Podcasts about cb insights

Send us a textIn this episode of the Diamond Effect Podcast, Maggie Perotin dives into a critical challenge many business owners face: the limitations of trying to grow your business completely on your own. Inspired by a conversation with a client who recently moved her beauty service business from a home-based operation to a commercial location, we explore why seeking expert help isn't a sign of weakness—it's a strategic advantage.What You'll Learn:- Why the "do-it-all-yourself" mindset can become your biggest growth obstacle- The hidden costs of learning everything through trial and error- How expert guidance helps you avoid business-threatening mistakes- The 5 key benefits of building a strategic support system- Why even the most successful CEOs rely on teams of advisorsEpisode Highlights:[00:00:00] Introduction: The transition challenges when moving from home-based to commercial business[00:02:00] The psychological barriers to asking for help as high-achievers[00:04:00] Finding the balance: When to figure things out yourself vs. when to seek expertise[00:06:00] The high cost of hiring mistakes in service businesses[00:08:00] How successful CEOs structure their support systems[00:09:00] 5 Key Reasons Not to Go It Alone:1. Avoiding costly mistakes that threaten business survival2. Resolving business challenges faster with expert perspectives3. Identifying blind spots you can't see on your own4. Combating entrepreneurial isolation and burnout5. Creating accountability that accelerates growth[00:18:00] Research shows 65% higher goal achievement with proper accountabilityKey Statistics Mentioned:- 23% of startups fail due to not having the right team of advisors (CB Insights, 2023)- Solo founders are 2.3x more likely to fail than those with co-founders or advisors (Harvard Business Review, 2021)- 45% of entrepreneurs report high stress levels (Gallup, 2022)- People are 65% more likely to achieve goals with proper accountability (American Society of Training and Development)Resources Mentioned:Episode 162: 8 Reasons Why You Wouldn't Want a Business CoachConnect With Me:Ready to stop doing it all alone? Book a complimentary consultation to see how strategic support can accelerate your business growth with fewer mistakes and less stress.Book Your Free Consultation → https://calendly.com/maggie-s2l/discovery-callShare Your Thoughts!Did this episode resonate with you? What's one area where you could benefit from expert guidance? Share your thoughts on social media and tag @maggie.perotin.s2l

This week on The Nick Halaris Show we are featuring Anand Sanwal, the co-Founder of The Formidable Fellowship, a non-profit focused on sparking the next generation of young entrepreneurs, and the host of the Future Titans Podcast, a show featuring the inspiring stories of the winners of the Formidable grant.  Anand is also the co-Founder and former CEO of CB Insights, a very successful AI and data company, a writer, and working on building a national network of schools for entrepreneurship (more on this in a future episode!).Ready to dive in? Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music and YouTube or on your favorite podcast platform.I wanted to have Anand on the show to learn more about the mission of The Formidable Fellowship and to explore this thinking on the future of education.  Entrepreneurship is something I've been writing a lot about here in Profit+ and near and dear to my heart.  Until coming across Anand, though, I never realized how important a role it could play in redefining (fixing) our broken education system.  As you'll see in the episode, Anand is an incredibly thoughtful and impressive individual and has some great ideas about entrepreneurship, education, and how we can best help young people prepare for an increasingly uncertain future.  I walked away from this discussion on fire with ideas and inspiration and I think you will too.As always, I hope you all enjoy this episode.  Thanks for tuning in!      Connect with Nick Halaris: Nick Halaris website and newletter (sign up!) Nick Halaris on Instagram Nick Halaris on linkedin Nick Halaris on Twitter

Bienvenidos a Punto Biz, un podcast para hablar de Tendencias del Mercado y Negocios.¡Suscríbete a mi Podcast y califícalo!En este episodio de PuntoBiz quiero conversar acerca de la investigación de mercados y la importancia que tiene para ayudar a las empresas y a los emprendedores a competir mejor, pero además, de cómo la inteligencia artificial puede facilitar y potenciar esta tarea. Esto, a propósito de mi curso “Investigación de mercados para emprendedores y Pymes, impulsada por la inteligencia artificial”, disponible gratuitamente en la plataforma de apoyo a los emprendedores BPlus, una iniciativa promovida por Banplus.Debemos recordar que según Startup Genome el 90% de las startups fracasan y la principal razón generalmente se relaciona con que no existe una necesidad real en el mercado para el producto o servicio ofrecido (42% según un estudio de CB Insights). Mi objetivo con este curso es ayudar a que los emprendedores y las pymes comprendan la importancia de investigar el mercado para tomar decisiones informadas, empezando por aprender a definir las preguntas claves y las hipótesis que se contrastarán mediante el estudio. En el curso también enseño técnicas de recopilación y análisis de información además de enseñar cómo la inteligencia artificial puede facilitar gran parte de las tareas que conlleva realizar un estudio de mercado.Te invito a incorporar la investigación de mercados en tu proceso de toma de decisiones. Recuerda, lo perfecto es enemigo de lo bueno. Puedes realizar estudios específicos que sean económicamente viables y que tengan un retorno de la inversión. Por ahora, puedes empezar realizando mi curso en Bplus (gratuito): https://bplus.com.ve/formacion/courses/investigacion-de-mercado-para-emprendedores-y-pymes-impulsada-por-la-ia/Este episodio de PuntoBiz es posible gracias a...Gimar Distribution: https://gimardistribution.com/Banplus: https://www.banplus.com/Si quieres conocer más acerca de cómo la investigación puede apoyar a los emprendedores te invito a leer mi artículo: https://carlosjimenez.net/como-puede-ayudar-la-investigacion-de-mercados-a-los-emprendedores/RECURSOS:Suscríbete a mi boletín: ⁠https://www.carlosjimenez.net/registroDescarga mis ebooks: ⁠https://carlosjimenez.net/ebooks/⁠Website: ⁠http://www.carlosjimenez.net/⁠Punto Biz es un podcast producido por Carlos Jimenez, experto en identificar tendencias del mercado y diseñar estrategias de negocios para aprovechar las oportunidades que se derivan de los cambios en el comportamiento de los consumidores en América Latina. En este podcast se habla de tendencias, marketing y estrategias de negocios.Suscríbete a Carlos Jimenez Punto Biz en las principales plataformas¿Te gusto mi podcast? Califícame y agrega tu comentario.

Five-time Midas List investor Annie Lamont has seen every healthcare cycle since the genomics revolution. Now, as co-founder of Oak HC/FT and early investor in category-defining companies like One Medical, Athena Health, and Devoted Health, she believes 2025 could mark the return of animal spirits to healthcare investing. In this forward-looking conversation, Annie shares why AI might finally deliver on technology's promise to transform American healthcare, even as she warns entrepreneurs to watch out for the "revenge of the incumbents."We cover:

正官庄超強快充能量飲 活蔘28D ENERGY SHOT，高麗蔘x3倍牛磺酸，全家新上市12/10前買1送1，立馬SHOT一瓶! https://fstry.pse.is/6pglwm —— 以上為 Firstory Podcast 廣告 —— 耐能智慧是 2015 年在美國聖地牙哥創立，2019年獲 CBinsights 評鑑為 36 家擁有改變世界技術的公司， 2020 年更獲 EETimes 評為與I ntel 、 Nvidia 丶 Tl 、NXP 等並列為世界十大 Al 晶片公司，loTEE times 則將耐能智慧評為和 Intel 、 Tl 並列的世界三大 Al 晶片公司。 Gartner 也在 2018 、2020 年二度評鑑耐能智慧為 cool vendor 獎項。展望未來台灣在 AI 晶片領域的發展，劉峻誠董事長指出，算力、演算法、訓練數據應該是衡量 AI 晶片發展的三個指標。以台灣具有的 IC 設計和製造能力，在提供 AI 晶片算力的方面是擁有優勢，但是對於演算法、訓練數據就必須持續補強。 【版權屬寶島聯播網所有，未經授權，不得轉載、重製，有需求請來信告知】 #寶島聯播網 #鄭弘儀 #寶島全世界 #劉峻誠 #耐能智慧 #ai #輝達 #gpu #NPU 小額贊助支持本節目： https://open.firstory.me/user/clw4248xv113d01wg7s4h2xnq 留言告訴我你對這一集的想法： https://open.firstory.me/user/clw4248xv113d01wg7s4h2xnq/comments Powered by Firstory Hosting

At Tesla's robotaxi reveal event last week, several Optimus humanoid robots mingled with guests, pouring drinks and cracking jokes. Impressive technology, but the vocals and some of the gesticulations appear to have been remotely controlled by humans, something Tesla did not disclose. Today on Equity, Rebecca Bellan chatted with TechCrunch's hardware editor Brian Heater about Tesla's Optimus bots, the market opportunity for humanoid robots, and other companies that are leading the charge in this industry. We'll dive into:A CBInsights report which found that funding in 2024 already reached new highs for humanoid robots and PitchBook data that suggests funding into humanoid robot companies has reached close to $1 billion as of October. Where we're most likely to see humanoid robot applications in the coming years. Automakers like BMW plan to deploy startup Figure's robots at their plants, and Amazon, which has been a huge proponent of robotics for over a decade now, has tested Agility's digit robot at its warehouses. When we could see  humanoid robots enter homes. Some companies plan to have their robots help older folks with household tasks like Kind Humanoid. Equity will be back on Friday with our weekly news roundup, so we'll talk to you then!Equity is TechCrunch's flagship podcast, produced by Theresa Loconsolo, and posts every Wednesday and Friday. Subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. For the full episode transcript, for those who prefer reading over listening, check out our full archive of episodes over at Simplecast. Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. Bryce Durbin is our Illustrator. We'd also like to thank the audience development team and Henry Pickavet, who manages TechCrunch audio products.

This week Charli has Humera Malik on the pod to talk about how AI is already making Industry better.Humera Malik is CEO of Canvass AI, a leading provider of industrial AI software that puts industrial companies in control of their data to achieve operational excellence. The company is recognized by CB Insights as one of the top technology companies that is advancing manufacturing. Internationally, Ms. Malik is one of the leading voices in Artificial Intelligence and how it can help the industrial sector propel growth, accelerate sustainability, and augment human expertise. She sits on Canada's AI Technology Advisory Council and is a recipient of the RBC Women of Influence Entrepreneur of the Year award, the Women of IoT/M2M award, and Special Jury Recognition for the Women in AI Awards North America 2023. She is frequently invited to speak at industry conferences and has been featured in publications such as Bloomberg and Forbes. Read up at EmpoweringPumps.com and stay tuned for more news about EPIC at the Colorado School of Mines Nov 12th and 13th.Find us @EmpoweringPumps on Facebook, LinkedIn,  Instagram and Twitter and using the hashtag #EmpoweringIndustryPodcast or via email podcast@empoweringpumps.com 

Looking for patient-centered care in your perimenopause journey? Joanna Strober, Founder and CEO of Midi Health, has crafted a platform specifically for you. Midi Health is a leading virtual care platform focused on female health throughout the menopause transition. Hear what made Joanna start Midi Health, how she was able to differentiate the platform, who actually provides the patient care, how she got her first set of patients, and how to navigate employers and insurance companies. Tune in to this episode to step up healthcare for midlife women!   Learn more: Joanna Strober Midi Health   Today's Hot Flash and other stats from: CB Insights

Global startup funding was up 16% in the second quarter, according to Crunchbase data, led by an uptick in mega-rounds. That increase was led, unsurprisingly, by the AI sector. Funding to companies in AI made up 30% of all dollars invested and actually doubled quarter over quarter to $24 billion.On today's episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Mary Ann was joined by Gené Teare, a Senior Data Editor at Crunchbase and Crunchbase News, to talk through the numbers. Teare is a well-known analyst of the global venture capital market, and was instrumental to Crunchbase's early life and remains one of its more tenured staffers.“I was actually quite shocked by the doubling in AI because we're six quarters in from the launch of Chat GPT,” Teare said. “I think part of that is that in venture, things take time to sort of filter through.”There were also signs that larger M&A deals increased in the second quarter, providing much needed liquidity in a continued dry IPO market.“We're definitely seeing a stronger M&A environment compared to 2022,” Teare said. “The big expectation is that M&A is going to pick up more significantly and I'm not sure we've seen that yet, partly because prices have come down. There's a lot of companies who might realize they're not gonna make it to going public in the next 3 to 5 years…So, I think it has improved but not as much as many in the bench community were wanting or expecting.”Equity is back on Friday with our weekly news roundup. So come back then!Before we let you go, some disclosures: We invited Gené on the show because we wanted to get her valuable insights regarding the venture capital markets. We knew she'd be great on the topic, because Mary Ann worked with her for years at Crunchbase. During her tenure at Crunchbase, she was paid partially in stock options, and retains a minor stake in Crunchbase itself. We do our best at Equity to cite the best data source for whatever topic we're looking at, which means we use Crunchbase data as well as information from its competitors at PitchBook and CB Insights. For instance, we had a PitchBook denizen on the show to chat through Q2 2023 results last year. We think we put together the best possible show for you on its merits alone, but did want to note some professional overlaps right up top.Equity is TechCrunch's flagship podcast, produced by Theresa Loconsolo, and posts every Wednesday and Friday. Subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts.You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. For the full episode transcript, for those who prefer reading over listening, check out our full archive of episodes over at Simplecast Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. Bryce Durbin is our Illustrator. We'd also like to thank the audience development team and Henry Pickavet, who manages TechCrunch audio products.

In E86, Mike and Charlie deep dive into the latest trends in venture funding, highlighting key insights from CB Insights and PitchBook.  They explore the significant impact of AI on venture capital, discussing whether AI is propping up the funding landscape and the scrutiny AI startups face from VCs.  The conversation also touches on the rise of deep tech and the resurgence of SaaS-based FinTech.  This Week in Local is a Localogy production. To learn more, please visit Localogy.com.  Would you like to recommend a guest, ask a question, or sponsor an episode? Start a conversation with us at podcast@localogy.com.

More about BrainBox AI and Jean-SimonFounded in 2017, BrainBox AI was created to address two critical issues currently facing the built environment: carbon emissions and energy consumption. As innovators in the decarbonization movement, BrainBox AI's game-changing HVAC technology leverages AI to make buildings smarter, greener, and more efficient. Through strategic global relationships, BrainBox AI elevates real estate clients across various sectors from office buildings and hotels to commercial retail, grocery stores, airports, and more.BrainBox AI's tech results in up to 25% reduction in total energy costs, up to 40% decrease in carbon footprint, and up to 60% improvement in occupant comfort, and extends HVAC equipment life by up to 50%. The tech provides intuitive data visualization of automated emissions data collection, tracking, and reporting via dashboard or downloadable documentation.  In 2020, BrainBox AI was recognized by TIME as one of the Top 100 best inventions and by CB Insights as one of the Top 100 AI start-ups redefining industries in 2021. The company is also a member of the MaRS Discovery District, the largest urban innovation hub in North America. BrainBox AI was selected as the winner for the Tech For Our Planet Challenge from a cohort of ten finalist start-ups at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in 2022. Jean-Simon Venne is a co-founder and CTO of BrainBox AI. BrainBox AI's technology leverages artificial intelligence to improve building operational efficiency while reducing energy consumption and costs. Combining machine learning, cloud-based computing, and self-directed decision-making, BrainBox AI enables the Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) system in a commercial building to operate autonomously and in real-time, generating up to a 25% reduction in total energy costs, 20-40% reduction in carbon footprint and 60% increase in occupant comfort. As a technology expert specializing in the fast and efficient migration of technological innovations to commercial applications, Jean-Simon has over 25 years of experience developing and implementing new technology to solve long-standing commercial issues in the fields of telecommunications, biotechnology, and energy efficiency. Connect with Jean-SimonFollow BrainBox AI on TwitterCheck out BrainBox AI

My latest Quantum Tech Pod with Enrique Lizaso Olmos, Founder and CEO of Multiverse Computing, is live! Enrique has a degree in mathematics, a PhD in biostatistics, an MD, and an MBA. He is also a former university professor, having taught engineering, mechatronics, statistics, finance, and marketing at the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona. For 22 years, Enrique was Deputy CEO at Unnim Bank and was actively involved in various startups across different verticals. Plus, he serves as VP and Treasurer of the Barcelona Flight School – he has a pilot's license! In 2016, he read a piece in The Economist that stated quantum computing would essentially revolutionize everything. So, in 2019, he co-founded Multiverse Computing with three colleagues, and they started working on quantum for finance, a domain that he knew well. BBVA was one of their first clients – addressing portfolio optimization for the bank. They now also focus on Monte Carlo simulations, index tracking, ETFs, as well as pricing and value in large, complex derivatives. Today, they are the biggest quantum computing software company in the EU. Their purpose-built software platform, Singularity, lets users choose quantum-inspired solutions or pure quantum ones and works across the landscape of qubit modalities: superconducting, photonics, neutral atoms, ion traps, etc. In 2023, CB Insights named Multiverse Computing “one of the 100 most promising companies in AI in the world” based on their ability to efficiently compress an LLM Model in a sustainable way through tensorization, thus saving time and maintaining performance. Check out my fascinating conversation with Enrique! #quantumcomputing #TensorNetworks #QuantumAndFinance #quantumbusiness Inside Quantum Technology    

Anand Sanwal is the founder of CB Insights, a business analytics platform and global database of intel on technology companies. Anand was CEO of CB Insights for 14 years and recently stepped into the role of executive chairman. In this episode, Auren and Anand discuss: Tech and venture capital narratives vs dataAI integration and workflowsFuture of data businessesCEO transitions at 1 to N companiesWorld of DaaS is brought to you by SafeGraph & Flex Capital. For more episodes, visit worldofdaas.buzzsprout.com, and follow us @WorldOfDaaS. You can find Auren Hoffman on X at @auren and Anand Sanwal on X at @asanwal. Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (https://thepodcastconsultant.com)

Jae Lee is the Founder and CEO of Twelve Labs, a video understanding platform that uses AI to help developers and companies search and understand videos quickly. Using its state-of-the-art multimodal foundation model for videos that can accurately and instantly search exact moments within petabytes of video archives, generate coherent text summaries of videos, perform prompt-based video generation, and many more. Jae and his co-founders started the company in 2021 and has secured funding from prominent VCs including Index Ventures and Radial Ventures, and has been recognized as one of CB Insights' AI 100 companies. Prior to starting Twelve Labs, Jae was an award-winning cyber security leader for the South Korean army and he previously spent time as a software engineer at Amazon and Samsung. Jae graduated from UC Berkeley where he studied computer science. In this episode, you will learn: Where Jae is seeing the highest value from multimodal GenAI applications Why Jae believed that multimodal AI was the future and decided to start Twelve Labs How building Twelve Labs with a geographically diverse team is an edge Jae's upbringing in Seoul and moving to the US with his uncle who sparked his imagination in math and statistics You can follow Jae on Twitter and learn more about Twelve Labs at https://twelvelabs.io/ ------------------------- Timestamps: (00:01) Early Trends in Generative AI Technology (11:55) Building Multimodal AI (23:27) Exploring Curiosity and Statistical Learning (28:31) Navigating Career Choices and Company Culture (42:12) Online Presence and AI Influence ------------------------- Transcript https://justinpang.com/jae-podcast-transcript

Developers using an AI copilot can now write code more than two times faster those who don't use AI assistance. Multimodal AI will soon become so commonplace that it essentially becomes table stakes. And there's a rapidly growing wave of AI companionship among younger generations as statistics show we're in the midst of a loneliness epidemic in the US. How should business leaders look at these trends and the many more that are covered in CB Insights' exhaustive report on 2024 generative AI predictions? Courtney Baker, David DeWolf, and Mohan Rao dive into this meaty, 112-page report and help listeners make sense of some of the stats and trends it covers. Chief Strategy Officer Pete Buer also talks with Praveen Narra, CEO of Tech.US, about how his organization is using AI to help companies completely reinvent their business models—and how you can do the same. All of that PLUS Courtney and Pete review the week in AI and Business news. Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/KUwW2BGPFk0  Read our new whitepaper: Unlocking the Power of AI: A Guide to Assessing Readiness for Business Transformation Sign up for the Knownwell Client Intelligence beta waitlist at https://knownwell.com/client-intelligence/ AI Knowhow is brought to you by the team at Knownwell.

The past year has been painful for the financial technology industry, with publicly traded fintech stocks languishing 50% below their late 2021 peak, even as the S&P 500 has surged to new highs. Venture capital funding for fintech startups is even more depressed–it fell more than 70% from $141 billion worldwide in 2021 to $39 billion in 2023, according to CB Insights. Both layoffs and fire sales have spread.Yet our new 2024 Fintech 50 list is packed with extraordinary entrepreneurs who have adapted and flourished in this environment. Three categories that primarily serve other businesses—Payments, Wall Street & Enterprise and Business to Business Banking–made the strongest showing, accounting for 27 of our 50 picks and seven of the 13 first-time honorees on this year's list, our ninth annual honor roll of the most innovative private businesses in fintech.Forbes Senior Editor, Jeff Kauflin, and reporter Emily Mason sat down in studio to break down this year's list and highlight some of its newcomers and trends.Stay ConnectedForbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.comForbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbesForbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbesForbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbesMore From Forbes: http://forbes.comForbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Karen Rands brings her unique insights about Artificial Intelligence and how it has and will impact our lives.  With a look back to the predictions in 2018, found in the Fortune Magazine article "25 Ways Artificial Intelligence is Changing Business", she addresses the growing media hoopla over AI and Machine Learning.    Listen to uncover the myriad ways artificial intelligence goes beyond voice prompts on our phones. From ID badges and facial recognition to smart weapons and robotics, AI is reshaping industries and redefining the boundaries of technological possibilities. Learn how these advancements are transforming our reality. What to be concerned about and what we can do to make sure that humans are the continued intelligence that drives artificial intelligence and not the other way around.  With rise in AI in analytics and predictions, this show is positioned as a segway to Karen's interview with Andrew Einhorn and how he is taking the volatility out of predicting stock market movement with Artificial Intelligence analysis of other trigger factors based on historical effects.  That Compassionate Capitalist Show is: Levelfields AI: Andrew Einhorn's Answer to Event-Driven Investing. To get to the documents Karen refers to in the intro teaser and the Fortune article of the predictions from 2018:  Fortune Magazine November 2018 25 Ways Artificial Intelligence is Changing Business https://fortune.com/2018/10/22/artificial-intelligence-ai-changing-business/ CBInsights Sam Altman Investment Report   https://www.cbinsights.com/research/report/sam-altman-investments/ CBInsights Chat GPT AI Investment Ecosystem:  https://www.cbinsights.com/research/openai-investment-strategy/ CBInsights Ultimate Guide to AI Disruption https://www.cbinsights.com/research/report/generative-ai-bible To take advantage of Karen's early release offer for the intro level of Compassionate Capitalist Wealth Maximizing system, go to http://dothedeal.org and register.  Karen Rands is the leader of the Compassionate Capitalist Movement™ and author of the best selling investment primer: Inside Secrets to Angel Investing: Step-by-Step Strategies to Leverage Private Equity Investment for Passive Wealth Creation.  She is an authority on creating wealth through investing and building successful businesses that can scale and exit rich.  Karen is an enthusiastic speaker on these topics for corporations, economic development groups, angel investor networks, and professional  business networks.   About Karen https://www.karenrands.co/about-karen-rands/ Visit http://Kugarand.com and learn more about the Compassionate Capitalist Wealth Maximizer System™.  Read about the Due Diligence Services, Investor Relations, Capital Strategies, Capital Access, and Capital Readiness Coaching serviced offered by her firm, Kugarand Capital Holdings.  The Compassionate Capitalist Show™ is a Podcast on YouTube.  Please visit and subscribe and share.  It is great to watch Karen and her guests live, in action.  The whole library of podcasts and interviews since 2020 can be found there by category or chronological. https://bit.ly/CCSyoutubepod  Imagine the feeling of investing in a way that had massive impact and a potential pay you back 10x your money. The time is now to find out if Angel Investing / CrowdFunding Investing is the wealth creation strategy for you.  Take action on Karen's offer to learn how to invest with confidence in entrepreneurs and sign up (FREE FOR NOW) the new Compassionate Capitalist Wealth Maximizing System. http://dothedeal.org    

Global venture capital deal volume has fallen by 50% worldwide since peaking in the first quarter of 2022 – that's according the global analyst firm CB Insights. Despite the decline, companies are raising capital. Today's guest is here to share more about the current fundraising environment and what it means for innovation.  Audre Kapacinskas, principal with S2G Ventures – the second most active agtech investor in America – joins us to talk investment across the entire value chain.   The daughter of an immigrant, Audre found her love for the food space when her mother opened up a bakery. That love took her on a professional journey to s2g Ventures where she focuses on helping their nearly 100 portfolio companies in food and agriculture thrive. She gets into solutions that create more balance across the value chain, removing the brunt of risk and cost to the farmer and aligning financial incentives to drive impact. Audre also talks about the importance of having farmers at the discussion table when it comes to innovation and what she's seeing in terms of valuation, time to close and how entrepreneurs and investors are working together during a tumultuous time; she stresses patient capital in the agbiosciences as being important.  So what will the capital landscape look like in the future? Audre talks big corporate investment, aligning incentives for all stakeholders to drive innovation and how she sees the agbiosciences evolving from an era of great moderation to one of great volatility. 

Today, Mary Ann and Alex  dove deep into encouraging signs from the fintech startup market:Solid results from Klarna are on top of Alex's mind. The company's ability to continue growing while staying profitable is a reminder that one down-round does not a company kill.Fintech fundraising results were on Mary Ann's mind as we wait for venture capitalists to re-accelerate their investments in the space. Sure, no one wants to return to 2021-era insanity, but after so long in the valuation doghouse, perhaps fintech has reached its nadir?And we leaned on data. Here's the American consumer debt information Alex referenced, Affirm results will drop here, and the CB Insights venture data we cited is here.More to come in our Friday news roundup! Talk to you then!For episode transcripts and more, head to Equity's Simplecast website.Equity drops at 7 a.m. PT every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. TechCrunch also has a great show on crypto, a show that interviews founders and more!

Episode 501: Sam Parr (https://twitter.com/theSamParr) answers fan questions about his spending habits after selling his company, his approach to fatherhood and the words that changed his life. Want to see more MFM? Subscribe to our YouTube channel here. Want MFM Merch? Check out our store here. Want to see the best clips from MFM? Subscribe to our clips channel here. — Check Out Sam's Stuff: • Hampton - https://www.joinhampton.com/ • Ideation Bootcamp - https://www.ideationbootcamp.co/ • Copy That - https://copythat.com/ Check Out Shaan's Stuff: • Try Shepherd Out - https://www.supportshepherd.com/ • Shaan's Personal Assistant System - http://shaanpuri.com/remoteassistant • Power Writing Course - https://maven.com/generalist/writing • Small Boy Newsletter - https://smallboy.co/ • Daily Newsletter - https://www.shaanpuri.com/ — Show Notes: (0:00) Intro (0:42) What is top of mind as you become a dad? (3:30) What's the biggest difference in your lifestyle now that you're effing rich? (8:00) What were your alternative business ideas if you didn't do Hampton? (11:30) What was the most painful thing someone told you and how did that change you? (15:00) What's one trendy business model you think is over-hyped? (17:00) What did you do when you arrived [at SF] to start laying the foundation to meet interesting people and business builders? — Links: • “Lottery winners and accident victims: is happiness relative?” - https://tinyurl.com/ykbh275y • CB Insights - https://www.cbinsights.com/ • PitchBook - https://pitchbook.com/ • The Anti-MBA - http://www.theantimba.com/ • Monkey Inferno - https://tinyurl.com/yc842nww • Ikagai - https://tinyurl.com/3x9mytpb Past guests on My First Million include Rob Dyrdek, Hasan Minhaj, Balaji Srinivasan, Jake Paul, Dr. Andrew Huberman, Gary Vee, Lance Armstrong, Sophia Amoruso, Ariel Helwani, Ramit Sethi, Stanley Druckenmiller, Peter Diamandis, Dharmesh Shah, Brian Halligan, Marc Lore, Jason Calacanis, Andrew Wilkinson, Julian Shapiro, Kat Cole, Codie Sanchez, Nader Al-Naji, Steph Smith, Trung Phan, Nick Huber, Anthony Pompliano, Ben Askren, Ramon Van Meer, Brianne Kimmel, Andrew Gazdecki, Scott Belsky, Moiz Ali, Dan Held, Elaine Zelby, Michael Saylor, Ryan Begelman, Jack Butcher, Reed Duchscher, Tai Lopez, Harley Finkelstein, Alexa von Tobel, Noah Kagan, Nick Bare, Greg Isenberg, James Altucher, Randy Hetrick and more. — Other episodes you might enjoy: • #224 Rob Dyrdek - How Tracking Every Second of His Life Took Rob Drydek from 0 to $405M in Exits • #209 Gary Vaynerchuk - Why NFTS Are the Future • #178 Balaji Srinivasan - Balaji on How to Fix the Media, Cloud Cities & Crypto • #169 - How One Man Started 5, Billion Dollar Companies, Dan Gilbert's Empire, & Talking With Warren Buffett • ​​​​#218 - Why You Should Take a Think Week Like Bill Gates • Dave Portnoy vs The World, Extreme Body Monitoring, The Future of Apparel Retail, "How Much is Anthony Pompliano Worth?", and More • How Mr Beast Got 100M Views in Less Than 4 Days, The $25M Chrome Extension, and More

Første intervjuet fra New York! I dag prater jeg med Pål Høye; Co-Founder og CTO i BlueJam, tidligere CTO i CB Insights og IT Direktør i Goldman Sachs - bare for å nevne noe i en lang rekke med meritter for eventyreren. Vi prater om: Eventyreren fra Røros som 18 åring bestemte seg for å følge drømmen i USA og reiste over med kun to bagger Hvordan det var å oppleve 9/11 med egne øyne kun noen måneder etter han kom til New York Det å bygge teknologiselskap i 2023 og hvorfor 70% av alle endringsprosjekter mislykkes Forskjellen mellom norsk og amerikansk arbeidskultur Leveregler for en bra karriere og liv - penger betyr ingenting de første 10 årene, bygge nettverk, velg mentorer med omhu, kunsten å kommunisere, fokusere på det du får gjort noe mer og mye mye mer... Dette er episode #100 og Pål Høye! Expresso på sosiale medier

AADOM Radio & Sunbit Present:Adrian ValenteLearning Objectives:-How to integrate financing into each stage of the patient journey-What channels to leverage to maximize marketing success-What successful financing marketing looks like with real-life examples-How to modernize patient financing to enhance the patient experienceMore About Adrian:Adrian Valente is the Director of Training at Sunbit, the fast-growing patient financing technology company, and supports training, enablement, and community engagement. His training methodologies have been used by more than 115,000 dental, auto, and optical professionals on how and when to offer financing to customers. As the resident subject matter expert for all things Sunbit, you'll find him hosting podcasts, events, interviews, and coaching sessions across the verticals they serve.More About Sunbit:https://sunbit.com/Sunbit builds financial technology for real life. Our technology eases the stress of paying for life's expenses by giving people more options on how and when they pay. Sunbit offers a point-of-sale payment option available at more than 20,000 service locations, including auto dealership service centers and F&I departments, optical practices, dentist offices, veterinary clinics, and specialty healthcare services. Sunbit was included on the 2022 and 2023 Inc. 5000 list. The financial technology company has also been named a Most Loved Workplace®, Best Point of Sale Company, A N.A. Deloitte Technology Fast 500 company and a Top Fintech Startup by CB Insights. Loans are made by Transportation Alliance Bank, Inc., dba TAB Bank, which determines qualifications for and terms of credit.More About AADOM:https://www.dentalmanagers.com/

Erik Torenberg sits down with Anand Sanwal, CEO of CB Insights. Over 900,000 people turn to CB Insights for the insights they share in their newsletter. Riverside.fm is a presenting sponsor of Media Empires. Go to https://creators.riverside.fm/MediaEmpires + use code MEDIAEMPIRES for 20% off individual plans.Media Empires is part of the Turpentine podcast network. To learn more: www.turpentine.coIn this conversation, Anand and Erik discuss data collection, scaling across different technology markets, media and data businesses, and more.We're hiring across the board at Turpentine and for Erik's personal team on other projects he's incubating. He's hiring a Chief of Staff, EA, Head of Special Projects, Investment Associate, and more. For a list of JDs, check out: eriktorenberg.com.RECOMMENDED PODCAST:Founding a business is just the tip of the iceberg; the real complexity comes with scaling it. On 1 to 1000, hosts Jack Altman and Erik Torenberg dig deep into the inevitable twists and turns operators encounter along the journey of turning an idea into a business. Hear all about the tactical challenges of scaling from the people that built up the world's leading companies like Stripe, Ramp, and Lattice. Our first episode with Eric Glyman of Ramp is out now: https://link.chtbl.com/1to1000RECOMMENDED PODCAST:Run the Numbers is a weekly podcast about financial metrics and business models, designed for ambitious people operating tech startups. It's a collection of things host CJ Gustafson (CFO at Partstech and writer of Mostly Metrics) has learned and thought about in the trenches as a tech CFO. Subscribe to listen on the platform of your choice: https://link.chtbl.com/runthenumbersTIMESTAMPS(00:00) Episode Preview(02:00) What is CB Insights(02:45) What CB Insights does(03:30) The needs of the CB Insight customer(07:00) Scaling to a thousand markets(12:16) Evolution of CB Insights(15:58) Which data is most helpful to collect?(17:51) A dataset Anand would want to acquire(19:45) Events and Community(21:32) The Future of CB Insights(23:15) Increasing density of coverage(26:48) Perspective on past opportunities(28:30) Litmus test for what is worth Focusing On(30:08) Breadth of data front(32:38) Private analyses(34:25) Data business idea: startup-investor pitches(38:16) Data business idea: Reference checks(39:12) Online reputations(42:20) Which media businesses should be data businesses?(46:10) Scalable and programmatic ways of acquiring data(48:50) If Anand was starting today(49:44) Building a data business on top of a successful media companyLINKS:CB Insights: https://www.cbinsights.com/SOCIALS:Anand's Twitter: https://twitter.com/asanwalAnand's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anandsanwal?original_referer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2FErik's Twitter: https://twitter.com/eriktorenberg This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mediaempires.substack.com

When it comes to circuit assemblies, defects result in one of two situations. The preferred result of a defect is to capture it on your factory floor and repair it before it ships to the customer. The second scenario is referred to as an escape. That's when the board ships to the customer and fails in the field. This is a scenario, all assemblers dread and strive to prevent. One way to prevent escapes is through the use of automated inspection or AOI systems. Mike Konrad's guests are Arif Virani, chief operating officer and cofounder of Darwin AI, and Bart Piwowar, CTO of Darwin AI, a manufacturer of innovative inspection systems. Virani is a technology leader with over 20 years of experience in the industry. He spearheads the company's mission to transform manufacturing with a new standard for quality inspection using AI. DarwinAI's solutions have been implemented at top electronics manufacturers to increase quality and efficiency while reducing waste. DarwinAI was selected by CBInsights for its AI 100 annual list of the 100 most promising private AI companies in the world in both 2020 and 2021. Before founding DarwinAI, Virani had a successful career in management consulting at McKinsey & Co., where he advised Fortune 500 enterprises on technology investments and transformation. He led several technology-enabled programs, including building and commercializing data and analytics capabilities. Virani started his career working as a software developer at various technology companies. In addition to his work at DarwinAI, Virani is an Advisory Board Member of NGEN Canada's AI for Manufacturing Initiative. He has a master's in business administration from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School and a bachelor's in applied science (computer engineering) from the University of Waterloo. Piwowar is an experienced product leader, leading high-performing product teams driven by data to deliver solutions that solve customer's problems. He has spent many years leading data science teams, applying Innovation methodologies, and working with emerging technologies to bring solutions in many disciplines. He graduated from University of Waterloo with a degree in physics and computing and followed with an MBA from Wilfrid Laurier University. Piwowar's career interests range from AI product development, decision science and entrepreneurship. 

When it comes to circuit assemblies, there are defects, which result in one of two situations. The preferred result of a defect is to capture it on your factory floor and repair it before it ships to the customer. The second scenario is referred to as an escape. That's when the board ships to the customer and fails in the field. This is a scenario, all assemblers dread and strive to prevent. One way to prevent escapes is through the use of automated inspection or AOI systems.My guests today are Arif Virani, Chief Operating Officer and co-founder of Darwin AI, and Bart Piwowar, CTO of Darwin AI, a manufacturer of innovative inspection systems.Arif Virani is a technology leader with over 20 years of experience in the industry. As Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of DarwinAI, he spearheads the company's mission to transform manufacturing with a new standard for quality inspection using AI. DarwinAI's solutions have been implemented at the top Electronics Manufacturers to increase quality and efficiency, while reducing waste. DarwinAI was selected by CBInsights for its AI 100 annual list of the 100 most promising private AI companies in the world in both 2020 and 2021.Before founding DarwinAI, Arif had a successful career in management consulting at McKinsey & Company, where he advised F500 enterprises on technology investments and transformation. He led several technology-enabled programs, including building and commercializing data and analytics capabilities. Arif started his career working as a software developer at various technology companies. In addition to his work at DarwinAI, Arif is an Advisory Board Member of NGEN Canada's AI for Manufacturing Initiative. He has a Master's in Business Administration from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School and a Bachelor's in Applied Science (Computer Engineering) from the University of Waterloo.Bart Piwowar is an experienced Product Leader, leading high performing product teams driven by data to deliver solutions that solve customer's problems. He has spent many years leading data science teams, applying Innovation methodologies, and working with emerging technologies to bring solutions in many disciplines. He graduated from University of Waterloo with a degree in Physics and Computing and later followed with an MBA from Wilfrid Laurier University.Bart's career interests range from AI product development, decision science and entrepreneurship. I met Arif earlier this year at the IPC APEX Expo in San Diego California when he introduced me to his company's automated inspection system. Needless to say, I was truly impressed with their technology and I'm thrilled to have him as my guest on this episode of the podcast.Contact Information:Arif Viraniarif@darwinai.cahttps://darwinai.com/Darwin AI's YouTube Channel:https://www.youtube.com/@DarwinAI

Curious, resilient and humor-forward professional services marketing executive and proven revenue generator. I am a 30+ year Big Law marketing veteran (hence the humor-forward attribute) focused on outcomes driving increased customer loyalty and revenue. I guide and coach lawyers to build and sustain authentic relationships. Internal and external clients value my ability to scope the full customer experience, from the front-end sales process to ongoing service. My portfolio spans account management, industry sector marketing, sales coaching, DEIB, ESG, designing thinking and brand. A few favorite resources: You're Not Listening: What You're Missing and Why It Matters; Strategy and the Fat Smoker: Doing What's Obvious But Not Easy; the Go Giver; Anand Sanwal at CB Insights; anything Axios and Smart Brevity. Certified by IDEO U Insights for Innovation and by Inspiring Comfort as a Trainer. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/freeman-means-business/support

In today's episode, I talk to Anand Sanwal of the market research company, CB Insights.   Anand bootstrapped CB Insights for 6 years… And now it's worth over $100 million dollars!!!   He's a really impressive guy and knows a thing or two about growing a company.   This episode also goes into the current state of the startup market, the importance of defining the right priorities for your business, and why every business SHOULDN'T appeal to every customer.   Check out Anand Sanwal on Twitter at @asanwal.   If you've ever wanted to learn about the data that's driving businesses forward, you'll love this episode.   In this conversation, you'll enjoy 3 BIG things: - The difference between good ideas and bad ideas, and why you need to be able to identify them - The fiction book that taught Anand the MOST about business - And the ONE sub-market that's raising a TON of money right now   Enjoy those 3 things… plus a bunch more ear nuggets along the way. Also, if you want to launch your own business but don't know where to start, I reopened my course Monthly1K for just $10. It's helped thousands of people start their business journey and I know it will help you, too. Head over to OkDork.com/Monthly1K and sign up.

This episode features an interview with Pratiksha Patel, Chief People Officer at Branch. Pratiksha has more than two decades of experience driving employee engagement in hybrid, office-based, and remote cultures. Prior to Branch, she served as the Senior Vice President of People at CB Insights and as a Talent Expert at McKinsey & Company.In this episode, Amanda and Pratiksha discuss meeting workers' expectations, inclusivity, and upskilling employees.-------------------“To create conditions where a highly diverse company and team works well together, can bring all of their ideas, bring the varied perspective that we so desperately want everyone to bring, takes a special environment. Takes an intentionality around saying, ‘We want to create an environment where you bring your perspectives and you bring your differences in, you don't just suppress them and leave them at home.' Some of the ways we do that is we provide a guide and a micro training on the notion of day-to-day conversations and how to enable Branchers and help them know that we want them to have inclusive conversations with their colleagues about differences. As well as giving them tools on how to share stories on more sensitive topics like social or political challenges in our environment that are around us.” – Pratiksha Patel-------------------Episode Timestamps:*(01:53): Pratiksha's background*(03:44): Segment: Story Time*(06:20): How Branch is intentional about employee experience*(09:24): Segment: Getting Tactical*(18:04): How inclusivity helps with career development *(21:41): How Branch ensures employees have a good work-life blend *(26:00): Segment: Asking For a Friend-------------------Links:Connect with Pratiksha on LinkedInConnect with Amanda on LinkedInwww.simpplr.com/podcast

Did you miss Shoptalk 2023 this year? Or were you there and feel like you didn't catch enough of the content and top trends? We've got you covered with another podcast cross-over event with This Week in Innovation and special guest host Jeff Roster! Kicking off this multi-part series, Jeff and regular host Ricardo Belmar sit down with Shoptalk's content team of Krystina Gustafson and Ben Miller live and in-person on the final day of the event. Together they review the top 4 trends and what they mean for retailers, brands, and the retail tech community. The team goes deep to break down the hype vs reality of Generative AI and discuss how retailers are changing and evolving their relationships with consumers, employees, and suppliers. Plus, hear about the latest trends in shopper engagement!This episode's guests:Krystina Gustafson, SVP Content, Shoptalk and GroceryshopBen Miller, Director of original content, Shoptalk and GroceryshopWe're at number 19 on the Feedspot Top 60 Best Retail podcasts list - please consider giving us a 5-star review in Apple Podcasts! With your help, we'll move our way up the Top 20! Leave us a review & be mentioned in future episodes! https://blog.feedspot.com/retail_podcasts/Meet your regular hosts, helping you cut through the clutter in retail & retail tech:Ricardo Belmar, a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Influencer for 2023, 2022 & 2021, RIS News Top Movers and Shakers in Retail for 2021, a Top 12 ecommerce influencer, advisory council member at George Mason University's Center for Retail Transformation, and director partner marketing advisor for retail & consumer goods at Microsoft.Casey Golden, CEO of Luxlock, and RETHINK Retail Top Retail Influencer for 2023. Obsessed with the customer relationship between the brand and the consumer. After a career on the fashion and supply chain technology side of the business, now slaying franken-stacks and building retail tech!Includes music provided by imunobeats.com, featuring E-Motive, and Overclocked, from the album Beat Hype, written by Hestron Mimms, published by Imuno. The Retail Razor ShowFollow us on Twitter: https://bit.ly/TwRRazorConnect with us on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/LI-RRazorSubscribe on YouTube: https://bit.ly/RRShowYouTubeSubscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://bit.ly/RetailRazorShowRetail Razor Show Episode Page: https://bit.ly/RRShowPodHost → Ricardo Belmar,Follow on Twitter - https://bit.ly/twRBelmarConnect on LinkedIn - https://bit.ly/LIRBelmarRead my comments on RetailWire - https://bit.ly/RWRBelmarCo-host → Casey Golden,Follow on Twitter - https://bit.ly/twCaseyConnect on LinkedIn - https://bit.ly/LICaseyRead my comments on RetailWire - https://bit.ly/RWCaseyTRANSCRIPTS2E12a #ShoptalkLive – SPECIAL - Krystina Gustafson & Ben Miller[00:00:00] ​[00:00:00] Show Intro [00:00:20] Casey Golden: Hello Retail Razor Show listeners and viewers, and welcome to retail's favorite podcast for product junkies, commerce technologist, and everyone else in retail and retail tech alike. I'm your host, Casey Golden.[00:00:33] Ricardo Belmar: And I'm your host, Ricardo Belmar. And boy do we have a special treat for you this episode! Today we are talking about the changing relationships between retailers and brands, the evolution of shopper engagement. How omnichannel is morphing into seamless stores, and we see how it's possible to transform over 320,000 meeting requests into over 50,000 actual meetings in a span of three days.[00:00:57] But first, let's talk about our newest [00:01:00] crossover event, and this episode's special guests.[00:01:03] Casey Golden: That's right after our wildly successful crossover event with This Week In Innovation podcast for our N R F Live miniseries. Joined by one of our favorite guest hosts, Jeff Roster. We've done it again for our Shop Talk coverage.[00:01:20] Ricardo Belmar: Yes, indeed. By popular demand, and by popular demand, I mean, we really liked the idea, so we thought, let's do it again. Jeff Roster and I teamed up at Shop Talk for a few special interviews to bring you a Shop Talk live mini-series.[00:01:33] Casey Golden: Well, I'm sad I once again had to miss this one, but I know you guys have pulled together a killer miniseries not to be missed. Who are the episodes special guests?[00:01:45] Ricardo Belmar: I am glad you asked Casey. What better way to kick off this mini-series and with a deep dive discussion on all the hot topics at Shop Talk than sitting down with the Source, Shop talk's, amazing content team led by Krystina Gustafson, SVP of Content, [00:02:00] and Ben Miller, director of original content.[00:02:02] Casey Golden: Christina and Ben are incredible. Uh, you and Jeff really got to dig in to all the hot topics and wasn't this right after they had delivered their retail zeitgeist presentation on , the main stage, right?[00:02:17] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah. Yeah, that's right. We, we recorded this the very next morning after that session where Krystina and Joe Laszlo had run through what Shop Talk was seeing as the major retail trends for the year. Plus , Ben and Krystina gave us some insights into what they found most notable from all the sessions at the show.[00:02:33] And did I mention those 50,000 meetings they orchestrated? I mean, just, wow. Wait until you hear all the stats about what was surely the, the biggest shop talk ever.[00:02:42] Casey Golden: Well, let's get to it then and jump right into you and Jeff's conversation with Krystina Gustafson and Ben Miller from Shop Talk, recorded live and in person at the show. [00:02:54] ​[00:02:59] The Shoptalk Review [00:02:59] Ricardo Belmar: Hello everyone [00:03:00] and welcome to our special Retail Razor crossover event with This Week In Innovation. I'm Ricardo Belmar, live and in person here at Shop Talk 2023, and I am here with the myth, the legend, Mr. Jeff Roster from This Week In Innovation. How you doing, Jeff?[00:03:15] Jeff Roster: Really good. Ricardo. I, you know, I, I'm so proud of both of us. We're, we're here last day, literally working the show to the last minute, and that's how we roll. That's how we[00:03:24] Ricardo Belmar: what we do. That's right. And for this special edition episode of our live series here at Shop Talk, we have the incredible pleasure of having two folks from the Shop talk team to talk to us about the event.[00:03:36] We're here with Krystina Gustafson and Ben Miller. Krystina. Ben, how are you doing today?[00:03:40] Krystina Gustafson: Doing awesome.[00:03:41] Ben Miller: Yeah, very good. Thank you. Thanks for having us. [00:03:43] Ricardo Belmar: Fantastic. Fantastic. So let's jump in. And I think, you know, one of the, the probably most in, well maybe not most interesting, but something I'm sure everyone wants to know is just give us a little bit of data around just how big a shop talk was this, this year?[00:03:56] Krystina Gustafson: Yeah, happy to start. 10,000 plus attendees, our [00:04:00] largest crowd so far. I would say though, what I take away even more than the size is just the quality of the a attendee. So it really sort of felt like this was. The big year. I know last year was technically retail's big reunion, but with the loss of corporate travel bands people just really being back down to business, the caliber of attendee, the amount of retailers and brands we had attending the show at a very senior level was, was one of the big takeaways to me beyond just kind of the scale of the event.[00:04:25] I know we'll probably talk about meet up a little bit later, but we also were able to facilitate 50,000 meetings over the course of two days which was incredibly impressive. Other things to note about scale 275 speakers 70 hours. 50 hours of content, 80 sessions seven content theaters. So I would say those are kind of the high level numbers. But Ben, you might have some, some additional stats to toss out there.[00:04:48] Ben Miller: kind of, yeah, I think when we talk about the Meetup 50,000 sounds an incredible number[00:04:53] Ricardo Belmar: right?[00:04:53] Yeah, it does.[00:04:54] Ben Miller: We had 323,000 requests to[00:05:00] so the appetite the appetite for, everybody to want to get together, to have some meetings, to meet people, to build their business. And you could feel that energy when you walked around.[00:05:10] And that energy, you know, it's, day four with lagging a little bit, but that energy that that energy is palpable. And that's, and that's been, yeah, that's been a key part of the show this year. [00:05:21] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Wow. That's un 323,000 requests . Wow. What I, I, you know, one of the things we were talking about before, you know, what we think is sort of unique about the Shop Talk experience you have you know, for example, like how, how, how many vendors were here, whether exhibiting or, or attendees.[00:05:39] I think that's always a key part of bringing all parts of the industry together. That Shop Talk is so, so special for [00:05:45] Ben Miller: key. No, we, we re really agree our. I think you've heard Sophie, our president talk before that we don't really think about a buy side and a sell side. We don't try and compartmentalize. We have a community and our vendors, the technology companies, whether they are [00:06:00] really small startups for whom a Series A feels a distant proposition still right through to Google Face meta.[00:06:07] You know, some of the biggest organizations and biggest corporations in the country and in the world are here. We have about 700. Technology companies and technology vendors, and many of them are on our show floor exhibiting showing their wear, hosting their their, their clients, and also being involved in the meetings and they're a really important part of our community.[00:06:26] Ricardo Belmar: And then tell us a little bit about you know, the, the startup community and the relationship with, with the shop talk there.[00:06:32] Krystina Gustafson: Yeah, it's I think, been a part of our community that's been really special from day one. You know, we were really the first show that was putting Katrina Lake on, on the main stage when she had founded Stitch Fix. You know, the guys at Dollar Shave Club. So I'd say it's always been a core part of who we are.[00:06:45] But we have recognized that it's Such a differentiator for us that we wanna pour more investment into it. And so we've actually been building out our team internally to make sure that we're really cultivating that community, bringing people on board who are specific to, you know, bringing the big VCs to, to the show because, hey, when you [00:07:00] get the big VCs here, you're also gonna be be building a, a big start of community.[00:07:03] And I had jotted down the number, which of course is escaping me now, but yes, 475 founders who were at Shop Talk this year. I like to think that number's actually probably a little lower. When you think about the fact that some founders have potentially sold their businesses, gone onto corporate ventures, it's probably over 500 in, in some capacity.[00:07:19] People who are current founders or have founded businesses before. But we just truly think that's what gives the show so much life. Just the energy that you have from those entrepreneurs who are coming here to learn share what they're finding. They tend to be also some of the more open folks , when they're talking about the challenges that they're facing, which is[00:07:34] Jeff Roster: Yeah. Not tend to be a hundred percent. What? That's, that's why it's so fun to, to, to talk to the startup community cuz they there is no filter.[00:07:41] And there was no AR person to, to say, don't say that. So, no, it's, I mean, the difference is an analyst working, you know, with, with the largest companies in my old days of Gartner to work covering the startup committee.[00:07:52] I mean, it's night and day. It's so refreshing.[00:07:55] Krystina Gustafson: were you I don't know if you were in the keynote with Imran Khan from Veri Shop, but he, he was unfiltered while he [00:08:00] was up there on stage, which, I mean, we've been getting such good feedback on that interview, so yeah, I hear you. [00:08:04] Ben Miller: getting, I think we are incredibly proud about the keynote lineup this. year. And we, we, we've, it's an incredible process to work with all of our keynotes to, to be prepared. But one of the things that we have spoken about is how they can be open. Cuz nobody wants to come to an event and just see someone reading the press release.[00:08:19] And some of, the, some the great conversations that we've had on the main stage this year and some of the openness of the speakers has been quite a revelation and yeah, I think it's probably the best keynote group that we put together.[00:08:30] Krystina Gustafson: I agree. And I have to say, just being in the, I spent a lot of my time in the, the depths of the green room at the show, and I have to tell you the authenticity of those leaders. And I know that sounds really cheesy, and I'm not typically the type of prince Ben knows. I'm not the soft emotive type.[00:08:44] But I mean, it was palpable. Every single one of them was incredibly kind, incredibly grateful to be here. Willing to be open, recognizing that our audience really wanted to learn. And so I didn't even feel to the same degree as impacious that we had to push. Obviously we're always pushing people to say interesting things, but they [00:09:00] were eager to do it which was really unique and special.[00:09:02] Ricardo Belmar: tell us a bit more about some of the feedback you've had, both, both in the keynotes and then even in some of the other track sessions that I know there have been some really interesting speakers there. I know I was in some where you could just feel, you know, and some of the speakers are, or just, I, I would almost have to describe as entertaining and some of the things they said in, in the way that, that the crowd really reacted to them.[00:09:20] Krystina Gustafson: Yeah.[00:09:20] I think some of the interesting formats that we rolled out have been a lot of fun. So one session that got a ton of great feedback was our rapid fire session. We did two of them. One was with investors, which again, kind of getting back to your point about people that can be unfiltered, a lot of laughter coming outta that one.[00:09:34] I think one of the, one of the questions at the end was you know, what's your most unpopular opinion today? And just really kinda, you know, use poking and prodding[00:09:42] them. So that one was a lot of fun. [00:09:44] Jeff Roster: I'm stealing that one. I'm gonna, that, that's gonna be my,[00:09:46] Ricardo Belmar: yeah, that's right. Right. Yeah.[00:09:47] Krystina Gustafson: Exactly.[00:09:48] We gamify it. There's a really loud, obnoxious buzzer when people run out of time.[00:09:51] They have their four minutes. So, so that was a hit. And then we also did one on tech investing, which was really fun. It had CB Insights, Ulta Beauty and Patagonia on [00:10:00] it. And I think what was really interesting about that one was you had sort of Ulta that has this huge budget. They're always trying new things.[00:10:05] They're always testing, and, learning. And then you have Patagonia, which is a little bit more conservative, maybe doesn't have that big budget to blow. So just kind of hearing Prama, who's the Chief digital officer at Ulta talking about, oh yes, we're trying this. Yes, we're doing AR. Oh, this is fantastic. And Patagonia just being kinda like, no hard pass on Metaverse hard pass on this.[00:10:19] You know, it really represents the dynamics that our audience has, you know? [00:10:23] Ricardo Belmar: different. Yeah. Yeah.[00:10:24] Ben Miller: And, and I think that authenticity has been something that's, that's thread throughout and we, we've programmed sessions that were, were about purpose and we wanted to talk about purpose and want to talk about sustainability.[00:10:34] But actually what we've found is great. We've got the specific sessions, but the general principle of authentic leadership has, has woven through so many of the conversations. Whether that's, you know, leaders openly facing in some of the challenges that they've had or talk about their views on social issues.[00:10:48] There's been some really dynamic conversations and that's been exciting to be part of. [00:10:54] Krystina Gustafson: I think to your question too about feedback though I haven't had anyone complain to me yet.[00:10:57] so that to me is, [00:10:59] Ricardo Belmar: That's something, [00:10:59] Krystina Gustafson: [00:11:00] that's a big barometer of, of people being happy. So I think just generally kind of going back to where we started the conversation, everyone's gritting, ear to ear having a fantastic time, and that's not really something that's measurable.[00:11:10] We'll get sort of the more measurable data after the show, but. , but it's, I mean, so far I think the buzz has been really great. I do really look forward to getting that feedback though. One of the things that I had mentioned for anyone who was in the opening remarks session, when we talked about how we were doing more on seamless stores this year, that was feedback that we got from both Shop Talk and the most recent grocery shop was that people wanted to see us lean more into physical stores.[00:11:30] And so, We did that we made sure that it was covered on our keynote stage with Footlocker, with Brilliant Earth. It was something that we dialed up in our track sessions as well. So it's great to hear kind of the initial buzz and excitement. But we also try to take that constructive feedback post show when we're getting more concrete data, survey results, and then action that for, the next show [00:11:48] Seamless Stores & the "Death of Omnichannel"[00:11:48] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah. So tell, tell us a little bit more on that topic of Seamless stores, because I, I did, I, cause I noticed that difference as well, right? From back, from both, from last Shop Talk and, and progressing through grocery shop to hear that there was [00:12:00] more emphasis on what's happening in physical stores and how that ties back into the rest of of the retail organization.[00:12:06] So how, tell us more about that.[00:12:07] Ben Miller: I woke up this morning to a notification on my phone flicking through half jet lag still, and there's this great message that somebody had posted on my LinkedIn saying, thank you, shop Talk 2023 for finally killing omnichannel.[00:12:24] And[00:12:24] I think, [00:12:25] Ricardo Belmar: saw that post[00:12:26] Ben Miller: do you know what, we've now reached that point where we talk about seamless stores, we talk about unified commerce, the general principle of how do we help customers wherever they are, whenever they want to interact with the brand, to be able to, discover, to be able to explore,[00:12:44] to be able to excited it or to be able to buy and whether that's on a social media channel, whether that's on the retailer's own asset, whether that's having a fantastic experience when they walk through a store.[00:12:55] That's shopping. And I think the number of times I've heard that, you know, [00:13:00]there's been very few conversations about channel management, cuz I think we've finally realized that channels are just this artificial construct and actually[00:13:05] what it is he's getting, he's getting product to people and exciting. about product. And that's been one of the big things for me for, for the whole show. When we, we, we spent a lot of time talking about it in advance. We've been looking at how do you remove friction from the shopping experience, and places where a bit of friction's good, but also where you want to take out friction.[00:13:23] And that's been a really important thought. How do you link some of these things together about the online experience and the offline experience What are the building blocks? What, what's the tech stack to enable that? But as a, as a concept, just getting product to people when they want, it has been, I think it's been the biggest thing for me, [00:13:40] Krystina Gustafson: One of the, one of the cheesy jokes I didn't get into the zeitgeist was it reminds me of the Nintendo Switch, you know, where you're playing on your handheld and then you plug it into the TV and your game is picked up. You know exactly where you were in, in the game progress, you don't have to finish a level.[00:13:53] That's how I, that's how my brain thinks about what unified retail should be going forward. I didn't have room for it though. We were already five minutes over. But, but in all [00:14:00]seriousness you know, the example that I did share, which was probably more valuable to the audience, was Brilliant Earth, right?[00:14:04] You know, go online. You do an online consultation, you get to the store, Hey, here's five rings that we picked out for you based off of what you told us online. Like I think that's kind of how we're thinking about unified these days. It's less about shopping where you want, when you want, and making that a continuous experience.[00:14:18] Because we were talking, we didn't wanna undermine in in our zeitgeist presentation that frictionless isn't hard and it isn't important. But I think where we landed is more companies have solved for that already, right? The amount of companies that have curbside, that have redesigned their store formats.[00:14:31] I think that's kind of more progressed, if you will. And I think Unified is really still in its early stages seeing what companies like Brilliant Earth are doing. The other speaker who we confirmed was the chief digital Officer from Panera. And they recently signed that deal with Amazon One for the biometric scanning in their stores linking to loyalty programs.[00:14:47] So that's another great example. And it's a completely different category than fine jewelry, which is what Brilliant Earth is doing. But I feel like those are two early examples of where we see this trend heading. [00:14:57][00:14:57] "Follow the Money" ... but, Omnichannel?[00:14:57] Ben Miller: And I was in a different room when the Panera presentation was [00:15:00]on, so I missed it. But the social comments and the social feedback on that yeah, we did some work. One of the things that, it goes right back to when Shop Talk was founded by, led by Anil and, and the team was to sit down and look at where does the VC And if you follow the money, then you start to pick up the trends. And we spend a, we spend quite a bit of time looking at this whole idea of, okay, if Shop Talk wants to talk about physical stores, well what's relevant, what's new? What's the future in that? So, you with our friends, at CB Insights, we went into the data and there's a phenomenal amount of funding's continuing to go into removing friction.[00:15:38] Whether that's checkout free, for example, they say whole seamless of connecting that shopping journey. It's, there's funding there, but it's, it's still lower, but we really see that increasing and there some, some of the stats about the levels of is huge. So we believe that's only gonna get more and that's only gonna snowball.[00:15:55] So understanding that further, pulling out great examples. We talked on the main stage [00:16:00] about Zara and some of the work that they're doing in their flagship stores. Yeah. Zara is is certainly the biggest apparel retailer in Europe, if not, yeah, the parent company, Inditex, the biggest in the world[00:16:11] They're still only doing it in, in a couple of trial stores. So the potential is, is absolutely huge and, and we wanna celebrate trials like that.[00:16:19] Ricardo Belmar: Right. Yeah, no, that, that, that makes sense.[00:16:20] Jeff Roster: Yeah, that's music in my ears. I mean, I've been fighting omnichannel forever. [00:16:25] No, no offense, but when, when your competitor coins the term, no, Gardner, Allen should ever use that term. What's funny, the funniest thing I ever had is somebody, one time, you know, no offense to the, the vendors in the room, but a vendor one time ask me, Hey, do you have omnichannel IT spend?[00:16:39] And I said, well, I do, but you'll have to define what you mean. And the conversation went dead. He had no idea what he he was [00:16:44] Krystina Gustafson: I absolutely love that. My favorite, thing is when people apply to speak at Shop Talk and we're like, what do you wanna speak about? And they're like, oh, omnichannel, or, oh, I wanna talk about e-com. And I'm just like, gimme more, gimme more [00:16:53] Supporting Store Teams[00:16:53] Ricardo Belmar: yeah. Right. Could you be a little more vague?[00:16:56] Yeah. Yeah. So, so one thing I [00:17:00] noticed in particular this time, which I haven't seen at other shows as much attention. And I think maybe it's part, it sort of comes out I think, a little bit out of the seamless stores. But I think Krystina, you or Joe mentioned it in this, session that there's this renewed, focus on how we're enabling store teams, whether it's directly with technology or just with different, by changing the processes, but just how they're able to work and how even if you didn't have a session that was stated on the agenda, that's what it was about. I heard that come up from so many presenters and speakers that part of what they were doing was tying back into how they're supporting those store teams to make their job better. And I, I think I lost track, but maybe three or four times, I heard one of the speakers mention how they see that as something that is enabling a better career path for these retail workers. And I thought that was super interesting to me because I haven't seen that at other shows or in other events.[00:17:53] Ben Miller: I mean, let me give a big picture of you and I'll pass over to Krystina for a bit more detail.[00:17:58] I would say take one step back from [00:18:00] that. And, and the first step back from that is, is the investment environment that we find ourselves in right now.[00:18:05] And the decisions and the hard decisions that people have to make.[00:18:10] So if we are going through continued elevated levels of e-commerce sales, we're going through a store Renaissance, something as we referred to it, and we need to try and deliver to customers, you know, commerce everywhere where, that's great, but all of those parts require investment.[00:18:25] So how do you do it in an investment environment which is, which is tighter and it, this has felt a really optimistic few days, but we are really cognizant of the environment that we're in. The number of speakers that I've heard to say in an environment. The two things that they focus on right now are people and talent, and also the store infrastructure.[00:18:44] If you take that together and you think, okay, well where's the investment in people? In stores?[00:18:49] Then you start to realize that actually you've got a really cost effective way to be able to drive, drive digital transformation and to drive significant improvement. So we, we deliberately programmed some areas where we wanted to talk about some of the [00:19:00] detail about that, but actually is a theme.[00:19:02] Completely agree. Ricardo. It's cropped up in so many different [00:19:05] Krystina Gustafson: Yeah. I would build on that. I think it's not only the store associates, right? I think people overall ended up being a much bigger theme than we had intended it to be. You know, to Ben's point, we did have a couple of sessions that were very specific to store employees, whether it was from the retailer brand side, whether it was from the tech side.[00:19:21] We had a couple sessions, maybe one or two on culture and leadership. But that theme came up I feel, even more than usual. And I think it's this whole idea of empathy. Kind of going back to your point too, and, and how you leverage your workers. Leverage is probably a, a crass word, but. [00:19:35] Empower your[00:19:36] Jeff Roster: There you [00:19:37] Krystina Gustafson: use Empower. What Use Empower. It was really interesting because I, I feel like the dialogue around store associates for so long has been about productivity. And of course we were hearing quite a bit of that. The lens of safety seemed to be a new conversation, right? As much as we hear about automation and the, is that, oh, the robots aren't gonna take your jobs now, it was sort of, you know, listening into Amazon, okay, well we're actually using automation to make the warehouse [00:20:00] workers safer and to make sure that we have, you know, safety protocols in place. And that was kind of a new spin on that theme that I hadn't previously heard and, and wasn't necessarily expecting coming into the show.[00:20:08] Ben Miller: I'm trying to find a stat and I'm [00:20:12] we go. I got it. There's a great, there's a great session from Katie Reeves from, who's the managing director of Cos[00:20:20] of the h and m group manager of Cos in North America, and she's talked about the investment that they are making their smart store[00:20:27] portfolio. [00:20:28] Ricardo Belmar: Yep. I, I remember that session. [00:20:29] Yeah. But[00:20:30] Ben Miller: one of the key components of the smart store was enabling their teams in the store and they talked about the app that they. And, and they'd use the app for process improvement, bring all the information into the right place to help them operationally as well as help serve customers better.[00:20:46] And she shared that in the pilot stores where they have got the app running, their staff retention of install teams has increased by And if you think about the labor market we are in,[00:20:58] Ricardo Belmar: wow. [00:21:00][00:21:00] Ben Miller: Joe shared on the main stage, the the quit rate is over 40% higher for retail than it is for as a whole.[00:21:07] Yeah. It's harder to find people, people more expensive. If you're able to make that sort of change, enable that by technology. That's incredible.[00:21:13] Not only that, she shared that because the process improvements their store staff are having an extra two and a half hours a week to be able to serve their customers better.[00:21:25] And that's, that's transformational for a[00:21:27] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah. Yeah. That, that's a massive difference. That's a massive improvement.[00:21:30] Yeah.[00:21:30] Krystina Gustafson: You know, one thing that comes to mind as you're saying that, and it sort of circles back to what we were talking about before I was in the session with Chobani, and they were actually taking this from more of a perspective. And you know, she was saying, we get asked the question all the time, how do you measure. The impact on sales. How do you measure the impact on the business? And she was actually making the point actually, we see the most measurable statistics in our employee acquisition and retention because there are so many people that want to be a part of a company that is mission driven. So I think it's always such a [00:22:00] good point.[00:22:00] Technology is really enabling workers. It's, you know, boosting retention. It's helping that labor shortage, but also a really strong purpose and something that has nothing to do with technology could also be really powerful.[00:22:10] Ricardo Belmar: strong purpose. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.[00:22:12] Jeff Roster: I mean, how novel people wanna be part of something big. I'm shocking[00:22:15] Ricardo Belmar: Shocking, right.