NonZero Podcast: Recent Episodes
NonZero Media
NonZero exists for the entrepreneurial, the enterprising, and all those who are simply fed up with business-as-usual. This is a revolution for all who believe true value goes WAY beyond the shareholder, purpose is the driver of profits, not its enemy, good business is relationship-based, not transactional, and growth is not a zero-sum game.
Our guests are the pragmatic and courageous visionaries who, through their wisdom, leadership, and sheer force of will manifest the reality within which they desire to live.
This show is for the infinitely curious, the self-actualizer, and the go-getter. It's for those courageous and crazy enough to believe they can change the world, and those who wish to be.
Courage is contagious and together we’re going viral!
Summary
40% of the world population does not have access to reliable electricity. Founder Jonathan Knight tells the story of how Uprise Energy is changing that with the world’s first commercial portable wind turbines.
Description
We take our outlets for granted, but 3 billion people live in energy poverty worldwide. Uprise Energy’s portable wind turbines provide a solution and open up a whole world of opportunities for their users. Founder Jonathan Knight makes a financial and an environmental case for their revolutionary product.
Harnessing the wind and building with composites was familiar for Jonathan, as his father had a yacht refitting business. When he realized the growing importance of renewable energy, he started to look for a solution that could extend to areas that will never be covered by the grid. Wind was a natural choice, as it is available everywhere, day and night. Instead of costly and complex wind farm projects, however, his company developed a 10kW turbine that can fit in a 20 ft container and, at full tilt, could power 10 average American homes.
The possible applications are endless. The first pilot projects are on organic farms in the US, but the Military and the Australian government is also interested in getting involved. The turbines can be set up by 1 person in less than an hour, and they can power construction sites and replace diesel generators. But those who will see the biggest difference are islanders and people in remote villages, where human creativity will be unlocked by sudden access to reliable power.
Key takeaways:
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Why there are 1 billion diesel generators running in the world at any given moment
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How replacing diesel with wind energy saves cost, CO2 emissions, and human lives
- Why innovation often comes from the third world instead of Silicon Valley
Mentions
Check out Uprise Energy’s website: http://upriseenergy.com/
Find them on social media:
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/UpriseEnergy
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/upriseenergy/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UpriseEnergy
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/uprise-energy/
- YouTube video: https://youtu.be/1bVoYizxA4I) about installing, running, and taking down a turbine in 3 hours.
Summary:
Hiring the right people, attracting the right clients and giving them the results they really want, leaving no data to go to waste. George Weiner, founder and chief whaler at Whole Whale shared how he built a social impact digital agency that is doing well by doing good.
Description:
We live in an age where data is abundant. It would be a shame if any of it went to waste, just like it was a shame that whalers in the 1850’s left large parts of the whale to rot. This is where the name Whole Whale comes from. The analogy with whaling stops there, as this digital agency only works with social impact organizations, and only if the majority of employees agree to take the new client on.
Founder George Weiner used to think like many companies still do: the ends justifies the means. Later he realized that this approach fails to take into account the unintended consequences of every decision, and he built them into his way of looking at the world and running Whole Whale. However, it remains to be seen whether the general public will subscribe to the idea of purpose-driven companies, and make more of them profitable than the few exceptions we see today.
It is not always clear even within an organization what the end goal really is. Whole Whale does a sort of “business therapy” to find out what their client wants, and once they defined the goal, they use aggregated data to measure what is working. They produce data packaged with a narrative that’s just as compelling as the story of Whole Whale.
Key takeaways:
- what it takes to be a B-Corp, and what it isn’t
- how to cultivate a unique company culture from hiring to exit interviews
- how you know you are “doing good” in the digital marketing world
- how society is dealing with negative externalities
Mentions:
Whole Whale’s Website: https://www.wholewhale.com/
Digital fundraising course: https://www.wholewhale.com/university/online-fundraising-essentials/
Connect with George on: https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgeweiner/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/wholewhale
Working remotely can be just as immersive as being in the office physically, and much more productive. Bluescape has developed a tool that looks straight out of Minority Report but will not use AI to exploit your data. This kind of collaboration will require a mindset shift in how we look at teams and leadership.
Summary
Remote work and distributed teams have become the new norm, and it is working so well that several companies are never going to go back to the office. There are countless communication and collaboration tools on the market, but not a lot of them can manage the entire workflow and, especially, collaboration on shared content. Bluescape is a comprehensive tool that can replace the entire tech stack of any company, from a startup to a billion-dollar film studio.
With clients like that, security and privacy are paramount. Founder Peter Jackson hopes that people understand that free tools are free because customer data is fed into AI systems, putting this privacy at risk. The decision to move away from these and into Bluescape is one that has to come from the top.
Transitioning an entire organization into remote collaboration requires a cultural shift as well. Managers need to trust their teams and, instead of checking if everybody clocks enough hours, set milestones, which can then be monitored through the system itself. But beyond getting the job done, great leaders also facilitate human connections and strengthen team spirit, in the virtual space as well as the physical.
Mentions
Peter Jackson on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterhjackson
Bluescape on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bluescaper
Bluescape’s Website: https://www.bluescape.com/
Daniel H. Pink: Drive on: https://www.amazon.com/Drive-Surprising-Truth-About-Motivates/dp/1594484805
Key takeaways
- Bluespace allows every participant to contribute, which is not the case in traditional meetings
- Tool sprawl is real, and it is hurting productivity and the onboarding of new employees
- Technologies are still chosen based on knee-jerk reactions instead of informed decisions
- People are motivated by autonomy more than constant supervision
- In business, there is no individual success, and systems need to promote teamwork
AI will cause a paradigm shift in several areas of human life in the next decade. Everguard is already using it to improve industry workers’ safety and to provide real-time data about large, complex and dangerous environments. Founder Sandeep Pandya explains the profound impact of AI and how far we have come since the 70’s – even if it doesn’t look like that.
Sandeep Pandya likes to live at the edge. That is where the activity is happening and where machines interact with humans. His company, Everguard, has built a complex system using edge computing in order to monitor industrial environments. This technology has a double purpose of providing real-time alerts and collecting valuable data that management can use to streamline and optimize the workflow.
Dangerous work environments are still responsible for more than 5,000 deaths every year. While it is not feasible to install cameras and sensors everywhere in a coil yard or steel factory, covering the incident hotspots and giving workers wearables that both track their movement and warn them in a fraction of a second already goes a long way towards better safety at the workplace. From a business point of view, caring about safety not only reduces liability, it also facilitates recruiting and retention, and earns points with business partners.
AI as a concept has been around for several decades, but until recently, the hardware could not keep up with the computing needs of such a system. With the advent of smartphones and the booming gaming industry, the processing power of computers has increased to a point where it is easy and cheap to get the computing power needed for machine learning. The quality of the data input is still a limiting factor, as is people’s reluctance to be constantly monitored, but AI is a tool for society that will naturally grow on the breeding ground that today’s virtual world is.
Mentions
Everguard’s website: www.everguard.ai
Sandeep on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandeeppandyasd/
Key takeaways
- why using generally available components is a better choice than building custom hardware
- how collected data can help remap the flow at an industrial site to make it more efficient and safer at the same time
- how safety can impact recruitment and retention and increase bottom line
- why the government should just enable and support innovation instead of trying to be at the forefront
In a 2020 survey, 75% of marketers said their biggest challenge is measuring the effect of media spending. Data Poem reimagined this process and offers data presented in a compelling way, with actionable insights, all automatically.
Summary:
Planning, Execution, Optimization, Measurement – the steps of an effective marketing campaign. Bharath Gaddam rearranged the letters and created Data Poem, a data management and visualization platform like no other.
One of the biggest challenges in marketing is that it is very difficult to measure the success of a campaign. There is a reason why marketing résumés often boast the size of the budget managed instead of the results achieved. Even when data is available, it tends to live in silos, and anyone who has tried to collect everything was easily overwhelmed by the amount of information.
Data Poem’s system collects data from online and offline sources, then applies deep learning to find connections and causal relations between them. The results are displayed in the minimal amount of graphs carrying the maximum amount of meaningful information – just like poetry.
When a business is this unique, there usually is some bigger purpose behind it. Bharath is no exception. He is hoping that the 20-25% of those budgets his company is able to save for marketers will be invested in big, impactful ideas.
Key takeaways:
- Even in the digital world, attribution is not certain, as offline elements are also in the mix
- Market Mix Modelling has been around since the 70’s, but isn’t actually backed by data
- Machine learning is used in an optimal way when we can answer questions that weren’t even asked
Mentions:
Data Poem: www.datapoem.com
Bharath Gaddam
- on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bharath-gaddam-3355a821/
- on Twitter: https://twitter.com/CuriousBharath
- on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bharath.gaddam.52
Diversyfund is opening up the world of investments to everyday people. Its founder Craig Cecilio believes that making a difference is just as important as making money and that everyone should benefit from the opportunities traditionally reserved for the ultra-wealthy.
Summary:
Craig Cecilio came full circle: after growing up in a middle-class family where his father scowled at the rich, he became a real estate developer and investor serving the ultra-wealthy when it dawned on him that by leveraging his extensive experience and modern technology, he could bridge the gap between wealthy, ‘accredited’ investors and the everyday Joe helping the masses benefit from access to a traditionally exclusive asset class, and much-needed diversification in turbulent times like the present moment.
