Adam Winter, CTO, Clarus R+D

09/07/20 • 42 min

Hello and welcome to the Fourth Act podcast. This podcast is focused on topics at the intersect of the future of work, innovation, and software development.
Adam Winter is the CTO Clarus R+D and an Angel Investor based out of the US mid-West. Adam's company, Clarus R+D helps businesses easily obtain tax R&D credits for any software development or product development work done in the US. The podcast covers a lot of ground including:

Scenarios in which you can obtain tax credits for your software/product development work
When does it make sense for a startup to apply for the credits
What kind of expenses can be applied towards tax R&D credits and how this changes as employees start working remotely
How Clarus got started and what their definition of an MVP was (an Excel spreadsheet to start with)
How he thinks about his role as an engineering leader vs. as an angel investor
Starting a company in the mid-West vs. the coasts
What software engineers should learn as they look at growing their careers
Remote work and its impact on the future of work

Adam also recommended two classic books:

Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People
Andrew Hunt & David Thomas's The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master

This podcast is hosted by Sadeq Ali, co-founder of Archimydes. Archimydes is building a new OS for software development work, wether executed internally with your own resources or through external resources.
You can follow Sadeq on:
1) Twitter: twitter.com/sahilz79
2) LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/mohamedsali/
You can follow Archimydes on:
1) Twitter: twitter.com/archimydes
2) LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/archimydes

This podcast is hosted by Sadeq Ali, co-founder of Archimydes, a curated global Software Engineering Guild.
If you are are interested in joining the Guild then please head to www.archimydes.dev/Guild. If you are interested in working with the Guilds talent please head to www.archimydes.dev.

Scenarios in which you can obtain tax credits for your software/product development work
When does it make sense for a startup to apply for the credits
What kind of expenses can be applied towards tax R&D credits and how this changes as employees start working remotely
How Clarus got started and what their definition of an MVP was (an Excel spreadsheet to start with)
How he thinks about his role as an engineering leader vs. as an angel investor
Starting a company in the mid-West vs. the coasts
What software engineers should learn as they look at growing their careers
Remote work and its impact on the future of work

Adam also recommended two classic books:

Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People
Andrew Hunt & David Thomas's The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master

Previous Episode

Juan Jimenez, CEO, AccurKardia

Hello and welcome to the Fourth Act podcast. This podcast is focused on topics at the intersect of the future of work, innovation, and software development.
In our inaugural podcast, we will be talking to Juan Jiminez, CEO of AccurKardia. AccurKardia is a digital health venture that leverages evolutionary computing (EC) based AI to diagnose arrhythmias. AccurKardia is among the promising startups that are looking to leverage AI to improve overall human health as well as provide digital health capabilities that change how people access healthcare.
The podcast covers a lot of ground including:

Juan's journey from being an investment banker in New York to running a 600+ healthcare company in San Juan, Puerto Rico
His pivot into tech startups and what drove him to make that move
How AccurKardia has been able to leverage flex talent to scale on demand
Why college grads today aspire to work for or create startups vs. start their careers in more traditional industries like banking or consulting
Why my 9-year old prefers having her fashion design content hosted on her own website vs. on Youtube
Is college relevant in the world we are moving towards?
The importance of high-fidelity (real world) human interactions in an increasingly virtual world
What will be the impact of COVID on the future of healthcare and the world in general?
Importance of faith or spirituality in testing times

Juan also recommended reading Peter Thiel's Zero to One, and how he related to it much more post his foray into entrepreneurship vs. when he first read the book.

This podcast is hosted by Sadeq Ali, the co-founder of Archimydes. Archimydes is building a new OS for remote software development work, wether executed internally with your own resources or through external resources.
You can follow Sadeq on:
1) Twitter: twitter.com/sahilz79
2) LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/mohamedsali/
You can follow Archimydes on:
1) Twitter: twitter.com/archimydes
2) LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/archimydes

Next Episode

Dennis Bron, VP of Growth, Mynd

Hello and welcome to the Fourth Act podcast. In this podcast we talk to entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs introducing technology-led innovation in industries that deeply touch every day human life. These industries include financial services, healthcare, real estate, education, retail, and sports and entertainment.

In this episode we talk to Dennis Bron, VP of Growth at Mynd, a Bay Area based Real Estate tech company. When this podcast was recorded (late last year), Dennis was with Better - another real-estate focused tech company, that was ranked by LinkedIn as the fastest growing US startup in 2020. Prior to Better Dennis was with Shift, another Bay Area based startup, that pioneered technology led innovation in the secondary car sale market. At this point, Dennis has become a bit of an expert at accelerating growth in industries that have traditionally seen very limited digital-led innovation.

The podcast covers a lot of ground including:

Career switching from the rarefied world of top tier consulting at McKinsey to the rarefield world of working at some of the worlds fastest growing startups
What makes McKinsey a special company to work for
Dennis’ experience in helping set the foundation for Shift to scale - Shift IPOed in October 2020 via a SPAC offering
Different approaches to digital transformation and why it’s so hard to digitally transform a large corporation
The changes in the mortgage industry (Better is an online mortgage origination company) from the financial crisis of 2008/09 through to today
Transparency provided by Shift and Better relative to their brick and mortar counterparts
Criticality of location for startups going forward, particularly as we move to more industry-specific startups and global startup hubs emerge
Changing aspirations of folks graduating from college today (tech) to those that were graduating 15-20 years ago (banking and consulting)
Dennis’ evolving views on the future of work, in particular remote work

Dennis also recommends this classic book — Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

You can follow Sadeq on:

1) Twitter: twitter.com/sahilz79

2) LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/mohamedsali/

3) Clubhouse: sahilz79

You can follow Archimydes on:

1) Twitter: twitter.com/archimydes

2) LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/archimydes