SphereCast

Send us Fan Mail

This week, the SphereCast team speaks with Kevin Crosbie, Chief Product Officer at RavenPack. RavenPack is a platform that gives meaning to unstructured data. The platform offers speed and accuracy in analyzing large amounts of unstructured content — newspapers, emails, social media, and more. The company then enables clients to quickly extract value and insight from this processed data. Regarding speed, RavenPack can analyze one page of data every 300 milliseconds — which is, literally, the time it takes to blink.

Some estimate that between 80 and 90 percent of all the world’s data is unstructured, so the spoils go to those individuals and companies that find a way to interpret this goldmine. RavenPack has found a way to do just that. On the podcast, Kevin discusses all the key use cases his platform can meet, explains the difficulties of migrating to the cloud, shares some of the most difficult decisions he has to make, and describes what it’s like to be driving the direction of an industry-leading product. 

Noteworthy Quotes:

"One of the hardest things to do is prioritize... There are so many things we want to do. We've got our fingers in lots of different pies because this world is moving very fast. And we're one of the leaders in that."

"For the most part, the pandemic hasn't impacted RavenPack itself... The pandemic actually made firms realize that they need to make more data-driven decisions and be able to monitor the media for important things that are happening."

"A lot of our financial industry clients prefer a rules-based approach because one of the issues you have with something like machine learning is that it's 'black box.' It's not easy to say, 'This is why I got this result.' And those clients require transparency... They must show the reasoning behind making decisions."

"Make sure the team you have is amazing. Otherwise you can't make amazing products."

"Trusting my team to get things done — that's how I manage my time. I try to keep them from getting stuck. I think they should be autonomous, take responsibility, and be owners... And start with the hardest problems first."

"Definitely there were some growing pains in the beginning [of our cloud migration]. Moving from a server-based solution to the cloud does require some re-architecture. It required some investment... But the benefits have paid off so much."

"A good leader must keep people motivated. Give people a purpose. Share the vision with them. Make sure they're on board and that everyone is working together."

"If you're a business that has a strong core with a reliable model, then you have a much better chance of surviving and prospering. The pandemic verified that."

Bullet List of Resources – 

Kevin Crosbie

• LinkedIn
  
  
  

RavenPack

• Company Website
• Twitter
• LinkedIn

Send us Fan Mail

This week, as a part of our CFO podcast series, the SphereCast team interviews Adrian Gaveglia, Portfolio CFO at EmergeONE and Interim CFO at EnterpriseAlumni. Throughout his career, Gaveglia has held a wide variety of high-level finance roles at companies in the London area, including a lengthy stint at HarperCollins. Adrian has extensive experience making sense of digital platforms, navigating mergers and acquisitions, and providing in-depth financial analysis.

At the end of the day, Adrian is a master of the numbers. And like any good CFO, Adrian’s superpower is reading between the lines of the spreadsheets and asking the right questions, all to discern what’s important, what’s not, and where companies should be paying special attention. On the podcast, Adrian shares how he both finds what matters most and persuades others in the company that his point of view is correct. He also speaks to the attributes of a good financial leader, the nature of luck in business, and much more.

Noteworthy Quotes:

"The CFO basically sees everything in an organization. They've got the numbers. They can visualize everything that's going on. If you've got a very strategic CFO, they become very good at seeing the problems and successes in the business and thinking through how to make them better."

"It's not the CFO's job to know everything. It's their job to lead and put in the processes to get things done."

"The most important thing when presenting to a board is that you and the CEO are aligned on what's being presented."

"Good financial leaders are good at listening and taking in information to make decisions. The best financial leaders are transparent. They make sure information is available, timely, and correct for the audience."

"The most important thing for any leader is influence. Leaders are in place because they want to influence. To have a seat at the table and take the business forward... All other attributes funnel into this attribute."

"When presenting, I always think that less is better than more. But always be prepared to have that more in the back of your pocket if you need it."

"When a business starts scaling up, the FP&A function cannot be sitting outside of finance because finance brings the realism and the accuracy to that."

"If you're thinking about progressing in your career, you're always looking at the attributes that your role models have. For me, I could see that my role models were consistent, measured, thoughtful, and quite analytical."

"One important thing that's important for leaders is consistency... You have to have a method where people can trust you and trust how you will behave."

"Relationships are very important. Because for most people, luck plays a huge part in their success."

Bullet List of Resources – 

Adrian Gaveglia

• LinkedIn

Send us Fan Mail

This week, the SphereCast team speaks with Brandon Mackay — Owner, President, and CEO of SnugZ. SnugZ is a Utah-based company that boasts the domestic manufacture of promotional products. Founded in 1989, Mackay’s company has spent over three decades creating custom gear for businesses, events, and various other promotions. SnugZ creates most of their customizable products in house, from hand sanitizer to PPE kits to sunscreen to lip balm to lanyards. 

