Bits and Bolts With Paulina

Most companies think their vendor contracts are under control. They're not.Steen Steensen Blicher, CEO and co-founder of VendorTel, breaks down the silent financial leak hiding in plain sight. 2 to 5% of total supplier spend lost every year because nobody connects contract terms to real transaction data.In this episode: why a signed contract is not the same as earned money, how AI unlocks vendor management without replacing the human decisions that matter, and the one 30-minute audit every procurement team should run this week.

How much of the AI boom is real?Paul Bates, co-founder and Director at Uptiq, spent over two decades in tech and he's cutting through the hype. In this episode we get into why 70-90% of "AI" projects are really just automation, how companies are slashing cloud costs by 90% through app modernization, and why private AI models are becoming the enterprise default.We also talk about scaling a tech services business, data sovereignty, the hidden costs nobody plans for, and why trust is the only thing that actually closes deals in consulting.Practical, honest, and zero fluff.

In this episode, Anemari Fiser (former Tech Lead, Product Director, and author of the O'Reilly book Level Up as a Tech Lead) shares what it really takes to succeed in tech leadership.From burnout at ThoughtWorks to building her own coaching business, Anemari reveals why most problems in tech are people problems, not technical ones, and why soft skills and feedback are the true game-changers for Tech Leads.Whether you're aspiring to become a Tech Lead or looking to level up in your current role, this conversation is packed with practical insights on leadership, team culture, and career growth.

Adam Malik is a trade show veteran and digital transformation consultant with over two decades of experience launching major tech events and leading digital change inside media businesses. He has managed buyouts, built and sold companies, and spent the last two years running a live experiment: a one-person media business built almost entirely with AI-assisted workflows. He is the founder of Digitizing Events, where he documents what works when small businesses try to use AI, away from the hype.

Get real about AI security, community building, and why the transformation is never done with Hannah Foxwell, DevOps veteran, AI educator, and founder of AI for the Rest of Us. From securing AI agents to building inclusive tech spaces, Hannah brings a sharp, grounded perspective on what's actually happening in the industry right now.

Stuck in DevOps tutorial hell? In this honest 2026 conversation, Paulina and Szymon (who helped 100+ transition to DevOps) reveal the #1 beginner mistake: jumping to Kubernetes/Terraform/cloud without Linux basics. Learn the real DevOps roadmap 2026, master fundamentals first (Linux, Docker, networking, troubleshooting), escape endless online courses, build job-ready skills, avoid common DevOps mistakes, and focus on problem-solving over tool overload. Perfect for aspiring DevOps engineers, SREs, and cloud beginners. Go from tutorial hell to hired!Contact Szymon here :https://linktr.ee/becomedevops Check out: BecomeDevops, an education partner for securing a DevOps role, creating tutorials, and courses.https://www.linkedin.com/company/becomedevops/#DevOps #DevOpsRoadmap2025 #TutorialHell #DevOpsBeginner #Linux #Kubernetes #CloudEngineering #CareerTransition #SRE

Explore the real challenges of digital transformation in the construction industry with Gökmen Becerik, Head of IT & Digital Transformation at SU YAPI Engineering & Consulting (Turkey).

In this episode, AI architect Alex Velinov reveals why AI won't steal your job, creating weirder ones like "vibe code fixers" and why banning AI in your company is the most dangerous move you can make.Key takeaways:Why does every industrial revolution create more jobs than it destroysHow to become "bulletproof" in the AI era The ugly truth about ROI in AI projectsWhy creatives and experimenters will win bigPerfect for marketers, founders, and anyone worried about AI taking over.

In this episode of Beats & Bolts with Paulina, Paulina Dubas sits down with Gert Villemos, CTO & CISO at LeanSpace, a leader with 20+ years of experience building and operating mission-critical space systems that still run European satellites today.We talked about:Why Year-1 architecture decisions are the most expensive ones you’ll ever makeHow cloud lock-in quietly costs companies years of migrationWhy most security failures are basicHow compliance can unlock deals instead of slowing teams downWhere AI creates new lock-ins if your processes aren’t readyWhy team design matters more than tools for speed and quality

Are sales teams secretly sabotaging their own deals by treating engineers like second-class citizens?In this episode of Beats & Bolts, Jennifer Cox (20-year tech veteran, ex-Tenable, Rippling, multiple industry awards) reveals the truth about what works when scaling technical, customer-facing, and sales-engineering teams in 2025 and beyond.If you lead, manage, or work in technical teams, sales engineering, solutions engineering, customer success, or any revenue-facing tech role,this episode will change how you show up on Monday.00:00 Introduction to Scaling Leadership in Tech03:02 Identifying Collaboration in Teams04:53 Building Trust and Vulnerability in Leadership08:46 Generational Differences in Workplace Dynamics12:59 Creating a Collaborative Company Culture16:50 Balancing Growth and Psychological Safety20:52 Aligning Team Goals for Long-Term Success31:52 Mapping Personal Goals to Professional Success35:42 The Importance of Mentorship in Leadership36:09 Technical Leadership: Myths and Realities41:10 Bridging the Gap: Sales and Engineering Collaboration47:16 Establishing Credibility with High-Level Clients51:21 The Role of AI in Leadership54:08 Rapid-Fire Insights

In this episode of Bits & Bolts with Paulina, Allen Jellas, an industry veteran and agile coach who has helped transform teams at Maersk, Schneider Electric, and Novo Nordisk, unpacks the hacks of proper feedback.Why most companies get it wrong and how leaders can build trust, safety, and continuous learning inside their teams.Key points :- Why feedback should be a dialogue, not a download- How psychological safety drives innovation and performance- Why frameworks don’t fix people's problems- How empathy and curiosity scale teams better than tools

Dive into the real talk on AI's hype vs. reality with Siddhanta Gupta, a tech trailblazer who's bridged space missions, pharma pipelines, and energy automation. From his DTU master's AI thesis grind to consulting at Ramskov Group, discover how to conquer silos between IT, OT, and AI, and think human body analogies that make it click.Key takeaways:1. Why ChatGPT is just a "smart intern" for enterprise (not production-ready yet).2. Governance as your F1 seatbelt: Scale pilots without crashing.3. Future factories: AR copilots, digital twins, and predictive maintenance by 2030.4. Space Agency mindset: Do it right the first time or explode.If you are working in tech, pharma, or energy, this episode unpacks actionable insights and views that will make you think twice.

Join us for a fascinating conversation with Niklas Bork Bøgh, Senior AI Product Manager at Skill Up Finance (now NewCo). Niklas shares his unique career path from being a semi-professional CS:GO gamer (practicing 12 hours a day for two years!) to an AI product leader in the finance world.

In the Bits & Bolts  Wth Paulian pilot, Paulina sits down with Melissa Drew, Founder & Chief AI Trust Officer, author, and former IBM & Deloitte executive, to unpack her 30-year journey from building databases in the 90s to creating frameworks that define trusted AI today.Melissa shares stories from her early work in procurement and healthcare, the evolution of AI before the hype, and why data quality, bias, and AI-generated content are our biggest challenges.A must-listen for anyone serious about the future of responsible AI.