baked [& half-baked] thoughts
Over the last few years gaming culture has become pop culture. It’s the social currency of today.
Keyboards and touchscreens are unsuited for interaction with emerging technologies such as augmented/virtual reality and wearable computing. Direct BCI remains extremely limited in utility. Sub-vocal speech recognition using electromyography is much closer to fruition, though many challenges remain.
Since I joined Octopus about a year and a half ago, I’m often asked: “How did you get into venture capital?” and “How did you get in without any banking or consulting experience?” I answer that the big reason I got the shot I did was because of Octopus’ unbiased hiring practice.
Remember the Sims? Growing up, I spent hours upon hours living my best digital life via these little digital characters. Crazy to think that the franchise sold ~200m copies and is considered one of the best selling video games of all time. It speaks to how humans have always loved creating digital versions of themselves, which is why I’m quite excited by this emergence of avatar-based platforms.
Socrates became the world’s most famous philosopher, not by having all the answers, but by asking the right questions. “Question the Questions” is a report that comes out of the realization that many companies could benefit by just asking better questions.
QTQ is a US expansion report for European entrepreneurs that myself and two colleagues put together in 2018. It provides a stress-tested guide to international expansion, powered by insights from over 100 VC-backed businesses that expanded to the US. It tracks the growth of start-up clusters across America and combines data analysis with practical advice for start-ups looking to expand their offering to the US.