Danny In The Valley

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Kulveer Taggar, founder of Zeus Living, to talk about a year like no other (2:50), the first wave of cancellations 6:230), choosing to give money back (10:10), getting blanked by investors (11:40), his “Jerry Maguire” moment (14:15), Zoom layoffs (16:00), regaining ground (20:10), his co-founder’s wife getting cancer (23:10), getting back to growth (30:20), the hotel industry (34:15), changing how he works (36:30), and hearing from ex-employees (42:40). Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/dannyinthevalley.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Varsha Rao, chief executive of Nurx, to talk about running a women’s health company in Covid (2:50), seeing demand double (6:40), the staying power of telehealth (8:50), doing a startup in the first dotcom boom (13:35), what she learned (16:35), being a female founder (18:20), joining as an early executive at Airbnb (20;50), shifting to healthcare (25:30), starting at Nurx at a difficult time (27:55), launching migraine and acne treatments (31:30), convincing insurance companies to pay (33:10), what’s changed since the first bubble (36:40), and her best and worst days (38:05). Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/dannyinthevalley.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Delian Asparouhov, founder of Varda Industries, to talk about manufacturing in space (3:00), the collapse in launch costs (6:45), SpaceX’s Starship (8:55), coming to America from Bulgaria (11:30), the math Olympiad (12:20), his previous tech jobs (14:55), founder dating (17:45), building space factories (24:20), the ‘coming down’ challenge (26:05), setting a 2-year timeline (29:20), the pitch to investors (30:50), what else can be made in microgravity (34:05), and what you can do in two days in space (41:20).Get The Times free for a month: https://app.times.radio/dannyinthevalley Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/dannyinthevalley.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Jason Calacanis, to talk about the de-platfroming of Trump (4:45), the revelation that is Trump-less Twitter (9:15), Silicon Valley v the media (12:15), the editing process (17:30), his term “late-stage journalism” (19:50), subscriptions and popularity (23:25), the direction of journalism (28:00), the increased scrutiny of Big Tech (30:30), free agent journalists (34:15), Twitter v Clubhouse (36:30), and Robinhood (41:45).Get The Times free for a month: https://app.times.radio/dannyinthevalley Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/dannyinthevalley.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Jared Isaacman, founder of Shift4 Payments, to talk about flying the first civilian mission to space (4:15), on whether he is scared (7:00), starting a company at 16 (8:15), early success (11:15), creating the world’s largest air force (12:35), buying fighter jets around the world (16:05), training for space (17:50), funding kids cancer research (22:50), being a billionaire (24:25), the space flight (26:15), what his company is seeing amid Covid-19 (30:25), going public in a pandemic (32:00), giving away his money (33:15), flying Russian MiG fighter jets for fun (36:40), and breaking a round-the-world flying record (37:40). Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/dannyinthevalley.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Alexis Rivas of Cover to talk about rebuilding home-building (3:45), starting small (7:40), using software to automate the process (9:00), the original idea (11:20), getting into Y Combinator (13:45), the Lego method (15:45), the mini-boom in construction tech (18:20), the homelessness problem (21:30), the cost difference (25:05), overhauling the industry (27:45), and his worst day of work (31:45).Get The Times free for a month: https://app.times.radio/dannyinthevalley Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/dannyinthevalley.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Eric Goldman, law professor at Santa Clara University, to talk about what tech regulation will look like under Joe Biden (4:00), Congressional gridlock (7:00), the importance of Section 230 (8:15), social media’s Lehman Brothers moment (10:25), cable news’ central role in disinformation (12:40), what he would do as tech czar (14:05), and the effectiveness of labelling posts (17:05). THEN: Utah State economist Eli Dourado comes on to talk about the biggest tech innovations of the next decade, like life extension (18:45), being a different kind of economist (24:00), the prize of increasing healthspan (26:10), turning back the clock (27:45), the Apple Watch replacing your doctor (30:15), when electric cars take over (32:20), machine learning enabling super human performance (36:10), why he focuses on innovation (39:50), why the future is in space (41:05), outer space manufacturing (45:50), glasses as the next frontier of computing (50:15), and the 1960’s as the

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Sridhar Ramaswamy to talk about the problem with search engines (3:45), leaving Google (6:15), where Google went wrong (10:30), on whether people actually care about privacy (14:00), why the government's antitrust suit doesn’t help (19:00), how you build a search engine without the resources of Google (21:45), the importance of the cloud (25:45), the challenge of going from free to paid (28:30), how his former colleagues reacted (31:00), and what keeps him up at night (35:10). PLUS, Miami mayor Francis Suarez comes on to talk about Miami’s moment (35:45), that tweet (37:40), the Covid factor (39:00), why he thinks he’ll succeed his city can rival Austin as America's second tech hub (41:50), how low taxes help (44:30), and telling the story (50:00).  Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/dannyinthevalley.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Dmitri Mehlhorn, head of Investing in US, to talk about the business of unseating Trump (3:45), what he saw as an existential threat (8:25), linking up with Reid Hoffman (10:50), the problem he sought to solve (13:00), investing hundreds of millions to make Trump a one-term president (15:55), the importance of Big Data in politics (20:15), piloting a new approach in Virginia (22:30), upsetting the apple cart (25:40), being seen as “knife-fighters” (30:20), what happens now (33:40), good v evil (40:30), the key investments (43:20), the importance of the web (46:40), his biggest mistake (49:50), winning without becoming what you are trying to defeat (56:20), the death of truth (59:40), Silicon Valley’s conflict between backing Biden while battling against the impending antitrust crackdown (1:01:00), Zuckerberg’s major role in the election (1:04:30), and the future of media (1:07:15). Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/dannyinthevalley.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Chris Best, founder of Substack, to talk about how he got started (6:40), newsletters v newspapers (11:20), Silicon Valley’s disgust with the media (13:10), helping writers make money (16:20), Substack’s top earner (22:00), the danger of hardening silos (25:40), giving writers more resources (30:55), the value of editors (34:10), how Substack makes money (38:25), following in Patreon’s footsteps (40:05), free versus paid (43:10), and his worst day of work (47:10). Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/dannyinthevalley.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on George Goldsmith to talk about how he started looking into psilocybin (3:45), its history of research (7:00), what he and his wife did before starting Compass (10:15), the 100 million people suffering treatment-resistant depression (14:15), launching the company (17:15), finding investors (18:45), being worth $800 million (23:00), what therapy looks like (26:20), patenting a natural substance (32:00), the legalisation movement (42:00), shooting for 2025 (44:30), his worst day of work (47:30), and building a business around an illegal drug (51:50). Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/dannyinthevalley.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Tim O’Reilly, founder of O’Reilly Media and prominent tech commentator, to talk about algorithmic rent (0:00), the Facebook case (5:15), how tech companies quietly changed the terms of engagement (7:40), getting investment from Pierre Omidyar (12:40), how his work got started on algorithmic rent (13:20), monitoring Big Tech’s behaviour change (16:15), Facebook’s rents (23:35), the importance of framing a problem (26:00), how to protect our 'tenants’ rights' (29:40), building a case (36:00), getting inspiration from Microsoft (37:40), and the toxicity of the Big Tech debate (41:20). Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/dannyinthevalley.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Brad Garlinghouse, to talk about remaking the global financial system (2:45), when it could happen (5:30), the cross-border payment challenge (7:10), replumbing the system (12:00), going through the first dotcom bubble (14:20), suing Youtube (16:20), getting impersonated (21:40), China’s control of bitcoin (22:20), the future of finance (24:20), considering moving to London (29:00), operating with a hand behind his back (30:45), and how chaos helps (33:30). Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/dannyinthevalley.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Renee DiResta of the Stanford INternet Observatory to talk about how Twitter handled 2020 (3:30), mainstream media getting a pass (40), Facebook groups (9:45), Sharpiegate (8:30), the election day war room (11:45), conspiracy “tickets” (15:00), how conspiracies spread (16:45), Trump’s centrality to the voter fraud posts (21:40), how these theories play out in the real world (26:40), the low cost to spreading misinformation (28:45), how 2020 compares to 2016 (33:30), Covid vaccines as the next target (36:20), whats changed between the first tech hearing and the most recent (39:00), and what Tiktok learned (41:30).Get The Times free for a month: thetimes.co.uk/dannyinthevalley Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/dannyinthevalley.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Nate Storey, co-founder of indoor farming unicorn Plenty, to talk about tearing down and rebuilding farms (3:40), the problem he’s trying to solve (6:40), breeding food for transport (8:50), building a farm in Compton (10:45), leveraging Hollywood (13:40), how he got into agriculture (17:10), leaving his first startup (22:10), what an indoor farm looks like (24:00), the industry boom (31:10), luring infrastructure investors (33:45), falling costs (37:30), how traditional farmers have responded (40:45), and putting orchards inside (44:00). Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/dannyinthevalley.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Ruben Harris, co-founder of Career Karma, to talk about starting out as a cellist (3:10), why music convinced him to get into business (6:50), buying a one-way ticket (8:55), his first tech job (11:00), working in political technology (17:30), how starting a podcast led to his startup (18:50), quitting his job (20:30), creating Career Karma (22:00), on whether coding boot camps work (23:50), income-sharing agreements (26:15), how work is changing (28:20), being black in Silicon Valley (30:15), his worst day (34:30), and addressing the laptop shortage (36:20). Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/dannyinthevalley.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Phil Libin, founder of Mmhmm, to talk about fasting (3:35), starting the company (5:00), what it does (9:15), the end of the social media ice age (13:20), a trillion dollar shift (17:00), why he’s not worried about rivals copying him (24:30), who uses it (27:00), how he came up with the name (30:45), what goes wrong at startups (34:20), what skydiving taught him (39:35), the new hybrid world (43:30), and why he plans to leave San Francisco (46:30). Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/dannyinthevalley.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Michiah Prull, founder of Avalanche Insights, to talk about setting up a company after the 2016 election (3:00), starting as a community organiser (5:00), the problem with messaging (6:30), using AI to understand emotions (8:35), finding the right people (11:00), how an algorithm intuits human motivations (13:15), crafting a message (15:45), why the left is bad at it (19:45), fighting polarisation (22:30), levelling the misinformation/information playing field (26:00), whether he will go corporate (27:30), what went wrong in 2016 (31:30), the future of elections (33:00), the outlook for November 3 (35:45), and the evolution of the public’s view of climate change (37:35). Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/dannyinthevalley.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on John Matze, founder of Parler, to talk about starting a social network (4:10), its first viral moment (7:05), reacting to the banning of people online (8:10), echo chambers (11:10), Parler’s hyper-partisan power users (13:25), the site’s rules (15:50), why he doesn’t regulate hate speech (19:50), how the app helps people find others (24:10), why he welcomes the rush of Q Anon users (28:50), why he doesn’t think Parler is pushing people apart (33:25), his investors (36:50), trying to build Parler into a business (39:00), why misinformation is fair game (42:15), and how Katie Hopkins’ arrival attracted users (45:20). Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/dannyinthevalley.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Jordan Fisher, founder of Standard Cognition, to talk about creating a video game (5:00), being rejected from venture capitalists (7:20), helping the financial regulator catch fraudsters (9:30), jumping into cashierless checkouts 12:10), the future of retail (16:30), launching in three stores (21:00), not using check-in gates (23:30), the very analogue backend of cashierless checkout (28:00), raising $86m - thanks to Amazon (32:15), what this means for retail (36:30), the effect of “Bodega-gate” (39:10), getting people used to not paying for stuff (41:10), the facial recognition issue (43:00), selling the system as a DIY kit (46:20), and the moments he thought it wouldn’t work (48:30).thetimes.co.uk/dannyinthevalley Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/dannyinthevalley.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.