The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Uma Valeti, founder of Upside Foods, to talk about creating “cultivated meat” doing a taste test (4:00), the process (6:00), why he is working on this (10:20), his “aha” moments (12:15), signing a release to eat chicken (19:55), cutting out fetal bovine serum (23:10), the scaling challenge (26:00), and the importance of transparency (29:40). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Nov 05, 2021•33 min•Season 4Ep. 114
The SundayTimes’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on David Cowan to talk about Bessemer Venture Partners' anti-portfolio (4:00), missing Google (6:05), why tech is accelerating (7:25), why he bet on space (10:00), why colonizing space is “inevitable” (12:45), the rise of micro satellites (15:30), backing Rocket Lab (21:30), the privatisation of weather (25:00), backing off-the-wall ideas (27:30), the future of Silicon Valley (34:45), his mock-umentary Bubbleproof (38:00), and the FOMO epi...
Oct 29, 2021•46 min•Season 4Ep. 113
The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Jeff Lawson, founder of Twilio, to talk about what the company does (3:15), starting out in 2008 (9:15), running an extreme sports retailer (11:40), tapping into the magic of software (16:00), why the Internet is just getting started (19:45), the Darwinian fight for survival (24:00), how Covid accelerated the digital shift (28:10), growing up in Detroit (31:40), creating a note-taking startup in university (35:45), riding the first dotcom wave (39:4...
Oct 22, 2021•1 hr•Season 4Ep. 112
The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Holden Karnofsky, founder of GiveWell, to talk about philanthropy (3:30), teaming up with Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskowitz and hits-based giving (6:40), the most important century (12:50), how artificial intelligence could be about to change everything (15:55), deep learning (21:00), becoming a spacefaring civilization (24:45), living in a really weird time (27:30), treating AI like climate change (30:00), effective altruism (37:00...
Oct 15, 2021•49 min•Season 4Ep. 111
The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Will Marshall, founder of Planet, to talk about going public (4:20), sneaking smartphones onto a rocket (5:40), starting Planet (9:30), photographing earth every day (14:40), what its data is used for (16:00), selling to the military (20:10), leveraging computer vision and machine learning (22:45), building a telescope at age 15 (25:00), the opportunity presented by climate change (28:15), launch costs (32:10), replacing satellites when they burn up...
Oct 08, 2021•52 min•Season 4Ep. 110
The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Gene Berdichevsky, founder of Sila, to talk about the sudden global decision to electrify transport (4:30), his history at Tesla (7:50), creating a new battery technology (12:00), black magic dust (16:00), launching Sila a decade ago (23:30), the shift within the financial community (28:50), the million-mile battery (32:50), emigrating from the former Soviet Union (38:30), solar-powered cars (42:15), and the shift toward climate tech in Silicon Vall...
Oct 01, 2021•51 min•Season 4Ep. 109
The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on George Church, co-founder of Colossal, to talk about genetically bringing back the wooly mammoth (3:40), what has made this possible (7:00), co-founding 38 companies (9:40), science fiction made real (11:20), reversing aging (14:50), the typical pushback to the mammoth idea (19:40), the climate change angle (22:10), raising money (25:40), and growing elephants in a lab (27:40). !Flash sale for The Times and The Sunday Times! Click here...
Sep 24, 2021•35 min•Season 4Ep. 108
The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Nat Manning, founder of Kettle, to talk about how climate change is upending insurance (5:00), the role of reinsurers as “the second parachute” (10:40), updating risk models with machine learning (14:45), building a better mousetrap (20:30), how meditation lent clarity (28:0), getting into disaster relief (31:30), the long tail of suffering (33:00), starting Kettle (37:40), getting rejected by Y Combinator (42:20), raising money (44:35...
Sep 17, 2021•56 min•Season 4Ep. 107
The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on High Fidelity’s Philip Rosedale to talk about virtual worlds before the Internet (4:00), founding Second Life (8:00), capturing the zeitgeist (11:00), Second Life today (16:05), the current metaverse hype (20:10), the challenge of living a virtual life (23:10), the folly of the “hybrid” workplace (29:20), the dangers of virtual life (31:30), the importance of business model (35:00), the hardware challenges (39:30), and of augmented rea...
Sep 10, 2021•1 hr 5 min•Season 4Ep. 106
The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Adi Tatarko, founder of unicorn Houzz, to talk about the home improvement boom pandemic (2:45), the pandemic (5:15), ending up in California from Israel (9:30), a renovation project gone wrong (15:00), getting the first cheque for Houzz (20:50), raising $600 million more as a husband and wife team (27:40), on whether she plans to go public (30:00), how Houzz makes money (30:45), and drawing inspiration from her Holocaust-surivor grandmother (34:15)....
