Code Story | Startup Podcast for CTOs, CEOs and Technical Founders

Matt Hocking has a background in design, and started off as a graphic designer in Australia. He moved into lecturing while running a design school, which led him to New York and the startup community. He is a multi founder, which led him to his current venture. Outside of tech and startups, he is a family man, and loves to spend time with his kids - which he calls his startup outside of his startup. He enjoys building and drawing with his son, and doing the best he can to support his young daughter in becoming a princess one day.

In 2018, Matt met his co-founder when joining AI2. While he was working on deep learning projects, Matt was working on a user centered, voice based experience in healthcare. When they put both things together, they figured out they could really help people and save hours of studio time by generating voiceovers with AI.

This is the creation story of WellSaid Labs.

Sponsors

• CacheFly
• ClearQuery
• Kiteworks

Links

• https://wellsaidlabs.com/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/mhocking/

Welcome back listeners.

Today we have a return guest on the podcast, Rene Morkos, the Founder & CEO of Alice Technologies. If you recall our conversation with Rene from Season 7, April 6th 2023, he and his team are building algorithms to disrupt the construction industry, through project optioneering and construction optmization. Today, he returns to the show to update us on Alice Pro and Alice Core, their latest innovation to the sector, which boasts a 100X reduction in setup time. Listen in now.

In any industry, if you can build something that reduces setup time 100X - you have achieved something great. Rene and his team are changing the game, when it comes to project optioneering, bringing the solution into the backyard of the construction industry, while making it faster and easier to manage your scheduling.

You can learn more about Alice Tecnnologies, Alice Pro, and Alice Core - by visiting https://www.alicetechnologies.com/.

And thanks again for listening.

Sponsors

• Porkbun: Use the link codestory.co/porkbun and get a .dev, .app, or .foo domain name for only $5!
• CacheFly
• ClearQuery
• Kiteworks

Links

• https://www.alicetechnologies.com/

Michael Hummel has a different perspective on tech and startups than most people in this realm. His background dis in marketing, and prior to his current venture, he was running a lead gen marketing firm. Outside of his professional life, he is married, living in Puerto Rico, and has a miniature husky. He has picked up spearfishing - which sounds wicked fun. When I asked what was the biggest fish he caught, he laughed - and mentioned that he sticks to the reefs and the smaller fish.

Starting out, Michael founded his current venture focused on PR - IE public relations - and they did this because it was aligned with his background. Fast forward, his company is aiding startups raise capital, by focusing on three key pillars.

This is the creation story of Establish.

Sponsors

• Porkbun: Use the link codestory.co/porkbun and get a .dev, .app, or .foo domain name for only $5!
• CacheFly
• ClearQuery
• Kiteworks

Links

• https://establishpr.com/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-hummel-696258b7/

Alon Arvatz has been in tech for a long time. Fun fact, he loved technology but hated computer science. After getting introduced to the industry by his father, he discovered that tech is not just computer science - which was a big relief. He is the author of a book called The Battle for your Computer, which highlights Israel and the growth of the global cybersecurity industry. Outside of tech and cybersecurity, he is married with 4 kids, and highlights that all things in life - family, startup, etc. - is a partnership between he and his wife. Their family is a big fan of history, and looks to learn the stories of the places they visit.

Through his time in the military, Alon was exposed to the difficulties of managing cloud cost. Alongside his 15 years in cybersecurity, and writing his book on the topic, he figured out that a focus on efficiency could help businesses with their cloud costs - starting with a minimum integrate-able product.

This is the creation story of Pointfive.

Sponsors

• Porkbun: Use the link codestory.co/porkbun and get a .dev, .app, or .foo domain name for only $5!
• CacheFly
• ClearQuery
• Kiteworks

Links

• https://pointfive.co/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/alon-arvatz/
• https://www.amazon.com/Battle-Your-Computer-Cyber-Security-Industry/dp/1394174152

Linus Hakansson finds that he has been in the tech industry so long, that it is difficult to separate himself from what he does professionally. He's a family man, with a 2.5 year old son, and enjoys spending time with them and raising is kid. Outside of that, he enjoys soccer, sports, and cooking Italian food. In fact, recently he bought a pizza oven and started making his own dough and pie.

Linus has been working with API's since he started in the industry. In 2019, he was introduced to his current venture, as they wanted to create an open source API management software. After a couple of years, he partnered with the team, and then eventually - joined the company, to build something good.

This is Linus' creation story at Gravitee.

Sponsors

• Porkbun: Use the link codestory.co/porkbun and get a .dev, .app, or .foo domain name for only $5!
• CacheFly
• ClearQuery
• Kiteworks

Links

• https://www.gravitee.io/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/linushakansson/

Erin Marie has been in tech for 20 years. Prior to tech, she was a history major but became more passionate about building websites and technology. She went from web developer to programmer analyst to cloud engineering, and met her current business partner at Boeing. Outside of tech, she is into amateur photography, capturing landscapes and portraits. She is also passionate about passion and film, with her favorite grind core film titled "They call her one eye".

Jesus Maria comes from the Caribbean, and enjoys beaches and being near the water. When he is not coding or coming up with crazy tech ideas, he describes the amount of heavy metal he listens to as obscene. He has 6 guitars, all tuned differently, and loves to take breaks from his tech and throw down a new riff. He's also passionate about art, and into doing illustrations. He shares the same favorite film as Erin Marie.

Erin and Jesus are stationed in Denver, Colorado. During the pandemic, they were hanging out at the back yard picnic table, with wine and smokes. They were ideating over building a digital strip mall, to help local businesses build their platforms. Eventually, they started up a platform engineering company and when Lionsgate called, their pandemic picnic table idea started to grow.

This is the creation story of MSquared.

Sponsors

• Porkbun: Use the link codestory.co/porkbun and get a .dev, .app, or .foo domain name for only $5!
• CacheFly
• ClearQuery
• Kiteworks

Links

• https://msquaredtc.com/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/erin-braconnier-87958531/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/xuxogarcia/

Jai Ranganathan is a typically middle aged man, living in Austin, TX with a couple of kids and a Tesla. He moved to the US when he was 17, to attend the University of Texas. Post that, he spent 25 years in California at different tech businesses. Outside of tech, he enjoys doing activities with his daughters, rock climbing, and playing sports.

In 2013, Jai's current CEO saw a huge opportunity for the millions of heavy freight vehicles on the road. He built an app to track service hours, around the time that Jai joined - but, they didn't plan on stopping there.

This is the creation story of Motive.

Sponsors

• Porkbun: Use the link codestory.co/porkbun and get a .dev, .app, or .foo domain name for only $5!
• CacheFly
• ClearQuery
• Kiteworks

Links

• https://gomotive.com/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/jairamranganathan/

Whitney Johnson graduated college with a degree in Music, minoring in English. Of course, she needed a job, and became the secretary to a broker on Wall Street. After taking business courses at night and building confidence from a boss who believed in her, she moved into picking stocks. In 2005, she had an "aha!" moment leading her towards entrepreneurship, and starting a fund with Clayton Christensen, author of the Innovators Dilemma. She's the author of the many books, including Disrupt Yourself, which you can find a link in the show notes. Outside of these things, she is married, loves to play tennis, and enjoys a good Korean drama.

Amy Humble grew up in a rural part of Colorado called Rifle. Her mother was a principal, her father was a psychologist, and she studied political science during undergrad, while working in the Senate. She explored how to develop young people, and has always been rooted in her desire to develop people. In the past, she worked with Jim Collins - the author of Good to Great, who baptized and indoctrinated her into leadership development. Outside of her professional life, she is married with a young family. She enjoys skiing, hiking, biking, and playing in the water.

Amy was researching women who had become though leaders, and stumbled upon the work that Whitney was doing. They started out doing a small project together in 2015, and discovered that not only do they like working together, their strengths complimented each other - which led to the forming of a partnership.

This is the creation story of Disruption Advisors.

Sponsors

• Porkbun: Use the link codestory.co/porkbun and get a .dev, .app, or .foo domain name for only $5!
• CacheFly
• ClearQuery
• Kiteworks

Links

• https://thedisruptionadvisors.com
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/amy-humble-6570a311/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/whitneyjohnson/
• https://www.amazon.com/Disrupt-Yourself-New-Introduction-Relentless/dp/1633698785/ref=asc_df_1633698785/

Jake Ward originally from a small town in Maine, and claims to be running away from the snow by living in South Carolina now. He worked in politics for a while - in the House, the Senate, and Public Affairs before starting the Application Developers Alliance. That spurred on the next chapter of his life. Outside of tech, he has 3 kids and enjoys golf. He loves to cook and spend time with his kids, playing basketball or exploring life sciences. He also mentioned that every 5 years, he tends to buy another house, have another kid, and start a new business.

Jake figured out that 85% of developers want their content through video, over documentation or other means of info comms. He believes that developers are building the world around us - and the world is underperforming in how those people are supported. He decided to change this, and set out to build docs and guidance learnings into one video content platform.

This is the creation story of Data Protocol.

Sponsors

• Porkbun: Use the link codestory.co/porkbun and get a .dev, .app, or .foo domain name for only $5!
• CacheFly
• ClearQuery
• Kiteworks

Links

• https://dataprotocol.com/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacobmward/
• https://developersalliance.org/

Luka Yancopoulos lives in New York City, and believes whole heartedly in doing well by doing good. He grew up in the early 2000's, where the focal point was environmentalism and doing good in the world. He is an active botanist, and though there isn't much "soil to toil" in NYC, he spends his weekends filling the planter boxes with plants, on his block and around the neighborhood.

For Luka, COVID caused immediate awareness of supply chain issues. He and his buddies kicked over stones around these problems, specifically into the medical supply chain, and discovered a whole list of things needing to be addressed to support medical professionals in their buying.

This is the creation story of Grapevine.

Sponsors

• Porkbun: Use the link codestory.co/porkbun and get a .dev, .app, or .foo domain name for only $5!
• CacheFly
• ClearQuery
• Kiteworks

Links

• https://go-grapevine.com/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/luk%C3%A1-yancopoulos-50051a1a8/