Thoughts of an internationally experienced growth stage CEO and Board Member
Was wonderful chatting with Peter Renton of LendIt as a guest on his PodCast. Peter is a really interesting guy, with some superb insights about the FinTech industry.
You can subscribe to the Lend Academy Podcast via iTunes or Stitcher. To listen to this podcast episode there is an audio player directly below or you can download the MP3 file here.
As usual, a great post from Brad Feld, on the recently published "Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup"
“The best founders that I’ve worked with combine a mix of their aspirational goals with a real grounding in the current reality of where the business is. They know that their aspirational goals are goals – not current reality. And they know that there isn’t a straight line to the goals. If they use their reality distortion field as a charismatic founder, it’s to motivate their team to build something, not deceive investors or customers into believing it has been built.
Because, after all, in the end, we are all vulnerable to facts.”
How true ...
Mary Meeker's must watch Internet Trends Report. I feel so strongly about this that the report from last year is actually the last post I made on the blog, roughly one year ago. Not very good ... it's been a busy year clearly ...
Each year I try to share Mary Meeker's Internet Trends Report, as I consider it a must watch. This year is no exception.
The streets in Moscow were packed this weekend with the city's annual celebrations. So I had a chance to wander around, enjoying this beautiful place.
I have been discovering that Moscow does have a vibrant Electronic Music scene, and I managed to discover a number of great music stores in the city, eventually ending up in one and picking up a small traveling production keyboard (an AKAI) to complement my CME xkey.
Doesn't quite measure up to the rig at home, but it does fit in a backpack, and I did manage to get some much needed time in Maschine.
The following is a useful review of current FinTech industry trends and insights, in addition to an overview of recent activities by both Fortune 500 companies and startups' in the space.
The report covers banking tech (security, crm, analytics), payments (pos, money transfer, commerce), cyber currency (blockchain, bitcoin, wallets, cryptocurrency exchanges), business finance (lending, crowdfunding), personal finance (lending, wealth management, mortgage, credit), and alternative cores (banking, insurance).
The annual Code conference is a treasure trove of insights and information from the A-LIst of the tech world, and this year doesn't disappoint. If you have time, you should really try to review most of the content, but here are four presentations/interviews worth watching this weekend.
The first is Mary Meeker's annual "state of the internet" update ... a fast paced review of key trends ... and it is required watching every year, in my opinion.
The second, Walt's interview with Jeff Bezos at Amazon.com, is filled with interesting perspectives, and data points. Amazon will continue to be a powerful force in retail, infrastructure, logistics and AI for years to come, and Jeff's vision is worth understanding.
The third is Sundar Pichai, CEO Google who covers where Google is heading with AI, how they are trying to make it easier and more helpful to consumers, and some of the ways in which they are thinking about complex issues such as privacy.
The final is Elon Musk's interview with Kara and Walt. Elon is one of the key influencers of our time, and is involved in a number of groundbreaking investments on earth and in space. Worth understanding this fascinating individual, and his vision and insights. He also delivers a simple overview of what it takes to really launch a rocket and then recover it .. appealing to your inner geek.
Fighting words from Gabe Laydon, CEO of Machine Zone, one of the largest buyers of advertising in the world. Definitely will spark a debate between those on all sides of the advertising ecosystem.
I don't agree with everything he says ... in fact, for some companies, at certain stages in their evolution, brand advertising matters a great deal. However, his call for accountability, traceability and precision in media spend, and in particular the need for trackable ROI, is compelling.
Excerpt below and the full video from the original re/code article.
“Do you hate TV ads? Gabe Leydon does, too.
Except, unlike you, Gabe Leydon buys lots of TV ads: He runs Machine Zone, the game company behind all of those Mobile Strike ads with Arnold Schwarzenegger you’ve been seeing for the past few months. And the Kate Upton Game of War ads you saw last year, too.
Leydon buys those ads because he says he has to buy those ads. But he thinks they are terribly inefficient, as is almost all brand advertising: The stuff that Google, Facebook and everyone else on the Web would very much like to move online.
