THIS WEEK: 5 Things I Think You'll Love

Hi and I hope you have had a great week! If you are looking for a podcast to entertain you, a quote to embolden you, an interview to inform you, a book to embolden you or a film to inspire you, please read on...

PODCAST

Joe Fernandez: From Death Threats to Private Jets!

It was a great pleasure to have Klout founder Joe Fernandez on the podcast this week.

Klout, founded in 2008, measured social media influence, years before anyone else started paying attention to it. In this interview, we revisit Joe's childhood growing up in Las Vegas, how his inability to talk, post surgery, led to the idea of Klout, and how many adventures, near-misses and successes he had building the startup to its $200 million exit.

You can listen to our conversation on Apple here, Spotify here, Google here, Amazon here, Audible here, Simplecast here.

QUOTE

"The world is full of things more powerful than us. But if you know how to catch a ride, you can go places.” Neal Stephenson

INTERVIEW

“Our mission is to tear down all financial barriers to opportunity—what we’re doing now is one huge, gigantic, super-complex one, but it’s only one... For now, we’re doing banking, but we’re going to do way, way, way more. That’s what we want with Mos, and I think it’s about time this exists.” Amira Yahyaoui 

Amira Yahyaoui -- a Tunisian entrepreneur, investor and human rights activist -- on her latest funding round and why she wants her startup, Mos, to empower students everywhere to financial security. Read the interview here.

BOOK

Whole Earth: The Many Lives of Stewart Brand by John Markoff.

Stewart Brand is a pioneer and well-known figure, but to many people outside the counterculture, early computing, or the environmental movement, he is perhaps best known for his famous mantra “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish which is one of my favourite lines. Steve Jobs’s endorsement of these words as his code to live by is fitting; Brand has played many roles, but one of the most important is as a model for how to live.

You can pre-order the book here.

FILM

This lecture really touched me. Randy Pausch was an educator, Professor of Computer Science, Human-Computer Interaction and Design at Carnegie Mellon when he learned he had pancreatic cancer in September 2006. His diagnosis in August 2007 was terminal - "three to six months of good health left."

His last lecture there, entitled The Last Lecture: Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams was on 18th September 2007. It was very well received and he went on to co-author a book, The Last Lecture on the same theme which became an NYT bestseller.

Randy passed on 25th July 2008 but this lecture, as well as his work and life has left a lasting impression on so many.

I hope you enjoy it too. Watch here.

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As always, thank you to all those who read this newsletter, read my essays and interviews, buy my books or listen to the podcast. I truly appreciate each and every one of you. I could not do this without you.

Next week's podcast episode is with Josh Dahn, co-founder of Ad Astra School with Elon Musk and co-founder of Synthesis - the online education platform which is reimagining how we educate our children.

Subscribe here to be the first to hear it.

Until then,

Danielle