Modern CTO

This is how Snapchat sets itself apart in the social media space: they’re not a social media company.

Today, we're talking to Saral Jain, SVP and Head of Engineering at Snapchat, about how one of tech's most underestimated companies is quietly outpacing giants. We discuss why Snapchat has always refused to call itself a social media company and what that distinction means for every product decision they make, how AI is actually changing the day-to-day reality of software engineering through autonomous coding agents like their internal tool Casper, and why the skills that matter most in the AI era have less to do with writing code and everything to do with taste, judgment, and the willingness to raise your hand.

All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast!

What if you didn’t have to solve problems? You can just remove them entirely.

Today, we're talking to Steve Francis, CEO at Sidero Labs, about why the most dangerous thing running in your infrastructure might be the operating system itself. We discuss how eliminating features rather than adding them is the real path to security, why the promise of multi-cloud portability turned out to be a lesson in what customers actually care about, and why "extreme ownership" remains the most empowering philosophy a leader can adopt.

All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast! 

To learn more about Sidero Labs, check out their website here.

Understanding these key points is what actually moves the needle on AI gains.

Today, we're talking to Kyle Lagunas, analyst and founder at Kyle & Co, and Allyn Bailey, senior director of communications at SmartRecruiters, about why AI momentum in HR is stalling and what's actually moving the needle. We discuss why the organizations leading on AI aren't doing anything flashy, how the most boring red-tape work turns out to be the biggest unlock, why HR's instinct for risk avoidance is exactly the wrong posture for this moment, and what a surprising finding about EU companies under heavy regulation reveals about the relationship between guardrails and speed.

All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast! 

To learn more about SmartRecruiters, check out their website here.

To read Kyle and Co's full AI Momentum Model, check it out here.

We’re putting more and more trust into AI. Will it all blend into one app?

Today, we're talking to Jacques Klick, Director of Market Strategy & Product Marketing at Sinch. We discuss why the app store era is quietly ending and what replaces it, how a 62% enterprise AI adoption rate is hiding a 74% rollback problem, and what RCS actually is and why it might be the most underutilized channel in marketing right now.

All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast! 

To learn more about Sinch, check out their website here.

To read Sinch's full report on The AI Production Paradox, check it out here.

Would you live with a humanoid robot? Could you beat one in a fight?

Today, we're talking to Dar Sleeper, VP of Design, Product, and Marketing at 1X, the company building Neo, a humanoid robot designed to live and work alongside humans in the home. We discuss why the home is actually the most strategic beachhead in humanoid robotics, how world models are collapsing the gap between robots that follow instructions and robots that genuinely learn, why consumer adoption may be the unlock that industrial deployments can never be, and what it feels like to have a 60-pound robot in your house long before the rest of the world can get one.

All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast! 

To learn more about 1X, check out their