Mission Daily

On today’s episode, we continue our two-part philanthropy series and Ian is joined by a few new guests to continue diving into the topic of digital transformation in the NGO sector. As Lise af Ekenstam, Program Manager of Technology for Social Good Initiative at Avanade, points out, the constraints that nonprofits are faced with are critical and digital transformation is more important than ever. “Given the fact that, more often than not, nonprofits and their stakeholders see digital transformation as a luxury that they can potentially not afford, they are facing many challenges from slowing donations, to fewer resources, to fewer volunteers,” Lise says. ”We also know that nonprofits are sitting on mountains of data that they are struggling to unpack and to drive insights from. But while these are challenges, I think they are exactly why nonprofits need to invest in digital transformation.”  Our roundtable guests join us to address the challenges of stakeholders adopting and funding digital transformation, opportunities to use AI and machine learning to solve bigger impact issues, and the solutions they are working toward together to bring innovation to the entire NGO industry.  — P.S. We have a new giveaway this week! Thanks to our partner, b8ta, we will be giving away five Luxome Weighted Blankets! Enter the giveaway here for a chance to win!  — Mission Daily and all of our podcasts are created with love by our team at Mission.org. We own and operate a network of podcasts, and brand story studio designed to accelerate learning. Our clients include companies like Salesforce, Twilio, and Katerra who work with us because we produce results. To learn more and get our case studies, check out Mission.org/Studios. If you’re tired of media and news that promotes fear, uncertainty, and doubt and want an antidote, you’ll want to subscribe to our daily newsletter at Mission.org. When you do, you’ll receive a mission-driven newsletter every morning that will help you start your day off right! Email us -> info@mission.orgWork with us -> https://www.missionsponsors.com/Follow Stephanie -> https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephaniepostles/

On this special episode of Mission Daily, Ian sits down with IT and Philanthropy professionals working to bridge the gap between Silicon Valley and the NGO world. This roundtable was made possible by NetHope, a consortium of nearly 60 leading global non-profits which empower organizations to change the world through the power of technology. NetHope’s members are responsible for delivering over 60% of all annual, international, and non-governmental aid.  In an effort to bring NGOs up to speed with technology, NetHope created The Center for the Digital Non- Profit, which is focused on bringing digital transformation to the NGO sector. Today’s participants are all partners of this effort and committed to using tech to reach more people and have a bigger impact. — P.S. We have a new giveaway this week! Thanks to our partner, b8ta, we will be giving away five Luxome Weighted Blankets! Enter the giveaway here for a chance to win!  — Mission Daily and all of our podcasts are created with love by our team at Mission.org. We own and operate a network of podcasts, and brand story studio designed to accelerate learning. Our clients include companies like Salesforce, Twilio, and Katerra who work with us because we produce results. To learn more and get our case studies, check out Mission.org/Studios. If you’re tired of media and news that promotes fear, uncertainty, and doubt and want an antidote, you’ll want to subscribe to our daily newsletter at Mission.org. When you do, you’ll receive a mission-driven newsletter every morning that will help you start your day off right! Email us -> info@mission.orgWork with us -> https://www.missionsponsors.com/Follow Stephanie -> https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephaniepostles/

"With all the things that you aren't happy about in your life, there's one common denominator in those occurrences, and that is the presence of you." Given the right operating conditions, we all have unique contributions that can be expressed commercially and shared at scale. Founders and their teams serve as a point of conversion between capital and happy, loyal customers. Unfortunately, not all founders in the startup and entrepreneurial ecosystem receive the right support they need. We are joined by Arjun Arora and Jon Low, advisors at Valence Advisory who help founders address their unique needs by assisting with the strategic application of capital and technology. Arjun and Jon have learned a lot through building their own business and helping others build theirs. On this episode of Mission Daily, Chad, Arjun, and Jon share some of these lessons. They stress the power of communication, the importance of trust in mentorship, and why it’s so important to build lasting connections with others, plus so much more! — P.S. We have a new giveaway this week! Thanks to our partner, b8ta, we will be giving away five Luxome Weighted Blankets! Enter the giveaway here for a chance to win!  — Mission Daily and all of our podcasts are created with love by our team at Mission.org. We own and operate a network of podcasts, and brand story studio designed to accelerate learning. Our clients include companies like Salesforce, Twilio, and Katerra who work with us because we produce results. To learn more and get our case studies, check out Mission.org/Studios. If you’re tired of media and news that promotes fear, uncertainty, and doubt and want an antidote, you’ll want to subscribe to our daily newsletter at Mission.org. When you do, you’ll receive a mission-driven newsletter every morning that will help you start your day off right! Email us -> info@mission.orgWork with us -> https://www.missionsponsors.com/Follow Stephanie -> https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephaniepostles/

“There is an inherent optimism that Silicon Valley represents. Innovation is inherently interesting because it is changing the status quo and it's forcing you to reimagine what the world could be.”— Bret Taylor  Bret Taylor has had a remarkable career as a tech entrepreneur. He founded FriendFeed, one of the first social networks, co-created Google Maps, served as the CTO of Facebook, and is currently the President and Chief Product Officer at Salesforce.   On this episode, Bret takes us through his career from his first company as a teenager to his various businesses and subsequent acquisitions. Bret started off developing web pages for small businesses at the age of 16 before heading to Stanford where he would fall in love with the power of technology.  “I saw the optimism of the technology industry as well as the excess of it. There was a lot of opportunity but after the dot com bubble, it was kind of refreshing because the people who remained were really devoted to the innovation and not just business opportunism.” Bret learned of Google’s Product Manager Program from Marissa Mayer, his friend from Stanford and fellow teachers' assistant, and took the opportunity to learn invaluable skills that would later come full circle in his current role. Now at Salesforce, Bret serves as President and Chief Product Officer where he’s introduced countless innovative ideas, including the companies’ Associate Product Management Program, similar to the one he participated in at Google years prior.  Today, Bret shares more details on the Associate Product Manager Program, talks innovation in the Valley, and shares his journey from entrepreneurial teen to President of Salesforce. — P.S. We have a new giveaway this week! Thanks to our partner, b8ta, we will be giving away five Luxome Weighted Blankets! Enter the giveaway at www.mission.org/giveway for a chance to win! — Mission Daily and all of our podcasts are created with love by our team at Mission.org. We own and operate a network of podcasts, and brand story studio designed to accelerate learning. Our clients include companies like Salesforce, Twilio, and Katerra who work with us because we produce results. To learn more and get our case studies, check out Mission.org/Studios. If you’re tired of media and news that promotes fear, uncertainty, and doubt and want an antidote, you’ll want to subscribe to our daily newsletter at Mission.org. When you do, you’ll receive a mission-driven newsletter every morning that will help you start your day off right! Email us -> info@mission.orgWork with us -> https://www.missionsponsors.com/Follow Stephanie -> https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephaniepostles/

"In the U.S, we're a very optimistic, open-minded population, and that's great, but it also makes us susceptible to false campaigns. We need to step it up in terms of helping our nation be more aware of this." — Molly McKew The term “fake news” gets thrown around a lot in today’s media. Using social media as its main conveyor, misinformation spreads like wildfire to reach the most receptive audiences. Why do people fall prey to fake news stories, and how can we identify them?  To answer these questions, we are joined by Molly McKew, CEO of Fianna Strategies, a consulting firm that advises governments, political parties, and NGOs on foreign policy and strategic communication. Molly has acted as a foreign policy and strategy consultant, as well as a Russia expert for governments in Central Europe and advisor to political parties in Georgia and Moldova. Stephanie and Molly dig deep into finding the truth behind different types of fake news campaigns. Ultimately, it’s not always about the information spread; it’s about the why behind it’s spread. "I think the key thing to figure out is the origin point. It's not really about what is true or not; it's what is the purpose of that information at that exact time."  On this episode of Mission Daily, Molly, an information warfare expert, joins Stephanie to discuss disinformation campaigns. She also talks about the power of social media in the spreading of fake news, how to identify fake campaigns, and much more. — P.S. As part of our partnership with b8ta, we’re giving away three Withings Body+ Wi-Fi Smart Scales! Enter the giveaway for a chance to win or use discount code “MissionDaily20” to receive 20% off online at www.withings.com! — Mission Daily and all of our podcasts are created with love by our team at Mission.org. We own and operate a network of podcasts, and brand story studio designed to accelerate learning. Our clients include companies like Salesforce, Twilio, and Katerra who work with us because we produce results. To learn more and get our case studies, check out Mission.org/Studios. If you’re tired of media and news that promotes fear, uncertainty, and doubt and want an antidote, you’ll want to subscribe to our daily newsletter at Mission.org. When you do, you’ll receive a mission-driven newsletter every morning that will help you start your day off right! Email us -> info@mission.orgWork with us -> https://www.missionsponsors.com/Follow Stephanie -> https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephaniepostles/

