Afleveringen

  • Today’s guest before a little summer break is Yancey Strickler – previously co-founder and CEO of Kickstarter, currently co-founder of Metalabel. Yancey is also a writer and in 2019, his excellent first book was published - This Could Be Our Future: A Manifesto for a More Generous World. In the book and in this conversation, Yancey also discusses a useful decision making framework that he came up with called Bentoism

    His second book which he put out on Metalabel is The Dark Forest Anthology of the Internet which he co-wrote with some great collaborators.

    And collaboration and community is core to Yancey’s career DNA. in this episode, we discuss both in great deal, as well as the highs and lows of running the innovative rocket ship which Kickstarter became and why he believes self acceptance is so importance.

    I really enjoyed talking to Yancey and I think you will get a lot of great lessons from this episode so here is my episode with Yancey Strickler.

    Yancey on Twitter / Metalabel / This Could Be Our Future: A Manifesto for a More Generous World

    Danielle Twitter / Instagram / Substack Newsletter / YouTube

  • Today’s guest is Sharmadean Reid MBE, a serial founder and author. Sharmadean grew up in Wolverhampton, surrounded by strong female influences before she went to London to study at Central St Martins. She then became a successful stylist and creative consultant before starting her first business at 25 - WAH nails – a pioneering nail salon in East London. Despite wanting to quit after six months, she celebrated the shop's ten year anniversary before closing it down and launching Beautystack - a beauty tech startup (with outside funding) and, following Covid which hit the beauty industry hard, she is now founder and CEO of The Stack World– a global media platform and community for women.

    In this conversation, Sharmadean talks me through her life and career journey from the curious young girl in Wolverhampton with high aspirations to the powerful business woman she became, her likes and dislikes about being a founder in a male-dominated world, the lessons she has taken from her businesses to life, and her new book, New Methods for Women: A Manifesto for Independence– a book which I consider to be the new bible for women.

    Like her book, this conversation will no doubt uplift women everywhere. Because Sharmadean gives us the playbook for how to succeed... on our own terms.

    Enjoy!

    Sharmadean Instagram / The Stack World

    New Methods for Women: A Manifesto for Independence

    Danielle Twitter / Instagram / Newsletter

  • Zijn er afleveringen die ontbreken?

    Klik hier om de feed te vernieuwen.

  • Sean Dadashi is co-founder of Rosebud. Born to Iranian parents who emigrated to the US after the revolution in 1979, Sean grew up in Los Angeles and was on a path of studying mechanical engineering before he switched courses after a year to study Cognitive Science with a minor in Computer Science.

    He then became a CTO before starting his own company - Somatic Studios in 2016 – where he used his passion for both tech and wellbeing to experiment with ideas including a web app that provided a health and wellness index for over 160 cities across 6 continents.

    The studio also developed VR experiences to teach pain management patients mindfulness and somatic therapy techniques. After Somatic, Sean then joined up with Chrys Bader, who you may have heard of because he previously co-founded several startups including Treehouse and Secret. Together, Sean and Chris have created Rosebud – the number one AI-powered journal for mental health and personal growth and a product I highly recommend. Try it yourself for FREE here.

    In this conversation, Sean and I discuss the loneliness epidemic, the importance of good mental health, his passion for helping others, and how he has always leaned towards the marriage of psychology and the human mind with technology and his passion for creating things, which ultimately led to Rosebud.

    I really enjoyed this discussion and think you will too.

    This is a replay from Series 12 to mark Mental Health Awareness Week.

    Sean Dadashi / Rosebud

    Danielle Twitter / Instagram / Substack Newsletter / YouTube

  • Today's episode is all about how to grow your podcast. I answer questions from listeners such as:

    Should I do audio or video?

    How do you find your guests?

    How to promote your podcast

    What platforms work best to promote your podcast

    Should you use YouTube?

    Should you do clips?

    Is the podcasting space too saturated?

    Things I would do differently if I were starting a podcast today

    How do you research?

    Should each episode fit a niche?

    I hope you find the answers useful!

    Danielle on Twitter / Instagram / Newsletter / Sponsorship / YouTube

    Mentioned in this episode:

    Canva

    Descript

    Simplecast

  • Today’s guest is Danielle Strachman, co-founder of 1517 venture fund which, in their own words, backs dropouts working on hard problems and sci-fi scientists at the earliest stages of their startups.

