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Grant Cardone says he may have found a way to disrupt the $4 trillion real estate industry by combining income-producing real estate with Bitcoin. In this interview recorded live at Consensus 2026, Grant breaks down why the 1965 REIT model is fundamentally broken — companies forced to distribute 90% of their cash with nothing left for capital expenditures — and how his Bitcoin real estate hybrid solves the liquidity problem that's crushing major institutions like Starwood right now. He explains why 80% of his investors have never owned Bitcoin before, how showing them the hybrid model turned them into Bitcoin buyers on their own, and why he believes every major institution will eventually adopt this model. Grant also reveals how he almost lost $12 million in Bitcoin on a plane he sold to Tim Draper, why he thinks Bitcoin should be $150,000 today, and what Michael Saylor said when he saw Grant's first hybrid deal. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Tim Draper, known for "Meet the Drapers," talks about the excitement he sees from entrepreneurs and how they navigate the opportunity to "supercharge" their businesses. He talks about what he looks for in aspiring business owners and even points out IPOs he regrets missing out on. Tim turns to investing opportunities he has his eyes on today, including AI-centric companies he believes will win the AI race. He later talks about opportunities in Bitcoin, from individual investors to governments.======== Schwab Network ========Empowering every investor and trader, every market day.Subscribe to the Market Minute newsletter - https://schwabnetwork.com/subscribeDownload the iOS app - https://apps.apple.com/us/app/schwab-network/id1460719185Download the Amazon Fire Tv App - https://www.amazon.com/TD-Ameritrade-Network/dp/B07KRD76C7Watch on Sling - https://watch.sling.com/1/asset/191928615bd8d47686f94682aefaa007/watchWatch on Vizio - https://www.vizio.com/en/watchfreeplus-exploreWatch on DistroTV - https://www.distro.tv/live/schwab-network/Follow us on X – https://twitter.com/schwabnetworkFollow us on Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/schwabnetworkFollow us on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/schwab-network/ About Schwab Network - https://schwabnetwork.com/about
Tim Draper didn't become a legendary investor with billions in his account overnight; he started by taking a $6 million loan to launch his first venture fund, knowing failure was a real possibility. That decision didn't just shape his career; it laid the foundation for backing some of the biggest companies in the world, including Hotmail, Skype, Tesla, and more. In this episode, Tim joins Ilana to break down how to spot world-changing ideas before they make sense, why most people miss their biggest opportunities, and how listening to your gut can be more powerful than logic alone. He shares the lessons behind massive wins like Hotmail, painful misses like Netflix, and the mindset required to navigate uncertainty, fear, and reinvention. Tim Draper is a third-generation venture capitalist, founder of Draper University, and one of Silicon Valley's most legendary investors. He is a lifelong advocate for entrepreneurship, innovation, and the next generation of world-changing founders. In this episode, Ilana and Tim will discuss: (00:00) Introduction (04:11) Early Lessons on Money, Risk, and Capitalism (08:43) Leaving Home at 13 and Learning to Figure It Out (11:48) Venture Capital Roots and Family Background (14:17) Taking a $6 Million Loan and Betting on Himself (17:14) Spotting Billion-Dollar Companies Before Anyone Else (20:11) The Viral Growth Strategy Behind Hotmail (23:26) How Skype Changed Global Communication Forever (29:18) Navigating the Dot-Com Crash (34:13) Will AI and Crypto Follow the Same Boom Cycle? (35:55) The Power of Listening to Your Gut as an Entrepreneur (46:59) Q&A: How Do I Know What to Invest In? Tim Draper is a third-generation venture capitalist and founder of Draper University. He backed world-changing companies, including Hotmail, Skype, Tesla, SpaceX, Coinbase, and Robinhood. Known for spotting transformative trends before the mainstream, he's also a passionate advocate for entrepreneurship education, cryptocurrency, and celebrating innovation. His show Meet the Drapers reaches roughly 300 million people globally. Connect with Tim Tim's Website: https://timothydraper.com/ Tim's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timothydraper/ Tim's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/timdraper/ Resources Mentioned: Tim's Book, How to be the Startup Hero - A Guide and Textbook for Entrepreneurs and Aspiring Entrepreneurs: https://www.amazon.com/How-Startup-Hero-Textbook-Entrepreneurs/dp/1973585340/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8 Leap Academy: Ready to make the LEAP in your career? There is a NEW WAY for professionals to fast-track their careers and leap to bigger opportunities. Check out our free training today at https://bit.ly/leap--free-training
Anthony Pompliano investigates whether bitcoin can actually hit $1 million per coin. In this episode, we break down what Michael Saylor, Cathie Wood, Tim Draper, and others are predicting, run the math on what it would take, and cover the four key demand drivers that could get us there.===================Arch Public is an agentic trading platform that automates the buying and selling of your preferred crypto strategies. Sign up today at https://www.archpublic.com and start your automated trading strategy for free. No catch. No hidden fees. Just smarter trading.===================0:00 - Intro0:26 - Michael Saylor: Bitcoin to $10 million1:05 - Tim Draper: Bitcoin to $10 million1:47 - Cathie Wood: Bitcoin to $1.5 million by 20304:07 - Adam Back: Bitcoin to $1 million by 20284:39 - Matthew Siegel: Bitcoin to $1 million in ~5 years6:08 - Eric Trump: Conviction on $1 million bitcoin6:57 - The math: What growth rate does bitcoin need?9:26 - The 4 drivers that get bitcoin to $1 million9:41 - Driver 1: The bear market bottom (Lynn Alden)11:05 - Driver 2: Governments buying bitcoin (Brian Armstrong)12:05 - Driver 3: Institutional adoption (Dylan LeClair)13:59 - Driver 4: Money printing & retail demand15:10 - Final verdict: Can Bitcoin hit $1 million?
A billionaire just issued a global warning and it is not subtle. Tim Draper and Michael Saylor lay out a future where fiat breaks and Bitcoin absorbs global capital. This is about collapsing currencies, engineered scarcity, and why self custody matters more than ever. If you are not positioned, you are exposed.SPONSORS✅ Lednhttps://www.nmj1gs2i.com/9W598/9B9DM/?source_id=podcastSimply Bitcoin clients get 0.25% off their first loanNeed liquidity without selling your Bitcoin? Ledn has been the trusted Bitcoin-backed lending platform for 6+ years. Access your BTC's value while HODLing.
✔️ Someone is smashing every little rally in BTC✔️ Realized Cap for NEW whales has gone VERTICAL.✔️ Momentum turned positive. We have already seen the worst.✔️ The first macro cycle since 2020 may finally be starting.✔️ IREN will eventually sunset the Bitcoin mining business✔️ Block publishes proof of reserves✔️ They're literally telling us the Clarity Act is going to pass✔️ Tim Draper says it's now irresponsible for companies to not hold bitcoin.✔️ Bitcoin Conference 2026✔️ Even saylor has gone full shitcoiner with promoting anything✔️ Dude mines bitcoin before it existed✔️ Wall of Bitcoin Guitars✔️ People with FreeSamourai signs being escorted out of the conference✔️ Sources:► https://x.com/ansellindner/status/2048778412295160053► https://x.com/jameseastonuk/status/2049081191416893443► https://x.com/snz_btc/status/2049123826613489666► https://x.com/techdev_52/status/2048867029860466832► https://x.com/bitcoinnewscom/status/2048846896983322832► https://x.com/bitcoinnewscom/status/2048820670692544920► https://x.com/KalshiTrade/status/2048863286020411745► https://x.com/coinbureau/status/2048964168334623124► https://x.com/bitcoinmagazine/status/2048835376849301656► https://x.com/hodlmagoo/status/2048908472146645348► https://x.com/pledditor/status/2049113694827585826► https://x.com/cryptocloaks/status/2048890127368564999► https://x.com/thebitcoinconf/status/2049202661082501353► https://x.com/bitcoinvoter/status/2048829035719888933► https://x.com/rstormsf/status/2049157683916464278► https://x.com/leamuirleyn/status/2048820219083423949► https://x.com/master_of_coin/status/2048872520691200110► DONATE TO HELP KEONNE AND BILL https://www.change.org/p/stand-up-for-freedom-pardon-the-innocent-coders-jailed-for-building-privacy-tools✔️ Check out Our Bitcoin Only Sponsors!► https://archemp.co/Discover the pinnacle of precision engineering. Our very first product, the bitcoin logo wall clock, is meticulously machined in Maine from a solid block of aerospace-grade aluminum, ensuring unparalleled durability and performance. We don't compromise on quality – no castings, just solid, high-grade material. Our state-of-the-art CNC machining center achieves tolerances of 1/1000th of an inch, guaranteeing a perfect fit and finish every time. Invest in a product built to last, with the exacting standards you deserve.► Join Our telegram: https://t.me/theplebunderground#Bitcoin #crypto #cryptocurrency #dailybitcoinnews #memecoinsThe information provided by Pleb Underground ("we," "us," or "our") on Youtube.com (the "Site") our show is for general informational purposes only. All information on the show is provided in good faith, however we make no representation or warranty of any kind, express or implied, regarding the accuracy, adequacy, validity, reliability, availability, or completeness of any information on the Site. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCE SHALL WE HAVE ANY LIABILITY TO YOU FOR ANY LOSS OR DAMAGE OF ANY KIND INCURRED AS A RESULT OF THE USE OF THE SHOW OR RELIANCE ON ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED ON THE SHOW. YOUR USE OF THE SHOW AND YOUR RELIANCE ON ANY INFORMATION ON THE SHOW IS SOLELY AT YOUR OWN RISK.
Anthony Pompliano breaks down the biggest bitcoin predictions coming out of this year's bitcoin Conference. In this episode, he covers Arthur Hayes on digital credit driving the next bull run, Michael Saylor on the explosion of digital credit markets, Tim Draper on why it's now irresponsible for companies not to hold bitcoin, a major upcoming announcement from the White House on the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, SEC Chair Paul Atkins on regulation as a catalyst, and Paul Tudor Jones on bitcoin as the best inflation hedge alive.=====================Uphold is the easiest way to buy and sell crypto unlike any other platform allowing you to trade in just one step between any supported asset. Check them out at https://www.uphold.com/pomp/ This video includes a paid sponsorship with Uphold. I'm compensated by Uphold for promoting its products and services and may receive commissions from referrals. Terms apply. Not available in all jurisdictions. Digital assets are risky and may result in the total loss of your capital.=====================Arch Public is an agentic trading platform that automates the buying and selling of your preferred crypto strategies. Sign up today at https://www.archpublic.com and start your automated trading strategy for free. No catch. No hidden fees. Just smarter trading.=====================0:00 - Intro 0:22 - Arthur Hayes: bitcoin bull run prediction 1:23 - Michael Saylor: digital credit is exploding 3:40 - Tim Draper: it's irresponsible not to hold bitcoin 7:05 - White House & Strategic Bitcoin Reserve announcement?9:20 - SEC Chair Paul Atkins on regulation & crypto 11:10 - Paul Tudor Jones: bitcoin is the best inflation hedge 13:08 - Final take: why Pomp holds bitcoin
In this episode of the OVNIs Podcast, hosted by Augustin Sayer, Adam Draper of Boost VC dives into the art of storytelling as a core skill in venture capital - explaining how strong narratives shape brands, attract founders, and ultimately define a fund's identity. Drawing from his journey from early angel investing to building Boost VC, he shares how intuition, fast decision-making, and consistency have been central to backing category-defining companies like Coinbase, while emphasizing the importance of building conviction early - even before markets fully understand the opportunity. The conversation also explores deeper themes such as liquidity in venture capital, unconventional strategies like leveraging crypto assets, and the evolution of investment theses in a rapidly changing ecosystem. Adam highlights his long-term belief in “sovereign technology” and founder-driven innovation, while offering a candid look at how experimentation, bold bets, and differentiated thinking can unlock outsized returns. Looking ahead to 2026, the episode captures a forward-thinking perspective on where innovation is heading—and what it takes to stay ahead in the venture game.[00:00:00] Intro & Adam Draper joins the podcast[00:00:49] Why storytelling is a VC superpower[00:01:56] From first startup to early angel investing wins[00:02:54] The origin story of Boost VC[00:06:07] Building a brand: consistency, identity & narrative[00:07:06] Growing up with Tim Draper & shaping an investor mindset[00:09:22] Why media, blogging & podcasting matter for investors[00:10:48] The Coinbase bet before understanding Bitcoin[00:13:48] Going all-in on crypto & building a fund thesis[00:15:10] Contrarian investing & embracing controversy[00:17:22] Personal branding & the power of consistency (the orange pants)[00:19:09] From comics to crypto: investing in rebellion & systems change[00:21:26] What makes a great VC partner[00:23:04] Liquidity in venture: myths vs reality[00:27:01] How venture capital is evolving (20 → 20,000 deals)[00:30:03] The Bitcoin strategy inside a VC fund[00:33:05] Returning capital using crypto liquidity[00:35:03] Building a high-performing fund & DPI insights[00:37:03] Evolving thesis: from crypto to deep tech & beyond[00:39:49] Conviction investing: leading a $300M round[00:46:01] Why bold bets define great investors[00:46:26] The future of venture & secondary markets[00:47:06] Why top funds sell before IPOs[00:47:48] Managing risk vs maximizing long-term upside[00:48:32] How great investors think about timing exits[00:49:15] The evolution of venture as an asset class[00:50:02] Early-stage vs late-stage: two different games[00:50:44] Access vs luck in venture capital[00:51:28] What truly defines a “great” investment[00:52:10] Building companies that matter for humanity[00:52:54] Patterns Adam looks for in founders[00:53:36] Why conviction beats consensus every time[00:54:18] Lessons from 15+ years in venture[00:55:02] What excites Adam Draper about 2026[00:56:10] Future trends: deep tech, bio & frontier innovation[00:57:12] Final thoughts: building, betting & staying curious[00:58:10] Outro & closing remarks
Courtney McColgan (Runa) revela su estrategia para levantar $6M en Silicon Valley siendo una founder no técnica y cómo escalar una startup B2B en LatAm.En este episodio aprenderás:- Cómo entrar a Y Combinator sin tener un co-fundador técnico.- La estrategia del "Candidate Deck" para atraer talento de clase mundial.- SEO vs Paid Ads: Cómo lograr 500k visitas mensuales sin quemar caja en marketing.- Por qué lanzar en México o Brasil desde el día uno es una ventaja competitiva.- Dilución vs Crecimiento: Cómo balancear el equity en cada ronda.Frase clave:"Tu tiempo es lo más valioso que tienes. Tienes que saber cuándo cortar y cuándo seguir, no puedes quedarte pegado 10 años en algo que no escala." - Courtney McColganCapítulos:00:00 - De California a China: El inicio emprendedor de Courtney05:37 - Trabajando con Tim Draper y la etapa de Tesla y SpaceX06:58 - Abriendo 130 ciudades para Cabify en tiempo récord08:34 - Lanzar en México desde Perú: La apuesta arriesgada de Runa13:40 - SEO vs Ads: La estrategia para conseguir 500k visitas mensuales16:14 - Levantando $6M en Silicon Valley siendo non-technical y sola20:54 - El secreto de Y Combinator para escalar startups de nómina36:48 - La "Ronda de Capital" como herramienta de marketing y ventas40:51 - El Candidate Deck: Cómo atraer talento top con un pitch de inversión51:32 - Dilución vs Crecimiento: ¿Cuánto debes ceder en cada ronda?Invitada:Courtney McColgan - Fundadora y CEO de Runa HRLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/courtney-mccolgan-7976873/Sígueme para más sobre innovación y startups:LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jaimersb/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jaimersbWeb: https://www.jaimesotomayor.comEpisodio en YouTube: https://youtu.be/Ld1uOheNPlc#CourtneyMcColgan #RunaHR #SEO #YCombinator #SiliconValley #StartupsLatAm #SAAS
Procore just wrote a 9-figure check. Autodesk just cut 1,300 people. And someone called the best salespeople "the laziest."In this episode of Bricks, Bucks & Bytes, Owen, Dustin, and Patric sit down with Mike Powers, Kevin Halter, and Anton Glance to dissect the most chaotic week in construction tech. A founder just landed his second major exit. A website launched with zero mention of "AI." And a former Autodesk exec didn't hold back on who's winning the platform war.We get into:The real reason Procore acquired DataGrid — and why they won't make another bet like this for yearsAutodesk's layoffs and the "buy, build, buy" cycle that keeps repeatingKevin Halter's unfiltered take on Procore vs AutodeskWhy Mike removed every mention of "AI" from BuildVision's websiteThe warning sign AI startups need to hear right nowAnton's vision for BuildDroid — the robot simulation platform backed by Tim DraperKey quote:"Autodesk historically has been buy buy buy. Okay, we bought a bunch. Now we're going to build, build, build. And then they realized we're not good at building. So then we go buy buy buy." — Dustin DevanWatch the full episode on Youtube and Spotify. Link in the comments!Our Sponsor:Aphex is the multiplayer planning platform where construction teams plan together, stay aligned, and deliver projects faster – check out aphex.coArchdesk - “The #1 Construction Management Software for Growing Companies - Manage your projects from Tender to Handover” check archdesk.comBuildVision - streamlining the construction supply chain with a unified platform - www.buildvision.ioChapters00:00 Intro01:06 Industry Shifts and Acquisitions 03:53 Procore's Strategic Moves 07:06 Autodesk Layoffs and Market Reactions 09:54 Sales Strategies and Organizational Changes 12:50 AI's Impact on Construction Tech 15:51 Website Innovations in Construction Tech 18:53 Future of Startups in AEC Tech 21:56 Final Thoughts and Upcoming Events 32:58 Introduction to Build Word AI 34:40 Customer Engagement and Project Execution 37:44 Monetization Strategies and Business Model 39:26 Founding Story and Team Dynamics 41:14 Timing and Market Readiness 43:46 Global Expansion and Market Validation 45:21 Investment Insights and Fundraising Journey 47:26 Industry Trends and Future Outlook 49:51 Sales Strategies and Market Dynamics
✔️ Hopium: Aliens may trigger bank Collapses, GameStop Moves Some Bitcoin, Tim Draper says Bitcoin will hit..., Tether, NYSE plans to launch a platform enabling 24x7 trading, Pubkey Google Maps Shenanigans ✔️ Adoption: Etch Their memory into Eternity ✔️ Cool Stuff: PlebQR✔️ Samourai✔️ Sources:► https://x.com/bitcoinarchive/status/2013354348219097591?s=52&t=CKH2brGypO5fEYTgQ-EFhQ ► https://x.com/bitcoinmagazine/status/2013237265779102013?s=52&t=CKH2brGypO5fEYTgQ-EFhQ► https://www.reuters.com/business/nyse-parent-intercontinental-exchange-develops-platform-247-tokenized-securities-2026-01-19/► https://www.mexc.co/en-IN/news/510774► https://x.com/bitcoinarchive/status/2013247273635832017?s=52&t=CKH2brGypO5fEYTgQ-EFhQ► https://x.com/bitcoinnewscom/status/2012877420227952798?s=52&t=CKH2brGypO5fEYTgQ-EFhQ► https://x.com/everstonebtc/status/2012638898405429530?s=52&t=CKH2brGypO5fEYTgQ-EFhQ► https://x.com/bitcoinnewscom/status/2012864860950831138?s=52&t=CKH2brGypO5fEYTgQ-EFhQ► https://finance.yahoo.com/news/bank-england-warned-prepare-aliens-212252751.html► https://x.com/jamesob/status/2013285263611408653?s=52&t=CKH2brGypO5fEYTgQ-EFhQ► https://x.com/callebtc/status/2012785827362037977?s=52&t=CKH2brGypO5fEYTgQ-EFhQ► https://plebqr.com/► DONATE TO HELP KEONNE AND BILL https://www.change.org/p/stand-up-for-freedom-pardon-the-innocent-coders-jailed-for-building-privacy-tools✔️ Check out Our Bitcoin Only Sponsors!► https://archemp.co/Discover the pinnacle of precision engineering. Our very first product, the bitcoin logo wall clock, is meticulously machined in Maine from a solid block of aerospace-grade aluminum, ensuring unparalleled durability and performance. We don't compromise on quality – no castings, just solid, high-grade material. Our state-of-the-art CNC machining center achieves tolerances of 1/1000th of an inch, guaranteeing a perfect fit and finish every time. Invest in a product built to last, with the exacting standards you deserve.► Join Our telegram: https://t.me/theplebunderground#Bitcoin #crypto #cryptocurrency #dailybitcoinnews #memecoinsThe information provided by Pleb Underground ("we," "us," or "our") on Youtube.com (the "Site") our show is for general informational purposes only. All information on the show is provided in good faith, however we make no representation or warranty of any kind, express or implied, regarding the accuracy, adequacy, validity, reliability, availability, or completeness of any information on the Site. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCE SHALL WE HAVE ANY LIABILITY TO YOU FOR ANY LOSS OR DAMAGE OF ANY KIND INCURRED AS A RESULT OF THE USE OF THE SHOW OR RELIANCE ON ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED ON THE SHOW. YOUR USE OF THE SHOW AND YOUR RELIANCE ON ANY INFORMATION ON THE SHOW IS SOLELY AT YOUR OWN RISK.
✔️ Hopium: Aliens may trigger bank Collapses, GameStop Moves Some Bitcoin, Tim Draper says Bitcoin will hit..., Tether, NYSE plans to launch a platform enabling 24x7 trading, Pubkey Google Maps Shenanigans ✔️ Adoption: Etch Their memory into Eternity ✔️ Cool Stuff: PlebQR✔️ Samourai✔️ Sources:► https://x.com/bitcoinarchive/status/2013354348219097591?s=52&t=CKH2brGypO5fEYTgQ-EFhQ ► https://x.com/bitcoinmagazine/status/2013237265779102013?s=52&t=CKH2brGypO5fEYTgQ-EFhQ► https://x.com/peterlbrandt/status/2013390022506864827?s=52&t=CKH2brGypO5fEYTgQ-EFhQ► https://www.reuters.com/business/nyse-parent-intercontinental-exchange-develops-platform-247-tokenized-securities-2026-01-19/► https://www.mexc.co/en-IN/news/510774► https://x.com/bitcoinarchive/status/2013247273635832017?s=52&t=CKH2brGypO5fEYTgQ-EFhQ► https://x.com/bitcoinnewscom/status/2012877420227952798?s=52&t=CKH2brGypO5fEYTgQ-EFhQ► https://x.com/everstonebtc/status/2012638898405429530?s=52&t=CKH2brGypO5fEYTgQ-EFhQ► https://x.com/bitcoinnewscom/status/2012864860950831138?s=52&t=CKH2brGypO5fEYTgQ-EFhQ► https://finance.yahoo.com/news/bank-england-warned-prepare-aliens-212252751.html► https://x.com/jamesob/status/2013285263611408653?s=52&t=CKH2brGypO5fEYTgQ-EFhQ► https://x.com/callebtc/status/2012785827362037977?s=52&t=CKH2brGypO5fEYTgQ-EFhQ► https://plebqr.com/► DONATE TO HELP KEONNE AND BILL https://www.change.org/p/stand-up-for-freedom-pardon-the-innocent-coders-jailed-for-building-privacy-tools✔️ Check out Our Bitcoin Only Sponsors!► https://archemp.co/Discover the pinnacle of precision engineering. Our very first product, the bitcoin logo wall clock, is meticulously machined in Maine from a solid block of aerospace-grade aluminum, ensuring unparalleled durability and performance. We don't compromise on quality – no castings, just solid, high-grade material. Our state-of-the-art CNC machining center achieves tolerances of 1/1000th of an inch, guaranteeing a perfect fit and finish every time. Invest in a product built to last, with the exacting standards you deserve.► Join Our telegram: https://t.me/theplebunderground#Bitcoin #crypto #cryptocurrency #dailybitcoinnews #memecoinsThe information provided by Pleb Underground ("we," "us," or "our") on Youtube.com (the "Site") our show is for general informational purposes only. All information on the show is provided in good faith, however we make no representation or warranty of any kind, express or implied, regarding the accuracy, adequacy, validity, reliability, availability, or completeness of any information on the Site. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCE SHALL WE HAVE ANY LIABILITY TO YOU FOR ANY LOSS OR DAMAGE OF ANY KIND INCURRED AS A RESULT OF THE USE OF THE SHOW OR RELIANCE ON ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED ON THE SHOW. YOUR USE OF THE SHOW AND YOUR RELIANCE ON ANY INFORMATION ON THE SHOW IS SOLELY AT YOUR OWN RISK.
The Draper name is synonymous with Silicon Valley risk-taking. For decades, venture capitalist Tim Draper made bold bets on breakthrough technologies long before they went mainstream (see: Bitcoin). Today, two ... The post FHC #197: Artificial wombs & medical tourism – Draper siblings on healthcare's next wave appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.
Send us a textBill Bartholomew welcomes Tim Draper, Senior Vice President, Navigant Credit Union Charitable Foundation to discuss their Season of Giving initiative.Support the show
Tim Draper founded Draper Associates, DFJ and the Draper Venture Network, a global network of venture capital funds. Funded Coinbase, Baidu, Tesla, Skype, SpaceX, Twitch, Hotmail, Focus Media, Robinhood, Athenahealth, Box, Cruise Automation, Carta, Planet, PTC and 15 other unicorns from early/first rounds.He is a supporter and global thought leader for entrepreneurs everywhere, and is a leading spokesperson for Bitcoin and decentralization, having won the Bitcoin US Marshall's auction in 2014, invested in over 50 crypto companies, and led investments in Coinbase, Ledger, Tezos, and Bancor, among others.He is regularly featured on all major networks as a proponent for entrepreneurship, innovative governance, free markets and Bitcoin, and has received various awards and honors including the World Entrepreneurship Forum's “Entrepreneur of the World,” and is listed as one of the top 100 most powerful people in finance by Worth Magazine, the top 20 most influential people in Crypto by CryptoWeekly, #1 most networked VC by AlwaysOn, #7 on the Forbes Midas List, member of the Global Guru 30 Startup Gurus in the world, and #48 most influential Harvard Alum.
The Business Method Podcast: High-Performance & Entrepreneurship
In this episode of The Business Method Podcast, host Chris Reynolds sits down with legendary venture capitalist Tim Draper — the man behind early investments in Tesla, SpaceX, Hotmail, Skype, and Bitcoin. Tim shares how his bold approach to risk, belief in innovation, and commitment to empowering people have shaped a new generation of entrepreneurs. From building Draper University to backing technologies once deemed “impossible,” Draper reveals the mindset and vision that helped him redefine venture capital. He also opens up about the importance of embracing failure, encouraging freedom through technology, and creating environments that nurture innovation, lessons that have influenced founders and investors across the world. Episode Highlights: 00:00 Introduction to Tim Draper 00:35 Tim Draper's Early Investments 01:07 Meet the Drapers and Draper America Tour 02:46 Global Innovation Hotspots 04:56 Creating Entrepreneurial Cities 06:29 Challenges of Building a New Country 12:04 Evaluating Investment Opportunities 18:26 The Draper Legacy in Venture Capital 20:37 The Importance of Personal Connections in Deals 21:02 Lessons Passed Down Through Generations 21:50 Embracing Failure and Taking Risks 22:53 Thoughts on Abolishing the SEC 23:40 The Impact of Overregulation on Innovation 27:46 Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Investments 31:32 Reflections on Picking Winners 33:52 Favorite Books and Influences 36:01 Final Thoughts and Farewell Connect with Tim Draper Website: https://www.draper.vc/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/timdraper/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timothydraper/ Twitter (X): https://twitter.com/timdraper Draper University: https://www.draperuniversity.com/ Subscribe to The Business Method Podcast Website: thebusinessmethod.com Apple Podcasts: bit.ly/TheBusinessMethod Google Podcasts: bit.ly/TheBusinessMethodGooglePodcasts Spotify: bit.ly/SpotifyTheBusinessMethod Follow Chris Reynolds: Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn — @chrisreynoldslive https://linktr.ee/ChrisReynoldsLive
Join Alex Tapscott and Andrew Young as they decode the world of crypto with special guest Tim Draper, Founder and Managing Partner of Draper Associates. Listen in as they discuss the forces reshaping our world. Tim shares why he views Bitcoin as a hedge against bad governance, how founders should diversify their treasuries after the Silicon Valley Bank collapse, and why stablecoins are accelerating crypto adoption. Tim explores the next frontiers of innovation, from healthcare and finance to space and transportation, and how AI, gene editing, and blockchain are driving a new wave of entrepreneurship. They also dive into liquid democracy, prediction markets, and the rise of decentralized networks in a multipolar world. The episode closes on a hopeful note: with blockchain's “perfect trust,” the future of global commerce looks faster, fairer, and more open than ever.
David Carvalho, Founder, CEO, and Chief Scientist of Naoris Protocol. He is one of the most seasoned voices at the intersection of cybersecurity and blockchain. He is the founder of Naoris Protocol, the world's first decentralized security solution powered by a post-quantum blockchain and distributed AI, backed by Tim Draper and the Former Chief of Intelligence of NATO.With over 20 years of experience as a Global Chief Information Security Officer and ethical hacker, David has operated at both technical and C-suite levels in multi-billion-dollar organizations across Europe and the UK, including as CISO of London City Airport and Global CISO of OCS Group. He has advised nation-states and critical infrastructure under NATO on cyber-warfare, cyber-terrorism, and cyber-espionage.A blockchain pioneer since 2013, David has also contributed to innovations in PoS/PoW mining and next-gen cybersecurity. His work emphasizes risk mitigation, ethical wealth creation, and value-driven advancements in crypto, automation, and distributed AI.In this conversation, we discuss:- 2028 is when all financial institutions need to be post-quantum resilient - How can we quantum-proof our assets? - Highest risk sectors = healthcare, national security, electrical grids, telecom - The SEC's Post-Quantum Financial Infrastructure Framework - What percentage of your portfolio should be in quantum-safe investments? - Post-quantum crypto - The future of quantum computing - Next steps for Naoris - Naoris' growth - Decentralized cybersecurity mesh NaorisX: @NaorisProtocolWebsite: naorisprotocol.comLinkedIn: Naoris ProtocolDavid CarvalhoX: @katanationcyberLinkedIn: David Joao Vieira Carvalho---------------------------------------------------------------------------------This episode is brought to you by PrimeXBT.PrimeXBT offers a robust trading system for both beginners and professional traders that demand highly reliable market data and performance. Traders of all experience levels can easily design and customize layouts and widgets to best fit their trading style. PrimeXBT is always offering innovative products and professional trading conditions to all customers. PrimeXBT is running an exclusive promotion for listeners of the podcast. After making your first deposit, 50% of that first deposit will be credited to your account as a bonus that can be used as additional collateral to open positions. Code: CRYPTONEWS50 This promotion is available for a month after activation. Click the link below: PrimeXBT x CRYPTONEWS50
Plus YouTube Finally Overtakes Disney Like this? Get AIDAILY, delivered to your inbox 3x a week. Subscribe to our newsletter at https://aidailyus.substack.comWhy Fearing AI Jobs Loss Misses the Full PictureHistory says tech revolutions (think steam engine, electricity) reshape jobs over decades—not instantly erase them. Recent data shows many “AI-exposed” jobs are growing, while firms increasingly hire people with AI skills. The shift will be long, messy, and full of both disruption and opportunity.YouTube Just Overtook Disney—Now Betting Big on AI ToolsYouTube announced at its “Made on YouTube” event that AI is now core to its content creation strategy, not just gimmicks. With over 2.7B users and revenue past $50B, it's introducing tools like auto-editing, speech-to-song, and smart product links. The company promises creators won't be replaced, just helped. What AI Really Still Can't DoAI can churn out stats, polish essays, and automate stuff—but it still can't handle the messy, physical, and deeply human bits. The blog's author jokes about installing toilet seats, cleaning lint traps, and creeping behind appliances—tasks where clumsy hands beat perfect code. Don't Give AI the Final SayLeaders at banks, credit unions, and fintechs are sounding alarms: making AI responsible for more than half of decision-making in fraud detection or customer credibility could backfire. They argue for layered intelligence—humans + algorithms + federation of data—so AI remains a tool, not the boss. China Warns Terrorists Could Use AI to Build WeaponsChina's government issued a new AI safety governance draft warning that extremists might harness “retrieval-augmented generation” tools to access theoretical knowledge on nukes, biological, chemical, and missile weapons. They say this could make existing control systems ineffective and pose serious risks to global/regional security.Let AI Sleep Boost Your Game?The author argues that combining AI with sleep tracking could be the next productivity frontier. Think dreamy AI assistants noticing your sleep cycles, nudging you toward optimal rest, and helping you wake up fresh—so you spend more of your “awake time” actually killing it.Coca-Cola & MIT Launch “Save the Orange” to Fight Crop Disease With AICoca-Cola's joining an MIT-led AI consortium to tackle citrus greening, the disease devouring orange trees globally. Through “Project Save the Orange,” they'll use generative AI + data simulation to speed up research, and partner with Fundecitrus and Invaio Sciences to protect the orange supply.Tim Draper's AI Twin Is in Every RoomVC legend Tim Draper now has an AI “digital twin” hologram that can answer questions in multiple locations at once—powered by scans of his voice, personality, and tons of data. Think of it like Draper-me that never sleeps, writes, or has to fly in.
In this episode of Decentralize with Cointelegraph, venture capital investor and Bitcoin advocate Tim Draper joins Cointelegraph reporter Vince Quill for a deep dive into the shifting tides of Bitcoin adoption. From the slow but inevitable embrace by institutions to the macroeconomic headwinds threatening the US dollar, Draper lays out why FOMO, regulatory clarity and technological freedom are converging to push Bitcoin into the mainstream.He also shares his take on whether Bitcoin's famous four-year halving cycle still matters, or if bigger macro forces are now in play. Tune in to hear his takes!(01:00) Why institutions are moving into Bitcoin (02:59) Institutional FOMO and bank custody scramble(04:44) Is Bitcoin FOMO risky? Treasuries, El Salvador and “gunpowder” analogy (07:30) Retail still lagging; “dinosaur” risk for holdouts (08:35) How they buy: boardrooms, SPACs, MicroStrategy, Fidelity (10:17) Why Big Tech rejected BTC treasuries (11:19) “Irresponsible not to own Bitcoin” (12:10) Dollar vs Bitcoin: Inflation, satoshis, escape valve (15:34) Halving cycle damped: Macro drivers take over (17:07) Dollar extinction? Could BTC be a budget fix?This episode was hosted by Vince Quill and produced by Savannah Fortis, @savannah_fortis.Follow Cointelegraph on X @Cointelegraph.Check out Cointelegraph at cointelegraph.com.If you like what you heard, rate us and leave a review!The views, thoughts and opinions expressed in this podcast are its participants alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph. This podcast (and any related content) is for entertainment purposes only and does not constitute financial advice, nor should it be taken as such. Everyone must do their own research and make their own decisions. The podcast's participants may or may not own any of the assets mentioned.
What's the secret behind building long-term wealth, creating a legacy, and thinking like a billionaire? In this powerful episode of the Jake & Gino Podcast, Gino sits down with Richard C. Wilson, founder of Family Office Club and Billionaires.com, to unpack the strategies, mindset, and structure behind the ultra-wealthy's most powerful wealth-building tool: the family office.Whether you're just starting out or already investing in real estate or businesses, this episode will show you how to think holistically, establish core values, and build a legacy plan that scales with you. Richard shares personal stories, insights from interviewing over 40 billionaires (including Tony Robbins, Mark Cuban, and Tim Draper), and how proximity to the right people transforms your financial future.We dive deep into wealth allocation, parenting with purpose, the power of extreme focus, and why creating a family office is no longer just for billionaires. Learn how to structure your assets, who to include on your team, and why investing in yourself is the most powerful move you can make.Want to take the next step toward financial freedom and legacy wealth? Watch now and learn how to start your own family office—even if you're not ultra-rich… yet. Chapters:00:00:00 - Introduction to Happy Money and Family Offices 00:01:53 - Building Your Family Office Team 00:02:48 - The Family Office Model Explained 00:05:49 - Common Mistakes in Starting a Family Office 00:07:44 - The Power of Proximity and Relationships 00:11:11 - Purpose Over Money 00:15:28 - Understanding Wealth and Family Dynamics 00:28:42 - Common-Sense Wealth Principles 00:32:40 - The Game of Wealth Creation 00:35:43 - Misconceptions About Billionaires00:41:33 - Richard's Final Takeaways & Where to Find Him We're here to help create multifamily entrepreneurs... Here's how: Brand New? Start Here: https://jakeandgino.mykajabi.com/free-wheelbarrowprofits Want To Get Into Multifamily Real Estate Or Scale Your Current Portfolio Faster? Apply to join our PREMIER MULTIFAMILY INVESTING COMMUNITY & MENTORSHIP PROGRAM. (*Note: Our community is not for beginner investors)
Connect with Early Riders // Connect with OnrampPresented collaboratively by Early Riders & Onramp Media...Final Settlement is a weekly podcast covering the underlying mechanics of the bitcoin protocol, its ongoing development and funding, and real-world applications of the technology.00:00 - Bitcoin Market Dynamics and Volatility03:01 - Understanding SEC's New Leadership and Its Implications05:44 - The Future of Custody and Regulation in Crypto09:07 - The Conflation of Bitcoin and Other Cryptos11:48 - The Sound Money Thesis: Bitcoin vs. Other Assets14:46 - The Role of ETFs in Bitcoin Trading17:56 - Institutional Adoption and Market Maturity34:16 - Institutional Adoption of Bitcoin40:02 - The Future of Stablecoins48:51 - Mainstream Reporting on Bitcoin50:31 - Tim Draper's Bitcoin Fund01:00:07 - The Changing Landscape of WealthIf you found this valuable, please subscribe to Early Riders Insights for access to the best content in the ecosystem weekly.Links discussed:https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HmS513cXBKR1jLq1KfQSlKmcLg4Zrf9M/viewhttps://www.sec.gov/newsroom/speeches-statements/atkins-digital-finance-revolution-073125https://x.com/EricBalchunas/status/1950913303623905601https://archive.ph/wRLV6https://x.com/NatHalberstadt/status/1951635776900415724https://x.com/gregisenberg/status/1952129553213571390https://murmurationstwo.substack.com/p/the-last-word-on-stablecoins-and?selectionhttps://x.com/nic__carter/status/1952002119717818782Keep up with Michael: X and LinkedIn Keep up with Brian: X and LinkedIn Keep up with Liam: X and LinkedIn
Stoked to sayWe had Tim Draper on Business Podcast by Roohi recentlyFor one of the biggest and most interesting episodes till dateDuring my conversation with Tim we got into- India- His background and more topicsHope you enjoy this episode!Guest Tim Drapers Handles⤵︎ Tim Draper X: https://x.com/TimDraperTim Draper LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timothydraper/Other links: Draper University: https://draperuniversity.com/Meet the Drapers: https://www.meetthedrapers.com/Draper Associates: https://www.draper.vc/Host Roohi Kazi's Handles ⤵︎ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roohi-kazi-53174113b/Instagram: @roohik2Twitter: https://x.com/roohi_kr?s=21&t=chThpLoxSfA_oCiLbEq5ngE-Mail: bizpodroohi2@gmail.comTO GET FEATURED ON “Business Podcast by Roohi” Email at: bizpodroohi2@gmail.com
What does a Cape buffalo's near-death experience teach us about building billion-dollar companies? In this electrifying episode of Leaders Lead, Tony Taylor sits down with legendary venture capitalist Tim Draper to unpack the mindset of successful entrepreneurs. In this episode, venture capitalist Tim Draper reveals:
Insights into the past, present and future of the crypto industry with Tim Draper.Follow the podcast here.Billionaire venture capitalist Tim Draper joins "CoinDesk Spotlight" with a bold prediction that bitcoin could dethrone the U.S. dollar within 10 years as the dominant global currency. Plus, he advocates for the inclusion of bitcoin in company treasuries alongside fiat currencies for stability and weighs in on an AI-driven future with revolutionized jobs and productivity. And, personal reflection on the individuals who shaped him and the legacy he hopes to leave.-This content should not be construed or relied upon as investment advice. It is for entertainment and general information purposes.-This episode was hosted by Christine Lee. “CoinDesk Spotlight” is produced by Sam Ewen, Christine Lee, Jennifer Sanasie, Taylor Fleming and Victor Chen.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Niklas Anzinger, CEO of Infinita City, discusses how new governance models can unlock technological innovation through regulatory flexibility. Operating within Prospera's special economic zone in Honduras, Infinita is building a biotech-focused district that demonstrates how competitive governance can foster development.Key takeaways:Regulatory flexibility allows businesses to select from proven international frameworks rather than being subject to monopolistic regulation, unlocking "stranded technologies"The project uses market mechanisms like mandatory liability insurance to create proper regulatory incentives without overregulationNotable tech investors including Brian Armstrong (Coinbase), Balaji Srinivasan, and Tim Draper have recently backed the project, validating its approach to governance innovationYou can connect with Niklas on Linkedin, and you can learn more about Prospera here
SHACK15 hosted one of our monthly Angels meetups in February. This time, we were joined by the extraordinary Tim Draper, renowned venture capitalist, and Jorn Lyseggen, serial entrepreneur and founder of SHACK15, for a fireside chat.Tim Draper hails from a distinguished lineage of venture capitalists spanning three generations. A true visionary in the venture capital world, Tim has been instrumental in funding and mentoring some of the most transformative companies, including Tesla, Skype, and Baidu, bringing a wealth of knowledge and unique perspectives on innovation, entrepreneurship, and investment trends.In this conversation, Jorn and Tim delved into stories from his incredible career, discuss their thoughts on the rapidly evolving world of AI, and explored the opportunities and challenges shaping the future of technology.
(0:00) Intro(1:15) About the podcast sponsor: The American College of Governance Counsel(2:02) Start of interview(2:45) Emily's origin story(8:27) Her start in venture capital through DFJ with Tim Draper in 2000.(11:56) About the history and evolution of VC(13:42) Investing thesis (founding principle) at her firm Threshold Ventures.(19:21) The venture mechanics of Threshold Ventures. "One of our SLAs is we'd like to be the founder's first call."(21:30) On navigating boardroom dynamics in venture-backed boards. "Building trust is critical" (26:20) On dealing with conflicts of interests at the board level in the VC context. "Decisions with an investors' hat vs board member hat"(31:35) Mention of the VC-Backed Board Academy in SF on May 14, 2025, and NYC on Oct 28, 2025.(32:31) The role of independent directors in VC-backed companies. "I love bringing in independent directors early."(38:09) On board observers. "I always try to think about [board roles] in a two-year cycle"(42:44) The state of diversity in VC. Discussion about All Raise (founded in 2018).(48:12) Navigating the AI Landscape "it's a different world"(55:10) Books that have greatly influenced her life:The Soul in the Game by Vitaliy Katsenelson (2022)(55:43) Her mentors: Heidi Roizen (E6, E108 and E116)(57:07) Quotes that she thinks of often or lives her life by. "Happiness = Reality - Expectation"(57:56) An unusual habit or an absurd thing that she loves. (58:31) The living person she most admires.Emily Melton is a co-founder of Threshold Ventures. She is looking for entrepreneurs who are genuinely excited about being agents of change and have an almost irrational drive to make things better. You can follow Evan on social media at:X: @evanepsteinLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/epsteinevan/ Substack: https://evanepstein.substack.com/__To support this podcast you can join as a subscriber of the Boardroom Governance Newsletter at https://evanepstein.substack.com/__Music/Soundtrack (found via Free Music Archive): Seeing The Future by Dexter Britain is licensed under a Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License
Jason Raznick interviews legendary investor Tim Draper—one of the earliest backers of Tesla, SpaceX, Hotmail, and Bitcoin—in a powerful conversation about the future of money, investing, and how smart investors are positioning themselves right now.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-raz-report/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
In my interview with Tim Draper, we explored a diverse range of topics, from strategic investment insights and startup wisdom to discussions on income inequality and the evolving landscape of AI in finance. His perspectives offered a compelling look into the future of entrepreneurship and technological innovation.
Lots of healthy disagreement in this week's THAT WAS THE WEEK tech show with Keith Teare. We debate the impact of AI on coding jobs, with Keith suggesting that while traditional coding skills may become less important, system architecture and AI guidance skills will be crucial to maintaining the value of human labor. We also discuss the rise of early-stage unicorns, military-tech AI start-ups, and disagree strongly on the status of billionaires, with Keith arguing that it's “not hard” to be a billionaire in Silicon Valley today. Here are the five KEEN ON takeaways from today's conversation:* Divergent Market and Valley Sentiment: While the stock market is having its worst performance since Trump's inauguration, Silicon Valley remains optimistic, particularly about AI. Keith argues there's no short-term correlation between Silicon Valley sentiment and market performance.* Evolution of Tech Skills: The rise of AI is changing the nature of technical skills needed in startups. Keith suggests that traditional coding skills are becoming less crucial, while the ability to architect systems and guide AI is becoming more important. He notes that universities are already adapting their computer science programs to include AI.* Rise of Efficient Startups: AI is enabling lean startups to do more with fewer people. Keith uses his own company Signal Rank as an example, noting they've built a complex system with just five people, two of whom are coders, highlighting a shift in how startups can be built efficiently.* Military-Tech Convergence: There's a growing trend of Silicon Valley companies entering the defense sector, exemplified by Saronic raising $600 million for autonomous warships. This represents a broader shift in how military technology is being developed and funded through private companies.* Debate about Wealth Creation: The conversation concludes with a debate about wealth accumulation, sparked by Robert Reich's controversial X post about billionaires. Keith argues that technology's global reach and distribution capabilities have made it easier than ever to build valuable companies, with Andrew strongly disputing the idea that becoming a billionaire is "not that hard."That Was The Week - February 22, 2025With Andrew Keen and Keith TeareAndrew Keen: Hello everybody. It is Saturday, February the 22nd, 2025. The last Saturday in February, the last Saturday we're going to do That Was The Week tech roundup. It's been an odd week. On the one hand, the stocks notched the worst week since Trump's inauguration six weeks ago. It's been a long six weeks. According to the Financial Times, the geopolitical rupture, which of course has been caused by Trump, has sparked a quiet market rebellion. Niall Ferguson had an interesting piece in today's Wall Street Journal about the demise of the United States because of its massive debt, and Elon Musk has been continuing to make a public fool of himself this week, waving a chainsaw and pretending to be an Argentine politician, which I'm not sure reflects that well on him. However, in spite of all that bad news, Keith Teare's That Was The Week newsletter is actually very optimistic. Unicorns are back, according to Keith, and we have an image, of course, created by AI of these imaginary beasts horses with horns. Keith is joining us, as always, from Palo Alto, the home of optimism. Keith, do you think it's coincidental that suddenly everyone is optimistic again in Silicon Valley whilst the market is sliding to those two things in an odd way, kind of go together?Keith Teare: There's no correlation between Silicon Valley and the markets at all in any day to day sense. There's long term correlation, but not short term. Silicon Valley is having a moment because of AI, and Grok Three was launched this week. Crunchbase launched its new AI driven data platform, and the CEO declared that historical data is dead, meaning only future predictive data is any good anymore.Andrew Keen: And historical data being dead. The future is predictive intelligence. What does that mean?Keith Teare: He means that it's now possible, because of AI, to see patterns and trends and predict them. Just knowing the past is not the point anymore. Obviously it's stretching a point. You still need the history from the past to see the trends. But he's saying the needle has turned from looking backwards to predicting the future because of data. That's true in biology as well. There's a massive arc this week announced a new model that understands DNA and can predict the likelihood of solving diseases.Andrew Keen: Your editorial this week, Keith, is quite personal. You know that as the person in charge of Signal Rank, your startup, AI has been remarkably helpful in it. You refer in the editorial to an interesting piece in the New York Times about how AI is changing Silicon Valley build startups like your own Signal. What does your experience at Signal Rank tell us about the future of startups?Keith Teare: Signal Rank is five people. Two of us have coding skills. We've raised $5 million ever to spend on building Signal. All the other money we raised is to invest in companies. That article is focusing on the fact that it's almost like the Lean Startup story from the early 2000s, except it's true this time, because the most expensive thing in a startup is people. And the one thing you need less of is people. That's a massive shift. Of course, if you're building large language models, the opposite is true, because the most expensive thing is GPUs, which you pay Nvidia for. And that's super expensive. But everything else that's sitting on top of that is getting faster, cheaper and better.Andrew Keen: You also refer to a New York Times piece about how AI is prompting an evolution, not an extinction for coders. Your son's a coder, in a sense, you're a coder. Ultimately, one and I was at this thing with Tim Draper a couple of weeks ago where he was talking about companies, billion dollar companies built and managed by single people won't ultimately make most coders extinct. Maybe not all. But when founders like yourselves simply become coders and you won't have the need for other help.Keith Teare: I make the point in an editorial that I didn't write a single line of code, but I've built a very complex system with lots of AI agents working together and delivering results for users. Learning to code is going to be a low requirement. A very high requirement is learning to architect and guide the AI because the AI can code, but it can't imagine systems to build or know when it got it right or when it got it wrong. The skill base is going to shift to what normally would be the domain of a product manager who has coding skills and can understand what's happening and can understand what it can ask for and what it can't ask for. But coding itself, learning Python, learning JavaScript or Java? Probably less essential.Andrew Keen: So what happens to kids like your son who just graduated and now works in Silicon Valley as a coder?Keith Teare: He'll still be needed for some time. In his company, they're not allowed to use AI yet. It's a little bit like dying skills always protect themselves until they can't. Engineers that are defensive or companies that are defensive about using AI are going to fall behind a little bit. But eventually everyone gets there because it's just a better way of doing things.Andrew Keen: You're an innovator and instinctive in terms of innovation. But are people going to start going to college and doing majors and working with AI rather than learning how to code? Will computer science be really about how to ask the right questions and ask it to do the correct things?Keith Teare: Yes, but to do that you need to understand systems architecture. My youngest son just got an offer from my old university in the UK, Kent, and it's for a course called Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence, so they're already evolving the courses to teach the new skills. I think it's going to be imperative if you can talk to a machine and you can imagine what you want it to build. Imagine you could describe to a machine the website you'd really like for Keen on America, and it would build it, and then you'd look at what it built and say, no, I didn't mean that, I meant this. It gives you massive power to produce things.Andrew Keen: And I think it's also true with writers. I'm not a coder. But the thing with AI is it's not designed to replicate human writing. It's designed to answer questions and organize ideas in ways that are instant as opposed to taking hours or days for humans. So it's similar in that sense. Meanwhile, let's go back to your unicorns. It's all coming out of Crunchbase that your wife works for. She writes for it. And what is Crunchbase telling us this week about quote unquote minting early stage startups? Are unicorns back in fashion? We haven't talked about unicorns for about a year. We talk about them every week.Keith Teare: The rates of unicorn production declined massively from 2021 onwards and reached the bottom last year.Andrew Keen: While the market was strong and now it's falling and unicorns are back.Keith Teare: This article is specifically about early stage unicorns. These are unicorns that become unicorns at a series A or a series B round. They're raising very large sums of money. The top six series A raises this week all raised more than $50 million.Andrew Keen: And the average valuation I guess early round has jumped to 3.3 billion. But doesn't the unicorn term become slightly absurd if you're raising hundreds of millions of dollars? It's given that you're going to be a unicorn. But does that really mean anything?Keith Teare: If you try to put it into a rational framework, the amount of money put into a company and the valuation is determined by supply and demand and likely outcomes. Investors who are writing these checks are making a calculation of what this company will be worth in the next five to ten years. They're writing checks appropriate to a gain of at least ten times that money. They're projecting into the future a likely outcome from writing the checks and the competition to invest in these companies is so intense that the checks get bigger earlier. Obviously that creates risk. The risk is that you're making the call too early and you're going to be wrong in your predictions. The upside is that you know you're right and you'll be smiling all the way to the bank. That's just the nature of any technology transfer.Andrew Keen: Is this different from any other hysteria boom? Just the numbers are larger. Is this different from the dot-com boom where huge amounts of money were poured in? Most companies failed. Some succeeded, like Amazon or like web 2.0, or like social media or like crypto.Keith Teare: It's very similar. It's more like the gold rush because there really was gold. There really is gold. Even in the dot-com boom, the asset class of venture capital did very well. Individual investments failed, but the asset class as a whole did very well. When you allocate to a tech boom like AI really is and the AI boom is real, there's real value being produced and real change in human experience that's going to generate lots of money. Placing those bets at the asset class level makes sense. Individual investments is a totally different story.Andrew Keen: You also refer to Hunter Walk, who is a very smart guy. He said, you have to assume every company will have access to the same LLMs and voices. The challenge then is to build a company that thrives despite this reality. Given the commodification of AI and all these platforms from xAI to OpenAI to Anthropic AI to Google Gemini, that are basically now all the same. We're seeing this commodification of LLMs. Doesn't that point to a weakness in this AI hysteria?Keith Teare: You have to distinguish between LLMs, reasoning agents and agents that can do things. This week, Grok Three was launched. It's very good, by the way. But it's only a little bit better than all the others. So it didn't get the attention that say deepfaked.Andrew Keen: And next week someone will come out with something else that will be a little better. And as this race continues, the differences between the products will become less and less.Keith Teare: But for you and me, that's fantastic. You use Anthropic, I use Perplexity, I use Claude, we're basically getting free intelligence to do work.Andrew Keen: I wonder whether in that sense it's rather like the early days of the internet where we got a lot of stuff for free, and then everyone woke up and started charging. I mean, we are paying. I pay my $20 a month to Anthropic. You pay your monthly fees, but it's still pretty small amounts of money.Keith Teare: OpenAI now has 400 million daily active users and is making billions of dollars.Andrew Keen: I hope so because it's raised tens of billions of dollars.Keith Teare: But that is the game. Think of the Andrew Keen world. You wouldn't want to constrain yourself to investing almost nothing and making almost nothing. You want to invest as much as possible as long as you know you can make more than that back.Andrew Keen: On the unicorn front, you've been at this rodeo before many times. You're about as experienced as it gets. Are you taking these arguments about unicorns seriously, or should we be taking them like unicorns themselves with a pinch of salt?Keith Teare: When you build startups, the valuation of the startup is not even in your mind as a variable. You're just building whatever your vision is and it costs money to build it. So you're raising money. You sell shares in your company at the highest price you possibly can. It's good news if you're a unicorn from the point of view of the company you're building. Founders don't really think about valuations as much as they think about how much money they need and what they're going to do with it. Normal people read the headlines and think that Silicon Valley is awash with irrationality. It isn't really true.Andrew Keen: Well, you're providing us with those headlines. One of the other pieces you linked to this week is from the FT about Silicon Valley fighting EU tech rules with backing from Trump. Most of the news this week has been about Trump outside technology. It's Trump changing the rules in terms of big tech and particularly Europe and tariffs completely.Keith Teare: Coinbase announced yesterday that the SEC has withdrawn its lawsuit against Coinbase. That's the latest little indication of the trend. There are rumors that Ripple, which was also subject to an SEC case, will have that case withdrawn. The Trump administration does not want to stand in the way of big tech or little tech for that matter, and it sees Europe, rightly so, as a bit of a backwater. The zeitgeist is changing. Even in Europe, the innovators are fairly pro the Trump message even if they're not pro Trump. The need to innovate and relax constraints.Andrew Keen: The German economy now seems to be in crisis or German culture is in crisis. But they probably left it too late. The horse or the unicorns, so to speak, has left the barn here, hasn't it?Keith Teare: Apple yesterday announced that it's turning off encryption in Europe, in the UK now, not the whole of Europe, because the UK asked for a backdoor. So now UK users of the iPhone have no security on their phones because Apple, rather than comply with a backdoor, would turn the whole security layer off. That's going to be a bit of a trend. The governments trying to control tech, especially if they're snooping on their citizens. Tech is not going to bend over and agree with them anymore. And Trump is going in the opposite direction. He's not trying to get them to do back doors.Andrew Keen: The interview of the week, my interview was with Tim Wu, who was perhaps the most influential critic of monopoly Big Tech in the Biden administration. He has an interesting new piece out on decentralizing capitalism. With the help of Claude, we came away with five points from my conversation with Wu. It's all about decentralizing capitalism, getting away from monopoly capitalism, which I think he sees in companies like Google and Facebook and even OpenAI. I know you're not a big fan of regulation, but do you think Wu has a point? He's in favor of decentralizing capitalism. He's not against the market. He's in favor of innovation.Keith Teare: What does he mean? Because you could frame that as being nation states that are too centralized or you could frame it that big tech is too centralized. How does he frame it?Andrew Keen: He frames it as capitalism lends itself to a winner take all economy. He goes over the argument that America has always been a more innovative and wealthier society when you attack the monopolies, whether it's the oil monopolies, the railroads, pharma. And the same needs to be done now to unleash creativity, to unleash guys like yourself. One of your close friends, Lina Khan, was on MSNBC this week, talking about what she calls an anti-monopoly hunger in America. I'm not sure whether that's an exaggeration, but certainly there is an anti-monopoly feeling, both on both sides of the aisle. It's one of the few things that unite Democrats and Republicans, isn't it?Keith Teare: No, I disagree. The zeitgeist is exactly the opposite. The desire to control, especially big tech is nonexistent. The Democrats live in their own bubble world on MSNBC, and they really don't know how normal people think. Most people think Google's awesome. They think Amazon is awesome. They like using AI. More and more people are using it.Andrew Keen: You can like using AI and not be in favor of monopolies. That's two different subjects.Keith Teare: Normal people don't even use the word monopoly. It's not a word in the normal lexicon. It's a purely political word, used only in the circles of the Democratic Party that have this kind of Stalinist influence. The word state monopoly capitalism came out of Stalin.Andrew Keen: But I think you need to read Wu's piece on decentralizing capitalism, because he's as much a critic of Stalinism and centralization as you. He uses models from postwar East Asia, particularly Taiwan, and of course, the Danish model to talk about reforming the US. So what would you advise guys like Wu to be arguing? Should they just throw in their chips with Donald Trump and say you're right?Keith Teare: Where I would agree with them, and this is the common thread where we can agree, is capitalism has the tendency to create what I think of as greater socialization. You get bigger and bigger units, more interconnected. The interconnected piece is super important. It's not just that they're big, they're interconnected and that tends to be global. There's a globalizing tendency within capitalism. As you globalize and you socialize production, small individual industries tend to go by the wayside. Artisan industries. All of that is true. But you don't fix that by trying to break it up. The real social good is that the human race increasingly becomes interconnected and interdependent. That's a good thing. What's wrong is the private ownership of the wealth that it produces.Andrew Keen: Last week we talked about Alva van Gogh's critique of Vance's Paris speech, although he agreed with it in part. This week, you connect with Albert's humanist vision for AI. The speech at the Paris AI summit he would have given. What is Albert's vision?Keith Teare: It's a little bit 1960s cumbayah-ish. I am one of those, so I agree with him. But it's basically saying that AI is a tool for humanity, not a tool against humanity. And he makes the case for that. He doesn't say there are no safety risks, but he minimizes safety risks and places human good first, which I think does correlate to Tim Vance. It's an opportunity to be taken, not a safety risk. So I think he's kind of on the same page as Vance, to be honest.Andrew Keen: Whenever anyone uses the word humanist, it always makes me slightly skeptical. I'm not entirely sure what it means. I mean, who's anti-humanist except for a few Marxist philosophers in Paris? Meanwhile, lots of other tech news. Microsoft announced what it sees as a breakthrough in quantum. Is that right, Keith?Keith Teare: You and I probably are not clever enough to know, but I think we are safe. The answer is yes. That headline says they've created a new state of matter, and that pertains to something called a topological qubit, which is a qubit that can be programmable. And they're so tiny and there's so many of them that a quantum computer can do calculations at much greater scale, much faster than anything before. And they claim to have reduced this new state of matter down into a chip that can be plugged into a computer, an electrical computer, not a quantum computer, and can run. And the claim is that that will accelerate quantum computing by decades, to the point where there are promising programs that mean something within five years. And so that's a new timeline from Microsoft.Andrew Keen: I think quantum is like we're going to talk about it and talk about it and talk about it, and everyone will be skeptical. Some people will say it's for real, and then suddenly something will come along, the equivalent of OpenAI or ChatGPT and quantum, and it will be real. But that certainly isn't this week. Meanwhile, your startup of the week is exactly what you've been talking about. A unicorn Saronic, which raised this week $600 million to mass produce autonomous warships. It's another example of how Silicon Valley and the Pentagon and the defense industry seem to be becoming one. Tell us about Saronic.Keith Teare: Saronic is part of that trend for Silicon Valley and military spending to converge. The same investors in Saronic are also in Anduril and some of the other companies we talked about from time to time, space as well. So it's symptomatic of two things. The first is militarized investment coming out of Silicon Valley, and the second is the valuations. I should disclose, by the way, that Signal Rank owns shares in Saronic. So this was good news for us this week.Andrew Keen: Or at least your investors own shares. It's interesting that this week Palantir also has done very well for the first few weeks of 2025. But it also crashed. This is a very frothy market, tech military startups isn't it?Keith Teare: I wouldn't say crashed. It's up like 200%. If you're an investor in Palantir and you've been holding, you wouldn't be too upset by this pullback. The world we're living in, and I'm not a fan of this by any means, but military investment by private companies selling to governments is going to be a rising trend because governments can't really innovate the military. They're so stuck with old fashioned views of what conflict might look like. It's interesting that even Musk and DOGE this week and Trump announced they're going to try to reduce the U.S. military budget by 10% annually.Andrew Keen: And they've seen some cuts. And I think when historians look back, the rise of companies like Saronic, the DOGE initiative, and the behavior which I'm like most people, I think rather critical of, of pulling back from Ukraine, they're all going to be part of the same narrative. Something is profoundly changing here on the military industrial, but the military political from the US's involvement in the world and the technological piece of this.Finally, post of the week and it comes back to the conversation you and I were just having about Tim Wu. Robert Reich, a well-known MSNBC type who was in the Clinton administration, posted that there are basically five ways to accumulate $1 billion: profiting from a monopoly, insider trading, political payoffs, fraud and inheritance. And Brad Gerstner, amongst others, was horrified with this. He said it was such a terrible, bitter and sad take on America. I'm assuming you're in the Gerstner camp, Keith.Keith Teare: I am, but that isn't why I posted it. I posted it because I wanted to focus on the absolute chasm between the democratic intellectual elite and the rest of us. Robert Reich almost is saying that you have to be a criminal to get rich. And that isn't how most people think.Andrew Keen: The American dream, right? But I, being a great fan of Reich, think he is the dinosaur of dinosaurs, but he isn't saying that. He's talking about being a billionaire. That's not being rich. So you have to distinguish.Keith Teare: This might be shocking to the listeners and maybe even to you, but it isn't that hard to become a billionaire if you do the right things these days, because 4 billion people on Earth are consuming technology outputs at increasing rates and paying for that. Being a billionaire is like what used to be being a millionaire. And it's only going up.Andrew Keen: I've got my title of this week's show Keith. "Keith Teare says it's not that hard to be a billionaire." How close are you to being a billionaire?Keith Teare: I've been very close twice in my career.Andrew Keen: No you haven't. When?Keith Teare: Absolutely have. Both RealNames and Easynet were valued at well over $1 billion.Andrew Keen: Yeah, but you didn't own the whole thing.Keith Teare: I owned a lot. And by the way, it was early in the life of the companies, and that was in 1994 and 1999. In 2025, those would be small outcomes. Today's outcomes, getting a company to be worth $1 billion happens early. That early stage unicorns point happens early.Andrew Keen: But let's be clear as well. What Reich is talking about is not billionaires. And as I said, I'm not particularly sympathetic to what he's saying either. But he's talking about real billionaires, people with $1 billion in the bank or with investors.Keith Teare: Let's just ask this question. Look back at what Reich says, and let's answer a few questions. Where would the brothers who run Stripe fit on that list? They're worth much more than $1 billion. They're not anywhere on that list. Where is Musk on that list? Where is Bezos on that list? Where are the founders of Google on that list?Andrew Keen: No, I agree with you. I think that he's wrong to say there are basically five ways to accumulate $1 billion: profiting from monopoly, insider trading, political payoffs, fraud and inheritance. You're absolutely right. But my disagreement with you is it's still incredibly hard to be a billionaire. How many billionaires are there in the US?Keith Teare: Of course it's hard.Andrew Keen: But you just said it was not that hard to be a billionaire.Keith Teare: Let me tell you what I mean by that. It's the easiest it's ever been, and it's going to get easier.Andrew Keen: Or it's easiest it's ever been because of inflation.Keith Teare: No, because of the scale of distribution networks and the revenues that come back from them. It used to be super hard. When I did Easynet, we had to put floppy disks on the front of magazines to distribute our software. When I did my most recent startups, you put an app in two app stores, and it's in the whole world the next day. And so the flow of money that comes from the ease of distribution of software to people who can pay for it if they like it, has completely changed the dynamics.Andrew Keen: I take your point. But coming back to this issue, how do you consider wealth? Who is rich? How much do you have to earn?Keith Teare: I think rich is totally subjective from your point of view. I thought I was rich when I didn't have credit card debt back in the day.Andrew Keen: Meaningless term, then. It's just entirely subjective.Keith Teare: Yes, but you can build the pyramid of wealth in terms of a smaller number of people at the top with very large amounts of wealth and go down to the bottom where lots of people have nothing. And that pyramid will change its shape and the scale at different levels through history, usually in a positive direction. That's one of the results of the socialization of production and the coming together of the human race into a single GDP growth. There's never been a period in human history recently where that pie or pyramid hasn't improved in both scale and distribution.Andrew Keen: As a bit frothy Keith, your new middle name is Keith "It's not that hard to be a billionaire" Teare. But coming back to Reich, I do agree with you. I think his approach is absurdly negative and reactionary, and the idea that you can't become a billionaire unless you're basically cheating, unless you're an inside trader or fraudulent or inherit money from someone else. He couldn't be more wrong on that, given, as you say, the Stripe guys, the Google guys, the Amazon people, even Musk. I'm no great fan of his but he didn't cheat to become a billionaire.Keith Teare: And you've got to believe, and this is why I put it in, that what he's saying is received wisdom in the minds of people like Lina Khan and Elizabeth Warren.Andrew Keen: That you're going to pick on your friend Lina Khan and Tim Wu as well. Wu teaches at Columbia. I wonder what Wu would say about that. I wonder whether Wu would argue that in a decentralized capitalism, it would be possible to be a billionaire. I'd have to get him back on the show to talk about that. Would we want a society, Keith? A decentralized capitalism where nobody was a millionaire, where the wealthiest people were worth 50 or $100 million?Keith Teare: No, I think the nightmare scenario for the future is that as production socializes and globalizes, a very small number of people control the wealth. But I think that's the right place to discuss how does the wealth get distributed to everyone? So you uplift human life, not just a few individuals, but I don't think you achieve that by trying to break up monopolies.Andrew Keen: The point is, it's not even breaking up monopolies. Reich's point is that one way to get $1 billion is to profit from monopoly. But the Google people, it's back to Peter Thiel's argument. Any entrepreneur wants to be a monopoly, that's the nature of doing startups. You want to win and winning becomes a monopoly, right? For better or worse. Google didn't start as a monopoly. Maybe it is one now because it's successful.Keith Teare: That's correct. If everyone was a failure, there'd be no monopolies. It's only success that creates market power and monopolies. It's a little bit like the word fascist. It's become a swear word to describe anything big. And fascist has become a swear word to describe anyone you disagree with. The truth is, these words mean things. Monopolies do get built. Google isn't one, in my opinion. And when they do, there's usually benefits that people are enjoying, which is why they're successful. And the key is how do you transition the world from massively concentrated private wealth to widely distributed aggregate wealth?Andrew Keen: And that's not about breaking up companies.Keith Teare: No, it's about distributing wealth, not breaking up companies.Andrew Keen: Also with Reich, there are lots of politically responsible or politically liberal billionaires. Reed Hoffman comes to mind. We talked about him last week. Finally, and this comes back to your point, Gerstner had another interesting post this week. He said the DOGE dividend could be a massive, game-changing legacy for Trump. Just one day of DOGE savings, apparently - this is what they claim, who knows whether they're really saving it - $3.7 billion could fund a private investment account with $1,000 for each child born in America. With just a little added per year, this could grow to $200,000 by age 30. Do you think Trump needs to do something radical on this front because he's not getting a great deal of good press on DOGE? A lot of people are losing their jobs every day. There are heart-rending stories of laid-off people. And it's not the billionaires losing their jobs. They're being fired by the billionaires. It's people working at poorly paid jobs in the first place. So does he need to do something with all the money he's supposed to have saved? Maybe in terms of a sovereign wealth fund or something more innovative?Keith Teare: What Gerstner is talking about there is about the distribution of wealth. It's one example of it. I think it's unlikely that Trump has the DNA to really follow through on anything like that. I don't think Donald Trump has any kind of social awareness at all about uplifting everybody. I do think there are people that do think like that. Sam Altman is one of them, and Reed Hoffman may be another, where the question of if there is abundance, how does everyone benefit from it? That's a real question. Gerstner's idea is not terrible, but I think it's a macro idea. There's a much bigger conversation needed than how to deploy the DOGE savings.Andrew Keen: I agree with you. And I think that I also agree with you on the Reich front that his kind of thinking, which is purely negative, is pointless. And what's missing on the progressive side amongst Democrats are creative, innovative thinking about the redistribution of wealth, rather than just taxing the rich or making it illegal to be a billionaire.Keith Teare: Yes.Andrew Keen: Well, we're in agreement, Keith.Keith Teare: Shocking.Andrew Keen: Shocking agreement. Although we disagree, I think it is still hard to be a billionaire. One thing I can guarantee is I've never been close and I never will be a billionaire. You say you've been close. What are the chances in the next few years, Keith, that you're going to be a billionaire from Signal Rank?Keith Teare: Don't even think about it. I think about what Signal Rank can do for everyone else. And if it does well, I'll do well.Andrew Keen: Go on bro. If it does well, I hope you'll pay me for this show. Keith Teare, publisher of That Was The Week. The man who argues that it's not that hard to be a millionaire. It's still a little hard, Keith, but we will be back next week to talk more billionaires, unicorns, AI, and everything else in the world of tech. Have a great week and we'll be back at this time next week. Thanks, Keith.Keith Teare: Bye. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe
It is incredibly rare to have your startup become a verb. Google and Uber immediately come to mind. But what about when a group of strangers or friends with shared interests decide they want to get together? They, Meetup. Scott Heifferman didn't set out with becoming a verb in mind but he certainly started Meetup with the intent of building something big and impactful. And on those dimensions he delivered in spades. Along the way he sold 30% of his company for $1M to Tim Draper's DFJ (funny story around the 36 min mark), raised from other great investors (Brad Burnham from USV makes a cameo in the video), met face to face with Mark Zuckerberg who also decided that getting groups of people to meetup would be important for Facebook too, going so far as to run their very first Super Bowl ad promoting their meetup competitor product. There are so many great stories and anecdotes in this one. In our effort to mine Web 2.0 ideas and playbooks for applicable lessons for this current wave to startups, this conversation delivers in spades. A few take aways:— The Origins of Meetup and Community Building: Heiferman reflects on how 9/11 and experiences like Burning Man inspired Meetup's mission to foster real-world connections. He emphasized the importance of creating tools that empower people to form communities and build belonging offline, using the internet as a catalyst.— Early NYC Tech Scene vs. Silicon Valley: Heiferman shares stories of the scrappy, experimental nature of the 1990s NYC tech ecosystem, contrasting it with Silicon Valley's more established infrastructure. He recalls starting iTraffic with maxed-out credit cards and seeing startups like Razorfish and DoubleClick shape the local scene.— Facebook's Competitive Threat: Heiferman recounts how Facebook's groups feature directly competed with Meetup, even running Super Bowl ads mimicking its concept. This competition influenced his decision to sell Meetup to WeWork, as Facebook's scale and resources were hard to match.— Critique of Modern Marketplaces: Heiferman critiques platforms like Uber and DoorDash for extracting excessive margins from workers and businesses. He advocates for a fairer market economy where technology empowers individuals rather than exploiting them.— Future Vision and Lessons Learned: Looking ahead, Heiferman expresses interest in building impactful projects outside traditional VC structures. He emphasizes the need to focus on creating products that energize people, deliver value, and prioritize meaningful societal impact over maximizing profits.One thing that especially stood out to me in this conversation was a reminder of how “people” were so core to Web 2.0 ideals. Whether it was getting people to connect online or off, fostering real and personal connection was such an important driver for innovation at that time. When today's headlines are so filled with stories that seem to pit people against algorithms, Scott's sentiment is a refreshing reminder that technology at it's best is a tool for enhancing our lives, not eradicating them. On that theme, a comment Scott made has been rattling in my head ever since. At around the 40 min mark he says something along the lines of “AB testing is the price you pay for not having a pulse on people”. In this conversation he talk a lot about energy, following the energy of individuals and his own energy and interests. He seems energized to build again and we talk a bit about what's next for him and how his time working in an Amazon warehouse informed his thinking around what problems he wants to tackle. We can't wait to see where he goes with all that energy. This was a ton of fun to connect with Scott and Brad to revisit the Meetup story. We hope you enjoy listening as much as we enjoyed recording it.
So what to J.D. Vance's highly controversial speech at the Paris AI Summit this week? According to That Was The Week's Keith Teare, it was “a breath of fresh air”. Others will argue it was just more MAGA putridity designed to alienate our European friends. Some tech notables, like Union Square Ventures partner Albert Wenger, take both views simultaneously, acknowledging on the one hand that Vance was correct to push back against “regulatory capture”, but on the other that Vance was “mistaking jingoism and wishful thinking for true global leadership”. Here are the 5 KEEN ON takeaways from this weekly tech round-up with Teare:* J.D. Vance's Paris AI Summit speech marked a potential turning point in US-Europe AI relations. His message prioritizing AI opportunity over safety prompted European regulators to pull back on some restrictions, with the EU dropping its AI liability directive and the UK rebranding its AI Safety Institute.* Anthropic's growth is accelerating, with projections of $34.5 billion in revenue by 2027. They're currently outperforming OpenAI in some areas, particularly coding, and are expected to release a major new AI model soon.* The Musk-OpenAI conflict has intensified, with Musk's $100 billion bid for OpenAI's non-profit arm being rejected. Meanwhile, OpenAI is planning to incorporate its Q* (Q-star) model into a new GPT-5 release that will combine reasoning, operational capabilities, and multimedia functions.* The AI industry is seeing rapid advancement in humanoid robotics, with companies like Apptronics and Figure receiving significant valuations. Figure's valuation jumped from $2 billion to $39 billion after securing a major automotive partnership.* Traditional political alignments are becoming less relevant in tech policy, with Teare arguing that economic growth and technological progress are transcending traditional left-right divisions. This is exemplified by some progressives like Reid Hoffman embracing AI optimism while traditional conservatives champion technological progress. FULL TRANSCRIPTAndrew Keen: Hello everybody. It is Saturday, February 15th, 2025, a day after Valentine's Day. It's been a day or a week dominated by a certain J.D. Vance. Yesterday, he made a very controversial speech in Munich, which apparently laid bare the collapse of the transatlantic alliance. He attacked Europe over free speech and migration. So he's not the most popular fellow in Europe. And a couple of days before that, he spoke in Paris at the AI Summit, a classic Parisian event talking about summits. Macron, of course, also spoke there. According to The Wall Street Journal, Vance's counts were good. The German, of course, being a conservative newspaper. According to The Washington Post, which is a progressive newspaper, he pushed the "America First" AI agenda. Others, like Fast Company, ask what to make of Vance's speech at the Paris AI conference. According to my friend Keith Teare, the author of That Was The Week newsletter, the speech was a breath of fresh air. I was going to call you Marx, Keith. That would have been a true Freudian error. What do you admire about Vance's speech? Why is it a breath of fresh air?Keith Teare: Well, it's in the European context that it's a breath of fresh air. I think from an American perspective, he didn't really say anything new. We already think of AI in the way he expressed it. But in Europe, the dominant discussion around AI is still focused on safety. That is to say, AI is dangerous. We have to control it. We need to regulate it. And as a result of that, most of the American developments in AI are not even launched in Europe, because in order to be made available to citizens, it has to go through various regulatory layers. And that slows everything down. So in the context, Vance stood up on the platform in front of all of the people doing that regulation and told them basically, rubbed their noses in it, saying how self-destructive their approach was for European success. His opening lines were, "I'm not here to talk about AI safety. I'm here to talk about AI opportunity." And in the days since, there's been quite a big reaction in Europe to the speech, mostly positive from normal people and adjusting policy at the regulatory level. So it's quite a profound moment. And he carried himself very well. I mean, he was articulate, thoughtful.Andrew Keen: Yeah. You say his speech marks a crucial inflection point. I wonder, though, if Vance was so self-interested as a MAGA person, why would he want even to encourage Europe to develop? I mean, why not just let it be like social media or the Internet where American companies dominate? Is there anything in America's interest that the Trump-Musk alliance would benefit from strong European AI companies?Keith Teare: Well, from strong European AI openness, yes. I don't think Vance thinks for a minute there are any European companies that will be able to compete in that open environment. And so most of his purpose is economic. He's basically saying open up so that our guys can sell stuff to you and the money will flow back to the U.S. as it has done with Amazon and Google and every other major tech innovation in recent years. So it's basically an economic speech masquerading as a policy speech.Andrew Keen: I wonder if there's an opportunity for Europe given the clear divisions now that exist between the U.S. and Europe. I wonder whether there's an opportunity for Europe to start looking more sympathetically at Chinese AI companies. Did Vance warn in his speech, did he warn Europe about turning to the Chinese, the other potential partner?Keith Teare: Yeah. There are two parts of his speech I didn't really incorporate in the editorial. The first was a subplot all around China, which he didn't name, but he called "dictatorships." We don't want dictatorships leading in AI. And then there was another subplot, which was all about free speech and openness and not censoring, which was aimed at the Europeans, of course, and the Chinese.Andrew Keen: Discussion of their free speech, or at least it's their version of free speech, isn't it?Keith Teare: I think the funny thing is in order to be consistent, they're going to have to allow all free speech. And they will, because they know that. And so, weirdly, the Republicans become the free speech party, which makes no sense historically. But it is happening. And I thought there were a lot of interesting things in that speech that symbolized a very confident America. However, the reason America is doing this is because it's weak, which is a paradox.Andrew Keen: Politically weak or militarily weak or economically weak?Keith Teare: Not militarily - it's super strong, but economically it's relatively declining against China. It's the next Europe. America is the next Europe. China is the next America. And in that context, America's brashness sounds positive to our ears and to mine as well, because it's pro-optimism, pro-progress. But actually, it's coming from a place of weakness, which you see in the tariffs and the anti-Chinese stuff.Andrew Keen: And I want to come to the Munich speech where Vance was pretty clear. Trump's always been clear that if there is an opportunity for Ukraine, Ukrainians have to work for American access to its raw materials, minerals, etc. Whether America's foreign policy now is becoming identical to that of China, helping other countries as long as they provide them with essential resources.Keith Teare: Yeah, exactly. By the way, one of our commentators, David John William Bailey on LinkedIn, is saying we need to explain this. He says he's also attempting "$1 trillion mob-style shakedown." Anyone defending this is either deluded or only reads hard-right propaganda.Andrew Keen: Well, but Keith, you've always claimed to be a progressive. You always claim to be a man of the left. You have a background in left-wing communist activism. Now you're on board with Vance. You were on board the week before with Musk. You're ambivalent about Trump. What does this say to you? What does this suggest about you personally, or is the reality of politics these days that the supposed conservatives like Vance are actually progressive in their own way and the supposed progressives in the Democratic Party are actually conservative?Keith Teare: Well, as you know, I don't like those labels anymore because I think they're trying to fit a modern narrative into an old set of boxes. I think, broadly speaking, Vance is an economic progressive. He wants the economy to grow. He wants GDP to grow.Andrew Keen: Some people say everyone's a progressive in that sense if they want GDP to grow.Keith Teare: Yeah, but not very many people can do it. So I think they really are serious that they believe innovation in tech and GDP are correlated. And I believe GDP and social good are correlated. And so if you really want to be a progressive that wants people to have a good life, you have to support economic growth. And I think Vance does. And I think that's what his narrative is about. He's basically telling Europe that they're going to get the opposite, which has been true, by the way, now for a decade. European GDP per capita is as low as $35,000 a year. American is $85,000 a year.Andrew Keen: That's an astonishing shift. And this is going to be remembered, I think, as an important week in the American-European relationship. You said that the aftermath of the Vance speech has been remarkable and telling. The EU dropped its AI liability directive. The UK rebranded its AI Safety Institute. OpenAI removed diversity commitments. So a speech is now having an impact, particularly this Paris speech when it comes to AI policy, both in Europe but also in the US as well.Keith Teare: Yeah, I wouldn't give too much credit just to the speech. I think the speech is symptomatic of a lot of zeitgeist change and everyone is getting in line with the new zeitgeist, which is tech is good, AI is good, censorship is bad.Andrew Keen: Well, I don't know if that's - I'm not sure I would call that the zeitgeist, Keith. I mean, you're talking in Palo Alto, where that's always been the zeitgeist. I think if anything, in universities and book publishing, the reverse is true.Keith Teare: Yeah. So I'm an avid MSNBC watcher. I watch Morning Joe every morning with Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough. And so I'm kind of imbued with the liberal narrative compared to what's going on. And what's happened is a very rapid change from the days after the election when the liberal narrative was "we need to look at ourselves" has now become a narrative that "the judges have to save us from the administration." The administration is not democratic, even though it was elected, and we've got to rely on judges because there's no one else to rely on.Andrew Keen: That doesn't mean the zeitgeist has shifted. It just means that the people on one side have shifted their focus, but they still are not sympathetic to Trump, Vance, Musk.Keith Teare: I think there is increasing sympathy. I think you're going to be surprised. I think if an election was held today, Trump would win by more.Andrew Keen: Well, he would certainly win by more if he was running against Harris. That's another question. So it's been another remarkable week for AI content. One piece that you pick out, which I thought was interesting, is from somebody called Elizabeth Yin. Nice to have a female author - too many of our authors are male. Maybe I'm being too woke. But the AI takeover, according to Yin - no one's jobs are safe. This isn't exactly news, is it?Keith Teare: No, she's really summarizing what we've been talking about in That Was The Week for quite a while. But I thought it was a good summary. And she gives some kind of prioritization. There's a section that talks about regulated professions, human-centric jobs, creative and entrepreneurial jobs, energy and infrastructure and distribution. And she then breaks down what she thinks the main impact of AI is going to be. She kind of leaves it where you kind of want more from her because she doesn't thoroughly go through all of these. But she's a VC, she does early-stage investing. She's very good. And the one thing she says, which I don't think anyone's going to disagree with, is "fewer workers more." I was at an event this week in San Francisco where there was a panel with some VCs and entrepreneurs on exactly the same questions she's asking - where the cuts are going to come first or what sectors are going to be most dramatically affected in the short term. And people weren't entirely clear. But the one area that comes up is healthcare - that's the lowest hanging fruit at the moment.Keith Teare: Yeah, there's a funding event this week from a company that applies AI to biology, specifically cancer programming - anti-cancer cells. So you're going to see AI in everything. And it's that will lead to an acceleration of invention for sure, because the individual is still really important. By the way, there's another article about that this week. The individual now has an army of talent in AI, able to help them make progress. It just speeds everything up.Andrew Keen: Yeah. So what other AI news in the summary? There's a couple, 2 or 3 pieces on Anthropic. I use Anthropic. I like it. Their growth soars to 34.5 billion in 2027 revenue. That's of course, speculative. And they announce their next major AI model could arrive within weeks, Anthropic competitive with OpenAI.Keith Teare: Yes, and they're better than OpenAI at some things. They're already better than OpenAI at coding. If you put it in context, those three Anthropic pieces sit alongside the Google piece and the OpenAI pieces. And what it tells you is we've seen a major acceleration of product roadmaps and plans in the last couple of weeks, mainly in response to the DeepSea news, I think.Andrew Keen: Yeah, it's interesting that DeepSea was a one-week wonder, but there are no headlines at least from you on DeepSea. It seems to have stimulated change as you suggest, rather than change things in its own way. And then your Google pieces - interesting that they're rolling out a new memory feature for Gemini AI, allowing recall of past conversations, which is increasingly getting to the point where these AIs, if not human or sentient, certainly are able to remember things and have conversations.Keith Teare: Yeah, and that becomes much easier once you go from LLMs to other LLMs with agents. An agent is a piece of software that speaks to another LLM to complete a task. And so you could have in software a memory agent or a recall agent whose only job is to say, "Is this question been asked recently and what did I look at the last time?" and bring it into the context for whatever the current question is. And I think we're going to see more and more of this. I've spent most of my week building a multi-agent system for my company, Single Rank. I have a question taker agent that you ask a question of. It then farms out to a database agent or a chart drawing agent or an expert reasoning agent. They all have different jobs and they come back and give their answers to the original agent, and then it gives the answer to the user. So this collaborative agents concept is becoming very real now. And memory is one of those - I think Perplexity is the most advanced.Andrew Keen: Yeah. We were talking about Perplexity before we went live. You convinced me - I use Anthropic but you said for me it's probably wiser to use Perplexity where I still have all the access to Anthropic, but it adds a layer and some more intelligence. As I said, I was at an event this week where one of the venture people from OpenAI was there who talked about Sam Altman's projection that in the not too distant future there'll be billion-dollar individual startups. Are you suggesting, Keith, that's not that far on the horizon, given the power of AI that individuals can do all and do the entire startup without needing the help of anybody else?Keith Teare: Depends on the startup. If the startup is mainly software, that's probably true. But if it needs account management and billing and all the others...Andrew Keen: But eventually all that stuff will get - that's the easy part, isn't it? You can always get that done.Keith Teare: It's the hard bit right now, like reconciling invoices to receipts. I'm not very good at that. So I think it's coming with two things: rising agents and then agents that can use tools to follow, do actions, if you will. So it's coming and it's probably coming this year and it'll accelerate. So, yes, it will get there. I think the headline of a single founder of $1 billion company is just a headline. But it's directionally correct.Andrew Keen: It does. And it does reiterate Elizabeth Yin's point that no jobs are safe - in finance, in HR, in coding, in content. I mean, I'm using it more and more to summarize these conversations. I don't need a large editorial staff. So clearly dramatic change. And in fact, your startup of the week, Keith, the robotics startup Apptronics, is in talks for new funding at an almost $40 billion valuation - a hardware company. Does this speak of the reality of this new AI revolution? That it's not just theory, it's practice now?Keith Teare: Yeah. Well, Figure has gone from 2 billion to 39 billion in less than a year. And why? Because one of the major car companies signed an agreement with it to have these robots on production lines in its factories. And the start of the week, by the way, is Apptronics, which is a different humanoid robotics company, also raising a lot of money but slightly earlier in its journey than Figure.Andrew Keen: It's my mistake - I have to admit I thought it was Figure so that's my error. I'm going to add an Apptronics image to this content. I'm rather embarrassed.Keith Teare: You've probably already got one. That said, they both speak to the same truth, which is AI is going to manifest itself in the physical world in the form of humanoid robots sooner rather than later.Andrew Keen: And that was another of Tim Draper's - he was one of the speakers at this event I went to in San Francisco. I know he's an investor in your firm. That was his big prediction. So Apptronics is building robots for humans. Are they just a kind of earlier version of Figure in some ways?Keith Teare: An earlier version, possibly more advanced in concept because they started later when the software gets better by the week. So the later you start, the more advanced the software is that you can leverage. And so we're not going to see an end to this. There's going to be a lot more of it. I think humanoid robots are really interesting because the physical world is built for humans. You know, steps, ladders, everything.Andrew Keen: But I'm not sure that would be the case, especially when it comes to, say, self-driving cars and roads. That's going to change as well, isn't it?Keith Teare: Well, you still have roads because they still are...Andrew Keen: You still have roads. But I'm saying the roads themselves will become more and more suited to self-driving cars as opposed to human-driving ones.Yeah. You would hope the roads would become more intelligent and communicate to the cars, but that seems to be much further off.Andrew Keen: But I'm sure the Chinese will do that. Not the Americans, not even in San Francisco. Meanwhile, there is still lots of tech news. There's this open feud between Sam Altman at OpenAI and Elon Musk. Musk this week had a bid to buy OpenAI for around $100 billion. Is this just sensational, meaningless stuff? Is this froth or is it meaningful in the long run? The Musk-Altman fight?Keith Teare: Well, the specifics of this are super interesting because it's very clever of Musk. What Musk is offering to buy is not OpenAI. He's offering to buy the not-for-profit part of OpenAI. Now Altman is trying to put a value on that not-for-profit because he wants it to go away, or at least be subsumed. And he's trying to do it at a very low valuation so that the stakeholders in the not-for-profit don't get much. So Musk put a super high price on the not-for-profit to force the board of OpenAI to put a proper value on it as it transitions or to stop transitioning - one or the other. And I think if I was on the board of OpenAI now, I'd be very worried. They rejected his offer yesterday, by the way, but that will not be the end.Andrew Keen: What is Musk doing? Is it just because he hates Altman and he's annoyed that he was one of the co-founders and he's no longer involved? Because if he does indeed do what he seems to want to do, which is weaken, even undermine OpenAI - I mean, the real winners are probably Anthropic and Google then rather than Musk.Keith Teare: Well, and Grok - he has his own Grok xAI.Andrew Keen: But is xAI a real player? I mean, he can get massive valuations, but how does it compare with Anthropic or Gemini?Keith Teare: It's good. I mean, it's very good. And the next version, rumors are that it's going to be a top performer.Andrew Keen: Certainly not a top - you said it's good, but it's not...Keith Teare: It depends on what for. But it's certainly as good or better than DeepSea already.Andrew Keen: So there is a method to Musk's madness. It's not just about hating Altman and OpenAI.Keith Teare: Well, because it's Musk, there's more than one thing going on. He has economic interests in xAI, for sure. He's also really pissed off with Altman because he considers that Altman basically stole the OpenAI idea from him, which is not really true when you get into the facts. But he believes that. And not only that, but lied by making it not-for-profit and then turning it into a for-profit when he promised he wouldn't. So Musk basically feels like he's got the moral high ground and that gives him the energy to fight. Altman is clearly tired of the whole thing. He's just trying to do what he's trying to do, you know, and having a light shone on it.Andrew Keen: So it's the first time you have articulated some concern about OpenAI. You've always been quite bullish. Are you suggesting that your bullishness in the past is changing a little bit?Keith Teare: I don't think so, because I think this is a bit of a sideshow. The biggest news this week about OpenAI is the decision to abandon the Q* model - not abandon it, but incorporate it into a new GPT-5 later this year.Andrew Keen: So how would a unified next generation release work? Which would be what? Everything together?Keith Teare: It would do reasoning, operational stuff, actions, and it would do what other LLMs do, including being capable of video and image production all in one, and probably will retain its position as the best across all of those different things. So I don't see that anything bad is going to happen to OpenAI. I do think Musk can be an irritant and it could force them into corporate decisions about valuation and merging their different components that aren't to their liking. That could happen.Keen: My interview of the week, which you were kind enough to include in this week's newsletter, is with Greg Betta. Most people won't be familiar with Greg Betta. He's a tech writer, journalist based in the North Bay San Francisco, but he's also the coauthor with Reid Hoffman, who everybody knows, of a new book called "Super Agency: What Could Possibly Go Right With Our AI Future?" And from a progressive point of view, it's optimistic about AI. So I guess Hoffman is one of the few progressives, Keith, who actually is optimistic about AI. Is that fair?Keith Teare: Yeah. He really represents that part of the liberal spectrum that was in the New York Times article last week suggesting the Democrats should embrace technology and innovation. And the book is symptomatic of that. I didn't have a chance to listen to the interview - give us a flavor of what he said.Andrew Keen: It's standard - it's like listening to you. He believes that this progress will ultimately benefit. He distinguishes himself a bit too, I thought, created some light between him and Hoffman. I think he sees Hoffman as being slightly more optimistic than him. But it's about super agency - you and I have talked endlessly about agency, about humans being able to shape their lives. And of course, that's the big debate. For the critics, it's the AI that will shape us. For the optimists, AI will enable us to shape the world. It's an age-old argument, and it's not going away.Another figure on the left, if that's still a term that means anything, is Albert Wenger. He's your post of the week and he comes back to the Vance speech. He says praising this speech by Vance is mistaking jingoism and wishful thinking for true global leadership with a real vision of AI and humanity. I'm assuming you don't agree with Albert on this issue.Keith Teare: I do agree with him. I think I wanted to take a positive view of Vance's speech for his optimism in the context of Europe. It was a great speech. Albert's right that the American framing is entirely jingoistic. And AI isn't - AI is entirely global and humanistic. So there is a contradiction between a declining superpower being a champion of progress for its own nation versus what Albert would prefer, which is leadership that is truly global in nature.Andrew Keen: It's interesting that the first comment on Albert's tweet was from someone called "e/acc" who says this may be the most e/acc speech of all time. I didn't know what that meant - it meant effective accelerationism. Are you familiar with this term, Keith?Keith Teare: Yeah, this is the Marc Andreessen Peter Thiel framing against the philanthropists.Andrew Keen: So are you an effective accelerationist? Do you believe in...Keith Teare: Effective altruism versus effective acceleration? This is interesting. You say they're the same thing - I don't think anyone thinks that. But I think you might be right. But as long as you put them in the right order, I think if you get acceleration and growth and value, you're going to get a better life.Andrew Keen: Yeah, it's a play on effective altruism, but it's thinking in the same way that the world can become a better place.Keith Teare: Yeah. And the altruists wanted it to be done by good deeds as opposed to by economic progress.Andrew Keen: And even Albert acknowledges, like you, that there are aspects of the speech which in your language are a breath of fresh air. He said the only good point was the clear pushback against regulatory capture. Is it going to be effective? I mean, is it clear that the days of Lina Khan are over? Are we at the end of the period of regulatory capture, whether it's in Europe or the U.S.? As you say, one of the consequences of the speech was that the Europeans have taken a step back from regulation.Keith Teare: I would say the new Lina Khan is Elizabeth Warren. Lina Khan's gone. She's a sideshow. But Elizabeth Warren is still mainstream.Andrew Keen: Yeah, but a much, much older and perhaps less powerful figure, especially in Trump's America. I mean, Warren, she can talk a lot and get people annoyed, but she can't actually do anything. Whereas Lina Khan actually controlled regulatory capture - I mean, she was the head of the FTC.Keith Teare: Exactly. But I find Warren intensely irritating. It's amusing to me that Musk is asking how her net worth went from $200,000 to double-digit millions. And it's because she got subsidized by pharma, because she's pro-vax. And she's plugged into that.Andrew Keen: That's a controversial observation. You're saying anyone who gets supported by big Pharma is pro-vaccine? Does that mean that anyone who's anti-vax is not going to get the money? Most of us are pro-vax.Keith Teare: I'm totally pro-vax. But I'm just saying politicians like her typically get high net worth through serving stakeholders. And she is very against the credit card industry, for example. But she's not against pharma. So she's found her niche.Andrew Keen: Well, that's not a very generous interpretation, although it does suggest that when you give Elon Musk the keys to the Treasury and the IRS, then all these things are going to get revealed. And we should end with another interesting X from Albert, which I think gets to a lot of this. He said, "If you're young and capable and care about democracy, you should work for Doge." What do you make of that? I tend to think he's right.Keith Teare: I can't fully understand his meaning. In my brain, I'll interpret it the way I would, which is what I said last week.Andrew Keen: And to add to the quote, he said, "Offense is the best defense."Keith Teare: Yeah. The main threat to democracy is unelected bureaucrats blocking progress. I mean, if you think about it...Andrew Keen: Like Elizabeth Warren, in your view, at least.Keith Teare: No, I'd use the Obama example. Obama wanted to get a really good healthcare plan. And as soon as he was in office, he made speeches saying, "I won't be able to achieve what I want to achieve unless you, the people, are on the streets." Because Washington is averse to change. And it turned out that he had to make all kinds of compromises. And he ended up with what we today call Obamacare. But his experience was an experience of being blocked. And Trump basically has been through that himself. We're probably mostly thankful for that based on his first administration. He now is older, and he's not prepared...Andrew Keen: Suddenly older. I don't know about wiser.Keith Teare: He's not prepared to let the bureaucracy stand in his way. And Musk is his weapon. And there is something positive about a better, cheaper state and more democratic if the elected people can do what they said they were going to do.Andrew Keen: Yeah. And bring the expenses down. "If you're young and capable and care about democracy, you should work for Doge" - wise words from Albert Wenger. We will return to all these themes, Keith, in the future. Have a good week and we will see everybody again next week. Thanks so much.Keith Teare: Everyone. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe
Unlock the secrets of venture capitalism with Tim Draper, a trailblazer who has left an indelible mark across the global investment landscape. As the founder of Draper Associates, DFJ, and the Draper Venture Network, Tim's journey is a masterclass in strategic foresight and bold decision-making. From revolutionizing customer-driven growth with Hotmail to his daring investments in Baidu and Skype, discover how Tim's ability to spot key inflection points has fueled his success. His establishment of Draper University of Heroes has also empowered countless entrepreneurs, emphasizing the power of investing in passionate individuals and straightforward strategies for sustainable growth.Engage with powerful insights on transforming customers into a sales force, and learn why investing in human potential trumps mere capital preservation. Tim and Richard C. Wilson discuss the pitfalls of convoluted investment strategies and the pivotal role of early financial education, drawing lessons from giants like Amazon and Tesla. We also delve into the essential act of seizing opportunities, reflecting on the costly mistakes of hesitating on early investments in tech titans like Google and Facebook. This episode is packed with stories on overcoming fear, embracing freedom, and fostering a creative environment, all essential ingredients for cultivating successful entrepreneurship and investment ventures.This is episode #3 in the Billionaire Fire Side Series.To learn more about Jonathan's recession resilient mobile home park real estate Fund and Flex Space Development: https://www.midwestparkcapital.com/To learn more about Jonathan's business growth consulting and fractional CMO services, and digital marketing for small businesses and growing Ecommerce brands:https://www.revenueascend.com/consulting/The Family Office Club was founded in 2007 and has now become the world's largest association in the industry with over 4,000 registered ultra-wealthy investors-Richard C. Wilson is the partner of the Accredited Investor Podcast: https://familyoffices.com/To get your very own podcast tour of 20, 40 or 60 episodes as a guest and become the thought leader in your industry: https://getpodcastbookings.com/Sign up to get on the list for the World's Most Exclusive Social Networking App: https://www.prestigesocialapp.com/To those looking to potential exit or sell their business or talk about potential business roll up partnerships:https://www.businesscashout.com/Join one of the fastest growing real estate groups on Facebook, which is our 26,600 Multifamily Investor Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/451061265284414To learn more about mobile home investing, acquiring your first mobile home park: https://www.mobilehomewealthacademy.com https://linktr.ee/jonathantuttleAccredited Investor Podcast- sign up to the email list and get notified of new episodes, bonus content, and potential deal opportunities: https://www.accreditedinvestorpodcast.com/
You're probably familiar with Baiju Bhatt's work as the co-founder of Robinhood. But he's also obsessed with space, and recently started Aetherflux, a space solar power company.We get into the physics of using lasers to beam solar power to the Earth, Aetherflux's early roadmap, and how he went from zero to one going from building software to physical products.We also talk through the early days of Robinhood, getting turned down by hundreds of early investors, the accidental launch, how to know if you really have product market fit, how Aaron Levie at Box helped get Robinhood.com, the value of creativity and design, Baiju's philosophies on combining qualitative and quantitative user research, and his favorite animal and classic car. He also tried to cut my hair.Timestamps:(00:00) Intro(02:31) Aetherflux: a space solar energy company(02:50) Origins of space solar power in the 40's & 70's(10:31) Safely beaming energy from space to Earth with lasers(13:46) Building floating space solar farms(21:27) Aetherflux's early roadmap(27:08) Growing up with dad as a Physics professor(32:18) Going zero to one building physical products(35:15) Baiju's favorite car, attempting a haircut, contemplating mustaches(38:27) Trying to prove Einstein wrong(41:42) Meeting Robinhood Co-founder Vlad at Stanford(44:10) Starting an algorithmic trading company(46:41) The beginnings of Robinhood(52:04) Getting turned down by hundreds of early investors(56:49) How they convinced Tim Draper to invest(59:39) Getting Robinhood.com because of Aaron Levie(01:01:28) Accidentally launching on a Friday afternoon(01:03:09) How to know if you have Product Market Fit(01:06:35) Combining qualitative and quantitative user research(01:14:23) Loving cats despite being allergicReferenced: Robinhood: https://www.robinhood.comAetherflux: https://www.aetherflux.com/TechCrunch coverage: https://techcrunch.com/2024/10/09/billionaire-robinhood-co-founder-launches-aetherflux-a-space-based-solar-power-startup/Seinfeld mustache scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzZsLaLChRgThe Michelson–Morley experiment: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelson%E2%80%93Morley_experimentEpisode with Aaron Levie @ Box: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLn_tqPvNf4Follow Baiju:X/Twitter: https://x.com/BaijuBhatt LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bprafulkumar Follow Turner:X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovakLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnernovak Subscribe to my newsletter to get every episode + the transcript in your inbox every week: https://www.thespl.it/
We discussed a few things including:1. Their career journeys2. Scaling Shoott3. Launching Lexore (formerly Frame Me)4. Lessons learned5. Trends, challenges and opportunities re photo and video industriesSequoia Blodgett is a visionary entrepreneur at the intersection of media and technology. As the CEO and co-founder of Lexore, an AI-powered video production platform, she is transforming how agencies create high-quality video content.Drawing from her extensive background in filmmaking, entrepreneurship, and venture capital, Sequoia empowers brands to craft compelling narratives that drive organic traffic and enhance customer engagement.She began her career in the entertainment industry, directing music videos for top-tier artists like Justin Bieber and Future. Her passion for entrepreneurship led her to co-star on ABC Family's Startup U, where she shared her journey as a tech entrepreneur.Her professional path includes pivotal roles at companies such as M13, Black Enterprise, and Truist, where she merged her creative expertise with innovative business strategies.Sequoia has earned accolades for her work, including multiple Telly Awards and the prestigious Women in AI Award. She is also recognized as a former venture-backed entrepreneur under Tim Draper's Draper Associates and as a mentor and entrepreneur-in-residence, guiding startups in their growth journeys.Through Lexore, she continues to leverage her expertise to simplify video production, enabling businesses to achieve exceptional results while scaling their digital presence.---With a diverse background in investment banking, strategic finance, documentary film producing, and acting, Jennifer combines her passion for all-things-process with my love of art and storytelling to manage growth, strategy, and operations for Shoott alongside my amazing team.As an actor, she was a longtime company member of The Bats at the Flea Theatre in NYC. She also performed in productions at Ensemble Studio Theatre, Baltimore Center Stage, Yale Cab, and National Black Theatre, among others. In film & TV, she's appeared in The Other Two, High Fidelity, The Village, The Blacklist, and Bored to Death as well as in numerous on-camera and voiceover spots for Citi, AT&T Wifi, Samsung, Geico, and Manhattan Mini Storage. From her time as an actor and creative, she saw firsthand how most artists struggle because their lives are gig to gig and they can't find enough work to sustain a career. It became her mission to see if we could create a business model that could help artists stay artists while providing a value-driven service for clients, which is what led me to her work co-founding and growing Shoott.#podcast #AFewThingsPodcast
0xDesigner is an designer, imagineer and self-described provocateur. He is currently working on Design Everydays where he shares design concepts that explore ways web3 can be more useful, exciting or easier to use. Follow him on Warpcast @0xdesigner and on X @0xDesigner. Mint this episode for free onchain on Base at pods.media/pod-of-jake/187-0xdesigner For more episodes, go to podofjake.com. Previous guests include Mark Cuban, Vitalik Buterin, Brian Armstrong, Balaji Srinivasan, Keith Rabois, Ali Spagnola, Anthony Pompliano, Raoul Pal, Julia Galef, Jack Butcher, Tim Draper, and over 100 others alike. Learn from founders and CEOs of companies like OpenAI, Coinbase, Solana, Polygon, AngelList, Oura, and Replit, and investors from Founders Fund, a16z, Union Square Ventures, and many more. I appreciate your support and hope you enjoy. Thanks to Chase Devens for the show notes and Yiction for the music. Lastly, I love hearing from fans of the pod. Feel free to email me any time at jake@blogofjake.com. Thank you!
Camila Russo is the Founder of The Defiant, a media company focusing on decentralized finance, and the author of The Infinite Machine, the most read book on the history of Ethereum. Previously, she was a markets and crypto reporter at Bloomberg News. Follow her on X @CamiRusso. Mint this episode for free onchain on Base at pods.media/pod-of-jake/186-camila-russo For more episodes, go to podofjake.com. Previous guests include Mark Cuban, Vitalik Buterin, Brian Armstrong, Balaji Srinivasan, Keith Rabois, Ali Spagnola, Anthony Pompliano, Raoul Pal, Julia Galef, Jack Butcher, Tim Draper, and over 100 others alike. Learn from founders and CEOs of companies like OpenAI, Coinbase, Solana, Polygon, AngelList, Oura, and Replit, and investors from Founders Fund, a16z, Union Square Ventures, and many more. I appreciate your support and hope you enjoy. Thanks to Chase Devens for the show notes and Yiction for the music. Lastly, I love hearing from fans of the pod. Feel free to email me any time at jake@blogofjake.com. Thank you!
W1NTΞR is the co-creator of BasePaint, a collaborative pixel art project built on Base. He specializes in unique smart contracts, user interfaces, and everything in between. W1NTΞR has built several crypto projects in the last few years and worked for FAANG companies and startups before that. Follow him on X @w1nt3r_eth and on Farcaster @w1nt3r. Mint this episode for free onchain on Base at pods.media/pod-of-jake/184-w1nt3r For more episodes, go to podofjake.com. Previous guests include Mark Cuban, Vitalik Buterin, Brian Armstrong, Balaji Srinivasan, Keith Rabois, Ali Spagnola, Anthony Pompliano, Raoul Pal, Julia Galef, Jack Butcher, Tim Draper, and over 100 others alike. Learn from founders and CEOs of companies like OpenAI, Coinbase, Solana, Polygon, AngelList, Oura, and Replit, and investors from Founders Fund, a16z, Union Square Ventures, and many more. I appreciate your support and hope you enjoy. Thanks to Chase Devens for the show notes and Yiction for the music. Lastly, I love hearing from fans of the pod. Feel free to email me any time at jake@blogofjake.com. Thank you!
Crypto News Alerts | Daily Bitcoin (BTC) & Cryptocurrency News
VC Billionaire investor Tim Draper says Bitcoin will hit $250,000 per BTC “FAST” under this condition. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Tim Draper Interview - we discuss Bitcoin, Crypto, Gary Gensler, AI and much more:Topics:- Tim's journey to being an investor - Does he still hold the 30,000 Bitcoin acquired from the U.S. Marshals Service - Bitcoin's adoption and growth - Are BTC ETFs a good thing?- Bitcoin price prediction - SEC and Gary Gensler vs Crypto. Tim's comments to Gary Gensler in 2018 revisited - Future of Fund Raising - US Crypto Regulations - AI impact on jobs and economy ⭐️ Show Sponsor - Learn about BitGo, one of the top crypto custodians - https://www.bitgo.com/
How will the rise of Web3 reshape the way we communicate? In today's episode, I'm joined by Shant Kevonian, co-founder of EtherMail, to explore the fascinating intersection of blockchain technology and email communication. EtherMail, founded in late 2021, has quickly emerged as a leading player in this space, providing anonymous and encrypted wallet-to-wallet communication. Imagine the power of Gmail, MailChimp, and Metamask all combined into a secure, decentralized platform—that's EtherMail. Shant shares the origin story of EtherMail and the vision behind creating the first Web 3.0 email solution. We discuss the significant milestones the company has achieved, including raising $3 million in a seed round led by top Web3 investors like Fabric Ventures and Greenfield One. I learn more about EtherMail's mission as Shant offers insights on how the platform is creating a new framework for email economics and consensual marketing, helping Web3 companies deliver blockchain-synced, relevant content to their asset holders. We also explore the recent launch of EtherMail's native utility token, EMT, and its critical role in their Advertising Platform. Shant explains how EtherMail's Email-as-a-Wallet (EaaW) solution is bridging the gap between Web2 and Web3, allowing users to create non-custodial wallets via Gmail or Apple accounts in under a minute. Throughout the conversation, Shant shares valuable advice for aspiring Web3 entrepreneurs and the importance of strategic partnerships, including EtherMail's backing from investors like Tim Draper. Tune in to learn more about how EtherMail is shaping the future of decentralized communication and what's next for this innovative platform.
RAC is a Grammy award-winning musician, record producer, and pioneering creator in crypto. He is currently building Factory.fm (a music app) and Oscillator (a music protocol). Follow RAC on X @RAC. [0:00] - How RAC combined his interests in business and music to create a remix-as-a-service collective [13:56] - His discovery of and excitement about Ethereum [20:56] - Permissioned vs permissionless remixes [28:07] - RAC's early attempts to bring music onchain [37:10] - Creating a shared social graph for onchain music [50:57] - Why music requires a dedicated social graph [1:03:14] - RAC's creative process Mint this episode for free onchain on Base at pods.media/pod-of-jake/181-RAC For more episodes, go to podofjake.com. Previous guests include Mark Cuban, Vitalik Buterin, Brian Armstrong, Balaji Srinivasan, Keith Rabois, Ali Spagnola, Anthony Pompliano, Raoul Pal, Julia Galef, Jack Butcher, Tim Draper, and over 100 others alike. Learn from founders and CEOs of companies like OpenAI, Coinbase, Solana, Polygon, AngelList, Oura, and Replit, and investors from Founders Fund, a16z, Union Square Ventures, and many more. I appreciate your support and hope you enjoy. Thanks to Chase Devens for the show notes and Yiction for the music. Lastly, I love hearing from fans of the pod. Feel free to email me any time at jake@blogofjake.com. Thank you!
Donna Griffit is a Corporate Storyteller who has worked globally for over 18 years with Fortune 500 companies and startups. She has consulted and trained clients in over 30 countries. Through her guidance, clients have raised over a billion dollars. In addition, Donna can magically spin raw data into compelling stories that captivate audiences and drive results. Donna has recently released her much-anticipated book, Sticking To My Story - The Alchemy Of Storytelling For Startups. Launched in January 2023, this book has quickly become a must-read for startup founders, and here is a quote from Tim Draper about her book in his introduction to it: “Well finally, there are no more excuses. Sticking to My Story is the new bible for startup founders. It's the A-Z recipe for how to create a powerful pitch deck, with all the right ingredients. It's filled with helpful tips, fascinating stories of what worked and what failed abysmally, peppered with insightful quotes from my colleagues in Silicon Valley.” Donna was featured on Forbes where she explained how she has helped female founders raise millions from investors. Most recent articles were published on Entrepreneur. What you will learn How storytelling can transform raw data into compelling narratives that captivate audiences. The importance of structuring pitch decks effectively and how to polish them for maximum impact. How AI tools like ChatGPT can assist with research and streamline the storytelling process. The critical role of visuals in presentations, ensuring they enhance rather than distract from the message. Insights into scaling personal expertise through books, courses, and new opportunities like academia.
Jason is the Founder & CEO of Airstack, a leading Farcaster development company, and the creator of Moxie, a community owned, community-governed Farcaster protocol on a mission to grow the Farcaster GDP. [0:42] - Jason's experience working at the White House during Bill Clinton's presidency [3:30] - Becoming a highly successful tech entrepreneur [12:18] - Making the decision to go all in on Farcaster [15:47] - Moving from Twitter to Farcaster after a decade [18:52] - Flipping traditional social economics with Farcaster [21:56] - Moxie's careful approach to monetizing Farcaster [34:48] - The Moxie airdrop and rewards structure [41:02] - Moxie 101 and how to get started Mint this episode for free onchain on Base at pods.media/pod-of-jake/180-jason-goldberg For more episodes, go to podofjake.com. Previous guests include Mark Cuban, Vitalik Buterin, Brian Armstrong, Balaji Srinivasan, Keith Rabois, Ali Spagnola, Anthony Pompliano, Raoul Pal, Julia Galef, Jack Butcher, Tim Draper, and over 100 others alike. Learn from founders and CEOs of companies like OpenAI, Coinbase, Solana, Polygon, AngelList, Oura, and Replit, and investors from Founders Fund, a16z, Union Square Ventures, and many more. I appreciate your support and hope you enjoy. Thanks to Chase Devens for the show notes and Yiction for the music. Lastly, I love hearing from fans of the pod. Feel free to email me any time at jake@blogofjake.com. Thank you!
Nobody (legal name: Nobody Special) is the founder & CEO of Theopetra Labs. Theopetra aims to build a network state where citizens collectively & equally own both the financial infrastructure of the nation and the real estate it encompasses. Nobody previously has spent several years working in residential real estate and experimenting with concept like microspaces. Follow Nobody on X @Mel_Anic. [0:42] - Growing up as an immigrant and early entrepreneurial experiences [4:45] - Introduction to crypto and early Web3 real estate projects [7:52] - Sourcing early interest in Theopetra [11:25] - Theopetra's approach to crowdfunding and community ownership [17:13] - Using micro spaces to bootstrap Theopetra [21:59] - Micro spaces as a minimal viable living space to reduce burn [27:24] - Lifestyles fit for micro space living [30:44] - The current state of Theopetra and benefits of being a member [35:55] - The importance of community within Theopetra [39:14] - Other projects building in the Network State space [42:43] - Attempting to break the longest live stream world record Mint this episode for free onchain on Base at pods.media/pod-of-jake/179-nobody-special For more episodes, go to podofjake.com. Previous guests include Mark Cuban, Vitalik Buterin, Brian Armstrong, Balaji Srinivasan, Keith Rabois, Ali Spagnola, Anthony Pompliano, Raoul Pal, Julia Galef, Jack Butcher, Tim Draper, and over 100 others alike. Learn from founders and CEOs of companies like OpenAI, Coinbase, Solana, Polygon, AngelList, Oura, and Replit, and investors from Founders Fund, a16z, Union Square Ventures, and many more. I appreciate your support and hope you enjoy. Thanks to Chase Devens for the show notes and Yiction for the music. Lastly, I love hearing from fans of the pod. Feel free to email me any time at jake@blogofjake.com. Thank you!
Crypto News Alerts | Daily Bitcoin (BTC) & Cryptocurrency News
"Now, $250,000 or a million, or $2 million, or even $10 million per Bitcoin are the numbers that are probably going to happen for a couple of reasons” explains legendary billionaire investor Tim Draper. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Bitcoin's potential to revolutionize the global economy through financial inclusivity and enhanced efficiency lies in its technology and the innovations that can be built on top of the blockchain.This episode is sponsored by Consensus 2024 Now Available for pre-order | Michael Casey's New Book with Frank H. McCourt, their forthcoming book: Our Biggest Fight: Reclaiming Liberty, Humanity, and Dignity in the Digital AgeIn this week's installment of "Money Reimagined," hosts Michael Casey and Sheila Warren are joined by Tim Draper, Venture Capitalist and Founder at Draper Associates/DFJ/Draper University. The discussion delves into Bitcoin's evolution, its interactions with L1s and L2s, and analyzes the ramifications of spot ETF approval on Bitcoin's rebellious ethos. How does Bitcoin contribute to global wealth creation, and what is its potential to revolutionize the world economy, with a focus on user experience and upcoming innovations on the Bitcoin blockchain?Takeaways | Bitcoin's evolution goes beyond investment opportunities and explores its potential as a transformational economy.The spot ETF approval validates Bitcoin's presence in the traditional financial system but also raises concerns about its rebellious ethos.Bitcoin has the potential to create global wealth by providing liquidity and enabling participation in the world economy.The future of Bitcoin lies in its technology and the innovations that can be built on top of the blockchain.The age of AI will bring new challenges and opportunities, and Bitcoin can play a role in creating a depoliticized and decentralized form of money.Links | Why Tim Draper Is Still Bullish on Bitcoin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GFZI5dq88EA recent book that he launched:Amazon.com: How to be The Startup Hero: A Guide and Textbook for Entrepreneurs and Aspiring Entrepreneurs eBook : Draper, Tim: Kindle Store The World Economic Forum CoinDesk.com-Consensus is where experts convene to talk about the ideas shaping our digital future. Join developers, investors, founders, brands, policymakers and more in Austin, Texas from May 29-31. The tenth annual Consensus is curated by CoinDesk to feature the industry's most sought-after speakers, unparalleled networking opportunities and unforgettable experiences. Take 15% off registration with the code MRP15. Register now at consensus.coindesk.com-Money Reimagined has been produced and edited by senior producer Michele Musso and our executive producer is Jared Schwartz. Our theme song is “The News Tonight ” by Shimmer. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Donald Trump's victory over Nikki Haley in the New Hampshire primary made two things clear: The MAGA wing of the G.O.P. is ready for his coronation, while anti-Trump Republicans believe the race is far from over.From inside Trump's victory party on Tuesday night, we hear from supporters of the former president and from the stars of his orbit, who see themselves as being on the verge of “obliterating the establishment.” And from Tim Draper, a billionaire venture capitalist who is backing Haley.Do you have a question about the 2024 election? We want to hear from you. Fill out this form or email us a voice memo at therunup@nytimes.com