What lies at the intersection of 'diversity' and 'meritocracy'? Learn how Silicon Valley insiders defy polarized pop narratives to build talented teams with diverse perspectives.
In this week's episode, Amir Shevat joins Chris and Yaniv to discuss:
- Tipping the Scale: The seasonal 'meritocracy vs. diversity' debate returns to Silicon Valley. Scale AI CEO Alexander Wang suggests replacing DEI with MEI ('merit, excellence and intelligence').
- Thinking Cap: Ilya Sutskever takes a few parting shots at OpenAI as he launches a new startup, SSI ('Safe Super Intelligence'), focusing on AI safety. But can an AI startup move fast without breaking things?
- Dig Up, Stupid: The old adage suggests that those who sell shovels get rich during a gold rush. But are there too many AI picks and shovels, and not enough miners?
- Failing Vision: Apple have struggled to make a case for the Vision Pro. Has AI made AR more appealing than VR?
- There's No EU in Teams: Microsoft faces an EU antitrust case over anti-competitive behaviour for bundling Teams with Office.
00:00 Intro
00:49 On Today's Show
02:41 The Startup Podcast Pact
03:09 Scale AI's 'MEI': Meritocracy vs. Diversity
20:00 Ilya's New Venture: 'Safe' Super Intelligence
27:20 AI Picks and Shovels: Too Many Enterprise Tools?
38:21 The Future of Apple's Vision Pro
49:20 Microsoft Teams Faces EU Antitrust
The Pact
Honour The Startup Podcast Pact! If you have listened to TSP and gotten value from it, please:
Follow, rate, and review us in your listening app
Subscribe to the TSP Mailing List to gain access to exclusive newsletter-only content and early-access to information on upcoming episodes: https://thestartuppodcast.beehiiv.com/subscribe
Secure your official TSP merchandise at https://shop.tsp.show/
Follow us here on YouTube for full-video episodes: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNjm1MTdjysRRV07fSf0yGg
Give us a public shout-out on LinkedIn or anywhere you have a social media following
Key links
The Startup Podcast is sponsored by Vanta. Vanta helps businesses get and stay compliant by automating up to 90% of the work for the most in demand compliance frameworks. With over 200 integrations, you can easily monitor and secure the tools your business relies on. For a limited-time offer of US$1,000 off, go to www.vanta.com/tsp.
The Startup Podcast is also sponsored by Rippling. Rippling is a single all-in-one platform for your global workforce, covering HR, IT, payroll, expenses, and more. For a TSP listener offer of 3 months free, go to www.rippling.com/tsp.
Get your question in for our next Q&A episode: https://forms.gle/NZzgNWVLiFmwvFA2A
The Startup Podcast website: https://tsp.show
Learn more about Chris and Yaniv
Work 1:1 with Chris: http://chrissaad.com/advisory/
Follow Chris on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrissaad/
Follow Yaniv on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ybernstein/
Editor: Justin McArthur https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-mcarthur
Intro Voice: Jeremiah Owyang https://web-strategist.com/
#startup #entrepreneur #ai #mei #dei #ssi #antitrust #microsoft #applevision