“Technology is an incredible, transformative force and it should always be accompanied by a serious conversation about how it’s affecting our society.” — Dan Keyserling Dan Keyserling serves as Chief Operating Officer at Jigsaw, a unit within Alphabet that uses technology to make the world safer. At Jigsaw, Dan and his team are focused on “understanding the methodologies governments use to engage in disinformation operations.”  “Fake news” has massively affected journalists and hijacked media platforms, especially in countries where the government has vested interests in manipulating the flow of information. More appropriately named, “disinformation campaigns,” these stories have key similarities that, if identified quickly, can help platforms stop the narrative before it is spread. “It’s more important than ever that we build things that can help journalists and platforms detect when media has been manipulated,” says Dan.  When asked about solutions, Dan offers a list of platforms, apps, and APIs that can be used to help identify toxic information and suspicious activity. However, his bigger focus is on opening up the conversation with the broader tech community. This is a growing global issue and is going to take ongoing, widespread efforts to combat. On this episode, Mission Producer, Austin Craig sits down with Dan to dive into the topic of ‘fake news’ — what it is and what it isn’t. Dan also shares how Jigsaw identifies disinformation campaigns online and how they are thinking about building solutions.  — P.S. As part of our partnership with b8ta, we’re giving away three Withings Body+ Wi-Fi Smart Scales! Enter the giveaway for a chance to win or use discount code “MissionDaily20” to receive 20% off online at www.withings.com! — Mission Daily and all of our podcasts are created with love by our team at Mission.org. We own and operate a network of podcasts, and brand story studio designed to accelerate learning. Our clients include companies like Salesforce, Twilio, and Katerra who work with us because we produce results. To learn more and get our case studies, check out Mission.org/Studios. If you’re tired of media and news that promotes fear, uncertainty, and doubt and want an antidote, you’ll want to subscribe to our daily newsletter at Mission.org. When you do, you’ll receive a mission-driven newsletter every morning that will help you start your day off right! Email us -> info@mission.orgWork with us -> https://www.missionsponsors.com/Follow Stephanie -> https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephaniepostles/

