1
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:03,140
Andy, welcome to the 21 and 21 show.

2
00:00:03,480 --> 00:00:04,180
Thanks for having me.

3
00:00:04,420 --> 00:00:04,820
Yes.

4
00:00:05,240 --> 00:00:12,920
For those of you that don't know Andy, Andy Pitt is a founding partner at EgoDeath Capital, which is a Bitcoin-only venture fund.

5
00:00:13,460 --> 00:00:16,920
Prior to that, she spent almost eight years at Goldman Sachs working in trading.

6
00:00:17,620 --> 00:00:23,460
Now, in addition to working in venture capital, she spends time researching and writing about mind control and cognitive sovereignty.

7
00:00:24,780 --> 00:00:25,520
She's busy.

8
00:00:26,040 --> 00:00:27,100
It's been a lot.

9
00:00:27,100 --> 00:00:31,240
She kindly made time to come on this show while she's in San Francisco.

10
00:00:31,240 --> 00:00:32,240
Lovely to be here.

11
00:00:32,360 --> 00:00:32,980
It's beautiful.

12
00:00:33,680 --> 00:00:34,540
It is nice.

13
00:00:34,600 --> 00:00:35,520
You got good weather for your visit.

14
00:00:35,780 --> 00:00:35,880
Yes.

15
00:00:36,100 --> 00:00:36,260
Yes.

16
00:00:37,620 --> 00:00:43,460
Well, my first question for Tio is what brings you to Presidio Bitcoin this week?

17
00:00:43,720 --> 00:00:50,920
I was here for the HRF, the Human Rights Foundation, hosted a kind of gathering focusing on AI for individual rights.

18
00:00:50,920 --> 00:00:58,940
So looking at how AI is used by autocratic regimes for oppression and how potentially, you know, what the potential solutions are.

19
00:00:59,000 --> 00:01:07,480
So brought together activists, funders, donors, as well as people who are building space and potential builders.

20
00:01:08,640 --> 00:01:12,200
What was like your main kind of learnings that you had from that?

21
00:01:12,200 --> 00:01:37,380
I mean, it's pretty horrific, honestly, what's going on in some places like China where AI has just enabled an incredible amount of tracking, of facial recognition, of robotic policing, of what do they call preemptive policing, where they're being able to pick up tiny little changes in behavior from video cameras to basically arrest people.

22
00:01:37,380 --> 00:01:40,640
or in places like Xinjiang put them in re-education camps,

23
00:01:41,180 --> 00:01:42,740
you know, preemptively.

24
00:01:43,000 --> 00:01:44,680
It's pretty horrific.

25
00:01:45,220 --> 00:01:48,560
That said, you know, the HRF does such a good job at bringing,

26
00:01:49,520 --> 00:01:51,840
it's like the rebel alliance, I like to think of it,

27
00:01:51,880 --> 00:01:55,840
like in Star Wars and bringing together all of the people fighting back

28
00:01:55,840 --> 00:01:58,020
and that movement is just growing and growing.

29
00:01:58,020 --> 00:02:02,180
And so it's great to be part of, there's a lot of ideas and ways

30
00:02:02,180 --> 00:02:06,540
to use AI sort of counteract that authoritarian influence.

31
00:02:07,380 --> 00:02:11,800
So, yeah, I'm positive, but, you know, it is a pretty difficult situation.

32
00:02:12,460 --> 00:02:16,300
And China is also exporting that technology around the world.

33
00:02:16,720 --> 00:02:24,020
So countries that previously couldn't, you know, enforce their authority so much now can, basically.

34
00:02:24,320 --> 00:02:28,880
So it's like a really, really important topic that the world really needs to be talking about.

35
00:02:29,240 --> 00:02:31,800
It is. And yes, that event was really powerful.

36
00:02:31,800 --> 00:02:36,140
They do such a good job curating really good content, really good people.

37
00:02:36,140 --> 00:02:45,320
hearing the activist stories is always very sad to hear yeah it can be really intense um but

38
00:02:45,320 --> 00:02:53,920
important to understand for sure so being on like the vc side and bitcoin like what kind of impact

39
00:02:53,920 --> 00:03:01,740
do you feel like your team has there it's a little tricky um i sometimes feel a little out of place

40
00:03:01,740 --> 00:03:06,820
at these and like I don't quite belong there. But no, I've always been passionate about

41
00:03:06,820 --> 00:03:13,340
understanding authoritarianism, you know, even in university. So for me, it is something that I

42
00:03:13,340 --> 00:03:19,640
care a lot about. In terms of the VC impact, I think what we can do, I think what was interesting

43
00:03:19,640 --> 00:03:23,820
in this conference is a lot of people are coming up with these potential AI tools that counter

44
00:03:23,820 --> 00:03:28,860
authoritarian oppression, but may also have a business model. So maybe you can create, you know,

45
00:03:28,860 --> 00:03:30,120
sell a product to people.

46
00:03:30,820 --> 00:03:33,040
And so helping people building,

47
00:03:33,200 --> 00:03:35,000
think through what a business model

48
00:03:35,000 --> 00:03:36,140
might look like.

49
00:03:36,440 --> 00:03:37,600
You know, beyond the idea

50
00:03:37,600 --> 00:03:38,260
and the technology,

51
00:03:38,400 --> 00:03:39,220
how do you develop that

52
00:03:39,220 --> 00:03:39,720
into a business?

53
00:03:39,840 --> 00:03:40,680
What's your go-to-market?

54
00:03:41,140 --> 00:03:42,080
How are you going to fund it?

55
00:03:42,220 --> 00:03:43,300
You know, VC might not be,

56
00:03:43,440 --> 00:03:44,420
there's sort of VC is

57
00:03:44,420 --> 00:03:45,840
the best way of funding

58
00:03:45,840 --> 00:03:47,540
a narrow type of company.

59
00:03:47,780 --> 00:03:49,320
And there are so many different ways

60
00:03:49,320 --> 00:03:51,360
of getting funding for products

61
00:03:51,360 --> 00:03:53,100
of a company's people want to build.

62
00:03:53,660 --> 00:03:55,180
So I think we can be really helpful

63
00:03:55,180 --> 00:03:57,140
in doing that and figuring out ways

64
00:03:57,140 --> 00:03:58,580
to get some of these

65
00:03:58,860 --> 00:04:02,120
technology is built and in the market, basically.

66
00:04:02,700 --> 00:04:02,840
Yeah.

67
00:04:03,260 --> 00:04:05,940
And then EgoDeath is Bitcoin only.

68
00:04:06,580 --> 00:04:07,100
Yep.

69
00:04:07,840 --> 00:04:13,600
Can you maybe tell our listeners a little bit more about how that works and what kind

70
00:04:13,600 --> 00:04:15,040
of people you're speaking with?

71
00:04:15,560 --> 00:04:15,760
Yeah.

72
00:04:15,820 --> 00:04:20,840
So we co-founded the fund in 2022 to focus just on the Bitcoin ecosystem.

73
00:04:21,440 --> 00:04:23,600
Our first fund invested at the seed stage.

74
00:04:23,740 --> 00:04:28,360
Our current fund invests mostly at the Series A stage, but also sort of across the spectrum

75
00:04:28,360 --> 00:04:29,680
from Pre-Z to Series A.

76
00:04:30,260 --> 00:04:32,060
Anything that's founders who are building

77
00:04:32,060 --> 00:04:33,080
in the Bitcoin ecosystem,

78
00:04:33,720 --> 00:04:36,420
so using Bitcoin or building for Bitcoin in some way,

79
00:04:36,860 --> 00:04:38,420
are founders that we would invest in.

80
00:04:38,560 --> 00:04:41,040
We have 12 portfolio companies

81
00:04:41,040 --> 00:04:42,560
that are closing a couple of deals right now.

82
00:04:42,740 --> 00:04:44,560
So that's in process.

83
00:04:44,860 --> 00:04:47,920
Companies, this might be familiar with like Breeze

84
00:04:47,920 --> 00:04:51,280
or Relay in Europe, Ellen Markets.

85
00:04:52,400 --> 00:04:54,900
So it's really cool to get to work with these founders

86
00:04:54,900 --> 00:04:56,140
who are actually the ones out building

87
00:04:56,140 --> 00:04:58,280
and just help them and support them how.

88
00:04:58,360 --> 00:05:15,980
I'm curious what you think being on the VC side, because I've been in the Bitcoin space for like four and a half years and like a lot has definitely changed. Over time, have you seen like more Bitcoin only startups emerge? Do you think like this is maybe more the time where like the building is like starting to happening?

89
00:05:15,980 --> 00:05:22,120
yeah so we i mean we really founded the fund because we'd seen taproot and segwit get you

90
00:05:22,120 --> 00:05:28,400
know the changes happen and that allowed so much more flexibility and potentially scalability and

91
00:05:28,400 --> 00:05:33,320
what you could do with bitcoin so our thesis was that you would be able to that there would be a

92
00:05:33,320 --> 00:05:38,020
range you know basically an explosion of building happening and there was not really enough funding

93
00:05:38,020 --> 00:05:42,740
in the space at that point in time uh so we wanted to basically raise the fund to support those

94
00:05:42,740 --> 00:05:48,020
entrepreneurs. That's played out kind of exactly, I mean, even more than we could have imagined,

95
00:05:48,020 --> 00:05:53,280
to be honest. And I mean, I think Bitcoin in general, you know, we would never have imagined,

96
00:05:53,540 --> 00:06:12,288
you know we had BlackRock on TV talking about Bitcoin let alone you know the president of the United States having a Bitcoin fund or a nation states or just where we at in terms of corporate adoption and corporate acceptance of it So and then the building space just continues to grow We raised the second fund

97
00:06:12,368 --> 00:06:16,728
which was focused on the Series A. You know, at the time there weren't that many companies in

98
00:06:16,728 --> 00:06:21,968
Bitcoin at the Series A stage. So we were, it was, it was a bet on the deal flow and it's been

99
00:06:21,968 --> 00:06:26,048
actually stronger than we expected. We've been really, really busy this year, seeing some amazing

100
00:06:26,048 --> 00:06:32,588
entrepreneurs, building with really significant revenue, finding really interesting use cases.

101
00:06:33,488 --> 00:06:38,788
So yeah, it's great. We're seeing just, it just continues to sort of escalate. And it's like this

102
00:06:38,788 --> 00:06:42,208
little log curve, I would say, in terms of the ecosystem.

103
00:06:42,728 --> 00:06:46,028
Well, that's awesome. So maybe like part of it was there just was not a lot of like funding

104
00:06:46,028 --> 00:06:50,908
opportunities before, which we see too on like the spiral side with like the open source grants we

105
00:06:50,908 --> 00:06:57,688
about that like quite frankly there is just more money in like crypto than bitcoin for people to

106
00:06:57,688 --> 00:07:03,688
get yeah but i do think that you know before you had like the lightning network opened up a lot

107
00:07:03,688 --> 00:07:10,008
for people to use lightning network for payments and five years ago it really wasn't mature enough

108
00:07:10,008 --> 00:07:18,708
to use um in a sort of a what's brain is not working um like in a proper real world use case

109
00:07:18,708 --> 00:07:34,228
So that has enabled building. And then there's been, I think, because of all of the issues on other chains, you know, Ethereum's going through some challenges. And I guess there was a reinvigoration of excitement around Bitcoin in the past few years.

110
00:07:34,228 --> 00:07:45,868
So I think there's probably a combination of funding, of technological capabilities, like the stack becoming ready, as well as sort of a fun, like Bitcoin is this sort of sexy thing again.

111
00:07:46,108 --> 00:07:47,808
Well, becoming slowly, maybe.

112
00:07:48,968 --> 00:07:50,088
Not quite, but.

113
00:07:52,428 --> 00:07:53,128
It's getting there.

114
00:07:53,328 --> 00:07:54,468
At least we have a cute mascot.

115
00:07:54,968 --> 00:07:56,888
I love your little, what's your itty bitty?

116
00:07:57,008 --> 00:07:57,568
It's itty bitty.

117
00:07:57,728 --> 00:07:58,348
It's so cute.

118
00:07:58,668 --> 00:08:00,308
Oh, my grumpy, the grumpy Bitcoin.

119
00:08:00,908 --> 00:08:03,048
He's grumpy because of the credit card fees.

120
00:08:03,048 --> 00:08:03,848
I get it.

121
00:08:03,988 --> 00:08:04,168
Yeah.

122
00:08:04,228 --> 00:08:07,468
So Bitcoin maybe just needed some funding, some cuteness.

123
00:08:07,768 --> 00:08:09,608
Yeah, definitely needed some cuteness.

124
00:08:10,928 --> 00:08:11,948
So I'm kind of curious.

125
00:08:12,068 --> 00:08:14,728
So we have some Bitcoin startups that are working out of here.

126
00:08:14,968 --> 00:08:21,748
And something that we're kind of hearing is like a lot of these like kind of like more startups are also trying to like incorporate AI too.

127
00:08:21,888 --> 00:08:28,808
And I'm curious if that's something that you're both seeing and encouraging from startups that you're looking at as well.

128
00:08:29,368 --> 00:08:32,408
Yeah, there's definitely an interesting intersection of Bitcoin and AI.

129
00:08:32,408 --> 00:08:38,748
we've seen I think what we're seeing is it's hard to it's sort of I think companies are either

130
00:08:38,748 --> 00:08:44,848
bitcoin or their ai I don't think we've seen one that's really oh there's like one that's at the

131
00:08:44,848 --> 00:08:51,908
intersection I would say ppq which is sort of bitcoin payments or ai so I think that there's

132
00:08:51,908 --> 00:08:56,408
a lot of ai like the open source ai where you can have full privacy by using bitcoin payments

133
00:08:56,408 --> 00:09:01,668
is a use case.

134
00:09:01,768 --> 00:09:03,248
But I guess the question is,

135
00:09:03,428 --> 00:09:04,288
what's the scalability?

136
00:09:04,488 --> 00:09:06,408
And we haven't invested in any sort of

137
00:09:06,408 --> 00:09:08,148
AI-focused companies yet.

