According to Ruchi Thanawala M.D., M.S., Co-founder of Firefly Lab, an educational data management system (platform) for tracking medical, clinical, and procedural performance, 234,000,000 are performed every year, and the skill of a surgeon accounts for 25% of the overall outcome of the surgery.

With this in mind, we spoke with Ruchi to understand more about the work Firefly Lab is doing to bring quantitative data science into medical and surgical education.

In this episode, we cover:

Links 🔗

Our Guest🙋:

Find out more about Ruchi Thanawala here (LinkedIn) - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ruchi-thanawala-2ab677219/

Find out more about Firefly Lab here (website) - https://www.fireflylab.org/

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While remote work comes with many benefits, it can be hard for employers to create an environment that fosters a sense of belonging that encourages employees to stick around.

In today’s episode of the Brains Byte Back podcast Eugene Garla, VP of Talent at Index, a company building a global talent platform of vetted full-time remote engineers, joins us to discuss how enterprises can stop treating tech talent like handymen, and make them loyal in the long term.

In the episode Garla shares why employers need to shift their perspective when it comes to remote work, advocating that no longer is this working style strictly for digital nomads traveling the world.

Instead, he argues that those who work remotely should be seen as equal to other types of employees and that the only difference, for many, is the fact that they do not go to an office.

Garla also encourages those looking to hire remote workers to be transparent with their job advertisements.

He highlights that promising tech talent can be discouraged when jobs advertise themselves as remote but instead offer hybrid work with the expectation that they regularly come into the office.

Additionally, Garla explains why it is important to take into consideration the passions and interests of the tech talent you are interviewing to understand what drives them, instead of primarily looking at their skills.

As Garla puts it not all developers are passionate about crypto and making another coin.

And finally, Garla, who speaks four languages, shares advice and tips on how to learn a new language.

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How do founders come up with startup names? And what makes a great startup name?

Well, if you are feeling lazy, you could use a startup name generator. However, if you want something that will really make an impact, then you will want to hear this. 

Because in this episode of the Brains Byte Back podcast, Jason Keck, CEO & Co-Founder of Broker Buddha, a startup using online smart forms to speed up insurance applications and renewals, joins us to share what he believes to be the three ingredients needed to create a fantastic startup name. 

Additionally, Keck, who previously held the role of Shazam’s Head of Business Development, shares his backstory, and how he made the switch from working at Tumblr to co-founding Broker Buddha.

He goes into detail about why he was inspired to help create Broker Buddha after members of the co-founding team experienced the slow and inefficient processes of submitting insurance information for a previous startup. Where information was passed back and forth via PDF files and other archaic data capture tools. 

Keck and the team saw how the insurance industry desperately needed new, online tools for collecting information from their clients, and decided they would find a solution. Thus, Broker Buddha was born.

Keck also talks about The Enlightened Agent, a podcast he hosts on behalf of Broker Buddha, where they are currently exploring diversity and inclusion in the insurance industry. 

And to close the show host Sam Brake Guia and Keck discuss their shared love for his home city of New Orleans. 

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With a population of over 331 million, the US is a great market to create a startup, giving founders the opportunity to build a booming company without ever having to leave the country.

However, for founders in smaller countries, particularly in the Latam region, where all but two countries have a population of 50 million or lower, building a wildly successful startup and staying put, isn’t always an option.

In today’s episode of the Brains Byte Back podcast, we speak with Sacha Spitz, General Partner & Co-Founder of Newtopia VC, a hands-on venture capital firm focusing on startups in the Latam region, to find out what it takes to build a thriving startup in this corner of the globe.

During the interview, Spitz describes how he believes the Latam startup ecosystem is still in its early stages. He also shares how this belief inspired him and his fellow co-founders to create Newtopia VC, to support the new generation of Latam founders that aim to build a better reality for the region and the world.

Spitz also talks about the influence of unicorns from different countries, such as Mercardo Libre in Argentina or Rappi in Colombia, and their impact on the new generation of entrepreneurs in the region today.