His company Diversyfund provides a fully automated platform that allows anyone to invest amounts starting from 500USD. Financial education is a large part of their mission: since Diversyfund is open to people from all walks of life, it is important that users can educate themselves about this “savings account on steroids”.
Beyond the fascinating story of Diversyfund, Craig also touches upon the general shift in investment priorities, the importance of failure in the making of an entrepreneur, and the truth behind the old adage “money can’t buy happiness”.
Key takeaways:
- an employee should have skills the founder doesn’t, a mentee should have intangible skills and drive
- business success comes after some inevitable failure, so why not say “learn” instead of “fail”
- the money/happiness tradeoff becomes meaningless at a certain level, so investors are looking at ESG (environmental, social, and governance) components
Mentions:
Diversyfund – website www.diversyfund.com
Craig Cecilio http://craigcecilio.com/
- on Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/craigcecilio/
- on Twitter https://twitter.com/CXCecilio
- on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/craig.cecilio
Movies:
Glengarry Glen Ross: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104348/
Boiler Room: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0181984/
The Money Pit: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091541/
Tulu Systems was able to launch and grow successfully during the pandemic by providing IoT solutions that save up to 25% of the cost of heating, ventilation and air conditioning in commercial buildings. Not only does this help the environment and the clients’ bottom line, it also gives overworked and overwhelmed technicians their lives back.
Summary:
Standardization of most things will benefit a large number of those affected, but anyone who does not fit in will be penalized. This applies to buildings as well as schoolchildren. Therefore, it is fitting that Britt Espinosa, a homeschooled son of entrepreneurial parents, chose to disrupt the commercial HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) industry.
Diagnostics and maintenance of these systems has been prohibitively expensive due to exorbitant labor costs. But Brett’s aha-moment came upon realizing that technicians were so overwhelmed they were unable to take holidays.
Brett and his business partner designed a system of smart-sensors to detect possible energy savings and preventable failures, providing input and recommendations for commercial building operators and owners. Beyond saving money on mechanical and energy costs (owners save up to 20% of their HVAC costs), Tulu Systems’ solutions free up considerable time for their overworked technicians, leading to considerable additional savings and ultimately enabling them to keep more of their employees in times of crisis.
With the clients’ bottom line, the environment, and workers all being winners, Tulu Systems is clearly playing a non-zero sum game.
Key Takeaways:
- 30-50% of the energy used to heat, ventilate and cool air goes to waste
- automation is a good thing because it frees up people’s time, who can do things they are passionate about
- by detecting a preventable equipment failure, repairs get considerably cheaper
Mentions:
Tulu Systems
- website: www.tulusystems.com
- on Twitter: https://twitter.com/tulusystems?lang=en
- on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tulusystems/
Britt Espinosa
- on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brittespinosa/
Sustainable Living Innovations: https://sli.co/
The most meaningful moments of people’s lives are events. Despite the setbacks the events industry has experienced due to COVID-19, connecting with one another is a hardwired human need. Mitch Thrower, founder of events.com shares the story of his company and his vision for the future, while going deep into basic human drives and the secrets of a visionary.
Summary:
Entrepreneurship is an endurance sport. This would sound like an empty catchphrase if it wasn’t coming from Mitch Thrower, who became passionate about triathlon after several knee surgeries. Beyond physical discomfort, the pain of signing up for races propelled him to create his company, Events, which is thriving to be a universal platform for event organizers worldwide.
Human connections and relationships are what really make our existence worthwhile. Millennials and Gen Z have already discovered that experiences are more valuable than physical possessions – and they get more love on social media, too. Unfortunately, this year, live events suffered a blow. However, Mitch predicts that once it is safe to gather again, people will quickly adjust to whatever the new normal will be, and their urge to connect will be greater than ever.
Mitch has a people-centric philosophy as a leader; after all, companies are bought and sold every day, but good employees will stick around. A true visionary is not someone who has the most up-to-date tech knowledge, but someone who knows just enough not to be naive is able to identify superpowers in others and is capable of keeping an eye on the future as well as the present.
The uncertainties of the future are an important topic on everyone’s mind nowadays. Mitch offers a unique perspective on what really went down mentally during COVID. He is convinced that at an unspecified time in the future and among conditions yet unknown, but we will meet again – and Events will be there.
Key takeaways:
- how entrepreneurship and professional sports overlap in the necessary commitment, preparation, and mindset
- how Events is creating the same experience for events as Airbnb did for accommodation
- the shift in focus from the things we own to the experiences we share
- a ‘Bezosian’ leadership philosophy where people come first, and hiring smarter people than you is the best thing you can do for your business
- how the shared experience of 2020 will enrich our lives by bringing us closer together
Links:
Events.com – https://events.com/
Mitch Thrower – https://www.mitchthrower.com/
- on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mitchthrower/
- on Twitter: https://twitter.com/mitchthrower
- on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mitch.thrower