Flux
31 episodes - English - Latest episode: almost 3 years ago - ★★★★★ - 59 ratingsFlux is a podcast about the pioneers building companies at the frontier of technology. This series of interviews goes beyond the soundbites, allowing some of the most interesting players in technology to share their insider expertise and explain the challenges they face in building the future. Hosted by Alice Lloyd George.
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Episodes
30: Noor Siddiqui —Predicting Your Future Child’s Health Just Got Easier
June 25, 2021 16:43 - 27 minutes - 38 MBOn today's episode I speak with Noor Siddiqui, the founder of Orchid, a company that quantifies the genetic risks of your future children. We discuss the plunge in genome sequencing costs and why Orchid's ability to predict polygenic diseases impacts so many families compared to predicting single-gene diseases. Noor reveals what it was like starting a company remotely during COVID, how her mother's own rare disease motivated her and what genetic privilege means. We discuss her path from ...
29: Kevin Caldwell — A Bio Bank for the Future
December 28, 2020 23:09 - 23 minutes - 32.7 MBIn the last Flux episode of 2020, Alice talks with Kevin Caldwell, founder and CEO of Ossium Health, a company building the first bank of on-demand bone marrow stem cells and developing therapeutics to treat leukemia, blood cancer, and other diseases. Kevin discusses how he navigated his many career options and how his time with grandparents shaped his values. After graduating law school and getting degrees in physics and economics, working at McKinsey and at hedge funds, Kevin realized h...
28: Adam Arrigo—The Show Must Go Beyond
October 23, 2020 09:09 - 42 minutes - 57.8 MBFlux fandom. In today's episode Alice talks with Adam Arrigo, co-founder and CEO of Wave, a live virtual concert company. Adam has been pushing the frontier of music his whole life, from touring as a musician to designing Rockband the game at Harmonix. In 2016 Adam and Aaron Lemke founded Wave. Along the way the company has evolved and worked with artists including Imogen Heap, Kill the Noise, Tokimonsta, Galantis, Rezz, John Legend and the Weeknd. Today Wave distributes imaginative, inter...
27: Alex Bisignano — Decoding Pandemic Genetics
June 09, 2020 00:20 - 24 minutes - 55.7 MBHi from Alice and the Flux team. We hope you are safe and well. In the latest episode I talk with Alex Bisignano, founder of Phosphorus is the second ever company to be approved by the FDA for at-home saliva testing to detect COVID-19. Alex has been on the frontlines of the pandemic in New York City. While most companies are using synthetic data, Alex and his team have collected live samples from patients in the lab. Phosphorus has been able to rapidly develop virus and antibody test pr...
26: Andy Coravos — A Brave New World of Digital Medicine
February 13, 2020 02:56 - 37 minutes - 68.2 MBWelcome back to Flux! In this episode I talk with Andy Coravos the co-founder of Elektra Labs, which is building a future of digital medicine that's data-driven and secure. Recently we’ve seen an explosion of wearables and sensors in healthcare. How accurate are these monitoring tools? How secure are they from hackers? Elektra is cataloguing these distributed devices and has created benchmarks for pharmaceutical companies, doctors and device makers. We're also now seeing the advent of digita...
25: LaTurbo Avedon — the Avatar That Grew up in Cyberspace
September 16, 2019 14:15 - 25 minutes - 57.3 MBIn this episode we try out a new format. I talk remotely with LaTurbo Avedon, an online avatar who has been active as an artist and curator since 2008. Her responses have been run through a speech synthesizer. Recently we've seen a wave of next-gen virtual stars rise up, from Lil Miquela in the west to pop-stars like Kizuna AI in the east. As real-time avatar representation becomes more accessible, what emergent behaviors will we see and what will our virtual relationships look like? L...
24: Matt Cauble—Soylent’s Co-Founder Goes After Alcohol
August 23, 2019 21:16 - 37 minutes - 86.5 MBIn this episode I talk with Matt Cauble the co-founder of Kin Euphorics, a functional beverage company that aims to reduce stress — “all bliss, no booze.” Matt was previously a co-founder of Soylent and he shares tales from the company’s early days, describing how they made one of the largest pivots in YC history from building software-defined radios to meal-replacement shakes. He explains why Soylent resonated and we get into co-founder Rob Rhinehart's latest interest in space settlement an...
