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From Elephant Butts to Ethical AI — Duncan Curtis on De-Risking GenAI at Sama

Episode intro
Duncan Curtis, SVP for GenAI & AI Product + Technology at Sama, has shipped everything from autonomous-vehicle platforms at Zoox to game-changing data products at Google. Today he leads a 160-person team that’s reinventing how training data is curated, labeled, and audited so enterprises can ship production-ready GenAI—without the lurking model risk. Sama’s newest release, Sama Automate, is already cutting annotation time by 40 percent while keeping quality above SLAs, and Duncan says they’re “aiming for a 10× improvement by 2025.” (aiuserconference.com, sama.com)

If you want the inside track on AI ROI, ethical guardrails, and why A’s hire A’s (but B’s hire C’s!), lean in—this one’s for you. (And yes, we do get to elephant butts.)

Timestamped roadmap

• 00:46 Meet Duncan Curtis
• 03:51 The Duncan Brand
• 05:52 Making Time for Yourself
• 08:47 Autonomous Cars — 9× Safer
• 12:21 Favorite Jobs
• 13:24 Inside Sama
• 14:39 Data & LLM Training
• 16:04 De-Risking Models
• 19:08 Ethical AI
• 22:43 Stopping Hallucinations
• 27:18 Data Labeling Deep-Dive
• 31:56 Production-Ready GenAI
• 33:44 AGI Horizons
• 35:34 What Makes Sama Different
• 36:31 Calculating AI ROI
• 38:50 State of the LLMs
• 44:48 Elephant Butts & Closing Thoughts

Quick links

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/duncan-curtis/
• Sama: https://www.sama.com/
• Latest blog: “Sama Introduces New Data Automation Platform” (sama.com)
• Hear more: Duncan on “Human Guardrails in Generative AI” (DataCamp podcast) (datacamp.com)

Hashtags

#MakingDataSimple #AIProduct #GenAI #DataLabeling #EthicalAI #AIROI #AutonomousVehicles #Podcast

Want to be featured as a guest on Making Data Simple? Reach out to us at almartintalksdata@gmail.com and tell us why you should be next. The Making Data Simple Podcast is hosted by Al Martin, WW VP Technical Sales, IBM, where we explore trending technologies, business innovation, and leadership ... while keeping it simple & fun.

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🎧 Episode Description:
This week on Making Data Simple, we welcome David Hirschfeld, Founder and CEO of Tekyz. With a background spanning major tech firms and startup trenches, David brings grounded, data-backed insight into what makes or breaks a startup. From tackling the #1 reason startups fail to exploring the value of validation and the real meaning of product-market fit, this episode is a no-fluff masterclass in entrepreneurial strategy. David’s message is clear: "Don’t focus on your product. Focus on the client’s problem."

Whether you're a first-time founder or scaling your next venture, David offers hard-earned truths, including surprising takes on unicorns, VCs, and what really matters more — the founder or the technology?

⏱ Time Markers:
01:20 – Meet David Hirschfeld
05:55 – THE Reason Startups Fail
08:50 – Lifetime Value
11:33 – The Value of Validation
14:48 – What Do the VCs Say?
16:20 – Startup Success Rate
17:10 – Tekyz
23:01 – Product Market Fit
29:18 – Startup Ideation
31:37 – Unicorns
38:12 – Unexpected Truths
42:45 – Founder or Technology?

🔗 Connect with David:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidhirschfeld

Website: https://tekyz.com

#MakingDataSimple #StartupAdvice #ProductMarketFit #TechLeadership #VCInsights #FoundersJourney #Entrepreneurship #DataDrivenDecisions #StartupFailure #Innovation #ClientCentric #Podcast

Want to be featured as a guest on Making Data Simple? Reach out to us at almartintalksdata@gmail.com and tell us why you should be next. The Making Data Simple Podcast is hosted by Al Martin, WW VP Technical Sales, IBM, where we explore trending technologies, business innovation, and leadership ... while keeping it simple & fun.

Send us a text

This week on Making Data Simple, we welcome Ralph Gootee, CTO and co-founder of TigerEye, a company reshaping strategic sales intelligence with a data-driven edge. Ralph’s journey spans Pixar, Sony, and PlanGrid — and now he’s building tools to help sales leaders see around corners. From the secrets behind TigerEye's intuitive reporting to the realities of entrepreneurship and the affordability of LLMs, this episode hits both the business brain and the tech heart.

• 00:52 Meet Ralph Gootee
• 01:43 TigerEye
• 04:49 PlanGrid
• 07:43 Monetization
• 08:50 TigerEye's Objective
• 12:38 Reinventing Reporting
• 17:06 How it Works
• 22:21 The Secret Sauce
• 27:48 LLM Affordability
• 34:14 Last Call
• 38:57 The Entrepreneur Dilemma
• 39:47 Where to Reach TigerEye
• 40:07 Do Code Assistants Work?
• 47:32 For Fun

🔗 Connect with Ralph & TigerEye
LinkedIn: Ralph Gootee
Website: TigerEye
Blog: TigerEye Blog

#MakingDataSimple #SalesIntelligence #AIinSales #EntrepreneurMindset #LLMs #StartupLife #PixarToPipeline #DataDrivenDecisions #TechLeadership #TigerEye

Want to be featured as a guest on Making Data Simple? Reach out to us at almartintalksdata@gmail.com and tell us why you should be next. The Making Data Simple Podcast is hosted by Al Martin, WW VP Technical Sales, IBM, where we explore trending technologies, business innovation, and leadership ... while keeping it simple & fun.