Episoder
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The AI investment landscape is rapidly evolving, with groundbreaking innovations and challenges emerging at every turn. Arif Hilaly of Bain Capital Ventures, Calvin Chin of E14 Fund, Bilal Zuberi of Lux Capital, John Chu of Khosla Ventures, and Lisa of 99 VC discuss trends, valuation dynamics, and key factors VCs consider when evaluating AI startups.
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HIGHLIGHTS
(5:12) Technology Trends and Excitement in AI
(11:44) Valuations and Investment Strategies
(17:17) Evaluating Founders and Startups
(24:54) Successful Investments and Lessons Learned
(43:28) Privacy, Security, and Ethics in AI
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"There's a lot of industries that never got really infused with technology over the last 30 years... Now when you can have conversational AI, when you can have data captured and analysis done somewhere else, and then providing the output to that so that people can actually take action on it, that starts to become very interesting."
"The addressable market for software has massively expanded... it's just so unpredictable, and that really helps the insurgent over the incumbent."
"If AI is a productivity accelerant and productivity is a measure of GDP. We're about to level up GDP all across the board."
"You should really look at any financing as a recruiting decision about who do you want to work with, and just have confidence that whatever the valuation is and the terms will be a market price."
“Innovation is happening at every layer of the stack, and billions and billions and billions of dollars are being spent every year in that so there's a lot happening. And hence, you know, you should be investing much more open minded on what can be built.”
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Jeremiah Owyang, General Partner at Blitzscaling Ventures, delivered a comprehensive overview of the current AI landscape. He introduced the AI tech stack, explaining its layers from data to applications and agents.
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HIGHLIGHTS
(1:39) Overview of the AI Industry
(2:41) AI Tech Stack and Key Components
(5:43) Autonomous Agents and Future of AI
(7:34) Taxonomy of AI Entities and Market Dynamics
(12:29) Forecast and Future of AI on the Internet
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QUOTES
"Right now, the AI industry is exploding. There's 1000 new AI projects being launched per month. That's going to mean one is going to launch in the next 30 minutes."
"Everybody in the world will have their own executive assistant. Everybody in the world will have their own Travel Planner. Everybody in the world will have their own personal shopper. We will all have multiple agents."
"Bill Gates says that whoever has the AI agent will win the internet."
"In this future, we don't need apps anymore. We don't even need websites. This is a fundamental change to the internet."
"There will be more AI agents than humans on the internet. This is a significant change."
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Manglende episoder?
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Balancing data insights with creative freedom is a big topic today. Hazem Karkoutly, Louise Blake, Chris Eid, and Razmik Kalaidjian discussed how AI can help with ideas and trends in agency-client relationships.
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HIGHLIGHTS
(0:20) Evolving Client-Agency Dynamics
(5:02) Data vs. Authenticity
(9:03) Creativity in Advertising
(14:11) Marketing Balance
(23:44) Future Trends in Client-Agency Relations
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QUOTES
"Data contributes to the decision has to or else you're shooting in the dark. But you have to understand your brand and your proposition and your position in order to do it, you can't just really rely on data to tell you everything you want, because your competition is going to have the same input as you."
"Data is ingredients that gives you what ingredients you should use, okay, your recipe is your brand and your creativity. So it'll tell you what you can use and what works."
“Data should inspire you in ways that you didn't necessarily have access to that type of information.”
“Data will give you the principles, the goalposts will give you the requirements of where you should play, but the creativity needs to still lead the way and your brand at the end of the day should dictate how you communicate.”
"Data is one input when it comes to decision making."
"Data should complement the creative process, not distract from it."
“The creative process, if it's bound with certain data points is always we've all dealt with, it's an evolution.”
"Clients are demanding more focus on their DNA, brand, and industry."
"Agencies must prioritize understanding client goals and measuring effectiveness to succeed in the future."
"We're starting to play more and more advisory roles as well, and not just an execution arm."