Additionally, Spitz shares why Mexico and Brazil’s founders have a head start, as he advocates that these entrepreneurs have the possibility to build an incredibly successful startup, without ever branching into another country, due to the size of their markets.

However, he goes on to explain that, for Latam entrepreneurs from outside these two countries, it is essential to break into at least one of these markets, in order to build a big “VCable” company.

And finally, before wrapping up the show, Spitz shares advice for young startups looking to get the attention of VCs.

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One week before the pandemic hit, unaware of what was about to take place worldwide, Taylor Hersom quit his job as a Chief Information Security Officer for a local firm in Austin, Texas in the hopes of finding a similar position elsewhere.

Between working at Deloitte where he advised Fortune 500 companies on compliance and security tactics, and his more recent position at the local firm, Hersom didn’t anticipate finding a new job to be a difficult feat.

However, as the pandemic set in, his interview offers dried up, and he turned to UpWork in pursuit of a job. In the beginning, he applied for as many posts as he could find in order to build up his review score.

He began taking on clients and quickly realized that startups needed a lot of help with security and compliance, and he knew this could become a genuine business for him. But what he didn’t realize was just how in demand his services would be.

As time went on, Hersom moved away from UpWork and took on staff to build a team in order to meet demand. Shortly after this, on January 1, 2021, his new company Eden Data was born.

In today’s episode of the Brains Byte Back podcast, Hersom, CEO and Founder of Eden Data, shares how the team has grown in such a short period of time by taking a positive approach to security instead of the traditional fear-based approach.

In other words, instead of securing customers using fears tactics such as telling prospects if they get hacked they will be fined, receive bad PR, or be hated, Hersom advocates that strong security can show prospects that you care about them and their data, which can successfully close more deals.

Hersom also shares how their subscription approach to security and compliance has helped them stand out in this market, allowing them to scale alongside the startups they work with.

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If you’ve ever wondered what it takes to build a world-class software engineering team, then this is the episode for you.

In today’s episode of the Brains Byte Back podcast, we speak with Sashank Purighalla, Founder and CEO of BOS Framework, a complete solution to build, migrate, and manage cloud applications and environments.

Purighalla talks about his backstory, explaining how he came to the US in 1999 to study for a masters in robotics, but ended up staying, and has since lived in Alabama, Philadelphia, and now resides in Nashville.

He also opens up about why he decided to pick Nashville as a base to launch BOS Framework over other cities he considered, such as Denver, Raleigh, and Austin.

Additionally, Purighalla shares how BOS Framework was able to reduce one client's spending from over $1 million to $200K, thanks to the cloud solutions company powering its infrastructure.

Moreover, Purighalla breaks down his perspective on the psychology that motivates engineers, and shares examples of how to motivate them to be as happy and productive as possible in their work and output.

One example of this is the idea that they need to work on something they feel is larger than themselves.

Purighalla likens a team of engineers, when united by an overarching goal, to that of an army battalion with a strong sense of camaraderie and drive to achieve something bigger. He argues this is a vital factor in order to build a strong engineering team.

And finally, Purighalla shares why engineers love problem-solving and how encouraging this is important in order to motivate and develop a strong team of engineers.

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According to The NewYorker, ketamine therapy is going mainstream, as the drug has been shown to help people suffering from anxiety and depression.

Moreover, evidence that this drug can help those suffering from mental health issues has been very promising, as stated in the National Library of Medicine, with results showing a significant improvement in depression, anxiety, and the severity of illness after ketamine treatment.

But here at Brains Byte Back we want to understand how this drug is being used and how it stands so to impact the future of treating mental illnesses, so we spoke with Dr. Tiago Marques, CEO at Pasithea Therapeutics, a biotech company at the forefront of research solutions to the world’s mental health problems.

In today’s episode, Marques tell us how Pasithea first started, and shares some insights into day-to-day research at the company.

He also explains how mobile clinics and controlled ketamine infusion work. Alongside, how effective is ketamine for treating PTSD, depression, and other similar issues.

