Thomas Hansen, President of Amplitude, shares his journey from Denmark to leading a digital analytics powerhouse. He discusses the importance of partnerships, trust, and resilience in navigating the startup landscape. Thomas reveals insights on product strategy, emphasizing the role of customer feedback in development. He also touches on team empowerment and the complexities of scaling a business from $300 million to a billion. His passion for windsurfing adds a personal touch to this inspiring tale of growth and innovation.

Anand Kulkarni started his career in the dark ages of AI, as a Computer Science researcher at UC Berkeley. He published papers on human intelligence inside of software products, and eventually founded LeadGenius, which was AI for sales and was supported by Andreessen Horowitz and Sam Altman. Outside of tech, he is married with 2 kids, and used to be an avid rock climber. He also loves to eat tofu, and has been picking up a lot more science fiction lately.Though the AI space is crowded today, Anand and his team have been working in the space since 2016. They observed the need to modernize legacy software and digitally transform organizations. They wanted to utilize an intelligent approach to this, and started down the path of building a large dataset, building software to learn from it, and use that to modernize software.This is the creation story of Crowdbotics.SponsorsRapyd CloudSpeakeasyQA WolfSnapTradeLinkshttps://crowdbotics.com/https://www.linkedin.com/in/anandpkulkarni/ Our Sponsors:* Check out Kinsta: https://kinsta.com* Check out Vanta: https://vanta.com/CODESTORYSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/code-story/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Hannes Lenke, Co-founder and CEO of Checkly, shares his inspiring journey from game development to leading a startup in synthetic monitoring. He discusses the importance of monitoring-as-code in modern development and the challenges faced during rapid growth. Hannes emphasizes building a strong remote team with transparency and cultural fit, while also navigating scalability and quality assurance. He offers sage advice for aspiring entrepreneurs, highlighting the need for persistence and dedication in the marathon of startup life.

Egil Østhus, Co-founder and CEO of Unleash, shares insights from his journey in software development. He reveals how personal challenges inspired the creation of a feature management tool that enhances software release safety. Egil discusses the pride in building a dedicated team and the evolution from open-source to enterprise solutions. He also reflects on market missteps, emphasizing cultural awareness and adaptability. Plus, he dreams of conquering the New York marathon while balancing family life.

Matt Pierce, Founder and CEO of Immediate, brings over 17 years of tech experience, transitioning from healthcare to the financial wellness sector. He shares his journey of creating on-demand pay solutions to combat financial stress from living paycheck to paycheck. Discussing the critical importance of customer feedback, Matt reveals how real client problems informed Immediate’s innovative approach. He also reflects on the challenges of building a cohesive team and scaling a tech company, underscoring the significance of self-awareness and company culture in entrepreneurship.

Reed McGinley-Stempel grew up in Las Vegas, but went to school on the East Coast. Frankly, he didn't know what he wanted to do and "stumbled" into management consulting. When I dug into how someone stumbles into this profession, he mentioned that early on he got some sage advice from his older brother about not rushing to law school because... being a lawyer isn't that fun. So, he followed some friends to Bain & Company.The more projects he was involved in, the more he got interested in technology. Candidly, one of his motivations for going in tech was the fact that his was moving out to San Francisco to support his wife through law school at Stanford. He considered continuing to do consulting with Bain, but decided tech was the best route and eventually, joined Plaid. Outside of his professional career, he is into the outdoors, loving hiking and taking his very active dog outside. He mentions that living in San Francisco makes the outdoors super accessible.Reed and his Co-founder both came from Plaid, and worked on the adaptive authentication team. There, they explored how to secure bank authentication to maintain security, but also do it in such a way that reduced friction and created an amazing experience. They found that the biggest problem to be solved was the combination of security issues with passwords, and the low conversion rate of sign up / sign in forms requiring passwords. They wanted to fix this.This is the creation story of Stytch.SponsorsSpeakeasyQA WolfSnapTradeLinks:http://stych.com/codestoryhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/reed-mcginley-stempel-17362245/Our Sponsors:* Check out Kinsta: https://kinsta.com* Check out Vanta: https://vanta.com/CODESTORYSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/code-story/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Jonathan Stark is based in Providence, Rhode Island. He attended the Berkeley College or Music, with a dual major in song writing. He ended up going back to computers to make ends meet while he was gigging - and he figured out he really enjoyed watching people use the software he built. Outside of tech and professional life, he's married with 2 kids and 2 dogs. He is an avid martial artist, as are his kids, and got his 2nd degree black belt at age 53.At his prior company, Jonathan was leading teams to build software. He wanted to hire senior engineers, but was told junior engineers would better fit the budget. He couldn't figure out why, but then it dawned on him - hourly billing a junior created more margin. He wanted to pivot away from hourly billing as a company and went solo to figure out how to do this. Once he did, he never looked back.This is the creation story of Jonathan Stark and Ditching Hourly.SponsorsSpeakeasyQA WolfSnapTradeLinkshttps://jonathanstark.com/https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanstark/Our Sponsors:* Check out Kinsta: https://kinsta.com* Check out Vanta: https://vanta.com/CODESTORYSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/code-story/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Eric Müller lives in San Francisco, and explored many different paths before landing in tech. He looked into architecture, photography, but ultimately, he settled into the creativity, building and planning aspects of building software. Outside of tech, he's married with one kid, and a great tradeoff with his wife - he does all the cooking, while she does the cleaning. He still loves photography, and takes pictures regularly with his Olympus OM-1.Eleven years ago, Eric joined his current venture as a consultant, taking on projects and delivering value. He was brought on board 6-7 months later, and started down the path where he would lead the engineering and security arms of your partner in creating digital products.This is Eric's creation story at Presence.SponsorsSpeakeasyQA WolfSnapTradeLinkshttps://presencepg.com/https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericmullersf/Our Sponsors:* Check out Kinsta: https://kinsta.com* Check out Vanta: https://vanta.com/CODESTORYSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/code-story/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Andrey Kudievskiy has always been fascinated by technology, and when asked about himself, he identifies as an entrepreneur. He has been a software engineer, database developer, administrator and then jumped accidentally into management. Outside of his professional life, he is marred with two daughters. He enjoys running long distance. He has officially run 5 marathons, and unofficially, he has joined many more along the way.Right after he graduated from University, Andrey saw a fantastic level of talent in developing countries. At the same time, he noticed the amount of profitable opportunity in the United States - and decided to build a business that joined the two.This is the creation story of Distillery.SponsorsPropelAuthSpeakeasyQA WolfSnapTradeLinkshttps://distillery.com/https://www.linkedin.com/in/akudievskiy/Our Sponsors:* Check out Kinsta: https://kinsta.com* Check out Vanta: https://vanta.com/CODESTORYSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/code-story/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Today, we are kicking off a new series entitled Minting Unicorns - Blockchain, AI and Dubai, sponsored by the City of Dubai. Dubai is the new global center of gravity, connecting the world in a way few places can. As a hub for trade, tourism, innovation, and finance, Dubai offers the ideal environment for startups and scale-ups to thrive. Entrepreneurs find a home here, whether in health-tech, fintech, AI, or renewable energy, supported by SME-focused programs that empower high-potential companies to scale globally. From flexible regulations to tax incentives, world-class infrastructure to access to global investors managing $1 trillion, Dubai understands what businesses need to scale fast. In today’s episode, we are speaking with Sonia Gokhale, Co-founder at VentureSouq, to understand how venture capital is thriving within all that Dubai has to offer.Questions: Tell me and my audience a little bit about you.What is VentureSouq? What is your thesis as a venture fund?Why focus on Fintech and ClimateTech?How would you describe the tech and startup environment in Dubai?You are a MENA based venture fund, what drove you to start here? Is this where you are physically based as well?Dubai is increasingly being seen as a global fintech and ClimateTech hub. Can you explain how Dubai's startup ecosystem supports these sectors, and what advantages this offers for US-based investors looking to expand into the MENA region?How does the DIFC, the AI Campus or the Blockchain center contributing to success of the startups you invest in? What percentage of your portfolio is based in MENA?Can you give me an example or tell me a story of success coming out of VentureSouq? How did VentureSouq fuel that success?What advice would you give to the U.S.-based startups considering Dubai for expansion?Linkshttps://www.venturesouq.com/https://www.linkedin.com/in/sonia-seth-gokhale-b0906014/https://blockchaincenter.ae/https://dubaiaicampus.com/https://www.difc.ae/ https://www.investindubai.gov.ae/en/why-dubai/d33-agendaOur Sponsors:* Check out Kinsta: https://kinsta.com* Check out Vanta: https://vanta.com/CODESTORYSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/code-story/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy