The BootstrapLabs Applied Artificial Intelligence Conference 2019 #AAI19 brought together the brightest and most experienced experts in the field of AI for an immersive day of learning, discussion, and connection.
On our BootstrapWorks we have released the videos from this past conference to relive the moments and spread the knowledge around the diverse topics covered by our experts on stage.
BootstrapLabs has built a community of more than 40,000 people from over 60 countries who care about applying Artificial Intelligence to solve the hardest problems of our society.
Get access to practical wisdom on Applied AI methodologies and take advantage of AI’s powerful potential, sign up here to receive the videos directly into your inbox.

Together, the lack of attribution models, an integrated identity, and the complexity of establishing global privacy and ethical standards within the core building blocks of the Internet pose a critical threat to the very fabric of our modern society. Moderator Daniel Riedel, Founder and CEO of New Context, and panelists Erin Kenneally of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Herb Kelsey of Quantum Vault, Jason Hoffman of MobileEdgeX, and Jonathan Ward of Atlas Organization discuss how AI has contributed to the exacerbation of state actors, terrorist organizations, and criminals’ political and ideologically motivated use of the internet for financial gain. The panelists also explore how AI presents an opportunity to alleviate that threat by strengthening our existing digital infrastructures and creating stronger platforms for the future stability, economic prosperity, and security of our society, companies, and citizens.
Moderator: Daniel Riedel, Founder & CEO, New Context
Panelists: Erin Kenneally, Portfolio Manager, Cyber Security Division, Science & Technology, U.S. Department of Homeland Security; Herb Kelsey, Founder & CEO, Quantum Vault Inc.; Jonathan Ward, Founder & CEO, Atlas Organization; Jason Hoffman, President & CEO of MobiledgeX.
Some of the key takeaways from the session are:
- Currently, we do not have a collective mental model for AI and risk. AI is forcing a conflation of rights as well as individual, company and state interests like privacy, free expression, security, critical infrastructures etc.
- AI is a tool and a strategy focused on optimization and care. It is very difficult to optimize something and thus important to have a strategy around how to optimize something and to understand all implications of that process.
- AI is used in scoring and recommender systems, news feeds and search results and for classification prediction (crime, health etc.) which bears certain risks.
- In a time of continuous accelerated change, it is important to go back to fundamental truths: The ability to generate unique insights via proprietary access to data is always advantageous.
- If the delta between our growing AI capabilities and our expectations (laws: privacy, data protection, human rights etc.) continues to grow, we have:
- Inefficient avoidance of risk.
- Increasing tensions between legitimate stakeholders.
- Undermining of trust in our ordering forces (law, markets etc.).
- AI will break the internet, if:
- It is in the hands of an attacker, allowing higher efficiencies in creating synthetic identities to simulate transactions, because this eliminates trust.
- Automated social network behavior to influence politics as well as automated trolling or racist comments become the norm.
- We fail to align our expectations with our capabilities.
- AI will save the internet, if:
- We use it successfully to protect, care for and optimize membership in open and insecure networks like the internet.
- The pressure of the rise of China and its relationship with Russia on the liberal democratic world order will change everything on a geopolitical scale. We are going through two historical changes: Industry 4.0 and the rise of major-nation states with heated competition between two major world powers for the first time since the cold war. China as a leading investor in AI has a national AI strategy that aims to be the undisputed world leader by 2030 which shows the nature of this arms race. The alignment of state and company goals in China will lead to continued global confrontation of multinational companies with emerging champions from an authoritarian system.
About Daniel Riedel:
Daniel Riedel, the CEO of New Context, is an innovator in data security for highly regulated industries. He is a trusted authority in data security for the industrial internet, speaking before the US Senate Committee on Energy & Natural Resources, OASIS‘s Borderless Cyber and Johns Hopkins IACD, and has been published in the Washington Post, Federal Times, Wired and Dark Reading. Riedel has over 20 years of expertise building secure and scalable technologies, products and companies.
About Erin Kenneally:
Erin Kenneally is Program Manager in the Cyber Security Division of the U.S. Dept of Homeland Security, Science & Technology Directorate. Her portfolio comprises cybersecurity research infrastructure, privacy, security economics, and technology ethics. She manages the IMPACT, CYRIE, and Data Privacy programs. Erin is Founder and CEO of Elchemy, Inc., and served as Technology-Law Specialist at the International Computer Science Institute, Center for Internet Data Analysis and Center for Evidence-based Security Research at the University of California, San Diego. Erin is a licensed Attorney specializing in information technology law, including privacy technology, data protection, AI ethics and legal risk, trusted information sharing, and technology policy.
About Herb Kelsey:
Herb Kelsey’s time as Chief Architect for NSA/CSS LSI and at IBM as Federal CTO for cybersecurity heavily influenced his 25-year career. At NSA, he learned to engineer for global scale and secure systems against ruthless villains. IBM taught him product management and enterprise integration. He’s deployed these skills for corporations, our country, and our allies. Most notably, as the head of computation for U.S. National Counter-Terrorism Center (NCTC), the highest volume, most secure, yet heavily attacked analytic fusion center in the world. His passion is making the global, networked, world safe for transactions, private information, intellectual property and children.
About Jonathan Ward:
Dr. Jonathan Ward is the Founder of Atlas Organization, a DC and NY based consultancy focused on the rise of India and China, and US-China global competition. He is the author of China’s Vision of Victory, about Chinese global strategy and what America must do to respond. From travels in Tibet and across the South China Sea, to accessing restricted Communist Party archives, to consulting for the U.S. Department of Defense and Fortune 500 companies, Dr. Ward has brought the experience of a traveler and scholar, and the insight of a strategy consultant to one challenge: what does China want, how will it try to get it, and what should America do?
About Jason Hoffman:
Jason Hoffman is the President and CEO of MobiledgeX, a company focusing on edge computing and founded by Deutsche Telekom. Previously he was a CTO at Ericsson AB and was P&L responsible for their cloud and datacenter infrastructure business. While at Ericsson his group created the world’s first hyperscale, disaggregated system and led the market in the modernization of telecom infrastructure. Prior to Ericsson, he was a founder and the CTO at Joyent (now owned by Samsung), a pioneering high-performance cloud IaaS and software provider, where he ran product, engineering, operations, and commercial management for a decade.
Flashback: BootstrapLabs Applied AI Conference – How AI is Shaping the Future of Manufacturing, Construction & Industrial Design
/in AI, artificial intelligence, Blog, BootstrapLabs /by BootstrapLabsThe BootstrapLabs Applied Artificial Intelligence Conference 2019 #AAI19 brought together the brightest and most experienced experts in the field of AI for an immersive day of learning, discussion, and connection.
On BootstrapWorks we have released the videos from this past conference to relive the moments and spread the knowledge around the diverse topics covered by our experts on stage.
BootstrapLabs has built a community of more than 40,000 people from over 60 countries who care about applying Artificial Intelligence to solve the hardest problems of our society.
Get access to practical wisdom on Applied AI methodologies and take advantage of AI’s powerful potential, sign up here to receive the videos directly into your inbox.
Construction, manufacturing, and industrial design projects are often far too complex to be effectively managed by people. It is in this capacity that AI is uniquely suited to help. This keynote and fireside chat brings together Matt Man, Co-Founder and CEO of Indus.ai, and Mike Haley, Senior Director of AI and Robotics at Autodesk. They will discuss how to leverage AI’s capacity for synthesizing real-time data in support of managing, predicting, and optimizing for safety, quality, productivity, and efficiency within the construction and manufacturing industries.
Presenter: Matt Man, Founder & CEO, indus.ai
Panelist: Mike Haley, Senior Director of AI & Robotics, Autodesk
Some of the key takeaways from the session are:
About Matt Man:
Matt Man is the founder and CEO of indus.ai, a construction intelligence company. Before indus.ai, Matt co-founded a mobile technology company GreenOwl Mobile and deployed 40+ smart city products in over 25 cities, worldwide. GreenOwl Mobile was acquired by one of the largest architecture and design technology firms in the world, IBI Group. Matt has specialized in deploying technology to Enterprise and Industrial markets for 20 years and has developed a deep understanding of the challenges operating in the industrial environments. His experience with AI was first developed at the University of Toronto, where he pioneered his first neural network to translate sign language to spoken words 25 years ago.
About Mike Haley:
Mike leads the Machine Intelligence group at Autodesk Research where they identify, evaluate, and develop disruptive technologies that improve the practice of imagining, designing, and creating a better world. His team combines research, development, and user experience in coupled iterative cycles to develop new products and foundational technology. For the last several years Mike’s team has been focused on bringing geometric shape analysis and large scale machine learning techniques to 3D design information with the intent to make software a true partner in the design process.
Formerly, Mike led the move of Autodesk products from the desktop to the cloud by driving the adoption of scalable distributed compute and data technology. Prior to joining Autodesk, Mike performed research and product development in the fields of volumetric graphics, distributed multimedia, computer vision, and embedded systems. He is drawn to areas where he can combine his 25 years of experience in computer graphics, distributed systems, and mathematical analysis. Mike holds an MS in computer science from the University of Cape Town, South Africa.
Founder Stories – NavTrac
/in AI, artificial intelligence, Blog, BootstrapLabs /by BootstrapLabsNavTrac – Applied AI and Logistics
The size of the global logistics industry is estimated at approximately $10 trillion annually, representing approximately 10% of the global GDP. Like many other traditional industries, transportation and logistics is confronting immense challenges and changes.
BootstrapLabs has been tracking this industry and we believe that the growth of collaboration, digitalization and standardization of shipments, labeling, and systems will have a large impact here. Currently, global supply chain infrastructure is fragmented, complex and still mostly analog. Incumbents in the industry have limited access to and understanding of digital technology.
Companies like NavTrac are quickly transforming the industry by automating data and tracking by integrating AI and computer vision.
Starting with Container Yard Management, NavTrac has created the first digital platform of its kind to manage the data and track containers from the point a container arrives on the shipment dock or yard. The company has already successfully deployed its AI system to some of the largest players in the market and revenues are now growing 20% MoM.
NavTrac has been a BootstrapLabs portfolio company since 2019.
John Daniels is Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder at NavTrac. He is responsible for driving the vision of the company, more than doubling NavTrac’s revenues in the middle of the pandemic with some of the largest transportation and logistic players, as well as growing a team of super talented engineers and business development individuals. Prior to NavTrac, John was a research analyst covering the transportation sector. John has extensive experience utilizing satellite, unmanned aircraft systems and other alternative sensors to collect data in the industrial economy. John holds a BA from Columbia University.
Mihail Pivtoraiko is the Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder at NavTrac. He is responsible for developing NavTrac’s high-performance machine vision software platform, with an accuracy rate of 99.7% and decreasing industry processing speed from days to minutes, and eventually seconds. Prior to NavTrac, Mihail completed his PhD at Carnegie Mellon University and postdoc at the GRASP lab at the University of Pennsylvania, under the guidance of the world-renowned robotics professor Vijay Kumar. Mihail previously worked at Intel Corp, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and at Lockheed Martin as part of the DARPA Robotics Challenge.
