The Tech Trek

Mortgage is often the largest financial transaction in a person’s life, yet much of the process still runs on outdated workflows, long waits, and paperwork heavy systems. Diane Yu, cofounder and CEO of TidalWave, explains how her team is rethinking mortgage technology with a twenty four seven AI loan assistant built for real work, not just demos. She shares why agentic software in financial servic...

Accounting has a tech problem, and it is not what most people think. In this conversation, Cos Nicolaescu, Co-founder and CEO at Accrual, breaks down why accounting has lagged behind, where AI can actually create leverage, and why the future of the profession is likely more human, not less. This episode gets into the real constraints inside accounting workflows, the difference between deterministi...

What does it take to modernize healthcare infrastructure when uptime is not just an SLA, but a patient outcome? In this episode, Amir talks with Jeff Sponaugle, CTO of Surescripts, about building and operating mission critical healthcare systems, navigating the move from on premises infrastructure to the cloud, and figuring out where AI can create real value without compromising reliability. It is...

Farzan Karimi, Deputy CISO at Moderna, joins Amir Bormand for a sharp conversation on one of the most misunderstood areas in cybersecurity, the ethics of offensive security. From red team rules of engagement to nation state deception and the limits of AI in security testing, this episode gets into what happens when the job requires you to think like an attacker without crossing the line. This is a...

Adi Kuruganti, Chief AI and Development Officer at Automation Anywhere, joins Amir to break down what it actually takes to build agents for the enterprise, not in theory, but in environments where complexity, governance, observability, and real business outcomes matter. This conversation gets into the part of enterprise AI that most people skip. Not just what agents can do, but what changes when y...

What happens when software engineers stop thinking like coders and start thinking like orchestrators? In this episode, Amir sits down with Scott Gale, CTO and Founder of Fluency, to unpack one of the biggest shifts happening in engineering right now: the move from writing code by hand to directing AI agents with context, judgment, and intent. Scott shares how his team is already using coding agent...

What happens when software engineers stop thinking like coders and start thinking like orchestrators? In this episode, Amir sits down with Scott Gale, CTO and Founder of Fluency, to unpack one of the biggest shifts happening in engineering right now: the move from writing code by hand to directing AI agents with context, judgment, and intent. Scott shares how his team is already using coding agent...

Spencer Penn, Co founder and CEO of LightSource, joins The Tech Trek for a sharp conversation on AI native procurement, agentic workflows, and what actually happens to knowledge work as automation gets better. This episode is worth your time because it moves past lazy takes about AI replacing jobs and gets into something more useful, how work changes, where human value holds, and why procurement m...

Michael Fanning, CISO at Splunk, joins The Tech Trek for a grounded conversation on how the security leader role is changing in the AI era. This episode gets into the real tension facing modern CISOs, balancing risk without slowing the business down, hiring for technical depth over narrow credentials, and defining success in a field where perfection is not a realistic metric. This is a practical c...

What does it really take to go from engineer to CEO? In this Tech Trek Brief, Michael White, Co founder and CEO of Multiply, shares a few of the ideas that matter most from a broader conversation on founder growth, leadership, and the shift from building things to building a company. What stood out most is that this is not really a story about title progression. It is a story about learning to ope...

Raj Koo, CTO at DTEX, joins The Tech Trek for a sharp conversation on insider risk, shadow AI, and why security teams need a more modern way to think about intent. This episode is worth your time if you are trying to understand how AI is changing cyber risk, why non malicious behavior can still create major exposure, and what it takes to protect the business without slowing down innovation. Raj ex...

Sumeet Arora, Chief Product Officer at Teradata, joins The Tech Trek for a sharp conversation on the shift from human driven SaaS to agentic software. This episode digs into what changes when software stops just supporting human workflows and starts driving outcomes alongside people, why trust and governance matter more as AI systems take on more responsibility, and what serious companies need to...

Victor Fang, CEO and Founder of Anchain AI, joins The Tech Trek for a timely conversation on crypto crime, AI driven fraud, and what financial institutions need to understand as digital assets move closer to the mainstream. This episode is worth your time if you care about cybersecurity, compliance, crypto risk, anti money laundering, or where agentic AI is starting to reshape investigation work....

Cam Crow, Director of Data and Analytics at Vacatia, joins The Tech Trek to unpack what happens when a startup outgrows informal ways of working. This episode looks at how data teams can introduce project management frameworks without killing speed, how to manage stakeholder demand as complexity rises, and why the right operating model matters even more as AI begins to reshape analytics work. Cam...

Deep Sogani, SVP and Group Data Management Officer at Datasite, joins The Tech Trek to unpack why data governance, lineage, and business process design have become mission critical in the age of AI. This conversation gets past the surface level AI hype and into the operational reality, how companies actually build trustworthy systems, where AI initiatives break down, and why strong data foundation...

Suresh Martha, Head of Data Driven Innovation and Analytics at EMD Serono, joins The Tech Trek for a practical conversation on what leadership looks like when your team is asked to take on new technical capabilities. This episode is about extending team impact, evaluating new tools, building credibility with stakeholders, and leading through change without pretending to be the deepest expert in ev...

Sourish Samanta, Director AI and ML at Advance Auto Parts, joins The Tech Trek for a grounded conversation on where machine learning still creates the most business value, where generative AI fits, and why many teams are chasing the wrong solution. This episode is worth your time if you want a clearer view of how serious operators think about AI strategy, product delivery, and practical use cases...

Shamoon Siddiqui, CEO and Founder of Human Friendly Robotics, joins The Tech Trek to break down what it really takes to bring robotics into construction. This is not a futuristic thought experiment. It is a grounded conversation about where robots can create value now, why construction has lagged so badly on productivity, and how focused automation could reshape one of the world’s biggest industri...

Mary Elizabeth Porray, Global Vice Chair Client Technology and COO, Growth and Innovation at EY, joins The Tech Trek for a grounded conversation about what it actually takes to operationalize emerging technologies inside a global enterprise. This episode goes past the AI hype cycle and into the real work of adoption, change management, process redesign, workforce trust, and leadership in ambiguity...

Michael White, Co founder and CEO of Multiply, joins the show to talk about the path from engineering leadership to the CEO seat, and what it really takes to build in a high trust, high complexity market. If you are thinking about founder readiness, leadership growth, or where AI creates real value in fintech, this episode gets into the parts that matter. Michael shares how early entrepreneurial i...

Susan Liu, Partner at Uncork Capital, joins Amir to break down what actually matters when backing early stage AI companies. From founder market fit to product wedge to the reality of churn, this conversation gets past the hype and into how strong companies separate themselves in a crowded market. If you are building, funding, or evaluating AI startups, this episode gives you a sharper lens on wher...

What happens to e commerce when AI agents start shopping instead of humans? Maju Kuruvilla, Founder and CEO of Spangle, joins the show to unpack a shift most companies are not prepared for. If AI agents become buyers, the entire digital shopping experience must change. Websites today are designed for human psychology, not machines making decisions. In this conversation, Maju explains why context i...

Most people never think about the technology behind construction equipment rentals. But behind every crane, excavator, and lift is an industry still running on paper, spreadsheets, and manual workflows. In this episode, Andy Feis, CEO and Co-Founder of Renterra , joins Amir to explain how a hundred billion dollar equipment rental market is finally entering the modern software era. The conversation...

Luke Fischer, cofounder and CEO of SkyFi, breaks down how earth intelligence is becoming searchable, and why that changes decision making across defense, energy, logistics, and agriculture. You will hear how his path from Army special operations aviation to Head of Flight Ops at Uber shaped SkyFi’s product mindset, plus a practical look at what geospatial imagery and analytics can actually answer...

Anish Agarwal went from MIT PhD researcher to founding Traversal, an AI company building intelligent site reliability engineering agents for the enterprise. In this episode, he breaks down what it actually takes to lead an AI first company when your entire career was built inside a lab. This is not your typical founder story. Anish never planned to start a company. He was on track to be a professo...