Tech Deciphered

America’s AI action plan … “Winning the AI race” has just been announced. What is it all about? What are the implications? How will the rest of the world react? A deep dive into the announcement, approaches by EU and China, and overall implications of these action plans.Navigation:Intro (01:34)Context of the White House AI SummitPillar I – Accelerating AI InnovationPillar II – Building American AI InfrastructurePillar III – Leading in International AI Diplomacy & SecurityComparing Approaches – U.S. Action Plan vs. EU AI Act vs. China’s StrategyImplications and SynthesisConclusionOur 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, @bschmittNuno Goncalves Pedro, Investor, Managing Partner, Founder at Chamaeleon, @ngpedroOur 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 Nuno G. PedroWelcome to episode 68 of Tech Deciphered. This episode will focus on America's AI action plan, winning the AI race, which has just been announced a couple of weeks in by President Trump in the White House. Today, we'll be discussing the pillars of this plan, from pillar I, the acceleration of AI innovation, to pillar II, building of American AI infrastructure, to pillar III, leading in international AI diplomacy and security.We'll also further contextualise it, as well as compare the approaches between the US Action plan, and what we see from the EU and China strategy at this point in time. We'll finalise with implications and synthesis. Bertrand, is this a watershed moment for the industry? Is this the moment we were all waiting for in terms of clarity for AI in the US?Bertrand SchmittYeah, that's a great question. I must say I'm quite excited. I'm not sure I can remember anything like it since basically John F. Kennedy announcing the race to go to the moon in the early '60s. It feels, as you say, a watershed moment because suddenly you can see that there is a grand vision, a grand plan, that AI is not just important, but critical to the future success of America. It looks like the White House is putting all the ducks in order in order to make it happen. There is, like in the '60s with JFK, a realisation that there is an adversary, there is a competitor, and you want to beat them to that race. Except this time it's not Russia, it's China. A lot of similarities, I would say.Nuno G. PedroYeah. It seems relatively comprehensive. Obviously, we'll deep dive into it today across a variety of elements like regulation, investments, view in relation to exports and imports and the rest of the world. So, relatively comprehensive from what we can see. Obviously, we don't know all the details. We know from the announcement that the plan has identified 90 federal policy actions across the three pillars. Obviously, we'll see how these come into practice over the next few months, few years.To your point, it is a defining moment. It feels a little bit like the space race of '60s, et cetera. It's probably warranted. We know that, obviously, AI platforms, AI services and products are changing the world as we speak. It's pretty important to figure out what is the US response to it.Also interesting to know that we normally don't talk about the US too much in terms of industrial policy. The US seems to have a private sector that, in and of itself, actually stands up to the game, and in particular in tech and high-tech, normally fulfils or fills the gaps that are introduced by big generational shifts in terms of technology. But in this case, there seems to be an industrial policy. This seems to set the stage for that industrial policy and how it moves forward,

Nintendo Switch, the Nokia 7110… what are the tech devices and gadgets that changed your life? How about you biggest disappointments?In this episode of Tech Deciphered, we will share ours. We look forward to hearing yours. Share on LinkedIn or via email or XNavigation:Intro (01:34)Tech That Changed Our LivesOur Worst Tech PurchasesReflection & TakeawaysConclusionOur 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, @bschmittNuno Goncalves Pedro, Investor, Managing Partner, Founder at Chamaeleon, @ngpedroOur 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 SchmittWelcome to Tech Deciphered, episode 67. This will be a lighter episode as summer is upon us. We will discuss and talk about tech that changed our lives, as well as tech that disappointed.Some of you might know, some of you might not know, but both me and Nuno are tech nerds. We have played with tech most of our lives, always looking for the next available new piece of technology to use or collect. We are going to talk about that and maybe start on the positive side. The tech that changed our lives.Nuno Goncalves PedroI'm sure everyone has their stories. Even if you're not a nerd, there's going to be that piece of equipment, that mobile phone, that gaming console, that whatever, that dramatically changed you, made you more productive, or allowed you to do something that you'd never done before, et cetera.It's always an interesting conversation to have, and it creates a lot of wonderful memories. It brings you back to places, it brings you back to that moment where you bought the device, that first time that you used it, the experiences you had, some of them maybe actually, not necessarily positive. We'll come back to the worst tech purchases of all time. Shall I launch Austilities, Bertrand? Shall I tell my first one?Bertrand SchmittSure, Nuno, feel free.Nuno Goncalves PedroGood stuff. I'll start with maybe the one that I've had the longest memory on, which is the Philips Videopac. Now, many of you will have no clue what I'm talking about.Bertrand SchmittNo idea.Nuno Goncalves PedroThe Videopac. Even Bertrand, which is impressive. The Videopac was a video game console that worked with cartridges, launched obviously via Philips. I'm not sure if the one I had was actually from Philips, question mark. It was the same format and I remember it very fondly.It was really a gaming console with a little joystick. Very basic thing. The Videopac was actually launched first thing in '83. I'm not sure when I first started using it, but I suspect I was 7 or 8 years old, so that would have been a couple of years thereafter.I remember it fondly. We got it from Andorra. If you guys know, I was born in Portugal. Andorra is this small-owned country between Spain and France, and they had no sales taxes back then, so you'd go there and buy stuff really cheaply. I think that's what we bought when I went there with my parents.I remember it very fondly. I remember playing games on it. Strangely enough, I don't remember any of the games I played on it, but I remember it very fondly as one of my first computer experiences and stuff. That was pretty cool.Bertrand SchmittNice. I think in France. I'm not sure this one was available. At least it doesn't ring a bell. I think we had some Atari consoles in France. Me, actually, I didn't start with a console. I started with a regular computer. Not the PC kind. It was an Atari computer. Actually Atari 520ST, very popular in Europe.There was also Amiga that had similar computers. It was Motorola CPU 68000 if I remember.

The reckoning is here. Once a safe harbor, Big Tech has finally also gone full out on layoffs. Is this a structural shift to employment in Tech? Will the subsequent talent spillover be great for start-ups and entrepreneurship? Will it positively affect other industries?In this episode of Tech Deciphered, we will answer these and other questions in a deep discussion on the Global Tech Labor reset.Navigation:Intro (01:34)Layoffs & RestructuringShifts in Compensation & PerksRise of Fractional, Freelance, and Solopreneur WorkTalent Spillover to Other SectorsGeography & Culture ShiftsConclusionOur 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, @bschmittNuno Goncalves Pedro, Investor, Managing Partner, Founder at Chamaeleon, @ngpedroOur 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 Nuno Goncalves PedroWelcome to Episode 66 of Tech DECIPHERED. Today, we'll talk about the global labour tech reset. Tech and big tech, which seemed immune to any lay-offs, seems now to be under fire. Massive lay-offs over the last 2.5 years, a lot of discussion around the importance of having a computer science, computer engineering background, and so what seemed to be a safe haven for any graduate is now under stress. Today, we will discuss the structural perspective on what's happening in the market, if this is a long-term trend or not, what has led us to this, and what is next. We'll talk about the rise of fractional freelance and solopreneur work, as well as talk about talent spillovers, and some of the usual geographical dynamics around the space. Bertrand, a huge shift in tech. Bertrand SchmittYes, definitely. It's pretty big. I think it started probably around 2022, once we got some changing interest rates that have a pretty massive impact in stock prices for a lot of companies. At that time, a lot of companies decided, and usually under some pressure, that it was time to be more efficient, to generate more cash. Yes, you want to grow, but not grow at all cost. You have to go efficiently. That's when we started to see some share price going down and step by step, quarter after quarter. Some change in attitude with a lot of big tech and that has created some impact in term of lay-off from different parts of the business, from the sales team to the DNA, to even engineering R&D. What is also been happening since 2022, 2023 is a change of focus. A lot of focus is being put in AI. A lot of investment in CapEx is going to AI. At some point, if you want to keep doing all this investing, investments, you might have to get some other part of the business in order to create additional savings to do all the spend you can in AI. There has been more recently a switch. It's not about just efficiency to push all the… But generating the ability to invest in AI. Nuno Goncalves PedroIt's part of a broader movement. Before we step back a little bit and go back in history, even recently, we've heard that there's talks between Meta and a bunch of private equity firms like KKR, Brookfield, Apollo, and others, to actually help in financing data centers. Meta is a gigantic company, so one would assume they have cash to do all these things. Maybe they don't. To your point, that level of efficiency that is now needed in the market where you need to throw actual money, CapEx, into the building of infrastructure, the building of the core underpins of what you're doing is pretty vital. But let's go back a little bit of a second, and we've talked about it maybe in our early episodes. Companies like Meta, Facebook back in the day, Google, Alphabet now,

Robotics is a field that seemingly hasn’t really delivered on its promises. Sure, plenty of robot arms and other robotic solutions in logistics and industrial spaces, but what about the rest… including, Consumer?! Navigation:Intro (01:34)B2B RoboticsConsumer RoboticsLooking AheadConclusionOur 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, @bschmittNuno Goncalves Pedro, Investor, Managing Partner, Founder at Chamaeleon, @ngpedroOur 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 Nuno Goncalves PedroWelcome to Episode 64 of Tech DECIPHERED. Today, we will discuss robotics. Our new overlords are coming. Robotics is a field that seemingly hasn't really delivered on its promise. Sure, plenty of robot arms and other robotic solutions are out there. But somehow it feels like we should be actually already controlled and dominated by our robotic overlords.Today, we will discuss B2B Robotics, their growth, adoption, industry use cases, the drivers of innovation in that space, players in that space, challenges. We will also talk about consumer robotics, talking about also robots that have gone mainstream, personal and social robots, emerging trends that are happening in the home, market dynamics.Then we'll look ahead to the future of B2B, the future of consumer, and the societal and workforce impact, which obviously is going to be the last but not the least topic that we will address today. Let's start with B2B. B2B Robotics.Bertrand SchmittYes, thank you, Nuno. It's certainly a growing space. As you say, it might not feel like it, but at the end of the day, we already have quite a few millions robots in B2B. It's estimated that the stock of your operational robots, industrial robots, is around 4.28 million units in 2023, which was a 10% increase year-on-year.If we look at China, and I think we talk about the fact that we are installing around 400,000 robots a year. China alone by itself has been installing 276,000 units in 2023. China is definitely a leader in that space and that might come as a surprise to some. That number, to put it into perspective, is five times higher than the second place, Japan.Nuno Goncalves PedroI think China has recognized a long time ago that because of its population composition, that they're going to have a lack of people to produce, to be in factories, et cetera, so they actually have been adopting robots now for many, many years. I think now, you were joking with me just before we recorded this, but now that we're having trade tariffs and all that stuff, it might make sense to have a broad discussion around why robotics in an industrial environment are key.Bertrand SchmittDefinitely. I think that actually I was surprised to hear that, when we're making this recording on April 15, I was surprised to hear in the Trump administration, quite a lot of very positive support regarding AI and robotics. It looks like part of the plan is already acknowledging this is not like the old-school jobs that we are going to bring back. It would be a different type of jobs. There will be way more robotics than before. Obviously, more robotics is possible thanks to the latest advanced in AI.There is some consensus that, yeah, it's not just bring back the old jobs as they were, but it would be a new type of jobs. It would be a new type of industrial revolution and acknowledgment that robotics are here to make all of this not just more efficient, but even possible. Because it's clear that if you take the US, for instance, there is actually not so much unemployment in the US. For an industrial revolution to happen,

The current landscape of fundraising for start-ups, companies and VC funds, as well as best practices and hacks… and how to get those investors to giving you the money.Navigation:Intro (01:34)What is the current evolution and landscape for fundraising for start-ups?What is the current evolution and landscape for fundraising for VC firms?What are the best practices - strategies, processes, tactics and hacks - for fundraising overall … for start-ups?What are the best practices - strategies, processes, tactics and hacks - for fundraising overall … for VC firms?How to get investors (VCs and LPs) to commit to giving you money?ConclusionOur 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, @bschmittNuno Goncalves Pedro, Investor, Managing Partner, Founder at Chamaeleon, @ngpedroOur 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 BertrandHello and welcome to Tech Deciphered episode 63. In this episode, we are going to talk about the evolution and the current landscape of startups and VCs fundraising. We will talk about this evolution and landscape for fundraising, both from a startup and VC sides. We are going to talk about the best practices, strategies, process, tactics, and hacks for fundraising on both sides when you are a startup or when you are a VC firm. And ultimately, we will finish on how to get investors to commit to give you money. Hi, Nuno. How are you? NunoHey, Bertrand. We'll start with the evolution and current landscape of startup fundraising. It's been a couple of exciting years. We got to the height of it all, the bull of all bull markets, actually in 2021, post-COVID. Then we had 2022 and 2023. Very sharp correction, dramatic reduction in venture investments. '24 was a good year. It's a year that scaled back again, seems stabilizing. I think we'll see what '25 has on hold. My prediction is that it's going to be a great year. BertrandYeah, 2021 was pretty shockingly good post the start of COVID. After a sharp wait and see by end of 2020, things were going back not just to normal, but to overdrive. It's really by the end of 2021 that the music stopped. We had to worry about inflation with interest rates going up. 2022 was definitely bad for startups and VCs alike. But as you said, 2024, we are back to a better place. I would have the same bet for 2025, as you have, Nuno. NunoOne interesting piece is there's something that I think changed everything in 2024, which is AI. If we didn't have AI in 2024, I don't think we would have had this landscape. Important to note, and we'll talk about it later on when we talk about the landscape for actual VC fundraising, that the way that VCs work in their cycles and how they raise money, there's always a little bit of a lag around the table. It means there's still a lot of what we call dry powder with VC firms. This means that VC firms have raised quite a lot of money from limited partners for 10-year funds with, for example, four-year investment periods. Therefore, they still need to deploy capital in whatever market they're in. The fact that there were a lot of AI opportunities means that they've been deploying a lot towards, for example, AI place. That's going to change as well. We'll talk later about, again, the VC fundraising landscape, but there's going to be a little bit of an adaptation on those two time lags around the table. But for me, the big effect of 2024 was without a doubt, AI. BertrandYeah, and it's very interesting because when you think about it, the new AI revolution started with LLMs, with OpenAI launching ChatGPT.

Our analysis of the Space & Aeronautics, Defense and Homeland Security industries from key trends to investment landscape… to perhaps, more importantly, evil vs no evil? Where are we now?Navigation:Intro (01:34)Why now?GeopoliticsAerospace and AeronauticsDefense and Homeland SecurityConclusionOur 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, @bschmittNuno Goncalves Pedro, Investor, Managing Partner, Founder at Chamaeleon, @ngpedroOur 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 Nuno G. PedroWelcome to Tech DECIPHERED. In today's episode, Episode 62, we're going to discuss space and aeronautics, defense and online security. We are going to talk about key trends, why now is such a wonderful time to be looking at this space not only from a startup perspective but also from an investment landscape perspective. We'll also go into the whole evil versus no evil topic. Specifically, we will discuss why now, and the geopolitics of the industries, aerospace and aeronautics, defense and homeland security, and then we will conclude. Bertrand, why now? Bertrand SchmittWhy now? I think this industry, this sector, space, defense, homeland security has seen not just a lot of growth and quite a few very successful companies coming out, but it's an interesting complete turnaround, if you look at that from an entrepreneur or from a VC investor perspective. Why now? I think there has been, I would say, historically, there was a lot of scepticism, a lot of concerns by entrepreneurs, investors alike, centred around the military industrial complex. Bertrand SchmittWe probably all remember the famous Eisenhower's farewell address where he was sharing his distrust of that military industrial complex. And venture capital shunned these sectors also due to long sales cycle, in some cases only one client, the Department of defense for many startups, as well as ethical debates. Bertrand SchmittAt the same time, it's an evolving landscape. Startup came with disrupting legacy models. It's not just a cost-plus approach. It's a product approach. It's agile. It's innovation. The debate around, is it evil to is it something we must do in order to address global threats, basically coming to the forefront for investors and entrepreneurs alike. Nuno G. PedroIt's a supply and demand issue. It's not just that startups are not necessarily interested in it because it always creates this issue around, is it evil? Is it good? Are we doing something good or not? I think there's a lot of that. There's a lot of supply issue because of that angle. But it's also a demand issue. Contracts historically with military take a long time to be hashed out. They depend on doing trials and proofs of concept. Nuno G. PedroI think on the other hand, it's an industry that historically was very resilient and dominated by services. Particularly the US military want to own everything, and so, therefore, there was this notion that whoever was the provider provided it to provide it as a service for them. There are services that still need to be done today, but the industry has been largely productized, and there are a lot of products. I buy planes, I buy weaponry, I buy a bunch of different software systems that will allow me to operate, but they're productized. I think that's one of the big shifts that we've seen and why now is a good time to look at it. Nuno G. PedroIf I'm a startup, I don't need to go through 3, 4, 5-year cycles until I sell anything of scale. Then on the plus side, once I sell, it is at scale. There's a lot of money in the military.

Our review of 2024 and what 2025 holds for the world and the Tech industry. From geopolitical dynamics to M&A and IPOs, regulation, crypto winters and summers, to inflation and DOGE and many other things.Navigation:Intro (01:34)Review of 2024What’s next, 2025?ConclusionOur 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, @bschmittNuno Goncalves Pedro, Investor, Managing Partner, Founder at Chamaeleon, @ngpedroOur 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 SchmittWelcome to Tech DECIPHERED Episode 61. It's at this time of the year where we look back what happened in the past year in 2024 in tech, as well as trying to put some thoughts into what 2025 might look like, what might be the next big things happening in global tech industry. Let's start with our review of 2024. Nuno Goncalves PedroIt's been an interesting year. A year of elections around the world, so maybe we start at that level. The landscape geopolitically has become very interesting. I'd seen some chart that shows the most gain on the right ever globally across elections. I think there's some message going on that people are really not happy about, status quo. Obviously, in the US, Donald Trump got elected, so he will again be the President of the United States next year or starting next year. Nuno Goncalves PedroIn Europe, we've had a lot of countries that went to the right. Austria, I believe the right wing party won. A lot of interesting and somehow shocking results in some cases with very populist views, for example, countries like my own Portugal, and all around that. Very significant geopolitical transition where it seems like populism is here to stay. Nuno Goncalves PedroThere are significant concerns around the world around immigration. There are significant concerns around the world around security. There are significant concerns around the world around economic growth. I think the elections that we saw this year, for the most, are reflecting upon the discontent of citizens across the world, of which the US is just but an example. Bertrand SchmittYes. Actually, I'm not sure anymore about that when we call populism, one side or the other, what it really means at some point, it doesn't sit right to me anymore. I think 10 years ago, maybe I had some concept about what it means. But today, I'm not really clear, to be frank, because when you see Trump and his alliance with people like Elon Musk or JFK, it's not clear they are populist at all. The same in Europe. I'm not really clear, what is true is for sure more right wing, moving away from left or centre. Bertrand SchmittYeah, this will have a significant impact on a lot of topics, and we'll go through that. France also went more right wing, at least in term of parliament. Germany, we will see next year, actually. They're preparing for election, the government in Germany. I think it was the day or the next day after the result of the US election, the government imploded. There are new elections scheduled for early next year. It looks like it will also go more right wing. It will make certainly for an interesting change of policies and politics. Nuno Goncalves PedroIndeed, all of all, I think a lot of renewed discussion around what is the role of countries, governments, different counties, provinces, states in the case of the US, local government, is the system fully broken or not? A lot of debate around precisely the incentives that people have to vote for a party versus another and what are the key issues that are on their mind. But as I mentioned, I feel it's clear that it's the economy,

