Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots

553: The One with Sami and Chad

December 5th, 2024  |  Season 14  |  38 mins 9 secs

After 10 years and 550 episodes of Giant Robots, Chad and Sami are ready to discuss what’s next for the podcast. The pair dive into some podcast role-play as they test out some ideas for iterating the show’s formula.

Peak behind the curtain as they discuss the inner workings of the show, the challenges of working on a mature codebase, how thoughtbot tackles impostor syndrome when onboarding new employees and the developing accessibility of AI.

552: Scaling an Online Telehealth Experience with Aakash Shah

November 28th, 2024  |  Season 14  |  34 mins 50 secs

Chad talks with Aakash Shah, Founder and CEO of Wyndly, about how he built a new online telehealth experience to expand convenient access to allergy immunotherapy. The pair discuss the mechanics of building an online healthcare operation from scratch, the challenges that arise as you begin to scale your business, and how Aakash utilised his past experience as a software engineer to support his new venture.

Discover why this area of medicine has been overlooked for so long, how COVID has shifted our view on healthcare as a whole, as well as the odd rules and quirks of the FDA when trying to market a new medical service.

551: System Design is a Team Sport with Tom Johnson

November 21st, 2024  |  Season 14  |  37 mins 6 secs

In this episode, entrepreneur, CTO, and co-founder Tom Johnson joins us to discuss Multiplayer, a collaborative tool streamlining system design and documentation for developers.

550: Disrupting and Democratizing Private Chefs with Iyabo Bello

November 14th, 2024  |  Season 14  |  39 mins 52 secs

Iyabo Bello is a serial founder and entrepreneur, best known for iKooK, an app connecting private chefs to their target audience. Join us as she shares the unlikely story of how she came up with the idea to start iKooK after working in fashion design and food science.

549: Scaling Startups and AI-Powered Real Estate with Chris Fellows

November 7th, 2024  |  Season 14  |  33 mins 48 secs

We're joined by Chris Fellows, founder and CEO of Bold Street, to explore how his AI-powered platform is reshaping residential investment for real estate professionals.

548: Product Management vs Project Management with Bethan Ashley

November 1st, 2024  |  Season 14  |  34 mins 35 secs

In this episode, we're joined by Senior Product Manager at thoughtbot and Founderland Startup Mentor, Bethan Ashley, who shares her insights and advice on how and when to leverage AI tooling, the difference between project management and product management, and much more.

547: Fight better using AI with CJ Tayeh

October 24th, 2024  |  Season 14  |  38 mins 12 secs

We’re joined by Flank founder, CJ Tayeh, a human rights lawyer turned growth marketer turned social innovator. With a mission to address inequalities and power imbalances, especially around money, she explains how Flank’s AI companion acts as a mediator to foster trust and communication.

546: Class Awareness with Dr. Justin Key

October 17th, 2024  |  Season 14  |  41 mins 25 secs

In this special episode, we're joined by Dr. Justin Key, the Founder of Black Theorem Consulting, to discuss societal divisions driven by social and economic status, and how digital products and services can drive change on a global scale, how designers and developers can be a part of that change, and why developers need to check their biases when building digital technology.

545: Generative AI: How to Leverage its Power and Mitigate the Risks

October 10th, 2024  |  Season 14  |  46 mins 18 secs

We're joined by Sema Founder and CEO, Matt Van Itallie. Sema improves outcomes for users, companies, and developers by providing automated tools to assess code. We discuss the five reasons why you should know how much generative AI is used in your code, and much more.

544: How BonePixel is Redefining Diagnosis and Treatment with Nazgol Tavabi and Mohammadreza Movahhedi

October 3rd, 2024  |  Season 14  |  39 mins 36 secs

We're joined by Nazgol Tavabi and Mohammadreza Movahhedi, the co-founders of BonePixel, a healthcare startup focused on using AI and big data for the diagnosis and treatment planning of joint disorders. We discuss the origins of BonePixel, the challenges of building a healthcare startup, and how they are leveraging AI to make patient-specific treatment planning more accurate and efficient.

543: The Intersection of AI and Recruitment with Brian Glover

September 19th, 2024  |  Season 14  |  42 mins 12 secs

We're joined by Brian Glover, Co-founder and CEO of Previewed, an immersive, streamlined, and intelligent solution for recruiters and candidates. We unpack the company’s skill-based assessment method, the ‘gamification’ of recruitment tools, how Previewed’s platform helps with retention, identifying gaps in a candidate’s skills, and much more.

542: Shaping Company Culture using AI with Elie Rashbass

September 12th, 2024  |  Season 14  |  41 mins 16 secs

Elie Rashbass, CEO & Co-founder at ScultureAI, a startup developing innovative solutions that shape organizational culture from the ground up joins the show to discuss the endless interactions that shape company culture, why it matters, and how Elie and his team are helping companies use AI to embed their culture into actualized, organization-wide behavior.

541: Fixing the way that families hire, manage, and pay in-home care professionals with Jon Levinson

September 5th, 2024  |  Season 14  |  42 mins 48 secs

We're joined by Jon Levinson, founder of Clara Home Care, to share his personal experiences with in-home care that led him to research the industry, identify the challenges, and co-found Clara, which is reimagining the way that home care is delivered in America.

540: The Tech Behind Eslando’s Circular Fashion Revolution with Karishma Gupta

September 4th, 2024  |  Season 14  |  37 mins 46 secs

We're joined by Karishma Gupta, the Founder and CEO of Eslando Circular Fashion, a company dedicated to changing the clothing industry through circular economy principles and textile recycling.

539: Human-Centered Design and Innovation with Sheng-Hung Lee

August 22nd, 2024  |  Season 14  |  41 mins 24 secs

Giant Robots On Tour introduces Sheng-Hung Lee, a designer and PhD researcher at MIT AgeLab. He shares his journey into design and emphasizes the evolving role of designers in addressing broader issues like climate change and aging. Sheng-Hung discusses practical applications such as smart homes for aging populations, the importance of designing for different life stages, and his views on well-designed and poorly designed products.

538: Transforming Therapy with Gaming: How MindJam Supports Young Minds

August 15th, 2024  |  Season 14  |  43 mins 26 secs

In this episode of "Giant Robots On Tour," Sami Birnbaum and Rémy Hannequin interview Dan Clark, Founder and CEO of MindJam, which provides emotional and Special Educational Needs support for young people through gaming. Dan shares how MindJam began during the pandemic to help neurodivergent youth using games like Minecraft, emphasizing gaming's benefits for cognitive and social development. MindJam has grown significantly, now supporting over 2,000 young people globally with 110 mentors.