Danny In The Valley

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Warren Hogarth, founder of Empower, to talk about solving the credit score quandary (3:20), how his struggle to buy a car planted a seed for the company (6:20), tapping in to bank account data (8:05), his first job shoveling poop (13:00), trying his hand at fuel cell technology (14:40), then doing a fintech startup (15:50), joining the legendary venture firm Sequoia Capital (18:00), not investing in Lyft (19:55), launching Empower (21:50), the problem with credit scoring (28:05), learning how fintechs got built at Sequoia (31:10), raising $150 million after staying lean for years (34:10), completely automating credit approval (34:30), keeping an eye on employment amid economic turmoil (36:35), and operating remote-first (39:50). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Anand Parikh, co-founder and chief executive of Faeth Therapeutics, to talk about using nutrition to treat cancer (3:30), pairing it with chemotherapy (8:45), growing up in London (10:00), moving from corporate law to a startup (12:00), starting Faeth (17:10), a dream team of cancer scientists (18:30), seeking FDA approval (26:10), operating fully remotely (29:50), food as medicine (32:15), and his worst day of work (34:40). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times’s tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Isaac P, a tech worker secretly working multiple full-time jobs, to talk about the “overemployed” phenomenon (4:30), making $1 million a year (6:05), why the days of the employee are dead (8:25), the rise of remote monitoring tools (13:10), a typical day (14:30), his view of employers/companies (15:30), starting the website, Discord and Reddit (18:30), burnout (21:20), whether a slowing economy will kill the “overemployed” era (23:30), whether going to university is the best plan (28:00), and decoupling your identity from your job (30:10). Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

I'm taking a couple weeks off. Will be back with you first thing in September. Thanks for listening! Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Ben Parker, co-founder and chief executive of Lightship, to talk about electrifying the recreational vehicle industry (3:30), starting out in electric racing (6:00), getting a job at Tesla (7:40), the food truck problem (12:30), leaving Tesla (19:25), starting Lightship (25:25), rethinking design from the ground up (31:00), the pickup truck tipping point (33:00), raising $23m (36:20), lessons from Tesla (39:00), and why RV’s are beige (43:50). Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Eric Verdin, president of the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, to talk about metformin (5:20), his background (9:30), the origin of the Buck (12:30), getting support from techies (14:50), the birth of geroscience (19:20), exercise and the 10,000 steps phenomenon (27:10), tracking down the pathways of ageing (28:55), what the research looks like five years from now (35:10), healthspan (41:20), the Moore’s Law of ageing (46:20), how post codes are the single biggest determinant of longevity (50:25), age reversal (57:00), the longevity dividend (1:00:40) and the value of a glass of wine (1:09:45). See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Tom Oxley, founder of Synchron, to talk about putting the first brain implant into a US patient (3:50), helping paralysed patients (6:55), getting the device into the brain (11:00), what this means for humans (14:25), understanding the brain (18:30), how he got started (24:00), creating Synchron (30:05), and the how the Pentagon helped fund the company (32:20). See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Iggy Bassi and Karan Chopra of Cervest to talk about measure climate risk (4:40), launching Cervest after starting a company in Ghana (8:40), what they learned from growing rice (11:55), climate data (17:00), how they sell it (22:00), raising money (27:00), how climate intelligence is used by businesses (33:30), climate health scores (40:20), the problem with heat (43:15), and integrating climate risk scores into (47:30) See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Matthew Ball, investors and Author of The Metaverse, and How it Will Revolutionize Everything, to talk about why the time is near for the metaverse (3:45), the metaverse economy (8:40), bringing together different technological and cultural strands (10:15), what’s going to be different (12:30), the importance of generational shifts (15:05), the definition (18:45), why there are no legs in Meta’s Horizon Worlds (23:55), the hardware challenge (26:00), who loses (31:55), Netflix (34:00), and why foresight and resource may not matter (35:45). See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on investor Mike Alfred to talk about the crypto meltdown (8:50), why this is different than the 2008 financial crisis (12:20), why more pain is coming (18:00), why he was worried about Celsius and BlockFi (22:10), and what the collapse means for the economy (28:05). THEN: Alex Garden of Zume comes on to talk about the food supply chain (32:20), alighting on pizza (37:35), replacing plastic with compostable packaging (41:50), the problem with plastic (45:05), how soggy pizza led to a pivot (51:00), scaling up (56:50), days that end in “why?” (1:06:50), and the painful decisions required to survive (1:08:50). See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on John de Souza, to talk about replacing car batteries, not charging them (6:20), starting with fleets (11:30), growing up in Africa and Dubai (15:00), producing a movie (19:00), entering uni at 16 (22:10), selling his first startup to Bill Gates (24:05), becoming an investor (27:40), then doing a few more startups (32:25), alighting on EV charging (33:40), getting the car companies to buy in to swappable batteries (39:20), raising $260 million (42:40), why superchargers aren’t enough (44:35), the future