alphalist.CTO Podcast - For CTOs and Technical Leaders

How to focus on business value in tech Find out how to use tech to deliver (not distract from) business value in this CTO podcast featuring Vikas Gupta, CTO at Choco (a digital platform connecting suppliers to their restaurants), who previously held senior engineering roles at Uber and Dropbox. Listen find out : ⚖️ How to balance product and platform initiatives 🔍What the 5 dimensions are for evaluating a language 🎩 CTPO vs 👷CTO + 🤠CPO How to determine ROI when migrating from legacy + Why he chose his tech stack Listen here -- BROUGHT TO YOU BY: Sastrify Sastrify is a software as a service (SaaS) procurement solution that automates the process of buying and managing SaaS products. It is an established partner of the Alphalist CTO Community, providing procurement, IT, and finance teams with a centralized platform to streamline their SaaS procurement process. Their value proposition includes reducing SaaS spend by up to 35% and saving up to 20 hours each month. Sastrify's procurement experts negotiate the best terms with SaaS vendors, such as Miro, Asana, or Salesforce, for both existing contracts and upcoming contract renewals. Several leading companies, including Westwing, Adidas Runtastic, and Sennder, use Sastrify to solve their procurement problems and quickly extend their runways. Sastrify will also have a booth in the Finance Forward area at the OMR festival, and interested parties can schedule a meeting with the Sastrify team by emailing learnmore@sastrify.com. Additionally, you can find case studies and more information on how Sastrify works at www.sastrify.com/alphalist. Timestamps (0:00:00) - Digitizing the Food Supply Chain Vikas Gupta, the CTO of Choco, is focused on bringing the fragmented hospitality industry to the digital space, connecting suppliers with restaurants and institutions to place orders. Vikas explains the current order process of SMS, WhatsApp, voicemail, and email and how Choco is using data to automate the process for chefs so they can focus on cooking. He also touches on how front-of-the-house processes are already digitized, but back-of-the-house processes still need to be further developed to reduce food waste and create sustainability in the food supply chain. (0:09:13) - From Programming to Food Sustainability Vikas Gupta shares his journey in tech from his early days learning to code in Pascal, his experience in Silicon Valley, and the journey that ultimately led his to joining . He recounts his experience programming games and designing board games, as well as the challenges of programming in mobile environments. Vikas also shares why he left Silicon Valley to join Dropbox and eventually , and the drive to make a positive change in the world with the food sustainability space. (0:18:19) - Tech Stack and Decision-Making Process We explore the stack and decisions behind Choco. We discuss why they chose their tech stack (AWS serverless architecture with NodeJS, React) And why he regrets not using cross platform development earlier. (They are migrating to Flutter now). We also discuss the pros and cons of monoliths versus microservices and why Flutter was the right decision for them. Vikas shares the importance of collaboration between web engineers and native engineers in order to create a platform that allows teams to move quickly and build effectively. (0:27:32) - Balancing Product and Platform Initiatives We discuss how to balance the needs of the user, the time available, and the people available when making technology decisions. We explore how leaders can create an environment conducive to having conversations around technology decisions, and how to define a timeline for a transition to a new technology. We also discuss the idea of creating Excellence Days and using 80-20 to allow engineers to focus on technical topics and platform improvements. Finally, we talk about using coloured flags - so you know when the house is on fire and you need to drop everything and fix it. (0:36:18) - Balancing Technology and Product Leadership We explore the importance of quantifying the value of legacy code and how to present that data to leadership. We approach the challenge of overhauling an entire architecture and how to align leadership on delivering business value. We discuss the process of creating a roadmap and coordinating between product, sales, and engineering teams - plus how to be flexible while maintaining focus. Finally, we look at the importance of eye-level collaboration to challenge each other in order to achieve the best outcome.

Richard Socher, CEO of You.com, discusses how AI will impact search, coding, digital marketing, jobs, and more. Topics include monetizing chat-based search, the evolution of MLOps, the future of programmers, the impact of AI on the job market, and the future of digital marketing in the age of AI. Richard also explores the uniqueness of You.com, the power of prompt engineering, infrastructure for a powerful search engine, and the future of language models. He reflects on his journey in AI and the importance of scaling language models.

