Tech Talks Daily

Peter Holten Mühlmann founded Trustpilot in 2007. Over the last fourteen years, he has led Trustpilot from a small Danish startup to a global FTSE-250 listed company. Day to day, Peter focuses on business strategy and product development and has overseen Trustpilot's expansion to 800+ employees across six countries. Peter joins me on Tech Talks Daily to talk about the story behind Trustpilot and how they are using techology to remove fake reviews.

We talk about a new Consumer Verification tool, an industry first in the world of online reviews. This tool is yet another step in Trustpilot's effort to protect and promote trust online – something that continues to be a struggle, as we've seen with companies like Fashion Nova hiding bad reviews from the public and businesses buying fake reviews. As a result, it's difficult for a shopper to trust what's said online.

We also discuss the growing issue of misinformation causing distrust between consumers and businesses and discuss some recent data Trustpilot has uncovered through recent consumer surveys. For example, 84% of Americans say they'd be motivated to prove their identity if it would protect others from misinformation online.

We explore how another recent survey about consumer grudges that revealed 66% of Americans aged 45-54 years old are less likely to regret holding a grudge than those aged 25-34 (37%) and 69% of Americans are holding a grudge, while 51% regret holding a grudge.

Oleg Giberstein is the Co-Founder of Coinrule (YCombinator backed startup, S21), which is all about catching the next market opportunity on your behalf by automating your investments. With Coinrule, hobbyist investors can compete with professional traders and hedge funds by creating automated strategies for Crypto and Stocks.

The company has achieved over 209% of its seed target during one of its most recent crowdfunding campaigns, raising an impressive $700K from 670+ investors. Other investors include the founders of Twitch, EightSleep, and Fitbit.

I invited Oleg on Tech Talks Daily to share his story, which began when he worked in Banking and Risk roles at Citigroup London for many years. In his last role at Citi, Oleg was Chief of Staff to Citi's Global Public Sector Portfolio Head. Here in 2022, I learn more about Coinrule and the problems it solves for its customers.

We talk about fintech, crypto, trading, investing, and how Oleg organizes Enterprise Ethereum Alliance meetups in London.

Yotta is a solar storage solution that simplifies the solar storage process through decentralized, panel-level storage and optimizes energy efficiency with intelligent software. Through its flagship product, SolarLEAF™, they have pioneered a modular storage solution with smart thermal regulation that seamlessly integrates behind each photovoltaic (PV) panel while maximizing the life and performance of the battery.

Unlike fixed storage centers, SolarLEAF allows you to expand the development of solar + storage microgrids in minutes. Today, the market needs a breakthrough in energy storage solutions. Although solar+storage has risen in popularity over the last 10 years, the industry has faced challenges with producing practical batteries for energy storage.

Omeed Badkoobeh shares Yotta's vision to accelerate the adoption of solar+storage by engineering a new generation of solar storage that is cost-effective and reliable, changing the face of solar energy as we know it.

Remittance tech is booming right now and the digitization of sending money isn't slowing down. 2021 was a milestone year for remittances, and according to a recent report from the Remittance Industry Observatory, digital transactions accounted for 37% of all global remittances – a 15% bump compared to 2020. Moreover, as the global payment industry continues to maneuver choppy macroeconomic situations, the digitization of remittances is only expected to grow, with industry leaders estimating that digital transactions will reach 50% by 2032. Earl Melivo, a global payment expert and Director of Country and Business Development at the digital-first remittance company, WorldRemit joins me on Tech Talks Daily. We discuss the digital remittance trends WorldRemit is already seeing with their users worldwide. He also shares his first-hand insights on how the industry is heading towards a more digital world.

Epiverse is a global collaborative led by data.org to co-create distributed data analysis tools that will get ahead of the next global health crisis. Its inclusive, open-source software ecosystem is led by an interdisciplinary community of experts driving equitable innovation in infectious disease response. Ultimatley, it's an interdisciplinary collaboration of experts from health, science, academia, business, technology, and philanthropy working to improve global epidemic response. But I wanted to learn more about the story behind the company developing privacy-preserving technology to unlock insights in non-traditional data,

Danil Mikhailov, Executive Director at DataDotOrg, joins me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss how data collected and distributed in silos does not support a cohesive global response and how Epiverse is building a global software ecosystem centered around people and a sustainable system of data sharing.

