Dev Sharma

My conversation with @kayvz, co-founder of Macroscope and Periscope. We talk about selling for $120M pre-launch to @dickc at Twitter, turning down @elonmusk, getting trolled by Kobe Bryant and much more. His family immigrated to the Bay Area from Iran and he grew up an aspiring filmmaker. With a push from his mom, however, he toured and eventually got admitted to Stanford. This led to a series of software startups with his best friends and eventual acquisitions from Blackboard and Twitter. He led product there and eventually (graciously) turned down Elon to co-found Macroscope. Kayvon is an incredible storyteller, family man, & product mind. And while his accomplishments are many, he's an even better person. I hope you enjoy this as much as I did! Timestamps: 00:00 Intro 1:54 Fleeing the Iranian Revolution to California 4:32 How Gaming Sparked a Career in Tech 8:28 Growing Up With 12 Kids 12:32 Pissing Off an Apple Exec with a Jailbroken iPhone 4:29 From a Cardboard Sign to Winning Emmys 19:20 Building Software While Skipping Class 20:53 Selling $100k Apps to Best Buy & HP 22:32 Getting Acquired Over a Spam Call 27:03 The Importance of Passion 34:21 The Origins of Periscope 39:20 Scott Belsky Invented "Teleportation" 43:20 Six Months of Failed Designs 47:33 Selling to Twitter Before Launching 54:07 Trolled by Kobe Bryant 57:41 Turning Down Elon Musk 01:01:54 Founding Macroscope 01:10:21 His Two Most Consequential Life Decisions

I had a fascinating conversation with AI minister Kanishka Narayan (@KanishkaNarayan) about the government’s new AI investment fund, how the government is making contingencies for AI eliminating jobs and for AI Armageddon, and how to incorporate AI in the classroom. New Rest is Money podcast podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the…

We've just launched it! Our 295 page report detailing how it is possible to build Britain's first city in over 50 years. People doubt Britain can do anything big. But this work shows the UK can be incredibly ambitious and solve real, and urgent problems. We just need to think a little more creatively. Here's what it finds: 1. Forest City would generate £53bn in output each year. That's a huge value add to the bottom line of the economy and more than the combined output of Oxford, Cambridge and Leeds. 2. It would create the largest single nature reserve on English soil. An amazing legacy for future generations and the environment. 3. 400,000 fully affordable homes to buy and rent that people under 40 who are desperately struggling to afford any sort of life, can ACTUALLY afford. 4. Major solutions to the East of England's road, rail and water infrastructure issues, paid for by the building of the City itself. Right now, @mhclg is studying the findings. We want to thank the 40 experts who helped put this together over the last five months. They are true radicals and pioneers all. Below is my reading of the introductory chapter so do have a listen.

Deep-fried food will be banned and high-sugar items restricted in schools in England under new plans to "overhaul" school dinners. Education minister Olivia Bailey spoke to #BBCBreakfast about the change bbc.co.uk/news/articles/…

The best part of attending @aiDotEngineer for me had a lot to do with London itself. I loved the inspiration of being in a beautiful city and sense of safety. You could walk around anywhere and there's beautiful parks, well dressed people and smiling faces. You don't see that in SF in most places because SF doesn't prioritize beauty, sense of aesthetics and love of life. There's a lot of FOMO, fear and angst baked into SF that reflects everywhere from how people size each other up to the transactional nature of many friendships. On the way to work in downtown SF you can't avoid seeing a homeless person yelling at the sky amd you have to do the mental calculus of what places to avoid after 8PM. Sometimes I wonder that if the cradle of the AI race was in a city with beauty and well adjusted happy people like London maybe the trajectory of AI itself would be quite different. Maybe we could make AI a lot more soulful and aligned. As I leave back to SF, I have to keep the spirit of what I saw alive. Thanks to the @aiDotEngineer team for the incredible experience.

British billionaire to donate £190m to Cambridge University bbc.in/3OfesX3

This is wild. theaustralian.com.au/business/techn…