of the energy transition (48:20), and his deal with Uber (50:40). See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Sunday  Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Harley Finkelstein, president of Shopify, to talk about the market mayhem (3:50), Shopify coming out of the shadows (5:25), how it got started (11:30), how Amazon have up on the online stores business (19:35), getting into delivery (22:45), the renewed Amazon threat (27:45), the future of direct-to-consumer commerce (31:30), how Apple has upended online ads (36:10), and the best and worst of going fully remote (38:30). See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Kentaro Kawamori to talk about starting out in the oil industry (3:30), growing up all around the world (8:00), doing esports (10:00), going to three universities at once (13:30), dealing with drunken Japanese salarymen (14:40), the need for carbon accounting (17:30), how Persefoni works (24:15), Big Oil billionaires backing climate tech (27:15), raising $100 million (29:00), what happens after measurement (32:30), why Exxon’s loss to green investors was a big deal (34:30), the SEC pushing through with climate disclosure rules (38:10), and his worst day of work (41:50). See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on two guests this week. First up is Steven Levy, editor-at-large at Wired and author Facebook: The Inside Story, to talk about Sheryl Sandberg’s original “deal” with Mark Zuckerberg (5:00), what Facebook was in the early days (7:10), the failure of the Zuck-Sheryl partnership (9:30), consolidation of Zuckerberg’s power (19:00), the Washington DC operation (21:00), what Sandberg does next (26:30), and what Meta does next (31:20). Then Chris Sheldrick, co-founder and CEO of What3words, comes on to talk about dividing the world into 57 trillion squares (36:30), the origin of the idea (38:40), getting the world to sign up (42:00), partnering with Jaguar Land Rover (44:10), breaking into America and other markets (46:50), the battle for mapping dominance (50:15), the business model (54:20), translating the system into different languages (55:50), and getting its first contract - in Mongolia (57:40) See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Anne Boden, founder of fintech unicorn Starling Bank, to talk about the post-pandemic workplace (3:30), the market collapse (8:40), starting a bank after the recession (11:50), growing up in South Wales (14:25), why banks aren’t good at tech (17:45), how people reacted to her as a first-time, 50-something entrepreneur (22:00), the first “yes” after 400 “no’s” (25:00), the banks’ lack of confidence (30:00), getting to 3 million customers in three years (33:40), sexism (39:40), breaking out of being a “trial bank” (42:20), crypto (43:40), and money laundering in London (46:25). See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Avinash Rugoobur, president of Arrival, to talk about the challenge of creating an electric vehicle company from scratch (3:30), micro-factories (6:20), how the EV shift has already happened (10:30), why small is beautiful (15:50), the problem with paint (19:50), starting at GM’s innovation unit (24:20), when he started a “chocolate lounge” (25:45), meeting Arrival founder Denis Sverdlov (30:10), the importance of mentors (35:10), what keeps him up at night (38:30), and operating in a bear market (42:00). See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Sunday Times' tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Kat Norton, creator of Miss Excel, to talk about what she did before Miss Excel (3:30), declaring she would be “rich and famous” (7:30), deciding to try Tiktok (9:50), hitting 100,000 views with an early video (11:50), creating an Instagram presence (13:55), quitting her job (15:30), webinars (17:10), going from zero to seven figures in a year (19:00), on whether the pace is sustainable (24:10), social media negativity (27:10), the new world of Excel creators (28:45), and leaving New York (31:20). See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Vivas Kumar, founder of Mitra Chem, to talk about batteries (4:00), starting out at Tesla (8:10), launching his company (9:50), the race for battery resources (12:40), iron and China (14:00), meeting Chamath Palihapitya (18:10), going from India to Singapore to Texas to California (21:40), the Tesla roller coaster (26:30), making cathode powder (34:15), and the million-mile battery (39:30). See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on two guests, Hany Farid of UC Berkeley’s School of Information, and James Currier, general partner at NFX, to talk about Twitter and social media. Farid is up first to talk about free speech (4:50), the ideal of the Internet (10:00), the content moderation challenge (14:45), Musk’s plan for Twitter (18:50), why Farid’s optimistic (23:00), the cost of misinformation (27:00), and his prediction for Twitter (30:30). NFX’s James Currier then comes on to talk about the state of social media (33:35), taming the savageness of man (40:40), the bot problem (42:35), the uniqueness of Twitter (44:35), the Tiktok effect (46:50), the rise and fall of consumer products (51:55), the return to social media normalcy (54:25), the value of a social graph and Twitter’s future (57:45), and the crash in tech markets (1:02:10). See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Sunil Paul to talk about how the “orange day” inspired him to start Spring Free (4:00), pioneering car-sharing and ride-sharing (9:50), why his company Sidecar didn’t work (14:35), the idea behind Spring Free (17:35), the Airbnb of electric vehicles (21:50), finding enough cars (27:40), getting billionaires to back him (32:10), applying the lessons form ride-sharing (33:00), building Spring Free as a consumer fintech brand (38:40), comparing the climate opportunity to the dawn of the web and his early days at AOL (40:00), and his worst day (47:25). See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.