Brian Ley, CEO of Alpharank: a start-up that uses heavy-duty mathematics to analyse brands’ word-of-mouth networks. Brian started out studying the spread of diseases - he’s fascinated by how everything from ideas to emotions is spread through human networks. Listen in to hear Brian and Nathan discuss how Donald Trump is memetically hacking your brain. Famous 5 Favorite Book? – High Output Management What CEO do you follow? — Richard Branson What is your favorite online tool? — Audible Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Most nights If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? —Not to drink alcohol, and to take as good care of your body as you can Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:30 – Nathan’s introduction 01:56 – Welcoming Brian to the show 02:10 – Brian started out studying computational epidemiology - the study of how diseases spread. He’s fascinated by how anything - disease, joy, decisions - spreads through human networks 03:10 – Alpharank generates revenue by charging a data provider fee 03:40 – Analyse a company’s influence and network connections 04:25 – Analysed social structure at a nightclub for multiple weeks: realised that you could see connections by analysing time-series patterns 06:02 – Currently have no revenue: have raised $500k investment 06:40 – Will stay pre-revenue in 2016 06:52 – The network is very tech-heavy - currently have a team of 7 engineers 09:15 – “I have complete faith that someone is going to figure out a way to track network connections directly” 09:45 - Can you explain mathematically what Donald Trump is doing? 10:10 - “Donald Trump is memetically hacking people’s brains” 10:40 – Engaging directly with the mammalian centre of people’s brains - where emotions are directly processed. And emotion is contagious. 11:55 – “Talking about things spreads them” 12:17 – The viral coefficient: K= Invitations x Conversion Rate 12:50 – “Marketing is being turned to math” 13:46 – Connect with Brian on Linkedin or on Twitter 16:40 – Famous Five 3 Key Points: Your body is your limiting factor: take care of yourself Everything spreads through human networks: diseases, ideas, emotions Marketing is becoming mathematical Resources Mentioned: Freshbooks - The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts. Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for cheapest price possible. Leadpages – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+ Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he's driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5 hour drive) to listen to audio books. Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives