The Tech Leaders Podcast

Steve O’Hear has been providing commentary during one of the most exciting periods of tech innovation in the UK. A highly respected, prominent journalist for ZDNet and Tech Crunch, Steve covered the rise of Monzo, Wise and Starling Bank as well as other FinTech and general tech advances throughout the period dubbed Web 2.0 But Journalism wasn’t all Steve planned to achieve in his career. He tried his hand at entrepreneurship with Beepl, and talks candidly about this experience and what lessons he learned that made him a better writer and leader.  Steve is currently the VP of Strategy at Zapp - an e-commerce convenience grocery company, who are attempting to disrupt the already competitive, convenience retail space.  Talking Points02:05 - Intro to Steve03:43 - How did Steve get into Tech Journalism?05:02 - Web 2.008:52 - What Tech Companies has Steve Seen Rise?10:52 - Fin Tech11:30 - What Prompted the rise of FinTech?15:25 - Beepl17:20 - Lessons learned from Beepl failures19:00 - Entrepreneurial advice to those starting a venture20:25 - Changing careers from journalism to Zapp24:00 - Why will Zapp change the convenience retail space in the UK?28:05 - What tech innovations is Steve excited about?30:50 - Steve's advice to young journalists.32:50 - Stories that inspired Steve. https://www.bedigitaluk.com/

The final instalment of the Women in Tech Series is upon us. And what a series it has been!This week, branding expert, marketing entrepreneur, ‘Black Women in Tech’ founder and all-around super-woman Flavilla Fongang, joins Kerensa and Gareth for a memorable chat!This value-filled conversation covers everything from the moment she landed in the UK, unable to speak a word of English, and then going on to complete two degrees and a MA in International studies; through to her advice on building a personal brand,  overcoming adversity through confidence and perseverance. We also talk about the formation of ‘Black Women in Tech’ and how to cultivate confidence and ambition to fulfil your career aspirations. 06:00 - Flavilla’s Personal Brand07:50 - Challenges of the Past11:20 - Taking Ownership13:26 - Work/Life Balance16:57 - What Books has Flavilla been most inspired by?22:00 - Motivation behind setting up Black Women in Tech28:55 - Women and STEM Subjects31:00 - Cultural differences for women careers between UK And France32:30 - Flavilla’s Advice34:20 - Tips about confidence36:50 - Branding Mistakeshttps://www.bedigitaluk.com/

Marta Krupinska is a Tech entrepreneur, diversity advocate, and current Head of Google for Startups UK, alongside a Chair role at Youth Business International.Recognised by Forbes in 30Under30 in 2016, by Evening Standard as amongst London's Most Influential People 2017 and 2018 and by Forbes as top 60 Female Tech Executives globally, 2018.   As a female founder herself, having founded 3 startups- most notably of a global FinTech money transfer company Azimo which raised $90M+ in funding from top VC firms and serves millions of customers, globally.   Marta is helping to level the playing field for founders in the UK and EMEA with her amazing team at Google. Working with startups and founders with a particular focus on the positive impact of building diverse teams and making the world a better place. 02:45 - Marta’s background6:05 - How Does Marta Define Success?07:50 - Diversity of Thinking11:40 - Diversity with Co-Founders16:19 - Progress or PR with Women in Tech?17:45 - What’s Slowing Progress?21:26 - How To Promote Female Ambition?26:24 - Youth Business International and what have we got to look forward to from Gen Z?30:55 - What trends does Marta see from start-ups?33:30 - What’s Marta working on now?https://www.bedigitaluk.com/

On this episode of the Tech Leaders Podcast - Women in Tech series, we are joined by the inspirational Alice Bentinck; co-founder of Entrepreneur First and Code First Girls - where she’s worked tirelessly to give others opportunities that they otherwise wouldn’t have had to become entrepreneurs, as well as encouraging more women into the tech sector.Alice opens up to discuss how she got to where she is today, what mistakes she made along the way, how she grew her business and what advice she’d give to others as well as why she thinks ambition is key to everything an entrepreneur can achieve and shouldn’t be seen as a bad word. 02:26 - Introduction to Alice & Entrepreneur First04:20 - Giving permission to be ambitious07:20 - Alice’s First Startup Process10:25 - How Networking attracted the head of LinkedIn12:31 - The Story of Code First Girls16:34 - Alice’s Advice on growing your network18:15 - Gender Diversity in the Tech and entrepreneurship sectors22:27 - Alice’s Journey into Coding24:46 - How to stay resilient26:30 - How Business owners can create a culture encouraging female ambition30:42 - What is Web 3.0?https://www.bedigitaluk.com/

On the first of our ‘Women in Tech’ Series Professor Kerensa Jennings and Gareth Davies are joined by an inspirational woman who’s been consistently listed as one of the 50 most influential women in Tech, Naomi Timperley.  Naomi talks to us about setting up and scaling Baby Loves Disco, an immensely popular children's disco service, and getting approached to pitch on the Dragons Den. Despite turning down an offer, Naomi still struck up a great relationship with Deborah Meadon and learned a huge amount from the experience. Naomi has also inspired and mentored hundreds of young entrepreneurs and also Inspired and launched Digital Enterprising Award as well as co-founding Tech North advocates and sitting on the board at Salford University.   They also discuss some of Naomi's challenges throughout her career and her observations about the next generation of female leaders along with much much more..  02:23 - Introductions to Naomi 03:40 - Baby Loves Disco 04:15 - Dragons Den 06:30 - Youth Entrepreneurship 07:45 - IDEA Inspiring Digital Enterprising Award 11:45 - Gender Challenges 13:00 - Inspiring with Confidence 17:30 - The Education System and opening opportunities 20:40 - Mentoring Others 25:00 - Generation Z’s Perceptions on careers 30:50 - Local Businesses and Schools Connecting 32:30 - Education and Gender Stereotyping Careers 34:00 - Naomi’s Advice to Business Leaders on gender balance 36:25 - Lockdown Inspiration Naomi’s Quoted Books Via: https://www.strategyzer.com/ How people can connect with Naomi https://twitter.com/naomitimperley https://uk.linkedin.com/in/naomitimperley https://www.wearegsi.com https://www.bedigitaluk.com/

Railsbank is the world’s leading Embedded Finance Experience platform. Today we’re joined by their COO of UK and Europe, Louisa Murray. Louisa joined Railsbank as one of its first employees in 2017, and built the sales function from scratch, growing the sales and customer success teams. Prior to this she worked as a trader, headhunter and ran her own recruitment business. In this conversation, we explore consumer-driven products, legacy technology, making the tech industry more accessible to women, the power of role models  – and a very important conversation she once had in an elevator.Talking PointsThe early stages of Louisa’s banking career (04:41)The impact of being a woman in a male-dominated industry (08:01)What inspired Louisa to be a headhunter (11:33)Key lessons learnt from working in recruitment (15:22)Railsbank’s mission (18:09)Trends to look out for in the UK FinTech space (22:42)Transitioning from a sales role into a COO (25:12)What makes a good salesperson? (27:02)What Railsbank has learnt from the pandemic (30:25)How can we make the tech industry more accessible for women? (35:40)The future of Railsbank (42:47)On the decentralisation of banks and cryptocurrencies (44:39)The problem with printing more money (48:29)Louisa’s career advice (42:08)LinksRailsbankLouisa’s LinkedInhttps://www.bedigitaluk.com/

Today’s guest, Mark Evans, has had an impressive IT career to date. He has overseen digital transformation projects from a range of organisations and institutions, including the government’s DVLA, and has completed his MBA. He joined Hodge Bank as the Chief Technology Officer in 2016, which at the time had very little digital presence. As it’s clear in this interview, Mark loves a challenge. Tune in to find out more about how the bank serves its customers (and staff) digitally. We also discuss the Government Digital Service, the London wage threat, allocating your resources in-house versus outsourcing, graduate schemes – and having itchy feet. Talking PointsHis MBA studies (07:48)The in-house digital transformation amongst the government departments (10:46)Digitising the DVLA (12:52)On bringing in-house versus outsourcing agency capabilities (15:20)Hodge Bank “playing a part in the FinTech revolution” (22:12)Having an employee value proposition (23:47)The biggest challenge with growing and retaining a team (25:28)The sustainability agenda at Hodge Bank (35:49)The future of open architecture and banking (38:19)The key attributes needed to be a successful CTO (42:21)Mark’s advice to people starting out with their careers in technology (44:30)LinksHodge BankSustainability at HodgeYamini Rangan – Chief Customer Officer, HubSpotYoello‘The Black Swan’ by ​​Nassim Nicholas Taleb‘Skin the in the Game’ by Nassim Nicholas Talebhttps://www.bedigitaluk.com/

The vice president for Meta's (formerly Facebook) northern Europe division Steve Hatch joins the show to explore all things neurodiversity and what’s in store for the social media platform. Steve is a media agency veteran and joined Facebook in 2013. Prior to that, Hatch became CEO of MEC in 2011, having been there since its formation as Mediaedge:cia following the merger of The Media Edge and CIA in 1998. He also held several planning and strategy roles at Young & Rubicam Group, PHD and DDB throughout the 1990s.I had a great conversation with Steve to learn more about his experience transitioning from working in the media to Facebook. Tune in as we also explore dyslexia, neurodiversity, content moderation, having an open culture, building a Metaverse – and internet cafes.Talking PointsDyslexia Awareness Week and Steve’s involvement with it (3:09)Steve’s career in advertising and key turning points (10:21)Transitioning from working in the media to Facebook (16:18)Working with Mark Zuckerberg (21:57)Building a neurodiverse team (25:31)Some exciting new technology and innovation projects at Facebook (29:59)The recent big outage across the Facebook network (34:51)Dealing with content moderation (38:04)What will Facebook look like in ten years time? (46:21)The advice Steve would give to his 21 year old self (49:26)LinksMade By DyslexiaFacebook Boost Your BusinessEY on the value of dyslexiaGCHQTED Talk: Benjamin Zan - The Transformative Power of Classical Musichttps://www.bedigitaluk.com/

Octopus Energy is on a mission to make a big green dent in the universe by building a truly sustainable energy system globally – by making power greener, smarter, and more affordable for everyone. I had a great time catching up with Greg Jackson, CEO and Founder of Octopus Energy, to find out more about how they’ve been democratising green energy. In this discussion we explore Greg’s values-based leadership style, the impact of economic theory versus reality, his mission to clean up the energy sector, and the future of the smart grid. Talking PointsThe impact of having studied a degree in Economics (5:58)His time working at Procter & Gamble and leaving the corporate world (9:38)Greg’s values-based leadership style (13:31)On supporting local communities, social justice and mobility (22:28)How Octopus Energy fosters diversity and inclusion during they’re hiring process (24:46)Why they don’t have an HR department (27:16)Lessons learned from the 2020 pandemic (29:09)Remote vs office-based work (31:24)The impact of eliminating carbon emissions (33:00)How the UK is doing with tackling climate change (37:21)Cryptocurrency and green energy (39:53)The ‘Uberization’ of the grid (42:22)LinksThe Octopus GroupOctopus EnergyGreg’s TwitterThe Octopus Energy Podcasthttps://www.bedigitaluk.com/

Jack Wearne’s financial career started more or less during the 2008 crash. Fortunately, it opened many doors for him, which we uncover in this episode. He is currently the CEO at Ve Global, the ecommerce specialist ​​that enables brands to recreate their in-store experience – online – through a Digital Assistant. Prior to that, he spent 14 years as a city bank trader, which I couldn't wait to find out more about. Tune in to our discussion as we explore the profound impact Jack’s MBA has had on his career and life, operating from a startup mindset, overcoming strategy overwhelm, the power of perseverance, and lockdown fitness fads. Talking PointsThe change in banks and trading after 2008 (03:08)How studying an MBA has helped Jack’s position as Chief Executive Officer at Ve Global (08:02)Developing skills in risk management as a trader (09:48)Ve Global’s previous tough times (10:56)Turning around Ve Global (13:32)Advice on executing strategy (21:23)The impact of phasing out third party cookies (29:06)The future for town centres and traditional retail (32:41)Technological innovations and climate change (36:09)The hybrid model of working (37:52)Jack’s advice to his 21 year old self (43:34)LinksDan Pink Ted Talk: The Puzzle of Motivation‘My Autobiography’ by Alex Ferguson‘Grit’ by Angela DuckworthThe FounderJack’s LinkedInhttps://www.bedigitaluk.com/