Shows / The Tech Trek
The Tech Trek
The Tech Trek is a podcast about how founders, operators, and technology leaders build and scale technology companies. Each episode explores the decisions behind building products, teams, and technical organizations, with conversations spanning engineering, AI, data, product, hiring, leadership, and growth. Guests share what they are building, what they are learning, and how they are navigating the challenges that come with turning technology into a successful company.
Episodes
- The Tech Trek
Why Data Teams Need Software Engineering Discipline
Kenneth Schwartz, VP of Global Data and Governance at Genmab, joins The Tech Trek to talk about what happens when data teams start applying software…
The Tech TrekAI Is Rebuilding Mortgage From the Inside Out
Mortgage is often the largest financial transaction in a person’s life, yet much of the process still runs on outdated workflows, long waits, and paperwork…
The Tech TrekAI Won’t Replace Accountants, It Will Change Where They Create Value
Accounting has a tech problem, and it is not what most people think. In this conversation, Cos Nicolaescu, Co-founder and CEO at Accrual, breaks down why…
The Tech TrekHealthcare Can’t Go Down, Cloud, AI, and Reliability
What does it take to modernize healthcare infrastructure when uptime is not just an SLA, but a patient outcome? In this episode, Amir talks with Jeff…
The Tech TrekThe Ethics of Offensive Security
Farzan Karimi, Deputy CISO at Moderna, joins Amir Bormand for a sharp conversation on one of the most misunderstood areas in cybersecurity, the ethics of…
The Tech TrekBuilding Enterprise AI Agents, What Most Companies Still Get Wrong
Adi Kuruganti, Chief AI and Development Officer at Automation Anywhere, joins Amir to break down what it actually takes to build agents for the enterprise, not…
The Tech TrekHow AI Coding Agents Are Changing Software Engineering
What happens when software engineers stop thinking like coders and start thinking like orchestrators? In this episode, Amir sits down with Scott Gale, CTO and…
The Tech TrekHow AI Coding Agents Are Changing Software Engineering
What happens when software engineers stop thinking like coders and start thinking like orchestrators? In this episode, Amir sits down with Scott Gale, CTO and…
The Tech TrekHow AI Will Change Procurement and Knowledge Work
Spencer Penn, Co founder and CEO of LightSource, joins The Tech Trek for a sharp conversation on AI native procurement, agentic workflows, and what actually…
The Tech TrekHow AI Is Reshaping the CISO Role and Modern Security Teams
Michael Fanning, CISO at Splunk, joins The Tech Trek for a grounded conversation on how the security leader role is changing in the AI era. This episode gets…
The Tech TrekFrom Engineer to CEO | Tech Trek Brief
What does it really take to go from engineer to CEO? In this Tech Trek Brief, Michael White, Co founder and CEO of Multiply, shares a few of the ideas that…
The Tech TrekHow Shadow AI Is Changing Cybersecurity and Insider Risk
Raj Koo, CTO at DTEX, joins The Tech Trek for a sharp conversation on insider risk, shadow AI, and why security teams need a more modern way to think about…
The Tech TrekHow Agentic AI Changes Enterprise Software
Sumeet Arora, Chief Product Officer at Teradata, joins The Tech Trek for a sharp conversation on the shift from human driven SaaS to agentic software. This…
The Tech TrekHow AI Is Changing Crypto Crime, AML, and Cyber Investigations
Victor Fang, CEO and Founder of Anchain AI, joins The Tech Trek for a timely conversation on crypto crime, AI driven fraud, and what financial institutions…
The Tech TrekHow Data Teams Scale Project Management Without Slowing Down
Cam Crow, Director of Data and Analytics at Vacatia, joins The Tech Trek to unpack what happens when a startup outgrows informal ways of working. This episode…
The Tech TrekWhy Enterprise AI Fails Without Better Data and Business Process Design
Deep Sogani, SVP and Group Data Management Officer at Datasite, joins The Tech Trek to unpack why data governance, lineage, and business process design have…
The Tech TrekHow Data Leaders Build New Technical Capabilities
Suresh Martha, Head of Data Driven Innovation and Analytics at EMD Serono, joins The Tech Trek for a practical conversation on what leadership looks like when…
The Tech TrekMachine Learning: What Businesses Might Actually Need
Sourish Samanta, Director AI and ML at Advance Auto Parts, joins The Tech Trek for a grounded conversation on where machine learning still creates the most…
The Tech TrekHow Robotics Could Transform Construction
Shamoon Siddiqui, CEO and Founder of Human Friendly Robotics, joins The Tech Trek to break down what it really takes to bring robotics into construction. This…
The Tech TrekWhy Most Companies Still Struggle to Operationalize AI
Mary Elizabeth Porray, Global Vice Chair Client Technology and COO, Growth and Innovation at EY, joins The Tech Trek for a grounded conversation about what it…
The Tech TrekFrom Engineer to CEO, Building an AI Mortgage Company
Michael White, Co founder and CEO of Multiply, joins the show to talk about the path from engineering leadership to the CEO seat, and what it really takes to…
The Tech TrekWhat VCs Really Want From AI Startups in 2026
Susan Liu, Partner at Uncork Capital, joins Amir to break down what actually matters when backing early stage AI companies. From founder market fit to product…
The Tech TrekThe Internet Was Built for Humans. AI Is About to Change That.
What happens to e commerce when AI agents start shopping instead of humans? Maju Kuruvilla, Founder and CEO of Spangle, joins the show to unpack a shift most…
The Tech TrekHow AI Is Modernizing the Equipment Rental Industry
Most people never think about the technology behind construction equipment rentals. But behind every crane, excavator, and lift is an industry still running on…
The Tech TrekThe Future of Earth Intelligence, From Imagery to Answers
Luke Fischer, cofounder and CEO of SkyFi, breaks down how earth intelligence is becoming searchable, and why that changes decision making across defense…
The Tech TrekWhy Research Scientists Are Taking Over AI Startups
Anish Agarwal went from MIT PhD researcher to founding Traversal, an AI company building intelligent site reliability engineering agents for the enterprise. In…
The Tech TrekFrom Exit to Starting Over: What Nobody Tells You About Building Again
Harry Gestetner built a creator economy platform in college, sold it, and walked away. Then he did the one thing nobody expected. He jumped back in and started…
The Tech TrekEdge AI Is Shifting From Chat To Action
Behnam Bastani, CEO and cofounder of OpenInfer, breaks down why the last two years of AI feel explosive, and why the next wave is not chat, it is action at the…
The Tech TrekHow to Build a Data Team From Scratch (And Get Leadership to Invest)
Building data capability from zero is not a tooling problem, it is a trust and prioritization problem. In this episode, Laura Guerin, Head of Data and Data…
The Tech TrekThe Hiring Mistake That Kills Most Startups (And What to Do Instead)
Riya Grover, CEO and co founder of Sequence, breaks down what “good CEO” actually looks like when the job is messy, fast, and high stakes. This is a practical…
The Tech TrekThe CPTO Role Explained, How Product and Engineering Move Faster Together
Arnie Katz has been running product and engineering under one roof since before most companies even considered combining the roles. As CPTO at GoFundMe, he…
The Tech TrekHow AI Fixes the Healthcare Incentive Problem
Anjali Jameson, Chief Product Officer at Arbiter, says the hard part is not gathering data. It is getting action across patients, providers, and payers without…
The Tech TrekStakeholder Expectations, Deliver Value Faster
Most data teams do not have a tooling problem. They have a customer service problem. Mo Villagran, Associate Director of Insights, Analytics, and Data at…
The Tech TrekPick The Jockey, Not The Idea
Ashok Krishnamurthi, Managing Partner at Great Point Ventures, says the biggest mistake in venture capital is confusing prediction with judgment. Early stage…
The Tech TrekHow to Break Into Robotics Without a Perfect Background
Aditya Agarwal did not plan to work in robotics. He got rejected from his first-choice major, joined a student club to keep his parents off his back, and…
The Tech TrekStablecoins, AI Fraud, and the Future of Sports Payouts
Ronak Desai, Co-founder and CPTO at Payment Labs, breaks down a surprisingly hard problem that sits at the intersection of fintech, sports, and compliance. If…
The Tech TrekThe Founder Rules Nobody Tells You
Healey Cypher, CEO of BoomPop and COO at Atomic, breaks down what separates founders who win from founders who stall. You will hear a clear way to judge…
The Tech TrekModernizing Healthcare Without the Buzzwords
Ty Wang, cofounder and CEO of Angle Health, breaks down what it means to give back through public service, then shows how that same mindset drives his mission…
The Tech TrekThe Hidden Fintech Behind the Compute Boom
Gabe Ravacci, CTO and co-founder at Internet Backyard, breaks down what the “computer economy” really looks like when you zoom in on data centers, billing…
The Tech TrekData Fabric Meets AI, The Trust Layer Most Teams Skip
Data leaders are being asked to ship real AI outcomes while the foundations are still messy. In this conversation, Dave Shuman, Chief Data Officer at…
The Tech TrekCloud Costs vs AI Workloads, The Storage Decisions That Decide Scale
Cloud bills are climbing, AI pipelines are exploding, and storage is quietly becoming the bottleneck nobody wants to own. Ugur Tigli, CTO at MinIO, breaks down…
The Tech TrekAI Is Changing Art Faster Than You Think.
This is an early conversation I am bringing back because it feels even more relevant now, the intersection of AI and art is turning into a real cultural shift…
The Tech TrekAI in the Enterprise, Why Pilots Fail and What Actually Scales
Most teams are approaching AI from the wrong direction, either chasing the tech with no clear problem or spinning up endless pilots that never earn their keep…
The Tech TrekAI Is Rewriting Manufacturing Quality, Here’s What Changes
Manufacturing is getting faster, messier, and more expensive when quality slips. Daniel First, Founder and CEO at Axion, joins Amir to break down how AI is…
The Tech TrekSynthetic Data Explained, When It Helps AI and When It Hurts
Synthetic data is moving from a niche concept to a practical tool for shipping AI in the real world. In this episode, Amit Shivpuja, Director of Data Product…
The Tech TrekThe Real Learning Curve of Engineering Management
Tom Pethtel, VP of Engineering at Flock Safety, breaks down the real learning curve of moving from builder to manager, and how to keep your technical edge…
The Tech TrekRetention for Engineering Teams, What Keeps Top People Around
Phil Freo, VP of Product and Engineering at Close, has lived the rare arc from founding engineer to executive leader. In this conversation, he breaks down why…
The Tech TrekData Orchestration and Open Source Strategy
Pete Hunt, CEO of Dagster Labs, joins Amir Bormand to break down why modern data teams are moving past task based orchestration, and what it really takes to…
The Tech TrekHow Great Investors Spot Real Moats in AI
Sandesh Patnam, Managing Partner at Premji Invest, breaks down how long duration capital changes the way you evaluate companies, founders, and moats. We talk…
The Tech TrekOutsource the Typing, How AI Agents Change Software Engineering
Software engineering is changing fast, but not in the way most hot takes claim. Robert Brennan, Co founder and CEO at OpenHands, breaks down what happens when…
The Tech TrekTurning Compliance Into Product
Deborah Hanus, Co-founder and CEO at Sparrow, joins Amir to unpack the founder journey from academia to building a scaled company. They dig into why leave…
The Tech TrekWhy Insurance Is a Goldmine for AI and Data
Max Bruner, Founder and CEO of Anzen, joins Amir Bormand to break down why insurance is quietly one of the biggest data and workflow opportunities in tech…
The Tech TrekDefending Against Bots At Scale
Stu Solomon, CEO of HUMAN, joins Amir to unpack a blind spot most teams underestimate: a huge share of online activity is not people at all, it is automated…
The Tech TrekTrust but Verify, How Great Tech Leaders Delegate
Mek Stittri, CTO at Stuut, breaks down a leadership skill that sounds simple but gets messy fast, trust, then verify. You will learn how to delegate without…
The Tech TrekInsurance is really just a big data problem
Michael Topol, Co-founder and Co-CEO at MGT Insurance, explains why insurance is quietly becoming one of the most interesting data and AI problems in tech. We…
The Tech TrekHow VCs Really Pick Winners in Open Source and AI
Marco DeMeireles, co founder and managing partner at ANSA, breaks down how a modern VC firm wins by being focused, data driven, and allergic to hype. If you…
The Tech TrekAI That Actually Improves Customer Experience
AI is everywhere, but most teams are stuck talking about efficiency and headcount. In this episode, Dave Edelman, executive advisor and best selling author…
The Tech TrekThe New Go To Market Playbook
Amanda Kahlow, CEO and founder of 1Mind, joins Amir to break down what AI changes in modern sales and go to market, and what it does not. If you lead revenue…
The Tech TrekStudents Run This 100M Venture Fund
What if the best people on your investing team are still in college? Peter Harris, Partner at University Growth Fund, breaks down how they run a roughly 100…
The Tech TrekRemote Surgical Robotics Is Coming Faster Than You Think
Yulun Wang, executive chairman and co founder at Sovato Health, joins Amir Bormand to unpack the next wave after telemedicine, procedural care at a distance…