Tech Seeking Human

Twilio is a leading SaaS software company that makes it easy to send and receive phone calls, text messages, and a host of other comms functions like video, email and more using its web service APIs.

It’s a company I have known, but not known enough about. Their events appear in my LinkedIn feed, and it looks like everyone is just having way too much fun. As I found out in this podcast, there are 9 million, yes 9 million people in the Twilio Community. That is extreme in a SaaS software world.

Given the importance of customer experience, and communications lying at the heart of this experience, it’s no wonder that a platform that can make communication easier, is flourishing.

In this podcast I physically recorded a session with David Coghill, an APJ Solutions Engineering leader based in Melbourne. Except the video hard drive failed me. The irony of being physical in a hybrid digital world wasn’t lost on me. Thankfully I’ve worked in tech long enough to ensure I had a back up plan, and we safely captured a really interesting audio conversation.

Our conversation wandered around a few interesting topics;

1. What is Twilio and why are they doing so well?
2. How easy is it to get started with messaging?
3. The importance of a developer culture
4. Some fascinating use cases including Domino’s pivoting during COVID to provide real time updates on in-store pizza production in order to minimise customers in store.
5. The future of a cookie-less world.

We enjoyed chatting so much we decided to split it into 2 episodes. This is part 2.

About David:

David Coghill is Director of Solutions Engineering for Asia Pacific & Japan (APJ) at Twilio. In this role, David drives the strategy and direction for technical engagement in the sales cycle to bring new customers on board Twilio’s customer engagement platform. He leads a team of solution engineers across the region, and together, they partner with the Sales team to ensure the continued success of Twilio’s growth.

David has over 2 decades of experience working throughout the APJ region, from full-stack development to leading large teams of engineers and consultants, from customer service to digital marketing thought leadership, and project implementation to transformation guidance.

He’s currently based in Australia, and until recently was based in Singapore for 6 years.

Twilio is a leading SaaS software company that makes it easy to send and receive phone calls, text messages, and a host of other comms functions like video, email and more using its web service APIs.

It's a company I have known, but not known enough about. Their events appear in my LinkedIn feed, and it looks like everyone is just having way too much fun. As I found out in this podcast, there are 9 million, yes 9 million people in the Twilio Community. That is extreme in a SaaS software world.

Given the importance of customer experience, and communications lying at the heart of this experience, it's no wonder that a platform that can make communication easier, is flourishing.

In this podcast I physically recorded a session with David Coghill, an APJ Solutions Engineering leader based in Melbourne. Except the video hard drive failed me. The irony of being physical in a hybrid digital world wasn't lost on me. Thankfully I've worked in tech long enough to ensure I had a back up plan, and we safely captured a really interesting audio conversation.

Our conversation wandered around a few interesting topics;

1. What is Twilio and why are they doing so well?
2. How easy is it to get started with messaging?
3. The importance of a developer culture
4. Some fascinating use cases including Domino's pivoting during COVID to provide real time updates on in-store pizza production in order to minimise customers in store.
5. The future of a cookie-less world.

We enjoyed chatting so much we decided to split it into 2 episodes.

About David:

David Coghill is Director of Solutions Engineering for Asia Pacific & Japan (APJ) at Twilio. In this role, David drives the strategy and direction for technical engagement in the sales cycle to bring new customers on board Twilio's customer engagement platform. He leads a team of solution engineers across the region, and together, they partner with the Sales team to ensure the continued success of Twilio's growth.

David has over 2 decades of experience working throughout the APJ region, from full-stack development to leading large teams of engineers and consultants, from customer service to digital marketing thought leadership, and project implementation to transformation guidance.

He's currently based in Australia, and until recently was based in Singapore for 6 years.

Plaid is a financial services company based in San Francisco, California. The company builds a data transfer network that powers fintech and digital finance products.

In this episode, Ellie Brocklehurst and Dave Anderson chat to an old friend, one of Dave's school friends, Paul Williamson. Paul is the CRO at Fintech disrupter Plaid.

We cover;

• Growing up in Perth, and finding his passion in computing, and eventually fintech.
• Working at Plaid, what it is, and how it works.
• What Open banking might mean for your average user.
• What happened to Paul's accent?

All the hot topics. Hope you enjoy it.

Generational Glitch is a weekly segment where we catch up with millennial Adam Racovalis and discuss the latest apps, trends, and differences between our generations.

In this episode we intro the segment, discuss Adam's latest find, Cappuccino. We also discuss why parents have BigPond Email address, Adam's addiction to nearly every app, and the origins of emails.

Next week we hope our other host Ellie can join to help balance the difference.

It's never meant to be serious.

Fancy having a movie made about how you transformed the way sport was played. Ari Kaplan is the inspiration behind the movie Moneyball. Today Ari is an evangelist for a leading AI platform - DataRobot, and in this podcast he sits down to discuss;

- The infamous story behind the analytics revolution he started in MBL.

- How he became a critical decision maker in player recruitment, team tactics, and even player 'in game' tactics

- He shares some of his favourite player selections and the careers that almost might not have been, if it wasn't for analytical decision making

- And lastly how AI will change the way we live, work and play.

Ari is a rare dude. It's not wonder he is held in such high regard by all that come across him. From owners of major league baseball and basketball teams, to musicians like Eddie Vedder. Yes, Ari has hung out with Eddie on many occasions, and he shares how the Pearl Jam front man took his guitar onto the street to busk outside a Chicago Cubs game, with very little fanfare.

Bond Bridge is my favourite home automation app. Through Somfy, and a Bond Bridge, I can control every single one of my curtains, shades and awnings in my house via their app or Home Assistant. When I first bought it, honestly I never thought it was going to work. I wondered why nobody else in the market had come up with a solution, and to be honest, I was shocked at how cheap it was to buy this gadget.

But it works, it's automated, its cost effective, and it makes my life so damn simple. I have since recommended it to everyone and they too are just as happy as I am.

I loved it so much I decided I really needed to talk to the guy that made this thing. In this podcast you hear a true founder story.

• The original challenge he was trying to solve - fixing a remote control, and automating some ceiling fans.
• How he got started, and a funny story about pitching his idea to Home Depot.
• How the technology works

Libby Trickett is an Australian Swimming Champion. With 4 Olympic Gold Medals to her name, across 3 Olympic games, the last games in London in 2012, Libby is simply ‘elite’. But life after the pool wasn’t so easy on her. She has openly discussed her mental struggles in her transition from the pool to a working life, and again in this podcast, goes into quite a bit of detail on her struggles.

This podcast came about as a chance encounter. I stumbled on Libby’s name replying to a comment from fitness tech brand Peloton, asking ‘when is the treadmill coming to Australia’? As a fellow obsessed Peloton devotee, I reached out, as I was naturally inquisitive to hear how an Australia Olympic champion was using the platform.

Libby is a wonderful human as you’ll hear in this podcast. The sort of person that, after you listen to this podcast, it will feel as though you’ve known her for years. An honest, open, hilarious, and humble human. It’s absolutely no surprise to anyone as to why the country fell in love with her as an athlete, and why she continues to inspire people through her podcast, and her work outside of the pool.

Could she be the first influencer to lead a Peloton community in Australia? Absolutely. I’d certainly take every single one of her classes!

This podcast openly discusses mental health and depression. If you are struggling with mental health challenges, or feel the need to talk to anyone, please do reach out to Beyond Blue. We both, Libby and I, feel that depression is something that should be openly discussed and normalised. Please don’t feel afraid to have a conversation.

Beyond Blue: https://www.beyondblue.org.au/get-support/get-immediate-support

Nobody realizes how hard it is to send emails within a company, unless you work in marketing operations or development. Marketers that need to know how to code, templates, landing pages, and testing testing testing. Why is it so hard? In this episode I chat to Pierce Ujjainwalla, the co-founder and CEO of email development disrupter Knack.

One of the hardest challenges of any AI is to be able to understand natural language. The first time you spoke at Siri or Alexa, you probably gasped at how amazing it was that the machine could understand you, and almost respond with clarity. Or I'm sure you've had the experience of watching a live chat online and laughed at the subtitles.

Seriously thought have you ever considered how hard it is for an AI to understand the various languages we have, not to mention accents?

In this podcast I had a chat with the CRO and GM at AI Transcription leader Verbit, Ariel Utnik. We discussed this various challenge, and how through a combination of AI and Human Intelligence (HI) we can, in real-time deliver 99.9% accuracy on transcription.

There were a number of interesting outtakes;

• Why transcription is so important, especially for those that are hard of hearing.
• How transcription might be weaved into live events, how it's already included in live feeds, and why we are likely to see more of it.
• How challenging and yet how important it is, to ensure accuracy in transcription.
• How the AI learns over time, with the help of human intelligence.

Every company is a software company. Every company needs to transform, to continuously innovate, drive efficiency blah blah blah blah.

That's what you think when you think digital transformation right? blah blah.

But Rich Nanda brings a fresh perspective because he is a believer in continuous change. He is a principle at Deloitte Consulting and the co-author of the "The Transformation Myth". I swore I would never read another book on digital transformation, so it was refreshing to pick up a book that was dispelling common theories.

If you learn nothing in this podcast, except one thing, I encourage you to walk away with this point.

Companies KNOW they need to be data driven, but aren't. I asked on a scale of 1-10 where he things most companies sit, and he said 2.

Why?

Attitude.

We have all we need to be successful today, but the motivation, the urgency, the culture is what is missing for so many. And culture isn't built over night. It's built over time.

Find people that are wanting to make a difference, and can do it in a way that builds high performing teams, and you might just find that transformation isn't even a thing. It's just a way of work.