Brandon joined SnugZ five years after its inception and has shepherded the company through its highs and lows. During its 31 year history, SnugZ has lived through the “Dot Com” bubble, Y2K, the 2008 housing crisis, COVID-19, and other difficult events. And, as you would imagine, Mackay has picked up quite a bit of perspective living through such turbulent times. On the podcast, Mackay shares that perspective and explains how to survive and thrive during events that are out of our control.

Noteworthy Quotes:

"When it comes to navigating crises, business owners try to remember that there are some skills from the past that we can pull forward to today."

"Really, in the early years when you're in a business that's an upstart, everything feels like a crisis."

"In retrospect, the advice I'd give myself is to constantly breathe. If you knew how close you were to the finish line, you would always try just a little bit harder. Sometimes, we don't realize how close we are to our goal. We just need to pace ourselves. Be patient."

"When defining company values, first, you have to define what your own values are... Once we established our values, we went from an okay company with decent growth to a great company with momentum growth."

"Transparency is always the best policy... It allows everyone to be proactive versus reactive."

"When most startup businesses begin, there's always more work than there is people. There's just not enough revenue to hire the staff that you need."

"To find a good balance in life, you have to find those sacred times for yourself. Whether that's your lunch hour or dinner with your family or friends. Just respect those moments of time during the day."

Bullet List of Resources – 

Brandon Mackay

• LinkedIn
  
  
  

SnugZ

• Company Website
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram
• MediaHive

Send us a text

This week, the SphereCast team interviews Alex Balderstone, Co-Founder and CEO at Kaiku. Alex’s London-based startup features a data-driven scouting tool for venture funds, infused by artificial intelligence. Kaiku, which was founded in late 2019, works with over 300 venture funds across 50 different countries. The platform is already boasting a matchmaking accuracy score edging ever closer to 100 percent. And as Kaiku continues to find successes for its clients and enriches itself with data, that error margin will inch lower and lower.

As a non-technical co-founder, Balderstone offers a fresh perspective on the founding of a technology company. On the podcast, Alex walks through his unique role in the building of his platform, including the hand he had in the choosing of Kaiku’s tech stack. Along the way, Alex also shares a wealth of knowledge around meeting market needs and gives a helpful commentary on the current state of the venture capital industry.

Noteworthy Quotes:

"Go and get feedback before you build anything. Make sure there's a market need — some element of market validation."

"Don't forget business development. Don't forget partnerships. Don't forget community. Because you can build a lovely solution, but then not have any people to pay for it."

"Focus is key. Feedback is key... Can you narrow down on who you're focusing on and why you're focusing on them? And do you have feedback to make sure you're building something users really want?"

"No day is ever the same. That's what keeps things fun."

Bullet List of Resources – 

Alex Balderstone

• LinkedIn
  
  
  

Kaiku

• Company Website
• Instagram
• Facebook
• LinkedIn

Send us Fan Mail

This week, the SphereCast team speaks with Iris Skrami, Co-founder at Renoon — the smartest tool for conscious fashion shoppers. Founded in February 2020, Renoon is the first global app that sources items from across the Internet and assigns sustainability attributes to them. Ultimately, the platform empowers consumers to realize their sustainable lifestyles and values when shopping fashion. Since its founding just over a year ago, it has processed over three million products and has attracted the attention of some of the top fashion industry veterans.

Iris is an incredibly successful entrepreneur. In addition to sitting at the helm of a rapidly growing startup, she recently breached the Forbes Italia Under 30 list of 2021. However, Iris would be the first to tell you that the road of entrepreneurship is one filled with challenges. But the hardest challenge? Just taking that first step. On the podcast, Iris shares her vision for Renoon and discusses the difficulties of entrepreneurship — most notably mustering up the courage to start.

Noteworthy Quotes:

"The most important thing to do in entrepreneurship — and the hardest thing — is to start. Because, sometimes, we're so tied to what we're doing. But then you have this burning thing that you can't stop thinking about... And once you've started, you need to be consistent."

"As with many other startups, it's so important to start with a problem  — a burning problem. So one of the first things I did was check that other people had this problem as well."

"Team is the number one thing when you're building something."

"It's important to do an MVP step-by-step. From the idea, you get the funding. You need to show that you can execute and build something with the resources that you have. At the beginning of your startup, you're never going to build something amazing. But you have to start with what you have and make it work to get to the next stage."

"Schedule your days. Make sure you have things you want to get done every day. And measure that."

Bullet List of Resources – 

Iris Skrami

• LinkedIn
   
  
  

Renoon

• Company Website
• Instagram
• Pinterest
• Medium

Send us Fan Mail

This week, the SphereCast team interviews Kwaku Yeboah-Antwi, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer at DIZZBO. Kwaku’s company is revolutionizing an industry in desperate need of disruption — logistics. And through technology, DIZZBO is allowing its customers to get connected with shipping providers through a process that takes a matter of minutes, which is a far cry from the status quo of days or even weeks.

Kwaku’s company has experienced early success. In fact, since its founding in 2018, DIZZBO has already reached profitability. However, Kwaku would be the first to admit that their earliest technology prototypes were no match for the volume they’ve experienced since opening their doors. And, now, if they want to expand their footprint on the logistics industry, their technology has to evolve. On the podcast, Yeboah-Antwi walks through DIZZBO’s entire journey, shares some advice on how to manage time, and discusses the importance of never being satisfied with your current technology.

Noteworthy Quotes:

"We're never done. Just because we're serving you right now doesn't mean we can serve you the exact same way tomorrow... With technology, you have to run in place. That means keeping aware of what's happening from the technological side... Product market fit is never achieved. The market is always moving."

"One of the things we realized is that, as we were building, we never thought far in advance. You don't think about scalability when you're building your first MVP. So now we need to engineer this as we move ahead."

"The challenge in business is always convincing people, 'Yes, it can be done. And this is how we're doing it. And here's how it is foolproof.' Yes, the biggest challenge is always that human side — it's trust. Yes, you can trust us that it's going to work."

"When you're trying to digitize an industry, one mistake can set you back years. Every step we took was very purposeful. It was a life and death type of thing."

"For us, we're lucky. We have a lot of experience in the domain. It makes our customer conversations much better, knowing that some of our people have spent 40-plus years in the industry. And we are really transparent. We're open about our problems and what we can do."

Bullet List of Resources – 

Kwaku Yeboah-Antwi

• LinkedIn
   
  
  

DIZZBO

• Company Website
• LinkedIn
• Xing

Send us a text

This week, the SphereCast team speaks with Lucy Mullins, Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer at StepLadder UK — a social FinTech company that is helping people feel empowered about their money. Specifically, StepLadder seeks to unify those who are saving money for housing down payments so that they can hold each other accountable and raise money faster together.

Lucy, who was an executive coach prior to founding her current company, is a firm believer that every person possesses his or her own “superpower” — a collection of talents and abilities that can help themselves or their peers achieve their goals. And, as a coach and now as a co-founder, her life goal is to help others discover their superpowers and take advantage of them. On the podcast, Lucy deep dives on the story of StepLadder and how she’s helping her coworkers find their superpowers and, ultimately, help their end users achieve their own financial goals.

Noteworthy Quotes:

"[When founding a company,] all you can do is focus on your superpowers... In an ideal world, you'd go out and hire an amazing technical person. But obviously that's not always possible. So you just get as far as you can on the superpowers that you've got. And I feel like we did that really well."

"Everybody should think about what their purpose is in life. You should do something that aligns with your purpose and not just puts money into your bank account."

"If you put something out there that you're really proud of, then you've waited too long. You just have to throw something out there. There's no place for perfection in starting a business."

"You want to know a bit and be prepared and be resilient. But, if there's anything this past year has taught us, it's that you can never know what's coming along. You have to be flexible and ready to adapt to whatever challenges or unpredicted obstacles that come your way."

"The biggest challenge for me as a non-technical co-founder is how much do you need to know versus how much can you allow your team to do?"

"We have a rule here at StepLadder that it doesn't matter what mistake you make. But, the moment you spot it, just shout it out."

"In an ideal world, technology can help your business decisions. And your business decisions back up the technology that you're using... You always have to think about how technology can augment your business decisions. Don't just use technology for the sake of technology."

"I'm really passionate about what we do at StepLadder, and I'm always passionate about what we're doing. And if I'm not passionate about it, I don't do it."

Bullet List of Resources – 

Lucy Mullins

• LinkedIn
   
  
  

StepLadder

• Company Website
• Facebook

Send us Fan Mail

This week, the SphereCast team interviews Tyler Childs, President and CEO at Sports-Travel. Since 1998, this Ontario-based company has worked with thousands of sporting events and organizations around the globe to create professionally run events. Sports-Travel runs the gambit when it comes to sporting events, whether it be fully sponsoring tournaments, running events from end-to-end, or aiding in global team travel. According to Childs, his company’s goal is simple: to make running events easier for everyone.

Childs, who started in business development at Sports-Travel, saw immense growth potential for the company, which started as a family business. From his position in business development, he dared the company’s founder to change his definition of “success” and, ultimately, found himself holding the reins as CEO. As a result, the company moved into a new era and has experienced tremendous growth. On the podcast, Tyler recaps his incredible journey and shares deep wisdom on leadership, building a team, and daring to be better.

