> In early 2018, the founders of Chinese artificial intelligence startup SenseTime Group Ltd. flew to Tokyo to see billionaire investor Masayoshi Son. As they entered the offices, Chief Executive Officer Xu Li was hoping to persuade the head of SoftBank Group to invest $200 million in his three-year-old startup.
> A third of the way into the presentation, Son interrupted to say he wanted to put in $1 billion. A few minutes later, Son suggested $2 billion. Turning to the roomful of SoftBank managers, Son said this was the kind of AI company he’d been looking for. “Why are you only telling me about them now?” he asked, according to one person in the room.
This sounds more like an episode of Dragon's Den than a firm responsible for billions of dollars of investors' money. Doesn't quite inspire confidence...
This looks interesting, though I was a bit surprised to see Dragon's Den in the list of movies. I always found Dragon's Den to be the outlet of the desperate, where one receives a small sum of money for a huge stake their company, and come out of it thinking they got the best deal. Perhaps it has a place as a lesson in how not to get investments...
Wow, the letter of intent thing is kind of depressing. I mean, say what you like about Dragon's Den/Shark Tank esque 'business' TV shows, but that point comes up in almost every episode; a letter of intent is not a deal or contract. But no, a '2 billion dollar' business was rewarding staff for getting these.
And yeah, all the expensive office space, fraternity esque atmosphere, manager posing for photoshoots stuff... it's like the company was set up and run by people who wanted the glamour of running a large company rather than those who wanted to actually make a viable business out of it. The whole thing feels like something you'd read about a dotcom business in the 90s, right before the crash.
It's funny how the conversation is confined to salary potential and government handouts. There is a bigger issue afoot that taints the Canadian IT scene - that is the utter lack of supporting commercial infrastructure. Years of anti small business provincial and federal governments, a pariah lackluster VC sector who's biggest claim to fame is inspring the cynical tv series Dragon's Den/Shark Tank (this is pathetic coming from Canada where there is no investment sector) and an academic sector that is devastatingly irrelevant. Compare to other countries of comparable size/GDP and Canada comes out smelling like a turd - ya I live here and ya I have three startups under my belt. Hmmm, government welfare or an entrepreneur's paradise. That's a tough one.
Actually the BBC had it's remit massively widened by the last government so that it had to fill sections of DAB, a large amount of Radio channels, Freeview, set up iPlayer and run a whole load of channels that aren't even targeted at the UK (such as BBC Persian), largely to meet the FCO's propaganda needs. Additionally, the dodgy dossier episode has emasculated and distorted large chunks of the BBC's programming leading to some completely bizarre side effects[1].
The BBC still does produce a large amount of quality progamming, but budgets and purposes have been affected. Top Gear for example used to be about cars but is now an entertainment show - a wildly successful entertainment show, but no longer something you'd seriously watch to get an idea of what cars to buy and what to avoid. The BBC is also responsible for the One Show, which one day will be recognised by the UN as a crime against humanity. There's also been considerable dumbing down of shows like the Apprentice and Dragon's Den over time, eschewing quality in favour of personalities and entertainment. The natural history unit still put out good documentaries, but even they're not entirely untarnished[2].
The quality of news has also suffered, particularly thanks to spin doctors in previous administrations, the simon gilligan dodgy dossier affair and other stresses on the BBC. When was the last time you saw a proper debate? The other week I saw Alastair Campbell jogging around forests, talking up the end of civilisation through alcoholic poisoning brought on by drinking at home, demanding minimum pricing as the only way out but completely ignoring the impact of the smoking ban as a factor in home drinking increases. It was a terrible attempt at a documentary and a case study in what's wrong with the BBC at the moment.
I do apologise for getting on my soap box about this, you didn't deserve it for pointing out the good stuff. Still, the BBC is not a perfect organisation and the amount of media it has to produce combined with political interference has meant that quality has dropped, perhaps not as much considering the volume of material it puts out, but it isn't immune.
I feel they should create a single business brand and market the shit out of it, make it a well known name.
If I say "I have a thinkpad", people know what I mean. If I say "I have a latitude" or "a vostro", most people don't. And if I say "I have a Dell", it's such a wide range that it doesn't really say much about what laptop I have.
The other reason for this is confusion. When anyone asks me what Dell laptop I would recomend, I never have a clue. What's the difference between a Vostro and a Lattitude? Fuck knows, until you've actually looked at the different models. I'm a geek, I happen to own a Dell laptop, and I've worked on Dell marketing campaigns. If I can't get my head around their many ranges...
Then they need something destinctive, memorable. Hey, you know thinkpads? Oh you know, the ones with the red nipple. Yeah, those ones. And by something distinctive, I mean something small, and something that doesn't detract from the overall design. I don't mean "we can put a cool pattern on the lid".
Then they need product placement. Good product placement. In the UK, the millionairs on "Dragon's Den" and Alan Sugar on "The Apprentice" (two big TV shows) should use stylish dell laptops. Same in the US. I've been a Blackberry fan for years, and I'm familiar enough with most marketing ideas not to get sucked in by them, but I'll be honest, a small part of me loves the fact that Obama has the same phone as me. I hate myself for caring, but the fact of the matter is that people do care.
And the logic behind product placement works at lower levels too. People used to see a boss with a thinkpad and aspire to have it as a status symbol. (Just like used to be the case for blackberries, before they stopped being "just a phone for businessment".) That's what they need to bring back. It needs to become a status symbol in offices around the world.
I don't know how much the above ideas would help. I'm not sure what other things they should do. The one thing I'm completely sure of is that what they have been doing hasn't been working as well as it could have.
I'm glad to see others have seen Dragon's Den. There's also the BBC version. There are lots of clips and episodes on Google Video: http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=dragons+den+series+1&emb=1&aq=5&oq=dragons+den#
Shark's Tank falls short because it doesn't have the same kind of dialog as either the BBC or CBC dragon's den. The depth of analysis the dragons go into is great and can really help entrepreneurs understand how to get into a good business.
There was a CBC episode or two where some software products were shown and one of the dragons had a background in software and he loved the idea just for being software. I don't remember anything special about the particular product, but 100% margins were the topic of conversation.
Yeah, I get it's injected with lots of drama. It's a TV show, so that should be expected really. I doubt an hour of real-world entrepreneur/VC pitching/negotiations would appeal to the masses, other than us, of course.
However, I really do like the show. I'm a fan of the British version - Dragon's Den. Yeah, the stacks of money on the tables are a bit much, but I actually find a lot of the ideas being pitched quite interesting, as well as the questions the VCs do ask. They seem to be pretty quick to shoot down stupid ideas, and do try to find flaws, so although it is a dramatization, I don't think it's a gross misrepresentation of how any VC would view a particular idea.
You seem to be missing an important step, before you find a manufacturer you probably want to create a prototype. While the idea might be great in your head, you won't know if it's any good until you've built a few prototypes and tested them on your target audience.
There's a TV series in the UK called Dragon's Den where inventors pitch their ideas to angels to get funding. You can actually learn a lot from watching it (in terms of understanding if your product will actually suceed or not and various problems you might encounter). It might be worth your time watch a couple of seasons of it.
Hacker Cinema
10 comments on Hacker News
> In early 2018, the founders of Chinese artificial intelligence startup SenseTime Group Ltd. flew to Tokyo to see billionaire investor Masayoshi Son. As they entered the offices, Chief Executive Officer Xu Li was hoping to persuade the head of SoftBank Group to invest $200 million in his three-year-old startup.
> A third of the way into the presentation, Son interrupted to say he wanted to put in $1 billion. A few minutes later, Son suggested $2 billion. Turning to the roomful of SoftBank managers, Son said this was the kind of AI company he’d been looking for. “Why are you only telling me about them now?” he asked, according to one person in the room.
This sounds more like an episode of Dragon's Den than a firm responsible for billions of dollars of investors' money. Doesn't quite inspire confidence...
This looks interesting, though I was a bit surprised to see Dragon's Den in the list of movies. I always found Dragon's Den to be the outlet of the desperate, where one receives a small sum of money for a huge stake their company, and come out of it thinking they got the best deal. Perhaps it has a place as a lesson in how not to get investments...
Wow, the letter of intent thing is kind of depressing. I mean, say what you like about Dragon's Den/Shark Tank esque 'business' TV shows, but that point comes up in almost every episode; a letter of intent is not a deal or contract. But no, a '2 billion dollar' business was rewarding staff for getting these.
And yeah, all the expensive office space, fraternity esque atmosphere, manager posing for photoshoots stuff... it's like the company was set up and run by people who wanted the glamour of running a large company rather than those who wanted to actually make a viable business out of it. The whole thing feels like something you'd read about a dotcom business in the 90s, right before the crash.
It's funny how the conversation is confined to salary potential and government handouts. There is a bigger issue afoot that taints the Canadian IT scene - that is the utter lack of supporting commercial infrastructure. Years of anti small business provincial and federal governments, a pariah lackluster VC sector who's biggest claim to fame is inspring the cynical tv series Dragon's Den/Shark Tank (this is pathetic coming from Canada where there is no investment sector) and an academic sector that is devastatingly irrelevant. Compare to other countries of comparable size/GDP and Canada comes out smelling like a turd - ya I live here and ya I have three startups under my belt. Hmmm, government welfare or an entrepreneur's paradise. That's a tough one.
Perhaps the YC crew doesn't want it to be a distraction for its startups? Are you thinking of a TV show like the Dragon's Den in Canada?
Actually the BBC had it's remit massively widened by the last government so that it had to fill sections of DAB, a large amount of Radio channels, Freeview, set up iPlayer and run a whole load of channels that aren't even targeted at the UK (such as BBC Persian), largely to meet the FCO's propaganda needs. Additionally, the dodgy dossier episode has emasculated and distorted large chunks of the BBC's programming leading to some completely bizarre side effects[1].