In a few decades, will Europe be good for anything beyond food and tourist experiences? With Europe lagging on innovation, productivity and with extremely costly decisions on the Energy side, and needing to defend itself, what is next?Navigation:Intro (01:34)New report out from Mario DraghiProfound mistakes in Energy initiatives increasing costs and competitivenessDalio and Lee Kuan Yew commentsLack of growth in Europe, lack of creation of new European championsToo much protection for employees?Too Complex regulations around companies and innovation initiatives are too bureaucraticConclusionOur 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, @bschmittNuno Goncalves Pedro, Investor, Managing Partner, Founder at Chamaeleon, @ngpedroOur 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 Nuno Goncalves PedroWelcome to Episode 60 of Tech DECIPHERED. Today, we will discuss European competitiveness. The competitiveness of all of Europe, not just the European Union, but the whole of Europe. It's been in the news recently. There's been a new report out from Mario Draghi a couple of months ago that really mentions what is happening in Europe, what are the things that need to be done for Europe to increase its competitiveness going forward. Nuno Goncalves PedroThere have been a lot of discussions around the world on Asia, in particular, and American dominance of the world economy. Europe is lagging behind. What do we make out of all of this? Maybe let's start with the report out from Mario Draghi and the conclusions of that report. Bertrand SchmittYes, I think it was for once, a pretty interesting and pretty lucid report from a commission by the European Commission and written by Mario Draghi with a lot of support from many CEOs and also entrepreneurs to provide feedback to try to explain what's happening, what's going on. I would agree with everything in terms of analysis or conclusion, but I must say it's a good read. Bertrand SchmittMaybe a few points that he's making is first acknowledging that there is an issue in European competitiveness and growth since the past 20, 25 years. This lack of competitiveness and growth has increased with a great financial crisis from 2008-2012. In 2012, there was a crisis around the euro. I think it is indeed time to try to look back at what happened and try to get some sense about what could be done differently going forward. Nuno Goncalves PedroA couple of really astute observations. Obviously, the GDP growth of Europe has lag behind that of the US and China. The period of time from 2002-2023, the US has grown 2% and both on constant prices and constant PPP prices. China, 8.3% and the EU, 27 at 1.4%. Obviously this report is on the EU. Clearly lagging, and the lag is significant. Nuno Goncalves PedroIf we look at GDP at constant prices, there was a 17% delta in 2002 between US and Europe, and now there's a 30% delta between US and Europe. It's lagging you further behind. Even more seriously, China has outpaced it on constant prices. If we look at constant PPP prices, the EU was actually 4% above the US back in 2002, and it is now below 12% of the US. Nuno Goncalves PedroChina has outpaced both of them at constant PPP prices. This is worrisome. I think Mario Draghi makes, or the report makes a bunch of very significant and strong statements, which basically are saying, "We cannot, as the European Union, continue like this and have the social welfare that we put in place in all these countries." something's got to give. Nuno Goncalves PedroHe goes on to make a couple of proposals and what he thinks need...

Do we need yet another new AI platform? Would new foundation models stand a chance in today’s market? Will OpenAI, Anthropic, etc be the new Tech winners … or will they just get acquired, at some point?Navigation:Intro (01:34)LandscapeRecent gigantic acqui-hiresThe Big PlayersHow will the hardware change?Will there be a next wave beyond GPT?Is it too late to come in and disrupt the big players?ConclusionOur 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, @bschmittNuno Goncalves Pedro, Investor, Managing Partner, Founder at Chamaeleon, @ngpedroOur 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 BertrandWelcome to Tech Deciphered episode 59. Again, this will be an episode on AI. This time we make the case for not starting yet a new AI platform and not investing in one either. What's happening in AI? I guess all of you have heard about all the massive investment made by some of the leading players, OpenAI, Microsoft, Google, Meta, XAI, Oracle, as well as even some smaller startups from Anthropic to Mistral. BertrandOf course, Amazon has built its own frontier model as well as is providing infrastructure to a lot of players. But isn't there already too much capital going into AI platforms and isn't it going too fast? NunoWell, we think probably yes. That's going to be the thesis of our discussion today. Some of the startups you mentioned, by the way, they've raised a ton of money. I mean, Anthropic is well above 8 billion. Mistral is at a couple of billions as well, right, at this stage? BertrandI think we are closer to a billion. NunoIt's around a billion. Yeah, around a billion, several billion for Anthropic. Then there's a couple of companies we will talk about later that raised a few billion that are no longer independent. It feels like too much. It feels like there's a gold rush of sorts. It is probably a good analogy. A lot of investors putting capital into it. NunoBut at the same time, it's being matched by the big players, Microsoft, Google, Meta by pushing LLM, XAI, OpenAI, we could argue, is it a big player already or not? But they just raised a ton of money as well. At 150 billion valuation, right? I mean, it's like... BertrandYes, 150 billion valuation. NunoIt's like, okay. They've already said, well, we are going to continue raising money. We're going to continue spending a lot of money as well. It feels like a gold rush. It feels like there's too much capital deployed into it. Something's got to give, someone's going to fail. Maybe that's a good segue to the fact that we already start seeing some moments that are quite interesting. BertrandMaybe to OpenAI, to jump back, to be fair, they've reached more than 3 billion of annualized revenues, and that was based on numbers from June. This is very high valuation for sure. But it's also coming with one of the fastest growing business ever in terms of revenues. NunoYes. We will see if it's sustainable, the business that they're building, because there's no competition. People are using other services out there in tandem. I see a lot of people, for example, using perplexity rather than ChatGPT. We'll see if Gemini catches up at some point or not. I would argue they have grown very fast, but they have not faced as much competition as they're probably starting to face right now. At least that would be my thesis. NunoIn any case, we start seeing signals of companies that go to the market and get bought out, and they get bought out for amazing amounts. If we look at Google and there, I would argue, acquihire of Character.ai. It seems to 2.

