With Apple's Siri, Google's search engine, AlphaGo, or Amazon's Echo and recommendation system, we do already have powerful artificial intelligence systems in our hands. Self-driving cars will follow soon and recently the White House had sent out an RFI a few weeks ago that IBM now diligently answered. AI is making big steps forward and one of the most exciting applications is the medical field. Diagnosing patients with IBM's Watson has had a first success. The system diagnosed a patient more accurately than several doctors. And the startups working in the medical field is are numerous, as are the opportunities. And yes, the costs are getting out of hands and are ripe for disruption.
While we are talking about startups: a new podcast series from a friend of mine gives deep insights into the struggles, lessons learned, and what ultimately made the founders successful. Check out Startup Milestones.
Want to learn more about how Silicon Valley does it?
Get my book on Amazon! 400 pages, €19,99.
Risking it all?
Fail fast, fail early? Celebrate failure? The Google founders have a rule of what they consider smart failure.
#1 Failure has to be fast.
#2 You need to learn from failure (duh!).
#3 Don't risk the house.
So, if you don't learn from failure but repeat it, then you are just stupid. And don't let failure get so large that it risk bringing the house down. That means: fail as fast as possible, when not much is yet invested or wasted.
And then: FAIL is nothing else than the abbreviation for 'First Attempt In Learning'.
Although it's summer and vacation everywhere, this doesn't mean there's nothing interesting going on. Silicon Valley has several events that are heading our direction and here are two of them, both cost free. So come and visit us:
It's no secret that in order to do great things you need some money. But too much money can be a curse in the startup world. We have seen that with Better Place and Boo, and now with the AR-enhanced motorbike helmet manufacturer Skully that went belly up. Started with a successful crowdfunding campaign, raising some big VC money and then they spend it on Las Vegas, fast cars and other shit. Stay frugal, my startup-friends.
A space and aeronautics delegation from Bremen in Germany is visiting the Silicon Valley this week meeting with startups, NASA, the Airbus Innovation outpost and SpaceX in LA. And in a reception at the Saint Francis Yacht Club in SF, I had the pleasure to give a short talk and hand over two objects: my book plus a gnome plush toy. I named him the Bremer Wichtel. Each time somebody says something negative, such as "that wouldn't work in Germany" or "the works council would block that" during the visit this somebody has to hold on to the gnome. Until somebody else says something negative. That shall create awareness of how people waste their energy on finding reasons why stuff cannot work, instead of using it to overcome the challenges.
To experience yourself what the Silicon Valley does right about innovation and what the latest trends are, join our Silicon Valley Inspiration Tours that give you multi-day deep dives into the San Francisco Bay Area. See more tour details here. Here is also a list of preparatory steps for your visit.
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NSFW - Le BaguetteBot
Today's NSFW - internet lingo for Not Safe For Work - is an extension to last week's bot. After the FarmBot the only bot we really need: the Le Bread Xpress. Freshly baked baguettes out of the machine that beam you directly with their warm smell to Paris and French music plays in your ears, seeing people on the Avenues pass by in very chic dresses, and you read the Charlie Hebdo. Yes, that's how it is. Forget AR, this cannot become any better...
