Glendale Tech on Tap Podcast

If you’re hosting a house party, you may think that there are only two food options: 1) cook it at home or 2) order it from a restaurant. HelloCheffy offers a third option. Katherine Hunter Blyden is the owner of HelloCheffy. Her business creates a marketplace for chefs and people who need them. At hellocheffy.com, clients request a chef. The request is sent to a network of chefs that bid on the request. Then, the client picks the best bid. In her conversation with season 1 host Lauren Bow, Hunter Blyden shares the changing challenges facing company brands in the sharing, or gig, economy. “The brand is really about the experience you had with the brand,” she tells the Tech on Tap Podcast. “Because independent contractors have so much control over your brand experience, they can help your company and they can hurt your company.” During this episode, Hunter Blyden discusses the ways she’s protected her brand in the current sharing economy, from the contractor vetting process to customer reviews. Hear her story hear, and get in touch with her via her company’s website. Thank you to Benztown for their sound design of the Podcast's intro and outro!

You have this amazing idea that you just know will be an instant hit! But then reality hits. You lose the momentum, and your idea never takes off. That’s a challenge that people face in daily life, and one that companies face when attempting to introduce a product to market. Peter Ciulla, founder of the technical and project management services company Grand Summit Group, has seen this play out well and poorly for over 20 years. “The challenge is art and products are kind of different,” he shares, noting that a product has a variety of audiences from customers to investors and regulators. Meeting the requirements of all of these constituents and others is an important step in keeping the artistic momentum alive. Hear episode 6 of the Tech on Tap Podcast to learn what small companies and big companies can do to overcome the challenges of new product introduction. Hint: a good team with the right people is key. To get help navigating the new product introduction process, send Cuilla an email at info@grandsummitgrp.com or visit grandsummitgrp.com. Thank you to Benztown for their sound design of the Podcast's intro and outro!

Most people aren’t happy about getting let go from a job. This includes Dave Denes. He was fired from a radio station in 2009. But that was only the beginning of his story. “Getting let go, in retrospect, was the best thing that could’ve happened to me professionally,” Denes tells the Tech on Tap Podcast of his story of growth. The founder and CEO of Glendale-based Benztown, Denes now operates a market leader in the international radio-imaging, production library, programming, jingles and voice-over services industry. Today, his company provides some sort of the above listed services to 2,300 stations around the world – with 90% of customers in the US and 10% international. Listen to this episode to hear all of that and Denes’s love of Glendale, and a sampling of his company’s work. To learn more about Benztown or to get in touch with Denes, visit benztown.com or @benztownradio on social media. Thank you to Benztown for their sound design of the Podcast's intro and outro!

Funding. Funding. Funding. Finding it can be tricky. Knowing when a company is ready to ask for funding is even trickier. Jim Schaefer is a managing partner at Mark Schaefer Associates, a boutique CPA firm with specialty in early technology and fast growth companies. He’s also a founding member of the 100-member Pasadena Angels, a group of individuals who help forward-thinking innovators, creators and entrepreneurs with the mentorship and funding that fuels success. He tells the Tech on Tap Podcast that entrepreneurs need to focus first on the best time to look for funding instead of the best source. Once entrepreneurs know that, and can answer a variety of other questions discussed by Schaefer, they’ll be ready to ask for funding. “The investors are looking for somebody who can take the company from start to finish,” Schaefer also noted. Learn what he means by that, and more by listening to this episode. And to learn more about the Pasadena Angels, which funds a broad array of companies, go to pasadenaangels.com. Thank you to Benztown for their sound design of the Podcast's intro and outro!

A problem one day can be transformed into an opportunity the next. That’s how Ally Spinu, CEO of the Glendale-based, full service digital marketing agency USA Link System, ventured into the tech sector. Hear Spinu as she recalls how an immediate business need developed into a passion for technology, teamwork, and talent. “It was just a business need that converted into a passion of mine and a passion of the team I put together,” notes Spinu, who sits on the board of directors of several marketing, IT, and export businesses. The owner of the fastest growing company in the San Fernando Valley credits her company’s success to personal and managerial discipline and a talented team. Her strategy has resulted in success not only in the United States, but also in international markets including the European Union, Moldova, the Philippines, and India. Along the way, she’s even co-founded a mobile app – MobileStyles – to bring on-the-go stylists, artists, and massage therapist to clients’ doorsteps for on-demand services from a haircut to a manicure. “Efficiency is what we’re working on,” she said of the app, which can be found on the Apple App Store and Google Play. Thank you to Benztown for their sound design of the Podcast's intro and outro!

