Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast Things Have Changed
Plongez dans la liste complète des épisodes de Things Have Changed. Chaque épisode est catalogué accompagné de descriptions détaillées, ce qui facilite la recherche et l'exploration de sujets spécifiques. Suivez tous les épisodes de votre podcast préféré et ne manquez aucun contenu pertinent.
Rows per page:
50
1–50 of 175
Titre
Date
Durée
Unveiling AI's Role in Content Creation with Originality AI's John Gillham
Have you ever stumbled upon an article or a piece of content online and wondered, "Did someone actually write this, or is it the work of ChatGPT?" In today’s world, where content is produced at an incredible pace, it's becoming increasingly difficult to tell the difference.. and that’s a problem in the age of misinformation.
Think about it: people are getting their news on social media, X, Youtube or Facebook! With the advancements of AI, it’s hard to tell how something online can be truly authentic. With latest studies showing >12% of Google's search results being AI-generated, it's critical to ensure the integrity of the digital content we consume and create.
That's where Originality AI comes in! We’re thrilled to host Jon Gillham, founder and CEO on Things Have Changed. as he shares how his team are tackling these issues head-on by developing cutting-edge tech to detect AI-generated content. In a short span of time, Originality AI have achieved remarkable results, and is the most accurate AI Detector in the market for ChatGPT, GPT-4o, Gemini Pro, Claude 3, Llama 3 etc.
So today on Things Have Changed, we'll dive deep into how Originality AI works, its impact on various industries, and why ensuring content authenticity is more important than ever.
Revolutionizing Battery Recycling: The Future of Sustainable Energy Management
As the world embraces the electric vehicle (EV) revolution, with 1.3 million EVs sold in 2023 alone—a 40% increase from the previous year—the issue of battery disposal and recycling is becoming increasingly critical. The demand for lithium-ion batteries, essential for EVs and other electronics, has skyrocketed, yet the challenge of managing these batteries at the end of their life remains largely unaddressed.
The Circular Economy and Battery Recycling
The concept of a circular economy, where products are reused, recycled, and remade into new products, is gaining traction as a sustainable solution to the growing battery waste problem. Traditional fossil fuels are consumed and discarded, but batteries, composed of valuable materials such as lithium, nickel, and cobalt, present an opportunity for continuous reuse. This shift from a linear to a circular model could significantly reduce the environmental impact of battery disposal.
Cling Systems: Pioneering Circularity
William Bergh, the Founder and CEO of Cling Systems, is at the forefront of this transformation. Cling Systems aims to revolutionize the battery supply chain through closed-loop recycling, ensuring that used batteries are efficiently reclaimed and repurposed. This approach not only reduces landfill waste but also conserves valuable raw materials, contributing to a more sustainable energy future.
Bergh's vision extends beyond recycling. He advocates for urban mining, a process where waste batteries are harvested for their raw materials, effectively replacing traditional mining. This method capitalizes on the fact that batteries, unlike fossil fuels, are not consumed but stored, making their materials available for repeated use.
Challenges and Innovations in Battery Recycling
Despite its potential, the battery recycling industry faces significant hurdles. One major challenge is the lack of standardization in battery design, which complicates the recycling process. Unlike lead-acid batteries, which are standardized and widely recycled, lithium-ion batteries vary greatly in their composition and design. This variability makes it difficult to develop efficient recycling processes that can handle the diverse range of batteries in use today.
Additionally, the supply of end-of-life batteries is highly fragmented. Batteries reach the end of their life in various locations, often ending up in drawers or being exported to different countries. This dispersed supply chain complicates the logistics of collecting and recycling batteries. Cling Systems addresses this challenge by creating a comprehensive database of battery types and conditions, enabling more efficient tracking and management of used batteries.
The Future of Battery Recycling
Looking ahead, the future of battery recycling hinges on continued innovation and collaboration. The industry must scale up recycling processes, standardize battery designs, and develop more efficient logistics systems. As urban mining becomes more prevalent, the reliance on traditional mining for battery materials could diminish, leading to a more sustainable and self-sufficient supply chain.
Bergh envisions a world where the environmental and commercial value of batteries is maximized through seamless recycling and repurposing processes. By removing the costs and complexities of circulating batteries, companies like Cling Systems are paving the way for a greener, more sustainable future. The shift towards a circular economy in battery management not only addresses the immediate waste problem but also suppo
In the past two decades, technology has dramatically reshaped numerous industries, from newspapers to travel agencies. Once thriving sectors have been disrupted, evidenced by the decline of traditional newspapers, which lost $6 billion in ad revenue to Craigslist alone between 2000 and 2006. Similarly, the rise of platforms like DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Airbnb reflects a significant shift in consumer behavior. Now, this wave of technological disruption is poised to redefine the defense industry, a sector traditionally characterized by unique procurement practices and significant government contracts. 📰📱
The defense sector, once dominated by a handful of major players following a wave of consolidation in the 1990s, is now facing a new challenge: tech-driven transformation. The industry's "cost-plus" methodology, which often leads to inefficiencies and misaligned incentives, is now being scrutinized by tech companies. These new entrants see an opportunity to leverage their expertise in optimizing processes and margins. As tech companies bring their innovative approaches to defense, they're catalyzing a shift towards more efficient and cost-effective solutions. 🚀
Yet, the integration of tech into defense is not without its challenges. Traditional defense contractors are deeply entrenched, familiar with the intricacies of government contracts and regulations. However, companies like SpaceX and Palantir are advocating for more accessible pathways for smaller contractors, potentially leading to greater innovation and competition in the sector. This evolution in the defense industry mirrors the broader impact of tech across various markets, raising questions about the future of defense technology and its implications. 🌐🛰️
Product Placement Is Key To Sales And Profit in Supermarkets and grocery stores..
Every aisle of a supermarket has 100s of different brands of products, all vying for your attention and aiming to ultimately end up in your shopping cart.
Getting your product into a new store is hard enough on its own. How do you measure your product availability, inventory levels, product placement or even know what your competition is doing in a store that you do not own?
This data is hugely important for CPG (Consumer Packaged Goods) companies, but has been largely unavailable before.
Our guest today on THC, is aiming to solve this problem with cutting edge image recognition tech!
Today, we have Erik Chelstad, Co-founder and CTO of Observa, a technology company that helps CPG brands understand their customers better through sophisticated data gathering at the brick and mortar stores, using AI to collect data from the pictures, and delivering rich insights to the brand owners.
Their image recognition technology can increase sales force productivity, improve shelf condition insights and help drive incremental sales.
As zoom university comes to an end for the graduating class of 2021, we ask ourselves, is online learning here to stay? The trends say it is... sort of.
Lackluster Investment into Learning Technology Prior to Covid-19 schools barely invested in online learning with only 5% of their total budget being put towards IT. This applies to the big name universities that have more than 10,000 students in attendance with smaller colleges not investing anything into learning technology. Now after a full year of social distancing shutdowns, colleges have had to rely fully on digital learning and technology to keep classes going and tuition funds flowing.
A New Financial Option While CPI has increased 236% since 1980, college tuition alone has grown 1200% and that's not even including housing which is an enormous expense for students to pay for. A large reason for this is the branding that top universities have build and the luxury premium that students are willing to get into debt for. The fact that over half of all students are in debt and the total debt sum is now $1.6 Trillion shows how flawed the system currently is. However, thanks to a rise in online learning programs and boot camps there is an alternative to traditional schooling.
Income-Share Agreement Financing With more and more online learning programs coming to market, the incentive to go to a university are starting to dwindle with some online schools giving students the option to take zero risk in taking their classes. Instead of being put into debt, students have two choices 1. They can choose to pay the upfront cost of programs designed to teach them skills relevant to the specific job they want, or 2. They can pay zero dollars upfront and only have to share a portion (10-15% of their salary typically) if they successfully get hired in a relevant job in a relevant industry that their classes were geared towards. This option is called an income share agreement and it's been growing in popularity in recent years. Instead of students taking the risk to pay for schooling, the online schools take on the risk that they will provide excellent training that will yield results in the form of getting hired. This incentive makes e-learning companies put their best foot forward when it comes to providing students with a comprehensive and effective learning environment
Future of E-Learning So with online schools providing students with an alternative, and a large influx of investment into IT, we are going to see a hybrid model of online/ in person learning programs at colleges. Universities are being challenged to prove they're worth $70,000 a year over taking online classes for specialized skills that only get paid if you get hired. It's hard to see universities lowering their tuition or matching this kind of financing structure, but we can expect to see higher quality classes and more online class integrations in the next decades. Combining online classes with in-person classes can allow colleges to scale more students, while still allowing in person learning that is so important for people looking for experiences. If universities don't adapt and prove their value, then prestige may not be enough to keep applications pouring in and tuitions flying higher. There are alternatives now and it's important that applicants consider more than has
Nike, Disney, Coca Cola, Apple, and Sony all have one thing in common. They have built iconic brands that have become recognizable world-wide. Growing up we've been surrounded by brands and they have shaped the way we go about our days, our consumption habits, and our opinions on the best products and services we choose to use. There is an emotional aspect that makes up how we view brands in the present and even more in the future.
So how are brands developed and why are they so important? We live in a global economy where barriers to entry are at historic lows proving that branding is one of the only ways that companies can differentiate from their competitors. Millennials are more demanding of brands that are conscious and aligned with their personal political viewpoints and interests. Statements about donating towards causes or taking steps to become more environmentally conscience goes a long way with consumers today.
An example of how a company is trying to establish brand strength is Chipotle, a food brand, that has built a loyal following even with controversial health issues in the past. Chipotle is focused on providing quality fast casual food, but recently they launched a clothing line, because they understand that this will help strengthen their the loyal customers. By building a brand a business is able to take up more mindshare of people that will use the product/ service more often.
So, there is a shift from Stakeholder capitalism to Shareholder capitalism because investors don't have the same influence over businesses like they once did. The customer now has more power over a businesses focus and approach in what they create and whether they operate in a environmentally conscious way. Social Media has been a catalyst for how consumers have more power in what products perform well. Consumers are realizing that a purchase for product X is a economic vote towards X and by purchasing certain goods and ignoring others they are able to influence brands from their buying patterns.
In the end, branding can make or break a company. It takes decades to build a brand and only one big mistake to cripple a business. Next time your buy new clothes or shop online, remember, your choices actually have a direct impact on how companies are conducting business and you have the ability to influence businesses to align more with what matters to you.
Check out our new brand website and the exciting content that we are bringing every week on THC.
Is it possible to make artificial intelligence more accessible to companies, both large and small?
Our latest episode is with Hyun Kim, Co-Founder and CEO of Superb AI, a company that is building a platform that aims to make shipping AI models easier.
With a highly technical team, that spans 25+ research publications, 7,300 research citations and 100+ patents in computer vision and deep learning technology, Superb AI aims to utilize decades of experience to lower the hurdle for industries to adopt machine-learning technology.
With the rockstar team, SuperbAI uses deep learning AI to label and analyze images and videos up to 10 times faster than manual processes can!
It’s no wonder, their clients include not only small businesses but also Samsung, LG, Qualcomm and Pokémon Go maker Niantic.
With a recent $9.3 million financing round, Hyun and team, are looking to expand further in North America and enter Europe. And we at THC cannot wait for this future to unfold 🚀
How do you know where your UberEats, DoorDash or Caviar orders REALLY come from?
The COVID Delivery Boom The pandemic has pushed delivery applications to the lime light. The 4 largest food delivery platforms saw their revenues rise $3B collectively in the 2nd and 3rd quarters of 2020. Doordash, who currently operates about 50% of the market, saw 543 million total orders in the first 9 months of the year (compared to about 181 million orders in the same period last year). Painfully Swallowing the Delivery-app Premium When the lockdowns happened all over the world, restaurants had to find ways to make money without having "Dine-in" options. Well, they turn to delivery. Restaurant-owners, who dreaded giving away 15-30% of the revenue to the delivery-apps for every order, had to turn to the UberEats and Doordash's of the world.
How do you make money during a Pandemic? If your only type of sale is delivery, and you're giving away a large part of your revenue to the delivery apps, how exactly do you make a profit? Well, you optimize your costs. Try to make everything cheaper for your operations and expansion. One of the largest costs for any restaurant is the rent! This is where a new industry can help rental costs relatively cheaper: Ghost Kitchens
In a world that's increasingly becoming data-driven, we see the importance of business intelligence or "BI". With more data getting gathered, we have the ability to find key metrics that can simply help us make better decisions.
Today we have a professional that has dedicated his life to helping people get into the field of business intelligence: Chris Dutton, Founder and COO of Maven Analytics, an online business intelligence platform where you can start your journey towards becoming a BI professional. He shares with us the story of how he started with excel!
Excel is just one of the tools that Maven offers courses for, and is where Chris found his passion for teaching. He started out as “The excel guy”.
Chris is now a best-selling instructor on Udemy. This guy has taught about HALF A MILLION students. You can trust he knows what to focus on in the world of online learning. And at Maven, you can learn other BI tools like SQL, PowerBI, and Tableau. What makes it so special, is what Maven really focuses on: Student Outcomes.
In the last episode, or Blitz Talk 31, we talked about how the semiconductor Shortage happened and how important it is to society.
Why can’t we just scale up production and meet demand? Well, we think it might be a supply chain problem. There are only a few players in the manufacturing of chips which means that the supply chains are NOT diverse.
As one use-case, Apple has one supplier for its semiconductor consumption and that is TSMC, or Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. It is the worlds largest semiconductor foundry.
With the disruption that the pandemic has provided, we are realizing how important these chips really are. Countries around the world are taking it more seriously and investing more in creating their own supply chains, like China, and recently the United States.
Join us as we parse through the supply problem that chip makers and chip consumers and why the solution might be public-private partnerships.
We live in a digital economy that is largely powered by semiconductor chips!
They are the brains of nearly every electronic device we buy and use, from phones, laptops, cars the WIFI we use, medical equipment, military applications and even our humble fridges and toasters..
So what happens when the chips are down? Well the current shortage of chips worldwide is creating havoc in the manufacturing sector and the availability of products… so much so the White House recently rushed to pass a bill to address this global concern!
Tune in to part 1 of our semis discussion on how the semiconductor shortage got so bad and doesn't seem like this could be solved any time soon…
Which means you might have to wait longer to get a hold of the XBox Ones and PS5s...
Well it’s been in the headlines as deepfakes, videos of famous influential figures that appear to be saying controversial statements raising concerns over what’s real and what’s not. While these fake videos are scary, there is a company that’s putting a positive spin to this technology.
Online learning , movie production, and media creation are some of the most complex tasks that businesses have to maneuver the logistics for. From translating training videos to last minute changes in scripts for big screen productions, media creation has thousands of moving parts to orchestrate.
