Well, welcome to tough tech today. This is our year in review live stream. And so I'd like to welcome everyone and welcome jml, for joining us today.
Thank you. For us. It's great to be here. And we thank you all of you for, for coming out and joining us for this live stream. What we'd like to do is, is this is a combination of a thank you to all you say, tough champs out there, and a bit of a QA or if there are no queues, then Forrest and I will just banter. But we do. But what we do have is we'd like to, to get things started to talk a bit about the origins of tough tech today with mine and Miller, and then perhaps spotlight some of the some different parts of the episodes that we've we've been able to shoot today we have 10 episodes under our belts, and this wasn't wouldn't have been possible without so many of of your support from from family to friends to the folks that we we have not yet met. We are thankful for for all of you coming out here for us. So for for all of you see some of you have found it is to hop into the chat on YouTube and feel free to send us questions, comments, etc. And so James, Jim, Daniel, glad that you joined the session and malvika Thank you about the same great work in 2020.
Great, so let's, let's start off and talk about, you know, the inspiration for this podcast and how it kind of kind of came to be. You know, I know, for me, tough Tech has always been kind of an interesting area. You know, I've kind of grown up, grown up, but you know, always working on, you know, frontier technologies, and the combination of, you know, engineering and physics to kind of create something new, whether it's been, you know, work in space, or biomedical projects, or drones. And so I like the whole theme of this a little bit different than, you know, just something, you know, I want to do something other than just a generalized startup podcast, and was at MIT, and there's a lot of stuff going on. So it made a lot of stuff. Interesting material. And then I don't know jml I, you reached out to me, right? It was the same time I was just thinking about this and said, Why don't we have lunch?
Yes, yeah, it was, it was a time when I can't, it was in Boston in January of all times. And it was a great time we met. I met, I told my mom I said, I'm meeting my friend forest at a bar restaurant called State Park, which she thought she got a kick out of that. But we we met a state park and so what we had done there is discussed the idea of how we were both independently thinking about the the trends toward absurdly these the different kind of technologies and different kind of tech startups then your sort of usual like, sort of like snapchats kind of kind of companies that there's there's a different breed of, of tech startup out there. And we had a we had a kindred passion for that and experience in those spaces. And so that's, I say that was it was basically two seeds that kind of came together to help make this, this work, but and become what
the real reason we went to State Park was for the spicy trout sandwiches, and they were all out. So we had to get something else. But yeah, I mean, that's, yeah, so we came together. And this was January. And it took a lot of time, like a lot of people you know, to get when you're starting a new project to get enough momentum to finally launch. We spent a lot of time kind of, you know, figuring out the branding and the theme and setting up a podcast is actually a lot of work or you want to talk about some stuff that went into all that.
Sure. It was it was a lot of work. And so if anyone's been sort of counting on their fingers that the months that had passed, so well, the meeting at State Park was in January, and it wasn't until summertime when we were able to to launch with with with James banal in the DNA data storage episode, episode one. And so in that time, we we had been putting together like, what is the what's the feeling? What's the exploration? What how do we capture some of what we're seeing and kind of report on it? And and we settled on this idea of, well, one, it's all an experiment. But as you seen from the first 10 episodes is that we've been going down this path of the longer form interview approach. And so it took some time to figure out that that was a way to get that balance between the professional and the personal. And then there's a there's of course, there's a lot more that we can talk to you on that but I'm just say branding. And what the call this thing we had the the ideas around tough tack, which is, you know, as multiple meanings is one of them, you know, one of course, it's just a difficult word out there but to also it's, it helps sort of an inflection on sort of that deep tech or frontier tech work. And so we start to figure out what what would it look like what I feel like, we eventually settled on, on the logo, the feeling of, of the how some ideas, the balloons could help lift.