Sep 03, 2021•44 min•Season 4Ep. 105
The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Magi Richani to talk about cheese (4:15), how her lactose intolerance led her to start a company (7:30), the inefficiency of the cow (10:40), moving from Lebanon to Texas (15:50), becoming an engineer (20:45), starting out in the oil industry (24:15), rescuing animals (27:20), quitting Shell (30:00), coming from an entrepreneurial family (31:30), agricultural subsidies (37:00), getting her first investor (38:45), deciding on soybeans (...
Aug 27, 2021•1 hr 5 min•Season 4Ep. 104
The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Dave Friedberg, founder of The Production Board, to talk about the western US’s ‘mega-drought’ (5:15), attracting cash to climate tech (8:30), the economic consequences of climate change (13:15), creating the Climate Corporation (16:15), getting investment from Larry Page (22:10), and Koch Industries (25:25), the future of food (28:00), “printing” drinks (34:05), water (39:15), climate migration (43:45), and how technology has saved th...
Aug 20, 2021•52 min•Season 4Ep. 103
The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Justin McLeod, founder of Hinge, to talk about dating in the pandemic (2:41), launching an app (4:33), his early years as a “hot mess” (5:51), cleaning up his act (6:50), loneliness (9:45), overhauling the app (12:15), the irony of maximizing for “time in app” (15:03), injecting friction into the process (18:10), introducing a “vaccine status” badge (23:28), Facebook dating (27:00), the future of dating (30:03), the 36 questions to fin...
Aug 13, 2021•46 min•Season 4Ep. 102
Pearson’s Andy Bird: “Education is going to be disrupted like music” The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Andy Bird, chief executive of Pearson, to talk about transforming the education giant (5:40), creating textbook “playlists” (8:30), growing up in Manchester (14:45), getting into the entertainment industry (16:10), being recruited by Bob Iger (21:30), remaking Disney's foreign operations (23:05), cutting ties with Netflix (27:40), failing at Disney’s first streaming a...
Aug 06, 2021•59 min•Season 4Ep. 101
Amid Facebook's record-setting financial performance and its pivot toward become a "metaverse" company, we air a revealing interview from last year (March 2020) with Stephen Levy, author of Facebook: The Inside Story, Levy talks about the moment he decided to write the book (4:15), the first time he met Zuck (8:55), the “book of change” (10:30), why Zuckerberg didn’t need an “adult in the room” (14:00), his deification in Silicon Valley (17:15), how Trump used Facebook (19:15), dark profiles (22...
Jul 30, 2021•57 min•Season 4Ep. 100
The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Antonio Garcia Martinez, to talk about his winding career in tech and media (3:25), living in the woods (7:25), his Facebook memoir (11:00), criticizing tech but also defending it (15:55), landing a gig at Apple and then getting fired (20:10), the Silicon Valley culture wars (23:25), launching a newsletter (30:25), the breakdown of the media business model (37:45), the tectonic plates shifting in the ad world (42:20), the privacy push ...
Jul 23, 2021•1 hr 4 min•Season 4Ep. 99
The Sunday Times' tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Tim Janssen of Sofar to talk about the paucity of ocean data (3:30), creating an ocean sensing network (6:15), the engineering challenge (8:30), modeling (10:30), why he left academia (15:15), raising money (19:20), coming here from the Netherlands (21:10), his customers (22:30), what’s happening in the oceans (33:25), and dropping the first sensor in the water (37:30). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Jul 16, 2021•43 min•Season 4Ep. 98
We repost a podcast from Tales of Silicon Valley, the narrative podcast that Danny did two years ago. In the week that Sir Richard Branson touched space, and just days before Jeff Bezos prepares to do so as well, we go back to this investigatio into how billionaires are racing to become the first to settle on the moon. We talk to astronauts, and the billionaires themselves, about their plans to turn humans into a multi-planetary species. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more informatio...
Jul 15, 2021•31 min•Season 4Ep. 97
The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Christian Angermeyer to talk about spending $40 million on his own money to reinvent the psychedelics industry (3:46), his first magic mushroom experience (6:58), convincing investors (11:09), targeting opioid addiction (17:35), the stoned ape theory (21:06), the legal challenge (24:33), the timeline (28:35), the social media effect (29:43), bad trips (39:56), developing a network of professionals to guide therapy (42:47), plus his vie...
Jul 09, 2021•56 min•Season 4Ep. 96
The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Brett Adcock and Adam Goldstein, co-founders of Archer Aviation, to talk about their air taxi startup (6:00), starting out in recruiting (9:00), how they pivoted to flying cars (12:30), setting up an aeronautics lab (18:20), designing a plane (21:30), finding a billionaire backer (30:00), and then United Airlines (33:00), launching by 2024 (37:45), working toward test flights (41:10), the talent war (42:10), unveiling a plane that hasn...