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Financial literacy is crucial for both adults and children. Celine Khattar, Dina Shoman, Ashim Egunjobi, Bilal Abou-Diab, and Amelie Arras discuss its significance in the digital age, highlighting FinTech's role in wealth management, the need for financial literacy solutions in emerging markets, the democratization of investment opportunities, early education, and the importance of financial savviness in the UAE for better decision-making and economic improvement.
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HIGHLIGHTS
(0:20) Financial Literacy and Wealth Management in FinTech
(4:38) Financial Literacy Education for Budgeting Saving Investing
(13:42) Financial Literacy for All with Generative AI
(17:05) Financial Literacy Wealth Management Cultural Influences
(21:46) Financial Literacy in Emerging Markets Wealth Management Investment
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QUOTES
"Financial literacy is pretty much the same in both. But the we need to think about what's the purpose of financial literacy, it's to learn how to manage our money so that we can have more choices to live the life we want to live."
"Financial literacy is all about we work very hard to make money and create wealth. But then, once we have its financial literacy is how to manage it, how to manage your savings, how to invest how to reach your financial objectives."
"So starting the process as early as possible, and ideally with kids is actually what you want to do to teach them the basics so that when they are exposed and have access to these financial tools, they make better financial decisions for themselves to grow their wealth over time."
"You can actually start from as young as three or four years old, you can teach kids that age, very basic skills."
"The problem in the digital world as well as the fact that there's a lot of opinions. And I think back to the trend, one of the trends that's coming now is I think that's one of the benefits of generative AI is generative AI as a, sometimes a sounding board."
"So it's really, really key that we actually move financial literacy ahead, that we utilize the products, the solutions that we have out there that we're building, or that we're investing in, and actually ensure that we look at well, what is the impact that we're creating with these?"
"I think it's hard to measure. I think it takes like a big project to do that. And you know, you've had like financial literacy surveys and so on that you can do, but it's only a sample, right?"
"Financially savvy people make better decisions in their lives, hopefully, not get into debt and financial trouble overall. And therefore being able to build their wealth over time to live the life that they want."
"Data suggests that financial net wealth in the UAE so amongst adults, is 85% cash. So if you look at that, and you walk around, I think step conferences are a great place to ask that question."
"I think it's our responsibility. As you know, FinTech as an ecosystem, it's our responsibility to speed that time up as much as possible."
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Ensuring the responsible development and deployment of AI is critical. Ayman Alashkar, Batu Sat, Aya Elgebeely, Nicoleta Remmlinger, and Miguel Lasprilla discussed the need for regulation frameworks, ethical considerations, transparency in credit risk modeling, and a unified approach to AI regulation across industries.
Sign up for Step events https://stepconference.com/
Subscribe now to the Step Feed newsletter for a daily roundup of the top tech business news https://subscribe.stepfeed.com/_____________________
HIGHLIGHTS
(0:20) Introduction to AI Regulation Frameworks
(03:30) The Patchwork of Existing AI Regulations and Risks of Loopholes
(12:02) The Importance of Explainability and Transparency in AI Decision Making
(15:04) Using AI in Credit Risk Modeling: A Practical Example
(22:38) Proactively Building Technologies for Good
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QUOTES
"We need to embrace artificial intelligence, but we need to be responsible when we use it. We always have to think how that will impact someone's life and hopefully in good not in bad."
“AI is nothing new, the LLM's and chat GPT might be sort of fancy, but algorithms and rule based prediction and prescription has been around.”
"AI is the nuclear weapon of the 21st century."
"Regulation should not be less tech, actually should be more tech to guard railing to take care of the people of their communities."
"We need to know who is behind the outputs of the training... that is being used, potentially to our disadvantage."
"Artificial intelligence has gripped everybody's interest. We don't give it enough attention, and frankly, because it's a problem so difficult to solve."
"Having your own vector database, it's invaluable like having this on your own, and not necessarily relying on third parties who are totally out of your hand."
"We built our own proprietary generative AI system a few years back end to end everything, including the process, we designed and built ourselves and that enables transparency and explainability."
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Technology has the potential to transform travel in the Middle East, focusing on personalization, sustainability, and cultural experiences. Mia Jafari, Mamoun Hmedan, and Nadim Nagui discuss how FinTech, AI, and business intelligence enhance travel, build digital trust, and drive the shift towards remote work and aspirational travel.
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HIGHLIGHTS
(0:20) Improving Travel in Dubai with Technology
(5:27) Personalization in Travel
(8:57) Sustainable Travel Practices(13:58) Cultural Tourism in the Middle East
(20:26) Building Trust in the Travel Industry
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QUOTES
"This is where we fit in with our ownership model for people who like to visit specific destinations frequently throughout the year."
"We enable users globally to shop for flights and hotels deals through different partnerships we develop with airlines, online travel agencies, and accommodation providers."
"Property ownership, by definition, is something that is very complex, and we're trying to simplify this, looking at it from two angles: the investment and the element of property management."
"We make this journey extremely seamless from beginning to end."
"We're trying to store data within our data management platforms and create categories for solo travellers versus families, business trips versus leisure, domestic versus International."
"Personalization for us is about personalizing the booking system experience for our customers based on their behaviour and based on the input that we get from them."
"We started now introducing digital frames, where you can upload a library of your own photos that are going to enhance the experience and make it feel more homey."
"The key success of the alternative accommodation at some point was catering to the behaviour of the consumers during that time."
"We try to put sustainable behaviours within the workspace and are looking to find the right partners by each market to provide sustainable travel options."
"Trust has been for us a priority since inception, not just because we are a new company but mainly because we are offering a new concept."
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Digital transformation is playing a crucial role in enhancing accessibility and inclusion across various sectors globally. Anna Tutova, Deepak Gupta, Maria Paula Oliveira, and Sarah Toukan discussed the rise of digital payments and mobile wallets in fostering financial inclusion in developing countries, highlighting ease of account access, instant access needs, security, reliability, and successful initiatives, as well as the potential of facial recognition payment technology.
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HIGHLIGHTS
(4:23) Mobile Wallets Driving Financial Inclusion
(12:24) Adoption Boost: Easy Signup, Security, and No Minimum Balance
(17:15) Expanding Digital Wallets: Government, Telecom, and Payment Provider Partnerships
(18:50) Emerging Markets Leading in Digital Wallet Innovation
(21:43) Real-Time Payments and Cross-Border Transactions Driving Adoption
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QUOTES
"For any retailers, ecommerce players who want to provide the very best user experience and payment experience, they have to be offering digital payments via digital wallets and of course via payments gateway."
"When you live in a society where you don't have that kind of reality, you're excluded from the modern world."
"It is really, it goes beyond just buying things, it's really a means of including people in modernity."
"I think it's a very beautiful innovation which enables the user in order to do the transaction in the easiest of the manner."
"Security is of the utmost importance."
"So people have grown accustomed to getting instant access. And this is just as important in the FinTech space."
"Necessity is the mother of all invention."
“It's interesting. It's really bringing access to financial services in order to enable people to improve their standard of living start to save for their families.”
"When we say that digital inclusion in terms of number of transaction, the India journey is very delightful if you see within the Asia pack."
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Effective content strategy and repurposing are essential for engaging diverse brands and audiences. Mamta Varerkar, Anastasiya Golovatenko, Riham Essam, and Jen Blandos emphasized understanding the client's audience, collaborating in content creation, tailoring content, utilizing AI tools, leveraging influencer marketing, and repurposing long-form content.
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HIGHLIGHTS
(0:20) Content Strategy and Repurposing
(3:44) Performance and Experimentation
(10:44) AI and Data in Content Creation
(17:26) Collaborations in Content Creation
(21:49) Influencer Marketing and Repurposing Tools_____________________
QUOTES
"When it comes to content production, you need to understand the business, and what I always say is you need to start from the planning stage."
“We depend on what we call in our industry evergreen content – content that can be published and circulated anytime, any day whenever you need it to be.”
“One thing that's really important when you are looking at your content is that you need to talk to the people who are going to buy from you, who you want to know, like, and trust you.”
"Data tells you if your content is working, if it's not working, if it's relevant, or irrelevant to your audiences."
"We use a lot of AI tools to be able to repurpose content because people forget what they saw from you yesterday, let alone a month or two months ago."
“One piece of advice: Google your business and Google yourself. This is where your journey for content creation should start.”
"Influencer marketing is an area where brands need to invest in, explore, and learn, but it starts with planning and finding the right influencers for your campaigns."
“We use a lot of tools, but I think it's also important to be organized. If you have a system behind everything, it makes it so much easier to repurpose content.”
“If you are managing a lot of content, it's important to be organized because if you have a system behind everything, it makes it so much easier to be able to repurpose things.”
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Mario Nawfal discusses his transition from cryptocurrency to geopolitics, detailing how his content strategy supports his business ventures. He also highlights the potential of web3 gaming and the metaverse, defends his approach to controversial figures, and expresses aspirations for facilitating global dialogues.
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HIGHLIGHTS
(0:20) Social Media Reach and Crypto Incubation
(4:08) Citizen Journalism and Finance Sources
(8:00) Elon Musk's Support and Controversial Interviews
(12:49) Crypto Show's Diverse Audience
(17:17) Media Impact and Addressing Controversy
(21:40) Crypto, Gaming, and Web3 Opportunities_____________________
QUOTES
“The numbers speak for themselves. The reach, whenever there's breaking news, people are starting to come to X.”
"We're unfiltered. We're leveraging what Elon has built by being able to post anything and not worrying about repercussions."
"Whenever we invest in a project, they want us to post about them, do a space about them. We get great allocations in projects we invest in on a regular basis."
"My end goal is to be able to have people like Putin and Zelensky on stage together. I'm getting close to it.""I don't think anyone in the audience, unless you have reached, really understands how aggressive cancel culture has become."
"I've kind of gone beyond the stage of money. So I'm pretty grateful that the incubator is doing really well. And we've done well, even before the show."
"Having an impact on the world. This is kind of more of a personal goal that I have."
"When you own your assets, when you add the concept of ownership in those games, you it just opens up a world of opportunities."
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In a discussion on the ethical implications of AI algorithms, Alnura Belyalova, Karim Tout, Sandra Helou, Maryam Al Ansari, and Andrea Ronchi deliberate on the potential biases inherent in automated decision-making systems and strategies to mitigate them.
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HIGHLIGHTS
(0:20) Privacy Concerns in AI Ethics
(4:39) Ethical Considerations of AI Bias
(8:35) Bias in Data Collection for AI
(17:39) Tech Industry: AI Ethics and Bias
(23:55) Impact of AI Bias on Businesses
(29:34) AI Purpose and Bias
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QUOTES
"So realizing that, first of all, it's not as safe as you think it is. You don't have a say in this, you can't really say no, you can't use why information to make the process better, or use it to make the processes better."
"What we need to have is awareness and spread this awareness amongst each other who don't know much about the fact that startups or other companies can access your information."
"Bias is not always bad depends on the application itself and the objective."
"It's impossible to not have any bias, it's impossible to be fully objective, there's always subjectivity, and we cannot be random."
"If I use predictive models to make a prescription that are making the real discriminations between potential usual users, that's where you don't allow the freewill of the user to enter into places."
"It actually depends because there's two different types of bias, right? There's bias, which is very kind of totally right."
"But there are different levels of bias and how it actually gets applied, and what happens to it."
"The whole model AI model design and dataset design and feature engineering should fit well with the objective that I'm trying to achieve."
"You need to safeguard the other people that are around there, you know, when you're building an online world, a virtual world that's accessible by multiple people."
"So focus on the dataset, make sure the dataset is good quality, not biased, and you'll get a good AI system."
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Discussing budget allocation, Juliette Nicholls, Bassem Saber, and Abeer Raza share insights on smart spending and engaging customers, providing practical advice for maximizing marketing impact.
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HIGHLIGHTS
(0:20) Smart Budget Allocation and Data Analytics
(5:09) Effective Budget Strategies for Small Businesses
(12:09) Harnessing Data Analytics for Growth
(17:41) Maximizing Marketing Budgets for Small Businesses
(22:59) Digital Marketing Tactics for Small Businesses
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QUOTES
"Budget allocation is a critical factor in scalability. I've kind of went through all the cycles where you have little or no budget to allocate, and it's not something that you think about to where you have millions of dollars that you have to allocate in a span of one year."
"People that are super focused on data, they're way more successful. They allocate their budgets way better."
"Define your first look at your competitors, right, like you look at what your competitors are spending on. And understand, you know, what the metrics look like."
"Big brands, you know, they have approval processes, they have committees, they have a lot of hassle when they have to implement changes. Smaller businesses, they can A/B test in a matter of minutes."
"Data is super important. But in order for you to measure data, you need to set the right KPIs, the right metrics in place to measure it, and then act on it based on assumptions that you've created through hypotheses or trend analysis."
"We've all been there where we've exhausted hundreds of thousands of dollars in ad spend and got nothing out of it. You have to set the hypothesis right upfront."
"It's things like these tactics that allow small businesses to scale drastically in markets that are overlooked by big businesses. And that is what makes entrepreneurs brilliant."
"Understanding user behavior through data analytics and AB testing helps in making informed decisions for budget allocation."
"I think it's critical when you define your metrics well, when you define your ROI well, to realize how you scale and what your acquisition cost is."
"One of the biggest mistakes that most small businesses make when they're scaling is looking at setting the right metrics in place."
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Learn how FinTech is changing online shopping with Paul Carey, Mohammad El Saadi, Brad Whittfield, and Padmini Gupta, as they discuss easier payments, new ways to pay, and how FinTech companies and stores can work together to improve shopping for everyone.
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HIGHLIGHTS
(0:20) Retail Revolution: FinTech Solutions
(6:36) Youth-Focused FinTech in the Middle East
(14:55) Partnering in Tourist Markets
(19:50) FinTech and Retail: Regulations & Experience
(24:18) Empowering Small Retailers with FinTech
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QUOTES
"How can FinTech solutions enhance and improve the overall experience for retail customers, particularly from online search to purchase?"
"Given the size of the markets, by about like $20 billion in the UAE, world, 15% year on year, it becomes really imperative to think about how your kinds of payments experience starts to go hand in hand with overall journey that that's your building."
"How do you create delightful experiences for customers, even when it comes to paying and money, which is not top of mind?"
"How do you make sure stuff works? Right. And so when you think about creating this delightful experience for customers, I think a lot of time, we're just so focused on the exact moment of the transaction that we forget the entire journey."
"One big bucket is new payment methods. Customers now have a plethora of options like cash, card, BNPL, or even empty wallets."
"Payments can fail left and right for so many reasons, and the customer doesn't really care why it's happening. Right for them, you failed them as a merchant."
"The opportunity for FinTech is wide for retailers, from discovery to increasing conversions to improving the overall experience for customers."
"Regulations require time and money. Once you get over that hurdle and figure out the right working model, it earns you the right to capture trust."
"As retailers focus on what they do best, their products, the marketplace they're creating, being able to partner with a trusted FinTech can take away the payment headache."
"It's about understanding customers, where the overlap is, where you can drive customer bases through different partnerships, and how you can get working together for a better customer experience."
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The thriving landscape of entrepreneurship within the UAE, particularly Abu Dhabi, highlights significant advancements in climate technology, AI, and Web3. Muhammad Lila, Conor Gilmore, Onur Elgun, and Alexander Epure explore the regulatory challenges and investment opportunities in these sectors, providing strategies for compliance and attracting investments to fuel sector expansion.
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HIGHLIGHTS
(0:00) UAE startup experiences: AI, web3, and climate tech.
(4:33) Tech regulations and partnerships in the UAE.
(9:33) AI, digital assets, and innovation in Abu Dhabi.
(14:07) Abu Dhabi's tech growth and climate change solutions.
(22:01) Accelerating startups in Abu Dhabi: UX, infrastructure, fundraising.
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QUOTES
"For us, it was very clearly the right region for us to build that up."
"The regulatory environment here compared to Europe or North America? Look, they all have different pros and cons."
"There's certainly been a massive acceleration, especially in the last three, four years in terms of focus on tech."
"We need regulation that is both sensible and protects participants but also allows for innovation."
"Climate change is a global problem, but we are a big believer of local solutions."
"The government has set its strategy and priority in terms of sectors, focusing on healthcare, logistics, transportation, and cybersecurity."
"More people will get involved in web three, and talent from traditional finance will migrate to crypto."
"Building a startup is the loneliest thing in the world. You're doing something that 99% of other people don't have the courage to do."
"So the next step that businesses need to really do is to adopt AI."
"The most overlooked aspect... is the community aspect."
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Exploring strategies for maximizing organic reach and leveraging key metrics across various digital platforms, Juliette Nichols, Fahad Kaleem, Matt Grey, and Ankita Dhawan engage in a dynamic discussion, sharing insights on audience behavior, algorithm adaptations, and the future landscape of organic content.
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HIGHLIGHTS
(0:20) Exploring organic growth strategies for social media platforms.
(6:28) Understanding the impact of social media algorithms on content creators' success.
(11:07) Analyzing content shelf life, algorithms, and achieving success on YouTube.
(15:17) Implementing content creation strategies, focusing on metrics and ROI.
(19:52) Selecting platforms for business growth: TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn.
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QUOTES
"You gotta stop selling, you gotta start sharing content that people would want to share."
"Attention is the new currency. And if you have attention one way or the other, you are going to have an advantage."
"People are smart. They can tell templatized AI content from authentic stories and experiences."
"Metrics are good, but look at platforms like BuzzFeed. They cared only about metrics, and it's worth nothing."
"Every platform serves a slightly different purpose. Pick where your audience is and where they're more likely to buy."
"Organic growth just doesn't happen. You have to engineer it."
"Authenticity and sharing experiences will be your differentiator in the years to come."
"Content shelf life takes time to show results. Three to six months is the minimum for any organic effort to show a tangible result."
"I think the metrics that matter depend on the platform that you're working on. Inevitably, I think that some of the commonalities are sort of asking yourself, why would someone save this piece of content? And why would someone look at this piece of content and share it with five friends? And if you can kind of answer those really clearly you're engineering some content out the gate that has a good shot at pushing some numbers."
"The more people that save the content, the more valuable that content is, the more they're going to share it with their friends. And the more you're kind of triggering the algorithm to bump up that content to the home feed, in drive more follower growth, drive more views."
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Expanding a business globally is no small feat, and in their discussion, Haninder Pal Singh, Ashwin Raguraman, and Khaled Zaatarah shared valuable insights into navigating the complexities of international growth. From selecting new markets to optimizing operations, their conversation provides practical advice for aspiring entrepreneurs looking to scale their ventures internationally.
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HIGHLIGHTS
(0:20) Assessing Market Potential for International Startup Expansion
(3:47) Investing in Early-Stage Deep Tech Startups for Global Reach
(11:36) Common Mistakes in Global Business Expansion
(19:33) Startup Fundraising, Global Expansion, and Talent Acquisition
(27:54) Challenges in Scaling Global Startups
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QUOTES
"Perseverance is key. Do you persevere? Or do you pull out and say, rationality overcomes the heart or the mind overcomes the heart?"
"It's good to be prepared with all of that. We look to see whether you have that product, which is tried and tested, and is going to compete globally."
"You need to process that well. And then find the one answer that fits with what you're doing."
"Every business is different. So some businesses can only expand to one market or one country."
"But if you have a product that can that has asset light operations that can scale globally, this is what the investors would love to see as well."
"Some investors will tell you you're maybe scaling into too much markets. Focus on the core markets, which is a valid point as well."
"The biggest mistake you will be making is if you didn't experiment and take those risks just because of fear of making mistakes."
"It's very case based. And I think the ability to really take signal, and that's where perhaps we play a role, right, which is what we try to tell, Entrepreneurs sometimes get very emotionally involved with what they're doing."
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AI is revolutionizing industries worldwide with its transformative capabilities. Jeremiah Owyang discussed the rapid growth and transformative potential of AI, highlighting its impact on decision-making and the emergence of AI personal assistants, while also mentioning challenges and opportunities in the AI industry, including proactive regulation and the potential challenges for small and medium-sized companies.
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HIGHLIGHTS
(0:20) Exploring AI Trends and Startups in San Francisco: Energy and Growth
(4:42) Unpacking AI Technology and its Potential Societal and Economic Impact
(9:43) Understanding AI: Data, Infrastructure, Models, and Applications
(14:58) AI's Potential to Revolutionize Industries: A Deep Dive
(19:53) Empathetic AI: Exploring Voice Assistants with Human-like Responses
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QUOTES
"This one is, I think this is one of the biggest trends we've ever seen."
"Everybody's focused on AI, it's everywhere."
"I've never seen this type of growth, let alone their self-driving cars throughout the city."
"We're trading our brain power for computational power."
"We're building a new species that could potentially be more intelligent than us."
"AI could kill Google search and Amazon as we know them."
"AI is a consequential technology, jobs will be lost, new jobs will be created. And every single job will be impacted. Yes, even the plumbers will be impacted by AI."
"We're going to go from manual to hybrid to an automated life."
"It's like the fire or splitting the atom, it can be used for bad and harm. But it also can be used to clothe, feed, and power the world."
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Dubai's evolving business landscape is dissected by Elliott Denham, Dr. Thomas Mack, Rana Hajirasouli, and Daniel Callaghan, who engage in a dynamic discussion covering topics such as he importance of accelerators, the role of academia in supporting entrepreneurship, the attractiveness of Dubai for startups, the impact of accelerators on fundraising, and the need for personalized and effective accelerator programs.
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HIGHLIGHTS
(00:20) Exploring the elements of successful accelerator programs in Dubai.
(04:18) Fast-tracking startup growth in Dubai and the UAE.
(06:20) Fostering collaboration between universities and startups.
(08:31) Cultivating innovation and entrepreneurship in Dubai.
(10:58) Unpacking the unique aspects of entrepreneurship in Dubai and the UAE.
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QUOTES
"We're passionate about helping Dubai stay at the forefront of entrepreneurship and startup all over the world."
"We work with approximately 500 startups, trying to help them go global."
"Access to non-diluted funding would help them accelerate their growth."
"Startups love to hear from their peers."
"The role of government is to be facilitative and move the needle for all stakeholders."
"It's like being in a scale-up nation, a lot of things happening at the same time."
"There's a lot of potential innovation out there beyond the US and European ecosystems."
"There's a reciprocal relationship between grassroots initiatives and high-level policies."
"Founders have one shared commonality: their time is their most valuable asset."
"We all know how safe UAE is as a place to live as a woman, so that might attract a lot more female entrepreneurs who might be lacking access to resources in other areas of the world"
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In a dynamic keynote, Chris Yeh explores the synergy between Blitzscaling and Artificial Intelligence. Excited about Dubai's startup diversity, he previews insights on Blitzscaling's speed-centric approach and AI's potential for industry revolution. He previews his insights on Blitzscaling and AI, underlining their transformative potential for startups and breakthrough technologies.
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HIGHLIGHTS
(0:20) Blitzscaling Meets Artificial Intelligence
(5:03) Strategic Integration of Blitzscaling and AI for Business Growth
(9:35) Unlocking AI's Potential for Growth and Scalability
(13:04) Navigating AI Investment for Value Creation and Impact
(18:06) AI's Transformative Impact on Industries and Businesses
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QUOTES
"Blitzscaling is the pursuit of rapid growth by prioritizing speed over efficiency in the face of uncertainty."