The pace at which technology is becoming obsolete is ever increasing. What was cutting-edge a decade ago, gathers dust in storage sheds today. Or, at least, most of the tech should be gathering dust in storage. Unfortunately, many organizations are lagging behind in upgrading their systems and while they may be able to stay afloat now, where will they be in another decade? Marc Murphy is the CEO of Atlatl Software, a growing tech company that provides visual configuration and CPQ tools to enable a better, more efficient sales process through the use of VR and AR. Atlatl sells to the top 10% of companies looking to move away from manual processes and commit to a digital transformation. Investing in technology can create huge ROI and improve efficiencies across an organization, and it’s something Marc sees as necessary for success in the future. “We're moving the sales process for B2B complex and industrial products outside of brick and mortar and into a virtual and augmented reality space. And we really believe that as our consumer lives change and we become more comfortable operating in a virtual space and buying and selling in a virtual space, B2B is going to move in the same direction as it has for other technologies. We've spent time creating a really unique enterprise-level capability to do B2B commerce.” Marc loves the fast-paced start-up culture, likely due to experiences throughout his life and career. First, he served as a captain in the U.S. Army, then in the private sector as a director and partner at Deloitte, and then as the CEO of Sparc, which was acquired by Booz Allen Hamilton. Marc took note of all the ways he worked as a leader, what he did well and what he would do differently if he ever got the chance to lead another company. On this episode of Mission Daily, Marc and Ian discuss all of that and more, including the importance of integrations and why he is so passionate about life in the start-up world. — We have a new partnership with b8ta! B8ta.com gives you access to some of the most innovative and cutting edge consumer tech products. This week, we will be giving away a Withings Body+ Wi-Fi Smart Scale. Enter the giveaway for a chance to win or use discount code “MissionDaily20” to receive 20% off online at Withings.com! — Mission Daily and all of our podcasts are created with love by our team at Mission.org. We own and operate a network of podcasts, and brand story studio designed to accelerate learning. Our clients include companies like Salesforce, Twilio, and Katerra who work with us because we produce results. To learn more and get our case studies, check out Mission.org/Studios. If you’re tired of media and news that promotes fear, uncertainty, and doubt and want an antidote, you’ll want to subscribe to our daily newsletter at Mission.org. When you do, you’ll receive a mission-driven newsletter every morning that will help you start your day off right! Email us -> info@mission.orgWork with us -> https://www.missionsponsors.com/Follow Stephanie -> https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephaniepostles/

“We’re in the middle of an evolution of how we think about trusting people.” — Cory Louie Cory Louie did not have a traditional path into the tech world. He started his career serving in the Secret Service at the White House. Prior to that, he volunteered with the Electronic Crime Special Agent Program where he was trained “to be a hacker in order to go after the hackers.” Cory now serves as Chief Trust & Security Officer at Checkr, an AI-powered background check platform that helps gig economy companies such as Uber, Lyft, Instacart, and many more run background checks quickly. Checkr is helping businesses scale by giving employers the ease of faster turnaround while also giving interviewees more visibility on the data shared with their potential employer. “We are really utilizing technology to empower decisions for fairness. A lot of people think of background checks as keeping the bad out but another part of it is ‘how do we empower the decision-makers with the right type of data to make the right decisions on hiring.’” On this episode, Ian sits down with Cory to discuss his unique career path from law enforcement to the tech sector, what CEOs and CIOs can do to build trust with their users, and what opportunities AI and machine learning will have in security going forward. — We have a new partnership with b8ta! B8ta.com gives you access to some of the most innovative and cutting edge consumer tech products. This week, we will be giving away a Withings Body+ Wi-Fi Smart Scale. Enter the giveaway for a chance to win or use discount code “MissionDaily20” to receive 20% off online at Withings.com! — Mission Daily and all of our podcasts are created with love by our team at Mission.org. We own and operate a network of podcasts, and brand story studio designed to accelerate learning. Our clients include companies like Salesforce, Twilio, and Katerra who work with us because we produce results. To learn more and get our case studies, check out Mission.org/Studios. If you’re tired of media and news that promotes fear, uncertainty, and doubt and want an antidote, you’ll want to subscribe to our daily newsletter at Mission.org. When you do, you’ll receive a mission-driven newsletter every morning that will help you start your day off right! Email us -> info@mission.orgWork with us -> https://www.missionsponsors.com/Follow Stephanie -> https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephaniepostles/

