Future of Tech

In this episode, Avishai sits down with AI pioneer Yoav Shoham. Yoav was a professor of computer science at Stanford for 28 years, where he was the director of the AI Lab. He is also a serial entrepreneur and has founded various companies across industries. Most recently, he co-founded AI21 labs. AI21 Labs aims to take AI to the next level and builds LLMs for enterprises that make machines thought partners. Join him and Avishai for a great discussion, and hear why Yoav doesn't believe Gen AI truly exists, AI21’s mission, and his vision for the future.  The AI winter is over. AI is at the top of everyone’s mind today, but it has existed for decades. Yoav experienced the ‘AI Winter,’ a period during the 1990s when interest and funding in AI dropped. Yoav says that the effects of the winter have worn off, and that the learnings and changes from the period and beyond have helped us reach the AI boom of today.  Lots of experiments, little deployment. Yoav says that while there is mass experimentation with AI, there is much less deployment of the technology. Proving the ROI of AI is something companies like AI21 must do to encourage uptake from large enterprises.  Trust is key. Yoav identifies that reliability, predictability and explainability are key for LLMs. These models often don’t know when or why they are wrong. Ensuring that we can trust these models is key to their progression and adoption. Interested in further exploring the impact of GenAI? Tune in to Your Career: Is it Choice or Chance? Podcast for insightful discussions within the workplace domain.

In this exciting episode, Avashai is joined by Michael Kagan, CTO of NVIDIA. He and Avishai dive into the challenges and opportunities faced by organizations when it comes to the explosion of Gen AI. Michael has been at the forefront of the tech space and is passionate about the potential implications of AI, and has said that we are experiencing AI's ‘iPhone moment.’ Don’t miss the exciting conversation to learn more about the future of Gen AI, as well as the exciting things happening at NVIDIA.Key Takeaways: Gen AI takes physical infrastructure. Michael mentions that many people overlook that the physical space, hardware and CPU needed to run Gen AI models is huge. This has implications for organizations as well as the environment that cannot be ignored. Gen AI will improve human collaboration. Michael emphasizes that he is excited about the potential of Gen AI when it comes to improving human collaboration. He believes Gen AI will help humans overcome language and cultural barriers that can impede effective collaboration. The world is exponential. Michael says that the world is exponential, and this includes Gen AI growth. He believes this new tech will come to impact all industries, and ultimately will allow humans to become more efficient and better at their jobs. Interested in further exploring the impact of GenAI? Tune in to Your Career: Is it Choice or Chance? Podcast for insightful discussions within the workplace domain.

This week, lace up your boots and be sure to stretch, because we have an exciting new Future of Tech to share with you! Avishai had a chance to sit down with Jonathan Lee, the Senior Director of Sports Performance Technology for Intel. If you never connected Intel and sports technology before, you certainly will after this conversation. In this lively conversation, Jonathan dives deep into how Intel’s AI is benefiting all facets of sports, from player performance to fan experience, and even advanced athlete scouting in underserved areas. Throughout the episode, he shares countless ways in which Intel’s technology is affecting the world of athletics for elite professionals and weekend warriors alike, highlighting the myriad ways these innovations will impact sports on every level. Enjoy the episode! Main Takeaways: Creating Scalable Athletic Solutions: Jonathan shares how AI solutions can scale to serve multiple types of athletes, from elite professionals to casual players, as well as benefiting the health and wellness space. AI and How It Will Redefine Athlete Scouting: Intel’s AI Scout is changing the way player performance is evaluated, using 3D analysis to objectively gauge an athlete’s potential against a growing field of competitors. Bringing Athletic Opportunities to Underserved Areas: Jonathan shares an inspiring story of how AI Scout made it possible for two unknown prospects from a remote village to be discovered and considered for an organized football program. Key Quotes: (16:29)“For sports, there are many applications that involve, how do we get athletes to perform better. Or how do we enhance a broadcast so that a fan feels more engaged with the action? And we're at an exciting place right now in technology where we have things that really bridged the gap between the athlete and the fan.” (18:19)“A lot of the things that we work on are meant to democratize and allow technology to be not just by the very elite athletes, but all the athletes on the team, and not just all the athletes on a pro or elite team, but actually down through your weekend warrior, your consumer, even in the health space as well.” (22:37): “We use computer vision to extract 25 or more key points from the body, and then whether you use one camera or multiple cameras, we can create a 3D model of the athlete. And then from there, we can calculate biomechanics, kinematics, and provide that to a developer, or in some cases, we've built our own applications on top of that. Again, this is without the use of any sensors or suits. It's just AI. (34:28): “Last year as a team, Purdue [baseball team] stole 48 bases. That put them at 130 first out of all the teams in the country. This year they stole 116, which ranked them number 10, right? And they had a great season. We're really at the cusp here on how to use tech to actually improve performance, right? And it's being demonstrated.” (54:35): “Being able to, to provide that information in, in real-time or near real-time would be something that would, that, that, um, would make the gym experience a bit more compelling as well as safe.”

Intro: On this episode of Future of Tech, we speak to Chris Byers, CEO of Formstack. In 2010, Chris stepped in to lead Formstack as CEO for six months. Twelve years later, Chris has not only remained CEO, but the company has grown to 220 employees around the world and recently started fundraising at a billion dollar valuation. In this conversation, Chris discusses Formstack’s focus on intuitive, easy-to-use, no-code solutions. Plus we dive into Chris’s experiences and lessons learned as a CEO, as well as his advice for new CEOs. Enjoy this conversation. Main Takeaways: Evolution of Formstack: Chris dives into the evolution of Formstack and its journey as a startup, getting detailed about the work that the company does and its vision for the future. The Value of Fast Simplicity: Chris discusses Formstack’s intent to provide a no-code solution that is easy to learn. The company’s goal is for any individual contributor in any department to be able to figure out whether they can solve their problem on Formstack within 30 seconds. Chris’s Thoughts on Company Culture: Chris discusses company culture: how it has seasons, how it changes with remote work and what he thinks about when building culture at Formstack. Chris’s Advice for New CEOs: Chris shares his tips for new CEOs, as well as his experience stepping into the CEO role at a startup and a mistake he feels that he’s made throughout his leadership. Key Quotes: (19:41) “...culture still works in phases and seasons. I think the culture, even that I built from say seven people to let's call it 50, actually had to change.There was a moment in time and I've seen this happen a couple different times, moments in time where we're no longer getting the results that we once were getting. And that ultimately goes back to culture. Are we hiring the right people and promoting the right people?” (23:09) “I think our ability to succeed over time will always be because we make decisions that don't look like the next big software business. We make our own unique decisions that are innovative, that are different and maybe even cause people in those early days to be like, ‘wait, what are you doing? This doesn't make any sense to me.’” (44:16) “...as we are in a remote environment, it's a different skillset to kind of build comradery across video, which is where so much of life now takes place. And so you're starting to have to find people who can engage that way.” (45:38) “...one of the mistakes that I probably continue to make over and over and over again is I move too slow when something is not going well. I think as leaders, we often can quickly identify that a project isn't going well, a team member isn't working out and we are compassionate and we're empathetic. And so it makes us too patient, I think at times, and we put too much stock into the person that we're dealing with when we forget if a person is kind of failing their team or failing the organization, it's not just this one to one relationship that's kind of challenged, they're causing this challenge to like grow and grow and grow across the organization.” (47:43) “If you're in peace time, I think the team is always the most important. Sometimes you're in something more like war time, where things are chaotic and nothing is as usual, the economy is in a weird place. And sometimes if somebody's being successful, I think you let 'em run. But in the long term, I'd say it always comes back to that ability to work with the team. The ability to kind of work together is the most important thing.”

Kristina Wallender, Chief Experience Officer of Human Interest, discusses tackling the retirement crisis in the United States, where a vast majority of people will be unable to afford the life that they envision after work. She dives into how our psychological biases can negatively impact our decisions about long-term investing and how Human Interest works to combat those biases. Intro: How can technology be used as a lever to improve people’s lives at scale? On this episode of Future of Tech, we speak to Krisina Wallender, Chief Experience Officer of Human Interest, a company focused on increasing financial wellness through helping small and medium businesses offer quality 401k plans to their employees. She dives into the retirement crisis we are seeing in the United States, explaining that a vast majority of people will be unable to afford the life that they envision after work, and discusses how psychological biases can hinder good long-term investing decisions. Enjoy this episode. Main Takeaways: Kristina’s Career Journey: Kristina discusses studying psychology and economics, and her “personal mission to create a more empowered world”. She talks about what she has learned from her work at Amazon and Human Interest, as well as her sabbaticals. The Importance of Investing in Retirement: Kristina discusses the retirement crisis that we are seeing in the United States. She explains that “nearly 80 percent of Americans are not saving enough for their future” and will not be set-up for the life that they envision after work. Pairing Technology and Behavioral Psychology: Kristina talks about the psychological elements and biases in the human decision-making process that hinder our ability to make long-term investments, and how Human Interest works to combat those biases. Key Quotes: (06:24) I double majored in psychology and economics. And what I found fascinating was this burgeoning field of behavioral economics and, you know, thinking about some of the systematic biases people have that hold them back from having the best outcomes in their life and with the right nudges, we can help people live better lives, healthier, wealthier, happier lives. (07:10) I found that technology was a tremendous lever for being able to improve people's outcomes and, you know, do that at scale. (12:39) The problem of long term savings is one of the biggest challenges that we have as humans. A lot of the heuristics and biases that we use for day to day decision making, they work against the problem of long term savings. (28:22) Few things are more empowering than being able to afford the life you envision in your retirement. And I get to work toward that every day. I mean, it's one of the biggest problems we have in the country, the retirement savings crisis. (40:20) What precipitated my first sabbatical following Amazon was the death of my mom and I still call her my best friend. I think of her every day, I used to speak with her every day. I can't possibly convey the degree to which that changed my life, you know, her passing…. What I learned from it is that you can't defer your life goals to the future…. because there were so many things my mom had hoped for in her life that she wasn't able to experience.

Intro: The odds of an entrepreneurial venture succeeding are, statistically speaking, not stacked in the founder’s favor. This is something that Asaf Peled, Founder and CEO of Minute Media, was well aware of when he left his career as a tech investor to found his own tech startup. Today, Minute Media owns 6 major media brands, is considered the third largest online sports publisher in the world, and serves over 350 million fans. On the podcast today, Asaf dives into the work that he does at Minute Media and the evolution of the company. He also shares his personal entrepreneurial journey, outlining the mistakes and tough moments along the way. Tune in to hear his thoughts on leading a tech company, culture, talent retention and more. Main Takeaways: The Evolution of Minute Media: Asaf describes the unique combination of tech and content work that is done at Minute Media, sharing the initial idea, how they have evolved over time, and what the company looks like now. Asaf’s Entrepreneurial Journey: Asaf shares his background and decision to move from investing into entrepreneurship. He dives into some of the tougher moments in the journey, talking about the struggle to get funding in early days and the mistakes that he has learned from along the way. Three Tips for Aspiring Entrepreneurs: Asaf says that it is essential to have an inherent passion for the work that you are doing and for your idea. He also stresses the benefits of taking a unique technology angle that is not being used by traditional competitors in your space and advises finding a founding team that will stay for the long run. Asaf’s Thoughts on Company Culture: Asaf discusses the competition for talent and the company culture at Minute Media. He explains that his focus on culture stems from his belief that it is the reason for their high retention rates and is what will set Minute Media apart in the long run. Key Quotes: (16:48) “...people is key and your partners when you're starting is really key. I think the one thing we really focused on from day one, we realized our secret sauce was the passion for sports combined with technology. So in addition to building a strong kind of tech team, we made sure we were hiring a significant team of global, passionate fans.” (32:01) “I actually feel comfortable, more and more over time, to use my intuition and gut feeling. If it's only me at the end of the day who has to make that kind of lonely decision, I'm trying to reach out to the less rational parts in me and listen to them, as well.” (35:22) “I would say the first couple of years were really tough because we’re very enthusiastic about the idea, but then as we’re trying to build a business, we realized it's actually a tough space. Not too many companies are able to raise money. VCs were not too enthusiastic investing in our space in the first few years...really raising money and establishing credibility and gaining traction with investors the first couple of years was tough because the space was nonexistent….And we were not sure we were going to survive it.” (37:04) “We can always pay more and throw more parties, but I feel that there is one thing that's quite unique about Minute Media, which is we have, I feel, a very colorful, engaging and sticky culture. We have many, many, many people who have been with us for many, many years. It probably has to do with the initial passion for what we do. So I think there is something special about that, which to me is the number one reason for the very high retention rates.” (39:05) “…it's been so difficult to get to where we are right now, but it can also shift, shift and change very quickly, very rapidly, and can change tomorrow, right? If anything, it probably taught me not to take anything for granted because it looks very shiny from the outside, but there's so much work and effort and rollercoaster and ups and downs put into it.”

