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This is Joe from Startupradio dot Joe, your startup podcast and

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YouTube blog from Germany, bringing you another

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interview in startuprate. Io.

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But this time, we don't have a guest who has

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a big relation to Germany. But we do

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have Yvette here, a VC based, as I

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just learned, on the outskirts of New York City. Hey. How you doing?

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Hi. How are you? Good to have good to be here. Thank you so much

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for inviting me. It's a pleasure to have you here.

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Be before we get into what you did,

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and there there's a lot of interesting stuff you did and what we can talk

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about, I would like to put the

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interview in perspective because a lot of German,

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Austrian, Swiss based Startupradio, tech startups, they

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need to look abroad when they want to raise serious money,

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serious a, serious b stage around that. So that's why

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we thought today we do an interview with a US based

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investor and get your perspective from the outside

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in, what is interesting in this industry, what is

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not interesting, and the few how we can

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approach investors like you. Happy to talk about it. Yes.

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But first, let me introduce you a little bit because,

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you are very interesting. You received numerous industry

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awards. I I have to look it up because there are a lot. 2020

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lifetime Achievement Emmy for Engineering and Technology,

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National Cable and Television Association, Wengard Award

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for Leadership in Science and Technology, named industry

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pioneer and Emmy for your work in video on demand at c

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change, named an industry

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one of the 11 most influential women in television industry,

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and consistently being ranked as one of the top

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100 industry executives. And I when I read

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this, I had two observations because first, what completely

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astonished me is you have 2 degrees in mathematics. No

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production, no filming, no camera.

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How did you end up in the,

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more or less, video on demand TV industry? And, of course,

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you're a mathematician. Can you tell us a good math joke?

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You know, by default, when you're a mathematician, you you have to

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have no sense of humor. They don't allow us to be able to tell jokes.

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It's one of the requirements before we graduate.

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We're very dry. So, but what I will

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say is that, I'm very much a deep technologist.

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I was working on AI long before it was cool

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recently, a very, very long time back when we had to do our

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own algorithms and we didn't have all the amazing AI toolsets that

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exist today to make it so easy to low code, no code.

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But, but I went into the television industry. I was

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working as a as a serious mathematician doing pattern recognition

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algorithms for the Department of Defense. And, and

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I heard that the that we were trying to, go to digital

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get digital signals and lay fiber. And, and and I

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thought well, I that's all mathematics to figure out how to get digital signals through

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fiber. And, and so that's what led me to the television

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industry. And I am very proud of having a Lifetime Achievement Emmy,

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which is usually people think of for actors and actresses,

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but mine is truly for television engineering and technology

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development. So streaming, DVD, App Store, many

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things that everybody uses today that I'm quite proud of

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having a piece of, of the development of.

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Just out of curiosity, you have a Emmy. How high would you rate your

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acting skills? I don't have any of those. Yes. I I

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guarantee that my acting skills had nothing to do with my

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Emmy. Yes. But I'm very I'm very proud of the

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academy because the academy is of television arts

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and sciences, and we typically watch the arts part on

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on, on the award shows. But the science is

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is very important, for for for signal, for compression,

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for delivery, for creating streaming, for for for,

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cameras, all of that, plays a role in the,

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on the sciences side. And it's the same Emmy, so quite proud of

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that. Yes. When when I read when I read all of

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that, I was expecting to see a lot of TV

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outlets in this v, like NBC, ABC. Okay. I have to

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admit I found Time Warner and PBS, but I was quite

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surprised that you started your career as a senior

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radar engineer for radar systems at Lockheed

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Martin. You also have been a senior

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VP, senior vice president at Cisco, and you have been a president

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at NASDAQ listed SeaChange, a supplier of video

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delivery systems. Would you say you're a tech

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geek? Yes. No doubt. I'm definitely I am

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definitely a geek. Yeah. That's for sure. But,

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but I, I start you know, I think that when you

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when you when you rise up to a president level from,

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from from pretty serious technology and it ties in with

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investments and being a VC as well. It's always good to

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really understand the technology, and it's really it's really good to be

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able to dive in deep with the technical teams. And, of course, if you're too

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technical and you don't understand the business and the finances and and and

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and those trade offs, that's not good

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either. So I I just I just learned the latter,

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later later in life, you know, to how to run a business, product

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management, of all of the all of the other aspects

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of of, running a company. I see. So I

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assume you run your your complete home on a raspberry pi.

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Yeah. Or or or, or or alternatives. Right? You have to

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have some, you have to have your fault tolerance built in.

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I see. So now that, we have kind of set the

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frame, who you are, what you did, pretty impressed. Actually, you're the

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first Emmy award winner ever on my show. I do have a lot of

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other winners of, prestigious award. But Emmy, that's the

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first one. I'm I'm still short of an Oscar winner, so

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maybe we can talk about this later. Yes. There's

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always tomorrow. You have, and and, maybe a Grammy. You

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should just really diversify. Oh, yeah.

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Yes. Exactly. You're here,

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because you're an US based investor and you already

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have an investment here in Germany. It's called Ditron.

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It's in Kassel in in the state of Hessen in the north.

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A little bit off the beaten path, but I do believe they

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are making some pretty cool stuff there. Can you talk just a

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tiny bit about what they are doing? So Ddrone is an anti drone company.

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Very, very interesting. You know, when we talk about drones, we think about this kind

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of drone or that kind of drone. We don't tend to think about the drone

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threat. And so what the drone is, if you if you,

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they, Menninger. So take an airport, for example.

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You remember that there have been several incidences where drones have have

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interrupted air traffic. An airport can can see

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drone activity in the area. They can actually triangulate the

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drone source. In defense cases, you could actually

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take action on the drone. Right? So so, the need

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for drone, realization, understanding,

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using artificial intelligence to do things like this tree triangulation.

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Very, very interesting company to as an anti drone,

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as an anti drone company. So they are based in Kasia

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and, and, very,

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very, very interesting technology. So we we

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can already tell you are interested in deep tech and

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green tech. Do you see a future for the German and overall

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European Startupradio in this direction? Well,

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I do. I think that especially in Germany, I mean, you

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have government subsidies and help for start ups in the

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green side. I mean, there's a big energy push, that

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that's very, very strong in Europe. And,

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so I I think that that that's a that that's a a real opportunity. I

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think that there are a lot of, there's a lot of focus on that both

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from the government and the start up side. So clean energy,

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I think, manufacturing optimization. There's

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certain things that I really think are are are strong

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where you're at, Joe. And, and I think that in

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general, in the world, it will continue to be to be more,

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and more important. And maybe a mix too. Let's let's be

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honest. Right? Maybe it's it's also,

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optimizing or automating or making more efficient and green

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energy. I think that that mix is also valuable. I see.

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We we here to talk about the

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StartupRadio from, your outside perspective as well

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as the outside in perspective, meaning the outside

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perspective, what you see of the German German speaking StartupRadio

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scene, and also how start ups from here can

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approach you. What are some

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interesting trends you see you kind of have an eye on if we

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talk about Germany or the the the broader

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area here in terms of startups. We we already

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talked about the drone, drone defense.

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Anything else? Maybe video compression, video on

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demand discussed.

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Well, I think that video on demand when when I was on

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the on the, team creating that, you

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know, think about it. We had nothing. It wasn't now streaming, everybody

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opens their phone and their laptop and starts streaming. Every time they do,

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I'm very proud. But at the time,

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you have to invent things before you know you need them.

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I remember very distinctly people telling me, Yvette, you're silly. People

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don't wanna watch video when they wanna watch it. People are fine waiting till

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8 PM on Tuesday night to watch that show. And,

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and you have to believe and you have to to to to push for a

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change. So, and I'll talk about it in a minute, Joe, because

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it does matter. Creating a better compression to get just a

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tiny bit better signal is very less disruptive

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than changing an industry and changing the way that we would that we

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watch content. Right? So that disruption becomes more important. Today,

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people are looking for something big disruptive as opposed to moving an inch

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to a better product that was disrupted yesterday. So so the

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example you brought up is a good example, but we could come up with 1,000.

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Right? Which is, are you really disrupting a market?

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And, you asked me about Germany. So I think

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that, you know, things I think about with Germany, love

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Germany, by the way. Fun fact. I was raised in

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Germany. And, clean

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energy, I think, that you already brought up, I think is very strong

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in manufacturing. Matter of fact, Germany, the country, very strong in manufacturing and on the

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industrial side.

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Fintech. There have been a lot of Fintech focus and

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successes. And I think health also, also,

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I mean, as a as a United States based, just

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person, I would say beyond tech. Right? Everybody knows knows what,

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what happened there, some years ago. So so,

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you know, it's it's on the radar of, of

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of people in general, but I wouldn't say that,

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your Silicon Alley is is is yet is known as the

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Silicon Valley. Right? Joe, so that that

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that at a high level in terms of you know what? The other thing I

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think of consumer goods, you do a lot on on the, consumer

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delivery and optimization and even health care delivery. They'll you've had

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some successes there too. Mhmm. Yes. Yes. Yes.

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Yes. Yes. Interesting perspective.

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You said But, Joe, you have to tell me you can't ask me the perspective

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without commenting. Do you disagree? If you disagree with me, I'd love to

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know. No. No. I I I actually, would completely agree.

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BioNTech actually is not too far away here, in the

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city of Mainz, and they're using the tax proceeds to

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really build a biotech hub. And we

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already had 2 of the companies

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there, already established in the interview. 1 of

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them is already listed on Nasdaq, and the other one is

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very early stage. A very smart lady. She's a

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professor at University of Mainz, and she is working

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on a technology to, make

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it easier to transplant, organs,

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to transplant, stem cells, in order

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to therapy, leukemia, for example. But

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she's still waiting for her first for

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her first patient, at the stage of the interview. But

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there's a lot of activity going on. And I do

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believe that is something that doesn't always grab

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the headline attention, but it's something we do

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except for appearing on StartupRadio. How

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would a start up get your attention? Well, you just answered.

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It's you, Joe. But, I

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think, it's a really good question because

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because I think, creating that that

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that interconnection is

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magical. And and it's the right question to ask because,

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startups wanna know who who do I go pitch. Right? I have my pitch deck.

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How can I get in front of more people? And to your

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question of, you know, looking at the US VC market,

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how can I especially get into US VCs? Right? And,

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NVCs are bombarded with everybody. Right? You're always getting

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an email with somebody's pitch deck or a one pager. Right? And,

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it is impossible to keep up with all the people that email me and say,

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read this, read this, read this. So I think that that the the the

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the magic I'm gonna I'm going to give you the answer in

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a different form, which is instead of just trying

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to crowdsource or trying to just say, I'm I'm throwing

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it out there and seeing what will stick. It's creating meaningful relationships.

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It's the same as your customer base. How do I find customers? I have a

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great product. Why won't everybody buy it? Because you have to

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create meaningful relationships. And so you should look at UVC community the way that

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you look at your sales community. It's a network. It's something that you invest in

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long term. It's something you invest in before you need funding. Funding is

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hard. It's become more and more difficult in in the US as well as

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Germany worldwide. It's, it's it's it's it's,

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it's been it's been a very difficult, last year.

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And so, so being at all of the,

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being at the events, it's not something about where can I send my deck

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to or how can I get the right introduction when I need it? It's it's

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about, creating long term relationships with VCs at

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VC events, but being in the communities. I

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think that, take Germany, for example,

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and and, I'll take a couple of companies that I'm close with like

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Siemens. Right? And Siemens is very very, caring

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about the StartupRadio community, and they reach out to the start up community.

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But go one step further. Have relationships with your companies. By the way, many

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companies have have VC arms. Right? They do they do here. Right?

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And they and, they do there. So it's not just investing in

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them. It's it's networking beyond them with several companies

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and then extending that into the US market, into the VCs in the

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US. Most people just look at it at a very tactical way. You

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have to look at this strategic, and you have to grow that network. It's it

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takes time, effort, and it's worth it.

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And the the the kind of, the bottom line that I see, it's easier

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to get a, like, a first meeting in person at an

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event with you or one of your colleagues, then

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just, sending out, like, a gazillion of emails. Because

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personal experience, there there is not a lot of

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people who would reply to those emails. I

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think that I I I agree everything you said is is is

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exactly my point. But why do so

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many send the emails and go that route? I get so many a day and,

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Joe, you have to know what I'm talking about. I'm sure you see the same.

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Right? It is the easiest way. I do something once I put it

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into a into, you know, mail bombardment. But,

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many of these VC events, and, again, go start with the

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German one. Right? Because the German ones can expand. People know

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people. You have one person there. You'll get invited to 1 in the US. And

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I think that if you start that cycle and you understand how to network, many

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of these include speed dating, is is what we call it in the US.

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Right? Where you get 15 minutes with the Startupradio you actually take the time to

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say I'm doing 15 minutes, 15 minutes, 15 minutes, 15 minutes.

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Practice a really tight pitch that's 15 minutes

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and see if you get that follow-up. And those kind of events are magical

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and much, much better. And even if you don't get invited

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to 1 of the 15 minute sessions, be there at the dinners, be there for

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the for the discussions, Again, it's a long term investment,

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and everybody knows everybody. It's a small community. So,

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so so that network is very worthwhile. 1st, did a

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a a a a little geeky detail here. I

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know speed dating works not only for online dating. Actually, I do

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have a friend who's a very geeky computer scientist. We gave him a

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birthday present to go for speed dating. Somebody had to watch him. That was

293
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me, and I actually met my wife there. Oh my goodness.

294
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Congratulations on that too. Well, this would be VC

295
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Startupradio dating, and let's assume it's the same. Exactly.

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Exactly. But for me personally,

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it was it will be also interesting to find the

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right events because as we talked about the emails, like,

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there there are a million emails, there are a million

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events. How would I find the right ones,

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the interesting ones? Right. And so and so,

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I have my I have my favorite. You have your

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favorite, which we we won't we won't share. But,

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but I think that, you have to get into

305
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the right area first. Right? It's the it's the same as networking.

306
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It's the same as as as sales. You get as close as you

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can and you leverage that network to get to the next step. So I

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said I would say, let's say for example, you're very tight with,

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a good venture group in Germany. You start with that venture group and go to

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those events and you really look at the attendee list and you see who's there

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that's in the group that you'd like to be invited to and then you go

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talk to those people and see if you can get invited to that group the

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next time. Let's say you're not in that venture circle in

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Germany, but let's say you have, a good customer circle.

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Ask to be introduced to your customers venture arms and go to their events, right,

316
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because they have the right people. All of again, it's a small community

317
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and, and and and it's and it's truly worthwhile to network

318
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in that community. The the job of a CEO is hard.

319
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Right? Because you're trying to sell. You're focused on your technology.

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You need to find the right product market fit. You're focused on marketing and you

321
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need to focus on your investments. You need to be looking at your prior rounds,

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always as as opposed to, you know, don't look at it just 6 months

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in advance. You should be close with that with that industry. So it's,

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something to add to your to your day to day job for sure. And when

325
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you attend those events, is it more important to have? I

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already know the answer, but I I I want to have it again from

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you. Is it more important to have 70 pages of pitch deck

328
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with you, a one pager or business card or both?

329
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I think that, now you just do an electronic LinkedIn connect.

330
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So so no business card. And, I think

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that, you wanna capture somebody's, interest.

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So the biggest thing is what you can say with your words. You don't need

333
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a deck. 1 pager to leave somebody with is fine, but it's

334
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all about the story. Have your story well and crisp.

335
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Joe, if I can just if I can just pivot for a second about that

336
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story. Right? Because the key is what

337
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makes a VC interested? Forget US

338
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or or or if you're if you're in India or if you're in

339
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in in Germany, why do I like you? Right?

340
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And and for for for us, our criteria,

341
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and I think for most VCs, the very first thing

342
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is, the people. Right? You have a

343
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I'm a serial entrepreneur. I've taken I have this many unicorns

344
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in my, in, in in my past. Right? Or I'm a first it's a

345
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first time and I just finished sending out 50,000

346
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emails and they didn't work. So that's my first pitch to you and I'm not

347
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succinct. Right? All of those things matter. So you really need to

348
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get your story about the people right as to why I should trust you and

349
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your team. I have the best team. I have a proven team.

350
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My team has lots of experience and I and I believe in

351
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you. That's the first criteria. If you show up with a

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bad pitch or you show up with 75 pages to your question, Joe,

353
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it's a tough, It's it's an uphill battle. Right? You're probably not gonna

354
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get very far, and you're saying, I finally was invited to the party,

355
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and I failed. Right? So so do your homework for the party.

356
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Call Joe. Joe will Joe will help you. He knows what to do at the

357
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party. What, but I think the second

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part is that you have to be in a market transition. Right? The

359
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market transition is very important to us. So so,

360
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I say that because because you said earlier

361
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better compression for video versus versus inventing

362
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streaming. Inventing streaming changed the world. Better compression? I

363
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don't know if people care. I don't know what people would pay. Are you gonna

364
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pay more for your streaming every month because it's a better compression?

365
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Maybe, maybe not. Right? It's difficult that somebody every day comes up to

366
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me to say, I'm going to make streaming better because I have a better user

367
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interface, because I have a better compression, because I have a better this. I have

368
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I can we I have, technology to share videos, to do video

369
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parties. There are so many things to make it one step better,

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but is it disruptive enough like the first invention was?

371
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Right? And, and so that

372
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disruption is really, really important. You have to have something different. You have to

373
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differentiate yourself from everybody else, and then we go way

374
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deep. We we will go to the customer base. We'll talk to our

375
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friendly customers because we have a huge connection. I work with

376
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John Chambers, who's a legend in Silicon Valley, and,

377
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and we use our own connections to to to to say, is this a

378
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right market fit product market fit? Would you buy this? Even

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though you don't even know the Startupradio yet. So so all of those

380
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things matter, and you have to have all of the things that you're trying to

381
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accomplish in your pitch deck, in your mind, and say I

382
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have to have an elevator pitch. I'm on the

383
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elevator between floor 1 and, say, floor 5, not

384
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floor 25. Floor 5 floors. Do I have a pitch

385
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short enough to answer those questions? I'm super the best team.

386
00:24:55.265 --> 00:24:58.930
I have a disruptive technology for a market transition that's going to rock your

387
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world. Five stories. You gotta practice that. Then you've gotta do the

388
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15 minute pitch, you know, for the,

389
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for, for that type of speed dating environment, right? Where you're doing

390
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VC after VC after VC and, and then have your

391
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longer deck. But if you always have the 80 pages, you you you you

392
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won't you know, you'll be lucky to get far. It's it's it's an uphill battle.

393
00:25:20.740 --> 00:25:24.495
But does that make sense, Joe? I mean, that that criteria Yeah. Yeah. It does.

394
00:25:24.495 --> 00:25:27.855
It quicker and tougher. It totally makes sense. And

395
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actually, that is something that has gotten easier over the

396
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years because many people it

397
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it's very easy to come up with a 80 slide presentation.

398
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It's much harder to come up with an 8 slide presentation.

399
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But when I was talking about this, it's gotten easier. There

400
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are a lot of tools out there to help you first do an very

401
00:25:50.290 --> 00:25:53.890
impressive presentation. I know that matters a little bit. And

402
00:25:53.890 --> 00:25:57.730
secondly, also, tools like Chat GPT who help you just to

403
00:25:57.730 --> 00:26:01.445
summarize 80 slides into 8 slides. They can help you

404
00:26:01.445 --> 00:26:05.205
with that. Because if you're an entrepreneur by yourself,

405
00:26:05.205 --> 00:26:08.990
it's very, very, very hard to really cut down

406
00:26:08.990 --> 00:26:12.770
all the things you you thought about, all the all the details

407
00:26:12.830 --> 00:26:15.970
you want to include that highlights, what makes you different.

408
00:26:16.590 --> 00:26:19.855
But actually, a really good trick that,

409
00:26:20.175 --> 00:26:24.015
somebody told me, one of my former bosses, was try to

410
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explain it to your grandma. Yeah.

411
00:26:27.529 --> 00:26:31.289
Yeah. As a mathematician too. Yeah. She doesn't

412
00:26:31.289 --> 00:26:34.970
get the details here and there and this, and she doesn't even know Disney

413
00:26:34.970 --> 00:26:38.795
plus. But if you could explain it to your grandma that

414
00:26:38.795 --> 00:26:42.475
she'll understand, you're set. That is a that it

415
00:26:42.635 --> 00:26:46.000
that is good advice, Joe. That is very good advice. When I

416
00:26:46.000 --> 00:26:49.360
started, I I, you know, I started on the super

417
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techie, geeky side. And, when people told me I need to bring

418
00:26:53.200 --> 00:26:56.794
it to 1 page, I would just change the font size. I've learned much since

419
00:26:56.794 --> 00:27:00.315
then. You know? So the grandma is a good idea, and I

420
00:27:00.315 --> 00:27:03.914
think, Joe, the other thing that's really changed is the financial criteria has

421
00:27:03.914 --> 00:27:07.390
gotten, much more, stringent. So

422
00:27:07.610 --> 00:27:11.210
it used to be that, I would believe in you, Joe, and you're

423
00:27:11.210 --> 00:27:14.906
pitching to me, and I've and I've been through 2 startups with you in the

424
00:27:14.906 --> 00:27:18.508
past. And I think now there it's a show me instead of

425
00:27:18.508 --> 00:27:22.160
believe me stage. It's gotten worse over the last 24 months.

426
00:27:22.160 --> 00:27:25.280
You have to show me your growth. You have to show me your growth in

427
00:27:25.280 --> 00:27:29.040
much more stringent time periods. You have to show me a

428
00:27:29.040 --> 00:27:32.565
much more aggressive growth. It's,

429
00:27:32.804 --> 00:27:36.644
people would like to see a, I

430
00:27:36.644 --> 00:27:38.885
think that VCs in general are are,

431
00:27:40.410 --> 00:27:44.010
the you know, you you you know well. Right? The growth is is

432
00:27:44.010 --> 00:27:47.770
different for different size of of of of revenue. But, but,

433
00:27:47.770 --> 00:27:51.245
again, that that criteria gets gets stricter and stricter. And,

434
00:27:51.805 --> 00:27:55.645
and so I think really focusing on the financials in addition to the

435
00:27:55.645 --> 00:27:59.060
grandmother stories is is very

436
00:27:59.060 --> 00:28:02.820
important because a lot of pitches to me focus

437
00:28:02.820 --> 00:28:06.365
on how cool my technology is. And then I talk about the money, and they

438
00:28:06.365 --> 00:28:09.245
say, well, Yvette, you're gonna help me with that. And I just think, wow. If

439
00:28:09.245 --> 00:28:12.845
you don't have that ready and you don't understand that, that's a that's a big

440
00:28:12.845 --> 00:28:16.110
miss, especially on early seed. Mhmm. And,

441
00:28:16.590 --> 00:28:20.350
also, what what I've experienced in my

442
00:28:20.350 --> 00:28:23.795
life is a lot of the people who have, like, the

443
00:28:23.795 --> 00:28:27.575
technical details and all the stuff, the product hammered out,

444
00:28:27.795 --> 00:28:31.360
they completely believe you just need 1, 2,

445
00:28:31.360 --> 00:28:35.120
3,000,000. You throw them into marketing. The marketing guys will

446
00:28:35.120 --> 00:28:38.625
do something with it and then you're good. That doesn't work

447
00:28:38.625 --> 00:28:42.385
anymore. Right? That is so right. You are so right. And which is why

448
00:28:42.385 --> 00:28:45.980
I say, think about all the answers before you do your presentation

449
00:28:46.280 --> 00:28:49.580
and make sure that you can give all those answers in the various

450
00:28:50.360 --> 00:28:53.914
sizes, extra small, like an elevator pitch

451
00:28:54.135 --> 00:28:57.815
to to to small, like 15 minutes to medium and

452
00:28:57.815 --> 00:29:01.575
large and extra large. And, and, and it's amazing

453
00:29:01.575 --> 00:29:05.080
how most of them will be smaller medium pitches. And you have to

454
00:29:05.080 --> 00:29:07.500
capture you have to capture a VC's,

455
00:29:09.240 --> 00:29:13.054
interest in that short period of time because your only goal is

456
00:29:13.054 --> 00:29:16.815
to follow-up. Your goal is not to let them understand the detail of slide

457
00:29:16.815 --> 00:29:20.230
number 157. It's really just to get the

458
00:29:20.230 --> 00:29:23.830
follow-up meeting. Actually, I do believe if you can

459
00:29:23.830 --> 00:29:27.370
make a VC sit in to slide 157,

460
00:29:28.424 --> 00:29:32.025
he or she is already very interested. This is

461
00:29:32.025 --> 00:29:35.725
true. I don't know if I've ever seen that, though, Joe. Have you?

462
00:29:36.105 --> 00:29:39.690
157. That's a lot. He gave me a very, very

463
00:29:39.690 --> 00:29:43.050
new way to think about the pitches. So you

464
00:29:43.050 --> 00:29:46.495
have x s. It's like the one pager, you have the s

465
00:29:46.495 --> 00:29:50.335
pitch, the m pitch, and maybe somewhere there's the x l

466
00:29:50.335 --> 00:29:53.919
pitch. But basically, you just use it as,

467
00:29:54.320 --> 00:29:58.080
in German, we would say, as a collection of slides that you

468
00:29:58.080 --> 00:30:01.840
can throw together, to make shorter pictures. Yes. Yes. That's

469
00:30:01.840 --> 00:30:05.595
right. And and and, not just the sizes, but

470
00:30:06.135 --> 00:30:09.815
but know what your goal is of the meeting because many people think I'm

471
00:30:09.815 --> 00:30:13.519
looking for that technical depth. I need to get that into your head about how

472
00:30:13.519 --> 00:30:17.200
amazing my solution is. And, that should not be your goal.

473
00:30:17.200 --> 00:30:20.500
Right? So when we look at things, I gave you that criteria, the people,

474
00:30:20.905 --> 00:30:24.745
the market transition, the total disruption as to why you're gonna be

475
00:30:24.745 --> 00:30:27.785
successful and how am I gonna make money and how long is it gonna take.

476
00:30:27.785 --> 00:30:31.500
Right? Joe so so you have to look at it from my perspective and

477
00:30:31.500 --> 00:30:35.259
give that and and and think of that as you create those size

478
00:30:35.419 --> 00:30:38.235
sized, decks. Also, for me,

479
00:30:39.415 --> 00:30:43.115
many people, when they start out in the Startupradio scene, like the

480
00:30:43.175 --> 00:30:46.270
very first month of fundraising.

481
00:30:47.290 --> 00:30:50.890
They believe they have, like, as we talked about, a very long

482
00:30:50.890 --> 00:30:54.684
extensive pitch check. They have one scheduled appointment

483
00:30:54.985 --> 00:30:58.825
with the VC, and at the end of the pitch, the VC will get

484
00:30:58.825 --> 00:31:02.200
out his checkbook and write a check. That's not working

485
00:31:02.200 --> 00:31:05.799
anymore. How how would you say you should be

486
00:31:05.799 --> 00:31:09.019
prepared? Because for me, personally, I would approach it,

487
00:31:09.399 --> 00:31:12.605
get to know them in person, like attend the right events.

488
00:31:13.065 --> 00:31:16.445
Then you go and, do, like, an online presentation,

489
00:31:16.905 --> 00:31:20.240
like the s or the m pitch deck as we talked about.

490
00:31:20.620 --> 00:31:24.299
And then maybe you should also, kind

491
00:31:24.299 --> 00:31:28.000
of, get to know the the people in person.

492
00:31:28.445 --> 00:31:31.905
Visit them again, Silicon Valley, New York,

493
00:31:32.365 --> 00:31:36.205
Chicago, wherever they are. Yes. That's right. That

494
00:31:36.205 --> 00:31:39.750
that would make a lot of difference if you visit

495
00:31:39.890 --> 00:31:43.650
the VCs again. And and then at one point, they'll get

496
00:31:43.650 --> 00:31:47.434
out the checkbook, but it will be a long process. Yes. As a

497
00:31:47.434 --> 00:31:50.975
matter of fact, I don't I don't, I mean, we're a we're a very

498
00:31:51.434 --> 00:31:54.815
close community and and, you know, in the VC

499
00:31:56.190 --> 00:31:59.410
world. So we all we all talk to each other quite often.

500
00:31:59.950 --> 00:32:03.710
But, but but that is, that's not the way

501
00:32:03.710 --> 00:32:07.375
we do it at all. Right? So we have we have, you know, a

502
00:32:07.375 --> 00:32:11.135
100 to 1, rejections of

503
00:32:11.135 --> 00:32:14.810
of ones that we even, show interest in. So you have to

504
00:32:14.810 --> 00:32:18.170
come in looking at a very high failure

505
00:32:18.170 --> 00:32:22.010
rate probability. And, and I think

506
00:32:22.010 --> 00:32:24.615
that what you do is you want in the first meeting, you want a second

507
00:32:24.615 --> 00:32:28.155
meeting. In the second meeting, you'd like to have a meeting with a larger team.

508
00:32:28.295 --> 00:32:31.415
Right? And in the third meeting, you'd like to have a second meeting with the

509
00:32:31.415 --> 00:32:35.220
larger team. In the in the next meeting, you'd like to have somebody that falls

510
00:32:35.220 --> 00:32:38.660
in love with this technology product, market

511
00:32:38.660 --> 00:32:42.265
disruption, whatever it is that's that's super exciting about your

512
00:32:42.265 --> 00:32:45.485
about your particular pitch. It's gonna take many meetings,

513
00:32:46.265 --> 00:32:49.920
and and and and it almost always involves a larger team.

514
00:32:50.720 --> 00:32:54.400
And and like I said, from our standpoint, we then wanna talk to

515
00:32:54.400 --> 00:32:57.840
customers and then we talk to our own customers that we know

516
00:32:57.840 --> 00:33:01.645
are are our friends and family and we'll say,

517
00:33:01.645 --> 00:33:05.325
let me introduce you to to to somebody that we're thinking of investing

518
00:33:05.325 --> 00:33:09.000
in and and tell me, what would you what what's your

519
00:33:09.000 --> 00:33:12.360
honest thought about their sales pitch, not not the investment

520
00:33:12.360 --> 00:33:16.025
pitch? So there there's a lot of steps there, Joe. It is not an easy

521
00:33:16.025 --> 00:33:19.865
it is not an easy journey. And again, the financial criteria has

522
00:33:19.865 --> 00:33:23.705
gotten much stricter. You can't just do yesterday's thing better. I mean, I'm not

523
00:33:23.705 --> 00:33:27.530
saying you can't. Of course, any startup can do anything. But, but

524
00:33:27.530 --> 00:33:31.370
but we really look for true disruptions in a market transition. It's it's

525
00:33:31.370 --> 00:33:35.115
it's, it's it's it's been a difficult market. And then if you wanna

526
00:33:35.115 --> 00:33:38.394
go outside of Germany and say, I would like to have that US, you have

527
00:33:38.394 --> 00:33:41.900
to do all the same things in in in the

528
00:33:41.900 --> 00:33:45.680
USBC environment. Mhmm. Yes. Exactly.

529
00:33:46.620 --> 00:33:50.075
Plus you have to show

530
00:33:50.615 --> 00:33:54.235
why they should invest because as you were saying,

531
00:33:54.455 --> 00:33:58.230
there are certain economics to VC fund. That

532
00:33:58.230 --> 00:34:01.909
means you you can't just, make 2,

533
00:34:01.909 --> 00:34:05.370
3 times profit on your investment, then the economics

534
00:34:05.665 --> 00:34:09.505
don't work because a lot of failures are always included in a

535
00:34:09.505 --> 00:34:13.339
VC fund. That means the successful startups, they have to

536
00:34:13.339 --> 00:34:17.179
make up for all the other failures. So you're looking really for the big

537
00:34:17.179 --> 00:34:20.965
moonshot there. Yes. You are. Always. Always. Well said,

538
00:34:20.965 --> 00:34:24.405
Joe. That's exactly the way it works. You are you are spot

539
00:34:24.405 --> 00:34:28.085
on. You know, the only other thing I'd add to to to to this

540
00:34:28.085 --> 00:34:31.449
whole discussion of of Germany that you just brought up is that,

541
00:34:31.989 --> 00:34:35.530
and not specific to Germany, but but specific to the US.

542
00:34:35.909 --> 00:34:39.485
One of the big disruptions right now in the VC market is of

543
00:34:39.485 --> 00:34:43.245
course the economy. And the second one that's worth mentioning is of

544
00:34:43.245 --> 00:34:47.005
course, all of the regulatory changes, geopolitics and things that

545
00:34:47.005 --> 00:34:49.030
are happening. And so,

546
00:34:50.449 --> 00:34:54.290
maybe an important thing to to add to to the whole

547
00:34:54.290 --> 00:34:57.765
discussion we just had in terms of pitching is also

548
00:34:58.404 --> 00:35:02.105
those those two things. Right? Because, the VC community

549
00:35:02.164 --> 00:35:05.560
sees things as a slower payout right now and as a high risk

550
00:35:05.880 --> 00:35:09.560
with regard to regulatory changes. And in another

551
00:35:09.560 --> 00:35:13.080
country, you're dependent on the regulatory changes in that

552
00:35:13.080 --> 00:35:16.785
country and and what's happening. And, so much

553
00:35:16.785 --> 00:35:20.545
with with the geopolitics, with artificial intelligence, with the

554
00:35:20.545 --> 00:35:24.369
ongoing privacy considerations and trust, and, and it's

555
00:35:24.369 --> 00:35:28.150
just seemingly never ending as as to how regulatory

556
00:35:28.290 --> 00:35:32.130
changes are being implemented. So I would add that to a

557
00:35:32.130 --> 00:35:35.715
level of complexity for for, in a a cross

558
00:35:35.715 --> 00:35:39.395
country investment because you're making an investment not just in the

559
00:35:39.395 --> 00:35:43.130
technology, but in all of that as well. Never ever forget

560
00:35:43.130 --> 00:35:46.970
the taxes. Yes. Yes. And and and and, you know,

561
00:35:46.970 --> 00:35:50.625
if you have something that's that's you want me to invest in something that's

562
00:35:50.625 --> 00:35:54.065
strong in country that, had that

563
00:35:54.145 --> 00:35:57.905
that's, you know, in country that's a different country from where you're investing

564
00:35:57.905 --> 00:36:01.619
in, then, you know, is that something we're all familiar with?

565
00:36:01.619 --> 00:36:04.760
Is that is that regulatory risk going to,

566
00:36:05.299 --> 00:36:07.559
going to potentially impact your success?

567
00:36:09.075 --> 00:36:12.455
And so much on privacy even if you're doing grocery delivery.

568
00:36:12.515 --> 00:36:16.035
Right? You know, what do you do with the data? How do you address the

569
00:36:16.035 --> 00:36:19.619
data? Where is it stored? Can you store it in the cloud? You know, how

570
00:36:19.619 --> 00:36:23.140
are you addressing all of the privacy factors when you go across a country

571
00:36:23.140 --> 00:36:26.495
line? Are we technically savvy enough to address

572
00:36:26.495 --> 00:36:30.095
that? All of those are more difficult when you're investing in another

573
00:36:30.095 --> 00:36:33.730
country to understand what those regulations are and how you cross those

574
00:36:33.730 --> 00:36:37.190
bridges. So there's definitely another level of complexity.

575
00:36:37.809 --> 00:36:41.494
And I would think about we talked about Dedron based in Casa.

576
00:36:42.194 --> 00:36:45.394
You know, they were they were their their headquarters was in in in in,

577
00:36:45.875 --> 00:36:48.955
in San Francisco, and our headquarters is in San Francisco. Joe,

578
00:36:49.660 --> 00:36:53.440
or in, Palo Alto, I should say, Silicon Valley. And,

579
00:36:54.619 --> 00:36:58.285
so so think about, are you going to have a presence in the US? If

580
00:36:58.285 --> 00:37:01.905
you're if you're seeking US, investments,

581
00:37:02.340 --> 00:37:05.860
are you planning to expand? Do you have US customers? You have 2 US

582
00:37:05.860 --> 00:37:09.080
customers. One thing that we do, Joe, is we

583
00:37:10.155 --> 00:37:13.835
we actually help with customer expansion. So we have a

584
00:37:13.835 --> 00:37:17.275
very, very, very large customer base that we're close with,

585
00:37:17.515 --> 00:37:21.130
and where we know their their executive teams. And we set

586
00:37:21.130 --> 00:37:24.670
up jc2days. And in jc2days, we might invite

587
00:37:25.529 --> 00:37:28.805
between 5 10 startups to do this speed

588
00:37:29.425 --> 00:37:33.105
presentation to to to a customer with the goal to see which one

589
00:37:33.105 --> 00:37:36.810
the the the customer would like to follow-up with. And, and

590
00:37:36.810 --> 00:37:40.330
so we actually help with sales introductions so so much.

591
00:37:40.330 --> 00:37:44.090
But if you're only in country, then that so much of that

592
00:37:44.090 --> 00:37:47.434
would not be applicable. Right? So how how good of a fit are you with

593
00:37:47.434 --> 00:37:51.115
the culture of the VC and how they run? Because we take such an active

594
00:37:51.115 --> 00:37:54.795
role and we help with introductions. If you're only in country

595
00:37:54.795 --> 00:37:57.840
in Germany, then that would be very limiting. I see.

596
00:37:58.780 --> 00:38:02.400
To get towards the end because we're talking for over

597
00:38:02.540 --> 00:38:06.245
35 minutes for now, That will be on the little bit longer side, but

598
00:38:06.245 --> 00:38:10.025
I do do believe there's a lot of entertaining and also

599
00:38:10.085 --> 00:38:13.920
interesting content in here. There are a lot of there there

600
00:38:14.059 --> 00:38:17.420
are benchmarks out there, in terms of

601
00:38:17.420 --> 00:38:21.055
series a sizes, valuations, and so on and so forth. If

602
00:38:21.055 --> 00:38:24.495
you Google a lot, benchmarks, how much

603
00:38:24.495 --> 00:38:28.255
investment do series a stage Startupradio, what at

604
00:38:28.255 --> 00:38:31.640
what valuation, the same for series b, valuation

605
00:38:31.940 --> 00:38:35.540
investment size. Would you expect the

606
00:38:35.540 --> 00:38:39.000
founders to know that and not be completely off the charts?

607
00:38:39.325 --> 00:38:43.085
I think that founders would behoove themselves to look up

608
00:38:43.085 --> 00:38:46.765
some of the art there are some great articles out there on on what

609
00:38:46.765 --> 00:38:50.560
your multiples expectations are,

610
00:38:50.560 --> 00:38:53.600
what the ranges are for it, what what is the right,

611
00:38:54.400 --> 00:38:58.115
growth expectation on various aspects of growth,

612
00:38:58.115 --> 00:39:01.795
right, for for various sizes

613
00:39:01.795 --> 00:39:05.540
of revenue. I think that all of that is something that that that, I

614
00:39:05.540 --> 00:39:09.220
would recommend you you familiarize yourself with because that's what you'll be compared

615
00:39:09.220 --> 00:39:12.900
to, for sure. Joe if they don't know, I

616
00:39:12.900 --> 00:39:16.645
mean, Joe, you tell me if they know or not, but but, but

617
00:39:16.645 --> 00:39:20.485
they should. Yeah. They they should. And, as you said,

618
00:39:20.485 --> 00:39:22.920
it's just your homework you need to do. And,

619
00:39:24.660 --> 00:39:28.440
getting finally to you guys, what kind of startups

620
00:39:28.500 --> 00:39:32.200
are you looking for and how could startups pitch? We we already,

621
00:39:32.744 --> 00:39:36.205
we already noticed you you get way too many emails.

622
00:39:37.145 --> 00:39:40.984
But I've seen you have security and trust

623
00:39:40.984 --> 00:39:44.119
engagement, energy infrastructure and sustainability

624
00:39:44.900 --> 00:39:48.579
as broad investment topics on your website. Could

625
00:39:48.579 --> 00:39:52.005
you elaborate a little bit what you guys are doing and

626
00:39:52.005 --> 00:39:55.605
how start ups can make the first contact there? Joe, so I would say that

627
00:39:55.605 --> 00:39:59.000
we're highly biased towards AI, have been for for many, many years.

628
00:39:59.240 --> 00:40:02.760
You know, since the beginning, we've been very biased towards AI and

629
00:40:02.760 --> 00:40:06.395
transformations as an underlying technology. The

630
00:40:06.395 --> 00:40:09.915
areas that you just mentioned, I would say security. There's so much

631
00:40:09.915 --> 00:40:13.515
happening in security and with the change of quantum computing and

632
00:40:13.515 --> 00:40:17.280
and, and and and new technologies that really

633
00:40:17.280 --> 00:40:21.040
affect cyber, cyber risk quantification and

634
00:40:21.040 --> 00:40:24.735
and and things that address some of the SEC regulations that are happening

635
00:40:24.735 --> 00:40:28.415
here. Lots of interesting things on the cyber side, and

636
00:40:28.415 --> 00:40:32.095
that has to continue to change because, with AI, we now

637
00:40:32.095 --> 00:40:35.770
have AI driven cyberattacks. So that is going to continue to be

638
00:40:35.830 --> 00:40:39.590
top of mind for for a very long time. So so that's

639
00:40:39.590 --> 00:40:43.045
one area. The next I would say is AI for, customer

640
00:40:43.185 --> 00:40:46.785
experience. I think the call customer experience needs a complete

641
00:40:46.785 --> 00:40:50.325
transformation. I think AI is gonna drive call calls

642
00:40:50.450 --> 00:40:54.290
to a call center. Bots are gonna become better. They're gonna be more

643
00:40:54.290 --> 00:40:57.650
speakable as opposed to the the the IVRs that exist

644
00:40:57.650 --> 00:41:01.395
today. Lots of transformation happening in that, which is a big

645
00:41:01.395 --> 00:41:05.075
interest. And then I think that you can't get rid of our roots of

646
00:41:05.075 --> 00:41:08.840
infrastructure, probably continue to to stay in there and things like

647
00:41:08.840 --> 00:41:12.380
network as a service. I'll stop there, Joe, but there's a couple of ideas.

648
00:41:12.440 --> 00:41:16.045
Right. And everybody who would like to learn more, you can go down here in

649
00:41:16.045 --> 00:41:19.724
the show notes. There will be, of course, a link to your LinkedIn profile and

650
00:41:19.724 --> 00:41:23.480
to Joe investments. Thank you very much. It was a pleasure

651
00:41:23.480 --> 00:41:27.240
having you here. Likewise. Thanks for having me, Joan. Totally much. Pleasure.

652
00:41:27.240 --> 00:41:29.260
Have a good day. Bye bye. Bye.