Crazy Until It's Not: Startups, Venture Capit

🔗 Humans, Connected: The Age of the Exocortex 🌐 Imagine a world where you’re seamlessly connected to the internet, not through screens and keyboards, but directly through your brain. Our minds are already a marvel of evolution, with three layers: Reptilian Brain: The ancient core responsible for keeping us alive by regulating basic functions like breathing. Mammalian (Limbic) Brain: The “monkey brain,” managing emotions like fear and excitement. Neocortex: Our human layer, dedicated to logic, reason, and creativity. ✨ Enter the Exocortex—a revolutionary fourth layer. Soon, we’ll be able to read and write information directly to our brains, allowing seamless integration with the internet. 🧠 Imagine this: You’re able to remember scenes from a movie you've never seen before because your Exocortex looked it up and now it feels as real as any personal memory. 🎥 Your imagination becomes your reality. 📚 Forgot what you read in a book? Your Exocortex retrieves it in an instant. 🌍 Curious about global events? The Exocortex brings you firsthand insights as if you were there. The boundaries between “you” and the world’s knowledge will blur. The Exocortex won’t just connect us to the internet; it will be the internet. The future isn’t just at our fingertips—it’s in our minds. 🔌 Are you ready for the Exocortex era? #Exocortex #FutureOfHumanity #NeuralInterface #Neurotech #Innovation #DigitalTransformation

DNA is an alien programming language - that can be learned  That's the mind blowing idea of Stef van Grieken, the founder of Cradle, which is unlocking the keys to human biology. What does he mean here? Well, DNA was not designed like most languages, but it evolved, and so it's hard to understand and harder to engineer.  But what if, similarly to how we have learned natural language, we might be able to engineer organic chemistry? That's exciting because most of the things around us are biology, including ourselves.  So if we could tweak that or engineer that then that could open up a really exciting future.  Imagine the possibilities if we could engineer life itself to solve global challenges, from health to sustainability!

In the global AI race, product will matter more than tech.  That's the prediction from Mehdi Ghissassi, the Head of Product & Deepmind  Check out the latest episode of "Crazy Until It's Not" to discover more about why it's the builders who bring AI tech to life that will conqueror the world. 

In the future, buildings will be grown not built That's the prediction from Tim Fu, the Generative AI architect and founder of Studio Tim Fu.  We're already well on our way, with advances in synthetic biology.  But there is so much further to go. Check out the latest episode of "Crazy Until It's Not" to discovery the future of biology. 

In the future we will be able to program biology.  That's the prediction from Dr Mark Kotter, the founder of three synth bio companies bit.bio, clock.bio and Meatable. We're already well on our way, with the ability to perform feats like turning bacteria into lightbulbs.  But there is so much further to go. Check out the latest episode of "Crazy Until It's Not" to discovery the future of biology. 

Welcome to another episode where we plunge into the world of artificial intelligence and its rapidly growing influence on the media landscape. This podcast explores the revolutionary assertion that all media - yes, you heard that right, ALL media - will soon be AI-generated or AI-assisted. Our journey begins with a comprehensive overview of current trends in AI technologies and how they are disrupting traditional media production. We unravel the inner workings of AI applications in news reporting, content creation, music, video production, and even the film industry. We are joined by esteemed guests Nina Schick who shares her unique insights and predictions for this new media frontier. She paints a vivid picture of a not-so-distant future where AI doesn't just assist but actively shapes the stories we consume daily. We also delve into the ethical considerations and potential implications of such an AI-dominated media world. From the risk of deepfakes and misinformation to the possible loss of human touch in our narratives, this podcast will leave you questioning what the role of humans in future media creation will be. Get ready for a thought-provoking journey into the future of media. This is a must-listen for anyone interested in the confluence of artificial intelligence, media, and the future of human creativity. Prepare to be amazed and perhaps, a little unsettled. Tune in now!

What’s next in Generative AI? Could it be LLM-powered implants in our skulls directing us everywhere?  That’s something that Julien Simon from Hugging Face (a platform with over 120k open-source machine learning models) expects to see in his lifetime. “A lot of tech innovation is just reading science fiction books and just inventing stuff that makes it happen…” he says. One sci-fi innovation that has not happened yet is the Babel Fish from Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy translating all languages in real-time. “We might be getting close to that… the next step is a skull or each implant that gives you access to the all-seeing and all-knowing chatbot." “I can just whisper ‘Is there a good pizza place 5 minutes from here?’ and I can hear it in my head: ‘oh yeah, take a left and then a right’”.  Would you like this future? Also on a show a discussion on the difference between "useful stuff” and  “fancy stuff” when it comes to Generative AI and how we should leave the big tech companies to it when competing to build the largest models.

Society needs to brace itself. Tens of millions of people around the world work in call centres - but the latest advances in Generative AI and synthetic voice are set to make around 🤯🤯 🤯 80% of their jobs redundant 🤯 🤯 🤯 . That's according to Nikola Mrkšić, the founder of PolyAI, a machine learning platform that buildings chatbots or voice-based agents for call centres. In this episode of Crazy Until It's Not, we talk about the story behind PlolyAI and Nikola himself. And we also talk about what it means for society if so many jobs are getting automated. 

Welcome back to Crazy Until It's Not, a podcast about big ideas and the amazing people behind them.  Every episode we bring on a new guest who has a prediction for the future, which on the face of it, sounds a little bit crazy.  I'm your host, Michael Stothard, an early-stage tech investor at firstminute capital. And today I'm joined by Jonas Andrulis, the Founder and CEO of Aleph Alpha, the generative A.I. Company from Heidelberg, which has built a generative A.I. model that is going up against the likes of Open AI. Listen to this episode if you want to know about: - How generative AI is changing the world. - Can Europe compete?  - The fractal nature of time - How creativity will be done by machines. 

We are going to see 10 Tesla-sized companies springing up in the coming years tacking big issues in climate. That’s 10 new companies with a market cap of over $520bn 🏢💪🏻♻️ That’s the big idea of David Helgason, the founder of Unity Technologies, one of the world’s two largest game engine companies, who is now a prominent climate investor through his fund Foobar. David spoke to us last autumn about the advancements he’s seeing in sustainability and his journey as a founder and investor. David Helgason is the Founder of Unity Technologies, one of the world’s two largest game engine companies.

Are you reading this on your smartphone? Nothing’s CEO and co-founder Carl Pei’s ‘crazy’ prediction for the future is that nothing will displace the smartphone. Last fall at an FF event, we discussed the trend-driven nature of tech where fads come and go as Carl used VR, AR and drones as examples. But he predicts that 10 years from now, we’ll still be scrolling on our smartphones.  In 20 years, he sees technology becoming more seamless and fading into our everyday lives. This is also his mission for Nothing: “crafting intuitive, flawlessly connected products that improve our lives without getting in the way”. In the future, technology will be everywhere and nowhere at the same time, emulating that feeling of …nothing. 

Are AI and automation going to lead to mass unemployment?  We spoke to King’s Riccardo Zacconi about his ‘crazy’ prediction for the future, and he said that we are going to have the opposite problem.  He believes that big problem in the near future is that, with an ageing population, we are not going to have enough workers. He believes unemployment rates will effectively be at zero for many areas as demographic make it hard to find enough young people to do certain jobs.  Do you agree? Riccardo co-founded King in March 2003 and was its CEO from the start, overseeing the company's rapid growth in the global mobile gaming sector to over 500 million monthly players, the company's IPO on NYSE and its $6bn sale to Activision Blizzard in 2016.

In the future, viruses will no longer cause disease. 🦠😷 That’s the big prediction of  BaseImmune’s Ariane Gomes, who says that in the future vaccines will be so good that viruses and other pathogens will not make people sick.  We spoke with Ariane last autumn about her background as a ​​PhD in Clinical Medicine from Oxford focused on immunology and vaccine development with 11 years of experience in basic and translational medical research. She is the co-founder of Baseimmune, a company specialising in antigen discovery for vaccine development. Listen to the full episode for more about Ariane, BaseImmune and the future of vaccine development. 

A glass which is impossible to drink from, sustainable diapers and an email paywalls. Here are just some of the business ideas going through the head of Jim McKelvey, one of the most extraordinary entrepenurs we know. Jim was a cofounder and now board member of Block (the $50bn fintech formerly known as Square) also is also chairman of the St. Louis Federal Reserve and founder of Invisibly, a startup backed by Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund.

Science is making MOOOOOOOves to eliminate cow farming!  At the FF event in Scotland last autumn, we spoke with Dan Widmaier the CEO and co-founder of Bolt Threads about his ‘crazy’ idea for the future.  Dan originally trained as a scientist at UCSF where he holds a PhD in Chemistry and Chemical Biology. With that degree, he went on to create Bolt Threads, a sustainable material solutions company. He and his co-founder, David Breslauer, grew Bolt Threads from a couple of scientists and a box full of live spiders to a category-leading biomaterials platform company that has commercialised two materials, Mylo™ and b-silk™, with greater than $1B in addressable market each. From spiders to cows, Dan’s crazy idea for the future is that we will no longer be farming cows in 20 years. Due to advancements in agriculture and science such as the work Bolt Threads is doing, the cost of cow by-products such as leather, meat and dairy will become more expensive than their vegan counterparts making the sustainable options more popular.  

As mentioned in our previous episode, self-driving vehicles will displace cars in the future. But these autonomous vehicles won’t be able to go just anywhere. Bolt’s CEO and Founder Markus Villig’s ‘crazy’ idea about the future is also vehicle-related. He believes that cities will ban private cars.  Many European cities have already passed legislation to lower circulation within their centers from London’s congestion charges to Paris making every first Sunday of the month car-free.  The move to ban all private car use would provide major environmental and social benefits from a reduction in noise and environmental pollution to a rise in safety.  Markus hopes bolt will help make this change happen. He founded Bolt in 2013 as a competitor to Uber. Bolt has since become the first European mobility super-app operating in over 45 countries with over 100 million users.

Currently, 75% of the US and 62% of the UK drive to work*.  Now imagine if that commute looked more like a relaxing session in a first-class airport lounge than a dull and stressful experience in a cramped seat. 🚗🧘 As the automotive industry and EV technology advances, the thought of self-driving cars becomes more of a reality and less of an abstract futuristic concept. CEO and co-founder of Aurora, Chris Urmson believes self-driving vehicles will displace driving and vehicles as we know them will be used solely for pleasure. During our chat in Scotland at one of FF’s events, Chris draws a parallel between the shift from horse transport to motor vehicles to the shift he sees unfolding.   Aurora is an American self-driving vehicle technology company. Its flagship product, the Aurora Driver, is a platform that brings together software, hardware, and data services, to operate passenger vehicles autonomously, light commercial vehicles, and heavy-duty trucks. Aurora is partnered with industry leaders across the transportation ecosystem including Toyota, Uber, Volvo, FedEx, and PACCAR.  * according to a 2022 Statista report https://www.statista.com/chart/25129/gcs-how-the-world-commutes/ 

Is cash really king? 💳 >💵 Physical coins have been around for 28 centuries. But that is all coming to an end in the next decades. During a chat at FF’s event in autumn, Cyril Chiche predicted that cash will no longer exist in the next few decades. He has seen this trend of moving away from cash for digital alternatives accelerated by Covid. Cyril is CEO and co-founder of Lydia, a Paris-based fast-growing mobile financial services platform with over 4 Million users and a 30% market share among French Millennials, who use its brand as a verb.  Co-founded by Antoine Porte and Cyril Chiche, Lydia launched in 2013. It is one of the most successful French B2C fintech having raised over $160 million in funding from investors such as Tencent, XAnge, New Alpha, Groupe Duval, and Founders Future. He has seen this trend of moving away from cash for digital alternatives accelerated by Covid.  From cashless to contactless, what’s next? 

The consumer sector has seen a decline in VC funding. This is due to many factors such as the high churn rates and difficulty in find product market fit often saturated markets.  Jess Lee knows both sides well having been co-founder and former CEO of Polyvore and currently a Partner at Sequoia Capital.  Over her illustrious career, Jess has spent time working as Product Manager at Google, as CEO at Polyvore, and most recently as Partner at Sequoia Capital, where she became the youngest partner as well as the firm's first female Partner in the United States. We spent time exploring the many aspects of Jess' journey, her focus on consumer and community, and her outlook for the future of venture and startups in this episode from June 2020.

What do you think the average for a startup to reach product-market fit is? 📊 The answer: 2-3 years.  Ross Mason took 6 years to reach product-market fit with MuleSoft but it was worth the wait when he sold the company to Salesforce for $6.5bn. Ross discusses his journey as Founder of MuleSoft. From the search for product-market fit to the changes in his confidence between 10 million and 2 million in revenue. Ross is the co-founder of MuleSoft and Founder and Managing Partner of Dig Ventures.  In this episode from April 2020, we covered everything from scaling MuleSoft in a recession through to being bought by Salesforce for $6.5bn, to how we use the Coronavirus to come out stronger, to how to go about fundraising in those times, to how to know who is essential in your team, to how do Enterprise SaaS customers respond to a crisis like this.