Code and Connor

CodeStrap's "Code and Connor" Episode 25 features our friend Jack Smith from ElevenLabs. Jack leads global channel partnerships and strategic alliances at ElevenLabs. Previously, he was the Employee Experience and Consumer Bank Operations tech strategy lead at JPMorgan Chase, overseeing emerging technology initiatives and leading engagement with the tech ecosystem. This episode focuses on: → Solving the fiction of existing software including the GUI, with ElevenLabs → Evolution of voice-first AI agents and the complexity of a system built on language → Will voice become the primary interface for AI agents? → ElevenLabs’ Agents platform and the competitive landscape → ElevenLabs focus on DevEx in their platforms and recent enhancements → Research teams inside ElevenLabs four walls → From pilot to production and the scaling challenges → Natural language interface wrapping the global API economy → What does the ‘voice of technology’ become in five years? Be sure to follow us to get the latest information, and schedule a meeting with us through www.codestrap.com! ElevenLabs Website: elevenlabs.io LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/elevenlabsio/ Jack: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackanthonysmith/ CodeStrap Dorian: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dorian-smiley-97a72a14/ Connor: https://www.linkedin.com/in/connordeeks/ CodeStrap (X): https://x.com/Codestrap_ai CodeStrap (LI): https://www.linkedin.com/company/codestrap

This week on Code x Connor, Unit8 co-founder & CTO Michal Rachtan joins us to debrief the 2026 World Economic Forum in Davos and discuss global perspectives around AI. As CTO at Unit8, a Swiss-based data + AI services company, Michal leads a team of over 160 deploying production-grade data platforms and agentic solutions for major global enterprises in the life sciences, manufacturing, and financial sectors. Prior to launching Unit8, Michal served as a Tech Lead and Forward Deployed Engineer at Palantir, where he was instrumental in helping massive organizations implement and scale complex data platforms. In this episode, we discuss: → Attitudes around sovereign infrastructure and AI at Davos → What world leaders are actually prioritizing in 2026 → Jamie Dimon’s hot take on AI deployment and job loss → Policy and implementation in Europe vs. the US →The impact of regulation on startups and innovation → Navigating partnerships with industry giants like Palantir and OpenAI → Misconceptions around Palantir’s data collection and pricing → Building data foundations for AI coding that actually works Be sure to follow us to get the latest information, and schedule a meeting with us through www.codestrap.com! Unit8 Website: https://unit8.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/unit8/  Michal: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michal-rachtan/ CodeStrap Dorian: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dorian-smiley-97a72a14/ Connor: https://www.linkedin.com/in/connordeeks/ CodeStrap (X): https://x.com/CodeStrap411 CodeStrap (LI): https://www.linkedin.com/company/codestrap

CodeStrap's "Code and Connor" Episode 23 features our friend Francisco Ferreira, Founder and CEO of Datalinks, a company that is laser-focused on bringing human understanding to the core of the data and AI value chains. Prior to founding Datalinks, Francisco spent 9 years at Palantir. At Palantir, he architected and created the product and infrastructure group for Skywise, the world’s biggest aviation platform, growing it from 3 airlines to 100+. He went on to create the Developer Relations groups and co-led Channel partners. Before Palantir, he had a multi-year stint at eBay. This episode focuses on: → Francisco’s journey from Palantir to DataLinks → Large scale integrations and how to do them successfully → Why a clean ontology matters and how to build reusable components → What Datalinks is working on, including AI-generated ontologies → Enhanced search/retrieval across complex data relationships → The AI Bubble → AI model benchmarks and the pressures to align to them → Frontier models, open-source, small language models Be sure to follow us to get the latest information, and schedule a meeting with us through www.codestrap.com! Datalinks Website: https://datalinks.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/datasetlinks Francisco: https://www.linkedin.com/in/franciscomsferreira/ CodeStrap Dorian: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dorian-smiley-97a72a14/ Connor: https://www.linkedin.com/in/connordeeks/ CodeStrap (X): https://x.com/CodeStrap411 CodeStrap (LI): https://www.linkedin.com/company/codestrap

CodeStrap's "Code and Connor" Episode 22 features our friend Robert Fidler, General Manager of Valinor Streamline. Prior to joining Valinor, Rob spent five years as a Forward Deployed Engineer at Palantir Technologies, working on projects with a variety of civilian agencies such as the FDA. He also spent 2 years as a Software Engineer at Chapter building their core technology layer. Our 22nd episode focuses on Valinor, unpacking "a constellation of mission-aligned products", and the new business models that are the true disruptive forces moving economies. We also discuss the problem with government procurement around national security,  how Valinor unlocks innovation at the product level (e.g., Streamline), the advantages from strategic partnerships with Palantir Technologies, Anduril Industries, Helsing, unpacking Streamline and demoing the product, the importance of public-facing apps and structured writeback even in disconnected, offline environments, Ontology-native data capture, syncs, and application examples across Real Estate, Military, Manufacturing, Mining and more. Be sure to follow us to get the latest information, and schedule a meeting with us through www.codestrap.com! Valinor Streamline Website (Valinor): https://www.valinor.co/about Website (Streamline): https://www.valinor.co/products/streamline LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/valinor-enterprises/ Rob: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-fidler-9299944a/ Rob’s Blog: https://bobbyfidz.tech/ CodeStrap Dorian: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dorian-smiley-97a72a14/ Connor: https://www.linkedin.com/in/connordeeks/ CodeStrap (X): https://x.com/CodeStrap411 CodeStrap (LI): https://www.linkedin.com/company/codestrap

CodeStrap's "Code and Connor" Episode 21 features friend Bill Salak, CTO and CTO of Brainly. At Brainly, he’s helped scale one of the world’s largest AI-powered learning platforms, serving 15 million learners daily. Bill has over two decades of leadership driving transformative technology at Age of Learning, AOL, HBO, ETS, Hasbro, NBC-Universal, and even the U.S. Army.  Our 21st episode focuses on, the state of AI and its current limitations, AI in education, the state of education in the U.S. K-12 and above, how can we use AI to improve student outcomes in light of the recent findings , how is AI impacting students negatively and positively, the AI impact on young children specifically around learning, and the state of edtech Brainly Website: https://brainly.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/brainly-com/ Bill: https://www.linkedin.com/in/billsalak/ CodeStrap Dorian: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dorian-smiley-97a72a14/ Connor: https://www.linkedin.com/in/connordeeks/ CodeStrap (X): https://x.com/CodeStrap411 CodeStrap (LI): https://www.linkedin.com/company/codestrap

CodeStrap's "Code and Connor" Episode 20 features our friend Chad Wahlquist. Chad is a Forward Deployed Architect at Palantir and serves customers and the developer audience with business-focused solutions and product exposure that the developer and customer community yearn for.  On this episode we discuss Chad’s journey from Tyson to Palantir, solving business problems during crises, the AIP launch and compounding features, MMDP and unlocking interoperability, the Palantir product roadmap and filling in gaps in enterprise architecture, pairing with Akshay and ensure the product is refined and understandable, NVIDIA partnership and setting the technical standard for optimization, software that dominates across government and commercial, AI FDE and the balance with human capital cultivation, and focusing on iteration against the unknown unknowns. Palantir Website: https://www.palantir.com/ Free Dev Tier: https://www.palantir.com/developers/ Lightweight Transform Deep Dive: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MITSJDI08R4 Multi-modal Data Plane: https://www.palantir.com/interoperability/ Chad: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chad-wahlquist/ CodeStrap Dorian: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dorian-smiley-97a72a14/ Connor: https://www.linkedin.com/in/connordeeks/ CodeStrap (X): https://x.com/CodeStrap411 CodeStrap (LI): https://www.linkedin.com/company/codestrap

CodeStrap's "Code and Connor" Episode 19 features our friend August Chen, Co-Founder and CEO of Hazel. Hazel is an AI-powered procurement platform that helps federal, state, and local partners compress procurement cycles from months to minutes and save millions on what they purchase. Hazel launched out of Y Combinator in 2024 and is backed by the investors behind Palantir and Anduril. Before founding Hazel, August led mission-critical deployments at Palantir, including working with Connor and Dorian at their former employer. Our 19th episode examines government inefficiency through the lens of procurement, and why competitive pricing often breaks down in the public sector. We explore emerging tech approaches for fixing these gaps, including large-scale processing of unstructured data, LLM-driven solutions, and the broader willingness—or cultural resistance—within government to adopt new capabilities. The conversation also covers the expanding startup ecosystem focused on public-sector innovation, the rise of AI and data-center infrastructure, and why some tech CEOs are now (laughably) urging the government to help underwrite AI investment. Hazel Website: https://www.hazelai.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/hazel-ai/ Y Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/hazel-2 August: https://www.linkedin.com/in/augustschen/ CodeStrap Dorian: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dorian-smiley-97a72a14/ Connor: https://www.linkedin.com/in/connordeeks/ CodeStrap (X): https://x.com/CodeStrap411 CodeStrap (LI): https://www.linkedin.com/company/codestrap

CodeStrap's "Code and Connor" Episode 18 features our friend Nicolas Renkamp. Nicolas Renkamp is the Global Head of Platform Product Portfolio at Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany. One of the most important voices in the Palantir ecosystem, he was deeply involved in the development of Foundry DevTools, allowing us to interact with the Foundry APIs and develop transforms locally, and in 2025 he worked with Palantir to bring lightweight transforms to the next level and to everyone in platform. He joined the company in 2019 and began working within the Palantir platform. He is also deeply involved with Merck’s deployment of AWS, Snowflake and Fivetran. On this episode we discuss the scaling Foundry and managing the complexity, the evolution of DevTools and enhancing DexEx in Foundry, Foundry’s branching and integration of lightweight transforms, open data formats and Palantir’s Multimodal Data Plane, interoperability and identity federation challenges, the importance of platform automation, AI and automation in Foundry and impact on business users, and unlocking value through Natural Language Interfaces Nicolas Renkamp: LinkedIn:   / nicolasrenkamp   Palantir Community: https://community.palantir.com/u/nico... Foundry-Dev-Tools: https://github.com/nicornk Nicolas & Chad:    • Chad & Nicolas | Lightweight Transforms at...   Dorian:   / dorian-smiley-97a72a14   Connor:   / connordeeks   CodeStrap (X): https://x.com/CodeStrap411 CodeStrap (LI):   / codestrap   CodeStrap:

CodeStrap's "Code and Connor" Episode 17 comes to you live from FuturOps in Dallas, TX on October 23, 2025. This episode features live interviews with Fred Abood, Lead Solutions Architect, at Databricks and Nicholas Lee, CEO, at Fujitsu Intelligence. Connor’s presentation covers IIntelligence Augmentation, overcoming LLM’s 3 limitations, we introduced CodeStrap’s Larry - AI-assisted programming that scales, AI as an amplifier, Engineering as Ontology and the the Natural Language Interface for the Web Our interview with Fred at Databrick covered the Databricks platform, their culture, history, developer community, partnership with Palantir Technologies, AI Coding, rivalry with Snowflake, and more! Our interview with Nicholas  at Fujitsu Intelligence covered their partnership with Palantir Technologies, everything they've accomplished with Foundry and AIP, and other ML & AI capabilities and offerings. Databricks Website: https://www.databricks.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/databricks/ Fred: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fredabood/ Fujitsu Intelligence Website: https://global.fujitsu/en-global LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fujitsu/ Nicholas: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholasjlee/ CodeStrap Dorian: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dorian-smiley-97a72a14/ Connor: https://www.linkedin.com/in/connordeeks/ CodeStrap (X): https://x.com/CodeStrap411 CodeStrap (LI): https://www.linkedin.com/company/codestrap Be sure to follow us to get the latest information, and schedule a meeting with us through www.codestrap.com! 2025 DORA Report: https://dora.dev/research/2025/dora-report/

CodeStrap's "Code and Connor" Episode 16 features our friends from Sigma·IQ: Duane Massie, CEO, and Ryan Mead, Head of Sales. Sigma·IQ is an official Palantir Technologies partner firm that delivers a unique, outcome-driven approach to digital transformation to help organizations, particularly in industrials, turn data and AI into real operational advantage. On this episode we discuss the reindustrialization of America and the levers to pull to get that done, human-centric software and the likely future for ERPs, AI in operations and manufacturing, reskilling operators, where AI coding and AI FDE fit into the aforementioned motions, and learning lessons from the past Sigma IQ Website: https://sigmaiq.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/sigma%C2%B7iq/ Duane: https://www.linkedin.com/in/duane-massie-8407976/ Ryan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanmead89/ CodeStrap Dorian: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dorian-smiley-97a72a14/ Connor: https://www.linkedin.com/in/connordeeks/ CodeStrap (X): https://x.com/CodeStrap411 CodeStrap (LI): https://www.linkedin.com/company/codestrap Be sure to follow us to get the latest information, and schedule a meeting with us through www.codestrap.com! Interested in the American Tech Fellowship: https://www.palantir.com/american-tech-fellowship/ 2025 DORA Report: https://dora.dev/research/2025/dora-report/

CodeStrap's "Code and Connor" Episode 15 features our friend Zoë Nengite. Zoë is a Forward Deployed Engineer at Palantir and has spent the last few years supporting the developer community, composed of  the independent builders in their platforms.  On this episode we discuss, how Palantir is attracting developers to the platform (including FREE developer tier licenses), current state of the developer community and ideas to improve it, DevCon and other community-led events (i.e., FuturOps), the American Tech Fellowship, user adoption in enterprises of Foundry and AIP and the Palantir product roadmap and insights into MMDP, Marketplace, and AI FDE. Palantir Website: https://www.palantir.com/ Free Dev Tier: https://www.palantir.com/developers/ American Tech Fellowship: https://www.palantir.com/american-tech-fellowship/ Multi-modal Data Plane: https://www.palantir.com/interoperability/ Zoe: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zoe-nengite/ CodeStrap Dorian: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dorian-smiley-97a72a14/ Connor: https://www.linkedin.com/in/connordeeks/ CodeStrap (X): https://x.com/CodeStrap411 CodeStrap (LI): https://www.linkedin.com/company/codestrap Attending the Inaugural Palantir Customer Conference? We are: https://rangrdata.com/futurops/

CodeStrap's "Code and Connor" Episode 14 features our friend Antoine Allard. Antoine is a former Tech Lead at Palantir and the CEO of 10x Partners, a senior-only consultancy and an official Palantir Partner.  On this episode we discuss, the current state of AI advancement and investment in Europe, Palantir sentiment and growth in Europe, Palantir vs Databricks, large tech investing in startups, the new “circular AI economy” and how AI companies are optimized for more use, not outcomes. 10x Partners Website: https://10x-partners.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/10x-partners/ Antoine: https://www.linkedin.com/in/antoine-allard/ CodeStrap Dorian: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dorian-smiley-97a72a14/ Connor: https://www.linkedin.com/in/connordeeks/ CodeStrap (X): https://x.com/CodeStrap411 CodeStrap (LI): https://www.linkedin.com/company/codestrap Attending the Inaugural Palantir Customer Conference? We are: https://rangrdata.com/futurops/ Relevant articles and videos: https://hai.stanford.edu/assets/files/hai_ai_index_report_2025.pdf https://medium.com/codestrap/the-coming-codepocalypse-d4cb33986669 https://medium.com/@moneytent/ais-unsustainable-burn-rate-the-harsh-realities-of-the-industry-d79865e97f66 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoycgOMq1tI

CodeStrap's "Code and Connor" Episode 13 features our friends at Foxtrot Services: co-CEOs Christine Williams and Nicole Sanders and CTO Martin Seebach. Foxtrot Services are field-proven Palantir Foundry & AIP engineers with 40+ secure, large-scale deployments under their belt and growing. On this episode we discuss how AI procurement is driven and owned by the business, AI adoption hinging on governance, security, observability and trust, ontology as a product, and the explosion of AI coding tools and the risks associated with them and the blindness to security. Foxtrot Services Website: https://www.foxtrot-services.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/foxtrot-services/ Christine: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christine-susanne-williams/ Nicole: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicole-sanders-975bba1/ Martin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/martinseebach/ CodeStrap Dorian: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dorian-smiley-97a72a14/ Connor: https://www.linkedin.com/in/connordeeks/ CodeStrap (X): https://x.com/CodeStrap411 CodeStrap (LI): https://www.linkedin.com/company/codestrap Attending the Inaugural Palantir Customer Conference? We are: https://rangrdata.com/futurops/

CodeStrap's "Code and Connor" Episode 12 features our friend Ryan Goodwin, Sr. Director Advanced Supply Chain at Trinity Industries, Inc. An ardent innovator racking up over a decade at Trinity, Ryan is helping his company chart the path forward with Palantir Technologies's Foundry and AIP.  Our twelfth episode focuses on the ambition needed to achieve high value, AIPCon 8 recap, AIP and automated reasoning to win the battle in medical claims/denials, developers with AI tools vs. clickops in Foundry and AI FDE, Reducing the cognitive load of software killing us, the cost concern around Palantir, extreme programming and enablement, and Databricks vs. Palantir Trinity Trinity (Website): https://www.trin.net/home/default.aspx Trinity (LI): https://www.linkedin.com/company/trinity-industries/ Ryan (LI): https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryancgoodwin/ CodeStrap Dorian: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dorian-smiley-97a72a14/ Connor: https://www.linkedin.com/in/connordeeks/ CodeStrap (X): https://x.com/CodeStrap411 CodeStrap (LI): https://www.linkedin.com/company/codestrap Attending the Inaugural Palantir Customer Conference? We are: https://rangrdata.com/futurops/

CodeStrap's "Code and Connor" Episode 11 features our friend Pat Mack, Founder and CEO of PVM, Inc. After retiring from his position as a Naval Officer, Pat launched PVM in 2010 and for more than a decade, PVM has partnered with Palantir on government deployments across the public sector. On this episode we discuss the AI bubble, failed pilots and the structural issues plaguing enterprises from getting value from AI. We also unpack AI in the public sector and the West’s requirement to have an asymmetric advantage through AI, the promise/lie of AGI and Palantir’s integration capability being it’s competitive advantage. PVM Website: https://www.pvmit.com/ PVM (LI): https://www.linkedin.com/company/pvminc/ Pat: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pamack/ CodeStrap Dorian: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dorian-smiley-97a72a14/ Connor: https://www.linkedin.com/in/connordeeks/ CodeStrap (X): https://x.com/CodeStrap411 CodeStrap (LI): https://www.linkedin.com/company/codestrap Articles/Clips Discussed https://hbr.org/2025/08/beware-the-ai-experimentation-trap https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bo62d_EErFM https://fortune.com/2025/08/18/mit-report-95-percent-generative-ai-pilots-at-companies-failing-cfo/ https://mlq.ai/media/quarterly_decks/v0.1_State_of_AI_in_Business_2025_Report.pdf Attending the Inaugural Palantir Customer Conference? We are: https://rangrdata.com/futurops/

CodeStrap's "Code and Connor" Episode 10 features our friend Ben Rogojan, better known as The Seattle Data Guy. In this episode, we discuss balancing velocity and quality in data engineering, ownership, centralization, cost transparency from data platforms, and the need for outcomes-focused strategy that keeps pace with operations and leverages AI in the face of growing complexity. The Seattle Day Guy  Website: https://www.theseattledataguy.com/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SeattleDataGuy Substack: seattledataguy.substack.com Ben: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjaminrogojan/ CodeStrap Dorian: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dorian-smiley-97a72a14/ Connor: https://www.linkedin.com/in/connordeeks/ CodeStrap (X): https://x.com/CodeStrap411 CodeStrap (LI): https://www.linkedin.com/company/codestrap Attending the Inaugural Palantir Customer Conference? We are: https://rangrdata.com/futurops/

CodeStrap's "Code and Connor" Episode 9 features our friend Taylor Gregoire-Wright, Founder of Ontologize. In this episode we discuss decentralized vs. centralized approaches to Foundry, the journey to owning the Palantir stack, maximizing resources and aligning incentives, engaging developers and handling objections, extending IT investments rather than lift-and-shift, Ontologize’s roadmap, the potential of Foundry Marketplace, and the technical approach to connecting public registration systems to Foundry Ontologize: https://ontologize.com/ Taylor: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tgregoirewright/ Dorian: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dorian-smiley-97a72a14/ Connor: https://www.linkedin.com/in/connordeeks/ CodeStrap (X): https://x.com/CodeStrap411 CodeStrap (LI): https://www.linkedin.com/company/codestrap Attending the Inaugural Palantir Customer Conference? We are: https://rangrdata.com/futurops/ Additional articles on Palantir Edge: https://blog.palantir.com/revolutionizing-edge-ai-c94742175ce1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEpMAvoX2y8

CodeStrap's "Code and Connor" Episode 8 features our friends from i4C/ForgeSight out of Canada: Chris Atack, COO, and Brett Adams, Lead FDE. In this episode we discuss the fierce competition for Palantir-trained talent, US and Canadian politics around AI and our advantage over Europe, building a coalition to win in enterprises, lessons from the field, and Palantir's potential impact on SaaS and siloed AI solutions. i4C ForgeSight: https://www.i4c.com/forgesight-palantir-solutions/ Brett: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brett20adams/ Chris: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisatack/ Dorian: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dorian-smiley-97a72a14/ Connor: https://www.linkedin.com/in/connordeeks/ CodeStrap (X): https://x.com/CodeStrap411 CodeStrap (LI): https://www.linkedin.com/company/codestrap Attending the Inaugural Palantir Customer Conference? We are: https://rangrdata.com/futurops/

CodeStrap's "Code and Connor" Episode 7 features our friend Kevin Dean Pettit, CEO of Creative Glu. Our seventh episode focuses on the three pillars of applied, scalable AI, software 3.0, scoping an AI pilot, the distraction of the last-mile shiny object, the importance of subject matter experts in the AI Revolution, Palantir Q2 2025 earnings recap, and how Palantir can grow into its valuation. Amit YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjZnbgPb08NFg7MHyPQRZ3Q LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amit-kukreja/ CodeStrap Dorian: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dorian-smiley-97a72a14/ Connor: https://www.linkedin.com/in/connordeeks/ CodeStrap (X): https://x.com/CodeStrap411 CodeStrap (LI): https://www.linkedin.com/company/codestrap

CodeStrap's "Code and Connor" Episode 6 features our friends Joe Patrois, C.E.T., from Thomas Cavanagh Construction Limited, and Jesse Velay-Vitow, Ph.D., from Palantir Technologies, the duo proving that the best software in the world can mold to the most physical commercial industry--construction--and drive industry-defining outcomes. Jesse Velay-Vitow: https://www.linkedin.com/in/velayvitow/ Joe Patrois: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joe-patrois-c-e-t-95a3211a4/ CodeStrap Dorian: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dorian-smiley-97a72a14/ Connor: https://www.linkedin.com/in/connordeeks/ CodeStrap (X): https://x.com/CodeStrap411 CodeStrap (LI): https://www.linkedin.com/company/codestrap