The First “Friday Nooner” Episode: It Must Be Seen To Be Believed

With the New Year comes fresh beginnings, and GrepBeat’s newest show, The Friday Nooner, is one you won’t want to miss. Pete McEntegart and Joe Colopy kicked off the first half-hour episode today at noon (hopefully you already guessed the time), touching on topics ranging from the rise of no-code platforms and management succession plans, to Pete’s enticing career background as a reputedly great jeans-folder at The Gap. 

So if your newly bought 2021 planner hasn’t been used yet, now you can pencil the Friday Nooner every week. Here are some highlights from today’s inaugural episode:

  • In the 2021 predictions from Triangle tech luminaries that we published earlier this week, three of them—Sonja Ebron, Joe Procopio and Adam Smith—separately mentioned the rise of low-code and no-code app development. For instance, Sonja predicted 2021 would mark “the beginning of the end” of the traditional technical co-founder, as no-code platforms allow anyone, regardless of previous coding experience, to test innovative ideas in the marketplace. But be wary, not everyone—i.e. not Joe Colopy—is convinced 2021 will see a radical marketplace disruption on par with the iPhone in the 2010s. As Joe remarked, “The concept of no-code is nothing new, the title just got trendier and the tools got better.” [3:40]
  • Observing longtime CEOs such as James Goodnight of SAS Institute reminds Joe of an important lesson about the importance of planning management succession: “The true testament of a leader is the ability to build sustainability through process, so the company can move onto the next person and grow and prosper in different ways.” [27:10]
  • The first-ever Friday Nooner Winner of the Week award goes to… Facebook and Twitter! In light of the recent national chaos, these social media giants made moves to sanction President Trump from making any more incendiary posts. The runner-up for Winner of the Week is… the maker of Pete’s 2001 Acura, who became the richest person in the world this week. Just kidding, that title actually passed to Elon Musk, whose net worth reached $185 billion yesterday, surpassing Jeff Bezos’ paltry $184 billion. In related news: Joe drives a Tesla with a license plate reading “Bronto.” [28:40]

You can experience the full roller-coaster ride of today’s Friday Nooner episode by watching below. And join us again next (and every) Friday at noon!