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

Rakhee Gupta is Technical Recruiting Manager at SeatGeek, overseeing all technical recruiting across Engineering and Product in NYC and Israel. SeatGeek is a mobile-focused ticket platform that enables users to buy and sell tickets for live sports, concerts and theatre events. SeatGeek allows both mobile app and desktop users to browse events, view interactive color-coded seatmaps, complete purchases, and receive electronic or print tickets. Rakhee’s team has aggressive hiring goals across the company, especially in research and development. The company also has a plan to continue its focus on diversity and inclusion in its hiring efforts. During the podcast, we spoke about remotely recruiting and onboarding and what that process looks like to provide the best candidate experience. As well as hiring for diversity, some of the best ways to do this and the benefits of attracting diverse talent into your business.

Thiago Ghisi, an Engineering Director with 15+ years of experience, discusses his career in tech, the keys to career growth, personal branding, mentoring, and cheap investments with high return. He emphasizes the importance of impact and influence, expanding horizons beyond technical skills, and giving back to the industry through mentorship. Personal branding and self-promotion strategies are also explored, along with the value of therapy and online courses for personal growth.

Hasani Jess is the UK Chief Technology Officer at Simply Business, responsible for the InsureTechs technology vision. His wide ranging expertise and forward-thinking approach enables him to devise and execute ambitious long-term technology strategies. A recognized technology thought-leader, Hasani has operated in multiple domains spanning two decades including telecoms, government, finance, healthcare and retail. In 2019 he was recognized as one of the top business leaders in technology and was named in the CIO 100 list, an annual recognition of the UK’s technology leadership community. Hasani received his Bachelors of Eng in Electronic Engineering and Computer Science from Aston University in Birmingham, UK. During the podcast episode, we spoke about Hasani's impressive and vast tech career journey. Carving a career in tech now - during a time of recent growth and adjustments within the industry, is different from ever before, we hear Hasani's thoughts and advice on this. We also spoke about how to build a high-performing, successful team, and some of the most important aspects to take into consideration.

Alexandru Toea is Lead Front End Developer at Yobota. Yobota's core banking platform allows established, and challenger financial institutions to launch innovative products in a fast and reliable way. Their mission is about creating the future standard of financial technology. The Yobota Platform allows established and challenger financial institutions to create innovative, user-centric financial products, and run them from origination and through the life of the account. Yobota's platform is proven on multi-million pound portfolios and runs some of the most innovative products in the UK market. During the podcast episode, we spoke about how Alexandru and his team at Yobota are using modern technologies to speed up and improve workflows in more "traditional" industries such as banking, and the importance of constantly be improving your software with the end-user in mind, along with advice for people who are on a similar mission.

Martin Reible is Interim Lead - Data & Insights Team at Oetker Digital. Helping to enable and shape data product development for Oetker Group companies, Oetker Digital & its ventures. Martin is currently leading Oetker Digital's Data and Analytics & Optimization teams. Aspiring to create & foster a team environment that is characterized by autonomy, trust & true ownership. Valon Buxhovi is Business Intelligence Manager at Oetker Digital GmbH, driving business towards efficiency, sustainability and growth. Valon is constantly looking forward to progress business intelligence, providing insights that guide the business ahead of the curve. Oetker Digital combines the Oetker Group's traditions with new digital concepts, innovations and business models. To name but a few, they support established brands such as Dr. Oetker, Henkell, Coppenrath & Wiese and Radeberger, as well as Oetker Collection hotels. Together they develop ideas for consumers of the Oetker Group's products in everyday life.  Oetker digital are currently hiring (Senior) Digital Analysts, Tracking & Implementation Specialists (GTM, GA, Google Cloud Platform stack etc.) & a Senior Data Engineer.

Miguel Alvarez is Global CTO at AnalogFolk. AnalogFolk is a global digital creative agency, independently owned since 2008. Their mission is to use digital technology to make the analog world better – creating more intuitive customer journeys, enabling more customer-led uses of data, integrating seamless tech and building breakthrough campaigns. Winner of Campaign’s Global Digital Innovation Agency of the Year 2019. As CTO, Miguel is responsible for leading the AnalogFolk Global technology capability and overseeing the specialist teams across technical services. These include Research and Development, BAU and Technical Solution Delivery, Brand Innovation and Brand Acceleration. Leading the technology output and direction for the agency and its clients. As an Ambassador for Essential Costa Rica, Miguel promotes progression of the field of technology and builds bridges with other countries and brands. Recognised as one of the most successful graduates from Central America by Estrategia&Negocious magazine (the region’s leading business and strategy publication), Miguel has shaped and inspired emerging market startups in Costa Rica. From both a business and innovation point of view, he is a very influential leader and continually goes out of his way to educate and inspire those around him, aiding a bright future for the digital industry. During the podcast, we spoke about the cultural difference of technology in different continents, and how to adapt to these different environments to ensure success and further your career in the tech industry. We also spoke about industry concerns and how to overcome them, as well as Miguel's secret tips to stay productive for long periods of time. Showtimes 0:55 - An insight into AnalogFolk and Miguel's role as Global CTO. 5:10 - Building trust in your team and organisation. 7:15 - Miguel's mentor, and thoughts on mentorship to progress your career. 16:40 - The culture shock when moving from Costa Rica to London, and the catalyst for this decision to move to London. 25:00 - Advice for people who are looking to try different cultures and move around the world working in technology. 35:28 - How Miguel stays productive for long periods of time. 41:00 - Becoming the smartest version of yourself.

Robert Hook is Managing Partner of Leap Beyond Analytics, and is a software engineer with over 30 years of experience in a broad range of industries, and with a very broad skill set. His passion is creating robust, high-performance software, with a desire to create the right solution first time, every time. He is particularly excited by and interested in the problems involved in extracting knowledge from large volumes of data, and in building complex, high availability, high-performance server-side software. During the podcast episode, we spoke about all things Data, Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence. As well as the future of the industry, the problems that occur when depending on Machine Learning to make human decisions, and the common misconception with BI and Data Science. Showtimes: 1:00 - A history of Leap Beyond Analytics and Robert's role there. 5:55 - The common misconception with BI and Data Science. 11:50 - The definition of data-centric architecture and development and what that means. 18:20 - The data quality and governance aspect of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence. 23:30 - The options available when your data isn't clean and useable. 25:30 - Data is as important as code, treat data as an identifiable asset. 31:00 - The catalyst for the use of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence. 37:00 - Problems that occur when depending on ML to make human decisions. 40:45 - Where we can see the future of AI and ML in 5 to 10 years' time. 47:56 - Where Robert finds inspiration to keep on top of the data movements.

Sam Williams is Serverless AWS Solution Architect and Consultant | Developer Training at CompleteCoding.io. Complete Coding has years of experience taking projects from idea, through design and build, to deployment. They utilise Serverless and AWS to remove the barriers and deliver results faster. Sam previously worked at Mission Labs as Lead Software Engineer before making the move to Complete Coding, which has grown from a log of Sam's journey into software development, to a thriving YouTube channel, online course platform and Serverless AWS Consultancy. Complete Coding creates content to help developers make that step up to full stack developer. During the podcast, we spoke about everything software and careers. We talked about how Sam became a self-taught software developer from Aerospace engineering and what that change looked like. After that, we talked about how who is already in a software developer role can progress their career by planning and optimising the content that they're learning. Sam's journey and progression in the industry is awe-inspiring, if you're looking to take the next step in your software career, If you want to learn about AWS and cloud computing, want to learn how to build powerful features and become a better developer - check out the Complete Coding YouTube channel for regular tutorials and insightful content from Sam himself! Showtimes 0:55 - An insight into Mission Labs, and where they fit into the world of tech. 7:19 - Sam's Self-taught and alternative route into the software and computer science industry. 9:14 - The resources Sam used to learn about the industry and progress. 10:00 - CompleteCoding.io and how Sam is creating useful content to give back to the community. 14:28 - What Sam looks for when hiring and taking on new staff. 19:12 - The cheapest investment Sam has made in his career that's resulted in the highest return of investment. 29:02 - The correlation between rock climbing and coding.

Is Leadership Learned or Innate? We sat down with Amit Patel, who is an Experienced Technology Leader with a demonstrated history of working in the information technology and services industry. Currently working as Director of Technology Design and Engineering at The British Heart Foundation. During the podcast, we spoke about Amit's career history up to this point, how Amit has developed his own leadership style, best leadership practices, pitfalls to be aware of, and advice for anyone who's taking on the new challenge of becoming a leader. Showtimes: 0:55 - An insight into The British Heart Foundation and Amit's role there. 4:06 - Amit's route into Technology and career history and journey to becoming Director of Technology Design and Engineering. 16:00 - Is an aspect of good management knowing when to step back? 21:00 - Being authentic as a manager and leader. 22:57 - The importance of having fun with your team as a leader. 23:55 - How to keep a team motivated and supporting your workforce during the pandemic. 28:20 - What's the most important aspect of good leadership? 29:00 - The difference between leadership and management. 34:29 - What Amit's go-to resources to learn about leadership are. 36:30 - The best advice Amit has learned on his career journey.

Founded by entrepreneur Lydia Jones in 2018, Housemates is both a marketplace and SaaS solution which allows students around the world book accommodation fast, secure and 100% online. Housemates enable global PBSA operators to convert students into bookings across all acquisition channels without the associated cost. Lydia's team has helped revolutionise multiple sectors for challenger brands such as Starling Bank and VibePay, along with those who have worked for established companies and governing bodies such as DEPT, Spareroom, the International Department of Trade and overseas student requirement specialists. Founded in December 2018, Housemates has already been listed at No. 14 in The Top 20 Startups to Work for in 2021 in Manchester. Housemates is a truly inspiring business, and we can't wait to follow its journey in the tech industry. During the podcast, we spoke about how Lydia has scaled the business so quickly to where it is today, how Lydia creates job fulfillment whilst challenging and supporting her team as well as how to personally stay productive and never lose sight of the end goal. Showtimes 0:45 - The amazing achievement and rapid scale of Housemates. 2:30 - Lydia's history and involvement in the tech industry. 5:40 - The forward-thinking frictionless scale at Housemates. 8:29 - Challenging and supporting employees to create job fulfillment. 13:56 - What Lydia's go-to resources are to continue to learn about the industry and management. 19:05 - The importance of maintaining a transparent relationship with shareholders. 23:08 - Where and how to find the perfect investors for your business. 27:10 - Lydia's concerns about the industry. 33:30 - How to deal with the growing pressure as the business scales. 37:30 - The biggest challenge Lydia has found on her journey.