Code Story: Insights from Startup Tech Leaders

Roman Sevast was born in a small city in Ukraine. When he met his girlfriend, he wanted to take her out to dinner - but he didn't have the money to do so. So he started to learn software engineering to make a little money - and his tech career started. Outside of tech, he loves to play a myriad of different video games, and enjoys DJ'ing - either for himself or for his friends. He tends to...

When asked about his life outside of tech, Björn Kolbeck stated "Is there anything outside of tech?". He has made his hobby into his job, being exposed to his first computer at 11 and dreaming of being a programer. Outside of tech, he is a father of 2 kids. He loves going to the gym and traveling, which he mentioned was a luxury at his current venture. For personal travel, he loved visitin...

Matt Hocking has a background in design, and started off as a graphic designer in Australia. He moved into lecturing while running a design school, which led him to New York and the startup community. He is a multi founder, which led him to his current venture. Outside of tech and startups, he is a family man, and loves to spend time with his kids - which he calls his startup outside of his startu...

Welcome back listeners. Today we have a return guest on the podcast, Rene Morkos, the Founder & CEO of Alice Technologies. If you recall our conversation with Rene from Season 7, April 6th 2023, he and his team are building algorithms to disrupt the construction industry, through project optioneering and construction optmization. Today, he returns to the show to update us on Alice Pro and Alic...

Michael Hummel has a different perspective on tech and startups than most people in this realm. His background dis in marketing, and prior to his current venture, he was running a lead gen marketing firm. Outside of his professional life, he is married, living in Puerto Rico, and has a miniature husky. He has picked up spearfishing - which sounds wicked fun. When I asked what was the biggest fish...

Alon Arvatz has been in tech for a long time. Fun fact, he loved technology but hated computer science. After getting introduced to the industry by his father, he discovered that tech is not just computer science - which was a big relief. He is the author of a book called The Battle for your Computer, which highlights Israel and the growth of the global cybersecurity industry. Outside of tech and...

Linus Hakansson finds that he has been in the tech industry so long, that it is difficult to separate himself from what he does professionally. He's a family man, with a 2.5 year old son, and enjoys spending time with them and raising is kid. Outside of that, he enjoys soccer, sports, and cooking Italian food. In fact, recently he bought a pizza oven and started making his own dough and pie. L...

Erin Marie has been in tech for 20 years. Prior to tech, she was a history major but became more passionate about building websites and technology. She went from web developer to programmer analyst to cloud engineering, and met her current business partner at Boeing. Outside of tech, she is into amateur photography, capturing landscapes and portraits. She is also passionate about passion and film,...

Jai Ranganathan is a typically middle aged man, living in Austin, TX with a couple of kids and a Tesla. He moved to the US when he was 17, to attend the University of Texas. Post that, he spent 25 years in California at different tech businesses. Outside of tech, he enjoys doing activities with his daughters, rock climbing, and playing sports. In 2013, Jai's current CEO saw a huge opportunity...

Whitney Johnson graduated college with a degree in Music, minoring in English. Of course, she needed a job, and became the secretary to a broker on Wall Street. After taking business courses at night and building confidence from a boss who believed in her, she moved into picking stocks. In 2005, she had an "aha!" moment leading her towards entrepreneurship, and starting a fund with Clayton...

Jake Ward originally from a small town in Maine, and claims to be running away from the snow by living in South Carolina now. He worked in politics for a while - in the House, the Senate, and Public Affairs before starting the Application Developers Alliance. That spurred on the next chapter of his life. Outside of tech, he has 3 kids and enjoys golf. He loves to cook and spend time with his kids,...

Luka Yancopoulos lives in New York City, and believes whole heartedly in doing well by doing good. He grew up in the early 2000's, where the focal point was environmentalism and doing good in the world. He is an active botanist, and though there isn't much "soil to toil" in NYC, he spends his weekends filling the planter boxes with plants, on his block and around the neighborhood....

James Perkins did not have a traditional journey to technology, but has been in the space for 16 years. He had planned to be a special education teacher prior to switching to technology. He's worked in pre-seed startups all the way to big corporations. But outside of tech, he has a wide variety of hobbies - in particular, running and training for half marathons. This process requires about 6 w...