AI-Driven DevOps, Incident Response & the Role of Field CTO Buckle up for a journey through the evolution of DevOps with John Engates, the Field CTO at Cloudflare, who has been leading the charge since his days as CTO of Rackspace (2002-2018). Get ready for a fascinating ride as we explore the role of AI in DevOps and gain insights from a true industry veteran. Listen to discover: How to handle incident response the Cloudflare way🚨: mission rooms, communication strategies, and best practices Why we can't just turn off the internet? 🌐 The ethical considerations behind cyber warfare The unique role of a 🧑‍🌾 Field CTO How John puts ChatGPT to work 🛠️ Listen here -- BROUGHT TO YOU BY: DoIT and Shopify DoIT Spend more time on your customers. Less on managing the cloud. As the cloud has matured, it’s become increasingly complex to navigate, resulting in engineering teams spending countless hours buried in documentation — and countless dollars/euros in needless spending. DoiT helps thousands of tech companies around the globe with local references like Camunda, Taxfix and Instana solving both essential and advanced cloud challenges. DoiT provides intelligent technology that will simplify and automate your cloud use, alongside expert consultancy and unlimited technical support. All at no extra cost Assess your saving potential now and see how much other companies like yours have saved. Shopify Shopify is the ultimate Commerce solution for brands seeking to elevate their retail business. As a leading provider of Internet infrastructure for retail, we offer reliable tools to start, grow, market, and manage businesses of any size. Trusted by brands like Netflix, Waterdrop, B.O.C., and Butlers, our platform is designed for reliability and an enhanced shopping experience.Struggling with scalability? Shopify Plus eliminates this concern by providing a seamless, omnichannel solution. Witness a demo of our innovative platform and POS at OMR23, booth A4 E05 in the premium hall. Our friendly Shopify team, along with agency partners Eshop Guide & NETSHAKE, will be there to discuss strategies to elevate your customer experience.Recharge at our in-booth coffee bar before diving into the world of Shopify. Book a meeting with our sales team onsite to learn how we can help you achieve your goals. Join the Shopify revolution at booth A4 E05 in the premium hall at OMR23 and take the first step towards growing your business with Shopify Plus. Click here to find out more about Shopify

How to use generative AI as a DevTool Dig deep into how to use generative AI as developer tool 🧑‍💻in this CTO podcast featuring Shawn ‘Swyx’ Wang. Shawn has not only headed Developer Experience at 3 Unicorns 🦄, but he is also the editor of the Latent Space AI/ML newsletter. Tune in to discover how generative AI will change programming and how to start exploring the world of LLMs. Learn: How our infrastructure 🏗️ needs will evolve with the explosion of the AI frontier How much time a CTO should spend trying out new technology vs. sticking with the tried and true ⚖️ Why AI-native databases 🗃️ are the future Best practices for using generative AI as a developer tool 🦾 Listen here -- BROUGHT TO YOU BY: Sastrify Sastrify is a software as a service (SaaS) procurement solution that automates the process of buying and managing SaaS products. It is an established partner of the Alphalist CTO Community, providing procurement, IT, and finance teams with a centralized platform to streamline their SaaS procurement process. Their value proposition includes reducing SaaS spend by up to 35% and saving up to 20 hours each month. Sastrify's procurement experts negotiate the best terms with SaaS vendors, such as Miro, Asana, or Salesforce, for both existing contracts and upcoming contract renewals. Several leading companies, including Westwing, Adidas Runtastic, and Sennder, use Sastrify to solve their procurement problems and quickly extend their runways. Sastrify will also have a booth in the Finance Forward area at the OMR festival, and interested parties can schedule a meeting with the Sastrify team by emailing learnmore@sastrify.com. Additionally, you can find case studies and more information on how Sastrify works at www.sastrify.com/alphalist.

Will Larson, thought leader and author, discusses finding the ideal CTO role, leaving a CTO role, negotiating compensation, and predicts a decrease in tech salaries. They also explore topics such as work-life balance, mental wellness, and the importance of understanding company culture.

Revolutionizing Web Architecture: PESPA - The Future of Single Page Apps Like the UX of a SPA but developing it is a nightmare🤔? Then you should listen to this podcast about PESPA (Progressively Enhanced Single Page apps.🤩. You will learn from Kent C. Dodds, 💁‍♂️co-founder of Remix about this latest web architecture which combines the UX of a SPA (no full-page refreshes 🔄 with a better DX👨‍💻 (no code duplication and less mess). With companies like Microsoft, Netflix, and LinkedIn incorporating it into their stack - it's the web’s next transition which you don’t want to miss out on. Listen to discover: The Evolution ⏩of the Web Architecture: From Multi-Page Apps to Single Page Apps and everything in between How older companies are injecting 💉SPA into their legacy MPA(Called PEMPA) How to better the UI of error messages and validation How can one achieve an 📵offline-first web app? Remix vs. Nuxt vs. Flux Kent's skills as a seasoned software educator and Javascript influencer make this technical discussion a breeze to digest. Listen here ⚠️ CAUTION: LISTENING TO THIS PODCAST MIGHT LEAD TO SOME SERIOUS CODING BREAKTHROUGHS BROUGHT TO YOU BY: Ikea for Business As a CTO, you know that creating a workspace that supports productivity and employee well-being is crucial to your team's success. And that's where Ikea for Business comes in. With **affordable, modular, and morale-boosting **designs, Ikea offers a range of products and services that can help you create a workspace that works for you. Plus, with their current sweepstakes offering five lucky companies the chance to win a corporate makeover with a €1,000 gift card and an interior design consultation, there's never been a better time to transform your workspace with Ikea for Business. From adjustable-height desks to flexible meeting spaces, Ikea for Business has everything you need to create a stylish and functional workspace that supports your team's success. So why wait? Visit Ikea for Business today and enter the sweepstakes for your chance to win!

The Future of Front-end Learn about the future of front-end with Malte Ubl (CTO at Vercel). Malte is the creator of JSConf.eu and has extensive experience in engineering teams on projects like Wiz (the front-end framework Google still uses in most of their consumer apps) and Google Search (Desktop). Now he is at Vercel - mainstreaming the tools and techniques common in BigTech - to other tech companies. Listen to find out: The CTO Role: how he balances ⚖️ Product 💡 and Engineering 🔧 How to decide on a front-end stack - from frameworks to languages 👀 Where most Engineering A/B🧪 tests fail The tech stack at Vercel Listen here BROUGHT TO YOU BY: Digtl Digitl Digitl, an independent technology provider with a focus on marketing technology and cloud, can help. They offer services on Google Cloud, AWS, and Azure, and provide licenses for SearchAds360, Display&Video360, CampaignManager360, and Google Analytics 360. They specialize in projects such as Google Analytics 4 Migration, Marketing Mix-Modeling, Attribution, Predictions via ML/AI, CDP, Data Infrastructure, DWHs/Data Mesh concepts and implementation and Retail Media. But what sets Digitl apart is their commitment to professionalism, quality, and optimal technical first-party data infrastructure for all sizes of businesses. With their remote work culture, they are always available to provide support, no matter where you are. Contact Digitl today for a free first evaluation and quick audit of your Google Analytics implementation. You'll receive valuable feedback on your data infrastructure. Visit digitl.net or digitlcloud.com for more information.

Remote First 101: Hiring, Compensation, IT Provisioning, Onboarding, Culture and More Learn out to run your remote 🌎 company effectively with tips from Dominik Angerer, co-founder, and CEO of Storyblok. He shares tips and insights on everything from remote recruiting to onboarding and engagement. Plus, he shares the story behind the Storyblok tech stack, and why, after years of being bootstrapped, they decided to seek funding. Listen to find out: Remote Compensation 💸: How he uses data to adjust salaries How to handle IT procurement 🖥️ and device management for a global team How to source, recruit, and onboard a fully distributed team How they split meetings into async and sync segments What the ideal annual retreat 🏖️ looks like Listen here BROUGHT TO YOU BY: FullStory FullStory Want to see how users actually experience your website or app? FullStory's technology both retroactively captures all interactions and extracts actionable insights for you - all in a GDPR-compliant manner. With FullStory's metrics, you can proactively identify frustration signals, bugs, and lost conversions, so you find optimization potential you didn't even know existed. Plus, you can use their segmented session replays to understand the "why." Their DXI platform combines quantitative and qualitative data, including autocapture technology and a "private by default" approach. Say goodbye to traditional analytics tools that miss critical data points and the 'searching-for-the-needle-in-the-stack' frustration of limited session replay or heatmap tools and start optimizing your digital user experience today at www.fullstory.com/alphalist P.S. Storyblok buys their compensation datasets from here

How to Optimise your Cloud Costs Find out how to optimize your cloud ☁️costs in this CTO podcast featuring David Linthicum (Chief Cloud Strategy Officer at Deloitte, Author of Insider’s Guide to Cloud Computing, and #1 Cloud Influencer). This is your opportunity to hear about the efficient use of cloud computing from someone whose 35-year career includes serving as CTO at five companies, writing 15 books, publishing 7000 articles, presenting at 1000 conferences and 2000 webinars, and teaching popular courses on computing at Louisiana State University and LinkedIn Learning. Listen to find out: What are the biggest mistakes people make with their cloud setups? How can you use FinOps 💸to cut your cloud costs? How to get Cloud Repatriation (cloud + on-prem) and MultiCloud to work for you? Why the MetaCloud/SuperCloud is the next big thing 🔥 Will cloud costs will drop soon?📉 Listen [here](https://alphalist.com/podcast/69-david-linthicum-chief-cloud-strategy-office-deloitte-consulting?utm_source=podigee&utm_medium=referral ) BROUGHT TO YOU BY: ROQ Technology ROQ Technology Getting your unique web application off the ground is now faster and cheaper than ever. With ROQ, you can spend less time developing generic features that are common to all web applications and more time concentrating on the things that really set your application apart. ROQ can provide you with all these essential features (e.g. authentication, access management, notifications, chats, file handling, and billing) as fully functional building blocks, ready to be integrated into your existing web application with ease. Their fully-functional React components can be customized to match your specific style, and a managed GraphQL API handles your business logic with ease. Whether you're building a SaaS platform (B2C and B2B) or a customer portal, ROQ has got you covered. And for new projects, take a look at our open-source Kickstarter, based on Next.js and PrismaORM, where all features of ROQ are pre-integrated and ready to go. Say goodbye to the hassle of building essential features from scratch and hello to a more efficient and streamlined web application development process with ROQ. Learn more about ROQ Technology

SaaS Pricing Strategies Find out how to price your SaaS product effectively 💸 in this podcast featuring Patrick Campbell of ProfitWell (a SaaS for subscription analytics, retention, and pricing solutions). He shares pricing insights he has learned by looking over 🧐 the data of 73 000 SaaS companies over the past decade! Listen to find out: How to get the right 🎯price for your SaaS Product Freemium 🆓 or free trial? Should you have a legacy 👴🏻 tier? Usage-based 📈 or tier-based 📊 pricing? 🤔 Why and how to change your price? 🔼 Insight into the current ‘recession’ 📉 Why it’s hard to sell an analytics product 🔍 Listen here BROUGHT TO YOU BY: Cloudflight Cloudflight Are you looking to build a digital future for your company with software that matters — matters to your business, to your customers, and to society as whole? Perhaps you are lost in how to implement industrial digital transformation with optimum ROI? Speak to Cloudflight - where is all about the Digital Difference. Cloudflight is an E2E full-service provider for industrial digital transformation. From customized software development through cloud-native and Artificial Intelligence solutions (AI) to eCommerce, we support companies in evolving their digital processes, products, services, and business models. Our expertise includes artificial intelligence, cloud-native, embedded software development, human-machine interface design (HMI), cognitive systems, and eCommerce solutions. We support companies at every step from the idea through development to the operational phase. We build on our experience and expertise to be your agile, reliable, and innovative long-term partner. Learn more about Cloudflight