The Remarkable SaaS Podcast

My guest on the podcast this week is Ryan Falkenberg, Co-founder and Co-CEO of CLEVVA, a South African Augmented AI company that leverages digital intelligence to empower, not simply replace people.Ryan has always been fascinated by what makes people tick, and what makes them perform optimally. He’s been frustrated at the slow pace of change when it comes to education and learning. To address that, he created a learning consultancy, Hi-Performance Learning, that aimed to push the boundaries of organizational learning through e-learning, gamification and expert systems.To then remove the constraints by tech. bandwidth, he founded CUDA Technologies.Yet no matter how they optimized formal learning, a core problem remained. People still had to memorize and repeat complex decision formula in a world that was accelerating. It was time for a complete rethink. This was the starting point for CLEVVAThe big idea behind CLEVVA inspired me, hence I invited Ryan to my podcast. During our interview, we explore how we can use technology to boost the differentiation factor of people, and how we can relieve them from the stress of making mistakes and the consequences that often has – and instead take the weight of their shoulders to let them truly focus on what they love doing and where they add the most value. Here are some of Ryan’s quotes:"Human beings are currently trapped in the role of robots.”"How do we humanize our workforces? How do we make them powerful as opposed to making them robotic?"Our challenge ‑‑ and I think it's a global issue ‑‑ is that, in schools, we essentially teach young people a couple of mental skill sets.The whole journey of teaching people to replicate, teaching people to memorize and teaching people to comply was something that was very powerful in the industrial era.Currently, human beings are not differentiators. They're a scale problemThe volume of human resources that are underutilized is enormous.I realized I can get you doing stuff which would normally take me two or three years. You can get it in a matter of weeks. That becomes very exciting for companies, but it also becomes exciting for the individuals because they really start differentiating themselves. By listening to this interview, you will learn three things:That to deliver remarkable impact with your solution, you have to understand the granular truth of where your solution hits the ground, and then work backward to remove all barriers.What the key ingredients are to maximize the impact technologies such as AI can make in unlocking Human potential.Why it is key to blend your solution with the operating systems your users are working with all day long.

My guest on the podcast this week is AJ Abdallat, founder and CEO of Beyond LimitsHe’s on a mission to make life better for all of us by changing the landscape of artificial intelligence so that it can achieve its unfulfilled potential. He’s a serial entrepreneur with more than 19 years of experience of bringing high-tech start-ups to fruition, specializing in artificial intelligence, reasoning systems, and smart sensors.He founded Beyond Limits in 2014 to drive new innovation and IP by commercializing AI programs from the NASA Deep Space program to solve challenging problems for companies on Earth. The company's technology is an evolutionary leap beyond conventional AI to a human-like ability to perceive, understand, correlate, learn, teach, reason, and solve problems faster than conventional AI solutions. In other words, their solutions can magnify human talent, enabling people to apply their attention, experience, and their passions to solving problems that truly matter.This inspired me, in particular, to understand how their products could help to solve the challenge of capturing and scaling unique skills and expertise, in a world where the working population is shrinking rapidly. Hence, I invited AJ to my podcast. Here are some of his quotes:“What we're trying to do with Beyond Limits, we feel that those same conditions and problems that exist in space, we can apply those to some of those complex problems here on earth, in energy healthcare.We're capturing that human knowledge in AI in what we call cognitive agents.We're actually are taking the knowledge of a highly skilled individual and scaling that across the organization where we're allowing less skilled individual to be able to utilize that.…in the space business, you really have very experienced and seasoned scientists.A lot of them love their job. Quite a lot of them are close to retirement. You really want to capture that knowledge and experience, and you can transfer that to the younger generation. This is where we believe there is a significant collaboration between man and machine to do that.”By listening to this podcast, you will you will learn three things:That a key element to crack for AI to be truly valuable in dynamic situations is to deal with situations where the data does not exist, is missing, or is corrupt.Why we need to focus more on solving the growing human intelligence scarcity challenge that many organizations face (which goes beyond just freeing existing capacity from non-value adding repetitive tasks)Why every company will fare well by making a conscious decision to focus on those complex, harsh, zero-tolerance problems where it can make a unique impact.