"You don't live in the real world, Z. From what you've told me, I don't think you ever have. You're like me. You live inside this illusion." — Art3mis in Ready Player One by Ernest Cline A classic sci-fi novel featuring the VR and AR of the future, in Ready Player One, Cline draws you into the OASIS, a VR video game that looks, feels, and acts like reality. It’s astounding tech and a story that has helped define sci-fi as a genre, but, today, how much of it is really fiction? How soon will we be able to join the proverbial OASIS? Anjney Midha is the co-founder and CEO of Ubiquity6, a startup using computer vision to create multiplayer experiences for virtual and augmented reality. Prior to founding Ubiquity6, Anjney went to Stanford University where he got bit by the entrepreneurial bug and founded his first company during his sophomore year. After college, Anjney began his career in venture capital as Founding Partner of KPCB Edge, a Kleiner Perkins fund formed to support founders in AR, VR and computer vision. Ubiquity6 has a mission to bring people together in physical spaces by building a platform to enable persistent, massively shared augmented reality experiences. Anjney discusses the "three pillars." "The three pillars: The way we bring folks together is to give anybody the ability to turn any real-world location into a shared space for a shared activity across the AR and VR," says Anjney. “Secondly, is a really fast and easy way to author in those spaces. Lastly, it is a way to launch and distribute those experiences with a URL without having to keep building these large, stand-alone mobile experiences that people don't want to download anymore." On this episode of Mission Daily, Ian and Anjney sit down and discuss how his experience in VC led to the creation of Ubiquity6, the future of AR and VR experiences, and the distinction between AR and VR for developers and gamers. — We have a new partnership with b8ta! B8ta.com gives you access to some of the most innovative and cutting edge consumer tech products. This week, we will be giving away a Withings Body+ Wi-Fi Smart Scale. Enter the giveaway for a chance to win or use discount code “MissionDaily20” to receive 20% off online at Withings.com! — Mission Daily and all of our podcasts are created with love by our team at Mission.org We own and operate a network of podcasts, and brand story studio designed to accelerate learning. Our clients include companies like Salesforce, Twilio, and Katerra who work with us because we produce results. To learn more and get our case studies, check out Mission.org/Studios. If you’re tired of media and news that promotes fear, uncertainty, and doubt and want an antidote, you’ll want to subscribe to our daily newsletter at Mission.org. When you do, you’ll receive a mission-driven newsletter every morning that will help you start your day off right! Email us -> info@mission.orgWork with us -> https://www.missionsponsors.com/Follow Stephanie -> https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephaniepostles/

“Too much of anything is bad, but too much good whiskey is barely enough.” – Mark Twain Did you know that there are 5x more infusion barrels than people in Scotland? Do you understand the difference between whiskey and whisky? Should you put ice or no ice in your scotch? To answer these questions and more, we turned to Callum O’Donnell. On this special episode of Mission Daily, we are joined in studio by Callum, a Brand Ambassador for Aberlour. Founded by James Fleming in 1879, Aberlour is a distillery in Scotland that makes Speyside single malt Scotch whisky. Callum travels throughout the Silicon Valley region bringing Aberlour to tech firms, startups, and companies that are changing the world. James Fleming was known for saying, “Let the deeds show.” In modern English, this translates to, “Actions speak louder than words.” Aberlour commemorates Fleming’s legacy by continuing to support businesses that are letting their “deeds show” by making a positive impact on the world. Callum, Ian, Steph, and Albert (VP of Ops at Mission and new to the studio) discuss the whiskey industry at large, explain how to draw flavor from your favorite adult beverages, and share their favorite drinks. Continue the conversation on socials by using the hashtag #LouderThanWords or by following Aberlour (@aberlour_us). Reach out to Callum to set up your own ‘whisky’ tasting here. — We have a new partnership with b8ta! B8ta.com gives you access to some of the most innovative and cutting edge consumer tech products. This week, we will be giving away a Withings Body+ Wi-Fi Smart Scale. Enter the giveaway for a chance to win here or use discount code "MissionDaily20" to receive 20% off online at Withings.com! — Mission Daily and all of our podcasts are created with love by our team at Mission.org. We own and operate a network of podcasts, and brand story studio designed to accelerate learning. Our clients include companies like Salesforce, Twilio, and Katerra who work with us because we produce results. To learn more and get our case studies, check out Mission.org/Studios. If you’re tired of media and news that promotes fear, uncertainty, and doubt and want an antidote, you’ll want to subscribe to our daily newsletter at Mission.org. When you do, you’ll receive a mission-driven newsletter every morning that will help you start your day off right! Email us -> info@mission.orgWork with us -> https://www.missionsponsors.com/Follow Stephanie -> https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephaniepostles/