This week on Tech Can’t Save Us, hosts Maya Dharampal-Hornby and Paul David are joined by Jo-Jo Hubbard, co-founder and CEO at Electron.

Currently, the energy system is diverse and decentralised. Amidst this, flexible market platforms, like Electron’s, are emerging as the solution to help energy network operators to launch and coordinate multiple markets at scale. 

On this podcast, Jo-Jo discusses the importance of engaging DERs in the market, how Electron is growing on the other side of the pond, and why ‘net zero’ might be a counter-productive phrase.

Find more about Electron here: https://electron.net/

Find more about Jo-Jo here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jo-jo-hubbard

This week on Tech Can’t Save Us, hosts Maya Dharampal-Hornby and Savena Surana are joined by Andrew O Neill, Headteacher at All Saints Catholic College and CEO at Lighthouse Data.

All Saints is a school like no other; it has trialled a mobile phone ban, an 11-hour school day, and flexible working for teachers. On the podcast, Andrew discusses his reasons for these innovative approaches to education – including the impact of social media on students' mental health and academic performance, the importance of fostering community connections, and the significance of investing in teachers' well-being – and how he has found the media attention that they have attracted. 

He also explains how data-driven insights, offered for free by Lighthouse Data, can transform a school’s performance. 

Find more about Lighthouse Data here: https://www.lighthousedata.org/

This week on Tech Can’t Save Us, hosts Maya Dharampal-Hornby and Savena Surana are joined by Erika Anderson, co-founder and CCO at Storytell.ai and author of Building Humane Tech substack. 

They discuss what humane technology means for Storytell.ai and how the team implements responsible design principles in the technology that they develop. 

The episode also touches on the need for storytelling in business, the four different stages of people’s relationship with AI, and the growing dangers of AI companion bots.

Find more about Storytell.ai here: https://storytell.ai/

Follow Erika here (X): https://www.linkedin.com/in/erikamanderson/

Reading Building Humane Tech here: https://humanetech.substack.com/

And some other recommendations from Erika:

Read Erika’s draft Humane Tech product principles: https://humanetech.substack.com/p/draft-humane-product-principles

Watch Storytell’s webinar on building AI with integrity: https://web.storytell.ai/webinars/storytell-webinar-building-ai-with-integrity

Complete Storytell’s company workshop on algorithmic bias: https://web.storytell.ai/webinars/from-theory-to-practice-how-to-address-algorithmic-bias

Check out the Clean Communication framework here: https://www.clean-communication.com/

And listen to Undivided Attention episodes on Character.ai: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4ksKxpSW9fMPNgUqHFcTLG?si=W6h6V1DDRwOp9uybStz9iw&nd=1&dlsi=e8c90a9ff3034ba9

https://open.spotify.com/episode/2ahOQ34R03iUuEacQ62Vve?si=dfG4FnZhTjOyNwK6CPXL5g&nd=1&dlsi=bca81a06b79c4cc4

This week on Tech Can’t Save Us, hosts Paul David and Maya Dharampal-Hornby are joined by Odun Eweniyi, co-founder and COO at PiggyVest. By providing easy-to-use tools for digital saving and micro-investing, PiggyVest has helped 5 million people grow their savings.

Odun shares her journey from tech journalism into fintech and the insights from the PiggyVest Savings Report 2024. Recognising social media as a tool to engage younger audiences and promote financial literacy, Odun explains the extent of her hands-on approach to PiggyVest’s accounts.

The episode also touches on other ways Odun is making inclusive platforms that empower individuals and communities - particularly women - in Nigeria. Odun co-founded The Feminist Coalition, which propelled the #EndSARS movement, and First Check Africa, a female-led angel fund that invests in women African tech at an early stage. More recently, she’s ventured into the world of podcasting with the Carousel Network, a podcast production company in Nigeria that amplifies female voices. Odun explains the obstacles feminists face in Nigeria, while reflecting on the progress the movement has made over the last decade.

Find more about Piggyvest here: https://www.piggyvest.com/

Follow Odun here (X): https://x.com/OdunEweniyi

And here (LI): https://www.linkedin.com/in/odunayoeweniyi

This week on Tech Can’t Save Us, hosts Maya Dharampal-Hornby and Savena Surana speak to Ariana Alexander-Sefre, founder and co-CEO at Spoke, a music-based mental wellness app. 

SPOKE hires artists, who are trained by psychologists, therapists and neuroscientists, to produce music that supports mental wellbeing. Through this, SPOKE provides an aggregated platform for people who can connect with young men and other underrepresented young people - musicians, cultural leaders, influential voices - to use their voice in the most impactful way.

They discuss how artists and mental health practitioners collaborate for SPOKE, and the need for a restructured approach to artist compensation and community building within the music industry.

Ariana also shares challenges she has encountered in growing SPOKE, the connection that exists between mental health and activism, and the importance of speaking out against systems of oppression–even when investment gets pulled as a result. 

Find more about SPOKE here: https://spoke.world/

Download SPOKE here (and use it!): https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/spoke-music-meditate-sleep

Follow Ariana here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arianasefre

This week on Tech Can’t Save Us, hosts Paul David and Maya Dharampal-Hornby are joined by Tyler Denk,  co-founder and CEO of beehiiv, a newsletter platform that helps creators monetise and grow their audiences.

beehiiv currently sends out over 2 billion emails per month - up from 500 million per month in August 2023. Tyler is no stranger to a fast-growing media organisation. In the episode, he shares his experience growing Morning Brew from 100,000 subscribers to over 3,500,000. 

The episode also touches on the significance of transparency and user-centric development in driving the company's success, why today’s media climate has journalists migrating to newsletter platforms, and what startup he would build if his hands weren’t so full with beehiiv.

Find more about beehiiv here: https://www.beehiiv.com

Follow Tyler here (X): https://x.com/denk_tweets 

And here (LI): https://www.linkedin.com/in/tyler-denk/

And here: https://mail.bigdeskenergy.com/

This week on Tech Can’t Save Us, hosts Paul David and Maya Dharampal-Hornby are joined by Sara Berkai, founder and CEO of Ambessa Play. Ambessa Play is a social enterprise that designs educational toy kits and tools for children, with a focus on supporting displaced and refugee children. 

The conversation centres around the importance of co-designing products with users - specifically, the importance  of understanding the context of displaced children in product design.  

Sara also shares insights on Ambessa’s marketing strategy (which she hadn’t spent a dime on until recently!), the impact of her academic background, and the state of edtech. 

Find more about Ambessa Play here: https://ambessaplay.com/

Follow Sara here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/saraberkai/

If you’re a content marketer who doesn’t believe the increasingly common wisdom that “AI will automate the boring parts of your job”, listen to this episode.

This week on Tech Can’t Save Us, hosts Paul David and Maya Dharampal-Hornby are joined by Victor Ijidola, co-founder and CEO of Leaps.

Victor explains why Google is deranking your content. In short, people want insights from SMEs, not from content marketers who are, for the most part, abstracted from the issues they pen blogs about.

The conversation details the issues that PR and comms people and content marketers face when collaborating with subject matter experts - from the organisational faff to the trials of transcription - and how digital tools like Leaps can automate much of the process.

Find more about Leaps here: https://leapshq.com/

Follow Victor here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/content-strategist-victor/

In this week’s episode of Tech Can’t Save Us, host Paul David is joined by Yaseen Rostom, Founder and CEO of Incredible. 

Yaseen shares insights about the challenges of debt management, the importance of cash flow for small businesses, and how communities can be built within the fintech space. 

The conversation underlines why digital infrastructure will reduce the stress that comes with managing finance, all while addressing the emotional aspects of financial management.

Find more about Incredible here: https://www.getincredible.com/post/hello-world

Follow Yaseen here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yrstm/?originalSubdomain=uk

In this week’s episode of Tech Can’t Save Us, hosts Paul David and Maya Dharampal-Hornby are joined by Gaurab Bansal, Executive Director of Responsible Innovation Labs.

Gaurab shares insights on the practice gap in responsible innovation and attributes it, largely, to the complex regulations US startups face, and the ever-changing political landscape–both impeding startups from scaling sustainably and responsibly.

The conversation also touches on the influence of Effective Altruism on policymakers in the US, and the impact of misinformation (AI-facilitated or otherwise) on democratic processes. 

Find more about Responsible Innovation Labs here: https://www.rilabs.org/

Follow Gaurab here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gaurab-bansal/