23: Eric Marcotulli—Bottling the Fountain of Youth
August 15, 2019 19:08 - 41 minutes - 94.6 MBEric Marcotulli is the co-founder of Elysium, a life sciences company developing consumer-facing health products based on aging research. Elysium's first product is Basis, a supplement that increases NAD levels and activates sirtuins, boosting cellular health and longevity. In the latest episode of Flux we discuss why longevity companies like Sirtris Pharmaceuticals failed, which was initially bought for $720 million in 2008. Eric explains why going direct to consumer is the best stra...
22: Isaac Cohen —An XR Trailblazer on how to Build Humane Technology
January 03, 2019 01:24 - 42 minutes - 39 MBIn the this episode I sit down with Isaac Cohen (Cabbibo), a fascinating creator at the forefront of VR and AR who has released a number of apps and experiences that push the boundaries - you can find some of his pieces on Steam. He has a background in physics and interface design, previously worked at Leap Motion, and has been an artist in residence at Unity and Adobe. Isaac shares his views on why realism in VR is the wrong approach and how developers need to approach it in a transformativ...
21: Alban Denoyel—One Billion 3D Views and Counting
November 15, 2018 20:04 - 30 minutes - 27.6 MBAlban Denoyel is the CEO of Sketchfab, a 3D hub to publish, share, buy and sell 3D, VR and AR content. We discuss the history of the business and what the company has learned from Youtube and why they are pursuing a distributed content strategy. Alban shares how power creators are using the platform to monetize content, the powerful role 3D plays in cultural heritage, and the importance of figuring out standards and formats in 3D. With Sketchfab crossing 1 billion cumulative page views, Goog...
20: Thomas Reardon—Building an API for the Brain
October 31, 2018 13:05 - 42 minutes - 38.6 MBThomas Reardon is the cofounder and CEO of CTRL-labs, a company building an electromyography-based armband that decodes the brain's intentions, enabling users to control digital devices using their mind. In this fun and wide-ranging conversation we get into Reardon's early years at Microsoft, and how building a web startup in the 1990s and launching Internet Explorer has informed his thinking. He describes how he had a realization about changing his career path and decided later in life t...
19: Assaf Glazer—Solving the Mystery of Sleep
September 18, 2018 06:11 - 25 minutes - 23.3 MBAssaf Glazer is the founder and CEO of Nanit, a baby monitor and human analytics company that helps parents navigate their child’s sleep. In this episode we get into Assaf's experience working in the Israeli defense and on chip manufacturing, and how he parlayed his computer vision background into building a New York startup. He discusses what he has learned about human centric design, and the pros and cons of manufacturing a consumer electronics product in China versus the United States. He...
18: Austin Woolridge—Where Playas Play
July 05, 2018 23:23 - 30 minutes - 28.3 MBAustin Woolridge is the co-founder and CEO of Players Lounge, a site that allows casual gamers to compete against each other and win money in games like FIFA, Fortnight, Madden, NBA 2K, MLB, NHL, and Call of Duty. In this episode we get into Austin's path into entrepreneurship, co-founder Zach Dixon's impressive efforts pitching investors, how Y Combinator had such an impact on him and the team, and why New York had the special ingredients necessary to start his company. He reveals what he t...
17: Dean Kamen—The Myth of Eureka
December 31, 2017 21:06 - 50 minutes - 46.4 MBDean Kamen is an engineer, businessman and inventor who holds over 400 patents. He is the man behind the Segway as well as the first wearable infusion pump. Through his R&D company DEKA he has continued to deliver one innovation after the other, from the iBOT a motorized wheelchair that climbs stairs, to the Slingshot water purifier for the developing world, as well as the Stirling generator which turns waste into power. In this episode we get into Dean's thoughts on inventing, why he thinks...
16: Keller Rinaudo—Building the Sky Ambulance
December 24, 2017 03:17 - 56 minutes - 52 MBKeller Rinaudo is the CEO of Zipline, a company building instant delivery that currently supplies 20% of Rwanda's national blood supply via drone. In this episode, we get into the future of autonomous infrastructure, the importance of government risk-taking when it comes to innovation, and what he thinks it will take for the U.S. to regain its entrepreneurial spirit. Keller also shares his thoughts on designing a full-stack hardware product and service, how his parents impacted his ability t...
15: Arthur Hayes — The Wild West of Crypto Futures
December 06, 2017 19:57 - 57 minutes - 53 MBArthur Hayes is the CEO of Hong Kong based BitMEX, one of the first cryptocurrency derivatives exchanges that currently ranks #1 in bitcoin USD futures volume. This episode reveals the thinking of a trader who’s been at the forefront of the market for three years. Arthur discusses the structural issues he thinks the CME and CBOE may face when they launch crypto trading in the U.S. next week, why his perpetual 100X leverage swap products is the most popular, and why he thinks valuation models...
14: Kathleen Breitman — Tezos Unleashed
July 11, 2017 17:35 - 38 minutes - 35.2 MBKathleen Breitman is the co-founder and CEO of Tezos, a self-amending blockchain platform. In this episode Kathleen reveals how flaws in bitcoin's design inspired Tezos to bake governance mechanisms into the blockchain itself. She discusses the rationale around doing an uncapped crowdsale, why they chose to set up a non-profit in Switzerland to receive the funds, and how they have responded to DDOS and phishing attacks. Kathleen also discusses her identification as an anarchist-capitalist an...
13: Helen Greiner—Robot Queen
July 05, 2017 16:28 - 24 minutes - 22.6 MBHelen Greiner was the co-founder of iRobot, the company behind the Roomba and PackBot, and is now the founder of CyPhy Works, a leading commercial drone company. In this episode of Flux, Helen reveals why timing the market is so critical for founders, what she's learned about product iteration, and why she thinks the sky is a natural superhighway for drone delivery. Helen also gets into her work with the Pentagon using the PackBot to save lives to Iraq, how to get more women into technology,...
12: Blake Scholl—Mach II with Your Hair on Fire
May 30, 2017 14:35 - 31 minutes - 28.4 MBBlake Scholl is the founder and CEO of Denver-based Boom, a supersonic jet company. Blake gets into how the Concorde business model was flawed, why it takes an outsider to re-ignite innovation in the industry, and how simulation software has greatly reduced the time and cost of plane design. Blake also reveals how he taught himself the basics of the business on Wikipedia, why dropping out of high school was one of the best things he did, and how bringing supersonic air travel to the masses w...
11: Bill Doyle—Electric Feels
April 28, 2017 17:55 - 26 minutes - 24.5 MBBill Doyle is executive chairman of Novocure, an Israeli company using an entirely new method to fight cancer: electric fields. Bill tells the story of the founder of Novocure, his unorthodox approach to problem-solving, and how he was able to commercialize a therapy that was considered voodoo science. He also discusses why the research grant process is broken and the FDA's challenge balancing progress with safety. Bill has had a wide-ranging career in healthcare, spanning his time running...
10: Natalya Bailey— Propelling the Future
April 17, 2017 00:16 - 23 minutes - 21.3 MBNatalya Bailey is co-founder and CEO of Accion Systems, an MIT spin-out commercializing miniature propulsion systems for satellites that enable them to maneuver in space. Natalya reveals why legacy manufacturers are unable to build these non-traditional engines, how she's handled the jump from academia to business, and what she's learned from Bill Swanson of Raytheon about managing a team. She also discusses how the Apollo mission helped push computing forward, her interest in aliens an...
09: Gary Marcus— Making AI More Human
April 01, 2017 15:43 - 31 minutes - 28.6 MBGary Marcus, best-selling author and NYU professor, has spent decades studying how children learn and is a known critic of deep learning. Gary was the founder and CEO of Geometric Intelligence, which uses insights from cognitive psychology to build better AI systems. Gary discusses why we still have a long way to go to get to Strong AI and why his sparse data approach is so valuable. We also get into the challenges for AI startups competing with the resources of Google, how corporates aren't...
08: Sophia Dominguez — Building the Search Engine for VR
March 18, 2017 19:52 - 34 minutes - 31.3 MBSophia Dominguez is co-founder and CEO of SVRF, a company making VR content discoverable. Sophia discusses how consumers are scared of the term "virtual reality", why nausea is critical in search rankings, how Snapchat will help bridge the gap to AR, and why Facebook's VR privacy policy is alarming. Sophia also reveals the challenges of being a woman in the industry, why building a company in New York is a better reality check than building in the Silicon Valley bubble, why VR zombies are a ...
07: Paul Dabrowski — The CRISPR Revolution
February 27, 2017 15:34 - 25 minutes - 23.7 MBPaul Dabrowski is co-founder and CEO of Synthego, a company building a platform of tools for scientists. Paul discusses why CRISPR is much more precise than other gene editing techniques, how China has been pushing ethical boundaries, what it's like building a company with your brother, and how his time at SpaceX shaped the way he thinks.
06: Balaji Srinivasan— The Third Web is Coming
February 17, 2017 15:52 - 26 minutes - 24.5 MBBalaji Srinivasan is CEO of 21, a company building the machine payable web. Balaji discusses how his software enables you to earn bitcoin for doing tasks on your phone, why ranking inbound email by most recent first is inefficient, how China's special economic zones had such an impact, why preserving your personal runway is so important, and how Silicon Valley is an exporter of innovation culture.
05: Peter Platzer— The Weather Wizard
February 10, 2017 23:34 - 31 minutes - 28.8 MBPeter Platzer is co-founder and CEO of Spire, a company building one of the fastest growing satellite constellations. Peter discusses how his tiny satellites will deliver dramatically better weather forecasting, why private companies are getting into space, how he deals with the risk of rockets blowing up and why he considers himself a citizen of Planet Earth. We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected] or message us on our Facebook page FluxFeed. Follow us on Twitter a...
04: Gabi Lewis— Crickets are the New Kale
February 03, 2017 23:02 - 31 minutes - 28.7 MBGabi Lewis is co-founder of Brooklyn-based Exo, a startup that makes cricket powder protein bars. Gabi talks about ordering 2,000 live crickets to his university housing, what they've learned from sushi's rise in America, and how they're marketing their insects. We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected] or message us on our Facebook page FluxFeed. Follow us on Twitter and Medium under the handle @thefluxpodcast
03: Matthew Rendall— Rise of the Robots
January 27, 2017 19:05 - 23 minutes - 21.3 MBMatt Rendall is co-founder and CEO of Clearpath Robotics, a Canadian company automating dull, dirty and dangerous tasks. Clearpath manufactures and operates vehicles for warehouses and distribution centers – they are the self-driving car for indoor industrial tasks. Matt talks about how he made the jump from academia to business, Robotics as a Service, what automation means for jobs in the U.S., and his open letter against “killer robots.” We'd love to hear from you! Email us at fluxpodcas...
02: Philip Rosedale— Hello, Metaverse
January 20, 2017 17:39 - 42 minutes - 38.4 MBPhilip Rosedale is the founder and CEO of High Fidelity, a company providing the building blocks for virtual worlds. Phillip discusses how Virtual Reality parallels the early Web, what he learned from building the virtual civilization Second Life, what it means to move from 2D to 3D browsing, the importance of trustworthy digital identities and whether we are all in a simulation.
01: Micah Winkelspecht— How the Blockchain Can Fix Healthcare
January 20, 2017 17:38 - 38 minutes - 35.5 MBMicah Winkelspecht, founder and CEO of Gem, on how he fell down the bitcoin rabbit hole, how the crypto community has evolved, why our healthcare system is so dysfunctional, and why blockchain is the best solution.
Trailer
January 06, 2017 22:45 - 1 minute - 1.52 MBWelcome to Flux, a podcast about the people building the future.