In this episode we’re joined by Victor Riparbelli, co-founder and CEO of Synthesia, an AI- driven visual synthesis that’s bringing amazing new capabilities to content creators. Tune in to learn how exactly this technology works and how media creation will never be the same again.
Let’s flashback to the 1970’s, a really interesting use-case for economists to explain what the central bank deals with today, the fear of inflation!
If you know anyone who was alive during that time, they probably remember the long lines in gas stations! This is because Nixon, in 1971, made oil price increases illegal (Effectively, a price ceiling) and also cut the link of Gold to the dollar, in an attempt to control inflation. The spending on the Vietnam War and Johnson's “Great Society”, a government spending initiative to reduce poverty levels, was thought to be the root of even-higher inflation.
From the 1970’s to the 1980’s, more than 50% of Americans thought that inflation or general price increases was the single biggest problem facing the economy. Contrast to today, when you mention inflation, some people have been looking for it for the past decade or so! That’s because inflation has remained low. Despite the printing of money in the 2008 financial crisis, inflation has largely stayed around 2%. The doomsday warnings of economists who have long-studied Monetarism (ie. the link of excessive money printing and inflation), have been ignored.
Every economic policy for a while now, are rooted on the premise that inflation will be low. It is the reason our central bank has been buying up billions of dollars worth of bonds and are cutting interest rates to near-zero. Records being broken in 2020 for how much the government is spending on both monetary and fiscal policy.
How does 2021 expect to unfold? How can the Fed defend against the blow-up of prices?
The amount of cash in the economy grew about $3 trillion in 6 months. We can expect inflationary pressures to hit at least some parts of the economy.
Fiscal Policy will have to be ready to deal with the recession that comes with the sudden rise of interest rates. Another stimulus package, if needed, when GDP growth slows again, basically a round 2 of 2020. This is probably not the best idea given our current state of M2 or excessive money supply.
Monetary Policy’s main tool against inflation is hiking the interest rates! Similar to what Volcker did in the 70’s. Since the recent policies of the federal reserve has not worked to push inflation even to the 2% target, economists are skeptical on what the federal reserve can actually do.
We hope you’ve learned enough about inflation and are considering taking it easy when increasing your own consumer spending.
E-bike sales outpaced EVs and hybrid cars in both 2021 and 2022. In fact, research shows that by 2030, E-Bike sales are expected to 3x, outpacing even the rapid growth of passenger cars! There is a Bike Revolution taking place across the world and it is not only reshaping personal commuting but also freight and last-mile delivery services.
In today's episode of Things Have Changed Podcast, we dive into the world of urban mobility with Mikko Ampuja, the founder and former CEO of Vapaus, a Helsinki-based startup reshaping the way we think about city commuting. Miko brings a unique blend of personal experience and industry expertise, making this episode a must-listen for anyone interested in the intersection of technology, sustainability, and urban planning.
Miko delves into the evolving bicycle industry across Europe, particularly in cycling-friendly cities like Copenhagen and Amsterdam, highlighting how innovations in cycling are not just about transportation, but also about fostering healthier, more sustainable cities.
Join us on Things Have Changed Podcast as we explore how Vapaus is leading the global movement, with their unique approach to making cycling an accessible and attractive option for commuters.
Since the beginning of 2020 Big Tech has purchased 1.6 million square feet of office space in NYC alone. It’s a move to control their operations, park hoards of cash into hard assets, and continue to expand their operations with hundreds of thousands of new hires. In fact Amazon hired over 400,000 employees in just 10 months following the start of the pandemic. With a massive increase in headcount comes a need for infrastructure and space to work in.
As if the timing couldn’t have been better, demand dropped while supply shot up in commercial real estate, causing building prices to fall. This opportunity allowed the Big Tech companies to pick up hoards of buildings at a great deal further expanding their portfolio and balance sheet assets. 600 million square feet is the space that Big Tech companies own and operate in the US. To put that into perspective the US has about 4 Billion square feet of office space total in the US.
In this episode of Things Have Changed we cover the Commercial Real Estate market, how Big Tech is positioning themselves with recent acquisitions, and why vacancy levels have inverted from suburban regions to downtown areas.
At the current state it would take only 2.5 months to run out of available houses for new homebuyers to purchase.
This is a new low from 40 years back and it’s far from a healthy economy that typically sees 6-10 months of housing inventory. 2021 is the year where working from home is the new norm and tens of thousands of families are relocating to new cities every month.
Even builders are struggling to keep up with demand with a 10-month wait time for construction. Even though we're in the middle of a pandemic the low inventory and high demand for newly constructed single family dwellings is positive sentiment for real estate.
Today on Things Have Changed we break down the residential real estate trends happening, what this means for the economy, and how it affects you as a future homebuyer.
As technology disrupts different parts of the economy, healthcare is one that is burdened with huge regulation risk but also provides a direct and measurable result. In 2020, we saw the COVID-19 pandemic seriously overshadow other healthcare concerns but what happened to the rest? Mental Health, a growing problem in the United States, was under the spotlight again as people deal with isolation.
Today, we speak to someone who has spent a lot of time thinking about Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM). Dylan Terrill, the co-founder and CEO of Chara Health. He's built a platform that creates a space for curious individuals seeking their own health and wellness journey. They have over 2500 providers across 51 specialties in 49 states!
The holistic health industry is growing! I'm sure you've heard of the slew of business leaders that use meditation as a part of their daily routine in order to highlight the importance of wellness. There are so many ways we can stay ahead of your own wellness.
Recent reports indicate that global food prices are at a 7 year high due to COVID related supply chain disruptions has resulted in price hikes in staples like meat, corn, soy and wheat.
In our latest, we host Aleksandra Pedraszewska, COO and co-founder of VividQ a deep tech company that enables 3D holograms to be displayed on demand! The patented technology aims to power the next-gen augmented reality (AR) devices, head-up displays (HUD) and consumer electronics.
Founded by a team of engineers, mathematicians and computer scientists from the Universities of Cambridge, Oxford and St Andrews, Aleks and her team ask the very relevant question as we head into the next decade of digital immersion.. “The World isn’t Flat, Why is your Display?”
Tune in to hear how VividQ is bringing holography from the Isaac Asimov Sci-Fi realm to the masses through everyday applications.
It wasn't too long ago that we would have to dial to order delivery food without seeing menus, customizing orders, and seeing updates on delivery statuses.
In this episode we speak with Shawn Tsao, co-founder of Caviar, one of the early apps that created the wave of food delivery.
Shawn didn't stop there and went on to create Beluga Capital, a venture capital fund investing in early stage technology companies.
Shawn liked food so much, he even started a Halal Guys franchise! That is right, this food-entrepreneur has good taste! Shawn is one of the entrepreneurs that defined what food delivery looks like today!
Tune in to hear how Shawn started Caviar, the early days of building a business with accounts as big as Ike's, and how Shawn looks at investing in Founders rather than just ideas.
In April of this year, at the peak of the pandemic, the unemployment rates hit a historic 14.7%, which was a post WWII high! Since then, the unemployment rate has decreased but that doesn't paint the full picture. In the turn of the year, there were 965,000 claims filed for unemployment insurance. After the new jobs report came out, we learned that 140,000 jobs were lost in the month of December. But economists agree that 2021 will look better.
Disparity in the Details If we dig deeper into the details, the pandemic also shined a light on the current socio-economic issues that we've already faced. On THC, we've talked a lot about income and wealth inequality. if we look into the unemployment numbers specifically, we see that the most recent number is 6.7% but what that number doesn't tell you is WHO is losing their jobs.
The lowest paid workers are experiencing this unemployment much harder than what you probably think. The servers, waiters, fast-food workers, are losing their jobs at a faster rate. The lowest paid workers, mostly in the leisure and hospitality industry, are having a whopping 20% unemployment. Unsurprisingly, most of the people who have lost their jobs are either African-American or Latino. The black unemployment rate is 9.9%, hispanic rate is 9.3%, and for whites it lies at 6%. Further, women as a group accounted for all the job losses, losing 156,000 jobs, while men as a group gained 16,000. Women are disproportionately represented among the vulnerable workforce as well, accounting for 51% of these workers nationally, versus 46% in industries not at immediate risk.
But there are active efforts on a government level to address these issues.
Federal Reserve Response Let's go back to the start of the pandemic. In anticipation for the recession to come, the Federal Reserve had taken actions to reduce interest rates (that were already historically low) to near-zero rates. They also went on a bond-buying spree to ensure liquidity in the markets. Some people think this may have averted a greater crisis, due to how the fed reacted in 2008. Another interesting monetary policy change is the choice of the federal reserve to keep rates low until recovery is shared across social classes.
CARES Act The house also passed the CARES act which covers a few critical areas: Employee Retention Credit, which incentivizes businesses to keep their employees; Payroll Tax Deferral and Payroll Support, which ensures employers have some breathing room from the adjustments they've had to make in COVID; and a Loan program, to help people get through these tough times. Read more about it here.
COVID-based Recovery We've lost around 3.4 million jobs since the pandemic started and there are more jobs at risk until we control COVID-19. According to a recent survey done by WSJ, economists think that the roll-out of vaccine will determine the rate of recovery of any nation. If you think about it, once people are vaccinated, businesses will be more comfortable having a more open economy.
As we look at these figures and learn about who is really suffering during these challenging times, keep in mind that you know who is being greatly affected by this crisis. We hope that this podcast can help you make informed decisions on how to help where it counts!
2019 was the second warmest year on record and the end of the warmest decade (2010- 2019) ever recorded. Carbon dioxide (CO2) levels and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere rose to new records in 2019, but global carbon dioxide emissions fell an unprecedented 7 per cent in 2020 due to coronavirus restrictions.
Over the last decade, Wall Street poured hundreds of billions of dollars into U.S. oil, fueling a fracking boom that transformed America into the world’s leading crude producer. But, Oil-and-gas companies have been lousy investments in recent years. Burned by those losses, many large investors are flocking to businesses that aim to wean the world off fossil fuels.
One of the leaders in the fight for Climate Change is founder of Sinai Technologies, Maria Fujihara. Listen to our full discussion with Maria (Building Corporate Carbon Solutions) on how technology is solving pollution in a financially conscious and sustainable approach.
There are steps being taken towards climate change but many still argue that it may not be enough. As we are going to see all these governments, multi-lateral organizations, and businesses walk the walk.
It happened not too long ago, the most complex board game (GO) with as many possible moves as atoms in the Universe was won by an Artificial Intelligence designed by Google to take on the smartest humans. Is this the end of board game gurus and the start of robot domination? We don't know...
AI has been a consistent theme within Things Have Changed over the past year. Episode 6 with Kristian Gebis covered trucking & transportation in the age of AI specifically the 5 levels of self driving autonomy, & Episode 12 dove into intelligent Fashion curation with Savitude Co-Founder Nick Clayton. In Episode 7, our very own friend and early supporter , Juan Rodriguez from Evolution devices, is mastering the Machine Learning & AI algorithms that enable a wearable device to rehabilitate patients suffering from foot drop.
Looking back, AI has consistently disrupted old jobs while creating new ones. It’s created solutions while bringing up issues that we never had before. For example driverless cars will lower fatality rates, but who will be liable for accidents with robot drivers and how do we regulate this? This dilemma has happened in industries across the board with the computer and manufacturing factories.
Another challenge is the ethics behind it. Who has control over our data, how are they accessing it, and is it being used in a way that is helping us more than it’s hurting us. We saw this in the Social Dilemma, where Tech leaders have had a look behind the curtains of what AI is doing to us users. While tech companies profit from the use of our data, should there be a tax on using personal data and should there be a tax on creating robots that replace jobs?
While it’s scary to see those Black mirror episodes that warn us of the dangers that AI has on society, it still has a place in our lives that can help raise the standard of living and improve our lives in ways we never thought could be possible.
There is no simple way to sum up this year. 2020 saw tremendous change and suffering as well as renewed hope and heroics.
Join the conversation as we begin to make sense of this tumultuous, terrifying and hopeful time.
Show Notes:
Davos & Stakeholder Capitalism
COVID19 & the Subsequent Economic Fallout
Fighting the Virus
Vaccine delivers hope around the globe
Finally a big THANK YOU to our listeners and supporters all across the world. As we bid adieu to the year, here's to being constantly curious, setting aside our differences through collaboration and learning something new everyday :)
There is an alarming trend taking place in South America : the steady rise in obesity rates. Despite all the ads and talk about eating healthy, the truth is that getting access to nutritious foods is still a struggle.
In response to this growing health crisis, The Wild Foods has emerged as a game-changer. Our guest today is Patrick Hardy, the Chief Operating Officer of Wild Foods, is at the forefront of this revolution. Hailing from Chile, WildFoods is a consumer packaged goods company committed to disrupting the entire food and beverage industry by producing healthy and sustainable food products.
Patrick takes us through Wild Foods' remarkable journey, sharing the CPG company's strategies that include:
Focus not just on Healthy products but one that is easily accessible, delicious, and appealing to consumers
Leveraging unique digital marketing and bold ad campaigns, to set itself apart in the competitive food industry
Growth to new markets like Mexico by adapting to local tastes and regulations.
Join us on the Things Have Changed Podcast to hear from Patrick Hardy and find out how Wild Foods is making healthy eating fun and doable, turning things around in a world full of processed food, and setting new standards for what's on our plates.
About Wild Foods: Wild Foods is a healthy food company focused on developing tech-enabled products with the aim of disrupting the Food & Beverages (F&B) industry in Latin America. They have developed a portfolio of +200 SKUs that has allowed them to capture +30% of the market share in Chile in the bars category, on-top of multinational incumbents such as Kellogs, Pepsico, Nutresa, among others. They have a business model based on innovation in product development, digital brand building, digital marketing, technology and talent acquisition. Wild Foods has built a strong, profitable, high-growth business that has experienced 2-3x yoy growth for the past five years with consistently positive EBITDA. Wild Foods continues with its growth and international expansion plans with presence in Chile, Mexico, USA, Colombia and Peru.
So many of our family stories are formative to our personal background, traditions, and even our identity, so why hasn't there been an app to save and share it all?
Amelia Lin, Founder and CEO of Saga took it upon herself to create an app that does all of that for you. Saga is a Private Family Podcast that saves and shares audio recordings that your family members can upload with a simple phone call. Your loved ones record their answer in their own voice, on their own time, with no pressure. It's made easy for anyone to use — you can record by dialing a special phone number, even without a smartphone or the app.
Weekly questions can be recommended like "how did you meet mom?" or you can add your own personal questions that you want to hear. It's a digital solution to having the ability to pass down stories and experiences to future generations within your family.
Tune in to hear how the idea for trysaga.com stemmed, how it works, and how you can use it to share and save your family memories with your loved ones.
Additionally, Saga has just been featured on NBC for the holidays! They have a holiday question pack update with AARP in the app for free, for families to connect this holiday during COVID.
The Cannabis Industry has been changing for a while. Years of activism and millions of dollars of investment have come and 2020 has been the year that served as the step right before federal acceptance. Today, 230 million Americans live in a state that has access to either medical or recreational cannabis. This would have been unimaginable in the 1970's during the peak of the drug war.
In the 70's, about 84% of Americans thought marijuana should be federally illegal! Today, about 67% of Americans think the opposite. The massive face-lift has upended the industry. More and more Cannabis reform is being passed through the isles of the American institutions and the people are demanding a better system for Cannabis Regulation.
We've summarized our thoughts from the two Cannabis entrepreneurs we've had on the show: Stacey Hronowsi and David Hua. Stacey Hronowski founded Canix, a company that helps entrepreneurs track the required seed-to-sale componenets of running a Cannabis company. David, or Hua, on the other hand founded a company called Meadow, if you live in California, you've seen their POS system in store! Meadow is more than that tho, they also build the back-end infrastructure for the companies to adapt to COVID lock-down restrictions by opening options for delivery, pick-up, and other activities that allowed Cannabis companies to stay open.
Both of these founders are advocates in the space and provide us with amazing insight into industry!
In a time when stress levels are high and many people feel stuck there are many mindfulness apps that help you destress and stay centered. Today we speak with co-founder and CEO of Hallow, Alex Jones.
With over 1.28 billion members of the Roman Catholic church, many people have struggled to stay connected in their faith. Hallow aims to help people combine the peace and stillness of meditation with the spiritual growth of prayer. The app is comparable to the popular mindfulness meditation apps trending today, but was built with a lens of Christian faith. It offers a variety of prayer techniques, a choice in audio guides, sessions organized by theme, and options for session length.
Since its inception in April 2018, Hallow has been downloaded 320,000 times helping its users become more mindful, get closer to their faith, and benefit from its abundance of meditation activities offered.
The world is turning towards renewable energy and we've noticed the growing interest in the Electric Vehicle (EV) market. From 2015 to 2019, annual EV sales rose from 450,000 to approximately 2 million! That is a lot of electric cars! Despite the growth, EVs still represent just 2.6% of total car sales, with internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles still making up the vast majority of the 75 million unit new car market. BUT! Battery prices have dropped 22% about every year since 2009 and this could mean a push towards the EV future!
Batteries are made out of multiple minerals like Lithium Graphite, Copper, Aluminium, and Cobalt. That is where it gets ugly... A large part of the Cobalt comes from a place called the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). There has been some mal-practice with the Cobalt mining that involves human rights abuses, child labor, and negative environmental effects. It is getting better but Companies and governments have slowly been introducing incentives to reduce the amount of Cobalt needed by exploring alternatives and pledging for a more responsible supply chain.
If the world is needing Cobalt to power it, and more than 50% of Cobalt is mined in the DRC, why is there no influx of wealth? The supply chains are complex and well, a majority of these megafactories are owned by Chinese Companies. China has been building the battery supply chain by securing the supply of raw materials for lithium ion production!
Check out our conversation on what is the future of battery supply chains. Will it be dominated by the Peoples Republic of China (PRC)?
According to Kommando Tech, there are about 4.5 Billion users of the internet (More than half of the world population). About 64% of those users access the internet through Google Chrome. There's a lot of eyes on Google Chrome, yet there are a few companies that take advantage of Google Chrome Extension Market.
There's over 1.23 billion installs across the 188,620 extensions BUT... 87% of Chrome extensions have fewer than 1,000 installs. However, there are 13 that have surpassed 10-million users. It is a polarized market where a few players take most of the market-share, very difficult to operate in!
Today, at Things Have Changed, we have one of those entrepreneurs that are willing to take that challenge to tap into the Chrome Extension market, Taylor Nieman. She founded a company called Toucan, a chrome extension that translates English text on the websites that you visit, into languages that you'd like to learn! Toucan is designed for anyone who wants to learn a new language but has not found the time or the motivation. Check it out!
Journalist's are leaving media powerhouses for more personal platforms that allow them to build their own brand on.
In a time when the Murdoch Family owns the largest media companies globally including The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones, and Fox News, we are seeing an unbundling of news as journalists are leaving big conglomerates to create their own media brands.
By creating personal brands, subscribers are more sticky and engaged with content due to their direct engagement and ability to use data to cater content that people want to consume. Social Media is a huge contributor to allowing journalists and publishers to go independent with their publishing.
One of the coolest new companies in the space of design, Figma has quickly become the dominant player in its space, with its highly collaborative, cloud-based design & prototyping functionalities.
We talk about Noah’s early passion for design, his varied design experiences, joining Figma and building the highly talented teams making design accessible to everyone!
This should be a fun one for anyone who loves design across the physical & digital world!
The cars we drive tomorrow will look and be used differently. Technological advances—including interactive safety systems, vehicle connectivity, and, ultimately, self-driving cars—are trends that would widely shift the dominance of the existing legacy players to newer more agile brands.
While electric vehicles only make up 2% of the total market today, by 2030 that number will be closer to 10%!
Today on Things Have Changed we are going to unpack the future of the automotive Industry and what we can expect to see in the coming years.
To be a business operating in an environment that is extremely dependent on your understanding of what the government dictates, is REALLLLY hard. Like we’ve mentioned in our episode with Stacey Hronowski, founder of Canix, we learned that operators are spending about 1/3rd of their time in compliance. Basically every entrepreneur in this space needs to be an expert in compliance.
We talked to Hua… David Hua, founder of Meadow, a software company that is building solutions for cannabis entrepreneurs, especially on regulation. Meadow’s Point-of-Sale (PoS) system is what would be popular for consumers in California. If you’re a cannabis dispensary, you probably know Meadow for a lot of other things like Analytics and Reporting, Intake and Registration, and Enterprise Security.
Building the Cannabis Industry’s Back-end and Front-End Software Solution
They’re a company that focuses on community-driven solutions. David and the Meadow team are there to help build the community. He himself is a part of a few groups that are pushing for better understanding and regulating of the cannabis industry. He’s a board member of California Cannabis Industry Association and Cannabis Distribution Association. He obviously cares… quite a lot!
The team also puts on this event called Meadowlands. It’s a gathering for the California Cannabis Industry. That might seem a little broad. But it is absolutely what you think it is: An event where regulators, entrepreneurs, enthusiasts, and activists get together to have a conversation. It’s a great place to learn and have an open dialogue about where the future of cannabis should be.
2020 has pushed the coal industry to once-unthinkable lows, and the consequences for climate change are big. But let's rewind a bit..
How did we get here?
For a long time, Coal has been considered the least-cost option for power generation throughout the world. That narrative is starting to fall, as recent reports show that as soon as 2030, it would be cheaper to build renewables than run existing coal in all major markets by 2030. The same report found that >40% of existing coal power-plants are unprofitable! So what caused the long standing narrative to flip?
Carbon pricing and air pollution regulations drive up costs - any future regulation would make coal power still more unprofitable
This is incredible news for the renewable energy industry, especially Solar + Wind.
Solar photovoltaic cells are now one of the 'cheapest sources of electricity in history' (!!!) thanks to maturing technologies and policies that have reduced the cost of investments.
What's incredible is just in the last 10 years, the cost of solar and wind energy have dropped a staggering 88% and 69% since.. 10 years! That's it! Significant R&D innovations and manufacturing scale to achieve unit economics have made these exciting new energy technologies available to the masses.
