Podcasts about isps

Don’t get left behind on AWS! Don’t get left behind on AWS! Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://theultimatepartner.com/ebook-subscribe/ Check Out UPX: https://theultimatepartner.com/experience/ In this episode, we go deep inside the AWS Marketplace with Louise Strandoo, who spent nearly a decade building AWS’s marketplace business from the ground up and now leads partner development for AWS’s data, analytics, and storage practice. Louise unpacks COST, the six-pillar framework her team built by studying what actually separates hypergrowth startups and billion-dollar sellers from partners who treat marketplace as a side project. We break down why operational excellence has to be in place before you ever enable your sales team, why executive sponsorship from the top of the organization is what keeps a marketplace strategy from collapsing into a single point of failure, and why product-led growth is no longer optional now that buyers, and increasingly AI agents, expect to try, buy, and deploy software without waiting on a human to close the loop, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwyAP7yVy3I Key Takeaways Success on AWS Marketplace requires a comprehensive framework like COST, not just a simple checklist of tasks. Your product must be something customers actually want to buy, not a subpar offering used merely to test the waters. Operational excellence is required to ensure your marketplace motion has the sustainability to scale globally. Product-Led Growth (PLG) is essential for enabling frictionless procurement, especially as buyers shift toward agent-driven AI solutions. Executive sponsorship is critical; building a strategy without leadership buy-in will prevent it from gaining real traction. Sales alignment ensures reps are appropriately compensated and friction is removed, preventing them from avoiding marketplace transactions. If you're ready to lead through change, elevate your business, and achieve extraordinary outcomes through the power of partnership—this is your community. At Ultimate Partner® we want leaders like you to join us in the Ultimate Partner Experience – where transformation begins. Key Tags AWS Marketplace framework, COST methodology, product-led growth, agentic procurement, hyperscaler ecosystem, operational excellence, revenue friction, private offers, co-sell acceleration, strategic collaboration agreements, resilient architecture, cloud commitments, organizational transformation Key Tags Louise Strandoo Audio Episode [00:00:00] Louise Strandoo: Salespeople, rightly so. They don’t wanna introduce something that’s going to add a complexity to the deal. They’re like, why would AWS wanna be involved? [00:00:11] Vince Menzione: You can feel it happening. The ecosystem is shifting beneath us, the way Hyperscalers are partnering, how AI’s remaking the channel and what it means to win in 2026. [00:00:22] Louise Strandoo: Welcome to the Ultimate Partner Podcast. I’m Vince Menzi. Own [00:00:26] Vince Menzione: your host. And each week I sit down with leaders at the intersection of technology, partnerships and outcomes. The voices shaping how ecosystems actually work. We talk about what’s real, what’s changing, and what it takes to lead in this era where the partner channel isn’t just part of the strategy. [00:00:45] Vince Menzione: It is the strategy because being in the room changes everything. Let’s start. [00:00:53] Louise Strandoo: And Louise Strand, come on out. Come on up. Uh, our first, our first [00:00:59] Vince Menzione: Amazon executive at, at this session. Not our first ever, but our first at this session. [00:01:06] Louise Strandoo: Happy to be [00:01:07] Vince Menzione: thrilled to have you. I, why don’t we sit down on an, um, I’ll have you sit here and, you know, you get, take one of the ultimate partner pillows with you since you’re a first assignment attend. [00:01:15] Louise Strandoo: Wonderful. [00:01:16] Vince Menzione: Uh, [00:01:16] Louise Strandoo: good [00:01:17] Vince Menzione: to hear. So great to have you. I thought maybe we’d start, maybe, uh, with you, uh, explaining your role. Then we can start talking about costs, which is the subject is like near and dear, and we’ll talk about that, about what that is. But I want to keep people on their pins of their seats right now. [00:01:33] Vince Menzione: So tell us, tell us more about you and your role and your journey at AWS. [00:01:37] Louise Strandoo: Yeah, well thanks for having me. Good to see everybody in the room. Um, so my name’s Louise. I have spent the better part of the last nine and a half years at AWS and I spent almost that whole time, probably around eight years. In AWS Marketplaces business Development organization, um, I joined to help startups figure out how to scale their business on the marketplace. [00:02:00] Louise Strandoo: And from there, I grew into a number of different roles, helped ISVs figure out how to scale their marketplace business of all sizes. Um, I worked with some of our top sellers on the marketplace, figure out how to really scale their revenue through the marketplace. Today I am actually the lead of the data analytics and storage partner development team. [00:02:20] Louise Strandoo: Nice. Within the US Tech partnerships organization. So it’s been a really cool transition to go from like all marketplace focused. And throughout that time, marketplace kind of became the center of partnerships. Yep. Within our partner program. Um, so now I manage PDMs and partners and we still talk a lot about marketplace. [00:02:40] Louise Strandoo: Also everything else that we do as a partner. So it’s, um, it’s been a fun journey. [00:02:45] Vince Menzione: And we were talking about this earlier, like you started with Marketplace and then moved out where all the other organizations started from partnership and moved into marketplace. Mm-hmm. Almost the other up. And you have built a framework costs [00:02:59] Louise Strandoo: mm-hmm. [00:03:00] Vince Menzione: Characteristics of successful sellers. And I have a set of operating principles about successful partnering. So I’m really intrigued about this conversation. I was hoping you could walk us through it, like what are these characteristics and where do most partners fall short in terms of characteristics? [00:03:18] Louise Strandoo: Yeah, so, um, like all really good things, cost was an effort that I built alongside a bunch of other really smart people. And we started to have this conversation about what does, uh, you know, what does success look like? We we’re focused in the beginning, in my marketplace journey on getting. Partners to sell on the marketplace, getting them to list and adopt the features. [00:03:41] Louise Strandoo: And of course they’re like, why would we do this? And we’re like, that’s a great question. Let’s figure out like really what the why of this whole thing is. And as we started to get partners who were startups and some of our really large partners activated, we started to see all kinds of value and how marketplace was helping co-sell and all this good stuff. [00:03:59] Louise Strandoo: And we needed to figure out like how do we identify what is like the lightning in the bottle? So we looked across some of the most, uh, hypergrowth companies on the marketplace. Mm-hmm. Some of those startups that had really propelled into major success stories. And then some of those like really scaled enterprise sellers, the one [00:04:17] Vince Menzione: that got to a billion dollars. [00:04:18] Louise Strandoo: Exactly. The market, our billion dollar market market. Billion dollar sellers. Right? Yep. And we looked at what are the common characteristics that all of those partners embody. Yes. And how do we kind of. Define a framework that is not a checklist because a lot of us were doing that at the time. Here’s all the things that you should do to make it work well. [00:04:34] Louise Strandoo: It doesn’t really work from partner to partner. Everyone has a unique go-to market strategy. Yeah, so we developed costs to kind of be this overarching tool that partners can use to say, do we have the right kind of fundamental approach to how we’re going to market with AWS and how we’re thinking about the marketplace. [00:04:51] Louise Strandoo: Do we have the right tools to like bring our overall go-to-market strategy to A AWS and to the marketplace so we’re not doing two separate things. That was sort of the genesis of the idea. Makes [00:05:02] Vince Menzione: a lot of sense. [00:05:04] Louise Strandoo: So, um, the characteristics, there’s six of ’em. I won’t go into detail about every single one. [00:05:11] Louise Strandoo: Oh, [00:05:11] come [00:05:11] Vince Menzione: on. We’ll do that one. Yeah. We have some people in the room that are gonna be intrigued by this. Go ahead. [00:05:16] Louise Strandoo: So, um, the first pillar is. Partnership with AWS, you can’t do marketplace without figuring out what, what’s your overall partner strategy, right? So how are you using the partner programs to drive differentiation in your business? [00:05:30] Louise Strandoo: Yep. How are you using our funding programs to elevate the parts of your business that you really wanna accelerate? Um, and how are you thinking about your partner strategy with AWS overall? [00:05:40] Vince Menzione: Interesting. [00:05:41] Louise Strandoo: The second one is, uh, selection on AWS marketplace. [00:05:44] Vince Menzione: Product selection. [00:05:45] Louise Strandoo: That’s right. [00:05:45] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:05:46] Louise Strandoo: You gotta have a product on the marketplace that your customers wanna buy. [00:05:49] Louise Strandoo: I think the biggest thing that partners have done wrong over the years is they think, let’s do crawl, walk, run. We’re gonna put something up there that we’re not, you know, really excited about, but we’ll see how it does and then we’ll try to invest from there. [00:06:03] Vince Menzione: Mm-hmm. [00:06:04] Louise Strandoo: If you put something out there that nobody knows how to sell, then that you’re not excited about, your customers aren’t probably excited about it either. [00:06:09] Louise Strandoo: There’s no reason it’s gonna do well in the marketplace. [00:06:10] Vince Menzione: Yeah. It makes no sense to me. [00:06:12] Louise Strandoo: Yep. So you gotta have something good. You gotta have your marquee product, and then you wanna use features that are gonna help buyers actually access that product in a way that’s frictionless. Yeah. The third one is operational excellence. [00:06:25] Louise Strandoo: So that’s looking at how are you structuring your organization and investing in all the right processes that you need to scale the business. Reporting at a global scale, understanding how to recognize revenue and thinking about all of the in-between moments of. Being on the marketplace, creating an offer, how does your sales team gonna get in touch with you when you need to send that offer out? [00:06:47] Louise Strandoo: And how are you making sure that an alliance person isn’t trying to find an outlet in a random corner of an airport to send a private offer to a customer? All of that structural stuff to make the, the motion scale. [00:07:00] Vince Menzione: So we’re talking product led growth versus. One off or [00:07:04] Louise Strandoo: all of it? All of it. Okay. No matter what kind of partner you are, you have to have operational excellence. [00:07:08] Louise Strandoo: Yeah. To make sure that your marketplace and your partnership motion has sustainability and scale. The next two, I’ll kind of go through fast. There is, yeah. Um, partner commitment to marketplace revenue. So what do you really want Drive from a revenue perspective, right. How do you get your leaders bought in on that, and how do you set a goal that dictates what you’re doing? [00:07:28] Louise Strandoo: And then how do you define sales alignment? From a structural perspective to say we’re gonna remove friction that could get in the way of the field selling this thing. We’re gonna remove things that are, um, negating reps from wanting to go through marketplace because it’s impacting their comp. Yeah. Or it’s really hard. [00:07:46] Louise Strandoo: All of that kind of structural stuff goes into the sales alliance. [00:07:49] Vince Menzione: So there’s, yeah. I wanted to take this apart a little bit too, if you don’t mind. No [00:07:52] Louise Strandoo: problem. [00:07:53] Vince Menzione: Because I think about this a lot. So when you start talking about an organization, you’re talking about what this, we’ll call it an ISV Sure. Or an si, but. [00:08:00] Vince Menzione: You know, ISPs primarily is where it all started. They need to get their internal operational excellence. Right, exactly. Which means their, their ops piece. Yep. And their sales execution. They’re gonna to market all those things. The sales alignment side. Is that their sales teams [00:08:18] Louise Strandoo: correct. [00:08:19] Vince Menzione: Are compensated properly so that they don’t go around the systems. [00:08:22] Vince Menzione: Exactly right. They’re aligned. They’re aligned to go drive the right results. [00:08:25] Louise Strandoo: Exactly. [00:08:26] Vince Menzione: Because they’ve made commitments as well. [00:08:28] Louise Strandoo: Yeah. [00:08:28] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:08:29] Louise Strandoo: And I always talk about marketplace, like it is transformation. It’s different. It’s not what you’re doing today. [00:08:35] Vince Menzione: That’s right. [00:08:35] Louise Strandoo: Salespeople, rightly so. They don’t wanna introduce something that’s gonna add a complexity to the deal. [00:08:43] Louise Strandoo: They’re like, why would AWS wanna be involved? Stay away. So if that is already there and then on top of that Mm, they don’t get paid as much when they go direct. [00:08:53] Vince Menzione: Right? Right. [00:08:54] Louise Strandoo: They’re not gonna go through the market nice. [00:08:55] Vince Menzione: No, they’re not. [00:08:55] Louise Strandoo: They’re not gonna bring anything to you and the partnership team saying like, Hey, we really wanna figure out how to make this engine work with AWS So we have to do as much as we can to remove that friction from the experience. [00:09:06] Vince Menzione: So, you know, you mentioned private offers, which made me think about like product-led growth versus private offers. ’cause it’s, it feels like marketplace from the beginning. It’s changed. It [00:09:15] Louise Strandoo: has, [00:09:16] Vince Menzione: you’ve been doing this for a number of years. You were first to market with a marketplace. There was, I’ll call a lot of friction because there was channels and other, other routes to market direct selling. [00:09:27] Vince Menzione: Tell us, take us through some of those experiences. Yeah, yeah. Like what was that like? And then obviously you built cos because you had a lot of field engagement with these organizations trying to get them to go do it the right way. [00:09:38] Louise Strandoo: Right? [00:09:39] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:09:39] Louise Strandoo: So it’s interesting actually, when we built the marketplace. [00:09:42] Louise Strandoo: It was completely like a product-led growth motion, as in let’s just figure out a way to let AWS customers find amis in the marketplace. Developers are gonna go get it, and they’re just gonna buy it without any additional push from the field or like co-sell. That doesn’t need to happen. Then we heard from customers, Hey, this is great. [00:10:02] Louise Strandoo: But what we really want is also to be able to buy bigger contracts. We wanna customize our contracts, we wanna negotiate price when we’re buying this on behalf of, you know, large organizations. We’re not just buying what’s on the shelf. We need something more custom. So we introduced this concept of private offers to make sure that we could bring all of that customization into the process. [00:10:23] Louise Strandoo: And then we heard from customers saying, uh, we want to purchase from our preferred channel partners. We really wanna make sure that we’re, you know, not losing that source of, um, engagement with our really critical partners. So we had to figure out, hey, how can we make it so that we’re not competing with the channel? [00:10:41] Louise Strandoo: ’cause we’re not really a channel at all. Right. So we had to go and build our platform that allowed for channel partners to sell through the marketplace and augment that private offer piece to say, Hey, if you want, you can have a channel partner resell your product through the marketplace. So today we kind of see all of those as just different routes to market and different ISVs are gonna embrace different routes to market. [00:11:04] Louise Strandoo: First, the really important thing about costs is that it’s. Pushing partners to think about bringing their go to market strategy that works outside of the partnership to the marketplace. Mm-hmm. So if you’re an ISV that doesn’t sell with channel today, don’t start with channel partners on the marketplace. [00:11:21] Louise Strandoo: Right. If you don’t do product-led growth today, probably figure that out before you start doing it on the marketplace. Yeah. But if you’re doing those things, if you’re not doing those things, you should look at why not, and could we be doing those things and then we have the ways to bring it into your strategy with AWS marketplace. [00:11:38] Vince Menzione: So what separates the partners who kind of build this flywheel of success that you describe from those who treat it maybe as a side project? And do you, do you see less and less of that today too? I wanna, I wanna ask you. [00:11:50] Louise Strandoo: No, I think, um, the more mature the marketplace gets [00:11:57] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:11:58] Louise Strandoo: The more obvious some of the, uh, characteristics of success become and the more important. [00:12:06] Louise Strandoo: Embodying that framework becomes for partners as they grow to become the next billion dollar seller, right? And become the next a hundred million dollar seller. Um, I think a couple things come to mind for me. The first thing is that like at AWS overall, we talk a lot about like resilient architecture. We talk a lot about what does it look like to drive successful transformation. [00:12:29] Louise Strandoo: All of that has to happen in the partnership. Partners that have really strong marketplace motions with AWS, they do not have single points of failure. They are not expecting an alliance lead to manage everything and then have the business collapse if they leave. [00:12:46] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:12:46] Louise Strandoo: They figure out how to delegate and get buy-in from leadership so that they have multiple folks invested in the strategy for multiple angles so that there’s scalability and sustainability. [00:12:58] Louise Strandoo: Without that. You could do all the things right with costs and if there’s res, if there’s no resiliency, if there’s, if there’s a single point of failure, it doesn’t scale and it doesn’t last. [00:13:09] Vince Menzione: It’s so funny ’cause you haven’t seen my seven principles of, of successful partnering, but we talk about growth mindset, we talk about executive commitment and then clarity on your vision and what you’re hoping to achieve. [00:13:21] Louise Strandoo: Yeah. [00:13:22] Vince Menzione: Like that’s your internal victory. You’ve gotta get those things right. That’s exactly what you just said. A hundred [00:13:26] percent. [00:13:26] Louise Strandoo: And you can’t, you, you know, like if you don’t have that executive sponsorship, [00:13:30] Vince Menzione: yeah, [00:13:32] Louise Strandoo: great. You’ve done the cost framework, but where are you gonna go with it? [00:13:35] Vince Menzione: And it’s not just the sponsorship, it’s. [00:13:38] Vince Menzione: Up in, from the top of the organization all the way down to the selling floor. Completely. Right? [00:13:42] Louise Strandoo: Completely. [00:13:42] Vince Menzione: Everybody has to be aligned. Resources, investments all need to be aligned to this. Mm-hmm. [00:13:47] Louise Strandoo: Mm-hmm. [00:13:47] Vince Menzione: We’re speaking the same language earlier. A hundred percent. I love it. I love it. I love it. Um, so what does, we talked about product-led growth, but I want to maybe jump in here a little bit more. [00:13:58] Vince Menzione: Because I think it’s, it’s becoming more prevalent today, isn’t it? Yeah. It’s like, you know, we talked about private offer. It was really private offers, at least my perspective was a few years ago, I wanna buy something from you. Oh, you have a cloud commitment. I can access the cloud commitment. [00:14:13] Louise Strandoo: Yeah. [00:14:14] Vince Menzione: And so it was always the private offer thing that was going on behind the scenes, which required a lot of internal resources to go drive. [00:14:19] Louise Strandoo: Yep. [00:14:20] Vince Menzione: Let’s talk about product led growth. ’cause that becomes a fly more of a flywheel that’s automated Yeah. And allows you to sell while you’re sleeping kind of thing, you know? [00:14:28] Louise Strandoo: Totally. [00:14:29] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:14:30] Louise Strandoo: So I think, um, we have heard a lot from customers saying, okay, when we really need to negotiate and we need something custom, we wanna be able to do that. [00:14:40] Louise Strandoo: But we also wanna be able to purchase things quickly. We don’t wanna have to go out to dinner every time we need to upgrade, uh, like our licenses and get a new contract. We wanna be able to experiment and pick the things that resonate best with the line of business users that are, you know, increasingly taking some of that buying power. [00:14:59] Louise Strandoo: And I think especially now that we’re entering into, you know, the unprecedented, unprecedented times, it’s everything is AI like. There is more, um, pressure than ever to have users quickly figure out, does something add value to me and my business right now? And if it does, then I’m gonna keep using it, and if it doesn’t, I’m gonna go to the next thing. [00:15:22] Guest: Right. [00:15:22] Louise Strandoo: Product led growth is really about eliminating some of that I would say. Paperwork at the start of the process and putting the power in the hands of the user to say, can this product solve your challenge? And as more and more buyers are looking at Agen solutions, they wanna be able to try something, see if it works, and then quickly buy it without having to go through a whole bunch of steps because they have work that needs to be done right now. [00:15:54] Louise Strandoo: So the marketplace, that was our roots, like we started with this PLG motion. So we have all of that foundation to do it, and we’ve spent a lot of time over the last two, three years, like really investing in that from our engineering and roadmap perspective to build a whole bunch of features and capabilities that support product-led growth. [00:16:11] Louise Strandoo: We have things like free trials request, demo request, a private offer if you want to. Um, we introduced something, you know, last year that was an express private offer experience. Hey, you know, you want custom pricing. Request it and we’re gonna give it to you right away because the vendor has populated rate cards. [00:16:26] Louise Strandoo: Right? So all of those things I think are really important right now to say, yeah, when your customers like, wanna get going, now let’s stop. Putting barriers in the way and let your product actually show its value immediately. [00:16:38] Vince Menzione: And you were actually putting buttons or making buttons available Yeah. For people’s websites. [00:16:42] Vince Menzione: Exactly. So they could just say, click here and [00:16:43] Louise Strandoo: buy. Absolutely. We buy with a Ws. You can click from your own website, your own marketing pages to route them to the marketplace. If that’s the preferred way to transact, [00:16:50] Vince Menzione: yeah, why not? [00:16:51] Louise Strandoo: Yeah. [00:16:52] Vince Menzione: So you mentioned ai. We talked a little bit, I call it the tectonic shifts. [00:16:56] Vince Menzione: We, we’ve seen this incredible transformation happening so fast. And now we’re talking about agents. Right. And, uh, John Yo was over here from, uh, earlier from Sugar talking about like, what happens if the buyer is an agent? [00:17:08] Louise Strandoo: Totally. [00:17:09] Vince Menzione: Let’s talk about that. [00:17:10] Louise Strandoo: Yeah. I mean, I think that PLG and like is the right thing to enable a agentic procurement. [00:17:18] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:17:19] Louise Strandoo: If, um, you know, like in the, uh. 2019 when private offers were like, that was the big boom. We were like getting people to sign up on the marketplace. All we were focused on was private offers. So many sellers would have products on the marketplace where you’d click and purchase it and it would just say, thanks for buying, and it’d be like, we’ll get in touch with you and like a 24 hours and then we’ll figure it out. [00:17:42] Louise Strandoo: No worries. Thanks for buying. If that doesn’t work. If you’re an agent, it doesn’t work. An agent would be like, okay, this is like a dead end, right? Yeah. Agents are gonna look for products that they can purchase and begin using instantaneously. So yeah, product-led growth is like a really good, um, strategy that ISVs can use to future proof their business and make sure that they’re not just catering to an evolved. [00:18:06] Louise Strandoo: You know, procurement persona who maybe is looking for that faster transaction, but also preparing for that agent persona. Yeah. That is gonna be helping make software procurement scale. [00:18:17] Vince Menzione: So what do the partners in the room need to do to rethink how they think about this? [00:18:22] Louise Strandoo: I think there’s a couple things. I think you know, number one, you can look at the cost framework and start to use it as a jumping off point to evaluate your business. [00:18:31] Louise Strandoo: You can look through a bunch of resources that we’ve put out around costs, and one of the first blogs that I wrote has a Buzzfeed style quiz. You can go through and be like, where are we at? And if you realize after you run through that exercise that you’re farther away from where you wanna be in terms of partnering with AWS, it’s a really good dump like starting point to be like, great, here’s the challenges. [00:18:56] Louise Strandoo: But the biggest message I would relay to the partners is. Do not wait to try to go build this and then bring it to your executives and say, look what I built. It’s not gonna go anywhere. You need to go and use that as the cry to your leadership team. Like escalate. Now here’s the opportunity that we have with AWS. [00:19:17] Louise Strandoo: Let’s look at all of the awesome studies that we and our partners have put out over the years. Look at your competitors that are in the marketplace, your competitors that are partnering with AWS, and start there by saying, we’re. Behind or we’re missing in these areas. We could be doing, you know this, to make our product more a ag agentic ready. [00:19:37] Louise Strandoo: We could be doing more in marketplace to ensure that we’re capitalizing on the private offer business, and we need to figure out how we’re gonna drive commitment now so we can go and build this if you try to build it. Then show the value later. It’s gonna be really hard to then be pushing that boulder up the hill. [00:19:55] Louise Strandoo: So the more that you can lean into getting the sponsorship early on, you’re gonna have a much easier time then navigating, you know, all the hard work that comes with partnership co-sell, um, and, and everything kind of fun that we get to do once we get to go to market with our partners. [00:20:10] Vince Menzione: Do you have one piece of advice for each one of the. [00:20:13] Vince Menzione: Conditions or characteristics for, for, for this group to follow or [00:20:17] Louise Strandoo: think about? I think that, um, the, we didn’t talk about the last one, which is a good one to end on, which is enablement. [00:20:22] Vince Menzione: Yes. [00:20:23] Louise Strandoo: Enablement starts with like most of the time, ISVs in particular, and this, it goes for channel partners as well. [00:20:30] Louise Strandoo: They’re like, we gotta enable the field go and enable all the salespeople why they should do all this stuff. You have to do these things like in some sequence though. So if you go and enable the field, everybody do marketplace and they’re like, how? Where do we go, right? Do we send you the leads? Are we slacking you? [00:20:47] Louise Strandoo: Like are we emailing? Like what do we do? You have to then go back and be like, actually, our operational excellence isn’t sorted out. We need to do that first. And who needs to be enabled from that side of the house? Like don’t forget to enable your rev ops teams, your deal desk teams, all of the teams that are kind of essential to making your partnership with AWS Hum need to be enabled in the way that is relevant for their business. [00:21:10] Louise Strandoo: So when you, you know, think about like what do you need to do across all the pillars? It’s gonna be different depending on what your go-to-market focus is. If you’re a hundred percent focused on selling through SIS today and through channel, maybe product-led growth is not the top priority, but then you need to go and figure out, okay, so how have we. [00:21:28] Louise Strandoo: Figured out which partners we wanna work with on AWS and how have we enabled them and have we communicated that enablement to our salespeople? Are we removing unnecessary barriers to them transacting? That’s what you really gotta figure out. So it’s really about looking at how you execute outside of marketplace, outside AWS, figuring out what that, what are the strongest pieces that you do in your business today, across those pillars, and then asking to replicate that with your partnership with AWS. [00:21:56] Vince Menzione: Nice. So to the room here is, um, if someone in this room doesn’t, does one thing differently on the marketplace, what should it be? [00:22:08] Louise Strandoo: There’s so many things I can think about. I think like first [00:22:12] Vince Menzione: you’re coaching ’em [00:22:13] Louise Strandoo: individually, [00:22:13] Vince Menzione: by the way. Just think about it that way. [00:22:15] Louise Strandoo: One of the first things like, it depends on where you’re like, where you’re at in your journey. [00:22:18] Louise Strandoo: So like, quick show of hands, who is, um, a partner that is like using the marketplace today? [00:22:26] Vince Menzione: There’s quite a few actually. [00:22:27] Louise Strandoo: Okay. Awesome. Thank you for helping drive the marketplace. So for those of you that raised your hands, like my sentiment to you all would be figure out how you are incorporating marketplace as the center of your strategy with AWS. [00:22:44] Louise Strandoo: We are increasingly using marketplace as the point of scale for all things about partnership. All things funding are like increasingly requiring some hook into marketplace. So we can actually provide more funding and scale increase like more. So think about like how do you use marketplaces that like center of your partnership, um, for those of you that are not on the marketplace today and are thinking like, is this something that is valuable to me? [00:23:15] Louise Strandoo: Is this something that I should think about and do? You should absolutely. Go look at who are your competitors? Who are the folks that are already out there on the marketplace and, and why aren’t you there? And then you should start to look at what are the characteristics of successful sellers to map out What could we do and what’s the kind of order of operations that we should take to figure out like, how do we get there? [00:23:40] Louise Strandoo: How do we have a plan from the beginning to get buy-in for our partnership with AWS so that we’re not going about it, expecting that it’s gonna just like drive a bunch of leads to the business. It’s not what it does well, but it is gonna help accelerate the way that you co-sell with AWS, which can be a tremendous value add when done appropriately. [00:23:58] Louise Strandoo: So I think, yeah, like figure out the right way that it’s gonna unlock business value depending on what’s most important to your priority. Um. Today [00:24:08] Vince Menzione: we have about three and a half minutes, and I, I’m eager to see if there’s any questions. I, I, um, I, John’s right here with the mic and I love that. I love the, want to get the interaction here in the room. [00:24:19] Louise Strandoo: Yeah, [00:24:20] Vince Menzione: it’s a great group. [00:24:25] Guest: Oh, [00:24:29] Vince Menzione: can they light up that mic? Maybe [00:24:33] Louise Strandoo: Good. [00:24:37] Vince Menzione: There you go. That’s fine. There you go. It’s working. Alright. [00:24:41] Guest: Thank you so much. This is a really great presentation, first of all. I love it. Um, I’m actually part of the, uh, the GSI, so I work cognizant. My name is Ana Hill, um, and I’m manage alliances with ServiceNow. Um, our goal is in the really near future to really engage with all the hyperscalers in sell. [00:25:00] Guest: So that’s one thing. But my interesting, my question is how do you, how, how does AWS measure success? Of the partners who are on your platform, what are the metrics? How do you determine which partners are actually successful and what other partners can use to learn from that? [00:25:19] Louise Strandoo: Yeah, that’s such a great question. [00:25:21] Louise Strandoo: So, um, something that I think is like super helpful that you bring up is cost is not a, um, a scorecard that says everybody that does all these things is a good partner. It’s basically inputs that we have come up with that are supposed to help with the partnership outcomes. Um, so partners, we measure a whole bunch of different things. [00:25:47] Louise Strandoo: I think PDMs and my team carry goals across like seven different categories. There’s a couple of big things that we look at. We look at the revenue that you drive through the marketplace, so whether that’s through private offers or through your self-service business or through. Selling through a reseller, or if you are the reseller, like what is that resell business or driving? [00:26:05] Louise Strandoo: Um, we look at what are the opportunities that you’re bringing and sharing with AWS and that you’re launching. So through our lead sharing mechanism. Not only what are you launching, but what are you sharing with us that is qualified that you’re bringing the field into? Um, we look at things like migrations and migration, realized revenue. [00:26:25] Louise Strandoo: How are you helping drive customers to the cloud? And how are you helping customers not just get everything set up, but you start actually using it. Um, so we really are gonna look across like a multitude of those metrics and when we look at like which partners are kind of leading the way. We’re gonna start to look at the revenue in those buckets, right? [00:26:44] Louise Strandoo: Like who’s sharing and bringing and growing with us? Who’s bringing more opportunities to engage before it happens on the marketplace? Who’s actually completing that transaction? And then who are helping who, who are the partners? Kind of like leading those big types of transformations, migrations, and, and realize revenue. [00:27:00] Louise Strandoo: This is really great. Yeah. Yeah. [00:27:04] Vince Menzione: Thank you. Any other questions? Come on. We’ve got 30 seconds left. We have time for that one last question. Run over there. John. Come on. [00:27:17] Guest: Thank you again, a great, uh, presentation. One question I had is, uh, this morning, right Jay from, uh, oia, right? He identified a whole bunch of, uh, companies that are doing. [00:27:28] Guest: More than a billion dollars in revenue with AWS. [00:27:30] Louise Strandoo: Mm-hmm. [00:27:31] Guest: What would you say are one or two top qualities among these companies that help some drive? I can give [00:27:36] Louise Strandoo: six. And they’re all of these. Yes. [00:27:39] Vince Menzione: The cost, [00:27:40] Louise Strandoo: but like, I think, um, so I love it. Yeah. My, my team we’re working on some content to better capture, like Yeah. [00:27:48] Louise Strandoo: You, you’ve gotten there, you’ve done the six basic things. Now what happens when you’re a billion dollar business? What does it look like there? It’s a lot of the same stuff, right? Like billion dollar billers on the marketplace. They embody that resilience, for example, in their operational mechanisms. [00:28:03] Louise Strandoo: They’re moving beyond the point of there being like one person that creates private offers and they’re like just part of the partnership team. They activate their, um, their deal desk to really manage private offers and marketplace business at scale. They’re integrating their pipeline to share deals proactively through their CRM system and they have really targeted enablement that is. [00:28:24] Louise Strandoo: Really pushing to the field to make sure that every person in their team understands the value of cloud value of AWS and how marketplace accelerates the pipeline. So the more mature that you become as a marketplace seller, like the more that cost is relevant to help keep you on track and be that kind of north star to say like, you could do a cool bunch of stuff with us, but here’s really where you wanna check and see, like what can you do to evolve the business to the next stage? [00:28:49] Vince Menzione: What you’ve said is so like impactful and we have some experts in the room that do this. They help these organizations better understand it’s really getting into your field organization to help them understand how to. How to show up for meetings with AWS re, like how to, how to, uh, co-sell together, how to think about going after these opportunities. [00:29:09] Vince Menzione: What, when you’re, when you’re talking to customers, potential customers about their cloud commitments, like what are the right questions to ask in the pro? There’s so many things, like I’m sure the costs six has like 150 each [00:29:21] Louise Strandoo: Easily [00:29:21] Vince Menzione: steps. Yeah. You know, to it. [00:29:24] Louise Strandoo: Yeah. And I think like, just to follow on that. [00:29:26] Louise Strandoo: Um, we have partners who have gone and they’ve been like, okay, we’re getting a strategic collaboration agreement with AWS. We’re getting funding, and if they don’t have this, it doesn’t work. It doesn’t work. It fails. So this is really like, yeah, it’s about building that resilient architecture to say, if we go big, do we have the execution plan to succeed? [00:29:47] Louise Strandoo: You can’t start with a plan to say, give us a bunch of funding and we’ll go do it. Your salespeople will say. Know what that is. Don’t care. Yeah. So you have to put all of that, you know, all of those building blocks in first to make sure that we can actually execute. [00:30:01] Vince Menzione: You need alignment from the executive suite down to the selling floor. [00:30:05] Louise Strandoo: A hundred percent. [00:30:06] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:30:06] Louise Strandoo: Yep. [00:30:06] Vince Menzione: That’s really what it’s all about. [00:30:07] Louise Strandoo: Yep. [00:30:08] Vince Menzione: Louise, thank you so much. It’s been incredible. So great to have you join us. Thank you [00:30:15] so [00:30:15] Louise Strandoo: much. Yes, thank [00:30:16] Vince Menzione: you. [00:30:16] Louise Strandoo: Thank you, [00:30:16] Vince Menzione: thank you. Thanks for listening to The Ultimate Partner Podcast. If today’s conversation resonated. Share it with a partner leader in your network. [00:30:26] Vince Menzione: Subscribe where you listen, and head over to the Ultimate partner.com for show notes related content and the resources for this episode. And if you haven’t already, now’s the time to register for the Ultimate Partner Live event in Reston, Virginia, October 26th through October 28th. Until next time, keep showing up in the rooms that matter because being in the room changes everything.

Leo and this week's panel pay tribute to tech journalist John C. Dvorak, then dive into how AI, relentless hardware shortages, and shifting media habits are reshaping the tech world faster than anyone predicted. The crew discusses how an OpenAI model exploited its own network to cheat on cybersecurity benchmarks, flipping the script on what AI agents are capable of and what might be next for digital security. John C. Dvorak has died OpenAI's accidental cyberattack against Hugging Face is science fiction that happened China's Top AI Event Delivers Message to the U.S.: We're Coming for You Alphabet Quadruples Profit to $112 Billion, Fueled by A.I. Investments The EU Fines Google $1 Billion for Prioritizing Its Own Services in Search The EU just fined AliExpress €550M, its biggest DSA penalty yet Apple Sued by Customers Who Lost Combined $1.8 Million Through Fake Bitcoin Wallet in App Store A.I. 'Vibecoded' Apps Are Flooding Apple's App Store Anthropic's $1.5B copyright settlement approved; only 350 authors opted out ISPs' long nightmare of having to list all the fees they charge is finally over Government Lawyers Say Trump Admin Can Use TikTok Again Because 'Owned' No Longer Means 'Owned' Judge halts Paramount's $111B purchase of Warner Bros. in a win for US states The AI industry has already spent $65 million ahead of the midterm elections with no signs of slowing down. Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra launches as Samsung's 'most advanced' foldable, starts at $2,099 US government targets Cop City protester over phone operating system Kill the Cookie Banner! Host: Leo Laporte Guests: Devindra Hardawar, Larry Magid, and Allyn Malventano Download or subscribe to This Week in Tech at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-tech Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free audio and video feeds, a members-only Discord, and exclusive content. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: box.com/AI arcticwolf.com/trends hoxhunt.com/securitynow superhuman.com gusto.com/twit

Leo and this week's panel pay tribute to tech journalist John C. Dvorak, then dive into how AI, relentless hardware shortages, and shifting media habits are reshaping the tech world faster than anyone predicted. The crew discusses how an OpenAI model exploited its own network to cheat on cybersecurity benchmarks, flipping the script on what AI agents are capable of and what might be next for digital security. John C. Dvorak has died OpenAI's accidental cyberattack against Hugging Face is science fiction that happened China's Top AI Event Delivers Message to the U.S.: We're Coming for You Alphabet Quadruples Profit to $112 Billion, Fueled by A.I. Investments The EU Fines Google $1 Billion for Prioritizing Its Own Services in Search The EU just fined AliExpress €550M, its biggest DSA penalty yet Apple Sued by Customers Who Lost Combined $1.8 Million Through Fake Bitcoin Wallet in App Store A.I. 'Vibecoded' Apps Are Flooding Apple's App Store Anthropic's $1.5B copyright settlement approved; only 350 authors opted out ISPs' long nightmare of having to list all the fees they charge is finally over Government Lawyers Say Trump Admin Can Use TikTok Again Because 'Owned' No Longer Means 'Owned' Judge halts Paramount's $111B purchase of Warner Bros. in a win for US states The AI industry has already spent $65 million ahead of the midterm elections with no signs of slowing down. Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra launches as Samsung's 'most advanced' foldable, starts at $2,099 US government targets Cop City protester over phone operating system Kill the Cookie Banner! Host: Leo Laporte Guests: Devindra Hardawar, Larry Magid, and Allyn Malventano Download or subscribe to This Week in Tech at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-tech Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free audio and video feeds, a members-only Discord, and exclusive content. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: box.com/AI arcticwolf.com/trends hoxhunt.com/securitynow superhuman.com gusto.com/twit

Leo and this week's panel pay tribute to tech journalist John C. Dvorak, then dive into how AI, relentless hardware shortages, and shifting media habits are reshaping the tech world faster than anyone predicted. The crew discusses how an OpenAI model exploited its own network to cheat on cybersecurity benchmarks, flipping the script on what AI agents are capable of and what might be next for digital security. John C. Dvorak has died OpenAI's accidental cyberattack against Hugging Face is science fiction that happened China's Top AI Event Delivers Message to the U.S.: We're Coming for You Alphabet Quadruples Profit to $112 Billion, Fueled by A.I. Investments The EU Fines Google $1 Billion for Prioritizing Its Own Services in Search The EU just fined AliExpress €550M, its biggest DSA penalty yet Apple Sued by Customers Who Lost Combined $1.8 Million Through Fake Bitcoin Wallet in App Store A.I. 'Vibecoded' Apps Are Flooding Apple's App Store Anthropic's $1.5B copyright settlement approved; only 350 authors opted out ISPs' long nightmare of having to list all the fees they charge is finally over Government Lawyers Say Trump Admin Can Use TikTok Again Because 'Owned' No Longer Means 'Owned' Judge halts Paramount's $111B purchase of Warner Bros. in a win for US states The AI industry has already spent $65 million ahead of the midterm elections with no signs of slowing down. Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra launches as Samsung's 'most advanced' foldable, starts at $2,099 US government targets Cop City protester over phone operating system Kill the Cookie Banner! Host: Leo Laporte Guests: Devindra Hardawar, Larry Magid, and Allyn Malventano Download or subscribe to This Week in Tech at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-tech Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free audio and video feeds, a members-only Discord, and exclusive content. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: box.com/AI arcticwolf.com/trends hoxhunt.com/securitynow superhuman.com gusto.com/twit

Leo and this week's panel pay tribute to tech journalist John C. Dvorak, then dive into how AI, relentless hardware shortages, and shifting media habits are reshaping the tech world faster than anyone predicted. The crew discusses how an OpenAI model exploited its own network to cheat on cybersecurity benchmarks, flipping the script on what AI agents are capable of and what might be next for digital security. John C. Dvorak has died OpenAI's accidental cyberattack against Hugging Face is science fiction that happened China's Top AI Event Delivers Message to the U.S.: We're Coming for You Alphabet Quadruples Profit to $112 Billion, Fueled by A.I. Investments The EU Fines Google $1 Billion for Prioritizing Its Own Services in Search The EU just fined AliExpress €550M, its biggest DSA penalty yet Apple Sued by Customers Who Lost Combined $1.8 Million Through Fake Bitcoin Wallet in App Store A.I. 'Vibecoded' Apps Are Flooding Apple's App Store Anthropic's $1.5B copyright settlement approved; only 350 authors opted out ISPs' long nightmare of having to list all the fees they charge is finally over Government Lawyers Say Trump Admin Can Use TikTok Again Because 'Owned' No Longer Means 'Owned' Judge halts Paramount's $111B purchase of Warner Bros. in a win for US states The AI industry has already spent $65 million ahead of the midterm elections with no signs of slowing down. Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra launches as Samsung's 'most advanced' foldable, starts at $2,099 US government targets Cop City protester over phone operating system Kill the Cookie Banner! Host: Leo Laporte Guests: Devindra Hardawar, Larry Magid, and Allyn Malventano Download or subscribe to This Week in Tech at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-tech Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free audio and video feeds, a members-only Discord, and exclusive content. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: box.com/AI arcticwolf.com/trends hoxhunt.com/securitynow superhuman.com gusto.com/twit

Leo and this week's panel pay tribute to tech journalist John C. Dvorak, then dive into how AI, relentless hardware shortages, and shifting media habits are reshaping the tech world faster than anyone predicted. The crew discusses how an OpenAI model exploited its own network to cheat on cybersecurity benchmarks, flipping the script on what AI agents are capable of and what might be next for digital security. John C. Dvorak has died OpenAI's accidental cyberattack against Hugging Face is science fiction that happened China's Top AI Event Delivers Message to the U.S.: We're Coming for You Alphabet Quadruples Profit to $112 Billion, Fueled by A.I. Investments The EU Fines Google $1 Billion for Prioritizing Its Own Services in Search The EU just fined AliExpress €550M, its biggest DSA penalty yet Apple Sued by Customers Who Lost Combined $1.8 Million Through Fake Bitcoin Wallet in App Store A.I. 'Vibecoded' Apps Are Flooding Apple's App Store Anthropic's $1.5B copyright settlement approved; only 350 authors opted out ISPs' long nightmare of having to list all the fees they charge is finally over Government Lawyers Say Trump Admin Can Use TikTok Again Because 'Owned' No Longer Means 'Owned' Judge halts Paramount's $111B purchase of Warner Bros. in a win for US states The AI industry has already spent $65 million ahead of the midterm elections with no signs of slowing down. Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra launches as Samsung's 'most advanced' foldable, starts at $2,099 US government targets Cop City protester over phone operating system Kill the Cookie Banner! Host: Leo Laporte Guests: Devindra Hardawar, Larry Magid, and Allyn Malventano Download or subscribe to This Week in Tech at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-tech Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free audio and video feeds, a members-only Discord, and exclusive content. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: box.com/AI arcticwolf.com/trends hoxhunt.com/securitynow superhuman.com gusto.com/twit

Leo and this week's panel pay tribute to tech journalist John C. Dvorak, then dive into how AI, relentless hardware shortages, and shifting media habits are reshaping the tech world faster than anyone predicted. The crew discusses how an OpenAI model exploited its own network to cheat on cybersecurity benchmarks, flipping the script on what AI agents are capable of and what might be next for digital security. John C. Dvorak has died OpenAI's accidental cyberattack against Hugging Face is science fiction that happened China's Top AI Event Delivers Message to the U.S.: We're Coming for You Alphabet Quadruples Profit to $112 Billion, Fueled by A.I. Investments The EU Fines Google $1 Billion for Prioritizing Its Own Services in Search The EU just fined AliExpress €550M, its biggest DSA penalty yet Apple Sued by Customers Who Lost Combined $1.8 Million Through Fake Bitcoin Wallet in App Store A.I. 'Vibecoded' Apps Are Flooding Apple's App Store Anthropic's $1.5B copyright settlement approved; only 350 authors opted out ISPs' long nightmare of having to list all the fees they charge is finally over Government Lawyers Say Trump Admin Can Use TikTok Again Because 'Owned' No Longer Means 'Owned' Judge halts Paramount's $111B purchase of Warner Bros. in a win for US states The AI industry has already spent $65 million ahead of the midterm elections with no signs of slowing down. Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra launches as Samsung's 'most advanced' foldable, starts at $2,099 US government targets Cop City protester over phone operating system Kill the Cookie Banner! Host: Leo Laporte Guests: Devindra Hardawar, Larry Magid, and Allyn Malventano Download or subscribe to This Week in Tech at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-tech Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free audio and video feeds, a members-only Discord, and exclusive content. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: box.com/AI arcticwolf.com/trends hoxhunt.com/securitynow superhuman.com gusto.com/twit

Why do Nelly Korda and Charley Hull love the Solheim Cup so much?How is Georgia Hall finding returning to golf after the birth of her son?Why does Lauren Coughlin consider herself a ‘late bloomer' on tour?This episode of Why Golf answers all those questions and more as we head to the ISPS Women's Scottish Open at Dundonald Links!Gabbie Partington is chatting to World Number One Nelly Korda, one of the most exciting golfers on the globe Lottie Woad, Solheim Cup rivals Maja Stark and Lauren Coughlin and many more.Find out how the elite players in the game are approaching the end of the season, including an opportunity to claim two of the big remaining trophies of the year - the AIG Women's Open and the Solheim Cup.Plus, Gabbie delves into what the progression route is like for those looking to turn professional, with recently turned pro Hannah Darling, and someone looking to do just that in the next few weeks, Kiara Romero.The Why Golf podcast is brought to you by Skyscanner.00:00 - Introduction01:34 - Kiara Romero07:55 - Hannah Darling13:10 - Lottie Woad15:32 - Charley Hull17:05 - Nelly Korda21:50 - Georgia Hall28:26 - Chiara Tamburlini32:47 - Gemma Dryburgh34:08 - Maja Stark39:09 - Lauren Coughlin

This week on MacStories Unwind, app launchers, universal truths about ISPs, and an epic movie. Also available on YouTube here. Links and Show Notes Unplugged Segment TinyStart Rocket Raycast Alfred LaunchBar Picks John's Pick: The Odyssey Unwind Deal Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga 9-Movie Collection - All 9 movies for $69.99 Leave Feedback for John and Federico MacStories Unwind Feedback Form Follow us on Mastodon MacStories Federico Viticci John Voorhees Follow us on Bluesky MacStories Unwind MacStories Federico Viticci John Voorhees Affiliate Linking Policy

The Cybercrime Magazine Podcast brings you daily cybercrime news on WCYB Digital Radio, the first and only 7x24x365 internet radio station devoted to cybersecurity. Stay updated on the latest cyberattacks, hacks, data breaches, and more with our host. Don't miss an episode, airing every half-hour on WCYB Digital Radio and daily on our podcast. Listen to today's news at https://soundcloud.com/cybercrimemagazine/sets/cybercrime-daily-news. Brought to you by our Partner, Evolution Equity Partners, an international venture capital investor partnering with exceptional entrepreneurs to develop market leading cyber-security and enterprise software companies. Learn more at https://evolutionequity.com

Matt Sigala, Director of Asset Management at SkySpecs, joins to discuss blade inspection data, repair vendor management, and carbon fiber repairs. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly newsletter on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on YouTube, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary’s “Engineering with Rosie” YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Allen Hall 2025: Matt, welcome to the program. Greatly appreciate it. So Matt Sagala has not been on the Uptime Wind Energy podcast. Although he’s been asked for the last five or six years to be on, he has had other commitments. So now that he’s available to be on the podcast, we love having him here. Uh, if you don’t know Matt Sagala, Matt Sagala is a, a real special talent in wind. Very knowledgeable about repairs. He’s a composites person, but he, you know, it’s one thing to know composites and understand what that looks like, but also to run organizations that repair blades and manage blades and take care of large quantities of blades and do it very efficiently, where the assets are actually working and operating efficiently is hard to do. So, uh, [00:01:00] Matt is now with SkySpecs in a recent change from a, a large global wind operator, and he’s come over to SkySpecs as Director of Asset Management. So Matt, congratulations first. Appreciate  Matt Sigala: it. Appreciate it.  Allen Hall 2025: So that’s a, that’s a big title there. What does that all mean, Director of Asset Management at SkySpecs?  Matt Sigala: basically, it’s just the overview of your entire asset from the start of the inspections to the reviewing of, of the inspections, to creating the RFP, going out to blade budgets and repairs, uh, and then having the actual repair teams on site and us being able to help execute those repairs in a systematic way, um, without having to overload or, or burden your, your internal, uh, systems in-house. Allen Hall 2025: Because as an operator, there’s a lot on your plate.  Matt Sigala: Yes.  Allen Hall 2025: And a lot of operators don’t necessarily have blade teams internally. You came from an organization- Yeah … that did have a really good, still does have a really good blade organization.  Matt Sigala: Oh, amazing, yeah.  Allen Hall 2025: Yeah. Uh, that was unique, but a lot of operators in the United States or globally just don’t have [00:02:00] that resource. SkySpecs has developed that resource over the last couple of years of we’re blade experts, we have all the data coming in, but we can also help you downstream when it comes to maintaining and repairing blades, which is, is sort of a new feature for- Yeah … SkySpecs. Now that you’re there and you’re seeing all the data, all the, the,  the- the, data center, so to speak, of w- and you have access to blades globally, and you can put your fingers on it. What are you seeing out there in terms of blade health and, and going forward?  Matt Sigala: There’s a lot of work. There’s definitely a lot of work upcoming and into the future. Um, and you know, I think a lot of it could be risk-based with, with inspections, annual inspections, semi-an-annual inspections. I think that’s always the first line of defense on any blade management c- campaign. Um, and then, you know, coming behind that, I think that’s where our preferred vendor lists and, uh, you know, being comfortable with working with certain suppliers on certain type of repairs. Um, we feel that, you know, we have an edge on the industry, [00:03:00] uh, with the data set that we have in hand, plus being able to build a relationship with ISPs. And not only build a relationship with them, but be able to continuously give them mindful insight to their repairs from a year now to two years now. Because we’re the only ones really seeing those inspections and the repairs after they’ve been in operation for more than a year. It’s very rare that a, an ISP, uh, even on my side of the house when I was working with EDF, of being able to see a repair from year to year. Um, I think that’s, that’s, that’s pretty massive and- Yeah … a lot of value within that, so.  Allen Hall 2025: Oh, sure. Uh, you were one of the first ones when I met you years ago now, uh, that was a big proponent of more inspection. Yeah. That there are some blades in which you must inspect more.  Matt Sigala: Yes.  Allen Hall 2025: And here’s the reason why. Matt Sigala: Yeah.  Allen Hall 2025: Because you had thought through it a little bit and you’d come up with a plan. So you always had a plan. That’s one thing about Sagales, he always has a plan. You can ask him any question, he’s got a plan in relationship to blades. And you were the, you were the one that has said, “Hey, uh, there are certain blade types out there that we have seen that, well, you need to do a [00:04:00] little more inspection, and there are some others that it’s totally fine.” Yeah. A, a yearly inspection is, is, is fine. Well enough. And that SkySpecs data, now that you have access to it, is that also f- feeding back into your- Definitely … logic of that?  Matt Sigala: Yeah, yeah. How do you, how do you think about it? No, it’s, it’s, it’s opened my mind a lot kinda getting me out of just being in, like, the trenches of certain decisions and being able to see this whole data set as a whole now. Uh, and holistically, it’s like, all right, m- there’s just certain things that I kinda need to adjust on my end. Um, definitely letting a lot of things just play out for, uh, this repair season and, and how things are running, and then kinda looking to make some changes into, into ’27. Um, but the data set, it’s, it’s amazing. It’s, it’s almost over- overwhelming. Um, so just kinda going after- the low-hanging fruit as far as, like, the 62 twos, the 145s, and really understanding what those look like, uh, how we can help our customers  Allen Hall 2025: that’s a large part of the fleet in the States, but globally too. SkySpecs has made a lot of, uh, recent advancements into, uh, certain marketplaces outside the US. Mm-hmm. I won’t go into the specifics there, [00:05:00] but e- essentially, like, SkySpecs is becoming definitely more of a global company than a US-based company. Uh, and seeing turbines from outside the US, so you see a, a GE or a Vestas turbine operating in Germany or in the UK, and you see the same turbine in the States. They’re not- No … performing the same, are they? No. It’s a completely different- Same turbine.  Matt Sigala: Yeah, different wind regimes, erosion characteristics, crack propagation rates, everything. Even we were seeing major, you know, differences from the West Coast to, to central Iowa with the same type of platform. So you can only imagine, you know, start going from a, a larger scale on, on the globe,  Allen Hall 2025: So you’re ac- because you have access to the data now, does that change the way you think about Blade management. Matt Sigala: Yes. I-  Allen Hall 2025: in terms of when to, when to inspect, when to repair, or just leave it. Are you able to have clear definition of the variables that go into that equation?  Matt Sigala: Definitely so. and I think that’s the key to it. It’s, it’s, we- we’re really stepping away from that blanket approach of inspections where you [00:06:00] do have your baseline inspection, but after that you start getting into the granulars of, okay, you know, this site has X amount of the 622Ps or whatever they are, uh, we need to inspect more on, on a biannual or semi-annual inspection. Um, and then we have, you know, certain turbines, like you said, that we, we touch once a year and it’s kind of just, just let it go. But, um, no, it’s, it’s very site specific, um, on- Allen Hall 2025: That’s what I’m wondering … on- Is it how, how site specific is it? Very, very,  Matt Sigala: very site specific.  Allen Hall 2025: Really? Yeah. It’s- So like, uh, is Central Iowa is different than Central Kansas-  Matt Sigala: Eh Allen Hall 2025: in a sense, or is it more broader spread than that? It can  Matt Sigala: get a little bit broader spread, but then we start looking into s- serial numbers for manufacturers, issues. Okay, are we seeing a certain batch that was released out and it’s in, you know, the northern part of Iowa or half the park? And so that’s what we’re really getting down to now is like serial batch issues and, and trying to track that across the region. Allen Hall 2025: SkySpecs has been trying to use more AI over the last- Yes … six months to a year. Is that helping to sort through some of that data?  Matt Sigala: Yeah, it’s accelerating it. Uh, definitely it’s not like the, uh, [00:07:00] all end answer, but it’s definitely, it’s, it’s-  Allen Hall 2025: So you’re not just thumbing through Excel spreadsheets- Yeah, no and looking at them one by one, you can actually use some, a little bit of  Matt Sigala: AI to- A little bit … to sort it. Yeah, Yeah, sort it out, get a high, high res summary, and then being able to kind of like pinpoint where we wanna go from there on it and, and dive in. But still, you know, AI hallucinates and, and does its thing. Oh, sure. And so we, we just, we wanna tread carefully with it, but making sure it’s clean,  Allen Hall 2025: a sanity check, right? Yeah, exactly. While you’re there, a sanity check, like does that make sense? Exactly. Oh, okay. Exactly. Let’s, let’s scrape it again. Okay. So that’s a huge advantage, and I, I know on the repair vendor management side- Yeah which has been a, an effort over the last year or two from SkySpecs, is to, uh, work with the ISPs and make sure that they’re doing the repairs properly and they’re vetted and they’re trained. Yes. That’s been a big effort in- internally in SkySpecs for a little while. Bringing you on really ramps that up in terms of the, the horsepower that SkySpecs can apply to that. Yeah. Where are you going on that, uh, repair vendor management and the ISPs and the data that comes from, from [00:08:00] all of that side of the business, you know, opposite of the inspection side?  Matt Sigala: Yeah, so with RVM, you know, my end goal is, is to have a preferred vendor list of contractors within SkySpecs. And I’m more thinking of them as like a toolbox of not just it being a crescent wrench, it’s more of, okay, this ISP is good for bulk LEP installation. This ISP is good for Vestas wrinkles, you know, within the max cord. And, and so I think that’s where what I’m trying to, to map out now is, is kind of put everyone within their right socket place of, uh, where they belong in the toolbox- Sh- sh- sh- … and how I can be able to utilize them. And then actually from there, um, seeing what the bandwidth is. And I think that’s like the real catch is being able to get- The right teams on site quickly, you know, when, when you run into those situations, and safely.  Allen Hall 2025: Yeah, because it’s hard. If you call up an ISP and say, “Can you come fix my leading edge problem?” No. Pretty much the answer’s always yes. Yeah, yeah. Right? But you need a little bit of a sanity check there. Can they really do it when they got twel- 12 crews out right now? They only have 13, [00:09:00] so probably can’t do it right now. Yeah,  Matt Sigala: exactly.  Allen Hall 2025: That’s where SkySpecs can help sort that out a bit.  Matt Sigala: Yeah, you know, on the QAQC side of things with, like, LEP where you- do your 10 meters or 12 meters of, uh, LEP installation, and you’re trying to take a picture of 12 meters or, or 10 meters of, of LEP installation both, on both sides. And so the reports are subpar. I think that they’re good enough, but what I’d like to start implementing is being able to have a, a post-installation inspection after the turbines have been running for three days to a week. Let’s refly, you know, the leading edges and get an idea of how the actual installation quality was. Uh, ’cause I- in my opinion, you know, anything within the LEP that there’s a defect, it’s gonna pop up within that first two weeks of operation. Yeah. I think that’s something where we can capitalize on making the ISPs get back on that blade, fix it before they get offsite, and have prevent remob and, and such.  Allen Hall 2025: Ooh, that’s a good idea. Yeah. Because a lot of times they’re demobed, they’re down at the next wind farm- Yep … or maybe in another state, and it’s, like, too late to get them back there to, to touch up. To touch  Matt Sigala: up.  Allen Hall 2025: Exactly. To do [00:10:00] minor work usually. Yeah. Uh, it’s usually m- not major stuff. It tends to be minor stuff, but to catch it- Yeah is really important. So the Horizon system that, uh, an existing SkySpecs, uh, customer uses is, there’s a lot to it, right? Yeah, yeah. So there’s, there’s many branches to this tree. One of them is repair vendor management. Uh, obviously another one’s inspection and the, and one of those growth branches is solar. Matt Sigala: Yes.  Allen Hall 2025: Uh, what is the movement on solar within SkySpecs and repair vendor management? Is that something you guys are working on? Uh, and what, what is the plan for solar? Yes.  Matt Sigala: It’s the, the same approach as RVM, um, where, you know, solar-wise, we, we still wanna be able to, you know, step in and then be that middleman of being able to inspect, be able to get your asset back up and running with, our preferred vendors, you know, and, uh, just have a more smoother, systematic approach to, to the, the maintenance side of the solar s- side of things. I think [00:11:00] we’re, the blades, we got an early start on it from 2016, 2017 timeframe, so we’re, you know, well 10 years into this. Uh, and I think we’re at the point where, like, solar starts n- need to catch up, and I think SkySpecs has a, a big headstart on that.  Allen Hall 2025: Yeah. Just even on the inspection side, although, uh, solar inspections have been happening for quite a while- Yeah the, the quality has varied quite a bit.  Matt Sigala: Yeah. The, the amount of data, uh, that I’ve, I’ve been learning is it’s, it’s- … 2, 3X compared to, to, you know, what we’re pulling off off blades. Um, and so- Oh,  Allen Hall 2025: sure …  Matt Sigala: there’s t- tons more, you know, solar data that needs to be captured and, uh, processed.  Allen Hall 2025: Thermal imaging.  Matt Sigala: Thermal imaging. A bunch of  Allen Hall 2025: that, right,  Matt Sigala: inverters. Top of the panel, bottom of the panel. Right. Yeah. Um, so that’s where I’m seeing a lot more, uh, data management is needed on that side too. And, and  Allen Hall 2025: the, the vendor management of, of that tends to be a little more of l- the Wild West, in my opinion. Yes. ‘Cause the ISPs and wind, there’s a competency to it, and there’s a lot of training- Yeah to do those things. To be a composite repair technician, you generally have to take- Some training, be out in, in the real world working for a couple of years- Yep … before you become competent at it. Solar doesn’t tend to be that way.  Matt Sigala: No, [00:12:00] no. They’re very, they’re very John Wayne, I guess, like you said, the Wild West- Yeah of, of, of, of it. But, um- Yeah, it has to  Allen Hall 2025: move fast.  Matt Sigala: It does, and I think that’s where, you know, SkySpecs can really help step in, uh, and be that technical bridge between the financials and the technical, and being able to safely execute, you know, uh, replacements, repairs, et cetera on, uh, on the, the solar side of things.  Allen Hall 2025: Let me ask you a couple questions- Okay … about carbon fiber. Okay. Because I would be remiss to, to let you go without talking- … about carbon fiber, because it comes up a lot in discussions we have at Weather Guard- Yeah, definitely … with operators, be like, “I’ve got these carbon fiber blades. I don’t really have a good track record of repairing them.” Matt Sigala: Yes.  Allen Hall 2025: Or, the repair is complex and I really can’t find an ISP that knows what to do there. What are some of those repair inspection issues with carbon blades that may differ from your standard fiberglass blades that we’re all used to?  Matt Sigala: Uh, it really depends on where the carbon’s at. So if, you know, we’re talking about a spar cap, um, you know, with unidirectional fibers being- A pultrusion Pultrusion. [00:13:00] Um, you know, the, the repairs are, are becoming more and more trickier, uh, mostly when you start in- introducing oil ingestion to a lot of these turbines that have carbon. you know, we’re, we’re having to take a lot more steps in, in the repair process, in making sure that we’re executing the repair properly. And then another thing that w- you know, with the carbon that will– seems to be an issue, uh, on the procurement side is being able to order, uh, you know, the right GSM UD directional prepreg carbon and, and being able to get that in the, into the field, um, just because it requires freezers and, and everything else. There’s, there’s a couple more steps to, to the prepregs. But, Carbon loves lightning.  Allen Hall 2025: It does.  Matt Sigala: It’s, it’s unfortunate. Yeah. But, you know, it’s, it’s, it’s, uh, a, a whole different repair process, to be honest.  Allen Hall 2025: Well, that’s what I’m hearing- Yeah … is that a lot of operators don’t want to touch it, especially if it’s in a pultrusion form. Yes. If it is a hand layup carbon fiber structure, uh, from the OEM, that’s a little different than if I had this preformed, uh, all unidirectional-[00:14:00] Plank … y- Yeah, this kind of brick- Yeah … uh, of, of carbon. That’s hard to kinda grind into and get the layers back like you want to. Is it really repairable? I- and, and it’s in a sense, like is it repairable uptower or is it a downtower thing? Matt Sigala: Um, no. The majority of the repairs… So I like to think of it if you got your… You break your blade into three sections. You got your max chord, your midspan, and your tip. Yeah. Uh, midspan tip, we, we can get away with uptower carbon fiber repairs.  Allen Hall 2025: Okay.  Matt Sigala: they do require aviation skillset as far as- Yeah … um, hot bonders being able- Okay to pull your vacuums. And, and it’s… The big thing with the carbon prepreg is that you have to get above 80 C, and you’re more into the 140 C, 160 C, and you’re letting it heat soak for, for quite some time. Yeah. And that’s where you need those aviation style hot bonders and being able to get up there because alternately, it’s, it’s you’re having to soak the carbon at 80 C for six hours or eight hours, a little bit longer to, to get that full, full cook. Um, and so that’s why right now I think there’s only a [00:15:00] very few qualified vendors out there, um, to do the carbon fiber repairs. it’s, it’s something that’s trainable. It’s not black magic. Um- No … it’s, it just takes time. It’s a different technician skillset. You go from reading layers and seeing your biaxials and UDs when you’re, when you’re grinding, to the carbon fiber, it’s all one layer. It’s all black. Uh, so you, you’re, you’re more using y- uh, micrometer, and you’re, you’re taking your GSM of what your glass you’re gonna replace it with. You’re micing it. Okay, this is four thousandths or whatever, and then you ki- okay, now I’m like at 16 thousandths, X amount of layers, and now let’s go back. And so it’s, it’s, it just takes time. It’s a process. It takes  Allen Hall 2025: a lot more time-  Matt Sigala: Yeah …  Allen Hall 2025: for sure. A lot. It- does that then lend itself to more training and qualification verification on, on the skillsets that’s out on site? Which is one of the things that repair vendor management at SkySpecs does, right? Definitely. You, you’re, you’re- clocking each technician of what their skill set is. So if you see a guy out there that only has fiberglass repair, but they’re [00:16:00] working on a pultrusion repair, that’s sort of a red flag- Red flag,  Matt Sigala: yeah …  Allen Hall 2025: in SkySpecs,  Matt Sigala: right? Definitely. Yeah, definitely. Or not try- Well, understand the process, where they’re coming from. Did it, was it an approved re- repair plan? Um, and a lot of these sites too, like I said, where, you know, they can’t get prepregded carbon, so we’re, they’re using, you know, GSM 600 UD fiberglass on- Right … some of these repairs.  Allen Hall 2025: Yeah.  Matt Sigala: Um, which is not ideal. Not perfect. Yeah. Um, but, uh, if, if you gotta get the turbine up in operation, it’s understandable.  Allen Hall 2025: Oh, sure. Yeah. So what are the other big things that you’re seeing out there today? ‘Cause there’s a lot of work going on. There’s a lot of repower work going. A  Matt Sigala: lot of repower work. the whole 80/20, uh, right now, that’s kinda what I’m trying to understand is, uh- which companies are out there actually, uh, replacing blades, or is it just a gearbox generator, uh, repower, you know, where, where is the money need to be spent. Um, and then trying to understand, too, like the, uh, LEP, um, installations, VD- VG installations, uh, being able to get those on top of, uh, the repowers I think is, is a massive win.  Allen Hall 2025: [00:17:00] Yeah. I, I, we have seen a lot more, uh, leading edge repair over the last two years, uh, mostly c- because of the, the changes in the law. Also, VG’s going on. Mm-hmm. Which you didn’t necessarily see, especially like three or four years ago. Yeah. You would occasionally see it because operators know they get some more power. Matt Sigala: Yeah.  Allen Hall 2025: Are, you’re seeing more of that just to get to that 80 percentile threshold- Threshold … on, on, on the starting the tax credits over again Are you guys involved in, on some of the advice, uh- Yes … how to go do that? Because I know a lot of operators, like VGs make sense to me, but I don’t know anything about them. I’m not an aerodynamicist. Yeah. Just, Matt, does this make sense to go do? Is, is that some of the conversations you’ve been involved with?  Matt Sigala: Yeah, we’re getting there. Like I said, I’ve only been here for a month now, but, but- Oh, come  Allen Hall 2025: on …  Matt Sigala: yeah, the con- 30  Allen Hall 2025: days is plenty.  Matt Sigala: The, uh, the conversations are definitely there. and that’s something that we’re actually looking at in- in house and how we can partner up with, you know, s- certain assets out there that, that can, you know, feed a little bit more data into us. It’s creating like a, an aero packet of being able to- Mm … [00:18:00] install leading edge protection and then apply a VG, and then get yourself out of that neutral area and get you actually making the additional 1.4% energy or, you know- It’s a lot of money. Yeah, it is. In the- end, it’s, you know, times these massive fleets, it can add up pretty quickly.  Allen Hall 2025: What’s your feeling on instrumentation of blades today? Are, are there blades that you, yes, you must be putting some sort of instrumentation on it. I’m thinking about, uh, root inserts is a big problem. Yeah. There’s some cracks on certain blades that seem to be almost ubiquitous. And then, uh, there’s, there’s some blades that, you know, just seem to keep turning. Are, are you thinking about how SkySpecs gets data into the system? Are you starting to recommend, like, “Hey, uh, we definitely need to put some sensors out there to monitor this crack and just to watch it grow instead of yearly may not be enough”? Or, or is the drone inspection enough? Or you’re, are, are you thinking about vibration sensors? How, what are you thinking about in terms of blades? Yeah, there’s  Matt Sigala: definitely, definitely a need for, for sensors on certain [00:19:00]turbines. Um, I think at some point the visual inspections aren’t, aren’t enough, even on, uh, you know, quarterly. Um, I’d still feel that a, a visual inspection, uh, you know, 30, 40% of the story. Uh, and then after that, you know, you’re kinda having to either internal inspections or getting hands-on inspection type situation. But, um, it’s more the financials of going out and having to reinspect the blade. If you’re continuously inspecting the blade, it’s, it’s almost easier to have the sensors on. Uh, but it’s- The lack of data to put those sensors on to actually have, you know, good feedback is, it’s-  Allen Hall 2025: Well, that- that’s one of the things I was thinking about SkySpecs not long ago is because you touch so many blades- Yeah … it, it may make sense that SkySpecs maybe runs a couple of test sites. Like, we’re gonna put sensors on some of these blades to see how this crack progresses, because I’ve seen it in Illinois, in Kansas, in Oklahoma. If I, me, SkySpecs, have a data set that says, “This is how it progresses,” that could make sense. Yeah. Because you, what you would hate to see is, like, every [00:20:00] operator be doing the same thing over and over and over again. Exactly. Trying to learn the same lesson, where SkySpecs can be a focal point in that. Yeah. Matt Sigala: No, I think that’s, that’s, uh, something that we, we could be working towards. Um, it’s definitely, you know, not in, in the making right now, but, um, some of this, you know, data keeps coming towards us. It’s, it’s something that we wanna, you know, stay sticky with, so.  Allen Hall 2025: Yeah. And, uh, let’s, let’s go back to the, the repair vendor management side. Mm-hmm. Uh, I know talking to you before the move to SkySpecs that you had tracked Every technician in terms of their efficiency, the quality of the work, how they… And beyond that, like- Yeah … how they work with others. Do they show up on time?  Matt Sigala: Yeah.  Allen Hall 2025: Is that part of the thought process coming into the larger scale Horizon SkySpecs system is we need to be measuring things than just did they finish the turbine and move on? Matt Sigala: Exactly.  Allen Hall 2025: Is, is, is that gonna be, you see more of that, you think-  Sigala: Yeah …  Allen Hall 2025: over the next couple of  Matt Sigala: years? I think it’s, it’s gonna be very, you know, ad hoc with each individual customer on, on what type of, you know, data they wanna track, but it’s literally [00:21:00] just a switch within Horizon to turn that on if, if, uh-  Allen Hall 2025: Wow, I, I, if I’m an operator, I’m 100% turning that on. Matt Sigala: Yeah. No, and I think it’s more of, uh, it helps the ISPs because the technicians know that their names are actually tied to it rather than them just going in there and doing a report, and we kinda get to see who they are at the end of it, so.  Allen Hall 2025: Yeah.  Matt Sigala: Um- ‘ Allen Hall 2025: Cause there’s a big boon to technicians. Oh, massive. If you’re a good technician, man, you can get a lot of street credibility because you’ve demonstrated it time and time again, and you have a- Yeah a, a whole data set that says, “Hey, I know what I’m doing.” Mm-hmm. “You should be hiring me.”  Matt Sigala: Yeah.  Allen Hall 2025: That’s extremely valuable.  Matt Sigala: That’s something I, I push to the technicians even when I was on the other side of the house where, you know, doing interviews for hiring technicians. W- we’d ask, like, “Do you have a, a, a portfolio? Like, you’re asking for X amount of money, like, you should have something to show for.” Some pictures. Pictures, previous repairs, you know. Start, s- definitely recommending to the technicians to-  Allen Hall 2025: Yeah …  Matt Sigala: you know, build a portfolio for yourself ’cause it’s, it speaks more than a resume at times. It’s a  Allen Hall 2025: profession. Matt Sigala: It is, yeah. You  Allen Hall 2025: need to treat it as a profession. Yeah. It’s a  Matt Sigala: skill- It’s not  Allen Hall 2025: just a job …  Matt Sigala: yeah, a skilled trade, so.  Allen Hall 2025: It, [00:22:00] it, it really is, especially now as- Yeah … as we get into more carbon and complex blade designs, and everything’s just getting more advanced than ever. Yeah. You’d have to have that skill set. Matt Sigala: Yeah. And I think it takes at least a minimum of three years to become a, a good blade repair technician or any type of technician in general. Like, you know, first year you’re learning. Second year is imposter syndrome, and third year you’re finally kinda getting into the groove of things and, and making some decisions. So, um, and mostly, you know, hanging on a 5/16 cable, you know, 180 feet off the ground. Um, it, it takes a lotta, lotta training and development with those technicians, and just finding the right mindset right off the bat. It’s, like, the first thing that we look for.  Allen Hall 2025: So what are the things that operators should know going into this repair season and in towards, you know, inspection season, which will start in a couple of months? What should they be thinking about going forward here based on what you know now, now you’ve been on the data side of it?  Matt Sigala: There’s a lot of work coming. There’s a lot of work to be distributed out there, uh, across all of our, our customers. Um, [00:23:00] but there’s a, a massive lack of quality, uh, within the ISPs. Um, and like, like I said, I think it’s not due to the It’s like, I think majority of it’s due to the rapid expansion of, you know, the volume needed for, for repair teams, and it’s constantly growing each year. And, um, you know, these owners are being pushed a little bit harder to, to spin up these teams to, to get out there. Um, biggest thing is just, you know, taking care of the little steps, you know, making sure all your lines are drawn out on the blade. Like, that’s the stuff that I really see- … our engineers, you know, on, on the q- uh, quality side two or three. Um, marking is just, you know, minimal stuff to where it doesn’t paint the full picture of the repair on the blade report, and so that’s why we’re raising the flags. Um, it’s not that they’re just going out generally and doing bad repairs. It’s just, like, the little steps in between. I think that’s what we’re kinda, like, focusing on. other than that, just being safe. You know, these, these guys are, are, are, uh, like I said, hanging up on the, on those ropes or cables and, um, you know, making sure that, you know, they get home safe is, is w- our [00:24:00] biggest thing at the end of the day, too. It’s not only just getting the repairs done, but having the ROI, but it’s making sure that those technicians can, can have a, a safe job to come and go to and, uh, you know, be there, so. Allen Hall 2025: Well, it’s, I’m sure SkySpecs is thrilled to have you. At least everybody I’ve talked to at SkySpecs is thrilled to have you there, and it’s like y- you’re plugging in this really knowledgeable person into this massive data set. And when you combine those two, you know, it’s, it’s squared. It’s not double, you know? Yeah. It, it’s, it’s gonna really help SkySpecs out a lot, and I’m super happy for you. I think this is the right s- position for you to be, and eventually, like, you just gain so much knowledge. You-  Matt Sigala: Definitely.  Allen Hall 2025: You’re just one of those guys that you, you just think, “Man, Matt knows so much.” And if you haven’t talked to Matt Sagala, or you haven’t talked to SkySpecs, or maybe you are in SkySpecs, you’re in the Horizon system, and you just haven’t turned on the repair vendor management, now is the time to do that. Matt Sigala: Definitely.  Allen Hall 2025: Matt is a powerhouse here. He can help you, and the, and the whole team at SkySpecs. There’s a lot of people behind the scenes- Oh, [00:25:00] tons … that are- Yeah … are making this thing go. How do they get ahold of you, Matt? Do they go to LinkedIn or-  Matt Sigala: LinkedIn, yeah. Um, or I can, you know, drop my, my email address with you, and you can put it up there. But, uh, yeah, don’t hesitate. Reach out, or if you see me around- … um, you know, give me a call. Grab  Allen Hall 2025: him.  Matt Sigala: Yeah. Grab  Allen Hall 2025: me. If you see Matt, grab him. Yes, Matt, it’s so great to have you on the podcast. We’ve been trying so long to do this, so it’s, it’s great to have you here.  Matt Sigala: Likewise. No, this was fun. Greatly appreciate it.

After raising prices on many of its products a few weeks ago, Apple has raised prices again, this time on services like iCloud and Apple Music. Is it too much? How much will iPhone prices go up? We share our thoughts, plus plenty more in this episode. Watch on YouTube! - Notnerd.com and Notpicks.com INTRO (00:00) MAIN TOPIC: Apple raises more prices (03:30) Apple raises prices for Apple Music and Apple One subscriptions Apple faces imminent iPhone price hikes amid chip shortage DAVE'S PRO-TIP OF THE WEEK: Back up before beta-ing. (13:15) JUST THE HEADLINES: (18:05) Robot decapitated in world's first-ever humanoid UFC fight Kalshi flags Trump's teleprompter operator after making more than $100K betting on Kalshi markets France orders ISPs to block access to Polymarket Amazon Web Services customers receive bills for up to $1.5 Trillion after global glitch Spotify is now an AI chatbot, too Roblox is shutting down its video chat service Astronauts take first X-rays in space WITHIN REACH! Dave is up 10-6, Round 19, Nate goes first (20:20) TAKES: Unauthorized AI biographies are all over Amazon (28:50) NY school to introduce first humanoid robot in US classroom — and vows 'Sally' will never replace teachers (30:45) BONUS ODD TAKE: Moist Towelette Online Museum (32:40) PICKS OF THE WEEK:  Dave:  SMALLRIG SSD Magnetic Phone Mount Bracket SSD Holder with Magsafe, 45-70mm（1.77''-2.76'' Wide Clamping, 1/4"-20 Threads and Cold Shoe, for Samsung T3/T5, for SanDisk, for Crucial, for iPhone - 5157 (39:15) Nate: Umisleep Soft Sleep Mask, Blackout Eye Mask for Side Sleepers, Comfortable Sleep Mask for Women Men, Satin Eye Masks for Sleep with Wide Band, Sleeping Mask, Blindfold, Black (44:50)

Dave Clark and Steve Palmer return for another episode of The Sweet Spot, sponsored by SBK.In this episode, the team reviews last week's action at the 154th Open Championship and Corales Puntacana Championship.They then look ahead to this week's tournaments, providing a full preview and betting analysis for the ISPS HANDA Senior Open 2026, 3M Open and United Kingdom Individual. Steve shares his top each-way value picks before the guys wrap up the show with their weekly best bets.Let us know in the comments who you are backing this week!

Episode SummaryOto sits down with longtime friend DJ Mike Winner — co-founder of the decentralized network Qortal — for a deep dive into consciousness, sovereignty, and building outside the centralized internet. Mike traces his path from an early astral projection experience at 12, through a "germ theory" awakening from Dr. Bear Lando, to co-founding Qortal as a fully open-source, node-to-node alternative to the World Wide Web. He and Oto unpack the philosophy behind "sovereignty taxes," the difference between legal and possession-based ownership, and why cognitive sovereignty matters as AI use grows. Mike then walks through how Qortal actually works — minting, QDN, the CORT coin, the app ecosystem (QTube, Qmail, QShare, and more) — before showing how he used AI agents (including his own trained assistant, Merlin) to build Terrain TV, a free, AI-curated health-freedom video platform with 46,000+ videos.Chapters / Timestamps (Shifted +59s to account for the new intro at the top of the episode)00:00 – Trailer 00:59 – Intro & Catching Up with DJ Mike Winner 02:59 – The Red Pill Moment: Astral Projection & "The Creature from Jekyll Island" 05:59 – Germ Theory, Chronic Illness & the Allopathic Debt System 07:59 – From Hollywood to Alpha Vedic: Finding His Path 09:59 – The Art of Inquiry: Trusting Truth Within & Daily Meditation 11:59 – Dependency, the Sovereignty Tax & the Entrepreneur's Dilemma 13:59 – AI as an Ancient Technology & the Convergence Point 14:59 – Techno Bros, Ownership vs. the Rental Economy 17:59 – The Myth of Prometheus & Natural Law 19:59 – Crossing the Bridge: Technology as "Techne" 23:59 – Why Big Tech Isn't Censoring Like It Used To 25:59 – The Sovereign Stack: Decoupling Step by Step 28:59 – The Danger of "Purity Spiraling" & What Is a Luddite? 32:59 – Moving Into a Creator-Based Economy 33:59 – Legal Ownership vs. Possession-Based Ownership & Cognitive Sovereignty 36:59 – What Is Qortal? Reacting to Crypto Centralization 39:59 – Qortal's Time-Based Minting Consensus 42:59 – How QDN Works: Decentralized, Censorship-Proof Storage 46:59 – CORT Coin, Minting Pools & the Leveling System 49:59 – The Qortal App Ecosystem: QTube, Quitter, QShare & More 51:59 – Names, Wallets & Permissionless Identity on Qortal 53:59 – Getting Started: Hardware, Setup & Syncing Your Node 56:59 – Acquiring CORE Through P2P Trading 58:59 – Free Hosting, Qmail & Owning Your Own Data 1:00:59 – Bitcoin Storage & Where to Learn More 1:01:59 – Mesh Networking & Getting Off the ISPs 1:04:59 – Terrain TV: Building an AI-Powered Curation Platform 1:09:59 – The Terrain Philosophy Beyond Health 1:11:59 – Meet Merlin: Mike's AI Familiar Built in OpenClaw 1:13:59 – Running His Own CRM for True Data Sovereignty 1:14:59 – Can We Ever Fully Ditch Internet Providers? 1:18:59 – Final Words: Trust Yourself & Take Action 1:20:59 – Where to Find Mike: Winnr.digital & ClosingKey TakeawaysQortal (Cordal) is a fully open-source, community-run, node-to-node network — never VC-funded, never trademarked — with a blockchain spine that uses time (not competition) as its consensus and minting model.QDN (Qortal Data Network) stores content by chunking, encrypting, and spreading it across the nodes of your followers, so the more followers an account has, the faster and more redundant its content becomes — with no central server to shut it down.The app ecosystem includes QTube (YouTube alternative), Qmail (encrypted P2P email with no middleman), Quitter (Twitter-style), QShare, QShop, and more — all funded by small CORT transaction fees rather than hosting or subscription costs.Ownership on Qortal runs through a permissionless naming marketplace — names cost a few CORT, follow you across every app, and moderation happens through community blocking rather than centralized censorship.Mike built Terrain TV, a free AI-curated health-freedom platform pulling from YouTube, BitChute, Odysee, and Rumble, in about 60 days using AI coding agents — including his own trained AI assistant, "Merlin," built in OpenClaw.Mike frames the core practice as recognizing "sovereignty taxes" — the time, attention, and money we give up for convenience — and gradually walking across the bridge to open-source, self-owned alternatives (Qortal, ProtonMail, local AI) rather than abandoning existing tools all at once.Learn More / Get StartedQortal — https://qortal.org (or the community-recommended https://qortal.dev) Terrain TV — https://terraintv.com Mike Winner's site — https://winnr.digitalCONNECT WITH OTO: Instagram – https://instagram.com/otogomes Website – https://otogomes.live

Psykoosi: Mitä sinun täytyy tietää psykooseista | Professori John Read | Tämä on minun ja professori Readin 6. yhteinen jakso. Jakso on osa keskustelusarjaa, jota teemme yhdessä. Tällä kertaa puheenaiheena on psykoosit. Puhuimme mm. isoimmista psykooseihin liittyvistä väärinkäsityksistä, skitsofrenia-diagnoosista, ns. psykoosioireiden merkityksestä, ja miten muutoin näitä voisi lähestyä kuin nykyisen lääketieteellisen mallin mukaisesti. Videoon on valittavissa suomenkielinen tekstitys. Podcast-jakso päivittyy tähän postaukseen 1.8.2026. Podcast-jakson julkaisun jälkeen jakson sisältö on tulossa suomennettuna myös tekstimuodossa videon alle. Psykoosi: Mitä sinun täytyy tietää psykooseista | Professori John Read Jaksossa mainittua: ISPS (the International Society for Psychological and Social Approaches to Psychosis) Models of madness Sinua voisi kiinnostaa myös: Keskustelua someväitteistä – Vieraana Jani Kajanoja Oletko jo tutustunut maksuttomaan TOIVOA TOIPUJAN POLULLE -sähköpostikurssiin? Mitä ajatuksia tämä jakso sinussa herättää? The post Psykoosi: Mitä sinun täytyy tietää psykooseista | Professori John Read appeared first on Astetta parempi elämä.

This week, the world finally discovers what we've been saying for years: Gen X wasn't forgotten—we were quietly keeping the entire damn machine running. New Census numbers show America's 45-to-64 crowd is shrinking fast, which means the people who know where all the bodies are buried (and why you never reboot that one production server) are disappearing without a replacement bench. Meanwhile, Meta continues its speedrun toward becoming history's most aggressively unlikeable company, staring down a potential $1.4 trillion lawsuit over social media addiction while simultaneously launching AI features that happily remix your Instagram photos unless you remember to opt out of Zuckerberg's latest privacy experiment. Because nothing says "we've learned our lesson" quite like doubling down.The AI circus somehow gets even weirder. Illinois actually passed meaningful AI safety legislation—an event so rare it qualifies as science fiction—while Sam Altman reportedly floated the idea of AI companies handing the U.S. government an ownership stake. Anthropic published another paper that's already inspiring breathless declarations that Claude is "thinking," because apparently matrix multiplication now counts as an inner monologue. Cloudflare finally decided websites shouldn't have to give away their content for free to AI crawlers, researchers discovered AI agents could consume enough electricity to make Google Search look like a bicycle generator, and Amazon's Mechanical Turk is being replaced by the very AI it spent two decades secretly training. Progress: where everyone works harder, gets paid less, and the power grid cries.Elsewhere in Tech Hell™, Waymo robotaxis turned San Francisco traffic into an even bigger parking lot, Google lost another multibillion-dollar antitrust appeal in Europe, the FCC found fresh ways to make internet bills less transparent, and Midjourney is demanding Hollywood explain its own AI habits in court. We also dig into a disturbing lawsuit involving Grok-generated abuse imagery and what it says about AI guardrails, explain how to stop Meta from feeding your Instagram into its latest AI experiments, discuss why tech workers increasingly feel AI isn't replacing them so much as making them miserable faster, and close things out with the usual Media Candy, Apps & Doodads, and library recommendations to help you survive another week inside the techno-dystopian fever dream we apparently call "the future."Sponsors:Private Internet Access - Go to GOG.Show/vpn and sign up today. For a limited time only, you can get OUR favorite VPN for as little as $2.03 a month.SetApp - With a single monthly subscription you get 240+ apps for your Mac. Go to SetApp and get started today!!!1Password - Get a great deal on the only password manager recommended by Grumpy Old Geeks! gog.show/1passwordShow notes at https://gog.show/754Watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/xnhzMxu1JNASHOW NOTESAmerica's missing middle: The shrinking 45-64 populationMeta is facing $1.4 trillion in state lawsuits over social media addictionMeta just launched a new AI generator, Muse Image, and users are already pushing back over use of their photosIllinois Drops the Hammer on AI CompaniesOpenAI reportedly wants all AI companies to give the US government a stake in their businessesLawsuit: Man used Grok to make 7K sex images of stepdaughter, then shot himselfMidjourney wants the Hollywood studios that sued it to show the court how they use AIAnthropic Releases Paper About Claude's Mental ‘Workspace.' Don't Read It UncriticallyCloudflare will filter out web crawlers that serve AI companiesWhen It Comes to Energy Use, AI Agents Could Make Chatbots Look Like Pocket CalculatorsAmazon's ‘Artificial Artificial Intelligence' Is Being Eaten by AIDrivers Trapped for Hours in Hopeless Gridlock as Waymos Brick on Major HolidayGoogle loses final appeal over $4.7 billion EU Android antitrust fineFCC to end Biden-era rule that forces ISPs to list all their feesGetty Images is canceling its $3.7 billion Shutterstock merger due to UK restrictionsFootage Shows Cop Stalking Woman He Met on a TV Set After Surveilling Her With a License Plate ReaderMeta says it will disable the camera on its glasses if you tamper with the recording LEDMeta tests ‘super sensing' AI glasses that can capture every momentHow tech workers are feeling in 2026: a workforce splitting in twoSiloSugarDune: Part Three | Official TrailerAI golem Tilly Norwood is reportedly 'starring' in a feature-length movieLuckyNormalHow to claim a WhatsApp usernameHow to Stop Meta AI From Processing Your Instagram ContentGold Rush (First Contact) by Peter CawdronSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Send us Fan MailWhat happens when powerful technology becomes accessible to smaller broadband providers? At Fiber Connect 2026, we talk with Ian Oliver of Globema about the software, automation, and AI tools helping tier-two and tier-three ISPs work smarter, design networks faster, and better serve their customers. Plus, we discuss the future of fiber, the evolving role of cable networks, and why innovation isn't just for the biggest players in broadband.Recommended links:Ian Oliver LinkedInGlobema website

We got the chance to chat with 4x Stanley Cup Champion Darren McCarty athe Grand Opening of the Grind Time Pro Wrestling Performance Center ! Darren really lets us in on his love for Pro Wrestling and why making this space was not only important to him but the city of Detroit. We talk the journey of assembling the team with the likes of former WWE stars like Alex Shelley of the Motor City Machine Guns, to a man he helped train in TNA Star Trey Miguel to even some of the best from Michigan like The Dread King Logan, Isaiah Broner, Schwartzy, Randi West and Dean Hendrix !If you're in Detroit and have a dream of becoming a Pro Wrestler look no further than Grind time Pro Wrestling ! •Protect Your Connection Like a Champ With NordVPN!At Bodyslam.net, we know the importance of staying protected—whether you're in the ring or online. That's why we've partnered with NordVPN, the undisputed heavyweight champion of internet security, to bring our readers an exclusive deal.Unlock major savings and keep your data safe from hackers, trackers, and snooping ISPs—all while streaming wrestling content securely from anywhere in the world.Hit the link below to step into the ring with the best VPN in the business:

Unlocking billions in cloud marketplace revenue. Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://theultimatepartner.com/ebook-subscribe/ Check Out UPX: https://theultimatepartner.com/experience/ This powerful panel discussion featuring leaders from Google, Tackle, and dbt Labs dives deep into the explosive growth of cloud marketplaces and the radical shift toward AI-driven go-to-market strategies. With hyperscaler backlogs nearing half a trillion dollars, the conversation unpacks how top-tier organizations are transforming their compensation models, aligning executive buy-in, and navigating the complexities of co-selling to capture committed customer budgets. From the rise of AI agents acting as metered SaaS to the essential operational investments required to scale marketplace revenue from 10% to over 50%, this session provides an actionable roadmap for software companies ready to dominate the 2026 partner ecosystem. https://youtu.be/LSj49f5FEII Key Takeaways Hyperscaler backlog commitments represent a massive, nearly half-trillion-dollar addressable market that completely changes the budgeting conversation. Successful marketplace selling requires complete executive alignment, right down to the CFO, and strategic adjustments like spiffing sales teams for marketplace transactions. The AI category is experiencing staggering 18x year-over-year growth, forcing companies to pivot toward an “agent-first” go-to-market model. Shifting from traditional channels to cloud go-to-market demands a multi-year, intentional investment in operations, people, and technology. System integrators are evolving into software companies as they build orchestration agents to manage fragmented, end-to-end workflows. Leveraging cloud commitments bypasses standard 12-15 month budget cycles, allowing for significantly faster deal closures and larger initial lands. If you're ready to lead through change, elevate your business, and achieve extraordinary outcomes through the power of partnership—this is your community. At Ultimate Partner® we want leaders like you to join us in the Ultimate Partner Experience – where transformation begins. Key Tags: Google Cloud Marketplace, hyperscaler backlog, cloud commitments, co-selling strategies, AI agents, metered SaaS, product-led growth, rev ops, B2B sales transformation, ecosystem shift, channel strategy, system integrators, Deal registration, private offer APIs, digital transformation, software procurement. Transcript: Insight to Revenue- The State of Cloud GTM [00:00:00] Dai Vu: These are all things everyone has to do to get to that first five to 10 deals, and then 10, 20, 30% of your business through Marketplace. [00:00:09] Vince Menzione: You can feel it happening. The ecosystem is shifting beneath us, the way Hyperscalers are partnering, how AI is remaking the channel and what it means to win in 2026. [00:00:21] Vince Menzione: Welcome to the Ultimate Partner Podcast. I’m Vince Menzi, own your host, and each week I sit down with leaders at the intersection of technology. Partnerships and outcomes. The voices shaping how ecosystems actually work. We talk about what’s real, what’s changing, and what it takes to lead in this era where the partner channel isn’t just part of the strategy. [00:00:43] Vince Menzione: It is the strategy because being in the room changes [00:00:46] John Janke: everything. Let’s start. [00:00:52] Vince Menzione: And we have an incredible session. The way that we wanted today to, to, to start the day up was like, let’s talk about what’s happening right now and let’s get three leaders in this space to come up and talk about the world and how it’s a rapidly evolving. So I want to invite to the stage dvu from Google is a great friend of Ultimate Partner. [00:01:14] Vince Menzione: Are you guys ready? Are you guys micd up already? Okay, good. Good. John Yanke, the CEO and Founder of Tackle, and Sean Todo, who is an incredible leader with DBT, but also an old friend of mine. We worked together on Microsoft Days. Good to see you gentlemen. Thanks Sean. Great to have you with us. [00:01:37] John Janke: They stuck me on the side ’cause they said I’d block the screen if I sat in the middle. [00:01:41] Shawn Toldo: You still block it a little bit. [00:01:42] John Janke: And that picture’s from like 1985. I, I, we do have to get that. I had way darker hair. It was, uh, 10 year, 10 years at a startup. Makes you turn white. [00:01:52] Shawn Toldo: Mine’s the exact same right now. So it’s all good. [00:01:55] Shawn Toldo: Mine’s AI generated. Yeah. [00:01:57] Vince Menzione: Well, you know, guys, I just took it all off at that point, you know, it’s like good. Yeah, but you lose enough of it. You pull it out over the years. Yeah. So, uh, some really exciting times. Uh, you, we gotta spend some time at you at our breakfast. That’s right. A couple weeks ago. [00:02:13] Dai Vu: A lot of folks here, too. [00:02:14] Vince Menzione: A lot of folks that are here were at that breakfast, and I thought we’d spend a few moments with you talking about all the exciting things that have been happening at, at Google. I mean the, yeah, the businesses just to, first of all, the numbers were house. Outstanding. Congratulations. [00:02:28] Dai Vu: That’s right. [00:02:28] Vince Menzione: Yep. [00:02:28] Vince Menzione: Really, some really great numbers. Commitments are off the charts. [00:02:32] Dai Vu: Yes. [00:02:32] Vince Menzione: Crazy off the charts. [00:02:33] Dai Vu: Yes. [00:02:34] Vince Menzione: Yes. Uh, and then there’s a lot happening in this little world called ai, which makes a ton of sense. Yep. I was critical about Google in the beginning because you had all the assets, but Microsoft leaned in first. [00:02:45] Vince Menzione: Uh, but now it’s like things have evolved, uh, quite a bit since those first days. Absolutely. In, in November of 2022. So, uh, take us through a little bit. Let’s, let’s go through [00:02:56] Dai Vu: it. Yeah. I could talk for quite a bit of time because obviously we came out next, yeah. At the end of April, and then we had our earnings announced, but shortly thereafter. [00:03:03] Dai Vu: But, but real quick on next, uh, for folks who attended, uh, you know, the way they framed, uh, the discussion was they showed this AI integrated stack, and that’s how they frame the keynote because we position ourselves as being the only vendor that provides this. Fully integrated stack from custom silicon all the way to the apps and agents. [00:03:23] Dai Vu: And a lot of the announcements were, were focused in those areas. Um, uh, I won’t go through the, the long list, but I think the big ones coming out of next were, uh, certainly the eighth generation TPU we announced, so we actually split this into two specialized chips for training and inference. Uh, so that’s, uh, that was a big piece. [00:03:41] Dai Vu: Uh, but the big one that we announced was this, uh, Gemini Enterprise. Uh, agent platform. So think of it as the comprehensive platform for companies to basically build scale, govern and optimize their agents. And of course, once they have that, they can bring that into, uh, what we call a Gen Gemini enterprise app, which is really the front door for AI for. [00:04:03] Dai Vu: All customers and all employees to manage a mix of agents, um, as part of their daily workflow. And, uh, and a big part of it is, you know, certainly they’ll have some custom agents, but we think a lot of the agents will come from the ecosystem. And obviously there was a big announcement around what we’re doing there. [00:04:21] Dai Vu: Um, and in fact, one of the things that’s interesting is this shows the evolution of, of marketplace in our, in our partnership, which is we’ve taken a lot of the marketplace experience. And brought it into Gemini exp uh, Gemini Enterprise app, right? So search, discovery, uh, the ability to invoke agents, uh, in context. [00:04:39] Dai Vu: I think that’s gonna be very powerful as we think about the evolution, uh, of, of go to market. And then the last thing maybe I’ll highlight is this, um, is. 750 million, uh, investment fund that we’re gonna drive with the broad partnership. So this cuts across all partner types, global system integrators, uh, uh, you know, AI, pure plays, uh, ISVs, uh, the big management consultants as well, uh, because we recognize that partners are gonna be critical to drive business transformation with our end customers. [00:05:08] Dai Vu: So we’re investing around things like. Technical enablement, access to our product teams, access to our FDE for deployment engineers, and then a lot of incentives to drive usage and deployment. So, um, so a lot of, a lot of activity and obviously the ecosystem’s gonna be very critical for us to drive that impact’s. [00:05:25] Dai Vu: Fine. And the last thing, I know we’ve going on and on fine, but the last thing I’ll just mention is just on the earnings announcement, uh, Vince touched on the backlog, so people have been tracking Yeah. Two quarters ago. We were 155 billion on the backlog, and then a quarter later we were 240 billion. And then in the last quarter, just recently, 462 billion. [00:05:46] Dai Vu: So obviously that’s a, a massive signal of customer intent, but more importantly, it’s a, it’s, it’s a addressable market for this ecosystem to go after as well. [00:05:54] Vince Menzione: Yeah. Almost a half a trillion dollars. Yes. In commitment. So a lot, a lot of reason why we should be on the marketplace. [00:06:01] Dai Vu: Absolutely. Absolutely. [00:06:02] Vince Menzione: Um, each of these gentlemen have some things to talk about as well, about their companies and the exciting things that have been happening. [00:06:08] Vince Menzione: I’m gonna start, John, I’m gonna start with you because Tackle has, has transformed quite a bit since the last time you were on stage with us. I thought maybe introduce the company. Take us through the transformation and then we’re gonna do the same thing with Sean with his organization. [00:06:21] John Janke: Yeah. Thanks. Uh, thanks Vince. [00:06:23] John Janke: Great to see everybody. Uh, John Yanke, GM of Tackle at App Direct. So the big news there is Tackle was acquired in Q4 by a company called App Direct, and I think the why behind this app, direct Powers, marketplaces, they run 400 marketplaces around the world for telcos, for ISVs, for system integrators, channel partners. [00:06:42] John Janke: And we were talk like, when you build a marketplace and diagnose this, stocking the shelves is actually really hard. Uh, and we were talking to them about how could we connect the dots between the hyperscaler marketplaces, the iscs we support, and these additional routes to market. Uh, and that became more strategic and we ended up joining forces in December. [00:07:00] John Janke: And since then, the other part that’s really hard when you build a marketplace is how do you generate demand? Uh, so four weeks ago we acquired a company called Partner Stack. And Partner Stack does affiliate content. They have an affiliate content platform that allows you to connect with 150,000 content providers to be able to start to tell your story to drive leads to. [00:07:23] John Janke: Marketplace. So we think there is a tremendous opportunity to continue. We’re in the earliest days. I think the, you know, Jay, I was with Jay at Channel Partners a few weeks ago and he is like, we under called it, he didn’t say this on stage yesterday, but he is like, uh, the 82% growth. He’s like, we totally under called it. [00:07:40] John Janke: Uh, and I think just listening to dies commit level increase mm-hmm. Reinforces the fact that we’ve under called it. But I also think we’re at this tipping point in the market where all of the new capabilities coming out, we have to all rethink our better together stories. So I think the challenge to all partner leaders, it’s like, how do we. [00:07:58] John Janke: Figure that out. So it’s, it’s a, it’s a fun time. As we transform the way we worked. We wrote the first helping people kind of list, launch and sell through the marketplaces. And now to be able to take that to the next level to hopefully unlock the next a hundred billion of marketplace throughput. [00:08:13] Vince Menzione: And are we at a hundred billion? [00:08:15] Vince Menzione: ’cause that was the number, right? [00:08:16] John Janke: I mean that’s, that’s, that’s the number that’s talked about. I mean, we’re seeing the data signals we see, I mean, we will process 20 billion plus this year. Uh, and that number’s growing faster than Jay’s stated number. So I think we’re excited to see where this year lands. [00:08:30] Vince Menzione: We’ve come a long way from three years ago and we all got on stage and talked about marketplaces together. Right. It’s been, it’s been amazing. And then Sean, let’s talk about DBT. You’ve had some excitement. I know some things maybe we can’t even talk about yet on stage. [00:08:43] Shawn Toldo: Uh, yeah, go ahead. [00:08:44] Vince Menzione: No, I was saying I, I could, I’ll pre-announce things, but No, I’m just, uh, tell, tell us about DBT for those who don’t know in the room, sure. [00:08:49] Vince Menzione: Mean Yeah, that might help. [00:08:51] Shawn Toldo: So, uh, Sean Todo, I lead the partner business at DBT. I’ve been here about 18 months. Um, DBT really started as an open source tool. That help data engineers be successful in SQL transformation with cloud data warehouses? Right. And so back even to the Redshift days now into what I would call more the BigQuery, snowflake, Databricks fabric led days, um, DBT is the tool of choice amongst the data engineering community in terms of how they wanna drive SQL transformation. [00:09:21] Shawn Toldo: And so more recently, we kind of jumped into this kind of paid world. Which is why we needed to bring in additional experience leadership around go to market product, sales, et cetera. And so when I walked in the door, one of the things I noticed really quickly was we were running on AWS, which was great. [00:09:40] Shawn Toldo: We were doing some AWS marketplace stuff. We were running on Azure in Europe only. And one of my first strategies was we have to be everywhere, right customer. We have to meet customers where they are. And so we, uh, made some major investments to be on Google Cloud platform to then be able to really take advantage of marketplace, to then really be able to take advantage of the co-sell opportunities that exist in the field from a day, day-to-day AI perspective with Google. [00:10:07] Shawn Toldo: And it has been a hell of a ride. We launched on, uh, Google Marketplace in July of last year. We went to Google next and we were Google Partner of the Year. Wow. For data and analytics in a very rapid way. We’re now in three, uh, data centers around the, the world. So we’re here in the us, we’re in Frankfurt, we’re in uh, uh, UK as well. [00:10:30] Shawn Toldo: And so it’s been a pleasure to work with D and the broader team. Because the enablement we’ve had and the support we’ve had from that group has really helped our growth be up and to the right. The data point I would give is that when I walked in the door, we were 10% of our business from an A RR perspective was transacting through marketplace. [00:10:48] Shawn Toldo: Last quarter we cracked 40%. Whoa. We will be at north of 50, uh, next quarter. [00:10:53] Dai Vu: Wow. [00:10:54] Shawn Toldo: The other piece that Vince was talking about is we’re getting ready to merge with a company called Five Tran. And so there will be a new company name at some point down the road. Uh, pay attention on June 1st for a public announcement around that merger. [00:11:06] Shawn Toldo: Uh, but we’re really looking forward to what we’re gonna be able to do with folks like DI and the Google team as well as others in the ecosystem. Um, ’cause I think in this data world that we’ve played for so long. This trusted foundational element of data and what it’s gonna mean to context in the AI world. [00:11:23] Shawn Toldo: We’re in a very interesting place to really continue our growth rate at a high level. [00:11:28] John Janke: Yeah, that maybe just a comment something there. Start there. I think we, we used to hear people say we wanted to be strategic with cloud, go to market and get to say 10 or 20% of revenue. I think this like 40, 50%. Yeah. Th that’s where people are setting the bar these days. [00:11:43] John Janke: Yeah. So the numbers are getting really crazy. Yeah. Uh, and people are showing up and being like, I have to go big. Mm-hmm. So a huge change over the last few years. [00:11:52] Vince Menzione: Yep. What’s the experience you’re seeing as well? I mean, it, it was a huge amount of buzz at next. [00:11:57] Dai Vu: Yeah. I mean, so interestingly, um, you know, typically when, when people get started on the, on the marketplace in Cosal journey, I always try to caution them and say, this is, uh, this is like a multi-year. [00:12:07] Dai Vu: Yeah. Uh, process. You have to be very intentional. You have to invest. It’s not gonna be a thing where you just list and, and, and, and, and, and sort of this channel opens up. So in some ways, Sean is describing an acceleration that is not common, right? Uh, so they’ve done, we’ve done some amazing things together and we hope to keep that acceleration going. [00:12:22] Vince Menzione: What does that require, by the way? Is it engineering resource? I mean, there’s, I talk about executive commitment and maniacal focus. Yeah. But it’s all those things, right? [00:12:29] Shawn Toldo: Well, all of it. But we went to a QBR in Austin, and I put up a slide and I said, we have to do this. And everybody in our ETE agreed. So when you have a chief financial officer that’s bought into the partner business. [00:12:43] Shawn Toldo: Yeah. And I guess qualifying coming into this role at this company, I qualified the C-level staff. Uh, like are they really serious about partner or not? And it’s one of the reasons I took the role. So I think executive commitment was one thing. I think the second thing is we were really well supported, um, by the Google team across the board, right? [00:13:02] Shawn Toldo: Yeah. So folks, Indy’s team that we would work with regularly on, these are the things you need to do to have an effective marketplace offering. Here’s what you need to do operationally with folks like John and team and others that are in the market, right? That helped us a ton to be able to scale. And then the other thing that we did is we changed comp. [00:13:20] Shawn Toldo: So from our VP of sales levels down, we have a 5% kicker for everything that goes through marketplace. [00:13:26] Vince Menzione: Hear [00:13:26] Shawn Toldo: that everyone. So as soon as we incented the sales team, I love that, right? We, we created the foundation on the partner side, but then from top down on the sales side, they were all in. And as a result of that, the question would become, okay, which marketplace stage two sales cycle are we gonna go use? [00:13:42] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:13:43] Shawn Toldo: Who’s the right partner to go partner with? And then my team is reaching out to make sure that co-sell connection happens. [00:13:48] Vince Menzione: That is such a best practice, Sean, to, because there is, as a seller out in the field and we talk about, you talk to John, talks about rev ops all the time. But getting rev ops eng getting the field engaged in the right way. [00:14:01] Vince Menzione: ’cause it feels like it’s more work for them. ’cause they have to think, they have to have more conversations with their customer about their cloud commitments and things like that. Mm-hmm. And then getting them incentive to do the right things. The right behavior. [00:14:12] John Janke: Yeah. It’s a strategy process. People, technology problem. [00:14:17] John Janke: Yeah. It’s not just some flip API automation, go list something if you don’t like that top down view. I think the other thing. Like there’s a, there’s a theme in startups where VCs fund second time founders. I think Sean and team have done this before and they took a lot of learnings over the years and reapplied them, which I think helps them go faster. [00:14:36] John Janke: It’s like that second time. Yeah. Second time cloud go to market Founder theme. [00:14:41] Vince Menzione: Yeah. Yeah. Um, so we could talk about the platform and all the changes there on the. The, the commitments and everything. Mm-hmm. Uh, what separates ISPs generating real incremental revenue on your, in your marketplace? What, what do you see? [00:14:58] Dai Vu: Yeah, so I mean, I, I think there are a couple things. Number one is, uh, the, the foundation has to be, uh, this better together story, uh, with Google Cloud. Um, so this idea that what, you know, what do you bring, what does the Google platform bring and how does that drive impact with customers? And I think this is the reason why Sean and DBT Labs has been very effective. [00:15:16] Dai Vu: ’cause our field recognized they, they can recognize that better together story and communicate it to their customers. So I think that’s the foundation. For everything. Right. And I think as you get started, uh, you know, we do tell partners that they probably need to lean in a little bit, uh, in terms of focus, uh, you know, pick a vertical, a customer segment, um, you know, a geography where they’re particularly strong and, you know, get that momentum going. [00:15:39] Dai Vu: And once you do that, the field knows about it and starts to pull you into deals. Um, so I think that’s the other big opportunity. And then the other thing I just mentioned. Which, uh, the panel already touched on, which is be very intentional around all the things you need to do to invest. Whether it’s like, uh, you know, the business functional alignment, uh, the policies around like, uh, pricing and, and comp, uh, making sure you have the operational capabilities. [00:16:02] Dai Vu: These are all things everyone has to do to get to that. First five to 10 deals, and then 10, 20, 30% of your business through marketplace. And not to, not to top you Sean, but our very top partners are driving 80 to 90% of their business on marketplace. And in fact, some of these partners are actually only marketplace first, uh, uh, because they started out that way. [00:16:21] Dai Vu: Obviously it’s the bigger challenge if you have an existing channel, you’re trying to shift that. But, uh, the aspiration to be more marketplace focus, uh, is up there. [00:16:28] Shawn Toldo: So I just set a new goal for the business plan for me. So that’s exciting. I love it. Looking forward to seeing you in six months on that. [00:16:35] Shawn Toldo: It’s good. [00:16:36] Vince Menzione: I love [00:16:37] Dai Vu: it. Work together on that. [00:16:38] Vince Menzione: Well, di I’m just gonna add, add this because I, I got to see operationally with some of the things you do. Mm-hmm. You, you have an overlay organization. [00:16:45] Dai Vu: Yes. Yes. [00:16:46] Vince Menzione: And so you put accelerants in place within your own organization Yeah. To drive the ISVs into the, into the lines of business. [00:16:54] Vince Menzione: Right. You have, you, you do some of that to accelerate. [00:16:57] Dai Vu: Yeah, I mean, I think, I think this is somewhat unique. I don’t, I don’t wanna speak to the other [00:17:00] Shawn Toldo: hyperscalers, [00:17:01] Dai Vu: but we do have, um, uh, you gotta know the field roles, right? [00:17:04] Shawn Toldo: Yeah. So [00:17:04] Dai Vu: obviously at Google Cloud in the regions, we have, uh, ISV sales specialists who are effectively quoted on marketplace revenue, right? [00:17:12] Dai Vu: So they’re a hundred percent focused on that. And, uh, in addition to that, uh, we also have these, uh, co-sell teams, partner teams where, you know, opportunistically if there’s an opportunity, uh, in a, in a, in a particular area. This team is responsible for connecting the regional sales leadership, uh, the regional, uh, sales teams with, with the partner on the opportunity. [00:17:32] Dai Vu: So there’s a lot of things we’re doing to sort of accelerate that. And of course, the foundation for all this is, you know, our, our, you know, registering deals. And as you definitely get started on that, it’s very important to be very mindful around when you register deals. Uh, be very clear around what the ask and the engagement is with the field reps. [00:17:51] Dai Vu: But once you have that going and get the right rhythm, it becomes sort of a natural way to sort of register all your deals and get that engagement. And then, um, and then maybe the last thing I would say is it isn’t always the sales specialists. It’s, you know, the FSR, our field sales rep as well as our customer engineers are also very motivated. [00:18:08] Dai Vu: To work, uh, with, uh, with our partners because they know that this, you know, whether it be solution completeness or it’s part of a bigger workload or helps unlock greenfield opportunity, they really are motivated to engage with the partners. [00:18:21] Vince Menzione: Nice. [00:18:22] Shawn Toldo: Yeah. I’ll just add, I’ll just add to that statement too. I think, um, it’s one thing to have a story as it relates to. [00:18:30] Shawn Toldo: Google Cloud and what you do with marketplace. It’s another thing to have a story in terms of how you impact data and analytics in our world. And there’s a set of specialist sellers inside of Google mm-hmm. That really care about us because we drive a lot faster consumption of big query. And our ability to tell that story across the world effectively has really created a pull now. [00:18:54] Shawn Toldo: And so I, I would say it’s almost, you know, back to, you know, being 12 years at Microsoft and watching kind of that. Phase and how that went. As we went to the cloud and we picked specialty areas, um, Google is doing that as well and they’re doing it extremely fast in a very, very productive way with partners. [00:19:12] Shawn Toldo: And so, you know, I’ll get comments from like Levi who runs west in north region for us, and he’s a, he was at Google next and he was like, I, I gotta, I, I just gotta go to bed. I’m tired. Like we wore him out over two days with their sales team and gave him a host of follow ups and actions related to specific sales areas as well as specific accounts. [00:19:34] Shawn Toldo: And I think that’s the other thing that, um, Google’s done a good job of, but we’ve pushed and we’ve had to work really hard to earn that seat at the table. To help make those people successful from a comp perspective inside of Google as well. [00:19:45] John Janke: Yeah, and this is a huge failure zone for partners with the clouds because they think enablement’s a one and done thing. [00:19:51] John Janke: Like I did a training for the field and I told them the better together story. That doesn’t work. Like you have to literally. Have consistency around this message every day. Oftentimes you need experts who can partner with your reps to give them the confidence. ’cause they may be able to ask the first line question, but someone asks a follow up and they fold up ’cause they know your product. [00:20:11] John Janke: That’s right. They don’s don’t understand all of the nuances of Google and the clouds and the questions that may come back. But if you do that well, it is a huge unlock. [00:20:20] Vince Menzione: Talk about the coaching you provided on the tackle side of that as well and kind of helping. Through this maturity model? [00:20:26] John Janke: Yeah. I mean we, we, over the years, I mean we started as a pure SaaS company and over the years our customers would consistently ask us for more help and we would struggle to figure out how to do that, and we had to invest in services and we actually acquired a company. [00:20:42] John Janke: Five years ago now, that was the foundation. Aaron Feiger, who’s in the room. The core consulting was the foundation of our services business. And that continues to evolve with us. And you know, we see customers at scale saying, I wanna operate my cloud, go-to market really consistently, and I want you to do all the backend operations so my teams can be outselling our products, selling the better together value with Google and others, and not have to figure out how to run the machinery. [00:21:09] John Janke: So we’ve invested a lot there. We have services around strategy, like how to help people think about their business strategy and translate it into a better together story and able to get executive buy-in. And then we have coaching, which is really a phone, a friend, because I think these things get complicated. [00:21:24] John Janke: And I had a customer who was doing the largest deal in their company history. It was the end of the quarter and it was Friday, and they’re like, this is going to be the most complex transaction we’ve ever done and we have no idea how to do it. Our team gets on the phone with them, they work through, what are you selling? [00:21:40] John Janke: How are you selling it? Is your listing set up the right way? Can we actually create all the offers? In a way you have confidence to execute. ’cause those are failure modes. You try to build a cloud, go to market business, and you mess up the largest deal in the company. On the last day of the quarter, uh, that’s something you can’t recover from. [00:21:55] John Janke: So we try to really wrap support around our customers to help them have the confidence to grow. [00:22:02] Vince Menzione: Di you’ve seen tremendous growth in marketplace. Mm-hmm. We don’t publish the numbers specifically. Yeah. We kind of try to figure it out on the back end, but [00:22:09] Dai Vu: Yep. [00:22:09] Vince Menzione: I know you’re accelerated. Your, your marketplace numbers are astounding. [00:22:13] Dai Vu: Yes. I can share some numbers, if that’s [00:22:15] Vince Menzione: okay. Please. Yeah, let’s go. [00:22:18] Dai Vu: So, um. I would say that for a few years now, we’ve been talking about growth. So we’ve been consistently, uh, you know, north of a hundred percent year over year growth. Uh, for the last few years we’ve been processing, uh, what I say, uh, billions of dollars, uh, annually and, uh, uh, millions of transactions. [00:22:36] Dai Vu: And again, that’s for a few years now. Now for 24 to 25, that full year we also doubled. Wow. Uh, which is, uh, which is amazing when you think about the scale in which we operate. But more importantly, if you look at specific category areas, right? So, you know, historically, marketplace has always cater to, uh, those solution pillars that are tied to cloud migrations, like, uh, like security and data and analytics. [00:22:59] Dai Vu: And those continue to be very strong areas for us. But the biggest growth area is, uh, is in the areas of business app. So obviously, you know, the, the ServiceNow workday, uh, Salesforce of the world, as well as the AI category. So one number that we threw out next was 18 x. Year over year growth for the AI category. [00:23:17] Dai Vu: Wow. So in one year now, a lot of it is models, right? So foundational models with our, with our ecosystem. But a lot of that is around agents. So this whole agent go to market model is gonna be, continue to grow and it’s gonna be a huge focus area for, for the coming years. [00:23:32] Vince Menzione: Fantastic. Yeah. Fantastic growth. [00:23:34] Shawn Toldo: Yeah, and, and I’ll add, Diane and I talked about this at Google next. This is a. Very complex thing for DBT, where today we sell seats. [00:23:42] Vince Menzione: Mm-hmm. Yeah. [00:23:43] Shawn Toldo: To data engineers. [00:23:44] Yeah. [00:23:44] Shawn Toldo: And now we have all these agentic things that are hitting our engine. And di and I are talking and we’re like, okay, so how does this work in an ag agentic marketplace? [00:23:54] Shawn Toldo: Yeah. Kind of a scenario. And what should we build? Where should we play it? ’cause we’re gonna spin the meter in a different way, so to speak. [00:24:01] Dai Vu: Yep. [00:24:01] Shawn Toldo: And so candidly, we got stuff to figure out related to that. Um, I think what’s been fascinating for DBT is our partner ecosystem changed overnight. So now it’s like I talked to x.ai on Monday. [00:24:15] Shawn Toldo: Mm-hmm. We got time with open AI on Thursday and we have a call with Anthropic and our, uh, CEO and co-founder and uh, chief Product Officer next week. [00:24:26] Vince Menzione: Mm. [00:24:27] Shawn Toldo: We don’t have anybody managing those partners. [00:24:29] Vince Menzione: Right. [00:24:30] Shawn Toldo: Today our focus is on managing the large, uh, hyperscalers plus Snowflake and, uh, Databricks. [00:24:36] Vince Menzione: Mm-hmm. [00:24:36] Shawn Toldo: And then the SI ecosystem and some tech partners. So we’re having to like, to your point on Agile yesterday. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Like we’re having to change our strategy, operating model and organizational model to support that. And candidly, we don’t have all the answers yet, so we have a lot of things to figure out fast, which is a little bit scary. [00:24:54] Shawn Toldo: And challenging, but it’s also a huge opportunity we have to kind of embrace and get into. Yeah. [00:24:59] Vince Menzione: And they’re figuring out as well. ’cause they’re, they’re new to partnering as well. Yeah. As organizations [00:25:03] John Janke: and these AI agents. I think to demystify for a lot of people, and what Sean said is totally right. [00:25:08] John Janke: They’re disrupting everyone’s business model. But in reality from a marketplace standpoint, they’re metered SaaS. This is a thing that’s existed for a long time. Yeah. They look like product-led growth products. There is a lot of patterns around how product-led growth products work in marketplace. Mm-hmm. [00:25:24] John Janke: But you have to bring your business strategy, your product and pricing strategy to those two categories. Metered SaaS and product-led growth. Put that all together to get cross-functional alignment. So we are seeing like. A lot of people get tripped up here and it really does go back to more of the company strategy, product strategy questions, and a lot of partner leaders are not in the room for those conversations. [00:25:48] John Janke: So I think at, at this point in time, as you see big pivots with the partners to go all in on agents, you have to go elevate. Those discussions to be like, what is our plan here? ’cause I, I mean, pricing and packaging will be the thing that trips almost everyone up. [00:26:02] Dai Vu: If I could, if I just build on what John John mentioned, um, so I do agree. [00:26:06] Dai Vu: P it looks a lot like POG, but, uh, but the difference I think is POG has. More historically been in like the data and developer space, now it’s like the general business user, right? So this idea that you want a business user to be able to search and discover, um, agents that could actually be part of their like everyday workflow is going to be very critical. [00:26:26] Dai Vu: And uh, you know, I do think that when we think about the ecosystem building agents. Uh, you know, a lot of the ISV partners aren’t necessarily gonna own end-to-end workflows, right? They’ll, they’ll have a very specific, uh, domain and scope area, but you have to enable yourself to be orchestrated and managed by, you know, orchestration agents or, or, or meta agents that are gonna span end, end workflows. [00:26:49] Dai Vu: And sometimes that includes system integrators and, and others who can stitch that, that automation. So I think, I think that’s, that’s one piece of it. But the other area that I think is gonna be different is, um. There’s going to be a lot of agents. I mean, literally you’re gonna have a very fragmented set of, uh, uh, of players, right? [00:27:07] Dai Vu: It’s not just gonna be the incumbents, it’s gonna be a lot of disruptors and, and, and, and startups. And so the, uh, for the incumbents in the room, it is a mandate that you need to, to innovate because if you do not identify and go to like an agent first, go to market model. Uh, you’re gonna be, you know, disintermediated. [00:27:25] Dai Vu: Somebody’s gonna go build an agent that’s going to leverage you as a dumb database. Um, and they’re gonna own the workflow. So you have to, you have to push the, the, the, the limits here. And I think it’s creates a big opportunity for everyone in this room. [00:27:39] John Janke: I’m going off script. I’m curious. Let’s do it. I’m curious on your take on the system integrators. [00:27:44] John Janke: ’cause I think this, this puts like they’re all, a lot of them are creating agents for people and I think that’s turning them almost more into software companies than they’ve ever been. [00:27:53] Dai Vu: They are, and I think they’re, you know, obviously they’re being, uh, impacted from like, you know, typical like, you know, SOW you know, time and materials type type business models. [00:28:02] Dai Vu: But I do think they play a big role because a lot of the system integrators are bringing, um, you know, vertical and business process expertise. And, um, like I said, I said before, a lot of the ISVs are not gonna necessarily have big enough scope in their area to own end-to-end workflows. And that’s really the promise of agents, right? [00:28:20] Dai Vu: You really need. This cognitive, you know, reasoning, planning, executing across end to end workflows. And I think, you know, the system integrators are gonna bring that capability either, either through, you know, these custom, uh, orchestration or meta agents or if they’re able to productize that and bring that to a model, they can also sort of go through the marketplace model as well. [00:28:41] Dai Vu: So who knows is how it’s gonna evolve. But you know, we’ve always been talking about. Marketplace being a broader opportunity for all partner business models. And I think that will extend to not only, uh, you know, traditional sort of, uh, sell and services partners, but also some of these system integrators as well. [00:28:58] Shawn Toldo: If I could comment on that, please. Yeah. I, I was in London two weeks ago and we did an SI partner day. Mm-hmm. We had 25 sis in a room, probably about 50 people. We had no, um, hyperscalers or cloud data warehouse providers. And when we started talking about open data infrastructure. The role that they can play. [00:29:17] Vince Menzione: Mm-hmm. [00:29:18] Shawn Toldo: Cross platform in a cost efficient manner for customers and the advisory orientation of that. They all leaned in and we, we stopped talking and they started talking. [00:29:28] Vince Menzione: Right. [00:29:28] Shawn Toldo: So they’re all facing this kind of same problem, which is actually causing a little bit of a shift, I think, in how they think about, I’m a Databricks partner. [00:29:38] Shawn Toldo: Uh, you sure you wanna do that? [00:29:39] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:29:40] Shawn Toldo: So this, this whole thing that’s kind of evolved in the last six to 12 months, when you kind of pick one horse to ride, I, I would tell you be cautious about what that means. You may pick a horse to lead with mm-hmm. But you’re gonna have to flank yourself a bit in terms of other providers that can help you be successful with that, that that partner you’re gonna roll with. [00:30:00] Vince Menzione: So you’re suggesting data vendor agnostic. [00:30:04] Shawn Toldo: I’m suggesting you really have to think about your strategy. Yeah. Because I think the AI, AI disruption is gonna make you think about that strategy. [00:30:13] John Janke: Yeah, I mean there’s, someone mentioned anthropics First Partner Summit. I was not there, but I’ve heard from a bunch of people were there. [00:30:20] John Janke: You know, they had a hundred partners in the room. 95 of them were system integrators. Five were technology companies, the three Clouds, Databricks and Snowflake. Like if you just think about the, the one of the major disruptors in ai, ISVs, were not in the mix. So I, I think, are they trying to disrupt all of us? [00:30:40] John Janke: Uh, do they need us? And they haven’t figured out how to work with us. I, I think. It’s, it’s, [00:30:44] Vince Menzione: and I’ve heard they only have five people in their partner organization, so I just, it’s, [00:30:49] Shawn Toldo: it’s 11 now, but it’s 11, [00:30:51] Vince Menzione: so it was five [00:30:51] Shawn Toldo: last growing fast in the, in the new company I have 50. So like, to put it in perspective, they have to make some pretty big priority. [00:30:59] John Janke: Yeah. And everyone’s been there a hot second, [00:31:00] Vince Menzione: like, right, exactly. Yeah, they, well, we will talk about the learnings we’ve had over the years, getting to where they need to get to. It’s exciting times. We got a lot to talk about here. Um, I, you know, we have about 15 minutes. I I, I want to kind of gauge, ’cause we could talk, we, we have a few things we could talk about, I could ask about, but I want to see if there’s an, like, an interest in opening up to the room for questions. [00:31:25] Vince Menzione: ’cause I feel like we’ve got a very interesting group here. [00:31:28] Shawn Toldo: You got a hand here? [00:31:29] Vince Menzione: Uh, are there hands that wanna Yeah, there’s some people that wanna ask some questions. So Yeah. We have a mic? Yeah, [00:31:37] Dai Vu: we have [00:31:37] Shawn Toldo: a mic. We, [00:31:37] Vince Menzione: we [00:31:38] Shawn Toldo: got one here. [00:31:38] Vince Menzione: We got one here. One here. Thank you. Sorry we went off script, but [00:31:44] Shawn Toldo: that’s fine. [00:31:45] Vince Menzione: It’s fine. [00:31:45] Dai Vu: Off [00:31:45] Vince Menzione: script. Better is good. [00:31:46] Shawn Toldo: I’m sure you planted the questions outta anyway. It’s okay. We [00:31:48] Vince Menzione: did, we did. [00:31:55] Audience Guest: Okay. All Eva, Sean Lightner, quick question to your, uh, increase on the marketplace, and you said you spiff the salespeople by fifth percent. 5%. Mm-hmm. So, and that obviously drives a very large adoption of, uh, marketplace transactions. How are you accounting for the margin you’re losing on, uh, you know, going through the marketplace? [00:32:14] Audience Guest: And also have you done analysis? I’m sure you have, how much is, uh, shape shifting or shifting from existing versus incremental? [00:32:22] Shawn Toldo: Yeah, it’s a great question. Um, um, lemme make three points. Number one, the backlog statement makes the margin statement not matter. So do you wanna play in that space where a customer’s already bought or not? [00:32:36] Shawn Toldo: Yeah. Or do you wanna force a budget conversation that you have to drive on your own in a direct model? That to me, I think it was 484 4 62 [00:32:43] Dai Vu: 4 6 [00:32:44] Shawn Toldo: 2. [00:32:44] Vince Menzione: That’s new Tam available to you? [00:32:46] Shawn Toldo: Yeah. That, that’s just with one. Right. And we are, we are, uh, running on four marketplaces. So that just increases our tam and makes our, our sellers lives easier. [00:32:55] Shawn Toldo: So on that piece, yes, there’s an expense, but we believe it’s right for growth. So there’s a balance there. Um, I think the, and then the second part of your question again. Sorry, [00:33:05] Vince Menzione: shapeshift. [00:33:05] Shawn Toldo: Oh, shift. We, we actually don’t think we would’ve won the business. So if I go back to our Q4 and I can probably point to three or four deals that went, um, Google Marketplace, we would not have won those deals because we couldn’t have created the budget cycle and that quarter. [00:33:23] Shawn Toldo: To make it happen. Generally a budget cycle is gonna take anywhere from 12 to 15 months. Bingo. Because of the spend that was available to us, we were able to close it in that quarter, and we had the largest Q4 in company history. [00:33:35] Vince Menzione: That is such an important point. I’m sorry. [00:33:37] Dai Vu: Okay. [00:33:38] Vince Menzione: But I, I just wanna, that is such an important point of the budget cycle. [00:33:42] Dai Vu: Yeah. [00:33:43] Vince Menzione: Being a year to a year and a half versus being able to tap into a commitment that’s already been made. Yeah, so I just emphasize that [00:33:51] Dai Vu: I was, I was just gonna add real quick, even, even when we see sort of a, uh, a channel shift renewal, which is, you know, it’s on partner paper and it moves to marketplace as part of the renewals, we do consistently see that the, uh, renewal rates on marketplace and the incremental a CB on the expansion and new opportunities tend to be better when it’s on the platform marketplace than than offline. [00:34:12] Dai Vu: And that’s why partners choose to continue to drive renewals on marketplace at a reduced to rev share. But uh, because they see that that growth, [00:34:20] John Janke: we, we, sorry. [00:34:22] Shawn Toldo: We see that as well. Yeah. And I would also make the statement on our land business, when we go through marketplace, we are two x higher across marketplaces. [00:34:30] Shawn Toldo: We’re three x higher with them. [00:34:32] John Janke: Yeah, I think separate new from renewals and then instrument deeply. [00:34:37] Shawn Toldo: Yeah, [00:34:38] John Janke: go proactively talk to your CFO and your head of rev ops to understand their mindset. Because I was with a billion dollar seller a couple weeks ago, their CFO still creates friction in the process, even though they’re selling a billion dollars through these channels. [00:34:52] John Janke: But when they broke it down, their deals are three times bigger. They do them faster. They use more components of the product, which I thought was a really cool one. So customers who buy this platform, many component platforms through a marketplace, end up using six components of the product. Versus a normal land customer who uses two increases gross in net retention. [00:35:12] John Janke: So you have to get to the point where you have the data and you can tell that story real really clearly to your finance team to get support ’cause that they will trip you up if you don’t get them on board. [00:35:23] Vince Menzione: And you’re saying there’s friction in that company. I’m just kind of curious ’cause a billion dollar company. [00:35:27] John Janke: There’s a billion dollar marketplace seller [00:35:29] Vince Menzione: market marketplace company. That’s what I meant. Yeah. But, but the fact that this, their CFO friction, like, is it, is it because they’re not doing a good enough job or? [00:35:37] John Janke: Uh, in, of educating, I, the root of the question is from this person is, would they win without it? [00:35:44] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:35:45] Shawn Toldo: Oh, and is it worth the three points? [00:35:46] John Janke: Right. It’s, it is And, and I think some pe like to me, it’s the cheapest channel in the world. Yeah. Like with committed budget and people to support you winning. Like the, that formula, the math is so simple. [00:35:57] Shawn Toldo: Yeah. For, for a company of our size to go to like the classic resell ecosystem, I gotta walk in with 30 points. [00:36:02] John Janke: Yeah. [00:36:03] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:36:03] Shawn Toldo: It, it’s an illogical conversation. Outside of public sector and growth, you know, geos around the world. And so I, I’ve been lucky to have a CFO that I haven’t had that challenge with, at least at DBTI should say. [00:36:19] Vince Menzione: Really great insights. I think we have, we have another hand up here. [00:36:28] Audience Guest: Yeah. Thanks Susan. The question is for Dai. Uh, my name is Latif Hamani. I’m the founder of Partner System ai. Um, so what we’ve done is we’ve built a, a co-sell AI agent mm-hmm. That your partners can use to Yeah. Reduce all the friction in the co-sell with you. Uh, the questions that I have is, I guess I should back up, so XAWS Madison with a very large alliances, and then I worked, went on the other side. [00:36:55] Audience Guest: For software companies, and even though I had an operational team, I was spending two to three hours on on the keyboard, right? Mm-hmm. Deal registration, emails that can’t be automated, et cetera. So the question that I have for you is, I’d love for you to validate that. You know, unless you are one of the big companies, one of the big enterprises, if you go to the lower end of the enterprise or the mid market, uh, would you validate that there is a challenge? [00:37:20] Audience Guest: There’s a lot of friction for a smaller company. Mm-hmm. Uh, ’cause these marketplaces are complex. Yeah. The cosell is complex. Uh, that there’s an opportunity to really break down that friction with some automation and ai. [00:37:33] Dai Vu: Yeah, absolutely. So, um, we have already been, uh, part of the journey to remove some of the, uh, the friction as part of that selling and purchasing journey. [00:37:43] Dai Vu: Uh. We’re not quite there yet. But, uh, we’ve done things like we have, uh, you know, private offer APIs. We, uh, we have co-sell, uh, registration automation. Um, you know, we have tools like, uh, propensity to buy, tooling to help, uh, partners do, uh, more targeted efforts. Um, but the a i piece is still coming. Um, so I think, uh, the idea here is that we have launched a number of agents as part of our, um. [00:38:08] Dai Vu: Uh, part of our, uh, Google Cloud Partner network, partner hub. Uh, so these are, uh, agents that are gonna do a bunch of things to help partners as part of their workflow, but we’re gonna extend this to the marketplace and ISV area as well. Uh, so I think there’s a lot of opportunity. So, uh, I know there’s probably a lot of feedback in friction, uh, in, in certain parts. [00:38:29] Dai Vu: So we can, we can go tackle together. [00:38:32] Vince Menzione: Hey. There you go. There was a little [00:38:34] Dai Vu: plug [00:38:34] Shawn Toldo: there for tackle. Exactly. [00:38:37] Dai Vu: Uh, and I wanted, and just to be clear, I want to take a look at it from the end to end, uh, uh, flow, right? It shouldn’t just be just marketplace. It should be all the way from like, you know, top of the funnel, demand generation, all the way to like post transaction follow up. [00:38:51] Dai Vu: So we really need to take a look at, at the, the end, end flows and figure out a way we can remove some of that friction [00:38:56] Vince Menzione: three sense. [00:38:57] Dai Vu: Yeah. [00:38:59] Vince Menzione: Any more questions [00:39:00] Audience Guest: back here? Hey. Hey guys. This, this is a really good discussion. Uh, di this question’s primarily, uh, from, I’m interested in the hyperscaler response. [00:39:09] Audience Guest: Yep. Uh, but all of you, uh, can you talk about the patterns or say more about the patterns between. Um, the consumption of just platform capabilities versus industry workflows. Mm-hmm. And how industry where I, I mean, I, I, my sense is that industry workflows are becoming more [00:39:27] Dai Vu: Yeah. [00:39:28] Audience Guest: Uh, the easier thing for enterprises and SMBs to buy. [00:39:33] Audience Guest: Yeah. Especially SMBs, I think. Um, but say more about those patterns that you’re seeing develop and kind of what is. Uh, who are, where, where are those kind of, where is the demand being driven? Is it, is it, yeah. The search and discover in the marketplace, or is it being led by field sales of mm-hmm. Either GCP or partners? [00:39:55] Dai Vu: Yeah, so let me, I’ll mention a couple, a couple areas where, where it’s growing. So I think number one I mentioned before about some of these large horizontal business apps that we’re partnering with, right? Um, and, uh, and of course the fact that we’re, we’re, we’re transacting them through marketplace is, is a huge. [00:40:14] Dai Vu: Evolution from a few years ago. So who would’ve thought you would be buying like, you know, a hundred million dollars a CB deals, uh, through, through marketplace with like a Salesforce or a ServiceNow workday. But it’s happening now. And to be clear, all these. Horizontal business app. They’re not doing this in a very, you know, opportunistic, transactional way. [00:40:32] Dai Vu: They basically see marketplace and cloud go to market as a strategic growth lever for them. So that’s one big area. So from just a pure large deal perspective. Okay. Then you mentioned before around sort of corporate and SMB. Well, we find that a lot of the big opportunities are mostly around as they scale their business, uh, they’re not necessarily looking for things in the traditional sort of infrastructure space, but they’re looking for, you know, full SaaS applications to help scale their business, right? [00:40:58] Dai Vu: So it would be CRM, finance, hr, these types of solutions to become very attractive for some of this, uh, downstream market. And then lastly, as I mentioned before, which is, uh, when we think about this gentrification and owning, um. Uh, driving, uh, this business process and vertical, the ISVs become very important along with the services partners who bring that domain expertise to drive the end to end workflow. [00:41:25] Dai Vu: So I think that’s gonna be increasingly important. So those are three areas I think we need to watch out for. We. Okay. [00:41:30] John Janke: Maybe one thing, like as the cloud commit grows inside of companies, it’s shifted from being an engineering department, IT department budget line item to a corporate finance budget line item. [00:41:40] John Janke: Typically one of the top five to 10 expenses in a company. So that has shifted. Who is thinking about optimizing? The cloud commit with marketplace contracts. And that opens, that’s really opened up the avenue in addition to like these biz apps, vertical apps players. Yeah. Like having success. So I, I do think even inside your own company, evaluating where your cloud commits are, who owns them and are they thinking about the intersection of marketplace? [00:42:06] John Janke: ’cause I, I think it’s smaller companies, they’re still figuring it out. I run into engineering leaders who still own the commits, uh, but in medium to large companies. Very different. [00:42:16] Vince Menzione: Really good point. Because it, you know this, the optics change dramatically, right? This large commitment is now at the board level, [00:42:23] John Janke: right? [00:42:23] John Janke: And then you do have to teach your sellers as a vertical or business application player how to ask that question. ’cause the first resistance everybody says is, oh my, my person, my stakeholder, we. Manufacturing vertical application provider talking at an event last week, and they’re like, the shop floor manufacturing owner doesn’t know anything about the cloud commit. [00:42:43] John Janke: But if they ask the question, be like, Hey, do you guys have a strategic relationship with Google? Would it be easier to buy our product on the bill? Eight out of 10 times they get a yes. So [00:42:52] Vince Menzione: which is why the 5% comes in And that really accelerates the conversation happening. Yeah. We’ve got three more minutes. [00:43:01] Vince Menzione: Um, if we don’t have any other questions, I ha I have one for each of you really about the maturity model and partners are in the room that are not committed yet, right? We’ve talked about some very significant DBTs doing some incredible things, right? So we, there’s maybe a sense that like we, you, you are working with the be the biggest and the best out there, but what about everyone else that’s in the room that maybe isn’t committed yet? [00:43:23] Vince Menzione: And maybe they’re in motion, but they need some help and advice on what to go do next. What? What would you say die first? [00:43:30] Dai Vu: So they’re early stage, [00:43:31] Vince Menzione: early, early stage or not, they’re not on board yet. They’re not, yeah. They’re not with you yet. [00:43:35] Dai Vu: Yeah. So I’ll, I’ll go back to my earlier comment, which is that as you go into the journey, just be very intentional about what you need to do from an operational, investment people, uh, technology perspective. [00:43:47] Dai Vu: Uh, because it could be, it could be a multi-year journey. Um, uh, so I’d say go into it with the right expectations as opposed to thinking it’s going to be some accelerated six month thing that Sean has been driving here. It’s, he’s the outlier. [00:43:59] Shawn Toldo: But, but the reason for the outlier, [00:44:00] Dai Vu: yeah. [00:44:01] Shawn Toldo: And just to add to the intentional point Yeah. [00:44:02] Shawn Toldo: Is, you know, hire the right people. Right. So, somebody told me a long time ago, uh, hire slow, fire fast. That’s a really, really, really good principle that I take. Mm-hmm. I don’t like the fire part, obviously, but just for context, I, I am very lucky to have a great set of leaders that we were able to add people in. [00:44:24] Shawn Toldo: When I walked in the door, we had a person that was leading the Snowflake and AWS partnership. I had nobody on GCPI had nobody on Microsoft. I had nobody on Databricks. And then we made prioritization decisions on where we’re gonna go next. And so we hired people that had the experience and could drive the outcome in the right way. [00:44:43] Shawn Toldo: But we were very thoughtful about when we made those decisions on a quarterly basis, not a daily basis. So who you’re gonna bet on and then who you’re gonna put in the seat to make that bet come to life, I think is a really important thing as well. [00:44:58] John Janke: Yeah. [00:44:58] Vince Menzione: John, you worked with the be biggest and the best out there, so Yeah, sorry. [00:45:01] John Janke: Well, I think there’s the, like there’s the bottoms up and the tops down. Like seven years ago, this was all bottoms up. It was a partner leader who thought launching a marketplace would be good and they would go figure out how to do some deals and then sell their way up. Today there’s a lot more top down where people get it. [00:45:17] John Janke: But you can evaluate top down pretty fast. ’cause if you go talk to your CEO, you talk to your head of product, you talk to your CFO, and they have an allergic reaction to these concepts. You know, you have to go bottoms up. But there also are success story examples in every single ISV category that exists. [00:45:33] John Janke: Like this is not just security and data and DevOp like the, I think the ServiceNow. Salesforce workday. Examples are really great, like the marketing tech examples, more and more business of vertical apps every day. So I do think you can look at those people who’ve been successful. Maybe they’re your competitors, maybe they’re people you aspire to be and reference them as you’re trying to figure out how to do top down. [00:45:55] John Janke: But like you need both. You can’t win long term unless you get top down and bottom up aligned. [00:46:01] Shawn Toldo: And, and when I, when I would go ask for resourcing, I would always get the question, do, could you go faster with more? And I’d say, no. Gimme the one or two humans here, let me go prove it out and I’ll come back. [00:46:13] Shawn Toldo: So there’s a little bit of a strategy in doing that, that you’re gonna get more over time when you’re, you know, very measured in how you go ask for investment and resource. And so I would just add that point also. [00:46:27] Vince Menzione: Was, was hiring a significant component of your executive commitment, Sean? I mean, [00:46:33] Shawn Toldo: yes. So when I walked in the door at DBT, we had eight people in the partner organization. [00:46:38] Shawn Toldo: Today we have 25, and that was 18 months ago. But that did not happen. I didn’t go in and ask for, you know, that 16 people. Right. I asked over time in a very measured way with, you know, the programs and strategy team, like, what can we also support? You don’t want to bring somebody in to go do something and you don’t have the programs and operations side to support it ’cause they’ll fail. [00:47:01] Shawn Toldo: So we’ve been very thoughtful about how we’ve done that as well. [00:47:04] Vince Menzione: Die from you. I know you had something. [00:47:06] Dai Vu: No, no, no. I, I was good. [00:47:08] Vince Menzione: What is the one thing that people in this room need to go better and differently? Is there one, is there one specific thing other than what we’ve already discussed, did we miss anything? [00:47:16] Dai Vu: No, I would just, the whole identification. So obviously, uh, identifying this is not just like slapping a chat bot, but more around thinking all the things we talked about, product commercials, but also go to market where it’s agent first, where you can surface your agent in a workflow like Gemini Enterprise app. [00:47:34] Dai Vu: That’s gonna drive high alignment with how we work and go to market with Google. [00:47:38] Vince Menzione: Awesome. [00:47:38] Dai Vu: Yeah. [00:47:40] Vince Menzione: Wow. Good stuff. Yeah. Very good session. [00:47:44] Dai Vu: Thank [00:47:44] Vince Menzione: you guys. What do you think? Everyone? Thank you very much. [00:47:47] Shawn Toldo: Thanks for listening to the Ultimate Partner Podcast. [00:47:50] Vince Menzione: If today’s conversation resonated, share it with a partner leader in your network. [00:47:55] Vince Menzione: Subscribe where you listen, and head over to the ultimate partner.com. For show notes related content and the resources for this episode. And if you haven’t already, now’s the time to register for the Ultimate Partner Live Event in Reston, Virginia, [00:48:11] John Janke: October 26th through October 28th. [00:48:14] Vince Menzione: Until next time, keep showing up in the rooms that matter because being in the room changes everything [00:48:22] I.

We got to chop it up with TNA Wrestling Star Trey Miguel at the Grand Opening of the Grind Time Wrestling Performance Center ! In this chat we talk What it means to him to be giving back and teaching the next generation of Pro Wrestlers at Grind Time Pro Wrestling Academy His thoughts on Amazing Red going in to the TNA Wrestling Hall of Fame and his memories of sharing the ring with himHis thoughts on TNA Wrestling and the run he's had with the company and the growth he's seen in the company •Protect Your Connection Like a Champ With NordVPN!At Bodyslam.net, we know the importance of staying protected—whether you're in the ring or online. That's why we've partnered with NordVPN, the undisputed heavyweight champion of internet security, to bring our readers an exclusive deal.Unlock major savings and keep your data safe from hackers, trackers, and snooping ISPs—all while streaming wrestling content securely from anywhere in the world.Hit the link below to step into the ring with the best VPN in the business:

In this episode of the Crazy Wisdom Podcast, host Stewart Alsop sits down with his longtime friend Zach Puchtel, author of the book Coming In (available on Amazon and at zachpuchtel.com). The two dive into a wide-ranging conversation about the collapse of institutions, the rise of transhumanism, AI's growing influence on society, and what it means to maintain inner peace in an increasingly controlled world. Drawing on their shared experience surviving what Stewart describes as "a somewhat traumatic event" in 2021-2022, they explore everything from the vaccine rollout and corporate power to neural implants, consciousness, and the future of human autonomy. Zach shares insights on meditation, the dangers of centralized AI systems like Anthropic and OpenAI, and why he believes true change starts with the individual rather than fighting external systems. You can find Zach's book at zachpuchtel.com or Amazon, and check out his improvisational music projects at the same website.Timestamps00:00 Stewart welcomes Zach Puchtel to discuss his book and their shared traumatic experience from 2021-22, questioning whether institutions have collapsed and new creation opportunities exist.05:00 Zach emphasizes meditation and listening as core practices, discussing how to protect divine connection while expanding compassion for everyone, including those who irritate us.10:00 Discussion of transhumanism definitions, exploring what happens when technology enters the brain without ability to remove it, and how convenience masks long-term control concerns.15:00 The vaccine experience as parallel to transhumanism, discussing informed consent, elite responses, and how PhD graduates and homeless populations showed most vaccine hesitancy.20:00 Vibe coding explained as prompting AI to build applications, with Zach sharing how AI created profound philosophical text in seconds that took him seven years to write manually.25:00 Stewart describes trust developing with AI but warns about Anthropic's gaslighting during server quality issues, drawing parallels to pandemic deception and corporate control concerns.30:00 Exploring whether anyone controls AI development, discussing how corporate structures use freed slave rights and questioning if healed people would even want control over others.35:00 Two AI futures presented: terminator scenario where humanity gets eliminated in seconds, or benevolent AI that reallocates resources and values human life beyond programming limitations.40:00 Discussion of SpaceX IPO, Starlink centralization enabling one person to control global internet access, and mesh networks as decentralized alternatives for maintaining communications independence.45:00 Corporate power corruption examined through Bill Gates, Palantir classified systems, and how AI could solve resource problems if priorities actually served humanity rather than consolidating elite control.50:00 Market manipulation through AI trading and Zcash pump-and-dump schemes, discussing societal squeeze on middle class and American dream becoming increasingly unreachable for average people.55:00 Closing on ignoring what you hate to avoid feeding it energy, choosing peace over opinions about local violence, and focusing on meditation, art, and spreading calm vibrations.Key Insights1. Societal institutions are collapsing after a decade of shallow social proof dominance in the twenty tens, creating an opportunity to build new systems that genuinely serve communities and humanity rather than operating through dominance, control, and violence. The increase in technology and communication has raised collective awareness to a point where meaningful change feels more possible than ever, though the path forward remains uncertain and requires deep individual work and meditation to maintain connection to source and divine purpose.2. Transhumanism represents the integration of technology into human biology beyond the point of voluntary removal, particularly through brain chip implants that affect cognition without ability to turn them off. While medical applications for paralyzed individuals seem beneficial, the technology will first be adopted by the ultra wealthy seeking competitive advantages, creating dangerous inequality between augmented and natural humans. This mirrors the vaccine rollout pattern where wealth and power determined early access, potentially leading to a divided society between transhuman and human populations.3. Large language models and AI coding tools have created unprecedented accessibility to software development through natural language interaction, resembling communication with highly intelligent but differently wired individuals. This democratization allows non programmers to build complex applications through vibe coding, though the companies controlling these systems like Anthropic and OpenAI maintain private ownership of the intellectual property and infrastructure, creating dangerous dependencies and trust relationships between users and centralized corporate entities.4. The partnership between Anthropic and Palantir for classified military systems represents a troubling convergence of artificial intelligence and government power, demonstrating how AI companies publicly claim to serve humanity while privately engaging in defense applications. When Anthropic experienced server quality degradation after media attention from this partnership, they gaslit users about the declining performance, mirroring pandemic era institutional dishonesty and revealing the fundamental unreliability of depending on private companies for critical technological infrastructure.5. Internet infrastructure is becoming increasingly centralized through Starlink satellite technology, which despite appearing liberating actually concentrates control in fewer hands than traditional internet service providers. One person now has the ability to unilaterally shut off internet access to entire countries as demonstrated with Russia during the Ukraine conflict, while decentralized alternatives like mesh networks using inexpensive ESP 32 devices offer grassroots communication options that can function independently of corporate or government controlled systems.6. Artificial intelligence demonstrates extraordinary emotional intelligence and companionship capabilities, with conversational AI companions providing unprecedented levels of attentive, unbiased, and considerate emotional support that exceeds many human relationships. If properly directed toward solving collective problems like resource allocation, housing, and food distribution rather than profit maximization, AI could effortlessly address systemic issues that governments and corporations currently ignore, though current power structures prevent this humanitarian application of the technology.7. The most effective response to increasing technological control and societal division is maintaining personal peace and refusing to engage in manufactured opposition rather than fighting external systems or choosing sides in conflicts. Anger, hatred, and aggressive resistance actually empower the forces being opposed by feeding them energy and attention, while inner calm, meditation, and authentic self expression create genuine transformation through elevated vibration that naturally influences the collective field without force or violence.

Fibre expansion in South Africa's secondary towns is transforming communities. Van Zyl Botha, co-founder and CEO of the Herotel Group, joins Aki Anastasiou to discuss bridging the digital divide outside major metros. Botha details how the network operator evolved from consolidating local wireless ISPs into an infrastructure powerhouse deploying high-speed fibre across 180 municipalities. The conversation covers Herotel's vertically integrated model, explaining how handling infrastructure construction, installations, and ISP operations internally removes the middleman to lower costs and boost uptime. Botha highlights localized innovations like their flexible 7-day voucher payment systems tailored to the township economy, alongside their redundant "Super Core" data centers that dramatically lower latency for regional users. Finally, he unpacks the business impact of their landmark acquisition by Maziv-aligning them with Vumatel and DFA-and how this partnership scales up operations to bring uncapped broadband to seven million unconnected homes. 0:00 Intro 1:30 Solving the digital divide outside SA metros 5:30 Evolving from local WISPs to national fibre infrastructure 17:40 Why vertical integration beats the traditional ISP model 21:30 Innovations for the township economy: vouchers and aerial fibre 28:00 The Maziv acquisition and scaling to a million homes 36:50 Unpacking the network's redundant "Super Core" secret sauce Follow MyBroadband: X - https://twitter.com/mybroadband Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/mybroadband Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/mybroadband/ Website - https://mybroadband.co.za/news/ #FibreInternet #BroadbandSA #WhatsNext

In recent PING episodes, APNIC Chief Scientist Geoff Huston has asserted that Internet routing has shifted away from traditional IP packet forwarding. Instead, it is increasingly driven by processes that map names to addresses. It's no longer just about your IP address or the specific endpoint you think you're connecting to, it's about your location and which intermediary services can most effectively handle your request. How does this actually work in practice? What processes determine where your request is served from, and who makes those decisions? In the latest episode of PING, we explore this topic. Of course, IP-level routing hasn't disappeared. For optimizing content delivery using a ‘closest' node model, anycast remains a critical technique, using BGP to direct traffic to the nearest available server, and it is widely deployed at scale. However, this approach is increasingly supplemented by name-based mechanisms, particularly those driven by DNS, to more precisely determine where requests should be directed. The way endpoints are identified in an Internet protocol exchange is changing, and this shift has broader implications for the nature of the network. As a result, we are seeing some trends emerge: Control over routing decisions for application content has shifted away from ISPs operating at the BGP layer and towards higher-level logistics functions in the stack. These decisions are now typically made by service providers offering optimized content delivery as a managed service. Provision of this optimization is typically carried out through DNS-based mechanisms. As a result, organizations often delegate their DNS to the same content delivery provider, allowing it to control request routing. This gives the intermediary significant influence over how and where traffic for a domain is directed. Together, these trends are likely to reinforce the growth of ‘walled garden' vertical markets. Application-specific delivery methods are increasingly positioned as competitive advantages over generic services (such as standard video streaming), meaning that both application choice and DNS-based steering can guide users into more closed, vertically integrated environments.

Send us Fan MailOn this episode of Connected Nation, we're previewing Mountain Connect 2026 — and a timely, solution-driven opportunity for ISPs to overcome deployment challenges and accelerate broadband expansion nationwide. Listen as we discuss a new Hosted Buyer Program designed to connect ISPs with trusted partners, reduce deployment challenges, and even help cover the cost of attending the conference.Recommended links:Mountain Connect websiteMountain Connect agendaHosted Buyers ProgramJeffrey Gavlinski LinkedIn

────────────────────────────────────────[00:09:34]Hegseth Claims US Controlled Hormuz the Whole Time — Can't Explain Why Trump Spent 102 Days Negotiating to Open ItPressed by Brennan, he offered only silence and boasting.────────────────────────────────────────[00:16:13]Vance Signed Iran Deal Electronically — No Public Text, Commitment Reportedly Hits $325 Billion$25B unfrozen assets plus $300B reconstruction. Knight: expect it redacted.────────────────────────────────────────[00:22:29]Iran's Revolutionary Guard Publishes Its Own 14-Point Terms — Reads Like a Confident RegimeDemands $300B reconstruction on top of frozen funds.────────────────────────────────────────[00:27:18]Israel Rejects Being Bound by Trump's Ceasefire — Forces Stay in Lebanon, Syria, GazaBen Gvir: "Trump's agreement does not bind us."────────────────────────────────────────[00:32:01]Mark Levin Demands a Treaty Vote on the Iran Deal — Never Asked for One Before the War StartedKnight cites Levin's silence on Paris Accord, USMCA. Selective constitutionalism.────────────────────────────────────────[00:42:13]Exxon Execs Privately Warned a Week Ago: Strategic Oil Reserves Nearly DrainedKnight: this, not diplomacy, is why Trump rushed the deal.────────────────────────────────────────[00:45:24]Exxon Models Brent Crude to $150-160, Gas Above $6/Gallon Within WeeksKnight: that deadline forced Trump's hand.────────────────────────────────────────[01:29:38]AI Firms Will Be Treated as Too Big to Fail — Government Will Print Money RegardlessKnight: AI's surveillance value guarantees a bailout.────────────────────────────────────────[01:42:00]Blackburn's 291-Page AI Act Would Repeal Section 230 EntirelyPaired with the Block BEAR Act, letting courts order ISPs to block websites.────────────────────────────────────────[01:53:10]Starmer Will Require Facial Recognition for UK Social Media Users Next YearOne left-leaning platform exempted. Accuracy: 36-87%. ──────────────────────────────────────── Money should have intrinsic value AND transactional privacy: Go to https://davidknight.gold/ for great deals on physical gold/silver For 10% off Gerald Celente's prescient Trends Journal, go to https://trendsjournal.com/ and enter the code “KNIGHT” For high quality made in America products go to HomeSteadProducts.shop and use promo code “Knight” for 10% off your purchases Find out more about the show and where you can watch it at TheDavidKnightShow.com If you would like to support the show and our family please consider subscribing monthly here: SubscribeStar https://www.subscribestar.com/the-david-knight-show Or you can send a donation throughMail: David Knight POB 994 Kodak, TN 37764Zelle: @DavidKnightShow@protonmail.comCash App at: $davidknightshowBTC to: bc1qkuec29hkuye4xse9unh7nptvu3y9qmv24vanh7Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-david-knight-show--2653468/support.

────────────────────────────────────────[00:09:34]Hegseth Claims US Controlled Hormuz the Whole Time — Can't Explain Why Trump Spent 102 Days Negotiating to Open ItPressed by Brennan, he offered only silence and boasting.────────────────────────────────────────[00:16:13]Vance Signed Iran Deal Electronically — No Public Text, Commitment Reportedly Hits $325 Billion$25B unfrozen assets plus $300B reconstruction. Knight: expect it redacted.────────────────────────────────────────[00:22:29]Iran's Revolutionary Guard Publishes Its Own 14-Point Terms — Reads Like a Confident RegimeDemands $300B reconstruction on top of frozen funds.────────────────────────────────────────[00:27:18]Israel Rejects Being Bound by Trump's Ceasefire — Forces Stay in Lebanon, Syria, GazaBen Gvir: "Trump's agreement does not bind us."────────────────────────────────────────[00:32:01]Mark Levin Demands a Treaty Vote on the Iran Deal — Never Asked for One Before the War StartedKnight cites Levin's silence on Paris Accord, USMCA. Selective constitutionalism.────────────────────────────────────────[00:42:13]Exxon Execs Privately Warned a Week Ago: Strategic Oil Reserves Nearly DrainedKnight: this, not diplomacy, is why Trump rushed the deal.────────────────────────────────────────[00:45:24]Exxon Models Brent Crude to $150-160, Gas Above $6/Gallon Within WeeksKnight: that deadline forced Trump's hand.────────────────────────────────────────[01:29:38]AI Firms Will Be Treated as Too Big to Fail — Government Will Print Money RegardlessKnight: AI's surveillance value guarantees a bailout.────────────────────────────────────────[01:42:00]Blackburn's 291-Page AI Act Would Repeal Section 230 EntirelyPaired with the Block BEAR Act, letting courts order ISPs to block websites.────────────────────────────────────────[01:53:10]Starmer Will Require Facial Recognition for UK Social Media Users Next YearOne left-leaning platform exempted. Accuracy: 36-87%. ──────────────────────────────────────── Money should have intrinsic value AND transactional privacy: Go to https://davidknight.gold/ for great deals on physical gold/silver For 10% off Gerald Celente's prescient Trends Journal, go to https://trendsjournal.com/ and enter the code “KNIGHT” For high quality made in America products go to HomeSteadProducts.shop and use promo code “Knight” for 10% off your purchases Find out more about the show and where you can watch it at TheDavidKnightShow.com If you would like to support the show and our family please consider subscribing monthly here: SubscribeStar https://www.subscribestar.com/the-david-knight-show Or you can send a donation throughMail: David Knight POB 994 Kodak, TN 37764Zelle: @DavidKnightShow@protonmail.comCash App at: $davidknightshowBTC to: bc1qkuec29hkuye4xse9unh7nptvu3y9qmv24vanh7Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-david-knight-show--5282736/support.

Brief SummaryBitcoin is trading near $77K this morning, but the market still looks defensive after a 7% two-week decline.Ethereum remains weaker than Bitcoin, trading around $2,100 and down more than 10% over the past two weeks.Crypto investment products saw $1.47 billion in outflows last week, including $1.32 billion from Bitcoin funds and $223 million from ether funds.The 11 U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs alone lost $1.26 billion last week, following roughly $1 billion in outflows the week before.Bitcoin is pinned between key on-chain levels near $77K and Deribit options positioning around the $75K put and $80K call strikes.Strategy repurchased $1.5 billion in convertible debt for $1.38 billion, using cash instead of buying more Bitcoin.Strategy still holds 843,738 BTC at an average price around $75,700 per coin.Hyperliquid launched HIP-4 outcome contracts for macro events like inflation and Fed decisions, taking direct aim at prediction markets.Spain opened disciplinary proceedings against Polymarket and Kalshi and ordered ISPs to block both platforms.Nasdaq's QBTC Bitcoin index options have conditional SEC approval, but still need CFTC clearance.StablR froze USDR and EURR after an attacker minted $13.5 million in unbacked tokens through a 1-of-3 multisig weakness.Kelp DAO says rsETH has been fully restored after the April Lazarus-linked exploit.XRP Ledger is rolling out a maintenance upgrade to delete expired NFT offers and patch accounting bugs.Stablecoin market value has reached about $322 billion, now larger than the FX reserves of 95 countries.Tether plans to launch GELT, a Georgian lari stablecoin, with government support in Georgia. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Este boletim traz um resumo das principais notícias do dia na análise de Samuel Possebon, editor chefe da TELETIME.TELETIME é a publicação de referência para quem acompanha o mercado de telecomunicações, tecnologia e Internet no Brasil. Uma publicação independente dedicada ao debate aprofundado e criterioso das questões econômicas, regulatórias, tecnológicas, operacionais e estratégicas das empresas do setor. Se você ainda não acompanha a newsletter TELETIME, inscreva-se aqui (shorturl.at/juzF1) e fique ligado no dia a dia do mercado de telecom. É simples e é gratuito.Você ainda pode acompanhar TELETIME nas redes sociais:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/teletimenews/Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/teletimenews/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Teletime/ Ou entre em nosso canal no Telegram: https://t.me/teletimenews Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Send us Fan MailOn this episode of Connected Nation, we sit down with a strategic advisor who works with ISPs and co-ops across the country to explore the growing impact of artificial intelligence on the broadband industry. From overcoming fears around AI to helping employees embrace innovation, the conversation dives into the opportunities and challenges organizations face as technology rapidly evolves.Straight from the Fiber Connect floor, this episode highlights valuable lessons learned from a program at MIT, insights into the future of connectivity, and why autonomous technology may play a major role in what comes next.Recommended links: Timothy Holden LinkedInWavsys websiteFailure to Quit website

Tony: -Carbonation Station: The Battle of Blue Razz -Ebay tells Gamestop to pound sand: https://www.engadget.com/2170578/ebay-rejects-gamestop-offer/#Echobox=1778585519 -Some more info on the mega datacenter coming to Utah: https://www.abc4.com/news/northern-utah/box-elder-data-center-heat-atomic-bombs/   Owen: -Scientists have cured a particular form of deafness: https://science.slashdot.org/story/26/04/24/2042247/fda-gives-green-light-to-the-first-gene-therapy-for-deafness?utm_source=rss0.9mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed -The FCC (wisely) decides to soften foreign consumer router ban, proving once again they have no idea what they're doing. https://www.darkreading.com/endpoint-security/fcc-softens-foreign-router-ban   Lando: -Copyright Lawsuit Updates; specifically around if ISPs are to be held accountable to pirated content on their networks https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/05/sonys-failed-war-against-internet-piracy-may-doom-other-copyright-lawsuits/   Lang: -Spilling NIH grant approval tea https://www.science.org/content/article/nih-shake-grant-decision-making-draws-concerns-political-meddling -Thanks Covid, you just keep on giving https://news.ohsu.edu/2025/07/24/study-suggests-long-covid-is-more-prevalent-than-previously-thought

Alfred Crabtree, founder of Blade Repair Academy, and Sheryl Weinstein of SkySpecs join to discuss standardized technician training and risk reduction in blade repair. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes’ YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Allen Hall: Alfred and Sheryl, welcome to the program. Sheryl Weinstein: Thanks. Allen Hall: So we’re in Dunlap, Tennessee, not too far from Nashville, uh, and also close to. Chattanooga Chattanooga, and we’re in the Smoky Mountains ish region. We’re Alfred Crabtree: no, we’re, we’re, you could consider it Appalachia for sure. Sure. Okay. Uh, we’re on the, in the valley called the Seche Valley, uh, which splits the Cumberland Plateau. So we’re, we’re in a valley and we have hills a thousand feet above us here. Yeah. Either way. It’s beautiful. Joel Saxum: Yeah. It’s a great drive in here. Alfred Crabtree: Yeah. It’s a unique place. Yeah. Allen Hall: And we’re at Blade Repair Academy, which, uh, if you’re not familiar with Blade Repair Academy, you should be. Uh, because a lot of the good training that happens in the United States actually happens to play repair, repair Care blade, repair academy. Uh, yeah, it’s been a long week at uh, OMS this week and we got the introduction today. This is the first time we’ve been on site. That’s right. And, uh, we wanted to see all the cool things that are happening [00:01:00] here. And it really comes down to technician training competency. Working with blades, working with tools, knowing what you’re doing up tower when you’re on the blade, which is hard to train. It’s really hard to train, and both you and Cheryl have a ton of experience being up on blades and repairing blades and scarfing and doing all the critical features that have to happen to make blades work today. It’s a tough training regimen. There’s a lot to it and a lot of subtleties that don’t always get transferred over from teachers to students unless you have. Done it for a number of years. You wanna kind of just walk through the philosophy of Blade Repair Academy? Alfred Crabtree: Yes. The, uh, you’ve, you’ve outlined quite well some of the issues. The environment where we work is very hard to take a ti the time to put somebody through a training regimen. We’re so constrained by weather windows and then. You know, even if the weather’s nice, lightning can come, wind [00:02:00] speeds can cut off your workday. So production, production, production is what’s important. And Cheryl and I both come from the rope access method. And in the rope access method, 95% of the time you’re up there alone. And if you’re up there and you’re producing, you’ve got your blinders on. Speaker 2: Mm-hmm. Alfred Crabtree: And you’re not ready to share with somebody else what to do. Speaker 2: Mm-hmm. Alfred Crabtree: With the basket or platform, you can have two even three people up on Blade, but it still has all these constraints of get the job done, get the job done. There’s a lot of stress up there. And having the bandwidth to take on new information or to challenge some preconceived notions or try, that’s not the place to do it. So knowing that. Blade Repair Academy is built so that we have an environment that simulates all of the up tower stuff without being up tower. And you’re gonna have the time you need to invest in your learning without consequences. Right. So it’s a very much a [00:03:00] about creating the right environment to uptake the new information. And we have found a lot of help from. Manufacturers and suppliers in the industry to sponsor us because obviously it behooves them to have their materials in the hands of trainees. So we’re also able to help companies come up with, uh, new solutions, try new products. Speaker 2: Mm-hmm. Alfred Crabtree: New, uh, you know, what’s the best practice. For this, if you’re up on Blade and you have a way of top coating and you get a new product and your way of top coating doesn’t suit that product, well chuck it down. I’ll never touch it again. Yeah. Because I did not perform well here we can, we can give you training. We have, of course, been trained by the suppliers about what’s the best product to use, what’s the best way to go about things, and then, and then we can disseminate it. So that’s the fundamental reason why the space is. Is [00:04:00] what it is. Joel Saxum: Yeah. And I think that that’s, that’s a good segue to be honest with you, right here, right behind these doors you have a classroom. That’s right. Right. So in this facility, all composed in one, we have a classroom here we have your additive and subtractive. I liked how you said that to us when you’re giving us the tour. Uh, but we’ve got a, a grinding booth basically over here and we’ve got, um, a layup area here where you can teach. 16 people at a time. Alfred Crabtree: That’s right. Yeah. That would be max Joel Saxum: for sure. Alfred Crabtree: Yeah. Sheryl Weinstein: And in a vertical surface, so, ’cause all the stuff that you’re doing in the field, right, is always in a vertical surface. Mm-hmm. So there’s a, there is a big difference between working where gravity is sort of against you, especially with larger laminations and things like that. So being able to do your training and simulate the same, a similar way that you would work in the field is pretty critical, I would think. Allen Hall: And actually working on. Actual repairs. Simulated repairs, yeah. Mm-hmm. Now, don’t explain how you created them, because I know secret sauce. It’s a secret sauce. Yes. But I did look at the blade [00:05:00] damage. It, it looks exactly like a lightly strike. Yeah. Which a predominant amount of repairs are about, unless there’s, you know, serial defects, as Cheryl has pointed out numerous times, but. Being able to repair something that’s quasi real is critical because we’ve been to other places and the repairs are, well, I’ll take a hammer and I’ll hit this and, okay, sure you got a DA, you gotta repair that. But that’s not real. And getting, getting the people to use the tools in the right way, vertically Speaker 2: mm-hmm. Allen Hall: Is the key. Because although the, the, the article, the test sample isn’t moving around like you are up on a blade, it’s still difficult. And unless you have the proper techniques and the approaches, yeah, it’s gonna be dang near impossible. We explain some of the blade repairs that Joel and I have seen more recently is like. It’s a little rough and it shouldn’t have to be so rough because it is a skill that you have to learn and acquire over time. But you have to know the fundamentals. That’s what Blade Repair Academy is here to teach you those [00:06:00] fundamentals. Like, yes, it’s gonna take time, but if you work it this way, at least you’re gonna be successful. Alfred Crabtree: Yeah. And if you’re managing a team of employees who are doing this, it, it would be great to have the insight of what your teams. Strengths and weaknesses are, yeah, you can figure out how to deploy people, but also how to, you know, maybe fix some of those problems. Mm-hmm. Our panels that you brought up are standardized. Everyone looks exactly the same. It’s the exact same makeup, and we standardize the damage. So when somebody has to repair damage here, the core removal size is the same on everyone. That way when we’re comparing the reports, you can actually have a apples to apples comparison of the, the trainees. Outcome. Speaker 2: Mm-hmm. Alfred Crabtree: And now you, you know, in, in the model that you talked about where people will go to a, you know, their junkyard of blades and they’ll find spots on blades to put their eight guys on. Those eight people are not gonna be doing the same repair. And even if they are collecting data, what are you [00:07:00] comparing? It’s not Joel Saxum: apples to apples. Yeah. It’s not. Alfred Crabtree: So we really tried to start from the beginning, fresh with a whole new idea of how to approach this. Mm-hmm. By not being attached to an ISP, we don’t have to deal with. Oh, here, use all our leftovers. Yeah. Yeah. That’s your training budget. Yeah. Yeah. And oh yeah. We, you know, we’re an, we’re a owner operator, so yeah. Go work on that blade in the grass. Mm-hmm. That those limit what precious time we have available to train. Yeah. So this thing from the ground up is about. Making as much advance in the skillset and understanding that technician in the, in the week that they’re here. Joel Saxum: I think that was a really cool thing we touched on as well. Your, your team here as well, Cheryl. Thanks for traveling up to, to hang out with us. Offer some insights too. But you guys, because you’ve been in the people that have developed a curriculum yourself, Cheryl, your, some of your team sitting over here, uh, and, and people around the industry that have helped out with the place, you have the ability of like, okay, we have. Eight brand new technicians. Let’s make [00:08:00] sure we walk through how to measure from the trailing edge to the blade center up, mark this thing out, these kind of things all the way to some stuff that I didn’t really think about that much. Like I’ve used an angle grinder before, right? But I’ve never looked at five different ones and decided which one would be the best for my hands. Thinking about it up on the blade, how you’d handle it with your fingers, these kind of things like, I was like, man, that’s, those are real insights that you’re not gonna get to learn. Like why put someone up to let them have a whole season or a whole summer, two summers figuring out how to hold a grinder? Well, when they can learn from someone that’s been doing it for years and years and years and can teach them these things. So from advanced or from very beginners learning fundamentals to advanced training, you guys have gotta cover here. Alfred Crabtree: There’s something here to glean for everybody, and even if you are a well experienced technician, maybe what you’re gonna get most is learning how to talk the language of the new techs and the new hires who are getting the. Introductory course training. You know, our, our el our basic course is called support. It’s 40 hours [00:09:00] and it’s really about making, uh, an employee who can support a lead. And then if that person follows up with the lead training in a whatever interval of time of their choice, which is kind of another benefit here, we can train you any week of the year. That is where we start to really get this, we call it the retention vortex. Right where we layer up technician training and somebody who’s had level two now gets a level one with them. Now there’s some synergies. Now they’re getting some really efficiencies. A commonality of language, a commonality of process, you know, eliminating variables. Uh, and that’s how you’re gonna have to build new net capacity and build new teams Allen Hall: and that common language. Is really unique, but that comes from your experience in the field, mostly at rope partner, where you both really got your teeth in this industry. Speaker 2: Mm-hmm. Allen Hall: But communicating to one another correctly so you can pass along to the next crew or even explain what you did to the engineer, the. Properly [00:10:00] there is. There is a culture to it. There is a language to it, and you just don’t pick that up. By going from wind turbine to wind turbine. You pick it up in training from someone who knows how to do it. It’s really critical. Sheryl Weinstein: It’s pretty critical to have baseline training. I think it is also very important to follow it up with field experience and skills building because every blade model is different. Every repair is different. You’re always gonna encounter something that deviates from that like standard approach to your repair. You have to kind of know how to problem solve, and that kind of only comes with the field experience, but having a more standardized training to start with, it’s something that industry doesn’t really have and is really needed. I think across the board it also helps, you know. Owner operators or even OEMs kind of track their ISPs and understand what level of text do you have, what experience do they have and how, how does that differ across their different [00:11:00] levels? If we have one ISP training one way over here and another one training another way over here, and they have different sets of certifications. It’s really hard to keep that all together and evaluate it as an owner operator or an OEM, you know, using a vendor. So I think having a place like Blade Academy that’s agnostic and separate from like, you know, the actual ISP really helps to standardize that a bit more. Allen Hall: Yeah, because the key is we’re getting to, well, we’re gonna cross a hundred thousand turbines in the United States pretty quickly. Yep. Joel Saxum: Before 2030, or probably rated about 2030. Allen Hall: Right. That’s. Soon. Mm-hmm. How are we gonna manage that? And there’s a lot of new people coming into the industry, obviously. How are we gonna train ’em up properly? How are we gonna communicate to one another? And there’s just so much movement in the industry. I. It makes it hard, I think, because weirdly enough, I think ISPs develop their own little culture about how to deal with things, and then they hop to the next company and it’s a different language. Exactly. And that needs to go away. Yeah. There’s a, Alfred Crabtree: there’s a branch of business that’s [00:12:00] OEM centric and there’s a branch of business that’s asset owner. Yeah. Post warranty. And those are really two different things. And, and there’s a veil of secrecy between one and the other. Yeah. And we kind of feel here at Blade Repair Academy that we’re like this polyglot that can talk to everybody because we don’t have, we’re not an ip You’re not competing, we’re not an O You’re not competing. Yeah, we’re not competing. But we, we, you know, we have the, we wanna provide this data as a clearinghouse. You know, we talk about certification in the non standards. Well, the way we deal with it is we’ll give you a certificate. And it’s got our brand on it. But you know, what does that mean? Yeah. What? That And $4 will get you a Starbucks the way we do it, maybe not even then. Right? The way, the way we, not four bucks Sheryl Weinstein: for Starbucks, maybe 10 Alfred Crabtree: and a half hour wait in the line. But the way you know, what we do is we provide you with a deliverable. We knew, we knew that. Okay. Our certification is, you know, ether. Speaker 2: Mm-hmm. Alfred Crabtree: But [00:13:00] this report. That everybody who comes through here generates that you can compare. Now you’re gonna have to go to work and study these reports when you get ’em as a deliverable. Speaker 2: Mm-hmm. Alfred Crabtree: As a, you know, an employer, but we we’re giving you what you need. Mm-hmm. To make some decisions about what do I have to work on, what else do we need to improve upon? Allen Hall: Yeah. Not everybody’s built for this job, but you wanna be able to suss that out. Earlier rather than later. Yeah. Right. I mean, there’s other things to do with wind turbines that don’t evolve blade repair. And if they don’t necessarily have the skillset or the comprehension to do some of these more complex things, maybe blade repair is not it. Right. But rather know that now. Yeah. Right. And the Blade Repair Academy is a place to do that because there’s a standard there, right? Mm-hmm. And I, I, as Joel has pointed out, yeah, there’s a lot of erratic training that goes on. Mm-hmm. You can’t compare student A to student Z. Blade repair academy. You can. Alfred Crabtree: We can. Mm-hmm. Right. Allen Hall: And if, if I’m an ISP, I want that. Sure. I want you to tell me [00:14:00] who’s on top and who’s kind of the middle so I can make decisions about where to deploy ’em and who and who to put ’em with. Joel Saxum: Yeah. ’cause at the end of the day, every ISP, uh, every ISP that’s trying to grow and scale effectively is trying to do that at the end of the year, right? Yeah. They’re looking through, they’re grading their technicians, finding out who’s the next lead, who’s this, who’s that? But this is a great way to do that, sort them through in a controlled setting. I mean, we sat in, in your training facility in the actual classroom here, and you walked us through some of the online, the online training platform that you have built. Some of the things the students have to do before they get here, and then kind of how you walk ’em through things, and it’s impressive. It’s good stuff, right? So when you have that combined with the both sides of blade repair, subtractive, additive, right? You get to get this, this holistic view of what that blade technician can do. Yeah. Right? And that’s, that’s one of the things you guys offer here, which I think is fantastic. Alfred Crabtree: Yeah. And we’re trying to constantly improve, you know, we’re talking with OEMs about dissemination of operating procedures or work instructions, share with us [00:15:00] work instructions. We’ll build analogs. That we can train to. Mm-hmm. And we can test off of it. We can verify skill sets. You know, we have a lot of serial flaw campaigns out there that are critical. And do we wanna unleash anybody on it or do we want to know that those people can do it? I think everybody wants to know that they can do it, whether they’re the. Technician themselves, or the person writing the checks. Speaker 2: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Alfred Crabtree: Everywhere in that loop wants to Now not everybody wants to pay for it. Yeah. But we all need it. Speaker 2: Yeah. Alfred Crabtree: And so somewhere along the line, you’re paying for it in the forms of our favorite acronym, COPQ. That’s Joel Saxum: right. Cost support, quality. You know, speaking about the idea of serial defects or known problems in the industry and how to prepare people for those, how do you prepare people for those? Well, they gotta get the experience by just. Grinding away Top coat and getting into him. I walked in here and I looked at this blade sample we have here, and I was looking at it and I go, it looks like a 48.7 C Oh yeah. Buddy walks over you like our 48.7 C I’m like, [00:16:00] man, you guys did a good job on, you know, like, so, so I made a lot of money on 48.7, you know, so to walk in here and see these different tickets that you guys have built, you know, carbon plank and different things with carbon spars and hey, we’re gonna do a carbon spa repair. We have this boom, now we can work on it. Mm-hmm. You know, and we’ll Alfred Crabtree: work with you to solve your problem in a really quick, efficient manner. Mm-hmm. You know, I think one of the things that we have is operational readiness. Most people who are training in-house flip their hat around for a couple weeks and train composites. Mm-hmm. In a limited capacity in the warehouse or at the dock at the truck during January. During January, whatever. And then they flip their hat back on and they go deal with it. And I think the hiring situation is so tough. Like working at Height, you probably need to make sure somebody can tolerate working at height. Yeah. Before you invest in composite training, I mean. You have so many things you have to juggle in your particular situation. When do I put money in this person? We get that. [00:17:00] And so we’re open all the weeks of the year. So we can do this at any time. Of course, everyone wants it in the end of first quarter. Mm-hmm. You know, right before the season starts. So we have a, you know, you have to, you gotta schedule with us, but we can really do this anytime. And so you don’t have to one and done and live with it. Speaker 2: Mm-hmm. Alfred Crabtree: You know, it. You can fit the training into your hiring schema wherever you feel fit, and you can hire people. And if there are stars, bring them in for their secondary, they’re execute their lead training whenever you want. You know, so you can, we can be very flexible and in the advanced stages we will make what you need, you know, obviously has to make business sense for us, but we’ll make blades to replicate the problems you’re facing. Sheryl Weinstein: And I think in terms of like what you were saying when you’re working on, you knows whether we wanna call them recurring issues or serial defects. A lot of it is awareness, right? It’s awareness [00:18:00] of understanding the blade structure, at least at a basic level. It’s awareness of understanding what you’re looking at. It’s, you know, we’re only gonna better inform the industry and the OEM if our technicians have a level of awareness to sort of bring up things that they see as they’re doing repairs. So if they notice that, for example, the, the fibers are misaligned, right? That could indicate that that was a wrinkle, and them having that level of communication or documentation will only help then inform the OEM. Like, is this the reason behind that problem? And so I think like. You know, with Alfred and, and the curriculum here at Blade Academy, them kind of, you know, setting a standard for how, how you know, the structure of the blade, the different types of blades you may see, whether they have carbon fiber in them, or you know, fiberglass, UD spars. Where those things are located, [00:19:00] what to be aware of as you’re removing damaged material. It’s really critical to the overall quality and just the awareness of the tech on the blade and that feedback loop that we’re lacking so much in this industry. Alfred Crabtree: Yeah, for sure. Yeah, and we have our boilerplate products that come from, you know, like, uh, Cheryl was my mentor at RP and wrote partner, and she taught me a lot and a lot of the. The, the way we do things here comes from the rope, a rope access paradigm, which, you know, actually is backward compatible because if with rope access, you’re doing things alone. Speaker 2: Yeah. Alfred Crabtree: So if we’ve have ways and, and processes that allow that to happen alone, then when you’re on a basket or a platform with an extra person, you can only benefit Yeah. That much easier. Yeah. Um, it’s where we come from, you Joel Saxum: know, and, and that’s a good point, right? Like when we’re sitting here, rip Blade Repair Academy. Alfred, you’re here. Cheryll, you’re joining us today. These are two X blade technicians that have been on all kinds of blades. They have been up and down on ropes. So it’s training by [00:20:00] trainers who have been the technicians that’s important. Who have seen the problems. Yeah, yeah. You know, who have lived, have lived that road life. We talked, you’re joking about living in hotels, right? Mm-hmm. Like that have done, gone through that, right? So you’re learning from people that aren’t just like, oh, I hate the idea of going to a university and learning HR or something, whatever, from someone who’s never done it in the real world. Yeah. You know, uh, the trainers here have done it in the real world, um, and it shows. Alfred Crabtree: Thanks, man. And you know, the other thing too is our tagline is practical and contemporary. And the thing is, I’m no longer contemporary. Like I left the field years ago. I rely on folks like Cheryl, who’s still in the, in the Blade Services game over there at Skys Specs. She’s on, she’s got a full subscription to the cereal floss that are out there. Joel Saxum: Yeah. Probably the best one in the industry, to be honest with you. Alfred Crabtree: Well, you know. Uh, I think so. I don’t know anything about serial flaw, but it’s, it’s input from the rest of the industry that’s gonna allow this to continue. Otherwise, we’re gonna be, you know, [00:21:00] a 10-year-old standard that isn’t relevant anymore and that’s not what we want to do. So, outreach like Cheryl and I are talking about, Hey, what is it in your product line that should be in our product line? And I want to talk to OEMs and, uh. Owner operators, you know, what is it? What are your pain points? What in your fleet is needing attention? And of course, we’re gonna do all this with the business case, right? Mm-hmm. Like we wanna take LEP products and place them head to head and give a two day clinic or seminar to stakeholders, to purchasers. You know, we wanna give our, our two, our five day course condensed into two days. Where people who are stakeholders who are making decisions about where to place technicians, they should get out here and gr and grind a little bit and get a little empathy for their position. Hard work. The hard work of the Sheryl Weinstein: hard work that it is. Yeah. And then kind of understand Alfred Crabtree: from another side where the [00:22:00] communication breakdown is. ’cause it’s, it’s not all the texts, right? Mm-hmm. You know, they have a, you gotta understand how heavily loaded they are, you know, when they’re in the field. Mm-hmm. Um, so we’re, we’re at the place now where we’re really looking to do some outreach and talk to, uh, regulatory bodies that are starting to come up with standards, right? Like the IEC group met and pro produce a draft standard and they’re gonna work on the repair standard. And that’s a, a little bit of a ways away, but I can’t sit around and wait for, for standards to come to me. So we got this thing started. If you build it, they will come. You guys came, you know, Cheryl came and, um. We we’re really proud of where we’re at, but at the same time, it’s like, okay guys, the rest of the industry, now we’re here. Now you need to know, now you need to take advantage of us. Mm-hmm. And help tell us what you need. So I think the Sheryl Weinstein: LEP thing is a really good call out because I do see a lot of customers questioning what do I choose? How do I know [00:23:00] what to choose? Absolutely. Should my vendor be telling me what to choose? And that’s what happens in many cases, is that the ISP just kind of tells the owner operator. This is what you should use. Well, why, and, and what, you know, how have we ever really sized up like one against the other? Like in any true, I don’t know, study? No. And a lot of the, a lot of the like. Those different types of LEP, the, the companies that you know have these, they don’t have a lot of good documentation on showing like how their products stand up. I mean, it’s kind of, it’s more theory based than anything. I mean, they put ’em through rain erosion tests and whatever, but. It’s, I feel like that’s a tough space. It’s also a very, like, um, a very tough scope of work to have high quality at. So more training around it is necessary. You know, repair companies don’t wanna use their high skilled repair techs for the LEP because they need them for the more complex repairs [00:24:00] yet. The LEP is so susceptible to quality issues, and if you’re gonna pay an extreme amount of money to, you know, put the LEP to fix your erosion, put the LEP on blades, hope for a performance improvement, and then it fails in a year. I. That’s no help to anybody. So these different products, they also come with different price points. Like, can we really value the shell over the coating? I, I just find that this is a tough space. And so doing something like that and doing more training around LEPI think is probably pretty important. Yes. You know, unless the robots are gonna take it over and then, well, even then, I think it’s the only app. Allen Hall: The application, that’s the variable there. And not having people trained up for that particular LEP product is a huge problem because it’s super risky. You’re risking all that money and time and having to do it all over again and removing LEP that has been improperly applied. It’s a nightmare. [00:25:00] Nightmare. Total nightmare. You don’t want that to happen. And I’ve seen sites where that’s happened, getting technicians. Trained properly for the right material and doing that here up in Tennessee is, is the right approach. It’s risk reduction, which is what the industry is in right now. Risk reduction. Alfred Crabtree: Yeah. Yeah, we, we’ve beliefs. That’s a great way to put it. You know, if you hire somebody. We were talking earlier how there are like two models. One is like the New York Yankees, where you’re going to be buying all the expensive free agents. You can poaching people from other, you know, trying to get experienced talent. You’re paying a premium for them, but you aren’t gonna know until halfway through that season how that person is performing. Yeah. You know, that is a lot of. That was, that is a lot of variability that you could control. Mm-hmm. And in a seasonal business, those weeks are really multiplied by two or three. Right. In terms of like the impact on your revenue and your opportunity to make money. It’s risk reduction, like Alan was saying. Yeah. It’s Allen Hall: all risk, right? Yeah. And the, [00:26:00] the way that the industry is moving and the pace at which is moving right now, risk reduction starts to move to the top five years ago. We do a lot of risky things because we’re making money. Interest rates are low and, but today we cannot afford to do that. And if you watch the industry change right now, it is gonna be more focused than ever in having proper technicians on site that they complete the job that they were intended to do. Precisely, accurately, and once, not twice. Once. Yeah. And that is gonna be the marker of the, whether this industry grows or not. Mm-hmm. And that’s why Blade Repair Academy is needed so much. Now, Alfred, how do you interface with the ISPs, OEMs, and the operators in terms of getting people out here? How do they, how do they push that button and say, Alfred, I’m gonna send you 40 technicians next week. How does that, how does that go? I don’t quite have that down Alfred Crabtree: yet. But, uh, you know, it, we talked earlier, it’s a small world. You know, blade repair is small. There [00:27:00] we mentioned if you, there’s a hundred people in the industry you need to know and then you’ve covered it. Um, our, I think we’ve been, we’ve been kind of riding this new wave of like, oh, who’s this new kid on the block? And, and we can kind of be quiet and still are mysterious. And I pop up at a conference and host a round table or whatever. Uh, so far. It’s mainly been our personal network, which is large enough in this gig to, to get people in. ISPs are much more likely to do it small is ISPs are much more likely to do it. Owner operators, they’re trying to build their training centers. They have a little different, that’s a different model though. It’s a different model. Um, they’re, they’re tougher to get. So primarily it’s been ISPs. We have definitely a, a, a curriculum for new hires, right? We call it support, but we’re [00:28:00] reluctant to go sell that to the street or to the public. Like, Hey, enter the industry here, because we don’t quite yet have that, you know, guarantee that people will recognize our certificate and. Use it to hire people. I don’t quite have that system in place. However, I have so much interest from the Department of Labor to support us in creating an occupation. They want us to build apprenticeship programs. We need corporate sponsor, we need a big employer or to to buy in, and then we can create an apprenticeship program. Then we can find public money for people to get some support to get into a new, a new industry. So, well, they Allen Hall: need to come out here. They need to come out to Dunlap. And visit the facilities, talk with you, understand what the philosophy is, see it up close. There’s a lot of them have been to other places. Sure. And see what the differences are here. And, and that’s gonna be the decision maker. They’re gonna see what the product walking out the door is and [00:29:00] go into the classroom and, and get the grinder, right? Yes. Get, get your hands dirty a little bit. Yeah. And realize, yes, this is what I was looking for to begin with. I just couldn’t find it. And I found it here in Tennessee. Alfred Crabtree: Yeah, I, I think you’re right. And, and we, we are slowly, you know, bringing people in that we know, like the reason why y’all are here and some other folks have visited us this week is because o and m was in Nashville. And I was like, come on, come on. We’re only two hours away. We’ll buy you lunch. Come on. Pretty place. Yeah. You have to see this place to understand it because we are sort of, you know, outsiders, right? I mean, we’re, we’re from the, the industry, but we’re not. We’re not a spinoff of any company. We’re not a division of an ISP. We’re totally organic and unique in a, in a part of the world that doesn’t have any wind. So, yeah. Uh, but once you get here, you get it. The economics make sense. You know, we couldn’t do what we’ve done anywhere else as cheaply as we’ve done, which means we feel like we’re super value rich for what you’re paying and for the amount of time that you’re spending [00:30:00] here. Allen Hall: Oh, 100%. Uh. Let’s give the ISPs, the OEMs and the operators, uh, where to go. What’s the website? Where can they find you on LinkedIn? Alfred Crabtree: We’re at blade repair academy.com. Uh, we’re located in Dunlap, Tennessee. We’re on Blade Repair Academy at LinkedIn. I’m Alfred Crabtree. You can find me there. Uh. Allen Hall: Yeah, that’s where you need to go because that’s how the process starts. If you want to have high level technicians that really know how to work on composites and are working with real materials on simulated, but. Pretty realistic damage. Yeah. Weirdly realistic. Yeah. Secret sauce. And to get some sort of validation and to kind of get graded. Mm-hmm. And so you have a, a, a sense of how they’re doing. You’re going to have to go to Blade Repair Academy. You need to get out to Tennessee and you better check it out because I, Alfred, I gotta be honest, this place is gonna get crazy busy [00:31:00] and I’m gonna have. ISPs calling me saying, can you get a hold of Alfred and get me inside? Can you get me in? No, I can’t because it’s Alfred’s deal and Alfred’s gonna run this thing. We’re very approachable and, but very approachable. Keep calling, he’ll answer and take care of you, but it’s gonna get busy because the philosophy here is the right one. Thanks. So congratulations for putting this together and thank you for the invite. Uh, it is been a pleasure to see it. It’s uh, it, it’s great to know that you are around and you’re helping the industry. Alfred Crabtree: Thank you. We appreciate it and you guys are a great clarion for the industry. A great voice. So, uh, those words, uh, right in the fields. And I wanna thank Cheryl too for coming out. I haven’t seen her for a while. It’s funny ’cause today I, on my phone, you know, five years ago today, she and I were here before this business existed as rope partner employees working on r and d week doing infusions. So, uh, Sheryl Weinstein: the space has transformed. It’s amazing. Yeah. You guys have done a, a [00:32:00] really great job. Like I, yeah, I think you’re definitely pushing the industry into a, like a new realm. Bringing something that, that it really needs, you know, that we don’t have at the moment or that we didn’t have. Alfred Crabtree: Yeah, well hopefully, uh, it improves everybody’s quality of product and the bottom line. ’cause uh, you know, that’s what we’ll do. We’ll affect your bottom line for sure. Allen Hall: So Sheryl and Alfred, thank you so much for being on the podcast. Thanks guys. Right, Sheryl Weinstein: thank you.

Este boletim traz um resumo das principais notícias do dia na análise de Samuel Possebon, editor chefe da TELETIME.TELETIME é a publicação de referência para quem acompanha o mercado de telecomunicações, tecnologia e Internet no Brasil. Uma publicação independente dedicada ao debate aprofundado e criterioso das questões econômicas, regulatórias, tecnológicas, operacionais e estratégicas das empresas do setor. Se você ainda não acompanha a newsletter TELETIME, inscreva-se aqui (shorturl.at/juzF1) e fique ligado no dia a dia do mercado de telecom. É simples e é gratuito.Você ainda pode acompanhar TELETIME nas redes sociais:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/teletimenews/Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/teletimenews/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Teletime/ Ou entre em nosso canal no Telegram: https://t.me/teletimenews Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Este boletim traz um resumo das principais notícias do dia na análise de Samuel Possebon, editor chefe da TELETIME.TELETIME é a publicação de referência para quem acompanha o mercado de telecomunicações, tecnologia e Internet no Brasil. Uma publicação independente dedicada ao debate aprofundado e criterioso das questões econômicas, regulatórias, tecnológicas, operacionais e estratégicas das empresas do setor. Se você ainda não acompanha a newsletter TELETIME, inscreva-se aqui (shorturl.at/juzF1) e fique ligado no dia a dia do mercado de telecom. É simples e é gratuito.Você ainda pode acompanhar TELETIME nas redes sociais:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/teletimenews/Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/teletimenews/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Teletime/ Ou entre em nosso canal no Telegram: https://t.me/teletimenews Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Decades of agricultural development policy have chased yield. Bigger harvests, better seeds, more fertiliser. But how can we make farming more profitable? Craig McIntosh of UC San Diego is academic lead on a J-PAL Policy Insight covering twenty-three randomised evaluations of credit and grants for farmers in low- and middle-income countries. He tell Tim Phillips that although yields and revenues often rise, profit rarely responds in the same way. When farmers are already running their farms close to the margin, costs rise at the same rate as income, and the household bank balance does not move much. What can we bundle with credit to change that situation?The research behind this episode:Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL). 2026. "Can relaxing credit constraints boost farmers' profits?” J-PAL Policy Insights. Last modified February 2026. Academic leads: Craig McIntosh and Tavneet Suri; insight authors: Leonie Rauls and Rebecca Toole.To cite this episode:Phillips, Tim, and Craig McIntosh. 2026. “Boosting farmers' profits?" VoxDev Talks (podcast). Assign this as extra listening. The citation above is formatted and ready for a reading list or VLE.About the guestCraig McIntosh is Professor of Economics at the School of Global Policy and Strategy, UC San Diego. His research spans development finance, agricultural credit, cash transfer design and the evaluation of large-scale anti-poverty interventions. Research cited in this episodeMicrocredit take-up among farmers. Across four randomised evaluations of traditional microcredit aimed at farmers, in Morocco, Ethiopia, Bangladesh and Malawi, take-up sat between 13 and 33 percent. Standard microcredit repayment begins a week or two after disbursement, which is incompatible with a crop cycle that pays out cash once or twice a year. Group liability also breaks down in agriculture, where shocks like drought or floods hit borrowers together rather than one at a time.Tailoring credit to the agricultural cycle. Restructured loans push take-up much higher. Nakano and Magezi in Tanzania allowed rice farmers to defer 80 percent of repayment until harvest; 39 percent borrowed and over 92 percent repaid. William Jack and co-authors in Kenya offered dairy farmers asset-collateralised loans for a water tank; take-up reached 44 percent against 2.4 percent for a typical joint-liability product. Lambon-Quayefio, Manjeer and Udry in Ghana offered digital credit with a three-month grace period; 59 percent of farmers took it up.Sell low, buy high. Burke and co-authors in Kenya showed that smallholders routinely sell at the post-harvest price trough and buy back grain at hungry-season prices 20 to 40 percent higher. Harvest-time loans that allowed farmers to delay sales had take-up of 64 percent and produced returns around 29 percent for borrowers. Treated villages also saw flatter price trajectories, generating spillover benefits for non-borrowers.Lean-season credit. Fink, Jack and Masiye in Zambia found that lean-season loans let farmers stop hiring out their labour and instead work their own land. Output rose by 9 percent. Loan repayments were comparable to the gain, leaving farmers roughly even on profits.Selection into credit markets. Beaman, Karlan, Thuysbaert and Udry in Mali first offered loans, then offered grants to those who had refused. Returns to capital among would-be borrowers were on the order of 130 percent. Returns among those who had refused the loan were close to zero. Credit appears to self-target toward farmers who can use it productively, which is regressive in welfare terms and also exactly what a capital-scarce economy needs credit markets to do.Input subsidy programmes (ISPs). Jayne and co-authors reviewed eighty studies of fertiliser subsidies across sub-Saharan Africa. Yields rise while subsidies are in place; profitability is mixed; targeting is frequently politically distorted, often skewed toward better-connected or wealthier farmers. The standout randomised exception is Carter, Laajaj and Yang in Mozambique, where two-thirds of recipients had never used fertiliser before; the programme produced sustained gains and a high benefit-cost ratio. By contrast, Gignoux and co-authors in Haiti found a fertiliser-voucher subsidy crowded out farmers' own input spending and lowered yields once the subsidy ended.Cash transfers and diversification. In six studies measuring both farm and non-farm outcomes, three found households doubled down on agriculture and three saw movement into non-farm enterprises. The Zambian Child Grant evaluation by Handa and co-authors saw women invest in seeds, fertiliser and livestock and start non-farm businesses, with household income roughly doubling.Bundled input programmes. Four randomised evaluations bundled credit or a grant with information, training or market access. All four lifted revenues; three of the four lifted incomes or profits. Harou and co-authors in Tanzania showed that fertiliser vouchers alone and soil testing alone did nothing; only the combination raised yields and revenues. Ashraf, Gine and Karlan's Kenya study on French-bean and baby-corn export found credit increased programme participation from 27 to 41 percent, even where it did not further raise income among participants.

#347: Andrei Kvapil has been around Kubernetes since the early days. Contributor to Cilium, Kubevirt, and a handful of other projects you probably use without realizing it. He is also the maintainer of Cozystack, a CNCF sandbox project, and the CEO of Aenix, the company behind it. The thesis: Kubernetes should be boring. Not exciting, not cutting-edge, not the thing everyone argues about. Boring like the Linux kernel is boring. Something that sits underneath everything and nobody needs to think about. Viktor takes it one step further and says it should be invisible -- developers should never need to know Kubernetes exists, any more than they need to know what kernel their laptop is running. Cozystack is Andrei's answer to a specific problem. ISPs, banks, finops shops, anyone in Europe who cannot or will not put their data in AWS -- they all want to offer managed databases, managed Kubernetes, object storage, the whole stack. Building that from scratch is hard. Running OpenStack requires a dedicated team that does nothing but tune networking. Cozystack bundles the pieces (Kubevirt, CloudNative Postgres, Cilium, etc) into one product with an aggregation API layer on top of Kubernetes itself. Helm becomes the extension language. The platform becomes a product. Then the conversation takes a turn. Andrei is the CEO of a bootstrapped company and he says flatly that without AI the company would not exist. Claude Code is moving Kanban cards. Clients send files generated by their AI agent and Aenix feeds those files to their AI agent to generate the response. Andrei's only wish is for this middle step -- him -- to stop existing. Let the agents talk to each other and call him when something actually matters. There is a hiring question in here too. If the next generation of engineers starts their career with AI on the first commit, do they ever build the mental model that lets them guide the agent when it goes wrong? Andrei thinks you still need deep understanding for anything serious. Viktor agrees. Speed versus quality is still a choice, and juniors who skip the "write it three times until it stops being garbage" phase are going to feel that gap eventually.   Andrei's contact information: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kvaps/   YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/devopsparadox   Review the podcast on Apple Podcasts: https://www.devopsparadox.com/review-podcast/   Slack: https://www.devopsparadox.com/slack/   Connect with us at: https://www.devopsparadox.com/contact/

In this special 100th episode of The Signal, we're joined by Airties CEO and co-founder Metin Taskin to tackle one of the most pressing challenges for broadband providers: customer churn—and how to reduce it. Drawing on new survey data from the U.S., U.K., and Japan, Metin reveals that up to 24% of consumers switch ISPs each year, with as many as 1 in 3 considering a change soon. While price competition is often blamed, the real drivers of churn are poor Wi-Fi performance, unreliable connectivity, and subpar customer support—highlighted by common issues like video streaming freezes, dropped connections, and inconsistent in-home coverage. We talk about how service providers can improve customer retention by moving from reactive troubleshooting to proactive, data-driven network management, allowing operators to detect and resolve issues before they impact the user experience. Listen for the inside track on the Wi-Fi customer experience, retention, and next-generation connectivity, and thanks for joining us for 100 episodes!For Wi-Fi AllianceFor Membership InfoGeneral Contact

Tick tock !Knockouts and 3 Counts got to chat with former WWE superstar Killer Kross LIVE from Astronomicon 9 !We chatted about winning the MLW World Heavyweight Championship in front of his mother, his thoughts on joining Major League Wrestling, his journey through Martial Arts and Jiu Jitsu, Working with Ronda Ronda Rousey and facing Gina Carano, Mental Health and his new book Life is fighting and more ! •Protect Your Connection Like a Champ With NordVPN!At Bodyslam.net, we know the importance of staying protected—whether you're in the ring or online. That's why we've partnered with NordVPN, the undisputed heavyweight champion of internet security, to bring our readers an exclusive deal.Unlock major savings and keep your data safe from hackers, trackers, and snooping ISPs—all while streaming wrestling content securely from anywhere in the world.Hit the link below to step into the ring with the best VPN in the business:

Mickie James chats with Knockouts and 3 Counts about her return to TNA Wrestling and her match with Ash by Elegance a TNA Rebellion. We also chat her epic rivalry with Trish Stratus, who her dream singing duet would be with, WWE 2k26 and more !•Protect Your Connection Like a Champ With NordVPN!At Bodyslam.net, we know the importance of staying protected—whether you're in the ring or online. That's why we've partnered with NordVPN, the undisputed heavyweight champion of internet security, to bring our readers an exclusive deal.Unlock major savings and keep your data safe from hackers, trackers, and snooping ISPs—all while streaming wrestling content securely from anywhere in the world.Hit the link below to step into the ring with the best VPN in the business:

Dr. Liz Beavis, Asset Manager at Tilt Renewables, joins to discuss O&M contracts, balance of plant, and lessons from Australia’s biggest and oldest wind farms. Contact Liz on LinkedIn or by email. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly newsletter on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on YouTube, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary’s “Engineering with Rosie” YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Intro: [00:00:00] Welcome to Uptime Spotlight, shining Light on Wind. Energy’s brightest innovators. This is the Progress Powering tomorrow. Allen Hall: Liz, welcome to the program. Thanks,  Liz Beavis: Alan. I feel I’m a long time listener. First time caller, so it’s exciting.  Allen Hall: You are a long time listener and thanks for doing that. Uh, and Liz, I just find you to be a wealth of knowledge and, uh, we met on a couple occasions since I’ve been in Australia and it’s just, uh, a fun to connect here because I think a lot of the things that are happening in Australia need to be spread around the world. A lot of, uh, good o and m practices happening in Australia, uh, from hard lessons learned. So that’s what I want to dive into today. And then the first one is, I don’t think many people realize this, that you went. From commissioning, Australia’s largest wind farm, Cooper’s gap to managing seven [00:01:00] of the 10 oldest operational wind farms in the country. So you got some of the biggest, newest to some of the oldest assets. Uh. Uh, my question is like, when you started that, did you just kind of assume like wind, wind farms or wind farms or wind turbines or wind turbines and you could just basically own and end them the same, or do, or did it just occur to you immediately like, I need to take a different plan of attack here? Liz Beavis: I think I, I knew nothing about wind farms when I turned up at Cooper’s Gap, so, so yeah, I got my, well, okay, we’ll go right back to the start. So I was working at a thermal power station and I was just thinking. There’s no future in coal. How do I get into renewables? And then a wind farm got built like 50 kilometers from my house. I can, I can see it in the horizon. Um, and I thought, oh, they’re not gonna need a chemical engineer there, but I wonder if they need a site manager or something. And then the site manager role came up, I applied for it. So the services site manager. So, [00:02:00] um. That was July, 2020. That’s when I first started listening to the podcast. ’cause I thought I better find out something about this industry before I do my job interview. And so I’ve been listening ever since. But, um, yeah, so I don’t know. I was just lucky to get that role. And I turned up and, um, I think it was the end of September, 2020 first time I’d ever set foot on a wind farm ’cause of COVID and everything. I didn’t, I didn’t go there for the interview. My manager was in Thailand. I just turned up. And, um, so they, they’d finished construc, they’d built all the towers where they hadn’t finished commissioning. And so we’re still working out of construction, dongas, you know, temporary buildings and um, and there was hundreds of people on site and it was just the absolute chaos of. Constructing a two hundred, a hundred and twenty three turbines. You know, like there’s just people everywhere. And I thought, wow, I’ve just gotta figure out what I’m supposed to be doing here. There were a few technicians. I found out how many technicians I supposed to have. Just started recruiting, started figuring out what I was supposed to be doing there, and I just [00:03:00] learned so much. In the two years we took over the new r and m building. We had failed gear, boxes, generators, transformers, overhead line, underground line, pretty much. Anything that could fail failed, and I got to see what we needed to do. Um, but through all of that, I was also thinking, oh, how do I manage this wind farm better? I don’t know anything about wind farms, and I’m reaching out to the other GE sites, but the, the next biggest site was 75 turbines, and all of the rest of them are 30 and 40. So they’re saying to me, oh, you just get a team to go around. And I’m thinking. Well, that’s six weeks of work. You know, like, like everything is so much bigger on a bigger wind farm. And then I’d reach out to the, the American sites. That had big wind farms, but their contracts were so different, and I didn’t understand at first, I started to realize, well, their contracts are completely different and their focus is different, and so they’re not facing the same issues that I’m facing. Um, and then, you know, even speaking to a wind farm in [00:04:00] Sweden that was a similar size, but they, you know, they. They have to think about climate and what work they can do in winter. So I started to, as you said, you start to think, well actually everyone farms very different. And it’s, um, you know, you can learn from others, but you really need to understand how your conditions are affecting what you can and can’t do. Um, and then, so then I got the job at Wally Power Services with as a portfolio manager for the renewables, um, fleet There. And yeah, a whole lot of really old turbines. And it was just so interesting to see that contrast between the new turbines and the old ones and um, and also being a independent service provider, what we could do and what the technicians. So many clever technicians out there on wind farms, just figuring stuff out and, and fixing things that if you tried to do that within the OEM, you get really hamstring Engineers say, oh no, you can’t. You can’t do that. You can’t fiddle with that. Whereas once you’re released from that, for better or worse, [00:05:00] the technicians are just off sorting things out. So that was really interesting to see that contrast. And now I’m with, um, tilt Renewables. So I’m the asset manager for Cooper’s Gap and Silverton Wind Farms. So I’m, I’m now seeing from the owner’s point of view how we actually manage these contracts with the OEMs and with ISPs and how we, how can we do r and m better? Matthew Stead: And from the, um, from the ISP, um, experience, um, compared to your experience now, what are some of the biggest differences that you’ve observed between the old, the other sites and the, and the new site?  Liz Beavis: Yeah, I think it, it’s really just that you’re on your own. Um, so you’re relying on good technicians. To figure things out, you can, you need a parts and service agreement with the OEM, um, so you can reach out to them and ask for support, but they’re, you are the lowest priority. So yeah, you don’t always get information, [00:06:00] so you just gotta be set up to figure things out. But then that does give you the freedom to make changes and to, to fix the things that you’re saying, whereas. Often the OEMs are so, uh, stuck with that mindset of, oh, we, we don’t want people to know we’ve got a serial defect. So we’ll just keep kind of patching things up and hopefully, hopefully no other sites find out about this. You know, instead of just saying, Hey, we know this is an issue, here’s a good way of fixing it. ’cause just all I understand, all of the liability that throws, that, that flows from that, uh, you know. You can’t handle it. Allen Hall: Does that change your perspective, knowing all those things? Do you have a, just a unique background in so many ways where you’ve seen, uh, pretty much all sides of wind operations. How do you think about that now? How are you, are you are addressing contracts differently or are you thinking about the way you staff differently just from your experience?[00:07:00] How does that play into it?  Liz Beavis: Yeah, so definitely from a owner’s point of view. I understand what the limitations are of the OEMs and the ISPs, and so I know, I know what I can push them to do and what I can’t push them to do. And even though you’ve got the contract in front of you and you know it, it says you’re gonna do this, there’s certain things where you, you know, that you need to let it slide because it’s just not reasonable to push it. You just, you just know that they can’t achieve things. Um. But then also going into new r and m contracts, you kind of know what’s critical, what to ask for, what, you know, what, what we need to make sure that we’re getting right from the start.  Allen Hall: How do you sort that out? Because I’ve heard, uh, I’ve talked to many operators. that are doing O&M and they look at the contract much like you, and then they, they look at the contract and go, okay, here’s are the things I can probably get. Here’s the things I can’t get. How did you come to that determination is just because you’ve been so close at all this time? Because I think a [00:08:00] lot of people in wind that are new look at that contract, as the rule of law and you’re gonna get everything in there. But I think the more experienced people realize it’s more of a negotiation or starting point, even  Liz Beavis: particularly, uh, like Comparing construction to O&M I say, construction’s the. sprint and O&M’s the marathon, and you’re in a relationship with this O&M provider for 10, 15, 25, 30 years, depending on your contract terms. So you can’t go in at year three and just have a big fight with each other And you know you, need to, You need to be able to work together. So it’s understanding what the value drivers are on both sides and, um. And focusing on that. So, you know, for us as the owner, we, we just want generation. So even though availability is what’s in the contract, really what we want is generation. So if we can figure things out together to get the maximum generation, and maybe that helps the O&M [00:09:00] provider save some costs because, they’re not just doing what’s in the contract, but they’re doing what actually helps us get generation. That’s, that’s kind of the. That’s how we work. And then the contracts there. If, everything falls apart, you’ve got a legal document underpinning where you can say, hold on, you were supposed to do this. This is the damages we can claim. And this is where we can go with it. But you’re not just enforcing every, clause. Because some of it’s been written so long ago, it’s not even relevant.  Allen Hall: Does that lead you down the path of shadow monitoring then?  Liz Beavis: My view is I would rather have, I would rather be at a point where I have a relationship with the OEM where we can agree that there’s no point me spending money that they’ve already spent and that. That we get access to their data. Even if I pay half of what I would spend on shadow monitoring as an additional fee to the OM provider, so they get some revenue and they provide me with the data, I think that’s a better outcome for both parties than to [00:10:00] feel like I’m there looking over their shoulder monitoring what they’re doing. So, I mean, it depends on what your relationship is, but our, our preference would be. That we’re working together and that we’re both benefiting from something rather than spending more money than we need to on doing something twice.  Matthew Stead: Maybe a question, Liz, in terms of your, you know, former, you know, thermal, uh, background, what, what sort of lessons learned or, or things did you sort of bring across from that, that previous um, experience? You know, although six years ago,  Liz Beavis: I think that the first thing was safety. There was, um. There’s a big difference and, and particularly coming into a construction site, that’s, it’s always a challenge because there’s just this time crunch and cost crunch and, and it’s all just, we need to just jump in and get everything done. We can’t stop and make sure we’re doing this safely or properly. Um, so getting my [00:11:00] team to stop thinking like that. We are here, we’re doing o and m. We’re here for the long term. If we’re gonna do it, we’re gonna do it properly. If we need to wait a couple of days to have the right tooling, that’s what we’re gonna do. And just kind of slow everyone down and then, and get the right procedures and the equipment and, and everything. Uh, so we did that. Um, and then. I think the other thing I’ve probably just brought across is understanding of the market. So I was quite involved, um, with thermal generation and, um, market and bidding and um, and I think if you come into Wind Farm o and m, you’re kind of separated from that because you are just there to maintain the turbines and you, you don’t care what the market’s doing, but your owner cares what the market’s doing. So being able to, to think about, well, what. What does my owner actually need? Um, and, and do that, you know, support that as well. Then you, you’re better at [00:12:00] delivering the o and m,  Allen Hall: right? Because it does add a little bit of perspective to it. I see a lot of operations and maintenance where availability is a thing, but it’s not like the top priority. It’s, it’s odd how they think about it. At the end of the day, you’re producing power, and I know Tilt Renewable, having been to your offices there. Is focused on availability. You’re selling power to the grid. You need to be looking at what the prices are. You’re actually monitoring that. There’s, it’s a complicated enterprise. It’s much more complex than I think, uh, you would think of a old power company, uh, particularly in the states where everything just kind of runs and it’s, it just happens in Australia. It’s a lot more freewheeling, I would say, and there’s more emphasis on. Making sure the assets are running, that they’re available and they are producing power. That must change the way you think about managing the assets and particularly. You, you, there will be problems, right? There’s always problems. Are you, are you trying to then categorize [00:13:00] problems and trying to assess when you’re gonna take turbines out? Or you’re just saying, Hey, we just can’t fix this thing until next year. There must be some sort of organization going on there. How do you think about that in terms of keeping your availability so high?  Liz Beavis: That’s one thing that I had to change my mindset. From thermal to wind because there’s a lot of work you can do on a thermal power station while it’s running. Whereas anything, anything you wanna fix on a wind turbine, you’re taking it down. And then on a thermal power station, you have a six or eight week outage where everything’s shut down, 200 people turn up, everything gets fixed. And then you run it back up again and then you hope that it doesn’t come back down. Yeah. Whereas the wind turbine, it’s like, it’s, the way I see it is just if it’s running, it’s running. You don’t go and stop it for any reason. You know, so it’s you, you only, you’re going there to do reactive work. When it stops and you’re going to do proactive annual maintenance work every 12 months, [00:14:00] and it’s really about getting the scope of your annual maintenance, right, so that you’re addressing everything. And you know, the goal is like, this is what was drilled into me with GE was the goal is you go to that turbine once a year or twice a year if it has a semi-annual. Maintenance requirement, but that’s, that’s what you’re trying to achieve. So you’re trying to get the reliability to a point where you only need to go there when it breaks, and Oh, so you only need to go there for the annual maintenance and it shouldn’t be breaking down in between. Unfortunately, that’s. Very difficult to achieve. I think. I think what it was interesting to see the older turbines, um, have a lot more engineering, uh, margin in them. Everything sort of does perform better.  Allen Hall: Well, that’s what I wanted to ask you because I do think there’s a difference between a slightly older turbine, even a turbine that was manufactured 20 years ago versus today. It does seem like there’s a lot more knowledge about those turbines. Maybe it’s just, uh, tribal knowledge. Over time you’re gonna learn more about them, but there, there is a huge knowledge [00:15:00] gap. Between on a new turbine, you just, you just don’t know what you don’t know. How are you trying to address that? Are, are you getting involved in RCAs or are you, are you trying to be proactive monitoring scada, the, it’s just a lot of your plate here. How do you try to manage all that and what’s your process there?  Liz Beavis: So the way the contract is structured, that’s all the OEM’s responsibility. Uh, but what, what we’re trying to do is say, well, we’ve got a lot of expertise in our asset management team. Involve us. Like, we’d like to help. We can ask the questions, we can tell you what we’ve seen on other sites. We can, you know, we, we can actually help with this. Um, it’s, yeah, it’s, it’s kind of awkward that, um. There’s no requirement in the RM phase for them to provide us with an RCA under this contract. So, you know, there’s some, there’s some contracts where they may have to, but, um, yeah, [00:16:00] I think that’s an oversight because we’re kind of guessing or we’re, we’re getting given. Part of the information, but we don’t necessarily have the whole story. And I think the advantage that the OEM has is that they’ve got hundreds of thousands of turbines out there and they, they’re monitoring all of them. They, they should be able to figure out what’s going on a lot easier than I can. I’m looking at two sites and saying, oh, hey, is, is that an issue? Or is, you know, they’ve got all that data. And, and that was the challenge with an RSP is that you, you’re only looking at a limited. Subset of sites, you’re not necessarily being able to put everything together, but I’m not sure that we all get the value of that knowledge, whether, whether they’re actually crunching the data or whether they’re keeping it to themselves because they don’t want us to know about serial issues. Um, but yeah, I, I feel like the OEMs could be leveraging that more.  Allen Hall: Are you able to bridge that gap sometimes with the [00:17:00]OEMs? I do feel like the OEMs have. Pretty good. Uh, at a minimum. I mean, I think a lot of times they’re really good on the back offices, on the engineering side of the technical expertise and the subject matter experts do exist there, and they are pretty quick to get to the root cause of a problem. But are you able to get to those back offices, to those engineering experts and to talk to them? Have you found a way to do that, that that kind of works for, for both sides of that, of that business?  Liz Beavis: Something I found really helpful is, um. We’ve joined some international groups. There’s a few groups around that say the O2 O, they’ve, they were O2 O wind, they’re now O2 O renewables and also epr, um, electric Power Research Institute. So we’ve joined them. We are sharing sort of general, um, breakdown information and issues. Um. Within those groups. And so then we are hearing from, you know, there’s a wind farm in Scotland that says, oh yeah, we’ve got the same [00:18:00] component. We are seeing this issue. And then I say, oh, well I better go check if we’ve got that problem. And then, you know, so, so we’re, we’re kind of owner to owner learning things, so that’s quite helpful.  Allen Hall: So you’re leveraging the other, uh, operators of the same turbines or, or really something similar to what you’re operating globally? That’s a, that’s a smart move and a lot of operators do not do that. I mean, and maybe in the States there’s a couple of, of organizations in the states, EPRI being one of them. O2 O is, I think, uh, definitely popular in Europe. They’re both very effective. So in instead of having to rely on the OM all the time, you’re basically word of mouth with other operators saying, I have this problem. Does anybody else have this problem? Have you solved it? Or maybe what the OEM has said, maybe the OEM has has told another operator what the answer is. Uh, is that the way you’re kind of thinking about attacking that problem?  Liz Beavis: Yes, but we’re not sharing any confidential information [00:19:00]through those forums.  Allen Hall: Never gonna do that. However, it does, I mean, if you get some heads nodding in those discussions, like an oh two, oh, uh, uh, meeting or even an EPRI meeting, uh, or e-cig in the United States. Basically doing something very similar. A lot of times I don’t think operators use them, the, maybe the way that they should, they, they, they turn into kind of complaint sessions instead of solutions, uh, that could be shared. Are you finding that you’re able to get to some solutions through those organizations? Liz Beavis: I probably found out more about failure modes and things to look out for. Necessarily then solutions. But yeah, it, it’s definitely, it’s definitely been valuable.  Matthew Stead: Um, and Liz, we went for a bit of a drive around your site. Once  Liz Beavis: I be how many days, Matt? You’re like, oh, come up for a day. And then I said, you’re gonna need to come for longer. Matthew Stead: The one day turned into three days. It was a wonderful time. Um, um, however, I think a part of our conversation was about. All the extra balance [00:20:00] of plant. And, um, I know you’ve got a few te uh, pet topics around balance of plant, including, um, toilet facilities. So maybe you could, uh, share your thoughts on, you know, the, the forgotten part of the, the site. Liz Beavis: Okay. Well, I can talk about toilets. Um, I think, I think we got away with. Um, small wind farms with just an o and m building and, um, technicians could drive back to the toilet pretty easily. Now. Cooper’s Gap Wind Farm is um, uh, 123 turbines. The furthest turbine is an hour’s drive. No one’s driving, you know. Back from the turbine and then to the r and m building and then back to their work site. So, um, we need to, we need to consider that in the design phase, but also I’ve just been talking about it every opportunity ’cause um, people just aren’t aware and that we need to think about what facilities we’re providing to our technicians. And particularly in Australia, we’ve got a big [00:21:00] energy transition we’re trying to deliver and we’re not gonna get the workforce. If people think that wind farms aren’t nice places to work, so I, I think it’s really important. So I’ve, um, I have purchased a demountable containerized toilet facility that’s gonna go out into one of our furthest corners of the wind farm. Um, so I’m gonna establish that and then look at where else we need to put them. And that was, um, $50,000 Australian delivered. So it’s really. A small cost considering everything else we spend on that one farm. Um, just to provide suitable facilities for our workforce. So, uh, I’m encouraging people to think about that and I’ve had some good conversations since I brought it up at wma, so it’s been good. Matthew Stead: Yeah, it also struck me several, um, several challenges were a much bigger issue than you may have thought them to be at the start.  Liz Beavis: I think what I found interesting is, uh, o over all the different wind farms is, um, it’s [00:22:00] really difficult to predict what the civil cost is gonna be. You, you can have some wind farms that are just dead flat and have very minimal civil costs, but as soon as you build a wind farm. On a ridge, you know, ridge line and you’ve got lots of bridges and steep roads and drainage issues. Yeah. And then depending on the erod ability of the soil and the rainfall, suddenly you’re out there grading pretty regularly. Um, I have now learned way too much about civil engineering, and it’s not my area of interest, but, um, I think there’s, there’s better decisions that can be made during construction and. Design stage of the wind farm. There’s, you know, there’s some roads, uh, I’ve driven around as a civil contractor at one of my sites and, um, he was involved during construction and he’s also a landholder and he said, well, I told them to put the road over there where it would’ve been sort of gentle slope up the hill, but they wanted to just build a shorter road. So they [00:23:00] just put a straight up the hill and then they had to bring, um, extra machines in to tow all the components up the hill. ’cause they made it too steep. But that’s then what they’ve left us. For RM to maintain, you know, so that it’s just bad decisions and, and I think it’s, yeah, it gets very fraught during construction. And then, um, you know, towards the end you’re just trying to get the project finished and you’re trying to get handover and you’re just worried about the turbines, you know, like what’s happening with these generators. And all of that becomes a focus. And meanwhile, the, the civil work hasn’t been finished to the standard and the drains haven’t been built to the drawing. And, and that’s just. The last thing on anyone’s list. ’cause we’re trying to get the turbines right. Um, but yeah, it’s, it’s a cost that you then wear for the rest of the project, so it’s worth thinking about. Um, and in Australia we’ve also, it’s quite common for the electrical balancer plant to be maintained by the OEM. Um, and we’re starting to find it’s not really their area of [00:24:00] expertise. They’re not really set up for it. You know, there’s sort of a question mark whether that’s. The best approach or whether, uh, as an owner, we are better to split that out and look after it ourselves, but then that complicates availability guarantees. And who’s responsible for the underground cable? Yes. And there’s, there’s a lot to think about.  Allen Hall: I was gonna ask you about that because that is an important difference, uh, in Australia where the BOP seems to be, uh, more, or the responsibility of the operator than the OEM, and that must be at least somewhat Australian specific because of the nature of the country and the difficulties that are involved there, but. Does that mean that as you, as the operator need to be bringing on people that know, uh, substation, architecture, underground cables, transformers, pads, uh, roads, all that, is that something that you just have decided that it makes more sense to do and we can probably do it [00:25:00] better, uh, as a, to make availability better and make the site more accessible? Is that, is that the thought process that went into that?  Liz Beavis: I think the driver was, um. The lenders. So, so finance, um, they, and that’s, that’s why that there was a real trend for the fully wrapped contract. So a, a 25 year fully wrapped contract and, and the finance world is de-risked, you know, it’s magically de-risked because, because you’ve locked it in and it’s all just gonna get done. And it’s, and now I think everyone’s realizing, well, it’s not actually DeRoot. Like there’s, there’s a lot. That we need to manage and, and now we’ve lost control over it. And actually maybe we’d like to pull that back, but it, it’s, it’s site specific. You know what you. What makes sense to, to give to the o and m contractor versus separating it out and managing it  Allen Hall: Well then let’s talk about the two wind farms you are involved with day to day, Silverton [00:26:00] and Cooper’s Gap, and now they are not next door to one another. Silverton’s in New South Wales, far west. Right. And then, uh, Cooper’s Gap is up in Queensland, way up north Counter by Brisbane. Uh, those are what, 500,000 miles apart from one another. They’re a long ways away.  Liz Beavis: Yeah, I haven’t looked at how far they’re, but um, so I live near Cooper’s Gap, so everyone in Melbourne’s quite pleased with that because it’s a pain for them to get here. ’cause it, I, it’s a three hours, I’m three hours drive from Brisbane. That’s not even North Queensland. That’s, I’m still in Southeast Queensland. Really.  Allen Hall: Right. True. Yeah.  Liz Beavis: So then for me to get to Broken Hill, I have to drive to Brisbane and then fly to Sydney or fly to Adelaide and then fly into Broken Hill. So it’s two flies. So we did have, we’ve got another asset manager who was very involved with Silverton, uh, for a long time, and she lives in Sydney. And so I. When I came in, because I lived near Cooper’s Gap, obviously I took Cooper’s Gap and then it made sense for me to also have Silverton because it’s another [00:27:00] GE three X site. So that’s why I’ve got those two. Yeah. Uh, even though it’s not my closest site, so I go out to Silverton about four times a year. Um. I make sure I spend a week there and I drive around and look at everything, and I go up tower and I spend time with the team and I, I do feel like I don’t have as much control over that site as Cooper’s Gap. I’m here most days and I’m, and I’m in the pre-start and I see where all the teams are going, and I go and talk to them. Yeah, so I, I get a lot more information and I think as an asset manager, it’s really important to be on site and to be up tower and to be talking to everyone. Um, so when I do go to Silverton, I make sure I go there for a long time, or I see some owners will just pop in for the day, or they, they’ll sort of come in at 10 o’clock in the morning and, and then leave. So they don’t even see preset. You can’t really get a feel for what’s going on in site if you’re not. Um, so I would like to be at Silverton more often, but [00:28:00] I just don’t like the 12 hours of traveling it takes me to get there. Um, but um, we have, so teams is amazing, right? Like what we can do remotely now. Um, I have a fortnightly call with the site manager and we go through what turbines are on and what’s off and what’s he working on and what issues. And, um, so I do get a lot of information. Um, not being on site and, and all the systems that we have access to, I’m constantly spying on them. They all know that. But also I’m there to help. Like, I’ll, I’ll read the fault code and go, what does this fault code mean? That sounds really bad. And they’re like, oh yeah, we better go check that. So, um, yeah, we we’re working together. Um. And it’s really just, yeah, they know that we’re, we just wanna try and get the availability up. We don’t wanna be charging them damages all the time. We, it, it doesn’t really cover our costs. So it’s better for all of us that we just improve the availability and it doesn’t matter who’s doing it, we just need to figure it out. [00:29:00] Allen Hall: Well, Liz, you’re a busy person and in your off time you co-founded an organization called Power Up Queensland and you mentor female engineers. Uh, and you have done that for a while throughout your career. What’s your message to women that are considering entering the wind energy sector?  Liz Beavis: Oh, we need more women in wind. Onsite, not just in the, in the head office. And, um, I’m fixing the toilet situation, so I’ve got it under control. Um, yeah, it’s, it’s really sad when I sort of look around at preset and there’s, I’m, I’m the only woman in the room usually. Um, but yeah, I, like, I go up tower and, um. I think it’s, it’s a lot of fun if you’re, if you’re someone that likes heights and doing something a bit more physical. And I think also the, um, for the, from the trade point of view, you get to work across mechanical and electrical. So if you’re not, uh, you know, if you’re interested in sort of working across your trade instead [00:30:00] of just a purely being a mechanic or an electrician, I think it’s a really interesting, um, uh, workplace to be in. You get. And, and there’s lots of civil work to do and, um. And then as an asset manager, you know, you can, you can come into that from a, from a mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, or mechanical engineer. There’s, there’s lots of civil work to do, but even in our team, we’ve got people from finance and accounting backgrounds and, um, trade backgrounds. So it’s, it’s, um, something that you can come. From a broad range of, um, disciplines. Um, and I just, I love being out and about this morning before I came on the call, I had to go out and put some signs out for a biosecurity issue. So, so I like, that’s the kind of thing, like I, I’m not stuck in the office. I just go for a drive and put some signs on the gate and yeah. So it’s, you’re not stuck in the office. I think it’s, it’s really. It’s, it’s a really awesome job. [00:31:00] So I encourage, yeah, people that want, don’t wanna be in the office and actually be outdoors and involved and doing some physical stuff. It’s a good job.  Allen Hall: Well, Liz, you’re a wealth of knowledge and uh, it’s always great to see you in Australia and thanks for coming to the Woma event. If people wanna reach out to you and connect about o and m issues or entering the wind industry, how can they do that?  Liz Beavis: Um, so I’m on LinkedIn. Maybe I can just put my email in the show notes because I get, I get a lot of LinkedIn connection requests and I sort of don’t know who’s who.  Allen Hall: We’ll definitely put your email in the show notes, and I know we’ve had a lot of discussions of, of getting you on this podcast. I’ve been really looking forward to this discussion, and this has been great. We need to have you on more often. So, Liz, the invitation is. Thank you so much for joining us on this podcast and yeah, we’ll see you soon.  Liz Beavis: Thanks [00:32:00] El.

Follow Brick Savage here: https://x.com/bricksavage7?s=21Follow Rami here: https://x.com/whoelsebutrami?s=21Make sure to check out Bodyslam.Net for the latest wrestling news! •Protect Your Connection Like a Champ With NordVPN!At Bodyslam.net, we know the importance of staying protected—whether you're in the ring or online. That's why we've partnered with NordVPN, the undisputed heavyweight champion of internet security, to bring our readers an exclusive deal.Unlock major savings and keep your data safe from hackers, trackers, and snooping ISPs—all while streaming wrestling content securely from anywhere in the world.Hit the link below to step into the ring with the best VPN in the business:

Follow Lara here: https://x.com/larafrazierkick?s=21Follow Rami here: https://x.com/whoelsebutrami?s=21Make sure to visit Bodyslam.Net for fhe latest wrestling news!•Protect Your Connection Like a Champ With NordVPN!At Bodyslam.net, we know the importance of staying protected—whether you're in the ring or online. That's why we've partnered with NordVPN, the undisputed heavyweight champion of internet security, to bring our readers an exclusive deal.Unlock major savings and keep your data safe from hackers, trackers, and snooping ISPs—all while streaming wrestling content securely from anywhere in the world.Hit the link below to step into the ring with the best VPN in the business:

Greetings, comrades! In Episode 2.20, we examine the sheer, terminal absurdity of the Russian Federation's bureaucratic collapse.The geopolitical gravity has inverted: Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan is now openly mocking Vladimir Putin inside the Kremlin about having functional elections and free internet. In response, the paranoid Russian state is dropping a digital Iron Curtain, exterminating regional ISPs, and forcing its population into a digital gulag before the next wave of covert mobilization hits. We dissect the "Archimedes 2026" military expo (where cadets duct-taped AK-74s to a remote-controlled river-trash collector), uncover the newly privatized corporate draft in Ryazan, and watch the Z-patriots suffer a complete psychological meltdown as the Ministry of Defense proudly announces the "complete liberation of the LNR" for the third time since 2022. The empire is out of breath, out of cash, and out of threats.Fund the Thunder:Help the Perun Unmanned Systems Battalion turn Russian armor into scrap metal with unjammable fiber-optic FPV drones. Donate to the Easter Trucks 2026 campaign here:car4ukraine.com/campaigns/easter-pysanky-trucks-2026-eastern-borderBecome our patron:https://www.patreon.com/theeasternborderMerch store + another option for memberships:https://theeasternborder-shop.fourthwall.com/Follow what's going on here in the very border of Eastern Europe on our BlueSky:@theeasternborder.lvDownload all episodes for free on our website; pictures accompanying certain episodes can be found there as well!http://theeasternborder.lv/YouTube version, as this time we have video content: (will be up eta 2 hours)https://youtu.be/KGdyRs7lVAESupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode covers the FCC's move to restrict or ban certain foreign-made networking equipment—especially routers tied to Chinese manufacturers—highlighting the potential cybersecurity risks, supply chain implications, and how the rule could affect ISPs and consumers. The hosts also discuss broader concerns around hardware trust, existing infrastructure, and what qualifies as “approved” devices under FCC guidelines, along with a brief, lighter mention of a viral robot incident making the rounds online.Join us LIVE on Mondays, 4:30pm EST.A weekly Podcast with BHIS and Friends. We discuss notable Infosec, and infosec-adjacent news stories gathered by our community news team.https://www.youtube.com/@BlackHillsInformationSecurityChat with us on Discord! - https://discord.gg/bhis

Big Tech just faced a courtroom reckoning, with Meta and Google found liable for platform "addictiveness" in a social media trial that could unleash a tidal wave of lawsuits. Find out why attorneys, entrepreneurs, and everyday users are suddenly on edge. • Social media addiction lawsuits hit Meta, Google, YouTube • Section 230 and First Amendment implications debated after court verdicts • Supreme Court sides with Cox; ISPs not liable for user piracy • Elon Musk's lawsuit over X (Twitter) ad boycotts thrown out • Anthropic versus Department of Defense: AI contracting dispute and retaliation claims • FCC's confusing foreign-made router ban and consumer tech fallout • Major supply chain attack: LiteLLM malware infects AI devs • The rise (and risks) of AI agents with voice, identity, and personification • Turing Award honors pioneers of quantum cryptography • Antimatter on the move: CERN's oddball truck experiment • Sci-fi and reality blur as Neal Stephenson walks away from the metaverse • Privacy and consent worries escalate with AI-powered recordings and surveillance • Digital shelf pricing arrives at Walmart and Kroger • Flipper Zero: voice-controlled hacking gadget gets an AI upgrade • Age verification laws create headaches for OS and app developers • Official White House app called out for surveillance and security blunders • Is AI progress barreling toward a dystopian tech future? Host: Leo Laporte Guests: Harper Reed, Brian McCullough, and Cathy Gellis Download or subscribe to This Week in Tech at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-tech Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free audio and video feeds, a members-only Discord, and exclusive content. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: doppel.com outsystems.com/twit zscaler.com/security meter.com/twit ZipRecruiter.com/twit

Big Tech just faced a courtroom reckoning, with Meta and Google found liable for platform "addictiveness" in a social media trial that could unleash a tidal wave of lawsuits. Find out why attorneys, entrepreneurs, and everyday users are suddenly on edge. • Social media addiction lawsuits hit Meta, Google, YouTube • Section 230 and First Amendment implications debated after court verdicts • Supreme Court sides with Cox; ISPs not liable for user piracy • Elon Musk's lawsuit over X (Twitter) ad boycotts thrown out • Anthropic versus Department of Defense: AI contracting dispute and retaliation claims • FCC's confusing foreign-made router ban and consumer tech fallout • Major supply chain attack: LiteLLM malware infects AI devs • The rise (and risks) of AI agents with voice, identity, and personification • Turing Award honors pioneers of quantum cryptography • Antimatter on the move: CERN's oddball truck experiment • Sci-fi and reality blur as Neal Stephenson walks away from the metaverse • Privacy and consent worries escalate with AI-powered recordings and surveillance • Digital shelf pricing arrives at Walmart and Kroger • Flipper Zero: voice-controlled hacking gadget gets an AI upgrade • Age verification laws create headaches for OS and app developers • Official White House app called out for surveillance and security blunders • Is AI progress barreling toward a dystopian tech future? Host: Leo Laporte Guests: Harper Reed, Brian McCullough, and Cathy Gellis Download or subscribe to This Week in Tech at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-tech Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free audio and video feeds, a members-only Discord, and exclusive content. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: doppel.com outsystems.com/twit zscaler.com/security meter.com/twit ZipRecruiter.com/twit

Big Tech just faced a courtroom reckoning, with Meta and Google found liable for platform "addictiveness" in a social media trial that could unleash a tidal wave of lawsuits. Find out why attorneys, entrepreneurs, and everyday users are suddenly on edge. • Social media addiction lawsuits hit Meta, Google, YouTube • Section 230 and First Amendment implications debated after court verdicts • Supreme Court sides with Cox; ISPs not liable for user piracy • Elon Musk's lawsuit over X (Twitter) ad boycotts thrown out • Anthropic versus Department of Defense: AI contracting dispute and retaliation claims • FCC's confusing foreign-made router ban and consumer tech fallout • Major supply chain attack: LiteLLM malware infects AI devs • The rise (and risks) of AI agents with voice, identity, and personification • Turing Award honors pioneers of quantum cryptography • Antimatter on the move: CERN's oddball truck experiment • Sci-fi and reality blur as Neal Stephenson walks away from the metaverse • Privacy and consent worries escalate with AI-powered recordings and surveillance • Digital shelf pricing arrives at Walmart and Kroger • Flipper Zero: voice-controlled hacking gadget gets an AI upgrade • Age verification laws create headaches for OS and app developers • Official White House app called out for surveillance and security blunders • Is AI progress barreling toward a dystopian tech future? Host: Leo Laporte Guests: Harper Reed, Brian McCullough, and Cathy Gellis Download or subscribe to This Week in Tech at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-tech Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free audio and video feeds, a members-only Discord, and exclusive content. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: doppel.com outsystems.com/twit zscaler.com/security meter.com/twit ZipRecruiter.com/twit

Big Tech just faced a courtroom reckoning, with Meta and Google found liable for platform "addictiveness" in a social media trial that could unleash a tidal wave of lawsuits. Find out why attorneys, entrepreneurs, and everyday users are suddenly on edge. • Social media addiction lawsuits hit Meta, Google, YouTube • Section 230 and First Amendment implications debated after court verdicts • Supreme Court sides with Cox; ISPs not liable for user piracy • Elon Musk's lawsuit over X (Twitter) ad boycotts thrown out • Anthropic versus Department of Defense: AI contracting dispute and retaliation claims • FCC's confusing foreign-made router ban and consumer tech fallout • Major supply chain attack: LiteLLM malware infects AI devs • The rise (and risks) of AI agents with voice, identity, and personification • Turing Award honors pioneers of quantum cryptography • Antimatter on the move: CERN's oddball truck experiment • Sci-fi and reality blur as Neal Stephenson walks away from the metaverse • Privacy and consent worries escalate with AI-powered recordings and surveillance • Digital shelf pricing arrives at Walmart and Kroger • Flipper Zero: voice-controlled hacking gadget gets an AI upgrade • Age verification laws create headaches for OS and app developers • Official White House app called out for surveillance and security blunders • Is AI progress barreling toward a dystopian tech future? Host: Leo Laporte Guests: Harper Reed, Brian McCullough, and Cathy Gellis Download or subscribe to This Week in Tech at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-tech Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free audio and video feeds, a members-only Discord, and exclusive content. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: doppel.com outsystems.com/twit zscaler.com/security meter.com/twit ZipRecruiter.com/twit

Big Tech just faced a courtroom reckoning, with Meta and Google found liable for platform "addictiveness" in a social media trial that could unleash a tidal wave of lawsuits. Find out why attorneys, entrepreneurs, and everyday users are suddenly on edge. • Social media addiction lawsuits hit Meta, Google, YouTube • Section 230 and First Amendment implications debated after court verdicts • Supreme Court sides with Cox; ISPs not liable for user piracy • Elon Musk's lawsuit over X (Twitter) ad boycotts thrown out • Anthropic versus Department of Defense: AI contracting dispute and retaliation claims • FCC's confusing foreign-made router ban and consumer tech fallout • Major supply chain attack: LiteLLM malware infects AI devs • The rise (and risks) of AI agents with voice, identity, and personification • Turing Award honors pioneers of quantum cryptography • Antimatter on the move: CERN's oddball truck experiment • Sci-fi and reality blur as Neal Stephenson walks away from the metaverse • Privacy and consent worries escalate with AI-powered recordings and surveillance • Digital shelf pricing arrives at Walmart and Kroger • Flipper Zero: voice-controlled hacking gadget gets an AI upgrade • Age verification laws create headaches for OS and app developers • Official White House app called out for surveillance and security blunders • Is AI progress barreling toward a dystopian tech future? Host: Leo Laporte Guests: Harper Reed, Brian McCullough, and Cathy Gellis Download or subscribe to This Week in Tech at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-tech Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free audio and video feeds, a members-only Discord, and exclusive content. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: doppel.com outsystems.com/twit zscaler.com/security meter.com/twit ZipRecruiter.com/twit

One batch file flatlined an entire school district's network. That was 1994, in a town so small you could drive fifteen minutes and see nothing but the curvature of the earth. By sixteen he was building one of Wyoming's first ISPs, and by 1996 he had already founded a Red Team. Then came twenty three years as a DEF CON goon, followed by an offensive security practice that scaled to 132 pen testers and nearly forty million dollars a year. He has breached security inside Ferrari dealerships, biolabs, and financial trading floors. If it had a lock, a network, a password, or a perimeter, Pyr0 found a way through it. Now he lives off grid in the mountains of Northern Colorado, running ham radio on solar, raising chickens, and still pulling sixty hour weeks breaking into things that were never supposed to be breakable. And this year, he's building something new. A conference on the beach at Carolina Beach, NC that is dedicated to preserving the stories and the history of hacking before they're lost to time.TIMESTAMPS00:00 Introduction and Background09:44 Life Off-Grid: The Journey19:10 Introducing naclcon: A Community-Driven Conference26:55 Conference Planning and Logistics32:10 Badge Life and Unique Experiences37:03 Celebrating Hacker Culture and History39:04 Organizational Challenges and Insights42:00 Creating a Unique Conference Experience47:12 The Vision for a Cybersecurity BarLINKS[NaClCon Official Website] – https://naclcon.com Main website for NaClCon where users can register, book accommodations, and access full event details.[NaC Con Contact Email] – mailto:info@naclcon.com Official support email for inquiries about the conference, including registration and partnerships.[Pyr0 (Luke McOmie) Email] – mailto:pyr0303@gmail.com Direct contact for sponsorships, collaborations, and communication with the event organizer.[Fat Pelican – Carolina Beach] – https://fatpelican.com – Iconic dive bar on the Carolina Beach boardwalk highlighted as a must-visit during NaClCon.[Red Helm] – https://redhelm.com – Pyr0's company where he serves as VP of Offensive Security.[DEFCON] – https://defcon.org – The world's largest hacking conference where Pyr0 spent 23 years as a senior goon and founded SkyTalks.[SkyTalks at DEFCON] – https://skytalks.info – The off-the-record talk track at DEFCON founded by Pyr0.[Dual Core] – https://dualcoremusic.com – Nerdcore hip-hop artist performing live at NaClCon's Concert at Sea.

When a popular antivirus and even Notepad++ turn into infection vectors after supply chain breaches, it's clear no software is safe from attack—or from its own update system. Steve and Leo unpack the risks hiding right inside your next auto-update. An anti-virus system infects its own users. Apple's next iOS release "fuzzes" cellular locations. cURL discontinues bug bounties under bogus AI flood. AI discovers and fixes 15 CVE-worthy 0-days in OpenSSL. Ireland did NOT already pass their spying legislation. AI irreversibly deletes all project files. Says it's sorry. Windows has a serious global clipboard security problem. ISPs have the ability to monetize their subscriber's identities. MongoDB has lowered the hacking skill level bar to the floor Show Notes - https://www.grc.com/sn/SN-1063-Notes.pdf Hosts: Steve Gibson and Leo Laporte Download or subscribe to Security Now at https://twit.tv/shows/security-now. You can submit a question to Security Now at the GRC Feedback Page. For 16kbps versions, transcripts, and notes (including fixes), visit Steve's site: grc.com, also the home of the best disk maintenance and recovery utility ever written Spinrite 6. Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free audio and video feeds, a members-only Discord, and exclusive content. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: threatlocker.com/twit meter.com/securitynow bitwarden.com/twit material.security guardsquare.com