53. Balance IT. on hydroponics and vertical farming with Brent Downey

2020 was not an easy year for any business, but the Hospitality Industry was definitely amongst those suffering the biggest setback. Costa Coffee, a British coffeehouse chain giant was also still recovering from the Brexit when the pandemic hit, yet that did not prevent the company from implementing a very successful mobile app program and eventually becoming the number one application in the UK in 2020. In this week's Catch the Tornado episode, Piotr speaks to Gordon Lucas, the Global Head of Digital Engineering at Costa Coffee about how he and his small team made this happen, how Costa accelerated its digital transformation, both the positive and negative impact of COVID19, the challenges of implementing new technology at such a scale.

If you’re familiar with the term "street style", or you’re into sneakers, fashion, or culture, this episode is for you. Today’s guest is Philipp Triebel, the Head of Engineering at Highsnobiety, an online lifestyle news site, which has gone a long way from a small team of 5 people writing articles online. In this episode of the Challenge Accepted series, Piotr and Philipp discuss the difficulties of turning an online lifestyle magazine into an eCommerce store while figuring out the best way to accommodate the specificity of the “drop” sales model on their website.