Intro: Business leaders can reasonably feel overwhelmed, at times, with the volume of software solutions in the world that may or may not be helpful to their companies. On this episode of Future of Tech, Godard Abel, the Co-founder and CEO of G2, explains how G2 has created a marketplace where business leaders can check out useful software reviews. Godard also shares lessons he learned along his entrepreneurial path, including learning a practice to increase his consciousness and to allow himself to feel and process his emotions. Enjoy this episode! Main Takeaways: G2’s Place in the Market: Godard describes G2: “At G2, we’re aiming to build the place you go for software. When we founded the company in 2012, we called it a Yelp for business software.” G2’s goal is to create a space for credible, helpful reviews of software solutions. Godard chats about how this service helps efficiently crowdsource software reviews and that this ends up being constructive for B2B software sellers and buyers. Working on Multiple Projects: It’s easy to marvel at how entrepreneurs like Godard can work on multiple projects simultaneously. Godard demystifies his ability to do so. He talks about how he does not manage every project; in truth, he is part of a team of entrepreneurs who take on different roles on projects. Becoming a Better Leader: Born from overcoming earlier business stresses, Godard shares how he sought out a coach that helped teach him consciousness and mindfulness techniques and how to experience and process his feelings. He has found that these strategies have helped him manage stress and become a better leader. Advice for Entrepreneurs: Godard offers that budding entrepreneurs should hone in on their intention rather than going overly broad. He also points to the power of passion for seeing one through inevitable challenges that come with building a new business. Key Quotes: [00:30] “At G2, we’re aiming to build the place you go for software. When we founded the company in 2012, we called it a Yelp for business software. And the idea is as software is eating the world, G2 is a buffet where you can find over a hundred thousand different business apps. And I think the amazing thing about our industry [is that] there's been so much innovation, but, entrepreneurs, software entrepreneurs have built purpose-built applications for every business function [and] every industry, and G2 is the one place you can go to find all those apps.” [12:03] “I think we focus on our culture and [at] G2 we've defined our ‘peak culture’ and ‘PEAK’ is a mnemonic that stands for ‘performance, entrepreneurship, authenticity, and kindness.’ And so we really want to have a ‘peak culture.’” [30:49] “And I think what I advise startups is to go very narrow at the beginning. And I think a lot of startup pitches are like, ‘Oh, I have a huge TAM. I'm going to sell to everybody.’ I actually think that's exactly the wrong answer. Pick up very much a niche, because there's already a hundred thousand software apps. So I think pick one use case, one industry, [and] do that better than anyone. And just at the beginning, just focus — Make sure your first five, 10 customers are really successful [by] solving that one problem better than anyone else and then scale from there.” [34:22] “I don't think you can control your emotions. I think… more, it's like, feel your emotions [and} accept them. So for me, it's more accepting what is, and actually becoming more aware of your feelings.” [41:19] “I do think all the great entrepreneurs, they have some greater purpose and greater vision that they're kind of metaphorically willing to die for. And so I think that that's really important is that you have that for your vision for your company, so that you will keep going [and] you will persevere. And I do believe with that, ultimately you can usually find a way to succeed.”

