Medtronic CEO on Clarity of Thought, Arctic Wolf CEO on Security +More

Geoff Martha of Medtronic, Netflix's Gaming Ambitions, Brian NeSmith of Arctic Wolf

It was quite a week on the vision front, with Disney setting a new mark in the streaming movie economy, Netflix making a big hire in the gaming business, PC sales numbers setting up a critical second half of 2021, and the CEO of the top medical device maker talking to me about the future of health tech. Here’s your weekend edition of the Fortt Knox newsletter to break it all down:

Can the PC Buying Boom Continue? On the Other Hand

Is the PC buying boom over? I argued both sides in the latest On the Other Hand, on CNBC's Squawk Box:

Medtronic CEO Geoff Martha: How Collaboration Helped Supply Ventilators

In my wide-ranging conversation with Medtronic’s CEO, we talked tech, innovation, culture and his personal story. In the portion of the conversation below, he explains how SpaceX helped solve a problem that enabled them to save lives:

Arctic Wolf CEO Brian NeSmith: Expert Help Needed to Ward Off New Hacks

Arctic Wolf CEO Brian NeSmith joined us on CNBC’s TechCheck to talk a new $150M Series F funding round, and how the company’s model can address today’s cybersecurity needs:

Reflecting on Netflix’s Move Toward Gaming

I wrote about it in Friday’s edition of the newsletter, and I’m giving it just a bit more time here. I find Netflix’s move toward gaming interesting because it represents a broader challenge for the company. How does Netflix get what Disney has: Brands and characters that continue to echo and have impact long after the big premiere moment? Disney has long had theme parks and merchandise and TV shows; now it’s extending all that with Disney Plus. Netflix will have to figure out its own version of that.

If you know me, you know that I like projects. I put a lot of thought into things that are important to me, at it's not limited to Fortt Knox. My company, Fortt Media, is the home of The Black Experience in America: The Course, a curriculum I researched, designed, taught and then built into an interactive experience. I'm still building it, and crafting teacher training to increase its impact.

To share what I've learned from the process so far, and to learn from others who are passionate about Black history education, I'm participating in the Teaching Black History Conference, hosted by the Carter Center for K-12 Education at the University of Missouri, led by LaGarrett King. My presentation will be 7/23 at 8 a.m. ET. It's $99 to attend (virtually). Register here:

You can follow me on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonfortt/ to catch my live interviews, and to comment and share.