Techonomics

In this episode, Whitman Kwok, founder and CEO of KAV, joins Arun and I to discuss the revolutionary work his company is doing in the helmet industry. Whitman takes us through his diverse career path leading to the founding of KAV, emphasizing the importance of grit and persistence. He highlights the technical aspects and mission of producing highly customizable, stylish, and safe bike helmets. The discussion covers KAV's innovative use of 3D printing technology, custom materials, and advanced design to create helmets tailored to individual needs. Whitman also touches on the broader applications of their technology and the potential for localized manufacturing. Additional topics include the challenge of automating their manufacturing process and the role of craftsmanship in their products. 00:00 Introduction to Whitman Kwok and KAV 00:08 Whitman's Journey to Founding KAV 01:50 The Mission and Vision of KAV Helmets 04:03 Product Overview: Custom Bike Helmets 05:37 The Customization Process 08:41 Manufacturing Technology and Process 14:14 Advantages of 3D Printing in Helmet Design 20:31 Future Applications and Product Expansion 23:18 Exploring the Global Market for Scooters and Motorcycles 23:32 Innovations in Safety Gear Manufacturing 24:07 Building a Custom Manufacturing Platform 24:42 Balancing Specificity and Abstraction in Software 26:35 Challenges in Vertical Integration 29:57 The Role of Robotics in Manufacturing 33:06 The Future of Customization and Craftsmanship 40:31 Hot Takes and Final Thoughts

Our 5th and last episode of Techonomics Season 3 features Ben Gibbs, CEO and co-founder of READY Robotics⁠. In this episode we dive into the future of robotics, why there's a need for a common language across robotics manufacturers, and how READY Robotics is making that a reality.

Our 4th episode of Techonomics Season 3 features Jack Greco, co-founder and general partner of Far Out Ventures. In this episode we dive into Jack's incredible story of how he became one of the premier pre-seed and seed investors in Buffalo, NY, and why he's investing so much in companies outside the typical startup ecosystem in San Francisco.

Episode 3 of Techonomics Season 3 deep dives into investing in next generation software tools with Abstraction.vc founder, Taylor Clauson. The episode is packed with insights for anyone interested in tech, venture capital, or developer tools. Taylor shares his advice for aspiring founders, his thoughts on the future of developer tools, and his perspective on the Kansas City tech scene.

Techonomics Season 3 continues this week with a special episode deep-diving into Arun's personal experience with Silicon Valley Bank's collapse and it's impact on his startup Model-Prime, and our usual banter on the topic. Find out what it's like to be in the middle of a prisoner's dilemma banking collapse as a founder. Do you keep your funds in SVB or get your funds to make payroll?

Steven Kotler is a New York Times bestselling author, an award-winning journalist, a flow researcher, and the Executive Director of the Flow Research Collective who joined us for our 30th episode (and start of Techonomics Season 3) to discuss his new book, Gnar Country: Growing Old, Staying Rad. Steven has numerous other books like The Rise of Superman, The Art of the Impossible, and Stealing Fire that encompass Steven's work in flow and high performance. This is a special episode for Arun and I, not just because we love skiing and trying to find our own peak flow states, but because when we first met Arun recommended the book The Rise of Superman -- that catalyzed our friendship and Techonomics would not be where it is today as a result. Big thanks to Steven for coming on the podcast. We know you'll enjoy. Music: Hipjazz and Dreams from Bensound.com

In this episode, Arun and I went sans guest to dive into the recent market decline, impact on the Tech market, layoffs, and a special look-back at our previous episodes of the season.

In our 28th publication of the Techonomics podcast, Arun and I had the pleasure of speaking with Lindsay Gordon, the founder of A Life of Options and a career coach for analytically minded people. She also happens to be a newly minted author with her book, Right for YOU. Lindsay's specialty in coaching and tips/tricks in the episode are a perfect fit for Techonomics listeners – the analytically minded. You won't want to miss it – and if you have follow up questions for Lindsay, reach out at coaching@alifeofoptions.com. Music: Hipjazz and Dreams from Bensound.com

Andrew Yates from Promoted.ai joins us for our 27th episode to discuss ad tech, his thoughts on SaaS value creation, and how he and the team at Promoted.ai are optimizing marketplaces. Promoted.ai helps companies like Hipcamp use their own data to provide the most relevant content using ad-like ranking and scoring. We also had a great time going over Andrew's history in ad tech, his experience building and optimizing ad systems, and his philosophy in building Promoted -- everything is an ad. Music: Hipjazz and Dreams from Bensound.com

In this episode, Nate Pierotti from New Stack Ventures joined Arun and I to discuss New Stack's approach to Venture Capital, investing in a time without tech exuberance, and what it's like to be a founder turned VC. This episode gets to the heart of Techonomics – a conversation at the intersection of tech and the economy.

