Podcasts about companies

Is AI just a buzzword, or are we witnessing an electricity-level shift in how the world works? In this solo episode of The Greatness Machine, Darius Mirshahzadeh shares a passionate public service announcement for business owners, leaders, and operators: the AI moment is here, and it is bigger than most people realize. Drawing on his experience as an early adopter, from the early internet days to Bitcoin and blockchain, Darius explains why this wave of AI is not like the dot-com boom. It is foundational. It is transformational. He breaks down how tools like Claude and no-code automation platforms such as n8n are already replacing hours, even weeks, of manual work inside his private equity firm. From building complex financial models and investment decks in minutes to automating data enrichment projects that once took 70+ hours, Darius shares real examples of how AI workflows and agents are reshaping productivity, cost structures, and competitive advantage. His core message: this is no longer optional. Companies that aggressively adopt and train their teams to leverage AI will dramatically outperform those who hesitate. Whether you are a CEO, salesperson, operator, or individual contributor, the future belongs to those who learn to build, manage, and optimize AI-powered systems. In this episode, Darius will discuss: (00:00) The AI Revolution Begins (06:50) Embracing AI in Business (13:01) The Future of Work with AI (19:14) A Call to Action: Adapting to Change Connect with Darius: Website: https://therealdarius.com/ Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dariusmirshahzadeh/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/imthedarius/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Thegreatnessmachine  Book: The Core Value Equation https://www.amazon.com/Core-Value-Equation-Framework-Limitless/dp/1544506708 Write a review for The Greatness Machine using this link: https://ratethispodcast.com/spreadinggreatness.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

AI Slop is gonna kill the internet. Companies are gonna have agent brains. And if you travel down the same path in 2026 as you did in 2025, you're toast shorty. I spend thousands of hours each year working in and around AI. And once a year, we do our predictions and roadmap series. It's a literal cheat code to skip through the 95% of B.S and get the plan for the 5% that moves the needle. Join us for Part 2 of our AI Predictions and Roadmap series. Company AI Brains, No More Code, Slop Debt Kills internet and Agent Societies. 2026 AI Predictions and Roadmap Series Part 2 of 2 -- An Everyday AI Chat with Jordan WilsonNewsletter: Sign up for our free daily newsletterMore on this Episode: Episode PageJoin the discussion on LinkedIn: Thoughts on this? Join the convo on LinkedIn and connect with other AI leaders.Upcoming Episodes: Check out the upcoming Everyday AI Livestream lineupWebsite: YourEverydayAI.comEmail The Show: info@youreverydayai.comConnect with Jordan on LinkedInTopics Covered in This Episode:OpenAI Consumer Hardware Predictions 2026Disposable Software Adoption in EnterprisesNotebookLM as Fifth Core AI PlatformAI Native Ads Maintain Premium PricingMulti-Agent Societies: Enterprise Default ArchitectureMicrosoft Copilot Usability Reset ForecastBig Four Consulting AI-Driven RestructuringVibe Coding Rebranded as Agentic OrchestrationProfessional Services Launch AI Flanker BrandsSlop Debt Crisis and LLM Data IntegrityFrontier Labs: Humans Rarely Write CodePortable Context Engines Replace Prompt LibrariesGDP-Val Benchmark Scores Surpass 80%2026 AI Roadmap: Unlearning and RebuildingTimestamps:00:00 "AI Insights and Actionable Steps"07:40 OpenAI's Lead and Growing Race11:50 "Disposable Software and AI Duct Tape"17:26 "NotebookLM: Game-Changing AI Tool"22:47 Advertising Evolution and Faster ROI29:11 Domino's Strategy & Copilot Reset35:22 "Consulting vs. AI Efficiency"42:54 AI Transparency Demands Rising48:29 "AI Slop Debt in Training Data"51:34 "AI Coding Revolution Predicted"54:57 "Portable Context Engine in AI"01:00:51 "Unlearn and Rebuild with AI"Keywords: 2026 AI predictions, AI shortcut, AI trends, AI roadmap, OpenAI, consumer hardware, disposable software, NotebookLM, core AI platform, AI native ads, premium intent pricing, multi-agent societies, enterprise AI architecture, Microsoft Copilot, CopilSend Everyday AI and Jordan a text message. (We can't reply back unless you leave contact info) Start Here ▶️Not sure where to start when it comes to AI? Start with our Start Here Series. You can listen to the first drop -- Episode 691 -- or get free access to our Inner Cricle community and access all episodes there: StartHereSeries.com 

In this episode of the Crazy Wisdom Podcast, host Stewart Alsop sits down with Lars van der Zande, founder and CEO/technical architect of Inkwell Finance, for what Lars describes as his first-ever podcast appearance. The conversation covers a wide range of blockchain infrastructure topics, including Lars's work with Sui and Solana blockchains, the innovative capabilities of Ika's programmatic wallets and blockchain of signatures, and how Inkwell Finance is building revenue-based financing solutions for on-chain entities—from AI agents to protocols. They explore the evolving landscape of crypto regulation, the merging of traditional finance with blockchain technology, the future of decentralized legal systems, and how the user experience barrier is being lowered through technologies that eliminate constant transaction signing. Lars also discusses Inkwell's embedded financing approach and their pre-seed fundraising round.Links mentioned:- Inkwell's website: inkwell.finance- Inkwell on Twitter: @__inkwell- Lars on Twitter: @LMVDZandeTimestamps00:00 Introduction to Inkwell Finance and Technical Architecture02:06 Understanding Sui and Solana: Blockchain Dynamics05:55 The Role of Ika in Inkwell Finance11:51 Leviathan: Revenue Generation and Financing in Crypto17:38 The Future of AI Agents and Programmatic Wallets23:23 Smart Contracts: Legal Implications and Future Directions25:06 The Future of Inqvil Finance25:42 Decentralization and Its Evolution27:32 The Merging of Traditional and Crypto Systems29:33 Global Financial Dynamics and Market Reactions31:48 The Collapse of Traditional Financial Systems32:46 Jurisdictional Shifts in the Crypto World33:59 Legal Systems and Blockchain Integration35:57 On-Chain Credit and Financial Opportunities39:29 The Role of AI in Finance41:30 Learning from Peer-to-Peer Lending History43:14 Disruption in Insurance and Risk Management44:54 On-Chain vs Off-Chain Data46:54 The Evolution of the Internet and Blockchain49:12 Future Subscription Models in BlockchainKey Insights1. Ika's Revolutionary Blockchain Signature Technology: Lars discovered Ika, a blockchain of signatures built on Sui that enables any blockchain transaction to be signed without revealing the underlying message. Using patented 2PC MPC technology, Ika splits key shares across validators and encrypts them in transit, performing complex cryptographic operations that allow smart contracts on Sui to generate signatures for transactions on any other blockchain. This eliminates the need to build separate smart contracts on each blockchain, fundamentally changing how cross-chain interactions work and opening possibilities for truly interoperable decentralized applications.2. Programmatic Wallets vs Traditional Wallets: Traditional wallets like MetaMask require manual user approval for every transaction through a front-end interface, but Ika's D-wallet introduces programmatic wallets with policy-based controls embedded in smart contracts. These wallets can execute transactions based on predetermined conditions checked against on-chain data like Oracle prices, without requiring individual user signatures. For example, a Bitcoin D-wallet can hold native Bitcoin without wrapping or bridging to a custodian, and smart contract policies determine when and how that Bitcoin can be transferred, creating unprecedented security and automation possibilities for decentralized finance.3. Inkwell's Revenue-Based Financing Model: Inkwell Finance is building Leviathan, a revenue-based financing platform for on-chain entities including protocols, AI agents, and individual traders with verifiable track records. Borrowers receive capital based on their on-chain performance metrics like sharp ratio and drawdown, with loan repayment automatically deducted from their revenue stream. The profit split structure allocates approximately 60% to borrowers, 30% to lenders, and 10% split between Inkwell and integrating platforms. This creates a sustainable lending model where flight risk is minimized through D-wallet policy controls that restrict how borrowed capital can be used.4. Wallet-as-a-Protocol and the Future of User Experience: The crypto industry is moving toward embedded wallet solutions that eliminate the friction of traditional wallet management, with Wallet-as-a-Protocol representing the next evolution beyond services like Privy and Dynamic. Unlike current embedded wallets that lock users into specific applications, Wallet-as-a-Protocol enables single sign-on across multiple applications while users maintain control of their keys. Combined with app-sponsored gas fees, this approach allows non-crypto-native users to interact with blockchain applications without knowing they're using crypto, removing the biggest barrier to mainstream adoption and creating web2-like user experiences on web3 infrastructure.5. AI Agents as Financial Entities: AI agents are emerging as revenue-generating entities with on-chain transaction histories that create verifiable track records for creditworthiness assessment. Inkwell Finance is specifically targeting this market, recognizing that AI agents will need wallets and capital to operate effectively. The programmatic nature of D-wallets pairs perfectly with AI agents, as policy controls can restrict agent behavior to specific smart contract interactions, preventing unauthorized fund transfers while allowing automated trading or revenue generation. This creates a new category of borrower that operates 24/7 with completely transparent performance metrics, fundamentally different from traditional loan recipients.6. Cross-Chain Liquidity Without Asset Transfer: Ika's technology enables users to take loans against revenue generated on one blockchain and deploy that capital on entirely different blockchains without moving their original liquidity positions. For instance, someone earning yield on Sui's Fusol protocol could borrow against that revenue stream and deploy capital on Solana opportunities, effectively creating multiple on-chain businesses that generate their own credit scores and revenue to service debt. This ability to read state across different blockchains from within smart contracts opens possibilities for multi-chain strategies that don't require withdrawing capital from productive positions, maximizing capital efficiency across the entire crypto ecosystem.7. The Convergence of Traditional Finance and Crypto Infrastructure: The regulatory landscape is rapidly evolving with initiatives like the Genius Act and Clarity Act creating frameworks where traditional financial systems merge with crypto infrastructure through mechanisms like stablecoins backed by US treasuries. Companies are increasingly establishing entities in the United States to access capital networks and Delaware's established legal framework while issuing tokens through jurisdictions like Switzerland. This hybrid approach, combined with emerging concepts like Gabriel Shapiro's "cybernetic agreements" that make smart contract parameters legally enforceable in traditional courts, suggests the future isn't pure decentralization but rather a sophisticated integration of on-chain and off-chain legal and financial systems.

Sheng Siong is back in focus after OCBC downgraded the supermarket operator to “hold”, citing stretched valuations following a strong 2025 rally. Dan Koh and Emaad Akhtar examine whether fundamentals justify the premium pricing, how Budget 2026’s CDC vouchers could help stabilise demand, and what investors should monitor next.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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T.J. Rodgers has built — and rebuilt — billion-dollar companies across semiconductors, energy, storage, and manufacturing.In this 2.5-hour Episode 900 deep dive, he walks through the operating principles behind that track record — in detail.This isn't a surface-level conversation. It's a masterclass in how durable companies are actually constructed.We unpack:

What does it take to successfully acquire and lead a 50-person, employee-owned sign company that defied the odds for 20 years? Aaron sits down with Wade Halma from Valley City Sign, a mechanical engineer who entered the signage world via finance. They dive into the counterintuitive pitfalls of buying "too perfect" equipment, why building an in-house engineering team is a game-changer, and how to implement true lean manufacturing beyond the buzzwords.

Packy McCormick is one of the most thoughtful writers in tech and investing. In this episode of Infinite Loops, we talk about why writing is still the most powerful way to think clearly, how optimism becomes rational when you spend time with people actually building things, and what happens when the internet punishes you for being early and wrong.   Important Links: Packy McCormick on Optimism: https://www.notboring.co/p/optimism The Internet Contrarian: https://www.osam.com/pdfs/research/The%20Internet%20Contrarian.pdf Elliot Herschberg on GitLab Founder and Cancer: https://www.notboring.co/p/the-builder-cancer-problem Ben Thompson's Aggregation Theory: https://stratechery.com/aggregation-theory/  

Mac Stockdale - CEO of Quanta joins the podcast to talk about Algo Trading, his firm's new methodology aimed at adding more value to the hedging strategies of E&P, Mineral, and NonOp companies.**Disclaimer: This podcast is meant for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. A big thanks to our 4 Minerals & Royalties Podcast Sponsors:--Tokenized Energy: If you are interested in allocating capital to oil & gas minerals, royalties, and nonop assets in order to earn digital mailbox money, then visit www.tokenizedenergy.com or download the Tokenized Energy app for your Apple or Android phone.--Tracts: If you are interested in learning more about Tracts title related services and software, then please call 281-892-2096 or visit https://tracts.co/ to learn more.--Riverbend Energy Group: If you are interested in discussing the sale of your Minerals and/or NonOp interests w/ Riverbend, then please visit www.riverbendenergygroup.com for more information--Farmers National Company: For more information onFarmer's land management services, please visit www.fncenergy.com or email energy@farmersnational.com

In this episode of Run the Numbers, CJ Gustafson talks with Rivian CFO Claire McDonough about financing one of the most capital-intensive businesses in the world. They cover long-term investment decisions, capacity planning, cash management as production scales, lessons from Rivian's nearly $14B IPO, the risks of over- and under-building, and why federal EV tax credits matter more than most people think.—SPONSORS:Tabs is an AI-native revenue platform that unifies billing, collections, and revenue recognition for companies running usage-based or complex contracts. By bringing together ERP, CRM, and real product usage data into a single system of record, Tabs eliminates manual reconciliations and speeds up close and cash collection. Companies like Cortex, Statsig, and Cursor trust Tabs to scale revenue efficiently. Learn more at https://www.tabs.com/runAbacum is a modern FP&A platform built by former CFOs to replace slow, consultant-heavy planning tools. With self-service integrations and AI-powered workflows for forecasting, variance analysis, and scenario modeling, Abacum helps finance teams scale without becoming software admins. Trusted by teams at Strava, Replit, and JG Wentworth—learn more at https://www.abacum.aiBrex is an intelligent finance platform that combines corporate cards, built-in expense management, and AI agents to eliminate manual finance work. By automating expense reviews and reconciliations, Brex gives CFOs more time for the high-impact work that drives growth. Join 35,000+ companies like Anthropic, Coinbase, and DoorDash at https://www.brex.com/metricsMetronome is real-time billing built for modern software companies. Metronome turns raw usage events into accurate invoices, gives customers bills they actually understand, and keeps finance, product, and engineering perfectly in sync. That's why category-defining companies like OpenAI and Anthropic trust Metronome to power usage-based pricing and enterprise contracts at scale. Focus on your product — not your billing. Learn more and get started at https://www.metronome.comRightRev is an automated revenue recognition platform built for modern pricing models like usage-based pricing, bundles, and mid-cycle upgrades. RightRev lets companies scale monetization without slowing down close or compliance. For RevRec that keeps growth moving, visit https://www.rightrev.comRillet is an AI-native ERP built for modern finance teams that want to close faster without fighting legacy systems. Designed to support complex revenue recognition, multi-entity operations, and real-time reporting, Rillet helps teams achieve a true zero-day close—with some customers closing in hours, not days. If you're scaling on an ERP that wasn't built in the 90s, book a demo at https://www.rillet.com/cj—LINKS: Claire on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/claire-rauh-mcdonough-5291b946/Rivian: https://rivian.com/CJ on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/Mostly metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com—RELATED EPISODES:Why Revenue Recognition Is the Next AI Battleground | Dan Miller of RightRevhttps://youtu.be/TxhTtwmOass—TIMESTAMPS:00:00:00 Craziest Expense Story at Rivian00:01:22 Intro to Claire McDonough00:03:09 Capital Intensity and Vertical Integration at Rivian00:06:44 Raising $14B: How Rivian Planned Its IPO Capital00:10:22 Capacity Planning and Scaling R2 Production00:12:13 Sponsors — Tabs, Abacum, Brex00:15:34 Sweating Existing Capacity vs Overbuilding00:18:22 Winning EV Adoption from ICE Buyers00:22:27 How Federal EV Tax Credits Shape EV Pricing00:26:03 Sponsors — Metronome, RightRev, Rillet00:29:27 R2 as a Driver of Long-Term Profitability00:33:14 Supply Chain as the Critical Path to Launch00:36:53 Product Roadmap as the Anchor for Capital and Headcount00:39:40 Peloton and Flipkart Lessons from Banking00:43:42 Biggest Career Mistake00:44:50 Advice to Younger Self00:47:19 Rivian's Finance Software Stack

How is AI changing the way we store data? This week Technology Now dives into the topic of data storage in the world of AI. We explore intelligent storage, how data sovereignty is influencing how we store our data, and consider where the world of storage could be going in the future. Jim O'Dorisio, Senior Vice President and General Manager HPE Storage, tells us more.This is Technology Now, a weekly show from Hewlett Packard Enterprise. Every week, hosts Michael Bird and Sam Jarrell look at a story that's been making headlines, take a look at the technology behind it, and explain why it matters to organizations.About Jim:https://www.linkedin.com/in/odorisiojim/Sources:https://www.statista.com/statistics/871513/worldwide-data-created/#statisticContainerhttps://www.studionetworksolutions.com/how-much-data-is-used-and-stored-in-the-world/#:~:text=expanding%20digital%20universe.-,Global%20Data%20Usage,over%20180%20zettabytes%20by%202025.1 billion terrabytes in 1 zettabyte. If a smartphone has 1Tb storage, then you need 180 billion smartphones to make 180Zb of storage. 180 billion > 100 billionhttps://www.computerhistory.org/timeline/memory-storage/https://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/memory-storage/8/308https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/6129/https://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/memory-storage/8/308/963

How to Scale Faster with B2B Brand Strategy Here's a common scenario in B2B marketing: you launch campaigns, hit the deadlines, and fill the pipeline, but the results feel disconnected from your long-term goals. Internal messaging discussions resurface, campaigns feel shallow and reactive, and when you ask people what your brand stands for, you get 50 different answers. This inconsistent approach creates friction and impedes scalable growth. So what can B2B marketers do when their tactical execution is outpacing their brand strategy, and how to do you realign for lasting impact? That's why we're talking to JoAnne Gritter (COO, ddm marketing + communications), who shares her expertise and actionable insights on how to scale faster with B2B brand strategy. During our conversation, JoAnne underscored why a foundational strategy is crucial for building credibility and trust in competitive markets. She also discussed the role of AI in marketing, commenting that while it can support with idea generation and research, it shouldn't replace direct communication with customers and employees. JoAnne shared some common pitfalls such as messaging misalignment and inconsistent branding, which can lead to distrust and reduced credibility, She explained the importance of having a cohesive brand strategy that aligns values, messaging, and customer experiences across all company touchpoints through proactive brand management. https://youtu.be/_Alwkinhw-g Topics discussed in episode: [02:36] The “Soul vs. Body” framework: Why marketing is just the body in action, while brand strategy is the soul that provides direction and values.  [06:51] Red flags that your marketing has outpaced your strategy: When content feels fragmented and sales teams are telling completely different stories.  [08:52] Defining true brand strategy: Moving beyond logos and colors to include deep research, stakeholder analysis, and internal alignment.  [14:41] The critical differences between a brand refresh (auditing existing assets), a complete revamp (starting from scratch), and branding during a merger.  [24:10] Actionable steps you can take to realign your brand: – Audit your customer journey – Define messaging pillars – Ensure HR and onboarding match the brand promise  [29:37] Why “data-only” marketing fails: The importance of human emotion and psychology that performance data often misses.  Companies and links mentioned: JoAnne Gritter on LinkedIn  ddm marketing + communications  Transcript JoAnne Gritter, Christian Klepp JoAnne Gritter  00:00 AI can be used as a tool. It should not replace thinking and actually talking to your customers and your employees and your sales team. So you can use AI as a crutch to to like, ask it for ideas, idea generation. You can use it for deep research on your on your audience, and stuff like that. But nothing replaces the gold standard of talking to people. I see this in messaging misalignment or content misalignment. If content feels like it’s been written by four different people or completely different companies, that’s a red flag. Christian Klepp  00:37 This is a common scenario for B2B Marketers. You launch campaigns, hit the deadlines and fill the pipeline. It all looks great on paper, but something is still off internal messaging discussions resurface. Campaigns feel shallow and reactive, and when you ask people what the brand stands for, you get 50 different answers. So what can B2B Marketers do when their marketing is outpacing their brand strategy? Welcome to this episode of the B2B Marketers in the Mission podcast, and I’m your host, Christian Klepp, today, I’ll be talking to JoAnne Gritter, who will be answering this question. She’s a member of the leadership team at DDM Marketing Communications that provides integrated marketing solutions to drive business success. Tune in to find out more about what this B2B Marketers Mission is and here we go. JoAnne Gritter, welcome to the show. JoAnne Gritter  01:25 Hi Christian. Happy to be here. Christian Klepp  01:27 We you know, we had such a wonderful, like, pre-interview conversation. I almost feel like we’re neighbors or something, and something to that extent. But I’m, I’m really, like, happy to have you on the show, and I’m really looking forward to this conversation, because this topic is, I’m a little bit biased because I am in the branding space, so it’s a bit near and dear to my heart, but it’s also something that’s extremely important, because you’ll agree. I mean, you, I know you’ll agree because you wrote an article about it. JoAnne Gritter  01:54 Yeah Christian Klepp  01:55 It’s something that marketing teams tend to overlook. And good, goodness gracious me, I’m gonna, like, stop keeping people in suspense. We’ll just jump right in all right. JoAnne Gritter  02:04 Okay Christian Klepp  02:04 So JoAnne, you’re on a mission to provide integrated marketing solutions that drive B2B business success. So for this conversation, let’s focus on this topic, how brand strategy helps B2B organizations to realign for long term growth. So I’m going to kick off this conversation with the following question. In our previous conversation, our previous discussion, you talked about how marketing without a brand is a strategy without a soul. Could you please explain what you meant by that? JoAnne Gritter  02:36 So I just made the comparison kind of to the whole human, as in, like the brand is your soul, meaning like your values, what drives you, why you’re here, what differentiates you, what makes you different than the person standing next to you, whereas, like marketing is your body in action, or action in general, where you hopefully, if you if you’re a trustworthy person, what is, what are your values internally are matching your actions externally? And that is often where we see a divergent in companies, because they don’t think about those as like two sides of the same coin. It is really important that you make sure that you know the direction that you’re going as a company and what you stand for and who you’re there to support or serve, and what markets you’re there to do, and like your whole company, everybody that’s part of interfacing with customers understands that and is and is speaking the same language. Christian Klepp  03:37 Yeah, no, absolutely. And I suppose the the follow up question to that is like, where do you see a lot of, like, marketing teams go wrong. Because, like, you know, more often than not, a lot of teams are like, Okay, we’ve we’ve implemented the campaigns check. We’re generating results and driving pipeline or filling the pipeline, rather check. So where does it all go wrong? JoAnne Gritter  04:00 If you are not paying attention to your branding, you can have a lot of activity without a lot of traction. So or you can have a lot of different messages going out that seem not cohesive or fragmented. And so you can or more examples you can have, like your sales folks going out and telling different stories about about what your company stands for and what you do and how you’re different, that creates a lot of waste, because then you’re continuously trying to get more activity and more campaigns going more sales people out there, because you’re not getting the quality leads that you need, because nobody really knows what you stand for. Everybody says it a little bit differently, and that goes for customer service too. Branding. People think about branding as a marketing problem, or a marketing, you know, teams problem. But if, let’s say part of your brand is your brand identity or values is to put the customer. First, if you don’t really solidify that from your sales team and your customer support team, then there would be a mismatch there, right then you’re just putting out into the world that customers first, but that doesn’t match up with what the customer is experiencing. Christian Klepp  05:16 Yeah, there’s certainly some kind of misalignment there, and you touched on it, like, briefly. It’s interesting to me, like, even in my own experience, one of the telltale signs of that is when you ask people within the organization, well, what makes you different? And you get 50 different answers, and some of them are similar, and some of them are completely, like, different. And it’s like, okay, yep, okay, I see where this is going, or to your to your other point, when sales teams are having those discovery calls, and you listen back to some of those recordings, which I hope you marketing people out there are doing, and you listen to the way that the sales deal with objections, and maybe the procurement team or people like, you know, on the prospect side, they’re probably not phrasing it exactly the way I’m going to say it right now, but like, but they probably are asking something to the effect of, okay, what makes you different from vendor B, C and D, right? What is different about your solution? Like, why are you charging this guy? Why are your rates like, this high. JoAnne Gritter  05:16 Right. Absolutely. And if they have different answers, or if you go and you listen in on four different sales calls and they’re all a little bit different, then that tells you have a branding issue that people don’t fully understand your brand and how you’re different and who you support and serve. Christian Klepp  05:16 Yep, absolutely, absolutely. So you’ve touched on it a little bit, but like, tell us about some more of these. I’m going to call them red flags, right? That signal when marketing has outrun brand strategy. JoAnne Gritter  05:16 Sure, I see this in messaging misalignment or content misalignment. If content feels like it’s been written by four different people or completely different companies, that’s a red flag. If, like we mentioned, your sales team talks about your company completely differently, it’s okay that they put their own little spin on it, as long as you’re still hitting like the purpose of your company, why you’re here, how you serve whatever your target audience or audiences are what your values are. If that’s not coming through in in those different places, then you may have a brand issue, or your training issue, or your brand is not being carried out through the company. So when you have a solid brand, it should be, should be repeated in in like your onboarding process, in HR kind of things, in performance conversations, in obviously, your sales and marketing and your customer service, so that everybody is aligned to that brand, and so that there’s a common message, common theme, because repeatability is is super important. Consistency is super important in marketing. I’m sure a lot of people have heard that it takes multiple multi multiple times of hearing the same message for it to actually resonate, and if they’re hearing multiple different messages, it’s causes confusion and a lack of trust in whatever the company is offering. Christian Klepp  05:16 Yeah, that’s absolutely right. JoAnne, I’ve got a I just thought of another fall off question, and you’ll indulge me here. Um, you know it, I know it. But let’s, let’s clear the air here for a second. Because I’ve been hearing this like, and I’m sure you have as well, in the B2B world, it’s just been thrown around, like, very loosely. Let’s clear the air here. Like, what do you mean by brand strategy, because I’ve heard people, especially at senior level, say, like, Yeah, we don’t need branding. We’ve got a logo and we’ve got a website. We’re good, so maybe just clear the air on that one, please. JoAnne Gritter  05:16 Well, brand strategy is, let’s see, like, I think of strategy in like, four or three different tiers. Like, we have your business strategy, it’s how you win in the marketplace. Then you have your brand strategy, which is positions you in the market and in the minds of your consumers or your customers. And then your marketing strategy is how you take that and communicate it out and you deliver that message in multiple different channels. So if you have marketing running without, without laddering up to that business strategy and and brand strategy, then it’s just, it’s just running and putting stuff out there. So it’s just activity without, without purpose and strategy. So like a brand strategy is so much more than just a lot of people think about it as their logo, their identity suite, whatever, but there should be research that goes into it. They should be stakeholder analysis. They should talk to your customers and kind of understand what they value about about your company compared to another company. So then, using. Their language in some of your brand messaging is super helpful. So if you have like, customers that say, you know, like, I just love working with, you know, Company X, Y and Z, because the people are great. They’re super responsive. They they get me what I need, etc. Like, using some of that as part of your brand is going to be really important. So like, a strategy may may include, like, the focus, the brand, promise your your core values can be part of that. The naming can be part of that. Obviously, the the design part that a lot of folks actually think about and listen or think about and recall would be, like the visual identity that also needs to be consistent, from your logo to your fonts to your colors, and then like, multiple touch points on that, like, again, like repeating that consistency from like the stationary, the collateral, the assets, all that stuff, but then also making sure that the messaging and the voice carries throughout your company, past past your your marketing team, past your sales team. Christian Klepp  05:16 Yeah, that’s absolutely right. I mean, I like to tell people that all of these things that you mentioned, especially the visual aspect, the the sexy part of it, right, like the the visual identity, the logo, the web design and all that. It’s the end result. It’s one of the outcomes of right branding, right? JoAnne Gritter  05:16 That doesn’t come out of a vacuum, right? You don’t show a designer that’s like, I’m super excited about the color red, so we’re gonna do it’s what do our customers, current customers, feel about us, and what do we want our prospective customers to feel about us? And then there’s a lot of strategy behind that. Christian Klepp  05:16 That’s right, that’s right. I’m gonna move on to the topic of key pitfalls to avoid. So what are some of these key pitfalls that B2B Marketing Teams should avoid, and what should they do instead? JoAnne Gritter  05:16 So pitfalls that I see is companies teams that get really excited about certain trends. I’m just going to pick on Tiktok. There’s time and a place for Tiktok, but like, for B2B, they’re like, oh, man, everybody’s on Tiktok, or this latest, you know, social media platform, channel, we really got to get on there. It’s or we got to use AI in some specific way without, like, thinking about the strategy behind that and just like going forward, because you know that that’s the hottest trend right now. So always make sure it ladders up to where your customers are and what you want them to think about you. If you’re a B2B company, it’s likely that your customers are more on LinkedIn than they are on Tiktok. That’s just an example. I can’t say that across the board, but like picking picking things that are always centered on on your customer and your brand are super important. So that’s a pitfall, and then what to do about it? Also treating the brand as a one time exercise, like set it and forget it, kind of thing. A lot of people are just like, Okay, we did the brand. We got a great logo, we got stationery, we even got PowerPoints that are branded and then never think about it again, except for, like, just the, you know, the colors and the logo on all of your media assets, right? So, but the brand is so much more than that. The brand is so much about, like, how you want them to feel, what the differentiators are, what makes you different, what you deliver and like, how you talk about it, how you position yourself. So like, every bit, every asset that goes out the door, should be aligned to that there should be almost a hierarchy. Christian Klepp  05:16 Yeah, no, exactly, exactly. And I’m gonna throw another follow up question at you, only because I know you can handle you can handle it. You probably hear this a lot, and you hear this a lot, most likely also from marketing teams that perhaps don’t have as much experience in the branding space as you do, and they say things like, JoAnne, you know, we’re looking at our company, and we feel that, you know, the overall look and feel and the direction, it’s not really in line with what we aspire to be. So we’re looking for a revamp. And then, and then, as the conversation progresses, they say, Oh, actually, we want maybe, maybe just a refresh, right? And then you hear another prospect say, Well, you know, we just merged the two companies. So like, what do we do there? So maybe just, just to, again, clear the air, so people don’t throw around these terms so recklessly, what actually is the difference between a brand refresh, a brand revamp, and branding as a result of a merger, Speaker 1  06:02 like a brand like from scratch, is going to take a lot of different kind of research efforts than like a brand refresh. Like, if you’re doing a brand refresh, then you’re looking at assets that already exist, you know, and and you’re looking at reasons why they might change or are no longer working. So you’re doing more. Of an audit kind of thing, like, what’s different now than it was 20 years ago when we created this brand, and where are we going? Their new leadership? Are they focused on different parts of this like even even DDM, the marketing agency that I work with or that I work for. We, every once in a while, look at our brand, and not just the visuals, but like the things that make us unique. And we say, hey, those are still unique, but we’re talking about them slightly differently now. So we need to take a look at that and change the messaging a little bit. We’re heading in a slightly different direction lately with our creative so let’s, let’s make sure that we’re still in line, so that everything, everything matches. And if they see us on Instagram versus if they see us on LinkedIn or on our website, that it still looks like ABM, you know, and then a merger is slightly different, because you’re putting together two brands, and a lot of times they’re creating a new brand from that, or they might keep one of the brands and then just bring another like, you know, Company X is now a, you know, Company Y brand. And there might be, like a sub. There’s all kinds of different ways hierarchies of brands in that kind of scenario. But more recent one that we did, they created a new brand, which was a combination of the two names, and they completely they went through the whole exercise with the new leadership team. So it’s more similar to like starting from scratch, but also taking bits and pieces that they want to keep from both brands and what’s working. So you kind of look at what clients from both brands like about those brands, and make sure that you keep those and you preserve those, and make sure that it’s it’s heading in the direction that the company wants to go a lot of discovery and research and questions, Christian Klepp  06:16 Absolutely, absolutely. And I love that you keep bringing that up, though, because that is, again, one of these components that people tend to overlook, that this comes with a lot of research. It’s not, as you said, it’s not okay. Here’s the brief. Graphic designers or design team have at it. JoAnne Gritter  17:07 Right? Christian Klepp  17:07 Come up with something, something else, great, right? Yeah, my favorite briefs are always the ones that said we want something modern, clean, yet traditional and exciting. It’s like, JoAnne Gritter  17:17 Oh yes, creative. Make it creative, splashy mean to you? Christian Klepp  17:25 Yeah, yeah, open to interpretation, I suppose. Why do you believe that inconsistent messaging and internal misalignment cost organizations credibility and dollars? And you did touch on it earlier on the conversation. JoAnne Gritter  17:41 It’s a misalignment of what you say versus what you do. If you have on your website that you are there to serve X population and that you are like your mission and purpose in in this world is to support that population in in achieving whatever goal, whatever needs that that population needs, but then that customer or population that comes and interacts with your brand does not get that from the people or get that from their experience with your product. Then then that’s a misalignment, and that creates, you know, instant distrust, like you are not following through on, on what your brand promise was, or if you have multiple people saying they’re promising different things and they don’t get that, that’s a lack of trust. Christian Klepp  18:27 I’m kind of slightly grinning here, although I know that anyone who’s been in this situation probably will not see any humor in it, but like, I’m just thinking about anyone that’s experienced a flight delay, JoAnne Gritter  18:37 right, Christian Klepp  18:39 or been trapped at the airport, and whichever airline it is you’re flying with, and you have to deal with ground staff that are either unprofessional and rude or you just have zero transparency. And I’m sure, like, I’ve certainly gone through it like I’ve experienced a 10, 12 hour flight delay, right where I was at the airport until like, one or two in the morning, and then they finally come and say, well, the plane’s not coming. JoAnne Gritter  19:04 Yeah, that really rocks the brand reputation. I also see that in health care a lot, which, God bless everybody in health care, it’s hard, but like, if all those services are disjointed and the scheduling gives you a different feeling than the doctor gives and trying to do things online, it doesn’t match what your experience is in person. People don’t want to go to that provider anymore. You know, they’re like, this is confusing. I just want help. Just want to get what you’re promising. Christian Klepp  19:35 It’s a very for lack of a description of fragmented ecosystem. JoAnne Gritter  19:39 Yeah, absolutely. And that’s a bigger issue than we can solve here, but Christian Klepp  19:43 Yeah, no amount of branding is going to fix that. JoAnne Gritter  19:47 You got to follow through on it. Christian Klepp  19:49 That’s absolutely right. That’s absolutely right. Talk to us about how aligning, and you’ve touched on it briefly, how aligning soul and action will help to build. Trust, loyalty and resilience and please provide examples where relevant. JoAnne Gritter  20:04 Let me think of an example. We work with a very large medical device manufacturer, and we’ve worked with them for 15, probably close to 20 years now. And so 15 years ago, they were very product centric. They also grow by acquisition. So they have, like several different companies that came in under this master global brand. And even though they have the same logo, they still had their own kind of visual identity. They all talked about their stuff differently. And as a result of that, in those different teams, the customers were getting wildly different experiences from this company, even though they were all under the same master company. So they rebranded. We helped them rebrand seven years ago, maybe, and this is a global organization where they brought all their business units under the same brand. They have a very strict, robust brand now. And I’m not saying that everybody needs 100 page brand guidelines. They don’t, but, like they they went all in on branding, and they make all their new employees do their brand training. It’s worked in through their onboarding. It’s worked in through their like, performance conversations, and they have just really exploded and created this, this amazing reputation as a leader. Christian Klepp  21:25 I’m sorry you’re talking about, you’re talking about real branding, then JoAnne Gritter  21:27 Real branding. Yes, they are now a leader in their industry. I mean, they were big before, but they have just really exploded in the last seven years since rebranding, and it’s been really helpful for them, because now they still grow by acquisition, but they bring in a new company, and they know what the process is to get them on board, not just from a visual identity, like rebranding all the collateral, like the sales enablement and stuff like that, but bringing the internal teams up to speed about like, what what we stand for, what we hire, like, what kind of values we Look for, so that every customer gets the same experience Christian Klepp  22:04 from your experience. How did that exercise of helping them to re brand and take all of this because, you know, there’s that situation of taking all the business units and putting them under one roof, so to speak. How did that exercise help to improve them as an organization. JoAnne Gritter  22:22 It’s been a long time, like in multiple phases. So it improves their organization. It creates a lot of clarity for them. So they’re not like redoing each other’s work, and they’re not all creating the same or they’re they’re not all creating from scratch anymore. They have a they have a similar starting point on, like, the different messaging pillars that they need to hit, even for just their products, you know. So this goes into product messaging and product launch. So like, if they are medical device, they are they want to sell, you know, knee replacements or or stuff along those lines, they know that they need to hit on a couple core values, and they need to make sure that they are targeting the same audience, and that they need to make sure that they that what they’re saying out there aligns with the master brand. Of course, there’s they still need to do the differentiators on the product level, but they also have the full brand that that supports it. So it’s just a higher level like reputation. I like to, I like to compare like branding to your reputation. So that goes along with every product that they bring in. Christian Klepp  23:32 Yeah, no, absolutely, absolutely. Okay, we get to the part in the conversation. We’re talking about actionable tips. And you’ve, you’ve actually given us quite a bit already, but if we were to summarize it, okay, JoAnne, like, if there was somebody out if there was somebody out there that was listening to this conversation, and they were listening to what you were saying, and they were like, oh my goodness, this is exactly what we’re going through right now, right? I mean, besides contacting you, right, what are like three to five things that you would recommend they do right now to realign for long term growth using brand strategy, JoAnne Gritter  24:10 I would take a look at what brand strategy you already have, if you have one otherwise kind of creating at least the bones of that. Like, what are our values? What are we focused on? What is our purpose here and mission? And then, like, what are messaging pillars or groups that align with those values? And then once you have those making sure that you have a succinct narrative or story, or even, like an elevator pitch, that everybody is aligned on. Having that is kind of a simple, hopefully a simple thing for you to figure out and align on, and then auditing the customer journey for those promises and values. So like, if you have a customer journey, they’re going from, you know, awareness of you. Or a problem to consideration between you and your company, and, you know, multiple other companies, and then you’re they’re making a decision, then they’re purchasing, then they’re hopefully your customer experience, and your delivery teams are delivering on those promises, and then you’re creating loyalty. So that’s the customer journey. So of these phases are, they are the customers still experiencing the brand that you want them to experience. So that’s like a little audit that you can do. And then from there, also making sure that all of your content that’s out there, from your like your brochures, your website, your sales enablement kind of stuff, making sure that that’s still aligned to the brand and the message that that you want it to and then making sure that, of course, throughout the company, in your like, HR documentation, you’re, I’ve said onboarding a million times, but like, making sure that everybody that’s coming into your organization understands who you are and who you who you serve, and why? Christian Klepp  26:01 Absolutely, absolutely. And that’s a really good list. And I have to ask you this question, because you know, at the time of the recording, we’re at the end of 2025, and you did bring up AI, so I’m going to bring it up again. How, how has in your experience, from what you’re seeing out there, how has AI impacted brand strategy and all the work that comes along with that. JoAnne Gritter  26:24 Well, that’s a loaded question, right? So as far as brand strategy, I kind of see it. AI can be used as a tool. It should not replace thinking and actually talking to your customers and your employees and your sales team. So you can use AI as a crutch to to, like, ask it for ideas, idea generation. You can use it for deep research on your on your audience, and stuff like that. But nothing replaces the gold standard of talking to people. So like, the the best resources from that research perspective are your customers, or your prospective customers and your sales team, if you can’t get to those customers, will often hear those like, you know, positive and negatives about your products and services. So getting to those and aligning on stakeholders, AI can be used as you know, you can use it to help think of ideas for like, let me think if you were thinking of like values, like core values, like in and messaging pillars, you can say, hey, you know, I really want it to be something along these lines. We’re circling around on like, exactly right the what the right way to phrase this is. And it can give you 50 different ideas, and you can cross out 45 of them and then land on like the top five that you communicate with your team. Don’t ever take it for rate for like per vatum, sorry, exactly as chat GPT gives you, Christian Klepp  27:55 at face value. JoAnne Gritter  27:57 Thank you. I see that that is a lot harder for early career individuals because they don’t have that discernment yet. So they, they will, they will use it as a crutch, and then, like, oftentimes not have that same kind of editing expertise to see what actually works and what doesn’t. So like pairing AI as a tool with with human intelligence and empathy, for sure, Christian Klepp  28:23 Absolutely, absolutely. I mean, at least in from my observation, and this is where I think AI really falls flat, especially when you’re coming up with the verbal expression component of brand strategy. AI doesn’t really have any soul or character, like everything, it turns out, is very, for lack of a better description, lifeless, so, and that’s where the human element, or to your point, the human intervention, can then come into play, because then you can inject that story, you can inject that human emotion, which also is a very crucial component in B2B, right? As much as people like to say, oh, B2B is all factual, right? And I would, I would disagree with that, JoAnne Gritter  29:06 yeah, it’s, it’s quality over quantity. Now, you know people, people can spot, can spot the AI generated content, and there can be a whole bunch of it, and that can help you in a variety of ways. But if it’s not actually, if it doesn’t sound human speaking or human human sounding, then, then people reject it and they don’t trust it as much. Christian Klepp  29:28 Okay, get up on your soapbox a status quo that you passionately disagree with, and why? JoAnne Gritter  29:37 I passionately disagree with data only marketing. So the big push for data driven marketing, I am, I am on board with that at face value, but it still doesn’t tell the whole story, because you can still look at data from, let’s say you did like a. Um, a focus group about about what customers want from a like a beverage or something. I’m thinking of Coca Cola, and they and they say that they they want it to be healthy. They want it to be low sugar. They want it to taste amazing. They want it to make them, you know, feel great, and stuff like that that does not you’re gonna try to create like this Frankenstein kind of soda instead, instead of recognizing that, like, there’s more psychology to this. Like a Coca Cola has, like, a whole traditional, like branding kind of way that, or traditional and emotional way that they make people feel, and that doesn’t show up in the data, necessarily. That doesn’t show up in the performance data. You know that that is a totally different kind of research too. Christian Klepp  30:51 Yeah, yeah, JoAnne Gritter  30:55 You know, that’s performance, marketing and branding. Christian Klepp  30:58 I totally agree. I totally agree that, as much as there is a big camp out there that says the future is data driven now when it comes to B2B Marketing, and I’m like, Yeah, JoAnne Gritter  31:11 humans are tricky. Christian Klepp  31:13 We’re not robots. Absolutely, absolutely, okay, here comes the bonus question. So Rumor has it that you like to draw. JoAnne Gritter  31:23  I do. Christian Klepp  31:24 Yes, and from one enthusiastic sketcher to another, I thought, I thought deep and hard about this question. Tell us about one of the most well exciting, yes, but more importantly, one of the most challenging works that you’ve created to date. So what was the theme and subject? What made it so challenging to draw, and what did you learn from that experience when you when you completed it? JoAnne Gritter  31:50 I really like to find, like, kind of micro moments I have. I have three children at home, and I like to take pictures, or, like, capture, like small moments of, like one of them snuggling the cat, or like holding hands or doing something unexpected. And in, like, not a macro view, but in a micro view of like, the different connections that people have. And then, usually, I’ll take a picture, and then I will sketch those out after they go to sleep and stuff like that. And that’s just kind of my own personal way to, I don’t know it’s it’s therapeutic. It’s a way to see, see the beauty in the world, you know, and to slow down in the moment. Christian Klepp  32:37 100%. I like to call it Balsam for the soul. JoAnne Gritter  32:40 Yeah, Christian Klepp  32:40 all right, I don’t know about you, but like, I like to sketch in the in this very room where we’re doing the recording, and I usually play classical music. So like, show pen, so something like, with with piano. Like, no opera, because that can get a bit too dramatic. JoAnne Gritter  32:59 I like classical too, when, when I’m focused at classical music, and I also like binaural beats, or it’s more like meditation kind of music. So kind of zone, zone into the moment, instead of all the crazy thoughts that go through your head and all the things you have to do. Christian Klepp  33:17 Very nice, very nice. One of the things I learned about drawing is pretty much like certain aspects of our professional work, you know, like marketing and branding. It starts with a line, and then you just keep adding the layers, right? And it’s almost the same like when you’re implementing a campaign, you know, some especially nowadays, right? You try to start small first, and do a lot of testing to see if it works. And you scale from there. And I like to, I like to think of drawings that way too. You start, you start not by adding the details. You start like, you know, with a lighter pencil. And there’s a certain, there’s a certain way of holding the pencil tool, right, so you have lesser control. And just, it’s just a bit free flowing. And for me personally, it took me a long time to start drawing like that, because I’m like, No, then I don’t have control of the process. But that’s kind of the point, right? Let go of the perfectionism, right? JoAnne Gritter  34:18 You outline it first, and then you start filling in. You know that the shadows and the light marks, and then you slowly bring in the detail. I mean, that you’re totally right, that that is like a marketing or branding strategy. You got to outline it first before you go fully in on any specific detail. Otherwise, you’re you may be way off target. Christian Klepp  34:38 That’s it. That’s it. I mean, JoAnne like I think we just found our next podcast interview topic. But thank you so much for coming on and for sharing your expertise and experience with the listeners. So please a quick introduction to yourself and how people out they can get in touch with you. JoAnne Gritter  34:57 JoAnne Gritter, I’m at DDM Marketing and Communications headquartered in Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA. And I am COO, Vice President of our company. You can get a hold of me at joanneg@teamddm.com or you can just check us out at Teamddm.com Christian Klepp  35:18 Fantastic, fantastic. And we will be sure to like drop all those links in the show notes. So once again, JoAnne, thanks so much for your time. Take care, stay safe and talk to you soon. JoAnne Gritter  35:27 Thanks, Christian. Bye. Christian Klepp  35:29 Bye, for now you.

Get ready to dive into the wild world of home improvement this Saturday because we're talking about the revolutionary TrimJoist system that's about to make your new construction or remodel project way less of a headache. Seriously, why are we still using old-school methods when we can have something that doesn't require a degree in chaos management? Join Eric G. and John Dudley as they chat with Skyler Thomas from Trim Joist, and trust me, you'll want to stick around for the laughter and the DIY disasters we'll probably inspire. In the second hour, we're bringing back Wendy Glaister to dish out some fun late-winter DIY projects that'll have you questioning your life choices as you tackle that to-do list. So grab your tools and maybe a snack (or a stress ball—we won't judge), and let's make home improvement a little less ridiculous and a lot more entertaining!Takeaways:This weekend's show is packed with hilarity and home improvement wisdom, so buckle up!Join us as we dive into the absurdity of construction with experts who know their stuff.Ever wondered how to make your remodel easier? Tune in for the groundbreaking Trim Joist system discussion.We're spilling the tea on DIY projects that might just change your life (or at least your home).Wait until you hear about the wild and questionable water heater setups we're discussing!It's not just home tips; it's a comedy show about home improvement gone wrong, so don't miss it!Companies mentioned in this episode:TrimJoistWendy Glaister InteriorsMentioned in this episode:Subscribe to our YouTube Channel to see every part of the project for Blacktail Ranch Exciting collaboration alert! This playlist documents our joint project renovating Cam Anderson's new farm property on Blacktail Ranch—the home base for his adventures beyond the workshop. Cam (the woodworking wizard behind Blacktail Studio, with millions of fans loving his epoxy tables, live-edge builds, and creative furniture tutorials) is stepping into brand-new territory: his first-ever full home renovation and remodel. From the charming (but dated) farmhouse with its "lead paint chic" vibes to tackling structural updates, layout changes, and modern upgrades, we're transforming this 17-acre property into a functional, beautiful living space. I'm Eric G from Around the House, bringing my remodeling, construction, and design expertise to guide the process—planning layouts, solving real-world renovation challenges, handling the practical home improvement side, and making sure the build is smart, efficient, and homeowner-friendly. Expect step-by-step progress, honest discussions on budgets/timelines/hiccups, tool tips, design decisions, and the fun dynamic of blending Cam's woodworking flair with pro remodeling know-how. Whether you're a Blacktail Studio fan curious about Cam's new chapter, a DIYer tackling your own home reno, or just love watching big transformations, this series is for you! https://www.youtube.com/@aroundthehouseEricG/playlistsBlacktail Ranch Around the House 2026 YouTube! Make sure and Subscribe to our YouTube page! Around the...

Guest: Larry Cheng is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Volition CapitalWebsite: https://www.volitioncapital.com/. AUM: Volition Capital has $1.8 Billion AUM on their 5th FundLarry's BioLarry Cheng is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Volition Capital, a growth equity firm focused on supporting founders building capital-efficient technology businesses. With over 25 years of investing experience, Larry has led investments in dozens of companies across Internet, e-commerce, software, and consumer sectors. Most notably, Larry was the first investor in Chewy, which became the most valuable e-commerce acquisition in history. He currently serves on public company boards such as GameStop and Grove Collaborative as well as several private company boards such as US Mobile, Rounds, Levanta and several others. Earlier in his career, he led investments at Fidelity Ventures and began in venture capital at Bessemer Venture Partners.Larry's entrepreneurial journey began early when he became Apple's youngest certified technician at age 13. While at Harvard, he launched a $400,000 laundry business and later became President of Harvard Student Agencies, a $4 million student-run company serving the greater Harvard community. He graduated with a B.A. in Psychology and played football for the Crimson. Larry is a frequent guest lecturer at institutions including Harvard Business School, MIT Sloan, and USC Marshall School of Business.

Complyance raised a $20 million Series A led by GV for its AI-native compliance platform. Also, Integrate's round was led by FPV Ventures co-founder and managing partner Wesley Chan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This is what happens when you order ice cream at a bar. How were big companies were forced to carry water for the communists? Companies are finally throwing off the shackles of DEI because you stepped it up and started punishing companies that push that ideology. What happens when a political commentator becomes a turncoat? Follow The Jesse Kelly Show on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheJesseKellyShowSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ten years ago this week, in the teeth of a downturn, David picked five stocks under the banner “5 Stocks to Feed the Bear.” This week, he and longtime Fool Rick Munarriz revisit that full basket—not after a month, a quarter, or a year, but after a much better, truer timeframe for the Rule Breaker Investor: 10 years. To the very day.Which stocks did David get really right? Which ones really wrong? And why? As always, in this third installment of our new episodic series, it's not about cherry-picking highlights—it's about accountability and perspective. It's about what a 10-year scorecard teaches that the financial media's shorter windows simply can't.And the results of this sampler—along with the full program of all 30 5-stock samplers—once again prove the eye-popping success and durable wins that come to Rule Breaker investors. Sign up for The Motley Fool's Breakfast News here: ⁠⁠www.fool.com/breakfastnews⁠⁠ Order David's Rule Breaker Investing book here: ⁠⁠https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1804091219/⁠⁠Companies mentioned: CRI, ELLI, IPGP, MELI, PLNTHost: David GardnerGuest: Rick MunarrizProducer: Bart Shannon Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello! I am so excited to share the new name of my podcast with you, and the direction I see the show and this community going. I believe women are craving a forum where they can be seen, supported and to grow within themselves. I hope to offer more of that with the podcast, newsletter, and via in person gatherings. I hope you like the new name and where we're headed! Be sure to share the podcast with a friend and to subscribe to the newsletter and show. And let me know your thoughts! I appreciate you!   RESOURCES + BOOKS MENTIONED: ·       Join Michele's Newsletter + Get a List of 52-Selfcare Tips ·       Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@herstarringrole ·       Follow + Listen, + Review: APPLE PODCASTS ·       Follow + Listen, + Review: SPOTIFY PODCASTS   Sources of the stats I quoted: ·       1. ~5.6–5.8% of CEOs in the Fortune Global 500 are women Women remain underrepresented at senior levels — only 29% of C‑suite roles are held by women. And we wonder why women compete with each other. There are far too few seats at the table. This needs to change. ·       2. Women earn 83 cents for every dollar men earn. How is this possible in 2026? We know from the research that companies that have women in leadership generate more revenue. "Companies with more women on boards or in senior management generate stronger returns and financial outcomes compared with less‑diverse peers." ·       3. We take on more household and caretaking responsibilities even when women earn the same or more than their male partners. And this doesn't even include the mental load we carry.   If you enjoyed today's show, please share it with a friend. Also, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or on your favorite podcast player! *The Good Life with Michele Lamoureux podcast and content provided by Michele Lamoureux is for educational and entertainment purposes only. It does NOT constitute medical, mental health, professional, personal, or any kind of advice or serve as a substitute for such advice. The use of information on this podcast or materials linked from this podcast or website is at the user's own risk. Always consult a qualified healthcare or trusted provider for any decisions regarding your health and wellbeing. This episode may contain affiliate links.  

Companies operating food delivery robots will not be allowed to expand across parts of Wicker Park and Logan Square following overwhelmingly negative feedback from neighbors, the local alderman said Monday.Almost 500 1st Ward residents replied to an online survey distributed by Ald. La Spata's office, with more than 83 percent said they “strongly disagreed” that the robots should be allowed to operate across the ward, according to numbers provided by La Spata.Host - Iridian FierroGuest - Josh Robertson -- Read His Petition HERERead More Here Want to donate to our non-profit newsroom? CLICK HEREWho we areBlock Club Chicago is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit news organization dedicated to delivering reliable, relevant and nonpartisan coverage of Chicago's diverse neighborhoods. We believe all neighborhoods deserve to be covered in a meaningful way.We amplify positive stories, cover development and local school council meetings and serve as watchdogs in neighborhoods often ostracized by traditional news media.Ground-level coverageOur neighborhood-based reporters don't parachute in once to cover a story. They are in the neighborhoods they cover every day building relationships over time with neighbors. We believe this ground-level approach not only builds community but leads to a more accurate portrayal of a neighborhood.Stories that matter to you — every daySince our launch seven years ago, we've published more than 30,000 stories from the neighborhoods, covered hundreds of community meetings and send daily and neighborhood newsletters to more than 150,000 Chicagoans. We've built this loyalty by proving to folks we are not only covering their neighborhoods, we are a part of them. Some of us have internalized the national media's narrative of a broken Chicago. We aim to change that by celebrating our neighborhoods and chronicling the resilience of the people who fight every day to make Chicago a better place for all.

In this episode, I was lucky enough to interview with Dan Goldsmith, co-founder and chairman of Tendo and co-founder of Proofpoint Capital. Dan shares stories from his Philadelphia roots, the early formation of his grit, and the mindset that has guided his career — from running a mobile DJ business in high school to building and scaling multiple technology companies. He offers a thoughtful perspective on perseverance, explaining how deep obsession with a problem can fuel success, while also highlighting the risks of letting conviction turn into blind spots.Dan delves into Tendo's mission to modernize healthcare by putting patients at the center, improving access, affordability, and quality recognition for providers. He provides a candid take on the economic realities of healthcare, the evolving influence of AI, and why meaningful industry change may be driven more by employers than regulators. Dan also discusses his newest venture, Proofpoint Capital — an operator-led fund built to help early-stage companies scale through pattern recognition and decades of hands-on operating experience.Discover how grit, focus, and pattern recognition shaped Dan Goldsmith's journey in this episode of The First Customer!Guest Info:Tendohttp://tendo.comProofpoint Capitalhttps://www.proofpointcapital.com/Dan Goldsmith's LinkedInhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/danielgoldsmith/Connect with Jay on LinkedInhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/jayaigner/The First Customer Youtube Channelhttps://www.youtube.com/@thefirstcustomerpodcastThe First Customer podcast websitehttps://www.firstcustomerpodcast.comFollow The First Customer on LinkedInhttp://www.linkedin.com/company/the-first-customer-podcast/

Here is a FAQ Video on the Courses: https://youtu.be/0F7imrzjXWs Here is a deep dive into which course is best for you: https://youtu.be/JM_jgS8M-iU https://www.b2bRevenue.com - Get Your Free E-Book on How Companies make Decisions. FAQ: 1 YEAR ACCESS, PAY MONTHLY OR ANNUALLY NOT A SUBSCRIPTION OFFICE HOURS EVERY  OTHER WEEK VIA ZOOM. 1 HOUR GROUP Q&A. UNLIMITED 1-ON-1'S  ARE FREE AS LONG AS THEY CAN BE SHARED IN THE COURSE. 1-ON-1 ARE FULL ACCESS ON DAY ONE - NOTHING IS GATED OR TIME RELEASED. ALL CONTENT IS VIDEO BASED AND SELF PACED I RECOMMEND TAKE COURSE ONCE WITHOUT NOTES OR APPLYING IT SO YOU UNDERSTAND THE BIG PICTURE FIRST. THEN TAKE AND APPLY IT STEP BY STEP. YOU START WHEN YOU WANT AND GO AS FAST OR SLOW AS NEEDED.   Email me additional questions: briangburns@me.com     — SAMPLE EMAIL TO EXPENSE THE COURSE MGR,   I have been listening to the brutal truth about sales podcast for X months and it speaks to the issues we face.   They currently offer a course that includes video instruction, group Q&A and One-on-One coaching. I'm committed to my own personal development and would like your help in expensing the course.   It would pay for itself if I closed only one new deal of $X value.   Please let me know by Friday if I can move forward with this 1 year course.   Thanks, ME Here are some student interviews from the courses:      ———————————————————————————————————— Audible 30 day Free Trial: http://www.audibletrial.com/BrutalTruth             Listen to The Sales Questions PodCast: https://itun.es/i67d3Ry     Listen to The B2B Revenue Leadership Show: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/b2b-revenue-leadership-show/id1174976428?mt=2     Twitter: @briangburns LinkedIn: Brian G. Burns Facebook: Brian Burns YouTube: Brian Burns SALES PODCAST  

You can be smart, experienced, and successful—and still find yourself shrinking in high-stakes conversations. In this episode, we unpack why this happens to so many accomplished women and why it has little to do with competence. You'll learn the subtle communication habits that quietly give away authority—and practical shifts you can use immediately to show up with calm certainty, clarity, and presence when it matters most.You'll learn the three most common ways accomplished women unintentionally diminish their impact: over-explaining, softening the ask, and waiting to be invited into the conversation. More importantly, you'll discover simple, powerful shifts that help you show up with clarity and calm authority when it matters most.This episode is for women executives and senior leaders who are ready to stop over-functioning and start leading from self-trust—without apology or second-guessing.In this episode, you'll learn:Why over-explaining can dilute credibility—even when your ideas are strong How softening language undermines otherwise reasonable asks Why waiting to be invited costs influence in senior rooms The mindset shift from being granted authority to assuming itIf this resonated, this is exactly the work I do with women executives who want to command high-stakes conversations with presence, clarity, and unshakable self-trust. If this sparked something in you, let's talk. Favor to AskIf you enjoy this podcast, please leave a review on Amazon or wherever you listen. Your reviews help more people find the show and start communicating with greater confidence and ease.Some resources for you:Come to my first-ever retreat! If you're an executive woman looking to become a more confident communicator and uplevel your presence and ability to command any room, join us HERE. It's April 30-May 3.Get 3 Strategies to Speak Up in Meetings here.Project more confidence and credibility with my free tips: 9 Words to Avoid & What to Say Instead: Words to Avoid | Karen LaosMy book “Trust Your Own Voice”: https://karenlaos.com/book/ Connect with me:Website: https://www.karenlaos.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/karenlaosofficial Episodes also available on YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEwQoTGdJX5eME0ccBKiKng/videosAbout me:Many years ago I found myself tongue-tied in a boardroom, my colleagues and executives staring at me. My stomach in my throat, I was unable to get the words out (in spite of being in a senior leadership role). Then, I heard my boss shut down the meeting. My heart sank. I was mortified. She pulled me aside and said, "You didn't trust your gut. You could've tabled the meeting like I did."Why didn't that option occur to me in the moment? Why did I feel like I needed permission?That was the day I set out to change. I began a journey of personal growth to discover the root of the problem. Once I did, I wanted every woman to experience that same freedom.I'm now on a mission to silence self-doubt in 10 million women in 10 years by giving them simple strategies to speak up and ask for what they want in the boardroom and beyond, resulting in more clients, job promotions, and negotiation wins.Companies like NASA, Netflix, Google, and Sephora have been propelled toward more effective communication skills through my signature framework, The Confidence Cocktail™.This is your invitation to step into your most confident self so you can catapult your career! Karen Laos, Communication Expert and Confidence Cultivator, leverages 25 years in the boardroom and speaking on the world's most coveted stages such as Google and NASA to transform missed opportunities into wins. She is fiercely committed to her mission of eradicating self-doubt in 10 million women by giving them practical strategies to ask for what they want in the boardroom and beyond. She guides corporations and individuals with her tested communication model to generate consistent results through her Powerful Presence Keynote: How to Be an Influential Communicator. Get my free tips: 9 Words to Avoid & What to Say Instead: Words to Avoid | Karen Laos Connect with me:Website: https://www.karenlaos.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/karenlaosofficial Facebook: Ignite Your Confidence with Karen Laos: https://www.facebook.com/groups/karenlaosconsultingLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karenlaos/Episodes also available on YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEwQoTGdJX5eME0ccBKiKng/videosMy book “Trust Your Own Voice”: https://karenlaos.com/book/

Episode 80: Fair Investment Practices by Venture Capital Companies Law Quick hit today to discuss California's new Fair Investment Practices by Venture Capital Companies Law (“California Regulatory Overreach” as I call it), which mandates venture capital firms to collect and report demographic data about the founding teams of the companies they invest in. I outline the requirements, implications, and potential challenges that VCs may face due to this law, and share my concerns about its practicality and the reliability of the data collected.   Key Points From This Episode: Who is subject to this new law?What must Covered Entities do to comply?By when must they do all this?My quick takes on this new law.One piece of advice moving forward. Disclaimer: This show is for informational purposes only. Nothing presented here constitutes legal, investment or tax advice. The guests that join us share their considerable fund-related wisdom, but everything they share here is their personal opinion and for educational purposes only. On this show, they are speaking for themselves, and not for their employer or any affiliated entity. Tokens of Wisdom is produced by Dave Rothschild, partner at Cole-Frieman & Mallon LLP headquartered in San Francisco, California. For more information, visit https://colefrieman.com/ Links Mentioned in Today's Episode: Dave Rothschild - https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidcrothschild/Cole-Frieman & Mallon LLP - https://colefrieman.com/Music by Joe Ginsberg - https://www.instagram.com/thejoeginsbergFor any questions or comments, email: tow@colefrieman.com

Infrastructure was passé…uncool. Difficult to get dollars from Private Equity and Growth funds, and almost impossible to get a VC fund interested. Now?! Now, it's cool. Infrastructure seems to be having a Renaissance, a full on Rebirth, not just fueled by commercial interests (e.g. advent of AI), but also by industrial policy and geopolitical considerations. In this episode of Tech Deciphered, we explore what's cool in the infrastructure spaces, including mega trends in semiconductors, energy, networking & connectivity, manufacturing Navigation: Intro We're back to building things Why now: the 5 forces behind the renaissance Semiconductors: compute is the new oil Networking & connectivity: digital highways get rebuilt Energy: rebuilding the power stack (not just renewables) Manufacturing: the return of “atoms + bits” Wrap: what it means for startups, incumbents, and investors Conclusion Our co-hosts: Bertrand Schmitt, Entrepreneur in Residence at Red River West, co-founder of App Annie / Data.ai, business angel, advisor to startups and VC funds, @bschmitt Nuno Goncalves Pedro, Investor, Managing Partner, Founder at Chamaeleon, @ngpedro Our show: Tech DECIPHERED brings you the Entrepreneur and Investor views on Big Tech, VC and Start-up news, opinion pieces and research. We decipher their meaning, and add inside knowledge and context. Being nerds, we also discuss the latest gadgets and pop culture news Subscribe To Our Podcast Nuno Gonçalves Pedro Introduction Welcome to episode 73 of Tech Deciphered, Infrastructure, the Rebirth or Renaissance. Infrastructure was passé, it wasn’t cool, but all of a sudden now everyone’s talking about network, talking about compute and semiconductors, talking about logistics, talking about energy. What gives? What’s happened? It was impossible in the past to get any funds, venture capital, even, to be honest, some private equity funds or growth funds interested in some of these areas, but now all of a sudden everyone thinks it’s cool. The infrastructure seems to be having a renaissance, a full-on rebirth. In this episode, we will explore in which cool ways the infrastructure spaces are moving and what’s leading to it. We will deep dive into the forces that are leading us to this. We will deep dive into semiconductors, networking and connectivity, energy, manufacturing, and then we’ll wrap up. Bertrand, so infrastructure is cool now. Bertrand Schmitt We're back to building things Yes. I thought software was going to eat the world. I cannot believe it was then, maybe even 15 years ago, from Andreessen, that quote about software eating the world. I guess it’s an eternal balance. Sometimes you go ahead of yourself, you build a lot of software stack, and at some point, you need the hardware to run this software stack, and there is only so much the bits can do in a world of atoms. Nuno Gonçalves Pedro Obviously, we’ve gone through some of this before. I think what we’re going through right now is AI is eating the world, and because AI is eating the world, it’s driving a lot of this infrastructure building that we need. We don’t have enough energy to be consumed by all these big data centers and hyperscalers. We need to be innovative around network as well because of the consumption in terms of network bandwidth that is linked to that consumption as well. In some ways, it’s not software eating the world, AI is eating the world. Because AI is eating the world, we need to rethink everything around infrastructure and infrastructure becoming cool again. Bertrand Schmitt There is something deeper in this. It’s that the past 10, even 15 years were all about SaaS before AI. SaaS, interestingly enough, was very energy-efficient. When I say SaaS, I mean cloud computing at large. What I mean by energy-efficient is that actually cloud computing help make energy use more efficient because instead of companies having their own separate data centers in many locations, sometimes poorly run from an industrial perspective, replace their own privately run data center with data center run by the super scalers, the hyperscalers of the world. These data centers were run much better in terms of how you manage the coolings, the energy efficiency, the rack density, all of this stuff. Actually, the cloud revolution didn’t increase the use of electricity. The cloud revolution was actually a replacement from your private data center to the hyperscaler data center, which was energy efficient. That’s why we didn’t, even if we are always talking about that growth of cloud computing, we were never feeling the pinch in term of electricity. As you say, we say it all changed because with AI, it was not a simple “Replacement” of locally run infrastructure to a hyperscaler run infrastructure. It was truly adding on top of an existing infrastructure, a new computing infrastructure in a way out of nowhere. Not just any computing infrastructure, an energy infrastructure that was really, really voracious in term of energy use. Nuno Gonçalves Pedro There was one other effect. Obviously, we’ve discussed before, we are in a bubble. We won’t go too much into that today. But the previous big bubble in tech, which is in the late ’90s, there was a lot of infrastructure built. We thought the internet was going to take over back then. It didn’t take over immediately, but there was a lot of network connectivity, bandwidth built back in the day. Companies imploded because of that as well, or had to restructure and go in their chapter 11. A lot of the big telco companies had their own issues back then, etc., but a lot of infrastructure was built back then for this advent of the internet, which would then take a long time to come. In some ways, to your point, there was a lot of latent supply that was built that was around that for a while wasn’t used, but then it was. Now it’s been used, and now we need new stuff. That’s why I feel now we’re having the new moment of infrastructure, new moment of moving forward, aligned a little bit with what you just said around cloud computing and the advent of SaaS, but also around the fact that we had a lot of buildup back in the late ’90s, early ’90s, which we’re now still reaping the benefits on in today’s world. Bertrand Schmitt Yeah, that’s actually a great point because what was built in the late ’90s, there was a lot of fibre that was built. Laying out the fibre either across countries, inside countries. This fibre, interestingly enough, you could just change the computing on both sides of the fibre, the routing, the modems, and upgrade the capacity of the fibre. But the fibre was the same in between. The big investment, CapEx investment, was really lying down that fibre, but then you could really upgrade easily. Even if both ends of the fibre were either using very old infrastructure from the ’90s or were actually dark and not being put to use, step by step, it was being put to use, equipment was replaced, and step by step, you could keep using more and more of this fibre. It was a very interesting development, as you say, because it could be expanded over the years, where if we talk about GPUs, use for AI, GPUs, the interesting part is actually it’s totally the opposite. After a few years, it’s useless. Some like Google, will argue that they can depreciate over 5, 6 years, even some GPUs. But at the end of the day, the difference in perf and energy efficiency of the GPUs means that if you are energy constrained, you just want to replace the old one even as young as three-year-old. You have to look at Nvidia increasing spec, generation after generation. It’s pretty insane. It’s usually at least 3X year over year in term of performance. Nuno Gonçalves Pedro At this moment in time, it’s very clear that it’s happening. Why now: the 5 forces behind the renaissance Maybe let’s deep dive into why it’s happening now. What are the key forces around this? We’ve identified, I think, five forces that are particularly vital that lead to the world we’re in right now. One we’ve already talked about, which is AI, the demand shock and everything that’s happened because of AI. Data centers drive power demand, drive grid upgrades, drive innovative ways of getting energy, drive chips, drive networking, drive cooling, drive manufacturing, drive all the things that we’re going to talk in just a bit. One second element that we could probably highlight in terms of the forces that are behind this is obviously where we are in terms of cost curves around technology. Obviously, a lot of things are becoming much cheaper. The simulation of physical behaviours has become a lot more cheap, which in itself, this becomes almost a vicious cycle in of itself, then drives the adoption of more and more AI and stuff. But anyway, the simulation is becoming more and more accessible, so you can do a lot of simulation with digital twins and other things off the real world before you go into the real world. Robotics itself is becoming, obviously, cheaper. Hardware, a lot of the hardware is becoming cheaper. Computer has become cheaper as well. Obviously, there’s a lot of cost curves that have aligned that, and that’s maybe the second force that I would highlight. Obviously, funds are catching up. We’ll leave that a little bit to the end. We’ll do a wrap-up and talk a little bit about the implications to investors. But there’s a lot of capital out there, some capital related to industrial policy, other capital related to private initiative, private equity, growth funds, even venture capital, to be honest, and a few other elements on that. That would be a third force that I would highlight. Bertrand Schmitt Yes. Interestingly enough, in terms of capital use, and we’ll talk more about this, but some firms, if we are talking about energy investment, it was very difficult to invest if you are not investing in green energy. Now I think more and more firms and banks are willing to invest or support different type of energy infrastructure, not just, “Green energy.” That’s an interesting development because at some point it became near impossible to invest more in gas development, in oil development in the US or in most Western countries. At least in the US, this is dramatically changing the framework. Nuno Gonçalves Pedro Maybe to add the two last forces that I think we see behind the renaissance of what’s happening in infrastructure. They go hand in hand. One is the geopolitics of the world right now. Obviously, the world was global flat, and now it’s becoming increasingly siloed, so people are playing it to their own interests. There’s a lot of replication of infrastructure as well because people want to be autonomous, and they want to drive their own ability to serve end consumers, businesses, etc., in terms of data centers and everything else. That ability has led to things like, for example, chips shortage. The fact that there are semiconductors, there are shortages across the board, like memory shortages, where everything is packed up until 2027 of 2028. A lot of the memory that was being produced is already spoken for, which is shocking. There’s obviously generation of supply chain fragilities, obviously, some of it because of policies, for example, in the US with tariffs, etc, security of energy, etc. Then the last force directly linked to the geopolitics is the opposite of it, which is the policy as an accelerant, so to speak, as something that is accelerating development, where because of those silos, individual countries, as part their industrial policy, then want to put capital behind their local ecosystems, their local companies, so that their local companies and their local systems are for sure the winners, or at least, at the very least, serve their own local markets. I think that’s true of a lot of the things we’re seeing, for example, in the US with the Chips Act, for semiconductors, with IGA, IRA, and other elements of what we’ve seen in terms of practices, policies that have been implemented even in Europe, China, and other parts of the world. Bertrand Schmitt Talking about chips shortages, it’s pretty insane what has been happening with memory. Just the past few weeks, I have seen a close to 3X increase in price in memory prices in a matter of weeks. Apparently, it started with a huge order from OpenAI. Apparently, they have tried to corner the memory market. Interestingly enough, it has flat-footed the entire industry, and that includes Google, that includes Microsoft. There are rumours of their teams now having moved to South Korea, so they are closer to the action in terms of memory factories and memory decision-making. There are rumours of execs who got fired because they didn’t prepare for this type of eventuality or didn’t lock in some of the supply chain because that memory was initially for AI, but obviously, it impacts everything because factories making memories, you have to plan years in advance to build memories. You cannot open new lines of manufacturing like this. All factories that are going to open, we know when they are going to open because they’ve been built up for years. There is no extra capacity suddenly. At the very best, you can change a bit your line of production from one type of memory to another type. But that’s probably about it. Nuno Gonçalves Pedro Just to be clear, all these transformations we’re seeing isn’t to say just hardware is back, right? It’s not just hardware. There’s physicality. The buildings are coming back, right? It’s full stack. Software is here. That’s why everything is happening. Policy is here. Finance is here. It’s a little bit like the name of the movie, right? Everything everywhere all at once. Everything’s happening. It was in some ways driven by the upper stacks, by the app layers, by the platform layers. But now we need new infrastructure. We need more infrastructure. We need it very, very quickly. We need it today. We’re already lacking in it. Semiconductors: compute is the new oil Maybe that’s a good segue into the first piece of the whole infrastructure thing that’s driving now the most valuable company in the world, NVIDIA, which is semiconductors. Semiconductors are driving compute. Semis are the foundation of infrastructure as a compute. Everyone needs it for every thing, for every activity, not just for compute, but even for sensors, for actuators, everything else. That’s the beginning of it all. Semiconductor is one of the key pieces around the infrastructure stack that’s being built at scale at this moment in time. Bertrand Schmitt Yes. What’s interesting is that if we look at the market gap of Semis versus software as a service, cloud companies, there has been a widening gap the past year. I forgot the exact numbers, but we were talking about plus 20, 25% for Semis in term of market gap and minus 5, minus 10 for SaaS companies. That’s another trend that’s happening. Why is this happening? One, because semiconductors are core to the AI build-up, you cannot go around without them. But two, it’s also raising a lot of questions about the durability of the SaaS, a software-as-a-service business model. Because if suddenly we have better AI, and that’s all everyone is talking about to justify the investment in AI, that it keeps getting better, and it keeps improving, and it’s going to replace your engineers, your software engineers. Then maybe all of this moat that software companies built up over the years or decades, sometimes, might unravel under the pressure of newly coded, newly built, cheaper alternatives built from the ground up with AI support. It’s not just that, yes, semiconductors are doing great. It’s also as a result of that AI underlying trend that software is doing worse right now. Nuno Gonçalves Pedro At the end of the day, this foundational piece of infrastructure, semiconductor, is obviously getting manifest to many things, fabrication, manufacturing, packaging, materials, equipment. Everything’s being driven, ASML, etc. There are all these different players around the world that are having skyrocket valuations now, it’s because they’re all part of the value chain. Just to be very, very clear, there’s two elements of this that I think are very important for us to remember at this point in time. One, it’s the entire value chains are being shifted. It’s not just the chips that basically lead to computing in the strict sense of it. It’s like chips, for example, that drive, for example, network switching. We’re going to talk about networking a bit, but you need chips to drive better network switching. That’s getting revolutionised as well. For example, we have an investment in that space, a company called the eridu.ai, and they’re revolutionising one of the pieces around that stack. Second part of the puzzle, so obviously, besides the holistic view of the world that’s changing in terms of value change, the second piece of the puzzle is, as we discussed before, there’s industrial policy. We already mentioned the CHIPS Act, which is something, for example, that has been done in the US, which I think is 52 billion in incentives across a variety of things, grants, loans, and other mechanisms to incentivise players to scale capacity quick and to scale capacity locally in the US. One of the effects of that now is obviously we had the TSMC, US expansion with a factory here in the US. We have other levels of expansion going on with Intel, Samsung, and others that are happening as we speak. Again, it’s this two by two. It’s market forces that drive the need for fundamental shifts in the value chain. On the other industrial policy and actual money put forward by states, by governments, by entities that want to revolutionise their own local markets. Bertrand Schmitt Yes. When you talk about networking, it makes me think about what NVIDIA did more than six years ago when they acquired Mellanox. At the time, it was largest acquisition for NVIDIA in 2019, and it was networking for the data center. Not networking across data center, but inside the data center, and basically making sure that your GPUs, the different computers, can talk as fast as possible between each of them. I think that’s one piece of the puzzle that a lot of companies are missing, by the way, about NVIDIA is that they are truly providing full systems. They are not just providing a GPU. Some of their competitors are just providing GPUs. But NVIDIA can provide you the full rack. Now, they move to liquid-cool computing as well. They design their systems with liquid cooling in mind. They have a very different approach in the industry. It’s a systematic system-level approach to how do you optimize your data center. Quite frankly, that’s a bit hard to beat. Nuno Gonçalves Pedro For those listening, you’d be like, this is all very different. Semiconductors, networking, energy, manufacturing, this is all different. Then all of a sudden, as Bertrand is saying, well, there are some players that are acting across the stack. Then you see in the same sentence, you’re talking about nuclear power in Microsoft or nuclear power in Google, and you’re like, what happened? Why are these guys in the same sentence? It’s like they’re tech companies. Why are they talking about energy? It’s the nature of that. These ecosystems need to go hand in hand. The value chains are very deep. For you to actually reap the benefits of more and more, for example, semiconductor availability, you have to have better and better networking connectivity, and you have to have more and more energy at lower and lower costs, and all of that. All these things are intrinsically linked. That’s why you see all these big tech companies working across stack, NVIDIA being a great example of that in trying to create truly a systems approach to the world, as Bertrand was mentioning. Networking & connectivity: digital highways get rebuilt On the networking and connectivity side, as we said, we had a lot of fibre that was put down, etc, but there’s still more build-out needs to be done. 5G in terms of its densification is still happening. We’re now starting to talk, obviously, about 6G. I’m not sure most telcos are very happy about that because they just have been doing all this CapEx and all this deployment into 5G, and now people already started talking about 6G and what’s next. Obviously, data center interconnect is quite important, and all the hubbing that needs to happen around data centers is very, very important. We are seeing a lot movements around connectivity that are particularly important. Network gear and the emergence of players like Broadcom in terms of the semiconductor side of the fence, obviously, Cisco, Juniper, Arista, and others that are very much present in this space. As I said, we made an investment on the semiconductor side of networking as well, realizing that there’s still a lot of bottlenecks happening there. But obviously, the networking and connectivity stack still needs to be built at all levels within the data centers, outside of the data centers in terms of last mile, across the board in terms of fibre. We’re seeing a lot of movements still around the space. It’s what connects everything. At the end of the day, if there’s too much latency in these systems, if the bandwidths are not high enough, then we’re going to have huge bottlenecks that are going to be put at the table by a networking providers. Obviously, that doesn’t help anyone. If there’s a button like anywhere, it doesn’t work. All of this doesn’t work. Bertrand Schmitt Yes. Interestingly enough, I know we said for this episode, we not talk too much about space, but when you talk about 6G, it make me think about, of course, Starlink. That’s really your last mile delivery that’s being built as well. It’s a massive investment. We’re talking about thousands of satellites that are interconnected between each other through laser system. This is changing dramatically how companies can operate, how individuals can operate. For companies, you can have great connectivity from anywhere in the world. For military, it’s the same. For individuals, suddenly, you won’t have dead space, wide zones. This is also a part of changing how we could do things. It’s quite important even in the development of AI because, yes, you can have AI at the edge, but that interconnect to the rest of the system is quite critical. Having that availability of a network link, high-quality network link from anywhere is a great combo. Nuno Gonçalves Pedro Then you start seeing regions of the world that want to differentiate to attract digital nomads by saying, “We have submarine cables that come and hub through us, and therefore, our connectivity is amazing.” I was just in Madeira, and they were talking about that in Portugal. One of the islands of Portugal. We have some Marine cables. You have great connectivity. We’re getting into that discussion where people are like, I don’t care. I mean, I don’t know. I assume I have decent connectivity. People actually care about decent connectivity. This discussion is not just happening at corporate level, at enterprise level? Etc. Even consumers, even people that want to work remotely or be based somewhere else in the world. It’s like, This is important Where is there a great connectivity for me so that I can have access to the services I need? Etc. Everyone becomes aware of everything. We had a cloud flare mishap more recently that the CEO had to jump online and explain deeply, technically and deeply, what happened. Because we’re in their heads. If Cloudflare goes down, there’s a lot of websites that don’t work. All of this, I think, is now becoming du jour rather than just an afterthought. Maybe we’ll think about that in the future. Bertrand Schmitt Totally. I think your life is being changed for network connectivity, so life of individuals, companies. I mean, everything. Look at airlines and ships and cruise ships. Now is the advent of satellite connectivity. It’s dramatically changing our experience. Nuno Gonçalves Pedro Indeed. Energy: rebuilding the power stack (not just renewables) Moving maybe to energy. We’ve talked about energy quite a bit in the past. Maybe we start with the one that we didn’t talk as much, although we did mention it, which was, let’s call it the fossil infrastructure, what’s happening around there. Everyone was saying, it’s all going to be renewables and green. We’ve had a shift of power, geopolitics. Honestly, I the writing was on the wall that we needed a lot more energy creation. It wasn’t either or. We needed other sources to be as efficient as possible. Obviously, we see a lot of work happening around there that many would have thought, Well, all this infrastructure doesn’t matter anymore. Now we’re seeing LNG terminals, pipelines, petrochemical capacity being pushed up, a lot of stuff happening around markets in terms of export, and not only around export, but also around overall distribution and increases and improvements so that there’s less leakage, distribution of energy, etc. In some ways, people say, it’s controversial, but it’s like we don’t have enough energy to spare. We’re already behind, so we need as much as we can. We need to figure out the way to really extract as much as we can from even natural resources, which In many people’s mind, it’s almost like blasphemous to talk about, but it is where we are. Obviously, there’s a lot of renaissance also happening on the fossil infrastructure basis, so to speak. Bertrand Schmitt Personally, I’m ecstatic that there is a renaissance going regarding what is called fossil infrastructure. Oil and gas, it’s critical to humanity well-being. You never had growth of countries without energy growth and nothing else can come close. Nuclear could come close, but it takes decades to deploy. I think it’s great. It’s great for developed economies so that they do better, they can expand faster. It’s great for third-world countries who have no realistic other choice. I really don’t know what happened the past 10, 15 years and why this was suddenly blasphemous. But I’m glad that, strangely, thanks to AI, we are back to a more rational mindset about energy and making sure we get efficient energy where we can. Obviously, nuclear is getting a second act. Nuno Gonçalves Pedro I know you would be. We’ve been talking about for a long time, and you’ve been talking about it in particular for a very long time. Bertrand Schmitt Yes, definitely. It’s been one area of interest of mine for 25 years. I don’t know. I’ve been shocked about what happened in Europe, that willingness destruction of energy infrastructure, especially in Germany. Just a few months ago, they keep destroying on live TV some nuclear station in perfect working condition and replacing them with coal. I’m not sure there is a better definition of insanity at this stage. It looks like it’s only the Germans going that hardcore for some reason, but at least the French have stopped their program of decommissioning. America, it seems to be doing the same, so it’s great. On top of it, there are new generations that could be put to use. The Chinese are building up a very large nuclear reactor program, more than 100 reactors in construction for the next 10 years. I think everybody has to catch up because at some point, this is the most efficient energy solution. Especially if you don’t build crazy constraints around the construction of these nuclear reactors. If we are rational about permits, about energy, about safety, there are great things we could be doing with nuclear. That might be one of the only solution if we want to be competitive, because when energy prices go down like crazy, like in China, they will do once they have reach delivery of their significant build-up of nuclear reactors, we better be ready to have similar options from a cost perspective. Nuno Gonçalves Pedro From the outside, at the very least, nuclear seems to be probably in the energy one of the areas that’s more being innovated at this moment in time. You have startups in the space, you have a lot really money going into it, not just your classic industrial development. That’s very exciting. Moving maybe to the carbonization and what’s happening. The CCUS, and for those who don’t know what it is, carbon capture, utilization, and storage. There’s a lot of stuff happening around that space. That’s the area that deals with the ability to capture CO₂ emissions from industrial sources and/or the atmosphere and preventing their release. There’s a lot of things happening in that space. There’s also a lot of things happening around hydrogen and geothermal and really creating the ability to storage or to store, rather, energy that then can be put back into the grids at the right time. There’s a lot of interesting pieces happening around this. There’s some startup movement in the space. It’s been a long time coming, the reuse of a lot of these industrial sources. Not sure it’s as much on the news as nuclear, and oil and gas, but certainly there’s a lot of exciting things happening there. Bertrand Schmitt I’m a bit more dubious here, but I think geothermal makes sense if it’s available at reasonable price. I don’t think hydrogen technology has proven its value. Concerning carbon capture, I’m not sure how much it’s really going to provide in terms of energy needs, but why not? Nuno Gonçalves Pedro Fuels niche, again, from the outside, we’re not energy experts, but certainly, there are movements in the space. We’ll see what’s happening. One area where there’s definitely a lot of movement is this notion of grid and storage. On the one hand, that transmission needs to be built out. It needs to be better. We’ve had issues of blackouts in the US. We’ve had issues of blackouts all around the world, almost. Portugal as well, for a significant part of the time. The ability to work around transmission lines, transformers, substations, the modernization of some of this infrastructure, and the move forward of it is pretty critical. But at the other end, there’s the edge. Then, on the edge, you have the ability to store. We should have, better mechanisms to store energy that are less leaky in terms of energy storage. Obviously, there’s a lot of movement around that. Some of it driven just by commercial stuff, like Tesla a lot with their storage stuff, etc. Some of it really driven at scale by energy players that have the interest that, for example, some of the storage starts happening closer to the consumption as well. But there’s a lot of exciting things happening in that space, and that is a transformative space. In some ways, the bottleneck of energy is also around transmission and then ultimately the access to energy by homes, by businesses, by industries, etc. Bertrand Schmitt I would say some of the blackout are truly man-made. If I pick on California, for instance. That’s the logical conclusion of the regulatory system in place in California. On one side, you limit price that energy supplier can sell. The utility company can sell, too. On the other side, you force them to decommission the most energy-efficient and least expensive energy source. That means you cap the revenues, you make the cost increase. What is the result? The result is you cannot invest anymore to support a grid and to support transmission. That’s 100% obvious. That’s what happened, at least in many places. The solution is stop crazy regulations that makes no economic sense whatsoever. Then, strangely enough, you can invest again in transmission, in maintenance, and all I love this stuff. Maybe another piece, if we pick in California, if you authorize building construction in areas where fires are easy, that’s also a very costly to support from utility perspective, because then you are creating more risk. You are forced buy the state to connect these new constructions to the grid. You have more maintenance. If it fails, you can create fire. If you create fire, you have to pay billions of fees. I just want to highlight that some of this is not a technological issue, is not per se an investment issue, but it’s simply the result of very bad regulations. I hope that some will learn, and some change will be made so that utilities can do their job better. Nuno Gonçalves Pedro Then last, but not the least, on the energy side, energy is becoming more and more digitally defined in some ways. It’s like the analogy to networks that they’ve become more, and more software defined, where you have, at the edge is things like smart meters. There’s a lot of things you can do around the key elements of the business model, like dynamic pricing and other elements. Demand response, one of the areas that I invested in, I invest in a company called Omconnect that’s now merged with what used to be Google Nest. Where to deploy that ability to do demand response and also pass it to consumers so that consumers can reduce their consumption at times where is the least price effective or the less green or the less good for the energy companies to produce energy. We have other things that are happening, which are interesting. Obviously, we have a lot more electric vehicles in cars, etc. These are also elements of storage. They don’t look like elements of storage, but the car has electricity in it once you charge it. Once it’s charged, what do you do with it? Could you do something else? Like the whole reverse charging piece that we also see now today in mobile devices and other edge devices, so to speak. That also changes the architecture of what we’re seeing around the space. With AI, there’s a lot of elements that change around the value chain. The ability to do forecasting, the ability to have, for example, virtual power plans because of just designated storage out there, etc. Interesting times happening. Not sure all utilities around the world, all energy providers around the world are innovating at the same pace and in the same way. But certainly just looking at the industry and talking to a lot of players that are CEOs of some of these companies. That are leading innovation for some of these companies, there’s definitely a lot more happening now in the last few years than maybe over the last few decades. Very exciting times. Bertrand Schmitt I think there are two interesting points in what you say. Talking about EVs, for instance, a Cybertruck is able to send electricity back to your home if your home is able to receive electricity from that source. Usually, you have some changes to make to the meter system, to your panel. That’s one great way to potentially use your car battery. Another piece of the puzzle is that, strangely enough, most strangely enough, there has been a big push to EV, but at the same time, there has not been a push to provide more electricity. But if you replace cars that use gasoline by electric vehicles that use electricity, you need to deliver more electricity. It doesn’t require a PhD to get that. But, strangely enough, nothing was done. Nuno Gonçalves Pedro Apparently, it does. Bertrand Schmitt I remember that study in France where they say that, if people were all to switch to EV, we will need 10 more nuclear reactors just on the way from Paris to Nice to the Côte d’Azur, the French Rivière, in order to provide electricity to the cars going there during the summer vacation. But I mean, guess what? No nuclear plant is being built along the way. Good luck charging your vehicles. I think that’s another limit that has been happening to the grid is more electric vehicles that require charging when the related infrastructure has not been upgraded to support more. Actually, it has quite the opposite. In many cases, we had situation of nuclear reactors closing down, so other facilities closing down. Obviously, the end result is an increase in price of electricity, at least in some states and countries that have not sold that fully out. Nuno Gonçalves Pedro Manufacturing: the return of “atoms + bits” Moving to manufacturing and what’s happening around manufacturing, manufacturing technology. There’s maybe the case to be made that manufacturing is getting replatformed, right? It’s getting redefined. Some of it is very obvious, and it’s already been ongoing for a couple of decades, which is the advent of and more and more either robotic augmented factories or just fully roboticized factories, where there’s very little presence of human beings. There’s elements of that. There’s the element of software definition on top of it, like simulation. A lot of automation is going on. A lot of AI has been applied to some lines in terms of vision, safety. We have an investment in a company called Sauter Analytics that is very focused on that from the perspective of employees and when they’re still humans in the loop, so to speak, and the ability to really figure out when people are at risk and other elements of what’s happening occurring from that. But there’s more than that. There’s a little bit of a renaissance in and of itself. Factories are, initially, if we go back a couple of decades ago, factories were, and manufacturing was very much defined from the setup. Now it’s difficult to innovate, it’s difficult to shift the line, it’s difficult to change how things are done in the line. With the advent of new factories that have less legacy, that have more flexible systems, not only in terms of software, but also in terms of hardware and robotics, it allows us to, for example, change and shift lines much more easily to different functions, which will hopefully, over time, not only reduce dramatically the cost of production. But also increase dramatically the yield, it increases dramatically the production itself. A lot of cool stuff happening in that space. Bertrand Schmitt It’s exciting to see that. One thing this current administration in the US has been betting on is not just hoping for construction renaissance. Especially on the factory side, up of factories, but their mindset was two things. One, should I force more companies to build locally because it would be cheaper? Two, increase output and supply of energy so that running factories here in the US would be cheaper than anywhere else. Maybe not cheaper than China, but certainly we get is cheaper than Europe. But three, it’s also the belief that thanks to AI, we will be able to have more efficient factories. There is always that question, do Americans to still keep making clothes, for instance, in factories. That used to be the case maybe 50 years ago, but this move to China, this move to Bangladesh, this move to different places. That’s not the goal. But it can make sense that indeed there is ability, thanks to robots and AI, to have more automated factories, and these factories could be run more efficiently, and as a result, it would be priced-competitive, even if run in the US. When you want to think about it, that has been, for instance, the South Korean playbook. More automated factories, robotics, all of this, because that was the only way to compete against China, which has a near infinite or used to have a near infinite supply of cheaper labour. I think that all of this combined can make a lot of sense. In a way, it’s probably creating a perfect storm. Maybe another piece of the puzzle this administration has been working on pretty hard is simplifying all the permitting process. Because a big chunk of the problem is that if your permitting is very complex, very expensive, what take two years to build become four years, five years, 10 years. The investment mass is not the same in that situation. I think that’s a very important part of the puzzle. It’s use this opportunity to reduce regulatory state, make sure that things are more efficient. Also, things are less at risk of bribery and fraud because all these regulations, there might be ways around. I think it’s quite critical to really be careful about this. Maybe last piece of the puzzle is the way accounting works. There are new rules now in 2026 in the US where you can fully depreciate your CapEx much faster than before. That’s a big win for manufacturing in the US. Suddenly, you can depreciate much faster some of your CapEx investment in manufacturing. Nuno Gonçalves Pedro Just going back to a point you made and then moving it forward, even China, with being now probably the country in the world with the highest rate of innovation and take up of industrial robots. Because of demographic issues a little bit what led Japan the first place to be one of the real big innovators around robots in general. The fact that demographics, you’re having an aging population, less and less children. How are you going to replace all these people? Moving that into big winners, who becomes a big winner in a space where manufacturing is fundamentally changing? Obviously, there’s the big four of robots, which is ABB, FANUC, KUKA, and Yaskawa. Epson, I think, is now in there, although it’s not considered one of the big four. Kawasaki, Denso, Universal Robots. There’s a really big robotics, industrial robotic companies in the space from different origins, FANUC and Yaskawa, and Epson from Japan, KUKA from Germany, ABB from Switzerland, Sweden. A lot of now emerging companies from China, and what’s happening in that space is quite interesting. On the other hand, also, other winners will include players that will be integrators that will build some of the rest of the infrastructure that goes into manufacturing, the Siemens of the world, the Schneider’s, the Rockwell’s that will lead to fundamental industrial automation. Some big winners in there that whose names are well known, so probably not a huge amount of surprises there. There’s movements. As I said, we’re still going to see the big Chinese players emerging in the world. There are startups that are innovating around a lot of the edges that are significant in this space. We’ll see if this is a space that will just be continued to be dominated by the big foreign robotics and by a couple of others and by the big integrators or not. Bertrand Schmitt I think you are right to remind about China because China has been moving very fast in robotics. Some Chinese companies are world-class in their use of robotics. You have this strange mix of some older industries where robotics might not be so much put to use and typically state-owned, versus some private companies, typically some tech companies that are reconverting into hardware in some situation. That went all in terms of robotics use and their demonstrations, an example of what’s happening in China. Definitely, the Chinese are not resting. Everyone smart enough is playing that game from the Americans, the Chinese, Japanese, the South Koreans. Nuno Gonçalves Pedro Exciting things are manufacturing, and maybe to bring it all together, what does it mean for all the big players out there? If we talk with startups and talk about startups, we didn’t mention a ton of startups today, right? Maybe incumbent wind across the board. But on a more serious note, we did mention a few. For example, in nuclear energy, there’s a lot of startups that have been, some of them, incredibly well-funded at this moment in time. Wrap: what it means for startups, incumbents, and investors There might be some big disruptions that will come out of startups, for example, in that space. On the chipset side, we talked about the big gorillas, the NVIDIAs, AMDs, Intel, etc., of the world. But we didn’t quite talk about the fact that there’s a lot of innovation, again, happening on the edges with new players going after very large niches, be it in networking and switching. Be it in compute and other areas that will need different, more specialized solutions. Potentially in terms of compute or in terms of semiconductor deployments. I think there’s still some opportunities there, maybe not to be the winner takes all thing, but certainly around a lot of very significant niches that might grow very fast. Manufacturing, we mentioned the same. Some of the incumbents seem to be in the driving seat. We’ll see what happens if some startups will come in and take some of the momentum there, probably less likely. There are spaces where the value chains are very tightly built around the OEMs and then the suppliers overall, classically the tier one suppliers across value chains. Maybe there is some startup investment play. We certainly have played in the couple of the spaces. I mentioned already some of them today, but this is maybe where the incumbents have it all to lose. It’s more for them to lose rather than for the startups to win just because of the scale of what needs to be done and what needs to be deployed. Bertrand Schmitt I know. That’s interesting point. I think some players in energy production, for instance, are moving very fast and behaving not only like startups. Usually, it’s independent energy suppliers who are not kept by too much regulations that get moved faster. Utility companies, as we just discussed, have more constraints. I would like to say that if you take semiconductor space, there has been quite a lot of startup activities way more than usual, and there have been some incredible success. Just a few weeks ago, Rock got more or less acquired. Now, you have to play games. It’s not an outright acquisition, but $20 billion for an IP licensing agreement that’s close to an acquisition. That’s an incredible success for a company. Started maybe 10 years ago. You have another Cerebras, one of the competitor valued, I believe, quite a lot in similar range. I think there is definitely some activity. It’s definitely a different game compared to your software startup in terms of investment. But as we have seen with AI in general, the need for investment might be larger these days. Yes, it might be either traditional players if they can move fast enough, to be frank, because some of them, when you have decades of being run as a slow-moving company, it’s hard to change things. At the same time, it looks like VCs are getting bigger. Wall Street is getting more ready to finance some of these companies. I think there will be opportunities for startups, but definitely different types of startups in terms of profile. Nuno Gonçalves Pedro Exactly. From an investor standpoint, I think on the VC side, at least our core belief is that it’s more niche. It’s more around big niches that need to be fundamentally disrupted or solutions that require fundamental interoperability and integration where the incumbents have no motivation to do it. Things that are a little bit more either packaging on the semiconductor side or other elements of actual interoperability. Even at the software layer side that feeds into infrastructure. If you’re a growth investor, a private equity investor, there’s other plays that are available to you. A lot of these projects need to be funded and need to be scaled. Now we’re seeing projects being funded even for a very large, we mentioned it in one of the previous episodes, for a very large tech companies. When Meta, for example, is going to the market to get funding for data centers, etc. There’s projects to be funded there because just the quantum and scale of some of these projects, either because of financial interest for specifically the tech companies or for other reasons, but they need to be funded by the market. There’s other place right now, certainly if you’re a larger private equity growth investor, and you want to come into the market and do projects. Even public-private financing is now available for a lot of things. Definitely, there’s a lot of things emanating that require a lot of funding, even for large-scale projects. Which means the advent of some of these projects and where realization is hopefully more of a given than in other circumstances, because there’s actual commercial capital behind it and private capital behind it to fuel it as well, not just industrial policy and money from governments. Bertrand Schmitt There was this quite incredible stat. I guess everyone heard about that incredible growth in GDP in Q3 in the US at 4.4%. Apparently, half of that growth, so around 2.2% point, has been coming from AI and related infrastructure investment. That’s pretty massive. Half of your GDP growth coming from something that was not there three years ago or there, but not at this intensity of investment. That’s the numbers we are talking about. I’m hearing that there is a good chance that in 2026, we’re talking about five, even potentially 6% GDP growth. Again, half of it potentially coming from AI and all the related infrastructure growth that’s coming with AI. As a conclusion for this episode on infrastructure, as we just said, it’s not just AI, it’s a whole stack, and it’s manufacturing in general as well. Definitely in the US, in China, there is a lot going on. As we have seen, computing needs connectivity, networks, need power, energy and grid, and all of this needs production capacity and manufacturing. Manufacturing can benefit from AI as well. That way the loop is fully going back on itself. Infrastructure is the next big thing. It’s an opportunity, probably more for incumbents, but certainly, as usual, with such big growth opportunities for startups as well. Thank you, Nuno. Nuno Gonçalves Pedro Thank you, Bertrand.

On February 10, 2026, the May Day Strong coalition held an anti-ICE organizing, including representatives of the teachers unions, and the organizers leading the the efforts against Hilton Hotels, Target and Enterprise. Head it directly from them in this SPY STREAM highlight reel. Decode The Left with Karlyn Borysenko is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit karlyn.substack.com/subscribe

Scott Cannon, CEO of BigRentz, shares why AI is overhyped in the short term but massively underhyped for the long term. We discuss why most AI projects fail, why integrations and APIs create more value today, and how data will reshape the rental industry over the next decade.

Stephen Grootes speaks to Dr Tebogo Makube, Acting Deputy Director-General of Sectors at the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition about South Africa’s Critical Minerals Strategy and Implementation Plan. With global demand for minerals such as lithium, manganese and rare earths accelerating, South Africa is positioning itself not just as a supplier of raw materials, but as a key player in beneficiation, manufacturing and strategic value chains. The DTIC plays a central role in shaping industrial policy, attracting investment and ensuring that the country’s mineral wealth translates into jobs, growth and long-term competitiveness. In other interviews, Lindiwe Sebesho, Managing Director of Remchannel talks about shifting trends in employee pay and benefits. The 2025/2026 Remchannel survey shows sign-on bonuses, 13th cheques, and paid maternity leave declining, while wellness and targeted financial support remain priorities. Hybrid work rules are tightening, reflecting a focus on measurable productivity and performance. The Money Show is a podcast hosted by well-known journalist and radio presenter, Stephen Grootes. He explores the latest economic trends, business developments, investment opportunities, and personal finance strategies. Each episode features engaging conversations with top newsmakers, industry experts, financial advisors, entrepreneurs, and politicians, offering you thought-provoking insights to navigate the ever-changing financial landscape.    Thank you for listening to a podcast from The Money Show Listen live Primedia+ weekdays from 18:00 and 20:00 (SA Time) to The Money Show with Stephen Grootes broadcast on 702 https://buff.ly/gk3y0Kj and CapeTalk https://buff.ly/NnFM3Nk For more from the show, go to https://buff.ly/7QpH0jY or find all the catch-up podcasts here https://buff.ly/PlhvUVe Subscribe to The Money Show Daily Newsletter and the Weekly Business Wrap here https://buff.ly/v5mfetc The Money Show is brought to you by Absa     Follow us on social media   702 on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TalkRadio702 702 on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@talkradio702 702 on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/talkradio702/ 702 on X: https://x.com/CapeTalk 702 on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@radio702   CapeTalk on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CapeTalk CapeTalk on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@capetalk CapeTalk on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ CapeTalk on X: https://x.com/Radio702 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A story about choosing margins over momentum—and letting investors call you wrongThis episode is for SaaS CEOs stuck around 20% EBITDA and wondering what it actually takes to double it without cutting their way there.Most SaaS companies treat 20% EBITDA as a healthy number. Georgi Petrov targets 50.Georgi, CEO of Uxify, has founded four companies in 15 years with two exits—including one to WP Engine. He doesn't get there by cutting. He gets there by building differently from day one: small teams with high ownership, self-service at premium prices, and a refusal to add cost before it earns its place.And this inspired me to invite Georgi to my podcast. We explore why targeting 50% EBITDA changes every hiring decision, every pricing decision, and every partnership decision a founder makes. Georgi shares hard-won lessons on why small teams outperform large ones, why focus beats optionality, and why selling business outcomes—not product features—makes premium self-service pricing work.We also zoom in on two of the 10 traits that define remarkable software companies: – Acknowledge you cannot please everyone – Focus on the essenceGeorgi's journey proves that starting from profit forces every decision to earn its place.Here's one of Georgi's quotes that captures how he actually gets to 50% EBITDA:"Most of the high-leverage decisions that we made turn out to be not so good decisions. We find the good somewhere in the middle. Not having a support team sounds like a high-leverage decision, but that's ultimately bad, because customers need 24/7 support. So, ultimately, expand the support team, but do it in a smarter way, and that's how we end up. If we're super able to leverage a lot, very likely we can achieve much more than 50%, but I think you end up somewhere about 50% ultimately."By listening to this episode, you'll learn:Why profitability shapes better decisions than fundraising ever willWhat self-service at premium prices requires to actually workWhy the biggest partners rarely deliver the biggest resultsWhen adding people stops creating productivity and starts destroying itFor more information about the guest from this week: Guest: Georgi Petrov, CEO of Uxify Website: uxify.com

In this episode of Develop This!, host Dennis Fraise sits down with Phil Schneider, Project Principal at Global Location Strategies (GLS), to unpack one of the most critical challenges facing communities today: site readiness. With more than 30 years of global consulting experience and nearly 400 site selection engagements across manufacturing, headquarters, R&D, technology, and shared services, Phil brings a site selector's unfiltered perspective on how the site selection landscape has fundamentally changed—and why many communities are struggling to keep up. The conversation explores how manufacturing site selection projects now move at hyper speed, why risk aversion among companies has intensified, and how the shortage of truly competitive industrial sites is reshaping economic development strategy. Phil also dives into the persistent problem of inconsistent definitions of "ready sites" across states and programs—and how that inconsistency can derail projects before they even get started. A major focus of the episode is the work of the Site Selectors Guild to establish national standards for site readiness. Phil explains how standardized criteria, data transparency, and data integrity can dramatically improve a community's competitiveness—and save both site selectors and economic developers valuable time. This episode is essential listening for any economic development professional looking to align their site readiness efforts with real-world site selection expectations. Key Takeaways Site readiness is now a baseline requirement, not a competitive advantage. Site selection timelines have compressed dramatically, increasing pressure on communities. There is a national shortage of quality, build-ready industrial sites. Companies are increasingly risk-averse, demanding better data and fewer unknowns. Definitions of "ready sites" vary widely—and that inconsistency creates friction. Economic developers and site selectors don't always evaluate readiness the same way. Data richness, accessibility, and transparency are essential to staying competitive. The Site Selectors Guild Ready Sites program helps identify gaps and raise standards. There are no perfect sites—but knowing your site's limitations matters. National site readiness standards are becoming increasingly important, even globally.

Galactic Companies, Galactic Problems.Running a company's tough. Running a galaxy-wide company's got to be near impossible with all the different considerations and concerns you have to navigate. John & Matt spend this week wondering about how companies would have to navigate burdensome and difficult regulations, rampant corruption, and clashes of cultures in the quest to make enough credits for it to be worth it. How would all these factors have shaped business in the Star Wars galaxy…and would it have made Imperial rule the preference of the companies?You've found the best Star Wars podcast with one-of-a-kind discussions in the spirit of fun! While you're here, look around our creator-focused network of podcasts with all the best of Star Trek, a deep-dive read of Harry Potter's magical world, analysis of film's greatest directors, and breaking news from top names in international film festivals, and so much more!HostJohn Mills and Matthew RushingSend us your feedback!Twitter: @TheJediMasters   Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheNerdParty/ Email: http://www.thenerdparty.com/contactSubscribe in Apple Podcasts

The Poison Industry: How Alcohol Companies Profit From Your DeathMeet The Stop Drinking Expert: Craig BeckCraig Beck, ABNLP, ABHYP, DhP, is a leading alcohol-addiction therapist, coach, and bestselling author whose work has helped more than 250,000 people create lives they no longer need to escape.Why Craig's Method WorksCraig spent twenty years caught in the same drinking loop you may know all too well, rationalising “just one,” waking up regretful, repeating the cycle. Traditional routes felt wrong: twelve-step meetings didn't resonate, rehab was impractical, and quick-fix gimmicks failed.Eventually, he had a 'penny drop' moment where he realized that alcohol isn't a reward at all but just attractively packaged poison. First, he fixed his own problem and has spent the last fifteen years helping others with a clear, science-backed framework that anyone can follow.No labels, no judgment, no willpower battles.www.CraigBeck.comwww.StopDrinkingExpert.com#soberlife #sobrietycoach #quitdrinking #stopdrinkingSupport the show

Welcome to In Search of Excellence! In this powerful second part of our interview, billionaire entrepreneur and Minnesota Timberwolves owner Marc Lore joins Randall Kaplan to share the unconventional secrets behind his massive success. From selling Diapers.com to Amazon and Jet.com to Walmart for billions, to his latest vision with Wonder, Marc reveals why “leaving no escape hatch” is the ultimate motivator for any founder.In this episode, Marc Lore dives deep into the “sixth gear” mentality required to scale world-class companies. He details the high-stakes world of angel investing, explaining why he put his entire life savings on the line to secure his first $4 million in funding.You'll hear the behind-the-scenes story of the Amazon vs. Diapers.com price war and why Marc chose to take $100 million less to ensure his company's future.Marc also shares his “clean slate” philosophy on business pivots, explaining why he took his current company, Wonder, to zero revenue to transition from food trucks to brick-and-mortar. Finally, he discusses the emotional toll of the legal battle for the Minnesota Timberwolves and provides his blueprint for a 21st-century vision for America.⸻Key Moments & Timestamps00:00 – Intro: Marc Lore's “No Plan B” philosophy02:50 – Is college still necessary in the age of AI and YouTube?05:35 – Why the “person you work for” matters more than the job08:33 – Quitting a top Wall Street job with no backup plan11:00 – How to raise $4M from 80 angel investors14:00 – Why putting your life savings at risk actually reduces risk17:20 – The Amazon “Diaper War”: Why selling for $545M was depressing21:33 – The future of e-commerce: Kiva robots and conversational AI25:10 – Selling Jet.com to Walmart for $3.3 billion30:20 – The Wonder pivot: Closing a $100M truck business for brick-and-mortar38:35 – Winning the legal battle for the Minnesota Timberwolves46:49 – Marc's famous “Salary Goals” sign and the power of a mission51:43 – The truth about 100-hour work weeks and family balance54:29 – Fill in the Blank to Excellence: Biggest regrets and life advice⸻About Marc LoreMarc Lore is a serial entrepreneur, billionaire, and professional sports owner. He is the founder of Jet.com (sold to Walmart for $3.3B) and Quidsi (parent company of Diapers.com, sold to Amazon for $545M). He currently serves as the Founder and CEO of Wonder, a revolutionary food delivery platform. He is also the owner of the Minnesota Timberwolves (NBA) and Minnesota Lynx (WNBA).Apply for One-On-One CoachingIf you're ready to change your life and achieve your goals, apply here:https://www.randallkaplan.com/coaching

WMAL GUEST: MARSHA BLACKBURN (U.S. Senator, R-TN) on her "Arctic Frost Accountability" hearing regarding telecommunications carriers' responses to Jack Smith's subpoenas. WEBSITE: Blackburn.Senate.gov SOCIAL MEDIA: X.com/MarshaBlackburn READ: Blackburn to Hold Hearing with AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile on Companies’ Responses to Jack Smith’s Witch Hunt Where to find more about WMAL's morning show: Follow Podcasts on Apple Podcasts, Audible and Spotify Follow WMAL's "O'Connor and Company" on X: @WMALDC, @LarryOConnor, @JGunlock, @PatricePinkfile, and @HeatherHunterDC Facebook: WMALDC and Larry O'Connor Instagram: WMALDC Website: WMAL.com/OConnor-Company Episode: Tuesday, February 10, 2026 / 8 AM HourSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Almost every growing business experiences a moment when success starts creating as many problems as it solves. Sales are up. The team is bigger. The product line is broader. And suddenly, the systems that got you here start to break. That's where Liz Picarazzi finds herself right now. “We're in the valley of death,” she says. “And we really need help.” Liz's company, Citibin, made the most recent Inc. 5000 list, but Citibin has also hit that dangerous in-between stage—too big to run on improvisation, too small to have put in place all of the processes it needs.So Liz is trying to grow her way out of the valley. She's hired a marketing agency. A growth consultant. And two AI advisors. She's testing new domestic fabricators. And she's rebuilding her website from the ground up—because right now, it's generating no more than 10 percent of sales, and she knows it can do better. The site hasn't kept up with her expanding product line, and it isn't even optimized for search engine discovery, let alone for generative AI discovery.Talking it through with Paul Downs and Jaci Russo, Liz confronts some uncomfortable questions: How much copy is “enough” for AI? How transparent should pricing be—especially for a premium product whose prices could scare away some customers? And who has a better feel for the company's story—the owner who's lived it or the agency that has more experience helping businesses connect with customers? Not surprisingly, Liz and Jaci have different instincts on that one. What follows is a candid look at what it takes to rebuild a growing business at the dawn of a new era.

In this episode of The Impostor Syndrome Files, we talk about where confidence comes from. My guest this week is Jennifer Sahady, a personal finance expert, speaker and passionate advocate for financial literacy and gender equity. In a field that hasn't always welcomed women or fresh perspectives, Jennifer shares how she's charted her own path by focusing on service, curiosity and the quiet power of believing that her voice matters too.We talk about why so many of us wait to speak up until we feel like an “expert,” and how that silence can cost others the benefit of our unique insights. Jennifer shares how she's navigated self-doubt in male-dominated spaces, and why imperfect action is a courageous step toward change. We also explore the importance of mental space, daily reflection and surrounding yourself with people who energize rather than drain you.About My GuestJennifer is an accomplished public speaker and expert in personal finance. She delivers memorable and impactful presentations customizing her financial wellness message to a wide variety of audiences from high school students to executives. Jennifer has delivered presentations at Fortune 500 Companies including jetBlue, Barclays and Sony. Jennifer is a 2025 PLANADVISER Emerging Leader Winner, a 2025 NAPA Woman of Excellence Winner and has won the RAC Award with her clients in 2025 and 2024. Jennifer was a featured TEDx speaker on Money and Relationships. Jennifer has spoken at the Bryant Woman's Summit three times. Jennifer has spoken at the Providence and Worcester Chamber of Commerce. Jennifer is currently a Senior Financial Wellness Consultant on MMA's Retirement Services team and a small business owner. Jennifer graduated Summa Cum Laude from Bryant University and has an extensive background in financial education. Jennifer holds the FINRA Series 7, 63 and 66 licenses as well as the CFP, CPFA, CRPC and AIF. ~Connect with Jennifer:YouTube: https://youtu.be/CGttIHnfBbE?si=qfOIoFOWmFVkPwKz LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifer-sahady ~Connect with Kim and The Impostor Syndrome Files:Join the free Impostor Syndrome Challenge:https://www.kimmeninger.com/challengeLearn more about the Leading Humans discussion group:https://www.kimmeninger.com/leadinghumansgroupJoin the Slack channel to learn from, connect with and support other professionals: https://forms.gle/Ts4Vg4Nx4HDnTVUC6Join the Facebook group:https://www.facebook.com/groups/leadinghumansSchedule time to speak with Kim Meninger directly about your questions/challenges: https://bookme.name/ExecCareer/strategy-sessionConnect on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimmeninger/Website:https://kimmeninger.com

Geoffrey West didn't set out to explain work. He was a physicist trying to understand why living things grow, age, and die. But when his questions expanded into biology, cities, and organizations, they offered a way to think about why growth changes how organizations behave and why success often brings new constraints. In this episode, Dart and Geoffrey discuss why work feels different as organizations scale, why cities keep renewing themselves while companies tend to burn out, and what these hidden constraints mean for the people doing the work.Geoffrey West is a British theoretical physicist and Distinguished Professor at the Santa Fe Institute. He is a former president of the Institute and the author of Scale, which explores how size shapes growth, innovation, and lifespan across living and social systems.In this episode, Dart and Geoffrey discuss:- Why work changes as organizations grow- How simple scaling laws shape complex systems- Why larger animals live longer- Why companies die younger than cities- How scale speeds up innovation- Why bureaucracy grows with success- How innovation gets crowded out over time- Why cities tolerate difference better than firms- What keeps work alive inside organizations- And other topics…Geoffrey West is a British theoretical physicist and Distinguished Professor at the Santa Fe Institute, where he previously served as president. Earlier in his career, he led the high-energy physics group at Los Alamos National Laboratory and held faculty positions at Stanford University. His research focuses on universal scaling laws in biology, cities, and social systems, examining how size shapes growth, innovation, and lifespan. He is the author of Scale.Resources Mentioned:Scale: The Universal Laws of Growth, Innovation, Sustainability, and the Pace of Life in Organisms, Cities, Economies, and Companies, by Geoffrey West: https://www.amazon.com/Scale-Universal-Innovation-Sustainability-Organisms/dp/014311090XConnect with Geoffrey:Official website: https://www.geoffreywest.com/Work with Dart:Dart is the CEO and co-founder of the work design firm 11fold. Build work that makes employees feel alive, connected to their work, and focused on what's most important to the business. Book a call at 11fold.com.

Justin Whitehead says the software sell-off in the short-term is overblown, though he sees significant impact in the long-term. While he says AI won't replace the vast majority of jobs, Justin says firms that aren't adopting AI will be gone in five years. He takes investors through his thought and the firms he sees coming out as winners in the AI race. ======== Schwab Network ========Empowering every investor and trader, every market day.Options involve risks and are not suitable for all investors. Before trading, read the Options Disclosure Document. http://bit.ly/2v9tH6DSubscribe to the Market Minute newsletter - https://schwabnetwork.com/subscribeDownload the iOS app - https://apps.apple.com/us/app/schwab-network/id1460719185Download the Amazon Fire Tv App - https://www.amazon.com/TD-Ameritrade-Network/dp/B07KRD76C7Watch on Sling - https://watch.sling.com/1/asset/191928615bd8d47686f94682aefaa007/watchWatch on Vizio - https://www.vizio.com/en/watchfreeplus-exploreWatch on DistroTV - https://www.distro.tv/live/schwab-network/Follow us on X – https://twitter.com/schwabnetworkFollow us on Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/schwabnetworkFollow us on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/schwab-network/About Schwab Network - https://schwabnetwork.com/about

Everyone's feeling jumpy about AI right now—and for good reason.The hype has been massive. The investment has been astronomical. But where's the actual return?In this episode, Azeem Azhar, founder of Exponential View and advisor to tech leaders and governments, breaks down why the next 18 months are make-or-break for AI. Companies need to prove there's real ROI, not just prototypes launched and tokens spent.We cover:What hard evidence would actually prove AI is working (hint: it's not usage metrics)Who can build a real moat with AI—and why the winners will likely come from unexpected places, as they have in previous tech transformationsThe physical constraints nobody wants to talk about: chips, data centers, power grids, and whether America's infrastructure is up to the taskWhy OpenAI's "ubiquity strategy" might be spreading too thin (and what Anthropic is doing differently)The "pragmatic addicts" problem: we're dependent on AI even though we don't trust itHow Azeem and his team use AI to be more productive, how they automate whatever they can, and why individual contributors are acting more like managers (of AI)Note: This interview was recorded months before the "SaaSpacolypse" (big market drop) of Feb 2026; the analysis is as relevant as ever. Chapters(01:51) - Why the next 18 months are the crucible for AI (04:09) - What hard evidence would actually prove AI ROI (not token counts!) (06:55) - Why it's so hard to measure AI's real impact (09:55) - Who can build a moat with AI? Winners will be in "odd places" (12:56) - Structural data advantages: why Waymo's edge is hard to replicate (14:34) - Coding agents and whether developers will become disillusioned with them (18:21) - Physical constraints: chips, data centers, power, and America's grid problem (21:25) - How the Gulf countries became an unexpected AI hub (28:02) - "Pragmatic addicts": why 75% of Americans distrust AI but use it anyway (31:45) - The narrative of AI can be very unappealing: heaven on Earth or dystopia (34:36) - How Azeem's team uses AI: augmentation vs. automation (40:06) - What should we be talking about besides AI? (43:46) - Sounds like science fiction: What Azeem can't believe is real and here today Links & Resources:Exponential View: https://www.exponentialview.co/Azeem's Boom or Bubble dashboard: https://boomorbubble.ai/Azeem's New York Times piece on America's electric grid challenge: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/28/opinion/ai-electricity-power-plants.htmlMore on the “MIT Study” claiming 95% of AI projects fail that Azeem and I both found to be really poorly done, but that is nonetheless is quoted by everyone: Here's Azeem tearing the study apart with data: https://www.exponentialview.co/p/how-95-escaped-into-the-worldAnd here's me riffing with Kwaku Aning on it. You know why Azeem liked my take? Because I actually read the thing, unlike ~95% of the writers out there who just quoted that 95% number: https://www.futurearound.com/p/did-anyone-actually-read-that-mit-ai-study-that-made-the-markets-swoon-i-didSupport Future Around & Find OutGet the newsletter: https://www.futurearound.comBecome a paid subscriber and help future proof this thing!: https://www.futurearound.comSponsor the show? Are you looking to reach an audience of senior technologists and decision-makers? Email me: dan@modernproductminds.com

Cybersecurity is no longer just an IT or privacy issue. For FDA regulated companies, it's a patient safety issue, a product quality issue, and increasingly a regulatory enforcement issue. FDA has made it clear that cybersecurity vulnerabilities can affect medical devices, software, manufacturing operations, clinical data, and even the availability of life saving products.Today, we're bringing together two perspectives—the FDA regulatory lens and the cybersecurity lens—to talk about what companies need to understand and where they're getting tripped up.Questions and Comments: wkirton@bakerlaw.com or egyasi@bakerlaw.com

Today's top stories, with context, in just 15 minutes.On today's podcast:1) The relentless surge in memory chip prices over the past few months has driven a vast divide between winners and losers in the stock market, and investors don’t see any end in sight. Companies from game console maker Nintendo Co. to big PC brands and Apple Inc. suppliers are seeing shares slump on profitability concerns. Memory producers, meanwhile, are soaring to unprecedented heights. Money managers and analysts are now assessing which firms can best navigate the squeeze by locking in supplies, raising product prices or redesigning to use less memory. A Bloomberg gauge of global consumer electronics makers is down 10% since the end of September while a basket of memory makers including Samsung Electronics Co. has surged roughly 160%. The question now is how much is priced in.2) Alphabet Inc. is selling sterling and Swiss franc-denominated bonds for the first time, including an ultra-rare issue of a 100-year note, following a bumper $20 billion deal in the US. Google’s parent company is offering five tranches each of sterling and Swiss franc notes, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified. The 100-year sterling bond is the first sale of such long-dated debt by a technology firm since the dot-com era. The sterling issue includes tenors of three to 32 years as well as the 100 year bond. The Swiss franc deal includes maturities of three, six, 10, 15 and 25-year bonds. Both deals are expected to price later today, the people said.3) President Trump said his pick to lead the Federal Reserve can stoke the economy to grow at a rate of 15%, an exceedingly rosy target that nonetheless underscores the pressure that Kevin Warsh will face if confirmed to the role. Trump, speaking in an interview with Fox Business, said Warsh was the “runner up” in his last search and that it was a big mistake to pick Fed chair Jerome Powell. It was not fully clear if Trump was referring to year-over-year growth or some other metric. The US economy, which is seen expanding 2.4% this year, has grown at an average annual rate of 2.8% over the past five decades. Gross domestic product has only risen at a 15%-plus pace a few times since the 1950s, including in the third quarter of 2020 as businesses reopened following pandemic-related closures.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Christine Moundas, Health Care and Data Partner at Ropes & Gray LLP and Co-Head of the firm's Digital Health Initiative, discusses the new landscape of state consumer privacy laws and how life sciences and medical device companies can comply with these new requirements. Sponsored by Ropes & Gray.Watch this episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGUy4Bs72t4Learn more about Ropes & Gray: https://www.ropesgray.com/enEssential Legal Updates, Now in Audio AHLA's popular Health Law Daily email newsletter is now a daily podcast, exclusively for AHLA Comprehensive members. Get all your health law news from the major media outlets on this podcast! To subscribe and add this private podcast feed to your podcast app, go to americanhealthlaw.org/dailypodcast. Stay At the Forefront of Health Legal Education Learn more about AHLA and the educational resources available to the health law community at https://www.americanhealthlaw.org/.

In this episode, Remo Gerber (SkyCell) and Fabienne Doerig (CFO expert and consultant) discuss the challenges and strategies involved in building and scaling finance functions in fast-growing companies. The two share their experiences from different growth phases, from startups to billion-dollar organizations, and provide insights into the role of the CFO, process automation, successful fundraising tactics, and the importance of team building and system implementations. They also shed light on how CFOs can master the balancing act between being a strategic business partner and an operational gatekeeper. What you'll take away from this episode: The changing role of the CFO: From operational gatekeeper to strategic business partner who not only delivers numbers but also drives growth. Automation and systems: Why it's crucial to analyze the IT landscape carefully and implement the right systems—and how to avoid mistakes in the process. Forecasting and KPI alignment: The art of combining operational and financial figures to make better decisions. Fundraising strategies: How to manage the process, keep multiple options open, and ensure that the money actually ends up in the account. Team building: When to rely on generalists and when specialists are necessary—and how important a motivated and resilient team is for success. ALLES ZU UNICORN BAKERY: https://stan.store/fabiantausch   More about Fabienne & Remo: LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/remo-gerber-1153a66/  https://www.linkedin.com/in/fabienne-doerig-ch8/  Join our Founder Tactics Newsletter: 2x die Woche bekommst du die Taktiken der besten Gründer der Welt direkt ins Postfach: https://www.tactics.unicornbakery.de/  Chapter: (00:00:00) Introduction: Two Swiss guys in Zug – Why we're talking about scaling finance (00:02:14) How the role of the CFO is changing in fast-growing companies (00:06:32) From startups to scale-ups: The biggest challenges in growth (00:12:20) Systems and automation: Why the right tools are crucial (00:16:33) ERP systems: Build vs. buy – How to make the right decision (00:20:24) Data quality and KPI alignment: Bringing financial and operational figures together (00:24:12) Forecasting: Top-down vs. bottom-up – How to make realistic forecasts (00:30:06) Fundraising: Tips for the process, negotiation tactics, and capital structures (00:36:44) Capital allocation: How to prioritize investments and involve the team (00:42:15) Team building in the finance function: Generalists vs. specialists (00:47:37) Personal resilience: How CFOs deal with change and pressure (00:53:37) External consulting and outsourcing: When and how to leverage networks (01:00:42) The big picture: Data, context, and the question “Are we moving the needle?”

Summary Today Marc is chattin' with Alex Niejelow, a respected figure in cybersecurity. The episode opens with Marc highlighting Alex's unique background growing up in Philly and his diverse career path. Alex shares how his early career as a Durham police officer and later as a lawyer shaped his mindset around public service and supporting people and businesses. He then transitioned into federal and state government roles, including significant positions in the Obama administration and Homeland Security, focusing on trade, customs, and national security issues such as counterfeit semiconductors in supply chains. They then chat about Alex's role on the National Security Council, where he worked on the intersection of trade and cybersecurity, a concept that was not widely recognized in the early 2010s but has since become central to government policy. Alex explains his involvement in developing the first-ever cyber sanctions regime, a tool designed to economically disincentivize cybercriminals and nation-states from monetizing stolen intellectual property and trade secrets. This approach was innovative in addressing the asymmetry in cyber threats, where traditional law enforcement and diplomatic tools were insufficient. The chat then shifts to the challenges Alex faced working across multiple government agencies with differing priorities, which, while complex, ultimately led to better outcomes through collaboration and creative problem-solving. Alex emphasizes the importance of reducing asymmetry in cybersecurity, noting that companies remain vulnerable at their weakest points. He highlights the evolution of the cyber insurance industry, which has become more sophisticated with risk engineers engaging deeply with clients to improve cybersecurity postures and insurance terms. Alex explains his motivation for founding Hilco Global Cyber Advisors, driven by the need to support middle-market companies that often lack adequate cybersecurity resources despite their sophistication and capital. He critiques the cybersecurity industry's tendency to self-silo and stresses the importance of aligning cybersecurity solutions with the nature of the products and services businesses provide to increase adoption and effectiveness. Finally, the chat turns to artificial intelligence (AI) as a major cybersecurity topic in 2025. Alex acknowledges both the threats and opportunities AI presents, noting that threat actors are leveraging AI to scale traditional cyberattacks like phishing. He expresses optimism about the cybersecurity community's commitment to addressing these challenges and highlights regulatory efforts, such as guidance issued to the insurance industry on AI use in underwriting, to mitigate risks including bias. The episode closes with Alex sharing a personal anecdote from his time at the White House and providing contact information for Hilco Global Cyber Advisors. Key Points Alex's career journey from police officer to cybersecurity expert in public and private sectors Development of the first-ever cyber sanctions regime to economically deter cybercrime The importance of collaboration across government agencies to address complex cyber challenges The evolution and sophistication of the cyber insurance industry in reducing asymmetry The dual impact of AI on cybersecurity: expanding threats and fostering innovative defenses. Key Quotes “The idea that cybersecurity issues and economic issues were actually interconnected was not widely accepted [in 2010]. It was still emerging. Fast forward to today. It is abundantly clear the intersectionality of those issues.” “Companies are always as weak as their weakest link.” “If you let the nature of the products and services that are being provided better inform and drive the cybersecurity solutions instead of vice versa, I think there will be a greater adoption.” “Threat actors are expanding their capacity and capabilities leveraging AI … but it is the speed and scale at which it is becoming exacerbated that I think is most concerning.” About Our Guest Alexander Niejelow is Executive Director of Global Cyber Advisors at Hilco Global, bringing deep expertise in cybersecurity, fintech, and digital policy from leadership roles in both the private sector and government. He previously served as Deputy Superintendent for Innovation Policy at the New York Department of Financial Services, leading initiatives on AI and emerging fintech. At Mastercard, he was Senior Vice President for Cybersecurity Coordination and Advocacy, overseeing global cybersecurity and technology policy efforts. Alex also held key government positions, including Director of Cybersecurity Policy at the White House National Security Council and Chief of Staff to the U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator. He began his career as a litigator and holds a JD from the University of Pennsylvania and a BA from Duke University. Alex actively contributes to cybersecurity policy through board roles with the Center for Cybersecurity Policy and Blue Star Families, and has led global coalitions focused on cyber risk reduction and digital protection. Follow Our Guest Website | LinkedIn About Our Host National co-chair of the Cyber Center for Excellence, Marc Schein, CIC,CLCS is also a Risk Management Consultant at Marsh McLennan Agency. He assists clients by customizing comprehensive commercial insurance programs that minimize the burden of financial loss through cost effective transfer of risk. By conducting a Total Cost of Risk (TCoR) assessment, he can determine any gaps in coverage. As part of an effective risk management insurance team, Marc collaborates with senior risk consultants, certified insurance counselors, and expert underwriters to examine the adequacy of existing client programs and develop customized solutions to transfer risk, improve coverage and minimize premiums. Follow Our Host Website | LinkedIn  

Big Tech spending on equipment and AI appears to be close to $400 billion over the four quarters alone. Are there losers outside the free-spending tech titans? Jason Hall and Travis Hoium join Tim Beyers to talk through the numbers and name two that may be at risk. Jason Hall, Travis Hoium, and Tim Beyers discuss: - Fallout from quarterly reports from Kyndryl (KD) and monday..com (MNDY) and what may be next for both. - Why the capex spending won't slow anytime soon. - Whether the debt-fueled growth at CoreWeave (CRWV) and Oracle (ORCL) is sustainable over the long term. Don't wait! Be sure to get to your local bookstore and pick up a copy of David's Gardner's new book — Rule Breaker Investing: How to Pick the Best Stocks of the Future and Build Lasting Wealth. It's on shelves now; get it before it's gone! Companies discussed: KD, MNDY, GOOG, AMZN, CRWV, ORCL Host: Tim Beyers Guests: Jason Hall, Travis Hoium Producer: Anand Chokkavelu Engineer: Dan Boyd Disclosure: Advertisements are sponsored content and provided for informational purposes only. The Motley Fool and its affiliates (collectively, “TMF”) do not endorse, recommend, or verify the accuracy or completeness of the statements made within advertisements. TMF is not involved in the offer, sale, or solicitation of any securities advertised herein and makes no representations regarding the suitability, or risks associated with any investment opportunity presented. Investors should conduct their own due diligence and consult with legal, tax, and financial advisors before making any investment decisions. TMF assumes no responsibility for any losses or damages arising from this advertisement. We're committed to transparency: All personal opinions in advertisements from Fools are their own. The product advertised in this episode was loaned to TMF and was returned after a test period or the product advertised in this episode was purchased by TMF. Advertiser has paid for the sponsorship of this episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Fernanda Hopenhaym, member of the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights walks Drilled senior global climate justice reporter Nina Lakhani through the many legal pitfalls companies getting involved in the U.S. seizure of the Venezuelan oil industry might be facing. Check out the longer story on our website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

So, let's dive right into the nitty-gritty of servant leadership, shall we? You know, it's all fun and games until you realize that a lack of accountability can turn those so-called “servant leaders” into untouchable demigods. We're not here for a morality contest, folks; we're all human, and that's the point. Today, we're breaking down the BE-COME framework—because, let's face it, who doesn't love a good acronym? It's all about starting fresh, connecting with our people, and keeping each other in check, all wrapped up in love. Because remember, the Church doesn't need flawless leaders; it needs ones who can own their mess-ups and show up for one another. So, stick around, and let's unpack how we can actually make accountability feel like a warm hug instead of a judgmental fist!Servant leadership is one of the most quoted leadership models in the Church. But if servant leadership is so central to our theology, why do we keep watching leaders fall?In this episode, we examine the dark side of servant leadership—not to tear down leaders, but to tell the truth so the Church can grow healthier.Drawing from a recent discipleship gathering called People of Grace, insights from John Wesley's class meetings, and the BE-COME discipleship framework taught by Sam Barber, this conversation explores why leadership without shared accountability eventually fails.We look at patterns behind recent ministry collapses, the role of isolation in leadership failure, and how churches can recover healthier structures rooted in grace, community, and accountability.Servant leadership works, but only when it is accountable.KEY THEMES• The difference between servant language and servant structure• Why isolation is the most common soil for leadership failure• John Wesley's model of mutual accountability• The BE-COME framework for discipleship• How the early church practiced shared leadership• Practical steps toward accountable leadership todaySCRIPTURE REFERENCESMark 10:42–45 — Whoever wants to be great must be servantJohn 13:1–17 — Jesus washes the disciples' feetMatthew 28:18–20 — The Great CommissionLuke 22:24–27 — Leadership as serviceActs 2:42–47 — Shared life in the early churchGalatians 6:1–2 — Bear one another's burdensJames 5:16 — Confess your sins to one anotherTakeaways:Wesley's concept of accountability in leadership isn't about control, it's about protection and growth.The BE-COME framework emphasizes the importance of community and personal accountability in servant leadership.Servant leadership without accountability can lead to disastrous outcomes, as seen in many high-profile ministry collapses.We can't ignore the reality that isolation distorts leadership and makes it easier for blind spots to grow.True accountability involves asking hard questions and having people who can challenge us without repercussions.The church needs leaders who are known and accountable, not just those who appear humble on the surface.Companies mentioned in this episode:Dynamic Church Planting InternationalGateway ChurchIHOP Kansas City

Bob Goodson was the first employee at Yelp, founder of social media analytics company Quid, co-inventor of the Like button, and co-author of the new book Like: The Button That Changed the World. On Oct 1, 2025, Bob spent a day with our MBA students at the University of Kansas, and he shared so much great content that I asked him if we could put together some of the highlights as a podcast, which I've now put together in three chapters: First is Careers, second is Building Companies, and third is AI and Social Media. As a reminder, any views and perspectives expressed on the podcast are solely those of the individual, and not those of the organizations they represent. Hope you enjoy the episode. - [Transcript] Nate:  My name is Nate Meikle. You're listening to Meikles and Dimes, where every episode is dedicated to the simple, practical, and under-appreciated. Bob Goodson was the first employee at Yelp, founder of social media analytics company Quid, co-inventor of the like button, and co-author of the new book Like: The Button That Changed the World. On Oct 1, 2025, Bob spent a day with our MBA students at the University of Kansas, and he shared so much great content that I asked him if we could put together some of the highlights as a podcast, which I've now put together in three chapters: First is Careers, second is Building Companies, and third is AI and Social Media. As a reminder, any views and perspectives expressed on the podcast are solely those of the individual and not those of the organizations they represent. Hope you enjoy the episode. Let's jump into Chapter 1 on Careers. For the first question, a student asked Bob who he has become and how his experiences have shaped him as a person and leader.   Bob:  Oh, thanks, Darrell. That's a thoughtful question. It's thoughtful because it's often not asked, and it's generally not discussed. But I will say, and hopefully you'll feel like this about your work if you don't already, that you will over time, which is I'm 45 now, so I have some sort of vantage point to look back over. Like, I mean, I started working when I was about 9 or 10 years old, so I have been working for money for about 35 years. So I'm like a bit further into my career than perhaps I look. I've been starting companies and things since I was about 10. So, in terms of like my professional career, which I guess started, you know, just over 20 years ago, 20 years into that kind of work, the thing I'm most grateful for is what it's allowed me to learn and how it's evolved me as a person. And I'm also most grateful on the business front for how the businesses that I've helped create and the projects and client deployments and whatever have helped evolve the people that have worked on them. Like I genuinely feel that is the most lasting thing that anything in business does is evolve people. It's so gratifying when you have a team member that joins and three years later you see them, just their confidence has developed or their personality has developed in some way. And it's the test of the work that has evolved them as people. I mean, I actually just on Monday night, I caught up for the first time in 10 years with an intern we had 10 years ago called Max Hofer. You can look him up. He was an intern at Quid. He was from Europe, was studying in London, came to do an internship with us in San Francisco for the summer. And, he was probably like 18, 19 years old. And a few weeks ago, he launched his AI company, Parsewise, with funding from Y Combinator. And, he cites his experience at Quid as being fundamental in choosing his career path, in choosing what field he worked in and so on. So that was, yeah, that was, when you see these things happening, right, 10 years on, we caught up at an event we did in London on Monday. And it's just it's really rewarding. So I suppose, yeah, like I suppose it's it's brought me a lot of perspective, brought me a lot of inner peace, actually, you know, the and and when you're when I was in the thick of it at times, I had no sense of that whatsoever. Right. Like in tough years. And there were some - there have been some very tough years in my working career that you don't feel like it's developing you in any way. It just feels brutal. I liken starting a company, sometimes it's like someone's put you in a room with a massive monster and the monster pins you down and just bats you across the face, right, for like a while. And you're like just trying to get away from the monster and you're like, finally you get the monster off your back and then like the monster's just on you again. And it just, it's just like you get a little bit of space and freedom and then the monster's back and it's just like pummeling you. And it's just honestly some years, like for those of you, some of you are running companies now, right? And starting your own companies as well. And I suppose it's not just starting companies. There are just phases in your career and work where it's like you look back and you're like, man, that year was just like, that was brutal. You just get up and fight every day, and you just get knocked down every day. So I think, I don't wish that on anybody, but it does build resilience that then transfers into other aspects of your life.    Nate:  Next, a student made a reference to the first podcast episode I recorded with Bob and asked him if he felt like he was still working on the most important problem in his field.    Bob:  Yeah, thank you. Thanks for listening to the podcast, as this gives us… thanks for the chance to plug the podcast. So the way I met Nate is that he interviewed me for his podcast. And for those of you who haven't listened to it, it's a 30 minute interview. And he asked this question about what advice would you share with others? And we honed in on this question of like, what is the most important problem in your field? And are you working on it? Which I love as a guide to like choosing what to work on. And so we had a great conversation. I enjoyed it so much and really enjoyed meeting Nate. So we sort of said, hey, let's do more fun stuff together in the future. So that's what brought us to this conversation. And thanks to Nate for, you know, bringing us all together today. I'm always working on what I think is the most important problem in front of me. And I always will be. I can't help it. I don't have to think about it. I just can't think about anything else. So yes, I do feel like right now I'm working on the most important problem in my field. And I feel like I've been doing that for about 20 years. And it's not for everybody, I suppose. But I just think, like, let's talk about that idea a little bit. And then I'll say what I think is the most important problem in my field that I'm working on. Like, just to translate it for each of you. Systems are always evolving. The systems we live in are evolving. We all know that. People talk about the pace of change and like life's changing, technology's changing and so on. Well, it is, right? Like humans developed agriculture 5,000 years ago. That wasn't very long ago. Agriculture, right? Just the idea that you could grow crops in one area and live in that area without walking around, without moving around settlements and different living in different places. And that concept is only 5,000 years old, right? I mean, people debate exactly how old, like 7, 8,000. But anyway, it's not that long ago, considering Homo sapiens have been walking around for in one form or another for several hundred thousand years and humans in general for a couple million years. So 5,000 years is not long. Look at what's happened in 5,000 years, right? Like houses, the first settlements where you would actually just live at sleep in the same place every night is only 5,000 years old. And now we've got on a - you can access all the world's knowledge - on your phone for free through ChatGPT and ask it sophisticated questions and all right answers. Or you can get on a plane and fly all over the world. You have, you know, sophisticated digital currency systems. We have sophisticated laws. And like, we've got to be aware, I think, that we are living in a time of great change. And that has been true for 5,000 years, right? That's not new. So I think about this concept of the forefront. I imagine, human development is, you can just simply imagine it like a sphere or balloon that someone's like blowing up, right? And so every time they breathe into it, like something shifts and it just gets bigger. And so there's stuff happening on the forefront where it's occupying more space, different space, right? There's stuff in the middle that's like a bit more stable and a bit more, less prone to rapid change, right? The education system, some parts of the healthcare system, like certain professions, certain things that are like a bit more stable, but there's stuff happening all the time on the periphery, right? Like on the boundary. And that stuff is affecting every field in one way or another. And I just think if you get a chance to work on that stuff, that's a really interesting place to live and a really interesting place to work. And I feel like you can make a contribution to that, right, if you put yourself on the edge. And it's true for every field. So whatever field you're in, we had people here today, you know, in everything from, yeah, like the military to fitness to, you know, your product, product design and management and, you know, lots of different, you know, people, different backgrounds. But if you ask yourself, what is the most important thing happening in my area of work today, and then try to find some way to work on it, then I think that sort of is a nice sort of North Star and keeps things interesting. Because the sort of breakthroughs and discoveries and important contributions are actually not complicated once you put yourself in that position. They're obvious once you put yourself in that position, right? It's just that there aren't many people there hanging out in that place. If you're one of them, if you put yourself there, not everyone's there, suddenly you're kind of in a room where like lots of cool stuff can happen, but there aren't many people around to compete with you. So you're more likely to find those breakthroughs, whether it's for your company or for, you know, the people you work with or, you know, maybe it's inventions and, but it just, anyway, so I really like doing that. And in my space right now, I call it the concept of being the bridge. And this could apply to all of you too. It's a simple idea that the world's value, right, is locked up in companies, essentially. Companies create value. We can debate all the other vehicles that do it, but basically most of the world's value is tied up in companies and their processes. And that's been true for a long time. There's a new ball of power in the world, which is been created by large language models. And I think of that just like a new ball of power. So you've got a ball of value and a ball of power. And the funny thing about this new ball of power is this actually has no value. That's a funny thing to say, right? The large language models have no value. They don't. They don't have any value and they don't create value. Think about it. It's just a massive bag of words. That has no value, right? I can send you a poem now in the chat. Does that have any value? You might like it, you might not, but it's just a set of words, right? So you've got this massive bag of words that with like a trillion connections, no value whatsoever. That is different from previous tech trends like e-commerce, for example, which had inherent value because it was a new way to reach consumers. So some tech trends do have inherent value because they're new processes, but large language models don't. They're just a new technology. They're very powerful. So I call it a ball of power. but they don't have any value. So why is there a multi-trillion dollar opportunity in front of all of us right now in terms of value creation? It's being the bridge. It's how to make use of this ball of power to improve businesses. And businesses only have two ways you improve them. You save money or you grow revenue. That's it. So being the bridge, like taking this new ball of power and finding ways to save money, be more efficient, taking this new ball of power and finding ways to access new consumers, create new offerings and so on, right? Solve new problems. That is where all the value is. So while you may think that the new value, this multi-trillion dollar opportunity with AI is really for the people that work on the AI companies, sure, there's a lot of, you know, there's some money to be made there. And if you can go work for OpenAI, you probably should. Everyone should be knocking the door down. Everyone should be applying for positions because it's the most important company, you know, in our generation. But if you're not in OpenAI or Meta or Microsoft or whoever, you know, three or four companies in the US that are doing this, for everybody else, it's about being the bridge, finding ways that in your organizations, you can unlock the power of AI by bringing it into the organizations and finding ways to either save money or grow the business. And that's fascinating to me because anybody can be the bridge. You don't have to be good with large language models. You have to understand business processes and you have to be creative and willing to even think like this. And suddenly you can be on the forefront of like creating massive value at your companies because you were the, you know, you're the one that brings brings in the new tools. And I think that skill set, there are certain skills involved in being the bridge, but that skill set of being the bridge is going to be so valuable in the next 5 to 10 years. So I encourage people, and that's what I'm doing. Like, I see my role - I serve clients at Quid. I love working with clients. You know, I'm not someone that really like thrives for management and like day-to-day operations and administration of a business. I learned that about myself. And so I just spend my time serving clients. I have done for several years now. And I love just meeting clients and figuring out how they can use Quid's AI, Quid's data, and any other form of AI that we want to bring to the table to improve their businesses. And that's just what I do with my time full-time. And I'll probably be doing that for at least the next 5 or 10 years. I think the outlook for that area of work is really huge.    Nate:  Building on the podcast episode where Bob talked about working on the most important problem in his field, I asked if he could give us some more details on how he took that advice and ended up at Yelp.    Bob:  So I was in grad school in the UK studying, well, I was actually on a program for medieval literature and philosophy, but looking into like language theory. So it was not the most commercial course that one could be doing. But I was a hobbyist programmer, played around with the web when it first came up and was making, you know, various new types of websites for students. while in my free time. I didn't think of that as commercial at all. I didn't see any commercial potential in that. But I did meet the founders of PayPal that way, who would come to give a talk. And I guess they saw the potential in me as a product manager. You know, there's lots of new apps they wanted to build. This is in 2003. And so they invited me to the US to work for them. And I joined the incubator when there were just five people in it. Max Levchin was one of them, the PayPal co-founder. Yelp, Jeremy Stoppelman and Russel Simmons were in those first five people. They turned out to be the Yelp co-founders. And Yelp came out of the incubator. So we were actually prototyping 4 companies each in a different industry. There was a chat application that we called Chatango that was five years before Twitter or something, but it was a way of helping people to chat online more easily. There were, which is still around today, but didn't make it as a hit. There was an ad network called AdRoll, which ended up getting renamed and is still around today. That wasn't a huge hit, but it's still around. Then there was Slide, which is photo sharing application, photo and video sharing, which was Max's company. That was acquired by Google. And that did reasonably well. I think it was acquired for about $150 million. And then there was Yelp, which you'll probably know if you're in the US and went public on the New York Stock Exchange and now has a billion dollars in revenue. So those are the four things that we were trying to prototype, each very different, as you can see. But I suppose that's the like tactical story, right? Like the steps that took me there. But there was an idea that took me there that started this journey of working on the most, the most important problems that are happening in the time. So if I rewind, when I was studying medieval literature, I got to the point where I was studying the invention of the print press. And I'd been studying manuscript culture and seeing what happened when the print press was invented and how it changed education, politics, society. You know, when you took this technology that made it cheaper to print, to make books, books were so expensive in the Middle Ages. They were the domain of only the wealthiest people. And only 5% of people could read before the print process was invented, right? So 95% of people couldn't read anything or write anything. And that was because the books themselves were just so expensive, they had to be handwritten, right? And so when the print press made the cost of a book drop dramatically, the literacy rates in Europe shot up and it completely transformed society. So I was studying that period and at the same time, like dabbling with websites in the early internet and sort of going, oh, like there was this moment where I was like, the web is our equivalent of the print press. And it's happening right now. I'm talking like maybe 2002, or so when I had this realization. It's happening right now. It's going to change everything during our lifetimes. And I just had a fork in my life where it's like I could be a professor in medieval history, which was the path I was on professionally. I had a scholarship. There were only 5 scholarships in my year, in the whole UK. I was on a scholarship track to be a professor and study things like the emergence of the print press, or I could contribute to the print press of our era, which is the internet, and find some way to contribute, some way, right? It didn't matter to me if it was big or small, it was irrelevant. It was just be in the mix with people that are pushing the boundaries. Whatever I did, I'd take the most junior role available, no problem, but like just be in the mix with the people that are doing that. So yeah, that was the decision, right? Like, and that's what led me down to sort of leave my course, leave my scholarship. And, my salary was $40,000 when I moved to the US. All right. And that's pretty much all I earned for a while. I'd spent everything I had starting a group called Oxford Entrepreneurs. So I had absolutely no money. The last few months actually living in Oxford, I had one meal a day because I didn't have enough money to buy three meals a day. And then I packed up my stuff in a suitcase - one bag - wasn't even a suitcase, it was a rucksack and moved to the US and, you know, and landed there basically on a student visa and friends and family was just thought I was, you know, not making a good decision, right? Like, I'm not earning much money. It's with a bunch of people in a like a dorm room style incubator, right? Where the tables and chairs we pulled off the street because we didn't want to spend money on tables and chairs. And where I get to work seven days a week, 12 hours a day. And I've just walked away from a scholarship and a PhD track at Oxford to go into that. And it didn't look like a good decision. But to me, the chance to work on the forefront of what's happening in our era is just too important and too interesting to not make those decisions. So I've done that a number of times, even when it's gone against commercial interest or career interest. I haven't made the best career decisions, you know, not from a commercial standpoint, but from a like getting to work on the new stuff. Like that's what I've prioritized.    Nate:  Next, I asked Bob about his first meeting with the PayPal founders and how he made an impression on them.    Bob:  Good question, because I think... So I have a high level thought on that, like a rubric to use. And then I have the details. I'll start with the details. So I had started the entrepreneurship club at Oxford. And believe it or not, in 800 years of the University's history, there was no entrepreneurship club. And they know that because when you want to start a new society, you go to university and they go through the archive, which is kept underground in the library, and someone goes down to the library archives and they go through all these pages for 800 years and look for the society that's called that. And if there is one, they pull it out and then they have the charter and you have to continue the charter. Even if it was started 300 years ago, they pull out the charter and they're like, no, you have to modify that one. You can't start with a new charter. So anyway, it's because it's technically a part of the university, right? So they have a way of administrating it. So they went through the records and were like, there's never been a club for entrepreneurs at the university. So we started the first, I was one of the co-founders of this club. And, again, there's absolutely no pay. It was just a charity as part of the university. But I love the idea of getting students who were scientists together with students that were business minded, and kind of bringing technical and creative people together. That was the theme of the club. So we'd host drinks, events and talks and all sorts. And I love building communities, at least at that stage of my life. I loved building communities. I'd been doing it. I started several charities and clubs, you know, throughout my life. So it came quite naturally to me. But what I didn't, I mean, I kind of thought this could happen, but it really changed my life as it put me at the center of this super interesting community that we've built. And I think that when you're in a university environment, like starting clubs, running clubs, even if they're small, like, we, I ran another club that we called BEAR. It was an acronym. And it was just a weekly meetup in a pub where we talked about politics and society and stuff. And like, it didn't go anywhere. It fizzled out after a year or two, but it was really like an interesting thing to work on. So I think when you're in a university environment, even if you guys are virtual, finding ways to get together, it's so powerful. It's like, it's who you're meeting in courses like this that is so powerful. So I put myself in the middle of this community, and I was running it, I was president of it. So when these people came to speak at the business school, I was asked to bring the students along, and I was given 200 slots in the lecture theatre. So I filled them, I got 200 students along. We had 3,000 members, by the way, after like 2 years running this club. It became the biggest club at the university, and the biggest entrepreneurship student community in Europe. It got written up in The Economist actually as like, because it was so popular. But yeah, it meant that I was in the middle of it. And when the business school said, you can come to the dinner with the speakers afterwards, that was my ticket to sit down next to the founder of PayPal, you know. And so, then I sat down at dinner with him, and I had my portfolio with me, which back then I used to carry around in a little folder, like a black paper folder. And every project I'd worked on, every, because I used to do graphic design for money as a student. So I had my graphic design projects. I had my yoga publishing business and projects in there. I had printouts about the websites I'd created. So when I sat down next to him, and he's like, what do you work on? I just put this thing on the table over dinner and was like, he picked it up and he started going through it. And he was like, what's this? What's this? And I think just having my projects readily available allowed him to sort of get interested in what I was working on. Nowadays, you can have a website, right? Like I didn't have a website for a long time. Now I have one. It's at bobgoodson.com where I put my projects on there. You can check it out if you like. But I think I've always had a portfolio in one way or another. And I think carrying around the stuff that you've done in an interactive way is a really good way to connect with people. But one more thing I'll say on this concept, because it connects more broadly to like life in general, is that I think that I have this theory that in your lifetime, you get around five opportunities put in front of you that you didn't yet fully deserve, right? Someone believes in you, someone opens a door, someone's like, hey, Nate, how about you do this? Or like, we think you might be capable of this. And it doesn't happen very often, but those moments do happen. And when they happen, a massive differentiator for your life is do you notice that it's happening and do you grab it with both hands? And in that moment, do everything you can to make it work, right? Like they don't come along very often. And to me, those moments have been so precious. I knew I wouldn't get many of them. And so every time they happened, I've just been all in. I don't care what's going on in my life at that time. When the door opens, I drop everything, and I do everything I can to make it work. And you're stretched in those situations. So it's not easy, right? Like someone's given you an opportunity to do something you're not ready for, essentially. So you're literally not ready for it. Like you're not good enough, you don't know enough, you don't have the knowledge, you don't have the skills. So you only have to do the job, but you have to cultivate your own skills and develop your skills. And that's a lot of work. You know, when I landed in, I mean, working for Max was one of those opportunities where I did not, I'd not done enough to earn that opportunity when I got that opportunity. I landed with five people who had all done PayPal. They were all like incredible experts in their fields, right? Like Russ Simmons, the Yelp co-founder, had been the chief architect of PayPal. He architected PayPal, right? Like I was with very skilled technical people. I was the only Brit. They were all Americans. So I stood out culturally. Most of them couldn't understand what I was saying when I arrived. I've since changed how I speak. So you can understand me, the Americans in the room. But I just mumbled. I wasn't very articulate. So it was really hard to get my ideas across. And I had programmed as a hobbyist, but I didn't know enough to be able to program production code alongside people that had worked at PayPal. I mean, their security levels and their accuracy and everything was just off the, I was in another league, right? So there I was, I felt totally out of my depth, and I had to fight to stay in that job for a year. Like I fought every day for a year to like not get kicked out of that job and essentially out of the country. Because without their sponsorship, I couldn't have stayed in the country. I was on a student visa with them, right? And I worked seven days a week for 365 days in a row. I basically almost lived in the office. I got an apartment a few blocks from the office and I had to. No one else was working those kind of hours, but I had to do the job, and I had to learn 3 new programming languages and all this technical stuff, how to write specs, how to write product specs like I had to research the history of various websites in parts of the internet. So I'm just, I guess I'm just giving some color to like when these doors open in your career and in your life, sometimes they're relationship doors that open, right? You meet somebody who's going to change your life, and it's like, are you going to fight to make that work? And, you know, like, so not all, it's not always career events, but when they happen, I think like trusting your instinct that this is one of those moments and knowing this is one of the, you can't do this throughout your whole life. You burn out and you die young. Like you're just not sustainable. But when they happen, are you going to put the burners on and be like, I'm in. And sometimes it only takes a few weeks. Like the most it's ever taken for me is a year to walk through a door. But like, anyway, like just saying that in case anyone here has one of these moments and like maybe this will resonate with one of you, and you'll be like, that's one of the moments I need to walk through the door.    Nate:  That concludes chapter one. In chapter 2, Bob talks about building companies. First, I asked Bob if he gained much leadership experience at Yelp.    Bob:  I gained some. I suppose my first year or two in the US was in a technical role. So I didn't have anyone reporting to me. I was just working on the user interface and front end stuff. So really no leadership there. But then, there was a day when we still had five people. Jeremy started to go pitch investors for our second round because we had really good traffic growth, right? In San Francisco, we had really nice charts showing traffic growth. We'd started to get traction in New York and started to get traction in LA. So we've had the start of a nice story, right? Like this works in other cities. We've got a model we can get traffic. And Jeremy went to his first VC pitch for the second round. And the VC said, you need to show that you can monetize the traffic before you raise this round. The growth story is fine, but you also need to say, we've signed 3 customers and they're paying this much, right, monthly. So Jeremy came back from that pitch, and I remember very clearly, he sat down, kind of slumped in his chair and he's like, oh man, we're going to have to do some sales before we can raise this next round. Like we need someone on the team to go close a few new clients. And it's so funny because it's like, me and four people and everyone went like this and faced me at the same time. And I was like, why are you looking at me? Like, I'm not, I didn't know how to start selling to local businesses. And they're like, they all looked at each other and went, no, we think you're probably the best for this, Bob. And they were all engineers, like all four of them were like, background in engineering. Even the CEO was VP engineering at PayPal before he did Yelp. So basically, we were all geeks. And for some reason, they thought I would be the best choice to sell to businesses. And I didn't really have a choice in it, honestly. I didn't want to do it. They were just like, you're like, that's what needs to happen next. And you're the most suitable candidate for it. So I I just started picking up the phone and calling dentists, chiropractors, restaurants. We didn't know if Yelp would resonate with bars or restaurants or healthcare. We thought healthcare was going to be big, which is reasonably big for Yelp now, but it's not the focus. But anyway, I just started calling these random businesses with great reviews. I just started with the best reviewed businesses. And the funny thing is some of those people, my first ever calls are still friends today, right? Like my chiropractor that I called is the second person I ever called and he signed up, ended up being my chiropractor for like 15 years living in San Francisco. And now we're still in touch, and we're great friends. So it's funny, like I dreaded those first calls, but they actually turned out to be really interesting people that I met. But yeah, we didn't have a model. We didn't know what to charge for. So we started out charging for calls. We changed the business's phone number. So if you're, you had a 415 number and you're a chiropractor on Yelp, we would change your number to like a number that Yelp owned, but it went straight through to their phone. So it was a transfer, but it meant our system could track that they got the call through Yelp, right? Yeah. And then we tracked the duration of the call. We couldn't hear the call, but we tracked the duration of the call. And then we could report back to them at the end of the month. You got 10 calls from Yelp this month and we're going to charge you $50 a call or whatever. So I sold that to 5 or 10 customers and people hated it. They hated that model because they're like, they'd get a call, it'd be like a wrong number or they just wanted to ask, they're already a current customer and they're asking about parking or something, right? So then we'd get back to and be like, you got a call and we charged you 50 bucks. So like, no, I can't pay you for that. Like, that was one of my current customers. So now the reality is they were getting loads of advertising and that was really driving the growth for their business, but they didn't want to pay for the call. So then I was like, that's not working. We have to do something else. Then we paid pay for click, which was we put ads on your page and when someone clicks it, they see you. And then people hated that too, because they're like, my mum just told me she's been like clicking on the link, right? Because she's like looking at my business. And my mum probably just cost me 5 bucks because she said she clicked it 10 times. And like, can you take that off my bill? So people hated the clicks. And then one day we just brought in a head of operations, Geoff Donaker. And by this point, by the way, I had like 2 salespeople working for me that I'd hired. And so it was me and two other people. We were calling these companies, signing these contracts. And one day I just had this epiphany. I was like, we should just pay for the ads that are viewed, not the ads that are clicked. In other words, pay for impressions to the ads. So if I tell you, I've put your ad in front of 500 people when they were looking for sushi this month, right? That you don't mind paying for because there's no action involved, but you're like, whoa, it's a big number. You put me in front of 500 people. I'll pay you 200 bucks for that. No problem. Essentially impression-based advertising. And I went to our COO and I was like, I think we should try this. He was like, if you want to give it a go. And I wrote up a contract and started selling it that day. And that is that format, that model now has a billion dollars revenue running through Yelp. So basically they took that model, like I switched it to impression-based advertising. And that was what was right for local. And our metrics were amazing. We're actually able to charge a lot more than we could in the previous two models. And I built out the sales team to about 20 people. Through that process, I got hooked, basically. Like I realized I love selling during that role. I would never have walked into sales, I think, unless everyone had gone, you have to do it. And I dreaded it, but I got really hooked on it. I love the adrenaline of it. I love hunting down these deals and I love like what you can learn from customers when you're selling. You can learn what they need and you can evolve your business model. So I love that flywheel and that's kind of what I've been doing ever since. But I built out a team of 20 people, so I got to learn management, essentially by just doing it at Yelp and building out that team.    Nate:  Next, I asked Bob how he developed his theory of leadership.    Bob:  I actually developed it really early on. You know, I mentioned earlier I'd been starting things since I was about 10 years old. And what's fascinated me between the age of like 10 and maybe, you know, my early 20s, I love the idea of creating stuff with people where no one gets paid. And here's why. These are charities and nonprofits and stuff, right? But I realized really early, if I can lead and motivate in a way where people want to contribute, even though they're not getting paid, and we can create stuff together, if I can learn that aspect, like management in that sense, then if I'm one day paying people, I'm going to get like, I'm going to, we're all going to be so much more effective, essentially, right? Like the organization is going to be so much more effective. And that is a concept I still work with today. Yes, we pay everyone quite well at Quid who works at Quid, right? Like we pay at or above market rate. But I never think about that. I never, ever ask for anything or work with people in a way that I feel they need to do it because that's their job ever. I just erased that from my mindset. I've never had that in my mindset. I always work with people with like, with gratitude and and in a way where I'm like, well, I'll try and make it fun and like help them see the meaning in the work, right? Like help them understand why it's an exciting thing to work on or a, why it's right for them, how it connects to their goals and their interests and why it's, you know, fun to contribute, whether it's to a client or to an area of technology or whatever we're working on. It's like, so yeah, I haven't really, I haven't, I mean, you guys might have read books on this, but I haven't really seen that idea articulated in quite the way that I think about it. And because I didn't read it in a book, I just kind of like stumbled across it as a kid. But that's, but I learned because I practiced it for 10 years before I even ended up in the US, when I started managing teams at Yelp, I found that I was very effective as a manager and a leader because I didn't take for granted that, you know, people had to do it because it was their job. I thought of ways to make the environment fun and make the connections between the different team members fun and teach them things and have there be like a culture of success and winning and sharing in the results of the wins together. And I suppose this did play out a little bit financially in my career because, although we pay people well at Yelp, we're kind of a somewhat mature business now. But in the early days of Yelp and in the early days of Quid, I never competed on pay. You know, when you're starting a company, it's a really bad idea to try and compete on pay. You have to, I went into every hiring conversation all the way through my early days at Yelp, as well as through the early days at Quid, like probably the first nearly 10 years at Quid. And every time I interviewed people, I would say early on, this isn't going to be where you earn the most money. I'm not going to be able to pay you market rate. You're going to earn less here than you could elsewhere. However, this is what I can offer you, right? Like whether then I make a culture that's about like helping learning. Like we always had a book like quota at Quid. If you want to buy books to read in your free time, I don't care what the title is, we'll give you money to buy books. And the reality is a book's like 10 bucks or 20 bucks, right? No one spends much on books, but that was one of the perks. I put together these perks so that we were paying often like half of what you could get in the market for the same role, but you're printing like reasons to be there that aren't about the money. Now, it doesn't work for everybody, you know, that's as in every company doesn't, but that's just what played out. And that's really important in the early days. You've got to be so efficient. And then once you start bringing in the money, then you can start moving up your rates and obviously pay people market rate. But early on, you've got to find ways to be really, really, really efficient and really lean. And you can't pay people market rate in the early days. I mean, people kind of expect that going into early stage companies, but I was particularly aggressive on that front. But that was just because I suppose it was in my DNA that like, I will try and give you other reasons to work here, but it's not going to be, it's not going to be for the money.    Nate:  Next, I asked Bob how he got from Yelp to Quid and how he knew it was time to launch his own company.    Bob:  Yeah, like looking back, if I'd made sort of the smart decision from a financial standpoint and from a, you know, career standpoint, I suppose you'd say, I would have just stayed put. if you're in a rocket ship and it's growing and you've got a senior role and you get to, you've got, you've earned the license to work on whatever you want. Like Yelp wanted me to move to Phoenix and create their first remote sales team. They wanted, I was running customer success at the time and I'd set up all those systems. Like there was so much to do. Yelp was only like three or four years old at the time, and it was clearly a rocket ship. And you know, I could have learned a lot more like from Yelp in that, like I could have seen it all the way through to IPO and, setting up remote teams and hiring hundreds of people, thousands of people eventually. So I, but I made the choice to leave relatively early and start my own thing. Just coming back to this idea we talked about in the session earlier today, I I always want to work on the forefront of whatever's going on, like the most important thing happening in our time. And I felt I knew what was next. I could kind of see what was next, which was applying AI to analyze the world's text, which was clear to me by about 2008, like that was going to be as big as the internet. That's kind of how I felt about it. And I told people that, and I put that in articles, and I put it in talks that are online that you can go watch. You know, there's one on my website from 10 years ago where I'd already been in the space for five or six years. You can go watch it and see what I was saying in 2015. So fortunately, I documented this because it sounds a bit, you know, unbelievable given what's just happened with large language models and open AI. But it was clear to me where things were going around 2008. And I just wanted to work on what was next, basically. I wanted to apply neural networks and natural language processing to massive text sets like all the world's media, all the world's social media. And yeah, I suppose whenever I've seen what's going to happen next, like with social network, going to Yelp, like seeing what was going to happen with social networking, going to building Yelp, and then seeing this observation about AI and going and doing Quid, it's not, it doesn't feel like a choice to me. It's felt like, well, just what I have to do. And regardless of whether that's going to be more work, harder work, less money, et cetera, it's just how I'm wired, I guess. And I'm kind of, I see it now. Like I see what's next now. And I'll probably just keep doing this. But I was really too early or very, very early, as you can probably see, to be trying to do that at like 2008, 2009, seven or eight years before OpenAI was founded, I was just banging my head against the wall for nearly a decade with no one that would listen. So even the best companies in the world and the biggest investors in the world, again, I won't name them, But it was so hard to raise money. It was so hard to get anyone to watch it that, after a time, I actually started to think I was wrong. Like after doing it for like 10 years and it hadn't taken off, I just started to think like, I was so wrong. I spent a year or two before ChatGPT took off. I'd got to a point where I'd spent like a year or two just thinking, how could my instinct be so wrong about what was going to play out here? How could we not have unlocked the world's written information at this point? And I started to think maybe it'll never happen, you know, and like I was simply wrong, which of course you could be wrong on these things. And then, you know, ChatGPT and OpenAI like totally blew up, and it's been bigger than even I imagined. And I couldn't have told you exactly which technical breakthrough was going to result in it. Like no one knew that large language models were going to be the unlock. But I played with everything available to try and unlock that value. And as soon as large language models became promising in 2016, we were on it, like literally the month that the Google BERT paper came out, because we were like knocking on that door for many years beforehand. And we were one of the teams that were like, trying to unlock that value. That's why many of the early Quid people are very senior at OpenAI and went on to take what they learned from Quid and then apply it in an OpenAI environment, which I'm very proud of. I'm very proud of those people, and it's amazing to see what they've done.    Nate:  That concludes Chapter 2. In Chapter 3, we discuss AI and social media. The first question was about anxiety and AI.    Bob:  Maybe I'll just focus on the anxiety and the issues first of all. A lot's been said on it. I suppose what would be my headlines? I think that one big area of concern is how it changes the job market. And I think the practical thing on that is if you can learn to be the bridge, then you're putting yourself in a really valuable position, right? Because if you can bridge this technology into businesses in a way that makes change and improvements, then you are moving yourself to a skill set that's going to continue to be really valuable. So that's just a practical matter. One of the executives I work with in a major US company likes to say will doctors become redundant because of AI? And he says, no, doctors won't be redundant, but doctors that don't use AI will be redundant. And that's kind of where we are, right? It's like, we're still going to need a person, but if you refuse, if you're not using it, you're going to fall behind and like that is going to put you at risk. So I think there is some truth to that little kind of illustrative story. There will be massive numbers of jobs that are no longer necessary. And the history of technology is full of these examples. Coming back to like 5,000 years ago, think of all the times that people invented stuff that made the prior roles redundant, right? In London, before electricity was discovered and harnessed, one of the biggest areas of employment was for the people that walked the streets at night, lighting the candles and gas lights that lit London. That was a huge breakthrough, right? You could put fire in the street, you put gas in the street and you lit London. Without that, you couldn't go out at night in London and like it would have been an absolute nightmare. The city wouldn't be what it is. But that meant there were like thousands of people whose job it was to light those candles and then go round in the morning when the sun came up and blow them out. So when the light bulb was invented, can you imagine the uproar in London where all these jobs were going to be lost, thousands of jobs were going to be lost. by people that no longer are needed to put out these lights. There were riots, right? There was massive social upheaval. The light bulb threatened and wiped out those jobs. How many people in London now work lighting gas lamps and lighting candles to light the streets, right? Nobody. That was unthinkable. How could you possibly take away those jobs? You know, people actually smashed these light bulbs when the first electric light bulbs were put into streets. People just went and smashed them because they're like, we are not going to let this technology take our jobs. And I can give you 20 more examples like that throughout history, right? Like you could probably think of loads yourselves. Even the motor car, you know, so many people were employed to look after horses, right? Think of all the people that were employed in major cities around the world, looking after horses and caring for them and building the carts and everything. And suddenly you don't need horses anymore. Like that wiped out an entire industry. But what did it do? It created the automobile industry, which has been employing massive numbers of people ever since. And the same is true for, you know, like what have light bulbs done for the quality of our lives? You know, we don't look at them now and think that's an evil technology that wiped out loads of jobs. We go, thank goodness we've got light bulbs. So the nature of technology is that it wipes out roles, and it creates roles. And I just don't see AI being any different. Humans have no limit to like, seem to have no limit to the comfort they want to live with and the things that we want in our lives. And those things are still really expensive and we don't, we're nowhere near satisfied. So like, we're going to keep driving forward. We're going to go, oh, now we can do that. Great. I can use AI, I can make movies and I can, you know, I don't know, like there's just loads of stuff that people are going to want to do with AI. Like, I mean, using the internet, how much time do we spend on these damn web forms, just clicking links and buttons and stuff? Is that fun? Do we even want to do that? No. Like we're just wasting hours of our lives every week, like clicking buttons. Like if we have agents, they can do that for us. So we have, I think we're a long way from like an optimal state where work is optional and we can just do the things that humans want to do with their time. And so, but that's the journey that I see us all along, you know. So anyway, that's just my take on AI and employment, both practically, what can you do about it? Be the bridge, embrace it, learn it, jump in. And also just like in a long arc, I'm not saying in the short term, there won't be riots and there won't be lots of people out of work. And I mean, there will be. But when we look back again, like I often think about what time period are we talking about? Right? People often like, well, what will it do to jobs? Next year, like there'll certain categories that will become redundant. But are we thinking about this in a one year period or 100 year period? Like it's worth asking yourself, what timeframe am I talking about? Right? And I always try and come back to the 100 year view at a minimum when talking about technology change. If it's better for humanity in 100 years, then we should probably work on it and make it happen, right? If we didn't do that, we wouldn't have any light bulbs in our house. Still be lighting candles?    Nate:  Next was a question about social media, fragmented attention, and how it drives isolation.    Bob:  Well, it's obviously been very problematic, particularly in the last five or six years. So TikTok gained success in the United States and around the world around five or six years ago with a completely new model for how to put content in front of people. And what powered it? AI. So TikTok is really an AI company. And the first touch point that most of us had with AI was actually through TikTok. It got so good at knowing the network of all possible content and knowing if you watch this, is the next thing we should show you to keep you engaged. And they didn't care if you were friends with someone or not. Your network didn't matter. Think about Facebook. Like for those of you that were using Facebook, maybe say 2010, right? Like 15 years ago. What did social media look like? You had a profile page, you uploaded photos of yourself and photos of your friends, you linked between them. And when you logged into Facebook, you basically just browsing people's profiles and seeing what they got up to at the weekend. That was social media 15 years ago. Now imagine, now think what you do when you're on Instagram and you're swiping, right? Or you go to TikTok and you're swiping. First of all, let's move to videos, which is a lot more compelling, short videos. And most of the content has nothing to do with your friends. So there was a massive evolution in social media that happened five or six years ago, driven by TikTok. And all the other companies had to basically adopt the same approach or they would have fallen too far behind. So it forced Meta to evolve Instagram and Facebook to be more about attention. Like there's always about attention, that's the nature of media. But these like AI powered ways to keep you there, regardless of what they're showing you. And that turned out to be a bit of a nightmare because it unleashed loads of content without any sense of like what's good for the people who are watching it, right? That's not the game they're playing. They're playing attention and then they're not making decisions about what might be good for you or not. So we went through like a real dip, I think, in social media, went through a real dip and we're still kind of in it, right, trying to find ways out of it. So regulation will ultimately be the savior, which it is in any new field of tech. Regulation is necessary to keep tech to have positive impact for the people that it's meant to be serving. And that's taken a long time to successfully put in place for social media, but we are getting there. I mean, Australia just banned social media for everyone under 16. You may have seen that. Happened, I think, earlier this year. France is putting controls around it. The UK is starting to put more controls around it. So, you know, gradually countries are voters are making it a requirement to put regulation around social media use. In terms of just practical things for you all, as you think about your own social media use, I think it's very healthy to think about how long you spend on it and find ways to just make it a little harder to access, right? Like none of us feel good when we spend a lot of time on our screens. None of us feel good when we spend a lot of time on social media. It feels good at the time because it's given us those quick dopamine hits. But then afterwards, we're like, man, I spent an hour, and I just like, I lost an hour down like the Instagram wormhole. And then we don't feel good afterwards. It affects us sleep negatively. And yeah, come to the question that was, posted, can create a sense of isolation or negative feelings of self due to comparison to centrally like models and actors and all these people that are like putting out content, right? Kind of super humans. So I think just finding ways to limit it and asking yourself what's right for you and then just sticking to that. And if that means coming off it for a month or coming off it for a couple of months, then, give that a try. Personally, I don't use it much at all. I'll use it mostly because friends will share like a funny meme or something and you just still want to watch it because it's like it's sent to you by a friend. It's a way of interacting. Like my dad sends me funny stuff from the internet, and I want to watch it because it's a way of connecting with him. But then I set a timer. I like to use this timer. It's like just a little physical device. I know we've all got one on our phones, but I like to have one on my desk. And so if I'm going into something, whether it's like I'm going to do an hour on my inbox, my e-mail inbox, or I'm going to, you know, open up Instagram and just swipe for a bit, I'll just set a timer, you know, and just keep me honest, like, okay, I'm going to give myself 8 minutes. I'm not going to give myself any more time on there. So there's limited it. And then I put all these apps in a folder on the second screen of my phone. So I can't easily access them. I don't even see them because they're on the second screen of my phone in a folder called social. So to access any of the apps, I have to swipe, open the folder, and then open the app. And just moving them to a place where I can't see them has been really helpful. I only put the healthy apps on my front page of my phone.    Nate:  Next was a question about where Bob expects AI to be in 20 years and whether there are new levels to be unlocked.    Bob:  No one knows. Right? Like what happens when you take a large language model from a trillion nodes to like 5 trillion nodes? No one knows. It's, this is where the question comes in around like consciousness, for example. Will it be, will it get to a point where we have to consider this entity conscious? Fiercely debated, not obvious at all. Will it become, it's already smarter than, well, it already knows more than any human on the planet. So in terms of its knowledge access, it knows more. In terms of most capabilities, most, you know, cognitive capabilities, it's already more capable than any single human on the planet. But there are certain aspects of consciousness, well, certain cognitive functions that humans currently are capable of that AI is not currently capable of, but we might expect some of those to be eaten into as these large language models get better. And it might be that these large language models have cognitive capabilities that humans don't have and never could have, right? Like levels of strategic thinking, for example, that we just can't possibly mirror. And that's one of the things that's kind of, you know, a concern to nations and to people is that, you know, we could end up with something on the planet that is a lot smarter than any one of us or even all of us combined. So in general, when something becomes more intelligent, it seeks to dominate everything else. That is a pattern. You can see that throughout all life. Nothing's ever got smarter and not sought to dominate. And so that's concerning, especially because it's trained on everything we've ever said and done. So I don't know why that pattern would be different. So that, you know, that's interesting. And and I think in terms of, so the part of that question, which is whole new areas of capability to be unlocked, really fascinating area to look at is not so much the text now, because everything I've written is already in these models, right? So the only way they can get more information is by the fact that like, loads of social networks are creating more information and so on. It's probably pretty duplicitous at this point. That's why Elon bought Twitter, for example, because he wanted the data in Twitter, and he wants that constant access to that data. But how much smarter can they get when they've already got everything ever written? However, large language models, of course, don't just apply to text. They apply to any information, genetics, photography, film, every form of information can be harnessed by these large language models and are being harnessed. And one area that's super interesting is robotics. So the robot is going to be as nimble and as capable as the training data that goes into it. And there isn't much robotic training data yet. But companies are now collecting robotic training data. So in the coming years, robots are going to get way more capable, thanks to large language models, but only as this data gets collected. So in other words, like language is kind of reaching its limits in terms of new capabilities, but think of all the other sensor types that could feed into large language models and you can start to see all kinds of future capabilities, which is why everyone suddenly got so interested in personal transportation vehicles and personal robotics, which is why like Tesla share price is up for example, right? Because Elon's committed now to kind of moving more into robotics with Tesla as a company. And there are going to be loads of amazing robotics companies that come out over the next like 10 or 20 years.    Nate:  And that brings us to the end of this episode with Bob Goodson. Like I mentioned in the intro, there were so many great nuggets from Bob. Such great insight on managing our careers, building companies, and the evolving impact of AI and social media. In summary, try to be at the intersection of new power and real problems. Seek to inspire rather than just transact, and be thoughtful about how to use social media and AI. All simple ideas, please, take them seriously.   

Learn how to bridge the price gap when selling your company without losing control of your future payments. This episode reveals why you should never rely on verbal promises and how to lock in your earnout through ironclad legal protections. Discover the secrets to maintaining your budget and team after the deal closes so you actually get paid every dollar you deserve. View the complete show notes for this episode. Want To Learn More? Earnouts When Selling or Buying a Business | Complete Guide Negotiating an M&A Purchase Agreement | M&A Tips M&A Reps & Warranties | A Complete Guide Additional Resources: Selling your business? Schedule a free consultation today. Sign up for an Assessment and Valuation of Your Business. Courses: The Art & Science of Selling a Business Download The Art of The Exit: The Complete Guide to Selling Your Business Download Acquired: The Art of Selling a Business With $10 Million to $100 Million in Revenue If you have any topic or guest suggestions, please email them to podcast@morganandwestfield.com.

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