Wizardest

As a fellow Apple and General Assembly alum, and now doing L&D at Huge, Andre Plaut has a passion for the intersection of technology, education, and storytelling. After working with the Obama campaign and as someone more keyed into politics than most, he views everything as a design problem, even society itself. We dive into topics including first amendment rights, racism, the problems with modern media and what we can learn from history, as well as trading tales from the first ever iPhone launch.

Vik Hristov is a music producer and DJ turned tech entrepreneur — he is in underground mode on a new startup set to disrupt the restaurant industry. Having previously worked at Apple, Vik sees creativity as something that be applied in many different ways and strongly believes in the power of networking (he points out that 8 years after meeting he and recording a podcast as proof). We talk about topics ranging from veganism to hiring technical teams, and everything in between.

Vengo is a cloud-enabled network of touchscreen vending machines that is disrupting the world of physical on-demand commerce, with a media twist. Brian Shimmerlik, Co-Founder and CEO of Vengo Labs, tells the story of how he started the company, his experience as a CEO and growing a company culture, dealing with rejection, and about his legendary TV debut on Shark Tank. Ultimately Brian’s vision for the future of touchscreens and ecommerce extend well beyond the mobile screen that most of us spend our time fighting over.

Blake Harris is a bestselling author, filmmaker, and the brains behind Console Wars, a comprehensive “business thriller” about the epic battle between Sega and Nintendo - soon to be a feature film in partnership with Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg as well as legendary producer Scott Rudin (think The Social Network, The Truman Show, and every other awesome movie ever), and he is now working on a new book about VR. We explore Blake's career and also get into a deep and rich discussion around media sensationalism, false realities, and how “President Trump might be right about fake news” - a perfect demonstration of how a quote can be taken out of context.

Shawn is the guy that Gary Vaynerchuk (prolific entrepreneur, author, investor, and star of the new TV series Planet of the Apps) trusts to figure out what is going to be the next big thing. Vayner Capital has invested in some amazing companies we’ve all heard of like Snapchat and Medium, and tons that you haven’t heard of yet — and that’s the whole point of early stage investing: getting in before it’s obvious.

We talk about Shawn’s investment strategy, about Gary, about the future of VC, AR, fake news, the NY tech scene, new companies that are doing awesome stuff, fatherhood, and other assorted topics.

Paul Wallace, VP - Media Solutions at VICE Media, and I had a fun conversation about everything media tech, ad tech, and the future of TV. We talk about what's happening at VICE, as well as programmatic advertising, monetizing off platform, OTT, and a variety of other related and not-so-related topics.

Brian Scordato, Founder at Tacklebox Accelerator, an early stage accelerator, gives a unique perspective on why so many startups end up failing. Also featuring MAZ COO (and my brother!) Justin Canetti as the three of us discuss cover topics ranging from common startup mistakes, getting to know your customers, what Y Combinator is really like, key differences between B2C and B2B businesses, and which gym memberships include complimentary towels.

Two time Y-Combinator alum and Forbes 30 Under 30 Maran Nelson and former Dropcam/Nest engineer and PhD Jason Laska join me for a deep discussion on using AI and machine learning to create amazing human experiences.

The first ever episode of the Wizardest Podcast features a conversation with Dasmer Singh, Product Manager at Venmo and explores topics ranging from iOS development and product management to iOS 10, iMessage Apps, Siri, Facebook Messenger bots, and everywhere in between.