Sam Talks Technology

Stephen Pankhurst was the co-founder of Friends Reunited along with his wife Julie. In 1999, Stephen’s wife Julie, was pregnant with their first child. She had just used the internet to track down her long lost Grandfather that she had never seen. Realising the power of the internet, and a desire to find out what some of her old school friends were up to, she came up with the idea of FriendsReunited, exploiting a gap in the UK market following the success of US website Classmates.com. Friends Reunited was officially launched in June 2000. The very first version of the site looked pretty horrible. Stephen was not a graphic designer, so he just knocked together anything. However, the functionality worked and very soon they started to get people coming to the site and registering themselves against schools. Nine months later, after a redesign, some hard work, lots of extra features, encouragement from users and the odd mention or two in the press, things started to get interesting. By the end of the

Sam Sethi talked to Sháá Wasmund about where her name originated from and how she managed to work for Chris Eubank, Sir James Dyson, Sir Bob Geldof all before she was 30.We talked about how she turned down £45m by not working for Michael Birch and that surprisingly isn’t her biggest regret.We also talked about her current role as an online educator helping small business owners via her Facebook groups ‘Freedom Collective’ & ‘The 6 Figure Expert Club’.We finally talked about why Sháá joins other people’s masterminds in order to help herself grow.

Sam Sethi talks with Dr Alasdair Pinkerton and co-host Matt Hodges-Long about the recent UK general election where Alasdair stood in Surrey Heath as the PPC (Parliamentary Prospective Candidate) for the Liberal Democrats.Despite losing to Mr Gove, they managed to use social media to crowdfund £25k and increased the LibDem vote by 16%.We talked about the potential negative effect social media will have in the 2020 US election now that Mark Zuckerberg has decided not to fact check political ads.We also talked about the potential scenarios in a post-brexit Boris world given Alasdair’s PhD research work on ‘Global Britain’.

Sam Sethi talks with Dan Wagner about his three startups MAID, Venda and Rezolve. We talked about how he started MAID in 1984, when he was only 20 before the web and search engines really existed. How he came to be the youngest CEO of Brightstation PLC which was listed on the London Stock Exchange.Dan talks about the struggles at the end of MAID with the dotcom crash before he sold it to Thomson Reuters.Dan being a serial entrepreneur was soon onto his next business called Venda but this was eventually sold to Netsuite.Dan took the core Venda technology to start Powa Technologies, "the Shaazam" for shopping. Powa Technologies, was praised by David Cameron and hailed as a British “unicorn”. Unfortunately it ended badly for Dan with investors and directors.Dan dusted himself down and has now launched Rezolve. 

Andy McLoughlin is a partner at Uncork Capital in San Francisco, focusing on B2B software opportunities. Uncork Capital is a seed-stage venture firm that commits early, helps with the hard stuff, and sticks around. Really. Andy's investments include LaunchDarkly, Coder, Crossbeam, Focal Systems, Human Interest, Pattern (acquired by Workday), Test.ai, Simplify, Fountain, GreatHorn, Bigfinite, and Identify3D, as well as a number of companies still in stealth. Andy was previously a prolific seed investor into many well-known startups. Postmates, Buffer, Intercom, Pipedrive, Hullabalu, RolePoint, Tray.io, Bugsnag, Thread, Calm, Secret Escapes, Apiary (acquired by Oracle), Import.io, Zesty (acquired by Square), Marvel, Cloud66 and more. Prior to becoming an investor, Andy is best know for co-founding Huddle with Alastair Mitchell. Andy had many roles at Huddle over the years - Head of Technology, Head of Product, Head of Marketing, Head of Strategy / Business Development, GM North America - but he was most pa

Sam Sethi talked with Paul Fabretti about how Microsoft's culture has changed since I worked for them back in the 90's. The insular Microsoft of Gates and Balmer, focused on Office and Windows, that I worked for has been replaced by a more open Microsoft focused on Azure and Open Source.But how did this come about? Paul and I talk about the impact of Satya Nadella on the companies new culture and focus.Paul and I first crossed paths over ten years ago when he was based here in the UK working for O2. Today Paul is based in Seattle working closely with Kate Johnson, President of Microsoft USA and the executive team. 