However, technology is just one part of a larger human system of connection and relationships. It's also important to remember that global social impact strategies will fail without conscious inclusion and a focus on capacity-building within LMIC's.

We talk about how the Epiverse community and ecosystem aspire to serve as a blueprint to inform how technology design and global collaborative response can be applied across the social good sector.

Rootstrap is a full-service custom design and development shop specializing in responsive web/mobile solutions and custom applications. They help companies scale people, processes, and products through outcome-driven development.

The company has helped launch more than 750+ digital products with more than 100 million combined downloads. Their mission isn't to merely build pretty interfaces. Instead, it's to iteratively design software solutions. The outcome? Achieving your business goals & generating ROI.

Patrick Ward, Vice President of Marketing, Rootstrap, joins me on Tech Talks Daily to share his story. We also explore emerging tech trends on the way to Web3, why AI isn't going to take your job, and why NFTs aren't just a get-rich-quick fad.

Last year, Divi and LaLiga agreed on a deal that would bring crypto to the masses as fans' love for football and crypto overlapped for the first time. I wanted to learn more about this deal and their most well-known project Divi Wallet which enables instant crypto payments for everyone.

Nick Saponaro, CEO of The Divi Project, joins me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss how they aim to increase the adoption of digital currency. The most well-known project is Divi Wallet, which enables instant crypto payments for everyone. Since beginning in the crypto space in 2013, Nick has become one of the leading experts in the cryptocurrency and blockchain space with media appearances in Nasdaq, The Fintech Times, and Quartz.

Nick shares his perspective on risk, given the stock market's current untethering from reality and the historical crashes that have followed periods like the one we're living through now. We also discuss the future of crypto, decentralization goals, and the importance of crypto's investment narrative.

techUK is the trade association that brings together people, companies, and organisations to realise the positive outcomes of what digital technology can achieve. With over 850 members (the majority of which are SMEs) across the UK, techUK creates a network for innovation and collaboration across business, government, and stakeholders to provide a better future for people, society, the economy, and the planet.

Matthew Evans, Director for Markets, techUK, joins me on Tech Talks Daily in a conversation about why digital transformation is critical to the decarbonisation journey of organisations in every sector. I learn more about how industries are converging across supply chains and sectors with tech partners to find innovations that reduce carbon emissions and efficiencies that drive down energy use.

By 2030, digital technology can cut global emissions by 15%. Cloud computing, 5G, AI, and IoT have the potential to dramatically reduce carbon emissions in sectors such as transport, agriculture, and manufacturing. techUK is working to foster the right policy framework and climate leadership so we can all play our part.

We discuss how techUK focuses on applying emerging technologies in traditional forms of infrastructure to deliver innovative environmental solutions. We also talk about their core aim to work towards a policy and regulatory environment that removes the barriers to tech investment. For example, techUK will lobby for a tax, R&D, innovation, and business environment that enables all sectors to invest in digital tools to help them decarbonise and, in turn, supports clean tech organisations.

Overall digital tech is the best way to reach net zero and deliver wider benefits such as cost savings, process efficiencies, and new business models.

Sightly is a market insights resource that helps brands anticipate the unexpected. Its proprietary Brand Mentality platform uses data science, predictive algorithms, and expert human know-how to help brands maximize their media planning & outcomes, maintain authenticity and understand when, why, and how to effectively lean into controversial, hot-button issues in a meaningful way.

Robert Helstrom, SVP of Marketing, Sightly, talks about how they are helping brands navigate shifting marketing insights while holding themselves to a higher accountability standard. We also discuss the current trends within adtech and how brands should plan to adapt to get ahead of the metaverse and Web3.

Girish Redekar is a CEO & Co-Founder of Sprinto.com. A company helping SaaS brands become SOC-2 compliant, close enterprise deals faster, and pass vendor security assessments easily.

Previously, he ​​built and bootstrapped RecruiterBox to 2500+ customers and 50+ employees in the US and India. The company was acquired by San Francisco based private equity firm Turn/River Capital in an undisclosed all cash deal (no stock or earn-outs).

Girish is a passionate programmer and entrepreneur, keen on helping other SaaS businesses demonstrate security chops and close enterprise deals faster. So I invited him on Tech Talks Daily to share the startup story of how he took his first company from SMB to Enterprise, gaining over 2500 customers and exiting in an all-cash deal.