Betaworks, Kamal Pt 2 and Automation Innovation (Notes Jan 28 - Feb 3, '19)

After the short post and notes from the prior week, this one was chock full of Strictly VC episodes. I also caught a bunch of Wharton XM on innovation in automation and various questions as to its applications in novel ways (and old industries).The first up was a fascinating innovation in agriculture discussion with a professor working at UC Davis. Oenology has so many levels to it, from climatology, viticulture to how and when to harvest along with the chemistry. Innovation using automation and AI should be able to capture a lot of value in the whole chain, all the way to the distribution and end consumers. Reduction of variability was the big takeaway here. I do wish there were more weekend days to explore wine to fully immerse, but alas, we have 2 or 3.Kamal finished his talk with Harry Stebbings on 20min VC to discuss the future of VC and how he sees the best business done. Hands-on, smaller funds believed to be better and to work on solving the problems that keep founders up at night. Those are most exciting.James Bell, Kia Motors' Director of Corp. Communication and Social Media, discussed his takes on autonomous vehicles over the next 5+ years and how they're likely to be constrained to cities. Probably reduced speeds ~25-40mph and that even if they show up, it'll be a challenge to get adaptation on the vehicle side as well as humans adjusting. Complete network of autonomous would be easy - humans add the variability that throws wrenches into the equation.Then, we had Chad Fowler and Matt Hartman (Director of Betaworks). Peruse the notes below to see how those went

  • Innovation in Agriculture (UC Davis professor) - Work of Tomorrow
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  • Talked about automation on acreage for vineyards
  • 33% variability in vines across many acres, AI can reduce variability which allows for better management
  • Migrant patterns changed of laborers, pricing for pickers up to $42+/hr avg
  • Tough to get teams of 32+1 team lead consistently
  • Automation / machine pickers are ~5 year break-even, $18k in cost initially per acre and can drop after
  • Kamal Ravikant Part 2 (20min VC 078)
  • Future of VC
  • Competing for talent, entrepreneurs - AngelList, etc
  • Value add more in the recent time - they didn't do anything before
  • Give the entrepreneur the power - not just another company of the portfolio
  • Smaller funds that will do better: Vast VC in NY, Kent Goldman (board observer at his old co), Syndicates, Ferriss, Jason Calacanis, one-off funds over bigger VC's, Rick Morini
  • Shares deals with many of his friends that he's talked to and approached (entrepreneurship) Questions include understanding the product, team, burn rate, distribution
  • Fundamentally solving a problem (keeps you up at night)
  • Book of the biggest influence - The Alchemist, The Little Prince, Hemingway, Great Work of Your Life - Cope
  • He'd play more because he spends too much time writing / working Altucher as the Oprah of the internet - (Told Stebbings to avoid college and build one in Guam)
  • Inspiring leader - Elon Musk (putting his own money on the line), Naval (his brother) and putting steps to build it - power, AngelList
  • Most recent investment - Bolt - uncapped, Dan Sharp founder, payments (something he wanted to solve)
  • Interviewing each other - did it to guarantee value add
  • Can't invest into social good or impact because it doesn't return all the time (to pitch to his LPs)
  • Lost a lot of his money in the old company after he burned it all Level of responsibility for his LPs - not wasting, has a fiduciary responsibility for building the company
  • Chad Fowler, CTO at Wunderlist (20min VC FF016)
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  • App of the year, writer
  • From the founder - 'simplicity, design'
  • Removed everything that they could, what else could they take out
  • Why business software is broken? - self-defeating, fear-based negotiation tactics that they need it Ask for everything you could possibly ever want (and if the vendor can't say yes, then you drive down price)
  • Tech (into video games) from music (forming and writing - 'on hold' for 20 yrs) Same mindset for tech as music - we don't enter music for a job - you do it because you want to bring something special
  • At LivingSocial in DC, InfoEther (his co) was a talent acquisition, became a VP of Eng and took over role of CTO Approached by friends in Berlin shortly after that
  • Living in Berlin / Europe - completely disconnected in the 90s but no longer in 2010s
  • Still cultural issues that may be disadvantaged - bit more behind, conservative
  • He mentions he loves the cultural and international aspect of Berlin (US, as well) but cheaper
  • He believed that the piece of software is done - the client product is done - simplicity guardians Wonderlist should be the glue that recognizes or allows input for everything across your life
  • Most requested features: folders
  • Same general operations once acquired by Microsoft - operating in Berlin still, staying with the teams, etc…
  • Fav book: E-myth Revisited - why small businesses fail, strategic/systems from own career thru running company
  • At GE, started a development center in Bengalore - new, cultural uncomfortable place taught him a ton
  • James Bell, Director, Corp Comm & Social Media at Kia Motors America (Launch Pad, WhartonXM)
  • If he had to put a number on autonomous - caveat: cities or districts, maybe 5-6 years Slower, 25-40 mph congestion reduced but autonomous allowed - no humans
  • Humans add the element of randomness & variability that change autonomous carsÂ
  • How's a car going to treat the randomness of a human in the road or other humans
  • How will people react to cars without drivers (videos of seat-outfitted drivers at crosswalks)
  • Talked about buying the first hybrid early on and how many questions he got in general
  • Likened that feeling to what it may have been like after cars showed up post-horse/buggy
  • Inflection points of becoming ubiquitous
  • Matt Hartman, Betaworks Weeks, Director of Seed Investments (20min VC 078)
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  • Prior to Betaworks, he was co-founder of ReferBoost
  • Went to b-school, worked at Hot Potato, consumer social network acquired by Facebook Went back to school and started a real estate platform
  • Betaworks - consumer internet companies with Bitly, Dots, giphy
  • 100+ people on 10 different companies, outside financing and get a bigger space if they're building
  • Employee is under Betaworks until companies - can do seed stage, as well
  • Why seed investment side? Building, shaping and figuring out the network approach
  • Loves working on different things for different companies in the day-to-day
  • Twitter becomes much more about news vs Facebook for friends - iterations and bilateral
  • Snapchat is 1:1 but 1:many, lower friction vs Instagram that keeps it there (not 1 hour or 24 hours)
  • Habit forming activity
  • Conversations on ProductHunt were normal conversations among product designers - network structure enabled community growth
  • Meercat - one of the best product launches he'd seen (though they didn't invest)
  • Product was well done and more tightly integrated than Periscope, really good time
  • Meercat is not great in real-time - comments / questions won't work great for video compared to others
  • Instapaper - Betaworks co - was going through articles in audio form
  • Was consuming 6 hours of reading just in his day-to-day with lunch, walks, commute Found time in listening channel
  • Native audio ads already has straightforward monetization structure
  • Multitasking can be pretty useful for being conversions in listening
  • For deal-sourcing, he gets them through coworkers' network (people at Betaworks) ProductHunt has been one that initiates deals
  • Productivity tool Drafts? - input box for notes (opens API to do add anything macro-related)
  • DigDeeper (Instapaper) - notes from twitter compiled
  • Ryan Leslie's Disruptive Multimedia (always available via twitter/phone)