The editor-in-chief of
TechCrunch , Europe's most famous media outlet dedicated to startups and news from the world of technology, recently visited Kiev. At a meeting at the Kiev-Mohyla Business School, Mike Butcher shared his thoughts on the present and future of technology, on how to properly present a startup.
About the most interesting time and IT
From the point of view of the IT sector, we live in the most interesting times. Now you are seeing the predictions made in the 1990s come true. Or, conversely, they don’t come true. For example, in the mid-1990s, I interviewed an expert and asked him: Do you believe that in the future we will be able to stream video over the Internet? He replied: I don't believe it's possible - it would require too much bandwidth. And today there are cameras everywhere – it’s like Big Brother is watching you. But more importantly, many things are now starting to come together. It's like a marriage between big data and machine learning. Companies, social networks and various organizations accumulate huge amounts of data, and computers use it to learn. As a result, we get the most advanced artificial intelligence algorithms in our entire history.
Where's the money?
TechCrunch is not just a news site; it also owes its reputation to in-depth analysis of trends. Our peculiarity is that we always look: where is the money? who has the power? Traditionally, power and money come from venture capitalists and angel investors, who initiate the process of “disruption” of a particular area, stimulating entrepreneurs to take giant leaps beyond the known. But now the time is coming when cryptocurrencies and blockchain will completely change the rules of this game.
Pitch competition
One of the things TechCrunch does is organize “battles” around the world for startups. Our journalists select participants and organize a pitch competition (
here a pitch is a short presentation of a startup, editor's note ). Such a competition was recently held in Sydney, and a company involved in agriculture won. Now there are fewer and fewer journalists in the world and more and more PR specialists and startups. Every morning in my inbox is a real disaster. It is difficult for an aspiring entrepreneur to reach journalists, but they need to be patient and persistent. You can try looking for journalists on Twitter - they are probably the only ones still there because they love to publish.
About “purple cows” and correct pitching
For me, news about something is a purple cow. It's not something you see all the time. Keep this in mind if you want to tell someone about your startup. Do not send long descriptions, limit yourself to a short letter with a few points. Your presentation should be different from all others. I'm not saying that you need to do something crazy, but definitely look at it from a different angle. The problem with many startups is that they work and work and work for a long time, and then decide: finally, we can talk about ourselves. They crawl out of their “cave” and believe that now everyone should know about them. However, it turns out that they do not know anyone. And a month ago, the press was just condemning an interesting story from the area in which this startup operates. And it would be wise to seize this opportunity, participate in the discussion, meet journalists (“this new gadget that Apple released - we are working on a similar thing”). Journalists work in the news business. They are not interested in writing about your company. Therefore, if you have something that readers want to know about, only then go to journalists. Think like a journalist. Find out what's happening in the news world right now and use it.
About online education
A few years ago, online education exploded. It has become a mass phenomenon, online universities have appeared where you can choose and take courses as you wish... However, it turned out that the explosion was much less powerful than expected. Recently, a new trend has emerged in the field of online education - snackable
content . You consume it in small portions, easily, practically on the go.
There is very little innovation emerging in this area right now. Probably the reason is that we thought that technology would solve problems in the field of education, but it turned out that it was not the technology. The problem is the content. Therefore, the next step, in my opinion, is to create high-end content, say, educational films at the Hollywood level. And this is logical, because in learning, what is more important is how we perceive the content, and not the process of jumping from one lesson to another in online platforms. The most interesting things in the online education market will happen in developing countries in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. After all, firstly, printing billions of textbooks is too expensive. And, secondly, the speed of learning must increase, since changes in technology occur very quickly, and you need to keep up with them. If you are going to create an online learning platform, your key markets should be those in developing countries.
Mike's joke I have been following the development of technology for a long time, writing about it since about the 1850s. And, I have to tell you, the transition from carriages to cars was quite revolutionary! |
About Bitcoin
Bitcoin is interesting because it is the first embodiment of the blockchain idea. But from a technological point of view, it is already “sintered.” Bitcoin is not scalable, unlike Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies that will develop further. Bitcoin is the embodiment of the idea of
Proof-of-work , and new platforms (like Neo) are based on a new way to create cryptocurrency -
Proof-of-stake . (You can read more, for example, here:
https://inp.one/cryptoworld/proof-of-work-i-proof-of-stake-chto-eto - ed.)
Bitcoin continues to be a store of value, and it continues to be the gateway through which people enter the world of cryptocurrencies. Today you can meet an ordinary taxi driver who wants to buy bitcoin, but a year ago he did not yet know what it was. A taxi driver may not know what Monero or Ethereum are, but he knows about Bitcoin. In other words, Bitcoin has become a mainstream idea. If you are interested in the cryptocurrency market, then all I can say to you is: good luck! Now this area is complete chaos. There is no regulation, and if you lose everything, no one will help you.
About blockchain
Blockchain is something that will change many areas of business. After all, it represents that “layer of authenticity” that the Internet was originally supposed to have, but in fact did not have. If it had been added to the TCP/IP protocol when it was created, we would now live in a completely different world. Maybe in the world of flying cars.
Blockchain is transforming the world, making it decentralized. In this world, breakthrough is possible in every field, not just in the GAFA circle (Google, Facebook, Apple, Amazon). For example, we consider insurance to be a very boring field. But recently I was at a conference where they talked about the use of blockchain and smart contracts in insurance, and they didn’t want to let the speaker leave the stage. It turned out that blockchain provides a breakthrough in this seemingly completely mundane area. There is now a huge information wave around the topic of blockchain and cryptocurrencies, but no one knows how long it will last. Blockchain is supposed to lead to many useful applications, but the innovations that should come are not being seen precisely because of this hype.
About the future of journalism
Historically, we have painted ourselves into a corner. It is no longer possible to make money by printing newspapers and selling advertising. The exception is countries where people do not know foreign languages and where there are few competitors in the media sector. Online publications make money by creating free content and driving traffic, but it's a difficult path. The law of decreasing returns works here: traffic becomes more, advertising becomes cheaper, and in order for profits to grow, you need to increase the volume of traffic, and so on in a circle. The second model is to hire the best people, create specialized content and sell it (for example, as the Financial Times and Wall Street Journal do), which is also not easy. I think blockchain will also change the field of journalism. It is possible to create an economy around content - and experiments with “tokenization” of content are already appearing. Those who have "tokens" (coins) exchange them for access to materials. It is possible to conduct analytics, place advertisements, etc. This is a completely new business model - it is no more than a month old. I hope someone brings it to life.
About a healthy trend
A new trend is now emerging in Silicon Valley: they are starting to talk about the need to create products that will not harm our health. However, the issue of privacy remains open. After all, I can put on a device that will monitor my health indicators, but who will own this data?
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