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Over the years, in the property and investment world, the industries have come up with some savvy and strange acronyms to describe what we do and how we do it and for many of us this is a second language. However, for some of you, it will be completely baffling so if you want to know the difference between net and gross yield, how LTV works with BTL or PRS and how your FRI works in your SPV to avoid CGT then this podcast is for you! Know your numbers means learning these metrics and you'll finally be able to understand what we're all talking about! Success and failure are both very predictable. I hope you enjoy. This isn't a theory. It's a proven Blueprint.
The World's #1 Personal Development Book Podcast! In today's episode, we have the pleasure to interview Jake Claver, author of Wealth in Numbers: How to Syndicate Private Investment Deals for Passive Income and Financial Freedom.Jake is a distinguished leader in the family office space, a keynote speaker, and a performance expert. As Managing Director of Digital Ascension Group, he serves high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth families with customized investment strategies. He also leads Syndicately, a cutting-edge SPV investment management platform helping others syndicate private deals with clarity and compliance.Jake's expertise spans traditional finance, DeFi, blockchain technology, and wealth preservation. He's helped reimagine dozens of family offices, building investment vehicles that are digitally savvy, AI-enhanced, and authentically anti-fragile. With multiple certifications and over a decade of experience, Jake is a recognized voice in both finance and Web3 innovation.In this episode, you'll learn how syndications and SPVs really work, why this investment vehicle is becoming more accessible to everyday investors, and how to leverage your network to create long-term wealth. Jake also shares what it means to build anti-fragile portfolios, how to delegate and scale with purpose, and why digital mentorship through books has shaped his entrepreneurial mindset.We hope you enjoy this incredible conversation with Jake Claver.To Learn more about Jake and buy his book follow the links below:The Book: https://a.co/d/8t1YM6NWebsite: https://www.jakeclaver.com/https://www.syndicately.com/https://www.digitalwealthpartners.net/https://www.digitalfamilyoffice.io/Chapters: 1:58 – The Story Behind Jake and His Book 4:44 – Why Alternative Deal Types Matter in Investing 7:07 – Building a Great Team & Scalable Systems 8:21 – Learning to Delegate & Embracing Imperfection 9:50 – Taking a Small Piece of a Big Pie 11:02 – Mentorship: Learning from Experience & Books 16:13 – What Is an SPV? Structuring Alternative Deals 19:33 – Building Business Relationships Online 21:32 – Alternative Investments & Finding Jake's Book 23:31 – Your Network Is Your Net Worth 25:36 – Book Rec: “Buy Back Your Time” & Audiobooks 26:23 – The Power of Consistent Social Media Presence________________________________________________Join the world's largest non-fiction Book community!https://www.instagram.com/bookthinkers/The purpose of this podcast is to connect you, the listener, with new books, new mentors, and new resources that will help you achieve more and live better. Each and every episode will feature one of the world's top authors so that you know each and every time you tune-in, there is something valuable to learn. If you have any recommendations for guests, please DM them to us on Instagram. (www.instagram.com/bookthinkers)If you enjoyed this show, please consider leaving a review. It takes less than 60-seconds of your time, and really makes a difference when I am trying to land new guests. For more BookThinkers content, check out our Instagram or our website. Thank you for your time!
How did one fund manager raise $7.5M+ from strangers on LinkedIn—without paid ads or a prior network? In this episode discover how Nishant Sondhi, founder of Sondi Capital Group, built a thriving Fund of Funds business in just 15 months—by mastering LinkedIn. Nishant shares exactly how he leveraged outbound strategy, consistent content creation, and powerful storytelling to attract high-level W2 investors working at Fortune 500 firms. You'll hear his step-by-step approach to investor outreach, his Fund of Funds fee structure philosophy, and how he structures deals to deliver better-than-direct returns to LPs. This conversation is a masterclass in capital raising for fund managers ready to grow without gatekeepers. Top 5 Key Takeaways:LinkedIn Mastery: Nishant raised over $7.5M exclusively from LinkedIn using both inbound content and outbound messaging—no ads, no cold calls.Investor Avatar Targeting: His ideal LP? W2 professionals at Fortune 500 companies in tech, finance, and consulting—especially immigrants who share his story.Content Strategy Framework: He posts 5x a week, balancing personal storytelling (top-of-funnel), real estate education (middle), and case studies (bottom).Outbound Sequences That Convert: Nishant walks through his low-pressure, relationship-first messaging strategy that gets results without automation tools.Fund Economics that Win Trust: He ensures LPs always receive better returns through his SPV than going direct, while transparently earning his fee through smart arbitrage.About Tim MaiTim Mai is a real estate investor, fund manager, mentor, and founder of HERO Mastermind for REI coaches.He has helped many real estate investors and coaches become millionaires. Tim continues to help busy professionals earn income and build wealth through passive investing.He is also a creative marketer and promoter with incredible knowledge and experience, which he freely shares. He has lifted himself from the aftermath of war, achieving technical expertise in computers, followed by investment success in real estate, management skills, and a lofty position among real estate educators and internet marketers.Tim is an industry leader who has acquired and exited well over $50 million worth of real estate and is currently an investor in over 2700 units of multifamily apartments.Connect with TimWebsite: Capital Raising PartyFacebook: Tim Mai | Capital Raising Nation Instagram: @timmaicomTwitter: @timmaiLinkedIn: Tim MaiYouTube: Tim Mai
What do tiddlywinks, a quarter trick, and a failed Palantir deal have in common? They all show up in Andrew Ackerman's one-of-a-kind path from founder to family office director, accelerator operator, and venture capitalist to now SPV syndicate lead and author. Andrew pulls no punches on what most startups get wrong — from pitch decks that waste space to market slides that make investors roll their eyes. He shares lessons learned from backing 70+ startups on how to actually stand out in a noisy fundraising environment, why EdTech broke his heart, and how day drinking helped him write The Entrepreneur's Odyssey — a startup guide founders might actually finish.Also in this episode:- His “accidental” real estate empire- EdTech's big COVID moment (and what came after)- The one thing every founder should know about market sizing- And yes, Andrew answers the Fidelity Five Questions.If you've ever wondered what VCs really think when they see your deck — this one's for you!Episode links: www.AndrewBAckerman.comEntrepreneur's OdysseyEpisode timestamps:00:00 DWAVC Episode: Andrew Ackerman03:28 Guest Introduction and Background05:25 March Madness Predictions07:42 Andrew's Origin Story16:18 Parenting in the Digital Age30:27 Andrew's Unique Skills31:01 Discussing the New Book31:52 Inspiration Behind the Book32:15 Writing Process and Challenges37:23 Character Development40:37 Market Sizing and Go-to-Market Strategies44:14 Importance of Value Proposition01:13:52 Fundraising Insights01:15:27 Navigating VC Funding Strategies01:17:19 Challenges for Non-Ivy League Founders01:20:09 Importance of Warm Intros01:22:33 Accessing Capital Outside Major Hubs01:24:37 The Role of Location in Startup Success01:27:09 Influence of Science Fiction on Entrepreneurship01:29:56 The Rise of PropTech01:41:28 Fidelity Five Questions
Petro-Victory Energy Corp CEO Richard Gonzalez joined Steve Darling from Proactive to share key strategic milestones, including new partnerships and acquisitions to strengthen the company's position in Brazil's onshore oil and gas sector. The company has entered a strategic partnership with BlueOak Investments to establish a special purpose vehicle (SPV) dedicated to acquiring and developing oil and gas assets across Brazil and Latin America. This partnership combines BlueOak's financial expertise with Petro-Victory's operational capabilities to drive sustainable growth. Additionally, Petro-Victory has signed a development agreement with Eneva, one of Brazil's largest energy operators, securing fully funded commitments for well drilling and seismic exploration. The company also entered a joint venture with ATP, which includes the fully funded drilling of two in-field development wells at the Andorinha Field, along with an option for ATP to acquire interests in Petro-Victory's assets at pre-determined pricing. The company further expanded its portfolio by acquiring 13 oil-producing fields from Brava Energia S.A., located near existing Petro-Victory concessions. Gonzales reiterated confidence in the company's long-term strategy, stating, “We have a five-year plan… and we're very excited about 2025, 2026 and beyond.” Looking ahead, the company's development plan includes: • A fully funded workover and drilling campaign in the Espirito Santo Basin in 2025. • Full carry on two in-field development wells in the Portiguar Basin in 2025. • Fully funded 3,000-meter gas well and 3D seismic survey to develop the São João Field in 2026. These strategic initiatives position Petro-Victory for significant growth and expansion in Brazil's energy sector. #proactiveinvestros #prto-victoryenergycorp #tsxv #vry #OilProduction #BrazilEnergy #BrazilEnergy #EnergyInvesting #NaturalGas #OilProduction #Eneva #ATP #BlueOak #CapixabaEnergia #LagoaParda #EnergyPartnerships #ProactiveInvestors
Cet épisode a été enregistré dans le cadre du Podcasthon, l'événement caritatif qui mobilise la grande famille des podcasteurs avec plus de 1 650 participants engagés. Rendez-vous sur podcasthon.org pour en savoir plus sur cette superbe initiative.Le sujet :Le private equity est en pleine expansion. Comment expliquer la démocratisation des investissements dans le non coté ? Cette croissance présente-t-elle des risques, ou ouvre-t-elle, au contraire, de nouvelles opportunités à explorer ?L'invité du jour :Xavier Anthonioz est un pionnier du private equity. Il a cofondé la société de gestion 123 Investment Managers et a déployé près d'1,5 milliard d'euros dans plus de 200 entreprises.Au micro de Matthieu Stefani, Xavier décrypte les clés de la croissance du private equity en France :Le private equity, expliqué simplementLes raisons de la croissance du private equityPerformance, coûts, ticket d'entrée : les chiffres clésLes erreurs à éviter avant d'investirLe fonds d'investissement Invincible étéAvantages :Bonne nouvelle ! Nous avons obtenu pour vous 50 € offerts pour votre premier investissement chez Lendosphère. Rendez-vous ici, avec le code GREENMARTINGALE.Ils citent les références suivantes :Le PodcasthonLe fonds Invincible étéLes épisodes #62 et #181 de GDIY, avec Olivier GoyOctoberL'épisode #396 de GDIY avec Gérard SaillantAinsi que d'anciens épisodes de La Martingale :#183 - Soutenir la transition énergétique grâce au crowdfunding#199 - Investir aux côtés des meilleurs business angels grâce au SPVMerci à notre partenaire Louve Invest : Louve Invest vous propose jusqu'à 3,5 % de cashback sur les frais de souscription sur les SCPI éligibles (jusqu'à 350 € pour 10 000 € investis !)Cliquez sur ce lien pour bénéficier des offres avec cashback boosté :)Retrouvez leur dernière étude sur le classement 2025 des SCPI: la synthèse ou l'étude complète.On vous souhaite une très bonne écoute ! C'est par ici si vous préférez Apple Podcasts, ou ici si vous préférez Spotify.Et pour recevoir toutes les actus et des recommandations exclusives, abonnez-vous à la newsletter, c'est par ici.La Martingale est un podcast du label Orso Media.Distribué par Audiomeans. Visitez audiomeans.fr/politique-de-confidentialite pour plus d'informations.
Welcome to Episode 143 of The HMO Property Show with your host Neil Gibb! In this episode, we dive into a new and innovative strategy for investors looking to build a cashflow-positive HMO within their Self-Managed Super Fund (SMSF). If you're looking for a secure, high-yield investment that can set you up for a strong retirement, this episode is a must-listen! Episode Summary: A Smarter Way to Invest in Your SMSF Neil Gibb breaks down the traditional SMSF property investment model and introduces a new off-the-plan strategy that enables investors to access premium inner-suburb locations while maximizing long-term capital growth and rental yield. Historically, many SMSF investors were limited to fringe suburbs, facing high land costs and oversupply risks. With this new model, investors can now acquire better properties, in better locations, with higher returns. Key Takeaways from Episode 143 Why traditional SMSF property investments may not be the best option The one-part contract model requires a large cash deposit (~$400K). It limits investors to fringe suburbs, which may face lower long-term capital growth. Many "co-living" operators are pushing oversaturated areas, which could impact future rental demand. The new off-the-plan SMSF model: A game-changer Investors buy into premium, high-demand inner-suburbs (0-15km from CBD) instead of fringe locations. Lower upfront investment (~$380K vs. $400K) due to strategic land acquisition. Increased development uplift means your property has instant value growth. Secure long-term stable cashflow ($100K+ per year) while reducing tax liabilities. How the process works Step 1: Invest in a strategic land subdivision project (e.g., buying a 1,000 sqm block & splitting it into two). Step 2: Fund the development through an SPV (special purpose vehicle) with other investors. Step 3: Property is developed into a custom-designed, high-yield HMO. Step 4: The bank refinances the completed property directly into your SMSF, giving you a long-term, debt-free asset.
aké investice plánuji v roce 2025 a jak vypadá moje investiční strategie? Stejně jako naši investoři alokují kapitál do private equity a venture capital, i já rozšiřuji portfolio v těchto oblastech.
This week we conclude our foray into the Night Demon / Cirith Ungol European run in September 2024. We pick up the tale with two off days following the successful London show. The guys explain why playing a series of one-offs can be logistically challenging and exhausting. You will hear how the Roskilde, Denmark show was a triumph for both bands, featuring great performances, a state-of-the-art venue, hospitable promoter and cool crowd. They then talk about going to Hamburg the following day for the Deaf Forever 10-year anniversary bash. Along the way, you may find a few Easter eggs about Night Demon's plans for 2025 and future podcast episodes, so stay alert.Become a subscriber today at nightdemon.net/subscriber. This week, subscribers have access to the bonus content below:Streaming Audio: Full show - Roskilde, DK - September 19, 2024 Listen at nightdemon.net/podcast or anywhere you listen to podcasts! Follow us on Instagram Like us on Facebook
Send us a text01:19 - CoreWeave Prepares for $35B IPO After 737% Revenue Growth 04:00 - Stripe Hits $91.5B Valuation in Tender Offer 05:12 - OpenAI Raises $40B at $300B Valuation, Partners with SoftBank 07:59 - X Seeks $44B Valuation for New Fundraising Round 09:01 - Thinking Machines Eyes $9B Valuation With $1B Raise 09:34 - MrBeast Targets $5B Valuation for Media Business 10:19 - Shein Plans London IPO at $50B Valuation Despite Profit Drop 11:05 - SpaceX's Starlink Becomes Nigeria's No. 2 ISP 14:23 - Unitree Robotics Gains Traction in Global Markets 16:12 - ByteDance Valued at $400B After Internal Buyback 18:37 - Ramp Hits $13B Valuation After Secondary Sale 19:40 - Safe Superintelligence Hits $30B Valuation With $2B Raise 20:50 - Plaid Plans $6B Secondary Share Sale 21:31 - Scale AI Secures Major US Military Contract 22:47 - Epirus Raises $250M to Scale Counter-Drone Tech 23:54 - Klarna Plans $15B IPO on NYSE in April 24:56 - Discord Plans 2025 IPO, Valued at $5.6B THANK YOU TO OUR RIA/IBD PARTNERS*: AG Dillon closed 6 pre-IPO stocks funds on Mar 7, 2025. We're making investments into Anduril, OpenAI, xAI, Groq, Figure AI, and a space economy company in this recently closed offering and raised a record $30 million with 33 RIAs/IBDs participating. A great result and a special thank you to our RIA/IBD partners. AG Dillon assets under management now stand at $93 million in just under two years since closing our first fund. If you're a financial advisor and would like to use our single stock funds to build bespoke pre-IPO stock portfolios please drop us an email. You select pre-IPO stock company exposures and weight allocation to each pre-IPO stock to express your unique investment thesis. Our funds are available for purchase at Charles Schwab, Fidelity, and directly at AG Dillon Funds. $2,500 minimum investment. Email aaron.dillon@agdillon.com to invest.* NOTE: AG Dillon ("AGD") is not affiliated with any pre-IPO company. Some pre-IPO companies may require company approval for purchases (aka transfers). AGD has not been pre-approved by any pre-IPO company to purchase their stock. AGD purchases pre-IPO stocks in the secondary market and may gain exposure by directly purchasing the stock (on the company's capitalization table) and/or through a third-party fund (aka special purpose vehicle, or SPV).
L'annuncio di Zaia: "Lo sconto riguarda le tariffe in vigore ai mezzi leggeri che percorreranno la Superstrada Pedemontana Veneta. Lo sconto sarà applicato automaticamente agli utenti di auto e moto dotati di dispositivo di telepedaggio, dal lunedì al venerdì, col vincolo di massimo due tratte al giorno, da 25 chilometri ciascuna.
Le sujet :Les communautés d'investissement, les plateformes de crowdfunding et les clubs deals gagnent en popularité. Mais quels en sont les atouts et les écueils à connaître avant de se lancer ?L'invité du jour :Evan Testa est le CEO de Roundtable, une plateforme ayant réalisé plus de 600 investissements en 2024.Au micro de Matthieu Stefani, Evan nous éclaire sur les communautés d'investissement :Quels sont les deux principaux types de communautés ?La différence entre une communauté privée et publiqueLes deals accessibles via ces groupementsLes erreurs à éviter absolumentComment bien choisir ?Qu'est-ce qu'un SPV ?Quels sont les frais ?Avantages :Bonne nouvelle ! Les auditeurs de La Martingale peuvent bénéficier d'une remise de 10 % sur les frais de leur premier deal chez Roundtable en écrivant à lamartingale@roundtable.eu.Ils citent les références suivantes :Le livre Skin in the Game (Sauver sa peau)Le carried interestAinsi que d'anciens épisodes de La Martingale :#199 - Investir aux côtés des meilleurs business angels grâce au SPVMerci à notre partenaire Louve Invest : Louve Invest vous propose jusqu'à 3,5 % de cashback sur les frais de souscription sur les SCPI éligibles (jusqu'à 350 € pour 10 000 € investis !)Cliquez sur ce lien pour bénéficier des offres avec cashback boosté :)Retrouvez leur dernière étude sur le classement 2025 des SCPI: la synthèse ou l'étude complète.On vous souhaite une très bonne écoute ! C'est par ici si vous préférez Apple Podcasts, ou ici si vous préférez Spotify.Et pour recevoir toutes les actus et des recommandations exclusives, abonnez-vous à la newsletter, c'est par ici.La Martingale est un podcast du label Orso Media.
In recent years, Bitcoin has undergone a major culture shift which promotes stagnation, complacency & simping to politicians over maximizing the utility of the money. Eric Voskuil & John Carvalho join the show to remind everyone what the mission really is. State of Bitcoin - [00:01:17] Bitcoin Maximalism - [00:01:32] Bitcoin as a Ponzi Scheme - [00:02:27] Transaction Fees - [00:04:57] History of Bitcoin Tokens (Omni, Counterparty, Mastercoin) Definition of Tokens - [00:08:01] Custodial Problems with Tokens - [00:09:12] Bitcoin and Fiat Money - [00:11:09] Why Bitcoiners Talk About Money - [00:15:49] Stateless Money - [00:17:44] Austrian Economics and Bitcoin - [00:21:01] Monetary Inflation vs. Price Inflation - [00:26:01] Cantillon Effect - [00:29:00] Dollar Inflation and Gold - [00:33:59] Misunderstandings in the Bitcoin Community - [00:41:42] Bitcoin Semantics - [00:43:21] Bitcoin Divisibility - [01:00:13] Bitcoin Deflation - [01:03:41] Maxi Price and One Coin Assumption - [01:07:43] Competition Between Monies - [01:13:42] Scaling Bitcoin - [01:22:41] Bitcoin for the Unbanked - [01:26:14] Maximizing Throughput - [01:36:11] Right to Fork - [01:45:45] Running Old Bitcoin Versions - [01:51:35] Bitcoin as Money vs. Credit - [01:56:26] Settlement in Bitcoin - [02:07:45] Peer-to-Peer Credit Systems - [02:14:47] Fractional Reserve Banking - [02:26:32] Bitkit Wallet and Spending vs. Saving - [02:36:13] Block size increases and Bitcoin adoption - [03:00:00] Scaling Bitcoin and transaction validation - [03:01:00] Bitcoin overflowing into Litecoin and quantum resistance - [03:02:00] Pruning historical data and exchange price - [03:03:00] Lightning system complexity and Bitcoin's value proposition - [03:05:00] Bitcoin as an investment and speculation - [03:07:00] Optimizing Bitcoin throughput and developer motivations - [03:09:00] Scaling Bitcoin and speculation - [03:11:00] Shitcoins, scams, and Bitcoin's security model - [03:13:00] Litecoin's extension blocks and Mimblewimble - [03:15:00] Bitcoin's security and the legitimacy of altcoins - [03:17:00] Shitcoins and Bitcoin's essential aspects - [03:19:00] Majority hash power censorship and attacks - [03:21:00] Bitcoin speculation and market dynamics - [03:23:00] Michael Saylor's Bitcoin strategy and MicroStrategy's history - [03:26:00] Saylor's Bitcoin investment and market manipulation - [03:29:00] Saylor's stock sales and Bitcoin's future - [03:31:00] Blockstream's accomplishments and the Chia project - [03:33:00] Blockstream's influence and SegWit - [03:35:00] Adam Back's influence and Blockstream's hype - [03:37:00] Bitcoin Core's power and the need for competition - [03:39:00] Initial block download performance and Bitcoin Core's architecture - [03:41:00] UTXO store and Bitcoin Core's performance - [03:43:00] Parallelism in Bitcoin Core and assumed UTXO - [03:45:00] Initial block download time and Bitcoin Core's scalability - [03:47:00] Monoculture in Bitcoin development and IBD performance - [03:49:00] UTXO cache and shutdown time - [03:51:00] Trust assumptions in Bitcoin Core and UTXO commitments - [03:53:00] Bitcoin Core's halting problem and theoretical download limits - [03:55:00] Sponsorships: Sideshift, LayerTwo Labs, Ciurea - [03:57:00] Drivechains and ZK rollups - [04:02:00] ZK rollups and liquidity on Ethereum - [04:04:00] Drivechains and altcoins - [04:06:00] Scaling Bitcoin and cultural taboos - [04:08:00] Engineer-driven change and Monero's approach - [04:10:00] Confidential transactionsL Zano & DarkFi - [04:12:00] Fungibility and Bitcoin's metadata - [04:14:00] Privacy, metadata, and state surveillance - [04:16:00] Privacy, taint, and Bitcoin mixing - [04:18:00] Bitcoin mixing and plausible deniability - [04:20:00] Mining and company registration - [04:22:00] Block reward and hash power - [04:24:00] Privacy and mixing - [04:26:00] Privacy in the Bitcoin whitepaper and zero-knowledge proofs - [04:28:00] Dark Wallet and John Dillon - [04:30:00] Dark Wallet and Li Bitcoin - [04:32:00] Amir Taaki's projects and software development - [04:34:00] Dark Wallet funding and developer costs - [04:36:00] Libbitcoin's code size and developer salaries - [04:38:00] John Dillon and Greg Maxwell - [04:40:00] Opportunistic encryption and BIPs 151/152 - [04:42:00] Dandelion and privacy - [04:44:00] BIP 37 and Bloom filters - [04:46:00] Consensus cleanup and the Time Warp bug - [04:48:00] Merkle tree malleability and 64-byte transactions - [04:50:00] 64-byte transactions and SPV wallets - [04:52:00] Coinbase transactions and malleability - [04:54:00] Invalid block hashes and DoS vectors - [04:56:00] Core bug and ban list overflow - [04:58:00] Storing hashes of invalid blocks - [05:00:00] DoS vectors and invalid blocks - [05:02:00] Malleated Merkle trees and 64-byte transactions - [05:04:00] 64-byte transactions and Merkle tree malleability - [05:06:00] Null points and malleated blocks - [05:08:00] Redundant checks and the inflation soft fork - [05:10:00] Op code separator and code complexity - [05:12:00] Transaction order in a block - [05:14:00] Forward references in blocks - [05:16:00] Coinbase transaction rules - [05:18:00] Time Warp bug and Litecoin support - [05:20:00] Quadratic op roll bug - [05:22:00] Stack implementation and op roll - [05:24:00] Templatized stack and op roll optimization - [05:26:00] Non-standard transactions and direct submission to miners - [05:28:00] Mempool policy and DoS - [05:30:00] Monoculture and competing implementations - [05:32:00] Consensus cleanup and Berkeley DB - [05:34:00] Code vs. consensus - [05:36:00] Bitcoin Knots and Luke-jr - [05:38:00] 300 kilobyte node and Luke-jr's views - [05:40:00] Bitcoin Knots and performance - [05:42:00] Bitcoin Knots and censorship - [05:44:00] Censorship and miner incentives - [05:46:00] Censorship and hash power - [05:48:00] Soft forks and censorship - [05:50:00] Ordinals and covenants - [05:52:00] RBF and zero-confirmation transactions - [05:54:00] Double spending and merchant risk - [05:56:00] First-seen mempool policy and RBF - [05:58:00] Low-value transactions and RBF - [06:00:00] Computational cost of actions - [06:00:15] Building infrastructure and system disruption - [06:00:20] Threat actors and economic disruption - [06:00:26] Double spending detection and system control - [06:00:29] Safety and manageability of zero comp transactions - [06:00:41] Security of zero comp transactions - [06:00:51] RBF (Replace-by-fee) and its relevance - [06:01:06] Bitcoin's mempool and transaction handling - [06:01:25] Mempool overflow and resource management - [06:02:08] Transaction storage and mining - [06:02:45] Miners' incentives and fee maximization - [06:03:07] Mempool policy and DOS protection - [06:03:41] Transaction validation and block context - [06:04:11] Fee limits and DOS protection - [06:05:13] Transaction sets, graph processing, and fee maximization - [06:06:24] Mining empty blocks and hash rate - [06:07:34] Replace-by-fee (RBF) and its purpose - [06:08:07] Infrastructure and RBF - [06:09:14] Transaction pool and conflict resolution - [06:09:44] Disk space, fees, and DOS protection - [06:11:06] Fee rates and DOS protection - [06:12:22] Opt-in RBF and mempool full RBF - [06:13:45] Intent flagging in transactions - [06:14:45] Miners obeying user intent and system value - [06:17:06] Socialized gain and individual expense - [06:18:17] Service reliability and profitability - [06:19:06] First-seen mempool policy - [06:19:37] Mempool policy and implementation - [06:20:06] User perspective on transaction priority - [06:21:14] Mempool conflicts and double spending - [06:22:10] CPFP (Child Pays for Parent) - [06:22:24] Mempool management and fee rates - [06:24:30] Mempool complexity and Peter Wuille's work - [06:25:54] Memory and disk resource management - [06:27:37] First-seen policy and miner profitability - [06:29:25] Miners' preference for first-seen - [06:30:04] Computational cost and fee optimization - [06:31:10] Security, Cypherpunk mentality, and the state - [06:35:25] Bitcoin's security model and censorship resistance - [06:41:02] State censorship and fee increases - [06:43:00] State's incentive to censor - [06:46:15] Lightning Network and regulation - [06:48:41] NGU (Number Go Up) and deference to the state - [06:51:10] Reasons for discussing Bitcoin's security model - [06:53:25] Bitcoin's potential subversion and resilience - [06:55:50] Lightning Network subsidies and scaling - [06:57:36] Mining protocols and security - [07:02:02] Braidpool and centralized mining - [07:04:44] Compact blocks and latency reduction - [07:07:23] Orphan rates and mining centralization - [07:08:16] Privacy and threat environments - [07:08:40] Social graphs, reputation, and identity - [07:10:23] Social scalability and Bitcoin - [07:12:36] Individual empowerment and anonymity - [07:16:48] Trust in society and the role of the state - [07:18:01] Payment methods and trust - [07:20:15] Credit reporting agencies and regulation - [07:22:17] Hardware wallets and self-custody - [07:23:46] Security vulnerabilities in Ledger - [07:27:14] Disclosure of secrets on Ledger devices - [07:36:27] Compromised machines and hardware wallets - [07:42:00] Methods for transferring signed transactions - [07:48:25] Threat scenarios and hardware wallet security - [07:50:47] Hardware wallet usage and personal comfort - [07:56:40] Coldcard wallets and user experience - [08:02:23] Security issues in the VX project - [08:03:25] Seed generation and hardware randomness - [08:12:05] Mastering Bitcoin and random number generation - [08:17:41]
“Repay that tax refund into the trust!”___P was a Unit TeeCo incorporated by D1. D3 (whose sole dir and s/holder was D1) was the sole unitholder. D2 was D1's spouse: [1] - [3]D1 incorporated P to buy a valuable piece of land (“Property”). P borrowed the funds from Lender for that: [4]After completion, D1 caused P to lodge a BAS. The resultant refund of ~$2.6m was paid to P: [5]P sued seeking repayment: [8], [10]The Ds said $1.1m of it was a “Success/Performance Fee” for D1 and $1.5m was a “Management/Performance Fee” for D1: [13]D1 was an experienced property developer whose usual practice was to incorporate SPVs (similarly to P) to exploit development opportunities: [14] - [16]Typically, as with P, the SPVs would have no funds of their own and would get third party finance: [17]Sometimes, as with P, D1 would not create a new bank account for a new SPV and would instead use D1's own: [16], [36]In around 2022 D1 identified the Property and began speaking to the Lender: [22] - [24]A loan agreement followed and in 2023 the purchase of the Property for ~$30m completed: [25] - [30], [61]After completion the Lender realised any profit calculations were absent GST tax refunds: [59]In October 2023 the ~$2.6m GST refund was paid into D1's account (remembering P did not have its own account): [64]Shortly after, $9m (which included the ~$2.6m) was transferred from D1's account to the D1/D2 joint account: [66], [67]These funds were then applied to buy a $22m Bronte property in D2's name: [69] - [71]The Lender chased D1 in relation to the GST refund position. D1 was evasive; at time dishonestly so: [72] - [83]The Lender appointed receiver managers demanding repayment of the BAS Refund to P. D1 did not comply: [87]The parties agreed D1 held the BAS Refund on trust for P: [89]D1 said the BAS Refund was then paid to D1 as fees “determined” by D1 as sole dir of P; but not pursuant to any written or oral agreement: [93]There was no evidence of an invoice, agreement, accounting entry etc. describing a fee to be paid to D1. Nor was there evidence for two types of fee: [97] - [100]There was written contemporaneous evidence against D1's case seeing D1: (i) declaring there were no related party transactions [112] and failing to declare the purported fees in the relevant BAS: [114]The only evidence supporting the Ds' view was D1's affidavit. D1's credibility was damaged by D1's dishonesty in dealing with Lender regarding the BAS Refund: [115] - [118]The Ds failed to establish a basis for fees, those transfers therefore being a breach of trust and of DDs: [119], [120], [155]Separate claims against D2 and D3 were not successful: [145], [148]The question of costs had complexity (P's success against D1, and failure against D2 and D3) and was saved for another day: [156], [157]___If you have made it this far please consider following James d'Apice, Coffee and a Case Note, and my firm Gravamen on your favourite platform!www.gravamen.com.au
Kolmannessa audiohenkilökuvassa ääniestradin valtaa OLS:n räväkkä hyökkääjä Iiro Savela. Savelan, 24, peliura ei ole ollut ihan tavanomainen liigatasolle noustessa. Junioreissa raastamaan tottunut laituri otti isot askeleet kohti huippua kaudella 2021-22. LNM:n paidassa meinasi tulla myös liiganousu kaudella 2022-23, mutta lopulta tie liigakentille tuli seurasiirron myötä. Savela pelaa nyt toista kautta miesten liigaa OLS:ssa. Mikä OLS:n kaudessa on mättänyt? Kuka on oululaisten liideri? Mennäänkö Oulussa liikaakin show edellä? Entä miten OLS pärjäisi, jos se saisi kaikki parhaat muualla pelaavat Oulun ja Limingan alueen pelaajat omaan rosteriinsa? Savela on pelitaitojensa lisäksi tunnettu räksyttäjä, ärsyttäjä ja hämmentäjänä, eikä nouse vastustajien keskuudessa mukavimpien vastustajien joukkoon. Haastattelussa Savela pääsee kertomaan miltä käytös tuntuu, ja miten toiminta vaikuttaa häneen itsensä. Kelle Savela ei viitsi vinoilla ja kuka on ärsyttävin vastustaja? Myöntääkö Savela filmaavansa? Entä mikä mailapeli ei maistu missään tapauksessa. Haastattelun alussa mainittu Iiro Not Savela (@iiroonpomo) -tili löytyy X:stä jos viittaus ihmetyttää. Haastattelijana toimii Pääkallon päätoimittaja Joel Siltanen. Haastattelu on pituudeltaan noin 34 minuuttia ja löydät sen Pääkallon podcastit-tililtä, joka löytyy useista podcast-palveluista, kuten Spotifysta ja Itunesista. Aiemmat henkilökuvat: Henkilökuvassa sählyhörhöksi tunnustautuva Riku Hakanen: ”Päädyin siihen, että SPV:ssä en tule pelaamaan” Audio: Mäkisen tie salibandyn huipulle lähti pelipaikan vaihdoksesta: ”Taisin olla seiskakentän vasen laituri” Haastattelun sisältö: Ennen liigauraa - Iiro Savela vai @Iiroonpomo - Salibandyuran alku - junioritähti? - Ura nousuun Limingassa - Mitä tarkoittaa "Divarin läpipelaaminen?" OLS - Onko liigavauhti yllättänyt? - Milloin tulee 30 maalin kausi? - Mikä OLS:lla sakkaa? - Mennäänkö liikaa show edellä? - Miten OLS all stars pärjäisi? Koiruudet - Showmies vai ärsyttäjä? - Aki Karjalainen on huono maalivahti? - Liigakarsintojen kaikkien aikojen kevät 2023 - Hävettääkö pelien jälkeen? - Ärsyttävin vastustaja? Mielipiteet - 33 peliä vai vähemmän? - Aktiivisuussääntö vai ei? - MM-kisat neljän vai kahden vuoden välein? - Rankkareiden uudistus Salibandyn ulkopuolella - Työelämä - Muut harrastukset - Suositukset kategorioissa: elokuva, musiikki, kirja/äänikirja, podcast, tietokonepeli, Oulun nähtävyys - Missä Savela näkee itsensä viiden vuoden päästä?
Send us a textFUNDS CLOSING MAR 7*: AG Dillon is closing six (6) pre-IPO stocks funds on Mar 7, 2025. Anduril, OpenAI, xAI, Groq, Figure AI, and a space economy company. Use these single stock funds to build bespoke pre-IPO stock portfolios. You select pre-IPO stock company exposures and weight allocation to each pre-IPO stock to express your unique investment thesis. Available for purchase at Charles Schwab, Fidelity, and directly at AG Dillon Funds. $2,500 minimum investment. Financial advisors only. Email aaron.dillon@agdillon.com to invest.00:00 - Intro00:55 - Deel Valued at $12.6B After $300M Secondary Sale 01:51 - Winklevoss's Gemini Crypto Exchange Eyes IPO 02:31 - Neuralink Expands Human Trials, Valued at $8.7B 03:49 - OpenAI Secures $40B Investment at $300B Valuation 05:03 - Thinking Machines Lab Seeks $100M, Recruits OpenAI Veterans 06:03 - Stripe Acquires Bridge for $1.1B, Strengthening Stablecoin Play 07:22 - Figure AI Drops OpenAI Partnership, Pursues Proprietary Models 08:29 - Groq To Deliver 2M AI Chips In 2025, Challenging Nvidia * AG Dillon ("AGD") is not affiliated with any pre-IPO company. Some pre-IPO companies may require company approval for purchases (aka transfers). AGD has not been pre-approved by any pre-IPO company to purchase their stock. AGD purchases pre-IPO stocks in the secondary market and may gain exposure by directly purchasing the stock (on the company's capitalization table) and/or through a third-party fund (aka special purpose vehicle, or SPV).
SPV-tähti Riku Hakanen on Pääkallon audiohenkilökuvien toinen päähenkilö. Hakanen, 23, on joukkueensa tärkein kenttäpelaaja ja on nakuttanut 24+26 (24 ottelua), kun seuraavaksi parhaat pistemiehet SPV:ssä ovat 20 pisteen päässä. Audiohaastattelussa käydään läpi Hakasen uraa Vaasasta Seinäjoelle. Laituri on edustanut urallaan molempia Seinäjoen liigajoukkueita. Hakanen avaa myös meneillään olevaa SPV:n pelillistä prosessia, joka ei ole ollut helpoimmasta päästä. Joukkueella oli edelliskaudella selkeitä kasvukipuja, jotka ovat osin jo helpottaneet tällä kaudella, mutta matkaa on edelleen. Myös maajoukkueura nousee luonnollisesti esille. Hakanen oli viime vuoden MM-kisoissa varapelaaja ja mukana vielä syksyn viimeisessä EFT:ssä. Vuonna 2026 MM-kisat pelataan Tampereella ja sinne on jo asetettu tähtäin. Ihmistä pelikentän ulkopuolella pyritään raottamaan. Mitä mieltä Hakanen on ajankohtaisista asioista, mitä hän tekee vapaa-ajallaan ja mitä elokuvaa suosittelee. Sählyhörhöksi tunnustautuva Hakanen kertoo muun muassa uudesta sääntöehdotuksesta ja kuinka hyvin hän pärjää SPV:n cooper-rankingissa. Haastattelijana toimii Pääkallon päätoimittaja Joel Siltanen. Haastattelu on pituudeltaan noin 49 minuuttia ja löydät sen Pääkallon podcastit-tililtä, joka löytyy useista podcast-palveluista, kuten Spotifysta ja Itunesista. Edellisessä audiohenkilöhaastattelussa äänessä oli Miska Mäkinen. Haastattelun sisältö Tausta - Woodcutters ja SB Vaasa - Lahjakkuus, joka otti salibandyn tosissaan Seinäjoelle - Alaikäisenä Seinäjoelle - Alkuun menestystä, mutta sitten takapakkia. - Siirto Jymyyn - mitä toi uralle? SPV - Paluu SPV:hen - oliko helppo valinta? - Isomäki ja Koponen muutoksia? - Pelillisen prosessin kaskivut - Seinäjoella salibandy on aidosti iso juttu - Cooper ja harjoittelu Maajoukkue ja pelaajaprofiili - Millä sanoilla Hakanen myisi itsensä huippujoukkueeseen? - Kehityskohteet - Tehoketjun rikkominen - Suunsoittaja vai herrasmies? - Ajatuksia MM-kisapaikasta - Ulkomaat? Salibandy kiistakapulat - 33 peliä vai vähemmän? - Pelin aktivointi sännöillä vai ei? - Suojalasit vai ei? - Mitä sääntöä muuttaisit? Elämä salibandyn ulkopuolella - Elämä salibandyn ulkopuolella - Idolit - Muut harrastukset/kiinnostuksen kohteet - Suositukset eri kulttuurituotteista
Send us a textNEW FUND ANNOUNCEMENT*: The AG Dillon Anduril Pre-IPO Stock Fund is now accepting investors. Anduril Industries is a defense technology company that specializes in building advanced artificial intelligence (AI) and autonomous systems for military and national security purposes. Financial advisors only. Email aaron.dillon@agdillon.com to invest or request fund materials. Note important disclosures at the end of this post.00:00 - Intro00:31 - Anduril Plans $100M Tender at $14B Valuation01:33 - Rokt Valued at $3.5B After Secondary Share Sale02:25 - Harvey Doubles Valuation to $3B with $300M Round03:18 - Shield AI Partners with Palantir, Targets $5B Valuation04:15 - OpenAI Partners with Axios for Local Journalism Expansion05:31 - Revolut's Founder Sells $400M Stake, Valued at $41B06:34 - Blue Origin Enters Commercial Launch Market07:41 - eToro Prepares for US IPO at $5B ValuationSubscribe to AG Dillon Pre-IPO Stock Research at agdillon.com/subscribe;- Wednesday = secondary market valuations, revenue multiples, performance, index fact sheets- Saturdays = pre-IPO news and insights, webinar replays* NOTE: AG Dillon ("AGD") is not affiliated with Anduril. Anduril may require company approval for purchases (aka transfers). AGD has not been pre-approved by Anduril to purchase their stock. AGD purchases pre-IPO stocks in the secondary market and may gain exposure by directly purchasing the stock (on the company's capitalization table) and/or through a third-party fund (aka special purpose vehicle, or SPV).
Have you ever wondered how to simplify raising millions for real estate investments while ensuring better returns for all parties involved? In this episode, Angel sits down with Melanie McDaniel, founder of Freestyle Capital Group and a private equity real estate fund manager. Melanie demystifies the concept of single-purpose entities (SPEs) or single-purpose vehicles (SPVs), explaining their transformative potential for capital raisers, operators, and investors. She shares actionable insights on structuring deals to attract significant investments, the mechanics behind SPVs, and their benefits to real estate syndications. [00:01 - 03:00] What Are SPVs? Introduction to single-purpose entities and their purpose Differences between SPVs and direct syndications How SPVs create flexibility for investors [03:01 - 06:17] Structuring Your SPV Importance of aligning SPV terms with investor needs SPVs versus funds of funds in real estate deals Key compliance and legal considerations [06:18 - 09:36] Benefits of Working with SPVs for Operators Why operators should understand SPV structures Creating attractive terms to bring in larger investments Building long-term relationships with SPV fund managers [09:37 - 12:16] Share Classes and Arbitrage Explained Leveraging different share classes to attract SPVs How arbitrage works for fund managers Real-life scenarios demonstrating profitability [12:17 - 16:13] Scaling with SPVs: The Long-Term View How SPVs open doors to larger, more lucrative deals The role of sophisticated investors in scaling operations Best practices for building partnerships with SPVs Key Quotes “We get one life to live. Don't wait to do the things you love—do it now.” – Melanie McDaniel “If you can build in terms of attracting SPVs, you'll unlock larger checks and long-term partnerships.” – Melanie McDaniel Connect with Melanie: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melaniemcdanielinvest/ Visit sponsorcloud.io/contact today and unlock $2,000 of free services exclusively for REI Rocks community members! Get automated syndication and investor relationship management tools to save time and money. Mention your part of the REI Rocks community for exclusive offers. Help make affordable, low-cost education summits possible. Check out Sponsor Cloud today! LEAVE A REVIEW + help someone who wants to explode their business growth by sharing this episode. Are you confused about where to start? Join our community and learn more about real estate investing. Head over to our Facebook Page, YouTube channel, or website https://www.theacademypresents.com/jointhesummit36848306.
Send us a textNEW FUND ANNOUNCEMENT*: The AG Dillon Anduril Pre-IPO Stock Fund is now accepting investors. Anduril Industries is a defense technology company that specializes in building advanced artificial intelligence (AI) and autonomous systems for military and national security purposes. Financial advisors only. Email aaron.dillon@agdillon.com to invest or request fund materials. Note important disclosures at the end of this post.Subscribe to AG Dillon Pre-IPO Stock Research at agdillon.com/subscribe;- Wednesday = secondary market valuations, revenue multiples, performance, index fact sheets- Saturdays = pre-IPO news and insights, webinar replays00:00 - Intro00:07 - Anthropic Targets $60B Valuation with $2B Raise01:33 - Whatnot Hits $4.97B Valuation with $265M Raise02:31 - xAI Reaches $83B Valuation, Launches iOS App for Grok03:55 - SandboxAQ Raises $300M at $5.6B Valuation05:03 - Wiz Prepares for IPO, Valued at $20.5B06:10 - Cohere Launches North, Valued at $5.4B07:38 - Epirus in Talks for $1B Valuation Amid Defense Focus08:38 - Hippocratic AI Raises $141M, Valued at $1.64B09:27 - Pre-IPO Stock Market Weekly Performance10:18 - Pre-IPO Stock Vintage Index Weekly Performance* NOTE: AG Dillon ("AGD") is not affiliated with Anduril. Anduril may require company approval for purchases (aka transfers). AGD has not been pre-approved by Anduril to purchase their stock. AGD purchases pre-IPO stocks in the secondary market and may gain exposure by directly purchasing the stock (on the company's capitalization table) and/or through a third-party fund (aka special purpose vehicle, or SPV).
Send us a text00:00 - Intro00:08 - ServiceTitan Surges to $8.9B After Strong Nasdaq IPO01:12 - Snyk Hits $9.4B Valuation with $300M ARR02:10 - OpenAI Rolls Out Real-Time Video Analysis for ChatGPT02:56 - Fleet Space Doubles Valuation to $525M03:37 - Runway Projects $265M Revenue in 202404:12 - Crusoe Raises $600M, Valued at $2.8B04:55 - Google and Samsung Enter XR Market with Mixed-Reality Headset06:31 - Pre-IPO Stock Market Weekly Performance07:16 - Pre-IPO Stock Vintage Index Weekly PerformanceNEW FUND ANNOUNCEMENT*: The AG Dillon Anduril Pre-IPO Stock Fund is now accepting investors. Anduril Industries is a defense technology company that specializes in building advanced artificial intelligence (AI) and autonomous systems for military and national security purposes. Financial advisors only. Email aaron.dillon@agdillon.com to invest or request fund materials. Note important disclosures at the end of this post.Subscribe to AG Dillon Pre-IPO Stock Research at agdillon.com/subscribe;- Wednesday = secondary market valuations, revenue multiples, performance, index fact sheets- Saturdays = pre-IPO news and insights, webinar replays* NOTE: AG Dillon ("AGD") is not affiliated with Anduril. Anduril may require company approval for purchases (aka transfers). AGD has not been pre-approved by Anduril to purchase their stock. AGD purchases pre-IPO stocks in the secondary market and may gain exposure by directly purchasing the stock (on the company's capitalization table) and/or through a third-party fund (aka special purpose vehicle, or SPV).
Send us a text00:00 - Intro00:06 - TikTok Faces US Ban Order, ByteDance Valued at $300B02:09 - SpaceX Hits $350B Valuation, Surpasses Private Market Records03:09 - Anduril Partners with OpenAI for AI-Powered Defense Tech04:17 - OpenAI Launches ChatGPT Pro at $200/Month05:12 - Databricks Finalizes $61B Valuation in Latest Round05:31 - CoreWeave Prepares for IPO at $35B Valuation06:15 - eToro Explores US IPO at $8.7B Valuation07:14 - Fidelity Increases Valuation of X by 32%08:02 - Revolut Strengthens Board for UK Banking License Bid09:00 - Pre-IPO Stock Market Weekly Performance09:44 - Pre-IPO Stock Vintage Index Weekly PerformanceSubscribe to AG Dillon Pre-IPO Stock Research at agdillon.com/subscribe;- Wednesday = secondary market valuations, revenue multiples, performance, index fact sheets- Saturdays = pre-IPO news and insights, webinar replaysNEW FUND ANNOUNCEMENT: The AG Dillon Anduril Pre-IPO Stock Fund is now accepting investors. Anduril Industries is a defense technology company that specializes in building advanced artificial intelligence (AI) and autonomous systems for military and national security purposes. Financial advisors only. Email aaron.dillon@agdillon.com to invest or request fund materials. Note important disclosures at the end of this post.* NOTE: AG Dillon ("AGD") is not affiliated with Anduril. Anduril may require company approval for purchases (aka transfers). AGD has not been pre-approved by Anduril to purchase their stock. AGD purchases pre-IPO stocks in the secondary market and may gain exposure by directly purchasing the stock (on the company's capitalization table) and/or through a third-party fund (aka special purpose vehicle, or SPV).
Send us a textNEW FUND ANNOUNCEMENT: The AG Dillon Anduril Pre-IPO Stock Fund is now accepting investors. Anduril Industries is a defense technology company that specializes in building advanced artificial intelligence (AI) and autonomous systems for military and national security purposes. Financial advisors only. Email aaron.dillon@agdillon.com to invest or request fund materials. Note important disclosures at the end of this post.Subscribe to AG Dillon Pre-IPO Stock Research at agdillon.com/subscribe;- Wednesday = secondary market valuations, revenue multiples, performance, index fact sheets- Saturdays = pre-IPO news and insights, webinar replays00:00 - Intro01:02 - SpaceX Hits $250B Valuation Amid Starlink Expansion01:51 - xAI Raises $5B, Valuation Doubles to $50B02:52 - Databricks Targets $61B Valuation with New Tender Offer04:01 - ByteDance Hits $300B Valuation Amid Employee Buybacks05:00 - Anthropic Secures $4B from Amazon, Valued at $40B06:33 - ServiceTitan Files for IPO with $614M Revenue07:46 - Stripe Conducts Buyback at $70B Valuation08:21 - 1Password Prepares for IPO at $6.8B Valuation09:07 - Pre-IPO Stock Market Weekly Performance10:00 - Pre-IPO Stock Vintage Index Weekly Performance* NOTE: AG Dillon ("AGD") is not affiliated with Anduril. Anduril may require company approval for purchases (aka transfers). AGD has not been pre-approved by Anduril to purchase their stock. AGD purchases pre-IPO stocks in the secondary market and may gain exposure by directly purchasing the stock (on the company's capitalization table) and/or through a third-party fund (aka special purpose vehicle, or SPV).
Send us a textNEW FUND ANNOUNCEMENT: The AG Dillon Anduril Pre-IPO Stock Fund is now accepting investors. Anduril Industries is a defense technology company that specializes in building advanced artificial intelligence (AI) and autonomous systems for military and national security purposes. Financial advisors only. Email aaron.dillon@agdillon.com to invest or request fund materials. Note important disclosures at the end of this post.Subscribe to AG Dillon Pre-IPO Stock Research at agdillon.com/subscribe;- Wednesday = secondary market valuations, revenue multiples, performance, index fact sheets- Saturdays = pre-IPO news and insights, webinar replays00:00 - Intro00:53 - Klarna Confidentially Files for US IPO01:41 - Pony.ai Targets $4.5B Valuation with Nasdaq IPO02:35 - CoreWeave Completes $650M Share Sale, Prepares for IPO03:25 - Databricks in Talks for $1B Investment, Valued at $55B04:26 - Synthesia Raises $150M, Doubling Valuation to $2.1B05:24 - OpenAI to Launch "Operator" AI Agent in January06:18 - Nvidia Unveils Jetson Thor for Humanoid Robots by 202507:17 - X Hires New CFO Amid $13B Debt Struggles08:13 - Pre-IPO Stock Market Weekly Performance08:59 - Pre-IPO Stock Vintage Index Weekly Performance* NOTE: AG Dillon ("AGD") is not affiliated with Anduril. Anduril may require company approval for purchases (aka transfers). AGD has not been pre-approved by Anduril to purchase their stock. AGD purchases pre-IPO stocks in the secondary market and may gain exposure by directly purchasing the stock (on the company's capitalization table) and/or through a third-party fund (aka special purpose vehicle, or SPV).
Send us a text00:00 - Intro00:57 - Perplexity AI Nears $9B Valuation with $500M Funding Round01:57 - Vuori Plans $825M Secondary Share Sale at $5.5B Valuation02:39 - CoreWeave Hires Bankers for 2025 IPO03:36 - Anthropic Partners with Palantir, Expands in Defense Sector05:00 - Mistral Launches AI Moderation API, Valued at $6B06:05 - ByteDance Faces Canadian Order to Shut Down TikTok Offices07:25 - SpaceX Targets Sixth Starship Flight for November 1808:38 - Pre-IPO Stock Market Weekly Performance09:22 - Pre-IPO Stock Vintage Index Weekly PerformanceNEW FUND ANNOUNCEMENT: The AG Dillon Anduril Pre-IPO Stock Fund is now accepting investors. Anduril Industries is a defense technology company that specializes in building advanced artificial intelligence (AI) and autonomous systems for military and national security purposes. Financial advisors only. Email aaron.dillon@agdillon.com to invest or request fund materials. Note important disclosures at the end of this post.Subscribe to AG Dillon Pre-IPO Stock Research at agdillon.com/subscribe;- Wednesday = secondary market valuations, revenue multiples, performance, index fact sheets- Saturdays = pre-IPO news and insights, webinar replays* NOTE: AG Dillon ("AGD") is not affiliated with Anduril. Anduril may require company approval for purchases (aka transfers). AGD has not been pre-approved by Anduril to purchase their stock. AGD purchases pre-IPO stocks in the secondary market and may gain exposure by directly purchasing the stock (on the company's capitalization table) and/or through a third-party fund (aka special purpose vehicle, or SPV).
Viðmælandi þáttarins er Sigríður Hrefna Hrafnkelsdóttir, forstjóri sælgætisgerðarinnar Nóa Siríus. Sælgætisgerðin var stofnað árið 1920 og framleiðir og selur súkkulaði og sælgæti en árið 2021 var fyrirtækið selt til norska matvæla samsteypunnar Orkla. Sigríður Hrefna er fædd árið 1977 og ólst upp í Breiðholtinu í Reykjavík. Hún gekk í Menntaskólann við Reykjavík og lauk síðan embættisprófi í lögfræði frá lagadeild Háskóla Íslands og MBA gráðu frá Copenhagen Business School í Danmörku. Sigríður hefur gengt ýmsum störfum í atvinnulífinu, m.a. var hún framkvæmdastjóri einstaklingssviðs Íslandsbanka þar sem vann m.a. við að byggja upp stafræna vegerð bankans. Áður var hún framkvæmdastjóri smásölusviðs Olís, forstöðumaður hjá Arion, framkvæmdastjóri hjá Straumi og hjá SPV sparisjóði og þar áður framkvæmdastjóri Atlas Ejendomme. Sigríður Hrefna hefur setið í stjórn ýmissa fyrirtæki t.d. hjá Reginn, Áltaki, Next, Ígló og Indó, Whistle, Landsbréfum og formaður stjórnar Emessís, SMI ehf, Sjónlags hf., Björg investment fund, Billetlugen, Creatrix og í fjárfestingaráði Arev N1 og Thule vísissjóðs. Þátturinn er kostaður af KPMG og Sólar.
The Color of Money | Transformative Conversations for Wealth Building
Are you buying businesses or just renting a career? Fee Gentry is a pro at buying businesses for little or no cash, setting them up to operate on their own, and netting consistent profits. Fee is our guest on our show today. She's going to challenge you to be more than just an operator. She's going to teach you to be an owner.Fee explains how to evaluate a business for purchase. She breaks down terms you need to know, including EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization), SDE (seller's discretionary earnings), and SPV (special purpose vehicle).Fee also gives us the 10,000-foot view. She explains the difference between an operator mindset and an owner mindset. She points out that truly wealthy people haven't just built their businesses, but they have acquired others. Don't miss this episode if you're serious about building wealth for yourself, your family, and your community.Resources:Learn more at The Color of MoneyLearn more at FeeGentry.comListen to Fee's “Roots and Riches” podcastBecome a real estate agent HEREConnect with Our HostsEmerick Peace:Instagram: @theemerickpeaceFacebook: facebook.com/emerickpeaceDaniel Dixon:Instagram: @dixonsolditFacebook: facebook.com/realdanieldixonLinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/dixonsolditYouTube: @dixongroupcompaniesJulia Lashay:Instagram: @iamjulialashayFacebook: facebook.com/growwithjuliaLinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/julialashay/YouTube: @JuliaLashayBo MenkitiInstagram: @themenkitigroupFacebook: facebook.com/obiora.menkitiLinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/bomenkiti/Produced by NOVA MediaThis podcast is for general informational purposes only. The guest's views, thoughts, and opinions represent those of the guest and not KWRI and its affiliates and should not be construed as financial, economic, legal, tax, or other advice. This podcast is provided without any warranty, or guarantee of its accuracy, completeness, timeliness, or results from using the information.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
Discover how Perry Zheng transformed his entrepreneurial journey from managing seven single-family properties to leading syndications that generated over 30% annualized returns for investors, while building a groundbreaking software platform that's revolutionizing how general partners and limited partners connect. With candid insights into the current challenges of capital raising, Perry reveals his strategic approach to attracting investors, leveraging technology through Cashflow Portal and Palace Investing, and navigating the complex landscape of fund management offering listeners a master class in building scalable, investor-centric real estate investment businesses.Key Takeaways to listen for:Invest in Technology for Streamlined Operations: Perry highlights the importance of using technology like Cashflow Portal for syndications. This software centralizes crucial aspects of capital raising, investor relations, and compliance, reducing the manual load and providing a seamless experience for investors.Understand Fund Structures Before Scaling: Perry discusses the difference between SPV and customizable funds, advising new fund managers to start with an SPV for cost efficiency. For long-term growth, a customizable fund offers scalability, though it requires more setup and regulatory management.Investor Experience is Key to Retention: From transparent communication during the syndication process to timely K1s and user-friendly portals, Perry emphasizes that a professional, well-supported investor experience is vital for trust and retention.Leverage Fund Admin Software to Cut Costs and Save Time: Fund administration can be resource-intensive, but selecting the right admin platform helps manage complex tasks, such as compliance and reporting, with less friction, especially as assets under management grow.Marketing in a Competitive Landscape Requires Strategic Ad Spending: Perry notes that, although raising capital has become more challenging, targeted advertising, combined with brand awareness efforts, can help build investor lists effectively even with modest budgets.About Tim MaiTim Mai is a real estate investor, fund manager, mentor, and founder of HERO Mastermind for REI coaches.He has helped many real estate investors and coaches become millionaires. Tim continues to help busy professionals earn income and build wealth through passive investing.He is also a creative marketer and promoter with incredible knowledge and experience, which he freely shares. He has lifted himself from the aftermath of war, achieving technical expertise in computers, followed by investment success in real estate, management skills, and a lofty position among real estate educators and internet marketers.Tim is an industry leader who has acquired and exited well over $50 million worth of real estate and is currently an investor in over 2700 units of multifamily apartments.Connect with TimWebsite: Capital Raising PartyFacebook: Tim Mai | Capital Raising Nation Instagram: @timmaicomTwitter: @timmaiLinkedIn: Tim MaiYouTube: Tim Mai
Send us a textNEW FUND ANNOUNCEMENT: The AG Dillon Anduril Pre-IPO Stock Fund is now accepting investors. Anduril Industries is a defense technology company that specializes in building advanced artificial intelligence (AI) and autonomous systems for military and national security purposes. Financial advisors only. Email aaron.dillon@agdillon.com to invest or request fund materials. Note important disclosures at the end of this post.Subscribe to AG Dillon Pre-IPO Stock Research at agdillon.com/subscribe;- Wednesday = secondary market valuations, revenue multiples, performance, index fact sheets- Saturdays = pre-IPO news and insights, webinar replays00:00 - Intro01:01 - Starlink's Explosive Growth in Africa02:10 - Anthropic Launches AI Tool "Computer Use" for Developers03:46 - Klarna Prepares for IPO, Removes Board Member04:44 - Anduril Boosted by US AI Defense Directive05:55 - Infinitus Raises $51.5M, Now Valued Over $600M07:00 - Agility Robotics Raises $150M, Valued at $1B07:52 - Notion Introduces Integrated Email Client, Notion Mail09:12 - Pre-IPO Stock Market Weekly Performance09:55 - Pre-IPO Stock Vintage Index Weekly Performance* NOTE: AG Dillon ("AGD") is not affiliated with Anduril. Anduril may require company approval for purchases (aka transfers). AGD has not been pre-approved by Anduril to purchase their stock. AGD purchases pre-IPO stocks in the secondary market and may gain exposure by directly purchasing the stock (on the company's capitalization table) and/or through a third-party fund (aka special purpose vehicle, or SPV).
In this episode, David Skok, founder and CEO of The Logic, discusses his journey from traditional journalism to leading a digital-first news outlet. He reflects on his time at The Boston Globe, where he helped the publication transition to a digital subscription model. This experience laid the foundation for his decision to launch The Logic, focusing on Canada's innovation economy and providing high-quality, in-depth reporting.David explains how Clayton Christensen's theory of disruptive innovation influenced his approach to digital media. He saw an opportunity to address gaps in Canadian tech and business coverage, and launched The Logic in 2018. He highlights the challenges of building a digital publication in a space dominated by legacy media and how his publication has carved out its niche by focusing on critical, analytical journalism.The discussion also covers the impact of Bill C-18 on the media landscape in Canada, with David offering insights into how it aims to level the playing field between big tech platforms and smaller news organizations. He also touches on the role of The Logic Summit, an annual event that brings together leaders in tech and business, as part of his broader mission to foster a stronger innovation ecosystem in Canada.And John Ruffolo of Maverix Private Equity joins Matt Cohen to discuss the latest tech and venture capital news.About David Skok:David Skok is the founder and CEO of The Logic, a business news publication focused on Canada's innovation economy, with five bureaus across the country. Backed by the Financial Times, The Logic has become a prominent source of in-depth business journalism under his leadership.With over 25 years of experience, David previously held senior roles at The Toronto Star and The Boston Globe, where he led digital strategy and helped grow BostonGlobe.com's digital subscriptions by 40%. He also co-created Globalnews.ca, one of Canada's leading digital news platforms.David holds a Nieman Fellowship from Harvard University and a Bachelor's degree in journalism from Ryerson University. He also serves on the board of the Online News Association and advisory boards for several journalism institutions.In this episode, we discuss:News Rundown with John Ruffolo:* (01:31) Elon Musk's epic week * (02:00) Discussion on the rise of reusable rocket systems and the implications for space exploration* (03:26) Information Venture Partners (IVP), a Toronto-based venture capital firm, decides not to raise its fourth venture fund, citing market conditions and personal circumstances* (05:00) The trend of venture funds consolidating and shifting towards more niche or special purpose vehicle (SPV) investments is explored* (09:00) Geoffrey Hinton, known as the "AI godfather," wins the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics for his contributions to AI* (12:00) Shopify President Harley Finkelstein's controversial comments about the lack of ambition in the Canadian tech sector, and the push for more risk-taking in AI development* (14:50) John Ruffolo responds, emphasizing the need for better access to capital and support for Canadian entrepreneurs, rather than a lack of ambition being the primary issue* (19:00) Matt and John discuss the large investments being made in U.S. data center developments and AI infrastructure, noting the contrast with Canada's lack of similar projects* (23:00) A story about Anguilla's earnings from the ".ai" domain surge, and how it now accounts for 20% of the island's government revenueInterview with David Skok:* (24:53) David Skok discusses his early years in journalism and how his experiences shaped his career* (27:21) His experiences at The Boston Globe, leading its transition to a subscription-based model and the lessons learned from that time* (31:00) The evolution of digital content consumption and how consumers' preferences for news have changed* (33:36) Clayton Christensen's disruptive innovation theory on David's decision to start The Logic, and his approach to navigating the shifting media landscape.* (41:55) The founding of The Logic, initial challenges, and the importance of building a subscription-based media outlet* (45:00) The competitive nature of the Canadian media landscape and the challenges of securing talent and resources for a startup media company* (49:13) David explains The Logic Summit, how it serves as a platform for bringing together Canada's innovation and business leaders, and its growing significance* (51:58) The implications of Bill C-18 and how it affects relationships between media outlets and tech platforms like Google and Meta* [56:43] The rise of generative AI, the challenges of copyright for news organizations, and the impact on journalistic integrity* [59:00] David outlines The Logic's approach to using AI and how they manage its integration with journalistic standards.Fast Favorites:* Favorite podcast: Pivot by Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway* Favorite newsletter or blog: Stratechery by Ben Thompson* Favorite tech gadget: His iPhone* Favorite new trend: Generative AI* Favorite book: The Innovator's Dilemma by Clayton Christensen* Favorite CEO to watch: Marc Benioff from SalesforceFollow Matt Cohen and Tank Talks here!Podcast production support provided by Agentbee.ai This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tanktalks.substack.com
Send us a textNEW FUND ANNOUNCEMENT: The AG Dillon Anduril Pre-IPO Stock Fund is now accepting investors. Anduril Industries is a defense technology company that specializes in building advanced artificial intelligence (AI) and autonomous systems for military and national security purposes. Financial advisors only. Email aaron.dillon@agdillon.com to invest or request fund materials. Note important disclosures at the end of this post.Subscribe to AG Dillon Pre-IPO Stock Research at agdillon.com/subscribe;- Wednesday = secondary market valuations, revenue multiples, performance, index fact sheets- Saturdays = pre-IPO news and insights, webinar replays00:58 | SpaceX Achieves Milestones with Starship Test- Caught Super Heavy booster mid-air; landed the rocket in the ocean- Starship needs 10 refueling flights for moon missions; demo projected by 2025- Aims for multiple daily Starship flights to reduce costs, boost Starlink deployment- Payload capacity 5x that of Falcon 9; increases incremental revenue- Secondary market valuation: $226B (+7.4% vs Jul 2024)01:55 | Science Corp Targets Brain-Computer Interface Market- Founded by Neuralink co-founder Max Hodak- Affordable tech: Axon probes ($500), SciFi units ($1,000) – 10% of traditional costs- Nexus software manages terabytes of data for brain research- Running clinical trials for ocular implants; plans for human applications- Raised $186M; no public valuation announced03:09 | Stripe Eyes Acquisition of Bridge Amid Stablecoin Focus- Acquiring fintech Bridge to enter $170B stablecoin market- Bridge has raised $58M, including $40M Series A led by Sequoia- Follows Stripe's USDC crypto payments resumption after six years- Secondary market valuation: $83B (+18% vs Jul 2024)04:05 | Databricks Partners with Amazon for AI Chip Cost Reduction- Five-year deal to use Amazon Trainium AI chips, reducing costs by 40%- Expanded collaboration on AWS, generating $1B+ in revenue- Aims to save companies up to $950,000 monthly on AI model development- Secondary market valuation: $43.8B (+1% vs Nov 2023)05:16 | Klarna Integrates with Apple Pay for Flexible Payments- Integration in the US and UK; expansion to Canada planned- Offers installment payments for $35-$2,000 purchases with 0% APR financing options- "Apple from Klarna" storefront launched for U.S. customers- Secondary market valuation: $10.3B (+54% vs Jul 2022)06:17 | Shein Adds Bankers to London IPO07:11 | Hugging Face Expands as AI Developer Platform Grows- 5M AI developer community- 1M public and 1M private models- 300,000 public apps and numerous private spaces for enterprise use- 200,000 data sets for model customization- Decentralized team, largest office in Paris; freemium model for enterprise users- Secondary market valuation: $4.5B (+1% vs Aug 2023)08:20 | OpenAI Tests ChatGPT Windows App with Enhanced Features09:15 | X Updates Privacy Policy to Monetize User Data10:28 | Pre-IPO Stock Market Weekly Performance- agdillon.com/subscribe to receive weekly pdf report in your inbox11:13 | Pre-IPO Stock Vintage Index Weekly Performance- agdillon.com/subscribe to receive weekly pdf report in your inbox* NOTE: AG Dillon ("AGD") is not affiliated with Anduril. Anduril may require company approval for purchases (aka transfers). AGD has not been pre-approved by Anduril to purchase their stock. AGD purchases pre-IPO stocks in the secondary market and may gain exposure by directly purchasing the stock (on the company's capitalization table) and/or through a third-party fund (aka special purpose vehicle, or SPV).
“This is ancient knowledge and cutting-edge technology brought together into a product that is helping thousands of people all over the world,” says Anna Gudmundson, the CEO and co-founder of Sensate. She sits down with Alex Raymond in this episode to explore how Sensate is transforming stress management with its innovative technology. Sensate's device combines sound and infrasonic therapy to help users regulate stress and anxiety, and Anna breaks down how it works on a physiological level, particularly its role in improving vagal nerve tone—a key factor in managing stress and enhancing overall well-being. Anna also talks about her current fundraising strategy, highlighting Sensate's crowdfunding campaign on WeFunder. What makes crowdfunding such a powerful tool? It isn't just about raising capital; it's about building a community of engaged users and investors who are truly passionate about Sensate's mission. By opening up investment opportunities to everyday people, Sensate is creating a supportive ecosystem that democratizes access to the company's growth. Anna's approach blends traditional venture capital with crowdfunding, showing how a diverse investor base can be built while driving the company forward. Anna reflects on her personal journey as a leader and the unique challenges of running a wellness startup. How can stress management be woven into the fabric of a company's culture? Anna shares her strategy of fostering mindfulness and resilience within her team, ensuring that Sensate's core mission is reflected not only in their product but also in their workplace. Quotes “I think stress is part of life, but many of us have a bit too much of it. So, it's really important to have a way to self-regulate.” (04:56 | Anna Gudmundson) “The reason this is really helping so many people is that they are feeling calm and relieved. They actually enjoy the experience, which makes it accessible even when people are feeling quite wound up. I think that's a really important part because then we begin to self-care, taking out our Sensate and using it when we need it. It's so important in life to be able to self-regulate during stressful moments.” (05:58 | Anna Gudmundson) “We are accepting money from VCs. We have several VCs that are already in, but we have also tried to allow our customers to invest as well. So our customers, practitioners, partners, and people who really care about the product are able to invest via the SPV on WeFunder under exactly the same terms. That's important, and it is very much part of our ethos.” (14:32 | Anna Gudmundson) “The nice thing about adding crowdfunding is that it democratizes around. Typically, at this stage, when we're at an $18 million valuation, it's usually larger investors who are able to participate. But this allows smaller investors to come in and really diversifies the cap table.” (15:02 | Anna Gudmundson) Links Connect with Anna Gudmundson: Website: https://www.getsensate.com/ Website: https://wefunder.com/sensate Connect with Alex Raymond: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/afraymond/ Website: https://amplifyam.com/ HiveCast.fm is a proud sponsor of The Conscious Entrepreneur Podcast. Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm
How I Raised It - The podcast where we interview startup founders who raised capital.
Produced by Foundersuite (for startups: www.foundersuite.com) and Fundingstack (for VCs: www.fundingstack.com), "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders and investors who have raised capital. This episode is with Lloyd Danzig of Sharp Alpha Advisors, a venture capital firm specializing in sports, gaming, and entertainment -- basically, any business where winning is a key component. Learn more at https://sharpalphaadvisors.com. In this episode, we discuss his 6-step process for raising a VC fund, the difference between raising Fund I and Fund II, why he believes incentives govern all, how to set up an SPV to incentivize LPs, how his target LP group has changed over time, and more. The Company most recently raised a $25 Million Fund II backed by a variety of US financial institutions, pro sports team owners, public companies, family offices, venture capitalists and funds of funds, among others. How I Raised It is produced by Foundersuite, makers of software to raise capital and manage investor relations. Foundersuite's customers have raised over $17 Billion since 2016. If you are a startup, create a free account at www.foundersuite.com. If you are a VC or investment banker, check out our new platform, www.fundingstack.com
This Week in Startups is brought to you by… LinkedIn Ads. To redeem a $100 LinkedIn ad credit and launch your first campaign, go to https://www.linkedin.com/thisweekinstartups Runway. Looking to up-level your financial planning Runway is the modern and intuitive way to model, plan, and align your business for everyone on your team. Sign up at https://www.Runway.com/TWIST to get your first 3 months free. Beehiiv. Power your newsletters with AI tools, referral programs, and ad network features—all in one platform. Get 30 days free and 20% off your first 3 months at https://www.Beehiiv.com/TWIST * Todays show: Meghan Reynolds takes the stage at Liquidity Summit 2024 to discuss the intricacies of raising capital and pitching to VCs. Meghan dives into many topics including the importance of relationships (3:07), fund size rationalization (20:36), market sentiment (25:55), and other crucial aspects of successful fundraising! * Timestamps: (0:00) Meghan Reynolds takes the stage at Liquidity Summit 2024 (3:07) Meghan Reynolds' talk “Relationship Advice: Of the LP / GP Sort” (9:43) LinkedIn Ads - Get a $100 LinkedIn ad credit at http://www.linkedin.com/thisweekinstartups (10:59) Client service in investor relations and fundraising strategies (15:07) The complexity factor in raising capital (19:19) Runway - Sign up at https://runway.com/twist to get your first 3 months free. (20:36) Rationalizing fund size, securing re-ups, and worst pitching practices (25:55) Market sentiment and single deal SPV dynamics (29:34) Beehiiv - Get 30 days free and 20% off your first 3 months at https://www.beehiiv.com/twist (31:02) VC allocations, private credit, and market dynamics * Subscribe to the TWiST newsletter: https://www.ticker.thisweekinstartups.com * Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp * Check out Altimeter: https://www.altimeter.com * Follow Meghan X: https://x.com/MeghanKReynolds LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meghankreynolds * Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis * Thank you to our partners: (9:43) LinkedIn Ads - Get a $100 LinkedIn ad credit at http://www.linkedin.com/thisweekinstartups (19:19) Runway - Sign up at https://runway.com/twist to get your first 3 months free. (29:34) Beehiiv - Get 30 days free and 20% off your first 3 months at https://www.beehiiv.com/twist * Great 2023 interviews: Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland * Check out Jason's suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis * Follow TWiST: Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups * Subscribe to the Founder University Podcast: https://www.founder.university/podcast
Disclaimer: We recorded this episode ~1.5 months ago, timing for the FastHTML release. It then got bottlenecked by Llama3.1, Winds of AI Winter, and SAM2 episodes, so we're a little late. Since then FastHTML was released, swyx is building an app in it for AINews, and Anthropic has also released their prompt caching API. Remember when Dylan Patel of SemiAnalysis coined the GPU Rich vs GPU Poor war? (if not, see our pod with him). The idea was that if you're GPU poor you shouldn't waste your time trying to solve GPU rich problems (i.e. pre-training large models) and are better off working on fine-tuning, optimized inference, etc. Jeremy Howard (see our “End of Finetuning” episode to catchup on his background) and Eric Ries founded Answer.AI to do exactly that: “Practical AI R&D”, which is very in-line with the GPU poor needs. For example, one of their first releases was a system based on FSDP + QLoRA that let anyone train a 70B model on two NVIDIA 4090s. Since then, they have come out with a long list of super useful projects (in no particular order, and non-exhaustive):* FSDP QDoRA: this is just as memory efficient and scalable as FSDP/QLoRA, and critically is also as accurate for continued pre-training as full weight training.* Cold Compress: a KV cache compression toolkit that lets you scale sequence length without impacting speed.* colbert-small: state of the art retriever at only 33M params* JaColBERTv2.5: a new state-of-the-art retrievers on all Japanese benchmarks.* gpu.cpp: portable GPU compute for C++ with WebGPU.* Claudette: a better Anthropic API SDK. They also recently released FastHTML, a new way to create modern interactive web apps. Jeremy recently released a 1 hour “Getting started” tutorial on YouTube; while this isn't AI related per se, but it's close to home for any AI Engineer who are looking to iterate quickly on new products: In this episode we broke down 1) how they recruit 2) how they organize what to research 3) and how the community comes together. At the end, Jeremy gave us a sneak peek at something new that he's working on that he calls dialogue engineering: So I've created a new approach. It's not called prompt engineering. I'm creating a system for doing dialogue engineering. It's currently called AI magic. I'm doing most of my work in this system and it's making me much more productive than I was before I used it.He explains it a bit more ~44:53 in the pod, but we'll just have to wait for the public release to figure out exactly what he means.Timestamps* [00:00:00] Intro by Suno AI* [00:03:02] Continuous Pre-Training is Here* [00:06:07] Schedule-Free Optimizers and Learning Rate Schedules* [00:07:08] Governance and Structural Issues within OpenAI and Other AI Labs* [00:13:01] How Answer.ai works* [00:23:40] How to Recruit Productive Researchers* [00:27:45] Building a new BERT* [00:31:57] FSDP, QLoRA, and QDoRA: Innovations in Fine-Tuning Large Models* [00:36:36] Research and Development on Model Inference Optimization* [00:39:49] FastHTML for Web Application Development* [00:46:53] AI Magic & Dialogue Engineering* [00:52:19] AI wishlist & predictionsShow Notes* Jeremy Howard* Previously on Latent Space: The End of Finetuning, NeurIPS Startups* Answer.ai* Fast.ai* FastHTML* answerai-colbert-small-v1* gpu.cpp* Eric Ries* Aaron DeFazio* Yi Tai* Less Wright* Benjamin Warner* Benjamin Clavié* Jono Whitaker* Austin Huang* Eric Gilliam* Tim Dettmers* Colin Raffel* Sebastian Raschka* Carson Gross* Simon Willison* Sepp Hochreiter* Llama3.1 episode* Snowflake Arctic* Ranger Optimizer* Gemma.cpp* HTMX* UL2* BERT* DeBERTa* Efficient finetuning of Llama 3 with FSDP QDoRA* xLSTMTranscriptAlessio [00:00:00]: Hey everyone, welcome to the Latent Space podcast. This is Alessio, partner and CTO-in-Residence at Decibel Partners, and I'm joined by my co-host Swyx, founder of Smol AI.Swyx [00:00:14]: And today we're back with Jeremy Howard, I think your third appearance on Latent Space. Welcome.Jeremy [00:00:19]: Wait, third? Second?Swyx [00:00:21]: Well, I grabbed you at NeurIPS.Jeremy [00:00:23]: I see.Swyx [00:00:24]: Very fun, standing outside street episode.Jeremy [00:00:27]: I never heard that, by the way. You've got to send me a link. I've got to hear what it sounded like.Swyx [00:00:30]: Yeah. Yeah, it's a NeurIPS podcast.Alessio [00:00:32]: I think the two episodes are six hours, so there's plenty to listen, we'll make sure to send it over.Swyx [00:00:37]: Yeah, we're trying this thing where at the major ML conferences, we, you know, do a little audio tour of, give people a sense of what it's like. But the last time you were on, you declared the end of fine tuning. I hope that I sort of editorialized the title a little bit, and I know you were slightly uncomfortable with it, but you just own it anyway. I think you're very good at the hot takes. And we were just discussing in our pre-show that it's really happening, that the continued pre-training is really happening.Jeremy [00:01:02]: Yeah, absolutely. I think people are starting to understand that treating the three ULM FIT steps of like pre-training, you know, and then the kind of like what people now call instruction tuning, and then, I don't know if we've got a general term for this, DPO, RLHFE step, you know, or the task training, they're not actually as separate as we originally suggested they were in our paper, and when you treat it more as a continuum, and that you make sure that you have, you know, more of kind of the original data set incorporated into the later stages, and that, you know, we've also seen with LLAMA3, this idea that those later stages can be done for a lot longer. These are all of the things I was kind of trying to describe there. It wasn't the end of fine tuning, but more that we should treat it as a continuum, and we should have much higher expectations of how much you can do with an already trained model. You can really add a lot of behavior to it, you can change its behavior, you can do a lot. So a lot of our research has been around trying to figure out how to modify the model by a larger amount rather than starting from random weights, because I get very offended at the idea of starting from random weights.Swyx [00:02:14]: Yeah, I saw that in ICLR in Vienna, there was an outstanding paper about starting transformers from data-driven piers. I don't know if you saw that one, they called it sort of never trained from scratch, and I think it was kind of rebelling against like the sort of random initialization.Jeremy [00:02:28]: Yeah, I've, you know, that's been our kind of continuous message since we started Fast AI, is if you're training for random weights, you better have a really good reason, you know, because it seems so unlikely to me that nobody has ever trained on data that has any similarity whatsoever to the general class of data you're working with, and that's the only situation in which I think starting from random weights makes sense.Swyx [00:02:51]: The other trends since our last pod that I would point people to is I'm seeing a rise in multi-phase pre-training. So Snowflake released a large model called Snowflake Arctic, where they detailed three phases of training where they had like a different mixture of like, there was like 75% web in the first instance, and then they reduced the percentage of the web text by 10% each time and increased the amount of code in each phase. And I feel like multi-phase is being called out in papers more. I feel like it's always been a thing, like changing data mix is not something new, but calling it a distinct phase is new, and I wonder if there's something that you're seeingJeremy [00:03:32]: on your end. Well, so they're getting there, right? So the point at which they're doing proper continued pre-training is the point at which that becomes a continuum rather than a phase. So the only difference with what I was describing last time is to say like, oh, there's a function or whatever, which is happening every batch. It's not a huge difference. You know, I always used to get offended when people had learning rates that like jumped. And so one of the things I started doing early on in Fast.ai was to say to people like, no, you should actually have your learning rate schedule should be a function, not a list of numbers. So now I'm trying to give the same idea about training mix.Swyx [00:04:07]: There's been pretty public work from Meta on schedule-free optimizers. I don't know if you've been following Aaron DeFazio and what he's doing, just because you mentioned learning rate schedules, you know, what if you didn't have a schedule?Jeremy [00:04:18]: I don't care very much, honestly. I don't think that schedule-free optimizer is that exciting. It's fine. We've had non-scheduled optimizers for ages, like Less Wright, who's now at Meta, who was part of the Fast.ai community there, created something called the Ranger optimizer. I actually like having more hyperparameters. You know, as soon as you say schedule-free, then like, well, now I don't get to choose. And there isn't really a mathematically correct way of, like, I actually try to schedule more parameters rather than less. So like, I like scheduling my epsilon in my atom, for example. I schedule all the things. But then the other thing we always did with the Fast.ai library was make it so you don't have to set any schedules. So Fast.ai always supported, like, you didn't even have to pass a learning rate. Like, it would always just try to have good defaults and do the right thing. But to me, I like to have more parameters I can play with if I want to, but you don't have to.Alessio [00:05:08]: And then the more less technical side, I guess, of your issue, I guess, with the market was some of the large research labs taking all this innovation kind of behind closed doors and whether or not that's good, which it isn't. And now we could maybe make it more available to people. And then a month after we released the episode, there was the whole Sam Altman drama and like all the OpenAI governance issues. And maybe people started to think more, okay, what happens if some of these kind of labs, you know, start to break from within, so to speak? And the alignment of the humans is probably going to fall before the alignment of the models. So I'm curious, like, if you have any new thoughts and maybe we can also tie in some of the way that we've been building Answer as like a public benefit corp and some of those aspects.Jeremy [00:05:51]: Sure. So, yeah, I mean, it was kind of uncomfortable because two days before Altman got fired, I did a small public video interview in which I said, I'm quite sure that OpenAI's current governance structure can't continue and that it was definitely going to fall apart. And then it fell apart two days later and a bunch of people were like, what did you know, Jeremy?Alessio [00:06:13]: What did Jeremy see?Jeremy [00:06:15]: I didn't see anything. It's just obviously true. Yeah. So my friend Eric Ries and I spoke a lot before that about, you know, Eric's, I think probably most people would agree, the top expert in the world on startup and AI governance. And you know, we could both clearly see that this didn't make sense to have like a so-called non-profit where then there are people working at a company, a commercial company that's owned by or controlled nominally by the non-profit, where the people in the company are being given the equivalent of stock options, like everybody there was working there with expecting to make money largely from their equity. So the idea that then a board could exercise control by saying like, oh, we're worried about safety issues and so we're going to do something that decreases the profit of the company, when every stakeholder in the company, their remuneration pretty much is tied to their profit, it obviously couldn't work. So I mean, that was a huge oversight there by someone. I guess part of the problem is that the kind of people who work at non-profits and in this case the board, you know, who are kind of academics and, you know, people who are kind of true believers. I think it's hard for them to realize that 99.999% of the world is driven very heavily by money, especially huge amounts of money. So yeah, Eric and I had been talking for a long time before that about what could be done differently, because also companies are sociopathic by design and so the alignment problem as it relates to companies has not been solved. Like, companies become huge, they devour their founders, they devour their communities and they do things where even the CEOs, you know, often of big companies tell me like, I wish our company didn't do that thing. You know, I know that if I didn't do it, then I would just get fired and the board would put in somebody else and the board knows if they don't do it, then their shareholders can sue them because they're not maximizing profitability or whatever. So what Eric's spent a lot of time doing is trying to think about how do we make companies less sociopathic, you know, how to, or more, you know, maybe a better way to think of it is like, how do we make it so that the founders of companies can ensure that their companies continue to actually do the things they want them to do? You know, when we started a company, hey, we very explicitly decided we got to start a company, not a academic lab, not a nonprofit, you know, we created a Delaware Seacorp, you know, the most company kind of company. But when we did so, we told everybody, you know, including our first investors, which was you Alessio. They sound great. We are going to run this company on the basis of maximizing long-term value. And in fact, so when we did our second round, which was an angel round, we had everybody invest through a long-term SPV, which we set up where everybody had to agree to vote in line with long-term value principles. So like never enough just to say to people, okay, we're trying to create long-term value here for society as well as for ourselves and everybody's like, oh, yeah, yeah, I totally agree with that. But when it comes to like, okay, well, here's a specific decision we have to make, which will not maximize short-term value, people suddenly change their mind. So you know, it has to be written into the legal documents of everybody so that no question that that's the way the company has to be managed. So then you mentioned the PBC aspect, Public Benefit Corporation, which I never quite understood previously. And turns out it's incredibly simple, like it took, you know, like one paragraph added to our corporate documents to become a PBC. It was cheap, it was easy, but it's got this huge benefit, which is if you're not a public benefit corporation, then somebody can come along and offer to buy you with a stated description of like turning your company into the thing you most hate, right? And if they offer you more than the market value of your company and you don't accept it, then you are not necessarily meeting the kind of your fiduciary responsibilities. So the way like Eric always described it to me is like, if Philip Morris came along and said that you've got great technology for marketing cigarettes to children, so we're going to pivot your company to do that entirely, and we're going to pay you 50% more than the market value, you're going to have to say yes. If you have a PBC, then you are more than welcome to say no, if that offer is not in line with your stated public benefit. So our stated public benefit is to maximize the benefit to society through using AI. So given that more children smoking doesn't do that, then we can say like, no, we're not selling to you.Alessio [00:11:01]: I was looking back at some of our emails. You sent me an email on November 13th about talking and then on the 14th, I sent you an email working together to free AI was the subject line. And then that was kind of the start of the C round. And then two days later, someone got fired. So you know, you were having these thoughts even before we had like a public example of like why some of the current structures didn't work. So yeah, you were very ahead of the curve, so to speak. You know, people can read your awesome introduction blog and answer and the idea of having a R&D lab versus our lab and then a D lab somewhere else. I think to me, the most interesting thing has been hiring and some of the awesome people that you've been bringing on that maybe don't fit the central casting of Silicon Valley, so to speak. Like sometimes I got it like playing baseball cards, you know, people are like, oh, what teams was this person on, where did they work versus focusing on ability. So I would love for you to give a shout out to some of the awesome folks that you have on the team.Jeremy [00:11:58]: So, you know, there's like a graphic going around describing like the people at XAI, you know, Elon Musk thing. And like they are all connected to like multiple of Stanford, Meta, DeepMind, OpenAI, Berkeley, Oxford. Look, these are all great institutions and they have good people. And I'm definitely not at all against that, but damn, there's so many other people. And one of the things I found really interesting is almost any time I see something which I think like this is really high quality work and it's something I don't think would have been built if that person hadn't built the thing right now, I nearly always reach out to them and ask to chat. And I tend to dig in to find out like, okay, you know, why did you do that thing? Everybody else has done this other thing, your thing's much better, but it's not what other people are working on. And like 80% of the time, I find out the person has a really unusual background. So like often they'll have like, either they like came from poverty and didn't get an opportunity to go to a good school or had dyslexia and, you know, got kicked out of school in year 11, or they had a health issue that meant they couldn't go to university or something happened in their past and they ended up out of the mainstream. And then they kind of succeeded anyway. Those are the people that throughout my career, I've tended to kind of accidentally hire more of, but it's not exactly accidentally. It's like when I see somebody who's done, two people who have done extremely well, one of them did extremely well in exactly the normal way from the background entirely pointing in that direction and they achieved all the hurdles to get there. And like, okay, that's quite impressive, you know, but another person who did just as well, despite lots of constraints and doing things in really unusual ways and came up with different approaches. That's normally the person I'm likely to find useful to work with because they're often like risk-takers, they're often creative, they're often extremely tenacious, they're often very open-minded. So that's the kind of folks I tend to find myself hiring. So now at Answer.ai, it's a group of people that are strong enough that nearly every one of them has independently come to me in the past few weeks and told me that they have imposter syndrome and they're not convinced that they're good enough to be here. And I kind of heard it at the point where I was like, okay, I don't think it's possible that all of you are so far behind your peers that you shouldn't get to be here. But I think part of the problem is as an R&D lab, the great developers look at the great researchers and they're like, wow, these big-brained, crazy research people with all their math and s**t, they're too cool for me, oh my God. And then the researchers look at the developers and they're like, oh, they're killing it, making all this stuff with all these people using it and talking on Twitter about how great it is. I think they're both a bit intimidated by each other, you know. And so I have to kind of remind them like, okay, there are lots of things in this world where you suck compared to lots of other people in this company, but also vice versa, you know, for all things. And the reason you came here is because you wanted to learn about those other things from those other people and have an opportunity to like bring them all together into a single unit. You know, it's not reasonable to expect you're going to be better at everything than everybody else. I guess the other part of it is for nearly all of the people in the company, to be honest, they have nearly always been better than everybody else at nearly everything they're doing nearly everywhere they've been. So it's kind of weird to be in this situation now where it's like, gee, I can clearly see that I suck at this thing that I'm meant to be able to do compared to these other people where I'm like the worst in the company at this thing for some things. So I think that's a healthy place to be, you know, as long as you keep reminding each other about that's actually why we're here. And like, it's all a bit of an experiment, like we don't have any managers. We don't have any hierarchy from that point of view. So for example, I'm not a manager, which means I don't get to tell people what to do or how to do it or when to do it. Yeah, it's been a bit of an experiment to see how that would work out. And it's been great. So for instance, Ben Clavier, who you might have come across, he's the author of Ragatouille, he's the author of Rerankers, super strong information retrieval guy. And a few weeks ago, you know, this additional channel appeared on Discord, on our private Discord called Bert24. And these people started appearing, as in our collab sections, we have a collab section for like collaborating with outsiders. And these people started appearing, there are all these names that I recognize, like Bert24, and they're all talking about like the next generation of Bert. And I start following along, it's like, okay, Ben decided that I think, quite rightly, we need a new Bert. Because everybody, like so many people are still using Bert, and it's still the best at so many things, but it actually doesn't take advantage of lots of best practices. And so he just went out and found basically everybody who's created better Berts in the last four or five years, brought them all together, suddenly there's this huge collaboration going on. So yeah, I didn't tell him to do that. He didn't ask my permission to do that. And then, like, Benjamin Warner dived in, and he's like, oh, I created a whole transformers from scratch implementation designed to be maximally hackable. He originally did it largely as a teaching exercise to show other people, but he was like, I could, you know, use that to create a really hackable BERT implementation. In fact, he didn't say that. He said, I just did do that, you know, and I created a repo, and then everybody's like starts using it. They're like, oh my god, this is amazing. I can now implement all these other BERT things. And it's not just answer AI guys there, you know, there's lots of folks, you know, who have like contributed new data set mixes and blah, blah, blah. So, I mean, I can help in the same way that other people can help. So like, then Ben Clavier reached out to me at one point and said, can you help me, like, what have you learned over time about how to manage intimidatingly capable and large groups of people who you're nominally meant to be leading? And so, you know, I like to try to help, but I don't direct. Another great example was Kerem, who, after our FSTP QLORA work, decided quite correctly that it didn't really make sense to use LoRa in today's world. You want to use the normalized version, which is called Dora. Like two or three weeks after we did FSTP QLORA, he just popped up and said, okay, I've just converted the whole thing to Dora, and I've also created these VLLM extensions, and I've got all these benchmarks, and, you know, now I've got training of quantized models with adapters that are as fast as LoRa, and as actually better than, weirdly, fine tuning. Just like, okay, that's great, you know. And yeah, so the things we've done to try to help make these things happen as well is we don't have any required meetings, you know, but we do have a meeting for each pair of major time zones that everybody's invited to, and, you know, people see their colleagues doing stuff that looks really cool and say, like, oh, how can I help, you know, or how can I learn or whatever. So another example is Austin, who, you know, amazing background. He ran AI at Fidelity, he ran AI at Pfizer, he ran browsing and retrieval for Google's DeepMind stuff, created Jemma.cpp, and he's been working on a new system to make it easier to do web GPU programming, because, again, he quite correctly identified, yeah, so I said to him, like, okay, I want to learn about that. Not an area that I have much expertise in, so, you know, he's going to show me what he's working on and teach me a bit about it, and hopefully I can help contribute. I think one of the key things that's happened in all of these is everybody understands what Eric Gilliam, who wrote the second blog post in our series, the R&D historian, describes as a large yard with narrow fences. Everybody has total flexibility to do what they want. We all understand kind of roughly why we're here, you know, we agree with the premises around, like, everything's too expensive, everything's too complicated, people are building too many vanity foundation models rather than taking better advantage of fine-tuning, like, there's this kind of general, like, sense of we're all on the same wavelength about, you know, all the ways in which current research is fucked up, and, you know, all the ways in which we're worried about centralization. We all care a lot about not just research for the point of citations, but research that actually wouldn't have happened otherwise, and actually is going to lead to real-world outcomes. And so, yeah, with this kind of, like, shared vision, people understand, like, you know, so when I say, like, oh, well, you know, tell me, Ben, about BERT 24, what's that about? And he's like, you know, like, oh, well, you know, you can see from an accessibility point of view, or you can see from a kind of a actual practical impact point of view, there's far too much focus on decoder-only models, and, you know, like, BERT's used in all of these different places and industry, and so I can see, like, in terms of our basic principles, what we're trying to achieve, this seems like something important. And so I think that's, like, a really helpful that we have that kind of shared perspective, you know?Alessio [00:21:14]: Yeah. And before we maybe talk about some of the specific research, when you're, like, reaching out to people, interviewing them, what are some of the traits, like, how do these things come out, you know, usually? Is it working on side projects that you, you know, you're already familiar with? Is there anything, like, in the interview process that, like, helps you screen for people that are less pragmatic and more research-driven versus some of these folks that are just gonna do it, you know? They're not waiting for, like, the perfect process.Jeremy [00:21:40]: Everybody who comes through the recruiting is interviewed by everybody in the company. You know, our goal is 12 people, so it's not an unreasonable amount. So the other thing to say is everybody so far who's come into the recruiting pipeline, everybody bar one, has been hired. So which is to say our original curation has been good. And that's actually pretty easy, because nearly everybody who's come in through the recruiting pipeline are people I know pretty well. So Jono Whitaker and I, you know, he worked on the stable diffusion course we did. He's outrageously creative and talented, and he's super, like, enthusiastic tinkerer, just likes making things. Benjamin was one of the strongest parts of the fast.ai community, which is now the alumni. It's, like, hundreds of thousands of people. And you know, again, like, they're not people who a normal interview process would pick up, right? So Benjamin doesn't have any qualifications in math or computer science. Jono was living in Zimbabwe, you know, he was working on, like, helping some African startups, you know, but not FAANG kind of credentials. But yeah, I mean, when you actually see people doing real work and they stand out above, you know, we've got lots of Stanford graduates and open AI people and whatever in our alumni community as well. You know, when you stand out above all of those people anyway, obviously you've got something going for you. You know, Austin, him and I worked together on the masks study we did in the proceeding at the National Academy of Science. You know, we had worked together, and again, that was a group of, like, basically the 18 or 19 top experts in the world on public health and epidemiology and research design and so forth. And Austin, you know, one of the strongest people in that collaboration. So yeah, you know, like, I've been lucky enough to have had opportunities to work with some people who are great and, you know, I'm a very open-minded person, so I kind of am always happy to try working with pretty much anybody and some people stand out. You know, there have been some exceptions, people I haven't previously known, like Ben Clavier, actually, I didn't know before. But you know, with him, you just read his code, and I'm like, oh, that's really well-written code. And like, it's not written exactly the same way as everybody else's code, and it's not written to do exactly the same thing as everybody else's code. So yeah, and then when I chatted to him, it's just like, I don't know, I felt like we'd known each other for years, like we just were on the same wavelength, but I could pretty much tell that was going to happen just by reading his code. I think you express a lot in the code you choose to write and how you choose to write it, I guess. You know, or another example, a guy named Vic, who was previously the CEO of DataQuest, and like, in that case, you know, he's created a really successful startup. He won the first, basically, Kaggle NLP competition, which was automatic essay grading. He's got the current state-of-the-art OCR system, Surya. Again, he's just a guy who obviously just builds stuff, you know, he doesn't ask for permission, he doesn't need any, like, external resources. Actually, Karim's another great example of this, I mean, I already knew Karim very well because he was my best ever master's student, but it wasn't a surprise to me then when he then went off to create the world's state-of-the-art language model in Turkish on his own, in his spare time, with no budget, from scratch. This is not fine-tuning or whatever, he, like, went back to Common Crawl and did everything. Yeah, it's kind of, I don't know what I'd describe that process as, but it's not at all based on credentials.Swyx [00:25:17]: Assemble based on talent, yeah. We wanted to dive in a little bit more on, you know, turning from the people side of things into the technical bets that you're making. Just a little bit more on Bert. I was actually, we just did an interview with Yi Tay from Reka, I don't know if you're familiar with his work, but also another encoder-decoder bet, and one of his arguments was actually people kind of over-index on the decoder-only GPT-3 type paradigm. I wonder if you have thoughts there that is maybe non-consensus as well. Yeah, no, absolutely.Jeremy [00:25:45]: So I think it's a great example. So one of the people we're collaborating with a little bit with BERT24 is Colin Raffle, who is the guy behind, yeah, most of that stuff, you know, between that and UL2, there's a lot of really interesting work. And so one of the things I've been encouraging the BERT group to do, Colin has as well, is to consider using a T5 pre-trained encoder backbone as a thing you fine-tune, which I think would be really cool. You know, Colin was also saying actually just use encoder-decoder as your Bert, you know, why don't you like use that as a baseline, which I also think is a good idea. Yeah, look.Swyx [00:26:25]: What technical arguments are people under-weighting?Jeremy [00:26:27]: I mean, Colin would be able to describe this much better than I can, but I'll give my slightly non-expert attempt. Look, I mean, think about like diffusion models, right? Like in stable diffusion, like we use things like UNet. You have this kind of downward path and then in the upward path you have the cross connections, which it's not a tension, but it's like a similar idea, right? You're inputting the original encoding path into your decoding path. It's critical to make it work, right? Because otherwise in the decoding part, the model has to do so much kind of from scratch. So like if you're doing translation, like that's a classic kind of encoder-decoder example. If it's decoder only, you never get the opportunity to find the right, you know, feature engineering, the right feature encoding for the original sentence. And it kind of means then on every token that you generate, you have to recreate the whole thing, you know? So if you have an encoder, it's basically saying like, okay, this is your opportunity model to create a really useful feature representation for your input information. So I think there's really strong arguments for encoder-decoder models anywhere that there is this kind of like context or source thing. And then why encoder only? Well, because so much of the time what we actually care about is a classification, you know? It's like an output. It's like generating an arbitrary length sequence of tokens. So anytime you're not generating an arbitrary length sequence of tokens, decoder models don't seem to make much sense. Now the interesting thing is, you see on like Kaggle competitions, that decoder models still are at least competitive with things like Deberta v3. They have to be way bigger to be competitive with things like Deberta v3. And the only reason they are competitive is because people have put a lot more time and money and effort into training the decoder only ones, you know? There isn't a recent Deberta. There isn't a recent Bert. Yeah, it's a whole part of the world that people have slept on a little bit. And this is just what happens. This is how trends happen rather than like, to me, everybody should be like, oh, let's look at the thing that has shown signs of being useful in the past, but nobody really followed up with properly. That's the more interesting path, you know, where people tend to be like, oh, I need to get citations. So what's everybody else doing? Can I make it 0.1% better, you know, or 0.1% faster? That's what everybody tends to do. Yeah. So I think it's like, Itay's work commercially now is interesting because here's like a whole, here's a whole model that's been trained in a different way. So there's probably a whole lot of tasks it's probably better at than GPT and Gemini and Claude. So that should be a good commercial opportunity for them if they can figure out what those tasks are.Swyx [00:29:07]: Well, if rumors are to be believed, and he didn't comment on this, but, you know, Snowflake may figure out the commercialization for them. So we'll see.Jeremy [00:29:14]: Good.Alessio [00:29:16]: Let's talk about FSDP, Qlora, Qdora, and all of that awesome stuff. One of the things we talked about last time, some of these models are meant to run on systems that nobody can really own, no single person. And then you were like, well, what if you could fine tune a 70B model on like a 4090? And I was like, no, that sounds great, Jeremy, but like, can we actually do it? And then obviously you all figured it out. Can you maybe tell us some of the worst stories behind that, like the idea behind FSDP, which is kind of taking sharded data, parallel computation, and then Qlora, which is do not touch all the weights, just go quantize some of the model, and then within the quantized model only do certain layers instead of doing everything.Jeremy [00:29:57]: Well, do the adapters. Yeah.Alessio [00:29:59]: Yeah. Yeah. Do the adapters. Yeah. I will leave the floor to you. I think before you published it, nobody thought this was like a short term thing that we're just going to have. And now it's like, oh, obviously you can do it, but it's not that easy.Jeremy [00:30:12]: Yeah. I mean, to be honest, it was extremely unpleasant work to do. It's like not at all enjoyable. I kind of did version 0.1 of it myself before we had launched the company, or at least the kind of like the pieces. They're all pieces that are difficult to work with, right? So for the quantization, you know, I chatted to Tim Detmers quite a bit and, you know, he very much encouraged me by saying like, yeah, it's possible. He actually thought it'd be easy. It probably would be easy for him, but I'm not Tim Detmers. And, you know, so he wrote bits and bytes, which is his quantization library. You know, he wrote that for a paper. He didn't write that to be production like code. It's now like everybody's using it, at least the CUDA bits. So like, it's not particularly well structured. There's lots of code paths that never get used. There's multiple versions of the same thing. You have to try to figure it out. So trying to get my head around that was hard. And you know, because the interesting bits are all written in CUDA, it's hard to like to step through it and see what's happening. And then, you know, FSTP is this very complicated library and PyTorch, which not particularly well documented. So the only really, really way to understand it properly is again, just read the code and step through the code. And then like bits and bytes doesn't really work in practice unless it's used with PEF, the HuggingFace library and PEF doesn't really work in practice unless you use it with other things. And there's a lot of coupling in the HuggingFace ecosystem where like none of it works separately. You have to use it all together, which I don't love. So yeah, trying to just get a minimal example that I can play with was really hard. And so I ended up having to rewrite a lot of it myself to kind of create this like minimal script. One thing that helped a lot was Medec had this LlamaRecipes repo that came out just a little bit before I started working on that. And like they had a kind of role model example of like, here's how to train FSTP, LoRa, didn't work with QLoRa on Llama. A lot of the stuff I discovered, the interesting stuff would be put together by Les Wright, who's, he was actually the guy in the Fast.ai community I mentioned who created the Ranger Optimizer. So he's doing a lot of great stuff at Meta now. So yeah, I kind of, that helped get some minimum stuff going and then it was great once Benjamin and Jono joined full time. And so we basically hacked at that together and then Kerim joined like a month later or something. And it was like, gee, it was just a lot of like fiddly detailed engineering on like barely documented bits of obscure internals. So my focus was to see if it kind of could work and I kind of got a bit of a proof of concept working and then the rest of the guys actually did all the work to make it work properly. And, you know, every time we thought we had something, you know, we needed to have good benchmarks, right? So we'd like, it's very easy to convince yourself you've done the work when you haven't, you know, so then we'd actually try lots of things and be like, oh, and these like really important cases, the memory use is higher, you know, or it's actually slower. And we'd go in and we just find like all these things that were nothing to do with our library that just didn't work properly. And nobody had noticed they hadn't worked properly because nobody had really benchmarked it properly. So we ended up, you know, trying to fix a whole lot of different things. And even as we did so, new regressions were appearing in like transformers and stuff that Benjamin then had to go away and figure out like, oh, how come flash attention doesn't work in this version of transformers anymore with this set of models and like, oh, it turns out they accidentally changed this thing, so it doesn't work. You know, there's just, there's not a lot of really good performance type evals going on in the open source ecosystem. So there's an extraordinary amount of like things where people say like, oh, we built this thing and it has this result. And when you actually check it, so yeah, there's a shitload of war stories from getting that thing to work. And it did require a particularly like tenacious group of people and a group of people who don't mind doing a whole lot of kind of like really janitorial work, to be honest, to get the details right, to check them. Yeah.Alessio [00:34:09]: We had a trade out on the podcast and we talked about how a lot of it is like systems work to make some of these things work. It's not just like beautiful, pure math that you do on a blackboard. It's like, how do you get into the nitty gritty?Jeremy [00:34:22]: I mean, flash attention is a great example of that. Like it's, it basically is just like, oh, let's just take the attention and just do the tiled version of it, which sounds simple enough, you know, but then implementing that is challenging at lots of levels.Alessio [00:34:36]: Yeah. What about inference? You know, obviously you've done all this amazing work on fine tuning. Do you have any research you've been doing on the inference side, how to make local inference really fast on these models too?Jeremy [00:34:47]: We're doing quite a bit on that at the moment. We haven't released too much there yet. But one of the things I've been trying to do is also just to help other people. And one of the nice things that's happened is that a couple of folks at Meta, including Mark Seraphim, have done a nice job of creating this CUDA mode community of people working on like CUDA kernels or learning about that. And I tried to help get that going well as well and did some lessons to help people get into it. So there's a lot going on in both inference and fine tuning performance. And a lot of it's actually happening kind of related to that. So PyTorch team have created this Torch AO project on quantization. And so there's a big overlap now between kind of the FastAI and AnswerAI and CUDA mode communities of people working on stuff for both inference and fine tuning. But we're getting close now. You know, our goal is that nobody should be merging models, nobody should be downloading merged models, everybody should be using basically quantized plus adapters for almost everything and just downloading the adapters. And that should be much faster. So that's kind of the place we're trying to get to. It's difficult, you know, because like Karim's been doing a lot of work with VLM, for example. These inference engines are pretty complex bits of code. They have a whole lot of custom kernel stuff going on as well, as do the quantization libraries. So we've been working on, we're also quite a bit of collaborating with the folks who do HQQ, which is a really great quantization library and works super well. So yeah, there's a lot of other people outside AnswerAI that we're working with a lot who are really helping on all this performance optimization stuff, open source.Swyx [00:36:27]: Just to follow up on merging models, I picked up there that you said nobody should be merging models. That's interesting because obviously a lot of people are experimenting with this and finding interesting results. I would say in defense of merging models, you can do it without data. That's probably the only thing that's going for it.Jeremy [00:36:45]: To explain, it's not that you shouldn't merge models. You shouldn't be distributing a merged model. You should distribute a merged adapter 99% of the time. And actually often one of the best things happening in the model merging world is actually that often merging adapters works better anyway. The point is, Sean, that once you've got your new model, if you distribute it as an adapter that sits on top of a quantized model that somebody's already downloaded, then it's a much smaller download for them. And also the inference should be much faster because you're not having to transfer FB16 weights from HPM memory at all or ever load them off disk. You know, all the main weights are quantized and the only floating point weights are in the adapters. So that should make both inference and fine tuning faster. Okay, perfect.Swyx [00:37:33]: We're moving on a little bit to the rest of the fast universe. I would have thought that, you know, once you started Answer.ai, that the sort of fast universe would be kind of on hold. And then today you just dropped Fastlight and it looks like, you know, there's more activity going on in sort of Fastland.Jeremy [00:37:49]: Yeah. So Fastland and Answerland are not really distinct things. Answerland is kind of like the Fastland grown up and funded. They both have the same mission, which is to maximize the societal benefit of AI broadly. We want to create thousands of commercially successful products at Answer.ai. And we want to do that with like 12 people. So that means we need a pretty efficient stack, you know, like quite a few orders of magnitude more efficient, not just for creation, but for deployment and maintenance than anything that currently exists. People often forget about the D part of our R&D firm. So we've got to be extremely good at creating, deploying and maintaining applications, not just models. Much to my horror, the story around creating web applications is much worse now than it was 10 or 15 years ago in terms of, if I say to a data scientist, here's how to create and deploy a web application, you know, either you have to learn JavaScript or TypeScript and about all the complex libraries like React and stuff, and all the complex like details around security and web protocol stuff around how you then talk to a backend and then all the details about creating the backend. You know, if that's your job and, you know, you have specialists who work in just one of those areas, it is possible for that to all work. But compared to like, oh, write a PHP script and put it in the home directory that you get when you sign up to this shell provider, which is what it was like in the nineties, you know, here are those 25 lines of code and you're done and now you can pass that URL around to all your friends, or put this, you know, .pl file inside the CGI bin directory that you got when you signed up to this web host. So yeah, the thing I've been mainly working on the last few weeks is fixing all that. And I think I fixed it. I don't know if this is an announcement, but I tell you guys, so yeah, there's this thing called fastHTML, which basically lets you create a complete web application in a single Python file. Unlike excellent projects like Streamlit and Gradio, you're not working on top of a highly abstracted thing. That's got nothing to do with web foundations. You're working with web foundations directly, but you're able to do it by using pure Python. There's no template, there's no ginger, there's no separate like CSS and JavaScript files. It looks and behaves like a modern SPA web application. And you can create components for like daisy UI, or bootstrap, or shoelace, or whatever fancy JavaScript and or CSS tailwind etc library you like, but you can write it all in Python. You can pip install somebody else's set of components and use them entirely from Python. You can develop and prototype it all in a Jupyter notebook if you want to. It all displays correctly, so you can like interactively do that. And then you mentioned Fastlight, so specifically now if you're using SQLite in particular, it's like ridiculously easy to have that persistence, and all of your handlers will be passed database ready objects automatically, that you can just call dot delete dot update dot insert on. Yeah, you get session, you get security, you get all that. So again, like with most everything I do, it's very little code. It's mainly tying together really cool stuff that other people have written. You don't have to use it, but a lot of the best stuff comes from its incorporation of HTMX, which to me is basically the thing that changes your browser to make it work the way it always should have. So it just does four small things, but those four small things are the things that are basically unnecessary constraints that HTML should never have had, so it removes the constraints. It sits on top of Starlet, which is a very nice kind of lower level platform for building these kind of web applications. The actual interface matches as closely as possible to FastAPI, which is a really nice system for creating the kind of classic JavaScript type applications. And Sebastian, who wrote FastAPI, has been kind enough to help me think through some of these design decisions, and so forth. I mean, everybody involved has been super helpful. Actually, I chatted to Carson, who created HTMX, you know, so about it. Some of the folks involved in Django, like everybody in the community I've spoken to definitely realizes there's a big gap to be filled around, like, highly scalable, web foundation-based, pure Python framework with a minimum of fuss. So yeah, I'm getting a lot of support and trying to make sure that FastHTML works well for people.Swyx [00:42:38]: I would say, when I heard about this, I texted Alexio. I think this is going to be pretty huge. People consider Streamlit and Gradio to be the state of the art, but I think there's so much to improve, and having what you call web foundations and web fundamentals at the core of it, I think, would be really helpful.Jeremy [00:42:54]: I mean, it's based on 25 years of thinking and work for me. So like, FastML was built on a system much like this one, but that was of hell. And so I spent, you know, 10 years working on that. We had millions of people using that every day, really pushing it hard. And I really always enjoyed working in that. Yeah. So, you know, and obviously lots of other people have done like great stuff, and particularly HTMX. So I've been thinking about like, yeah, how do I pull together the best of the web framework I created for FastML with HTMX? There's also things like PicoCSS, which is the CSS system, which by default, FastHTML comes with. Although, as I say, you can pip install anything you want to, but it makes it like super easy to, you know, so we try to make it so that just out of the box, you don't have any choices to make. Yeah. You can make choices, but for most people, you just, you know, it's like the PHP in your home directory thing. You just start typing and just by default, you'll get something which looks and feels, you know, pretty okay. And if you want to then write a version of Gradio or Streamlit on top of that, you totally can. And then the nice thing is if you then write it in kind of the Gradio equivalent, which will be, you know, I imagine we'll create some kind of pip installable thing for that. Once you've outgrown, or if you outgrow that, it's not like, okay, throw that all away and start again. And this like whole separate language that it's like this kind of smooth, gentle path that you can take step-by-step because it's all just standard web foundations all the way, you know.Swyx [00:44:29]: Just to wrap up the sort of open source work that you're doing, you're aiming to create thousands of projects with a very, very small team. I haven't heard you mention once AI agents or AI developer tooling or AI code maintenance. I know you're very productive, but you know, what is the role of AI in your own work?Jeremy [00:44:47]: So I'm making something. I'm not sure how much I want to say just yet.Swyx [00:44:52]: Give us a nibble.Jeremy [00:44:53]: All right. I'll give you the key thing. So I've created a new approach. It's not called prompt engineering. It's called dialogue engineering. But I'm creating a system for doing dialogue engineering. It's currently called AI magic. I'm doing most of my work in this system and it's making me much more productive than I was before I used it. So I always just build stuff for myself and hope that it'll be useful for somebody else. Think about chat GPT with code interpreter, right? The basic UX is the same as a 1970s teletype, right? So if you wrote APL on a teletype in the 1970s, you typed onto a thing, your words appeared at the bottom of a sheet of paper and you'd like hit enter and it would scroll up. And then the answer from APL would be printed out, scroll up, and then you would type the next thing. And like, which is also the way, for example, a shell works like bash or ZSH or whatever. It's not terrible, you know, like we all get a lot done in these like very, very basic teletype style REPL environments, but I've never felt like it's optimal and everybody else has just copied chat GPT. So it's also the way BART and Gemini work. It's also the way the Claude web app works. And then you add code interpreter. And the most you can do is to like plead with chat GPT to write the kind of code I want. It's pretty good for very, very, very beginner users who like can't code at all, like by default now the code's even hidden away, so you never even have to see it ever happened. But for somebody who's like wanting to learn to code or who already knows a bit of code or whatever, it's, it seems really not ideal. So okay, that's one end of the spectrum. The other end of the spectrum, which is where Sean's work comes in, is, oh, you want to do more than chat GPT? No worries. Here is Visual Studio Code. I run it. There's an empty screen with a flashing cursor. Okay, start coding, you know, and it's like, okay, you can use systems like Sean's or like cursor or whatever to be like, okay, Apple K in cursors, like a creative form that blah, blah, blah. But in the end, it's like a convenience over the top of this incredibly complicated system that full-time sophisticated software engineers have designed over the past few decades in a totally different environment as a way to build software, you know. And so we're trying to like shoehorn in AI into that. And it's not easy to do. And I think there are like much better ways of thinking about the craft of software development in a language model world to be much more interactive, you know. So the thing that I'm building is neither of those things. It's something between the two. And it's built around this idea of crafting a dialogue, you know, where the outcome of the dialogue is the artifacts that you want, whether it be a piece of analysis or whether it be a Python library or whether it be a technical blog post or whatever. So as part of building that, I've created something called Claudette, which is a library for Claude. I've created something called Cosette, which is a library for OpenAI. They're libraries which are designed to make those APIs much more usable, much easier to use, much more concise. And then I've written AI magic on top of those. And that's been an interesting exercise because I did Claudette first, and I was looking at what Simon Willison did with his fantastic LLM library. And his library is designed around like, let's make something that supports all the LLM inference engines and commercial providers. I thought, okay, what if I did something different, which is like make something that's as Claude friendly as possible and forget everything else. So that's what Claudette was. So for example, one of the really nice things in Claude is prefill. So by telling the assistant that this is what your response started with, there's a lot of powerful things you can take advantage of. So yeah, I created Claudette to be as Claude friendly as possible. And then after I did that, and then particularly with GPT 4.0 coming out, I kind of thought, okay, now let's create something that's as OpenAI friendly as possible. And then I tried to look to see, well, where are the similarities and where are the differences? And now can I make them compatible in places where it makes sense for them to be compatible without losing out on the things that make each one special for what they are. So yeah, those are some of the things I've been working on in that space. And I'm thinking we might launch AI magic via a course called how to solve it with code. The name is based on the classic Polya book, if you know how to solve it, which is, you know, one of the classic math books of all time, where we're basically going to try to show people how to solve challenging problems that they didn't think they could solve without doing a full computer science course, by taking advantage of a bit of AI and a bit of like practical skills, as particularly for this like whole generation of people who are learning to code with and because of ChatGPT. Like I love it, I know a lot of people who didn't really know how to code, but they've created things because they use ChatGPT, but they don't really know how to maintain them or fix them or add things to them that ChatGPT can't do, because they don't really know how to code. And so this course will be designed to show you how you can like either become a developer who can like supercharge their capabilities by using language models, or become a language model first developer who can supercharge their capabilities by understanding a bit about process and fundamentals.Alessio [00:50:19]: Nice. That's a great spoiler. You know, I guess the fourth time you're going to be on learning space, we're going to talk about AI magic. Jeremy, before we wrap, this was just a great run through everything. What are the things that when you next come on the podcast in nine, 12 months, we're going to be like, man, Jeremy was like really ahead of it. Like, is there anything that you see in the space that maybe people are not talking enough? You know, what's the next company that's going to fall, like have drama internally, anything in your mind?Jeremy [00:50:47]: You know, hopefully we'll be talking a lot about fast HTML and hopefully the international community that at that point has come up around that. And also about AI magic and about dialogue engineering. Hopefully dialogue engineering catches on because I think it's the right way to think about a lot of this stuff. What else? Just trying to think about all on the research side. Yeah. I think, you know, I mean, we've talked about a lot of it. Like I think encoder decoder architectures, encoder only architectures, hopefully we'll be talking about like the whole re-interest in BERT that BERT 24 stimulated.Swyx [00:51:17]: There's a safe space model that came out today that might be interesting for this general discussion. One thing that stood out to me with Cartesia's blog posts was that they were talking about real time ingestion, billions and trillions of tokens, and keeping that context, obviously in the state space that they have.Jeremy [00:51:34]: Yeah.Swyx [00:51:35]: I'm wondering what your thoughts are because you've been entirely transformers the whole time.Jeremy [00:51:38]: Yeah. No. So obviously my background is RNNs and LSTMs. Of course. And I'm still a believer in the idea that state is something you can update, you know? So obviously Sepp Hochreiter came up, came out with xLSTM recently. Oh my God. Okay. Another whole thing we haven't talked about, just somewhat related. I've been going crazy for like a long time about like, why can I not pay anybody to save my KV cash? I just ingested the Great Gatsby or the documentation for Starlet or whatever, you know, I'm sending it as my prompt context. Why are you redoing it every time? So Gemini is about to finally come out with KV caching, and this is something that Austin actually in Gemma.cpp had had on his roadmap for years, well not years, months, long time. The idea that the KV cache is like a thing that, it's a third thing, right? So there's RAG, you know, there's in-context learning, you know, and prompt engineering, and there's KV cache creation. I think it creates like a whole new class almost of applications or as techniques where, you know, for me, for example, I very often work with really new libraries or I've created my own library that I'm now writing with rather than on. So I want all the docs in my new library to be there all the time. So I want to upload them once, and then we have a whole discussion about building this application using FastHTML. Well nobody's got FastHTML in their language model yet, I don't want to send all the FastHTML docs across every time. So one of the things I'm looking at doing in AI Magic actually is taking advantage of some of these ideas so that you can have the documentation of the libraries you're working on be kind of always available. Something over the next 12 months people will be spending time thinking about is how to like, where to use RAG, where to use fine-tuning, where to use KV cache storage, you know. And how to use state, because in state models and XLSTM, again, state is something you update. So how do we combine the best of all of these worlds?Alessio [00:53:46]: And Jeremy, I know before you talked about how some of the autoregressive models are not maybe a great fit for agents. Any other thoughts on like JEPA, diffusion for text, any interesting thing that you've seen pop up?Jeremy [00:53:58]: In the same way that we probably ought to have state that you can update, i.e. XLSTM and state models, in the same way that a lot of things probably should have an encoder, JEPA and diffusion both seem like the right conceptual mapping for a lot of things we probably want to do. So the idea of like, there should be a piece of the generative pipeline, which is like thinking about the answer and coming up with a sketch of what the answer looks like before you start outputting tokens. That's where it kind of feels like diffusion ought to fit, you know. And diffusion is, because it's not autoregressive, it's like, let's try to like gradually de-blur the picture of how to solve this. So this is also where dialogue engineering fits in, by the way. So with dialogue engineering, one of the reasons it's working so well for me is I use it to kind of like craft the thought process before I generate the code, you know. So yeah, there's a lot of different pieces here and I don't know how they'll all kind of exactly fit together. I don't know if JEPA is going to actually end up working in the text world. I don't know if diffusion will end up working in the text world, but they seem to be like trying to solve a class of problem which is currently unsolved.Alessio [00:55:13]: Awesome, Jeremy. This was great, as usual. Thanks again for coming back on the pod and thank you all for listening. Yeah, that was fantastic. Get full access to Latent Space at www.latent.space/subscribe
I had a conversation with legendary guitarist MARK GEMINI THWAITE (MGT) regarding his music, collaborations and upcoming events.Born in Birmingham, England, MGT has been the guitarist and collaboration for a number of English rock bands and artists over the last two decades, including The Mission, Peter Murphy, Tricky, Spear of Destiny, Raymond Watts (PIG), Theatre of Hate, Ashton Nyte, Mob Research (with Paul Raven of Killing Joke), and Canadian band National Velvet plus various live and recorded appearances with Gary Numan, Al Jourgensen of Ministry, Revolting Cocks, Roger Daltrey, P.J. Harvey, Alanis Morissette, Combichrist, Primitive Race, Black Star Riders, Ginger of The Wildhearts, Stan Lee of Marvel Comics, Franz Treichler of The Young Gods and Ville Valo of HIM and so much more.In 2016 MGT signed a solo album deal with German label SPV records and releases his first solo album, "Volumes" under his MGT acronym at the end of June worldwide. The lead single, "Knowing Me Knowing You", a cover version of the ABBA classic featuring guest vocalist Ville Valo of HIM, was released in April and viewed over half a million times in two months - mixed by Tim Palmer (HIM/David Bowie). Valo is not the only guest musician on "Volumes", other appearances include Wayne Hussey of Mark's previous band The Mission, Miles Hunt and Erica Nockalls of UK band The Wonder Stuff, Ricky Warwick of Black Star Riders / Thin Lizzy, Raymond Watts (PIG, KMFDM), Saffron (Republica), Julianne Regan (All About Eve), and Ashton Nyte (The Awakening).https://www.markthwaite.comQUEEN OF WANDS with DJ Nocturna Every Saturday on ModSnap Radio | KMOD: San Antonio3pm (HST), 5pm (PST), 6pm (MST), 7pm (CST), 8pm (EST)Radio: https://modsnapradio.comThank you for liking and subscribing and THANK YOU for your continued support !
The show opens with Jason “Mayhem” Miller sitting in to do the news. They talk about real vs. fake honey products before discovering Jason actually promotes a manuka honey brand. They also discuss “White Women for Kamala” and the trend of people masquerading as experts. Then, Jason reads the news including stories about Jimmy Kimmel & John Mulaney declining offers to host the Oscars, a prison guard getting arrested for having sex with an inmate & filming it, OnlyFans models using AI bots to chat with their fans, and scientists discovering that sugar gel may regrow hair for balding men. Next, actor Eric Roberts returns to the show, with his wife Eliza by his side, to talk about his new film “Lumina” and his book “Runaway Train: Or, The Story of My Life So Far.” They also discuss his extensive résumé and his early start in the New York acting scene. Next, they talk about Eric's current relationship with his sister Julia & his daughter Emma. Finally, financial advisor Will Roundtree makes his first ACS appearance. He talks about how his self-taught knowledge of money took him from living in his car to being a millionaire. He also explains the typical struggles for small businesses & how to avoid them, and how to use SPVs (special purpose vehicles) to invest in real estate. For more with Eric Roberts: ● Pre-order his book: Runaway Train: Or, The Story of My Life So Far ● INSTAGRAM: @ericrobertsactor For more with Will Roundtree: ● PODCAST: Full-Time CEO ● TWITTER/INSTAGRAM: @MrWillRoundtree ● YouTube: https://youtube.com/c/willroundtree Thank you for supporting our sponsors: ● http://OReillyAuto.com/Adam
Happy Tuesday! We're back with two more listener questions! (0:43) Paul currently has three buy-to-let properties and intends to grow his portfolio to ten in the future. Each property is currently held in a separate SPV, and he's trying to decide if he should continue putting his new properties in their own SPVs or combine them all into one. Aware of the pros and cons of each method, Paul seeks advice from Rob & Rob on what to do. What will they suggest? (5:09) Lee's been searching for the best deal for his mortgage renewal and wonders if he should stick with the advice of one mortgage broker or talk to a few to get a better range of options. Enjoy the show? Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts - it really helps others find us! Sign up for our free weekly newsletter, Property Pulse Send us your question by calling us on 013 808 00035 and leaving a message with your name and question (normal UK call rates apply) or click here to leave a recording via your computer instead. Find out more about Property Hub Invest See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Let's dive into your questions and get some answers on this week's Ask Rob & Rob! (0:38) A potential tenant with a CCJ has applied to rent Chris's property. The tenant has a guarantor, and the lettings agent offers a protected rent scheme. He wonders if this provides enough protection or be cautious and asks Rob & Rob for their advice. (3:10) Ashley's at the start of her property journey and unsure whether to set up an SPV or a limited company. She wants to know the difference between the two and which option would be best for her situation. Enjoy the show? Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts - it really helps others find us! Sign up for our free weekly newsletter, Property Pulse Send us your question by calling us on 013 808 00035 and leaving a message with your name and question (normal UK call rates apply) or click here to leave a recording via your computer instead. Find out more about Property Hub Invest See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Welcome to this week's Episode of Equity Monday. We're kicking off the week with a deep dive from this weekend into the demise of electric vehicle startup Fisker at the hands of its founders' whims. Fisker, which was founded by famed vehicle designer Henrik Fisker, is on the brink of bankruptcy after only having delivered a few thousand electric Ocean SUVs. Then, Rebecca Bellan talked about X's new rules to allow adult content (as long as it's "consensually produced," whatever that means), and why that's problematic for the safety of other users -- namely women, who are most often the targets of sexually explicit trolling and harassment. We also touched on Trump's TikTok debut, which came in the wake of the former president's felony conviction. To wrap up, Bellan also discussed a story that TechCrunch published over the weekend looking into the new trend of smaller, lesser-known investors getting shares of hot private AI companies like Anthropic, X.ai and Perplexity by using special purpose vehicles, or SPVs. The result has been a Wild West, high risk, buyer-beware situation, with SPV terms varying wildly. Haje closed out the show with another Pitch Deck Teardown, this time looking into the Angel pitch deck for RAW Dating App. RAW just raised a $3 million friends and family round to shake up the dating scene by shedding fake, TikTok-ified, heavily filtered photos and replacing them with a more genuine, unvarnished experience. Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. Bryce Durbin is our Illustrator. We'd also like to thank the audience development team and Henry Pickavet, who manages TechCrunch audio products.
In which the Unreliable Narrators discuss Mary Beatrice Smoot Friarly, SPV.
Max Boonen is the founder of PV01 — a platform that allows issuers to access capital and for investors to purchase debt using blockchain. In this episode, Boonen discusses the challenges of accessing debt capital markets and the potential of tokenization in the crypto space, including the paradigm shift from provider-based markets to token-based markets in DeFi. PV01 uses a special purpose vehicle (SPV) to buy one bond and issue a token that represents the bond. This token is both a representation of a bond and a bond itself.
Aujourd'hui nous allons parler de "The Family". Cet incubateur de startups qui était le centre névralgique de la tech française dans les années 2010. Alice Zagury, une de ses cofondatrices, a d'ailleurs été ma 24ème invitée sur GDIY en 2018. En décembre 2023, Oussama Ammar, l'un des cofondateurs de The Family a été condamné aux îles Caïmans pour détournement de fonds et blanchiment d'argent. Il devra verser plus de 7 millions d'euros à l'incubateur. Il est important de préciser qu'Oussama Ammar a décidé de ne pas faire appel de cette condamnation, il s'est en revanche constitué devant les tribunaux français et britanniques où d'autres procédures sont en cours d'instruction. Avec The Family, Oussama Ammar et Alice Zagury sont des figures publiques de la tech française. Leur troisième associé Nicolas Colin est historiquement beaucoup plus discret. C'est mon invité sur GDIY aujourd'hui. Il ne s'est jamais exprimé publiquement sur l'affaire et le combat judiciaire qui dure depuis 2022, dans lequel Alice et Nicolas accusent Oussama de détournement de fonds et blanchiment d'argent. Les autres protagonistes s'étant déjà largement livrés dans divers médias en ligne, j'ai voulu aller chercher celui qui s'exprimait le moins pour avoir une autre version des dessous de cette histoire, qui secoue largement la tech française depuis plusieurs années. “Soit Nicolas et Alice savaient, soit ils sont complètement naïfs” Une phrase que l'on m'a beaucoup fait remonter à la préparation de cet épisode. Ne connaissant pas Nicolas, j'ai eu besoin de comprendre qui il était pour pouvoir me faire ma propre opinion. Mais surtout au travers de cet épisode spécial, j'ai voulu vous proposer de découvrir Nicolas Colin, afin de vous laisser vous faire la vôtre, avant de rentrer pleinement dans les détails les plus précis de cette affaire : La promesse faite par The Family de pouvoir investir dans SpaceX, Airbnb et Stripe L'argent récolté mais jamais investi et les 160 investisseurs concernés Le fonctionnement d'un blanchiment d'argent : prélavage, essorage, lessivage Le point de bascule : comment la vérité a éclaté Où sont allés les 3,4 millions concernés par l'action en justice aux Caïmans Comprendre la structure juridique de The Family Les mécanismes d'une fraude Gérer un portefeuille en extinction Si vous souhaitez aller directement au but, je vous propose un épisode divisé en trois grandes parties : De 00:00:00 à 00:49:30 : Le parcours de Nicolas Colin De 00:49:30 à 01:34:50 : La genèse et la structure de The Family De 01:34:50 à 03:15:47 : L'affaire Matt. TIMELINE: 00:00:00 : Moneyball 00:07:57 : Les premières heures d'internet vues depuis les écoles Télécom 00:26:18: La réalité derrière l'ENA 00:38:53 : Un inspecteur des finances face à la renaissance de l'économie numérique 00:49:34 : La genèse de The Family 01:07:50 : The Family à Londres et son fonctionnement 01:27:11 : La structure de The Family et SPV 01:34:57 : La pomme de la discorde jusqu'aux Caïmans 01:52:41 : Les détournements de fonds d'Oussama 02:00:57 : Les réactions en interne 02:17:49 Le pot aux roses 02:48:13 : Péripéties légales et morale de l'histoire 03:05:52 : Gérer un portefeuille en extinction Avec Nicolas nous avons cité d'anciens épisodes de GDIY : #24 - Alice Zagury #181 - Olivier Goy Avec Nicolas, nous avons parlé de : Moneyball (Le Stratège), film de Bennett Miller Moneyball in Consulting Services (article de Nicolas) European Straits, la newsletter de Nicolas A Founder's Handbook for Lobbying the Government The Family Courrier International Karaté Kid TechCrunch OVNI Y Combinator (VC) Inventing Anna The Tinder Swindler Seymour Papert, mathématicien et professeur au MIT Marie-Amélie Le Fur, athlète handisport et présidente du comité Paralympique Nicolas vous recommande de lire : L'Age de la multitude: Entreprendre et gouverner après la révolution numérique de Nicolas Colin et Henri Verdier Doing Capitalism in the Innovation Economy Vous pouvez contacter Nicolas Colin par mail nicolas@jointhefamily.co ou sur LinkedIn et vous abonner à sa newsletter European Straits. La musique du générique vous plaît ? C'est à Morgan Prudhomme que je la dois ! Contactez-le sur : https://studio-module.com. Vous souhaitez sponsoriser Génération Do It Yourself ou nous proposer un partenariat ? Contactez mon label Orso Media via ce formulaire.
Landon Ainge is one the most active investors in the Venture Capital space in Utah, but invests throughout the country. Landon has navigated diverse industries and company life cycles where his experience and breadth of knowledge surprises anyone meeting him for the first time. He is the Chairman of TribeAngels & Initiator.co. Initiator supports business owners on the lending side. TribeAngels is a community of individual and family office investors that seek to learn what is changing in the private markets. Landon was a co-founder Gabb Wireless that helps introduce technology to kids in a healthy way. Landon is the co-founder and chairman of Initiator.co which helps businesses navigate the lending solutions for free by giving them access to the private credit markets. He also is the Founder of Utah's Premier Accredited investor network (TribeAngels). Landon is known as an SPV expert - he completed 45 SPV's investments in his first four years of investing in Venture Capital and currently advises and manages over 95 SPV's. If you have any questions on structuring or managing SPV's don't hesitate to reach out. He is transitioning to the fund model because of his demonstrated experience investing. Before entering the Venture Capital space or entrepreneurship - Landon managed the mobile application and mobile commerce of Overstock.com (now Bed Bath & Beyond) where he launched augmented reality and won the retail app of the year. Landon also worked in corporate development where he completed over 14 M&A transactions totaling $550M in acquisitions and post-acquisition integrations for private operating companies in the logistics space.Out of college Landon started at Goldman Sachs where he helped to implement the compliance with the new Finra 2111 regulations within the bank. Mix in his obsession with Basketball and his experience as a Scout for the Atlanta Hawks and you start to see the breadth previously mentioned. Business is Landon's rubik's cube - it's what he seems to do for fun.
Le sujet : La SARL de famille est une forme sociale particulièrement bien adaptée à la location meublée. Elle présente de nombreux avantages en matière de responsabilité, de fiscalité, de cession et de transmission. Ce type de société ne peut être formé que par des associés présentant un lien de parenté directe (parents-enfants, frères-soeurs, grands-parents) ou un lien matrimonial (mariage ou même PACS). L'invité du jour : Yasmina Brasseur est Ingénieure Patrimoniale Senior chez Bred Banque Privée. Elle apporte son expertise juridique et fiscale pour la structuration du patrimoine financier et immobilier des particuliers. Au micro de Matthieu Stefani, cofondateur de CosaVostra, Yasmina Brasseur nous explique tout ce qu'il faut savoir sur la SARL de famille dans le cadre de la location meublée : Qu'est-ce qu'une SARL de famille (aussi connue sous le nom de SARL de gestion immobilière) ? En quoi la SARL de famille est-elle plus intéressante que la SCI en location meublée ? Quels sont les avantages de la SARL de famille en matière de donation et de succession ? Quels sont les nouveaux seuils et taux en location meublée avec la Loi de Finances 2024 ? Quels conseils pratiques pour constituer une SARL de famille ? Avec en prime, des exemples chiffrés d'un cas de cession pour démontrer les différents résultats entre SARL de famille et SCI. Pour suivre Yasmina Brasseur : Son profil LinkedIn : Yasmina Brasseur Ils citent les références suivantes : OVNI Capital société de capital-risque spécialisé dans les start-up françaises Soul Invest plateforme de crowdequity Anaxago groupe pionnier du financement participatif et conseil en investissement financier Régime fiscal de la location meublée touristique depuis la Loi de Finances 2024 Ainsi que d'anciens épisodes de La Martingale : #199 - Investir aux côtés des meilleurs business angels grâce au SPV #204 - Location saisonnière : le secret pour contourner toutes les limites #107 - La vraie rentabilité de l'immobilier locatif On vous souhaite une très bonne écoute ! C'est par ici si vous préférez Apple Podcasts, ou ici si vous préférez Spotify. Et pour recevoir toutes les actus et des recommandations exclusives, abonnez-vous à la newsletter, c'est par ici. La Martingale est un podcast produit par CosaVostra, du label Orso Media. Merci à notre partenaire Louve Invest de soutenir le podcast. Choisissez parmi plus de 50 SCPI rentables et bénéficiez d'un cashback de 3% sur les frais de souscription.
In this Topical Tuesday's episode, I spoke with Paul Shannon who is a seasoned real estate operator, who has acquired and renovated over 150 residential units and he's also an experienced limited partner, who has passively invested in a diverse spectrum of real estate assets. More recently, he's used this experience to launch InvestWise Collective, which offers a customizable "a la carte" approach to residential and commercial debt and equity deals. Be sure to tune in if you're interested in learning about: The thought process behind his move from the hands-on operations of heavy value-add multifamily, to capital raising through fund structure His "go to" techniques to raise capital The differences between a customizable fund and a single asset SPV, and whether a customizable fund is more difficult to administer Regulatory considerations pertaining to customizable funds How he's planning to use customizable funds to invest in deals in 2024 To your success, Tyler Lyons Resources mentioned in the episode: Paul Shannon LinkedIn Invest Wise Website Leftfield Investors Website Interested in investing with Asym Capital? Check out our webinar. Please note that investing in private placement securities entails a high degree of risk, including illiquidity of the investment and loss of principal. Please refer to the subscription agreement for a discussion of risk factors. Tired of scrambling for capital? Check out our new FREE webinar - How to Ensure You Never Scramble for Capital Again (The 3 Capital-Raising Secrets). Click Here to register. CFC Podcast Facebook Group
The Top Entrepreneurs in Money, Marketing, Business and Life
Tarja recognizes that energy in Finland is a hot space. She's launched a marketplace connecting 100 apartment complex owners with 100 providers of energy services like solar and heat. Shes raising a $15m fund to then back these projects that go through her marketplace. Will she get the $15m SPV closed and change the course of energy efficiency before 2025?
Welcome to a transformative episode of The Business Lunch Podcast where we dive into the world of business scaling and preparation for a successful exit! In today's session, we'll be exploring the Scalable Impact Framework (SPV), an innovative tool designed to propel businesses to new heights.Roland & Ryan introduces the SPV, a comprehensive approach focusing on three critical areas: leveraged sales, bankable profit, and transferable value. We begin with a deep dive into leveraged sales, where we question attendees about their growth engines. Are they generating over $10k per month? Do they hold authority across multiple channels? Is their business model truly scalable? It's all about understanding and documenting the mechanisms that drive substantial growth.Then, we shift gears to discuss bankable profit. Here, we explore the concept of a $0 budget, emphasizing the importance of tracking every expense. We delve into margin maximizers to enhance the average value derived from each customer and unravel the intricacies of a cash flow waterfall. This segment is all about maximizing profits and ensuring financial health.The journey doesn't end there! We also address transferable value, examining key elements like operating system documentation, the efficiency of the team, and structuring a business to be exit ready. Attendees get hands-on with a practical worksheet, rating each component as green, yellow, or red. The aim is clear: identify and address the weaknesses that hinder scaling.Lastly, we share effective strategies to turn those daunting red areas into success stories. We talk about documenting growth engines, setting pragmatic budgets, and building robust operating systems. The episode wraps up with a call to action for founders: engage with advisors, discuss solutions, and take meaningful steps to elevate their businesses.So, grab your notebook, and let's embark on this journey to make your business not just grow, but thrive and become exit ready!Highlights:"The more valuable you are to your business, the less valuable your business is.""Oftentimes entrepreneurs, we pride ourselves in being able to swoop in and save the day, we could do anything, we could do everything. And if what we do, right, cool, you're trapped.""You don't want to be owned by your business, but you also don't want somebody else to have blackbox what they do to where you're terrified, if they would leave or quit."Timestamps:0:00 - Entrepreneur exits and profitability4:10 - The importance of diversifying businesses to avoid financial instability.6:56 - Scaling a business and exit strategies.10:24 - Business growth and leadership exits.16:12 - Leadership roles and exits for CEOs.20:28 - Entrepreneurship, investing, and company growth.23:55 - Scaling and exit strategies for businesses.27:35 - Exit readiness for businesses.33:23 - The benefits of being an owner-operator vs. a non-owner operator in a business sale.35:22 - Entrepreneurship, sales, and scalability.45:43 - Business growth strategies and documentation.49:36 -Scalability.52:45 - Acquisitions and due diligence in business.55:50 - Business financial management and growth strategies.1:03:24 - Building high-output teams with exercises and tools.1:06:42 - Business exits and scaling.1:09:16 - Scaling businesses by identifying and addressing red areas.Live Links :CONNECT • Ask Roland a question HERE.RESOURCES: • 7 Steps to Scalable...