That Tech Pod

Today Kevin and Laura speak with John Conafay about space technology. We talk about John's origin story and a desire to stop human trafficking. We also share eclipse stories and why space matters to normal people (GPS, & Tinder?) and if they can really view a license plate from space. We also talk about John's company, Integrate, and its mission, why space junk matters, the Kessler effect, the movies The Mist and I.S.S. This one is a fun pod! John Conafay is a US Air Force Veteran and the CEO and Co-Founder of Integrate, building program management software with a systems engineering approach for the world’s most ambitious machines.Previously he was an early employee at three space unicorns – Head of BD at ABL Space Systems, was one of the first ten employees at Astranis, and Interned at Spire Global early on. He also worked at the Office of the CFO NASA Headquarters while at BryceTech and was a Director of Business Development at Spaceflight.

In this bonus pod, Kevin and Laura talk about FOIAs. You get to hear a few excerpts from the panel session Kevin moderated at the Digital Government Institute's eDiscovery, Records and Information Management Conference. Kevin was joined on stage with Michael Sarich of the VA and Michael Heise from EEOC.As the volume of digital information continues to grow, the scope of electronic records management has expanded exponentially and is an increasingly critical issue for government agencies, particularly as it relates to providing electronic access and retrieval of government records. Key government and industry experts gathered at the 21st annual eDiscovery, Records and Information Management Conference to discuss current technology solutions/requirements, policy updates/changes and review examples of successful electronic records, FOIA and e-discovery programs.Michael Sarich is the FOIA Director at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). He leads one of the federal government's most extensive FOIA programs, managing a team of 900+ FOIA and Privacy Act Officers dispersed across 151 facilities. Leveraging over a decade of expertise in FOIA and Privacy Policy at the VA, the Social Security Administration and the Bureau of Land Management, he specializes in navigating intricate requests, handling litigation, and ensuring rigorous regulatory compliance in FOIA. He also plays a pivotal role as the co-chair of the Chief FOIA Officer Council's Technology Committee, spearheading initiatives to revolutionize FOIA service delivery on a government-wide scale. Michael Heise is the Attorney Advisor at Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. He is an experienced FOIA analyst, and licensed attorney with a strong background in electronic discovery at all stages. He has a strong aptitude for explaining complicated legal principles in a straightforward and clear manner. He significant experience with project management and supervision after 9 years with CACI. 

Today Kevin and Laura talk with Alex Levin about overcoming spam, unsolicited messages and the future of customer outreach. We talk about the history of spam, the communication marketing arms race, the definition of unsolicited messages and consent. We also learn about the ROI of the various types of outreach, gorilla marketing, if people actually answer calls anymore, the difference between rented and owned channels, how AI comes into play in marketing, chain mail and more!Alex Levin is Co-Founder and CEO of Regal.io. He leads the GTM teams. Prior to Regal.io, Alex was a product manager at Personal and Thomson Reuters, and then joined Handy (acquired by ANGI in 2018) as an early employee. At Handy and then ANGI Alex led growth and marketing. Alex grew up in New York and received his BA from Harvard.

Today Laura and Kevin speak with privacy expert Alan Chapell about digital media and privacy. We talk about the FBI and CIA tracking our phones, how we have become numb to personal surveillance, the Chappell Report, credit at the expense of privacy, why we can't delete Facebook even though we all know we should, Alan's musical talent, stopping by a jazz party in Florida, figuring our how the Spotify algorithm works, if Ticketmaster is selling Kevin's data and the most common privacy mistake we all make. We also discuss our music tastes and debate who'd you'd rather get stuck in an elevator with, Laura or Kevin. This is a fun episode!Alan Chapell is outside privacy counsel to digital media companies and the principal analyst at the Chapell Report. Chapell started his career in digital media at Jupiter Research in 1997. Since 2003, Chapell has advised well over two hundred different companies, from venture backed startups to some of the largest media, technology, and telecommunications companies in the world.Chapell & Associates’ mission is to help clients navigate regulatory, public policy and other marketplace challenges to maximize the value of their products and services. The Chapell Report is a monthly continuous information research tool focusing on the intersection between privacy, addressability and competition for data driven advertisers worldwide – helping them understand the key trends driving the advertising and media marketplace.Alan is also an accomplished musician. Check him out.

Today Laura and Gabi are joined by Fisayo Oluwadiya to talk about Resactly, which is an AI powered personalized food recommendation service. We hear about Fisayo's origin story, building AI models with Vertex AI, the different stages of AI algorithms, her plans for the future (continue on for world domination or sell?), Chef Kwame Onwuachi and Dogon in DC and much more! Fisayo Oluwadiya is a full-stack, results-oriented and driven principal software engineer with a proven track record over a 15+ year career. She is a passionate and energetic, highly organized and a highly skilled problem-solver with a background working in many different kinds of business such as JP Morgan Chase, Major League Baseball, Nordstrom and the Walt Disney Company. The concept of Resactly is simple - "What if there was a way to find restaurants that were a perfect match for individual tastes?" Resactly's advanced AI/ML platform delves deep into your unique taste profile, preferences, and dietary needs to curate a list of restaurants tailored just for you. No more endless searching or disappointing meals. With Resactly, every dining experience is transformed into a memorable culinary journey. Check out Resactly for a gastronomic adventure and discover eateries that truly speak to your soul.

Today Kevin and Laura talk with John Tredennick, the founder and CEO of Merlin Search Technologies. We talk about why John is not chilling on a catamaran in the South Pacific somewhere after the sale of Catalyst, how Merlin's approach to generative AI differs from others in the industry, the advantages that GenAI brings to eDiscovery and why they are not in the “wait and see” mode like many other big Legaltech software providers are. We also chat about the ethical concerns related to the use of generative AI particularly in areas like bias. We then talk about the elephant in the room - the loss of the billable hour and the potential that generative AI raises about job displacement in the legal review market. John Tredennick is the founder and CEO of Merlin Search Technologies, which develops AI-powered search software for investigations, discovery and regulatory compliance. Prior to Merlin, he was founder and CEO of Catalyst Repository Systems, which he sold to OpenText in early 2019. For the first 20 years of his career, he was a trial lawyer and litigation partner at Holland & Hart, a national law firm based in the Rocky Mountains. John is a prolific speaker and writer. Over the past 30 years, he has written eight books and countless articles on legal technology topics. You can find links to many of those here: https://merlin.tech/headlines/article-resources/

Today Kevin and Laura talk with Artem Koren, the Chief Product Officer and Co-Founder of Sembly AI. We chat about product management, consulting, AI, keeping chatbots on track (unlike Meta and X's chatbots), dealing with obscure languages, laundry mishaps and more!Sembly records, transcribes and generates smart meeting summaries with meeting minutes. It works with Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams.Artem Koren grew up and lived most of his adult life in New York City. He graduated from Columbia University with a degree in Computer Science. He later attended the NYU Stern School of Business where he earned his MBA.Artem is passionate about using AI to enrich humanity and create positive change. He combines his experience as a systems engineer, product manager, IT executive, management consultant, and entrepreneur to create innovative products, bringing to life new ways that technology can help us reach our goals. Sembly AI, which he co-founded with Gil Makleff in 2019, is at the forefront of advancing natural language understanding, paving the way for a symbiotic partnership between humans and technology.

Today Laura and Kevin speak with Umaimah Khan, the CEO of Opal Security. We talk about Umaimah's journey from home schooler to CEO, leaving the tin foil hat tribe, not being able to shadow run life, working for the DoD and health startups and how that impacted the genesis of Opal, spreadsheets of DOOM, carcinization, IAM being a productivity issue, Stripe, Okta, the Okta breach, access sprawl reduction, GitHub as a compliance took and so much more! Umaimah Khan is the co-founder and CEO of Opal Security, a next-generation identity security company. As a mathematician and engineering leader, Umaimah knows first-hand the challenges of managing secure authorization and access management pathways. She began her career as a researcher in the federal government, before leading infra and security at several startups. Umaimah graduated from Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a BS in Mathematics and Computer Science.

Today Kevin and Laura chat with Joe Gross about the cross over of sales and tech. We discuss the role of a tech therapist, a sales engineer, the power of a 10 minute demo, the difference between "pizza tech" and "people tech" people, convenient truths versus outright lies, the first 5 people you should hire and so much more! Joe Gross is the Director of Solutions Engineering at Graylog. Joe is a problem-solver and communicator, relying on his more than 10 years of security and IT expertise to understand and devise solutions to help customers overcome their cybersecurity and logging challenges. Joe also manages Graylog Open, a large interactive online community dedicated to increasing and sharing IT and security knowledge to solve real world problems. 

Today Laura and Kevin talk to Colin Gounden the CEO and co-founder of VIA about privacy and energy. We discuss why data privacy matters in energy, if the average person really cares about privacy, compensating renters for sharing in energy conservation, how EV owners think about privacy,  which countries are the most (and least) advanced in data privacy, the 2014 class action lawsuit against Honda, Toyota, VW and GM about data collection in cars, why cars are even our collecting data and whether smart meters are worth "Big Brother" watching us. We also discuss a federal privacy law, what you can infer about someone based on their energy usage, the Justice40 initiative, and George Clooney. Colin Gounden is CEO and co-founder of VIA. Colin recruited five of the top 20 global utilities and the U.S. Department of Defense as co-developers and now major users of VIA’s Trusted Analytics Chain™ (TAC™), a data privacy-enhancing blockchain-based platform. With seven patents issued and nine pending, TAC™ is the bridge that securely connects infrastructure data, distributed across many locations, to AI solutions. Previously, Colin was the first investor and board director of five MIT and Harvard spinouts, focused on energy and deep science technologies. Two of these spinouts became profitable in their first year of operations and three of them are now valued at more than $400M each. In 2009, he sold Grail Research, where he was founder and CEO. Under Colin’s leadership, Grail Research grew from its first employee to more than 300 full-time employees in three years. In the 2000s, Colin was a partner and elected board director at a top five global strategy consulting and private equity investment firm with $2Bn in assets under management. He started his career with IBM working with utilities in Europe and North America before co-founding a database-driven web-development company based in London, with major customers such as Royal Dutch Shell. Colin has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Fast Company, Wired, and the Financial Times. He is also a frequent guest speaker on the subject of blockchain and energy at events held by industry experts and energy regulators (public utilities commissions and FERC). Colin’s leadership at VIA has been featured in seven Harvard Business School case studies, three with VIA. Colin graduated from Harvard University.

Today Laura and Kevin are joined by Philippe Humeau to chat about crowdsourcing cyber security. They discuss the pros and cons of opensource software for cyber security, the consensus algorithm, Captain America Syndrome, the true scale of Cyber Crime, whether being hacked boils down to a budget problem, renting alpacas, hugging alpacas, alpaca clothing and then even debate what foreign language Laura needs to learn in 2024!Philippe Humeau is an IT security engineer and founder of CrowdSec. He is from Paris, France. He founded his first company at the same time and quickly oriented it towards penetration testing and high-security hosting. He was also deeply involved in Magento’s community creation & animation in France and versed in eCommerce (wrote 4 books on the topic).In 2020, he founded CrowdSec, a company editing an eponymous open-source and collaborative IPS, leveraging both IP behavior & reputation to create a community and tackle the mass scale hacking problem. His crushes will forever be IT security, DevSecOps, and entrepreneurship.

For a special in-person recording, today Laura and Kevin sit down with Raj Chandrasekar, the Chief Technology and Innovation Officer of Consilio. We talk all things AI including Consilio's Complete AI Suite, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), if hallucinations will slow eDiscovery's adoption of GenAI and whether its a good idea to use ChatGPT to write your love poems. You don't want to miss this pod!Raj Chandrasekar is Chief Technology and Innovation Officer of Consilio where he oversees Consilio’s technology and innovation functions – merging Development and Engineering, Infrastructure, Security, Product Management, Business Intelligence, and Corporate Services functions.  In his role, Raj frequently interfaces with clients to understand and accommodate processing, security and uptime needs and is also responsible for the day-to-day operations along with day-to-day operations of our industry-leading eDiscovery and legal industry software solutions. He joined Consilio from First Advantage, where he held the position of Chief Information Officer. Raj has over 25 years of experience in the field of Software Development and Infrastructure Management and has held technology leadership positions in various large corporations.Consilio stands as the global leader in eDiscovery, document review, flexible legal talent, and legal advisory & transformation consulting services. With its Consilio Complete suite of capabilities, the company empowers multinational law firms and corporations using innovative software, cost-effective managed services, and deep legal and regulatory industry expertise. Renowned for its expertise in litigation, HSR second requests, internal and regulatory investigations, eDiscovery, document review, information governance, compliance risk assessments, cybersecurity, law department management, and contracts management, Consilio also excels in legal staffing and recruitment through its Lawyers On Demand division. Consilio globally employs leading professionals in the industry, applying defensible workflows with patented and industry-proven technology across all phases of the eDiscovery and risk management lifecycle. ISO\IEC 27001:2013 certified, the company operates offices, document review, and data centers across Europe, Asia, and North America. Discover more about Consilio’s commitment to legal excellence and innovation at www.consilio.com

Today Laura and Kevin are joined by Booz Allen Hamilton's CTO Susan Penfield and Credo AI's CEO Navrina Singh to talk about responsible AI. We chat about their partnership, the origins of AI, who the early and late adaptors of AI are, the differences between public and private models and so, so much more! You don't want to miss this amazing conversation.Susan Penfield is Booz Allen’s chief technology officer and a member of the Leadership Team. Susan accelerates growth through mission-centric innovation and infrastructure through incubating and exploring technology innovation, driving adoption of reusable solutions and new business models, empowering our technical talent, and enabling enterprise technology. Susan joined Booz Allen ~28 years ago and has transformed numerous business units during her tenure. Prior to her current role, she led strategic innovation initiatives. She also led the firm’s billion-dollar digital business spanning the defense, national security, and civilian sectors. Susan was recognized as a 2021 Woman Who Means Business by the Washington Business Journal. She received the 2020 WashingtonExec Lifetime Achievement Award for her pioneering work driving technology innovation in government and her commitment to cultivating the next generation of women in STEM. Susan is a four-time recipient of the Wash100 award that recognizes the most influential leaders in the government consulting sector. Additional honors include ELLE magazine’s 2020 Power List for Women in Tech, WashingtonExec’s 2019 Top 25 Executives to Watch, and the 2017 Girls Inc. Diamond Award for her contributions to the growth and empowerment of girls.Navrina Singh is the Founder and CEO of Credo AI, a Governance SaaS platform empowering enterprises to deliver Responsible AI. A technology leader with over 18+ years experience in Enterprise SaaS, AI and Mobile, Navrina has held multiple product and business leadership roles at Microsoft and Qualcomm. Navrina is a member of the U.S. Department of Commerce National Artificial Intelligence Advisory Committee (NAIAC), which advises the President and the National AI Initiative Office. Navrina is an executive board member of Mozilla Foundation. Navrina is also a young global leader with the World economic forum & was on their future council for AI guiding policies & regulations in responsible AI. Navrina holds a Masters in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, an MBA from University of Southern California Marshall School of Business and a Bachelors in Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering from College of Engineering, India.Booz Allen Hamilton is a global firm of approximately 32,600 diverse, passionate, and exceptional people driven to excel, do right, and realize positive change in everything they do. Booz Allen brings bold thinking and a desire to be the best in their work in consulting, analytics, digital solutions, engineering, and cyber, and with industries ranging from defense to health to energy to international development.Credo AI is on a mission to empower organizations to create AI with the highest ethical standards. Their vision is to enable continuous human oversight of the frontier technologies and democratize AI governance/audit. They are building an intelligent SaaS to monitor, measure and manage AI introduced risks.Additional Reference links:Booz Allen Ventures websiteBooz Allen AI websiteVelocity 

Today Laura and Kevin are discussing Legal Week 2024 on this special bonus episode of That Tech Pod! From new and emerging trends to the latest developments in legal technology, they'll give you an inside look at everything that's happening on the conference floor, at the sessions, at the events surrounding the conference and so much more! We discuss the companies, the people, and the swag that make Legalweek such an exciting event. We also have live interviews with Doug Austin, the editor of eDiscovery Today and Jen Sherman, Chief Product and Experience Officer at CARET Legal, a global leader in practice management solutions catering to professional services firmsWith insightful analysis and a fun, engaging approach, Kevin and Laura will make you feel like you're right there with them, experiencing all the excitement and energy of Legalweek. Don't miss out on this must-listen episode of That Tech Pod!