Yeah, talk about that. So the, yeah, the logo is an anvil, right? being lifted by some blades. So
yes, yeah, the power of, I think with the the magic thing that we see in, in tough tech entrepreneurs, and the folks who champion them is, is this sort of a dog of optimism. And I felt that one way to present that was through balloons lifting an anvil, the impossible because it just may work. And, you know, version one may not be the suit, version two, but virgin, and we may eventually get there. And so we're seeing that through through some of these awesome folks that we've had the the honor of being able to sit down with, and talk to. And so that's where we want to talk tech today is also about tough tech of the future. And so looking, looking forward, how can we add more ideas into the system to to lift even bigger anvils, you know, save the world than the world's beyond.
So in the podcast, we kind of broke it up into two different types of guest. So we basically have our tough tech entrepreneurs, these are the people that are in the trenches, really hyper focused on their one technology, they're probably going to be at it for like 10 years to make it reality. And then we also kind of reached out to a different category more the support system of tough tech, do you want to talk about,
you know what exactly that is? Yeah, the the support system around tough tech is willing, let's see, we could break it into into a couple of different key stakeholders here. And, and we had mentioned some of this a bit in one of the prior episodes where we have so the entrepreneur, of course, that helps make all this come together. Yet, there are support systems and one of those being say, the the on the the academia side, the academic research, the University support systems that are out there, then there are other folks like government, the regulators, and folks that are helping to be able to clear a pathway to make this feasible. They're also the corporate folks and the other sort of the bigger established businesses that provide r&d funding, they provide big ideas, they provide some really great folks that can really execute on an idea that may not necessarily have the most way out their disruptive ideas, some of those don't always come out of the corporate environment, it come up with, you know, the smaller size of the ecosystem, oftentimes, but they have folks that can really manage a project. And finally, there's another stakeholder and those are the the folks with the risk capital. So you're from the angel investors who are is like that, that first person who saw the, you know, the scrappy entrepreneur and his weird idea, and like, you know, what, I'm gonna, I'm gonna bet on you and help you that way, all the way through the venture capital folks, and up to to the bigger types of classes of investors. And so these are all different members of those that that innovation ecosystem and folks that we want to be spotlighting on on the show.
And it's and it's really growing, I think one of the most exciting things is that, you know, recently there's been more payoff for tough tech to that risk capital. So I mean, when you think tough tech, like there's nothing that defines it more than like Elon Musk, the spread of companies, right, like SpaceX, Tesla, that's, you know, that's tough tech. And now those are really highly valued companies. So in none of them were overnight successes, they were long periods of time. So I think for the future, there can be great returns on tough tech, fact, exceptional returns, because once you're established company, the barriers of entry are so high. jml, do you think that that realization is also happening on the corporate VC side?
Well, I'd say so in corporate VC is a different different class. And it's it's a, but what we're seeing on corporate VC is that that realization that that the big companies don't always have the best ideas. And because ideas are not defined by any sort of one area, no one has like sort of a monopoly on that. And so there are some loose you know, liaison programs, some better than others. Some are Some are thinly veiled attempts at just being like finding like, m&a opportunities, mergers and acquisition opportunities. Others are a little more serious in terms of, we're providing funding and sort of an open door like, okay, startups will welcome you into us our awesome instruments or lab equipment, etc. And without strings attached. And so that can be really helpful because then you get the people interacting without the burden of say, we're trying to figure out all this IP stuff we're trying to figure out is this legally and strategically valuable to all the parties involved, that'll emerge out of interaction with people. So we see some different models of that. Now I see in the in the group in our chat malvika has has asked a question for us. Would you like to address how she she asked about how have we selected folks to feature on the podcast?
Yeah, well, I, you know, step one is people that, that, that reach out and respond to our emails. But um, so you know, obviously, we're starting with our really strong network, you know, from from being part of MIT and our other groups and organizations, and then reaching into those people that we know that are there solving the really, you know, tough challenges. And we know a lot of them, a lot of these technologies are stuff that recently came out of labs, some in the very early stage. I mean, our very first episode, right, was James Van Allen, talking about his PhD research that's been turned into a company for DNA data storage. And I mean, that was, that was a great first episode that was actually super interesting. For me, this is the thing that's so exciting about this stuff is it's just, it's so interesting. Some of the conversations, I think my you know, my fond memory of the you know, that conversation was how, like, the world is gonna run out of enough silicon to actually store the world's data. And that actually blew my mind. And you think about how much data we're creating each day with videos, and even this podcast, like, you're right, it could happen. And so stuff like, you know, using DNA to store massive amounts of data for long periods of time, at some point will be a very, you know, economical and maybe advantages solution. So, you know, I've learned a lot and all these podcasts you have any interesting memories jml from, or big takeaways from those early shows,
the takeaway wise, while it's there's a lot from which to choose, and we do try to feature some of those in those in the tough Tech Tuesday snippets that would come out every other week. The one that is in my mind, though, is just how some of these folks are so gogogo and giving to their communities, because this is really about the communities the whether it's a startup ecosystem, or just, you know, literally like the folks that we interact with on a daily or weekly basis. And so when, when we learned about how the founder of vitta in Kannada takes some time off from building saving lives with his drone, stabilizing helicopter load system, that he takes time off by fighting fires, that is something that speaks to the mentality of some of these folks is that it's really, it's, it's giving, and it's also it's also exhilarating, you know, seat of the pants flying, so to say, and so some of that strikes me as just being really awe inspiring, though, I don't want to be in his shoes. Like, okay, I'm glad he's, he's taken taking that load, and serving his community in that way where we serve in very different ways.
The Passion of our guests has really been something that has stood out. If you want to see someone that is insanely passionate about their specific topic, check out mas Doc's episode on his mass spectrometer. He is just in love with the technology. He said, once you get hooked in mass spectrometry, you never get out and just the energy that that he exudes, while talking about this topic is just something that's just amazing. It absolutely is.
So I mean, going forward then into 2021. For us, do you think that like, Is there a certain type of person or role that he or she has that we think would be sort of better to speak feature on the show malvika saying when's when's Ilan gonna join the show? Elon Musk, I
mean, if someone's got his phone number, I'll give him a call. You know, he's, he's example of like, Uber tough tech entrepreneur and I you know, I know there's there's other ones out there. You know, we we interviewed sutural Patel, and he's a two time founder after First time tough tech founder. But as far as like Uber tough tech founders, you know, we we haven't seen that. But, you know, I really enjoy. You know, I just enjoy the the talks, especially with the technical founders of the company that that are really, you know, the driving force behind this. I know, technology push sometimes you gotta be careful with that. But as far as you know, the context of the podcast, those those people are great guests.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. It's, it, we and I think that's something that maybe going forward, we we may be digging deeper into some of the areas that are a little more uncomfortable for for for us. And for me as as you the sort of tough champions and other folks who are enjoying the show, sending suggestions of who to talk to, I know that we've started to get a list of some great suggestions in biotech. And so like, so like global health, drug delivery, that kind of realm. And, and so I think that's going to be something that's really exciting to dig into, maybe we'll be able to, to have some sort of guest co host that will help bring some more of the domain expertise where we were, like, forces, your your many things, and one of those is is like, Captain space, man. And then I mean, that the nicest of ways that, you know,
yeah, I have a bio engineering degree, but I don't know anything about biotech.
Yeah. So, yeah, so that's absolutely, I think, a cool way that we can go. And now in some, some of the folks like, we definitely, absolutely focus on entrepreneurs, and maybe our, our sort of mix of interviewees is probably like, you know, half or, or three quarters toward entrepreneurs. And then, you know, the rest of being sort of investors and other folks, but someone who I really enjoyed the interview with, well, was Katie person. And so she were she is background, and US Army acquisitions, and now is working with the MIT Innovation Initiative on their dual use ventures, programs. And so she gives, not the entrepreneur perspective, but she's instead the the person who works with so many entrepreneurs to help connect them throughout, throughout the government, throughout the Department of Defense, etc, as well as some of the academic linkages be at at, at MIT or beyond. And so seeing the some of these crucial people that are connectors is something that really, I know it and my life, and I'm sure unforeseen years where there's been some folks who, who may not have, you know, the headliner, you know, the the name or but they're, they're the ones who are really helping to, to really kind of coach and mentor bring you bring into the fold, you know, and what I like about,
you know, like Katie to I just talked about the passion of some of these founders, but she has a lot of passion between behind what she does as well, because, you know, her experience in the military, you know, serving our country, is really motivated her to help companies serve these dual use purposes. So you can you can find the passion everywhere. And I think that was that's what makes a good guest, you know, yeah. And when with the passion, I mean, you have to have a duty to, you know, the challenges of anything in life, but starting a company, especially one that's tough. jml, do you have anything that kind of sticks out to you, you know, about the founders or any of our guests about, you know, how they dealt with adversity? Any any tips that kind of stuck out in the interviews?
Well, one is it with Oren Hoffman, so this was the venture partner at MIT is the engine Venture Capital Group and, and something that he faced sort of the the clear and present danger as he was being flown into Iraq, during wartime, and so you know, flying into Baghdad, and experiencing the maneuvers that need to be done to be able to get a plane safely in there, and then living and experiencing on the ground, bringing that first person experience, I think is something that is, well, we could tell from him that it was really influential on the way that I mean, based on his life, in terms of how he chose things. We also see some of those other sort of pivotal plot points coming from, you know, again, that beat England auto seeing seeing a very important person being that did not survive because of issues related to helicopter safety, etc. So there's a lot there. Now, I'm curious for us what you think of maybe where do we missed the mark? Or where did we not quite ask enough questions to really to To dig deeper to work.
Oh, man, for real,
these are like, these are like tough interview questions. Yeah. Well, you know, it kind of just, you know, it depends on the guests, because every guest is, you know, is different, and kind of has a willingness to share, you know, different different levels of things. And, you know, I guess, syncing that out, you know, beforehand and getting getting comfortable with the guests is something that you can always, always do to kind of improve upon. On that note of like, getting to the, you know, the real kind of uncomfortable things that sometimes, you know, guess some founders had to deal with. What was some interesting things you learned about that I can think of, you know, you know, a Caleb Carr, right. Like, he basically learned that, that he had to teach himself how to take a break from things right, take weekends, and be kind of disciplined and stuff. give any other tips or difficult situations that came up in the interviews?
Boy, I mean, in terms of focus on maybe a little bit sort of mentor style of tips, it's it, it seems that it comes down to finding? Well, I'll say it's two ways. One is, is finding folks to help on on on your vision. We're seeing evidence around that, for example, with Caleb Coggan, where it took a university instructor to, to ask him a very simple question of like, why aren't you going to solve this problem if you're thinking about it so much. So just being provocative and finding folks who are willing to provoke you integrate in a good way as like a developing sort of way, the other side of this is seeing the that folks will, they may not be looking to have a fire in their belly. But something something starts to condense with a lot of things like the the focus that NASDAQ has on her in terms of being addicted to be building a mass spec, the way he's doing and of redeveloping the process is, is awesome. Now, a lot of you may, listeners may be like, well, I, I don't have like this plus of like the calling, like, it'd be awesome to have the calling. Yeah, so it could be. But we're also seeing that some of that sort of generalist ability, and that open mindedness to be able to, to, to be willing to listen to an episode that's about a field that's completely out of out of your ballpark, whether it's about medical devices, or venture capital, or whatever, that that willingness and curiosity is something that I think also can be traced through these movers and shakers of industry that we're speaking with that they that they're willing to see a future that could be not so much the future that they're that they're like that present that we have, and I think this speaks to, to my Vegas question, because she has asked, like, what's the impact of COVID been on the tough tech ecosystem? And there's a lot to unpack there. For us, would you like to, to take a first pass at that?
Yeah, um, you know, it's, it's really, it's been varying, depending on the companies, I think that because a lot of these startup companies are, you know, running on venture capital, rather than necessarily, you know, customers sales, some of them haven't been too affected, you know, by by COVID, because they're, you know, still building and developing the product. Other people like, you know, a Caleb Carr and vitta and Granada. I know that he used the basically all the bills and stuff that went through and some of the delays that happened with COVID. And Congress allowed him to go down to DC and actually move the needle on stuff to actually get a, like a requisition written in for his technology. So, you know, for him, it's been helpful. I know that like, Justin Cyrus of lunar outpost, you know, he said that, you know, might have been a little challenging on the commercial side, but he was still able to keep, you know, all of his employees employed. And, you know, I think I think overall, you know, people weathered the storm, but definitely did put some, you know, put some pressure on raising money.
Yeah, it's Yeah, that's, that's for sure. And we saw when we spoke with wil Dixon and Tony Torres of fedtech, we saw that Oh, from From their view like that, there, there's a, there's a quite an abundance of, like, say technologies that are coming out of the God or other sort of federal groups, and quite a mix of folks who want to help figure out how to commercialize that. So this is a two plus sided marketplace, which can be hard to get get started. But we're seeing like, they're in a position to be able to sort of matchmake and and it looks like, from what we're seeing is that that that is growing something that, you know, economically where we're in sort of a weird situation with the pandemic and stuff where like, you know, like Wall Street's, like doing well. And yet, you know, in other parts of, of the nation in the world, it's my
mom and pop businesses don't trade on Wall Street.
That's, that's the thing. Yeah. And so if there's any, looking back at like, say, on one of our more recent sort of economic issues back in 2007 2008, with the the Great Recession, where that was a time of hardship, and I felt that very much person my family did. And yet it was a time for, let's say, a renewal of birth of, if you will have a lot of companies that have grown up and become, let's say, you know, for lack of better words, awesome today, and it came through some of that hardship. And even in my, you know, my personal life is Yeah, we started to get, I'll say, starting to create something new, because it was a way, you know, possible way out of the economic hardship of that time. And so, we may be seeing that and 2021 2022 were probably going to be economically weird. That highs and lows, of course, that we may see some some really fine new business models, new technologies, and really amazing people coming out of the site. I sure hope so. I'm very optimistic. Sort of bullish on that.
Oh, definitely. Definitely. Yeah.
Yeah. We have a question from from Gabriel saying, asking, what is our view on the electric freight industry? And that's an interesting question. For us, would you like to respond first to that?
electric? Right, so I'm assuming this is like electric semi trucks? I guess. I guess you could have electric boats to? I don't know.
But we do do electric trains. Right.
Yes, there's electric trains everywhere? Not not, um, I don't know about cross country, but you know, from the airports for sure. Mm hmm. All the trolleys and stuff. But um, yeah, I think that it's, I think that it's an interesting technology. I'm not I'm not an expert in all of the economics of, you know, battery discharge and efficiency of of all of that. But given, you know, if you have a green way of producing the electricity, it could be pretty exciting. And I know that Tesla is definitely looking into, into it. So who knows? I'm not an expert on that, though.
Yeah, I think, you know, we are seeing significant amounts of electrification of so much, so many things. And so that, as you know, I guess I'd say as long as we as a society don't over go overboard, which I think we're far from doing. But what electrification can solve a lot. The because generally lower maintenance costs, there's generally like fewer, because there's like fewer moving parts. But then again, we can supplant like internal combustion engines completely, because they they do work really well, in some environments. Yeah, they're pretty noisy, but they deliver a lot of power, and it diesel, kerosene, etc, are, are fairly convenient to move around. We have a lot of infrastructure to handle that, compared to say, trying to bring in a hydrogen system or something that does require some changes to protocol on the path toward electrification, there's also speak to the importance of a low carbon future, that our current trajectory is not super great as a species. So how, like we can electrify everything we want and maybe we could with current technologies, but where are we getting this electricity from? What are those energy sources if we're still burning a lot of coal, that doesn't mean the worker in our society didn't pay for it and maybe in terms of like lung damage and environmental damage. So it but we can get rid of all of it completely. And we need to go into that. soapbox. So
back seat
and energy Mosaic,
my browser so
yeah,
But there's lots of exciting technologies, I mean, one technology that could solve the energy supply problem, which is a company that's down at the the engine is working on fusion power plants. And their key technology is these, these magnets that basically helped them contain everything, but you know that that can be really big and people are making big bets and tough tack on, on on fusion. So who knows, I mean, vision could do a lot of good on the on the carbon impact side of things. But, but fusion fusion would be pretty awesome. And then we'd have a reason to go mine helium three on the moon, which would help out lunar station and, you know, some of our other companies. But now we're getting really tough. That's like extra tough tech. That's a whole nother podcast.
