Today’s guest is Michael Gibson, co-founder of 1517 – a venture fund he started in June 2015 with Danielle Strachman which backs, and I quote, “dropouts, renegade students, and deep tech scientists, at the earliest stages.”Prior to starting 1517, Michael worked with Peter Thiel, and alongside, Danielle Strachman, they ran The Thiel Fellowship for five years. For those who don’t know, The Thiel Fellowship was set up to fund students who were 22 or under, giving them a total of $100k over two years so that they could dropout of the traditional education system and pursue important work. The Fellowship guided them through this process which would often involve scientific research, creating a startup, or working on a social movement. Past founders backed by the Fellowship include Vitalik Buterin who was still a teenager when the fellowship allowed him to drop out and work on Ethereum full time, as well as Laura Deming, the founder of The Longevity Fund and Iddris Sandu, co-founder of Spatial Labs.Michael is also the author of Paper Belt on Fire: How Renegade Investors Sparked a Revolt Against the University which I absolutely loved.It’s a book about startups, creating a fund with Peter Thiel, founders, reimagining education to empower the young to create great companies without the limitation of credentials, and it also tells the story of identity, specifically, Michael’s own challenging path to finding out who he is after his father - a suspected CIA agent was found murdered when Michael was still a toddler.Honestly, I can’t tell you how good the book is but trust me, it’s well worth your time as is this episode so please enjoy my conversation with Michael Gibson!---------------Michael on Twitter / 1517 Fund / Buy the book hereDanielle on Twitter @daniellenewnham and  Instagram @daniellenewnham   / Newsletter      

Interview with Dean Forbes - hugely successful turnaround tech CEO who has led several companies to massively successful exits. But let’s go back in time. Dean experienced hardship growing up and his family were made homeless twice but Dean always had big aspirations. His first goal was to make money doing what he loved which was football and whilst he did get to play for a Premiership, the experience was short-lived and he was soon ushered into a soulless call centre where he honed his sales skills.He then found himself at Primavera – an American software company where he grew the business to its sale to Oracle where he stayed on, making him the youngest vice president at Oracle for 30 years.From there, Dean joined Paris-based KDS a SaaS software company where as CEO, he led it to an acquisition by American Express – their largest tech acquisition at the time.Dean then went on to be CEO at CoreHR - a cloud-based HR solutions provider, where he led its growth and expansion up to acquisition by The Access Group in the UK’s largest private to private Human Capital Management M&A deal. Then in 2021, Dean became CEO of Forterro which is home to a portfolio of specialised ERP (enterprise resource planning) software products (think the software that organizations use to manage day-to-day business activities such as accounting, procurement, project management, risk management etc). Having been hired to drive the company’s growth in Europe - within a year, he led the business to a 1 BILLION Euro exit!If that wasn’t enough, Dean is also the founder of Forbes Family Group where he coaches and mentors young leaders and entrepreneurs from underrepresented backgrounds. Like I said, this is a special episode where we focus on Dean’s journey as CEO and how and why he makes the decisions he does in business – all of which have led him to so many hugely successful exits.Enjoy!-----------------Dean on Twitter / Instagram / Forterro / Forbes Family GroupDanielle on Twitter @daniellenewnham and  Instagram @daniellenewnham   / Newsletter 

Steve Furber is a seminal computer scientist, mathematician and hardware designer whose work includes the BBC Microcomputer and the ARM 32-bit RISC microprocessor which can be found in over 100 billion devices today.Steve studied both Maths followed by a PhD in Aerodynamics at Cambridge University before joining Herman Hauser and Chris Curry at Acorn Computers. For the next decade, he would work with a first-class team of engineers and designers to revolutionise the home computer market before he and Sophie Wilson went on to design the ARM processor with a relatively small team and budget and with little inkling of the consequence it might bring to the world.In 1990, Steve left Acorn moved to Manchester where he is now Professor of Computer Engineering at the university there. He was charged with leading research into asynchronous systems, low-power electronics and neural engineering which  led to the SpiNNaker project - a super computer incorporating a million ARM processors which are optimised for computational neuroscience. He is basically trying to reverse engineer the brain – a lofty ambition even by his own admission.In this wide-ranging conversation, we discuss Steve’s life journey from studying maths with professors such as the famed John Conway and Sir James Lighthill to the highs and lows of building the BBC Micro and the story behind the ARM 32-bit RISC microprocessor.I thoroughly enjoyed talking to Steve and am overly excited about his SpiNNaker project which we also discuss today.Enjoy!--------------Steve Furber info / SpiNNaker info / Micro Men filmDanielle on Twitter @daniellenewnham and  Instagram @daniellenewnham   / Newsletter 

Hello and welcome to the Danielle Newham Podcast where I interview tech founders and innovators to learn the inspiring, human stories behind the game-changing tech we use every day.I wanted to come on here quickly to wish you all a fantastic 2023 and to thank you all for being part of this podcast journey with me. I appreciate everyone who has listened and shared their favourite episodes in 2022 – truly, I couldn’t do this without you all.I also wanted to thank the incredible guests I had on in 2022 from Klout founder Joe Fernandez to Dr Mary-Lou Jepsen, Jack Butcher, Rony Abovitz and many more. I was honoured to share your stories with the world.And I am looking forward to sharing more incredible inspiring stories with tech founders and innovators this year such as Steve Furber who was a principal designer for the BBC Micro computer and ARM’s 32-bit microprocessor which is now in many billions of devices.But before we move into 2023, I thought I would re-share the most-listened to episode of last year which is my conversation with Jimmy Soni, author of The Founders: The Story of PayPal and the Entrepreneurs Who Shaped Silicon Valley. I think this is a great story revisit at the start of this year as it has all the elements which make up a great tech innovation – grit, hustle, immigrant entrepreneurs, many of whom have gone on to create huge waves in the world. A hugely inspiring and true story behind the well-known PayPal mafia.Enjoy!  

Dr Anne-Marie Imafidon MBE, co-founder of Stemettes an award-winning social initiative focused on getting girls, young women and non-binary people excited about, and encouraged into STEM fields through mentoring, qualification academies and STEM clubs.But let’s go back a bit. Because to understand why Anne-Marie chose this path, you need to understand her life story. At age just 10 years-old, Anne-Marie got her GCSE’s in Maths and Computing –these are exams that are normally taken at age 16 here in the UK. By age 11, she had done her A levels (which are usually taken at 18) and by age 13, she had won a scholarship to study at John Hopkins University.At just 20 years of age, Anne-Marie had graduated from Oxford University with a Masters in Mathematics and Computer Science.Anne-Marie is also an author She’s In Ctrl: How Women Can Take Back Tech, she’s a seasoned speaker, a podcast host, a Trustee Of the Institute for the Future of Work, a TV presenter (Countdown), and Anne-Marie works with media companies like BBC and 20th Century Fox to ensure that we see more diverse tech role models on screen.She was also awarded an MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) in 2017 for her work with young women and the STEM sector.Enjoy!----------------Dr Anne-Marie on Twitter /  Instagram /  Stemettes / She's In Ctrl  bookDanielle on Twitter @daniellenewnham and  Instagram @daniellenewnham   / Newsletter NB If you would like to sponsor Series 8 of the podcast, do get in touch.----------------Photo credit: Sam & Simon PhotographyMentioned in this episode:Hedy Lamarr Documentary  Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr StoryGladys WestHidden Figures Book by Margot Lee Shetterly

Magic Leap Founder Rony Abovitz is a serial tech entrepreneur and visionary. He co-founded Mako Surgical in 2004 — a robotics company specialising in manufacturing surgical robotic arm assistance technology utilised by hospitals worldwide. MAKO was acquired by Stryker Corporation in 2013 for $1.65 billion.Rony went on to found Magic Leap — a spatial computing company which envisaged a futuristic world, many years ahead of its time. Starting out of his garage in 2010, Rony worked on Magic Leap at night whilst still working at Mako during the day. He partnered with award-winning Weta Workshop in New Zealand and assembled a world-class team of creative scientists before building their own high-tech factory in the US. He remained Magic Leap’s CEO until 2020 when he helped recruit Peggy Johnson to be his successor. Rony remains on the Board of Directors at Magic Leap and is also founder and CEO of Sun and Thunder – which incubates creative tech experiments. He is also strategic advisor to Lamina1, the Layer-1 blockchain for the Open Metaverse co-founded by none other than Neal Stephenson - who famously coined the term “metaverse” in his book, Snow Crash.Rony is also working on another startup which we weren’t able to talk about but I am looking forward to having him back on the podcast next year to discuss it.This interview was recorded during the pandemic and the sound quality isn’t great so please forgive me for that but it’s still a fascinating interview with a pioneer of our times. Enjoy!-----------------You can read our interview hereRony on Twitter / Magic Leap / Sun and Thunder /  MediumDanielle on Twitter @daniellenewnham and  Instagram @daniellenewnham   / Newsletter 

Welcome to the Danielle Newnham Podcast where I interview tech founders and innovators to learn the inspiring, human stories behind the game-changing tech we use every day.I wanted to try something a little different today. I have been asked for a while now about doing shortened versions of podcast episodes so I thought I would test this out with some takeaway tips from the brilliant Dhiraj Mukherjee, co-founder of Shazam turned investor.In this fourteen minute episode, Dhiraj talks me through four lessons he learned from building Shazam into the one of the most recognised apps of our time.And I think these lessons are useful for any entrepreneur looking to start, build, scale and sell their startup. From coming up with a viable idea to picking the right investors and what to do once you launch – these takeaways will help you get your startup off to a flying start.As always, let me know what you think and if you would like to hear more of these shortened episodes with tangible take away lessons.Enjoy!Dhiraj website / Twitter Danielle on Twitter @daniellenewnham and  Instagram @daniellenewnham   / Newsletter 

Today’s guest is John Maeda – famed artist, designer, technologist, author, ex MIT professor, and once President of the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design, among many other accolades - most recently as CTO at Everbridge.He completed his bachelors and masters degrees in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at MIT where he would return to become Professor of Design and Computation and Head of Research. He also earned a PhD in Design and a Master’s in Business.In this wide-ranging conversation, John and I discuss his book How to Speak Machine: Computational Thinking for the Rest of Us as well as the leadership lessons he has learned throughout his career through good times and more importantly, the bad, how we can create a world of optimism akin to the Obama era and why we should all remain curious creatures.I have learned so much from John over the years and this conversation and I am sure you will too.So here is my conversation with the utterly brilliant John Maeda.------------John Maeda Twitter / website / instagramDanielle on Twitter @daniellenewnham and  Instagram @daniellenewnham   / Newsletter John's book - How to Speak Machine: Computational Thinking for the Rest of UsLet us know what you think of this episode and please rate, review and share - it means the world to me and helps others to find it too.

Today’s guest is Chris Sheldrick, co-founder and CEO of what3words – the startup which is quite literally mapping the world.Chris Sheldrick grew up as a gifted musician who thought his music career was all mapped out but sadly, Chris suffers from a sleep disorder which saw him sever the very parts of his body required for such an illustrious career. Not deterred by this life-changing experience, Chris started a company that would later lead to founding what3words with his some of his best and brightest friends to forge a completely new standard in a field as old as time. Chris story is one of courage, determination, naïve optimism and grit – the golden traits of all great entrepreneurs.And in this conversation, Chris talks me through how he did it.How what3words is dividing the entire world into 57 trillion 3 by 3 meter squares using a unique combination of three words to ensure there isn’t a place on earth where someone cannot get what they need whether it is a bank account, an emergency service or a way to their destination.Quite the feat for a classically trained bassoonist.This is the startup of startup stories with so many great lessons on how to get your startup from an idea to a business, how to find your first investors and commercial partners, why PR is important for businesses like this and what a tech entrepreneur learned from a musician.I thoroughly enjoyed what was rather a unique conversation and I am certain you will too.----------------Chris on Twitter / LinkedIn and InstagramWhat3Words website and on TwitterDanielle on Twitter @daniellenewnham and  Instagram @daniellenewnham   / Newsletter  Let us know what you think of this episode and please rate, review and share - it means the world to me and helps others to find it too.

Today’s conversation is with Donna Auguste and I wanted to replay her episode from Series 2 because it’s actually Ada Lovelace Day today which is an international celebration of the achievements of women in STEM and Donna encompasses everything we are celebrating today. An incredible role model, Donna received a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Berkeley before becoming the first African-American (man or woman) to enter the PhD program at Carnegie Mellon where she researched Artificial Intelligence. She then went on to manage the Newton engineering team at Apple before building and selling her own software business for $147 million. This is incredible and all the more amazing when you learn the obstacles she had to overcome which we discuss today.But before we get into it, there is something I wanted to tell you about today’s sponsor. I am working with Ericsson to promote its Imagine Possible event next week in Santa Clara, which is in the centre of Silicon Valley. It takes place on Tuesday 18th and Wednesday 19th October and will be bringing together some extremely impressive innovators and thought leaders to discuss their vision for the future. From extended reality and the metaverse to the future of enterprise connectivity, Ericsson’s Imagine Possible event will showcase the power of this new world through lively conversations and real-world examples. Guest speakers will be from Microsoft, Nvidia, Niantic, Unity, Amazon, Google, the co-founder of Xbox and many more and, the best part? It’s completely free to attend. And if you can’t make it to California, you can view the best bits online which is what I will be doing. You can find the links to register in today’s show notesRegister here.And now, please join me in celebrating Ada Lovelace by enjoying my conversation with the fantastic  Donna Auguste. Danielle on Twitter @daniellenewnham and  Instagram @daniellenewnhamDonna on Twitter / Auguste Research website Notes#Ad This episode is sponsored by Ericsson's Imagine Possible event - register to attend for FREE here.Mentioned in this episode: Fearless Genius: The Digital Revolution in Silicon Valley 1985 - 2000 by Doug MenuezLet us know what you think of this episode and please rate, review and share - it means the world to me and helps others to find it too. -----This episode was hosted by me - Danielle Newnham, a recovering founder, author and writer who has been interviewing tech founders and innovators for ten years - and produced by Jolin Cheng.