Podcasts about mvp

Agnes Malatinszky is the Founder of Senga, which takes care of back-office administrative needs for freelancers, contractors, and solopreneurs. Victoria and Will interview Agnes about the thoughtbot Incubator program and what led Agnes to choose to apply, what the demands on her time were like, how it worked, and how she feels now that she's at the end of the program. Senga (https://www.senga.app/) Follow Senga on Twitter (https://twitter.com/wistia) or join their Discord (https://discord.com/invite/53TUyaY7pS). Follow Agnes Malatinszky on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/agnes-malatinszky/) or Twitter (https://twitter.com/agnesmalatin). Follow thoughtbot on Twitter (https://twitter.com/thoughtbot) or LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/150727/). Become a Sponsor (https://thoughtbot.com/sponsorship) of Giant Robots! Transcript: WILL: This is the Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots Podcast, where we explore the design, development, and business of great products. I'm your host, Will Larry. VICTORIA: I'm your other host, Victoria Guido. And with me today is Agnes Malatinszky, Founder of Senga, providing back-end support for freelancers. Agnes, thank you for joining me. AGNES: Hey, it's a pleasure to be here. VICTORIA: You are the first graduate of thoughtbot's incubator program, and I'm really excited to dive into that with you today. So, before we get started in talking about the incubator program, let's just start with what fun thing do you have going on this week? AGNES: I'm based in Washington, D.C., and it's a beautiful time of year here. Early summer, late spring is gorgeous. So I'm excited because my family and I are actually headed out to Harpers Ferry this weekend for a little hike. So I'm looking forward to that. WILL: So, what is...when you say a hike, can you explain it to anybody that's outside of the D.C. area? AGNES: It's just a beautiful area in West Virginia. And we're going to take our dog and my daughter out there and get some fresh air and walk around. There's a little historic town there as well that's really interesting to explore. WILL: That sounds fun. VICTORIA: Yeah. I've been to Harpers Ferry to go floating, like, on the river. AGNES: Yes. VICTORIA: Where you float down the river in inner tubes and drink beverages. [laughter] There's also...there's rock climbing in Harpers Ferry too, which is sometimes closed for bird nesting. So it is really beautiful. AGNES: Ooh, I didn't know that. That's really cool. We'll keep an eye out for that. WILL: Yes. For anybody that doesn't know, Victoria is an amazing rock climber. I have a lot of respect for her because I don't know if I could do it. [laughter] VICTORIA: You could definitely do it. The next thoughtbot trip that we're on, we'll go rock climbing, Will. I'm confident in your skills. You could do it. Yes, I'm a big rock climber and rock-climbing advocate, so I'll talk about it forever if you let me. WILL: [laughs] VICTORIA: And I'm actually going to go rock climbing this weekend and get outside myself. And we're going up to Mammoth, California. And we're going to do a half-climbing, half-ski trip. WILL: Ooh. VICTORIA: So that's going to be fun for Memorial Day weekend, so...What about you, Will? What do you have going on fun this week? WILL: Yeah. So you said skiing. VICTORIA: Yes. So Mammoth got the most snow in the country this year. When we were there in February, they'd already had, like, 10 feet of snow. And then they got another foot of snow while we were there, so they're going to have snow through August, at least. WILL: August. Wow. Here in South Florida, the lowest we got was 50. So snow, I don't even know what you're talking about. [laughs] Yeah, so you asked what I'm going to do. Last week was a big week for us because my boys they turned four years old and one year old. And we took them to Disney and had a blast. Anybody who's been to Disney knows it's a trip. It could be a lot, especially it was very hot there too. So I think this weekend we're just going to take it easy. We're just going to relax and just enjoy it. VICTORIA: Trip of a lifetime for them, I'm sure. WILL: Yes, they loved it. VICTORIA: We have Disneyland over here in California. I have been to Disney World in Florida. But I still haven't been to Disneyland since I've been here, [laughs] which I think some people would judge me for. AGNES: You know what? I haven't been to either. I hold it against my parents forever. [laughter] Although my family is not a big fan of crowds, so I think that's why. WILL: Yes, if you're not a fan of crowds, Disney is not the place, especially now. I've heard around September is probably the best time to go. So we're going to try that out during that time too. AGNES: Ooh, protip. You heard it here first. WILL: Yes. [laughs] VICTORIA: September, Disneyland, Florida sounds very warm to me. [laughs] But yeah, we're actually going to go to Mexico with thoughtbot as a team meetup in September, which is also going to be pretty warm, I think. [laughs] But it'll be fun. Well, that's lovely. I love getting to hear a little bit about your lives before we dig into your business. Agnes, I'm super excited to hear about Senga. But maybe start with just a little bit about your background before you started. AGNES: I had been thinking about starting my own business for a while. I am an immigrant, and I come from an entrepreneurial family. Actually, my mom ran her own translation business back in Hungary, and now she's a really successful artist. So, you know, I had support from them and my husband as well to sort of try out something new. But, in my last role, I was actually Chief Operating Officer at an EdTech company that had scaled to serve over 80% of U.S. schools during the pandemic. And I was at that company for about five years and had seen the full arc of, you know, startup to a mature organization. So I was ready to take on a new challenge and to learn something new. WILL: You mentioned that your mom was an entrepreneur. And my dad was an entrepreneur, also. He had his own electric and HVAC business, and I learned so much from him. Is there anything that you can just, like, ooh, I learned this and this from my mom as a kid, looking at your mom being an entrepreneur? AGNES: I mean, she is just a, you know, fix-it person in every sense of the word. So she will fix an electric outlet. She will fix something with her business. WILL: [laughs] AGNES: She's just, like, really good at getting her hands dirty and being really scrappy. And I think that's a really important skill to have, you know, especially in a startup, and especially when you're starting out and still on your own. VICTORIA: So, what did your parents say when you told them you were going to start out on your own and build your own company? AGNES: They were really encouraging. They, you know, they keep up with all my LinkedIn posts, and they read everything I publish. So they're just very supportive and the best cheerleaders I could possibly hope for. [laughs] WILL: Did stepping out and starting your business did anything scare you in that area? AGNES: Oh my gosh, every day, something new. It's all just uncertainty and risk at this point. You know, I'm very, very early in my startup journey, so literally every question about the business I have to test. I have to find answers for. And that ranges everything from, you know, business formation to, you know, the nuts and bolts of getting the business organized and setting up financials, and the legal structure for the company, to figuring out what the product is going to be. So all this uncertainty is definitely a little bit nerve-racking. VICTORIA: And I'm wondering, what about your past experience as a Chief Operations Officer led you to want to build a product like Senga? AGNES: So being a Chief Operating Officer, I think one of the things that I really learned was that in order for a business to be really successful, and for people working at that company to be really successful, they have to have the organization's support to do what they do best. You know, what I used to tell my operations team was that you know, we were really the plumbers of the organization, making sure that everything ran smoothly behind the scenes. So, actually, that was one of the inspirations for Senga, for my current company, this idea that freelancers and independent workers don't have that support. They don't necessarily have somebody helping them with HR, and with financials, and with legal stuff, and with everything else that goes into running a business, whether you're a business of 1 or a business of 100. And that's really where I wanted to come in and, you know, support independent workers. VICTORIA: One follow-up question for Agnes on your experience in the COO role. I believe your team also had a lot of background in the freelancing world. So you had people you could ask questions to and start to understand that market. Is that right? AGNES: Yeah. Like a lot of businesses, I guess we had, you know, freelancers and contract workers that we relied on. And that's increasingly true for most companies now, I would say. There's specialized roles. There is seasonal roles that you don't necessarily hire full-time employees for but that are perfect for somebody, you know, on a temporary basis or somebody with more specialized skills. So you're exactly right; being able to tap into that network and having had experience working with freelancers and contractors was really helpful coming into the incubator and having people to tap for interviews and for input. VICTORIA: Great. And then, what is the thoughtbot incubator, which we've mentioned a few times already? It is for a non-technical founding team with a business idea that involves a web or a mobile app. It's an eight-week program that helps you get the proof points you need in order to move forward with confidence. So I'm curious, Agnes, what led you to choose the thoughtbot incubator Program as something you wanted to apply to? AGNES: I mean, it's exactly what you named. So this incubator program was really a perfect launching pad for me. It's designed for non-technical founders, like myself, to get their own dedicated team of product and dev experts to, you know, like, hone customer discovery practice, create a product strategy, run proof of concept experiments. And, you know, these were exactly the areas where I lacked skills and expertise the most. So I had actually looked at other incubators and even some venture studios before, but those models were not as good of a fit for me. I was really excited to find and to be able to join thoughtbot's incubator program. MID-ROLL AD: Now that you have funding, it's time to design, build and ship the most impactful MVP that wows customers now and can scale in the future. thoughtbot Lift Off brings you the most reliable cross-functional team of product experts to mitigate risk and set you up for long-term success. As your trusted, experienced technical partner, we'll help launch your new product and guide you into a future-forward business that takes advantage of today's new technologies and agile best practices. Make the right decisions for tomorrow, today. Get in touch at: thoughtbot.com/liftoff. WILL: What was the original idea behind Senga? AGNES: The idea that I came into the incubator with and then the pain points that we honed in on during the incubator, and then the long-term vision for the company are all kind of a little bit different. So I'll zoom out first to the sort of 30,000-foot view of this. So, coming into the incubator, I had been reading and researching a lot about some macro trends that I think are really interesting, and these are trends that many of us are keeping an eye on. So they're nothing revolutionary, but I think they're going to create some really interesting problems to solve in the next couple of years. So the first one is the rise of independent workers, or contractors, or freelancers. I'm kind of going to use these terms interchangeably. In recent years, the number of independent workers has shot up like crazy. There are already over 65 million independent workers in the U.S., and this number is growing by about 25% annually. And then, add to this that economic downturns tend to grow this number even more. You know, this makes up about a third of the workforce in the U.S. already, and it's growing. The second thing is that you know, the fact that early-career folks, especially Gen Z, really like the independence and autonomy that comes with this type of work. Over half of Gen Z already freelance, and the majority want to make independent work their career. In other words, they explicitly do not want to work for a company in the traditional sense. And then, third, there's kind of a mishmash of factors that I'll lump into one bullet that additionally drive up this type of work, which is that, increasingly, jobs are going to be skills-based, not degree-based, and all work, even white-collar work, will become more modular. Both tech advances and even, I think, novel organizational structures are going to make it possible for people to hyper-specialize and to plug into different organizations at different times, and, you know, even simultaneously to perform that specialized work. So take all this together, and what I'm really seeing is that the current market offerings serving freelancers and contractors are not nearly enough to meet all their needs, which is driving huge inefficiency. The types of companies that cater to this segment now or, you know, there's mature marketplaces like Upwork, and Fiverr, and some earlier-stage companies that do, you know, more workflow and back office. But I'm not seeing a comprehensive solution, and that's driving like I said, a lot of inefficiency. So, ultimately, being a freelancer is still really hard. Only about 50% of a freelancer's time is spent on billable work. And so this is what I really want to solve. VICTORIA: And did anything change through the incubator process? AGNES: So the biggest thing I found during the incubator was actually a really good entry point into this market. So startup wisdom says that you have to narrow down your product to a super tight segment that has a very strong, like, yes to your product. So, during the course of the eight weeks that I did the incubator, we did a ton of interviews, and I was really on the lookout for big spikes and pain points that repeated for a specific niche of freelancers. And that's exactly what we ended up finding. There's lots of nuance to this, but generally speaking, people new to freelancing and those that are just looking to get started need help getting started in a more manageable way and then setting up good practices that will serve them in the long run. WILL: You mentioned those practices that helps them set them up in the long run. Are you talking about mostly the operation, so, like, anything that's non-billable for a client? AGNES: Exactly, yeah. So that's kind of how I think about the work is anything that's billable and then anything that's non-billable. So that includes client management, client communication, marketing themselves, finding, you know, new work, so drumming up new business, all the back-office financials, back-office legal and admin stuff. All these other things that traditionally would be, you know, done by, you know, an operations team at a big company, but, for freelancers, they have to do it themselves. WILL: Yeah, I love that idea because my spouse she dipped her toe into the freelance world. And I felt like the operations kind of overcame everything else. And so it almost felt like the operations was taking over the job. But it's one of those things I feel like we didn't really think through of how much work that that 50% is. Like, how much work do you have to do, which are taxes, operations, speaking to clients, even to get to the things that people usually love, like the design, the software development? So I'm excited about this product. AGNES: Yeah, exactly. And that's kind of what I kept hearing again and again in interviews with all sorts of different freelancers because we went out and interviewed folks from, you know, everywhere from graphic design, to UX/UI design, to web developers, to other types of creatives, content creators. And this idea that they all get into freelancing to pursue their passion, the thing that they're uniquely good at. But then end up spending a huge chunk of their time on, you know, things that they're not really specialized in, you know, basically running their business. VICTORIA: What types of experiments did you run while you were in the incubator program with the people you mentioned you're talking to? And what were the demands on your time really like? AGNES: Oh, so the program is between 20 to 40 hours a week. I had a chance to meet with my thoughtbot team daily. We had independent work time, also breakout sessions. Like you said, a lot of that time was spent doing interviews and running all sorts of different experiments, so discovery interviews, interviews showing the prototype once we had it to interviewees. But we also set up Google Ads. We created a landing page with various calls to action. And then based on who was coming through the landing page and what they were doing on the site, we had all sorts of, you know, lessons that we could take away from that. And then another piece of it was I also learned how to basically start building out an organic community around this problem and from, you know, the community of freelancers, which is so important to have, like, for a future user base and also to be able to continue to engage with my target audience. WILL: Was there anything that surprised you about the program, or did you have any interesting findings coming out of the program? AGNES: One thing I learned through the program was that you know, there are concrete steps that you can take and a process that you can follow to build out a strong business that solves real problems for people. And that's really what this program and this incubator is focused on, is to teach you those skills to go through those early steps. You know, everything that I had read before about startups they're kind of clouded in mystery. And, you know, the big ones that end up being really successful tend to be mythologized, and founder stories tend to have these, like, big eureka moments in them, where the founder had their big idea that led to the big company. But really, at the early stage, it's pretty messy. And nevertheless, you have these steps that you can follow and processes that you can follow to build out the company. VICTORIA: And how are you feeling now at the end of the program? AGNES: I feel really excited and, frankly, more confident than I came into the program. So, you know, I'm leaving here with lots of good data, lots of good anecdotal evidence, having had dozens and dozens of conversations with my target market. So, for me, that's a really great feeling to know that my ideas they don't just exist in the abstract in my head but that we've bounced them against the universe and confirmed that folks are having the pain points that we expected and some that we did not expect. And that there is an opportunity around this. WILL: So, what could be done better about the incubator program from your perspective? AGNES: It was a great program, and that's a pretty hard question to answer. But, you know, I would selfishly say make it longer. Eight weeks is, by design, you know, a pretty short time to get started. And that's really what the program is designed to do is to get you started, to set you up with good practices and good tools. But, again, selfishly, I wish it were a little bit longer, so I can stick around and have the thoughtbot team around me. And then I just look forward to building more of a community as more founders join thoughtbot's incubator every quarter. We have a shared Slack channel that I'm going to continue hanging out in and that I've been told the new founders, as well, will be added to. So I'm looking forward to getting to meet them and to, you know, hear about their experience as well. VICTORIA: What's coming up next for you in the next six months? AGNES: So I'm talking to a couple of potential partners in the next couple of weeks, which might kind of change the roadmap slightly. But, basically, this summer and fall, I'm building out a lot of the content and the prototype for Senga. Again, continuing to talk to the freelancers I've been continuing to talk to. I'm also putting together sort of, like, an advisory committee of freelancers I've met along the way who had a strong yes sort of reaction to this product. And then my goal is that by fall or winter, I'll be able to start building out an MVP. WILL: That's exciting. AGNES: Yeah, I'm really excited. [laughs] WILL: Your dream is finally coming true, so, yeah, you have something to be excited about. [laughs] Do you have any advice for any other founders? AGNES: I guess I don't know how qualified I feel to be, you know, handing out advice as a brand-new founder. But, overall, I would encourage others out there who are interested in taking this path to, you know, really take a risk and to bet on themselves. What I've found in the last couple of months is that there are so many supportive communities, and founder groups, and entrepreneur groups. And this is kind of common advice, and everybody says this, but there's really no way you can fully prepare. You just kind of have to start doing. And at least from what I've seen, that's the secret sauce to this early stage is to keep doing and to keep going from one step to the next every day. VICTORIA: If you could travel back in time and give yourself advice from when before this all started, what advice would you give yourself? AGNES: I would just encourage myself to, you know, take the plunge and maybe even go down this path sooner. You know, I feel really confident where I'm at now in terms of my career and my, you know, support networks and everything. But being able to go back and start experimenting earlier and start going down this path earlier might have even set me up better. WILL: One thing when you're starting a startup is funding. Are you looking for any funding? AGNES: Not urgently, but I'm definitely interested in talking to others working and investing in this space. So, you know, if any of your listeners are investors or entrepreneurs in a similar space, I would love to talk to them. WILL: Yeah. So, how could they reach you if they wanted to reach out to you? AGNES: You can reach me by email at hello@senga.app, or you can find us on LinkedIn at Senga. VICTORIA: You can subscribe to the show and find notes along with a complete transcript for this episode at giantrobots.fm. If you have questions or comments, email us at hosts@giantrobots.fm. You could find me on Twitter @victori_ousg. WILL: And you can find me on Twitter @will23larry. This podcast is brought to you by thoughtbot and produced and edited by Mandy Moore. Thanks for listening. See you next time. ANNOUNCER: This podcast is brought to you by thoughtbot, your expert strategy, design, development, and product management partner. We bring digital products from idea to success and teach you how because we care. Learn more at thoughtbot.com. Special Guest: Agnes Malatinszky.

