Sean Gourley is the founder of Primer, an AI company enabling better decision making in the world’s most critical organisations.

Sean is a physicist by training and data scientist by passion. This curiosity and skillset enables him to study the mathematical patterns of war and terrorism, the algorithmic ecosystem of high frequency trading, and the rise of augmented intelligence through big data - just to name a few.

In this episode, we explore the factors that led Sean down the research and entrepreneurship pathway, and dive into key lessons about hiring, timing, and mindset.

Follow us

Sean Gourley - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sgourley/

Alex Alexandrescu - https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-alex

Sofiane Bébert - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sofiane-b

References from episode

Ted Talk about The Mathematics of War - https://www.ted.com/talks/sean_gourley_the_mathematics_of_war?language=en

‘Mapping Ideas Worth Spreading’ Ted Talk with Eric Berlow - https://www.ted.com/talks/eric_berlow_and_sean_gourley_mapping_ideas_worth_spreading?language=en

‘Big Data and the Rise of Augmented Intelligence’ Tedx Talk - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKZCa_ejbfg

Timestamps

[00:00 – 13:23] What is the mathematics of war?

[13:23 – 26:56] Why you should leave your comfort zone.

[26:56 – 41:47] How founders should think about building startup teams.

[41:47 – 1:02:30] The importance of timing when building a startup.

[1:02:30 – 1:07:46] What to do after building a successful venture.

Our guest today is Benjamen Simon, who founded New Frontiers AI whilst finishing his PhD in Statistics at the Lancaster University.

Ben walks us through the maze of statistics and data, touching on a range of topics, including how school grades are actually marked, learning on the fly, modelling COVID, and breaking into data science. A must-listen for any aspiring data enthusiast!

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Benjamen Simon - https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamensimon/

Alex Alexandrescu - https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-alex

Sofiane Bébert - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sofiane-b

References from episode

Timestamps

[00:00 – 10:06] The truth behind school grades.

[10:06 – 21:54] How to fall in love with statistics.

[21:54 – 26:08] Learning R in 4 hours while applying for a job.

[26:08 – 38:55] Modelling super spreaders and new variants during COVID.

[38:55 – 41:47] Is a data scientist just a poor man’s statistician?

[41:47 – 44:44] Finding the balance - pursuing dreams without dismissing doors.

[44:44 – 55:55] Trusting yourself - taking the plunge & starting a business.

[55:55 – 1:03:56] How to get a job in data without work experience.

Khuyen Tran, a budding MLOps engineer at Ocelot Consulting and influential voice on Medium and LinkedIn, shares her insights on turning a passion for numbers into a thriving digital brand.

Fresh from her academic pursuits in Statistics, Khuyen dives deep into how she's making waves on LinkedIn, discussing everything from tools, infrastructure, data science projects, and productivity.

Whether you're an aspiring data enthusiast or seeking to amplify your online persona, this episode holds invaluable lessons.

Follow us

Khuyen Tran - https://www.linkedin.com/in/khuyen-tran-1401

Sofiane Bébert - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sofiane-b

Alex Alexandrescu - ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-alex⁠

Timestamps:

[00:00 – 06:32] Passion Meets Profession: Meshing Maths, Statistics, and Coding.

[06:32 – 18:39] Journaling as a Gateway Into Writing.

[18:39 – 30:19] Managing Imposter Syndrome whilst Building a Personal Brand.

[30:19 – 35:00] The Power of Good Communication Habits.

[35:00 – 45:24] How to Monetize as a Creator Without Compromising Values & Vision

[45:24 – 52:01] Advice for Aspiring Students and Closing thoughts.

Rasha Salim is the Head of Top Talent at Omdena, a data for good organisation.

From Iraq to Syria and Turkey, she shares an inspiring journey that started with an early passion for coding, building websites, and games, to now leading AI project teams that drive social impact on a global scale.

Along the way, she has:

😬 overcome imposter syndrome

💪 built confidence by pushing herself outside her comfort zone

🫂 learned about the importance networks and communities

⚖️ learned to find stability in instability, whilst building a family move

Tune in for the full conversation and to hear her top tips for people stepping into the workforce 🎧

Follow us:

Rasha Salim - https://www.linkedin.com/in/rashagsalim/

Alex Alexandrescu - https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-alex

Sofiane Bébert - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sofiane-b

Timestamps:

[00:00 – 14:29] Conquering fears, chasing passions, and growing through communities.

[14:29 – 18:13] Discovering AI through a Udacity scholarship.

[18:13 – 24:17] Being an introvert and how to build a network in an online world.

[24:17 – 37:54] Becoming Head of Top Talent at Omdena.

[37:54 – 47:36] The importance successfully managing people and projects

[47:36 – 52:36] Finding stability in a fast moving world

[52:36 – 55:06] Closing tips for early careers

Tim Cordingley is a data scientist currently working for Wayve Technologies, an exciting startup developing embodied intelligence for autonomous vehicles..

After completing his engineering studies at Durham University, Tim gained valuable experience through an internship at Jaguar Land Rover. He embarked on his professional journey as an Associate Consultant at KPMG before making a successful transition into the field of data science, where he contributed his skills at Deliveroo. Currently, Tim has returned to the automotive domain, bringing his expertise to Wayve.

Join us as we explore transitioning from engineering to data science and learn how to effectively pitch yourself to prospective employers. Uncover Wayve's cutting-edge work in autonomous driving and gain insights into their recruitment process.

Follow us:

Tim Cordingley - https://www.linkedin.com/in/timothy-cordingley-03a256132/?originalSubdomain=uk

Alex Alexandrescu - https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-alex

Sofiane Bébert - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sofiane-b

References from episode:

Timestamps:

[00:00 – 06:37] Transitioning from engineering to DS, KPMG to Deliveroo.

[06:37 – 11:42] Working in DS at Deliveroo.

[11:42 – 15:32] How to pitch yourself to prospective employers.

[15:32 – 32:16] What does Wayve do?

[32:16 – 36:00] Recruitment and hiring process at Wayve.

[36:00 – 42:36] Useful interview skills for getting into DS and closing thoughts.

Fabian Werkmeister is a data scientist at FUNKE, a media company based out of Germany, and a thought leader dedicated to helping people become fluent in data and discover the exciting intersection between business and tech.

Passionate about data, Fabian transitioned from studying economics and an early career in marketing to data science through a bootcamp he undertook during the pandemic. Now, he seeks to inspire others and ignite their passion for data science.

Join us as we discuss the ins and outs of of data science and how to effectively transition into this growing space. We also discuss building an online following and tips for breaking out on LinkedIn.

Follow us:

Fabian Werkmeister - https://www.linkedin.com/in/fabian-werkmeister-3008681a3/?originalSubdomain=de

Alex Alexandrescu - https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-alex

Sofiane Bébert - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sofiane-b

References from episode:

Timestamps:

[00:00 – 07:55] The ins and outs of doing a business degree.

[07:55 – 23:55] Transitioning into data science via online bootcamps.

[23:55 – 34:33] The reality of data science while working at FUNKE.

[34:33 – 45:32] Building an online following on LinkedIn.

[45:32 – 53:09] ChatGPT and its uses across writing articles and data science.

[53:09 – 58:14] Advice on breaking into data.

Erik Mathiesen-Dreyfus is co-founder of Infer, a platform supercharging data analysts with data exploration & research tools, and co-organiser of MancML, one of the original AI/ML communities in Manchester.

After a few years in academia, Erik started his career at Bear Stearns, right before the 2008 Global Financial Crisis. He quickly progressed as a quant for some of the big names out there, before becoming an entrepreneur. Since then, he has started his own financial services firm, a ML startup in recruitment, built and scaled data teams for companies like Streetbees & Attest, and now he is back in the startup world again as a founder with Infer.

Join us as we discuss education in different countries, navigating career pathways, and how we need to adapt our view and measure skills and competencies in a rapidly changing world.

Follow us:

Infer - https://www.getinfer.io/

Alex Alexandrescu - ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-alex

⁠Sofiane Bébert - ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/sofiane-b⁠

Dicey Tech - https://www.diceytech.co.uk

Timestamps:

[00:00 – 04:56] Study maths at university or go to the army?

[04:56 – 06:05] What is Elliptic Curve Cryptography?

[06:05 – 12:28] Exams in Denmark & Romania.

[12:28 – 15:41] Competition and investment banking.

[15:41 – 21:04] Working at Bear Stearns in the eye of the storm.

[21:04 – 26:54] Starting your first business, what could go wrong?

[26:54 – 32:14] The truth about CVs.

[32:14 – 34:30] Lessons learnt while hiring your first team.

[34:30 – 37:28] When to shut down a start-up.

[37:28 – 45:28] Building data science teams and hiring at Streetbees.

[45:28 – 1:00:08] Learning from mistakes with Infer.

Guillaume Bouchard is the Co-Founder and CEO of Checkstep. He is also a ML researcher and trust and safety expert. He previously co-founded Bloomsbury AI to reduce the prevalence of misinformation using AI, which he sold to Facebook in 2018. Now he spends his time building content moderation systems to reduce harm and hate online.

Join us today as we cover a range of fascinating topics like doing ML research inside a French castle, building and selling AI start-ups, relocating with a wife and 3 kids from France to London, the distribution of human genes through dating apps, and the opportunities and risks that come with the explosion of generative AI.

Follow us:

Guillaume Bouchard - https://www.linkedin.com/in/guillaume-bouchard-2494882/

Alex Alexandrescu - https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-alex

Sofiane Bébert - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sofiane-b

References from episode:

Andrew Ng’s Paper about Discriminative vs. Generative models – https://ai.stanford.edu/~ang/papers/nips01-discriminativegenerative.pdf

Ilya Sutskever’s Paper ‘Sequence to Sequence Learning with Neural Networks – https://arxiv.org/pdf/1409.3215.pdf

What is federated learning? – [https://www.v7labs.com/blog/federated-learning-guide#:~:text=Federated learning (often referred to,model locally%2C increasing data privacy](https://www.v7labs.com/blog/federated-learning-guide#:~:text=Federated learning (often referred to,model locally%2C increasing data privacy).

‘The Age of Infinite Misinformation Has Arrived’, Gary Marcus –https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2023/03/ai-chatbots-large-language-model-misinformation/673376/

Timestamps:

[00:00 – 08:21] Early years of generative AI - ChatGPT’s brother from another mother.

[08:21 – 14:08] Building generative AI for knowledge bases.

[14:08 – 23:58] Growing and recruiting at Bloomsbury AI.

[23:58 – 31:22] Fundraising and building a content moderation system at CheckStep.

[31:22 – 33:13] Is scale all we need to further develop generative AI?

[33:13 – 35:07] Using AI to improve research output.

[35:07 – 40:40] How to fight against ‘The Age of Infinite Misinformation’.

[40:40 – 45:10] Can we remove bias? What are the implications?

[45:10 – 47:04] The role of content distribution platforms and how they should be managed.

[47:04 – 49:30] Breaking into Data Science.

Luchele Mendes is the Principal Recruiter for Natural Language Processing (NLP) & MLOps at Trust in Soda and Hosts their Podcast SODA Social.

Luchele uses her podcast to help Natural Language Processing (NLP) tech start-ups to build their brand and assists in building strong teams in ML, MLOps, and other data roles.

Join us as we highlight the opportunities and challenges of working in recruitment and improving diversity in the world of tech. We also discuss how AI can impact working within such an advanced sector.

Follow us:

Luchele Mendes - https://www.linkedin.com/in/luchele-mendes/

Alex Alexandrescu - https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-alex

Sofiane Bébert - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sofiane-b

References from episode:

Timestamps:

[00:00 – 06:44] From studying psychology and psychedelics to recruiting data scientists.

[06:44 – 12:09] How to thrive in recruitment.

[12:09 – 15:56] Navigating layoffs & hiring freezes.

[15:56 – 21:14] Day in the life of a recruitment consultant & podcast host.

[21:14 – 25:03] Ethnic and academic diversity in tech.

[25:03 – 32:07] SODA Social, the networking revolution podcast.

[32:07 – 36:47] How tech recruitment has evolved over the years.

[36:47 – 44:29] The daily use and developments of generative AI in the world.

[44:29 – 48:03] A guide to building a career in data science starting as a student.

In this episode, we explore the intersection of mathematics, music, and data science with Leanne Fitzpatrick, Director of Data Science at the Financial Times. We delve into the differences between left and right-brained thinking, share strategies for coping with disillusionment after leaving education, and discuss the impact of data science on the world of media.

Follow us:

Leanne Fitzpatrick - https://www.linkedin.com/in/leanne-kim-fitzpatrick-29204341/?originalSubdomain=uk

Alex Alexandrescu - https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-alex

Sofiane Bébert - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sofiane-b

References from episode:

Timestamps: