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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

• LinkedIn
  
  
  

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

• LinkedIn
  
  
  

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

• LinkedIn
  
  
  

Segment

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• GitHub

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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

• LinkedIn
  
  
  

Fly-Fut

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• LinkedIn

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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

• LinkedIn
  
  
  

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

• LinkedIn
  
  
  

ELEM Biotech

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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

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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

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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

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SnugZ

• Company Website
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• MediaHive

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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
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• Facebook
• LinkedIn