Flashback: BootstrapLabs Applied AI Conference – How AI + Networking Can Solve “Unsolvable” Problems
/in AI, artificial intelligence, Blog, BootstrapLabs /by BootstrapLabsThe BootstrapLabs Applied Artificial Intelligence Conference 2019 #AAI19 brought together the brightest and most experienced experts in the field of AI for an immersive day of learning, discussion, and connection.
On BootstrapWorks we have released the videos from this past conference to relive the moments and spread the knowledge around the diverse topics covered by our experts on stage.
BootstrapLabs has built a community of more than 40,000 people from over 60 countries who care about applying Artificial Intelligence to solve the hardest problems of our society.
Get access to practical wisdom on Applied AI methodologies and take advantage of AI’s powerful potential, sign up here to receive the videos directly into your inbox.
Though Applied AI is widely known for its role in facial recognition and self-driving technology, few people think of AI when they think of computer networks. As computer networks become increasingly complex, encrypted, and under attack, machine learning and applied AI is well situated to support keeping networks safe while maintaining privacy. From finding malware in encrypted traffic without decrypting the traffic to moving from Cloud-based ML to distributing ML across Edge and Cloud, applying ML and AI to computer networks can lead to improved scalability, cost, and privacy. Join VP and CTO of Cisco’s Enterprise Networking Business, John Apostolopoulos, as he discusses the next generation of computer networking.
Speaker: John Apostolopoulos, VP/CTO of Enterprise Networking, Lab Director of Innovation Labs, Cisco
Some of the key takeaways from the session are:
About John Apostolopoulos:
As VP and CTO of Cisco’s Enterprise Networking Business, John Apostolopoulos is designing the next generation of computer networking. His work includes wireless (from WiFi to 5G), Internet of Things, multimedia networking, visual analytics, and machine learning. John is an IEEE Fellow and was named “one of the world’s top 100 young innovators” by MIT Technology Review, and contributed to the US Digital TV Standard (Engineering Emmy 1997). He published over 100 papers, receiving 5 best paper awards, and about 75 granted patents. John was a Consulting Associate Professor at Stanford and received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. from MIT.
Founder Stories – GetAccept
/in AI, artificial intelligence, Blog, BootstrapLabs /by BootstrapLabsGetAccept – Applied AI and Enterprise Productivity
Historically there has been a perception that if an employee was not in the office, they were not working. This year’s pandemic has forced millions of companies across the globe to shut down their offices and ask their employees to work remotely. Yet, contrary to expectations, many organizations, large and small, have experienced a boost in productivity, primarily driven by the adoption of new software technologies.
Stocks from enterprise productivity software companies such as Zoom (ZM +487%), Docusign (DOCU +205%), Okta (OKTA +113%), and Slack Technologies (WORK +89%) have displayed impressive gains this year – and reflect a clear signal that economies and their businesses have not stopped working, but transformed into a more digital and decentralized enterprise model. The worldwide acceleration of this digital transformation is in turn creating an explosion of new data that creates exciting new opportunities for automation and artificial intelligence applications.
For the past five years, BootstrapLabs has been investing in AI applications that are accelerating Enterprise Productivity and defining the Future of Work. One of our portfolio companies – GetAccept – has been helping companies accelerate their sales throughout the pandemic, and recently raised a $20M Series B round led by Bessemer Venture Partners, with participation from existing investors such as BootstrapLabs, DN Capital and Y Combinator.
GetAccept helps small and medium-sized businesses, and their sales reps, close more deals remotely by enabling, prioritizing, and automating more personalized, engaging, and convenient asynchronous sales communication and contract execution.
GetAccept has been a BootstrapLabs portfolio company since 2017.
Samir Smajic is co-founder and CEO at GetAccept. He has more than 10 years of experience in CRM solutions. He has prior experience working with co-founders at Lime Technologies AB. Samir received a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering at Lund University.
Jonas Blanck is co-founder and CTO at GetAccept. Jonas prior served as CTO and worked for over 10 years in email marketing and has developed solutions for email designing, deliverability enhancement and advanced email marketing. Jonas received a Bachelors of Science in Computer Science at Lund Institute of Technology.
Carl Carell is co-founder and CSO at GetAccept. Carl co-founded Adsensus Denmark and helped the company to expand across Norwegian, Finnish, and Danish markets. He has over 10 years of experience in Sales & Marketing. Mr Carell received a Bachelors of Science in Business Administration concentration in Finance at Lund University.
Mathias Thulin is co-founder at GetAccept. Mathias founded Apsis ProspectEye, one of the most successful lead generation and marketing automation platforms in the Nordic countries. He has over 10 years of experience in Sales & Marketing. Mathias received a Master of Science in Engineering and Industrial Management at Lund University. He was awarded Entrepreneur of the year in Malmö 2020 – Tillväxt Malmö.
Flashback: BootstrapLabs Applied AI Conference – Enterprise AI Applications
/in AI, artificial intelligence, Blog, BootstrapLabs /by BootstrapLabsThe BootstrapLabs Applied Artificial Intelligence Conference 2019 #AAI19 brought together the brightest and most experienced experts in the field of AI for an immersive day of learning, discussion, and connection.
On BootstrapWorks we have released the videos from this past conference to relive the moments and spread the knowledge around the diverse topics covered by our experts on stage.
BootstrapLabs has built a community of more than 40,000 people from over 60 countries who care about applying Artificial Intelligence to solve the hardest problems of our society.
Get access to practical wisdom on Applied AI methodologies and take advantage of AI’s powerful potential, sign up here to receive the videos directly into your inbox.
