Danny In The Valley

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Suhkinder Singh Cassidy, founder of theBoardlist, to talk about the lack of women in tech (3:00), why that’s a problem (4:05), how scandal has created urgency (6:40), working at Amazon pre-bubble (9:45), losing 95% of her fortune (11:30), launching a fintech startup in 2003 (13:10), helping start Google Maps (13:45), starting a rival to Home Shopping Network (15:05), and then theBoardlist (16:30), the lack of demand for female board members (18:20), the problem with the obsession with growth (19:55), why senior women are unicorns (21:35), the venture capital boys club (22:40), her experience with sexism (24:20), the reaction to #metoo (28:50), what works in startups (31:40), why ‘product market fit’ is the key (34:20), why she spends so much time on hiring (34:15), and why living a balanced life is not possible (35:00). 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 Scott Galloway, NYU professor and author of The Four, to answer five big tech questions in 2018. 1. Is the (ad-based) Internet broken? (2:00), 2. Should Facebook be broken up? (3:40), How has Amazon managed to avoid the backlash? (6:00), 4. Why have advertisers not flexed their muscles (9:40), and 5. Is this any different from the robber barons or other eras where a handful of companies dominated industries? (13:45). 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 Scott Phoenix, founder of artificial intelligence startup Vicarious, to talk about the dawn of the robot age (4:30), the “last invention” (6:05), replicating the human brain (8:55), putting robots in the wild (10:00), how he got into AI (11:15), why he’s not 500 years too early (12:20), why Elon Musk is wrong (13:15), having Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos as investors (16:55), not wanting to be an investment banker (18:05), launching a Y combinator startup (19:00), AI’s evolution (20:10), solving Captcha’s (22:05), understanding how the brain works (25:40), why general AI could change everything (28:10), the danger of bias (29:50), in-home robots (33:45), and what society looks like when AI takes over (36:10). 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 Bill Gates to talk about being the world’s biggest philanthropist (3:00) eradicating malaria (1:40), saving Africa’s children (6:10), wiping polio off the planet (7:40), applying big data to public health (9:30), why he cares (11:10), whether the new generation of billionaires care (14:20), launching the Giving Pledge with Warren Buffett (16:10), the economic dividend from saving kids (18:05), Africa’s exploding population (19:30), creating new multinational organisations (23:15), the malaria crisis (24:25) the need for a technology leap (25:40), how this compares to Microsoft (27:35), partnering with Warren Buffett (30:10), whether he has tried to tackle mass-shootings (31:25), the inevitability that AI will replace human work (32:45), whether we need a robot tax (35:20), the Facebook problem (36:55), the danger of cryptocurrencies (38:20). Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/dannyinthevalley.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy an

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). 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 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). 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 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). 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 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). 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 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). 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 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). Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/dannyinthevalley.  See acast.com/privacy f

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). 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 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). 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 Aubrey de Grey, founder of the Sens Research Foundation, to talk the possibility of turning humans into a "multi-century species" (1:40), why rejuvenation is the key (4:40), aiming for “longevity escape velocity” (6:00), what’s wrong with the current approach to ageing, tackling the seven types of ageing damage (10:20), why the Google guys are wasting their money (11:30), getting funding from Peter Thiel and Vitalik Buterin (13:35), why cryptocurrency millionaires are enthused by living forever (15:25), why eternal life is the next step in evolution (18:45), what rejuvenation looks like (23:25), why he has no time for dystopic predictions (27:00), the coming war on ageing (31:20), how he ended up in Silicon Valley (35:45), why ageing doesn’t get much funding (38:20), and treating the human body like a car (39:30). 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 Prerna Gupta and Parag Chordia to talk about remaking reading for millennials (4:00), on reaching 40m people in a year (5:10) creating “chat fiction” (6:20), finding writers (8:10), how mobile reading is like film was at its outset (11:00), creating their first music-making apps (12:30), creating an antidote to social media addiction (19:30), trying to write a fantasy novel (22:00), translating the novel into mobile phone form (25:00), finding readers through Facebook ads (26:30), luring Snoop Dogg, Mariah Carey and Stephen Curry as investors (28:15), creating a “next generation” film studio (32:30), trying to create the next Harry Potter on the mobile (35:30), the power of teenage girls as early adopters (37:15). 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 Mike Selden, founder of Finless Foods, to talk about growing fish flesh without the fish (3:15) how it works (4:30), turning mush into fillets (7:00), why he started the company (8:50), the scourge of sea lice (10:40), blind tuna (12:05), how to avoid the public relations mistakes made by the GMO industry (13:35), leaving a medical career for a startup (16:10), why banana candy tastes terrible (17:10), being an environmental activist (18:20), the nascent ‘clean meat’ industry (19:40), the synthetic biology revolution (22:00), the ingredients (23:50), vegetable “scaffolding’ (25:45), taking on Big Fish (26:40) why Europe will be a challenge (28:00), being transparent in marketing (30:00), fish brewery tours (31:45), why cost is key (33:10), the beginning of the end of industrial livestock (36:05), and banishing vegetarianism (38:00). Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/dannyinthevalley.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-o

The Sunday Times tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Tim O’Reilly, oracle of the tech industry, to talk about why 2017 may go down as a watershed year (3:00), how Facebook is like Microsoft (4:25), what’s wrong with tech’s “master algorithm” (7:15), exploding the myth of the rise of the machines (9:50), the era of surveillance (12:25), the danger of bad laws (15:20), creating the world’s first website and formalising the open-source movement (17:40), coining the term “Web 2.0” (19:35), what World War II can tell us about tech (21:50), the need to rebuild society as we know it (24:35), why we may need to get rid of advertising altogether (25:25), why he doesn’t buy the blockchain hype (28:00), why the marriage of AI and biotech is the next big revolution (31:00), the beginning of the end of the Internet duopoly (31:55), data as the point of control (36:00), and why the 21st will be China’s (37:00). Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/dannyinthevalley.  See acast.com/privacy for privac

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, to talk about his plan to save the news industry with his latest startup Wikitribune (3:15), what’s wrong with ad-driven media (4:35), crowdsourcing journalism (6:35), charity as a business model (11:20), why a pay wall won’t work (13:05), ‘disrupting’ the encyclopedia (14:50), growing up in an entrepreneurial family (16:30), why Wikipedia’s predecessor failed (19:30), not being a billionaire (24:40), being a pathological optimist (26:10), how blockchain could change everything (28:40), why it won’t work for Wikipedia (30:25), living in London (31:25) and why Brexit is the “dumbest thing ever” (32:35). 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 takes a deep dive into the world of robots to chart the the beginnings of the machine age (2:30), the creation of the now-ubiquitous (ROS) robot operating system (5:00), the rise of artificial intelligence (7:45), machines leaving the factory floor into the real world (9:40), and into the fields (12:00), the end of work for humans (14:25), why Bill Gates called for a “robot tax” (17:20), how to flummox the machines (19:00), the importance of self-driving cars (22:05), giant killer robots (24:00), why looks matter (28:25), machines that drop blood from the sky (30:20), invisible robots (35:35), and what the future holds (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 Pete Flint, founder of Trulia and partner at NFX, to talk about his plans to remake the venture capital industry (3:15), growing up in Essex (6:00), his brief investment banking experiment (8:00), helping lastminute.com get off the ground (9:45), surviving the dotcom bubble (11:00), decamping for California (12:45), starting Trulia (13:45), getting his first investors (16:05), being hit by the financial crisis (19:10), the famous ‘RIP Good Times’ memo (20:35), making the most out of a crisis (22:15), desperation cold-calling (24:40), floating in New York (25:45), selling his business for $3.5bn (27:15), celebrating a $150m payday (30:30), becoming an angel investor (32:00), being pitched a cyborg startup (33:45), starting at NFX (35:40), how the UK is catching up to Silicon Valley (36:30) why he will be staying in California (38:40), and his worst day of work (40:00). Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/dannyinthevalley.  See acast

The Sunday Times' tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on George Hotz, founder of Comma.ai to talk about how he plans to "win" the race to develop self-driving cars (2:45), improving autonomy (5:30), hacking the cars already on the road (7:10), developing the Android operating system of autmoobiles (9:00), why laser-based systems are "dumb" (10:35), why he doesn't plan to raise money (11:45), how self-driving will become a subscription service (13:00), trying to explain the unexplainable (15:10), Comma's army of DIY self-driving enthusiasts (18:30), why government should stay out out of the way (21:30), and creating a system based on human driving patterns (23:20).  Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/dannyinthevalley.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.