Riding Unicorns: Venture Capital | Entrepreneurship | Technology
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.
00:26:03 · Yaron Valler, James Pringle
[00:26:03] S1: It's the October 5. Great. To Amazon and order it. [00:26:07] S0: So go to Amazon and order The New Europeans if you're interested in learning more about Yaron's thesis on on immigration as the starting point for fresh ideas, fresh opportunities, and the the net positive on economies and societies that they can have if managed within the right way with some good integration. Thank you so much for sharing all of that insight. I'm sure a huge amount of research went into the book, and so it's great to be able to pick through that today on the podcast. And thank you for sharing some of your stories from your investment career as well. You're obviously expressing some of those views and research for your investments, which have been very successful as well. So it's great to hear more about that, and I'm sure our audience would love that. So thank you so much for coming on and sharing your Ride a Unicorn story. [00:26:54] S1: Thank you, James. It's been a pleasure.
00:26:54 · Yaron Valler, James Pringle
[00:26:54] S1: Thank you, James. It's been a pleasure. [00:26:55] S0: That's it for this week. Thanks very much for listening. To stay up to date with the latest episodes, please follow or subscribe on your favorite podcast platform. We also have a newsletter called Reading Unicorns, which is another great way to get every episode direct to your inbox. Please tell your friends about it, and we'll see you on the next episode. This episode is sponsored by Seapoint, the business account built for startups. If you're a startup founder fed up with finance admin, you need Seapoint. Seapoint is different to neobanks because it connects all your bank accounts and your Stripe account to see your cash position, burn, and runway instantly. It automates bookkeeping by pulling invoices and receipts from your whole team's inboxes, so you just sync the whole lot to zero and pay outstanding bills with a click. Plus, it has a 3.51% yield on treasury and real human customer support. Find out more at seapoint.co. That's seaprint.co. Use code unicorn for a free month. Seapoint offers money market funds managed by BlackRock. Rate recorded at first of October twenty twenty six. Rates are variable and subject to change. Capital at risk.