Tiernan Ray has published articles in every major tech and business publication over his 25-year career. This week, he joined Dan Turchin on the podcast to discuss what it means to practice responsible journalism at a time when audiences and advertisers are fickle and we're contending with a pandemic, social unrest, political turmoil, and backlash against social media for promoting hate.Listen and learn...Why journalistic integrity matters even as fact-checking departments at organizations like Barron's are being eliminated.How the pandemic has created opportunities to tell stories about scientific topics that weren't previously exposed to mainstream audiences.Why it's important for writers to not allow their social media brands to influence their presentation of facts.How leaders like former Cisco CEO John Chambers, Applied Materials CEO Gary Dickerson, and Five9 CEO Rowan Trollope are managing company culture as "serendipitous moments for collaboration" go away.Follow Tiernan on Twitter.

This week, we discuss the future of smart homes with Alex Capecelatro, CEO of Josh.ai. Working from home has made smart home assistants business essential. They save us time researching, play mood-appropriate music, and help us meditate when quarantine life has an off day. Alex and Josh.ai are navigating the new world of work like all of us. But unlike most of us, they’re doing it while being scrutinized for collecting personal data, trying to maintain international supply chains, and competing with pandemic stalwarts Amazon and Google. Listen and learn why Josh.ai just had its best quarter ever and raised a new round of funding. Hear how Alex is creating a culture well-suited for growth in uncertain times. Topics discussed… What is the future of the smart home? How is Josh.ai addressing the problem of data privacy? Why did his team develop a “Snapchat” feature? What is Alex’s leadership style and how has it changed as the company has grown? What would Alex do differently if he started over today? How was Alex able to close a round of funding in the middle of a pandemic? What is it like being David slinging stones at Goliaths Amazon and Google? 

Kenn So is on the investment team at Shasta Ventures, one of the most respected enterprise software investors in Silicon Valley. He evaluates AI-first companies every day and has a few opinions about what's working and how to get your AI company funded.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.

Bill Davidow is an icon in the venture capital world having made his first $5,000 venture investment in the 1960s before starting Mohr Davidow in 1985. This week’s episode of AI and the Future of Work is a fascinating discussion with Bill about his new book "The Autonomous Revolution: Reclaiming the Lives We’ve Sold to Machines”. 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!

On this week’s podcast, we interview Shannon Burns, internal developer tools manager from Slack. 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.

How AI and Humans Will Work Together to Build a More Human Future of WorkIn 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.

We enjoyed our discussion with Charlene Li, analyst and best-selling author of The Disruption Mindset, so much last December that we invited her back to discuss the impact of the pandemic on leaders, culture, and the evolving nature of work. Charlene's advice for disruptors is more relevant than ever.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 eventsWhat'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. 

In this week’s episode of AI and the Future of Work, Slack Senior Vice President of Engineering Allan Leinwand shares how he’s leading his teams through the pandemic and what it means within Slack when CEO Stewart Butterfield says “we were made for this.” 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.

On this week’s episode of AI and the Future of Work, we discuss the future of post-pandemic consumer behavior and AI in retail with Breinify CEO Diane Keng. Breinify develops a predictive personalization engine used by brands like BevMo! to understand how we buy and optimize the buying experience. She’s building a great culture and learning fast as a first-time founder and CEO. 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.

In this week’s episode of AI and the Future of Work, Dan Turchin discusses Silicon Valley culture pre and post pandemic, SaaS metrics, and the mistakes that get CEOs fired with Dave Kellogg, Silicon Valley luminary, investor, advisor, and CEO. 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