Danny In The Valley

Danny in the Valley will back next week. Jury duty forced me to cancel all meetings and pods this week! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Parker Conrad, founder and chief executive of Rippling, to talk about getting caught in the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (3:30), receiving a call at 5:30 am (8:30), how wide the SVB blast radius was (11:00), moving $130m to JP Morgan in three hours (13:45), raising $500m in a day (17:00), why some people still didn’t get paid (23:40), the growing vulnerabilities of regional banks (30:20), the importance of SVB to tech (32:30), Conrad's experience at Zenefits (37:15), why automating things with software is harder than it seems (42:30), and operating in a slowing economy and tighter funding environment (44:40). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson things on Sean Gourley, founder of Primer AI, to talk about how he got into the industry (3:45), and then getting into counterintelligence (6:40), the image recognition revolution (9:00), raising money from the CIA (11:00), AI in war (16:30), how machines beat human Top Gun pilots (20:00), AI as the “third offset” (22:00), how the US is still living with a Cold War mentality (27:30), the AI arms race with China (30:00), the long ties between the Pentagon and Silicon Valley (34:15), how it has become easier to recruit (37:30), the Chat GPT effect (40:40), the next weapon of mass destruction (45:00), and Tiktok and the information war (48:00). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Tom Harries to talk about his previous cremation startup (3:20), how he got into human composting (5:00), the problems with burial and cremation (8:20), society’s changing attitude toward funerals (13:50), perfecting the microbial breakdown process (14:50), controlling temperature (21:10), using human remains to reforest land (24:20), raising $10m (27:15), why it takes 45 days to compost a body (33:05), building a household death brand (34:40), and how he got into the death business (36:50). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Stuart Russell, professor at UC Berkeley and one of the world’s leading experts on artificial intelligence (AI), to talk about working in the field for decades (4:00), AI’s Sputnik moment (7:45), why these programmes aren’t very good at learning (13:00), trying to inoculating ourselves against the idea that software is sentient (15:00), why super intelligence will require more breakthroughs (17:20), autonomous weapons (26:15), getting politicians to regulate AI in warfare (30:30), building systems to control intelligent machines (36:20), the self-driving car example (39:45), how he figured out how to beat AlphaGo (43:45), the paper clip example (49:50), and the first AI programme he wrote as a 13-year-old. (55:45). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Noam Shazeer, founder of Character.ai, to talk about his work at Google (4:00), joining the search giant in 2000 (6:50), what is deep learning (5:10), starting on language models in 2015 (9:10), starting the company in 2021 (10:50), virtual therapists (15:00), monetizing (20:40), what is possible (23:00), growing up coding and doing maths (31:00), winning the international Math Olympiad (32:20), how this compares to the Internet itself (34:30). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Matt LeDucq, founder of Forum Mobility, to talk about drayage (4:25), its health impacts (6:20), starting out in renewable energy twenty years ago (9:10), how drayage is like solar decades ago (12:10), the coming wave of electric lorries (13:30), building giant depots (16:45), the cost question (18:20), and electric grid challenge (20:20), being the tip of the spear (23:25), deciding to start the company (28:50), putting steel in the ground (34:10), learning to be a CEO (39:45), and what the rest of the world is doing (42:10). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Cameron McLain, co-founder of Giant, to talk about why he chose the name (3:05), what he did before starting a venture fund (7:00), moving to America (8:30), dabbling in Buddhism philosophy (10:30), getting into the music industry (12:45), starting and selling a company (15:25), finding good founders (17:30), bringing in Lord Browne as an advisor (24:50), the importance of timing (26:20), raising money right as the pandemic hit (29:40), the climate opportunity (33:15), betting on biology (36:00), and his worst day (41:00). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times’ correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Lara Hodgson, founder of NOW, to talk about her previous companies (3:15), how a payment problem led to the launch of Now (8:55), meeting US political star Stacey Abrams (12:15), the Now account (15:15), the origins of the “net 30 “ payment model (22:00), the state of the economy (23:30), her meandering career (28:15), taking advantage of being a women in a male-dominated industry (33:15), focusing on impact rather than your passions (38:00), and why she looks out the window (40:40). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Trevor Martin of Mammoth Biosciences, to talk about “programming biology” (4:10), the slow grind of innovation (7:25), CRISPR (10:20), the problems he’s trying to solve (16:15), curing thousands of diseases (19:40), reaching for a science fiction future (24:40), meeting Nobel Prize winner Jennifer Doudna (27:40), starting the company (35:00), becoming the chief executive (38:50), raising $265m (43:45), and what comes next (47:15). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Saman Farid, founder of Formic, to tlak about why we need more robots (3:40), the labour shortage (7:20), the growing universe of jobs that are automatable (10:00), the latest AI bubble (13:45), growing up in China (21:20), being inspired by China’s rapid industrialization (23:30), how AMerica is losing 10,000 factory workers each day (25:20), starting his first couple companies in China (29:30), the deep learning revolution (31:15), convincing factory owners to install their robots (36:40), why he thinks more robots is better for society (40:00). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Callery Means, founder of TrueMed, to talk about his early days in politics (4:20), how the food industry avoided sugar taxes (7:45), the links between industry and institutions of trust (12:00), the “food compass” and why it says Lucky Charms is better than chicken breast (18:00), why we consume 100 times more sugar than we used to (23:45), what TrueMed is (29:45), how he aims to rebalance incentives in the healthcare industry (35:10), food as medicine (39:00), and trying to spark a movement (43:00). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Seshu Madhavapeddy co-founder and chief executive of Frore Systems, to talk about why our devices underperform and we don;t know it (4:20), the problem with fans (8:00), inventing a new chip (13:00), how it works (17:30), why he started the company (20:30), getting into an IIT in India (21:40), leaving Nortel at the peak of the dotcom boom (26:00), startup lessons (28:10), raising $116 million (33:00), getting Frore’s chips into computers (34:50), the recruiting challenge (41:40), and his worst day (44:00). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Eddie Martucci, co-founder and chief executive of Akili Interactive, to talk about making the first prescription video game (3:40), the original pitch (6:10), sweeping the floors of his parents’ pharmacy (13:20), how he landed on video games as medicine (16:40), why ADHD is more present that it used to be (19:00), targeting a “weak link” in the brain (24:00), how the game algorithmically hones it treatment to each player (27:55), targeting conditions like depression and MS (29:40), getting insurance and health systems to pay for it (33:00), looking abroad (43:30), and running a public company (46:40). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on analyst Benedict Evans to talk about Chat GPT and machine learning (5:00), how it gets things wrong (10:00), the “fluent bullshit” problem (12:00), whether this is a genuine breakthrough moment (15:20), what this means for humans (18:25), “prompt engineering” (23:00), humans as curators rather than creators (26:40), tech’s mid-life crisis (27:45), the future of “search” (32:10), using AI do make “no-code” software (35:00), where we go from here (39:00), and the illusion of creativity (42:45). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Bryan Johnson, tech entrepreneur and Kernel founder, to talk about reversing his biological age with “the blueprint” (4:50), eating dinner at 11:00 am (12:15), pleasure through pain (15:45), rethinking what it means to be human (17:30), changing society (23:00), how this philosophy dovetails with his startup Kernel (24:50), the “cognitive crisis" (26:45), living outside the norm (30:45), the autonomous self (33:15), assembling a team of 25 people to create the blueprint (36:50), being a “rejuvenation athlete” (38:40), firing himself (43:50), creating a community of rejuvenation enthusiasts (47:15), how long he wants to live (50:50), the rise of the machines (52:50), and automating away willpower (57:50).Bryan Johnson's Blueprint: https://blueprint.bryanjohnson.co/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Joshua March, founder of SciFi Foods to talk about why he is trying to brew burgers (3:30), mixing meat and plants (6:00), the cost challenge (8:00), growing up in small town England and his first startup (11:50), launching a social media software company (15:00), finding a technical co-founder and starting a meat company (17:20), leaning into the science with its branding (25:20), the cost challenge (30:30), the road to regulatory approval (37:40), winning hearts and minds (40:15), and the vegan mafia (41:10). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Patrick Torbey and Lio Mora about engineering plants (3:45), the age of biology (6:15), their $180 houseplant (11:25), indoor pollution (13:45), meeting at a startup incubator (17:30), founder dating (20:55), raising money (24:30), spending four years developing the first plant (27:25), the market education problem (33:00), why certifications is more difficult than it seems (39:30), the maintenance challenge (41:45), and their worst day (47:05). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Andrew Beebe, to talk about “world positive” investing (4:00), the dotcom boom (5:30), zeroing in on climate years ago (10:10), how a cold call to Google worked (12:10), how he met Twitter founder Ev Williams (16:00), investing in the downturn (19:10), screening for world positive companies (23:45), how he coaches founders (28:20), climate tech whiplash and why this time is different (32:000), and his worst day of work (40:30). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Navin Chaddha of Mayfield Fund, to talk about the future of work (3:10), and Silicon Valley (9:50), managing $2bn with seven people (13:55), his first startup in the dotcom boom (18:00), the importance of timing (22:50), holding his nerve at the recent peak (28:10), the other two companies he started (33:10), the lessons from he took from them (38:10), the current downturn (42:05), how he made it here from India (46:50), going through the IIT system (50:00), and what he’s excited to back (55:05). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.