That’s a terrible idea, Leydon told the crowd at Code/Media last week, because almost all brand advertising is nothing more than a slush fund that feeds lazy advertisers, publishers and networks, who want to avoid accountability.
Real advertising, he argues, is the kind he buys for his games on mobile platforms like Facebook, which provide instant, precise accountability for the dollars he spends.
When Leydon laid this out for the Code/Media attendees, he freaked out most of the room — presumably because he was telling most of the room that they needed to get new jobs, stat.
It’s also possible that Leydon’s argument isn’t as strong as he thinks it is, since many advertisers want to sell things that can’t be purchased via your phone the way mobile games are. And that figuring out how to sell that stuff is always going to involve science and art, as MediaLink COO Wenda Harris Millard argued at the end of Leydon’s session.”
Sat down this weekend to work on a new track, and in fact, a completely new genre for me.
Despite having been born in Jamaica, I have never tried my hand at Reggae, although I have always been a fan.
This track, built with the help of the Black Arc Expansion pack from Native Instruments, blends some Reggae, Dub, Cuban and Calypso inspired themes. Still a work in progress.
I fly somewhere between 340-400K KMS each year, and that (obviously) implies spending hours on planes.
Although I tend to work one way, often catching up on the deluge of eMails that piles up in my inbox, I try to take some time and recharge on the way back.
In my case, this involves writing music. For me, it's not only a great way to stimulate a completely different part of my brain, there is something about the process of creation that is all consuming and makes time pass very quickly.
I carry a very smart little keyboard from CME called the xKEY. It is low profile, fits in any knapsack or shoulder bag alongside a laptop, and yet is velocity sensitive, complete with after touch. In fact, all you need is an xKey, a Laptop, and your favourite DAW, and you have a fully functional recording studio at 40,000 feet.
On the flight back from London yesterday, I spent some time on a new piece of music, enjoying and leveraging some fantastic instruments from Edwardo Tarilonte in addition to a new vocal instrument from Output, called Exhale. I would recommend you checking both of them out. I have barely scratched the surface of these libraries, and they are unreal.
So for what it's worth, here is the track that kept me occupied on the 7.5 hour flight across the atlantic yesterday, as did the unbelievable "alien" clouds (as you can see in the picture below). Caveat: the piece is still very much a work in progress.
Once you get past the opening preamble, this turns into an Interesting interview with Marty Chavez, the CIO of Goldman Sachs on a wide range of subjects.
As a challenge, perhaps jokingly, a friend suggested that I try a remix of Carmina Burana.
This is a wonderful piece of music, but not a trivial one to work with as (a) it changes key, and (b) it often changes tempo ... not to mention having a wide range of moods and tonality.
Here is the first draft (and very much still a work in progress) of three of the movements. The main elements of Carmina were extracted using Native Instruments Traktor, with additional voices from the Komplete library played in on an AKAI MPK225 and a Native Instruments Komplete S62.
A work in progress remix of Carmina Burana, re-imagined with some Dub overtones. Traktor used to extract some of the components, original voices and arrangement added on a Komplete S and MPK 225 using Komplete Ultimate Library ... assembled in Bitwig Studio.
A must see presentation from Scott Galloway of NYU Stern, on the Four Horsemen of the internet (Apple, Google, Amazon and Facebook), who is winning and who is losing, and why Apple may very well be the first trillion dollar company.
Fasten your seatbelt, it's an action packed few minutes.
Another cold weekend by the fire, and another 2 hour project in the morning while the family sleeps; this time, starting with the excellent NEON Maschine Expansion Pack from Native Instruments, and selected components from the demo track "Fever Line". A wonderful way to explore what is possible with Maschine and the Komplete Library.
On a snowy, cold day in Toronto, what better way to pass the time than working on a new track. This time, a down tempo, chill-out vibe ... perhaps inspired by the dreary conditions outside, and the dream of warm outdoor evenings that surely must only be months away.
Sat down on a dreary Toronto morning and gave myself a 2 hour window to deliver something end-end. This track leverages the excellent Drop Squad Expansion Pack for Maschine.
I gave myself a bit of a head start with the "Back To Dub Roots" sample project. The rest was played in on Maschine Studio, and my tiny CME xKey travelling keyboard. Track was mastered on-line with LANDR.
Despite having used Bigwig for a number of months now, getting back to Maschine was a breeze thanks to the workflow of Machine Studio.
One of the frustrations with using keyboards as the predominant way in which to encode digital music is that they are a poor input device for capturing the nuances of wind and bowed instruments. Well, that's all about to change, as Hagai Davidoff illustrates in this video.
By using a Leap Motion controller, and the Reaktor "Ensemble Serenade III", he is able to mimic the motion of a bow on strings, and generate a richly textured set of outputs.
If you are interested in experimenting with the Leap Motion controller for making music, you need to check out the Geco Midi Controller (http://uwyn.com/geco/) as can be seen in the video below:
Benedict Evans, who is now a partner at Andreessen Horowitz, is a must watch.
Here is the full audio and visuals of Benedict Evans' presentation on the future of mobile (which happens also to be the future of tech). The talk was delivered at a16z's 2014 Tech Summit. WATCH: 13 minutes
For more insights, you should check out his blog at http://ben-evans.com.
More flights, more remix projects. This one, a late night, somewhat moody remix of Wellenrausch's Hypnotize. Pulled together from a Traktor Remix Deck, with Strings and Voices (courtesy of Native Instruments Komplete Library) played in on the keyboard.
Spent some more time crossing back and forth across the Atlantic last week, took some much needed downtime to work on a new remix. This one a is a bit more moody ... that's what staring out into a dark sky at 35,000 feet in the middle of nowhere will do to you ... call this a "late night feel".
Experienced international CEO with three exits and over 20 years of experience at the helm of VC-backed technology and fintech startups. I've founded companies and come in as a later-stage CEO to help existing companies scale. My experience spans multi-country online financial services, mission-critical enterprise software and consumer-focused mobile applications.
Currently CEO of Kontent.ai, the industry's first CMS with native AI capabilities, kontent.ai helps the world's leading organizations generate an unparalleled return on their content by enabling them to create, manage, distribute, and optimize their content at scale with unprecedented speed oversight, and security.
Before that, I was CEO of Nuula (formerly known as BFS Capital), which Nav acquired. At Nuula, we believed there was a better way to help run your small business — so we built it. Nuula is a mobile application that gives small business owners instant access to critical business metrics and innovative financial products anytime, anywhere. It provides small business owners with the tools, content, and capital they need to be successful in a modern, competitive market.
Prior to that interim CEO of 4finance. Agreed to take on an interim role to help clarify strategy, accelerate the critical transformation of the business and set the company on a course for the next growth phase.
Before that, I was Managing Director, International at Wonga, responsible for overseeing all businesses outside of the UK, including consumer lending businesses in Canada, Spain, Poland and South Africa and our eCommerce and product financing business BillPay in Germany. Prior to that was CEO of Wonga Canada.
Prior to that, I was EO Viigo. When Viigo was acquired by Blackberry in 2010, the company had hundreds of partners, won numerous awards, including “PC Magazine’s Editors Choice“, the “Most Promising New Company of the Year” from the CNMA, and the “Wireless Leadership Award” from RIM, signed marquee enterprise customers such as Oppenheimer, UBS, BAT and Scotts and been downloaded over 3MM times, becoming one of the most popular BlackBerry apps of all time.
I started my career as the Founder and CEO of INEA. A software company that was a strategic partner to many of the world's leading financial institutions, INEA had deployments in over 44 countries. Backed by RBC, Ventures West, APAX and Edgestone, the company was acquired in June 2005 by Cartesis. Cartesis was subsequently acquired by Business Objects in 2007, which was later acquired by SAP.
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