Danny In The Valley

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Gregory Constantine, co-founder of Air Company, to talk about turning CO2 into fuel, booze and perfume (2:30), why they chose to do consumer products first (5:05), growing up in Australia (6:20), landing in New York (9:15), starting the company (12:00), its first product in 2019 (15:15), raising the first round of venture capital (20:40), shooting for fuel (21:40), their years couch-surfing (25:50), scaling up the technology (28:10), and the immigrant mindset (31:40). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Edo Liberty, founder of Pinecone, to talk about the state of artificial intelligence (4:00) the ‘hallucination’ problem (7:10), giving AI’s memory (10:30), starting out in Israel and in academia (17:15), starting pinecone in 2019 (20:30), raising money (24:05), creating a “handshake” between LLM’s and specialised knowledge (26:30), the AI bubble (30:20), and why he chose the name pinecone (39:50). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday times' tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Shaun Kingsbury to talk about the Green Investment Bank (3:40), whether he is optimistic (9:15), taking on harder-to-clean industries at Just Climate (13:30), teaming up with Al Gore (16:30), why he is not focussed on climate change adaptation (24:00), trying to create the Tesla of green finance (29:30), what he wants to crack (32:00), why carbon removal is hard (35:30), and the importance of the IRA (39:30).  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Frederic Lalonde, founder of Deep Sky, to talk about why it is already too late to address climate change (3:10), terraforming earth (14:00), the terrifying math of exponential systems (19:45), the breakdown in insurance models (23:05), what Deep Sky is doing (27:00), starting companies before Deep Sky (33:35), draught and famine (37:50), the waking up of capital markets to the climate crisis (42:00), sea level rise (47:00), why he is an optimist (51:20), how he talks to his kids (1:01:20), raising 470m (1:07:15), Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Philip Rosedale, founder of Second Life and IRL415, to talk about the Apple’s Vision Pro augmented reality goggles (3:30), digital eyes (6:40), the weight challenge (7:50), on whether there is a key breakthrough that will lead to adoption (11:50), how artificial intelligence and goggles come together, or not (16:10), starting a community lab (19:20), AI girlfriends and matchmakers (22:00), on whether software development is heading toward a “Hiroshima moment” (24:20), why he is optimistic (28:00), and why phones will be the dominant interface for the next decade (30:50). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Matt Gialich, founder of AstroForge, to talk about what he did before attempting asteroid mining (3:40), working at Virgin Orbit (6:00), what he learned at Bird, the struggling scooter company (8:05), jumping to asteroid mining (10:30), the problem with platinum (13:40), targeting metal-rich asteroids (15:40), the first launch (20:45), the space revolution (21:40), raising money (24:20), trying to do a submarine startup before asteroids (27:10), coming from a family of teachers (30:45), the upcoming mission to deep space (32:45), and how the miners have reacted (35:00). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Joshua March, co-founder and chief executive of SciFi Foods, to talk about the first approvals for lab-grown meat in America (4:45), building their pilot plant (6:45), using Crispr to engineer cells (7:50), the industry's dominant technology approach (12:30), why most of the 150 cultivated meat startups will fail (16:10), why clean meat will ultimately supplant slaughterhouses and industrial agriculture (17:50), the Biden administration’s support of the industry (21:00), leaning into the science fiction aspect of lab-grown meat (24:00), and the coming shake-out (25:10),  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Devon Wright to talk about moving from a boat to the country (4:00), starting agricultural and water tech startup Lumo (7:15), inventing a smart valve (11:40), quitting his old job (15:50), his previous companies (17:50), being in a band (20:30), coming to Silicon Valley (25:20), how farmers view drought and extreme weather (28:00), making water systems more efficient (36:40), pitching investors (40:00), and his worst day (41:30). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Trevor Neilsen, founder of startup Wastefuel and the Climate Emergency Fund, to talk about how he helped launch and finance Extinction Rebellion (XR) (4:50), how the Malibu wildfires inspired him to act (8:20), meeting Roger Hallam, founder of XR and Just Stop Oil (16:00), bankrolling protestors (18:00), why he thinks the movement has gone off the rails (22:50), whether he is worried about what his former colleagues will think (32:00), how XR has experimented with changing tactics (40:30), where and how he grew up (43:30), getting a job at the White House (46:30), working with Bono on AIDS (50:00), starting his own company (55:00), why he does not think we will meet the 1.5 degree goal (58:10), telling the truth (1:09:00), and the children suing Montana (1:11:50) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Rehan Jalil, founder of Securiti, to talk about trying to grab control of data (3:00), the generative AI boom (7:35), growing up in Karachi, Pakistan (10:05), getting one of 200 slots in a top engineering school (14:35), going to America (18:15), the dotcom boom (18:45), his first two companies (21:00), taking advantage of market chaos (25:15), and what he learned from three startups (27:40) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Hany Farid, of UC Berkeley’s School of Information, to talk about the new age of AI (artificial intelligence) misinformation (4:00), the proliferation of new tools (6:40), AI doomerism (9:50), regulation (13:10), history repeating itself (15:40), the AI election (18:20), simple ways to regulate AI (22:45), why imposing rules is easier than the industry would have us believe (28:50), the challenge presented by the open-source approach (30:30), and how the 2024 election could go wrong (34:00). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Tamir Berliner and Tomer Kahan, founders of Sightful, to talk about inventing the world’s first “augmented reality” laptop (4:30), the end of the screen (8:10), what they learned from Magic Leap (10:30), making technology disappear (12:00), raising money (18:30), the advantages of starting the company in Israel (21:45), Apple’s big announcement (25:00), getting past the “Glasshole” problem (26:15), their backgrounds (29:00), and selling the first 1,000 laptops (31:30) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Manny Medina, chief executive of Outreach, to talk about how artificial intelligence is invading the sales business (2:30), why it will enhance humans (6:10), growing up farming shrimp in Ecuador (7:45), communism (9:30), coming to America (11:45), his original startup idea, and abandoning it (14:50), why his capitalist life does not conflict with his communist upbringing  (18:50), what is happening in the economy (21:30), moving from a tiny apartment (25:20), and the power of belief (32:00). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Cristobal Valenzuela, founder of Runway, to talk about using AI to edit and create videos (3:00), starting out at art school (6:50), quitting his job and starting the company in 2018 (8:30), his art career (9:30), rushing to raise money before his visa ran out (14:10), the critical breakthroughs (16:45), what “diffusion” is (18:30), the future of film (21:00), zero-cost content (28:30), coming to America from Chile (33:00), and the challenge of recruiting people (36:20). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Stability.ai's founder Emad Mostaque, to talk about whether artificial intelligence (AI) is going to kill us all (3:30), why AI is the most important invention since the internal combustion engine (8:00), the next leap (12:40), the explosion of large language models and chatbots (17:00), why he is being sued (21:40), how AI can improve humans (25:30), how it will serve as the new platform (31:00), how he plans to make money (33:30), growing up in London (35:30), his charity (39:10), London's status as a hub (44:50), the most vulnerable industries (49:10), and his problem with OpenAI (56:10). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Loyal founder Celine Halioua, to talk about extending the life of dogs (3:00), pushing to get first product on market in 2025 (6:10), the regulatory path (10:40), growing up in Texas (15:40), how health anxiety seeded her passion for longevity science (21:00), leaving Oxford after being sexually harassed (25:10), coming to San Francisco to work with Laura Deming on longevity (28:50), choosing to work on dogs (31:30), raising money (39:35), convincing top people to join Loyal (42:30), the development timeline (47:00), and the future of longevity science (50:45). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Vijay Pande, head of Andreessen Horowitz’s $1.5bn bio fund, to talk about how artificial intelligence is impacting healthcare (3:30), tools that “understand” biology (8:50), trying to eliminate cancer (12:50), trying to get techie founders to get into healthcare (14:25), America’s plunging life expectancy (18:00), the (potential) end of radiology (21:10), AI’s “hallucination" problem in healthcare (25:55), the future of therapy (29:00), putting healthcare on the Moore’s Law curve (33:10), using automation to slash the industry’s costs and inefficiencies (37:30), the next trillion dollar company (40:00), if capitalism is the best way to crack healthcare (45:40), and solving the billing problem(48:35). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times' tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Stephen Hsu, founder of SuperFocus.ai, to talk about genetic testing of children (5:15), his new startup SuperFocus (9:15), the hallucination problem for artificial intelligence (11:40), how the Ai revolution could go very badly (17:55), creating an army of AI workers (24:00), how companies are reacting (27:30), starting a company amid the Cambrian explosion of AI companies (32:35), creating AI study buddies (37:00), the “who owns the data” question (43:15), and how education is the tip of the spear in the age of AI (48:45). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Ben Rapoport to talk about his plan it implant his first brain-computer interface in a human this year (5:00), his background in neurosurgery and electrical engineering (10:30), why BCI’s are ready now (13:30), Precision’s approach (16:45), preventing the device being rejected by the body (23:15), what this device will allow (24:45), restoring sense of touch to paralyzed people (32:55), exoskeletons (32:45), his time at Elon Musk’s Neuralink (41:00), and the dawning age of brain computer interfaces (44:00). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Matt Welsh, founder of Fixie.ai, to talk about how artificial intelligence will replace human programmers (3:25), its growing capabilities (8:20), the power of natural language prompts (13:20), running the numbers (16:15), historical precedents (21:30), on whether there is a development “brick wall” coming (25:00), why this AI moment has arrived (27:50), whether OpenAI will have a defensible business model (32:30), Fixie’s plan (35:40), a world of bespoke AIs for different industries (41:20), Welsh’s history at Google, Apple and startups (43:50), starting Fixie (46:30), and the societal shift to come (50:45). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.