Companies are under tremendous pressure to adopt AI technology across their organizations in order to stay competitive, with the majority of companies needing to re-invent their core products and services using proprietary AI technology instead of off-the-shelf SaaS solutions. Moderator Jaime Fitzgibbon, Innovation Strategist at Booz Allen Hamilton, leads a conversation with panelists Rahul Sachdev, Co-Founder and CEO of Fortella; Alex Holub, CEO of Vidora; Vidya Raman, Director of Product Management and ML at Cloudera; and Bahman Bahmani, Director of Data Science at Rakuten, about best practices and design principles for Enterprise AI. Panelists address how to make AI productivity gains accessible to as many people as possible across an organization, how to increase adoption of AI within an organization, and how to innovate faster by making the development process of AI for enterprise more inclusive of non-data scientists.
Moderator: Jaime Fitzgibbon, Innovation Strategist, Booz Allen Hamilton
Panelists: Rahul Sachdev, Co-Founder & CEO, Fortella; Alex Holub, CEO, Vidora; Vidya Raman, Director of Product Management & ML, Cloudera; Bahman Bahmani, Director of Data Science, Rakuten
Some of the key takeaways from the session are:
About Jaime Fitzgibbon:
Jaime Fitzgibbon is Senior Associate at technology strategy consultancy Booz Allen Hamilton. Over the past 3 years, she has been building an innovation office focused on tracking technology trends and emerging tech solutions for client’s toughest mission challenges. She serves as a mentor to start-ups, has spoken and written articles on the core elements for building a viable innovation ecosystem, and developed the classroom of the future strategy for a local school. She serves on the board of the German School of San Francisco as well as other community organizations’ advisory councils.
About Rahul Sachdev:
Rahul Sachdev is the co-founder and CEO of Fortella – an AI-based Revenue Driven Marketing software company. He is a technology executive with experience in marketing, CRM and social domains. Prior to Fortella, Rahul served as the CEO of Get Satisfaction, an online community platform for marketing and customer support. Earlier Rahul was the head of content sharing and workplace products at LinkedIn, and General Manager of the Communications, Media & Energy product at Siebel Systems. Rahul holds an MBA from the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business and a BSc with Honors in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from Loughborough University (UK).
About Alex Holub:
Alex Holub studied artificial intelligence throughout his academic career at Cornell University and during his Ph.D at Caltech. He has published over 15 academic papers and holds numerous patents in the areas of machine learning, computer vision, and artificial intelligence. Prior to co-founding Vidora, Alex was a technical and product management lead at Ooyala.
About Vidya Raman:
Together with different product teams, Vidya Raman has built and grown enterprise businesses as a product leader in several industry verticals ranging from Telecom, Healthcare, Energy and IoT. Most recently, she led product management for Cloudera’s AI platform, where she was responsible for making AI at scale a reality for customers spanning industries such as autonomous driving, biotech, banking to governments. Prior experience includes eMeter (Sequoia-funded, acquired by Siemens), Silver Spring (Kleiner funded and IPO exit), Medtronic (healthcare). Currently she is an early-stage venture investor.
About Bahman Bahmani:
Bahman Bahmani is a Director of Data Science at Rakuten (the 7th largest internet company in the world), managing an AI organization with engineering and data science managers, data scientists, machine learning engineers, and data engineers, globally distributed across 3 continents and in charge of the end-to-end AI systems behind the Rakuten Intelligence suite of products. Bahman has built and managed engineering and data science teams across industry, academia, and the public sector in areas including digital advertising, consumer web, cybersecurity, and non-profit fundraising, where he has consistently delivered substantial business value. He has also designed and taught courses, led an interdisciplinary research lab, and advised several theses in the Computer Science department at Stanford University, where he also did his own PhD focused on large-scale algorithms and machine learning, topics on which he is a well-published author.
Founder Stories – Myia Health
/in AI, artificial intelligence, Blog, BootstrapLabs /by BootstrapLabsApplied AI and Healthcare: Myia Health developed an intelligent patient monitoring platform to better support patients with chronic conditions, a $38Bn industry.
International Data Corporation (IDC) estimates that by 2020, over 2,300 exabytes (one billion gigabytes) of clinically-relevant data we will be generated, with the vast majority coming from non-clinical settings such as personal medical sensors. Thanks to its proprietary AI technology, Myia Health not only makes this data available to clinicians, but is also capable of providing key insights about the current and future health of patients, facilitating richer and personalized patient-clinician dialogue, increasing compliance, and allowing for better care-planning.
Myia Health’s intelligent patient monitoring platform supports patients with chronic conditions such as heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), diabetes, and hypertension, a $38 billion industry in 2019, that is expected to surge to $130 billion by 2025. Myia’s partnership with Mercy Virtual is poised to revolutionize the industry and become a key standard of care in the upcoming “outcome based” healthcare system.
Myia uses AI technology to predict patient health status and augment the power of frontline clinicians with levels of patient insights that were previously inaccessible.
Myia Health has been a BootstrapLabs portfolio company since 2018.
Simon MacGibbon is co-founder and CEO at Myia Health. Simon has over 20 years of experience using technology to drive transformational industry change, in both consumer and complex B2B settings. Prior to co-founding Myia Health, Simon co-founded the Boston Consulting Group’s Digital Ventures business, where he led teams responsible for imagining, building, and investing in data-driven technology platforms to help some of the world’s most influential companies innovate with startup-like speed. Formerly, Simon was an Associate Partner at McKinsey & Co. and a leader in the systems integration area at IBM Global Services. He has a BSc from Otago University in New Zealand and a BA (Hons) in Applied and Industrial Psychology from the University of Canterbury.
