On the lighter side of things , we ask the industry experts what makes them tick . . . .

Alexander Garcia-Tobar , CEO and co-founder , Valimail , on what time in tech has taught him .

One of my most memorable personal achievements was winning the 1986 Karate World Championship .

From a work perspective , it has been building a world-class organization at Valimail with a global impact on email impersonation .

What first made you think of a career in technology ?

Working in Boston in 1991 , it was clear that a young , ambitious and risk-tolerant person could do a lot in the ‘ Wild West ’ technology industry . The rules were still being written and output / skill outweighed seniority . Indeed , as a 20-something , I was fortunate enough to be an executive at three IPO companies . Plus , I ’ m a geek at heart …

What style of management philosophy do you employ with your current position ?

It starts with realizing that the order of focus is People , Product / Tech and Revenue . Without the right people , we can ’ t build the best products . Without the best products , it ’ s so much harder to grow revenue .

Revenue growth ( or lack thereof ) is a lagging indicator that you have a good team and a good product / market fit . So , if it starts with people , adhere to the following : be trustworthy and inclusive , measure and learn , encourage direct communications and have a bias towards velocity and iteration . These principles are critical to how we run Valimail .

What do you think is the current hot technology talking point ?

Clearly AI is red hot right now . What will become hot very soon are the implications . For example , if we can now create 1,000s of realistic articles in minutes , mis / disinformation is going to get much , much worse . We need to think through how to authenticate the sources , build up reputations for that source , and only then will we be able to assess how trustworthy that information is .

A recent example is how Chinese and Russian state actors wrote 100 ’ s of realistic posts claiming the Maui fires were a US military secret weapon test . The posts all reinforced each other and the social media algorithms pushed these to the top . What was missed was authenticating the source of the posts – all fake accounts .

How do you deal with stress and unwind outside the office ?

This is a big one – initially , I struggled to sleep due to business scenarios bouncing around my head all night . I ’ ve found that a mix of exercise ( biking , swimming ,

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