138
00:09:08,388 --> 00:09:09,548
I'm definitely open to it.

139
00:09:09,568 --> 00:09:11,408
And it's definitely a theme we're seeing more.

140
00:09:12,228 --> 00:09:14,288
And I think every company ultimately

141
00:09:14,288 --> 00:09:15,668
is going to be an AI company.

142
00:09:15,828 --> 00:09:17,348
It's not more use AI in some way.

143
00:09:17,888 --> 00:09:18,928
I mean, they should really be.

144
00:09:18,928 --> 00:09:19,248
Yeah.

145
00:09:19,848 --> 00:09:21,728
I mean, from what I've noticed,

146
00:09:21,728 --> 00:09:24,268
there's a lot of overlap and ethos

147
00:09:24,268 --> 00:09:25,768
with people who work on Bitcoin

148
00:09:25,768 --> 00:09:31,488
and the people who work on AI but are thinking about it in a more like private way or more like

149
00:09:31,488 --> 00:09:36,728
it kind of seems like similar people to the types of people that would work on those technologies.

150
00:09:37,268 --> 00:09:40,008
Right. That's such a good point. Yeah, it makes a lot of sense. And we've seen,

151
00:09:40,008 --> 00:09:46,008
you know, some, yeah, we're definitely seeing the same thing. I guess it's sort of the same

152
00:09:46,008 --> 00:09:51,028
challenge that you face in Bitcoin of people building open source and decentralized and how

153
00:09:51,028 --> 00:09:55,288
that turns into a business model that's scalable. So that's always the big question.

154
00:09:55,768 --> 00:10:18,788
You know, or in Nostra, for instance, how like that's probably also very sort of the other aligned ecosystem. So the business models, I think you have to be quite innovative around business model where potentially you have your for profit, like revenue generating component of the business. And then maybe there's a subcomponent of the business, which is contributing to the open source and like developing the open source technology.

155
00:10:18,788 --> 00:10:22,388
but that's definitely something that's kind of a continuing challenge in Bitcoin

156
00:10:22,388 --> 00:10:26,508
and one that people that want to build something open source

157
00:10:26,508 --> 00:10:27,888
really need to think a lot about

158
00:10:27,888 --> 00:10:33,248
like how you develop the protocol at the same time as developing the business.

159
00:10:33,588 --> 00:10:35,428
For sure. Yeah. It's complicated.

160
00:10:36,708 --> 00:10:37,408
Extra challenge.

161
00:10:37,588 --> 00:10:38,308
Extra challenging.

162
00:10:40,148 --> 00:10:45,108
Okay. So you've been going down another rabbit hole recently.

163
00:10:45,748 --> 00:10:46,208
Yes.

164
00:10:46,588 --> 00:10:48,128
Can you maybe tell me more about it?

165
00:10:48,788 --> 00:11:01,608
So I've been going, yeah, it's a fun rabbit hole. Fascinating. I've been diving a lot into researching and writing about, just starting to write about now after a few years, about mind control and cognitive sovereignty.

166
00:11:01,608 --> 00:11:08,248
It's the term I'm using. So, yeah, tell me more about it.

167
00:11:08,248 --> 00:11:13,148
so um i guess if i use you know just for a definition of mind control it's nothing

168
00:11:13,148 --> 00:11:18,248
science fiction it's just psychology it's the psychological process of the capture of identity

169
00:11:18,248 --> 00:11:24,288
belief behavior for external aims um so you know most people will be filming everyone knows what

170
00:11:24,288 --> 00:11:28,268
a cult is right like everyone and everyone's really watched a cult documentary and being like

171
00:11:28,268 --> 00:11:36,228
what the fuck excuse my language i don't know if i it's okay um and so when there's basically once

172
00:11:36,228 --> 00:11:41,408
you look at the cult indoctrination process or the way someone gets really stuck in that process

173
00:11:41,408 --> 00:11:47,288
there's a relatively clear psychological process that happens um it's multifaceted it's nuanced

174
00:11:47,288 --> 00:11:55,148
it's very um yeah it is very nuanced but um it's quite a clear process and if you sort of

175
00:11:55,148 --> 00:12:09,756
keep understanding the different sort of ways or groups you keep looking around you see the same sort of psychological process at play in terrorist radicalization like so how terrorist groups operate how you know ethno

176
00:12:09,756 --> 00:12:13,336
groups operate if you think about the tumult tigers or the FARC these types of movements

177
00:12:13,336 --> 00:12:19,516
have these very same sort of cult indoctrination processes to to bind the group and enable violence

178
00:12:19,516 --> 00:12:28,496
or holocaust like genocide and then you see it a lot even just within say a democracy of the

179
00:12:28,496 --> 00:12:32,676
the political radicalization we're seeing of religions of, um,

180
00:12:32,756 --> 00:12:36,936
so that's sort of this psychological process at play that, um,

181
00:12:37,676 --> 00:12:39,896
is really not talked about a lot. And it's,

182
00:12:40,036 --> 00:12:44,796
so that was what was so surprising. And yet it seems to, you know,

183
00:12:44,796 --> 00:12:47,236
if you think about the major events in history and what's going on,

184
00:12:47,276 --> 00:12:52,456
it's driving a lot of civilizational shift and history. Um, and so,

185
00:12:52,656 --> 00:12:55,156
yeah, my goal is really just, I mean, it's,

186
00:12:55,256 --> 00:12:58,296
I'm still early in the research and it's ongoing, but, um,

187
00:12:58,296 --> 00:13:01,576
is to really start a conversation and start talking about it.

188
00:13:02,016 --> 00:13:05,796
I think, you know, if we want to build a world that's not as divided,

189
00:13:05,956 --> 00:13:08,616
that's more cohesive, that's more at peace,

190
00:13:08,656 --> 00:13:12,816
where you have individual flourishing and creativity,

191
00:13:13,016 --> 00:13:17,116
like we need to at least understand it to be able to kind of start shifting things.

192
00:13:18,036 --> 00:13:20,216
Yeah, and then also this idea of cognitive sovereignty.

193
00:13:20,416 --> 00:13:23,176
So what does it mean to kind of have cognitive sovereignty,

194
00:13:23,976 --> 00:13:27,556
be able to sort of not get stuck into these thoughts and ideas or groups?

195
00:13:28,296 --> 00:13:33,416
and what anyway I'll stop there it's super interesting and like I'm curious with your

196
00:13:33,416 --> 00:13:39,076
thoughts around like AI if there's like maybe ways to kind of like point out these like you

197
00:13:39,076 --> 00:13:45,596
know red flags or something uh if that can be like built in somehow to different models or

198
00:13:45,596 --> 00:13:53,616
or how maybe AI unlocks certain capabilities with this yeah definitely I I mean I yeah I had on my

199
00:13:53,616 --> 00:14:00,576
to-do list and I will at some point soon create maybe like you can definitely create I think no

200
00:14:00,576 --> 00:14:05,076
the issue is no one has really articulated the process in detail so if you just ask Chuck GTV

201
00:14:05,076 --> 00:14:10,376
like how mind control works it won't give you good answers because the literature on it is just not

202
00:14:10,376 --> 00:14:17,356
there so and that's partly I think there was a lot of attention on it in the 1950s basically

203
00:14:17,356 --> 00:14:20,856
after the rise of Soviets in Russia

204
00:14:20,856 --> 00:14:26,676
and American prisoners of war coming back brainwashed

205
00:14:26,676 --> 00:14:28,496
from China and Korea.

206
00:14:28,736 --> 00:14:30,656
And that was the first.

207
00:14:30,656 --> 00:14:33,516
And the Holocaust had just happened.

208
00:14:34,916 --> 00:14:37,196
But we just haven't seen that much development

209
00:14:37,196 --> 00:14:39,696
in the articulation of the psychological processes

210
00:14:39,696 --> 00:14:40,576
that are driving it.

211
00:14:40,716 --> 00:14:41,936
And so if you ask to actually see,

212
00:14:42,076 --> 00:14:43,996
that knowledge is just not available on the internet

213
00:14:43,996 --> 00:14:46,116
and so the models are not picking it up yet.

214
00:14:46,116 --> 00:14:56,656
So my work is to actually, and this will be the work over the next couple of months that's coming out of my sub stack is really articulating that process in detail with a bunch of examples.

215
00:14:56,896 --> 00:15:09,356
And then that can definitely go into like a model that, you know, someone will be able to put in like so-and-so like social influencer on Twitter or like this language or this email even.

216
00:15:09,496 --> 00:15:15,556
And you'll be able to like literally pick up like, oh, that language is trying to make me feel guilty about myself.

217
00:15:15,556 --> 00:15:18,636
Like this language is just trying to like play on my emotion of fear.

218
00:15:18,776 --> 00:15:22,636
This language is trying to like do this and to be able to really understand it.

219
00:15:22,696 --> 00:15:25,236
And then hopefully it takes away a lot of its power.

220
00:15:25,636 --> 00:15:26,376
Yeah, that's so interesting.

221
00:15:26,596 --> 00:15:32,176
I was in a conversation yesterday with this guy who's like an AI ethics professor.

222
00:15:32,536 --> 00:15:36,716
And he was just kind of blowing my mind on like certain things they think about.

223
00:15:36,776 --> 00:15:40,776
And one of them is like around, you know, health care and like people like,

224
00:15:40,776 --> 00:15:46,196
is it the responsibility of the AI to like call out like you know based on all the data points

225
00:15:46,196 --> 00:15:51,676
the models like someone has or is at risk for a certain rare disease or maybe they have it or all

226
00:15:51,676 --> 00:15:57,576
these certain things I feel like this all feeds into like what you're thinking about too I'm just

227
00:15:57,576 --> 00:16:03,536
like so much that this there's gonna be like data overload yeah I haven't thought about that

228
00:16:03,536 --> 00:16:10,096
I haven't really dived into the AI ethics that's another very big important conversation

229
00:16:10,096 --> 00:16:11,116
to be having.

230
00:16:11,336 --> 00:16:13,656
I have like a rabbit hole list

231
00:16:13,656 --> 00:16:16,876
of when I have more time,

232
00:16:17,016 --> 00:16:20,456
which maybe will be around Christmas.

233
00:16:20,696 --> 00:16:21,176
I don't know.

234
00:16:21,576 --> 00:16:22,476
It hasn't been recently.

235
00:16:23,656 --> 00:16:24,796
My hack is to do,

236
00:16:24,916 --> 00:16:27,656
is to have ChatGPT do like a deep research

237
00:16:27,656 --> 00:16:29,836
and then I like load it onto Speechify.

238
00:16:30,116 --> 00:16:32,676
And so then I just like listen to a podcast

239
00:16:32,676 --> 00:16:34,796
of basically whatever I wanted to dive into.

240
00:16:35,176 --> 00:16:36,536
Oh, that's a good hack.

241
00:16:36,696 --> 00:16:36,896
Yeah.

242
00:16:37,216 --> 00:16:38,976
Do you have to listen to it like within the app

243
00:16:38,976 --> 00:16:40,656
or can you like download it?

244
00:16:41,036 --> 00:16:43,016
I'm sure there's a more seamless way to do it.

245
00:16:43,116 --> 00:16:45,136
I've just like copy pasted it into a Google doc

246
00:16:45,136 --> 00:16:47,036
and then like, or I see,

247
00:16:47,176 --> 00:16:48,936
and then I have my speechify like link.

248
00:16:49,696 --> 00:16:51,216
Okay, that's super interesting.

249
00:16:53,036 --> 00:16:54,136
Well, it's a fun rabbit hole.

250
00:16:54,496 --> 00:16:56,536
I am going to check out your sub stack.

251
00:16:56,776 --> 00:16:57,956
Is that something that's public

252
00:16:57,956 --> 00:16:59,356
that you want people to look at?

253
00:16:59,556 --> 00:17:00,276
Yeah, sure.

254
00:17:00,336 --> 00:17:01,176
I just put it up.

255
00:17:01,296 --> 00:17:02,796
So I don't have many subscribers yet.

256
00:17:03,436 --> 00:17:04,736
I'll go subscribe after this.

257
00:17:05,376 --> 00:17:07,116
So it's called the Klyra passages.

258
00:17:08,016 --> 00:17:11,036
I'll link to it on my LinkedIn and my Twitter as well.

259
00:17:11,476 --> 00:17:13,636
But it's on Substack, just launched.

260
00:17:14,356 --> 00:17:14,776
Very cool.

261
00:17:15,196 --> 00:17:16,276
I'm excited to look at that.

262
00:17:18,196 --> 00:17:21,056
I guess kind of maybe like coming back to Bitcoin

263
00:17:21,056 --> 00:17:24,416
and thinking about like even what you're working on

264
00:17:24,416 --> 00:17:26,136
and AI and everything.

265
00:17:26,296 --> 00:17:28,396
Is there something that like makes you like really excited

266
00:17:28,396 --> 00:17:31,396
about the future or kind of like something

267
00:17:31,396 --> 00:17:33,136
that you would want to see in the future?

268
00:17:34,136 --> 00:17:36,116
Well, I don't have specific things I want to see.

269
00:17:36,116 --> 00:17:37,856
Well, none come to mind right now.

270
00:17:38,016 --> 00:17:38,776
I'm sure there's many.

271
00:17:40,056 --> 00:17:42,076
But no, I think in general, I'm really excited.

272
00:17:42,256 --> 00:17:47,816
I think we're at a really interesting moment in human history where we have AI for the first time.

273
00:17:47,896 --> 00:17:53,296
I've been in San Francisco getting the Waymo cars, like the robot cars.

274
00:17:53,396 --> 00:17:54,196
And it's amazing.

275
00:17:54,376 --> 00:17:55,996
It's such a great customer experience.

276
00:17:56,796 --> 00:17:58,076
It's such a great product.

277
00:17:58,776 --> 00:18:11,344
So I think that there is where it sort of this potential inflection point where so much of this technology and AI can be used for repression or manipulation but then it also is such a leveling the playing

278
00:18:11,344 --> 00:18:17,544
field. Like we now as an individual has so much power in our hands to kind of build and create

279
00:18:17,544 --> 00:18:22,624
and research and find out and connect. So I think it's sort of a leveler, if anything.

280
00:18:23,564 --> 00:18:27,804
So I don't know. I think being in Bitcoin in general is just, it's such a great place to be

281
00:18:27,804 --> 00:18:30,424
because it's like, okay, there's a lot of issues in the world,

282
00:18:30,424 --> 00:18:33,924
but we're just getting together and kind of building towards a better future.

283
00:18:35,344 --> 00:18:39,764
And so I think always being in Bitcoin is just a positive place to be, I would say.

284
00:18:40,465 --> 00:18:41,225
Definitely, yes.

285
00:18:41,264 --> 00:18:42,544
There's always lots going on,

286
00:18:42,624 --> 00:18:45,924
and it does feel like people are aligned on the same ethos

287
00:18:45,924 --> 00:18:47,864
and what they're building, at least a lot of people are.

288
00:18:48,725 --> 00:18:50,604
So that's definitely a fun space.

289
00:18:50,904 --> 00:18:51,945
Yeah, yeah, I agree.

290
00:18:52,744 --> 00:18:54,784
I guess another thing,

291
00:18:54,784 --> 00:19:00,965
do you have like any kind of tips or like advice you'd maybe give to somebody who's either

292
00:19:00,965 --> 00:19:06,904
thinking about starting a startup or like what's your normal kind of like tips for them?

293
00:19:07,465 --> 00:19:15,104
Yes, definitely. So what I say to people is put together before you start a company. So

294
00:19:15,104 --> 00:19:20,144
starting a company is like a huge investment and commitment of your time, of your resources.

295
00:19:20,144 --> 00:19:26,684
you know you might spend the next one three five ten years on this so you want to really think

296
00:19:26,684 --> 00:19:33,344
through it before you dive in is this the best way that you could spend your life and so before

297
00:19:33,344 --> 00:19:37,404
diving into starting a company I really recommend people put together an investor deck because

298
00:19:37,404 --> 00:19:42,684
effectively you're they're investing you're investing your time your life into this so you

299
00:19:42,684 --> 00:19:48,584
should be thinking about it the same way an investor would start it um and so you know you can look at

300
00:19:48,584 --> 00:19:50,945
like there's so much resources on Y Combinator.

301
00:19:51,084 --> 00:19:54,184
We have a little notion that we can send people with resources

302
00:19:54,184 --> 00:19:57,644
and I have a whole list of like what an outline for an investor deck

303
00:19:57,644 --> 00:20:00,564
and recommendations for pitching, but that's sort of separate.

304
00:20:01,484 --> 00:20:04,164
And so it's thinking through not just what's the product,

305
00:20:04,484 --> 00:20:07,384
but okay, what's the problem I'm solving?

306
00:20:07,584 --> 00:20:08,764
Who am I solving it for?

307
00:20:09,304 --> 00:20:11,864
Is it a 10 times better solution than what's out there?

308
00:20:12,044 --> 00:20:14,024
How much are the customers willing to pay?

309
00:20:14,524 --> 00:20:16,445
How many customers are willing to pay for it?

310
00:20:16,445 --> 00:20:18,924
How will I reach those customers?

311
00:20:19,584 --> 00:20:20,884
So in VC land,

312
00:20:21,144 --> 00:20:22,824
like that would be called,

313
00:20:22,924 --> 00:20:23,084
you know,

314
00:20:23,144 --> 00:20:24,064
what's your business model?

315
00:20:24,524 --> 00:20:26,124
What's your market size?

316
00:20:26,264 --> 00:20:27,144
What's your go to market?

317
00:20:28,164 --> 00:20:31,544
All of these different things that go into how,

318
00:20:32,004 --> 00:20:33,604
like what's important in thinking through,

319
00:20:33,844 --> 00:20:36,544
if this is a business worth you spending your time and energy on,

320
00:20:36,965 --> 00:20:38,084
how will I fund it?

321
00:20:38,144 --> 00:20:39,364
So that's what I would,

322
00:20:39,484 --> 00:20:40,284
that's just like a,

323
00:20:40,404 --> 00:20:41,844
I think a lot of people miss when they,

324
00:20:41,984 --> 00:20:45,024
when they kind of get an idea and I did the same thing,

325
00:20:45,024 --> 00:20:45,264
like,

326
00:20:45,664 --> 00:20:45,965
and who's,

327
00:20:46,064 --> 00:20:46,264
and the,

328
00:20:46,445 --> 00:20:50,945
the team. The team is super important. Like, are you the best people in the world to do this? And

329
00:20:50,945 --> 00:20:57,445
if not, can you bring together the best people in the world to tackle this problem? And the biggest

330
00:20:57,445 --> 00:21:06,184
piece of advice, which is certainly where I failed as a founder and was, how are you getting in your

331
00:21:06,184 --> 00:21:09,564
own way? Like, what are your own internal limitations? What are you good at? What are you

332
00:21:09,564 --> 00:21:16,404
not good at? And how can you either overcome them and work or get a business partner or an employee

333
00:21:16,404 --> 00:21:19,724
that can complement you and for what you're not good at

334
00:21:19,724 --> 00:21:21,864
and being really, really self-aware

335
00:21:21,864 --> 00:21:24,205
and ruthless around your self-awareness

336
00:21:24,205 --> 00:21:26,445
and really striving to grow

337
00:21:26,445 --> 00:21:28,824
and then complement yourself with people that help.

338
00:21:29,564 --> 00:21:31,884
Because I think ultimately a lot of founders

339
00:21:31,884 --> 00:21:34,044
get in their own way and that's tough to see

340
00:21:34,044 --> 00:21:37,984
because they have a fear or there's something going on

341
00:21:37,984 --> 00:21:41,384
or they're not good at doing something

342
00:21:41,384 --> 00:21:42,884
and that gets in their way.

343
00:21:42,884 --> 00:21:52,024
so yeah that's good advice it definitely seems like a hard but rewarding thing to do um i know

344
00:21:52,024 --> 00:21:55,264
we're going over time but i have one more question that i meant to ask you uh because i think you'd

345
00:21:55,264 --> 00:22:02,465
have a good answer for it so so one of our goals here at presidio bitcoin is try to bridge the gap

346
00:22:02,465 --> 00:22:07,784
between bitcoin and silicon valley um which i think like you know ecodeath does a good job of

347
00:22:07,784 --> 00:22:13,184
kind of like being a middle ground VC for Bitcoiners. I guess kind of like, what would

348
00:22:13,184 --> 00:22:18,284
you maybe say to people in Silicon Valley or tech land that aren't in Bitcoin, either

349
00:22:18,284 --> 00:22:22,584
VC or just tech? I'm like, why should they care about it?

350
00:22:23,724 --> 00:22:27,844
That's an interesting question. I mean, I think fundamentally, if we look at Bitcoin,

351
00:22:29,404 --> 00:22:34,784
I just always come back to the fundamentals of like why Bitcoin matters. And it's like

352
00:22:34,784 --> 00:22:41,205
fiat currencies are fundamentally corrupted and we all see that now even in the u.s but it's a

353
00:22:41,205 --> 00:22:46,884
massive issue in emerging markets um and anything that will be corrupted can be corrupted will be

354
00:22:46,884 --> 00:22:52,965
and it's inherently centralizing inherently promoting of inequality and bitcoin i think is

355
00:22:52,965 --> 00:22:58,804
really far and away ahead of potentially being this currency that's the new global reserve currency

356
00:22:58,804 --> 00:23:04,244
and a technology-based global reserve currency like that's kind of a pretty incredible thing to

357
00:23:04,244 --> 00:23:08,564
have and then if you think about all of the technology that's going to be built and is being

358
00:23:08,564 --> 00:23:14,044
built on top of that um i just see that as such an exciting interesting place uh for any technology

359
00:23:14,044 --> 00:23:18,705
anyone that's in technology to think that you know the currency of the future is technology based

360
00:23:18,705 --> 00:23:27,384
um so i love that that's a good one um yeah actually we had a bitcoin design week uh back

361
00:23:27,384 --> 00:23:31,844
in september and it was interesting we uh named it like designing future money like we didn't even

362
00:23:31,844 --> 00:23:35,945
have the word Bitcoin in it. And it brought in like a ton of new people in the door. So I feel

363
00:23:35,945 --> 00:23:41,904
like there's focusing on the technology aspect is important. That's very cool. Yeah, I agree.

364
00:23:42,465 --> 00:23:46,984
Well, thanks for coming on the show. If our listeners want to follow you or where should

365
00:23:46,984 --> 00:23:53,224
they go? So on Twitter, I'm at one Andy Pitt. So the number one and then Andy Pitt. LinkedIn is,

366
00:23:53,484 --> 00:23:56,864
I think it might be Andrea Pitt. But if you search Andy Pitt, EgoDeath Capital will come up.

367
00:23:56,864 --> 00:23:59,445
And Substack is the CLIRA passages.

368
00:24:00,244 --> 00:24:01,064
Very cool.

369
00:24:01,224 --> 00:24:02,364
Well, thanks again.

370
00:24:02,604 --> 00:24:04,724
And enjoy the rest of your time in San Francisco.

371
00:24:05,224 --> 00:24:05,824
Yeah.