My guest on the podcast this week is Tomas Ratia Garcia Oliveros, Co-founder and CEO of Frase, a Boston-based AI startup with a big mission: to help you research faster.Tomas did his master at Harvard and became very interested in publishing and research. As an outcome of the Harvard Innovation Lab, he founded Folio, a digital publishing platform for open-access academic journals, which he ran for 2 years. After that, he founded Dat Ventures, a Soft-landing accelerator program for international startups aiming to break into the US.His passion for research and technology drove him to establish another startup around the big idea to transform the way people write and research. This was the start of Frase.The story behind Frase intrigued me, as this could fundamentally change the way marketers from all around the world approach their digital content strategy. Hence, I invited him to my podcast.During our interview, we explore the big idea behind Frase, but more importantly, what is required to deliver remarkable impact and arrive at a product that has the potential to transform an industry. Here are some of his quotes:"...me and my partner were wondering, how will AI change the way people write and research?An AI agent that can understand the writer and try to build on the knowledge of the continuous understanding of someone writing and use that knowledge to do research and help the writer augment their research capacity.That whole process of having to sort through results, click on all the results, then go through all the steps and go back to the word processor. That's what I consider to be one of the most inefficient processes on the Internet.The main problems we try to solve, which is cutting down the research process so that people can focus on the creative and start the excitement of writing.Some of these people don't even use Google anymore.The idea of having research for writing in one place seems to be very valuable for the type of user who is actually making a living out of producing unique content, which is a big market."By listening to this interview, you will learn three things:In order to deliver products with remarkable impact, what do you prioritize?What are some of the biggest challenges to anticipateWhy engaging with the market prior to launching is key to success

My guest on the podcast this week is Adam Martel, Co-founder and CEO of Gravyty.During his career, Adam founded three companies and had a diverse and eclectic background in advertising, public relations, journalism and collegiate athletic coaching. His passion, however, is with fundraising. Being a seasoned major gifts fundraiser himself, he has gained a deep and personal understanding of the challenges that all nonprofit organizations face while trying to raise money to support their causes.Solving these challenges is his mission – hence he founded Gravyty, a Boston-based artificial intelligence company developing products to revolutionize frontline fundraising at nonprofit organizations.During our interview, we explore how to unlock potential beyond the value conventional business software provides us, what drives the opportunity, and what mindset is required to uncover and create completely new markets. Here are some quotes from Adam:“…we found that because we were using the CRM as the primary tool for fundraising, it was limiting the number of donors that I could get to.The thesis was that if you could have your technology learn you instead of you learning your technology, we could change the way that frontline fundraisers and sales folks interact with their tools. The tools could actually help them and be a multiplier for their efforts in building relationships. That's really where we started. We've come a long way since then but the thesis is still the same.Blackbaud, Salesforce, Ellucian and Community Brands, they're all selling databases. They're all selling the cup that holds the water, but nobody's doing anything with the water itself.We think that our work in artificial intelligence is going to define the next 5 to 10 years of what happens in fundraising in non‑profit organizationsThis isn't about Gravyty, it's about our customers. It's about the wonderful work that our customers are doing. If we can accelerate cancer research, if we can help eradicate HIV, if we can change the world and help these organizations change the world, it's our job to do that. They don't need to fit into us, we need to accelerate them”.By listening to this interview, you will learn three things:That for AI to reach its full potential, it requires to change behaviors, not just provide insightsThat looking for abundance can provide the key to introduce transformative changeWhy UI-less experiences are the enabler for people to become far more powerful

My guest on the podcast this week is Susanne Baars, Founder of the Global Human Genome Foundation and CEO of Social GenomicsSusanne is known as the Dutch DNA Queen. She’s a woman on a mission, which is to create Universal Access to Genomic Knowledge for every human on our planet. Susanne is an exponential tech innovator and genetic expert. In the past ten years, she has come to realize that no single person owns their DNA – the material that makes us who we are. The same material that empowers us to solve the world’s deadliest diseases. Because of this, she founded the Global Human Genome Foundation, a moonshot initiative to provide the world population the key to their DNA and enable them to share data with scientists around the world.During this interview, we focus on the big idea behind Susanne’s mission and explore what’s required to deliver exponential value – The mindset, what to look for, what questions to answer, how to start, the key choices you need to make, and what people or partners to gather around you… Here are some of Susanne’s quotes:“For me, it's a global mission to make genomic knowledge available for every person on earth....every year millions of people are dying because of a lack of access to available data. I think that's just not right, and we should do something with this.It's to dare to think big. It's knowing what you know, the unique knowledge that can make a change in the world, and to be able to think differently. Not linear or locally, but try to think, "How would I like to see the future?"It's usually the biggest world problems that end up with the best business models.Follow your dream, follow your heart, and the best thing will happen to you.”By listening to this interview, you will learn three things:That innovation is not always about creating technology yourself, but more about leveraging available technology in creative ways to deliver remarkable impactHow a bold vision can work as a lever to accelerate executionAnd why focusing on problems is not always the best way to uncover untapped potential