[00:22:16] Krystina Gustafson: We lose sight of it though, don't we?[00:22:18] Jeff Roster: Well, we do. And you know, and that was such a strong point. And, and, and I was sitting here thinking as you're talking you know, of course our, our good friend Ron Thurston is this, is this like his legacy because. Five years ago, four years ago, we weren't really talking about this stuff.[00:22:32] And then Ron pops on and does that amazing podcast and that amazing journey and now all of a sudden it's, it's like we all are, are able to say what, what's common sense? It's, it's a people business. You better put your people in front of your people business.[00:22:46] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah. I, I, I even think, you know, the, the biggest change I've noticed to your point, if you go back five years, no one used the phrases enabling store teams. No one talked about empowering them with the right technology. What everyone said is, well, we have to get them the right training. [00:23:00] It was all about, training was always the key word, and it was investment in training as if, you know, the only thing you needed to do was to impart a set of skills to just work the store.[00:23:09] And now that's completely transformed that it is. I, I think, you know, you have the right words, Krystina, right, it's about enabling, empowering those teams with the right elements, whether it's process, technology or the. People skills itself, whatever it is. And I can't remember which session it was, but the one that's also stood out to me, someone was talking about how they recognize that when they look across all of the store associates, they have, people have different skills and the different talents, and some are better than others at certain roles in the store. And that it doesn't make sense to assume that every store employee should be able to do every single job in the store. And especially if you start layering in things now, like live streaming, for example.[00:23:47] And this was one that I keyed in on because and you may remember this, this trip because some time ago on, on the podcast we talked. This idea. And I had, and, and some other conversation I had with with Retail Wire. I think we talked about this idea that, the retailers [00:24:00] have this inherent talent in some of their employees.[00:24:02] Because let's face it, if you go by the, just by age demographics alone, odds are in most retailers, you have employees in stores who may have their own YouTube channel already. Independent of that job function. And they're good at this and they like doing it. So it makes sense for a retailer to kind of take advantage of that in, in a sense, right?[00:24:19] And encourage those skills. But at the same time, that that same person who might like to live stream, they might not be a good stylist. For example, if it's an apparel store and there might be another employee that loves to do styling with customers and is so much better at it than others. So give them that kind of growth path using those skills.[00:24:37] Ben Miller: using, and this speaks to something at the sort, the very heart of shop content, which is how is technology enabling a lot of this transformation? And if you talk about, you know, enabling and empowering frontline workers, you've got a hundred percent, there is this sort of talent.[00:24:51] How do you unlock this talent? And things like livestream shoppable video, creating new way for frontline workers to be able to unlock that talent that [00:25:00] they've had in that store. And they've probably been helping a small number of customers with, but now you can do it on a bigger scale. The second in training,[00:25:07] it's really hard, to take a whole day out or to take a frontline worker away from their store to help them with some of the at times softer to be able to do that.[00:25:18] We've got some amazing trials and Kroger on the front foot about doing some incredible work to help empower with app enable. Short, quick, accessible training to help be able to improve and to deliver a better experience for their guests. And then finally, there's that element you talked about, about playing to STRs. There is this group of workers in the in flexible environments economy and tech is enabling retailers to access that pool. But actually more broadly, is enable. Existing workers to have that flexibility to choose which all they want to work in, or tasks that they wanna pick up, working at times their families.[00:25:59] So tech is [00:26:00] enabling all these things to take that workforce, drive the attention, drive the engagement, and ultimately serve their customers better.[00:26:06] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah.[00:26:07] Krystina Gustafson: I'm laughing because , it's a little bit of a tangent, but as you're talking about this and, and we're just kind of on this theme about empowering your workers and thinking about building technology for the people who are running the organization. I think about maybe another industry, maybe the airline industry[00:26:23] Ricardo Belmar: mm-hmm.[00:26:23] Krystina Gustafson: didn't focus on this and Yeah.[00:26:24] Somewhat imploded. And so i, I, I laugh because, We always tell people, if you tell me you're a data-driven, consumer-centric company, get off the stage.[00:26:33] Cuz everyone else, like every single company who's on our stages. If you're, if you're not, get outta here.[00:26:37] But I do think sometimes by saying that, and it's obviously the right approach we ignore what needs to happen for the employees to make this whole business run.[00:26:46] And we've very clearly what can happen when that gets ignored. So I think, even just kind of looking to lessons from other industries. Made us realize just kind of how important is overall as well.[00:26:57] All about the Data & Data Insights[00:26:57] Ben Miller: Ricardo, there's a question that I, I wanted to ask you. [00:27:00] What one of the conversations, cause we're starting to touch about data Mm-hmm. and you, you've got such incredible knowledge in this space. We, we've picked conversation almost.[00:27:09] The number of speakers that almost thrown their hands in the and said, you know what?[00:27:13] Data, trying to understand the customer across all touchpoints. You just can't do First party, hear a party.[00:27:19] I, I can't get an omnichannel, a true of my customer everywhere, and that's fine. I'm just gonna have to serve them where you can.[00:27:27] Ricardo Belmar: Uhhuh[00:27:28] Ben Miller: Is that a view you recognize?[00:27:30] Ricardo Belmar: I, I I think kind of maybe the, the, I would kind of break that down to say that I, every retailer I talk to Will, will say, you know, at the end of the day, we are overwhelmed with data.[00:27:39] There's no lack of data . It's, it's really a matter of a, what can I do with that? How can I actually analyze it in a way that tells me the story about my customer and who they are, what, what their preferences are, what, how they want to engage with us. That's what every retailer wants to know. And I think the challenge really is I forget what the statistic is, but the [00:28:00] amount of data that retail generates every day is just overwhelming. I think it's something on the order of it's more data than the internet generated five years ago or something. Un unbelievable like that. And so the question every retailer has to ask is, so what am I gonna do with this now?[00:28:14] Right? What are the tools I have to use? And even if you have the tools, it's not enough, right? Because it, even that needs to be looked at by people to interpret what do I do now that I have this knowledge? If I convert that data into something useful and knowledgeable, that gives me a, a possible actions to take.[00:28:29] Someone has to take those actions, someone has to make the decision, which is the best action, and then it becomes back to a, a people problem. And I know. . I think even today, but in past years, I've, I've seen retailers will say, you know, now we think we know how to select the right tools to help us with the analysis, but now my challenge is this is so new, we don't have anyone on staff that knows how to deal with this.[00:28:49] And if I try to go out and hire those people, everyone wants to hire those people. So it's incredibly competitive and I feel like I don't even know if we can afford those people on to be part of our, [00:29:00] our organization because it's so competitive.[00:29:02] Ben Miller: We're back to people in[00:29:03] Ricardo Belmar: Exactly right. Exactly. It always seems to come back to that.[00:29:06] You know, I guess what I'll maybe turn around because sort of the one thing we haven't talked about that has come up all over the, the place is, everyone's favorite new, hyped up technology , is generative ai, ? It's like last year's metaverse. And, and one of the promises, I guess I'll use that strong word about this, is that it is supposed to help with this problem and give you better tools and better decision making capability with all that data that you have.[00:29:29] What About Generative AI?[00:29:29] Ricardo Belmar: I, I'm, I'm wondering, I mean, what, what are your, for both of you, what are your thoughts? Cuz obviously everyone must be coming up to you and saying, oh, what, where, where is the session that we're gonna talk about generative ai [00:29:38] Krystina Gustafson: Every, yeah.[00:29:39] You know was actually surprised people were more measured than I expected them to be. I thought it was gonna be like Metaverse last year where it was like, the session is not about metaverse and it's still snuck in. I, I feel like generative AI was a little bit more measured.[00:29:50] Look, I think our big thesis on it is, again, still very early. What feels different to us though is that this feels immediately applicable and it feels like something [00:30:00] that you invest in and see real business results on. Right? So, so many opportunities I think.[00:30:06] Gosh, he wasn't. Sean Downey from Google was just kind of talking about the various use cases for it, whether it's advertising, whether it's, you know, looking at supply chain data, whether it's creatives, whether it's customer service.[00:30:14] We had a slide that was kind of making fun of in a, in a good way. The CB insights market map that they built with just all the, and it was just scrolling, right?[00:30:21] I mean, it's not even retail. Right. It's every single industry, the use cases. Endless, which I think is a really exciting opportunity.[00:30:28] I think we would both agree that a lot of work still needs to be done to make sure this is ethical, to make sure it's accurate. We're very early stages, but I think it just feels more real than the metaverse[00:30:38] Jeff Roster: well, the, the thing that's real about it is we all, we all are, are playing on it in our own search engine. I[00:30:44] Ricardo Belmar: right. Yeah.[00:30:45] Jeff Roster: I wanted to ask you know, the Microsoft guys we talked to yesterday, just what. How many more hits on Bing has gotten in the last[00:30:52] Ben Miller: own[00:30:52] Jeff Roster: I mean,[00:30:52] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah, it[00:30:53] Jeff Roster: that's all I've used. Yeah.[00:30:54] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah, it[00:30:55] Jeff Roster: And, and so we're so it's[00:30:56] Ricardo Belmar: extra users[00:30:57] Jeff Roster: Exactly. Exactly. It just, it has to be [00:31:00] so, so literally. There's no technology that, that every single person is using that it has this immediate impact in the business. I mean, we all didn't pick up point of sale devices or all, didn't pick up whatever, but this one thing hit, but we, I mean, we were tracking it from an, from a startup perspective.[00:31:17] I mean, the amount of, of spending AI even 2, 3, 4 years ago, it's, it's, it's orders of magnitude compared to everything else. Yeah. And then it just exploded.[00:31:25] And then it got a little controversial, so then people even used it more and everyone's trying to trick it and all this stuff,[00:31:30] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah. It kinda [00:31:30] Krystina Gustafson: but I think you, you hit on something really important there, right? One of the biggest problems with the metaverse conversation, and we were very clear about this last year as well, the learning curve.[00:31:39] To even understand what it is to understand what blockchain is.[00:31:42] is virtual gaming actually, the metaverse, what ,is it goggles?[00:31:46] ChatGPT, my parents can go, go. on the website, tape it. It is So easily accessible and it's so Easily understandable. And I think that's why you've seen just meteor meteoric rise in interest compared to the metaverse.[00:31:57] Ben Miller: And the other thing is if you break it down, [00:32:00] There is three potential areas that generative AI can help with, which are fundamental retail challenges.[00:32:08] Number one, can I make repetitive tasks more efficient[00:32:11] Ricardo Belmar: Mm-hmm. [00:32:11] Ben Miller: Mm-hmm. , and scale retail is the efficiency of process.[00:32:16] that's what it is. it's, about [00:32:17] Ricardo Belmar: scale, right? It's about [00:32:18] Ben Miller: Great. This is something that can help it. So of course retail's gonna lean in. The second is can it help drive commerce everywhere? You know, we started a conversation with seamless stores, The amount of copy and creative that it be required to be wherever your customers want to be is mind boggling. Generative AI might be able to help. And thirdly, that the holy grail of mass retail, physical, of personalization, we've talked about it every time. And the reason we talk about it every single conference is cause we haven't cracked it[00:32:45] Ricardo Belmar: confidence, right? That's right.[00:32:46] Ben Miller: generative AI has the potential to be able to help in in stalled areas. So there's three absolutely cool retail, pr drivers that we can see. cases for. So no wonder people are very excited on the plus side.[00:32:57] We were, we were in the staff room just before we came [00:33:00] down, and I, we brought up chat, G b T, and I asked you chat, G b T what were the key themes from Shop Talk 2023. And of course he told me that unfortunately it's historic and can't can't Do that. So Krystina pointed out that maybe our jobs were secure for another year yet. So [00:33:13] Ricardo Belmar: That's right. [00:33:14] Ben Miller: we'll take, we'll take, we'll take that. [00:33:16] Ricardo Belmar: that's right. Yeah. Yeah. No, I, I think you're, you're, you're spot on on that. I mean, I, I, I like to I sort of, I steal a, a quote from one of my colleagues at Microsoft who like tells everyone in every meeting, you know, if I haven't had five retailers I talked to today about generative, generative ai, it's only because the fourth retailer didn't get off the phone with me till the end of the day and I couldn't get to the fifth call[00:33:37] Krystina Gustafson: I like that.[00:33:38] That's a good one! [00:33:39] Ricardo Belmar: And, and it's, and it so true.[00:33:40] And, and I think, you're right about the, different categories. I mean, one of our. Favorite customers that we, we talk about is CarMax, where they've taken this technology and, you know, one of, they found that one of the pain points in their customer journey is people go to their website and they wanna research the cars they have in inventory.[00:33:57] And one of the tools, of course, is to look at reviews and [00:34:00] comments from people who've bought past cars. Well there are thousands of reviews! So you go on there and if you wanna look at a car, what's your, your choice is to read a thousand reviews before you decide what you want to go look at. Or maybe you just give up or you find some other tool to help you do that research.[00:34:14] So they've actually leveraged these tools now to do all of that summarization for you. So you can go to their website now and you give it the parameters that interest you about a car. Their new AI tool just comes back to you with immediately the summarization across all those thousands of reviews.[00:34:29] Here are the key points that you're interested in. Here's how it compares in these cars that you chose to look at.[00:34:33] Krystina Gustafson: I need this so bad. The joke, the joke. in Our household is whenever we travel, I don't read anything. I literally, I just see, I see a pretty picture and I'm like, book. And it kills my husband. He is like the one that's reading[00:34:44] Ricardo Belmar: He wants to research everything, right?[00:34:46] Krystina Gustafson: my god. Every single thing. Well, I think the bars in the wrong place in this hotel or the room is only this many. Yeah, he's, he's, on, he's on it. And I am not So this, this, will help me be a better [00:34:55] Ricardo Belmar: you go,[00:34:56] Krystina Gustafson: partner[00:34:57] Retail Media Networks[00:34:57] Ricardo Belmar: There you go. So I guess let me shift [00:35:00] then to the kind of the last one trending thing I wanted to ask you about because it's, it's one that, it's probably one of my favorites. So, over the past year, and Jeff likes to poke fun of me for this quite a bit.[00:35:10] You know, I, I've been really big on retail media networks and knew I was going this way. And part of the reason why I've been beating the retail media network's drum for so long cuz I, I started talking about it back in, what did I talk October, 2021,[00:35:23] Jeff Roster: it seemed like two decades[00:35:24] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah. . Yeah. Yeah.[00:35:25] But it, it's evolved and and I think, again, I think you, you guys mentioned this in this session, that really, what has it evolved to? It's become more about retailers looking more like a technology company and offering technology solutions and services to other retailers. . And I think that to me is a, is just really interesting into how their own, their whole core business is evolving.[00:35:45] Krystina Gustafson: I think that Ben will jump out of his skin if he doesn't get to answer[00:35:48] Ricardo Belmar: I know. Well, and I, and Ben's laugh and Ben's laughing, so anyone not who's not can't see this. I mean, Ben's laughing because he and I have had this conversation exactly before . [00:35:56] Krystina Gustafson: I don't, think, I don't think an hour goes by without ben talking [00:36:00] about in a, in a Very positive way. [00:36:02] Ricardo Belmar: We're, we're of like, minds . [00:36:03] we're of like minds.[00:36:04] Ben Miller: I, I, I, You did a very good job leaving that to the last question, because otherwise we'd have lost a whole of the podcast. [00:36:10] Ricardo Belmar: else if we had started with that. Yes. , [00:36:12] Ben Miller: this is, it's what the, why is it so important and why do I get so interested about it? Because there's two levels. One, I think at the, our friend Andrew lipman Insider says it so well. this is the third wave of digital. [00:36:24] Ricardo Belmar: Yep. I absolutely, yeah, totally agree.[00:36:26] Ben Miller: You see the numbers, okay, the numbers, let's be honest, the numbers are hugely hugely skewed by investment in search returns on Amazon, so yes, we recognize the prize, but you've gotta recognize that's skew in it. But when you strip that back, there is a marketing a digital marketing channel where, which has the opportunity to directly attribute sales to investment and whether retail media is more efficient than other digital marketing channels or at, or it's just that you can actually prove it, then actually that point is really valuable.[00:36:59] [00:37:00] it's a, it's a phenomenal trend. It's a, it's a huge wave and what's been really exciting in this particular event, and yeah, we, we, we'll continue the conversation in a, a European Barcelona as well, I is to stand back and say, okay, we all know what retail media is now. We don't need to do that. a lot of us are doing it, really, how do we get efficient?[00:37:19] Okay, do we, and do I need 600, retail media networks in my portfolio?[00:37:23] Where, where do I spend the money? What's exciting about it is he's coming back to, and I think this is a point that we made Joe made during the zeitgeist, is it's about the basics of great advertising. So let's talk again about creative, let's talk about engagement, let's talk about generating fun, and this is another channel to enable us, us to do that.[00:37:41] So that that, that's really exciting. The second element of it, which is why it's so important, is that element about changing relationships.[00:37:49] This idea that a retailer is as, as well as a buyer, is now a seller to their vendors. And it's not, that's not just limited to retail media that, that think you have these, we call it [00:38:00]collaborative commerce networks, which is the sharing of logistics, for example. and when you're adding marketplaces and you see how the Their customers and we feel the retailers are changing and how do you do all of that and drive the margin that's there to be taken at the same time as keeping that laser focus? Cause we know that as soon as a retailer loses their laser focus on the customer, then that's a challenge for them. How do you balance those two together? And that's, that's still a working progress.[00:38:30] And that's one of the fun conversations that we've been having and seeing where, seeing what next and seeing how retailers map that you've got. Yeah. If you are a serious retailer or a significant scale, you've got to be in the retail media game.[00:38:40] You cannot leave that margin on the table. But how do you do it in a way that keeps focused on the customer and you're targeted now calling that out in their earnings reports to say to the center of their thinking. And that customer-centric approach to alternative revenue streams is gonna be a really interesting trend to [00:38:56] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah. I agree.[00:38:57] Jeff Roster: yeah, I gotta tell you, Ricardo, so, so I was [00:39:00] kidding you about, you know, that. I spent probably three and a half hours yesterday about four different vendors. And I think I now begin, am only beginning to understand literally how much money we're talking about in re in, in retail media. And it is it's never been, I mean, it really was never a focus at the, at the other show in in the cold part of the country in January and it's ever present here. Yeah. And you can't, as an analyst, it covers the entire landscape. You can't get away with it. But the people that actually built some of this stuff I talked to. Right. And it's, and you know, it got the history and it's like, oh my gosh, we're not talking about something that's been around a hundred years.[00:39:38] We're talking about something, it's really exploding the last three years.[00:39:40] Ben Miller: yes, [00:39:41] Jeff Roster: And, and it's like, that's what he's been talking [00:39:45] Krystina Gustafson: Ricardo, I'd be curious your thoughts. One debate that we've kind of been having, and we haven't come up with an answer to it yet, is just kind of the dynamics of how this plays out in industries outside of grocery because. . That's of course been the industry that's adopted it the fastest, but yeah, the incestuousness of, [00:40:00] of that industry compared to department stores. Apparel. Yeah. Places where companies have the opportunity to be more D to C.[00:40:05] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah.[00:40:06] Krystina Gustafson: Part of me wonders if it's as scalable there where the retailers don't have as much, let's go back to the word leverage as they do in the grocery industry. Like, have you thought about that at all? [00:40:16] Ricardo Belmar: I have because you're right. I mean, there is a very unique kind of trade relationship in grocery between grocers and the CPG companies that, that have all, you know, all those products. That's a different dynamic. . Then you look at a department store, which is maybe the easiest, I guess, example to kind of look at here, where there's so many third party apparel products, right?[00:40:34] Yes. There's private labels in, in your department store. Generally people are shopping there because of all the, the name brands that are available. So what's the say equivalent opportunity? I, I've actually been saying, department stores to me feels like probably the number one most untapped opportunity for this, because I think department stores, we all say the same things, right?[00:40:53] They've sort of lost their luster a little bit, right. Just are shopping less at department stores, but what could department [00:41:00] stores do to make this more interesting? You know, I would say one of those is they have to increase the, just the overall experience in the store. And if you think of visual impression as a consumer walking into a department store versus, any an apparel store where you just see apparel hung on rack.[00:41:15] In a department store. I think the merchandising opportunities are much bigger. And if you think about the in-store advertising they can do with digital screens, not the sort where, you know, oh look, there's a screen hanging on the wall showing a video clip about this designer and their products running.[00:41:30] Not that right, because anyone can do that. And, and that's probably my, my number one least favorite example that anyone can do. And, and I've, I've been working with digital signage. Since more than 10 years, and, and Jeff is laughing because one of the comments I keep making about retail media is from the early days back in the, you know, maybe early 2010s when I was marketing digital signage solutions, we talked to retailers about creating this kind of media network.[00:41:57] It for their brand in their stores. And [00:42:00] not one retailer ever executed it well. The only, they all never got as far as, let's hang a screen here, let's hang a screen there and then ask brands to give us content. And I suppose part of the, the conclusion we had is that you can't ask IT to run that operation.[00:42:13] It really needs to be run by marketing, but. If you think about what you can do with screen technology now that you couldn't do then, you're not limited by the form factor of a traditional TV monitor type screen. You can have the screen shaped any way you want and you can have any sort of visual layout for it.[00:42:29] And if you do that, then I think that opens up new advertising opportunities for those brands that the department store can work with, that feels more, you know, lifestyle oriented. It feels more aspirational for the apparel merchandise that's there, that they can build off of and entice customers that when you walk by it, you feel like, oh yeah, if I was wearing that jacket, I, I could be doing what this person's doing on, on that video.[00:42:51] I'd be out on the mountain, you know, doing, doing this. And I think it, it just creates a different feel that even if you went to that brand store, you know, they may or may not be [00:43:00]doing that, but uh, it's different and it's a different experience. So that's why I think that's an untapped opportunity for department stores, and I think that's where that needs to go.[00:43:09] And that's why I think, adding the in-store component to retail media is so important right now. I think that's why, that's where the, the real story is gonna start to surface in, in this whole concept. [00:43:18] Krystina Gustafson: It's almost like a And I, I, that was really helpful. Thank you for sharing that. But it, it, it sounds to me so different than the conversations that we hear about retail media today. Right. I. Know some friends who work for some large CPG companies, and it's more of a conversation of, you have to do this, but what you're describing is like a desire to differentiate your brand.[00:43:35] It, it, it feels like a, a shift in, in, in the why.[00:43:38] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah.[00:43:38] Jeff Roster: Don't you also think though, that with grocery groceries had slotting fees for forever mm-hmm. , and it just sort of seems like that's a logical extension of the, those co-marketing allows going back and forth where, actually, I don't even know this, but I don't think department stores really have slotting fees because the, the product is constantly changing.[00:43:54] So you have other, you have other something, but I, I mean, but[00:43:57] Ricardo Belmar: way. I mean, you, you have you know, a designer [00:44:00] like a Ralph Lauren may have an arrangement. The departments are based on how much space they get on the floor. and is allocated for them as a brand. And then that dictates, you know, what merchandise do they make available to that department store versus a competitive department store that might give them more space and they make different merchandise available to them.[00:44:15] It's kind of negotiated that way. Not quite the same as the slotting fees that CPG is doing. Grocery.[00:44:20] Jeff Roster: and I think the other thing that's the big drivers, the fact, I mean, just who was on the, who was on the the exhibit floor TikTok, and what were they doing? There was at least three or four live streamers. So the idea that we're all creating, we're all creating content and want to create content. , I mean, and that now we're finally getting to the point where retailers are comfortable maybe not having everything be so hyper produced.[00:44:40] You know, I think the, the best example I have is I just love B n h photo. And if, if you don't know what that is, it's, it's a, it's the best photo shop in, in the world and super high-end skill photographers that, that are selling camera equipment. And my first experience with, I dunno if it's live streaming, it's one-to-one.[00:44:56] Working with them. I mean, for a camera shop, the, the video quality was [00:45:00] not very high. I mean, it was a little shocking, but it didn't matter because the expertise and the engagement for me sitting in Silicon Valley to, to Midtown Manhattan and that experience was amazing. And if retailers just embrace that and let their associates create or do whatever they want and, and, and produce all this content to fill up all the screens, you're gonna see it's gonna be great.[00:45:21] What I don't wanna see is it becomes so. So over, over marketed and just take the soul out of it because retail should be passion. I mean, I think, I think my dad back in the seventies, you know, in his, his butcher shop, I mean, it was all about passion. It was about this and that, and engaging up and down and da, da, da, da.[00:45:40] And, and I think in some ways as we expanded retail, we've lost that a little bit of passion. And maybe this is an opportunity, maybe it's a nice thing, you know, post covid.[00:45:50] We've now re-embraced and learned and knew what we missed. And man, let's just have this retail renaissance and let's get back to the business of having, having fun and having [00:46:00]people engage in this process that we call retail.[00:46:02] And then you, and then, you know, all those years you pitched me, you know, with those whole digital signages, now all of a sudden everything's coming together. The infrastructure, the screens, the cheap, you know, the the screens, the abil, the, the equipment we have to, to create all this content. And we have now, we've taught almost everyone, you know, if you have something to say, turn on your, your, your phone and, and

Tech Unicorn Valuations are Fake Introduction Welcome to Distilling Venture Capital.  I am your host, Bill Griesinger Distilling VC is a visionary podcast that provides an insightful and informed view of the key trends affecting the VC and tech startup world.  My mission is to cut through and go beyond the hype that tends to dominate the tech landscape.  And provide you with information you can use. It is your podcast for Fintech, DeFi, Blockchain and smart contracts, digital banking and all the frontier Web 3 technologies changing the financial landscape globally.   Hello everyone – it´s been a couple of months since my last podcast episode – I took some time off...It´s great to be back with you again. After some thought, consideration and a couple defining events, and an announcement by Pitchbook, one of the so called data analytics firms in the VC space, I decided it was imperative that I do an episode in my Unicorn Mania series.  I´ll fill you in on the PB announcement I am referring to in a moment – it´s insane! Before we jump into the episode though, I wanted to pay recognition and acknowledgement to a wonderful Brazilian singer and artist, Gal Costa.  My intro music and exit music is Aquarela do Brasil by Gal Costa.  Gal Costa passed away on Nov. 9, 2021.  A makpr talent in Brazil, I thoroughly enjoyed her music.  She will be missed.    So, let´s jump into this edition of Unicorn Mania: If you´ve followed this podcast in the past, you are aware that in the UnicornMania series I highlight the largely fake, deceptive valuations of VC-backed private technology companies – Which are Fondly called Unicorns...Isn´t that cute?   For background, I refer you to my first episode in the UnicornMania series, March of 2020.  Episodes 5 and 6 also deal with this twisted freak show perpetrated by VCs, the tech & financial press and others that engage in all of this Unicorn nonsense.  I encourage you to go back to Episode 1 for insights and valuable background information as to why I categorically state and prove that tech Unicorns, a VC-backed tech company allegedly with a $1B or more valuation, are indeed mostly fake… Let´s start off with some levity and have a little fun, shall we, at the expense of Sil. Valley VCs?  I read this a couple years ago in a CrunchBase piece;   There´s an old joke about a new bar in Sil. Valley.  On opening day, 6,000 people showed up.  No one buys a drink.  The business is declared a roaring success!   [This joke will hopefully make perfect sense by the time we finish this episode.  Only in SV culture would the above be considered a success!  In Sil. Valley, comedy often becomes reality   To briefly review, let´s start with some basics I will get into in this episode: So, as I just mentioned, the definition of this tech unicorn we hear so much about is:   A private VC-backed tech company with an alleged valuation of $1B or more;  I say allegedly b/c  these valuations are largely fake;  I´ll demonstrate that with conclusive evidence in just a moment; VCs and others arrive at this distorted value using a completely improper, simplistic method known as the Post Money Valuation – In a moment, I´ll walk through how the Post-Money Valuation is calculated and explain why it is a completely erroneous notion of value; On what basis do I call it fakery and deception?  Largely b/c it has been conclusively proven beyond a doubt based on the research;  The body of evidence comes from a Stanford Univ. GSB study called, ``Squaring VC Valuations with Reality.``   The results were originally revealed at a Silicon Valley Open Doors conf. in 2016 and then officially published in April 2017.  It´s been updated since, as late as Dec. 2019.  It also has been published in peer-reviewed journals like The Journal of Financial Economics in 2020. There are links to both the 2016 video and to the research report in the description of this video Links: Squaring Venture Capital Valuations with Reality https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2955455   Video presentation to the Silicon Valley Open Doors conf., 2016 https://youtu.be/k4OtGWZ3iYI   Why a return to this topic?  Several reasons;   Because it continues to be an absolute freak show that is out of control.  It is a twisted and a deceitful exercise that, as I mentioned, VCs, the tech and financial press and others engage in to ascribe and hype a false value to priv. tech companies;  Further, It is an insult to those of us who have an interest in discovering the true value of these tech companies;  And Finally, b/c many of the largest mutual fund companies have been investing in the high-risk asset category since at least 2015 (think of Fidelity, T. Rowe Price, Vanguard, JH) – so I view it as a consumer protection issue, well.   Where is the SEC??  Where is FINRA?  They claim to be interested in protecting the consumer. My mission, as I´ve always stated, is to cut through the BS that tends to dominate the VC & tech landscape to inform you and make you fully aware of what´s going on in this freak show; I stated at the open, one of the defining events that motivated/prompted me to do a Unicorn Mania episode was a recent announcement by Pitchbook, which is owned by Morningstar, btw (acq. in 2016) That is Morningstar, the venerable, well-known mutual fund rating company founded in 1984.  Its star rating system has been considered the gold std in rating mutual funds, ETFs, etc.,  for years… What is The announcement:   I get a daily feed in my email inbox called the Daily Pitch.  In the last 30-45 days or so, PB announced they are creating a new index fund for, are you ready for it?;  An index of unicorn tech companies.  When I saw this I thought, I couldn't  think of anything more ridiculous and useless.   B/C an index that begins with garbage valuations, yields garbage!  I will get into that and demonstrate how this alleged index fund is deceiving to investors and should be scrapped immediately…IMO So, when I received this announcement, I immediately downloaded the Whitepaper at the PB website;  It is called, ´Harnessing Unicorns;  ``Demiystifying the venture capital Market with the Moringstar-Pitchbook Global Unincorn Indexes.`` I´ll share some of the key findings and takeaways in a moment – truly a fraud, in my view, to be avoided at all costs – I´ll explain   Finally, there was one other event that was a motivating factor.  That is, in the wake the FTX implosion, the crypto exchange company that blew up in November 2022, caused by a liquidity crisis of the company's token and fraudulent use of investors funds.  As investors all tried to get their money out at the same time, the whole thing collapsed.   Why do I bring up this event?  B/C prior to its collapse, FTX would have surely been, no doubt, a part of this bogus index fund.  [Just like Wework before, only a couple years ago.  Remember them?]  WeWork was valued at $47B before pulling its IPO around Sept. 2019 when many entities called BS on its S-1 filing.   I devote all of Episode 6 (Aug. 5, 2020) to exposing the Wework fraud and breaking down their bus. model – something, unfortunately, Firms like Pitchbook, CB Insights and the tech press failed to do;   In fact, they continuously published fawning articles prior to Wework´s collapse and implosion, slobbering all over themselves about WeWork´s amazing valuation ($47B)!   And now, they want you to trust them with an index of Unicorns based on fake valuations – right!  That´s messed up, IMHO. So, let´s get into this PB announcement, shall we? Whitepaper Takeaways:    It´s a complete mishmash of deceptive jargon, in my view; Under, ``Clearly defined eligibility rules:``  The Whitepaper clearly states at the outset it uses the post-money valuation Under, ``Quarterly Rebalancing;``  It states, All companies attaining unicorn status in the preceding qtr are eligible for inclusion. [That would have meant FTX, Wework, and other failed, overvalued companies!]  Get the picture? Under, ``Weighting Methodology:``  It states, ``companies are, weighted using their latest post-money valuation or estimated worth after latest round of outside financing.``  There´s that term again… And,  ``The model prioritizes a company´s most recent VC deal.`` i.e.,  post-money valuation; Further, it emphasizes, and I quote, ``Past Deals (post-money valuation) is arguably the most important data point used to value unicorns because it reflects real world deals and valuations.``  Are you kidding me?!  How about NO, it does not.  Completely erroneous statement! And, here is one of the real head-scratchers in the Paper under `´Index Calculation`´  - It states, the index is ``calculated once a day at the close of public markets in the US.``  Huh?  These are private companies with no reporting of financial results or any other fin. info., for that matter, to the public.  There is no correlation b/c of all the private equity rounds of preferred stock are not public either;  Each round has its own exclusive rights, protections, economics and terms that usually suck value from prior rounds, especially from common shares.   There is no daily determination of value like in most all mutual funds and ETFs!  And Morningstar knows this!    The terms and conditions of these priv. preferred stock financings are not reported to the public and there is no correlation whatsoever to US public markets – there is no repricing daily based on this information.   • This is nothing more than a fake, window-dressing comment to give the false impression that there is some rigorous analysis going on and is correlated to public markets – Prime Unicorn Index BTW, in preparing this episode, I discovered there is already an existing Unicorn Index Fund, created in 2017, called Prime Unicorn Index. On their website they describe it as, ``A modified market cap price return index that measures the share price performance of private companies valued at $1B or more…. I take issue with the term, ``market cap return``   It is not the market cap.  Prime reveals that they also use the flawed post-money valuation as one of the factors in calculating value – but the don´t say so on their website!     [Dig into the key highlights and takeaways of the Stanford/Strebulaev Report]       Conclusions I´ve seen what I would characterize as three major frauds during my professional lifetime where the major institutional entities that we normally rely on to provide us with independent, unbiased assessments and analysis, were all compromised: Dotcom Bubble (2000 – 2001):  The Major investments banks were peddling bogus research and analysis on tech company IPOs that had little to no revenue – this helped fuel outrageous valuations; 2008 Financial Crisis:  This was a real estate crisis and bubble.  The rating agencies were compromised (S&P, Moodys, etc.) and part of the problem and fraud.  They erroneously rated packages of low-grade and subprime mortgages as investment grade quality – and you know the rest of the story… I view Unicorn Mania as, perhaps, just another iteration or vector of the dotcom bubble only with a different twist or flavor.  In the dotcom fraud, it was the I-Banks peddling nonsense and hype, unsupported by company fundamentals.   In the Tech Unicorn fraud, the complicit entities are the VCs, tech press, financial press and perhaps accounting firms.  They Used a black-box approach, protected by non-public reporting of financial transactions (i.e. Pref. Stock rounds with unique, exotic, and complicated structures).  They then peddled a completely useless and inappropriate notion of value via the post-money valuation.  This is fraud IMO. Again, the research supports this conclusion… And this one is inexcusable b/c the hard data and research exists.  It is being ignored.  

This episode of the Live Better Sell Better Podcast features Charles Muhlbauer, Lead Revenue Enablement Manager at CB Insights. Today, he talks about why sellers have to ask tough questions and how to have fun while you're at it. He shares some tactics to get to these tough questions, from a humbling disclaimer (aka disclaimer sandwich) to ask for permission to ask the question directly, as well as his top 3 takeaways that make discovery better.HIGHLIGHT QUOTESBe mindful of your tone and your confidence on a call - Charles: "Two things. One, when I'm having a coaching session with an AE and they're talking to me differently than how I hear them on the call, I'm going to ask them straight up, why do you talk to me differently than when you talk to a prospect? Your tone is very calm". You can find out more about Charles in the links below:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlesmuhlbauer/Website: https://www.cbinsights.com/ Live Better. Sell Better. is sponsored by our proud partner:Vidyard | vidyard.com

Episode 413: Sam Parr (@TheSamParr) and Shaan Puri (@ShaanVP) talk with Anand Sanwal (@asanwal), CEO and co-founder of CB Insights, about how Anand built his companies, the importance of data, small business niches that are growing, and much more. Want to see more MFM? Subscribe to the MFM YouTube channel here. ----- Links: * RebelGirls * USNews Best Colleges * McCormick Corporation * Anand's Twitter * CB Insights * How To Manage And Sell A Company In An Industry And A Country You Don't Know * Do you love MFM and want to see Sam and Shaan's smiling faces? Subscribe to our Youtube channel. * Want more insights like MFM? Check out Shaan's newsletter. ------ Show Notes: (01:15) - Anand's Background (05:00) - "Sawdust Data" businesses (9:00) - Tiny but growing niches (13:30) - Daily executive briefing email (18:30) - Pricing data business (24:30) - Broke & Busted College Rankings (31:30) - McCormick Spice Competitor (41:30) - How To Manage And Sell A Company In An Industry And A Country You Don't Know (48:30) - Adani Group Collapse & spotting scams ----- Past guests on My First Million include Rob Dyrdek, Hasan Minhaj, Balaji Srinivasan, Jake Paul, Dr. Andrew Huberman, Gary Vee, Lance Armstrong, Sophia Amoruso, Ariel Helwani, Ramit Sethi, Stanley Druckenmiller, Peter Diamandis, Dharmesh Shah, Brian Halligan, Marc Lore, Jason Calacanis, Andrew Wilkinson, Julian Shapiro, Kat Cole, Codie Sanchez, Nader Al-Naji, Steph Smith, Trung Phan, Nick Huber, Anthony Pompliano, Ben Askren, Ramon Van Meer, Brianne Kimmel, Andrew Gazdecki, Scott Belsky, Moiz Ali, Dan Held, Elaine Zelby, Michael Saylor, Ryan Begelman, Jack Butcher, Reed Duchscher, Tai Lopez, Harley Finkelstein, Alexa von Tobel, Noah Kagan, Nick Bare, Greg Isenberg, James Altucher, Randy Hetrick and more. ----- Additional episodes you might enjoy: • #224 Rob Dyrdek - How Tracking Every Second of His Life Took Rob Drydek from 0 to $405M in Exits • #209 Gary Vaynerchuk - Why NFTS Are the Future • #178 Balaji Srinivasan - Balaji on How to Fix the Media, Cloud Cities & Crypto * #169 - How One Man Started 5, Billion Dollar Companies, Dan Gilbert's Empire, & Talking With Warren Buffett • ​​​​#218 - Why You Should Take a Think Week Like Bill Gates • Dave Portnoy vs The World, Extreme Body Monitoring, The Future of Apparel Retail, "How Much is Anthony Pompliano Worth?", and More • How Mr Beast Got 100M Views in Less Than 4 Days, The $25M Chrome Extension, and More

This episode of the Live Better Sell Better Podcast features Charles Muhlbauer, Lead Revenue Enablement Manager at CB Insights. The best discovery is the one where you ask prospects about things that are left unsaid. Charles shares how to utilize tone and the power of recapping to gain clarity and insight into what your prospect really means.HIGHLIGHT QUOTESBe mindful of your tone and your confidence on a call - Charles: "Two things. One, when I'm having a coaching session with an AE and they're talking to me differently than how I hear them on the call, I'm going to ask them straight up, why do you talk to me differently than when you talk to a prospect? Your tone is very calm"."You're treating me like somebody you know. You're much more casual, still professional... I find that the AEs that perform really well...  sound just the same on the phone as they do when they're talking to me. There is no difference. And so the tone is a big thing.Recap what your prospects just said to gain clarity- Charles: The second thing... when paying attention to things that are unsaid, which are sometimes the most important, the way to help get there is to recap. and there are AEs that are afraid to recap because they are afraid to indirectly communicate to the prospect that they don't understand something." You can find out more about Charles in the links below:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlesmuhlbauer/Website: https://www.cbinsights.com/ Live Better. Sell Better. is sponsored by our proud partner:Vidyard | vidyard.com

Ten to fifteen years ago, a startup company with a value of over one billion dollars seemed like something almost impossible or mythical. That's why venture capitalist Aileen Lee, came up with the term “unicorn” in 2013 to describe such unique and rare startup companies. However, as of June 2022, CB Insights identified over 1100 unicorns worldwide. So we were wondering... What principles have allowed these companies to achieve such a high level of growth? And how do we best maintain that level of growth? To help us with this incredible topic today, we have Pablo Dominguez and Matthew May, authors of the book, What a Unicorn Knows: How Leading Entrepreneurs Use Lean Principles to Drive Sustainable Growth. Pablo and Matthew also work for Insight Partners, where they have seen over 90 unicorns.

This episode of the Live Better Sell Better Podcast features Charles Muhlbauer, Lead Revenue Enablement Manager at CB Insights. The upfront contract is a tricky thing as many sellers end up asking for too much when they haven't provided the prospect any value yet. Charles shares the ways you can deliver it so that the prospect feels comfortable enough to tell you no.HIGHLIGHT QUOTESThe upfront contract gives your prospect an out from the conversation - Charles: "There are really kind of one of two outcomes from this conversation. Either one, you say, Charles, this conversation was garbage, totally useless, not interested, thanks but no thanks. Or it's compelling enough to talk further and see whether or not there could be something here." You can find out more about Charles in the links below:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlesmuhlbauer/Website: https://www.cbinsights.com/Live Better. Sell Better. is sponsored by our proud partner:Vidyard | vidyard.com

This episode of the Live Better Sell Better Podcast features Charles Muhlbauer, Lead Revenue Enablement Manager at CB Insights. Discovery can seem like a seller ticking boxes of questions. Charles shares how to make the conversation flow by taking your prospect's answers and contextualizing them back to them. He also gives tactical advice on being accurate rather than optimistic and how this takes the pressure off of the prospect to be upfront about "no."HIGHLIGHT QUOTESBase your questions on what the prospect just said - Charles: "You can have the best discovery questions on planet Earth, but if your discovery questions are not based on what the prospect literally just told you, it will be an interrogation."Get a reply by being accurate rather than optimistic - Charles: "The main reason a prospect will ghost you is that they are afraid to tell you no. So I love always telling the prospect I'd rather be more accurate than optimistic here. It's okay to tell me no, don't worry about it. I'll say it all day." You can find out more about Charles in the links below:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlesmuhlbauer/Website: https://www.cbinsights.com/Live Better. Sell Better. is sponsored by our proud partner:Vidyard | vidyard.com

This episode of the Live Better Sell Better Podcast features Charles Muhlbauer, Lead Revenue Enablement Manager at CB Insights. There are 4 triggers during discovery that alert sellers that they should stay and keep asking questions. Charles shares what these triggers are and how you, as sellers, can stay curious and STAY in the conversation.HIGHLIGHT QUOTESKeep the mindset of curiosity and stay there - Charles: "It's a mindset and the mindset is I want to complete, as an AE, I want to completely forget about myself totally and I just want to stay in curiosity land. And for people who have trouble being curious, I tell them to try to act as if the person that is telling you something is telling them something that's one of the most interesting things they've ever heard of in their life, and stay there." You can find out more about Charles in the links below:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlesmuhlbauer/Website: https://www.cbinsights.com/Live Better. Sell Better. is sponsored by our proud partner:Vidyard | vidyard.com

This episode of the Live Better Sell Better Podcast features Charles Muhlbauer, Lead Revenue Enablement Manager at CB Insights. During discovery, you want to make prospects think about problems. But to get to this conversation, you must create trust first. Charles shares the roadmaps he uses which aim to gain the trust of the prospect.HIGHLIGHT QUOTESThe roadmap for gaining trust through teaching - Charles: "Team them something first which is problem-related. So I'm a big fan of roadmaps. I love roadmaps. So roadmaps to ask a question, roadmaps to answer a question, followed by asking another question, etc. So the mini roadmap is one... sharing context, two sharing insight, three humbling disclaimers, and four asking an open-ended question to what extent." You can find out more about Charles in the links below:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlesmuhlbauer/Website: https://www.cbinsights.com/Live Better. Sell Better. is sponsored by our proud partner:Vidyard | vidyard.com

This episode of the Live Better Sell Better Podcast features Charles Muhlbauer, Lead Revenue Enablement Manager at CB Insights. Discovery is the foundation of everything in the sales process and Charles shares his insights on the differences between qualifying questions and discovery questions. He provides examples that show how qualifying is all about finding a fit to talk more while discovery questions make the prospect think.HIGHLIGHT QUOTESMake comp plans simple and data accessible - Charles: "Discovery gives you the AE a chance to give the prospect the ability to think. That's why discovery is everything you're allowing the prospect to think about how they're doing things today. To think about an insight that you found that might surprise them." You can find out more about Charles in the links below:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlesmuhlbauer/Website: https://www.cbinsights.com/Live Better. Sell Better. is sponsored by our proud partner:Vidyard | vidyard.com

Episode 404: Sam Parr (@TheSamParr) and Shaan Puri (@ShaanVP) binge on business ideas in this episode. They discuss becoming the next member of the Twitter Guy Mafia to going through Anand Sanwal's treasure trove of ideas - the good and the bad, plus much more. Want to see more MFM? Subscribe to the MFM YouTube channel here. ----- Links: * Anand Sanwal * Yardstiq * Guy Dealership * Luxury Watch Guy * Franchise Wolf * Mobile Home Park Guy * Mini Katana * Isaac of Mini Katana Store * Do you love MFM and want to see Sam and Shaan's smiling faces? Subscribe to our Youtube channel. * Want more insights like MFM? Check out Shaan's newsletter. ------ Show Notes: (03:10) - Anand Sandwall, CB Insights, and Yardstiq (10:45) - Anand Sandwall business idea list (20:35) - IDEA ALERT: The Guy Mafia & Car Dealership Guy (35:30) - Agency affiliates (37:35) - MFM Back Office (40:55) - The Katana Story (50:40) - The application for Sam's researcher ----- Past guests on My First Million include Rob Dyrdek, Hasan Minhaj, Balaji Srinivasan, Jake Paul, Dr. Andrew Huberman, Gary Vee, Lance Armstrong, Sophia Amoruso, Ariel Helwani, Ramit Sethi, Stanley Druckenmiller, Peter Diamandis, Dharmesh Shah, Brian Halligan, Marc Lore, Jason Calacanis, Andrew Wilkinson, Julian Shapiro, Kat Cole, Codie Sanchez, Nader Al-Naji, Steph Smith, Trung Phan, Nick Huber, Anthony Pompliano, Ben Askren, Ramon Van Meer, Brianne Kimmel, Andrew Gazdecki, Scott Belsky, Moiz Ali, Dan Held, Elaine Zelby, Michael Saylor, Ryan Begelman, Jack Butcher, Reed Duchscher, Tai Lopez, Harley Finkelstein, Alexa von Tobel, Noah Kagan, Nick Bare, Greg Isenberg, James Altucher, Randy Hetrick and more. ----- Additional episodes you might enjoy: • #224 Rob Dyrdek - How Tracking Every Second of His Life Took Rob Drydek from 0 to $405M in Exits • #209 Gary Vaynerchuk - Why NFTS Are the Future • #178 Balaji Srinivasan - Balaji on How to Fix the Media, Cloud Cities & Crypto * #169 - How One Man Started 5, Billion Dollar Companies, Dan Gilbert's Empire, & Talking With Warren Buffett • ​​​​#218 - Why You Should Take a Think Week Like Bill Gates • Dave Portnoy vs The World, Extreme Body Monitoring, The Future of Apparel Retail, "How Much is Anthony Pompliano Worth?", and More • How Mr Beast Got 100M Views in Less Than 4 Days, The $25M Chrome Extension, and More

Summary John Mullen (LinkedIn) joins Andrew (Twitter; LinkedIn) to discuss his life and career. He was awarded the Distinguished Intelligence Medal.   What You'll Learn Intelligence How John was recruited  Life as an adrenaline addict in the CIA Case officers vs. entrepreneurs How China spies on corporate America  Reflections Atlantic vs. Pacific outlook Quantum And much, much more… Episode Notes The Pacific Theater of WWII was imprinted on John Mullen as a young boy. He grew up in Seattle on the West Coast and had family members who remembered Boeing factories under camouflaged nets. He had two family members who were killed in that theater in the 1940s.  John went on to have a stellar CIA career - but one that always had an eye to the East. He went on the become the Assistant Director for Asia and the Pacific, leading all clandestine activity across this huge region, and spent time as a CIA Station Chief in the Far East. He has since co-founded his own firm and is currently engaged in protecting innovation at Strider Technologies as an Executive Vice President.  Ever wondered what it'd be like to join the CIA or to leave it to work in corporate America?  I have a feeling John might be able to help… And… Business intelligence, competitive intelligence, product intelligence, workforce intelligence: in case you haven't noticed – intel is everywhere these days!  Quote of the Week Honestly, in my 30 years, at CIA, there were probably less than two handfuls of days. I woke up and wasn't excited about going to work. – John Mullen. Resources SURFACE SKIM *Andrew's Recommendation* The Pacific War, WELT (2021) [documentary] *Beginner Resources* What We Know About China's Spy Agency, Bloomberg (2019) [4 min video] Start Ups Backed by the CIA and Pentagon, CB Insights (2016) [short web article] Brian Cox Explains Quantum Mechanics in 60 secs, BBC, (2014) [60 sec video] DEEPER DIVE *SpyCasts* CIA Case Officer, Cyber Entrepreneur, Burning Man Volunteer with Mike Susong, Part 1 (2022) CIA Case Officer, Cyber Entrepreneur, Burning Man Volunteer with Mike Susong, Part 2 (2022) From the CIA to Strategic Cyber with Hans Holmer (2022) My Global Career as a Female FBI Agent with Kathy Stearman (2021) Books China Unbound: A New World Disorder, J. Chiu (House of Anansi Press, 2021) Quantum Computing for Everyone, C. Berhardt (MIT, 2020) Chinese Espionage Operations and Tactics, N. Eftimiades (Vitruvian Press, 2020) Spies for Nimitz: Joint Military Intelligence in the Pacific War, J. Moore (Naval Institute Press, 2004) In Search of Schrödinger's Cat: Quantum Physics and Reality, J. Gribbin (Bantam Books, 1984) Articles Chinese intelligence officer sentenced to 20 years in prison in espionage case, R. Legare, CBS News (2022) The World-Changing Race to Develop the Quantum Computer, S. Witt, The New Yorker (2022) Paradigm Shift: China's State Capitalism Is Not Colliding With Its Technological Ambitions, Strider (2021) Video Made in Beijing: The Plan for Global Market Domination, FBI (2022) China's New Quantum Computing Breakthrough Shocks American Scientists, YouTube (2022) Seattle's Waterway to the World, YouTube (2017) Primary Sources Indo-Pacific Strategy of the United States (2022) The Information War in the Pacific, 1945, J. Williams (2002) The Art of China Watching, G. Solin (1996) *Wildcard Resource* The American Battle Monuments Commission maintains 26 military cemeteries and memorials in 17 different foreign countries around the world that honor Americans that served in World War I and World War II. If you have a family member buried abroad, you can utilize ABMC's Burial Search to locate their records. 

Today we're interviewing Durgalakshmi Sathiakumar, or Durga for short. She's the COO and first employee for Shiok Meats, one would say the most ahead of the cultivated meat ecosystem in Asia. It's currently, in Series B and raised $21.5 million according to CB Insights and is valued around $99 million. Though a modest amount in United States standards, this is huge when it comes to Asia. So I learned shiok is basically a term for deliciousness which embraces the focus of Shiok Meats as it is specifically headquartered in Singapore. What was surprising is that Shiok actually does more than just shrimp. It's also doing Wagyu beef thanks to an acquisition. Do they synergize? The answer's fuzzy. You'll not only learn why Shiok focuses on seafood but also the perception on cultivated meat in Singapore, and we compare it to places in the United States. Though the data is ever-changing. Durga herself gives some valuable advice on some of the skillsets you need in the industry as well as trying to find your ikagai, or purpose in life.  

Chris Van't Hof, Director of Revenue Operations at CB Insights, joins us in today's episode of the OpsStars podcast to share his expertise and experience building a top-notch RevOps team.

It's November 7th, 2022 and this is the Watson Weekly - Your Essential eCommerce Digest!Today on the show: Shopify earnings show strength of plus offering Disney + expands into eCommerce CB Insights valuations report reveals troubling late-stage trends for startupsAmazon Q3 earnings reveal growth but also profit concerns And the Investor Minute which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.For more news from Rick, check out: https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwatsonecommerce/

In this episode, Somesh Dash (General Partner, IVP), joins our host Digjay, to talk about his path leading up to IVP, IVP's stellar track record of 130+ IPOs and how has the firm managed to win the trust of marquee founders, the importance of mentorship in building a legacy venture firm, learnings from founders of Snapchat, Discord and Lyra Health, some of IVP's anti-portfolio companies, the potential of the Indian startup ecosystem, the value of independent board members, learnings from fellow investors and more. IVP is a venture capital firm that invests in companies on the path to rapid growth. Since its inception in 1980, the firm has invested in 400+ companies with a stellar track record of 130+ IPOs and 25+ exits of >$1 billion. The firm has $8.7bn in total committed capital and has invested in marquee companies like Twitter, Coinbase, Brex, Slack, Discord, UiPath, Lyra Health, FTX, Harness among others. Somesh joined IVP in 2005 and focuses on growth investments in Enterprise Software, Consumer Internet, and Digital Health companies. He was recognized by The New York Times and CB Insights in 2019 as one of the top 100 venture capitalists. A Stanford and UC Berkeley alum, Somesh is also a board member of the US India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF), Advisory Council at Stanford's Graduate School of Business and the Tech Interactive. You can connect with Somesh here on Linkedin / Twitter. ---- Show notes – (01:50) Somesh's background & path leading up to IVP (10:19) IVP's thesis and past investments (14:33) The firm's stellar track record of 130+ IPOs and how it has managed to win the trust of marquee founders (20:03) Importance of apprentice & mentorship in building a legacy venture firm (22:02) Learnings from founders of Snapchat, Discord and Lyra; Common thread that cuts across these outlier founders (30:00) Anti-portfolio at IVP and reflecting on missed opportunities (36:37) The promise & potential of the Indian startup ecosystem (42:31) The value add by independent board members, particularly those that have experienced difficult times in their own career (43:25) Learnings from fellow investors that are on boards of IVP's portfolio startups (48:05) Importance of coaching and mental wellbeing (52:05) Rapid fire and closing remarks ---- If you liked our episode, you can subscribe to our podcast on any podcast platforms of your choice (like Spotify & Apple iTunes). We would appreciate if you could leave us a review on Spotify or Apple iTunes. This helps others discover the podcast organically. You can visit thevcpreneur.com and follow us on Twitter @thevcpreneur_ & Instagram @thevcpreneur for more episodes and interesting insights on the startup ecosystem. You can also follow our host Digjay here on Linkedin & Twitter

Driving Urgency In Deal w/ Jason Saline, VP Sales CB Insights (Throwback) Part of the TGIM (Thank God It's Monday!) series hosted by Tom Alaimo.

FOUR ACTIONABLE TAKEAWAYS Go back to “home plate” and re-anchor to top priorities when dealing with demo “nitpicks”. Use “To what extent” to turn any close-ended question into an open-ended question. Turn your demo into more discovery with (a) HOW does this compare? (b) WHERE does this fit in your workflow? (c) WHO would use this? Seek out hesitation. “Based on what you've seen today, what would prevent us from moving forward?” PATH TO PRESIDENT'S CLUB Lead Enablement Manager @ CB Insights Enterprise Account Executive @ Sentieo Sr. Account Executive & Team Lead @ Axial Sr. Associate @ Deloitte RESOURCES DISCUSSED: Time is running out to register for our upcoming 30MPC Live. Download our exclusive cold calling battlecard by signing up for the newsletter. Click this link for some extra goodies from 30MPC. HELP US OUT! What do you love about our podcast? Please consider leaving a rating and review for the show. We always enjoy reading your comments and feedback!

Gesche Haas is an entrepreneur, investor, mentor, and advisor who is the CEO and Founder of Dreamers & Doers, an award-winning community and agile PR team amplifying extraordinary entrepreneurial women. Dreamers & Doers has built a thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem of over 34,000 women globally. Gesche's views on the tech space and beyond have been featured on Bloomberg TV, CNNMoney, The New York Times, Huffington Post, Business Insider, Forbes, Fortune Magazine, Refinery29, Broadly/Vice, and other major media outlets, as well as at the United Nations, where she spoke during the sixtieth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. She is a regular content contributor to Nasdaq, Brit + Co, and 500 Startups. Gesche was also awarded 'Forbes Next 1000', 'VOTY 100 Community Builder' by BlogHer, 'Empowered Woman of the Year' by WWD/Variety/Ciroc, 'The Buildies Profitability Award' by Calm Company Fund, 'Best Remote CEO' by RemoteRated, 'New York Talent Cultivators' by Techweek, and 'Best of Tech' on Twitter by CB Insights.  Gesche is currently a Venture Partner at Republic supporting diverse founders seeking funding. Prior to founding Dreamers & Doers, Gesche held senior positions at several venture-backed startups in roles covering growth, strategy, finance, operations and business development. She also spent five years as an investor at a healthcare-focused hedge fund (~$3bn AUM, SAC spin-off).  Where to find Gesche Haas Website: https://www.dreamersdoers.com/ (www.dreamersdoers.com) Twitter: https://twitter.com/geschehaas (@geschehaas) Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geschehaas/ (@geschehaas) Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/geschehaas (Gesche Haas) LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gesche/ (Gesche Haas) SPONSOR This episode is sponsored by http://www.entireproductions.com/ (Entire Productions)- Creating events (both in-person and virtual) that don't suck! and http://www.entireproductionsmarketing.com/ (Entire Productions Marketing)- carefully curated premium gifting and branded promo items.  PLEASE RATE, REVIEW, & SUBSCRIBE on APPLE PODCASTS “I love Natasha and the Fascinating Entrepreneurs Podcast!”

In this episode, natural language processing (NLP) expert and Lead Data Scientist at CB Insights, Rongyao Huang, joins Jon Krohn to discuss NLP. Listen in for a thorough review of the field over the past decade and how the coming iron age of NLP will help us overcome the limitations of today's approaches. In this episode you will learn: • The evolution of NLP techniques over the past decade [4:14] • What's next in the coming iron age of NLP [35:33] • Rongyao's Bauhaus-inspired model for effective data science [43:12] • Rongyao's long-term career pathfinding framework [51:50] • Rongyao's top tips for staying sane while juggling career and family [1:00:30] Additional materials: www.superdatascience.com/583

Chris Van't Hof, Director of Revenue Operations at CB Insights, joins us on this episode of the OpsStars podcast to share his expertise and experience building a top-notch RevOps team. Previously, Chris was the Director of Global Revenue Operations for Uniphore, Director of Sales Operations for Honor and NextHealth, and Senior Analyst of Sales Operations and Pricing at ServiceSource. His experience is heavily focused on providing sales teams with insightful and actionable recommendations about product offerings, consultative selling tactics, customer retention, and pricing strategy. Today, Chris will share some of that experience to provide you with practical insights and advice you can apply to your business and RevOps team.