Technori Podcast

Yong Kim, the founder of Wonolo (stands for “Work Now Locally”), set out to create a platform to bring power back to today’s workers. After closing a Series C funding round of $32 million in November 2018, his company is set to lead the wave, empowering freelance and project workers. Yong joined the podcast to share his inspiration for Wonolo, his predictions for the future of the employment econo...

The only thing more delicious than watching your team win live is watching them win live while you eat a hot dog. FanFood will bring it right to your seat. Five years since he came up with the idea in a college bar, FanFood has become what founder Carson Goodale describes as “a real business.” It’s so real he’s even fundraising right now. Carson joined the podcast to talk about how bad bar service...

Governance, risk and compliance (GRC) software is deeply unsexy, extremely important and mostly unexplored — until now, thanks to LogicGate. Matt Kunkel, co-founder and CEO of LogicGate, understands GRC has a dreary reputation — and he’s happy to be part of the team working to make it easy. He and his co-founders designed a platform enabling companies to put together their own GRC program using dr...

Cryptocurrency is poised to change the way we use money — and CMT Digital CEO Colleen Sullivan says it’s time for U.S. regulators to join the party. CMT Digital One branch of proprietary trading and financial services firm Capital Markets Trading (CMT), it focuses on cryptocurrency and blockchain technologies. At first CMT Digital only worked on the regulatory side. A few years later, in 2016, the...

Groupon’s new CTO, John Higginson, explains why his job is less about coding and more about people, plus how to be the kind of leader your team respects. Becoming CTO has meant putting people before machines. “This is more a people role than a technology role,” John says. “Figuring out how to get the right people is hands down the most important thing I need to spend my time on.”

Not all vitamin products are created equal — and some aren’t vitamins at all. Meet the doctors setting their own high standards in an unregulated industry. If you’re now wondering what the bleep you should be taking or not, Dr. Levitan and Vous Vitamin co-founder Dr. Romy Block get it. They founded Vous Vitamin to help people buy safe, high quality vitamins in levels they actually need.

Some businesses immediately chase investors, looking to monetize as quickly as possible. Others, however, bootstrap for as long as possible, investing all their energy into building the best product. Jason VandeBoom, CEO and Founder of ActiveCampaign, spent 17 years building his product. He and his team created the category of customer experience automation and continue to be industry leaders in t...

The laser focus required of a professional athlete doesn’t leave room for a plan B. But when golfer David Feherty retired in 1997, he found success in multiple new careers. After David put down his clubs, he picked up a microphone and returned to the green as an on-course reporter for CBS. His professional experience, sharp humor and Irish charm made him a hit with golf fans. Off camera, he’s writ...

Teens, parents and car insurers don’t agree on much. But they do agree that dangerous and expensive car accidents are bad. KarChing CEO Ramsey Gouda figured that insurers and parents would be willing to pay some money upfront to reduce the risk of teen car accidents. The KarChing app uses telematics (or a combination of monitoring technologies) to measure factors like acceleration, hard braking an...

No one starts a business because they love grappling with the financial side of it. But understanding your money is key if you want to keep the lights on. Clockwork CEO Fady Hawatmeh understands this better than anyone. He used to run a CFO consultancy firm where he saw firsthand how small companies struggled to plan for the future. Clockwork’s accounting software uses artificial intelligence (AI)...

Childcare has been an issue for ages — possibly since caveman days, but we’re still getting it wrong. Daycares tend to offer only multi-hour stretches, so parents are out of luck if you only need supervision for Junior for an hour or two here and there. Nannies and babysitters don’t want to travel for one hour’s pay. And then there are stay-at-home parents who are happy to watch other people's chi...

Cryptocurrency is slowly going mainstream, and what it’s losing in mystique, it’s making up for in influence. Not long ago, cryptocurrency (better known as crypto) was the exclusive domain of internet nerds. Now it’s being held, invested and traded by people who recognize its potential to bring a healthy diversity to their investment portfolios. Kraken is being taken seriously too. In 2019, they r...

Matt Xavier, a senior associate at Unispace, works on the Workplace Strategy Group. His team works with companies to assess their organizational goals and design physical office environments around those objectives. Matt joined the podcast to share his top tips to consider before moving offices, how to create the ultimate space for you and your team and how technology has played a crucial role in...

Unless you have a marketing degree, the more you read about advertising, the less comprehensible it becomes. And that’s exactly how ad execs like it. This small but mighty company aims to cut through the industry noise. Programmatic Mechanics is a breath of fresh air in the industry in more ways than one. First, they do exactly what their name suggests — help businesses and agencies with programma...

You can become a billionaire with anything — from collecting garbage to selling Beanie Babies. The point is to figure out what makes you unique and valuable to the customer. “As long as you're solving an emotional or financial problem for somebody, you can make a lot of money,” says Robert Blackwell, Jr., CEO and founder of several companies including Killerspin and Quant16 (formerly EKI-Digital)....

The cannabis industry is still emerging, dazed and confused, from the black market to the open market, presenting platforms like Leaf Trade the chance to make a big impression. Founder and CEO James Yi joined the podcast to talk about Leaf Trade’s role in shaping the emerging cannabis industry, why wholesale is a challenge of its own and why he welcomes local governments’ say over how cannabis wor...

Private jets used to be reserved for tycoons, presidents and rock stars, but ordering a personalized flight today isn’t just a power move — it’s a productivity tool. Expanding your business often requires traveling, and the bigger you grow, the more often you and your team will be on the move. But travel can be stressful — wasting time on inconvenient commercial flights and long car rides isn’t ju...

Insurance is one of the less sexy parts of running a company — and that’s especially true when working with the legacy companies that are far removed from the startup way. Newer business models often don't neatly fit into traditional insurers’ outdated categories. Sometimes plans need to be patch worked and even then — coverage can still be spotty — which could spell disaster down the road. That’s...

Beyond being a fun distraction at the gym or on your commute, podcasts are gaining recognition as an engaging and accessible business tool. While it’s easy to get started, it’s hard to make a podcast good, which is why professional podcast production agency Dante32 is flourishing. Founded in 2018 by CEO Griffin Caprio and CSO Jenn Dudley, Chicago-based Dante32 helps businesses create podcasts in a...

In the wake of the remarkable fall of WeWork, you’re forgiven if you feel more than a little skeptical about coworking as a business model. But Knotel is doing things differently. They may not have WeWork’s name recognition — yet — but the company is building a coworking empire based on stringent market analysis. Knotel is led by startup veteran Amol Sarva. He has a track record of growing great c...

Copping out on corporate gift-giving means missing a prime relationship-building opportunity. But sending a bland fruit basket or not-so-subtle branded junk is unlikely to be very memorable. Plus, giving gifts that people aren’t too excited about can be downright wasteful. That’s why Packed with Purpose is a gift. The specialty gifting company hand picks high-quality products from businesses that...

When Chuck Swoboda was hired at electronics manufacturer Cree in 1993, household light bulbs came mostly in two flavors: incandescent and fluorescent. The company had just gone public and generated just over $6 million in annual revenue. But the product that would grow the company into a $1.6 billion global market leader –– the LED light bulb –– were virtually light years away from becoming a popu...

The future of work, says Marshall Sied, co-founder of intelligent automation consulting firm Ashling Partners, will focus on “removing tasks that humans don't want to be doing anyway.” For him, “it's about taking robots out of human work, not having robots replace human work.” In fact, when clients introduce automation technology like Robotic Process Automation (RPA), Optical Character Recognition...

For consumers, Uber is known for changing the simple act of getting a taxi and ordering food. For the past two years, the company has been moving into the B-to-B market with Uber Freight. “We've built an app for independent owner-operators and small fleets, where they can log on and see the freight available to them,” explains Sagar Shah, Uber Freight’s Director of Carrier Operations. “They don't...

Hiring is a major challenge for employers. On the flip side of the coin, socioeconomic and other barriers can prevent certain job seekers from identifying opportunities. The aptly named Solve offers a solution. Led by CEO and founder Matt Strauss, the software platform helps companies find and hire talented people in underserved communities. It also connects prospective employees with nonprofits t...