Yeah, well, yeah. Yeah, that's true. Anyway. Yeah. I mean, we're seeing some of the news of being able to, you know, perhaps getting sort of fission fusion nuclear stuff, nuclear power sources on on the moon, which it's could be I mean, I guess in some ways, it's kind of there in some ways but but it's a it's a potential hot button issue. You know, educated public around that we have. In the meantime, we have folks like, Louis Poorna. With Accion systems building these, these really like sort of low power, high efficiency, electro spey electro spray propulsion systems to get satellites, which are modern terrestrial lives, in many ways depend on satellites, doing our jobs for telecommunications and stuff. And, and so he's building ways to make smaller satellites. So fewer materials, yeah, more of them.
I mean, I really enjoyed that interview, if you're watching this, check it out on our channel, it's called satellite propulsion is tough. It's by we interviewed Louis prerna. It's a cool, it's a cool story, cool interview, they had a technology that was in the space Propulsion Lab at MIT. And just given the constraints of being a university, they weren't able to take on and serve as commercial customers, even though there was actually demand already there for their, their thrusters. And it's a neat about how much you can do with very little. So it's a very tiny technology, right? Just putting tiny bits of ions out there. But really, kind of it's it's the story of miniaturization and and tiny pushes to make big changes in satellites. But that's a so that's a cool podcast. So definitely check that one out. You got any other any other ones that that people should go check out? All of them, of course,
but you know, I? Well, of course, yeah, we always ask you to like, like, subscribe, and comment. And I think something that we'd like to really encourage is for 2021 is to foster the conversation. And so we're we're all ears to be able to find ways to so that you feel kind of being able to send questions or topic areas, even even suggested guests. So that then we can have, you know, spotlight what is interesting to you, while also sort of maybe keep working some bar magic and finding some really other cool folks. So out of the blue to come on to the show. We have a couple questions. And I know we were a little bit past the half hour mark with the with with this show. So maybe we'll answer a couple of these questions here. And then and then we'll we'll call it.
I wish everyone happy new year.
Yeah, of course. Of course. Yes. So. So before we do the official sign off, we see Gabriel had a question on terms of a carbon regulation. And I want to make sure I get everybody's questions here. Give us about carbon regulation. And then then and malvika said about some of the classic tough tech hubs. What are some of them coming up that we see? So these are great questions. Carbon regulation. It was we're seeing more of that, around around the world, say France has I forget the names of specific programs. France has a program where they sort of tie sort of investments to being offsetting of carbon over, you know, 10 to 30 year timelines. We've seen Tokyo recently announced not Tokyo, but broadly Japan, a sort of 2050 target for carbon and so we're seeing these regional, perhaps bigger than regional clusters of carbon concerned, carbon concerned to regulation. And so that is going to be absolutely helpful to to get the sometimes fast, sometimes slow, wheels up of commerce to start to accommodate that force, would you like to comment on the carbon regs?
So I, you know, I'm not an expert in this area. A I have talked with a lot of startups, though, that are that are interested in this space. There's a lot of, you know, interesting problems to solve in, in carbon trading for actually like verifying that some of these things are done to reduce carbon. With regards to understanding the uptake of carbon in the forest using drones, there's, you know, there's just, there's just a lot of interesting things to, to explore that, that are more of a result of the the regulation than, you know, than the, I guess, a technological advancement. So, I'd say just keep an eye on that. And the other question that we had was for upcoming hubs for tough tech. And I don't know, I always like to say bosses, definitely a hub. I know, I know, Austin is getting big. I mean, the big news right now is all the companies moving out of Silicon Valley, because the place is locked down, people can't do business. You know, Tesla's gonna move out to Texas. And so there's, there's gonna be a lot of shift of where people do business coming up. And that's going to change, you know, where the skill sets are for different things. jml What do you think is gonna be the next big hub? Where should I Where should I start buying my real estate.