Zach Goldberg was sent to computer camp when he was 12 years old. An interesting part of the story is that the prior year, he went to sports camp - and it didn't go so well. At the camp, he fell in love with tech, and eventually became a counselor. He finds the most joy and impact at the intersection of business and technology. Outside of tech, he is married, and a private pilot in California....

Saravana Kumar is from India, near Chennai, but moved to London 23 years ago. He loves to play badminton, and is very into high quality cars. One of his favorite things to do is to engage in interesting conversations on social media, which there are ample opportunities to do. Outside of Indian food, he enjoys Chinese and Mexican, of which all three he cited having good options in London. In past p...

Craig Sellars grew up near Atlanta, Georgia, and was interested in technology at an early age. He went to Georgia Tech to get his degree, and after spending many years in industry, he jumped into the blockchain in 2013. Outside of tech, he used to do competitive, 4 way formation sky diving. He mentioned this was like synchronized swimming - but in the air. Nowadays, he enjoys long road trips into...

Mike Bifulco studied Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science in college. He was always good with computers, dating back to his High School Freshman CS classs. Coming out of school, he applied to 300 entry level jobs, interviewed for 15 of them, received offers for 3 - and turned them all down to start his own company. Outside of tech, he is into road cycling and enjoys the ritual, science and...

David Boskovic grew up on a farm, in a small town in Canada. He grew up milking cows, not building technology. However, when he was 12 years old, he built a website for his Dad. And after he built and rebuilt it several times, he was hooked on technology. Outside of tech and software, he enjoys playing poker with friends, gambling, and working on his new house. When asked what his favorite type of...

Debbie Levitt is an American living in Italy, with her Italian husband, and their 5 dogs. Many years ago, she obtained a degree in Music, but now focuses on customer experience online - of which, she has been called the Mary Poppins of Customer Experience. Outside of this, she and her husband bought a used camper and quickly became camper people. Her favorite place to take their camper to is Laces...

Yoav Abrahami was born and raised in Israel, never living in another country. Currently he lives in Tel Aviv, and has spent 30 years in technology. He studied High Energy Physics in college, and today, he finds similarities in how you solve problems in building products and physic. Outside of tech, he is the father of 2 children, and enjoys hiking and mountain biking in the diverse climates and te...

Shauli Rozen grew up in Israel, and besides a 5 year stint stateside, he has spent his whole life there. He is married with 3 boys, and is 45 years old. Shauli loves the beach, and the ocean, spending time surfing, scuba diving and free diving. Free diving peaked my interest, and he described it as diving with fins without scuba gear, holding your breath. He has made it 26m deep, which requires hi...

Srikar Sam Yeruva comes from an immigrant family from India. He had a humble background, which shaped his path forward and how he approaches life with hunger. He comes from a family of engineers, and his current venture is his 3rd startup. He loves learning, believing whole heartedly in constant learning. In fact, he mentioned that education was nothing but exposure, which I found insightful. He b...

David Hartmann is a German born New Zealander, where he still lives today. His first job was to spend 17 years at Bayer, getting deep in the materials world, which triggered his passion for 3d printing. Outside of tech, he is raising 2 kids in New Zealand, which he notes is a great place to do so. He also travels a lot, which he loves, and mentioned that traditional cooking for New Zealand is some...

Dennis Pilarinos was tinkerer at an early age. He always found himself wanting to understand how things were put together - and as such, he would take them apart and try to reassemble them. He grew up in Canada, and is currently based in Vancouver. He is professional driven by tech curiosity and attention to detail. Previously, he founded and sold BuddyBuild, which went from inception to acquisiti...

Ruslan Zaripov has been interested in computers since the early days. He started his career as a database developer, and eventually became a project manager. Essentially, he has been serving in information technology his whole life. Outside of tech, he is married with 2 kids and a dog. In the winter, he enjoys cross country skiing, and tries to keep a work life balance. Eight years ago, Ruslan bou...