Category: Podcasts

Deepak Jain has built transformational businesses and products in the NFC payments, neobanking, blockchain and cross border payment spaces, resulting in multiple successful exits. His most recent venture, Wink, is a biometric identity and payments authentication platform using advanced face, voice and device recognition with AI and machine learning to eliminate identity theft and payments fraud in e-commerce transactions.

He holds 50+ patents with more pending in payment and security technologies. Deepak’s passion and experience in Fintech, payments, blockchain, IOT and AI make him a respected thought leader, angel investor and mentor to other startups.

Dan Balcauski is the founder and Chief Pricing Officer at Product Tranquility, based in Austin, TX. He focuses on helping high-volume B2B SaaS CEOs define pricing and packaging for new products. Over his career, he has worked in both B2C and B2B companies ranging from startups to publicly traded enterprises.

Lori Schafer is a senior software executive and entrepreneur with 30+ years in technology, analytics (Predictive, AI, Generative AI), Ecommerce, consumer products branding, and retail merchandising and marketing.

She is CEO, Digital Wave Technology, a software solutions company that transforms retail & CPG business processes through AI, including generative AI, workflow and automation. She frequently consults with brands and retailers on their digital transformation strategies in today’s world of omnichannel customer engagement. Ms. Schafer has experience building and managing both startup ($0-$100M) and large enterprise technology businesses around the globe.

Podcast

Yonatan Raz-Fridman is a visionary entrepreneur, technology executive, and the co-founder and CEO of Supersocial, a leading metaverse company that builds and operates cutting-edge virtual worlds for top-tier global brands and turns them into prosperous businesses. Supersocial has garnered significant recognition and support, backed by industry-leading investors who believe in Yon’s vision.

Yon’s entrepreneurial acumen in navigating emerging technologies are evident in his strategic decisions and forward-thinking approach at Supersocial. Through his leadership, he has assembled a team of experts with diverse talents, including deep Roblox knowledge and extensive experience in consumer brands and storytelling. By seamlessly blending their skills, Yon and his team create cutting-edge virtual worlds that resonate with metaverse communities and is revolutionizing the way we engage with brands.

Bruno Ver, Co-Founder and CEO of Niftify, is drawn to entrepreneurship for a variety of reasons. First and foremost, he loves the idea of being his own boss and having control over his career. He is excited by the prospect of creating something from scratch and seeing it grow into a successful venture. Additionally, Bruno enjoys the challenge of problem-solving and finding creative solutions to obstacles that arise in the business world.

He is also motivated by the potential financial rewards that come with being a successful entrepreneur.

Scott Stuart is the CEO of the Turnaround Management Association (TMA). TMA is a global nonprofit organization of nearly 10,000 turnaround and corporate renewal professionals. With 50+ chapters worldwide, TMA members are a professional community that strengthens the global economy by working with distressed companies to improve performance, manage disruption, restructure through insolvency proceedings, and preserve equity to drive overall results.

Before joining TMA, Stuart was an industry-leading attorney with over 30 years of experience in restructuring, litigation, and distressed investment. He has a proven track record of building, growing, and leading successful companies, from corporations to startups.

How can ML technology help manage insane volumes of data and keep cloud costs in check?

Barzan has spent the last 15 years of his career on statistical and machine learning techniques for building smarter, faster, more scalable data-intensive systems. He is an entrepreneur, researcher, and professor.

Alongside being Founder and CEO of Keebo, providing fully-automated data warehouse and analytics optimization solutions, he is an Associate Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Michigan, where he leads a research group designing the next generation of scalable databases using advanced statistical models.

Deniz Kent is a mission-driven scientist passionate about growing meat without killing animals, making healthcare affordable, and becoming a multi-planetary species. He co-founded Prolific Machines to help address all three of these domains.

Prolific Machines is inventing a new way to grow and control cells. Their technology will enable industry leading cost per cell produced, and they are open to making it available to all meat companies. Learn more and join the waitlist at www.prolific-machines.com.

Henry Michaelson is the Co-Founder and the Chief Technology Officer of Halla.

Throughout his tenure as CTO, Henry has played a pivotal role in Halla’s growth and success. He spearheaded the development of Halla’s MVP, an AI grocery recommendation product, and supervised the creation of two mobile apps previously released by the company. Henry’s leadership and expertise have facilitated the successful implementation of Halla’s solutions across multiple top-ranking grocery retailers and thousands of storefronts. Henry is committed to innovation and transforms groundbreaking ideas into reality.

Henry’s achievements have gained him recognition in the technology realm. He is a member of the Forbes 30 Under 30 list, Class of 2023, and is frequently invited as a guest to magazines and podcasts, where he shares his insights on artificial intelligence (AI) and retail innovation.

Gabriel Nipote is the Co-Founder & COO of Halla. He’s primarily responsible for the company’s operations and healthy growth. As such, he touches many pieces of the company, providing leadership in business development, business administration, and finance, in addition to sitting on the board as a director.

Gabriel is also instrumental in Halla’s sales activities, ensuring effective communication of the company’s position in the marketplace and managing relationships with Halla’s retail partners and clients.

In addition to being on the Forbes 30 under 30 list class of 2023, Gabriel has been featured in Winsight Grocery Business, Supermarket Perimeter, and other influential industry media.

Mr. Cahoon is a serial entrepreneur that earned an undergraduate degree in Computer Science and an MBA from Brigham Young University. For the past seven years he’s helped launch Techcyte working on everything from the product to projections, marketing, partnerships and funding. He’s worked in large ventures such as Intel, Lenovo and start-ups in Digital Microscopy, IT, Automotive Performance, Education, Real Estate and the Fund Industry.

He’s had two successful exits with the last one being sold to Lenovo. He’s passionate about creating and executing on an aligned corporate strategy and making amazing software solutions that will make a significant impact to the accuracy and costs of diagnostic testing.

Scott Weiner, leading NeuEon’s Transformation Practice, is a recognized authority in driving high performance and strategic change across various industries. With 30 years of leadership experience in roles such as CEO, CTO, and VP in technology, in healthcare, finance, and more, he provides strategic guidance to organizations ranging from startups to Fortune 500 companies. Scott is known for his insights in organizational transformation and his advocacy for small businesses. He has built multi-million dollar companies, mentored several million dollar prize winning business teams in competition, and has frequently engages with the U.S. Congress to improve technology policies.

Dan Schmerin is an operating executive, investor, and entrepreneur with 20 years of experience in finance, corporate strategy, and public policy.

He is the Co-Founder and President of Metaversal, a Web3-native company focused on the acquisition and production of iconic intellectual property across the NFT ecosystem. Metaversal seeks to unlock the vast potential of the metaverse while fueling the brands and businesses that will naturally follow in Web3.

Prior to founding Metaversal, Dan was the Chief Executive Officer of UOVO, the leading fine art, fashion, and collectibles storage and logistics provider in the United States. Dan previously served as the Director of Investment Research at Fairholme Capital Management, a multi-billion dollar value-oriented investment firm.

The discussion revolves around the topic of the digital world and its connection to the physical world. Aethelion is a company that uses fingerprinting technology to identify and track physical products without the need for physical contact. They aim to combat counterfeiting and the gray market by providing a secure way to authenticate and trace physical items. The conversation explores how optical AI can improve security and trust by bridging the gap between the digital and physical realms. Ganzarski explains the challenges of counterfeiting and the importance of having a direct link between the digital and physical aspects of a product to ensure authenticity. The technology developed by Aethelion involves taking a picture of the product, which generates a unique fingerprint that can be compared to identify the item. The conversation also touches on the development process of the technology, its applications beyond luxury goods, and the cultural openness within Aethelion.

Roei Ganzarski, CEO of Alitheon®, a Bellevue, WA-based Optical AI company, shares more on how they are providing the missing link between the physical and digital worlds with solutions for the authentication, identification and traceability of parts and products. Alitheon’s FeaturePrint® solution creates for objects, what fingerprints are for people – a one of a kind, unique identifier that does not require you to modify or add anything. Using just a camera, FeaturePrinting enables authentication, identification, and traceability of individual items out of millions of similar objects.

Prior to Alitheon, Roei was CEO of magniX, an electric aviation propulsion company. Under Roei’s leadership, magniX developed industry leading propulsion systems, were the first in the world to fly multiple all-electric commercial aircraft, achieved world’s first FAA Special Conditions publication, and won a lucrative $75M NASA contract to develop a large scale 40-passenger electric aircraft. In addition to his magniX role, Roei also served as executive chairman of Eviation, the electric aircraft manufacturer bringing a newly designed all-electric aircraft to market.

Roei was invited to testify in front of US Congress on the future of aviation and was recognized by Business Insider as one of ‘100 People Transforming Business’.

This interview features Eddie Moler, the VP of Data Science at Juvenile Therapeutics, discussing the role of AI and machine learning in the discovery of biologic therapeutics. Moler explains his background in science and technology, transitioning from quantitative physical science to biology and life science applications. He highlights the impact of cloud technology and AI/ML in accelerating the discovery of new biological phenomena and developing therapies for various diseases. Juvenile Therapeutics, an early-stage biopharma startup, focuses on leveraging stem cell biology to identify and develop new treatments based on naturally secreted proteins. Moler discusses how AI and machine learning contribute to accelerating the discovery of biomedical insights with high therapeutic potential. He emphasizes the automation of drug discovery processes and the analysis of complex biological data, such as genomics and proteomics. Moler also mentions the challenge of examining hundreds of thousands of proteins and the role of AI in identifying key factors and patterns. He discusses the proprietary nature of technology and methods used but acknowledges the importance of sharing discoveries for scientific credibility. Moler concludes by highlighting the need for domain expertise and continuous learning in this rapidly evolving field.

Eddie Moler has over 20 years of experience leading pharmaceutical and clinical diagnostics R&D, data-science/algorithm/software intensive platform development, gene-target and biomarker discovery and validation, establishing and scaling high-performing data-science & software teams, and collaboration management.

Previously, Eddie led Quest Diagnostics’ Bioinformatics organization, leading the development and launch of dozens of advanced clinical genomic diagnostic tests while more than quadrupling the size of the team across multiple sites. He has led clinical/biological research projects and the development of production-scale clinical and research platforms at Quest Diagnostics, GE Healthcare, Tethys Bioscience, Novartis, and the US Department of Energy.

Eddie has published over 50 peer-reviewed papers including clinical and molecular medicine, population health, and health economics, and has 7 issued patents on clinical risk algorithms, biomarkers, automated histopathology image analysis, drug targets, and discovery technology. Eddie received a PhD in Chemistry from UC Berkeley and a BS in Chemistry from Texas A&M University.

Summary

Madhav Khurana, the head of data science and analytics at Rebuy, discusses the role of AI in sustainability. Rebuy is a used products marketplace that aims to combat overconsumption and waste by revolutionizing the perception of pre-owned goods. They use AI to dynamically price products, forecast demand and supply, and optimize operations costs. By leveraging AI, Rebuy ensures a seamless customer experience and promotes the circular economy. Madhav also emphasizes the importance of being data-driven and proactive in decision-making. The interview highlights the shift in consumer mentality towards sustainability and the increased demand for used products. Additionally, Madhav explains the significance of failure in the development of AI projects and advises starting with minimum viable products to test feasibility. The hosts also mention a recap show that will discuss Madhav’s interview and other topics.