Identify & Engage Your Stakeholders - What is the difference between a Key Stakeholder, Stakeholder, and Interested Party? There are in essence 4 categories these stakeholders fall into: Promoters — high influence, high interest (upper right quadrant). Promoters are vital for success, and thus active engagement with this group is important to keep them informed. This group often influences others in the organization. Observers — high influence, low interest (upper left quadrant). These stakeholders can potentially pose a risk to product/project success. Monitor this group and keep them informed on progress, successes, upcoming goals, impacts and vision. Ideally some or all in this group can eventually be influenced in such a way that they become Promoters. Defenders — low influence, high interest (lower right quadrant). Defenders can help you build momentum for the product/project. They are often willing to give you feedback on prototypes and MVP's. Nurture this group. Sedentaries — low influence, low interest (lower left quadrant). Since these stakeholders are potential defenders, keep them in the loop, with an eye toward helping them see “What's in it for me.” Seek to build excitement among this group. How to connect with AgileDad: - [website] ⁠https://www.agiledad.com/⁠ - [instagram] ⁠https://www.instagram.com/agile_coach/⁠ - [facebook] ⁠https://www.facebook.com/RealAgileDad/⁠ - [Linkedin] ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/leehenson/⁠

Dylan Tyrer catches up with CBJ 2021 5th round pick, and Quebec Remparts forward, James Malatesta after winning the Memorial Cup and taking home MVP honors. They discuss James' run through the postseason, his plans for the summer and turning pro.

Carl & Klemmer break down this weeks NL Headlines. From the Reds talent surge to MVP candidates and under the radar players. We have something no all 15 teams in a continued effort to Stay Balanced. National League Headlines - Week 11 00:00:00-00:02:09 - Intro 00:02:09-00:05:30 - Mets 00:05:30-00:10:30 - Braves 00:10:30-00:17:15 - Marlins 00:17:17-00:21:30 - Phillies & Nationals 00:21:35-00:21:55 - Cubs 00:21:55-00:22:29 - Brewers 00:22:29-00:23:00 - Pirates 00:23:00-00:25:50 - Cardinals 00:26:05-00:35:25 - Reds 00:35:25-00:38:32 - Dodgers 00:38:32-00:41:20 - Padres 00:41:20-00:45:50 - Diamondbacks 00:45:50-00:50:05 - Giants 00:56:55-01:15:50 - Team HOF 01:15:50-01:16:51 - Weekend Live ShowYou can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/barstoolbaseball

On this episode of the MVP, the gang discusses NDA culture. Gunplay enters into Ross & Envy's beef, Gunna drops a “diss” track, Rapper Chika goes on a Twitter rant about Zonnique Pullins' children and Blueface  grants his top baby mama the title of babysitter. All this & more on another episode of the Mixed Vibez Podcast. FOLLOW. SUBSCRIBE. SHARE. Facebook www.facebook.com/mixedvibezYouTube https://youtube.com/@mixedvibezmediaTikTokhttps://www.tiktok.com/@mixedvibezmedia?_t=8aEYresFfkw&_r=1

FULL SHOW NOTES https://podcast.nz365guy.com/456 Miguel Verweij talks about his family background, interests and hobbies and shares that he enjoys reading The Economist during his spare time.  Listeners can gain insights into Miguel's journey and learn how he built his career in the Power Platform industry. Miguel shares his journey from being a citizen developer to becoming a full Power Platform solution architect, and how he started his freelance consultancy earlier this year. Miguel Verweij talks about his experience using the Microsoft Power Platform and how he used the platform to learn about new topics and ultimately got nominated for and won an award within a year. Miguel explains why he's a fan of Power Automate and why he finds it easier to work with than some of the other tools within the platform.  He also talks about the democratization of technology and how the Power Platform helps make technology more accessible to everyone. Miguel shares his insights on the different tools within the platform, including Power Apps, Automate, BI, Virtual Agents, and Power Pages and the benefits of cloud-based development and how it can make it easier to build solutions. Miguel shares his experience of being a part of the MVP community and how it has helped him to enhance his technical skills, gain access to exclusive Microsoft resources, and expand his network. OTHER RESOURCES: Microsoft MVP YouTube Series - How to Become a Microsoft MVP  90-Day Mentoring Challenge - https://ako.nz365guy.com/ GitHub: https://github.com/miguelverweij AgileXRM AgileXRm - The integrated BPM for Microsoft Power PlatformSupport the showIf you want to get in touch with me, you can message me here on Linkedin.Thanks for listening

This week's episode includes a special guest! Rheannon's childhood friend joins the podcast to share her historically accurate perspective. A one day trip to Missoula is a rough trip for Rheannon. There was not accurate prep or nearly enough water. Traveling with kids can be rough at times, but you can't win the real MVP of road tripping with children if you haven't caught throw up in your bare hands. Tamara found herself in an awkward discussion of best way to go about sharing a bagel. The cats in Rheannon's life are adjusting to being outside cats. Tamara was too tired to kill or escort outside a spider, so she found herself keeping an eye on a spider while she brushed her teeth. Much like this episode it goes downhill fast. 

On the 252nd episode of the Underdog Sports NBA show, Tyler and Zandrick discuss the first two games of the NBA finals , starting with Miami's tough game 2 victory. They discuss if the Heat's historic shooting can continue and if Denver should be concerned. They then discuss Nikola Jokic's impact on the series and his chances of being MVP if Denver did not win the series. They then discuss some coaching hires and some early early NBA draft talk, including the battle for the number 2 pick.

