The Good, The Interesting, The Unknown—the Q1 Download
Earnings calls, like job interviews, are self-serving narratives. That doesn’t mean they’re untrue, just that companies carefully frame the story they want the market to hear…
AI Can Text. But Can It Save the Shopping Cart?
In commerce, the shopping cart is both the vehicle and the signal of revenue. It’s the tell. If this were poker, it’d be the shopper tipping their hand…
One Expert, One Topic — Eddie DeCurtis Talks Silent Network Authentication
Eddie DeCurtis didn’t grow up watching The Sopranos—he lived it. His father and uncle were real-life made men…
The Q1 Valuation Recovery
When it comes to stock valuation—an admittedly flawed and volatile metric—the cohort has largely recovered from the early year beating, tracking with the broader market…
Braze Announces Q1 2025 Results
If you measure progress by focus, Braze made a strong case this quarter. Revenue held steady at $162.1M, up 20% year over year…
Invoca Acquires Symbl.ai
If last week Upland quit messaging, this week call-tracking analytics powerhouse Invoca declaratively entered the text-messaging market with the acquisition of Symbl.ai..
One Expert, One Topic — Kyle Blanchard Talks AI, Messaging, and Improving Healthcare
Kyle Blanchard has spent his entire career chasing engagement. First, it was extraterrestrials—he studied physics and astrophysics, landed a job offer with SETI, and almost went down the path of decoding alien signals. But when he realized what the job paid for living in Berkeley, he pivoted. Hard…
Deepgram, AI, and the Return of the Long-Duration Call
Deepgram’s “State of Voice AI” report shows the industry is broadly bullish about using AI for voice interfaces. While the survey contains useful insights, the main takeaway is clear: AI is bringing voice back into the conversation…
One Expert, One Topic — Loyaan Egal Talks Data, National Security, and Knowing Yourself
Loyaan Egal is, quite literally, an African American—born to a Somali father and an American mother.
That kind of cultural whiplash—ninth grade in Saudi Arabia, tenth grade in New York City—does something to you. In Loyaan’s case, it taught him how to adapt fast, read his environment, and say yes when opportunities showed up in unusual packaging…
A Hall of Fame Moment Grounded By Mom’s Advice
Douglas C. Schmidt is a giant in the field of distributed object computing. As an undergrad, I begged and groveled my way into his over-subscribed graduate level class into Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA). Doug is also a UCI School of ICS Hall of Fame inductee.
Now, I am one too..
