platform. David Savage, Associate Vice President, UK, and Ireland at Geotab, joins me in a discussion about electric vehicle adoption, fleet telematics, sustainability, and tech. David leads the operational, commercial, and organizational activities of the UK and Irish regions. In addition, he has accountability for delivering Geotab's overall strategy and realization of the company's ambitious growth targets in support of its wider UK/European growth focus. With more than 15 years of experience within operations and transport management, David has a proven ability in helping businesses to scale sustainably. Before joining Geotab, he held the role of General Manager at FreeNow (formerly MyTaxi and Hailo), Europe's leading e-hailing app. David shares his story and also discusses the growing conversations around the intersection of sustainability and tech.

The case for diversity in the workplace is straightforward: it's the right thing to do, and numerous studies suggest it can drive better business performance, too. For example, a 2018 report found that gender-diverse executive teams, which make the most important strategic and operational decisions, were correlated with profitable outcomes across geographies; and companies with the most ethnically/culturally diverse boards worldwide are 43% more likely to experience higher profits. However, an organization might consider its workforce "diverse," but that doesn't mean all employees feel valued or are given the same opportunities. Far too often, because of unconscious bias, inclusivity is left out of the equation. In the past, unconscious bias was often perceived as subjective or circumstantial versus a larger systemic issue. Now, rather than taking action against an individual, emerging technologies are empowering business leaders to analyze the different ways that diversity and inclusion are hindered at a foundational level and inspire action to remove those factors from the equation. The team at Knockri, for instance, understands the detrimental effects unconscious bias has on applicants and organizations—and has designed a suite of AI-powered behavioral assessments that help eliminate these issues and shortlist the best-fit job candidates to interview during the early screening process of hiring. Knockri's CEO, Jahanzaib Ansario joins me in a conversation about how tech can foster great inclusivity in the workplace.

The pandemic's impact on the acceleration of digital means that just providing a personalized experience to customers is no longer good enough. In order to succeed and stay one step ahead of the competition, brands need to embrace a data-driven approach to optimize every digital experience based on outcomes. Justin Anovick, Chief Product Officer at digital experience company, Optimizely joins me on Tech Talks Daily. We talk about how businesses can unlock digital potential through a combination of personalization and experimentation. Justin also discusses why it's so important to look beyond just personalisation and the importance of combining this with experimentation in order to move away from guesswork and gut decisions to use data to a more scientific approach that will provide customers with the best digital experience possible. About Optimizely With its digital experience platform (DXP), thy equip teams with the tools and insights they need to create and optimize in new ways. Now, companies can operate with data-driven confidence to create hyper-personalized experiences. Building sophisticated solutions has never been simpler. Optimizely's 900+ partners and 1100+ employees in offices around the globe are proud to help more than 9,000 brands, including Peloton, Uber, AMEX, WSJ, Santander, KLM and Mazda enrich their customer lifetime value, increase revenue and grow their brands. `