This week TMPT welcomes into the show for the flagship episode, former WWF, WCW, ECW, and Omega Superstar, Marty Garner. The man formerly known as Cham-Pain joins the show to talk about his entire professional wrestling career. Host John Poz and Marty talk about breaking into the business, OMEGA, The Hardy Boys, WWF, Vince McMahon, Tripe H, Botched Pedigree, Paul Heyman, ECW, The Dupps, being the Rock's assistant, Johnny Ace, WWE, MVP, and so much more!The best and easy way to win money is playing fantasy! Join @underdogfantasy today (underdogfantasy.com) and enter the promo code POWERTRIP to double your deposit. Then all you have to do is pick a game, guess higher or lower on or draft your team; then sit back, relax & watch the money roll in!Underdog Fantasy Promo Code: POWERTRIPStore - Teepublic.com/stores/TMPTFollow us @TwoManPowerTrip on Twitter and IG

Joe Giglio and Tucker Bagley discuss what Jalen Hurts needs to do in 2023 to win MVP and take the Eagles back to the Super Bowl. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Shoutout to all the Discord members! Dunn scares Drew. Miami Heat win Game 2 helping positively extend our football offseason. Nikola Jokic is becoming Drew's favorite player of all time after watching 3 of his games.  Trevor Lawrence is poised for an MVP season. Best of the NFC North. Dunn and Drew compete in a sports player Spelling Bee with an intense ending.  Subscribe to our Patreon for $5 at Patreon.com/dunnanddrew to join the Dunn and Drew Community!  --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/dunn-and-drew/message

Recorded - 6/3/2023 On Episode 225 of the Almost Sideways Movie Podcast, we review the latest trip into the Spider-Verse as the animated version of the franchise debuts their latest hit. Then, we go back 25 years to the Best Picture winner in 1998 by deep diving Shakespeare in Love. Here are the highlights: What We've Been Watching (10:00) Todd Review: Godsend (14:00) Zach Review: The Starling Girl (18:00) Terry Review: Barry finale (21:20) Featured Review: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse 25th Anniversary Deep Dive: Shakespeare in Love (40:00) Trivia (54:20) First Impressions (1:04:00) Mt Rushmore: Best Picture Winners with Lead Acting Snubs (1:16:30) Recasting (1:29:50) Highest WAR, Worst Performance, Minor Character (1:46:00) Stickman, Douchebag, Scene, Regal Quote (1:58:40) Gripes and Conspiracies (2:04:30) LVP, MVP, Quote of the Day Find AlmostSideways everywhere! Website almostsideways.com Facebook https://www.facebook.com/AlmostSidewayscom-130953353614569/ AlmostSideways Twitter: @almostsideways Terry's Twitter: @almostsideterry Zach's Twitter: @pro_zach36 Todd: Too Cool for Twitter Adam's Twitter: @adamsideways Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/almostsideways-podcast/id1270959022 Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/7oVcx7Y9U2Bj2dhTECzZ4m Stitcher https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/almost-sideways-movie-podcast YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfEoLqGyjn9M5Mr8umWiktA/featured?view_as=subscriber

00:00 What was the key to the Heat evening the series against Denver? 22:21 Who wins Game 3: Heat or Nuggets? 51:25 Should the Nuggets have called a timeout on the last play? 1:00:56 Micah Parsons compares the Cowboys defense to the 2000 Ravens. Thoughts? 1:14:39 Who was the MVP for the Heat in Game 2? 1:22:44 Ok with Michael Malone ripping his team after Game 2? 1:34:28 What was the key to the Heat evening the series? Eddie House joins the show to debate 1:47:32 Is Frank Vogel a good fit for KD, Booker and the Suns? 1:52:38 Terrell Davis' reaction to Jimmy Butler three goes viral Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Cousin Sal and the Degenerate Trifecta start off the week by jumping right into an NBA recap as the Heat even up the series going back to Miami. They break down what went wrong for Denver and what they need to do to get back on track in Miami. Next, they move on to the NHL where TPK suffered a betache in Game 1, before moving on to their picks for tonight's matchup in Game 2. With the Yankees winning their series against the Dodgers, the crew discusses Aaron Judge's greatness before they switch over to the Mets coming off getting swept by the Blue Jays, then give out an updated MVP pick. Finally, they close it out with a debate over who's the best bettor out of the crew. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We reveal the winners (and losers) for all 7 categories: MVP. Most Improved Player. Best signing. Best Greek Player. Goal of the Season. Coat of the season. Favourite Podcast or Podcast Moment of the Season. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/gate7/support

ESPN Houston radio host and longtime listener Jake Asman joins the pod for the first time to discuss Vince fumbling the bag, Billy Walsh's MVP sales pitch to E & Drama and our shared love for Dana Gordon. Enjoy! Check out the Jake Asman Show Follow Oh Yeah, Oh Yeah on TikTokFollow Oh Yeah, Oh Yeah on IGFollow Oh Yeah, Oh Yeah on Twitter Listen to the Oh Yeah, Oh Yeah Spotify playlist --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ohyeahohyeah/support

The boys are back after a rowdy game 2 in Denver. Are the Heat now the favorite for the NBA finals? How can Denver rebound? Plus, we talk the latest with the MLB. Who's the AL MVP so far? Can Arraez win the MVP? We answer these questions as well as lament on some glaring issues in college sports. Let the kids play! Enjoy and hit ya free throws!

On this episode, Dev walks back his terrible Ed Sheeran take and talks about his vasectomy process, including the breakdown of collecting the sample. Then, they talk about The Weeknd potentially rebranding to his government name and what that could mean musically. We then finish up with Worst Take including a brief feeling on the Nick Nurse hiring, finals predictions, and Vin with a SHOCKING take on who should've gotten an MVP vote.  As always, like, subscribe, rate, and share, wherever you get your podcasts. Enjoy! Instagram: @basementwiththeboys // @devinntoughill // @_williamgregory // @vinny_1020 Twitter: @BWTBoysPod // @devinntoughill Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@basementwiththeboys7834

Will Lou and Alex Wong recap Game 1 of the NBA Finals (3:30) and ask other important questions including: will Jimmy Butler wear his “Four More” shirt for the rest of the series if the Heat are swept, will Mark Jackson acknowledge not including Nikola Jokic on his MVP ballot during the Finals, if Bobby Webster has ever been aggregated online, what a Stephen A. Smith basketball variety show titled “Will's World” would look like, and whether the Nuggets have any actual celebrity fans. Later, the two discuss Premier League kits (53:22), Nick Nurse's introductory presser in Philadelphia (57:05), provide another update on the Raptors' coaching search (1:17:27), before diving into a Nuggets-themed Basketball Reference game (1:34:32). The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Sports & Media or any affiliates.

00:00 Still convinced the Heat can win the finals after Game 1 loss? Is Jokic playing like the best player in the world? 17:15 Surprised that Jimmy Butler had a down night? /Is Jamal Murray underrated? 31:04 Expect James Harden to be in Philly next year? 36:46 Adam Silver says the NBA has "uncovered a fair amount of additional information" on Ja Morant 45:53 Bigger Game 1 dud for Heat: Butler or role players? /Is it too early for sweep talk? 56:01 SI predicts the Bengals win the Super Bowl and Joe Burrow is the MVP. Disrespectful to Mahomes and Chiefs? 1:02:12 Nick's NBA Medals /Josh Allen rumored to be Madden 24 cover athlete Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

00:00 How did Nuggets take control of Game 1? 23:11 Aaron Rodgers says "I won MVP without doing offseason workouts" in Green Bay 34:44 Was this a bad Jimmy Butler playoff performance? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's game 56 of the 2023 season and the Cleveland Guardians bullpen falters in an 7-6 loss vs. the Minnesota Twins. On today's show we're talking about Stephen and Morgan blowing the game late, lead-off walks leading to runs, the Guards great rally in the 6th, and naming our MVP for the Day. If you want to share your thoughts on anything Cleveland baseball you can find me on Twitter @daveyberris, you can email the show ClevelandBaseballMornings@gmail.com, or leave a message on the Spotify app and we'll play it back on the show. Merchandise is available at ⁠⁠⁠https://clevelandbaseballmornings.myspreadshop.com/⁠⁠⁠ for T-shirts, Hoodies, Coffee Mugs, and More!!! --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/clevelandbaseballmornings/message

00:00 How did Nuggets take control of Game 1? 23:32 Adam Silver says the NBA has "uncovered a fair amount of additional information" on Ja Morant / Who wins Game 2? 57:29 Aaron Rodgers: "I won MVP without doing offseason workouts" in GB 1:09:15 Grade for Playoff Jimmy's Game 1 performance? 1:20:40 Celtics announce that Joe Mazzulla will return as HC next season 1:32:05 Grade for Jokic's Game 1 performance 1:42:25 Micah Parsons says he's more interested in impact plays over sacks 1:49:01 Should the Celtics give Jaylen Brown a max extension? 1:54:19 How much would you pay to keep Austin Reaves? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Saul and Miles discuss the month that was for Chicago Baseball as well as who was May's MVP. FOLLOW US! @WARRMEDIA on Tiktok, Instagram and Twitter. We are also on Facebook and Substack! Subscribe to WARR on Anchor and on YouTube and follow WARR for all the latest on our movement and stay tuned for upcoming episodes and specials from your guys. WARR Media provides the best independent coverage of sports and culture -- feel free to share our content and rate us well here or wherever you find our podcasts. Thanks for watching. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/warrmedia/message

Join SP3 and J-News for our NJPW Best of Super Juniors 30 Final Review recapping the final show of the tournament as well as who we believe was the tournament MVP and our must watch matches of BOSJ30. Welcome to the Tru Heel Heat Wrestling YouTube channel where we cover  the sport of professional wrestling including all WWE TV shows (Raw,  Smackdown, & NXT), AEW Dynamite/Dark, IMPACT Wrestling, NJPW, ROH,  Dark Side of the Ring and more. Our weekly podcast hosted by SP3, Top  Guy JJ & Miss Krssi Luv breaking down the weekly wrestling news and  present unfiltered, honest thoughts and opinions for wrestling fans by  wrestling fans, drops every Saturday. We also include PPV reviews,  countdowns, and exclusive interviews with wrestlers from all promotions  hosted by a wide range of personalities such as Romeo, Chris G, Ness,  StatKing, Drunk Guy JJ, J-News and more. Subscribe and enable ALL  notifications to stay posted for the latest wrestling WWE news,  highlights, commentary, updates and more. Become a member of Tru Heels Facebook community: www.facebook.com/groups/1336177103130224/ Subscribe to Tru Heel Heat on YouTube: www.youtube.com/channel/UC0AmFQmsRyQYPKyRm5hDwNg Follow Tru Heels on Twitter: twitter.com/truheelheat Follow Tru Heels on Instagram: www.instagram.com/truheelheat/ Music composed by JPM

Host Brandon Contes interviews Mark Schlereth, three-time Super Bowl champion, Fox NFL analyst, and Denver sports talk radio host. Brandon and Mark discuss a wide range of topics including ESPN's treatment of the Denver Nuggets, Tom Brady entering broadcasting, working with Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, and more.For even more discussion, head over to awfulannouncing.com and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube: @awfulannouncing.-:48: Fan perception of a former football player talking about other sports-6:06: Daily grind of morning radio-9:35: Studio vs. game analyst and transitioning from the studio to the booth-17:37: Tom Brady entering broadcasting-22:22: Still enjoying doing studio shows-25:52: ESPN and national media treatment of Denver Nuggets and Nikola Jokić-29:05: Does the city of Denver hold a grudge to the national media?-31:12: Reaction to Kendrick Perkins' comments on Jokić and racially biased MVP voting claims-34:33: Coaching aspirations?-36:30: Acting in "Ballers" and "Guiding Light"-38:16: How was working with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson?

Chad joins cohosts Victoria and Will to talk about thoughtbot's 20th birthday!

