Wharton Tech Toks

“How do we use data more and more intelligently to be able to understand who do we market to, how do we market to them, [and] what’s the story that we tell each of them in a different way to be really relevant?” This week, Leon and Zoë are joined by Jessica Gilmartin, Wharton alum and Chief Marketing Officer at Calendly. With experience across large companies and startups, Jessica is an expert in her field. In this episode, she discusses the critical questions her team at Calendly is asking and how data informs their decision making. Listen in to learn more about finding a balance between creativity and analytics while developing marketing strategies.

Ever wondered about the science behind your favorite tunes or podcasts? John us as we talk to Marion Boeri, Associate Director, Thought Leadership Research at Spotify and Josh McDermott, Associate Professor at MIT Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences. Marion and Josh share insights on how audio shapes our experiences and emotions and how that relates to business strategy. Discover the intricate relationship between sound and human behavior in this compelling conversation.

“[Soon] we won't be talking about questions like, do you have to be an engineer or be super technically strong to have a meaningful impact in the space world?” Join us in talking to the new CEO of Space Tango, Sita Sonty, for the first official episode of our series on the space industry. This series is geared towards proving space is a diverse industry not only for those with technical backgrounds. Sita's leap from diplomat to space industry CEO exemplifies that space innovation isn't just for engineers. Tune in for an enriching dialogue on navigating life's transitions with audacity and professional courage. Plus, explore with us the exciting frontiers of on-orbit pharmaceuticals and the future of printing organs in zero-gravity. Listen in on this compelling conversation that's sure to elevate your view of what's possible in the final frontier.

"What I think is important in venture capital is to understand where the analogy is the same and where the analogy is different." "[There is this] opportunity to use technology to help people have more authentic human interactions online ... to create novel forms of human interaction that try to connect people more closely." Join ⁠Cynthia Zhou as she interviews Brett Martin, Managing Partner for Charge Ventures, a new york based pre-seed/seed stage venture fund. Brett is also a serial entrepreneur, having previously co-founded 2 startups and is now the co-founder and President of Kumospace, a startup focused on building the best virtual office and events software. Together they delve into the world of pre-seed investing and serial entrepreneurship, covering a wide range of topics like lessons in entrepreneurship, strategies for identifying genuine potential in early-stage businesses as a pre-seed investor, and the evolving landscape of remote work.

“We will see strength in a few players that will ultimately prove out this technology and in consumer and urban environments specifically… some of these other semi-controlled environments are already ripe for disruption by autonomous technologies.” Join ⁠Leon Zhang⁠ and Javier Torres as they interview Scott Walbrun, Principal at BMW i Ventures. Together they explore broad trends in the future of mobility space such as autonomous vehicles and electrification as well as current sentiment in the investment landscape. Scott also goes deep into investments like Fox Robotics (warehouse automation) and Lilac (lithium extraction technology).

“There’s a fundamental lack of data and information at every level. Even the government doesn’t have access to reliable, real time information, especially in the used home space… you just kind of had to ask some friends and try to guesstimate what [prices] would be like.” Join Leon Zhang and Javier Torres in a conversation with Brynne McNulty Rojas, the first and only female founder and CEO of a LatAm unicorn, on how she built Habi. Brynne shares her journey of identifying a market gap and founding her innovative proptech company, including the inception, team building, and nuances of scaling across diverse Latin American cultures compared to the U.S. Listen in for her insights on emerging trends in proptech as well as her advice for aspiring entrepreneurs.

“Data is food for AI and so are the queries for generative AI…How do we ask the right questions to the machine? How do we have the right data so the machine has all of the information we need, and not misinformation or missing information?”  Join Cynthia Zhou and Spandana Bhattacharya as they interview JoAnn Stonier, Mastercard Fellow of Data and AI, previously the Chief Data Officer at Mastercard. JoAnn shares her thoughts on the explosive growth of generative AI, how data plays a pivotal role, and what it means to use AI responsibly. Plus, her career journey is simply fascinating - tune into this episode to learn about how she went from law school student to becoming a leading expert on data and AI. 

“It was disheartening… but there was also a weird voice inside me that was kind of excited. We have our backs against the wall, we have a really hard problem, how are we going to figure it out?” Join Emma Robinson as she interviews Austin Link, the co-founder of Starfish Space, a startup working on the future of on-orbit servicing. Join us as we discuss the path of founding a deep tech startup from concept to early stages while highlighting the unique challenges they face compared to other industries. Also, learn about the major obstacle Starfish Space faced this summer and what it means to build a resilient community. And don't worry, no spoilers here – stay with us until the end to find out how this challenging experience has unfolded for Starfish Space.

“The hardest problem in education is the problem of transfer. ChatGPT gives us the ability to practice transfer in other ways… we start to be able to approach problems in different ways that build expertise or intuition faster.” Join Leon Zhang and Jordan Baker in a conversation with Christian Terwiesch, Professor at Wharton and chair of the Operations, Information, and Decisions department and Ethan Mollick, Associate Professor at Wharton. Together they explore the impact of ChatGPT in educational settings: how it can help students accelerate learning, but also situations where intuition is lost by “faking it”. Ethan and Christian also touch upon how the AI tool’s ability to increase variability makes it powerful, current flaws in the model, and how students can use ChatGPT to come up with and vet entrepreneurial ideas.

“[The hardest part of procurement at Zoox] is trying to convince [the major automotive companies] to give us their engineering resources on the promise that, one day, we are going to change their industry.” Join Emma Robinson and Leon Zhang in a conversation with Kit Cutler, Director of Procurement and Strategic Partnerships. Together they explore the challenges of building a supply chain for a company that is not only pioneering self-driving technology but is also reimagining the car itself. Kit discusses how he got major automotive companies to invest their time and resources in designing new car systems for a promising, albeit early-stage startup. Kit also sheds light on other aspects of procurement and draws comparisons to his previous role at Apple.