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This week, the SphereCast team interviews Yuli Levtov, Chief Technology Officer at Volta XR. Volta is a self-serve XR creation platform that makes producing innovative digital experiences accessible to all. Prior to Volta’s platform, truly engaging digital experiences were reserved for the makers with extensive resources and extremely deep pockets. With Volta, that is no longer the norm. Volta is initially focused on extending its services to the music industry — effectively offering limitless scale to live music performance — but has plans to extend into other verticals as well.

For Levtov, Volta is a dream convergence of two of his highest passions — music and technology. And Yuli can rest easy, knowing that he’s doing the good work of making great technology — and, by extension, great live experiences —  accessible to more people. On the podcast, Yuli lays out his history with Volta XR, recounts some of its early challenges, and discusses some learnings made along the way.

Noteworthy Quotes:

"When you have limited resources — as every startup does, by definition — it's very tricky to know exactly where to be directing the resources. There are lots of interesting options on the table — lots of ways the product could go."

"Productivity comes in different ways. You have to work smarter, not harder."

"Be more structured around personal development... If you want to be a CTO or a founder or an entrepreneur or something like that, the ability to pull in bits of expertise from different subject areas makes for something greater than the sum of the parts. In order to do that, you have to take a keen interest in learning."

Bullet List of Resources – 

Yuli Levtov

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Volta XR

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This week, the SphereCast team speaks with Gandolf Finke, Founder and MD at Mika. Mika is a digital companion platform that walks with cancer patients through every step of their difficult journeys through sickness. The app offers up personalized evidence-based content, including digital interventions and trusted education. Prior to his work at Mika, Finke spent time as a consultant with a large global firm, primarily focusing on healthcare organizations.

Cancer in no stranger to Gandolf. Several instances of cancer that personally impacted him ultimately drove him towards creating a solution like Mika. Easing others’ difficulties with this horrible disease is at the core of Mika’s mission, and Finke is dedicated to maintaining focus on this objective. In fact, in a world where the norm for digital apps is to sell personal data, Mika has drawn a line in the sand and has chosen to forego short-term monetary gains for the good of its users. On the podcast, hear the full inspirational story and pick up some solid entrepreneurial advice along the way.

Noteworthy Quotes:

"One really important aspect for us is to stick to our core... In the digital healthcare industry, it's very easy to get pulled into, 'Why don't you create this great tool that takes all of the data from patients and then monetizes on that and sends it to pharma companies?' And I get it. Totally fine. But we took a conscious decision against some of these demands. We believe, at our core, that we want to empower the people that are using Mika that are impacted by cancer.”

"When building a business based on a nontraditional model, you very much relay on the story that you can tell. If you don't have a great story that's valuable and helpful, you can't find people to give you money."

"A huge challenge for my company in our journey is constantly questioning and iterating around what we're doing. Are we doing the right thing? Is it really working how we want it to? What are the proof points?"

"Being an entrepreneur is about facing challenges and dealing with them. There were tough times. There were easy times. And you have to celebrate the highs and, somehow, manage to go through the lows."

"In order to hire the right people, you have to have a very clear understanding of what you actually need. Write it down, and be very strict in grading people against that."

"Human resources is different now. People look at their employer differently now than they would have 30 years ago. It's no longer a, 'I'm going to join this company and work there for the rest of my life.' It's much more of a, 'I want to work on things that are purposeful. I want to pursue things outside of work.' So you have to adjust how you operate the company accordingly."

Bullet List of Resources – 

Gandolf Finke

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Mika

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This week, the SphereCast team interviews Emma Kay, Founder and Chief Marketing Officer at WalkSafe. The WalkSafe app visualizes real-time crime reports by plotting these incidents clearly onto a map, allowing users to build a detailed understanding of local area crime patterns and plan safer walking routes. The WalkSafe app also features loads of other pro-safety functionality, keeping users safe while out and about.

Emma was inspired to start this business after speaking with her brother about her fears — and other women’s fears — of walking alone. And she was ultimately brave enough to take a step out as a female entrepreneur. But a key part of Emma’s journey was finding a belief in herself — by proving to herself that she had what it takes and that her gut instincts were right and true. Only then did she experience true success. On the podcast, hear Emma’s entire entrepreneurial journey and how she hopes her story inspires other women to find their voices and trust their intuitions.

Noteworthy Quotes:

"I've learned that my intuition is right. And if I fundamentally believe in something and feel very strongly about something, I need to stand up for what I believe in and speak about it."

"You can't pull from an empty cup. I'm trying to learn that. I want to say 'yes' to everything... And I'm always striving for perfection. Taking time to prioritize is really important. What can wait? Asking the question is the best course of action."

"As a leader, it's important to know where your strengths and weaknesses lie and where you can learn from someone else."

"We fundamentally believe in keeping the majority of our app free for the user. We believe that personal safety is a basic human right — one that everyone should feel."

"I truly feel that our users' voices are really important. We have spent a lot of time fine-tuning things, and we will continue to do that to keep evolving the app and making the best it can be."

"With a startup, you're always learning. The power of hindsight is always there."

Bullet List of Resources – 

Emma Kay

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WalkSafe Ltd.

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This week, the SphereCast team speaks with Ansgar Lange, Chief Operating Officer at Nostos Genomics. Globally, nearly 300 million people live with a rare genetic disease, and, for many, discovering and diagnosing these illnesses can take years. Nostos Genomics is changing the game by leveraging new technologies to dramatically reduce this timeframe. Prior to his work at Nostos Genomics, Ansgar worked in various senior-level roles at other healthcare-related companies.

Ansgar is a master of scalability. His resume tells the story of one who can prep a small company for fast expansion. This skill is a difficult one to master, but its level of difficulty is elevated even higher, considering Ansgar’s industry-of-choice — healthcare. How does one go about building a rapid growth, innovative company in a highly regulated industry? On the podcast, Ansgar discusses the challenges of a COO in a healthcare startup and how to properly innovate within the bounds of your chosen industry. 

Noteworthy Quotes:

"It's really interesting for me to use cutting edge technologies to help others and innovate the healthcare sector."

"Trust with startups in the digital healthcare sector is always a challenge."

"I've seen this many times. People have great ideas, but if you don't play it back to your customers, you'll never get back to a proper product that's adopted quickly."

"A COO typically has to really juggle lots of different activities and make sure they're all aligned nicely in the end… And saying ‘no’ is one of the most difficult decisions a COO has to make.”

"COVID brought the remote-first hybrid model. The opportunity that is offering is to work across the globe with different people in different time locations. It was a negative impact in the short run, but in the long run, it's an advantage."

"It's an illusion to stay on top of all business and technology innovations. There are so many out there that you have to focus quite a bit."

"In retrospect, I could have spent less time focusing on academics. In general, people value commercial achievement over academic achievement."

"I wish I would have started building my network earlier... Having a network of many different people is extremely valuable, especially when building a company."

Bullet List of Resources – 

Ansgar Lange

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Nostos Genomics

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This week, the SphereCast team interviews Miruna Bicoli, Chief Operating Officer at BlueBat Games — a Vancouver-based company that produces white label social casino games for ground-based casinos. Before being promoted to Chief Operating Officer in January of 2022, Miruna spent nearly two years as BlueBat’s VP of Product and Managed Services. Prior to her run at BlueBat, Miruna held a variety of product, operations, and customer service roles at various gaming and software companies.

Miruna’s passions for product and leadership come to the forefront throughout this interview. To Miruna, the data only tells part of the story. A true product professional will know how to find the balance between hard data and real customer feedback. And, for product leaders, even while navigating this friction, they must stay concerned with developing employees, encouraging innovation, and promoting integrity. All of this and so much more on this week’s episode of SphereCast. 

Noteworthy Quotes:

"The role of leaders has dramatically changed over the past few years... They need to be enablers of innovation, even if it means making mistakes... They must focus on developing and mentoring others... And they need to be promoters of ethics and integrity."

"Data without context tells you nothing... If you don't combine data with actual feedback, you basically have nothing. You only have assumptions."

"There are moments in the product world where data will say one thing, but end user feedback will say another thing... That's when the value of a real product person is shown... You must pay attention to why the end user is giving you that feedback."

"Here, we build a platform for our clients — the casinos. But we need to have in mind the end users — the players. So the main challenge with our product is having to always have B2B-world and B2C-world aligned... Sometimes you know what the client wants is not what the end user needs."

"You never really get it right. Product isn't about getting it right. Product is about putting something out and iterating on it, based on feedback you get. You throw something against the wall and see what sticks."

"I am a product-focused person at the core. Working in customer service, I witnessed how bad products impact customers."

"When it comes to the latest technology innovations, I have to say I 100% rely on my team... I know products, and I know what I want to do with the product that I'm managing. I don't know how to get there, so I have to rely on everyone around me to take me there."