Another election year and it’s already a dramatic one. Biden vs Trump turned into Harris vs Trump. An attempt on Trump’s life. What’s next? This episode will focus on the implication of the elections for Tech and its ecosystem in the US and globally. Navigation: Intro (01:34) Harris vs. Trump Silicon Valley / Tech business at large views Implications for Rest of the World Our take 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 Nuno Goncalves Pedro Welcome to Episode 58 of Tech DECIPHERED. Today, we will discuss the US election and what it means for tech. How will the upcoming US election affect tech and the entire ecosystem in the US and globally? To be clear, and just to put a disclaimer, this episode will not focus on policies by the candidates that do not relate to what we perceive to be implications to tech. For example, we will not be discussing topics like pro-choice versus pro-life, and other things that are obviously very central to the decisions that many of you will make in how you will vote for the next presidential elections in the US. Nuno Goncalves Pedro At the same time, we will also share with you what we know to the best of our knowledge. Obviously, policies change with time, and proposed policies definitely change a lot with time, as you know, with politicians. There might be things that we will share with you today that might be different when you listen to our episode. We are not responsible for that. People and candidates change their minds all the time, even after they've been elected. That's not our fault. Just with those disclaimers, that's what we're going to share today. Nuno Goncalves Pedro The third and final disclaimer, obviously, there will be tonality on how we discuss and evaluate some of the policies, and if they're good or bad or whatever. But from this, you cannot also take a conclusion on, "Oh, I should vote for Trump," or, "I should vote for Harris," because no, this is just a view around tech and tech ecosystem. We will share how we perceive the policies and the proposed policies, and that's literally it. We're not giving you advice on who to vote for. Bertrand Schmitt First, this is a recording made August 28. We'll try to be as precise and as relevant as of this date. This is before the first debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. As a reminder, a French politician once said that promises by candidates only engage those who listen to them. With that as a reminder, let's start the topic. Maybe first, we can talk about the official platform. As of today, there is an official platform if we go to the page of the candidate, Donald J. Trump, there is a 20-point page, and there is a more detailed PDF as well on the Trump Republican platform. Some of our points will try to leverage what is on this official platform page, and we will also, of course, try to leverage what was done when Donald Trump was president, because sometimes actions speak louder than words. We also pick what we have heard from the candidates on the trail, if it diverts or if it adds to that platform. Bertrand Schmitt On the other side, VP Harris' platform is not there. As of August 28, there is no official platform on her website, which, to be frank, it's scary because if you cannot hold a candidate to their promise after they are elected, that's a tough place to be. Obviously, she's part of the Biden-Harris administration, so we will leverage for discussion what was done by her administration,...

Did we go from a broad bubble to a gen AI bubble? What is the current state of AI and generative AI? What has been commoditized and what is still distinctive? What does the future hold?Navigation:Intro (01:34)The State of AI / gen AIOn the negative sideOn the positive sideOur takeConclusionOur 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, @bschmittNuno Goncalves Pedro, Investor, Managing Partner, Founder at Chamaeleon, @ngpedroOur 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 SchmittWelcome to Tech Deciphered, episode 57. This episode will be about generative AI, and we will be asking the question, "Are we in a generative AI bubble?"Bertrand SchmittIn our last episode, we talked about AI, what was the latest happening in terms of endpoints, PCs, Macs, iPhones, and is it a risk? Is it a benefit? Today, we'll talk about what's happening with GenAI. Is it overhyped? Is it too much investment? On the plus side, we'll be wondering, okay, maybe it's not a bubble after all, or even if it's one, is it such an issue because basically is it laying the foundation for a new stage, a new scale of AI for an act two of generative AI. Good to talk to you today, Nuno.Nuno Goncalves PedroNice to talk to you as well, Bertrand. I'll start with my answer. It is a bubble and it isn't. I'll come back to that. I'll leave you guys on that cliffhanger. Let's start maybe a little bit with where we are in the state of AI and GenAI. Are we at commodity level or not? Adoption levels that we're seeing in the market. Interesting report from McKinsey. Some around the state of AI, they did over 1,300 interviews. It was really a survey format around AI and GenAI adoption.Nuno Goncalves PedroSome, like the conclusions, increased adoption of AI in at least one business function. Over the last year, this dramatic increase. I'm not really sure. Everyone that said, yes, we're using it is actually using it. I take that with a grain of salt. This is self-reported, again, and so everyone has to be using GenAI, but everyone's aware of it. I'm sure there's an increase in adoption for sure.Nuno Goncalves PedroThe second piece that I feel is a little bit more exciting is what are the functional areas of companies that are using AI and generative AI more actively? Maybe not super mega surprising marketing and sales, which is core to some companies, but relatively support function. A little bit surprising to me that people are seeing product in our service development as number two. Surprising to me that software engineering is so low. Again, maybe no software engineer has actually filled in anything around that. That's why it's so low or middle of the board, or they don't know what their engineers are doing, really, which is also interesting.Nuno Goncalves PedroThen very low on strategy and corporate finance were business analysis, triangulation of data, or using ChatGPT, et cetera, I would have taken a little bit for granted that people would be using it. A bit surprising on that. Just feel it's an interesting... Again, self-reported, it's a survey. Some interesting conclusions on both sides in terms of the functions, et cetera. Some the conclusions as well on the rapid ascendancy of generative AI.Bertrand SchmittYeah, for me, what I'm quite impressed, I must say, is how fast generative AI has picked up. I don't think I remember any new technologies that move so fast in terms of adoption, because here we are already talking about adoption metrics. I mean, it moved from nowhere in 2022, 33% in 2023, 65% in 2024. Basically, as high as the adoption of AI,

AI is literally everywhere… in our mobile phones, laptops, their chipsets, etc. As integrations increase, what are the implications for everyone? Why are all the announcements from Microsoft, Google, Apple, Open AI and others, important? One of those episodes that you really need to listen to, as this IMPACTS YOU and all of usNavigation:Intro (01:34)Getting us all on the same pageThis matters TO YOU!!!Open AI launching 4oThe responsesSo… What?ConclusionOur 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, @bschmittNuno Goncalves Pedro, Investor, Managing Partner, Founder at Chamaeleon, @ngpedroOur 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 SchmittHi, welcome to episode 55 of Tech Deciphered. In this episode, we will talk about open versus closed and proprietary. What does it mean in technology to be an open or closed application? You have all heard about open-source, I guess. There is a saying in Silicon Valley, if you are first, you close it. If you come late, you open it.Bertrand SchmittBasically, it means that you might have an advantage being the first player on the field. You might afford to be able to close-source your product, your software, your application. But if you are late to the game, late to the party, and it's difficult to fight the leading player in the marketplace, maybe an alternative strategy in order to gain distribution is to open-source your product. There have been many examples of this through Silicon Valley history. Today, we are going to talk more about all of this. Good to see you, Nuno, today.Nuno Goncalves PedroNice to see you as well. Shall we start with history—the history of open-source? It's apparently the first known system that was supposedly open-source or in public domain was in the '50s, the A2 system in 1953. Basically, it was a compiler. A compiler is what turns source code into binary code that gets run by a machine.Nuno Goncalves PedroIt's what allows you to run apps on, for example, your phone and things like that, a compiler. I know some of you that are like, I'm a computer engineer. Is that a compiler really or is it an interpreter? Let's forget that for a second. Let's call it a compiler just to make life easier for everyone involved.Nuno Goncalves PedroThat was the first public domain open-source thing that we know. Then there isn't much, '50s, '60s, '70s, there isn't much. Obviously, there was the summer of love at some point in the late '60s, and maybe through the '70s, people started thinking through, shouldn't we be doing things that are more open? One of such people was a gentleman called Richard Stallman, who's still alive, so you'd shout out to him. He was part of this "let's call it hacker community" from those days and was doing some interesting things around it.Nuno Goncalves PedroThere was this belief that source code shouldn't be closed, that if you were monetising something quite a lot, and you were putting even certain things in your code, that if, for example, you were using unlicensed applications, so unlicensed binary, that you would run into trouble and have other issues. So he manifested himself against it and came up with something that we're still using till this day, the GNU or the GNU Project and GNU Manifesto. Now, GNU, this is the funny part—some of you will find it funny, others might not—stands for GNU's Not Unix, which is a recursive acronym. You have to appreciate computer scientists and computer engineers coming up with things like that.Nuno Goncalves PedroBut its GNU is GNU's not Unix, because at that time,

When a company says they are launching a new product that is open, is it really? What does open even mean? The history behind open source, its successes and failures, and all the lies we are told all the time by some Tech players. The truth, unvarnishedNavigation:Intro (01:34)What is Open Source Software - history, definition and core innovations?Open Source ftw (for the win)Lies… when Open is not Open, but a Moat or the Bridge for ClosedConclusionOur 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, @bschmittNuno Goncalves Pedro, Investor, Managing Partner, Founder at Chamaeleon, @ngpedroOur 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 SchmittHi, welcome to episode 55 of Tech Deciphered. In this episode, we will talk about open versus closed and proprietary. What does it mean in technology to be an open or closed application? You have all heard about open-source, I guess. There is a saying in Silicon Valley, if you are first, you close it. If you come late, you open it.Bertrand SchmittBasically, it means that you might have an advantage being the first player on the field. You might afford to be able to close-source your product, your software, your application. But if you are late to the game, late to the party, and it's difficult to fight the leading player in the marketplace, maybe an alternative strategy in order to gain distribution is to open-source your product. There have been many examples of this through Silicon Valley history. Today, we are going to talk more about all of this. Good to see you, Nuno, today.Nuno Goncalves PedroNice to see you as well. Shall we start with history—the history of open-source? It's apparently the first known system that was supposedly open-source or in public domain was in the '50s, the A2 system in 1953. Basically, it was a compiler. A compiler is what turns source code into binary code that gets run by a machine.Nuno Goncalves PedroIt's what allows you to run apps on, for example, your phone and things like that, a compiler. I know some of you that are like, I'm a computer engineer. Is that a compiler really or is it an interpreter? Let's forget that for a second. Let's call it a compiler just to make life easier for everyone involved.Nuno Goncalves PedroThat was the first public domain open-source thing that we know. Then there isn't much, '50s, '60s, '70s, there isn't much. Obviously, there was the summer of love at some point in the late '60s, and maybe through the '70s, people started thinking through, shouldn't we be doing things that are more open? One of such people was a gentleman called Richard Stallman, who's still alive, so you'd shout out to him. He was part of this "let's call it hacker community" from those days and was doing some interesting things around it.Nuno Goncalves PedroThere was this belief that source code shouldn't be closed, that if you were monetising something quite a lot, and you were putting even certain things in your code, that if, for example, you were using unlicensed applications, so unlicensed binary, that you would run into trouble and have other issues. So he manifested himself against it and came up with something that we're still using till this day, the GNU or the GNU Project and GNU Manifesto. Now, GNU, this is the funny part—some of you will find it funny, others might not—stands for GNU's Not Unix, which is a recursive acronym. You have to appreciate computer scientists and computer engineers coming up with things like that.Nuno Goncalves PedroBut its GNU is GNU's not Unix, because at that time,

The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Can you handle the truth? What is the future of news? Are we at a Spotify moment? Do we even care about the truth?Navigation:Intro (01:34)Mainstream vs Niche News (02:09)Are we Close to the Spotify/Netflix moment? (29:30)State or Government Ownership and Influence of Media (46:06)Polarization & The Truth (58:36)Year of Election (1:05:10)Conclusion (1:09:21) 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, @bschmittNuno Goncalves Pedro, Investor, Managing Partner, Founder at Chamaeleon, @ngpedroOur 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 NunoIn today's episode of Tech Deciphered, we will be discussing the truth. Can you handle the truth and the whole truth? More specifically, we're going to talk about the future of news, where we are today. Obviously, a lot of discussion around fake news, polarization of news.NunoWe will go into a conversation on whether we are close to the Spotify moment of the news space, and whether how we're caring for the truth is still actually true. Do we still care for truth or do we just care about our own opinions and to reinforce them over time?BertrandThat's a big question. I think to start about this topic, we probably want to start from this big debate that has gone pretty big over the past 10 years, but maybe even more the past five years. It's maybe the mainstream versus niche news and all the dramatic changes that have happened in a way, thanks to internet.NunoThere's the mainstream versus niche, there's the mainstream versus speciality. Maybe let's start with mainstream. What is mainstream news? Is it just news or do we get news through mechanisms that sometimes are not news anymore?BertrandIs it still mainstream?NunoClearly, there has been a decrease in viewership of the newscasts, the news programs that we used to watch in our own countries, in the US. Now people can watch whatever they want whenever they want it. In some ways, there's still maybe some flagship national news shows that people listen to. Obviously, there's dedicated news channels like CNN, Fox News, of course, as well.NunoIs it really where we consume our mainstream news? My view is obviously with the decreasing of viewership across the top channels, one would say maybe less so, but clearly still there is mainstream news. Fox News represents a specific side of the spectrum, but it is mainstream. CNN is as well. What's your view, Bertrand?BertrandI was asking this question only jokingly because I don't know many people who still watch some of these mainstream news channels. My impression is that actually, first, the metrics are pretty clear. It's a significant decline in viewership. You talk about TV, but the price is the same. A few managed to, I would say, stay somewhat relevant. Take a New York Times, take a Wall Street Journal, but even that definition of relevant is a very small viewership.BertrandThe numbers are extremely small in terms of who is paying for a subscription to these services. We are talking about millions at best, so that's very small. One thing I noticed, I think that is pretty clear across the board is that, most of what we call mainstream media is more and more watched by the older generations, meaning people who have very long habits of watching their news that way from a TV channel. And two, who have not gone to the internet for their news because they were stuck in their old ways in some ways.BertrandObviously not everyone is like this, but my understanding is that they are all facing growing, older and older generations. Of course,

Is Technology intrinsically good, bad or neutral? In this episode, we will go into the depths of Technology Philosophy & Ethics, what it actually is, its historical developments, the current movements of the present and what the future likely holds. What is e/acc, what is EA? What is Degrowth? We will also discuss spiritual and religious elements, in as much as they relate to Science and Technology.Navigation:Intro (01:34)What is Technology Philosophy & Ethics? (02:33)Historical Developments (04:17)The Present (23:44)Our Views (49:06)Conclusion (54:45)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, @bschmittNuno Goncalves Pedro, Investor, Managing Partner, Founder at Chamaeleon, @ngpedroOur 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 1. Intro Bertrand Schmitt Welcome to episode 53 of Tech Deciphered. This episode will be about technology philosophy and ethics. This is a bit far from our usual topics around investment and building companies, but we felt it was an interesting moment in time, especially with the development of AI, to talk about some of this, I would say what's behind some of the reflection in tech around where we should move forward, how much we should accelerate, should we even consider a pause in some developments? Bertrand Schmitt Is technology intrinsically good, bad or neutral? We'll try to go into the depths of some of these questions. We'll also talk about e/acc, about EA, about degrowth, and we will also discuss some spiritual and religious elements in so far as to how they relate to science and technology. 2. What is Technology Philosophy & Ethics? Nuno Goncalves Pedro, Wonderful. Let's start with what is technology, philosophy, and ethics? Basically, define the philosophy of technology as a subfield of philosophy. We have a good start there. It's part of philosophy. Let's start there. Nuno Goncalves Pedro, It actually studies the nature of technology and its social effects. It has several branches. Ethics is probably the one that's been most published about recently. What are the ethics of AI, et cetera? Relations between science and technology, human-technology relations, there's been some interesting debates as well around that, in particular in countries like Japan who always seem to be at the forefront of some of the stuff that happens around virtual and digital things and actual humans. Bertrand Schmitt Are you thinking about virtual girlfriends? Nuno Goncalves Pedro, Virtual girlfriends, virtual wives. You could get married to virtual wives. Obviously, the political dimensions of technology has also been hotly debated recently. Who owns semiconductors? Who owns AI? Is AI centralised or not? Is this an arms race? Is this going to be a source of geopolitical danger? Nuno Goncalves Pedro, Obviously, there's different views around technology. There's obviously the view that technology is autonomous, but it does determine society. It's a human construct. It's co-evolutionary, so it evolves at the same time as we should, and there should be boundary conditions around it and how we evolve. Nuno Goncalves Pedro, Basically, this leads to anything between technophobes, people that hate technology, people that are technophilia, I'm not sure that would be the right word, but that have technophilia, that love technology like you and I, Bertrand, we love technology in some ways. Then there's people at the edges of this that go on different angles like technology anarchy and a bunch of other things. 3. Historical Developments Nuno Goncalves Pedro, That's basically a very broad definition of techn...

The Apple Vision Pro is out and we each got ourselves one… Our first impressions on the early days of the Vision Pro. Will it change the world forever, like the iPhone?Navigation:Intro (01:34)Overall… TL;DRIn-depth analysisCompetition with Meta Quest 3ConclusionOur 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, @bschmittNuno Goncalves Pedro, Investor, Managing Partner, Founder at Chamaeleon, @ngpedroOur 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 newsIntro Subscribe To Our Podcast Nuno G. PedroIn this episode, episode 52 of Tech Deciphered, we will talk about the Apple Vision Pro. It's now out, and both Bertrand and myself got ourselves one. So what are our first impressions on the early days of the Vision Pro? Will this revolutionise the future of input and output? Is this the new iPhone? Is this finally the product that Tim Cook has developed that shows us that he is the future of Apple? Let's start with the overall impressions, Bertrand. What are your overall impressions?Bertrand SchmittWhat are my overall impressions? It's a mixed bag, that's for sure. It's a very impressive piece of tech. I think my worry is that it has been oversold by Apple, but also by a lot of YouTubers. When you keep looking at these YouTube videos of people using it for eight hours a day, I think it's totally, utterly bullshit. There is no way in hell any normal human being will put that on their head eight hours a day unless forced to do it.Nuno G. PedroUnless you're working on your neck like you're a Formula One driver or something.Bertrand SchmittExactly. You are working on your neck. Yes, it's neck training. No, more seriously, overall, and we will go more in depth later on this episode, I feel it's a great device for maybe two use cases. One is if you want to watch 3D content. To watch 3D content, 3D movies, potentially at some point 3D sports, when we get that, we don't have that yet so far, 3D concert, then I think It's awesome.Bertrand SchmittWatching 90 minutes of 3D movies, it's just an insane experience for me. It's just amazing. It's your best way to consume a Blade Runner 2049, a Dune. It's actually maybe better than in a movie theatre if you combine it with a proper headset because the audio is quite good, the bass are pretty poor. For me today, as a mainstream consumer, that's the best main use case. For businesses, there might be some reason to look at, if you are doing 3D design, to look at 3D objects in the middle of your room, I can see that as well.Bertrand SchmittBeyond that, I think we're talking about very stretch use cases. One of these could be to record a video of what you are doing and sharing that with other for training. I could see that probably for training purposes. But beyond that, at this stage, I'm not sure what's the point to put 2D panels in the middle of a 3D vision with a headset that's very heavy and very uncomfortable.Bertrand SchmittI don't know your experience, wearing the headset, but anyone telling you that this headset is nice to wear, do they have a metal head to wear that comfortably? I have no clue. I mean, I'm hopeful there will be better straps, but for me, it's still a nightmare to wear it.Nuno G. PedroYeah, this has been tested by 007 villains, so they all can send away the thing on their head. Fully agree with your assessment. It's impossible have it on your head, to be honest, even for more than an hour-and-a-half, two hours. An hour-and-a-half and two hours is already a lot. So even watching that movie, you might have to take a little break to watch that movie, in particular if it's over two hours,

Do you remember that company that raised at $1 billion valuation and sold for $15 million? How about that one that was the “hottest thing” ever, is still around, but never really became huge. This episode is about these companies… and about why some founders and investors can make a lot of money, while their companies fail miserably.Navigation:Intro (01:34)Why “ka-ching” isn’t necessarily related to success (or failure)?The nasty onesThe ones that are still alive, but not doing greatThe ones that did ok/well, but… should they have gotten that outcome?Why don’t all companies exit?ConclusionOur 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, @bschmittNuno Goncalves Pedro, Investor, Managing Partner, Founder at Chamaeleon, @ngpedroOur 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 SchmittWelcome to Tech DECIPHERED episode 51. We are going to talk about companies that ultimately became too big to succeed. What do we mean by too big? We mean that, in most situations, they probably raised too much to end up having some level of good success. The weight of their financing weighed on them, and what could be opportunities for the right exits.Bertrand SchmittSo, Nuno, let's start about this and obviously we will talk about some pretty big companies that went under, some smaller ones that also didn't go well, and some are still alive, just absolutely not where we would have expected them a few years ago, and not enough to make everyone happy in these companies. Maybe we start by explaining a bit more what is success or failure?Nuno Goncalves PedroLet's start with the punchline today instead of... Hopefully you guys will stay for the examples because they're pretty cool. But let's start with a punchline and why cashing isn't necessarily related to success or failure. Why success sometimes on paper isn't success in the end. It ain't over until the fat lady sings. Probably not a very appropriate expression any more, but it really ain't over until the company actually liquidates and everyone's made their money, et cetera.Nuno Goncalves PedroLet's start with first principles: the first thing is a valuation on paper, a company is raising a private round of funding, a series B, a series C, a series D from venture capital investing, investors, even IPO ing, even going public into the stock market.Nuno Goncalves PedroThe valuation before any liquidation and an IPO would be an effective liquidation. Any valuation before a liquidation is on paper. It means what it means. It means that someone is willing to pay a certain price per share for the company at that valuation of the company. It doesn't mean the company is actually worth that. It means there are certain actors that think that the company is worth that.Nuno Goncalves PedroWhat it means is you can raise a ton of money, and in particular, you can raise a ton of money at a lot of valuation. You can be a unicorn on paper, so worth over a billion dollars. You can be a decacorn worth over $10 billion on paper. But that's all on paper until there's liquidation, be it an IPO, a full on trade sales where someone buys you out, et cetera, et cetera. Basically, it ain't done yet.Nuno Goncalves PedroNow, why isn't cashing necessarily related to success? Why do people still make money? Well, people still make money because other things happen in the life of the company. When a company is raising, potentially series b or series c, it might be that certain investors or certain executives or founders of the company do what is called a secondary transaction.

