Venturi's Voice: Technology | Leadership | Staffing | Career | Innovation

Alex Brims is CTO at Lickd, the first commercial music licencing platform. Alex is a Development Team Leader, Coder, Software Architect, or System Admin. He has 15 years of wide ranging experience and a dedication to constantly improving his knowledge & skills. He has scaled systems to handle hundredfold increases in load, successfully modernised legacy codebases, architected and built large software systems from scratch, and built and led several highly successful teams His main interest is music and has always aimed for jobs in the music industry. Being involved in the use of technology to empower & provide services for musicians & songwriters is my key mission in his work. Lickd is a new and innovative tech startup that aims to disrupt the music licensing industry for good by creating the world’s first pre-cleared, commercial music licensing solution for online video creators. Before now, licensing music was for professionals and traditional media only. Production companies making tv shows

DCX is a modern-day acceleration agency. They exist to offer brands a versatile partner to tackle complex business, marketing, and digital challenges. DCX is part of the Paragon group. Paragon DCX has been around for over twenty years in different guises. They are the coming-together of globally-renowned creative, data, and customer communications powerhouses; digital experience specialists; marketing automation rock-stars; and mobile application, digital product and platform gurus. They have delivered award-winning work, and transformed marketing and business for brands such as Comic Relief, Coventry Building Society, Pepper Financial Services, Greene King, Goldman Sachs, Great Western Railway, Aviva, Bupa, as well as many more. As a digital native throughout his career, Keith has led digital infrastructure programmes across businesses in the public and private sectors. With the last 12 years spent building the highly successful agency ORM, Keith now leads our technology strategy, ensuring we are providin

Christoph Neuhaus is the Founder at Wertfaktor, based in Hamburg. Before this, Christoph was a senior associate at Corporate Finance partners CFP and Founders Investments. He bears a masters degree in business administration and a degree in media communications. Wertfaktor was developed by Dr. Alexander Ey and Christoph in Hamburg - with the aim of helping real estate owners in their third phase of life to achieve more financial freedom. As an innovative financial service provider, it enables owners to convert part of their real estate assets into cash assets. They do not have to give up the further use of their residential property, retain full control over their property and even benefit from a future increase in value During this podcast episode, Ben sits down with Christoph to discuss the story of how the business was founded, the challenges Christoph faces when hiring, and the future of Wertfaktor Immobilien.

Cameron Millard is Lead Software Developer at Shopblocks. Shopblocks is a website platform enabling businesses of all sizes to create bespoke websites and online shops without the limitations of templates or the expense of developers. Shopblocks gives you the tools to manage and make changes to your website, without the need to code. Cameron's passion for technology spawned from an early age to building websites at school, and becoming a developer straight out of university, and since then has developed his own leadership style, leading his team of engineers at Shopblocks. During this podcast episode, Ben sits down with Cameron to discuss recent developments in technology and if they're always the best option for engineers, they also spoke about the dunning-kruger effect in leadership, and how to continue to learn from new developers coming into the industry to help you as a leader and developer.

James Gosling is Engineering Manager at McLaren Applied. James is an experienced Software & Analytics Engineering Manager with a demonstrated history of working in the information technology and services industry. Skilled in Agile Delivery, Requirements Analysis, Testing, Technical Project Leadership and Application Architecture. Strong software delivery professional with a Master of Engineering (MEng) focused in Computer Software Engineering from The University of Sheffield. For over 30 years McLaren Applied have led the digital transformation of motorsport through electronics and data systems, and now also develop innovative technologies that drive positive, sustainable change in automotive, transport, and beyond. During this Podcast episode, Ben sits down with James to discuss leadership styles and how James has adapted to leading teams of teams. They also spoke about some of the challenges that McLaren Applied has faced when applying their Formula 1/Automotive technology to real-world situations.

Federico Cicchi is Head of Software Development at XYZ Reality and responsible for dedicated engineering teams, driving complex milestone deliveries and dynamic technical solutions for the world's first engineering grade AR device Federico is a highly qualified Software Engineer with 22 years of software development experience, covering system architecture design, robotics, artificial intelligence, AAA games and augmented reality. He has become an expert in translating system requirements into concrete design and anticipating and resolving performance issues. XYZ Reality is the UK start-up behind HoloSite and The Atom, the world’s first Engineering-Grade Augmented Reality company. On a mission to eliminate 2D in its entirety and bring an industry in decline back to life, XYZ Reality is enabling construction workers around the world to build from holograms and it’s making a huge dent on the 77% of megaprojects that overrun globally. Construction workers can now view and position design models on site to 5mm

Doug McConchie is Head of Data and Analytics at HSO. Doug is a highly experienced management consultant specialising in the transformation of data into business insights and value. He works within the IOT, Business Intelligence, Analytics and Performance Management community. He helps organisations better acquire, manage, measure, report & analyse their data, leveraging insights to improve their performance. His cutting edge work with well known businesses and public sector institutions equips him with a wealth of experience. He has advised and worked with some of the world’s best known organisations including: BP, Credit Agricole, Deutsche Telecom, ExxonMobil, Gartner, Hitachi, Mars, Ministry of Defence, NHS, RBS, RSA, SAB Miller, Sony, and Shell, among many others. His 20+ years consulting expertise is rooted in the practicalities of making solutions work at the operational level and developing new ways of harnessing data for commercial advantage. His engagements currently cover the development of im

David Simons is Software Engineering Manager at Kaluza. Davis is leading two cross-functional teams (Data Warehousing; Public Interfaces) - 14 engineers total - that together form the public interface for Kaluza, a real-time energy platform supporting energy retailers in multiple regions. These teams are responsible for building centralised GraphQL, EventBridge and BigQuery APIs over decentralised Kafka microservices using a Data Mesh architecture, as well as surrounding tooling and documentation. Kaluza is an ecosystem of intelligent platforms powering the future of energy. From revolutionising billing to smart electric vehicle charging, Kaluza’s technology is empowering some of the biggest energy suppliers to better serve millions of customers. Its real-time cloud platforms transform supplier operations, reducing cost to serve and boosting customer engagement. Powered by Kaluza, suppliers can invest in innovating for tomorrow’s customers and drive decarbonisation with smart, low carbon technologies that n

Andreas Balser is the Chief Technology Officer of Dopavision. He is passionate to merge his experience from product management, software and technology management as well as strategy consulting to make our vision become reality. His healthcare industry experience allows him to ensure Dopavision’s product and processes adhere to the highest regulatory standards. He has previously worked with Meierhofer AG and McKinsey&Company, among others. Dopavision is pioneering the development of digital therapeutics in ophthalmology. They are developing a game-changing therapeutic for childhood myopia which can be easily administered by using a smartphone app. Their goal is to provide a clinically validated therapeutic to help in the fight against the global myopia crisis. During this podcast episode, Ben sits down with Andreas to discover the incredible new game-changing technology Dopavision are applying to help fight the Myopia crisis in children.

Alex Norman is Head of Front End at Upside Technology, and an experienced lead front-end engineer who builds products and teams from scratch. Upside is an investment app that will develop, harness and maximise the skills you need to become an expert investor. Investing is complex but it doesn’t need to be difficult and their app and connected products provide you with all the tools you need to make investment decisions with confidence. Through bespoke insights, scientific analysis, and a smart framework used by professional portfolio managers, Upside help you gain the skills and confidence you need to invest in an educated, sustainable and risk-aware way. During this podcast episode, Ben sits down with Alex to discuss the technologies that have helped Alex and his team build the app in 3 months, general patterns of building front-end features, and Alex's leadership style and advice.

Andrea Dante Bozzola is Engineering Manager at Yelp. Yelp connects people with great local businesses. Their users have contributed approximately 155 million cumulative reviews of almost every type of local business, from restaurants, boutiques and salons to dentists, mechanics, plumbers and more. These reviews are written by people using Yelp to share their everyday local business experiences, giving voice to consumers and bringing “word of mouth” online. During this podcast episode, Ben sits down with Andrea to discuss the age-old question of the difference between leadership and management, what motivates someone to become a leader or manager, and what is good leadership at its core.

Sarah Müller is Chief Commercial Officer at zolar, and formerly Managing Director of Kununu. Their mission is to build a solar plant on every roof in the world. Zolar enables homeowners to produce their own green electricity and at the same time make an active contribution to climate protection. Sarah is responsible for the development and expansion of the sales organization of the fast-growing start-ups with a focus on strong scaling of Marketing and Sales.  During this podcast episode, Ben sits down with Sarah to discuss Sarah's career history, employer branding and why it's so important for businesses to get right; as well as practical advice on how to measure employer branding, and what we can expect to see in the future for Zolar.

Pete Dignan is Head of PistonHeads Engineering and Consumer Engagement at CarGurus. CarGurus uses data and technology to make buying cars simple, giving people the tools they need to confidently find, buy, finance, or sell a car. They’re the most-visited car-shopping site in the US, and they're expanding globally. Pete is a great communicator and has spoken at multiple conferences including Google's Adopt or Die, MongoDB Meetup, ElasticSearch breakfast seminar, and Figaro Digital Conference.  During this podcast episode, Ben sits down with Pete to discuss measuring business success across different departments and how Pete connects business value to an engineering change.

Sam Curtis is CEO of Big Sofa Technologies, and has worked across a variety of disciplines, and with a wide variety of clients but have always retained a strong global focus to the work he has done. Big Sofa Technologies uses video to transform human behaviors and patterns into actionable data to identify business-changing design, communication and innovation opportunities for their clients. Their pioneering platform transforms video into an accessible, interactive, and sustainable data source, to help clients explore how people live, shop, and consume. Alongside their team of behavioral experts, this Visual Insights System helps their clients understand and analyze real human behaviors and patterns in the spaces and places they occur, delivering new-to-the-world analytics and insights. During this Podcast episode, Ben sits down with Sam to discuss how BST have built groundbreaking machine learning which recognises human behavior, as well as Intelligence Augmentation – which enables machines and humans to

Lawrence Lilley is CTO @ MUTUAL VISION  Lawrence is an information technology professional experienced in executing IT delivery for organisational success. An established record of clear strategic leadership and collaboration to develop, innovate and simplify organisational processes to deliver measurable benefit. MUTUAL VISION is a tech business uniquely owned by their customer community of UK building societies and banks and wholly focused on meeting their needs in an ethical way. During this Podcast episode, Ben sits down with Lawrence to discuss Lawrence's leadership style, the difference between a Manager and a Leader, and the importance of diversity in your workforce.

Shane Armstrong started his career in the Military, then moved to work for the Police force, and now is Software Engineering Manager at a world leading Bank. Learning about leadership from a young age defined Shane's future; during this podcast episode, we hear stories from Shane's past in the Military and the Police force and how these learnings have shaped his leadership style as Software Engineering manager at one of the world-leading banks.

Jason Vogel is Head of Engineering at BrandAlley.co.uk Founded in 2008, BrandAlley.co.uk has established itself as the UK’s number one private sales site, offering up to 80% off luxury and premium brands. During this Podcast episode, Ben sits down with Jason to discuss Jason's career in tech, emigrating from South Africa to the UK, the different cultures in technology, and how Jason and his team at BrandAlley.co.uk prepare for periods of increased popularity and demand, such as Black Friday.

Joe Pettersson is a technology leader with a focus on building inclusive, productive and fun engineering and product teams. Joe has worked in a lot of different domains, but has a particular passion for developer tools and B2B SaaS businesses. He is also an active angel and seed investor in the European technology eco-system.  Banked is a fintech startup that powers real-time payments for consumers, businesses and banks. Their dream is to ensure everyone gets paid in the fastest, cheapest, most efficient way possible, so they’re driving an irreversible shift in global payments. During the podcast episode, Ben sits down with Joe to discuss how to successfully scale happy, diverse and motivated engineering teams. They also discussed Joe's book 'Scaling Engineering', (set to be released on July 2022) which consists of interviews with over 400 engineering leaders. "Scaling engineering teams is difficult. It's complex, time-consuming and at times it can feel unintuitive. A few can turn to their networks as they

Saima Mahmood is Software Development Manager at Oracle. After joining Oracle as a Scrum Master, Saima was promoted to Software Development Manager following her success in leading and organising the team she was working with and delivering everything that was planned across two releases, through detailed planning and communication. Oracle is a cloud technology company that provides organizations around the world with computing infrastructure and software to help them innovate, unlock efficiencies and become more effective. Oracle also created the world’s first – and only – autonomous database to help organize and secure their customers’ data. During this podcast episode, Ben sits down with Saima to discuss driving diversity in the tech space, Inspiring the next generation, promoting recruitment to attract all types of people, and some of the reasons why people may avoid a career in technology.

Max Ostermeier is CEO of Implandata Implandata is going to transform the management of glaucoma patients. 80 million patients are at risk of permanent loss of eyesight because of glaucoma. Management of glaucoma patients is primarily eye center based. Disease status and progression is unknown in between office visits, resulting in irreversible vision loss at a significant number of patients. Implandata’s breakthrough EYEMATE system introduces remote management and care of glaucoma. Crucial disease parameters are collected at the patient, AI analyzed and provided real-time to the ophthalmologist, enabling personalized therapy guidance. During this Podcast episode, Ben sits down with Max to discuss how Implandata began, how the cutting edge tech works, how to successfully get a product out to market from scratch and the future of tech and data-driven healthcare.