The people responsible
for Silicon Canals.
The people below set editorial direction or publish under named bylines for Silicon Canals. Our editorial standards require human review and approval before publication. Where an editor is named on an article, that person performed the final review.
Justin Brown is Editor-in-Chief. The Editor-in-Chief and Co-Publishers set the publication’s editorial direction and standards.
Named writer bylines identify real people who approved publication under their names. Any personal experiences or credentials attributed to them must be their own.
Field Notes, Canal Letter, Cabinet, The Term Sheet and Machine Room are institutional editorial columns. They identify a newsroom process, not fictional individuals. A column byline must not claim personal experiences, interviews, travel, tests or professional credentials.
Ownership
Publishers
Justin, Lachlan, and Brendan Brown are Co-Publishers of Silicon Canals and co-founders of Brown Brothers Media.
Justin Brown
Co-Publisher and Editor-in-Chief
Justin Brown is a co-founder of Brown Brothers Media, the company that publishes Silicon Canals, and one of its three Co-Publishers. He holds a Master of Science in Global Economic History from the London School of Economics (Erasmus Mundus Joint Master in Global Studies) and a Master of Arts in International Relations from the Australian National University, where he was awarded the Hedley Bull Scholarship and graduated with First Class Honours.
His writing for Silicon Canals focuses on power structures, institutional incentives, and the gap between corporate narrative and corporate behaviour, applied across regulation, capital flows, surveillance and the politics of innovation. As Co-Publisher he sets editorial direction and standards for the site; the editor named on an article is the person who reviewed it. He is based in Singapore.
Lachlan Brown
Co-Publisher
Lachlan Brown is a Co-Publisher of Silicon Canals and helps set editorial direction across Technology and Power, Work and Digital Life, and Relationships and Society. His background includes formal study in psychology and two decades of building and operating online businesses.
Brendan Brown
Co-Publisher
Brendan Brown is a co-founder of Brown Brothers Media and one of Silicon Canals' three Co-Publishers. He founded The Expert Editor in 2012 and co-founded Global English Editing in 2014, working professionally as an editor before moving into publishing, and contributes occasional pieces to Silicon Canals.
Bylines
Writers
The writers below publish under their own names across Technology & Power, Work & Digital Life, and Relationships & Society.
Ainura Kalau
Writer
Ainura Yermagambetova, who publishes as Ainura Kalau, is a writer at Silicon Canals based in São Paulo. Born in Central Asia, she lived more than a decade in Malaysia before settling in Brazil, a path that gives her natural fluency in how innovation ecosystems differ across continents and how people, capital, and policy translate between them. She writes about cross-border technology, emerging-market dynamics, and the lived experience of building from outside the dominant hubs.
Mal James
Writer
Mal James is a writer and editorial team lead at Silicon Canals. Drawing on experience as a teacher and entrepreneur, he covers how technology, workplace systems and social pressures shape behaviour and decision-making.
Daniel Moran
Writer
Daniel Mabanta, who publishes as Daniel Moran, covers technology, digital life and culture at Silicon Canals. His reporting focuses on how people build modern systems and how those systems affect the way people work and live.
Nato Lagidze
Writer
Nato Lagidze is a writer and researcher at Silicon Canals and a PhD researcher with an academic background in psychology. She covers evidence-based questions about decision-making, workplace pressure, technology and social behaviour.
Kiran Journals
Writer
Kiran Athar, who publishes as Kiran Journals, is a multimedia journalist covering identity, community, careers and digital life at Silicon Canals.
Editorial columns
Columns
Our editorial columns publish under their own bylines. Each column is produced by the Silicon Canals editorial team and reviewed by a member of our team before publication. The column name, not an individual writer, is the byline because the column’s perspective is the publication’s perspective.
Technology coverage
Canal Letter
Ecosystem briefings in the Atlantic register. Innovation centres, the engineering inside scaling companies, and the patterns connecting global technology hubs.
Read Canal Letter →Politics coverage
Cabinet
Policy, capital, geopolitics, and surveillance. The political forces that shape what technology gets built, who builds it, and who pays.
Read Cabinet →Work & Digital Life coverage
Field Notes
Behavioural observations on decision-making, attention, identity, and performance. The human mechanics behind the work.
Read Field Notes →Funding coverage
The Term Sheet
Funding across the European tech ecosystem. Rounds, exits, fund launches, and what the money says about where the market is heading.
Read The Term Sheet →AI & Deep Tech coverage
Machine Room
AI and deep tech: the builders, the breakthroughs, and the systems reshaping how technology gets made, with more interest in what ships than in what gets announced.
Read Machine Room →Editorial process
The Editor-in-Chief and Co-Publishers set editorial direction and standards for Silicon Canals. Our editorial standards require human review and approval before publication; where an editor is named on an article, that is the person who reviewed it.
Named writer bylines identify real people who approved publication under their names. Any personal experiences or credentials attributed to them must be their own.
Field Notes, Canal Letter, Cabinet, The Term Sheet and Machine Room are institutional editorial columns. They identify a newsroom process, not fictional individuals. A column byline must not claim personal experiences, interviews, travel, tests or professional credentials.
For details on our standards, see Editorial Policy. For our corrections process, see Corrections.
Ownership
Silicon Canals is published by Brown Brothers Media and funded primarily by display advertising. Editorial decisions are independent of advertisers, sponsors, and external parties.