Jul 02, 2021•59 min•Season 4Ep. 95
Danny will be back later this week with more tales from the valley. But first, here's a special extra episode from the team behind "Secrets of the Side Hustle" Food waste is one of the biggest contributors to the climate crisis. Could sharing be the solution? Tessa Clarke, co-founder of the OLIO app thinks so. She sat down with host, Laura Jackson, to talk about how tech companies can change the world for the better, the struggles many female founders find when seeking investment and even more. ...
Jun 28, 2021•37 min
The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Grant LaFontaine, co-founder of Whatnot, to talk about creating the successor to eBay (3:40), the collectibles boom (7:50), his first startup (12:30), his early interest in marketplaces (14:25), working at Youtube (17:40), launching Whatnot in 2019 (23:45), starting with Funkopops (27:55), what’s happening in China (33:30), what works about live shopping (35:40), the Pokemon phenomenon (41:15), luring star investors (45:15), his worst ...
Jun 25, 2021•55 min•Season 4Ep. 94
The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Tim Barat, founder of Gridware, to talk about dropping out of school at 15 (4:30), his first company (11:30), moving to California (17:50), getting into college (22:30), the problem he's targeting (25:00), wildfires (28:20), building a super sensor (34:00), starting a company (36:30), raising money (42:30), how the tech works (51:50), how he sells it (59:10), and the what's left to do (1:02:50). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy f...
Jun 18, 2021•1 hr 6 min•Season 4Ep. 93
The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Gabby Dizon, founder of Yield Guild Games, to talk about starting a gaming guild (4:10), the crypto winter (8:25), Axie Infinity (10:00), an in-game economy (13:55), creating a scholarship programme (17:55), the perception of value (25:00), raising $1.3 million (28:00), struggling to keep his gaming studio alive (29:05), growing up in Manila (30:40), the metaverse (33:50), why he never left the Philippines (36:50), and the future of work (39:00). Ho...
Jun 11, 2021•44 min•Season 4Ep. 92
But we're back next week! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jun 04, 2021•2 min•Season 4Ep. 91
The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Alec Lee, founder of Endless West, to talk about re-engineering whiskey (2:45), starting out in stem cells (6:15), how a Napa wine trip inspired their startup (7:45), the regulatory hurdles (10:50), pitching investors (13:45), the key tech advances (16:45), how he makes whiskey (20:50), reducing to hours what takes years (26:00), how he’ll spend the $21 million he just raised (32:30), on celebrity tine-ins (34:00), why they chose whiskey (36:20), wh...
May 28, 2021•46 min•Season 4Ep. 90
The Sunday Times tech correspondent brings on Jim Mellon, the billionaire investor and co-founder of Agronomics, to talk about the lab-grown meat revolution (2:40), why he thinks he’s not too early (7:40), the dairy industry example (9:30), replacing traditional industries (11:00), why cultured meat will be bigger than electric vehicles (15:00), the carbon crackdown coming for meat (16:45), foetal bovine serum (20:40), what keeps him up at night (22:50), how cultured meat works (24:30), and the ...
May 21, 2021•35 min•Season 4Ep. 89
The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Dr Mark Kotter, co-founder of Meatable and Bit Bio, to talk about the synthetic biology revolution (4:10), growing flesh (7:00), the field’s “big bang” (9:15), lab-grown meat (16:30), how far we are from a reverse-engineered ribeye (20:00), the “Meat 2.0” era (22:00), the branding challenge (26:30), creating a synthetic biology platform (28:00), the human cell atlas (32:00), cells as a smartphone (37:10), selling cells to pharmaceutica...
May 14, 2021•57 min•Season 4Ep. 88
The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Josh Browder, founder of DoNotPay, to talk about leaving San Francisco (4:15), the quiet exodus (7:15), why San Francisco is “unfriendly” to business (11:30), why Miami feels real (14:04), DoNotPay’s plans (18:00), privacy (21:35), the future of San Francisco (22:40), and the straw that broke the camel’s back (24:25). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
May 07, 2021•27 min•Season 4Ep. 87
The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Fraser Robinson, founder of Beacon, to talk about solving supply chains (2:45), the problem (5:10), his first startup (11:15), becoming the “adult in the room” (18:30), the early days at lastminute.com (19:50), starting another business in 2010 (22:30), getting recruited to Uber (24:45), running Uber in Europe (27:10), how to move fast and not break things (30:00), on whether Uber can survive (32:00), the mistakes in London (36:20), do...
Apr 30, 2021•52 min•Season 4Ep. 86
