Tech Talks Daily

HITLAB is an AI-based music technology company partially owned by Akon servicing artists, brands and fans. The digital media and entertainment company is revolutionizing the way cultural content is discovered, produced, and consumed. I wanted to learn more about how they use technology to engage consumers and create strong interactions between consumers and brands. Michel Zgarka reveals more about the company's Digital Nuance Analysis (DNA) patented technology. I also learn more about its Digital Emerging Artist Showcase using DNA software. Finally, we discuss the important partnerships with digital platforms like TREND and Boomplay along with the company's current and future plans to become a major player in AI-music-specific developments. Michel Zgarka CEO, HITLAB is an experienced executive with a successful career of over 35 years in the productions, communications, marketing, financial engineering and business development fields. He is highly skilled in strategic and creative planning, marketing and personnel management for the media industry. Mr. Zgarka has produced, directed and distributed numerous film and television productions for the international marketplace, including "GUMMYBAR" which garnered over 6 billion views on YouTube. He has been a guest speaker at over 50 international entertainment industries events as well as the Delegate general of the Montreal Israeli Film Festival whose celebrating its 13th year anniversary in 2018.

Myoshia Boykin-Anderson shared her inspirational journey in tech and startup story. Myoshia truly represents the "American Dream." As a native Houstonian and a proud graduate of Jack Yates Senior High School, Myoshia saw some of life's most difficult times, but she didn't let that stop her from striving for a better future. In November 1998, with no savings and no college degree, Myoshia got her first taste of entrepreneurship by starting her first company. She was able grow it to a multi-six figure operation before closing it in 2007. After taking the lessons learned from that experience, she launched her second company in January 2009. Myoshia is now the award-winning founder and CEO of one of the leading IT Consulting companies in the country, AndTech Solutions, LLC. Over the past 11 years, under Myoshia's leadership, AndTech has grown into a multi seven-figure consulting firm providing custom application development and other technology services to some of the top U.S. companies and organizations. They've implemented health plans responsible for managing over 56 million members across 25 states and consulted with small businesses in creating custom application solutions to meet their technology challenges. What makes this even more impressive is that Myoshia has done this with grit and hard work as a self-made businesswoman with no formal higher education or college degree. Myoshia is proud to hold Women's Business Enterprise (WBE), Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) and Historically Underutilized Business (HUB) certifications and sits on the Executive Board of C-STEM, an organization whose mission is to inspire the next generation of innovators and thought leaders. Myoshia and her husband are parents to two adult children and are based in Houston, TX.

Businesses are struggling with mass employee burnout, turnover, and a mental and physical health crisis fueled by the state of the world. Many are turning to technologies to show employees they care. But tech without humans does little to support employees and further exacerbates these issues. Tech can deliver care at scale, bring culture to life in remote workspaces and reach employees wherever they are. But, tech can't provide true human interaction, continually outperform other apps and platforms, or be successful without reinforcement from leaders and managers in an organization. So how do business leaders find the sweet spot that helps them show their employees that their business cares while humans pick up where the tech leaves off? Henry Albrecht, CEO of Limeade (an employee experience company) discusses how his company that built a business on sounding the alarm on employee care has found a greater purpose catalyzed by the pandemic. Henry also compares EX technology's benefits and how to deliver care at scale, and its limitation. I learn more about how companies can develop an experience that best supports their employees.

Bob Romeo, CEO of Anaqua joins me on the Tech Talks Daily Podcast. Anaqua is an IP management and innovation software company with a great story. Its software and services help corporations and law firms gain a true competitive advantage from their intellectual property. Over fifteen years ago IP leaders from Ford Motor Company and British American Tobacco identified an important gap within enterprise software solutions. Managing IP with patchworks of commercial and homegrown systems left them with unreliable data that increased their costs and exposed them to risk. They took matters into their own hands by collaborating on a new web-based, unified system for intellectual property – a comprehensive software platform capable of managing and automating the full IP lifecycle of patents, trademarks, designs, trade secrets and contracts. That collaboration was the beginning of Anaqua – the world's first web-based unified platform for intellectual property. From the start, our technology leadership and product innovation has been driven by our customers. Today, Anaqua's AQX software is used by nearly a million IP executives, attorneys, paralegals and administrators in corporations and law firms all over the world. Many of the best-known brands and most innovative products were conceptualized, evaluated, protected and monetized through the AQX software platform. In February 2021, Anaqua acquired global IP cost estimating software provider Quantify IP. On the heels of PATTSY WAVE, the acquisition continues the acceleration of Anaqua's law firm growth strategy and supports the company's commitment to delivering IP solutions that address the diversified and evolving needs of today's IP management market. I learn more about how Anaqua will continue to leverage technology to support innovators in an increasing number of ways, helping them improve lives across the world.

Shane Nolan from IDA Ireland joins me in a discussion about how the use of AI has evolved over the years and the guest shares his predictions for how it will continue to revolutionize business. I also learn how Ireland is addressing the AI skills gap talk about overall tech talent in Ireland, government investment in AI and Ireland being the first to offer a master's degree in AI). We discuss the topic of AI as a Service (AIaaS) and how is it being utilised. We also talk about the potential benefits and risks AIaaS has to businesses along with who are the top players in AIaaS already and which industries are likely to adopt it. Finally, I learn more about what makes Ireland such a great base for these top tech/AI providers About Shane Nolan Shane has been with IDA Ireland for over 18 years and currently heads up both IDA Ireland's Technology and Emerging Business Divisions leading teams. These teams manage the relationships with the largest technology investors in Ireland and also work with fast-scaling technology and digital start-ups to help them leverage Ireland as part of their growth. Shane previously led the organisation's Digital & Consumer business and, before that, its business in AsiaPac and Emerging Markets. Shane was also based for a number of years in IDA's Silicon Valley office and has held other strategy and business development roles in his time with IDA. Prior to IDA, Shane worked for a number of start-ups in telecommunications and mobile software in technical and business development roles. About IDA Ireland Ireland continues to win international investments from global corporations because it is seen as a business location where the workforce, as well as being highly qualified, has a unique capacity to improve, to innovate and to initiate new ideas, new processes and new ways of working that can make business more dynamic, more efficient and ultimately more profitable. Ireland's inward Investment Promotion & Development agency, IDA Ireland (Investment Development Agency) is responsible for the attraction and development of foreign investment in Ireland. Today, Ireland is home to companies such as, Facebook, Sanofi, Intel, Yahoo, Adobe, Microsoft, SAP, Liebherr, HP, Apple, LinkedIn, Zalando, Deutsche Bank, Google and Amazon.com, to name just a few.

If you sell web-based software for a living and ship code that references an unregistered domain name, you are asking for trouble. But what about when the same mistake is made by a Fortune 500 company? That's the case for Fiserv, a $15 billion firm that provides online banking software and other technology solutions to thousands of financial institutions, which has been using an unclaimed domain. Ilia Kolochenko at ImmuniWeb joins me on the podcast to provide a different perspective on this news story, combining legal and tech. Based in Europe and having studied two Masters in legal studies in the US, Ilia has unique observations on the continuously evolving differences between European legislation, including GDPR compliance and the varying laws that each of the 50 US States follows. A cybersecurity expert and law school graduate, Ilia talks about the rise in cybersecurity issues from a legal and technical point of view - for individuals and businesses. We also discuss the innovations of attackers in response to businesses implementing different security tech and practices. About ImmuniWeb ImmuniWeb is a global application security company operating in over 50 countries, headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. Most of ImmuniWeb customers come from regulated industries, such as banking, healthcare, and e-commerce. ImmuniWeb® AI Platform leverages award-winning AI and Machine Learning technology for acceleration and intelligent automation of Attack Surface Management and Dark Web Monitoring. The data is later leveraged for a threat-aware and risk-based Application Penetration Testing for web, mobile, and API security testing.

Dr. Steven Shwartz began his AI career as a postdoctoral researcher in the Yale University Computer Science Dept. He has been a founder or co-founder of multiple companies. His Esperant product became one of the leading business intelligence products of the 1990s, and, more recently, he co-founded Device42, which has won many awards as a fast-growing tech company. He has also helped fund many startups as an investor, including Tangoe, which had one of the best-performing public offerings of 2011. His recent book Evil Robots, Killer Computers, and Other Myths: The Truth About AI and the Future of Humanity" expresses a refreshing perspective on AI. It explains why AI will not take over the world or take all our jobs, why self-driving vehicles won't dominate our roads for a long time, and other topics.

Sophie Chiche is a French American entrepreneur, optimistic and intuitive. She's fueled by the desire to share, stimulate, and inspire meaning. Her lifelong dedication to exploring the question of "why" has taken her all over the world, where she's presented speeches and connected with movers and shakers like Arianna Huffington and Nelson Mandela with the goal of advancing human consciousness. Technology was supposed to make us more productive, make our life easier, and give us more time to do the things we love. But we lost our way and neglected the art of daydreaming as we stare into a screen. What if we dared to combine technology with self-awareness, personal productivity, and freedom? Sophie speaks to those who are open to exploring new habits that fuel success as she imparts inspiration and encouragement. She'swritten for several renowned international publications, served as a coach for high-powered entrepreneurs and executives in large corporations, and helped craft businesses and social ventures of all shapes and sizes. She's earned masters degrees in business and journalism in her native city of Paris, France and added one in psychology soon after she moved to Los Angeles in 1993. She's given two successful TEDx talks and co-authored the well-received book, "The Power of Personal Accountability: Achieve what Matters to You." Her latest book, "closer to my bones," is expected to come out later this year. Do you feel that your brain keeps churning at the end of the day, and you find it challenging to make time for your priorities? Or do you think there is more to life, and now is your time? If this sounds familiar, sit down with Sophie and me as we discuss how we can make tech work for us, rather than the other way around.

Kevin D'Silva is one of the pioneers in intrapreneurship, the process of encouraging employees to drive impactful innovation from within enterprises. He created the blueprint for the modern intrapreneur by founding Nestlé's employee-driven innovation accelerator, inGenius. Across 108 countries, 63,000 Nestlé employees - nearly a quarter of the conglomerate's total headcount - have generated 6,575 new ideas and launched 70 cutting-edge solutions that address some of the world's biggest problems. Kevin is now CEO and founder of Ideateplus, an innovation consultancy that guides companies through the intrapreneurship journey, helping them to launch new products, increase staff engagement, boost revenues, improve customer service, and reduce costs and wastage. Here's an article Kevin recently wrote for City A.M. on how intrapraneurship can help to foster a culture of creativity and innovation - Kevin joins me on the podcast to discuss how some of the best examples of innovation have come from within - products invented by employees within large organisations include the Post-it Note, Sony PlayStation, and McDonald's Happy Meals. We also talk about why intrapreneurship can enable large companies to be more agile and launch new innovative products, and in turn fend off challenger startup competitors. I learn more about Ideateplus, including its Rapid Innovation Process and why, in the era of remote working, keeping staff engaged by encouraging them to contribute to internal innovation is more important than ever.

Meddling, the artist discovery platform for record labels, is unveiling a new version of its service built specifically for music publishers to discover songwriters. Meddling founder Travis Rosenblatt joins me in. conversation about how the music industry and world of technology are colliding. At the forefront of A&R, Meddling delivers indispensable data and tools to help subscribers turn knowledge into action. Meddling brings together real-time data on global music markets, cutting edge technology like deep learning metadata compilers, powerful analytics, communications tools, and tracking capabilities to ensure total digital A&R coverage. Travis Rosenblatt is a former major and indie label A&R turned self-taught software developer & entrepreneur. His first company, Meddling, has provided modern artist discovery services to the majority of major labels since 2015 and continues to expand to serve other companies with digital A&R coverage needs. Rosenblatt's third company, Signal, is attempting to drag royalty payment infrastructure into the 21st century. He absolutely adores music as well as the industry and will keep poking it with a stick. That's how he shows his love.

Sienna is a privacy-first and cross-chain decentralized finance platform where you can privately swap, lend and convert your tokens into their private equivalent. The wSIENNA (wrapped SIENNA) is an ERC-20 version of the native SIENNA token running on Secret Network (SNIP-20). I invited Cheif Evangelist of Sienna, Monty Munford, onto the podcast to learn more about their recent launch and explore what happens when privacy meets DeFi. Before Covid, Monty Munford was a keynote speaker on technology after speaking at more than 200 global events. He was moderating panels and conducting fireside chats with names such as Kim Kardashian, Steve Wozniak, John McAfee, Brock Pierce, Ghostface Killah, Brian Solis, and more at the world's best tech events. He was previously a weekly tech columnist for Forbes in New York, the Telegraph in the UK and have contributed to MIT Tech Review, Mashable, Wired, Newsweek, TechCrunch, The Guardian, The Independent, Times of India and continues to write regularly for the BBC and The Economist. He is even an Ex-Bollywood villain. as well as Evangelist

José Pinto from Aragon joins me in a conversation about decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs). José manages legal matters and ensures the legal compliance of Aragon — the platform for building & running decentralized autonomous organizations. We speak about how DAOs are making strides in the legal sphere as of late, with Wyoming's Blockchain Bill No. 38 having just passed through the legislature. We also talk about the enormous flexibility DAOs will enjoy with this legislation approved and how DAOs will structure their affairs using any mix of statutory filings, legal agreements, or smart contracts to organize in the long term. About Aragon Aragon is currently undergoing a transition to consolidate its digital juror network — is well known for underpinning more than 1,600 global, permissionless and decentralized communities. DeFi projects like AAVE, Curve, and mStable also use Aragon's platform and services for financial transparency, asset management, and protocol governance. Vocdoni, acquired by the Aragon Project earlier this year, has also been developing digital voting solutions that will stand to benefit from legal developments such as this.

Today, I explore the topics of Customer-Cloud Shared Responsibility, Zero Trust Computing, and Emerging Threats with Joseph Davis, Cybersecurity, Data Privacy, Business Risk, and Information Compliance Advisor for the US Health and Life Sciences fields at Microsoft. Joseph is part of a global team of former CISOs, cybersecurity leaders, and Azure security subject matter experts, the Microsoft Security Solutions Area (formerly CSG), who advise Microsoft's strategic customers on their cybersecurity, information compliance, data privacy, and risk management strategies. Chief Security Advisors strive to solve Microsoft's customers' toughest security challenges by leveraging Microsoft's end-to-end enterprise security, compliance, data governance, and information lifecycle management solutions. Joseph strives to accelerate Cloud adoption, migration, and modern workplace transformation through innovative cybersecurity products, engagements, and programs.

Johanna Baum is the founder and CEO of Strategic Security Solutions (S3) Consulting and is a CPA in the state of Georgia with over 20 years of security, eGRC, IDG, and SAP technical and strategic advisory experience. Her vast expertise in the security and compliance field has served both industry and large consulting organizations. Johanna sought to build an organization that approached security and identity initiatives differently. She wanted a community of experts focused on the holistic needs of the client and their employees rather than simply a technology reseller. She also sought to change the approach of boutiques looking to build the entire employee, not simply utilization-driven targets without empathy and investment in the individual. Johanna founded S3 Consulting in 2005 to provide strategic professional services and guidance around security, eGRC, and IDG services for Fortune 2000 companies. Since beginning the company 15 years ago, Johanna has been hands-on in providing successful assessment, implementation, and deployment solutions throughout the full life cycle of both technical and strategic initiatives. Identity threats will increase exponentially, causing organizations to focus on prevention: Identity attacks are also happening faster. In 2021, the focus is shifting from authenticating identity and authorization to controlling access. Even if a business keeps the attack contained, they still have a significant issue – identity was compromised. Increasingly, organizations will take cyber security awareness training to better secure and manage user identities and scrub for inactive identities. Talking points/key messages: tips / best practices for ensuring strong identity. What does identity mean? Also, with the rise of 'contactless' everything means authentication will become more complex. Amid COVID-19, e-commerce, online banking/payment systems, contactless travel, and other transactions are rising, however they require a high level of identity assurance and authentication. In 2021 and beyond, preventing credential compromise will depend on stronger, more complex authentication security and identity validation. Increasingly, an individual's identity will become their credentials (face scans, finger prints, etc.) We also discuss how enterprises are slowly shifting away from enterprise password use and over to more secure alternatives.

Sovryn is a decentralized application allowing users to trade Bitcoin on Layer 2 in a permissionless, noncustodial, and censorship-resistant way. It enables users to leverage Bitcoin up to 5x and earn interest without sacrificing their security or privacy. Sovryn is like a company, except that it runs entirely on bitcoin and is not incorporated into any centralized organization. In other words, it is a fully remote, novel type of company that is fluid, distributed, and powered by Bitcoin. The company has developed an exchange and programmatic USD coin system leveraging the RSK Bitcoin sidechain, and it is actively looking at other BTC Layer 2 technology to scale its services. Sovryn likes RSK's technology because it is based on the existing Ethereum technology stack, making it interoperable with the entire Ethereum defi ecosystem. Edan Yago joins me on the podcast and shares how the members of the Sovryn team refer to themselves as "Bitcoin Mutants" rather than "Bitcoin Maximalists." The Mutants understand that Bitcoin is key, but they cannot leverage the decentralized tech being built elsewhere. They see the Ethereum and altcoin ecosystem as an opportunity for Bitcoin to conquer as the defacto money and trading pair. We discuss how the Sovryn team sees Bitcoin as the main building block of the new decentralized economy and think that Bitcoiners should not settle for centralized technology solutions.

As regular listeners will know, I am fascinated by our new proactive rather than reactive approach to healthcare, and the role tech plays in that change. We already monitor our steps, heart rate, calorie intake and can even have an ECG machine on hand. Today, Caroline Loew, CEO of Glympse, joins me in a conversation about biotech innovation. Caroline shares their mission to detect diseases earlier and help develop better therapies so that people don't become patients and return to health faster. We discuss their novel technology: activity-based biosensors that are bioengineered and tunable to any protease-mediated disease. I also learn how Glympse's technology can measure and predict the trajectory of a disease in a non-invasive, real-time, functional readout that is clinically actionable. Glympse Bio is pioneering an in vivo sensing technology dedicated to transforming disease monitoring. The company has built a product engine enabling the rapid development of tunable and bioengineered activity sensors for multiple indications, including fibrosis, cancer, immunology, and infectious diseases. The technology has been validated in 10 different diseases using multiple delivery methods and a broad range of analytical readouts. Glympse aims to improve healthcare globally by serving the needs of patients, clinicians, researchers, drug developers, and payors to help advance the science and our understanding of human diseases.

In 2020 at the start of the pandemic, Accenture Interactive predicted we were entering the beginning of the 'Virtual Century.' The shift towards virtual solutions resulting from Covid-19 would permanently affect ways of communicating across learning, working, transacting, and consuming. Now, almost a year on, Mark Curtis, Head of Innovation at Accenture Interactive, can discuss the lasting impact of this trend and why it is more important that organizations streamline the hurdles of going virtual all experiences. Companies need to look at how they utilize technology to remain viable, connect with their customers, and create a positive environment for their employees. Mark joins me on the podcast to discuss what's next for the workplace, the innovation of tomorrow, and how organizations can overcome the growing digital disconnect. What's next for the workplace – There is no such thing as an 'old normal' anymore, just old processes and technology. Regardless of what the future workplace looks like, the value of being physically present has been forever diminished. In 2021 businesses need to take a holistic approach acknowledging how alterations across talent acquisition, control, and technology can influence and foster different working environments remotely. The innovation of tomorrow – Creativity has been able to shire through throughout the pandemic, driven by technology. From TikTok to Microsoft Teams, 2021 will see platforms creatively repurposed and products increasingly perceived as unfinished tools adapted in more inclusive designs for larger audiences. Businesses can tap into this trend, viewing their customers not just as end-users but as creative co-collaborators How organizations can overcome the growing digital disconnect – while businesses must create new, people-focused, digital workplaces and adjust how they convey and use technology, 2020 has also seen a new challenge – empathy. More and more people are feeling excluded digitally. Mark can discuss how empathy is crucial to the design of new systems and the implementation of new technologies.

Rod Reasen is the Co-Founder and CEO of Springbuk, which recently raised a $20M series round. Rod has started 7 companies, sold 4 of them, and 2 are still ongoing concerns. He is a trailblazer, innovator, and visionary who sees trends at the macro level and tries to inspire others to see what he sees. In 1 year, Rod: flew a fighter plane, drove a NASCAR 172 mph, bungee jumped off Victoria Falls Bridge. He has been to Africa 5 times and has visited 27 countries in total. He has seen the poorest of 3rd World countries and has hung out with some of the richest people in the world, which has given him a breadth of perspective on what's wrong in the world and what's possible. At Springbuk, Rod drives the company toward the goal of "preventing disease with data." He believes that a company's mission - and adherence to the mission through bad times - plays a significant factor in whether it will succeed. Rod shares his story and talks about the state of healthcare, employee benefits programs, and how technology can improve employee health outcomes while saving employers money.

A recent study found that COVID-19 has accelerated the adoption of digitization of customer interactions by several years. Michelle MacCarthy, Global Head of Customer Success at Unit4, believes these changes are here to stay and companies must adapt by building online customer communities. These communities allow for large organizations to collaborate with others in the industry on a peer-to-peer level and helps with accessibility to information sharing. Communities can be grouped by industry or by the service they are currently employing. Join Michelle and me as we discuss customer communities and why organizations should get started now.

While most organizations today have racial bias response protocols and remediation strategies, Panther Data Solutions' Racial Bias Alert™ is the first proactive solution to provide an immediate deterrent to racial bias in an organization. Dean Haynesworth, CEO of Panther Data Solutions, shares his story and how they leveraged technology to monitor racism, sexism, and bias in the workplace. Dean also spearheads Black Progress Matters, which funds Panther Solutions. It is an incubator for startups led by founders of color and provides minority staffing direction. Dean shares the inspiration behind creating Panther Data and the racial bias alert tool. We discuss the biggest hurdles for many organizations today regarding bias and the black progress matters tech incubator hopes to accomplish.

According to various studies, having a healthy building has many benefits to organizations, such as improved productivity, attracting and retaining talent, and better occupant health. But in the last year, the entire world also turned its attention to creating a cleaner, safer indoor spaces amidst the coronavirus pandemic. Change has been a constant theme for the world in recent months. It's been business as unusual. Many of us have changed where we work, how we socialize, how our children learn, how we shop, and more. The full extent of our new normal is still unknown. What role will tech play in analyzing air quality, safety & security, and helping to create healthier spaces? Manish Sharma, CTO & Vice President at Honeywell Building Technologies shares how they are developing emerging technologies that ultimately create healthier environments for commercial buildings.

Approximately 2,217 startups were founded in 2020 amidst the COVID-19 pandemic to meet new industry demands, many of which were spawned by large enterprises. As a result, these organizations began using digital transformation as means of survival to accommodate remote work operations. However, rapid-paced deployment of innovative technologies often leaves the door for potential cyberattacks -- such as the recent Parler breach -- which is why security must be top of mind, especially for startups. To address this, startup companies must look beyond their internal security teams and leverage external security researchers via a bug bounty or vulnerability disclosure program (VDP) to help identify and disclose vulnerabilities before bad actors can exploit them. After reading how Bugcrowd is trusted by more of the Fortune 500 than any other crowdsourced security platform, I invited their CEO, Ashish Gupta, onto the podcast to learn more about this topic. More enterprise organizations trust Bugcrowd to manage their bug bounty, vulnerability disclosure, attack surface management and next-gen pen test programs. By combining the largest, most experienced triage team with the most trusted hackers around the world, Bugcrowd generates better results, reduces risk through remediation advice, and empowers organisations to release secure products to market faster — with no hidden fees.

Samer Al Moubayed is the CEO of Furhat Robotics, one of the world's fastest-growing social robotics companies. Furhat's 'Social Robot' is highly customizable and allows for building very sophisticated robot personalities. Companies such as Disney, KPMG, and Honda are already utilizing Furhat for employee training scenarios, HR purposes, and day-to-day operations with customers. It also comes with its own SDK and flexible development platform which allows each individual unit's "personality" and capabilities to be tailored to desired functions. As a former specialist for robotics R&D at Disney, Samer has learned very early on in his career that robots can also be more than mere appliances or tools. They can be beloved, helpful companions for even the smallest or most vulnerable members of society. It's this exact thought on which he founded his company Furhat Robotics in Stockholm, Sweden, in 2016 after his time with Disney. About Furhat Robotics: Headquartered in Sweden, Furhat Robotics are pioneers in social robotics, where robotics technology meets a sophisticated, adaptive language AI capable of picking up social queues and communicating in real-time over forty languages. The newest line of robots has a built-in camera with facial recognition software and a silica mask that uses projected, customizable facial animations to make the interaction between humans and machines as lifelike and seamless as possible. However, the plans Samer and his team of visionaries have for their growing invention do not stop merely providing services for businesses. They are currently looking into the field of psychology as well, where they conduct experiments in empathic capability to ultimately be able to use their creation in child psychology and assist with care for patients with Alzheimer's or dementia.

The world looks so much different than it did this time last year. In just 12 months, the global workforce shifted remote and gone is the day of the desk. Approximately 80% of the total workforce, or 2.7 billion people, now make up the deskless population, including sales reps, customer service advisors, technicians, and more. Those new to remote work faced issues arising from a lack of digital tools to aid with productivity, inability to access real-time information, and dated communication/reporting systems that do not reach consumers on mobile devices. To survive in 2020, companies were forced to evolve fast. Now aware of the vast disparity between traditional office technology and deskless tools, top management is taking action to accelerate the development of deskless tools. Ashish Joshi from goDeskless explores this topic with me in today's episode. We discuss how their AI-powered workforce automation platform was designed for the frontline deskless workforce. We also talk about the lessons learned from 2020's mass push towards a digital workforce.