The BBC still does produce a large amount of quality progamming, but budgets and purposes have been affected. Top Gear for example used to be about cars but is now an entertainment show - a wildly successful entertainment show, but no longer something you'd seriously watch to get an idea of what cars to buy and what to avoid. The BBC is also responsible for the One Show, which one day will be recognised by the UN as a crime against humanity. There's also been considerable dumbing down of shows like the Apprentice and Dragon's Den over time, eschewing quality in favour of personalities and entertainment. The natural history unit still put out good documentaries, but even they're not entirely untarnished[2].
The quality of news has also suffered, particularly thanks to spin doctors in previous administrations, the simon gilligan dodgy dossier affair and other stresses on the BBC. When was the last time you saw a proper debate? The other week I saw Alastair Campbell jogging around forests, talking up the end of civilisation through alcoholic poisoning brought on by drinking at home, demanding minimum pricing as the only way out but completely ignoring the impact of the smoking ban as a factor in home drinking increases. It was a terrible attempt at a documentary and a case study in what's wrong with the BBC at the moment.
I do apologise for getting on my soap box about this, you didn't deserve it for pointing out the good stuff. Still, the BBC is not a perfect organisation and the amount of media it has to produce combined with political interference has meant that quality has dropped, perhaps not as much considering the volume of material it puts out, but it isn't immune.
[1] - http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jun/08/today-programme-the-ladykillers-graham-linehan
[2] - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/8950070/Frozen-Planet-BBC-faked-polar-bear-birth.html
I feel they should create a single business brand and market the shit out of it, make it a well known name.
If I say "I have a thinkpad", people know what I mean. If I say "I have a latitude" or "a vostro", most people don't. And if I say "I have a Dell", it's such a wide range that it doesn't really say much about what laptop I have.
The other reason for this is confusion. When anyone asks me what Dell laptop I would recomend, I never have a clue. What's the difference between a Vostro and a Lattitude? Fuck knows, until you've actually looked at the different models. I'm a geek, I happen to own a Dell laptop, and I've worked on Dell marketing campaigns. If I can't get my head around their many ranges...
Then they need something destinctive, memorable. Hey, you know thinkpads? Oh you know, the ones with the red nipple. Yeah, those ones. And by something distinctive, I mean something small, and something that doesn't detract from the overall design. I don't mean "we can put a cool pattern on the lid".
Then they need product placement. Good product placement. In the UK, the millionairs on "Dragon's Den" and Alan Sugar on "The Apprentice" (two big TV shows) should use stylish dell laptops. Same in the US. I've been a Blackberry fan for years, and I'm familiar enough with most marketing ideas not to get sucked in by them, but I'll be honest, a small part of me loves the fact that Obama has the same phone as me. I hate myself for caring, but the fact of the matter is that people do care.
And the logic behind product placement works at lower levels too. People used to see a boss with a thinkpad and aspire to have it as a status symbol. (Just like used to be the case for blackberries, before they stopped being "just a phone for businessment".) That's what they need to bring back. It needs to become a status symbol in offices around the world.
I don't know how much the above ideas would help. I'm not sure what other things they should do. The one thing I'm completely sure of is that what they have been doing hasn't been working as well as it could have.
I'm glad to see others have seen Dragon's Den. There's also the BBC version. There are lots of clips and episodes on Google Video: http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=dragons+den+series+1&emb=1&aq=5&oq=dragons+den#
Shark's Tank falls short because it doesn't have the same kind of dialog as either the BBC or CBC dragon's den. The depth of analysis the dragons go into is great and can really help entrepreneurs understand how to get into a good business.
There was a CBC episode or two where some software products were shown and one of the dragons had a background in software and he loved the idea just for being software. I don't remember anything special about the particular product, but 100% margins were the topic of conversation.
Yeah, I get it's injected with lots of drama. It's a TV show, so that should be expected really. I doubt an hour of real-world entrepreneur/VC pitching/negotiations would appeal to the masses, other than us, of course.
However, I really do like the show. I'm a fan of the British version - Dragon's Den. Yeah, the stacks of money on the tables are a bit much, but I actually find a lot of the ideas being pitched quite interesting, as well as the questions the VCs do ask. They seem to be pretty quick to shoot down stupid ideas, and do try to find flaws, so although it is a dramatization, I don't think it's a gross misrepresentation of how any VC would view a particular idea.
You seem to be missing an important step, before you find a manufacturer you probably want to create a prototype. While the idea might be great in your head, you won't know if it's any good until you've built a few prototypes and tested them on your target audience.
There's a TV series in the UK called Dragon's Den where inventors pitch their ideas to angels to get funding. You can actually learn a lot from watching it (in terms of understanding if your product will actually suceed or not and various problems you might encounter). It might be worth your time watch a couple of seasons of it.