This week we have a special episode of Future of Tech! Avishai recently got a chance to sit down with Eric Boyer, The EVP of Customer Technology Platforms at AT&T to discuss how current and future innovations are going to have massive ripple effects into the businesses of tomorrow. The world is more connected than ever because of the internet, and this interconnectedness will only increase. How will all this interconnection empower individuals and businesses? Today’s guest Eric Boyer, the EVP of Customer Technology Platforms at AT&T, is an ideal person to speak about technology’s ability to connect people and ideas, and talk about how technology is being utilized strategically in business. On this episode of Future of Tech, Eric shares his thoughts about the potential force artificial intelligence and 5G may have in changing our world. He also gives some guidance on how business leaders can approach digitally transforming their own companies. Enjoy the episode. Main Takeaways: A Culture of Digital Transformation: For Eric, digital transformation begins with culture. According to him, “it starts with people.” He suggests that after getting one’s people bought into the goal, “the easy part is picking the technologies.” Eric also describes how ATT is transforming to make sure that customers can shift smoothly between multiple products and channels. The Importance of Communication: Eric explains how communication is an essential part of leadership to get a team moving in the desired direction. He also suggests that clearly communicating the company’s goal may help to retain talent. The Impact of AI and 5G: Regarding AI, Eric makes the point that sometimes people get caught in the hype. That said, he offers that: “AI is not going to solve all the world’s problems today. It will, if used correctly, I believe, solve a lot of problems tomorrow.” Concerning 5G, Eric sees the amazing potential of 5G but muses how many of its life-changing applications may be beyond current notions of the impact that it will have. Key Quotes: [37:41] “And the place that we’re in, and what I tell my team today is, historically… technology has almost been viewed as a cost center. And now, it is a strategic partner that plays a critical role at the decision making table — where we need a business strategy and… before the ink is dry on the business strategy, you have to have a technology strategy that immediately aligns for the execution of that business strategy. That’s the place that we are today in our evolution. I think tomorrow the technology strategy and the business strategy are being done together by the same people.” [07:29] “We have a business that is largely built on a technology stack that is a bit dated. And we made major investments to build a very modern microservices based set of technologies to interconnect with those platforms to help us bring e-commerce to our customers and help significantly ease the ability of our customers… to do business with us.” [09:13] “I think it starts with people. And then… I think it becomes culture. And I think the technology change is almost easy once you’ve aligned your people around a mission and you’ve created the culture that you need. The easy part is picking the technologies. The hard part is getting people aligned to build those technologies out to meet the purposes that you’re trying to achieve.” [21:09] “I believe we do retain more people if they feel like they’re involved and they’re part of the cause. But as importantly is, I think, we’re able to get more done as a team. I think people are able to contribute more if they really feel bought in and they understand the purpose of what we’re trying to do and why we’re trying to do it. I think we tend to get more done as a team when everybody’s on board and a part of the solution.” [25:58] “I think it’s a fool’s game to sort of get sucked into, ‘Okay… everything is going to be answered because we’re connected to this AI solution.’ With that said, I think AI is extremely powerful… You have to be thoughtful about your architecture and how your data is being managed. And if you are, then I think you can smartly deploy AI throughout your architecture, and you can iterate your way to very positive outcomes. And so, AI is not going to solve all the world’s problems today. It will, if used correctly, I believe, solve a lot of problems tomorrow. And it will grow into those solutions over time.” [46:21] “I would say, absolutely, that one should invest in a technology career and invest in education in technology. But I think you need to think broadly about that because even if you want to spend the majority of your career in technology, you'll be so much more effective if you have appreciation for the other parts of business that work together with technology to achieve the outcomes that we all hope to achieve.”

With the increase of cyberthreats, how are backup and recovery techniques rising to the challenge? Today’s guest is W. Curtis Preston, the Chief Technical Evangelist at the data protection and management provider Druva. Also known in the industry as “Mr. Backup,” Curtis’ nearly 30 years of experience working in backup and recovery make him one of the foremost experts in the field. On this episode of Future of Tech, Curtis talks in depth about the evolution of backup technology over the years and sheds light on what new challenges have arisen in the era of virtualization. He also offers some candid advice to anyone interested in entering the backup industry, and it may not be what you’d expect. Enjoy the episode. Main Takeaways: The History of Backup: Drawing from nearly 30 years of experience, Curtis outlines the evolution of backup technology – from “tape” to the cloud – and the challenges that have arisen along the way. Though the industry has changed over the course of his career, he suggests that the challenging nature of the work has always been consistent. The New Cyberattack Threat: Curtis describes that before the cloud, the damage to data centers was caused by temporary threats like fires, floods, and hurricanes. He explains that with the advent of the cloud came a new industry foe: cyberattackers. He asserts that containing cyber threats can be difficult because they persist throughout the recovery process. Despite cyber threats, Curtis insists that “virtualization and cloud both have allowed us to make all compute much more available [and] much more resilient in general than it was when I joined the industry.” The Future of the Backup Business: According to Curtis, advancements in backup technology and design have lowered the demand for specialists in the field. He suggests that those interested in entering the industry should aim their attention toward “the cybersecurity element” which, he claims, “is going to be nothing but a growth industry.” Key Quotes: [07:31] “The problem the last year or two has been cyberattacks specifically against backups. Historically, ‘backups’ was in the corner and nobody really thought about it, and certainly neither did the cyberattacker. Cyberattackers are not new, but the idea of someone in the cyberspace directly targeting your backups to either use them to steal data, to exfiltrate data and use it to attack your company, to hold your data for ransom in that way, or to encrypt them in the same way that they encrypt the primary so that you then have to pay the ransom [is].” [21:04] “The idea that you could have an RTO – a recovery time objective – of 20 minutes for thousands of VMs is, I think, phenomenal… When you go back… I was at a bank with, I'm going to say, we had like four or five hundred servers. The idea of recovering those four or five hundred servers in anything less than a couple of weeks would be unheard of. Now, if all those servers are virtualized using the cloud and advanced technology, you can recover your entire environment in 15 to 20 minutes and only lose about an hour's worth of data.” [23:25] “Let's go back to... [the year] 2000… I'd been in IT for seven years at this point. What we thought about was hurricanes and floods and earthquakes and fires. What all of those have in common is [that] when the event has destroyed your data center, the thing that destroyed your data center is now gone. The fire has been put out, the flood has receded, the hurricane has moved on, et cetera. With a cyber recovery, that isn't the case. You need to recover your data center in the middle of the hurricane. The hurricane is still hitting your data center, meaning… the cyber attack is ongoing.” [26:38] “I will take the security of the average cloud vendor or the average SaaS vendor over the security of the average data center any day of the week. I'm not saying you can't have better security or good security in a data center. I'm just saying that for the cloud it's do-or-die. If they don't have a solid cybersecurity plan, they basically go out of business.” [40:29] “What has driven the backup design, I'd say more than anything, is that the things that we're backing up keep changing… So, that's why I'm saying VMware messed it up, the cloud, messed it up, [and] the latest thing to mess things up has been Kubernetes and containers… That again turned backup on its head and everybody's playing catch-up.”

Across industries, empowering creatives tends to lead to great results because they are the engine of whatever is being created. This is true for developers just as it would be for any sort of creative. As technology becomes more advanced and the world more interconnected, security concerns also become more pronounced too. Therefore, builders must consider security as they make their products and help operate them too. Guy Podjarny, the Co-Founder and President of Snyk, understands that security practices and platforms must focus on developers. On this episode of Future of Tech, Guy discusses how the security industry has moved to a DevSecOps mentality where developers are brought into the security process. He chats about the importance of empathizing with users when creating products. Guy shares his motivations for his podcast, “The Secure Developer,” as well as for writing books. He also offers up some great advice for future entrepreneurs. Enjoy this episode! Main Takeaways: The importance of Empathy When Creating a Product: Empathy is a quality that improves relationships between people. It’s also, according to Guy, essential when building any product, including a product for developers like Snyk. People do not need to have someone else’s experience to interact with them or even to serve them, but they do need to attempt to deeply understand their experiences and needs. Creating Community and Clarifying Ideas: It’s fascinating to hear why someone continues to put effort into creative projects over time. Concerning his podcast, Guy shares he appreciates the chats and how it’s beneficial to the greater security industry as well. Guy is also a prolific author of books and shares that he writes them, in part, because it helps him to clarify his ideas. Being Prepared for the Ride: The entrepreneurial journey is not for the faint at heart. Guy compares the experience of being involved in a startup to a ”roller coaster.” He suggests that an awareness of this reality is helpful knowledge for a person who is about to go on this… ride. With this knowledge, he explains, one could assess other areas outside their work life to see if they are ready to dive into the start-up world. Having Good Boundaries: Having strong boundaries helps to care for, and protect, key areas of life. Guy shares how he has developed clear rules between his work and family life, so that he is able to honor his family time. Certainly, it’s not easy to place limitations on work, especially in a world that is so interconnected and where work is often so accessible. Even though that may be the case and work is important, so too is everything outside of work, especially one’s family. Key Quotes: (11:05) “The light bulb moment that we had was that if you want developers to embrace security, you have to think about developers first. You have to not take an auditor practice and just think about how do you plug it into a development environment but the other way around — think about how do you build a developer tool that would tackle security? (08:06) “DevSecOps is really fundamentally around doing to security what has happened to ops and bringing security into that fold. And so transforming security from that sort of central organization that is off to the side to something that is embedded into the regular practices of developing and operating and securing software end-to-end and changing how security is done to go from auditing and local services…to platform builders. And focusing on empowering the application teams — the teams that are actually building and operating the software to ensure that it's secure. (15:03) “I think more important than sort of saying ‘Developers are the only ones to build for developers’ is to ensure that whatever it is that you're building, you invest in empathy [and] you invest in talking to customers and not just to the buyers, but to the users of the product.” (41:54) “Because we are a developer-first company, we are a depth-first company. So what we do is we build deep solutions and all of our products started as narrow, but deep products that were excellent for a specific stack or a specific use case in need. And then once we feel like we've nailed the experience, we expand to support additional stacks.” (48:45) “Startups are hard and what they do is – they're a roller coaster. So the highs are very high and the lows are very low, and you can have a dozen of them in a given day. And they're not necessarily proportional to the success or the failure. You could not have a customer succeed, or even just say the wrong thing and you can be in a pretty low situation. But the highs are really high and you can equally be super thrilled and high on it. So I think you want to know that you are ready for something like that. For example, what other roller coasters are happening in your life at the moment? Is it the right time for you to do it or not?

It’s easy to typecast what a successful entrepreneur should be like: someone growing up awash in technology, attending a prestigious university to study in that area, and then building a unicorn. But that’s not how it always works. In fact, it may not be how it often works. There’s a different sort of entrepreneurial narrative. In this story, it’s about a person who has had a winding path to business success. But along that journey, this character saw a problem, came up with a solution, and then had the ideal balance of perseverance and business sense to create a successful company over a period of time. Tom Livne, the CEO and Founder of Verbit, started his career in the Special Forces, which he credits for teaching him resiliency. He then became an attorney and came to the conclusion that the transcription industry needed disruption. At the time, the technologies necessary to disrupt the industry, A.I. and the cloud, were not quite ready. He continued on his journey earning an MBA and even founding a security company. Then when the business-stars aligned, alongside the right technology, he created Verbit to focus on the transcription issue he was passionate about. His spirit of resilience helped him to develop Verbit from a bootstrap company to one with major investment and lots of room to grow. On this episode of Future of Tech, Tom shares his unique entrepreneurial story and the values that have led to his success. Enjoy this episode! Main Takeaways: The Importance of Resiliency and Passion: According to Livne, resilience is an essential quality for an entrepreneur. Though he first learned this value in the military, it has served him well throughout his entrepreneurial career. Additionally, he points to passion as another key ingredient for an entrepreneur and believes having it helps to see a person through when difficulties arise. A.I. and the Human Touch: In part due to regulations that require 100% accuracy, Livne believes that the human touch will always be required to supplement A.I. Verbit utilizes A.I. along with freelancers to transcribe efficiently and accurately. Livne shares how hiring freelancers, and learning how their experience working with