Giant Ideas

Alain de Botton, philosopher, author, and founder of The School of Life, joins the Giant Ideas show today. The School of Life provides emotional education to help people lead more fulfilled lives.Alain is a world-renowned philosopher and public speaker, and has shaped much of the discourse of 21st century philosophy and emotional introspection. He is the author of over 20 books - from novels like Essays in Love, to non-fiction books like Religion for Atheists, Art as Therapy, and Status Anxiety. Today we’re talking about status and success - what is it? Why does it drive us? Can we be happy and want success? And is it ok to be... ordinary?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.

Join tech analyst Benedict Evans, former partner at Andreessen Horowitz and founder of Benedict's Newsletter, as he decodes the current AI landscape. He draws intriguing parallels between AI and the mid-90s internet boom, highlighting the uncertainties ahead. Evans dives into the swift adoption of AI tools like ChatGPT and discusses the challenges organizations face in strategy building. He also shares insights on aligning personal skills with market demands, and offers stark reflections on AI's practical use in everyday tasks, especially in creative sectors.

Sophia Amoruso is the entrepreneur-turned-investor best known for founding the fashion e-commerce brand Nasty Gal and for coining the term “Girlboss”. She wrote the New York Times best-seller #Girlboss in 2014, which also got turned into a Netflix show. She lived the Girlboss dream herself: turning a humble eBay store that she started at age 22, into a company with hundreds of millions of dollars in sales by the age of just 29. She was on the cover of Forbes as one of the richest self-made women.But, later that same year in 2016, Nasty Gal would file for bankruptcy, selling for just $20 million. They had been unable to secure capital or a buyer as the gap between growth and profitability widened. Not deterred by Nasty Gal's bankruptcy, Amoruso applied her lessons and founded Girlboss Media, a digital media brand and community aimed at empowering female entrepreneurs.She’s since put her hand to new pursuits - from her mentorship business, to her latest focus - Trust Fund: an early-stage venture fund focused on pre-seed and seed stage companies. Today we talk about everything from the ‘death of the girlboss’, to whether female founders are treated differently in business.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 are joined by Katherine Boyle, General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz. In 2022 Katherine unveiled her thesis - ‘Building American Dynamism’ - which has both inspired the tech landscape and provided a central philosophical plank of Trump’s America. American Dynamism is defined as “embodying the spirit of innovation, progress, and resilience that drives the United States forward”. Putting her money where her mouth is, Katherine Boyle co-founded Andreessen Horowitz’s American Dynamism fund, investing in companies supporting the American national interest across aerospace, defence, manufacturing, energy, and critical infrastructure. She has backed the wildly successful defence tech startup Anduril, Elon Musk’s SpaceX and many more. Katherine is one of America’s most powerful investors. She previously led seed investing at another top firm, General Catalyst. She’s also a big advocate of free speech: she started her career as a reporter on the Washington Post and is now on the board of The Free Press.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.

Welcome back to the Giant Ideas Podcast, Season 2! Today on the podcast we are joined by Rick Fox - businessman, actor, three-time NBA Champion and captain of Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant at the LA Lakers.Elite sport was part of Rick's life from an early age - his mother was an Olympic athlete. Rick's own NBA career went on to span 13 seasons, from Boston Celtics in 1991, to captain of the LA Lakers, captaining three consecutive championships from 2000 to 2002. Then, Rick did a different kind of pivot. He decided to leave basketball entirely and join the acting and producing world, securing roles in major films and television series such as Denzel Washington’s "He Got Game," appearing as the villainous loan shark on "One Tree Hill", and on "Ugly Betty" - he has worked across virtually every major television network with over 30 years in front and behind the camera. Ten years ago he moved into business, starting first an e-sports franchise, and now joining the climate tech world, as founder & CEO of Partanna - pioneers of green cement.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.

Roxanne Varza is the Director of Station F: the biggest startup incubator in the world. Based in Paris, Roxanne is recognised as one of the most influential figures in the French startup ecosystem. The French media have called Varza the "young empress of startups," and even the “new pope of high-tech and startups in France." Roxanne was formerly a TechCrunch journalist and startup ambassador with Microsoft before being personally selected by Xavier Niel to spearhead the development of Station F.Roxanne is a key reason why France became a tech superpower in less than a decade. In the first five years of Station F, it supported more than 5,000 French startups with 92.4% still in operation. Its first unicorn company was Hugging Face - most recently valued at $4.5 billion. It has been estimated that during these first five years, the companies from Station F raised more than 8 billion euros and created 47,200 jobs.In this podcast we talk about the policies, political influence and funding that got France to become the superpower it is today, especially in AI - and how emerging ecosystems can replicate their success.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.

Mike Maples Jr is a Co-Founding Partner at Floodgate. He was named a “Rising Star” by Fortune, and has been on the Forbes Midas List eight times in the last decade. Before becoming a full-time investor, Mike was a founder and operator at back-to-back startup IPOs. Now, Mike’s own investments include companies like Twitter, Twitch, Lyft, Refinery29, and Clover Health. Mike is also the author of the National Bestselling book Pattern Breakers - sharing lessons from startup top performers. He is known as one of the world's most exceptional discoverers of talent. In this episode we talk about his giant idea - why we shouldn’t focus on being better than the last company, we should focus on being completely different. We also talk about the aiming phase, when you should quit, and the art of the pivot. Welcome Mike!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.

Welcome to the Giant Ideas podcast! Run by Giant Ventures - the venture fund for purpose-driven founders building companies that matter. At Giant, we’re lucky to often meet extraordinary people with giant ideas that are changing the world. So we’ve released a brand new podcast to showcase these behind-the-scenes conversations on the giant ideas shaping the world, and the inspiring stories of the leaders behind them. 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 joined by Robert Langer, scientist, inventor and entrepreneur - and one of the most cited researchers in history, often called the “Edison of Medicine”. What makes Dr Langer special is that he is not only an academic but also an entrepreneur: turning frontier science into groundbreaking companies. Langer Lab's research has given rise to over 400 companies, and is also the co-founder of multiple companies, including Moderna, which discovered the COVID-19 vaccine.Dr Langer is one of nine Institute Professors at MIT - the highest honour that can be awarded to a faculty member. Langer’s MIT research laboratory is the largest biomedical engineering lab in the world, with over $10 million in annual grants and over 100 researchers. He has written over 1,600 articles, which have been cited almost half a million times. Dr Langer has also received over 220 awards and served as Chairman of the FDA’s Science Board.Dr Langer's work specialises in biotech fields of drug delivery systems and tissue engineering. He was the pioneer of delayed release medicine, and it was calculated his work had impacted an estimated two billion lives, helping those with cancer, burns, heart disease, spinal injuries and more - even before the Moderna Covid19 vaccine was developed.In this episode we talk about what scientific founders should watch out for, why getting patents are so critical, why you should follow your passion, why he thinks science is better than ever in the US, why he's excited by brains built on chips, if Attention Deficit Disorder makes him a better founder, and why failure makes you better.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 are joined by Azeem Azhar: author, futurist and founder of the Exponential View newsletter and podcast which explains how society and the political economy are changing under the force of technology.Azeem’s first book Exponential: Order and Chaos in an Age of Accelerating Technology studied how technology’s rapid pace of development is impacting the world.Azeem is considered one of the most influential thinkers on the impact of technology on humanity’s future.We discussed: How is energy now a technology not a commodity, and why does that matter so much for society? How are China and Pakistan using solar panels to power their economies? And how will AI change energy consumption - will AI be good or bad for the climate? And lots more... enjoy!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.