"If you hire someone, you start by trusting them right away. They don't have to earn your trust. Otherwise, don't hire them."

"You need to be ready for anything. You plan for something, and your plans change. You need to be able to quickly adapt everything in your life to the new plan."

Bullet List of Resources – 

Miruna Bicoli

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BlueBat Games

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This week, the SphereCast team speaks with Kris Rupay, Executive Vice President Engineering at aero hygenx. Through a combination of robotics and medical-grade ultraviolet light, Kris’s company is making pandemic-era travel safer. aero hygenx’s product, aptly named RAY, is a robot that moves throughout transportation cabins, sanitizing surrounding areas using UVC light — a technology proven to neutralize COVID-19 and its variants.

Typically, businesses are born by way of identifying a problem to solve. Kris and his team sought to tackle a huge problem — making travel safe once again, during a global pandemic. Per its website, aero hygenx is a company “inspired by the need to bring consumer confidence back to travel.” And through extremely innovative technology, it is accomplishing its goal. On the podcast, Kris lays out his company’s short but impactful journey, recaps any lessons learned along the way, and discusses what constitutes a good team.

Noteworthy Quotes:

"Never stop learning... You learn a lot at school, but it never stops. Continue learning every day. Try to read. Try to grow. If you're in your career and you realize that you've stopped learning, it's probably time to move on."

"Our biggest challenge is getting innovation out there and driving adoption. Getting folks to think in a different way. Once that happens, it opens everything up."

"It's important to surround yourself with the right folks — to build the right team... It's really all about bringing the right people together."

"Emails are so distracting... I had a colleague that once told me, 'If someone really needs you, they'll pick up the phone and call you.'"

"We were able to build a business around a pandemic. We created a business where working from home is the norm."

"When hiring, more than anything, it's personality that makes such a difference. Finding the person that you will connect with. That will relate with your team and work well with others."

Bullet List of Resources – 

Kris Rupay

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aero hygenx

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This week, the SphereCast team speaks with Justin Tung, Head of Business Technology at Segment, an enterprise platform that allows businesses to activate their customer data. The platform supports a variety of use cases, including activating data in marketing, product, and engineering. Segment is used by over 20,000 companies, including elite organizations like VMware, Google, Optimizely, Gap, Instacart, and more. In November 2020, Segment was acquired by Twilio for $3.2B.

As the Head of Business Technology, Justin has been tasked with the seemingly impossible task of streamlining tools and processes between teams in a high growth environment — from marketing to sales, from sales to finance, and everywhere before, after, and in between. And, today, when there seem to be more applications than employees, that job is both painful and necessary. On the podcast, Tung explores his role, discusses some key challenges in the world of business technology management, and describes the importance of team building and development.

Noteworthy Quotes:

"Today, systems integration has to be a part of a business technology project's end-to-end delivery. Not only do you have to create the process automation and stand up the application itself, but you have to think of integration into other systems as a part of a delivery."

"There's a role in the world for someone who can blend entrepreneurship and technology in really any industry... There are opportunities everywhere, essentially."

"As you grow a team, prioritization and bandwidth of your team becomes a huge challenge. How to ensure that you're growing the team in the right direction. That you're growing and finding the right skillsets. Building your team for success in the future so that you're able to support that future need."

"A huge challenge today is making sure you're creating narrative from the data that you're cobbling together across all the disparate applications you may be using. And that's requiring more expertise than ever from every single team."

"Don't neglect the networking piece because you're busy doing your day-to-day or are busy solving the problems of the business. This could be reaching out to someone within your company to learn more about that organization. This could also be reaching out to someone outside of your company."

"Physical health is a really important foundation to mental health and work-life balance. It's something I don't negotiate, essentially. I have to have it. I have to do it."

Bullet List of Resources – 

Justin Tung

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Segment

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This week, the SphereCast team interviews Álvaro Ybáñez, Chief Product Officer at Fly-Fut. Fly-Fut uses modern drone technology and loads of creativity to make every amateur futbol player — or soccer player, as some say — feel like an idol. Fly-Fut’s main product offering features an aerial view of match highlights, paired with professional narration and energizing music. Though futbol is its first love, Fly-Fut aspires to delve into other sports such as basketball, tennis, volleyball, and more.

Ybáñez, who is both a veteran product expert and futbol lover, truly believes that Fly-Fut is going to revolutionize the game. But, while the rewards of startup innovation are high, Álvaro knows that getting a young company off the ground is no walk in the park. On the podcast, Ybáñez discusses some of Fly-Fut’s biggest challenges but also divulges the myriad ways he stays grounded as a senior executive at a fast-moving company.

Noteworthy Quotes:

"The most important thing for any company — and not just startups — is to talk to customers. Every single week. Discover and research, regardless of the phase you're in. You have to talk to customers all the time. Not a single euro that goes into research or discovery is badly spent."

"Technology never stops. And it's evolving faster. So, not knowing what is coming in the next 18 months is our biggest challenge."

"The thing about choosing technologies for a startup is that you never know what to use properly until you have a very well-defined business case."

"I plan my days ahead with time blocking... You can plan the day ahead and make sure you're producing the most work possible. That's a very proactive way to organize your day. Because if you keep responding to emails and let other people push you around, you don't get much done... Organizing days beforehand has been a life-changer for me."

"I don't need to relax. I have a couple of habits that have made me not need to relax."

Bullet List of Resources – 

Álvaro Ybáñez

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Fly-Fut

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This week, the SphereCast team speaks with Sophie Schwerdtfeger, Co-Founder and Co-CEO at welearn — the parent company of wehorse and wedog. welearn’s goal is to be the go-to destination for educational content on certain niche topics. welearn’s first endeavor — wehorse — offers users the world’s largest library of equestrian content, all from one single streaming platform. welearn’s second project — wedog — is currently in early stages but, similar to wehorse, will give its users access to an enormous library of streaming content related to dog training.

Even before acquiring the horse-riding content library in 2018, Sophie knew that, to succeed, she’d have to radically change how this content had been historically distributed — through DVD sales. And, with that mission in mind, she and her co-founder embarked on a journey to build and lead a company, while also digitally transforming that company to a streaming platform. On the podcast, Sophie shares tons of knowledge on leading well — and particularly on leading well in times of major transition and growth.

Noteworthy Quotes:

"Communication and feedback among your team is the most important thing. You must implement a feedback culture straight away so that everybody can live in your company and live to the highest potential."

"In order to be an effective CEO or leader, you have to be a good communicator and you must be emotionally intelligent... Leading by example is also extremely important as well."

"When it comes to decision making as a CEO, the most difficult thing is making the right decision at the right time. Especially since technology is changing all the time."

"Early as an entrepreneur, you must be flexible and be willing to adjust. And always be reflective of what you do and appreciate all feedback you get... But at the end of the day, entrepreneurship will always be unpredictable. You can't really learn it beforehand."

"I think it's very important for co-founders to have like-minded interests... You have to be aligned on what you want and your vision. And be accepting of the others' ideas."

"Hiring remote employees is a huge advantage for us. We no longer, for example, hire on location but hire on motivation and skill set."

"When I'm at my desk, I'm 100 percent focused... In our busy days, you must use the time you have in a very efficient way."

Bullet List of Resources – 

Sophie Schwerdtfeger

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wehorse – The Online Riding Academy

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wedog – The Online Dog Academy

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This week, the SphereCast team interviews Mariano Vazquez, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer at ELEM Biotech. ELEM Biotech uses patient data to build “virtual humans,” replicating human cells, tissues, and organs and all their functions. Medical professionals can then run predictive modeling and simulation against these avatars to display the effects of various diseases and to forecast the effectiveness of treatments. ELEM’s earliest work has centered around virtually replicating the human cardiovascular system.

It’s not a stretch to claim that ELEM Biotech is revolutionizing medicine; it’s world-changing charter seems like something straight out of a science fiction movie. But it’s all true — and the ability to run experiments against real data-driven virtual humans is going to change the medical game and save some lives along the way. On the podcast, Mariano deep dives on his product and product architecture, details the benefits of this incredible technology, and discusses lessons learned from the beginning of his company to now.

Noteworthy Quotes:

"When healthcare companies work with data, it's like an oil company. Artificial intelligence is like dealing with oil. Oil is data. The oil will always be there... But the kinds of things that we do is like an alternative energy... If you take what we do and combine it with the oil — the data — you can start a revolution."

"With our product, we've always been very concerned about portability, flexibility, and modularity. And a fourth one — efficiency. With these four things in mind, we're in a position to deploy the different parts of the platform in various locations."

"You asked me for advice? Don't give up. No matter how difficult things are — don't give up."

"The most valuable lesson I learned was that, as a researcher, I do not understand business. It's a whole different arena. I learned that I must work with someone that really knows it. And it's what we're doing now."

Bullet List of Resources – 

Mariano Vazquez

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ELEM Biotech

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