Flux

Thomas Reardon is the cofounder and CEO of CTRL-labs, a company building an electromyography-based armband that decodes the brain's intentions, enabling users to control digital devices using their mind.

In this fun and wide-ranging conversation we get into Reardon's early years at Microsoft, and how building a web startup in the 1990s and launching Internet Explorer has informed his thinking. He describes how he had a realization about changing his career path and decided later in life to study classics and computational neuroscience. Reardon explains why New York is the top place to build a machine learning based business right now and reveals how he recruits top talent. He shares how the company aims to translate cutting edge technology into mass-market use, and what developers can expect when CTRL-kit is shipped in Q1. He also explains how the CTRL-labs platform could radically impact immersive computing (VR/AR) and how if all goes to plan it will make the smartphone redundant.

https://www.ctrl-labs.com/

A full transcript is available on Medium

This episode was produced by Adriene Lilly.

Assaf Glazer is the founder and CEO of Nanit, a baby monitor and human analytics company that helps parents navigate their child's sleep. In this episode we get into Assaf's experience working in the Israeli defense and on chip manufacturing, and how he parlayed his computer vision background into building a New York startup. He discusses what he has learned about human centric design, and the pros and cons of manufacturing a consumer electronics product in China versus the United States. He also gets into why his product may help with retention in the workforce, the issues he sees in deep learning research, why behavioral neuroscience is critical in the next leap forward for machine learning, and how process control for chips is different than process control for babies.

A full transcript is available on Medium: https://medium.com/@TheFluxPodcast

This episode was produced by Allison Behringer.

Austin Woolridge is the co-founder and CEO of Players Lounge, a site that allows casual gamers to compete against each other and win money in games like FIFA, Fortnight, Madden, NBA 2K, MLB, NHL, and Call of Duty. In this episode we get into Austin's path into entrepreneurship, co-founder Zach Dixon's impressive efforts pitching investors, how Y Combinator had such an impact on him and the team, and why New York had the special ingredients necessary to start his company. He reveals what he thinks the potential is for the casual eSports market, how the site handles user liquidity and adding new titles, how they have navigated the regulatory climate, and how he thinks about entering the Asia market in the future.

Full transcript with resources is available on Medium: https://medium.com/@TheFluxPodcast

The episode was produced by Allison Behringer. ᐧ

Dean Kamen is an engineer, businessman and inventor who holds over 400 patents. He is the man behind the Segway as well as the first wearable infusion pump. Through his R&D company DEKA he has continued to deliver one innovation after the other, from the iBOT a motorized wheelchair that climbs stairs, to the Slingshot water purifier for the developing world, as well as the Stirling generator which turns waste into power. In this episode we get into Dean's thoughts on inventing, why he thinks we have a cultural crisis in education, and DEKA's recent dive into biology and the world of regenerative medicine. He shares why he thinks the world is headed for catastrophe and what he thinks we can do to ensure that in the race between education and catastrophe, education wins.

Keller Rinaudo is the CEO of Zipline, a company building instant delivery that currently supplies 20% of Rwanda's national blood supply via drone. In this episode, we get into the future of autonomous infrastructure, the importance of government risk-taking when it comes to innovation, and what he thinks it will take for the U.S. to regain its entrepreneurial spirit. Keller also shares his thoughts on designing a full-stack hardware product and service, how his parents impacted his ability to be an entrepreneur, and how he has persevered in the face of naysayers.

An excerpt of this conversation is published in TechCrunch. The full transcript can be found on Flux's medium account. This episode was produced by Allison Behringer.

Arthur Hayes is the CEO of Hong Kong based BitMEX, one of the first cryptocurrency derivatives exchanges that currently ranks #1 in bitcoin USD futures volume. This episode reveals the thinking of a trader who's been at the forefront of the market for three years. Arthur discusses the structural issues he thinks the CME and CBOE may face when they launch crypto trading in the U.S. next week, why his perpetual 100X leverage swap products is the most popular, and why he thinks valuation models for crypto are an exercise in futility. He shares how BitMEX deals with asset forks as well as exchange security, why Korean trading is booming, what he believes is going on with the Chinese crackdown and miners, and dispels any fantasy that one can get rich trading crypto from the beach.

An excerpt of this episode is published in Forbes. Full transcript will be available on Medium.

The episode was produced by Allison Behringer.

Kathleen Breitman is the co-founder and CEO of Tezos, a self-amending blockchain platform. In this episode Kathleen reveals how flaws in bitcoin's design inspired Tezos to bake governance mechanisms into the blockchain itself. She discusses the rationale around doing an uncapped crowdsale, why they chose to set up a non-profit in Switzerland to receive the funds, and how they have responded to DDOS and phishing attacks. Kathleen also discusses her identification as an anarchist-capitalist and its roots in cypherpunk, her love of Milton Friedman, her favorite bad TV, and what it's like being a husband wife founding team.

Helen Greiner was the co-founder of iRobot, the company behind the Roomba and PackBot, and is now the founder of CyPhy Works, a leading commercial drone company. In this episode of Flux, Helen reveals why timing the market is so critical for founders, what she's learned about product iteration, and why she thinks the sky is a natural superhighway for drone delivery. Helen also gets into her work with the Pentagon using the PackBot to save lives to Iraq, how to get more women into technology, her love of Star Wars, and what happened when she tried to fly her drone on the White House lawn.

Full episode transcript on Medium.

This episode was produced by Allison Behringer.

Blake Scholl is the founder and CEO of Denver-based Boom, a supersonic jet company. Blake gets into how the Concorde business model was flawed, why it takes an outsider to re-ignite innovation in the industry, and how simulation software has greatly reduced the time and cost of plane design. Blake also reveals how he taught himself the basics of the business on Wikipedia, why dropping out of high school was one of the best things he did, and how bringing supersonic air travel to the masses will have an impact on everything from business, to leisure, to fundamental human relations.

Full episode transcript on Medium.

This episode was produced by Allison Behringer.

Bill Doyle is executive chairman of Novocure, an Israeli company using an entirely new method to fight cancer: electric fields. Bill tells the story of the founder of Novocure, his unorthodox approach to problem-solving, and how he was able to commercialize a therapy that was considered voodoo science. He also discusses why the research grant process is broken and the FDA's challenge balancing progress with safety.