Today Laura and Kevin are live at Legalweek 2024 and met up with Amy Hilbert and Amit Dungarani of Casepoint. We discuss all things Legalweek, Legalweek's relevance in 2024, whether this conference is better in March instead of January, what makes Casepoint different, why Casepoint decided to focus on government when everyone else was shifting towards corporations, Casepoint FOIA and Casepoint Legal Hold, GenAI and what's next for Casepoint. Lastly, we chat about Casepoint's big win with DHS/ICE and migration to the cloud from Relativity server before heading back out to the floor. Amy Hilbert is Casepoint’s Executive Vice President of Government Solutions where she is responsible for creating and managing client relationships with federal and state government agencies. She brings 20+ years of experience supporting Federal-Civilian and DoD clients. Prior to joining Casepoint, Amy was Vice President of Client Services at a leading Gov Con Professional Services company focused  on software integration where she was accountable for the execution and growth of Federal-Civilian and DoD clients. During her time at Casepoint, Amy has created a Government Solutions organization that includes sales and  dedicated government services to government clients, including the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, U.S. Courts, Veteran’s Affairs and Department of Defense. Amy’s previous experience has given her a business acumen that is parallel to none. Amy’s industry knowledge, IT strategy background, and account management experience aid her in being a trusted resource for eDiscovery solutions to meet clients’ specific needs.Amit Dungarani has played critical roles in helping build and grow companies. Over the past 21 years, he has held leadership roles in technology, private equity, hedge fund management, and consulting serving corporate, government, law firm, and non-profit clients. Before joining Casepoint, Amit served as a Managing Director of a family office that ran a hedge fund and led private equity investing via a syndicate of family offices. Prior to this, he served as Vice President of Business and Information Technology Consulting Services at 2020 Company (later acquired by Acentia and Maximus) helping grow it from under 10 people to over 600. As Casepoint’s Vice President of Partnerships and Strategic Initiatives, he is responsible for building foundational partnerships and supporting major corporate clients to achieve their optimal success.Casepoint is the legal technology platform of choice for corporations, government agencies, and law firms to meet their complex eDiscovery, investigations, and compliance needs. Powered by cutting-edge AI and advanced analytics, Casepoint helps teams cut through large volumes of data to quickly identify insightful and actionable information. Casepoint’s secure and scalable cloud platform is designed to help organizations take control of their data and processes to maximize efficiency, mitigate risk, and lower overall legal spend. Casepoint’s easy-to-use and intuitive interface provides legal hold, cloud collections, powerful data processing, AI and advanced analytics, and review and production.Want to connect with us at Legalweek 2024? Send us an email

Today Kevin and Laura speak with Tim Hwang about what it means to be an entrepreneur, the difficulty for medical professions to get financing, doctors as businesses, whether we should switch to a fee for service model, why vets make way less than other medical professionals and whether it makes sense to become a corrupt doctor. Tim Hwang is a highly regarded entrepreneur known for his groundbreaking work in the fintech and healthcare industries. He is the Chairman of the Board of Nitra, a smart finance platform designed to transform financial management for healthcare providers.  Tim is also the CEO and co-founder of FiscalNote, a global technology and media company dedicated to delivering up-to-date policy information. He has secured over $230 million in funding from some of the industry's biggest players.

Today on the pod we find out if Gabi is GONE!Plus Gabi, Laura and Kevin share our updates and upcoming Legalweek announcements.

Today Laura and Kevin chat with Jodie Zerega. Jodie is a highly experienced legal recruiter and founder of Zerega Consulting, a recruiting firm that specializes in placing attorneys in law firms, corporations, and non-profit organizations. With the recent launch of the Attorney Jobs app, Jodie can also share a unique perspective on how technology is shaping the legal job market and offer advice on how attorneys can use technology to their advantage. Can you really get a job in under 6 minutes? Find out here:https://www.zeregaconsulting.com/attorney-jobs

Today Kevin and Laura talk with Fergus Hurley. Fergus is the is the co-founder of Google’s AI-powered compliance intelligence platform, Checks. We chat about Google's new AI platform, Gemini. We learn what multimodal AI is and how this is different from Bard and OpenAI. We discuss using Gen AI in the entrainment industry and the writer's strike. We chat about AI bias and even find out about Fergus's favorite Irish whiskey. Fergus spearheaded the creation of the platform by developing a product that leverages Google's sophisticated AI technology to streamline privacy compliance for some of the industry's leading digital applications such as Miniclip, Headspace, and Rovio. Fergus is an AI expert and enthusiast with an extensive background spanning over 15 years in the realms of mobile apps, and digital product development. In his prior role, he served as a zero-to-one focused product manager at Google Play, where he played a pivotal part in enhancing the Android user experience on a global scale. Preceding this, he made significant contributions to Google Research, focusing his expertise on Google Assistant and Waze Carpool.Fergus holds a Master's degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and a Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from University College Cork in Ireland.Please visit checks.google.com to learn more about Fergus' current platform.

As we navigate the ever-evolving landscape of technology, 2024 promises to be a year of exciting advancements. That's why this week Laura and Kevin make predictions for the top technology of 2024. Plus we're together and in a bar! We breakdown our top companies and gadgets fantasy football draft style. We also want to thank you for listening in 2023! You all are amazing!