Verbit has empowered their lives, is very satisfying. Customization is Key: Though there are large tech companies with speech recognition tools, Livne contends that Verbit has a particular corner of the market. He makes the point that these companies use A.I. but do not have the human component to help them achieve the high level of accuracy required by regulations. Furthermore, he explains how Verbit is able to customize transcriptions as required by each of its customers given the unique needs in their different industries. Customer Consolidation: Verbit has undertaken a strategy to take over other more traditional transcription companies to bring in their customers. He describes the communication between Verbit and these companies in an effort to bring them on board. He also shares that this strategy has enabled investors to have a clear sense of Verbit’s path for growth. Key Quotes: [00:31] “So, I've been in the Special Forces of the paratrooper. [and am] still doing the reserve. And I think as an entrepreneur, one of the most important thing is resilience. So I really think that the army service help with that.” [14:54] “Instead of doing everything manually, we said, ‘Okay, let's do most of it by technology.’ And then the last mile editing the technology, we know that it's not able to get it, we will put the human [in] and kind of give them the tools to make their job more efficient.” [25:02] “So as long as our customer base is growing, it means we'll need to have more freelancer. It means we're creating more jobs from people to work from home. And we have a lot of our freelancers from third world countries, and we are getting emails, ‘because of Verbit we have the ability to feed our family [and] take care [of] our kids.’ Once you see that you say, ‘Wow, because of my hard work, I'm creating a lot of jobs for more people around the globe.’ So, it's another great mission to be part of.” [35:03] Today, in the venture world, there's what they call magic numbers. So, how much you invest in sales and marketing, [and] how much new revenue it's bringing. They want to see [a] ratio of one-to-one. And then we really saw that those manual transcription companies they're flat. They're not growing. And they have much lower gross margin because they do it all manually. So we come [up] with this thesis that we can acquire their book of business and then migrate their customers to our platform and to make the whole process much more efficient and literally to grow this way.” [37:50] “So first of all, and foremost, you need to do something you're passionate about, right? So, for me, the founder-market fit was as a frustrated customer. This is how I actually thought about this problem…When I'm trying to be more generic, I would say, look for problem that have high friction and low efficiency where you think that the technology come and shift it around.”

Mickey Boodaei, the CEO and Co-Founder of Transmit Security discusses how the world can move on from passwords. Mickey also explains what he’s learned about attracting and retaining talent, and he offers some guidance to the next generation of entrepreneurs. One of the great identity security concerns for consumers and businesses is the vulnerability of passwords. The security solution to password breaches by bad actors so far has been to increase the amount and complexity of passwords. At this rate, the future of identity security could be a world where people are totally overwhelmed by the passwords in their lives. Perhaps the world is already at that place? Alternatively, Mickey Boodaei, the CEO and Co-Founder of Transmit Security, has a different vision — a future without passwords that is more secure but with better useability that benefits consumers and businesses. On this episode of Future of Tech, Mickey chats about how biometric data held securely on a personal device combined with the implementation of corresponding cryptographic keys can be used to verify identity rather than using passwords. He also passes on information he’s learned about finding and retaining top talent, and offers advice to the next generation of entrepreneurs. Enjoy this episode! Main Takeaways: Getting Rid of Passwords: Until this point, the lack of security regarding passwords has mostly resulted in more complex passwords. Now, however, advances in biometric data have proved game changing. Mickey suggested that technology involving biometric data secured on individual devices and then connected to verifiable cryptographic keys has the ability to make passwords a thing of the past. Competing for Talent: Mickey explained how the competition for engineering talent has become more fierce all over the world. He revealed how this latest huge amount of funding Transmit Security received has helped tell the story of Transmit more broadly, and how this has been an asset in attracting talent. Advice for the Next Generation: Mickey suggested that those just starting out in their careers have lots of opportunity to either work for established companies or begin a more entrepreneurial journey. He made the point that having a passion for entrepreneurship is of utmost importance for those choosing to walk down that path. In reflecting on lessons he’s learned in his tech security career, which spans two decades, Mickey advised that honoring family time is highly valuable.

Host of The Future of Tech, Avishai Sharlin recaps previous episodes and shares his lessons learned as he chats with guest host, Albert Chou. In this episode, it’s Avishai’s turn to answer questions about his own career journey and interesting areas of focus that he’s gleaned from hosting The Future of Tech shows. Avishai also teases upcoming episodes that focus on entrepreneurship and unicorns.