The Building Blocks Podcast

Sayantan is currently the GM at Nubank, a fintech company challenging the status quo to create a new generation of financial services in LATAM

This week, I had the pleasure of having David E. Weekly, the Head of The Capital One Lab, on the podcast.
We delve into his vast experience in building technology for startups, mid-sized companies, and international corporations. We discuss how he identifies problems that need to be solved, sets up a groundwork for products to ensure scalability and success, and achieves product-market fit.
David also shared his thoughts on balancing innovation while ensuring cohesion between products, fostering environments that encourage innovation, and transferring skills and past experience to new products in different domains. We also touched on his experience in bringing connectivity to developing markets and how entrepreneurs in these countries can compete on a global level.
Learn more about The Capital One Lab: https://www.thecapitalonelab.com
Guest: David E. Weekly
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dweekly/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/dweekly
Connect with Daivik: https://bento.me/daivik
Follow the Podcast: https://bento.me/thebbpod
Topics
0:00 - Intro
1:51 - What brought him into Entrepreneurship?
4:20 - How has decided what to pursue next?
10:59 - What was the motive behind joining The Capital One Lab?
13:31 - How has he identified problems worth solving?
17:49 - How do you make things that are scalable?
21:35 - The rise of new technology all over the world
25:40 - How does David make time to do all the things he does?
29:05 - Wrapup
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David E. Weekly is the head of The Capital One Lab, leading engineers, product managers, designers, and strategists focused on exploring the intersection of emerging technology and finance. He is also a seasoned technical product executive with 30 years of experience building technology for startups of his own creation, mid-sized companies, and international publicly-traded corporations.
David has served as an angel investor and built and run commercial research teams for Google and Meta’s predecessor, Facebook. He brings a global perspective from a range of diverse experiences across the planet.
Earlier in his career, he formed a high performing seed-stage fund backing entrepreneurs from Mexico. In Africa, he worked with the Tunisian government on connectivity, witnessed fiber trenching in Uganda, and taught elementary school students about technology in Ghana.
On the continent of Asia, he reported for the Korean press and climbed mountains in northern India to support hilltop community wireless networks.
He is a certified PADI Rescue Scuba Diver, a certificated private rotorcraft (helicopter) and instrument-rated fixed-wing pilot, and a Part 107 licensed commercial drone operator. David received his Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Stanford University.

Meet Adrian Spataru, the founder of Cleanvoice AI - Cleanvoice AI is an AI-Powered Podcast Editor . Currently, Cleanvoice is an artificial intelligence, which removes filler sounds (uh’s, um’s), mouth sounds (Ex. Lip-smacking) and stuttering from your podcast or audio recording

Meet Navdeep Singh, the co-founder, and CEO of Kandor - Kandor is an AI-Powered International Education Platform. Currently, Kandor helps students ace English language exams like IELTS through an AI-powered tool and apply to colleges through personalized and data-driven counseling.

0:00 - Intro

Karapet Gyumjibashyan is the senior Director of Product at Krisp, a renowned noise cancellation application that removes background noise and echo during online calls in real time. If you have ever wondered how Discord filters out the noise so well, it is a result of Karapet's work at Krisp! 

Prior to Krisp, Karapet started his career as an Engineer and Manager. He is one of the industry leaders in Product Management and a thought leader not only locally in the Armenian Tech Scene, but also on a Global level. 

Try out Krisp: https://krisp.ai/

Guest: Karapet Gyumjibashyan

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karapetgyumjibashyan

Twitter: https://twitter.com/gyumjibashyan

Connect with Daivik: https://linktr.ee/DaivikGoel

Follow the Podcast: http://linktr.ee/bbpod

Topics

0:00 - Intro

1:12 - What got him into Krisp?

11:25 - What is Krisp doing so well against competitors?

16:49 - How does Krisp approach partnerships?

21:45 - Krisp's New Features and Roadmap

30:30 - How does Krisp approach retention? 

37:41 - What does he look for in Product Managers?

45:39 - The Armenian Tech Scene

51:30 - Wrapup

Doug Weiss, co-founder and CEO of Deets, a platform that helps users find the right restaurants and events for them, joins the podcast to discuss his journey to entrepreneurship and his new company. 

His career began in corporate strategy roles at McKinsey and Pepsi. He later transitioned to a Product Growth Manager role at Facebook for the Lead Ads and Offline Conversion Platform. After several position changes within Facebook he eventually became the Head of Creator Commerce at Instagram. He is also an active investor in early stage startups and holds an MBA and MS in Product Design from Stanford, and a BA in International Relations and a BS in Business from UNC.  

This podcast was an opportunity to get insight into how Doug and his cofounder, Paul English, are going about optimizing the restaurant discovery process.   

Try out Deets: https://info.deets.com/ 

Guest: Doug Weiss  

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dpweiss/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/douggiequest/?hl=en

Twitter: https://twitter.com/douggiequest 

Connect with Daivik: https://linktr.ee/DaivikGoel

Follow the Podcast: http://linktr.ee/bbpod 

Topics 

0:00 - Intro 

1:16 - What got him into entrepreneurship?  

8:40 - Building Deets 

23:00 - How does Deets keep the creator and user at the center? 

28:58 - What is his approach to growth?  

37:00 - Wrapup

Logan Underwood is the co-founder and CEO of Ad Auris, a platform that transforms publications written stories into customized, podcast-like audio. With a one-time set-up, their platform replaces the need for narrators, sound designers, and producers, in creating engaging audio content.  

Tomer Dean is the co-founder and CEO of Audio Labs, a generative AI company that allows podcasters to easily create video content for social media. Prior to Audio Labs, Tomer has created a variety of startups, such as Bllush and Doggy Finder, and has been featured in Forbes' 30 under 30 list. 

It was exciting to have Tomer on the podcast to discuss what makes short form videos go viral and how him and his team are working on giving creators tools to create shorts in a fraction of the time!

Brennan Woodruff is the co-founder and COO of GoCharlie.AI. a generative AI company that assists content creators and entrepreneurs with creating successful content.  Prior to his current role, he was a VP at Softbank Investment Advisors, a manager of Technical Revenue, Product, and Strategy at Uber, and a manager of Deal Advisory at KPMG. He also serves as an investor and advisor at Spaced Ventures.