And finally Marques shares some interesting trends in the medical space using psychedelics, and explains what are the legal implications of working in the psychedelic space in the US right now.

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In 2014, Jose M. Azares established a boutique burger shop brand that would later expand to three locations across Alberta, Canada. Due to the high turnover rate in the hospitality industry, Azares was constantly taking on new hires.

When taking on new starts, they would take part in shadow training from day one to day seven, when they would be considered self-sufficient and no longer needed guidance.

However, Azares saw this conventional method of training as ineffective and recognized that many new starts were unhappy with it, but did it anyway because they wanted the job.

After leaving this venture behind, Azares set out to create a new business to change the way companies carry out training.

Inspired by the immersive training that pilots go through, Azares decided to create NIDUM, a company that produces immersive training programs for businesses across all industries.

In today’s episode of Brain Byte Back, we are joined by Azares to discuss why he believes immersive training is a vital next step for businesses everywhere when taking on new hires, alongside what industries he sees benefiting the most from this new type of training.

Additionally, Azares walks us through, step by step, how a user would use NIDUM’s training program and what the process looks like.

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Less than 9% of the 300 million tonnes of plastic produced every year is actually recycled. In order to change this, we must first see a change in consumer behavior.

In today’s episode of the Brains Byte Back podcast, we explore how the Everything as a Service (XaaS) economy stands to be a vital tool to create a more sustainable society, alongside how this economy is impacting consumer culture on a wider level.

To do this we are joined by Lincoln Lincoln, Head of Global Sales & Customer Success at CloudBlue.

We kick off the show by discussing the rise of subscription services, and Lincoln shares the example of Stellantis, a global automaker that he claims generates 20% of its revenue from subscription services for its cars.

With this new approach to a subscription-based model, Lincoln argues that the days of buying a car with a one-time purchase and watch it depreciate as you drive it out of the forecourt are over.

He also shares how features in cars are now sold as subscriptions, such as BMW announcing that heated seats can now be used as a pay-as-you-go service, so you can turn it on during winter, and off during the summer. Meaning you only pay for what you want, when you want it.

Additionally Lincoln highlights how the XaaS economy is raising our expectations and demands as consumers.

He draws on the example of the exercise bike company Peloton, and advocates that no longer do we buy a simple exercise bike, but we now expect this bike to challenge our fitness goals and produce content that motivates us.

And finally, we discuss how subscription services stand to increase sustainability by encouraging the production of products that stand the test of time, and discourage models such as planned obsolescence.

Lincoln advocates that this is because in this modern economy, rather than selling a product as a one-time purchase, when it is sold as a subscription, the consumer benefits because they pay as they go, and the manufacturer is encouraged to create an asset or product that works for as long as possible.

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If you’re on TikTok, there is a chance you may be familiar with a trend known as "product overload." According to Insider, it is a trend that involves mixing cleaning chemicals in sinks and toilets to create "mesmerizing" visual results, but experts say it could be damaging to the environment.

Well, according to Dan Lawson, Co-Founder & President Of Business Affairs at Viking Pure Solution, a company that produces patented e-water, nontoxic solutions and cleaning products, you don’t need a “product overload” to harm the environment when using cleaning products.

To better understand how our everyday cleaning products are impacting the environment, our health, and how Viking Pure’s cleaning products stand to make a difference, we sat down with Lawson to discuss this in today’s Brains Byte Back episode.

In the episode, Lawson shares that normal chemical products have a multitude of ingredients with colors, fragrances and soaps that are added, which can damage surfaces over time.

However, Lawson argues that Viking Pure’s products are far more minimalist and walks us through how its machines are capable of taking salt (sodium chloride), mixing it with water, and combining it with electricity in a very specific way to create the company’s cleaning solutions.

We also discuss how Viking Pure’s solutions can help the environment not only by stopping harmful chemicals from being released into it, but also by reducing packaging, and carbon footprint.

And finally Lawson shares some case studies of how their products have helped clients and customers so far, alongside the story behind the name Viking Pure.