Understand Tomorrow

This week we've got the pleasure of hosting the current Vice President of Erasmus Esports Charlotte Van Deuzen, as well as former President of Erasmus Esports Jan Smeets. Both Charlotte and Jan have been a part of the organization almost since it began and have formed an integral part of multiple Erasmus Esports boards since. Erasmus Esports is an esports organization at Erasmus University for both casual and competitive gamers. Today Charlotte and Jan join us to talk about Erasmus Esports and what their experience has been like within it. Furthermore, we also touch on the esports climate in Rotterdam and Erasmus Esports' role in promoting gaming and esports in the city.

00:30 Who are our guests?

05:15 What does Erasmus Esports do?

07:15 Competition at Erasmus Esports

10:15 Which games does Erasmus Esports facilitate

12:30 Competing in Taiwan

15:00 How Erasmus Esports' competitive teams work

18:15 How players prepare for tournaments

21:15 The pandemic and the online/offline member experiences

26:00 Erasmus Esports member demographics

28:00 How Erasmus Esports has developed overtime

30:00 Rotterdam as an esports city

32:00 Erasmus Esports' role in promoting esports in Rotterdam

35:00 Are esports sports?

40:30 where can our audience learn more?

Our guest this week is André Marcatto, the  founder of Mayfair Investors. We explore André's journey as an investor as he shares his history and advice. Together we dive into  the rise of the retail investor, investing in Tesla, Neo and cryptocurrencies; and water as a traded commodity.

Show Notes:

0:45 introduction speaker

1:15 what got you into investing

3:00 Mayfair Investors

7:45 Worst investment decision

12:00 Covid19 and Investing

15:15 Psychological impact of poor short-term returns

16:45 Which industries should you look at

18:15 Tesla and Neo

19:45 Cryptocurrencies

22:45 Retail Investors

27:45 Advice for new traders

32:45 California water futures

35:45 wrap up

This week we introduce our two new hosts Ozan Marcel Cakir and Youri Lempers. We discuss who we are and why we decided to join Erasmus Tech Community and host this podcast. Furthermore, we discuss recent tech developments such as the subreddit r/wallstreetbets and their involvement in Gamestop, Elon Musk's vision of reaching Mars, and Twitter's initiative to combat fake news. Finally, we present our vision for the podcast and what can be expected in the near future. Hope you enjoy!

Show Notes:

00:35 - Introduction Ozan

01:35 - Introduction Youri

02:30 - Why We Joined the Podcast

05:10 - Our Favorite Podcasts

09:10 - Reddit r/wallstreetbets and GameStop

14:15 - Elon Musk Wants to Reach Mars

16:50 - Twitter & Fake News 

20:45 - Future of the Podcast

My guest this week, Kian van der Enden, is a young engineer and one of the most curious and inquisitive minds I have interviewed so far. Kian is a researcher at QuTech, where he is developing the quantum internet to help connect quantum computers at larger distances. He also interned at Microsoft to study Quantum Architecture, and most impressively, won the first SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition out of 1200 teams by designing and building the capsule that goes into the reduced-pressure tubes that can reach airline like speeds using electric propulsion and magnetic levitation. Our conversation is all about quantum technology and how this space is going to change over the coming decades. We discuss concepts such as quantum entanglement and quantum states and quickly branch off to talk about broader implications and applications of this fascinating technology. Kian describes his work as bending fundamental physics properties to his will by writing software that controls machines in a controlled environment. I am fascinated by his work and I think you will be as well. Enjoy the conversation!

Show Notes:

00:02:00 Background

00:02:30 What is Kian Curious About

00:05:15 Quantum Tech & Edge Computing

00:08:45 Classical vs. Quantum Computers

00:13:45 The Quantum Internet

00:18:30 Quantum States & Entanglement

00:29:45 Teleportation

00:32:45 Debunking Myths

00:41:15 Quantum Machine Learning

00:47:15 General AI

00:56:30 Social Media & Feeding the AI

01:06:00 Staying Curious & Motivated

01:11:15 Career Advice

01:13:45 Hyperloop Competition

01:19:45 Research vs. Building

01:22:45 Career Advice

My guest this week, Bobby Bahov, is a young entrepreneur and one of the most curious and inquisitive minds I have interviewed so far. He is the CEO and Co-founder of AI Lab One – a consulting business with a focus on helping companies embrace the future of artificial intelligence. He also co-founded Space Mining Technologies with the goal of getting a more permanent human presence in space. Our conversation starts with Bobby’s entrepreneurial journey and the lessons he learned along the way. We also talk about the vision behind his two start-ups and quickly branch off to talk about HealthTech, robotics, and the intelligence explosion. We talk about why we’re merging robots and why’s that a good thing. We talk about regulating tech and the issues that could arise in the future such as inherent human biases. I would list more of the topics, but we covered so much that you should just listen. I hope you’ll enjoy it!  

Show Notes  

01:45 Lifelong learning

05:25 Bobby’s entrepreneurial journey

11:10 Missionaries vs. Mercenaries

13:55 The WHY behind Space Mining Tech and AI Lab One

15:40 HealthTech – personal care, prevention, and Bobby’s project on predicting cancer using AI

19:25 Personal challenges / what motivated you

21:40 Competitive landscape – robotics, AI, and the intelligence explosion

24:10 What happens once we develop robots that are smarter than we are?

32:40 Biases and developing AI

35:55 Should we regulate tech?

38:25 We are merging with robots and that’s a good thing

42:10 Inequalities

46:10 Collective programming the AI

49:40 The WHY behind Space Mining Tech

57:25 Advice to aspiring entrepreneurs

My guest this week, Federico Maroli, is the President of ASIF Ventures, an early-stage student-led venture fund based in Amsterdam. In this conversation, we explore everything from getting started, bootstrapping, fundraising, escaping competition, and how ASIF is supporting the entrepreneurial ecosystem in the Netherlands. It's time to listen and learn!

Show Notes

01:15 Federico’s background

02:30 ASIF Ventures

04:00 Personal WHY

06:00 What are you curious about?

08:00 Do students have what it takes to build a business?

12:00 The (student) Dutch start-up ecosystem

21:45 What do you look for when assessing new ventures?

28:30 How should you approach raising venture capital?

32:30 Escaping competition and Founder–Product–Market Fit

35:15 What does it take to make money in the venture capital business?

37:30 How is ASIF Ventures going to transform over the coming years?

40:45 What are your top 3 lessons for (aspiring) entrepreneurs?

My guests this week are Ronan and Robin, the co-founders of StudentUp – a social media for student entrepreneurs to connect and build together. As a disclaimer, since the recording of this podcast in early January, the team has pivoted to a different business model addressing the same underlying problems. Our conversation is about the intersection of entrepreneurship, technology, and culture. We discuss their personal hurdles, what they have learnt along their journey, and how they keep each other motivated. Given that they got started in Silicon Valley, we also discuss the entrepreneurial ecosystem there and compare it to the European landscape. Ronan and Robin are entrepreneurs at heart so I enjoyed their energy and all that they have learnt. So much so that I decided to invest in them and help them fulfill their ambitions. This was one of my favorite conversations on the podcast, I hope you enjoy it!

Show Notes

02:40 – Who inspired you get started?

04:00 – Robin’s story

05:20 – Ronan’s story

06:45 – The hurdles of starting a business as a student

10:55 – U.S.A. vs. European entrepreneurial ecosystem

13:30 – How do you stay on top of the game?

14:40 – The trip to San Francisco

18:10 – Why are students not starting more businesses?

21:00 – What are your next steps?

22:10 – How do you measure your impact?

23:00 – What advice do you have for aspiring entrepreneurs?

My guest this week, Rajarshi Chakraborty, is a recent graduate with a very interesting background – as a student, he founded the Erasmus Tech Community, and since then has spearheaded a number of innovation projects within the Erasmus University Rotterdam. Our conversation is about the intersection of technology and education. We discuss the attitude and skills that you need to acquire to stay relevant in the coming decades. We also discuss Raj’s opinion on the educational ecosystem and the importance of lifelong learning. I would list more of the topics, but we covered so much that you should just listen. Finally, I will say that Raj is a dear friend of mine that I appreciate and admire very much – he is full of energy and ideas and is always curious and eager to learn. If you know more people like this, reach out and suggest them for this podcast. Now enjoy our conversation.

For more episodes go to https://anchor.fm/understand-tomorrow.

Show Notes

01:15 – What does curiosity mean to you?

04:00 – Embracing the unknown

05:20 – The founding of the Erasmus Tech Community

13:22 – Lifelong learning

16:30 – Do you need to learn to code?

19:58 – Reshaping education

26:30 – Contextualizing knowledge