That episode… the 50th, the big 50. We go back to the past and look into the future: was 2023 as bad as it gets? Is there some good or silver lining in front of us in 2024? These and more questions answered in our recap and looking forward episode. Navigation:Intro (01:34)Looking Back to 2023 (02:00)Looking Ahead into 2024 (32:05)Conclusion (48:20) 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, @bschmittNuno Goncalves Pedro, Investor, Managing Partner, Founder at Chamaeleon, @ngpedroOur 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 NunoWelcome to episode 50 of Tech DECIPHERED, the big 50, 5-0. Today, we will do a recap of 2023 and what to look forward to in 2024. Although this is actually not really our 50th episode, because of how we've done the numbering scheme over time and we've changed it back and forth. Let's just call it our 50th episode and celebrate and take advantage of that. 2023, what a hell of a year, Bertrand. BertrandYes, indeed. What a hell of a year. Maybe we can start about the positives of 2023. NunoYes, that would be fast. No, I'm kidding. BertrandGood news is that I'm not sure if it's fully behind us, but definitely COVID-19 is mostly under control. It feels less in the news these days, either mainstream media or Twitter. It looks like people are back to a more normal life, back to getting the flu or whatever cold you might get, but at least it feels like a cancer-distant memory, but less impacting our daily lives. NunoWe put COVID-19 behind us. I was just watching or catching up on a TV series, The Good Fight. They did this funky thing starting, it's season five maybe, which is literally the whole episode is like a previously on, but we never saw that. They basically did a whole year into 50 minutes of an episode, and they presented it as previously on, as if we'd watched it before, which we have never watched it, which is very funny. It was actually scary. We were scared for our lives and what was going to happen next. That was 2020. NunoThen 2021, we started rebalancing and things started looking a bit better. Last year was like, "Oh, let's just go back to the normal world." This year, we're full throttle. It's the big vindication. Everyone's travelling a lot. I'm sure it's going to be a mess over Thanksgiving. We're close to Thanksgiving right now. Everyone's back to travelling. COVID is a little bit behind us. Some people are taking booster shots. Have you taken your booster shot yet, Bertrand? BertrandI have. NunoI have as well. BertrandFlu shot. NunoFlu as well. Yes, cool stuff. Some may have not, I'm pretty sure. Some people are getting COVID again, but things do seem to be under control. That's a big, heavy burden that we're not really inside anymore. We'll see what happens in the next few years. Fingers crossed. I'm knock-on-wood type stuff because honestly, we can't declare victory. NunoThe second very positive thing is, besides we did talk about recession. We talked about economy imploding. It really did not. It's been an up-and-down year, but the economy did not implode. If something economic activity has now picked up again and there's no signals of recession, and again, fingers crossed on that, which I guess is good and bad. We'll come back to the bad in a bit, but it's mostly good. BertrandYeah, it's good news. The question is why, obviously, and can it still happen? Definitely, I came in this year with a more negative outlook, at least for the US. Because if we talk about some other countries, some other countries might have a pretty bad year, actually. At least in the US,

What is an exit? You need to sell your company or sell some of your shares? How is the market for that, right now? All things M&A, IPO, Secondaries, etc. Navigation: Intro (01:34) What is an exit? (02:17) Stats on M&A and IPOs (17:50) What’s ahead? (42:02) Conclusion (59:48) 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 SchmittWelcome to Tech DECIPHERED Episode 49. This will be our Exit episode. What do we mean by exit? Exit, it's really when you need to provide liquidity to your shareholders. It's when you sell your company as a whole. You sell some shares in a public market, meaning that ultimately that will provide not as fast liquidity as getting acquired, but will provide liquidity for those that want to leave the business as shareholders in a gradual way. In this episode, we are going to talk about all things M&A, IPO, secondaries. But let's start with more details about what is an exit. Nuno Goncalves PedroMore generically, an exit is on the eye of the beholder. An exit for a company, as you mentioned rightfully so, is the sale of normally most of its stock. It could be not all of the stock; sometimes it is all of the stock. It could be a sale of most of its stock or the taking that stock public in some way. Nuno Goncalves PedroWe'll come back to this notion of what selling stock means, but in general, selling stock, even when you go IPO, there is a selling of stock. There is a transformation of stock in some way. But it could be for an investor. What is an exit for an investor? Or what is an exit for a founder of a company? In that case, I would say an exit is, again, when you sell the majority of your stock that you have for that specific entity. Nuno Goncalves PedroFor a founder, it would be, "I'm selling most of my stock in that company." For an investor, "I'm selling most of my stock in that company." We could then basically say, is it a full exit or not? But it's an active element of liquidation at scale. For me, takes into account majority. It takes into account that the majority of what you put or that you have, you've sold. A liquidation means you've liquidated part of your position. It could be actually a very small amount of stock. That is the definition of exit and the definition of liquidation. Nuno Goncalves PedroThere's different types of exits and elements of liquidation. There's mergers and acquisitions whereby two companies—normally it's two companies—come together as a merger. We always talk about this notion of mergers of equals. There is rarely mergers of equals. There is always one party that is slightly bigger than the other. Even in the case of a merger, there is one party that in some ways is acquiring the other. Then there's straight-up acquisitions, the ability for a company to acquire another company and take over that company. That's M&A. Nuno Goncalves PedroIn M&A, normally the majority of stock is taken by the acquirer or by the entity that is merging that is slightly larger than the other one. There's what we call a change of control. The entity that got sold is now taken by the new entity or by the entity that bought it. That's a change of control. A lot of people know the sexier type of exits, which is IPOs. Nuno Goncalves PedroAn IPO stands for initial public offering. It's an offering of stock to the retail market, to the public market. Why it's the public market? Because people like you and me and people that necessarily...