Giant Ideas

Immad Akhund is the Co-founder and CEO at Mercury - one of the most widely used business banking platforms globally. He is also an active investor in Silicon Valley - as an active investor in 350 startups at their earliest stages including Airtable, Substack, and Rappi. This year he announced that Mercury raised $300 million at $3.5 billion valuation. He also announced his $26 million fund to back early-stage startups. In this episode we talk about why founders make the best venture investors, his experience with investors at Mercury, and what it takes to scale a unicorn.Stay tuned next week to hear episode 2 about Immad's life so far and how he dealt with the panic of the weekend Silicon Valley Bank failed.Building a purpose driven company? Read more about Giant Ventures at www.Giant.vc.Music credits: Bubble King written and produced by Cameron McLain and Stevan Cablayan aka Vector_XING. Please note: The content of this podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. It should not be considered financial, legal, or investment advice. Always consult a licensed professional before making any investment decisions.

Today on the Giant Ideas podcast we welcome back visionary architect Bjarke Ingels, founder of  @BIGSOLUTIONS (Bjarke Ingels Group), whose work includes Google’s Silicon Valley campus, the Danish Maritime Museum, and 2 World Trade Center. In this episode, Bjarke shares his philosophy on how your home should be a portrait of who you are. He also reflects on the three photographs that have defined his life, how his early love of drawing shaped his path to becoming an architect, and his unique design philosophy: embracing challenges and diverse demands (“Yes, is more”) to create innovative architecture.Building a purpose driven company? Read more about Giant Ventures at www.Giant.vc.Music credits: Bubble King written and produced by Cameron McLain and Stevan Cablayan aka Vector_XING. Please note: The content of this podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. It should not be considered financial, legal, or investment advice. Always consult a licensed professional before making any investment decisions.

Today on the Giant Ideas podcast we welcome visionary architect Bjarke Ingels, founder of BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group), whose work includes Google’s Silicon Valley campus, the Danish Maritime Museum, and 2 World Trade Center. In this episode, Bjarke shares his philosophy of “utopian pragmatism,” the inseparable link between form and function in architecture, and his thoughts on why architecture matters.Bjarke also discusses collaborations with fellow visionary Thomas Heatherwick, the economic and societal forces shaping our built environment. We discuss his ambitious “Mindfulness City” project in Bhutan, his concept of “hedonic sustainability”: designing cities and spaces that are irresistible and joyful.Tune in for a fascinating exploration of how architecture can shape a better world, insight into the Danish approach to design and sustainability, and why balancing contradictions is needed more than ever.Building a purpose driven company? Read more about Giant Ventures at www.Giant.vc.Music credits: Bubble King written and produced by Cameron McLain and Stevan Cablayan aka Vector_XING. Please note: The content of this podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. It should not be considered financial, legal, or investment advice. Always consult a licensed professional before making any investment decisions.

Doug Bernauer, founder of Radiant (one of Giant’s most exciting growth investments) joins us again on the Giant Ideas podcast. We backed Radiant in their Series C round to mass produce portable nuclear reactors.The founder, Doug, worked with Elon Musk for 12 years at SpaceX - including their reusable rocket prototype and the Mars Colonisation project. In this episode, he shares the 3 photographs that define his life, what he learnt from SpaceX, and why good companies need 'unreasonable' leaders. Building a purpose driven company? Read more about Giant Ventures at www.Giant.vc.Music credits: Bubble King written and produced by Cameron McLain and Stevan Cablayan aka Vector_XING. Please note: The content of this podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. It should not be considered financial, legal, or investment advice. Always consult a licensed professional before making any investment decisions.

Today we are joined by Doug Bernauer, founder of Radiant – one of Giant’s most exciting growth investments. We backed Radiant in their Series C round. Their vision is to mass produce portable nuclear reactors. But their vision goes far beyond that.They want to first manufacture nuclear reactors for Earth - giving clean energy to remote areas. And they then want to use this profit to develop a reactor for Mars, to send it on a Starship to power the potential future civilisation of Mars. It’s a giant idea - both on this planet, and beyond.The founder, Doug, worked with Elon Musk for 12 years at SpaceX - including their reusable rocket prototype and the Mars Colonization project. In this episode, we talk about why nuclear power’s time has finally come, how Radiant’s approach is unique, and his long term vision to deploy nuclear power on Mars.Building a purpose driven company? Read more about Giant Ventures at www.Giant.vc.Music credits: Bubble King written and produced by Cameron McLain and Stevan Cablayan aka Vector_XING. Please note: The content of this podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. It should not be considered financial, legal, or investment advice. Always consult a licensed professional before making any investment decisions.

What are the moments that defined you?Last week we had an in depth conversation with star investor Halle Tecco about creating massively better healthcare in the US.Today, she joins us to talk about the 3 moments that defined her and the wisdom gained so far in life. From choosing a life partner, to deciding whether to have children, to choosing to leave your home town and prioritise adventure. About Halle Tecco:Halle Tecco is an entrepreneur and investor passionate about fixing the healthcare system.She is the co-founder of Co-fertility - a company rewriting the egg freezing and egg donation experience. She is also the founder of Natalist and Rock Health, one of the pioneering digital health early-stage venture funds.Now, as Course Director at Harvard Medical School and Adjunct Professor at Columbia Business School, she supports future healthcare leaders through teaching.She is also the creator of The Heart of Healthcare Podcast, the #1 podcast in health tech, and is about to release a book, “Massively Better Healthcare: The Innovator's Guide to Tackling Healthcare's Biggest Challenges”.Building a purpose driven company? Read more about Giant Ventures at www.Giant.vc.Music credits: Bubble King written and produced by Cameron McLain and Stevan Cablayan aka Vector_XING. Please note: The content of this podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. It should not be considered financial, legal, or investment advice. Always consult a licensed professional before making any investment decisions.

Today on the podcast, we are excited to be joined by Halle Tecco - an entrepreneur and investor passionate about fixing the healthcare system.Halle is the co-founder of Co-fertility - a company rewriting the egg freezing and egg donation experience. She is also the founder of Natalist and Rock Health, one of the pioneering digital health early-stage venture funds.Now, as Course Director at Harvard Medical School and Adjunct Professor at Columbia Business School, she supports future healthcare leaders through teaching.She is also the creator of The Heart of Healthcare Podcast, the #1 podcast in health tech, and is about to release a book, “Massively Better Healthcare: The Innovator's Guide to Tackling Healthcare's Biggest Challenges”.We talk about:Why the US healthcare system is inefficient (from middlemen to bad incentives).Why even with more insurance coverage, many people still can’t afford care because of high deductibles.How big healthcare companies block change by using legal and regulatory power.How new ideas succeed by either working outside insurance or partnering with existing players.AI's potential to personalise medicine and lower costsBuilding a purpose driven company? Read more about Giant Ventures at www.Giant.vc.Music credits: Bubble King written and produced by Cameron McLain and Stevan Cablayan aka Vector_XING. Please note: The content of this podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. It should not be considered financial, legal, or investment advice. Always consult a licensed professional before making any investment decisions.

Today on the podcast we have Narayana Murthy - Founder and former CEO of Infosys - a giant which reached $100BN, one of the largest companies in history, and transformed India’s economy.Infosys - founded in 1981 - offers consulting, IT, and outsourcing services across the globe. Starting with a small loan, 18 years later it became the first ever Indian company to be listed on NASDAQ. Murthy has been listed among the 12 greatest entrepreneurs of our time by Fortune magazine. He has akso been described as the "Father of the Indian IT sector" by TIME.Murthy is also the father-in-law of Rishi Sunak, the former UK Prime Minister.In this episode, we talk about Narayana Murthy’s early life and values, how Infosys grew from $40,000 to a multi-billion dollar global enterprise, why he believes in hard work, and the role of entrepreneurship and capitalism in India.Building a purpose driven company? Read more about Giant Ventures at www.Giant.vc.Music credits: Bubble King written and produced by Cameron McLain and Stevan Cablayan aka Vector_XING. Please note: The content of this podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. It should not be considered financial, legal, or investment advice. Always consult a licensed professional before making any investment decisions.

Today on the podcast we welcome Jeremy Chan. Jeremy is a British-Canadian chef who grew up between London and Hong Kong, and is the Co-founder of Ikoyi restaurant. In 2017, Chan joined forces with Iré Hassan-Odukale – a friend who had just left a career in insurance - and together they decided to build Ikoyi.Ikoyi is now a two-Michelin-starred restaurant in London, and it has recently been voted one of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants. But Chan has not always been a chef. In fact he studied Philosophy with Cameron at Princeton, and worked briefly in finance. After leaving, he wrote to lots of restaurants asking them to take him on for some experience. He ended up working at restaurants like the two-starred Hibiscus, Dinner by Heston, and in one of the best restaurants in the world: Noma. He’s known for his creativity, innovation, and originality.In this episode we talk about:- The need for obsession and relentless drive when creating something new- The importance of staying true to your creative vision and maintaining integrity in the face of external pressures- The restaurant’s focus on creating meaningful, lasting experiences for guests and fostering a strong, values-driven team culture- The challenges, discipline, and daily routines required to operate at the highest level- The personal sacrifices required for success, and the reality of building a new business - from empty restaurants to finding new dishesBuilding a purpose driven company? Read more about Giant Ventures at www.Giant.vc.Music credits: Bubble King written and produced by Cameron McLain and Stevan Cablayan aka Vector_XING. Please note: The content of this podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. It should not be considered financial, legal, or investment advice. Always consult a licensed professional before making any investment decisions.

Sebastian Thrun, a pioneer in self-driving technology and co-founder of Udacity and Kitty Hawk, shares insights from his incredible journey. He discusses the critical safety and cost benefits of autonomous vehicles, and his early inspirations following a personal tragedy. Thrun compares the competitive landscape of self-driving cars, emphasizing the need for hybrid machine learning. He also delves into air mobility, the potential of AI to transform basic needs, and his mission to democratize education through innovative tech.