Behind The Product Zac Darnell - SEP

In this episode, Jim Sorgi and David Smith from ProTeam Tactical share why ProTeam came to be and their mission of serving First Responders with the best mental health app. They take us through their journey to tackle the behavioral health aspects of the job for First Responders by applying technology to an underserved group who greatly need the support and resources!

Jim and his partner Joey Vandever, also a former professional athlete, knew they needed to up the level of care for these men and woman who serve our community. They spent the first years focusing on the physical needs of the job with tremendous success. And most recently they saw the need to care for the behavioral health side of the job for these First Responders. So they embarked on building SHIELD, a mobile-first product that launched earlier in 2023 to help First Responders assess where they are in 6 key categories.

SleepStressPTSDAnxietyDepressionSubstance AbuseFinancial Wellness (**Soon to be released**)
ProTeam is not a typical tech company, they are more tech enabled; and yet their journey to build a digital product to aid in this pursuit was one of learning and compromise. There will always be more features than time and money allow for. This team learned how to focus on the most important features to get the most for the users they serve. There are practical take-a-ways from this conversation: why deciding to say no to a feature is good, why a solution in search of a problem can hinder success, and the power of getting feedback from your target users.

We'd love to hear from you! Reach out to podcast@sep.com to share your feedback on this show.
You can find more information about this podcast at sep.com/podcast and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for listening!

In this episode, Courtney Cantor Soice and Ben Cleland from Hamilton share insights from the world of event marketing. Join us to learn how Hamilton adapts ideas from diverse industries, tackles challenges, and responds to change.
Courtney and Ben share how they balance ambitious visions with budget constraints through "objective development," aligning event goals with practical booth designs. They also discuss how Hamilton quickly adapted during the pandemic, pivoting to remote immersive experiences that lower friction for both clients and attendees.
We'd love to hear from you! Reach out to podcast@sep.com to share your feedback on this show.
You can find more information about this podcast at sep.com/podcast and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for listening!

To celebrate three years of the Behind the Product podcast, we're revisiting the top three episodes from the past year.

Lindsay Boccardo - Episode 26
Speaker, trainer, and coach Lindsay Boccardo shares how we can navigate generational divides and bridge the gap between a variety of perspectives. You can find our full conversation with Lindsay on Episode 26.

Bob Moesta - Episode 30
Author, speaker, and thought leader Bob Moesta shares tools, philosophies, and practices for optimizing product management. You can find our full conversation with Bob on Episode 30.

Abhishek Nayak - Episode 25
Abhishek Nayak, Co-Founder and CEO of Appsmith, shares what he's learned through founding multiple startups and how he pursues simplicity at scale. You can find our full conversation with Abhishek on Episode 25.

We'd love to hear from you! Reach out to podcast@sep.com to share your feedback on this show.
You can find more information about this podcast at sep.com/podcast and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for listening!

Ilya Rekhter shares his journey and the story behind Megawatt, a sustainable bitcoin mining company. We learn about what Megawatt offers and how it fills a need in the market. Ilya shares stories of what he's experienced and what has been surprising over the past couple of years. He also sheds light on some of the misconceptions around waste in the bitcoin mining space. He ends with a bit of advice for folks wanting to hop into this niche.
We'd love to hear from you! Reach out to podcast@sep.com to share your feedback on this show.
You can find more information about this podcast at sep.com/podcast and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for listening!

Cloud expert Surya Oruganti joins the show to share about Argonaut, a DevOps platform that simplifies cloud infrastructure and app deployments.
In this conversation, Surya discusses the challenges teams face with their cloud infrastructure and explains how Argonaut empowers organizations to scale.
To wrap up the show, Surya shares a couple of his hot takes related to cloud infrastructure tools.
We'd love to hear from you! Reach out to podcast@sep.com to share your feedback on this show.
You can find more information about this podcast at sep.com/podcast and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for listening!

Roads are a critical piece of modern infrastructure, but the technology we rely on to maintain and build them is nearly two centuries old.
Enter Luna Lu, Founder and CEO of Wavelogix and Acting Head of Civil Engineering at Purdue University. In this conversation, she shares how her team is using IoT and AI to disrupt and advance the concrete industry. She explains how her "smart concrete" solution enables more intelligent and efficient construction decisions, decreasing costs and environmental impact.
We'd love to hear from you! Reach out to podcast@sep.com to share your feedback on this show.
You can find more information about this podcast at sep.com/podcast and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for listening!