Code Story: Insights from Startup Tech Leaders - S1 Bonus: Rylan Barnes, ShopSavvy (Replay)

Throwback to our very first interview! Originally released, June 2019. 

For some builders, there is a moment where technical creativity is catalyzed. For others… it starts much earlier. Rylan Barnes has been working with technology since childhood, starting out by programming his legos to move, and all the way through college, where he built early marketplaces for trading textbooks and built physical, automated chess boards. When he started creating a solution for mobile phone barcode scanning, he had no idea the doors it would open and lead to the formation of his most successful product, venture… and exit – called ShopSavvy.


Links


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.fm.
  • 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 FREE!


Credits: Code Story is hosted and produced by Noah Labhart, Co-produced and edited by George Mocharko. Be sure to subscribe on Apple PodcastsSpotifyPocket CastsGoogle PlayBreakerYouTube, or the podcasting app of your choice.



Our Sponsors:
* Check out Vanta: https://vanta.com/CODESTORY


Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/code-story/donations

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Lex Fridman Podcast - Sebastian Thrun: Flying Cars, Autonomous Vehicles, and Education

Sebastian Thrun is one of the greatest roboticists, computer scientists, and educators of our time. He led development of the autonomous vehicles at Stanford that won the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge and placed second in the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge. He then led the Google self-driving car program which launched the self-driving revolution. He taught the popular Stanford course on Artificial Intelligence in 2011 which was one of the first MOOCs. That experience led him to co-found Udacity, an online education platform. He is also the CEO of Kitty Hawk, a company working on building flying cars or more technically eVTOLS which stands for electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft.

This conversation is part of the Artificial Intelligence podcast. If you would like to get more information about this podcast go to https://lexfridman.com/ai or connect with @lexfridman on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Medium, or YouTube where you can watch the video versions of these conversations. If you enjoy the podcast, please rate it 5 stars on Apple Podcasts or support it on Patreon.

This episode is presented by Cash App. Download it (App Store, Google Play), use code “LexPodcast”. 

Here’s the outline of the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.

00:00 – Introduction
03:24 – The Matrix
04:39 – Predicting the future 30+ years ago
06:14 – Machine learning and expert systems
09:18 – How to pick what ideas to work on
11:27 – DARPA Grand Challenges
17:33 – What does it take to be a good leader?
23:44 – Autonomous vehicles
38:42 – Waymo and Tesla Autopilot
42:11 – Self-Driving Car Nanodegree
47:29 – Machine learning
51:10 – AI in medical applications
54:06 – AI-related job loss and education
57:51 – Teaching soft skills
1:00:13 – Kitty Hawk and flying cars
1:08:22 – Love and AI
1:13:12 – Life

African Tech Roundup - African Fintech Signal Check 2019: What Can Africa Learn From India? (Part 2) feat. Arunjay Katakam

So, unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ll have noticed that a 'brick' several hundred million dollars heavy has descended on the continent in an unprecedented period of time, most of it venture capital earmarked for fintech startups in Nigeria. On this episode, Indian tech founder Arunjay Katakam joins Andile Masuku and Osarumen Osamuyi to extend our conversation about the implications of all the hype surrounding Africa's fintech scene and what the broader implications might be for the continent's tech ecosystem at large. We’re still vibing off of our last show, dubbed African Fintech Signal Check 2019: Nigeria's Killing It! (Part 1). That show, which guest featured Wiza Jalakasi, unpacked some of the most pertinent happenings in Africa’s emerging fintech landscape and in the legacy financial services arena over the last couple of months or so. If you haven't listened to that show (Episode 134), do that before you dig into this one. Arunjay Katakam is a former EY consultant who has co-founded three startups, exiting two— one of which eventually sold to Twitter. Today Arunjay is co-founder and CEO of a London-based cross-border remittance startup called Yooz and advises founders at DFS Lab. His extensive tech entrepreneurship experience spans work in developing markets in Asia and Africa, as well as developed markets in the Global North. To by-pass the pleasantries, head straight to the main discussion: [18:50]. Topics discussed in this episode include: 1) Arunjay suggests that there are three major cost factors/points of friction preventing mobile money from enjoying WhatsApp-level ubiquity and mainstream adoption. [18:50] 2) Can ECOWAS's (Economic Community of West African States) Eco currency plans lay the groundwork for smoother regional money flows? [26:25] 3) Might the recent $20 million investment close by "credit-as-a-service" startup Migo (formerly Mines.io)— mostly designated for taking on the Brazilian market, spark a new trend towards African/Africa-focussed startups taking on key markets outside the continent? [31:54] 4) In what ways might the dynamics of engineering fintech startup success in India be comparable with the same in African key markets? [35:53] 5) Does "a rising tide raise all boats", or will large fintech startups like OPay and PalmPay stifle innovation by smaller players? [51:42] 6) How might African mobile network operators (MNOs) respond to the prospect of wholesale disruption as "OTT (Over-the-top) Application 2.0" takes hold, and what learnings might they draw from the Chinese and Indian ecosystem experiences to inform their strategies? [57:54] Bonus Topics: Can successful startups be built without having to tell lies, even apparently "harmless" ones? + Is RxAll Africa's very own Theranos in the making? [9:13] To view resources referenced in this episode, visit https://www.africantechroundup.com/fintech-signal-check-2019-part-2/ Image credit: Babatunde Olajide

PHPUgly - 172:DoIt4PHPUgly

Python Bytes - #161 Sloppy Python can mean fast answers!

Topics covered in this episode:
See the full show notes for this episode on the website at pythonbytes.fm/161

Lex Fridman Podcast - Michael Stevens: Vsauce

Michael Stevens is the creator of Vsauce, one of the most popular educational YouTube channel in the world, with over 15 million subscribers and over 1.7 billion views. His videos often ask and answer questions that are both profound and entertaining, spanning topics from physics to psychology. As part of his channel he created 3 seasons of Mind Field, a series that explored human behavior.

This conversation is part of the Artificial Intelligence podcast. If you would like to get more information about this podcast go to https://lexfridman.com/ai or connect with @lexfridman on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Medium, or YouTube where you can watch the video versions of these conversations. If you enjoy the podcast, please rate it 5 stars on Apple Podcasts or support it on Patreon.

This episode is presented by Cash App. Download it (App Store, Google Play), use code “LexPodcast”. 

Episode links:
Vsauce YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/Vsauce
Vsauce Twitter: https://twitter.com/tweetsauce
Vsauce Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/electricpants/

Here’s the outline of the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.

00:00 – Introduction
02:26 – Psychology
03:59 – Consciousness
06:55 – Free will
07:55 – Perception vs reality
09:59 – Simulation
11:32 – Science
16:24 – Flat earth
27:04 – Artificial Intelligence
30:14 – Existential threats
38:03 – Elon Musk and the responsibility of having a large following
43:05 – YouTube algorithm
52:41 – Mortality and the meaning of life

The Stack Overflow Podcast - Time For Some Major League Hacking

To kick things off, we talk about Yap, a fun new project from Paul’s company, Postlight. Employees get to partake in a Labs program where they can pursue side projects that interest them. Yap is "an ephemeral, real-time chat room with up to six participants. Your messages appear and disappear as quickly as you type them.” It was built with Elixir...ooooh.

For our interview this week we sat down with Jon Gottfried and Mary Siebert from Major League Hacking. Jon is the company’s co-founder and Mary is the Hackathon Community Manager. We discuss how this organization has become a global phenomenon over the past few years, reaching hundreds of thousands of developers. 
 

Things that happen these days at Major League Hackathons: 
 

  • Painting succulents

 

  • Cup stacking competitions

 

  • Therapy dogs, lots of them

 

If you're interested in sponsoring a Major League Hackathon, check out the info here.

This is our last episode of the year. We’ll be back in 2020 with some more amazing guests and brilliant banter. Thanks for tuning in, see ya in the new year.
 

Code Story: Insights from Startup Tech Leaders - S1 E17: Blake Miller, Homebase

Coming from a supportive, entrepreneurial home, Blake Miller was introduced to the internet at a very young age – building websites for friends, and flipping digital businesses the same way people flip houses. Outside of tech, he is a competitive barbecuer, with a team of long time friends who create award winning BBQ. Highly involved in the Kansas City Smart City initiative, he created an award winning iOT solution around smarter living experience for tenants and more profitable infrastructure for building owners and managers. This solution quickly turned into the company known as Homebase.


Today’s sponsors:

Podcorn (https://podcorn.com/podcasters)

Dwolla (https://dwolla.com/codestory)


Links


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.fm.
  • 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 FREE!


Credits: Code Story is hosted and produced by Noah Labhart, Co-produced and edited by George Mocharko. Be sure to subscribe on Apple PodcastsSpotifyPocket CastsGoogle PlayBreakerYouTube, or the podcasting app of your choice.



Our Sponsors:
* Check out Vanta: https://vanta.com/CODESTORY


Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/code-story/donations

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Lex Fridman Podcast - Rohit Prasad: Amazon Alexa and Conversational AI

Rohit Prasad is the vice president and head scientist of Amazon Alexa and one of its original creators.

This conversation is part of the Artificial Intelligence podcast. If you would like to get more information about this podcast go to https://lexfridman.com/ai or connect with @lexfridman on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Medium, or YouTube where you can watch the video versions of these conversations. If you enjoy the podcast, please rate it 5 stars on Apple Podcasts or support it on Patreon.

This episode is presented by Cash App. Download it (App Store, Google Play), use code “LexPodcast”. 

The episode is also supported by ZipRecruiter. Try it: http://ziprecruiter.com/lexpod

Here’s the outline of the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.

00:00 – Introduction
04:34 – Her
06:31 – Human-like aspects of smart assistants
08:39 – Test of intelligence
13:04 – Alexa prize
21:35 – What does it take to win the Alexa prize?
27:24 – Embodiment and the essence of Alexa
34:35 – Personality
36:23 – Personalization
38:49 – Alexa’s backstory from her perspective
40:35 – Trust in Human-AI relations
44:00 – Privacy
47:45 – Is Alexa listening?
53:51 – How Alexa started
54:51 – Solving far-field speech recognition and intent understanding
1:11:51 – Alexa main categories of skills
1:13:19 – Conversation intent modeling
1:17:47 – Alexa memory and long-term learning
1:22:50 – Making Alexa sound more natural
1:27:16 – Open problems for Alexa and conversational AI
1:29:26 – Emotion recognition from audio and video
1:30:53 – Deep learning and reasoning
1:36:26 – Future of Alexa
1:41:47 – The big picture of conversational AI