My guest on the podcast this week is Ivo Totev, Chief Marketing Officer of Cloud ERP at SAP.He is a seasoned marketing veteran with more than 25 years of experience in the IT industry. In his current role at SAP, he’s responsible for defining marketing strategy and vision for SAP S/4HANA Cloud, SAP Business ByDesign, and SAP Business One. Prior to his role at SAP, Ivo was the CMO of Unit4 Group and served as CMO and Head of Cloud Business at Software AG. During our interview, we explore the changing nature and role of business software in today’s society and what needs to be done to ensure we maximize the impact we can gain from it. Here are some of Ivo’s quotes:“Business software is the foundation of changing over business models that we see around the world. This is the backbone of driving our whole economy worldwide.With the rise of Artificial Intelligence, machine learning, deep machine learning, now we're getting into a phase where business software actually understands what I am up to, and can proactively help me.This is so revolutionary. This changes so much that, I'm sure in 10 years, we'll be looking back and saying, "Well, you know, the Internet was a great foundation and cloud was also a great foundational element in their first generations, but none of those technologies or movements really changed the way we see business software as much as this latest revolution."As responsible people living in our society, we need to make sure that we create technologies and solutions, and drive a discussion into society in a way that, in the end, people looking back at this year will say, "It was disruptive, it changed the life of many people. It changed the lives of many, many more people to the positive."By listening to this interview, you will learn three things:How, by leveraging various technology components, you can change the nature of decades-old application concepts - even ERPWhy we should strive to make business applications completely ‘hands-free’ And why every entrepreneur should put serious time aside to rethink its business model

My guest on the podcast this week is Alex Zhavoronkov, CEO of Insilico MedicineOn a day-to-day basis, Alex is the CEO of Insilico Medicine (www.insilico.com), which is focused exclusively on developing and applying deep learning methods to drug discovery. It’s probably the largest next-gen AI and bioinformatics company in the world, focusing exclusively on aging and age-related diseases.Alex is also the director of the Biogerontology Research Foundation and the founder of the International Aging Research Portfolio. He heads the laboratory of regenerative medicine at the Center for Pediatric Hematology-Oncology and Immunology and is the adjunct professor at the Buck Institute for Research in Aging in Novato, California and the international adjunct professor at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology.As an anti-aging expert, he is convinced that even people past their 70s, who are in good health, should set their longevity expectations to live past 150. It is a realistic goal considering the current longevity records and progress in technology. Stretching longevity expectations may help delay or reverse the psychological aging.This inspired me to invite Alex to my podcast, to explore how technology can be used to accelerate progress in this field, how it can augment researchers around the world to create breakthroughs that will ultimately increase longevity for all of us.We discuss the big idea behind his company to extend healthy productive longevity, first by understanding the size of the challenge, from there exploring how technology can help to address the challenge, and if applied the right way, the magnitude of the impact it could create. Here are some quotes:“Aging is one of the major challenges that humanity is facing today. The population has tripled over the past 70 years, and the population also got older.”“We need to identify new ways to keep people in their optimal healthy state for as long as possible, just to ensure that the economy remains intact.” “There is lots and lots of data available for aging research, but AI takes it to the next level. It basically accelerates everything. Think about this as a carriage versus Formula 1.”“If you are pursuing aging research and you find a way to extend the life of everybody on the planet by one year, you generate seven billion, well, seven‑and‑a‑half billion, quality-adjusted life years. That is really the scale we're talking about."By listening to this podcast, you will learn the following:Why the best innovations start with the end goal in mind.How, by clearly defining your Business Model upfront, you can avoid delays and unpleasant surprises.Why data privacy is becoming a critical aspect of innovation success.And why it’s key to surround yourself with like-minded people who share the same passion, and are not just in it for the money.

