The Reykjavik Grapevine's Podcast

What is the future of Iceland's tech, economic and entrepreneurial sectors? What role does Iceland have to play in global development? Join host Bala Kamallakharan, founder of Startup Iceland, as he explores answers to these questions with some of the brightest minds working in Iceland today.

Helgi Hrafn Gunnarsson is a software developer and a parliamentarian. He was the member of the parliament who presented the bill to make Iceland join the European Space Agency so any Icelander can become an astronaut. We talk about the unique opportunities Iceland has in relation to space.

Futurecast is also available as a video on our YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/jpEmoQcIavM

Today on FutureCast we are chatting with Ari Jónsson. Ari is a NASA Ames Center Research Scientist and Stanford Alumni. He is currently the CEO of AWAREGO and Rector of Reykjavik University, a role he has held since 2007, and he will soon be moving on to become CEO of the institute. Ari is on the board of Iceland Venture Studio and is also an investor. Through his work over the years he has been a good friend, mentor and co-conspirator in building the startup community in Iceland. We will be speaking to him about Space, the opportunities that Iceland offers and his time at NASA.

Trans children have been made a hot subject of discussion lately, especially in the UK and the US, where numerous state legislatures are trying to ban crucial health care for these young people. But what happens when a trans kid gets support? To explore that, news editor Andie Sophia Fontaine speaks with Marselín Guðmundsdóttir, who came out as trans while still in her teens.

In the 7th Episode of FutureCast the host Bala Kamallakharan is speaking to Anna Worthington De Matos, the Founder and CEO of the Munasafn RVK Tool Library. A not for profit project that aims in extending the life of tools and things through the practical applications of Circular Economy. She is also the organiser for Reddingakaffi events, where so far 642KG of materials have been kept from going to landfills by repairing everyday use items. She believed the best way to implement Circular Economy is to give people accessibility (to information, education, funding, contacts etc). She is in the process of founding the Hringrásarsetur Íslands NGO, which will be the umbrella organisation for all the projects developed aiming on the expansion and implementation of the Circular Economy in Iceland.

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Kathryn Gunnarsson is the founder and CEO of Gecko, a Talent agency focused on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) fields in Iceland. There has been a great demand for experts in this field and a number of expatriates have moved to Iceland to work in these fields. We talk a lot about Future of Work, how to build diversity at work and how you build networks and networking platforms like Startup Iceland and other strategies that enable people to integrate and build their careers in Iceland.

The host, Bala Kamallakharan talks to Thor Sigfusson, the founder of Iceland Ocean Cluster. Thor is a visionary, and one of the pioneers in the 100% utilisation of fish – or zero waste – in Iceland. They talk about the circular economy, food waste, innovation in the seafood industry, how to utilise the network to help founders, funding, and how the next generation is taking on new challenges in this industry.

The 4th episode of #FutureCast is a conversation with David Gunnarsson, the CEO of Dohop. David and Bala Kamallakharan, the host of FutureCast, have known each other for over a decade and Bala has been following the Dohop journey from the very early days. They talk about doing the impossible, i.e. raising funding for a travel company during a pandemic when almost all travel is prohibited. They also discuss how David got into the business of startups and what it means to build a company focused on technology whilst dealing with some of the traditional businesses like Airlines and the travel industry. This is a Christmas special, as it was a miracle for the startup community in Iceland to have one of the companies that was founded during the financial crisis raise significant funding for growing the team in Iceland.

Kjartan has been part of the gaming industry in Iceland for as long as I can remember. He spoke in the first ever Startup Iceland in 2012 about CCP Games. Kjartan and 6 other co-founders, veteran developers from Iceland and Finland came together to form Mainframe games. They are creating a cloud-native Massive Multiplayer Online game, a vibrant world with new ways to engage and connect with our friends. It’s the game of a lifetime... We talk about his PhD in Chaos Physics, his passion for art (he is a very good artist) and advice for founders.

In this episode we speak to Hjalmar Gislason, the Co-Founder and CEO of Grid. We talk about what Hjalli and his team are building with Grid, what inspired him to take on this massive project. Hjalli shares his journey of being a 5 time founder and how he has progressively learnt to build great teams and how Reykjavik is not such a bad place to start a technology company.