Rich Mogull, SVP of Cloud Security at FireMon, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss his career in cybersecurity going back to the early days of cloud. Rich describes how he identified that cloud security would become a huge opportunity in the early days of cloud, as well as how cybersecurity parallels his other jobs in aviation and emergency medicine. Rich and Corey also delve into the history of Rich's involvement in the TidBITS newsletter, and Rich unveils some of his insights into the world of cloud security as a Gartner analyst. About RichRich is the SVP of Cloud Security at FireMon where he focuses on leading-edge cloud security research and implementation. Rich joined FireMon through the acquisition of DisruptOps, a cloud security automation platform based on his research while as CEO of Securosis. He has over 25 years of security experience and currently specializes in cloud security and DevSecOps, having starting working hands-on in cloud over 12 years ago. He is also the principle course designer of the Cloud Security Alliance training class, primary author of the latest version of the CSA Security Guidance, and actively works on developing hands-on cloud security techniques. Prior to founding Securosis and DisruptOps, Rich was a Research Vice President at Gartner on the security team. Prior to his seven years at Gartner, Rich worked as an independent consultant, web application developer, software development manager at the University of Colorado, and systems and network administrator.Rich is the Security Editor of TidBITS and a frequent contributor to industry publications. He is a frequent industry speaker at events including the RSA Security Conference, Black Hat, and DefCon, and has spoken on every continent except Antarctica (where he's happy to speak for free -- assuming travel is covered).Links Referenced: FireMon: https://www.firemon.com/. Twitter: https://twitter.com/rmogull Mastodon: [https://defcon.social/@rmogull](https://defcon.social/@rmogull) FireMon Blogs: https://www.firemon.com/blogs/ Securosis Blogs: https://securosis.com/blog TranscriptAnnouncer: Hello, and welcome to Screaming in the Cloud with your host, Chief Cloud Economist at The Duckbill Group, Corey Quinn. This weekly show features conversations with people doing interesting work in the world of cloud, thoughtful commentary on the state of the technical world, and ridiculous titles for which Corey refuses to apologize. This is Screaming in the Cloud.Corey: Welcome to Screaming in the Cloud. I'm Corey Quinn. My guest today is Rich Mogull, SVP of Cloud Security over at FireMon now that I'm a bit too old to be super into Pokémon, so I forget which one that is. Rich, thanks for joining me. I appreciate it.Rich: Thank you. Although I think we need to be talking more Digimon than Pokémon. Not that I want to start a flame war on the internet in the first two minutes of the conversation.Corey: I don't even have the level of insight into that. But I will say one of the first areas where you came to my notice, which I'm sure you'll blame yourself for later, is that you are the security editor behind TidBITS, which is, more or less, an ongoing newsletter longer than I've been in the space, to my understanding. What is that, exactly?Rich: So, TidBITS is possibly the longest-running—one of the longest-running newsletters on the internet these days and it's focused on all things Apple. So, TidBITS started back in the very early days as kind of more of an email, I think like, 30 years ago or something close to that. And we just write a lot about Apple and I've been reading about Apple security there.Corey: That's got to be a bit of an interesting experience compared to my writing about AWS because people have opinions about AWS, particularly, you know, folks who work there, but let's be clear, there is nothing approaching the zealotry, I think I want to call it, of certain elements of the Apple ecosystem whenever there is the perception of criticism about the company that they favor. And I want to be clear here to make sure I don't get letters myself for saying this: if there's an Apple logo on a product, I will probably buy it. I have more or less surrounded myself with these things throughout the course of the last ten years. So, I say this from a place of love, but I also don't wind up with people threatening me whenever I say unkind things about AWS unless they're on the executive team.Rich: So, it's been a fascinating experience. So, I would say that I'm on the tail end of being involved with kind of the Mac journalist community. But I've been doing this for over 15 years is kind of what I first started to get involved over there. And for a time, I wrote most of the security articles for Macworld, or a big chunk of those, I obviously was writing over a TidBITS. I've been very lucky that I've never been on the end of the death threats and the vitriol in my coverage, even though it was balanced, but I've also had to work a lot—or have a lot of conversations with Apple over the years.And what will fascinate you is at what point in time, there were two companies in the world where I had an assigned handler on the PR team, and one was Apple and then the other was AWS. I will say Apple is much better at PR than [laugh] AWS, especially their keynotes, but we can talk about re:Invent later.Corey: Absolutely. I have similar handlers at a number of companies, myself, including of course, AWS. Someone has an impossible job over there. But it's been a fun and exciting world. You're dealing with the security side of things a lot more than I am, so there's that additional sensitivity that's tied to it.And I want to deviate for a second here, just because I'm curious to get your take on this given that you are not directly representing one of the companies that I tend to, more or less, spend my time needling. It seems like there's a lot of expectation on companies when people report security issues to them, that you're somehow going to dance to their tune and play their games the entire time. It's like, for a company that doesn't even have a public bug bounties process, that feels like it's a fairly impressively high bar. On some level, I could just report this via Twitter, so what's going on over there? That feels like it's very much an enterprise world expectation that probably means I'm out of step with it. But I'm curious to get your take.Rich: Out of step with which part of it? Having the bug bounty programs or the nature of—Corey: Oh, no. That's beside the point. But having to deal with the idea of oh, an independent security researcher shows up. Well, now they have to follow our policies and procedures. It's in my world if you want me to follow your policies and procedures, we need a contract in place or I need to work for you.Rich: Yeah, there is a long history about this and it is so far beyond what we likely have time to get into that goes into my history before I even got involved with dealing with any of the cloud pieces of it. But a lot about responsible disclosure, coordinated disclosure, no more free bugs, there's, like, this huge history around, kind of, how to handle these pieces. I would say that the core of it comes from, particularly in some of the earlier days, there were researchers who wanted to make their products better, often as you criticize various things, to speak on behalf of the customer. And with security, that is going to trigger emotional responses, even among vendors who are a little bit more mature. Give you an example, let's talk about Apple.When I first started covering them, they were horrific. I actually, some of the first writing I did that was public about Apple was all around security and their failures on security disclosures and their inability to work with security researchers. And they may struggle still, but they've improved dramatically with researcher programs, and—but it was iterative; it really did take a cultural change. But if you really want to know the bad stories, we have to go back to when I was writing about Oracle when I was a Gartner analyst.Corey: Oh, dear. I can only imagine how that played out. They have been very aggressive when it comes to smacking down what they perceive to be negative coverage of anything that they decide they like.Rich: Yeah, you know, if I would look at how culturally some of these companies deal with these things when I was first writing about some of the Oracle stuff—and remember, I was a Gartner analyst, not a vulnerability researcher—but I'm a hacker; I go to Blackhat and DEF CON. I'm friends with the people who are smarter than me at that or have become friends with them over the years. And I wrote a Gartner research note saying, “You probably shouldn't buy any more Oracle until they fix their vulnerability management process.” That got published under the Gartner name, which that may have gotten some attention and created some headaches and borderline legal threats and shade and all those kinds of things. That's an organization that looks at security as a PR problem. Even though they say they're more secure, they look at security as a PR problem. There are people in there who are good at security, but that's different. Apple used to be like that but has switched. And then Amazon is… learning.Corey: There is a lot of challenge around basically every aspect of communication because again, to me, a big company is one that has 200 people. I think that as soon as you wind up getting into the trillion-dollar company scale, everything you say gets you in trouble with someone, somehow, somewhere, so the easiest thing to do is to say nothing. The counterpoint is that on some point of scale, you hit a level where you need a fair bit of scrutiny; it's deserved at this point because you are systemically important, and them's the breaks.Rich: Yeah, and they have improved. A lot of the some of the larger companies have definitely improved. Microsoft learned a bunch of those lessons early on. [unintelligible 00:07:33] the product in Azure, maybe we'll get there at some point. But you have to—I look at it both sides a little bit.On the vendor side, there are researchers who are unreasonable because now that I'm on the vendor side for the first time in my career, if something gets reported, like, it can really screw up plans and timing and you got to move developer resources. So, you have outside influences controlling you, so I get that piece of it. But the reality is if some researcher discovered it, some China, Russia, random criminals are going to discover it. So, you need to deal with those issues. So, it's a bit of control. You lose control of your messaging and everything; if marketing gets their hands in this, then it becomes ugly.On the other hand, you have to, as a vendor, always realize that these are people frequently trying to make your products better. Some may be out just to extort you a little bit, whatever. That's life. Get used to it. And in the end, it's about putting the customers first, not necessarily putting your ego first and your marketing first.Corey: Changing gears slightly because believe it or not, neither you nor I have our primary day jobs focused on, you know, journalism or analyst work or anything like that these days, we focus on these—basically cloud, for lack of a better term—through slightly different lenses. I look at it through cost—which is of course architecture—and you look at it through the lens of security. And I will point out that only one of us gets called at three in the morning when things get horrible because of the bill is a strictly business-hours problem. Don't think that's an accident as far as what I decided to focus on. What do you do these days?Rich: You mean, what do I do in my day-to-day job?Corey: Well, it feels like a fair question to ask. Like, what do you do as far as day job, personal life et cetera. Who is Rich Mogull? You've been a name on the internet for a long time; I figured we'd add some color and context to it.Rich: Well, let's see. I just got back from a flying lesson. I'm honing in on my getting ready for my first solo. My side gig is as a disaster response paramedic. I dressed up as a stormtrooper for the 501st Legion. I've got a few kids and then I have a job. I technically have two jobs. So—Corey: I'm envious of some of those things. I was looking into getting into flying but that path's not open to me, given that I have ADHD. And there are ways around it in different ways. It's like no, no, you don't understand. With my given expression of it, I am exactly the kind of person that should not be flying a plane, let's be very clear here. This is not a regulatory thing so much as it is a, “I'm choosing life.”Rich: Yeah. It's a really fascinating thing because it's this combination of a physical and a mental challenge. And I'm still very early in the process. But you know, I cracked 50, it had always been a life goal to do this, and I said, “You know what? I'm going to go do it.”So, first thing, I get my medical to make sure I can actually pass that because I'm over 50, and then from there, I can kind of jump into lessons. Protip though: don't start taking lessons right as summer is kicking in in Phoenix, Arizona, with winds and heat that messes up your density altitude, and all sorts of fun things like that because it's making it a little more challenging. But I'm glad I'm doing it.Corey: I have to imagine. That's got to be an interesting skill set that probably doesn't have a huge amount of overlap with the ins and outs of the cloud business. But maybe I'm wrong.Rich: Oh God, Corey. The correlations between information security—my specialty, and cloud security as a subset of that—aviation, and emergency medicine are incredible. These are three areas with very similar skill sets required in terms of thought processes. And in the case of both the paramedic and aviation, there's physical skills and mental skills at the same time. But how you look at incidents, how you process things algorithmically, how you—your response times, checklists, the correlations.And I've been talking about two of those three things for years. I did a talk a couple years ago, during Covid, my Blackhat talk on the “Paramedics Guide to Surviving Cybersecurity,” where I talked a lot about these kinds of pieces. And now aviation is becoming another part of that. Amazing parallels between all three. Very similar mindsets are required.Corey: When you take a look at the overall sweep of the industry, you've been involved in cloud for a fairly long time. I have, too, but I start off as a cynic. I started originally when I got into the space, 2006, 2007, thinking virtualization was a flash in the pan because of the security potential impact of this. Then cloud was really starting to be a thing and pfff, that's not likely to take off. I mean, who's going to trust someone else to run all of their computing stuff?And at this point, I've learned to stop trying to predict the future because I generally get it 180 degrees wrong, which you know, I can own that. But I'm curious what you saw back when you got into this that made you decide, yeah, cloud has legs. What was that?Rich: I was giving a presentation with this guy, Chris Hoff, a good friend of mine. And Chris and I joined together are individual kind of research threads and were talking about, kind of, “Disruptive Innovation and the Future of Security.” I think that was the title. And we get that at RSA, we gave that at SOURCE Boston, start kind of doing a few sessions on this, and we talked about grid computing.And we were looking at, kind of, the economics of where things were going. And very early, we also realized that on the SaaS side, everybody was already using cloud; they just didn't necessarily know it and they called them Application Service Providers. And then the concepts of cloud in the very early days were becoming compelling. It really hit me the first time I used it.And to give you perspective, I'd spent years, you know, seven years as a Gartner analyst getting hammered with vendors all the time. You can't really test those technologies out because you can never test them in a way that an enterprise would use them. Even if I had a lab, the lab would be garbage; and we know this. I don't trust things coming out of labs because that does not reflect operational realities at enterprise scale. Coming out of Gartner, they train me to be an enterprise guy. You talk about a large company being 200? Large companies start at 3000 to 5000 employees.Corey: Does that map to cloud services the way that AWS expresses? Because EKS, you're going to manage that differently in an enterprise environment—or any other random AWS service; I'm just picking EKS as an example on this. But I can spin up a cluster and see what it's like in 15 minutes, you know, assuming the cluster gets with the program. And it's the same type of thing I would use in an enterprise, but I'm also not experiencing it in the enterprise-like way with the processes and the gating and the large team et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Do you think it's still a fair comparison at that point?Rich: Yeah, I think it absolutely is. And this is what really blew my mind. 11 or 12 years ago, when I got my first cloud account setup. I realized, oh, my God. And that was, there was no VPC, there was no IAM. It was ephemeral—and—no, we just had EBS was relatively new, and IAM was API only, it wasn't in the console yet.Corey: And the network latency was, we'll charitably call it non-deterministic.Rich: That was the advantage of not running anything at scale, wasn't an issue at the time. But getting the hands-on and being able to build what I could build so quickly and easily and with so little friction, that was mind-blowing. And then for me, the first time I've used security groups I'm like, “Oh, my God, I have the granularity of a host firewall with the manageability of a network firewall?” And then years later, getting much deeper into how AWS networking and all the other pieces were—Corey: And doesn't let it hit the host, which I always thought a firewall that lets—Rich: Yes.Corey: —traffic touch the host is like a seatbelt that lets your face touch the dashboard.Rich: Yeah. The first thing they do, they go in, they're going to change the rules. But you can't do that. It's those layers of defense. And then I'm finding companies in the early days who wanted to put virtual appliances in front of everything. And still do. I had calls last week about that.But those are the things that really changed my mind because all of a sudden, this was what the key was, that I didn't fully realize—and it's kind of something that's evolved into something I call the ‘Grand Unified Theory of Cloud Governance,' these days—but what I realized was those barriers are gone. And there is no way to stop this as people want to build and test and deploy applications because the benefits are going to be too strong. So, grab onto the reins, hold on to the back of the horse, you're going to get dragged away, and it's your choice if your arm gets ripped off in the process or if you're going to be able to ride that thing and at least steer it in the general direction that you need it to go in.Corey: One of the things that really struck me when I started playing around with cloud for more than ten minutes was everything you say is true, but I can also get started today to test out an idea. And most of them don't work, but if something hits, suddenly I don't have the data center constraints, whereas today, I guess you'd call it, I built my experiment MVP on top of a Raspberry Pi and now I have to wait six weeks for Dell to send me something that isn't a piece of crap that I can actually take production traffic on. There's no okay, and I'll throw out the junky hardware and get the good stuff in once you start hitting a point of scale because you're already building on that stuff without the corresponding massive investment of capital to get there.Rich: Yeah well, I mean, look, I lived this, I did a startup that was based on demos at a Blackhat—sorry, at a Blackhat. Blackhat. Did some demos on stage, people were like, “We want your code.” It was about cloud security automation. That led to doing your startup, the thing called DisruptOps, which got acquired, and that's how I ended up at FireMon. So, that's the day job route where I ended up.And what was amazing for that is, to add on to what you said, first of all, the friction was low; once we get the architecture right, scalability is not something we are hugely concerned with, especially because we're CI/CD. Oh, no, we hit limits. Boom, let's just stand up a new version and redirect people over there. Problem solved. And then the ability to, say, run multiple versions of our platform simultaneously? We're doing that right now. We just had to release an entirely free version of it.To do that. It required back-end architectural changes for cost, not for scalability so much, but for a lot around cost and scheduling because our thing was event-driven, we're able to run that and run our other platform fully in parallel, all shared data structures, shared messaging structures. I can't even imagine how hard that would have not been to do in a traditional data center. So, we have a lot of freedom, still have those cost constraints because that's [laugh] your thing, but the experimentation, the ability to integrate things, it's just oh, my God, it's just exciting.Corey: And let's be clear, I, having spent a lot of time as a rat myself in these data centers, I don't regret handing a lot of that responsibility off, just because, let's not kid ourselves, they are better at replacing failed or failing hardware than I will ever be. That's part of the benefit you get from the law of large numbers.Rich: Yeah. I don't want to do all of that stuff, but we're hovering around something that is kind of—all right, so former Gartner analyst means I have a massive ego, and because of that, I like to come up with my own terms for things, so roll with me here. And it's something I'm calling the ‘Grand Unified Theory of Cloud Governance' because you cannot possibly get more egotistical than referring to something as your solution to the biggest problem in all of physics. The idea is, is that cloud, as we have just been discussing, it drops friction and it decentralizes because you don't have to go ask somebody for the network, you don't have to ask somebody for the server. So, all of a sudden, you can build a full application stack without having to call somebody for help. We've just never had that in IT before.And all of our governance structures—and this includes your own costs, as well as security—are built around scarcity. Scarcity of resources, natural choke points that evolved from the data center. Not because it was bad. It wasn't bad. We built these things because that's what we needed for that environment at the data center.Now, we've got cloud and it's this whole new alien technology and it decentralizes. That said, particularly for us on security, you can build your whole application stack, of course, we have completely unified the management interfaces in one place and then we stuck them on the internet, protected with nothing more than a username and password. And if you can put those three things together in your head, you can realize why these are such dramatic changes and so challenging for enterprises, why my kids get to go to Disney a fair bit because we're in demand as security professionals.Corey: What does FireMon do exactly? That's something that I'm not entirely up to speed on, just because please don't take this the wrong way, but I was at RSA this year, and it feels like all the companies sort of blend together as you walk between the different booths. Like, “This is what you should be terrified of today.” And it always turns into a weird sales pitch. Not that that's what you do, but it at some point just blinds me and overloads me as far as dealing with any of the cloud security space.Rich: Oh, I've been going to RSA for 20 years. One of our SEs, I was briefly at our booth—I'm usually in outside meetings—and he goes, “Do you see any fun and interesting?” I go—I just looked at him like I was depressed and I'm like, “I've been to RSA for 20 years. I will never see anything interesting here again. Those days are over.” There's just too much noise and cacophony on that show floor.What do we do? So—Corey: It makes re:Invent's Expo Hall look small.Rich: Yeah. I mean, it's, it's the show over at RSA. And it wasn't always. I mean, it was—it's always been big as long as I've been there, but yeah, it's huge, everyone is there, and they're all saying exactly the same thing. This year, I think the only reason it wasn't all about AI is because they couldn't get the printers to reprint the banners fast enough. Not that anybody has any products that would do anything there. So—you look like you want to say something there.Corey: No, no. I like the approach quite a bit. It's the, everything was about AI this year. It was a hard pivot from trying to sell me a firewall, which it seems like everyone was doing in the previous year. It's kind of wild. I keep saying that there's about a dozen companies that exhibit at RSA. A guess, there are hundreds and hundreds of booths, but it all distills down to the same 12 things. They have different logos and different marketing stories, but it does seem like a lot of stuff is very much just like the booth next to it on both sides.Rich: Yeah. I mean, that's—it's just the nature. And part of—there's a lot of reasons for this. We used to, when I was—so prior to doing the startup thing and then ending up at FireMon, I did Securosis, which was an analyst firm, and we used to do the Securosis guide to RSA every year where we would try and pick the big themes. And the reality is, there's a reason for that.I wrote something once the vendors lied to you because you want them to. It's the most dysfunctional relationship because as customers, you're always asking, “Well, what are you doing for [unintelligible 00:22:16]? What are you doing for zero trust? What are you doing for AI?” When those same customers are still just working on fundamental patch management and firewall management. But it doesn't stop them from asking the questions and the vendors have to have answers because that's just the nature of that part of the world.Corey: I will ask you, over are past 12 years—I have my own thoughts on this, but I want to hear your take on it—what's changed in the world of cloud security?Rich: Everything. I mean, I was one of the first to be doing this.Corey: Oh, is that all?Rich: Yeah. So, there's more people. When I first started, very few people doing it, nobody knew much about it outside AWS, we all knew each other. Now, we've got a community that's developed and there's people that know what they're doing. There's still a shortage of skills, absolutely still a shortage of skills, but we're getting a handle on that, you know? We're getting a bit of a pipeline.And I'd say that's still probably the biggest challenge faced. But what's improved? Well, it's a give-and-take. On one hand, we now have strategies, we have tools that are more helpful, unfortunately—I'll tell you the biggest mistake I made and it ties to the FireMon stuff in my career, in a minute; relates directly to this question, but we're kind of getting there on some of the tool pieces.On the other hand, that complexity is increasing faster. And that's what's made it hard. So, as much as we're getting more skilled people, better at tooling, for example, we kind of know—and we didn't have CloudTrail when I started. We didn't have the fundamental things you need to actually implement security at the start of cloud. Most of those are there; they may not be working the way we wish they always worked, but we've got the pieces to assemble it, depending on which platform you're on. That's probably the biggest change. Now, we need to get into the maturity phase of cloud, and that's going to be much more difficult and time-consuming to kind of get over that hump.Corey: It's easy to wind up saying, “Oh, I saw the future so clearly back then,” but I have to ask, going back 12 years, the path the world would take was far from certain. Did you have doubts?Rich: Like, I had presented with Chris Hoff. We—we're still friends—presented stuff together, and he got a job that was kind of clouding ancillary. And I remember calling him up once and going, “Chris, I don't know what to do.” I was running my little analyst firm—little. We were doing very, very well—I could not get paid to do any work around cloud.People wanted me to write shitty papers on DLP and take customer inquiries on DLP because I had covered that at the Gartner days, and data encryption and those pieces. That was hard. And fortunately, a few things started trickling in. And then it was a flood. It completely changed our business and led to me, you know, eventually going down into the vendor path. But that was a tough day when I hit that point. So, absolutely I knew it was the future. I didn't know if I was going to be able to make a living at it.Corey: It would seem that you did.Rich: Yeah. Worked out pretty well [laugh].Corey: You seem sprightly to me. Good work. You're not on death's door.Rich: No. You know, in fact, the analyst side of it exploded over the years because it turns out, there weren't people who had this experience. So, I could write code to the APIs, but they'll still talk with CEOs and boards of directors around these cloud security issues and frame them in ways that made sense to them. So, that was wonderful. We partnered up with the Cloud Security Alliance, I actually built a bunch of the CSA training, I wrote the current version of the CSA guidance, we're writing the next version of that, did a lot of research with them. They've been a wonderful partner.So, all that went well. Then I got diverted down onto the vendor path. I had this research idea and then it came out, we ended up founding that as a startup and then it got, as I mentioned, acquired by FireMon, which is interesting because FireMon, you asked what we did, it's firewall policy management is the core of the company. Yet the investors realize the company was not going in the right direction necessarily, to deal with the future of cloud. They went to their former CEO and said, “Hey, can you come back”—the founder of the company—“And take this over and start moving us in the right direction?”Well, he happened to be my co-founder at the startup. And so, we kind of came in and took over there. And so, now it's a very interesting position because we have this one cloud-native thing we built for all these years. We made one mistake with that, which I'll talk about which ties back to your predicting the future piece if you want to go into it, but then we have the network firewall piece now extending into hybrid, and we have an asset management moving into the attack surface management space as well. And both of those products have been around for, like, 15-plus years.Corey: No, I'm curious to your thoughts on it because it's been one of those weird areas where there's been so much change and so much evolution, but you also look at today's “OWASP Top 10” list of vulnerabilities, and yeah, they updated a year or so ago, but it still looks basically like things that—from 2008—would have made sense to me when I'm looking at this. Well, insomuch as they do now. I didn't know then, nor do I now what a cross-site scripting attack might be, but other than that, I find that there's, “Oh, you misconfigured something and it winds up causing a problem.” Well, no kidding. Imagine that.Rich: Yeah. Look, the fundamentals don't change, but it's still really easy to screw up.Corey: Oh, having done so a lot, I believe you.Rich: There's a couple of principles, and I'll break it into two sides. One is, a lot of security sounds simple. There's nothing simple at scale. Nothing simple scales. The moment you get up to even 200 employees, everything just becomes ridiculously harder. That's the nature of reality. Simplicity doesn't scale.The other part is even though it's always the same, it's still easy to think you're going to be different this time and you're not going to screw it up, and then you do. For example, so cloud, we were talking about the maturity. I assumed CSPM just wasn't going to be a thing. For real. The Cloud Security Posture Management. Because why would the cloud providers not just make that problem go away and then all the vulnerability assessment vendors and everybody else? It seemed like it was an uninteresting problem.And yet, we were building a cloud security automation thing and we missed the boat because we had everything we needed to be one of the very first CSPM vendors on the market and we're like, “No, no. That problem is going to go away. We'll go there.” And it ties back to what you said, which is it's the same stuff and we just outsmarted ourselves. We thought that people would go further faster. And they don't and they aren't.And that's kind of where we are today. We are dramatically maturing. At the same time, the complexity is increasing dramatically. It's just a huge challenge for skills and staffing to adjust governance programs. Like I think we've got another 10 to 20 years to go on this cloud security thing before we even get close. And then maybe we'll get down to the being bored by the problems. But probably not because AI will ruin us.Corey: I'd like to imagine, on some level, that AI could be that good. I mean, don't get me wrong. It has value and it is transformative for a bunch of things, but I also think a lot of the fear-mongering is more than a little overblown.Rich: No, I agree with you. I'm trying to keep a very close eye on it because—I can't remember if you and I talked about this when we met face-to-face, or… it was somebody at that event—AI is just not just AI. There's different. There's the LLMs, there's the different kinds of technologies that are involved. I mean, we use AI all over the place already.I mean my phone's got it built in to take better pictures. It's a matter of figuring out what the use cases and the, honestly, some of the regulatory structure around it in terms of copyright and everything else. I'm not worried about Clippy turning into Skynet, even though I might make jokes about that on Mastodon, maybe someday there will be some challenges, but no, it's just going to be another tech that we're going to figure out over time. It is disruptive, so we can't ignore that part of it.Corey: I really want to thank you for taking the time to speak with me. If people want to learn more, where's the best place to find you that isn't one of the Disney parks?Rich: That really is kind of the best place to find—no. So, these days, I do technically still have a Twitter presence at @rmogull. I'm not on there much, but I will get DMs if people send those over. I'm more on Mastodon. It's at @rmogull defcon.social. I write over at FireMon these days, as well as occasionally still over Securosis, on those blogs. And I'm in the [Cloud Security Slack community 00:30:49] that is now under the banner for CloudSec. That's probably the best place if you want to hit me up and get quick answers on anything.Corey: And I will, of course, include links to all of that in the show notes. Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me today. I really appreciate it.Rich: Thanks, Corey. I was so happy to be here.Corey: Rich Mogull, SVP of Cloud Security at FireMon. I'm Cloud Economist Corey Quinn and this is Screaming in the Cloud. If you've enjoyed this podcast, please leave a five-star review on your podcast platform of choice, whereas if you've hated this podcast, please leave a five-star review on your podcast platform of choice, along with an angry comment talking about how at Dell these days, it does not take six weeks to ship a server. And then I will get back to you in six to eight weeks.Corey: If your AWS bill keeps rising and your blood pressure is doing the same, then you need The Duckbill Group. We help companies fix their AWS bill by making it smaller and less horrifying. The Duckbill Group works for you, not AWS. We tailor recommendations to your business and we get to the point. Visit duckbillgroup.com to get started.

Our guest this week is Andrew Pelekis, CEO of Claynosaurz. Claynosaurz is more than an NFT project, it's a 3D production studio full of artists from Sony, Disney, Dreamworks, Ubisoft, Netflix, Warner Bros, Marvel, Industrial Light & Magic focusing on developing quality entertainment IP in Web3.Andrew sits down with Brian Friel to discuss the entire Claynosaurz ecosystem, building entertainment IP in Web3, the importance of quality in NFT projects, and the future of Claynosaurz which includes collectibles, toys, and content. Show Notes:0:50 - Background / starting in Web3 and a little bit about your background                        3:30 - How did Claynosaurz start?5:47 - Web3 vs.Web2 entertainment                        12:03 - Why Solana?14:10 - Engaging with the community18:34 - Learning how to build strong IP native to the internet20:03 - Who will be spearheading the future NFTs?  22:44 - Future projects for Claynosaurz25:04 - A builder he admires in the Solana ecosystem Full Transcript:Brian Friel (00:05):Hey everyone and welcome to The Zeitgeist, the show where we highlight the founders, developers, and designers who are pushing the Web3 space forward. I'm Brian Friel, developer relations at Phantom, and I'm super excited to introduce our guest, Andrew Pelekis, the CEO at Claynosaurz. Claynosaurz is a 3D production studio, building original IP in Web3. Andrew, welcome to the show. Andrew Pelekis (00:27):Hey, Brian. Thanks for having me. Brian Friel (00:29):Really excited to talk to you today. I'm a huge fan of what you guys have built. I know that there's a lot of listeners that are obsessed with the dinosaur NFTs you guys have created, and they are a clear winner of the cutest NFTs on Solana right now. We have a lot to jump into, but before we get into everything related to Claynosaurz, I'd love to know a little bit about you. Tell us where you got started in Web3 and a little bit about your background. Andrew Pelekis (00:50):Sure. So my background is probably a little bit more different than anyone else on our team, which is all geared towards creative and creating the cute characters that you're so familiar with. I come from a background in front office investments, so that's hedge funds and private equity style investment. I've done that for a little over 10 years. Most recently, two partners and I raised $250 million under a private equity umbrella fund and invested that over four years twice, so did a little under $500 million of business. We left that job, or I left that job in 2021 to pursue my own endeavors. Part of that and part of what I was doing earlier that is Web3 geared was working on attaching inventory and collateralized assets using NFTs or tokenizing those types of assets. And I had been working on that loosely in Eastern Europe, but we did a lot of work and a lot of background work on Web3 and all the different aspects of smart contracts, blockchain, and applying those things to real assets. (01:55):And in that pursuit, recognized there's a ton of opportunity here, a ton of great use cases. And along that path, I was advising Claynosaurz from afar for about a year before they got to mint. And realized that once they minted, they needed some help on the stuff that I'm an expert in. And I thought there was a lot of opportunity in that, especially when you consider how early on we are in the life cycle, thinking on about what I was doing in my previous job, that is to say attaching real assets via tokens. I think we're going to get there, but there's a great opportunity in the low-hanging fruit that exists in digital assets where the use case is much more applicable for the time being, and therefore a ton of use cases in the entertainment sector in particular. So jumped onto Claynosaurz late 2022, literally hours after the mint I was talking to those guys, and then the very next week, jumping in headfirst. Brian Friel (02:50):Oh, that's awesome. It's a unique perspective too. I think you're the first NFT CEO I should say, who comes from a professional investment, more institutional side background. I actually, myself used to work at a [inaudible 00:03:02] before I joined Phantom, and I know that that world doesn't always mesh super well with the NFT world. So you bring a pretty unique perspective to how this whole industry is shaping. But going a little bit back in time, you said you joined the team November, 2022, right around the mint. How did the Clayno team originally start? What was the vision that they got set out to do and who did they build this team with? You guys have some incredible assets. I imagine that you guys have quite a wealth of experience to have put all that stuff together. Andrew Pelekis (03:31):Yeah, there's actually somewhere around a dozen founders because of the amount of work it takes to develop this 3D quality asset that we're developing. So it starts though with Nick and Dan, who are our two founders who began developing the IP with, I wouldn't say no objective in mind, but they didn't necessarily solve for distribution, right? This is a creative team who had a ton of great ideas and just said, "Hey, let's start developing them. Let's just start building IP. And people do that, they develop IP and they maybe curate and sell it to a big studio. And this is in a world in which there's no opportunity in NFTs or Web3, right? So that's a traditional path and it's quite long and laborious and a lot of late nights working with no real idea of how you're succeeding or if you're succeeding at all. And along that path, a few months later, NFTs started to blow up. (04:22):So this is early 2022, late 2021, the news starts picking up on NFTs. I mean, I think everyone listening will be familiar with that news cycle, and they picked up on that. Some close friends of theirs who were well acquainted with business development and marketing and Web3, basically approached them and said, "Hey, this is a great project. Why don't you test that product you're building in Web3? Why don't you curate this to be an NFT collection? And you can still build the IP beyond that once you've done that, but at least you can test early on in the life cycle. You can monetize the product before you normally would be able to and get all this active feedback." (05:00):And so in early 2022, I believe February, they brought on this business development team, expanded the creative team to get to this objective, which was a mint, and built from there. And eventually minted in November 2022. Brian Friel (05:15):That's awesome. I think a lot of people might not be familiar with that grind. The traditional, you're a creative team, you're coming from the works of Sony, Disney, Dreamworks, you want to set out on your own adventure and how do you actually take the creative ideas you have and get distribution, like you say, turn that into reality? Can you talk a little bit more about the approach that you guys are doing, building entertainment IP in Web3 and just how that differs from those traditional approaches, what those cycles are like and some of your guys' strategy in Web3 in particular? Andrew Pelekis (05:46):Yeah, for sure. So I think the main thing is sort of what I just touched on, which is that typically you would have to build a product to a minimum point at which you could sell it to someone. And in that environment, that minimum point with a team of, by example, our team of 12 to 14 people, if you include contractors, it's a little bit bigger, but it's a small team compared to a studio that might have hundreds or thousands of people, it takes a while to get there. And then if you've got success, if you've built something that's worthwhile to these studios, then they'll participate, right? They'll say, "Okay, well..." But that deal does not look very good because you haven't proven the product beyond this one meeting, and getting that meeting might be tough in the first place. So you sort of get taken to the bank, if you will. (06:30):In the environment that Web3 offers, you can test the product early on in the lifecycle. So by example, we had, like I said, a dozen or so people working on our product for about a year to get to this MVP that was in November 2022, and you're testing the product, right? Because that mint tells you, are people interested? What's the feedback like? Are we able to sell this product? So you have all this great testing environment. And then of course, as you know, crypto Twitter is very active in telling you what you are doing right and what you are doing wrong, and you get this great feedback loop. And so you get all of these things that are going on that typically would never arise at all in a traditional environment. And the only time at which it would arise would be long after you've given up the ability to creatively control your own product. You'd have given it up to a studio at some point and struck a deal and been put to the side. Brian Friel (07:26):Yeah, it almost seems like a total win-win because it's like you're getting these faster product development cycles. Like you said, you're getting in the hands of the users, you're figuring out really fast if this is worth investing in long term or not, but you're also getting more control of your own destiny. You don't have to grind for years and then take whatever deal comes your way. You're cutting out some of these middle men just going directly to these consumers. It's pretty cool. (07:47):So let's change a little bit and talk about the ecosystem that you guys have built out today. So like I said at the start, everyone remembers, I think, the mint that happened in November 2022. It was a time that I think working at Phantom, you would see a ton of these profile picture collection NFTs, where it's these static images, looking the same. And then all of a sudden, it was like a breath of fresh air seeing these fully animated, smiling dinosaurs, wacky craziness. I think you guys definitely stood out. Talk a little bit about everything that exists in the Claynosaurz ecosystem today. Andrew Pelekis (08:20):So there's a lot that exists today, but I would say that everything is complimentary. These are not supplementary things. So the first and most important thing is our Genesis collection. So that is the Claynosaurz collection, that is the characters we're describing. There's six species inside of that collection, and I think everyone understands those. Beyond that, we've also got a few items that exist. And so these are things that we did as a guerilla marketing effect at a number of Web3 events over the last six, seven months. Actually, the first one took place before our mint, which was the Sardinhas, which we dropped in Breakpoint Lisbon in early November 2022. And those turned into Pterodactyls now. And so those holders who were sort of pro-Clayno before we minted, they got rewarded with this very unique species that is only a set of 222. Actually, we've got that mechanism now, that kind of is a good way to explain some of the other items, which is the Claymaker and the clay, which we airdropped to all the holders I believe December and January. (09:21):And the Claymaker and the clay are again parts of our world that we would use to develop the product further. So the Claynosaur is the character, the Claymaker is something of a transmuter. So just like a kid playing with clay, you've got different toys that you can use to mold your clay. So the Claymaker is this all-encompassing molder, if you will. And then the clay is the stuff you mold. It's the resource which we use to mold things. To get from the Sardinha to the Pterodactyl. We have on our website, you burn the Sardinha with the Claymaker and the clay to create an egg. And then again, you take the egg and you burn that into the Pterodactyl. And so that explains the Claymaker and the clay, and those items will be used in perpetuity in our world. (10:05):Clay is going to be a resource that continues to be used, and the Claymaker will be something that is required to transmute these different objects or to mold these different items in our game. And then you've got other similar drops that we did. In Paris, we did the croissant, NFT Paris. In LA, we did the taco. And most recently, in New York we've done the pizza slice. And all of these things are going to be items or companions that accompany your character. So the croissant will be an item that you can put on top of your Claynosaur. The taco will similarly be an item with a similar utility. And the pizza slice is going to be a companion that will sort of follow your Claynosaur around. So all of these things are different ways to make your Claynosaur ever more unique for the user, to make it more of your own. And so they're complimentary, right? They're not supplementary. (10:58):Lastly, and I know I'm going through a lot of things here, we've got the most recent collection, which is the Call of Saga collection. Brian Friel (11:05):That's right. Andrew Pelekis (11:05):That's being minted on the new Solana Mobile Phone, and that's a really cool initiative. That will be a collection of Claynos. It's not part of the Genesis collection. Think of it as an expansion pack. New collection, two new species. And that's going to be exclusive to the Solana Mobile Phone. Obviously, once you mint it on the phone, you can then trade it and everyone can participate. Brian Friel (11:28):Yeah, I'm excited for that. I personally just got my Saga, I think two days ago, right before we're recording this in May 2023. So I got my Genesis sticker, now I'm in line for the mint. I can't wait for that. I'll be a lot of fun. Andrew Pelekis (11:40):Very cool. Brian Friel (11:40):That might be a good segue too, to talk a little bit about Solana more broadly. You kicked all this off November 2022. At that time, it was probably not the most mainstream bet to bet on Solana as an NFT ecosystem, but I think you and I both know that Solana has a lot of upside that I think a lot of people maybe aren't aware of. What in particular drew you guys to Solana? Andrew Pelekis (12:03):I think it's two things. The two main things are that you have to have a good transaction time, like reliable transaction time, so that when you click a button, something happens right away. I think there's research that shows that even more than one second, the user can kind of feel this lag. And the second one is a reliable transaction cost, so that there isn't an immense amount of cost to the user, so that they can freely click on things as they participate in our world. (12:29):And all of that goes layer backwards, which is that we're building IP. Part of building IP is building an experience that people enjoy. And for us it was very important that if we're going to expand in this web three direction. And if you're bullish on Web3 in general, you've got to be on a chain or on this platform that offers this resource in such a way that allows the entertainment not to feel laborious, right? It's got to feel seamless. (12:57):And so that decision was made actually before my time, which I absolutely support and I think is the correct decision, to be on Solana because you need to have that seamless entertainment experience. And I think that's where it comes from. That's the most important thing for us. And keeping in mind that we're trying to build an IP that is built on Web3, continues to build on this Web3 channel, but permeates into all of these other traditional distribution channels. And if you fast-forward 3, 4, 5 years from now, you'll probably find that the chains that succeed are the ones that are able to bring the most frictionless experience to the users, right? Brian Friel (13:31):Absolutely. And I think a lot of that also kind of dovetails to what you were mentioning earlier about these in-person events. You guys are giving these activations to your community live and they can use these complimentary NFTs, the croissants, the tacos that you mentioned, interact with them. It probably builds deeper relationships with these collectibles that they have. Can you talk a little bit about that strategy? I think you guys are doing a lot of unique things both on the in-person event side, but also on your guys' social media presence. Like you said, crypto Twitter, it's very active. I think you guys have a pretty amazing social media presence there. Does this all tie in together into a broader strategy? And if so, what are you guys working towards when engaging with a community like that? Andrew Pelekis (14:11):Yeah, this does definitely tie into a broader strategy. To talk about that strategy very quickly. Our view is that in 2023, and probably for the last five to 10 years, entertainment has shifted so drastically onto so many different formats and so many different places, where I'm sitting in front of a few screens right now, I've got my phone, I used to have two or three phones actually, and I'm sure people still have that today, and then you've got your TV and people watch all kinds of different things. And then on these computer screens, you've also got all kinds of platforms on which you can participate in. (14:44):So our view is an entertainment experience in 2023 and going forward has to have a very holistic approach, such that the user is able to see you in all these different places. And Twitter is one of those places, especially if you're in Web3, I think Twitter is definitely the right place to start. And so our approach to Twitter was, well, instead of just being this microphone to announce the big things that the traditional studio PR team would do, we can make this an engaging form of entertainment that speaks to our brand, that speaks to Web3, and is able to also engage the community on an ongoing basis. (15:23):And so we have a team that works on Twitter, headed by one of our founders, and he does most of the Twitter posting over the last year, year and a half, but it's a dedicated job for us. We take it very seriously. Similarly, we spoke about all these different items and things like that that go inside of this gamified experience. That's a whole other tangent that we think is a great place to distribute, where we think that there's a whole opportunity in building that out. And then across the content strategy, you've got, again, a lot of distribution channels in that there's micro short form if you will. We call those the two to five-second little vignettes you see on TikTok or YouTube Shorts or Instagram Reels. There's a big market in that. (16:03):Then you've got short-form, call it trailer-length video, which is one to two minutes, and you could tell a story in that time, but it's not a whole story. And I think a lot of that stuff often lives on YouTube and there's other platforms that are similar to that. And then you've got what's more traditional, you've got 20 plus minute shows or a movie at length, and there's a whole slug of opportunities in there as well. So our content strategy is to permeate across all these different avenues, such that a user can enjoy and sort of familiarize themselves with Claynosaurz regardless of where they are. (16:38):And now the last bridge to cross, which is interesting because you would think it's the most obvious one, is the one you touched on with the booster packs and all these activations in-person at these different events. And our view is that there is going to be, and I think we're working on it and trying to push the boundaries on this as much as we can with the resources that we have, especially those that are on Solana, is to bridge the gap between the physical and the digital. So the packs that we were doing in LA and York were sort of an homage to those Yu-Gi-Oh or Pokemon packs where you rip it open, you don't know what you're going to get, and there's this real sense of excitement in that. So we wanted to bring that feeling to these events in-person, and we also wanted to use that as a onboarding for people who aren't familiar with Claynosaurz yet. (17:22):So now, you've got this feeling of excitement and now you have a simple interaction with your phone, where you tap the card on your phone and you have these NFTs. And so what we were trying to do is physically onboard people, bridge this physical digital gap, and we're going to continue pushing in that direction on the physical side as well. So that's one of many legs to this larger content strategy. Brian Friel (17:43):I think you're painting this really awesome picture of the future. Because I keep going back to this tweet in my mind where Annatoli tweeted where he said, "Claynosaurz is building the next Disney." And in my head, I think of the early days of Disney, like Mickey Mouse on his steamboat, and how it was just this total game of distribution. You had movies going out, the whole country would watch the same movie, and everyone saw the same experience. And this world you're painting here is almost turning everything on its head. It's like now you guys can go out, strike your own destiny without having to set up these massive distribution lines. And it permeates everything. It's Twitter, it's YouTube, it's in-person events as well, these activations. It's an exciting world and it seems like it could go a lot of different directions from here. (18:23):If you had to speak to other NFT projects right now, with everything that you guys have learned so far, what kind of learnings would you share about building strong IP that's native to the internet? Andrew Pelekis (18:35):Quality has to come first. I think that's the most important thing. And what's important about that is that we're at a point where Web3, and NFT products in particular, get a lot of slack. Regular media, traditional media, whether that be the newspaper or just on other platforms, they're not taking us seriously. And I think a lot of that has to do with quality. Because you can say things like you're going to be the next Disney, but if you put up a picture of one NFT and then a Disney product and the two are obviously different, you're really making a tough argument because this is a product that goes to consumers. We're all consumers, so everybody can understand this. There's nobody that doesn't understand this. The quality speaks for itself. (19:17):So the most important thing I think at this stage, now that we're past the early days of NFTs, I'd say, where you're just sort of testing how this will work, and perhaps you're not going to invest time or money in developing and curating IP at this level, I think we're past that. And I think it's important now that focus on quality is of the utmost importance, right? Because you've got to get there and be able to compare Web3 entertainment products to traditional or Web2 entertainment products, because otherwise you're never going to onboard anybody. Brian Friel (19:50):Do you see a world where these traditional players, like a Disney, make their own NFT collection in the short term? Or do you think it will be mostly spearheaded by projects like Claynosaurz that are really pushing the envelope? How much do you see that those [inaudible 00:20:02] going in the next couple of years? Andrew Pelekis (20:03):I think Disney probably has a lot on his plate. I think a lot of studios are probably stuck in traditional models, but let's not be silly either. These are massive institutions that have been here for, in some cases, dozens and dozens of years. They've got the brand power and they've got the resources to make a good push into Web3 when and if they wanted to. And I think what they're lacking perhaps is an understanding of the community that exists in Web3 and how to interact and market in Web3. And so you sort of touched on it earlier, where you mentioned Disney back in the early days, everyone went and watched Disney because they had solved for distribution. (20:45):And that was a world in which distribution was super expensive. You could not distribute anything yourself as an artist, whether that was music or a movie or whatever the case may be. And so a big company like Disney is able to distribute and the consumer eats it because there's no competition. And I would say even up until maybe 15 years ago, streaming was not at the level it's at today, and distribution had just been solved in the last 10 to 15 years. Where 15 years ago, we weren't going through all these different streaming channels trying to find things, and there wasn't all these different opportunities for the consumer to look at things. (21:24):So I think that a lot of these big studios are stuck where they're like, "Well, our oligopolistic framework in which we control distribution no longer exists." And now they're sort of lost in this world where everyone can distribute. You and I are doing a podcast right now, this was not possible 30 years ago. And they don't know how to market in that environment, but they do have the resources to do this quickly if they wanted to. But it's that understanding of marketing and that holistic experience that I think they haven't solved for yet. Brian Friel (21:53):Yeah, I agree. It's crazy to think back too, like you said, the streaming is a great example. You're watching your favorite TV show this week. You take it for granted that you can just peruse Netflix or Hulu or Amazon Prime Video and all this stuff, but it was not that long ago where you didn't have any of those options. And like you said, you just consume whatever was given to you. You didn't have that choice. It's pretty cool to see that playing out in Web3 now too, or you can kind of sense that it's coming. And I'm hopeful that we'll have that same sort of aha moment in the future where we look back and say, "I can't believe that this was the way things were." (22:24):We talked a lot about crypto Twitter in this episode. I think crypto Twitter would kill me if I didn't ask this question, so I have to ask it. But now that we've covered everything that Claynosaurz is up to, looking ahead, is there anything you can share with the fans in particular? Anything that maybe you guys haven't discussed publicly or things that your fans can be looking forward to from the Claynosaurz ecosystem? Andrew Pelekis (22:44):Yeah, absolutely. So we're working on all these different tangents, and so all of those things are active. I would say one of the things we're doing first and foremost is developing our website. We need this to be a repository of all the things I've just described to you. So for those who are already active in the Claynosaurz community, there won't be anything new there necessarily. However, there will be this repository of information to onboard people and to bring people into the ecosystem. That's probably the least interesting of the things I'm going to say. (23:10):So going beyond that, we're working on entertainment experience, which will also live on the website. This will be a gamified experience, where people can engage with their Claynosaurz, discover part of the Claynotopia land, figure out the lore as we develop into these different regions. And also, begin to accrue drops and different things in the game that they'll be able to itemize and make those Claynosaurz more unique. That's going to be, I think, a really fun addition to our Web3 track. (23:39):I think on the other tracks, it's very important to note that we're starting to permeate into TikTok and into Instagram and into YouTube Shorts. That's low-hanging fruit for us, so we're going to get movement on that very soon, so look out for that. And I think probably the most exciting thing, at least for me the most exciting thing, is we're working on a few things in the merchandise realm. And if I go back to the very foundation of this company, the guys who developed this IP, their instinct from day one was, "These are going to be toys. These need to be toys." That's how they developed the IP, and that's what we've been working on for literally since day one, for over a year now, a year and a half. (24:18):So we are now in talks with a number of different partners to help us develop collectibles, so think high-value collectibles that we will also integrate with a digital NFT angle. We are also working on toys, generally speaking, and then a whole merchandise store as well. So there's a whole bunch of physical additions coming to the Claynosaurz world. Brian Friel (24:42):That's awesome. Keeping with the theme of pushing the boundaries both on the digital and in the in-person and the physical. I love it. Well, Andrew, this has been an awesome discussion, really exciting to talk to you and to hear your vision for how internet native IP is going to play out and everything that Claynosaurz is up to. One closing question that we ask all our guests, and I'd love to hear this from you, is who is a builder that you admire in the Solana ecosystem? Andrew Pelekis (25:04):When I first got on, and this is going to sound perhaps odd, but I really admired what the guys are doing at Backpack. I think that they're solving for a lot of friction that currently exists between Web3 and everyone else. I think if that product develops in a way that they envision, it'll be a really big step forward for the entire Web3 community. So I admire them very much. And then I also have to give a big shout-out to Aurory because these guys are... They're Montreal native like we are. They're developing what I think to be a very high quality game on the Solana ecosystem, and I believe that it's a really good showcase of what's possible on Solana that may not necessarily be possible on other L1 chains. Brian Friel (25:51):I love it. Two great answers. I agree. Great builders in the space, and I think you're not the first to shout out some of those people as well, so you're in good company there. (25:59):Well, Andrew, this has been really awesome. Thanks so much for your time, for sharing your vision of Claynosaurz. Where can people go to learn more about Claynosaurz? Andrew Pelekis (26:06):I would say right now you can go to @Claynosaurz on Twitter, you can go from there into our Discord where a lot of the particular information is, and we've got great mods who will help you out. And lastly, I would continue to go look at www.claynosaurz.com, where we will soon have a great website up and running, with all the information at your fingertips. Brian Friel (26:28):Love it. Andrew Pelekis, the CEO of Claynosaurz. Thanks so much for your time. Andrew Pelekis (26:32):Thank you, Brian. Thanks for having me.    

A no, a lot of yeses, and one absence. When it comes to the deal to raise the nation's debt ceiling, Colorado's members of Congress have taken some different positions. Then, Nuggets superfan Nikki Swarn on the team's historic run as the NBA championships begin. We also talk with former player and coach Bill Hanzlik. And, how do you say the MVP's name?

Tim, Parker and Josh deep dive into the 2023 NBA finals, giving their thoughts how each team got there, how can each team win, what are their predictions and who wins finals MVP!

The guys look back on the epic Wayne Gretzky trade from the Edmonton Oilers to the Los Angeles Kings in 1988! The guys talk about how legendary of a player Wayne Gretzky was before the trade! How Iconic and impactful he was on the NHL and all of Pro Sports!! They talk about why and how the trade was made. How this changed the NHL and made it more popular in the US. Who are the winners of the trade and where this trade ranks all time? All this and more on Bigger Than The Game with Deremy and Jose !!

It's game 55 of the 2023 season and the Cleveland Guardians win the game and series vs. the Baltimore Orioles with a 12-8 final. On today's show we're talking about this offensive explosion, pitch location and plate coverage for our hitters, is Bieber showins regression this season, and naming our MVP for the Day. If you want to share your thoughts on anything Cleveland baseball you can find me on Twitter @daveyberris, you can email the show ClevelandBaseballMornings@gmail.com, or leave a message on the Spotify app and we'll play it back on the show. Merchandise is available at ⁠⁠⁠https://clevelandbaseballmornings.myspreadshop.com/⁠⁠⁠ for T-shirts, Hoodies, Coffee Mugs, and More!!! --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/clevelandbaseballmornings/message

It's another double matchweek so that means more squad rotation! Tom Bogert is joined by Sacha Kljestan and Calen Carr to take you through a crazy week of MLS news and action. First, the trio dig into everything from Wednesday night including the crazy 3-3 draw in Atlanta and an unexpected Galaxy comeback. Then, the guys break down the first leg of the CCL Final and discuss LAFC's chances in the second leg. Add in some USMNT roster discussion, our must-have players for the All-Star Game, and 7-a-side mailbag question, and you've got a packed show we hope you'll enjoy!   3:06 - Best things we saw on Matchday 16 13:22 - Where we rank Lucho Acosta in the MVP race 17:47 -  Are Philly Supporters' Shield contenders?  20:47 - Summer transfer notes and rumors 29:07 - Chris Klein out, LA Galaxy respond 38:27 -  One-Touch Takes on every MD16 match 53:55 - LAFC survive the first leg of the CCL Final 1:03:00 - Our must-have players for the All-Star Game 1:13:59 - USMNT Nations League roster breakdown 1:19:57 Mailbag  

The NBA Finals begin tonight, with the Denver Nuggets on the league's biggest stage for the first time ever. They are led by Nikola Jokic, the two-time MVP who has built a case to be called the greatest player in the world. So today, with his team hosting the Miami Heat in game one, Ramona Shelburne explains how the always humble Jokic evolved from a pudgy, soda-chugging teenager in Serbia to the playmaking center that's changing the game as we know it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Véget ért az egyik kedvenc HBO-sorozatunk. Megbeszéljük, hogy beváltotta-e a reményeket az utolsó évad és a finálé, miért működhet egy sorozat, ahol nincsenek szimpatikus karakterek, egyformán aljasak-e a karakterek, vagy van minőségi különbség köztük, hol a helye a szériának a „minden idők”-toplistán, és ki a sorozat MVP-je? Plusz elmeséljük, melyik a kedvenc epizódunk, jelenetünk, poénunk.  

Brenden Schaeffer discusses his somewhat controversial take on the Bottom Five MLB teams at this point in the calendar. He gets into his MVP of the Cardinals' stretch of 19 games in 19 days and then spends some time reflecting on whether we've been overlooking one particular departure from the team when discussing how bad the pitching has been this season. Plus, an update on Jordan Walker. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/bschaeffer12/message

Yankees started a west coast trip with a series win in Seattle. Judge showed why he is the reigning MVP and the pitching was lights out. We break it all down, Bleacher Boys Media style.

00:00 Who's winning Game 1 tonight: Heat or Nuggets?  19:03 Can the Heat slow Nikola Jokic down?  30:22 Should the Celtics want to bring back both Joe Mazzulla and Jaylen Brown? 36:47 Expect Aaron Rodgers to return to MVP form on the Jets? 43:20 Broussard's Under Duress List 54:35 Jimmy Butler comments on Nikola Jokic's incident with Markieff Morris from 2021 1:01:40 Who will be the MVP of Game 1? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's game 54 of the 2023 season and the Cleveland Guardians go down early and can't climb back vs. the Baltimore Orioles in an 8-5 loss. On today's show we're talking about Cal Quantrill maybe losing his job after this bad outing, the Guards showing heart to at least make it close, some things going on with Giménez and Bell, and naming our MVP for the Day (I'm really going to try to bring this back tomorrow, but forgot again). If you want to share your thoughts on anything Cleveland baseball you can find me on Twitter @daveyberris, you can email the show ClevelandBaseballMornings@gmail.com, or leave a message on the Spotify app and we'll play it back on the show. Merchandise is available at ⁠⁠⁠https://clevelandbaseballmornings.myspreadshop.com/⁠⁠⁠ for T-shirts, Hoodies, Coffee Mugs, and More!!! --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/clevelandbaseballmornings/message

On this episode of the MVP, Tim Anderson of the Chicago White Sox is stuck between a rock & a hard place. Rick Ross & DJ Envy has a week long back & forth.  Kim Kardashian compares her toxicity to Kanye's, Lil Durk comments on Gunna and Fetty Wap prepares to do major time. Which sign has the best sex? All this & more on another episode of the Mixed Vibez Podcast!FOLLOW. SUBSCRIBE. SHARE. Facebook www.facebook.com/mixedvibezYouTube https://youtube.com/@mixedvibezmediaTikTokhttps://www.tiktok.com/@mixedvibezmedia?_t=8aEYresFfkw&_r=1

This episode was an around the horn style show where we called all the homies and got caught up on recent events! Harrison Frye just won the NXL Europe event 1 and was named finals MVP, Mouse drops some insane news about Diesel and Mike Hinman is on a mission to create the best regional paintball league EVER! PTG SHOW SPONSORS:LONE WOLF PAINTBALL: https://www.lonewolfpaintball.com HORMESIS PAINTBALL: https://hormesispaintball.com/HKARMY: https://www.hkarmy.com/TRANZFUSE: https://tranzlabs.com/?ref=PLAYTHEGAM...David Roque: CPA Assistant AHSBIZ@GMAIL.COMSupport the show

FULL SHOW NOTES https://podcast.nz365guy.com/455 Krishna Rachakonda shares his background, having originally come from southern India before moving to the United States. He also discusses his love for gardening, interests and hobbies. Krishna talks about his love for the Power Platform and all the technologies surrounding it.  Krishna shares his passion for these technologies and talks about the many solutions he has implemented and shares his thoughts on the future of these platforms. He also talks about his experiences as an MVP and as an international speaker at various events. What it's like to be a SharePoint and Power Platform solution developer and architect? Krishna shares his interest in learning more about SharePoint and the Power Platform  Krishna shares his journey from working with SharePoint to transitioning to the Power Platform. Talks about developing in-house tools using C sharp and Windows applications, ASP.net, and automating processes. Krishna discusses the challenges he faced when Microsoft announced that it would no longer support Designer Workflows and InfoPath forms, which were extensively used in SharePoint.  Talks about how Krishna started working with Reza Dorani, and how he transitioned to the Power Platform. Learning opportunities with Power Platform Krishna explains how the Power Platform has helped him learn new things, explore new features and grow as a developer. Krishna summarizes his journey and encourages listeners to keep learning and exploring new technologies.  OTHER RESOURCES: Microsoft MVP YouTube Series - How to Become a Microsoft MVP  90-Day Mentoring Challenge - https://ako.nz365guy.com/AgileXRM AgileXRm - The integrated BPM for Microsoft Power PlatformSupport the showIf you want to get in touch with me, you can message me here on Linkedin.Thanks for listening

In this episode, Jaden Kennedy joins the show to announce his commitment for the upcoming season. Then, Chris O'Brien comes on to discuss, preview, and predict the NBA Finals between the Miami Heat and the Denver Nuggets!Support the guests!Jadenhttps://twitter.com/jdjrkenChrishttps://twitter.com/chrisobee21https://twitter.com/ballgamepod_$20 off your first SeatGeek purchase using code: TWOPOINTERShttps://seatgeek.comIf you enjoy the show or love basketball, subscribe and give us a 5-Star review! It is greatly appreciated. www.thetwopointerspodcast.comTwitter: https://twitter.com/TwoPointersYoutube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLxQQIXkmXG8gPvGOqzYShgFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheTwoPointersPodcastInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/thetwopointerspodcast/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@twopointersMusic courtesy of: Lakey Inspired https://www.youtube.com/c/LAKEYINSPIREDTPP Logo courtesy of: Matt StachulaWebsite courtesy of: Jacob the web dev, owner of Snazzy Solutions

On this week's episode... The title is ours. We look back at the final game of the season and give out our awards for Flop, revelation player, defensive player, midfielder, attacking, and the MVP of the season

Have you noticed how judgmental your mind can get about yourself? Everything could be going well or even getting better but yet your brain wants to offer you judgmental thoughts. Well I am here to remind you that is completely normal. Sucks I know but it's just how our minds are wired on this broken world. In today's episode you'll learn to become aware of future judgmental thoughts and what you can do to minimize the chatter. We want our brains to be working for us not against us. I hope th