Techonomics

In our 19th episode, Arun and I sat down with Ahmed Siddiqui, VP of product at Branch and author of the book The Anatomy of the Swipe. We dove into Ahmed's entry into the payments industry, why he wrote a book, his company, Branch, and payment concepts.

If you're looking for a crash course in payments, particularly what happens when you swipe, tap, or insert your credit card, look no further. We also look at who the major players are, who takes on what risk profile as money changes hands, and how the industry is evolving. It's fascinating.

Music: Hipjazz and Dreams from Bensound.com

Professor Campbell Harvey is a Professor of Economics at Duke University and author of the book DeFi and the Future of Finance.

Follow along as we dig into Professor Campbell's background, the story of his thesis on the inverted yield curve, his new book, and the concepts of cryptocurrency and decentralized finance (DeFi).

Music: Hipjazz and Dreams from Bensound.com

Jeff Birkeland is the VP of Product of Consumer Experience at Headspace, and has built his career and expertise around the combination of product and content. He's been a Director of Product Management at Facebook, LinkedIn, Yahoo, and a few startups, and his love for content started when he was producing documentaries at PBS and HBO.

Listen in on this episode where Jeff walks Arun and me through his content and product journey, why he's joined Headspace, and how Headspace is giving people the tools they need for mindfulness.

Music: Hipjazz and Dreams from Bensound.com

Rahul Iyer leads engineering for Stripe's Terminal product. He also previously led production platform engineering at Airbnb, managed multiple engineering teams at Facebook, and has had stints at other startups in between.

In our 16th episode, Rahul sat down with Arun and me to talk about his journey in engineering, a recent history of building software at companies like Facebook, and his thoughts on the intersection of tech and economics in Silicon Valley. We also touch on topics in previous episodes as he both challenges and builds on some of the ideas from Arun and me.

Music: Hipjazz and Dreams from Bensound.com

Ivan Kirigin is the founder of the Venture Capital firm Tango that specializes in Machine Learning and Robotics. Ivan sat down with Arun and me to talk about venture capital, what it's like going through Y Combinator as a previous founder, his vision of the future of technology, and how Tango is doing things differently to fund companies that are improving the world.

Music: Hipjazz and Dreams from Bensound.com

Ryan Green and Brian Finamore, the co-founders of the company Gridwise, joined Arun and me on the podcast to talk about the gig economy ecosystem and how their product empowers gig economy workers by helping them maximize their income and save thousands a year on taxes.

Plus – we had a few laughs as we got to know the co-founders through a special Hot Take: "Do you know your Co-founder?"

Music: Hipjazz and Dreams from Bensound.com

Ben Foster is the author of the book “Build What Matters” and the Chief Product Officer at WHOOP. Ben sat down with Arun and me to talk about his book, building products, and how WHOOP pivoted their model to become a competitive force in the tech wearables market. You won't want to miss it.

Music: Hipjazz and Dreams from Bensound.com

Phil Bronner is a General Partner and Co-founder of Ardent Venture Partners. He sat down with Arun and me to talk about venture capital and the future of work after the pandemic, sharing his insights from more than 20 years in the field and his experience investing in the companies that transform how we work.

Music: Hipjazz and Dreams from Bensound.com

Kate Brennan, the product lead for Stripe Terminal, Stripe’s in-person payments product, joined Arun and me in our 11th episode of the Techonomics podcast. We are excited to share this new episode with you as Kate shares her story into product management, leadership wisdom as a product leader, and the nuances of in-person payments at Stripe.

If you have an interest in product management, leadership, or even what it takes to work in the payments industry — this episode is for you.

Music: Hipjazz and Dreams from Bensound.com

Kevin McNamara, the CEO of Parallel Domain, joined Arun and I in our 10th episode of the Techonomics podcast. We are excited to share this new episode with you as it dives into a bleeding edge topic – synthetic data.

Take a listen as Kevin brings us through what Parallel Domain is looking to accomplish, how they are taking a different route to self-driving data, and how they play a pivotal role in training self-driving models for the most rare of circumstances.

Music: Hipjazz and Dreams from Bensound.com