Zipline's Keller Rinaudo: "Blood from the sky"
The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Keller Rinaudo, founder of drone developer Zipline, to talk about air-dropping blood in Rwanda (5:35), whether this can be used in the developed world (8:45), how he came up with the idea (10:40), the rise of instant delivery (13:05), why smartphones are important (14:25), ramping up operations by ten-times this year (15:45), how a toy gave him credibility (16:15), why they went to Africa first (18:00), how regulations are catching up (19:10), building the fastest delivery drone in the world (21:00), why crashing is important (22:50), and saving more than 1,000 lives (24:40). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
6 Apr 201827min
Five questions with... Benedict Evans
The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Benedict Evans, partner at Andreessen Horowitz, to answer five big questions about tech: One, How long will it be before self-driving cars take over (1:55), Two, Will cryptocurrencies replace the dollar, pound and other fiat currencies (8:40),Three, Is Big Tech too big (17:05), Four, How worried should we be about the march of the machines (28:15), Five, What is the next revolutionary technology (35:20). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
30 Mar 201846min
Former Facebook executive Antonio Garcia Martinez: "A gaping wound of data"
The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Antonio Garcia Martinez, one of the architect’s of Facebook’s ad system, to talk about his days at the social media giant (2:15), what Cambridge Analytica did (4:55), the Wild West of online information (7:45), how Facebook has responded to the scandal (10:00), on how trust has been broken (12:40), why a subscription model would be hard to implement (14:30), whether Facebook is too big to govern (17:05), if it can recover (18:45), how Facebook backed into its ad-driven model (21:45), why breaking it up may not solve the problem (24:15), why #deleteFacebook won’t move the needle (25:00), and the Facebook buffalo (27:00). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
23 Mar 201829min
Ethereum’s Joe Lubin: “Building a crypto-Google”
The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on billionaire entrepreneur Joe Lubin, co-founder of cryptocurrency ethereum, to talk about his pre-crypto career (4:05), producing reggae in Jamaica (5:00), meeting Vitalik Buterin (6:00), getting ethereum off the ground from an Airbnb in Miami (6:50), setting up HQ in Switzerland (8:55), the coming regulation on cryptocurrencies (11:10), why he’s a believer (13:25), spawning dozens of ethereum-based businesses (15:25), the dawn of the new Internet (19:05), hiring Silicon Valley refugees (20:30), paying workers in cryptocurrencies (21:05), setting up a “cryptopia” (22:55), the debate over Ethereum as a non-profit (23:40), bring the “legacy” economy titans into the fold (26:05), and how much ether he still holds (29:10). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
23 Mar 201830min
Groupon founder Andrew Mason: “I may not be Jeff Bezos or Jesus Christ, but I've done ok”
The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Groupon founder Andrew Mason to talk about his new company Descript, launching his first startup in Chicago in the late 1990’s (4:30), turning it into Groupon (6:15), admitting he was fired (7:40), starting a guided-tour company (9:30), pivoting to podcasting (12:00), but keeping Detour alive (14:00), underestimating potential (16:00), the explosion of text-to-speech technology (17:00), raising venture capital from Andreessen Horowitz (21:30), learning from past mistakes (23:00), not wanting to be a public company chief executive (24:15), why he keeps working with a couple hundred million in the bank (26:30), his worst day of work (28:40), machine learning’s assault on the $10bn transcription industry (32:45), and the horse story (34:50). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
16 Mar 201838min
Sophia Mahfooz: “It’s torture or an adventure, depending on your perspective’”
The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Sophia Mahfooz, entrepreneur and former operations chief at Girls in Tech, on sharing a house with other Silicon Valley hopefuls (3:00), winning her first pitch competition (4:05), building a product in China (6:20), trying (and failing) to sell to the NHS (7:55), launching another company (10:25), growing up in Afghanistan (12:15), learning entrepreneurship at home (14:30), getting in to Draper University (17:20), going through hell to get funding (19:00), hitchhiking (23:00), giving the money back (29:05), starting at Girls in Tech (32:00), and leaving (33:45), the next thing (35:00), making a career in a male-dominated world (37:00), why she is so determined to work on the West coast (38:30) and meeting Elon Musk (40:15). PLUS: A quick chat with Michael Hughes, chief executive of LoopUp and founder of the Silicon Valley Internship Programme. (42:30). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
9 Mar 201850min
Stripe's Patrick Collison: "I'm petrified of getting too confident"
The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Patrick Collison, founder of $9bn payments startup Stripe to talk about building the financial plumbing of the Internet (2:45), why the web is just getting started (5:05), treating the big and small the same (8:45), the problem with ads (12:00), the origin of the name ‘Stripe’ (13:25), growing up in a village (14:45), trying to not be too “Silicon Valley” (18:35), going from 40 to 1000 people in four years (21:30), hiring adults (23:45), avoiding complacency (25:45), arriving in America (27:20), first mover disadvantage (30:15), America’s stagnant banking market (20:10), dissonance between Silicon Valley’s image and reality (32:00), the future of money (35:10), his worst day of work (37:55), and learning to fly (39:10). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2 Mar 201842min
AirBnb's Brian Chesky: "We're the David to the hotel industry Goliath"
The Sunday Times tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Brian Chesky, founder of Airbnb, to talk about the home-sharing giant’s tenth birthday (3:00) aiming for a billion guests (4:30), how he plans to grow without destroying communities (7:30), growing up in New York (13:30), convincing Y Combinator to invest $20,000 (16:00), doing 'an Amazon' (18:00), creating an airline (20:15), tech’s existential crisis (22:00), the limitations of algorithms (24:45), not floating on the stock market (26:15), bringing in $1bn each quarter (27:00), his worst day of work (28:45), giving away most of his money (32:15), stepping into controversies (35:00), the need for Silicon Valley to take responsibility (36:30), taxes (37:15), and fending off attacks from the hotel industry (39:30). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
23 Feb 201845min