But it's not all rosy. This is all encouraging progress toward cutting down fossil fuel use in order to limit the devastating effects of climate change. But there’s still a long way to go to reach the goal set in the 2015 Paris climate agreement of stopping the planet from heating up more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
Solar + Wind might not be enough to get us to that goal.. We think good ol' Nuclear might be able to get us there faster. Well it is 2020 and the THC team being optimists love to see and share the brighter side of this equation :)
Join us on a captivating journey to the heart of the Middle East as we unravel the extraordinary transformation of Dubai. In this episode, we delve deep into the city's meteoric rise from a regional trading post reliant on oil to a buzzing global hub for investment, tourism, and technology. Discover how Dubai's strategic diversification efforts led to an economy where oil now contributes less than 1% to its GDP, a stark contrast to the 50% it once commanded. We'll explore the pivotal roles of initiatives like the Jebel Ali Free Zone Authority, which revolutionized trade, and examine how Dubai's strategic location and business-friendly policies catapulted it into a major player in global finance. This episode is not just about economic growth; it's a story of vision, innovation, and ambition. Tune in to see how Dubai emerged as the tech hub of the Arab world, setting a new standard for urban transformation and development.
How does one get into an elite media publishing house such as the Economist. What goes in to producing one of the most credible and listened radio/ podcast shows out there? Well we have just the right person - Mr. Jason Palmer on Things Have Changed!
Post-doctoral Soul Searching: Science Journalism
Jason started his journey in the field of academia, as a physicist at the Lawrence Livermore labs. Initially, he thought his life was going to be spent in the lab, proving/disproving hypothesis. However, like any other PhD candidate, Jason had second-guessed his purpose and started thinking about where he would fit in. One of the things he had landed on was “Science Journalism”.
Speaking “Econom-ese”
In 2019, as The Economist wanted to take a more serious step towards podcasting (They actually their first podcast in 2006). They were serious about audio and this new podcast was supposed to display that. The team was lead by Tom Standage, Deputy Editor and lead for digital strategy. In a medium article, Tom describes this effort as a way for '“The Economist to come to life in audio everyday”.
Jason still currently hosts this podcast, probably coz he’s been doing a damn good job and his voice is, to quote an anonymous host on Things Have Changed, “sexier than the sound of my own name”. Also, to clear up the suspicion, Jason is 100% American but also 100% spent 20 years in Britain. I mean as far as his accent goes, it’s a Jason Palmer Accent.
But admittedly, his voice isn’t the reason we love “The Intelligence”, it’s because we identify with the content. The “Intelligence” is a great way to keep in-tune with the world around you. From stories about the famine happening in Yemen, to the shift in American Politics, the show brings together a really global view of news. At Things Have Changed, we are a group of immigrants that have benefitted from the truly diverse collection of people in the United States. Jed is from the Philippines, Shikher is from India, and Adrian's family is from Poland. When we have conversations, we are bringing our different perspectives to the table, and we find that absolutely vital for personal growth.
Learn about how Jason satiates his desire for learning and his incredible journey through science and journalism.
Have you finally gone back to get a drink with a friend in an open-air bar? Have you gotten that much needed haircut? Although the Pandemic isn’t over, there is some ounce of normalcy that has returned. You’ve started going outside, started extending your “COVID-bubbles”, and have learned how to live in a world with a virus. How do I know what you’re doing? Because I am watching you..
I’m playin..
Economy Pulse Check
I know because consumer spending is back up! At least 3/4 of the spending that was subdued during the lock-down is back. We can attribute this to pent-up demand from the months that we were locked-in. The labor market is slowly creeping back in but has reflected unemployment hovering around 8%, which is not great but is much better than the near-15% unemployment in May. However, we are not at all near pre-pandemic levels of growth. Industries that still require gathering large amounts of people are still down: namely, travel, hospitality, and entertainment (Although that is evolving rapidly).
Federal Reserve Responsibility Review
As the Economy starts getting back on its feet, there is an expectation from the financial community (Banks and other Financial Institutions) to experience the tightening of monetary policy. This generally means that as inflation approaches 2%, the financial community expects the federal reserve to raise interest rates to eventually slow down consumer spending and perceivably ‘control’ inflation.
Beyond 2 % - Flexible Average Inflation Rate Targeting
Recently, Jerome Powell announced a ‘new’ approach to what the federal reserve will do in light of this new ‘recovery’. Instead of tightening monetary policy, the fed intends to ‘Let the economy run hot’, which means that as we get closer to 2% inflation, the fed will not commit to rate hikes.
We’re gonna have low interest rates for a very long time. Debt will remain cheap, and we are going to see the the announcements of the federal reserve become less relevant to investors.
The idea of the “New normal” of the federal reserve started before Jerome Powell, took the stage, in 2012. Rates were nearer to the lower-bound for the past decade. We’ve had cheap money! Lower rates often lead to cheap debt.
If you remember what happened earlier in the year, the Fed had lowered the interest rate to near-zero. Along with that, the fed used a range of monetary policy tools (Even a Main Street Lending Program, that hasn’t been activated since the 1930’s).
According to OECD estimates, technology will transform about 1/3 of the jobs worldwide (1 BILLION JOBS). Earlier in 2020 we had another Davos Conference, the economic conference where a lot of important people show off how much they've been doing for the good of the world. The conference highlighted the issues within Capitalism, and one of which that was focused on Shareholder and the value produced for them. The leaders of the world have suggested that companies should focus on stakeholders instead, including employees and the community.
"Stakeholder Capitalism" Marc Benioff is one of the leaders that joined the panel on the "Reskilling Revolution". He stresses that Capitalism is DEAD and that Shareholder Capitalism has brought the world towards inequality and natural calamities one after the other. He champions the new approach of "Stakeholder Capitalism" means that we need to focus on improving the workforce. He himself had led the program for Trailhead, an online reskilling platform that currently has 2 million "learners" on it with a goal of jumping up to 10 million.
Reskilling, Upskilling, and Learning Reskilling is basically when you've decided to do a career shift and you realized that you need some training in order to do that job! Lately, we've just heard that Scandanavian Airlines had to lay off about 90% of their flight attendants. They led the effort in a public-private partnership to retrain the cabin crew to be able to help in the Healthcare industry.
More and more Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC's) are popping up to fill the demand for new jobs. We've just had Mehak Vorha on the show who built a company called OnDelta, which is an online bootcamp that is training the next generation of Growth Hackers!
If you're interested in Reskilling yourself, check out this list!
THC is super excited to be part of FORWARD by EllisX, a conference designed to focus on the future of media! Get a glimpse into the media Renaissance, how it affects companies seeking exposure, and meet like-minded people! Grab your tickets!
We live in the data mining age, where tracking data has become a very valuable currency. Many industries are growing to adopt more technologies that can help them track progress and productivity. Since the boom of popularity with Smart Agriculture growing to a $13.1B industry in 2020, the opportunity to build new products becomes more obvious.
We see companies like Texas Instruments (Yes, the company that makes your calculators that you failed math with), that develops drones that collect real time data on soil moisture, humidity, and crop maturity. AGCO Corporation makes the tractors, planters, and smart farming applications. But the Light Utility Vehicle space has a lot of opportunity to grow! Right now, companies like Alke have developed an Electric Utility Vehicle that leads the space in zero carbon emmissions! They've pioneered e-mobility space and have been selling 40 countries world-wide!
These technologies have empowered the rural farmers and the agricultural community to scale their business!
Boson Motors, e-L.U.V.
We met with one of the entrepreneurs that is trying to fundamentally revolutionize the transportation space within the industry. Arun Seelam founded Boson Motors, a company that created the first all-electric and intelligent Light Commercial Vehicle (LCV) or Light Utility Vehicle (L.U.V.). Farmers in these rural areas use LCV's to deliver payload and fulfill supply chain needs. Maybe it doesn't go 0-60 in 2.3 seconds, but it can deliver payloads of up to 1600 lbs and can run for 80 miles. But how is it intelligent? Glad you asked.
Big Android with Wheels
It is called the LP20. The truck is not only electric, but it can also track metrics. Within transporatation, drive length, GPS, and productivity per mile are very important metrics. With the LP20, farmers will be able to track these and make data-driven decisions. Arun had designed this to be a completely open source vehicle that can give programmers access to create applications with an android environment.
“Think of this as a remote-controlled car that you can run apps to. A simple vehicle that can be programmed to do a variety of things, and most importantly, the programming is on Android. So anybody can practically develop an app and anybody can download an app to run on these vehicles. It’s basically a big Android phone on wheels."
— Arun Seelam
Arun Seelam
Arun is an ex-Googler with a ton of database experience. Despite being a software engineer, he learned how to build the electric vehicle through bootstrapping and iterating (He talks about his first electric vehicle venture on the show!). He grew up in rural India, where he actually comes from a family of truckers. He founded Boson with Suri Bhupatiraju, also an ex-Googler, who now is the Chief Operating Officer.
Check it out and learn how Arun and Suri are planning to disrupt the LCV Market ($20BN)!
Higher education has been ripe for disruption for a long time as the skyrocketing costs has put college degrees out of reach for a significant portion of the population.
Another valid criticism of higher Ed through the years has been that schools do not properly equip students with real-world skills they need in the workplace, and leave them in debt for years as they struggle to pay back student loans.
Add to that a tricky field such as Marketing, where the knowledge gap between University and industry can not be larger than it is today! How do you scale a business in a digital world? How do you build a brand and gather a following, in what is a noisy internet!
Mehak Vohra, CEO & Founder of OnDelta, plans to tackle the above issues head on! OnDelta is a growth marketing school for people looking to kick start their career in growth marketing. Utilizing a curriculum centered around learning the technical skills to be an effective growth marketer, OnDelta aims to bridge the gap to enable students to become effective growth marketers in the workforce. The biggest differentiator here is that OnDelta is free upfront, you only pay them back after you graduate and are making at least $40k/yr.
A college dropout, self starter, and marketing expert, Mehak has taken the unconventional route to learn everything there is about taking brands to the next level through social media and provides those learnings via OnDelta!
In this episode we cover how the marketing needs of companies are changing, Mehak’s journey to create a full blown online remote academy free of any tuition, and how Mehak is the youngest person to ever to run for mayor in the city of San Francisco!
Mr. Yang and his Gang brought this inescapable issue into the forefront.
A greater push toward automation will most certainly kill jobs — human workers will become redundant in certain spheres. An estimated 20% of jobs could be impacted by this technology wave. The top jobs in the US - retail, food service, administrative, transportation and manufacturing - are all subject to automation.
But it's not all doom and gloom. In many studies, it's been predicted that automation will result in net job creation as well. It might take the shape and form of something we've not seen before. Today people are employed as an influencer, website UI/UX designer, vlogger, and database architect.. roles that were unthinkable 30 years back when the Internet was created.
Dr Seth Benzell, in this episode talks about the jobs that are resilient to the imminent automation wave. Jobs that requires lots of dexterity, hand-eye coordination and flexibility Eg - skilled trade jobs like a plumber or electrician as well as jobs such as nursing that involve human caring and empathy would be the most resilient to a possible Employment Terminator!
Listen to our previous conversations with Dr Seth Benzell
Also, THC is super excited to be part of FORWARD by EllisX, a conference designed to focus on the future of media! Get a glimpse into the media Renaissance, how it affects companies seeking exposure, and meet like-minded people! Grab your tickets!
The United States Congress has labelled Apple, Amazon, Google, and Facebook as monopolies officially for the record. In a statement at the hearing it was said that “some need to be broken, and all need to be regulated”. As big tech gets even bigger, governments around the world seek to regulate them in some way. We just saw congress, in a widely publicized event, ask some really hard questions to the tech leaders in a bipartisan way, even during these increasingly polarized times!
Dr. Seth Benzell Speaking with Dr. Seth Benzell, a digital economist from MIT, we learned about how we should look at the issues that have come up from Big Tech and the drastic imbalance of wealth that they have created. Seth has spent a lot of time thinking of ways to keep Facebook accountable and make sure that the gains being made out of our data are shared across users rather than just the Zuck at top. He takes us through some of the options of how to even start thinking about regulating these companies, like taxes and transfers.
Why Inequality Matters
Inequality should be important to everyone because of the following beliefs.
Ultra wealthy individuals have a diminishing marginal utility from their wealth (remember money doesn’t buy you happiness, but instead freedom and access to things most will never experience)
The utility for society goes up overall when someone gets access to food more than Bezos getting a 5th yacht (more for the common good)
We should think of the economy as a pie and split it in a equitable way
These points bring up the question, Can we slice the pie in a more equitable way and how do we do that exactly?
Seth states that “The way we all win is by making the pie bigger… with more equal pay in a more equitable way.”
In our most recent episode, Things Have Changed had the opportunity to speak and learn from Dr. Seth Benzell, Digital Economist, Assistant Professor at Chapman, Fellow at MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy and the Stanford Digital Economy Lab, and a huge Sci Fi Fantasy aficionado. Automation has been a reoccurring theme in corporations quest to improve their bottom line and stay competitive. Seth is at the forefront of understanding Digital Automation and its implications on employment, growth, and inequality.
In ongoing research, he studies the effect of application programming interfaces and ‘firm inversion’ at the firm and macroeconomic level. He has worked on multiple studies of tax reform in computable general equilibrium models and has briefed legislative assistants at the U.S. Capitol.
Paradox of Robotic Productivity
Seth’s research has found that an increase in robotic productivity will temporarily raise output, but, by lowering the demand for labor, can lower wages and consumption in the long run. It’s difficult to look at how robots will help future workers because while outputs are increased with similar inputs, workers aren’t compensated equally while those that own the robots are getting the biggest piece of the pie. If the market response to robotic innovations does not lead to a positive result, then there may be a need for government intervention with redistributive policies of the state.
Labor share of GDP Decreasing
One way to look at how automation has increased productivity relative to wages is to look at labor share of national income. In the early 1980’s the labor market made up 65% of the national GDP. Today it’s a mere 50% with an enormous boom of wealth from Superstar tech companies and investor capital. It’s projected that 20 Million manufacturing jobs will be obsolete by 2030. This disruption in the labor market is not new and has been going through different iterations from the Industrial Revolution to the development of computer processors.
The Rise of Superstar Companies
Superstar companies are 10% of businesses that create 80% of economic value. You can already guess who these are… Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, Google, and many more. Nearly all of these Superstar companies benefit from some form of automation that allows them to create maximum production with minimal labor forces. Due to heavy reliance on automation, Superstar Companies have been able to maximize profit for investors, and pay less to the labor market for it. This has created issues with local economies that lose tax income and economic activity of consumers.
Should Digital Businesses be Taxed?
