Sam Radocchia—Smashing The Myth That Women Don’t Belong In IT

Hear how the future is coming at us, fast

Sometimes you meet someone whose smarts, business sense and just plain moxie blows you away. For me that would be Samantha Radocchia (Sam Rad) whose story I proudly share in my new book, “Rethink: Smashing the Myths of Women in Business,” which you can buy here and whose podcast I am reposting here as part of my month-long celebration of Women’s History Month. Women are not encouraged to enter STEM, but not only did Sam not listen to that myth, she smashed it. Defying any one definition, she is an entrepreneur, a business owner, a speaker, an author, a futurist, a technologist and (like me) an anthropologist. Her story will inspire you.

Why Bitcoin Pizza?

You have to listen to Sam tell the story about the “10,000-bitcoin pizza” which was the start of using bitcoin for “general” purchases. What has now become an origin myth of great proportions goes like this: On May 22, 2010, now known as Bitcoin Pizza Day, Laszlo Hanyecz offered to pay 10,000 bitcoins for two delivered Papa John’s pizzas. A British man took up Hanyecz’s offer and bought the two pizzas for him in exchange for the 10,000 Bitcoins. This set in motion something that few saw coming: a world-wide movement to change much of what we thought was “the way we do things.” By the way, those original Papa John’s pizzas are now worth over $80 million.

What’s so exciting is hear Sam talk about her vision for blockchain

Blockchain is more than a bitcoin currency. To Sam, it’s something much broader and transformational. As she says in her new book: “The way I see it, blockchain isn’t just a technology. It’s a technological manifestation of a social paradigm shift from centralized to decentralized, from siloed to open, from controlled to self-enforcing.”

Today, blockchain is tackling a huge array of everyday tasks and challenges. If you’re not familiar with blockchain, it’s a safe, secure system that allows us to more easily manage our business and personal lives. Whether it’s overseeing your banking, paying your taxes, booking vacations, eliminating property title insurance, producing safer medications, tagging and tracking diamonds, or making sure Wal-Mart’s food is safe for its customers, blockchain is not just another way to do things. According to Sam, it is going to become the best way. And, very soon.

In previous On The Brink podcasts, we’ve heard similar prophecies from Marton Ven when he spoke about blockchain and the food system, and Jared Tate when he shared his thoughts on the growth of Digibyte in two podcasts, the first in June 2018 and the second in March 2019.

As you’ve probably guessed by now, the future is coming at us fast. Are you ready?

Samantha Radocchia: entrepreneur, author, speaker, futurist

A reformed gamer, “Sam Rad” started studying virtual currencies in 2009 while writing her anthropology thesis on currency exchanges in the virtual world. Since then, she has founded three companies, holds several patents, and was an early outspoken voice in blockchain as the co-founder of Chronicled, an enterprise blockchain company focused on supply chain. She now consults executives, trade associations, governments and investors on emerging technology trends.

In addition to emerging technology, Sam is deeply passionate about Future of Work, Future of Production, Future of Community and the sustainability of business. She speaks worldwide on organizational culture and theory, particularly as we shift to globally distributed and remote workforces. Her lectures on risk, emotional intelligence and intuition have been featured by such globally recognized universities as MIT, Columbia and UCL.

Two years ago, Sam was named to the 2017 Forbes 30 Under 30 List for Enterprise Technology. She’s also a competitive skydiver, having accumulated over 700 jumps. Her blog, “Radical Next Ideas,” is well worth checking out.

You can reach Sam here: