Tech Can't Save Us

In this episode of Tech Can't Save Us, CEO and Co-Founder of Literal Humans Paul David talks to Milosz Falinski, Founder of Luminous, a consultancy working with emerging tech leaders on a mission.

Milosz helps tech founders create products and services that customers can't live without. He provides mentorship and part-time Chief Product Officer (CPO) services to multiple companies. Milosz also offers a free email course called "12 Weeks To Product-Market Fit" to help founders better position their products.

Milosz and Paul discussed supporting tech founders and helping them navigate the challenges of finding product-market fit, prioritizing the important things while doing iterative testing, and transforming yourself as a founder on a personal level.

Paul and Milosz look at the difference when founders are personally connected to the mission of their organizations. The through-line for Milosz is working with purpose-driven companies and understanding the impact on the lives of users. Moving past the abstractions of "product" is a major driver for Milosz.

Here's where to find Milosz: https://www.miloszfalinski.com/

In this episode of Tech Can't Save Us, CEO and Co-Founder of Literal Humans Paul David talks to Tiernan Mines, Co-Founder of Hello Lamp Post, an innovative tech for good product that brings cities and their citizens closer together. 

Hello Lamp Post allows people to have two-way 'chats' with their surroundings, providing people with key local information, while gathering important perceptions, opinions and ideas. Hello Lamp Post helps increase participation and engagement in local decision making. Insights from interactions are anonymously shared with organisations such as local authorities to enable better informed decision making.

Tiernan and Paul discussed the future of cities and urban planning, the importance of listening to end users when developing tech for good products, and channeling people's frustrations into usable tools that enhance their lives.

Paul and Tiernan discuss how everyday citizens will potentially be able to engage with living history in cities and towns through augmented reality tech. The implications for enhancing the experience of people navigating physical spaces with new "interactive layers" are massive! 
Tiernan leaned into the "tech for bad" question by talking about the scary potential of remote warfare as well as dealing with the negative externalities of well-intended tech products. This episode is rich with tech for good fodder!

Here's where to find Hello Lamp Post: https://www.hlp.city/

In this episode of Tech Can't Save Us, CEO and Co-Founder of Literal Humans Paul David talks to Rima Patel, Co-Founder of Impactful, a social innovation agency that is revolutionizing corporate social responsibility by unlocking the social impact in commercially driven businesses. Impactful's bold mission is to transform the role of businesses in society.

Rima and Paul discussed companies' varying responses to social movements and major issues like climate change. A big point of the discussion focused on how businesses are operating in their own "backyards" vs. stepping into areas of philanthropy that are frankly a bit of a stretch for some of these companies.
Rima believes that tech can't replace self-expression and art in part because humans have an insatiable need to connect with one another. Paul talked about the role of some tech for good startups like Papa to provide core services like care for elderly. Rima talked about the power of tech to potentially help people connect with local small businesses and build real human relationships with small "mom and pop" businesses. Overall, Rima was chock full of great ideas about all things tech for good and the work of Impactful is super inspiring!

Here's where to find Impactful
Here's the Impactful Business Playbook

Impactful on Twitter

In this episode of Tech Can't Save Us, CEO and Co-Founder of Literal Humans Paul David talks to Ash Read, Head of Content at Buffer, a prominent social media management tool that helps users drive authentic engagement.

Ash and Paul discussed the growth of empathy on social media in light of recent events. They talk about monitoring and supporting the health of social media managers, an often overlooked group in tech. Ash shared a few features that are being worked on at Buffer to create a healthier social media ecosystem.

The discussion turned to the responsibilities of content marketers to deliver adequate context within the content they produce (e.g. moving away from "hustle porn"). Ash is a huge advocate of Notion as a productivity tool. He believes that tech can't solve the core problem of greed in society and that advertising technology can be quite problematic. Lastly, don't forget kids, "cash is energy"...put it to good use!

Here's where to find Buffer: https://buffer.com/
And where to find Ash: https://twitter.com/Ashread_
And Ash's side project: https://www.livingcozy.com/

In this episode of Tech Can't Save Us, CEO and Co-Founder of Literal Humans Paul David talks to James McMillan, the Founder of myNexus, a new platform that is creating the UK’s leading Entrepreneurial Ecosystem which uses technology to smart-match entrepreneurs and investors, increasing and accelerating investment in early-stage business.

James and Paul talk about building a healthier funding ecosystem for underestimated and underfunded tech founders in the UK and beyond. They discuss the resistance to eliminating barriers to funding for promising, new founders within the angel investing and venture capital communities.
There's even an interesting link between what James is working on and modern online dating apps!

The two discuss how to build a product that overcomes systemic issues in the funding ecosystem and the danger of designing in a way that builds in existing biases. James talks about how to address the core problem of "the wrong people coming together to do the wrong deals." It's a massive challenge in the funding ecosystem and James is on track to address it.

Here's where to find myNexus:

www.joinmynexus.comtwitter.com/joinmynexuslinkedin.com/company/joinmynexus

In this episode of Tech Can't Save Us, CEO and Co-Founder of Literal Humans Paul David talks to Jordan Jackson, the Founder of Black Men's Book Club, a newsletter and app that offers hacked audio summaries of popular books with a focus on the Black community.

Jordan currently works full-time as a developer with Quicken Loans in Detroit. His journey into tech was extremely unorthodox--he dropped out of college and eventually fell in with friends who convinced him to take up coding and work on a new product.

Jordan and Paul talk about the contours of tech for good, how diving into the work is the best training, and the limits of empathy within the world of tech. Find out what Jordan's dream tech product would be (hint: it connects to renewable energy and space tech). Jordan also teaches Paul about LiDAR technology and shares his predictions for the tech for good sector.

Here's where to find Jordan Jackson and Black Men's Book Club:

BMBC Website: https://blackmenbookclub.com
BMBC App: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/bmbc-audio-book-summaries/id1539826611
Twitter: https://twitter.com/jordanwcjackson

In this episode of Tech Can't Save Us, CEO and Co-Founder of Literal Humans Paul David talks to Kajal Sanghrajka, the Founder and Director of Growth Hub Global which helps businesses, entrepreneurs and universities in Europe to grow globally.

Kajal started her career in the corporate world working on Wall Street and in London before going back to business school in New York and using this as a launchpad to start her own entrepreneurial career. She then started Colombia University's first incubator, and has worked with new entrepreneurs ever since.

Kajal talks about the differences between the US and Europe when it comes to founding businesses, not in terms of process but in terms of founder mindset. She talks about how tech can help start-up businesses (who often have tighter budgets) and gives her top tips for new entrepreneurs - done is better than perfect!

Here's where you can find Kajal:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kajalsanghrajka/

Twitter: @kajalnyclon
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To find out more about Literal Humans, visit literalhumans.com

In the second episode of Tech Can't Save Us Paul David, the Co-Founder and CEO of Literal Humans, talks to Carmela Resume from FLYTE who calls in from Hawaii.

Carmela is the Executive Director of FLYTE, a non-profit organisation which empowers youth through travel by working with young people from underserved communities across the United States to give them the opportunity to go abroad, in many cases for the first time. 

Carmela talks about how tech helps FLYTE students to create deeper connections with the people and culture they are visiting abroad, and how tech helps them to continue connecting once the trip has finished. She also talks about economies that depend on tourism have been affected by the pandemic and how these economies must look to expand in to different areas in order to be sustainable in the future.

To find out more about Literal Humans, visit literalhumans.com

In the first episode of Tech Can't Save Us Paul David, Co-Founder and CEO of Literal Humans, speaks to Krys Burnette.

Krys is currently working for a global sportswear brand and she speaks about what they did to use tech for good when the pandemic first hit, and the overall responsibility that big companies have to leverage tech to connect people in different ways as a result of the pandemic. 

Krys also talks about the Black Lives Matter movement and what effect this has had on corporate culture. She talks about the concept of emotional labor, and gives some examples of what big brands are doing to invest in business teams that are focused on culture. On a personal level, she speaks about what it's like to be a Black American working in Europe as opposed to in the States.

To find out more about Literal Humans, visit literalhumans.com

Tech Can't Save Us is a tech for good podcast from Literal Humans, a creative marketing agency. Hosted by Paul David, the Co-Founder of Literal Humans, Tech Can't Save Us is all about the good, the bad and the ugly of the tech for good sector.

Paul will invite guests on to every podcast episode to talk about how tech makes us better people and how it can enhance life on earth for all creatures - but also about how tech can harm society, and what we can do to fix it.

Through open conversations with representatives from Adidas, Google, Buffer, Facebook and smaller emerging companies like Science with Sophie and The Black Men's Book Club, Tech Can't Save Us aims to give an honest insight in to the tech for good sector - what it's doing well, and what could be improved.

Find out more about Literal Humans and our work with mission driven brands, tech for good start ups and non-profits at literalhumans.com.