"The greatest risk is not taking enough risk."
"If you ain't first, you're last."
"The question is how much can AI amplify or replace human brain power?"
"The winner takes most market and the distribution is essential to Blitzscaling."
"AI is going to be the biggest wave of our lifetimes."
"AI is going to be something that's going to require Blitzscaling to succeed."
"You can only create value in four different ways: make something faster, better, cheaper, or make something new that didn't exist before."
"The greater the amplification, the greater the replacement value, the greater the magnitude of the change to your industry, whether good or bad."
"I think 2024 is the year of AI utility. It's the year where we go from thinking, wow, this is really cool to say, how do we use this to take all of the friction out of our lives?"
"Paradoxically, a lot of people are worried about the entertainment industry. They're like, Oh, my God, AI is going to come along and crush the entertainment industry. I don't think so."
"Let humans be human, let AI be AI."
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Discover an insightful conversation between Ray Dargham and Amjad Masad as they discuss entrepreneurship, activism, and the future of technology. They explore Masad's founding of Replit, his advocacy work during global conflicts like Gaza, and the transformative potential of coding for creators worldwide.
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HIGHLIGHTS
(0:20) Entrepreneurship, tech, and startup journey
(3:57) Being an Arab founder in Silicon Valley during the Gaza conflict
(8:54) Empowering billion creators through coding and AI
(13:18) AI opportunities and dangers, decentralization, and industry maturity
(17:47) AI, startups, and entrepreneurship with industry expert
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QUOTES
"I think you have to take enough risk, potentially ending your career on Twitter, to entertain the world's richest man."
"I was very lucky to get exposure to computers early on... I learned to code just because I wanted to use the computer."
"Coding is the highest leverage activity you can have as a human... you could change worlds."
"I'm not a big believer in the idea of some, you know, some AI that's gonna kill everyone."
"Just follow that curiosity... eventually, you're gonna end up with something unique."
"It doesn't have to be a startup... start as a side project."
"What matters is how history looks back at you... I still don't feel like I've done enough."
"Every journey, every person has a different sort of unique set of skills and aspirations."
"Don't quit too soon... just keep adjusting and keep going."
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Consumers today seek transparency and purpose from brands, driving a growing demand for sustainability. Navigating the complexities of green marketing, experts such as Nermeen Negm, Alaa Badawi, Ahmad Hammoud, and Aya Maria Melki discuss effective strategies for authentic and impactful sustainability marketing.
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HIGHLIGHTS
(0:20) Exploring sustainability marketing criteria and standards.
(4:15) Discussing sustainability in agriculture technology and marketing.
(6:33) Delving into sustainability reporting and storytelling in business.
(10:43) Analyzing sustainability marketing strategies and cultural change in business practices.
(17:03) Examining transparency, blockchain, and sustainability in business.
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QUOTES
"Sustainability really is in our DNA. It's in our core, and it's in everything that we do."
"As a brand would measure its sustainability impact, you should look at three facets amongst many, but the most prominent would be your environmental impact."
"Caring for people and developing sustainable communities is something very important."
"Profitability should be very important... It has to not cost you an arm and a leg."
"Looking at the whole supply chain can make sure that your business is truly sustainable, and your brand is truly sustainable."
"Marketing sustainability is one of the hardest things to do because you need to get people to believe in it."
"Storytelling allowed it to gain more than 4.5 million views at the moment on YouTube just for like three months or four months, it became so popular because no longer are you communicating spreadsheets and reports and numbers."
"Transparency and communication, being honest and genuine about what you're sharing with your consumers... will help provide an image that links the brand to sustainability."
"Integrating this into the DNA of the companies through integration into business strategies, raising awareness, and again, partnerships with NGOs and organizations, only then companies will be able to claim that they are actually committed to sustainability."
"Data-driven transparency will be a big trend... as companies, you want to be able to share what you're doing, where you're failing, and also what are your plans to overcome these failures."
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If you’re enjoying this podcast, please subscribe to Step Podcast and leave us a review!
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