Venture with Grace
00:32:02 · Grace Gong, Juha Vartiainen
[00:32:02] S0: What would you say? What do people typically get wrong about quantum computing that you wish you could correct them? [00:32:12] S1: I think the most common misunderstanding is that they are going to break all the encryption code very soon. So let's say people are too afraid of quantum computers. So as you said, there are a lot of constructive use cases besides that. I think if they would not think so much about the encryption use case, so that's maybe. [00:32:40] S0: Is there any... I know that companies like Tencent are like your investor as well. So I consider them as strategic. So for these kind of different companies, do they have different use cases for these? Or do people just want to own one since it's one of the most cutting edge technology? What would be the day to day practical usage for something like a traditional tech company, I'd say?
00:32:40 · Grace Gong, Juha Vartiainen
[00:32:40] S0: Is there any... I know that companies like Tencent are like your investor as well. So I consider them as strategic. So for these kind of different companies, do they have different use cases for these? Or do people just want to own one since it's one of the most cutting edge technology? What would be the day to day practical usage for something like a traditional tech company, I'd say? [00:33:08] S1: Let's say the traditional companies, they are very often they want to, let's say, develop their talent and their readiness. So they are, let's say, integrating them to the or they are studying how to integrate them to their workflows. So they may be already using high performance computing for some of their workloads. So they want to understand if the quantum can accelerate it. Let's say the most developed ones, they understand that it doesn't yet provide the advantage, but their hardware develops very quickly and maybe in a couple of years they already are beyond the tipping point and then they want to be ready. So let's say some companies, they're studying maybe some logistics problems or some other problems, what is specific to the industry. And they want to be ready when the breakthrough happens.
00:33:08 · Juha Vartiainen, Grace Gong
[00:33:08] S1: Let's say the traditional companies, they are very often they want to, let's say, develop their talent and their readiness. So they are, let's say, integrating them to the or they are studying how to integrate them to their workflows. So they may be already using high performance computing for some of their workloads. So they want to understand if the quantum can accelerate it. Let's say the most developed ones, they understand that it doesn't yet provide the advantage, but their hardware develops very quickly and maybe in a couple of years they already are beyond the tipping point and then they want to be ready. So let's say some companies, they're studying maybe some logistics problems or some other problems, what is specific to the industry. And they want to be ready when the breakthrough happens. [00:34:12] S0: Wonder, so like, I mean, one of our audience, Dani is asking, are you guys hiring talents? I want to maybe shift the words a little bit on, I'm sure you guys are hiring talent. I'm just curious, where does the talent typically come from? Since you mentioned the majority people from the founding team was PhDs, right? So obviously, is there a few places that's where the usual suspects typically coming from? And how do you build out the talent pipeline? Like, is there like... Do people typically direct come from school or like, is there any kind of like places, for example, NASA or places that are like typically hiring super smart people and they kind of like join ship to IQM?
00:35:05 · Juha Vartiainen
[00:35:05] S1: It's a very mixed. So we have now about 500 people and there are, of course, like a core talent of quantum engineers who are coming from some top universities. So that's maybe one thing. Then there are one particular very interesting group. They are watchmakers. Watchmakers? Yes. So actually, we are a hardware company. We are manufacturing quantum computers. And actually, there are a lot of manual labor and that requires steady hands and kind of micromechanics. And we have found there's a watchmaking school in Finland and they were classically making mechanical clocks in history. But let's say the same skills are needed for assembling a quantum computer. So we have hired a lot of those guys. Actually, there was a newspaper article about that, that we are hiring almost all of the graduates nowadays. And then I got some phone call from Switzerland that they have also a lot of watchmakers. Why don't we hire them as well? So they are like surprising professionals. But let's say that we have a lot of PhDs. I think we have maybe 150 PhDs, but let's say they are the core team of research and development. But nowadays we have a lot of different professionals for sales and marketing and really for operational, really like manufacturing and testing the quantum computers and logistics. This is becoming like a real company with a number of different professions. And we are hiring quite internationally. We have more than 50 nationalities in the company. So we are hiring, of course, here in Finland, Germany, different European countries, but also The US, Japan. We have operations in many, many continents nowadays.
00:37:17 · Grace Gong, Juha Vartiainen
[00:37:17] S0: Do you need a person to be the dedicated... I need to stop repeating the word FD because it's like everyone's at FD. So do you have to have a dedicated team to be on-site of each region or where the machine is kind of so too? [00:37:39] S1: Let's say sometimes the customer feel more comfortable if there are some, let's say, maintenance people near them? So let's say technically that's not needed. So our quantum computers are very reliable. Let's say the uptowns are very high. They are almost maintenance free. They can run more than half a year without anyone really maintaining them. If there are no electrical blackouts or any particle, no earthquakes or something, so usually they can run. They're very boring in that sense. So they don't suddenly need like a PhD with a screwdriver next to them. But it's still often the customer feel more comfortable if there is some maintenance people there, or they can call them and discuss. And if they have any concerns, they can talk to them. We have now people both in US, we have Japan, some other countries where, let's say, so to make the customer experience better in that sense that they are served in the same time zone, close to them, possibly on-site, the right language and so on. So for those, let's say, psychological reasons, we have those people close to the customers.
00:37:39 · Juha Vartiainen, Grace Gong
[00:37:39] S1: Let's say sometimes the customer feel more comfortable if there are some, let's say, maintenance people near them? So let's say technically that's not needed. So our quantum computers are very reliable. Let's say the uptowns are very high. They are almost maintenance free. They can run more than half a year without anyone really maintaining them. If there are no electrical blackouts or any particle, no earthquakes or something, so usually they can run. They're very boring in that sense. So they don't suddenly need like a PhD with a screwdriver next to them. But it's still often the customer feel more comfortable if there is some maintenance people there, or they can call them and discuss. And if they have any concerns, they can talk to them. We have now people both in US, we have Japan, some other countries where, let's say, so to make the customer experience better in that sense that they are served in the same time zone, close to them, possibly on-site, the right language and so on. So for those, let's say, psychological reasons, we have those people close to the customers. [00:39:07] S0: I wonder since we were just talking about you guys IPO recently, why do you guys choose SPAC versus a traditional IPO? Since I think SPAC typically takes three to six months and traditional IPO is six to twelve or something like that. And is there, I guess, why is the timeline kind of matters?