Venturi's Voice: Technology | Leadership | Staffing | Career | Innovation

David Simons is Software Engineering Manager at Kaluza. Davis is leading two cross-functional teams (Data Warehousing; Public Interfaces) - 14 engineers total - that together form the public interface for Kaluza, a real-time energy platform supporting energy retailers in multiple regions. These teams are responsible for building centralised GraphQL, EventBridge and BigQuery APIs over decentralised Kafka microservices using a Data Mesh architecture, as well as surrounding tooling and documentation. Kaluza is an ecosystem of intelligent platforms powering the future of energy. From revolutionising billing to smart electric vehicle charging, Kaluza’s technology is empowering some of the biggest energy suppliers to better serve millions of customers. Its real-time cloud platforms transform supplier operations, reducing cost to serve and boosting customer engagement. Powered by Kaluza, suppliers can invest in innovating for tomorrow’s customers and drive decarbonisation with smart, low carbon technologies that not only reduce energy bills, but lay the foundations for a more flexible energy system. During this Podcast episode, Ben sits down with David to discuss the importance of data architectural patterns, Conway's Law, and David's leadership style.

Andreas Balser is the Chief Technology Officer of Dopavision. He is passionate to merge his experience from product management, software and technology management as well as strategy consulting to make our vision become reality. His healthcare industry experience allows him to ensure Dopavision’s product and processes adhere to the highest regulatory standards. He has previously worked with Meierhofer AG and McKinsey&Company, among others. Dopavision is pioneering the development of digital therapeutics in ophthalmology. They are developing a game-changing therapeutic for childhood myopia which can be easily administered by using a smartphone app. Their goal is to provide a clinically validated therapeutic to help in the fight against the global myopia crisis. During this podcast episode, Ben sits down with Andreas to discover the incredible new game-changing technology Dopavision are applying to help fight the Myopia crisis in children.

Alex Norman is Head of Front End at Upside Technology, and an experienced lead front-end engineer who builds products and teams from scratch. Upside is an investment app that will develop, harness and maximise the skills you need to become an expert investor. Investing is complex but it doesn’t need to be difficult and their app and connected products provide you with all the tools you need to make investment decisions with confidence. Through bespoke insights, scientific analysis, and a smart framework used by professional portfolio managers, Upside help you gain the skills and confidence you need to invest in an educated, sustainable and risk-aware way. During this podcast episode, Ben sits down with Alex to discuss the technologies that have helped Alex and his team build the app in 3 months, general patterns of building front-end features, and Alex's leadership style and advice.

Andrea Dante Bozzola is Engineering Manager at Yelp. Yelp connects people with great local businesses. Their users have contributed approximately 155 million cumulative reviews of almost every type of local business, from restaurants, boutiques and salons to dentists, mechanics, plumbers and more. These reviews are written by people using Yelp to share their everyday local business experiences, giving voice to consumers and bringing “word of mouth” online. During this podcast episode, Ben sits down with Andrea to discuss the age-old question of the difference between leadership and management, what motivates someone to become a leader or manager, and what is good leadership at its core.

Sarah Müller is Chief Commercial Officer at zolar, and formerly Managing Director of Kununu. Their mission is to build a solar plant on every roof in the world. Zolar enables homeowners to produce their own green electricity and at the same time make an active contribution to climate protection. Sarah is responsible for the development and expansion of the sales organization of the fast-growing start-ups with a focus on strong scaling of Marketing and Sales.  During this podcast episode, Ben sits down with Sarah to discuss Sarah's career history, employer branding and why it's so important for businesses to get right; as well as practical advice on how to measure employer branding, and what we can expect to see in the future for Zolar.

Pete Dignan is Head of PistonHeads Engineering and Consumer Engagement at CarGurus. CarGurus uses data and technology to make buying cars simple, giving people the tools they need to confidently find, buy, finance, or sell a car. They’re the most-visited car-shopping site in the US, and they're expanding globally. Pete is a great communicator and has spoken at multiple conferences including Google's Adopt or Die, MongoDB Meetup, ElasticSearch breakfast seminar, and Figaro Digital Conference.  During this podcast episode, Ben sits down with Pete to discuss measuring business success across different departments and how Pete connects business value to an engineering change.

Sam Curtis is CEO of Big Sofa Technologies, and has worked across a variety of disciplines, and with a wide variety of clients but have always retained a strong global focus to the work he has done. Big Sofa Technologies uses video to transform human behaviors and patterns into actionable data to identify business-changing design, communication and innovation opportunities for their clients. Their pioneering platform transforms video into an accessible, interactive, and sustainable data source, to help clients explore how people live, shop, and consume. Alongside their team of behavioral experts, this Visual Insights System helps their clients understand and analyze real human behaviors and patterns in the spaces and places they occur, delivering new-to-the-world analytics and insights. During this Podcast episode, Ben sits down with Sam to discuss how BST have built groundbreaking machine learning which recognises human behavior, as well as Intelligence Augmentation – which enables machines and humans to work together to make humans lives easier.

Lawrence Lilley is CTO @ MUTUAL VISION  Lawrence is an information technology professional experienced in executing IT delivery for organisational success. An established record of clear strategic leadership and collaboration to develop, innovate and simplify organisational processes to deliver measurable benefit. MUTUAL VISION is a tech business uniquely owned by their customer community of UK building societies and banks and wholly focused on meeting their needs in an ethical way. During this Podcast episode, Ben sits down with Lawrence to discuss Lawrence's leadership style, the difference between a Manager and a Leader, and the importance of diversity in your workforce.

Shane Armstrong started his career in the Military, then moved to work for the Police force, and now is Software Engineering Manager at a world leading Bank. Learning about leadership from a young age defined Shane's future; during this podcast episode, we hear stories from Shane's past in the Military and the Police force and how these learnings have shaped his leadership style as Software Engineering manager at one of the world-leading banks.

Jason Vogel is Head of Engineering at BrandAlley.co.uk Founded in 2008, BrandAlley.co.uk has established itself as the UK’s number one private sales site, offering up to 80% off luxury and premium brands. During this Podcast episode, Ben sits down with Jason to discuss Jason's career in tech, emigrating from South Africa to the UK, the different cultures in technology, and how Jason and his team at BrandAlley.co.uk prepare for periods of increased popularity and demand, such as Black Friday.