TWiST News: Venture-Backed Defense Startups, Anti-Drone Guns, and Querio's AI Data Platform | E2048

Jason and Alex kick off the show (0s)

• Jason Calacanis, an angel investor and podcast host from Austin, Texas, welcomes viewers back to the show, "This Week in Startups" (0s).
• He is joined by his co-host Alex Wilhelm, who expresses excitement about the day's rundown, including Nvidia earnings after the bell (11s).
• Alex is looking forward to Nvidia's report, which he believes will set the tone for the next couple of months and provide insight into the current state of the bullishness hype cycle for AI (28s).
• The show is sponsored by Vanta, a compliance and security company that helps startups win new business by making it easy to get a SOC 2 report (44s).
• Vanta is offering TWiST listeners a limited-time discount of $1,000 off at v.com (57s).
• Other sponsors include OpenPhone, which provides business phone numbers that work through an app on smartphones or desktops, offering TWiST listeners an extra 20% off any plan for their first 6 months at openphone.com (1m2s).
• Sprig, a product experience platform that generates AI-powered opportunities to improve products at scale, is also a sponsor, offering TWiST listeners a $75 gift card when they book a demo at sprig.com (1m17s).

Nvidia’s expected $33B revenue and its transition from gaming GPUs to AI workloads. (1m32s)

• Nvidia is expected to report $33 billion in revenue, which can be extrapolated to a $130 billion a year market if multiplied by four, with data center revenue accounting for $29 billion of that (1m34s).
• Nvidia initially made graphic cards for gaming, but people started using their GPUs for cryptocurrency, expanding their total addressable market (TAM) (1m51s).
• The concept of TAM is crucial in understanding a company's market size, customer base, and growth potential, allowing for calculations of market share and year-over-year growth (2m33s).
• A flawed approach to evaluating a company's potential is to assume a fixed market size and estimate the company's share of it, without considering the possibility that the company's product or service could expand the market (3m8s).
• The example of Uber is given, where the company's success was not just about capturing a share of the existing taxi market, but about expanding the market itself through its innovative product (3m17s).
• This concept is referred to as "Market manifestation," where a company's technology can suddenly increase its revenue from a few billion to dozens of billions of dollars per quarter (3m51s).
• The term "Market manifestation" is inspired by the concept of "induced traffic," where improvements to infrastructure, such as adding lanes to a highway, can actually increase traffic volume rather than reducing it (3m53s).
• The example of adding lanes to the 405 highway in Los Angeles is given, where the improvement was intended to reduce congestion but ultimately led to more people buying houses further away and commuting longer distances (3m58s).
• Nvidia's revenue is expected to be $33 billion, with 90% coming from data centers, a business line that was not prominent five to 10 years ago (6m21s).
• The company's data center revenue has seen significant growth, jumping from $4.3 billion to $10.3 billion in a single quarter, and is still accelerating (7m6s).
• The current market has a lot of enthusiasm and investment hype, and Nvidia's earnings report will either maintain or hurt this positive sentiment (7m26s).
• If Nvidia just meets expectations, its stock could drop five to six points, as the company is valued on growth and is expensive by traditional metrics (8m11s).
• Nvidia's quarter-to-quarter revenue numbers are a proxy for the investment big tech companies are putting into their data centers, which is a proxy for market demand for AI models and the health of the AI economy (8m36s).
• Nvidia's earnings report matters for the software picture, as it is one of the best indicators of what's going on upstream in the AI economy (8m55s).

Vanta - Get $1000 off your SOC 2 (9m1s)

• To sell to bigger customers, it is essential to clear compliance checks, including having SOC 2 (a standard that ensures companies keep their customer data safe) sorted out, as not being SOC 2 compliant can result in losing big deals and being unable to operate at the highest end of the market (9m2s).
• Vanta makes it easy to get and renew SOC 2 compliance, with customers typically becoming compliant in just 2 to 4 weeks, compared to months without Vanta (9m33s).
• Vanta automates compliance for GDPR, HIPPA, and more, allowing startups to sell to bigger customers and saving hundreds of hours of work and up to 85% on compliance costs (9m43s).
• Vanta can be used to stop slowing down sales teams, and a $1,000 discount is available at v.com/twist for SOC 2 compliance (9m57s).

Nvidia’s growth over time (10m5s)

• Nvidia's revenue growth is significant, with the last quarter's revenue being $30 billion, more than double the revenue from the same quarter the previous year, which was $13 billion, and a slight increase from the $18 billion in Q3 last year to $32 billion this year, indicating slowing but still substantial growth (10m26s).
• The company's accounting practices have raised concerns about "round-tripping" or self-dealing, where a company invests in another company that buys servers with the invested money, but the numbers involved are relatively small (11m3s).
• Nvidia's revenue recognition is also a topic of discussion, with some revenue being "baked in" due to large orders from companies like Elon Musk's X, Amazon, Apple, Google, and Meta, which may have future orders coming in (11m26s).
• The company's approach to fulfilling orders is different from others, such as Jetson's, which takes orders and fulfills them as received, but it is unclear how Nvidia handles payment and cash flow (11m53s).
• Nvidia's deferred revenue, which includes prepaid contracts, is relatively low at $1.7 billion, suggesting that there may not be significant "chicanery" involved in their accounting practices (13m7s).
• Despite concerns about Nvidia's accounting practices, the investing community is not concerned, with the company being the most valuable in the world, beating Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, and Meta (13m27s).
• The conversation can be mentally stimulating and sometimes turns into a debate, especially when discussing sensitive topics like Ukraine or Trump, but it's also enjoyable and can become "spicy" at times (14m29s).
• The role of a moderator is more exhausting than being a panelist, as it requires more effort and attention to keep the conversation going and ensure everyone has a chance to participate (15m9s).
• Being a panelist is easier, as one can simply show up and respond to questions without having to manage the conversation (15m12s).
• The conversation about Nvidia will be continued another time, with a deeper dive into the numbers and more information (15m43s).
• The current state of play for Nvidia will be discussed further when more information becomes available (15m47s).
• Jason is participating in the live stream and has a question about Nvidia, specifically when something will happen, although the exact question is not specified (15m49s).

When will an Nvidia lighthouse customer switch to a competitor’s product? (15m55s)

• A disruptive competitor to Nvidia is expected to emerge, marked by one of Nvidia's Lighthouse customers switching to another product, which will be a significant moment in the industry (15m59s).
• Etched, a Twist 500 company, is building ships specifically designed for the Transformer architecture used in large language models (LLMs), which could potentially snag market share from Nvidia (17m9s).
• A competing chip to Nvidia's is expected to emerge, with Amazon's Trainium two chips being a potential contender, and a Lighthouse customer for Nvidia starting to buy large amounts of a competing chip will be a significant indicator (17m37s).
• Tobit, a company building a marketplace between content providers and AI models, has raised a $24 million series A and has customers, data, and AI companies on its platform (18m7s).
• Pra, a new company backed by Mayfield, has secured a $130 million valuation for its work on providing fair compensation and credit for content owners in the age of AI (18m22s).
• The need for attribution and citations in AI models is becoming increasingly important, with companies like OpenAI and ChatGPT starting to include citations in their products (18m54s).
• The evolution of the AI ecosystem will require the untraining of models to ensure that content owners are properly compensated and credited for their work (19m30s).
• The discussion revolves around the technical challenges of removing content from a model, such as Chat GP, that relies on previously indexed data, with the example given being the removal of Stephen King books from a library (19m40s).
• The TWIST 500 is a list of the top 500 private market companies, which is not solely based on market caps or unicorns, but rather a curated list built on Coda.io (20m36s).
• The TWIST 500 list is currently at around 110 companies, with about 10 more being re-added due to a snafu, and the goal is to ramp up the list by the end of the year (21m9s).
• The team has been doing a lot of shows, with four or five shows per week, but plans to scale back to three high-quality shows per week next year to allow for more sleep and better quality (21m31s).
• Founders can submit their companies to be considered for the TWIST 500 list through a submission form on the website, which is separate from the sales team and advertising (21m58s).
• The editorial team has a Chinese wall or firewall between them and the ads team, ensuring that companies are not added to the TWIST 500 list solely because they advertise (22m12s).

OpenPhone - Get 20% off your first six months (22m28s)

• A missed call can be a missed opportunity for customers, who may call someone else if their call is not answered promptly (22m30s).
• OpenPhone is a solution that ensures customers' calls are never missed, and it is affordable and easy to use (22m37s).
• OpenPhone offers a business phone line and complete control for just $15 a month, a significant cost reduction compared to traditional corporate phone systems that can cost tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars (22m49s).
• OpenPhone provides features such as syncing with HubSpot, AI-powered call summaries, and automated responses to ensure no calls are missed (23m0s).
• The platform also allows users to port their existing phone number at no extra charge (23m10s).
• OpenPhone offers a 20% discount for the first six months for new users who sign up at openphone.com/twist (23m14s).

Allen Control Systems’ Steven Simoni joins the show (23m28s)

• Allen Control Systems is a venture-backed startup that has caught attention due to its autonomous gun systems, which can point and shoot on their own with the operator only needing to give a command of the target they want to hit (23m29s).
• The company's system, called Bullfrog, uses a standard M240 assault rifle, which is a widely distributed gun in the military, and the company makes the steel, circuit cards, and software, but not the gun itself (25m35s).
• The system is designed for defensive purposes, specifically to hit fast-moving small drones, and is not intended to be used to kill humans in the field (26m44s).
• The company's founder, Steve, has a connection to Jason, the host, through a mutual friend, Jimmy Donahue, who is also Steve's security detail and grew up with him in Brooklyn (24m15s).
• Steve was about to join the NYPD but got accepted to Fordham at the last minute, which changed his career path (24m39s).
• Allen Control Systems is trying to change the battlefield economics by making autonomous gun systems that can be used for defensive purposes (25m2s).
• The company has a 50-caliber variant of the system in the works, in addition to the M240 assault rifle (25m56s).
• The primary concern for the Army is drone warfare, and the system being discussed is designed to address this issue, with the ability to be used for multiple mission sets (26m57s).
• The system uses cameras to passively detect drones, rather than a radar detection system, which can be loud and detectable by the enemy, allowing for stealthy operation until the trigger is pulled (27m23s).
• The system is designed to work in all weather conditions, including at night, using EO (electrical optical) and IR (infrared) sensors, although heavy rain can be a problem (27m53s).
• The development of the system took 18 months to reach a point where the government is buying it, and it is expected to take another 18 months to become the best gun on the market (28m8s).
• The system is already the most accurate gun in the US, and its development was made possible by the founder's previous success in selling his last company, bbot, to DoorDash (28m25s).
• The founder, who is a former US Naval officer, started his career in the US Navy and worked in the Naval reactors division, where he met his co-founder, Luke Allen (29m41s).
• The company, Allen Control Systems, was named after the co-founder, and the founder's background in the Navy influenced his decision to develop a system for drone warfare (29m47s).
• There are currently no known versions of this system that have been built by nefarious players or terrorist organizations, according to the founder's market research (28m57s).
• The US military has dozens of small nuclear reactors on submarines and aircraft carriers, which are powerful and safe, with no reactor accidents in 75 years of operation (30m13s).
• These small reactors are not the size of large commercial reactors, but rather the size of a conference room or a couple of tractor trailers (30m45s).
• Despite their safety record, there are still debates about the safety of small modular reactors, with some people expressing concerns about their potential risks (30m22s).
• The economies of scale of large commercial reactors make them more efficient and able to produce more power, which is why some people prefer to invest in them (31m47s).
• The public perception of nuclear reactors is often negative, with people being afraid of them, but they can be placed in remote locations and used to generate power (31m54s).
• The conversation shifted to drones, but before that, the topic of the new Opeth album was briefly discussed, with the guest being caught off guard by the question (32m17s).

Sprig - Visit to book a demo and get a $75 gift card. (32m38s)

• To achieve product-market fit, it is crucial to understand users better, which can help boost engagement and drive more conversions for a product. (32m39s)
• Product analytics alone is not enough to achieve this goal, and that's where Sprig comes in - a product experience platform that generates AI-powered opportunities to continuously improve a product at scale. (32m59s)
• Sprig captures a product experience in real-time and uses AI to instantly analyze the product, providing real-time insights on how to make the product better. (33m11s)
• By making a product better, it can drive revenue, increase retention, and reduce churn, ultimately leading to positive outcomes. (33m22s)
• Top product teams at companies like Notion and Figma are already using Sprig's AI to unlock new opportunities at scale. (33m29s)
• To learn more about Sprig and its capabilities, users can visit sprig.com/twist to book a demo and receive a $75 gift card. (33m39s)

The rise of venture-backed defense startups and autonomous systems for military applications (33m52s)

• The Bullfrog system is designed to defend against drone swarms, using coordinated fires from multiple units to take down multiple targets quickly, with the ability to shoot up to 20 drones in under 15 seconds (34m15s).
• The system is applicable for use on mobile platforms such as the Bradley tank, providing a full protective bubble around the vehicle (34m25s).
• However, it's acknowledged that a large swarm of drones could overwhelm the system, requiring additional layers of defense such as electronic warfare (34m45s).
• The Bullfrog system has a fixed price of $350,000 per unit, making it a relatively affordable option for the military (35m4s).
• This pricing model is part of a new generation of defense startups that are moving away from Cost Plus contracts and towards fixed prices with good margins and potential for reoccurring revenue (35m31s).
• The system's affordability makes it a disposable asset, allowing the military to purchase multiple units without significant financial burden (35m45s).
• The Bullfrog system's mobility and affordability make it a viable option for providing drone defense for entire cohorts of troops in various climates (36m27s).
• The system's capabilities are expected to dramatically change how drone manufacturers think about their companies and may negate the drive towards more drone-based warfare (36m42s).
• The Bullfrog system is specifically designed to counter the threat of small, first-person view (FPV) drones that are being used to strap bombs to and fly at artillery or tanks (37m1s).
• The system's ability to neutralize this threat may force drone manufacturers to rethink their strategies (37m23s).
• The challenge of mitigating a bullet hitting a drone is significant, as adding enough armor to negate a 50-caliber bullet would make the drone too heavy to fly and less maneuverable, making it easier to shoot at (37m30s).
• Startups like Neros are working on drone swarms, and Ander has released the Bolt, a cheap FPV drone that is very fast but not supersonic (37m53s).
• The Bolt's speed would be compromised if a payload, such as a 4-kilogram bomb, were attached, making it a "sitting duck" for a defense system like Bullfrog (38m36s).
• The effectiveness of defense systems like Bullfrog may depend on the percentage of incoming drones that can be taken down, similar to Israel's Iron Dome system (38m51s).
• Bullfrog is a small-caliber, M240-based autonomous gun, and the company is also building an M30, M134 minigun version that can fire 3,000 rounds per minute (39m19s).
• The use of autonomous Gatling guns could put a lot of lead in the air, making it difficult for drones to penetrate the defense system (39m25s).
• The cost of a bullet is cheaper than a drone, and the company is focusing on reducing the cost per kill (39m36s).
• The company, Allen Control Systems, has developed a control system that can accurately put a bullet on a small drone at a distance of three football fields away (39m52s).
• The company is also working on a 30-millimeter chain gun, similar to the Bushmaster by Northrop Grumman, for longer-range applications (40m7s).
• The company currently has 35 employees and is growing, adding about four engineers per month (40m19s).
• The use of capitalism and entrepreneurship in the military industrial complex could potentially improve the military's ability to compete in the world (40m36s).
• The US military's ability to innovate and stay ahead of its enemies is hindered by the difficulty of securing capital for new ideas, particularly for those without a strong background or connections, (40m42s)
• The high cost of entry and capital constraints prevent many smart individuals with great ideas from contributing to military innovation, resulting in missed opportunities for new weapon systems, (41m12s)
• The government's lack of investment in new innovations is a significant problem, but the venture industrial complex, combined with entrepreneurs competing with the military-industrial complex, can drive transformative change, (41m33s)
• The innovation and drive of free men and women in a capitalist system give the US an edge over top-down government dictatorships, which can move quickly but lack the creativity and competition of a free market, (42m15s)
• Venture capitalists play a crucial role in supporting military innovation, providing risk capital that allows companies to move faster and build better products than government-funded projects, (42m25s)
• The competitive nature of venture capital allocation, where firms compete for deals and pay the highest price, drives innovation and growth, (43m15s)
• The pressure of running out of money and the need to deliver results quickly can drive entrepreneurs to achieve their goals faster, as seen in the example of delivering a product in 18 months, (44m8s)
• The manufacturing element of American defense is a crucial aspect, with questions about the domestic supply chain and manufacturing capabilities, (44m15s)
• The US is expected to see significant job creation in the manufacturing sector, particularly in the defense industry, with a focus on producing autonomous robot guns and other defense technologies in America (44m26s).
• This growth in the defense industry is expected to lead to a reindustrialization of America, with venture capitalists playing a key role in making this happen (46m21s).
• The creation of jobs in the manufacturing sector is expected to lead to higher-paying jobs, with factory workers potentially earning between $90,000 and $125,000 per year, or around $30 per hour (45m55s).
• The growth of the defense industry is also expected to lead to an increased need for immigration, with the US potentially needing an additional 150 million people to staff factories and support the industry (45m16s).
• A company is hiring engineers to work on autonomous robot guns and other defense technologies, with interested candidates able to apply by emailing Steve at allencccontrolsystems.com (47m45s).
• The company's co-founder had previously donated a Bitcoin to support the Ukrainian military in their fight against Russia, and is open to connecting with others who share similar values (47m8s).
• The company is based in Austin and is looking to hire engineers who want to work on meaningful projects rather than just trying to increase clickthrough rates on ads (47m50s).
• The conversation is about meeting up at a range in Austin, specifically south of the river on South Congress, with an invitation to see a product and have Terry Black's beef ribs afterwards (47m52s).
• The discussion involves planning a live event at the range and possibly having a guest, Alex, attend, with the host offering to buy their ticket (48m9s).
• The host thanks Steve for coming on the show and encourages viewers to work for Steve's company to protect the country and democracy (48m22s).
• The host expresses interest in having Steve back on the show in a year and mentions having many great guests, which leads to the idea of doing a "twofer" on the show (48m36s).
• The host reminisces about "two for Tuesdays" on rock radio, where two songs by the same artist would be played back-to-back, and shares their own experience with a local radio station playing three Metallica songs in a row (48m55s).
• The host mentions meeting the lead guitarist from Incubus, Mike Einziger, and discussing parenting and introducing their kids to rock and roll (49m25s).
• The host jokes about having a "celebrity bromance" with Mike Einziger and invites him to a poker game, but clarifies it's just a friendly hangout (50m1s).
• The host transitions to introducing the next guest on the show (50m19s).

Querio’s Rami Abi Habib joins the show (50m20s)

• Querio is a company that aims to make data accessible to everyone, regardless of their technical level, by building a platform that allows teams to work with data in a way that meets both technical and business needs (51m1s).
• The company's goal is to address the issue of low data literacy and the increasing importance of data jobs, such as data scientists and data analysts, which are in high demand (51m26s).
• Querio's CEO and co-founder, Ramy Abu Habib, was a participant in an accelerator program and Founder University, a 12-week course that provides funding to early-stage companies (51m50s).
• The idea for Founder University came from the need to engage with incredible teams that hadn't incorporated yet but had a killer idea and technical co-founders, but no way to invest in them (53m0s).
• Founder University invites 250 teams to participate, and then invests in 10% to 20% of the companies, providing them with $25,000 or $125,000 as their first investor (53m22s).
• The program's goal is to find and invest in the next unicorn company, with the founder hoping to be the first investor in another successful company like Uber (53m34s).
• The pre-accelerator has helped engage with an additional 1,000 companies a year and invest in another 100 companies a year (53m47s).
• Founder University was discovered on X through a post, and the application was made while working at Amazon with a great idea (54m0s).
• The co-founder was met at UT Austin, and they both lived in Austin for a few years before applying to Founder University (54m14s).
• After getting accepted into Founder University, an MVP was built, which worked well and provided good value from the program (54m33s).
• Investment was received from the pre-accelerator, which served as a big push to incorporate and commit to Querio full-time, leading to both founders quitting their jobs (54m42s).
• The co-founder had worked as an operator at a couple of exited startups, and the investment lined everything up for them to keep going (54m49s).
• The initial thesis was to build Founder University to encourage people to quit their jobs and start their own companies, with the first 25 or 125k check serving as the catalyst (54m59s).
• The plan worked, and the investment helped the founders make the jump to start their company, Querio (55m13s).

Demo of Querio’s platform (55m38s)

• CUO is a business intelligence (BI) platform designed to help businesses analyze and query their data, with features such as dashboards that track and refresh automatically, and filters that allow users to narrow down their data. (55m54s)
• The platform is compared to other classical BI tools like Looker, Tableau, and SAP, which have been around since the early 2000s and have evolved over time to give business users more control over their data. (56m40s)
• The development of these BI tools has led to the creation of various job titles, including business analysts, data analysts, data engineers, and data scientists, who work with data to analyze, forecast, and make predictions using machine learning. (57m32s)
• The growth of the BI industry over the last 20 years has been driven by advances in databases, storage, and the internet, which have made it possible to record and store large amounts of data, and to ask questions about what that data means. (58m3s)
• The example of Amazon is given, which has accumulated vast amounts of sales and website data since 1998, and has developed numerous databases to manage this data, highlighting the need for BI tools to make sense of it all. (58m25s)
• The traditional process of working with data involves asking a developer to build a product, waiting for them to complete the work, and then trying to make sense of the data, which can be time-consuming and may not always yield the desired results. (58m50s)
• Querio is an AI data platform that brings in traditional BI tools, such as charts and dashboards, and allows users to query data in plain English, eliminating the need for a data analyst or data scientist (59m28s).
• The platform aims to make data more accessible to business users, as most people cannot use data tools beyond viewing, with 95% of Tableau licenses being for viewers who cannot create or edit charts (59m54s).
• Querio's goal is to improve the lives of data people by saving them time and making their workflows better, and to enable business people to have a more transactional relationship with data (1h0m14s).
• The platform has been developed over the past 18 months, from an MVP to a product that people can buy, with customers and bots already using it (1h0m51s).
• Querio allows users to ask questions in plain English, and the platform can look through the database, understand how it works, and provide answers quickly, eliminating the need for a "telephone game" between technical and business teams (1h1m27s).
• The platform can be used to ask basic questions, such as listing the top 10 products by revenue and quantity sold, and provides the answer in a quick and easy-to-understand format (1h1m44s).
• Querio can also write the SQL query for the user, allowing technical users to verify the accuracy of the query (1h1m56s).
• A data platform allows users to query data in a more intuitive way, similar to clicking through Excel sheets, but through a database that can't be seen, and can answer complex questions such as identifying salespeople who offer the most discounts to close deals (1h2m10s).
• The platform can join tables, such as orders and account tables, to calculate the average discount percentage offered by each account manager, and can provide a list of account managers ranked by their average discount percentage (1h2m36s).
• The platform uses AI to write queries and pull data from a database, but requires a knowledge base to capture the details of every column and how tables join, which can be a challenge for data teams (1h3m22s).
• The knowledge base is where the platform captures all the details of every column, how all the tables join, and can help data teams save time by providing a clear understanding of the data (1h3m31s).
• Onboarding a new customer into the platform can be easier for more mature companies with established data teams, as they are more likely to have data models and data catalogues in place, which can be used to maximize efficiency for the data teams (1h4m12s).
• The platform can parse a variety of different inbound sources from different companies, and can work with existing data models and schemas, and has an agent system that can do a first pass to fill out the knowledge base (1h4m51s).
• The platform's onboarding process is inversely correlated with the maturity of the company, meaning that more mature companies with established data teams can onboard more easily (1h5m2s).
• The company is trying to build a platform that meets everyone at their technical level, making it suitable for non-technical people who need to ask open-ended questions, but this also makes them the hardest to onboard (1h5m20s).
• The next phase of the company is to build out more features that data teams will love, increasing average contract values (ACVs) and lowering onboarding times and sales cycles over the next six months (1h5m39s).
• The company's go-to-market strategy in year one involves identifying the ideal customer profile, and in year two, being thoughtful about who that ideal customer is (1h5m54s).
• The ideal customer profile is someone who may use tools like Looker or Tableau, but finds them too complicated, and instead needs a simpler solution that can analyze data and provide functionality that fits their needs better (1h6m16s).
• The company has already had customers leave products like Looker, Metabase, and Cabana for their solution, indicating that they are taking market share and providing a better fit for customers' needs (1h7m2s).
• The goal is not to be part of the existing utility belt of tools, but to provide a solution that replaces two or three tools and gives customers the functionality they need (1h7m15s).
• The company's approach is to provide a simple solution that can analyze data and provide functionality that fits customers' needs better, rather than trying to be part of the existing market (1h7m21s).
• The dialogue between the founder and the interviewer is an exercise in understanding the company's thoughts and approach, and can help inform the creation of a plan and priorities for the company (1h7m33s).
• The importance of having a plan, rather than just hope, is emphasized, and the interviewer notes that listening to founders and understanding their approach can help identify areas of brilliance and simplicity in their product (1h8m15s).
• Many products over 10 years old are now considered legacy products due to changes in interfaces and AI, making them outdated and in need of replacement (1h8m34s).
• Home automation systems like Crestron or Savant can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to implement, but often go unused and require expensive reprogramming (1h8m59s).
• A simpler and more user-friendly approach to home automation, such as using Sonos and Apple TV, can be more effective and cost-efficient (1h9m30s).
• There is a rumor that Apple is releasing a control center for homes, which was predicted two years ago as a potential next step for the company (1h9m36s).
• The importance of simplicity, user experience, and design in home automation and other products cannot be overstated, as it can make a significant difference in user adoption and satisfaction (1h10m11s).
• A company was paying $60,000 per year for Looker, a data analytics tool, but only the CTO was technical enough to use it, highlighting the need for more user-friendly and cost-effective solutions (1h10m33s).
• Legacy data analytics tools often do not support Python natively, requiring companies to purchase separate tools and pay high prices for limited functionality (1h10m54s).
• The company Querio is working to improve data analytics and AI capabilities, with a goal of making these tools more accessible and affordable for businesses (1h10m48s).
• Querio's average annual contract value (ACV) is currently around $8,000 to $10,000, with a goal of increasing this to $20,000 to $25,000 in the next year (1h11m36s).
• The company aims to offer a 50% discount compared to legacy price points, making its tools more competitive in the market (1h11m50s).