Welcome to another episode of Category Visionaries — the show that explores GTM stories from tech's most innovative B2B founders. In today's episode, we're speaking with Jorge Penalva, Co-Founder & CEO of Lang AI, a language understanding platform that's raised $40 Million+ in funding.

Here are the most interesting points from our conversation:

• Customer Experience Transformation: Lang AI focuses on helping CX organizations manage and analyze massive amounts of customer data to transform CX from a cost center to a revenue driver.

In today's episode of Category Visionaries, we speak with Parry Bedi, CEO of Tingono, a revenue retention platform that's raised almost $7 Million in funding, about why most companies miss out on the real value of their data, and how stitching together inputs to form a cohesive whole can provide critical decision-making insights for a modern business. Terming this approach ‘Machine-Learning driven revenue growth,’ Tingono has carved a space for itself in the SaaS ecosystem, working closely with clients to develop genuinely value-adding software solutions.

We also spoke about why Parry has such a pattern for entrepreneurship, how working with data is now much more important than just producing it, building ‘design partner’ relationships with potential customers, and why constructing the ideal team can be both the biggest challenge in business, and also one of its most rewarding aspects in the long run.

Topics Discussed:

• Why Parry’s passion for entrepreneurship leads him to keep founding new enterprises

Favorite book: 

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don't

In today's episode of Category Visionaries, we speak with Paul Kim, CEO of Notifi, a Web3 communication infrastructure platform that's raised over $12 Million in funding. 

Topics Discussed:

• From multinational enterprise to energetic startups, how experience working with the big boys gave Paul valuable lessons for his own company

Welcome to another episode of Category Visionaries — the show that explores GTM stories from tech's most innovative B2B founders. In today's episode, we're speaking with Jordan Gal, CEO & Co-Founder of Rally, a checkout payment platform that's raised $6 Million in funding.

Here are the most interesting points from our conversation:

• Innovative Checkout Solutions: Rally offers an alternative checkout solution for e-commerce merchants, challenging the standard platforms like Shopify and BigCommerce.

In today's episode of Category Visionaries, we speak with Chris Strahl, CEO of Knapsack, a design systems platform that has raised more than 7 million in funding, about his addiction to the more agile side of the business world, and why smaller companies are the way he likes to operate. With Knapsack, he's determined to reset the relationship between business and design, providing an integrated platform for collaboration and coordination which ensures the highest level of efficiency and consistency in the digital design process. The design systems platform category is all about providing the framework to support a whole range of design solutions, whether they come from engineers, designers, or the mind of a visionary CEO, and see them transform into high-quality content.

Chris also spoke about the current state of the venture capital market and being a 'wartime CEO, ' the challenges non-digital native companies have in facing an increasing consumer demand for online experiences, and why building a new market category is such an exhilarating but challenging experience. Whether or not Knapsack will emulate the success of design platforms like Canva remains to be seen, but Chris can see a path ahead in that direction, and he's determined to make it. 

 Topics Discussed:

• The mundane challenges of modern design, and why most designers end up making the same product several times over

In today's episode of Category Visionaries, we speak with Wes Winham Winler, CEO of Woven, about why a new way of hiring tech developers is needed to keep up with the rapid transformation and growth in the startup space. By putting candidates through rigorous skills testing exercises tailor made to the needs of a specific company, Woven is determined to all but eliminate the mishiring phenomenon and make sure everyone finds themselves in the role that’s right for them.

Wes also explains how a personal experience working with a small team led him to really understand the impact of ineffective hiring, why keeping ‘in-category’ is important for helping potential customers connect with your business, and how pretty much anything can be measured (even if not precisely) to help us all make better business decisions moving forward.

Topics Discussed:

• Wes’ experiences in startup culture, and how both positive and negative experiences gave him important lessons to apply with Woven.

Favorite book: 

How to Measure Anything: Finding the Value of Intangibles in Business

In today's episode of Category Visionaries, we speak with Jay Bartot, CEO of Zeitworks, about why so many startups put the cart before the horse when it comes to process automation. Zeitworks has established process discovery as a key component of its business model, to make sure they know exactly what their clients need before they start developing automated solutions for the more mundane needs underlying every business.

Jay also talks about his extensive experience in the startup space, how the tech investment environment has changed since the infamous ‘.com crash,’ and why the proliferation of AI technology can’t quite keep up with how fast the buzzword is spreading through the industry. He prefers the term ‘machine learning’ to help people understand the real processes going on behind the ‘black box’ of automated technology solutions.

Topics Discussed:

• Jay’s years in the startup space, transitioning to being a founder, and the lessons he brings forward to the modern tech investment sector

Favorite book: 

Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance

In today's episode of Category Visionaries, we speak with Rob Leslie, CEO of Sedicii, about how security in cyberspace doesn’t always mean sacrificing privacy, and why we all need an alternative to sharing our vital data online. By pushing innovation in the field of verification technology, fragmenting critical data and deploying a range of customer-orientated solutions, Sedicii is on a mission to deliver a safer, more secure digital infrastructure for the economy of the future.

Rob Also shared his wisdom on the secrets of building an effective startup, the differences and similarities between working in Japan compared to the West, and why he really believes in the power of the technology his team are working on to change our relationship with privacy, and make sure that a sense of safety and a promise of security don’t have to be mutually exclusive

 Topics Discussed:

• The challenge of ensuring security in an open marketplace without sacrificing sensitive data

In today's episode of Category Visionaries, we speak with Tony Jamous, CEO of Oyster, about how remote working is bringing the world together, building new opportunities and making a dent in one of our greatest collective challenges - global inequality. Oyster’s seamless, red-tape-free solution for any company to hire anyone, anywhere, is more than just a revenue stream, it’s a mission-based company determined to lead the way toward a better future of work for us all.

We spoke about Oyster’s extraordinary funding success, the impact of the pandemic and the importance of timing, and how personal experiences building a global company led him to appreciate the challenge of hiring across borders. A self-proclaimed ‘future of work activist,’ Tony wants to see a world where barriers and borders to productivity are eliminated, allowing people to optimize their skills in their communities and end the cycle of brain drain afflicting much of the world.

 Topics Discussed:

• The future of a truly global economy, and why bureaucracy hurts us all, in the long run,

Favorite book:   

Leadership and Self-Deception: Getting out of the Box

In today's episode of Category Visionaries, we speak with Eduardo Silva, CEO of Calyptia, about the future of data observation in a fully automated economy, and why a surplus of information can create as many challenges as it solves. Calyptia’s mission is to simplify data observation and give decision-makers access to the most valuable insights possible, ultimately helping everyone do better business on a daily basis.

Eduardo explains a little about his journey in the data space, the process of transitioning from engineer to entrepreneur, community, connectivity, and collaboration in the open-source economy,  and the pros and cons of operating a remote company spread across several different countries.

Topics Discussed:

• Learning and leading - Eduardo’s journey from an engineer to entrepreneur, and how commercial complexity added a new level of understanding to his technical skill set