I am parts of Europe. Because now with with some of the way that the immigration policies and like, say, you with a US centric approach, the way immigration policy is a little bit in flux, a little bit, this kind of putting it mildly. But also, because of the pandemic, we're just not good traveling is not such a good idea that we're in Europe, we're getting a lot of folks who've kind of repatriated back to, to their motherland that may have been in the in the US, like because of opportunity, etc. Now, that's either not not feasible, or just it just don't need to as much because it worked from home. And so we're seeing then that you get more folks who are living where they want to live with who they want to live, and they're really good at what they do. And so for example, throughout Europe, where we now we may be then seeing the tip of an iceberg of some really awesome tough technologies being commercialized there. And, and so I'm really excited about what that can bring. Because there's no I mean, it's the we don't need to San Francisco to be like the global hub, we don't need a Boston or we don't even need necessarily a US one place to be the hub, it's we we all kind of benefit if this becomes more of a global thing. And so the pandemic has helped, and and the technologies that we have at hand, something even as something like zoom, that's now an everyday thing, has made it more feasible for people to to live where they want to live instead of where they're, they have to to just get the paycheck. And so hopefully that will increase. You know, over time the net happiness, quote, quotient,
I don't know how you measure that. me decide where I need to buy a small Asian nation that's
figured out. Yeah.
But is there any particular place in Europe? Or are you just thinking just in general just distributed? I'll say the French the French countryside. So that's where you want to be Bob Ross,
picture perfect.
You want to be living on a winery in France right now?
It's beautiful here to maybe maybe a distillery
you know. Wow. Do we have any other questions for our guests?
We do we do. So from from Jim. Hi, Jim. Jim, is right. I'll read it verbatim. He said, your show does an excellent job at presenting cutting edge technology developments. Thank you, Jim. And simultaneously, he writes that I also view you too as connectors in the business community. additional comments on that future? It's a great question, Jim. I and as connectors, I mean, we we we have I mean, we we connected with with folks to boot to have them on the show, whether they're our friends or strangers that we have not met. And so hopefully that becomes aware that way with that we can contribute not just through producing the, the the episodes and the work that that takes but may be able to help in in many ways for us. Would you like to say something?
Yeah, I mean, I did. You know it not in a formal sense. You know, we don't have like a You know, jobs, tough tech jobs at tough tech today.com yet, but a tough jobs, like dirty jobs but you know, clean but hard. But but but I've definitely like I've been able to send my podcasts for example, I've MIT students interested in, you know, that I mentor for, you know, sandbox program. It's a grant program from MIT for startups. And I've said yeah, you're interested in dual use ventures Well, you know, reach out to a kt person. You want to know what she's about? Here's you know, here's an episode I send the information along so so it's definitely helped me learn different people in the industry and you know, help connect those who I talk with So, but no, no, no larger plans yet. We can talk about
we're in a skunkworks Well, thank you so much for your questions in and engaging with us we really appreciate it what I want to do as a final little surprise Thank you is I have I have the tough tech today fly on the fly the fly. So here Oh, it's almost too big to get on the screen. Here it is. Here it is.
Can you see Yeah, there we go. We have flags now. Yeah, it's store dot tough tech today. Just kidding. We don't have a story. Yeah.
Yeah, we haven't we haven't. So yeah, we don't have the swag but but if you if you want some there's if there's a will, there's a way. So if you really want a big flag to fly then then we can hook you up but but thank you, thank you all so much. And Happy Holidays. Stay safe out there. And we really appreciate it. It means so much for you when you when you tune in when you comment. So thank you
Happy New Years everyone please like and subscribe. And on the count of 3123 stay TAF
Stay tuned.
Alright everyone, this is live. We're gonna do it again. Yeah. Cameras boy. All right. Count of 3123 states. Sweet. All right. Happy New Year, guys. See you in 2021. Thanks. Thank you.