Kendyl Young is a storyteller. “Story is how I can reach their heart – I can reach past their logic – and tap into their fears, their concerns, their emotion, what’s really important to them,” she tells the Tech on Tap Podcast. Young owns DIGGS, a real estate brokerage in Glendale that thinks about the entire real estate experience from the customer’s point of view. Young has been in the real estate business for over 30 years. In this episode she shares stories of how technology has helped her shift the home buying conversation out of the ‘140 character’ box of bedrooms, bathrooms, and square footage. She explains how the experience she provides her clients is guided by this statement on her chalkboard at their Ocean View Boulevard office: “It’s never about you; it’s always about them.” Young also clarifies the difference between being different and making a difference. Listeners can reach her at @GlendaleDIGGS on most major social media platforms or by email at kendyl@glendalediggs.com. Thank you to Benztown for their sound design of the Podcast's intro and outro!

Jennifer McLain Hiramoto was new to the City of Glendale Economic Development Division when the Glendale City Council adopted the Glendale Tech Strategy in 2015. Over the past three years, she has played a pivotal role to implement that strategy and take Glendale to new economic heights. In the inaugural episode of the Glendale Tech on Tap podcast, Hiramoto discusses the moment she decided to leave journalism for local government, the thriving tech industry in Glendale, and the excitement surrounding Glendale Tech Week in September 2018. Lauren Bow, former Economic Development Liaison and the podcast’s season 1 host, and Hiramoto also chat about the origins of the popular monthly convening of Glendale tech entrepreneurs known as Tech on Tap, and how those events led to this podcast. The Glendale Economic Development Department is all in on building relationship to expand Glendale’s vibrant economy, says Hiramoto. Listeners can reach her at (818) 548-2005 or jhiramoto@glendaleca.gov. Learn more at the Glendale Tech on Tap Meet Up page or the Glendale Tech Week website. Thank you to Benztown for their sound design of the Podcast's intro and outro!

“The only thing you can do wrong is to do nothing.” – Erin Beck Erin Beck is the founder of Wana, which makes babysitting free through technology and a network of families. In this episode, Beck discusses her journey from SpaceX to founding her own company. Along the way she’s learned a lot of lessons about life and success. And, in the show, she explains what those lessons are and how she’s applying them today to help families overcome the problem of expensive childcare costs by connecting them with other family through technology. You can contact Beck at erin@wanafam.ly. Wana is free to join at Wanafam.ly.

“Patience, Passion, and Persistence” – Ani Torosyan One day Ani Torosyan was observing her mother-in-law making a bunch of delicious home-made food. It made her think of all the “culinary wizard who live in our neighborhoods,” and how to she could share help them share their wizardry with their neighbors. And so she got to work on DishDivvy, the Glendale-based company she founded to decentralize the food prep process and create a network of cooks that connect communities through food. An engineer by trade, Torosyan discusses her journey of building a web platform that achieves her vision, and the pillars of patience, passion, persistence that helped her make this idea into a reality. You can reach Torosyan via DishDivvy’s social media. The DishDivvy app is available for download at the App Store or on Google Play. Hoops and Yoyo on Monday: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeICCcxG1wo California Assembly Bill 626: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB626

“Really listen to your customer – what’s going to serve them well – and then go try to create that for them” – Jeffrey Travis Jeffrey Travis has always been a story teller. Even when he was an engineer, he would write short stories. During a break in his engineering career at age 30, he enrolled in film school. One of his short films was noticed, and the rest was history. Today, he’s merged his passion for storytelling and engineering into his own business, Positron. Based in Montrose, Positron produces virtual reality experiences. And since a couple of years ago, Travis and his team have been busy at work developing a distribution platform to deliver those experiences – a virtual reality chair called Voyager. Listen to learn more about how he’s bridging the technology game between hardware, software, and storytelling content. You can contact Travis at Jeffrey@gopositron.com.

“The only person that you need to give you a chance is yourself” – Sev Ohanian Sev Ohanian’s latest film is Searching, a modern thriller about a father searching for his missing daughter. The entire movie takes place on technology devices. It was an official selection at the Sundance Film Festival and started playing in theater’s everywhere August 31, 2018. Thirteen years ago, his first film had one screening location: the TV in his teacher’s AP Environmental Science class at Glendale’s Hoover High School. His reward was an ‘A’ in the class, and the start of a lifelong passion for filmmaking. Since then, Ohanian has gone on to write, direct, and produce several films. During the episode, he discusses the diversity on display on both sides of the camera, the basics of good storytelling, the shifting entertainment industry, and the thrilling story of how his team made Searching. Oh, and he really loves Glendale. “This City has always held a really special place in my heart,” Ohanian told the Glendale Tech on Tap podcast. Ohanian is on Twitter @SevOhanian. Searching is on Twitter @SearchingMovie. Editor’s note: This host saw the film in Glendale a few short days after this interview.