Sam Sethi and Cary Marsh have been friends for over a decade. We first met when Cary was CEO of Mydeo and online video hosting company. In this podcast we talked about Cary's two successful kickstarter projects - Bootclaw and My Flipping World. Cary explains why she prefers to raise funds via crowdfunding instead of through more traditional Angel or VC routes having had such a harrowing time raising funds for Mydeo.Cary also talks us through how she had the idea and more importantly how she went about getting the product to market.Cary's degree in engineering from Nottingham University was 20 years ago, however there are still so few women engineers. We discussed why that is and what can be done to encourage more women.In the future Cary would like to launch more tangible products through Punchfront Innovation via kickstarter.

Jeevan was visiting my good friend Manoj Ranaweera, who runs Techelerate Ventures in Manchester.  We spoke about Jeevan's entrepreneurial journey and his entrepreneurial grandfather. Jeevan talked about the first companies he started.  He started a cab driving company while at University with friends in America. He moved back to Sri Lanka and with his brother tried to start and e-commerce company but that failed due to the Sri Lankan infrastructure and market not being mature.  Like all good entrepreneurs he pivoted to a successful idea of running Orion City, Sri Lanka’s first operational IT Park to build the infrastructure needed to help other startups.  He soon opened Hatch, Sri Lanka's largest co-working/incubator/accelerator space. Today he also runs Veracity AI an specialist outsourced company that helps other companies build their own AI solution.  He has come over to Manchester to partner with Techcelerate Ventures who work with Founding and Management Teams of Technology Product Companies to accelerat

Tony has been a friend for over two decades.  In this podcast we talked about the problem with immutable data and blockchain and the benefits of the Chinese Social Score and why this is all our futures.  Tony also explained why he thinks 'data is not the new oil to mine.  And finally we talked about companies having to deal with so much data that there is a board level need to manage the data, the value and also take responsibility for protecting it from leaks.  

Dan and I first met in 2013 when he launched Grabble and I was running Bagzee, my own real-time price tracking fashion startup.   In this podcast we talked about why he has started a new smart multi-vitamin, how he formed such an impressive team including Dr Tara Swart, Chief Science Officer and Alain De Botton, Philosopher, Writer, Entrepreneur.   Heights is a DNVB (Digital Native Vertical Brand) that sells directly to the consumer.  At present the site is still in beta which means only invited customers can buy the smart multi-vitamin.  Thankfully listeners to this podcast can access the online store and buy their subscription by using the code "Marlow"We also talked about why Grabble which raised nearly £2m didn't succeed.  Finally we talked about the future for Heights and how Dan hopes to evolve Heights to offer multiple different vitamin products to address different age groups.  Eventually Dan hopes that Heights will be able to offer total personalised vitamins specific to each individual.   

Chis and I go back nearly two decades.  We first met when Chris kindly invited me to a charity dinner for Comic Relief.  In this podcast we talked about his new book "Less Perfect, More Happy. - how to overcome perfectionism". Perfectionism now has a name for this mental health issue. It's called Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (OCPD) a personality disorder that's characterised by extreme perfectionism, order, and neatness. People with OCPD will also feel a severe need to impose their own standards on their outside environment.  Sufferers like Chris were unaware that he had OCPD but had this need for perfectionism which caused him great angst throughout his childhood, all the way into adulthood were it took a toll on his marriage and relationship with his children.  "The feeling of not being ‘good enough’ dictated almost my entire life." - Chris WardThis book is about raising the awareness of perfectionism and highlighting the disorder OCPD.  Chris tells the story of his struggle with perfectionism

Sam talked with Walid about why companies are using private/enterprise blockchains and how these projects are moving from proof of concepts through to commercial rollouts.We also talked about the future of blockchains along with some of the challenges holding back the wider adoption of blockchains.

Daniel and I have known each other for over a decade. We first met when he was the Web & Internet Evangelist for Vodafone.We talked about Sir Tim's recent BBC Reith interview and Tim's new Contract for the Web.Today the web is being fragmented by countries like Russia, China and Iran to name but a few countries limiting their citizens access to stop free speech. Fake News is rife everywhere and our privacy is rapidly eroding as our permission on our data is centrally controlled.Sir Tim Berners-Lee's vision for the 'permissionless' one web space 30 years ago is in danger of crumbling under the weight of the behemoth centralised control of the GAFA's (Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon) and BAT's (Bidu, Alibaba and TenCent) who want to control all of our personal data for their profit.Daniel and I talked about these challenges but also the new Web 3.0 technologies like Blockchain, AI and DNS-SEC that is making the web decentralised, ethical, open, free and secure. 

Ben Hammersley is a British internet technologist, journalist, author and one of the world's leading futurists, based in New York, USA. Ben is also known for being the inventor of the word "podcast", recalling that he made it up to pad out an article he was writing that was a little too short. Coincidently Ben and I went to the same school - Loughborough Grammar School - but our paths never crossed, Ben is 10 years younger than me. Ben talked about what he does as a futurist and hint it doesn’t involve a crystal ball. We also talked about a number of topics ranging from the future of technology through to the failure of politics and economics. Unsurprisingly these topics are intertwined and symbiotic, resulting in Brexit, Trump and the rise of the populist movement aka the far-right. We also talked about the trends Ben see’s coming down the track. For example the incessant cesspool of fakenews has caused a flight to paid quality content and the move away from the free ad-supported web. Paywalls,

Ali and I talked about what EQT Ventures look for when investing in companies.  They like to make big bets on companies and back them with significant funding.  They look for companies with teams that are led by entrepreneurs that build and code the product themselves.  i.e Bet Big or Go HomeUnlike many overly cautious European VC's who focus on short-term revenues, EQT prefer to bet big and dominate a market, a strategy based on Peter Thiel's model in his book from zero to one. European VC's are finally cottoning onto this model as US VC's enter the European market to compete for the talented startups. EQT also have a hidden secret called the MotherBrain.  An AI piece of software written in house that helps them discover and evaluate new companies across a broad spectrum of industries.  We also talked about his former company Huddle which is what brought him from the UK out to San Francisco.  

Sam Sethi talked with Ralph Cochrane about the future of video creation and consumption.Ralph and I first met some 13 years ago when he was at BT.However, that was a lifetime ago and since then Ralph has become an award-winning video creator and documentary producer who flies all around the world, living as a digital nomad, filming and/or live streaming video content for his corporate clients.I'm part of the "digital nomad" craze so I'll be heading back to Dubai and Oman at the weekend for filming and then editing with some diving thrown in.In the past year, he has filmed in Argentina, Uruguay, Mexico, USA, Rwanda, Russia, China, The Middle East and across Europe.Ralph started experimenting with mobile video back in 2007, just before the iPhone was launched and his first post-big BT job was to launch a mobile phone festival with Sundance Film Festival at Mobile World Congress.Ralph is currently working on his first documentary about a kitchen fitter who teaches himself to play drums and ends up headlining Gla

Sam Sethi and  Martin Bryant discussed the future of journalism, podcasting paywalls, subscriptions, libra payments and fakenews.It's clear more and more newspapers are moving to paywalls to replace their dwindling ad-revenue. Is the freemium model dead? Will bloggers and podcasters follow suit as they look to monetise their content.We also discussed the recent launch of Facebook News. Having failed with Instant Articles before, will Facebook News succeed or be just another tab on Facebook wall that no one reads. Facebook News joins a growing band of news aggregation portals recently launched including Apple News+ and Amazon News on their FireTV. We also discussed the challenge of fake news and if there was anyway to prevent it.

Ed Hodges is the CEO of HelloDone (formerly Dazzle.ai). Dazzle recently raised £2.3m from Telefonica and Finance Birmingham. HelloDone is an automated messaging platform for Smart Cities that opens up automated conversations via messaging channels such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Slack, Amazon Alexa and others for transport, home delivery and utility companies to make everyday tasks easier for their users. Dazzle was a 2018 TechCrunch Top Pick and Gitex Supernova Category Finalist for Best International Startup 2018. Prior to this Ed created the digital and mobile app strategies, digital capabilities and operating models for Banks (RBS, Lloyds, Vanquis Bank) and Retailers (Tesco). He also set up the European arm of InAuth.com which sold to AMEX.

Giles is the Chief Marketing Officer of ///What3Words. What3words is the simplest way to talk about location. It's a global address system that names every 3m x 3m square in the world with a unique 3-word address. For example ///undercuts.shifts.cement marks the exact entrance to Marlow FM studios. People can use What3Words to find any normal address or to find a location that doesn't have an address such as a tent at festivals or to direct emergency services to the right place when you breakdown on the motorway. What3words is already available in 40 languages and is also included in Mercedes cars (and others) as an alternative navigation system. Today What3words now works with smart assistants like Alexa to make it easy to book an Uber just by giving Alexa the three-word location of your destination. In the future, I can imagine What3words will also be used for augmented reality to plot the location of objects because GPS is not user friendly and not every object will have a postcode.

Oliver Wellington is a co-founder and CMO of Headliner.app which makes it easy to create social video. Headliner is currently being used by over 10,000 Radio Producers, Podcasters, and Publishers to generate thousands of videos per week. Headliner is the app I use for Sam Talks Technology.