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Dead On Arrival: What was just Hype and what was just wrong Timing? Some technologies and products get over-hyped, and never seem to come to fruition? Some just come to fruition, but years or even decades later? In this episode of Tech Deciphered, what is Dead On Arrival versus just wrong timing Navigation: Intro The Fork Cold Open General Magic The Metaverse Dead on Arrival The soon to be Resurrected… Conclusion Our co-hosts: Bertrand Schmitt, Entrepreneur in Residence at Red River West, co-founder of App Annie / Data.ai, business angel, advisor to startups and VC funds, @bschmitt Nuno Goncalves Pedro, Investor, Managing Partner, Founder at Chamaeleon, @ngpedro Our show: Tech DECIPHERED brings you the Entrepreneur and Investor views on Big Tech, VC and Start-up news, opinion pieces and research. We decipher their meaning, and add inside knowledge and context. Being nerds, we also discuss the latest gadgets and pop culture news Subscribe To Our Podcast Bertrand SchmittIntroduction Welcome to Tech Deciphered episode 78, Dead on Arrival. Was it just hype or just wrong timing? In this episode, we are going to discuss two different types of businesses that as an investor, as an entrepreneur, you want to think carefully about. Looking back, you want to understand better what happened. If we take dead on arrival, we’re talking about businesses, technologies that maybe the tech work fine, but actually no one cared about it, no one wanted it. It’s really a mismatch in terms of what consumer want versus what you are trying to deliver. It’s a classic example of a solution finding for a problem. On the other hand, will it happen but not like that, not now? It’s a type of business where we were too early. We tried to make it work, but actually the technology is not ready now, but it might become ready in the future. As an entrepreneur, as an investor, obviously, you want to make sure you are not in one of these two technologies, one of these two categories. But it’s really a useful lesson to learn which situation you might be in because it will help you make better decision and pick better industries going forward. Nuno, what’s your take on this tough analysis?Nuno Goncalves PedroYeah, in hindsight, everything looks like, “Oh, of course, this wasn’t meant to work,” etc. But here we’re going to take a stab, as you mentioned, at things that are just wrong timing. They might have failed miserably in the past, but they might work in the future. The Fork To have this stake on the ground approach to it, as we’ve had in previous episodes, of defining exactly what we think will happen, but just not like that, versus the dead-on-arrival, which is a little bit more of a hardcore view on it. To your point, we want to really split between those two things because in some ways people are like, “Well, are we ever going to go and have different ways of interacting, for example, in terms of input and output, like with glasses or things like that, that really scale to become pretty pervasive?” We probably would agree that, “Yes, that will happen”. Maybe not in the way that we’ve anticipated until now, and certainly it’s going to take longer than we’ve expected. In some ways, the “will happen, not like that” is a little bit like Amara’s law or Nuno’s law, as referred to in the past. We tend to overestimate the speed at which we get to a revolution, underestimate impact. The “will happen, not like that” will probably fit into that. They will have probably bigger impact than we thought they would, but they will just take longer. Therefore, the solutions we’ve had until now are not great solutions. Whereas the dead-on-arrival, we’re saying, “Hey, we don’t think actually this works.” It’s to your point, not solving a problem that actually needs to be solved, or it’s solving it in the wrong way. Yeah, it’s basically an attempt to really frame, if you’re an entrepreneur, if you’re a venture capitalist, if you’re someone who is an angel investor and is looking at the market right now, what things should you put some real money and real resources, real time behind versus not, and really share that with you guys: our audience.Bertrand SchmittCold Open I always like to go back to a company called General Magic, a company that was legendary in Silicon Valley, spun out of Apple in the 1990s. There was even a movie made about General Magic. It’s a company that tried to basically build the first modern smartphone with touchscreens, app ecosystem. The only issue was it was years before the technology existed to support it. But Nokia at the time was less ambitious and more practical with what the technology was able to do at the time. But what’s interesting with this company is that obviously the smartphone was coming, just took 10 more years, 15 more years. Interestingly enough, some of the people in the team ended up being very successful in that exact space. Tony Fadell, for instance, who ended up creating the iPhone, co-create at least, and Andy Rubin, who end up building up Android, selling that to Google and leading the charge with Google Android.Nuno Goncalves PedroYeah, a very successful team. Tony Fadell, obviously, later on did Nest as well. Megan Smith, who was later the Chief Technology Officer of the US. A lot of people that came out of it that did a lot of important things. To be honest, I think a lot of the technology that was developed that was in some way a capacity or that are reused later on by some of these team members. I’m not saying they were infringing on any IP, but definitely there was a lot of reuse of tech. But it was too soon, right? They were doing something that was truly ambitious too soon. But a lot of these principles, a lot of these things ended up manifesting themselves, and particularly in the iPhone later on and in that deployment. Another such example is actually the metaverse. We did two episodes back in the day, a long time ago, on the metaverse. We debunked it a little bit. Back then, I think it was a very nuanced debunking, if I recall it correctly, Bertrand, because we were saying, “Hey, it’s going to happen in some ways, but it’s an evolution, not a revolution,” not in the way that we saw definitionally. We were huge fans of Matthew Ball and his analysis around media, but somehow we disagreed, I remember, with his definition of what the metaverse is and how it will look like. There’s no doubt that there’s going to be a metaverse in the future, probably metaverses in the future before there’s any given unification. In those metaverses, we do believe. But this whole hype cycle around metaverse and what’s happening clearly didn’t work out well, as proven also by all the write-offs done by Meta on their metaverse stuff. That much must have hurt. It’s related to AR and VR as well and to the enriched reality positioning of a lot of these technologies, which we’ll talk about later. But, again, it was probably something that’s going to happen. It’s going to happen likely in a different product manifestation as the one that was anticipated by a lot of the pundits that opined on what’s happening around metaverse in the future. But it’s going to happen. It’s just going to take longer. It’s going to probably come from angles of entry that are likely not what people had anticipated earlier on. Maybe it’s from gaming, maybe from something else. But definitely it’s going to happen.Bertrand SchmittYes, and you could argue that Apple did a similar mistake with the Vision Pro. I think the Vision Pro is the worst launch of an Apple product. When we say launch, it’s been three years maybe?Nuno Goncalves PedroSince the Newton, maybe?Bertrand SchmittYes, that’s my point. You have to go back a really long time to have such a disastrous launch. I think for me, it’s very interesting because it’s really a category where on one side there is a metaverse of some sort. You should argue if you are just using Twitter, or Facebook, these are some parallel universe in parallel to your real life. But the full on metaverse where you need some extra super heavy glasses to make it work, that simply has not worked. Don’t get me wrong, there are some super small, narrow cases where your heavy VR glasses makes sense for some training, for some simulation, for some light gaming. But given the weight, the disconnection from the real world, it has really never taken fire. Even at cheaper price like Meta was able to do, at more expensive price, much higher quality like the Vision Pro did. It looks like people have an issue with putting heavy glasses on top of them. We’ll talk later about the other side: AR glasses. But the traditional metaverse, heavy glasses, VR glasses, yes, it’s not feeling right, and I don’t think it will ever be right. It needs a different form factor to go at scale.Nuno Goncalves PedroDefinitely fundamental shifts on the metaverse. Just a quick reminder, Meta actually changed their name because of metaverse.Bertrand SchmittYes. Nuno Goncalves PedroIt’s not just that they’re writing off the investments, it’s their name is apparently wrong. It didn’t really happen in that way. You are saying that this persistent embodied virtual world, which was the early definitions of what a metaverse was, didn’t really happen until now. It might happen at some point, but not in that way. But, obviously, a lot of the enablement layers are still work in progress, right? Real-time 3D, presence, avatars, all of these things are moving on. A lot of these enablers will be ready once there is a time where these technologies and businesses that are fundamentally anchored around these technologies will emerge. It’s, again, right components, wrong product alignment, but at the same time, it will happen, just not yet.Bertrand SchmittAgain, I think we’re going to face a split of a virtual reality light that you can call AR with very light glasses that are not a pain to wear, that are more limited, especially today or the next 5 years. The VR glasses that will stay a niche product that are useful for some use cases. Do you want to do a flight simulation? You want to do military training? There will be use for that. But beyond that, it’s more limited. We forgot to talk about the Google Glass. This one was an early, early AR glasses. But, again, here we go back to the capabilities. Simply, we were not there at the time.Nuno Goncalves PedroDead on Arrival We’re moving to Dead on Arrival. What things do we think are relatively dead on arrival? We’ll be nuanced on a couple of these aspects. Not everything is totally dead on arrival. But maybe let’s start with a good one, which is some of the crypto summer promises, particularly around NFTs, non-fungible tokens, and the decentralization of everything, the tokenization of everything. That didn’t quite work the way people thought it would. A lot of people were very happy for a period of time that they had some NFT that was worth a ton of money. Good for them. I hope they sold it back then. Some did actually, fortunately for them, but most of them did not. As an asset and the tokenization element, we’re not questioning that tokenization itself doesn’t make any sense. But from my perspective, a lot of the elements of tokenization plus the tokenization of everything don’t make necessarily imminent sense. I think we’re going to have a world that not everything is going to be tokenized, and a world where, to be honest, having the latest ape token as an NFT is maybe not something I really need. It’s dead on arrival in some ways. What do you think, Bertrand?Bertrand SchmittIt feels like it’s a tale of two worlds. On one side, there was clearly exuberance and bullshit. All these cryptocurrencies that make no sense, have no values. The NFTs are the same: no values, no sense, no logic in them. At the same time, we can see that Bitcoin, Ethereum, and few others were significant products, invention, that have a current total market value that is significant. I would say we can see that step by step, little by little, there is some tokenization happening, but it has been much more narrow than what was initially thought, expected. But it’s happening step by step. I think there is value in tokenization, but definitely not as much value as people expected. I think for one simple reason: it’s very expensive to set up in the sense that it doesn’t work so well, actually. It requires a lot of computing power for stuff that might not justify it as simple as that. Why do you want to replace a very efficient, superfast database by something slow, expensive to maintain? Why? You need to have real reason for that. I think in most situations, there was not a real justification to make that switch. I think, again, there is a niche for tokenization. It’s getting used. Obviously, there is stablecoin as well that are working and provide value. But definitely, the use cases have narrowed. The success stories have been few and far between. It’s definitely a space, but I don’t think it has lived up to the expectations. The expectations were simply quite insane in terms of what to expect, and it failed to achieve that. I don’t think it qualifies as a true revolution. It has been successful again in our situation: in Bitcoin, in Ethereum, in some tokenization. But beyond that, it was not the dramatic change that people were picturing.Nuno Goncalves PedroYeah, it’s been successful and there is a security, in this case, a currency of types, that links to the value of that specific network and the utility of that specific network. But on this case, in particular, the NFT stuff, I think there were two core premises that were very valuable about it. One was the premise of digital collectibles, the element itself being collectible and the fact that I have a unique one was only minted one. It’s a unique thing out there. I think at some point people forgot that actually digital collectibles are not as valuable as people think they are. Physical collectibles are more valuable. The reason for that is just human nature. I want to have something in physicality. I want to have something that I can show people, etc, that has a physicality to it. Digital collectibles, I think there was a problem fundamentally in part of the articulation of NFTs that reside in the value of digitization of these collectibles in and of themselves. I think that was part of the problem. The second problem was really the notion of provenance, the notion of certification, the notion of “this is what it says it is, and nobody can say this is something else.” This notion of provenance. That, I think, fits more into the point you were making, which is the point around use cases. This doesn’t fit all use cases. The provenance piece and the certification piece doesn’t fit for all use cases. Probably it might fit actually even more for actual physical assets where you want to have a certificate, that thing is what it says it is, but it’s actually maybe a physical asset rather than a digital asset. Again, lo and behold, it doesn’t apply to all the use cases that relate to provenance. I don’t think we need to tokenize all the provenance ledgers in the world for this to be working well. Again, it was a little bit of an overreach. In some ways, all these players were very happy. There was a lot of bullshit. To be honest, this is an area that I do think there was actual active fraud. All due respect to a lot of the players in the market, but there was active fraud. Honestly, there was bullshit.Bertrand SchmittI agree with you. I was going to say that it’s one of the rare sector in technology where I think frauds, scams were prevalent. Yes, you might have some shitty startups in general and stuff, and there might be fraud. I think true fraud is rare. True scam is rare. But here for NFTs, for cryptocurrencies, that was the majority you could argue. That’s the part that I never really liked in all that industry. If you look at NFT, personally, I never understood the concept. For me, it made simply no sense because, yes, you can say, “Oh, I have created this rare digital token.” But sure, so what? Who cares? Who cares? You can have hundreds, thousands, millions of unique digital tokens. How does it matter? What’s the use case? What’s the connection? You can show it on your screen, but then how is it unique anymore? It’s not like people have to come to your house and check stuff on site or something like physical art. No, not at all. I don’t know. I think it was surprisingly true bullshit. Again, I’m still a believer in Bitcoin. I think there is true logic to have a separate virtual digital currency. But you don’t need hundreds of them. You just need one, maybe two for some variation. The same for tokenization, it doesn’t need to happen everywhere. Just need to happen where there is really strong real logical value. Beyond that, there is no point.Nuno Goncalves PedroYeah, makes sense. Maybe moving to our next one. I think we discussed this in a previous episode, which was the whole 3D TV stuff. We just don’t think that’s the product, right? It’s not going to be a 3D TV. I believe when we discussed this in the episode—I don’t want to lie too much—but I believe that’s what we came up with… It looks a bit more holographic or the manifestation comes through other mechanisms like glasses, etc. But we thought it was just dead on arrival. Nobody wanted to have glasses on the couch to watch the 3D TV, but also the 3D TVs themselves they tried to develop were very holographic, were super clunky and very heavy. In some ways, I think TV manifestation somehow is not a great manifestation for this. I put it on the dead-on-arrival pile. I have one, just to be clear. I still have one.Bertrand SchmittYeah, but it’s a weird one because if you remember, it suddenly happened. I remember being shocked as a consumer. Suddenly everyone talks about 3D TV. In a few months, 3D TVs are all out everywhere. Then after a few years, no one bothered to keep adding that because consumers didn’t care. I think one issue was, I think it has only worked with Blu-rays. I don’t think any streaming service supported that. With the rise of streaming, that was certainly a pretty big issue in the first place. Interestingly, in the movie theaters, do we still have movies being shown in 3D? I think we still have a few, but it’s really few and far between the movie theater.Nuno Goncalves PedroYeah, IMAX won on that format, the high-end format, IMAX won, not the 3D thing.Bertrand SchmittBut, yeah, if you’re on the TV at home, you don’t want to bother. Maybe if you’re in the movie theater, more high-end experience, you are willing to wear special glasses. I think it makes sense. I think, I guess at home, we are just too busy doing multiple things at once. Rarely sitting all around 2 hours for a movie, so you watch your phone, you check on something else. You don’t want to have these glasses on top that block you from the rest of what’s happening at home.Nuno Goncalves PedroYeah, it just didn’t work. I’m not sure it will work in any case, so we’ll see. But definitely, I don’t think that’s the right form factor.Bertrand SchmittIt technically worked, but practically, it was not accepted by consumers.Nuno Goncalves PedroLet me rephrase. I think it was a solution to a problem nobody thought they had. The execution of the product was the wrong one. It’s like that’s not what people wanted. Maybe we do want some 3D immersive experience, but that’s not the 3D immersive experience that we want, not manifested like that in effect, with its limitations, etc.Bertrand SchmittI want to say that we are not denigrating some of these experiments. Me, I still remember putting a Vision Pro and watching some content that is natively created by Apple for the Vision Pro. It’s an amazing magical experience, truly. But at the same time, I’m always worrying to have to think I’m going to spend 30 minutes putting my Vision Pro on my head. It’s heavy, it’s painful. Again, we go back to, I’m disconnected from everything else, and I don’t like that.Nuno Goncalves PedroWhen there was real technological development, like the case of 3D TVs, that technology development may have served other purposes. Again, we applaud those that put the money where their mouth was, the companies, the individuals that wanted to move forward some of these technology stacks, maybe less so the people that just decided to create NFTs for the sake of it with apes. No attack on those guys specifically, but just to create a specific view on that. But there’s a lot of stuff we’re talking about today which is actually great technological development. There’s stuff that came out of it that is very, very valuable technological development. Maybe to our next one on mobility, physical mobility. The Segway. Everyone’s like, “Oh, this is going to change how we move around the world, in particular for shorter distances, etc.” Well, apparently no. Apparently, it’s not super intuitive. There are still Segways out there for use by police forces, tours, and all that stuff. People say, “Oh, it’s…” No, well, it never scaled. It wasn’t changed. It didn’t change how relatively short local mobility was going to be done. I think part of it is actually the problem with the product. The product is not as intuitive as people thought it would be, and it has other issues around that in terms of security and safety. If you’re going to have a device or something that moves you around, what’s the minimum-accepted level of security that you would have. The fact that you have to incline to move it is actually not super as initially some probably people thought it’s actually not as intuitive as some might have thought it was. I think it’s a dead-on-arrival play. The vehicles of the future, I’m not sure, look like that at all. Happy to eat my words down the road, but I don’t think so.Bertrand SchmittYes, and I remember the massive hype at the start of this product. They were hiding it, but still telling you, We have seen it. That’s true. It’s going to totally change how cities are planned. I mean, the level of hype and bullshit was insane before the launch of the product and before anyone outside of a few knew what it looked like. Then we saw what it looked like, and it was on one side, an engineering marvel, the self-stabilization system was new. I mean, very few people had seen something like this before. At the same time, as you said, the issue was what happens if it loses battery? What happens if you fall from it? Quite frankly, if you look at today’s modern electric scooter, you have 95% of the value of a Segway without any of the downsides. You don’t need to learn a new way to do things. If you lose battery, it still works. I guess you can still push it. It’s not too expensive. You don’t have massive computers to just make it work. You don’t have massive robotics. It’s clearly an impressive engineering solution. But the exact example of a solution to a problem people didn’t have, when ultimately a much more simple and elegant solution was there for people who care. To be clear, you still could use a regular bike. The alternative was still your regular bike. But now you have electric scooters that are a clear, closer alternative, I guess, in spirit to what was supposed to be the Segway. Sometimes, let’s be careful. Overengineering might not be the answer.Nuno Goncalves PedroEven scooters, which are, to be honest, I would argue a much easier philosophical view of how mobility should be done and a much easier form factor, so to speak, in terms of mobility, even those won’t have wide adoption to everyone. It’s not like everyone’s going to use a scooter. The bar for a scooter is much less than a bar for a Segway.Bertrand SchmittYes. I think in a way, the electric scooter is showing us in some ways that the limit of the dream is that even well-executed, even cheap, even easy to use, even low-risk in a way, there is still only so much that people are willing to use it because it’s a pain to bring with you everywhere. Actually, in some ways, you could argue it has only worked with this distributed platform, like lime and others that let you take one and drop it when you are done using it. But that was not a model that was workable for the Segway. I totally agree. You could argue that bikes are still the gold standard or now electric bikes are still the gold standard for who want that level of mobility.Nuno Goncalves PedroWell, the next one is to be a favorite of, I guess, everyone that didn’t invest in them, which is Juicero, which was the machine that basically created Juices out of squeezing a bag. I’m going to be nice here to… There were a bunch of well-known investors. They raised, I think, 120 million or something like that.Bertrand SchmittThat’s insane.Nuno Goncalves PedroIt is insane. But maybe the vision was not that vision. It was something grandiose and the complexity around dealing with liquids and whatever. I’m not really sure we didn’t pass or invest on the company.Bertrand SchmittBig old juice bags.Nuno Goncalves PedroMaybe. You’re being facetious. Anyway, I’m not trying to attack the guys who actually invested in this, the investors that put money into this. But it was basically one of these examples that we’re trying to solve a problem that didn’t exist. It’s like a solution for a problem that doesn’t exist. I can just squeeze a bag of concentrated thing and make a juice. I can do something around the juice. As I said, maybe the big vision was well beyond that, and I’m not sure many of us will ever know what the big vision actually was. But yes, it was a solution, a $400 machine to a problem that nobody really had. That didn’t work.Bertrand SchmittI think the most crazy part of the story is that the business exploded when there was this Bloomberg reporter that showed that you could squeeze the bag with your hands without a machine and get the same juice. That’s pretty insane. That’s just so unbelievable.Nuno Goncalves PedroThe funny part of the story is MSCHF, this company that does all their on-point, slightly artistic, whatever, one-off, drops, etc, etc. Shout out to Gabriel. Gabe Wally, who was the founder there. This is funny. They actually did a collectible series of figurines of that startup toys, of which Juicero was one of them. Jibo, which I don’t think you’d appreciate. Bertrand, and the Theranos minilab. So someone is also making money on that, which is funny. So well done, MSCHF.Bertrand SchmittWhy not? Why not? Maybe we can go quickly over Lytro. This one was, I would say, brilliant technology. It was a camera able to capture light in a different way. You could actually dynamically change focus after the picture was taken. So something quite impressive, and I still remember looking at their products and thinking, should I get one? At the same time where it didn’t work, it was too limited in terms of image quality versus shooting the real picture. It was very tough to sell as an independent device because either you’re in the phone or you are in a DSLR, but there was no spot in between. In some ways, phones solved the issue not directly, but they kept adding cameras. At some point, you had not one, but two, but three, but four, but five cameras in your phone. You had a specific mode for anything you needed, and that’s it. Phone manufacturers managed to convince people they should pay for all these cameras, or provide a low-end version if you don’t want to pay for all these cameras. But yes, very interesting technology that did not manage to find a go-to market.Nuno Goncalves PedroYes, it’s falling in love with a technology solution that, as you said, was incredible, and not falling in love with what problem you are actually trying to solve. Because a lot of the elements of the problem that you’re trying to solve, either you take another picture. All due respect, instead of me trying to change the field of view, etc, and the focus, post picture taken, I take another picture. To be honest, you can take thousands of pictures now with different setups. Also, ignoring the fact that this was pre this whole AI boom. So obviously, that one I will be kind on. But with the AI boom, you can do a lot of things to pictures and changes and stuff like that. All of that changes the game in and of itself. Obviously, Lytro or Lytro, not sure how you spell them, or how you say their name, but they failed before that. So again, this was super great tech, great investors, good investors on board, but just nobody wanted that device. Why would I want this thing? A total failure on arrival. I think one also other aspect of it that may have been misinterpreted and underestimated by some of the early investors, certainly in the company, is the value chain. There is a value chain for cameras, for SLRs, DSLRs, etc, etc. They know what they’re doing, and they’re doing their own level of innovation. In some ways, that fits squarely into that value chain, which I’m sure is a complex value chain to manage in and of itself. Maybe that’s created its own dynamics as well.Bertrand SchmittI think they try to insert themselves in the value chain, but I’m not sure first that they managed to get technology as small as it should have been. They simply didn’t convince anyone. The Sony or Nikon of the world, or the Apple or Google of the world, to use their technology in their phones, because no one really saw the value, per se. One thing to keep in mind, using their technology means you had a big trade-off in terms of megapixels. Actually, you will benefit from that great effect around the focus that can move anywhere after the fact. But in exchange, you had to lose dramatically the number of megapixels. At the time, all the rage was about how do I get more megapixels for my phone with good image quality. That was all that you were selling to consumers. Consumers would not have bought 10 times less megapixels for a weird benefit that at the time no one cared about. I think you are very right to introduce the fact that, of course, they could not have guessed at the time, but today you can get for free this refocusing effect with AI, actually.Nuno Goncalves PedroThat’s exactly the point I was making on the value chain. They went into a value chain that has a lot of players in it, and they got kicked in the butt anyway, because people were like, Why would I adopt it? They didn’t serve the purpose of the use case or the user flow. They didn’t anticipate competitive dynamics to it. Then they actually went straight up into a technology plus IP logic on a value chain that would be like, “Hey, dudes, just get out of here.” What would be the incentive for people to bring them on board? It’s like in some ways, they did all the mistakes under the book in that sense. Again, I’m not trying to diss the company, the founders, the investors, but it feels that was the problem in the end.Bertrand SchmittYes.Nuno Goncalves PedroShall we do some rapid fire dead-on-arrivals?Bertrand SchmittYes. A fan favorite. Have you tried a keyboard projector on?Nuno Goncalves PedroYes. I think I mentioned that in a previous episode, I did have one of the early ones and whatever. Yes, somehow we forgot that there’s other best, better ways of input, maybe voice would be a better way of input if that’s the problem, but anyway.Bertrand SchmittThis one is interesting because you just use it for one minute, and you discover it’s horrible.Nuno Goncalves PedroIt’s a horrible experience.Bertrand SchmittYou have to type on it. You don’t see exactly where you type. Each time you type, you are hurting your fingers because it’s not a smooth keyboard feeling, but you are tapping a solid surface. That’s amazing that it went to manufacturing, and basically no one gave feedback. There is no way it’s working. No way technically working, but practically, no one would want to use that.Nuno Goncalves PedroIt’s bad in all aspects. The finger’s touching. It needs to be a very over-engineered experience for it to actually detect the key stroking and all that stuff. It’s an over-engineered solution by default. It’s not private because once you have the keyboard projector, you’re like, “Where am I keyboarding projecting on?” It’s something that others can see. There are other alternatives that are better. The keyboards on our phones are pretty good these days, with autocorrection in most cases, I wouldn’t say all cases. Voice can also be an interesting replacement to that. If that’s what you’re going for, voice recognition has improved dramatically over the last few years. Again, it’s one of these, “Yeah, cool.”Bertrand SchmittIt’s clear that, first, touch has replaced a physical keyboard where you need one. And two, now voice recognition is getting better for sure.Nuno Goncalves PedroThe opposite side is that voice assistants were going to take over everything, that everything was going to be voice assistant-led. Alexa is going to run your life. You’re going to have games for voice. I actually have a good friend of mine who did a startup in that space. Actually, the company got acquired, and everything’s going to be voice, which, as we know, is also not true. We need to visualize sometimes. Sometimes we still want to write because we want either the added value of privacy or of expression at some standpoint. There are a lot of things that are happening around voice that are exciting. We just mentioned voice recognition, but not everything is going to be voice. Certainly not for the foreseeable future, and so that doesn’t work. Also, as the ultimate platform, we also want some visuals. We also want to have other kinds of interactions. There are limitations to voice assistants, for example. Voice assistants were not quite the next platform that people said they were going to be. I would say they’re a channel, but they’re definitely not a platform. That’s how, at least I see them.Bertrand SchmittYes, a channel versus a platform. I would agree with you. I must say I start to feel that we could be close to the future we have seen in Her. This movie, Her, I guess you saw it as well, where these guy keep talking to his personal assistants, and it’s becoming his friend, maybe even his love. I start to feel we are getting close enough with AI that this becomes a possibility. But again, it’s not your only way to interact. You want to type, you want to see stuff. There are many situations where you don’t want to be seen talking with someone. It’s more of a channel versus a platform. Yes, Alexa, it’s quite amazing how it went to the roof and crashed and burned. It moved up very quickly. Amazon invested billions, hired thousands of people, which was the right move. I mean, you have something that seems to work well enough and could be game changer, why not? But it was quite impressive as a crash and burn. It’s pretty rare to move that fast up and down.Nuno Goncalves PedroI agree. A lot of money is put into this stuff. I mean, Google went after it as well. I think Google probably executed better. Their tools and their hub tools, etc, were better in their devices. But to be honest, it was the beginning of something, it wasn’t really there. It’s shocking because a lot of people have Alexa at home, and Google Hubs at home, and whatever at home. But it’s really not that powerful. I have a bunch of Google stuff at home, and I still use it for very basic information. It’s not really doing much for me. It’s not like magically now with AI, it’s going to be much better. It’s not. It’s a legacy device now. Maybe in the future, we’ll have some stuff that will be cool, but definitely not the voice assistant manifestation that we saw in the past. I know the next is exciting to you, so I’ll let you go for it, Bertrand.Bertrand SchmittNetbooks. If you remember Netbooks, this was a horribly underpowered PC device. I kept buying one after the other, hoping that the next one would be fast enough. Trying to be a small, lightweight portable PC, they were called netbooks. Usually, they also had a small screen, like 10, 12-inch, 9-inch, and each time it was horrible. Very poor battery life, 2-3 hours, super, super, super slow. They were equipped typically with a full Windows OS, and they were killed overnight by the iPad. After 2 years of the iPad, no more netbooks. Oh, yes, and they had this… Typically, they would be equipped with… What was this name of the CPU? It was an Intel Atom CPU, I believe, or Celeron. Again, the root cause why, it was so slow. It was horribly slow.Nuno Goncalves PedroSo netbooks didn’t work. We didn’t want to go back to that. The iPad won and all [inaudible 00:34:05].Bertrand SchmittI think it has been proven at this stage. There are some small mini PCs these days. You have, for instance, the ROG Ally for gaming. There has been some revival with some Chinese manufacturers making some small PCs. I have to admit, I bought some, so I kept trying. It’s much more powerful, no question. Better battery life also. But we go back to the fact that if you have a very limited screen size, 7, 8, 10 inch, it’s just tough to put a full desktop operating system to good use. You need something more simplified, more touch friendly for it to be really practical. Yes, you can run the full desktop Excel on it, but will you do it on an 8-inch screen? Probably not.Nuno Goncalves PedroNetbooks, and maybe we’ll end with Google Glass. I mean, obviously, we’re going to talk about AR and VR in just a bit. I think it’s a good segue to our next section, and we’re not necessarily saying AR, VR is dead on arrival. We actually think they’re going to be out there for us in the future. But Google Glass, in the way that a lot of the first wave wearables were developed, was cool, but not enough. I think even the recent ones, the Meta Ray-Bans. I see a lot of friends of mine now, you’re wearing Meta Ray-Bans, and they’re like, “Oh, this is so cool”. It’s like, “How is that different from the Google Glass, but now a little bit nicer?” It still feels to me that’s the wrong way to approach it. Either we go with a more comprehensive solution for glasses or a solution for glasses that’s a little bit more easily integrated into existing frames, etc, for those of us, like the two of us, who have actual eyeglasses, or I don’t see it quite happening this way. I think just as a formality in how it was deployed, it seems to me it’s been the wrong angle a couple of times, even, to be honest, beyond the first wave of wearables. It’s been a little bit the wrong way to approach this, the wrong paradigm.Bertrand SchmittIf you remember the Google Glass, initially, they were launched in… Again, overhyped. You couldn’t even buy them, but still, it was overhyped. You could see a marketing department going crazy when they were showcasing models wearing Google Glass, that sort of stuff, fashion shows. That was insane. How is it connected to the value proposition of the Google Glass? Absolutely not. But you remember what killed the Google Glass?Nuno Goncalves PedroThis is the Robert Scoble in the shower thing. The whole lack of privacy thing.Bertrand SchmittYou tried to have this vision of the Google Glass that models are wearing and stuff in fashion shows. You have this guy, Robert Scoble, taking his picture with his Google Glass in the show, half-naked. Oh, wow, that quickly dropped. In the interest into Google Glass.Nuno Goncalves PedroRobert’s a good guy for the most part, so we’ll let him get away with it. But yes, it was not a good moment for the use of Google Glass. But to your point, it was overhyped. I don’t even recall that I had to do so many things to actually get access to one. I still have it. Then in the end, it was just totally underwhelming. I do think the meta Ray-Ban solutions, etc, etc, now they’re doing it with other brands as well, are more elegant because it’s around voice activation and stuff like that. But still, it’s not this. The soon to be Resurrected… I think these kinds of solutions are dead on arrival, which may be a good segue to the resurrection pile, so to speak, that will happen, just not like that pile that we have to share today.Bertrand SchmittYes. That’s the question. Are we in resurrection mode with AR glasses? The Ray-Ban, Oakley glasses, are the way to go? There are also some other brands like XREAL, for instance, that are a different approach. It’s more fun to watch movies that I personally like a lot and use a lot. I know quite a few fans for this. There is a market for either the XREAL for movies, meta, or Ray-Ban, for light information on top of your glasses. There are niches. I don’t know if it’s full resurrection mode yet, but I can see again, with AI, that there is the ability to do more and more. Will it be connected to your phone, will be independent from a phone? That’s also stuff to see. I guess at this stage, connection to a phone has some value. It’s making a comeback.Nuno Goncalves PedroI think it’s suffering from being overhyped. It makes sense that the category comes back. The use of glasses, a lot of people actually have eyeglasses. The use of different mechanisms that really expand your view. We’ve seen that with the advent of foldables in mobile phones. People want bigger screens. They want to get as close as they can to the tablet experience without necessarily having to go to laptops, etc. Definitely, I think the use cases make sense. It’s just how do you deploy it, and who’s going to deploy it best? I don’t think we’ve seen anyone that’s been particularly enlightened about doing it. All the great developments with Android XR from Google, Samsung doing a bunch of things in terms of deployment out there as well at the same time. I mean, are these guys going to redefine this category and create the first ever wearable, at least AR great experience or VR category of experience, or are we going to have much of the same? In the same way, it took several years for the smartphone category to be recategorized as a smartphone category under the iPhone. That was the category-defining moment. It was the vision of a bunch of people, obviously led by Steve, but a bunch of people that went to market and said, This is how we view the market to be, and they just nailed it. We haven’t seen the guys who’ve nailed it, I think, is the issue thus far, either on the VR side or the AR side. We just haven’t seen it.Bertrand SchmittDefinitely, we have not seen that. There are, of course, rumors that Apple is ending their Vision Pro program, and at the same time, is full-on on AR glasses, an alternative to the Meta Ray-Ban. We will see. I start to think I have trouble to see Apple pull this off because it starts to feel that, yes, they are great at making more efficient supply chain these days, but I feel after 10 years plus of Tim Cook leading the business, that’s all there is to Apple these days: thinner phones, pink colors for your latest device.Nuno Goncalves PedroVariations.Bertrand SchmittMore efficient chips, for sure. They have great chips. But beyond that, they canceled their car program, the Vision Pro was not successful in the marketplace. They have trouble to find the next story and to execute on the next story, quite frankly. You could argue that their most successful recent launch has been the AirPods.Nuno Goncalves PedroI think that’s absolutely spot on. We’ve discussed it in previous episodes how much… It’s taken much longer than I thought it would. I always said after Steve’s passing, that it would take maybe 5 to 10 years for the beginning of the demise of Apple, and it is taking longer. There was definitely some gravity created. Steve passed away in 2011, right? They’ve been hanging on to their time, so it’s now 15 years. It seems that only now Apple is really suffering in terms of product lines. Probably they started 1 or 2 years ago. They have a new CEO coming in September, so we’ll see if John will do a better job, if he’s really a product guy, and that’s how he’s going to go for it. He’s going to go for a few products really nicely done that can have great experiences, which is Steve’s hallmark, instead of what you said was the milking of the cow, so to speak, under Tim Cook. There’s nothing wrong with it created in a hugely valuable company with a huge amount of still innovations around the edges, but it’s like now they need real product innovation, a new category definition, play, and is John going to be the guy for that or not?Bertrand SchmittYes. Positively, Tim increased market cap of Apple. He didn’t destroy the business. We are not trying to tell that Tim Cook was a failure, but definitely it was not Steve Jobs. It was more a caretaker, optimizer type of CEO. But to go to the next level, you need another type of CEO. Quite frankly, it’s hard to find when it’s not a founder CEO.Nuno Goncalves PedroYeah, I think it will be difficult to find, but we’ll give John a chance once his time comes in September 2026, as one would. Moving to another topic that we’ve discussed in the past, self-driving. It’s going to happen. We all are waiting for it to happen. Self-driving cars, self-driving vehicles that we don’t need to drive in this mess of traffic, in particular spending a lot of my time in Southern California where traffic is incessant. The driving is… How can I put it in a nice way? Awful. People don’t seem to know what they’re doing. I think we all want to have self-driving cars. It’s taking longer than we thought it would, but I do think it’s going to happen. I wouldn’t put a mark on the sand on how long to get this world of self-driving cars. It’s going to coexist with non-self-driving cars for sure for a period of time. But I, for one, know deeply that it will happen, and I look forward to it. I love driving, but not in horrible traffic with horrible drivers.Bertrand SchmittWe are for sure very close. I mean, now, Tesla self-driving is extremely good. I have taken Waymo many times with great experience. It’s not going too fast, it’s not going on the highway, so there are some limits. But I would say really impressive all in all. I think we are pretty close. I don’t know if you know, but Waymo is working on expanding to many, many more cities, actually. I think we might be at a tipping point there. Quite frankly, I expect that teenagers in 10 years from now are not going to bother to learn driving. I mean, we’ll see, but I think many won’t.Nuno Goncalves PedroI mean, Waymo is now doing also stuff on freeways, certainly in the Bay Area. I had a friend of mine who took one recently, and he was scared. He was scared shitless—I think that would be the right way to put it—because the car wasn’t going that fast, people are aggressive on the freeway around your car. But to your point, I’ve used it in city. In the city, it’s great, and it’s aggressive enough. That’s one of the things I was a bit afraid about Waymo, that it wasn’t going to be aggressive enough in city driving, it is pretty aggressive. Yeah, maybe we’re closer than we think. Maybe it’s a couple of years rather than a decade, which is normally where we put the stake on the ground. But it’s definitely going to happen. I think there was an overhype too soon. There were great movements around level 3 and level 4 autonomy that in some ways were misconstrued early on as full autonomy. But now we will likely get what we ask for. Then at some point someone’s saying, “Hey, but why don’t we just have the flying objects instead?” We’ll get back to that. The flying car stuff, the eVTOLs and all that stuff, we’ll see.Bertrand Schmitt10 years ago, I remember the overhyping was very, very strong with self-driving. I nearly believed the bullshit. It was so strong in 2015, 2016 that nearly everyone thought it’s here in the next 12 months, basically. I think that was a lesson for quite a lot of people. Don’t trust the Silicon Valley bullshit machine, hype machine. It can go way too strong, way too fast. You absolutely need to spend time to understand realistically where we truly are. You cannot just buy the premise.Nuno Goncalves PedroMoving maybe to robotics and humanoids. Again, it’s going to happen both for consumer and for industrial. The humanoid form, I think, at some point will be important. Just not yet. I think we’re behind now the big buzz sentence is embodied AI, where you have physical AI manifestations. AI manifested through robots and other kinds of devices. It’s going to start happening in certain beachheads. But, hey, we’ve had this offer for a long time, and I know you still have your frustrations, Bertrand, with the Sony AIBO. I won’t traumatize you more than that, but definitely it will happen. We will have humanoids at some point. We’ll have different specialty devices that will help us in activities that we do both as consumers and also in the B2B and enterprise space, even in the industrial space. The writing’s on the wall that definitely is going to happen.Bertrand SchmittYes. I think the question, as always, is how do you get there? I think the intermediate steps of your optimized robot, a physically optimized robot, like a Roomba to clean your home or some other robots to mow your grass, a good example, I think initially you have to start a small, practical, not too technology advanced and progress your way. Truly humanoid robots are very disruptive because technically, if they work, they can do everything a human could do. But practically, I don’t think it’s that true because a lot of constraints. You have to have enough weight, you have to have enough force, you have to have enough vision, you have to have enough AI to just understand commands and move around. But, again, with all the progress in AI, the progress in electric motors, I am optimistic that there is a chance for the humanoid robot, but it’s not 3 years. It’s probably not even 5. It’s probably more like 10. Let’s not forget that a lot of demos with humanoid robots today are fake. It’s a remote operator, remotely controlling a robot. It’s not a robot working by himself in many, many, many situations. That, I think, is another thing hurting the reputation of some of these companies because these fake demos, they look great, but once you dig a bit, you realize it was a fake demo because it certainly didn’t come with a warning that it’s remotely operated.Nuno Goncalves PedroMoving maybe to the next one that it will happen, but not exactly like that. Quantum computing, I think for the most, it’s been in many cases a solution looking for problems. It’s beautiful, but it’s like, “What’s the problems we’re trying to solve?” I think we’re going to start having beachheads into problem solution and apps. I’m sure a lot of people out there would say, “Well, there’s already killer apps for this, a lot of the scientific modulation, cryptography, breaking, all that stuff.” But I’m like, “Yeah, cool.” It still feels very much like a bunch of pieces and hardware in effect that is trying to solve a problem that needs to be very much defined into several problems, several areas of problem solution going forward. Will it happen? For sure. I’ve been hearing about quantum computing since I was in college, since I was 17 when I got into college. I’m sure it will happen. It will have manifestations. There’s a lot of stuff probably already residing on some of these instances. But a full mainstream view of what quantum computing can do for us is still quite ways out.Bertrand SchmittYes, I mean, there has been some reports that some key steps in the technology starts to be working and that potentially the technology could start to deliver results in the coming 2-3 years. What I mean by results, results that will dramatically change how you need to encrypt because a lot about quantum computing is actually trying to decrypt the current technologies that are used to protect your information online. This one is big. If we manage to have a limited use of quantum computing things that work in a few years, that will have a dramatic impact on how we encrypt data. That’s the one piece I’m looking for: do we really manage to solve encryption with computing? If yes, then we need to make a lot of changes how we encrypt things.Nuno Goncalves PedroFusion energy, the gift that keeps on giving, but this somehow doesn’t fully happen. I know you’re a big fan.Bertrand SchmittI would say, practically, I’m a big fan of nuclear fusion energy because in a way, it’s working. It’s solved in terms of safety. Latest Gen5 reactors are ultra-safe. They cannot go out of control anymore. China has a working reactor. In some ways, part of me would say, “Why bother with fusion when we have fission that is working extremely well, and we know how to make?” If we are efficient about the process, we could make for really cheap. Having a better source of energy today will already be great for the world. I would like to see scale with fission. It’s great to research fusion. Fusion is near a limitless form of energy. This is exciting. I think what’s interesting with fusion these days, it’s not just the big governments working on spending billions before seeing any potential returns, but there is a lot of startups that are working on it. The bar went lower in terms of researching fusion. That part gets me excited. But again, I think we should go fission first and parallel with some fission investment, fusion research, and hopefully, fusion comes at some point, but we should not wait for fusion would be my big take.Nuno Goncalves PedroGood point. Last but not the least, we’ve dedicated episodes on this, so maybe today we’ll just do the little teaser. If you guys haven’t heard our episodes on AI and the bubble and all those things. The last big one that’s just not like that, it will happen is AI itself, and in particular, AGI, so generalized AI that will be just like a human. Obviously, it’s happening. We’ve discussed in previous episodes, there’s a lot of breakthroughs in terms of methodological approach beyond the GPT curse of actual hallucinations that doesn’t seem to be solvable. There’s a lot of things happening around reinforcement learning, evolutionary computation, and other methodological approaches to AI that we think will create tremendous breakthroughs. There’s definitely a lot of funding going into it. We quantified it recently. I think 63, the number probably has changed in the last couple of weeks, but 63 new AI labs that have raised significant rounds upfront, just getting into the market, some of them as high as hundreds of millions or even over a billion dollars for the first round of funding. Obviously, there’s a lot of dramatic things happening in that space. There’s a lot of capital going to that space. It’s going to happen. It’s going to take much longer than, I think, we think it’s going to take. I just saw, I think, Marc Andreessen recently saying, AGI is already upon us. Maybe it is. Maybe he knows something we don’t know. But I suspect we’re still ways to go in a lot of the developments on AI. For now, it will continue its complications and its limitations. But definitely it will untap a lot of great productivity enhancements, technological enhancements, even in the short term that at least I’m very excited about. Then the AGI story, I think, will be a story that will be told later.Bertrand SchmittI might actually disagree on this one. I actually believe, like Marc Andreessen, that we are at AGI. We reached AGI a few months ago with the latest ChatGPT 5.5 with Claude Anthropic, Opus 4.7, 4.6 even. For me, in some specific space, let’s say coding, for instance, I truly believe we have reached AGI. It is totally replacing people for development, testing, writing, specifications, doing design. Yes, there are some use cases where it’s not working as well. But for at least the coding side, I think AGI is truly there. Is it better than the best human experts at every piece of the puzzle? No. I think if you go to some very specialized development stuff like a CUDA development, for instance, or some kernel development, it might not be at the level of the top human experts. But as we can hear about stories around security to the new versions that are unreleased yet of Anthropic and others seem to be at the level of the best human experts at cybersecurity. I think we are actually there. I think that’s why there is an acceleration the past six months in terms of investments in data centers. There was a big question in 2023, 2024, 2025, “Are we investing too much? Is it a bubble?” And so on. That was true because revenues were increasing, but not that fast. The increase in the growth in revenues for Anthropic is insane. No one has ever seen that in the whole history of technology, what happened to them the past six months. Growing so fast at such a scale, no one has seen. I think that’s truly because they have stumbled upon AGI for coding. Coding is such a huge, large market that even if we are just solving coding, even if we never solve more than that, I think it’s already one of the biggest markets in the world, full stop.Nuno Goncalves PedroBut that, for me, I think maybe it’s a definitional thing. That, for me, is still narrow AI. AGI, as defined, is a type of AI that can match or surpass human capabilities across virtually all cognitive and intellectual tasks. Coding is just one of them. I think there’s a lot of narrow AI right there, to your point, that can replace humans maybe today. Coding may be a great example of that. But I don’t think we are at the AGI. I haven’t seen any agents out there that can replace fully human beings, where I would not understand that they’re actually AI. Anyway, again, maybe you guys have seen stuff that I haven’t seen. I just feel there’s a lot of overhype on what the AGI actually is. But the ability to surpass us as human beings, I haven’t seen it yet across the board, not on a specific domain.Bertrand SchmittYes, I think my point is that I have seen it on a few domains. If you look at mathematics, for instance, and there are more and more examples of people who are using AI to solve math problems that only the very top people in the world were able to solve that are now being solved by AI. I start to feel that we are getting a few examples in different fields where AI is matching the absolute best experts in the world. I would just go back in terms of market size. Already what we got today, and today is not the limit, but what we got today, and especially AI combined with all these agents, harness agents, that’s also that specific combo that makes a difference. This is, for me at this stage, huge market. Does it solve everything? Does it replace a human for everything? No, you still need the human in the loop. You don’t let your AI go wild for weeks and just check once in a while. But you could argue very few humans are able to do that, quite frankly, to run by themselves for weeks without control.Nuno Goncalves PedroI feel there’s still a great deal of confusion because there’s dramatic impact on narrow AI domains where things are being done that weren’t done before, where there’s these great mathematical proofing, coding stuff is being done very easily, etc, etc. But still that, for me, is not the definition of AGI. AGI is a human being. It’s like someone who can really be a human being. Ideally, become top end of what a human being will look intellectually across domains. I don’t think that’s where we are. Again, maybe definitional, maybe that’s what Marc means, but I mean-Bertrand SchmittYeah, the question is, what does it mean? I would argue it’s beating 80% of humanity today pretty easily. Most of humanity doesn’t know how to code. It will be unable to do coding at the level AI is doing. It will be unable to do math at the level AI is doing. Use ChatGPT to check for medical issues and stuff. It’s not perfect for sure, but, again, it still beats most humans. I don’t know. I feel that we are reaching a level where it’s truly beating most of humans, many experts in many fields. I feel the definition of, “Hey, it has reached the level of an average human being.” I would say it passed that one. Is it the same as a human being? No. But reaching the level of your average human being, I think we are there in a lot of fields.Nuno Goncalves PedroConclusion Well, in conclusion, in episode 78 of Tech Deciphered, we went into two piles: the pile of dead-on-arrival products, technologies, businesses, and the pile of “it will happen, but not like that” or “not yet” pile of technologies, business out there as well. We went into a bunch of topics today that were of extreme importance back in the past where we thought the world was going to change, anywhere from self-driving to fusion in the nuclear space. We also went into some dramatic, dramatic mistakes like Juicero and other deployments like Segway that seem to be really very much dead on arrival. With that, I would ask you if you’re excited, and you want to share with us some of your agreements or disagreements on today’s episode, as well as your own dead-on-arrival versus merely-early examples, feel free to do so on LinkedIn, X, or via email. Thank you, Bertrand.Bertrand SchmittThank you, Nuno.
Today, we're joined by Tony Fadell, the inventor of the iPod and co-inventor of the iPhone. Tony is the founder of Nest (the smart thermostat acquired by Google) and the New York Times best-selling author of Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making.In this second episode, Tommy Stadlen talks to Tony about his years working alongside Steve Jobs and what he's learned about building a career, why he thinks saying "no" is the most underrated skill in product, and why giving credit away is the thing most leaders get wrong.He speaks about:what Steve Jobs was truly great at, and the one thing he was bad atthe two types of assholes, and how to tell ego from missionwhy giving credit to your team is the most joyful part of leadinghustling his way into General Magic with seven months of letters and cold callschasing heroes instead of brands early in your careerwhy the best mentors (like Bill Campbell) know people, not techthe General Magic crash at 25 that taught him to stay groundedBuilding a purpose driven company? Read more about Giant Ventures at www.Giant.vc.Music credits: Bubble King written and produced by Cameron McLain and Stevan Cablayan aka Vector_XING.Please note: The content of this podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. It should not be considered financial, legal, or investment advice. Always consult a licensed professional before making any investment decisions.
Today, we're joined by Tony Fadell, inventor of the iPod, co-inventor of the iPhone, and founder of Nest, acquired by Google. He's also the New York Times bestselling author of Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making, and has invested in over 100 companies working across AI, surgery, textiles, and drug discovery.Tommy Stadlen talks to Tony about why Apple was so close to collapse when it bet on the iPod, why no single AI device will replace the smartphone, and the two-year internal standoff with Steve Jobs that a Wall Street Journal reviewer ended without knowing...He also speaks about:Why Apple had less than 1% market share and $500M in debt when they gambled on the iPod"Stay beginner": why great product teams design as if they've never seen the product before"Virus of doubt": the Nest approach to making people notice what they'd stopped seeingWhy the iPhone was really three devices you already owned, merged into oneGeneral Magic: building the iPhone concept 15 years too early (and what that tells you about timing)Why companies (and people) only change when they're close to dyingWhy no single AI device will replace your phone...Building a purpose driven company? Read more about Giant Ventures at www.Giant.vc.Music credits: Bubble King written and produced by Cameron McLain and Stevan Cablayan aka Vector_XING.Please note: The content of this podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. It should not be considered financial, legal, or investment advice. Always consult a licensed professional before making any investment decisions.
Tony Fadell created the iPod, co-created the iPhone, and founded Nest (which he sold to Google for $3.2 billion). He's co-authored over 300 patents, was part of the legendary team at General Magic, and wrote one of the most important and inspiring books for builders, called Build.In our in-depth conversation, we discuss:1. The heated internal debates about whether the iPhone should have a physical keyboard2. Why opinion-based decisions are essential for v1 products3. Why marketing matters as much as the product itself, and how the iPod almost failed4. Why voice will eventually become the primary interface with AI5. Why cognitive surrender to AI is the biggest risk facing product builders today—Brought to you by:WorkOS—Make your app enterprise-ready, with SSO, SCIM, RBAC, and more: https://workos.com/lennyVanta—Automate compliance, manage risk, and accelerate trust with AI: https://vanta.com/lenny—Episode transcript: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/father-of-the-ipod-and-iphone-on—Archive of all Lenny's Podcast transcripts: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/yxi4s2w998p1gvtpu4193/AMdNPR8AOw0lMklwtnC0TrQ?rlkey=j06x0nipoti519e0xgm23zsn9&st=ahz0fj11&dl=0—Where to find Tony Fadell:• X: https://x.com/tfadell• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tonyfadell• Website: https://www.buildc.com—Where to find Lenny:• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/—In this episode, we cover:(00:00) Introduction to Tony Fadell(02:23) The Blackberry vs. iPhone keyboard debate(07:50) Micromanaging vs. kind lies: what great products actually need(15:57) The Nest thermostat and smoke alarm story(21:22) How to decide what's worth building: pain plus new technology(27:36) The three-generation rule: why nothing works the first time(34:20) The full customer journey: why marketing defines your product(40:53) The power of storytelling and the press-release-first approach(48:37) The evolution of product management and the builder role(50:27) Why AI-generated code creates brittle, unmaintainable products(58:00) Storytelling techniques(1:05:45) The next iPhone(1:13:15) Hardware is back(1:17:01) What Tony is most excited about(1:21:38) Working with Tony(1:25:36) Ethics, morals, and the responsibility of product builders(1:32:40) How to connect with Tony and Build Collective—References: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/father-of-the-ipod-and-iphone-on—Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.—Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed. To hear more, visit www.lennysnewsletter.com
In this episode of Book Overflow, Carter and Nathan continue discussing Build by Tony Fadell!Join the Book Overflow Discord here! https://discord.gg/ZwS2fqW7ZZ -- Want to talk with Carter or Nathan? Book a coaching session! ------------------------------------------------------------Carterhttps://www.joinleland.com/coach/carter-m-1Nathanhttps://www.joinleland.com/coach/nathan-t-2-- Books Mentioned in this Episode --Note: As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.----------------------------------------------------------Build by Tony Fadell--Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5kj6DLCEWR5nHShlSYJI5LApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/book-overflow/id1745257325X: https://x.com/bookoverflowpodCarter on X: https://x.com/cartermorganNathan's Functionally Imperative: www.functionallyimperative.com----------------Book Overflow is a podcast for software engineers, by software engineers dedicated to improving our craft by reading the best technical books in the world. Join Carter Morgan and Nathan Toups as they read and discuss a new technical book each week!The full book schedule and links to every major podcast player can be found at https://www.bookoverflow.io
While many of us wish we had more resources, more options, and more time, David Epstein suggests that it's scarcity and constraints that lead us to better outcomes. This notion might feel counterintuitive, but David explains the research and reasoning behind his terrific new book, Inside the Box: How Constraints Make Us Better, including examples from Apple, Southwest Airlines, NASA, and others. Chapters: 00:00 Welcome David Epstein to Blue Sky Host Bill Burke introduces David Epstein, author of Range and the new book Inside the Box. David shares his career transition from science to journalism, explaining his passion for synthesizing and sharing new knowledge rather than specializing in one field. 03:03 From Range to Inside the Box David discusses the inspiration behind "Inside the Box," which emerged from reader questions about applying broad skills and his personal struggle with inefficient project boundaries. 05:52 The Green Eggs and Ham Effect David explains the 'Green Eggs and Ham effect,' illustrating how Dr. Seuss's creativity flourished under severe word count constraints for his iconic books. This phenomenon demonstrates that limitations can force novel approaches, as our brains tend to avoid new thoughts unless truly compelled. 10:09 Jesse Jackson's Green Eggs and Ham This chapter recounts David Epstein's fascination with the 'Green Eggs and Ham' effect, where constraints boost creativity. It also includes a special soundbite of Reverend Jesse Jackson's memorable reading of the Dr. Seuss classic on Saturday Night Live. 11:55 General Magic and Too Many Resources David discusses General Magic, a company that envisioned the iPhone but failed due to an excess of resources and lack of clear constraints, leading to an over-complicated product. This contrasts with the Palm Pilot and eBay, which emerged from General Magic alumni who embraced limitations to solve specific problems. 17:24 Tony Fadell and the iPod's Constraints David explains how Tony Fadell, traumatized by General Magic's failure, became a zealot for constraints, leading to the rapid and successful development of the iPod. Fadell's approach, emphasizing tight deadlines and limited resources, also guided the creation of the simplified Nest thermostat. 20:09 Apollo 13 and Long Leash, Narrow Fence Bill and David discuss the Apollo 13 mission as a prime example of creativity under extreme constraints, where limited resources forced ingenious problem-solving. David highlights how the 'long leash, narrow fence' approach, giving freedom within strict boundaries, consistently leads to innovative solutions in various fields, including NASA missions and product design. 22:59 CNN and Southwest Airlines: Scrappy Success Bill shares the story of CNN's founding, highlighting how Ted Turner's severe financial and time constraints forced innovative, cost-effective solutions that outmaneuvered larger, resource-rich networks. David then parallels this with Southwest Airlines' early success, demonstrating how extreme limitations can drive creative problem-solving and long-term profitability. 29:39 Optimism and the Power of Constraints David connects the concept of constraints to optimism, explaining how obstacles can be reframed as opportunities for clarity and creativity, challenging the negative perception of limitations. 35:02 AI, Scarcity, and the Generalist Advantage David discusses how AI, despite its abundance of resources, paradoxically emphasizes the importance of defining clear problems before seeking solutions, cautioning against 'drowning in started things.'
In this episode of Book Overflow, Carter and Nathan begin discussing Build by Tony Fadell!Join the Book Overflow Discord here! https://discord.gg/ZwS2fqW7ZZ -- Want to talk with Carter or Nathan? Book a coaching session! ------------------------------------------------------------Carterhttps://www.joinleland.com/coach/carter-m-1Nathanhttps://www.joinleland.com/coach/nathan-t-2-- Books Mentioned in this Episode --Note: As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.----------------------------------------------------------Build by Tony Fadell--Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5kj6DLCEWR5nHShlSYJI5LApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/book-overflow/id1745257325X: https://x.com/bookoverflowpodCarter on X: https://x.com/cartermorganNathan's Functionally Imperative: www.functionallyimperative.com----------------Book Overflow is a podcast for software engineers, by software engineers dedicated to improving our craft by reading the best technical books in the world. Join Carter Morgan and Nathan Toups as they read and discuss a new technical book each week!The full book schedule and links to every major podcast player can be found at https://www.bookoverflow.io
Send us Fan MailAnton arrived in the UK with £500 in his pocket. Years later, he founded WealthOS. He recently sold it to one of the world's largest banks.In this episode, Alan sits down with the founder of WealthOS to talk through what the journey from arrival to acquisition actually looked like.We hear about the door-knocking days in suburban Surrey, and the decision to leave a senior corporate role with two children in private school and a mortgage to cover. He shares the framework he used to pick a co-founder, and why the person who scored highest was not who anyone expected.We get into the angel rounds, the strategic investment from Barclays, and the Liz Truss-era fundraising window that nearly ended the company.There is the November when the bank account was down to four figures and payroll was three weeks away. The conversation he had with his wife about pulling the kids out of school. And the call from JP Morgan that came when an exit was not on his mind.He also shares the principle his former chair gave him about how good businesses get acquired, and his answer to what wealth actually means after you have built and sold one.Links:Wealth OS: https://www.wealthos.cloud/Anton's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/antonpadmasiri/Books:"Dreams From My Father" by Barack Obama - https://amzn.eu/d/074kFId1"Range" by David Epstein - https://amzn.eu/d/0iBX3kyj"Build" by Tony Fadell - https://amzn.eu/d/06ueeONiPodcasts:"Invest Like The Best" by Patrick O'Shaughnessy - https://pod.link/1154105909This podcast is produced by TribunistaSponsored by Capital Asset Management
Read my new book, The Price of Becoming. www.LearningLeader.com/Becoming The Learning Leader Show with Ryan Hawk This is brought to you by Insight Global. If you need to hire one person, hire a team of people, or transform your business through Talent or Technical Services, Insight Global's team of 30,000 people around the world has the hustle and grit to deliver. My guest: David Epstein is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Range and The Sports Gene. A former investigative reporter at ProPublica and senior writer at Sports Illustrated. His new book is called Inside the Box: How Constraints Make Us Better. Notes Be part of "Mindful Monday" -- Text Hawk to 66866 Key Learnings The easier move is to let it go. David found a factual error in Ryan's new/my new book. David was supposed to read it and write a blurb on it - but went further and challenged a factual error. The kind move, what great leaders actually do, is being willing to point things out, even if it could cause a little friction. There is such a thing as too much autonomy. After Range became mega viral, David optimized for autonomy. He individualized his whole life. He no longer was writing about what others assigned him. A year later, he realized there is a thing as too much autonomy. He missed the structure of a work day, the deadlines, the annoyances of working with other people's schedules. This total freedom ended up feeling terrible. "The great thing about being committed by your own choice is that you can stop wondering how to live and start living." This quote by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi hit David when he was on a dating app for book topics, just swiping and swiping. That day he said, "I'm really interested in constraints. I need some myself. I'm writing a book proposal on this." Two weeks later he was 10 times more interested because he decided to dive into it. Cal Newport says "system shutting down" at the end of his workday. It seems silly, but when you have all that freedom, you need something to close the workday so you can recover and be ready for the next day. Your brain is made for preventing you from having to think whenever possible. Cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham says thinking is energetically costly. So when your calendar is too open, all you'll do is what's convenient. Your brain will be lazy. The path of least resistance. The mere urgency effect: when schedule and structure is too open, people do things that seem urgent even if they're unimportant. When you're too unstructured, you end up doing huge volumes of low value stuff just to have checked off doing something. What David's workday looks like now: Batching work: people at work check their email on average 77 times a day. The way people are usually doing that is they're toggling all the time between email and something else. When you do that, it lowers your productivity and massively increases your stress. David doesn't start his day with his inbox. He'll check it at the end of the workday because emails can take him away from the most important work at the beginning of the day. Stress + Rest = Growth. The workday ends when David's son gets home. When writing, you have to program in rest, just like you would if you were an athlete in training. Daniel Kahneman said writing "Thinking Fast and Slow" was the worst few years of his life. David had lunch with Kahneman and praised the book. Kahneman said, "Never again." He said it was so isolating. He was used to working with a partner or multiple partners and colleagues. He felt so isolated that he said he'd never write a book again, or if he did, he would write it with somebody else. And that's what he did. And David could empathize with that. David made a one-page architectural outline for how "Inside the Box" would look. If it's not on that page, it is not in the book. He wrote as small as possible to try to defeat his own system. The book's 20% shorter than his other two. He thinks it's much tighter writing. He was so much more efficient that he doesn't feel nearly as burned out. After a mega hit book, two things matter: (1) A lot is out of your control, and (2) Identify as a craftsman. David's colleague at Sports Illustrated told him, "If a book about genetics and vampires comes out the same day, you're screwed, and there's nothing you can do about it." He was right. But David very strongly identifies as a writer now, as a craftsman. He's taken fiction writing courses just to learn about craft. With Inside the Box, he did a structural experiment that he found so engaging because he was focused on the craft itself, not just the commercial outcome. "Docendo discimus" - by teaching, we learn. This is a quote from Seneca. If people think they're going to have to teach certain material, they organize it more coherently in their own mind. They start pulling out main ideas and attaching different ideas together. Teaching it is even better, but just making someone think they're going to have to teach it makes them learn in a much more coherent way. Narrative values: the recurring themes that give coherence to a life. David went back and looked at his life and identified: curiosity, open-mindedness, diligence, and resilience. Now that he's started telling his story in that way, it shows up everywhere. But going forward, he also wanted some things in his story that he didn't have. So he identified forgiveness in particular because that has not been a strong suit for him. Ben Helfgott: the only living Olympian to have survived a concentration camp. Almost everybody in his family was killed in the Holocaust. He just preached forgiveness all the time. When David saw what Ben did, these petty grudges he's holding are nothing. You're just poisoning yourself when you hold these grudges. So David decided he wanted forgiveness to become one of his narrative values. Herbert Simon won the highest award in computer science, psychology, and the Nobel Prize in economics. His quote serves as the epigraph of the book: "It is a myth, widely believed but not less mythical for that, that people are most creative when they're most free." Simon coined the term "satisficing." It's a combination of satisfy and suffice. It means having good enough decision rules. He contrasted that with maximizing. From a mountain of psychological research, it is almost always bad to be a maximizer. Maximizers are less happy with their decisions, less happy with their lives, more prone to regret. There's not much evidence they actually make better decisions most of the time. Simon was a proactive satisficer. He said you need three sets of clothing: one on your back, one in the wash, and the next one ready to wear. He simplified all the decisions in his life so he could save cognitive bandwidth for the really important ones. He famously said, "The perfect is the enemy of the good." Choose when to choose. Choose when to save and when to use your cognitive bandwidth. Good enough doesn't mean you have low standards. It means you're saving your bandwidth for the most important things. "How you do anything is how you do everything" is completely wrong. This is one of David's least favorite quotes. It's wrong. Herbert Simon did the same mundane thing, the same breakfast every day, the same socks, so he could crush it in his work. He wasn't doing everything the way he was doing his work. The Fredkins Paradox: We spend the most energy on the least important decisions because we agonize when the options are really similar. General Magic: They invented the smartphone in 1990. The iPhone would not exist without them. They had infinite degrees of freedom. They could do anything. When the device came out, it didn't solve a clear customer problem. It had a 200-page manual. They sold 3,000 units in the first six months. Meanwhile, people inside General Magic who bit off much smaller chunks had success. One low-level engineer started Auction Web. His bosses said no, too small. He left and changed the name to eBay. Another created Graffiti. He said "I'm going to solve a clear customer problem. Busy professionals want contacts and calendars on the go." He did just a calendar, contacts, and a memo pad. That was the Palm Pilot. By doing way less. By doing something, not everything. Tony Fadell (the "podfather"): "If you don't have constraints, make up constraints." Bill Gurley said, "We have a saying in venture: more startups die of indigestion than starvation." When Tony co-founded Nest, he made his team work inside a literal box. He made them prototype the box before they had the product. If it didn't fit in that box, it was not a priority. Reflection Questions What area of your life has too much freedom right now? Where could you add a constraint (a deadline, a ritual, a boundary) that would actually make you more productive or creative? If you had to pick three narrative values that run through your life story, what would they be? Are they the ones you want, or do you need to add an aspirational value like David did with forgiveness? What's one decision you're maximizing (trying to find the perfect choice) when you should be satisficing (good enough and move on)? How much time and energy would you free up if you applied Herbert Simon's approach? More Learning #310 - David Epstein: Why Generalists Will Rule the World #582 - Cal Newport: Obsess Over Quality #660 - James Clear: The 4 Laws to Behavioral Change Podcast Chapters00:00 The Price of Becoming - Ryan's New Book 01:15 Meet David Epstein 02:39 The Fact Checker: What Great Leaders Do 04:27 Dedication Easter Eggs 05:50 The Problem With Too Much Autonomy 10:47 Why You Actually Need Constraints 12:29 Batching Work: The 77 Email Checks Problem 17:20 Lunch with Kahneman: Thinking Fast and Slow Was Miserable 22:18 What To Do After A Viral Book 27:07 Docendo Discimus: By Teaching, We Learn 29:13 Why Leaders Should Regularly Teach 31:09 Desirable Difficulties 31:56 Narrative Values: The Themes That Define Your Life 34:31 Adding Forgiveness As an Aspirational Value 36:13 Chips on Shoulders vs. Proving People Right 39:10 Herbert Simon: The Man Who Won Everything 40:20 Satisficing Over Maximizing 42:40 Choosing When To Choose 44:29 Good Enough Doesn't Mean Low Standards 46:13 Why "How You Do Anything" is Completely Wrong 47:25 General Magic: Do Something, Not Everything 52:49 One Year From Now: What Are You Celebrating? 54:54 EOPC
Some product manufacturers treat launch as the end of the journey. It isn't. In episode 325 of China Manufacturing Decoded, Adrian and Renaud break down a powerful idea from Tony Fadell: “Builders build, ship, then solve what breaks.” They explore what really happens after a product hits the market, and why chasing perfection before launch can actually kill your chances of success. You'll learn: Why over-engineering delays launches (and increases risk) How Version 1 should really be defined: simple, lovable, and complete What real-world users reveal that prototypes never can How to collect meaningful feedback without damaging your reputation Why early adopters are critical for innovative products How smart teams build Version 2 while Version 1 is still launching Developing a new product in 2026? You'll have food for thought from this one! Sections 00:13 — Episode overview 00:37 — Tony Fadell's quote 01:37 — Why perfection is a trap 04:28 — Engineering vs speed trade-off 06:30 — Launch early vs over-engineering 07:46 — De-risking with Version 1 10:30 — “Simple, lovable, complete” 13:43 — Launch isn't the finish line 15:04 — Real-world user behaviour 17:06 — Nest example (unexpected insights) 19:36 — Managing reviews & early releases 21:27 — Choosing the right early users 24:02 — Misinterpreting “ship early” 25:47 — Lessons from product reliability 26:56 — Why post-launch work matters 28:28 — Continuous product development 30:25 — Key takeaways Related content Tony Fadell's LinkedIn post How to Manufacture a New Product with the Customer Journey in Mind Buy the book: Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making A Logical Development Roadmap for New Hardware Products Get in touch with us Connect with us on LinkedIn Contact us via Sofeast's contact page Subscribe to our YouTube channel Prefer Facebook? Check us out on FB
Tony Fadell led the teams that created the iPod, iPhone, and Nest Thermostat. In his book Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making, he shares everything he's learned about building great companies and game-changing products. (This episode first aired in September 2022.) The Next Big Idea is now on YouTube! You can find our episodes here. Follow Rufus on LinkedIn, subscribe to our Substack, or send us an email at podcast@nextbigideaclub.com. The best way to support the show is by becoming a Next Big Idea Club member. Learn more at nextbigideaclub.com, and use code PODCAST for a super secret discount (spoiler: it's 20% off). Sponsored By: Fabric — Join the thousands of parents who trust Fabric to help protect their family at meetfabric.com/nbi Factor — Head to factormeals.com/idea50off and use code idea50off to get 50% off your first box Granola — Get three months free at granola.ai/idea Shopify — Start your $1/month trial at shopify.com/nbi
Sometimes an episode of AwesomeCast really shows the full range of what makes the show fun. Episode 775 goes from the emotional high of a successful Artemis 2 splashdown all the way to the absurd joy of seeing someone force macOS onto an original Nintendo Wii. Sorg and Podnar open with one of the week's best feel-good tech stories: Artemis 2 made it home successfully, and Dave shares the unexpectedly charming story of the mission mascot RISE. In a week that needed some good news, the conversation lands on something larger than space hardware alone. This was about optimism, engineering, and a rare moment of collective excitement. Then the show pivots back to Earth with the kind of story that feels custom-made for AwesomeCast: yes, someone got early Mac OS X running on a Nintendo Wii. It is not practical. It is not necessary. It is absolutely wonderful. That same spirit carries into Sorg's hands-on experiment with Mythic, a tool aimed at helping M-series Mac users access Windows games through the Epic ecosystem. The conversation explores how much better Apple Silicon has become for compatibility, even if some rough edges still show up in real-world testing. A big chunk of the episode also digs into Amazon Luna's latest changes. Sorg reacts to the platform ending game purchases and outside store access, and the discussion quickly becomes about more than Luna itself. It becomes a conversation about trust in digital platforms, cloud gaming ownership, and what happens when convenience gets taken away after users have already bought in. It is one of the sharpest segments in the episode because it blends personal use with a bigger industry trend. There is also a lighter side this week. Dave shares The Weather Channel's retro weather experience, which sends both hosts into a funny and surprisingly thoughtful conversation about the old cable era, nostalgic interfaces, and how channels drift from their original purpose. On the more practical side, they also touch on Overcast's new transcript support and Waymo's plan to help cities identify potholes using vehicle data. That latter topic turns into a very Pittsburgh-flavored discussion about 311 systems, local government tech, and whether cities are really taking advantage of the tools they have. Finally, Dave closes with his Arab American History Month spotlight on Tony Fadell, best known for his work on the iPod and Nest. It is a fitting end to an episode that is really about the many layers of tech: breakthrough engineering, strange experimentation, product design, infrastructure, nostalgia, and how all of it shapes everyday life. Links from this episode: Artemis / RISE: https://www.space.com/space-exploration/artemis/how-artemis-2-commander-reid-wiseman-saved-the-missions-moon-mascot-its-hard-not-to-love-this-little-guy-i-cant-let-rise-out-of-my-sight macOS on Wii: https://apple.news/AJdU3eghQT2-jfhrGvzI2_g Mythic: https://getmythic.app/ Amazon Luna: https://www.ign.com/articles/amazon-luna-will-no-longer-allow-owners-to-buy-games-access-game-stores-or-third-party-subscriptions-starting-today?utm_campaign=trueAnthem%3A+Manual&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=facebook Amazon Luna alt link: https://apple.news/A2cb25SwgQX-AuvSPHdRsHw Waymo potholes: https://apple.news/AnxW6o9QWQJOcCGLqCsW6XQ Overcast transcripts: https://9to5mac.com/2026/04/08/overcast-launches-podcast-transcripts-in-new-app-update-for-iphone/ Retro Weather Channel: https://weather.com/retro/ Tony Fadell: https://design.mit.edu/community/people/tony-fadell Subscribe for more tech talk from Pittsburgh and support the show at Patreon.
Sometimes an episode of AwesomeCast really shows the full range of what makes the show fun. Episode 775 goes from the emotional high of a successful Artemis 2 splashdown all the way to the absurd joy of seeing someone force macOS onto an original Nintendo Wii. Sorg and Podnar open with one of the week's best feel-good tech stories: Artemis 2 made it home successfully, and Dave shares the unexpectedly charming story of the mission mascot RISE. In a week that needed some good news, the conversation lands on something larger than space hardware alone. This was about optimism, engineering, and a rare moment of collective excitement. Then the show pivots back to Earth with the kind of story that feels custom-made for AwesomeCast: yes, someone got early Mac OS X running on a Nintendo Wii. It is not practical. It is not necessary. It is absolutely wonderful. That same spirit carries into Sorg's hands-on experiment with Mythic, a tool aimed at helping M-series Mac users access Windows games through the Epic ecosystem. The conversation explores how much better Apple Silicon has become for compatibility, even if some rough edges still show up in real-world testing. A big chunk of the episode also digs into Amazon Luna's latest changes. Sorg reacts to the platform ending game purchases and outside store access, and the discussion quickly becomes about more than Luna itself. It becomes a conversation about trust in digital platforms, cloud gaming ownership, and what happens when convenience gets taken away after users have already bought in. It is one of the sharpest segments in the episode because it blends personal use with a bigger industry trend. There is also a lighter side this week. Dave shares The Weather Channel's retro weather experience, which sends both hosts into a funny and surprisingly thoughtful conversation about the old cable era, nostalgic interfaces, and how channels drift from their original purpose. On the more practical side, they also touch on Overcast's new transcript support and Waymo's plan to help cities identify potholes using vehicle data. That latter topic turns into a very Pittsburgh-flavored discussion about 311 systems, local government tech, and whether cities are really taking advantage of the tools they have. Finally, Dave closes with his Arab American History Month spotlight on Tony Fadell, best known for his work on the iPod and Nest. It is a fitting end to an episode that is really about the many layers of tech: breakthrough engineering, strange experimentation, product design, infrastructure, nostalgia, and how all of it shapes everyday life. Links from this episode: Artemis / RISE: https://www.space.com/space-exploration/artemis/how-artemis-2-commander-reid-wiseman-saved-the-missions-moon-mascot-its-hard-not-to-love-this-little-guy-i-cant-let-rise-out-of-my-sight macOS on Wii: https://apple.news/AJdU3eghQT2-jfhrGvzI2_g Mythic: https://getmythic.app/ Amazon Luna: https://www.ign.com/articles/amazon-luna-will-no-longer-allow-owners-to-buy-games-access-game-stores-or-third-party-subscriptions-starting-today?utm_campaign=trueAnthem%3A+Manual&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=facebook Amazon Luna alt link: https://apple.news/A2cb25SwgQX-AuvSPHdRsHw Waymo potholes: https://apple.news/AnxW6o9QWQJOcCGLqCsW6XQ Overcast transcripts: https://9to5mac.com/2026/04/08/overcast-launches-podcast-transcripts-in-new-app-update-for-iphone/ Retro Weather Channel: https://weather.com/retro/ Tony Fadell: https://design.mit.edu/community/people/tony-fadell Subscribe for more tech talk from Pittsburgh and support the show at Patreon.
El 1 de abril de 1976, tres personas firmaron un papel en un garaje. Hoy, es una de las empresas más valoradas del mundo. En este episodio especial de cumpleaños recorro los 50 años de Apple desde el único ángulo que de verdad importa: el software. El código que hubo detrás de cada producto. Las decisiones técnicas que nadie cuenta y que lo explican todo. ¿Sabías que el Apple I nació porque Wozniak quería programar en BASIC un videojuego que había diseñado en hardware para Atari? ¿Que escribió su propio intérprete de BASIC a mano, instrucción a instrucción, traduciendo ensamblador a código máquina en papel, sin ninguna herramienta? ¿Que el primer pedido del Apple I acabó en sorpresa porque Terrell esperaba un ordenador completo y recibió una placa de circuito? ¿Sabías que el sistema operativo que hoy corre en tu iPhone lo construyó Jobs cuando lo echaron de Apple? ¿Que Apple compró NeXT porque su propio proyecto interno de nuevo sistema operativo —500 ingenieros, 250 millones de dólares al año— fracasó sin lanzar nada? ¿Que iOS nació de la competición interna entre dos equipos, uno liderado por Tony Fadell con el OS del iPod, y otro por Scott Forstall con Mac OS X comprimido, y Jobs eligió la opción más arriesgada? ¿Sabías que Chris Lattner pasó año y medio construyendo Swift en secreto, sin contárselo a nadie, ni a sus compañeros más cercanos? Y que Jobs mató voluntariamente el iPod —cuando representaba casi la mitad de los ingresos de Apple— porque sabía que si no lo hacía él, lo haría el mercado. 50 años de Apple contados desde donde nadie los cuenta: desde dentro del código.
Invité, fonction, était l'invité de François Sorel dans Tech & Co, la quotidienne, ce jeudi 24 septembre. Il/Elle [est revenu(e) / a abordé / s'est penché(e) sur] [SUJET] sur BFM Business. Retrouvez l'émission du lundi au jeudi et réécoutez la en podcast.
Mercredi 1er avril, François Sorel a reçu Jean-Louis Gassée, premier directeur général d'Apple France et successeur de Steve Jobs en 1985 à la tête de la recherche et développement d'Apple à Cupertino, Pascal Cagni, directeur général et vice-président d'Apple Europe de 2000 à 2012, Luc Julia, co-créateur de Siri, l'assistant vocal d'Apple, et Tony Fadell, vice-président senior d'Apple de 2001 à 2010, en charge des équipes qui ont conçu l'iPod, ainsi que les trois premières générations d'iPhone, dans l'émission Tech & Co, la quotidienne sur BFM Business. Retrouvez l'émission du lundi au jeudi et réécoutez la en podcast.
Mardi 31 mars, François Sorel a reçu Frédéric Simottel, journaliste BFM Business, Clément David, président de Theodo Cloud, et Didier Sanz, journaliste Tech. Ils sont revenus sur le potentiel retour de Tony Fadell pour diriger Apple, l'émission spéciale 50 ans Apple demain, et notamment Instagram qui teste les abonnements payants avec des fonctions, dans l'émission Tech & Co, la quotidienne, sur BFM Business. Retrouvez l'émission du lundi au jeudi et réécoutez la en podcast.
Shipping an "embarrassing" product is key to breakthrough innovation. This Build book summary reveals the counterintuitive strategy behind iconic tech.
Today on the Newcomer Podcast, we're joined by Tony Fadell, one of the most influential figures in modern hardware design. Fadell helped bring some of the most important consumer electronics to life and has shaped how people interact with technology.We talk about where the next major tech device might come from, whether it's a pin, a pen, headphones, or the device already in your pocket, and how Apple and other major tech companies are approaching the future of hardware.We also discuss the rumors surrounding Fadell as a potential contender for the next CEO of Apple, what he would do if he were in that role, and how leadership decisions at that level actually get made. Fadell shares his view on why OpenAI is pursuing a strategy of becoming too big to fail, and what that signals about the next phase of the industry.This conversation goes beyond product launches and press releases, focusing instead on how power, scale, and design choices shape the tech ecosystem.This is the Newcomer Podcast.
Today on the Newcomer Podcast, we're joined by Tony Fadell, one of the most influential figures in modern hardware design. Fadell helped bring some of the most important consumer electronics to life and has shaped how people interact with technology.We talk about where the next major tech device might come from, whether it's a pin, a pen, headphones, or the device already in your pocket, and how Apple and other major tech companies are approaching the future of hardware.We also discuss the rumors surrounding Fadell as a potential contender for the next CEO of Apple, what he would do if he were in that role, and how leadership decisions at that level actually get made. Fadell shares his view on why OpenAI is pursuing a strategy of becoming too big to fail, and what that signals about the next phase of the industry.This conversation goes beyond product launches and press releases, focusing instead on how power, scale, and design choices shape the tech ecosystem.This is the Newcomer Podcast.
Im ersten Presseclub des Jahres 2026 unterhalten sich Ali und Björn mit Christoph Fröhlich, Chefredakteur von „DAS INVESTMENT“. Seit Christoph 2023 die Chefredaktion des Branchenmagazins für Finanzdienstleister und Asset Manager übernommen hat, gibt sich das Magazin bunter und lauter – auch der Relaunch im vergangenen Jahr hat für einen frischen Look gesorgt. Die Handschrift Christophs als Reporter und Digital Native ist dabei unverkennlich: Nach einer Station bei der „Bild“-Zeitung war er rund zehn Jahre beim stern, zunächst als Redakteur für digitale Themen, später als Ressortleiter für die Bereiche Auto, Digital, Genuss, Gesundheit, Reise, Wirtschaft und Wissen. Dort entwickelte er auch digitale Storytelling-Formate. Zwei Themen haben die Runde beschäftigt: Zum einen ELTIFs, die neuen semiliquiden Fonds, die nach einem holprigen Start seit 2024 ein Hoffnungsträger der Finanzbranche sind. Viele Finanzdienstleister zeigen sich angesichts der schlechten Erfahrungen mit offenen Immobilienfonds allerdings noch zurückhaltend. Das liegt nicht nur an der begrenzten Liquidität der Langfristfonds, sondern auch an vielen Neuheiten: Das Pricing ist mitunter ambitioniert, die Renditeberechnungen (interner Zinsfuß) ungewohnt, und der Vertrieb fremdelt zudem mit der Frage, wie die Sachwerte in den Fonds eingebucht und bewertet werden. Einig war sich das Gesprächs-Trio: Es ist noch viel Aufklärung über ELTIFs nötig. Das zweite Thema, das Christoph mitbrachte, war die Frage, ob aktives und passives Management konvergieren. ETFs werden immer „aktiver“ und immer häufiger als Hülle genutzt, in die Asset Manager ihre klassischen Strategien packen, die zuvor offenen Publikumsfonds vorbehalten waren. Doch die Produktebene ist nur die eine Dimension; die andere ist, dass Big Data und quantitative Strategien immer stärker Einzug in die Welt des aktiven Managements halten. Literaturtipps gab es auch. Christoph empfiehlt das Buch „Build – ein unorthodoxer Leitfaden: Wie man Produkte erschafft und Unternehmen gründet, die es wert sind“ von Tony Fadell, der lange bei Apple an iPod und iPhone mitgearbeitet und später Nest mitgegründet hat. Björn hat sich in Vorbereitung auf die Winterpause das Buch „Das maurische Spanien. Geschichte und Kultur“ von Georg Bossong besorgt, in dem es um Kultur und Geschichte der Iberischen Halbinsel geht, die noch immer von der jahrhundertelangen islamischen Herrschaft geprägt ist. Ali hat das Buch „Devil Take the Hindmost: A History of Financial Speculation“ von Edward Chancellor wieder aus dem Bücherregal gezogen und 20 Jahre nach der Erstlektüre festgestellt, dass die Geschichte der Finanzspekulation nichts an Aktualität und Brisanz verloren hat.
AndrewRed Rising: https://www.amazon.com/Red-Rising-Deluxe-Slipcase/dp/0593871529/ref=sr_1_2Dice Advent Calendar: https://www.amazon.com/Christmas-Calendar-Vacation-Surprise-Suitable/dp/B0FDFLYDLD/ref=sr_1_2_sspaJoyride, Wheel of Doom Mystery Box: https://www.target.com/p/joyride-sour-strips-surprise-box-candy-3-5oz/-/A-94938813Plur1bus: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt22202452/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_5_nm_3_in_0_q_plAlphabet in Motion: https://www.amazon.com/Alphabet-Motion-Letters-Their-Shape/dp/0997175915/ref=sr_1_1Alphabet in Motion, with Adam Savage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKCcqlJnZcALaurenWicked, Part 2: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt19847976/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_4_tt_3_nm_4_in_0_q_wiCritical Role, Campaign 4: https://www.youtube.com/@criticalroleMighty Nein: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt26453092/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_6_nm_2_in_0_q_mighVox Machina: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11247158/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_4_nm_4_in_0_q_voxStranger Things Season 5, Part 1: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4574334/?ref_=nv_srb_trend_title_0PatrickMVP Gyropalooza Box: https://discgolfdealsusa.com/products/mvp-gyropalooza-special-edition-player-packBuild by Tony Fadell: https://www.amazon.com/sThe Lady and The Dale: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12837188/?ref_=fn_t_1Will and Harper: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt30321133/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_in_0_q_will%2520and%2520harTwitch - Live Every Monday at 7pmhttps://www.twitch.tv/mof1podcast Don't forget to sign up for Secret Santa on Slack! Watch us live on Twitch every Monday at 7pm CT: https://www.twitch.tv/mof1podcast
วันนี้เราจะมาคุยกันถึงสิ่งที่อยู่ในมือของพวกเราแทบทุกคน… สมาร์ทโฟน แต่วันนี้ เราจะไม่ได้มาพูดถึงรุ่นใหม่ล่าสุด เราจะย้อนกลับไปที่จุดเริ่มต้นของมันทั้งหมด คุณรู้ไหมครับว่า “every once in a while a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything” (นานๆ ครั้ง จะมีผลิตภัณฑ์ปฏิวัติวงการเกิดขึ้นมา ที่เปลี่ยนแปลงทุกสิ่งทุกอย่าง) นั่นคือสิ่งที่ Steve Jobs พูดไว้ในปี 2007 วันที่เขา “reinvent the phone” หรือ เป็นการประดิษฐ์โทรศัพท์ขึ้นมาใหม่เลยก็ว่าได้ แต่มันเป็นแบบนั้นจริงๆ เหรอ มันเป็นไอเดียที่ผุดขึ้นมาในหัวของ Steve Jobs เหรอ หรือว่ามันมีเรื่องราวที่ซับซ้อนกว่านั้น วันนี้ เราจะมาถอดรหัสประวัติศาสตร์ลับของ iPhone กันครับ เลือกฟังกันได้เลยนะครับ อย่าลืมกด Follow ติดตาม PodCast ช่อง Geek Forever's Podcast ของผมกันด้วยนะครับ #iPhone #Apple #SteveJobs #ประวัติiPhone #iPhoneรุ่นแรก #เรื่องน่ารู้ #เทคโนโลยี #ไอที #iPhone2007 #ประวัติApple #เบื้องหลัง #นวัตกรรม #เปลี่ยนโลก #สารคดี #สรุป #TonyFadell #ScottForstall #geekstory #geekforeverpodcast
Robby Stein is VP of Product at Google, where he oversees the core products of Google Search—including the new AI Overviews, AI Mode, search ranking, Google Lens, and more. Previously, he led consumer products at Instagram, where he and his teams built Stories, Reels, Close Friends, and other key features now used by billions.What you'll learn:1. Why Google's AI products are suddenly taking off after years of perceived stagnation2. How AI is expanding Search rather than replacing it, contrary to what many predicted3. The three core product principles that have helped Robby build multiple billion-user products4. Inside Instagram's decision to build its own version of Snapchat Stories5. His mantra of “relentless improvement”6. How Google developed AI Mode from concept to launch in just one year7. Why most teams give up too early on potentially transformative products—Brought to you by:• Vanta—Automate compliance. Simplify security: https://vanta.com/lenny• Jira Product Discovery—Confidence to build the right thing: https://atlassian.com/lenny/?utm_source=lennypodcast&utm_medium=paid-audio&utm_campaign=fy24q1-jpd-imc• Orkes—The enterprise platform for reliable applications and agentic workflows: https://www.orkes.io/—Transcript: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-google-built-ai-mode-in-under-a-year—My biggest takeaways (for paid newsletter subscribers): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/i/175041217/my-biggest-takeaways-from-this-conversation—Where to find Robby Stein:• X: https://x.com/rmstein• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robbystein/—Where to find Lenny:• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/—In this episode, we cover:(00:00) Introduction to Robby Stein(04:46) Google's recent success with AI(06:08) The evolution of Google Search(09:41) AI Mode and its impact(15:30) The rise of AEO(18:50) Building successful AI products(21:31) Embodying relentless improvement(30:10) Lessons from Instagram Stories(35:20) Driving growth in established products(40:08) Balancing optimization and innovation(43:39) The journey of AI Mode: From launch to expansion(48:05) Organizational changes and urgency(49:51) AI Mode vs. competitors(51:35) Core product principles(57:07) Instagram's Close Friends feature(01:03:01) The importance of resources in development(01:06:39) AI corner(01:11:19) Curiosity and learning(01:15:01) Lightning round and final thoughts—Referenced:• Google Gemini: https://gemini.google.com/app• Nano Banana: https://aistudio.google.com/models/gemini-2-5-flash-image• Chat GPT: https://chatgpt.com/• Perplexity: https://www.perplexity.ai/• Google Lens: https://lens.google/• AI Google search: https://www.google.com/ai• Why ChatGPT will be the next big growth channel (and how to capitalize on it) | Brian Balfour (Reforge): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/why-chatgpt-will-be-the-next-big-growth-channel-brian-balfour• Alex Rampell on X: https://x.com/arampell• A 4-step framework for building delightful products | Nesrine Changuel (Spotify, Google, Skype): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/a-4-step-framework-for-building-delightful-products• Look broader, look closer, think younger: Tony Fadell speaks at TED2015: https://blog.ted.com/look-broader-look-closer-think-younger-tony-fadell-speaks-at-ted2015/• Jobs to Be Done: https://www.christenseninstitute.org/theory/jobs-to-be-done/• The ultimate guide to JTBD | Bob Moesta (co-creator of the framework): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-ultimate-guide-to-jtbd-bob-moesta• Rinstagram or Finstagram? The curious duality of the modern Instagram user: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/sep/26/rinstagram-finstagram-instagram-accounts• V03: https://v03ai.com/• Pirate GPT: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/silentmeditation/pirate-gpt/• The Bear on Hulu: https://www.hulu.com/series/the-bear-05eb6a8e-90ed-4947-8c0b-e6536cbddd5f• Dune on HBO Max: https://www.hbomax.com/movies/dune/e7dc7b3a-a494-4ef1-8107-f4308aa6bbf7• Top Gun: Maverick: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1745960/• Purple pillows: https://purple.com/pillows• Avocado pillow: https://www.avocadogreenmattress.com/products/green-pillow• Justin Bieber's website: https://www.justinbiebermusic.com/• Scooter Braun's website: https://scooterbraun.com/—Recommended books:• Competing Against Luck: The Story of Innovation and Customer Choice: https://www.amazon.com/Competing-Against-Luck-Innovation-Customer/dp/0062435612• The Design of Everyday Things: https://www.amazon.com/Design-Everyday-Things-Revised-Expanded/dp/0465050654• Aurora: https://www.amazon.com/Aurora-High-Stakes-Survival-Navigate-Darkness/dp/0062916475• Project Hail Mary: https://www.amazon.com/Project-Hail-Mary-Andy-Weir/dp/0593135202—Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.—Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed. To hear more, visit www.lennysnewsletter.com
On this episode of Game Makers, we explore three critical topics: how Delta Force's mobile revenue soared past PUBG's by 75% , why the "Take-Two Mafia" thesis is a myth centered on the wrong company , and a powerful framework for fixing your recruiting process by treating candidates like customers.In this episode, you will learn:MACRO: How Delta Force's monetization and LiveOps strategy led to a 6x revenue spike, and what its 97% revenue concentration in China means for Western studios.ALPHA: Why the popular "Take-Two Mafia" thesis is flawed and how the timeline points to Peak Games, not its publisher, as the true source of a mobile gaming "mafia effect".GAME DEV: How to apply the "Customer Journey and Touchpoints" concept from Tony Fadell's book Build to your candidates to create a recruiting process that attracts and wins 10x talent.Episode Timestamps:(02:20) Macro: Delta Force vs. PUBG Mobile Analysis (11:40) Alpha: Debunking the Take-Two "Mafia Effect" (22:30) Game Dev: Optimizing the Candidate Journey For charts and a full transcript, subscribe to our newsletter at: https://www.gamemakers.com/ Follow Game Makers and subscribe for more insights into the business and craft of making games.
This week on The Vergecast, the co-founder and former CEO of iRobot, Colin Angle, joins The Verge's smart home reviewer, Jennifer Pattison Tuohy, to discuss what the ideal home robot is. Are we close to creating a Rosie the Robot — an all-in-one humanoid robot that can take care of our homes, or should we take an entirely different approach to home robotics? They dive into the advances in technology powering this shift and ponder what purpose robotics in the home should really serve. Then, Jen takes a journey back into smart home history to help us understand its future. Grant Erickson, Principal of Nuovations, a former Apple, Nest, and Google engineer who was part of the team that developed Thread, joins the show. He shares the story of how and why, back in 2011, the Nest team, led by Tony Faddell and Matt Rogers, decided to create a smart home protocol. It involves a thermostat, fragmented ecosystems, and one of the best smart home products ever made. They discuss how Thread became the foundation of the Matter smart home standard — an unprecedented industry collaboration with a herculean task — to make the smart home simpler. To close out the show, Grant sticks around to help answer a Vergecast hotline question (call 866-VERGE11 or email vergecast@theverge.com) about how Matter manages your data. Further reading: Maybe I don't want a Rosey the Robot after all Amazon left Roomba with a huge mess to clean up Figure will start ‘alpha testing' its humanoid robot in the home in 2025 Amazon Astro review: too much Alexa, not enough arms Samsung is finally releasing Ballie This Pixar-style dancing lamp hints at Apple's future home robot iRobot's founder is working on a new kind of home robot iRobot OS is the newest ‘brain' for your Roomba Amazon bought iRobot to see inside your home I tested a robot vacuum with an arm, and my dog may never forgive me Inside the Nest: iPod creator Tony Fadell wants to reinvent the thermostat Nest CEO Tony Fadell on Google acquisition Fire drill: Can Tony Fadell and Nest build a better smoke detector? How big companies kill ideas — and how to fight back, with Tony Fadell Situation: there are too many competing smart home standards Matter's plan to save the smart home Nest's home security system costs $499 and comes with magnetic door sensors Google says Matter is still set to fix the biggest smart home frustrations Thread is Matter's secret sauce for a better smart home Nanoleaf launches a smart switch after eight years of trying Thread count: Ikea is stitching together a smarter home Why Thread is Matter's biggest problem right now The four changes in Thread 1.4 that could fix the protocol It could be 2026 before all your Thread border routers work together Matter will be better in 2025 — say the people who make it The Nest Learning Thermostat gets its biggest upgrade in over a decade killedbygoogle.com Google's ADT partnership finally has a new home security product to show for it Google discontinues Nest Protect smoke alarm and Nest x Yale door lock Google discontinues its Google Nest Secure alarm system Appliance makers are teaming up to reduce your electricity usage — and save you cash Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Dara Ladjevardian, founder and CEO of Delphi, is creating digital minds that allow people to scale their thoughts and availability without replacing human connection. Inspired by Ray Kurzweil's theory of mind as a hierarchy of pattern recognizers, Dara built an adaptive temporal knowledge graph that captures how people think and reason. From helping CEOs train new hires to enabling coaches to monetize their expertise 24/7, Delphi represents a new form of conversational media. Dara explains why authentic human representation matters, how digital minds actually increase desire for real human connection, and why he believes 2026 will be the tipping point for adoption for digital minds. Hosted by Sonya Huang and Jess Lee, Sequoia Capital Mentioned in this episode: How to Create a Mind: 2012 book by Ray Kurzweil that inspired Dara The Memoirs of Akbar Ladjevardian: 2008 book about Dara's grandfather, an Iranian industrialist, that led him to create his first “digital mind” Build: 2022 book by Tony Fadell that refers to itself as “a mentor in a box”; another inspiration for Dara The 2 Sigma Problem: 1984 paper by Benjamin Bloom about how students that receive one-on-one tutoring perform two standard deviations better than students educated in a classroom environment
¿Te has preguntado alguna vez qué secretos separan a los emprendedores que crean productos que cambian el mundo de los que se quedan en buenas intenciones?¿Cómo es posible que alguien pase de una década de fracasos a crear algunos de los productos más revolucionarios de nuestra era?En este episodio analizamos Crea (Build, 2022) de Tony Fadell, el hombre detrás del iPod, cocreador del iPhone y fundador de Nest (vendida a Google por 3.200 millones de dólares).Lo que descubrimos es fascinante: el éxito no viene de destellos de genialidad, sino de dominar tres dimensiones simultáneamente: construir tu carrera, construir productos extraordinarios y construir equipos excepcionales.A lo largo del episodio exploramos cada una de estas dimensiones:Cómo encontrar tu misión personal y desarrollar una carrera que te acerque a ella (aunque fracases durante años)El arte de crear productos disruptivos que evolucionen metódicamente a través de generacionesCómo formar equipos que puedan convertir cualquier idea en realidadLas estrategias para manejar los problemas inevitables: falta de dinero, equilibrio vida-trabajo y crisis empresarialesY por supuesto, te compartimos un plan de acción específico según tu perfil: emprendedor novato, empresario en marcha, líder de equipo o empleado con sueños emprendedores.Este episodio es una guía completa para dejar de soñar con construir algo grande y empezar a hacerlo realidad. Porque como dice Fadell: no se trata de tener ideas brillantes, se trata de saber cómo convertirlas en productos que realmente importen.
¿Te has preguntado alguna vez qué secretos separan a los emprendedores que crean productos que cambian el mundo de los que se quedan en buenas intenciones?¿Cómo es posible que alguien pase de una década de fracasos a crear algunos de los productos más revolucionarios de nuestra era?En este episodio analizamos Crea (Build, 2022) de Tony Fadell, el hombre detrás del iPod, cocreador del iPhone y fundador de Nest (vendida a Google por 3.200 millones de dólares).Lo que descubrimos es fascinante: el éxito no viene de destellos de genialidad, sino de dominar tres dimensiones simultáneamente: construir tu carrera, construir productos extraordinarios y construir equipos excepcionales.A lo largo del episodio exploramos cada una de estas dimensiones:Cómo encontrar tu misión personal y desarrollar una carrera que te acerque a ella (aunque fracases durante años)El arte de crear productos disruptivos que evolucionen metódicamente a través de generacionesCómo formar equipos que puedan convertir cualquier idea en realidadLas estrategias para manejar los problemas inevitables: falta de dinero, equilibrio vida-trabajo y crisis empresarialesY por supuesto, te compartimos un plan de acción específico según tu perfil: emprendedor novato, empresario en marcha, líder de equipo o empleado con sueños emprendedores.Este episodio es una guía completa para dejar de soñar con construir algo grande y empezar a hacerlo realidad. Porque como dice Fadell: no se trata de tener ideas brillantes, se trata de saber cómo convertirlas en productos que realmente importen.
Episode 380 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Eduardo Torrealba, CEO & Co-Founder of Lumafield. As part of my conversation with Eduardo, we talk about the importance of working on hard things. Yes, it's hard to build things that seem impossible at the time but it is that level of difficulty that attracts the top talent across engineering and other functional areas to join the company. And, it is that level of difficulty that once you establish product market fit, it can been highly defensible and really difficult to copy. And, it is that level of difficulty that attracts the best investors to fund a company with the hopes that it can be an industry defining company, especially when there is hardware involved. Take Lumafield, a pioneering developer of accessible X-ray CT technology, recently announced a $35M Series B round of funding led by Spark Capital, along with previous investors Lux Capital, Kleiner Perkins, DCVC, Future Shape and angel investors like Tony Fadell - yes that Tony Fadell, the inventor of the iPod and Founder of Nest. When you have an industry leader like Tony, who after seeing their product & vision and ended up committing to an investment into the company after a 30 minute meeting, you know you are on to something big, as he understood the problem first hand based on his experience. In the video version of our podcast, there is a brief video showing Lumafield's platform in action, as you need to see it to truly appreciate the complexity yet the obvious use case it has when building physical products. In the show notes, I have also included a fun video from Lumafield with Tony where they take a look at the evolution of the iPod by looking at the inside of different generations. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EC6BQPowf7w In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * Eduardo's background story and his initial journey into entrepreneurship with an IoT soil moisture sensor company called Oso Technologies. * Joining Formlabs and what he worked on in the earlier days of the company and what he learned during the company's growth to a billion dollar valuation. * The full story of Lumafield in terms of how the team came together and the problem they are solving. * The fundraising process and the current state of the company, plus future plans ahead. * Lessons learned from building companies and raising capital. * The importance of a strong company pitch. * And so much more Episode Sponsor: As a longtime champion of the local startup ecosystem, Silicon Valley Bank supports innovative companies with the solutions and financing they need through every stage of growth. With more than 1,500 bankers and relationship advisors, and $42B in loans as of Q2 2024 – SVB delivers the right people, service and resources to support your entire financial journey. Learn more at SVB.com.
TikTok is back up but unavailable for download in the App Store and Google Play Store. Could Apple be making Wi-Fi routers again? Is Goldman Sachs eyeing an early exit from Apple's partnership with the Apple Card? And it's been nearly one year since the Vision Pro was available for pre-order. TikTok is partially back online in the US, but it's not back in the App Store yet. Apple might start making Wi-Fi routers again, but in a way you wouldn't expect. Redesigned Apple Mail app coming to Mac and iPad in April. Apple Card's future in question as Goldman Sachs CEO eyes early exit. 'Severance': Apple TV+ series has made more than $200M for streamer. He didn't respond... so they kicked the door down – Tim Cook reveals how the Apple Watch saved his father's life. Tony Fadell wanted Apple to buy Sonos; Steve wanted to sue it. Apple makes it easy to donate to Red Cross's LA Wildfire relief efforts. Picks of the Week: Jason's Pick: SuperWhisper Alex's Pick: nuphy Air75 v2 Portable Andy's Picks: Letterboxd and the 500th episode of the Material Podcast Hosts: Leo Laporte, Alex Lindsay, Andy Ihnatko, and Jason Snell Download or subscribe to MacBreak Weekly at https://twit.tv/shows/macbreak-weekly. Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: 1password.com/macbreak zscaler.com/security
TikTok is back up but unavailable for download in the App Store and Google Play Store. Could Apple be making Wi-Fi routers again? Is Goldman Sachs eyeing an early exit from Apple's partnership with the Apple Card? And it's been nearly one year since the Vision Pro was available for pre-order. TikTok is partially back online in the US, but it's not back in the App Store yet. Apple might start making Wi-Fi routers again, but in a way you wouldn't expect. Redesigned Apple Mail app coming to Mac and iPad in April. Apple Card's future in question as Goldman Sachs CEO eyes early exit. 'Severance': Apple TV+ series has made more than $200M for streamer. He didn't respond... so they kicked the door down – Tim Cook reveals how the Apple Watch saved his father's life. Tony Fadell wanted Apple to buy Sonos; Steve wanted to sue it. Apple makes it easy to donate to Red Cross's LA Wildfire relief efforts. Picks of the Week: Jason's Pick: SuperWhisper Alex's Pick: nuphy Air75 v2 Portable Andy's Picks: Letterboxd and the 500th episode of the Material Podcast Hosts: Leo Laporte, Alex Lindsay, Andy Ihnatko, and Jason Snell Download or subscribe to MacBreak Weekly at https://twit.tv/shows/macbreak-weekly. Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: 1password.com/macbreak zscaler.com/security
TikTok is back up but unavailable for download in the App Store and Google Play Store. Could Apple be making Wi-Fi routers again? Is Goldman Sachs eyeing an early exit from Apple's partnership with the Apple Card? And it's been nearly one year since the Vision Pro was available for pre-order. TikTok is partially back online in the US, but it's not back in the App Store yet. Apple might start making Wi-Fi routers again, but in a way you wouldn't expect. Redesigned Apple Mail app coming to Mac and iPad in April. Apple Card's future in question as Goldman Sachs CEO eyes early exit. 'Severance': Apple TV+ series has made more than $200M for streamer. He didn't respond... so they kicked the door down – Tim Cook reveals how the Apple Watch saved his father's life. Tony Fadell wanted Apple to buy Sonos; Steve wanted to sue it. Apple makes it easy to donate to Red Cross's LA Wildfire relief efforts. Picks of the Week: Jason's Pick: SuperWhisper Alex's Pick: nuphy Air75 v2 Portable Andy's Picks: Letterboxd and the 500th episode of the Material Podcast Hosts: Leo Laporte, Alex Lindsay, Andy Ihnatko, and Jason Snell Download or subscribe to MacBreak Weekly at https://twit.tv/shows/macbreak-weekly. Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: 1password.com/macbreak zscaler.com/security
TikTok is back up but unavailable for download in the App Store and Google Play Store. Could Apple be making Wi-Fi routers again? Is Goldman Sachs eyeing an early exit from Apple's partnership with the Apple Card? And it's been nearly one year since the Vision Pro was available for pre-order. TikTok is partially back online in the US, but it's not back in the App Store yet. Apple might start making Wi-Fi routers again, but in a way you wouldn't expect. Redesigned Apple Mail app coming to Mac and iPad in April. Apple Card's future in question as Goldman Sachs CEO eyes early exit. 'Severance': Apple TV+ series has made more than $200M for streamer. He didn't respond... so they kicked the door down – Tim Cook reveals how the Apple Watch saved his father's life. Tony Fadell wanted Apple to buy Sonos; Steve wanted to sue it. Apple makes it easy to donate to Red Cross's LA Wildfire relief efforts. Picks of the Week: Jason's Pick: SuperWhisper Alex's Pick: nuphy Air75 v2 Portable Andy's Picks: Letterboxd and the 500th episode of the Material Podcast Hosts: Leo Laporte, Alex Lindsay, Andy Ihnatko, and Jason Snell Download or subscribe to MacBreak Weekly at https://twit.tv/shows/macbreak-weekly. Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: 1password.com/macbreak zscaler.com/security
TikTok is back up but unavailable for download in the App Store and Google Play Store. Could Apple be making Wi-Fi routers again? Is Goldman Sachs eyeing an early exit from Apple's partnership with the Apple Card? And it's been nearly one year since the Vision Pro was available for pre-order. TikTok is partially back online in the US, but it's not back in the App Store yet. Apple might start making Wi-Fi routers again, but in a way you wouldn't expect. Redesigned Apple Mail app coming to Mac and iPad in April. Apple Card's future in question as Goldman Sachs CEO eyes early exit. 'Severance': Apple TV+ series has made more than $200M for streamer. He didn't respond... so they kicked the door down – Tim Cook reveals how the Apple Watch saved his father's life. Tony Fadell wanted Apple to buy Sonos; Steve wanted to sue it. Apple makes it easy to donate to Red Cross's LA Wildfire relief efforts. Picks of the Week: Jason's Pick: SuperWhisper Alex's Pick: nuphy Air75 v2 Portable Andy's Picks: Letterboxd and the 500th episode of the Material Podcast Hosts: Leo Laporte, Alex Lindsay, Andy Ihnatko, and Jason Snell Download or subscribe to MacBreak Weekly at https://twit.tv/shows/macbreak-weekly. Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: 1password.com/macbreak zscaler.com/security
TikTok is back up but unavailable for download in the App Store and Google Play Store. Could Apple be making Wi-Fi routers again? Is Goldman Sachs eyeing an early exit from Apple's partnership with the Apple Card? And it's been nearly one year since the Vision Pro was available for pre-order. TikTok is partially back online in the US, but it's not back in the App Store yet. Apple might start making Wi-Fi routers again, but in a way you wouldn't expect. Redesigned Apple Mail app coming to Mac and iPad in April. Apple Card's future in question as Goldman Sachs CEO eyes early exit. 'Severance': Apple TV+ series has made more than $200M for streamer. He didn't respond... so they kicked the door down – Tim Cook reveals how the Apple Watch saved his father's life. Tony Fadell wanted Apple to buy Sonos; Steve wanted to sue it. Apple makes it easy to donate to Red Cross's LA Wildfire relief efforts. Picks of the Week: Jason's Pick: SuperWhisper Alex's Pick: nuphy Air75 v2 Portable Andy's Picks: Letterboxd and the 500th episode of the Material Podcast Hosts: Leo Laporte, Alex Lindsay, Andy Ihnatko, and Jason Snell Download or subscribe to MacBreak Weekly at https://twit.tv/shows/macbreak-weekly. Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: 1password.com/macbreak zscaler.com/security
Listen to a recap of the top stories of the day from 9to5Mac. 9to5Mac Daily is available on iTunes and Apple's Podcasts app, Stitcher, TuneIn, Google Play, or through our dedicated RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players. Sponsored by CardPointers: The best way to maximize your credit card rewards. 9to5Mac Daily listeners can exclusively save 30% and get a $100 Savings Card. New episodes of 9to5Mac Daily are recorded every weekday. Subscribe to our podcast in Apple Podcast or your favorite podcast player to guarantee new episodes are delivered as soon as they're available. Stories discussed in this episode: Tony Fadell wanted Apple to buy Sonos; Steve wanted to sue it Report: Apple in talks with two new partners to take over Apple Card Apple CEO Tim Cook to attend Trump's inauguration next week Listen & Subscribe: Apple Podcasts Overcast RSS Spotify TuneIn Google Podcasts Subscribe to support Chance directly with 9to5Mac Daily Plus and unlock: Ad-free versions of every episode Bonus content Catch up on 9to5Mac Daily episodes! Don't miss out on our other daily podcasts: Quick Charge 9to5Toys Daily Share your thoughts! Drop us a line at happyhour@9to5mac.com. You can also rate us in Apple Podcasts or recommend us in Overcast to help more people discover the show.
You may think you know what strategy is, but Seth Godin is willing to bet you haven't got a clue. It's not just setting goals. It's not just making plans. It's— Well, you'll have to tune in to find out.
Neuberger Berman portfolio manager John San Marco gives his top retail picks for the holiday season. Former NEC Chief Economist Joe Lavorgna on what to expect under Trump 2.0. Tony Fadell, new Ledger board member, and Pascal Gauthier, Ledger CEO, on making a hardware product for digital currencies. Zeta Global CEO David Steinberg on early data signals from shoppers on what will win this holiday season.
