Danny In The Valley

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Baroness Beeban Kidron talk about her crusade against Big Tech, “age appropriate” design (1:40), turning 50 pages of terms and conditions into a couple sentences (2:50), the industry’s “category error” (4:30), why kids are considered kids online at 13 (7:50), how the smartphone changed everything (9:50), making the digital world look more like the real world (11:50), why the tech ‘nation-states’ need to assume more responsibilities (14:45), the turning tide of public opinion (16:00), industry being its own worst enemy (18:45), the tech ‘cartel’ (23:05), the “lost generation” (27:15), behaviour manipulation (29:30), and why tech isn’t like jazz or the novel (32:45). 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 Orion Hindawi, cyber-security billionaire and founder of Tanium, to talk about how the world is waking up to the security problem (1:50), how criminals make more from hacking than from drugs (3:50), rogue states like North Korea using hacking as an income generator (5:15), hacks becoming unavoidable events like earthquakes and fires (7:20), the origins of the Tanium name (8:15), starting his first company at age 17 (9:25), leaving and beginning again (11:10), why most companies don’t know how many computers they own (13:00), the great anti-virus scam (14:55), secret breaches (17:00), on whether Tanium has a toxic culture and “Orion’s list” (19:20), Silicon Valley’s terrible culture (21:40), the niche security market for the super-rich (24:30), the industry’s “boy who cried wolf” problem (26:30), and the cryptocurrency fallacy (29:00). Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/dannyinthevalley.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out informatio

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Martha Lane Fox, dotcom pioneer and Twitter board member, to talk about the tech industry’s hubris (2:00), joining Twitter (5:45), explaining the Internet in 1995 (8:50), launching lastminute.com (11:50), creating a unicorn twenty years ago (13:35), which quickly became a pariah (16:15), almost dying in a car accident (17:45), rebuilding a career (19:30), the need for a Geneva Convention of the web (21:35), tech’s sexism problem (24:05), the dangers of screen time (28:00), her worst day of work (29:55), creating a “fair trade” style brand for responsible websites (32:30), designing for the “furthest first” (35:15), London’s effort to rival Silicon Valley (37:05), and why the old Parliament building should be closed down (40:00). 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 Scott Galloway of NYU's Stern School of Business and author of The Four, to talk about how the big Internet companies Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google are like Darth Vader (2:10), Amazon's astoundingly low tax bill (5:45), its Jedi mind tricks (7:30), moving to a 'zero-click' model (9:30), the need to revisit antitrust laws (12:30), why Europe is going to lead the charge against Big Tech (14:30), how Google stockpiles geniuses (16:00), why Facebook is the most vulnerable (18:00), why the best thing it can do is overreact (21:45), Apple's historic ability to make money (22:45), how tech has replaced religion (24:30), its extraordinary concentration of power and wealth (27:00), what happens when Google gets hacked (30:30), Facebook's existential crisis (31:45), how the giants kill upstarts (33:15), and the coming war on Big Tech (37:00).  Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/dannyinthevalley.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy

The Sunday Times' tech correspondent Danny Fortson talks to cryptocurrency entrepreneurs and investors about the boom in initial coin offerings, or ICO’s, (1:45), why the underlying technology may be “bigger than the Internet” (2:45), living in an age of distrust (5:30), soaring digital currency values (6:30), how a former rapper is trying to get in on the craze (7:15), why most currencies are like Disney Dollars (9:50), the lack of regulation (12:25), the company trying to become the Goldmans Sachs of crypto (15:00), the industry’s links to gaming (17:40), the importance of blockchain (21:15), monetising human knowledge (23:00), limits to cryptographic security (27:40), North Korea’s hacking (29:45), blockchain’s electricity problem (31:25) and the future of everything (32:30). 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 Trip Adler, founder of Scribd, to talk about creating the “Netflix of reading” (2:00), teaming up with newspapers (4:30), the evolving attitude to subscriptions (5:50), why less than 1% of users are paid subscribers (7:45), pivoting and pivoting again (9:05), taking on Amazon (11:20), the parallels to the music business (12:15), the generation gap (14:35), being classmates with Mark Zuckerberg (15:35), starting at Y Combinator (16:55), experimenting with a ride-sharing service (18:35), going from zero to 100 million users (19:05), the end of ownership (21:00), raising the company’s first $12,000 and working out of the “Y-scraper” (23:30), luring in venture capitalists (25:15), paywalls (29:30), splitting the pie with publishers (32:00), Scribd’s trove of sheet music (33:10) and teaming up with The New York Times (33:45). Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/dannyinthevalley.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out informati

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Jeremy Liew of Lightspeed Venture Partners, the first investor in Snapchat, to talk about moving to America from Australia (2:10), working for Uber’s Dara Khosrowshahi (4:00), the AOL diaspora (5:00), becoming a venture capitalist (7:15), tracking down Snapchat in 2012 (8:00), how a picture with Barack Obama helped sealed the deal (10:00), young women as a lead indicator (12:25), the sexting issue (15:05), the Snap rocketship (17:00), why Snapchat’s founders have created an ironclad grip over the shares (18:45), being on Evan Spiegel’s Christmas card list (21:25), Facebook’s copycat programme (22:00), Snap as the anti highlight reel (24:00), avoiding becoming Twitter (26:25), finding the next Snapchat (27:15), the power of GIF’s (29:15), investing in frivolity (31:00), on whether smartphones are ruining a generation (31:55), the next big thing (33:00) and how voice technology is going to transform the Internet (35:30). Support this show http://supp

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Ev Williams, chief executive of online publisher Medium and Twitter co-founder, to talk about upping Twitter’s character limit (2:20), the dark side of the Internet (3:40), the power of the web in politics (6:00), starting four companies (7:15), the idea behind Medium (9:35), the problem with the ad-based web (11:30), pivoting (13:15), putting up a paywall (14:55), cat videos vs investigative journalism (16:40), his new “pay-for-claps” model (19:10), the broken media (20:00), why it’s so hard to make money from content online (24:00), Twitter’s problem with “trolls” (27:50), and anonymity (29:00), Silicon Valley’s awakening (30:55), and his worst day of work (34:30). 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 Matt Barnard, co-founder of indoor-farming startup Plenty, to talk about building a ‘global agricultural utility’ (4:25), America’s outsized appetite (6:00), eating old apples (9:00), why tomatoes are terrible in Britain (11:20), building 500 city-centre farms around the world (14:30), luring Softbank as an investor (16:40), and Jeff Bezos (19:30), integrating with Amazon (20:20), why growing indoors works (22:50), using less than 1% the water that normal farms need (24:20), machine learning (26:30), selling cheap fruit and veg (28:00), recreating the Mediterranean in a warehouse (29:15), huge energy bills (30:15), and changing a 10,000-year old business model (31:30). 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 Saeed Amidi, founder of Plug and Play, one of the world’s largest startup accelerators, to talk about how he invests in 150 companies each year (2:50), chickening out of an Airbnb investment (4:10), arriving from Iran (7:50), starting a bottled water company (9:00), becoming an angel investor (11:40), investing in Google when it was just three people (12:45), his $100m payday from Dropbox (14:30), backing Peter Thiel at Paypal (16:05), investing judo (17:20), why accelerators help (20:30), his London plans (22:50), trying to find the Uber of insurance (25:30), the problem with tech tourism (28:40), on whether unicorns face extinction (32:05), if the Silicon Valley model can be exported (35:00), and why he likes to back immigrants and foreigners (36:55). 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 Uber’s new head of leadership and renowned company doctor Frances Frei to talk about what she found when she walked into Uber (2:30), its army of first-time managers (5:30), taking Uber to school (6:30), the company's ‘toxic’ culture (7:40), the problem with startups (9:15), arriving as a woman (11:00), the importance of culture (12:20) overhauling Harvard Business School (13:00), making the right diagnosis (17:40), taking advantage of a crisis (18:15), necessary turnover (20:00), the power of diversity (22:40), having less 'do-overs' (23:30), harnessing Uber’s aggression (25:30), being a college basketball player (27:10), stepping on toes (28:30), Uber’s board upheaval (29:45), leadership by committee (31:55), and office push-ups (36:15). 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 Steve Ballmer, former Microsoft CEO and one of the world’s richest men, to talk about retiring with a $33bn fortune (1:55), launching his new project USA Facts (3:00), losing his shirt investing in Twitter (3:55), starting as employee number 30 at Microsoft (5:20), what disruption looked like in 1980 (9:20), the most important negotiation of his life (11:25), being Microsoft’s biggest investor (13:00), why he started USA Facts (15:05), on “Making Data Great Again” (16:05), fake news (17:00), on whether he wants to run for office (22:10), spending $2bn on the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers (24:00), when he tried to buy Yahoo for $45bn (27:20), his biggest mistake (29:15), and the next big thing (30:20). 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 Marc Andreessen, founder of Internet pioneer Netscape and venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, to talk about the early days of the Internet (2:45), the "absurd" power of the web giants (7:30), delivery robots (10:45), the ease of starting an web company today (12:00), the ideal time to invest (15:00), the truth about artificial intelligence (16:30), the “luddite” panic (25:45), industries tech is aiming for next (33:00), why the answer to our problems is more technology (36:00), whether the big Internet companies are too big (37:30), why he told Mark Zuckerberg to turn down a takeover from Yahoo (39:30), how he's not worried about screen time for his 2-year-old son (43:10), and why the disruption of all human activity is only just getting started (44:45). 