

TechFirst with John Koetsier
John Koetsier
Deep tech conversations with key innovators in AI, robotics, and smart matter ...
Episodes
Mentioned books

Jun 7, 2021 • 10min
iOS 15 at WWDC: the future of health unveiled in beta
Medical AI has a bright future.
Apple’s focus on health data collected by wearable technology and new capabilities for streaming that data to doctors just guaranteed it.
I just posted to my Forbes column, and here's a few expanded thoughts on what we just saw at Apple's World Wide Developer Conference.
Support TechFirst with $SMRT coins: https://rally.io/creator/SMRT/
TechFirst transcripts: https://johnkoetsier.com/category/tech-first/
Forbes columns: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/
Full videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/johnkoetsier?sub_confirmation=1
Keep in touch: https://twitter.com/johnkoetsier

Jun 4, 2021 • 19min
They made the first-ever NBA championship ring NFT. Cool enough to go all Beeple on the world?
If we thought crypto was polarizing, NFTs are 10X worse. Are they cool? Are they awesome? Are they nonsense? Are they a cash grab? Are they even anything real at all?
Well, even the Olympics have NFTs.
In this episode of TechFirst with John Koetsier, I chat with Harrison Schulman and Francisco Lopez, both co-founders of one of the newest NFT marketplaces, New Renaissance. New Renaissance is the first to create an NFT out of a major sports championship icon ... in this case, Danny Green's NBA championship ring.
Links:
Support TechFirst with $SMRT coins: https://rally.io/creator/SMRT/
Coin holders get exclusive access to $SMRT Space
https://johnkoetsier.com/smrt-space/
TechFirst transcripts: https://johnkoetsier.com/category/tech-first/
Forbes columns: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/
Full videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/johnkoetsier?sub_confirmation=1
Keep in touch: https://twitter.com/johnkoetsier

May 26, 2021 • 22min
Would you pay $60/month to be 20% smarter?
Humm is a small grey patch you wear on your forehead that boosts the normal electrical signals in your prefrontal cortex, making you learn faster, retain memories longer, and assimilate complex data quicker.
In research studies, subjects had a 20% boost in cognitive abilities.
In this episode of TechFirst with John Koetsier, I interview Humm CEO Iain McIntyre. We talk about what Humm is, how it works, the benefits it provides, how he's planning to take it to market ... and why McIntyre (a dual law and physics major) is in this business at all.
Links:
Support TechFirst with $SMRT coins: https://rally.io/creator/SMRT/
Humm: https://thinkhumm.com
TechFirst transcripts: https://johnkoetsier.com/category/tech-first/
Forbes columns: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/
Full videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/johnkoetsier?sub_confirmation=1
Keep in touch: https://twitter.com/johnkoetsier

May 20, 2021 • 20min
No pilot, no problem: This startup just announced level 4 drone autonomy
Pilot free level 4 drone autonomy? Exyn Technologies says they've achieved it, and in this episode we chat with CEO Nader Elm.
Topics: what drone autonomy means, what level 4 looks like, and, crucially, what this unlocks for search, rescue, research, security, surveillance, inspection, delivery, and many more drone operations.
According to Exyn, this is no longer point-to-point flight, but open exploration flight at double the speed with a smoother flight path and higher quality data accuracy.
Links:
Support TechFirst with $SMRT coins: https://rally.io/creator/SMRT/
Exyn: https://www.exyn.com
TechFirst transcripts: https://johnkoetsier.com/category/tech-first/
Forbes columns: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/
Full videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/johnkoetsier?sub_confirmation=1
Keep in touch: https://twitter.com/johnkoetsier

May 10, 2021 • 24min
App Annie CEO Ted Krantz on iOS 14.5, super apps, mobile ecosystem consolidation, and more
iOS 14.5 is perhaps the biggest change in the mobile ecosystem in a decade.
While most iPhone owners might not see that much change, for the first time they are getting a choice about whether they allow adtech companies and brands to track them around the internet. For the first five years of mobile, anyone who wanted it got our hard-coded UDID, or universal device identifiers. After about 2010, anyone who wanted got our IDFAs, or identifiers for advertisers. There was an opt-out, but few saw it.
Now, we'll all be asked for permission to track, like GDPR cookie notifications on the web..
App Annie CEO Ted Krantz and I chat about what that means for apps, companies, and people.
Links:
Support TechFirst with $SMRT coins: https://rally.io/creator/SMRT/
App Annie: https://www.appannie.com/
TechFirst transcripts: https://johnkoetsier.com/category/tech-first/
Forbes columns: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/
Full videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/johnkoetsier?sub_confirmation=1
Keep in touch: https://twitter.com/johnkoetsier

May 3, 2021 • 17min
1 million creator coins are coming. Here's how they work
Imagine the ability to have a say in who I interview next. Imagine owning a token from your favorite creator or artist that gives you special access or a closer connection.
Now imagine it’s a currency that can grow as the community does. And can be used to purchase goods and services ... or even exchanged for US dollars
That’s a creator coin.
Recently Rally.io raised $57M to make literally a million of them. Including #SMRT coin, which is my creator coin.
In this episode of TechFirst I interview Bremner Morris, former Patreon executive and now chief marketing officer of Rally.io.
Links:
#SMRT coin: https://rally.io/creator/SMRT/
TechFirst transcripts: https://johnkoetsier.com/category/tech-first/
Forbes columns: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/
Full videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/johnkoetsier?sub_confirmation=1
Keep in touch: https://twitter.com/johnkoetsier

Apr 27, 2021 • 15min
New AirPod earbuds ... or hearing aids? Signia Active is hearing aids without shame
Would you feel awkward wearing hearing aids?
About 20% of people have hearing loss. But only a third of them will actually wear hearing aids. Too many people just don't want the stigma of hearing aids. (Or all those finicky wires!)
But what if they looked just like regular earbuds?
Like for example, Signia Actives.
They look just like regular earbuds, and they adapt to different listening needs on the fly via an app.
Noisy room? There's a setting for that.
Music? No problem.
Need to hear what’s in front or behind? Just change a setting.
Need to hear what someone’s saying through a mask? There's a mode for that.
Need more volume? Less? Just turn a dial via the provided app.
Links:
Support TechFirst with $SMRT coins: https://rally.io/creator/SMRT/
Signia Active: https://www.signia.net/en-us/hearing-aids/active/
TechFirst transcripts: https://johnkoetsier.com/category/tech-first/
Forbes columns: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/
Full videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/johnkoetsier?sub_confirmation=1
Keep in touch: https://twitter.com/johnkoetsier

Apr 21, 2021 • 23min
Blue Ocean Robotics: the world's only robotics venture factory?
Do you have to reinvent the wheel every time you build a robot? Or can you reuse significant components of functionality like vision, navigation, manual dexterity, and control software?
It turns out that the answer is that you don't have to continually reinvent the wheel. And the result of asking that question was the creation of what might be the world’s first robot venture factory
In, of course, Odense, Denmark, an island with perhaps the world’s greatest density of robotic startups and creators.
Links:
Support TechFirst with $SMRT coins: https://rally.io/creator/SMRT/
Blue Ocean Robotics: https://www.blue-ocean-robotics.com
TechFirst transcripts: https://johnkoetsier.com/category/tech-first/
Forbes columns: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/
Full videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/johnkoetsier?sub_confirmation=1
Keep in touch: https://twitter.com/johnkoetsier

Apr 16, 2021 • 17min
The X Shore electric boat is the Tesla of the sea
The X Shore Eelex 8000 cruises 20 hours on battery power. It knows when you fall overboard, it won't go beyond geo-fences that you set up. It offers autopilot and it goes 35 knots or 65 kilometers an hour flat out.
It has a modular design and will save you about $800 every time you "fuel up"
In this episode of tech first, we're chatting with Jenny Keisu, the CEO of X Shore, which has just released the ELX 8,000 electric boat and raised $17 million to bring it to a harbor near you.
Links:
Support TechFirst with $SMRT coins: https://rally.io/creator/SMRT/
X Shore: https://www.xshore.com/
TechFirst transcripts: https://johnkoetsier.com/category/tech-first/
Forbes columns: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/
Full videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/johnkoetsier?sub_confirmation=1
Keep in touch: https://twitter.com/johnkoetsier

Apr 13, 2021 • 12min
Twitter spaces versus Clubhouse: access vs ego?
Clubhouse is the hot new social audio star. But Twitter Spaces is available to 30X the audience out of the box … and draws on a social graph you already own.
Does that mean it’s the new winner just waiting to be crowned?
In this episode of TechFirst with John Koetsier, I chat with Paul Armstrong, CEO and founder of Here/Forth … and owner of the very first sponsored show on Twitter Spaces … sponsored by a Fortune 500 global brand, too yet.
At least, as far as Armstrong knows.
Links:
Support TechFirst with $SMRT coins: https://rally.io/creator/SMRT/
TechFirst transcripts: https://johnkoetsier.com/category/tech-first/
Forbes columns: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/
Full videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/johnkoetsier?sub_confirmation=1
Keep in touch: https://twitter.com/johnkoetsier