Noteworthy Quotes:

"When it comes to leadership, do you want to be someone that dictates? Or do you want to empower the people on the team to take control of those decisions and, therefore, not doubt the right thing? ... This way, your team brings you the best solutions. The best advice I could give is to trust the people around you."

"Starting a dev team — you don't know where to start. It's an impossible step to get right. And I think anyone who has gotten the first step right needs to talk about it more because I don't think that happens very often."

"You could have the best piece of tech in the world, but it means nothing if your people don't appreciate who you are as a group and who you are as a company."

"Don't be afraid to ask dumb questions. That's how you learn. You have to move forward by making mistakes and asking questions that maybe don't make sense for the moment."

"There's a difference between a great employee and a great team member."

"You don't make mistakes after setting expectations; you make mistakes in setting expectations... It's okay to miss a deadline. It's not okay to pretend you're not going to miss it."

"There are ways to win business, and there are ways to win the right business. And we go with the latter."

"Find the right budget for the right people earlier."

Bullet List of Resources – 

Tyler Childs

• LinkedIn
   
  
  

Sport-Travel

• Company Website
• Facebook
• Twitter

Send us Fan Mail

This week, the SphereCast team speaks with Scott Millett, IT Director at Iglu.com. Since 1998, Iglu has been disrupting the UK’s ski and cruise travel industries. In these niche industries that often lag on technology, Iglu has set up an online portal for ski and cruise trip booking. This innovative and disruptive approach to booking has garnered the agency multiple awards and has allowed Iglu to be named the UK’s number one specialist travel agency.

As a disruptor himself, Scott has become passionate about domain-driven design — to the point of writing his own book, titled Patterns, Principles, and Practices of Domain-Driven Design. At its core, this concept attempts to bridge the gap between technical and non-technical team members through tools like a shared language and vocabulary. On the podcast, Scott deep dives on domain-driven design and discusses how his work has made Iglu the success that it is today.

Noteworthy Quotes:

[On his interest in domain-driven design] "What drives many of us to get into IT? Really, it's all about solving problems and learning. You're always looking to learn something — that thirst for knowledge. But I found that it was difficult to understand how much of what I was learning... I realized that others were probably struggling with this vast amount of information too."

"If we think fundamentally about the purpose of domain-driven design, it was really a way to manage solutions for complex problems... It bases solutions to problems around the domain you're working in, so that both technical and non-technical people can reason about the solution to the problem you're tackling."

"Technology is a means to an end; it's not an end in itself. It's a way to help solve problems."

"Leaders are making it up as we go along. There's more data now than ever before, but you still need good judgment to take action on that data. And we can never be 100 percent sure about anything. It's all based on hypotheses."

"Nine times out of ten, problems come down to system — the systems of how we work, rather than the people. A bad system will beat a good person every time."

"When working remotely, you don't get that instantaneous flow of conversation. So ensuring that people understand the narrative and are aligned to the purpose and goals we're trying to achieve [in this volatile industry] really helps. Then, they're more empowered to do something about the problem.”

"Our biggest challenge is driving innovative and creative ways to improve online transactions, with the constraint of working with our [IT-constrained] suppliers."

Bullet List of Resources – 

Scott Millett

• LinkedIn
• Twitter
• Patterns, Principles, and Practices of Domain-Driven Design on Amaz

Send us Fan Mail

This week, the SphereCast team interviews Lucas Hild, Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder at Knowunity. Hild’s platform is the first interactive platform of its kind in Europe. On Knowunity, students can view and download any relevant school-related study material or content, including presentations, flashcards, notes, and much more. The content on Knowunify is user-generated — uploaded by students, for students. 

In only six months since its launch in September 2020, Knowunity has gained more than 700,000 users — even as the platform is currently only offered in German. However, Hild and his co-founders were not shocked by this outcome. In fact, their research showed that students were more likely to retain information when being taught by fellow students. On the podcast, Hild — who is only 19 years old — shares wisdom well beyond his age and discusses the wild ride that is founding a company and learning to scale up at breakneck speed.

Noteworthy Quotes:

"Successful leaders should create a vision and impassion other people to share that vision... It's also important that every team member understands the mission and the goals in front of them. You must remind them of the big picture."

"In terms of our processes, we work with OKRs to keep our focus on the topics that really matter to us... We define around 5 objectives per quarter. We ask ourselves, 'How do we want our company to look by the end of the quarter, if everything works perfectly?'"

Bullet List of Resources – 

Lucas Hild

• LinkedIn
   
  
  

Knowunity

• Company Website
• Instagram
• TikTok
• LinkedIn
• Facebook