On this week’s episode, Ken shares his perspective on venture capital, AI, and what the best pitches have in common.

Listen and learn…

• How the best SaaS companies are evolving their operating plans in lean times.
• Why AI explainability matters.
• What is AI bias and what are innovative companies doing to address it.
• Why it’s ok that AI innovation is slowing down while AI accountability is catching up.
• The biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make when managing in a crisis.
• How diversity in the VC community directly impacts innovation.
• The pitch that made Kenn say “wow!”
• What Kenn learned backpacking around the U.S. before starting his venture career.

This is a rare opportunity to learn secrets from one of the greats who helped launch the 8086 chip at Intel before planting the seeds that became today’s venture capital industry.

Bill on how today’s autonomous revolution relates to the previous agricultural and industrial revolutions: “If we could figure out a way to adjust in an era of scarcity we should be able to adjust in an era of abundance.”

Listen and learn…

• What Silicon Valley was like in the 80s and how it has changed.
• The future of labor and why we’re measuring productivity the wrong way.
• What Bill means when he says we’ve locked ourselves in algorithmic prisons.
• How Bill proposes we mitigate the impact of AI bias.
• What are the attributes of the best entrepreneurs Bill has coached.

This is a special one. Enjoy!

Shannon’s been adjusting to a new style of management during the quarantine. Let’s just say the pace hasn’t slowed down for her and her team but she’s adapted her leadership style to help everyone stay productive while also acknowledging how the pandemic has affected them personally.

Listen and learn…

• What makes Slack’s culture unique that might surprise you.
• Why a manager’s new role is helping team members work less hard… and how Shannon does that.
• How Shannon’s team gathers requirements in lieu of traditional whiteboard sessions with developers.
• Shannon’s favorite Slack features (that you’re probably not using).
• How Shannon has been hobbying her way through the quarantine to stay sane.

In this turnaround format, Leeza McKeown and Dan King interview Dan Turchin!

Hear…

• Dan’s backstory – starting PeopleReign.io to help augment the human experience.  (What are his goals?)
• The benefits of AI for a frontline call center agent.  (Timely…. 600% increase in need for employee IT support for home workers.)
• How to think about optimizing your “digital labor” resources.  (There is a class for business leaders who want to master this.)
• What is the first question Dan asks in each virtual meeting & who does he look up to as leaders in the time of COVID-19.
• Why “building back better” is a realistic goal, because we were built for this.

Charlene’s advice to leaders who have themselves been disrupted: “Now is the time to be a better leader. Take this opportunity to get to know the whole person – where they live, their families, their hobbies. These intimate work interactions allow us to be more empathetic.”

Listen and learn…

• How Charlene has made use of time spent not traveling and speaking at live events
• What’s the single most important skill for managers leading in periods of uncertainty
• The new definition of work. Hint: it’s no longer defined by physical space.

Allan helped develop, launch, and manage some of the most-loved technology products in history, including Cisco’s routing products, Zynga’s social gaming backend, ServiceNow’s platform, and of course Slack.

Listen and learn…

• What it’s like to develop the app that quite literally makes it possible to WFH.
• What teams that build iconic products do differently than others.
• What technology trend will define the next decade like cloud and AI have defined the past decade.
• How Allan defines his success as a leader.
• What leaders need to do now to keep employees productive and create cultures that are stronger on the other side of COVID-19.

Listen and learn…

• How Diane thinks about company culture and how she keeps her team motivated in the face of uncertainty.
• How AI is delivering a better consumer experience and how to use data to predict behavior without violating consumer privacy.
• How Breinify uses data signals to identify “moments that matter”.
• Diane’s superpower and her advice for the next generation of female founders.

Listen and learn…

• What’s the single most important metric for venture-backed SaaS companies… and why you’re probably calculating it wrong.
• What makes a great high-tech culture and why Dave is particularly proud of one slide that summarizes his philosophy on building successful teams.
• Why most CEOs fail because of one specific way they mis-manage board expectations.
• Dave’s biggest regret and how he has learned to overcome it as a leader.

Dave’s excellent blog: https://kellblog.com/

Twitter: @kellblog

In the past six weeks, AI4ALL has…

• Released a new Open Learning course about AI and COVID-19 for students and educators.
• Published a sentiment analysis and NLP curriculum.
• Made more than 65 hours of AI curricula and teaching guides available for free at ai-4-all.org.
• Transitioned many 2020 high school summer internships online.
• Shifted its entire team to fully remote work.
• Tess is a force of nature. We need more leaders like her who see opportunities in the crisis not to help themselves but to help others first. In Tess’ case, she’s on a mission to bring AI education to high school students around the world.

In this episode, listen and learn…

• What’s the future of AI education for high school students?
• How can we mitigate the impact of AI bias in hiring?
• How high school students are solving real world problems with AI.
• How a natural disaster inspired Tess to launch her career in AI education.

Listen and learn…

• What is an employee experience platform and how do great companies think about employee experiences?
• Why was Randy an early advocate for remote work and why do distributed teams outperform others? Hint: it’s not what you think.
• What do tattoos and blue hair have to do with company culture and what are the attributes of the best company cultures?
• Why is Marc Andreessen right about the need to build… as long as we don’t build keyboards.

Thanks to Brian Ascher from Venrock for the introduction to Randy.

We’re re-publishing an episode that originally aired last August with former ServiceNow Vice President and next level leader Craig Pratt. In it, Craig discusses…

• Lessons for leaders looking to make an impact in or outside careers in technology
• Why empathy and intuition are timeless skills that transcend technology and will never be replaced by AI
• What inspired his career in technology from humble beginnings as a golf caddy
• Fear is subsiding. Hope is returning. We’re strong. We’re resilient.

It’s a confusing time for all of us. There’s no way to comprehend the magnitude of what is happening right now.

In this podcast, I discuss…

• What’s ahead for company culture as second curve effects hit the workplace.
• Why organizations are more like organisms than machines.
• How strong organizations are growing stronger using new technology to embrace what makes them unique.

Please react with your own thoughts and coping mechanisms. We’re all in this together.

Enjoy!

Shane and Laura geek out weekly about the intersection of post-humanism, technology, and culture. In this discussion, we cover:

• What it means to be human… augmented by machines.
• What human skills transcend technology… and which will be less valued in the future.
• What can employees do now to embrace technology change… instead of fear it.
• What is the actual state of AI… and where is it headed.

Hope you enjoy!

In this episode, hear Barclay discuss…

• How remote work is forever changing company culture.
• Why the best technology leaders are really the best people leaders.
• Why IT must stop “shouting from the basement” to be perceived as leaders.
• The common traits of the most effective (and dysfunctional) organizations.
• What’s new in ITIL 4 and why the concept of sustainability is critical for organizations interested in delivering better employee experiences.

Listen and learn…

• About Jordan’s entrepreneurial journey
• Why he started Parabol
• How to hold distributed teams accountable
• Why cultures that support remote workers attract and retain better talent

Listen and learn…

• The three common attributes of the best startup CEOs
• What Ash looks for when coaching entrepreneurs
• The best pitches Ash has heard recently… and a few bizarre ones
• “The one that got away” Ash missed
• Ash’s advice for a younger version of himself

Learn more about the amazing companies Ash discussed at Sterling Road.

Tune in to learn…

• How Reza got his start in Germany and earned his way into roles of increasing responsibility
• What are the attributes of a great culture and what McKinsey and Microsoft get right (and wrong)
• Reza’s philosophy on hiring and grooming leaders
• What skills will never be replaced by AI
• What “CIO” really stands for

In this AI and the Future of Work podcast, Dan Turchin interviews Charlene Li. She discusses how disruptive leaders are needed everywhere. Charlene shares how a small university like Southern New Hampshire grew from just 3,000 students to the #1 online educational institution. Their approach…let us rethink what it means to have a degree. Charlene explains why we’re in a disruptive time. She shows us how to make sense of it all and teaches us how to believe the impossible.

Key questions Charlene encourages listeners to ask:

• Do you know your future customer?
• Do you know what will have to change to go after that customer?
• How can we create disruptive leaders in all industries?
• Does disruption create growth or growth create disruption?
• Isn’t innovation disruptive by design?

To learn more about Charlene Li, visit: https://twitter.com/charleneli

and https://charleneli.com/

In this AI and the Future of Work podcast, Dan Turchin interviews Tess Posner, CEO of A.I. 4 All. She discusses how to mitigate AI bias and hiring best practices and how AI will impact women and youth. She also talks about what she would tell her younger self. Tess has an eye in gaining Data Literacy for all through her successful summer camp programs that are helping youth learn about AI. Today, students in middle and high school are benefiting their communities through their knowledge of AI through her program efforts.

Challenges for AI and Education, IT Leaders, and Youth:

• How can AI help students start AI Clubs at school or via Hack a Thons?
• How can knowledge and data literacy lead us to understand what businesses need in regards to hiring practices?
• How can we provide teachers with curriculum that empowers them to teach their students about AI?
• Is AI the driver of the Fourth Industrial Revolution?
• How AI solves a problem for Global Diversity

Learn some helpful entrepreneurial tips and find out what data exhaust means on the latest podcast session on AI and the Future of Work with Dan Turchin.

Bob Moore is the CEO of CrossBeam. They help companies bring data together and create a third party environment so that data doesn’t just cross over to another company but rather is kept separate. In this episode, Bob shares the key to keeping info out while understanding there is a fear to share data. He also addresses how to find the key things that matter in a partnership.

Listen and learn from one of the best in the business!