#117 Jason Crawforth + Joao-Pierre Ruth on deepfakes, misinformation, privacy, elections, democracy

We discussed a few things including:

1. Their career journeys  

2. Discuss Raja's vision/European market

3. Discuss the 1Huddle story and vision

4. Talk about how LinkedIn has helped your business/career  

5. Best practices for leaders leveraging LI and other social media

Sam is the CEO and Founder of 1Huddle, a workforce tech company that upskills, trains, and motivates employees through the use of science-backed, quick-burst mobile games. Sam has managed and coached sales and leadership teams for publicly held, private sector, and franchised companies across the globe for more than 15 years.

In 2015, Sam founded 1Huddle on the belief that every worker deserves access to the job training, support, and mentorship needed to win on the job. With a diverse array of clients across the globe, 1Huddle has impacted people in a wide range of sectors. Key clients include the U.S. Air Force, UEFA, vineyard vines, Loews Hotels, ESPN, Audible (an Amazon Company), Novartis, Madison Square Garden, the City of Newark, and more.  

With a mobile-first approach to preparing the modern worker, a mobile library of 3,000+ quick-burst employee skill games, an on-demand game marketplace that covers 16 unique workforce skill areas, and the option for

personalized content, 1Huddle is changing the way organizations think about their training – from a one-time boring onboarding experience to a continuous motivational tool. Put simply, 1Huddle is making training more fun, effective, equitable, and accessible for the entire workforce.

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Raja is a Moroccan-born entrepreneur who moved to Switzerland at the age of six. She secured her MBA degree and worked in banking for some time, but her heart was not in it. Raja wanted to feel passionate about the projects she worked on and explore her ideas in entrepreneurship. She began meeting other entrepreneurs in Geneva, but progress was slow due to her limited experience and network.

In 2015, Raja moved to Oslo, Norway, where her Norwegian husband had received a job offer. She decided to start her own company and has since launched multiple ventures. She was the CEO of TheFactory, one of the largest accelerators in Norway and launched thehub.io, the largest job platform for startups in the Nordics.

Raja is also an angel investor in 70+ startups and has advised thousands of founders since 2015. In 2020, she launched The Visionary Company to give founders access to the best practices and tools to accelerate their fundraising and scaling. Raja is a serial-entrepreneur, Head of Fintech at The Factory, Startup Advisor, and Speaker.

#linkedin #branding #entrepreneurship #investing #funding  

#podcast #afewthingspodcast 

We discussed a few things including:

1. Jordan's entrepreneurial journey

2. Everyday AI podcast + Newsletter

3. Opps and Challenges related to #AI

4. Forecast for 2024

5. Guidance for young and old

Jordan is an AI strategist and founder and host of Everyday AI. Everyday AI is a fast-growing media company helping everyday professionals grow their companies and careers with Generative AI through its daily livestream, podcast and newsletter.

Everyday AI is a Top 10 tech podcast on Spotify, and Jordan has taught prompt engineering basics to thousands of people, from entrepreneurs and small business owners to software engineers and Fortune 100 execs. He's been a featured keynote speaker on GenAI, as well as a Coursera instructor for GenAI.

Previously, Jordan was an award-winning multimedia journalist and also worked with companies like Nike and Jordan Brand before starting his own Chicago-based digital strategy company called Accelerant Agency.

#podcast #AFewThingsPodcast

We discussed a few things including: 

1. Mark's entrepreneurial journey 
2. Creative Good timeline 
3. His radio show, Techtonic 
4. Forecast for 2024 - state of technology; CES; AI 
5. Future trends 

Mark is the founder of Creative Good, the New York-based consultancy and creative platform that he founded in 1997. He has spent his career writing, speaking, and advising teams about how to create better products and services. He has created a number of his own projects, too.

For over two decades, Mark Hurst and his team at Creative Good have advised a wide range of clients - in media, healthcare, technology, financial services, ecommerce, and more - about how to build better businesses by treating customers well.

Hurst is also the creator of the Good Todo mobile productivity platform, the world's first cross-platform todo list, which he described in his first book, Bit Literacy, which introduced the "empty inbox" method of managing email (now better known as Inbox Zero).

Since fall 2017 Hurst has hosted Techtonic - see techtonic.fm - a weekly FM radio show on WFMU. Here's the Techtonic podcast.

Also in 2017 Hurst ran two Skeptech events questioning today's digital technology, held at WFMU. Hurst is also the founder and host of the Gel conference, which featured the first stage presentations of Khan Academy, Wikipedia, and other world-changing projects.

In 2015 Hurst released the 2nd edition of his book Customers Included, which describes how teams and organizations can create successful products and strategies by including customers.

In 2013 Hurst's column The Google Glass feature no one is talking about went viral, gaining worldwide media attention (and translations into six languages) and starting a conversation about the privacy implications of Google Glass and wearable tech.

Brooklyn 1776, the educational mobile videogame by Hurst and the Creative Good team, won the 2016 Brooklyn Innovation Award for best indie video game.

Mark holds bachelor's and master's degrees in computer science from MIT. He's also an Eagle Scout, a patented game designer (U.S. Patent #5048839), and studies Mandarin Chinese in his spare time. He lives in New York City with his wife and son.

#podcast #AFewThingsPodcast

We discussed a few things including:

1. Their impressive career journeys

2. The OpenAI/Sam Altman drama

3. Best practices for leaders of various size and types companies

4. For-profit versus non-profit boards

5. Differences between boards of directors and advisory boards

Benjy is an executive with broad experience incorporating strategy, finance, operations, organization design, executive coaching and leadership development with extensive investment experience in venture capital, private equity, public markets and investment banking. Have served on the boards of numerous public and private companies. 

Experiences have included working with both for profit and non profit enterprises and have crossed biotech, higher education, technology, health care services, media, Internet, digital, financial services, telecommunications, alternative energy, agriculture, aerospace, steel, energy, defense, industrial, consumer and China. 

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Brandon has a dynamic, 25-year leadership career spearheading several businesses with emphasis on growth, revenue, and sales performance. He has run many high-growth environments, including start-ups, turnarounds, and $1B+ dollar businesses. 

As a serial entrepreneur, he has a proven record of founding new businesses and advancing them through growth and acquisition, merger, or roll-up including ScripPoint, Veridian, and AviaraMD. He is the driving force for Xevant’s vision, new market strategy, revenue growth, technology development, and partner alliances.

#boards #governance #leadership

#podcast #AFewThingsPodcast

We discussed a few things including:

1. Their career journeys  

2. Their unique leadership experiences

3. LEAP overview

4. Advice for young people

Micheline Nader, BSN, MPH, DESS is a serial healthcare entrepreneur, best-selling author of “Leap Beyond Success/ How leaders evolve” Amazon: https://a.co/d/apvf7td and “The Dolphin's Dance/ Discover your true self through five steps powerful journey into conscious awareness,” and the President of Jesra Foundation Inc. She also serves as a trustee of Fairleigh Dickinson University (FDU), chairs the Board of Advisors at Silberman College of Business, and serves on national boards and other nonprofit organizations.

As a healthcare entrepreneur, Micheline was the founder and CEO of the Blue Dolphin Healthcare group, a long-term care company that owned and managed a chain of skilled nursing homes facilities in the Midwest. After 15 years of operations, Micheline successfully sold her company to a public healthcare group.

As a best-selling author in the areas of self-development and leadership, Micheline creates value for individuals and organizations with a focus on personal development, leadership growth and cultural transformation though embracing a mindset and creating passionate and purposeful engagements.

Micheline is also an active philanthropist through her family’s Jesra Foundation, which focuses on education and health.

Prior, Micheline led a successful career in hospital administration where she held executive positions at the American University Hospital of Beirut and the American Hospital of Paris and co-founded Chateau Westmount, a long-term care facility in Montreal, Canada allied with McGill University

Micheline holds a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) and a Master of Public Health (MPH) from the American University of Beirut and a doctoral degree (DESS) in Healthcare Management from Paris-Dauphine University.

https://www.michelinenader.com/  

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Stephen Bozer is currently the Senior Vice President of Human Health at Flavine North America, a diversified global pharmaceutical company. He is leading the Sales & Marketing team in the U.S. office. He is an analytical chemist by training, and has held senior positions in Quality Control and Marketing & Sales during his career.

Stephen has over 25 years of global pharmaceutical experience at several companies, including Teva API, Berlex Laboratories (now Bayer) and Key International. He travels extensively in Europe and Asia and excels in a diverse multicultural business environment.  

Stephen has a BS in Biology from Binghamton University (SUNY) and an MBA from Fairleigh Dickinson University.

#leadership

#podcast #afewthingspodcast 

We discussed a few things including the latest #AI trends, #ChatGPT, #GenerativeAI, ethical and #responsibleAI.

Speakers included:

Neha Shah is the Cofounder and President of GEP and a Certified AI faculty from the VJAL Institute. She has been a pivotal force in developing GEP from its beginnings into a globally recognized leader in digital supply chain and procurement transformation.  

A purpose-driven entrepreneur and executive, Neha steers the company's growth strategies, forging and managing strategic relationships at the C-level with clients and spearheading complex transformation engagements.  

A constant source of innovation and inspiration, Neha is the key driver of GEP’s AI, sustainability, DEI and social initiatives strategies. In 2023, she was named Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year for New Jersey.

Bruce Molloy advises companies on AI, M&A, innovation, and technology. He helps the C-Suite and Board get “directionally correct,” is mentor to new companies and is also an investor.  

Bruce holds a patent for a “cognitive processor” and has built and run two AI companies, one which made it to IPO. He has 25 years of industry experience in artificial intelligence and machine learning and is considered a visionary.

#podcast #AFewThingsPodcast

We discussed a few things including:  

1. Your corporate and entrepreneurial journey

2. Investment banking lessons - Arcus insights

3. Y Combinator insights

4. State of the funding and accelerator markets

5. Future trends domestically and globally

Edrizio is a former Y Combinator visiting partner. A Dominican immigrant raised in Harlem, Edrizio dropped out of college and joined the U.S. Air Force, becoming an aircraft technician to make ends meet. He later returned to college, worked on Wall Street, and earned his MBA from the Wharton School.

In 2013, Edrizio co-founded Arcus, a fintech company that raised $20M from Y Combinator, Initialized, Citi Ventures, SoftBank, and a16z. In 2021, Arcus was sold to Mastercard, in its largest Latam acquisition ever.  

#podcast #AFewThingsPodcast

We discussed a few things including:

1. Jason and JP's career journeys  

2. How Jason founded Swear

3. JP's assessment of media and misinformation landscape

4. How to protect against misinformation and deepfakes

5. Tech trends, opportunities + forecasts

Jason Crawforth, founder of Swear.com, has been building technology companies for over 25 years. Jason has a track record of success and has been awarded multiple times by Inc Magazine as running one of the fastest growing private technology companies in America.  

Jason and his teams have designed, built, deployed, and managed hundreds of information technology systems for Fortune 100 companies as well as a pioneer in the mobile app space with over 30 million downloads of his solutions.

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Joao-Pierre S. Ruth covers tech policy, including ethics, privacy, legislation, and risk; fintech; code strategy; and cloud & edge computing for InformationWeek. He has been a journalist for more than 25 years, reporting on business and technology first in New Jersey, then covering the New York tech startup community, and later as a freelancer for such outlets as TheStreet, Investopedia, and Street Fight.

#podcast #AFewThingsPodcast

We discussed a few things including:

1. Gary's legal, corporate and entrepreneurial journeys

2. Techstars vision

3. Tips for entrepreneurs

4. State of the funding and accelerator markets

5. Future trends  
 

Gary is the Managing Director of the Techstars New York City Accelerator powered by J.P. Morgan. Born in Jamaica, he grew up in the Bronx, where he attended the Bronx High School of Science before attending Yale College and Yale Law School.  

He is a VC-backed, exited serial entrepreneur; an early-stage investor that managed a $1.6 billion start-up portfolio; a professor who has taught entrepreneurship at Yale Law School and IE Business School in Madrid, and been invited to speak at Cambridge, Oxford, Stanford and INSEAD; and a former contributor to Forbes Magazine.  

As someone who has seen firsthand that talent is distributed evenly but opportunity is not, he is passionate about ensuring that underrepresented and overlooked founders get access to the social and financial capital that they need and deserve.  

As an investor, he is particularly interested in companies that aim to change the world with a specific focus on healthcare, health and beauty, edtech and financial inclusion.

#podcast #AFewThingsPodcast

We discussed a few things including:

1. Atul's corporate and entrepreneurial journey

2. Kitchen United's story

3. Industry challenges and opportunities - ghost/dark kitchens

4. Insights/trends relating to retail, food and delivery

5. Lessons learned - importance of relationships/friendships

Atul was previously the  Chief Business Officer of Kitchen United. Previously, he was most Director of Global Business Development for McDonald’s Digital, a business unit formed to help spur technological innovation across the restaurant. In this capacity, Atul forged partnerships across the technology ecosystem – ranging from payment platforms to voice activated ordering to food delivery initiatives – to help McDonald’s build the ‘restaurant of the future’.

Prior to this role, Atul founded and sold a big data start-up in the sales intelligence space. He has also been the turnaround CEO of a company in the Knowledge Process Outsourcing industry, led business development for an enterprise software company, and been an investment banker focused on what was, at the time, a burgeoning e-commerce ecosystem. Across all these roles, Atul has been driven by a desire to hasten the adoption of new technologies and processes for disruptive business growth.

As someone who doesn’t cook (he’s cooked fewer than 5 meals all year), Atul is a firm believer in the growing market in food delivery.

Atul spent much of his life internationally and has lived in 8 countries including Japan, the UK, and Saudi Arabia. Atul graduated with a Bachelors of Science in Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania.

#podcast #AFewThingsPodcast