In episode 45 of the Most Awesome Founder Podcast, we are back with the fourth episode of the Awesome Founder Inspiration Sessions with Gerrit McGowan and Dries Faems.

Continuing the format from the previous episode, they discuss a few thought-provoking topics:

– How does virtual work affect creativity?

– Do flexible work opportunities have inherent biases?

– Can the introduction of a middle management layer actually drive innovation in startups?

– How can startups become more competitive when hiring tech talent?

– A curious case of robots being given rest days in Germany!

– Has A.I. finally become sentient? Does A.I. finally have feelings?

The episode is full of interesting insights and takeaways. So hopefully, you’ll enjoy listening to it as much as we did producing.

References

Chapters:

(01:02) Gerrit introduction

(03:41) Something that made Dries learn – Should companies bring back their employees to the office?

(04:44) Gerrit’s thoughts on flexible working opportunities

(07:30) Work environment and its impact on creativity

(08:30) The difference between brainstorming online and onsite

(14:32) How to design brainstorming workshops to get the best outcomes?

(16:41) Having meetings outside the room and its benefits

(18:44) Something that made Gerrit learn – A Mckinsey study on remote working opportunities in the US and the possible inherent biases that come along

(27:05) Possible reasons for these inherent biases and surprising outcomes from the research

(32:00) Something that made Dries think – How important is the middle management layer in startups?

(32:50) Gerrit’s thoughts on the middle management structure at early-stage startups

(34:20) The impact of middle management on innovation at startups – a surprising outcome

(40:36) Does innovation come from the top?

(44:58) Something that made Gerrit think – how can European startups be more competitive when attracting the best tech talent

(54:47) The culture around sharing salary information in Europe

(57:45) What can founders and startups do to be more attractive for tech talent?

(61:32) Something that made Dries laugh – German supermarket REWE’s autonomous supermarket asked to take “rest” on Sunday

(64:15) Something that made Gerrit laugh – A google engineer who claimed that one of Google’s A.I. has become sentient

(68:03) Is it possible for A.I. to become sentient in 2022?

(72:50) Differentiating the human brain from an A.I. on how it processes language