Marc Balestreri

The Signal

Notes from building what matters.

AI's Real Promise Isn't Chatbots - It's Curing What Kills Us

December 23, 2025 · 9 min read

Tech has a messaging problem. 47% of Americans now believe AI will negatively affect society. Here's the story we should be telling - one about ending preventable suffering.

AILongevityHealthcareBiotech

How Bulletproof Is Blockchain?

September 29, 2021 · 8 min read

Watching Solana go dark for 17 hours made me question everything I thought I knew about crypto security. The answer lies in the blockchain trilemma - and why Bitcoin's 'slowness' might be its greatest feature.

CryptoBitcoinEthereumSolanaSecurity

Ethereum & the Future of Finance

June 15, 2021 · 7 min read

The lightbulb went off while debugging a trade claims workflow. Programmable money isn't just crypto speculation - it's the missing infrastructure for enterprise finance.

CryptoEthereumDeFiFinanceEnterprise

The Hardest Money

March 28, 2021 · 8 min read

What does it actually mean for money to be 'hard'? A deep dive into the concept that's reshaping how I think about value, savings, and the future of finance.

CryptoBitcoinFinancePhilosophyMoney

The Cold Start Problem

December 27, 2020 · 7 min read

Why the most frustrating paradox in machine learning applies to startups, careers, and almost everything worth building.

AIMachine LearningStartupsPhilosophyProduct Management

Why Automating Claims Made Me Care About AI

September 27, 2020 · 7 min read

Six months into SAP Eureka, I stopped seeing AI as hype and started seeing it as a tool that could actually solve problems. Here's how automating trade claims rewired my thinking.

AIMachine LearningSAPProduct ManagementCareer

The Eureka Experiment: Trying to Transform SAP's Delivery Model

June 28, 2020 · 8 min read

Six months into SAP's skunk works unit - what we're actually building, why enterprise adoption is harder than it looks, and whether a giant can really learn to move fast.

SAPProduct ManagementEnterpriseDesign ThinkingGamification

From Startup to SAP Eureka: Enterprise's Unlikely Skunk Works

March 29, 2020 · 6 min read

Why I left the startup world to help SAP disrupt itself - and what happens when you bring startup thinking to enterprise software.

CareerSAPProduct ManagementEnterpriseStartups