Luca Rossettini is the CEO and founder of Italy-based D-Orbit, the global market leader in the space logistics and transportation services industry with a track record of space-proven technologies, successful missions, and customer outcomes. The company is committed to helping companies profitably and sustainably maximize the opportunities to do business in space today and into the future. Having developed proprietary space logistics technology and transportation solutions, they are accelerating the growth and development of a trillion-dollar space economy, including human expansion into space. With an incremental strategic approach to the space marketplace, D-Orbit is delivering successful customer outcomes today while developing advanced products and services for the needs of tomorrow. In today's episode, I learn how D-Orbit has successfully flown 44 payloads into space. We discuss how just as companies on Earth depend on logistics providers, the future of space (including satellites, human expansion, etc.) will also require logistics companies. D-Orbit is the first company to address these needs. This could include satellite life extension, active debris removal, interplanetary logistics, and more. About Luca Rossettini Luca Rossettini is CEO and founder of D-Orbit, Expert at the Space Advisory Group of the European Commission, Board member of AIPAS (space SME industrial association), Board member of Confindustria Florence, and corresponding member of International Academy of Astronautics (IAA). He is an aerospace engineer with a Ph.D. in advanced space propulsion, awarded with honors by Politecnico di Milano. He holds a Master in Strategic Leadership Towards Sustainability and a Certificate in Technology Entrepreneurship from Santa Clara University, California.

Ryan Kelly is a marketing leader at Domino Data Lab and author of the world's first-ever children's book about data science. But he didn't write this children's book to encourage the next generation to get passionate about future careers in data science. He also wrote it to inspire a passion for problem-solving. Ryan believes that our world is full of problems, and our future relies on the passion and willingness of future generations to solve them. He was also tired of trying to describe to his daughter what he did at work. I invited him onto the Tech Talks Daily podcast to learn more about the story behind Florence, the Data Scientist. Domino Data Lab powers model-driven business for the world's most advanced enterprises, including over 20% of the Fortune 100. Its Enterprise MLOps platform speeds up the development and deployment of data science work while increasing collaboration and governance to scale data science into a competitive advantage. The platform enables thousands of data scientists to develop better medicines, grow more productive crops, adapt risk models to major economic shifts, build better cars, improve customer support, or recommend the best purchase to make at the right time.

Since the dawn of the Internet, advertisers have been targeting consumers in an increasingly invasive and distracting manner, resulting in users fighting back by installing ad blockers, privacy-based browsers such as Brave and even going so far as to delete their social media accounts entirely. Furthermore, big tech has been aggressively collecting and monetizing user data without consumers knowing how, where, and when their data is used. It's against this backdrop that ⁨Permission.io⁩ was born to change the status quo via their platform that empowers consumers to own their own data and to be compensated for it. By returning control to users, consumers are properly rewarded for their time and attention, and advertisers are assured of reaching a willing and truly engaged audience. Google has partnered with ⁨Permission.io⁩ to bring permission-based ad solutions to its users. Permission.io⁩ is powered by the ASK token, the currency of permission, which allows users to earn ASK by securely sharing their data and opting in to receive relevant ads and content. Marketers can "ask permission" and deploy ASK on their own channels as an incentive to drive loyalty through personalized ad campaigns, thereby increasing ROI, driving conversions, and building consumer trust. I invited Charles Silver onto the podcast to discuss how Permission.io⁩ is solving critical problems in the privacy/data puzzle for a new Web. Charles is a start-up business expert who has built several enterprises from the ground up to successful exit. I learn about the story behind Permission.io⁩ and how the platform enables businesses to connect with individuals on a permission basis, building trusted, transparent, and interruption-free relationships.

NETSCOUT, one of the leading cybersecurity and network diagnostics firms, recently revealed the findings of its bi-annual Threat Intelligence Report. The report provided insight and analysis into the unprecedented nature of Distributed-Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks in 2020. Darren Anstee, Chief Technology Officer for Security at NETSCOUT, shares insights from the report. We discuss who the suspected attackers are and how the attacks have differed over the last year. I learn how attackers focused on COVID-era lifelines such as healthcare, e-commerce, finance, and educational services with complex, high-throughput attacks designed to overwhelm and quickly take them down. We talk about what business leaders need to be aware of when it comes to a DDoS attack and its impact. Darren also shares how NETSOUT helps businesses with the challenges presented by DDoS attacks.

Kathleen Delaney, the CMO of Kofax, joins me on the Tech Talks Daily podcast. Kathleen is an innovative marketing leader and digital strategist who has lead her team towards amazing accomplishments because of her ability to navigate and innovate complex projects. An example of this has was displayed through Kofax's recent "Work Like Tomorrow" rebrand campaign. With over three decades in marketing leadership roles, Kathleen joined Kofax in 2018 to lead the private-equity owned company through a massive rebrand. Dubbed the Work Like Tomorrow campaign, Kathleen dusted off the company's previous brand promise and coordinated a global effort to change its image of being a legacy technology company to its current position as a leader in the Intelligent Automation space. The campaign drove roughly 2.0B impressions in 2019 from over 1K global media placements, leading to a nearly 20% global share of voice, from almost zero in 2018. It also led to analyst recognition, including placement in the Gartner RPA Critical Capabilities report Kathleen reveals the best practices she learned from a successful global rebrand and her market-tested strategies for driving revenue, increasing profit, and invigorating brands.

From Moses and his stone tablets to Elon Musk revealing his plans to colonize Mars, people have been leveraging the persuasive power of presentations for thousands of years. But while the basic elements of a great pitch have remained the same, today's most successful presenters employ a host of hi-tech tools to drive sales like never before. James Ontra from Shufflrr shares how AI, cloud storage, and machine learning are changing the presentation paradigm — all while saving time, increasing productivity, and helping businesses put their best foot forward. With over 30 million PowerPoint presentations created every day, it's no surprise that the internal presentation situation at most companies is a tangled morass of out-of-date, redundant slides. It doesn't have to be this way. James also explores how top companies are cleaning up the quagmire and reclaiming their digital assets. Movie theaters. Marriage. Mayonnaise. These are just a few of the things millennials have been accused of killing. Here's one more thing you can add to the list: old-fashioned PowerPoint presentations. In their place, a new generation of spontaneous, interactive presentations are infiltrating the business world — James reveals how to take advantage of this emerging trend to reach a valuable new audience.

