Google Research’s Post

Congratulations to the Beta team for this great accomplishment. We are thrilled to be a part of Google for Startups Founders Fund, focused on companies using Artificial Intelligence to positively impact humanity. We believe that all businesses should have fair access to capital, however identity (e.g. race, gender) leads to disparate outcomes. The problem is massively complex, but we have pin-pointed small business credit scoring as the best way to address this problem at scale. Our work with Google will enable ethical use of generative AI to empower small businesses to access and improve their BetaScore over time, which will in-turn increase access to and lower cost of capital over time. Success is a world where the only thing determining whether your business gets a loan is how good you are at selling a service/product at a higher price than it costs to provide. Nothing more, nothing less. Let's go Google!!!

This year marks the 5th year of the Google for Startups Founders Funds, which started in the United States. Each startup will receive $150,000 in non-dilutive cash awards, $100,000 in Google Cloud credits, and hands-on mentorship from Google experts across AI, sales and more to help build and scale their companies and innovate responsibly with AI. Read more about the 2024 Founders Funds recipients here: https://lnkd.in/gu94sBjE

🎄🎄🎄 A Twixtmas Pondering 🎄🎄🎄   There was a post on here last week from one of the luminaries of the UK tech sector. Having powered a UK-wide network of tech founders for many years, they’ve now turned their gaze towards the university cities. They’d met a professor who was still at university, despite having founded and sold three separate startups to the biggest tech companies on the planet, and they were surprised they’d never come across this academic before. And yet... anyone who knows the startup scene in that city would immediately realise who this academic is!   I’m not going to name the OP, because this isn’t an ad hominem point. For me, this highlights the gulf that’s emerged over the past 15 years between the new wave approach to tech startups (or, more correctly, “tech enabled”) and the older school of “deep tech” (as in: profound technology innovation). As much as anything else, the former is entrepreneur-led whereas deeptech is inventor-led - these are completely different styles of business creation, working operations, and personalities (people & characteristics). Innovating a business model is completely different from creating, productising and commercialising a fundamental new technology. It needs different resources, and happens over different timescales. 1990s-vintage venture capital had an investment model and an ecosystem that was well-suited to deeptech/hardtech startups; 2020s-era VC less so. The people networks (founders, key personnel, advisors, mentors) are also substantially different, with only a small overlap in practice.   We now have a renewed focus on spinning out “real technology” startups from our university sector, and the genuine possibility of generating some meaningful business value from this area over the medium term. It’s vital that we bring appropriate knowhow into these discussions – just applying the London “cookie cutter” could create as many problems as it might solve.

I had such a fun time at TechCrunch Disrupt. Here are some of my thoughts on themes I saw at the conference. If you're a startup founder, please DM me. I'd love to share more about what we are building at Zeni and how we solve your biggest pain points when it comes to your financial operations :)

"Like any model, this is wrong, but reflecting on the patterns may be useful. The key point is that meaningful differences exist between rapidly growing startups/scale-ups, more established tech companies, and non-digital-product-selling companies looking to modernize. You can also experience all three motions in the same company (and experience the shifts and tensions as you move between motions, which could be unique motions unto themselves)." https://lnkd.in/gbPAgHCz

Great news for the ATL tech scene: Goodie Nation is bringing back the State of the Atlanta Black Tech Ecosystem Summit, happening on the 11th of January at The Gathering Spot. After hitting pause on this summit over COVID-19, the time is right to restart the conversation, especially with the pivotal role tech plays for students, companies, and startups. We need to evaluate where we stand today to then decide our way forward. Space is tight, so RSVP https://lnkd.in/grbbG6YJ #RelationshipsMatter

Join me online or in person (Melbs) for the AUNZ 🦄 Startup Growth Summit this Thursday 18th Jan. Last year’s event was sold out, with over 600 in-person and online attendees. It will be even better this year with the combined powers of Stripe, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Cake Equity and the ACS (Australian Computer Society) Labs who have crafted an unforgettable event. Learn from tech leaders, including Leigh Jasper and Helen Souness, as they unpack the secrets startup unicorns use to scale and grow. Get actionable insights, tools, and tips for; 💥 Building and motivating world-class startup teams, 💥 Leveraging Generative Ai, 💥Maximising revenue growth and retention and 💥 Expanding into international markets. (I might have a thing or two to contribute here!) This event is tailored for startup founders and c-suites already breaking through 1M+ in revenue with the ambition to amplify their success 5X. 🗓️ Save the date: January 18th, Thursday. 💻 Interested? DM me to join the waitlist for limited exclusive access. #globalexpansion #goglobal #marketexpansion #ecosystembuilding

It was a pleasure to present our progress and get feedback from advisors. With your comments and suggestions, I'm sure that AI TECHNOLOGIES FOR AFRICA will continue to improve our products. AI can do more in Africa than you can imagine. Follow AI TECHNOLOGIES FOR AFRICA to stay up to date. #sdg #ai #entrepreneurship #africa #wastemanagement #climatechange #climateaction #substainability

I want to share an insight I've gained while participating in the Techstars program about why accelerator programs are excellent environments for developing your idea and making the right pivots; it's not by accident. Many accelerator programs have been around for over 20 years, funding nearly 10,000 companies. As founders, we often like to believe that our ideas are unique, that we're the first, and that we have no competitors. However, with such a volume of companies, it's likely that some have been funded that directly compete with yours or are strikingly similar. I would wager that almost any founder could find at least ten companies similar to theirs. Some of these companies have been successful, others have pivoted, and some have failed. All three outcomes are valuable. In accelerator programs, you often have access to other companies and founders, providing opportunities to learn from their failures and pivots. Success stories serve as models for what to do right. I often hear founders complain about the "cost" of these programs—the equity stakes, pro-rata rights, MFN clauses, etc. Yes, they are expensive, but that's also why you should fully utilize the resources and access provided. TL;DR: I am experiencing many great learnings with Tré Baker as Glitch participates in Techstars. We are using gaming as a go-to-market strategy to develop our large language model for AI, which can comprehend media in real-time and make decisions by leveraging the Techstars network of other companies.

⏳ 24 hours later.. ..We are deep into our AI hackathon at sequel 👨💻 Our team is dialled-in hammering towards the launch version of our previous hackathon project - PitchLeague AI. We're also stress-testing our new office (no furniture yet) ... but with a Starlink (thanks Elon) and an incredible view of Westminster Abbey from our terrace... we're fuelled and driven towards the official launch on Thursday. Our launch version of PitchLeague AI will include a host of new features including: - Slide by slide feedback from our AI pitch deck coach - Startup scores measuring founding team, market size and traction (in addition to deck scores) - Competitive landscape analysis - Investor discoverability We are also building an API for VCs and investors to assess startup decks (privately without them appearing on the leaderboard). We're putting together a prize list... including investment, mentoring and invitations to our sequel launch event at the new office. 🎁 What would be a good prize for the highest scoring startups? ⚡ Register for updates on our launch at the link in the comments.