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00:00That was a great panel session. Imagine being mind blown by watching people play the game that you created.
00:09Well, that was the case. Great to hear from Tetris.
00:15Now, moving on to our next session about what AI can't build.
00:21Now, as we know, AI can build code, draft your email, make your sides,
00:26pretty much everything you need to create a company.
00:29But here's a more interesting question for a founder.
00:33What about trust, community, taste, or more importantly, the reason people show up?
00:40Our next guest has spent his career doing exactly that.
00:45He co-founded Reddit, one out of a tiny apartment, and turned it into one of the Internet's greatest communities,
00:52became one of tech's most influential investors, and today puts serious money behind women's sports.
01:00He's an inspiration.
01:02With Station F's Roxanne Vasa, please welcome Alexis O'Hanian.
01:38That was cool.
01:40What's up, Paris?
01:41Bonjour.
01:42Alexis, I'm so excited for this, but we have to follow the Tetris boys.
01:45It's going to be hard.
01:46I was telling them backstage.
01:48That game got me into programming, which got me into everything.
01:53I mean, there'd be no Reddit.
01:54I told them this.
01:55There'd be no Reddit if not for video games, and Tetris is a legend.
01:59So that was very cool with me.
02:00Incredible.
02:01Well, we are going to talk about something I'm actually really excited about that's not Tetris,
02:05even though it might be Tetris-inspired somehow.
02:08We're going to talk about what AI can't build, kind of the missing half of the conversation,
02:14because 776 invests in what AI can't build.
02:18And tell me if I'm wrong.
02:20776, you founded in 2020, 2021.
02:22That's right.
02:222020.
02:23Nailed it.
02:24Yeah.
02:24About one billion under management.
02:26More?
02:261.3.
02:29I'm very blessed.
02:30We're going to come back to what it is exactly, because I don't know if you call
02:34it a fund or if you call it something else.
02:36You might call it something else.
02:37A few things.
02:38I mean, I like to think it's a technology company that deploys venture capital.
02:41So we are an early stage VC, but I'm a software builder, designed a whole operating system
02:47called Cerebro that runs the firm.
02:49I want to ship software every day of my life for the rest of my life.
02:52Now it just happens to be a lot easier.
02:54Thank you, Cloud Code.
02:55And we built the firm with that mindset.
02:58So tell us about Cerebro.
03:00You know, I think, I guess this is one of those things where even six years ago I was frustrated
03:06with how little software there was in the business of venture capital.
03:10And so much of the work that we do is on a screen, whether it's making introductions,
03:13whether it's tweeting about our founders' companies.
03:16And what software does is create this dramatic layer of transparency and accountability within
03:22our team, from our team to our founders.
03:25It lets me know that our median response time to all our founders is like two hours and two
03:29minutes.
03:29So it's like you don't need to talk about how responsive you are to founders.
03:32You just put up a scoreboard and try to do well.
03:36And then obviously in the last two, three years with the explosion of what the capability
03:40of these large language models are, now building software has become, you know, effortless.
03:46I mean, I hadn't shipped any code in 15, 16 years.
03:49And now since November, December, I've been doing it every day.
03:52It's incredible.
03:54And so then it became the challenge of, okay, how do we make sure Cerebro does as much of
03:59our job as possible so that we can focus on the things that humans still do fundamentally
04:03well?
04:04And like, what does even venture capital look like in five more years?
04:07And it's the things that I think makes us, make us human.
04:11It's, it's empathy, it's reputation, it's network, it's trust.
04:15Uh, you know, that kind of community building I spent 15 years doing with Reddit with like
04:19strangers on the internet.
04:20And now I get to do it with a much smaller sort of higher signal, let's say community of,
04:25of people who want to build world changing companies.
04:27And that's, that usually happens over dinners.
04:29It usually happens, uh, in interesting places all over the world.
04:32Like at its best, I think it gets us off our screens and actually gets us doing more of
04:37the things that our species has done for a very long time.
04:40Incredible.
04:41So you have this amazing tech platform that you guys have built.
04:44You just happen to have 1.3 billion that you deploy on the side.
04:47Yes.
04:48I love that.
04:48Um, and I've read somewhere that you guys have 15 unicorns already in the portfolio.
04:53Yeah.
04:54Yeah.
04:54It's been a good run.
04:55I mean, I, one of the things when I, so I started the firm when I left Reddit, I resigned
05:00in protest in the year 2020.
05:01And I basically said, look, like I've, I've been fortunate enough in my career that I want
05:05to architect the rest of my life exactly the way I want to.
05:08I want to build businesses in a way that aligns with my values.
05:11I want my kids to see me building something that I'm really proud of.
05:14You know, I reached a point, it's well documented at this point, but, but you know, it was one
05:18vote out of five on a company that I started that I, I no longer had the ability to say
05:22things like, Hey, these, you know, hate communities shouldn't exist.
05:25Or these communities focused on violence are bad.
05:27It should be banned.
05:28And, and, and I resigned.
05:30Thankfully that was able to draw enough of a light that it got those changes.
05:34Um, but I just knew I never want to be that situation again.
05:36So I anchored the firm.
05:37I mean, I'm the biggest to this day LP in the funds.
05:40So, you know, the, the, the, it is, it is my kids money, uh, more than anything else
05:44that I'm deploying.
05:47And, and I wanted to do it into things that I could be proud to brag to them about.
05:50And so we've done, you know, I've seeded companies like Stokespace that are probably
05:54going to be the first real SpaceX competitor doing a hundred percent reusable rockets to a guy
05:58named Mr. Beast.
05:59Uh, now, you know, the largest YouTuber in the world, but six years ago, he was just a, a young
06:04man with a dream and a lot of ambition, um, to, uh, I mean, Angel City, uh, the first women's
06:10soccer team in America to really catalyze the entire women's sports movement.
06:13Now the most viable team in the U S for women's soccer.
06:15Um, and it's just been a lot of fun.
06:18Uh, and that's, that's what I get to spend my time doing.
06:20That's incredible.
06:21You guys seem like you fund all kinds of stuff and we'll come back to this, but you've also
06:25been really thoughtful about your LP structure.
06:28Can you tell us a little bit about that and what it changes?
06:31Yeah.
06:31I mean, by being the largest LP myself, by being the biggest investor myself, then we've
06:35been able to dictate, you know, who we want to bring in.
06:38And so our LP base is values aligned.
06:41So it's, you know, pension funds, cancer research, children's hospitals, no sort of questionable
06:48dollars, let's say.
06:49And, uh, and actually half our LP base are women.
06:53Um, that was also something that we found.
06:54We wanted to build a community intentionally.
06:56It turns out half the population is women.
06:58And so it made sense to us that half of our LP community should also be as such.
07:02Um, and so I, I, again, I think the power of community, all these things that helped mark
07:07the first 15 years of my career building Reddit, you know, it's funny history kind of rhymes,
07:12feels like it's going to be a very, very big part of doing this job of investing.
07:15Because the way we get access to great deals is having a great community of founders.
07:20The way we get to help those great founders is having a community of people who are either
07:23invested in us or just sort of allies along the way.
07:27And, and I think as we get inundated with more and more slop in our feeds, we are going
07:32to look to places for real signal.
07:34And I think it's the same reason why run clubs are becoming so much more popular for
07:38dating than dating apps.
07:40Um, you're seeing it both, I think in the culture of Gen Z, but I think even for a geriatric
07:45millennial like myself, um, you know, we, we, we, we've seen a lot of the sort of the shadow
07:52of social media and, and there's a very real hunger to, to break away, to build something
07:59different.
07:59And it wasn't just a little short term high after COVID when all of us wanted to come
08:03out again and spend time with each other.
08:04Like we're, we're now years removed from COVID.
08:06And I think IRL in real life gatherings have never been more popular, never been a bigger
08:11interest to the culture.
08:13And so how can software again, support more of this stuff and, and for all of us to spend
08:18less of our time absorbed on those screens.
08:20Super.
08:21And you, you touched on it, but I'm just going to clarify for the audience who I think already
08:23knows that you are the founder of Reddit, uh, sold in 20, you guys were in the first batch
08:28of YC.
08:28First batch of YC with Sam Altman, uh, and the Twitch founders.
08:31It was a wild crew 2005 and, uh, yeah, sold it in six, the common asked for what was,
08:37that was life changing money for me back then, $10 million.
08:39And it was, it was for me, I thought I was getting away with something.
08:42I genuinely thought I was like not tricking them, but I, I, this was, you know, my, my,
08:47my father's a travel agent.
08:48My mother worked night shifts as a pharmacy technician.
08:50Like I did not come from wealth, uh, by any means.
08:53And so it felt like a joke that I could make this much money for 16 months worth of work.
08:58And, and then I was very fortunate in 2014 to come back as executive chairman and help
09:02with the turnaround once it was independent.
09:04Um, and, uh, yeah, it's, uh, like I said, it, it, it helped mark a significant chapter
09:10in my career, but like, I personally take great pride in knowing that most of the time
09:13people stop me now, uh, on the street.
09:16It's actually for something I'm doing in women's sports specifically.
09:18One of my teams or the league we're building and that feels very good.
09:22Uh, cause like I, that's, like I said, that's what I want my daughters.
09:25That's what I want my kids to see me building and doing.
09:27Incredible.
09:28Well, now I want to dive into the AI or maybe not AI stuff.
09:31We're going to, we're going to see.
09:32Um, so everyone is talking about what AI changes, but I'm really curious to know,
09:38you are involved in such a wide spectrum of things.
09:41What does AI not change?
09:43Well, look, since that chat GPT moment about three years ago,
09:47everything we've invested in has either been fueling this AI sort of acceleration,
09:54you know, companies like star cloud, putting data centers in space.
09:58Right.
09:58Or the other side of the barbell funding the things that we know are still going to
10:04matter and actually probably matter more.
10:07And so whether that's like a consumer electronics company, like mod retro, um,
10:11whether that is sports, you know, no matter how good those robots get,
10:14no one's going to want to watch them play football.
10:17I mean, maybe once, you know, there'll be a novelty.
10:19I'm sure there's some version of it that'll exist.
10:21But like, imagine a perfect, we're mostly French here.
10:24Right.
10:25A perfect pixel, perfect render of an Mbappe goal.
10:28Right.
10:29There will come a time when it will be impossible to discern the difference between the AI one
10:34and the real one, but the AI one will not move your soul in any way whatsoever
10:38because the whole reason it's special is because a human did it.
10:41And you can't say the same thing.
10:42And I love a Marvel movie, but, but, you know, when you think about the changes of the entertainment industry
10:47in Hollywood and television, what this technology is doing is going to radically change how they run their business.
10:53Sport will still need to be done by humans five years from now, 10 years from now, 15 years from
10:57now.
10:57And I actually think we need the pain of sports to help us feel alive.
11:04I think as Europeans, you all understand this better than I think a lot of Americans.
11:08We'd like, I think, I think American culture is very oriented towards this sort of instant gratification, satisfaction.
11:14We, we invented all the social media, you know, sort of, sort of doom loops that keep you hooked on
11:21the dopamine.
11:22Right.
11:22But, but we are all here as a species because some ancestor of ours did hard things and overcame them.
11:28And I think it is hardwired into our existence to need some amount of suffering in order to feel the
11:34joy.
11:35And what I think in particular sports offers, especially if you're a fan of the teams that I grew up
11:39being a fan of,
11:40is you just, you, the Knicks just recently won the NBA finals.
11:44It was a really big deal for all of us who were Knicks fans.
11:46Right.
11:47But the reason New York City was rejoicing was because that team had suffered in pain for decades.
11:51And I actually think one of the nice parts of AI being so programmed to always give us what we
11:58want,
11:58think of the algorithm, think of the feed, keep us hooked, keep us addicted.
12:03The silver lining of it is I think the part of our soul that dies from that actually needs now
12:09more than ever,
12:10the humanity of in real life connection, the humanity of sport, the humanity of ourselves.
12:14And so I think for a majority of people, it will actually push us more toward the things that make
12:19us feel human.
12:20And, and I tend to be a tech optimist.
12:22I really want to believe that this is true, but I also think in my, in my heart that that
12:26is,
12:27simply because we are programmed to feel that as a, as a species.
12:32Does that mean you think the sports industry is just going to explode?
12:34I, I, people look, especially United States at, at some of the valuations.
12:39And I actually, I still think that they could go up.
12:42Um, I think these teams, I mean, I now own, I guess, four teams in one league.
12:46Um, I, from what I have seen, even among like the big four, the established ones,
12:52um, they are devoid of technology.
12:54They're incredibly inefficient.
12:55They, they can be run so much better and deliver a better fan experience, a better training experience.
13:01Uh, so many, so many things can be approved.
13:02And I think, I think it will be one of the few ways left to get millions and millions of
13:07people
13:08to all tune in simultaneously to a thing that, uh, at that scale.
13:12I think five years from now that that's going to be the number one thing.
13:16It's, it's even culturally.
13:18Now we have so many fragments of entertainment and so many subcultures and cultures,
13:22which I actually think has a lot of positives, right?
13:24We can, no matter what kind of thing you are into, there is a fandom and a community for that.
13:29And whether you are obsessed with Yu-Gi-Oh! or Pokemon or what I'm clearly not fluent in whatever
13:38Japanese anime stuff is going on, but there is a community for everything now.
13:41And, and I think that's one of the blessings of this decentralized world.
13:44But like sport is one of those things that will just capture attention in a way that I think is
13:48still
13:48going to matter five, 10, 15 years from now, for sure.
13:51Incredible.
13:51And AI is lowering the cost of a lot of what we're building.
13:56So where do you feel the real value is coming from?
13:59So, I mean, okay.
14:01In software, which I'm feeling acutely right now, right?
14:04There is so much surface area of my life, my professional life, where I now am building
14:10and shipping software to just take an idea and execute something on it.
14:15And so I do think even if it never got better than software, we'd have so many opportunities
14:21to improve the sort of software experience for what we have.
14:25I do think there is likely to see some big leaps forward in robotics and other places that,
14:31again, help simplify and do a lot of the things that are the more tedious parts of the work
14:36that free us to do more creative, empathetic, strategic work, which, again, I think drives us
14:41toward a higher quality of life.
14:43And I also think, frankly, you know, when I look at, and when I talk to friends of mine
14:49in countries that all, you know, Japan might be one of the best examples of this.
14:53You know, Japan's a country that has struggled probably the most of any developed nation,
14:57or maybe even any nation in the world, around an aging population.
15:01And they don't really have immigration over there.
15:04So how do you solve these challenges when you have an aging population, you have a workforce
15:07that's not able to contribute like it used to?
15:10Robotics and things like that could be an amazing supercharge for an economy that, one,
15:15already is, I mean, the Japanese taught us to love robots.
15:19So the culture is already primed for it.
15:21And I think can see tremendous efficiency to basically make up for a population gap.
15:28And I think there are plenty of examples of that in Europe, where I would love to see
15:32a kind of renewed vigor around sort of a re-industrialization.
15:36We're certainly having that in the United States.
15:38I'm actually a dual citizen.
15:39So I am, my mother was German.
15:40So I am a German citizen as well.
15:42So I can say this as a European, I mean, I'm like 50, let's say, culturally, I'm definitely
15:48more American, but like I care about the success of Europe.
15:53And I hope that this also, the silver lining, you can tell I'm an optimist, the silver lining
16:00of America alienating herself from the world, especially from Western Europe, the silver lining
16:06here is I think, I hope it injects a sense of sort of awakening for many countries in Europe
16:14that they, I want you all to trust us.
16:17I want you all to count on the United States.
16:19Like, believe me, I really do.
16:20I also think it is good that Western Europe had this sort of wake up call of saying, no,
16:26no, no, hold on.
16:26We can't always count on the United States.
16:28And there are things that we need to be looking at internally to build and strengthen, especially
16:33during this time of AI.
16:34And so I, like I said, I truly sit divided in wanting to see Europe thrive and wanting
16:42to see America thrive.
16:42And I also think it's actually in both of our best interests to know that there is like
16:49an internal push here in Europe right now, whether it's on the AI front, you guys have
16:53some great research labs here, whether it is in the sort of reindustrialization of European
16:58countries.
16:59Like I said, I hope America and Europe can have amazing relations for a long, long time.
17:03But like, I think it is a good thing for the Western world and for Western values for, for Europe
17:08to be waking up like this.
17:09Incredible.
17:10Do you think it's a silver lining?
17:11You think it needs to happen?
17:13Well, I mean, I'm trying to look, look, I, I, I think America's foreign policy of late
17:17has been pretty hard headed to say the least.
17:20And I, and I, like I said, I think the European American relationship is one that, I mean,
17:24certainly the last 80 years is one of the most important ones in the free world.
17:27And I want to see it continue.
17:29I want to see it do well.
17:31Um, but I do think, I think everyone in tech agrees and probably all of you here, right?
17:36The, the moment we're in right now and probably the next five, 10 years, I don't know, are
17:40probably some of the most important in maybe all of human history.
17:44That might be, I, I know it's hyperbolic and it's even crazy saying it, but I, I, I kid
17:49you not most of the times when I'm, when I'm one-on-one with, with friends of mine who are,
17:52who are even deeper in this, right?
17:54Much closer to this, the leaders across a lot of these different places.
17:57Um, folks really do believe this, that, that we have a chance if we get it right to do
18:03some amazing things for humanity.
18:05Um, you may have seen what the founder of mid journey recently launched, um, some medical
18:09scanning technology that could potentially replace the MRI for a cheaper, better way to
18:13run these tests in a much less invasive way.
18:16This is the stuff like I, I, like this is the stuff that I point to and get so optimistic
18:21and excited
18:21about that I want us to do because I want my kids to not have to worry about diseases that
18:26we've had
18:26to suffer.
18:27Um, I, I, I want us to get there.
18:29And I, I do think there's a very high leverage next five or 10 years.
18:33And, and I would love nothing more than for America and her allies, um, to, to do that
18:38and, and create that world together.
18:40Incredible.
18:40And I just have to ask you, cause you, you broke out in German on stage.
18:44Are you fluent?
18:45Yeah.
18:45I've been like proficient.
18:47That's incredible.
18:48I had no idea.
18:48Yeah.
18:48I speak, I speak like a, like a, like a seventh grader.
18:53So not like, not well, but I can, or I can order food.
18:57Still impressive.
18:58Still very impressive.
18:59As an American, it is very, it's a low bar for us to speak two languages.
19:03I know a big deal.
19:04Awesome.
19:04Well, you've mentioned a couple of different companies on stage.
19:07I don't think all of them are in the portfolio, but I want to dive into the portfolio.
19:10Um, and talk to me about a couple of companies that are building something that you feel AI
19:14can't replicate.
19:16Well, I, I, like I said, I can't stress enough sport is a big deal.
19:19We actually, I built a track and field league to rival the Olympics.
19:23Uh, cause I was so inspired here in Paris.
19:25And, and I saw all those people cheering for the amazing women of track and field.
19:30And I was like, why do these athletes disappear in between every Olympics?
19:34And I'm like, there are millions and millions of people watching these athletes right now.
19:37And so we started Aflos and this league now is in New York.
19:41Uh, we just expanded.
19:42We just added London.
19:43Paris is on the horizon.
19:44Don't worry.
19:45Um, and so we're taking the fastest women in the world across a whole host of events
19:50and, and putting on this, this show that really platforms them champions them.
19:54I think four and a half million people tuned into the New York race last year.
19:57Um, so sport is one that I'm very, very fired up about.
20:01And, and like I said, I think if you build it with technology at the heart of it, you
20:05can do, it's a very asset light business to build and to grow.
20:09And that means more dollars for the athletes.
20:11And so, you know, the top prize for these athletes was $30,000 before Aflos like at a
20:15championship.
20:16That's how much you made at the end of a season, which is crazy.
20:18Um, we doubled it in our first year and, and have since, I think our purse this year is
20:232.1, 2.2 million dollars, um, across the two races.
20:27So like we're at the end of the day, getting the athletes paid, they're getting equity
20:31in the league.
20:31Like we're doing a lot of stuff that tech sort of takes for granted.
20:33Of course you give every employee equity.
20:35Of course you bring everyone along for the ride.
20:36Like we're, we're bringing that to sports, especially women's sports, which I'm excited
20:39about.
20:40And then I think there are, there are things that may not be venture scale businesses
20:48that I want to believe are going to thrive.
20:50And like food is one that I still, I just can't get over.
20:53I think on the one hand of the barbell, you have so many people pushing towards a kind
20:58of like hyper efficiency of, you know, robots producing the food at a very affordable price,
21:04a drone delivering it.
21:06Like things that I know would make any European probably cry a little on the inside.
21:10Right?
21:10Yeah.
21:11Yes.
21:11Okay.
21:11All right.
21:12I'm, I know I'm German, but like, I understand good food.
21:14I spend time, I spend time in other countries.
21:16So I know.
21:17Um, but here's the crazy thing, right?
21:19I think it's this barbell again.
21:21And I think, yes.
21:22And you know, the Americans, you know, we're going to lead the charge on how to get the
21:25like protein bowl as hyper maximalized and efficient as possible, but like actually,
21:30Oh, perfect.
21:31Okay.
21:31This is a true story.
21:32So during COVID, I learned how to make bread, but I didn't want to make bread like everyone
21:37else.
21:37I wanted to make croissants, croissants.
21:40And, and so I was like, let me make a croissant.
21:42And, and so I go online to get the recipe.
21:44Okay.
21:44Guys.
21:45I don't know if you've tried to make one of these before.
21:46It is a lot of work.
21:47You were taking it in and out of the fridge like eight or nine times to put in more butter.
21:51I will never make another one again.
21:53It was so much work, but I had so much respect for the process.
21:58And, and I was just like, I can't eat another croissant without like really deeply appreciating
22:04how much work goes into it.
22:05So this, this ties back to the robotics thing.
22:07So someone is going to devise some robot that will perfectly make croissants and, and
22:13the every, I know, hold on, bear with me here.
22:15I can feel the French disappointment in me, but hear me out.
22:19All right.
22:20And, and, and everything about that croissants process is going to be optimized and it will
22:24be in a way a kind of perfect croissant and it'll be affordable.
22:28Anyone can get one, blah, blah, blah.
22:29But I actually think in that world, again, it's, there's this barbell.
22:33I actually think on the one hand, that's a good thing, right?
22:36It, it, it, food scarcity for our species should not be a problem, right?
22:41Everyone should be able to get, and croissants are not the healthiest thing, but you can see
22:44how this plays out.
22:45Everyone should be able to get a nutritious, high quality, well-produced meal or, or food
22:50to, or food to make that meal affordably.
22:53On the other side of the barbell, I actually think even when that world exists, we will
22:58crave the human made one even more.
23:00I actually think that again, for the same reason that like when you can watch an AI generated
23:06highlight of a football goal, it does nothing for your soul.
23:09I actually think in that future, we actually come to appreciate the human made version more.
23:15And, and again, this is, I, I am an optimist by my nature, and that's clearly my American
23:20side, but, but I think there are, there, there is none of us who will be nostalgic for an
23:25MRI.
23:26There is none of us who will be nostalgic for a death sentence from a disease that we could
23:32have cured, right?
23:33There will be none of us who will be nostalgic for some of the medicine that we'll consider
23:37bronze age technology, God willing, 20 years from now, because of this technology.
23:41And so great, we deserve that to make it, and especially as an American to make it accessible
23:46to the population and to make it that great.
23:49Like we deserve that as a species.
23:51And, and so I also, I think in that same way, I think the parts that we will be nostalgic
23:58for, we'll actually be able to access more, we'll care more.
24:01And, and I can't wait for that.
24:03I want to do everything I can with my wealth, with my network, with my experience to help more
24:08founders trying to build that future because that is what I desperately want to see in
24:12the world.
24:13And so that's, that's why I'm optimistic.
24:14And I see these things and I, and I'd encourage you all too.
24:16You're in the midst of it.
24:17Like it, there are so many founders right now choosing these very noble quests.
24:22And it's so inspiring to see the ones who want to build things.
24:26Like I said, David's a great example.
24:27He just launched yesterday.
24:28I'm not an investor, but I still want to talk about it because these are the stories that
24:32I hope we can put into the zeitgeist.
24:33I don't know what the popularity of AI is in Europe.
24:38Um, right now in America, it polls worse than every single one of our politicians, everyone.
24:43America is more divided than ever politically.
24:45And every individual politician in America polls better than AI.
24:48And so I realized that I see this and it's a challenge from a marketing standpoint.
24:54It's a challenge from a policy standpoint.
24:55It's a challenge that, that as entrepreneurs and investors, we have to figure out how to,
25:01one, promote and build more of the things that are going to do good for our species.
25:05Um, and two, champion the ones who are building it because that's who we should be celebrating
25:10in our culture.
25:11And I assume, I assume there's versions of this in Europe too, but I can certainly say as
25:14an American, it's, it's existential.
25:16Uh, we have to get this right.
25:18Incredible.
25:18Well, you know how to pick good examples that keep this audience on their toes with the
25:22question example.
25:24Um, we're running, we're running.
25:25We're running low on time, but I have to ask you this last question.
25:28Um, what is your advice for founders other than all of them become professional athletes?
25:33We got that checked off.
25:35Um, what is your advice to them?
25:37I think, uh, Naval actually has a quote on this that aged really well from like 10 years
25:42ago where he said, everyone, this was again, this was like 10 years ago.
25:45Everyone is either a builder or a seller or, or maybe both best case scenario.
25:50And I think what a lot of this technology unlocks for founders, for high agency, high output,
25:55creative people is you now are able to scale that idea.
25:59And, and, and I would say being there has never been a better time to be time rich and cash
26:07poor than right now.
26:08You are able to scale those ideas.
26:10And if you are ideally both a builder and a seller in the sense of you have ideas, you're able
26:15to get them done.
26:16And you are someone who understands and has emotional intelligence and, and like can understand
26:22and empathize with your customer, uh, whatever you're building, you're probably going to have
26:26a very good time right now.
26:28And, and I just think also too, it is, you know, energy is a good one.
26:34Let me give the French y'all's flowers.
26:36Like, you know, this is a huge problem right now in the United States.
26:38We don't have enough energy.
26:40We're still trying to figure that out.
26:42Uh, France figured out nuclear a minute ago.
26:44I think it's 90% of your country right now.
26:46And as a German, I look here and I'm like, gosh, we missed an opportunity.
26:50And, and by missing an opportunity to invest in something like energy, um, you know, we
26:55ended up being beholden to not so great, not so great country.
27:00Um, I think, I think there is a, again, the silver lining of this time we're in right now
27:07is I hope it galvanizes so many countries to, to be innovating their way out of these
27:12problems.
27:13And, and I think we're seeing a version of that.
27:15I can certainly say in the United States right now, which gives me hope and gets me excited.
27:19And like I said, I want nothing more than for a strong Europe to be, you know, championing
27:23those Western values by, you know, executing by building.
27:26And I, um, like I said, I, I, I want nothing more than to see that.
27:31And so the other thing too, I always get asked this cause I have two young children.
27:34Um, obviously learn all the fundamentals, you know, arithmetic, reading, writing.
27:39We have a huge illiteracy problem in the United States, like 60%, 6 0% of our population
27:43can't read at like a ninth grade level.
27:45Google this.
27:45It's nuts.
27:46May explain a few things that are happening in the U S these days, but obviously the fundamentals.
27:50But I do think, I do think again, optimist, but hear me out.
27:56I think the things that are going to matter even more, the things that I want my daughters
27:59to learn are, are exercising their muscles of perseverance, of curiosity, of empathy,
28:04of communicating.
28:05I make my daughter give us little presentations.
28:08I'm a, it's a weird household, but I have her give us little presentations.
28:12Uh, if she wants another book, she's got to give us a little, she's going to stand up in
28:15front of us.
28:16And it's like the extended family in us.
28:17It's not like I'm putting her on stage in like public, but, but I want her to get comfortable
28:21communicating.
28:22I want her to get comfortable talking.
28:24Like these are, I actually think the pendulum just swings back wickedly in the other direction
28:29as you know, the lives that, you know, our kids all see us living on our phones.
28:33I think it swings right back to, to a lot of the more fundamental human things that have
28:37mattered a lot more for our species that, uh, that make it special.
28:41And, and yeah, even though Hollywood is not going to look the same in 20 years and there's
28:45going to be some teenager in France able to put out some amazing, you know, sort of motion
28:50graphics type film.
28:51I actually think stuff like this gets more valuable.
28:54I actually think we've been telling stories on stages, comedies, dramas, ballet.
29:00We've been doing that way longer than we've gotten into a dark theater, watching a movie.
29:03I don't know how to make this a venture bet, but I actually think like live theater, comedy,
29:08the arts, ballet opera.
29:10I think those will actually be even more popular five, 10 years from now.
29:13Because again, this is more true to our soul.
29:16And as the rest, as the Hollywood stuff gets commoditized, what are the things that make
29:20us laugh?
29:21What are the things that make us cry?
29:22I actually think it's actually humans in front of us, uh, even when they tell us to get
29:26off stage.
29:26Super.
29:27There you go.
29:28Hopefully there's a lot out.
29:28Dankeschön.
29:30Thanks guys.
29:31Thank you so much, Alexis.
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