Tech Can't Save Us

In this week's episode, we welcome Arjay Ruggles, CEO of HomeRoom, who lets us in on their strong belief in community as a driver for growth and its crucial role in the future of business. 

We start off with a deep dive into one of HubSpot's pieces on community-led growth, where Arjay mentions how companies are quick to make the mistake of dismissing community in B2B SaaS. In reality, "people want to understand the product, they want to use it right, and they want to do it in the right ways." 

With the economic crisis continuing to aggravate, Arjay describes why "educating people on your product" is key to creating a recession-proof SaaS business. Once that step is integrated into your work processes, no matter how badly a rescission hits, your product is too valuable to let go.

We dive into another piece on how the tech sector needs to stop breaking things and be more responsible, and Arjay emphasizes that "it's possible to build and to create things without tearing apart these frameworks that allow us to be sustainable." 

Arjay's philosophy at HomeRoom is a human-centric approach to software. They've replaced the term “user” with the word “person” to reinforce that it's an individual with real thoughts and opinions interacting with the product—not a robot.

The episode continues to explore Arjay's work at HomeRoom, a community tech solutions company focused on creating services and products for community-led organisations. We also find out what their dream tech product is and their big prediction for the tech for good space this year. 

On this week's episode, Richard Packman, Managing Director at GoodPAYE, shares his perspective on adapting and changing the way technology is used so that it's an enabler and a force for good.

"I think to really create significant change, you've got to change behaviour," he explains, as we discuss how to bring about change using tech for good, "and to change behaviour, you've got to adjust the way marketing is done traditionally." 

GoodPAYE is a 100% charity-owned tech-for-good business working to revolutionise payroll. Richards's work uses tech to create an impact with their newly developed technology, enabling millions of employees to change the world while they work.

We chat about the latest charity trends on digital, where Richard believes that digital fundraising is the way forward. He brings up an interesting outlook on how charities need to look at fundraising as a two-way relationship, sharing the impact of their change with their audience.

As an entrepreneur and startup founder, Richard understands how the process is not as glamorous as it seems. But what has driven him as an entrepreneur is his superpower to "spot an opportunity that needs to be fixed or that can be realized in a better way." 

Our conversation leads us to discover Richard's big prediction about the tech-for-good space this year and what he thinks is one problem tech can't solve.

To find out more about how GoodPAYE is reinventing the payroll system: 

In this week's episode, we welcome Daniel Bakh, Co-Founder & CEO at Fullview, and learn about his passion to help humanizse SaaS companies so they can deliver amazing customer experiences.

Daniel understands how frustrating it is to wrap one’s head around customer issues. So he built Fullview, a platform that supercharges the process of recognizing customers' problems, boosting productivity and enabling a smooth experience for the end user. 

At Fullview, Daniel’s mission is to ensure every modern SaaS company can easily deliver stronger technical support at scale. Personalization is key in creating a successful customer experience, and few people can tell you this better than Daniel.

“Everyone knows that entrepreneurship is kind of a rollercoaster ride,” he explains. ” I quickly realised that, despite all the highs, there's also plenty of lows.” 

We go on to discuss the success of Fullview and the problems he and his team overcame. 

We hit some interesting common ground as the conversation steers into co-founder territory. Finding a balance with your co-founder, Daniel states, can be “almost like a marriage; you have to be supportive partners of one another in a business context.”
 
Further down the episode, we find out how Daniel’s work has contributed to the Tech for Good space. We also discover what’s been a game-changing tech product in his life.

In this week's episode, Yasmin Georgiou, Strategy Lead at William Joseph, discusses her passionate outlook on a people-centred approach to strategy development, bringing different perspectives together on a journey to create effective, long-term change.

"I'm really driven by social purpose," she emphasizes, "that's, I suppose, the continuous thread through my career today. That's what I really believe—that people should be able to bring their whole selves to work, and I try to do that."

As someone driven by charity and social change, Yasmin has gained valuable experience in both the marketing and charity industries. She goes on to underline a number of key learnings for us, including the similar, but not identical, natures of marketing and fundraising.

We discuss how going into recession, charities and nonprofits need to adapt to how they work and their "prioritization needs to become much more streamlined and logical in the decisions they make."

Yasmin also raises key issues in the charity sector that are often overlooked, such as the need for developing self-awareness and emotional intelligence skills within a team. All too often, charities focus their time on building technical skills instead.

Being a woman of color navigating both these industries, Yasmin feels passionate about the ethnicity and gender pay gap that we need to start tackling and broach uncomfortable conversations on how organizations can do better and be better in welcoming women and people of color into the workforce.

As our conversation progresses, we learn one problem Yasmin thinks tech can’t solve and her big prediction about the tech-for-good space this year and beyond.

In this week's episode, we welcome Ellie Hale, Producer at Catalyst, and discuss the potential of tech in re-inventing lives, systems, and perspectives. 

Catalyst is a collective of digital agencies, funders, and charities who believe in the 
strength of good design and data to transform civil society, driving a systemic and societal change.

"Historically, tech platforms haven't been driven by social principles," Ellie explains. "They've been driven by profit, and that can often lead to very extractive practices and disempowering users.”

This leads neatly into a discussion on the need for a "good tech approach" to tech for good. 

Ellie's work involves bringing the social sector to a place where it can contribute and drive the conversation, creating opportunities to help define new forms of technology that are innovative by design.

Her passion is also fueled by the way charities and social organisations "focus on prioritising and optimising good, however they each define that." Ellie believes tech can be an incredible force and power to achieve change provided it is designed well.

As we head home with our conversation, we find out what she thinks is the evilest application of tech, and get a glimpse into her dream tech product. 

In this week's episode, we talk to Jack Mardack, Co-Founder of Oyster, about the most exciting new chapter in the world of work and the crucial role he plays in building bridges between companies and the world's top talent.

There has been "a legacy of imbalance of power as a basic construct of employment for a very long time," Jack explains. "That tone needs to be ripped out and replaced by something that is infinitely more human, infinitely more transparent."

Oyster is an HR platform for globally distributed companies, helping companies hire, pay, and take care of their employees anywhere from the world. The company is redefining the term HR, choosing to call it "The Workplace Team." 

Jack's work at Oyster is motivated by a vision of the world in which no talent is wasted because of location—reimagining the centuries-old HR structure to create an equal world of work. To him, it's important to “give visibility to a standard of employment that should be equally available to people around the world." 

Amidst an economic downturn, we discuss how HR can help companies navigate turbulent waters and build that trust between employers and employees. A crucial part of that process involves HR employees rising to the challenge of remote work and becoming a force for human centricity within the company.

As we enter the lightning round, we find out what Jack thinks is the evilest application of tech and how he balances profit and purpose within his career. 

To find out more about jack and follow him on his journey in transforming the HR industry, follow: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mardack/ and https://twitter.com/2hp

In this week's episode, we're joined by Co-Founder and President of MapLight, Daniel Newman, who lets us in on his innovative use of tech to foster a just society, economy, and environment for everyone.

"Believing in your importance doesn't mean you have to be special in some way or different from other people," Daniel expresses. "If you care about the world and want to improve it, then you will make a difference."

As a national expert on finance and politics, Daniel believes everyone deserves an equal voice in our democracy. This is exemplified through his efforts to reduce the influence of special interests on government and protect the sacred institutions of democracy.

MapLight designs, builds, and operates software and data systems to improve democracy and advance policies in the public interest. Their groundbreaking work serves governments, nonprofits, and other organisations seeking transparency, accountability, and positive social impacts. 

Before his influential role in MapLight, Daniel was an entrepreneur and political organiser. He founded Say I Can, a speech recognition firm, and wrote three books on speech recognition software, drawing from his personal experience to create a masterful work of literature.

Our discussion covers Daniel's dream tech product, the problem it would solve, and his prediction for the future for tech for democracy.

To read Daniels book, 'Unrig: How to Fix Our Broken Democracy': https://www.unrigbook.com/
For our listeners in California: https://votersedge.org/ca

In this week's episode, we talk to Ana Heloísa Moreno, Founder of Altruistic Capital, about her empathetic and human-centred approach to venture capital.

"Social justice is something that we're all born with the capacity to understand," she explains, supporting the presence of social justice in human nature. We all have the ability "to recognize a situation that isn't fair or just.”

Ana Heloísa's work at Altruistic Capital focuses on the potential of impact-driven social businesses to address social and environmental issues while her organisation supports those businesses with access capital, capacity, and connections.

As a former social worker, Ana takes a holistic approach to venture capital by striving to understand the root causes and social determinants of key issues being addressed by Altruistic Capital’s portfolio companies.

Ana is fundamentally motivated by inclusiveness and justice, reflected in her previous work addressing areas such as unemployment, poverty, and violence while employed within Brazil's Ministry of Social Affairs. 

Her hope for people's willingness to improve the world has fueled her passionate view that the community is the leading actor in finding solutions for its own problems.

To find out more about Ana Heloísa's work on shifting the way business work: https://www.altruistic.capital/ 

In this week's episode, we speak with  Zoe Philpott—Co-Founder of 2zero3zero and creator of Ada.Ada.Ada—who speaks on storytelling, creative innovation, and gender equality in tech.

Zoe is an award-winning experiential storyteller who breathes never-been-done-before ideas into existence. Her penchant for turning complex thoughts into moving experiences has made robots dance for Ford Motor Cars, illuminated 56 interactive Christmas trees outside the White House with Google, and re-imagined the story of Darwin with the Natural History Museum.

"In stories and script writing, it's all about the subtext, the subconscious, the triggering emotional responses," she explains. "It’s about the emotional chemistry that we can ignite and play with when we're telling stories.” 

We spend some time discussing the importance of human emotions in selling in the Digital era.

Zoe’s work with 2zero3zero is helping clients make shifts in their culture and adapt to a sustainable future. Zoe shares that she is “always gravitating towards areas that mean we can have a positive impact.” Her agency also uses social gaming to run Gangland Karma, an interactive game that challenges gang recruitment, influencing young people away from violence and crime.

As a woman in STEM, Zoe understands the importance of recognising the frankly underappreciated talent that women bring to the tech industry. She captures this crucial point with Ada.Ada.Ada—a storytelling initiative inspired by the world's first computer programmer, Ada Lovelace, who was written out of history because she was a woman.

To find out more about Zoe's brilliant initiative, check out adatheshow.com and watch the YouTube trailer here: https://youtu.be/BjLCQ91vU20 

In this week's episode, Olivia DeRamus, award-winning founder and CEO of Communia, shares her mission of re-imagining tech in its best possible form to connect, inform, and uplift women and marginalised genders.

Olivia describes her goal as an attempt to "revolutionise and rethink how women connect with others and themselves" and talks about how tech can "improve women's lives in a way that has never been done before."

Olivia has faced the challenges women face online and in real life first-hand. Based on those experiences, she designed Communia, a globally-facing social networking app and self-development platform for women—a shining example of next-generation tech built on the female gaze. She works to prioritise social safety within her company and challenges the tech industry as a whole, reminding it of its responsibility to ensure that the digital ecosystem offers everyone equal opportunity to succeed.

Her efforts at addressing the fundamental obstacles women face in all aspects of their lives (particularly the digital sphere) have transformed how women use technology to communicate. The entrepreneur is determined to empower women through an uplifting safe space, away from the male eye.  

With a background in the nonprofit industry, Olivia hopes that private companies realise their undeniable role in catalysing positive social change, mainly through innovation at scale. Communia, she explains, represents both a technical innovation and a company that understands its broader social mission.

As the conversation goes on, Olivia talks about her predictions for tech designed for women's safety and what she considers a game-changing tech product. 

Find Communia on both App Store and Google Play:

Website: https://ourcommunia.com/