My guest on this week’s podcast is Dr. Terence Tse.He’s an Associate Professor of Finance at the London campus of ESCP Europe Business School and a co-founder and managing director of Nexus Frontier Tech: An AI Studio, which customizes artificial intelligence products for its clients to build up new capabilities to attain unfair business advantage.He is consulting for the EU and UN and provides regular commentaries on the latest current affairs, market developments, education, artificial intelligence and blockchain in many outlets, including the Financial Times, The Guardian, The Economist, CNBC, Les Echos, the World Economic Forum and the Harvard Business Review. He has also appeared on radio and television shows on China’s CCTV, Channel 2 of Greece, France 24, Japan’s NHK and Radio România Cultural.Last but not least, he’s the co-author of the best-seller 'Understanding How the Future Unfolds', which introduced the framework DRIVE to Harness the Power of Today's Megatrends. His rich and interesting background was exactly the reason I invited Terence to my podcast – to get his views as an educator and entrepreneur on how technology can make a positive impact on people in society – and what needs to be done to get this right.We discuss how technology is fundamentally changing the nature of work and what this means to people in terms of our future role, and the skills and attitude we need to have to thrive. Here are some of his quotes: “I think in the future what we will be seeing is that lots and lots of people will be taking on gig econ, different gigs to make up a portfolio rather than working with someone...there will be more and more people needing to do different things at the same time, which in turn, changes the skill sets that is required...even though technologies can do a lot of things ‑‑ you can automate things ‑‑ a lot of the time, you can only automate up to a certain point, where you would then need to have human to actually step in...there's no way in heaven that machines will basically replace human, because everything is basically human problems, as you can see, and machines don't do problem‑solvings...everyone, regardless of which country you're from, have almost the same access to the same type of technologies.The difference between different people would be who they are. How you actually distinguish yourself would basically depend on how motivated you are to learn new things.” By listening to this interview, you will learn three things:Why we need to transform the way we think about how our workforce can add the most value, particularly in combo with AI?What to do to ensure AI lives up to its true potential?How and where to apply AI in your business if you are starting for the first time?

My guest on this week’s podcast is Christian Kromme, Author of 'Humanification – go digital, stay human'.He’s a visionary thinker, futurist keynote speaker, and author. Christian was an innovative tech-entrepreneur for 15 years until he discovered the DNA behind disruptive innovation and how to use this to predict the next big wave of technological disruption. Now he’s one of the most in-demand futurist keynote speakers, speaking in front of tens of thousands of entrepreneurs, business leaders and policymakers about the radical impact of disruptive technologies on humans and organizations.In today’s podcast, we explore the key question – how we can go digital and stay human. How should we apply technology so that it strengthens the unique characteristics of people to deliver remarkable value. Here are some of Christian's quotes:“I was a tech entrepreneur in the tech business, software business, until I discovered the DNA behind disruptive innovation, how to predict disruptive innovation, and how to predict, basically, the next big wave of technological disruption.I really think that there is a bright future in front of us, but we have to align with nature again.Together, we can do more. We are wiser. We are smarter. We are more creative by sharing our thoughts, our ideas. I think that our future is there where we are connected as one's species and solve problems on a global scale, like foods, diseases, and stuff, and solve the problems as a network of humans, like one organism.I think people will be pushed to their purpose, to be the fullest what they can be.…what you see is that artificial intelligence, or machine learning, or deep learning, enables technology to disappear, to make it invisible. If things become invisible, especially technology, then they start to have the biggest impact.” By listening to this interview, you will learn three things:How can we anticipate disruption before it happens?How can we turn disruption & change into opportunity and advantage?How by reimagining things on a humanity scale, we will be capable of solving the world’s biggest problems in a very short amount of time.

My guest on this week’s podcast is David Lavenda, co-founder and vice-president of product strategy and marketing at Harmon.ie. He’s a veteran high-tech marketing and product strategy executive. He’s also a regular contributor to Fast Company and CMSwire, Financial Times, Business Week, Entrepreneur and other leading press outlets. David has recently completed a graduate degree in Science, Technology, and Society (STS), investigating how information overload in organizations has evolved since the introduction of email.Information overload is exactly the issue Harmon.ie is addressing. Harmon.ie believes that technology needs to serve humanity. In today’s ‘app economy,’ information workers access countless business apps daily to get work done. And that’s distracting. Because people don’t think in terms of apps – they think about topics like customers, products, and projects. Harmon.ie was founded to solve this.That intrigued me, hence I invited David to my podcast. We explore the key question of how we can humanize technology to empower people and their ability to work together in a world where information overload is the norm. Here are some of David’s quotes:“..we've become overwhelmed with technology. A lot of the Silicon Valley culture that's driving technology looks at technology for technology's sake. The information is just coming fast and furious at people. It becomes extremely difficult for people to be able to focus on what they really care about, which are things like customers, prospects, projects, and services. ..we see that productivity is actually going down to a large degree because people are confused and overwhelmed and very difficult for them to see the information...A lot of the promise of the introduction of technology to boost productivity is not been realized, and that's the opportunity. The opportunity here is a quantum leap in how people interact with technology...Giving me that insight to move quickly isn't making me more productive by doing the task faster, but it is allowing me to actually see the big picture and take advantage of the opportunity.”By listening to this interview, you will learn three things:Why ISVs should make a considered effort to apply technology not just for technology's sake if they want their solutions to provide quantum impact.Why the potential is really to take a new approach to how people interact with technology.Why vendors have to participate in a multi-vendor / multi-cloud world in order to stay relevant.