Bryan Smith is co-founder and CTO at Myia Health. Bryan is a multidisciplinary executive leader applying advanced analytics, machine learning, and interactive data visualization methods to help organizations and individuals maximize the value of their data as an asset. He has proven ability to function as a key individual contributor as well as an executive leader, skilled at identifying the optimal balance between those functions as required by each unique role. Brian is an excellent communicator, able to convey complex ideas to client executives as well as speak the language of technical team members. He received a Bachelor’s of Science in Neuroscience and Chemistry at University of Southern California, and a Ph.D. in Neuroscience at Caltech.
Sam Rawstorne is co-founder and COO at Myia Health. Sam has over 20 years of experience growing teams and launching companies. He has extensive experience in Recruiting, HR. EIR at BootstrapLabs and BCG Digital Ventures. He received a Bachelor of Arts Hons, at the University of the Arts London.
The story of our Principal Luigi Congedo on Forbes Italia
/in AI, artificial intelligence, Blog, BootstrapLabs /by BootstrapLabsOn March 10th, Luigi was featured on Forbes Italia as one of the young emerging venture capitalists of artificial intelligence in Silicon Valley. Below you can find an extract of Luigi’s interview:
“Your work will fill a large part of your life and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you think is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle for it. As with all matters of the heart, you will know when you find it ”. So believed Steve Jobs, who was able to inspire many entrepreneurs and visionaries like him. Luigi Congedo , 31, venture capitalist of BootstrapLabs , arrived in Silicon Valley at a very young age, becoming one of the 30 under 30s of Forbes Italia for 2018. “Steve Jobs was the first great entrepreneur, inventor and visionary I was inspired by.” […]
“He comes from Naples.”
“I consider myself very lucky to have been born in Naples. My hometown has a great cultural and soul wealth. This has allowed me to be a social and positive person, qualities that have helped me to be successful.” […]
“Do you think AI can also be dangerous?”
“It is up to us – society, politicians and entrepreneurs – to decide how to use technology and innovation. BootstrapLabs philosophy is to choose investments that create long-term utility and vertical solutions in specific industries, such as healthcare, logistics, agriculture, energy, and smart government.” […]
“How has Covid-19 changed the world of investments?”
“Our core investment theses have not changed, but we have seen a strong acceleration of many tech trends. The coronavirus has caused an acceleration of digital transformation on a global scale and in all sectors.” […]
“What are the most interesting sectors in the future?”
“I think the use of artificial intelligence is among the most promising trends. Among the sectors I look at with great interest there are cybersecurity, healthcare and climate.” […]
Below you can read the full press release:
MILANO, Italy, Mar. 10, 2021 /Forbes/ — La storia di Luigi Congedo, il giovane napoletano diventato venture capitalist dell’intelligenza artificiale nella Silicon Valley. Read More.
Flashback: BootstrapLabs Applied AI Conference – Will AI Break or Save the Internet?
/in AI, artificial intelligence, Blog, BootstrapLabs /by BootstrapLabsThe BootstrapLabs Applied Artificial Intelligence Conference 2019 #AAI19 brought together the brightest and most experienced experts in the field of AI for an immersive day of learning, discussion, and connection.
On our BootstrapWorks we have released the videos from this past conference to relive the moments and spread the knowledge around the diverse topics covered by our experts on stage.
BootstrapLabs has built a community of more than 40,000 people from over 60 countries who care about applying Artificial Intelligence to solve the hardest problems of our society.
Get access to practical wisdom on Applied AI methodologies and take advantage of AI’s powerful potential, sign up here to receive the videos directly into your inbox.
Together, the lack of attribution models, an integrated identity, and the complexity of establishing global privacy and ethical standards within the core building blocks of the Internet pose a critical threat to the very fabric of our modern society. Moderator Daniel Riedel, Founder and CEO of New Context, and panelists Erin Kenneally of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Herb Kelsey of Quantum Vault, Jason Hoffman of MobileEdgeX, and Jonathan Ward of Atlas Organization discuss how AI has contributed to the exacerbation of state actors, terrorist organizations, and criminals’ political and ideologically motivated use of the internet for financial gain. The panelists also explore how AI presents an opportunity to alleviate that threat by strengthening our existing digital infrastructures and creating stronger platforms for the future stability, economic prosperity, and security of our society, companies, and citizens.
Moderator: Daniel Riedel, Founder & CEO, New Context
Panelists: Erin Kenneally, Portfolio Manager, Cyber Security Division, Science & Technology, U.S. Department of Homeland Security; Herb Kelsey, Founder & CEO, Quantum Vault Inc.; Jonathan Ward, Founder & CEO, Atlas Organization; Jason Hoffman, President & CEO of MobiledgeX.
Some of the key takeaways from the session are:
About Daniel Riedel:
Daniel Riedel, the CEO of New Context, is an innovator in data security for highly regulated industries. He is a trusted authority in data security for the industrial internet, speaking before the US Senate Committee on Energy & Natural Resources, OASIS‘s Borderless Cyber and Johns Hopkins IACD, and has been published in the Washington Post, Federal Times, Wired and Dark Reading. Riedel has over 20 years of expertise building secure and scalable technologies, products and companies.
About Erin Kenneally:
Erin Kenneally is Program Manager in the Cyber Security Division of the U.S. Dept of Homeland Security, Science & Technology Directorate. Her portfolio comprises cybersecurity research infrastructure, privacy, security economics, and technology ethics. She manages the IMPACT, CYRIE, and Data Privacy programs. Erin is Founder and CEO of Elchemy, Inc., and served as Technology-Law Specialist at the International Computer Science Institute, Center for Internet Data Analysis and Center for Evidence-based Security Research at the University of California, San Diego. Erin is a licensed Attorney specializing in information technology law, including privacy technology, data protection, AI ethics and legal risk, trusted information sharing, and technology policy.