Stephane Giraudie, a mobile/SaaS entrepreneur, is an expert in developing forward-thinking solutions. He currently heads up Cloud Communications at Dolby, which acquired his company, Voxeet, in 2019. As founder and CEO at Voxeet, Stephane pioneered in-flow communications, enabling leading apps in telemedicine, e-learning, and collaboration to significantly improve their users' experience while creating new revenue streams. Previously, Stephane was one of the patented early innovators of digital photography and built corporate sustainability and philanthropic fundraising solutions. Stephane joins me in a discussion about the future of how we Meet and Connect. We discuss the future of employee and customer engagement depend on interactive, audiovisual experiences. We also talk about how the increase in consumer listening and user-generated content has created a boom for audio-first businesses.

Bode Miller, two-time overall World Cup champion and six-time Olympic medalist, recently announced his new tech venture, SKEO. The concept for the digital ski platform concept was pioneered by Martin Kawalski—CEO of Snowcookie Sports and European physician with a Ph.D. in neuroscience. Intrigued by the idea of a smart connected ski and recurring winter ski injuries seen during his orthopedics rotations, Kawalski shifted his focus to hone in on education and preventability measures. Using a proprietary algorithm to fine-tune body position, edge control and improve safety like never before, SKEO will enable skiers of all levels to go farther and faster while mitigating risk. Meet the physician-led Swiss startup, Snowcookie Sports. I wanted to learn more about how they invite every user to analyze and improve their skills, exchange stats, embrace safety, and enjoy their time on the slopes. I also learn more about the tech behind the digital ski platform that measures, coaches, and ranks your skiing to level up. Martin Kawalski shares his story and talks about the free app, optional wearable sensors, and how the proprietary algorithms can propel skiers further, and faster.

Greg Miaskiewicz is a security expert, product designer & serial entrepreneur. Previously, founded and sold a bot detection startup (Swarm) in 2016 to Integral Ad Science, then led R&D into advertising fraud at Integral, leading up to Integral's $850mm sale to Vista in 2018. Miaskiewicz is currently CEO & Co-Founder at Capbase, a venture-backed fintech startup, and advisor at Golden and Mobius Acoustics. Capbase is a digital back-end for your startup: Incorporation, cap table management, stock issuance, corporate governance and compliance in one single platform. Today, Miaskiewicz joins me on the Tech Talks Daily Podcast to share how to avoid pitfalls when dealing with equity, contracts and compliances. We also discuss fundraising for a startup in the middle of a pandemic and the lessons learned he from selling a startup in Silicon Valley.

According to AppAnnie, fewer than 3000 apps are making more than US$1,000,000 a year from paid downloads, in-app purchases, and subscriptions. This reality has given rise to a whole ecosystem of mobile marketing tools to help app publishers focus on growing audiences, not creating a sustainable business. Dan Burcaw founded Nami because the marketing tools built for the mobile industry's growth era didn't help app developers succeed in the subscription era. Dan has founded companies on the forefront of profound technology waves: open source software, smartphones, and cloud computing. He describes himself first as a serial entrepreneur, a repeat startup founder, and CEO. His startups have built or powered world-renowned products used by millions of people around the world. Dan's career has also been shaped by wisdom attained from tenures at two technology giants: Apple and Oracle. After two decades of entrepreneurship, Dan took a year-long sabbatical to innovate himself. This startup-like effort to elevate all aspects of his performance is the foundation for his next entrepreneurial endeavors. He's now ready for the next wave. In today's episode, Dan shares how he wrote code that ended up on a submarine when he was 17 and an incredibly cool Steve Jobs and Apple story. I also learn how Nami is the smartest service to help you launch, scale, and optimize your mobile app subscription business.

On the Tech Fusion Podcast, we explore how technology empowers employees and organizations to unlock innovation, engage customers, and be productive—anytime, anywhere. We talk with Citrix and their partners to learn more about how they are collaborating to solve real-world problems. At Star2Star Communications, they are on a mission to help organizations to overcome the reliability and quality limitations of other communications technologies. The company has built its reputation around unifying customers'​ voice, video, fax, instant messaging, and presence management into a single, easy-to-use system. In today's episode, Mick Miralis from Star2Star and Citrix's Nitin Sharma discuss the future of intelligent workspaces and how they are evolving for connected workers. The guests also talk about building a cohesive environment that enables connected workers to be effective and productive while removing complexity and friction between applications. We also learn more about how Citrix and Star2Star are collaborating to bring this vision to life.

The world has changed. Retailers are experimenting with augmented technologies and virtual reality, robots are moving from factory floors to front-line response, and 3D printers are being used to manufacture masks en masse. Mark Hughes, regional VP for UK and Ireland at Epicor, the ERP cloud solution provider, joins me on the Tech Talks Daily Podcast. Although everyone is talking about 'Industry 4.0, Mark reveals how factories have undergone a revolution, with manufacturing and supply chain industries already moving from the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) to the fifth. We discuss how manufacturing leaders have also increasingly valued the benefits that automation can bring to their business. For example, companies including GE and Merck have rolled out RPA to automate back-office elements. We also talk about how developments like nanosensors and CRISPR gene-editing technology are driving change among grocery retailers looking at how it could potentially impact the products they sell. Mark what he thinks the future of factories will look like. Finally, we explore the radical redefinition of how organizations use technology, people, and processes to fundamentally change business performance.

Rick Hall is a software entrepreneur focused on the analytics market. He has led the development of over a dozen software products and taken several companies from the early stage to an eventual sale. Rick led a group in the purchase of Aginity in March of 2020 and has taken over the CEO role as a result. Aginity was an early innovator in Analytics Management and launched Aginity Pro early this year. The product is off to a fast start attracting 13,000 subscribers in the first nine months, and is set to grow by more than 250% through 2021. Rick joins me in a conversation about how companies can effectively manage their analytic initiatives and the role tech should play. We also discuss the processes and technology companies need to succeed with analytic programs and the evolution and current state of analytics technology.

For over 200 years we Wiley has been helping people and organizations develop the skills and knowledge they need to succeed. They develop digital education, learning, assessment, and certification solutions to help universities, businesses, and individuals move between education and employment and achieve their ambitions. By partnering with learned societies, Wiley supports researchers to communicate discoveries that make a difference. Its online scientific, technical, medical, and scholarly journals, books, and other digital content build on a 200-year heritage of quality publishing. At the recent Dynatrace Perform event, I got chatting with Wiley's CIO and CISO, Sean Mack. The visionary technology executive has extensive experience in DevOps, infrastructure, security, enterprise applications, development, and program management. As an innovative leader driving global business strategy and transformation, I wanted to learn more about how Wiley is bridging the higher education gap by delivering content solutions in new and innovative ways to enrich the learning experience. Wiley is an education-focused platform that takes companies from dysfunctional models to mature, globally scalable, world-class organizations, aligning business strategy and execution. We discuss the changes in their customers' usage since the pandemic and how the shift to remote learning has impacted the company. We also discuss why they adopted the Dynatrace platform and what benefits they have leveraged.

Spin provides dockless electric scooters in more than 60 markets in the US, including San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington DC, Charlotte, and Miami. Their regulatory team led the nation's first stationless mobility permit system with the Seattle Department of Transportation. It's also the micromobility arm of Ford. The company prides itself on putting riders' safety first, working closely with local governments, and scaling its fleet responsibly. Head of Spin Europe, Felix Petersen returns to the Tech Talks Daily Podcast to discuss the launch of e-scooter trials across the UK. Almost six months have passed since the trials were announced, with Spin successfully launching several public-hire e-scooter schemes around the country. Felix also discusses Spin's European e-scooter strategy, Key learnings from the successful e-scooter trial, E-scooter usage trends in the US and Europe. We also talk about how to build a genuinely sustainable transportation solution and the future of micro-mobility. I also learn more about Spin Valet that allows people to call a micromobility scooter from their phone, in the same way, they would an Uber or Lyft. In combination with Spin S-200's front and rear cameras, GPS technology allows Spin to precisely locate each scooter. If needed, Tortoise's team of remote operators can safely relocate the vehicle at a slow rate of speed (2–3 mph).

NICE surveyed over 1,000 global contact center decision-makers in UK, US, Australia and Canada. Findings show rapidly growing role of digital channels for customer interactions, increasing investments in digital channels, artificial intelligence, and contact center technology for seamless omnichannel experiences for customers. I invited Paul Jarman, CEO NICE inContact to learn more about the NICE inContact 2021 Customer Experience (CX) Transformation Benchmark. About NICE When the world's leading companies want to improve their business performance, increase their operational efficiency, prevent financial crime, ensure they're fully compliant, or enhance their safety and security, they talk to NICE.​​ The company prides itself on leveraging technology not only to transform experiences but ensure they are also extraordinary and trusted​ About Paul Jarman Paul Jarman holds the position of NICE inContact CEO​. Mr. Jarman is responsible for the enterprise, ​midmarket, government organizations and business process outsourcers (BPOs) who operate in multiple divisions, locations and global regions. ​A pioneer of the cloud movement, Mr. Jarman was instrumental in guiding inContact from its roots in telecommunications to its strategic offering of cloud-based contact center solutions and has been a part of every major enhancement the company has made since 1997. ​As part of inContact's strategic shift to a contact center software provider, he spearheaded four software acquisitions and two telephony acquisitions. He led inContact's successful addition to the NASDAQ ​and under his leadership, inContact has experienced strong compound annual growth rate in software revenues over the past three years. ​Mr. Jarman has spent his career building a service-driven business focused around both customers and employees, resulting in a strong corporate culture with high retention rates of both groups. Prior to joining inContact, Paul was an executive with HealthRider, Inc. Paul has a contagious energy and is always pushing the limits to grow the company and drive market leadership. He follows the mantra of Abraham Lincoln, "Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle."

Biometric technology allows companies to uniquely identify a person based on one or more characteristics deemed unique to a particular individual, such as their face or physical fingerprint. However, in a pandemic world, both your hands and face end up covered by gloves and masks, so relying on those traditional second-factor authentications (2FA) methods could increase friction and hurt the end-user experience. UnifyID helps identify and authenticate individuals based on how they move and walk, leveraging machine learning algorithms and sensors in smartphone devices. Common use cases: Contactless payments Physical access to a building User authentication Fraud reduction on payments platforms UnifyID Founder and CEO John Whaley shares how biometric technology is shaping the future of authentication.

Tomer Afek is the CEO and Co-founder of Spacemesh, a fairly-mined programmable cryptocurrency platform powered by a novel proof-of-space-time (PoST) consensus protocol. Spacemesh is free open-source software that aims to become a core Internet protocol for blockchain computation. Previously, Tomer has more than 20 years of experience across the tech, digital, and finance industries. Tomer also spent seven years as an Investor at Evergreen Venture Capital, one of Israel's oldest and largest VCs, where he led the company's Internet and New-Media investments. Tomer shares the story behind Spacemesh and the social meaning at the heart of the company. I learn more about precisely what Spacemesh is, why they are building Spacemesh, the implications for future generations, and why it will be more decentralized than current currencies.

When Jonathan Baktari, M.D., was arguably at the peak of his medical career as a triple board-certified physician, he saw an opportunity to try something new. Taking everything he'd learned as a doctor, medical director, and educator, he launched two businesses—a vaccine clinic and a drug-testing enterprise—that are driven by technology and designed for fast, customer-centric service. Now, as those businesses grow, he's continuing to write his second career chapter as a health care CEO. Dr. Baktari's company e7 Health was named the best technology company in the healthcare space in 2019. e7 Health could best be described as "the Uber of preventive medicine" in that it is a systems company that has invested heavily in developing their own electronic cloud-based software to leverage technology for the benefit of their operation, patients, and clients. In addition to vaccines, antibody testing, and many other medical services essential to employers around the country, e7 is now providing at home COVID-19 tests for individuals and companies all over the US. Dr. Baktari has always believed that helping others was the ultimate achievement in life. Now, as a business leader and sought-after speaker, he's excited to share his expertise in tech entrepreneurship, COVID-19, preventative health, and many other topics with your listeners.

Mark Cusack from Yellowbrick Data joins me on the podcast to talk about Real-time data warehousing and the future of faster, more flexible cloud data warehouses and why it's a must for data professionals and IT leaders from all industries. We talk about how 2020 has challenged enterprises to find new ways to succeed and grow. I learn how data warehouses will become a critical capability for enabling real-time business decision-making and why the separation of data warehouse compute and storage will become standard. About Yellowbrick Yellowbrick is the world's fastest data warehouse for hybrid and multi-cloud environments. Enterprises rely on Yellowbrick to power critical business outcomes and get answers to the hardest business questions for improved profitability, better customer loyalty, and faster innovation in near real time, and at a fraction of the cost of alternatives. Yellowbrick offers superior price/performance for thousands of concurrent users on petabytes of data, along with the unique ability to run analytic workloads on-premises, in a private cloud, and/or in any public cloud and manage them in a simple, consistent way—all with predictable pricing via annual subscription. About Mark Cusack Before joining Yellowbrick, Mark was Vice President for Data and Analytics at Teradata, where he led a variety of product management and technology teams in data warehouse and advanced analytics groups. He was also Chief Architect of Teradata's IoT Analytics effort. Mark joined Teradata in 2014 when Teradata acquired the startup RainStor, where he was a co-founding developer and Chief Architect. Prior to RainStor, Mark was a lead scientist in the UK Ministry of Defence.

Karim Marucchi, CEO at Crowd Favorite, a global firm that specializes in digital strategy and web development for companies like Starz, Salal Credit Union, Lexus and National Geographic. Karim has more than 20 years of experience in specializing in enterprise-grade digital strategy and has taken many companies public, managed M&As We discuss: Digital transformation trends that enterprises must be in front of in 2021; What the future holds for data collection, the benefits of WordPress, and the role of open-source software in 2021; The latest digital transformation experience platforms (DXPs) trends and happenings; and What tech leaders need to know about open-source software in 2021. We discuss how Crowd Favorite has elevated enterprises' website experiences for each site visitor and helped accelerate enterprises' digital transformation. - Optimization for the new Google update and what this means for enterprises; and much more About Crowd Favorite Crowd Favorite's mission is to connect the digital experience to the human experience. Founded in 2007, Crowd Favorite was the original WordPress agency focused primarily on enterprise clients. Over a decade later, they evolved into a multi-discipline, digital consulting firm specializing in enterprise-grade digital strategy and elite Open Source development. Crowd Favorite empowers organizations to achieve their full digital potential by focusing on the comprehensive landscape of their business and the unique challenges they face. Then, by connecting their financial and operational obstacles to world-class digital strategy, web development, and digital support services, the optimal technology solution is put in play.

Handprint a tech platform that is looking better to bridge the gap between business activity and sustainability initiatives. They do this by tapping into consumer action. Handprint strives to ensure that every sale is climate-positive and assures transparency in all financial transactions by leveraging blockchain. To date, Handprint works with NGOs such as Worldview International Foundation (WIF) and Yayasan Gajah Sumatera (YAGASU), some of the world's leaders in reforestation and mangrove conservation and counts the likes of leading Swiss-born F&B firm SaladStop! as one of its earliest partners. Mathias Boissonot, Co-founder and CEO at Handprint, shares his insights on how businesses can better integrate their sustainability investments into each consumer interaction. In the age of digital shareability, we also discuss how companies can leverage novel technologies to maximize the visibility of their sustainability initiatives to appeal to a social-media-savvy generation.

Headquartered in Silicon Valley, with offices in Toulouse and Tokyo, Airbus Ventures is a fast-moving, early-stage venture capital company that independently funds and supports startups impacting the aerospace industry. Airbus Ventures has helped aspiring innovators reach new dimensions of achievement since 2015. From its founding, Airbus Ventures has embraced the heritage of its mothership Airbus in adaptive innovation, system, thinking, and international mindset, 'Building on this heritage, 'Airbus Ventures closely supports its portfolio of companies to better understand, team, and promote their founders' businesses – and now, with new Japanese investors alongside, they are confident that we can add to global scale and system play for all their entrepreneurs' growth worldwide, I invited Lewis Pinault on to today's episode of Tech Talks Daily to learn more about their story and mission to accelerate humanity's ascent of the Z-axis, from the ground to deep space. Dr. Lewis Pinault is an Airbus Ventures Partner based in Tokyo, managing Airbus Ventures' activities in the Asia Pacific region. Advising and supporting Airbus innovation projects for over a decade, Lewis also designed and led incubator and innovation centers for the UK Government's Digital Catapult, EDS, Shell, and others, building from his own mid-career experiences as a NASA researcher trying to link startups to large corporates. His lifelong passion for exploring the oceans and space seeking the most advanced technologies available first brought him to Asia as an engineer and corporate planning analyst with Nihon Kokan.

Prequel is a photo and video editing app with unique effects and editing tools. The product regularly reaches the top 10 in its category. The app has 30m iOS downloads and on Android. Over 2M prequels are created every day, and the company has around 2.1M followers on Instagram and 1.7M on TikTok. In Prequel, art and technology meet together to bring unique effects and editing tools to their users. They don't follow trends but invent them. To fulfill that goal, their team turns to various fields of expertise. They have created a technological laboratory where their experts, from graphic and product designers to software engineers and R&D specialists, work together to develop and grow the product. Headquartered in New York City and with offices in Moscow and Kaliningrad, They believe in thinking outside the box and expanding the boundaries. Timur Khabirov Co-founder, CEO at Prequel, shares the story behind the company and how the technology that enables everyone to enhance their creativity.

Many brands are starting podcasts and are then disappointed by the number of downloads. One way to maximize your podcasting is by live-streaming the recordings to your existing social communities like Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and YouTube. Other channels to consider include Clubhouse, Twitter Spaces, and Amazon Live. In his fourth book, "Going Live", Christoph Trappe covers how any brand can make live streaming part of their content strategy and integrate it into Create Once, Publish Everywhere. I invited Christoph on to the podcast to talks about his book and his authentic storytelling project. We discuss why and how live streaming can give your brand a competitive advantage and how to show your brand's authenticity and humanness. We also talk about the technologies and strategies that will help you build your success.

The Esports industry has exploded in recent years and is not slowing down, but the industry remains extremely top-heavy and built around sponsorship and advertising revenue, rather than consumer revenue and participation. Challengermode is looking to turn the current industry model on its head - creating value for all esports stakeholders from the bottom up as well as the top down. After major success in Europe, running millions of competitions for millions of players, Challengermode is currently gearing up to expand into North America this year, and is currently valued at over $40m. I invited: Robel Efrem from Challengermode onto the podcast to find out more. Robel himself, has an incredibly impressive resume; he speaks four languages, has been nominated for the Young Entrepreneur of the Year award three times, and has founded two companies in the last 10 years - the first which resulted in a successful exit and the second which is Challengermode, which received a $12m investment from Alibaba, with other investors including Telia Ventures, GP Bullhound, Back in Black Capital and Swedish soccer player Zlatan Ibrahimovic.