Dr Alvy Ray Smith is the co-founder of Pixar, a computer scientist and pioneer in the field of computer graphics and to celebrate 39 years to the day that Pixar was officially founded, I wanted to release my interview with Alvy from Series 3.After starting his career in academia, Alvy had an epiphany following a serious skiing accident. He decided to move to California to combine his two passions - art and computers - in a place where he felt something good was about to happen. Alvy was always a pioneer. From creating his first computer graphic in 1965, Alvy became an original member of the Computer Graphics Lab at the New York Institute of Technology, he witnessed the birth of the personal computer at Xerox PARC, and he was the first director of computer graphics at George Lucas’s Lucasfilm. It was there that Alvy gathered some of the smartest people he knew to develop computer graphics software, including early renderer technology. He and colleague Ed Catmull then spun out to co-found the famous Pixar, soon followed by the hiring of Lucasfilm colleague John Lasseter, and Steve Jobs as an investor. It was at Pixar that Toy Story would be made - the very first, entirely computer-animated, feature film. In 2006, Pixar was sold to Disney for $7.4 billion.In this interview, Alvy recounts his career from the early days at Xerox PARC to how Pixar got started. We discuss the Pixar journey in detail, as well as his latest book – A Biography of the Pixel (you can buy here)- including how innovation is born from three strands: An idea, chaos and a tyrant. And how Steve jobs was both the saviour and the tyrant in the incredible Pixar story.A true pioneer, this is one of my favourite conversations.Enjoy!-----NB This episode was first released in Series 3.Let us know what you think of this episode and please rate, review and share - it means the world to me and helps others to find it too.Danielle Twitter / Instagram / Substack Newsletter / YouTubeAll my podcast episodes are edited with Descript - try it for FREE hereAlvy Ray Smith on Twitter @alvyray / website Buy Alvy Ray Smith's book A Biography of the Pixel here. -----This episode was hosted by me - Danielle Newnham, a recovering founder, author and writer who has been interviewing tech founders and innovators for ten years - and produced by Jolin Cheng. Image of Alvy Ray by Christopher Michel.
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59:49
Zahaan Bharmal: How Physics Can Explain Almost Everything
Today’s guest is Zahaan Bharmal – Senior Director of Strategy for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at Google where he has spent the last 16 years. He is also author of The Art of Physics: 8 elegant ideas to make sense of almost everything.In this conversation, Zahaan and I discuss his younger years, how he struggled at school and had big questions about the world and how The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams completely changed his life and allowed him to fall in love with the subject of Physics, in the hope of finding some of those answers.We also discuss Zahaan’s career from working as a speech writer for luminaries such as Tony Blair, Bill Clinton and Nelson Mandela to his current role at Google working with those at the frontier of AI including Sir Demis Hassabis of Deep Mind. But the main topic of conversation today is how physics can help us answer very human questions. Drawing on fields of physics such as quantum mechanics, thermodynamics, chaos and complexity theory, we look at how physics can help us make sense of an unpredictable world – and, why many of the world’s most successful leaders from Napolean to Charlie Munger all believe a greater understanding of physics can help us save humanity.So please enjoy my conversation with Zahaan Bharmal.Zahaan Bharmal has a degree in physics from the University of Oxford. After working on policy issues for the UK government and at the World Bank, he won a Fulbright Scholarship to Stanford University where he earned a master's in business administration. Since 2008, he has worked for Google, currently as senior director of strategy for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. He has written about space and science for the Guardian and is the recipient of NASA’s Exceptional Public Achievement Medal.
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58:53
Nuno Coelho Santos: Designer, DeepMind, Google, Meta
Today’s guest is Nuno Coelho Santos – a Portuguese Product Designer who has worked at some of tech’s top companies from DeepMind to Meta’s WhatsApp, and Google Health.He was at DeepMind working on their Streams app for clinicians when Covid struck and his team were pulled into helping the UK Ministry’s of Health Departments Covid response.In this wide ranging conversation, we talk about Nuno’s early pull between his two great loves – engineering and design, how design ultimately won and led to his work award winning work at DeepMind and Google as well as the career break he took after being inspired by designer Stefan Sagmeister who believed in taking a complete sabbatical every seven years.We also discuss the differences in the companies he worked at, and what the impact of AI might be on software and design in the future.I really enjoyed talking to Nuno and I think you will learn a lot – this is his first ever podcast interview.So please enjoy my conversation with Nuno Coelho Santos.Nuno website / LinkedIn / Instagram / ThreadsDanielle Twitter / Instagram / Substack Newsletter / YouTubeAll my podcast episodes are edited with Descript - try it for FREE here
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49:38
David Senra: Why Founders Rule the World (REPLAY)
This week's guest is David Senra, ex-founder and host of Founders podcast – one of my favourite podcasts where each week, David devours a biography of a founder and shares his favourite lessons with the world, whether it’s Charlie Munger, Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, Kobe Bryant, The Wright Brothers, Lucille Ball, Jay Z, Enzo Ferrari and many more!But David has a really interesting story himself and one we dive into today. We talk about his tough childhood and how his escape came through his obsession with books because it was within those pages where he found the role models he wanted and needed to inspire him on his way.We also discuss some key themes between the founders and innovators whose stories David has shared in over 300 episodes now from a self-styled delusion which helps them to ignore the naysayers and dream the impossible to the obsession which comes with a laser focus on what matters.There are lots of great stories and anecdotes as you can imagine from David but there are also some great lessons that he has learned about success on his personal journey and why he wants to build something he’s younger self would be proud of.Here is my conversation with David Senra.Enjoy!This episode was originally released April 2023 - S9:E73David's podcast Founders podcast / Twitter / Instagram Danielle Twitter / Instagram / Substack Newsletter / YouTubeAll my podcast episodes are edited with Descript - try it for FREE hereMentioned in this episode:Tim Urban post that David mentions in this episode Taming the Mammoth: Why You Should Stop Caring What Other People ThinkMy episode with Jimmy Soni here
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1:06:56
Charlotte Stavrou: Influencers and Entrepreneurship
Today’s guest is Charlotte Stavrou – founder and CEO of SevenSix agency – an award winning influencer marketing agency.In this episode, we talk about Charlotte’s childhood and how it shaped her work ethic and entrepreneurial spirit, how her dyslexia diagnosis last year allowed her to feel whole after the education system left her feeling broken.We also discuss why so many founders are now becoming influencers, how covid accelerated the influencer landscape and how her agency’s annual pricing reports are helping influencers charge the right amount for their work.Whether you are a founder, content creator or marketeer, you will find lots of lessons in this episode.So please enjoy my conversation with Charlotte Stavrou.Charlotte on Instagram / LinkedIn / SevenSix agencyDanielle Twitter / Instagram / Substack Newsletter / YouTubeImage of Charlotte by Kiran GiddaAll my podcast episodes are edited with Descript - try it for FREE here
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