“It’s only an edge case if you think you’re the center of the universe”
Rest of World CEO Sophie Schmidt speaks with Paul Ford and the Stack Overflow podcast about the opportunities we miss when we stay in Western tech bubble.

This week, our founder and CEO Sophie Schmidt joined Paul Ford and his co-hosts on the Stack Overflow podcast, a show that covers how software and code are reshaping our world. They discuss everything from Rest of World’s beginnings to building teams in a pandemic, and how Silicon Valley blindspots are limiting our understanding of technology’s true impact and opportunity in our hyper-connected global age.
Along the way, she weaves together some of her favorite Rest of World stories so far, like how the world’s slowest fast-food delivery platform is thriving in Gaza, to the African lending app that publicly shames you if you’re behind on your loan, to the tech-savvy young Korean dropouts who unwittingly pioneered an isolated lifestyle that suddenly became mandatory for billions around the world.
Listen to the full conversation here: