Aug 24, 2023
Transparency in Tech by Ramprate w/ Tony Greenberg
BRT S04 EP33 (196) 8-20-2023
What We Learned This Week
Tony and Ramprate work with about 40 companies.
· The core mission he wants to see from all companies is what type of impact can they have, how do they create value to help society.
· Question: What is the social impact of all technology companies?
· We need more transparency by companies with pricing
· Service agreements with tech companies are very long and hard to follow. Need a summary of the rights of the end user.
Guest: Tony Greenberg, CEO of Ramprate
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tonygreenberg/
https://ramprate.com/it-sourcing/leadership-team/
Tony Greenberg, CEO
An unstoppable force of connecting great minds and generating ideas, Tony Greenberg spent 20 years pushing against the immovable object of myopia and corruption in how enterprise technology is bought and sold before turning his powers for the good of the blockchain community. As investor and advisor to more than a dozen startups focused on maximizing social impact in blockchain, health care, and emerging markets, he is mentoring executive teams as well as building partnerships and go-to-market strategies to turn good ideas into thriving businesses. As CEO of RampRate, he is saving millions, improving flexibility, and optimizing supplier relationships for more than 100 top brands such as Microsoft, eBay, Nike, and Hearst, while ensuring that corporate social responsibility becomes a bigger part of IT decision making. Prior, he held senior executive-level positions with market-creating technology and digital media innovators including Raindance and Exodus.
His clients have run the gamut from traditional broadcasters (NBC, Fox, etc.) to massively multiplayer games (Blizzard / World of Warcraft, Riot Games / League of Legends, etc.) to eCommerce (eBay, Nike, Ticketmaster, etc.) to telecom (AT&T, Verizon, Level 3, Vodafone), high tech giants (Microsoft, Intel, Broadcom), publishers (Hearst, McGraw Hill, Scholastic, Scripps) and new online business models (Sony Crackle, Snapchat).
While running RampRate, Tony has supported innovative startups and social impact driven projects, including an artist-focused royalties financial management project with Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics and Universal Music; innovative companies in peer-to-peer delivery; and several major hits in the blockchain arena, such ad Block.one; He is currently an advisor/investor to startups in motion capture / VR/AR (Limitless); innovative networking (Syntropy); blockchain technologies; and several social impact and wellness-related ventures, as well as creating early-stage ventures in IT waste reduction and socially responsible sourcing.
Notes
Seg 1
Tony has worked in the technology industry for 25 years plus originally starting in data centers and IT. And since moved onto consulting with companies and even investing in companies at times.
He will be joining us in the next segment for the rest of the show talk about the technology industry his company ram freight they work with clients, and the goal of all companies to have a purpose in the code for the world.
This is a clip of one of the companies Tony worked with. His name is Tom Fraser of Redivider and they are modernizing a data center, to be smaller, modular, and more efficient.
Seg 2
Tony and Ramprate work with about 40 companies. 10 to 20% are involved in Blockchain. The rest are typically involved in enterprise type services and software or data centers.
The core mission he wants to see from all companies is what type of impact can I have, how do they create value. What do they do to help society.
Whenever Tony works with a new company or founder or start up first off is to build the relationship. He always wants to have a friendly atmosphere with whoever the client has.
You’re looking for great intention on the part of the founder and the company. For example company he worked with recently re-divider their mission is energy is impact. Tony liked their mission, the product, the advisory team and how they were gonna build and deliver on their promise.
If a company approaches Tony to raise money it is a flat out no to the proposition. Companies have a problem which is to raise money. If you fix the message in the behavior of the company then you can go and raise money.
Anytime Tony’s going to work with a company there is a due diligence period, will do interviews with the top people at the company. Sometimes they invest money in the company or sometimes their services Plearn them equity in the company. A lot of clients are referred through past relationships. Takes weeks to three months to do this background check. Tony calls of the hundred day handshake.
Networking and relationships is Keita any business. Rolodex Tony’s Rolodex is very large.
Seg 3
Tony‘s background originally started in the retail industry specifically eyewear and eventually sold out of it. 1996 he started moving into Internet companies.
Got involved with a data center company which eventually went public an IPO. Then he was doing enterprise sales with very large technology companies.
Next phase was on to consulting, product management and even MNA. A boutique organization now is ramp right no levers. What they do specifically is negotiate IT contracts and then may take a percentage of the savings. They work in all forms of IT.
Circa 2013 one of the focuses they started moving onto it was Blockchain businesses in democracy nation of technology. Tony is a big believer in fair play and a win-win relationship.
Blockchain companies have what’s called an icy oh or an initial coin offer, which is similar to an IPO. Blockchain initially was built in bitcoin mines a.k.a. another type of data center.
You always want to look at what is the eco-footprint, or carbon footprint of these companies.
Another company Tony’s working with deals with plant medicines and helping communities. Bigger goal is to decentralized the medicine industry.
understand there is a difference between Blockchain bitcoin and decentralization, these are three different things.
Tony is a big believer though in Crypto in peer to peer money. He does not like how big business screws people using a large supply chain.
He would like to see more transparency and likes the objectives of the Blockchain companies the Dow DAO to decentralize
Seg 4
We have a love-hate relationship with large companies like Apple. We love their services and they’re great products but we hate their fears and sometimes how they operate.
Question: What is the social impact of all technology companies?
Blind computer programs with a corporation you always have the lowest cost producer, and often there in the most innovative. There is a need for this, but they can also abuse their status.
We need more transparency by companies, transparency with government pricing and fears and what type of return they get.
Example currently would be Netflix with the streaming viewership. Netflix operates on the CPM advertising model. There is real lack of trust because Netflix does not publish their viewership numbers.
Tony is a client of a company called forward medical. Problem is forward medical advertise like they are medical company when in fact they were actually an Internet advertising company. They just sell memberships. It’s a unique idea but the service is not great.
Service agreements with tech companies are very long and hard to follow. Need a summary of the rights of the end user. More transparency.
A friend of Tony, Michael Turpin Hanover landmark court case where a Sim card was stolen from his phone. The card was stolen by an employee of his cellular user AT&T. AT&T claimed it was not responsible for what happened even though it’s an inside job. Michael won the lawsuit and the case.
Tony doesn’t want sound like Ralph Nader but he agrees with some of the past ideas. This month are recurring services with tech companies even though they don’t provide service half the time it’s not a great deal.
Slack is an example of a very good company that does not bill you if you do not use it.
Seg. 1 – Clips from a previous tech show:
Guest: Tom Frazier - Co-Founder & CEO
Tom Frazier, the co-founder and CEO of Redivider, boasts an impressive 25-year career, driving transformational and disruptive initiatives in future tech, B2B, and public sectors. Committed to prioritizing people, planet, and profits, Tom is devoted to spearheading innovation in the digital economy.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomfrazier/
Meet Redivider and Tom Frazier
https://www.redivider.co/products/data-centers
Leading with People, Planet and Profits , Tom Frazier and Eric Appelblom are flipping the traditional enterprise data center on its head with hydrogen powered data centers—reducing carbon foot print and increasing jobs. The companies advisory team is a shows who in environmental and ESG.
Tom has more than 20 years building infrastructure from Verizon to early data center infrastructure. He is also a Pebblebee advisor.
Exclusively focused on the United States, Redivider is a Qualified Opportunity Zone Fund investing in assets related to data center services and specialty computing like Bitcoin, AI, 5G and cloud edge.
About Us
Join Redivider on our mission to uplift humanity and revolutionize the datacenter industry through cutting-edge, sustainable edge computing solutions. We're committed to empowering your organization with unparalleled efficiency, security, and tailored technology, while embracing our core values of stakeholder capitalism, radical innovation, and prioritizing people and the planet. Together, let's shape a brighter, more connected future for all.
Data Center Solutions
Edge computing is the future, enhancing and complementing traditional data centers. To realize this future, innovations beyond conventional methods are necessary. We firmly believe that pre-fabricated modular facilities are the key to unlocking success for several domains.
Notes:
Redivider
Data centers are smaller in module, size of a shipping container versus a standard data center which could be a huge warehouse
Technology will be used to help the growth of the smart city or cloud an edge computing services
Social impact of data centers in the tech industry, being outsourced by corporations to other corporations
The data center industry is enormous. The enterprise part of the business uses very large facilities, thank warehouse size. The data industry started in the 1970s, and by the 1980s it was growing fast.
Currently it is 3 to 5% of the worlds power consumption. 90% of the historical data was created in the past three years. It will be five times that size in the next five years.
Current capacity cannot keep up. The solution by re-divider is to make smaller modular facilities. This would be the size of a shipping container and could be delivered to a site.
You will have the ability to get online and up and running faster.
This also tackles the second issue of data centers which is what is the sustainability and environmental impact over the long term.
Large data centers use 200 to 300 MW power first one Mac a lot for a small re-divider facility. Also it is not tied to the powered grid, which is dated, complex, and hard to fix.
There is a high legacy cost in the current data centers. I’ll re-divider would need is on site power. The components are modular so you can increase size if needed. Re-divider builds and a prefab set up.
The traditional data factory would be a two-year construction project with lots of planning. Prefab David data center plus prefab power could be installed in 30 days.
Full Show: HERE
Tech Topic: https://brt-show.libsyn.com/category/Tech
More - BRT Best of Tech:
BRT S02 EP52 (99) 12-26-2021 – Tech for the Holidays – BRT
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