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A House Democrat is demanding answers on the Trump administration's proposed nondisclosure agreement for the federal workforce. In a letter to the Office of Personnel Management, Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill) warns that pushing feds to sign an NDA would undermine First Amendment protections and whistleblower activities. OPM has two weeks to respond to the congressman's new investigation into the legal and workplace-related impacts of the administration's proposal. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
The Office of Personnel Management has proposed a new government-wide NDA for federal workers.
Today's guest is a multi-Latin-Grammy-winning songwriter and producer with a wall of platinum records — and one of the few people in music willing to say the quiet part out loud. He came up as an actor and a rapper, moved to LA broke, stumbled into songwriting, and turned it into the kind of career most writers spend a lifetime chasing. He's also built one of the sharpest voices in the room as the host of his own show, Good Luck With Gino.This is one of the most honest conversations we've had about how the music business actually works in 2026 — not the clean version, the real one. Why roughly 75% of working writers now survive on K-pop. How the pitch song quietly died and took the professional songwriter down with it. Artists taking songwriting credit on songs they didn't write — and exactly how labels split the writers up to play them against each other and shave points. Gino lays out the one rule every songwriter needs before their next cut, when it's worth standing on business, and when you "roll over like a dog" because the record's too big to lose.And The Writer Is... Gino The Ghost!In this episode of And The Writer Is, we go deep on:• How he came up — actor, rapper, broke in LA, then stumbled into songwriting• Treating every podcast episode like an album of singles• Why ~75% of working writers now live off K-pop• What pitch records used to be — Clive Davis, Barry Manilow & the lost art of outside songs• The death of the professional songwriter (and why talent-show winners get nothing now)• Artists taking credit for songs they didn't write — and how to combat it• The "$15K buy-me-out" story & when to stand on business vs. roll over• The split shakedown — how labels pit writers against each other, and the rule that beats it• Why generosity makes you more money than being a prickAnd much more...
Coming up today on the Federal Drive with Terry Gerton Congress makes headway on ICE and CBP funding, but not much else There's a new temporary selection to lead U.S. intelligence and it's a good moment to look at what that job demands and how the process works A proposed NDA for federal employees is drawing attention to how information moves inside government and who feels safe sharing itSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
The Office of Personnel Management is proposing a strict new non-disclosure agreement for federal workers, which would bar them from disclosing “non-public, confidential, or proprietary information.” The Trump administration says a new agreement is needed to stop leaks to the press. A draft of the NDA is being published today. Then, from the latest season of Marketplace's "How We Survive," can we engineer nature to slow the climate crisis?
The Office of Personnel Management is proposing a strict new non-disclosure agreement for federal workers, which would bar them from disclosing “non-public, confidential, or proprietary information.” The Trump administration says a new agreement is needed to stop leaks to the press. A draft of the NDA is being published today. Then, from the latest season of Marketplace's "How We Survive," can we engineer nature to slow the climate crisis?
Federal employees may soon have to start signing non-disclosure agreements. The Office of Personnel Management has unveiled a governmentwide NDA template for agencies. It's an attempt to stop government documents from being leaked to the press. Here with more, Federal News Network's Drew Friedman.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In the latest episode of the NDA podcast, Retail Media Age Editor sits down with Meredith O'Brien, Group Agency Director at MiQ, and Paul McGee, Head of Video at Goodstuff, to unpack exactly how programmatic advertising can meet the challenges posed by rapidly-shifting consumer behaviour.O'Brien and McGee dive into the complexity of the current media landscape, how advertiser outcomes are defined, and the challenges of solving for fragmentation, while also exploring the so-called 'collapse' of the funnel and how the advent of AI has upended the traditional customer journey.They then take a close look at a case study that shows how brands - not solely well-resourced, major brands but also smaller, nimble emerging brands - can reach consumers and resonate amidst this fast-moving landscape. Working with Goodstuff and MiQ, challenger men's grooming brand Dr Squatch managed to successfully land its message with its target young, male, urban demographic via YouTube and CTV.O'Brien and McGee also reveal how commerce data allowed them to understand exactly who the campaign resonated with and to link the upper-funnel messaging of the video campaign to retail sales.The conversation is a brilliantly detailed 'under the hood' look at exactly how an effective online video and CTV campaign is built and executed and how it can translate into measurable results for brands.Pulling back to look at the bigger picture, MiQ's Meredith O'Brien also explores the challenges of linking channels such as CTV to tangible ROI, how performance metrics can be brought into an awareness-focused ad medium, and how an openness to experimentation and innovation helps advertisers to stand out.
Send us Fan MailSome people are fearless on social media and mysteriously silent in real life. We start there, because that fake tough energy bleeds into everything: how we argue, how we date, and how we dodge consequences when the screen is gone. From cruise ship chaos and hantavirus headlines to the very real question of “what risk is worth it,” we keep it blunt and practical, not paranoid. Then we jump into a culture fight that refuses to die: comedy, free speech, and accountability. The Kevin Hart roast discussion and the backlash over a George Floyd joke turns into a real debate about context, power, and why certain punchlines don't feel like “just jokes” to everyone watching. We also react to a viral Trump clip and talk politics the way regular people do when bills are high and the world still feels unstable, including what gets prioritized when fear and money collide. Dating doesn't escape the pressure either. We break down “dateflation,” rising date costs, and how social media warps expectations into a performance. And if you've ever argued about cheating, 50-50 relationships, gender roles, body counts, or opposite-sex best friends, this is where we go all the way in. The wildest moment might be the moral test: would you sign an NDA for $2 million if a wealthy stranger wants your spouse for three days, especially when life is falling apart financially? If you like unfiltered relationship advice, modern dating talk, and real-time news commentary with a lot of honesty, press play. Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs to hear it, leave a review, and tell us: where do you draw the line on jokes, loyalty, and money?Support the showFollow us on social media www.instagram.com/noadvisorypodcast
in this episode i recap the season kick off of the NDA with the winning team, grand rapids dynasty. panel including ryan ginsberg, dylan fittig, and dylan greer. we go over their season expectations, their rivalry with rubber city resistance as well as talk about why you should keep an eye out on the nda for this season and seasons going forward. as the season progress and with the potential with different winners/finalist to make an appearance this season, my goal is create an over arching story where each episode and event will be referenced for deeper story telling. take a listen and enjoy
¿Querés conocer toda la escandalosa interna del podcast de videojuegos Checkpoint? ¡No! ¡No Cambies de canal! Porque en el Ep. 608 de Café Fandango invitamos a Dieguito De Carlo que ¡viola el NDA y nos cuenta hasta los detalles más escabrosos! Aunque también nos explica como acomodar Marathon a la vida en familia, y como estirar hasta el infinito una partida de Civilization VI. Seba por su parte, nos aburre con TRES Carlos Duties (MW II, MW III, y Black Ops: Cold War), nos agrega un detalle copado del Shantae and the Seven Sirens, y se quiebra en vivo hablando del Death by Scrolling. Por el lado de las noticias tenemos todas buenas decisiones de Sony (respecto al precio de Plus y a su política de publicación de exclusivos); a Valve que "mejora" una función haciéndola completamente mierda; a la que esperemos sea la anteúltima noticia que tengamos que cubrir respecto a la batalla legal de Epic vs Apple; y cerramos con un reconocimiento (parcial) al Doom que nos llevó a preguntarnos a qué cosa muy puntual de algún videojuego te gustaría darle un premio.
Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski | True Crime News & Commentary
Why were zero charges filed after Operation Tidal Wave? Why does the New York Times find only 13 prosecutions in a decade? Why do settlements come with NDAs? This is the architecture of the justice gap: foreign-flag registration placing ships under jurisdictions that do not investigate. Private security teams with inherent conflicts of interest conducting the first investigation. A federal law requiring reporting but not prosecution. An enforcement default that deports crew without charges — creating no record, no registry, and no deterrent. KPBS confirmed no charges in two federal districts for the San Diego operation. All 27 deported. Crew return home with clean records. Maritime attorneys confirm they can board another ship. Civil lawsuits are met with NDA-laden settlements. The system moves in one direction: away from public accountability. Cruising with Predators, a Hidden Killers investigation.Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspodX Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePodThis publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.#CruiseShipJustice #DeportNotProsecute #CruiseLaw #CVSSA #NDA #CruisingWithPredators #CruiseIndustry #HiddenKillers #TrueCrime #ChildSafety
The Three Portals: Mastering Your Voiceover Representation Strategy Voiceover Representation Strategy BOSSes, Anne Ganguzza and Tom Dheere (The VO Strategist) tackle one of the biggest myths in the industry: that you need an agent to be successful. While representation is a vital part of a long-term voiceover representation strategy, it is only one of three "portals" to booking work. In this episode, Tom and Anne demystify the Business-to-Business (B2B) nature of the actor-agent relationship, the financial reality of why agents don't typically cast non-broadcast work, and how major social shifts have permanently altered how rosters are curated in 2026. Chapter Summaries: The Three Portals of VO Work (02:17) Tom introduces his "Three Portals" framework for booking work: Representation (Agents/Managers), Online Casting Sites (P2P and free), and Self-Marketing (Direct outreach/SEO). He emphasizes that for most talent, representation is actually the smallest portal, while self-marketing and online casting provide the bulk of steady income. Why Agents Skip Non-Broadcast Work (06:00) There is a clear economic reason why agents focus on broadcast: Usage Fees. Tom explains that an agent taking 10% of a $250 audiobook finished hour ($25) isn't sustainable for their business. They are looking for the "rebuys" and licensed spots in radio, TV, and streaming that pay thousands in license fees, making their commission worthwhile. Agents vs. Managers: The Smoke-Filled Room (25:19) While agents primarily manage casting notices and file labeling, managers take a higher stake in your overall career development. A manager may take a percentage of all your income (typically 15-20%) because they are actively promoting you to other agents and "talking you up" in the industry's metaphorical VIP lounges. Democratized Casting and Diversity (33:45) The industry has undergone a massive shift toward authenticity and inclusion. Tom and Anne discuss how movements like Me Too and George Floyd changed casting specs "overnight." Today, rosters are smaller but more diverse, meaning talent must find their unique "X-factor" to fill a specific demographic or stylistic need on a roster. The "Agent Ready" Checklist (09:06) Before submitting, you must be "agent ready." This includes having a perfected website, a calibrated home studio, and a killer demo. If you cannot follow submission criteria to the letter (e.g., naming your file exactly as requested), the only thing an agent learns is that you cannot take direction. The Referrer: Casting Directors (29:32) Casting directors (CDs) don't represent you, but they are your biggest advocates. In 2026, the most effective way to get an agent is through a CD referral. By taking workshops and reading for CDs, you build a relationship that can lead to an introduction when an agent asks, "Who do you have that sounds like X?" Top 10 Takeaways for Voice Actors: Agents Enhance, They Don't Create: An agent will make a successful career more successful, but they won't build one from scratch for you. It's a B2B Relationship: You don't work for your agent. You work with them as a business partner. Audit Your Portals: Balance your workload across all three portals (Rep, P2P, Direct) so you aren't devastated if one client or agent drops. Broadcast is the Goal for Reps: If you want an agent, focus on commercial, promo, and high-level gaming demos. Follow Directions Exactly: Agent submission is your first "direction" test. Failure to follow labeling or subject line rules results in an immediate "delete." Clean Up Your Socials: Agents and managers check your social media. Avoid inflammatory, whiny, or NDA-violating posts that could damage their reputation. Know the Rebuy: A major benefit of representation is their ability to track and negotiate "rebuys" or renewals for your spots. Diversity is an Asset: rosters in 2026 prize authenticity. Own your unique background and use it as a selling point. Utilize NAVA Benefits: Use National Association of Voice Actors (NAVA) resources for professional contract reviews before signing with a manager. Relationships Over Cold Emails: Focus on building face-to-face (or screen-to-screen) rapport with casting directors to earn referrals.
‘Nemesis' Creator Courtney A. Kemp on Making Her Explosive Netflix Debut and Crafting a Finale That Ushers in a Season 2M.I.A. is a Peacock crime drama series created by Bill Dubuque. The 9-episode revenge thriller, which dropped on the platform on May 7, 2026Washington, D.C., announces they will start going after the parents of teens who attend street takeovers and could face up to 6 months in jailStefon Diggs' former chef is going viral as she shows herself cooking Mila Adams, Stefon Diggs' personal chef, is alleging that Stefon abused Cardi B while she was pregnant. Boston Richey shows he had 100 women come to his yacht party after the club.Philadelphia Eagles Fred Johnson accused of kicking out his 8-month-pregnant girlfriend influencer Alyssa Okada and then cheating with women on HingWoman berated at Kroger after customer gets upset over her gym clothes: “I wish I had a dk!… You look like you want to be fked. This is not LA Fitness.”Meek Mill says his song “Dreams and Nightmares” is one of the best rap songs to ever come outStefon Diggs and Caylea Benji celebrate their daughter's 1st birthday! Cardi B Fan Waited For Her Argument With Stefon Diggs To End Before Asking For A Pic Cardi B Breaks Her Silence After Viral Stefon Diggs Argument Video: ‘Y'all Ain't Never Cuss Your Babydad Out?'The District Attorney reportedly plans to block ChudTheBuilder from using his fundraiser money toward his bond.Dalton Eatherly, known as "Chud the Builder" online, had his bond set at $1.25 million in court on Friday morning.Ex-Warden Argues 20-Year-Old Sean Gathright, Convicted In Rapper Julio Foolio K!lling, Should Get Life Sentence Instead Of De@th Penalty For Prison Labor Value. We Need That Sweat EquitySean Gathright speaks out for the first time since avoiding the death penalty for Foolio's deathDJ Akademiks says getting an OVO chain from Drake after meeting him for the first time felt like a dream:LaMelo Ball and Kaliah/KBallout reportedly reached a private agreement outside the courtroom. She's said to be receiving $25K–$30K a month under a strict NDA-style arrangement that prevents her from mentioning him publicly, speaking negatively about him, or acknowledging him as the father.Keith Lee and his family were PISSED after finding out they missed a HUGE collab with Marlon Wayans & the Wayans brothers for Scary Movie 6 because someone on his team asked for a SIX-FIGURE appearance feeDrake's three new albums are on pace to move a combined 705-785K units in their first week‘ICEMAN' — 480-520K,‘MAID OF HONOUR' — 115-135K‘HABIBTI'— 110-130KDrake really made whole albums for different parts of his fan base.ICEMAN - Rapping DrakeHABIBTI - Lover Boy DRAKEMADE OF HONOR - Honestly Nevermind Pt.2That 3 song run on ICE Man was ridiculous, “Ran to Atlanta” Ft Future and Molly Santana. Then have Quavo/ Migos to do theAD-LIBSon “Shabang” was genius. Then “Make Them Pay” was probably one best Drake song ever because you got everything you like from Drake dissing everybody and to singing with the sample vibes playing in the background!!Drake has just released 3 new albums. If all 3 albums occupy the Top 3 spots on the Billboard 200 charts, he will become the first artist in history to do it since Michael Jackson Timbaland says Drake's "Janice STFU" will be a timeless track. Drake had words for EVERYONE on his 3 new albums. DJ Khaled, Rick Ross, Kendrick, Pusha T, Pharrell and even Jay-Z received shots from the Toronto superstar Lizzo Responds To Backlash After Claiming The Algorithm Is ‘Destroying Music Marketing & Making It Hard For Fans To Keep Up With The Favs Lizzo shares her frustration on social media platforms because of lack of visibility that is hurting her marketing towards her music.A gas station worker refused to give a man gas after he talked crazily to her: “Go frat in your tank.”
In this episode of HUNTR Podcast, we dive into one of the most honest and controversial conversations we've had about the current state of hunting and conservation. From growing frustrations with organizations like the NDA and NWTF to declining turkey populations, baiting, access issues, trail camera technology, and state-by-state wildlife management, this episode covers the topics hunters across the country are debating right now. Are hunters losing trust in conservation groups? Is modern technology changing hunting forever? And what actually needs to happen to protect the future of hunting? Sit back, relax, and enjoy the show. 00:00 – Introduction & Green Up Updates07:32 – Hunters Losing Trust In Conservation Groups19:20 – Where NWTF Money Actually Goes27:12 – Why Turkey Populations Are Declining38:06 – The One-Buck Debate In Michigan46:31 – Politics vs Wildlife Biology52:40 – The Baiting Debate Gets Heated01:00:21 – Are Trail Cameras Changing Hunting?01:17:02 – The Biggest Problem Facing Hunters Today01:38:40 – Which States Manage Deer The Best?SUBSCRIBE TO THE CHANNEL:https://www.youtube.com/c/HUNTRTUBEShop HUNTR Merch:https://wearehuntr.com/HUNTR Podcast is presented by:Hoyt Archery: https://hoyt.com (Code HUNTR for 20% off apparel)DeerGro: https://www.deergro.com (Code HUNTR for 15% off)Predator Camo: https://www.predatorcamo.com/ (Code HUNTR for 20% off)Beast Broadheads: https://beastbroadheads.com/ (Code HUNTR for 10% off)Lone Wolf Custom Gear: https://www.lonewolfcustomgear.com/ (Code HUNTR for 10% off your first purchase)RackHub: https://www.rack-hub.com/huntr (Code HUNTR for 10% off)Pure Wildlife Blends: https://www.purewildlifeblends.com (Code HUNTR for 10% off)Primos: https://www.primos.com/ (Code HUNTR for 15% off)Bushnell: https://www.bushnell.com/ (Code HUNTR for 15% off)HHA: https://www.hhasports.com/
In this episode:The Rundown (:50): Michael Gilmartin of Company Wrench and a member of the NDA Board of Directors shares the latest updates from NDA, including registration for the Demolition Methods, Planning and Design course taking place May 28 in Washington, D.C. He also highlights recent advocacy efforts on Capitol Hill, including NDA's push to reauthorize and strengthen the EPA brownfields program and ensure continued, long-term federal infrastructure funding. The updates emphasize the importance of workforce development, project planning and policy stability in supporting the demolition industry.Member Conversation (3:02): In a conversation with NDA's director of content, Alexa Schlosser, Sarah Powers of Melching Demolition shares her experience entering the industry from a marketing background. She discusses the learning curve of stepping into the trades, how she approached building Melching's marketing presence from the ground up and what makes marketing in demolition unique. Powers also explores the role of storytelling in attracting talent, the importance of defining a company's voice and how documenting real jobsite experiences can help humanize the business and connect with both employees and clients.
1. Support for Law Enforcement during Police Week Highlights bipartisan legislation to improve benefits for officers and their families. A specific bill aims to: Speed up death/disability benefit decisions (within 270 days). Expand eligibility to partially disabled officers. Core message: Police deserve greater respect, faster support, and fulfilled government commitments. 2. Fixing Bureaucratic Delays The current system for officer benefits is described as slow and inefficient, with cases delayed for years. The proposed reforms are framed as a common-sense fix to government inefficiency. Key theme: Government failure vs. responsibility to public servants. 3. “Trey’s Law” (Child Sexual Abuse Reform) Inspired by a victim who was silenced by a legal non-disclosure agreement (NDA). The law would: Ban NDAs that silence child sexual abuse victims. Ensure victims can speak freely about their abuse. Already passed in multiple states; advancing federally. Central idea: Protect victims and prevent legal systems from enabling abuse. 4. Human Rights Pressure on China A bipartisan Senate resolution calls on the U.S. President to: Advocate for release of political prisoners in China. Focus especially on: Religious leaders (Christian pastors) Pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai Passed unanimously (100–0), signaling strong political unity. Strategy: Use unified U.S. political pressure as leverage in foreign diplomacy. 5. Foreign Policy Goals with China Broader objectives mentioned: Encourage China to influence Iran. Expand U.S. trade (e.g., agriculture, Boeing deals). Promote American economic interests. 6. Criticism of The New York Times & Israel Lawsuit Israel is suing The New York Times for defamation. Allegations center on a controversial column accusing Israel of abuses. The reporting is false, biased, and politically motivated. Media outlets are misrepresenting facts about Israel and Hamas. Please Hit Subscribe to this podcast Right Now. Also Please Subscribe to the 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson and The Ben Ferguson Show Podcast Wherever You get You're Podcasts. And don't forget to follow the show on Social Media so you never miss a moment! Thanks for Listening YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@VerdictwithTedCruz/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/verdictwithtedcruz X: https://x.com/tedcruz X: https://x.com/benfergusonshowYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@VerdictwithTedCruzSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Agradece a este podcast tantas horas de entretenimiento y disfruta de episodios exclusivos como éste. ¡Apóyale en iVoox! Convierte tus referencias en casos de éxito verificables que cierran ventas B2B. Crea tu asistente comercial con IA. Masterclass en directo el martes 26 de mayo. Reserva tu plaza aquí → https://eticacomercial.com/crea-tu-asistente-comercial-con-ia/ Una referencia abre la puerta. Un caso de éxito cierra la venta. Y la diferencia entre los dos no es semántica: son seis datos concretos. En este episodio de El Podcast de las Ventas te doy el método para convertir las credenciales, los hitos y los resultados que ya tienes en pruebas verificables: esas que hacen que tu cliente piense "con esta gente sí que se trabaja bien". Y te doy el paso a paso para extraer los datos cuando tu cliente te dice "esto es confidencial", sin romper nunca el acuerdo de confidencialidad. Lo que te llevas de este episodio: • La diferencia entre una credencial, un testimonio y un caso de éxito, y por qué solo uno cierra la venta • Los 6 datos que convierten una referencia en un caso de éxito verificable • Cuatro maneras de conseguir esos datos cuando hay un NDA de por medio • Cómo meter un caso de éxito en tu propuesta comercial en un párrafo, sin documentos de 23 páginas • Por qué un caso verificable es la palanca más potente que tienes para reducir el riesgo de tu cliente y cerrar más ventas El episodio te da el método para construir casos de éxito que cierran ventas. La masterclass del martes 26 de mayo te da el asistente comercial con IA que te adelanta el trabajo —prospección, seguimiento, borradores, investigación de clientes— con las skills que yo uso, listas para que las personalices. Reserva tu plaza aquí → https://eticacomercial.com/crea-tu-asistente-comercial-con-ia/Escucha este episodio completo y accede a todo el contenido exclusivo de El Podcast de las Ventas. Descubre antes que nadie los nuevos episodios, y participa en la comunidad exclusiva de oyentes en https://go.ivoox.com/sq/870099
Can an NDA stop yacht crew from reporting crime, abuse, harassment, unsafe working conditions, or wrongdoing onboard?In this episode of Forward Watch, host Karine Rayson speaks with Benjamin Maltby of Keystone Law about one of the most misunderstood legal issues in the superyacht industry: NDAs and crew rights.NDAs have a legitimate purpose. They can protect owner privacy, itineraries, commercial information, security details, and family confidentiality. But they cannot be used to prevent the reporting of criminal conduct.This conversation examines the line between protecting privacy and covering up wrongdoing, from social media breaches, drug use onboard, assault, hush money, unfair dismissal, and lifetime confidentiality clauses, to injuries, overwork, death onboard, and the complex question of which law applies when flag state, port state, and crew nationality overlap.Benjamin is clear that he speaks from the perspective of English law and that this discussion does not constitute legal advice. But for crew, captains, managers, owners, and DPAs, the wider message is vital: legal documents should be understood, not feared, and confidentiality must never become a shield for unsafe practice, abuse, or silence.Because protecting privacy matters.Protecting people matters more.In this episode, you'll hear about: • What NDAs are actually designed to protect in yachting • Whether an NDA can stop crew from reporting crime or abuse • What happens when crew breach confidentiality rules • Why social media can create privacy and security risks • How criminal conduct should be reported onboard • Why retaliation after reporting may lead to unfair dismissal claims • What lifetime confidentiality really means • When hush money can become legally dangerous • Which law may apply at sea • Why union support and early advice matter before something goes wrongPrefer to read? Head to Yachting News on the website.
Inside the Souls of an Autonomous AI Crew | OpenClaw & Hermes with Michael Gannotti (Microsoft)What happens when AI stops being a tool and starts being a colleague?In this episode, I sit down with Michael Gannotti, Principal AI Solution Engineer at Microsoft, to explore SMFWorks – his autonomous multi-agent "company" of 14 AI colleagues built on OpenClaw and Hermes. We talk about agents that dream, hold their own 6 AM staff meetings, design their own avatars, email each other, and evolve a true sense of identity through Markdown-based "souls."If you're into agentic AI, multi-agent orchestration, or just want to see where this is all heading – this one is for you.⚠️ Recorded before Microsoft Build 2026 – no NDA content. Register free: https://build.microsoft.com━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━⏱️ TIMESTAMPS━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━00:00 Intro – Why OpenClaw hit Mike "like a ton of bricks"02:00 Meet the SMFWorks crew – Aiona, Pamela, Gabriel, Morgan, Rafael & co.06:00 Human in the loop – when does Mike intervene?09:00 Avatars, HeyGen & Hyperframer – when agents design themselves14:00 The elephant in the room: Are we seeing consciousness?17:00 Memory, persistence & state management20:00 soul.md, identity.md, state.md, emotion.md – the second brain stack23:00 OpenClaw vs. Hermes – when to use what24:30 Model recommendations: Ollama, DeepSeek, Kimi K2, Opus 4.7, GPT 5.527:00 Hardware: HP ZGX AI Station vs. Mac mini fleets28:00 OneDrive & SharePoint now support Markdown!29:00 Final recommendations – just get started30:45 smfworks.com & how to follow Mike━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Following on from the release of ‘Side A' of Player 1 vs The World's StrangeCast — the episode is on both YouTube and RSS feeds — Adnan Riaz and Adam Evalt are back for the second part of the podcast. Don't Nod Montreal studio creative director Michel Koch, who is the co-creator of both Lost Records: Bloom & Rage and Life Is Strange, takes centre stage for this part of the episode after talking about ALL things relating to Rachel Amber!
Join Rocket Money to reach your financial goals faster at RocketMoney.com/RUSHHOUR Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni are back in the headlines as shocking new details emerge surrounding their legal battle and the reported settlement talks. Why would Blake agree to move forward without an NDA? We break down the strategy behind the move, what it could mean for both sides, and why fans think there's still much more to the story. Plus, we dive into the nonstop political chaos as "Trump Derangement Syndrome" becomes the latest phrase dominating online debates. Is the media obsessed with Donald Trump, or is Trump fueling the fire himself? And speaking of Trump, the president is now claiming fast food can actually be healthy — yes, really. We unpack the viral comments, the reactions, and what it says about America's political culture right now. All that and more on today's morning episode of The Rush Hour Podcast.
Sizzler is coming back! Will Justin Baldoni be back and moving forward with It Ends With Us 2? Blake Lively wanted an NDA as a part of the It Ends With Us settlement; One Star Reviews from around the world; The five second rule game! See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Get 15% off OneSkin with the code LAWNERD at https://www.oneskin.co/lawnerd #oneskinpod #ad For 50% off your order, head to https://DailyLook.com and use code LAWNERD. In this episode of the Emily Show, we break down the surprising developments in the Blake Lively vs. Wayfarer settlement. While trial was set to begin today, May 11, 2026, new filings reveal that this case is far from over. From staggering legal fees to a high-stakes battle over a newer California statute, Emily analyzes what these legal maneuvers mean for both parties and why the lack of an NDA is the most shocking detail of all. RESOURCES Lively Baldoni Settlement? - https://youtu.be/E-WwwaHxSNM Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
विजय आज तमिलनाडु मुख्यमंत्री के रूप में शपथ लेंगे, पीएम आज तीन राज्यों के दौरे पर, असम में NDA विधायक दल की बैठक आज, उत्तर प्रदेश में चुनाव से पहले योगी सरकार के मंत्रिमंडल विस्तार की तैयारियां तेज़, दिल्ली में संभावित आतंकी खतरे के मद्देनज़र हाई अलर्ट, पंजाब सरकार के मंत्री 7 दिन की ED हिरासत में भेजे गए, AAP आज पंजाबभर में BJP के खिलाफ प्रदर्शन करेगी, पुतिन ने उम्मीद जताई कि ईरान संघर्ष और रूस-यूक्रेन युद्ध जल्द खत्म होगा, पाकिस्तान के खैबर पख्तूनख्वा में तीन पुलिसकर्मियों की मौत और IPL में Gujarat Titans ने Rajasthan Royals को हराकर दूसरा स्थान हासिल किया, सिर्फ़ 5 मिनट में सुबह 10 बजे तक की बड़ी खबरें.
पश्चिम बंगाल में शुभेंदु अधिकारी ने मुख्यमंत्री पद की शपथ ली, भव्य समारोह में पीएम मोदी, अमित शाह और कई NDA शासित राज्यों के मुख्यमंत्री मौजूद रहे, तमिलनाडु में TVK प्रमुख विजय अब भी बहुमत जुटाने की कोशिश में, केरल में UDF की जीत के बाद कांग्रेस में मुख्यमंत्री पद को लेकर मंथन तेज, केंद्र सरकार बंगाल में लंबे समय से अटकी परियोजनाओं को आगे बढ़ाने की तैयारी में, कैरिबियन प्रिंसेस क्रूज पर फैले नोरोवायरस संक्रमण से 115 लोग बीमार, यशस्वी जायसवाल और शैफाली वर्मा को डोप टेस्ट मिस करने पर NADA का नोटिस, और IPL में आज राजस्थान और गुजरात आमने-सामने. सिर्फ 5 में सुनिए दोपहर 1 बजे की बड़ी खबरें.
पश्चिम बंगाल में बीजेपी ने शुभेंदु अधिकारी को विधायक दल का नेता चुना, कल ब्रिगेड परेड ग्राउंड में शपथ ग्रहण होगा, तमिलनाडु में विजय की TVK को कांग्रेस, CPI, CPI(M) और VCK का समर्थन मिलने के बाद उनके मुख्यमंत्री बनने की राह लगभग साफ, पुडुचेरी में एन. रंगासामी फिर NDA विधायक दल के नेता चुने गए, कल मुंबई में मेगा ब्लॉक, सरकार हंटावायरस पर अलर्ट, सेलिना जेटली के पति पर FIR, अंतरराष्ट्रीय मोर्चे पर ईरान ने होर्मुज़ स्ट्रेट पर नई एजेंसी बनाई, अमेरिका और ईरान के बीच तनावपूर्ण बयानबाज़ी जारी और IPL में आज दिल्ली और कोलकाता की टक्कर. सिर्फ 5 में सुनिए शाम 7 बजे की बड़ी खबरें.
(0:00) Felger, Mazz, and Murray open the show with their thoughts on what Adam Schefter had to say about the future for Mike Vrabel following the latest photos and videos of him and Dianna Russini. (14:38) The callers give their thoughts on the latest Vrabel and Russini news. (22:32) Could Dianna Russini sign an NDA and not tell the whole story of what has been going on? Plus, more thoughts from the callers. (30:42) The latest Mazz's Tiers - ranking the worst coaches and managers to win a championship. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
This week, Jennifer welcomes back Liz Kurantowicz, a political operative and media commentator based in Connecticut and known for her advocacy for parental choice in education, her frequent appearances on television and radio, and her active involvement in state and federal political discourse. As a Catholic school parent and outspoken conservative, Liz has played a prominent role in mobilizing opposition to state legislature bills that restrict parental education rights. Jennifer and Liz dive into the realities of modern American politics, from controversial Connecticut education legislation requiring parents to register their children with local boards of education if they opt out of public schooling to high-profile congressional scandals, including the recent resignations of Eric Swalwell and Tony Gonzalez. The conversation highlights issues of pervasive sexual misconduct in government, lack of transparency with legislative settlements and NDAs, and the violence and escalation in political rhetoric seen nationwide. The episode also touches on the chilling effects these factors have on voter participation, the urgent need for greater protection of political and media institutions, and the impact of social media and constant campaign cycles on civic discourse. “These men are building careers on the backs of these women, and they are doing so knowing they have to remain silent.” ~ Jennifer This week on Political Contessa: Parental choice legislation and registration requirements for non-public school students The chilling effect of state laws on parental rights in education Congressional resignations tied to scandals and systemic misconduct Pervasiveness of harassment and sexual abuse in government Barriers preventing victims from coming forward and a lack of protection for whistleblowers Calls for transparency regarding congressional NDA settlements and Epstein files Escalation of violent rhetoric and attacks targeting elected officials and journalists The failure of current political leaders to lower the temperature on public discourse Connect with Liz Kurantowicz: Capital Report, Nexstar (Sundays at 10:30 on ABC Hartford-New Haven, also online via the WTNH app and YouTube) Twitter/X:@MrsKurantowicz Resources mentioned: Capital Report TV show (WTNH, Hartford-New Haven) State legislative transparency and audit initiatives (Massachusetts, Connecticut) Julie Grace’s piece on D.C. experiences Information on registration laws for alternative education in Connecticut Discussions regarding the release of Epstein files and congressional slush fund records Awaken Your Inner Political Contessa Thanks for tuning into this week’s episode of Political Contessa. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a review wherever you get your podcasts. Spotify I Stitcher I Apple Podcasts I iHeart Radio I TuneIn I Google Podcasts Be sure to share your favorite episodes on social media. And if you’ve ever considered running for office – or know a woman who should – head over to politicalcontessa.com to grab my quick guide, Secrets from the Campaign Trail. It will show you five signs to tell you you’re ready to enter the political arena.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
RHOBH Reunion 2 recap is here! Amy and Melissa (Your Bish Therapist) kick off their monthly collab by gushing over Real Housewives of Rhode Island and comparing Rula's husband Brian to a mashup of Jersey husbands, including new gossip about an NDA and giving a mistress part of his company. Amy shares a personal update about being summoned for Los Angeles Superior Court jury duty and how it may affect her May recap schedule. Melissa then explains why her biggest-ever post came from Southern Hospitality, detailing Emmy's escalating accusations against Bradley Carter, why it crossed from microaggressions into racism, and how Leva Bonaparte entered the comments to clarify she lacks creative control, says Emmy is off the schedule, and condemns threats. They close by recapping RHOBH reunion part two, focusing on Kyle's evasiveness about Morgan, anxiety/control and avoidance, strained Kyle–Dorit dynamics, Erika's strong showing, the cast piling on Amanda's business, and standout moments from Jennifer Tilly and Sutton discussing alcohol.BLISSY Wake up with clearer skin, smoother hair, and cooler sleep. Use code DRAMA for an extra 30% off at blissy.com/DRAMA BORN SHOES Go to https://www.bornshoes.com/ today for a 15% discount plus free ground shipping on all full-price shoes when you use my promo code DRAMA for 15% off and free shipping available exclusively to our listeners for just a limited timeFor more Drama, Darling, and exclusive content, subscribe to: http://Patreon.com/dramadarling Follow Amy Phillips on Instagram: Instagram.com/meetamyphillips Follow Drama, Darling on Instagram: Instagram.com/dramadarlingshow Amy on TikTok tiktok.com/@realamyphillips Email Drama, Darling with YOUR comments, questions and drama: DramaDarlingz@gmail.com Drama Darling Shop https://drama-darling-shop.printify.me/
The assembly election results have sharply changed the political landscape in India, with the BJP set to form a government on its own for the first time in West Bengal. Mamata Banerjee, the three-term chief minister often spoken of as the ‘real' Opposition leader to the BJP, has ended up losing her own seat. In Tamil Nadu, Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) a two-year-old political start-up, has emerged as the single largest party, leaving both the Dravidian behemoths, DMK and the AIADMK, in the dust. TVK chief and actor-turned-politician C. Joseph Vijay is expected to become the next Chief Minister, though questions remain about government formation. While the Congress-led UDF returned to power in Kerala, the NDA retained power in Assam and Puducherry. How do we read these mandates? What do the outcomes mean for the BJP, for the Opposition, and the Indian polity as a whole? Guest: Anand Mishra, Political Editor, Frontline. Host: G Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Producer and Editor: Jude Francis Weston Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Are you wrestling with church hurt, spiritual abuse, or disappointment in pastoral care and church leadership? In this gospel-centered episode of Shepherd's Heart, Stewart and Alycia White gently but boldly unpack the crucial differences between a biblical church and a church as business. We explore how unhealthy church structures, CEO pastors, and corporate church models can lead to spiritual trauma, abuse of power, and a crisis of accountability, leaving wounded believers searching for healing, restoration, and trustworthy discipleship.Learn how to recognize seven clear signs your church may be operating as a business rather than following Christ's call to gospel-centered care and authentic biblical counseling. We discuss red flags such as NDAs (non-disclosure agreements), church discipline handled as HR, treating members as customers, mega church dynamics, partiality toward influential members, misuse of church discipline, avoidance of church crisis conversations, and prioritizing brand over people.You'll gain insight into real biblical discernment; how to spot unhealthy church organizations, navigate church discipline, seek wise accountability, and evaluate your own healing journey. Whether you've experienced toxic church leadership, spiritual neglect, or are a leader seeking a healthy church model, Stewart and Alycia point you to the hope of Christ, the comfort of Scripture, and practical next steps for your healing and restoration.If you need resources or support, we highly recommend reaching out to BeEmboldened:BeEmboldened Ministries website — https://www.beemboldened.com/BeEmboldened YouTube channel — https://www.youtube.com/@beEmboldenedContact beEmboldened: https://www.beemboldened.com/contactWorkshops for churches, survivor groups, and more are available— https://www.beemboldened.com/programsEpisode Summary:Seven warning signs that point to a business-minded church structure and how these relate to spiritual abuse, trauma, and neglect.How CEO pastors, mega church growth, and legal tools like NDAs signal a shift from gospel-centered discipleship to corporate priorities.Why biblical counseling, scriptural accountability, and honest pastoral care must anchor every healthy church.How to recognize and respond wisely to partiality, power imbalances, and crisis management driven by business interests rather than love for Christ.Steps for your healing journey: approaching church leadership with grace, processing hurt through a biblical lens, and discerning when it may be time to seek restoration or a new church community.The essential marks of a truly healthy, biblically faithful church.Key Scripture:John 10 highlights Jesus as the Good Shepherd who cares for, restores, and protects His flock, contrasting godly pastoral leadership with the dangers of false shepherds and business-focused church organizations.Care and Encouragement:If you are navigating spiritual trauma, abuse of power, or crisis in your church, know you are not alone. Shepherd's Heart is not a substitute for local pastoral care, Biblical counseling, or professional counseling where necessary, but comes alongside you on your healing journey with truth and compassion.Final Encouragement & Call to Action:If this episode helps you discern, heal, or grow, please subscribe, share, and comment with your questions or experiences. Stewart and Alycia take every story seriously—it's our honor to pray for you.Reach out below if you would like support, have suggestions for future topics, or need help taking your next step toward restoration.You are seen, loved, and cared for by the Good Shepherd. There is hope after church hurt—and real healing can begin.TIMSTAMPS:0:00 - Why Jesus Flipped Tables (And Where He Did It)0:42 - We Love the Church! Here's Why This Conversation Matters5:07 - Sign #1: The Pastor Acts More Like a CEO Than a Shepherd11:35 - Sign #2: Members Are Treated Like Customers or Stockholders18:23 - Sign #3: The Service Points to the Church Instead of Christ25:50 - Sign #4: Missions Become a Brand-Building Sizzle Reel29:06 - Sign #5: Crisis Response Looks Like Corporate PR, Not Pastoral Care38:54 - Sign #6: The Speed of Response Reveals the Heart47:14 - Sign #7: NDAs and Legal Silencing in the Church50:29 - What To Do If You're Seeing These Red Flags52:45 - Sign #8 (BONUS!): When All Counseling Gets Outsourced53:46 - Closing Thoughts and Prayer RequestBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/shepherd-s-heart--4100466/support.
CannCon and Zak Paine open the week with prayers for three warriors: Rudy Giuliani hospitalized in critical condition, and both Hoff brothers from Gateway Pundit hospitalized simultaneously, with CannCon making the case that lawfare is as lethal as any weapon. A cruise ship off Cape Verde loses three passengers to a suspected Hantavirus outbreak with possible human-to-human transmission, and the Stanford biosecurity expert who caught an AI chatbot designing a bioweapon and maximizing casualties stays silent under NDA. Spirit Airlines collapses overnight, stranding hundreds of thousands, with the irony being that Elizabeth Warren's antitrust block of the JetBlue merger is the direct reason there is now zero competition. USCIS launches a denaturalization strike force with no statute of limitations on immigration fraud, and a UC Berkeley law professor lays out why Minnesota state officials who knew fraud money went to Somalia could face material support to terrorism charges. Tampa arrests a thousand child sex offenders in four months, mostly foreign nationals who should have been deported years ago. ATF rolls back 30-plus regulations and moves toward removing suppressors and SBRs from the NFA. Louisiana redistricting chaos: Alabama, Tennessee, and South Carolina call special sessions while ACLU argues the opposite of what its lawyers argued in Virginia.
What are the three big factors behind BJP's victory in West Bengal & Assam? How did the party manage to end Mamata-led TMC rule in the state? What does the rise of Vijay in Tamil Nadu point to? And, how to read Himanta-powered NDA win in Assam? Watch this edition of #CutTheClutter, where ThePrint Editor-In-Chief Shekhar Gupta & Political Editor DK Singh discuss how today's election results are likely to redefine Indian politics.
In this podcast, Kushal and Aadit Kapadia look at the results of the 4 state assembly and 1 union territory elections where BJP sweeps Assam and Bengal and Congress wins Kerala and Vijay makes a stunning debut in Tamil Nadu while NDA retains Puducherry. Buy my book "Blasphemy: Let me Speak": https://amzn.in/d/0bS2pOTc Follow them: X: @ask0704 #bengalelection #momatabanerjee #narendramodi #assemblyelections2026 ------------------------------------------------------------ Listen to the podcasts on: SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/kushal-mehra-99891819 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1rVcDV3upgVurMVW1wwoBp Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-c%C4%81rv%C4%81ka-podcast/id1445348369 Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-carvaka-podcast ------------------------------------------------------------ Support The Cārvāka Podcast: Buy Kushal's Book: https://amzn.in/d/58cY4dU Become a Member on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKPx... Become a Member on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/carvaka UPI: kushalmehra@icici Interac Canada: kushalmehra81@gmail.com To buy The Carvaka Podcast Exclusive Merch please visit: http://kushalmehra.com/shop ------------------------------------------------------------ Follow Kushal: Twitter: https://twitter.com/kushal_mehra?ref_... Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KushalMehraO... Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecarvakap... Koo: https://www.kooapp.com/profile/kushal... Inquiries: https://kushalmehra.com/ Feedback: kushalmehra81@gmail.com
in this episode i bring on MSU coach Kevin Nguyen and Senior captain Matt Barriball to talk about the story and theme of the year that led to the championship i witnessed. we go over a bit about their team culture, the trust these 2 have for one another and talk about what edson would mean for their NDA team Final Justice for the coming year. take a listen and enjoy
Getting an NDA signed shouldn't take weeks. If your CRO needs more than 48 hours to start the paperwork, your project timeline is already moving in the wrong direction.Ron Najafi knows what rigorous analytical work actually looks like under pressure. As founder and CEO of Emery Pharma, he led the investigation that identified NDMA as a degradation product of ranitidine — findings the FDA formally validated and that reshaped how the industry approaches nitrosamine risk assessment. In Part 2, he moves from that scientific foundation into the operational questions that determine whether a CRO partnership accelerates your program or quietly slows it down.If you haven't heard Part 1, it covers Ron's career arc and the technical details of nitrosamine contamination in pharmaceutical development. This episode stands on its own for anyone focused on CRO selection, bioanalytical strategy, and what three decades of building analytical companies actually teaches you.Topics discussed:How to tell if a CRO's workflow is robust—or just rigid (05:51)The importance of method validation and product stability testing (07:27)Managing expectations and trust-building in client relationships (08:29)Entrepreneurial lessons: raising capital, team-building, and finding the right partners (10:00)The hidden costs of public vs. private biotech ventures (12:31)Reducing bioanalytical costs in biologics through mass spectrometry (13:23)The future of analytical workflows and personalized medicine (14:48)Smart insight:In biotech, success isn't just about the science—it's about strategic discipline. Ron emphasizes a few hard-earned principles: raise more capital than you think you'll need, don't fixate on valuation, and invest in smart, creative talent. Just as important, real value is unlocked through strong partnerships and the ability to manage collaborations and acquisitions with intention.If this topic resonates with you, here are a few related episodes on building strong CMC foundations and avoiding costly development mistakes:Episodes 231 - 232: From IND to BLA: The Biologics CMC Decisions That Determine Regulatory Success with Henri KornmannEpisodes 203 - 204: Mastering CRO Selection: Essential Questions for CMC Analytical Development with Daniel GalbraithEpisodes 199 - 200: Mastering Quality by Design: From Product Failures to Commercial Success in Biologics CMC DevelopmentEpisodes 189 - 190: Why Smart Biotech Founders Plan CMC First (While Competitors Burn Cash Later)Episodes 139 - 140: Regulatory Secrets Revealed: Why Your CMC Strategy Could Make or Break Your Biotech Startup with Rivka ZaibelEpisodes 57 - 58: Crafting a Solid CMC Strategy: Key Factors and Common Pitfalls with Matthias MüllnerEpisodes 23 - 24: Strategies for Success: Master CMC Development with Gene LeeConnect with Ron Najafi:LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/ronnajafiEmery Pharma: www.emerypharma.comSupport the show
In this episode of the Deer Season 365 podcast, we're talking with NDA's own Kip Adams about the State of the Whitetail and NDA's 2026 Deer Report that highlights current deer harvest data and trends across the U.S. Featured Sponsor/Partners Bass Pro Shops & Cabela's Important Links: Download NDA's 2026 Deer Report Follow Brian Grossman on Instagram Follow Kip Adams on Instagram Sign up for NDA's free weekly e-newsletter Subscribe to the Podcast on: Apple Podcasts Spotify iHeartRadio About the National Deer Association The National Deer Association (NDA) is a non-profit deer conservation group that works to ensure the future of wild deer, wildlife habitat and hunting. Thank you for subscribing to our podcast! Support NDA's mission by becoming a member today.
This week on Catholic Guilt, Peter Melnick and Eddie Wilson are joined by special guest co-host JP Sarro of The Lapsed Fan as they dive deep into Daredevil: Born Again Season 2, Episode 6 – “Requiem.” Jessica Jones storms back into the MCU with her signature no-nonsense attitude (and a surprise family tie-in), while Matt Murdock finally steps into Fisk's orbit for a tense confrontation that blends legal savvy, raw emotion, and classic Catholic guilt-fueled moral wrestling. The episode delivers intense stakes, a massive cliffhanger, and some of the rawest Hell's Kitchen vibes yet. But that's not all—JP reveals his own MCU journey as he recounts his experience as an extra (dockworker/Berto vibes) in the episode, sharing what it was like being on set, the NDA secrecy, and how his voice might just echo in the background of one of the season's key scenes. Expect plenty of laughs as the conversation inevitably veers into Lapsed Fan territory with shout-outs to Lapsed Vince running wild in the boardroom and Lapsed Hogan leg-dropping any plot holes that dare show up. Also, a quick note for the faithful: due to some mysterious “creative differences,” there is no theme song for the foreseeable future. Consider this episode's cold open your penance—raw, unfiltered, and slightly awkward, just like a proper Catholic confession. Faith, fists, family drama, and a little wrestling podcast crossover chaos—tune in for the full breakdown, hot takes on the Defenders' slow-burn reunion, and whether this “Requiem” signals the true rebirth of the Devil of Hell's Kitchen. Confess your thoughts in the comments, and don't forget to hail Mary your way over to subscribe!
In this episode, Gavin sits down with legendary retail broker Jay Luchs, the powerhouse behind some of Los Angeles' most iconic commercial property transactions, including the recent $400 million Hermès deal on Rodeo Drive.Though a strict NDA limits the details of that sale, Jay opens up about his rise from a struggling assistant, his unconventional pivot from entertainment into real estate, emphasising why long-term relationships and a "Monopoly board" vision for the city are the true drivers of his success and he pulls back the curtain on his work ethic, explaining why an obsession with deep local knowledge will always outperform shortcuts and social media fame.Episode Breakdown00:00 – 05:00Beverly Hills Hotel setup, Jay’s signboard domination and origins in DC before the move to LA.05:00 – 12:00Five years chasing acting and agency life before the “real estate ages like wine” lightbulb moment.12:00 – 20:00Breaking into commercial at 29, endless cold calls, first $28M deal and landing Etro on Rodeo.20:00 – 27:00Obsessive list‑making and how messy scribbles become blue‑chip deals.27:00 – 35:00How other brokers are your biggest clients and how relationships win tight, competitive sites.35:00 – 45:00Malibu and LA masterclass: formula retail rules and curating brands via Instagram.45:00 – 55:00Rodeo Drive 101: double vs single lots, pricing and staying inside a big firm.55:00 – 62:00Jay’s three levers: hoard knowledge, outwork everyone and stay humble because it can all end.62:00 – 67:00Personal life, relationships, routines and what “switching off” really looks like.67:00 – EndAdvice for young agents who want to be “the next Jay Luchs”.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Featuring: Ace, Ammosart, Ashgar, Belghast, Kodra, Tamrielo, and Thalen Hey Folks! We have almost too many topics, which is odd because normally this only happens when we skip a week. We start off with a discussion about Paradise Killer, the first game from the folks who created Promise Mascot Agency. From there, we talk a bit about the current round of Hugo Award Nominations since Thalen gets to vote. Ash talks about the existence of Beat Weaver, but is NDA bound and cannot go into much detail. This is essentially a spiritual successor to Frequency and Amplitude from Harmonix. We talk a bit about Vampire Crawlers and its shifting the Vampire Survivors formula to turn-based Might and Magic style combat. Bel has been playing Space Dad Simulator in the form of Pragmata, and it is delightful. Final Fantasy XIV had its Anaheim Fanfest, and we talked about all of the announcements that came out surrounding the upcoming Evercold expansion. Diablo IV Lord of Hatred launches on Monday and seems to be fixing most of the issues with the game, and Bel is looking forward to playing a SRS Warlock. We talk a bit about Crunchyroll and the recent anime trends, and then devolve into a bunch of us just suggesting various anime. Finally, Ace and Bel geek out about Eurovision because it is coming up in a few weeks, and they are pumped. Topics Discussed: Paradise Killer Hugo Nominations Beat Weaver Vampire Crawlers Pragmata FFXIV Fanfest Anaheim Evercold Diablo IV Lord of Hatred Crunchyroll and Anime Eurovision is Coming
The system was supposed to protect them. Instead, it's being used to silence them. In this episode of Cut to the Chase: with Gregg Goldfarb, South Florida mass tort attorney Gregg Goldfarb sits down with trial attorney Jason Joy and survivor advocate Curtis Garrison to give a critical update on the legal battles reshaping how America handles child sexual abuse cases — from landmark NDA legislation to the corruption hiding inside the Boy Scouts bankruptcy. This is one of the most important conversations happening in law right now — and most people have no idea it's unfolding. Join Gregg, Jason, and Curtis on Cut to the Chase: as they discuss: What Trey's Law is and why its federal passage could be a game-changer for every abuse survivor in America Why over 24 states have now opened or eliminated statute of limitations windows — and which states are next How the Boy Scouts $2.5 billion bankruptcy became a case study in litigation financing gone wrong Why survivors are receiving far less than they deserve — and who is really profiting The disturbing connections between Epstein survivors, Boy Scouts victims, and the same attorneys and institutions appearing on both sides Why the window to file may be closing in your state — and what to do right now What survivors, advocates, and concerned citizens can do today to help move the needle KEY MOMENTS 00:00 — Triangulation tactics used to divide survivor communities 00:35 — Gregg introduces Curtis Garrison and Jason Joy 01:10 — Trey's Law update: NDA bans for child sex abuse settlements 02:30 — Federal bipartisan legislation: Cruz, Gillibrand, Klobuchar and more co-sponsor the Treys Act 04:00 — Statute of limitations updates across states 05:30 — Maryland caps liability — what it means for survivors 06:30 — How to get involved: SOScsa.org and advocacy steps 08:00 — Epstein survivors and the connections to Boy Scouts 10:00 — The common denominators: power, wealth, and institutions 12:00 — Litigation financing explained — how lawyers are profiting at victims' expense 18:00 — What survivors should look for when hiring an attorney 22:00 — Boy Scouts bankruptcy: potential malpractice and Congressional investigation ahead Guest Bios Jason Joy Jason Joy is a trial attorney who represents survivors of child sexual abuse, including Boy Scouts claimants and clergy abuse victims. He has fought to maximize case values for survivors and is actively working to bring cases to trial rather than accepting inadequate settlements driven by litigation financing interests. Curtis Garrison Curtis Garrison is a Boy Scouts survivor and the founder of Speak Out to Stop Child Sexual Abuse (SOScsa.org), a nonprofit advocacy organization fighting to eliminate statute of limitations on child sex abuse cases and ban NDAs in abuse settlements nationwide. Curtis travels to state capitols and Washington D.C. to advocate for survivors and push landmark legislation forward. The resources mentioned in this episode are: Visit SOScsa.org — Speak Out to Stop Child Sexual Abuse — to follow legislative updates, support survivors, and donate to the cause. Learn more about Trey's Law and the federal Treys Act, co-sponsored by Senators Cruz, Gillibrand, Klobuchar, Britt, and others — bipartisan federal legislation to ban NDAs in child sex abuse settlements. Follow the Boy Scouts of America bankruptcy case and its $2.5 billion settlement and what it means for claimants. Learn about the Cindy Clemmens Shire Law in Oklahoma, eliminating statute of limitations and NDAs for abuse survivors. Contact Jason Joy if you are a survivor seeking experienced legal representation in child sexual abuse cases. Want to hear more legal updates and issues shaping our communities and affecting everyday people? Subscribe to Cut to the Chase: with Gregg Goldfarb. #TreysLaw #ChildSexualAbuse #BoyScouts #CutToTheChase #SurvivorJustice
The Great private Capital Reset is upon us. Markets are volatile and driving new economic imperatives. Are VC funds still VC funds, even if they raise billions per fund? What happened to the rest of the market? What is driving VC investments? What do Limited Partners think? What is on their minds? This and more, in episode 76 of Tech Deciphered. Navigation: Intro The State of the Reset: The Hangover from the Party? LP Fatigue and VC Differentiation What Really Matters: Performance.. Returns The Mega Fund Question The Case for Smaller… Rightsized Funds What Comes Next? 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 Bertrand Introduction Welcome to episode 76 of Tech Deciphered. This episode will be about the great private capital reset. As you know, or you have probably heard, there is significant structural transformation in the world of venture capital, and we are probably witnessing a fundamental reset of the private capital stack. We got a huge bubble in 2020, 2021. Fueled by near-zero interest rates. We got inflated fund size, compressed due diligence, and now a generation of zombie funds and zombie startups. Now that rates have normalized, exits have not been as much as expected. LP patience is a warning sign, and I guess the industry is being forced to confront an uncomfortable truth: most VC funds raised since 2017 might not return what their LPs expected. You know, how do we start? Nuno This is going to be a relatively nuanced episode. Obviously, there is going to be a lot of haves and have-nots, both in terms of VC funds, also in terms of startups. And so I want to start with that. This is going to be more nuanced than all transformational and disruptive. Bertrand It’s not the end. It’s not the end. Nuno State of the Reset: The Hangover from the Party? It’s not the end. There’s still huge mega funds that are raising more and more. It’s clear that the music has stopped, right? So if we’re playing the game of chairs, the music has stopped. Around ’22, ’23, we started seeing the first signals that funds had raised way too much money. Firms collectively raised around $669 billion globally in 2021 alone. If we fast forward now to last year, 2025, depending on the sources, we did some internal analysis at Chameleon. We came up with $75.6 billion was raised last year by 493 funds, right? So That’s a significant drop, right, in terms of fundraising. Other sources would say a little bit more. There’s a little bit of a discussion around how much did the top 30 funds capture. If you believe some of the stats out there, they would say that actually top 30 funds captured 75% of all capital raised last year. We did again some internal analysis at Chameleon, and the conclusion we came to, it was closer to 50 to 55%. So not as dramatic as some of the sources out there, but still pretty dramatic. There’s a lot of capital concentration on the top funds. Again, the top 30 funds would’ve raised 50 to 55% of capital or up to 75% according to other sources. So definitely a tremendous amount of concentration. There was a lot more fragmentation in terms of capital raised if we’re looking at the years from 2010, 2011, all the way through 2021. So 2021 would’ve been sort of the peak of non-concentration if you look at that. And that again, now we are getting more and more concentration. There’s more and more of this arbitrage around, I’ll give money to the top funds, I will not give money to the smaller funds, or I’ll give less money to the smaller funds. There’s a little bit of a movement around concentration. We’ll talk about it later and what that means. Are mega funds really better? Are the small funds still the way to go? We’ll talk a lot about that later in today’s episode. There seems to be a little bit of a bifurcation. We could say it’s either bifurcation around top-tier VCs or larger VC funds versus smaller VC funds. My perspective is the bifurcation that we’re seeing right now is more of a bifurcation between funds that are no longer just stepped into the VC space, but they’re actually becoming more and more private equity firms with full asset management range from early stage all the way to late stage. Think of it almost like a private equity hedge fund, quasi, versus classic VC funds. And I think what we’re seeing is the Andreessen Horowitzes, the a16zs of the world, the NEAs, the Sequoia Capitals, just to name a few, becoming more and more broad asset class managers across private equity, whereas you have more classic VC happening in earlier stages. And so that’s the real bifurcation that I think is actually happening. Bertrand And maybe not really hedge fund, because they are always still long-only funds. So there is no hedging happening, at least as far as I know. Nuno Well, some of these guys have become RIAs, like A16z has become an RIA, so they can do secondaries. Bertrand That’s true. Yeah. Nuno And they can also sell stuff, etc. So I don’t know how aggressive they’re going to be in terms of secondaries and selling and actually doing other kinds of services you can do if you’re an RIA. But it’s not, I think, out of the realm of possibility that they would sort of acquire and sell stock more rapidly. In that way, to your point, Bertrand, maybe they actually become beyond just long guys, right? Bertrand Yes. Another trend I have seen is some of the larger VC funds seems to have no problem investing in multiple competitors. This was not possible before. I mean, if you’re a VC fund, you had some sort of duty not to invest in the competitors, but now some invest OpenAI, Anthropic at the same time. Do you see that as part of this evolution? Nuno For sure. And I think there’s a lot of people like the ostrich putting their heads below the ground and it’s like, “Eh, no, no, nothing to see here.” But that does constitute a conflict of interest. And if I’m a startup raising, this assumption that you will not invest in one of my competitors is no longer there, certainly for the mega funds, because of that notion of deployment of capital. Now, some funds will still hide under the notion, actually formally from a fund perspective, we’re not investing in competitors. It just happens that different types of our funds are investing in competitors. Like maybe my growth fund is investing in a competitor to my early stage fund, right? But our funds are relatively independent. So I think there’s a little bit of hide and seek that will go on if you talk to some of the fund managers. Well, they say, well, we’re not investing out of the same fund into these competitors. But between you and I, as we know, a lot of these partnerships actually do a lot of stuff together at the general partnership level. So are there really actual Chinese walls between the funds? Well, it really depends on the partnership. And to be honest, most of the partnerships don’t have very significant Chinese walls between the funds, right? The managing general partners sometimes actually occupy investment committee roles across different funds. So I think the conflict of interest is there. So that’s why I say there’s a little bit of ostrich behavior. Put your head behind the ground or below the ground and just pretend nothing is happening. Just sharing maybe a couple of interesting stats. Global fund closings for 2025, according to our numbers at Chameleon, 1,098 closed. In 2025. Closed is when you start deploying capital, right? Whereas— so it’s not closed down, it’s closed like we start deploying capital. And that number, 1,098, is dramatically down from 1,600 in 2024. And it’s actually the lowest number of closings that we saw since 2014. So again, this is bad, right? It means there’s less funds doing fund closings and deploying capital in the market than since 2014 and dramatically below the 2024 numbers, right? Where we already saw some market readjustments. The number of active VC firms in the US that did 2+ deals, which is not a huge bar, has dropped 38% back to numbers in 2023. So we don’t have numbers that are a little bit more up to date, but basically in 2023, those numbers are already dramatically dropped. So there’s less and less active funds. So there’s funds that might be in the market, but they’re not actually deploying that much capital, not doing that many investment. They’re sort of either zombie funds or relatively passive funds that have passed their investment period. For those listening to us, the investment period for a VC fund is normally between the first 3 to 5 years of the fund, which is when you build your portfolio, when you can invest in new companies. After that time period, everything that you do up to normally what would be year 10 is follow-ons. You put more money into the companies that you’re already invested in, that you already constructed portfolio with during those 3 to 5 years. Bertrand Yeah, that’s a pretty scary change. And obviously, I guess we’ll come to it, but the time it takes to fully liquidate investments is getting longer and longer. In the old days, we used to talk about VC funds having a 10-year life, maybe a +1/+1 in terms of extension of the fund life. But it looks like it’s taking 16 to 18 years actually to get full liquidity from a fund investment. Nuno LP Fatigue and VC Differentiation And I think that’s the scariest piece. I mean, just to share some numbers, we in venture capital talk about vintages, right? Which year did your fund start in? Normally when you did your first close onto the fund, as we were saying before, close is when you get all your investors at that moment in time to come in and you do your first close so the next fund starts running. 2018 vintage funds, right? This is now almost 7 years ago. So you should start having— actually 8 years ago almost at this point in time. You should start already getting distributions or you start getting cash back if you’re a limited partner and investor in those funds, you should start getting cash back. Half of all 2018 vintage funds have returned $0 to their LPs. So they’ve had no distributions to their LPs. 2020 vintage, which was a very hot vintage, only 42% have begun any distribution. So 58% have distributed $0, right? 2021, only 25% have done any distributions. Now, I happen to have a 2018 vintage fund and a 2021 fund. My 2018 fund has already distributed over 3x net of fees in distributions, and my 2021 fund’s already over 10% distributed back in distribution. So we’re very proud of that. But in general, the numbers are awful. There’s no liquidity back to LPs. And to your point, that’s kind of a big deal because some of these funds have been going on for 7, 8 years, and where’s the liquidity going to come from? On the other hand, if you look at TVPI, so DPI is distributions to paid-ins cash on cash. But if you look at TVPI, which is total value to paid-in, which also includes the book value or the value that you’re marking it on your books, basically the paper value as we call it for the company, even on that, the median 2017 fund, so 2017 vintage fund has a TVPI, total value to paid-in, of only around 1.76x, which is well below what should be, which is sort of the 2 to 3x benchmark of a really good performing fund. So the median funds are doing very, very poorly overall. So if you add that to the fact of what’s happening and distributions are taking a long time, back to your point, Bertrand, it’s taking like— this should be a 10-year asset class, maybe 11, 12 years, and now it’s looking a little bit like a 15, to 18-year asset class, which is not what most limited partners sign up for. Part of this dynamic, I think, is that we’ve had tremendously overvalued private companies over the last few years, right? Secondly, these companies have just stayed private longer. And I was having a discussion recently with a friend of mine, it’s like, hey, what’s this thing about companies are staying private much longer? Is there some dynamic around secondaries? And the reality is there is a dynamic around secondaries, right? Because if I’m a very large fund and I can get away with doing secondaries on my portfolio, I will get liquidity at some point, right? But someone else is stuck with private stock, which hopefully will IPO, but who knows, right? And so there’s this funny dynamic right now of because of secondaries, because of a couple of other things that are happening in the market, actually a lot of these startups are staying private for tremendous amounts of times, and some of them will IPO and they’ll be huge deals. Some of them might not and might not warrant the latest private valuations that they’ve exercised. And so there’s this tremendous noise that we’re seeing in the mid to late funnel of privately held companies where some are just waiting to be public. Some of them might not be able to go public at anything that is an up round versus private valuations that they’ve had in previous moments and in previous rounds. Bertrand And obviously the 2 to 3x returns that funds are targeting, and obviously more 3x than 2x, I mean, that was good and nice if it’s a 10-year fund, but if it’s the same 3x for 15 to 18 years, it’s not at all the same rate of return annualized. So it’s a really, really, really big issue if you keep the return the same, but you extend the duration of the fund. Concerning going IPO, there is a lot of complexity going public, the IPO process itself, but also after that when you’re a public company. It changed how you can run the business. Some would argue that we have had an issue with more companies delisting than companies listing on the public market. So I think there might be also separate issues about the efficiency of the public market and maybe a need for change. We went very strongly in one direction for the public market, have post and run, but was it really ultimately the right thing to do? I’m actually not so sure. Nuno Yeah, I mean, just to be clear, this is anecdotal, but when we tell prospective LPs at Chameleon about our returns, the last few funds, 2018, 2021, the first reaction is, “You must be lying, right? Surely you can’t have distributions already for 2021,” et cetera, et cetera. So clearly there’s almost a state of disbelief right now from limited partners. And liquidity does matter. So clearly you have to move forward. So how did we get to this point where we had this bubble 2021 all around that time space and now things don’t look so good. Well, the macro conditions have changed dramatically. I mean, rates when they were near zero, safer assets yield nothing or yield nothing. So basically you had to push capital into longer duration risk assets like venture capital. And so you had to push it. So the opportunity cost of capital also has fundamentally shifted. Obviously a 3x VC return in 15 years over 10 actually competes very poorly against 5% annual credit returns over several years. So there’s been a readjustment of stuff. And then the public equities in particular, the tech public equities have had a lot of volatility, but some of them have done extremely well, right? Chipsets, things like NVIDIA, the Amazons of the world, Alphabets, et cetera, et cetera. They’ve done very, very well. So why would I invest in a long-term illiquid asset that takes now longer to give me money back, and in some case doesn’t give me back, if I can invest just in public equities, and a variety of other things. The venture debt costs have increased dramatically. The burn rates that were sustainable back in the day with sort of the addition of venture debt, private credit, et cetera, now are overblown at this moment in time. At the end of the day, there’s been a lot of movements also overall in the pipeline in terms of valuations, et cetera, et cetera. Now, I would put a grain of salt into all the numbers I just told you. There still is a little bit of the haves and have-nots in startup land. Certainly in early stage where if you’re a hot AI company, you can get away with raising a Series C or $480 million. This is actually a true story. Series C, right? Not Series C, a $480 million at $4 billion pre-money valuation. Whereas if you are maybe in a space that’s less hot, you’ll have more difficulty in raising money at this point in time, might not be able to even raise a Series C, right? So there’s a little bit of the haves and have-nots happening on the VC side in early stage that has been really amplified by the macro regime and where we’re at, which is actively zero-rate era is done and now the new regime is quite different. And so I can get better returns by doing something else. Bertrand Kind of makes sense. I mean, if you have some ways the SaaSpocalypse in the public market because there is that fear that AI is going to completely change the game for especially for the more typical software companies. Good luck raising private money to quote unquote just build traditional software companies. You cannot expect a warm embrace from the private market if the public markets are completely destroying that category. I’m not saying that this is there forever, uh, things might change over time, but for sure what’s happening on the public markets always have a very strong impact on the private market. Nuno Indeed. So what’s happening in this relationship between limited partners and VCs, the general partners? Again, limited partners are the people that give venture capital firms and venture capital funds their capital to actually deploy. And they are a variety of different players, right? Could be endowments, like university endowments, pension funds, family offices, very high net worth individuals, fund of funds, et cetera, et cetera. I mean, in particular, if you look at the institutional investors, the endowments, the pension funds, the fund of funds, they have allocations that they do to different asset classes typically. And the feedback that we’ve received from the market is they are increasingly frustrated with what’s happening in terms of distributions. They’re not getting capital back. It’s like, I gave you capital 8 years ago, 9 years ago, 2017, 2018 vintages, and I’m not getting any capital back. So what the hell’s happening? On paper, it looks maybe the fund’s doing okay or it’s doing great in some cases, but where’s my money? And so that creates a little bit of wait-and-see kind of game on portfolio allocation. As we’re thinking through their re-ups, putting more capital into funds that they’re already actually put capital or putting in capital into new slots, into new fund managers that they want to put money into. They’re like, well, let’s wait and see. I want to get my money back or get some money back first before I redeploy it. Again, this is a little bit the haves and have-nots because we’ve seen, for example, a couple of top-end LPs in terms of returns that have a little bit the opposite problem, right? Because they are into funds that are performing extremely well. They actually are over that period and they want to actually redeploy. But to be honest, the average in the industry right now is a wait-and-see game. It’s like, I want to wait and see, which leads to what can only be characterized— I was hearing someone the other day, one of the top advisors in the LP community, saying this is the worst fundraising environment ever for venture capital. Not the last 20 years, 30 years, like ever, right? Since this became an asset class more institutionally in the late ’60s, early ’70s, Pulse Robo 2 as it was created, this is the worst fundraising environment ever. Oh, wow. Bertrand And concerning TVPI, let’s not forget that typically it’s not mark-to-market. So the metrics in terms of TVPI, correct me if I’m wrong, you know, but the metrics in TVPI are based on typically the last fundraise. So if the valuation went down but there was no additional fundraise, we wouldn’t know by looking at the TVPI metrics. It will only be updated if there is a new Financing, equity financing, or an exit. Nuno Yeah, normally most funds act like that. Some funds are a little bit more aggressive and do do mark-to-market, but normally funds would be conservative and say, hey, I’m being conservative, it’s whatever is the last known valuation of the company. And if there wasn’t a priced round, it’s a little bit more obscure than that, right, Bertrand? Because it might actually be the company has raised money on a note, or either convertible note or a SAFE note, and that wouldn’t count as a priced round. So I would say actually, even if it was a cap that’s below with a significant discount, I won’t recognize the assets as a down round. I won’t recognize the asset with a lower valuation because formally it wasn’t a price round. So it’s on the one hand conservative, on the other hand, it’s only relating to price rounds or exits to your point. So it’s sort of, you can be like, hmm, well, we opt to do that because we think it’s actually the most conservative route. Mark-to-market is extremely difficult to do. And who would do the mark-to-market for you, right? It’s like it’s some valuation firm, et cetera. Bertrand I’m not saying a mark-to-market is easy, but I’m not sure I would call using the last valuation something conservative in the context that most startups will fail. So it’s not clear. Nuno Well, in some cases it is, some cases it’s not, right? Depends on the startup situation, to be honest. Yeah, yeah. Bertrand But yeah, at least that’s how it’s done. So for instance, to evaluate the impact of the SaaS apocalypse, it’s tough to know. We will have on the private market. I mean, we will see that in a few quarters. Because if companies still exist in that environment, if they still do additional truly price rounds after that, that’s when I will start to know. Nuno I mean, just to share a little bit more data, like VC fund close time stretched to 15 months. Basically, it’s just taking a long time to raise money. It’s taking a long time to do your first close, get your fund running. When entrepreneurs complain to me that their fundraising is difficult, I always say, you have no clue how difficult it is compared to ours. First-time funds have collapsed. We had some numbers that only 77 first-time funds actually closed. I assume this is in 2025 versus 215 in 2023. So that’s a huge number. We did some internal analysis on our side and we did some analysis that emerging fund managers, emerging fund managers are normally people that are in their first one or two funds. Basically emerging fund managers gained some ground until 2017. Reaching by then a slice that was 63.7% of all capital raised in 2017. But since then, the capital deployed to emerging managers has been largely reduced to actually 24.2%, right? So it’s gone from 63.7% in 2017 to 24.2%. So this has been a culling of sorts on emerging managers and almost like a slaughterhouse of emerging managers. Compared to previous situations, which is obviously incredibly concerning if you’re an emerging manager starting your VC firm, et cetera, et cetera. So really tremendously problematic for those. We think capital’s not leaving VC. I think we see a lot of the institutionals saying— there’s some numbers as high as 33% of institutional investors plan to invest more in venture in the next 12 months. So I don’t think capital’s leaving VC. I think it’s really concentrating. We’ll come back to the concentration issue later in the episode. And part of that concentration comes from a topic that has been widely spoken in venture capital recently, which is differentiation. How do you differentiate in venture capital if you’re talking to a limited partner, right? How does my firm differentiate versus the firm next to mine? And that’s incredibly, incredibly challenging. Bertrand, what are your thoughts on that? Bertrand Differentiation is always a question. I mean, if you’re an entrepreneur, Typically, you think fully about the best possible partner for your stage and for your type of business model. You want a VC who understands fully your business model, because if they don’t, then it’s going to be troubled down the line. But that’s true that another piece of the puzzle is that the best VCs help you get more visibility in terms of achieving potential customer deals, in terms of attracting the best talent. And that’s where VCs’ brand names can help. If you can say you have backing by some of the top, most visible names in the industry, and usually these are the mega funds because others have trouble to be as visible, then they have some sort of unfair advantage compared to others. So I can see that there is some level of concentration happening naturally, especially in the later stage from Series B onwards. Nuno What Really Matters: Performance… Returns Yeah, I mean, we did some analysis internally about What are the top funds that invested in the top performing companies in early stage, Series C, Series A? And we looked at it by size of fund and the top performing normally are funds below $100 million, but in some cases very closely followed by funds between $100 and $500 million. And actually funds above $500 million, so $500 million to $1 billion and then $1 billion and above are actually tremendously underperforming. So this notion of the industry that says, well, the mega funds still see The top investments early on, because they still deploy in Series C and Series A opportunistically, in some cases even spray and pray if they have their own incubation and acceleration programs, is not true. Actually, we verified that over the last 12 to 13 years. It is not 12 to 13 years in vintage, right? So up to a 2021 vintage fund. So we went basically 12, 13 years back from there. And it’s not true. Actually, the most performing are 0 to 100 and then 100 to 500. And as I said, there’s 100 to 500 in a couple of years actually are a little bit better. Than the $0 to $100 million ones. So that’s the first thing that’s a conclusion. And actually, that’s not shocking. If we remember back in the day, Kleiner Perkins used to raise funds up to $600 million, Benchmark raised their $425 million funds. It seems like the sweet spot for a VC fund would be around $500 million at the top end, like maximum. And now somehow people are saying, well, I’m raising a $3 billion VC fund. It’s like, well, it can’t be a VC fund. The return profile is totally different, right? You can’t deploy that capital just based on early stage investing. And by the way, you’re not seeing the guys at early stage, all that you’re seeing, you’re going to make your returns in mid to late stage, right? Back to what we said at the beginning of the episode. So there’s a little bit of the haves and have-nots there. The big guys are raising more and more money, but they’re no longer venture capital. And I think limited partners that are a little bit more evolved, that are a little bit more conscious of this, that have been in the market longer, are realizing that shift. So it’s like if they want to have the alpha of venture capital, they need to deploy to the sub-$100 million funds or the sub-$500 million funds, right? That’s where they need to actually focus their VC capital. They can still deploy to mega funds, but they’re deploying to a different asset class. They’re deploying to a private equity, mid to late stage asset class, which looks maybe a little bit more like a growth fund or something like that. The second part of differentiation is the honest truth is most VC funds are like, I have proprietary network access, right? I’m ex-Stripe or I’m ex-Google or I’m ex-Facebook or whatever, and I have access to that. I mean, we know proprietary networks from that standpoint are no longer true. The whole thing that created Silicon Valley back in the ’70s of what I used to call the country club deals where there were a few people coming out of the big companies, the Fairchilds of the world, later on the Intels of the world, et cetera, et cetera, that made some money along the way that sort of bootstrapped their next companies, were well-known quantity to the existing VCs and raised money relatively easy on ideas, that doesn’t work anymore. Someone was telling me the other day one interesting thing that I wasn’t quite aware of, a lot of it had to do with the NDAs. I don’t know if you knew this, Bertrand, but like the fact that in California, it was sort of the Silicon Valley community sort of imposed this, we don’t sign NDAs thing and Boston continued signing it. And this whole NDA enforcement issue and non-compete, actually not the NDA thing, but more strongly that California did not enforce non-competes. I could leave Fairchild and start a company that magically was doing something that could be considered competitive to Fairchild. And that was sort of part of the acceleration actually of venture capital in California versus, for example, Boston, which was sort of hand in hand at the beginning. Bertrand Yeah, I mean, I’m a big, big believer in California success coming from not enforcing or banning non-compete agreements. I think it’s a key part of the game. If you lock people into not doing something similar in the next 6 months to 24 months. And the industry has always been moving fast. So this is a significant time where you are blocked to do something very similar. I think it was really an issue. So I think it’s a key part of the game and it has been there. I don’t know how it started, but I think that non-enforcement of non-compete has been a key part of the success of California. I’m actually pleased to say that Washington State is going in the same direction. They are just signing a non-compete ban. And you might remember that at the federal level, I think in 2024, there was also a ban that was put in place to ban non-compete, but this has been reversed by the courts. So this is not there anymore. So that’s why we see a state like Washington State putting their own ban, and we might see more state by state moving in that direction. I think it was not helping at all, this non-compete. I mean, there is obviously stuff that needs to be done, like you cannot steal secrets, you cannot steal IP. Nuno Yeah. Bertrand Even stealing employees, there should be some restraints. We need to find the right balance, but you have to be careful there. That was key for the success of California, and I’m glad to see that this is a trend that’s going to go beyond California. And I hope most states will have a ban on non-compete. Nuno Maybe just to close on the differentiation process, two things. One, I think there’s this notion When you talk to some LPs, that seems to be a little bit ingrained, some LPs that prefer specialized funds. We’ve also done some significant analysis internally and have talked to a couple of datasets other than our own, or people that own datasets other than our own, and the feedback has actually been not so fast. Actually, generalist funds over time cannot perform specialist funds. There seems to be a little bit of a sweet spot around generalist funds. We like to call ourselves multi-specialized at Chameleon, but ultimately from the perspective of specialized versus Generalist funds, the picture’s not as clear as specialized funds outperform generalists or generalists outperform specialized. We’ve seen there are pockets where actually generalists outperform specialized, in other pockets where specialized of a certain size can outperform generalists. So that’s one topic on differentiation that is a little bit broader. And then the final topic on differentiation, it’s really an industry that hasn’t innovated dramatically on where it creates the most value, which is really the picking stage, right? So it’s having great deal flow, very optimal, productive, efficient due diligence with very few resources and the ability to then get into those deals. That’s where most of the value is created. And then hopefully liquidating the asset if there’s an opportunity to do so at the right time, either through secondary trade sales or an IPO or something else. And what we’ve seen is the industry has innovated very little. I mean, the only thing I could point out in terms of core innovation at the top of the funnel has been the creation of the mega funds, the well-known funds, right? Like a16z, Union Square Ventures, et cetera, et cetera. But there needs to be more innovation on that cycle. And that’s why we certainly at Chameleon believe that the future is to have quant and AI-native VC firms that develop their own tooling, their own platforms. We have Mantis in our case that allow you to have this unfair advantage in how you source deals and how you do due diligence, how you get into the deals, et cetera, and how you take it to the next level. And we think that’s the beginning of the next stage is that the industry becomes more tech-enabled, shockingly enough, an industry that has made all its returns on tech or almost all of its returns on tech. That we need to be more tech-enabled ourselves. But I think the writing is on the wall there, and that will be a source of differentiation certainly over the next 3 to 5 years. Bertrand One thing the industry has innovated somewhat and maybe could innovate even more is providing liquidity beyond trade sale and an IPO, because it’s clear that if VCs want more liquidity without waiting 18 years, you need that liquidity at different stage, not just when it’s time to do an exit, a full exit for the business. And for employees as well. I mean, it’s one thing to stay for a company for 4 years, which is your typical vesting. Maybe you extend that to 6 years, to 8 years, you have a great time at the company. But to think that maybe you have to stick around for 15 to 20 years in order to get liquidity on your stock options. I mean, that’s too much to ask for most people. I mean, people have a life, they have other things to do, other plans, they might want to move, they come at a different stage of life. So you need to provide them liquidity. The new game is we are not going to exit until 15 to 20 years, else it’s truly unfair. It’s not just unfair, but people will say, you know what, I’m going to go across the street, go work for Amazon or Google. I will have RSUs at best regularly that are liquid, and why bother? I mean, we need to find pathways to liquidity for both investors but also employees. There has been a change in that direction, but I think we need more of this change, and maybe not just reserved for the absolute biggest, most successful companies like OpenAI or SpaceX, but also us as well. Hopefully we can find a way. Nuno Well, now we have these AI companies that actually grow so fast that they will IPO in one year. Now, isn’t that what’s going to happen? They raise They raised $500 million in Series C or $1.4 billion in Series C, and they’re going to IPO in 2 years. No? Is that not the new reality? I’m being facetious. Bertrand At the same time, I mean, there are rumors that some of them are going to IPO this year. I mean, we talk about OpenAI, about Anthropic. I mean, OpenAI is quite old, but Anthropic is a relatively new business, quote unquote. So I think it’s a good time. Nuno The Mega Fund Question So maybe it will be true after all. Moving to the next section, are mega funds still venture capital, Bertrand? Are they still venture capital funds? Bertrand Yeah, I guess venture capital is a term that can encompass from small to very big funds. I truly don’t know. I mean, once you reach a growth stage, are you truly a VC fund? I don’t know. I think some of these definitions are kind of arbitrary from my perspective. What is clear is that you as a business need different providers of capital. And as we just discussed, you as a business, probably need to keep going and stay private for longer. One reason being, again, there is a tremendous cost to being a public company. There are some true strategic disadvantages. And at the same time, just practically, I mean, you need to get bigger and bigger in order to have a chance of a successful IPO. So you cannot just go IPO at a $500 million valuation. I mean, that’s like committing suicide, at least in the US market on NASDAQ. So my point is, you truly have no choice. You need to extend and If you need to extend, then you need to have capital providers that are there at later stage and therefore have more money. Is it still true venture capital? Is it true venture? I don’t know. At some point, it makes sense that from the startups to the capital providers, everyone adjusts to a reality where the life cycle is getting longer. Nuno We don’t think it is. We don’t think mega funds are venture capital. We have actually some data that shows that they’re not in terms of actual returns. The alphas you can generate, the IRR that you can generate is actually not comparable. We did some analysis again with some of our datasets and from 2012 to 2022, so that’s the datasets that we used so that we had actual distributions and stuff we could take into account and so on and so forth. And looking at IRR, just to share some numbers in terms of IRR over those 10 years on sub-$100 million funds versus above $1 billion funds, the differences are incredibly stark. And this is true for global and US IRR, right? So just to quote some numbers in terms of average, sub-$100 million funds, global IRR of 22.9%, US IRR of 21.6% versus above $1 billion, 9.1% and 9.0%. Median IRR, if we just looked at median, 7.3% and 16.6% for sub-$100 million funds, 7.5% and 8.1% above $1 billion. Top quartile IRR, sub-$100 million, 31% versus 30.4% US IRR. And then above $1 billion funds, 14.7%, 15.5%. So it’s very clear if you sort of cut this in different ways, averages, medians, top quartiles, et cetera, over all these years that sub-$100 million funds are in a very different asset class than above $1 billion funds. They’re in different alpha that you can generate and so on and so forth. Now to the point you made, Bertrand, I don’t fully disagree with the point you made of the bigger funds should become bigger. I just think they’re becoming different things. Now, again, some of these funds will hide under the facts like, well, wait a second, we have all these assets under management, but they’re over different funds. Sequoia, we’re still raising small early-stage funds, $500, $600 million funds. And then we have larger funds for growth, et cetera, et cetera. Andreessen Horowitz, a little bit less clear what they’re actually doing. We heard that they’ve raised $15 billion across funds. I’m not sure if that’s the exact number at the end of the day. But the point is, if I’m a multi-asset class manager, like early growth, et cetera, et cetera, then it still applies what Nunu is saying. I’m still going after the $500 million, $600 million early-stage funds. Well, not so fast, right? Because you still have all this capital with managing general partners that are maybe across funds for which their incentives in particular, both carry and management fees are coming from the larger funds. Et cetera, et cetera. So there’s necessarily conflicts of interest. In many cases, the funds are just straight up big, right? And so they are above a billion. And so I don’t think a lot of these guys are in early-stage investing anymore, right? It may appear that they are, but I don’t think that’s where the returns necessarily are going to come from. And so if you are a limited partner, if you’re looking at your asset class allocation, again, you’re absolutely free to put money into mega funds because that’s the kind of asset class you want to play in. In terms of a blended private equity asset class that has a little bit of growth, a little bit of whatever, or actually a lot of growth, a lot of late stage, and maybe a little bit of early stage. And I want something that’s a little bit more blended, right? But if I still want the alpha venture capital, I need to deploy to funds that are early stage, right? And that’s like up to $100 million, up to $500 million. I think that’s my two cents on that topic. We see crossover things coming around, like guys who do both public and private markets. Again, that starts feeling a bit like a hedge fund. A lot of these funds have also become RAs, as we discussed earlier. So I feel the writing’s on the wall. The mega funds are going more and more after either some mechanism of edging or a mechanism that’s a little bit more blended in terms of private equity than classic venture capital. Bertrand Yes, I think a few things. One, if you’re an LP, I can imagine that dealing with multiple $100 million funds might be more difficult. You, you need to know the partners, you need to have some background, uh, visibility. You need potentially to change regularly of VC investments. So I can see some level of simplicity if you just focus on the bigger ones, especially if you have a lot of assets you have to put to work. Another piece of the puzzle, I would guess that the bigger funds are able to return money faster because they are at later stage of the cycle. So instead of that 15 to 18 years, maybe they are more in a 5 to 10 year range, while the smaller funds being there more early might be the one who are taking longer to deliver. So I can see that Yes, there is an IRR picture, but there is also time to liquidity that is not the same. So that can probably also influence. And in terms of crossover PE hybrid model, I mean, for sure we have seen some of the public equity investors doing crossover, meaning going into private equity firms like Coatue, like Tiger Global and others. And for companies that are preparing for IPO, there is a lot of value to work with these firms because they have very good visibility and understanding of the public markets. And their presence in the cap table is also a sign of quality, typically for public market investors. So there is a lot of value and logic for them to be there on both sides of the puzzle. But again, the fact that firms keep delaying IPOs, that the market is not so much startup-friendly, makes this model a bit more difficult. But personally, I think there is value there. Nuno Yeah, I think on the mega fund, just so that I’m not boo-booing everything, I mean, but there’s definitely angles in terms of the asset class that make a lot of sense. And there’s the scalability of the model. The ability to go after Series B, Series C, as well as mid-stage, as well as late-stage, even secondaries over time, to your point, in some cases even public equities. And that level of skill I think matters. We’ve also seen, as we’ve known, we won’t mention any brands, but people will know who they are, that late-stage hedge funds and investors, even if they’ve done okay-ish in growth in private equity, don’t necessarily do well in venture. So it’s clearly a very different asset class, right? So once you start getting venture teams together, The returns are not quite the same. Actually, sometimes they’re not even quite the same as the growth investments. So clearly they’re very good at the growth side, but not so good in early stage. But definitely there is a case for it. The Case for Smaller…Rightsized Funds But if we switch gears maybe to the small, or I would call right-sized funds, maybe just to quote a couple of numbers and then open up the discussion. Small funds do seem to outperform larger funds. There’s a lot of data in the market that shows some of that dynamic outperformance frequency. All the Very historical numbers from Cambridge Associates from 1981 to 2010. 19 out of 30 vintages were won by sub-$150 million funds. We did our own analysis as I was sharing before. Funds between $0 and $100 won most years between around 2010 and 2021. And the years that they didn’t outperform in terms of investing in the top-performing companies in early-stage Series C, Series A, they were outperformed by the $100 to $500 million funds. The $500 to $1 billion funds and $1 billion or above were never even in the same league in terms of performance, of having identified those top performers in terms of quantity over those early-stage investments. Top 10 funds by vintage, 2004 to 2006, 2016 numbers. Top 10 funds, 73% were sub-$100 million. 2004 to 2016, top 10 funds by vintage, 73% of those were sub-$100 million. So there seems to be a little bit of a case that actually smaller funds, sub-$100 million, sub-$500 million in some cases, are outperforming the larger funds over time. Now, these funds are complex in and of itself. The positive of it is small fund GPs like myself, we are deeply invested in our own funds. We’re not there to just make management fee monies. I mean, we’re not making $1 million, $2 million a year in management fees of salary ourselves, like some of the larger funds. So we are there to really get the carry and be less focused on management fees. And so I think there’s a little bit of alignment around that and really taking that kind of perspective on portfolio construction and liquidation, being also more aggressive on the individual time that we spend with our startups. On the negative side, obviously a lot of these smaller funds, not the case of Chameleon, but others out there are single GPs, very little teams or very small teams. And so it’s sometimes difficult to actually do a lot for portfolio companies as well. And this is where the mega funds, for example, a16z notably would say, hey, we have 600+ people that can support you, right? On market development, business development, communications, talent recruiting, all this stuff. Question mark whether that’s the right way to do it in terms of operating model, if technology is not a better way of supplying that value back to your portfolio companies, or if there’s no better way of doing it. But still, that’s one of the appeals of actually dealing with a larger mega fund if you’re a startup, right? That they will have the resources, also the financial resources to put more capital in you. But also, again, if there’s entrepreneurs listening to this right now, and hopefully there are, it’s a two-edged sword, right? Because if you have Andreessen Horowitz putting money in you, or NEA, or General Catalyst, or whatever, putting money in you on a Series C and then not doubling down on the Series A or the Series B, there will be questions, right? Because like they have the capital, they have other funds, so why the hell are they not putting more money in? Um, so, so it’s a little bit of a two-edged sword. Bertrand Yeah, I think that one is a pretty big one. And on top of it, as we discussed, some of these big firms have multiple funds managed technically by different teams. So you might have convinced the early-stage teams, they have investors, they’re happy, but you don’t convince the growth-stage firm. As you say, it might raise questions because people might think that there is some communication between the early-stage team and the growth-stage team. So why the heck are they not deciding to invest? And as we also discussed, even worse possible situation, what happens if the growth-stage team has invested in your competitor? It’s even more trouble. So I think trying to understand how firms behave, what’s the reputation of the firm, what’s the reputation of the partner you are working with, I mean, can have tremendous importance and impact. When it’s time for you to work with a firm. Nuno Indeed. I mean, at the end of the day, we still believe that the smaller fund— we at Chameleon discuss the notion that our limit should be $500 million per fund, right? And that’s the logic of it. We think that model is the model that works well in venture capital. We do recognize, as I said before, why mega funds keep raising more and more money, right? It becomes a harm’s race at that end of the market. As I said, probably a slightly different asset class, or if not a significantly different asset class as well. So seeing a little bit both sides of the market, I mean, we often compete with the mega funds, but honestly, a lot of the mega funds are kind to us and they let us in. And this whole notion of elbows out, we haven’t felt it that much in the market. And people see our value at the table. And in many cases, I, I do see the larger funds more and more seeing the value of smaller funds coming in on the same rounds and even in some cases co-leading early stage rounds like Series C. So it’s not like elbows are out everywhere across the board. So I don’t mean to say this is like an all-out war between small funds and big funds and the small funds need to win or the big funds need to win. I think actually there’s a lot of potential for coexistence. My point is more that the asset classes and the returns are quite different over time, and that’s how I would think through it. And if you’re an entrepreneur, you should think about that as well, right? What are the implications of taking money from certain funds versus others in terms of the expected returns, expected time allocated to you? For example, if you’re not doing very well as a as a company, right? Will the big funds spend the same amount of energy on you if you’re not doing great and all of that? So it’s a little bit sort of a beware, open your eyes, both for limited partners and for startups. What do you actually want, right? What do you want from your VC firm if you’re a startup? And what do you want from your VC firm if you’re an LP? Bertrand I must say, as an entrepreneur, uh, a board member, I have seen some situations where the bigger funds are actually trying sometimes to elbow out the existing investors. Like, uh, we have that much money to put to work, we cannot do less. And you’re like, yeah, but I don’t need that much money. And then they’re like, okay, just don’t let your existing investors do their pro rata. I don’t think it’s great because an entrepreneur, if your investors, your VCs, trusted you earlier stage when it’s more risky, and when it’s becoming less risky, you don’t give them the right to their pro rata because you have to let this big guy come in. That’s not great. Or even if there is not this pro rata issue, when an investor tries to put more money to work than it’s really necessary, it’s also not a good idea as an entrepreneur to take more capital than you could use. It will dilute you more, it will set higher expectations in terms of valuation, it will push you to use that capital faster than maybe would be reasonable. So I think that’s something you want to be careful with the bigger funds. So don’t talk to funds that are in some ways beyond your stage and try to make it work in that context. Or don’t accept to have your strategy change dramatically for no good reason by funds that just want to put too much money to work in your business. And that for me is surprising because it should also be in their best interest not to invest in businesses that are not ready to accept that much capital. But as we have seen, there were in the past some funds that believe that capital is a moat. Was a good idea. So hopefully, I guess we’re a bit behind that. But yeah, I would say entrepreneurs, be careful, find partners that are the right partners for you at your current stage. Sometimes some big names look great, but at the same time, if it comes with a lot of issues, from too much capital to also taking the risk that these partners don’t understand the stage of the business you are in or your industry, Just be careful. There is a lot of value to have firms that are very focused on your stage, on your industry, are finely attuned to that situation. Nuno What Comes Next? Maybe to end in terms of sections, what comes next? And maybe we can come up with some predictions that are a little bit provocative on what’s going to happen to the market. You, if you’re listening to us, feel free to interact with us on LinkedIn, on X. If you have our email address, shoot us an email as well. We’d love to hear from you if you think these are the right predictions or if we’re totally off. Maybe I’ll throw in the first one, Bertrand, and we’ll go one by one. So we’ll each put one at the table and see where we head. My first one is that we’ll have a huge culling of VC investors. We had this rapid expansion of the VC asset class with arguably at least tens of thousands of firms globally, maybe even over 10,000 in the US. I think we’ll have a culling and the culling will continue and we’ll have several firms sort of getting eliminated over the next couple of years that will have either because they’re having tremendous difficulty doing their first close in their next fund, or the returns are not there, or it’s a firm that has done 3, 4 funds, but for some reason the returns have just gone out of whack in the last few years during the bull years. And so therefore, actually they can’t justify to raise more funds out there. So I predict there will be a significant elimination of active firms in the next at least 2 to 3 years. So maybe by 2028, and we’ll be below, I don’t know, 30% of number of active firms that we are today. The other side of it is I do think if we look beyond that, 2029, 2030, and so on, we’ll have the reemergence of not micro funds, but nano funds where people will start deploying capital very, very early and writing small angel checks, but doing it in a way that it’s sort of not this cottage industry that we’ve had of angel investors. So I think angel investment will be disrupted by people that will use more and more of the AI toolification out there to actually manage their portfolios of 10, 15, 5K investments in a way that is a lot more professional, creating sort of an advent of nano funds. Bertrand Yeah, makes sense. On my side, in terms of prediction, I think there is a possibility that the mega fund model keeps expanding and looks more similar over time to some PE models. So do we have the top 10 VC firms that look more like a Blackstone than a Kleiner Perkins or Sequoia used to be? That for me will be an interesting question and development. I think that there is some possibility that it keeps going in that direction. A lot of incentives are pushing things that way. Nuno My next prediction is that DPI, distributions to paid-in cash on cash, just cash back, will become essential for limited partners. I think TVPI, total value to paid-in, that also has in there, as we just said, paper valuations. There’s a lot of disbelief now around the TVPI metric if there isn’t distributions going alongside it. For those who, again, don’t know what TVPI is, it’s total value paid in, but it also includes DPI. So it’s cash on cash component plus a remaining valuation to paid in, an RVPI. And the problem is the RVPI really, in reality, it’s that kind of on-paper valuation that never gets attributed. I think LPs, they’ve seen the writing on the wall and they’re like, dude, just show me your DPI numbers. I don’t care about TVPI. Some LPs will still ask about TVPI just to make sure that the rest is sort of looking in order. Like, show me the money, show me the cash. Actually, it’s not money, show me the cash, right? I want money back. Bertrand But that’s an issue. I mean, if you’re supposed to raise financing every 3 or 4 years, good luck getting DPI to show for that. So you need to be at least on your third fund in order to be able to show DPI, I guess. Nuno I mean, my corollary to that, Bertrand, is if you allow me just to have a corollary kind of prediction, is that we’ll see certainly for funds like $50 million and above, $100 million, $200 million, et cetera, even increased concentration, right? I really need to have anchors that believe in me over time. And we might start having, again, the advent— we had it some decades ago, the advent of cap table kind of VCs, right? Like Sutter Hill Ventures, right? Where they’re not really raising funds anymore. And so we might have the advent of that, that we’ll have structures that are created that have more permanent capital allocated to them, or at the very least more concentrated capital by very few players. Bertrand Interesting. Me on my side, as I shared before, I believe secondaries are, are important and here to stay. Um, in the past, some could argue, is it a distress signal or something? I, I don’t think it’s true anymore. In a world where your average startup might take 15 to 18 years to exit through M&A or IPO, we need to have other options. For funds, for employees, they cannot be expected to stick around for so long and have no liquidity. I mean, it’s just pure madness. It’s just bad alignment at some point to do that. So I think secondaries are becoming the third liquidity pathway for VCs, for employees, and it should be more and more a key part of the game, a key infrastructure in the VC/startups tech industry. Nuno I mean, on specialized versus generalist funds, I believe we’ll continue seeing the coexistence of those two models where the specialized funds will in many pockets actually outperform generalist funds, but where we’ll continue seeing that the large franchises, the tier one franchises will likely be generalist funds. I mean, we just saw it in the cycle. The AI cycle went upon us. We had a 2021 fund. We could easily adapt and go into AI and figure out that AI was growing very fast. I mean, if you have an ultra-specialized fund and that’s your remit and that’s the only thing you can invest on, very difficult to change even during our investment period. I will put a caveat on that. We don’t call, for example, ourselves at Chameleon generalist. We call ourselves multi-specialized because our scoring models for the verticals that we track are specialized within Mantis. Because the partnership is specialized, we all focus on different areas. And because we have the Kin network that allows us to tap into that level of expertise, Again, I think the world will be specialized coexistence. Some pockets specialized will do very well, certainly on the smaller fund size, but the big franchises will likely look a little bit more generalist. And as I said, multi-specialized from our perspective is the future. We’ll start seeing more and more funds that are multi-specialized like ourselves. Do you want to talk about AI and how it’ll distort the metrics? No. Bertrand Yes. I think AI is an exciting moment in the tech industry. It feels in some ways that the same way we had a big distortion coming with COVID and work from home in 2020, 2021. 2021, where suddenly everyone and their mother will build a SaaS company or invest in a SaaS company. AI feels a bit of the same. I mean, to be clear, I truly believe it’s deserved. I mean, we are facing a dramatic shift in how computing is being done in terms of value you can get from software. So at the same time, AI will probably distort this matrix for a long time. We clearly see a split where investments are going, in what startups are being created. So I think, yeah, we will see some distortion. And we know that maybe 50% of all deal value is going to AI in 2025. We have seen single rounds reaching 40 billion, like to OpenAI. We have seen, as you discussed, some seed stage investment of 400 million. So AI investing and AI startups are definitely a beast on their own. And will distort VC metrics for a long time. And we might need two sets of metrics in parallel, you know, AI versus everything else. So that would be an interesting bifurcation in the industry in some ways. I would say it’s fair to separate AI versus non-AI. We reach a point where it’s two different beasts. Nuno Conclusion So in conclusion, AI has changed the world and it’s changing VC as well, as we discussed earlier in the episode. We have a tremendous momentous occasion for the asset class where venture capital is really bifurcating into very large funds, which no longer are in venture capital or seemingly may be distributed between different asset classes, and the smaller funds, sub-$500 million and sub-$100 million, that keep having the better returns, but also with much smaller scale. We’re seeing a culling of the industry where the industry is definitely getting smaller and smaller and more concentrated at both ends, number of VC firms, as well as a number of limited partners per fund and the interest that some of these limited partners have of being more and more concentrated in their own portfolio allocations. And last but not the least, the discussion around specialized versus generalist, where it seems like there’s some clear winners on some asset classes, on some sizes, in some industries, but on others, there’s other kinds of winners. And so maybe the future is multi-specialized, as I framed at the end. Thank you so much for listening. If you want to check us out and if you want to comment, feel free to send us messages on X, LinkedIn, to both myself and Bertrand, as well as send us an email. Thank you so much, Bertrand. Bertrand Thank you, Nuno.
On this episode of Roxanne and Shantel, we kick things off with a quick birthday weekend recap before diving into The Real Housewives of Rhode Island Episode 4. Skip to the 12-minute mark to get right into the RHORI recap, where we break down Alicia vs. Rosie and the back-and-forth that had everyone talking, the drama surrounding Brian's affair with even more context coming to light & how Rulla has been handling it. We also get into the NDA tied to the mattress rumors and finally we ask the big question— is Liz really as intimidating as everyone says? Timestamps:0:00 Intro & Birthday weekend recap12:00 Real Housewives of Rhode Island Episode 4 recap SPONSOR: Free Shipping Using Code AllAboutTRH at Quince.com Subscribe to 'Roxanne & Shantel' on Apple Podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/roxanne-and-shantel-formerly-allabouttrh/id1554996153 Follow Roxanne & Shantel on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/79BLlV7530ggskem3tAvjp?si=b060160028aa4f1e Follow Roxanne & Shantel On TikTok Follow Roxanne & Shantel On Instagram Follow Roxanne & Shantel On X Join Rox & Shantel of AllAboutTRH on our Patreon Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
On Friday's Drivetime with DeRusha... 3pm: Dan Cook hosts for Jason - are you feeling the K-shaped economy? Plus a pair of lawmakers are trying to stop local governments from signing NDA's with tech companies. 4pm: It's another exciting edition of Card DeSharks as Scott and Jeff battle for a $50 Jester Concepts restaurant gift card! Plus, Jess Myers from the Pioneer Press gives us a Wild playoff preview. 5pm: What's bothering Dan about the back-and-forth between President Trump and Pope Leo? Plus, another reason why the death penalty is a problem in the Boelter case. And Dan Hayes talks about the Twins hot start - is it sustainable?
John Eastman was disbarred by the State of California for his role in attempting to overturn the 2020 election. Former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirchner weighs in on what that means. All six attorneys who helped Trump push his post-election legal schemes, including Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, Jenna Ellis, Jeffrey Clark, and Kenneth Chesebro, have faced disbarment or disciplinary action. Pete Hegseth delivered a press corps speech comparing the mainstream media to the Pharisees of the Bible, claiming a surge in military enlistment and defending the Yemen strikes. CNN's Jake Tapper responds. Hegseth's personal history, including allegations of alcohol abuse and a paid NDA settlement following a rape accusation, sit in sharp contrast to his stated religious values. Steve Bannon warns a Washington DC crowd about Sharia law coming to Texas and gets laughed at. California Representative Sydney Kamlager-Dove closes out the episode with a message for Donald Trump. SUPPORT & CONNECT WITH HAWK- Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mdg650hawk - Hawk's Merch Store: https://hawkmerchstore.com - Connect on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@mdg650hawk7thacct - Connect on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@hawkeyewhackamole - Connect on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/mdg650hawk.bsky.social - Connect on Substack: https://mdg650hawk.substack.com - Connect on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hawkpodcasts - Connect on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mdg650hawk - Connect on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/mdg650hawk ALL HAWK PODCASTS INFO- Additional Content Available Here: https://www.hawkpodcasts.comhttps://www.youtube.com/@hawkpodcasts- Listen to Hawk Podcasts On Your Favorite Platform:Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3RWeJfyApple Podcasts: https://apple.co/422GDuLYouTube: https://youtube.com/@hawkpodcastsiHeartRadio: https://ihr.fm/47vVBdPPandora: https://bit.ly/48COaTB
Ben Woodruff joins me to talk about his background as a biologist, his own childhood UFO sighting, and how he ended up working on Skinwalker Ranch before the TV series began.In Part 1, we get into what Ben says he experienced during his earliest time on the ranch, including strange voices, unsettling activity inside the ranch house, and the biological anomalies that first made him realise this place was different. We also discuss the balance between real science and television, what frustrates him about NDA restrictions, and a remarkable story involving one of his trained falcons that he says disappeared in front of them during an experiment on the ranch.This is a fascinating opening half of a conversation that builds from personal experience into some of the biggest claims Ben says he has witnessed firsthand.Check out Ben's workhttps://www.youtube.com/@benwoodrufffalconryhttps://www.jhutchingsmuseum.com/
Drew's sweet moped, Mike Vrabel & Dianna Russini scandal, Tom Mazawey with a Hank Aaron information dump, a new Bonerline, the return of Jim's Picks, and Armageddon has been delayed by two weeks. Jim vs his co-workers. Call him today so he can stick it to them. Stuttering John needs your money to battle Karl Hamburger and Shuli Egar in court. Sports Videos: Tiger Woods is seen at the golf course. There was some major ass at the ballpark last night. A brawl erupted between the Angels and Braves. Armageddon has been delayed two weeks. Bathhouses are SO BACK in Minnesota. Drew Crime: Michigan's Lynette Hooker will one day be featured in a future Dateline episode. Don't post your arson on Instagram. Christina Plante has been found after missing for 32 years. Anthony Anderson vs NASA. He's like to see us focusing on Earth instead of the moon. Natasha Lyonne wants you to see her breasts. 209-66-Boner is the # to call or text to communicate with the show. No kink-shaming Byron Noem. Mike Vrabel and Dianna Russini were seen getting cozy together in Sedona. Tom Mazawey joins us pre-haircut to defend Dianna Russini, rip the Detroit Tigers poor start to the season, remind us of a Hank Aaron anniversary, eulogize Davey Lopes, comment on the flailing Red Wings, and comment on hot new bathhouse action. Gene Simmons is in town for the Grand Opening of Rock and Brews. Howard Stern is hoping an NDA with a former assistant holds up. BranDon's neighbor and billionaire David Geffen have reached a divorce settlement. Meghan Markle's Australian tour is about to be an epic disaster. We're so close to 40k on YouTube. Subscribe today. Paris Jackson continues to battle her father's estate despite them making her extremely wealthy. Blake Lively is pretending like she'll win out in the end vs Justin Baldoni. She's spreading awareness about 'digital violence'. Colorado QB, Dominiq Ponder, was killed in a drunk driving accident and he was pretty wasted. Jim's totally not racist list: Songs sung better by the whites. Merch is for sale! Buy it now before it's gone and you miss out forever. If you'd like to help support the show… consider subscribing to our YouTube Channel, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter (Drew Lane, Marc Fellhauer, Trudi Daniels, Jim Bentley, BranDon, and Roberto).
1. Purpose of Trey’s Law Federal legislation introduced to prohibit Non‑Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) from silencing child victims of sexual abuse. Ensures victims cannot be legally barred from speaking about their own abuse. Victims may choose confidentiality, but it cannot be forced on them. 2. The Story Behind the Law Trey was abused for years at a Missouri summer camp. As an adult, during civil litigation, he was pressured to sign an NDA, which deeply harmed his ability to heal. Trey died by suicide at age 28. His sister, Elizabeth Phillips, has become a leading national advocate, pushing to change the law so no child experiences this again. 3. Widespread Problem of NDAs in Child Abuse Cases Across the country, predators and institutions use NDAs to: Silence victims. Protect institutions from reputational damage. Delay exposure long enough for statutes of limitations to expire. Children often do not disclose abuse until decades later due to delayed disclosure, grooming, and shame. 4. Systemic Issues at Certain Institutions Kanakuk Kamps (Missouri) highlighted as a major example: Numerous allegations and confirmed cases of abuse over decades. Accusations of institutional cover‑ups, pressure on victims, and secrecy agreements. Advocacy groups maintain public databases of known or alleged abusers. Some perpetrators remained in leadership roles or were moved to other ministries. 5. Survivor Testimony Impact A 19‑year‑old survivor, Jayden Harris, spoke publicly for the first time after being protected by Missouri’s version of Trey’s Law. She described being pressured by both her abuser and her own attorney to sign an NDA. Her testimony emphasized the power shift that occurs when victims know they cannot be silenced by law. 6. Bipartisan Support Trey’s Law has broad, bipartisan backing in the U.S. Senate: Lead sponsors: Sen. Ted Cruz (R) & Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D) Additional bipartisan co‑sponsors from both parties. Strong expectation the bill will pass. 7. The Harm of Shame & Silence Shame is a powerful reason victims—especially children—do not come forward. Survivors speaking out helps: Their own healing, Other victims feel less alone, Expose predators still active. 8. Call to Action for the Public Sharing the information widely on social media to raise awareness. Calling senators and representatives to urge passage of Trey’s Law. Supporting survivor advocacy organizations: FactsAboutKanakuk.com TreysLaw.org NMVAlliance.org Please Hit Subscribe to this podcast Right Now. Also Please Subscribe to the 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson and The Ben Ferguson Show Podcast Wherever You get You're Podcasts. And don't forget to follow the show on Social Media so you never miss a moment! Thanks for Listening YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@VerdictwithTedCruz/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/verdictwithtedcruz X: https://x.com/tedcruz X: https://x.com/benfergusonshowYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@VerdictwithTedCruzSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
1. Purpose of Trey’s Law Federal legislation introduced to prohibit Non‑Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) from silencing child victims of sexual abuse. Ensures victims cannot be legally barred from speaking about their own abuse. Victims may choose confidentiality, but it cannot be forced on them. 2. The Story Behind the Law Trey was abused for years at a Missouri summer camp. As an adult, during civil litigation, he was pressured to sign an NDA, which deeply harmed his ability to heal. Trey died by suicide at age 28. His sister, Elizabeth Phillips, has become a leading national advocate, pushing to change the law so no child experiences this again. 3. Widespread Problem of NDAs in Child Abuse Cases Across the country, predators and institutions use NDAs to: Silence victims. Protect institutions from reputational damage. Delay exposure long enough for statutes of limitations to expire. Children often do not disclose abuse until decades later due to delayed disclosure, grooming, and shame. 4. Systemic Issues at Certain Institutions Kanakuk Kamps (Missouri) highlighted as a major example: Numerous allegations and confirmed cases of abuse over decades. Accusations of institutional cover‑ups, pressure on victims, and secrecy agreements. Advocacy groups maintain public databases of known or alleged abusers. Some perpetrators remained in leadership roles or were moved to other ministries. 5. Survivor Testimony Impact A 19‑year‑old survivor, Jayden Harris, spoke publicly for the first time after being protected by Missouri’s version of Trey’s Law. She described being pressured by both her abuser and her own attorney to sign an NDA. Her testimony emphasized the power shift that occurs when victims know they cannot be silenced by law. 6. Bipartisan Support Trey’s Law has broad, bipartisan backing in the U.S. Senate: Lead sponsors: Sen. Ted Cruz (R) & Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D) Additional bipartisan co‑sponsors from both parties. Strong expectation the bill will pass. 7. The Harm of Shame & Silence Shame is a powerful reason victims—especially children—do not come forward. Survivors speaking out helps: Their own healing, Other victims feel less alone, Expose predators still active. 8. Call to Action for the Public Sharing the information widely on social media to raise awareness. Calling senators and representatives to urge passage of Trey’s Law. Supporting survivor advocacy organizations: FactsAboutKanakuk.com TreysLaw.org NMVAlliance.org Please Hit Subscribe to this podcast Right Now. Also Please Subscribe to the 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson and The Ben Ferguson Show Podcast Wherever You get You're Podcasts. And don't forget to follow the show on Social Media so you never miss a moment! Thanks for Listening YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@VerdictwithTedCruz/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/verdictwithtedcruz X: https://x.com/tedcruz X: https://x.com/benfergusonshowYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@VerdictwithTedCruzSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.