This week on the pod, Laura and Kevin discuss what’s shaping up to be the biggest Bitcoin event of the year: Bitcoin 2025, happening May 27–29 at The Venetian in Las Vegas. With over 30,000 attendees and 400+ speakers, it’s more than a conference - it’s a full-on Bitcoin takeover.

We are joined by Justin Doochin, one of the conference organizer. He says to expect a mix of Bitcoiners, developers, investors, policymakers, and curious newcomers. People come to network, share ideas, and get a pulse on where Bitcoin is headed. This year’s “Code & Country” track kicks off Industry Day, focusing on the intersection of policy, technology, and innovation. Laura asks if Trump will show, Justin shares that while President Donald Trump isn't on the speaker list, his sons Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. are confirmed to speak about capitalism, Bitcoin, and economic sovereignty. Ross Ulbricht, the founder of Silk Road, will make his first public appearance since being released from prison earlier this year. He’s set to speak at the conference, marking a significant moment for many in the Bitcoin community.

The conference aims to set a Guinness World Record for the most Bitcoin point-of-sale transactions in eight hours. It’s a bold move to showcase Bitcoin’s potential as a daily-use currency. This year's event is set to be high-energy, with a mix of serious discussions and celebratory moments. It’s a place where ideas are exchanged, and the future of Bitcoin is debated and envisioned. Laura also speculates if Bitcoin Hit $150K or $200K in 2025.

Justin is offering our listeners a 30% discount on all Bitcoin 2025 passes. Use the code: TECHPOD30 at checkout: https://bm.b.tc/TECHPOD30.

For more details and to register for the conference, visit the official conference site: https://b.tc/conference/2025.

In this week's episode, Laura and Kevin sit down with Susana Cabrera, Global Head of Channel and Alliances at Parsec Automation Corp., for a conversation that bridges manufacturing, technology, and strategic leadership. With a career spanning tech giants like SAP and CISCO, Susana shares how her path led to Parsec and why the company’s mission to modernize manufacturing resonated with her.

Susana breaks down what Parsec does to empower manufacturers through digital transformation and explores why innovation in this space is not just necessary - it’s overdue. She goes into the real-world applications of AI in industrial settings, separating the hype from the real opportunities. For a deeper dive on that topic, check out Parsec’s blog post: What AI Can Do for Manufacturers Right Now.

The episode also tackles big-picture topics like global supply chain disruptions, shifting manufacturing strategies, and the technologies that will reshape partner ecosystems in the years ahead. Plus, the we discuss the controversial topic of bagged olives (spoiler: Susana’s a fan), and the conversation wraps with a powerful message: let technology be an enabler, not a barrier—just don’t forget that humans still drive the business.

As Parsec's Global Head of Channel and Alliances, Susana Cabrera leverages her nearly 30 years of experience in business development, channel teams, and professional services to drive growth and innovation. Having previously worked at companies like SAP and CISCO, Susana excels at aligning partner strategies with customer needs, ensuring that clear communication and collaboration lead to measurable business outcomes. Driven by a passion for strategy, execution, and delivering business outcomes, Susana thrives at the intersection of partner-led growth, innovation, and operational excellence.

On this week’s episode, Laura and Kevin sit down with Nandan Nayampally, the Chief Commercial Officer at Baya, to discuss the shifting landscape of intelligent computing and the hidden challenges behind AI innovation.

Nandan kicks things off by demystifying what Baya actually does, solving the critical problem of data movement, a growing bottleneck that traditional compute-focused architectures can't keep up with. With a rich background that includes scaling Arm’s processor business from $200M to billions and playing key roles at AMD, Amazon (Alexa), and neuromorphic AI startups like Brainchip and Tenstorrent, Nandan offers a unique perspective on where hardware truly sits at the heart of today's AI revolution. He unpacks one of the most misunderstood aspects of AI development: while flashy models grab the headlines, it's the hardware, and even more critically, how data flows across chips, that will define the next generation of intelligent systems. As he explains, we’re moving from a compute problem to a data movement problem, and Baya is right at the center of that inflection point. Laura and Kevin also get Nandan’s expert map of the chip landscape, from Nvidia’s dominant position to Intel, Arm, AWS, and where Baya fits in. Spoiler alert: Baya isn’t trying to out-muscle the big players but to fundamentally enhance and rethink architectures for a world driven by AI at scale.

Nandan also talks about the next big frontier as a hybrid between cloud and edge AI, with massive commercial opportunities tied to how efficiently and securely we can process data wherever it’s generated. He offers a thoughtful, non-political perspective on how escalating tariffs on Chinese goods could impact the semiconductor supply chain, AI innovation, and global data privacy. Along the way, the conversation touches on chiplets, SoC (system-on-chip) trends, and, what he really thinks about Nvidia.

If you care about the future of AI, semiconductors, or where the real innovation is happening behind the scenes, this is a must-listen episode.

Nandan Nayampally is the Chief Commercial Officer at Baya that runs Product
Management, Marketing Communication, Business Development, Sales and Strategic Alliances. Nandan has consistently been passionate about disruptive technologies and being in the eye of the storm in semiconductor inflection points. While he’s had various start up stints in neuromorphic AI at Brain chip, Tenstorrent and Denali Software, a major part of Nandan’s career involved growing Arm’s processor business from $200M to into the $billions, and expanding its reach from the mobile and consumer markets to automotive, networking infrastructure, data center and AI. During his time, Arm’s customers shipped more than a 150B process-based chips. He also had meaningful stints at AMD and Amazon on scaling Alexa into 3rd party devices.