About Herb Kelsey:
Herb Kelsey’s time as Chief Architect for NSA/CSS LSI and at IBM as Federal CTO for cybersecurity heavily influenced his 25-year career. At NSA, he learned to engineer for global scale and secure systems against ruthless villains. IBM taught him product management and enterprise integration. He’s deployed these skills for corporations, our country, and our allies. Most notably, as the head of computation for U.S. National Counter-Terrorism Center (NCTC), the highest volume, most secure, yet heavily attacked analytic fusion center in the world. His passion is making the global, networked, world safe for transactions, private information, intellectual property and children.
About Jonathan Ward:
Dr. Jonathan Ward is the Founder of Atlas Organization, a DC and NY based consultancy focused on the rise of India and China, and US-China global competition. He is the author of China’s Vision of Victory, about Chinese global strategy and what America must do to respond. From travels in Tibet and across the South China Sea, to accessing restricted Communist Party archives, to consulting for the U.S. Department of Defense and Fortune 500 companies, Dr. Ward has brought the experience of a traveler and scholar, and the insight of a strategy consultant to one challenge: what does China want, how will it try to get it, and what should America do?
About Jason Hoffman:
Jason Hoffman is the President and CEO of MobiledgeX, a company focusing on edge computing and founded by Deutsche Telekom. Previously he was a CTO at Ericsson AB and was P&L responsible for their cloud and datacenter infrastructure business. While at Ericsson his group created the world’s first hyperscale, disaggregated system and led the market in the modernization of telecom infrastructure. Prior to Ericsson, he was a founder and the CTO at Joyent (now owned by Samsung), a pioneering high-performance cloud IaaS and software provider, where he ran product, engineering, operations, and commercial management for a decade.
Founder Stories – unitQ
/in AI, Blog /by BootstrapLabsTurning User Feedback Data into Product Success
In our hyperconnected world, no sector of the economy is untouched by software technology. Over the past two decades the very nature of all aspects of our daily lives has shifted as the digital and physical worlds converge into connected services.
It comes as no surprise that the financial impact of software quality issues (or “bugs”) has skyrocketed and is now estimated to cost the US economy over $1 trillion each year (up from ~$60B/year in 2002; details here).
unitQ is an AI-enabled Quality Monitoring Platform that helps companies quickly find and understand bugs and other quality issues in their software systems. unitQ’s proprietary AI technology aggregates, monitors, and analyzes user feedback from the Internet and other public channels (and over time internal data sources and systems) to identify quality issues in real-time. The company has already identified over a half million quality issues across a portfolio of multiple major software players and are on a path to this massive opportunity with their novel and proprietary platform.
unitQ has been a BootstrapLabs portfolio company since 2017.
Christian Wiklund is co-founder and CEO at unitQ. Upon leaving VMware, Christian co-founded Skout, an Andreessen Horowitz-backed mobile network startup that earned $30 million in annual revenue, reaching profitability within six years. After leading Skout’s 2016 acquisition by MeetMe, Inc. — a market leader in social discovery — Christian co-founded unitQ. A native Swede, Christian is an avid surfer, a prolific tomato grower, and a proud father of three.
Niklas Lindstrom is co-founder and Chief Technology Officer at unitQ. As co-founder and CTO of Skout, Niklas led the company’s technology strategy, and product vision and design. Prior to Skout, he worked as a software engineer for embedded devices and hardware products. Outside of the office, Niklas can be found skiing the slopes of Tahoe or looking for his next travel adventure.
Flashback: BootstrapLabs Applied AI Conference – Life In The Fast Lane: What’s Different About Transportation AI?
/in AI, artificial intelligence, Blog, BootstrapLabs /by BootstrapLabsThe BootstrapLabs Applied Artificial Intelligence Conference 2019 #AAI19 brought together the brightest and most experienced experts in the field of AI for an immersive day of learning, discussion, and connection.
On our BootstrapWorks we have released the videos from this past conference to relive the moments and spread the knowledge around the diverse topics covered by our experts on stage.
BootstrapLabs has built a community of more than 40,000 people from over 60 countries who care about applying Artificial Intelligence to solve the hardest problems of our society.
Get access to practical wisdom on Applied AI methodologies and take advantage of AI’s powerful potential, sign up here to receive the videos directly into your inbox.
AI is a critical tool for using observed data to make and predict decisions. While most industries work with curated data, transportation is a different situation: self-driving cars rely on volumes of real-time information. AEye chief scientist Dr. Allan Steinhardt discusses the role of AI in abstracting and extracting the right information from a car’s environment, including how to deal with the influx of data in vehicle autonomy and ADAS. Additionally, he explores the role of transportation AI in smart highways and how smart cities with next-generation wireless (5G) will impact transportation AI trends.
Speaker: Dr. Allan Steinhardt, Chief Scientist, AEye
Some of the key takeaways from the session are:
About Allan Steinhardt:
Dr. Allan Steinhardt is among the world’s most widely esteemed defense scientists. An IEEE fellow, he is a sought-after expert on radar, missile defense, GMTI and space surveillance. He was Chief Scientist for DARPA, co-author of a book on adaptive radar, and assistant professor in Electrical Engineering and Applied Mathematics at Cornell University, where he researched sensor arrays and optimal detection capabilities. Allan also served as chief scientist at Booz Allen at MIT Lincoln Laboratory, and director of signal processing for the defense industry with BAE/Alphatech. He holds a bachelor’s in Mathematics, and graduate degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Colorado, Boulder.
Founder Stories – Sibly
/in AI, Blog /by BootstrapLabsSomeone to Talk to
The technology sector still is the engine of productivity and economic growth, and this pandemic is actually accelerating the digitization of many sectors.
Sibly – a mobile platform that provides companies the ability to give employees and their families on-demand support for a wide range of emotional and behavioral health challenges – is a great example of a start-up leader stepping up and making a difference in these challenging times.
At the beginning of the pandemic, Sibly launched a US initiative that provides organizations, including employees and their family members, with complimentary three-month wellness coaching, which provides:
“The effects of the current pandemic on communities have wider ramifications than just physical illness,” says Moe AlKadi, CEO and co-founder of Sibly. “Social distancing, while imperative at a time such as this, can have dire effects on our social, professional, and emotional lives. Our issues don’t occur in a vacuum, but are in fact complex and interconnected. What helps is simple: a friend in your pocket that understands the whole you and is able to give you the right help at the right time. We call that friend Sibly.”
Mohammed AlKadi has won many entrepreneurial Awards including 1st place at the Arabnet Startup Competition and the Henkel Innovation Challenge. He previously built Feelit, a social network that went viral in the Middle East with over 200K users.
Paula Wilbourne is co-founder and CSO at Sibly. She has over 18 years experience building mental health treatment services and was the National Program Coordinator for the Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Paula earned a Post Doctoral Fellowship Health Science Researcher and Development from Stanford University, and a Masters and Ph.D. in Psychology, Statistics, Addiction, Program Evaluation at the University of New Mexico.
Omar AlEisa is co-founder & Head of Design at Sibly. He is passionate about mental health, wellness, and designing high-quality, user-centered digital products. As a seasoned founder and product designer, Omar built expertise in consumer products & user experience by designing and building scalable applications that have been used by hundreds of thousands of users. He received his Software Engineering degree with honors from King Fahd University for Petroleum and Minerals. When Omar is not working, he enjoys running, exploring new places, or doing both at the same time.
Flashback: BootstrapLabs Applied AI Conference – AI and Financial Automation
/in AI, artificial intelligence, Blog, BootstrapLabs /by BootstrapLabsThe BootstrapLabs Applied Artificial Intelligence Conference 2019 #AAI19 brought together the brightest and most experienced experts in the field of AI for an immersive day of learning, discussion, and connection.
On our BootstrapWorks portal we have released the videos from this past conference to relive the moments and spread the knowledge around the diverse topics covered by our experts on stage.
BootstrapLabs has built a community of more than 40,000 people from over 60 countries who care about applying Artificial Intelligence to solve the hardest problems of our society.
Get access to practical wisdom on Applied AI methodologies and take advantage of AI’s powerful potential, sign up here to receive the videos directly into your inbox.
Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing are undergoing rapid changes, driven in large part by the ability to digitally automate tasks previously performed manually by humans. Machine Learning and AI are driving a shift across the entire industry with the technology already being adopted by firms and individuals at a rapid pace and low price point, enabling a shift from Cloud Accounting to Augmented Accounting. Cathrine Andersen, Co-Founder of Roger.ai, discusses how in addition to making humans up to 20x faster in the bookkeeping and reconciliation process, machines can find patterns and put large data sets into perspective in a way no auditor would ever be able.
Speaker: Cathrine Andersen, Co-founder & CEO, Roger.ai
Some of the key takeaways from the session are:
About Cathrine Andersen:
Cathrine Andersen is the co-founder and CEO of Roger.ai, an accounting automation product used by over 1,000 businesses and accounting firms worldwide. Starting with accounts payable and bill pay, Roger is moving the accounting industry from the cloud toward augmented accounting – one big step at the time. Originally from Denmark, Cathrine moved to the Bay Area in 2014 when her first company Assemblage was acquired by Cisco. She holds 2 US patents and was named Founder of the Year in her home country in 2018.
Founder Stories – Vidora
/in AI, Blog /by BootstrapLabsThe future of work is digital, and the demand for the skills that enable this paradigm continue to accelerate. The biggest catalyst is the adoption of Automation and AI, that holds the promise to drive trillions of dollars in economic output in the next two decades.
At the same time, skills such as Data Science and Machine Learning that are required to implement these technologies are both scarce and highly sought after.
To enable enterprises to quickly deploy and benefit from AI, our portfolio company Vidora created a platform that enables fast deployment of Machine Learning, which processes pipelines without a deep bench of data scientists and engineers. In fact, many of their larger enterprises have scaled out their deployment of automation and Machine Learning without needing large engineering and data science teams by democratizing and accelerating the adaptation, deployment and constant improvement of AI models.
Their customers include some of the largest global companies, such as Walmart, News Corp, and Realtor.com, that leverage Vidora’s proprietary technology, Cortex, which intelligently learns from continuous streams of data to drive higher ROI across the enterprise. Cortex automates the most complex aspects of machine learning workflows and enables enterprises to quickly deploy and continuously optimize event-based predictions without the need for technical expertise.
Alex Holub, Co-Founder and CEO at Vidora, studied artificial intelligence throughout his academic career at Cornell University and during his Ph.D. at Caltech. He has published over 15 academic papers and holds numerous patents in the areas of machine learning, computer vision, and artificial intelligence. Prior to co-founding Vidora, Alex was a technical and product management lead at Ooyala. You can learn more about him by viewing his Bloomberg TV interview.
Abhik Majumdar, Co-Founder and CTO at Vidora, is responsible for the roadmap and build out of Vidora’s technology platform. He graduated from IIT and UC Berkeley with a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, and Information Theory. Abhik’s work has been published and featured in over 20 journal and conference articles. Before Vidora, he was a staff engineer and technical lead at Ooyala and an instrumental part of developing the first generation Flip Video camera.
Philip West, Co-Founder and Head of Product at Vidora, graduated with a bachelors in Computer Science from Stanford where he was part of the NCAA Champion Track team. At Stanford, he learned about product, human computer interaction, and design, which helped him start his entrepreneurial journey. After graduation, Philip joined Affinity Circles as a technical co-founder. Later, he joined Ooyala, as one of the first engineers where he helped build and grow the initial video platform and team before its acquisition.
Flashback: BootstrapLabs Applied AI Conference – AI Impact on the Global South
/in AI, artificial intelligence, Blog, BootstrapLabs /by BootstrapLabsThe BootstrapLabs Applied Artificial Intelligence Conference 2019 #AAI19 brought together the brightest and most experienced experts in the field of AI for an immersive day of learning, discussion, and connection.
On our BootstrapWorks portal we have released the videos from this past conference to relive the moments and spread the knowledge around the diverse topics covered by our experts on stage.
BootstrapLabs has built a community of more than 40,000 people from over 60 countries who care about applying Artificial Intelligence to solve the hardest problems of our society.
Get access to practical wisdom on Applied AI methodologies and take advantage of AI’s powerful potential, sign up here to receive the videos directly into your inbox.
The Global South is home to some of the fastest growing economies on the planet despite being crippled by a general lack of traditional infrastructure, trade frictions, political and currency risks, and corruption. And yet, the benefits far outweigh the risks of bringing the next billion people into the Global Economy. In fact, massive investments are already being made in infrastructure, healthcare, IT, and transportation by governments, NGOs, and foundations alike. In this mini keynote and fireside chat, Chris Hale of Kountable and Jonas Svensson of UNOPS discuss how AI can empower entrepreneurs in the region by accelerating their growth, job creation, and taxable income recognition.
Presenter: Christopher Hale, Founder & CEO, Kountable
Panelist: Jonas Svensson, Head of Global Innovation and Technology, UNOPS
Some of the key takeaways from the session are:
About Christopher Hale:
Chris Hale is founder and CEO of Kountable, Inc., an SF-based start-up that combines data science, social capital and proven financial instruments to provide highly scalable financing solutions to underserved entrepreneurs in developing countries. Kountable creates a low-friction, cloud-based bridge between investors and a massive opportunity to finance the most promising and well-networked entrepreneurs in emerging economies. Chris also doubled headcount and grew assets under management almost six-fold as the COO of Perigon Wealth Management, one of 2014’s 50 fastest growing RIAs in the country, serving approximately 100 families and managing almost $1 billion in assets.
About Jonas Svensson:
Jonas Svensson is the Head of Global Innovation and Technology at UNOPS. The UNOPS Global Innovation and Technology program operates under the Social Impact Investing Initiative with the mission to facilitate innovation wherever it happens. Connecting with Global stakeholders who share the UN foundation values regarding sustainability and the understanding that Innovation happens everywhere UNOPS together with partners have created a toolkit providing Education, Incubation, Investment and Policy support.
Prior to the role with UNOPS Mr Svensson has worked within the startup industry for the past 20 years as founder, incubator manager, business consultant, investor, last as President for a Venture capital company headed out of Tokyo Japan. Mr Svensson holds a Master in Global Management from the University of Salford and is currently pursuing his PhD.
Congratulations to Cathrine Andersen and Christian Rasmussen – Roger.ai acquired by FLEETCOR, a leading global business payments company
/in AI, Blog /by BootstrapLabsBootstrapLabs is pleased to share that FLEETCOR Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: FLT) acquired our portfolio company Roger.ai on January 28, 2021.
The worldwide acceleration of digital transformation is creating an explosion of new data that creates exciting new opportunities for automation and artificial intelligence applications. Roger.ai provides businesses with an efficient way to manage bill payment and cash-flow. Roger.ai enables businesses to manage their accounts payable and vendors efficiently, by applying Artificial Intelligence to route approval of bills to the right person, detect fraud, and inject the resulting data directly into accounting or ERP systems. This saves small to medium sized businesses time and money.
Roger.ai’s two founders, Cathrine Andersen and Christian Rasmussen are serial entrepreneurs who sold their prior company, Assemblage, to Cisco in 2014. BootstrapLabs was the first institutional investor in Roger.ai in 2016 after the company was founded. BootstrapLabs has worked closely with the founders to support them in building Roger.ai to become a leading emerging company in the financial industry. With the acquisition by FLEETCOR, Roger.ai will be able to continue to build and expand their vision.
“Teaming up with FLEETCOR just makes sense. Roger is an emerging technology for SMBs, pushing the boundaries of every day processes like business bill pay and bookkeeping. Joining forces with a global payments leader like FLEETCOR gives us the power to grow and scale faster than alone”.
-Cathrine Andersen, Co-Founder and CEO
The acquisition will extend FLEETCOR’s portfolio of accounts payable automation solutions to small businesses, helping them automate their manual payment processes. The acquisition provides FLEETCOR with a proven, modern automation platform for B2B online bill payment.
“I am excited about FLEETCOR’s acquisition of Roger.ai. I still remember when Cathrine A. pinged me and told me that she and Christian Rasmussen were working on their next thing – I loved the vision right away, and that vision grew over time to build an amazing product that help businesses manage the pain of bills, payments, and the accounting mess that often follows. Now the Roger team and vision will grow to the next level, backed by one of the largest payment infrastructure companies in the world”.
–Nicolai Wadstrom, Founder, CEO & General Partner of BootstrapLabs
Below you can read the full press release:
ATLANTA–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Jan. 28, 2021– FLEETCOR Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: FLT), a leading global business payments company, today announced it has acquired Roger, a global accounts payable (AP) cloud software platform for small businesses. The acquisition will extend FLEETCOR’s portfolio of accounts payable automation solutions to small businesses, helping them automate their manual payment processes. Read More.