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 talks to the scientists and executives pledging to redefine life as we know it about why we may be finally on the cusp of an age revolution (2:00), taking the pain out of being old (6:00), the wonder drugs already in circulation (7:45), on whether we are playing god (17:45), the rejuvenating effects of young blood (22:30), freezing your stem cells (26:45), the merging of artificial intelligence and medicine (30:00), and what the future of ageing looks like (37:00). SUBSCRIBE: find all our episodes at sundaytimes.co.uk/dannyinthevalley and on Apple Podcasts: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/danny-in-the-valley/id1233991021 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 Chieh Huang, founder of Boxed.com, to talk about setting up the “Costco for millennials” in a two-car garage (1:30), why Brexit and small houses make coming to the UK hard (3:00), growing up as a son of immigrants (5:30), making his first fortune selling an office-decoration game to Zynga (9:00), the entrepreneurial itch (17:30), taking on the $200bn big-box retail industry (20:30), struggling for funding (23:00), the challenge of shipping giant boxes (26:30), being an “undercorn” (29:00), paying university fees for the children of his workers (30:00), unlimited maternity leave (31:15), the financial calculus behind those benefits (34:15), predictive shopping (37:15), and trying to please a Tiger Mom (39:45). 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 Jamie Siminoff, founder of Ring, the video doorbell company, to talk about about getting rejected on national television (2:00), turning failure into funding (4:00), putting his email address on every box (11:00), being lambasted by "nasty" British customers (12:15), following the James Dyson model (14:00), doing 24 hours on the home shopping television, (17:00), starting ten other companies (19:00), getting his first outside money (21:45), spending $1m to buy the ‘ring.com’ domain (26:15), luring Sir Richard Branson as an investor (32:45), being sued by a giant rival (34:45), showing up at customers’ houses (38:00), and shipping a faulty product that nearly bankrupted him (39:45). 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 Oren Jacob, former CTO of film studio Pixar and founder of computer conversation startup Pullstring to talk about the new age of voice technology and talking Barbie (2:30), how the Amazon Echo ended the family shopping trip (7:30), his years at Pixar (12:00), building Mrs Potatohead (13:30), how a stuffed bunny inspired his startup (14:45), cold-calling speech experts (18:30), doing market research in a tent (20:30), raising the first round of venture capital (23:30), the difficulty of doing speech recognition for children (25:30), the many tech revolutions making voice systems possible (28:45), turning algorthms into characters (36:00), whether bots kill jobs (40:00), expecting too much from machines (46:00), and the importance of a voice assistant elegantly saying “I don’t know” (47:45). 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 Rich Pierson, co-founder of Headspace, the popular meditation app, to talk about how it started in London nine years ago (6:30), meeting his co-founder (8:00), quitting his job marketing deodorant (9:15), starting out with group meditation events (13:00), accidental focus groups (16:00), moving to California (16:45), going from 18 to 170 employees (19:30), layoffs and mistakes (20:00), convincing investors to put money into mindfulness (21:30), competing with 3,000 rival apps (25:00), struggling to manage people (30:00), helping nurses with “compassion fatigue’ (34:00), and signing up big companies (34:45). 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 Phil Libin, founder of Evernote, one of the first companies to be labelled a “unicorn”, to talk about his plan to create the Netflix of artificial intelligence (1:00), growing up poor (3:30), selling his first company at 16 (6:00), starting another after September 11 (9:45), creating Evernote (11:00), being one of the first apps in the App Store (13:45), getting funding from fanboys (17:00), being saved by a random Swede (19:30), the downside of the hype cycle (21:30), leaving Evernote (24:30), becoming a venture capitalist (25:45), his worst day at work (29:30), bureaucracy robots (32:45), and building something for yourself (36:00). 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 Will Marshall, founder of Planet, a billion-dollar startup that operates the world’s largest constellation of satellites, to talk about taking a picture of earth every day (2:30), making satellites the size of shoeboxes (4:30), the space renaissance (6:30) increasing crop yields from 300 miles overhead (10:30), selling data to hedge funds (14:45), buying Google’s satellite arm (15:45), the rocket bottleneck (16:30), how smartphones changed space (18:45), the perils of rubbish travelling at 20,000 mph (20:15), blowing up satellites (22:30), how he came to America from Britain (23:45), the future of the space business (28:30) and creating an accidental unicorn (29:45). Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/dannyinthevalley.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.