Mike Wagner, the CEO of Edge Case Research, joined Arun and I in our 25th episode of Techonomics to discuss the different levels of self-driving, insurance, the liability shift as we move towards autonomous vehicles, and the processes self-driving car companies like Waymo, Cruise, and Aurora can use to make them safe.

In our 24th episode, Arun and I sat down with Chirru Gopal, Co-founder and VP of Engineering at Mitra Chem, a startup that's accelerating lab-to-market timeline for battery materials. Chirru is a good friend and an expert in the field of material science, engineering, and batteries – something we don't cover in any previous episode. During the show Chirru gives us a crash course in batteries while bringing us through what makes up a battery, what makes a battery powerful and performant, and the unique approach that Mitra Chem is taking to shorten the lab-to-production time by more than 90%. You also won't want to miss Chirru dive into why innovation in certain parts of the battery is important, how the industry is progressing towards cheaper materials for batteries of the same performance, and how trade-offs are made when manufacturing batteries for different purposes. Ever wonder how your electric vehicle battery actually works? Tune in to find out!

In our 23rd episode, Arun and I sat down with Jake Panikulam, the CEO of Main Street Autonomy – a company that creates localization, mapping, and calibration software for robotics companies. Music: Hipjazz and Dreams from Bensound.com

This week we have the pleasure of talking with Michelle Parsons, the Chief Product Officer of Hinge – the dating app designed to be deleted. In this episode, we talk about dating in the COVID era, how Hinge's product thinking helps their users get quality dates, and how the thread of community has been shaping software products throughout the tech industry. Music: Hipjazz and Dreams from Bensound.com

For our second episode of season two, Nitya Sharma joined us to talk Payments, India, and Online Khata -- introducing us to Simpl. Simpl is a company reimagining the credit card from the ground up and empowering online retailers to build trusted relationships with their best customers. See more at https://getsimpl.com and https://www.techonomics.news Music: Hipjazz and Dreams from Bensound.com

For our first episode of season two, Tyler Odean (or Knifefight as his internet pseudonym goes) joined us to talk Bitcoin, NFTs, and what makes good money. Tyler is the creator and author of the crypto newsletter Something Interesting at https://www.somethinginteresting.news which features easy-to-understand commentary on current happenings and the fundamentals in the crypto market. As the tagline goes: “Everything about Crypto explained, simply.” We highly recommend giving it a read and subscribing. Notes from the episode: The NFT derivative creator mentioned was https://twitter.com/_Dave__White_ On RICKs and MORTYs — RICKs solve the reconstitution problem for fractionalized NFTs. Both of the use cases described in the episode are both ways to use MORTYs. See more at https://www.techonomics.news Music: Hipjazz and Dreams from Bensound.com

In our 19th episode, Arun and I sat down with Ahmed Siddiqui, VP of product at Branch and author of the book The Anatomy of the Swipe. We dove into Ahmed's entry into the payments industry, why he wrote a book, his company, Branch, and payment concepts. If you're looking for a crash course in payments, particularly what happens when you swipe, tap, or insert your credit card, look no further. We also look at who the major players are, who takes on what risk profile as money changes hands, and how the industry is evolving. It's fascinating. Music: Hipjazz and Dreams from Bensound.com  

Professor Campbell Harvey is a Professor of Economics at Duke University and author of the book DeFi and the Future of Finance. Follow along as we dig into Professor Campbell's background, the story of his thesis on the inverted yield curve, his new book, and the concepts of cryptocurrency and decentralized finance (DeFi). Music: Hipjazz and Dreams from Bensound.com

Jeff Birkeland is the VP of Product of Consumer Experience at Headspace, and has built his career and expertise around the combination of product and content. He's been a Director of Product Management at Facebook, LinkedIn, Yahoo, and a few startups, and his love for content started when he was producing documentaries at PBS and HBO. Listen in on this episode where Jeff walks Arun and me through his content and product journey, why he's joined Headspace, and how Headspace is giving people the tools they need for mindfulness. Music: Hipjazz and Dreams from Bensound.com

Rahul Iyer leads engineering for Stripe's Terminal product. He also previously led production platform engineering at Airbnb, managed multiple engineering teams at Facebook, and has had stints at other startups in between. In our 16th episode, Rahul sat down with Arun and me to talk about his journey in engineering, a recent history of building software at companies like Facebook, and his thoughts on the intersection of tech and economics in Silicon Valley. We also touch on topics in previous episodes as he both challenges and builds on some of the ideas from Arun and me. Music: Hipjazz and Dreams from Bensound.com

Ivan Kirigin is the founder of the Venture Capital firm Tango that specializes in Machine Learning and Robotics. Ivan sat down with Arun and me to talk about venture capital, what it's like going through Y Combinator as a previous founder, his vision of the future of technology, and how Tango is doing things differently to fund companies that are improving the world.

Ryan Green and Brian Finamore, the co-founders of the company Gridwise, joined Arun and me on the podcast to talk about the gig economy ecosystem and how their product empowers gig economy workers by helping them maximize their income and save thousands a year on taxes. Plus – we had a few laughs as we got to know the co-founders through a special Hot Take: "Do you know your Co-founder?"

Ben Foster is the author of the book “Build What Matters” and the Chief Product Officer at WHOOP. Ben sat down with Arun and me to talk about his book, building products, and how WHOOP pivoted their model to become a competitive force in the tech wearables market. You won't want to miss it.

Phil Bronner is a General Partner and Co-founder of Ardent Venture Partners. He sat down with Arun and me to talk about venture capital and the future of work after the pandemic, sharing his insights from more than 20 years in the field and his experience investing in the companies that transform how we work.

Kate Brennan, the product lead for Stripe Terminal, Stripe’s in-person payments product, joined Arun and me in our 11th episode of the Techonomics podcast. We are excited to share this new episode with you as Kate shares her story into product management, leadership wisdom as a product leader, and the nuances of in-person payments at Stripe. If you have an interest in product management, leadership, or even what it takes to work in the payments industry — this episode is for you.

Kevin McNamara, the CEO of Parallel Domain, joined Arun and I in our 10th episode of the Techonomics podcast. We are excited to share this new episode with you as it dives into a bleeding edge topic – synthetic data. Take a listen as Kevin brings us through what Parallel Domain is looking to accomplish, how they are taking a different route to self-driving data, and how they play a pivotal role in training self-driving models for the most rare of circumstances. Music: Hipjazz and Dreams from Bensound.com

Çetin Meriçli, is a the CEO & Co-founder at Locomation, a company that is building autonomous, self-driving trucks using unique methods not typically seen in the self-driving industry. In this episode, Çetin brings us through his journey into robotics, his opinions on the autonomous industry, and his quest to use unconventional methods to get us closer to full self-driving autonomy. It's a fascinating listen.

In this episode Bef Ayenew spoke with us about leadership in Tech, what it takes to build a community, and his experience growing an audience on Clubhouse. It's a particularly great episode to listen to if you're looking for a first-hand view from a leader in technology and want to know more about hosting a room or club on Clubhouse.

Arun and I are back with our guest, Ryan Falor. In part two of this two part episode, Ryan continues the discussion with us, diving into the role and importance of mapping in the self-driving space. We're really excited. If you didn't catch part one, you'll want to listen to get the full background on digital mapping and Ryan's career. Enjoy!

Our second guest, Ryan Falor, is a group product manager at Aurora and has an impressive track record in digital maps and self-driving at Google and Uber. In part one of this two part episode, Ryan talks with us about the history and business of digital maps since the late 90's and how the landscape is changing. In part 2, Ryan will build on the discussion to lead us through the importance of mapping in the self-driving space. Part 2 coming soon.

Arun and I are excited to announce and thank our first guest, Brian Shih. In this episode, we dive into the gaming industry, specifically: what's changing, how it differs from Big Tech, and the future of gaming.

Arun and I jump into the semiconductor industry and discuss how everyone's a chip designer, the differences across semiconductor companies, and the future of chip design and manufacturing. There's also a surprise hot take at the end. You won't want to miss it.

This week Arun and I dive into Amazon, Google, Facebook, and the antitrust allegations they are facing. We look specifically at differences in the allegations, why we believe they do or do not hold up, and what the future of antitrust will look like for tech.

This week, Arun and I compare and contrast the different approaches of two behemoth ecommerce companies: Amazon and Shopify. We also look at their approaches in the wave of success during the pandemic and what new technology means for the future of ecommerce.

Welcome to Techonomics. This week we talk about the Airbnb and DoorDash IPOs. We also touch on what it means to be a technology company. Each podcast will dive into the same type of content you see coming through Techonomics writing, with a healthy conversation exploring those topics in more detail and having some fun along the way.  We hope you enjoy.