Build Better Tech: How the nation’s leading companies use tech as business strategy to win.

Vijaya Kaza is the Chief Security Officer and Head of Engineering & Data Science for Trust & Safety at Airbnb. She has an extraordinary record of technology leadership in building teams, guiding product development, and driving innovation in the field of security, machine learning, and AI. Her personal framework for scaling companies which she shares in our discussion comes from her years of experience doing exactly that at some of the biggest tech companies in the world. Make su...

Vishal Gupta is the Global CIO and CTO, and SVP of Connected Technology at Lexmark, a brand you’ve likely encountered through their printing products. Our conversation opened my eyes to the wide range of applications for the technologies Lexmark has developed: IOT, predictive data analytics, gaming, and curling irons. Vishal's leadership in the innovation, development, and commercialization of those technologies has no doubt been key to their success. He shared stories and great advice a...

Today we hear from DeWayne Griffin, Chief Data Officer at State Farm. In the insurance industry, data is critical both to optimization of the business and to delivering a personalized customer experience, and the insight, expertise, and vision Dewayne brings to his role make it easy to understand why he was the right man for the job technically. His leadership philosophy and warmth make it clear why he excels in his executive and people management responsibilities.We met at the State Farm cam...

Justin Burleigh is the Vice President of E-Commerce and Interconnected Experience at Home Depot. He is the archetype of a great product person: laser-focused on empathy for the user, and visionary in solving problems without an attachment to the solutions themselves. His team builds the innovative products that help Home Depot’s customers and pros fuel their DIY needs, and it was fascinating to get insight into this household as a technology company. He also made me aware of the Home Dep...

Brendan Ittelson loves solving problems for people and enabling them to accomplish their goals. He loved it even as a kid when he was tapped to troubleshoot tech issues around his school so often that he started a “Tech Squad”, and it seems to me that he loves it more than ever now, as he serves as the CTO of Zoom. He took the helm in the early days of the pandemic, thereby stepping into a role important to all of us who have relied on Zoom to stay connected in trying times. It was a great pl...

Dr. Julia is one of the most accomplished technologists I'll ever be lucky enough to meet. He is well known as the creator of Siri, but he has driven innovation in some of the biggest companies on the planet, making contributions so significant that he was awarded the Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur (the highest French order of merit) by his country of origin. We cover tech culture in France vs. Silicon Valley, the necessity of listening to the weird guys, using discomfort to spark inno...

Imperfect Foods delivers fresh, delicious produce and other groceries to your door for up to 30% less than what those same groceries would cost you at a traditional store. They do it by recovering apples that are too giant, carrots that are too twisty, lentils from a surplus harvest, or olive oil with out-of-style packaging — in other words, food that would otherwise to go waste. Philip Behn joined Imperfect Foods as CEO last year, and is carrying forward their mission to reduce food wa...

Andy Laudato has an incomparable level of experience in retail tech. In addition to developing groundbreaking customer-facing tech, he has the superpower of being able to understand the overall business and design solutions to optimize for it. He’s a business leader first, and a technologist second. Accordingly, he has recently stepped from the role of Chief Technology Officer into Chief Operating Officer at Vitamin Shoppe. Topics by time stamp: 0:45 — Andy and technology at...

Jon Shearer served as head of digital products at Dave Ramsey, creator of Financial Peace University and numerous other products designed to teach healthy personal financial practices and get out of debt. This was during Ramsey’s migration as a company from a content producer and radio show, to a digital-first brand that can meet people where they are and support them practically. Jon talks about the highs and lows of leading a digital transformation, and how great technology had immedi...

With the advent of streaming services, the rise of creative and gig economies, and a lower barrier to entry to release content, tracking credit and getting paid fairly for creative work is really difficult. Jammber is a fast-growing financial tech company in the music space, on a mission to become the way that creatives around the world get paid, faster and more simply. Marcus Cobb is Jammber’s founder and CEO, and brings his formative experience as a developer to create products th...