Inventing The Future

The pandemic completely shifted the nature of how we work. The abrupt changes brought by the pandemic either destroyed companies or forced them to radically adapt. In this episode, Julian speaks with Kian Gohar about the leadership principles, culture changes, and new rules of work that are required to thrive in this new age.

❓ Who is Kian?

💥 Kian is the co-author of “Competing in the New World of Work” with Keith Ferrazzi, which was published just two days ago on February 15th by HBR. The book highlights the future of work by providing research-based insights and best practices for leading change in the ever-evolving post-pandemic world of work. Kian, Keith, and their team interviewed over 2000 executives, entrepreneurs, change-makers, and leaders around the world to understand what they do and how they responded to the pandemic. We’ll talk about many of the lessons shared from the book in this episode.

💥 Kian is the founder of Geolab, an innovation research and training firm empowering leaders through coaching, strategy, and design.

💥 Previously, he was an Executive Director of the XPRIZE Foundation, designing moonshot challenges to solve pressing global problems through partnerships with corporations, foundations and governments.

💥 He was also on the faculty of Singularity University, teaching exponential thinking to thousands of entrepreneurs and executives. Kian has coached the leadership teams of dozens of Fortune 500 companies and is a sought-after public speaker on innovation.

💥 He is a graduate of Northwestern, the London School of Economics, and Harvard Business School.

💣 4 Value Bombs

💥 2. One of the main advantages of working in person is having spontaneous conversations that can lead to an idea or a better relationship. In the new remote world, you should create a culture where you can feel comfortable calling somebody and asking them a question.

💥 3. To improve the foresight of your team/company, task everyone to identify one particular external threat that could impact your business, whether that’s tech, economics, policy, or a competitor. Ask them to track that domain for the course of a month and report back with their findings.

💥 4. Entrepreneurship is a journey, not a career path. It isn’t a path because there is no clear direction of where you are headed. As long as you’re open to learning, pivoting, and working with people who you really admire and who are going to change the world, you’ll open yourself up to a lot of opportunities.

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Visit inventingthefuture.ai for the full show notes, which includes a full transcription of the conversation, a link to the YouTube Video interview, the top 3 value bombs, people & resources mentioned, and more!

This podcast is hosted by Julian Alvarez, the Co-Founder & CTO at Vize and a Software Engineer at Facebook.

In this special episode, we celebrate ITF’s one-year birthday, which happens to be Julian’s birthday as well! To celebrate, Julian gets personal, vulnerable, and deep.

We usually interview next-level entrepreneurs on this podcast but with this episode, you’ll get the opportunity to know Julian better as he tells the story of three of the most transformative experiences in his life.

The three stories consist of...

Julian also touches on having left his previous startup, Vize, to pursue an idea he has become obsessed about and felt that he could not ignore. The new startup is named Mindflow and we are building a learn-to-earn platform that leverages crypto and NFTs to financially incentivize people to learn.

“When you do things with the focus on what benefit you will get out of it, your potential and motivation will be limited. But when you focus your energy on how you can contribute to all of humanity, you tap into an unbounded source of energy.” — Julian Alvarez

We thank you all for supporting this podcast and for boarding this rocket ship with us. In many ways, this exponential journey is just beginning so buckle up and let’s continue to ascend onward and upward 🚀

Visit inventingthefuture.ai for the full show notes, which includes a full transcription of the conversation, a link to the YouTube Video interview, the top 3 value bombs, people & resources mentioned, and more!

This podcast is hosted by Julian Alvarez, the Co-Founder & CTO at Vize and a Software Engineer at Facebook.

How can you capture the knowledge buried inside conversations and convert them into actions? 

After graduating early from UPenn in 2015, Krish Ramineni dove headfirst into Microsoft as a Product Manager. Krish enjoyed his job and he was learning a lot but he realized that he was making incremental improvements to existing products instead of being truly innovative and building new products. When graduate school at Cambridge was right around the corner a year later, a fateful meeting with Sam Udotong (current Co-founder and CTO) led him to tinker around. Together they build the foundation for Fireflies AI: an AI note-taking assistant for your meetings. 

Fireflies raised $14M in their series A round and $5m in their seed round. Krish Ramineni and Sam Udotong recently made in on Forbes 30 Under 30.

Fireflies went through at least 5 pivots before finding product-market fit and Krish and Sam both lives on pizza and soylent for over a year before building something that could attract the attention of investors.

❗ What PROBLEM is Fireflies AI solving?

Approximately 40% of our time is spent in meetings daily, but that knowledge is rarely captured in an efficient and reusable manner. We also speak an average of 150 words/minute, but write approximately 50 words/minute. Meetings are often not easily transferrable to output. 

Moreover, how do you extract value from an audio recording or transcript? What if you want to pluck only the action items, important dates, or metrics discussed? Whether you’re preparing to sit down with competitors, investors, or your internal team, extensive manual effort is required to condense a meeting into digestible, high-value morsels.

🛠️ What is Fireflies AI’s SOLUTION?

Imagine summarizing an hour-long meeting in five minutes by using an AI that can guess which parts of the conversation are the most important.

Fireflies AI is an AI meeting assistant that joins your meetings across Zoom, WebEx, Skype, Google Meet and all other video conferencing platforms. Not only does it take notes, summarizes the meeting and transcribes it at extremely high accuracy levels, it creates a knowledge base of meeting content. Their AI tool intelligently extracts value out of the recordings, allowing you to easily navigate the most crucial parts of the phone call. 

Moreover, with their integrations and workflows, the assistant automatically inputs information into other applications and systems and even can send recaps to Slack. This automates tedious post-meeting work so employees can focus their energy on curating rich and meaningful conversations.

Visit inventingthefuture.ai for the full show notes, which includes a full transcription of the conversation, a link to the YouTube Video interview, the top 3 value bombs, people & resources mentioned, and more!

This podcast is hosted by Julian Alvarez, the Co-Founder & CTO at Vize and a Software Engineer at Facebook.

This was a monumental year for NFTs. The most expensive NFT was sold for $69.3 million. The market cap (total money in NFTs) of NFTs went from $17 million in January to $3.25 billion in August (19,000% increase in 8 months). The trading volume went from $4.75 million to $6.5 billion in the last year (141,000% increase). And finally, this year, the number of people that own an NFT went from 1 million to 25 million. This is truly insane exponential hockey stick type growth, and things are just getting started.

You may be thinking, “Alright yeah, that sounds pretty wild but WTF is an NFT and why should I care?”

WTF is an NFT? No, NFTs are not Northern Fried Tacos and they are not Ninja Fighting Tattoos. NFT stands for non-fungible token. To understand what non-fungible means, let’s first understand what fungible means. When something is fungible, that means it can be exchanged for something else of equal value. For example currencies like the USD or Bitcoin are fungible. You can exchange any $5 bill for any other $5 bill and you'll have the exact same thing.

How Do NFTs Work? NFTs are possible thanks to the technology of the blockchain, which is the same technology that powers Bitcoin. The blockchain can be thought of as a public decentralized database, where anyone can see what is currently stored on the blockchain and see the full history of all transactions. Therefore, with NFTs, you can see a record of when the NFT was created, who currently owns it, and the history of all the transactions for that NFT. These NFTs uniquely represent pieces of media that can be anything digital, including art, videos, music, gifs, games, text, memes, and code.

Use Cases For NFTs There are many different use cases for NFTs today but given that it is such a novel technology, new use cases are continuing to be created every day. Here are a few of the use cases that are covered in this episode.

In this episode, we also discuss how NFTs are giving unprecedented financial power to creatives, how NFTs will change internet culture, how to buy NFTs, and what to look for when investing in NFTs.

NFTs are still early, and will evolve. Their utility will increase as digital experiences are built around them, including marketplaces, social networks, showcases (virtual museums, your own space in the Metaverse), games, virtual worlds, and more. Someday every internet community might have its own micro-economy, including NFTs and fungible tokens that users can use, own, and collect.

Still uncertain about some of these concepts or have follow up questions? Feel free to reach out to Julian through Instagram (@infinitejuliaan) or Twitter (@infinitejuliaan).

Visit inventingthefuture.ai for the full show notes, which includes a full transcription of the conversation, a link to the YouTube Video interview, the top 3 value bombs, people & resources mentioned, and more!

This podcast is hosted by Julian Alvarez, the Co-Founder & CTO at Vize and a Software Engineer at Facebook.

The companies that end up going bankrupt do so because they fail to disrupt themselves. In other words, they generate such an insane amount of revenue that they develop a corporate immune system that will attack any idea that poses a threat to the company's core business.

It was during his time at Singularity University that Salim did his seminal research on the attributes that the fastest growing companies in the world had in common. Salim compiled this research to write his popular book, Exponential Organizations.

🧑🏼‍🦲 More About Salim

Salim is a sought-after business strategist who presents globally to the leaders of many of the world’s largest companies and Heads of State.

He is the Chairman at OpenExO, the Author of Exponential Organizations, a Board Member at X Prize Foundation, and the Founding Executive Director at Singularity University.

Salim is a serial entrepreneur. Most recently, he founded OpenExO and ExO Works. He previously founded several technology companies, including New York Grant Company, Confabb, PubSub Concepts, Fastrack Institute, and Ångströ, which Google acquired in 2010. In addition, he led Brickhouse, Yahoo!’s internal incubator.

🚀 How To Start a Startup (According to Salim)

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💣 Value Bomb

💥 1. To transform a system, it is better to create an entirely new system rather than trying to restructure an existing system. After studying examples from history, Salim has found that you can never ever fix the old. The only way to transform a system is to go to the edge of the existing system and build a new capability and let people migrate to it and let that become the new center of gravity. When Salim and his team work with big companies, they do not try to do disruptive innovation in the mothership. Instead, they create an edge organization and let it become the new center of gravity.

Visit inventingthefuture.ai for the full show notes, which includes a full transcription of the conversation, a link to the YouTube Video interview, the top 3 value bombs, people & resources mentioned, and more!

This podcast is hosted by Julian Alvarez, the Co-Founder & CTO at Vize and a Software Engineer at Facebook.

Due to the countless barriers to innovation, many people never choose to innovate or bring their ideas to life. And the grand majority of those who do try to innovate end up failing. How do you lower the cost of innovation and maximize the probability of success?

Henrik Stamm Kristensen is a serial entrepreneur who has founded five companies, four of which are food technology companies and one of which is a communications platform. After 35 years in the food industry, he is now the Founder and CEO (Chief Moonshot Officer) at BlendHub and the Founder of ChemoMetric Brain.

❗ What PROBLEM is BlendHub solving?

🛠️ What is BlendHub's SOLUTION?

So, they invented the world's first portable powder blending, packaging, and quality control factory in a forty foot container. After the first one was patented in 2010, it was deployed in India in 2011. Through localization, they were able to save 30% on costs. They ideated a multi-localized network of food production hubs that are closer to the ingredients and the final consumers.

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Henrik Kristensen's LinkedIn

💣 Value Bomb

💥 1. Break out of your comfort zone and travel. Travel will expose you to the problems that exist out there. All of those problems = potential opportunities! When you discover one that interests you AND excites you, it may be the ONE problem worth dedicating your life to. It could be the key to unlocking your future. When Henrik travelled, he witnessed the various ways people use and consume food, leading him to innovate in his industry.

Visit inventingthefuture.ai for the full show notes, which includes a full transcription of the conversation, a link to the YouTube Video interview, the top 3 value bombs, people & resources mentioned, and more!

This podcast is hosted by Julian Alvarez, the Co-Founder & CTO at Vize and a Software Engineer at Facebook.

Cryptocurrency is the fastest growing technology in history. Its current growth rate is 113% annually and it's the first asset to have gone up 2 million percent since its inception. It's accelerating twice as fast as the Internet did during the dot-com boom. Visualize this: 140M crypto users exist today, but this number will scale to 1B by 2024. 

Matthew Chivers and Micah Baylor are propelling this movement forward through Mage, a blockchain consulting company that provides a range of services to accelerate the adoption of blockchain technologies. They consult across crypto, blockchain, digital real estate, sales strategy and sales development.

Matthew is the Co-Founder and CEO at Mage. Micah is the Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer at Mage.

❗ What PROBLEM is the problem with the existing financial infrastructure?

Banks often abuse their power to freeze or close bank accounts. While this can decrease the number of clients engaging in illegal activities, governments (like in Nigeria) can close down bank accounts of organizations that are protesting against them. In this scenario, Bitcoin served as a platform through which they could receive donations and payments, financing their protests without government intervention.

Moreover, the US government owes a towering debt of $16T. They remedy this by printing money or raising taxes, which hurts the global economy. Money printing raises inflation rates, decreasing the value of the existing US dollar. You're incentivized to spend your money now instead of saving it, which is not in the best interest of your financial future. Tesla, for example, bought bitcoin to hedge against government money printing. 

🛠️ What is Mage's SOLUTION?

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"With the way money works, you don't realize that there is a problem until you take in the global context of how people in different parts of the world transact and how they are being left out of essential financial services." -Julian

Visit inventingthefuture.ai for the full show notes, which includes a full transcription of the conversation, a link to the YouTube Video interview, the top 2 value bombs, people & resources mentioned, and more!

This podcast is hosted by Julian Alvarez, the Co-Founder & CTO at Vize and a Software Engineer at Facebook.

Most people simply view money as a means of satisfying their material desires. For Mar, having power over one's finances tasted like freedom. She believed it would make her happy, but it didn't.

Now what? At 21, Mar became a financial trader in a Wolf of Wall Street-esque environment in London. After reaching the peak of her career half a decade later, Mar acquired her Master's degree in Economics at Schumacher college and embarked on a personal and spiritual growth journey by traveling the world—for 10 years. 

Mar Michelle Häusler is the Founder of Give & Take Lab, a collaborative laboratory focused on advancing the exploration of new ways of interacting with money, and Time4Changers, a learning journey for Generation Z individuals to birth their purpose projects, and Creator of the Inkiri social currency.

❗ What PROBLEM is Give & Take Lab solving?

If money didn't exist, what would you be doing with your time right now? People's relationship with money is often fueled by a rat race pattern or the fear mentality that drives us to chase financial stability. We don't give ourselves the space to grow. 

Money is a neutral energy, amplifying the entities you project. Many people project scarcity and attract that as well, despite their attachment to a stable "9-5" that supplies them with secure wealth.

Moreover, our society is not built to let kids dream. The world closes you down from a young age. The impossibility of a fulfilling life without financial strain is pushed onto us.

🛠️ What is Give & Take Lab's SOLUTION?

An empowering community centered around three fundamental pillars: awareness, connection, and empowerment.

The Lab has facilitated the reformation of thousands of people's personal relationship to money across the globe. Their strategy is anchored in perspective-shifting, connecting to oneself, and feeling the energies of those important to you and your community.

Strategically collaborating with the education system, Time4Changers aims to embed crucial concepts like financial literacy, regeneration and sustainability, mental health, life purpose, and more into Generation Z individuals between 11 and 18 years of age. 

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- Mar Michelle Häusler's LinkedIn

"There is no other person who is exactly like you in the world who can offer what you offer. And if you are not offering what is unique to you, the world is missing out. And sometimes, it's even selfish that you're not offering that because we are all missing out on your amazing gifts." — Mar Michelle Häusler

💣  Value Bomb

💥 Success does not necessarily equate to fulfillment. Evaluate whether or not your work is depleting or reenergizing you. Align with the elements that enable you to enter flow. For Mar, working with people was her primary element. 

Visit inventingthefuture.ai for the full show notes, which includes a full transcription of the conversation, a link to the YouTube Video interview, the top 3 value bombs, people & resources mentioned, and more!

This podcast is hosted by Julian Alvarez, the Co-Founder & CTO at Vize and a Software Engineer at Facebook.

Since childhood, Norris was passionate about making the world feel smaller through faster transportation. After studying aerospace engineering at UCLA, he worked in the aerospace industry as a propulsion engineer for three years on vehicles that break the sound barrier. At Stanford's Graduate School of Business, he realized low-boom supersonic travel was the future.

As in, what if you could travel at supersonic speeds that are 2 or 3 times faster than the average plane? When a 12-hour flight prevented Norris from flying to Asia to visit his grandparents, he knew in high school that he wanted to be a change-maker for improving cross-pacific relationships. Leading this bold mission, Norris Tie is the Co-Founder and CEO of Exosonic, Inc., a startup that is building commercial supersonic planes.

In the past 50 years, the speed of commercial airplanes has not gotten faster. Have you ever not traveled somewhere due to how long the flight is? Moreover, the cost of a flight increases the longer the flight is due to heightened labor costs to staff the aircrafts, employ the aviators, and feed the passengers.

Despite our planet being massive, flying has shrunk it by allowing us to travel at speeds of 460-575 miles per hour. Within 24 hours, you can reach the other side of the globe. Imagine the further worldview expansion and economic prosperity we could achieve from shorter flights. Businesses could collaborate more easily and traveling could be more accessible to the masses. When distance is not a barrier, valuable relationships are formed and intangible connections are deepened.

A quiet supersonic airliner that is 2.5-3x faster than traditional places. Their plane is set to enter service in the mid 2030s time frame.

Their aircraft is currently projected to carry up to 70 passengers and fly from Los Angeles or San Francisco to London in 6 hours or so. Although these seats will cost business class prices upfront, they will increasingly become more affordable over time.

To fund their R&D costs, they have acquired partnerships with the US government and its Air Force. For the future, they will evolve these into multi million dollar military defense contracts for a more stable resource flow.

"Are we going to be satisfied with the status quo forever and suffer through twelve plus hour flights forever? No, someone has to do something that will make transportation even more convenient and open up the world even more." - Norris Tie

Norris Tie’s Twitter

💣 Value Bomb

💥 1. Naval Ravikant says there are three important things needed to succeed in your startup. 1. Make sure you’re working on the right thing. 2. Make sure you’re working with the right people. 3. Work really hard. All of these 3 components are like legs on a stool. Without one of the legs, your startup will collapse and fail.

Visit inventingthefuture.ai for the full show notes, which includes a full transcription of the conversation, a link to the YouTube Video interview, the top 3 value bombs, people & resources mentioned, and more!

This podcast is hosted by Julian Alvarez, the Co-Founder & CTO at Vize and a Software Engineer at Facebook.