    Prior to starting 1517, Danielle worked with Peter Thiel, and Michael Gibson (who I Interviewed in Series 8, Episode 60) and together, they ran The Thiel Fellowship for five years. For those who don’t know, The Thiel Fellowship was set up to fund students who were 22 or under, giving them a total of $100k over two years so that they could dropout of the traditional education system and pursue important work. The Fellowship guided them through this process which would often involve scientific research, creating a startup, or working on a social movement. Past founders backed by the Fellowship include Vitalik Buterin who was still a teenager when the fellowship allowed him to drop out and work on Ethereum full time, as well as Laura Deming, the founder of The Longevity Fund and Dylan Field of Figma.

    In this episode, we discuss how Danielle went from tutoring to starting the Thiel Fellowship to venture capital, what common traits the founders she has backed share and the lessons she learned from Peter Thiel.

    Please enjoy my conversation with Danielle Strachman.

    Danielle Strachman on Twitter / 1517 venture fund / 1517 Substack

    Danielle on Twitter / Instagram / Newsletter / Sponsorship / YouTube

    Mentioned in this episode:

    Innovations Academy, San Diego

    Danielle's writeup of recent 2E camp for teens

    Noor Siddiqui, Founder of Orchid

  • Today’s guest is Chrisman Frank – co-founder and CEO of Synthesis – the online platform that teaches kids how to solve complex problems and think critically. Born out of the school Elon Musk set up with Chrisman’s co-founder Josh Dahn (interview with Josh here), Synthesis has two main products – teams where kids learn as a group to work on complex problems, and its AI tutor which was born out of some incredible DARPA research which we talk about in today’s episode.

    We also talk about why Elon wanted to disrupt education and his views on teaching kids how to think vs what to think, what DARPA showed us when it comes to the potential of AI in learning and why John Holt’s adage that kids love to learn but hate to be taught is true.

    I have followed the Synthesis journey since the beginning and am constantly blown away by their mission so I encourage you to listen to this episode in its entirety to learn how we can educate children in a way that will enable them to thrive in this ever-changing world of ours.

    Enjoy!

    Chrisman on Twitter / Synthesis

    Danielle on Twitter / Instagram / Newsletter / Sponsorship / YouTube

    Mentioned in this episode

    How Children Fail by John Holt

    The Underground History of American Education by John Taylor Gatto

    The Beginning of Infinity by David Deutsch

    DARPA study Digital Tutor in Navy Training

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  • Today’s guest is theoretical computer scientist Leslie Valiant - currently the T. Jefferson Coolidge Professor of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics at Harvard University. Among his many accolades, Leslie was awarded the Turing Award in 2010 for transformative contributions to the theory of computation, including the theory of PAC learning which stands for Probably Approximately Correct, as well as the complexity of enumeration and of algebraic computation, and the theory of parallel and distributed computing.

    In this episode, Leslie and I discuss his life and career journey – from what problems he has looked to solve in his career to how his PAC theory was first received and his latest book, The Importance of Being Educable.

    Have you ever wondered what your digital footprint says about you? Or curious how you can make your pitch stand out?

    Then check out WhiteBridge.ai – it’s an AI-powered digital identity research tool that finds, verifies, and analyzes publicly collected data about someone and structures it into an insightful report.

    They actually ran a report on me and I was seriously impressed!

    But not only can you use it to check your online digital profile but you could use it to help you quickly research and understand other people whether it’s a potential client, employee or investor – the report gives you more than enough useful info on the person for you to truly personalize your correspondence to them and help you build that early rapport.

    Want to learn more? Head to https://whitebridge.ai and use my discount code DANIELLE30 for 30% off your first report.

    Please enjoy my conversation with Leslie Valiant.

  • Today’s guest is founder and VC Brett Martin who I first started following ten years ago when we were both in the mobile space.

    Brett is currently Co-Founder of Kumospace and co-founder of Charge Ventures. Kumospace is a venture backed virtual office space platform that provides immersive and interactive virtual spaces for hosting team meetings, and social gatherings. Charge Ventures is a venture capital firm based in New York that invests in pre-seed to seed early stage tech startups.

    In this episode of the podcast, we discuss Brett’s first taste of business as a kid, what lessons he learned about entrepreneurship from sailing 6,000 miles on a 50 year old, 30 foot sailboat which involved dodging water spouts, pirates and drug runners, what it felt like to shut down his first proper startup, and what he looks for in the founders he invests in.

    Apologies that this is a shorter than normal episode but Brett and I spent some time catching up before we got started so I will have to get him back on the show another time.