While automation is designed to solve problems and create greater efficiencies for companies, it comes at the cost of inequality in wages, a decrease in tax income for governments, and higher barriers to entry for new entrants. A proposed solution that’s being explored is France’s plan to tax Digital companies revenue at 3%. The argument is that the tax proposals have the potential to shift billions of dollars from tech companies to local economies. This standard tax rate for digital companies attempts to capture the profits of tech companies benefiting from the savings that automation gives them while cutting the needed labor force down.
Co-working has clearly shaken up the commercial real estate market. Offices across the world have been greatly influenced by the autonomy and flexibility that a co-working space offers.
The ability to shape your office to match your specific needs, be it optimizing performance and/or collaboration, can be counted as one of the main driver behind companies opting into these agreements & ditching traditional offices.
Today we speak with Shesh Paplikar, CEO and Founder of BHIVE Workspace, one of India's largest co-working spaces founded in Bangalore, India. Shesh is shaking up the Indian workspace environment with solutions to deep rooted challenges that have existed within the traditional office market for decades.
By focusing on reliability of power, connection, and superior service, Shesh is raising the bar of what is expected from Indian workspace locations.
In this episode on Things Have Changed Podcast, Shesh breaks down the triggers that led to his move from leading at Bloomberg R&D in Manhattan to starting his own company in Bangalore. We understand the dynamics & pricing structures within commercial real estate as well as the hurdles of operating a co-working space in a global pandemic.
Spotify had to find a way to create a true differentiator to Apple Music & increase margins.
Spotify doesn’t have the luxury of selling iPhones at a high markup to fall back on so it still loses money. Streaming music isn’t cheap given the need to pay labels, artists and publishers based on consumption.
What's the solution then?
Well... Podcasts!
Spotify has acquired four podcasting companies in the past 12 months!
Spotify paid $340M to acquire content studio Gimlet and hosting platform Anchor
But this did not quench their ambitions. They wanted the biggest fish in the pond, the Joe Rogan Experience.
A staggering $100 million fee was needed to bring the entire JRE library exclusively to Spotify. Joe Rogan is probably like, "Jaime pull up my account balance"
Over the past few weeks, we've delved deep into the stories of remarkable companies, visionary founders, and dynamic landscapes of emerging markets!
So, where are we zooming in today? Nigeria, Africa. We're exploring the remarkable story of Nigeria, a nation that has emerged as the largest economy in Africa. With a diversified economy and abundant natural resources, Nigeria’s journey isn't just about oil anymore. It’s about tech, entertainment, and an entrepreneurial spirit that refuses to be quelled.
Join us as we dive into the secrets behind Nigeria's transformation on the global stage, exploring the factors that propelled it to an economic powerhouse on the African continent.
Things Have Changed Podcast uses a platform called Squadcast to record our podcast conversations. Prior to using Squadcast, the team used another service that did not allow visual interactions, which caused a strain on our conversations. We did not realize how important it was to see our guests until we joined Squadcast. The quality of the conversations got so much better!
The Bootstrap King
Things Have Changed Podcast sat down with Zach Moreno, the Founder of Squadcast and the first recipient of our "BOOTSTRAPPER" award. Zach has spent his life solving problems with his knowledge of being a full-stack web developer. He used web developing to empower businesses that he worked with. Through doing projects for other companies, he built up his expertise and finally built Squadcast with his long time friend, Rock Felder.
Progressive Recording
Squadcast's goal is to amplify collaboration. The technology behind Squadcast is even more fascinating: it is called Progressive Recording, and it means that Squadcast is constantly uploading that audio data to the cloud as you are recording in real time. For podcast recording, this is vital. As more of the world goes into the internet to communicate, bandwidth might be an increasing cause for concern. Squadcast aims to bridge that gap.
Building Communities
The most fascinating thing about the story of Squadcast is that it was built like Zach had lead his life. He built it is as a community of passionate artists, innovators and entrepreneurs. On the advisory board, there are some podcast giants like Jordan Harbinger, a 13-year podcast veteran; Pat Flyn, creator of Smart Passive Income; Espree Devora, host and creator of the show, Women in Tech; and many more podcasting entrepreneurs.
As you can see already, the team is filled with the leaders in the industry. Squadcast also has a robust feedback loop. If you go through their blog, you will notice that customers have given feedback that has turned into a feature or stories of people who have contributed to the growth of Squadcast.
Check out our conversation with Zach on how he built Squadcast!
Some helpful links:
Squadcast Website (If you make podcasts, you should probably sign up today)
Although the political landscape has largely leaned towards more positive sentiment towards cannabis, it is still very expensive and risky to do business in the industry largely because of compliance burdens like tracking the entire operation from seed-to-sale.
Cannabis companies often spend 1/3rd of their time on compliance-related issues.
There are licenses required to do different parts of the process like growing, manufacturing, selling. What’s worse is, they cannot participate in the financial markets because banks will ultimately get fined for doing business with them.
Regulation 280E and Significant Growth Constraint
The cannabis industry has been set up to fail. Although it’s getting more mainstream, there are still significant choke points that prevent businesses from thriving like Regulation 280E, a piece of legislation that punishes banks for doing business with any company that deals with a schedule I or II drug (Cannabis is still a Schedule I drug federally). Some large cannabis companies receive their transactions in cash only and have a difficult time getting capital to scale businesses. Furthermore, individual states have different regulations and amounts of license, which makes it much more difficult to participate.
Capital comes to Cannabis
As the industry grows and becomes legal in more states, there is a new interest in investment. In 2018, there was a $13Bn investment into the legal marijuana industry up from $3.4Bn in 2017. When capital starts flowing into the industry, the entrepreneurs start finding ways to solve more problems!
We talked to Stacey Hronowski, an entrepreneur that is trying to get rid of the compliance burden by creating an enterprise resource planning (ERP) tool called Canix to handle just that.
Since everything from growing the product to selling it needs to be tracked, Canix has found a way to make it easier for businesses to collect their data, use their data, and strive with it. As I was pointing towards the gold mine of data in the podcast, Stacey kept emphasizing the importance of understanding what the customers needs are with the data that they collect.
Canix doesn't only become an ERP for compliance purposes but also a place to figure out how to become successful in the industry. The current suite has all sorts of functionality like live inventory tracking, METRC integration (The regulation stuff), chart of accounts management (the accounting stuff), RFID harvesting, and clone data. Yeah.. if you aren't very familliar with the industry, Stacey can help explain that to you!
Sit back, light it up, and absorb a little more than THC and CBD. Actually, just a lot of THC.
In March 2019, over 4.4 million blogs were published around the globe every single day. With only so many writers, it’s becoming difficult to create stories from the amount of data we have today.
Przemek Chojecki, Founder and CEO of Contentyze, aims to fix the inefficiencies in journalism with a content generation platform built to disrupt how journalism and content marketing works through Artificial Intelligence.
Contentyze’s goal isn’t to replace journalists, but rather assist them in their writing, helping them to focus on the creative side of things while improving their writing craft. Though Contentyze is in the early stages of development, it has already conducted over 1000 interviews of executives in a very short time period. A streamlined content generator at scale.
Przemek’s background is extensive and has taken him to new frontiers that haven't been explored. Born in Warsaw, Poland Przemek has always been curious about mathematics and research. Completing his mathematics PhD in Paris, Przemek became a Research Fellow at Oxford University. Having a passion for writing Przemek authored 3 novels with topics ranging from his learnings about AI, traveling the world, and even philosophical conversations on the meaning of life.
A former Forbes 30 under 30, Przemek has been recognized for his work in AI and constant curiosity to find answers and meaning in our ever changing world. Join us to learn about Przemek’s extensive research background, Contentyze’s mission, and how AI is changing journalism today.