Code Story: Insights from Startup Tech Leaders

Richard Barkley is a big traveller, and has been all around the world. The first business he started doing was doing non profit work in Uganda. He is a family man. Adopted several children from China, so he's been there. A few times. In total, he has 6 kids - 3 biological and 3 adopted.He graduated with a finance degree, then taught himself how to code. After having a few engineering jobs, he then started his own businesses. He is a lifelong learner and reads a ton... currently reading former President Obama's latest book. But in fact, he reads all types of books - biographies, tech books, economics... even books about extraterrestrials.After working for Dell, he grew tired of not moving the needle much, no matter how hard he worked. So he started a company called Nuvola Networks, innovating around e-learning. While doing this, he noticed how manual the flow of information was between antiquated systems for larger companies and enterprises. He thought - why don't we automate this?This is the creation story of Cloudsnap.SponsorsVirtualPBXImagine GolfKIMOLinksWebsite: https://cloudsnap.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rick-barkley-8839b87/Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts Amazing tools we use:This podcast is hosted on RedCircle, a FREE platform for podcasts and brands to scale their message. Want to record your remote interviews with class? Then, you need to use Squadcast.Code Story uses the 1-click product ClipGain, sign up now to get 3hrs of podcast processing time FREEIf you want an amazing publishing platform for your podcast, with amazing support & people – use Transistor.fmCredits: Code Story is hosted and produced by Noah Labhart. Be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts, Google Play, Breaker, Youtube, or the podcasting app of your choice.Our Sponsors:* Check out Incogni: https://incogni.com/codestory* Check out NordProtect: https://nordprotect.com/codestorySupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/code-story-insights-from-startup-tech-leaders/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Cameron Moreau grew up in DFW, more on the Dallas side of Texas. Early on in life, he thought he was going to have a career in music cause he loved it. Eventually though, he discovered programming and went to school at the University of Texas at Arlington, studying computer science.He spends a lot of time with his dog Twix, bike riding, rock climbing, and staying outdoors when he can. Note... he didn't get into rock climbing until he moved to San Francisco, because - its not really a thing in the flat lands of Texas.Post school, he spent some time in the Bay Area, working for technology startups. He lived the Silicon Valley dream, coding at Pivotal and OpenDoor, pair programming with amazing developers and people.When he was a sophomore in college, he ran a group at UTA and organized hackathons. He started to kick around an idea to give people access to a truck when they need it - to enable them to move & deliver large items.This is the creation story of Gozova.SponsorsImagine GolfVirtualPBXKIMO LinksWebsite: https://gozova.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cameron-moreau/Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts Amazing tools we use:This podcast is hosted on RedCircle, a FREE platform for podcasts and brands to scale their message. Want to record your remote interviews with class? Then, you need to use Squadcast.Code Story uses the 1-click product ClipGain, sign up now to get 3hrs of podcast processing time FREEIf you want an amazing publishing platform for your podcast, with amazing support & people – use Transistor.fmCredits: Code Story is hosted and produced by Noah Labhart. Be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts, Google Play, Breaker, Youtube, or the podcasting app of your choice.Our Sponsors:* Check out Incogni: https://incogni.com/codestory* Check out NordProtect: https://nordprotect.com/codestorySupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/code-story-insights-from-startup-tech-leaders/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Arjun Narayan grew up in India, programming as a kid. He came to America for college, thrown into the scene cold but really liked it. He studied computer science at Williams College in Massachusetts, and did his PHD at Penn, focusing on distributed systems, security, privacy and scalability. His doctorate taught him how to write at length, but out of the norm, he knew early on he didn't want to be an academic.He is married, with a young son - and he really enjoys being a father. Today, his life consists of his startup and his young family, which are about the same age.As he was as grad student doing his PHD, he came across a set of papers written by his co-founder - about a more capable, incremental compute engine. After several years of persuasion, Arjun convinced him that they needed to start a company to commercialize the solution.This is the creation story of Materialize.SponsorsVirtualPBXImagine GolfKIMOUnidragon Coupon: DragonStory, 10% Discount. Expires July 1, 2021LinksWebsite: https://materialize.