To make it as a tech startup in NYC, you need to have more than just a good idea for a business. Companies must evolve with their industry and stay on top of trends to further enhance their product or service — and much of that responsibility falls on the c-suite.
Built In NYC caught up with some of NYC’s leading executives to learn more about the tech behind their work and what they have in store for 2019.
JW Player has learned a lot about the digital media industry since launching their video platform over a decade ago. CTO Pablo Calamera explained to Built In NYC how the team continuously evolves, and where they plan to go next.
How has your company set itself apart as a leader in your industry? What tech innovations have helped you differentiate yourself?
Since its founding over 10 years ago, JW Player has been a pioneer in all things video, from our lightning-fast player to our data-driven intelligence-based products. We provide solutions which support our customers’ online video strategy to help them achieve their audience growth and revenue goals. We have invested heavily in data science, using TensorFlow et al to build models and solutions that underpin products based on the billions of data points we receive every day. We've also made significant investments in devops tooling to make it as easy as imaginable to deploy Kubernetes-based services that scale cost effectively.
We are again at the forefront of disruption on how video is delivered and consumed. ”
What do you think will be the next big tech trend in your industry? How do you plan to stay ahead of that trend?
There is a lot happening in “video understanding,” which is using data science techniques to use context to help drive better engagement or targeting. For us, a big focus has been on productizing the massive amount of data we have. We are again at the forefront of disruption on how video is delivered and consumed. Our massive global scale gives us a unique and broad view of the billions of video views we deliver every month.
Stack Overflow, a community for developers, has helped create a group of tech professionals who work together and support one another. The next big initiative for the company is to expand the community further and focus on gaining representation for all genders and backgrounds.
How has your company set itself apart as a leader in your industry? What tech innovations have helped you differentiate yourself?
Stack Overflow has been a leading resource for developers since it launched in 2008, and we've continued to lead and differentiate our company by putting the developer community first. Our public Q&A site — where everyone who codes can learn and share their knowledge with the community — is visited by over 50 million people every month. With Stack Overflow for Teams, we made the power of Stack Overflow Q&A available in a private, secure environment for organizations of any size. Today, millions of developers around the world are using Stack Overflow to build the products you use every single day.
We believe developers are writing the script of the future, and Stack Overflow is an essential part of that tech community.”
What do you think will be the next big tech trend in your industry? How do you plan to stay ahead of that trend?
The tech industry has long focused on making society better, whether that's through a focus on green tech or reimagining transportation. What we're seeing today is the industry taking a step back and realizing it can't achieve that until tech becomes more diverse and representative of the entire world. This is less a trend than it is an important mandate for the industry and for Stack Overflow.
We believe developers are writing the script of the future, and Stack Overflow is an essential part of that tech community. As we make the Stack Overflow community more welcoming, inclusive and diverse — one of our top priorities right now — we’ll impact the entire developer community and the tech industry more broadly.
Insurtech startup Policygenius made a name for themselves by digitizing the way people purchase insurance. Despite their tech-forward focus, CEO and co-founder Jennifer Fitzgerald explained that the next shift for the industry will be humanizing the more complex financial decisions their customers make. She talked more about how this trend is affecting the company.
How has your company set itself apart as a leader in your industry? What tech innovations have helped you differentiate yourself?
Policygenius is the nation’s leading online insurance marketplace. We’ve helped more than 5 million customers shop for all types of insurance like they shop for everything else — online. We are one of the early insurtech pioneers and have built a deep tech stack and operations organization to serve this market.
We’ve helped more than 5 million customers shop for all types of insurance like they shop for everything else — online.”
What do you think will be the next big tech trend in your industry? How do you plan to stay ahead of that trend?
Counterintuitively, the next big trend in fintech will be bringing the human touch back. You can digitize a lot of financial services, but for complicated financial decisions and transactions, most consumers will want some human validation at the moments of truth. We’ve been at the forefront of this because we’ve always focused on how our customers want to engage and be served.
