Danny In The Valley

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Marcus Gerhardt, chief executive of Blackrock Neurotech, to talk about his boarding school days in Wales (4:00), his dotcom adventures (10:00), pivoting to brain-computer interfaces (16:00), the “Utah array” (18:40), how in 2006 the first person sent an email with his thoughts (20:30), starting the company (23:00), the state of the technology today (26:40), targeting tetraplegics (33:00), getting investment (38:15), going to market (41:30), and reaching an inflection point (47:40). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on co-founder and chief executive of Checkerspot, to talk about using algae to make skis (3:55), what he leaned at pioneer Solazyme (8:30), naming the company after a butterfly (16:10), how synthetic biology is like computers were in the 1980’s (18:00), starting out as an investment banker (21:15), switching to biotech (27:00), and then to Solazyme (28:30), algae oil skis (32:15), convincing investors (36:30), the rise of climate tech (42:00), and his worst day (48:00). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Michael Selden, co-founder and chief executive of Finless Foods, to talk about growing tuna in a lab (2:45), getting the price down from $300,000 to $150 per pound (5:45), a publicly available bluefin tuna genome (8:45), replacing fetal bovine serum (11:30), using plant based material for the flesh “scaffolding” (14:20), scaling up (16:10), aiming for the mass market (19:55), why almost all American seafood is imported (21:20), the problems with seafood (22:40), the hardest moment(s) (27:30), the challenge of turning “clean meat” into an industry (32:00), and the science that is yet to be figured out (35:40). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Peter Reinhardt, co-founder and chief executive Charm Industrial, to talk about a different approach to carbon capture (3:30), overshooting our emissions (7:25), starting the company after a career in software (11:35), finding the Tesla roadster of CO2 removal (14:30), the potential (16:55), scaling up (19:40), attracting investors (22:00), and the CO2 scoreboard (24:00). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Cody Friesen, founder of Source Water, to talk about using solar to solve the water problem (4:30), the messy energy transition (9:15), our reliance on “dino-juice” (11:00), how its panels work (13:00), improving performance (22:00), starting the company (24:55), luring investors (27:00), going from scientist to founder (30:50), creating a battery company (38:00), scaling up (40:00), and solving problems for seven generations hence (44:45). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.