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arjunravinarayan/Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts Amazing tools we use:This podcast is hosted on RedCircle, a FREE platform for podcasts and brands to scale their message. Want to record your remote interviews with class? Then, you need to use Squadcast.Code Story uses the 1-click product ClipGain, sign up now to get 3hrs of podcast processing time FREEIf you want an amazing publishing platform for your podcast, with amazing support & people – use Transistor.fmCredits: Code Story is hosted and produced by Noah Labhart. Be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts, Google Play, Breaker, Youtube, or the podcasting app of your choice.Our Sponsors:* Check out Incogni: https://incogni.com/codestory* Check out NordProtect: https://nordprotect.com/codestorySupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/code-story-insights-from-startup-tech-leaders/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Steve Caldwell lives in Louisville, Kentucky - but grew up in South Louisiana, in cajun country. In the 90's he loved seeing things he typed on the screen come to life, as he built website in Frontpage 95. As he got into his 20's, he wanted to jump into professional dev. He's got 3 kids in elementary school - so with the pandemic, its been quite interesting having everybody at home. He's relatively new to Kentucky, but hopes to get out and do the bourbon trail when the timing is right. He enjoys playing music, composing, and DJ'ing.As he puts it, he enjoys combining his passion for music with his passion for technology. In startup land, you have to be able to adlib and be flexible to change, understand your customers, and to skate where the puck is so to speak. Its the same in music - feeling the crowd, responding to your band, etc. - which is a really interesting parallel.As the COVID pandemic decimated live music events, Steve was caught in a related riff. He found himself networking for his next gig, and while doing so, started to chat with his now co-founders about a new opportunity... where musicians could interact with fans in new ways.This is the creation story of Mandolin.SponsorsKitcasterUnidragon Coupon: DragonStory, 10% Discount. Expires July 1, 2021LinksWebsite: https://www.mandolin.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/caldwellsteve/Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts Amazing tools we use:This podcast is hosted on RedCircle, a FREE platform for podcasts and brands to scale their message. Want to record your remote interviews with class? Then, you need to use Squadcast.Code Story uses the 1-click product ClipGain, sign up now to get 3hrs of podcast processing time FREEIf you want an amazing publishing platform for your podcast, with amazing support & people – use Transistor.fmCredits: Code Story is hosted and produced by Noah Labhart. Be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts, Google Play, Breaker, Youtube, or the podcasting app of your choice.Our Sponsors:* Check out Incogni: https://incogni.com/codestory* Check out NordProtect: https://nordprotect.com/codestorySupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/code-story-insights-from-startup-tech-leaders/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Matt Forniciari started his career at Amazon. First gig was on the availability team, but then he was tasked with emailing Jeff Bezo's directly about what was working & not working, which he rightfully so, says was stressful.He spends a lot of time outdoors, reading, and mostly just away from tech. He is so immersed in tech during the day, that in his free time he prefers to do analog activities... and a lot of activities that require motion. In fact... he claims that his career after tech will be something like a park ranger, taking care of the outdoors.While he was managing platforms for other companies - like Salesforce and Amazon - he was burning the midnight oil creating something to help build resiliency in your platform reliability. A solution based on the principles of chaos engineering.This is the creation story of Gremlin.SponsorsWildbitLinksWebsite: https://www.gremlin.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattforni/https://www.calnewport.com/Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts Amazing tools we use:This podcast is hosted on RedCircle, a FREE platform for podcasts and brands to scale their message. Want to record your remote interviews with class? Then, you need to use Squadcast.Code Story uses the 1-click product ClipGain, sign up now to get 3hrs of podcast processing time FREEIf you want an amazing publishing platform for your podcast, with amazing support & people – use Transistor.fmCredits: Code Story is hosted and produced by Noah Labhart. Be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts, Google Play, Breaker, Youtube, or the podcasting app of your choice.Our Sponsors:* Check out Incogni: https://incogni.com/codestory* Check out NordProtect: https://nordprotect.com/codestorySupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/code-story-insights-from-startup-tech-leaders/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Originally from Ghana, Richard Mensah was born into an IT family. From an early age, Richard was the one fixing all of the family tech problems. He could see the potential in technology, to help aid in solving the problems his community was experiencing in Ghana. He loves his country, but he also realized that the US has more resources for innovation than his home country.He is a huge music fan - and is a guitar player and singer. He sees the correlation between tech and music, and describes them both as understanding the rules but being able to bend them in your own way to make a product, service, or song. He also loves to dance. In fact, he recently tried to learn Salsa, which he mentions didn't go super great.Previously, he founded a few startups and one thing he found was it was hard to scale startups past early adopters. When he met his co-founder, they immediately saw a gap in connecting startups, startup ideas and those that are looking for interesting stories. They decided to build a better way to do this.This is the creation story of EllisX.LinksWebsite: https://www.ellisx.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-okyere-mensah/Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts Amazing tools we use:This podcast is hosted on RedCircle, a FREE platform for podcasts and brands to scale their message. Want to record your remote interviews with class? Then, you need to use Squadcast.Code Story uses the 1-click product ClipGain, sign up now to get 3hrs of podcast processing time FREEIf you want an amazing publishing platform for your podcast, with amazing support & people – use Transistor.fmCredits: Code Story is hosted and produced by Noah Labhart. Be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts, Google Play, Breaker, Youtube, or the podcasting app of your choice.Our Sponsors:* Check out Incogni: https://incogni.com/codestory* Check out NordProtect: https://nordprotect.com/codestorySupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/code-story-insights-from-startup-tech-leaders/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Brendan Falk is originally from Australia. Growing up, he was always into computers, sports, extra curricular activities - he was the kid who always had a side hustle going on. Once he got to college, he built a currency converting startup to help him pay his tuition fees... and he has been toying around with startup ideas ever since.His partner, Matt Schrage, is from San Fran originally - and he confesses, that its hard to escape tech when you are from the area. He started coding as early a middle school, and hasn't stopped since. And outside of tech... he builds more tech! Tinkering with embedded hardware, robotics and mini-machines.After applying to Y Combinator, they were invited to interview with the accelerator. During the interview, they decided to change from their original idea. After that, their YC partner advised them to pivot yet again... so change has been a regular occurrence for this team since the beginning. They realized that every time they went to get setup on a new project, they had to go through the same commands on the terminal, over and over again. Every time, they either forgot what they were, or encountered an issue with their environment that needed to be dug into. They thought, how can we solve the problem of making the terminal easier to use?This is the creation story of Fig.SponsorsTandem PodcastingLinksWebsite: https://withfig.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brendanfalk/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-schrage-957b6843/Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts Amazing tools we use:This podcast is hosted on RedCircle, a FREE platform for podcasts and brands to scale their message. Want to record your remote interviews with class? Then, you need to use Squadcast.Code Story uses the 1-click product ClipGain, sign up now to get 3hrs of podcast processing time FREEIf you want an amazing publishing platform for your podcast, with amazing support & people – use Transistor.fmCredits: Code Story is hosted and produced by Noah Labhart. Be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts, Google Play, Breaker, Youtube, or the podcasting app of your choice.Our Sponsors:* Check out Incogni: https://incogni.com/codestory* Check out NordProtect: https://nordprotect.com/codestorySupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/code-story-insights-from-startup-tech-leaders/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Jeff Meisner is an electrical engineering grad from Waterloo in Canada. Post college, he settled in to the DFW area, and worked for several tech companies, mostly on the business development side.He loves to travel with his family - his wife of 34 years, 2 daughters & sons in laws, and a couple of grand dogs in the dachshund, beagle and black lab family. In addition to this, he enjoys watching sports, mainly golf and football. Fun fact, he has a 3rd degree black belt in taekwondo, but he doesn't keep up with the discipline anymore. Some of his biggest influences are the 10 commandments and the books - good to great, crossing the chasm, and traction.He started his agency 6 years ago to create award winning live, 3d experiences for brands like American Airlines, Halliburton, Galderma and other large organizations. When COVID hit, live events were no more, which created a problem for his industry. In response to this, his team built a new platform to connect his clients to their customers... virtually.This is the creation story of Sector 5 Digital, and S5D Rush.LinksWebsite: https://www.sector5digital.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffmeisner/https://www.sector5digital.com/news/s5d-rush/Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts Amazing tools we use:If you want the best publishing platform for your podcast, with amazing support & people - use Transistor.fmWant to record your remote interviews with class? Then, you need to use Squadcast.Code Story uses the 1-click product ClipGain, sign up now to get 3hrs of podcast processing time FREECredits: Code Story is hosted and produced by Noah Labhart. Be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts, Google Play, Breaker, Youtube, or the podcasting app of your choice.Our Sponsors:* Check out Incogni: https://incogni.com/codestory* Check out NordProtect: https://nordprotect.com/codestorySupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/code-story-insights-from-startup-tech-leaders/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

At 18 years old, Dan Robinson was 100% convinced that he was going to be a mathematician. He went to college at Stanford, and when he got there, he realized that math beyond high school was very different.. and as such, he didn't want to make that his day job. He always enjoyed making stuff, specifically with computers, and he started leaning into computer science and deep learning projects.He loves to hike, and be outside with his friends. Recently, he has gotten addicted to chess online - though he claims he's not any good at it. So addicted, that he had to have his close friend hold onto his account password for him.Dan is originally from Boston, which is his excuse for being direct and difficult to work with. In fact, he finds it so strange that people don't interrupt others more in the bay area.Previously, the CEO of Dan's current venture was a PM at Facebook - and he couldn't get basic answers to how people used the platform. Similar problems were popping up for Dan at Palantir, causing long cycles just to get a single question answered. They both were thinking - there HAS to be a better way.This is the creation story of Heap.SponsorsPodcornUnidragonLinksWebsite: https://heap.io/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-robinson-a6930726/Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts Amazing tools we use:If you want the best publishing platform for your podcast, with amazing support & people - use Transistor.fmWant to record your remote interviews with class? Then, you need to use Squadcast.Code Story uses the 1-click product ClipGain, sign up now to get 3hrs of podcast processing time FREECredits: Code Story is hosted and produced by Noah Labhart. Be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts, Google Play, Breaker, Youtube, or the podcasting app of your choice.Our Sponsors:* Check out Incogni: https://incogni.com/codestory* Check out NordProtect: https://nordprotect.com/codestorySupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/code-story-insights-from-startup-tech-leaders/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Mitchell Hashimoto started programming in middle school, teaching himself how to code through open source libraries and zip files he could download on the internet. He is a pilot, and owns his own plane, which happens to be a Cirrus. He spends an hour a day studying or practicing flying, and even takes his wife and dog up every now and again, when there is something worth flying to and they can make the oxygen work for then dog.He attended college at the University of Washington in Seattle, which was located equidistance from Amazon, Google and other cloud focused infrastructure companies. As you could guess, there was a huge focus on this topic while he was at school, and he was able to gain access to vast resources through his computer lab and research projects. It was these projects put the ideas in his head, on what he could make in order for infrastructure to work better.This is the creation story of HashiCorp.LinksWebsite: https://www.hashicorp.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mitchellh/Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts Amazing tools we use:If you want the best publishing platform for your podcast, with amazing support & people - use Transistor.fmWant to record your remote interviews with class? Then, you need to use Squadcast.Code Story uses the 1-click product ClipGain, sign up now to get 3hrs of podcast processing time FREECredits: Code Story is hosted and produced by Noah Labhart. Be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts, Google Play, Breaker, Youtube, or the podcasting app of your choice.Our Sponsors:* Check out Incogni: https://incogni.com/codestory* Check out NordProtect: https://nordprotect.com/codestorySupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/code-story-insights-from-startup-tech-leaders/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy