Danny In The Valley

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Christian Angermeyer to talk about spending $40 million on his own money to reinvent the psychedelics industry (3:46), his first magic mushroom experience (6:58), convincing investors (11:09), targeting opioid addiction (17:35), the stoned ape theory (21:06), the legal challenge (24:33), the timeline (28:35), the social media effect (29:43), bad trips (39:56), developing a network of professionals to guide therapy (42:47), plus his view on the return of live events (46:23), the epidemic of undocumented mental health issues (50:27), and how he made his money (53:37). Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/dannyinthevalley.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Brett Adcock and Adam Goldstein, co-founders of Archer Aviation, to talk about their air taxi startup (6:00), starting out in recruiting (9:00), how they pivoted to flying cars (12:30), setting up an aeronautics lab (18:20), designing a plane (21:30), finding a billionaire backer (30:00), and then United Airlines (33:00), launching by 2024 (37:45), working toward test flights (41:10), the talent war (42:10), unveiling a plane that hasn’t flown (45:10), what air taxis will be able to do (49:15), and the adoption period (54:40). Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/dannyinthevalley.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Danny will be back later this week with more tales from the valley. But first, here's a special extra episode from the team behind "Secrets of the Side Hustle"Food waste is one of the biggest contributors to the climate crisis. Could sharing be the solution? Tessa Clarke, co-founder of the OLIO app thinks so.She sat down with host, Laura Jackson, to talk about how tech companies can change the world for the better, the struggles many female founders find when seeking investment and even more.Subscribe now to hear more from "Secrets of the Side Hustle"GuestTessa Clarke, co-founder of food sharing app, OLIOHost:Laura Jackson Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/dannyinthevalley.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Grant LaFontaine, co-founder of Whatnot, to talk about creating the successor to eBay (3:40), the collectibles boom (7:50), his first startup (12:30), his early interest in marketplaces (14:25), working at Youtube (17:40), launching Whatnot in 2019 (23:45), starting with Funkopops (27:55), what’s happening in China (33:30), what works about live shopping (35:40), the Pokemon phenomenon (41:15), luring star investors (45:15), his worst day (49:15), and the future of eBay (51:20).Sign up for 50% off The Times and The Sunday Times with at www.thetimes.co.uk/dannyinthevalley Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/dannyinthevalley.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Tim Barat, founder of Gridware, to talk about dropping out of school at 15 (4:30), his first company (11:30), moving to California (17:50), getting into college (22:30), the problem he's targeting (25:00), wildfires (28:20), building a super sensor (34:00), starting a company (36:30), raising money (42:30), how the tech works (51:50), how he sells it (59:10), and the what's left to do (1:02:50). Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/dannyinthevalley.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Gabby Dizon, founder of Yield Guild Games, to talk about starting a gaming guild (4:10), the crypto winter (8:25), Axie Infinity (10:00), an in-game economy (13:55), creating a scholarship programme (17:55), the perception of value (25:00), raising $1.3 million (28:00), struggling to keep his gaming studio alive (29:05), growing up in Manila (30:40), the metaverse (33:50), why he never left the Philippines (36:50), and the future of work (39:00). Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/dannyinthevalley.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

But we're back next week! Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/dannyinthevalley.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Alec Lee, founder of Endless West, to talk about re-engineering whiskey (2:45), starting out in stem cells (6:15), how a Napa wine trip inspired their startup (7:45), the regulatory hurdles (10:50), pitching investors (13:45), the key tech advances (16:45), how he makes whiskey (20:50), reducing to hours what takes years (26:00), how he’ll spend the $21 million he just raised (32:30), on celebrity tine-ins (34:00), why they chose whiskey (36:20), why sustainability in marketing is hard (38:00), and the hangovers (40:00). Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/dannyinthevalley.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Sunday Times tech correspondent brings on Jim Mellon, the billionaire investor and co-founder of Agronomics, to talk about the lab-grown meat revolution (2:40), why he thinks he’s not too early (7:40), the dairy industry example (9:30), replacing traditional industries (11:00), why cultured meat will be bigger than electric vehicles (15:00), the carbon crackdown coming for meat (16:45), foetal bovine serum (20:40), what keeps him up at night (22:50), how cultured meat works (24:30), and the labelling fight (29:45). Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/dannyinthevalley.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Dr Mark Kotter, co-founder of Meatable and Bit Bio, to talk about the synthetic biology revolution (4:10), growing flesh (7:00), the field’s “big bang” (9:15), lab-grown meat (16:30), how far we are from a reverse-engineered ribeye (20:00), the “Meat 2.0” era (22:00), the branding challenge (26:30), creating a synthetic biology platform (28:00), the human cell atlas (32:00), cells as a smartphone (37:10), selling cells to pharmaceutical companies (41:15), the stem cell issue (45:45), living forever (49:45), and raising money (52:50).  Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/dannyinthevalley.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Josh Browder, founder of DoNotPay, to talk about leaving San Francisco (4:15), the quiet exodus (7:15), why San Francisco is “unfriendly” to business (11:30), why Miami feels real (14:04), DoNotPay’s plans (18:00), privacy (21:35), the future of San Francisco (22:40), and the straw that broke the camel’s back (24:25). Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/dannyinthevalley.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Fraser Robinson, founder of Beacon, to talk about solving supply chains (2:45), the problem (5:10), his first startup (11:15), becoming the “adult in the room” (18:30), the early days at lastminute.com (19:50), starting another business in 2010 (22:30), getting recruited to Uber (24:45), running Uber in Europe (27:10), how to move fast and not break things (30:00), on whether Uber can survive (32:00), the mistakes in London (36:20), doing the big deal with Saudi Arabia (38:30), leaving in 2018 (42:10), getting sued (45:20), and being left on the tarmac by an oligarch (46:50). Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/dannyinthevalley.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Sid Sijbrandij, co-founder of Gitab, to talk about running a remote-first company (2:45), how it works (5:45), organising informal communication (8:30), minimising meetings (9:45), on-boarding (12:30), convincing investors (14:15), the problem with “hybrid” work models (15:50), the future of cities (18:15), and inventing ways to measure success (19:30). Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/dannyinthevalley.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Cade Metz, New York Times tech journalist and author of Genius Makers, to talk about the rise of artificial intelligence (3:00), the most important auction in tech (4:35), Europe’s AI crackdown (7:40), Geoff Hinton and neural networks (10:00), how AI starts to spread (13:00), Deepmind’s Demis Hassabis (18:20), why he turned down Facebook’s takeover bid (21:00), Project Maven (23:20), the AI “arms race” with China (25:25), whether artificial general intelligence is possible (29:20), the AlphaGo moment (33:00), Move 37 (38:10), what AI disrupts next (42:00), bias (45:05), the robot arm room (51:30), and the Rubik’s cube solution (56:15) Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/dannyinthevalley.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Matt Hall, founder of Larva Labs, to talk about creating cryptopunks (3:00), what he did before this (4:30), creating cryptopunks in 2017 (9:00), cryptokitties (11:00), how it works (12:45), giving them away (14:00), from zero to a $250m market (15:15), why NFTs took off (20:05), who is buying them (24:20), trying 50 other things before this (25:45), Autoglyphs (27:00) and what’s next (29:25). Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/dannyinthevalley.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Yishan Wong, founder of Terraformation, to talk about his plan to plant a trillion trees (3:30), his days running Reddit (8:10), on whether social media is manageable (10:50), working at Paypal and Facebook in the early days (13:15), marrying tech and tree planting (15:15), how he got into climate change (18:00), making tree-planting a business (23:15), the first project (28:20), the reforestation bottleneck (33:20), why solar is key (36:05), raising venture capital (44:00), selling forest “kits” (47:30), banking on a shift in thought (52:10), his lessons from scaling Facebook (57:45), why trees are the easiest answer (1:02:15), and why the goal is 1 trillion (1:04:50).PLUS: Gianni Settino on why he joined an investor group that spent $208,000 on a Lebron James video highlight (1:06:40), tinkering with ethereum (1:08:50), cryptokitties (1:11:45), building a crypto football card experience (1:15:40), NBA Top Shot (1:16:30), buying the Lebron James ca

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Nikil Viswanathan, co-founder of Alchemy, to talk about the boom in non-fungible tokens (NFT’s) (3:00), his first app (7:50), what Alchemy does (10:10), how much NFT sales have grown since January (14:00), fads and staying power (17:30), the value of digital goods (20:20), the weirdest NFTs (23:30), the future (25:15), how Alchemy makes money (30:30), growing up in small-town Texas (34:00), Stanford (35:15), his worst day (36:35), and his investors (40:00). PLUS: Raj Choudhury, of Harvard Business School, comes on to talk about the return to work (42:00), the 25% model (44:20), engineering random interactions (48:40), getting senior people to buy in (51:30), the problem with our “meeting culture” (54:10), the financial benefits of “work from anywhere” (58:30), recreating the office (1:00:45), and reversing the rural brain drain (1:01:15).Get The Times and The Sunday Times for a BIG discount by clicking here: times.co.uk/dannyinthevalley Support this show http://s

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Tim O’Reilly to talk about the end of Silicon Valley as we know it (3:30), how the markets were designed to give us monopolies (6:30), his history in tech (90), incentives (10:30), the coming crash (17:00), the tech industry’s changing culture (23:15), how venture investors now pick the winners (26:15), on whether Silicon Valley can do deep tech (29:15), the antitrust backlash (38:20), how the industry is moving away from its ideals (38:35), how that tax code powers the bubble (40:55), and the next opportunities (45:00). Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/dannyinthevalley.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Pat Romano, chief executive of Chargepoint, to talk about taking a company public in a pandemic (4:20), the electric car revolution (7:30), about whether there are enough chargers (11:40), why charging cars will be completely different from filling up at a petrol station (11:20), how long before we think of EV’s as just cars (16:50), the lack of standards (18:00), going to the market via SPAC (20:15), the rush of electric car companies to the market (23:15), and investor interest (25:50), the race between electric cars and the infrastructure they will require (34:00), subsidies (34:35), how he makes money (37:55), and how the world changed in 10 years (40:30).Click here for Pat Romano's first interview more than two years ago:https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/chargepoints-pat-romano-hiding-in-plain-sight/id1233991021?i=1000425353783Get The Times and The Sunday Times for a BIG discount by clicking here: times.co.uk/dannyinthevalley Support this s

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Timnit Gebru, former co-head of Google’s ethical AI research team, to talk about how she arrived at Google (3:30), starting Black in AI (5:30), why diversity matters (8:40), her work at Google (12:30), gender shades research (15:50), the paper that got her booted from Google (19:10), large language models (20:50), what her paper addressed (27:30), why AI matters (30:15), the danger of undermining independent research (33:15), her co-founder getting fired (35:40), getting harassed online (37:20), and the tension between corporations and academia (39:00). Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/dannyinthevalley.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.