Nilay and David discuss a big week in AI news, including the new web search features in ChatGPT and the reporting that Meta is working on something very similar. They also briefly talk about this quarter's tech earnings, and what they say about the ways AI is really being used. Then, Wall Street Journal columnist Joanna Stern joins the show to talk about Apple Intelligence, Apple's week of Mac launches, and why Siri still can't open her garage. Finally, in the lightning round, the hosts talk about Netflix's gentle push into social features, Tony Fadell's AI thoughts, and our endorsement of Kamala Harris. Further reading: OpenAI's search engine is now live in ChatGPT Meta is reportedly working on its own AI-powered search engine, too Microsoft's gaming revenue keeps going up, even though hardware sales are down Reddit is profitable for the first time ever, with nearly 100 million daily users Snap Inc. - Financials - Quarterly Results Apple's Mac week: everything announced Apple announces redesigned Mac Mini with M4 chip — and it's so damn small Watch Apple show off the M4 Mac Mini in its reveal video - The Verge Apple's new Magic Keyboard, Magic Mouse, and Magic Trackpad have USB-C Apple put the Magic Mouse's charging port on the bottom again Apple updates the MacBook Pro with M4 Pro and M4 Max chips Apple updates the iMac with new colors and an M4 chip Apple's first smart home display could pay homage to a classic iMac Apple Intelligence is out WSJ: Apple's Craig Federighi Explains Apple Intelligence Delays, Siri's Future and More Netflix is making it easier to bookmark and share your favorite parts of a show Tony Fadell calls out Sam Altman Tim Walz and AOC are going to play Madden together on Twitch The Verge's guide to the 2024 presidential election Tech leaders line up to flatter Trump's ego Jeff Bezos is no longer relentlessly focused on customer satisfaction “You have a Washington Post problem.” From The New York Times: Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and the Billions of Ways to Influence an Election Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Nearly $5.5T in earnings reported after the bell, including behemoths Apple and Amazon. We have you covered with instant analysis and reaction from every angle. Plus, Pat Gelsinger, Intel CEO, discuss his company's earnings, the outlook for the business and moving forward after some difficult quarters. iPhone co-creator Tony Fadell weighs in on Apple Intelligence and the company's larger strategy with AI.
When Steve Jobs took to the stage in Cupertino on 23rd October, 2001, he unveiled Apple's first portable device: the iPod. As ever, his pitch was simple and on-point: "1,000 songs in your pocket." But the iPod wasn't Jobs's creation. Its concept came from Tony Fadell, an amateur DJ who'd grown frustrated by lugging his music collection to gigs. Apple saw the potential for a hardware system that could work as an entry-point to iTunes. By the time the iPod was eventually discontinued in 2022, over 450 million products had been sold, forever changing how people consume music. In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly recall a world of "skip protection", CDs and FireWire cables; reveal how Jobs' showmanship was just the tip of his deep involvement with the product; and explain how Apple delicately danced around concerns of music piracy… Further Reading: • ‘Apple's ‘Breakthrough' iPod' (Wired, 2001): https://www.wired.com/2001/10/apples-breakthrough-ipod/ • ‘Apple Presents iPod' (Apple Press Release, 2001): https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2001/10/23Apple-Presents-iPod/ • ‘iPod Launch Event' (Apple, 2001): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kN0SVBCJqLs Love the show? Support us! Join
Pascal Gauthier is the Chairman & CEO of Ledger, a tech company that specializes in developing secure hardware for consumers and enterprise-grade custody solutions for institutions, enabling the storage and management of cryptocurrencies and NFTs.He began his career at Kelkoo, later acquired by Yahoo, and was COO at Criteo, where he played a key role in the company's pivot to advertising and global expansion. Pascal Gauthier also worked as a Venture Partner at Mosaic Ventures, a London-based VC firm, and is non-executive chairman of Kaiko, a leading digital data analytics provider.Since he became Chairman & CEO of Ledger in 2019, Pascal Gauthier has expanded the company's product line with Ledger Live, an intuitive digital asset management app, and a next-generation consumer device, Ledger Stax. He also started Ledger Enterprise, the company's B2B product enabling companies to secure their digital assets at scale. Ledger Enterprise offers TRADELINK, a best-in-class open network to enable custodial trading via exchange and custodial partners. Pascal Gauthier is committed to driving ownership and security in the cryptocurrency industry.In this conversation, we discuss:- Self-custody, security, and the right to economic freedom- Ledger's growth amidst their tenth anniversary and key learnings- How they've performed since the launch of two products— Ledger Stax and Ledger Flex— earlier this year- AI & blockchain's relationship— why proof-of-you is crucial- The unique insight Ledger has as the only hardware solution with a consumer trading business via Ledger Live- Their new HQ in Paris that's home to their revamped white hat hacker lab dubbed the "Donjon"- Working with Tony Fadell, the creator of the iPod- The importance of “cool” in hardware and IRL products- The future of hardware wallets- NYT full page ad for Ledger Stax + FlexLedgerWebsite: www.ledger.comX: @LedgerDiscord: discord.gg/ledgerPascal GauthierX: @_pgauthierLinkedIn: Pascal Gauthier --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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
The Dow closing at a record high again following Wednesday's interest rate cut by the Fed. Dow component Intel rallying into the close after sources say rival Qualcomm approached the chipmaker about a possible merger. Moor Insights & Strategy CEO Patrick Moorhead says a deal makes a lot of sense for both companies and could get approval by regulators. Apple's iPhone 16 officially going on sale today amid concerns about demand. Tony Fadell, the co-creator of the iPhone and iPod, discusses what's at stake for Apple and weighs in on the importance of AI. Constellation Energy announcing it is reopening the Three Mile Island nuclear plant and selling that power to Microsoft for its AI data center needs. And Veriten's Michael Bradley discusses where the opportunities are for investors in nuclear power.
In this episode, I sit down with two major players who are shaping the future of crypto communications and security. First up is Ian Leviness from Push Protocol, and we dive into how Push is creating a decentralized communication hub for everything from notifications to messaging and more. Ian talks about the platform's explosive growth since its beginnings in 2020 and what's next, including their ambitious vision of Push Chain—an infrastructure for decentralized communication that's going to power everything from DAOs to DeFi protocols. We get into how they're helping creators, artists, and even power traders by delivering notifications and building custom messaging solutions. Plus, we touch on some exciting applications for AI and how Push Protocol is already working to integrate AI into decentralized communications.Next, I talk with Pascal Gauthier, the CEO of Ledger, the company that has probably touched every crypto user at some point with its world-famous hardware wallets. Pascal and I explore Ledger's latest products—Ledger Stax and Ledger Flex—and how they're pushing the boundaries of secure crypto storage. We also discuss the long game Ledger is playing in becoming the Apple of crypto hardware, with cutting-edge innovation in both security and user experience. Pascal shares some great stories about working with industry giants like Foxconn and Tony Fadell (the inventor of the iPod), and how they're shaping Ledger's vision of seamless, secure crypto transactions. We even dive into the future of proof of identity and why cryptography might be the key to countering the rise of AI.This episode is packed with insights on where crypto is heading—whether you're into the technical side or just curious about the big picture, you won't want to miss this conversation with two leaders who are truly pushing the space forward.Timestamps:00:00 – Intro: The evolution of podcasting and the role of DAOs03:15 – Ian Leviness on how Push Protocol is becoming the hub for decentralized communication10:00 – Why Push Protocol is crucial for DAOs, creators, and power traders17:45 – How Push is integrating AI and creating tokenized chat for creators25:20 – Pascal Gauthier on Ledger's growth and new products: Ledger Stax and Ledger Flex32:15 – How Ledger is becoming the “Apple of crypto hardware” through partnerships with Foxconn and Tony Fadell40:30 – The future of NFC-enabled transactions and the next frontier for hardware wallets48:00 – Pascal on the importance of proof of identity and the coming AI challenges in the crypto world55:00 – Final thoughts: How Ledger's security is evolving to meet new threats
Matt Sharkey rejoins the podcast for this week's dive into outdoor industry news. We start with the state of the industry for outdoor retail. Matt and Aaron go deep on specialty retail and some of the emerging brands in the space - including a brand called Satisfy, who just made an interesting hire to expand their offering to include footwear. Building on that conversation, we explore which "Challenger Brand" is most likely to unseat Nike at the top (and if it could even be possible). Next, we dive into an acquisition in the metabolic health space, followed by our closing segment where we highlight our favorite things in brand, product and content. Links: Build by Tony Fadell: https://amzn.to/4gpfzwM The Rise and Rise of David Geffen: https://amzn.to/3zhYUu6 The War of Art: https://amzn.to/3TtNIS5 Satisfy Brand: https://satisfyrunning.com/ Oura x Veri: https://ouraring.com/blog/welcoming-veri-and-furthering-our-metabolic-health-ambitions/ BPC: Wild Company book: https://amzn.to/4d5COJ6 HIBT with Banana Republic: https://podcasts.apple.com/mx/podcast/banana-republic-mel-and-patricia-ziegler/id1150510297?i=1000664839923 Red Bull x Prada bike video: https://www.instagram.com/reel/C_0kFJGIbZk/ Red Bull x Prada wakeskate base jump: https://www.instagram.com/redbull/reel/C0bpOHni9w1/ Join us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/second-nature-media Meet us on Slack: https://www.launchpass.com/second-nature Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/secondnature.media Subscribe to our newsletter: https://www.secondnature.media Subscribe to the YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@secondnaturemedia
Bienvenue dans ce teaser, Ledger s'installe dans le fauteuil de tech 45'
In this episode of the Moonshots Podcast, hosts Mike and Mark dive deep into Build by Tony Fadell, the legendary iPod inventor and iPhone co-creator. Fadell offers timeless advice on building successful products and companies and on shaping yourself into a leader capable of bringing great ideas to life. Throughout the episode, you'll hear Fadell discuss his key philosophies—how to turn an idea into a product, build yourself first, and solve problems worth solving. He reminds us that true success comes from not taking shortcuts, even when pressured by others. Whether you're an entrepreneur or someone aspiring to innovate, this episode is packed with essential insights for those looking to build something meaningful.Key Clips:Intro: Tony introduces Build and his concept of being a "mentor in a box." (4m11)Where to Begin: Tony explains the journey from an idea to a product. (1m20)Advice from Build: Tony shares his thoughts on building a successful company while embracing failure. (2m15)Build Your Business: Fadell urges entrepreneurs to focus on solving real problems before worrying about selling. (4m)Outro: Tony provides a profound lesson on avoiding shortcuts, even when pressured by investors. (4m30)Links:Episode Weblink: Moonshots Episode #219 – Tony Fadell: Unconventional Ways to Build a Successful BusinessBook Summary: Blinkist Summary of Build by Tony FadellYouTube Link: Tony Fadell Interview on Lex Fridman PodcastNext, I'll expand on the key concepts and insights from the episode!Key Concepts and Insights from Build by Tony Fadell:Mentor in a Box: In Build, Tony Fadell positions himself as a "mentor in a box," offering the accumulated wisdom of his career. He stresses that mentorship is vital for learning, but not everyone can access world-class mentors. He aims to give readers practical, actionable advice to guide their journey. This concept sets the tone for the book and the podcast episode, emphasizing the need for guidance and continuous learning, especially in the unpredictable world of innovation.From Idea to Product: Fadell underscores that every successful product starts with a simple idea, but turning that idea into reality requires relentless focus and execution. He explains that innovators must go beyond the "eureka moment" and develop the skills to prototype, test, and iterate. The journey is fraught with challenges; the process is as important as the original idea. Building a product involves not just creative thinking but disciplined action.Build Yourself First: One of Fadell's core messages is that the foundation for building great things begins with building yourself. Entrepreneurs and creators must first cultivate their skills, mindset, and resilience before expecting to build a successful company or product. By focusing on personal growth, people can become better leaders and problem-solvers, better equipped to guide teams and projects through the inevitable obstacles they will face.Solve Problems Worth Solving: Fadell emphasizes the importance of solving real problems, not just following trends. He tells Lex Fridman that successful businesses are built around an apparent, meaningful problem that needs to be solved. Entrepreneurs should be driven to make a tangible impact rather than just seeking financial success or fame. Identifying a problem worth solving should precede thoughts of monetization or scaling the business.No Shortcuts: In the outro, Tony Fadell delivers one of his most powerful lessons: not taking shortcuts, even when investors or market pressures demand quick results. He shares insights on maintaining integrity and sticking to a vision, even when the temptation is high to compromise for short-term gains. Fadell highlights that true innovation and long-lasting success come from perseverance, attention to detail, and refusing to cut corners. Thanks to our monthly supporters Edward Rehfeldt III 孤鸿 月影 Fabian Jasper Verkaart Margy Diana Bastianelli Andy Pilara ola Fred Fox Austin Hammatt Zachary Phillips Antonio Candia Mike Leigh Cooper Daniela Wedemeier Corey LaMonica Smitty Laura KE Denise findlay Krzysztof Diana Bastianelli Roar Nikolay Ytre-Eide Stef Roger von Holdt Jette Haswell Marco Silva venkata reddy Dirk Breitsameter Ingram Casey Nicoara Talpes rahul grover Evert van de Plassche Ravi Govender Craig Lindsay Steve Woollard Lasse Brurok Deborah Spahr Barbara Samoela Christian Jo Hatchard Kalman Cseh Berg De Bleecker Paul Acquaah MrBonjour Sid Liza Goetz Konnor Ah kuoi Marjan Modara Dietmar Baur Nils Weigelt Bob Nolley ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★
Hi folks! We hope your summer is going well. Aarron and I are traveling and spending some time with our families this week, so we thought we'd rewind to one of our favorite episodes, with Julie Zhuo. The episode came to mind because one of our listeners asked us what episodes we'd recommend to someone who is growing their team, and Julie's book The Making of Manager has a lot of helpful advice. Find the full episode, transcript, and more on our Substack: https://designbetterpodcast.com/p/rewind-julie-zhuo We also suggested Tony Fadell's episode to our listener…the inventor of the iPhone and iPod has some great tips about hiring people who are skilled but don't necessarily have the experience that ticks all the boxes of the posted job description. We first aired the interview with Julie back in 2019, when she was the VP of Product Design at Facebook. Since then, she's gone on to found her own company called Sundial, with the mission to help teams make faster, smarter decisions with data. Original episode description Listen as Julie Zhuo, former VP of Product Design at Facebook and author of The Making of a Manager, recalls some of her earliest professional experiences at one of the fastest growing companies on the planet. She reveals how she got her start and grew to be a highly influential design leader renowned for building top-notch teams. Julie talks about the difference between leading and managing, and shares personal examples that can help you advance your career. Bio Julie Zhuo started building products as employee ~100 at Facebook and went on to head up product design for the Facebook app for many years. She's kept a blog called The Looking Glass, about design, technology and leadership for much of that time. In 2019 she wrote a bestselling leadership book called The Making of a Manager. Currently, she's living the entrepreneurial journey with her start-up Sundial whose mission is to help teams make faster, smarter decisions with data. *** Premium Episodes on Design Better This ad-supported episode is available to everyone. If you'd like to hear it ad-free, upgrade to our premium subscription, where you'll get an additional 2 ad-free episodes per month (4 total). Premium subscribers also get access to our monthly AMAs with former guests, ad-free episodes, early and discounted access to workshops, and our new enhanced newsletter The Brief that compiles salient insights, quotes, readings, and creative processes uncovered in the show. Upgrade to paid *** Visiting the links below is one of the best ways to support our show: Zeplin: Few things frustrate designers quite as much as seeing the UI they've meticulously designed, botched when built out. But Zeplin can help you make every design-to-dev handoff efficient and accurate so you nail every release on time and on budget. Design Better listeners can get their first month of the Basic Plan free. Just go to zeplin.io and use code DESIGNBETTER to get your first month of the Basic Plan free. Greenlight: Years ago, Aarron and Eli set up their kids with Greenlight, a debit card and money app made for families. Their allowance is automatically deposited into their account and is divided into three buckets: spending, saving, and giving. With Greenlight's investing tools, we've helped our kids learn how to invest in stocks and mutual funds and they can see those investments grow. Sign up for Greenlight today and get your first month free: http://greenlight.com/designbetter Babbel: Babbel's quick 10-minute lessons are hand-crafted by over 200 language experts to help you start speaking a new language in as little as 3 weeks. Here's a special, (limited time) deal for our listeners: Right now get up to 60% off your Babbel subscription by visiting http://babbel.com/designbetter. Rules and restrictions may apply. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ledger Chief Experience Officer Ian Rogers breaks down the Ledger Stax wallet.To get the show every day, follow the podcast here.Ledger Chief Experience Officer Ian Rogers joins "First Mover" with insights on the Ledger Stax wallet that was created in collaboration with iPod builder, Tony Fadell. The product has been in production for over a year, and just started shipping to pre-order customers. Watch to hear about the challenges they overcame during production and how they plan to make self-custody more mainstream.-This episode was hosted by Jennifer Sanasie. “First Mover” is produced by Jennifer Sanasie and Melissa Montañez and edited by Victor Chen.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.