Riding Unicorns: Venture Capital | Entrepreneurship | Technology
00:19:36 · Yaron Valler, James Pringle
[00:19:36] S1: What's happening with AI is very interesting. You know, obviously, we are seeing some investments that will yield credible results, whether it's investments in inference or in LLMs or in other foundation areas. At the same time, we're seeing lots and lots of investments in utility models around AI, which are gonna be more challenging because it's more challenging to create and mold with these companies. And I think many of these investments are coming out of the sentiment that many of us investors have towards utility models, towards, you know, which was very evident in the investments that we made as an industry into software. We tried to solve real world problems that we understand, whereas if you're looking today, most of the return and most of the investment is going into the nuts and bolts of the industry. So it's interesting how this will develop. [00:20:26] S0: Yeah. And have you adjusted kind of how you look at the industry? Have you started to look into spaces that maybe were too difficult previously or that you wouldn't have explored, but now it's like everything has come slightly more into view, like robotics, space tech, etcetera. Have you kind of evolved what you're looking at or has it been just more of the same but deeper into this AI vertical?
00:20:26 · James Pringle, Yaron Valler
[00:20:26] S0: Yeah. And have you adjusted kind of how you look at the industry? Have you started to look into spaces that maybe were too difficult previously or that you wouldn't have explored, but now it's like everything has come slightly more into view, like robotics, space tech, etcetera. Have you kind of evolved what you're looking at or has it been just more of the same but deeper into this AI vertical? [00:20:51] S1: It has definitely evolved in the sense of what I'm not doing. So, you know, if I was very keen on enterprise applications, I almost stopped investing in the other. So I don't know what will happen. I don't know how the market will shut down. I am spending an inordinate amount of time, immense amount of time, really, almost every night on trying to study and understand what's happening on the nuts and bolts level and what is going to be the next advancement. Because one of the things that's very evident about NLMs is that LLMs are statistical approximation of intelligence. They're not really intelligent, right? They're mimicking intelligence with statistics, which to think about it as a human being is a little bit insulting that you can have something that is as close to intelligence that is just statistics. But the next wave, think, is going to be more than a statistical inference. And we're already starting to see it. You know, I'm invested in a few companies that are challenging this paradigm of statistical approximation of intelligence and trying to do things a bit differently. [00:21:46] S0: Is there a category name for that?
00:21:46 · James Pringle, Yaron Valler
[00:21:46] S0: Is there a category name for that? [00:21:48] S1: Interesting companies that are doing weird shit in AI. [00:21:53] S0: Frontier AI, probably. Yeah. [00:21:56] S1: Frontier AI. Yeah. You know? [00:21:58] S0: Okay. Awesome. So it's been so interesting, Yaron, to hear about not only your firsthand investment experience, but also this link to this sort of immigration as a thesis. I've really loved it, and we have only really scratched the surface, but it's clearly a super interesting topic that I've really loved discussing. We're gonna just move on to our final two questions. So we ask all of our guests these and they're just a bit of a fun way to end the show. So the first one is our future unicorn prediction. So this is a company that you may know well or have just seen out in the market that you think could go all the way. The earlier, the better, but really, it can be anyone. Who do you think could also be a unicorn?
00:21:58 · James Pringle, Yaron Valler
[00:21:58] S0: Okay. Awesome. So it's been so interesting, Yaron, to hear about not only your firsthand investment experience, but also this link to this sort of immigration as a thesis. I've really loved it, and we have only really scratched the surface, but it's clearly a super interesting topic that I've really loved discussing. We're gonna just move on to our final two questions. So we ask all of our guests these and they're just a bit of a fun way to end the show. So the first one is our future unicorn prediction. So this is a company that you may know well or have just seen out in the market that you think could go all the way. The earlier, the better, but really, it can be anyone. Who do you think could also be a unicorn? [00:22:43] S1: Well, since their name was leaked flu press first time yesterday, I think they're still quite unknown. It's actually a company in... Out of Israel, London, and Germany that is doing a brain inspired inference, semiconductors. The company is called Axonica Labs, and this is one of the ideas that I was talking, trying to mimic the way the brain behaves and move it away from inference models that are purely statistical. Really, really cool company. The founder is called the Softibul. Brain researchers out of, Imperial College, VLSI engineers out of Meta and Qualcomm. A really, really cool team. 20 employees, 12 of which are, PhDs with advanced degrees in math and brain research. Really, really cool company. [00:23:29] S0: Amazing. Any immigrants?
00:23:29 · James Pringle, Yaron Valler
[00:23:29] S0: Amazing. Any immigrants? [00:23:31] S1: I think many of them are, including the CEO who's a first generation immigrant from from France to Israel now that I think of it. [00:23:37] S0: Okay. Awesome. Okay. And then our final question, Yaron, which, again, is just a bit of fun, but if you could have dinner with any three people, who would they be? [00:23:46] S1: The first one is Mark Twain. I think the wittiest writer, one of the shardest people that has ever lived, I would love to spend an evening with Mark. Then Neil Armstrong, just because he's gone where no man has gone before, and probably bigger achievement than Magellan and Columbus and, you know, all of them combined. So it'd be really cool to have dinner with him. And one of the only times I cried as an as an adult was when I met Buzz Aldrin. So, you know, I I... Meeting Neil Armstrong would be equally interesting at least. And then just because I'm really curious, and it's gonna come off a little bit like a fanboy, and that would be Elon Musk. I'm really, really curious. I've never met him. It's surprising. Right? We're sort of in the same industry, and I usually meet or at least, you know, interact with those people. But him, I never had a chance to and I would love to pick his brain for an hour. [00:24:37] S0: Yeah. Awesome. I I mean, as you can imagine on this show, we've had the Elon Musk mentioned a few times. But I mean, he... I think he is the ultimate... [00:24:44] S1: Did you have Mark Twain and Neil Armstrong before?
00:24:44 · Yaron Valler, James Pringle
[00:24:44] S1: Did you have Mark Twain and Neil Armstrong before? [00:24:46] S0: I was about to say, no, we haven't. So those are those are unique answers. You get two out of three. But, yeah, obviously, Elon's, he's sort of the biggest name in entrepreneurship and venture, really. Have you seen today the car landing? It's incredible, isn't it? Yeah. So we're we're recording this in mid October, and Tesla have just released a video of a car falling upside down... Going up a ramp and then falling and then landing itself. It's absolutely fascinating. And I I I checked the Tesla stock earlier, and it was, like, up 6% for for for basically a video, which is kind of incredible and [00:25:24] S1: $250,000 down payment if you want to order the car. [00:25:27] S0: Oh, really? Yes. Wow. Yeah. But I guess it's it's kind of evidence of his ambition to take risk, like his desire to do things so wildly different. I mean, he's not... No car company ever has even thought we should do that. That would be interesting. So, I mean, it's just evidence of his genius, really, that he's even considering that as a feature for his cars. It's incredible. Yaron, thank you so much. We've covered some really amazing ground. Your book is is it out now? The New Europeans? [00:26:03] S1: It's the October 5. Great. To Amazon and order it.