The Bob Johnston Podcast – Détails, épisodes et analyse

In today’s episode, futurist David Mattin, co-founder of The Exponentialist, discusses the evolving role of technology in shaping human behavior. From AI to robotics, David shares insights into how these innovations fulfill timeless human desires and the ethical challenges they bring. Whether you’re leading a business or exploring future trends, David offers practical advice on harnessing technology to drive meaningful change.

We all wish we had a better grasp on upcoming trends. Better yet, wouldn’t it be great to have a framework to anticipate trends, i.e. see into the future? If so, you'll love futurist, David Mattin. Among other topics, David and I cover:

• What is the critical role of understanding human needs in predicting the future?

• What is the evolving relationship between technology and human behavior?

• How are technologies like AI are not just tools but partners in fulfilling age-old human desires like connection, status, and convenience?

• What are the ethical challenges of rapid innovation, the decentralization of AI, and its impact on governance, creativity, and the workplace?

I hope you enjoy David’s thought-provoking perspectives and roadmap for thriving in a world shaped by exponential technological change!

David’s Bio:

David Mattin writes about the trends, ideas, innovations, and people set to reshape our shared future.

His work delves into the evolving relationship between technology and human behavior. With a rich background in journalism and history, David transitioned from covering technological revolutions at The Times to consulting global brands on the impact of emerging innovations. He is also co-founder of The Exponentialist, a research service created with RealVision that explores the exponential age of technology. David is passionate about helping individuals and organizations navigate transformative trends in AI, robotics, and beyond.

He gives practical and inspiring talks that bring these ideas to life and works with leading organisations to orient their innovation around the trends and futures scenarios that matter.

At the heart of his work is an attempt to understand this version of technological modernity. What is its nature? Where is it leading us? How can we make that future better for everyone?

His writing has appeared everywhere from The Times, to Quartz, to Google Think Quarterly, and David has written and presented documentaries for BBC Radio 4. Previously, David sat on the World Economic Forum's Global Future Council on Consumption. 

The intricacies of entrepreneurship and scaling a startup are massive – from hiring talent to raising capital to securing customers, the clock is often the enemy. Today, we dive into the life of launching and running a startup with Eleonore Crespo, CEO of Pigment, a fast-growth company based in Paris. Eleonore and I discuss the rewards of leadership and taking care of your teams (and yourself and family!), aimed at providing valuable insights, whether you sit in the founder's seat at a startup or are scaling a new project within a Fortune 100 company. We cover the following topics:

• Work-Life Balance: Eleonore shares her journey of managing a growing business while balancing family life, emphasizing the non-traditional hours and dedication it requires.
• Motivation and Growth: We discuss how personal motivation, influences, and expectations can be your guideposts as things scale.
• Leadership Philosophy: Eleonore discusses advice she receives from seasoned leaders (she has several top leaders in Silicon Valley on speed dial)
• Team Dynamics: She highlights the significance of creating a supportive environment, where work ethic sets the tone
• Long-Term Vision: We explore the importance of sustainable growth strategies and the patience required for building a successful organization.

I hope you enjoy the insights and experiences from one of my inspiring leaders, Eleonore Crespo!

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About Eleonore:

Eléonore Crespo is a dynamic leader and co-founder of Pigment, a business planning platform designed to empower organizations to make better, faster decisions in an ever-evolving landscape. Built for agility and scale, Pigment connects people, data, and processes in one elegant, feature-rich platform that allows planners in every department to prepare for any eventuality. The company is trusted by industry-leading companies around the world including Unilever, Merck, Klarna, Miro, and Poshmark.

Before launching Pigment, Eléonore was an investor at Index Ventures, where she collaborated closely with entrepreneurs and led investments in innovative companies such as Alan, Spendesk, Swile, and Slite. Her prior experience includes a significant role as a senior analyst at Google, where she reported directly to the EMEA president and CFO, focusing on strategic planning and initiatives.

Eléonore holds a background in quantum physics and engineering, having studied at the prestigious École Normale Supérieure and the École Nationale Supérieure des Mines, two of France's most competitive institutions of higher education. Her unique blend of technical expertise and entrepreneurial insight positions her as a prominent figure in the business planning landscape.

Barak Turovsky is Executive in Residence at Scale Venture Partners, a leading Enterprise venture capital firm. Barak spent 10 years at Google as Head of Product and User Experience for Languages AI and the Google Translate teams, focused on applying cutting edge Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning technologies to deliver experiences across Google Search, Assistant, Cloud, Chrome, Ads and other products.

Prior to joining Google in 2011, Barak was Director of Product in Microsoft’s Mobile Advertising team, Head of Mobile Commerce at PayPal and Chief Technical Officer in an Israeli start up. Most recently, Barak served as Chief Product Officer – responsible for product management and engineering at Trax – a leading provider of Computer Vision AI solutions for the Retail and Commerce industries. 

 He lived for more than 10 years in Russia, Israel and the US and speaks three languages fluently. Barak earned a Bachelor’s of Law degree from Tel Aviv University and a Master’s of Business Administration from the University of California, Berkeley.

Barak’s recent work on AI:

• A framework for evaluating Generative AI use cases. 
• Barak's interview with GLG Experts Network about Generative AI
• Keynote at CES 2021 about latest and greatest in Languages AI 
• Talk at CES 2020 about dealing with bias in AI models (super relevant for ChatGBT/Generative AI)
• Google AI work with Google Ads team to improve ads targeting (Semantic Targeting) 
• The Great AI awakening story from New York Times (covering the first-ever productization of deep neural networks with Google Translate), is one of best written stories about ML/AI history and challenges 
• Barak presentation to Indian Prime Minister Modi when he visited Google campus
• For some fun – Google Translate vs. La Bamba (Google Translate team playing with visual, AR-based translation feature)

Cool investment thesis resource:
Y Combinator Investment Thesis Map for AI (Note: once again, “Productivity” hardly a big theme)

My guest today is Lara Abrash, Chair and CEO of Deloitte.  She is a true leader and I really enjoyed our time together. We discussed her personal journey and path, particularly an impressive trajectory in her career and how she has navigated it from a perspective of constantly evolving. Curiosity is a driver for being willing to evolve and an important tenet for any leader. 

My guest today is Alan Patricof, founding father of venture capital and author of a new book entitled, "No Red Lights: Reflections on Life, 50 Years in Venture Capital, and Never Driving Alone." Alan and I dig into the book and we also cover a potpourri of topics that had me feeling inspired for many days after our conversation.

Amir Hemmat is Co-Founder and CEO of Welcome Technologies (Welcome), the “digital Ellis Island '' and future operating system for immigration. Welcome is a venture funded technology platform that is building innovative financial solutions for this cohort, including a digital wallet, to ensure access to previously elusive opportunities and to propel this consumer sector, and our society, forward. Welcome is currently focused on the Hispanic community, the largest immigrant group in the world, through its consumer platform SABEResPODER® (SEP). The platform reaches over 9 million immigrants a year across 50 US markets and connects these consumers to custom financial services. To date, Welcome has raised $50 million from TTV Capital, Owl Ventures and SoftBank’s Opportunity Fund, with participation from Crosscut Ventures, Mubadala Capital, Next Play Capital and Owl Capital.

Prior to Welcome Tech, Amir co-founded an educational platform also called SABEResPODER (SEP). SEP provided informational content to the Hispanic community and produced comprehensive and practical information for navigating life in the United States, including topics such as healthcare, financial services, education, technology, and governmental services. Through SEP, he conducted in-depth market research on the U.S. immigrant market and co-authored educational guides on financial literacy, with millions of copies distributed nationwide.

Donato J. Tramuto is the author of The Double Bottom Line, How Compassionate Leaders Captivate Hearts and Deliver Results. 

Donato joins Bob to discuss his new book along with a superstar panel including Kurt Small, Senior Vice President & Chief Operating Officer for the Government Business Division at Anthem, Inc., Tom Riley, Chairman of the Board of Seniorlink, Laurie Cameron, Founder of PurposeBlue, and Phil Johnston, President & CEO of PWJ Associates.

My second guest of the new season is Ken Goldman, who currently serves as President of Hillspire, which is Eric and Wendy Schmidt’s family office. Eric, of course, being the former executive chairman of Google and its parent company, Alphabet. Ken is widely known in Silicon Valley and the broader business world, as well, having served as CFO of Yahoo, Fortinet, Siebel, and currently sits on a number of corporate, startup and non-profit boards.

Ken and I cover his high school days in Peabody, Mass. – where only 25% of his graduating class went to college, yet he managed his way to Cornell through grit and a competitive spirit – to his time at Cornell and Harvard Business School, and why he chose the technology industry as a career path at a time when it was an outlier. We also discuss why picking the right place to work when first starting out can make a huge difference (and the advice he gave his kids on this front). 

Ken also provides his views on why Silicon Valley is still a meritocracy (hint: there’s a lot of money around for the right ideas) and industries where he feels entrepreneurs should consider creating new companies, such as the political arena. As a longtime observer of the political sector, I agree completely. Of note, there are nearly 100 “decacorns” roaming around – unicorns with over $10Bn in value – and this number is growing every quarter. As such, Ken discusses his own investment philosophy as an angel investor as well as the focus at Hillspire, ranging from environment to human rights to non-profits. 

Finally, Ken and I dig into the notion of ethical businesses (and the importance of transparency with your boards), the non-profits that he’s involved in…what’s on his browser (fun fact: he’s a big weather buff)...and more.

PS: You’ll notice a trend with Ken and the conversation with my first guest of the season a few weeks ago, Mark Hawkins – both Ken and Mark have developed a widely respected personal and business ethos and have imbued this ethos in their teams, industry peers, and startups in which they invest. Dissecting this ethos is an overarching theme in both podcasts. Ken and Mark are leaders to whom other leaders look up. Lots of great learnings!

Ken’s Bio

Ken Goldman is the current president of Hillspire, a family office responsible for financial and administrative functions, along with real estate, aviation and maritime activities.

Goldman is the former chief financial officer of Yahoo. He joined Yahoo in 2012 and throughout his five-year tenure was responsible for Yahoo’s global finance functions, including financial planning and analysis, controllership, tax, treasury and investor relations. 

Mark Hawkins is an award-winning executive who, for four decades, has led finance organizations at global software and technology companies including Salesforce, Dell, and Hewlett-Packard.

Raised in Michigan, Mark attended Michigan State where he studied operations management. His first job was at Hewlett-Packard where, at just 21, he was a buyer for the supply chain by day and getting his MBA in finance from University of Colorado Springs by night. Hewlett-Packard later sponsored him to attend the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School.

Mark was the President and CFO of Salesforce until 2021 and is currently a board member at Toast, Plaid, DataRobot, Secureworks, and sits on the NYSE Listed Company Advisory Board.

Hi Gang, we’re kicking off the Fall podcast season with a deep dive discussion around longevity and anti-aging with Elysium Health’s Co-founder and CEO, Eric Marcotulli.

I interviewed Eric at the Executive Council’s annual Health & Biotech Summit in 2017, which feels like forever ago, particularly given all of the buzz around anti-aging regimens and the popularization of the space from various industry leaders and mainstream press.

To start off, Eric and I discuss why it’s important to track aging. This might seem like a basic questions but the idea of “aging” isn’t so much about “old age” as it is about addressing health in a more holistic manner, as you’ll learn. Chronological age is only a number, in a sense, and what might matter most is cellular age. More on that in our discussion.

We also talk about quantifying and measuring products such as Elysium’s Basis, which is Eric’s core product. Elysium also has a product called Index which measures your biological age and also tracks your cumulative rate of aging which may be the most important metric of all. Absorption rate of products like Basis is also an important factor and we hit on that, as well. 

On the personal front, we touch on Eric’s evolving daily regimen vis a vis supplements and routines (AM/PM, exercise, diet, etc.). It’s always fun to discuss  this particular topic with guests because I personally get tips that I can use and of course you can hopefully gain some actionable tips, too. 

Finally, we talk about what’s coming down the pipeline for Elysium and across the industry and what Eric is most excited about.  

Eric Marcotulli, Elysium Health co-founder and chief executive officer, graduated from  Harvard Business School and joined Sequoia Capital as its youngest partner to lead growth  investing in mobile technologies. While in Silicon Valley, Marcotulli realized that despite the  significant, positive impact of new technologies on our understanding of health and disease, 

there remained a lack of innovation in the consumer-facing portion of the healthcare market  beyond wearables and basic mobile apps. 

With a keen interest in aging research and its potential to have a profound impact on the most important areas of health, he wanted to create a company focused on developing compelling compounds found in nature that support long-term health.