    But saying that, this was a fun episode with someone who has done it all, so please enjoy my conversation with Brett Martin.

    Brett on Twitter / Charge VC / Kumospace

    Danielle on Twitter / Instagram / Newsletter / Sponsorship

    Mentioned in this episode:

    Sonar Post Mortem by Brett Martin

    Scar Tissue by Brett Martin

    On Giving Up by Adam Phillips

  • Today’s guest is June Angelides MBE – a former founder, turned VC. June grew up in Nigeria before coming to London to study Economics. She then joined Thomson Reuters working on the news desk, covering syndicated loans before she got a call to join Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) who were just starting up here in London. She joined a small team there, working on both the Venture Debt Team and Early Stage Banking where she started forging connections with early stage startups and founders.

    It wasn’t long before June wanted a taste of entrepreneurship herself so she started Mums in Tech - the first child-friendly coding school in the UK - which ultimately taught over 250 women to code in 3 years and earned June an MBE from the Queen.

    After Mums in Tech closed down, June joined Samos Investments in 2018, where she remains today, investing in high growth European businesses. She has also founded an angel syndicate that invests into African Startups.

    In this episode, June and I discuss her career journey from working in the early days at Silicon Valley Bank here in the UK, setting up and subsequently shutting down her business, becoming an investor and the traits she looks for in founders, the importance of storytelling when pitching, as well as how representation and role models matter.

    I learned a lot talking to June about her founder investor journey and I think you will too. So here is my conversation with June Angelides.

    Enjoy!

    June website / Twitter / LinkedIn / Instagram

    Danielle on Twitter / Instagram / Newsletter / Sponsorship

    Mentioned in this episode:

    UK Government backed women-led high-growth enterprise taskforce report

  • Today’s episode is a special one as it is my very first LIVE recording of the podcast which took place last month with the one and only Chris Anderson of TED.

    Recorded at the stunning Kindred in London, it was such a special evening and a delight to have so many fans of the podcast and Chris in the audience.

    In this episode, we discuss Chris’ childhood, growing up with missionary parents in Afghanistan and Pakistan, to the huge professional peaks and lows of running a publishing company through the dot com crash. We also discuss how he came to acquire TED and his new book Infectious Generosity – The Ultimate Idea Worth Spreading?

    The overriding question we try to answer is, Can we outweigh the overwhelming negativity online by making kindness go viral?

    …But a quick word about today’s sponsor before we get into the conversation. This episode is sponsored by Youll - This platform revolutionises how you connect with your audience and secure recurring revenue, through a subscription-based app tailored just for you and your community.

    If you use social media for work, you will know that this week, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn all went down for millions of users, which is a nightmare for anyone with a large community. That’s why I am looking at building a community on Youll – whether you’re a content creator, coach, trainer or entrepreneur, Youll makes it easy for you to build your all-in-one branded app, giving you direct access to your community and revenue via its subscription model.

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    --------------------------

    Chris on Twitter / Instagram

    Infectious Generosity: The Ultimate Idea Worth Spreading - buy here

    Infectious Generosity site here

    Kindred website

    Danielle on Twitter / Instagram / Newsletter / Sponsorship

    Try Youll FREE today here

  • Today’s guest is Tamiko Thiel – lead product designer of The Connection Machine – a revolutionary massively parallel artificial intelligence supercomputer which was developed in the 1980s. Originally conceived by Danny Hillis from MIT’s artificial intelligence lab where he was studying under Marvin Minsky, Danny got an incredibly talented team together including Richard Feynman, Brewster Kale, Tamiko, and others to create what would become the fastest and most effective supercomputer of the time. And it’s this part of her career that we focus on today.

    However, Tamiko went on to become a pioneering digital artist who has worked in the realm of virtual reality for the past thirty years, starting in 1994 when she worked with Steven Spielberg on the Starbright World project where they created an online interactive 3D virtual world for seriously ill children.

    Tamiko also received a Bachelor of Science degree in Product Design Engineering, from Stanford University in 1979 and received a Masters in Mechanical Engineering from MIT in 1983, with a focus on human-machine design and computer graphics, as well as a diploma from the Academy of fine arts in Munich, Germany.

    In today’s conversation we dig deep into that special time in history when all the so-called experts said what Danny, Tamiko and co. were working on at Thinking Machines couldn’t be done and where… they proved them all wrong.

    Enjoy!

    --------------

    Image of Tamiko copyright Tamiko Thiel

    Tamiko website / LinkedIn / Instagram

    I am not on social media this year but stay in touch via my Newsletter / YouTube

    --------------

    Tamiko in London March 2024

    The Travels of Mariko Horo interactive virtual reality installation
    By Tamiko Thiel, 2006/2017, with original music by Ping Jin

    In "GLoW: ILLUMINATING INNOVATION"
    Bush House Arcade, King's College, Strand, London
    Exhibition: 08 March - 20 April 2024

    Panel and opening event: 07 March, 6:30pm
    Location: Great Hall, King's Building, Strand, King's College London

    The CM-1 t-shirt and Tamiko's Travels of Mariko Horo mesh top will be shown in the following, with information on how to order them (from my web shops: http://tamikothiel.com/cm/cm-tshirt.html)

    Curiosity Cabinet, King's College
    171 Strand/Corner of Surrey St., London
    https://www.kcl.ac.uk/news/curiosity-cabinet-showcases-antiquities-and-oddities-on-the-strand

  • Today’s guest is the one and only Stephen Wolfram - a physicist, mathematician, computer scientist and entrepreneur He is the founder and CEO of Wolfram Research, the creator of Mathematica, Wolfram Alpha and Wolfram Language, The Wolfram Physics Project and the author of bestselling A New Kind of Science among many other books.

    A visionary polymath, Stephen published his first scientific paper at age 15, received his PhD in theoretical physics soon after his 20th birthday and became the youngest recipient of the Macarthur Fellowship Genius grant at age 21.

    Over the course of his career which spans more than four decades, he has been a pioneer in the development and application of computational thinking, and has been responsible for many discoveries, inventions, and innovations in the fields of science and technology.

    In this episode, we discuss his childhood, how he might reimagine education, the process of undertaking ambitious, long-term innovation projects, why he works in public and the surprising advice he would offer a younger Stephen.

    I really enjoyed talking to Stephen and I think you will learn a lot from this episode.

    Enjoy!

    Stephen Wolfram website / Twitter

    I am not on social media this year but stay in touch via my Newsletter / YouTube

  • Today’s guest is Riva Tez - a philosopher, curious thinker, intellect, investor and one of my favourite people on the internet.

    She studied Philosophy at UCL before digging deeper into technology and engineering and starting the Berlin Singularity.

    She went on to co-found Permutation Ventures — an early stage VC fund which focused on AI startups and, she has also worked with Jim Keller at Intel as Senior Director for Strategic Technology Initiatives.

    Whilst at university, Riva started a toy shop in Notting Hill where she encouraged her young clientele to become mini entrepreneurs and philosophers.

    In this episode, Riva and I discuss how she got into crypto early, the link as she sees it, between mania and genius, cancel culture and what keeps her up at night.

    I really enjoyed talking to Riva and I think you will get a lot from this episode so here is my conversation with Riva Tez.

    Enjoy!

    Riva on Twitter / Instagram

    I am not on social media this year but stay in touch via my Newsletter / YouTube

    Mentioned in this episode:

    The Madness of Genius

    Riva essay on Pathogens here

    Every Angel is Terrifying

    Praxis

    Balaji's Network State

    My 2021 interview with Riva here

  • Today’s guest is Joe Macleod – designer, founder and author, former Head of Design at the award-winning digital product studio Ustwo, which brought the world the hit Monument Valley game.

    At ustwo, Joe helped build a globally awarded team, working with the world’s favourite brands on the most pioneering of products but he now focuses his energy on product endings and improving that experience for consumers and has written two books on the subjects – Ends and Endineering which we discuss in today’s episode.

    I have wanted to have Joe on the podcast for years now, after the first time I heard him talking about this concept of endings and how overlooked they are. In this conversation, we look at our rich history with endings starting with religion moving through to the plague, the industrial revolution, our over zealous consumerism and even cancel culture.

    It seemed fitting to end 2023 with this episode for obvious reasons but I really enjoyed this conversation and think you will too.

    Joe on Twitter / LinkedIn / Ends site / Instagram / Endineering for Businesses website

    Danielle Twitter / Instagram / Substack Newsletter / YouTube

    ---------------
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    Course here Starts 30th Jan 2024
    Discount Code: 25offendscohort

    BOOKS

    The Endineering book on Amazon

    Endineering eBook
    Discount code: RN25W

    Ends book on Amazon
    Ends eBook
    Discount code: EB55V


  • Today’s episode is going to be a little bit different as it is actually a podcast episode where I appeared as a guest as opposed to a host and I am sharing it here because I think you will find it useful.

    The podcast is called Digital Europe: Now and Beyond which is about European tech entrepreneurship and innovation and is hosted by serial Spanish entrepreneur Pau Garcia-Mila. In the episode you’re about to listen Pau talks to myself and South American but Ireland-based founder Alejandro Gutierrez, co-founder and CEO of Defactor Labs, a blockchain-based credit marketplace that links financiers with investors seeking opportunities in DeFi, about what it’s like to start a startup in Europe vs the USA including access to funding and networks, as well as why I believe in founders seeking out communities and networks at the beginning of their startup journeys, why we should be highlighting more female founders, and what Europe has to offer founders today vs the landscape here just ten or even twenty years ago.

    The episode has a lovely international flavour and isn’t focused on just silicon valley like many tech podcasts usually are and I think you will find some useful lessons in here so please do enjoy it.

    This episode features host Pau Garcia-MilaPau Garcia-Mila and guest Alejandro Gutierrez.

    Original episode and Digital Europe podcast can be found here.

    Danielle Twitter / Instagram / Substack Newsletter / YouTube

    With special thanks to Hauwei

  • Today’s guest is Nicki Sprinz, co-founder of Ada’s List (A digital global network of over 150,000+ women and non-binary in tech) and Group Managing Director of ustwo’s studios – London, Malmö, New York, Tokyo and Lisbon. For those who don’t know, ustwo is a digital product studio with top name clients such Google, Meta, DeepMind, Samsung, and Peloton to name a few. Ustwo games also created the Apple award-winning Monument Valley game.

    But do you know what is really unique about ustwo which was founded by best friends Mills and Sinx almost twenty years ago now? I will tell you – it is employee-owned and B Corp certified. A hugely successful global studio that is completely independent and owned by its employees and one that puts its core values front and centre.

    In this episode, Nicki and I discuss what those ustwo values are, what makes the studio special and how they look after their staff with mental health first aiders and more. But we also discuss Nicki’s childhood from attending the very same convent I did where the nuns thought nothing of hitting you for getting advanced work wrong and what that taught her about how she wants to lead to the two serious illnesses which impacted her formative years.

    This is a really human story of one woman who overcame the odds to lead one of the world’s leading studios.

    So please enjoy my conversation with Nicki Sprinz.

    Nicki Twitter / Newsletter / ustwo / Ada's List

    Danielle Twitter / Instagram / Substack Newsletter / YouTube

    Image of Nicki by Alex Cameron

  • Today’s guest is Sean Dadashi, co-founder of Rosebud. Born to Iranian parents who emigrated to the US after the revolution in 1979, Sean grew up in Los Angeles and was on a path of studying mechanical engineering before he switched courses after a year to study Cognitive Science with a minor in Computer Science.

    He then became a CTO before starting his own company - Somatic Studios in 2016 – where he used his passion for both tech and wellbeing to experiment with ideas including a web app that provided a health and wellness index for over 160 cities across 6 continents.

    The studio also developed VR experiences to teach pain management patients mindfulness and somatic therapy techniques. After Somatic, Sean then joined up with Chrys Bader, who you may have heard of because he previously co-founded several startups including Treehouse and Secret. Together, Sean and Chris have created Rosebud – the number one AI-powered journal for mental health and personal growth and a product I highly recommend. Try it yourself for FREE here.

    In this conversation, Sean and I discuss the loneliness epidemic, the importance of good mental health, his passion for helping others, and how he has always leaned towards the marriage of psychology and the human mind with technology and his passion for creating things, which ultimately led to Rosebud.

    I really enjoyed this discussion and think you will too.

    Sean Dadashi / Rosebud

    Danielle Twitter / Instagram / Substack Newsletter / YouTube

  • Today, I wanted to close out Series 11 with a recap of the wonderful guests we have had on – from Mike Slade and James Vincent who both worked for many years with Steve Jobs, VC James Wise of Balderton Capital, Josh Dahn who set up a school with Elon Musk, pioneering tech entrepreneur Dame Stephanie Shirley, Kindred founder Anna Anderson, Google Developer Advocate Kelsey Hightower and Syreeta Challinger who taught us about the importance of storytelling and how to cope after trauma.

    That’s something us founders don’t talk much about… how to cope better, whether it’s trauma, which drives so many of us, or the pain of simply building a startup with all the obstacles that comes with it.

    One action I have found helpful is journaling – and I have just started using Rosebud which makes it easy for anyone to build and maintain an impactful journaling practice.

    The number one AI-powered journaling app for mental health and personal growth, I have been using Rosebud for a week now and have already found clarity on some sticky situations, partly because instead of just writing my issues down in a physical journal, I am able to tell Rosebud what the issue is and then the app prompts me to go deeper which causes me to reflect more before offering some surprisingly good solutions which have helped me both in my personal and work life.

    I now do this practice every day – setting my morning intention for the day and then an evening reflection, and I have found it has made me happier and more productive for four simple reasons. 1. I have to set my intentions by typing them into Rosebud at the beginning of the day which helps me to visualise my day – you’ll be surprised how useful that can be. 2. It forces me to set my priorities for the day and make them front and centre. 3. It urges me to note what obstacles I have to overcome that day which encourages me not to shy away from them and 4. Rosebud is able to take what I say are my priorities and my obstacles and then offer practical solutions with warm advice – like a friendly therapist guiding me through my day. In fact, due to the speed at which Rosebud responds to my issues with extremely wise and human-like advice, it’s hard to believe I don’t actually have a human therapist responding to me in real time!

    Like I said, I am a big fan of Rosebud - I think it’s brilliant and I think you will like it too. So, if you want to try it out yourself, click the link here and try it for free.

    Enjoy!

    Danielle Twitter / Instagram / Substack Newsletter

    Original Episodes:

    Mike Slade

    Dame Stephanie Shirley

    James Wise

    Anna Anderson

    Josh Dahn

    Syreeta Challinger

    Kelsey Hightower

    James Vincent

  • Today’s guest is James Wise – a Partner at Balderton Capital and author of Start-Up Century: Why we're all becoming entrepreneurs - and how we can make it work for everyone, which we will discuss in today’s episode.

    James grew up in Manchester among a community of business owners and inspired by them has spent his career surrounded by, helping and investing in entrepreneurs.

    Balderton Capital, where James is Partner, is a venture capital firm in London was one of the first to focus on investing in European startups and to date has raised over $4.5 billion and invested in over 250 European startups, many of which have gone on to do extremely well.

    James’ focus as an investor is on artificial intelligence, sustainability and health tech and he is a board member and observer on multiple portfolio companies, including Sophia Genetics (which is listed on the Nasdaq), Depop which was acquired by Etsy for $1.6 billion, and many other including some which went on to be sold to Amazon and Epic Games.

    Prior to joining Balderton, James also helped to launch and run one of the UK’s first social venture funds and he is also a member of the UK Government’s Industrial Development Advisory Board.

    In this episode, we learn more about James’ background, how his future path was unknown and why he believes in the rise of entrepreneurship as a power for good. We discuss what he looks for in a founder and why Balderton set up its Founder Wellbeing and Performance Platform - treating its founders like elite athletes who benefit from keeping an eye on health and wellness whilst undertaking an often gruelling entrepreneurial life.

    We also talk about his book Start-Up Century and thanks to our friends at Bloomsbury Publishing, we have a special discount for listeners - you can buy the book at a discount here by adding discount code DANIELLE30 at checkout.

    Enjoy!

    James on Twitter / Start-Up Century / Balderton

    Danielle Twitter / Instagram / Newsletter

  • Today’s guest is Kelsey Hightower, a distinguished engineer and developer advocate at Google and speaker known for his work with Kubernetes, open source software and cloud computing.

    As a curious and motivated self-learner, Kelsey dropped out of College and taught himself the skills required to start his career as an independent contractor for BellSouth – a telecoms company in Atlanta helping the community to get online. From there, Kelsey set up his own business – an electronics store before becoming involved in the open source world, working at New Relic, CoreOS, Puppet Labs, and most recently at Google.

    A self-taught developer, Kelsey’s work on Kubernetes and at Google, from which he just retired, is well-known* so I wanted to focus our conversation on his life - how he got into tech, his love of learning, what drives him, what it means to be hopeful and the one piece of advice he would offer a younger Kelsey.

    I know I am not meant to have favourites – these conversations are like children - but I have to say this is up there with one of my most loved conversations. I learned so much from Kelsey and I think you will too.

    Enjoy!

    Kelsey on Twitter

    Danielle Twitter / Instagram / Newsletter

    Photo of Kelsey is part of the Faces of Open Source Project by Peter Adams

    *If you want to learn more about Kelsey's work history, give this episode from Ardan Labs a listen.