Christopher Kirchhoff helped launch a Defense Department office that aimed to bring Silicon Valley technology to the US military. Christopher’s problem is this: How can the giant bureaucracy that is the US military keep up with technological change?
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Sam Bankman-Fried Revisited
In May of this year, we interviewed Sam Bankman-Fried, the young billionaire philanthropist who started the crypto exchange FTX. Last week, in a matter of a few days, FTX collapsed and filed for bankruptcy, and…
Machiavelli’s Tips for Getting Ahead at Work
Stacey Vanek Smith is the author of “Machiavelli for Women: Defend Your Worth, Grow Your Ambition, and Win the Workplace.” Her problem is this: How do women get ahead in a workplace that is stacked…
Google’s Journey to the Edge of Search
Cathy Edwards is vice president and GM of Search at Google. Cathy’s problem is this: how do you teach computers to tell people what they want to know, even if they don’t know how to…
Paying People to Turn Off the Fridge
Matt Duesterberg is co-founder and president of OhmConnect. Matt’s problem: How do you build a business around getting people to save energy? Not all that much. And not all the time. But just enough, at…
Turning Writers into Publishers
Chris Best is co-founder and CEO of Substack. Chris’s problem: How do you help writers make a living from a thousand true fans? Substack is a company that helps writers send subscription-based email newsletters. Which,…
Shopify: The Business That Helps Build Businesses
Harley Finkelstein is the president of Shopify. He may love entrepreneurship more than anyone we’ve ever met. Harley’s problem: How do you aggregate the power of millions of small businesses to help them compete against…
Putting Carbon Back Into the Ground
Shaun Kinetic is co-founder and chief scientist of Charm Industrial. Shaun’s problem: How do you put billions of tons of carbon back into the ground? Charm Industrial is fighting climate change in a giant but…
Patching Together a Quilting Empire
Al Doan is the executive chairman of the Missouri Star Quilt company. Al’s problem is this: How do you combine low tech and high tech to turn a niche hobby into a wildly successful company?…
Revealing How Much Health Care Really Costs
Chris Severn is the co-founder and CEO of Turquoise Health. Chris’s problem is this: How do you figure out the real price trip of a trip to the hospital — before it happens? People have…
Saving the World with Poop
Mariana Matus is co-founder and CEO of Biobot Analytics. Her problem: How do you turn sewage into useful public health data? When she and her co-founder launched the company, wastewater epidemiology was a niche field…